Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement announcing that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), each trying to wrest control of Sudan from the other, have agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire starting at midnight tonight, local time. During the cease-fire, the statement says, the U.S. will work with regional partners, international partners, and Sudanese civilians to create a committee to negotiate and implement a permanent cease-fire and return Sudan to a path toward democracy.
Since Fox is now in the middle of renegotiating its cable fees in this time of turmoil, is there an opportunity for us to contact our cable companies and demand that fox channels not be part of the the standard cable packages? Cable companies could require subscribers to select and choose Fox separately. If Fox could be deprived of all the revenue it currently gets by default from every cable subscriber, we could strike a serious blow against this cesspool of lies.
Here is what Tom Nichols of "The Atlantic" wrote today: "The Republican Party has mutated from a political organization into an authoritarian movement."
This emergence has been obvious for years and Trump, Fox News, Lindsay Graham, and a host of others planned and attempted a coup. They should have been prosecuted for their crimes
long ago. Good grief!! Most of it was done in public. I pray that the failure of our politicians, DOJ, our "news" media, and everyday common sense Americans to prevent it is not a prelude to the loss of our democracy and freedom. Over 140 members of Congress voted to overturn an election. They belong in jail, not Congress! This was an insurrection. Remember Hitler came to power legally.
It strikes me today - and not for the first time - that a binding thread in the tapestry of events profiled here is how the desires of the American right wing threaten safety and security in ways clear yet multifaceted, and unmistakably enormous.
It is clear now that, should America recede from its involved stance in promoting democracy and opposing autocracy, from Ukraine to Central Africa, the balance of power between the two forces would tip in ways too bone-chilling to contemplate for anyone who wishes to see the next period of human history belong to those nations who at least attempt on the face of it to have their citizens lead lives of peace and free will. Yeah yeah yeah, the US has abused its power over the years, CIA meddling yadda yadda yadda tell me what I don't know. The fact remains: we are The Bulwark. A US leadership indifferent or sympathetic to the threats of autocracy and dictatorship will result in a violent, unstable world throughout the next century. Period. Having effective US leadership is a matter of safety for everyone in the world, not just here, and we need to feel that responsibility when we exercise the privilege of casting our vote.
Yet even when it comes to hot button domestic issues, the current actions and attitudes of the right wing violate our safety. Gun worship means schools, churches, grocery stores, even knocking on a neighbors' door are no longer safe. Pro-"life" has taken safety from millions of childbearing-age women, for whom an unwanted encounter or a common miscarriage could be life-ruining or life-ending. "Tough on crime" has taken safety from our brethren of color, for whom a busted tail light could mean the last time you see your kids. Is the water you drink and the air you breathe safe? Not in Jackson or Flint. Is the train you're riding on safe? Not in East Palestine. Heck, forget just physical safety. Thought the dollar as currency was safe? Debt ceiling standoff says think again. Thought your personal dollars were safe? The lassiez-fare shysters of Silicon Valley Bank say think again. Librarians and teachers aren't safe to do their jobs free of bans and intimidation. Actually, no one can teach or learn or dress or speak or walk or love outside of the prescribed ways without intimidation, legal or social or personal, or all of the above. Where is the safety in that way of life, exactly? Nowhere. Not even in the chambers of the US Capitol Building itself.
And that is why these folks are on their way down. All people wish, really, is to feel SAFE and happy. Political orginazations have exploited that need since forever. But when everything you do revokes that safety in such overt ways? For so many people at once?
Good luck with your newfound lack of popularity. It's SAFE to say.
The calm confidence and competence of Blinken and Biden in the ongoing events in Africa and elsewhere is inspiring to anyone watching. Not as splashy as a spoiled brat getting a minor comeuppance but far more important.
We should not be surprised that Tucker is out. Money talks louder than the 2021 warning when Tucker Carlson broadcast a show from Hungary. He was greatly impressed by Viktor Orban. I listened to the Fresh Air Interview about the show; he was excited, like a child, with his ability to work in Hungary. As if he were a representative of the United States. We know that more meetings, including the repub party in Hungary and USA met with Orban. From the Guardian, 2021 “Carlson, the most watched host on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, spent all week hosting his show from Budapest and promoting Hungary as a model for America’s future. His target audience was the Trump base that turned a blind eye to his four-year war on institutions that culminated in a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.” Not an elected representative of the United States, yet acting in that capacity. Yes, Tucker and TFG and the repubs taking our country on the road to Fascism. That wasn’t enough for Fox to say goodbye to their moneymaker. But in the end it was about Money. https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2021/aug/07/tucker-carlson-hungary-viktor-orban-donald-trump
Only now looking back to the growth of American fascism from 1933 to 1941 , can we suppose that absent Pearl Harbor and Germany’s treaty obligation to declare war on the United States after we declared war on Japan we might have experience then what Trump’s Republican party of white christian supremacists are desperate to accomplish now.
It is nothing less than a gradual creation of a one party state based on their worship of a mythic American history, the moral certainty of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, White, Anglo-Saxon cultural hegemony based on blood purlity. In a word, the Republican party seek permanent illiberal political power by the degradation of our diverse democracy into an illiberal apartheid state
1st: Tucker Carlson leaving Fox is not enough to shield Fox from further liability. Still, this is a sign that Fox will start singing a slightly different tune, I'm still worried about Newsmax and One America News (OAN). I'm also worried about the issue of requiring media outlets to make a good faith effort to stick to truth. It's what the main stream media does, except Fox, to various levels of accuracy.
2nd: Sudan is a cluster-f*. Can democracies band together and offer incentives that overwhelm what Russia and the Wagner group or China with its Belt and Road Initiative offer? It's good that Blinken said there won't be any U.S. troops in Sudan. I sort of assume that he means formal troops, not special-ops troops, and I am concerned about possible escalation. Also, while Sudan is in the new now, I'm not forgetting about Haiti, a failed state in our region that the Chinese and maybe the Russians will try to exploit.
3rd: Where is VP Harris? Will she be part of the 2024 ticket? (Will outside pro-democracy groups like the Lincoln Project continue to try and win voters' hearts and minds? It will be an uglier fight than we experienced in 2020,)
4th: Are all of Trump's legal challenges enough to stop that Orange Zombie sucking more blood from the American body politic? Waiting for the good guys to win at the last minute doesn't sound like a fun movie to watch.
A bit more critical, but hey, with a narrow legislative majority peppered with a regular dose of filibustering, what's a president to do but soldier on?
Yes, McCarthy and company are playing right into the hands of Putin and China. It's disturbing that I've heard that "mainstream" repub politicians have always taken cues from Carlson, Bongino and others. I've heard Alex Jones and other's go tippy toe to the line of praising Putin saying something to the effect that ' After all, Russians are just like "us" ? Anyway, they're just making money and don't care about the integrity of the U.S. And the far right media is licking their chops to get Tucker Carlson. He's going to be in more demand than ever when he starts operating further under the rock than he has been already. Thanx HCR.
."...sends the opposite message to our allies and our adversaries: that America is divided, distracted and can’t be counted on.” That is a core problem that's just not going away until some of the systemic problems are solved.
Even before Trump won in 2016, I knew his Presidency would be a disaster on so many levels. Around that time, it had also become obvious that America was being attacked through social media. Not just America, I was suspicious of the problems going on in Australia and in the UK with Brexit being a major focus. I also wondered who benefits with America out of the picture, and China & Russia immediately jumped to mind.
I started asking myself questions about what could happen if America was out of the picture as a global force. I thought we’d fracture into smaller countries and resemble Europe. We’d have to bargain with each other, with former US ally countries, and probably non-ally countries for peace, protection, and economic deals.
With so much extremism in Red States, it wouldn’t be hard to see leaders in those regions from Alaska onward leaning towards Russia, which would be a disaster for Canada, Mexico, & Central America.
America has always been a thorn in their side for various reasons, but with USA out of their way, they can feel more confident that they’ll have less strong countries telling them “No” about invading other countries. Russia could March across Europe and China could overtake other Asian countries like Taiwan, Philippines, and then Japan and Korea. It would be a domino effect.
If Americans remain divided, it’s inevitable that we will fracture. I just don’t see a way to compromise with extremists.
Do women give up freedom by giving up a say about when we give birth? If we can’t control pregnancy, it’s hard to work. If we can’t support ourselves, we’re more vulnerable to getting stuck in bad marriages. Many men get angry about strong women, feminists, etc, but don’t want to own up to the fact that they made life for women so difficult and miserable that it forced them to band together and fight for the vote and to have rights. Why would sensible women ever want to lose rights?
Do we sacrifice a few groups of people like Transgender and Gay/Lesbians?
Do we become a Christian Theocratic Republic to appease the Christo-Fascists?
Do we allow a race-based hierarchy to become law instead of just unspoken rules?
If we remain fractured into these intolerable hierarchies and allow the subjugation and exclusion of groups we may or may not like, then we’re doomed to be as weak as an America that is fractured into smaller countries. We will be subject to predation from others.
We need some way to show Americans what will happen to them on their own level. Ultra rich people will survive, they’re beyond being subject to a single country. Regular people will bear the burdens.
Since Fox is now in the middle of renegotiating its cable fees in this time of turmoil, is there an opportunity for us to contact our cable companies and demand that fox channels not be part of the the standard cable packages? Cable companies could require subscribers to select and choose Fox separately. If Fox could be deprived of all the revenue it currently gets by default from every cable subscriber, we could strike a serious blow against this cesspool of lies.
Here is what Tom Nichols of "The Atlantic" wrote today: "The Republican Party has mutated from a political organization into an authoritarian movement."
This emergence has been obvious for years and Trump, Fox News, Lindsay Graham, and a host of others planned and attempted a coup. They should have been prosecuted for their crimes
long ago. Good grief!! Most of it was done in public. I pray that the failure of our politicians, DOJ, our "news" media, and everyday common sense Americans to prevent it is not a prelude to the loss of our democracy and freedom. Over 140 members of Congress voted to overturn an election. They belong in jail, not Congress! This was an insurrection. Remember Hitler came to power legally.
It strikes me today - and not for the first time - that a binding thread in the tapestry of events profiled here is how the desires of the American right wing threaten safety and security in ways clear yet multifaceted, and unmistakably enormous.
It is clear now that, should America recede from its involved stance in promoting democracy and opposing autocracy, from Ukraine to Central Africa, the balance of power between the two forces would tip in ways too bone-chilling to contemplate for anyone who wishes to see the next period of human history belong to those nations who at least attempt on the face of it to have their citizens lead lives of peace and free will. Yeah yeah yeah, the US has abused its power over the years, CIA meddling yadda yadda yadda tell me what I don't know. The fact remains: we are The Bulwark. A US leadership indifferent or sympathetic to the threats of autocracy and dictatorship will result in a violent, unstable world throughout the next century. Period. Having effective US leadership is a matter of safety for everyone in the world, not just here, and we need to feel that responsibility when we exercise the privilege of casting our vote.
Yet even when it comes to hot button domestic issues, the current actions and attitudes of the right wing violate our safety. Gun worship means schools, churches, grocery stores, even knocking on a neighbors' door are no longer safe. Pro-"life" has taken safety from millions of childbearing-age women, for whom an unwanted encounter or a common miscarriage could be life-ruining or life-ending. "Tough on crime" has taken safety from our brethren of color, for whom a busted tail light could mean the last time you see your kids. Is the water you drink and the air you breathe safe? Not in Jackson or Flint. Is the train you're riding on safe? Not in East Palestine. Heck, forget just physical safety. Thought the dollar as currency was safe? Debt ceiling standoff says think again. Thought your personal dollars were safe? The lassiez-fare shysters of Silicon Valley Bank say think again. Librarians and teachers aren't safe to do their jobs free of bans and intimidation. Actually, no one can teach or learn or dress or speak or walk or love outside of the prescribed ways without intimidation, legal or social or personal, or all of the above. Where is the safety in that way of life, exactly? Nowhere. Not even in the chambers of the US Capitol Building itself.
And that is why these folks are on their way down. All people wish, really, is to feel SAFE and happy. Political orginazations have exploited that need since forever. But when everything you do revokes that safety in such overt ways? For so many people at once?
Good luck with your newfound lack of popularity. It's SAFE to say.
The calm confidence and competence of Blinken and Biden in the ongoing events in Africa and elsewhere is inspiring to anyone watching. Not as splashy as a spoiled brat getting a minor comeuppance but far more important.
We should not be surprised that Tucker is out. Money talks louder than the 2021 warning when Tucker Carlson broadcast a show from Hungary. He was greatly impressed by Viktor Orban. I listened to the Fresh Air Interview about the show; he was excited, like a child, with his ability to work in Hungary. As if he were a representative of the United States. We know that more meetings, including the repub party in Hungary and USA met with Orban. From the Guardian, 2021 “Carlson, the most watched host on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, spent all week hosting his show from Budapest and promoting Hungary as a model for America’s future. His target audience was the Trump base that turned a blind eye to his four-year war on institutions that culminated in a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.” Not an elected representative of the United States, yet acting in that capacity. Yes, Tucker and TFG and the repubs taking our country on the road to Fascism. That wasn’t enough for Fox to say goodbye to their moneymaker. But in the end it was about Money. https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2021/aug/07/tucker-carlson-hungary-viktor-orban-donald-trump
Only now looking back to the growth of American fascism from 1933 to 1941 , can we suppose that absent Pearl Harbor and Germany’s treaty obligation to declare war on the United States after we declared war on Japan we might have experience then what Trump’s Republican party of white christian supremacists are desperate to accomplish now.
It is nothing less than a gradual creation of a one party state based on their worship of a mythic American history, the moral certainty of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, White, Anglo-Saxon cultural hegemony based on blood purlity. In a word, the Republican party seek permanent illiberal political power by the degradation of our diverse democracy into an illiberal apartheid state
Bad news for the far right = good news for the rest of us
Several thoughts:
1st: Tucker Carlson leaving Fox is not enough to shield Fox from further liability. Still, this is a sign that Fox will start singing a slightly different tune, I'm still worried about Newsmax and One America News (OAN). I'm also worried about the issue of requiring media outlets to make a good faith effort to stick to truth. It's what the main stream media does, except Fox, to various levels of accuracy.
2nd: Sudan is a cluster-f*. Can democracies band together and offer incentives that overwhelm what Russia and the Wagner group or China with its Belt and Road Initiative offer? It's good that Blinken said there won't be any U.S. troops in Sudan. I sort of assume that he means formal troops, not special-ops troops, and I am concerned about possible escalation. Also, while Sudan is in the new now, I'm not forgetting about Haiti, a failed state in our region that the Chinese and maybe the Russians will try to exploit.
3rd: Where is VP Harris? Will she be part of the 2024 ticket? (Will outside pro-democracy groups like the Lincoln Project continue to try and win voters' hearts and minds? It will be an uglier fight than we experienced in 2020,)
4th: Are all of Trump's legal challenges enough to stop that Orange Zombie sucking more blood from the American body politic? Waiting for the good guys to win at the last minute doesn't sound like a fun movie to watch.
That’s one heck of a news day! ⚡️
Thank you Heather.
For all of today’s bombshells, you had me at, “Bad news is likely to continue to mount for the far right.” 🙏🏻
"What have you done for me lately, Joe Biden?" Here's a look back at Biden's first two years in office:
https://americanindependent.com/democrats-congress-president-joe-biden-2021-2022-accomplishments/
A bit more critical, but hey, with a narrow legislative majority peppered with a regular dose of filibustering, what's a president to do but soldier on?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/11/biden-2022-midterms-policy-record-approval/671941/
Just for fun, here's what the White House has to say about itself. It's all good, don't ya know!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
Yes, McCarthy and company are playing right into the hands of Putin and China. It's disturbing that I've heard that "mainstream" repub politicians have always taken cues from Carlson, Bongino and others. I've heard Alex Jones and other's go tippy toe to the line of praising Putin saying something to the effect that ' After all, Russians are just like "us" ? Anyway, they're just making money and don't care about the integrity of the U.S. And the far right media is licking their chops to get Tucker Carlson. He's going to be in more demand than ever when he starts operating further under the rock than he has been already. Thanx HCR.
."...sends the opposite message to our allies and our adversaries: that America is divided, distracted and can’t be counted on.” That is a core problem that's just not going away until some of the systemic problems are solved.
Even before Trump won in 2016, I knew his Presidency would be a disaster on so many levels. Around that time, it had also become obvious that America was being attacked through social media. Not just America, I was suspicious of the problems going on in Australia and in the UK with Brexit being a major focus. I also wondered who benefits with America out of the picture, and China & Russia immediately jumped to mind.
I started asking myself questions about what could happen if America was out of the picture as a global force. I thought we’d fracture into smaller countries and resemble Europe. We’d have to bargain with each other, with former US ally countries, and probably non-ally countries for peace, protection, and economic deals.
With so much extremism in Red States, it wouldn’t be hard to see leaders in those regions from Alaska onward leaning towards Russia, which would be a disaster for Canada, Mexico, & Central America.
America has always been a thorn in their side for various reasons, but with USA out of their way, they can feel more confident that they’ll have less strong countries telling them “No” about invading other countries. Russia could March across Europe and China could overtake other Asian countries like Taiwan, Philippines, and then Japan and Korea. It would be a domino effect.
If Americans remain divided, it’s inevitable that we will fracture. I just don’t see a way to compromise with extremists.
Do women give up freedom by giving up a say about when we give birth? If we can’t control pregnancy, it’s hard to work. If we can’t support ourselves, we’re more vulnerable to getting stuck in bad marriages. Many men get angry about strong women, feminists, etc, but don’t want to own up to the fact that they made life for women so difficult and miserable that it forced them to band together and fight for the vote and to have rights. Why would sensible women ever want to lose rights?
Do we sacrifice a few groups of people like Transgender and Gay/Lesbians?
Do we become a Christian Theocratic Republic to appease the Christo-Fascists?
Do we allow a race-based hierarchy to become law instead of just unspoken rules?
If we remain fractured into these intolerable hierarchies and allow the subjugation and exclusion of groups we may or may not like, then we’re doomed to be as weak as an America that is fractured into smaller countries. We will be subject to predation from others.
We need some way to show Americans what will happen to them on their own level. Ultra rich people will survive, they’re beyond being subject to a single country. Regular people will bear the burdens.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Where does the Wagner group get it’s funding? Are the beholden to Putin?
Ding dong, Carlson is out! Which big liar? The wicked liar!
I hope this is just the beginning of big changes at Faux News!