Tonight, President Joe Biden announced that a drone strike managed by the Central Intelligence Agency at 9:48 Eastern time on Saturday killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, 71, who took control of al-Qaeda after the death of leader Osama bin Laden.
Congratulations, Professor, on your induction to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is well deserved, and you join your rightful place in history alongside Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Einstein, and Joan Baez, and a select few key figures (only 261 folks is it since 1780?) MAZEL TOV! (And, we can say we knew you when!)
Yes! Congratulations to HCR. The Founders would have been proud to have her within the Academy. Alex, there have been many illustrious members. You can see a complete list or search for members here: https://www.amacad.org/directory
And...after reading of Heather's nomination, I took a deep dive into one of the Academy's projects. The recommendations released in "Our Common Purpose" are absolutely brilliant. They are part of a comprehensive plan to rebuild our democracy. I wrote about this with reverence and appreciation:
Thank you Bill. “Our Common Purpose”!especially supportive of engaging young people in civic engagement to become informed citizens and active participants.!
Bill, thank you for posting the '... 31 recommendations for strengthening democracy in the report Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century. They included reform to political institutions, investment in civil society, and transforming our political culture. Learn more about the people and the process that produced Our Common Purpose here.
'Here is a condensed version of the “Common Purpose Action Plan”. Read this and become hopeful!'
Cheers to you and to 'Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century'! Thanks.
Thank you for this. I really liked your article and am so glad to learn about "Our Common Purpose." Many of the recommendations make lots of sense, particularly civic education dedicated to learning from and including voices not usually heard. The fuller, richer story of America, including hopes for the future, is both compelling and really interesting. It would make history come alive. Thank you again.
The "history" I encountered in K-12 public school in the 1950s and '60s was largely a blend of mythology (I was told, for example, that Columbus was the very first person to realize the world is round), nationalistic propaganda, and mind-numbing lists of disembodied names and dates. I vastly preferred the arts and sciences.
Then gradually realized the real history IS both an art and a science. A science to the extent it can be based and reconciled by evidence, and an art to the degree is provides a visceral sense of continuity with generations past, who for better and worse contributed to building of the "now" we experience today, and also anchors our best educated guess to what may yet unfold in the future, with and without our influence. Like cosmology and paleontology, history attempts to show us how our "now" came to be.
And as in science, the more faithful to evidence we are, the more useful (and less toxic) our narrative becomes. One can only speculate about the understanding carried by the fellow who said he was a “f*ck*ng idiot” who was parroting “founding fathers and stupid sh*t like that" who has yet to realize that he is being had.
I always loved science and came to history to later. I was lucky to have a female Brit for world history, but after that it was coaches....I do know some coaches who know their stuff, but so many of them have or had their heads in their jock strap. I love your explanation of real history adding to it paleontology and cosmology.
They used to call it "natural history". The whole shebang is the Big Bang unfolding and interacting along the way. We are no less a part of it than a toad or a rose bush. If we get too much in nature's way, then we'll be history; but if we pay attention closely enough we get to use what nature teaches to make microprocessors and mRNA vaccines. We gotta pay attention to stay on her good side.
I am looking at pics from the Webb which are truly amazing. I agree that we are a part of universe. I hope we are paying attention, but it doesn't seem like it.
Thank you Alex, I did not know this! Congratulations to our dear Professor who is in quite amazing company of 261 new members, including Buffy Sainte-Marie and Salman Rushdie! It's very exciting to be a member of your community, and play a tiny part in spreading your wisdom.
And just in case I'm not the only one is this community who really didn't know much at all about the Academy. From its website, it "was founded in 1780, during the American Revolution, by John Adams, John Hancock, and 60 other scholar-patriots who understood that a new republic would require institutions able to gather knowledge and advance learning in service to the public good." So this makes me wonder how all of this wisdom is getting out to the general public. Maybe it would reduce the number of folks who can be duped by "disinformation."
It may just be me, but "wisdom" is a term I don't "hear" very often. It seems to me that pinning down what wisdom is is a bit mercurial, but it seems to me it has something to do with broad and deep perspective, and knowing "what matters" as well as what is reasonably accurate. Agreeing on what matters gets complicated fast, but it seems to me that focused thought in an open mind may produce different answers than what might occur to one casually, with minimal effort. "Wisdom" is often associated with age, but "from the mouths of babes" stunningly fundamental truths may emerge. There is more wisdom in a fingernail trimming from teenage Greta Thunberg than from the sum of 76-year-old Donald Trump. Who has never been fooled? Yet I would think aspirations for gaining wisdom would likely be protective against being easily duped by "disinformation". Especially nonsensical disinformation.
Thank you for this powerful expansion of my thoughts! I've been using the word "wisdom" to mean something deeper than "general knowledge., inspiring some kind of caring." Your description is perfect "it has something to do with broad and deep perspective, and knowing "what matters" as well as what is reasonably accurate." And I couldn't agree more about the variety (and sometimes surprise!) of sources. When my grown-up granddaughter was merely 10 years old, and I was deep into my struggle with an eating disorder, she wrote me a note, "Remember, chocolate is not love. I love you." Talk about "out of the mouths of babes"!
Here's where I think the challenge lies. To quote your wisdom, "aspirations for gaining wisdom would likely be protective against being easily duped by "disinformation". Especially nonsensical disinformation." I think you are correct. So my question is, how do we inspire this "aspiration for gaining wisdom" in the minds and hearts of "everyday people," (thank you Sly and the Family Stone) who are not necessarily "scholarly" folks but who could be moved by truth? Blessings,
I'm attracted to "scholarly" wisdom (like that of Dr. Richardson) because it is easier to cover territory stringing together established chunks of thought (citing, for example, "Occam's Razor" or salient historical events) to those who are likely to have already attached shared meanings to them, but that's just one way of doing business. In fact I think an over-reliance on "book learning" can sometimes get in the way. We may recite like parrots, but I think the utility of books lies in the degree we incorporate lessons they may contain into automatic, everyday thinking; the internal experience of sentient creatures. I think that is what Einstein was getting at when he said, “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” I think that roughly reveals the union between the sciences and the arts, but in any case, (I never quite bought Descartes' argument), but still oversimplifying, I think that I feel, therefore I am. But thinking of some sort is key to knowing thyself and to successfully negotiating our environment.
Again, addressing one somewhat nebulous and subjective thing with another, I suspect that central to "wisdom" is knowing "what matters" which I think takes awareness of context and a certain amount of discipline, and I believe that the "school of hard knocks" may teach important parts of that that may not show up in the curricula of universities.
However, it is only 99 days away from saving American democracy!!!!!
If Democrats actually expect to defeat even just one republican candidate, or incumbent, or republican sponsored legislation this November…
THEN
All Democrats
MUST
Begin to
FIGHT FIRE WITH EVEN BRIGHTER BURNING FIRE!!!
Here is a FACT to consider in direct refutation of republican lies:
Joe Trippi is a well-known benevolent Democrat strategist who has a wonderful podcast one of which is cited below. Here Trippi highlights the fact that when the enough concerned registered American voters vote for Democrats:
Then:
(1). All Americans will have their freedom of reproductive choice,
(2). All Americans will have their freedom to vote,
(3). All Americans will have their freedom to marry whom they want, and many other freedoms as well…
(4). Plus, all Americans will have inflation.
However!
If enough Americans are again fooled by republican lies, (as a lot have been in the past), into voting for republicans, then:
(1). All American people will have none of their freedoms, (Nos. 1-3), previously guaranteed by the Democrats’ defense of the American Constitution while maintaining their control of Congress.
AND
All Americans will still have the inflation exacerbated by the anti-democratic republican blockage of Democratic proposed relief legislation…
On a completely different note, Georgia's "Fetal Heartbeat" law went into effect this week, officially known by the rather tortured name, the "Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act." (Ga House Bill 481). On it's surface, it does several remarkable things, like according legal rights to a "person" as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detectable, usually around 6 weeks pregnancy, and makes it illegal to abort that fetus without a strong showing of evidence that the mother's life would be ended or majorly destroyed if the pregnancy were allowed to continue. (Mental health issues are excluded.)
Interestingly, the law specifically permits the unborn child to be used as a tax deduction, beginning with that heartbeat detection. There is no requirement that the pregnancy result in a live birth.
Hmm.
This means that a pregnant wealthy person in Georgia can simply get an ultrasound demonstrating a fetal heartbeat, fly to a more enlightened state for an abortion, then file for a tax deduction. The deduction would defray the cost of travel and, for even higher income brackets, may even pay for the procedure and result in a profit.
In other words, it's a perfect example of a Republican bill -- it gives tax money to rich people and reeks of hypocrisy! What's not to love? I'd love to hear what folks on this board think of this.
Any references to these laws' language of "detectable heartbeat" need to be called out to educate readers that the ultrasound is detecting not the beat of a functioning heart, but electrical impulses of not yet differentiated cells.
Furthermore, this developing group of cells is called an embryo, and in the 8th week of pregnancy, is called a fetus until birth.
Thanks Ellie for making this clear. These radical reactionaries pretend there is a heartbeat when there is no heart. They pretend that their sectarian religious/political beliefs about the timing of the beginning of life are objective science. They pretend an embryo is an infant. And then they have no interest in the living conditions of actual, living, breathing infants.
No, they don't. This is only a vote getting maneuver and then no votes for helping out the born human beings. And they wonder why many people find their "Christianity" so repulsive. I am still trying to find a reference to abortion in the NT. Ha...computer wanted to make this the NYT.
It seems your well-meaning description of who "...they..." are might be miss placed...
These republicans ARE NOT Christians
"they" do not possess a Holy Bible
but "they" are, themselves, possessed by the Great Deceiver
Christians are about Love
Love of all GOD's creations, even their enemy's, which is not always very easy to do...which one reason Christians pray for everyone to become the love of CHRIST to everyone.
I think you misread me. I have Christianity in quotes because the people I am talking about claim to be Christians, but they have not a whit of idea of what Christ taught. They are about hate, not love. This Sunday the River Church is bringing its hatred once again to Riverside Park here in Salem. They will be spewing their hatred all over downtown Salem. So I think we agree they are hypocrites. I do know some people who do understand and their faith provides a structure for their social views.
Thanks , Ellie, for this well-known biological, but little understood and/or accepted by right-wing politicians, fact. The gaping hole in US education and respect for it has widened into a bottomless pit.
The "gaping hole in US education" is not just happenstance, but direct targeting by reactionary Republicans taking from the playbook of autocracy. It's what Hitler and Putin have done.
All of this brings us back to the question: What are we measuring? It’s not VIABILITY. Potential for viability? Even a virus has that. And if a fatal anomaly is detected, then that fetus doesn’t have viability, but it does have the potential for harm to the mother. That would be the opposite of viability.
How many angels dance on the head of a pin? This is a question evangelical-minded fascists should answer FIRST, before they attempt to practice medicine.
Sadly, medicine has nothing to do with it. The whole point here is to grind women into subservience. Women dying due to men’s superior power is not a bug in this system. It’s a central feature.
How anti-American can you get? You paint all Americans as the same. Many Americans know that they have been robbed by a system that favors the rich and we are trying to change that. Most Americans did not fall for 'voodoo' economics' and all white men are not the same, just as all Hispanic men, all Asian men, etc., aren't the same. Your slogan has been 'the problem with America is the Americans'. We are very divided and much of the deepening of that and the growth of hatred has been fueled by self-seeking autocrats. White supremacy has been a serious problem in America for centuries and not here alone. Scapegoating is a common form of manipulation/propaganda. There is a wealth of world history along these lines. It is a old story. We have a great deal to do in this country on many levels. 'The problem with America is the Americans' is to smear us all.
fHi, Fern and Mike, I'm going to jump in with a slightly different "read" of Mike's comment. I read his long comment not at all as anti-American, exactly the opposite. Maybe because it's my particular hobby horse. I read it as a challenge to his fellow Americans to examine our own part in the horror show that is our reality. I always end up referring to the 1971 Pogo cartoon, "We have met the enemy and he is us." I could be wrong, but my reaction to Mike's comment was a kind of, "YES!!" If Mike doesn't really mean all Americans--which it obviously can't be just realistically and literally--then I guess maybe my way of reading his comment is as a call to arms in the difficult work of digging out the darkness, not in each and every one of us necessarily but in the culture that we've all had a hand in creating even by doing nothing.
And I'm going to stop before I offend both of you. This exchange between you is important exactly to the extent that it makes us think. Thank you both
Thanks for your response. Your response is much more intelligent and intelligible than my writing, no doubt.
It is true that I don't mean all Americans, however, there are more than enough Americans in the "enemy of Democracy" camp, and, have always been enough Americans in that camp, to prevent equal opportunity for all in work, voting, education, housing, land ownership, and a host of things I don't want to write.
I am an interesting product of America: Mexican Dad, White Anglo Mom (Red Head). They met, fell in love and married in 1959 when, in Texas, that was not acceptable.
They raised me unbiased against all people and showed kindness to all people themselves.
Since I am light skinned, I WAS accorded some opportunity in America, and was hired after engineering school. But, I went seven years without a raise in that job and, I felt, my work was often better than others.
Eventually, I concluded that the only people ever promoted were tall white guys, often as dumb as a stump, and I resigned.
Further, in my 38 year career as an engineer, I saw hundreds of poorly qualified whites get jobs, and, only THREE black engineers. ALL THREE suffered from comments of "affirmative action" even though they were much more highly qualified than most whites hired.
Also, MANY whites were hired by their parents because their grades were not good enough to be competitive. It was this observation that led me to conclude that affirmative action in America is reallyf or white men.
It is unfortunate that "affirmative action", mostly applied to white men, has been associated with the very few blacks that are hired, all of whom are highly qualified since there are NO parents working to hire them.
At any rate, my experiences in America are VERY different than the majority of those on this reflector with Dr. Richardson.
My comments reflect that and have angered folks.
Hence, I have resigned participation in the board. It was wasting too much time anyway.
Again, thanks for your more positive reading of my comments.
Mike, I'm going to argue with your statement that my writing is more intelligent and intelligible. Wow. You've said it exactly like it needs to be said--and needs to be said on every street corner in this country. Your story makes several things clear, starting with the fact that this isn't a Donald Trump problem so much as it is an America problem. We seem to be especially good at finding scapegoats and Trump is a master at doing that in the crudest and most blatant ways. He's about as awful as can be but the real monsters are the thinkers and planners and bankrollers of the status quo. As you say, "affirmative action in America is really for white men." I read something recently that got my attention--that the system in America isn't "broken." It's working exactly as it was designed to work.
I try to scroll by your comments as quickly as possible as they appear to comprise a repetitive dumping ground to me. The few times that I stop to make a factual correction or share a perspective, you always respond with the same rational. I only hear one note. If you think focusing on a group and making an ugly generalization about the whole county based on that group states the 'truth' when it is prejudicial -- it's very easy for some to criticize others for lacking critical thinking.
Thank you for responding, Mike S. Your comments have reflected what you think of the country and the American people. It is good that you are comfortable here and share your ideas. Many subscribers like what you have to say. I remember how we befriended each other when you began on the forum. This communication between us has been awkward, but I am leaving it with better understanding and warm regards for you. Salud.
Excellent point, Fern... thank you for pointing this out. Reducing us all to a unified group (grossly inaccurate!) under one label doesn't serve us. Certainly doesn't help us figure out viable solutions to our mess.
Thank you, Suz. I have waited months before responding to Mike S. with what I have thought about for quite awhile. Many have suffered greatly and continue to in this country. This may be the safe ground for some of us to unload long held grievances. All of us have been going through tough times in various ways. It felt as though it was time to address Mike S. directly about his generalizations and negativity. Unfortunately, we seem unable to find a bridge.
I have, yet again, waded through the coagulated muck of your cleverly snarky self-righteousness of your smug generalizations and self-proclaimed negativities, (in which you indeed revel in), in describing your judgments about others...
Who made you the judge, jury, and executioner herein, huh?
So, you have been sneaking around hiding in the weedy murky swamp of your pitiful jealousy just waiting for what you have determined is the best moment in time to pounce upon Mike, have you, Eh!?
In re to blanket statements that Americans lap up "voodoo economics'" et al. This American and others never fell for such faulty B.S. As stated in various posts, there are too many people either unwilling (lazy, incapable of seeing past their noses) or educationally unable (lacking critical thinking skills) to research behind such faulty statements/reasoning.
If Democrats actually expect to defeat even just one republican candidate, or incumbent, or republican sponsored legislation this November…
THEN
All Democrats
MUST
Begin to
FIGHT FIRE WITH EVEN BRIGHTER BURNING FIRE!!!
Here is a FACT to consider in direct refutation of republican lies:
Joe Trippi is a well-known benevolent Democrat strategist who has a wonderful podcast one of which is cited below. Here Trippi highlights the fact that when the enough concerned registered American voters vote for Democrats:
Then:
(1). All Americans will have their freedom of reproductive choice,
(2). All Americans will have their freedom to vote,
(3). All Americans will have their freedom to marry whom they want, and many other freedoms as well…
(4). Plus, all Americans will have inflation.
However!
If enough Americans are again fooled by republican lies, (as a lot have been in the past), into voting for republicans, then:
(1). All American people will have none of their freedoms, (Nos. 1-3), previously guaranteed by the Democrats’ defense of the American Constitution while maintaining their control of Congress.
AND
All Americans will still have the inflation exacerbated by the anti-democratic republican blockage of Democratic proposed relief legislation…
It tries. "[A]n unborn child, at any stage of development...shall be included in state population based determinations." (Lines 131-133) That probably wouldn't affect federal census, but would afffect anything the state government controls.
But they really don't know what it does. For instance, it should have an impact on child support determinations, in that a pregnant woman would be able to seek child support regardless of whether the pregnancy results in a live birth.
This is coming out on almost the same day that the Atlanta Music Midtown Festival, a long time public festival that showcased talent of all genres, was cancelled because, being held in a public park, the promoters learned that they would be unable to exclude firearms from the audience. Since no sane entertainer would be willing to stand on a stage under a spotlight in front of a crowd of armed Republicans, they had to cancel the whole thing.
I'm waiting until Georgia decides all embryos and fetuses would cast a vote for their lives, thus their votes will count in a referendum opposing abortion.
I hope Stacy Abrams really goes into all this! That is incredible! Of course, this seems to be aimed particularly at wealthy women as I'm sad to say poorer women wouldn't benefit as much from the tax credit, or the ability to travel outside of the state. And probably wouldn't know about the census as politicians are so good at hiding some things from those who could really benefit.
The child support issues is going to be interesting to say the least...
Counted no doubt, as more than 5/8 of an adult voter for our Proprietors' purposes. Nevertheless, since said Proprietors' compassion seems to be reserved for their own successful spermatozoa, their overriding concern will remain unchanged: that neither the unborn, the children nor those who make it to adulthood should ever be entitled to a meaningful vote.
The scams go on! It is breathtaking (and heartbreaking) that a law like this can even be considered. On so many levels, it is wrong, wrong, wrong. The fact that mental health issues are excluded is so completely revolting, I don’t even know what to say. Forget about the right to choose, the tax grift of this law is beyond everything I have seen. Thanks for educating us. Now, I need to go fix a stiff drink……
Yeh.. me too. When our imaginations result in science, adults will consider it as such. When imaginations dissolve into creationism, the adult factor goes away in favor the the book with no author. It's too late.. I'll just have some yogurt.
The "Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act." Will English language, law and medical dictionaries need to add a new entry to acknowledge Georgia’s newly contorted definition of “infant”? And if they do, what will be the implications to the term “fetus”?
A fetus is not viable person. Also, many women, and GIRLS, do not know they are even pregnant until they have missed a few periods, which for some can be so sporadic, they cannot chart them or do not even understand the normal 28 day cycle because they are too young. So, it is unfair to make laws based upon such cruelty to females. MEN are the ones who need to be challenged and responsible for every fricking, "sacred" sperm they produce. Or be responsible and start shooting blanks. Get the metaphor for guns, here? Hear?
We crossed the CT River today into New Hampshire to kayak and explore one of their many pristine lakes. What we heard, instead of the loons, was practicing shooting rapid fire guns that echoed all around the lake. It is incredibly disturbing and the birds looked distressed. It went on for at least 45 mins. and made looking for loons and beavers completely marred by "Live Free or Die" on what otherwise would have been a lovely, relaxing Sunday. Why is one person's rights allowed to disturb many other people's, animals and the sanctity of nature's rights in the middle of summer? I understand a few target practices, but the amount of ammunition used up was ridiculous besides traumatizing living in a world full of massacres.
The ME people. Is there a Noise Ordinance? Would a cop want to even endanger him or herself to enforce it?
Am hoping we can evolve to a point where those of us who want a peaceful world can ascend to some parallel universe and leave the others in their alt reality of let's power over everything and kill it. Then we can have safe music festivals, theaters, markets, attend churches or synagogues of our choice, go to school walk, and walk down the street freely, and without fear. And paddle on a beautiful lake without being reminded of self-absorbed supremacist politics, dark power, dark money and assault weapons. Loonier than real loons.
That is SO disturbing… I also want to express my outrage this week from an ad I got via email to buy assault rifles ….. it featured many different styles of weapons and had all kinds of patriotic marketing gimmicks. I was so outraged about it and to unsubscribe you had to put in all of your personal info and send them a response!!!! How in the heck could I have gotten on a mailing list like that? So disturbing and shows just how easy these guns are to obtain! 🤯
Check your privacy settings on your phone, tablet, computer, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you have Alexa or Siri, check those also. Then report unwanted emails as spam.
I have started popping trash like this back in the mailbox with a "return to sender" message. I have no idea where it ends up but am hopeful the "sender" gets the message.
I sometimes look up organizations to find out about their bias. Then I get all sorts of religious crap, gun ads, and R ads. At least I think that's what happened.
I’ve not experienced that same thing butHAVE noted more and more marketing intrusions online following personal discussions of products or issues with friends. These discussions are either in real time and space or over the cell phone. Very creepy. Many friends have noticed as well. A friend in France has the same experience.very Big Brother. I first noticed this several years ago after a NYC subway ride discussing a pair of shoes a fellow passenger was wearing. When I surfaced out of the subway there was an e-mail( at that time more frequent) announcing a special sale for those shoes! Fit Flops. Since then( at least 8 years ago), these” coincidences have become MUch More frequent.
I have been in discussion as well with someone about a particular topic only to have it appear in my email. Yes. Big Brother and the algorithms are watching And Listening. Creepy.
Oh, gawd. That IS so disturbing. Gunmakers are responsible for this-- and we need to put huge pressure on them. These are weapons of mass destruction...not self-protection or hunting guns. They need loud voices screaming at them and to pay for every massacre that occurs in our country.
Meanwhile, I've just read the renter's manual at my humble apartment building which forbids smoking, candles, carts and wheelchairs left outside our apartments, etc.— all for the purpose of health and safety as our aging minds wander and are no longer so careful. BUT legally there can be no prohibition on gun possession because of law. Now there's a worry I wasn't counting on as I age.
You also raise an interesting point about the fluidity of state borders, like kayaking across an invisible state line and fascist Republicans trying to prevent pregnant women from leaving their state.
Does anyone know if that woman in Texas won her case, that her 8-month fetus should count as a passenger and allow her to use the multi-passenger highway lane?
"The new bill, introduced on July 13 in both the Senate and House, is called the Unborn Child Support Act, and would amend the Social Security Act 'to give mothers the ability to receive child support payments while they are pregnant...' The bill would work by amending the Social Security Act, which requires states to manage a public child support system that oversees issues such as determining paternity and collecting child support.
Under the proposal, a court could award child support payments prior to birth and retroactively to the point of conception, as determined by a doctor, according to the statement. It also wouldn't require women to ask for child support if they don't want the prospective father's involvement. Paternity tests would be up to the prospective mother, according to the statement.
The bill is co-sponsored by a number of Republican lawmakers, including Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Marco Rubio of Florida."
But of course, also no joke: West Virginia Republican who introduced a bill to get rid of child support so men won't pressure women into getting an abortion:
"But of course, also no joke: West Virginia Republican who introduced a bill to get rid of child support so men won't pressure women into getting an abortion:"
Or murder her. It's no coincidence that men have murdered wives, girlfriends, and children more frequently since the advent of DNA testing for paternity. (I think it began in the Clinton administration as an accommodation to cutting back on welfare for women and children.)
As these GOPholks keep telling us (when wearing their Guncultists' persona with its armored 10 gallon hat and deaths-head rictus mask) there is a Big Mental Health Crisis in America...
Just in case you missed my message located somewhere else in the plethora of all other comments....
If Democrats actually expect to defeat even just one republican candidate, or incumbent, or republican sponsored legislation this November…
THEN
All Democrats
MUST
Begin to
FIGHT FIRE WITH EVEN BRIGHTER BURNING FIRE!!!
Here is a FACT to consider in direct refutation of republican lies:
Joe Trippi is a well-known benevolent Democrat strategist who has a wonderful podcast one of which is cited below. Here Trippi highlights the fact that when the enough concerned registered American voters vote for Democrats:
Then:
(1). All Americans will have their freedom of reproductive choice,
(2). All Americans will have their freedom to vote,
(3). All Americans will have their freedom to marry whom they want, and many other freedoms as well…
(4). Plus, all Americans will have inflation.
However!
If enough Americans are again fooled by republican lies, (as a lot have been in the past), into voting for republicans, then:
(1). All American people will have none of their freedoms, (Nos. 1-3), previously guaranteed by the Democrats’ defense of the American Constitution while maintaining their control of Congress.
AND
All Americans will still have the inflation exacerbated by the anti-democratic republican blockage of Democratic proposed relief legislation…
Joe Trippi has the argument for Democrats, David Pepper has the argument for Democrats to focus on state legislatures, and The States Project has the argument and HOW TO ACT for majority-making state legislatures (see Giving Circles):
Just when you think there can be nothing else outrageous in the bizarro world of Republicans... An acclaimed novelist couldn't conjure up this plot twist. And then to read Ellie's post below that there is no actual beating heartbeat at this stage of pregnancy.
I do wonder what the IRS will have to say about this tax deduction. Or does it just involve Georgia taxes?
Just Georgia taxes, as far as I can tell. Remember, part of that weird tax "reform" that the Trump admin passed took away the federal deduction for state taxes, so I don't think there's any interaction between the two.
Just posted in another thread, the the Unborn Child Support Act to amend the Social Security Act (wonder what the other Repubs who want to get rid of it have to say):
"Tonight, President Joe Biden announced that a drone strike managed by the Central Intelligence Agency at 9:48 Eastern time on Saturday killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri...There were no civilian casualties."
This is an incredible achievement for this administration. It must not be downplayed. Thanks, Heather.
The "opposition" will be silent when their sense of patriotism should be stirred. Why would they give President Biden credit for this when they barely acknowledged President Obama's successful elimination of Osama bin Laden?
The GQP has moved from partisanship to rebellion and hope to undermine - not unify and support their own government.
So yes. We should shout it from the roof tops. Notice that this was a surgical precision operation. Just the target taken out. "Well done" is an understatement. Compare that with Russia's sledge hammers and wrecking balls.
Daria after the massacre of Israeli Olympians in 1972, mossad hunted down to kill the murderers. One mistake in Norway, but hunted down the other assassins
Kudos to Biden and to obama for bin Laden
An eye for an eye and kill those murdering bastards.
We got the bastard, they should all know that we will never forget, my only wish was that it didn’t happen so quickly, I would have preferred that it take as long as it took for the innocents in the twin towers to perish, and maybe happen over and over again in memory of each and every one of them. If there is a hell, may he rot there for eternity.
I'm a little nervous to ask this, but I didn't have a community to ask after Bin Laden was killed so I'm going to ask it now. Why is it morally ok to kill someone for their heinous crimes rather than capture and try them? I want to be happy and cheer for this, but I can't yet. Wasn't "an eye for an eye" from the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the Code of Hammurabi originally an attempt to keep folks from randomly retaliating for harm done? I found an article about why Bin Laden's killing was legal, but I didn't completely understand. Is it something about rules of war being different with terrorist groups when we're not on a battle field? I would really appreciate hearing thoughts on this. Thank you! https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/2019/01/31/yes-the-raid-that-killed-osama-bin-laden-was-lawful/
Chaplain Terry You raise an excellent point of morality. Is it moral to kill someone apparently guilty of a heinous crime rather than capture them and subject them to the judicial process?
In an ideal world, this should be so. In testimony before the Church Committee there was evidence that America (CIA) considered the assassination of Joseph Lumumba and there were up-to-28 initiatives to assassinate Fidel Castro. Personally I consider both of these absolutely wrong. In contrast, I support the June 22, 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler done by Germans.
Guantanamo, for me, is an example of justice gone astray. Black locales,waterboarding, and the absence of a credible (military) judicial system render this a political facade that was neither just nor legal.
What to do with international killers who seem beyond the normal judicial process? Even the International Court of Justice is severely limited in whom it can indict and try. With bin Laden, I personally approve of the dangerous military intervention to kill the leader of al Quada. From what I know of the al Quada leader who President Biden had droned and killed, do you imagine any scenario where this killer could be indicted and tried?
Morality is a vexing issue. Was it ‘moral’ to fire bomb Dresden and Tokyo? Is it ‘moral’ for Putin to destroy entire Ukrainian cities and target civilians? Personally, I believe that Truman’s decision to drop an atom bomb on Hiroshima, though many have written to the contrary.
Was it ‘moral’ for me, as a Foreign Service Officer, to aim my M-16 at a platoon of Congolese soldiers and state that the rebel prisoners they were beating to death were mine? What should the position of the United States have been, if this FSO had gotten into a deadly fire fight with Congolese soldiers over the lives of Congolese rebels? Ditto when a Southern Rhodesian mercenary came to a Congolese administrator in Paulis stating that ‘he intended to kill that kaffir.’ Was I wrong, as a Foreign Service Officer, to take the safety off my .45 and state “Do you think that you can kill him before I kill you?’ Personally, in retrospect I regret neither of my ‘moral’ actions.
Michael Walzer at the Institute for Advanced Study has written more lucidly on this subject than have I. There is national morality (and immorality) and personal morality. This was considered at the Nuremberg Trials.
I have my personal, conflicted view of ‘morality.’ It would, perhaps, be comforting to see morality in black and white rather than in shades of grey.
You are not alone in that conflicted state. I thought Walzer offered a valuable distinction, which in my mind goes to personal and collective responsibility for the actions taken by an individual (considered choices made in the moment) and by a nation (collective moral response). Chaplain Terry and I may hold that justice outside a courtroom verges on the wrong, the immoral, but we might also see the necessity of a nation's actions. I don't know that I am making my point as well as I wish. Five years from now, though, when we can evaluate the unforeseeable consequences of executing these terrorists, done to bring closure for a nation and it's grieving people, will there be a cost (reputation, allegiances lost, enemies strengthened in their common resolve) to invalidate the imperative to act. I guess I am saying, it would be amoral to not consider the grays and proceed to action. I hope we are here to realize the rightness of these acts in that five-year look-back. The inability of Trump, Cheney, and Rumsfeld to even consider these two moral challenges made me cautious of certainty in our wartime dealings with other nations and causes.
The Hammurabi Code, the Hebrew Testament, and any other moral and/or civil codes are loaded with contradictions because they were written by men who crafted and revised codes and laws to address specific situations. The Hammurabi's Code is a case in point - the preface justifies killing in order to rid society of "evil". Of course, evil is open to interpretation based on an individual's religion/culture. To many around the globe, we are evil.
I am conflicted. Am I sorry that Al-zwawhari is dead? No, not really. But I'm certainly not reveling in his death.
"When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then ●●Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak●●, so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind."
Very thought provoking. Your questioning is making me feel a bit of a hypocrite--I'm against capital punishment but am wishing someone would assassinate Putin pronto. I'm against war but am cheering the Ukrainians for defending their country against an unprovoked invasion. Hmmmmm, someone help me out here....
Sophia, I am too conflicted. Aside from the moral side, I am having a hard time figuring out how we deal with evil, which I think we are with Putin and Trump and authoritarian regimes. While I know our ideas and how we go about doing right for our people and nation and other nations as well may be flawed, mistaken, and we may need to do a long of do-overs and apologies, I am sensing something I'd never in my progressive-academic life would voice as waging war on evil to protect where our nation and the world can go. This is making me want to strike out, stop the endlesss talking, and do something concrete and classically insane. Embarrassing as this is, I thought that maybe Covid would solve the Trump problem, amorality in a living organism and his organization. I think I am feeling more desperate than I have at anytime in my 80+ years.
Well Fred, this is what we get being spiritual beings having a human experience here on earth. Unfortunately, God gave everybody free will. The more one aligns their will with God's (good) the happier they'll be. The more they align with ego, the worse things will end up. Remember Bernie Madoff? After he milked people and non-profits out of their money, one son died of cancer, the other one committed suicide, and he died in jail. Trump and his ilk have refused to learn their spiritual lessons and they are on their way to prison as well (remember where you read this). Letitia James and Fanni Willis are my girls. Letitia won getting maga lier Trump's testimony under oath. I can't wait--he won't be able to help himself from perjuring himself....
FRED Fred, at age 88, and a history professor from age 58 to 80 who taught a segment on ‘war’ for nearly two decades, presently I have more questions than definitive answers. Hmmm, might I become more insightful at age 90? That is my liberal hope.
You can do it youngster. I've outlived most of my critics and friends, so I ruminate as to what epitaph should go on my urn. Latest are "I have one more question!" or "My answers are contained within." (You will also note that my spelling is for scheise and my roofing of my writing isn't any better.
Sophia, I didn't try to answer everyone, but I was very moved by your saying you feel a bit of a hypocrite. This made me look up the origin of the word, which in the original Greek meant literally "an interpreter from underneath" because the actors performed from beneath their masks. Then it evolved into someone who puts on a "mask of piety" in order to deceive others.
So I think what you (and I) are experiencing is more the complexity of morality. There are very few (if any) actions that are completely wrong in every situation. I am also against war, but I cannot change the Ukrainian's being attacked by Russia, so I am fine with wanting them to win. I am against capital punishment and I can't ever see myself changing my mind about that, no matter the action of the prisoner.
I think what's coming to me is that I don't ever want to feel gleeful about the necessity for these actions. And then I need to have some compassion for my human nature when I want someone to assassinate people who are doing really evil actions. I remember once it became clear the evil and destruction that T***p was riling up as president, I had a fantasy that I would sacrifice my life by assassinating him for the good of the country, knowing that of course I never would. I was shocked that it even occurred to me, and I had to put it in the context of feeling powerless about wanting to do something to stop him. I'm going to stop here. Thank you! Blessings,
This could be a great conversation, as it would take us into discussing the morality of war and the justification of returning fire upon combatants who cease to fire or run out of ammunition. Is legitimate warfare between nation states and terriorism a grievence by a group against another's ideology or a military action to impose and ideology or control a people? In this instance, case, we have attempted to capture all of those who plotted or were active in the 911 attack. Some went to Guantonimo Bay and have not been brought to trial, for where could they be tried but in a military or an American court? What would comprise justice in those I stances? Is imprisonment without trial, no matter how clearly the individuals involved are guilty of terrorism, a better form of punishment or an effective message for future terrorists or seditionists? Isn't warfare a moral form of vengeance when right is in defense against a perpetrator or nation? I favored each of these precision strikes on these individual if for no other reason than to deliver a message to any individual (foreign OR domestic) that you cannot plot or carry out an attack on our people or way of life without swift and serious consequences; deterence (message) as well as punishment (justice).
I am so grateful to those who responded to my question, and now I'm really glad I asked. I'm still trying to take in all of the thoughtful wisdom and additional questions, and am not even trying to respond to each one. But I am so grateful to all who took the time to offer their thoughts. As I continue this process, one thing that stands out is that "black and white" thinking about right and wrong is completely insufficient for out times.
I remember dating a guy in the early 70's who defined himself as a pacifist. He told me that even if someone was attacking a member of his family, he wouldn't fight back to defend them. While I try really hard not to judge the moral beliefs of others whom I respect, I thought he was just wrong. So looking at the killing of al-Zawahiri as continuing the "war" that was begun with the 9/11 attacks, I see how one can justify this action. I need to be able to hold that thought while at the same time believing that war is wrong; that killing is wrong, and that we need to "lay down our sword and shield and study war no more." My head hurts!
So here's what I've come to so far. I can accept the necessity of this action as appropriate to our current way of responding to attack in this era. But I will not celebrate this action. Rather I mourn its necessity. And I will do my best to hold my own desire for and commitment to peace and love between people and among nations. Blessings,
Agree, especially in light of our domestic and international threats. Everyone should know that we never leave one of ours behind (even if it takes time) and we never forget OR forgive those who attack our nation or it's people. There is no statue of limitations for you, your tribe, your nation if you assault or attempt to subvert our country, people, or government. The international terrorism leaders found this out today. Domestic terrorists are learning the truth of this promise as I write. No quarter nor forgiveness if you threaten us or you betray us. Is that clear enough? Stand down and surrender your arm. Now.
Thank you for today’s newsletter, Professor. You report “Judge Dabney Fredrich sentenced Capitol rioter Guy Reffitt to more than 7 years in prison, 3 years of probation, $2000 in fines, and mental health treatment.” Critical is the mental health treatment. That should be mandatory for every rioter arrested and all those implicated in masterminding and participating in the insurrection. Especially Including TFG and government officials and representatives. Any mentally healthy person would not have participated in an unconstitutional attempt to stop the electoral count or even challenge the election. Or follow TFG anywhere.
As a mental health professional (17 years a certified psych RN), I am all for mental health treatment for those who need it. Mr. Reffitt seems to, but really, there are only two people who can make that determination: the mental health professional assigned to the case and Reffitt himself. The joke how many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb - only one, but it's got to want to change, applies to all such cases. Still, psych hospitals and prisons are filled with mentally ill people who do not see they are ill. For many, prison is the only place where they get any mental health treatment at all.
That said, calling people who disagree with you mentally ill (even if they make horrible life choices) is a path to fascism. Our mental hospitals were used to dispose of people for decades. I do not believe the majority of those insurrectionists/rioters at the capitol on 1/6 were/are mentally ill. Misguided, lied to, lacking in critical thinking skills - yes. Mentally ill, no. They are as responsible for their actions as the rest of us.
Threatening the lives of one's children (should they do the right thing and inform authorities of their father's dangerously lethal plans) suggests to me that professional diagnosis will merely be redundant. Perhaps we don't need the Fire Chief to yell "Fire".
Legally, a judge can order an evaluation/assassment, but can't order a medical provider to provide any specific treatments - or diagnoses. No provider worth their salt would make a diagnosis without a thorough evaluation.
Thanks Steve. I knew that and called on you for confirmation as some people are inclined to be rather loose with their language on the subject. This country does appear to be overrun by angry people, out of control. I read an piece today that addresses a basic problem with life today. I'd love to know your response.
'The Kabul Execution: Action Without Actors'
'Who needs SEAL Team Six when a drone can do it all? Eventually, who’ll need any manual labor? And what will become of those who work with their hands?
Precision aerial bombing has come a long way.'
'During World War II, a number of Allied bombing raids over Germany missed, and bombed Switzerland instead.'
'This past weekend, by contrast, a CIA-controlled drone killed al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri while he was standing on the balcony of his safe house in Kabul, apparently without harming anyone in or around the house—quite possibly, without doing damage to any part of the house save, presumably, the balcony.'
'As such, the execution of al-Zawahiri stands in sharp contrast to that of Osama bin Laden, which was carried out by SEAL Team Six. That was the stuff of movies, and if Zero Dark Thirty focused on the intelligence-gathering required to establish where bin Laden was hiding, it also had the raid itself as a climax, in accord with Aristotle’s strictures on how dramas should conclude.'
'The actual execution of al-Zawahiri, by contrast, required no SEALs at all—just some anonymous drone operator whose superiors had given the "fire when ready" order, with no risk whatever to that operator. To be sure, that mode of killing had been necessitated by our withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, but it had also been made possible by advances in surveillance and precision weaponry, as President Biden had made clear when he ordered the withdrawal.'
'In that sense, this weekend’s successful attack marked one more advance in what is perhaps the most unsettling prospect looming over our century: the cumulative reduction and eventual elimination of manual labor.'
'The mechanization of warfare—which mechanizes the violence, even as the victims remain human, of course—is just one small aspect of this larger tendency. Does anyone doubt that Amazon will entirely replace its warehouse workers with robots as soon as it becomes possible? Or that mechanization has already reduced the number of workers it takes to build a house? (One California building trades union leader has told me that it took 20 electricians to wire a new school in 1980; it takes just four today.) Or the number of workers it takes to produce the steel that goes into a car or a bridge? (The CEO of U.S. Steel has told me that it takes just two steelworkers to produce the same amount of steel that required ten steelworkers in the 1970s.)'
'Our fantasies have already adapted to this change. G.I. Joe toys come complete with robotized arms; superheroes with extra-human powers clog movie screens while the human heroes of yesteryear are all on the cutting-room floor. There is no 21st-century John Wayne or Gary Cooper.'
'Even if many of the manual workers of the past century were reduced to cogs on factory assembly lines, a lot of them at least had the collective power of unions behind them, compelling their bosses to pay them adequately for a day’s work. Now, most of them don’t even have that. Their diminished present and their even bleaker future feed into what is variously termed the crisis of masculinity or the problems of boys, into rage at a socioeconomic elite whose definitions of meritocracy usually degrade or dismiss manual work altogether. Mix this economic degradation and cultural irrelevance with factors like racism and voila! You can’t bring back John Wayne, but you can back Donald Trump.'
'No John Waynes required to take out a jihadist mass murderer, and they sure don’t need that many of you to build an electric car. Send not to know on whom the bomb bursts …'
Well said, Steve. Calling them, including tfg, mentally ill kind of grants a "free pass" to their behavior. They knew exactly what they were doing, and chose to do it. The fact that they chose poorly is on them.
And they are also terrorists. And should be tried as terrorists. I disagree with the judge, completely. They tried to overthrow our country and attempted murder or our elected officials.
Mental health treatment generally does not work for sociopaths or psychopaths. There are no psychotropic drugs that will give you a conscience. Psychotherapy does not usually help with these personality disorders or with people who do not want to change. So when politicians identify mental health as the remedy for gun violence they are uniformed or wanting campaign contributions from the gun lobbies. I believe it is the latter as they are quite savvy and have issues with conscience. Anything to stay in power goes and begone with ethics.
They are not mentally Ill in my opinion. Personality disorders, or cult nuts. Mental health treatment would be wasted on the former, and deprogramming needed on the latter. You’ve got the propaganda masters, and the gullible fools. Don’t give them a get out of jail free card, like so many do for murdering shooters. Jail can be an equalizer if applied appropriately.
My Proud Boy neighbor IS mentally ill. Literally went postal 20 years ago as an employee of the post office, no one hurt. Not allowed to have guns or ammunition. Usually a nice if overly religious guy. Until tRump. I had to call the sheriff on him the night of January 4, 2021, before his trip to D.C., because he was going bezerk. The dispatcher and every other official I talked to that night said, "Why? He's fine." I demanded that they visit him AND report him to the Michigan State Police, with his car license plate number, and they said "Why?" I told them January 6th would be an armed assault on the U.S. Capitol like we had at our state one but much worse. They acted like I was the one needing counseling. They did visit him. I stayed with friends for a week. He went. He came home. He got his medications adjusted. Nice guy again. And we know who NOT to vote for today based on the signs in his driveway.
I remember your posts about your neighbor then and now. It was chilling to read them at the time and made Jan 6 seem inevitable. Thank you for sharing the intro and conclusion to your experience!
It's a bullshit sentence, half what the rules for proven terrorist acts should get, and it was imposed by a judge appointed by the head traitor - who knew who it was he bent over and spread for to get the gig.
Judge Friedrich is a woman. Her record since her latest appt in 2017 has been mixed (she ruled that the CDC couldn’t impose rules for preventing evictions from COVID, but she has ruled in favor of Special Council Mueller’s charges against 16 Russian entities.)
Prior to her current appointment in 2017 by t as a district court judge for DC (w only Senators Sanders, Warren, & Gillibrand voting to not confirm), Judge Friedrich spent 10 years as a Senate-confirmed member of the US Sentencing Commission, appointed by GWB. So sentencing guidelines would seem to be her “thing.”
But if you read Jordan Fischer’s entire Twitter thread, Judge Friedrich has not making consistent statements from the bench. And this mental health thing does seem like a boondoggle as I agree w Susan that it’s unlikely to be successful, especially since Reffitt has not disavowed the three percenters and has made “really troubling” comparisons between Jan. 6 & 1776.
Irenie: I wrote this comment much earlier, when there were only about 40 comments, & I was replying to TC’s comment about how “he” (referring to the judge”) got “his” job; wanted to clear that up as I agree w you that the judge’s gender doesn’t matter & in this case, though a t appt, she had been overwhelmingly confirmed, w a long history on the bench.
Thank you, Linda. I understand. Sometimes it’s not easy figuring out these conversations. We’re not in person! So… Mental health evaluations are not uncommon in these investigations. I don’t dispute guilt or think the criminals should be free. Some participants arrested for crimes connected to TFG’s 1/6 invitation have expressed not only remorse but confusion about the invitation. The Ohio Cabinetmaker is an example. He was sorry he answered the call. Believed he was invited and left when TFG finally spoke.
And in other news - not from The Onion - Donald Trump has buried his first wife by the first tee of his NJ golf course. For tax purposes. No NJ taxes on cemeteries. A family mausoleum which can double as a wedding chapel is also in the works. This is similar to Trump and Kushner et al business empires being classified as pass-through entities allowing them to pose as small businesses to qualify for tax breaks and Covid relief. (Republicans instituted this in their tax law and went to the mats for it in the Covid relief debates.)
Also not from The Onion. The fate of the Democratic Inflation Reduction Act rests uneasily in the hands of Sen. Sinema, who opposes its closing the carried interest loophole . The loophole is 'essentially a way for fund managers to be taxed on the share of the fund’s profits they receive, for their work, at a top rate of just under 24 percent — dramatically less than the 37 percent top rate for ordinary income. This giveaway is so valuable that many have it to thank for the bulk of their fortunes.'
And just in time for mid terms, anti vaxxers have joined anti abortion and anti gun regulation cultists as single issue voters.
As much money as Sinema has received in contributions from equity firms, it was a given that she would oppose closing the carried interest loophole. Doesn’t help that she & Scuhumer do not get along.
Yes! Am donating to her monthly. She has a gread ad about Rubio not " showing up for work"....." If you don't show up you lose your job." Got to get her in. He has been very quiet so far.
So my question is the entire property considered a cemetary or just a portion of it (similar to deduction for only that part of your home that is used solely for home office)
Sinema has previously stated she consideres the carried interest item inviolable. It will be interesting. Rumor has it sh’ll run as an Independent next time, so who knows how strong her affiliation with Democrats is.
Citizen, Sinema started out as a member of the Green Party--it was a big basis of her fundraising appeals in 2018 & why so many of us supported her. Schumer said back in February that the DNC would not support her re-election in 2024 & she’s been censored by the AZ State Democrats. She’ll not get much if any support from the left going forward, so if she runs (she’s fundraising constantly), Independent would seem her only viable path forward (though I don’t believe that she has much of chance, but who knows?)
& yes, it’s a well-known fact, in DC anyway, that she won’t support the carried interest tax. Not sure why Manchin & Schumer jumped the gun on the Inflation bill without including her in discussions; hopefully there’s a logical & viable reason because we need that bill!
I read somewhere this morning that they use a few trees to grind up for mulch, so they get a "farm" tax cut. Someone else will have to verify this, I can no longer find it.
That grave is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I go to the cemetery several times a year to care for my parents, siblings and their spouses graves. You see some very sad, neglected graves there, but I am sure there are reasons why they are neglected. Just imagine what her grave is going to look like 5 years from now.
What I read, is that Trump keeps a herd of goats on his Bedminster property to qualify as a farm for tax purposes. With all of the strikes against Eric, Don Jr, and Ivanka, I still would have expected them to do better by their mother than that insult of a pauper's grave at a golf course.
Wasn't the carried forward tax provision a cornerstone source of funds to pay for Tump's tax cut? Without it the tax cuts for lower and middle income payers are unsustainable and will disappear completely in 2025. Am I wrong?
'Trump Demands Recount After Biden Has More Positive COVID Tests Than He Did'
'WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - Donald J. Trump has demanded an immediate recount of covid tests after it emerged that President Biden had tested positive more times than he did.'
'A fuming Trump told reporters that “the only way Sleepy Joe could beat me at covid is if the tests were rigged.” (Satire, NewYorker)
Reffitt could have violated Texas state law for actions such as threatening his own family members with violence and be prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to consecutive time in Texas state court. Then again, maybe Abbott could award him some state honors.
Please don’t give Abbott any ideas, for it is very clear he hasn’t a single thought of his own. He probably wouldn’t listen anyway unless you’re lining his pockets. But better not tempt fate! LOL!
Wheeled onto the balcony of the Blue Room last evening as he continues to fight COVID, President Biden, nevertheless, stood up proudly as he informed the American people that Central Intelligence Agency had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, 71, who took control of al-Qaeda after the death of leader Osama bin Laden.
‘Zawahiri believed that attacking the U.S. and allied countries was essential to undermining the pro-Western Arab regimes that were standing in the way of uniting Muslims around the world.’ (Letter)
Last night's announcement was a big surprise. This is a new day. It is Tuesday and the final stretch of the election primaries. Contests in ‘…Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington state could elevate more Republicans who, like Trump, have baselessly undermined faith in elections and pitch themselves as populist fighters against not just Democrats but the GOP establishment.’ (WAPO)
‘Kansas voters to decide abortion rights in 1st test since Roe v. Wade repeal’
‘Voters will not have the option of banning the procedure outright, however. Instead, they’ll vote on a GOP-sponsored initiative known as Amendment 2, which would strip abortion protections from the state constitution. But should a majority of voters support the measure, the Republican-controlled state Legislature is expected to move quickly to restrict or prohibit the procedure.’
‘The initiative is an attempt to overturn a 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court, which ruled 6-1 that the state constitution “enables a woman to make decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life, including the decision whether to continue a pregnancy.”
‘Due in large part to that decision, Kansas continues to ensure abortion rights despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in late June that access to the procedure is not protected by the federal Constitution. Republican-controlled states bordering Kansas, such as Oklahoma and Missouri, now have near-total bans in place.’
‘Political observers from across the country will be paying close attention to how Kansas votes on the issue. Polls show that most Americans want abortion to be legal, and Democrats hope the issue will motivate voters to support their candidates this November.’
‘If voters in conservative Kansas reject the GOP’s attempt to roll back abortion protections, that could offer some hope to Democrats, who are locked in an uphill battle to keep control of Congress in the midterms. It could also be good news for Kansas’s Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, who is up for reelection in the fall.’
“If people in the state of Kansas vote no on that amendment, then the status quo will remain. And women’s reproductive rights will remain constitutional here in the state of Kansas,” Kelly said in June after Roe was overturned.’ (YahooNews) See link below.
I see that the United States continues to kill the men in the organization it created in Afghanistan in the late 1970’s to build a Muslim insurgency against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
US support for the birth of Al Qaeda included the printing of fundamentalist pamphlets in the Midwest and their dissemination.
Nothing like giving birth to, and nurturing, what became the US most expensive and sustained enemy in history.
How many bad ideas does it take to fell a country??
Mike. Sometimes. Just sometimes as in most families; constantly pointing out each others shortcomings and past mistakes becomes wearying and pointless. I challenge any person or Country to claim a spotless past. I love America. With all its warts and wrong doings I love America. And for every wrong America has done in the World it has done something right in the World.
The fact that TFG is still a free man and was very consorting with an enemy and enjoying the chanting of "Let's Go Brandon" recently is much more disheartening to me than the events of 1970's. Contrast that to there being a good man in our White House at the moment trying to right serious wrongs.
Make up hides a lot of warts, so do rewriters of history, who are on a current crusade to rival the best work of the best plastic surgeon. So much has been hid from so many for so long. Wrongs from the past keep reverberating into our future. Or as some wise person said “if we don’t heal the wounds from the past, they will bleed all over our future.”
Neither does the constant picking at scabs. We beat ourselves relentlessly and needlessly. For what reason? For what outcome? I am not advocating sugar coating anything. The America hating I see happening in these comments today is indeed troubling.
I am not sure it is hating. It may be remembering who we really are...warts and all. The whole purpose we are in this particular substack, at least for me, is to continue to learn from our history and try NOT to repeat it. My foster daughter worked for Voice of America for a few years. It is a propaganda arm of our country and was disbanded a year or so after she left. Understanding our true history and foundations makes for some rather reluctant "patriotism" that we are the best country in the world. We can be better, much better. And we can strive to undo our deeply ensconced caste system built by our founders who felt superior to others and did not literally mean "All The People." But it is the best idea and faux pas they made. When we truly accomplish inclusiveness of All The People, then I will begin to feel something akin to patriotism. Unfortunately, "patriotism" now sounds like a dirty word because of those who use it to cover their ignorance or misdeeds against others. Right up there with the tarnishing of the names "Brandon" or "Karen" these uber, traitorous days.
It reads like America hating Pensa and it is destructive. It would be helpful to stop repeating history incessantly and with such vitriol. I don't see Dr. Richardson doing that. To constantly dredge up the past at every turn seriously stokes the destructive fires of hate and aimless discontent and inhibits any moving forward. Self reflection too often wades into self flagellation. and blame. Patriotism to me is loving what is while working for what can be. I won't withhold my deep love for America until it is perfect. I love America as it is; warts, awful past and frightening present.
I did not say I do not love America and what she aspires to be. I work my ass off to make it better politically and for our youth. There is no self-flagellation here. That is why people hate and label real history as CRT and want to wear blinders. I am talking about a mature look at who we are as a country. I do not feel guilty, I feel educated and want to be realistic and use our past to make informed decisions about our future. We are both free, luckily, to have our own opinions based on what we have experienced and our ancestors. This is not about blame and guilt, it is just about reality and what has happened to our people, our Native Americans, our African Americans who were human trafficked here as slaves and all the oppression people experience here who are not white, male and powerful. We are at war, with ourselves. Our own people are terrorizing us. I feel mature, realistic, informed and empowered to stand up for our country to help it NOT repeat our past which is is already doing by destroying women's rights and carrying down the line to destroying many other people's rights. They have proclaimed that Christianity is the ONLY religion America was founded upon. B fricking S. Those who know not history are repeating it as you and I breathe, dear Barbara.
There is frequently too much doomerism and hang wringing in this forum. I do not wear blinders as to what is at stake and what can be done, but I do think blinders can also limit the view of the progress and support that exists. If we lose hope, we are lost.
Try reading the WaPo readers' comments! There's much much worse than doomerism and hand wringing there. This is the first time I've encountered anything like a dispute on this forum - which is after all Heather's.
All true, Mike. I remember Afghanistan. I have a beautiful, intricately handwoven beaded tent-hanging in my house, which I bought from a little shop in near where I worked in Central London 25 years ago. It was called "The Silk Road", and sold Afghani artefacts. The owner was Afghani, a very cultured widow. I relished my visits to her shop.
Barbara, thats what the Repubs seem to be saying about slavery & Jim Crow, the wrongs done to our indigenous people - on & on. The events of the 70s & earlier matter. Isnt that exactly what the Repubs want removed from schools? They dont want our children to be made aware of the mistakes - just pretend they never happened! That hasnt worked before so why would it going forward?
We did bite ourselves in the arse, but as with much of our international dilemmas, it seemed like a good idea at the time. The Charlie Wilson War was a shocker to me, but Reagan loved it. I even had positive vibes as Russia abandoned “ship.” No good deed goes unpunished, surprise, surprise… To me, another critical thing that happened was the murder of Massoud (9-9-2001) and the destruction of the Northern Alliance. After 9/11, we had a shot to be the good guys. I think W/Dickie took their response to the “war crimes level.” The Abu Ghraib fiasco likely fomented as much hatred as any single action, besides the idiotic war on Iraq.
How many “bad ideas” does it take to ensure the profits of weapon makers? Ensure the war machine stays primed. Make sure the gun industry stays primed. “Thar’s gold in them thar (corporate) mines!” This hideous game of power is patriarchy incarnate.
By now we have created so much hatred against the US, not only in the Muslim world, but worldwide, that we will be reaping consequences for generations.
In some ways the invasion of Ukraine mirrors our invasion of Iraq.
So. We taught Putin how to play.
1. Come up with a blatant lie easily dispelled.
2. Based on that lie invade and destroy all infrastructure and homes and killing thousands of innocent civilians.
But Mike, the vehemence of some of your comments sounds to me as if you somewhat more share that hatred than lament it. Yes, I suspect most of us here opposed our initial proxy war with the Soviets in Afghanistan, both our invasions of Iraq, and how our direct military engagement in Afghanistan was conducted. Opposed before the fact and before details of corruption and failure came out. But, while Putin uses Iraq as 'what about' spin - his Soviet Union and Russian Federation did not need the US for inspiration for military adventurism. And what is most significant about Russia's wars are their unprecedented, by a major power in relatively recent history, scorched earth devastations - in Syria, Georgia, Chechnya, and now Ukraine. And they are the only European nation, after WW2, to invade and occupy neighboring sovereign nations. Not since Nazi Germany ... this cannot be left out of any honest analysis.
And while we certainly supported Muslim extremists, we did not create them. The Saudi Wahabists had been working on that for decades. Afghanistan had held off the Saudi incursions - until the Soviets and then US arrived. I would strongly urge a close reading of F. Barth's study of political leadership among the Swat Pathan. Both his 1957 dissertation and his 1959 book are available online. When I first read the book in the late 1960's it struck me that here was a society in which men awoke each morning with the question 'who am I obliged to kill today?' Later readings gave me a greater appreciation of the delicately balanced civic and religious power sharing systems - to which centralized government was an anathema - which kept Saudi religious extremism at bay.
I am consistently in awe of the depth of your background understanding of historical references and footnotes re global politics; as if your curiosity is thirst never quenched
Add this to the collection of political disasters, Saddam kept Iran in check soooooo ……the not so bright neo cons (emphasis on the don job) convinced little bush to invade Iraq! Wow, didn’t that shit show prove that he was tougher than his dad??!!
Truly, Mike S, lying didn't start with the US or Trump. I don't want to take you back to centuries before your birth. Here's a more recent example.
'Nazi propaganda'
'Adolf Hitler is the poster boy of lies. His Nazi propaganda, based on fear and hatred, portrayed the Jewish people as the enemy of all classes of society. He used coercion, terror, and mass manipulation to brainwash people into believing his lies. Of course, the terrible aftermath of World War I, when the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh monetary and territorial reparations against Germany, and German currency inflation induced widespread poverty and unemployment, left many people desperate for solutions and primed to accept a rhetoric based on blame and hatred. Unfortunately, the lies told by Hitler and his Nazis lead to horrific consequences—the deaths of at least 17.6 million people, including the genocide of 6 million Jewish people, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.' (ReadersDigest) See link below.
Not only from Jim Crow but from Margaret Sanger. Although she took a more nuanced stance than others in the eugenics movement, "She was supported by one of the most racist authors in America in the 1920s, the Klansman[129][130] Lothrop Stoddard, who was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Sanger's American Birth Control League.[131]"
Contemporary American racist right wing religious extremists make much of this in their hypocritical bashing of Planned Parenthood - while they themselves are actually members or allied with the Klan and American Nazi groups.
And after WW2 and before the internet - American racists and anti Semites supplied German Nazis and neo Nazis with literature banned in Germany.
Are we talking W/Dickie here? Absolutely true. I still grit my teeth over the “Mission Accomplished” bull Schitt. But we didn’t have to teach Putin, Stalin already did, he just had more finesse - in the beginning.. also had a mob partner in chump. Sorry, but Helsinki comes to mind. Both had planned to never lose again.
Russia has a long history upon which Mr Putins draws, monarchies and central committe leaders included. We didn't teach him much of what he was already learning from his country's past and the actions of other combatants, America included, going back to WWI. Some of us look at the list of sins and feel a need to reconfess our failures before applauding the good and possible. Others, know the list and regret some of the sins, and choose to move forward, conscious of the lessons and cautions that knowing one's country's misteps have to guide us. Mike, you posts often give us reminder of those cautions and misteps.
Russia has a long history upon which Mr Putins draws, monarchies and central committe leaders included. We didn't teach him much of what he was already learning from his country's past and the actions of other combatants, America included, going back to WWI. Some of us look at the list of sins and feel a need to reconfess our failures before applauding the good and possible. Others, know the list and regret some of the sins, and choose to move forward, conscious of the lessons and cautions that knowing one's country's misteps have to guide us. Mike, you posts often give us reminder of those cautions and misteps.0
"Prosecutors wanted to attach penalties for terrorism to the sentencing, but Fredrich declined, sayng that would creae an “unwarranted disparity” between his sentence and those of other rioters."
Guess who appointed Fredrich to the federal bench? Yes! Donald Trump! The prosecutors ask f or 15 years for listed acts that qualify for "domestic terrorism" and the "judge" suddenly remembers who it was he bent over and spread for.
As to Zawahiri, surprise surprise, he was living in the home of the head of the Haqqani Gang, the worst drug-dealing thug terrorists in the Taliban.
As I scrolled through Facebook last night I was struck by a comment. Obama killed Osama bin Laden. Biden killed Ayman al Zawahiri. Trump tried to kill Mike Pence. Although not technically accurate, the point is well taken.
This take out went seemingly without a hitch. It's always a risky endeavor for any President to attempt this. I don't think I'm the only person in the room that read the report of this and felt relieved that there wasn't civilian loss. That detail always seems to be a talking point for any detractors.
Seems odd to me at first blush, that the Trump appointed Judge didn't go all in for the sentencing for Reffitt. Perhaps a missed opportunity?
Thank you Heather. I got the MarineTrack app and I am tracking Razoni the ship. It is supposed to go through the Bosporus strait this afternoon. A friend and I will be in position to take pictures of this historic event.
There is a chatter of how trumpski couldn’t really be prosecuted. Could he really get away with all his lies?
We live in a world of domestic and foreign political terrorism that seems to be growing worse.
We didn't create present day Russia and China. Their antipathy for western democracy and America / European economies and societies has developed over centuries. But the US has played a major part in creating antagonistic relationships with smaller nations like Cuba, Vietnam and Iran. In each case with these and other smaller nations, we drive them to collaborate with Russia and China. Once these nations develop antidemocratic governments, they are more inclined to maintain their connections to the two major antidemocratic powers.
I don't know how we break this cycle when we cannot even protect ourselves from the allegiances developing between the Republican Party and authoritarian nations like Russia and Hungary. CPAC has become a domestic terrorist organization with its political model and ties to Hungary and Russia, as CPAC promotes authoritarians in the US and converting our nation to a one party police state nation.
Well said, sir. That centuries long development of antipathy that has been created world wide seems insurmountable. I am reminded of one of my favorite movie moments of all time. The "President" addressing a small group of rag-tag pilots going to combat the alien invaders utilizing a technique developed by a computer geek and implemented using the alien technology from Area 51, and communicated world wide to all the world using morse code (Independence Day, the Original): "Mankind. That sure has a different meaning today, doesn't it?"
That just might be what it takes to get us to believe that there is no Planet B, that we are just making mountains out of molehills with our "differences", and that what we're doing ain't working.
[1] Did anyone think the Taliban was going to do anything it said it would do? Anything? They "violated" their "agreement" with TFG even before it was signed. I am totally fine with Biden doing what needs to be done and those f*ckers can howl all they like. Bite me.
[2] The fact that Putzin and his minions bombed Odessa the MOMENT the agreement brokered by Turkey had been signed should be a surprise to whom? Anyone? My fingers are crossed that the Ukrainian wheat gets through the Bosphorus and to its destination in one piece.
Here in KCMO, I am keeping fingers crossed that a legit slate of Dems crosses the primary finish line, including one of my former students (he was not in class with me but we worked together when he was president of student government and I was on the faculty senate exec committee and I consider him one of mine!) who is an amazing young man. He is also both Black and gay and his campaign has been subject to an incredible level of abuse, harassment, and outright attack. I fear for his safety but I also really hope he wins the primary for his county legislature district because I want him to be able to spit in everyone's eye. It's a long shot but my fingers are crossed. Other races are as nasty as this one, and I am worried about them too. Primary Day in Missouri. Sigh. Vote NO, Kansas.
Hooray for Joe, boohoo for Reffitt. And, like chump, Putin has never met a situation that he couldn’t make worse. It’s what they do, always…expect nothing else
Not saying I agree or disagree with the drone strike on Zawahiri, but we can bet the tit for tat events will continue for a very long time and will run the risk of inexorable escalation along the way. When you see the list of his misdeeds and his absolute intent on killing Americans wherever they may be found, it's hard to argue against it. BUT where does it end and what does the cost in loss of humanity come to? Not intending to moralize or judge this, but such things bring up questions which never seem to be addressed.
It is a conundrum, and I believe there is a "choice of evils" that has been made here. To eradicate someone who has made it his life's work to kill Americans and who helped to mastermind the attack at the WTC on 9/11 and has continued his violent ways is both tempting and demonstrating a very human tendency to wish "an eye for an eye" type of punishment. To play the long game of the potential escalation/continuing the conduct and perhaps some sort of resolution to the constant conflict in lieu of terminating an individual requires more than humans (I suspect) are willing to give or invest. To look at someone who engages in some sort of negative conduct who has retribution vested upon them, how many times will you hear "well, they sure had it coming to them, now didn't they"?
Not sure I am able to say what I intend to here (only one cuppa coffee so far) but I think that our base human nature of conflict that seems to be incubated, fostered, and displayed so frequently in our religions, there is nothing but retribution to be had.
Indeed, Ally, your raise points which belong in the discourse thqt should prevail before action follows such events as the drone strike on Zawahiri. I am not a pacifist but troubled by what I feel is a lack of deep investigation into what is right and what is not right when dealing out what amount to judgements in actions that can't be undone and which often have unintended consequences.
I wish I had seen your comment before I wrote my own question about this killing in a separate post. It troubled me with Bin Laden and it troubles me with Zawahiri. I found an article on why it's "legal" but I couldn't say why. So I will hold your question "Where does it end?" as part of my concern.
At some point it is revenge and retribution not prevention of future acts of retribution. At that point will there be a person who stops for a moment to think?
Congratulations, Professor, on your induction to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is well deserved, and you join your rightful place in history alongside Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Einstein, and Joan Baez, and a select few key figures (only 261 folks is it since 1780?) MAZEL TOV! (And, we can say we knew you when!)
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/humanities/history/heather-cox-richardson-elected-to-aaas.html
Thank you, Alex, for highlighting this excellent news! Next up, the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
Alex G., thank you for sharing news of Professor Richardson’s prestigious induction into the AAAS. Such a well earned honor! ❤️
Yes! Congratulations to HCR. The Founders would have been proud to have her within the Academy. Alex, there have been many illustrious members. You can see a complete list or search for members here: https://www.amacad.org/directory
And...after reading of Heather's nomination, I took a deep dive into one of the Academy's projects. The recommendations released in "Our Common Purpose" are absolutely brilliant. They are part of a comprehensive plan to rebuild our democracy. I wrote about this with reverence and appreciation:
https://billalstrom.substack.com/p/the-best-defense-is-a-good-offense
Refresh and return to the fight for Democracy.
Excellent, Bill. Thank you.
🗽
Here are some recent wam bams from Politics Girl during past week. https://youtu.be/Eu_Jirk5zdw https://youtu.be/tpsVq5-ZQN0
🗽
Thank You! I will pass this along.
Thank you Bill. “Our Common Purpose”!especially supportive of engaging young people in civic engagement to become informed citizens and active participants.!
Bill, thank you for posting the '... 31 recommendations for strengthening democracy in the report Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century. They included reform to political institutions, investment in civil society, and transforming our political culture. Learn more about the people and the process that produced Our Common Purpose here.
'Here is a condensed version of the “Common Purpose Action Plan”. Read this and become hopeful!'
Cheers to you and to 'Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century'! Thanks.
Thank you, Bill. Your plain speak is very helpful to me!
Nicely done.
Thank you for this. I really liked your article and am so glad to learn about "Our Common Purpose." Many of the recommendations make lots of sense, particularly civic education dedicated to learning from and including voices not usually heard. The fuller, richer story of America, including hopes for the future, is both compelling and really interesting. It would make history come alive. Thank you again.
The "history" I encountered in K-12 public school in the 1950s and '60s was largely a blend of mythology (I was told, for example, that Columbus was the very first person to realize the world is round), nationalistic propaganda, and mind-numbing lists of disembodied names and dates. I vastly preferred the arts and sciences.
Then gradually realized the real history IS both an art and a science. A science to the extent it can be based and reconciled by evidence, and an art to the degree is provides a visceral sense of continuity with generations past, who for better and worse contributed to building of the "now" we experience today, and also anchors our best educated guess to what may yet unfold in the future, with and without our influence. Like cosmology and paleontology, history attempts to show us how our "now" came to be.
And as in science, the more faithful to evidence we are, the more useful (and less toxic) our narrative becomes. One can only speculate about the understanding carried by the fellow who said he was a “f*ck*ng idiot” who was parroting “founding fathers and stupid sh*t like that" who has yet to realize that he is being had.
I always loved science and came to history to later. I was lucky to have a female Brit for world history, but after that it was coaches....I do know some coaches who know their stuff, but so many of them have or had their heads in their jock strap. I love your explanation of real history adding to it paleontology and cosmology.
They used to call it "natural history". The whole shebang is the Big Bang unfolding and interacting along the way. We are no less a part of it than a toad or a rose bush. If we get too much in nature's way, then we'll be history; but if we pay attention closely enough we get to use what nature teaches to make microprocessors and mRNA vaccines. We gotta pay attention to stay on her good side.
I am looking at pics from the Webb which are truly amazing. I agree that we are a part of universe. I hope we are paying attention, but it doesn't seem like it.
Congratulations!
Well deserved and thank you for keeping us sane over the past several years with words of truth and honesty
Esteemed company. Thank you for highlight, Alex.
Sincere congratulations, Professor Richardson. So well deserved.
🗽
Thank you for sharing the link to announcement of Prof. Richardson. Induction into AAAS.
Congratulations Heather!!!
Thank you Alex, I did not know this! Congratulations to our dear Professor who is in quite amazing company of 261 new members, including Buffy Sainte-Marie and Salman Rushdie! It's very exciting to be a member of your community, and play a tiny part in spreading your wisdom.
And just in case I'm not the only one is this community who really didn't know much at all about the Academy. From its website, it "was founded in 1780, during the American Revolution, by John Adams, John Hancock, and 60 other scholar-patriots who understood that a new republic would require institutions able to gather knowledge and advance learning in service to the public good." So this makes me wonder how all of this wisdom is getting out to the general public. Maybe it would reduce the number of folks who can be duped by "disinformation."
It may just be me, but "wisdom" is a term I don't "hear" very often. It seems to me that pinning down what wisdom is is a bit mercurial, but it seems to me it has something to do with broad and deep perspective, and knowing "what matters" as well as what is reasonably accurate. Agreeing on what matters gets complicated fast, but it seems to me that focused thought in an open mind may produce different answers than what might occur to one casually, with minimal effort. "Wisdom" is often associated with age, but "from the mouths of babes" stunningly fundamental truths may emerge. There is more wisdom in a fingernail trimming from teenage Greta Thunberg than from the sum of 76-year-old Donald Trump. Who has never been fooled? Yet I would think aspirations for gaining wisdom would likely be protective against being easily duped by "disinformation". Especially nonsensical disinformation.
Thank you for this powerful expansion of my thoughts! I've been using the word "wisdom" to mean something deeper than "general knowledge., inspiring some kind of caring." Your description is perfect "it has something to do with broad and deep perspective, and knowing "what matters" as well as what is reasonably accurate." And I couldn't agree more about the variety (and sometimes surprise!) of sources. When my grown-up granddaughter was merely 10 years old, and I was deep into my struggle with an eating disorder, she wrote me a note, "Remember, chocolate is not love. I love you." Talk about "out of the mouths of babes"!
Here's where I think the challenge lies. To quote your wisdom, "aspirations for gaining wisdom would likely be protective against being easily duped by "disinformation". Especially nonsensical disinformation." I think you are correct. So my question is, how do we inspire this "aspiration for gaining wisdom" in the minds and hearts of "everyday people," (thank you Sly and the Family Stone) who are not necessarily "scholarly" folks but who could be moved by truth? Blessings,
I'm attracted to "scholarly" wisdom (like that of Dr. Richardson) because it is easier to cover territory stringing together established chunks of thought (citing, for example, "Occam's Razor" or salient historical events) to those who are likely to have already attached shared meanings to them, but that's just one way of doing business. In fact I think an over-reliance on "book learning" can sometimes get in the way. We may recite like parrots, but I think the utility of books lies in the degree we incorporate lessons they may contain into automatic, everyday thinking; the internal experience of sentient creatures. I think that is what Einstein was getting at when he said, “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” I think that roughly reveals the union between the sciences and the arts, but in any case, (I never quite bought Descartes' argument), but still oversimplifying, I think that I feel, therefore I am. But thinking of some sort is key to knowing thyself and to successfully negotiating our environment.
Again, addressing one somewhat nebulous and subjective thing with another, I suspect that central to "wisdom" is knowing "what matters" which I think takes awareness of context and a certain amount of discipline, and I believe that the "school of hard knocks" may teach important parts of that that may not show up in the curricula of universities.
Happy to pile on hearty congratulations for
Professor Richardson’s well deserved distinction! Thank you for bringing us this news. Professor Heather -Cox Richardson, a shining light among us.
Piling on with my congratulations, Professor! Brava!
Mine also. Professor Richardson deserves accolades and this one is especially notable. Congrats.
Wow, yes, congratulations!!!!
Absolutely!
So richly deserved!! great news. Mazel tov!!
Wonderful and well deserved! Congratulations sister Prof. Heather!
Congratulations! Very well-deserved.
This is wonderful news! Congratulations and well deserved. A very bright spot indeed.
Yes that is wonderful news!
However, it is only 99 days away from saving American democracy!!!!!
If Democrats actually expect to defeat even just one republican candidate, or incumbent, or republican sponsored legislation this November…
THEN
All Democrats
MUST
Begin to
FIGHT FIRE WITH EVEN BRIGHTER BURNING FIRE!!!
Here is a FACT to consider in direct refutation of republican lies:
Joe Trippi is a well-known benevolent Democrat strategist who has a wonderful podcast one of which is cited below. Here Trippi highlights the fact that when the enough concerned registered American voters vote for Democrats:
Then:
(1). All Americans will have their freedom of reproductive choice,
(2). All Americans will have their freedom to vote,
(3). All Americans will have their freedom to marry whom they want, and many other freedoms as well…
(4). Plus, all Americans will have inflation.
However!
If enough Americans are again fooled by republican lies, (as a lot have been in the past), into voting for republicans, then:
(1). All American people will have none of their freedoms, (Nos. 1-3), previously guaranteed by the Democrats’ defense of the American Constitution while maintaining their control of Congress.
AND
All Americans will still have the inflation exacerbated by the anti-democratic republican blockage of Democratic proposed relief legislation…
See:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/traditional-political-physics-need-not-apply/id1523896927?i=1000571526879
Thanks for this. Unfortunately, I can't sign into the podcast. Cheers. Susan
On a completely different note, Georgia's "Fetal Heartbeat" law went into effect this week, officially known by the rather tortured name, the "Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act." (Ga House Bill 481). On it's surface, it does several remarkable things, like according legal rights to a "person" as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detectable, usually around 6 weeks pregnancy, and makes it illegal to abort that fetus without a strong showing of evidence that the mother's life would be ended or majorly destroyed if the pregnancy were allowed to continue. (Mental health issues are excluded.)
Interestingly, the law specifically permits the unborn child to be used as a tax deduction, beginning with that heartbeat detection. There is no requirement that the pregnancy result in a live birth.
Hmm.
This means that a pregnant wealthy person in Georgia can simply get an ultrasound demonstrating a fetal heartbeat, fly to a more enlightened state for an abortion, then file for a tax deduction. The deduction would defray the cost of travel and, for even higher income brackets, may even pay for the procedure and result in a profit.
https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20192020/184245
In other words, it's a perfect example of a Republican bill -- it gives tax money to rich people and reeks of hypocrisy! What's not to love? I'd love to hear what folks on this board think of this.
Any references to these laws' language of "detectable heartbeat" need to be called out to educate readers that the ultrasound is detecting not the beat of a functioning heart, but electrical impulses of not yet differentiated cells.
Furthermore, this developing group of cells is called an embryo, and in the 8th week of pregnancy, is called a fetus until birth.
https://www.livescience.com/65501-fetal-heartbeat-at-6-weeks-explained.html
Thanks Ellie for making this clear. These radical reactionaries pretend there is a heartbeat when there is no heart. They pretend that their sectarian religious/political beliefs about the timing of the beginning of life are objective science. They pretend an embryo is an infant. And then they have no interest in the living conditions of actual, living, breathing infants.
No, they don't. This is only a vote getting maneuver and then no votes for helping out the born human beings. And they wonder why many people find their "Christianity" so repulsive. I am still trying to find a reference to abortion in the NT. Ha...computer wanted to make this the NYT.
Michele
It seems your well-meaning description of who "...they..." are might be miss placed...
These republicans ARE NOT Christians
"they" do not possess a Holy Bible
but "they" are, themselves, possessed by the Great Deceiver
Christians are about Love
Love of all GOD's creations, even their enemy's, which is not always very easy to do...which one reason Christians pray for everyone to become the love of CHRIST to everyone.
I think you misread me. I have Christianity in quotes because the people I am talking about claim to be Christians, but they have not a whit of idea of what Christ taught. They are about hate, not love. This Sunday the River Church is bringing its hatred once again to Riverside Park here in Salem. They will be spewing their hatred all over downtown Salem. So I think we agree they are hypocrites. I do know some people who do understand and their faith provides a structure for their social views.
Michele:
Please forgive me for not realizing that you had Christianity in quotes, I apologize for my unintentional yet my actual oversight.
"I do know some people who do understand and their faith provides a structure for their social views."
And
now because of your strength of faith...I have also become one of those people who understands your love in CHRIST!
Thank you!!
Agree.
Pretend!?
NO WAY, Joan Friedman...
republicans
lie, lie, lie, and lie even more for evermore they LIE!
Thanks , Ellie, for this well-known biological, but little understood and/or accepted by right-wing politicians, fact. The gaping hole in US education and respect for it has widened into a bottomless pit.
Yes, and our ability to think and to stand up for ourselves declines as we lose the tools and the training for critical thinking.
The "gaping hole in US education" is not just happenstance, but direct targeting by reactionary Republicans taking from the playbook of autocracy. It's what Hitler and Putin have done.
A "heart" is not a well-developed organ until 20 weeks. By the Georgia definition, an earthworm has a "heart."
Zygote warriors don’t care
Thanks so that clarification, Ellie.
Bam. Thank you, Ellie.
🗽
All of this brings us back to the question: What are we measuring? It’s not VIABILITY. Potential for viability? Even a virus has that. And if a fatal anomaly is detected, then that fetus doesn’t have viability, but it does have the potential for harm to the mother. That would be the opposite of viability.
How many angels dance on the head of a pin? This is a question evangelical-minded fascists should answer FIRST, before they attempt to practice medicine.
Sadly, medicine has nothing to do with it. The whole point here is to grind women into subservience. Women dying due to men’s superior power is not a bug in this system. It’s a central feature.
Thank you, Ellie. I totally agree people need to understand this!!!
Absolute proof
republicans are
stupid
ignorant
uneducated
deceptive
cunning
evil
incredibly greedy
or
blatant liars
or
ALL OF THE ABOVE, AND THEN SOME, Eh!?
Doppler US shows the beating of the heart and the blood flow.
It actually shows what’s called the cardiac bundle, so it can look like a blip. The blood flow is the woman’s through the placenta.
Exactly. Thank You.
Citizen60
Wonderful information!
Thank you
Not a heart at that point.
Great analysis showing the poor analytical thinking behind the New GA law.
But, then again, Americans also believed that if we cut taxes on the rich, the government would reap higher tax receipts as a result.
Otherwise known as voodoo economics.
So. Any Republican bit of BS fed to Americans will be: lapped up like kittens lap up warm milk.
How anti-American can you get? You paint all Americans as the same. Many Americans know that they have been robbed by a system that favors the rich and we are trying to change that. Most Americans did not fall for 'voodoo' economics' and all white men are not the same, just as all Hispanic men, all Asian men, etc., aren't the same. Your slogan has been 'the problem with America is the Americans'. We are very divided and much of the deepening of that and the growth of hatred has been fueled by self-seeking autocrats. White supremacy has been a serious problem in America for centuries and not here alone. Scapegoating is a common form of manipulation/propaganda. There is a wealth of world history along these lines. It is a old story. We have a great deal to do in this country on many levels. 'The problem with America is the Americans' is to smear us all.
fHi, Fern and Mike, I'm going to jump in with a slightly different "read" of Mike's comment. I read his long comment not at all as anti-American, exactly the opposite. Maybe because it's my particular hobby horse. I read it as a challenge to his fellow Americans to examine our own part in the horror show that is our reality. I always end up referring to the 1971 Pogo cartoon, "We have met the enemy and he is us." I could be wrong, but my reaction to Mike's comment was a kind of, "YES!!" If Mike doesn't really mean all Americans--which it obviously can't be just realistically and literally--then I guess maybe my way of reading his comment is as a call to arms in the difficult work of digging out the darkness, not in each and every one of us necessarily but in the culture that we've all had a hand in creating even by doing nothing.
And I'm going to stop before I offend both of you. This exchange between you is important exactly to the extent that it makes us think. Thank you both
Dean Robertson,
Thanks for your response. Your response is much more intelligent and intelligible than my writing, no doubt.
It is true that I don't mean all Americans, however, there are more than enough Americans in the "enemy of Democracy" camp, and, have always been enough Americans in that camp, to prevent equal opportunity for all in work, voting, education, housing, land ownership, and a host of things I don't want to write.
I am an interesting product of America: Mexican Dad, White Anglo Mom (Red Head). They met, fell in love and married in 1959 when, in Texas, that was not acceptable.
They raised me unbiased against all people and showed kindness to all people themselves.
Since I am light skinned, I WAS accorded some opportunity in America, and was hired after engineering school. But, I went seven years without a raise in that job and, I felt, my work was often better than others.
Eventually, I concluded that the only people ever promoted were tall white guys, often as dumb as a stump, and I resigned.
Further, in my 38 year career as an engineer, I saw hundreds of poorly qualified whites get jobs, and, only THREE black engineers. ALL THREE suffered from comments of "affirmative action" even though they were much more highly qualified than most whites hired.
Also, MANY whites were hired by their parents because their grades were not good enough to be competitive. It was this observation that led me to conclude that affirmative action in America is reallyf or white men.
It is unfortunate that "affirmative action", mostly applied to white men, has been associated with the very few blacks that are hired, all of whom are highly qualified since there are NO parents working to hire them.
At any rate, my experiences in America are VERY different than the majority of those on this reflector with Dr. Richardson.
My comments reflect that and have angered folks.
Hence, I have resigned participation in the board. It was wasting too much time anyway.
Again, thanks for your more positive reading of my comments.
Mike
Mike, I'm going to argue with your statement that my writing is more intelligent and intelligible. Wow. You've said it exactly like it needs to be said--and needs to be said on every street corner in this country. Your story makes several things clear, starting with the fact that this isn't a Donald Trump problem so much as it is an America problem. We seem to be especially good at finding scapegoats and Trump is a master at doing that in the crudest and most blatant ways. He's about as awful as can be but the real monsters are the thinkers and planners and bankrollers of the status quo. As you say, "affirmative action in America is really for white men." I read something recently that got my attention--that the system in America isn't "broken." It's working exactly as it was designed to work.
Again, thank you for your comments.
Fern,
The problem with America is Americans is, well, like all one sentence statements, partly true.
It was Americans who voted for Donald Trump.
It is Americans that believe the 2020 election was/is stolen.
It was Americans who voted twice for Ronald Reagan and once for Richard Nixon and twice for W.
Using one sentence is both accurate and incomplete.
But. Using one sentence is useful. It states a truth in a way that is stark.
It got your attention.
The problem with America is Americans is indeed an accurate smear. One that Europeans have used for decades.
I try to scroll by your comments as quickly as possible as they appear to comprise a repetitive dumping ground to me. The few times that I stop to make a factual correction or share a perspective, you always respond with the same rational. I only hear one note. If you think focusing on a group and making an ugly generalization about the whole county based on that group states the 'truth' when it is prejudicial -- it's very easy for some to criticize others for lacking critical thinking.
Fern.
The good thing about diversity is we all think differently.
I think, quite honestly, that the problem with America is Americans.
Sure. HCR is an American. So is Barack Obama. But.
Those well educated, thoughtful people are outliers.
Thank you for responding, Mike S. Your comments have reflected what you think of the country and the American people. It is good that you are comfortable here and share your ideas. Many subscribers like what you have to say. I remember how we befriended each other when you began on the forum. This communication between us has been awkward, but I am leaving it with better understanding and warm regards for you. Salud.
Excellent point, Fern... thank you for pointing this out. Reducing us all to a unified group (grossly inaccurate!) under one label doesn't serve us. Certainly doesn't help us figure out viable solutions to our mess.
Thank you, Suz. I have waited months before responding to Mike S. with what I have thought about for quite awhile. Many have suffered greatly and continue to in this country. This may be the safe ground for some of us to unload long held grievances. All of us have been going through tough times in various ways. It felt as though it was time to address Mike S. directly about his generalizations and negativity. Unfortunately, we seem unable to find a bridge.
Oh!
Fern, Fern, Fern, Sheeesh, again Fern!
I have, yet again, waded through the coagulated muck of your cleverly snarky self-righteousness of your smug generalizations and self-proclaimed negativities, (in which you indeed revel in), in describing your judgments about others...
Who made you the judge, jury, and executioner herein, huh?
So, you have been sneaking around hiding in the weedy murky swamp of your pitiful jealousy just waiting for what you have determined is the best moment in time to pounce upon Mike, have you, Eh!?
Try to be nice, Eh!?
Just like me..........
Only some, you surely mean.
"Only some..."
Pat
Some of what?
In re to blanket statements that Americans lap up "voodoo economics'" et al. This American and others never fell for such faulty B.S. As stated in various posts, there are too many people either unwilling (lazy, incapable of seeing past their noses) or educationally unable (lacking critical thinking skills) to research behind such faulty statements/reasoning.
so, Pat, what is the point you are attempting to convey????
Mike
Please excuse my unintentional repetitiveness
However....
If Democrats actually expect to defeat even just one republican candidate, or incumbent, or republican sponsored legislation this November…
THEN
All Democrats
MUST
Begin to
FIGHT FIRE WITH EVEN BRIGHTER BURNING FIRE!!!
Here is a FACT to consider in direct refutation of republican lies:
Joe Trippi is a well-known benevolent Democrat strategist who has a wonderful podcast one of which is cited below. Here Trippi highlights the fact that when the enough concerned registered American voters vote for Democrats:
Then:
(1). All Americans will have their freedom of reproductive choice,
(2). All Americans will have their freedom to vote,
(3). All Americans will have their freedom to marry whom they want, and many other freedoms as well…
(4). Plus, all Americans will have inflation.
However!
If enough Americans are again fooled by republican lies, (as a lot have been in the past), into voting for republicans, then:
(1). All American people will have none of their freedoms, (Nos. 1-3), previously guaranteed by the Democrats’ defense of the American Constitution while maintaining their control of Congress.
AND
All Americans will still have the inflation exacerbated by the anti-democratic republican blockage of Democratic proposed relief legislation…
See:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/traditional-political-physics-need-not-apply/id1523896927?i=1000571526879
Does the bill indicate whether the unborn are to be counted at census time.
It tries. "[A]n unborn child, at any stage of development...shall be included in state population based determinations." (Lines 131-133) That probably wouldn't affect federal census, but would afffect anything the state government controls.
But they really don't know what it does. For instance, it should have an impact on child support determinations, in that a pregnant woman would be able to seek child support regardless of whether the pregnancy results in a live birth.
This is coming out on almost the same day that the Atlanta Music Midtown Festival, a long time public festival that showcased talent of all genres, was cancelled because, being held in a public park, the promoters learned that they would be unable to exclude firearms from the audience. Since no sane entertainer would be willing to stand on a stage under a spotlight in front of a crowd of armed Republicans, they had to cancel the whole thing.
Dick, This is better than I could have imagined. Do we have at least a year's worth of Saturday Night Live material?
SNL...get er onto U-Tube so I can watch it. I hope it's as entertaining as All in the family, was.
I'm waiting until Georgia decides all embryos and fetuses would cast a vote for their lives, thus their votes will count in a referendum opposing abortion.
I hope Stacy Abrams really goes into all this! That is incredible! Of course, this seems to be aimed particularly at wealthy women as I'm sad to say poorer women wouldn't benefit as much from the tax credit, or the ability to travel outside of the state. And probably wouldn't know about the census as politicians are so good at hiding some things from those who could really benefit.
The child support issues is going to be interesting to say the least...
Tax deductible college investments, claimed as a Dependent on taxes and increased EITC, Congressional districting—oh the places this will go!
Citizen60
Gerrymandering....
Lobbying....
Eeeek!
💔
Oh my. I can see this happening all over. The party of death strikes again.
Counted no doubt, as more than 5/8 of an adult voter for our Proprietors' purposes. Nevertheless, since said Proprietors' compassion seems to be reserved for their own successful spermatozoa, their overriding concern will remain unchanged: that neither the unborn, the children nor those who make it to adulthood should ever be entitled to a meaningful vote.
…all depending on which side of the color line.
Whoaaa.. what colour is that fetus anyway. Do test-tube embryos count?
The scams go on! It is breathtaking (and heartbreaking) that a law like this can even be considered. On so many levels, it is wrong, wrong, wrong. The fact that mental health issues are excluded is so completely revolting, I don’t even know what to say. Forget about the right to choose, the tax grift of this law is beyond everything I have seen. Thanks for educating us. Now, I need to go fix a stiff drink……
Yeh.. me too. When our imaginations result in science, adults will consider it as such. When imaginations dissolve into creationism, the adult factor goes away in favor the the book with no author. It's too late.. I'll just have some yogurt.
The "Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act." Will English language, law and medical dictionaries need to add a new entry to acknowledge Georgia’s newly contorted definition of “infant”? And if they do, what will be the implications to the term “fetus”?
A fetus is not viable person. Also, many women, and GIRLS, do not know they are even pregnant until they have missed a few periods, which for some can be so sporadic, they cannot chart them or do not even understand the normal 28 day cycle because they are too young. So, it is unfair to make laws based upon such cruelty to females. MEN are the ones who need to be challenged and responsible for every fricking, "sacred" sperm they produce. Or be responsible and start shooting blanks. Get the metaphor for guns, here? Hear?
We crossed the CT River today into New Hampshire to kayak and explore one of their many pristine lakes. What we heard, instead of the loons, was practicing shooting rapid fire guns that echoed all around the lake. It is incredibly disturbing and the birds looked distressed. It went on for at least 45 mins. and made looking for loons and beavers completely marred by "Live Free or Die" on what otherwise would have been a lovely, relaxing Sunday. Why is one person's rights allowed to disturb many other people's, animals and the sanctity of nature's rights in the middle of summer? I understand a few target practices, but the amount of ammunition used up was ridiculous besides traumatizing living in a world full of massacres.
The ME people. Is there a Noise Ordinance? Would a cop want to even endanger him or herself to enforce it?
Am hoping we can evolve to a point where those of us who want a peaceful world can ascend to some parallel universe and leave the others in their alt reality of let's power over everything and kill it. Then we can have safe music festivals, theaters, markets, attend churches or synagogues of our choice, go to school walk, and walk down the street freely, and without fear. And paddle on a beautiful lake without being reminded of self-absorbed supremacist politics, dark power, dark money and assault weapons. Loonier than real loons.
That is SO disturbing… I also want to express my outrage this week from an ad I got via email to buy assault rifles ….. it featured many different styles of weapons and had all kinds of patriotic marketing gimmicks. I was so outraged about it and to unsubscribe you had to put in all of your personal info and send them a response!!!! How in the heck could I have gotten on a mailing list like that? So disturbing and shows just how easy these guns are to obtain! 🤯
Check your privacy settings on your phone, tablet, computer, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you have Alexa or Siri, check those also. Then report unwanted emails as spam.
I have started popping trash like this back in the mailbox with a "return to sender" message. I have no idea where it ends up but am hopeful the "sender" gets the message.
Good idea. My point was that the idea of privacy in terms of personal conversation in a room that has a phone in it is gone.
I sometimes look up organizations to find out about their bias. Then I get all sorts of religious crap, gun ads, and R ads. At least I think that's what happened.
Same for me.
I’ve not experienced that same thing butHAVE noted more and more marketing intrusions online following personal discussions of products or issues with friends. These discussions are either in real time and space or over the cell phone. Very creepy. Many friends have noticed as well. A friend in France has the same experience.very Big Brother. I first noticed this several years ago after a NYC subway ride discussing a pair of shoes a fellow passenger was wearing. When I surfaced out of the subway there was an e-mail( at that time more frequent) announcing a special sale for those shoes! Fit Flops. Since then( at least 8 years ago), these” coincidences have become MUch More frequent.
I have been in discussion as well with someone about a particular topic only to have it appear in my email. Yes. Big Brother and the algorithms are watching And Listening. Creepy.
Oh, gawd. That IS so disturbing. Gunmakers are responsible for this-- and we need to put huge pressure on them. These are weapons of mass destruction...not self-protection or hunting guns. They need loud voices screaming at them and to pay for every massacre that occurs in our country.
Meanwhile, I've just read the renter's manual at my humble apartment building which forbids smoking, candles, carts and wheelchairs left outside our apartments, etc.— all for the purpose of health and safety as our aging minds wander and are no longer so careful. BUT legally there can be no prohibition on gun possession because of law. Now there's a worry I wasn't counting on as I age.
Yep, and guns are not a problem in the hands of the ailing or possibly those with dementia.
This is so totally disturbing.
I agree! As if loons and other wildlife aren’t stressed enough.
This also happened to us when we were visiting a local park. Target practice across the river. This can also start fires.
You also raise an interesting point about the fluidity of state borders, like kayaking across an invisible state line and fascist Republicans trying to prevent pregnant women from leaving their state.
Wonder if the sperm donor has to start his child support then.
Does anyone know if that woman in Texas won her case, that her 8-month fetus should count as a passenger and allow her to use the multi-passenger highway lane?
So far, no. The highway driving laws apparently state it must be a person sitting in the passenger or back seat of the car.
So, fetus in the belly does not count.
Not in the driving laws. She should appeal on the disparity between the State’s law and driving law.
Brava!!
I laughed so long and hard that I started cough. Read your comment again … I've gotta get away from you.
No joke: the Unborn Child Support Act:
"The new bill, introduced on July 13 in both the Senate and House, is called the Unborn Child Support Act, and would amend the Social Security Act 'to give mothers the ability to receive child support payments while they are pregnant...' The bill would work by amending the Social Security Act, which requires states to manage a public child support system that oversees issues such as determining paternity and collecting child support.
Under the proposal, a court could award child support payments prior to birth and retroactively to the point of conception, as determined by a doctor, according to the statement. It also wouldn't require women to ask for child support if they don't want the prospective father's involvement. Paternity tests would be up to the prospective mother, according to the statement.
The bill is co-sponsored by a number of Republican lawmakers, including Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Marco Rubio of Florida."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-support-from-conception-unborn-child-support-act-gop/
But of course, also no joke: West Virginia Republican who introduced a bill to get rid of child support so men won't pressure women into getting an abortion:
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1553773183697829893?s=20&t=VoIcE3MAiASci2-TVuUt2g
"But of course, also no joke: West Virginia Republican who introduced a bill to get rid of child support so men won't pressure women into getting an abortion:"
Or murder her. It's no coincidence that men have murdered wives, girlfriends, and children more frequently since the advent of DNA testing for paternity. (I think it began in the Clinton administration as an accommodation to cutting back on welfare for women and children.)
Twilight zone stuff
Ahhhhh!! Love that!! Brilliant, Ally!
Dystopia.
The Disunited States of Dystopia.
As these GOPholks keep telling us (when wearing their Guncultists' persona with its armored 10 gallon hat and deaths-head rictus mask) there is a Big Mental Health Crisis in America...
They can say that again...
Politics as Psychosis.
Politician Psychopaths.
Invest in straitjackets.
Secure padded cells...
And our tortured, stressed, and feeble IRS is going to keep track of in utero fetuses now???
…easier than auditing the rich.
Good call, Fern!
Brava!
How many years can you include this imaginary "baby" on your taxes?
And who will claim the fetal deduction?? Birth parent or adoptive parent ??
....or rapist? blecch...sorry.
Sadly, your comment has validity as some of these laws seek to grant rights to a a rapist and family…
https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-abortion-laws-give-rapists-more-rights-than-pregnant-women-2022-5
Sadly, true.
LOL!
Just in case you missed my message located somewhere else in the plethora of all other comments....
If Democrats actually expect to defeat even just one republican candidate, or incumbent, or republican sponsored legislation this November…
THEN
All Democrats
MUST
Begin to
FIGHT FIRE WITH EVEN BRIGHTER BURNING FIRE!!!
Here is a FACT to consider in direct refutation of republican lies:
Joe Trippi is a well-known benevolent Democrat strategist who has a wonderful podcast one of which is cited below. Here Trippi highlights the fact that when the enough concerned registered American voters vote for Democrats:
Then:
(1). All Americans will have their freedom of reproductive choice,
(2). All Americans will have their freedom to vote,
(3). All Americans will have their freedom to marry whom they want, and many other freedoms as well…
(4). Plus, all Americans will have inflation.
However!
If enough Americans are again fooled by republican lies, (as a lot have been in the past), into voting for republicans, then:
(1). All American people will have none of their freedoms, (Nos. 1-3), previously guaranteed by the Democrats’ defense of the American Constitution while maintaining their control of Congress.
AND
All Americans will still have the inflation exacerbated by the anti-democratic republican blockage of Democratic proposed relief legislation…
See:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/traditional-political-physics-need-not-apply/id1523896927?i=1000571526879
Joe Trippi has the argument for Democrats, David Pepper has the argument for Democrats to focus on state legislatures, and The States Project has the argument and HOW TO ACT for majority-making state legislatures (see Giving Circles):
https://statesproject.org/why-states-matter/
Ellie Kona
WOW!
Thank you...
Lots more for me to study
Thank you
The wealthy will be able to subvert the system as usual. Yes, it reeks in every way possible. A tax deduction for electrical impulses....puke.
Really ? Why would any sentient Georgia woman do that ? I think we are all disappearing down some conspiratorial rabbit hole.
They are trying to disappear us as in the the past, except for three functions: domestic, sexual and procreation.
Just when you think there can be nothing else outrageous in the bizarro world of Republicans... An acclaimed novelist couldn't conjure up this plot twist. And then to read Ellie's post below that there is no actual beating heartbeat at this stage of pregnancy.
I do wonder what the IRS will have to say about this tax deduction. Or does it just involve Georgia taxes?
Just Georgia taxes, as far as I can tell. Remember, part of that weird tax "reform" that the Trump admin passed took away the federal deduction for state taxes, so I don't think there's any interaction between the two.
Thanks. That makes sense. I very painfully remember Trump taking away the deduction for state income taxes because ours are very high here in Oregon.
Just posted in another thread, the the Unborn Child Support Act to amend the Social Security Act (wonder what the other Repubs who want to get rid of it have to say):
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-support-from-conception-unborn-child-support-act-gop/
West Virginia Republican who introduced a bill to get rid of child support so men won't pressure women into getting an abortion:
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1553773183697829893?s=20&t=VoIcE3MAiASci2-TVuUt2g
The “tax deduction” is a Georgia state tax deduction, not at federal level, right?
Correct. Perhaps they can rename the bill, the "Rich Person Abortion Reimbursement Act."
So does this mean that in cases of rape and incest the inseminator is awarded a tax credit?
Obviously, the people who wrote these laws haven't thought through the likely results. This is as icky as it gets.
"Tonight, President Joe Biden announced that a drone strike managed by the Central Intelligence Agency at 9:48 Eastern time on Saturday killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri...There were no civilian casualties."
This is an incredible achievement for this administration. It must not be downplayed. Thanks, Heather.
The "opposition" will be silent when their sense of patriotism should be stirred. Why would they give President Biden credit for this when they barely acknowledged President Obama's successful elimination of Osama bin Laden?
The GQP has moved from partisanship to rebellion and hope to undermine - not unify and support their own government.
So yes. We should shout it from the roof tops. Notice that this was a surgical precision operation. Just the target taken out. "Well done" is an understatement. Compare that with Russia's sledge hammers and wrecking balls.
" the precision strike..."
Daria after the massacre of Israeli Olympians in 1972, mossad hunted down to kill the murderers. One mistake in Norway, but hunted down the other assassins
Kudos to Biden and to obama for bin Laden
An eye for an eye and kill those murdering bastards.
I have professional experience in the 'intelligence game.' It's like playing a puzzle with no clear shape. I found it both an art and a data science.
Several of my greatest successes came from bold gut instinct conclusions. My bigest failure was from complacent analysis.
The game's afoot Sherlock.
I (and some others) believe that my ‘gut instincts’ saved hundreds of foreign lives during the Congo foreign hostage crisis in 1964.
We got the bastard, they should all know that we will never forget, my only wish was that it didn’t happen so quickly, I would have preferred that it take as long as it took for the innocents in the twin towers to perish, and maybe happen over and over again in memory of each and every one of them. If there is a hell, may he rot there for eternity.
Seriously agree, Daria.
🗽
I'm a little nervous to ask this, but I didn't have a community to ask after Bin Laden was killed so I'm going to ask it now. Why is it morally ok to kill someone for their heinous crimes rather than capture and try them? I want to be happy and cheer for this, but I can't yet. Wasn't "an eye for an eye" from the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the Code of Hammurabi originally an attempt to keep folks from randomly retaliating for harm done? I found an article about why Bin Laden's killing was legal, but I didn't completely understand. Is it something about rules of war being different with terrorist groups when we're not on a battle field? I would really appreciate hearing thoughts on this. Thank you! https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/2019/01/31/yes-the-raid-that-killed-osama-bin-laden-was-lawful/
Chaplain Terry You raise an excellent point of morality. Is it moral to kill someone apparently guilty of a heinous crime rather than capture them and subject them to the judicial process?
In an ideal world, this should be so. In testimony before the Church Committee there was evidence that America (CIA) considered the assassination of Joseph Lumumba and there were up-to-28 initiatives to assassinate Fidel Castro. Personally I consider both of these absolutely wrong. In contrast, I support the June 22, 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler done by Germans.
Guantanamo, for me, is an example of justice gone astray. Black locales,waterboarding, and the absence of a credible (military) judicial system render this a political facade that was neither just nor legal.
What to do with international killers who seem beyond the normal judicial process? Even the International Court of Justice is severely limited in whom it can indict and try. With bin Laden, I personally approve of the dangerous military intervention to kill the leader of al Quada. From what I know of the al Quada leader who President Biden had droned and killed, do you imagine any scenario where this killer could be indicted and tried?
Morality is a vexing issue. Was it ‘moral’ to fire bomb Dresden and Tokyo? Is it ‘moral’ for Putin to destroy entire Ukrainian cities and target civilians? Personally, I believe that Truman’s decision to drop an atom bomb on Hiroshima, though many have written to the contrary.
Was it ‘moral’ for me, as a Foreign Service Officer, to aim my M-16 at a platoon of Congolese soldiers and state that the rebel prisoners they were beating to death were mine? What should the position of the United States have been, if this FSO had gotten into a deadly fire fight with Congolese soldiers over the lives of Congolese rebels? Ditto when a Southern Rhodesian mercenary came to a Congolese administrator in Paulis stating that ‘he intended to kill that kaffir.’ Was I wrong, as a Foreign Service Officer, to take the safety off my .45 and state “Do you think that you can kill him before I kill you?’ Personally, in retrospect I regret neither of my ‘moral’ actions.
Michael Walzer at the Institute for Advanced Study has written more lucidly on this subject than have I. There is national morality (and immorality) and personal morality. This was considered at the Nuremberg Trials.
I have my personal, conflicted view of ‘morality.’ It would, perhaps, be comforting to see morality in black and white rather than in shades of grey.
You are not alone in that conflicted state. I thought Walzer offered a valuable distinction, which in my mind goes to personal and collective responsibility for the actions taken by an individual (considered choices made in the moment) and by a nation (collective moral response). Chaplain Terry and I may hold that justice outside a courtroom verges on the wrong, the immoral, but we might also see the necessity of a nation's actions. I don't know that I am making my point as well as I wish. Five years from now, though, when we can evaluate the unforeseeable consequences of executing these terrorists, done to bring closure for a nation and it's grieving people, will there be a cost (reputation, allegiances lost, enemies strengthened in their common resolve) to invalidate the imperative to act. I guess I am saying, it would be amoral to not consider the grays and proceed to action. I hope we are here to realize the rightness of these acts in that five-year look-back. The inability of Trump, Cheney, and Rumsfeld to even consider these two moral challenges made me cautious of certainty in our wartime dealings with other nations and causes.
I have to think about my response. I hope I didn't imply that I was happy and cheering because I surely am not doing that.
You did not imply that whatsoever.
Until we go to a Peace Room instead of the War Room, the rules of engagement are not something we cheer about. It’s the way it is. Period.
🗽
Thanks, Christine.
The Hammurabi Code, the Hebrew Testament, and any other moral and/or civil codes are loaded with contradictions because they were written by men who crafted and revised codes and laws to address specific situations. The Hammurabi's Code is a case in point - the preface justifies killing in order to rid society of "evil". Of course, evil is open to interpretation based on an individual's religion/culture. To many around the globe, we are evil.
I am conflicted. Am I sorry that Al-zwawhari is dead? No, not really. But I'm certainly not reveling in his death.
"When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then ●●Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak●●, so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind."
Very thought provoking. Your questioning is making me feel a bit of a hypocrite--I'm against capital punishment but am wishing someone would assassinate Putin pronto. I'm against war but am cheering the Ukrainians for defending their country against an unprovoked invasion. Hmmmmm, someone help me out here....
Sophia, I am too conflicted. Aside from the moral side, I am having a hard time figuring out how we deal with evil, which I think we are with Putin and Trump and authoritarian regimes. While I know our ideas and how we go about doing right for our people and nation and other nations as well may be flawed, mistaken, and we may need to do a long of do-overs and apologies, I am sensing something I'd never in my progressive-academic life would voice as waging war on evil to protect where our nation and the world can go. This is making me want to strike out, stop the endlesss talking, and do something concrete and classically insane. Embarrassing as this is, I thought that maybe Covid would solve the Trump problem, amorality in a living organism and his organization. I think I am feeling more desperate than I have at anytime in my 80+ years.
Well Fred, this is what we get being spiritual beings having a human experience here on earth. Unfortunately, God gave everybody free will. The more one aligns their will with God's (good) the happier they'll be. The more they align with ego, the worse things will end up. Remember Bernie Madoff? After he milked people and non-profits out of their money, one son died of cancer, the other one committed suicide, and he died in jail. Trump and his ilk have refused to learn their spiritual lessons and they are on their way to prison as well (remember where you read this). Letitia James and Fanni Willis are my girls. Letitia won getting maga lier Trump's testimony under oath. I can't wait--he won't be able to help himself from perjuring himself....
FRED Fred, at age 88, and a history professor from age 58 to 80 who taught a segment on ‘war’ for nearly two decades, presently I have more questions than definitive answers. Hmmm, might I become more insightful at age 90? That is my liberal hope.
You can do it youngster. I've outlived most of my critics and friends, so I ruminate as to what epitaph should go on my urn. Latest are "I have one more question!" or "My answers are contained within." (You will also note that my spelling is for scheise and my roofing of my writing isn't any better.
Sophia Isn’t this a moral dilemma that confronts us all? I too oppose capital punishment, but….
Sophia, I didn't try to answer everyone, but I was very moved by your saying you feel a bit of a hypocrite. This made me look up the origin of the word, which in the original Greek meant literally "an interpreter from underneath" because the actors performed from beneath their masks. Then it evolved into someone who puts on a "mask of piety" in order to deceive others.
So I think what you (and I) are experiencing is more the complexity of morality. There are very few (if any) actions that are completely wrong in every situation. I am also against war, but I cannot change the Ukrainian's being attacked by Russia, so I am fine with wanting them to win. I am against capital punishment and I can't ever see myself changing my mind about that, no matter the action of the prisoner.
I think what's coming to me is that I don't ever want to feel gleeful about the necessity for these actions. And then I need to have some compassion for my human nature when I want someone to assassinate people who are doing really evil actions. I remember once it became clear the evil and destruction that T***p was riling up as president, I had a fantasy that I would sacrifice my life by assassinating him for the good of the country, knowing that of course I never would. I was shocked that it even occurred to me, and I had to put it in the context of feeling powerless about wanting to do something to stop him. I'm going to stop here. Thank you! Blessings,
This could be a great conversation, as it would take us into discussing the morality of war and the justification of returning fire upon combatants who cease to fire or run out of ammunition. Is legitimate warfare between nation states and terriorism a grievence by a group against another's ideology or a military action to impose and ideology or control a people? In this instance, case, we have attempted to capture all of those who plotted or were active in the 911 attack. Some went to Guantonimo Bay and have not been brought to trial, for where could they be tried but in a military or an American court? What would comprise justice in those I stances? Is imprisonment without trial, no matter how clearly the individuals involved are guilty of terrorism, a better form of punishment or an effective message for future terrorists or seditionists? Isn't warfare a moral form of vengeance when right is in defense against a perpetrator or nation? I favored each of these precision strikes on these individual if for no other reason than to deliver a message to any individual (foreign OR domestic) that you cannot plot or carry out an attack on our people or way of life without swift and serious consequences; deterence (message) as well as punishment (justice).
Don't forget the Nuremberg trials.
That we played the biggest role, I believe. Is this what you are suggesting?
I am so grateful to those who responded to my question, and now I'm really glad I asked. I'm still trying to take in all of the thoughtful wisdom and additional questions, and am not even trying to respond to each one. But I am so grateful to all who took the time to offer their thoughts. As I continue this process, one thing that stands out is that "black and white" thinking about right and wrong is completely insufficient for out times.
I remember dating a guy in the early 70's who defined himself as a pacifist. He told me that even if someone was attacking a member of his family, he wouldn't fight back to defend them. While I try really hard not to judge the moral beliefs of others whom I respect, I thought he was just wrong. So looking at the killing of al-Zawahiri as continuing the "war" that was begun with the 9/11 attacks, I see how one can justify this action. I need to be able to hold that thought while at the same time believing that war is wrong; that killing is wrong, and that we need to "lay down our sword and shield and study war no more." My head hurts!
So here's what I've come to so far. I can accept the necessity of this action as appropriate to our current way of responding to attack in this era. But I will not celebrate this action. Rather I mourn its necessity. And I will do my best to hold my own desire for and commitment to peace and love between people and among nations. Blessings,
I agree with you completely.
Agree, especially in light of our domestic and international threats. Everyone should know that we never leave one of ours behind (even if it takes time) and we never forget OR forgive those who attack our nation or it's people. There is no statue of limitations for you, your tribe, your nation if you assault or attempt to subvert our country, people, or government. The international terrorism leaders found this out today. Domestic terrorists are learning the truth of this promise as I write. No quarter nor forgiveness if you threaten us or you betray us. Is that clear enough? Stand down and surrender your arm. Now.
Thank you for today’s newsletter, Professor. You report “Judge Dabney Fredrich sentenced Capitol rioter Guy Reffitt to more than 7 years in prison, 3 years of probation, $2000 in fines, and mental health treatment.” Critical is the mental health treatment. That should be mandatory for every rioter arrested and all those implicated in masterminding and participating in the insurrection. Especially Including TFG and government officials and representatives. Any mentally healthy person would not have participated in an unconstitutional attempt to stop the electoral count or even challenge the election. Or follow TFG anywhere.
As a mental health professional (17 years a certified psych RN), I am all for mental health treatment for those who need it. Mr. Reffitt seems to, but really, there are only two people who can make that determination: the mental health professional assigned to the case and Reffitt himself. The joke how many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb - only one, but it's got to want to change, applies to all such cases. Still, psych hospitals and prisons are filled with mentally ill people who do not see they are ill. For many, prison is the only place where they get any mental health treatment at all.
That said, calling people who disagree with you mentally ill (even if they make horrible life choices) is a path to fascism. Our mental hospitals were used to dispose of people for decades. I do not believe the majority of those insurrectionists/rioters at the capitol on 1/6 were/are mentally ill. Misguided, lied to, lacking in critical thinking skills - yes. Mentally ill, no. They are as responsible for their actions as the rest of us.
Threatening the lives of one's children (should they do the right thing and inform authorities of their father's dangerously lethal plans) suggests to me that professional diagnosis will merely be redundant. Perhaps we don't need the Fire Chief to yell "Fire".
Steve, doesn't protocol require examination before diagnosis and or assumptions.
Did the judge examine and diagnose?
To be fair, a mental health assessment may have been ordered before trial.
That's a good news assignment. Go for it Jeri.
Legally, a judge can order an evaluation/assassment, but can't order a medical provider to provide any specific treatments - or diagnoses. No provider worth their salt would make a diagnosis without a thorough evaluation.
Thanks Steve. I knew that and called on you for confirmation as some people are inclined to be rather loose with their language on the subject. This country does appear to be overrun by angry people, out of control. I read an piece today that addresses a basic problem with life today. I'd love to know your response.
'The Kabul Execution: Action Without Actors'
'Who needs SEAL Team Six when a drone can do it all? Eventually, who’ll need any manual labor? And what will become of those who work with their hands?
Precision aerial bombing has come a long way.'
'During World War II, a number of Allied bombing raids over Germany missed, and bombed Switzerland instead.'
'This past weekend, by contrast, a CIA-controlled drone killed al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri while he was standing on the balcony of his safe house in Kabul, apparently without harming anyone in or around the house—quite possibly, without doing damage to any part of the house save, presumably, the balcony.'
'As such, the execution of al-Zawahiri stands in sharp contrast to that of Osama bin Laden, which was carried out by SEAL Team Six. That was the stuff of movies, and if Zero Dark Thirty focused on the intelligence-gathering required to establish where bin Laden was hiding, it also had the raid itself as a climax, in accord with Aristotle’s strictures on how dramas should conclude.'
'The actual execution of al-Zawahiri, by contrast, required no SEALs at all—just some anonymous drone operator whose superiors had given the "fire when ready" order, with no risk whatever to that operator. To be sure, that mode of killing had been necessitated by our withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, but it had also been made possible by advances in surveillance and precision weaponry, as President Biden had made clear when he ordered the withdrawal.'
'In that sense, this weekend’s successful attack marked one more advance in what is perhaps the most unsettling prospect looming over our century: the cumulative reduction and eventual elimination of manual labor.'
'The mechanization of warfare—which mechanizes the violence, even as the victims remain human, of course—is just one small aspect of this larger tendency. Does anyone doubt that Amazon will entirely replace its warehouse workers with robots as soon as it becomes possible? Or that mechanization has already reduced the number of workers it takes to build a house? (One California building trades union leader has told me that it took 20 electricians to wire a new school in 1980; it takes just four today.) Or the number of workers it takes to produce the steel that goes into a car or a bridge? (The CEO of U.S. Steel has told me that it takes just two steelworkers to produce the same amount of steel that required ten steelworkers in the 1970s.)'
'Our fantasies have already adapted to this change. G.I. Joe toys come complete with robotized arms; superheroes with extra-human powers clog movie screens while the human heroes of yesteryear are all on the cutting-room floor. There is no 21st-century John Wayne or Gary Cooper.'
'Even if many of the manual workers of the past century were reduced to cogs on factory assembly lines, a lot of them at least had the collective power of unions behind them, compelling their bosses to pay them adequately for a day’s work. Now, most of them don’t even have that. Their diminished present and their even bleaker future feed into what is variously termed the crisis of masculinity or the problems of boys, into rage at a socioeconomic elite whose definitions of meritocracy usually degrade or dismiss manual work altogether. Mix this economic degradation and cultural irrelevance with factors like racism and voila! You can’t bring back John Wayne, but you can back Donald Trump.'
'No John Waynes required to take out a jihadist mass murderer, and they sure don’t need that many of you to build an electric car. Send not to know on whom the bomb bursts …'
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
Yes.
I knew the people could depend on nurse MaryPat!
Well said, Steve. Calling them, including tfg, mentally ill kind of grants a "free pass" to their behavior. They knew exactly what they were doing, and chose to do it. The fact that they chose poorly is on them.
And they are also terrorists. And should be tried as terrorists. I disagree with the judge, completely. They tried to overthrow our country and attempted murder or our elected officials.
Steve I am reminded of the song from West Side Story—Officer Krupsky, ‘we’re just misunderstood.’ Oh yeah!
I played Jet #4 in my high schools version of West Side Story. I know the song well :)
Mental health treatment generally does not work for sociopaths or psychopaths. There are no psychotropic drugs that will give you a conscience. Psychotherapy does not usually help with these personality disorders or with people who do not want to change. So when politicians identify mental health as the remedy for gun violence they are uniformed or wanting campaign contributions from the gun lobbies. I believe it is the latter as they are quite savvy and have issues with conscience. Anything to stay in power goes and begone with ethics.
109%, thank you
They are not mentally Ill in my opinion. Personality disorders, or cult nuts. Mental health treatment would be wasted on the former, and deprogramming needed on the latter. You’ve got the propaganda masters, and the gullible fools. Don’t give them a get out of jail free card, like so many do for murdering shooters. Jail can be an equalizer if applied appropriately.
My Proud Boy neighbor IS mentally ill. Literally went postal 20 years ago as an employee of the post office, no one hurt. Not allowed to have guns or ammunition. Usually a nice if overly religious guy. Until tRump. I had to call the sheriff on him the night of January 4, 2021, before his trip to D.C., because he was going bezerk. The dispatcher and every other official I talked to that night said, "Why? He's fine." I demanded that they visit him AND report him to the Michigan State Police, with his car license plate number, and they said "Why?" I told them January 6th would be an armed assault on the U.S. Capitol like we had at our state one but much worse. They acted like I was the one needing counseling. They did visit him. I stayed with friends for a week. He went. He came home. He got his medications adjusted. Nice guy again. And we know who NOT to vote for today based on the signs in his driveway.
Wow. Be safe.
Thanks. He really is a nice, helpful guy when on his meds and tRump is not on the warpath.
I remember your posts about your neighbor then and now. It was chilling to read them at the time and made Jan 6 seem inevitable. Thank you for sharing the intro and conclusion to your experience!
Yes, and thank you to you and all the LFAA readers who urged me to call the cops that night!!
It's a bullshit sentence, half what the rules for proven terrorist acts should get, and it was imposed by a judge appointed by the head traitor - who knew who it was he bent over and spread for to get the gig.
Judge Friedrich is a woman. Her record since her latest appt in 2017 has been mixed (she ruled that the CDC couldn’t impose rules for preventing evictions from COVID, but she has ruled in favor of Special Council Mueller’s charges against 16 Russian entities.)
Prior to her current appointment in 2017 by t as a district court judge for DC (w only Senators Sanders, Warren, & Gillibrand voting to not confirm), Judge Friedrich spent 10 years as a Senate-confirmed member of the US Sentencing Commission, appointed by GWB. So sentencing guidelines would seem to be her “thing.”
But if you read Jordan Fischer’s entire Twitter thread, Judge Friedrich has not making consistent statements from the bench. And this mental health thing does seem like a boondoggle as I agree w Susan that it’s unlikely to be successful, especially since Reffitt has not disavowed the three percenters and has made “really troubling” comparisons between Jan. 6 & 1776.
I don’t think we want gender of the judge to be part of the conversation. Remember the hearings for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Irenie: I wrote this comment much earlier, when there were only about 40 comments, & I was replying to TC’s comment about how “he” (referring to the judge”) got “his” job; wanted to clear that up as I agree w you that the judge’s gender doesn’t matter & in this case, though a t appt, she had been overwhelmingly confirmed, w a long history on the bench.
Thank you, Linda. I understand. Sometimes it’s not easy figuring out these conversations. We’re not in person! So… Mental health evaluations are not uncommon in these investigations. I don’t dispute guilt or think the criminals should be free. Some participants arrested for crimes connected to TFG’s 1/6 invitation have expressed not only remorse but confusion about the invitation. The Ohio Cabinetmaker is an example. He was sorry he answered the call. Believed he was invited and left when TFG finally spoke.
Here’s an article on defense of entrapment, and being duped by TFG. It’s not an outa-jail-ticket to freedom. https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3269948-did-trump-entrap-the-jan-6-rioters/
The podcast “Will Be Wild” did one episode on the Reffits. Very interesting.
And in other news - not from The Onion - Donald Trump has buried his first wife by the first tee of his NJ golf course. For tax purposes. No NJ taxes on cemeteries. A family mausoleum which can double as a wedding chapel is also in the works. This is similar to Trump and Kushner et al business empires being classified as pass-through entities allowing them to pose as small businesses to qualify for tax breaks and Covid relief. (Republicans instituted this in their tax law and went to the mats for it in the Covid relief debates.)
Also not from The Onion. The fate of the Democratic Inflation Reduction Act rests uneasily in the hands of Sen. Sinema, who opposes its closing the carried interest loophole . The loophole is 'essentially a way for fund managers to be taxed on the share of the fund’s profits they receive, for their work, at a top rate of just under 24 percent — dramatically less than the 37 percent top rate for ordinary income. This giveaway is so valuable that many have it to thank for the bulk of their fortunes.'
And just in time for mid terms, anti vaxxers have joined anti abortion and anti gun regulation cultists as single issue voters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/ivana-trump-buried-tax-break-grift/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/kyrsten-sinema-should-support-inflation-reduction-act/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/technology/anti-vax-parents-political-party.html
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if tfg declared his business as a religious organisation in order to avoid taxation
With the religious fervor of the MAGAts, it is coming .
It is the coming, no?
It could be called the "Good God, I Can't Believe It!" church.
As much money as Sinema has received in contributions from equity firms, it was a given that she would oppose closing the carried interest loophole. Doesn’t help that she & Scuhumer do not get along.
Did she learn her Trojan Horse skills from Manchin. Maybe he just told her to take the heat for awhile.
Good Lord, the bull Schitt piles higher and higher. My hill to die on is still two, or more, Dem senators.
Demmings for Rubio is ONE!
Yes! Am donating to her monthly. She has a gread ad about Rubio not " showing up for work"....." If you don't show up you lose your job." Got to get her in. He has been very quiet so far.
Saw an TV attack ad last night for Rubio. Weak and disgusting. .
His ad shows policeman giving their support to him? Pffft!
On my list, also the vulnerable ones we have.
❤️
Jeri All this bull Schitt, while we are dealing with a Sinking Shit (Bone Spur Donald).
So my question is the entire property considered a cemetary or just a portion of it (similar to deduction for only that part of your home that is used solely for home office)
Sinema has previously stated she consideres the carried interest item inviolable. It will be interesting. Rumor has it sh’ll run as an Independent next time, so who knows how strong her affiliation with Democrats is.
Citizen, Sinema started out as a member of the Green Party--it was a big basis of her fundraising appeals in 2018 & why so many of us supported her. Schumer said back in February that the DNC would not support her re-election in 2024 & she’s been censored by the AZ State Democrats. She’ll not get much if any support from the left going forward, so if she runs (she’s fundraising constantly), Independent would seem her only viable path forward (though I don’t believe that she has much of chance, but who knows?)
& yes, it’s a well-known fact, in DC anyway, that she won’t support the carried interest tax. Not sure why Manchin & Schumer jumped the gun on the Inflation bill without including her in discussions; hopefully there’s a logical & viable reason because we need that bill!
I cannot imagine teeing off on somebody’s grave.
I can by Trump.
I read somewhere this morning that they use a few trees to grind up for mulch, so they get a "farm" tax cut. Someone else will have to verify this, I can no longer find it.
That grave is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I go to the cemetery several times a year to care for my parents, siblings and their spouses graves. You see some very sad, neglected graves there, but I am sure there are reasons why they are neglected. Just imagine what her grave is going to look like 5 years from now.
What I read, is that Trump keeps a herd of goats on his Bedminster property to qualify as a farm for tax purposes. With all of the strikes against Eric, Don Jr, and Ivanka, I still would have expected them to do better by their mother than that insult of a pauper's grave at a golf course.
Joan For tax purposes could Trump classify his kids as goats?
Goats are good for grass control —not the greens, but the rest of the property may use them.
I picture a well-manicured tee with a commorative plaque: Here lies the first-wife of the first-president-traitor of the American people.
Wasn't the carried forward tax provision a cornerstone source of funds to pay for Tump's tax cut? Without it the tax cuts for lower and middle income payers are unsustainable and will disappear completely in 2025. Am I wrong?
Antivax groups also push Kremlin propaganda about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. https://www.politico.eu/article/antivax-conspiracy-lean-pro-kremlin-propaganda-ukraine
'Trump Demands Recount After Biden Has More Positive COVID Tests Than He Did'
'WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - Donald J. Trump has demanded an immediate recount of covid tests after it emerged that President Biden had tested positive more times than he did.'
'A fuming Trump told reporters that “the only way Sleepy Joe could beat me at covid is if the tests were rigged.” (Satire, NewYorker)
That is rich!!!
🤣😅😂 THANK YOU FERN!!!
Reffitt could have violated Texas state law for actions such as threatening his own family members with violence and be prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to consecutive time in Texas state court. Then again, maybe Abbott could award him some state honors.
Please don’t give Abbott any ideas, for it is very clear he hasn’t a single thought of his own. He probably wouldn’t listen anyway unless you’re lining his pockets. But better not tempt fate! LOL!
Wheeled onto the balcony of the Blue Room last evening as he continues to fight COVID, President Biden, nevertheless, stood up proudly as he informed the American people that Central Intelligence Agency had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, 71, who took control of al-Qaeda after the death of leader Osama bin Laden.
‘Zawahiri believed that attacking the U.S. and allied countries was essential to undermining the pro-Western Arab regimes that were standing in the way of uniting Muslims around the world.’ (Letter)
Last night's announcement was a big surprise. This is a new day. It is Tuesday and the final stretch of the election primaries. Contests in ‘…Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington state could elevate more Republicans who, like Trump, have baselessly undermined faith in elections and pitch themselves as populist fighters against not just Democrats but the GOP establishment.’ (WAPO)
‘Kansas voters to decide abortion rights in 1st test since Roe v. Wade repeal’
‘Voters will not have the option of banning the procedure outright, however. Instead, they’ll vote on a GOP-sponsored initiative known as Amendment 2, which would strip abortion protections from the state constitution. But should a majority of voters support the measure, the Republican-controlled state Legislature is expected to move quickly to restrict or prohibit the procedure.’
‘The initiative is an attempt to overturn a 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court, which ruled 6-1 that the state constitution “enables a woman to make decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life, including the decision whether to continue a pregnancy.”
‘Due in large part to that decision, Kansas continues to ensure abortion rights despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in late June that access to the procedure is not protected by the federal Constitution. Republican-controlled states bordering Kansas, such as Oklahoma and Missouri, now have near-total bans in place.’
‘Political observers from across the country will be paying close attention to how Kansas votes on the issue. Polls show that most Americans want abortion to be legal, and Democrats hope the issue will motivate voters to support their candidates this November.’
‘If voters in conservative Kansas reject the GOP’s attempt to roll back abortion protections, that could offer some hope to Democrats, who are locked in an uphill battle to keep control of Congress in the midterms. It could also be good news for Kansas’s Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, who is up for reelection in the fall.’
“If people in the state of Kansas vote no on that amendment, then the status quo will remain. And women’s reproductive rights will remain constitutional here in the state of Kansas,” Kelly said in June after Roe was overturned.’ (YahooNews) See link below.
We have quite a night ahead of us..
https://www.aol.com/news/kansas-voters-decide-abortion-rights-191408914.html
I see that the United States continues to kill the men in the organization it created in Afghanistan in the late 1970’s to build a Muslim insurgency against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
US support for the birth of Al Qaeda included the printing of fundamentalist pamphlets in the Midwest and their dissemination.
Nothing like giving birth to, and nurturing, what became the US most expensive and sustained enemy in history.
How many bad ideas does it take to fell a country??
See Wikipedia: Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Mike. Sometimes. Just sometimes as in most families; constantly pointing out each others shortcomings and past mistakes becomes wearying and pointless. I challenge any person or Country to claim a spotless past. I love America. With all its warts and wrong doings I love America. And for every wrong America has done in the World it has done something right in the World.
The fact that TFG is still a free man and was very consorting with an enemy and enjoying the chanting of "Let's Go Brandon" recently is much more disheartening to me than the events of 1970's. Contrast that to there being a good man in our White House at the moment trying to right serious wrongs.
I love America.
Make up hides a lot of warts, so do rewriters of history, who are on a current crusade to rival the best work of the best plastic surgeon. So much has been hid from so many for so long. Wrongs from the past keep reverberating into our future. Or as some wise person said “if we don’t heal the wounds from the past, they will bleed all over our future.”
Neither does the constant picking at scabs. We beat ourselves relentlessly and needlessly. For what reason? For what outcome? I am not advocating sugar coating anything. The America hating I see happening in these comments today is indeed troubling.
I am not sure it is hating. It may be remembering who we really are...warts and all. The whole purpose we are in this particular substack, at least for me, is to continue to learn from our history and try NOT to repeat it. My foster daughter worked for Voice of America for a few years. It is a propaganda arm of our country and was disbanded a year or so after she left. Understanding our true history and foundations makes for some rather reluctant "patriotism" that we are the best country in the world. We can be better, much better. And we can strive to undo our deeply ensconced caste system built by our founders who felt superior to others and did not literally mean "All The People." But it is the best idea and faux pas they made. When we truly accomplish inclusiveness of All The People, then I will begin to feel something akin to patriotism. Unfortunately, "patriotism" now sounds like a dirty word because of those who use it to cover their ignorance or misdeeds against others. Right up there with the tarnishing of the names "Brandon" or "Karen" these uber, traitorous days.
❤️
Biden is very busy draining the poisoned well. He needs all the help he can get.
It reads like America hating Pensa and it is destructive. It would be helpful to stop repeating history incessantly and with such vitriol. I don't see Dr. Richardson doing that. To constantly dredge up the past at every turn seriously stokes the destructive fires of hate and aimless discontent and inhibits any moving forward. Self reflection too often wades into self flagellation. and blame. Patriotism to me is loving what is while working for what can be. I won't withhold my deep love for America until it is perfect. I love America as it is; warts, awful past and frightening present.
I did not say I do not love America and what she aspires to be. I work my ass off to make it better politically and for our youth. There is no self-flagellation here. That is why people hate and label real history as CRT and want to wear blinders. I am talking about a mature look at who we are as a country. I do not feel guilty, I feel educated and want to be realistic and use our past to make informed decisions about our future. We are both free, luckily, to have our own opinions based on what we have experienced and our ancestors. This is not about blame and guilt, it is just about reality and what has happened to our people, our Native Americans, our African Americans who were human trafficked here as slaves and all the oppression people experience here who are not white, male and powerful. We are at war, with ourselves. Our own people are terrorizing us. I feel mature, realistic, informed and empowered to stand up for our country to help it NOT repeat our past which is is already doing by destroying women's rights and carrying down the line to destroying many other people's rights. They have proclaimed that Christianity is the ONLY religion America was founded upon. B fricking S. Those who know not history are repeating it as you and I breathe, dear Barbara.
Barbara.
See my other post but accurate US history is something other than a scab.
The truth of the dead terrorist is that we created him.
That fact is of critical importance in avoiding stupidity going forward.
One thing is for sure. You and I have touched some nerves with our posts. You and I can agree to disagree. Good conversation, though.
Shanti
Yes, Barbara. And I will not support doomerism.
Unita! 🗽
Thank You. I took a risk in my comment and didn't know what reactions I would get. And I will not support doomerism.
Risk means right action as of late.
🗽
Good point.
There is frequently too much doomerism and hang wringing in this forum. I do not wear blinders as to what is at stake and what can be done, but I do think blinders can also limit the view of the progress and support that exists. If we lose hope, we are lost.
Try reading the WaPo readers' comments! There's much much worse than doomerism and hand wringing there. This is the first time I've encountered anything like a dispute on this forum - which is after all Heather's.
Barbara.
Thank you for being sincere.
The US just killed an enemy that the US created from nothing.
In fact, in the early 70s Afghanistan was a peaceful, fairly stabile society.
Our effort to radicalize Muslim men produced the man we just killed.
Pointing this out is not a scab.
It is a fact of our US history.
Something the people on this board espouse interest in.
All true, Mike. I remember Afghanistan. I have a beautiful, intricately handwoven beaded tent-hanging in my house, which I bought from a little shop in near where I worked in Central London 25 years ago. It was called "The Silk Road", and sold Afghani artefacts. The owner was Afghani, a very cultured widow. I relished my visits to her shop.
Barbara, thats what the Repubs seem to be saying about slavery & Jim Crow, the wrongs done to our indigenous people - on & on. The events of the 70s & earlier matter. Isnt that exactly what the Repubs want removed from schools? They dont want our children to be made aware of the mistakes - just pretend they never happened! That hasnt worked before so why would it going forward?
We did bite ourselves in the arse, but as with much of our international dilemmas, it seemed like a good idea at the time. The Charlie Wilson War was a shocker to me, but Reagan loved it. I even had positive vibes as Russia abandoned “ship.” No good deed goes unpunished, surprise, surprise… To me, another critical thing that happened was the murder of Massoud (9-9-2001) and the destruction of the Northern Alliance. After 9/11, we had a shot to be the good guys. I think W/Dickie took their response to the “war crimes level.” The Abu Ghraib fiasco likely fomented as much hatred as any single action, besides the idiotic war on Iraq.
How many “bad ideas” does it take to ensure the profits of weapon makers? Ensure the war machine stays primed. Make sure the gun industry stays primed. “Thar’s gold in them thar (corporate) mines!” This hideous game of power is patriarchy incarnate.
From the readers' comments on this news item, in "Le Monde" today: "One less!" which is answered by "Ten more".
By now we have created so much hatred against the US, not only in the Muslim world, but worldwide, that we will be reaping consequences for generations.
In some ways the invasion of Ukraine mirrors our invasion of Iraq.
So. We taught Putin how to play.
1. Come up with a blatant lie easily dispelled.
2. Based on that lie invade and destroy all infrastructure and homes and killing thousands of innocent civilians.
3. Claim victory rapidly and often.
But Mike, the vehemence of some of your comments sounds to me as if you somewhat more share that hatred than lament it. Yes, I suspect most of us here opposed our initial proxy war with the Soviets in Afghanistan, both our invasions of Iraq, and how our direct military engagement in Afghanistan was conducted. Opposed before the fact and before details of corruption and failure came out. But, while Putin uses Iraq as 'what about' spin - his Soviet Union and Russian Federation did not need the US for inspiration for military adventurism. And what is most significant about Russia's wars are their unprecedented, by a major power in relatively recent history, scorched earth devastations - in Syria, Georgia, Chechnya, and now Ukraine. And they are the only European nation, after WW2, to invade and occupy neighboring sovereign nations. Not since Nazi Germany ... this cannot be left out of any honest analysis.
And while we certainly supported Muslim extremists, we did not create them. The Saudi Wahabists had been working on that for decades. Afghanistan had held off the Saudi incursions - until the Soviets and then US arrived. I would strongly urge a close reading of F. Barth's study of political leadership among the Swat Pathan. Both his 1957 dissertation and his 1959 book are available online. When I first read the book in the late 1960's it struck me that here was a society in which men awoke each morning with the question 'who am I obliged to kill today?' Later readings gave me a greater appreciation of the delicately balanced civic and religious power sharing systems - to which centralized government was an anathema - which kept Saudi religious extremism at bay.
I am consistently in awe of the depth of your background understanding of historical references and footnotes re global politics; as if your curiosity is thirst never quenched
Bam. Thank you lin.
🗽
Add this to the collection of political disasters, Saddam kept Iran in check soooooo ……the not so bright neo cons (emphasis on the don job) convinced little bush to invade Iraq! Wow, didn’t that shit show prove that he was tougher than his dad??!!
Truly, Mike S, lying didn't start with the US or Trump. I don't want to take you back to centuries before your birth. Here's a more recent example.
'Nazi propaganda'
'Adolf Hitler is the poster boy of lies. His Nazi propaganda, based on fear and hatred, portrayed the Jewish people as the enemy of all classes of society. He used coercion, terror, and mass manipulation to brainwash people into believing his lies. Of course, the terrible aftermath of World War I, when the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh monetary and territorial reparations against Germany, and German currency inflation induced widespread poverty and unemployment, left many people desperate for solutions and primed to accept a rhetoric based on blame and hatred. Unfortunately, the lies told by Hitler and his Nazis lead to horrific consequences—the deaths of at least 17.6 million people, including the genocide of 6 million Jewish people, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.' (ReadersDigest) See link below.
https://www.rd.com/list/biggest-lies-in-history/
Didn’t the Adolf the fuhrer get ideas from Jim Crow and our brutalization of native Americans. When I read that, it made me look in the mirror twice.
Not only from Jim Crow but from Margaret Sanger. Although she took a more nuanced stance than others in the eugenics movement, "She was supported by one of the most racist authors in America in the 1920s, the Klansman[129][130] Lothrop Stoddard, who was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Sanger's American Birth Control League.[131]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger
Contemporary American racist right wing religious extremists make much of this in their hypocritical bashing of Planned Parenthood - while they themselves are actually members or allied with the Klan and American Nazi groups.
And after WW2 and before the internet - American racists and anti Semites supplied German Nazis and neo Nazis with literature banned in Germany.
Whoa, had no idea. Knew about Nazi evil in the 30’s (rally in Madison Square Garden, etc), but not Sanger.
Are we talking W/Dickie here? Absolutely true. I still grit my teeth over the “Mission Accomplished” bull Schitt. But we didn’t have to teach Putin, Stalin already did, he just had more finesse - in the beginning.. also had a mob partner in chump. Sorry, but Helsinki comes to mind. Both had planned to never lose again.
Russia has a long history upon which Mr Putins draws, monarchies and central committe leaders included. We didn't teach him much of what he was already learning from his country's past and the actions of other combatants, America included, going back to WWI. Some of us look at the list of sins and feel a need to reconfess our failures before applauding the good and possible. Others, know the list and regret some of the sins, and choose to move forward, conscious of the lessons and cautions that knowing one's country's misteps have to guide us. Mike, you posts often give us reminder of those cautions and misteps.
Enough Mike. Just enough. Please.
Russia has a long history upon which Mr Putins draws, monarchies and central committe leaders included. We didn't teach him much of what he was already learning from his country's past and the actions of other combatants, America included, going back to WWI. Some of us look at the list of sins and feel a need to reconfess our failures before applauding the good and possible. Others, know the list and regret some of the sins, and choose to move forward, conscious of the lessons and cautions that knowing one's country's misteps have to guide us. Mike, you posts often give us reminder of those cautions and misteps.0
"Prosecutors wanted to attach penalties for terrorism to the sentencing, but Fredrich declined, sayng that would creae an “unwarranted disparity” between his sentence and those of other rioters."
Guess who appointed Fredrich to the federal bench? Yes! Donald Trump! The prosecutors ask f or 15 years for listed acts that qualify for "domestic terrorism" and the "judge" suddenly remembers who it was he bent over and spread for.
As to Zawahiri, surprise surprise, he was living in the home of the head of the Haqqani Gang, the worst drug-dealing thug terrorists in the Taliban.
I believe that his conduct was worse than that of the others, therefore a disparity is warranted.
Thank you Heather.
As I scrolled through Facebook last night I was struck by a comment. Obama killed Osama bin Laden. Biden killed Ayman al Zawahiri. Trump tried to kill Mike Pence. Although not technically accurate, the point is well taken.
This take out went seemingly without a hitch. It's always a risky endeavor for any President to attempt this. I don't think I'm the only person in the room that read the report of this and felt relieved that there wasn't civilian loss. That detail always seems to be a talking point for any detractors.
Seems odd to me at first blush, that the Trump appointed Judge didn't go all in for the sentencing for Reffitt. Perhaps a missed opportunity?
Be safe. Be well.
“Didn’t go all in” a missed opportunity in this case. Agree.
Be safe as well friend.
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Christine, you as well my friend.
Thank you. And apparently, that post you saw on Facebook is circulating widely.
It is. I think I've seen it 10 times just this morning.
Thank you Heather. I got the MarineTrack app and I am tracking Razoni the ship. It is supposed to go through the Bosporus strait this afternoon. A friend and I will be in position to take pictures of this historic event.
There is a chatter of how trumpski couldn’t really be prosecuted. Could he really get away with all his lies?
We'll know when he does.
Trump can be prosecuted. That does not tell us whether or not he will be.
We live in a world of domestic and foreign political terrorism that seems to be growing worse.
We didn't create present day Russia and China. Their antipathy for western democracy and America / European economies and societies has developed over centuries. But the US has played a major part in creating antagonistic relationships with smaller nations like Cuba, Vietnam and Iran. In each case with these and other smaller nations, we drive them to collaborate with Russia and China. Once these nations develop antidemocratic governments, they are more inclined to maintain their connections to the two major antidemocratic powers.
I don't know how we break this cycle when we cannot even protect ourselves from the allegiances developing between the Republican Party and authoritarian nations like Russia and Hungary. CPAC has become a domestic terrorist organization with its political model and ties to Hungary and Russia, as CPAC promotes authoritarians in the US and converting our nation to a one party police state nation.
Well said, sir. That centuries long development of antipathy that has been created world wide seems insurmountable. I am reminded of one of my favorite movie moments of all time. The "President" addressing a small group of rag-tag pilots going to combat the alien invaders utilizing a technique developed by a computer geek and implemented using the alien technology from Area 51, and communicated world wide to all the world using morse code (Independence Day, the Original): "Mankind. That sure has a different meaning today, doesn't it?"
That just might be what it takes to get us to believe that there is no Planet B, that we are just making mountains out of molehills with our "differences", and that what we're doing ain't working.
I just heard the most interesting report on NPR about the mo-fo Reffitt. His wife--who sounds like even more of a f*cking idiot than he--said her husband "backtracked" in order to get a lighter sentence. In other words, he lied to the judge. Huh. I wonder if this will have consequences? https://www.npr.org/2022/08/02/1115113692/a-capitol-rioter-has-received-the-most-severe-punishment-to-date
Other "captain obvious" moments:
[1] Did anyone think the Taliban was going to do anything it said it would do? Anything? They "violated" their "agreement" with TFG even before it was signed. I am totally fine with Biden doing what needs to be done and those f*ckers can howl all they like. Bite me.
[2] The fact that Putzin and his minions bombed Odessa the MOMENT the agreement brokered by Turkey had been signed should be a surprise to whom? Anyone? My fingers are crossed that the Ukrainian wheat gets through the Bosphorus and to its destination in one piece.
Here in KCMO, I am keeping fingers crossed that a legit slate of Dems crosses the primary finish line, including one of my former students (he was not in class with me but we worked together when he was president of student government and I was on the faculty senate exec committee and I consider him one of mine!) who is an amazing young man. He is also both Black and gay and his campaign has been subject to an incredible level of abuse, harassment, and outright attack. I fear for his safety but I also really hope he wins the primary for his county legislature district because I want him to be able to spit in everyone's eye. It's a long shot but my fingers are crossed. Other races are as nasty as this one, and I am worried about them too. Primary Day in Missouri. Sigh. Vote NO, Kansas.
Hooray for Joe, boohoo for Reffitt. And, like chump, Putin has never met a situation that he couldn’t make worse. It’s what they do, always…expect nothing else
Not saying I agree or disagree with the drone strike on Zawahiri, but we can bet the tit for tat events will continue for a very long time and will run the risk of inexorable escalation along the way. When you see the list of his misdeeds and his absolute intent on killing Americans wherever they may be found, it's hard to argue against it. BUT where does it end and what does the cost in loss of humanity come to? Not intending to moralize or judge this, but such things bring up questions which never seem to be addressed.
It is a conundrum, and I believe there is a "choice of evils" that has been made here. To eradicate someone who has made it his life's work to kill Americans and who helped to mastermind the attack at the WTC on 9/11 and has continued his violent ways is both tempting and demonstrating a very human tendency to wish "an eye for an eye" type of punishment. To play the long game of the potential escalation/continuing the conduct and perhaps some sort of resolution to the constant conflict in lieu of terminating an individual requires more than humans (I suspect) are willing to give or invest. To look at someone who engages in some sort of negative conduct who has retribution vested upon them, how many times will you hear "well, they sure had it coming to them, now didn't they"?
Not sure I am able to say what I intend to here (only one cuppa coffee so far) but I think that our base human nature of conflict that seems to be incubated, fostered, and displayed so frequently in our religions, there is nothing but retribution to be had.
Indeed, Ally, your raise points which belong in the discourse thqt should prevail before action follows such events as the drone strike on Zawahiri. I am not a pacifist but troubled by what I feel is a lack of deep investigation into what is right and what is not right when dealing out what amount to judgements in actions that can't be undone and which often have unintended consequences.
I wish I had seen your comment before I wrote my own question about this killing in a separate post. It troubled me with Bin Laden and it troubles me with Zawahiri. I found an article on why it's "legal" but I couldn't say why. So I will hold your question "Where does it end?" as part of my concern.
Terry,
At some point it is revenge and retribution not prevention of future acts of retribution. At that point will there be a person who stops for a moment to think?