In Afghanistan today, two explosions outside the Kabul airport killed at least 60 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. troops. More than 100 Afghans and 15 U.S. service members were wounded. ISIS-K, the Islamic State Khorasan, claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS-K is an extremist offshoot of the Taliban organized in Pakistan about six years ago by younger men who think the older leaders of the Taliban now in control of Afghanistan are too moderate. The ISIS-K leaders want to destabilize the Taliban’s apparent assumption of the country’s leadership after the collapse of the Afghan government.
Ted, this capsulizes today's turmoil. Looking at most of the mainstream press makes me feel that they're all looking at a different world that the one in which I live. We've had enough tragedy, and now the blame is all being heaped on President Biden. Surely, they know better.
I agree, and the mainstream, with few exceptions, is as bad as Fox. I saw a clip of Seth Moulton on MSNBC, one of the two that arrived in Kabul unannounced, and, while he wasn't trashing Biden, it's clear that he's trying to boost his political capital. Jerk.
I believe journalist are not falling for it wholesale. Their are those though, that, following the Rethug-Lican demagoguery as a way to get headlines to advance their careers are taking advantage of people’s National pride and emotions.
It's so frustrating, though, that so many mainstream press sites are piling on Biden. I expect no less from Fox, but the fact that McMaster and others are being afford so much oxygen is despicable. Today's MSN news is dominated totally by Fox and similar drivel, and of course, there is the ubiquitous Kevin McCarthy and the Rethugs' calls for Tony Blinken's impeachment and enacting the 25th Amendment against Biden.
Nina Simone Furiosa! Perfect, Linda, just the right SPIRIT. Nina came to me before Maya. She drew me to her when I guessI wasn't too young to understand. Thank you.
This poem makes me think of the newest BLM design for T-shirts, hoodies, and water bottles - a dandelion stem that spells out "black lives matter" topped with a hash inside a heart inside a seed puff just beginning to disperse in the wind. The narrative that accompanies the new design:
Dandelions are often seen as undesirable but it is one of the most resilient plants.
Dandelions die in the winter, though the plant's roots live on underground, all year round.
Dandelions can be seen as flowers or weeds. Something desirable or despised.
Dandelions are often the first flower that people play and interact with as a child.
The dandelion can be a metaphor for the African diaspora, people spread across the world like a dandelion's seeds.
We are the seeds that LIVE | GROW | THRIVE regardless.
Lanita, Beautiful. You and the dandelions have me between a smile and tears. I was a dandelion fan as a child. It was a bit confusing between weed and flower. Thank you.
I've been thinking that the "Dandelions" might be our salvation. They've persisted over the generations, learned to live with disrespect but not be crushed by it, and never believe they are "less than." We should take a page from their book.
Love, love and diamonds between her warm thighs, Maya Angelou is SAINT of Tolerance and Love. Maya Angelou Is God’s messenger. Maya Angelou Is Love. Who are we?
I felt Angelou was speaking directly to me. “Poetry...is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his [her] own.” Salvatore Quasimodo, as quoted in the NYT. I agree with him in many but not all cases.
The Afghan army collapsed because Trump (ignorant asshole) pulled all support for them in his agreement with the Taliban. May he and his self serving Republicans all burn in hell.
Exactly. If I was in the Afghan Army and learned the U.S. just bargained one on one with my enemy, I'd know I was screwed and would resort to self-preservation mode. I don't blame them for what they did, but I wonder if some will go guerrilla to exact some revenge.
For those who gave their last full measure, it was not in vain. We will not forget.
I think it didn't matter how America pulled out, it would be disastrous. I think that's why Trump didn't pull America out during his first term, figuring it would cost him the 2020 election for sure. I think it's pure horse manure Republicans and MAGAs and the right-side media blaming Biden for what was inevitable. Perhaps this will teach America a lesson about getting into wars in foreign countries?
There was no easy way out, there was only trying to control chaos. Have we finally learned the lesson we can't bend nations to our will with our military? Had all that money just gone to humanitarian purposes like schools, hospitals, etc. we'd be so much better off as a world.
How about all that money going to provide every American good, inexpensive health care? How about all the dead, maimed, wounded battle-shocked American soldiers still being alive and well? How about their families and friends not being all torn up and mangled in their souls? Did America learn nothing from Vietnam? The exit from Afghanistan seems much more horrific.
All war is horrendous, this one seems worse by proximity. Casualties in Vietnam totaled 58,000 with 40,000 in combat. The plight of the wounded depended on the quality of their local VA, that is if they could get to one. The American people learned a lot, as did the government and military but not enough to avoid the longterm mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Advancements in medicine and technology kept fatal casualties low in the most recent war for members of the military, not so much for the civilians who became victims of Isis or the Taliban or of sterilized drone attacks.
My hope is we've finally accepted the U.S. cannot create a democracy by military force. Instead we need to use that money for humanitarian pursuits that can set the stage for a country to create their own form of democratic government.
Again, I think the many billion$$$ spend by America on the Afghan war should have been spent improving the lives of Americans, starting with affordable good health care. I am not against foreign aid, but I think the American view that it is called to spread democracy is, well, a bit ... ambitious? ... conceited?
After all, America is not a democracy, is it? At least not in presidential elections. Not in gerrymandering voting districts. Not in a defeated president attempting a coup and not being arrested and tried and hanged for it. But I drift off the topic.
I fault Joe Biden for voting, as a Congressman, for the 2 Bush-Cheney wars. I do not fault Biden for trying to finish the deal Donald Trump made with the Taliban. America very much needed to get out of Afghanistan long before now. It was new President Barack Obama's God-assignment to get America out of those two wars, and he accepted the Nobel Price for Peace instead.
The Vietnam war was a false flag war. America wanted access to Vietnam's rubber plantations and other natural resources. The CIA was in Vietnam helping Ho Chi Minh defeat the French. Ho wanted to do business with America, but America asked too much. Not caring for China, Ho turned to the Soviet Union. Along the way, two prominent Americans, who didn't like America being at war in Vietnam, were killed. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Kennedy's Democrat Vice-President Lyndon Johnson promised Americans on TV that he would never send American boys to die in a war in Asia, then he did just that. His Republican President successor Richard Nixon got elected on a platform he had a plan to get America out of Vietnam. His plan was to build up the South Vietnam military and then pull out American troops. I give Nixon credit for getting America out of a war that never should have happened.
Afghanistan is a very different country from Vietnam. It is MUSLIM. Very conservative MUSLIM. It is tribal. It is ancient. It astounds me that Americans, their presidents, their generals and admirals actually thought the American military could change Afghanistan. Thought an Afghan military based on the American model would survive an American military pull out. Look no further than what happened in the false flag Iraq war after President G. W. Bush announced America had won.
America was in a global war with a RELIGION, which viewed Christendom as infidels.
The American right is screaming about a lot of U.S. Military hardware being left in Afghanistan. Well, how much of that hardware was in the hands of the Americanized Afghan army, which rolled over and made a deal with the Taliban? How could any American be surprised that happened? How could any American general or admiral be surprised that happened?
Big American corporations made a great deal of money off the Vietnam war, and off the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The longer those wars lasted, the more money those big American corporations made. There was longtime dream of a natural gas pipe line being run from east of Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea. After Trump was elected in 2016, he said the natural resources of Afghanistan and Iraq, minerals and oil respectively, should be monetized to repay America for what it spent on war in those two countries.
There really is such a thing as karma. It really does increase when it is ignored. Consider the Afghan refugees President Biden is bringing to America during an international pandemic. Will that be a super super spreader event? How many of those refugees are Taliban, Isis, Al Qaeda sleeper agents?
2. It is Republicans who want to disable the social safety net
3. America is supposed to be a democratic republic but thanks to court packing even that is in question. It was never going to be a pure democracy but we use the term to indicate it's preferred to be governed by a majority of the people.
4. The refugees will be vetted for terrorists and Covid at the same time, we can do two things at once.
5. The hardware was meant for the Afghan army that folded b/c Trump negotiated with the Taliban and not the govt. Much was destroyed but obviously not enough. The hardware was the reason for the war as part of the never ending cycle of contributions by the military industrial complex to members of Congress and Presidents who get us into wars.
Karma works both ways. The Taliban started the whole mess by harboring al-Qaeda which led to 9/11 which led to the invasion that took out the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now the Taliban is back. How interested will they be to repeat the same mistake. They got what they wanted namely to be back in power, now karma is making it much harder than before for them to run the country. The need international support but can't get it if they return to their former ways.
What a sad day for America and for all Americans. My heart goes out to those soldier's parents and families, "the solemn pride that must be theirs, to lay so costly a sacrifice on the altar of freedom". The effort and scope of the Kabul airlift is a historic one. Its somewhere between the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 and Dunkirk 1940, but it is even more noble as it is about saving non combatants/civilians. I am only comforted by the fact that as we leave, sacrifices are being made to protect and evacuate as many American and Afghani civilians as we can. There is a lot of pride and honor in that. A marine hoisting an infant above the crowd and above barbed wire. The faces from Ramstein's tarmac of our Army Nurses smiling through masks, handing out bottles of water, welcoming Afghani refugees. The stories of Afghan babies being born on transport planes. Amongst the pain, these are all things to feel some pride for.
While the new terror isis-k is a serious problem, I am more concerned about the terror afoot at our own doorstep. Throughout the South and here in my home state of Idaho, hospitals are full. This week a friend's grandson, not even a year old, reported not eating, not drinking, a fever, then trouble breathing was treated for covid/viral pneumonia at our local ER with an IV, steroids', and monoclonal antibodies. Then also sent home early. There just was not room for him to stay in critical care at the largest hospital in 126 miles. The image of an American baby in the hospital, treated but asked to leave contrasted with the marine hoisting the Afghan baby over the barbed wire in A-stan leaves me with a profound sense of foreboding.
And even as the rationing of care has begun here, and Idaho Covid cases climb, in a straight up curve, just like in Texas and Florida, our Governor Brad Little and Health Director Dave Jeppsen can not even mention to the public, nor even ask citizens for the one simple and short term sacrifice that could help, especially in our schools, they just can not mention nor ask the public to wear a mask. The Republican Pandemic strategy is ignorant, nefarious, and cruel.
Kevin McCarthy is right about something. We should be aware of terror and terrorism. The domestic terror of disease, the terror of not being able to get a hospital bed for grandson with so much fluid in his young lungs he can not breathe, the terror of a loved one dying alone either at home without proper care or rationed care... IN A FIELD HOSPITAL ... or in some TENT... or PARKING GARAGE!
At least in the Army, the families have something the red states do not. At least the families of the fallen have a Commander and Chief and officers, leaders who care enough to acknowledge their sacrifice, their pain, their suffering, and their loss of loved ones. These red state's, as with the Republican party are leaderless, staffed by demagogues, sado-populists, and now clearly bio-terrorists.
"It is nothing short of perfidy to place a higher priority on humoring the kind of people who threaten doctors and nurses than on protecting the health and safety of schoolchildren and their families. Some 1,200 children every day are getting sick with Covid in this state, and Mr. Lee’s response is to tie the hands of the people who are actually trying to help."-Margaret Renkle
Yep. Our military is involved in a humanitarian mission at grave risk to their lives. While at home Republicans are involved in a deadly domestic perfidy, promoting the spread of a bio weapon, domestic terrorism in their quest for power.
Thank you for your perspective Ted. The first time my stepson (then a paratrooper) was sent into the Middle East he was quite young. It was right after 9/11. The conflict left its mark on him. I can tell you the anxiety every time there were reports of roadside bombs we braced ourselves for bad news. He told us after his retirement, he had survived one. l get so angry when I listen to the Republicans who have now decided we should stay there. They play carelessly with lives so they can beat their puny political chests. No,I am beyond angry.
Your welcome MB. I thank your son for his service.
I have many friends whose sons and daughters served in both. One older classmate's from my son's elementary school has a picture of an 18 year old women ( a little girl to me) who died in roadside IED while serving in Iraq. To me, even in her uniform photo, looking sharp and professional, she just looks like a child. I would look at her photo everyday dropping my son off and walking him to his classroom. I notice that others rush by and don't see her photo or don't look at her. I could never look away.
Another friends son that served as a Marine in both I and A and lost his battle to suicide, like so many others around 2010- 2012. And this fear of loss haunts other parents still today. So all these people posting their criticism of President Biden, & warmongering still....do they even know or appreciate the cost that so many are burdened with?
They are also the same that look away from our hospitals and health care workers, claiming masks are somehow an infringement on their freedom. What sacrifice have they offered? So like you, I am angry at Republicans too.
The Trump Republicans, (now basically any registered Republican), are clearly being herded by their basest interests. A DSM 5 category. Instead of supporting the men and women in Afghanistan fighting for our country, they shove political slams at the soldiers’ Commander in Chief. Ironic counterpoint to highlight Desantis blaming Biden for his crimes in leading Florida off the cliff.
I agree that the Republican Party constitutes its very own DSM category;however, I fail to see how 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan have made the lives of Americans freer, safer, happier, or better in any way.
Perfectly stated. We have become a barbaric third world country. I listened to an interview of an ICU doctor on the most recent Osterholm Update that shocked me. Not only are our health care workers traumatized and exhausted, they are the brunt of angry attacks from their patients/patients’ family members for not doing enough to save them. What kind of cruel upside-down world have we fallen into? How much longer can our health care workers go on? I am not facing their crisis, though financially I am struggling due to work shortage... but the madness of this country and the climate crisis is having its affect on me mentally and emotionally. I am not religious... rather, I am spiritual... and I am back to a regular practice of prayer/positive intent for President Biden, the US, the health care workers, the Afghans, the Haitians, all those who are hurting, the planet, and the creatures we share it with. Maybe we could join forces in that?
Ted, you are spot on. As callous as it sounds, casualties were sadly predictable and expected during the evacuation of Afghanistan. It is no comfort, however, to the families of those lost and to citizens around the globe hoping for a peaceful air lift out of Afghanistan. It is beyond heartbreaking.
The sheer number of people evacuated thus far is a clear cut example of massive logistics success - the US and its allies have undertaken a seemingly impossible mission, performing nothing short of a miracle* with their efforts. And yet, we now have Elise Stefanik making hyperbolic statements about Biden having blood on his hands. Biden!
Right now I'm thinking about Ms Stefanik and her current condition; she's pregnant with her first child. Where is she planning to deliver her baby? Will the hospital she's chosen be overwhelmed by Covid 19 cases? Is she willing to face a potentially tragic outcome for her and her family because of her anti-mitigation stance? As a staunch member of the Trump coalition she has drawn a line in the sand with regards to Covid. It is Stefanik, along with hundreds of other Republican leaders, who know better but continue to promote a deadly stance with regard to Covid. It is they who have the blood of their own nation on their hands. We damn them today, history will damn them forever.
Here's a fitting quote, I think:
"Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. “
My brother finally got vaccinated because his buddies required it for an annual get together. Stefanik will have to wear a mask in order to be in hospital. Selfish people.
Ted, in you rage and outrage you give us hope, as we mourn the loss of life at home and abroad. Please keep sharing your wisdom, knowledge and heartfelt sentiment with us.
Ted, thank you. Someone needs to tell the truth. The American Political System is fragile and major cultural fault lines have begun to appear. As I said up thread it is about to collapse. We are observing the tall snowy mountainside just before the avalanche.
Thank you for vividly capturing our plight. Today's letter, your commentary, and the words of others here convey how far America has sunk. But Fern's posting of "Still I Rise" saved me, at least for now, from despair. With an assist from your line: "Let's listen to Nina Simone, end the filibuster, and get on with it."
Michael, I read widely and wonder about the schedule for your neck surgery as Portland has a large surge of covid. I would like to know how your doing. My experience as a caregiving for my husband spurs the concern. Please respond only if it suits you. Salud!
Thanks very much for your concern. Surgery is scheduled for Sept. 22. I had some pre-surgery tests this week at the hospital and was told that the Covid surge shouldn't cause a delay but to stay tuned. If the surgery is scheduled early in the day and there are no complications, I will likely avoid spending the night at the hospital. Must self-isolate at least a week before and get a Covid test a few days ahead of the operation.
A model from Oregon Health and Science University forecasts that statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations will peak on Sept. 6. Also, the availability of ICU and non-ICU beds stands at 8%.
Yes, Ted. The imminent threat Americans face is the terrorism of the Republicans, who deny science, suppress voting by minorities, foment hatred, and encourage militias to tear apart our democracy. We have our own IsisUS.
Hello wonderful Fern. One of my faves by Maya Angelou, a heroine of mine for many years.
I apologize specifically to you today for my comments to agitators and trolls on the forum today. You have counseled me wisely on this in the past. However, I simply am out of touch with being courteous on this day of all days. I am not currently drowning in grief and fury. I am on the crest of a wave of fury and grief today and trust me, I know how to surf it to shore safely. And I am not alone. Suddenly, a line has been crossed for many courteous and responsible citizens in this state. Desantis and his ilk have gotten between the Mama Bear and her Cubs this week. I have been on phone and email all morning. How dare they. Going to meeting right now. A community effort has replaced the school district’s dashboard for Covid school reporting which has been amateurish and misleading. The cases are unbelievable. There is no telling anyone the depth of corruption and treason in the State of Florida. But, it suddenly overnight it became a cry of absolute resolve. And young gens so young or not alive on 9-11 are astounded that President Biden is being mocked and vilified for his empathy and strength. Sound the battle cry.
A Florida judge ruled Friday that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration overstepped its authority in restricting school districts from enacting mask mandates after parents sued officials amid a surge in coronavirus infections.
Judge John C. Cooper of Florida’s 2nd Circuit sided with parents from six Florida counties who challenged DeSantis (R) and state education officials in court this week, arguing that the governor’s order infringes on classroom safety guaranteed by the state’s constitution.
In a milestone decision in the heated debate about mask mandates in Florida, Cooper declared that the state cannot require districts to offer voluntary mandates over “the preservation of general welfare,” comparing the masking issue to the difference between the right to drink alcohol and the criminality of drunken driving.
“We don’t have a right to go into a crowded theater and yell fire because we decided it’s our right to do that,” he said
Got this during my meeting. Have kept my phone open to this forum. Thank you for sharing. GREAT news. We’ve already countered previous comments to local media. Pro mask parents and adults are really happy. A few in meeting broke down in tears.
I put on some music on my phone (Freedom by Jon Batiste) and we boogied a happy dance.
I am so glad to see you. Maya arrived when I was feeling as you do. I had put together several different comments before posting, and I thought how dare I add to the darkness. That is when Maya and Langston Hughes came to me, and I went after them. Once their spirit, I felt better.
You are right, I winced when I saw you playing with the devil. Just remember they get points every time they're connected. Think as though you're feeding DeSantis, NO NO NO.
Christine, this life is not easy. Your positive spirit is very important. It is what we need most and need to share most. When we're low, we turn to those we love, our teachers, our bards -- the music that is in our hearts. Salud!
I grew up as the middle child in my fam of seven kids. Often as is the case with middle child or oldest girl(I was both) this one has natural role of peacemaker. And I was….most of the time. My five brothers were adorable rascal rowdy mischief makers and we were definitely an early gang ruling the neighborhood because we usually had the best snacks and best ideas for games. I was a peacemaker but not averse at all to knocking someone’s block off if they crossed the loyalty line or were mean to the underdog. My dad prob got more calls about me than my brothers. Anyway, I learned how to make peace and I learned how to fight. But I always was the first to tilt up my chin and toss my ponytail and admit who started something, why, and who threw the first punch. So there always are two egos within me and rarely does the fighter for justice get more stirred up than it did this morning.
You embody the values of Valarie Kaur of both loving and fighting, as the situation calls for, while holding both. "Tend the wound." 6 minute video. Her writing and podcasts sound much less airy-fairy.
"2019 NAIS People of Color Conference speaker Valarie Kaur, founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, talks about how educators can create communities of care and use love as a force for justice in the world."
I got into her stuff the last time you suggested her. She’s pretty fierce but with a sweeter countenance and delivery than mine. Quite feminine and deceptive. But I know she’d laugh her ass off at my antics because she’d understand from whence they came.
"Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blamed Biden for the attack".
"Appearing on the Fox News Channel last night, DeSantis blamed Biden for the crisis. “He said he was going to end Covid,” DeSantis said. “He hasn’t done that.”"
Dr. Richardson, why are you taken aback? You are a historian and know that......
These two sentences point to the real culprit: Profound American ignorance that has resulted in Fox News and One America News being able to say any lie and have it immediately lapped up like warm milk by ignorant, poorly read, Americans. Profound ignorance in America is not new and has been present in every wave of immigration from the bottom of Europe's economic class system and maintained for generations, with some tiny fraction of the population drawn to reading like John Adams. But, he was the rare case exception, not the rule.
Remember the Salem witch trials where folks would believe any crazy accusation against a poor 14 year old girl? Then get in line to watch her literally burn?
The problem is not Republicans. They are the symptom of the problem. Like burning teenagers.
The real problem? Americans are so profoundly ignorant and so well trained in methods of belief, without critical analysis, that if they look up and see a blue sky, and some loud blowhard on Fox News says that is a yellow sky, they believe it!! This state of gullible ignorance has ALWAYS been part of America.
Unfortunately, this problem is not really solvable by Joe Biden. The people looking for the return of a Messiah, willing to believe that night is day, etc., are looking for, well, someone like Trump to tell them HE is THE ONE.
Of course, Americans, having been schooled in the art of believing the white man at the front of the church on Sunday morning, no matter what he says?
Well then, when Trump says he is the Messiah?? And their preachers get behind him? Americans will believe. (anything at all).
Probably NONE of Trump's supporters even knew about Trump's surrender agreement with the Taliban. So, Republicans blaming Biden??
It’s easy to fall in a funk and think all is lost, and that this society, with its usual share of ignorant and gullible people is headed for ruin. So much bad stuff happens, and we hear about every bit of it through the news, social media, and multiple news feeds. I have several friends who doom-scroll many times a day. And they all end up in that same funk.
We have always had a portion of easily persuaded citizen fools. We have always had grifter politicians. We are all bummed right now because we happened to elect a narcissistic sociopath (and not the good kind!). He made us scared for our country and he made it okay for the worst of the country to crawl out from under their damp rocks. He was worse than Nixon in his influence on some other politicians, themselves weak, ethics-free, and perhaps as narcissistic and sociopathic.
But remember that this is the same mix of people who made great strides on Civil Rights, fought a world war to defend democracy (still confused about that first one), gave universal suffrage (though some are trying a do over). Same people who created social safety nets—including the ACA— found a way out of the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and recovered from the Civil War. And so much more progress on all fronts. We no longer kill witches (don’t think any were burned. Hanged? Pressed to death? I think…
I believe in our resilience and that a majority of people carry a core of common decency.
That we have voices like Ms Richardson’s and the many people who read her supports my belief.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that the former President of the United States attempted to overthrow a legitimate election, an act of treason, and whom sits at Mara Lago intermittently getting out of his chair to ride a golf cart around. He has not been arrested.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that Fox News is openly attempting to subvert America, through unregulated lies, to transition America to an autocracy run by Oligarchs.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that Republicans, fully aware that their electability depends on lies and a declining population of white racists, are using gerrymandering to expand their power.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that, because salaries have not kept up with what is reported to be low inflation for the last 30 years, young people with "good" jobs, like engineering, can barely afford rent in most cities of America.
Right now, I can prove, and believe that a modest house purchased by an engineer almost straight from school for $24,000 in 1965, in Framingham Massachusetts costs 2.1 million dollars today. No engineer from school has a chance of getting that house except the descendants of the engineer who bought it in 1965.
Lastly, I can prove and believe that the United States government can no longer effectively do much but prosecute infinite war that has no useful outcome and fund military contractors that have no useful products.
Democracy has always existed because people realize they have to fight for it. That there’s a lot to fight against is nothing new. I still believe—with some retrograde moments—that things get gradually better.
Right now what I can gently suggest and prove is that you allow your heart to enter into the equation. Even for today. Let yourself feel pride for all you are in America the Beautiful. Just for a day. It will be like a day of fasting from corruption.
Mike, I respect your perspective and belief in your proofs. You have left out what the majority of Americans, around 60% of the adult population, are capable of it terms of resistance. You cannot have proof of what the January 6 investigative Commission will accomplish or the determination of activists as well as investigative reporters. I think that the best statistician would know that he or she does not have enough data to come to a conclusion about the future of the USA.
Fern. If standing in front of thousands of white men and telling them to storm the Capital to overthrow a legitimate election on national TV is not treason then nothing is. No commission needed.
Mike that was not my point. I was disputing your last claim, for which you have no proof, while stating that you do: 'Lastly, I can prove and believe that the United States government can no longer effectively do much but prosecute infinite war ...'
An interesting podcast on Vox, David Serwar says the GOP do not need the choose the path theyre on in order stay relevant. But they do. Worth a listen and consideration. Are they lazy? Uncreative? Preferring cruelty?
Clyde, I agree with you. Most of us have fallen victim to the depression that began in November 2016, with the accompanying background din of hatred and disinformation that has been going on ever since. The frustration that we feel when seeing a surprisingly (for me) able President, who has worked tirelessly since hours after his inauguration to undo the disgusting filth left behind by his predecessor, produce and encourage legislation to strengthen our economy, get our citizens immunized against a sweeping pandemic (only to be stymied by the very politicians that got us into this mess), and maintain civility when it would have been easier to unleash his wrath against the desperate opposition, and finally end 20 years of warfare that should have been ended two years after it began, all speaks to our fatigue. Still, as you aptly point out, we have overcome worse. We are resilient, and if we refuse to surrender, we can overcome this malignant minority who threaten our very existence.
Thank you for the pep talk, and for realizing that our Salem witches were hanged - not burned. Burning was utilized by our European ancestors.
Thanks Gail. I guess I will admit, as a kid and young man, I was one of those sitting in the church believing the nutty stuff I heard from the Southern Baptist white man at the front of the Church.
But, after the list of ways to get to hell got long enough, I figured, well, since I am already going to hell anyway, I might as well just ignore these guys at the front of the church and enjoy my life.
After that, I started thinking for myself, which, quite honestly, was painful.
It was much easier to believe than to think. Much.
Mike, I hope this story will make you laugh. My husband and his brother, born in the rural South, went to a tent meeting with some fire and brimstone neighbors. There was foot washing, lots of loud, singsong preaching, and finally a call for folks to come forward and be saved. These pre-teen boys sat uncomfortably as most of the audience was "saved." Finally, my young brother-in-law prodded my husband to comply with the rest of the crowd. My husband looked at his brother and calmly told him that he wanted no part of that "crazy SOB" preacher, and promptly left the gathering and walked home. His ability to see through the smoke and mirrors is one of the many reasons that our marriage has lasted 46 years. Your ability to think is your salvation, I'd guess.
Nancy. Great story indeed. Yes. Friday night tent revivals were still a thing. Yes indeed. Those were truly something nobody today can even imagine. Healings, miracles and Satan himself cast out and defeated.
When they would call for converts many would go. But. I clearly remember not feeling any different after all the shouting and crying so, at that time I just assumed I was not yet saved and should not pretend I was.
So, now, here I am. Going to hell like I always was.
Oh, I don't think so, Mike. Having been raised in the Episcopal Church in New England, I witnessed none of that drama. However, I have come to believe that if there is a Hell, I believe it's reserved for the craven cynics that manipulate others to achieve their evil ends, and contribute nothing to society's welfare. I doubt that you'd fit into that category.
My husband survived nicely. His brother, though, is firmly in the grip of hellfire and brimstone.
I had that fire and brimstone upbringing also, though before the SBA grew its power. My grandfather was a member of the Dover Association, which I think is now defunct, and faithfully slept through the sermon in the second row for 60 years. With a family full of politicians during the demise of the Byrd machine in Virginia my cynicism began in watching the meetings at the kitchen table, often including said pastor. Who ultimately ran away with the church secretary. 😜
Just looked, Dover Association still around. Seems to be missions related rather than doctrine related these days. Anyhoo, I formally resigned when women were forbidden the pulpit and the Baptist Averett University was threatened with defunding for teaching Darwinism, though I’d left it behind years earlier.
Mike As a kid I’d go to church and somewhat listen to the readings of the lessons. I had no idea that there was a difference between the Old and New Testament. Many years later I taught a course on the similarities and differences between early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Wow! There are two distinct Genesis chapters on God and creation. The first five chapters, purportedly written by Moses, actually were written about 500 years later. The Old Testament God and Jesus seemed not to be on the same page. Jaren Armstrong’s THE HISTORY OF GOD to me indicates that the ‘gods’ of our present-day major religions were created by humans and, initially, were intimately linked to rulers. Oi vey, Mother of Mary, Allah u Ahkbar.
Had one of my ex-classmates tell me that she was glad she was not educated like me because of my political beliefs which include living up to the ideals of the Constitution and not supporting the cruel criminal corruption of someone like mafia don. I wanted to tell her that I was glad not to be a Christian like her because that does influence what she thinks politically, but I was polite. I also explained that I would feel the same without the education, but perhaps not understand the history that tells how we got here.. I was told just this week that I should not make everything political right after a post from someone on her thread that Biden is inept. Not a word to him of course. And crickets about January 6th.....nothing at all ever. We can talk pleasantly about dogs though, so there's that.
Michele, I don't really think "being a Christian" is what gets in anyone's way of thinking. After all, when queried about why he was not fasting on the Sabbath, Jesus indicated "my disciples are hungry".
The message that fellow Jesus brought was pretty good.
But, the Southern Baptist Church and its corruption of Christianity with a cult of personality for the white man preacher? THAT is not good.
That is ugly.
Read about how the Southern Baptist and Northern Baptist church split. You will see.
The type of Christian (focused on things like abortion) this person is does get in the way of thinking. I thought about defining that more clearly because I know several people, including the most grounded person I know, whose Christianity informs their social conscience and progressive approach to others. Plus this is northern Indiana where I was brought up in a Republican household and many of my ex-classmates remain in this milieu. This is a place where there is much railing about the flag, the anthem, the pledge, confusing symbols with the reality of our political system for those it ignores or punishes. I often comment about the ideals of our democracy vis a vis the reality. The same person dissed the color the press secretary's dress yesterday as if that matters. I said how she did the job is what matters. The usual suspects joined the chorus on how people look. The worst thing my ex-classmate posted (after the Labor Day fires here in Oregon) was a meme about how God was punishing CA because there are some atheists. I had a very hard time being polite on that one, but she did get scorched and did back down although her excuse was not the truth. She meant the meme as it read. As an aside, I read today with delight that Harvard has a new atheist chaplain. I should also make clear that I am not against spirituality however people do that, but I do have problems with the intolerance,authoritarianism, and hubris of fundamentalists.
I am taken aback by this. This is not the same old ignorance. There has never been a time where Americans have been attacked by the extralegal killings of a terrorist group where there was not unity among American leaders AGAINST the terrorists. What is happening now is not ignorance. Exploitation of the ignorance of their disinformation-soaked supporters, yes. But we have never seen that in this situation before. This is willful hypocrisy of the most vile kind, an opportunism so extreme that it has the potential to destroy the United States.
A subversive sense of justifiable grievance. Yes, reading that I realize that I was not thinking about that aspect of it when I wrote my comment. But, yes, you are right. That is absolutely part of it.
Your words strike at the truth in America. The truth of ignorance. The inability to ferret facts from opinion; to understand when you are being gaslighted and the manipulator is a fraud. And, the connection to believing the white man at the altar is true. But, there has to be some component of emotional need to line up behind a man who spews 47,000+ confirmed lies and his political party. We have become an America where the majority have the ability and desire to fact check leaders, research their backgrounds, and understand when they are being led astray, and the minority who don't posses fact-checking ability, don't care to find truth, and are easily angered and frightened by scary statements and issues. How did we get so far apart? How did we overlook calling a spade a spade from the beginning? GOP willingness to support and hide nefarious behavior and words? Media being too nice in the beginning and not calling out lies, mistruths, and exaggerations? What allowed this monster to rise up and take hold in the first place? But, most importantly, how do we prevent it from happening again? How do we confront the threats of COVID spread, curtailing voting rights, and get back to decency once again?
I did not realize until now that DeSantis and his ilk are actually trying to increase the number of dead in their state(s) in order to blame Biden for the delta variant. This is so evil and so wrong. He ought to be impeached. (I assume governors can be impeached.) DeSantis actually IS a threat to the citizens of his state. And to the rest of us because he wants to be prez.
Afghanistan is such a sh*t show. Yet Biden is doing precisely what he did in the very early days of his administration—soldiering on amidst the chaos—an approach that has gained my respect and support. While I question the wisdom of some of the administration’s actions regarding the withdrawal, I do not doubt his quiet but sustained recognition of the situation, and his sense of responsibility and commitment. I feel as though we haven’t had a president like this in a very long time. Possibly decades. I trust Biden. As much as I have liked some former POTUSes, they did not garner the sense of trust this man evokes in me. The Rs will seek to destroy him because they have no other method of governing. We are a sh*t show of a different kind.
Republicans seek destabilization as a way to gain power. It is the Republican strategy to make the pandemic as bad as possible, then blame President Biden and the Democrats for failing to solve a problem that Republican Gov's let get out of control.
The Republican's strategy is really a fascist one, and it is also how Putin maintains his power. Because Putin has been so good at holding power, his strategy has been welcomed by the Republican Party.
"If citizens can be kept uncertain by the regular manufacture of crisis, their emotions can be managed and directed."-V. Solkov
I think the movable middle will see through their façade. The future of Democracy depends upon it.
It is not only voters, DeSantis is now sacrificing the children with his anti-mask stance. Yesterday, there were 47 children in the ICU in Palm Beach County. Per capita, Florida has the highest infection rate and death rate in the country. At least 10 school boards have defied his anti-mask Order. Yet others, such as St. Johns County (St. Augustine) won't even allow the mask question to be placed on the Agenda. During this crisis, Ron DeSantis has not taken advantage of federal funds available to feed hungry children. He has not distributed funds available to upgrade ventilation systems and other measures to mitigate the spread of the virus in schools. One school has closed because every single teacher has Covid. DeSantis must be stopped in the governor's race next year. He has been traveling the U.S. fundraising off this catastrophe. Florida's media market is expensive. I'm supporting Nikki Fried for Governor. She will need all the financial support she can get. If DeSantis wins, it's on to the presidential race. He is more dangerous than Trump ever was because he's much smarter. He has degrees from Yale and Harvard. He did a stint in the Navy. He is today's Movement Conservative in Chief.
Probably the most important election in ‘22. We can only hope the sacrifices of children will be conscience shock treatment for a benumbed public. Beyond outrageous.
I need to correct/clarify a statement above. I learned this morning that St. Johns County has implemented a mask mandate for staff. The governor's Order was issued under the rubric of a parent's bill of rights, thus allowing the school board to mandate masks for staff. Can we say, this allows some students to pee in their corner of the pool?
Free to the public, but rest assured, the company is still getting paid. I really don't mind the government supplying convalescent plasma, I do mind that it is being used in lieu of a program of vaccinations, masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene. It is NOT a replacement for all these things, it can be a life saving treatment for people very sick with covid-19, but it is costly in terms of healthcare worker hours and dollars. $10 of vaccine 15 min of health care worker time vs a $10,000 treatment that requires hours, if not days of health care worker time.
I believe this is a republican investment - i heard Abbott pushing this the other day following his resurrection from Covid. Unfortunately for them this may backfire because of its cost and availability so many cannot afford or find it because of these governors decisions against healthcare.
I deleted an earlier incorrect statement (thought you referenced a recall). Yes, he can be impeached but in a Florida congress which is overwhelming controlled by Republicans in both houses, that will never happen.
Joe Biden is taking flak for acting honorably - for having the strength to leave a foreign civil war where the US was never wanted- for following the science on covid to bring an end to the pandemic and he is being sabotaged by Republican perfidy. It's more than frustrating to watch these false narratives propagated by the Republicans have so much impact. I rely on Heather's daily communications to keep the faith that sanity will prevail in the end. Thank you.
I was thinking the same as I read today’s letter—I wish it were also a newscast. I am sickened by the Republicans. I just read an article in The Atlantic by Peter Wehner comparing outrage to addiction—one keeps needing more to get high, and the repubs continue to supply.
In spite of my best efforts to understand and to counter the Republiqan talking points, I have arrived at the point where I believe that there is no talking to/ reasoning with/ providing accurate information to these people. There is no point in negotiating with terrorists because they do not operate in the same world as the rest of us. That is my conclusion with today's Republiqans. They have the same wants and desires as terrorists do, and must be treated as such.
"It was as if an abyss had opened. Amends can be made for almost anything, at some point in politics, but not for this.”-Hanah Arendt on the holocaust and Nazis.
”If politics is only a set of economic decisions, then the person is no more than the work they do and the infinite preciousness of every person’s potential cascades into a brutal homogeneity, one person indivisible from the next."
I feel the same towards the Republican's inaction and ineptitude towards the pandemic, the anti vax, the anti mask, it comes down to being "anti humanity". This is what has happened to them. The Republican leaders promote inhumanity further and further, until what or when?
I've been reading your process with former colleagues, the R folks in your life over the past several months, Ally. Deep sigh to read that you have come to this place, and relief that your precious energies will re-focus. I would be proud to march alongside you any day.
I wonder if on his deathbed DeSantis will ask himself, "Was standing up for personal freedoms worth the deaths of so many people, including children? Am I a murderer?" Doubtful. The man possesses the wisdom of a cockroach.
t-Rump knew more people would die because of his lies and inactions (no COVID protections needed), but he, lacking a conscious or a single moral bone in his body, believed those Iives were not as important as his economy. Someone has to have recorded him saying as much. I would sentence him to life without mercy.
[From the "Don't Let Fox News Shape Your Perspective" department]
Opinion: Putting ‘America First’ would require keeping our word to Afghan allies
Opinion by Catherine Rampell
Columnist
<start clip>
To be clear, the most compelling reason to take in military interpreters and other vulnerable Afghans is the moral and humanitarian one. These people helped us and are now in grave danger. They have targets on their backs precisely because they helped us, and we have made a commitment to protect them in return. This commitment is enshrined in U.S. law.
A related reason regards our national security interests. If we break our word to protect these allies, then the next time we need people in another part of the world to take a risk by cooperating with us, they’ll be less likely to agree. Our reputation matters.
There’s another, even more self-interested argument: that refugees are good for the U.S. economy.
In 2017, while casting about for excuses to choke off refugee admissions, the Trump administration commissioned a study on the economic and fiscal impact of refugees. Much to Miller’s chagrin, it found that refugees are a net positive for the U.S. economy. Yes, refugees often arrive penniless and in need of public services, such as food assistance. Within short order, most get jobs and become self-supporting.
As a result, over the decade that the Trump administration examined (2005-2014), refugees paid $63 billion more in taxes than they received in benefits, across all levels of government.
(We must never forget to remember the attacks from the right are meant to cover over past failures of GOP politicians, Presidents and right wing media.)
Appearing on the Fox News Channel last night, DeSantis blamed Biden for the crisis. “He said he was going to end Covid,” DeSantis said. “He hasn’t done that.”
Conservatives love to say that we can't have socialized medicine or gun control or Universal Basic Income (never mind an increase to the minimum wage) because it's all so complicated, isn't it? It's just so complicated. Too complicated for the ken of we lowly mortals.
But apparently DeSantis is pissed off that Biden isn't using the magic wand he got from Hogwarts to deal with (wait for it) a complicated situation that's made all the more complicated by the cruel neglect of politicians like DeSantis.
Something something, party of personal responsibility, something something pro-life something something something think of the children.
You would not need a baseball bat. If we confronted most of these repubs who act so powerfully, they would shrink like violence. Their chutzpah is merely a bloated narcissism propped up by their patriarchal supremacy. My bet would be on you with one hand tied behind your back. (How is that for a pacifist emerging to ready for a necessary fight?).
Did I mean shrink like violets or violence? Hmmmm.... I guess spellcheck will decide. I am going for violets before violence. Remember the gun with a flower coming out of it? Old 1960's meme before memes?
I'd like to see a large percentage of health care professionals and early responders across the country protest the conditions created by politicians like DeSantis and Abbott by doing a rolling walk-out for an hour -- say noon -- first at eastern time, then central, then mountain, then Pacific, then Hawaii.
TC, I want to see that, too - you and DeSantis in a room. No baseball bat is needed. You'll bring that devil down and when you're done and leave the room, DeSantis is in No Exit, all alone.
You know, there may be power in adding to our daily routine All of Us Thinking Positively and visualizing the demise of the fascists. The power of the mind is a vast, uncharted territory, but throughout civilizations, inventions have occurred around the planet at similar times with no contact. Who is up for facing the setting sun in the West, humming a little munchkin song about fascists melting like the Wicked Witch of the West. Heigh Ho! And up in the morning communing, writing, talking, protesting, voting and saving our country. Use everything within our reach and power. I just remembered, when I was a kid, my mom had a saying from a wise man on the wall, "Thought is the most powerful communication tool you have."
You’re the only sane person on this blog . I never knew how uncouth Democrats were. I was expecting interesting debate - but just a lot of people telling me to fuck off or threatening to kill people with baseball bats. It comes down to Biden good/ Republican bad - with literally no exceptions. No other interpretation can be brooked. If someone bad has happened in Afghanistan it was not Biden’s fault in any possible way and anyway it can all be smoothed over by quoting some smaltz from Maya Angelou and then everyone feels better.
Oh, thank many of you for making me laugh today, I really need this to buffer less funny feelings. I am not totally sure that TCinLa is kidding, but I love the release of tension with what I hope is humor that most of us would not normally say out loud!
If Biden showed up with a "magic wand," it would be decried as "witchcraft" and they would be opposed to using it. Their GOAL is high death rates, riots, disorder, violence in the streets. They are liars to the core.
DeSantis has no right to blame anyone but himself about the Delta deaths on his watch! Not.One.Single.Person.But.Himself! He has blood on his hands and he's attempting to wipe that blood on Biden's hands. No way, DeSatan! Those bloodstains are yours and yours alone!
As for the bloodshed in Afghanistan, we must all take the blame for that. Very few people stood up against the invasion of Afghanistan! Very few people attempted to stop our involvement there. How can we even begin to pass on the blame to anyone, but to the government and people of the USA? Would it be even logical to envision a bloodless exit? It's a miracle that planes haven't been shot down and that more haven't died to date! The deaths break my heart, but we must stop the blame game and recognize our own two-decade silence and/or approval.
I am completely flummoxed as to how DeSantis can justify his actions and remarks, and his plan to run for office based on his deadly policies. It leaves me speechless.
I'm not flummoxed: it is the play book of all Gaslighting Obstructionists to 1. promote ignorance in order to gain an advantage and 2. when promoting ignorance doesn't work as well as they want it to, to shove blame on everyone except themselves for the horrors they perpetrate.
I commented too early (before seeing your post). The gaslighting is truly spectacular... And once you notice it you can't unsee, and it goes so deep. (...And I feel so defeated). <sigh>
Joe Biden is a politician who takes responsibility and has inherited a dysfunctional government and Democracy. Republicans blaming Biden for Afghanistan and the losses there are playing to Trump’s base so they will be re elected. Desantis is a perfect example of how to play the blame game and fails to look in the mirror of how his policies are killing the people of Florida and the children who are most vulnerable because he fails to protect them at school by requiring masks. His policy is killing our citizens our children.
Are politicians exempt from malpractice? Do they bear no responsibility for not protecting their constituents and putting their lives in danger?
One very Republican associate posted that the activity in Afghanistan is a smoke screen to cover up problems elsewhere such as the covid problems. I couldn’t believe the irony of her thought process! They never let up. No matter the mess trumpty made, they always blame the other guy.
Eleven students at my elementary school are out with positive covid tests. Four staff. This is our second week back f2f. Parents wanting their kids in masks are trying to keep them safe. There aren’t any pediatric ICU beds left in our area. Virtual school is not being funded so it’s all f2f. Abbott has us back to square one.
Like Heather said it’s ideology over the safety of our children.
Thinking of you, hope you can stay safe and healthy. So sorry for you and the other Florida residents who must make the best of a terrible situation. I know a nurse in one of the impacted hospitals and last week their beds were already full of young unvaccinated infected patients and they were turning away ambulances with routine emergencies because THERE WAS NOWHERE TO PUT THEM. She is exhausted, frustrated, and angry. 💔
We, as a country, are going to find ourselves with NO critical care nurses or doctors. I cannot imagine the levels of burnout and PTSD that are going to decimate these wonderful, giving, and talented people.
I am ashamed to share a last name with a person who puts ideology over the safety and well being of those he is supposed to be serving. My heart goes out to you, your students, and their parents. We have a similar situation in NH (except with no Delta surge - yet), A Republican governor, with his eye on a senate seat, pandering to trumpists instead of providing leadership.
Steve, not sure what you mean about no Delta surge. Virtually all Covid in NH, Maine, and everywhere is Delta now, and as you know, our cases rise daily. Many of our hospitals are at capacity, whether with Covid or other issues. There is a story from Memorial Hospital in North Conway a couple nights ago that they called 16 hospitals trying to transfer a patient out per protocol and no one could take him/her. Just as we are welcoming students back from other parts of the country and world to our universities, colleges and boarding schools.
My heart goes out to you, Denise, and to all the teachers and parents and children making their way forward through the valley of covid while death cult politicians compete to make it worse.
Denise, I've been wondering how it's been going with you and your school. I'm sorry, but not surprised, to hear about so many cases already. Please stay safe and sane, take good care of yourself while you take care of the littles.
The Republiqan "thought process" you allude to here is misnamed. They have no "thought process", only the regurgitation of the talking points that in some horrific way feed their very souls.
I heard on NPR this morning that Abbott has declared a state of emergency. I sensed Texans were getting fed up with him and hopeful the same will happen in Florida.
So heartbreaking to have our dedicated soldiers and fleeing Afghan families suffer yet more deaths, more mayhem by ISIS and their young offshoot. The horrendous attitude by the so-called leaders of the Republican Party is infuriating. Day after day, they adopt the former guy’s tyrannical language to spit on Biden. Shameful and inhumane is what they are. In the meantime, they take no responsibility for over 635,000 Covid deaths. I am ready to pull my hair out.
I hear you Marlene - please refrain from doing damage to yourself - your caring heart is needed now more than ever ... breathe and flow ... one breath at a time ...
As usual, I am disgusted by the callousness and outright lies of the Repugnant Party leaders, but moreso by the ignorant cult following that believes them. Yesterday on twitter, I have taken TN Sen. Marsha Blackburn to task for her insensitive attacks on Biden, instead of joining in the national grief for our lost soldiers. Had to remind her that Biden is stuck with the mess her cult leader left. I know it is a useless gesture on my part, but venting helps me, and apparently many others with the same message. IDK why these Repugnant Party leaders even post this disinformation on twitter, as there is usually a bunch of us telling the facts on their timeline.
As for our deluded and downright evil governor RegeneRon DeathSantis, telling his easily refuted lies on Faux Noise about how well he is dealing with COVID, while our hospitals are at a breaking point, both in supplies and burned out medical staff and we still lead the nation in infections, what can I say? Half the ppl in Floriduh are idiots and believe him. Very disheartening for those of us with critical thinking skills having to endure this sea of ignorance of which we have no effect.
Every day I wake up and think “things can’t really be as bad as I thought they were yesterday, it surely can’t be any worse”. Then I realize it indeed can get worse, every d*** day.
A photo was published yesterday of President Biden, taken at his news conference, where he is holding his folder, and his head is bowed. My very first thought was “here is a deeply grieving man, feeling the pain of the families who will soon learn that they have lost a son or daughter, and remembering the pain of losing his own son”. My heart ached for him, and I was so moved by his compassion and empathy.
Then I began reading comments being left about the photo, and was utterly and completely gobsmacked. Most all comments were from people who saw nothing but weakness and defeat in the photo, and were calling for him to resign.
I know it is only human nature for two people to look a the same picture and see two different things. But for one person to see/feel nothing but love, and the other to see/feel nothing but hate takes me to a place of utter despair that this division in our country can ever be healed.
You saw the right picture, Cathy. Delusional dream views must not be given oxygen. Don’t even read those comments. I believe he was praying as he got ready to speak, and his eyes showed evidence of recent tears. Many far right cult followers do not recall a leader who isn’t just calculating how to monitize events for his own oversized pockets.
It is a powerful image. What actually happened was that he gave the last question to the Fox News reporter Peter Doocy who hammered away at Biden about taking responsibility. Biden put a question back to Doocy who continued to animatedly argue the point. Biden, clearly frustrated, gave up on the attempted exchange and put his head down. I thought, as I watched it, that he was pausing and praying that he would not say something harsh back to Doocy. But, the moment did morph into something bigger and conveyed the burden, sadness and frustration of the President. He did recover and clearly stated that as President he took responsibility for it all. Then he left the room to go to another meeting.
Thank you, Heather. I've appreciated, in the past week or so, the nuance that you've incorporated into your writings about Afghanistan. I retired from the Army in '16, spent 4.5 years at USCENTCOM, and while I never fought in AFG (I went to Iraq twice), I went there twice on Advisory visits and spent considerable time dealing with policy & strategy there. Just listing the factions of power and their range between "good" and "bad" would take several classes (hint: it's a lot more than "The Taliban" and ISIS-K). Of course, the Republicans are criticizing Biden here. They are 1) going to the already-bone-dry well of foreign policy because they still feel (well, hope) that is an area they can get some degree of resonance and 2) the one gift that kept on giving for them last decade was the Canine & Equestrian Show, AKA Benghazi...they're desperate for an encore (they won't get it. America's 5-minute attention span is already waning. Back on your mask-less, plan-less heads, GOP).
Then, of course, there is Florida. If this were happening in 1998 Serbia, we'd have added it to Slobodan Milosevic's supposed crimes against humanity (I say supposed because, while we had him to dead-to-rights on War Crimes, we never did on CAH--so we played the long game, dragged out the trial, and let him die in prison). Seriously--I think history WILL condemn DeSantis in those kinds of terms...and they should.
Firstly, thank you for your service (and I mean that from my heart, not just "lip service"). I appreciate your assessment of Professor Richardson's nuance into the writings of Afghanistan. I know so little about that area of the world that I don't even know where or how (and honestly, IF) I want to spend my energy there with so much more needing my attention. I howled at "Canine & Equestrian Show". So needed today.
I hope that the condemnation you reference will also include Abbot and other nutbag governors along with all of the people who sway with whatever qonspiracy oozes from the talking heads at Faux and OAN.
Robert--Thank you for highlighting the fact that most news reports--whatever their partisan bents--continually elide: there is no "THE Taliban." There have been many books and papers over the years (back into the '90s) detailing the shifting alliances and conflicts within the many tribes and subgroups grouped together as The Taliban, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They may at various points have been rooted together as (alleged) talibs--religious students--but many of them retain much stronger ties to their ethnic groups and/or local warlords. There seems to me no doubt that there will be much churning-- negotiations, alliances, conflicts, buy-offs, etc.--in store for whichever Taliban tries to exert centralized political and ideological control. Our public rhetoric of us versus "the Taliban" just makes careful tactical and strategic planning all the more difficult.
Stefanik is a worthless little piece of shit who should be taken out behind the woodshed and given a good "what for" for being such a worthless little shithead. She's further proof that actual intelligence and the ability to go to the vastly-overrated Hahvahd are two different things. Given too many of the rest of the graduates of that brickpile, it needs closing.
As far as the rest of the scum that jumped-up conscienceless little shit's part of, Harry Truman was right 73 years ago: "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." The current crop are so far beyond redemption and so rotten their stench can be smelled across the continent.
How dare they dishonor the military that lost their lives yesterday. Blood on Biden’s hands? I’ve already put in call to Pelosi’s office. And will do so repeatedly today to find out how strong a rebuke can be levied against McCarthy and his handmaid.
TC - My guess is that my ancestor William Thompson (Harvard Class of 1653) is churning in his grave. He missed out on the “bricking” of the campus which didn't begin until ca 1718-20 with Mass Hall.
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou - 1928-2014
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
I love Maya Angelou--and this poem, Fern, but I have been thinking a lot more about Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddamn!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM
My country is full of lies,
We all gonna die like flies.
I don't trust anybody anymore.
They keep sayin' go slow.
That's just the trouble,
desegregation
mass participation
unification.
Do things gradually,
Will only bring more tragedy.
Why don't you see it?
Why don't you feel it?
I don't know?"
Lets listen to Nina Simone, end the filibuster and get on with it.
Ted, this capsulizes today's turmoil. Looking at most of the mainstream press makes me feel that they're all looking at a different world that the one in which I live. We've had enough tragedy, and now the blame is all being heaped on President Biden. Surely, they know better.
They know better, they're just playing politics. It's all a game to them, and they want to collect all the marbles. It's disgusting.
I agree, and the mainstream, with few exceptions, is as bad as Fox. I saw a clip of Seth Moulton on MSNBC, one of the two that arrived in Kabul unannounced, and, while he wasn't trashing Biden, it's clear that he's trying to boost his political capital. Jerk.
I believe journalist are not falling for it wholesale. Their are those though, that, following the Rethug-Lican demagoguery as a way to get headlines to advance their careers are taking advantage of people’s National pride and emotions.
Besides Jen Psaki’s on task, and she’s brilliant!
I love her. She takes no prisoners, but isn't snarky. It's too bad that she isn't planning to stay in her position, though.
It's so frustrating, though, that so many mainstream press sites are piling on Biden. I expect no less from Fox, but the fact that McMaster and others are being afford so much oxygen is despicable. Today's MSN news is dominated totally by Fox and similar drivel, and of course, there is the ubiquitous Kevin McCarthy and the Rethugs' calls for Tony Blinken's impeachment and enacting the 25th Amendment against Biden.
There
Nina Simone Furiosa! Perfect, Linda, just the right SPIRIT. Nina came to me before Maya. She drew me to her when I guessI wasn't too young to understand. Thank you.
I remember seeing her in concert in Montréal. Formidable.
Today's version is "Florida Goddamn" and Gov. DeathSantis.
Wow. As valid today as it was in 1965.
I just Heard and Watched THIS, for the First time!!!
Wow!!! THANKS💖
OMG. Thank you ❤️ 🙏❤️ New for me. Shedding tears.
Plain speak 100%. Thanks, Linda. So relevant.
This poem makes me think of the newest BLM design for T-shirts, hoodies, and water bottles - a dandelion stem that spells out "black lives matter" topped with a hash inside a heart inside a seed puff just beginning to disperse in the wind. The narrative that accompanies the new design:
Dandelions are often seen as undesirable but it is one of the most resilient plants.
Dandelions die in the winter, though the plant's roots live on underground, all year round.
Dandelions can be seen as flowers or weeds. Something desirable or despised.
Dandelions are often the first flower that people play and interact with as a child.
The dandelion can be a metaphor for the African diaspora, people spread across the world like a dandelion's seeds.
We are the seeds that LIVE | GROW | THRIVE regardless.
https://store.blacklivesmatter.com/dept/apparel?cp=101422_103427
Lanita, Beautiful. You and the dandelions have me between a smile and tears. I was a dandelion fan as a child. It was a bit confusing between weed and flower. Thank you.
That’s the beauty of the dandelion. I always loved the name
Dandy-Lion
I've been thinking that the "Dandelions" might be our salvation. They've persisted over the generations, learned to live with disrespect but not be crushed by it, and never believe they are "less than." We should take a page from their book.
Dandelions promote good health.
https://www.nutrition-and-you.com/dandelion-herb.html
Love, love and diamonds between her warm thighs, Maya Angelou is SAINT of Tolerance and Love. Maya Angelou Is God’s messenger. Maya Angelou Is Love. Who are we?
I felt Angelou was speaking directly to me. “Poetry...is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his [her] own.” Salvatore Quasimodo, as quoted in the NYT. I agree with him in many but not all cases.
What a wonderful reminder, and we will. All the people.
Thank you for this amazing poem. A moment of deep inspiration which temporarily lifts us out of the dire news cycle!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Up we go, Diane.
Calls up "Rise Up"
https://pin.it/23P2yh8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YapAxPfRyI
Thank you, Fern. As soon as I started to read the words, Still I Rise, I heard Maya's voice reading it. I need this reminder.
Fern - that is so beautiful - bit humorous - and lovely. Sad that I never read much of what she wrote - will change that. Thank you
I love the humor, too, and how alive the poem is.
Yes - full of humanity - as we all should be and most are not. Thanks again.
Thank you, Fern and Maya. Reading these words gave me hope that we'll survive this, and many other challenges.
Incredibly powerful!
Wondrous morning gift!
The Afghan army collapsed because Trump (ignorant asshole) pulled all support for them in his agreement with the Taliban. May he and his self serving Republicans all burn in hell.
RIP Brothers and Sisters.
Semper Fi
Thank you for your service Hale. Your sentiment is heart wrenching and clear. I mourn with you...bringing me to tears
Semper Fi
Exactly. If I was in the Afghan Army and learned the U.S. just bargained one on one with my enemy, I'd know I was screwed and would resort to self-preservation mode. I don't blame them for what they did, but I wonder if some will go guerrilla to exact some revenge.
For those who gave their last full measure, it was not in vain. We will not forget.
Semper Fidelis. Said do well. Thank you, Hale.
I think it didn't matter how America pulled out, it would be disastrous. I think that's why Trump didn't pull America out during his first term, figuring it would cost him the 2020 election for sure. I think it's pure horse manure Republicans and MAGAs and the right-side media blaming Biden for what was inevitable. Perhaps this will teach America a lesson about getting into wars in foreign countries?
There was no easy way out, there was only trying to control chaos. Have we finally learned the lesson we can't bend nations to our will with our military? Had all that money just gone to humanitarian purposes like schools, hospitals, etc. we'd be so much better off as a world.
How about all that money going to provide every American good, inexpensive health care? How about all the dead, maimed, wounded battle-shocked American soldiers still being alive and well? How about their families and friends not being all torn up and mangled in their souls? Did America learn nothing from Vietnam? The exit from Afghanistan seems much more horrific.
All war is horrendous, this one seems worse by proximity. Casualties in Vietnam totaled 58,000 with 40,000 in combat. The plight of the wounded depended on the quality of their local VA, that is if they could get to one. The American people learned a lot, as did the government and military but not enough to avoid the longterm mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Advancements in medicine and technology kept fatal casualties low in the most recent war for members of the military, not so much for the civilians who became victims of Isis or the Taliban or of sterilized drone attacks.
My hope is we've finally accepted the U.S. cannot create a democracy by military force. Instead we need to use that money for humanitarian pursuits that can set the stage for a country to create their own form of democratic government.
Again, I think the many billion$$$ spend by America on the Afghan war should have been spent improving the lives of Americans, starting with affordable good health care. I am not against foreign aid, but I think the American view that it is called to spread democracy is, well, a bit ... ambitious? ... conceited?
After all, America is not a democracy, is it? At least not in presidential elections. Not in gerrymandering voting districts. Not in a defeated president attempting a coup and not being arrested and tried and hanged for it. But I drift off the topic.
I fault Joe Biden for voting, as a Congressman, for the 2 Bush-Cheney wars. I do not fault Biden for trying to finish the deal Donald Trump made with the Taliban. America very much needed to get out of Afghanistan long before now. It was new President Barack Obama's God-assignment to get America out of those two wars, and he accepted the Nobel Price for Peace instead.
The Vietnam war was a false flag war. America wanted access to Vietnam's rubber plantations and other natural resources. The CIA was in Vietnam helping Ho Chi Minh defeat the French. Ho wanted to do business with America, but America asked too much. Not caring for China, Ho turned to the Soviet Union. Along the way, two prominent Americans, who didn't like America being at war in Vietnam, were killed. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Kennedy's Democrat Vice-President Lyndon Johnson promised Americans on TV that he would never send American boys to die in a war in Asia, then he did just that. His Republican President successor Richard Nixon got elected on a platform he had a plan to get America out of Vietnam. His plan was to build up the South Vietnam military and then pull out American troops. I give Nixon credit for getting America out of a war that never should have happened.
Afghanistan is a very different country from Vietnam. It is MUSLIM. Very conservative MUSLIM. It is tribal. It is ancient. It astounds me that Americans, their presidents, their generals and admirals actually thought the American military could change Afghanistan. Thought an Afghan military based on the American model would survive an American military pull out. Look no further than what happened in the false flag Iraq war after President G. W. Bush announced America had won.
America was in a global war with a RELIGION, which viewed Christendom as infidels.
The American right is screaming about a lot of U.S. Military hardware being left in Afghanistan. Well, how much of that hardware was in the hands of the Americanized Afghan army, which rolled over and made a deal with the Taliban? How could any American be surprised that happened? How could any American general or admiral be surprised that happened?
Big American corporations made a great deal of money off the Vietnam war, and off the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The longer those wars lasted, the more money those big American corporations made. There was longtime dream of a natural gas pipe line being run from east of Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea. After Trump was elected in 2016, he said the natural resources of Afghanistan and Iraq, minerals and oil respectively, should be monetized to repay America for what it spent on war in those two countries.
There really is such a thing as karma. It really does increase when it is ignored. Consider the Afghan refugees President Biden is bringing to America during an international pandemic. Will that be a super super spreader event? How many of those refugees are Taliban, Isis, Al Qaeda sleeper agents?
1. It was Republicans who put us there
2. It is Republicans who want to disable the social safety net
3. America is supposed to be a democratic republic but thanks to court packing even that is in question. It was never going to be a pure democracy but we use the term to indicate it's preferred to be governed by a majority of the people.
4. The refugees will be vetted for terrorists and Covid at the same time, we can do two things at once.
5. The hardware was meant for the Afghan army that folded b/c Trump negotiated with the Taliban and not the govt. Much was destroyed but obviously not enough. The hardware was the reason for the war as part of the never ending cycle of contributions by the military industrial complex to members of Congress and Presidents who get us into wars.
Karma works both ways. The Taliban started the whole mess by harboring al-Qaeda which led to 9/11 which led to the invasion that took out the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now the Taliban is back. How interested will they be to repeat the same mistake. They got what they wanted namely to be back in power, now karma is making it much harder than before for them to run the country. The need international support but can't get it if they return to their former ways.
August 26, 2021
What a sad day for America and for all Americans. My heart goes out to those soldier's parents and families, "the solemn pride that must be theirs, to lay so costly a sacrifice on the altar of freedom". The effort and scope of the Kabul airlift is a historic one. Its somewhere between the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 and Dunkirk 1940, but it is even more noble as it is about saving non combatants/civilians. I am only comforted by the fact that as we leave, sacrifices are being made to protect and evacuate as many American and Afghani civilians as we can. There is a lot of pride and honor in that. A marine hoisting an infant above the crowd and above barbed wire. The faces from Ramstein's tarmac of our Army Nurses smiling through masks, handing out bottles of water, welcoming Afghani refugees. The stories of Afghan babies being born on transport planes. Amongst the pain, these are all things to feel some pride for.
While the new terror isis-k is a serious problem, I am more concerned about the terror afoot at our own doorstep. Throughout the South and here in my home state of Idaho, hospitals are full. This week a friend's grandson, not even a year old, reported not eating, not drinking, a fever, then trouble breathing was treated for covid/viral pneumonia at our local ER with an IV, steroids', and monoclonal antibodies. Then also sent home early. There just was not room for him to stay in critical care at the largest hospital in 126 miles. The image of an American baby in the hospital, treated but asked to leave contrasted with the marine hoisting the Afghan baby over the barbed wire in A-stan leaves me with a profound sense of foreboding.
And even as the rationing of care has begun here, and Idaho Covid cases climb, in a straight up curve, just like in Texas and Florida, our Governor Brad Little and Health Director Dave Jeppsen can not even mention to the public, nor even ask citizens for the one simple and short term sacrifice that could help, especially in our schools, they just can not mention nor ask the public to wear a mask. The Republican Pandemic strategy is ignorant, nefarious, and cruel.
Kevin McCarthy is right about something. We should be aware of terror and terrorism. The domestic terror of disease, the terror of not being able to get a hospital bed for grandson with so much fluid in his young lungs he can not breathe, the terror of a loved one dying alone either at home without proper care or rationed care... IN A FIELD HOSPITAL ... or in some TENT... or PARKING GARAGE!
At least in the Army, the families have something the red states do not. At least the families of the fallen have a Commander and Chief and officers, leaders who care enough to acknowledge their sacrifice, their pain, their suffering, and their loss of loved ones. These red state's, as with the Republican party are leaderless, staffed by demagogues, sado-populists, and now clearly bio-terrorists.
"It is nothing short of perfidy to place a higher priority on humoring the kind of people who threaten doctors and nurses than on protecting the health and safety of schoolchildren and their families. Some 1,200 children every day are getting sick with Covid in this state, and Mr. Lee’s response is to tie the hands of the people who are actually trying to help."-Margaret Renkle
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/opinion/covid-masks-students.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210224143455.htm
The Republican Pandemic strategy is ignorant, nefarious, and cruel and you forgot, DEADLY. We have our own ISIS-A here in America.
Yep. Our military is involved in a humanitarian mission at grave risk to their lives. While at home Republicans are involved in a deadly domestic perfidy, promoting the spread of a bio weapon, domestic terrorism in their quest for power.
Thank you for your perspective Ted. The first time my stepson (then a paratrooper) was sent into the Middle East he was quite young. It was right after 9/11. The conflict left its mark on him. I can tell you the anxiety every time there were reports of roadside bombs we braced ourselves for bad news. He told us after his retirement, he had survived one. l get so angry when I listen to the Republicans who have now decided we should stay there. They play carelessly with lives so they can beat their puny political chests. No,I am beyond angry.
Your welcome MB. I thank your son for his service.
I have many friends whose sons and daughters served in both. One older classmate's from my son's elementary school has a picture of an 18 year old women ( a little girl to me) who died in roadside IED while serving in Iraq. To me, even in her uniform photo, looking sharp and professional, she just looks like a child. I would look at her photo everyday dropping my son off and walking him to his classroom. I notice that others rush by and don't see her photo or don't look at her. I could never look away.
Another friends son that served as a Marine in both I and A and lost his battle to suicide, like so many others around 2010- 2012. And this fear of loss haunts other parents still today. So all these people posting their criticism of President Biden, & warmongering still....do they even know or appreciate the cost that so many are burdened with?
They are also the same that look away from our hospitals and health care workers, claiming masks are somehow an infringement on their freedom. What sacrifice have they offered? So like you, I am angry at Republicans too.
The Trump Republicans, (now basically any registered Republican), are clearly being herded by their basest interests. A DSM 5 category. Instead of supporting the men and women in Afghanistan fighting for our country, they shove political slams at the soldiers’ Commander in Chief. Ironic counterpoint to highlight Desantis blaming Biden for his crimes in leading Florida off the cliff.
I agree that the Republican Party constitutes its very own DSM category;however, I fail to see how 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan have made the lives of Americans freer, safer, happier, or better in any way.
Sorry, Penelope, I posted my piece before seeing this.
No apologies needed, Nancy! Say it again!!
Perfectly stated. We have become a barbaric third world country. I listened to an interview of an ICU doctor on the most recent Osterholm Update that shocked me. Not only are our health care workers traumatized and exhausted, they are the brunt of angry attacks from their patients/patients’ family members for not doing enough to save them. What kind of cruel upside-down world have we fallen into? How much longer can our health care workers go on? I am not facing their crisis, though financially I am struggling due to work shortage... but the madness of this country and the climate crisis is having its affect on me mentally and emotionally. I am not religious... rather, I am spiritual... and I am back to a regular practice of prayer/positive intent for President Biden, the US, the health care workers, the Afghans, the Haitians, all those who are hurting, the planet, and the creatures we share it with. Maybe we could join forces in that?
I'm doing the same - after many years.
Pamsy, I am with you! I believe many others are also. Love and Compassion to you all.
Ted, you are spot on. As callous as it sounds, casualties were sadly predictable and expected during the evacuation of Afghanistan. It is no comfort, however, to the families of those lost and to citizens around the globe hoping for a peaceful air lift out of Afghanistan. It is beyond heartbreaking.
The sheer number of people evacuated thus far is a clear cut example of massive logistics success - the US and its allies have undertaken a seemingly impossible mission, performing nothing short of a miracle* with their efforts. And yet, we now have Elise Stefanik making hyperbolic statements about Biden having blood on his hands. Biden!
Right now I'm thinking about Ms Stefanik and her current condition; she's pregnant with her first child. Where is she planning to deliver her baby? Will the hospital she's chosen be overwhelmed by Covid 19 cases? Is she willing to face a potentially tragic outcome for her and her family because of her anti-mitigation stance? As a staunch member of the Trump coalition she has drawn a line in the sand with regards to Covid. It is Stefanik, along with hundreds of other Republican leaders, who know better but continue to promote a deadly stance with regard to Covid. It is they who have the blood of their own nation on their hands. We damn them today, history will damn them forever.
Here's a fitting quote, I think:
"Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. “
– Lady Macbeth, Act Five, Scene One.
https://poststar.com/news/local/editorial-stefanik-has-adopted-a-pro-covid-agenda/article_0dd66576-e29c-59e7-85f1-c0797377591e.html
*miracle is a word I rarely use. Its general overuse has relegated it trite.
Elise Stefanik is likely to find the same privileged medical care as did trump and Abbott when they needed special Covid treatment.
Med journals are publishing Articles about Covid affecting abnormalities of placenta development in unvaccinated pregnant women.
Sadly.
100k per monoclonals. I don’t know if that price has come down or not since. Vs a free vaccine.
To be absolutely clear, the quote from Macbeth applies to Stefanik, et al., NOT Biden!
Oh, we know that Fab Daria. It’s so bloody exotic. Perfection.
My brother finally got vaccinated because his buddies required it for an annual get together. Stefanik will have to wear a mask in order to be in hospital. Selfish people.
Ted, in you rage and outrage you give us hope, as we mourn the loss of life at home and abroad. Please keep sharing your wisdom, knowledge and heartfelt sentiment with us.
Ted, thank you. Someone needs to tell the truth. The American Political System is fragile and major cultural fault lines have begun to appear. As I said up thread it is about to collapse. We are observing the tall snowy mountainside just before the avalanche.
If you care to go down this rabbit hole go here: https://media.awakeningtowholeness.net/newusa/
Thank you for vividly capturing our plight. Today's letter, your commentary, and the words of others here convey how far America has sunk. But Fern's posting of "Still I Rise" saved me, at least for now, from despair. With an assist from your line: "Let's listen to Nina Simone, end the filibuster, and get on with it."
Michael, I read widely and wonder about the schedule for your neck surgery as Portland has a large surge of covid. I would like to know how your doing. My experience as a caregiving for my husband spurs the concern. Please respond only if it suits you. Salud!
Thanks very much for your concern. Surgery is scheduled for Sept. 22. I had some pre-surgery tests this week at the hospital and was told that the Covid surge shouldn't cause a delay but to stay tuned. If the surgery is scheduled early in the day and there are no complications, I will likely avoid spending the night at the hospital. Must self-isolate at least a week before and get a Covid test a few days ahead of the operation.
A model from Oregon Health and Science University forecasts that statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations will peak on Sept. 6. Also, the availability of ICU and non-ICU beds stands at 8%.
You have me smiling and that's a good thing. I hope the number of infections come down, too. Thank you, Michael.
edit: you're for your.
Yes, Ted. The imminent threat Americans face is the terrorism of the Republicans, who deny science, suppress voting by minorities, foment hatred, and encourage militias to tear apart our democracy. We have our own IsisUS.
isis-R. Republisis.
You're so smart! Yes!
I’m average. I make up for it by reading a lot.
You made me laugh - I need that.
Peace. We cannot drown in grief and fury. You are brimming with support, knowledge and care.
Hello wonderful Fern. One of my faves by Maya Angelou, a heroine of mine for many years.
I apologize specifically to you today for my comments to agitators and trolls on the forum today. You have counseled me wisely on this in the past. However, I simply am out of touch with being courteous on this day of all days. I am not currently drowning in grief and fury. I am on the crest of a wave of fury and grief today and trust me, I know how to surf it to shore safely. And I am not alone. Suddenly, a line has been crossed for many courteous and responsible citizens in this state. Desantis and his ilk have gotten between the Mama Bear and her Cubs this week. I have been on phone and email all morning. How dare they. Going to meeting right now. A community effort has replaced the school district’s dashboard for Covid school reporting which has been amateurish and misleading. The cases are unbelievable. There is no telling anyone the depth of corruption and treason in the State of Florida. But, it suddenly overnight it became a cry of absolute resolve. And young gens so young or not alive on 9-11 are astounded that President Biden is being mocked and vilified for his empathy and strength. Sound the battle cry.
GREAT NEWS FOR FLORIDA'S CHILDREN AND PARENTS. Please read:
Fla. judge rules DeSantis administration cannot restrict school districts’ mask mandates
A Florida judge ruled Friday that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration overstepped its authority in restricting school districts from enacting mask mandates after parents sued officials amid a surge in coronavirus infections.
Judge John C. Cooper of Florida’s 2nd Circuit sided with parents from six Florida counties who challenged DeSantis (R) and state education officials in court this week, arguing that the governor’s order infringes on classroom safety guaranteed by the state’s constitution.
In a milestone decision in the heated debate about mask mandates in Florida, Cooper declared that the state cannot require districts to offer voluntary mandates over “the preservation of general welfare,” comparing the masking issue to the difference between the right to drink alcohol and the criminality of drunken driving.
“We don’t have a right to go into a crowded theater and yell fire because we decided it’s our right to do that,” he said
Got this during my meeting. Have kept my phone open to this forum. Thank you for sharing. GREAT news. We’ve already countered previous comments to local media. Pro mask parents and adults are really happy. A few in meeting broke down in tears.
I put on some music on my phone (Freedom by Jon Batiste) and we boogied a happy dance.
HOORAY!
I am so glad to see you. Maya arrived when I was feeling as you do. I had put together several different comments before posting, and I thought how dare I add to the darkness. That is when Maya and Langston Hughes came to me, and I went after them. Once their spirit, I felt better.
You are right, I winced when I saw you playing with the devil. Just remember they get points every time they're connected. Think as though you're feeding DeSantis, NO NO NO.
Christine, this life is not easy. Your positive spirit is very important. It is what we need most and need to share most. When we're low, we turn to those we love, our teachers, our bards -- the music that is in our hearts. Salud!
I grew up as the middle child in my fam of seven kids. Often as is the case with middle child or oldest girl(I was both) this one has natural role of peacemaker. And I was….most of the time. My five brothers were adorable rascal rowdy mischief makers and we were definitely an early gang ruling the neighborhood because we usually had the best snacks and best ideas for games. I was a peacemaker but not averse at all to knocking someone’s block off if they crossed the loyalty line or were mean to the underdog. My dad prob got more calls about me than my brothers. Anyway, I learned how to make peace and I learned how to fight. But I always was the first to tilt up my chin and toss my ponytail and admit who started something, why, and who threw the first punch. So there always are two egos within me and rarely does the fighter for justice get more stirred up than it did this morning.
Salud to comrades and great poets!
Now, I'll always see you with a ponytail and your chin up. Wonderful capsule of you youth, which still holds true.
You embody the values of Valarie Kaur of both loving and fighting, as the situation calls for, while holding both. "Tend the wound." 6 minute video. Her writing and podcasts sound much less airy-fairy.
"2019 NAIS People of Color Conference speaker Valarie Kaur, founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, talks about how educators can create communities of care and use love as a force for justice in the world."
https://youtu.be/P85WOHJprJw
I got into her stuff the last time you suggested her. She’s pretty fierce but with a sweeter countenance and delivery than mine. Quite feminine and deceptive. But I know she’d laugh her ass off at my antics because she’d understand from whence they came.
Thank you for all you do, Christine—responsible rage.
Thank you Ellie. Perfect description.
My thoughts exactly. Prioritizing not having to wear a mask over lives??? Unbelievable.
This brought tears, Ted. Thank you for your observations.
"Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blamed Biden for the attack".
"Appearing on the Fox News Channel last night, DeSantis blamed Biden for the crisis. “He said he was going to end Covid,” DeSantis said. “He hasn’t done that.”"
Dr. Richardson, why are you taken aback? You are a historian and know that......
These two sentences point to the real culprit: Profound American ignorance that has resulted in Fox News and One America News being able to say any lie and have it immediately lapped up like warm milk by ignorant, poorly read, Americans. Profound ignorance in America is not new and has been present in every wave of immigration from the bottom of Europe's economic class system and maintained for generations, with some tiny fraction of the population drawn to reading like John Adams. But, he was the rare case exception, not the rule.
Remember the Salem witch trials where folks would believe any crazy accusation against a poor 14 year old girl? Then get in line to watch her literally burn?
The problem is not Republicans. They are the symptom of the problem. Like burning teenagers.
The real problem? Americans are so profoundly ignorant and so well trained in methods of belief, without critical analysis, that if they look up and see a blue sky, and some loud blowhard on Fox News says that is a yellow sky, they believe it!! This state of gullible ignorance has ALWAYS been part of America.
Unfortunately, this problem is not really solvable by Joe Biden. The people looking for the return of a Messiah, willing to believe that night is day, etc., are looking for, well, someone like Trump to tell them HE is THE ONE.
Of course, Americans, having been schooled in the art of believing the white man at the front of the church on Sunday morning, no matter what he says?
Well then, when Trump says he is the Messiah?? And their preachers get behind him? Americans will believe. (anything at all).
Probably NONE of Trump's supporters even knew about Trump's surrender agreement with the Taliban. So, Republicans blaming Biden??
Easy as looking up at that yellow sky.
:-)
It’s easy to fall in a funk and think all is lost, and that this society, with its usual share of ignorant and gullible people is headed for ruin. So much bad stuff happens, and we hear about every bit of it through the news, social media, and multiple news feeds. I have several friends who doom-scroll many times a day. And they all end up in that same funk.
We have always had a portion of easily persuaded citizen fools. We have always had grifter politicians. We are all bummed right now because we happened to elect a narcissistic sociopath (and not the good kind!). He made us scared for our country and he made it okay for the worst of the country to crawl out from under their damp rocks. He was worse than Nixon in his influence on some other politicians, themselves weak, ethics-free, and perhaps as narcissistic and sociopathic.
But remember that this is the same mix of people who made great strides on Civil Rights, fought a world war to defend democracy (still confused about that first one), gave universal suffrage (though some are trying a do over). Same people who created social safety nets—including the ACA— found a way out of the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and recovered from the Civil War. And so much more progress on all fronts. We no longer kill witches (don’t think any were burned. Hanged? Pressed to death? I think…
I believe in our resilience and that a majority of people carry a core of common decency.
That we have voices like Ms Richardson’s and the many people who read her supports my belief.
I believe in what I can prove with data.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that the former President of the United States attempted to overthrow a legitimate election, an act of treason, and whom sits at Mara Lago intermittently getting out of his chair to ride a golf cart around. He has not been arrested.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that Fox News is openly attempting to subvert America, through unregulated lies, to transition America to an autocracy run by Oligarchs.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that Republicans, fully aware that their electability depends on lies and a declining population of white racists, are using gerrymandering to expand their power.
Right now, I can prove, and believe, that, because salaries have not kept up with what is reported to be low inflation for the last 30 years, young people with "good" jobs, like engineering, can barely afford rent in most cities of America.
Right now, I can prove, and believe that a modest house purchased by an engineer almost straight from school for $24,000 in 1965, in Framingham Massachusetts costs 2.1 million dollars today. No engineer from school has a chance of getting that house except the descendants of the engineer who bought it in 1965.
Lastly, I can prove and believe that the United States government can no longer effectively do much but prosecute infinite war that has no useful outcome and fund military contractors that have no useful products.
Democracy has always existed because people realize they have to fight for it. That there’s a lot to fight against is nothing new. I still believe—with some retrograde moments—that things get gradually better.
Right now what I can gently suggest and prove is that you allow your heart to enter into the equation. Even for today. Let yourself feel pride for all you are in America the Beautiful. Just for a day. It will be like a day of fasting from corruption.
https://youtu.be/TRUjr8EVgBg
Loved it Christine. Ohhhhhhhhh, Mr. Charles. We've been doing a lot of music today. So here is something for you -- much deserved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTpu6BmE88
👩🏽❤️👩🏽
Mike, I respect your perspective and belief in your proofs. You have left out what the majority of Americans, around 60% of the adult population, are capable of it terms of resistance. You cannot have proof of what the January 6 investigative Commission will accomplish or the determination of activists as well as investigative reporters. I think that the best statistician would know that he or she does not have enough data to come to a conclusion about the future of the USA.
Fern. If standing in front of thousands of white men and telling them to storm the Capital to overthrow a legitimate election on national TV is not treason then nothing is. No commission needed.
They tried, but failed. I'm no Pollyanna, but what I know is that there are more of us than them. We can win this fight. Try not to lose faith.
Mike that was not my point. I was disputing your last claim, for which you have no proof, while stating that you do: 'Lastly, I can prove and believe that the United States government can no longer effectively do much but prosecute infinite war ...'
Ok. Understood. I guess I should have said prosecute losing forever wars. 😉
An interesting podcast on Vox, David Serwar says the GOP do not need the choose the path theyre on in order stay relevant. But they do. Worth a listen and consideration. Are they lazy? Uncreative? Preferring cruelty?
Kim, Could this be what you were referring to?
Adam Serwer on the all-American politics of cruelty
The Atlantic writer discusses his latest book and the evolving role of cruelty in American life.
By Sean Illing@seanillingsean.illing@vox.com Aug 23, 2021, 3:30pm EDT
https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast/22637762/vox-conversations-adam-serwer-the-cruelty-is-the-point
Yes! Thank you Feen!
Kim, do you have a link to that podcast? I did a search on Vox and only found a Serwar reference from a few years ago.
https://youtu.be/drnGAlHPOW0
Here it is Stephen.
We are on a roll today LFAA!
Stephen, I checked with Kim, and the following was was she wished to convey:
Adam Serwer on the all-American politics of cruelty
The Atlantic writer discusses his latest book and the evolving role of cruelty in American life.
By Sean Illing@seanillingsean.illing@vox.com Aug 23, 2021, 3:30pm EDT
https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast/22637762/vox-conversations-adam-serwer-the-cruelty-is-the-point
Thanks, listening just now now.
Hi Stephen, It's from Vox Conversations, Monday, Aug. 23. "Was the Cruelty the Point?" Sean Illing interviews Adam Serwer. Hope that helps!
Found it, thanks.
I see you are a musician. Do you know the band Fruition from your area?
Nope, though we are blessed to have so many fine musicians in this town.
Kim,
Answer: Yes.
Clyde, I agree with you. Most of us have fallen victim to the depression that began in November 2016, with the accompanying background din of hatred and disinformation that has been going on ever since. The frustration that we feel when seeing a surprisingly (for me) able President, who has worked tirelessly since hours after his inauguration to undo the disgusting filth left behind by his predecessor, produce and encourage legislation to strengthen our economy, get our citizens immunized against a sweeping pandemic (only to be stymied by the very politicians that got us into this mess), and maintain civility when it would have been easier to unleash his wrath against the desperate opposition, and finally end 20 years of warfare that should have been ended two years after it began, all speaks to our fatigue. Still, as you aptly point out, we have overcome worse. We are resilient, and if we refuse to surrender, we can overcome this malignant minority who threaten our very existence.
Thank you for the pep talk, and for realizing that our Salem witches were hanged - not burned. Burning was utilized by our European ancestors.
Dang Mike. Spot on analogy. "...Believing the white man at the front of the church... no matter what he says."
Thanks Gail. I guess I will admit, as a kid and young man, I was one of those sitting in the church believing the nutty stuff I heard from the Southern Baptist white man at the front of the Church.
But, after the list of ways to get to hell got long enough, I figured, well, since I am already going to hell anyway, I might as well just ignore these guys at the front of the church and enjoy my life.
After that, I started thinking for myself, which, quite honestly, was painful.
It was much easier to believe than to think. Much.
Mike, I hope this story will make you laugh. My husband and his brother, born in the rural South, went to a tent meeting with some fire and brimstone neighbors. There was foot washing, lots of loud, singsong preaching, and finally a call for folks to come forward and be saved. These pre-teen boys sat uncomfortably as most of the audience was "saved." Finally, my young brother-in-law prodded my husband to comply with the rest of the crowd. My husband looked at his brother and calmly told him that he wanted no part of that "crazy SOB" preacher, and promptly left the gathering and walked home. His ability to see through the smoke and mirrors is one of the many reasons that our marriage has lasted 46 years. Your ability to think is your salvation, I'd guess.
Nancy. Great story indeed. Yes. Friday night tent revivals were still a thing. Yes indeed. Those were truly something nobody today can even imagine. Healings, miracles and Satan himself cast out and defeated.
When they would call for converts many would go. But. I clearly remember not feeling any different after all the shouting and crying so, at that time I just assumed I was not yet saved and should not pretend I was.
So, now, here I am. Going to hell like I always was.
😊
Oh, I don't think so, Mike. Having been raised in the Episcopal Church in New England, I witnessed none of that drama. However, I have come to believe that if there is a Hell, I believe it's reserved for the craven cynics that manipulate others to achieve their evil ends, and contribute nothing to society's welfare. I doubt that you'd fit into that category.
My husband survived nicely. His brother, though, is firmly in the grip of hellfire and brimstone.
Nancy. Of course I cannot be certain but I figure there is no hell. Which means........
I had that fire and brimstone upbringing also, though before the SBA grew its power. My grandfather was a member of the Dover Association, which I think is now defunct, and faithfully slept through the sermon in the second row for 60 years. With a family full of politicians during the demise of the Byrd machine in Virginia my cynicism began in watching the meetings at the kitchen table, often including said pastor. Who ultimately ran away with the church secretary. 😜
Just looked, Dover Association still around. Seems to be missions related rather than doctrine related these days. Anyhoo, I formally resigned when women were forbidden the pulpit and the Baptist Averett University was threatened with defunding for teaching Darwinism, though I’d left it behind years earlier.
Love your stories and comments Gail.
❤️
Mike As a kid I’d go to church and somewhat listen to the readings of the lessons. I had no idea that there was a difference between the Old and New Testament. Many years later I taught a course on the similarities and differences between early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Wow! There are two distinct Genesis chapters on God and creation. The first five chapters, purportedly written by Moses, actually were written about 500 years later. The Old Testament God and Jesus seemed not to be on the same page. Jaren Armstrong’s THE HISTORY OF GOD to me indicates that the ‘gods’ of our present-day major religions were created by humans and, initially, were intimately linked to rulers. Oi vey, Mother of Mary, Allah u Ahkbar.
"belief, without critical analysis"💙💛
Noir prose, Mike. You spelled it out, from blue to yellow. Bravo!
Any way you cut it, Mike, we live among suckers and sheep.
Who bleat (as sheep do) that those of us opposing them are the sheep.
Shonuf!!
Well, maybe 50% of Americans.... but DAMN they are intransigent in their ignorance!
Had one of my ex-classmates tell me that she was glad she was not educated like me because of my political beliefs which include living up to the ideals of the Constitution and not supporting the cruel criminal corruption of someone like mafia don. I wanted to tell her that I was glad not to be a Christian like her because that does influence what she thinks politically, but I was polite. I also explained that I would feel the same without the education, but perhaps not understand the history that tells how we got here.. I was told just this week that I should not make everything political right after a post from someone on her thread that Biden is inept. Not a word to him of course. And crickets about January 6th.....nothing at all ever. We can talk pleasantly about dogs though, so there's that.
Ugh.
Michele, I don't really think "being a Christian" is what gets in anyone's way of thinking. After all, when queried about why he was not fasting on the Sabbath, Jesus indicated "my disciples are hungry".
The message that fellow Jesus brought was pretty good.
But, the Southern Baptist Church and its corruption of Christianity with a cult of personality for the white man preacher? THAT is not good.
That is ugly.
Read about how the Southern Baptist and Northern Baptist church split. You will see.
The type of Christian (focused on things like abortion) this person is does get in the way of thinking. I thought about defining that more clearly because I know several people, including the most grounded person I know, whose Christianity informs their social conscience and progressive approach to others. Plus this is northern Indiana where I was brought up in a Republican household and many of my ex-classmates remain in this milieu. This is a place where there is much railing about the flag, the anthem, the pledge, confusing symbols with the reality of our political system for those it ignores or punishes. I often comment about the ideals of our democracy vis a vis the reality. The same person dissed the color the press secretary's dress yesterday as if that matters. I said how she did the job is what matters. The usual suspects joined the chorus on how people look. The worst thing my ex-classmate posted (after the Labor Day fires here in Oregon) was a meme about how God was punishing CA because there are some atheists. I had a very hard time being polite on that one, but she did get scorched and did back down although her excuse was not the truth. She meant the meme as it read. As an aside, I read today with delight that Harvard has a new atheist chaplain. I should also make clear that I am not against spirituality however people do that, but I do have problems with the intolerance,authoritarianism, and hubris of fundamentalists.
To be clear, the fires in CA.
Absolutely in agreement.
I am taken aback by this. This is not the same old ignorance. There has never been a time where Americans have been attacked by the extralegal killings of a terrorist group where there was not unity among American leaders AGAINST the terrorists. What is happening now is not ignorance. Exploitation of the ignorance of their disinformation-soaked supporters, yes. But we have never seen that in this situation before. This is willful hypocrisy of the most vile kind, an opportunism so extreme that it has the potential to destroy the United States.
Yes, I am taken aback.
Nomi. I agree. Willful ignorance usually is fake and has more to do with a subversive sense of justifiable grievance.
A subversive sense of justifiable grievance. Yes, reading that I realize that I was not thinking about that aspect of it when I wrote my comment. But, yes, you are right. That is absolutely part of it.
Your words strike at the truth in America. The truth of ignorance. The inability to ferret facts from opinion; to understand when you are being gaslighted and the manipulator is a fraud. And, the connection to believing the white man at the altar is true. But, there has to be some component of emotional need to line up behind a man who spews 47,000+ confirmed lies and his political party. We have become an America where the majority have the ability and desire to fact check leaders, research their backgrounds, and understand when they are being led astray, and the minority who don't posses fact-checking ability, don't care to find truth, and are easily angered and frightened by scary statements and issues. How did we get so far apart? How did we overlook calling a spade a spade from the beginning? GOP willingness to support and hide nefarious behavior and words? Media being too nice in the beginning and not calling out lies, mistruths, and exaggerations? What allowed this monster to rise up and take hold in the first place? But, most importantly, how do we prevent it from happening again? How do we confront the threats of COVID spread, curtailing voting rights, and get back to decency once again?
Can I copy and share?
Sure. Just don't offend anyone.
Sure.
I did not realize until now that DeSantis and his ilk are actually trying to increase the number of dead in their state(s) in order to blame Biden for the delta variant. This is so evil and so wrong. He ought to be impeached. (I assume governors can be impeached.) DeSantis actually IS a threat to the citizens of his state. And to the rest of us because he wants to be prez.
Afghanistan is such a sh*t show. Yet Biden is doing precisely what he did in the very early days of his administration—soldiering on amidst the chaos—an approach that has gained my respect and support. While I question the wisdom of some of the administration’s actions regarding the withdrawal, I do not doubt his quiet but sustained recognition of the situation, and his sense of responsibility and commitment. I feel as though we haven’t had a president like this in a very long time. Possibly decades. I trust Biden. As much as I have liked some former POTUSes, they did not garner the sense of trust this man evokes in me. The Rs will seek to destroy him because they have no other method of governing. We are a sh*t show of a different kind.
Republicans seek destabilization as a way to gain power. It is the Republican strategy to make the pandemic as bad as possible, then blame President Biden and the Democrats for failing to solve a problem that Republican Gov's let get out of control.
The Republican's strategy is really a fascist one, and it is also how Putin maintains his power. Because Putin has been so good at holding power, his strategy has been welcomed by the Republican Party.
"If citizens can be kept uncertain by the regular manufacture of crisis, their emotions can be managed and directed."-V. Solkov
I think the movable middle will see through their façade. The future of Democracy depends upon it.
Your keyboard to God's ear, Ted.
Agree about the movable middle.
Yep. One would hope people might wonder why states like NY and VT aren’t going through the same wretched thing. Yet, anyway.
Soon. We are all in the same boat now. Just a matter of time. Masks on. Practice Distance. Stay resilient and help others even if they don’t get it.
It is not only voters, DeSantis is now sacrificing the children with his anti-mask stance. Yesterday, there were 47 children in the ICU in Palm Beach County. Per capita, Florida has the highest infection rate and death rate in the country. At least 10 school boards have defied his anti-mask Order. Yet others, such as St. Johns County (St. Augustine) won't even allow the mask question to be placed on the Agenda. During this crisis, Ron DeSantis has not taken advantage of federal funds available to feed hungry children. He has not distributed funds available to upgrade ventilation systems and other measures to mitigate the spread of the virus in schools. One school has closed because every single teacher has Covid. DeSantis must be stopped in the governor's race next year. He has been traveling the U.S. fundraising off this catastrophe. Florida's media market is expensive. I'm supporting Nikki Fried for Governor. She will need all the financial support she can get. If DeSantis wins, it's on to the presidential race. He is more dangerous than Trump ever was because he's much smarter. He has degrees from Yale and Harvard. He did a stint in the Navy. He is today's Movement Conservative in Chief.
Probably the most important election in ‘22. We can only hope the sacrifices of children will be conscience shock treatment for a benumbed public. Beyond outrageous.
I need to correct/clarify a statement above. I learned this morning that St. Johns County has implemented a mask mandate for staff. The governor's Order was issued under the rubric of a parent's bill of rights, thus allowing the school board to mandate masks for staff. Can we say, this allows some students to pee in their corner of the pool?
Pleased to report the judiciary has some credibility.
"Florida judge rules against DeSantis in school mask fight" https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/08/27/florida-judge-rules-against-desantis-in-school-mask-fight-506992
I might also point out that Mr. DeSantis has stock in the company that makes the convalescent plasma treatments he ordered.
And one of his larger donors has stock in the antibody treatment he is pushing.
That the federal government has supplied free of charge.
Free to the public, but rest assured, the company is still getting paid. I really don't mind the government supplying convalescent plasma, I do mind that it is being used in lieu of a program of vaccinations, masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene. It is NOT a replacement for all these things, it can be a life saving treatment for people very sick with covid-19, but it is costly in terms of healthcare worker hours and dollars. $10 of vaccine 15 min of health care worker time vs a $10,000 treatment that requires hours, if not days of health care worker time.
Exactly. Once again the terrible, irresponsible ideologues are saved by the rest of us, on our dime. Talking to you too, Texas.
I believe this is a republican investment - i heard Abbott pushing this the other day following his resurrection from Covid. Unfortunately for them this may backfire because of its cost and availability so many cannot afford or find it because of these governors decisions against healthcare.
We can hope enough Floridians come to their senses and see the evil and wanton behavior of their governor.
My assessment of Biden mirrors yours exactly, Patricia. Thanks for putting it in words. Well said.
Thank you.
I deleted an earlier incorrect statement (thought you referenced a recall). Yes, he can be impeached but in a Florida congress which is overwhelming controlled by Republicans in both houses, that will never happen.
Joe Biden is taking flak for acting honorably - for having the strength to leave a foreign civil war where the US was never wanted- for following the science on covid to bring an end to the pandemic and he is being sabotaged by Republican perfidy. It's more than frustrating to watch these false narratives propagated by the Republicans have so much impact. I rely on Heather's daily communications to keep the faith that sanity will prevail in the end. Thank you.
I was thinking the same as I read today’s letter—I wish it were also a newscast. I am sickened by the Republicans. I just read an article in The Atlantic by Peter Wehner comparing outrage to addiction—one keeps needing more to get high, and the repubs continue to supply.
Unfortunately, those who need to hear her won't listen.
Yup.
In spite of my best efforts to understand and to counter the Republiqan talking points, I have arrived at the point where I believe that there is no talking to/ reasoning with/ providing accurate information to these people. There is no point in negotiating with terrorists because they do not operate in the same world as the rest of us. That is my conclusion with today's Republiqans. They have the same wants and desires as terrorists do, and must be treated as such.
Ally, your are correct.They have been radicalized. They can not be reasoned with.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210224143455.htm
Thank you for this.
"It was as if an abyss had opened. Amends can be made for almost anything, at some point in politics, but not for this.”-Hanah Arendt on the holocaust and Nazis.
”If politics is only a set of economic decisions, then the person is no more than the work they do and the infinite preciousness of every person’s potential cascades into a brutal homogeneity, one person indivisible from the next."
I feel the same towards the Republican's inaction and ineptitude towards the pandemic, the anti vax, the anti mask, it comes down to being "anti humanity". This is what has happened to them. The Republican leaders promote inhumanity further and further, until what or when?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/01/totalitarianism-in-age-donald-trump-lessons-from-hannah-arendt-protests
I've been reading your process with former colleagues, the R folks in your life over the past several months, Ally. Deep sigh to read that you have come to this place, and relief that your precious energies will re-focus. I would be proud to march alongside you any day.
Thank you.
I wonder if on his deathbed DeSantis will ask himself, "Was standing up for personal freedoms worth the deaths of so many people, including children? Am I a murderer?" Doubtful. The man possesses the wisdom of a cockroach.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210224143455.htm
t-Rump knew more people would die because of his lies and inactions (no COVID protections needed), but he, lacking a conscious or a single moral bone in his body, believed those Iives were not as important as his economy. Someone has to have recorded him saying as much. I would sentence him to life without mercy.
In solitary confinement.
[From the "Don't Let Fox News Shape Your Perspective" department]
Opinion: Putting ‘America First’ would require keeping our word to Afghan allies
Opinion by Catherine Rampell
Columnist
<start clip>
To be clear, the most compelling reason to take in military interpreters and other vulnerable Afghans is the moral and humanitarian one. These people helped us and are now in grave danger. They have targets on their backs precisely because they helped us, and we have made a commitment to protect them in return. This commitment is enshrined in U.S. law.
A related reason regards our national security interests. If we break our word to protect these allies, then the next time we need people in another part of the world to take a risk by cooperating with us, they’ll be less likely to agree. Our reputation matters.
There’s another, even more self-interested argument: that refugees are good for the U.S. economy.
In 2017, while casting about for excuses to choke off refugee admissions, the Trump administration commissioned a study on the economic and fiscal impact of refugees. Much to Miller’s chagrin, it found that refugees are a net positive for the U.S. economy. Yes, refugees often arrive penniless and in need of public services, such as food assistance. Within short order, most get jobs and become self-supporting.
As a result, over the decade that the Trump administration examined (2005-2014), refugees paid $63 billion more in taxes than they received in benefits, across all levels of government.
<end clip>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/26/putting-america-first-would-require-keeping-our-word-afghan-allies/
(We must never forget to remember the attacks from the right are meant to cover over past failures of GOP politicians, Presidents and right wing media.)
The paragraph about refugees is the most surprising today for me, Christopher. You find the most illogically logical things.
It's either a gift or blind luck. Truth is I've latched on to some good sources in the most unlikely places.
Appearing on the Fox News Channel last night, DeSantis blamed Biden for the crisis. “He said he was going to end Covid,” DeSantis said. “He hasn’t done that.”
Conservatives love to say that we can't have socialized medicine or gun control or Universal Basic Income (never mind an increase to the minimum wage) because it's all so complicated, isn't it? It's just so complicated. Too complicated for the ken of we lowly mortals.
But apparently DeSantis is pissed off that Biden isn't using the magic wand he got from Hogwarts to deal with (wait for it) a complicated situation that's made all the more complicated by the cruel neglect of politicians like DeSantis.
Something something, party of personal responsibility, something something pro-life something something something think of the children.
I just want five minutes with DeSantis alone in a locked room. Just me and my baseball bat.
TC, I am not a violen person, but you made me smile for an instant!
Ditto
I’ll watch the door!
Ha! The hall monitor! Hahahaha
Bahaha! The look out. Or guard that doesn’t play by The Man’s rules! 😂
Me, too!!
He’s a murderer. Apparently of hundreds. No different than ISIS.
He is a bio terrorist, a sado populist, and a demagogue.
Not to mention a first-class asshole.
;-) !!
I’ve got my Louisville slugger right here TC. I’ll meet you at the airport.
Thank you, Christine and everyone here for a little humor to relieve a heart that I never think can get any heavier, and then the world turns.
How about putting him in a locked room with COVID patients and leaving them there with him after they die…. For about 10 days.
I want ten minutes with DeathSantis alone with a baseball bat... and no Vaseline.
I actually Laughed Out Loud at that.
You would not need a baseball bat. If we confronted most of these repubs who act so powerfully, they would shrink like violence. Their chutzpah is merely a bloated narcissism propped up by their patriarchal supremacy. My bet would be on you with one hand tied behind your back. (How is that for a pacifist emerging to ready for a necessary fight?).
Did I mean shrink like violets or violence? Hmmmm.... I guess spellcheck will decide. I am going for violets before violence. Remember the gun with a flower coming out of it? Old 1960's meme before memes?
Yaaassssssssss!
I'd like to see a large percentage of health care professionals and early responders across the country protest the conditions created by politicians like DeSantis and Abbott by doing a rolling walk-out for an hour -- say noon -- first at eastern time, then central, then mountain, then Pacific, then Hawaii.
TC, I want to see that, too - you and DeSantis in a room. No baseball bat is needed. You'll bring that devil down and when you're done and leave the room, DeSantis is in No Exit, all alone.
If I had “mind control” I’d give DeSantis a big heart attack (cruel thoughts, I know)
You know, there may be power in adding to our daily routine All of Us Thinking Positively and visualizing the demise of the fascists. The power of the mind is a vast, uncharted territory, but throughout civilizations, inventions have occurred around the planet at similar times with no contact. Who is up for facing the setting sun in the West, humming a little munchkin song about fascists melting like the Wicked Witch of the West. Heigh Ho! And up in the morning communing, writing, talking, protesting, voting and saving our country. Use everything within our reach and power. I just remembered, when I was a kid, my mom had a saying from a wise man on the wall, "Thought is the most powerful communication tool you have."
Penelope, this has been a part of my morning practice for the past 35 years.
You rock, Stephen! I try but have fallen off the wagon a lot in the past... century (since 2016).
Penelope - this is wonderful, thanks!! N
Hear, hear
You and your baseball bat. So Progressive ;)
Shut the f*ck up. Progressive I’ll claim. Traitor is all yours.
Listen to yourself. All of you.
Go back to UpsidedownWorld, er, I mean FleeceBlock, where you belong.
You’re the only sane person on this blog . I never knew how uncouth Democrats were. I was expecting interesting debate - but just a lot of people telling me to fuck off or threatening to kill people with baseball bats. It comes down to Biden good/ Republican bad - with literally no exceptions. No other interpretation can be brooked. If someone bad has happened in Afghanistan it was not Biden’s fault in any possible way and anyway it can all be smoothed over by quoting some smaltz from Maya Angelou and then everyone feels better.
Come to think of it, quite regressive. I’ll resort to a club (my Louisville slugger) rather than a gun.
Oh, thank many of you for making me laugh today, I really need this to buffer less funny feelings. I am not totally sure that TCinLa is kidding, but I love the release of tension with what I hope is humor that most of us would not normally say out loud!
I don't actually own a baseball bat. But there's a sporting goods store over in the local supermarket shopping center. :-)
I am sickened by allowing our children to go to school unprotected. My heart goes out to families living in this nightmare.
If Biden showed up with a "magic wand," it would be decried as "witchcraft" and they would be opposed to using it. Their GOAL is high death rates, riots, disorder, violence in the streets. They are liars to the core.
Are all of these republicans trained in gaslighting? I have emotional whiplash.
I never thought the day would come when some of my own countrymen ((Republicans) would be more despicable than the hated Taliban. That day is here.
DeSantis has no right to blame anyone but himself about the Delta deaths on his watch! Not.One.Single.Person.But.Himself! He has blood on his hands and he's attempting to wipe that blood on Biden's hands. No way, DeSatan! Those bloodstains are yours and yours alone!
As for the bloodshed in Afghanistan, we must all take the blame for that. Very few people stood up against the invasion of Afghanistan! Very few people attempted to stop our involvement there. How can we even begin to pass on the blame to anyone, but to the government and people of the USA? Would it be even logical to envision a bloodless exit? It's a miracle that planes haven't been shot down and that more haven't died to date! The deaths break my heart, but we must stop the blame game and recognize our own two-decade silence and/or approval.
I am completely flummoxed as to how DeSantis can justify his actions and remarks, and his plan to run for office based on his deadly policies. It leaves me speechless.
I'm not flummoxed: it is the play book of all Gaslighting Obstructionists to 1. promote ignorance in order to gain an advantage and 2. when promoting ignorance doesn't work as well as they want it to, to shove blame on everyone except themselves for the horrors they perpetrate.
I commented too early (before seeing your post). The gaslighting is truly spectacular... And once you notice it you can't unsee, and it goes so deep. (...And I feel so defeated). <sigh>
Yes he’s nothing but a cheap suit when it comes down to it.
The Republican Principles of communication and policy: depraved ignorance, nefarious neglect, resulting in unimaginable cruelty.
Effective for a certain audience
What Linda said!
It is a deliberate effort to make the pandemic as bad as possible and blame Joe for it. It is full demagoguery.
He and his group don’t care about justifying. They only want continued sound bites, and the media gives it EVERY time
Joe Biden is a politician who takes responsibility and has inherited a dysfunctional government and Democracy. Republicans blaming Biden for Afghanistan and the losses there are playing to Trump’s base so they will be re elected. Desantis is a perfect example of how to play the blame game and fails to look in the mirror of how his policies are killing the people of Florida and the children who are most vulnerable because he fails to protect them at school by requiring masks. His policy is killing our citizens our children.
Are politicians exempt from malpractice? Do they bear no responsibility for not protecting their constituents and putting their lives in danger?
Doctors, Lawyers, and health insurers are talking.
DeSatan. Sadly, yes.
One very Republican associate posted that the activity in Afghanistan is a smoke screen to cover up problems elsewhere such as the covid problems. I couldn’t believe the irony of her thought process! They never let up. No matter the mess trumpty made, they always blame the other guy.
Eleven students at my elementary school are out with positive covid tests. Four staff. This is our second week back f2f. Parents wanting their kids in masks are trying to keep them safe. There aren’t any pediatric ICU beds left in our area. Virtual school is not being funded so it’s all f2f. Abbott has us back to square one.
Like Heather said it’s ideology over the safety of our children.
Thinking of you, hope you can stay safe and healthy. So sorry for you and the other Florida residents who must make the best of a terrible situation. I know a nurse in one of the impacted hospitals and last week their beds were already full of young unvaccinated infected patients and they were turning away ambulances with routine emergencies because THERE WAS NOWHERE TO PUT THEM. She is exhausted, frustrated, and angry. 💔
We, as a country, are going to find ourselves with NO critical care nurses or doctors. I cannot imagine the levels of burnout and PTSD that are going to decimate these wonderful, giving, and talented people.
I am ashamed to share a last name with a person who puts ideology over the safety and well being of those he is supposed to be serving. My heart goes out to you, your students, and their parents. We have a similar situation in NH (except with no Delta surge - yet), A Republican governor, with his eye on a senate seat, pandering to trumpists instead of providing leadership.
Worse will be those in those states that re-elect what amounts to murderers.
Steve, not sure what you mean about no Delta surge. Virtually all Covid in NH, Maine, and everywhere is Delta now, and as you know, our cases rise daily. Many of our hospitals are at capacity, whether with Covid or other issues. There is a story from Memorial Hospital in North Conway a couple nights ago that they called 16 hospitals trying to transfer a patient out per protocol and no one could take him/her. Just as we are welcoming students back from other parts of the country and world to our universities, colleges and boarding schools.
My heart goes out to you, Denise, and to all the teachers and parents and children making their way forward through the valley of covid while death cult politicians compete to make it worse.
Denise, I've been wondering how it's been going with you and your school. I'm sorry, but not surprised, to hear about so many cases already. Please stay safe and sane, take good care of yourself while you take care of the littles.
Oh no! This breaks off a piece of my heart. Please stay safe.
The Republiqan "thought process" you allude to here is misnamed. They have no "thought process", only the regurgitation of the talking points that in some horrific way feed their very souls.
And again, thank you for being on the front lines of and for the next generation.
Thanks! It’s what I do! Lol!
I heard on NPR this morning that Abbott has declared a state of emergency. I sensed Texans were getting fed up with him and hopeful the same will happen in Florida.
So heartbreaking to have our dedicated soldiers and fleeing Afghan families suffer yet more deaths, more mayhem by ISIS and their young offshoot. The horrendous attitude by the so-called leaders of the Republican Party is infuriating. Day after day, they adopt the former guy’s tyrannical language to spit on Biden. Shameful and inhumane is what they are. In the meantime, they take no responsibility for over 635,000 Covid deaths. I am ready to pull my hair out.
I hear you Marlene - please refrain from doing damage to yourself - your caring heart is needed now more than ever ... breathe and flow ... one breath at a time ...
As usual, I am disgusted by the callousness and outright lies of the Repugnant Party leaders, but moreso by the ignorant cult following that believes them. Yesterday on twitter, I have taken TN Sen. Marsha Blackburn to task for her insensitive attacks on Biden, instead of joining in the national grief for our lost soldiers. Had to remind her that Biden is stuck with the mess her cult leader left. I know it is a useless gesture on my part, but venting helps me, and apparently many others with the same message. IDK why these Repugnant Party leaders even post this disinformation on twitter, as there is usually a bunch of us telling the facts on their timeline.
As for our deluded and downright evil governor RegeneRon DeathSantis, telling his easily refuted lies on Faux Noise about how well he is dealing with COVID, while our hospitals are at a breaking point, both in supplies and burned out medical staff and we still lead the nation in infections, what can I say? Half the ppl in Floriduh are idiots and believe him. Very disheartening for those of us with critical thinking skills having to endure this sea of ignorance of which we have no effect.
"RegeneRon DeathSantis"
Brilliant.
So is “Faux Noise”.
Every day I wake up and think “things can’t really be as bad as I thought they were yesterday, it surely can’t be any worse”. Then I realize it indeed can get worse, every d*** day.
A photo was published yesterday of President Biden, taken at his news conference, where he is holding his folder, and his head is bowed. My very first thought was “here is a deeply grieving man, feeling the pain of the families who will soon learn that they have lost a son or daughter, and remembering the pain of losing his own son”. My heart ached for him, and I was so moved by his compassion and empathy.
Then I began reading comments being left about the photo, and was utterly and completely gobsmacked. Most all comments were from people who saw nothing but weakness and defeat in the photo, and were calling for him to resign.
I know it is only human nature for two people to look a the same picture and see two different things. But for one person to see/feel nothing but love, and the other to see/feel nothing but hate takes me to a place of utter despair that this division in our country can ever be healed.
You saw the right picture, Cathy. Delusional dream views must not be given oxygen. Don’t even read those comments. I believe he was praying as he got ready to speak, and his eyes showed evidence of recent tears. Many far right cult followers do not recall a leader who isn’t just calculating how to monitize events for his own oversized pockets.
It is a powerful image. What actually happened was that he gave the last question to the Fox News reporter Peter Doocy who hammered away at Biden about taking responsibility. Biden put a question back to Doocy who continued to animatedly argue the point. Biden, clearly frustrated, gave up on the attempted exchange and put his head down. I thought, as I watched it, that he was pausing and praying that he would not say something harsh back to Doocy. But, the moment did morph into something bigger and conveyed the burden, sadness and frustration of the President. He did recover and clearly stated that as President he took responsibility for it all. Then he left the room to go to another meeting.
There is a political party in our country whose entire platform is to divide our country by promoting hate of others. This therapist’s telling of her work with a single client is so striking in elucidating this sickness https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/the-making-and-healing-of-a-racist-a-trauma-perspective?fbclid=IwAR2-5ZonpvN3x61jG5K2YGvYMs__C6yMmp4ZHBo3GP0ipQ_wy6OzhyIr3cQ
Thank you, Heather. I've appreciated, in the past week or so, the nuance that you've incorporated into your writings about Afghanistan. I retired from the Army in '16, spent 4.5 years at USCENTCOM, and while I never fought in AFG (I went to Iraq twice), I went there twice on Advisory visits and spent considerable time dealing with policy & strategy there. Just listing the factions of power and their range between "good" and "bad" would take several classes (hint: it's a lot more than "The Taliban" and ISIS-K). Of course, the Republicans are criticizing Biden here. They are 1) going to the already-bone-dry well of foreign policy because they still feel (well, hope) that is an area they can get some degree of resonance and 2) the one gift that kept on giving for them last decade was the Canine & Equestrian Show, AKA Benghazi...they're desperate for an encore (they won't get it. America's 5-minute attention span is already waning. Back on your mask-less, plan-less heads, GOP).
Then, of course, there is Florida. If this were happening in 1998 Serbia, we'd have added it to Slobodan Milosevic's supposed crimes against humanity (I say supposed because, while we had him to dead-to-rights on War Crimes, we never did on CAH--so we played the long game, dragged out the trial, and let him die in prison). Seriously--I think history WILL condemn DeSantis in those kinds of terms...and they should.
Firstly, thank you for your service (and I mean that from my heart, not just "lip service"). I appreciate your assessment of Professor Richardson's nuance into the writings of Afghanistan. I know so little about that area of the world that I don't even know where or how (and honestly, IF) I want to spend my energy there with so much more needing my attention. I howled at "Canine & Equestrian Show". So needed today.
I hope that the condemnation you reference will also include Abbot and other nutbag governors along with all of the people who sway with whatever qonspiracy oozes from the talking heads at Faux and OAN.
Robert--Thank you for highlighting the fact that most news reports--whatever their partisan bents--continually elide: there is no "THE Taliban." There have been many books and papers over the years (back into the '90s) detailing the shifting alliances and conflicts within the many tribes and subgroups grouped together as The Taliban, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They may at various points have been rooted together as (alleged) talibs--religious students--but many of them retain much stronger ties to their ethnic groups and/or local warlords. There seems to me no doubt that there will be much churning-- negotiations, alliances, conflicts, buy-offs, etc.--in store for whichever Taliban tries to exert centralized political and ideological control. Our public rhetoric of us versus "the Taliban" just makes careful tactical and strategic planning all the more difficult.
Stefanik is a worthless little piece of shit who should be taken out behind the woodshed and given a good "what for" for being such a worthless little shithead. She's further proof that actual intelligence and the ability to go to the vastly-overrated Hahvahd are two different things. Given too many of the rest of the graduates of that brickpile, it needs closing.
As far as the rest of the scum that jumped-up conscienceless little shit's part of, Harry Truman was right 73 years ago: "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." The current crop are so far beyond redemption and so rotten their stench can be smelled across the continent.
How dare they dishonor the military that lost their lives yesterday. Blood on Biden’s hands? I’ve already put in call to Pelosi’s office. And will do so repeatedly today to find out how strong a rebuke can be levied against McCarthy and his handmaid.
Educated idiots?
Correct oxymoron in this case.
Across the world. And, sadly, that stench wafts around all Americans.
TC - My guess is that my ancestor William Thompson (Harvard Class of 1653) is churning in his grave. He missed out on the “bricking” of the campus which didn't begin until ca 1718-20 with Mass Hall.