I need to think and collect my thoughts. The war in Afghanistan has taken a terrible toll on Afghan citizens, US Americans, and allies. There are loose ends which will result in additional lives being lost.
It is, first and foremost, time for every US American to understand that being a US American citizen is not a gift but something that takes dedication and commitment. That commitment includes not diminishing the intrinsic worth of another human being no matter where they live, the color of their skin or the god they believe in. Those of us who have sprung from immigrants, today or centuries ago, need to stop, take a breath and consider the fate of those Afghans (and others) who are desperate to land on US soil and live a "good life" - one where they and their children can learn and grow unencumbered by the politics of submission and hate.
There is no real difference between the far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban. They all are about curbing human and civil rights. We, in the US, have allowed bigotry and hate to percolate just below the surface for decades. When Trump became president he unleashed an unfathomable amount of hate and rage which infected millions around the country. We still, today, live with Trump's influence and stain.
My 67 years on this planet have been extraordinary in so many ways. I have been blessed. Even when I've struggled, I've believed in a better tomorrow and carried on. I no longer believe in a better tomorrow even as I advocate for one today. My thoughts are with those who have personally felt terror and loss as a result of the war in Afghanistan and subsequent withdrawal. May they find peace and comfort.
I've also thought at my age I'll have to watch things get worse and worse... and I'll be dead before it gets better if it ever does. I, too, have been blessed with a very good life. I was so energized by the George Floyd protests. It felt like we were actually going to make this world into a world for all the People this time. Love Benjamin Franklin's quote "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
I agree. The far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban are basically indistinguishable. There are too many MAGA angry fat white men without masks yelling and threatening people with violence. With Rights come the responsibility to protect those rights for others. Otherwise it is anarchy.
Hi Terry. As someone who used the word "fat" as a pejorative more than once in my younger years without considering how hurtful it might be for some people, I appreciate your posts, and I know Cathy would not have used the word if she had given her post another moment's thought.
(Not sure why my name doesn't show up next to the head symbol, but this is Terry Nicholetti from DC.) With due respect, and agreement with your premise, I want to encourage us all to leave out the word "fat" as a pejorative when describing the rioters. (BMI charts are grossly inadequate in describing the health of any individual, contributing to fat shaming behavior among laity and medical professionals alike, but that's another story.) Angry white men covers all the men we saw, some fat, some average, some thin. I'm a 76 year old woman (tomorrow!) who has struggled with my weight since I was a child, starving in the first two weeks of my life because they couldn't figure out what to feed me that didn't make me vomit. Using food for comfort shows up on my body as extra stored energy, which has been a license for many to shame me. It's taken me decades to learn self-acceptance and healthier ways to self-sooth. Meanwhile, those who use alcohol, or sex, or over-work, or video games or any of the hundreds of other, move acceptable ways to self-sooth, escape this shaming unless their behavior becomes extreme. I ask people of compassion to recognize that fat as a description has turned into fat as a shaming word, and to choose no longer to use it that way. Thank you!
As a "White Male" I can appreciate your umbrage at ppl categorizing by fysical characteristics. I realize my "white privilege" but hate having it thrown in my face by ppl who don't know my civil rights efforts to correct that. Also, I have been told I cannot engage in black discussions or even mourn the death of Chadwick Boseman because that is only for black ppl. And, if I mention that I was married to a black woman for 2 decades and my grandsons are black I get mocked for that as trying to prove I am not racist. The same with radical feminists who pigeon-hole me because I am "Male."
I understand but I also see so many of these Fat, Out of Shape, Men with military assault rifles pretending to be some sort of militia, when they would likely have a coronary if they tried to sprint in a combat situation. This is the caricature image that gets that tag, much like the screaming Misogynist, Racist, White Men.
You'll just have to content yourself with pointing out that not all overweight men are idiots, just as I often point out that I am a White Male who believes in racial & gender rights.
Will I get mocked for saying that I have a very dear overweight diabetic male friend, a professor with whom I really enjoy talking? I can actually say I have a Fat, Redneck brother in MS, whom I haven't talked to since 2016 because he is an ignorant MAGAT?
Thanks Bob. I don't like angry rants or put downs from either end of the spectrum. Pigeonholing, blaming, calling others out as though we know what they are thinking or feeling...none of these actions help to create a more compassionate, just society. I think these are the kinds of extremes that happen as growing pains from change, not as a place to end up.
My daughter married a black man and my grands and great grands are mixed race, so I identified with some of your experiences and concerns. I've finally defined white privilege (how can I be privileged - I'm living on SS!) as I enjoy white privilege because non of the hard/hurtful/dangerous things that happened to me ever happened just because I'm white.
My only thought about your last two questions is, why, when talking about your dear male friend, or your brother, would you need to include the labels at all; why would someone else need to know that your friend is diabetic or overweight? I'm thinking an alternative is to describe behaviors or feelings rather than labels. for example, And a very dear friend of mine with whom I worked for six months as my producer/direcor of my one-woman show is so pro-trump that I find it nearly impossible to speak with her about anything to do with our country's government or politics. That's very painful for me. Just a thought...
Well, one thing I do avoid is calling anyone an idiot. People who are mentally retarded that I have met are almost always lovely pleasant people. Yes, we have a long way to go with our assumptions and understanding of others and getting rid of the stereotypical responses we learned growing up. I didn't like being a woman and for years felt I had a man's brain trapped in a woman's body. Got over that. But, never liked being discriminated against just because my penis was too short. When I have a stereotypical reaction I try to reframe it in my mind before saying anything.
Having worked with developmentally disabled ppl for 40 years, I have seen the changes in language. The last agency I worked with was called Miami Adult Center for Retarded in the early 70s, just as the umbrella agency Association for Retarded Citizens is now only the acronym ARC. I have even written essays on the changing names and IDIOT, IMBICILE & MORON, once clinical terms are now archaic and get a pass by the very nature of its common usage. Ever read “Common Vernacular for Dummys?” Just made that up, but deaf/mute ppl were once considered mentally defective, hence Dumb became the insult that ppl today don’t even consider. As a woman you could be insulted if told you were having a “hissy fit.” It is likely a shortening of “hysterical” an affliction only for ppl with a uterus (hyster). There are all sorts of insulting words floating around and you have to take them in context.
That's a brilliant approach...and gives me a tool to add to my own effort to 'pause ' when ever I have a strong reaction that's ready to burst...pause followed by reframing! Thanks!
Well said. As an endocrinology APRN I get it that the prenatal environment and early life health events shape an adult’s health issues. Please do not accept the stereotypical and shaming attitudes of others to influence your self worth. BMI is not always accurate in assessing a person’s health status. I often see slender people with type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Compassion and respect are essential In this so needy world.
Terry, Point well taken. I, too, am almost your age and still struggling with weight. And, yes, it has stung when I have been called fat and worse. It does seem that Americans are becoming more and more obese because of our poor diets with too much salt and fat (so we'll be addicted and buy the stuff that isn't good for us). Because we are an obese society it does seem like the majority of these angry mostly men are average Americans -- obese. Happy Birthday! Hope you enjoy your special day!
Terry, Early birthday greetings to you! I hope your day is filled with joy. You're right about removing the word fat from our vocabulary as a pejorative.
PS, I see your name next to the head icon just fine🌷
"The far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban are basically indistinguishable."
While it is true that Southern evangelical component of the Baptist Church long used the Old Testament to support slavery, and probably would again, and advertises a patriarchal family structure where women are encouraged not to work, today's Southern Baptist Convention is far from the Taliban in terms of violence, intolerance and treatment of both men and women.
Yes, but the American civil war ended in 1865 and—for all the violence of our times—you can’t compare the American South today to a land that has been ravaged by war for nearly half a century.
Right. I grew up in the land of "Colored" water fountains and other terrible institutions. If they were allowed today, they would still be around. (I also have a stash of Confederate money that my grandma gave me "just in case"). But I moved out of that environment as soon as I joined the military after high school and I've never looked back. Now in California.
NPR's Rachel Martin talks to pastor Ed Litton, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention ...
MARTIN: "...Separately. Let's begin with the reckoning about racism that's happening, obviously, around the country. And the Southern Baptist Convention is no exception. There was an effort to get the convention to take a stand on critical race theory, which is the idea of viewing our current institutions in America through the lens of racism and our history with slavery. Where did you land on that?"
LITTON: "Well, it's interesting because those efforts did not succeed. And, in fact, what I think our listeners need to understand about Southern Baptists is we have bound ourselves to the word of God as the tool for evaluating anything, systems of injustice would be included. And the reason we don't first turn to CRT is because CRT doesn't really deal with what we think is the core issue, which is the human heart. And the truth is, CRT doesn't deal with the origin of sin in all of us. It doesn't deal with the origin of - or the nature of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for us. Nor does it give us hope for what we call a Revelation 7:9 Vision, which is around the throne of God in eternity, there will be every tribe and tongue."
This sounds like so much obfuscation dancing around the real issue with buybull scripture. I know from the 1990s in Gainesville Florida, I watched & got fotos of the KKK men at our Gay Pride picnic bowing their heads in prayer. I suspect they were Southern Baptists, like my MS Uncle who was deacon in his Southern Baptist church and also a member of the Klan.
I'm reminded my only son's death September 1st a few years back. He was 29. I'll be 69 tomorrow. There has to be a better tomorrow. Thank you for your compassion to the Afghan people.
On days like this, the veil between worlds seems very thin as we remember and allow love and grief to flow. Our children live on in our hearts and minds.
d017, Your insistence that there be a better tomorrow forced my head up with eyes off the screen. I sensed hope and determination with a plea attached to what you wrote. You lifted me up, d017. Be well and strong. Thank you.
" You wrote: There is no real difference between the far right, the evangelical right, and the Taliban. They all are about curbing human and civil rights." Yep. And given yesterday's; legislative accomplishments in Texas we have our own little caliphate to watch and see how this plays out and impacts the quality of life of the residents. A hint: it does not turn out well.
[Repeating from yesterday] I am proud of our military in the execution of the evacuation and for Mr Biden's decision to do it now, quickly, from Kabul, and with the astounding logistical effectiveness that kept life losses at a minimum and huge numbers of Afghans able to escape; 120,000 by America and a total of 240,000 I believe, in concert with our allies. To think that we could have started earlier without repercussions or dragged the exit on for a longer more planful period of time, while hopeful, is ignoring the facts: That there was not a viable government in place for nearly the whole 20 years, that the Taliban have a will greater than the military we supported, that a government built by us in-country that mirrored ours required us to be the forever CEO of that financially supported subsidiary, that we were not the victors in the war, that we embued a small sector of the populus with hopes and promises of undying commitment to Afghan becoming a democracy and we would rescue all those who followed such unrealized dreams, that we accepted the terms of defeat as early as February 2020, and that there was no best deal to be made or better negotiations to be achieved from this collective of individual provinces that make up Afghanistan, and the only ones who could control our exit were the Taliban who won decisively among those Afghanies who were held power in every one of the provinces excepting the capitol Kabul, to name a few of the key facts. The last leader, general, guy dutied with turning the lights off and locking the door while turning the keys over in a bankruptcy gets the blame, the derision, is the proverbial scapegoat for the thousands of bad decisions that created failure or defeat going before. Biden is strong enough to live with that and get on with the rest of OUR agenda. Hooray, Mr Biden for doing what others before you should have done and that would have left our national dignity in better standing, at least temporarily. Please, Mr Biden, one time to explain and state your responsibility. Then, move on so that the War in Afghanistan is not allowed to be your failure. It's done. The humanitarian outcomes and the kindness and bravery of our military families contain the lessons for us from our nation's (and allies) expenditure of wealth and lives in that war.
There is no good way to gracefully end a 20 year war in a country with multiple tribes and factions. In fact, there is no way to end a 20 year war gracefully, period. Terrorism wreaks hell on the oppressed. TFG and his comrades only made deals with the Taliban and not the existing Afghan government. TFG and his comrades allowed the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners and planners that undergird them now. The TFG and his comrades refused a transitional handover to pass information to the incoming administration of current issues with the war, agreements and national/international security issues. TFG and his comrades have proven they care zip for the welfare and well-being of the women and children at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and for that matter of all the people in our democracy. So who the hell should we be mad at, really? Biden is doing a yeoman's job and he won't be perfect, he admits mistakes, and he has humility. He has a lot of experience and he has to deal with seditionists in his government who are still able to vote and make laws for a country they want to have total authoritarian control. I think people need to reign in their anger. War is hell and so is fascism right here where our brainwashed people and children are endangered and dying.
I was happy to hear on our local news that my community has asked to have 3 Afghan families come to this area. Locals are ready to open their homes until the refugees can find housing. This, when the folks on the right in this country are spewing hatred and violence. Unfortunately, like you, Daria, I do not see a "better tomorrow" in what remains of my life. Sad.....
20 years ago another refugee airlift forever changed the trajectory of my life and my mindset. That was when 3,800 "Lost Boys of Sudan" came to the U.S.; approximately 300 to the Boston area. They were unaccompanied, older teenage boys who, when very young, literally escaped death and destruction of their villages.
So many stories of heartbreak, joy, struggles, successes, resiliency. My involvement literally began by collecting winter clothing, making meals, then forming a nonprofit to help with education, housing, and providing guidance and support (i.e. parenting!) to help adjust to a new world. These young men (now with their wives and children) are among the loves of my life - they are family. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to become involved with refugees to seize the moment. You will see a "better tomorrow" through their eyes!
There is now much written about "The Lost Boys". These links give a quick overview.
“ I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to become involved with refugees to seize the moment. You will see a "better tomorrow" through their eyes!”
Such optimism and resolve are critical for getting us through the challenges and threats of the far right.
For over seven decades, Mexico lived under the rule of the oxymoronic Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Americans—our poor wretched planet—now have to live with something that ought to be a physical impossibility.
It still masquerades as “the Republican Party”—just like the Wolf all dressed up as Granny—but it is nothing less than a permanent coup d’état, an ongoing 24/24, 7/7 PUTSCH.
And it won’t stop there. It can’t stop—ever! Not even when the Ongoing Putsch becomes their Institutionalized Putsch.
Like the Villain in a Tex Avery cartoon, these rabid loons ran off the clifftop in November… and they’re still running! What does this say about America? What does it say about mankind today? Would such delusions be thinkable in a land not in thrall to “virtual reality”, where millions can’t tell a hawk from a handsaw or the world from a video game?
ISIS employs psychopaths to commit mass murder. Whoever pays the onetime GOP employed a human battering ram to do its bidding for four years from November 2016… but now… “rabid” is a polite word for the feral parasites that have gotten into our apple.
No one on Earth will be safe as long as the hell-beings that are hijacking America roam free. The planet can breathe freely only once they’re under lock and key in secure prisons for the criminally insane.
On my way to work this morning I heard about the Texas ban on essentially all abortion having passed into law. First thought was, "this is the American Taliban hard at work stripping away the rights of women to make their own life choices."
I’m far happier with your excellent comment than with my own, but I did want to make it clear that what calls itself the Republican Party is no such thing, it is not a political party but a conspiracy. No external enemies can rival it.
Peter, you are absolutely right and I agree with you - the Republican Party has morphed from a political party to a conspiracy and no external enemies can rival it. That our biggest threat is from within is chilling.
I wish I didn’t have to “like”—even endorse—what you have just written. No sane person can feel anything but horror at the mass madness in your country, in mine, in so many others. Given America’s power and influence, the nightmare looms vaster.
Yet there’s no place and no cause for discouragement.
I once asked my very agnostic father why, after the fall of France and the debacle of Dunkirk, he, being so down to earth, did not consider suing for peace in the face of overpowering material force.
His response:
“The war was often going badly for us, yet in all those years neither I nor any of my comrades ever doubted for one single moment that we would overcome.”
So much truth and wisdom here, Daria. Religions can carry human beings into dark corners, and it stuns me perpetually to think about the social role of evangelical religion and other cults. Simply put, IMO, they constantly deny and override the national creed about all men being created equal and being equally entitled to pursue life, liberty and happiness. One hopes the founders held the expansive view of 'men' but I think that is the clearly modern view among most as it should be.
“There is no real difference between the far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban.” Do you actually believe this? Maybe you are joking no? Daria you are better and smarter than this. I hope I am missing something.
There is the Taliban. Then there are the "Oath Keepers" and the "Proud Boys".
The difference between them is that the Taliban once they gain control of a region, will help feed the population. Of course, they will fund that effort with "taxation" aka extortion, the opium trade and duties levied on trade.
The American Taliban (and there are many) range from the above mentioned groups to racist clergymen and some members of Congress. And then there are the leaders of the NRA. Yes, we have our own "Taliban". And Kevin McCarthy's statements just put him in support of that club.
And all the defenders of the Capitol invaders of January 6th shall have that designation as well...and worse.
Here’s one similarity between right wing extremists and the Taliban, and it didn’t take long to find this image plus hundreds more. Yeah, I would call these guys terrorists, too
David, maybe Daria meant to say "important" instead of "real". Do you suggest there are no important similarities among these extreme groups? When I saw the image of AK-47-carryingTalibans standing grimly behind a frightened Afghan TV journalist as he tried to read the news, I thought "Hmmm, looks like a bunch of Trumpoids, but with better beards."
Like Saddam Hussein (and any number of “our sonofabitches”) the Taliban once enjoyed US support, before serving for target practice. Would they have become what they are if America hadn’t hammered them into their present shape and tempered the metal… over a long, long period of time?
It’s “the only good Injun is a dead Injun” all over again. You’d have thought the Vietnam fiasco would put an end to the frontiersmen’s westward push across Asia.
We in Europe will pay for the horrible messes successive administrations made of vast swathes of western Asia, and the bills may come in for generations. It’s more than sad that America’s sacrifice for our freedom should have degenerated to this. One thing to carry a big stick but… where was the soft speech?
David, no, I'm not joking. When people organize and support the use violence to defend their faith and/or their political beliefs they are modeling terrorism. When groups of (mostly) men walk the streets of Any Town, USA openly carrying powerful, semiautomatic weaponry, in order to intimidate "the other" they are terrorists. When religion is used as the justification for violence and stripping away rights and freedom that is terrorism.
The only thing that has not yet happened in the US is right wing extremists routinely gunning people down in the streets or in their homes. That day is coming. When dangerous, vocal politicians like Cawthorn, Greene, Brookes and the like talk about the right rising up against liberals they are planting the seeds of violence in the minds of people champing at the bit to act out their hatred against those who "stole" the election from them. Do you seriously think Cawthorn suggesting civil war is empty rhetoric? Do you seriously think that people won't act on his Civil War fantasy? What of this from Fuentes and Malkin?
"The influential young white supremacist Nick Fuentes — an ally of the Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar and the anti-immigrant pundit Michelle Malkin — wrote on the encrypted app Telegram: “The Taliban is a conservative, religious force, the U.S. is godless and liberal. The defeat of the U.S. government in Afghanistan is unequivocally a positive development.” An account linked to the Proud Boys expressed respect for the way the Taliban “took back their national religion as law, and executed dissenters.” NYT
I think you are missing something, David. You're missing the fact that the right's advocacy of violence has become acceptable to talk about openly. The Taliban used violence to topple a government and install themselves in a position of power. There are people in our country who admire what the Taliban has done and look to achieve a similar success, through force, in the US. The minute right wing extremists in the US pick up arms to overwhelm their neighbors, overtake the government and force their brand of Christianity on us they will, in fact, be the American Taliban.
And let's add to this the Texas abortion law that allows for vigilantism against women seeking abort after 6 weeks, anyone who performs an abortion after six weeks, and anyone that you even think has knowledge of someone seeking or performing an abortion after 6 weeks.
"Beyond outlawing abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the Texas law, signed in May, would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks, such as a person who drives a pregnant person to the clinic. Individuals found to have violated the law would have to pay $10,000 to the person who successfully brings such a suit — a bounty abortion rights advocates warn will encourage harassment, intimidation and vigilantism."
This new law in Texas that deputizes citizens financially incentivizes abortion bounty hunters. And who will make any finding forcing an alleged violator to pay $10,000 to the bounty hunter? A trump judge and/or a jury of what “peers?”
There is extremism on both the right and the left. Just look at the riots of 2020. It is not at all all right wing. I also find your identification with fundamental Christianity with violent troubling. What would the abolitionist John Brown or Billy Graham be called. Terrorist. Now. What about progressive rioters be called? The chosen? Be careful labeling entire groups as evil. People are more nuanced.
Firstly, I would never lump John Brown in with Billy Graham. John Brown was a passionate, dedicated abolitionist who practiced what he preached putting his and his family's lives in jeopardy throughout his life to help run away slaves travel safely to Canada. He gave his life for the Abolitionist Movement. Billy Graham, for all his talk, was not a passionate advocate of civil rights, distancing himself from MLK and other civil rights leaders in the early 60s.
And, yes, let's talk about the riots of 2020. In many instances peaceful BLM protests were high jacked by extremists seeking to disrupt that peace. Were there extremists from both sides of the spectrum? Yes indeed. But the difference between the two sides is well documented and it is this: right wing extremists tend to be very well organized and interconnected, left wing extremists function in a more nebulous fashion. There is no head of ANTIFA because it is not a group but a movement against fascism. There are heads of the Proud Boys, 3 Percenters, The Oath Keepers and other right extremist groups and many of these groups prop themselves up using "White Christian Nationalism" as a basic tenet.
Rioting and looting by anyone is not the same as peaceful protest. Many of those who rioted in 2020 did so because they objected to a revitalized BLM movement following the death of George Floyd. They wanted to make sure that the BLM movement was tainted with violence. Those on the left who countered right wing violence with violence during the 2020 events are no less guilty, however, I dare say there are fewer on the left side of the spectrum than the right.
Finally, January 6, 2021. Let's look at that briefly. A lot of God and Jesus talk has been thrown around before, during and after that day by the insurrectionists, their agitators and supporters. We are, according to them, a Christian nation and God is exclusively on their side. It's sickening.
I don't believe I've ever used the word evil. Don't put words into my mouth
Brown and Graham are both Evangelicals. The point is they are not monolithic.
Your disgust is duly noted.
The Progressive movement is becoming more “fascist” too by the day. And It is totally organized. No Schiff ;) Cultish. Isn’t that why many are here? It is incredibly the movement of the wealthy and coastal Elite. Who would have thunk. Nancy’s Warriors, Gavin sure in their righteousness. The People Like Us Crowd. Above it. Mandate, Impose, Cancel, Obfuscate, Control. Odd no? Even Eric Clapton is hip to it, protesting attacks on individual Freedom…I imagine he gets canceled ;) Back to the future…strange days indeed. Good evening.
The BLM protests were mostly peaceful. It was the instigators on the right wing fringe that did most of the rioting and them blamed it on something else. Ya know, kinda like 45 did all his life.
Please, our extreme left would be seen as merely moderate in a number of European social democracies where civility is still a value and healthcare is a birthright. I think our lefties are the only ones keeping our moderate Democrats from becoming Joe Manchin clones.
I think our problem in the States is that we've -- justifiably -- lost faith in politicians generally, and we have ceased believing that some people (scientists, educators, intellectuals, artists, older folks, etc.) actually know more about many things than the rest of us do and that we should listen to them. People think that all existing knowledge is easily available to them if they just tap their smartphones a few times, no interpretation or mentoring needed, but this is not literally the case. This is not real learning. It is not real knowledge. It is social adaptation above all, as well as subjugation to our bizarre socio-economic system.
So we can just read a few sentences, and if what's written seems to correspond to some belief (or -- more likely -- feeling) we have picked up somewhere and rings true, then we feel reassured, justified and even confident that we have latched on to a piece of the truth and can repeat it, pass it on with satisfying assurance to others who may actually know more (or less) than we do, but there's no way to know because we assume they get their knowledge the same way we do. And sometimes we lead each other out on a very long and brittle limb, and now look where we are!
The need to remind each other that the lefties are just as bad as our proto (and not so proto) fascist righties helps us feel evenhanded (it is pleasant to feel evenhanded!), but the fact is that our extreme lefties (are there still American Communists, a couple of Leninist-Stalinst professors in a backroom of one of our prestigious and expensive Ivy League colleges or universities?) are few and far between and have no effect on our national discourse whatever (really, who are they?), but they are in our minds like the little bit of evil lurking in our hearts.
Our Frankensteinish Right has been working to invent the perfect world-destroying monster for at least 40 years (Trump is just a prototype) and they are now getting close and they have us out on their limb with them, while our left has been in full retreat ever since LBJ decided to listen to his generals and not his heart, and Bernie Sanders and a handful of bright-eyed progressives have not changed this, unfortunately.
The problem with our Left is that it barely exists, and most of us subscribe to HCR's Letter.
The problem with extremism is that the perfect world, in either extreme, does not and cannot exist within the continuum of diverse values and priorities in any society. Compromise is the watchword of a functional society and extremists, who condemn the notion that giving something up to gain something you desire, are really at the root of disfunction
Joe Biden, the wise sage, the one adult, working steady and earnestly to clean up the damage that greedy, selfish, juvenile delinquents have left in their wake. Observing the extreme competence of the face of his administration, Jen Psaki, also encourages hope that Biden & staff are capable of succeeding against the formidable odds. Thank you Heather your daily very generous gifts. 🙏
I am ready to blow a gasket. The news media, including my beloved Nicole Wallace, have had guests on that "trash" Biden and his decision. As soon as Biden's speech was done, the show had two guests on who criticized Biden ad nauseum. I'm also furious at my local paper, the Tampa Bay Times which has not published any of the letters I've sent in and continues to spew right wing extremism. Even the letters they DO publish are ones critical of Biden. Take a look at a sample from one published today: "This catastrophe, including loss of more American lives, could’ve been avoided had our president, his Cabinet and military leaders simply coordinated their efforts and done their jobs on getting everyone out safely, instead of focusing on a single date." Simply coordinated efforts???? Seriously??? I have no words.
Same here. I was in shock watching the hosts and their guests tear Biden apart. I thought I was on the wrong channel, especially since I had just watched his speech and that wasn't what I had heard/seen.
I suppose the question is WHY are liberals turning on Joe Biden now?
I have mostly quit watching anyone on daytime MSNBC and still watch the night lineup. I especially enjoy the frolicsome way Joy Reid points out who is the worst. Then Rachel and Lawrence have become wonderfully supportive of facts and not opinions and both use a similar (intelligent and circumspect) tone to Heather's. And yay Ari and his interview with Michael Moore. Most of my actual friends will read HCR's Letters to straighten them out if I let them know they may be listening to the wrong news and people:-) Hang in there, people.
Coaxed into this by the hideous events of the last couple weeks in Afghanistan, people who did not follow what was happening starting way back with Trump and Pompeo don't understand that the stage was set long before Biden was on the scene. Thus, they assign blame for the last 20 days without understanding that 20 years likely made it inevitable. It is likely that we were lucky not to have seen worse.
I agree with them. He knew many months before the pull out that he was going to do this. Pulling the military out before the civilians who is very telling. Lots of men women and children will be killed and brutalized because of the short amount of time that was given to this endeavor. The premise was great.The delivery sucked.
Two wild cards made "coordinated effort" impossible
No one could foresee that the Afghani army would crumble or that the President of Afghanistan's legit government would grab a suitcase of money and flee.
The resources Biden counted on for calm and stability were gone! He and our valiant service members did a Herculean job saving all that they could. This Monday morning quarterbacking with Biden criticism is wrong.
Bravo, Christy. Heather's post are a gift. They help me to keep multi-directional cascade of our present in some sort of accessible and understandable order. The governing actions of Biden and his team help me find enough optimism to mostly deal with the dark thoughts (and actions) pushed at us each day, mostly by politics. And, despite the fact that crumbs continue to be elected, these comments here -- especially reading posts like that from Janet W above -- each day help me to understand that the world is still full of good people, despite the ugly fact that media coverage of the actions of not-so-good people seem to suck the breathable air out of most days by the end of the 10 o'clock news. Can a decent society overcome? Can we live in peace, be truly free and unafraid? Can we walk hand in hand? Perhaps some day.
Thank you for your comment John, and the solidarity. As the old fable goes, the wolf that wins is the one that we feed. So grateful for this community for feeding love. ❤️🙏
20 years ago another refugee airlift forever changed the trajectory of my life and my mindset. That was when 3,800 "Lost Boys of Sudan" came to the U.S.; approximately 300 to the Boston area. They were unaccompanied, older teenage boys who, when very young, literally escaped death and destruction of their villages.
So many stories of heartbreak, joy, struggles, successes, resiliency. My involvement literally began by collecting winter clothing, making meals, then forming a nonprofit to help with education, housing, and providing guidance and support (i.e. parenting!) to help adjust to a new world. These young men (now with their wives and children) are among the loves of my life - they are family. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to become involved with refugees to seize the moment. You will see a "better tomorrow" through their eyes!
There is now much written about "The Lost Boys". These links give a quick overview.
Although there is much attention directed toward the Lost Boys, their counterparts, the Lost Girls, are often ignored. Even before the conflict, inequalities were manifested in their cultural practices. This marginalization heavily influenced their post-conflict revery and integration in refugee camps and resettlement programs. Upon their arrival, the boys were placed into boys-only areas of the camp. Yet according to Sudanese culture, the girls could not be left alone, so they were placed with surviving family members or adopted by other Sudanese families. Although these family placement practices provided them security, families often exploited the extra pair of hands at home. The expectations of domestic work often prevented the girls from attending school, and even when allowed to attend, their housework often kept them behind, further entrenching them in their inability to sustain themselves. Many girls were abused by their host families and by other refugees and occasionally even sold as brides. When US resettlement program began in 1999, one requirement was that the children must be orphaned. Because these girls had been living within a family unit they were no longer considered orphans, and therefore were ineligible for the resettlement program. Of the 4,000 Sudanese refugees approved in 2000, only 89 were women.
How deeply wonderful that you transformed their lives and yours. Your post gives me chills. Thank you for your great work of love in action and for sharing!!! ♥️♥️♥️
Janet, I was so impressed and moved by your story, I had to look up more about how these young men came from Sudan to Arlington, MA. This early 2001 Boston Globe article is another resource on their story. http://cache.boston.com/globe/metro/packages/lost_boys/part1.htm
Reading Ellen Barry's article got me started and a group of us (from Stow and Lincoln) founded the Friends of the Sudanese, Inc. that we ran for a few years to help these young men get some formal education. And, of course they were just a bunch of big kids who needed kindness and parents!! Ellen also spoke at the spring 2021 Gala celebration (done via Zoom) that was sponsored by the South Sudanese Enrichment for Families (SSEF) where I served as a board member and am still involved. https://www.ssefboston.org/
It's important to keep in mind that the right-wingers and regressives are the minority! Part of their tough talk is based on a desperate push to keep everybody convinced they have the upper hand.
That isn't entirely true. Their ranks are shrinking.
Biden shifting the focus of our government to start serving the needs of the populace undermines the arguments of the regressives more effectively than any tough talk ever could. That is no accident! As time passes and people's lives are improved, the yapping of the regressives will become increasingly irrelevant and the regressives know it. Time is not on their side.
I was on super early and then with my baby grand all day and working with a lot of activists here locally on the continuing assault on local school system. Teachers are beside themselves. And students. Ahhh, Florida. Geez.
Anyway, catching up on all the comments. I was wondering where you were early today.
Hello dear Fern. Let’s keep playing kickball. You are kicking some ass this past week.
I find it interesting that Russia who was a destabilizer of Afghanistan before we were and faced with that instability on their own border is calling for the US to unfreeze the money that may be the only thing to help keep the Taliban in a compromising frame of mind. Russia of course does such a poor job for it's own people that it can not even hope to influence Afghanistan without someone else paying the bill.
A bunch of grumpy rich old white men are being faced with the changing of the world and they hate it and so keep trying to stop the world from moving on without them. They do not have the powers of superman where they can make the world spin backwards and time is their kryptonite.
I wonder do McCarthy, Greene, Jordan, etc, etc hear the footsteps of justice coming down the hall for them? "... ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee" (John Dunne). Kudos to Rep. Lieu for reminding the traitors of the law.
There's enough in the statement of Republican leader Kevin McCarthy quoted above to serve as a guilty plea in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1505, as pointed out by Representative Lieu, to immediately start action against him by the Department of Justice. What are they waiting for? (Google the Code citation. It's short and sweet.)
"A bunch of grumpy rich old white men are being faced with the changing of the world and they hate it and so keep trying to stop the world from moving on without them." Yep.
Pamela, spot on! I’ve been complaining about these grumpy old white men for years! 25 years ago at a in service meeting for educators we were told that white people are quickly becoming the minority. It’s time for change!
Biden has just acknowledged that the world's conflict is centered and fueled by money. Just suppress it and the fuel and fire are gone. Just like removing oxygen from a fire.
Beginning with W. Bush, then Obama, then #45, and now Biden, the new paradigm is drone warfare, along with sanctions. Such great human rights weapons, don't you think? NOT!
That is what makes me afraid for the future. Sure, there were policy differences, but they used to put country over party. Or, did it just seem that way? At almost 70 I’ve had both Dems & GOP in high offices. Not until trump did I ever feel anxious about what our future would become.
Some years ago I wrote about Vietnam as a Greek tragedy. Successive American presidents were desperate to avoid the back lash from ‘losing a war.’ Ike was rather modest in accepting the transfer of the Vietnam ‘hot rock’ from the French. JFK escalated our involvement with troops and authorized a military coup in which Diem, our once-favored Catholic president, was killed. I do not believe thatJFK would have pulled us out of Vietnam in a second term. LBJ was a Texan who thought he could overwhelm Ho Chi Minh. LBJ’s cabal of yippe cowboys including General Westmoreland, Walt Rostow, and Defense Secretary NcNamara (before he had a change of heart). Nixon sought to leave ‘with honor’ and, in reshuffling the deck, cost another 20,000 American dead and perhaps another million dead Vietnam before an ‘honorable surrender’ in 1973. It took another two years before a final hasty evacuation.
The music was somewhat different with the Afghan ‘dance of the storks.’ We entered to capture bin Laden and his al Qaeda buddies. Missed them, but remained pissed with the Taliban. A gradual build up oozed into a major military and financial commitment to ‘nation build.’ Obama came in after the Bush/Cheney, Rumsfeld ‘slap the leather’ cabal. In 2011 Obama seemed to explore seriously our withdrawal from Afghanistan, but this probably was only political window dressing [VP Biden was in the ‘let’s leave’ minority]. Ultimately Obama approved a military-recommended troop surge.
Trump never had a rationale policy on Afghanistan. At one time he expressed an intention to pull us out entirely. In February, 2020 he approved a long-term ‘surrender’ to the Taliban and, while president, declared a total troop withdrawal in May, 2021 (oophs, lost the election).
PRESIDENT BIDEN BIT THE BULLET AND SET AN AUGUST 31ST DATE FOR OUR TOTAL WITHDRAWAL. THIS, IN MY OPINION, WAS THE APPROPRIATE DECISION AND I GREATLY ADMIRED HIS GUTS FOR BEING PRESIDENTIAL.
There will be Monday morning quarterbacks second guessing what President did and how he did it. I do not believe that his decision to end our 20 year fool’s errand in Afghanistan will be a significant political liability for him six months hence. Meanwhile we and others will be engaged in the vexing task of facilitating new lives for over 100,000 Afghan refugees.
Yesterday on Deadline Whitehouse, we were subjected to an uninformed gust of hot air from NYT Pentagon reporter, Helene Cooper, who did nothing but parrot gossip she had picked up over at war HQ and offer her own biased opinion. Following that, we witnessed the rude and hysterical outpouring from Paul Rieckhoff, who not only was abusive to the one decent and intelligent guest on the segment, but clearly revealed his hawkism and desire for perpetual war. Thank goodness Richard Stengel (the one decent and intelligent guest) was allowed to speak. He calmly and without rancor reviewed the entire sordid history of all the foolish empires which tried, and failed, to conquer that motley assortment of tribes we call Afghanistan over the centuries. Centuries. Centuries.
I do wish MSM would cease and desist with giving free air time to these hysterical hawks. They too are a thing of the past and should be put aside, regardless of ratings.
Oh, Ellen, I thought the exact same thing! I couldn't watch it and shut it off. I've started taping "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" and playing that in the morning in lieu of Morning Joe who also has Scarborough acting like a maniac.
Keith, Your clear description of our tragic encounter with Vietnam brought back the agitated years of my young adulthood; the songs of failed engagements, with men at the helm and death everywhere, ring and ring. Thank you for sharing with us.
Fern Those of us who lived during those tortured years have memories that shall never disappear. In 1964 I was a Foreign Service Officer who had volunteered to return, with a White House mandate , to operate alone with, at times, a M-16 and .45, in rebel-infested Congolese provinces. This was prelude to a Belgian/American military rescue of over 3,000 foreign hostages, including our captured Stanleyville American consulate staff. I was proud to serve my country. Subsequently, because of my rambunctious Congo exploits, the American ambassador in Saigon twice ‘requested’ that I join him. I refused. I chose not to put my life on the line for something that clearly was wrong headed and would end dreadfully. I often thought of all the draftees who were denied such a choice.
GREAT summary, Keith, and I much appreciate what you have done. Those who lived through Vietnam can never forget what it did to the nation. I add two points to your summary: 1) JFK missed the boat in not seeing Ho Chi Minh as legitimate revolutionary trying to do what was best for his country after years of colonialism; 2) the sad role of money and profits in extending the war in Vietnam. Afghanistan did not have a parallel to #1 in so far as I understand, but it seems that the shameful influence of #2 was there in spades. I hope and think that Afghanistan will not leave horrible systemic grooves comparable to those left by Vietnam, although there can be no doubt that it will profoundly affect the people who served on the ground there and their families. At least Biden understands and put a stop to this. I desperately hope that you are right about the withdrawal being a relatively minor blip in 6 months, despite GOP efforts to keep this active as a wedge issue in US politics.
I received an e-mail from the Vote Vets group showing a video of a veteran who appeared on Rachel Maddow, and who supports totally Biden's decision. Of course, they asked for a donation to amplify this message, which I decided to do. Please check out the video: (Had to delete a previous post because it gave all my contact/payment information so here is just the video link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtTeOQPTsYk&t=13s
I went looking for that Greek tragedy and found what I believe is your biography Mr. Wheelock. Thank you, sir, for the gifts you have brought to our world. If only, all of us had mentors the likes of you, what a world we might live in.
Bob Kudos! War has become a chess game where the leaders have no skin in the game. How many people in the White House or Congress have family involved in this ‘game?’ [Biden was a rare exception.] Sending young Americans off to die or return grievously wounded is a grave responsibility which our leaders should exercise as a carefully-considered last resort.
"“I don’t think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on, who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation,” Biden said today."
Another good idea. Have the 1%ers fight the wars. We'd have peace forever.
I don't get it. Biden was referring to our soldiers when he referred to the 1% of America who put on uniform. They, or at least the poorest of them, DO fight our pointless wars.
I am confused or very slow. Still trying to figure out who the troll is. And now the 1% are solders or are they people with money. If the people with money had to fight the war there would be no war. In my thinking. Kind of like if men had to have babies there would be no problem with abortion.
I think Daniel Friedman is suggesting that if members of the privileged faction of wealth (1 percenters) were the foot soldiers with boots on the ground, experiencing for themselves dust, mud, MREs, lack of control over one’s time spent, guard duty, uncertainty of attack, blood and guts, getting maimed or killed—then “we’d have peace forever.”
Thank you for clarifying my comment. I am a man of few words (though many Comments). You know, "Still waters run deep", "Silence is golden", "If you have nothing good to say, say nothing"...well, actually that was a lot of words to explain myself.
I also grew up with "if you have nothing good to say..." In addition to mandatory military/civic service that reels in the wealthy, I wish more common people got that experience with its range of loss of middle class taken-for-granted lifestyle presumptions, like private bathroom use, to so many levels of trauma, in addition to risk of being a pawn ordered to risk your life for someone else's foolish whim.
More messages received: "Don't say anything that you are going to regret later." (Still working on that one). Feel free to explain my comments, often too pithy and cryptic. You would be doing me a service, and saving a struggle for other readers.
Yeah, when feeling pissed off, "think before you speak."
Personally, I love pithy and concise. I have not noted readers to have issues with understanding your posts, and I really avoid speaking for other people. But when facilitating clarification is helpful, that's a good thing! Especially with a particularly important point as you were raising about the 1 percenters.
Oh for a search function here. I recently posted a link to Anat Shenker-Osorio who says and writes good things about the faction of powerful wealthy people who have persisted since the founding of this country. It was an interview posted on Facebook, in you don't already know her work. In the meantime...
Roe vs. Wade died today -- at least in Texas. Texas passed an abortion bill that no woman (not many men need them) could have an abortion if the fetus was six weeks old or older. Most women don't even know they are pregnant yet at six weeks. Here's how the Texas Tribune sees it: Beyond outlawing abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the Texas law, signed in May, would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks, such as a person who drives a pregnant person to the clinic. Individuals found to have violated the law would have to pay $10,000 to the person who successfully brings such a suit — a bounty abortion rights advocates warn will encourage harassment, intimidation and vigilantism. ... SCOTUS ignored the motion for an emergency stay letting the law go into effect at midnight. Bounty hunters!! It is aimed at also shutting down women's clinics. If you're a women in Texas you may feel you'd be better off with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Abortion is a religious construct. It's murder if you believe the soul enters the womb at conception or not murder if the soul enters the body at birth. And, what about the religions that believe in reincarnation. I like what Barbara Bush said about abortion -- that God would take a that soul no matter what. Can't stand the people that say they are Pro Life before birth and won't do anything for that life after birth. The anti-maskers have even stolen the Pro Choice slogan. -- My Body, My Choice!
The unprovable presence of a God, for which no evidence has ever been unearthed, will take care of an equally unprovable concept of a soul?
Folks will be much better off if we write laws that are based in, and on, cold eyed reality.
Cold eyed reality is: Lots of babies born in the USA will have extremely hard lives and die young due to profound abuse and neglect. God will not rescue them. God will, actually, appear not to exist for them.
For the woman that can foresee that outcome in the babies future, why not give her a choice?
Truth? The truth is many people are unmoored from the reality that is the United States.
And the SCOTUS is now looking as if it was imported from Gilead. We are sliding backwards fast. The radical right wing is winning. Wake me up from this Handmaid's Tale.
I don’t know what horrifies me more: the actions of the Texas legislators or the deliberate inaction of the Supreme Court majority. The SC knows how this is a big step in overturning Roe v Wade by sleight of hand. “Who us overturn Roe? Our hands are perfectly clean.” Yeah, right.
The recent misbehaviors of SCOTUS make me more certain than ever that we need to increase the number and re-establish some sort of balance in that body.
"It's murder if you believe the soul enters the womb at conception or not murder if the soul enters the body at birth."
Or it is a choice, albeit complex for the woman, if you ignore the unprovable concept of a "soul".
It really is difficult for me to understand writing laws which constrain choices based on something nobody has ever seen or heard, or even brought back from fishing on a hook.
Outlawing abortion is based on religious views. Why should another person’s person practice of their religion dictate someone else’s reproductive healthcare decisions?
I am waiting for the moment when purported ‘pro lifers’ organize to adopt the babies produced by their buck shot anti-abortion fusillades. That to me would be a humane ‘pro-life’ stance. I suspect that Jesus might approve.
Well, all those babies that many women can’t take care of will have to be cared for by the State. They’ll “sell” most of the healthy babies, but all the rest of them will be looked after on Texan’s dime. I’m sure the bitching faithful will just love that.
Something needs to be done about the “terrorists” who live among us. Our own fellow citizens who refuse to protect themselves and others from this deadly virus and continue to put us all in jeopardy. Where is the governing body of elected officials who mandate laws to protect the majority?
I was shocked to read that "...[T]he administration is trying to understand how climate change could destabilize the economy." After some two decades of facts presented by the Environmental movement, you would think the administration was still "trying" to understand.
Unfortunately I think we all kind of know which of those two possibilities is most likely to happen. I hope this does not upset anyone too badly, but it seems certain to me that some human death, and maybe a lot of it, is going to result from pandemics and climate change and maybe also from other serious problems included in your list.
I try to do so. But no two definitions of excellence are necessarily identical or even similar. Therefore, in the manner the intrinsically random organisms we all are, I content myself with doing my personal best.
I agree with you that something needs to be done, but I'm not sure what kind of "something" would be helpful. I don't have any relevant experience in the law, policing or criminology. Do you have an opinion or a suggestion as to what should be done?
Long, involved LFAA with lots to unpack. What I notice now is that there seem to be some trolls now popping over here. Please, folks, don't engage with them. Just let their words lie dead and don't breathe life into them.
The Trolls have noticed the threat to their ideology in the HCR letters and like Bald Faced Hornets attacking your apple cider, now buzz about the cup of facts, logic, and historical reference to interrupt your day. As we swat at them it creates interest from the rest of the hive as they swarm en mass to defend the indefensible
Only problem with that Ally is same as when Dems seemingly sit back and do not protest the vitriol coming from the legislative branch of government. When we ignore them without a comment or refuse publicly to call out their identity, they come out more in disguised force to insult this community. Their words are not dead and apparently there is no need to breathe life into them. They have plenty of breath apparently. And when they are defended on this site, it is by us…some who feel the protest is harsh or rude or that a different opinion is to be welcomed or that someone tells them to f*ck off and that is unbecoming to our values.
I fall back on some of the posts that Roland made several months ago. Do you know who or what we engage with when commenting on some of these posts? Perhaps it is my arrival at the belief that you cannot negotiate with terrorists, and equating a particular political "stance" in that regard, but I just don't see the purpose in engagement with someone (or something) whose motives I don't trust.
Yes. You are right of course, Ally. That is the nature of conflict. Somehow dealing with motives and people that are not to be trusted.
And I would no sooner negotiate with a terrorist than the man in the moon. Former did because it takes one to know one.
When I comment to a terrorist on this forum, it is not to engage with them or argue or agree with their “points”. Many times, there is a shred of truth in what they state.
However. I don’t like them amongst those in HCR’s safe house. So it’s my conflict to “deal with”.
If this is a “safe house” then it’s well on its way to becoming dangerous and irrelevant.
There are those who post only to attack the group. They can be very safely ignored because they present nothing of substance or interest. Whatever damage they do is minuscule. There are far too many people in this group who have bucketful of learning and life experience. They are not going to be knocked off a hard won philosophy of life by the needling of a dimwit.
On the other hand this group and none of us in it have a monopoly on truth. We all have our own blind spots and weaknesses.
I come to the group foremost to learn from the accumulated wisdom of others. Already today there are posts which have drawn my attention and given me something to think about on and off through the day.
There is a second group - those who disagree with a strain of discussion that is happening, and post a rebuttal that is cogent and thought provoking. Very few issues are as one-dimensional as we would hope them to be and there is space for earnest and honest disagreement almost always.
We can learn from these people. They add breadth to the group.
I have read a few back and forth which have been truly illuminating, and at the same time vexing because I have the all too human need to feel “correct” in my views.
But more often than honest dispute there is the tendency to lump these people in with the dimwits, using insult and dreary cliché. And they are “successful” in that they drive this person away.
I am sure that Dr. Cox Richardson is far too strong intellectually to want this to be a safe house.
I certainly don’t, because I fear above all the echo chamber effect.
I understand that in these most parlous times there is an instinct to band together for safety. It is comforting to know that there are people who share our views, care about our personal lives, and exhibit kindness.
But (blinding new insight here), that is exactly how the other side behaves. 74 000 000 people are not all villains. They too need the security of others, the feeling of being cared for in a world that is just as dangerous and filled with grief for them.
We can have at the Trumps, the McCarthys, the McConnells. They have proved themselves treacherous and power seeking. Similarly we can dismiss the odd mosquito who comes here to bite the group. But any tendency to blister any person who dissents with our common wisdom is ill-informed and not the service the writer thinks it is.
You speak truth here Eric, we all must guard against group think.
That said your interpretation of “safe house” is different from mine. A safe house is where respectful disagreement is welcomed. Where we are safe to explore divergent ideas without being shamed. It’s never perfect, but, it’s honest.
Except Roland engaged quite extensively with his alleged trolls, some of whom are commenters who are foreign nationals, not Russian troll farm agents.
The distribution of resisters to adapters is a bell curve. People at the left end of resisters on the curve are set in their ways and will not change (including terrorists), so engagement is a waste of time and energy, at best. Some trolls deliberately try to suck time and energy away from constructive work.
Ellie, I generally understand your reply but would appreciate an explanation of 'resisters' to 'adapters' on a bell curve. Can you define 'resisters' and 'adapters'? I got lost in trying to understand the analogy you were making with the bell curve. Thank you.
Yes, Fern, the cost of not having a link! I got this just last week in a work training’s hard to retrieve PowerPoint. A search for similar comes up with the Law of Diffusion of Innovations. Reverse what I wrote and put adapters on the left and resisters on the right.
Personally I don't have a problem with a grown up discussion with the trolls, but I don't believe calling them names or stooping to playground tactics helps anything.
"Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said, 'These telecommunication companies, if they go along with this, they will be shut down. That’s a promise.'"
Another insight into the radical rights plan for the future of the US. No communications network. I've read dystopian future novels that are less harsh.
Taylor Greene’s post suggested that the Rothschild banking firm is behind a supposed corporate cabal that engineered this whole space laser plot. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family controlling the world have frequently surfaced in the past, but, of course, this was not “an isolated anti-Semitic incident for Greene.
Hi Daniel, When I read in your reply that William Kunstler was the author of the two books you recommended and that you were fierce enemies, I had a puzzle before me. I didn't have a chance to figure it out until a few minutes ago. I know who Kunstler is, but I didn't believe that he wrote dystopian novels and he died 25 years ago, not possibility near your age bracket. Ah, the author's name is James Howard Kunstler, and I believe that you do hate one another. Will I read the books? No, I have enough dystopia right here in America. Salud!
I think you mean James Howard Kunstler. I liked his non-fiction, and especially his commentaries on modern architecture. I read the first novel and started the second, but it was too unrelentingly grim for me.
Thank you both for correctly identifying the author that I recommended. Also for ensuring my animosity is directed correctly (We've had fights in public forums which, I believe I've won). Wouldn't want to besmirch a hero Like William Kunstler.
I need to think and collect my thoughts. The war in Afghanistan has taken a terrible toll on Afghan citizens, US Americans, and allies. There are loose ends which will result in additional lives being lost.
It is, first and foremost, time for every US American to understand that being a US American citizen is not a gift but something that takes dedication and commitment. That commitment includes not diminishing the intrinsic worth of another human being no matter where they live, the color of their skin or the god they believe in. Those of us who have sprung from immigrants, today or centuries ago, need to stop, take a breath and consider the fate of those Afghans (and others) who are desperate to land on US soil and live a "good life" - one where they and their children can learn and grow unencumbered by the politics of submission and hate.
There is no real difference between the far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban. They all are about curbing human and civil rights. We, in the US, have allowed bigotry and hate to percolate just below the surface for decades. When Trump became president he unleashed an unfathomable amount of hate and rage which infected millions around the country. We still, today, live with Trump's influence and stain.
My 67 years on this planet have been extraordinary in so many ways. I have been blessed. Even when I've struggled, I've believed in a better tomorrow and carried on. I no longer believe in a better tomorrow even as I advocate for one today. My thoughts are with those who have personally felt terror and loss as a result of the war in Afghanistan and subsequent withdrawal. May they find peace and comfort.
I've also thought at my age I'll have to watch things get worse and worse... and I'll be dead before it gets better if it ever does. I, too, have been blessed with a very good life. I was so energized by the George Floyd protests. It felt like we were actually going to make this world into a world for all the People this time. Love Benjamin Franklin's quote "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
Franklin saw it right!
Fundamentalism, in any guise, wreaks havoc, hatred, and oppression.
May we be of generosity of spirit to immigrants, from which we came.
Amen.
I 2nd that! The GQP has devolved into a Fundamentalist Organization.
As mad as only the maddest of them.
I agree. The far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban are basically indistinguishable. There are too many MAGA angry fat white men without masks yelling and threatening people with violence. With Rights come the responsibility to protect those rights for others. Otherwise it is anarchy.
I wouldn't turn my back on the skinny ones either.
Thank you for saying that!!!
Hi Terry. As someone who used the word "fat" as a pejorative more than once in my younger years without considering how hurtful it might be for some people, I appreciate your posts, and I know Cathy would not have used the word if she had given her post another moment's thought.
(Not sure why my name doesn't show up next to the head symbol, but this is Terry Nicholetti from DC.) With due respect, and agreement with your premise, I want to encourage us all to leave out the word "fat" as a pejorative when describing the rioters. (BMI charts are grossly inadequate in describing the health of any individual, contributing to fat shaming behavior among laity and medical professionals alike, but that's another story.) Angry white men covers all the men we saw, some fat, some average, some thin. I'm a 76 year old woman (tomorrow!) who has struggled with my weight since I was a child, starving in the first two weeks of my life because they couldn't figure out what to feed me that didn't make me vomit. Using food for comfort shows up on my body as extra stored energy, which has been a license for many to shame me. It's taken me decades to learn self-acceptance and healthier ways to self-sooth. Meanwhile, those who use alcohol, or sex, or over-work, or video games or any of the hundreds of other, move acceptable ways to self-sooth, escape this shaming unless their behavior becomes extreme. I ask people of compassion to recognize that fat as a description has turned into fat as a shaming word, and to choose no longer to use it that way. Thank you!
As a "White Male" I can appreciate your umbrage at ppl categorizing by fysical characteristics. I realize my "white privilege" but hate having it thrown in my face by ppl who don't know my civil rights efforts to correct that. Also, I have been told I cannot engage in black discussions or even mourn the death of Chadwick Boseman because that is only for black ppl. And, if I mention that I was married to a black woman for 2 decades and my grandsons are black I get mocked for that as trying to prove I am not racist. The same with radical feminists who pigeon-hole me because I am "Male."
I understand but I also see so many of these Fat, Out of Shape, Men with military assault rifles pretending to be some sort of militia, when they would likely have a coronary if they tried to sprint in a combat situation. This is the caricature image that gets that tag, much like the screaming Misogynist, Racist, White Men.
You'll just have to content yourself with pointing out that not all overweight men are idiots, just as I often point out that I am a White Male who believes in racial & gender rights.
Will I get mocked for saying that I have a very dear overweight diabetic male friend, a professor with whom I really enjoy talking? I can actually say I have a Fat, Redneck brother in MS, whom I haven't talked to since 2016 because he is an ignorant MAGAT?
Thanks Bob. I don't like angry rants or put downs from either end of the spectrum. Pigeonholing, blaming, calling others out as though we know what they are thinking or feeling...none of these actions help to create a more compassionate, just society. I think these are the kinds of extremes that happen as growing pains from change, not as a place to end up.
My daughter married a black man and my grands and great grands are mixed race, so I identified with some of your experiences and concerns. I've finally defined white privilege (how can I be privileged - I'm living on SS!) as I enjoy white privilege because non of the hard/hurtful/dangerous things that happened to me ever happened just because I'm white.
My only thought about your last two questions is, why, when talking about your dear male friend, or your brother, would you need to include the labels at all; why would someone else need to know that your friend is diabetic or overweight? I'm thinking an alternative is to describe behaviors or feelings rather than labels. for example, And a very dear friend of mine with whom I worked for six months as my producer/direcor of my one-woman show is so pro-trump that I find it nearly impossible to speak with her about anything to do with our country's government or politics. That's very painful for me. Just a thought...
Well, one thing I do avoid is calling anyone an idiot. People who are mentally retarded that I have met are almost always lovely pleasant people. Yes, we have a long way to go with our assumptions and understanding of others and getting rid of the stereotypical responses we learned growing up. I didn't like being a woman and for years felt I had a man's brain trapped in a woman's body. Got over that. But, never liked being discriminated against just because my penis was too short. When I have a stereotypical reaction I try to reframe it in my mind before saying anything.
Having worked with developmentally disabled ppl for 40 years, I have seen the changes in language. The last agency I worked with was called Miami Adult Center for Retarded in the early 70s, just as the umbrella agency Association for Retarded Citizens is now only the acronym ARC. I have even written essays on the changing names and IDIOT, IMBICILE & MORON, once clinical terms are now archaic and get a pass by the very nature of its common usage. Ever read “Common Vernacular for Dummys?” Just made that up, but deaf/mute ppl were once considered mentally defective, hence Dumb became the insult that ppl today don’t even consider. As a woman you could be insulted if told you were having a “hissy fit.” It is likely a shortening of “hysterical” an affliction only for ppl with a uterus (hyster). There are all sorts of insulting words floating around and you have to take them in context.
thanks for the heads up on hissy fit...I had no idea!!!
That's a brilliant approach...and gives me a tool to add to my own effort to 'pause ' when ever I have a strong reaction that's ready to burst...pause followed by reframing! Thanks!
Happy Birthday ahead of time, Terry. Good on you for pointing out that name-calling as you describe is not appropriate. I second your admonition.
Thanks you, Lynell! Looks like we're practically neighbors!
Well said. As an endocrinology APRN I get it that the prenatal environment and early life health events shape an adult’s health issues. Please do not accept the stereotypical and shaming attitudes of others to influence your self worth. BMI is not always accurate in assessing a person’s health status. I often see slender people with type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Compassion and respect are essential In this so needy world.
Terry, Point well taken. I, too, am almost your age and still struggling with weight. And, yes, it has stung when I have been called fat and worse. It does seem that Americans are becoming more and more obese because of our poor diets with too much salt and fat (so we'll be addicted and buy the stuff that isn't good for us). Because we are an obese society it does seem like the majority of these angry mostly men are average Americans -- obese. Happy Birthday! Hope you enjoy your special day!
Terry, Early birthday greetings to you! I hope your day is filled with joy. You're right about removing the word fat from our vocabulary as a pejorative.
PS, I see your name next to the head icon just fine🌷
thank you Daria for your greetings and your thought! And yes, I saw my name once I completed the post. But I haven't figured out how DC can show up.
Happy birthday, Terry! Here on Substack, you can go to My Account, select (Change), and type your name as Terry Nicholetti (DC) or however you prefer.
Terry, so glad you made this comment. Your point is important and well made. Wishing you a very happy birthday tomorrow! 💐
"The far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban are basically indistinguishable."
While it is true that Southern evangelical component of the Baptist Church long used the Old Testament to support slavery, and probably would again, and advertises a patriarchal family structure where women are encouraged not to work, today's Southern Baptist Convention is far from the Taliban in terms of violence, intolerance and treatment of both men and women.
I probably should have said evangelical extremists.
Yes, but the American civil war ended in 1865 and—for all the violence of our times—you can’t compare the American South today to a land that has been ravaged by war for nearly half a century.
The Civil War ended? Tell that to the ignoramii.
Right. I grew up in the land of "Colored" water fountains and other terrible institutions. If they were allowed today, they would still be around. (I also have a stash of Confederate money that my grandma gave me "just in case"). But I moved out of that environment as soon as I joined the military after high school and I've never looked back. Now in California.
I just did a quick search and found this:
NPR's Rachel Martin talks to pastor Ed Litton, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention ...
MARTIN: "...Separately. Let's begin with the reckoning about racism that's happening, obviously, around the country. And the Southern Baptist Convention is no exception. There was an effort to get the convention to take a stand on critical race theory, which is the idea of viewing our current institutions in America through the lens of racism and our history with slavery. Where did you land on that?"
LITTON: "Well, it's interesting because those efforts did not succeed. And, in fact, what I think our listeners need to understand about Southern Baptists is we have bound ourselves to the word of God as the tool for evaluating anything, systems of injustice would be included. And the reason we don't first turn to CRT is because CRT doesn't really deal with what we think is the core issue, which is the human heart. And the truth is, CRT doesn't deal with the origin of sin in all of us. It doesn't deal with the origin of - or the nature of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for us. Nor does it give us hope for what we call a Revelation 7:9 Vision, which is around the throne of God in eternity, there will be every tribe and tongue."
This sounds like so much obfuscation dancing around the real issue with buybull scripture. I know from the 1990s in Gainesville Florida, I watched & got fotos of the KKK men at our Gay Pride picnic bowing their heads in prayer. I suspect they were Southern Baptists, like my MS Uncle who was deacon in his Southern Baptist church and also a member of the Klan.
I'm reminded my only son's death September 1st a few years back. He was 29. I'll be 69 tomorrow. There has to be a better tomorrow. Thank you for your compassion to the Afghan people.
On days like this, the veil between worlds seems very thin as we remember and allow love and grief to flow. Our children live on in our hearts and minds.
My heart is with you.
Beautifully said, Diane.
d017, Your insistence that there be a better tomorrow forced my head up with eyes off the screen. I sensed hope and determination with a plea attached to what you wrote. You lifted me up, d017. Be well and strong. Thank you.
I'm so sorry, I will keep you in my heart ❤️
I’m so sorry. Heartbreaking. ❤️💕 I hope you will feel some peace on this very difficult day.
I am so sorry for your loss. You're in my thoughts.
" You wrote: There is no real difference between the far right, the evangelical right, and the Taliban. They all are about curbing human and civil rights." Yep. And given yesterday's; legislative accomplishments in Texas we have our own little caliphate to watch and see how this plays out and impacts the quality of life of the residents. A hint: it does not turn out well.
Charlie, can't tell you have furious I am about the TX voting and abortion laws. F@#k them all and I hope they get Covid.
Had to take the dog for a long walk to lower my BP. Had a thought. Maybe we should just refer to it as Texistan which is ruled by Ayatoldyouso Abbott.
LOVE this, Charlie. Can we add Floridistan?
Floriduh works for me. We've got a lot of really ignorant ppl here. Including the idiot posing as governor.
Certainly. It seems we have as many 'stans' as Central Asia.
Led by Death de Santis
Years ago I made a meme of a map with the "Texistan Republic" Preserving the 19th Century since 1836.
Excellent
[Repeating from yesterday] I am proud of our military in the execution of the evacuation and for Mr Biden's decision to do it now, quickly, from Kabul, and with the astounding logistical effectiveness that kept life losses at a minimum and huge numbers of Afghans able to escape; 120,000 by America and a total of 240,000 I believe, in concert with our allies. To think that we could have started earlier without repercussions or dragged the exit on for a longer more planful period of time, while hopeful, is ignoring the facts: That there was not a viable government in place for nearly the whole 20 years, that the Taliban have a will greater than the military we supported, that a government built by us in-country that mirrored ours required us to be the forever CEO of that financially supported subsidiary, that we were not the victors in the war, that we embued a small sector of the populus with hopes and promises of undying commitment to Afghan becoming a democracy and we would rescue all those who followed such unrealized dreams, that we accepted the terms of defeat as early as February 2020, and that there was no best deal to be made or better negotiations to be achieved from this collective of individual provinces that make up Afghanistan, and the only ones who could control our exit were the Taliban who won decisively among those Afghanies who were held power in every one of the provinces excepting the capitol Kabul, to name a few of the key facts. The last leader, general, guy dutied with turning the lights off and locking the door while turning the keys over in a bankruptcy gets the blame, the derision, is the proverbial scapegoat for the thousands of bad decisions that created failure or defeat going before. Biden is strong enough to live with that and get on with the rest of OUR agenda. Hooray, Mr Biden for doing what others before you should have done and that would have left our national dignity in better standing, at least temporarily. Please, Mr Biden, one time to explain and state your responsibility. Then, move on so that the War in Afghanistan is not allowed to be your failure. It's done. The humanitarian outcomes and the kindness and bravery of our military families contain the lessons for us from our nation's (and allies) expenditure of wealth and lives in that war.
There is no good way to gracefully end a 20 year war in a country with multiple tribes and factions. In fact, there is no way to end a 20 year war gracefully, period. Terrorism wreaks hell on the oppressed. TFG and his comrades only made deals with the Taliban and not the existing Afghan government. TFG and his comrades allowed the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners and planners that undergird them now. The TFG and his comrades refused a transitional handover to pass information to the incoming administration of current issues with the war, agreements and national/international security issues. TFG and his comrades have proven they care zip for the welfare and well-being of the women and children at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and for that matter of all the people in our democracy. So who the hell should we be mad at, really? Biden is doing a yeoman's job and he won't be perfect, he admits mistakes, and he has humility. He has a lot of experience and he has to deal with seditionists in his government who are still able to vote and make laws for a country they want to have total authoritarian control. I think people need to reign in their anger. War is hell and so is fascism right here where our brainwashed people and children are endangered and dying.
Well said. Thanks.
Totally agree, thanks for your post.
Yes!
Morning Daria.
“I need to think and collect my thoughts.”
For me, that wasn’t always such a daily, intense chore. Things so out of balance. I feel resentment. No bueno.
I was happy to hear on our local news that my community has asked to have 3 Afghan families come to this area. Locals are ready to open their homes until the refugees can find housing. This, when the folks on the right in this country are spewing hatred and violence. Unfortunately, like you, Daria, I do not see a "better tomorrow" in what remains of my life. Sad.....
20 years ago another refugee airlift forever changed the trajectory of my life and my mindset. That was when 3,800 "Lost Boys of Sudan" came to the U.S.; approximately 300 to the Boston area. They were unaccompanied, older teenage boys who, when very young, literally escaped death and destruction of their villages.
So many stories of heartbreak, joy, struggles, successes, resiliency. My involvement literally began by collecting winter clothing, making meals, then forming a nonprofit to help with education, housing, and providing guidance and support (i.e. parenting!) to help adjust to a new world. These young men (now with their wives and children) are among the loves of my life - they are family. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to become involved with refugees to seize the moment. You will see a "better tomorrow" through their eyes!
There is now much written about "The Lost Boys". These links give a quick overview.
https://www.rescue.org/article/lost-boys-sudan
The 2014 film "The Good Lie" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2652092/
Thank you, Janet. This warrants amplifying:
“ I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to become involved with refugees to seize the moment. You will see a "better tomorrow" through their eyes!”
Such optimism and resolve are critical for getting us through the challenges and threats of the far right.
Janet, I remember reading about the "Lost Boys". What a gift you gave them....and they you.
G. O. P. THE GHOULS’ ONGOING PUTSCH
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
Who would not laugh at me, if I should say
I saw a flash of powder burn a day?
John Donne—from The Broken Heart
For over seven decades, Mexico lived under the rule of the oxymoronic Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Americans—our poor wretched planet—now have to live with something that ought to be a physical impossibility.
It still masquerades as “the Republican Party”—just like the Wolf all dressed up as Granny—but it is nothing less than a permanent coup d’état, an ongoing 24/24, 7/7 PUTSCH.
And it won’t stop there. It can’t stop—ever! Not even when the Ongoing Putsch becomes their Institutionalized Putsch.
Like the Villain in a Tex Avery cartoon, these rabid loons ran off the clifftop in November… and they’re still running! What does this say about America? What does it say about mankind today? Would such delusions be thinkable in a land not in thrall to “virtual reality”, where millions can’t tell a hawk from a handsaw or the world from a video game?
ISIS employs psychopaths to commit mass murder. Whoever pays the onetime GOP employed a human battering ram to do its bidding for four years from November 2016… but now… “rabid” is a polite word for the feral parasites that have gotten into our apple.
No one on Earth will be safe as long as the hell-beings that are hijacking America roam free. The planet can breathe freely only once they’re under lock and key in secure prisons for the criminally insane.
Yes but will it happen?? Or is US justice intended merely for poorly connected street criminals?
Would Sun Tzu not have insisted on beheading the monster, thus sparing the small fry?
I believe Sun Tzu would say, "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
On my way to work this morning I heard about the Texas ban on essentially all abortion having passed into law. First thought was, "this is the American Taliban hard at work stripping away the rights of women to make their own life choices."
Precisely.
Daria,
I’m far happier with your excellent comment than with my own, but I did want to make it clear that what calls itself the Republican Party is no such thing, it is not a political party but a conspiracy. No external enemies can rival it.
Peter, you are absolutely right and I agree with you - the Republican Party has morphed from a political party to a conspiracy and no external enemies can rival it. That our biggest threat is from within is chilling.
I wish I didn’t have to “like”—even endorse—what you have just written. No sane person can feel anything but horror at the mass madness in your country, in mine, in so many others. Given America’s power and influence, the nightmare looms vaster.
Yet there’s no place and no cause for discouragement.
I once asked my very agnostic father why, after the fall of France and the debacle of Dunkirk, he, being so down to earth, did not consider suing for peace in the face of overpowering material force.
His response:
“The war was often going badly for us, yet in all those years neither I nor any of my comrades ever doubted for one single moment that we would overcome.”
WE SHALL OVERCOME.
WE ARE NOT AFRAID.
LISTEN!
SING ALONG…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhnPVP23rzo
The Conspiratorial Republican Sedition Party. Surely there must be accountability?
Well done, K! There’s almost an acronym in there… how about Conspiratorial Republican Antipeople Party…something like that
I just refer to it as The Repugnant Party.
Prove me Wrong!
Thank you for such a well-written and expressive response. It summarized so much of my internal monologue I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks.
So much truth and wisdom here, Daria. Religions can carry human beings into dark corners, and it stuns me perpetually to think about the social role of evangelical religion and other cults. Simply put, IMO, they constantly deny and override the national creed about all men being created equal and being equally entitled to pursue life, liberty and happiness. One hopes the founders held the expansive view of 'men' but I think that is the clearly modern view among most as it should be.
“There is no real difference between the far right, the evangelical right and the Taliban.” Do you actually believe this? Maybe you are joking no? Daria you are better and smarter than this. I hope I am missing something.
There is the Taliban. Then there are the "Oath Keepers" and the "Proud Boys".
The difference between them is that the Taliban once they gain control of a region, will help feed the population. Of course, they will fund that effort with "taxation" aka extortion, the opium trade and duties levied on trade.
The American Taliban (and there are many) range from the above mentioned groups to racist clergymen and some members of Congress. And then there are the leaders of the NRA. Yes, we have our own "Taliban". And Kevin McCarthy's statements just put him in support of that club.
And all the defenders of the Capitol invaders of January 6th shall have that designation as well...and worse.
Here’s one similarity between right wing extremists and the Taliban, and it didn’t take long to find this image plus hundreds more. Yeah, I would call these guys terrorists, too
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/trump-protestors-with-guns-in-michigan-capitol-are-very-good-people-2020-5%3famp
David, maybe Daria meant to say "important" instead of "real". Do you suggest there are no important similarities among these extreme groups? When I saw the image of AK-47-carryingTalibans standing grimly behind a frightened Afghan TV journalist as he tried to read the news, I thought "Hmmm, looks like a bunch of Trumpoids, but with better beards."
I have always noticed similarities between these intolerant groups. And they need each other to thrive.
They lose power when the world is well.
And they gain power not by being leaders but by bullying and intimidation.
Like Saddam Hussein (and any number of “our sonofabitches”) the Taliban once enjoyed US support, before serving for target practice. Would they have become what they are if America hadn’t hammered them into their present shape and tempered the metal… over a long, long period of time?
It’s “the only good Injun is a dead Injun” all over again. You’d have thought the Vietnam fiasco would put an end to the frontiersmen’s westward push across Asia.
We in Europe will pay for the horrible messes successive administrations made of vast swathes of western Asia, and the bills may come in for generations. It’s more than sad that America’s sacrifice for our freedom should have degenerated to this. One thing to carry a big stick but… where was the soft speech?
David, no, I'm not joking. When people organize and support the use violence to defend their faith and/or their political beliefs they are modeling terrorism. When groups of (mostly) men walk the streets of Any Town, USA openly carrying powerful, semiautomatic weaponry, in order to intimidate "the other" they are terrorists. When religion is used as the justification for violence and stripping away rights and freedom that is terrorism.
The only thing that has not yet happened in the US is right wing extremists routinely gunning people down in the streets or in their homes. That day is coming. When dangerous, vocal politicians like Cawthorn, Greene, Brookes and the like talk about the right rising up against liberals they are planting the seeds of violence in the minds of people champing at the bit to act out their hatred against those who "stole" the election from them. Do you seriously think Cawthorn suggesting civil war is empty rhetoric? Do you seriously think that people won't act on his Civil War fantasy? What of this from Fuentes and Malkin?
"The influential young white supremacist Nick Fuentes — an ally of the Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar and the anti-immigrant pundit Michelle Malkin — wrote on the encrypted app Telegram: “The Taliban is a conservative, religious force, the U.S. is godless and liberal. The defeat of the U.S. government in Afghanistan is unequivocally a positive development.” An account linked to the Proud Boys expressed respect for the way the Taliban “took back their national religion as law, and executed dissenters.” NYT
I think you are missing something, David. You're missing the fact that the right's advocacy of violence has become acceptable to talk about openly. The Taliban used violence to topple a government and install themselves in a position of power. There are people in our country who admire what the Taliban has done and look to achieve a similar success, through force, in the US. The minute right wing extremists in the US pick up arms to overwhelm their neighbors, overtake the government and force their brand of Christianity on us they will, in fact, be the American Taliban.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/madison-cawthorn-is-openly-talking-about-civil-war-at-this-point
https://www.thedailybeast.com/madison-cawthorn-fantasizes-about-busting-out-jan-6-political-hostages
https://wset.com/news/local/us-rep-greene-congratulates-crowd-for-low-vaccination-rate-promotes-gun-violence
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/mo-brooks-capitol-bomb-threat
https://www.politico.eu/article/far-right-taliban-afghanistan-social-media-facebook-twitter/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/opinion/alt-right-taliban.html
And let's add to this the Texas abortion law that allows for vigilantism against women seeking abort after 6 weeks, anyone who performs an abortion after six weeks, and anyone that you even think has knowledge of someone seeking or performing an abortion after 6 weeks.
"Beyond outlawing abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the Texas law, signed in May, would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks, such as a person who drives a pregnant person to the clinic. Individuals found to have violated the law would have to pay $10,000 to the person who successfully brings such a suit — a bounty abortion rights advocates warn will encourage harassment, intimidation and vigilantism."
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/01/supreme-court-texas-abortion-ban-508275
I can't help but draw a comparison to those in Nazi Germany who "turned in" their neighbors.
Sharon, I am absolutely sickened by this and was going to include it then simply got side tracked. Thank you for bringing it front and center.
So am I Daria. Thank you for your contributions to this discussion. There's so much coming at right now it's overwhelming.
This new law in Texas that deputizes citizens financially incentivizes abortion bounty hunters. And who will make any finding forcing an alleged violator to pay $10,000 to the bounty hunter? A trump judge and/or a jury of what “peers?”
Brilliantly said and footnoted, Daria!
There is extremism on both the right and the left. Just look at the riots of 2020. It is not at all all right wing. I also find your identification with fundamental Christianity with violent troubling. What would the abolitionist John Brown or Billy Graham be called. Terrorist. Now. What about progressive rioters be called? The chosen? Be careful labeling entire groups as evil. People are more nuanced.
Firstly, I would never lump John Brown in with Billy Graham. John Brown was a passionate, dedicated abolitionist who practiced what he preached putting his and his family's lives in jeopardy throughout his life to help run away slaves travel safely to Canada. He gave his life for the Abolitionist Movement. Billy Graham, for all his talk, was not a passionate advocate of civil rights, distancing himself from MLK and other civil rights leaders in the early 60s.
And, yes, let's talk about the riots of 2020. In many instances peaceful BLM protests were high jacked by extremists seeking to disrupt that peace. Were there extremists from both sides of the spectrum? Yes indeed. But the difference between the two sides is well documented and it is this: right wing extremists tend to be very well organized and interconnected, left wing extremists function in a more nebulous fashion. There is no head of ANTIFA because it is not a group but a movement against fascism. There are heads of the Proud Boys, 3 Percenters, The Oath Keepers and other right extremist groups and many of these groups prop themselves up using "White Christian Nationalism" as a basic tenet.
Rioting and looting by anyone is not the same as peaceful protest. Many of those who rioted in 2020 did so because they objected to a revitalized BLM movement following the death of George Floyd. They wanted to make sure that the BLM movement was tainted with violence. Those on the left who countered right wing violence with violence during the 2020 events are no less guilty, however, I dare say there are fewer on the left side of the spectrum than the right.
Finally, January 6, 2021. Let's look at that briefly. A lot of God and Jesus talk has been thrown around before, during and after that day by the insurrectionists, their agitators and supporters. We are, according to them, a Christian nation and God is exclusively on their side. It's sickening.
I don't believe I've ever used the word evil. Don't put words into my mouth
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/a-christian-nation-since-when.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/21/billy-graham-wrong-side-history
https://www.counterextremism.com/content/white-supremacy-groups-united-states
https://www.counterextremism.com/content/extreme-left-groups-united-states
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/04/qanon-christian-extremism-nationalism-violence-466034
https://religionnews.com/2021/01/12/the-faith-of-the-insurrectionists/
You'll have to copy and paste the link below, I believe.
ICSR-Report-Far-From-Gone-The-Evolution-of-Extremism-in-the-First-100-Days-of-the-Biden-Administration.pdf
Brown and Graham are both Evangelicals. The point is they are not monolithic.
Your disgust is duly noted.
The Progressive movement is becoming more “fascist” too by the day. And It is totally organized. No Schiff ;) Cultish. Isn’t that why many are here? It is incredibly the movement of the wealthy and coastal Elite. Who would have thunk. Nancy’s Warriors, Gavin sure in their righteousness. The People Like Us Crowd. Above it. Mandate, Impose, Cancel, Obfuscate, Control. Odd no? Even Eric Clapton is hip to it, protesting attacks on individual Freedom…I imagine he gets canceled ;) Back to the future…strange days indeed. Good evening.
Wow, sounds like Sandy when he hasn't taken his meds.
Oh, stop. Go have a glass of wine.
The BLM protests were mostly peaceful. It was the instigators on the right wing fringe that did most of the rioting and them blamed it on something else. Ya know, kinda like 45 did all his life.
We all liked it better when you were silent. Your "what-aboutism" is disgusting.
"whataboutism" = the old conservative fallback position.
Sorry you feel that way.
Sorry not sorry. Mansplaining doesn't look good on you Comrade.
And, sad to say, the extreme left.
Please, our extreme left would be seen as merely moderate in a number of European social democracies where civility is still a value and healthcare is a birthright. I think our lefties are the only ones keeping our moderate Democrats from becoming Joe Manchin clones.
I guess I was thinking of the really extreme left - I guess in the USA, for many, being slightly left of center makes you an extreme lefty!
I think our problem in the States is that we've -- justifiably -- lost faith in politicians generally, and we have ceased believing that some people (scientists, educators, intellectuals, artists, older folks, etc.) actually know more about many things than the rest of us do and that we should listen to them. People think that all existing knowledge is easily available to them if they just tap their smartphones a few times, no interpretation or mentoring needed, but this is not literally the case. This is not real learning. It is not real knowledge. It is social adaptation above all, as well as subjugation to our bizarre socio-economic system.
So we can just read a few sentences, and if what's written seems to correspond to some belief (or -- more likely -- feeling) we have picked up somewhere and rings true, then we feel reassured, justified and even confident that we have latched on to a piece of the truth and can repeat it, pass it on with satisfying assurance to others who may actually know more (or less) than we do, but there's no way to know because we assume they get their knowledge the same way we do. And sometimes we lead each other out on a very long and brittle limb, and now look where we are!
The need to remind each other that the lefties are just as bad as our proto (and not so proto) fascist righties helps us feel evenhanded (it is pleasant to feel evenhanded!), but the fact is that our extreme lefties (are there still American Communists, a couple of Leninist-Stalinst professors in a backroom of one of our prestigious and expensive Ivy League colleges or universities?) are few and far between and have no effect on our national discourse whatever (really, who are they?), but they are in our minds like the little bit of evil lurking in our hearts.
Our Frankensteinish Right has been working to invent the perfect world-destroying monster for at least 40 years (Trump is just a prototype) and they are now getting close and they have us out on their limb with them, while our left has been in full retreat ever since LBJ decided to listen to his generals and not his heart, and Bernie Sanders and a handful of bright-eyed progressives have not changed this, unfortunately.
The problem with our Left is that it barely exists, and most of us subscribe to HCR's Letter.
The problem with extremism is that the perfect world, in either extreme, does not and cannot exist within the continuum of diverse values and priorities in any society. Compromise is the watchword of a functional society and extremists, who condemn the notion that giving something up to gain something you desire, are really at the root of disfunction
Define extreme Left.
Could you be specific? Where is this “extreme left?” What exactly are you referring to?
This comment was misquoted by Ned List on on his sub stack page.
Joe Biden, the wise sage, the one adult, working steady and earnestly to clean up the damage that greedy, selfish, juvenile delinquents have left in their wake. Observing the extreme competence of the face of his administration, Jen Psaki, also encourages hope that Biden & staff are capable of succeeding against the formidable odds. Thank you Heather your daily very generous gifts. 🙏
I am ready to blow a gasket. The news media, including my beloved Nicole Wallace, have had guests on that "trash" Biden and his decision. As soon as Biden's speech was done, the show had two guests on who criticized Biden ad nauseum. I'm also furious at my local paper, the Tampa Bay Times which has not published any of the letters I've sent in and continues to spew right wing extremism. Even the letters they DO publish are ones critical of Biden. Take a look at a sample from one published today: "This catastrophe, including loss of more American lives, could’ve been avoided had our president, his Cabinet and military leaders simply coordinated their efforts and done their jobs on getting everyone out safely, instead of focusing on a single date." Simply coordinated efforts???? Seriously??? I have no words.
Same here. I was in shock watching the hosts and their guests tear Biden apart. I thought I was on the wrong channel, especially since I had just watched his speech and that wasn't what I had heard/seen.
I suppose the question is WHY are liberals turning on Joe Biden now?
Struggling to keep post TFG ratings pumping?
Nancy, Are you suggesting Nicole Wallace is a liberal?
I have mostly quit watching anyone on daytime MSNBC and still watch the night lineup. I especially enjoy the frolicsome way Joy Reid points out who is the worst. Then Rachel and Lawrence have become wonderfully supportive of facts and not opinions and both use a similar (intelligent and circumspect) tone to Heather's. And yay Ari and his interview with Michael Moore. Most of my actual friends will read HCR's Letters to straighten them out if I let them know they may be listening to the wrong news and people:-) Hang in there, people.
We two are tuning in and enjoying the same programs for the same reasons!
We three...
Coaxed into this by the hideous events of the last couple weeks in Afghanistan, people who did not follow what was happening starting way back with Trump and Pompeo don't understand that the stage was set long before Biden was on the scene. Thus, they assign blame for the last 20 days without understanding that 20 years likely made it inevitable. It is likely that we were lucky not to have seen worse.
I agree with you. I sent several tweets to her and to MSNBC. It was disgusting.
I agree with them. He knew many months before the pull out that he was going to do this. Pulling the military out before the civilians who is very telling. Lots of men women and children will be killed and brutalized because of the short amount of time that was given to this endeavor. The premise was great.The delivery sucked.
Considering how dangerous the whole operation was,
my humble opinion is to have gratitude that we got so many humans out alive.
It’s tragic and has been for 20 years.
Elaine, I suggest you read this opinion piece from the Washington Post, by Max Boot. It clearly spells out Biden's dilemma and the fact that the Republicans who are now criticizing him are total hypocrites.: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/01/hawley-cruz-attacks-biden-afghanistan-exit/
Elaine
Two wild cards made "coordinated effort" impossible
No one could foresee that the Afghani army would crumble or that the President of Afghanistan's legit government would grab a suitcase of money and flee.
The resources Biden counted on for calm and stability were gone! He and our valiant service members did a Herculean job saving all that they could. This Monday morning quarterbacking with Biden criticism is wrong.
The US completed the largest airlift in history. Give it some credit.
Bravo, Christy. Heather's post are a gift. They help me to keep multi-directional cascade of our present in some sort of accessible and understandable order. The governing actions of Biden and his team help me find enough optimism to mostly deal with the dark thoughts (and actions) pushed at us each day, mostly by politics. And, despite the fact that crumbs continue to be elected, these comments here -- especially reading posts like that from Janet W above -- each day help me to understand that the world is still full of good people, despite the ugly fact that media coverage of the actions of not-so-good people seem to suck the breathable air out of most days by the end of the 10 o'clock news. Can a decent society overcome? Can we live in peace, be truly free and unafraid? Can we walk hand in hand? Perhaps some day.
Thank you for your comment John, and the solidarity. As the old fable goes, the wolf that wins is the one that we feed. So grateful for this community for feeding love. ❤️🙏
100%!
20 years ago another refugee airlift forever changed the trajectory of my life and my mindset. That was when 3,800 "Lost Boys of Sudan" came to the U.S.; approximately 300 to the Boston area. They were unaccompanied, older teenage boys who, when very young, literally escaped death and destruction of their villages.
So many stories of heartbreak, joy, struggles, successes, resiliency. My involvement literally began by collecting winter clothing, making meals, then forming a nonprofit to help with education, housing, and providing guidance and support (i.e. parenting!) to help adjust to a new world. These young men (now with their wives and children) are among the loves of my life - they are family. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to become involved with refugees to seize the moment. You will see a "better tomorrow" through their eyes!
There is now much written about "The Lost Boys". These links give a quick overview.
https://www.rescue.org/article/lost-boys-sudan
The 2014 film "The Good Lie" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2652092/
The dark side to the Lost Boys of Sudan:
Although there is much attention directed toward the Lost Boys, their counterparts, the Lost Girls, are often ignored. Even before the conflict, inequalities were manifested in their cultural practices. This marginalization heavily influenced their post-conflict revery and integration in refugee camps and resettlement programs. Upon their arrival, the boys were placed into boys-only areas of the camp. Yet according to Sudanese culture, the girls could not be left alone, so they were placed with surviving family members or adopted by other Sudanese families. Although these family placement practices provided them security, families often exploited the extra pair of hands at home. The expectations of domestic work often prevented the girls from attending school, and even when allowed to attend, their housework often kept them behind, further entrenching them in their inability to sustain themselves. Many girls were abused by their host families and by other refugees and occasionally even sold as brides. When US resettlement program began in 1999, one requirement was that the children must be orphaned. Because these girls had been living within a family unit they were no longer considered orphans, and therefore were ineligible for the resettlement program. Of the 4,000 Sudanese refugees approved in 2000, only 89 were women.
...not to take away from Janet W's very important work...
Stephen, Thank you for bringing this information to our attention. I will follow up.
What a horrid story. I had no idea. breaks my heart.
https://www.syracuse.com/politics/cny/2019/11/chol-majok-to-win-syracuse-council-seat-becoming-1st-refugee-to-hold-office-in-city.html
Excellent article on Chol Majok.
Yes, a wonderful story!! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful, transformative story. Giving blesses the giver as much as the recipient.
I can’t love your post enough. Thank you so much for your love and care. ❤️🙏
How deeply wonderful that you transformed their lives and yours. Your post gives me chills. Thank you for your great work of love in action and for sharing!!! ♥️♥️♥️
Janet, I was so impressed and moved by your story, I had to look up more about how these young men came from Sudan to Arlington, MA. This early 2001 Boston Globe article is another resource on their story. http://cache.boston.com/globe/metro/packages/lost_boys/part1.htm
Reading Ellen Barry's article got me started and a group of us (from Stow and Lincoln) founded the Friends of the Sudanese, Inc. that we ran for a few years to help these young men get some formal education. And, of course they were just a bunch of big kids who needed kindness and parents!! Ellen also spoke at the spring 2021 Gala celebration (done via Zoom) that was sponsored by the South Sudanese Enrichment for Families (SSEF) where I served as a board member and am still involved. https://www.ssefboston.org/
Janet, brava for you for all your wonderful work helping refugees. Thank you for this information on how I can get involved.
Go you! So true.
Your story embodies the hope generosity and courage to do what the moment calls out for us to do. Thank you so v were much for sharing that.
It's important to keep in mind that the right-wingers and regressives are the minority! Part of their tough talk is based on a desperate push to keep everybody convinced they have the upper hand.
That isn't entirely true. Their ranks are shrinking.
Biden shifting the focus of our government to start serving the needs of the populace undermines the arguments of the regressives more effectively than any tough talk ever could. That is no accident! As time passes and people's lives are improved, the yapping of the regressives will become increasingly irrelevant and the regressives know it. Time is not on their side.
From your keyboard to the ears of the deities...
Native Americans would probably disagree that Afghanistan was the longest war in US history.
So would descendants of all enslaved by Confederacy.
I have hoped that you would show up tonight. Why don't you reply with at least a 'hello'?
I was on super early and then with my baby grand all day and working with a lot of activists here locally on the continuing assault on local school system. Teachers are beside themselves. And students. Ahhh, Florida. Geez.
Anyway, catching up on all the comments. I was wondering where you were early today.
Hello dear Fern. Let’s keep playing kickball. You are kicking some ass this past week.
Brava!
I also did a little private ceremony today….It’s September. A new month. One of my faves. Rolling towards fall.
My calendar in my office had this pithy saying that I looked at
every day in August…
“I am 51% sweetheart and 49% bitch. Thank you for not pushing it.”
Oh the wrath when dummies try.
😜
So would Native Americans.
I find it interesting that Russia who was a destabilizer of Afghanistan before we were and faced with that instability on their own border is calling for the US to unfreeze the money that may be the only thing to help keep the Taliban in a compromising frame of mind. Russia of course does such a poor job for it's own people that it can not even hope to influence Afghanistan without someone else paying the bill.
A bunch of grumpy rich old white men are being faced with the changing of the world and they hate it and so keep trying to stop the world from moving on without them. They do not have the powers of superman where they can make the world spin backwards and time is their kryptonite.
I wonder do McCarthy, Greene, Jordan, etc, etc hear the footsteps of justice coming down the hall for them? "... ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee" (John Dunne). Kudos to Rep. Lieu for reminding the traitors of the law.
There's enough in the statement of Republican leader Kevin McCarthy quoted above to serve as a guilty plea in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1505, as pointed out by Representative Lieu, to immediately start action against him by the Department of Justice. What are they waiting for? (Google the Code citation. It's short and sweet.)
"A bunch of grumpy rich old white men are being faced with the changing of the world and they hate it and so keep trying to stop the world from moving on without them." Yep.
And them footsteps are a'comin'
Pamela, spot on! I’ve been complaining about these grumpy old white men for years! 25 years ago at a in service meeting for educators we were told that white people are quickly becoming the minority. It’s time for change!
Biden has just acknowledged that the world's conflict is centered and fueled by money. Just suppress it and the fuel and fire are gone. Just like removing oxygen from a fire.
Imagine that? Wars without gunfire. The new paradigm
Beginning with W. Bush, then Obama, then #45, and now Biden, the new paradigm is drone warfare, along with sanctions. Such great human rights weapons, don't you think? NOT!
Hello! Welcome to a brand new month. It is September 1st, 2021, and for the first time in twenty years, America is not at war.
At least not openly.
Unfortunately, one reason given to get out of Afghanistan was to go fight terrorism in other parts of the world -- like in the United States.
Hopefully we can use our constitution and laws to fight terrorism here at home.
Amen to that.
that is true!
You think not? The people being killed thanks to the US would disagree.
You're still as full of shit as usual, trollboy.
I can see there is still no hair growing on your tongue, TC. Give 'em hell.
Shooting Large Slow Targets and/or fish in a barrel isultimately boring. :-)
Ted, thanks for the shot of positivity!
Just one step at a time....
Except, we are at war with ourselves, on our soil, often with our own families.
Yes now we are “over the horizon”
Why so afraid of the phone records? Hmm, I wonder!!!
There are no "innocent" Republicans left. No "moderates," no "reasonables."
What nonsense
C’mon…finish your statement DC before you run for cover beneath your toadstool…
“What nonsense…who would think or suggest DC is an uninspired insurgent that uses a keyboard instead of a stick the size of a twig?”
Hmmmm, just about everyone on this forum.
Yawn
That is what makes me afraid for the future. Sure, there were policy differences, but they used to put country over party. Or, did it just seem that way? At almost 70 I’ve had both Dems & GOP in high offices. Not until trump did I ever feel anxious about what our future would become.
Not sure why that went out a second time!!!
Some years ago I wrote about Vietnam as a Greek tragedy. Successive American presidents were desperate to avoid the back lash from ‘losing a war.’ Ike was rather modest in accepting the transfer of the Vietnam ‘hot rock’ from the French. JFK escalated our involvement with troops and authorized a military coup in which Diem, our once-favored Catholic president, was killed. I do not believe thatJFK would have pulled us out of Vietnam in a second term. LBJ was a Texan who thought he could overwhelm Ho Chi Minh. LBJ’s cabal of yippe cowboys including General Westmoreland, Walt Rostow, and Defense Secretary NcNamara (before he had a change of heart). Nixon sought to leave ‘with honor’ and, in reshuffling the deck, cost another 20,000 American dead and perhaps another million dead Vietnam before an ‘honorable surrender’ in 1973. It took another two years before a final hasty evacuation.
The music was somewhat different with the Afghan ‘dance of the storks.’ We entered to capture bin Laden and his al Qaeda buddies. Missed them, but remained pissed with the Taliban. A gradual build up oozed into a major military and financial commitment to ‘nation build.’ Obama came in after the Bush/Cheney, Rumsfeld ‘slap the leather’ cabal. In 2011 Obama seemed to explore seriously our withdrawal from Afghanistan, but this probably was only political window dressing [VP Biden was in the ‘let’s leave’ minority]. Ultimately Obama approved a military-recommended troop surge.
Trump never had a rationale policy on Afghanistan. At one time he expressed an intention to pull us out entirely. In February, 2020 he approved a long-term ‘surrender’ to the Taliban and, while president, declared a total troop withdrawal in May, 2021 (oophs, lost the election).
PRESIDENT BIDEN BIT THE BULLET AND SET AN AUGUST 31ST DATE FOR OUR TOTAL WITHDRAWAL. THIS, IN MY OPINION, WAS THE APPROPRIATE DECISION AND I GREATLY ADMIRED HIS GUTS FOR BEING PRESIDENTIAL.
There will be Monday morning quarterbacks second guessing what President did and how he did it. I do not believe that his decision to end our 20 year fool’s errand in Afghanistan will be a significant political liability for him six months hence. Meanwhile we and others will be engaged in the vexing task of facilitating new lives for over 100,000 Afghan refugees.
When you are riding a dead horse, the only proper thing to do is dismount.
...and then stop beating it.
Yesterday on Deadline Whitehouse, we were subjected to an uninformed gust of hot air from NYT Pentagon reporter, Helene Cooper, who did nothing but parrot gossip she had picked up over at war HQ and offer her own biased opinion. Following that, we witnessed the rude and hysterical outpouring from Paul Rieckhoff, who not only was abusive to the one decent and intelligent guest on the segment, but clearly revealed his hawkism and desire for perpetual war. Thank goodness Richard Stengel (the one decent and intelligent guest) was allowed to speak. He calmly and without rancor reviewed the entire sordid history of all the foolish empires which tried, and failed, to conquer that motley assortment of tribes we call Afghanistan over the centuries. Centuries. Centuries.
I do wish MSM would cease and desist with giving free air time to these hysterical hawks. They too are a thing of the past and should be put aside, regardless of ratings.
Oh, Ellen, I thought the exact same thing! I couldn't watch it and shut it off. I've started taping "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" and playing that in the morning in lieu of Morning Joe who also has Scarborough acting like a maniac.
Lived experiences create so much opportunity for wisdom gained. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom here. 🙏
Keith, Your clear description of our tragic encounter with Vietnam brought back the agitated years of my young adulthood; the songs of failed engagements, with men at the helm and death everywhere, ring and ring. Thank you for sharing with us.
Fern Those of us who lived during those tortured years have memories that shall never disappear. In 1964 I was a Foreign Service Officer who had volunteered to return, with a White House mandate , to operate alone with, at times, a M-16 and .45, in rebel-infested Congolese provinces. This was prelude to a Belgian/American military rescue of over 3,000 foreign hostages, including our captured Stanleyville American consulate staff. I was proud to serve my country. Subsequently, because of my rambunctious Congo exploits, the American ambassador in Saigon twice ‘requested’ that I join him. I refused. I chose not to put my life on the line for something that clearly was wrong headed and would end dreadfully. I often thought of all the draftees who were denied such a choice.
GREAT summary, Keith, and I much appreciate what you have done. Those who lived through Vietnam can never forget what it did to the nation. I add two points to your summary: 1) JFK missed the boat in not seeing Ho Chi Minh as legitimate revolutionary trying to do what was best for his country after years of colonialism; 2) the sad role of money and profits in extending the war in Vietnam. Afghanistan did not have a parallel to #1 in so far as I understand, but it seems that the shameful influence of #2 was there in spades. I hope and think that Afghanistan will not leave horrible systemic grooves comparable to those left by Vietnam, although there can be no doubt that it will profoundly affect the people who served on the ground there and their families. At least Biden understands and put a stop to this. I desperately hope that you are right about the withdrawal being a relatively minor blip in 6 months, despite GOP efforts to keep this active as a wedge issue in US politics.
So glad you made it home. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
I received an e-mail from the Vote Vets group showing a video of a veteran who appeared on Rachel Maddow, and who supports totally Biden's decision. Of course, they asked for a donation to amplify this message, which I decided to do. Please check out the video: (Had to delete a previous post because it gave all my contact/payment information so here is just the video link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtTeOQPTsYk&t=13s
I went looking for that Greek tragedy and found what I believe is your biography Mr. Wheelock. Thank you, sir, for the gifts you have brought to our world. If only, all of us had mentors the likes of you, what a world we might live in.
Bob Kudos! War has become a chess game where the leaders have no skin in the game. How many people in the White House or Congress have family involved in this ‘game?’ [Biden was a rare exception.] Sending young Americans off to die or return grievously wounded is a grave responsibility which our leaders should exercise as a carefully-considered last resort.
Bob, you moved me to my knees. You are a fellow compatriot, dear and true. With appreciation.
Agreed, Fern! Sincere thanks, Bob! War is not the answer…
“Biden is the best of (and for) us.”
"“I don’t think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on, who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation,” Biden said today."
Another good idea. Have the 1%ers fight the wars. We'd have peace forever.
I don't get it. Biden was referring to our soldiers when he referred to the 1% of America who put on uniform. They, or at least the poorest of them, DO fight our pointless wars.
It is confusing. 1% at the top control policy, including war. And 1% of the population join the military and fight our wars.
The are effectively at opposite ends of income distribution.
I am confused or very slow. Still trying to figure out who the troll is. And now the 1% are solders or are they people with money. If the people with money had to fight the war there would be no war. In my thinking. Kind of like if men had to have babies there would be no problem with abortion.
I think Daniel Friedman is suggesting that if members of the privileged faction of wealth (1 percenters) were the foot soldiers with boots on the ground, experiencing for themselves dust, mud, MREs, lack of control over one’s time spent, guard duty, uncertainty of attack, blood and guts, getting maimed or killed—then “we’d have peace forever.”
Thank you for clarifying my comment. I am a man of few words (though many Comments). You know, "Still waters run deep", "Silence is golden", "If you have nothing good to say, say nothing"...well, actually that was a lot of words to explain myself.
I also grew up with "if you have nothing good to say..." In addition to mandatory military/civic service that reels in the wealthy, I wish more common people got that experience with its range of loss of middle class taken-for-granted lifestyle presumptions, like private bathroom use, to so many levels of trauma, in addition to risk of being a pawn ordered to risk your life for someone else's foolish whim.
More messages received: "Don't say anything that you are going to regret later." (Still working on that one). Feel free to explain my comments, often too pithy and cryptic. You would be doing me a service, and saving a struggle for other readers.
Yeah, when feeling pissed off, "think before you speak."
Personally, I love pithy and concise. I have not noted readers to have issues with understanding your posts, and I really avoid speaking for other people. But when facilitating clarification is helpful, that's a good thing! Especially with a particularly important point as you were raising about the 1 percenters.
Oh for a search function here. I recently posted a link to Anat Shenker-Osorio who says and writes good things about the faction of powerful wealthy people who have persisted since the founding of this country. It was an interview posted on Facebook, in you don't already know her work. In the meantime...
https://communitychange.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/C3-Messaging-This-Moment-Handbook.pdf
Brilliant!
Roe vs. Wade died today -- at least in Texas. Texas passed an abortion bill that no woman (not many men need them) could have an abortion if the fetus was six weeks old or older. Most women don't even know they are pregnant yet at six weeks. Here's how the Texas Tribune sees it: Beyond outlawing abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the Texas law, signed in May, would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks, such as a person who drives a pregnant person to the clinic. Individuals found to have violated the law would have to pay $10,000 to the person who successfully brings such a suit — a bounty abortion rights advocates warn will encourage harassment, intimidation and vigilantism. ... SCOTUS ignored the motion for an emergency stay letting the law go into effect at midnight. Bounty hunters!! It is aimed at also shutting down women's clinics. If you're a women in Texas you may feel you'd be better off with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Abortion is a religious construct. It's murder if you believe the soul enters the womb at conception or not murder if the soul enters the body at birth. And, what about the religions that believe in reincarnation. I like what Barbara Bush said about abortion -- that God would take a that soul no matter what. Can't stand the people that say they are Pro Life before birth and won't do anything for that life after birth. The anti-maskers have even stolen the Pro Choice slogan. -- My Body, My Choice!
Skipped a word. Barbara Bush said about abortion -- that God would take care of that soul no matter what.
That is Truth.
The unprovable presence of a God, for which no evidence has ever been unearthed, will take care of an equally unprovable concept of a soul?
Folks will be much better off if we write laws that are based in, and on, cold eyed reality.
Cold eyed reality is: Lots of babies born in the USA will have extremely hard lives and die young due to profound abuse and neglect. God will not rescue them. God will, actually, appear not to exist for them.
For the woman that can foresee that outcome in the babies future, why not give her a choice?
Truth? The truth is many people are unmoored from the reality that is the United States.
Thank you. The separation church and state must be drilled into us.
And the SCOTUS is now looking as if it was imported from Gilead. We are sliding backwards fast. The radical right wing is winning. Wake me up from this Handmaid's Tale.
I don’t know what horrifies me more: the actions of the Texas legislators or the deliberate inaction of the Supreme Court majority. The SC knows how this is a big step in overturning Roe v Wade by sleight of hand. “Who us overturn Roe? Our hands are perfectly clean.” Yeah, right.
The recent misbehaviors of SCOTUS make me more certain than ever that we need to increase the number and re-establish some sort of balance in that body.
Wasn't Joe Biden going to set up a commission to look into the possibility of changing the size and nature of the SCOTUS?
"It's murder if you believe the soul enters the womb at conception or not murder if the soul enters the body at birth."
Or it is a choice, albeit complex for the woman, if you ignore the unprovable concept of a "soul".
It really is difficult for me to understand writing laws which constrain choices based on something nobody has ever seen or heard, or even brought back from fishing on a hook.
Outlawing abortion is based on religious views. Why should another person’s person practice of their religion dictate someone else’s reproductive healthcare decisions?
I am waiting for the moment when purported ‘pro lifers’ organize to adopt the babies produced by their buck shot anti-abortion fusillades. That to me would be a humane ‘pro-life’ stance. I suspect that Jesus might approve.
I've always had that thought too. It would appear once a child is born - the concern vanishes! Pro-life doesnt really describe that.
travesty
I am horrified and outraged that the court turned its back!
Well, all those babies that many women can’t take care of will have to be cared for by the State. They’ll “sell” most of the healthy babies, but all the rest of them will be looked after on Texan’s dime. I’m sure the bitching faithful will just love that.
Amen!
"Researchers estimate that the war in Afghanistan has cost more than 171,000 lives."
That 171,000 includes Afghans, Americans and others over the 20-year history of the war.
Covid-19 has killed almost 4 times as many (about 640,000) in the US alone.
I strongly agree with Biden that it was long past time to end the US presence there.
Right now we have more serious issues to deal with.
Something needs to be done about the “terrorists” who live among us. Our own fellow citizens who refuse to protect themselves and others from this deadly virus and continue to put us all in jeopardy. Where is the governing body of elected officials who mandate laws to protect the majority?
Nature has the upper hand here. We just don’t realize it yet.
Pandemics, floods, fire, drought, famine and catastrophic climate change are our future. We will either work together or we will die.
I was shocked to read that "...[T]he administration is trying to understand how climate change could destabilize the economy." After some two decades of facts presented by the Environmental movement, you would think the administration was still "trying" to understand.
Unfortunately I think we all kind of know which of those two possibilities is most likely to happen. I hope this does not upset anyone too badly, but it seems certain to me that some human death, and maybe a lot of it, is going to result from pandemics and climate change and maybe also from other serious problems included in your list.
https://guymcpherson.com/
"Our days are numbered. Passionately pursue a life of excellence."
I try to do so. But no two definitions of excellence are necessarily identical or even similar. Therefore, in the manner the intrinsically random organisms we all are, I content myself with doing my personal best.
Umm, pretty sure it’s already happening?
Thank you for your reply. Yes, it is happening, but I think it will get much, much worse.
I agree with you that something needs to be done, but I'm not sure what kind of "something" would be helpful. I don't have any relevant experience in the law, policing or criminology. Do you have an opinion or a suggestion as to what should be done?
Long, involved LFAA with lots to unpack. What I notice now is that there seem to be some trolls now popping over here. Please, folks, don't engage with them. Just let their words lie dead and don't breathe life into them.
The Trolls have noticed the threat to their ideology in the HCR letters and like Bald Faced Hornets attacking your apple cider, now buzz about the cup of facts, logic, and historical reference to interrupt your day. As we swat at them it creates interest from the rest of the hive as they swarm en mass to defend the indefensible
Roger that. HCR must have really whacked their beehive today.
Only problem with that Ally is same as when Dems seemingly sit back and do not protest the vitriol coming from the legislative branch of government. When we ignore them without a comment or refuse publicly to call out their identity, they come out more in disguised force to insult this community. Their words are not dead and apparently there is no need to breathe life into them. They have plenty of breath apparently. And when they are defended on this site, it is by us…some who feel the protest is harsh or rude or that a different opinion is to be welcomed or that someone tells them to f*ck off and that is unbecoming to our values.
Today reinforces my opinion on that.
I fall back on some of the posts that Roland made several months ago. Do you know who or what we engage with when commenting on some of these posts? Perhaps it is my arrival at the belief that you cannot negotiate with terrorists, and equating a particular political "stance" in that regard, but I just don't see the purpose in engagement with someone (or something) whose motives I don't trust.
Yes. You are right of course, Ally. That is the nature of conflict. Somehow dealing with motives and people that are not to be trusted.
And I would no sooner negotiate with a terrorist than the man in the moon. Former did because it takes one to know one.
When I comment to a terrorist on this forum, it is not to engage with them or argue or agree with their “points”. Many times, there is a shred of truth in what they state.
However. I don’t like them amongst those in HCR’s safe house. So it’s my conflict to “deal with”.
If this is a “safe house” then it’s well on its way to becoming dangerous and irrelevant.
There are those who post only to attack the group. They can be very safely ignored because they present nothing of substance or interest. Whatever damage they do is minuscule. There are far too many people in this group who have bucketful of learning and life experience. They are not going to be knocked off a hard won philosophy of life by the needling of a dimwit.
On the other hand this group and none of us in it have a monopoly on truth. We all have our own blind spots and weaknesses.
I come to the group foremost to learn from the accumulated wisdom of others. Already today there are posts which have drawn my attention and given me something to think about on and off through the day.
There is a second group - those who disagree with a strain of discussion that is happening, and post a rebuttal that is cogent and thought provoking. Very few issues are as one-dimensional as we would hope them to be and there is space for earnest and honest disagreement almost always.
We can learn from these people. They add breadth to the group.
I have read a few back and forth which have been truly illuminating, and at the same time vexing because I have the all too human need to feel “correct” in my views.
But more often than honest dispute there is the tendency to lump these people in with the dimwits, using insult and dreary cliché. And they are “successful” in that they drive this person away.
I am sure that Dr. Cox Richardson is far too strong intellectually to want this to be a safe house.
I certainly don’t, because I fear above all the echo chamber effect.
I understand that in these most parlous times there is an instinct to band together for safety. It is comforting to know that there are people who share our views, care about our personal lives, and exhibit kindness.
But (blinding new insight here), that is exactly how the other side behaves. 74 000 000 people are not all villains. They too need the security of others, the feeling of being cared for in a world that is just as dangerous and filled with grief for them.
We can have at the Trumps, the McCarthys, the McConnells. They have proved themselves treacherous and power seeking. Similarly we can dismiss the odd mosquito who comes here to bite the group. But any tendency to blister any person who dissents with our common wisdom is ill-informed and not the service the writer thinks it is.
You speak truth here Eric, we all must guard against group think.
That said your interpretation of “safe house” is different from mine. A safe house is where respectful disagreement is welcomed. Where we are safe to explore divergent ideas without being shamed. It’s never perfect, but, it’s honest.
I like that concept.
The only successful strategy when dealing with a conflict with unknown rules is to NOT engage.
Except Roland engaged quite extensively with his alleged trolls, some of whom are commenters who are foreign nationals, not Russian troll farm agents.
The distribution of resisters to adapters is a bell curve. People at the left end of resisters on the curve are set in their ways and will not change (including terrorists), so engagement is a waste of time and energy, at best. Some trolls deliberately try to suck time and energy away from constructive work.
I agree with you: Do not engage.
Ellie, I generally understand your reply but would appreciate an explanation of 'resisters' to 'adapters' on a bell curve. Can you define 'resisters' and 'adapters'? I got lost in trying to understand the analogy you were making with the bell curve. Thank you.
Yes, Fern, the cost of not having a link! I got this just last week in a work training’s hard to retrieve PowerPoint. A search for similar comes up with the Law of Diffusion of Innovations. Reverse what I wrote and put adapters on the left and resisters on the right.
https://medium.com/@seancrawford21/start-with-why-law-of-diffusion-of-innovations-chapter-7-8-1b8f2a2555ba
Thanks, Ellie. Busy time for me -- I'll read it later.
I miss Roland!! If he’s been here in the herd recently, I have not had the pleasure of interacting.
Thank you. Engagement amounts to encouragement.
Personally I don't have a problem with a grown up discussion with the trolls, but I don't believe calling them names or stooping to playground tactics helps anything.
Wondering if the outcry re Afghan withdrawal is in support of the profiteers in the war. q.v., Sarah Chayes on corruption.
No word of SCOTUS ruling on the Texas abortion law as of this hour. Evisceration of Roe?
Voter suppression is surging. So is fascism?
Anthropogenic climate disruption __> Dahr Jamail: The End of Ice
Our People--> https://verfassungsblog.de/our-people/
Ruptures in every direction.
Meanwhile, I sing in the forest, a song of longing, of bereavement for our Earth.
Our people.
Kim, see my post above. Texas women might be better off living under the Taliban!
My spirit is with you singing in that forest.
"Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said, 'These telecommunication companies, if they go along with this, they will be shut down. That’s a promise.'"
Another insight into the radical rights plan for the future of the US. No communications network. I've read dystopian future novels that are less harsh.
MTG's mouth moves, but her brain isn't in gear. The US knowledge economy would come to a grinding halt without modern telecommunications.
Without modern telecommunications, the entire U.S. economy would come to a grinding halt.
Without modern telecommunications, millions of people will die for lack of food, energy and other life-supporting goods.
Right? It’s as if TFG has the controls to her mouth. 😂
She's going to zap them with her space laser's.
Taylor Greene’s post suggested that the Rothschild banking firm is behind a supposed corporate cabal that engineered this whole space laser plot. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family controlling the world have frequently surfaced in the past, but, of course, this was not “an isolated anti-Semitic incident for Greene.
I like knowing who my enemies are.
Name those books, please.
"The Witch of Hebron" and "World Made by Hand" by William Kunstler (We are fierce enemies, but his writing is way out.)
Hi Daniel, When I read in your reply that William Kunstler was the author of the two books you recommended and that you were fierce enemies, I had a puzzle before me. I didn't have a chance to figure it out until a few minutes ago. I know who Kunstler is, but I didn't believe that he wrote dystopian novels and he died 25 years ago, not possibility near your age bracket. Ah, the author's name is James Howard Kunstler, and I believe that you do hate one another. Will I read the books? No, I have enough dystopia right here in America. Salud!
I think you mean James Howard Kunstler. I liked his non-fiction, and especially his commentaries on modern architecture. I read the first novel and started the second, but it was too unrelentingly grim for me.
Thank you both for correctly identifying the author that I recommended. Also for ensuring my animosity is directed correctly (We've had fights in public forums which, I believe I've won). Wouldn't want to besmirch a hero Like William Kunstler.