Still operating on a generator without room for much revision, so again, apologies for typos or inelegance…. There is an increasing feeling of desperation coming from the White House. Trump continues to insist he won the 2020 election, although the states whose results he has challenged have all certified their votes for Joe Biden. Biden has tallied more than 6 million votes more than Trump, including significant majorities in all the states Trump claims, in the biggest win for a candidate challenging an incumbent since Franklin Delano Roosevelt challenged Herbert Hoover in 1932.
Time for the Senate Democrats to play hardball; call Mitch’s bluff. If he allows the government to be shut down, message the hell out of it! Make it simple, clear, and repetitive! Broadcast all of the attempted packages that Democrats and bi-partisan caucuses have introduced, only to have Mitch refuse to act on them. Make it clear that Mitch is only interested in protecting his donor class. If we let him continue this autocratic control of the senate, it will set a terrible precedent for Biden’s administration. Plus, it just might bring out the vote in Georgia for the senate seats. Quiet acquiescence is not an option!
None of all this sedition would be possible without mitch. How can we get rid of a total obstructionist who has blatantly told all of us he does not give a sh_t about any of us. Without mitch, there never would have been a Fake 45. I am sure of it. He and his traitors to democracy have been working on republican coup for decades. They have been strategically placing "christians" (with a small "c") in significant positions of power. We must unravel their stranglehold on our democracy.
It is also not about parties anymore. It is about all people from any party or no party speaking out, standing up and saying enough is enough. If the cult cannot wake up, then we need to be the adults and stop all this nonsense.
It seemed impossible, in this final stage of his Presidency, that Trump would have the ability to take an already horrendous situation and make it worse, to roil our already turbulent political environment in his caldron of pain and hate to the point of exploding it.
A Covid death rate on one soul per minute and he plays golf; Republican officials and their families receiving death threats for doing their jobs, while he plots to pardon his family and friends for crimes they may have committed at his behest; clearing the Defense and Intelligence agencies of any voice that might be raised to challenge him, and in so doing hobble the incoming President’s ability to protect the nation – all of this when we are fifty days from inaugurating the 46th President.
Last night was a low point for me – and I’m an optimist. The anxiety brought about by concerns for so many friends and family in America who are now at such risk, for all the families who are struggling to provide food and shelter while having to cope with a pandemic – my God! And the government that is charged with protecting them is so irredeemably corrupt that it refuses to act because it either sees no political advantage in doing so (McConnel and company) or simply can’t be bothered because it is too busy stealing the silverware and covering its tracks as it executes its escape plan (the Trump Administration & family).
As I was about to turn in for the night, there was a moment of grace. I received a message from one of my dearest friends in New York. He had been released from the hospital after battling a life-threatening condition and was home with his family again – thank you, Great Spirit.
I have confidence we will get to the other side of this but once we do, we must do everything in our power to see that it does not happen again. Yesterday, one of our fellow contributors here posted information about a study titled, OUR COMMON PURPOSE: REINVENTING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. (https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose). It is worth your consideration.
He should be removed for crimes against all of us— immediately. I hate feeling so powerless on this train while a crime family has so much power over us. Such blatant atrocities overt and over because of very corrupt trumplican party. This is a coup and almost every republican in this administration should be held accountable for massive death and damages, and attempted destruction of our democracy. Sedition.
Ugh, the smell of diesel permeates the fresh Maine air. I hope your power is restored soon. All I can say is this: I am bewildered and stunned by the 74 million US Americans who have decided to align themselves with a con man. Not a businessman, not a president, a cheap, two bit conman who has raped the country. And the con will continue long after he leaves office unless he is shut down and locked up. (His kids too.)
Unfortunately, Daria, many of the 74 million would use exactly the same "descriptive" that you give for Trump when they think of or desribe Biden, Obama, Clinton etc. Unfortunately the education system, political discourse and the power of the media has not enabled the building of bridges to allow the construction of a common view of "reality"...perhaps as close as possible, as subjectivity will allow to " real and all inclusive facts . Its gotta start now!
Perhaps, Stuart, though Donald is notorious for his dishonest business ethics and practices. The fact that people were duped into buying his "I'm a billionaire and smart enough to fix it all" is because the press, including financial publications like Forbes, spent years buying into his nonsense and legitimizing him. Donald has a decades long legacy of running cons. He's doing it now raising millions to stuff in his pockets.
I agree wholeheartedly about the issues created by the media. The biggest problem being that many people can't distinguish between commentary/opinion and reportage. They get their "news" from Facebook, Twitter, etc. As for political discourse? How, at this point, are we going to have political discourse when members of Trump's own legal team are supporting violence against leaders, politicians and everyday people who don't support Donald Trump? How do you have a discourse with people whose minds are so poisoned by personalities like Hannity, Ingraham, Limbaugh, and Jones? And not just poorly educated people but people who are afraid that their slice of the pie is going to get yanked off their plate. Both the haves and have nots have fallen for his con, over and over again.
I make no apologies for my description of Donald Trump. He has led this country into a place of disease and despair that will take years to recover from. He has worked diligently to undermine business and environmental regulation and protection. He has made it okay for people to openly denigrate their non white neighbors and community members. He's made bullying an acceptable practice. He's suggested violence with a wink and a nod. He has openly ridiculed every single public health practice and standard suggested by a team of highly qualified experts and the (bizarrely influenced) CDC so that there are millions of people suffering while others glibly spread disease.
So yes, some people may use the same descriptive for Clinton, Obama and Biden, but it doesn't wash. Not one of them has ever tried to stage an overthrow of our government. Not one of them has ever set up a situation where millions suffer and hundreds of thousands die then flat out claim "I don't accept responsibility for any if this." Only Donald Trump and those he surrounds himself with, including Republican legislators on Capitol Hill, have been brash enough to assault this country in an attempt to overthrow it. They have truly poisoned the well.
All very true, Daria but that is quite evidently not how they perceive it. Firstly, Theirs is the classic perverse reaction in which the persecutor claims to be the victim of their victim's persecution...thus justifying a preventive strike.
Secondly, the results of psychological research into the question of "obedience of authority" and the willingness of the "submissive" to inflict harm or even kill innocents without feelings of culpability to order is horrifying. People cease to think when submitting to source of false authority!
As Theodore Adorno found in his studies of the authoritarian personality back in 1949, reported by Richard Hofstadter in 1954:
It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative — I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates — because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word, and they are far from pleased with the dominant practical conservatism of the moment as it is represented by the Eisenhower Administration. Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence.
From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
Daria, your words have liberated me. To add to the "no apologies," some of us have been tiptoeing around his base, seeking a way for them to "rejoin us." I now feel free to entertain that notion no more. Thanks!
Lynell, I have some very Trumpian family members, one of whom I just a few minutes ago had a tussle with. I'm basically done with some of them. They think he walks on water.
Daria, I have not done this yet with my 2 sisters but was thinking to outright ask them how they personally have benefited by him, and how they personally had not benefited by a Democrat in office. It may take me some time to work up to approaching them, though!
Lynell, one family member and her husband are strident evangelicals. They live in a state that has been rampant with covid for months but poo-poo the idea that covid is a real problem and oh yeah, Jesus will save them and Donald is right about everything. A discussion, having to to with potential covid exposure of elderly family members, brought things to a head this morning. I flat out told my family member that their idea of visiting elderly parents in ill health in another hot spot state was irresponsible. I was called a bully. So be it. I don't need or want to deal with people who are so brainwashed they will jeopardize the well-being of others to satisfy their own ego.
Thank you for expressing my dismay with our educational system and media. In my local community, scant resources are given to the police department over after school programs and mental health facilities. This, despite intense community protests. ❤️🤍💙
Time that the "intense community protest" accelerate their activities, generalize the support of their neighbours so that they can force the budget change or elect someone who will
Yes, spot on Stuart. The letters to the editor in our local paper from Trump supports could be republished with Trump and Biden names switched. It is the opposite of reality.
Steven Hassan is an American mental health counselor who has several books on the subject of mind control and how to help people who have been harmed by the experience. Hassan has been helping people exit destructive cults since 1976. Trump has created a classic cult that has been bolstered by media. It's worth reading "Freedom of Mind" that exposes the techniques and methods that individuals, cults, and institutions of all types—religious, business, therapeutic, educational, governmental—use to undo a person's capacity to think and act independently. We need to understand what has happened in order to overcome the national tragedy.
Excellent! Thank you! I have been complaining about the brainwashing tactics for five years now. It might be more productive for my heart and soul to learn how to de-program. I have been wanting to retire from psychology, but this might be necessary on a 71 million person scale to help right this ship. Thanks!
The formation of a cult takes on a classic set of parameters. Hassan articulates them very well. There is also a Netflix program---Leah Rimini, Aftermath of Scientology---that explores cult tactics. It's compelling to listen to people who were able to leave the cultures and environment they had "learned" to "value."
Just think of the role of the "snake-oil salesment" in the Westerns. He sold his bottles of rubbish for a time to the gullible people ....but eventually the little boy said "the Emporer has no clothes" (excuse me for mixing my metaphores....or my psychologically symbolic folk tales) and the conman got tarred and feathered before being put on his donkey backwards and run out of town....or into jail ....if he got away with his life!
Hey, Daria! Are you referring to the 74 million who voted for him? If so, I wonder in light of these current events how many still align with him, those who are silent and therefore don't get press time.
They will never stop aligning themselves with him. They have not been swayed by previous egregious behavior. They would lay down their lives for trump. They would commit murder if he asked them to. I am not referring to all Republicans, but to those who have laid down human decency for the MAGA cult and trump.
You are actually referring to all 74 million who voted for him. Just think about it for a few seconds, and you will understand why I am 100% correct. Sadly correct!
Trump has used brainwashing techniques that will require time to deprogram them. They are a cult and under his power. It is not pretty, but their ill behaviors need to be called out. There are also angry opportunists who just want to fight and have joined in for their racist or apocalyptic conspiracies.
I’d say most. The reason I say that is because if they still supported him just before the election with all that we know then pretty much he COULD shoot someone on fifth Avenue and they would still vote for him.
That "shoot someone on 5th Ave." was DJT's ultimate test to see if he had his followers fully programmed via rallies, tweets and celebirtydom. He knew, when no one flinched on that statement, he had them all by their privates fully.
Daria, you are so correct. Let me tell you a little story from today. There is a couple that I have known for 50 years. He was, and always will be, a rabid Republican. Now he is very ill with lots of things going on (not Covid) including dementia. So I get their annual Christmas letter written now by his wife. She ends the letter by saying that she is taking "extra precautions with everything because of F's health, no matter how I feel personally about the virus as compared to the yearly flu". I was flabbergasted, not only because of what she thought but also because she put it in her letter!!!!
Hey, Daria! I do get that. We did a count several days after 3 November. I can't remember the exact numbers but out of a population of 330 million after counting those who voted and those too young to vote, we were left with upwards of 110 million, approx, who did not vote. When we add that number to the number who voted for Biden, that's a huge number of people who do not actively support 45. But I guess the real question/concern I have is whether "sticks and stones" will replace the rhetoric as January 20 approaches. I recognize that it doesn't take a majority for the sticks and stones to become a reality.
Lynell, yup, I remember the count we did. What is further frightening me is the escalation of violent rhetoric from members of his own legal team. They may say they are joking when questioned but the seeds are being planted over and over again. Something is going to snap.
Benjamin Franklin said “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” That's why the George Floyd killing was different. The Black Lives Matter protesters are a very large and diverse section of our population. They are what movements are made of. The situation today with Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia Election Official, who spoke out against the violent and inciteful language were the unaffected, e.g. Republicans, that have now become the affected when current President turned on the Georgia state Republicans. It seems the biggest hope from this is the Georgia Republican voters will just not bother to vote. Mr. Sterling is to be applauded. It felt good to finally here those words from a Republican. To be a movement there needs to be a first follower. One isn't a leader until there is a follower. Then a few more followers becomes a crowd. Then no one wants to be left out and there's a stampede. Here's a great TED talk by Derek Sivers https://www.ted.com/talk/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement?language=en that I've always enjoyed.
Cathy, I like the Franklin quote! It is time for all of us to come together and call out these outrageous acts. If Republicans like Gabriel Sterling and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, can speak up, let’s support them.
Thank you. I was reminded of the “followers” theory and heartened by response to Mr. Floyd’s murder. The young woman who videotaped - there is a 17 year old person aided by technology who affected history.
Except last night MSNBC reporters and others cast Sterling as a hypocrite who, as a Republican, has been tolerating the death threats from Trump and his lackies (to officials like my Michigan Governor) for 4 years. But I, too, think Sterling should be applauded. I was yelling "IT HAS TO STOP!" right along with him. Finally, a Republican within a Republican administration is outraged and calling out Senators to stop it. That's how we stop the madness.
It does help when pro-Trump Republicans call out the latest offenses. Brad Raffensperger, pro-Trump voter suppression specialist that he is, still deserves credit for refusing to mess with ballots after they are counted. Even William Barr, who has many sins of active Trumpian evil on his soul, has now said publicly that there was no election steal; it will do some good that he said it.
The fact that people like Sterling and Raffensperger are being called out by "our" side is proof that a conservative writer whose post yesterday at The Bulwark about how we have - both sides - "mentally seceded" from the United States is right. What's disturbing is that his historical precedent was the "mental secession" that occurred in the United States over the 20 years prior to 1860, which was a necessary precondition for what happened after 1860.
When I see Sterling, Raffensperger, even Kemp!, the author at The Bulwark (and the others there), Steve Schmidt, even Bill Kristol, creator of the "Project for a New American Century" for chrissakes, saying what they are saying - the morning e-mail from the Bulwark today is a serious discussion of the possibility of a coup after Flynn called for Trump to declare martial law so the military could run a "do over" election (why are we not discussing this???), I sday "thanks." That article this morning also cites a former Asst Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Thomas McInerney, going on RW media and talking about a "firefight" in Germany on November 4 with SOF troopers getting killed when they attacked a CIA-run server farm outside Frankfurt that was changing Trump votes to Biden votes. The author asks how crazy does The Crazy have to become before we are up the creek.
In this kind of situation, it might be well if all the Lefty Purists decided to revisit a piece of important history: on June 22, 1941, when Churchill received news of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, he immediately cabled Stalin an offer of an immediate, unconditional alliance, and immediately ordered the RAF to divert 100 US airplanes being delivered from the USA under Lend-Lease to the USSR as a show of solidarity. When an aide questioned his doing this, citing the fact that Churchill had been an opponent of the Bolsheviks from the beginning, had worked for years to overthrow them and been involved in a plan to assassinate Stalin in 1924 before he left government, Churchill replied, "If Hitler were to invade hell, I should at least have a good word for the Devil."s
Right now, if people were to open their fucking eyes and take off the goddamned blinders, they would discover that we are in the midst of the greatest threat this republic has ever seen in the month since the election. There is a not-insignificant part of the population of this country that is prepared to literally go to war, awaiting the word to take action from a man who is daily becoming more obviously insane, and activating people who have been "crazy for years, but hiding it well," as the writer at The Bulwark put it.
At this point, the rational choice is "General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations!" and in such a situation you don't worry what the previous politics of the person who stands next to you was. We can go back to "things as they were" (should we be stupid enough to want to) after we save the system that allows us to do so.
So far as I am concerned, any goddamned Lefty Purist who doesn't get this needs to be stuffed in a seabag and thrown off the nearest bridge. They're as dumb as the Trumpscum.
What happens when I type in jammies and robe, and my computer on my lap in the middle of the night: the computer slides and in catching it, I erase an entire post. Ah... darn. Of course it was brilliant prose, now lost.
I didn't notice typos in your post. And if it was at all inelegant, it was because it needed to be to say what you were saying. It read like a straight clean shot through all the tangles of today to your conclusion.
Yes, I think there may be some violence, particularly with wanna-be demogogues in suits trying to whip up the less-refined Trump supporters. But I've been keeping an eye on these guys for a while now, in various places. It seems that though they have big plans for disruption, things seem to pretty much fizzle out for the most part. These pseudo-"militias are formed of largely not young men: most of them are past youth and into the part of their lives that should be the prime for them, but is not. They are grasping for something that is out of their reach, just as is Trump. I suspect that they know that. They have shown a tendency to disperse when things don't go a they wish, and to abandon "leaders", who change directions or simply leave. I hope that I am reading that right.
My hope is also that as Trump starts focusing on the reality of his life after the White House (the pressure must be horrendous right now), his attempts at rabble-rousing will take a turn, and those close to him will turn too. As you pointed out, they are scrambling for an out of the corner they have backed themselves into.
And FINALLY decent Republicans are speaking up. A little late, but sometimes the timing is for reasons not apparent from the outside. I hope it is decency and not mere opportunism. It's really hard for any of us to know someone's motivations in situations like this. I think all of us, Democrats, Republicans, Social Democrats, Progressives, you name it, have been astonished that the White House situation has gone down the road it has, as far as it has, even as we watched and could see it happening.
Maybe this truly was the way it had to play out, because Trump is the kind of person he is, and because so many people thought they could get away with hitching their star to his, and held onto their fantasies instead of letting go before it was too late to avoid getting caught up when things unraveled.
Thinking now of the many people who were heroes simply because they said the truth, spoke up and refused to cave. I am glad they are being vindicated. I am grateful for them. And grateful for people like you, who have the insight and the dedication to see how things fit together and put it all into words so we could understand, and act in whatever way we could to make it visible too.
I've stopped holding my breath. That must mean something. I hope so.
Every Republican Senator that voted to acquit 45 should be run out of town - I don't care what they say now that the damage has been done. They were warned and they refused to put country first.
I applaud Gabriel Sterling for putting himself at risk by asking the “president” to stop inciting violence and the two Georgia senators to deplore such calls to harm others.
Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger and even Governor Kemp, Trump loyalists, are also to be commended for putting country over party by admitting the election in Georgia was secure, with no evidence of fraud.
I too, was very happy to see Sterling come out swinging at Fake 45. No one else has had the guts to do that. Yes, Raffensberger backed Sterling in a media post today but let’s not forget, he voted for the crazy man twice! Maybe now, he will think twice... for now on.
A modest proposal: States like California and New York should adopt statutes that persons with a Presidential pardon shall have the status for all State purposes (voting, licensure, etc.) of a felon unless a panel of senior State judges determines the pardons were granted in accordance with generally accepted legal principles.
Steven, there is no such thing as a "blanket pardon" in our country. A pardon request, by law, has to name the specific offense/offenses that are to be pardoned. Thus they become a matter of public record. A presidential pardon applies only to federal charges. There are bound to be connections to state law violations. NY and PA are waiting for Trump with indictments ready to go.
I have been wondering about the pardon issue. Seems to me that for a pardon to be issued there must be a charge of crime, or a confession; the fact that the WH is discussing pardons for the closest Trump crowd suggests that they know they have willfully committed crimes. A pre-emptive pardon would have to name every offense, wouldn’t it? — Or leave the pardoned open to indictment for unpardoned crimes? (Who would have standing to make charges of crimes — Biden? His AG, on behalf of the American people?). My legal knowledge could fit in a teacup, but the pardon question has me really curious.
Somebody put together a list of all the verbs the lawyers dug up out of the statutes to try to cover everything he might be charged with. It was an extensive list. But here's the deal: you can't be pardoned for something you haven't done yet.
Make them illegal! Admission of guilt on a specific charge should be required before pardon. This would open up the possibility of either limiting the purview of the Presidential pardon or subjecting it to judicial review.
To be effective, it does. Ford's pardon of Nixon likely wouldn't have held water if someone had pushed it, but by then we were all overjoyed to just be rid of him. Although I agreed with the special assistant prosecutor who said "I want to see that shovel nose sticking out from between bars."
So grateful for all the folks chiming in with a problem-solving mindset, it gives me hope and reminds me to simmer down and focus - otherwise I’d be making nocturnal visits to my MAGA neighbors front yard with a bucket of dog poo.
How anyone can get behind the Trump regime is beyond me - and my dog, for that matter.
We walk our dog in our neighborhood, and I've had the same thought. Except that some homes around here have movement-sensor lights (and a few have cameras trained on their front walks/driveways)... <sigh>
So much for communities where you never have to lock your door. Imagine the level of anxiety driving such people. After all, if it had been a horse rather than your dog they might have rushed out with a shovel to put the "deposit" on their roses!
That is likely true! I'm so fortunate that I have almost 4 acres of field & brush & trails to walk my dog in - therefore I dont have to bag it!! We just have to watch out for deer - my dog gets excited - the deer dont!
We had to be careful in Potomac as we had a herd of deer in the forest behing the garden fence and there was plenty of lime's disease producing tics about.
We also have lyme disease - my dog was diagnosed with it - mainly because I skipped a month of flea prevention! My son also had it & had a year long or longer treatment for it. Hes good now. So I'm well aware of the tick thing. My "herd' consists of 3 does & 3 fawns. they travel from the woods up back down thru me across the road to woods up there. Have done for over 30 years (not same deer obviously).
I would send it ASAP. I’m also going to support The Lincoln Project. I found their work in the general better than any of the Democratic groups (sadly). ❤️🤍💙
I think it has all been so much worse because of Trump’s use of twitter. Before social media, people couldn’t feed lies and conspiracy theories so easily and so quickly.
of course they did, but it was a little less blatant perhaps or we only noticed so much because of the scale of the attack and the historically unusual media channel chosen. Trump is far from being the first elected official to lie extensively while either in office or while getting there and doubtless will not be the last; sometimes for our own good...sometimes for theirs! To be ready to hear the whole truth, nothing but the truth...all of the time from leaders, we will all have to grow a little, educate ourselves and our children.... and apply the same principles in our everyday lives.
Is that because it gets so much media attention or because it is widespread? Are good people out there in much greater numbers but it is not sensational to report on them? We need to be careful to get the whole picture before jumping to conclusions.
Mr. McConnell only controls the Senate through the acquiescence of 99 other Senators. Until members of both parties stand up and disavow him, they are as culpable as he is and should not be let off the hook. Gabriel Sterling's painfully eloquent statement yesterday should have put them all on notice that if they fail again to exercise the duties of the office they were elected to they should resign from it and allow us to elect people who will.
Yes, if you sit by silent while traitor Mitch causes massive destruction to the republic, you too are part of The Repugnant Party and deserve that title.
A betrayal of loyalty to Trump, and "complete loyalty" to the constitutional purpose of the Justice Department.
One wonders what brought about Barr's weak but welcome coming to Jesus moment. 'Tis a pity he couldn't have arrived there oh, say, when the Mueller Report was released, or any time, really, over the last four years.
Kudos to the tiny handful of Republicans with the integrity and real courage to publicly call out the very dangerous inflamatory language being thrown around by weak little people hiding behind internet anonymity. Somebody is going to take that message to heart and step out from the weeds and hurt somebody.
Are those pitifully few Republicans actually showing integrity and courage, or are they simply afraid that they'll be sacrificed next on the Altar of Trump? In that lot, the two conditions look remarkably similar.
Pitiful indeed. At this point I'm willing to give any Republican who bucks Trump the benefit of the doubt. If it enables others to do the same and perhaps start a stampede of hypocrite rats fleeing the sinking Trump ship, so much the better.
Nope, I simply cannot do that, especially if they are Senators. Their silence has been deafening. If any of them had had any guts, any balls, they would’ve stood up and protested. They didn’t and haven’t. People and starving and dying. I will not forgive them.
Barr is looking to his future and has permitted himself a little barb on his fishing pole with the Durham nomination. Now we will wait for Mnuchin, Pompeo etc to bow and exit stage left...with a florish if at all possible and a kick at Trump when he's down.
This may sound awful, but I despair for America. What kind of example.are we setting for future generations? This divisiveness, vitriol and hatred will only get worse. As Oscar Hammerstein wrote, "You've got to be taught to hate and fear..."
I think it went "...you've got to be "carefully" taught...." My reborn Christian Godmother tried to carefully teach me that I was a sinner at 9 yrs. old. What she taught me was that there are holes in organized religion and some adults are susceptible to falling through. My Godmother disowned me and I never saw her again. Must be why I am deeply fascinated with The Confessional Booths in great churches here and abroad.
Yep, it's from the musical, "South Pacific"...Rodgers & Hammerstein were roundly criticised for putting this song in what was, on the face of it, a rather benign musical theatre piece. Funny thing, though, is that even from their first big hit, "Oklahoma", there is usually a darker, more sinister thread going on as well. When "South Pacific" premiered in 1949 it was pretty strong stuff as it explored an inter-racial romance. The song alluded to above was even cut sometimes from other productions. That's why I do so love R&H musicals. They're hardly just "fluff"! Here's a piece NPR did several years ago on this song:
Thanx for the info. I never saw any of these classic musicals and it is nice to see there were others in MY history who bridged the racist gap at a time when it was blatant and open. Here is the opening of my long essay on the subject of racism in my lifetime:
“The White Side of Racism
Rob Boyte - June 19, 2010
These are the collected anecdotes of a white guy who grew up in racist America. While I never actually participated in any of the civil rights struggles of the1950s and '60s I was there, observing and living the day-to-day life in a racially divided nation.
I was raised in St. Louis and as a child recall being afraid of black people. ...”
It doesn't seem to be 'God-ly' to disown a Godchild. As for the Confessional booth, the adult me would like to set them all on fire. What a crock of ****! And in my case, our priest was a pedophile. I feel sorry for God sometimes.....
Heh! Lucky guy the first 8 years were free and clear. I trust that you've made up for the "traumatic shock" without the syndrome since...and lots of guilty fun!
"Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis promptly issued a statement saying “With the greatest respect to the Attorney General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.”
Ok, folks. When are the GOP going to finally admit this man has lost his mind? If this was Uncle John, he'd be involuntarily committed by now.
Thanks for the recap Heather. I'm sorry your power has yet to be restored. Fingers crossed that it will be soon.
I find it curious that Barr is now finding a come to Jesus moment. He has to know its political suicide. I wonder if he knows that what is behind the door is that much more evil than what we have imagined and he wants to run, not walk from this Administration. I expect he will be fired by weeks end.
The other elephant in the room is the talk of the far outreaching pardons to include Trump family members. Where I come from, you don't need a pardon if you haven't done anything wrong.
Re Barr -- I wonder if his announcement about no fraud is somehow related to yesterday's late-breaking report about a case concerning "bribes-for-presidential-pardon." He obviously knew this was breaking. Perhaps he wanted to suggest that he HAS been doing his job (the bribery investigation started early this year). Still, it is very odd.
It's just weird for him to want distance... unless there is something even more worrisome going on and news of THAT hasn't broken yet. Ick. This is way too "conspiracy theory-ish" for my taste. :-/
He still wants to work as a lawyer when this is don, so there are steps he won't take in support of Trump. He won't go (or send any subordinates) into a Court with a specious or fraudulent cause of action.
McConnell's plan will force our citizens into misery! He is simply assisting businesses that have boosted his coffers who will send their workers into Covid infected situations. What in heaven's name is the matter with McConnell and the GOP?!!!! Why did his constituents vote him back in?!!! I'll never understand how their twisted minds work!!!
Janet Yellen's words were most appropriate! Our communities deserve better!
Perhaps the rich people actually like the pandemic - it's certainly keeping wages low. After all, the really rich ones (not the ones with a few million in assets who only think they're rich) aren't actually being hurt, since they can isolate in style and take their private jets wherever they please. And with so many people out of work, there ain't nobody asking for a raise, so they can simply convert those savings into executive compensation.
To paraphrase Lily Tomlin, I know I'm cynical, but I just can't seem to keep up.
I seem to recollect a film set in middle ages Europe during a Black Plague epidemic (death rate 30-50% of the population) when the local "rich and beautiful barricaded themselves in their castle while the people suffered, thinking that those hiding behind the walls would be safe...until the inevitable leak! The film title was " Red something or other.
Time for the Senate Democrats to play hardball; call Mitch’s bluff. If he allows the government to be shut down, message the hell out of it! Make it simple, clear, and repetitive! Broadcast all of the attempted packages that Democrats and bi-partisan caucuses have introduced, only to have Mitch refuse to act on them. Make it clear that Mitch is only interested in protecting his donor class. If we let him continue this autocratic control of the senate, it will set a terrible precedent for Biden’s administration. Plus, it just might bring out the vote in Georgia for the senate seats. Quiet acquiescence is not an option!
Sounds like a good campaign for the Lincoln Project.
Totally. They ran a terrific messaging campaign against Trump. ❤️🤍💙
Absolutely. Turn the domestic abuser argument back on them "Look what you made me do."
Agree. Dems have done a bad messaging job over the past 4 years. Now’s the time to make up for that and attack the Evil McConnell. ❤️🤍💙
None of all this sedition would be possible without mitch. How can we get rid of a total obstructionist who has blatantly told all of us he does not give a sh_t about any of us. Without mitch, there never would have been a Fake 45. I am sure of it. He and his traitors to democracy have been working on republican coup for decades. They have been strategically placing "christians" (with a small "c") in significant positions of power. We must unravel their stranglehold on our democracy.
Yes! Democrats (sens & house) have to tell it like it is - not smile & shake their heads & be "nice"! Grow a pair for crying out loud!
It is also not about parties anymore. It is about all people from any party or no party speaking out, standing up and saying enough is enough. If the cult cannot wake up, then we need to be the adults and stop all this nonsense.
You said it!
It seemed impossible, in this final stage of his Presidency, that Trump would have the ability to take an already horrendous situation and make it worse, to roil our already turbulent political environment in his caldron of pain and hate to the point of exploding it.
A Covid death rate on one soul per minute and he plays golf; Republican officials and their families receiving death threats for doing their jobs, while he plots to pardon his family and friends for crimes they may have committed at his behest; clearing the Defense and Intelligence agencies of any voice that might be raised to challenge him, and in so doing hobble the incoming President’s ability to protect the nation – all of this when we are fifty days from inaugurating the 46th President.
Last night was a low point for me – and I’m an optimist. The anxiety brought about by concerns for so many friends and family in America who are now at such risk, for all the families who are struggling to provide food and shelter while having to cope with a pandemic – my God! And the government that is charged with protecting them is so irredeemably corrupt that it refuses to act because it either sees no political advantage in doing so (McConnel and company) or simply can’t be bothered because it is too busy stealing the silverware and covering its tracks as it executes its escape plan (the Trump Administration & family).
As I was about to turn in for the night, there was a moment of grace. I received a message from one of my dearest friends in New York. He had been released from the hospital after battling a life-threatening condition and was home with his family again – thank you, Great Spirit.
I have confidence we will get to the other side of this but once we do, we must do everything in our power to see that it does not happen again. Yesterday, one of our fellow contributors here posted information about a study titled, OUR COMMON PURPOSE: REINVENTING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. (https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose). It is worth your consideration.
Stay safe and eat your Wheaties!
Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
He should be removed for crimes against all of us— immediately. I hate feeling so powerless on this train while a crime family has so much power over us. Such blatant atrocities overt and over because of very corrupt trumplican party. This is a coup and almost every republican in this administration should be held accountable for massive death and damages, and attempted destruction of our democracy. Sedition.
😘
Ugh, the smell of diesel permeates the fresh Maine air. I hope your power is restored soon. All I can say is this: I am bewildered and stunned by the 74 million US Americans who have decided to align themselves with a con man. Not a businessman, not a president, a cheap, two bit conman who has raped the country. And the con will continue long after he leaves office unless he is shut down and locked up. (His kids too.)
Unfortunately, Daria, many of the 74 million would use exactly the same "descriptive" that you give for Trump when they think of or desribe Biden, Obama, Clinton etc. Unfortunately the education system, political discourse and the power of the media has not enabled the building of bridges to allow the construction of a common view of "reality"...perhaps as close as possible, as subjectivity will allow to " real and all inclusive facts . Its gotta start now!
Perhaps, Stuart, though Donald is notorious for his dishonest business ethics and practices. The fact that people were duped into buying his "I'm a billionaire and smart enough to fix it all" is because the press, including financial publications like Forbes, spent years buying into his nonsense and legitimizing him. Donald has a decades long legacy of running cons. He's doing it now raising millions to stuff in his pockets.
I agree wholeheartedly about the issues created by the media. The biggest problem being that many people can't distinguish between commentary/opinion and reportage. They get their "news" from Facebook, Twitter, etc. As for political discourse? How, at this point, are we going to have political discourse when members of Trump's own legal team are supporting violence against leaders, politicians and everyday people who don't support Donald Trump? How do you have a discourse with people whose minds are so poisoned by personalities like Hannity, Ingraham, Limbaugh, and Jones? And not just poorly educated people but people who are afraid that their slice of the pie is going to get yanked off their plate. Both the haves and have nots have fallen for his con, over and over again.
I make no apologies for my description of Donald Trump. He has led this country into a place of disease and despair that will take years to recover from. He has worked diligently to undermine business and environmental regulation and protection. He has made it okay for people to openly denigrate their non white neighbors and community members. He's made bullying an acceptable practice. He's suggested violence with a wink and a nod. He has openly ridiculed every single public health practice and standard suggested by a team of highly qualified experts and the (bizarrely influenced) CDC so that there are millions of people suffering while others glibly spread disease.
So yes, some people may use the same descriptive for Clinton, Obama and Biden, but it doesn't wash. Not one of them has ever tried to stage an overthrow of our government. Not one of them has ever set up a situation where millions suffer and hundreds of thousands die then flat out claim "I don't accept responsibility for any if this." Only Donald Trump and those he surrounds himself with, including Republican legislators on Capitol Hill, have been brash enough to assault this country in an attempt to overthrow it. They have truly poisoned the well.
All very true, Daria but that is quite evidently not how they perceive it. Firstly, Theirs is the classic perverse reaction in which the persecutor claims to be the victim of their victim's persecution...thus justifying a preventive strike.
Secondly, the results of psychological research into the question of "obedience of authority" and the willingness of the "submissive" to inflict harm or even kill innocents without feelings of culpability to order is horrifying. People cease to think when submitting to source of false authority!
As Theodore Adorno found in his studies of the authoritarian personality back in 1949, reported by Richard Hofstadter in 1954:
It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative — I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates — because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word, and they are far from pleased with the dominant practical conservatism of the moment as it is represented by the Eisenhower Administration. Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence.
From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
Perverse indeed...and paranoiac!
Daria, your words have liberated me. To add to the "no apologies," some of us have been tiptoeing around his base, seeking a way for them to "rejoin us." I now feel free to entertain that notion no more. Thanks!
Lynell, I have some very Trumpian family members, one of whom I just a few minutes ago had a tussle with. I'm basically done with some of them. They think he walks on water.
Daria, I have not done this yet with my 2 sisters but was thinking to outright ask them how they personally have benefited by him, and how they personally had not benefited by a Democrat in office. It may take me some time to work up to approaching them, though!
Lynell, one family member and her husband are strident evangelicals. They live in a state that has been rampant with covid for months but poo-poo the idea that covid is a real problem and oh yeah, Jesus will save them and Donald is right about everything. A discussion, having to to with potential covid exposure of elderly family members, brought things to a head this morning. I flat out told my family member that their idea of visiting elderly parents in ill health in another hot spot state was irresponsible. I was called a bully. So be it. I don't need or want to deal with people who are so brainwashed they will jeopardize the well-being of others to satisfy their own ego.
Thank you for expressing my dismay with our educational system and media. In my local community, scant resources are given to the police department over after school programs and mental health facilities. This, despite intense community protests. ❤️🤍💙
Time that the "intense community protest" accelerate their activities, generalize the support of their neighbours so that they can force the budget change or elect someone who will
Yes, spot on Stuart. The letters to the editor in our local paper from Trump supports could be republished with Trump and Biden names switched. It is the opposite of reality.
It has been quite something, all along, to see how the Trump and his cult consistently accuses the opposition with exactly what he is doing.
Steven Hassan is an American mental health counselor who has several books on the subject of mind control and how to help people who have been harmed by the experience. Hassan has been helping people exit destructive cults since 1976. Trump has created a classic cult that has been bolstered by media. It's worth reading "Freedom of Mind" that exposes the techniques and methods that individuals, cults, and institutions of all types—religious, business, therapeutic, educational, governmental—use to undo a person's capacity to think and act independently. We need to understand what has happened in order to overcome the national tragedy.
Excellent! Thank you! I have been complaining about the brainwashing tactics for five years now. It might be more productive for my heart and soul to learn how to de-program. I have been wanting to retire from psychology, but this might be necessary on a 71 million person scale to help right this ship. Thanks!
The formation of a cult takes on a classic set of parameters. Hassan articulates them very well. There is also a Netflix program---Leah Rimini, Aftermath of Scientology---that explores cult tactics. It's compelling to listen to people who were able to leave the cultures and environment they had "learned" to "value."
Send a copy of the book to President Elect Biden’s office.
Just think of the role of the "snake-oil salesment" in the Westerns. He sold his bottles of rubbish for a time to the gullible people ....but eventually the little boy said "the Emporer has no clothes" (excuse me for mixing my metaphores....or my psychologically symbolic folk tales) and the conman got tarred and feathered before being put on his donkey backwards and run out of town....or into jail ....if he got away with his life!
Hey, Daria! Are you referring to the 74 million who voted for him? If so, I wonder in light of these current events how many still align with him, those who are silent and therefore don't get press time.
They will never stop aligning themselves with him. They have not been swayed by previous egregious behavior. They would lay down their lives for trump. They would commit murder if he asked them to. I am not referring to all Republicans, but to those who have laid down human decency for the MAGA cult and trump.
or for the next one to come along promising them to put the boot into the people they don't like and blame for all their troubles.
Watch out for Josh Hawley. He’s slimy enough to try. He is still sending out letters about the need to count the votes.
Under my radar, i'm afraid. Had to do a search on the name...then i'm not in the State of Missouri! You have my sympathy!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/01/josh-hawley-shows-what-gop-politics-after-trump-will-look-like/?fbclid=IwAR0QElpR5aorOMJibeVTaec14FKSaJ0qNEIkH-NyqKlzRySoCzqRyX9EtwE
Many are dying for him, of covid after going to his maskless rallies or generally behaving as if there is no such thing.
I see that as a good thing. It is Natural Selection playing out. Thinning the herd of its Weakest Minds.
You are actually referring to all 74 million who voted for him. Just think about it for a few seconds, and you will understand why I am 100% correct. Sadly correct!
So frightening and downright creepy.
Trump has used brainwashing techniques that will require time to deprogram them. They are a cult and under his power. It is not pretty, but their ill behaviors need to be called out. There are also angry opportunists who just want to fight and have joined in for their racist or apocalyptic conspiracies.
I’d say most. The reason I say that is because if they still supported him just before the election with all that we know then pretty much he COULD shoot someone on fifth Avenue and they would still vote for him.
That "shoot someone on 5th Ave." was DJT's ultimate test to see if he had his followers fully programmed via rallies, tweets and celebirtydom. He knew, when no one flinched on that statement, he had them all by their privates fully.
Yup.
Hiya Lynell! Indeed, I am. I think Wendy Raksin is spot on. I'm sure not very many who voted for him have turned away from him since 3 November.
Daria, you are so correct. Let me tell you a little story from today. There is a couple that I have known for 50 years. He was, and always will be, a rabid Republican. Now he is very ill with lots of things going on (not Covid) including dementia. So I get their annual Christmas letter written now by his wife. She ends the letter by saying that she is taking "extra precautions with everything because of F's health, no matter how I feel personally about the virus as compared to the yearly flu". I was flabbergasted, not only because of what she thought but also because she put it in her letter!!!!
She continues to live in an alternate world.
Hey, Daria! I do get that. We did a count several days after 3 November. I can't remember the exact numbers but out of a population of 330 million after counting those who voted and those too young to vote, we were left with upwards of 110 million, approx, who did not vote. When we add that number to the number who voted for Biden, that's a huge number of people who do not actively support 45. But I guess the real question/concern I have is whether "sticks and stones" will replace the rhetoric as January 20 approaches. I recognize that it doesn't take a majority for the sticks and stones to become a reality.
Lynell, yup, I remember the count we did. What is further frightening me is the escalation of violent rhetoric from members of his own legal team. They may say they are joking when questioned but the seeds are being planted over and over again. Something is going to snap.
You’re singing my song!!
I found that stunning as well. Fox and others have succeeded in creating lemmings.
So. True.
Gabriel Sterling
Benjamin Franklin said “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” That's why the George Floyd killing was different. The Black Lives Matter protesters are a very large and diverse section of our population. They are what movements are made of. The situation today with Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia Election Official, who spoke out against the violent and inciteful language were the unaffected, e.g. Republicans, that have now become the affected when current President turned on the Georgia state Republicans. It seems the biggest hope from this is the Georgia Republican voters will just not bother to vote. Mr. Sterling is to be applauded. It felt good to finally here those words from a Republican. To be a movement there needs to be a first follower. One isn't a leader until there is a follower. Then a few more followers becomes a crowd. Then no one wants to be left out and there's a stampede. Here's a great TED talk by Derek Sivers https://www.ted.com/talk/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement?language=en that I've always enjoyed.
Cathy, I like the Franklin quote! It is time for all of us to come together and call out these outrageous acts. If Republicans like Gabriel Sterling and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, can speak up, let’s support them.
Absolutely, they need our support.
Try this: www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement?language=en
Great TED talk, Cathy, and so true IMO. I like to think that the Black Lives Matter protests this summer influenced Biden's Cabinet picks.
Thank you. I was reminded of the “followers” theory and heartened by response to Mr. Floyd’s murder. The young woman who videotaped - there is a 17 year old person aided by technology who affected history.
Except last night MSNBC reporters and others cast Sterling as a hypocrite who, as a Republican, has been tolerating the death threats from Trump and his lackies (to officials like my Michigan Governor) for 4 years. But I, too, think Sterling should be applauded. I was yelling "IT HAS TO STOP!" right along with him. Finally, a Republican within a Republican administration is outraged and calling out Senators to stop it. That's how we stop the madness.
It does help when pro-Trump Republicans call out the latest offenses. Brad Raffensperger, pro-Trump voter suppression specialist that he is, still deserves credit for refusing to mess with ballots after they are counted. Even William Barr, who has many sins of active Trumpian evil on his soul, has now said publicly that there was no election steal; it will do some good that he said it.
The fact that people like Sterling and Raffensperger are being called out by "our" side is proof that a conservative writer whose post yesterday at The Bulwark about how we have - both sides - "mentally seceded" from the United States is right. What's disturbing is that his historical precedent was the "mental secession" that occurred in the United States over the 20 years prior to 1860, which was a necessary precondition for what happened after 1860.
When I see Sterling, Raffensperger, even Kemp!, the author at The Bulwark (and the others there), Steve Schmidt, even Bill Kristol, creator of the "Project for a New American Century" for chrissakes, saying what they are saying - the morning e-mail from the Bulwark today is a serious discussion of the possibility of a coup after Flynn called for Trump to declare martial law so the military could run a "do over" election (why are we not discussing this???), I sday "thanks." That article this morning also cites a former Asst Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Thomas McInerney, going on RW media and talking about a "firefight" in Germany on November 4 with SOF troopers getting killed when they attacked a CIA-run server farm outside Frankfurt that was changing Trump votes to Biden votes. The author asks how crazy does The Crazy have to become before we are up the creek.
In this kind of situation, it might be well if all the Lefty Purists decided to revisit a piece of important history: on June 22, 1941, when Churchill received news of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, he immediately cabled Stalin an offer of an immediate, unconditional alliance, and immediately ordered the RAF to divert 100 US airplanes being delivered from the USA under Lend-Lease to the USSR as a show of solidarity. When an aide questioned his doing this, citing the fact that Churchill had been an opponent of the Bolsheviks from the beginning, had worked for years to overthrow them and been involved in a plan to assassinate Stalin in 1924 before he left government, Churchill replied, "If Hitler were to invade hell, I should at least have a good word for the Devil."s
Right now, if people were to open their fucking eyes and take off the goddamned blinders, they would discover that we are in the midst of the greatest threat this republic has ever seen in the month since the election. There is a not-insignificant part of the population of this country that is prepared to literally go to war, awaiting the word to take action from a man who is daily becoming more obviously insane, and activating people who have been "crazy for years, but hiding it well," as the writer at The Bulwark put it.
At this point, the rational choice is "General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations!" and in such a situation you don't worry what the previous politics of the person who stands next to you was. We can go back to "things as they were" (should we be stupid enough to want to) after we save the system that allows us to do so.
So far as I am concerned, any goddamned Lefty Purist who doesn't get this needs to be stuffed in a seabag and thrown off the nearest bridge. They're as dumb as the Trumpscum.
Thank you for what you wrote! The link will not open for me
Try this: www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement?language=en
What happens when I type in jammies and robe, and my computer on my lap in the middle of the night: the computer slides and in catching it, I erase an entire post. Ah... darn. Of course it was brilliant prose, now lost.
I didn't notice typos in your post. And if it was at all inelegant, it was because it needed to be to say what you were saying. It read like a straight clean shot through all the tangles of today to your conclusion.
Yes, I think there may be some violence, particularly with wanna-be demogogues in suits trying to whip up the less-refined Trump supporters. But I've been keeping an eye on these guys for a while now, in various places. It seems that though they have big plans for disruption, things seem to pretty much fizzle out for the most part. These pseudo-"militias are formed of largely not young men: most of them are past youth and into the part of their lives that should be the prime for them, but is not. They are grasping for something that is out of their reach, just as is Trump. I suspect that they know that. They have shown a tendency to disperse when things don't go a they wish, and to abandon "leaders", who change directions or simply leave. I hope that I am reading that right.
My hope is also that as Trump starts focusing on the reality of his life after the White House (the pressure must be horrendous right now), his attempts at rabble-rousing will take a turn, and those close to him will turn too. As you pointed out, they are scrambling for an out of the corner they have backed themselves into.
And FINALLY decent Republicans are speaking up. A little late, but sometimes the timing is for reasons not apparent from the outside. I hope it is decency and not mere opportunism. It's really hard for any of us to know someone's motivations in situations like this. I think all of us, Democrats, Republicans, Social Democrats, Progressives, you name it, have been astonished that the White House situation has gone down the road it has, as far as it has, even as we watched and could see it happening.
Maybe this truly was the way it had to play out, because Trump is the kind of person he is, and because so many people thought they could get away with hitching their star to his, and held onto their fantasies instead of letting go before it was too late to avoid getting caught up when things unraveled.
Thinking now of the many people who were heroes simply because they said the truth, spoke up and refused to cave. I am glad they are being vindicated. I am grateful for them. And grateful for people like you, who have the insight and the dedication to see how things fit together and put it all into words so we could understand, and act in whatever way we could to make it visible too.
I've stopped holding my breath. That must mean something. I hope so.
Thank you, Heather.
Every Republican Senator that voted to acquit 45 should be run out of town - I don't care what they say now that the damage has been done. They were warned and they refused to put country first.
They are complicit. There would be no Trump if McConnell et al had not allowed it. Tit for tat.
Ahhh...but Susan Collins said he had "learned his lesson" .....and she was just re-elected!!!
Susan Collins has routinely covered for Trump every time she has been in a position to take a stand, even if she has to change her mind to do it.
I applaud Gabriel Sterling for putting himself at risk by asking the “president” to stop inciting violence and the two Georgia senators to deplore such calls to harm others.
Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger and even Governor Kemp, Trump loyalists, are also to be commended for putting country over party by admitting the election in Georgia was secure, with no evidence of fraud.
Sterling was inspiring.
I too, was very happy to see Sterling come out swinging at Fake 45. No one else has had the guts to do that. Yes, Raffensberger backed Sterling in a media post today but let’s not forget, he voted for the crazy man twice! Maybe now, he will think twice... for now on.
A modest proposal: States like California and New York should adopt statutes that persons with a Presidential pardon shall have the status for all State purposes (voting, licensure, etc.) of a felon unless a panel of senior State judges determines the pardons were granted in accordance with generally accepted legal principles.
But that cannot apply to pre-emptive pardons as they are innocent until proven otherwise.
Steven, there is no such thing as a "blanket pardon" in our country. A pardon request, by law, has to name the specific offense/offenses that are to be pardoned. Thus they become a matter of public record. A presidential pardon applies only to federal charges. There are bound to be connections to state law violations. NY and PA are waiting for Trump with indictments ready to go.
I have been wondering about the pardon issue. Seems to me that for a pardon to be issued there must be a charge of crime, or a confession; the fact that the WH is discussing pardons for the closest Trump crowd suggests that they know they have willfully committed crimes. A pre-emptive pardon would have to name every offense, wouldn’t it? — Or leave the pardoned open to indictment for unpardoned crimes? (Who would have standing to make charges of crimes — Biden? His AG, on behalf of the American people?). My legal knowledge could fit in a teacup, but the pardon question has me really curious.
Flynn’s pardon was rather broad, what will that mean for him ?
Somebody put together a list of all the verbs the lawyers dug up out of the statutes to try to cover everything he might be charged with. It was an extensive list. But here's the deal: you can't be pardoned for something you haven't done yet.
Make them illegal! Admission of guilt on a specific charge should be required before pardon. This would open up the possibility of either limiting the purview of the Presidential pardon or subjecting it to judicial review.
I thought it is legally assumed that accepting pardon is an admission of guilt.
From what I read, doesn't a pardon have to specify the offense?
To be effective, it does. Ford's pardon of Nixon likely wouldn't have held water if someone had pushed it, but by then we were all overjoyed to just be rid of him. Although I agreed with the special assistant prosecutor who said "I want to see that shovel nose sticking out from between bars."
So grateful for all the folks chiming in with a problem-solving mindset, it gives me hope and reminds me to simmer down and focus - otherwise I’d be making nocturnal visits to my MAGA neighbors front yard with a bucket of dog poo.
How anyone can get behind the Trump regime is beyond me - and my dog, for that matter.
Thanks for bring me back!
I'll give 3 wuffs to that. I remember the temptation while walking my dog in Potomac with a couple of bag-fulls in hand.
We walk our dog in our neighborhood, and I've had the same thought. Except that some homes around here have movement-sensor lights (and a few have cameras trained on their front walks/driveways)... <sigh>
So much for communities where you never have to lock your door. Imagine the level of anxiety driving such people. After all, if it had been a horse rather than your dog they might have rushed out with a shovel to put the "deposit" on their roses!
A once upon a time neighbor of mine won ribbons at her flower shows because of my horses' donations. (properly aged, of course!)
My memories go back to the contributions made by the coalman's and the "rag & bone man's carthorses while living in Northumberland in the 50s and 60s
It is miraculous as are the animals that donate it! (sorry - off subject)
I think it's healthy to have a diversion every now and again. And, yes, it's those miraculous animals that are keeping some of us sane these days!
That is likely true! I'm so fortunate that I have almost 4 acres of field & brush & trails to walk my dog in - therefore I dont have to bag it!! We just have to watch out for deer - my dog gets excited - the deer dont!
We had to be careful in Potomac as we had a herd of deer in the forest behing the garden fence and there was plenty of lime's disease producing tics about.
We also have lyme disease - my dog was diagnosed with it - mainly because I skipped a month of flea prevention! My son also had it & had a year long or longer treatment for it. Hes good now. So I'm well aware of the tick thing. My "herd' consists of 3 does & 3 fawns. they travel from the woods up back down thru me across the road to woods up there. Have done for over 30 years (not same deer obviously).
Democrats of Georgia, please get out and vote! Republicans of Kentucky, what is wrong with you?
Dems and sane people of all stripes: send $ to Stacey Abrams in support of her campaign on behalf of Ossoff and Warnock!
I would send it ASAP. I’m also going to support The Lincoln Project. I found their work in the general better than any of the Democratic groups (sadly). ❤️🤍💙
Too much bourbon.
The vitriol and hatred out there is exhausting.
I think it has all been so much worse because of Trump’s use of twitter. Before social media, people couldn’t feed lies and conspiracy theories so easily and so quickly.
of course they did, but it was a little less blatant perhaps or we only noticed so much because of the scale of the attack and the historically unusual media channel chosen. Trump is far from being the first elected official to lie extensively while either in office or while getting there and doubtless will not be the last; sometimes for our own good...sometimes for theirs! To be ready to hear the whole truth, nothing but the truth...all of the time from leaders, we will all have to grow a little, educate ourselves and our children.... and apply the same principles in our everyday lives.
Absolutely!
I really understand what you are saying, Linda. It's like living with someone with a mental illness. And we are. It drains so much out of us.
Or a two year old who never grows up.
He's said several times that he's exactly the same as he was in first grade. The only truthful thing he ever said.
“You knew I was a snake” is the one I remember.
I've reflected on that snake analogy for many, many months now.
<sigh> and so unfair to actual reptiles. :-)
Once a bully always a bully.
Is that because it gets so much media attention or because it is widespread? Are good people out there in much greater numbers but it is not sensational to report on them? We need to be careful to get the whole picture before jumping to conclusions.
I am not jumping to a conclusion, I am just feeling exhausted by what I see and hear.
I understand. It is exhausting. I absolutely agree.
Mr. McConnell only controls the Senate through the acquiescence of 99 other Senators. Until members of both parties stand up and disavow him, they are as culpable as he is and should not be let off the hook. Gabriel Sterling's painfully eloquent statement yesterday should have put them all on notice that if they fail again to exercise the duties of the office they were elected to they should resign from it and allow us to elect people who will.
Yes, if you sit by silent while traitor Mitch causes massive destruction to the republic, you too are part of The Repugnant Party and deserve that title.
Yes, that speech was powerful.
If only this were possible!
It's possible Cathy. Unfortunately, it's vanishingly unlikely.
"...Barr’s statement was a 'complete betrayal.'”
A betrayal of loyalty to Trump, and "complete loyalty" to the constitutional purpose of the Justice Department.
One wonders what brought about Barr's weak but welcome coming to Jesus moment. 'Tis a pity he couldn't have arrived there oh, say, when the Mueller Report was released, or any time, really, over the last four years.
Kudos to the tiny handful of Republicans with the integrity and real courage to publicly call out the very dangerous inflamatory language being thrown around by weak little people hiding behind internet anonymity. Somebody is going to take that message to heart and step out from the weeds and hurt somebody.
Barr's just trying to rehabilitate his tarnished name before it's too late. He's still a snake, and deserves disbarment!
Are those pitifully few Republicans actually showing integrity and courage, or are they simply afraid that they'll be sacrificed next on the Altar of Trump? In that lot, the two conditions look remarkably similar.
Pitiful indeed. At this point I'm willing to give any Republican who bucks Trump the benefit of the doubt. If it enables others to do the same and perhaps start a stampede of hypocrite rats fleeing the sinking Trump ship, so much the better.
Nope, I simply cannot do that, especially if they are Senators. Their silence has been deafening. If any of them had had any guts, any balls, they would’ve stood up and protested. They didn’t and haven’t. People and starving and dying. I will not forgive them.
Barr is looking to his future and has permitted himself a little barb on his fishing pole with the Durham nomination. Now we will wait for Mnuchin, Pompeo etc to bow and exit stage left...with a florish if at all possible and a kick at Trump when he's down.
This may sound awful, but I despair for America. What kind of example.are we setting for future generations? This divisiveness, vitriol and hatred will only get worse. As Oscar Hammerstein wrote, "You've got to be taught to hate and fear..."
I think it went "...you've got to be "carefully" taught...." My reborn Christian Godmother tried to carefully teach me that I was a sinner at 9 yrs. old. What she taught me was that there are holes in organized religion and some adults are susceptible to falling through. My Godmother disowned me and I never saw her again. Must be why I am deeply fascinated with The Confessional Booths in great churches here and abroad.
Yep, it's from the musical, "South Pacific"...Rodgers & Hammerstein were roundly criticised for putting this song in what was, on the face of it, a rather benign musical theatre piece. Funny thing, though, is that even from their first big hit, "Oklahoma", there is usually a darker, more sinister thread going on as well. When "South Pacific" premiered in 1949 it was pretty strong stuff as it explored an inter-racial romance. The song alluded to above was even cut sometimes from other productions. That's why I do so love R&H musicals. They're hardly just "fluff"! Here's a piece NPR did several years ago on this song:
https://www.npr.org/2014/05/19/308296815/six-words-youve-got-to-be-taught-intolerance
"You've got to be taught
To hate and fear, you've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught
To be afraid of people
Whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught."
Excellent!!
Thanx for the info. I never saw any of these classic musicals and it is nice to see there were others in MY history who bridged the racist gap at a time when it was blatant and open. Here is the opening of my long essay on the subject of racism in my lifetime:
“The White Side of Racism
Rob Boyte - June 19, 2010
These are the collected anecdotes of a white guy who grew up in racist America. While I never actually participated in any of the civil rights struggles of the1950s and '60s I was there, observing and living the day-to-day life in a racially divided nation.
I was raised in St. Louis and as a child recall being afraid of black people. ...”
It doesn't seem to be 'God-ly' to disown a Godchild. As for the Confessional booth, the adult me would like to set them all on fire. What a crock of ****! And in my case, our priest was a pedophile. I feel sorry for God sometimes.....
Oh my goodness, Penelope. A sinner at 9!!! That's a pretty early start; you must have been a precocious child.
Heh! Lucky guy the first 8 years were free and clear. I trust that you've made up for the "traumatic shock" without the syndrome since...and lots of guilty fun!
"Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis promptly issued a statement saying “With the greatest respect to the Attorney General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.”
Ok, folks. When are the GOP going to finally admit this man has lost his mind? If this was Uncle John, he'd be involuntarily committed by now.
Oh, and that goes for Rudy, too.
I love it...RESPECT!... among thieves!
What next? Honour?
seriously! you are so correct.
Thanks for the recap Heather. I'm sorry your power has yet to be restored. Fingers crossed that it will be soon.
I find it curious that Barr is now finding a come to Jesus moment. He has to know its political suicide. I wonder if he knows that what is behind the door is that much more evil than what we have imagined and he wants to run, not walk from this Administration. I expect he will be fired by weeks end.
The other elephant in the room is the talk of the far outreaching pardons to include Trump family members. Where I come from, you don't need a pardon if you haven't done anything wrong.
Stay safe, stay well and let there be light ! 😊
Re Barr -- I wonder if his announcement about no fraud is somehow related to yesterday's late-breaking report about a case concerning "bribes-for-presidential-pardon." He obviously knew this was breaking. Perhaps he wanted to suggest that he HAS been doing his job (the bribery investigation started early this year). Still, it is very odd.
I wondered that myself. It could be his way of quickly distancing himself from that.
It's just weird for him to want distance... unless there is something even more worrisome going on and news of THAT hasn't broken yet. Ick. This is way too "conspiracy theory-ish" for my taste. :-/
He still wants to work as a lawyer when this is don, so there are steps he won't take in support of Trump. He won't go (or send any subordinates) into a Court with a specious or fraudulent cause of action.
Barr should have been disbarred already. I think his come to Jesus moment is way too late.
McConnell's plan will force our citizens into misery! He is simply assisting businesses that have boosted his coffers who will send their workers into Covid infected situations. What in heaven's name is the matter with McConnell and the GOP?!!!! Why did his constituents vote him back in?!!! I'll never understand how their twisted minds work!!!
Janet Yellen's words were most appropriate! Our communities deserve better!
Perhaps the rich people actually like the pandemic - it's certainly keeping wages low. After all, the really rich ones (not the ones with a few million in assets who only think they're rich) aren't actually being hurt, since they can isolate in style and take their private jets wherever they please. And with so many people out of work, there ain't nobody asking for a raise, so they can simply convert those savings into executive compensation.
To paraphrase Lily Tomlin, I know I'm cynical, but I just can't seem to keep up.
I seem to recollect a film set in middle ages Europe during a Black Plague epidemic (death rate 30-50% of the population) when the local "rich and beautiful barricaded themselves in their castle while the people suffered, thinking that those hiding behind the walls would be safe...until the inevitable leak! The film title was " Red something or other.
I love lily Tomlin too.
Could it have been "Masque of the Red Death" by Poe?
You're right... starring Vincent Price. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Masque-of-the-Red-Death-film-1964