This evening I saw an interview with Rebekah Jones on the Lawrence O'Donnell show. They had a surveillance camera on the front door and hallway which showed the police entering her house with guns drawn pointing them at her, her husband and her little children! And the email that triggered (please excuse the pun) all this was: ""It's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," the message said, according to the affidavit. "You know this is wrong. You don't have to be part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it's too late." That is the message which she says she did not send, was enough for a warrant to have armed men enter her home and point guns at her children. This is not America. Or unfortunately maybe it is. This is sickening!
Of all the outrageous things that have taken place in the last four years, this stands out. We can't be rid of Trump fast enough, but we must also root out those who have perpetuated his reign of corruption and stand ready to continue it.
This is crass intimidation intended to shut up more than Ms Jones. This is what trump etc would like to do to you and me.
The Democrats now have to get really serious about investing time, money and brains in the fight for each State and in the outlawing of gerrymandering and voter restriction everywhere. The Republicans have been giving them a hiding because they saw the importance of dominating this level of power......and have reaped the rewards.
And hand-in-hand with creating fair congressional districts is a stronger, broader Fairness Doctrine. This is what I want to put my energy towards--to stop the incessant lying and gaslighting we've had to endure for 5 years (and will only get worse, I'm afraid). Bring truth and proof back to the public square.
Also, need to do something about the Electoral College which is making close margins in a couple of swing states determine the winner rather than the popular vote.
Need to get more states to support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Seems the alternative is the Hand Maid's Tale and minority autocratic rule. So worth the effort.
Deborah, before the election I had already vowed to be an active participant in whatever Resistance effort emerged should Trump be re- elected. After the election I had about 15 seconds of relief thinking I might not have to "take to the streets" or "go underground." Today i realize that an ongoing and alert Resistance movement is more critical than ever. I am now in a mental, emotional and spiritual " boot camp"!! The emperor may be dethroned but the empire remains!!!
I found the Non-violent resistance training at choosedemocracy.us quite valuable in how to be effective. It has been focused on whether there would be a coup attempt which was fortunately quite inept. We must be more alert because the next autocrat who takes over the Presidency (because of the Electoral College electing the minority candidate from marginal votes in a few swing states) will not be as incompetent as the current lame duck. Sure is nice to say lame duck -- can't wait to get to former! We need to get rid of Electoral College and neuter it as many states are doing. We need more states to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Like other procedures, the Electoral College seems to be an entrenched root of the structural racism that permeates our culture. It needs to be dug up and tossed out. ❤️🤍💙
Unfortunately, and perhaps because the coming runoff election is so crucial because it will determine which party holds the Senate majority, Georgia Republicans are continuing their voter suppression tactics. For example, some drop boxes, usually in low-income or communities of color, I've read, are being eliminated except as yet another method of ongoing voter suppression.
The last paragraph of this maddening article is telling, that the multiple recounts were paid for by taxpayer dollars, so, it is claimed, monies are no longer available to staff the same number of voting places as there were for the general election.
Rebekah Jones is the former State of Florida Data Scientist who wouldn't go along with massaging the COVID-19 data to meet the political agenda of Governor DeSantis.
The only positive thing I have seen coming out of that horrible gestapo action is that a life-long Florida Republican GOP attorney (Mr. Filipowsky.. May have that spelling wrong) read the search warrant affidavit and resigned. He was disgusted and said this incident was all about intimidation. Good for him and may there be others like him. This has ramifications for all of Ms. Jones’ contacts, which were on those devices. We will see how that plays out. Meanwhile, Ms Jones was quoted as saying she is moving “the hell out of Florida” because a gun(s) was/were aimed at her children. Sadly, intimidation has worked, though I hope she continues her excellent work. I am hoping there is a way to send a message of support on her Florida Community Covid Dashboard and I know there is a way to send a donation so I am passing that on if anyone is interested.
One can not blame a mother for wanting to protect her children. She is going to sue the governor. She has set up a Crowd Fund to support her legal bills. I hope a lot of people support her. And, kudos to Mr. Filipkowsky for being ethical! That is what I would expect from a Marine vet.
Just ask Black, Brown, and Indigenous Americans - they will tell you it is definitely an America they recognize all too well. While I was sickened to watch the thugs invade Jones's home, my thought throughout was that this happens every day in America to BIPOC, so I can't be overly outraged when it happens to a white family. Except in this case, nobody was shot, her husband still has his spouse, her children still have their mother - they are just without a few electronic devices.
Benjamin Franklin wisely said “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” I am outraged by having anyone treated this way. I recognize that this could have been much worse and is daily for BIPOC. I was hopeful that the Black Lives Matter this past June with the killing of George Floyd was a turning point because the protesters were from all walks of life. It felt like a movement. I want it to be. Let's focus on solving the problem for all rather than comparing to what degree of outrage we "should" have for each scenario. Let's come together to be a movement!
“[A] movement…”. That’s exactly what this HCR forum should become, Cathy! There are so many activists involved here, and so much activity aimed at saving, and then improving, this American “experiment”.
The intellectual capacity of our virtual community is enormous, and our fidelity to our cherished homeland is impregnable. The efforts exerted by this electronic “neighborhood” in the political arena this election season have been jaw-dropping!
If we begin to harness this assortment of talents, experience and commitment we can have an historic impact on our nation...and beyond. Our overall perspective on the sort of society we human beings crave is, as our British cousins might say, “spot on”. Justice, equality, unity: these make up the core attributes we all crave, and that a true and sustainable civilization requires.
There is no reason this collection of knowledgeable and laser-focused individuals can’t be harnessed to confront and redesign the failed structures that make up our society. There is no roadblock that can seriously impede the inexorable march of this community and its allies to the goal of reconstructing this democratic republic in its own image.
This is music to my ears, Bill! Yes, I'd love the HCR forum to be one about solutions and actions. This is an incredible group and I'm enjoying my new friends and our discussions here so much. When asked what Party I belong to, my answer is I'm a Synergist. The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts. We are strengthened by valuing our differences and perspectives and come up with better solutions for all than any one perspective or solution. We are strengthened by having a voice from our sheer numbers. I've thought about writing a platform for this party. Maybe it isn't even a party but a Synergist Society. Maybe we can suggest to Heather some questions to explore. Yes, let's stimulate a movement... A three minutes TED talk by Derek Sivers about how to start a movement I enjoy! https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement/transcript?language=en Let's get up and dance.
Cathy, there’s no reason why “Heather’s Herd of Hope”, or whatever we decide to call it (at this point I’d definitely vote against that moniker...and I think I may have been the one to start it...the first two H’s at least). It would be criminal to not build on the platform that’s been created.
Beyond the existing “community”, it should be possible to attract others who may be desperately casting about, trying to find some way to save the ship of state. There are so many points in dire need that must be addressed in our society.
My feeling is that we need to think outside the box, so to speak, to confront the destructive mythology that has brought us to this disastrous point. Too much of our history has been fictionalized, leaving a foundation that is more sand than stone. We will never be able to build a stable structure on such a base.
I won’t try to list the areas that must be addressed at this point. Most are well known to the people who make up HCR’s following. A list can be created soon after a sizable number of those who read these Letters and post to this site commit to getting to work on our future.
Thanks for your initiative and insightful comments.
I applaud the idea of organizing some vehicle for concrete action around this community. I would, with all respect to HCR, suggest we not include any individual’s name in whatever title we might use should this come to fruition. I believe it puts too much of a burden on Prof. Richardson – who has enough on her plate - and having anyone’s name in the title sounds a bit cultish to my ears.
Hmmm, Much to think about here. In a way we have a fairly clean slate. Always like the idea that Einstein had to destroy his/our concept of time to come up with relativity. Many times one has to destroy old notions before one can create something new. With all the destruction of norms, ethics, civility, etc. of the past few years and starting decades ago and centuries of injustice, we may have an opportunity for a fresh start. You describe it as outside the box; I'm thinking something similar that we need to step out of the weeds, and look at the bigger picture. One of my life rules is to go toward something, not away from something. So what are we going toward?
I was listening a podcast by CNN's Don Lemon this evening called Blaxit. It is about blacks leaving the US to go live in Ghana, Namibia, Trinidad and other places. He interviews a number of the American diaspora and their reasons for leaving. People with means and with an online job see this is a very viable option. That they don't get shot by cops while walking home from grocery can be pretty enjoyable. One comment stayed with me-that they feel as discriminated by white liberal folks as by straight up racists. Its subtle but anytime you assert yourself in the former group you are labeled as an angry black person (for example).
The way to prevent that is to keep the guns in their holsters or don't bring them at all. I gather the message was on an Florida emergency message so I can believe you would want to track that down. I hate to think what might have happened if she were black. We need to keep the social justice movement and Black Lives Matter moving forward!
Biden has had decades to think about how he would manage the transfer of power in multiple scenarios. I find his strategies to get around, thwart, and shame the "Republicans" (there should always be shock-quotes around this word when referring to the neofascist minions of their Dear Leader) to be a fascinating display of savvy political maneuvering. What I wish is that the people supposedly on his side would shut up. The Democratic Party is proving that the parodies presented about the Dems are not parodies. I have been a Dem all my life and I come from generations of Dems. It makes me nuts that instead of letting him get on with planning how to recover from four years of devastation, fellow-Dems are screaming at him that they want a piece of the action. They've got it, for crying out loud. Let Joe and Kamala do what they need to do to get us back on track.
I find myself far more upset by the evident willingness of some people in the media, often the same people who wouldn't utter a peep of accurate criticism of Trump, to pile on Biden and make a big deal about his differences with the party's left side. They (not all of the media) show themselves to be hypocrites and cowards, now unafraid to do their jobs when the incoming President is a gentleman and a believer in the First Amendment.
I’m right there with you, Linda and others on this piece. To all fellow Dems, work on GA and then you have a chance to have a piece. Work on your Consistent Messaging at which you are consistently poor. Eliminate the word “socialism” from your messages and you may have a chance to unite the public will behind good ideas. ❤️🤍💙
I agree with everything you and others are saying. It is so frustrating to see the "circular firing squad" mentioned on this topic. What the Democrats have to do is try to analyze how it is that the Republicans have so many followers and are so successful in their aims (usually). No, most of what they do is abhorrent to us, but their strategy of, at least publicly, being in lockstep on their agenda and never revealing to their rivals the cracks that are in the foundation has been successful. With the Democrats, each faction criticizes the other in the press, like whiny adolescents.
I also agree with the person who said that we should stop using the term "socialist." This has been used as a dog whistle against us, and has been quite successful. State your aims, but refrain from using tags that most see as negative.
We have to present a unified front and thrash out our differences by compromising and supporting our central cause. Biden is doing an excellent job, under the most egregious circumstances, and his years of experience navigating these treacherous waters is serving him well. We should all help by turning down the background noise and supporting his efforts. You have hit the nail on the head, Linda - we got what we want - a Democratic president and fantastic VP - now let's unite to get the two remaining Senate seats so that we can end the mayhem!
I used to be a Dem Party animal. It is precisely because of what you've summarized here (and a great deal more) that I've distanced from the Party. The word "feckless" comes to mind. In a recent communication from a progressive org I generally support, there was a boilerplate letter recipients were asked to send to Real-POTUS-Elect Biden. It contained a list of demands, each of which arrogantly (IMO) began: "You must...!" Really? REALLY? Okay. I've made my point. Amen.
Linda, Deborah and Barbara, boy! I echo everything you said. Even when I was more involved with the Party, I always said Democrats had to be 'purer than Caesar's wife', because we were so good at the old circular firing squad behavior.
I am often reminded of Will Rogers' famous, "I'm not part of an organized political party; I'm a Democrat."
I left the Democratic Part 4 1/2 years ago. I couldn't take it anymore and was so ashamed of them. And I was particularly shocked before the election at the crass demands for money. I gave frequently and generously (and still am), and was hassled and taunted. Shameful.
There with you on the constant begging for money. Excuse me!? I have always donated to political campaigns for candidates I believed in, hoping that when they were elected, they would do the jobs we sent them to the legislature to do. What has happened instead is that they have become entrenched party politics, taking exorbitant salaries every year, and then turning around and begging for more money throughout their terms! Even when I write letters about things I'm concerned about, with a note at the end saying if it isn't possible to send a direct response on the topic, I'd rather have no response at all. What do I get? I get added to the mailing list for daily emails begging for more money. My spam filter catches most of them, but occasionally I open one hoping from the subject line that there will be real, useful information - not a one has not had the big DONATE button at the end. I'm sorry, but considering all the wealth concentrated in Congress, they've got a lot of nerve asking a retired community college adjunct instructor living on social security for a dime.
So true. I gave every few days for weeks leading upto the election. Now its morphed into mails about how Ossoff is gonna lose ..do something! I gave for a little while and now just annoyed. I wonder if this money is actually going to actblue or I am being conned. I see there is a transaction fee that I cant figure out where it goes.
SO bad. I have a weekly amount still going to Biden, but whenever I didn't respond to their latest request for money on text messages, I would get replies like, "Are you turning your back on Joe Biden?" I complained to a Democratic Precinct Chairwoman who just shrugged. My son-in-law sent close to 100,000 texts for Biden to 4 different states and says he can't believe what some of his fellow testers sent.
I was registered Dem for years in the past. Once even registered "Socialist" here in SoFlo with all those Cubans around me in 1982. However, I have been Independent "No Party Affiliation" for years, only registering Dem in 2016 to vote for Bernie in the closed FL primary. After he got sandbagged by the party, I went back to NPA.
That Will Rogers bit ("I'm not part of an organized party, I'm a Democrat") gets quoted ad nauseam. Maybe it was accurate when he said it, but I think those who quote it these days are missing an important point: that in some ways the Democratic Party is *too well organized*. Too many Dem organizations, from the national down to the state and local levels, are too turfy and resistant to any new blood and diversity they can't control. Those who are shut out or at least kept at arm's length have to shout to be heard at all, and the shouting often isn't all that constructive. (Whereupon the insiders say, as insiders inevitably do, "If only you'd stop shouting, we'd pay attention to you.")
After voting Democratic for decades -- like for a feminist there was an alternative? -- I finally registered as a Dem in January 2017 and got involved in my local Dem groups. Locally the Dems are fine: there's lots of interaction with Indivisible, the local NAACP, union locals, the League of Women Voters, etc., etc. At the state level? OMG. (I'm in MA. I know other states are doing better, but some are at least as bad.) Nationally, the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) has become notorious for blackballing any vendor who dares work for a candidate mounting a primary challenge to a Dem incumbent -- but this didn't stop the Democratic House leadership from supporting Rep. Joe Kennedy's primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey in a year when plenty of us Dems wished we could be devoting more energy to down-ballot races and congressional races in other states. (I worked for Markey and am glad that he won handily.) The DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) made some dubious decisions about which Dems to back against GOP incumbents. And so on.
In short, *lack* of organization may be less a problem than hidebound, inflexible organizations. I know there are good people working hard to address this, but change comes very slowly and meanwhile frustration on the outside keeps mounting.
And I agree - the minute he puts his picks out there - no they arent good enough etc etc. Good grief, we finally got someone who actually knows how government works & why its necessary that it does!! Could we rest on our laurels briefly? After the last 4 years & the idiots installed in OUR government - honestly none of us ask for perfection - just actual working government. I realize that with Rs still possibly in power that will be a challenge but at least having intelligent, knowledgeable people doing the work - THATS an improvement right there. It sure as hell couldnt be worse than we've had for 4 years. Right?
There are numerous organizations I have supported that are sending around petitions asking people to sign and demanding that the Biden-Harris transition team adhere to whatever it is that they are claiming, as if they are resisting this. They are not resisting addressing so many of the pressing concerns but the moment they talk about something one portion of the Dem party doesn't "like" they get hammered. It's insane.
Yesterday, Trump challenged his Supreme Court (among others) to show courage in the face of the “fraudulent” election and so it did.
When faced with the frivolous suit by Pennsylvania Republicans to block certification of the results of the election, the Supreme Court issues a one-sentence order, which said, “The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.”
For the record, Michigan did not allow increased use of mail in ballots because of the Pandemic. The people of Michigan voted in 2018 to amend the constitution with several voting policies - including universal access to mail in ballots. My husband and I have used mail in ballots for local and state elections in 2019 and 2020.
Exactly. And our superb Michigan Attorney General Nessel was on MSNBC tonight explaining why the Texas lawsuit against our stare is ludicrous. But then this isn't about us. It's about corruption in Texas.
People get sick and die, “285,000 of us”, Trump golfs and the Republicans act as if they see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. They all lie, and perpetuate the lies. We are all exhausted. Still, we must stay the course, call out the violations of our Constitution and laws, and work for our Democracy.
"This morning we learned that the Trump administration is requiring states to share with federal registries the names, birthdates, ethnicities, and addresses of the people they vaccinate against the novel coronavirus."
Question 1: At what point (if ever) can states refuse to comply with trump's draconian demands? What would be the downside of that? Could compliance be stalled until January 20, and then deep-sixed?
Question 2: At what point (if ever) can U.S. citizens file a class-action suit against Enemy Domestic Number One (followed closely by wannabe McConnell)? General themes: genocide, sedition, treason, invasion of privacy, etc., etc., etc.
Good points. There is also the HIPAA Law that protects all medical information of all patients. The government has no rights to our medical records, period, due to this privacy law.
Absolutely right. But trumpists don't need no stinking' laws, right?! So, until we have a credible, authentic, functioning DOJ, it's hard to envision how HIPAA would be enforced. I may have said this here before, but this seems to be a job-security environment for lawyers and judges. Unless, of course, they get crosswise of himself.
Governor Cuomo said he would NOT provide this information, in a teleconference I listened to about a month or more ago. He said it is just another way the administration is targeting undocumented immigrants. I hope he keeps his word on this and makes more noise about it.
This is very similar to the Executive Order demanding that academic institutions get rid of all unconscious bias training and delete discussions of racism, sexism, misogyny, and homo- and transphobia from their training for staff, faculty, and students--and in my university the lawyers also interpret it as regarding curriculum as well, which is directly counter to academic freedom rules. It is toothless, but it effectively freaked out university counsel to the point that they have demanded that our Title IX office bend over backwards to accommodate it, at least until January 20th.
The difficulty with 40+ day compliance in this situation is that private info of individuals will fall into the hands of Voldemort et al, to no good end. A related aside. Doesn't it seem as though the endless frivolous trump lawsuits are a massive distraction from whatever else (this EO is an excellent example) is going on under cover of darkness?
Isn't Question 1 moot? In view of the fact that most of the vaccine will not be distributed to anyone but medical personnel and patients in care facilities before January 20, couldn't the states (at least those who aren't led by Republican zealots) just stall until our Fearful Non-Leader fades into the sunset?
As for Question 2, we all need to do everything possible to see that Warnock and Ossoff are elected on January 5th, and Moscow Mitch will have his nasty little teeth rendered useless.
Question 1 not necessarily moot. Reports via credible sources say that vaccinations could begin within the next two weeks or early in January. Minnesota anticipates vaccine for front-line workers before year-end. Our politically blue state is dark red on COVID maps.
Mayo Clinic staff in Rochester, MN have been clobbered by COVID. Last I heard, nearly 900 had been affected, and the overflow of COVID patients were being "hospitalized" in the ambulance garage. I imagine (but don't know) that other major medical centers/hospitals around the country would get this early start, too. If accurate, that means there will be many people whose personal information trump's minions will be trying to suck up before they are released into the wild.
The answer(s) to Question 2 are beyond my ken. Once trump and his kiddos are civilians, they must surely be fair game for non-frivolous lawsuits that...who?...can bring against him/them. Civil suits? Suits by states? The new and improved Justice Department? This whole buzz about trump forming a shadow presidency is so Machiavellian, it must surely be the evil brain spawn of Stephen Miller. When does being a perpetual POA become sedition?
You could very well be correct. However, Gov. "Shotgun" Kemp said it would be impossible for the general public to have vaccinations available before June or July. We're averaging 3,600 to 5,000 cases daily in Georgia. With 200,000,000 doses in the first shipment, meaning that only 100,000,000 people given the vaccine (at 2 doses per person), it is my understanding that front line medical personnel and patients in nursing homes and other care facilities will use up most of the available vaccine. Add to that the fact that apparently no rollout plans have been formulated, that could slow progress in dispensing the vaccine. However, with the moron currently occupying the White House, good information is difficult to come by.
I know that states like yours have been devastated, so hope we all can hold on until the vaccine is actually available.
As for Question 2, I vote for sending the whole bunch to the scaffold.
Encourage people to move to Texas! Speed the process up with campaigns promoting the good life to be had there for the asking. Do better than the republicans! Start to treat the "hispanic" population in all its diversity and not as an anonymous block. You wouldn't do that to other ethic groups.
I’m in Houston and share your feelings about Paxton and the Governor, too. Houston is run by Dems which helps a lot, but am giving serious consideration to relocating to a Bluer location.
You're welcome, Kay. I've known a fair number of Texans in my lifetime, and a more fun-loving, welcoming bunch of people would be tough to find elsewhere. I'd probably fit right in, with my tall boots and trail hat. I do have a problem, though, with people who espouse doctrinaire ideologies with no thought to their implications or consequences. Let's remember that some of the greatest American politicians of the modern era where native Texans, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Baines Johnson. I could name a few more. By predisposition and political necessity, these people were always looking out for the common interest, the public interest. We as a country desperately need to return to that common standard of what's best for everybody.
It would be entirely proper for the Supreme Court to dismiss Texas' lawsuit sua sponte on the grounds that irrespective of Texas lack of judicial standing to challenge the actions of other states acting under the color of their own state laws, the Trump Campaign's uniform lack of success in challenging the election result would seem to be sufficient reason enough for the court to hold an ex parte hearing requiring Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to show cause why his suit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin should not be summarily dismissed with prejudice, simply on the basis that no election law has been violated, irrespective of the identity of the complaining parties. Of the 50-some odd challenges to the election result in the courts, the Trump Campaign has lost 38 of them, with perhaps 16 others on track for final dismissal.
From my standpoint, as an interested observer, it is disheartening to have witnessed the extent to which almost everyone concerned has indulged Trump and his supporters by allowing them to ricochet back and forth against the walls of reality like an old-time pinball game, as they are pushed further and further into a corner toward oblivion. Enough is enough! After this week, we should be done with this election. For once in his life Donald Trump needs to grow up.
Artsilen, I love your analogy of the pinball machine with suits and the like ricochetting of the court walls. As for tRump growing up....don't count on it.
Pushing seventy-four million voters, and even more supporters, "into a corner toward oblvion" creates a problem. Are we as a nation prepared to deal with that problem, akin to the behavior of a rat when cornered? That's a lot of rats.
Jacob Lippman, it's best not to conflate Donald J Trump's personal and financial interests with those of his followers. As to your comparison of Trump's voters to 'trapped rats', I wouldn't go anywhere near that. We held an election. One side won; the other lost. We are going through a dangerous and absurd period of our history where the Republican president refuses to accept defeat. The last time this happened was in 1860 when the then-proslavery Democratic Party refused to accept the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.
The Republican Party of the 21st Century isn't the one I grew up with. Back when I was young, the Republican Party stood for effective government. That hasn't been the case since the Reagan administration. If Trump's voters are effectively 'trapped', it's because Republican policy choices over several generations made it impossible for them to succeed and prosper.
The last time this happened, in the 1860s, we ended up with a failed "Reconstruction," which LBJ tried to remedy in 1964. It isn't a geographic problem now as it was then. Now those 74 million are spread throughout the nation, and it doesn't matter whose fault their failure to succeed and prosper is. Alienated and feeling left out, they will always be anti-establishment, and ready to listen to simple solutions as they did in 2016, and in 2020 when, except for the presidency, they voted to weaken our government. Biden's election, accompanied by 'downballot' GOP victories, was more of a defeat for Trump rather than a endorsement of the Democratic agenda which, if implemented, might solve their problems.
Let's be clear about one thing, throughout our history there is been a virulent racism, but no section of the country worked harder to perpetuate it and to spread it elsewhere in the states of the former Confederacy. If racism is America's original sin, then the southern slaveholding states, slaveholders, and their promoters, apologists, and defenders were racism's high priesthood. There is no getting around the fact that racism existed from the date when black Africans were first sold at auction in Jamestown in 1619. On the other hand, elsewhere in the British colonies, law, social practice, and common decency went the other way. In 1780, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' abolished slavery by judicial fiat. That decision was accepted without recorded protest. Within those jurisdictions, slavery based upon race simply was not done; it was not allowed, and it was not condoned. Only the Southern Colonies made an issue of it, and as a nation we have been burdened by its consequences for the past four centuries. American Reconstruction failed because we had a president, in the person of Andrew Johnson, who was very much like Donald Trump. His successor, Ulysses Grant, did what he could to ameliorate the hardships that newly-freed slaves were experiencing, but he was pushing against the tide of what Southern Gentlemen, myth makers, and their hangers on were preaching wherever they could. As long as law will enforce arbitrary racial prerogatives on the part of some people against others, social progress remains frozen in place. Other places, like New York, or California, while not perfect, tended to put decency ahead of bigotry. By way of example, you now-famous case of Loving v. Virginia, decided by the Supreme Court in 1968 is celebrated as the turning point for interracial marriage. California's own Supreme Court arrived at that moment this turn twenty years earlier in 1948, without the fanfare, and without the attendant publicity. It was simply done.
I have no sympathy for those like many of Trump's supporters and voters who choose to believe myths and made up stories that are objectively and provably untrue. This business of 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' is a blight on all of us. For the past month the president and his cronies have been hopscotch hanging around the country trying to find some court, somewhere, that would accept their false narrative of massive voter fraud, based upon nothing more than their say-so. For every person who told the lie, there were dozens more on social media who passed it along. We are going to pay for that irresponsibility for decades to come.
If not cornered rats, they are, at the very least, CONNED rats. Begin with a renewed Fairness Doctrine, make Faux "News" tell the truth and give both sides of issues, and turn the mic off AM radio hate programs. Enough.
Thank you for the summary – some of which I heard you talk about this afternoon. Scary times but, as you continue to remind us, we have to use our power as citizens to make the changes we want to see in our democracy. I wrote my holiday letter with this idea in mind. It won't be the typical letter most expect to receive but just maybe it will encourage a few people to take the responsibility of citizenship seriously.
Stuart, his handicap is supposedly 2.9 thanks to his ability to re-place the balls which go into the rough or the water. His other handicap is beyond measure.
I have been known not to count penalties when i play but i mostly play alone, i don't compete with myself or others and i don't have a handicap...i just relax and have fun during a nice long walk in the countryside. It does me the world of good!
Austin could face another hurdle on Capitol Hill, where in a high-profile September 2015 hearing he was sharply criticized by the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain rebuked Austin for his testimony on the battle against ISIS, where the general announced American troops were making progress, while admitting after several months a $500 million program to train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS had produced only “four or five” prepared fighters.
"I have been a member of this committee for more than 30 years, and I have never heard testimony like this," McCain told Austin. “I have never seen a hearing that is as divorced from the reality of every outside expert and what you are saying.” - Stars & Stripes Dec 8, 2020
I'm sick of reading/hearing about the do-nothing Republicans. Each day that goes by, more Americans suffer health-wise or economically and McTurtleneck and the rest of the cabal want to save businesses from potential suits. By the time those businesses reach the point of an employee suit they'll be out of business. No stimulus means just that...no way for business to make it through what will probably end as a depression. And, by that time, Biden will be in office and blamed for any economic disasters. F#$k them all!
Surprise, surprise... NOT! -- Republicans are at it again, trying to suppress the vote in the upcoming GA runoff elections. -- Thanks (as always) for the important news that doesn't make the headlines.
Yes but because of "this day and age" it needs a little tightening and more transparency so that we are sure that the people's wishes are constantly dominating our politicians reflections and actions. Personal integrity recently has not guarrantteed our freedom so well as it was believed to do not so long ago it would seem.
I am a believer in the "square deal", so I agree with you on tightening and transparency. Unfortunately, Biden is having climb a slippery slope to put this cabinet together. I think he is really trying to keep a balance under this scrutiny.
Strange how DT was brilliant enough to have formulated the breakneck speed of the creation of the corona virus, yet was totally incapable of ordering a sufficient supply for the country, much less devising an effective method of distribution! Strange how certain imaginations can veer into incredulous twilight zones. How many more days of this do we have to endure? 41?
Now, you know that he's quite the dealmaker ("Art of the Deal, remember?"), so you need to understand that his strategy was making a better deal with other manufacturers. Never mind how many of our citizens die while he's dealing.
Heather pointed out yesterday in her chat. and I agree, that the offer from Pfizer for the USA to buy 100 million additional vaccine doses was premature. And what our government did do was invest in many vaccine start ups, and some are more promising than Pfizer. since they do not require as frigid a storage temperature. So this may have been a most prudent, decision, and we should still be able to purchase enough vaccines from multiple sources.
Another day of corrupt static from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm so glad this narrative will change next month. It certainly won't completely change, but let's hope the long haul will give us some reprieve.
I find the strings attached information that is required of the end users of the vaccine curious at best. This isn't a fact gathering
for future medical studies, its tagging individuals. Hopefully, by the time the vaccine with be available for the general public, this requirement will be removed by the new Administration.
Melissa, I was at the Doctors on Friday and asked the NP if she was going to be one of the first to get the vaccine by nature of her job. She said she will wait until primary studies are made from first round of reactions.
I have been hospitalized for the past couple days. I have been making an informal survey. Most would rather let the Guinea pigs go first. So, I hope all the red neck gun toting types step up. The people who are out and about stirring the pot, should go first. A Me First entitled class
I don't disagree. I do think when it's time for the general public to receive it, it should be saver. Remember there was a snafu with the polio vaccine at the start.
But today I saw on the news that people with allergy issues should not get it. Which is scary because my daughter is allergic to almost everything. Maybe this is just something to be worked out.
Not that they shouldn't get the vaccine. Two allergic reactions out of what is probably now 10,000 recipients is not unexpected Greater precautions may need to be taken when giving vaccines for those with allergies. By the time you and I are in line for "the jab", though, our public health folks will have a much clearer picture.
This evening I saw an interview with Rebekah Jones on the Lawrence O'Donnell show. They had a surveillance camera on the front door and hallway which showed the police entering her house with guns drawn pointing them at her, her husband and her little children! And the email that triggered (please excuse the pun) all this was: ""It's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," the message said, according to the affidavit. "You know this is wrong. You don't have to be part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it's too late." That is the message which she says she did not send, was enough for a warrant to have armed men enter her home and point guns at her children. This is not America. Or unfortunately maybe it is. This is sickening!
Of all the outrageous things that have taken place in the last four years, this stands out. We can't be rid of Trump fast enough, but we must also root out those who have perpetuated his reign of corruption and stand ready to continue it.
Amen to that brother!
I hope this story remains in the news until ALL involved are shamefully removed from their dictator wannabe positions.
Like Vidman, this woman is a patriot.
This is crass intimidation intended to shut up more than Ms Jones. This is what trump etc would like to do to you and me.
The Democrats now have to get really serious about investing time, money and brains in the fight for each State and in the outlawing of gerrymandering and voter restriction everywhere. The Republicans have been giving them a hiding because they saw the importance of dominating this level of power......and have reaped the rewards.
And hand-in-hand with creating fair congressional districts is a stronger, broader Fairness Doctrine. This is what I want to put my energy towards--to stop the incessant lying and gaslighting we've had to endure for 5 years (and will only get worse, I'm afraid). Bring truth and proof back to the public square.
Not the easiest thing to achieve when the nastiest parts of society have seen very clearly that lies can be very "rewarding" . Good luck!
Also, need to do something about the Electoral College which is making close margins in a couple of swing states determine the winner rather than the popular vote.
That would be a Herculean effort, most likely to fail.
Need to get more states to support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Seems the alternative is the Hand Maid's Tale and minority autocratic rule. So worth the effort.
Essential. This is at the heart of my next volunteer years efforts to make change possible. ❤️🤍💙
Deborah, before the election I had already vowed to be an active participant in whatever Resistance effort emerged should Trump be re- elected. After the election I had about 15 seconds of relief thinking I might not have to "take to the streets" or "go underground." Today i realize that an ongoing and alert Resistance movement is more critical than ever. I am now in a mental, emotional and spiritual " boot camp"!! The emperor may be dethroned but the empire remains!!!
I found the Non-violent resistance training at choosedemocracy.us quite valuable in how to be effective. It has been focused on whether there would be a coup attempt which was fortunately quite inept. We must be more alert because the next autocrat who takes over the Presidency (because of the Electoral College electing the minority candidate from marginal votes in a few swing states) will not be as incompetent as the current lame duck. Sure is nice to say lame duck -- can't wait to get to former! We need to get rid of Electoral College and neuter it as many states are doing. We need more states to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Like other procedures, the Electoral College seems to be an entrenched root of the structural racism that permeates our culture. It needs to be dug up and tossed out. ❤️🤍💙
You can say that again, Deborah! Let's get our shovels!
Unfortunately, and perhaps because the coming runoff election is so crucial because it will determine which party holds the Senate majority, Georgia Republicans are continuing their voter suppression tactics. For example, some drop boxes, usually in low-income or communities of color, I've read, are being eliminated except as yet another method of ongoing voter suppression.
The last paragraph of this maddening article is telling, that the multiple recounts were paid for by taxpayer dollars, so, it is claimed, monies are no longer available to staff the same number of voting places as there were for the general election.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/georgia-counties-cut-back-early-voting-sites-ahead-senate-runoffs-n1250307?fbclid=IwAR2z0Pq5WyNlCWFn7SbHwXS9SxTYImHmCyzgFsmjO7nssv8txgbr1R68hbU
Please disregard the word "except" in my comment.
Rebekah Jones is the former State of Florida Data Scientist who wouldn't go along with massaging the COVID-19 data to meet the political agenda of Governor DeSantis.
Truly Repugnant!
The only positive thing I have seen coming out of that horrible gestapo action is that a life-long Florida Republican GOP attorney (Mr. Filipowsky.. May have that spelling wrong) read the search warrant affidavit and resigned. He was disgusted and said this incident was all about intimidation. Good for him and may there be others like him. This has ramifications for all of Ms. Jones’ contacts, which were on those devices. We will see how that plays out. Meanwhile, Ms Jones was quoted as saying she is moving “the hell out of Florida” because a gun(s) was/were aimed at her children. Sadly, intimidation has worked, though I hope she continues her excellent work. I am hoping there is a way to send a message of support on her Florida Community Covid Dashboard and I know there is a way to send a donation so I am passing that on if anyone is interested.
One can not blame a mother for wanting to protect her children. She is going to sue the governor. She has set up a Crowd Fund to support her legal bills. I hope a lot of people support her. And, kudos to Mr. Filipkowsky for being ethical! That is what I would expect from a Marine vet.
A place for her in Biden's government team?
Cathy, you can remove "maybe" from the next to last sentence. I won't say anymore, because I have to get back to re-reading "1984." Stay safe.
I would agree most days but "maybe" keeps me having hope for our country and the Biden administration. Yes, please stay safe!
Just ask Black, Brown, and Indigenous Americans - they will tell you it is definitely an America they recognize all too well. While I was sickened to watch the thugs invade Jones's home, my thought throughout was that this happens every day in America to BIPOC, so I can't be overly outraged when it happens to a white family. Except in this case, nobody was shot, her husband still has his spouse, her children still have their mother - they are just without a few electronic devices.
Benjamin Franklin wisely said “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” I am outraged by having anyone treated this way. I recognize that this could have been much worse and is daily for BIPOC. I was hopeful that the Black Lives Matter this past June with the killing of George Floyd was a turning point because the protesters were from all walks of life. It felt like a movement. I want it to be. Let's focus on solving the problem for all rather than comparing to what degree of outrage we "should" have for each scenario. Let's come together to be a movement!
“[A] movement…”. That’s exactly what this HCR forum should become, Cathy! There are so many activists involved here, and so much activity aimed at saving, and then improving, this American “experiment”.
The intellectual capacity of our virtual community is enormous, and our fidelity to our cherished homeland is impregnable. The efforts exerted by this electronic “neighborhood” in the political arena this election season have been jaw-dropping!
If we begin to harness this assortment of talents, experience and commitment we can have an historic impact on our nation...and beyond. Our overall perspective on the sort of society we human beings crave is, as our British cousins might say, “spot on”. Justice, equality, unity: these make up the core attributes we all crave, and that a true and sustainable civilization requires.
There is no reason this collection of knowledgeable and laser-focused individuals can’t be harnessed to confront and redesign the failed structures that make up our society. There is no roadblock that can seriously impede the inexorable march of this community and its allies to the goal of reconstructing this democratic republic in its own image.
This is music to my ears, Bill! Yes, I'd love the HCR forum to be one about solutions and actions. This is an incredible group and I'm enjoying my new friends and our discussions here so much. When asked what Party I belong to, my answer is I'm a Synergist. The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts. We are strengthened by valuing our differences and perspectives and come up with better solutions for all than any one perspective or solution. We are strengthened by having a voice from our sheer numbers. I've thought about writing a platform for this party. Maybe it isn't even a party but a Synergist Society. Maybe we can suggest to Heather some questions to explore. Yes, let's stimulate a movement... A three minutes TED talk by Derek Sivers about how to start a movement I enjoy! https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement/transcript?language=en Let's get up and dance.
Thanks, that it terrific - let's spread it.
OK! We can be the First Followers of something wonderful. Here we go to create a movement! Step 1: The Vision....
Cathy, there’s no reason why “Heather’s Herd of Hope”, or whatever we decide to call it (at this point I’d definitely vote against that moniker...and I think I may have been the one to start it...the first two H’s at least). It would be criminal to not build on the platform that’s been created.
Beyond the existing “community”, it should be possible to attract others who may be desperately casting about, trying to find some way to save the ship of state. There are so many points in dire need that must be addressed in our society.
My feeling is that we need to think outside the box, so to speak, to confront the destructive mythology that has brought us to this disastrous point. Too much of our history has been fictionalized, leaving a foundation that is more sand than stone. We will never be able to build a stable structure on such a base.
I won’t try to list the areas that must be addressed at this point. Most are well known to the people who make up HCR’s following. A list can be created soon after a sizable number of those who read these Letters and post to this site commit to getting to work on our future.
Thanks for your initiative and insightful comments.
I applaud the idea of organizing some vehicle for concrete action around this community. I would, with all respect to HCR, suggest we not include any individual’s name in whatever title we might use should this come to fruition. I believe it puts too much of a burden on Prof. Richardson – who has enough on her plate - and having anyone’s name in the title sounds a bit cultish to my ears.
Hmmm, Much to think about here. In a way we have a fairly clean slate. Always like the idea that Einstein had to destroy his/our concept of time to come up with relativity. Many times one has to destroy old notions before one can create something new. With all the destruction of norms, ethics, civility, etc. of the past few years and starting decades ago and centuries of injustice, we may have an opportunity for a fresh start. You describe it as outside the box; I'm thinking something similar that we need to step out of the weeds, and look at the bigger picture. One of my life rules is to go toward something, not away from something. So what are we going toward?
I was listening a podcast by CNN's Don Lemon this evening called Blaxit. It is about blacks leaving the US to go live in Ghana, Namibia, Trinidad and other places. He interviews a number of the American diaspora and their reasons for leaving. People with means and with an online job see this is a very viable option. That they don't get shot by cops while walking home from grocery can be pretty enjoyable. One comment stayed with me-that they feel as discriminated by white liberal folks as by straight up racists. Its subtle but anytime you assert yourself in the former group you are labeled as an angry black person (for example).
This exodus is real
Wow but unfortunately this is what the racists want, either to jail, kill, or send people of color away. We can’t let them do this!!!
Thank god no one was shot!!!
The way to prevent that is to keep the guns in their holsters or don't bring them at all. I gather the message was on an Florida emergency message so I can believe you would want to track that down. I hate to think what might have happened if she were black. We need to keep the social justice movement and Black Lives Matter moving forward!
Biden has had decades to think about how he would manage the transfer of power in multiple scenarios. I find his strategies to get around, thwart, and shame the "Republicans" (there should always be shock-quotes around this word when referring to the neofascist minions of their Dear Leader) to be a fascinating display of savvy political maneuvering. What I wish is that the people supposedly on his side would shut up. The Democratic Party is proving that the parodies presented about the Dems are not parodies. I have been a Dem all my life and I come from generations of Dems. It makes me nuts that instead of letting him get on with planning how to recover from four years of devastation, fellow-Dems are screaming at him that they want a piece of the action. They've got it, for crying out loud. Let Joe and Kamala do what they need to do to get us back on track.
I find myself far more upset by the evident willingness of some people in the media, often the same people who wouldn't utter a peep of accurate criticism of Trump, to pile on Biden and make a big deal about his differences with the party's left side. They (not all of the media) show themselves to be hypocrites and cowards, now unafraid to do their jobs when the incoming President is a gentleman and a believer in the First Amendment.
The news and entertainment business is just as susceptible to cowardice and opportunism as any.
Invert news and entertainment and you've hit the problem.
I’m right there with you, Linda and others on this piece. To all fellow Dems, work on GA and then you have a chance to have a piece. Work on your Consistent Messaging at which you are consistently poor. Eliminate the word “socialism” from your messages and you may have a chance to unite the public will behind good ideas. ❤️🤍💙
I agree with everything you and others are saying. It is so frustrating to see the "circular firing squad" mentioned on this topic. What the Democrats have to do is try to analyze how it is that the Republicans have so many followers and are so successful in their aims (usually). No, most of what they do is abhorrent to us, but their strategy of, at least publicly, being in lockstep on their agenda and never revealing to their rivals the cracks that are in the foundation has been successful. With the Democrats, each faction criticizes the other in the press, like whiny adolescents.
I also agree with the person who said that we should stop using the term "socialist." This has been used as a dog whistle against us, and has been quite successful. State your aims, but refrain from using tags that most see as negative.
We have to present a unified front and thrash out our differences by compromising and supporting our central cause. Biden is doing an excellent job, under the most egregious circumstances, and his years of experience navigating these treacherous waters is serving him well. We should all help by turning down the background noise and supporting his efforts. You have hit the nail on the head, Linda - we got what we want - a Democratic president and fantastic VP - now let's unite to get the two remaining Senate seats so that we can end the mayhem!
I used to be a Dem Party animal. It is precisely because of what you've summarized here (and a great deal more) that I've distanced from the Party. The word "feckless" comes to mind. In a recent communication from a progressive org I generally support, there was a boilerplate letter recipients were asked to send to Real-POTUS-Elect Biden. It contained a list of demands, each of which arrogantly (IMO) began: "You must...!" Really? REALLY? Okay. I've made my point. Amen.
Linda, Deborah and Barbara, boy! I echo everything you said. Even when I was more involved with the Party, I always said Democrats had to be 'purer than Caesar's wife', because we were so good at the old circular firing squad behavior.
I am often reminded of Will Rogers' famous, "I'm not part of an organized political party; I'm a Democrat."
Oops. Beat me to it!
I left the Democratic Part 4 1/2 years ago. I couldn't take it anymore and was so ashamed of them. And I was particularly shocked before the election at the crass demands for money. I gave frequently and generously (and still am), and was hassled and taunted. Shameful.
There with you on the constant begging for money. Excuse me!? I have always donated to political campaigns for candidates I believed in, hoping that when they were elected, they would do the jobs we sent them to the legislature to do. What has happened instead is that they have become entrenched party politics, taking exorbitant salaries every year, and then turning around and begging for more money throughout their terms! Even when I write letters about things I'm concerned about, with a note at the end saying if it isn't possible to send a direct response on the topic, I'd rather have no response at all. What do I get? I get added to the mailing list for daily emails begging for more money. My spam filter catches most of them, but occasionally I open one hoping from the subject line that there will be real, useful information - not a one has not had the big DONATE button at the end. I'm sorry, but considering all the wealth concentrated in Congress, they've got a lot of nerve asking a retired community college adjunct instructor living on social security for a dime.
So true. I gave every few days for weeks leading upto the election. Now its morphed into mails about how Ossoff is gonna lose ..do something! I gave for a little while and now just annoyed. I wonder if this money is actually going to actblue or I am being conned. I see there is a transaction fee that I cant figure out where it goes.
SO bad. I have a weekly amount still going to Biden, but whenever I didn't respond to their latest request for money on text messages, I would get replies like, "Are you turning your back on Joe Biden?" I complained to a Democratic Precinct Chairwoman who just shrugged. My son-in-law sent close to 100,000 texts for Biden to 4 different states and says he can't believe what some of his fellow testers sent.
I was registered Dem for years in the past. Once even registered "Socialist" here in SoFlo with all those Cubans around me in 1982. However, I have been Independent "No Party Affiliation" for years, only registering Dem in 2016 to vote for Bernie in the closed FL primary. After he got sandbagged by the party, I went back to NPA.
2016 was a hot mess. It appears that Joe Biden may be the right person for this go-round. We live in hope!
YES!! Me, too.
That Will Rogers bit ("I'm not part of an organized party, I'm a Democrat") gets quoted ad nauseam. Maybe it was accurate when he said it, but I think those who quote it these days are missing an important point: that in some ways the Democratic Party is *too well organized*. Too many Dem organizations, from the national down to the state and local levels, are too turfy and resistant to any new blood and diversity they can't control. Those who are shut out or at least kept at arm's length have to shout to be heard at all, and the shouting often isn't all that constructive. (Whereupon the insiders say, as insiders inevitably do, "If only you'd stop shouting, we'd pay attention to you.")
After voting Democratic for decades -- like for a feminist there was an alternative? -- I finally registered as a Dem in January 2017 and got involved in my local Dem groups. Locally the Dems are fine: there's lots of interaction with Indivisible, the local NAACP, union locals, the League of Women Voters, etc., etc. At the state level? OMG. (I'm in MA. I know other states are doing better, but some are at least as bad.) Nationally, the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) has become notorious for blackballing any vendor who dares work for a candidate mounting a primary challenge to a Dem incumbent -- but this didn't stop the Democratic House leadership from supporting Rep. Joe Kennedy's primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey in a year when plenty of us Dems wished we could be devoting more energy to down-ballot races and congressional races in other states. (I worked for Markey and am glad that he won handily.) The DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) made some dubious decisions about which Dems to back against GOP incumbents. And so on.
In short, *lack* of organization may be less a problem than hidebound, inflexible organizations. I know there are good people working hard to address this, but change comes very slowly and meanwhile frustration on the outside keeps mounting.
And I agree - the minute he puts his picks out there - no they arent good enough etc etc. Good grief, we finally got someone who actually knows how government works & why its necessary that it does!! Could we rest on our laurels briefly? After the last 4 years & the idiots installed in OUR government - honestly none of us ask for perfection - just actual working government. I realize that with Rs still possibly in power that will be a challenge but at least having intelligent, knowledgeable people doing the work - THATS an improvement right there. It sure as hell couldnt be worse than we've had for 4 years. Right?
Agreed. I believe Will Rogers said, "I'm not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat."
What do you mean, they want a piece of the action?
There are numerous organizations I have supported that are sending around petitions asking people to sign and demanding that the Biden-Harris transition team adhere to whatever it is that they are claiming, as if they are resisting this. They are not resisting addressing so many of the pressing concerns but the moment they talk about something one portion of the Dem party doesn't "like" they get hammered. It's insane.
I don't even open them anymore. They go directly to trash.
Ugh. I can see that.
agreed
Yesterday, Trump challenged his Supreme Court (among others) to show courage in the face of the “fraudulent” election and so it did.
When faced with the frivolous suit by Pennsylvania Republicans to block certification of the results of the election, the Supreme Court issues a one-sentence order, which said, “The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.”
Short, sweet and final!
(http://amylhowe.com/2020/12/08/justices-wont-stop-pennsylvania-from-certifying-election-for-biden/)
Thank you for providing that one sentence order.
❤❤❤
He certainly can't argue that they're hateful liberals - not even one dissenter.
For the record, Michigan did not allow increased use of mail in ballots because of the Pandemic. The people of Michigan voted in 2018 to amend the constitution with several voting policies - including universal access to mail in ballots. My husband and I have used mail in ballots for local and state elections in 2019 and 2020.
I live in Oregon and we have been voting by mail for twenty years! It works!
I voted for it
Exactly. And our superb Michigan Attorney General Nessel was on MSNBC tonight explaining why the Texas lawsuit against our stare is ludicrous. But then this isn't about us. It's about corruption in Texas.
People get sick and die, “285,000 of us”, Trump golfs and the Republicans act as if they see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. They all lie, and perpetuate the lies. We are all exhausted. Still, we must stay the course, call out the violations of our Constitution and laws, and work for our Democracy.
Hear hear!
But they do see, hear and speak lots of evil, and it's all directed at Radical, Liberal, Socialist Democrats. Just check with Kelly Loeffler.
"This morning we learned that the Trump administration is requiring states to share with federal registries the names, birthdates, ethnicities, and addresses of the people they vaccinate against the novel coronavirus."
Question 1: At what point (if ever) can states refuse to comply with trump's draconian demands? What would be the downside of that? Could compliance be stalled until January 20, and then deep-sixed?
Question 2: At what point (if ever) can U.S. citizens file a class-action suit against Enemy Domestic Number One (followed closely by wannabe McConnell)? General themes: genocide, sedition, treason, invasion of privacy, etc., etc., etc.
Enquiring mind wants to know.
Good points. There is also the HIPAA Law that protects all medical information of all patients. The government has no rights to our medical records, period, due to this privacy law.
Absolutely right. But trumpists don't need no stinking' laws, right?! So, until we have a credible, authentic, functioning DOJ, it's hard to envision how HIPAA would be enforced. I may have said this here before, but this seems to be a job-security environment for lawyers and judges. Unless, of course, they get crosswise of himself.
Governor Cuomo said he would NOT provide this information, in a teleconference I listened to about a month or more ago. He said it is just another way the administration is targeting undocumented immigrants. I hope he keeps his word on this and makes more noise about it.
This is very similar to the Executive Order demanding that academic institutions get rid of all unconscious bias training and delete discussions of racism, sexism, misogyny, and homo- and transphobia from their training for staff, faculty, and students--and in my university the lawyers also interpret it as regarding curriculum as well, which is directly counter to academic freedom rules. It is toothless, but it effectively freaked out university counsel to the point that they have demanded that our Title IX office bend over backwards to accommodate it, at least until January 20th.
I like to quote Margaret Meade "We need to teach children how to think, not what to think."
Love this!
The difficulty with 40+ day compliance in this situation is that private info of individuals will fall into the hands of Voldemort et al, to no good end. A related aside. Doesn't it seem as though the endless frivolous trump lawsuits are a massive distraction from whatever else (this EO is an excellent example) is going on under cover of darkness?
It would be interesting to know how many organizations and institutions with federal grant funding have refused to comply.
Isn't Question 1 moot? In view of the fact that most of the vaccine will not be distributed to anyone but medical personnel and patients in care facilities before January 20, couldn't the states (at least those who aren't led by Republican zealots) just stall until our Fearful Non-Leader fades into the sunset?
As for Question 2, we all need to do everything possible to see that Warnock and Ossoff are elected on January 5th, and Moscow Mitch will have his nasty little teeth rendered useless.
Question 1 not necessarily moot. Reports via credible sources say that vaccinations could begin within the next two weeks or early in January. Minnesota anticipates vaccine for front-line workers before year-end. Our politically blue state is dark red on COVID maps.
Mayo Clinic staff in Rochester, MN have been clobbered by COVID. Last I heard, nearly 900 had been affected, and the overflow of COVID patients were being "hospitalized" in the ambulance garage. I imagine (but don't know) that other major medical centers/hospitals around the country would get this early start, too. If accurate, that means there will be many people whose personal information trump's minions will be trying to suck up before they are released into the wild.
The answer(s) to Question 2 are beyond my ken. Once trump and his kiddos are civilians, they must surely be fair game for non-frivolous lawsuits that...who?...can bring against him/them. Civil suits? Suits by states? The new and improved Justice Department? This whole buzz about trump forming a shadow presidency is so Machiavellian, it must surely be the evil brain spawn of Stephen Miller. When does being a perpetual POA become sedition?
You could very well be correct. However, Gov. "Shotgun" Kemp said it would be impossible for the general public to have vaccinations available before June or July. We're averaging 3,600 to 5,000 cases daily in Georgia. With 200,000,000 doses in the first shipment, meaning that only 100,000,000 people given the vaccine (at 2 doses per person), it is my understanding that front line medical personnel and patients in nursing homes and other care facilities will use up most of the available vaccine. Add to that the fact that apparently no rollout plans have been formulated, that could slow progress in dispensing the vaccine. However, with the moron currently occupying the White House, good information is difficult to come by.
I know that states like yours have been devastated, so hope we all can hold on until the vaccine is actually available.
As for Question 2, I vote for sending the whole bunch to the scaffold.
As always, thank you from Texas (home of my worthless AG Ken Paxton).
The slow shift in TX from Red to Purple to Blue seems inevitable, even if the snail's pace is frustrating. Cheering you on from CA!
Encourage people to move to Texas! Speed the process up with campaigns promoting the good life to be had there for the asking. Do better than the republicans! Start to treat the "hispanic" population in all its diversity and not as an anonymous block. You wouldn't do that to other ethic groups.
Thank you.
I’m in Houston and share your feelings about Paxton and the Governor, too. Houston is run by Dems which helps a lot, but am giving serious consideration to relocating to a Bluer location.
You're welcome, Kay. I've known a fair number of Texans in my lifetime, and a more fun-loving, welcoming bunch of people would be tough to find elsewhere. I'd probably fit right in, with my tall boots and trail hat. I do have a problem, though, with people who espouse doctrinaire ideologies with no thought to their implications or consequences. Let's remember that some of the greatest American politicians of the modern era where native Texans, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Baines Johnson. I could name a few more. By predisposition and political necessity, these people were always looking out for the common interest, the public interest. We as a country desperately need to return to that common standard of what's best for everybody.
Ann Richards comes to mind.
Exactly! Plus a great many more.
It would be entirely proper for the Supreme Court to dismiss Texas' lawsuit sua sponte on the grounds that irrespective of Texas lack of judicial standing to challenge the actions of other states acting under the color of their own state laws, the Trump Campaign's uniform lack of success in challenging the election result would seem to be sufficient reason enough for the court to hold an ex parte hearing requiring Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to show cause why his suit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin should not be summarily dismissed with prejudice, simply on the basis that no election law has been violated, irrespective of the identity of the complaining parties. Of the 50-some odd challenges to the election result in the courts, the Trump Campaign has lost 38 of them, with perhaps 16 others on track for final dismissal.
From my standpoint, as an interested observer, it is disheartening to have witnessed the extent to which almost everyone concerned has indulged Trump and his supporters by allowing them to ricochet back and forth against the walls of reality like an old-time pinball game, as they are pushed further and further into a corner toward oblivion. Enough is enough! After this week, we should be done with this election. For once in his life Donald Trump needs to grow up.
Artsilen, I love your analogy of the pinball machine with suits and the like ricochetting of the court walls. As for tRump growing up....don't count on it.
Pushing seventy-four million voters, and even more supporters, "into a corner toward oblvion" creates a problem. Are we as a nation prepared to deal with that problem, akin to the behavior of a rat when cornered? That's a lot of rats.
Jacob Lippman, it's best not to conflate Donald J Trump's personal and financial interests with those of his followers. As to your comparison of Trump's voters to 'trapped rats', I wouldn't go anywhere near that. We held an election. One side won; the other lost. We are going through a dangerous and absurd period of our history where the Republican president refuses to accept defeat. The last time this happened was in 1860 when the then-proslavery Democratic Party refused to accept the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.
The Republican Party of the 21st Century isn't the one I grew up with. Back when I was young, the Republican Party stood for effective government. That hasn't been the case since the Reagan administration. If Trump's voters are effectively 'trapped', it's because Republican policy choices over several generations made it impossible for them to succeed and prosper.
The last time this happened, in the 1860s, we ended up with a failed "Reconstruction," which LBJ tried to remedy in 1964. It isn't a geographic problem now as it was then. Now those 74 million are spread throughout the nation, and it doesn't matter whose fault their failure to succeed and prosper is. Alienated and feeling left out, they will always be anti-establishment, and ready to listen to simple solutions as they did in 2016, and in 2020 when, except for the presidency, they voted to weaken our government. Biden's election, accompanied by 'downballot' GOP victories, was more of a defeat for Trump rather than a endorsement of the Democratic agenda which, if implemented, might solve their problems.
Let's be clear about one thing, throughout our history there is been a virulent racism, but no section of the country worked harder to perpetuate it and to spread it elsewhere in the states of the former Confederacy. If racism is America's original sin, then the southern slaveholding states, slaveholders, and their promoters, apologists, and defenders were racism's high priesthood. There is no getting around the fact that racism existed from the date when black Africans were first sold at auction in Jamestown in 1619. On the other hand, elsewhere in the British colonies, law, social practice, and common decency went the other way. In 1780, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' abolished slavery by judicial fiat. That decision was accepted without recorded protest. Within those jurisdictions, slavery based upon race simply was not done; it was not allowed, and it was not condoned. Only the Southern Colonies made an issue of it, and as a nation we have been burdened by its consequences for the past four centuries. American Reconstruction failed because we had a president, in the person of Andrew Johnson, who was very much like Donald Trump. His successor, Ulysses Grant, did what he could to ameliorate the hardships that newly-freed slaves were experiencing, but he was pushing against the tide of what Southern Gentlemen, myth makers, and their hangers on were preaching wherever they could. As long as law will enforce arbitrary racial prerogatives on the part of some people against others, social progress remains frozen in place. Other places, like New York, or California, while not perfect, tended to put decency ahead of bigotry. By way of example, you now-famous case of Loving v. Virginia, decided by the Supreme Court in 1968 is celebrated as the turning point for interracial marriage. California's own Supreme Court arrived at that moment this turn twenty years earlier in 1948, without the fanfare, and without the attendant publicity. It was simply done.
I have no sympathy for those like many of Trump's supporters and voters who choose to believe myths and made up stories that are objectively and provably untrue. This business of 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' is a blight on all of us. For the past month the president and his cronies have been hopscotch hanging around the country trying to find some court, somewhere, that would accept their false narrative of massive voter fraud, based upon nothing more than their say-so. For every person who told the lie, there were dozens more on social media who passed it along. We are going to pay for that irresponsibility for decades to come.
If not cornered rats, they are, at the very least, CONNED rats. Begin with a renewed Fairness Doctrine, make Faux "News" tell the truth and give both sides of issues, and turn the mic off AM radio hate programs. Enough.
Thank you for the summary – some of which I heard you talk about this afternoon. Scary times but, as you continue to remind us, we have to use our power as citizens to make the changes we want to see in our democracy. I wrote my holiday letter with this idea in mind. It won't be the typical letter most expect to receive but just maybe it will encourage a few people to take the responsibility of citizenship seriously.
Nero plays golf while Rome burns.
But perhaps he's improving his handicap....golf score that is not his cerebral "difficulties".
Stuart, his handicap is supposedly 2.9 thanks to his ability to re-place the balls which go into the rough or the water. His other handicap is beyond measure.
There's a saying among golfers: cheater in golf, cheater in life. This proves to be absolutely accurate with respect to the Deranged Cheeto.
I have been known not to count penalties when i play but i mostly play alone, i don't compete with myself or others and i don't have a handicap...i just relax and have fun during a nice long walk in the countryside. It does me the world of good!
I might have a little difficulty with the honesty, eyesight and independence of those co-signing his score cards to justify that level
Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
I doubt his handicap is less than 20.
Lloyd Austin chewed out by John McCain -
Austin could face another hurdle on Capitol Hill, where in a high-profile September 2015 hearing he was sharply criticized by the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain rebuked Austin for his testimony on the battle against ISIS, where the general announced American troops were making progress, while admitting after several months a $500 million program to train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS had produced only “four or five” prepared fighters.
"I have been a member of this committee for more than 30 years, and I have never heard testimony like this," McCain told Austin. “I have never seen a hearing that is as divorced from the reality of every outside expert and what you are saying.” - Stars & Stripes Dec 8, 2020
Good to know...
I'm sick of reading/hearing about the do-nothing Republicans. Each day that goes by, more Americans suffer health-wise or economically and McTurtleneck and the rest of the cabal want to save businesses from potential suits. By the time those businesses reach the point of an employee suit they'll be out of business. No stimulus means just that...no way for business to make it through what will probably end as a depression. And, by that time, Biden will be in office and blamed for any economic disasters. F#$k them all!
Surprise, surprise... NOT! -- Republicans are at it again, trying to suppress the vote in the upcoming GA runoff elections. -- Thanks (as always) for the important news that doesn't make the headlines.
"But he definitely knows how Washington works" It is the only thing that gives me hope that things will get done.
but should it work....or not work...in this way?
Stuart Attewell, yes, it should, however in this day and age there seems to be a distain for institutional memory.
Yes but because of "this day and age" it needs a little tightening and more transparency so that we are sure that the people's wishes are constantly dominating our politicians reflections and actions. Personal integrity recently has not guarrantteed our freedom so well as it was believed to do not so long ago it would seem.
I am a believer in the "square deal", so I agree with you on tightening and transparency. Unfortunately, Biden is having climb a slippery slope to put this cabinet together. I think he is really trying to keep a balance under this scrutiny.
Strange how DT was brilliant enough to have formulated the breakneck speed of the creation of the corona virus, yet was totally incapable of ordering a sufficient supply for the country, much less devising an effective method of distribution! Strange how certain imaginations can veer into incredulous twilight zones. How many more days of this do we have to endure? 41?
Now, you know that he's quite the dealmaker ("Art of the Deal, remember?"), so you need to understand that his strategy was making a better deal with other manufacturers. Never mind how many of our citizens die while he's dealing.
Heather pointed out yesterday in her chat. and I agree, that the offer from Pfizer for the USA to buy 100 million additional vaccine doses was premature. And what our government did do was invest in many vaccine start ups, and some are more promising than Pfizer. since they do not require as frigid a storage temperature. So this may have been a most prudent, decision, and we should still be able to purchase enough vaccines from multiple sources.
Thank you Heather.
Another day of corrupt static from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm so glad this narrative will change next month. It certainly won't completely change, but let's hope the long haul will give us some reprieve.
I find the strings attached information that is required of the end users of the vaccine curious at best. This isn't a fact gathering
for future medical studies, its tagging individuals. Hopefully, by the time the vaccine with be available for the general public, this requirement will be removed by the new Administration.
Be safe, be well.
I find most Healthcare professionals don't seem interested. Responses were: Someone else go first. I am healthy etc
Melissa, I was at the Doctors on Friday and asked the NP if she was going to be one of the first to get the vaccine by nature of her job. She said she will wait until primary studies are made from first round of reactions.
The women of color are the most suspicious. The US government medical experiments on black men. Now they care about us?
I have been hospitalized for the past couple days. I have been making an informal survey. Most would rather let the Guinea pigs go first. So, I hope all the red neck gun toting types step up. The people who are out and about stirring the pot, should go first. A Me First entitled class
The redneck gun toters won't even wear masks. Why would they get the vaccine?
I hope you're on them mend. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
**the**
I don't disagree. I do think when it's time for the general public to receive it, it should be saver. Remember there was a snafu with the polio vaccine at the start.
But today I saw on the news that people with allergy issues should not get it. Which is scary because my daughter is allergic to almost everything. Maybe this is just something to be worked out.
Not that they shouldn't get the vaccine. Two allergic reactions out of what is probably now 10,000 recipients is not unexpected Greater precautions may need to be taken when giving vaccines for those with allergies. By the time you and I are in line for "the jab", though, our public health folks will have a much clearer picture.
So in KY, first priority islong term care residents and employees at those facilities. Are they the lambs?