The House of Representatives will be back in session tomorrow after the February 19 Presidents Day holiday. It is facing a number of crucial issues, but the ongoing problem of the radicalism of the MAGA Republicans has ground—and, apparently, continues to grind—legislation to a halt.
"For his part, Johnson said that “the House is actively pursuing and investigating all the various options” on the supplemental bill, “but again, the first priority of the country is our border and making sure it’s secure."
BULLSHIT. He wouldn't have sent them on a two week vacation if that was true.
Voting comes far too late to deal with a coup by insiders on behalf of a simple citizen who is in turn the willing tool of America's principal enemy at the present time: Vladimir Putin.
I'm philosophically opposed to the death sentence, but even if I weren't I think life sentences are better for this bunch - like the punishment Westley plans for Humperdinck in The Princess Bride:
"...the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose. The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right.,,Your ears you keep and I'll tell you why.
So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, 'Dear God! What is that thing,' will echo in your perfect ears."
Death is like one and done. No time for remorse. Westley gives them time to think what they have done. Personally I think the perfect punishment is bankrupting him-take all his property and bury him in a closed casket so no one can see his face and definitely not in Arlington Cemetery
Yes, death is fast and final That's why I want him to suffer rather than die. Yes bankrupt and confiscate all his holdings, but make him live on in humiliated abject poverty for a long time, mentally declining all the way down yet aware of his reduced circumstances. Maybe wear a "Loser" sign around his neck? I'm usually more compassionate, but I seriously want this hideous worm squirming on the hook he's been let off all his life.
Honestly, if zygotes are people, which designation confers the right to life, why aren’t prisoners also entitled to the same right? Note: I am pro choice and anti death penalty. I just think the cognitive dissonance of the right is something to behold.
KR, it makes my head hurt. I am reading a book by a biochemist about the beginning of life on earth and the activity of cells. If we follow the logic, then every cell in everything short of bacteria and another kind of cell, are sexual. Fungi and plants among others have rights. Speaker Johnson is no Christian either, becauseJesus would not act for a festering cancerous monster like death star.
Regrettably not, because treason only exists during a state of war and, although the failed insurrectionist and his followers are clearly giving aid and comfort to our enemies, we are not in a legally declared state of war; that would take an act of Congress and we all know how likely that is to happen.
The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. That certainly applies to everyone who knowingly broadcasts Russian intelligence agents' propaganda: Jordan, Comer, Giuliani, Don Jr & Eric, and MTG (for leaking classified docs on social media).
Others like Hawley, Lee, and Gaetz will have to be charged with insurrection for aiding and abetting Jan 6, Johnson & the rest of tIe R's who support the big lie for obstruction of congressional procedures.
I leave LardoMalo off my list because, as Barbara Keating says, he's already indicted under the espionage act - that's the Chutkin trial in Fed DC court.
Yes, we must maintain a clear idea of what’s important: Don’t spend any time seeking revenge or getting satisfaction by imagining payback. The situation here is more serious than that. It requires sober ideas of how to overcome the strategy of the House leadership.
No, not treason based on the current legal definition (but if it walks like a duck….), but rather he is being charged under the Espionage Act (both sound cloak & dagger!), tho not specifically as a “spy”: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65910903
America's principle foreign enemy may be Vladimir Putin, but it was KKK Grand Wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke who sold the GOP base on Putin as the Great White Hope of Christian Nationalism and Charles Koch bagman Leonard Leo who helped Koch capture the courts to cement corporate power and overturn civil rights. Koch et al are not the least bothered by authoritarianism, particularly when it's their brand of clerical fascism. Koch may not like Trump, but that hasn't stopped him from profiting from Trump's political success.
Please keep in mind, a springboard for the Koch family fortune was work for Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Nazi Germany.
In turn, their fortune was a springboard for almost every antidemocratic initiative in the USA - from the John Birch Society to the Federalist Society. Charles Koch personifies Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's use of the judiciary to cement corporate power. And the Roberts Court bigotry. The Koch family investment in GOP politics, as with Trump family, runs on racism with greed as the engine.
Bill, I’ve added Stop the Coup group to my home screen & follow their efforts—and suggestions as to what we “little people”, you know, the rabble and riff-raff, can do to stand against it: https://www.stopthecoup2025.org/. At least it gives us options other than *shaking fists at the sky* in fury and frustration!
Good question. Maybe Trumps sheer incompetence finally got to him. Maybe the hurl factor finally kicked in. And maybe Koch thought Haley actually has a better chance of beating Biden. And I think that is the scary truth. Haley has the false aura of "normalcy". Wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will?
But Charles doesn't share his thoughts with me, unfortunately :)
My guess is that Charles was hedging his bets just like Haley is. They all know death star may be have been found guilty in criminal trials as well as suffering from worsening dementia. And i agree about Haley, a horrible woman who once while governor did the right thing. Once doesn't cut it.
Probably about style not substance And lack of confidence in Trump's ability to win.
"It’s also unclear exactly why the Koch network dislikes Trump so much. While in office, he successfully carried out moves long sought by the organization, including the gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency, a single-minded strategy of deregulation to strengthen the hand of private businesses, and tipping the Supreme Court conservative—with a majority that’s proven to be well inclined to favor the interests of big business and the decimation of the administrative state."
I think Koch saw the writing on the wall with 45. He broke the ground and got the Supreme Court for them but I think we’ve seen lately that 45’s more of a liability now and is getting more and more unstable.
A That may be but he hasn’t withdrawn his endorsement which still means something in his rarefied atmosphere. He’s using Haley to lob epithets at 45 as long as she can remain above water. I think we’ll have to wait until the Super Tuesday dust settles to see how much further that endorsement takes her. It’s possible she might turn to No Labels should they extend a hand. They know there is a good size chunk of voters who want nothing to do with either candidate.
My nieces husband, who lives in Wichita, slavered over the mere thought of maybe working for Koch. My family is in Kansas . I didn't realize my Minicooper could hit 127 mph until I was heading west the hell out of there.
The Koch family is a crime family and worse. The oligarchs in America are all crime families to one degree or another----and the population makes up the serfs/slaves working on their various "plantations" in the economy. Think about what life in America would be like if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation and the tax code were pre-Regan----a vastly different world!!
"Think about what life in America would be like if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation and the tax code were pre-Regan----a vastly different world!!"
Even if GOP operatives hadn't kept the American hostages in Iran to sink Carter's chances and to elect Reagan.
Even if sufficient numbers of Americans had voted for Clinton. Even holding their nose
ThankYou. Your comment is timely and helpful. I have been researching the Powell Memorandum and Lewis Powell's tenure on the Supreme Court. He provided the blueprint for cementing corporate privilege through judicial activism. Recommended to be done through national organizations. In other words, Leonard Leo's network of shell companies and organizations such as the Federalist Society and the Teneo Network - funded by Charles Koch and other racist right wing extremists.
Yes, we are always struggling against our worse angels.
Lin, I too have been researching the Powell Memo & the changes wrought during the Reagan Admin & beyond…hard to turn this big ship of state around when realizing the “map” we were following since it being used as guidance led us, as it turned out, into dangerous territory. Well, dangerous to all except those who profited handsomely & they want to keep their spoils now & into the future. Hard to comprehend those who don’t understand the concept of “enough” and only want “more and more”.
I'd dearly love to see Chuck fucked by his own greed a la Sacklers. Nan, if you're listening, can you dig up some flyers to float through the rotunda of the Capitol Bldg?
OK. Is there a parallel political universe where your comment makes any strategic or tactical sense? Please put 'Chuck' in context of the current Congress. Compare and contrast him to 'Mitch'.
And explain how floating flyers through the rotunda of the Capitol Bldg might contribute to addressing any of the critical problems Republican obeisance to Trump has created. From keeping government open to providing aid to Ukraine.
Can we please move past the silly self indulgent $#!t and figure out a way to get work done?
Chuck is Koch, no one in Congress. Flyers in the rotunda is a reference to Nan Goldin's protest of the Sackler family at the Guggenheim. It was effective first to get their name removed from all the museums where they had built wings, and eventually to put Purdue out of business. Just because I'm a foul mouthed wise guy, lin+, doesn't make my suggestion frivolous.
One could equate removing Sackler name from museums to removing TFG's name from ballots. The "if you're listening, Nan..." remark refers to "If you're listening, Russia..." from TFG re Hillary's emails.
Please accept my apologies. My ignorance for not getting your reference. Yes, Nan Goldin has been indefatigable and brilliant in her protest against the Sacklers. She has strategically employed her status as an artist and tactically deployed her wit to achieve her mission.
I don't know whether it would translate to politics. I'm not seeing the equivalency in removing names. And removing Trump's name from state ballots, although I think constitutional, does not solve the problem of MAGA or Koch.
Re protest inside the Capitol - after Jan 6 I would question how any act in the Capitol would play. And play out. I don't think it would benefit the cause of protesting Koch et al. More work for the Capitol Police and the cleaning staff.
I've listen to CSpan regularly, obsessively over the years. There are really very good people in Congress.
Congress is not entirely bought. Charles Koch owns the judiciary. I've protested outside the Supreme Court and outside 'my neighbor' Leonard Leo's estate. I wonder whether protests outside RNC headquarters on 310 First St SE or on Patriot Row on East Capitol St. SE.
But mostly our job is to GetOutTheVote for Blue Wave 2024.
And find as many creative ways to do that as possible. Through local Democratic committees and campaigns. With equal attention to state legislators.
Again my apologies for snapping at you. With all the authority of my ignorance.
Yes, I totally agree with you. The polls are too far off to ameliorate this situation which , to me, is a supreme dereliction of duty on Johnson's part and the fact that he is taking orders from an insurrectionist former POTUS is beyond reprehensible. The safety of the nation is being compromised here. Johnson needs to be removed from his position.
In 2018 Mike Johnson reported his earnings as -$32,500.00. In 2023 he's worth 5 million dollars. He doesn't report any bank accounts or any assets other than a mortgage. But yet he has stock in Google, Apple, Microsoft and a couple others. He says, he returned those Russian donations. Did he?🤔 Now he owns a mansion, apartments, and land. How did that happen? I'm sure in he justifies it as gifts from God.
Brett Kavanagh's debts were paid in full. I'm sure he sent a thank you note to Leonard. Corruption at the highest level of the food chain. If Koch and Leo win this election...we are fucked.
“Its an intrusion on ones right to privacy to uncover the source of the bribes spent to curry his favor. Furthermore, citizens must have the expectation that the government should not seek to document their illegality in any way, shape, or form”
I agree., This is not the first time that a person, or a few persons have gridlocked the entire safety of the country for political leveridge.Thinking Joe Manchin for one but there are others.
But this time the crime is of quite another order, it is part of the openly proclaimed aim to overthrow democracy and to put DT back in the White House to complete the job.
Victoria: The tactic Johnson is following is intended to underlined that democracy doesn't work. Chaos is the desired outcome. The only people who can remove the upstart religious bigot is his fellow Rs (in the near term) and as long as he is useful to Trump he'll likely hold his position. Whether it is likely he'll be voted out by his constituents is unlikely given that they actually voted him in in the first place.
Can one explain why DT is being allowed to run for office? He is, even in the eyes of a child, not fit to lead our country. Those who want to rule over this nation should not be dictated to by the Communist dictator Putin. Most of the Republican party have become Putin's toys, marionettes. No one makes a move without Trump's opinion which comes from his boss, Putin. Trump is NOT EVEN AT THIS TIME AN ELECTED OFFICIAL!!! What a bunch of ignorant, weak, pitiful puppets...WILLING TO SELL OUT THE USA!!!
As the Bible instructs NOT to do...An important segment of the government of the great USA....have chosen to become entrapped and have chosen to yield to BLIND GUIDES!!!.
DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE PUTIN DOESN'T HAVE PLANS FOR YOU IF YOU KEEP ON FOLLOWING HIM? He will use you up and put you on a plane for a vacation you will never live to talk about with anyone.
Most of the Republicans' time in office has been taken up with accusations which have been proven false while our country waits to get the work of the people done.
Thank you Peter!
Thank you Miselle!
VOTE FOR PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND FOR EVERY PERSON WHO IS FOR AMERICA AND FOR ALL WHO RESPECT WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION or choose not to have a religion AND FOR EACH PERSON OF COLOR, etc!!! A VOTE FOR BIDEN IS A VOTE TO BUILD BACK BETTER!!! A VOTE FOR BIDEN IS A VOTE FOR NATO!
I would also comment, we need to get out of Gaza. We are aiding the criminal Netanyahu. We need to free the hostages by different means. We are being used by Netanyahu....to keep HIM out of prison and to support his dream to take over Gaza for himself. This has always been an issue for many in Israel. That is why some have been building homes in Gaza claiming it is their land.
Really Netanyahu wants to do what we did to the American Indians. Destroy their land, their homes, their people, their language and claim it is a "God" given right...OK ....we are all really "Bad to the bone!!!"
Emily, I just had a FB friend post a flattering photo of fpotus, and said "This is the man for America" and had about a dozen people chime in with "He loves America" or "He supports police" or "He's a businessman, and we need to run our country like a business." It is completely disgusting to me.
Ally, thank you for reinforcing my decision to eschew Facebook. I think the Obi Wan quote re: Mos Isley spaceport applies: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Emily, don't ask us to explain what can only be explained in terms of money, dark money, changing hands; for reasons unsoundable and inexplicable if we try to reach beyond following the money.
There's a market in everything now -- everything, anything and nothing at all. For the buyers, sellers and the bought-and-soldiers, there's the market in terror, the market in lies, the market in war, and there are, of course, markets in subversion and treason...
As for the stringpuller in the Kremlin, that's no Communist! Can't have been near any such party for decades...
Started in the vicious no-surrender jungle of Leningrad backyards and came out on top. Judoka. Acrobat.
KGB man, expertise in lies, manipulation, all the techniques of persuasion.
Above all else a successful crime boss driven by limitless greed for wealth, the trappings thereof and the power to maximize and protect it, a cold-hearted paranoid narcissist, a sybarite, a man totally devoid of any form of human fellow-feeling, who has done everything at every stage in his life to banish even the shadow of empathy... And this protection from feeling is also a liability, in that it reduces all relationships to transactions and bonds of fealty.
There must have been much to hate and resent, for one who will probably have wanted to enjoy his ill-gotten gains without let or hindrance. And this will have redoubled and refined his cruelty.
Anyway, the regime of Brezhnev et al may have elicited Reagan's "Evil Empire" label... But it was an earthly paradise by comparison with what this man has done to his own country, to the neighbors or wherever his armies, his mercenaries, his guns and his bombs prevail.
But Lin, I wish to goodness that this image was unimaginable.
Unfortunately, it does correspond to the state of America's government and its activity at the present time and to the sabotage of extremely urgent and important action.
Unless an end is brought to this act of war against the United States, potential damage to the country and the world between now and the election is incalculable.
And of course most forms of conceivable action will feed the lie that the President is abusing his power to persecute a "legitimate" political opponent.
That man, the self-styled "President" and his operatives could hardly be less legitimate.
The moles in Congress are acting on the orders of a private citizen backed by openly subversive big-money interests. A private citizen who is the Russian dictator's means of transmission for the overthrow of America from within.
"The moles in Congress are acting on the orders of a private citizen backed by openly subversive big-money interests. A private citizen who is the Russian dictator's means of transmission for the overthrow of America from within."
Thank you Sums up the horrifying situation perfectly. That Trump, who has no official role in the government, can control it to the degree he does should be terrifying to all.
According to Professor Jack Rasmus, Ukraine is already losing the war:
“The tide has turned here very clearly. And that's why there is desperation going on in the EU and in Washington, DC, and now talk in France and others about, 'oh, we're going to have to send NATO troops into western Ukraine,’” he continued."
Why do only a of couple of subscribers report him, which takes up a great deal of their time? Why don't the complainers do the same - report him? Look at the awful space filled with garbage he and those who have exchanges with him take up on this forum. He works as a shiny distraction pulling us away from the crucial issues at hand. Schmeeckle is the winner. Take a look!
I have reported him over 100 times (and I know many others have) I have gone into this name and muted him and/or blocked him several times. I have contacted the Substack help and questioned why, even though I have blocked him, I keep getting his junk. THEY NEVER ANSWER.
There are days that his nonsense so dominates that I stop reading all the comments--it's just too difficult to get around him.
If anyone has a way of contacting HCR, I truly wish they would do so!!
I truly believe that HCR's growing volume of followers and the attention she has garnered in the media, along with her recent best selling book, is making her an important target for misinformation.
I've reported him at least 50 times. I do it because he insults and disrupts. I guess I just have to ignore, but why should I be the one who has to abstain?
Substack will not ban anyone unless it violates such as threatening. First Amendment is sacrosanct. And likely the blog owner agrees. Ignore him. It’s that simple. He loves the attention it affords him.
He is here to diminish this forum and winning. I don't believe that the case has been made to HRC. Proper monitoring of this site is an appropriate subject to take with her.
I place my cursor on the line running down from his name, click and the entire thread collapses. I do miss the rebuttal comments, but it is worth it to me not to have to read Schmeckel's (misspelling intentional) dreck
You’ve said a mouthful with your statement. That’s exactly what this is. Right now it’s “bloodless” until one considers the unnecessary loss of life by others who will be affected by this feckless, reckless and frankly underhanded MAGA Speaker.
If you look at a map of the US we have borders with Canada and Mexico. The border with Canada is 5525 miles and the Mexican border is 1950 miles. It is estimated that 2-3 times as many people without documentation come into the US from Canada as from Mexico.
What a bunch of racists the Republicans are, caring only about people crossing the Mexican border. In the summer, migrant workers harvest crops in ME and work in the trades just like in FL, TX & CA. Without this labor, crops would rot in the fields, homes wouldn't be built and the vendors that service the 4 million visitors to Acadia National Park would close down.
Maybe the Republican House members should take another vacation through the end of the year -- with their good buddy Putin. It's not like they are going to get anything done because TFFG has already stopped anything from happening in the House.
It reminds me of the show, "Pokerface" where every time someone lied to the main character she would say "BULLSHIT". I think that is what all of us should be yelling every time these guys open their mouths!
And they wouldn't have voted no on the bill that they themselves crafted. They create their own Catch-22 situation and then leap into it when numbnuts tells them to (that would be Putin telling tRUMP to tell Johnson what to do)
If a few more Republican Congresscritters resign or switch parties then Jeffries could be the 'can do' Speaker and get things done. But they are ALL Putin's puppets because they don't want to get "primaried".
This is our "Winter of Discontent," exposing the weakness in our democratic process. Trump, Jordan, Johnson, MTG et al. do not support the Constitution. Yet, there appears to be no quick, rational, legal way in which to move them out. Their "theory of government" is as confused disorganized and discombobulated as the mind of a schizophrenic. There is no organization or structure to it. The rest of us are paying the price for our schools' failure to teach students how to think critically along with courses/classes in history and government.
Agreed Richard. They are running around each others in circles and getting nothing done. Frustrating to watch and feeling helpless that we can change anything.
The problem may be more bottom up than a teacher down. History is a perennial non-favourite among a majority of students, whether in US or in Canada where I live. New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, also perennially underperforms most of the rest of the country. It was like that when i was a kid, in the 50s. They keep churning out improvement schemes, only to eventually ditch them when another administration thinks they have a new wow idea, or to pawn off a litany of complaints. On a slightly different tack, lately, trans rights in schools have been a burning issue here, with the government taking a more pro parent approach, contrary to the advice of school and psych admins.
That there is a "trans issue" is very, very sad. I am one of 8 children and my oldest sib, a half-sister whose mother passed away 4 months after her birth, and I became very, very close after I finished serving four years in the U.S. Army and finished my B.A. at Whittier and M.A. at So. Cal. Tuck, as everyone knew her, owned a gay bar in Los Angeles and was respected by all. We grew to be very, very close. I often think of Carl Sagan's remark: "The most complicated thing in the known universe is the human brain." And then I think of some lines in "the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"
Listen again. One evening at the Close
of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose,
In that old Potter's shop I stood alone
With the clay Population round in Rows.
And, strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot
Some could articulate, while others not:
And suddenly one more impatient cried - -
"Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?
Shall He that made the Vessel in pure Love
And Fancy, in an after Rage destroy!"
None answer'd this; but after Silence spake
A Vessel of a more ungainly Make:
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"
Did the hand of the Potter shake? I feel so badly for our fellow humans who are gay, transgender and more, not because of who or what they are, but because of the pain and difficulty that we cause them as a consequence of our own ignorance and intolerance.
Thank you for the personal story, after all, all of these issues are based on personal experience and social interaction. Sadly, both Old and New Testaments didn't help. Paul in particular. Over stereotyping of gender norms is planet wide, to a fair degree as well. The potter metaphor is interesting, it also happens to be usually, a little differently, in Isaiah i believe.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of the most brilliant translations in any language. Edward Fitzgerald did an amazing job. And, I've always been intrigued by what went on in that "Potter's shop." As to Paul, if he did exist, I did some research about what could have happened on the road to Damascus. Syrian rue, a common halcuinatory drug back then has similar effects of LSD - bright, blinding flashing white lights. Paul tripped twice on his road to Damascus. At least one study has shown that those who underwent such an experience reported that it was the most profound experiences of their lives. As for Paul, there is no question but that it was a life-altering experience, a "trip" that changed the course of history.
I don't think we need to resort to drug experiences for Paul to have had visionary experiences, which he witnessed to in his letters. Scholarship generally has little doubt on his historical existence, mythicists and their one-track mindedness, notwithstanding. Paul's comments on homosexuality were likely par for the course in the Jewish culture he was raised, and hugely espoused. Conversion "born again" experiences, are an all too common experience in religious circles, esp in those which promote this kind of thing. eg Evangelicals. There is enough material in the NT to provide support for conversion experience.
I dont think ive read Rubaiyat, maybe i will sometime. Wiki says its authorial authenticity is a bit up for grabs, though that may not be an essential issue regarding its contents. At first i mistook this for The Prophet by Kalyle Gibran, which i enjoyed many years ago.
The problem is GOP state legislators are committed to Trump and are prepared to fix the elections for Trump.
They are drunk with the power to subvert the constitution and the will of the people and think we can be bullied and coerced with threats of violence.
They can't win with reason, foresight good judgement so are scared and fearful of those that have these qualities.
- We want young adults to fall in love and make babies who they love and care for, but not at the risk of their lives and Liberty.
- We need skilled and talented immigrants to build resilient secure supply chains, but not at the risk of global economic collapse and world wars.
- The New Deal did not have to end with Vietnam and Voting Rights. Neoliberalism does not mean Greed is Good. We need to reduce consumption and make room for human advancement.
X 2,000. Get rid of these people. They are not there to do a job. In any other situation if an employee does not perform his job, and not only that but interferes with others attempting to work, they’d be FIRED. Let’s make that happen. 🤬😡
When the senate devised a bill with border protection, they included an inferior stipulation about more than 5,000 a day crossing over for a given week then the president could act. When I first read that, I knew it wouldn’t pass. It’s almost as if the senate purposely placed that add-on designed to fail. It was a deal breaker and they knew it. So why did they include it? Maybe politics as usual?
The border is broken. We need radical responses. Our cities are weighted down like never before. I have been expressing this for a long time yet when I have, I’ve been quite strongly criticized. The reason being that we take our que from those who we believe to be our leaders. We rarely think for ourselves. Forget the Maga republicans for a moment. Since Biden said we have had no problem, most of us democrats responded in kind. Now that some sense has entered and is suggesting that he needs to act, more of us democrats go along for the ride. But is it too little to late?
I beg you all to think for yourselves and don’t accept what is spoken as face value. Sometimes we also act according to public opinion in order to not lose at the polls. This border issue is so decisive even Trump knows he can win votes so I say, why feed the monster. Close the God damn border. Make the problem go away. But no we can’t because we too, are a dense lot.
I disagree. Don't close the border. Fix it. Pass the Senate bill that would help process the wave of humanity that is fleeing hunger and violence. They are coming anyway. They are coming anyway...for years to come.
And here is the thing Bill. We need workers. We are millions short of an adequate work force in all manner of employment. From construction to hospitals.
This is a bullshit manufactured "Willy Horton" style campaign football.
Immigrants commit less crime than native born Americans. And we need them.
BTW, the bill that Trump killed had a major provision for preventing the flow of fentanyl into the country. GOP MAGA HATERS voted against a law and order measure. Go figure.
The problem IS NOT immigration. That has been the bedrock of American success and greatness. The problem is how we embrace, and integrate eager young workers into our society. People who work hard and pay taxes - and help support Social Security.
The border can't be closed. We can't "make this issue go away. It is physically impossible unless we start shooting families from helicopters. People who pick our food. We CAN handle it better - to our advantage.
We created a "war on drugs" and it did nothing but make money for thugs. Prohibition worked just as well - made millionaires out of crooks. Our immigration policy does the same for human traffickers. The flow of humans eager to work should be welcomed.
The wave of humanity on its way to America and Europe is about as stoppable as the inevitable rising sea levels that are swamping coastal communities. Instead of "tilting at windmills" we could learn to adapt.
Thank you, Bill Alstrom. You've stated so well a position about immigration I wish all could consider and embrace. To me, it's the only thing that makes sense: a compassionate resolution based on evidence and reason.
Ditto. Great post, Bill. I would add that there is a higher rate of entrepreneurship among immigrants than among native-born Americans... and some of these businesses they start are hugely successful.
Bill, really appreciate your thoughtful & accurate (IMHO) portrayal of immigration. I remember, back in the 80’s, being at a conference of student financial aid administrations (we’re more fun than it sounds!) where a speaker spoke of the changing demographics in CA (and the nation) in the decades to come and how it might impact higher ed. Perhaps it was growing up in a fairly diverse little town, that his statement created zero alarm in me….only thought about what interesting changes might come as our country evolves, while staying true to our vision.
On the topic of immigration world-wide….it is NOT just a “southern US border” situation (look at the issues in Europe currently) as so many go on and on about….there are profound implications in the decades to come if, indeed, as climate scientists predict, the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation that will substantially alter the climate of much of Europe—meaning food production is at risk (there are issues of the Pacific current systems as well). Likely, given the current world population, we may have a huge displacement of people south…a reverse, of sorts, of the current movement north. This will not happen in our lifetimes, but of those of coming generations: https://slate.com/technology/2024/02/amoc-ocean-current-collapsing-day-after-tomorrow-climate-change.html. The Earth is a dynamic place and the more that humans fiddle/impact the “controls”, the more we see the consequences.
Thanks for the kind words. I will be elaborating on the immigration issue in my next substack letter. I hope to have it "cleaned up" and fully edited by tomorrow or Friday.
The recent killing of a student by an immigrant has sent the discussion into orbit - beyond reasonable discussion - but I will try.
My wife recently clued me into the alarm bells being rung by oceanic scientists. The "AMOC" situation is almost as alarming as an asteroid hitting the Earth.
A wise species would get ready to be very flexible. Your point about people moving south is a good one. AMOC collapse could turn the whole immigration discussion on its head.
When the "Northern Isles" become more like Alaska, Spain and Portugal could see quite an influx of shivering Brits. And imagine the incredible irony of thousands of whites headed south to Africa. Montanans moving to Mexico! They make movies like this.
Yeah, have seen the movie “Day After Tomorrow” a couple of times…..a speeded up version of what is happening in slo-mo to most folks, and gives an “excuse” for them to ignore that our house (Earth) is on fire. I do what I can/am able to, even if it is a drop in the bucket.
Bill, I fear the Repubs ARE doing their job as they have seen it since Newt Gingrich was Speaker; the job of defeating anything which makes Dems look good up to and including shutting down the government and apparently even that isn't off-limits. For Repubs, the main job is not governing but winning the next election. So no amouint of "fixing what they say is broke (e,g,- the border) is going to make them relent and actually get around to doing what we all THINK or wish they were elected to do, run a government. Party above country every time for the Repubs.
Wait a minute. I live close to the southern border and hordes are not crossing the border illegally and entering the US every day. I see what I see. They are requesting asylum at points of entry. The process does need to be fixed and Biden is not the only president who has been tasked with that job when it should be CONGRESS (for decades).
It’s a complicated mess to be sure. And while I in fact don’t advocate “closing” the border, I do advocate for a robust response and those crossing illegally should be turned back. And the other component here is that I want democrats to win elections and this mess is sure to foster a defeat. Now do you get it?
Close the border? With US' largest trading partner? While political Rome burns, beneath it all immigrants of all legal stripe continue to work the fields of agribusiness galore, and the US needs them!
Time for critisizing Johnson is waste. Demos should approach a group of several Repulicans to impeach Johnson. Dems will join, and elect a replacement from the group to pass the Senate bill which include the border policy. Johnson and MAGA can cry foul, but so what.
'What Does the Uncommitted Vote in Michigan Mean for 2024?'
'The share of Arab American and Muslim voters is small but could be decisive in a close race.' (NYTimes, by Nate Cohn, excerpts)
'In Tuesday night’s results in Michigan, around one in eight Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary — a protest of the Biden administration’s policies toward Israel and the war in Gaza.'
'In some predominantly Arab American precincts in Dearborn, around three in four Democrats cast a protest vote for uncommitted.'
'Having one in eight Democrats vote uncommitted in an uncontested primary is not wholly unusual. As recently as the last time a Democratic president sought re-election, in 2012, 11 percent of Michigan Democratic caucusgoers voted for “uncommitted” instead of for Barack Obama.'
'Having three in four Democratic primary voters in Arab American communities do it, on the other hand, is an eye-popping figure. It goes well beyond the norm, and it’s a powerful indication that the war in Gaza poses serious political risks to President Biden.'
Cohn didn't mention how Biden's policy with reference to Israel affected his votes in college towns around the country. College students as indicated in Michigan's Democratic primary
ballots were among the undecided.
'For Annabel Bean, a sophomore pursuing a double major in Spanish and social theory at University of Michigan, voting “uncommitted” is a way to pressure Biden directly. Describing herself as an anti-Zionist Jew, she said she knows that it is not antisemitic to support Palestinian liberation.'
“It is a very Jewish value to stand up for the oppressed,” 'she said.'
'Bean is also co-chair of the University of Michigan chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Young Democratic Socialists, and she is active in the call for the University of Michigan to divest funds that are invested in companies and funds that support and profit from Israel’s war.'
“I’m voting ‘uncommitted’ because I know my vote, my tuition money cannot go towards genocide,” 'she said.'
'Bean has been having lots of positive and productive conversations with friends and family. She found that a lot of people were worried that voting “uncommitted” would be the same as a vote for Trump.'
“But it is not, it’s a vote to not be complicit,” 'she said.' (PBSNews)
Back to Nat Cohen, analyzing Michigan's primary vote for the NY Times.
'What does it mean for the general election? That’s not an easy question to answer, but here are four things to consider.'
'1. A protest vote is hard to interpret'
'A vote for “uncommitted” was a serious form of protest against Mr. Biden, but it’s just not the same as voting for Donald J. Trump in the general election. That simple fact limits how much we can read into the results for November, especially as there was no exit poll to offer insight into the attitudes of protest voters.'
'At the same time, it’s also possible that Mr. Biden’s problems go well beyond those who voted uncommitted in a primary. The typical Democratic primary voter is disproportionately old, white and loyal to Democrats. Mr. Biden might be faring even worse among the kinds of Democratic-leaning voters who stayed home.'
'2. Protest votes have a history'
'Even though it may be hard to interpret a protest vote in a primary, the risk of defection from this group of voters should be taken seriously. This issue is very personal for them. There are also signs of defection in the polling, including in the last Times/Siena poll in Michigan. And their arguments for defection — complicity in genocide — are plainly enough to switch a vote if taken at face value.'
'There’s another reason it should be taken seriously: history. Major foreign policy conflicts have often reshaped the electoral map, especially among immigrant communities whose identity have remained tied to their home countries.'
'The War on Terror. Arab and Muslim Americans swung toward Democrats in the wake of 9/11, the war on terror and the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq. That was even true in Michigan, where Dearborn voted for George W. Bush in 2000 before voting for John Kerry by a 19-point margin in 2004. Sound familiar?'
'The relatively recent history of Arab American and Muslim voters being more favorable toward Republican candidates makes it even easier to envision a shift back to Republicans today. This isn’t a liberal voting group.'
'3. The effect is small'
'With that history, one could imagine Arab American and Muslim voters lurching decidedly toward Mr. Trump. That would obviously be bad news for Mr. Biden, but there’s one consolation for Democrats: These voters are a small share of the electorate, and it’s hard to see even a huge swing being decisive.'
'Imagine, for a moment, that in the last election Mr. Biden had lost every single voter in Dearborn, Hamtramck and Dearborn Heights — the three Michigan townships where Arab Americans make up at least 30 percent of the population. He still would have won Michigan — and still would have won it by more than he did Wisconsin, Arizona or Georgia.'
'For that same reason, Mr. Biden’s deficit in the polling of Michigan can’t mostly be attributed to his weakness among Arab American and Muslim voters. Overall, Arab Americans make up 2 percent of the state’s population and probably an even smaller share of the electorate. There are non-Arab Muslim voters, of course, adding another percentage point or more. In the end, 3 percent of the electorate can only do so much.'
'4. Still, anything could be decisive'
'Because the country is so narrowly divided, every vote counts, and right now Mr. Biden appears to need every vote he can get. If Arab American and Muslim voters swing by 30 points toward Mr. Trump, as suggested by our Times/Siena poll in Michigan, that could cost Mr. Biden a percentage point in a critical battleground state where he’s already trailing in the polls. If the race were close enough, it’s possible these voters could decide the 2024 election.' (NYTimes)
See link below, sorry that it could not be gifted.
It’s Tommy Potatohead all over again. One person holding up government’s business. There has to be a way out of this mess. I’m horrified by the way our government can be stuck in this manner. Get religion out of it. Get trump out of our government. He has no right to have any control over government now. He is not in any power at all.
I think civilization, a just civil society, requires baseline solidarity. That is what the Constitution is finally about. What international conventions of "rules of war" are about. An agreement that some duties are allotted to and are to be upheld by every person. Violations are commonplace, but the difference between maintaining that commitment and abandonment of it is the difference between a an earthly heaven or hell, and illustration of this abound. Extreme self-absorption and selfishness can make us into monsters.
Democracy deadlocked in extremism over incendiary, non-negotiable issues is a danger to its very institutions. In a more extreme situation, that's what happened in post ww1 Germany. One side got in, legally, then took over the rest. Democracies work best with differences allow for compromise, back and forth. As we well know, democratic institutions also failed, utterly, with the US Civil War.
HCR writes that "lawmakers agree on a bipartisan basis that Ukraine’s successful defense against Russia’s invasion is crucial to U.S. national security."
What a BIG LIE. We provoked Russia.
We shoved and shoved Russia, and finally they shoved back.
Some of these war-mongering neo-con lawmakers whom HCR pushes are 99 years old, just like Trump and Biden. In the name of "national security," they are leading us toward financial destruction:
Report him; look at the amount of garbage he spews and spreads - the space he takes up - and the time wasted by subscribers. He is a lure that is working.
Good! Do/ submit a Report for/ on each and every one of his posts. One report may not amount to much but numerous reports for numerous posts likely will.
So I guess we’re also responsible for Russia (and Putin’s) rape and pillage (and their attempt of total destruction) of Ukraine too? Russia’s actions are reprehensible and need to be dealt strongly with.
Rape? Pillage? Total destruction? Remember the fake story about Saddam Hussein and the baby incubators that enraged Americans so we supported Bush's war against Iraq: We are being routinely lied to.
My regrets for letting my too much hot blood and too little sleep get the better of me. 😳 Mr Schmeekle -- ¿sp.?; can not see his name -- has a right to voice his opinions and I have a right not to listen to him. ⚖️ Perhaps I should exercise my right more often. 🙂
You sound unhappy, John. Believe me tho, there is no "We". Your problems are personal! Have you tried any of the many soothing ointments available over the counter? If you wash carefully first and then REALLY GET IT UP THERE quick relief usually follows. Go on - don't be ashamed, give it a try!
The American leadership, Democratic and Republican, provoked Russia, over and over. And McCarthyist shills intimidate people who try to point out the aggressive American charade.
Oh John, please repeat your reasoning on how "we" provoked Russia. I want to understand your reasoning that leads you to conclude that Ukraine pivoting towards Europe and away from Russia justifies a military attack. Is Ukraine less legitimate than other previous Soviet satellite countries? Is NATO's charter offensive or defensive, or is its simple existence offensive? Should we let Putin push Russia to roll over any country they want? Do you not believe that Europe's stability and prosperity are beneficial to the US?
We unleashed the "shock therapy" genocide that killed off all the old people in Russia.
(LOOK OUT Baby Boomers -- your turn is coming.)
We pushed NATO east to Russia's doorstep, after promising not to.
Then we supported a "color revolution" against the Russia-friendly President of Ukraine, but he got voted back into office because Russian speakers were a small majority in hodge-podge, cobbled-together Ukraine.
Then we supported a "color revolution" that overthrew he Russia-friendly government of Georgia; Russia created a "frozen conflict" that blocked Georgia from joining NATO.
Then in 2014 we supported another "color revolution" in Ukraine, this time with neo-Nazi thugs to make it stick.
Russia took back Crimea and created another "frozen conflict," blocking Ukraine from joining NATO.
Actually, there was a pathway to peace through this frozen conflict -- the Minsk Agreements -- but Merkel and Macron both admitted that they didn't take the Minsk Agreements seriously; it was just to give Ukraine time to rearm.
Then Zelensky got elected on a promise to make peace, and moved toward implementing the Minsk Agreements. But neo-Nazi war-mongers threatened to kill him, so he capitulated and started building up to invade the Donbass.
Finally Zelensky was ready for his Donbass invasion, with a 3-to-1 superiority of troops on the line of contact. Russia built up their troops on Ukraine's border and signed mutual defense treaties with the breakaway Donbass republics.
When Ukraine began its pre-invasion bombardment, Russia intervened.
I will answer your other questions later, as time permits.
I don't suppose that you are interested in a sincere exchange of views. Many people around here are just interested in parroting Bidenista talking points.
John, While in general I find Biden's domestic policies effective, I pause and leave my certainty behind for most international issues, because I realize I may know less than nothing. While my knee jerk impulse is to disagree, I also know that the US is quite cavalier and heavy handed in its approach to international affairs. Even CNN and MSNBC say so, but I also know I've swallowed the story line that supports our military industrial complex's robust health and later realized that too many parts of it was bullshit.
You've taken quite a bit of time to present a coherent picture of the background regarding NATO, Ukraine, and Russia. Do I agree? I don't know. But I will save this exchange and find sources I trust. Your series of posts give me a few topics to research. I am in no position to claim to be knowledgeable enough to exchange view. For the opportunity to educate myself, I thank you.
In answer to your question, "Is Ukraine less legitimate than other previous Soviet satellite countries?"
"Little" Ukraine and neighboring Novorossiya were not satellite countries. They were integral parts of Russia before Germany knocked Russia out of World War I in 1917.
Then came Communist chaos and civil war until 1921, when the Soviet regime stapled little Ukraine and Novorossiya together, forming bilingual (Russian and Ukrainian languages) big Ukraine.
This bilingual nature of Ukraine is important, because when the neo-Nazis took over after the Maidan Revolution and terrorized the ethnic Russian members of Ukraine’s parliament into staying home, the first thing they did was pass a law banning the Russian language.
"Russia supported Yugoslavia's insistence that no foreign troops, especially those from NATO countries, should be allowed on Yugoslav territory.
"'When you say Serbia and Kosovo, Chernomyrdin thinks of Russia and Chechnya,' said NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, referring to the breakaway province that tried to secede from Moscow's rule. 'The Russians are always worried that NATO wants to exploit their insecurities.'
As a wounded former superpower, Russia was seething with resentment over NATO's decision to launch its first attack on a sovereign state, despite its claim to be a purely defensive alliance. In the wake of NATO's recent expansion toward Russia's doorstep, the bombing of Yugoslavia was seen as a hostile expression of NATO ambition at a time of Russian weakness."
Post-Soviet Ukraine was like post-Communist Yugoslavia. Both countries were artificial amalgamations imposed by outside forces without any voting by the people. Both countries, after the end of Communism, devolved into civil war, but that process took longer in Ukraine.
NATO intervened in the Yugoslav civil war as progressed Saturn was exactly conjunct the Ascendant in the correct U.S. horoscope (set for May 15, 1776 at 5:00 p.m. in Philadelphia.)
Ukraine in 1991 was an artificial creation that had been cobbled together by arbitrary Soviet decisions, apparently driven by the desire to keep the Russian-speaking population above 50%.
"Do you not believe that Europe's stability and prosperity are beneficial to the US?"
Yes, I certainly do. And as with de-dollarization and our newly hateful imperialist image among the darker-skinned countries, Biden has recklessly sabotaged European prosperity and stability, first with anti-Russian sanctions that punched the Euro-zone economy in the gut, second with the ongoing military aid to Ukraine that has drained the European NATO countries of their defense arsenal, and third with Biden's sabotage of the Nordstream pipeline that is threatening to de-industrialize Germany because of the newly high price of energy.
Blinken and Biden seem to be hopelessly stuck on stupid.
In this protracted proxy war in Ukraine, the NATO countries are losing the propaganda war among the darker-skinned countries, especially after Biden wanted to keep sending more bombs to Israel for the genocide in Gaza.
This protracted proxy war has also accelerated de-dollarization, overcoming obstacles within Russia and spreading strongly to other BRICS countries.
Sergei Glazyev, Russia's Minister for Foreign Trade under President Yeltsin, has a lot to say about that:
Of course de-dollarization will eventually ruin American finances and crush Biden's "Vampire Liberal" habit of sucking money from other countries through Unpayable Debt to finance Worthwhile Programs. In other words, with his Ukrainian misadventure, Biden is putting our economic security at grave risk.
Your question about letting Putin and Russia roll over any country they want doesn't seem to fit the particular circumstances with Ukraine, where they face the threat of a reverse Cuban Missile Crisis after western meddling overthrew the Russia-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014.
People around here don't accept that perspective, and neither does the Biden administration, which will make negotiations difficult as Ukraine's military machine stumbles and sputters.
Americans and others from NATO have been refusing to take seriously Russia's concerns about security guarantees. Until we do, there won't be any peace, except the peace of the grave.
NATO "aggressively" (from Russia's perspective) bombed its ally Serbia back to the Stone Age.
NATO's justification for this became part of Russia's justification for invading Ukraine. The article linked below fails to mention Ukraine's armed far-right "Neo-Nazi" gangs operating with impunity as their political boss Arsen Avakov controlled Ukraine's police.
Still "What Putin Learned from NATO's 1999 Intervention in Kosovo" is worth careful study:
''The lesson Putin learned was that if he could make Russia a player using 200 men, he could make it a winner with the whole might of the Russian military and that the powers to his west did not have the stomach to stand in his way.
In February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia and was backed by most of the EU countries and the USA. Putin argued that this set a precedent — NATO had gone in to ‘protect lives’ and then supported independence. Six months later he invaded Georgia ostensibly to protect Russian speaking minorities. He went on to recognise the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent.
Putin uses this ‘Kosovo Precedent’ to argue Russia’s case in Ukraine. After invading Crimea in 2014 Moscow organised an independence referendum. The document formally declaring the subsequent independence from Ukraine mentions the Kosovo story as part of a legal justification to secede. Similar arguments are made about the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic in the parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region which were de facto occupied by Russia before February’s invasion.
Citing Kosovo as justification for a ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine is attractive to the hardmen in the Kremlin because it allows them to pursue the moral argument state-controlled media sells the Russian public every day. However, it does not stand up to scrutiny, and when repeated by Putin’s apologists outside of Russia contributes to the attempted whitewashing of war crimes.
NATO’s intervention in Serbia followed a decade of state sponsored slaughter and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans the majority of which was conducted by the regime in Serbia led by Slobodan Milosevic. Thousands of Kosovan Albanians had been murdered in the run up to the conflict and hundreds of thousands displaced. It is worth noting for balance that Kosovan forces also committed war crimes and terror acts against Serb civilians, albeit far fewer.
Most NATO countries had spent the 1990s trying not to get drawn into the Balkan conflicts. Regime change was not an aim of the NATO powers during the Kosovo War. France, Germany and the UK had no intention of making Kosovo part of France, Germany, or the UK. NATO’s ground forces did not engage in mass killings of civilians in Kosovo nor mass deportations to another country.
Russian troops have invaded a sovereign country which posed no military threat to it whatsoever. There had been no systematic and widespread war crimes against Russian speakers in Ukraine in the run up to February’s invasion. The Russian justification that they needed to ‘denazify’ Ukraine is based on isolated examples of pro-Nazi sentiment and one abhorrent militia. There is no evidence that Ukraine’s government is ‘genocidal’ as argued by Moscow. Putin’s long-term plan seems to have been that Ukraine would become part of Russia.
The ‘Kosovo Precedent’ for the invasion is more the ‘Kosovo Pretext.’ However, governments in many countries should have better understood what Putin took from Kosovo and prepared for what was coming.''
Thank you, R Dooley, for extracting the essence of that article. I think that the problematic part is the following quote:
"Russian troops have invaded a sovereign country which posed no military threat to it whatsoever. There had been no systematic and widespread war crimes against Russian speakers in Ukraine in the run up to February’s invasion. The Russian justification that they needed to ‘denazify’ Ukraine is based on isolated examples of pro-Nazi sentiment and one abhorrent militia."
It's called cthe Tooberville syndrome". Putting one person in charge of something affecting the entire world that they know absolutely nothing about. Johnson is perfect. That's why the FAR far far right picked him. He will do anything because he doesn't know any better
Or even one party. The framers appear to have expected controversy in governance, but justice always involves so kind of balance. Presumably that's why iconic lady justice holds a scale. Justice can be way more complicated than that icon illustrates, but dynamic balance is essential to life. the life sciences are replete with it.
And that's not often just taking a middle way. Dynamic balance in a 4-dimensional universe reveals a real-world need to keep priorities straight.
Interested in quantifying Trump's underperformances? Stormy Daniels would be a good place to start! As for underperforming elections: According to the polls, Trump was meant to win: - Iowa by 53 points (he won by 30) - New Hampshire by 18 points (he won by 11) - South Carolina by 28 points (he won by 20) - Michigan by 62 points (he's up by 42). Dump may own the pollsters, but he don’t own us!
Exactly! I understand the checks and balances, but there is nothing "balanced" about this. He needs to be overridden. Surely there is some provision somewhere to allow for that in circumstances like this.
"The NSA (National Security Agency) monitors international communication for threats to American security. If they detected collusion between Putin and Trump, would this be brought to the attention of the Justice Department for prosecution for treason? Could this be extended to a RICO prosecution for Johnson and other MAGA leaders in Congress?"
Part of Bing's response:
"Collusion Between Putin and Trump:
If the NSA detected collusion between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. President Donald Trump, it would likely be a matter of significant national security concern.
The NSA’s primary role is intelligence gathering, not prosecution. It would likely share relevant information with other agencies, such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), which handles legal matters.
Prosecution for Treason:
Treason is a serious offense, but its legal definition is specific. It involves aiding an enemy during wartime or attempting to overthrow the government.
Collusion alone may not meet the legal threshold for treason. However, it could lead to other charges related to espionage, conspiracy, or other offenses.
RICO Prosecution:
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is typically used to combat organized crime.
Applying RICO to political leaders would be highly unusual. It requires evidence of a criminal enterprise engaging in a pattern of illegal activity.
While some may argue that certain political actions resemble organized crime, proving a RICO case against elected officials would be challenging.
In summary, the NSA’s role is intelligence gathering, and legal actions fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies like the DOJ. Any potential prosecutions would depend on the specific evidence and legal standards applicable to each situation."
I can only speak for myself Carla. In order to have a government for the people, of the people and by the people we must have “ the people “ actively involved in all three. I read a lot and donate money but I have not been actively engaged. I hope it is not too late.
The House Republican treason conspiracy is going on in front of us! Arrest 15 of the traitors - Marjorie Traitor Goon, Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy and Scott Perry, and the rest of the top leadership of the Fweedumb Kawkuss. Charge them with Treason and then hold them in the DC jail. They're not there in the House and the rest of the dweebs are scared shitless they're next on the arrest list. Then hold the votes.
Vladivostok would be a better choice. There are no fake grocery stores on the east coast of Russia which are filled with fake food from the west. During the Cold War the Russian propaganda machine showed us what they pretended was a Utopian society.
Or pick almost any other city more than 50 miles east of Moscow.
"Arrest 15 of the traitors - Marjorie Traitor Goon, Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy and Scott Perry, and the rest of the top leadership of the Fweedumb Kawkuss. Charge them with Treason and then hold them in the DC jail. "
"Hey, AG Garland, we have a mob of Enemies of the State in Congress. Please have them removed."
And change all these situations that can be held hostage by ONE PERSON. It's "of the people, for the people, by the people" not just one person. It's ridiculous
Who has the authority to do all this arresting? What are the actual tactical methods by which your plan can be carried out? What are the legal steps that can be taken to remove these people from office?
Now that's a Pandora's Box you really don't want to open! Wait til expulsion/incarceration become the ping pong ball of opposing partisans, just look at GOP's current fad of running baseless impeachment projects.
I don't think Biden is naive, but he made a colossal error in judgment when he appointed a jurist as Attorney General. The country had just come breathtakingly close to succumbing to a coup attempt by the former president and his evil cabal! How could Biden not see that this was a pivotal moment in history??
It was obvious to me and I believe many others that Biden was out of touch with reality when he offered an olive branch to Republicans during his inaugural address. How could he not understand the enormity of what had just happened weeks before? He basically allowed Republicans off the hook and a chance to once again rewrite history and recast the narrative. It was typical Democratic politics to treat Republicans as if they were honest brokers legitimately serving all Americans, but who had a slightly different ideology about how to legislate and govern.
The country was (and still is) on the brink of collapse and the times demanded a brilliant and aggressive prosecutor as Attorney General to lead the Department of Justice. He is the chief law enforcement officer in America! He is charged with protecting the Constitution and upholding the rule of law. And, at this point in history, he needed to do everything in his power to save the union and punish enemies of the Republic. How is it that everyone in America could see what was happening, but not Biden and the Democrats? Any long time observer of government could see what the Republicans and their wealthy backers have been trying to do over the last 40 years. Why haven't hard core Democrats and Republicans been more alarmed by how most voters are not at all happy with how the country is being governed and cannot find a home in either party? Should have been a red flag when so many voters have chosen to vote for the lesser of two bad choices or choosing to not voting at all. Instead, blaming people who are not engaged or don't vote has been a tired excuse for not addressing what people are implicitly wanting. In my lifetime, it has been obvious that most politicians have been far better at representing and advocating for their wealthy backers who give them power and keep them in power than addressing the most basic needs of most Americans.
Again, Garland has been an abysmal failure, and now Biden is paying the price as our government is dissembling and the country is in a constant state of chaos. All the good Biden has done has effectively been tarnished and trivialized because a feckless and incompetent Attorney General has refused to root out enemies of the state. Garland has not done his job! He has given undue and unwarranted deference to politicians and powerful people who have betrayed their loyalty to America. He has refused to arrest and aggressively prosecute traitors and seditionists who are desperately trying to escape accountability for their treachery and steal power to pursue a brutal authoritarian regime that serves only the wealthy.
How is it that the Department of Justice can allow someone who clearly led a coup, stole national secrets and lied tens of thousands of times to walk free and continue to run for president. It's madness! As we all know, the danger and the threat goes much deeper than Trump, and why are those people (known to everyone) not in jail and being prosecuted. How can a rogue Supreme Court not fall under a system of checks and balances? Trump and most Republicans are brazen traitors and they are effectively dodging their high crimes and misdemeanors by a dysfunctional judicial system. America is in crisis because of a feckless and weak Attorney General (and by extension, the president,) a rogue Supreme Court and a corrupted legal system.
Anyone who thinks that the country will be saved through elections, doesn't understand how elections are won or loss, nor do they understand that we don't have a true representative democracy. Despite representing a clear minority, Republicans have methodically flipped the levers of power in the majority of states, implanted right wing extremists on the Supreme Court and the lower courts, and more recently have gone into cahoots with sworn long time enemies of the free World. How can a party of white supremacists and Christo-fascists have so much control over our lives in the 21st century? This is not the government the Founding Fathers so thoughtfully crafted and ratified 234 years ago.
This is one election where voting for the lesser of two bad choices will not save the Union. These are drastic times and they required, indeed demanded, drastic actions! Repeated failures over many years to uphold, preserve and protect the Constitution and the Rule of Law is going to be our downfall.
Our Heather today has got the whole lousy scenario exactly correct.
U.S. Republicans lead terror campaigns. House speaker Howdy Doody works for Trump. They both work for Putin. Comer and Jordan have openly worked for what we now know as total Russian lies.
And yet, today is also publication date of Barbara McQuade's "Attack from Within," in which she urges respect for truth in exactly reverse proportion as Republicans serve lies, and their media package hatred and lies.
She asks us to get offline, and meet real people.
She knows that if you love someone or something, that very specifically has a vital pull on you.
The specific part matters vitally. If you love, you will be sensitive to how the object of your love might be ever hurt, and by whom.
Think about the great novels and other American writings, where the rich love no one, love nothing but money and the power money gives them. Do people get hurt by these rich? That’s always the story, whether it’s Booth Tarkington’s “The Magnificent Ambersons,” Hammett’s “Red Harvest, “ Faukner’s “The Mansion” Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” Walter Mosley's "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned," or Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead."
One thing you will never do if you love someone, or something (a community) – you’ll keep that in focus. You’ll never allow some puffed-up abstraction to let you betray your love.
And yet look at how today’s Republicans across the U.S. nurse lies, broadcast lies, repeat lies, always drumming up cheap sensationalism, scripts of group hatreds. Their incessantly cheapened slogans, cant, and buzz word jargon drowns out all humanities. Just as their standardized testing regimes have drowned out humanities in all U.S. K-12. As wonk and “theory” guarantees no humanities ever get through all “higher” ed’s neutered silos.
DJT and the House Speaker and all the other domestic terrorists in the House Of Representatives DO work for Putin. Schumeekle, you are the one that blathers incoherently, so go back to your bridge and troll there.
Great suggestion, i am not going to give him the time of day any longer, he makes me angry at times with his unrelenting insults and total disrespect for Heather Richardson Cox. I am just going to ignore him from now on just like i ignore my arrogant MAGAT neighbors. Thank you, Sharon. That troll must be extremely insecure to act the way he does.
As you may know, Platform "content moderation" was argued at SCOTUS in the last week.
Texas meaning Abbott & Florida meaning Desantis were looking for a Club to beat up on Tech Platforms. Likely will be Denied.
We are much different as Substack "Readers" are paid Subscribers with contracts under Substack's choice of California law which requires contractual good faith & fair dealings. Substack's lawyers are capable.
My regrets for letting my too much hot blood and too little sleep get the better of me. 😳 Mr Schmeekle -- ¿sp.?; can not see his name -- has a right to voice his opinions and I have a right not to listen to him. ⚖️ Perhaps I should exercise my right more often. 🙂
No, you are the one that has been drinking the DJT kool-aid and it has warped your tiny brain. Go back to your bridge and troll there. A-hole. Bigot troll.
Name calling is this troll’s only weapon when his views are challenged. I have wasted time with him, putting some fact before him which he can’t reconcile with his position. He ignores it and goes to name calling. Save your breath, is my advice. He is enjoying this.
Funny, when I pushed back in exasperation, I got a lecture on being filled with hostility. 🙂 And, of course, I was and that oxygenated more churlish behavior. 😵💫 Think your lesson is finally getting through my thick Celtic cranium. 😉
The buzz word jargon of Hitler and Mussolini did the deed on Germany and Italy, only now amplified through social media. McQuade asks us to get out of our basements to go offline.
Evelyn, some of the damage is an estimated 26,000 women in Texas carrying their rapist’s babies. So much for Gov. Abbott getting rid of rape in the state.
Now there's a real candidate for incarceration. I have friends in Texas, and I cannot understand why they stay there. They're liberal, and part of the minority that would like to see him ousted. Along with his Attorney General, another reprehensible official.
Right on. The notion "Why don't all the families affected by bad legislation just move OUT of Texas?" is a ridiculous straw-man argument. That is impossible. Only a small fraction of families can move away from an authoritarian reign of control.
And once the House and Senate are back in the control of the saner elements, they need to pass ethics laws and term limits for SCOTUS. And then amend the US Constitution to include term limits for SCOTUS and Congress. Senator Collins has been reelected four times and works for McConnell. We need representatives that represent WE THE PEOPLE.
The writers of the Constitution took care to ensure that there would be no "king," but now we have a Speaker of the House who for all practical purposes is acting like a supreme ruler, a king. How did our government evolve to make that possible?
By catering too much for many years. I have watched it over and over. As Derek delGaudio said on Twitter before it was X, “I used to rig card games for a living. I’d watch people sit down and lose everything, again and again, but they didn’t lose because they “played by the rules,” and we didn’t. They lost because it wasn’t a game. It just looked like one. Democrats think it’s a game.” Dems still think it’s the same political game that has always gone on. Still playing by the rules, while repubs gave up on the rules with Lee Atwater. I realized that it wasn’t the same in December 2000. The pols still don’t get it, including Joe, who is still an expert on the old rules. But the SC does. It was been undeclared war for some time and we might as well admit it.
Jeri, I merely would add to your mighty astute observation—namely that the other side has shown it will do whatever is necessary to hold power— that Democrats, too, have to be willing to engage in war. In some measure, I believe this entails leadership, receipts in hand, showing the country, aside from its accomplishments, legislation, specifically from 21 through 22, they tried to deliver that received zero Republican support—a $15 minimum hourly wage, extension of the child tax credit, affordable quality childcare, universal Pre-K, investments in housing, in paid family and medical leave, in eldercare, and the like— policy that would have helped to remedy much of the country’s grotesque inequalities of wealth and income.
Admittedly, while disaffected hardcore MAGAs would be unmoved, the swath of “persuadables” appears increasingly to be expanding.
Don't forget student loan relief, abortion, climate change, gun legislation and being a respected member of the world community. The list goes on and on...
Cameron, Considering that the Democratically-controlled House, between 21 and 22, passed over 300 bills, you’re right about the list being extensive. Hence, my decision for the purpose of this particular post to focus on Democratically-supported remedies for massive wealth and income inequities, a major cause for the hate, the despair, and the divisiveness Trump has feasted on at least since 2015.
Chump and his magats have feasted on hate for the most part. The magats in my family are successful, often educated, hardworking, and religious. The socialism mantra is just a cover for "I'm the head hen." Sadly, I know and love some of them. BTW, Dem billionaires are a far cry from the repub greedy bastards, as a rule.
Jeri, I suppose I’ll always stay in the fight for increasing social and economic justice for increasing numbers of people who feel overwhelmed and marginalized by institutionally oppressive forces largely beyond their individual control.
Never said that Dems are perfect. But the comparison is obvious. The record shows who the worse perps are. I just feel that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Not holding my breath for perfect. That's what the cult thinks chump is. I'll take Dems, warts and all. The old political system had plenty to complain about, but sure wish it held sway these days.
Jeri, Probably like you, my actions are situationally motivated, bent mostly towards the aspirational while typically accepting, as warranted, the feasible.
Lee Atwater was Reagan's adviser, and Bush's... I think we can go back to Nixon, who gave up on the rules and had the same 'win at all costs' attitude.
Indeed, but I thought that the repubs had learned their lesson after getting caught. Took me a while to realize that they just went under cover. But, in fact, it was pretty blatant, it was just that Rupert came into power with his "fair and balanced" bull schitt, which muddied the waters.
When the only thing the Republican radicals understand is force, how can this be applied still within whatever available laws and rules there are in this situation?
Good question, I keep hearing blather about workarounds for the current bottleneck. Granted, I watch snippets of the news so I have no details. If there are workarounds, it is way past time. If not, Dems should hang the coming fiasco around the necks of the repubs, with the weight of the bully pulpit and every other option, (lend-lease, exec. orders, whatever). Chump certainlly used executive orders and bullying to full effect. No easy answers, but hardball is usually not illegal, not that repubs don't care a wit about illegal. Just catch a few bars of "I'll do it my way, repub style." And when their crimes are live on tv, just watch the machinations when the law tries to hold them accountable.
Actually the Democratic Party is doing well, with money for campaigns, possibly to retake the House. The republican party has hemorrhaged money, paying citizens trumps legal bills last year, and some state chapters have no money for down ballot campaigns. It seems the current republican party is dying and the Democratic Party is getting stronger.
President Biden is abiding by the rules not blindly, but as a moral force to guide the govenment BACK ONTO THE RAILS. He is intentionally holding firm to the rule of law, as a strategy for combatting lawlessness. Will it work I don't know.
I do see the point that combatting lawlessness with "just a llittle lawlessness" is pragmatic. Biden/Harris must also find small cracks they can widen, like they are doing for Student Debt Relief, and break the country-breaking congressional impasse.
Ed, When the framers sought to establish structures of government and to balance their powers in a way meant to protect the country from the misdeeds and manipulations of any one faction, they hadn’t anticipated that any one power center, in this case, a nearly presumptive presidential nominee eager to consolidate power wherein the rule of law could be subjugated to an individual, would successfully absorb the other branches.
Because not enough of so-called everyday people understand the full extent of this crisis, herein lies the context in which our activism must be rooted.
Certainly agree that most viewers do not understand how this can happen. Getting listed as a "flawed democracy" in the ranking of nations by successful democracies is getting clearer each day. We obviously have no structure to prevent it.
Ed, I see 2 potential structures. One is the Court. I would be convinced the judiciary sufficiently had held were the Supremes promptly to deny Trump’s claim of absolute immunity and allow, at the very least, for the J6 trial to be decided before voters cast ballots. The second is an electorate laser-focused on securing its freedom and determined to staying free.
The MAGA Destruction of our democracy has grown instrength like a wildfire, and the courts are NOT sufficient to hold the line. There is evidence in the Hur Report etc., that the DOJ is sadly infiltrated by an anti-democracy faction.
Wendy (if I may), While I appreciate you writing, I stand by my previous comment. Frankly, I would hope none of us fall prey to the adage There’s nothing to be done because nothing can be done.
Sadly, the term "radical Republican" used to be a term of honor, at least for me. 😢 Imagine what Representative Thaddeus Stevens, Senator Charles Sumner and President / General Grant (when the latter two got along) et many al. would do with runts of the litter like Trump, trolls, Greene, more trolls, Gaetz, ever more trolls, Vance, the rest of the cognitive under-class (Vance showing opportunism not stupidity or lack of education) et al.? 🤔 First, they would dismiss them politely and then dismiss them not so politely. 😵💫 Then they would make these nattering nabobs of narcissism chump change by leading a national chorus in laughing these stooges off the stage, as per the link below. 😇 All that done, they would ram through a (revisionist) 16th Amendment to the Constitution prohibitting any product of in-breeding from ever holding national office again. 😉
Very like one real King who lost his head as a result of acting on the genuine conviction that he was answerable only to God, not to his people or their representatives.
Having said which, the comparison is deeply insulting to the memory of King Charles I of England who was a martyr to his belief. This Johnson uses religion as a tool. And that, in religious terms, is blasphemy.
When I learned of Maggot Mike's 'christian eyes' spy software, I saw immediately that he is easy to control through blackmail. Anyone who publicly adopts a "HOLIER THAN THOU" persona is hiding a large number of transgressions, that are fodder for blackmail.
Johnson's just a toady for Beloved Leader and the rest of his corrupt coterie . While the Framers were aware of human imperfection, they may have been overoptimistic about how badly the powers they assigned could be abused. They seemed to have anticipated that some individuals might be as corrupt as hell, but I'm not sure they thought enough about an entire party devoid of conscience and willing to use the powers of government to sabotage it's republican (SMALL "r") form.
Maggat Mike has publicly announced he is "holier than thou" and never has sexual thoughts or actions and is proudly tracked by "covenant eyes" software in the hands of his son and others. Therefore he is DEFINITELY easy to blackmail, as nobody with such a public declaration of purity can live up to it.
Today Treasury Sec Janet Yellen called on world leaders to send frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. But they can’t shoot with dollar bills. Only we can send them the artillery shells and ammunition they need to fight the Russians.
‘It is time to start a conversation about using the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine’ -European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen:
Stealing frozen Russian assets for Ukraine will further undermine the eroding hegemony of the Almighty Dollar. Without the Almighty Dollar, Biden and the Vampire Liberals can't suck money from the rest of the world to fund Worthwhile Programs and more bombs and missiles for Ukraine.
p.s. Regarding ammunition, our industrial capacity is so weak that we can't provide as much as they need. HCR and the Vampire Liberals ignore this obvious threat to our national security: You can't fight an extended war if you ship all your factories off to China.
My regrets for letting my too much hot blood and too little sleep get the better of me. 😳 Mr Schmeekle -- ¿sp.?; can not see his name -- has a right to voice his opinions and I have a right not to listen to him. ⚖️ Perhaps I should exercise my right more often. 🙂
On Tuesday the seasoned leadership of Congress and a pipsqueak met President Biden at the White House to focus on legislating a governmental budget and urgent aid to Ukraine, that has been held in limbo in the Johnson House since last October.
When I read the press reports, it seemed like Johnson, an amateur checkers player, encountered a group of chess pros. ‘Speaker’ Johnson, a bottom of the barrel choice, is a hostage to whatever Trump bloviates, while he has a House ‘Freedom’ Caucus that believes that it can blackmail the entire U. S. Government with its radically right=wing demands.
At the end of this intense White House meeting, I would have loved to have heard the one-on-one meeting between President Biden and Squeaker Johnson. I imagine that the president gave Johnson some blunt Dutch uncle advice.
This nonentity from Louisiana got a lesson in governing from some pros who are concerned about the United States of America. I would hope that some sort of ‘bipartisan’ legislation will emerge before the government shuts down and courageous Ukrainians are left to die without adequate ammunition
And sophisticated weaponry.
BUT I DON’T KNOW. Trump is the ‘cult wizard’ who has been spreading negativism throughout the land. His ‘me, me, me’ is totally unrelated from what is necessary for the United States of America domestically and globally.
Mary, I agree, I hope there are discussions between Hakim Jeffries and sane R to oust Speaker and rapidly put into place a sane R Speaker who will put the bill on the floor.
Thanatologist Wendy, if they can’t find a sane R for speaker and R’s to support that person, then they can promise to protect him with Democratic votes if he brings the Senate Ukraine bill to the floor. Then, if the Freedom Caucus threatens him again, he has to bring the Senate border bill to the floor.
Hopefully Biden spoke as a sincere believer of Christianity to a man who has lost his way to his own faith.
A spiritual awakening is probably the only way Mike Johnson will be able to dig himself out of the hell realm he is making for himself here.
Or, the DOJ could charge him with sedition for working against his oath of office, and put him in jail. But there seems to be little appetite for that, for some reason.
Keep those cards, calls, and letters flowing his way though. The pressure of public opinion does have an impact.
Like I say, lost track of the central tenet of his own faith. Jesus was not a Dominionist, or an End Times evangelical. That is the big problem with Christianity, it doesn’t have an effective method for cutting through self-delusion. People like Jimmy Carter can be honest with their struggles, but people who are not honest with themselves have little chance of gaining increased awareness.
I have URGED the few pastors I know, to speak out against this. Only religious people (in the same religion, preferrably) have the religious authority to stand against the zealots.
...
RELIGIOUS LEADERS MUST PUBLICLY DENOUNCE THE RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS -- they alone have the authority to speak against others claiming The Mantle Of God.
Recently Evangelical leaders began hate-speaking about Catholics. They are well into denigrating President Biden's religion as evil. Sadly. It's almost like religion is purposely built to murder masses of people via regular interregnum.
...
INTERREGNUM: (def) a period when normal government is suspended, especially between successive reigns or regimes.
Catering to republicans is a non-starter. Haven’t you figured that out yet! Johnson is working for chump and Putin. Duh. I keep reading about rarely used methods to go around the bottleneck. If there is a way, you had better get on it or there won’t be a country. McCarthy’s resurrection of chump will resonate as would a resurrection of Adolf. Make no mistake Dems, it is time to stop begging. Johnson loves it (just look at his self-satisfied smirks), and chump is orgasmic. They will fiddle while the world burns.
Jeri Chilcutt, I wonder where we would be had they been brought up on charges of insurrection and treason. TC, commented above maybe they should be hauled off. I am beginning to think so. They are enemies of the State. There is no other way to look at it.
Jeri Chilcutt, agree. For far too long, elected & appointed Dems have bowed to many of the same masters as the R's. Their big donors. But they are waking up and trying to change, if only because dictatorship scares the bejeezus outta them. I'll take it.
Has there ever been a time when money didn't outrank any other asset. Maybe a few times, but after a while courage is needed more. It seems sorely lacking. When push came to shove in WW2, it was the grunt soldier who had the courage, along with Ike. Where is their like....
Repubs have used the flimsiest of scandals to get the Dems to oust their own people. Just what I mean by pretending it's politics as usual. Boy, have times changed
The Speaker of the House and his merry band of awfuls in the House are extortionists and legislative terrorists. What else can I call them? Fools, monsters, democracy murderers, traitors, dictator glorifiers, Putin puppets, enemies of America. Yes. I shake my head in disgust and my heart hurts at how much disgrace they bring to their oath and office, and at how much they seem to enjoy creating and neglecting extreme suffering at home, and around the world.
His fear is buried so deep that I doubt he feels anything but need of glory. They thought of his loser identity being front and center may make him apoplectic.
One person, really? One person can “gum up the works”? I wonder if there’s a time in our history that this happened in favor of democracy, rather than now, where it favors authoritarianism and the fascist fever of Trump’s followers and Putin lovers.
Marita Back in the early 1830s John Calhoun (recent vice president) sought to ‘gum up the works’ with the insistence on ‘nullification”—that a state could nullify federal legislation. President Andrew Jackson, who had ‘killed a few folks’ in his time, threatened to send federal troops to South Carolina if Calhoun didn’t back down. Calhoun blinked and ‘nullification’ was nixed.
Thanks for that, Keith. I come from a county in Michigan that was named after John C. Calhoun. A shameless defender of slavery: I cannot understand why the county was named for him and why it keeps the name.
Hey, it might be an entertaining thing to do-run a petition drive to change that name. Depending on what you think of as entertaining. Here in Jackson and Ingham Counties, folks know some of the local spots that were stops on the Underground Railroad, and they remember how truly dangerous it was to help those refugees. Were there any stops in Calhoun County, I wonder?
Of that I am not sure, but it would be an interesting bit to research. Great idea, thanks. I'll be making a trip back sometime this year; in the meantime, I'll check with a couple old friends who are still there (Battle Creek) and see what they think. Much obliged.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson received illegal money from at least one Russian oligarch.
There could be more.
Let’s take a closer look.👇
Mike Johnson is blocking the Ukraine bill
Despite the Pentagon’s urging that the $60 billion Ukraine aid package is critically important to Kyiv’s chances of successfully resisting Putin’s invasion, it is currently gathering dust on Mike Johnson’s desk.
The new Speaker continues to thwart Ukraine aid, despite strong bipartisan criticism:
· After an “intense” Oval Office meeting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris each pressed Johnson to prioritize aid for Ukraine.
· Today Radoslaw Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland, also issued a stern warning to Johnson, making it clear that if the aid package fails to pass, and Ukraine suffers setbacks on the battlefield, the blamewould fall on Johnson.
· Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates stated, “Speaker Johnson is siding with Putin.”
Why?
Follow the money
In 2018, Johnson received campaign contributions from “American Ethane” company, 88% of which was owned by three Russian nationals: Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev.
Johnson received at least three checks from the company. Why does that matter?
At least one of the Russian partners, oligarch Nikolaev, had deep ties to Putin.
The sordid tale about the group of Russian nationals who circumvented U.S. political fundraising laws in order to deliver campaign contributions to a slate of MAGA-entrenched Congressmen somehow failed to attract the attention of the corporate media.
Johnson’s campaign claims the money was returned after the facts were first revealed. But why did he take it in the first place?
In 2018, while Donald was still in the White House, his FCC fined American Ethane for donating to GOP candidates — a grand total of $9,500 in civil penalties... That’ll show ‘em.
Time for a closer look at Nikolaev’s motivations:
Nikolaev’s Financial ties to
Konstantin Nikolaev
In 2019, the oligarch's net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion according to Forbes.
Further, reports indicate Nikolaev funded Russian national Maria Butina, who was deported back to Russia after spending 15 months in U.S. penitentiaries for acting as a Russian foreign agent, cozying up to Republicans in order to shape U.S. policy.
In addition to being part owner of Globaltrans, which according to Newsweek is Russia's largest private rail operation, Nikolaev is also part owner of the Tula Cartridge Plant, a company “which has been supplying ammunition to Russian forces during its invasion of Ukraine.”
What a remarkable coincidence.
Does it matter if Johnson has Russian ties?
As Speaker of the House, Johnson faces one of the largest foreign policy decisions of the last decade: whether the Republican-controlled House of Representatives allow the United States to continue funding Ukraine.
Because of Johnson’s refusal to fund our ally thus far, Ukraine’s ability to achieve victory over our shared enemy now hangs in the balance.
Mike Johnson’s record – from voting against the 2022 Ukraine Supplemental Appropriation bill, to supporting the prohibition of all security assistance to Ukraine – makes it look as if he works for Putin, instead of the American people and their national security interests.
The media should be asking more questions.
· In addition to the illegal campaign contributions, what are Johnson’s ties to Russian oligarchs?
· Why is he so determined to help Russia, to the point that he is willing to risk letting Ukraine fall to Russian aggression?
· Why is the Speaker of The House of Representatives of the United States of America representing the interests of Donald and Vladimir Putin?
What really motivates Mike Johnson?
He currently sits second in line to the presidency, and yet the religious fanaticism that perverts his ideas about American democracy are still not completely understood.
We have the right to know more.
As Johnson continues to let Ukraine twist in the wind, acting as Putin’s proxy in Congress, he not only casts doubt on his own motives, but on the institution as a whole.
We shouldn’t be left to wonder about the allegiance of our leaders, and yet, when it comes to Republicans, from Donald Trump and Mike Johnson on down, we are constantly left to speculate the deep influences operating within the entire Republican Party.
One thing is certain: I’m going to keep asking questions.
No means of dealing with racketeering foreign agents in Congress who have in effect seized the legislature and are holding government and country to ransom.
Justice dealt with those who invaded the Capitol yet cannot act against worse than insurrection, treason, perpetrated by the Speaker and elected Representatives.
I just read in The Guardian, that the star witness for the investigation into Fani Willis’s relationship with a prosecutor on the Trump trial in Georgia failed to deliver any evidence that suggested malfeasance, to the dismay of Trump’s lawyers. Small blessings.
Off topic: to all the voters in Michigan who voted 'uncommitted': your protest has been noted. Now, when it comes to the general election, you can vote for Biden (who is actively working for that cease fire for which you are so adamant) or you can vote for T****. Your choice, but know that electing T**** will put in office a thug who will work to send you all packing. Choose wisely.
James: democrats giving democratic and independent voters another reason to not vote in their best interest, or providing MSM more clickbait to report how bad Biden will be as a second term president
We are witnessing real time how effective propaganda can be. We’re living in Neo-Weimar times. The future is foreseeable. Full speed ahead, those icebergs are no match for this vessel
"For his part, Johnson said that “the House is actively pursuing and investigating all the various options” on the supplemental bill, “but again, the first priority of the country is our border and making sure it’s secure."
BULLSHIT. He wouldn't have sent them on a two week vacation if that was true.
VOTE. THEM. OUT.
Voting comes far too late to deal with a coup by insiders on behalf of a simple citizen who is in turn the willing tool of America's principal enemy at the present time: Vladimir Putin.
This is an act of war "by other means".
And the perpetrators ie Johnson and DJT should be put in jail with the rest from January 6 but with a life sentence.
Then can we please arrest the insiders for treason?
Treason convicted persons should be shot at sunrise.
I'm philosophically opposed to the death sentence, but even if I weren't I think life sentences are better for this bunch - like the punishment Westley plans for Humperdinck in The Princess Bride:
"...the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose. The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right.,,Your ears you keep and I'll tell you why.
So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, 'Dear God! What is that thing,' will echo in your perfect ears."
Exquisite.
Death is like one and done. No time for remorse. Westley gives them time to think what they have done. Personally I think the perfect punishment is bankrupting him-take all his property and bury him in a closed casket so no one can see his face and definitely not in Arlington Cemetery
Yes, death is fast and final That's why I want him to suffer rather than die. Yes bankrupt and confiscate all his holdings, but make him live on in humiliated abject poverty for a long time, mentally declining all the way down yet aware of his reduced circumstances. Maybe wear a "Loser" sign around his neck? I'm usually more compassionate, but I seriously want this hideous worm squirming on the hook he's been let off all his life.
Do you believe in capital punishment otherwise?
Honestly, if zygotes are people, which designation confers the right to life, why aren’t prisoners also entitled to the same right? Note: I am pro choice and anti death penalty. I just think the cognitive dissonance of the right is something to behold.
KR, it makes my head hurt. I am reading a book by a biochemist about the beginning of life on earth and the activity of cells. If we follow the logic, then every cell in everything short of bacteria and another kind of cell, are sexual. Fungi and plants among others have rights. Speaker Johnson is no Christian either, becauseJesus would not act for a festering cancerous monster like death star.
Jon, I favor Life without Parole in the General Prison Population
What's happen to the Secret Service? Is it revoked since it is "secure" place?
Yes.
Now deal with Trump as the existential threat that he is to this nation.
Yikes.
I am just angry to the point of implosion. Need this group to bring some calm.
Regrettably not, because treason only exists during a state of war and, although the failed insurrectionist and his followers are clearly giving aid and comfort to our enemies, we are not in a legally declared state of war; that would take an act of Congress and we all know how likely that is to happen.
The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. That certainly applies to everyone who knowingly broadcasts Russian intelligence agents' propaganda: Jordan, Comer, Giuliani, Don Jr & Eric, and MTG (for leaking classified docs on social media).
Others like Hawley, Lee, and Gaetz will have to be charged with insurrection for aiding and abetting Jan 6, Johnson & the rest of tIe R's who support the big lie for obstruction of congressional procedures.
I leave LardoMalo off my list because, as Barbara Keating says, he's already indicted under the espionage act - that's the Chutkin trial in Fed DC court.
Yes, we must maintain a clear idea of what’s important: Don’t spend any time seeking revenge or getting satisfaction by imagining payback. The situation here is more serious than that. It requires sober ideas of how to overcome the strategy of the House leadership.
You're quite right; it will be astounding if any of them are actually brought to justice for what they've done.
Especially now that the Supreme Court is getting involved.
No, not treason based on the current legal definition (but if it walks like a duck….), but rather he is being charged under the Espionage Act (both sound cloak & dagger!), tho not specifically as a “spy”: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65910903
It definitely looks and sounds ducklike, but definitions matter, especially in the legal world. Thanks for the follow-up information.
America's principle foreign enemy may be Vladimir Putin, but it was KKK Grand Wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke who sold the GOP base on Putin as the Great White Hope of Christian Nationalism and Charles Koch bagman Leonard Leo who helped Koch capture the courts to cement corporate power and overturn civil rights. Koch et al are not the least bothered by authoritarianism, particularly when it's their brand of clerical fascism. Koch may not like Trump, but that hasn't stopped him from profiting from Trump's political success.
Please keep in mind, a springboard for the Koch family fortune was work for Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Nazi Germany.
In turn, their fortune was a springboard for almost every antidemocratic initiative in the USA - from the John Birch Society to the Federalist Society. Charles Koch personifies Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's use of the judiciary to cement corporate power. And the Roberts Court bigotry. The Koch family investment in GOP politics, as with Trump family, runs on racism with greed as the engine.
Koch continues to do business in Putin's Russia.
https://progressive.org/latest/koch-brothers-extremist-roots-run-deep/
https://www.salon.com/2014/10/01/8_disturbing_ways_the_kochs_have_amassed_their_fortune_partner/
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-164403/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/us/politics/father-of-koch-brothers-helped-build-nazi-oil-refinery-book-says.html
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-koch-trump-201708-story.html
Yes. Koch just announced he was withdrawing support for Haley.
Koch = Heritage Foundation = Project 2025. Koch and Leo are two of the most dangerous people on the planet.
Bill, I’ve added Stop the Coup group to my home screen & follow their efforts—and suggestions as to what we “little people”, you know, the rabble and riff-raff, can do to stand against it: https://www.stopthecoup2025.org/. At least it gives us options other than *shaking fists at the sky* in fury and frustration!
But why was Koch ever supporting Haley, in opposition to Putin’s nominee?
Good question. Maybe Trumps sheer incompetence finally got to him. Maybe the hurl factor finally kicked in. And maybe Koch thought Haley actually has a better chance of beating Biden. And I think that is the scary truth. Haley has the false aura of "normalcy". Wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will?
But Charles doesn't share his thoughts with me, unfortunately :)
My guess is that Charles was hedging his bets just like Haley is. They all know death star may be have been found guilty in criminal trials as well as suffering from worsening dementia. And i agree about Haley, a horrible woman who once while governor did the right thing. Once doesn't cut it.
Probably about style not substance And lack of confidence in Trump's ability to win.
"It’s also unclear exactly why the Koch network dislikes Trump so much. While in office, he successfully carried out moves long sought by the organization, including the gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency, a single-minded strategy of deregulation to strengthen the hand of private businesses, and tipping the Supreme Court conservative—with a majority that’s proven to be well inclined to favor the interests of big business and the decimation of the administrative state."
https://newrepublic.com/post/177140/koch-network-haley-trump-2024
I think Koch saw the writing on the wall with 45. He broke the ground and got the Supreme Court for them but I think we’ve seen lately that 45’s more of a liability now and is getting more and more unstable.
Maybe because she beats Biden by a bigger margin. I heard that on some podcast, don't remember which poll was cited, but I think Nate Silver's 538,
A That may be but he hasn’t withdrawn his endorsement which still means something in his rarefied atmosphere. He’s using Haley to lob epithets at 45 as long as she can remain above water. I think we’ll have to wait until the Super Tuesday dust settles to see how much further that endorsement takes her. It’s possible she might turn to No Labels should they extend a hand. They know there is a good size chunk of voters who want nothing to do with either candidate.
Yikes! No Labels is a problem.
My nieces husband, who lives in Wichita, slavered over the mere thought of maybe working for Koch. My family is in Kansas . I didn't realize my Minicooper could hit 127 mph until I was heading west the hell out of there.
The Koch family is a crime family and worse. The oligarchs in America are all crime families to one degree or another----and the population makes up the serfs/slaves working on their various "plantations" in the economy. Think about what life in America would be like if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation and the tax code were pre-Regan----a vastly different world!!
"Think about what life in America would be like if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation and the tax code were pre-Regan----a vastly different world!!"
Even if GOP operatives hadn't kept the American hostages in Iran to sink Carter's chances and to elect Reagan.
Even if sufficient numbers of Americans had voted for Clinton. Even holding their nose
serfs? Is that what they called trump's undocumented workers?
Lin, you are always a font of great comments and resource links. Thank you again!
HaHa.
Gadfly here.
Two-legged gadflies have a distinguished lineage, in many cases. 👍🏻
The damage done to the country by the Kochs is immeasurable.
Even the measurable parts - damage to the environment, to the body politic - are horrible.
Thanks for this excellent documentary evidence.
How to use it?
Find ways of sharing info. Beyond Comments sections?
Lin, Thanks for the suggestion. I shared your comment with my fb friends.
I share the whole letter and comments on Facebook and I know some read them.
ThankYou!!!
Lin, Thom Hartmann had a sobering SubStack today (yesterday?) on the corporatization of our county…giving the history paving the way before, for example, the Citizen’s United decision…sigh, “same as it ever was” in the history our humans: https://hartmannreport.com/p/have-we-reached-the-point-where-corporatism-f56?publication_id=302288&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=6wq7j&utm_medium=email
ThankYou. Your comment is timely and helpful. I have been researching the Powell Memorandum and Lewis Powell's tenure on the Supreme Court. He provided the blueprint for cementing corporate privilege through judicial activism. Recommended to be done through national organizations. In other words, Leonard Leo's network of shell companies and organizations such as the Federalist Society and the Teneo Network - funded by Charles Koch and other racist right wing extremists.
Yes, we are always struggling against our worse angels.
Lin, I too have been researching the Powell Memo & the changes wrought during the Reagan Admin & beyond…hard to turn this big ship of state around when realizing the “map” we were following since it being used as guidance led us, as it turned out, into dangerous territory. Well, dangerous to all except those who profited handsomely & they want to keep their spoils now & into the future. Hard to comprehend those who don’t understand the concept of “enough” and only want “more and more”.
"Well, dangerous to all except those who profited handsomely & they want to keep their spoils now & into the future."
Yes. But.
It's not like they have a Plan(et) B.
Will their god or their gold save them?
They are cursing themselves to the 7th generations. Or the half life of plutonium.
Excellent post. Thank you.
There will be hell to pay… ?
Yes, let’s keep our eye on the ball!!!
I'd dearly love to see Chuck fucked by his own greed a la Sacklers. Nan, if you're listening, can you dig up some flyers to float through the rotunda of the Capitol Bldg?
OK. Is there a parallel political universe where your comment makes any strategic or tactical sense? Please put 'Chuck' in context of the current Congress. Compare and contrast him to 'Mitch'.
And explain how floating flyers through the rotunda of the Capitol Bldg might contribute to addressing any of the critical problems Republican obeisance to Trump has created. From keeping government open to providing aid to Ukraine.
Can we please move past the silly self indulgent $#!t and figure out a way to get work done?
Chuck is Koch, no one in Congress. Flyers in the rotunda is a reference to Nan Goldin's protest of the Sackler family at the Guggenheim. It was effective first to get their name removed from all the museums where they had built wings, and eventually to put Purdue out of business. Just because I'm a foul mouthed wise guy, lin+, doesn't make my suggestion frivolous.
One could equate removing Sackler name from museums to removing TFG's name from ballots. The "if you're listening, Nan..." remark refers to "If you're listening, Russia..." from TFG re Hillary's emails.
Please accept my apologies. My ignorance for not getting your reference. Yes, Nan Goldin has been indefatigable and brilliant in her protest against the Sacklers. She has strategically employed her status as an artist and tactically deployed her wit to achieve her mission.
I don't know whether it would translate to politics. I'm not seeing the equivalency in removing names. And removing Trump's name from state ballots, although I think constitutional, does not solve the problem of MAGA or Koch.
Re protest inside the Capitol - after Jan 6 I would question how any act in the Capitol would play. And play out. I don't think it would benefit the cause of protesting Koch et al. More work for the Capitol Police and the cleaning staff.
I've listen to CSpan regularly, obsessively over the years. There are really very good people in Congress.
Congress is not entirely bought. Charles Koch owns the judiciary. I've protested outside the Supreme Court and outside 'my neighbor' Leonard Leo's estate. I wonder whether protests outside RNC headquarters on 310 First St SE or on Patriot Row on East Capitol St. SE.
But mostly our job is to GetOutTheVote for Blue Wave 2024.
And find as many creative ways to do that as possible. Through local Democratic committees and campaigns. With equal attention to state legislators.
Again my apologies for snapping at you. With all the authority of my ignorance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/15/dc-maga-campus-patriots-row-meadows/
https://capitolhillcorner.org/2023/05/07/conservative-group-seeks-closure-of-capitol-hill-alley-for-patriot-row-hq/
Yes, I totally agree with you. The polls are too far off to ameliorate this situation which , to me, is a supreme dereliction of duty on Johnson's part and the fact that he is taking orders from an insurrectionist former POTUS is beyond reprehensible. The safety of the nation is being compromised here. Johnson needs to be removed from his position.
In 2018 Mike Johnson reported his earnings as -$32,500.00. In 2023 he's worth 5 million dollars. He doesn't report any bank accounts or any assets other than a mortgage. But yet he has stock in Google, Apple, Microsoft and a couple others. He says, he returned those Russian donations. Did he?🤔 Now he owns a mansion, apartments, and land. How did that happen? I'm sure in he justifies it as gifts from God.
For all we know he, and others, are being bankrolled by Putin.
Leonard Leo is the master of dark money. The Russian dollars have flooded into American Oligarchs pockets since the 1990's.
Matt Gaetz received Russian dollars through one of the aging Rockefellers. They are all greedy whores. Their corruption is palatable.
Grammar police checking in...
pal·at·a·ble
/ˈpalədəb(ə)l/
adjective
(of food or drink) pleasant to taste.
"a very palatable local red wine"
Of an action or proposal) acceptable or satisfactory.
"a device that made increased taxation more palatable"
Similar: pleasant, acceptable, satisfactory, pleasing. agreeable
pal·pa·ble
/ˈpalpəb(ə)l/
adjective
1.
(of a feeling or atmosphere) so intense as to seem almost tangible.
"a palpable sense of loss"
2.
able to be touched or felt.
"the palpable bump at the bridge of the nose"
Wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Lisa, “follow the money”, oh wait Roberts court says you can’t
How convenient
Brett Kavanagh's debts were paid in full. I'm sure he sent a thank you note to Leonard. Corruption at the highest level of the food chain. If Koch and Leo win this election...we are fucked.
“Its an intrusion on ones right to privacy to uncover the source of the bribes spent to curry his favor. Furthermore, citizens must have the expectation that the government should not seek to document their illegality in any way, shape, or form”
——Judge Alito. Source, Dave Fake News
Subsequently eclipsed by Thomas' less liquid gifts.
Pffft. Mammon not god and being a bagman for death star and others who want to destroy our democracy.
We need to change the rules that allow one congress person or senator to have such control over the majority - even if it’s the speaker!
I agree., This is not the first time that a person, or a few persons have gridlocked the entire safety of the country for political leveridge.Thinking Joe Manchin for one but there are others.
But this time the crime is of quite another order, it is part of the openly proclaimed aim to overthrow democracy and to put DT back in the White House to complete the job.
YesI agree but the people need to take action.
Victoria: The tactic Johnson is following is intended to underlined that democracy doesn't work. Chaos is the desired outcome. The only people who can remove the upstart religious bigot is his fellow Rs (in the near term) and as long as he is useful to Trump he'll likely hold his position. Whether it is likely he'll be voted out by his constituents is unlikely given that they actually voted him in in the first place.
Peter, Winston Chutchill said, "This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure."
We have endured eight years of Trump's shenanigans. Dare we hope that this madness by him and Mike Johnson will end? Soon?
Pam, his words would make a timely bumper sticker or sign to post, especially in this election year.
Another Winston Churchill quote that might apply: "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
Let's hope that Mike Johnson is last of "everything else".
Amen!
Putin has achieved what all his predecessors could only have dreamed of, destroying democracy without firing a shot!
"... IS achieving" might be more accurate. The victim is still very much alive but is receiving traditional treatment: the punishment cell...
Peter,
Can one explain why DT is being allowed to run for office? He is, even in the eyes of a child, not fit to lead our country. Those who want to rule over this nation should not be dictated to by the Communist dictator Putin. Most of the Republican party have become Putin's toys, marionettes. No one makes a move without Trump's opinion which comes from his boss, Putin. Trump is NOT EVEN AT THIS TIME AN ELECTED OFFICIAL!!! What a bunch of ignorant, weak, pitiful puppets...WILLING TO SELL OUT THE USA!!!
As the Bible instructs NOT to do...An important segment of the government of the great USA....have chosen to become entrapped and have chosen to yield to BLIND GUIDES!!!.
DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE PUTIN DOESN'T HAVE PLANS FOR YOU IF YOU KEEP ON FOLLOWING HIM? He will use you up and put you on a plane for a vacation you will never live to talk about with anyone.
Most of the Republicans' time in office has been taken up with accusations which have been proven false while our country waits to get the work of the people done.
Thank you Peter!
Thank you Miselle!
VOTE FOR PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND FOR EVERY PERSON WHO IS FOR AMERICA AND FOR ALL WHO RESPECT WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION or choose not to have a religion AND FOR EACH PERSON OF COLOR, etc!!! A VOTE FOR BIDEN IS A VOTE TO BUILD BACK BETTER!!! A VOTE FOR BIDEN IS A VOTE FOR NATO!
I would also comment, we need to get out of Gaza. We are aiding the criminal Netanyahu. We need to free the hostages by different means. We are being used by Netanyahu....to keep HIM out of prison and to support his dream to take over Gaza for himself. This has always been an issue for many in Israel. That is why some have been building homes in Gaza claiming it is their land.
Really Netanyahu wants to do what we did to the American Indians. Destroy their land, their homes, their people, their language and claim it is a "God" given right...OK ....we are all really "Bad to the bone!!!"
Emily, I just had a FB friend post a flattering photo of fpotus, and said "This is the man for America" and had about a dozen people chime in with "He loves America" or "He supports police" or "He's a businessman, and we need to run our country like a business." It is completely disgusting to me.
Ally, thank you for reinforcing my decision to eschew Facebook. I think the Obi Wan quote re: Mos Isley spaceport applies: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
I like to know what they are thinking.
Emily, don't ask us to explain what can only be explained in terms of money, dark money, changing hands; for reasons unsoundable and inexplicable if we try to reach beyond following the money.
There's a market in everything now -- everything, anything and nothing at all. For the buyers, sellers and the bought-and-soldiers, there's the market in terror, the market in lies, the market in war, and there are, of course, markets in subversion and treason...
As for the stringpuller in the Kremlin, that's no Communist! Can't have been near any such party for decades...
Started in the vicious no-surrender jungle of Leningrad backyards and came out on top. Judoka. Acrobat.
KGB man, expertise in lies, manipulation, all the techniques of persuasion.
Above all else a successful crime boss driven by limitless greed for wealth, the trappings thereof and the power to maximize and protect it, a cold-hearted paranoid narcissist, a sybarite, a man totally devoid of any form of human fellow-feeling, who has done everything at every stage in his life to banish even the shadow of empathy... And this protection from feeling is also a liability, in that it reduces all relationships to transactions and bonds of fealty.
There must have been much to hate and resent, for one who will probably have wanted to enjoy his ill-gotten gains without let or hindrance. And this will have redoubled and refined his cruelty.
Anyway, the regime of Brezhnev et al may have elicited Reagan's "Evil Empire" label... But it was an earthly paradise by comparison with what this man has done to his own country, to the neighbors or wherever his armies, his mercenaries, his guns and his bombs prevail.
Sad truth
Disgraceful truth.
America sold. Naked, powerless, in chains. As in a slave market.
"America sold. Naked, powerless, in chains. As in a slave market."
Whew. Some metaphors don't work. Persons on the auction block had no agency.
America has agency and power.
Americans have agency and civil rights. Including the right to vote.
For now.
But Lin, I wish to goodness that this image was unimaginable.
Unfortunately, it does correspond to the state of America's government and its activity at the present time and to the sabotage of extremely urgent and important action.
Unless an end is brought to this act of war against the United States, potential damage to the country and the world between now and the election is incalculable.
And of course most forms of conceivable action will feed the lie that the President is abusing his power to persecute a "legitimate" political opponent.
That man, the self-styled "President" and his operatives could hardly be less legitimate.
The moles in Congress are acting on the orders of a private citizen backed by openly subversive big-money interests. A private citizen who is the Russian dictator's means of transmission for the overthrow of America from within.
"The moles in Congress are acting on the orders of a private citizen backed by openly subversive big-money interests. A private citizen who is the Russian dictator's means of transmission for the overthrow of America from within."
Thank you Sums up the horrifying situation perfectly. That Trump, who has no official role in the government, can control it to the degree he does should be terrifying to all.
Thanks for pointing that out. Let’s all take a moment, folks, and breathe deeply.
According to Professor Jack Rasmus, Ukraine is already losing the war:
“The tide has turned here very clearly. And that's why there is desperation going on in the EU and in Washington, DC, and now talk in France and others about, 'oh, we're going to have to send NATO troops into western Ukraine,’” he continued."
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-war-and-the-ghost-of-clausewitz/
I take note of that big Z -- as in znetwork etc.
Z is Putin-Russia's dime-store swastika.
A scarlet letter for some foreheads.
*
I opened John S's Z-site for a second but recommend readers:
DON'T OPEN THIS. NOT, AT LEAST UNLESS OR UNTIL THE SITE HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY CHECKED FOR BUGS.
PLEASE REFER TO SUBSTACK'S WEBMASTER FOR SAFETY CHECKS.
If John wants to provide arguments from his Zsource, he's welcome.
As for warmongering, I'm reminded of Margaret Thatcher's rebuke to Foreign Secretary Hurd during the Yugoslav wars:
"Douglas, Douglas, you would make Neville Chamberlain look like a warmonger."
Exactly. Shmuckle is a troll and should be ignored. Fair warning to all.
Why do only a of couple of subscribers report him, which takes up a great deal of their time? Why don't the complainers do the same - report him? Look at the awful space filled with garbage he and those who have exchanges with him take up on this forum. He works as a shiny distraction pulling us away from the crucial issues at hand. Schmeeckle is the winner. Take a look!
I have reported him several times to no avail,
I have requested on multiple occasions that the Substack police provide a "block user" button like they do on The Washington Post and other sites.
But they refuse.
I don't know how to report anything like trolling or the importation of suspect websites.
As far as the first is concerned, we should avoid both censorship and getting sidelined into arguments with fools.
FERN
I have reported him over 100 times (and I know many others have) I have gone into this name and muted him and/or blocked him several times. I have contacted the Substack help and questioned why, even though I have blocked him, I keep getting his junk. THEY NEVER ANSWER.
There are days that his nonsense so dominates that I stop reading all the comments--it's just too difficult to get around him.
If anyone has a way of contacting HCR, I truly wish they would do so!!
I truly believe that HCR's growing volume of followers and the attention she has garnered in the media, along with her recent best selling book, is making her an important target for misinformation.
I have reported him two or three times. hasn't seemed to make a bit of difference, alas.
I've reported him at least 50 times. I do it because he insults and disrupts. I guess I just have to ignore, but why should I be the one who has to abstain?
Substack will not ban anyone unless it violates such as threatening. First Amendment is sacrosanct. And likely the blog owner agrees. Ignore him. It’s that simple. He loves the attention it affords him.
He is here to diminish this forum and winning. I don't believe that the case has been made to HRC. Proper monitoring of this site is an appropriate subject to take with her.
I place my cursor on the line running down from his name, click and the entire thread collapses. I do miss the rebuttal comments, but it is worth it to me not to have to read Schmeckel's (misspelling intentional) dreck
Duly noted.
Better to ignore.
They get off on any response.
Why do deluded war-mongers want to continue pouring money down a sinking rat-hole?
Is Peter Burnett yet another supporter of Ukraine’s far-right one-party thug regime?
Ukraine may have its flat spots, but supporting Putin, by starving Ukraine, is no way to help ourselves or our European allies.
"Starving" Ukraine? They have plenty of food.
Ukraine has been enslaved as a proxy by the war-mongering Bidenistas to bleed Russia.
Is that you Alexander Smirnov?
Please ignore the troll.
Content-free trolling is the hallmark of brain-dead Bidenista war-mongers.
IF this is true, it is only because Putin is willing to sacrifice thousands of his own soldiers to murder innocents
Please ignore the troll.
"Murder innocents":
Absurd war-mongering Bidenista propaganda.
It also gives "aid and comfort" to our enemy. Also known as TRE45SON.
Peter it is Scary
You’ve said a mouthful with your statement. That’s exactly what this is. Right now it’s “bloodless” until one considers the unnecessary loss of life by others who will be affected by this feckless, reckless and frankly underhanded MAGA Speaker.
As we
If you look at a map of the US we have borders with Canada and Mexico. The border with Canada is 5525 miles and the Mexican border is 1950 miles. It is estimated that 2-3 times as many people without documentation come into the US from Canada as from Mexico.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/more-migrants-crossing-northern-border-canada-us-freezing-rcna69588
What a bunch of racists the Republicans are, caring only about people crossing the Mexican border. In the summer, migrant workers harvest crops in ME and work in the trades just like in FL, TX & CA. Without this labor, crops would rot in the fields, homes wouldn't be built and the vendors that service the 4 million visitors to Acadia National Park would close down.
Maybe the Republican House members should take another vacation through the end of the year -- with their good buddy Putin. It's not like they are going to get anything done because TFFG has already stopped anything from happening in the House.
I've been saying this for years. The so-called border issue is only about our southern border, and only about "the other" = blatant racism.
Just emailed my House Representative about getting this person, Johnson, out of the position of Speaker…
It reminds me of the show, "Pokerface" where every time someone lied to the main character she would say "BULLSHIT". I think that is what all of us should be yelling every time these guys open their mouths!
I love that show….cant wait for another season!
Us too! It was great fun!
“...all of us...” = The Media! Wouldn’t that be something?
And they wouldn't have voted no on the bill that they themselves crafted. They create their own Catch-22 situation and then leap into it when numbnuts tells them to (that would be Putin telling tRUMP to tell Johnson what to do)
If a few more Republican Congresscritters resign or switch parties then Jeffries could be the 'can do' Speaker and get things done. But they are ALL Putin's puppets because they don't want to get "primaried".
If only a GOP-Dem temporary coalition could be put together in the House....
Even just go independent should help, no?
Not fast enough to help NOW
This is our "Winter of Discontent," exposing the weakness in our democratic process. Trump, Jordan, Johnson, MTG et al. do not support the Constitution. Yet, there appears to be no quick, rational, legal way in which to move them out. Their "theory of government" is as confused disorganized and discombobulated as the mind of a schizophrenic. There is no organization or structure to it. The rest of us are paying the price for our schools' failure to teach students how to think critically along with courses/classes in history and government.
Sometimes I don't think that would have helped at all. Disinformation tends to grab those through their biases, and emotions hold sway.
Agreed Richard. They are running around each others in circles and getting nothing done. Frustrating to watch and feeling helpless that we can change anything.
The problem may be more bottom up than a teacher down. History is a perennial non-favourite among a majority of students, whether in US or in Canada where I live. New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, also perennially underperforms most of the rest of the country. It was like that when i was a kid, in the 50s. They keep churning out improvement schemes, only to eventually ditch them when another administration thinks they have a new wow idea, or to pawn off a litany of complaints. On a slightly different tack, lately, trans rights in schools have been a burning issue here, with the government taking a more pro parent approach, contrary to the advice of school and psych admins.
That there is a "trans issue" is very, very sad. I am one of 8 children and my oldest sib, a half-sister whose mother passed away 4 months after her birth, and I became very, very close after I finished serving four years in the U.S. Army and finished my B.A. at Whittier and M.A. at So. Cal. Tuck, as everyone knew her, owned a gay bar in Los Angeles and was respected by all. We grew to be very, very close. I often think of Carl Sagan's remark: "The most complicated thing in the known universe is the human brain." And then I think of some lines in "the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"
Listen again. One evening at the Close
of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose,
In that old Potter's shop I stood alone
With the clay Population round in Rows.
And, strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot
Some could articulate, while others not:
And suddenly one more impatient cried - -
"Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?
Shall He that made the Vessel in pure Love
And Fancy, in an after Rage destroy!"
None answer'd this; but after Silence spake
A Vessel of a more ungainly Make:
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"
Did the hand of the Potter shake? I feel so badly for our fellow humans who are gay, transgender and more, not because of who or what they are, but because of the pain and difficulty that we cause them as a consequence of our own ignorance and intolerance.
Thank you for the personal story, after all, all of these issues are based on personal experience and social interaction. Sadly, both Old and New Testaments didn't help. Paul in particular. Over stereotyping of gender norms is planet wide, to a fair degree as well. The potter metaphor is interesting, it also happens to be usually, a little differently, in Isaiah i believe.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of the most brilliant translations in any language. Edward Fitzgerald did an amazing job. And, I've always been intrigued by what went on in that "Potter's shop." As to Paul, if he did exist, I did some research about what could have happened on the road to Damascus. Syrian rue, a common halcuinatory drug back then has similar effects of LSD - bright, blinding flashing white lights. Paul tripped twice on his road to Damascus. At least one study has shown that those who underwent such an experience reported that it was the most profound experiences of their lives. As for Paul, there is no question but that it was a life-altering experience, a "trip" that changed the course of history.
I don't think we need to resort to drug experiences for Paul to have had visionary experiences, which he witnessed to in his letters. Scholarship generally has little doubt on his historical existence, mythicists and their one-track mindedness, notwithstanding. Paul's comments on homosexuality were likely par for the course in the Jewish culture he was raised, and hugely espoused. Conversion "born again" experiences, are an all too common experience in religious circles, esp in those which promote this kind of thing. eg Evangelicals. There is enough material in the NT to provide support for conversion experience.
I dont think ive read Rubaiyat, maybe i will sometime. Wiki says its authorial authenticity is a bit up for grabs, though that may not be an essential issue regarding its contents. At first i mistook this for The Prophet by Kalyle Gibran, which i enjoyed many years ago.
The problem is GOP state legislators are committed to Trump and are prepared to fix the elections for Trump.
They are drunk with the power to subvert the constitution and the will of the people and think we can be bullied and coerced with threats of violence.
They can't win with reason, foresight good judgement so are scared and fearful of those that have these qualities.
- We want young adults to fall in love and make babies who they love and care for, but not at the risk of their lives and Liberty.
- We need skilled and talented immigrants to build resilient secure supply chains, but not at the risk of global economic collapse and world wars.
- The New Deal did not have to end with Vietnam and Voting Rights. Neoliberalism does not mean Greed is Good. We need to reduce consumption and make room for human advancement.
Interesting thoughts! You've got most of my vote.
X 2,000. Get rid of these people. They are not there to do a job. In any other situation if an employee does not perform his job, and not only that but interferes with others attempting to work, they’d be FIRED. Let’s make that happen. 🤬😡
I can only give you one like, I would like to give you many more.
When the senate devised a bill with border protection, they included an inferior stipulation about more than 5,000 a day crossing over for a given week then the president could act. When I first read that, I knew it wouldn’t pass. It’s almost as if the senate purposely placed that add-on designed to fail. It was a deal breaker and they knew it. So why did they include it? Maybe politics as usual?
The border is broken. We need radical responses. Our cities are weighted down like never before. I have been expressing this for a long time yet when I have, I’ve been quite strongly criticized. The reason being that we take our que from those who we believe to be our leaders. We rarely think for ourselves. Forget the Maga republicans for a moment. Since Biden said we have had no problem, most of us democrats responded in kind. Now that some sense has entered and is suggesting that he needs to act, more of us democrats go along for the ride. But is it too little to late?
I beg you all to think for yourselves and don’t accept what is spoken as face value. Sometimes we also act according to public opinion in order to not lose at the polls. This border issue is so decisive even Trump knows he can win votes so I say, why feed the monster. Close the God damn border. Make the problem go away. But no we can’t because we too, are a dense lot.
I disagree. Don't close the border. Fix it. Pass the Senate bill that would help process the wave of humanity that is fleeing hunger and violence. They are coming anyway. They are coming anyway...for years to come.
And here is the thing Bill. We need workers. We are millions short of an adequate work force in all manner of employment. From construction to hospitals.
This is a bullshit manufactured "Willy Horton" style campaign football.
Immigrants commit less crime than native born Americans. And we need them.
BTW, the bill that Trump killed had a major provision for preventing the flow of fentanyl into the country. GOP MAGA HATERS voted against a law and order measure. Go figure.
The problem IS NOT immigration. That has been the bedrock of American success and greatness. The problem is how we embrace, and integrate eager young workers into our society. People who work hard and pay taxes - and help support Social Security.
The border can't be closed. We can't "make this issue go away. It is physically impossible unless we start shooting families from helicopters. People who pick our food. We CAN handle it better - to our advantage.
We created a "war on drugs" and it did nothing but make money for thugs. Prohibition worked just as well - made millionaires out of crooks. Our immigration policy does the same for human traffickers. The flow of humans eager to work should be welcomed.
The wave of humanity on its way to America and Europe is about as stoppable as the inevitable rising sea levels that are swamping coastal communities. Instead of "tilting at windmills" we could learn to adapt.
Good one, Bill.
Thank you, Bill Alstrom. You've stated so well a position about immigration I wish all could consider and embrace. To me, it's the only thing that makes sense: a compassionate resolution based on evidence and reason.
Ditto. Great post, Bill. I would add that there is a higher rate of entrepreneurship among immigrants than among native-born Americans... and some of these businesses they start are hugely successful.
Bill, really appreciate your thoughtful & accurate (IMHO) portrayal of immigration. I remember, back in the 80’s, being at a conference of student financial aid administrations (we’re more fun than it sounds!) where a speaker spoke of the changing demographics in CA (and the nation) in the decades to come and how it might impact higher ed. Perhaps it was growing up in a fairly diverse little town, that his statement created zero alarm in me….only thought about what interesting changes might come as our country evolves, while staying true to our vision.
On the topic of immigration world-wide….it is NOT just a “southern US border” situation (look at the issues in Europe currently) as so many go on and on about….there are profound implications in the decades to come if, indeed, as climate scientists predict, the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation that will substantially alter the climate of much of Europe—meaning food production is at risk (there are issues of the Pacific current systems as well). Likely, given the current world population, we may have a huge displacement of people south…a reverse, of sorts, of the current movement north. This will not happen in our lifetimes, but of those of coming generations: https://slate.com/technology/2024/02/amoc-ocean-current-collapsing-day-after-tomorrow-climate-change.html. The Earth is a dynamic place and the more that humans fiddle/impact the “controls”, the more we see the consequences.
Thanks for the kind words. I will be elaborating on the immigration issue in my next substack letter. I hope to have it "cleaned up" and fully edited by tomorrow or Friday.
The recent killing of a student by an immigrant has sent the discussion into orbit - beyond reasonable discussion - but I will try.
My wife recently clued me into the alarm bells being rung by oceanic scientists. The "AMOC" situation is almost as alarming as an asteroid hitting the Earth.
A wise species would get ready to be very flexible. Your point about people moving south is a good one. AMOC collapse could turn the whole immigration discussion on its head.
When the "Northern Isles" become more like Alaska, Spain and Portugal could see quite an influx of shivering Brits. And imagine the incredible irony of thousands of whites headed south to Africa. Montanans moving to Mexico! They make movies like this.
Yeah, have seen the movie “Day After Tomorrow” a couple of times…..a speeded up version of what is happening in slo-mo to most folks, and gives an “excuse” for them to ignore that our house (Earth) is on fire. I do what I can/am able to, even if it is a drop in the bucket.
Bill, I fear the Repubs ARE doing their job as they have seen it since Newt Gingrich was Speaker; the job of defeating anything which makes Dems look good up to and including shutting down the government and apparently even that isn't off-limits. For Repubs, the main job is not governing but winning the next election. So no amouint of "fixing what they say is broke (e,g,- the border) is going to make them relent and actually get around to doing what we all THINK or wish they were elected to do, run a government. Party above country every time for the Repubs.
“No amount of fixing” is right, we’re all in trouble.
How about REBPULICONS
Wait a minute. I live close to the southern border and hordes are not crossing the border illegally and entering the US every day. I see what I see. They are requesting asylum at points of entry. The process does need to be fixed and Biden is not the only president who has been tasked with that job when it should be CONGRESS (for decades).
It’s a complicated mess to be sure. And while I in fact don’t advocate “closing” the border, I do advocate for a robust response and those crossing illegally should be turned back. And the other component here is that I want democrats to win elections and this mess is sure to foster a defeat. Now do you get it?
Nope.
Close the border? With US' largest trading partner? While political Rome burns, beneath it all immigrants of all legal stripe continue to work the fields of agribusiness galore, and the US needs them!
Time for critisizing Johnson is waste. Demos should approach a group of several Repulicans to impeach Johnson. Dems will join, and elect a replacement from the group to pass the Senate bill which include the border policy. Johnson and MAGA can cry foul, but so what.
Their first priority is Trump's reelection.
'What Does the Uncommitted Vote in Michigan Mean for 2024?'
'The share of Arab American and Muslim voters is small but could be decisive in a close race.' (NYTimes, by Nate Cohn, excerpts)
'In Tuesday night’s results in Michigan, around one in eight Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary — a protest of the Biden administration’s policies toward Israel and the war in Gaza.'
'In some predominantly Arab American precincts in Dearborn, around three in four Democrats cast a protest vote for uncommitted.'
'Having one in eight Democrats vote uncommitted in an uncontested primary is not wholly unusual. As recently as the last time a Democratic president sought re-election, in 2012, 11 percent of Michigan Democratic caucusgoers voted for “uncommitted” instead of for Barack Obama.'
'Having three in four Democratic primary voters in Arab American communities do it, on the other hand, is an eye-popping figure. It goes well beyond the norm, and it’s a powerful indication that the war in Gaza poses serious political risks to President Biden.'
Cohn didn't mention how Biden's policy with reference to Israel affected his votes in college towns around the country. College students as indicated in Michigan's Democratic primary
ballots were among the undecided.
'For Annabel Bean, a sophomore pursuing a double major in Spanish and social theory at University of Michigan, voting “uncommitted” is a way to pressure Biden directly. Describing herself as an anti-Zionist Jew, she said she knows that it is not antisemitic to support Palestinian liberation.'
“It is a very Jewish value to stand up for the oppressed,” 'she said.'
'Bean is also co-chair of the University of Michigan chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Young Democratic Socialists, and she is active in the call for the University of Michigan to divest funds that are invested in companies and funds that support and profit from Israel’s war.'
“I’m voting ‘uncommitted’ because I know my vote, my tuition money cannot go towards genocide,” 'she said.'
'Bean has been having lots of positive and productive conversations with friends and family. She found that a lot of people were worried that voting “uncommitted” would be the same as a vote for Trump.'
“But it is not, it’s a vote to not be complicit,” 'she said.' (PBSNews)
Back to Nat Cohen, analyzing Michigan's primary vote for the NY Times.
'What does it mean for the general election? That’s not an easy question to answer, but here are four things to consider.'
'1. A protest vote is hard to interpret'
'A vote for “uncommitted” was a serious form of protest against Mr. Biden, but it’s just not the same as voting for Donald J. Trump in the general election. That simple fact limits how much we can read into the results for November, especially as there was no exit poll to offer insight into the attitudes of protest voters.'
'At the same time, it’s also possible that Mr. Biden’s problems go well beyond those who voted uncommitted in a primary. The typical Democratic primary voter is disproportionately old, white and loyal to Democrats. Mr. Biden might be faring even worse among the kinds of Democratic-leaning voters who stayed home.'
'2. Protest votes have a history'
'Even though it may be hard to interpret a protest vote in a primary, the risk of defection from this group of voters should be taken seriously. This issue is very personal for them. There are also signs of defection in the polling, including in the last Times/Siena poll in Michigan. And their arguments for defection — complicity in genocide — are plainly enough to switch a vote if taken at face value.'
'There’s another reason it should be taken seriously: history. Major foreign policy conflicts have often reshaped the electoral map, especially among immigrant communities whose identity have remained tied to their home countries.'
'The War on Terror. Arab and Muslim Americans swung toward Democrats in the wake of 9/11, the war on terror and the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq. That was even true in Michigan, where Dearborn voted for George W. Bush in 2000 before voting for John Kerry by a 19-point margin in 2004. Sound familiar?'
'The relatively recent history of Arab American and Muslim voters being more favorable toward Republican candidates makes it even easier to envision a shift back to Republicans today. This isn’t a liberal voting group.'
'3. The effect is small'
'With that history, one could imagine Arab American and Muslim voters lurching decidedly toward Mr. Trump. That would obviously be bad news for Mr. Biden, but there’s one consolation for Democrats: These voters are a small share of the electorate, and it’s hard to see even a huge swing being decisive.'
'Imagine, for a moment, that in the last election Mr. Biden had lost every single voter in Dearborn, Hamtramck and Dearborn Heights — the three Michigan townships where Arab Americans make up at least 30 percent of the population. He still would have won Michigan — and still would have won it by more than he did Wisconsin, Arizona or Georgia.'
'For that same reason, Mr. Biden’s deficit in the polling of Michigan can’t mostly be attributed to his weakness among Arab American and Muslim voters. Overall, Arab Americans make up 2 percent of the state’s population and probably an even smaller share of the electorate. There are non-Arab Muslim voters, of course, adding another percentage point or more. In the end, 3 percent of the electorate can only do so much.'
'4. Still, anything could be decisive'
'Because the country is so narrowly divided, every vote counts, and right now Mr. Biden appears to need every vote he can get. If Arab American and Muslim voters swing by 30 points toward Mr. Trump, as suggested by our Times/Siena poll in Michigan, that could cost Mr. Biden a percentage point in a critical battleground state where he’s already trailing in the polls. If the race were close enough, it’s possible these voters could decide the 2024 election.' (NYTimes)
See link below, sorry that it could not be gifted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/upshot/michigan-primary-biden-2024.html
WORK AROUND this misguided trump supporter!!!
That voting them out will be too late for Ukraine.
Cosa Lying Nostra
Thank you Professor for today's letter and for every day's. How can "government by the people" be stuck by one person?!
It’s Tommy Potatohead all over again. One person holding up government’s business. There has to be a way out of this mess. I’m horrified by the way our government can be stuck in this manner. Get religion out of it. Get trump out of our government. He has no right to have any control over government now. He is not in any power at all.
I think civilization, a just civil society, requires baseline solidarity. That is what the Constitution is finally about. What international conventions of "rules of war" are about. An agreement that some duties are allotted to and are to be upheld by every person. Violations are commonplace, but the difference between maintaining that commitment and abandonment of it is the difference between a an earthly heaven or hell, and illustration of this abound. Extreme self-absorption and selfishness can make us into monsters.
Democracy deadlocked in extremism over incendiary, non-negotiable issues is a danger to its very institutions. In a more extreme situation, that's what happened in post ww1 Germany. One side got in, legally, then took over the rest. Democracies work best with differences allow for compromise, back and forth. As we well know, democratic institutions also failed, utterly, with the US Civil War.
JL, you seem to be keeping your head, while all those around you are losing theirs. We cannot save the Constitution by violating it.
JL, from my read you are proposing a society of people who live and breathe consciousness. Bring it on. It would be a relief.
HCR writes that "lawmakers agree on a bipartisan basis that Ukraine’s successful defense against Russia’s invasion is crucial to U.S. national security."
What a BIG LIE. We provoked Russia.
We shoved and shoved Russia, and finally they shoved back.
Some of these war-mongering neo-con lawmakers whom HCR pushes are 99 years old, just like Trump and Biden. In the name of "national security," they are leading us toward financial destruction:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-27-2024/comment/50520492
I told you John, to go back to your basement or Mother Russia is preferable with your lies. smh
Report him; look at the amount of garbage he spews and spreads - the space he takes up - and the time wasted by subscribers. He is a lure that is working.
I reported him this morning as a habitual troll.
Good! Do/ submit a Report for/ on each and every one of his posts. One report may not amount to much but numerous reports for numerous posts likely will.
Thanks, Fern, for the reminder to report disinformation. This troll is beyond annoying!
Just ignore.
They get off on a response.
Please ignore the troll,
said the lonely troll
Another deluded bloodthirsty neo-con war-monger blathers "Putin Putin" like a Pavlovian dog.
So I guess we’re also responsible for Russia (and Putin’s) rape and pillage (and their attempt of total destruction) of Ukraine too? Russia’s actions are reprehensible and need to be dealt strongly with.
Please ignore the troll.
Rape? Pillage? Total destruction? Remember the fake story about Saddam Hussein and the baby incubators that enraged Americans so we supported Bush's war against Iraq: We are being routinely lied to.
Deleted for reasons cited below.
Ignore. Has a head like Ned Kelly's armor.
Wish there were a giggle button. Good one!
Please ignore the troll.
...said the lonely troll
My regrets for letting my too much hot blood and too little sleep get the better of me. 😳 Mr Schmeekle -- ¿sp.?; can not see his name -- has a right to voice his opinions and I have a right not to listen to him. ⚖️ Perhaps I should exercise my right more often. 🙂
You sound unhappy, John. Believe me tho, there is no "We". Your problems are personal! Have you tried any of the many soothing ointments available over the counter? If you wash carefully first and then REALLY GET IT UP THERE quick relief usually follows. Go on - don't be ashamed, give it a try!
Please ignore the troll.
...said the lonely troll
The American leadership, Democratic and Republican, provoked Russia, over and over. And McCarthyist shills intimidate people who try to point out the aggressive American charade.
Oh John, please repeat your reasoning on how "we" provoked Russia. I want to understand your reasoning that leads you to conclude that Ukraine pivoting towards Europe and away from Russia justifies a military attack. Is Ukraine less legitimate than other previous Soviet satellite countries? Is NATO's charter offensive or defensive, or is its simple existence offensive? Should we let Putin push Russia to roll over any country they want? Do you not believe that Europe's stability and prosperity are beneficial to the US?
Please ignore the troll.
...said the lonely troll
We unleashed the "shock therapy" genocide that killed off all the old people in Russia.
(LOOK OUT Baby Boomers -- your turn is coming.)
We pushed NATO east to Russia's doorstep, after promising not to.
Then we supported a "color revolution" against the Russia-friendly President of Ukraine, but he got voted back into office because Russian speakers were a small majority in hodge-podge, cobbled-together Ukraine.
Then we supported a "color revolution" that overthrew he Russia-friendly government of Georgia; Russia created a "frozen conflict" that blocked Georgia from joining NATO.
Then in 2014 we supported another "color revolution" in Ukraine, this time with neo-Nazi thugs to make it stick.
Russia took back Crimea and created another "frozen conflict," blocking Ukraine from joining NATO.
Actually, there was a pathway to peace through this frozen conflict -- the Minsk Agreements -- but Merkel and Macron both admitted that they didn't take the Minsk Agreements seriously; it was just to give Ukraine time to rearm.
Then Zelensky got elected on a promise to make peace, and moved toward implementing the Minsk Agreements. But neo-Nazi war-mongers threatened to kill him, so he capitulated and started building up to invade the Donbass.
Finally Zelensky was ready for his Donbass invasion, with a 3-to-1 superiority of troops on the line of contact. Russia built up their troops on Ukraine's border and signed mutual defense treaties with the breakaway Donbass republics.
When Ukraine began its pre-invasion bombardment, Russia intervened.
I will answer your other questions later, as time permits.
I don't suppose that you are interested in a sincere exchange of views. Many people around here are just interested in parroting Bidenista talking points.
John, While in general I find Biden's domestic policies effective, I pause and leave my certainty behind for most international issues, because I realize I may know less than nothing. While my knee jerk impulse is to disagree, I also know that the US is quite cavalier and heavy handed in its approach to international affairs. Even CNN and MSNBC say so, but I also know I've swallowed the story line that supports our military industrial complex's robust health and later realized that too many parts of it was bullshit.
You've taken quite a bit of time to present a coherent picture of the background regarding NATO, Ukraine, and Russia. Do I agree? I don't know. But I will save this exchange and find sources I trust. Your series of posts give me a few topics to research. I am in no position to claim to be knowledgeable enough to exchange view. For the opportunity to educate myself, I thank you.
(Part 2)
Jerry Helfhand,
In answer to your question, "Is Ukraine less legitimate than other previous Soviet satellite countries?"
"Little" Ukraine and neighboring Novorossiya were not satellite countries. They were integral parts of Russia before Germany knocked Russia out of World War I in 1917.
Then came Communist chaos and civil war until 1921, when the Soviet regime stapled little Ukraine and Novorossiya together, forming bilingual (Russian and Ukrainian languages) big Ukraine.
This bilingual nature of Ukraine is important, because when the neo-Nazis took over after the Maidan Revolution and terrorized the ethnic Russian members of Ukraine’s parliament into staying home, the first thing they did was pass a law banning the Russian language.
(to be continued)
(Part 3)
Jerry Helfhand, you posed the question:
"Is NATO's charter offensive or defensive, or is its simple existence offensive?"
I think that the way to deal with this question, from Russia's perspective, is to think through NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/diplomacy060699.htm
"Russia supported Yugoslavia's insistence that no foreign troops, especially those from NATO countries, should be allowed on Yugoslav territory.
"'When you say Serbia and Kosovo, Chernomyrdin thinks of Russia and Chechnya,' said NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, referring to the breakaway province that tried to secede from Moscow's rule. 'The Russians are always worried that NATO wants to exploit their insecurities.'
As a wounded former superpower, Russia was seething with resentment over NATO's decision to launch its first attack on a sovereign state, despite its claim to be a purely defensive alliance. In the wake of NATO's recent expansion toward Russia's doorstep, the bombing of Yugoslavia was seen as a hostile expression of NATO ambition at a time of Russian weakness."
(Part 2.2)
Post-Soviet Ukraine was like post-Communist Yugoslavia. Both countries were artificial amalgamations imposed by outside forces without any voting by the people. Both countries, after the end of Communism, devolved into civil war, but that process took longer in Ukraine.
NATO intervened in the Yugoslav civil war as progressed Saturn was exactly conjunct the Ascendant in the correct U.S. horoscope (set for May 15, 1776 at 5:00 p.m. in Philadelphia.)
(Part 2.1)
Here's a map of Ukraine in 1917 in the middle of a civil war (outlined in red) showing all the other parts that were added over the years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya#/media/File%3AUkraine_Historical_Borders.svg
Ukraine in 1991 was an artificial creation that had been cobbled together by arbitrary Soviet decisions, apparently driven by the desire to keep the Russian-speaking population above 50%.
(Part 6)
Jerry Helfhand,
You pose the final question:
"Do you not believe that Europe's stability and prosperity are beneficial to the US?"
Yes, I certainly do. And as with de-dollarization and our newly hateful imperialist image among the darker-skinned countries, Biden has recklessly sabotaged European prosperity and stability, first with anti-Russian sanctions that punched the Euro-zone economy in the gut, second with the ongoing military aid to Ukraine that has drained the European NATO countries of their defense arsenal, and third with Biden's sabotage of the Nordstream pipeline that is threatening to de-industrialize Germany because of the newly high price of energy.
Blinken and Biden seem to be hopelessly stuck on stupid.
(finished)
(Part 5.1)
In this protracted proxy war in Ukraine, the NATO countries are losing the propaganda war among the darker-skinned countries, especially after Biden wanted to keep sending more bombs to Israel for the genocide in Gaza.
This protracted proxy war has also accelerated de-dollarization, overcoming obstacles within Russia and spreading strongly to other BRICS countries.
Sergei Glazyev, Russia's Minister for Foreign Trade under President Yeltsin, has a lot to say about that:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240228/rocky-road-to-dedollarization-sergei-glazyev-interview--1117034183.html
Of course de-dollarization will eventually ruin American finances and crush Biden's "Vampire Liberal" habit of sucking money from other countries through Unpayable Debt to finance Worthwhile Programs. In other words, with his Ukrainian misadventure, Biden is putting our economic security at grave risk.
(Part 5)
Your question about letting Putin and Russia roll over any country they want doesn't seem to fit the particular circumstances with Ukraine, where they face the threat of a reverse Cuban Missile Crisis after western meddling overthrew the Russia-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014.
People around here don't accept that perspective, and neither does the Biden administration, which will make negotiations difficult as Ukraine's military machine stumbles and sputters.
Americans and others from NATO have been refusing to take seriously Russia's concerns about security guarantees. Until we do, there won't be any peace, except the peace of the grave.
(Part 3.1)
NATO "aggressively" (from Russia's perspective) bombed its ally Serbia back to the Stone Age.
NATO's justification for this became part of Russia's justification for invading Ukraine. The article linked below fails to mention Ukraine's armed far-right "Neo-Nazi" gangs operating with impunity as their political boss Arsen Avakov controlled Ukraine's police.
Still "What Putin Learned from NATO's 1999 Intervention in Kosovo" is worth careful study:
https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/what-putin-learnt-from-natos-1999-intervention-in-kosovo/
It is indeed an interesting article.
''The lesson Putin learned was that if he could make Russia a player using 200 men, he could make it a winner with the whole might of the Russian military and that the powers to his west did not have the stomach to stand in his way.
In February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia and was backed by most of the EU countries and the USA. Putin argued that this set a precedent — NATO had gone in to ‘protect lives’ and then supported independence. Six months later he invaded Georgia ostensibly to protect Russian speaking minorities. He went on to recognise the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent.
Putin uses this ‘Kosovo Precedent’ to argue Russia’s case in Ukraine. After invading Crimea in 2014 Moscow organised an independence referendum. The document formally declaring the subsequent independence from Ukraine mentions the Kosovo story as part of a legal justification to secede. Similar arguments are made about the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic in the parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region which were de facto occupied by Russia before February’s invasion.
Citing Kosovo as justification for a ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine is attractive to the hardmen in the Kremlin because it allows them to pursue the moral argument state-controlled media sells the Russian public every day. However, it does not stand up to scrutiny, and when repeated by Putin’s apologists outside of Russia contributes to the attempted whitewashing of war crimes.
NATO’s intervention in Serbia followed a decade of state sponsored slaughter and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans the majority of which was conducted by the regime in Serbia led by Slobodan Milosevic. Thousands of Kosovan Albanians had been murdered in the run up to the conflict and hundreds of thousands displaced. It is worth noting for balance that Kosovan forces also committed war crimes and terror acts against Serb civilians, albeit far fewer.
Most NATO countries had spent the 1990s trying not to get drawn into the Balkan conflicts. Regime change was not an aim of the NATO powers during the Kosovo War. France, Germany and the UK had no intention of making Kosovo part of France, Germany, or the UK. NATO’s ground forces did not engage in mass killings of civilians in Kosovo nor mass deportations to another country.
Russian troops have invaded a sovereign country which posed no military threat to it whatsoever. There had been no systematic and widespread war crimes against Russian speakers in Ukraine in the run up to February’s invasion. The Russian justification that they needed to ‘denazify’ Ukraine is based on isolated examples of pro-Nazi sentiment and one abhorrent militia. There is no evidence that Ukraine’s government is ‘genocidal’ as argued by Moscow. Putin’s long-term plan seems to have been that Ukraine would become part of Russia.
The ‘Kosovo Precedent’ for the invasion is more the ‘Kosovo Pretext.’ However, governments in many countries should have better understood what Putin took from Kosovo and prepared for what was coming.''
https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/what-putin-learnt-from-natos-1999-intervention-in-kosovo/
Thank you, R Dooley, for extracting the essence of that article. I think that the problematic part is the following quote:
"Russian troops have invaded a sovereign country which posed no military threat to it whatsoever. There had been no systematic and widespread war crimes against Russian speakers in Ukraine in the run up to February’s invasion. The Russian justification that they needed to ‘denazify’ Ukraine is based on isolated examples of pro-Nazi sentiment and one abhorrent militia."
he is not in government right now but he is the head of the republican party and the MAGA crowd.
It's called cthe Tooberville syndrome". Putting one person in charge of something affecting the entire world that they know absolutely nothing about. Johnson is perfect. That's why the FAR far far right picked him. He will do anything because he doesn't know any better
Or even one party. The framers appear to have expected controversy in governance, but justice always involves so kind of balance. Presumably that's why iconic lady justice holds a scale. Justice can be way more complicated than that icon illustrates, but dynamic balance is essential to life. the life sciences are replete with it.
And that's not often just taking a middle way. Dynamic balance in a 4-dimensional universe reveals a real-world need to keep priorities straight.
For sure, democracy works when opposing positions don't get too far apart.
Interested in quantifying Trump's underperformances? Stormy Daniels would be a good place to start! As for underperforming elections: According to the polls, Trump was meant to win: - Iowa by 53 points (he won by 30) - New Hampshire by 18 points (he won by 11) - South Carolina by 28 points (he won by 20) - Michigan by 62 points (he's up by 42). Dump may own the pollsters, but he don’t own us!
Actually, the discrepancies could be argued as evidence of vote fraud. Both parties do it; it's just part of the political landscape.
If ignorance is bliss, why are the republicans so damn depressed?
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Exactly! I understand the checks and balances, but there is nothing "balanced" about this. He needs to be overridden. Surely there is some provision somewhere to allow for that in circumstances like this.
I put the following query to Bing:
"The NSA (National Security Agency) monitors international communication for threats to American security. If they detected collusion between Putin and Trump, would this be brought to the attention of the Justice Department for prosecution for treason? Could this be extended to a RICO prosecution for Johnson and other MAGA leaders in Congress?"
Part of Bing's response:
"Collusion Between Putin and Trump:
If the NSA detected collusion between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. President Donald Trump, it would likely be a matter of significant national security concern.
The NSA’s primary role is intelligence gathering, not prosecution. It would likely share relevant information with other agencies, such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), which handles legal matters.
Prosecution for Treason:
Treason is a serious offense, but its legal definition is specific. It involves aiding an enemy during wartime or attempting to overthrow the government.
Collusion alone may not meet the legal threshold for treason. However, it could lead to other charges related to espionage, conspiracy, or other offenses.
RICO Prosecution:
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is typically used to combat organized crime.
Applying RICO to political leaders would be highly unusual. It requires evidence of a criminal enterprise engaging in a pattern of illegal activity.
While some may argue that certain political actions resemble organized crime, proving a RICO case against elected officials would be challenging.
In summary, the NSA’s role is intelligence gathering, and legal actions fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies like the DOJ. Any potential prosecutions would depend on the specific evidence and legal standards applicable to each situation."
I can only speak for myself Carla. In order to have a government for the people, of the people and by the people we must have “ the people “ actively involved in all three. I read a lot and donate money but I have not been actively engaged. I hope it is not too late.
The one big question
The House Republican treason conspiracy is going on in front of us! Arrest 15 of the traitors - Marjorie Traitor Goon, Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy and Scott Perry, and the rest of the top leadership of the Fweedumb Kawkuss. Charge them with Treason and then hold them in the DC jail. They're not there in the House and the rest of the dweebs are scared shitless they're next on the arrest list. Then hold the votes.
Tom Why doesn’t Tucker Carlson take this gaggle of traitors to Moscow to experience a. Putinesque life?
That'd be a good idea.
They’re all afraid of Moscow’s windows!
Vladivostok would be a better choice. There are no fake grocery stores on the east coast of Russia which are filled with fake food from the west. During the Cold War the Russian propaganda machine showed us what they pretended was a Utopian society.
Or pick almost any other city more than 50 miles east of Moscow.
Gary This was the origin of Potemkin Village—-a facade that Russians built to disguise the poor conditions.
I like that idea, Keith!👏🏼👏🏼
And leave them there…
TCinLA, yes, I agree. Hey, AG Garland, we have a mob of Enemies of the State in Congress. Please have them removed.
"Arrest 15 of the traitors - Marjorie Traitor Goon, Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy and Scott Perry, and the rest of the top leadership of the Fweedumb Kawkuss. Charge them with Treason and then hold them in the DC jail. "
"Hey, AG Garland, we have a mob of Enemies of the State in Congress. Please have them removed."
TCinLA, MTree et al
Yikes!
No!
Think it through.
Seriously.
lin* You are quoting another commenter. I didn"t write those words.
And change all these situations that can be held hostage by ONE PERSON. It's "of the people, for the people, by the people" not just one person. It's ridiculous
Pelosi did a grand job.
"going on in front of us" yes.
The problem is that that is not what anyone can seriously call a democracy.
technically it is a...
DYSFUNCTIONAL PARTISANOCRACY.
You heard it coined right here
Follow the money.
lol, gift of phrase here. not sure it will make it into Webster's right away!
I would include Gym Jordan and James Comer in that first round up!
Who has the authority to do all this arresting? What are the actual tactical methods by which your plan can be carried out? What are the legal steps that can be taken to remove these people from office?
Now that's a Pandora's Box you really don't want to open! Wait til expulsion/incarceration become the ping pong ball of opposing partisans, just look at GOP's current fad of running baseless impeachment projects.
I don't think Biden is naive, but he made a colossal error in judgment when he appointed a jurist as Attorney General. The country had just come breathtakingly close to succumbing to a coup attempt by the former president and his evil cabal! How could Biden not see that this was a pivotal moment in history??
It was obvious to me and I believe many others that Biden was out of touch with reality when he offered an olive branch to Republicans during his inaugural address. How could he not understand the enormity of what had just happened weeks before? He basically allowed Republicans off the hook and a chance to once again rewrite history and recast the narrative. It was typical Democratic politics to treat Republicans as if they were honest brokers legitimately serving all Americans, but who had a slightly different ideology about how to legislate and govern.
The country was (and still is) on the brink of collapse and the times demanded a brilliant and aggressive prosecutor as Attorney General to lead the Department of Justice. He is the chief law enforcement officer in America! He is charged with protecting the Constitution and upholding the rule of law. And, at this point in history, he needed to do everything in his power to save the union and punish enemies of the Republic. How is it that everyone in America could see what was happening, but not Biden and the Democrats? Any long time observer of government could see what the Republicans and their wealthy backers have been trying to do over the last 40 years. Why haven't hard core Democrats and Republicans been more alarmed by how most voters are not at all happy with how the country is being governed and cannot find a home in either party? Should have been a red flag when so many voters have chosen to vote for the lesser of two bad choices or choosing to not voting at all. Instead, blaming people who are not engaged or don't vote has been a tired excuse for not addressing what people are implicitly wanting. In my lifetime, it has been obvious that most politicians have been far better at representing and advocating for their wealthy backers who give them power and keep them in power than addressing the most basic needs of most Americans.
Again, Garland has been an abysmal failure, and now Biden is paying the price as our government is dissembling and the country is in a constant state of chaos. All the good Biden has done has effectively been tarnished and trivialized because a feckless and incompetent Attorney General has refused to root out enemies of the state. Garland has not done his job! He has given undue and unwarranted deference to politicians and powerful people who have betrayed their loyalty to America. He has refused to arrest and aggressively prosecute traitors and seditionists who are desperately trying to escape accountability for their treachery and steal power to pursue a brutal authoritarian regime that serves only the wealthy.
How is it that the Department of Justice can allow someone who clearly led a coup, stole national secrets and lied tens of thousands of times to walk free and continue to run for president. It's madness! As we all know, the danger and the threat goes much deeper than Trump, and why are those people (known to everyone) not in jail and being prosecuted. How can a rogue Supreme Court not fall under a system of checks and balances? Trump and most Republicans are brazen traitors and they are effectively dodging their high crimes and misdemeanors by a dysfunctional judicial system. America is in crisis because of a feckless and weak Attorney General (and by extension, the president,) a rogue Supreme Court and a corrupted legal system.
Anyone who thinks that the country will be saved through elections, doesn't understand how elections are won or loss, nor do they understand that we don't have a true representative democracy. Despite representing a clear minority, Republicans have methodically flipped the levers of power in the majority of states, implanted right wing extremists on the Supreme Court and the lower courts, and more recently have gone into cahoots with sworn long time enemies of the free World. How can a party of white supremacists and Christo-fascists have so much control over our lives in the 21st century? This is not the government the Founding Fathers so thoughtfully crafted and ratified 234 years ago.
This is one election where voting for the lesser of two bad choices will not save the Union. These are drastic times and they required, indeed demanded, drastic actions! Repeated failures over many years to uphold, preserve and protect the Constitution and the Rule of Law is going to be our downfall.
So, what drastic actions are you suggesting?
@TCinLA
Shirley you can't be serious.
Our Heather today has got the whole lousy scenario exactly correct.
U.S. Republicans lead terror campaigns. House speaker Howdy Doody works for Trump. They both work for Putin. Comer and Jordan have openly worked for what we now know as total Russian lies.
And yet, today is also publication date of Barbara McQuade's "Attack from Within," in which she urges respect for truth in exactly reverse proportion as Republicans serve lies, and their media package hatred and lies.
She asks us to get offline, and meet real people.
She knows that if you love someone or something, that very specifically has a vital pull on you.
The specific part matters vitally. If you love, you will be sensitive to how the object of your love might be ever hurt, and by whom.
Think about the great novels and other American writings, where the rich love no one, love nothing but money and the power money gives them. Do people get hurt by these rich? That’s always the story, whether it’s Booth Tarkington’s “The Magnificent Ambersons,” Hammett’s “Red Harvest, “ Faukner’s “The Mansion” Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” Walter Mosley's "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned," or Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead."
One thing you will never do if you love someone, or something (a community) – you’ll keep that in focus. You’ll never allow some puffed-up abstraction to let you betray your love.
And yet look at how today’s Republicans across the U.S. nurse lies, broadcast lies, repeat lies, always drumming up cheap sensationalism, scripts of group hatreds. Their incessantly cheapened slogans, cant, and buzz word jargon drowns out all humanities. Just as their standardized testing regimes have drowned out humanities in all U.S. K-12. As wonk and “theory” guarantees no humanities ever get through all “higher” ed’s neutered silos.
You must be 100% correct. Trolls say it’s so.
I'm cutting this one out and putting it where I can find it.
Phil Balla blathers incoherently that Trump and the House Speaker "work for Putin."
DJT and the House Speaker and all the other domestic terrorists in the House Of Representatives DO work for Putin. Schumeekle, you are the one that blathers incoherently, so go back to your bridge and troll there.
Please ignore the troll.
Great suggestion, i am not going to give him the time of day any longer, he makes me angry at times with his unrelenting insults and total disrespect for Heather Richardson Cox. I am just going to ignore him from now on just like i ignore my arrogant MAGAT neighbors. Thank you, Sharon. That troll must be extremely insecure to act the way he does.
John T Phillips has been drinking the same bigoted kool-aid as Phil Balla.
Violator of 2023:Terms of Use aka a troll reported.
I've reported him five times in the last ten minutes.
As you may know, Platform "content moderation" was argued at SCOTUS in the last week.
Texas meaning Abbott & Florida meaning Desantis were looking for a Club to beat up on Tech Platforms. Likely will be Denied.
We are much different as Substack "Readers" are paid Subscribers with contracts under Substack's choice of California law which requires contractual good faith & fair dealings. Substack's lawyers are capable.
Spring is almost here.
Comment deleted for reasons cited below.
My regrets for letting my too much hot blood and too little sleep get the better of me. 😳 Mr Schmeekle -- ¿sp.?; can not see his name -- has a right to voice his opinions and I have a right not to listen to him. ⚖️ Perhaps I should exercise my right more often. 🙂
Ned, nor will he
No, you are the one that has been drinking the DJT kool-aid and it has warped your tiny brain. Go back to your bridge and troll there. A-hole. Bigot troll.
Name calling is this troll’s only weapon when his views are challenged. I have wasted time with him, putting some fact before him which he can’t reconcile with his position. He ignores it and goes to name calling. Save your breath, is my advice. He is enjoying this.
Funny, when I pushed back in exasperation, I got a lecture on being filled with hostility. 🙂 And, of course, I was and that oxygenated more churlish behavior. 😵💫 Think your lesson is finally getting through my thick Celtic cranium. 😉
Ignore the troll.
You gave me the same wise advice. How does oxygenating churlish behavior like this help anyone or any cause?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/the-hard-truths-and-high-cost-of-the-russiagate-scandal
The buzz word jargon of Hitler and Mussolini did the deed on Germany and Italy, only now amplified through social media. McQuade asks us to get out of our basements to go offline.
We must win the House this Roevember.
In the meantime, the damage done is likely incalculable.
"Roevember," indeed, Evelyn!
Already incalculable.
And with no remedy in sight. No retribution yet for treason.
In Saudi Arabia these would have lost their heads long ago. If their boss should gain power, he and his backers have promised similar "retribution".
Such retribution will in effect be universal. The whole world his hostage.
Evelyn, some of the damage is an estimated 26,000 women in Texas carrying their rapist’s babies. So much for Gov. Abbott getting rid of rape in the state.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2024/01/25/texas-had-estimated-26000-pregnancies-from-rape-since-total-abortion-ban/?outputType=amp
Now there's a real candidate for incarceration. I have friends in Texas, and I cannot understand why they stay there. They're liberal, and part of the minority that would like to see him ousted. Along with his Attorney General, another reprehensible official.
James, many of us came for the jobs and stay because our kids live here.
Right on. The notion "Why don't all the families affected by bad legislation just move OUT of Texas?" is a ridiculous straw-man argument. That is impossible. Only a small fraction of families can move away from an authoritarian reign of control.
The cheating is already incalculable and the lying has just started.
And once the House and Senate are back in the control of the saner elements, they need to pass ethics laws and term limits for SCOTUS. And then amend the US Constitution to include term limits for SCOTUS and Congress. Senator Collins has been reelected four times and works for McConnell. We need representatives that represent WE THE PEOPLE.
Will be irreversible
At least in my life. (72yo)
Mine too, I fear
The writers of the Constitution took care to ensure that there would be no "king," but now we have a Speaker of the House who for all practical purposes is acting like a supreme ruler, a king. How did our government evolve to make that possible?
By catering too much for many years. I have watched it over and over. As Derek delGaudio said on Twitter before it was X, “I used to rig card games for a living. I’d watch people sit down and lose everything, again and again, but they didn’t lose because they “played by the rules,” and we didn’t. They lost because it wasn’t a game. It just looked like one. Democrats think it’s a game.” Dems still think it’s the same political game that has always gone on. Still playing by the rules, while repubs gave up on the rules with Lee Atwater. I realized that it wasn’t the same in December 2000. The pols still don’t get it, including Joe, who is still an expert on the old rules. But the SC does. It was been undeclared war for some time and we might as well admit it.
Jeri, I merely would add to your mighty astute observation—namely that the other side has shown it will do whatever is necessary to hold power— that Democrats, too, have to be willing to engage in war. In some measure, I believe this entails leadership, receipts in hand, showing the country, aside from its accomplishments, legislation, specifically from 21 through 22, they tried to deliver that received zero Republican support—a $15 minimum hourly wage, extension of the child tax credit, affordable quality childcare, universal Pre-K, investments in housing, in paid family and medical leave, in eldercare, and the like— policy that would have helped to remedy much of the country’s grotesque inequalities of wealth and income.
Admittedly, while disaffected hardcore MAGAs would be unmoved, the swath of “persuadables” appears increasingly to be expanding.
Don't forget student loan relief, abortion, climate change, gun legislation and being a respected member of the world community. The list goes on and on...
Cameron, Considering that the Democratically-controlled House, between 21 and 22, passed over 300 bills, you’re right about the list being extensive. Hence, my decision for the purpose of this particular post to focus on Democratically-supported remedies for massive wealth and income inequities, a major cause for the hate, the despair, and the divisiveness Trump has feasted on at least since 2015.
Chump and his magats have feasted on hate for the most part. The magats in my family are successful, often educated, hardworking, and religious. The socialism mantra is just a cover for "I'm the head hen." Sadly, I know and love some of them. BTW, Dem billionaires are a far cry from the repub greedy bastards, as a rule.
Jeri, I suppose I’ll always stay in the fight for increasing social and economic justice for increasing numbers of people who feel overwhelmed and marginalized by institutionally oppressive forces largely beyond their individual control.
Never said that Dems are perfect. But the comparison is obvious. The record shows who the worse perps are. I just feel that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Not holding my breath for perfect. That's what the cult thinks chump is. I'll take Dems, warts and all. The old political system had plenty to complain about, but sure wish it held sway these days.
Jeri, Probably like you, my actions are situationally motivated, bent mostly towards the aspirational while typically accepting, as warranted, the feasible.
Lee Atwater was Reagan's adviser, and Bush's... I think we can go back to Nixon, who gave up on the rules and had the same 'win at all costs' attitude.
Indeed, but I thought that the repubs had learned their lesson after getting caught. Took me a while to realize that they just went under cover. But, in fact, it was pretty blatant, it was just that Rupert came into power with his "fair and balanced" bull schitt, which muddied the waters.
When the only thing the Republican radicals understand is force, how can this be applied still within whatever available laws and rules there are in this situation?
Good question, I keep hearing blather about workarounds for the current bottleneck. Granted, I watch snippets of the news so I have no details. If there are workarounds, it is way past time. If not, Dems should hang the coming fiasco around the necks of the repubs, with the weight of the bully pulpit and every other option, (lend-lease, exec. orders, whatever). Chump certainlly used executive orders and bullying to full effect. No easy answers, but hardball is usually not illegal, not that repubs don't care a wit about illegal. Just catch a few bars of "I'll do it my way, repub style." And when their crimes are live on tv, just watch the machinations when the law tries to hold them accountable.
Actually the Democratic Party is doing well, with money for campaigns, possibly to retake the House. The republican party has hemorrhaged money, paying citizens trumps legal bills last year, and some state chapters have no money for down ballot campaigns. It seems the current republican party is dying and the Democratic Party is getting stronger.
Living in red Texas skews ones perspective. I hope it is so in other areas. Take nothing for granted.
President Biden is abiding by the rules not blindly, but as a moral force to guide the govenment BACK ONTO THE RAILS. He is intentionally holding firm to the rule of law, as a strategy for combatting lawlessness. Will it work I don't know.
I do see the point that combatting lawlessness with "just a llittle lawlessness" is pragmatic. Biden/Harris must also find small cracks they can widen, like they are doing for Student Debt Relief, and break the country-breaking congressional impasse.
Dems always trying for the High ground (well mostly) sure limits options..
Ed, When the framers sought to establish structures of government and to balance their powers in a way meant to protect the country from the misdeeds and manipulations of any one faction, they hadn’t anticipated that any one power center, in this case, a nearly presumptive presidential nominee eager to consolidate power wherein the rule of law could be subjugated to an individual, would successfully absorb the other branches.
Because not enough of so-called everyday people understand the full extent of this crisis, herein lies the context in which our activism must be rooted.
Certainly agree that most viewers do not understand how this can happen. Getting listed as a "flawed democracy" in the ranking of nations by successful democracies is getting clearer each day. We obviously have no structure to prevent it.
Ed, I see 2 potential structures. One is the Court. I would be convinced the judiciary sufficiently had held were the Supremes promptly to deny Trump’s claim of absolute immunity and allow, at the very least, for the J6 trial to be decided before voters cast ballots. The second is an electorate laser-focused on securing its freedom and determined to staying free.
The MAGA Destruction of our democracy has grown instrength like a wildfire, and the courts are NOT sufficient to hold the line. There is evidence in the Hur Report etc., that the DOJ is sadly infiltrated by an anti-democracy faction.
Wendy (if I may), While I appreciate you writing, I stand by my previous comment. Frankly, I would hope none of us fall prey to the adage There’s nothing to be done because nothing can be done.
Sadly, the term "radical Republican" used to be a term of honor, at least for me. 😢 Imagine what Representative Thaddeus Stevens, Senator Charles Sumner and President / General Grant (when the latter two got along) et many al. would do with runts of the litter like Trump, trolls, Greene, more trolls, Gaetz, ever more trolls, Vance, the rest of the cognitive under-class (Vance showing opportunism not stupidity or lack of education) et al.? 🤔 First, they would dismiss them politely and then dismiss them not so politely. 😵💫 Then they would make these nattering nabobs of narcissism chump change by leading a national chorus in laughing these stooges off the stage, as per the link below. 😇 All that done, they would ram through a (revisionist) 16th Amendment to the Constitution prohibitting any product of in-breeding from ever holding national office again. 😉
https://youtu.be/FgAoGf84-3A?t=8
Very like one real King who lost his head as a result of acting on the genuine conviction that he was answerable only to God, not to his people or their representatives.
Having said which, the comparison is deeply insulting to the memory of King Charles I of England who was a martyr to his belief. This Johnson uses religion as a tool. And that, in religious terms, is blasphemy.
When I learned of Maggot Mike's 'christian eyes' spy software, I saw immediately that he is easy to control through blackmail. Anyone who publicly adopts a "HOLIER THAN THOU" persona is hiding a large number of transgressions, that are fodder for blackmail.
Johnson's just a toady for Beloved Leader and the rest of his corrupt coterie . While the Framers were aware of human imperfection, they may have been overoptimistic about how badly the powers they assigned could be abused. They seemed to have anticipated that some individuals might be as corrupt as hell, but I'm not sure they thought enough about an entire party devoid of conscience and willing to use the powers of government to sabotage it's republican (SMALL "r") form.
Maggat Mike has publicly announced he is "holier than thou" and never has sexual thoughts or actions and is proudly tracked by "covenant eyes" software in the hands of his son and others. Therefore he is DEFINITELY easy to blackmail, as nobody with such a public declaration of purity can live up to it.
...
Today Treasury Sec Janet Yellen called on world leaders to send frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. But they can’t shoot with dollar bills. Only we can send them the artillery shells and ammunition they need to fight the Russians.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-27/yellen-sees-moral-case-for-freeing-up-frozen-russian-assets
‘It is time to start a conversation about using the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine’ -European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen:
https://www.ft.com/content/d6059942-eaf2-4e57-be03-7e589fe86a79
Absolutely. Long past time. And perhaps then Ukraine can zip the 60-billion or whatever over to USA so we can ship them ammo and roar into production.
>>>
I do despair that our world is locked in perpetual military conflict.
...
Stealing frozen Russian assets for Ukraine will further undermine the eroding hegemony of the Almighty Dollar. Without the Almighty Dollar, Biden and the Vampire Liberals can't suck money from the rest of the world to fund Worthwhile Programs and more bombs and missiles for Ukraine.
p.s. Regarding ammunition, our industrial capacity is so weak that we can't provide as much as they need. HCR and the Vampire Liberals ignore this obvious threat to our national security: You can't fight an extended war if you ship all your factories off to China.
Ignore the troll.
My regrets for letting my too much hot blood and too little sleep get the better of me. 😳 Mr Schmeekle -- ¿sp.?; can not see his name -- has a right to voice his opinions and I have a right not to listen to him. ⚖️ Perhaps I should exercise my right more often. 🙂
no really -- ignore the troll -- delete your responses -- it's a proven techniq
I will. You are right, getting my dander up gives oxygen to the cognitive under-class, many of whom boast advanced degrees.
True dat! Everyone delete your replies/ responses to its posts. Ignoring a troll is the best offense and defense.
On Tuesday the seasoned leadership of Congress and a pipsqueak met President Biden at the White House to focus on legislating a governmental budget and urgent aid to Ukraine, that has been held in limbo in the Johnson House since last October.
When I read the press reports, it seemed like Johnson, an amateur checkers player, encountered a group of chess pros. ‘Speaker’ Johnson, a bottom of the barrel choice, is a hostage to whatever Trump bloviates, while he has a House ‘Freedom’ Caucus that believes that it can blackmail the entire U. S. Government with its radically right=wing demands.
At the end of this intense White House meeting, I would have loved to have heard the one-on-one meeting between President Biden and Squeaker Johnson. I imagine that the president gave Johnson some blunt Dutch uncle advice.
This nonentity from Louisiana got a lesson in governing from some pros who are concerned about the United States of America. I would hope that some sort of ‘bipartisan’ legislation will emerge before the government shuts down and courageous Ukrainians are left to die without adequate ammunition
And sophisticated weaponry.
BUT I DON’T KNOW. Trump is the ‘cult wizard’ who has been spreading negativism throughout the land. His ‘me, me, me’ is totally unrelated from what is necessary for the United States of America domestically and globally.
I await with bated breath.
Don’t hold out hope that republicans love the country more than they love the power of the moment.
Jeri, maybe the Republicans that aren’t running for reelection will join with the Democrats to do an end run with a discharge petition.
Been waiting for cowards to do the right thing. Air is getting thin...
I hold no hope for those people. None. They'll just give in.
Mary, I agree, I hope there are discussions between Hakim Jeffries and sane R to oust Speaker and rapidly put into place a sane R Speaker who will put the bill on the floor.
Thanatologist Wendy, if they can’t find a sane R for speaker and R’s to support that person, then they can promise to protect him with Democratic votes if he brings the Senate Ukraine bill to the floor. Then, if the Freedom Caucus threatens him again, he has to bring the Senate border bill to the floor.
Hopefully Biden spoke as a sincere believer of Christianity to a man who has lost his way to his own faith.
A spiritual awakening is probably the only way Mike Johnson will be able to dig himself out of the hell realm he is making for himself here.
Or, the DOJ could charge him with sedition for working against his oath of office, and put him in jail. But there seems to be little appetite for that, for some reason.
Keep those cards, calls, and letters flowing his way though. The pressure of public opinion does have an impact.
Johnson is a smug Seven Mountains Evangelical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate
Like I say, lost track of the central tenet of his own faith. Jesus was not a Dominionist, or an End Times evangelical. That is the big problem with Christianity, it doesn’t have an effective method for cutting through self-delusion. People like Jimmy Carter can be honest with their struggles, but people who are not honest with themselves have little chance of gaining increased awareness.
I have URGED the few pastors I know, to speak out against this. Only religious people (in the same religion, preferrably) have the religious authority to stand against the zealots.
...
RELIGIOUS LEADERS MUST PUBLICLY DENOUNCE THE RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS -- they alone have the authority to speak against others claiming The Mantle Of God.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Judas a good man up until the time he sold out?
Notes The closest that Johnson comes to Jesus is as Judas, since he is the antithesis of Jesus’s teachings.
It would be interesting to talk to the man and hear what he believes. He doesn’t seem to be walking in the footsteps of Jesus, at least to me.
Recently Evangelical leaders began hate-speaking about Catholics. They are well into denigrating President Biden's religion as evil. Sadly. It's almost like religion is purposely built to murder masses of people via regular interregnum.
...
INTERREGNUM: (def) a period when normal government is suspended, especially between successive reigns or regimes.
...
Catering to republicans is a non-starter. Haven’t you figured that out yet! Johnson is working for chump and Putin. Duh. I keep reading about rarely used methods to go around the bottleneck. If there is a way, you had better get on it or there won’t be a country. McCarthy’s resurrection of chump will resonate as would a resurrection of Adolf. Make no mistake Dems, it is time to stop begging. Johnson loves it (just look at his self-satisfied smirks), and chump is orgasmic. They will fiddle while the world burns.
Jeri Chilcutt, I wonder where we would be had they been brought up on charges of insurrection and treason. TC, commented above maybe they should be hauled off. I am beginning to think so. They are enemies of the State. There is no other way to look at it.
Trolls think there is, just acquiesce. When Dems have had power, they haven’t played hard ball, ever. It’s way past time.
Jeri Chilcutt, agree. For far too long, elected & appointed Dems have bowed to many of the same masters as the R's. Their big donors. But they are waking up and trying to change, if only because dictatorship scares the bejeezus outta them. I'll take it.
Has there ever been a time when money didn't outrank any other asset. Maybe a few times, but after a while courage is needed more. It seems sorely lacking. When push came to shove in WW2, it was the grunt soldier who had the courage, along with Ike. Where is their like....
Big Money was less of a burden on our politicians before Citizens United.
A paradigm shift, without a doubt
Jeri Chilicutt, you're right, coursge is highly under-rated.
Don't think we are bred to have it, but it comes from deep within. Probably as a surprise to the affected
In Ukraine.
It's hard to even imagine, but see Greg Olear's post re living in the war zone there. Courage is all they have, and cowardice seems to be all we have
The dem's need to dig up dirt and BLACKMAIL the traitorous Speaker Of The House into doing the right thing for america.
Repubs have used the flimsiest of scandals to get the Dems to oust their own people. Just what I mean by pretending it's politics as usual. Boy, have times changed
The Speaker of the House and his merry band of awfuls in the House are extortionists and legislative terrorists. What else can I call them? Fools, monsters, democracy murderers, traitors, dictator glorifiers, Putin puppets, enemies of America. Yes. I shake my head in disgust and my heart hurts at how much disgrace they bring to their oath and office, and at how much they seem to enjoy creating and neglecting extreme suffering at home, and around the world.
Chump is the happiest man alive
Au contraire, I think he’s scared s**tless. Good.
His fear is buried so deep that I doubt he feels anything but need of glory. They thought of his loser identity being front and center may make him apoplectic.
From your keyboard to God’s ear
May get farther than my thoughts and prayers. Ha
Yes. I actually think he's quite miserable and has been so for most of his sorry life.
Good. He’s earned it. I’ve never in my life wished ill on another person, until now.
It's so hard to bear all of it, I know.
It's like he's invaded our homes and sits there watching tv and raiding our fridges, all while yelling at us all day and into the night.
One person, really? One person can “gum up the works”? I wonder if there’s a time in our history that this happened in favor of democracy, rather than now, where it favors authoritarianism and the fascist fever of Trump’s followers and Putin lovers.
Marita Back in the early 1830s John Calhoun (recent vice president) sought to ‘gum up the works’ with the insistence on ‘nullification”—that a state could nullify federal legislation. President Andrew Jackson, who had ‘killed a few folks’ in his time, threatened to send federal troops to South Carolina if Calhoun didn’t back down. Calhoun blinked and ‘nullification’ was nixed.
Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis is now Bde Maka Ska-the original native name. Drives the Conservatives nuts.
Cameron I recall an argument over the name of Calhoun College at Yale, but don’t recall its resolution.
There was quite a controversy in Minneapolis, too. It was resolved
Thanks for that, Keith. I come from a county in Michigan that was named after John C. Calhoun. A shameless defender of slavery: I cannot understand why the county was named for him and why it keeps the name.
James, Steve Earle might reply that the reason your county got named as it is due to a shortage of names at the time
Hey, it might be an entertaining thing to do-run a petition drive to change that name. Depending on what you think of as entertaining. Here in Jackson and Ingham Counties, folks know some of the local spots that were stops on the Underground Railroad, and they remember how truly dangerous it was to help those refugees. Were there any stops in Calhoun County, I wonder?
Of that I am not sure, but it would be an interesting bit to research. Great idea, thanks. I'll be making a trip back sometime this year; in the meantime, I'll check with a couple old friends who are still there (Battle Creek) and see what they think. Much obliged.
I’d be interested to hear more.
Marita Nelson, thumbs down by John McCain, thus allowing the ACA to go on, that comes to mind.
Abraham Lincoln. FDR. Both are needed now.
Yup, when GW declined to continue as president…
Mike Johnson’s Russian Funder
Favors?
MARY L TRUMP
FEB 27
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson received illegal money from at least one Russian oligarch.
There could be more.
Let’s take a closer look.👇
Mike Johnson is blocking the Ukraine bill
Despite the Pentagon’s urging that the $60 billion Ukraine aid package is critically important to Kyiv’s chances of successfully resisting Putin’s invasion, it is currently gathering dust on Mike Johnson’s desk.
The new Speaker continues to thwart Ukraine aid, despite strong bipartisan criticism:
· After an “intense” Oval Office meeting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris each pressed Johnson to prioritize aid for Ukraine.
· Today Radoslaw Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland, also issued a stern warning to Johnson, making it clear that if the aid package fails to pass, and Ukraine suffers setbacks on the battlefield, the blamewould fall on Johnson.
· Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates stated, “Speaker Johnson is siding with Putin.”
Why?
Follow the money
In 2018, Johnson received campaign contributions from “American Ethane” company, 88% of which was owned by three Russian nationals: Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev.
Johnson received at least three checks from the company. Why does that matter?
At least one of the Russian partners, oligarch Nikolaev, had deep ties to Putin.
The sordid tale about the group of Russian nationals who circumvented U.S. political fundraising laws in order to deliver campaign contributions to a slate of MAGA-entrenched Congressmen somehow failed to attract the attention of the corporate media.
Johnson’s campaign claims the money was returned after the facts were first revealed. But why did he take it in the first place?
In 2018, while Donald was still in the White House, his FCC fined American Ethane for donating to GOP candidates — a grand total of $9,500 in civil penalties... That’ll show ‘em.
Time for a closer look at Nikolaev’s motivations:
Nikolaev’s Financial ties to
Konstantin Nikolaev
In 2019, the oligarch's net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion according to Forbes.
Further, reports indicate Nikolaev funded Russian national Maria Butina, who was deported back to Russia after spending 15 months in U.S. penitentiaries for acting as a Russian foreign agent, cozying up to Republicans in order to shape U.S. policy.
In addition to being part owner of Globaltrans, which according to Newsweek is Russia's largest private rail operation, Nikolaev is also part owner of the Tula Cartridge Plant, a company “which has been supplying ammunition to Russian forces during its invasion of Ukraine.”
What a remarkable coincidence.
Does it matter if Johnson has Russian ties?
As Speaker of the House, Johnson faces one of the largest foreign policy decisions of the last decade: whether the Republican-controlled House of Representatives allow the United States to continue funding Ukraine.
Because of Johnson’s refusal to fund our ally thus far, Ukraine’s ability to achieve victory over our shared enemy now hangs in the balance.
Mike Johnson’s record – from voting against the 2022 Ukraine Supplemental Appropriation bill, to supporting the prohibition of all security assistance to Ukraine – makes it look as if he works for Putin, instead of the American people and their national security interests.
The media should be asking more questions.
· In addition to the illegal campaign contributions, what are Johnson’s ties to Russian oligarchs?
· Why is he so determined to help Russia, to the point that he is willing to risk letting Ukraine fall to Russian aggression?
· Why is the Speaker of The House of Representatives of the United States of America representing the interests of Donald and Vladimir Putin?
What really motivates Mike Johnson?
He currently sits second in line to the presidency, and yet the religious fanaticism that perverts his ideas about American democracy are still not completely understood.
We have the right to know more.
As Johnson continues to let Ukraine twist in the wind, acting as Putin’s proxy in Congress, he not only casts doubt on his own motives, but on the institution as a whole.
We shouldn’t be left to wonder about the allegiance of our leaders, and yet, when it comes to Republicans, from Donald Trump and Mike Johnson on down, we are constantly left to speculate the deep influences operating within the entire Republican Party.
One thing is certain: I’m going to keep asking questions.
.
No means of dealing with racketeering foreign agents in Congress who have in effect seized the legislature and are holding government and country to ransom.
Justice dealt with those who invaded the Capitol yet cannot act against worse than insurrection, treason, perpetrated by the Speaker and elected Representatives.
Time for citizens' action...
IVF supporters raised a stink. Surely our democracy is as important.
I just read in The Guardian, that the star witness for the investigation into Fani Willis’s relationship with a prosecutor on the Trump trial in Georgia failed to deliver any evidence that suggested malfeasance, to the dismay of Trump’s lawyers. Small blessings.
Off topic: to all the voters in Michigan who voted 'uncommitted': your protest has been noted. Now, when it comes to the general election, you can vote for Biden (who is actively working for that cease fire for which you are so adamant) or you can vote for T****. Your choice, but know that electing T**** will put in office a thug who will work to send you all packing. Choose wisely.
James: democrats giving democratic and independent voters another reason to not vote in their best interest, or providing MSM more clickbait to report how bad Biden will be as a second term president
We are witnessing real time how effective propaganda can be. We’re living in Neo-Weimar times. The future is foreseeable. Full speed ahead, those icebergs are no match for this vessel
"... those measures....... are now in Speaker Johnson’s hands."
You really don't want anything at all in those hands