Trump abandoned the Kurds in Syria and will gladly do so with Ukraine. Heck, Trump killed hundreds of thousands of Americans during COVID for political gain so nothing should come as a surprise. Excellent reporting here and well referenced!
The esteemed Dr. Richardson is adept at weaving the historical thread into any current situation. As a renowned historian she has sat with President Biden twice, written many well received books and is a University Professor.
To put it bluntly her resume would knock your socks off.
She is not a reporter and does indeed know how to reference her work.
A lot of reporters DO have history degrees. I'm a retired journalist who broke into the field as a woman by having a masters degree from The University of Chicago. There I studied urban planning, archeology , anthropology, economics, AND HISTORY. All very helpful to journalism.
Thank you, Christina. As a retired journalist, my hair almost caught fire over this criticism:
“She is not a reporter and does indeed know how to reference her work.”
Actually, Dr. Richardson has become one of the PREEMINENT REPORTERS of our time. I couldn’t be more proud of her. Or more in awe. She may be carving a way to ward the NEW New Journalism. She breaks stories daily! She anchors them in history and context and fact. EXACTLY what journalism has been doing for decades — even before the explosive awesomeness of Watergate. The best journalists have always anchored their stories in history, context, fact — problem is, the delivery systems (print, 30-minute broadcast shows, and later costly cable news shows that needed to attract millions of eyes 24 hours a day to keep themselves afloat) do not lend themselves to reporters’ “showing their work,” listing all sources, referencing historic background. Even with the advent of social media, SPACE is finite. But by God, every reporter, editor, news manager I ever knew staked their work, reputation, life on TRUTH as the foundation of every story.
I KNOW the journalism industry is flailing, lost, drowning, grasping. The Orange Idiot has helped its demise, with his “fake news” yammering and his hedge fund henchmen buying up solid news organizations only to kill them off.
Let’s please remember in this especially scary era:
A healthy DEMOCRACY CANNOT EXIST without a free press.
We need solutions, not criticism. Vote. Get others to vote. And keep SUBSCRIBING to the news sources you trust. There are plenty out there. There are lots on Substack. Gathering news is a costly enterprise. Reporters, good journalists, who really know their trade have families, too. We need to PAY FOR THE NEWS WE CONSUME.
I didn't read that as a criticism but I see your point. When asked (not that anyone will) how I get my daily news, I will respond that every bit of it comes from commentaries in the form of emails and email notifications. HCRs efforts are at the top of my list. In the last 30 or 40 years, the forms in which we had gotten our news has melted away for me. No television, no local newspaper and the only thing I listen to on the radio is the local public radio station(s)...and I contribute to those sources.
I'm so glad your hair only 'nearly caught fire' SL, and you quenched the spark. I get it. Our ego's can be blindspots if we're entirely honest. I'm satisfied that Barb was referring negatively towards what's passing for journalism, reporting - today, and in no way towards the professions as exercised by most in the past. Let's all agree that the entire model of a 'free press' is vastly perverted today and ill serves the American majority. Let's please get agreement on this first proposition, then we'll move on to causes, conditions, perhaps remedies. Yes / No ?
Christina, thanks. I got hired in 1975 in our ABC affiliate precisely because I already had a Masters degree. The News Director was looking for people who could bring knowledge and experience in an area-- not only a broadcasting degree. He told me he liked my attitude, could teach me the broadcasting part, which he did. I got his detailed written critique on my stories every single night. I ended up reporting, anchoring/ interviewer and becoming a lead anchor at another affiliate. I always loved the in- the- community reporting. In those days we had lots if discussions about sources and ethics and were still bound by the FCC to respond to the needs of our local community if we wanted our license renewed.
I was hired at a newspaper, the Trentonian, in 1968. I was taught on a daily basis by two of the best journalist/editors in the business, then or now, Gil Spencer (later editor at Philadelphia Daily News, NY Daily News, Denver Post) and Don Murdaugh. Wish I could have bottled their knowledge, skill, integrity and love for theprofession.
I recall "In those days we had lots if discussions about sources and ethics and were still bound by the FCC to respond to the needs of our local community if we wanted our license renewed". Technology in communication no longer requires honesty. Perhaps current interventions to curb violating our vulnerable will rescue our eternal intentions toward a just society.
What’s your deal? This particular post is a masterpiece if both reporting and prose. So MUCH at stake now. And we can depend on Dr. Richardson to convey that import to us.
Barbara, a reporter, by definition, is one who reports. I believe that HCR is one who reports current events with accompanying historical context. However, in today’s parlance, a reporter is assumed to be paid to provide news, (truthful or not) with or without spin. Perhaps, since we pay her for her reporting and historical perspective, a better term would be a historical analysis reporter. What do you think?
Indeed, Trump is a mass murderer and I have always argued since the pandemic that he should be prosecuted for human rights violations. He is no better than Putin, and now Netanyahu, in his pursuit of power at any cost to lives. He's a monster and his disciples are abominable fiends.
What baffles me is the reluctance of Democrats to call out Trump and the Republican party for what they truly are - terrorists with an ultra-right ideology that features white supremacy and Christo-fascism. There is nothing remotely American that can be associated to their world view!
He is totally without empathy and every single move he makes is transactional. If it won’t benefit him, he won’t undertake to do it. He sees the world as a zero sum game, and he must win. These traits, among many others, make him a sociopath.
Exactly right, Gary. He is the epitome of a sociopath. The question I have is what does that make his followers? How can there be so many (millions) hate and grievance-filled people in the US?
Gary, you took the words out of my mouth from decades ago. I went so far as to rewrite a version of "America The Beautiful" in exactly that vein, twisted as we were becoming and have become to "America The Transactional". At the time, folks thought i was nuts. (well.... i am, but in a good way) ;-)
There is no need to call him a murderer, just point out how many deaths were down to his mishandling of the situation. Particularly when he stopped being concerned about the deaths of non-whites and residents of “Democrat-run cities,” whom he assumed were not his voters.
You are an idiot. Trump is guilty of human rights violations because he is a mass murderer. By his actions he took lives. Just like Mao, Hitler, Bashar Al Assad, Putin, Stalin and several others. This is not a civil trial where manslaughter or first degree murder charges are being brought. What a boorish idiot you are.
On a fairly regular basis either JL Graham or myself, try to implore folks to keep in mind the very true aphorism to "follow the money" - always keep that tucked in as we wonder.
Why does the MSM and most people refer to our borders as border? Our northern borders with Alaska and the northern states is much longer than the southern border.
Migrant encounters surge at northern border, sparking urgency, oversight calls
US-Canadian border sees massive migrant surge
NewsNation's ride-along with Border Patrol shows overwhelming illegal crossings
550% increase in apprehensions during FY2023 at the northern border
Actually, the folks attempting to cross into Canada from the US, are also “brown” people who have traveled north through the US. Those headlines all sounded so hysterical!
I agree they do own the repressive regressive media like FOX and Breitbart and Newsmax but the networks are owned by greedy oligarchs who get clicks from writing about the MAGANAZIs.
Gary: Don't leave out Sinclair Broadcast Group. I've been following their shenanigans for about 10 years now. Do a deep dive on them and I think you'll be appalled. Discover for yourself the "news as business response" to the absence of the "Fairness Doctrine," assaults on the 'responsibilities' inherent 'and' commensurate to 'any' freedoms. If you will see this and others > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
Interestingly, Mike, Mr. Schmeeckle (see his attached comment) seems to believe that former President Trump’s leadership during the world’s COVID crisis was exemplary. (Yes, I admit I am putting words in his mouth.) Trump’s leadership during COVID was dangerous and irresponsible. In February 2020 he repeated “predicted” that COVID would “go away” once the weather warmed up (meaning April). I’m sure Mr. Schmeeckle will not deny that Trump promoted this dangerous prediction. (And, yes, John, I can provide your “precious” sources. Do you want the Clorox ones, too?)
All I can say is to document each and every case of fentanyl overdose where it was smudged and play that persons bio ever night on the national and local news.
Yup, Mike, the Cato Institute says “ A more accurate summary is that fentanyl is overwhelmingly smuggled by U.S. citizens almost entirely for U.S. citizen consumers.”
Gee, if Americans weren’t “hooked” maybe fentanyl would cease to be a Trumpian Red Herring????
And also for my sedition fan senator, JDV. Never has any said and claimed so much on behalf of fentanyl victims, while actually doing so little. God help us if we lose Sherrod Brown.
It seems that Mr. Schmeeckle's post was taken down. I can't find it. Did anyone here report it? Is there a process within this forum that removes misinformation, at least about COVID?
Covid, IIRC, did reduce in warm weather, because more outdoors. That’s why Florida did better than one expected. One may enjoy some Schadenfreude, bc Republican counties have greater mortality, as Pew Research has found.
OAOM, Chomsky wrote, if the capitalist media claim no provocation obviously there was, just as
there was in ‘62 in Cuba. But, of course, the USA is always permitted to take exception.
Thank you Mike for reminding some of us of the awful failures and misdeeds of trump, as way too many appear to be blinded by the accoutrements and trappings offered by money and status; that they cannot [and didn’t] see the forest for the trees, nor distinguish right from wrong or good from bad! The frustration I sometimes feel here, is that we’re preaching to the choir. I just hope that many of us here are offering HCR’s Letters to family, friends and acquaintances each opportunity when we think it might mean something to helping guide them in their decision making when it comes to our ways of life in America, our freedoms and liberties as well as our personal live and safety!
I’ve always said where there’s smoke there’s fire … why would so many people associated with the trump POTUS campaign and administration have so many ties (trips) and associations with Russia, Russian operatives and Putin. But even if there’s nothing there other than coincidence, the “orange J” should never have been allowed (elected) to occupy our White House … and surely Never Again!!!
By his own admission he withheld PPE from all states whose governors failed to grovel. See also his conversation with Bob Woodward in which he admitted knowing on Jan 2020 that the COVID virus was dangerous while publicly declaring that it would just magically go away while trying to block cruise ships from reboarding in US ports because it would make his numbers look bad while withdrawing from the WHO while taking over tracking responsibilities that were by rights the CDC's purview. I could go on. Shorter: he politicized a deadly pandemic.
John, medically speaking, Trump's position on Covid-19, downplaying the effectiveness of inoculations and the seriousness of the disease, emulated by others such as Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, resulted in unnecessary deaths and will continue to do so.
And, he himself took advantage of all the medical interventions available when he caught COVID while denying that same help to ordinary Americans. Over a million people died from COVID during his watch. How is that not a crime against humanity?
Worse than that. The one good thing he did was step in with funding to get the vaccines out the door. Then he got the jabs but in secret. When he tried to encourage people to get vaccinated the damage was done and his adoring crowd booed him. Imagine the good he would have done if he and Melania had got their shots on camera. Also imagine the good he could have done by not refusing to wear a mask. The mind boggles at the selfishness and stupidity.
Of all the stupid, irresponsible and fact-free drivel you have vomited out here, this is the worst. And as the sane commenters can attest, that is saying A LOT.
I do not agree with you John about the covid vaccines. There have been some health issues crop up with healthy athletes as you say, and being an old road warrior myself, they concern me. But I have read nothing reliable at all that links those health issues to covid vaccines. I hope that you are not merely spreading around another vaccine denial story. Some of the covid vaccine resistance is from anti-vaxxers who are against all forms of vaccines, for largely unfounded reasons (like vaccines/autism, and vaccines/dementia).
As for Trump - I blame him directly for a large portion of the Covid death toll in the USA. Our Covid death toll would be an international embarrassment were it not so tragic. Instead it should have been an impeachable and convictable offense. Compare us to New Zealand or Japan, or any country that realized the science early on and took the early extreme measures that a serious pandemic warrants, measures of which Trump could have taken but was unwilling to take, and it is crystal clear that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost needlessly. Why? Oh that is as obvious as the nose on your face. Trump didn't want anything to interfere with his false booming economy. And a lockdown would have affected the economy. Period. It was only after things got extremely scary that he did anything at all to address it. What a textbook example of fu_king dereliction of duty. No sir - place a great portion of the blame on him.
Oh, for fuck's sake. The vaccine is proven to be safe and largely protective against COVID and its worst complicstions. Your misinformation is dangerous. Fuck off.
And no, I won't bother to cite articles. You can use Google youself.
John, sometimes you are less than completely right. Here you are totally wrong. Your politicized statements convinced some to not take vaccines. That was and is painfully ignorant of you. But it’s because you spend your time on social media getting unscientific facts. A line in one of my songs deals with people like you. “What do you think if you think at all” “Oh, I read it online that’s all.”
Infection reduction measures are common sense steps reasonable people take for ones' own health and well-being, that of one's family, and everyone that one might come in contact with. Individuals who prevent resonable people from taking steps to protect themselves from infection - should those individuals be held liable when people die from preventable illness because access to treatment was blocked? It's not so complicated, John. Trump's policy, based on blatantly incorrect distortions of scienctific reality (vaccines are developed to fight infections, and the COVID vaccines drasctically reduce the death rate, and the rate of long COVID symptoms for people who take the vaccines, compared to those who don't), and frustrated self -interest (I mean, he and Jared couldn't figure out how to monetize vaccine distrubution for themselves, so they just didn't distrubute the vaccine) resulted in many more people dyng that should have during the pandemic, and I personally think he should be held liable. But, I will be contented if Trump goes to jail for failing to pay E. Jean Carroll the $83 million he now owes her, or goes to prison for stealing classified government documents, or of course, for the treasonous attempted coup. There are lots of things Trump should be held liable for, because he is an equal opportunity criminal. The goal is to stop him from being able to mess with the American public good again you know? You don't approve of Trump's achievements, do you?
Once again, manslaughter is different from murder.
And perhaps you misremember Trump's covid policy. He was responsible for "Operation Warp Speed" that developed the covid vaccines that Biden imposed on the people.
This rabbit hole is mighty deep. Mr. K.B.(Knows Better) Schmeeckle seems to love the game of exhausting his opponent in a debate. I think he is a lousy debater.
Agreed. Frustrating that I and dozens of others here have reported him, and another reader instructed me on how to block him. I've done that--even just checked to make sure that he is still indicated as "blocked" in my account, yet here he is.
This guy really, really is delusional and has as much appeal (and brain power) as a fungal gnat.
You might consider actually reading your own source. Here's a quote from that link you shared:
"The Lancet Commission’s analyses deemed Trump more a product of what has been a four-decade downward spiral than the cause of a more recent downturn. To say that Trump caused all of the ills of the past four years may be giving Trump too much credit."
I appreciate you reading this John - an article highlighting the legacy of Reaganomics culminating in Trump. The two sentences you picked out to disclaim Trumps culpability came right after this passage: "According to the report, Trump’s policies or lack thereof contributed to the deaths of around 461,000 Americans in 2018. In 2019, about 22,000 deaths resulted from Trump’s dismantling of environmental protection measures alone, based on the Commission’s analyses. And of course, there was 2020, when the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic hit. Many have written about the Trump administration’s failure to mount a scientifically appropriate response to the pandemic. The Commission determined that 40% of Covid-19-related deaths in the U.S. could have been prevented had the U.S. only had the same Covid-19 death rates as those of other Group of Seven (G7) nations, namely Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom."
There's no downward spiral. Rather, this nation, founded with so much determination to undo the domination of four millennia of top down rule and to give us the chance to see if we could rule ourselves from the bottom up with as much fairness and justice as is humanly possible has always been a tension between our best and worst impulses. From Democratic/Republican's support of the worst excesses of the French Revolution and their demonization of George Washington as a monarchist and doddering dimwit (not so far from the current Republican characterization of Joe Biden) to our treatment of blacks, resulting in the most catastrophic episode of our history so far, to the persistent destruction of Native Americans and their culture to our denial of the franchise to half our population until 1919 to efforts to keep the working people under the thumb of wealthy and callous industrialists to Red scares and McCarthyism to the persistent attempts to elevate one faith over all the others for the sake of power to the excesses of the 1960's and to the constant attempt to rewrite our history to excuse all of those small-souled efforts on to today, those who would narrow the definition of what it means to be a valid American to fit a pre-conceived notion have always been with us. All the best in us has consistency fought against such narrow minded and dark-hearted characterizations and false divisions. The only real difference is that for the first time in our history, we elevated a man who was the embodiment of our dark-hearted and small-souled part to the Oval Office. In November we get a chance to see if the best in us can stay in relative control of the worst in us.
The American people who do not swallow Trump’s Bull $hIt. (That should be source enough for you. I can’t believe you even requested something like that after how tfg handled the entire pandemic.)
Under Tr**ps leadership, thousands, nearly 1,000,000 people died during the COVID epidemic. Leadership has responsibilities...the buck stops with a leader. Culpability in a public health crisis falls on the President who presides over the country's emergency response to contain it. But then....he wasn't a leader or a real president, was he?
Don’t get me wrong, I hate Trump, but a lot of those needless death were caused by state governors who refused to use any kind of disease mitigation measures.
Death is death....and there really few facts in my comment....mostly opinions about how much responsibility and culpability leaders have....in public service.
But the people are still dead. And the blame is still assigned. Let's be generous. If someone was to be convicted of manslaughter and receive a 2 year sentence, it would be based on the idea of that person being responsible for that death.
Trump's behavior, you have agreed, was manslaughter. Let's be arbitrary and say that his irresponsible manslaughter qualifying behavior led to only 50,000 deaths. That's 50,000 counts of manslaughter times 2 years. Clearly Trump should have been sentenced to 100,000 years. Maybe with good behavior, he could have had an early release at 25,000 years. Sound good?
We all know you plan to write in your own name, troll.
Don't you have a single friend in the world to go play with? Obviously not, you take the time to reply to EVERYONE on here and we all still reject you.
First I tried the Ivermectin. Great! All the worms were gone! But I sounded hoarse.
Then I tried the bleach. After a few days I had a very sore throat and I became blonde. I looked like "Ken"! (BTW, the store brand of bleach works just as well as Chlorox - save your money.)
The lesson? Beware the side effects of "cures" offered by snake oil salesmen as well as those posting nonsensical blather among those who know better.
I think he tried to downplay a Pandemic because the mortality numbers were not a good look. So he discouraged testing and reporting. Which is essentially criminal negligence. And promoting bogus cures made him complicit in the deaths of thousands.
But I am so glad I discovered the bleach. My new look is a girl magnet.
Agreed. Many of us here constantly report him, and I Have repeatedly muted and blocked him (which apparently only lasts a day). I have directly contacted Substack when he gets incredibly insulting, they ignore my requests to block him.
If he only had a comment or two, you could scroll past him, but MY GOD THIS GUY HAS NO LIFE!! He inserts his crap everywhere! Often copy/pasting the same junk over and over.
When he gets backed into a corner,, he either calls the resonable person "thugly the troll" or accuses them of using coke. Must be projection as it is a constant theme with him!
Look at his photo and tell me you think otherwise.
Exactly. This convo has gone off on a tangent that misses the excellent content of today's Heather's LFAA -- the entire Republican Congress is being led by a single person. The Speaker and the Minority Leader have been given marching orders from PUTIN via TFFG. This is not our border issue -- this is Russia's border expansion policy.
Every single day for at least 2 1/2 years, The NY Times reported the Covid-19 infections and deaths by state and even by county. These statistics were tracked by Johns Hopkins Medical School. Almost all of the states did the same. If anything the numbers were under reported when Fascist Governors like DeSantis fired their Covid-19 trackers and then made up the numbers going forward.
Also, no one is reporting long Covid-19 deaths of which there are hundreds of thousands.
TFFG threw away the CDC pandemic playbook, just like he tossed aside the current border bill. No one is allowed to get credit for anything unless he is President and then everyone else's successes are his successes.
And there were at least a few MAGANAZIs who were dumb enough to drink bleach and hundreds of thousands of other that took the ineffective Hydrochlorothiazide.
it is not only that trump wants to run on the immigration issue and so does not want this bill to pass. remember, he does not get mad, he gets even. he wants to stiff zelensky for not taking the bait or genuflecting during that famous 'perfect' fone call. the personal and the political have combined to create a 'perfect' storm.
And thank you for reminding people. Trumps’s statement about needing the vaccine before the election was a classic. Or leaving a cruise ship out at sea because he did not want their COVID cases to count in the numbers. Surely this guy survived the Roswell incident.
Didn't you know? Kurds didn't fight in WWII so says historian of inaccurate facts. Therefore we don't need to have their backs says he who has bad feet and bravest thing ever done is hit a golf ball.
Yes, “the great replacement theory” as touted by Tucker Carlson. If folks would think clearly a. folks who are in the country illegally cannot and will not vote. b. it takes a long time to become a citizen thereby being eligible to vote. c. and, no one knows how or for which party the new voters will vote.
They're certainly supporting dictators, first among them mass murderer Putin. Seems they're doing it because their orange cretin in diapers loves his dictators, loves anyone who will destroy democracy as he so egregiously did -- or tried to.
But of course there's another calling to which the orange "bing-bing-bong" guy answers, and that's the phalanxes of billionaires all holding themselves above common people. Not just holding themselves above, but actively trying to turn millions into low-wage, obedient, quiescent serfs. By putting idiot ideologues atop school systems. By killing off humanities in schools. By offshoring decent, American working class jobs to any dictator, nationalist, or demagogue who wants them.
Not laughable, these craven ideologues and billionaires.
Yup. Like so much inside the Capitol, this seems like a saga with twists and turns, but anyone with enough common sense to see through the smoke and mirrors should be surprised by zero of these events. The Republicans were never going to agree to any deal on border security. They don't want to solve this problem. They don't want to solve *any* problems, but *especially* not this one. Their base voters hate immigrants. Hate them. Pure, blind, unadulterated fear and loathing. Nothing gets them as worked up as the supposedly ongoing Invasion of Illegals (tm), and the icky, gross cooties that they bring from their dirty-poor-brown-person countries and are spreading all over our formerly nice, clean house.
Why would any soulless politician give such a consistently motivating thing up? Simple: They won't.
And 45% of the country will accept it, because that 45% has grown to learn something with absolute certainty: liberals love crime, and the criminals who commit it! Love it! And their favorite crimminals are the ones who *aren't even from here*! You see, liberals love to sin, what with their wanton sex, twisted mouths, and strange clothes, and they can't stand seeing the pure, disciplined, god-fearing real Americans look like the patriots they are. So they need the criminals to do the crime and destroy as much of our society as they can, because only then can they implement their socialist control where everyone is on welfare and has forgotten Jesus, leaving those who wish to sin to rule the world free of pushback. We must be strong and dominate over these creatures who wish to corrupt and overrun America, the Chosen Land!
Do the Repubs in Congress actually think this? With the exception of a few true nutballs, nah, not really. They work for the Money Men, and the Money Men are quite annoyed by a strong democratic federal government, what with its civil rights protections and social safety net, because that gives autonomy to regular people, and we can't have people walkin' around thinkin' they are as good as anyone else, now can we? The Money Men's preferred elected officials therefore are not there to DO anything, but to STOP anything good from being done, so the Money Men can fill up that sweet sweet power vacuum bit by bit. And if the Money Men's preferred elected officials need to spend a bit of their time pretending to love Jesus and hate immigrants, well that is just fine with the Money Men. They can just keep paying those same immigrants under the table in the meantime. It is amazing how willing to accept abuse people can be if they are desperate enough and can't read the law that they are hiding from!
Compromise immigration reform? In 2024? Yeah, right.
His base are fear based bigots that have normalized violence in their own lives. I'm afraid of alt-right Billionaires that want to turn this country into a Charles Dicken's, Oliver Twist novel.
We need to spend more and more money. But Biden's Vampire Liberals, building on the earlier work of Trump's Vampire Conservatives, have loaded on so much Unpayable Debt that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve has sounded a warning:
Please don't insult baboons, Georgia Girl. A baboon leader will have survival skills unequalled by most humans. A baboon pack may be very hierarchical, but it's a society that functions.This misleader is an agent of chaos, a geriatric Caligula. If he was a baboon, he'd not have rank.
And when old baboon leaders do get geriatric, they're thrown out of the pack...
Will, speaking of Tucker Carlson, (" these creatures who wish to corrupt and overrun America.") HCR stated in today's letter that " The Russian Union of Journalists has said they would gladly accept Carlson as a member."
I thought he already was a member! Of course the term "journalist" must be used lightly in his case.
Oh I hate that guy! He was here in Canada just a couple of weeks ago spouting his nonsense. I wonder what little tidbits and observations about Canadian politics he will pass on to Putin.
Tuckers going to take the helm as lead anchorman for RT, Russia Today ( Putin’s state propaganda network). I had never heard of it before a trip to Europe in 2017. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Here were b and c American Personalities working for a hostile state propaganda network, Fox News on steroids. RT was heavily promoted/pushed into the American public 2010-2016 on YouTube. RT s programming philosophy is “Everyone lies. Everyone is corrupt. We are the only network that will tell you that. Nothing is true and anything is possible”. RT introduces conspiracy theories into the American minds, claims Democracy is bad, supports Putin’s polices, supports just about everything MAGA. A 2nd Trump term will make RT the new Fox, and down the rabbit hole of radicalization we continue to fall.
Veronica, I agree. Wonder if Will’s fire comes from generations of old guard Republicans “in” the family tree. I know from whence I speak. The satire rings so true as I fondly recall my father’s satire. His staunch Republican father disowned him for supporting Roosevelt and going to art school.
There are quite a few different US “opinionists” (my new word!) who are Russian apologists. My sister sends me their columns. I always make sure to look at their credentials.
Yes, MAGA's are backing world dictators. I've never felt more embarrassed being an American. MAGA's highjacking aid to Ukraine by calling for and getting a border deal, then crushing it says it all:
"Certainly, once news began to spread that the negotiators were close to a deal, both former president Trump and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who said he was conferring with Trump, came out strongly against the measure even before anyone knew what was in it.
How is it possible that while we believe to be a democracy we have a minority of in-house traitors calling the shots? Tucker Carlson smooching with Putin? Ignoring a bi-partisan border deal so that trump can have a craven policy to run on? This stuff used to be hidden but now is tossed about in broad daylight. How can this possibly end well?
It’s racism deferred from two terms of President Obama. The frightening thought of an able articulate Black president, of Blacks in congress and on the Court, really frightened the White Trash element of our country… those reading at a fifth grade level fear Blacks will eat their lunch.
Sophia, I've been thinking that what could turn everything around is if it could be revealed which Republicans are receiving money (and how much and for how long) from Putin to do his bidding. Make it blatantly available for all to see! If only that were possible...
Trumps tax returns from 2007-2012. This was during and post worldwide financial meltdown. Russian money from high oil prices flooded into commercial real estate, saving an entire industry in London and New York, then Florida. The #1 tool to launder money happens to be weak US real estate laws and Trump is a direct beneficiary. It’s well documented Russian mobsters own suits in Trump Towers. But less known is the number of dark LLC’s backed by Russian Capital that purchased Trump properties through Duetche Bank. And then there are the licensee deals of Trump towers and the Miss Universe Moscow, investing in less than Democratic countries. Trump deals were so good for Russian money launderers that taking them abroad seemed like a no brainer. Much of the time the deals are led by former KGB/FSB officers, their family relatives, a mix of oligarchs and the like. The money works its way into corruption of officials and into our political establishment as campaign donations and under the table payroll bribes. case in point Rudy and the NY Lead FBI agent on the take. Republicans will never want to get rid of this money maker on their own. It is the cancer that not dealt with is going to ruin our country. Vote blue is the best thing we can do.
Yes, it keeps getting weirder and weirder. When Johnson was asked if their club was taking direction from trump he dismissively declared, "Of course not." Now that it has been evinced that nothing can soil what comes out of the mouth of their orange boil supreme leader, his minions have become more fiercely and falsely emboldened. Waiting for this house of cards to be shattered into smithereens soon....
It's never been this bad. The Bush/Cheney/Bumsfeld weapons-of-mass-destruction scheme came close. Nixon was a crook but at least he heeded the writing on the wall....
Because the repub party wasn't full of traitors. Everett Dirksen was about my favorite republican. There were vipers, but they weren't the majority. True, it has never been this bad, in at least my lifetime and I'm older than dirt..
TRUMP MAGA GOP FASCIST INSANITY HAS BEEN FEATURED BY RACHEL MADDOW AS SUCH… this latest GOP gesture will destroy our leadership at the UN and at NATO… and will cost us Western Europe… and ultimately - bring on World War III…
1st Amendment does not govern. Substack Inc chose California law in a California forum. California has an express Right of Privacy in our state Constituion.
In developing 2023 case law, CA has expanded new civil wrongs called "torts" expanding the the CA right of privacy creating new 2023 law to deal with the current wave of "digital" & platform owner wrongs including "deep fakes", shallow Trolls & contract violations asserted by "Readers" in the proper confidential forum that Substack Inc. put together..
Hey, LOSER---you might actually google Sandy Lewis and discover something about him. Famous, wealthy, influential and intellectual.... all things YOU wish you were, are not and will NEVER be.
But by all means, KEEP POSTING DAILY!! To every other comment!
You call Putin a mass murderer? Would you also call Bush and Netanyahu mass murderers? And then there's Trump: I don't think he's a mass murderer, but he did murder Qasim Soleimani in plain sight, misusing the military to do so, when Soleimani was on a three-way peace mission, according to statements at the time by government spikesmen from Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iraq has a warrant out for Trump's arrest.
A qualified yes. Putin controls the Russian military far more completely than any US President so comparing him to one isn’t a great comparison if we’re discussing culpability. The US military isn’t perfect, but it also doesn’t commit war crimes like there’s a reward for ticking every box.
The Israel/Palestine problem is altogether different and, frankly, one that is unique and intractable. It’s understandable for Israel to not want millions of genocidal anti-semitic non-citizens living and plotting amongst her people. That said, it’s pretty clear Israel is not living up to its values and standards. From settlements to indiscriminate bombings, at a minimum they’re not doing enough to prevent genocide.
What trump is doing now is basically what he’s on trial for in Florida: racketeering. His minions are ignoring their constituents, their colleagues, and their stated values to interfere with government and subvert the will of the majority. Mass death is a predictable result. He’s forcing this to happen with full knowledge of the consequences and the stated intent to “pin it” on his political opponent.
Context does indeed matter, and the U.S. government, especially through its control over the International Monetary Fund, is far worse than Putin. Quoting from Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the IMF:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
"The US military isn’t perfect, but it also doesn’t commit war crimes like there’s a reward for ticking every box."
Unfortunately, in Afghanistan, US Troops, or one of the many Republican owned "security forces" that got rich on Bush's war, DID commit war crimes.
Here is just one report on one instance of young boys being killed, likely for fun, from two sources. Almost all of the young boys in a village in Afghanistan.
Bush's Iraq war had its fair share of US war crimes committed. Blackwater and many independent kill squads made their mark. We have failed with our revenge wars. What good came out of any of them? Only generations of pain.
Never implied otherwise. Combat is never “clean.” There are major differences though. The scope, intent, internal accountability responses, genuine efforts to learn and improve (or not), are all very different between the US and what’s left of Russian forces (a large part of which are now conscripted criminals).
I wasn't thinking that. I'm not comparing our military responses to Russia. I just think our attempts of Colonizing counties is a complete failure. Afghanistan is a perfect example.
1. Trying to equate Russia’s systemic genocide of Ukrainians with incidents like the one you cited is like equating a cop that shoots a suspect who “fits the description” with a prolific serial killer.
2. Citing an example of a NATO mishap rather than a US specific one doesn’t help and even if it had been US specific, this is an example of leadership acknowledging the mistake. It’s an exception and not the norm.
3. All of that is beside the point: due to the huge differences in systems of government, an Autocrat like Putin will always be more culpable than an executive like Bush. And I’m no fan of Bush. I think he should be impeached for misleading Congress and by extension the public to involve us in Iraq. I’m interested in what a good-faith investigation would turn up and whether there would be grounds for indictment/conviction (assuming high crimes etc are proven).
We can only call the Israeli-Palestinian cycles of hate and murder intractable if we already agree that no one should call the schools to account.
We could invest in schools so those learning (English, as a starter) might also learn to teach students essay writing personally, to see "others" as individuals in their contexts. The world consensus, however, has only the corporate, departmentally siloed, neutered models of teaching, suitable for continued dominance by the commercially amoral and the nationalistically fanatic.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Regarding U.S. war crimes, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark (under President Johnson) wrote a book, "The Fire This Time":
"Do you think that Putin has a policy of mass murder or targeting civilians?"
John, any right minded person paying attention in Ukraine will know that not only are Russian soldiers killing and torturing civilians but they are also raping the women.
And, yes, Russia routinely bombs civilian targets.
Even a slimy Russian salamander troll living under a Russian paid rock would admit that.
I remember the story about Saddam Hussein's soldiers dumping babies in the hospital out of incubators onto the floor to die. This story inflamed the whole country, including me, and helped justify our war against Iraq. Then, afterwards, it was widely reported that the story was a bare-faced lie.
I have seen much of the same in the barrage of propaganda against Russia, but I have no doubt that some of the stories of atrocities are true.
Isolated acts by military units are different from a systematic policy. I have been taking a wait-and-see attitude, remembering how we all got brainwashed in the past.
Regarding the "kidnapped" children, I remember reading that Russia relocated orphans from a war zone to safety in Russia. What's the true story, and how do we find out?
I think that, regarding why the war "unfroze" in 2022, Russia has a case that should be considered, and I think that there is a lot of misinformation exaggerating Russian atrocities, but I think that some atrocities definitely did happen, just like the United States did in Vietnam and Iraq. I said more in this reply:
My position is that we need to accept that we can't defeat the Russians militarily, which means that we'll eventually have to negotiate with them, so it makes sense to be aware of their side of the story and the underlying big picture.
Furthermore, our government is broke, and Congress is broken:
Biden's reckless policy, supported by leading Democrats and Republicans since Obama was President, has been to shore up Ukraine's thuggish government and use Ukraine as a weapon against Russia. America leaders, especially Biden, have foolishly undermined American national security and wasted military resources.
I've said more about Ukraine's brutal far-right thug regime here:
If he wrote it in the sixties, how relevant can it be to comments about modern US military conduct contrasted with Russia’s conduct over the past 30 years and especially over the past ten?
I know that he does. Even if I didn’t, I would infer it. The idea that the widespread inhumane conduct of his forces isn’t (at a minimum) tacitly condoned by him personally is absurd. At best, he’s created an environment that incentivizes barbarism among his military leaders. Like most things, “there’s levels to this shit.”
Christopher Johnson, it would seem that your condemnation of Putin is misinformed by a monstrous "enemy image" propaganda disinformation campaign.
I remember the story about Saddam Hussein's soldiers dumping babies in the hospital out of incubators onto the floor to die. This story inflamed the whole country, including me, and helped justify our war against Iraq. Then, afterwards, it was widely reported that the story was a bare-faced lie.
I have seen much of the same in the barrage of propaganda against Russia, but I have no doubt that some of the stories of atrocities are true.
Isolated acts by military units are different from a systematic policy. I have been taking a wait-and-see attitude, remembering how we all got brainwashed in the past.
Regarding the "kidnapped" children, I remember reading that Russia relocated orphans from a war zone to safety in Russia. What's the true story, and how do we find out?
I think that, regarding why the war "unfroze" in 2022, Russia has a case that should be considered, and I think that there is a lot of misinformation exaggerating Russian atrocities, but I think that some atrocities definitely did happen, just like the United States did in Vietnam and Iraq. I said more in this reply:
My position is that we need to accept that we can't defeat the Russians militarily, which means that we'll eventually have to negotiate with them, so it makes sense to be aware of their side of the story and the underlying big picture.
Furthermore, our government is broke, and Congress is broken:
Biden's reckless policy, supported by leading Democrats and Republicans since Obama was President, has been to shore up Ukraine's thuggish government and use Ukraine as a weapon against Russia. America leaders, especially Biden, have foolishly undermined American national security and wasted military resources.
I've said more about Ukraine's brutal far-right thug regime here:
When a foreign invading force isolates a city or town, slaughters the adult non-combatants and “relocates” the resulting orphans to their home country to have their cultural identity erased-that’s genocide.
Yes, isolated act by military units ARE different from a systematic policy. I’m not referring to isolated incidents. I’m referring to common practice of a majority of military units with no sign of acknowledgment, let alone apology or improvement from the government.
Emptying out the prisons for conscripts, poorly training and equipping them, and turning them loose in harsh conditions with an overwhelmed and inexperienced officer corps guarantees atrocities will be commonplace. And they have been.
If you really think Biden’s handling of the situation is a disaster, I have to wonder what you think the objective is and what you think an acceptable outcome would be. Because from where I’m sitting, Biden has handled it brilliantly.
Anyway, I can’t help but think this whole conversation is a weird tangent. Putin? Mass murderer. Bebe? Maybe. Probably. Bush? Weakest argument of the group. But if your point was to imply that those of us calling trump a mass murderer would hesitate to characterize the others similarly, no. Without trump’s term it’s likely there would be no Ukraine invasion. It’s also likely things would have gone very differently in Israel and that shit show wouldn’t be happening either. Congress wouldn’t be as fucked because MAGA would have been strangled in its infancy. Hell, we’d be wrapping up two terms of a Clinton presidency and frankly, with her at the helm Covid might not have become the pandemic that it did because the infrastructure Bush and Obama installed specifically for such things wouldn’t have been dismantled. He’s personally responsible first millions of deaths. Millions.
I think you very well know the history of the American C.I.A., John.
But you reasonably enough ask about Bush and Netanyahu.
The former, a stooge, tool of U.S. fossil fuel criminals -- genteel corporate thugs who did business with every dictator / murderer in the world. And lied as much to the public as much as did the genteel U.S. corporate tobacco thugs.
Netanyahu, a slick harvester of U.S. evangelicals humping for the Rapture, and an opportunist licensing murders here and there on behalf of the far-right settlers assiduously stealing West Bank land.
But, too, yes, John -- Putin is mass murderer of the old school, he and his former Soviet nomenklatura goons all financed by hot shot U.S. Ivy League and other despicable hustlers in the early 1990s.
Did I miss the part where Bush and Netanyahu attacked before being attacked? Not quite an equivalent. Also, I don't think Bush or Bibi poisoned or iimprisoned their own political rivals, or blew them up on planes. Who knows what Trump would have done if he could have gotten Congress to green light his murderous ambitions.
Ukraine attacked the Donbass republics, finally deep-sixing thr tattered Minsk Agreements, just after Russia signed mutual defense pacts with the Donbass republics, so Russia counter-attacked. You did indeed miss that part.
And then there's this:
Question: How many people died suddenly when they were about to testify against Bill and Hillary Clinton?
My point is that we, the United States and the old European "colonial powers" (read NATO, whose countries have voting domination at the IMF) are much worse than Putin and Russia.
Edward Luce's op-ed columns generally don't cite sources,.
The facts and eye-whiteness reports that you draw from finally have some traction. But is it too late to stop the “craven ideologies and billionaires” from completely overwhelming our democracy?
To answer it, I suggest we go to Auden's "Under Which Lyre" (1946). In it he referred to our "intellectual marines," those individuals highly individual, speaking up for those with inevitably much less public voice than the billionaires of their time, with all their media, foundations, lobbyists, and small money fans of Tucker, Putin, U.S. House Speaker Howdy Doody, and his syphilitic orange diaper guy.
I had the same thought, Phil. We cannot say that Tucker is a journalist anymore. He is a Russian operative to which he is guilty of. Charging him with treason though? Not unless he has provided govt. secrets to Putin. I am almost certain the FBI & CIA are keeping close tabs on him.
"Although it seemed clear that the measure would pass the House if it came to the floor, Johnson said he would not introduce it."
While it's not going to change any time soon, I have been surprised to see how much power certain individual members of Congress to sabotage the democratic process, such as Johnson and Tuberville. It's no small thing and it's a bug that needs fixing if government by and for the people is to be a reality.
Not to nitpick, but putting Johnson and Tuberville together to illustrate obstructionist gridlock is dodgy. Johnson, loathsome and dangerous theocrat though he may be, is the duly elected Speaker of the House, most likely the second most powerful position in the US following the President. In a properly fuctioning system, you would *expect* the head of one of the legislative branches to call the shots on what policies will get a chance. The difference with the Tuberville situation is there you had a freshman legislator with no leadership position able to neuter the workings of the military chain of command, which one would not expect to happen in a properly functioning system. His sabotage revealed once again just how easily abused the arcane Senate rules are, and how they need to go, preferably yesterday.
It's the difference between a head coach making horrible calls versus allowing a child to wander onto the field and start playing with the ball for an hour instead.
Agreed and I never meant to imply that their role was equivalent, but the concept of checks and balances is meant to extend over the entire government, and no role within it should allow significant perversion of the public will and the public good. That obviously is a tougher call as the degree of public trust and discretionary power increases, but the public should still be able to define the boundaries of misuses of publicly conferred power. What Johnson and McConnell and Tuberville share is the ability to throw wrenches in the works without remedy, short of throwing the rascals out. I don't know what to do about it, but I see reason to wonder if some of our ways of doing things are worth deep reevaluation and reform. Perhaps we fail to make progress because our problems run deeper than our solutions?
Can we even talk about the problematic nature of arbitrary powers, not matter how deeply established, such as executive power of pardon, or are we the people stuck with them forever? Trump has established how problematic pardon by executive whim has become, but it never was consistent with equal protection and due process to begin with, to award that degree of power to one person's judgement. Is it wise to offer pardon, in retrospect, of apparent miscarriages of justice (certainly not preemptively, as Ford did it)? Sure. But the way we do it now is an anachronistic vestige of autocracy.
Excellent analogy, Will. Sadly, the end results represent what comes out of the end of a horse, whether "duly elected leader" or "scrambled brains coach with name recognition".
Jesus Johnson doesn't know what the hell he is doing. He's got Agent Orange and God on speed dial. But, is it God or Leonard Leo? Meanwhile, MAGAQ insurrectionists are grifting there way to glory off the pain and suffering of the rest of the world. It's all game to the coked-up alcoholics that run our government.
That's unfair to coke and alcoholics. These are stupid evil nasty creature doing the bidding of a very sick man, and all the narcissistic sociopaths who think their money gives them to right to control everyone. They use the religious nonsense the fools believe to control them, which is after all the purpose of religion. Just say god made me do it.
I can dig it. My cousin was a journalist for the Associated Press and was part of the Air Force One fly group for 3 Presidents. I asked her if anyone was sober? She laughed, and said a few. But, just a few. She said they all live in a glass bubble. They are very out of touch with reality. They protect themselves first. We, the voters are an afterthought.
These bodies make their own rules, and I’m sorry to say that I know next to nothing about the history of it all. It seems that intent to protect minorities has led to minority rule to an absurd degree.
Doesn't it take only one House Rep to force a vote to remove the Speaker? It's in the rules. Perhaps the Democrats in the house could all take turns (200+ turns) introducing such a measure. Who knows, one of them might stick.
But if they do so, who then would become Speaker? The GOP still has a razor-thin majority, though it's been reduced recently by the resignations of Kevin McCarthy and Ohio Rep. Bill Johnson, who resigned to take up an appointed academic position back home. And there is no way any Republican in the House will vote for Hakeem Jeffries. So the stalemate will get even worse and the chances are that eventually the House GOP will vote for an even more extreme Speaker than Johnson.
Also, I believe Rachel Maddow reported last night that dear Marjorie has threatened Mike Johnson with a call to vacate the Speaker's chair if Johnson dares to allow the border security/Ukraine package to come to a floor vote.
The balancing of the rights of a majority with the rights of a minority is clear enough in some respects and intractably tricky in others; part of why many people want to give up on democracy. Liberty and justice for all will always require active pursuit, which is no excuse to not pursue it. That said, it should be self-evident that the government of the people, by the people, for the people should never take actions that deliberately favor our own hired agents interests over the interests of public. That may be commonplace, but it's fundamentally corrupt.
i mean, in the similar sense that electing Obama "led to" various reactionaries hurling themselves out of the woodwork, sure, civil rights gains "led to" the GOP ramping up toxic abuse of the system. realizing that a more-level playing field will diminish your powers might just do that to any number of persons.
It is obscene that a single person, in our government, can make decisions on behalf of our entire country! We are over 300,000,000 strong and our voices keep getting drowned out.
If the '24 election yields a Biden win, but even a ONE GOP House or a ONE GOP Senate majority, it's a Trump controlling Congress déjà vu all over again, even if it's from a prison cell.
Vote BLUE up and down the ballot, and tell a friend.
There are 7 competitive Senate races this year. All are popular Dem incumbents and/or running in states Biden won last time. Therefore, the Dem should be considered the slight favorite in each race, but a clean sweep like in '22 will be needed to hold the chamber. The candidates are:
Bob Casey in Pennsylvania
Elissa Slotkin in Michigan
Jacky Rosen in Nevada
Jon Tester in Montana
Ruben Gallego in Arizona
Sherrod Brown in Ohio
Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin
Donate to and volunteer for these people, and *only these people* (until further notice). Don't get distracted by someone charismatic running against someone loathsome in an unwinnable seat. The end of the filibuster is likely if the people I just listed come out ahead. FOCUS your resources, don't dilute them. We can do this.
Will from CA: Thanks for your note. It was a good reminder. I copied it and sent it to friends here in WI. I am going to think about how friends and I can help Baldwin.
Contact your local Democratic Committee and Baldwin's campaign. I visit activist friends in Racine and campaign with them. Gwen Moore is the Representative from that area.
I agree, but with a qualification. One factor that has contributed to Republican extremism is how many seats, especially for down-ballot offices, have them running either without opposition or with feeble opposition. The more people from Team Normal who run, the more they are held to account, which should help temper their extremism, especially if elections are closer than expected.
I’m not explaining this very well. But I’ve been reading David Pepper a lot, and this is one of his pillars. He does explain it well. One of his prime examples of extremists coming into office with no opposition is Mike Johnson himself. Check out Pepper’s Substack or Twitter if you’re interested.
I know precisely what you mean KR; I'm in Ohio too as you should know. The predicted, long term effects of the gerrymandering is what we have in Ohio, wherein there's a realistic psychological effect that bars opposition, democrat, independents, to even go to the bother of running for any given office, so the R's are unopposed. It creates and sustains from lowest office to highest, bandwagon bias, and in some confirmation bias in an unending loop.
I had to believe that's what you were trying to explain. And thanks for the David Peppers suggestion; I'll have a look in there. I'm about 20 miles south of Cleveland; what about you, generally is good enough.
We live in the Columbus area. I’m from Shaker Hts. originally, my husband is from Rome, Italy. We moved here from Ann Arbor about 30 years ago. My husband teaches at OSU. I was a commercial real estate consultant/appraiser, then a stay at home mom, and now I have two horses and compete actively. It’s a good life here.
I’m glad you asked - I’ve been wondering where you live!
Unfortunately, one person on your list is different. Sherrod Brown from Ohio is running in a state that Trump won by 8 points, twice. But I am donating and working my backside off to see he wins! And I believe that Trump also won Montana, where Jon Tester is running.
Wonderful and constructive suggestion Will; thank you. I can speak for one for sure in Ohio, Sherrod Brown. I followed and supported his career from his first 'toe dip' in politics here for Ohio offices. He is profoundly deliberative, consistent and deserving of support, especially if your 'lean' in our politics is towards "a more perfect union." I've followed his voting record on everything and his positions have always mirrored choices I would have made. Now don't get me wrong, I will never call any human a paragon of virtue, etc., etc. I do have some personal issues with him, but those are fixable and besides the point. I will openly tell you that despite my issues, I will fully support and vote for him. If there is a seat occupant worthy of wide support, it is Sherrod Brown.
''Foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum reflected on the teetering national security measure and wrote: “People will die, today, because of the cynical game played by the American Republican party. Their irresponsibility is breathtaking.”''
"The End Game? An American Authoritarian State''
This obstructionism jeopardizes vital aid to Ukraine, risking further destabilization in Europe and empowering America's adversaries. By prioritizing loyalty to Trump over national security interests, Republicans risk tarnishing America's reputation and embroiling the country in future conflicts. The refusal to pass the bill represents a profound betrayal of both American allies and core national values.
'Dreamers' left out in the cold by US Senate border bill
By Richard Cowan
'WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - A bipartisan border security bill headed to a U.S. Senate vote this week is likely to dash hopes for a quick, clear path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people brought into the U.S. illegally as children, as Congress takes a harder line on immigration.'
'This group, known as "Dreamers," had been a top priority for Democrats in immigration policy talks for more than a decade.'
'But as Republicans made new border restrictions a condition of aid for U.S. allies Ukraine and Israel sought by Democratic President Joe Biden, the Dreamers question was left off the table.
Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said that at the onset of the just-concluded talks Republicans rejected his plea to include the Dreamers.'
"There are members on the other side that have the position of not one single immigrant under any circumstances," Durbin said in an interview.'
'Some Republican lawmakers said it was unlikely Congress would take up the question of the Dreamers at any time in the foreseeable future.'
'Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, one of three senators who negotiated the bill, acknowledged the lack of progress in helping Dreamers.'
"We still have work to do, like providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented people, but this bill is an important downpayment on immigration reform," he said on Sunday.'
'There are no guarantees that the bipartisan bill will become law. It faces some opposition from both left and right in Congress and may not even be taken up by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, after former President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the idea.
Currently, there are 544,690 Dreamers receiving temporary protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat. While they also are granted work permits under DACA, their status in the United States has to be renewed every two years and the new Senate bill keeps them in limbo.
But there are thought to be as many as 2 million Dreamers in the United States when counting those who currently are not covered by DACA. New sign-ups under the program have been placed on hold by court challenges to the program.'
"To say that it's disappointing and frustrating I think is an understatement," said Diana Pliego, whose parents brought her to the U.S. at the age of three in 1997. "I've been waiting 26 years for Congress to pass a meaningful pathway."
'Now 29, Pliego recounted a lifetime of deportation fears and childhood poverty because of her family's illegal immigration status.'
'She qualified for protection from deportation under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, went on to earn a college degree and now lives in a Washington suburb and works for the National Immigration Law Center. But her childhood fears of deportation linger.' (Reuters) See link below.
Fern, I appreciate this post. One of my nieces is engaged to a dreamer (he's in his mid 20's). This issue has become more personal and far less academic to me in the last 5 years.
Ally, even without a personal connection, such as yours, my grandparents and husband were immigrants, so I identify with 'The Dreamers' and with immigrants, in general.
'How many U.S. residents are from immigrant families? Immigrants and their U.S.-born children number approximately 87.7 million people, or close to 27 percent of the U.S. population in the 2022 CPS, an increase of approximately 14.7 million (or 20 percent) from 2010.' (migrationpolicy.org.)
It helps to win the Congress as well as the Presidency. Then we can get everything done. If we can't even get a deal by giving up stuff we very much want, then the other side isn't negotiating in good faith. That's the lesson to be drawn. We did our best to win a deal, knowing that we'd have to continue the fight for other stuff -- as we always have to do. We showed good faith. Don't see this as a mistake but as an effort. We're still the good guys. Not voting for Biden is only going to elect Trump which is only going to make our goals impossible -- violent male white supremacy will be the result.
"Vital aid" to Ukraine's corrupt far-right thug regime, where Zelensky is at increasing risk of being overthrown in the aftermath of the dismal failure of his "counter-offensive." Now, more money down the drain?
Distressing news out of Washington. I deeply resent my tax dollars going to pay Mike Johnson’s salary, since he is working for the Trump presidential campaign rather than the American people. Write more letters, make more calls.
Mike Johnson is 'Charles Koch bagman Leonard Leo's legislative MiniMe'. Not content with court capture, Leo has taken over The Teneo Network which he describes as 'a Federalist Society for everything that's messed up in America.' What he means by 'messed up' is equality before the law, equal representation, providing for the general welfare, and defending the nation.
The US border. The crisis of global warming alone should make us not look a gift horse in the mouth-we should view the immigrants as partners in building a renewable and sustainable economy. Global warming dictates that we need workers in sustainable agriculture that listens to climate scientists on how best to help meet our needs: food security, zero emissions transportation, energy efficient housing and transition from industries that have a high impact or extractive practices on the environment.
THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMENT TODAY! Climate change is ignored (food, water, overpopulation, etc.) while Republicans and trolls distract US and make US blind to what will kill us all if left unaddressed.
Like the weeds in a lovely garden. It used to be a collection of people we had come to know and were pleased to greet. Well, weeds are weeds, and we know what to do about them.
Sadly, they’ve been here almost since the beginning of this Substack. David Carroll is a longtime poster. They’ve gotten way more ubiquitous, especially since one of them pot stirs, posts tons of repetitive posts trying to get traction, always posts on the first comment, and provokes responses. I try hard to just scroll on by and not read whatever nonsense they spout.
In a way, their presence is a tribute to Dr. Richardson’s, and our, effectiveness as a community.
Oh, I’m not generous at all! It offends me that they clutter up our discourse and derail us from talking about the Letters, which I suppose is their purpose.
Trump is not our elected president, but he refuses to stop trying to run the country. He is the defacto leader of the House of Representatives. MAGA Mike is not the leader he is just a sheep in the Cult of Trump. I hope Putin turns on Tucker Carlson while he is there. It would be a great lesson for the MAGAs on who Putin really is. Clearly they are unable to learn about Trump.
And of course the Republicans have a better plan to get voters, make women bare lots of children by removing their options not to, and then use them for child labor and assuming they can brainwash them into voting.
So the Speaker is in consultation with Trump, and says so. Trump? Justification? The gloves are off. Or they're on. And Tucker! Orban must really be on the skids. Staying at top Moscow hotels? How many does he need to stay at? Is he prospecting for the future Trump Tower? Top level negotiations, boss to boss.
Tucker is looking for relevance. Nobody gives a shit about him. He's looking for a job. He's craving validation. He screams, "notice me". He's a spineless fuck wad.
He got too big for his bow tie and cant go back to being a normie. C'est tragique.
The only difference between a right-wing news commentor and the drunk guy yelling at the back of the bus is the precense of a camera. Take that away and they dissolve into the ether.
Tucker grew up in wealth and privilege, is physically healthy and meets current criteria for attractiveness. There is no obvious reason for him to act like this. The interpersonal relationships in his family must have been monstrous, to create such a twisted person as he seems to be.
Probably. He's another useless malignant narcissist looking for an audience. He's looking for relevance. He doesn't care how he gets it. He needs a supply. He can afford his own consequences. He doesn't have to worry about paying the light bill. His fucking self entitlement is something else. He's no Mike Wallace. But, he thinks so. All they do is project their own insecurities and babbling on the rest of us. Take away the supply, they got nothing.
I read somewhere (probably Julia Davis, whose Russia reporting is exemplary) that Russian media has been gloating over his presence, and laughing about how he’s been charging his phone by plugging it into USB outlets. What an idiot.
I think they are going to be personally signed by his buddy Vlad then mounted in his man cave… so he can talk about the time he shared Vodka and borscht with his good buddy Vlad
“Tucker Carlson has been spotted in Moscow, generating speculation that he’s there to interview President Vladimir Putin, and the liberal commentariat are losing their minds about it.
There’s no valid basis for Westerners to object to Putin being interviewed by a Western pundit. There’s no moral basis because Israeli officials have had unfettered access to a wildly sympathetic Western press throughout four months of administering an active genocide.
There’s no basis on the grounds that it hurts U.S. information interests, because that would be admitting that U.S. information interests depend on hiding information from the public about matters as basic as what a foreign leader thinks about his own actions, and essentially acknowledging that the Western media are supposed to function as propaganda services for U.S. military and intelligence agencies.
Every possible objection is also a confession about what the U.S. empire and its media actually are.”
Who cares what Tucker fucking does. Like he's taken seriously? He screams of desperation. This is not serious journalism. This is an attention seeking asshole period.
Trump was slighted by Ukraine not giving him the "dirt" he wanted...REVENGE is his mantra, so no aid to Ukraine, as he urges his propagandized sycophants to endorse. We need Independents to coalesce...they have NO funding as our 2-party system provides. Down-party votes need these Independents to win local elections. Stop this "revenge" cycle.
I certainly do not have the contacts or the power to get American men and women out onto the street, as we see in Germany. Does public protest no longer matter in the USA. When it is completely clear that "doing nothing" will result in huge damage to so many of us and our allies. President Biden can't allow the minority to define our future, and coming November may be too late. How do we get people out onto the street to show what we want?
All I can add Tom is that in Germany, the tide has turned all over since the demonstrations. Even those staying at home felt refreshed in their support of democracy.
My husband and I were out in Washington marching so many times that we amassed a collection of signs that friends and family began to borrow. I'm ready to return to those streets any time - not sure who can organize the mass demonstrations now, though. People are exhausted
Organize marches. In this political climate, possibly spring coming (I write “possibly” because with climate change we don’t know), you will find it easy to get people in the streets. If you have black friends, they’ll help you, existing groups of all sorts may help you. It’s a good skill to be developing these days. Start with a list of possibilities and go from there. Don’t forget a SIGNS committee!
As basic and frustrating as it sounds, my response to today’s “Weird 24 Hours” is to call and leave messages for gop members of congress. I want to do more and worry less. Phone calls voicing awareness and opposition to their obstruction of needed support for Border Security AND support for Ukraine, is an action I can make today.
Reinstating the draft is how we get the billionaires back into the mainstream. It’s the education they need for becoming part of America again. There are stories..
I have a "Stand with Ukraine" badge as my profile pic on Facebook, and a few days ago, someone on Facebook said to me that my profile picture was "so passé". We really do have short attention spans.
On my walk yesterday, I clocked half a dozen houses within a couple streets radius of mine sporting either the Ukrainian flag or the "Stand with Ukraine" sign, and I dont think we have that many Eastern Europeans in my suburban neighborhood.
I dont buy for a minute that people have lost interest. I think Ukraine support has simply moved from being the Hot Topic Of the Moment to a thing we have incorporated into the background of our politics long-term now.
That said, there *are* definitely people who conceptualize "being involved" as being the first to move on to the next Hot Topic Of the Moment, and those people are not worth taking as seriously as they want us to.
Jeri, your comment is a concise explanation of what I think about so much of our domestic policy too. We are constantly bombarded with requests for donations - for things that the government should be doing, most especially those things which lift up the poor.
My husband is Italian. We spend a lot of time in Italy. They are not constantly asked for donations, either charitable or political. Because their government is doing what it’s supposed to do. And that’s Italy, not known for being the best-governed country in the planet.
Efficiency seems to be down on the list of things to be concerned about. Except for Chump, he will fix things in a nanosecond. God forbid. Good for Itally. We used to be builders, not destroyers. Glad to be old.
These comments miss the larger threat. It’s Putin and his quest to take over countries lost from the USSR. Pay attention and for the sake of liberty and democracy think long term.
Here’s something Americans are going to care about.
Putin’s goal is to restore the former Russian Empire. If he’s not stopped in Ukraine, he’ll march into Poland next. Before WWI and the Russian Revolution, what is now Poland was part of the former Russian Empire.
Poland is a member of NATO. Putin marches into Poland, and BAM! A third land war in Europe. Just what everyone has been dreaming of since 1945.
Please President Biden, have a prime-time address tonight to outline what this bill would do. Make sure the non-cult republicans understand the issues of national and international security.
A huge example of what a bully will do if you try and stand up to him. Always gets his revenge only this time not against just the person but the whole nation (Ukraine).
Trump abandoned the Kurds in Syria and will gladly do so with Ukraine. Heck, Trump killed hundreds of thousands of Americans during COVID for political gain so nothing should come as a surprise. Excellent reporting here and well referenced!
The esteemed Dr. Richardson is adept at weaving the historical thread into any current situation. As a renowned historian she has sat with President Biden twice, written many well received books and is a University Professor.
To put it bluntly her resume would knock your socks off.
She is not a reporter and does indeed know how to reference her work.
A lot of reporters DO have history degrees. I'm a retired journalist who broke into the field as a woman by having a masters degree from The University of Chicago. There I studied urban planning, archeology , anthropology, economics, AND HISTORY. All very helpful to journalism.
Thank you, Christina. As a retired journalist, my hair almost caught fire over this criticism:
“She is not a reporter and does indeed know how to reference her work.”
Actually, Dr. Richardson has become one of the PREEMINENT REPORTERS of our time. I couldn’t be more proud of her. Or more in awe. She may be carving a way to ward the NEW New Journalism. She breaks stories daily! She anchors them in history and context and fact. EXACTLY what journalism has been doing for decades — even before the explosive awesomeness of Watergate. The best journalists have always anchored their stories in history, context, fact — problem is, the delivery systems (print, 30-minute broadcast shows, and later costly cable news shows that needed to attract millions of eyes 24 hours a day to keep themselves afloat) do not lend themselves to reporters’ “showing their work,” listing all sources, referencing historic background. Even with the advent of social media, SPACE is finite. But by God, every reporter, editor, news manager I ever knew staked their work, reputation, life on TRUTH as the foundation of every story.
I KNOW the journalism industry is flailing, lost, drowning, grasping. The Orange Idiot has helped its demise, with his “fake news” yammering and his hedge fund henchmen buying up solid news organizations only to kill them off.
Let’s please remember in this especially scary era:
A healthy DEMOCRACY CANNOT EXIST without a free press.
We need solutions, not criticism. Vote. Get others to vote. And keep SUBSCRIBING to the news sources you trust. There are plenty out there. There are lots on Substack. Gathering news is a costly enterprise. Reporters, good journalists, who really know their trade have families, too. We need to PAY FOR THE NEWS WE CONSUME.
I didn't read that as a criticism but I see your point. When asked (not that anyone will) how I get my daily news, I will respond that every bit of it comes from commentaries in the form of emails and email notifications. HCRs efforts are at the top of my list. In the last 30 or 40 years, the forms in which we had gotten our news has melted away for me. No television, no local newspaper and the only thing I listen to on the radio is the local public radio station(s)...and I contribute to those sources.
I agree with everything you've said except for not needing criticism. Please, let us continue to speak out and criticize....
Retired journalist here who is deeply grateful for your comments. Agree with you 100 percent.
I'm so glad your hair only 'nearly caught fire' SL, and you quenched the spark. I get it. Our ego's can be blindspots if we're entirely honest. I'm satisfied that Barb was referring negatively towards what's passing for journalism, reporting - today, and in no way towards the professions as exercised by most in the past. Let's all agree that the entire model of a 'free press' is vastly perverted today and ill serves the American majority. Let's please get agreement on this first proposition, then we'll move on to causes, conditions, perhaps remedies. Yes / No ?
Well said. Thank you.
Christina, thanks. I got hired in 1975 in our ABC affiliate precisely because I already had a Masters degree. The News Director was looking for people who could bring knowledge and experience in an area-- not only a broadcasting degree. He told me he liked my attitude, could teach me the broadcasting part, which he did. I got his detailed written critique on my stories every single night. I ended up reporting, anchoring/ interviewer and becoming a lead anchor at another affiliate. I always loved the in- the- community reporting. In those days we had lots if discussions about sources and ethics and were still bound by the FCC to respond to the needs of our local community if we wanted our license renewed.
I was hired at a newspaper, the Trentonian, in 1968. I was taught on a daily basis by two of the best journalist/editors in the business, then or now, Gil Spencer (later editor at Philadelphia Daily News, NY Daily News, Denver Post) and Don Murdaugh. Wish I could have bottled their knowledge, skill, integrity and love for theprofession.
I recall "In those days we had lots if discussions about sources and ethics and were still bound by the FCC to respond to the needs of our local community if we wanted our license renewed". Technology in communication no longer requires honesty. Perhaps current interventions to curb violating our vulnerable will rescue our eternal intentions toward a just society.
From Dr. Richardson's Facebook page:
"Intro
Heather Cox Richardson is a political historian who uses facts and history to put the news in context."
You go, girl! Am sure your scholarship was well reflected in your articles.
Dr. Richardson is indeed a renowned historian.
Thank You! I noticed my error earlier and neglected to correct it. I corrected the error.
🙂
Renowned??
Thank you Barbara. Great answer.
What’s your deal? This particular post is a masterpiece if both reporting and prose. So MUCH at stake now. And we can depend on Dr. Richardson to convey that import to us.
Barbara, a reporter, by definition, is one who reports. I believe that HCR is one who reports current events with accompanying historical context. However, in today’s parlance, a reporter is assumed to be paid to provide news, (truthful or not) with or without spin. Perhaps, since we pay her for her reporting and historical perspective, a better term would be a historical analysis reporter. What do you think?
Agree.
Somebody has a chip on her shoulder.
Sad that she has become a shameless talking-pointer for Biden and his Vampire Liberals.
What a dick
...said Dick Bonin
Indeed, Trump is a mass murderer and I have always argued since the pandemic that he should be prosecuted for human rights violations. He is no better than Putin, and now Netanyahu, in his pursuit of power at any cost to lives. He's a monster and his disciples are abominable fiends.
What baffles me is the reluctance of Democrats to call out Trump and the Republican party for what they truly are - terrorists with an ultra-right ideology that features white supremacy and Christo-fascism. There is nothing remotely American that can be associated to their world view!
He is totally without empathy and every single move he makes is transactional. If it won’t benefit him, he won’t undertake to do it. He sees the world as a zero sum game, and he must win. These traits, among many others, make him a sociopath.
Exactly right, Gary. He is the epitome of a sociopath. The question I have is what does that make his followers? How can there be so many (millions) hate and grievance-filled people in the US?
Gary, you took the words out of my mouth from decades ago. I went so far as to rewrite a version of "America The Beautiful" in exactly that vein, twisted as we were becoming and have become to "America The Transactional". At the time, folks thought i was nuts. (well.... i am, but in a good way) ;-)
They have, the Republicans have not and the press has not made
the case either.
Trump's reckless policies can be considered manslaughter, but not murder unless it was his intent to kill.
The victims are just as dead, whether by manslaughter or murder.
Well, yes. But if you approach independent-minded voters who dislike both Trump and Biden, calling Trump a mass murderer won't get you very far.
There is no need to call him a murderer, just point out how many deaths were down to his mishandling of the situation. Particularly when he stopped being concerned about the deaths of non-whites and residents of “Democrat-run cities,” whom he assumed were not his voters.
Yes, indeed. Governor Cuomo should do jail time, too, for cramming vulnerable nursing homes with Covid patients.
You are an idiot. Trump is guilty of human rights violations because he is a mass murderer. By his actions he took lives. Just like Mao, Hitler, Bashar Al Assad, Putin, Stalin and several others. This is not a civil trial where manslaughter or first degree murder charges are being brought. What a boorish idiot you are.
Your vehemence clouds your point, and your mind.
John, if it came to a single vote, he would pull the trigger in a heartbeat.
inten? maybe brown people.
On a fairly regular basis either JL Graham or myself, try to implore folks to keep in mind the very true aphorism to "follow the money" - always keep that tucked in as we wonder.
Why does the MSM and most people refer to our borders as border? Our northern borders with Alaska and the northern states is much longer than the southern border.
Migrant encounters surge at northern border, sparking urgency, oversight calls
US-Canadian border sees massive migrant surge
NewsNation's ride-along with Border Patrol shows overwhelming illegal crossings
550% increase in apprehensions during FY2023 at the northern border
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/migrants-northern-border-surge/
TFFG lied about hiring 5000 border patrol agents and when he tried he ended up with fewer agents than he started with--
https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-border-protection-will-spend-300-million-hire-5000-guards-751943
And aren't the borders actually every airport and ferry terminal as well the physical borders?
Because the southern border is more likely to be crossed by poor BROWN people. Part of the systemic racism that drives a lot of American emotion.
Actually, the folks attempting to cross into Canada from the US, are also “brown” people who have traveled north through the US. Those headlines all sounded so hysterical!
Because the republicans own the media.
I agree they do own the repressive regressive media like FOX and Breitbart and Newsmax but the networks are owned by greedy oligarchs who get clicks from writing about the MAGANAZIs.
Gary: Don't leave out Sinclair Broadcast Group. I've been following their shenanigans for about 10 years now. Do a deep dive on them and I think you'll be appalled. Discover for yourself the "news as business response" to the absence of the "Fairness Doctrine," assaults on the 'responsibilities' inherent 'and' commensurate to 'any' freedoms. If you will see this and others > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
Interestingly, Mike, Mr. Schmeeckle (see his attached comment) seems to believe that former President Trump’s leadership during the world’s COVID crisis was exemplary. (Yes, I admit I am putting words in his mouth.) Trump’s leadership during COVID was dangerous and irresponsible. In February 2020 he repeated “predicted” that COVID would “go away” once the weather warmed up (meaning April). I’m sure Mr. Schmeeckle will not deny that Trump promoted this dangerous prediction. (And, yes, John, I can provide your “precious” sources. Do you want the Clorox ones, too?)
Good points all. Don’t forget the sheep dip.
Paul, JS thrives on oxygen
Moonbeam needs no O2. He's plugged in to the universe.
he's written more than 25 comments today.
All I can say is to document each and every case of fentanyl overdose where it was smudged and play that persons bio ever night on the national and local news.
Yup, Mike, the Cato Institute says “ A more accurate summary is that fentanyl is overwhelmingly smuggled by U.S. citizens almost entirely for U.S. citizen consumers.”
Gee, if Americans weren’t “hooked” maybe fentanyl would cease to be a Trumpian Red Herring????
And also for my sedition fan senator, JDV. Never has any said and claimed so much on behalf of fentanyl victims, while actually doing so little. God help us if we lose Sherrod Brown.
It seems that Mr. Schmeeckle's post was taken down. I can't find it. Did anyone here report it? Is there a process within this forum that removes misinformation, at least about COVID?
He was lying about what I said.
Covid, IIRC, did reduce in warm weather, because more outdoors. That’s why Florida did better than one expected. One may enjoy some Schadenfreude, bc Republican counties have greater mortality, as Pew Research has found.
OAOM, Chomsky wrote, if the capitalist media claim no provocation obviously there was, just as
there was in ‘62 in Cuba. But, of course, the USA is always permitted to take exception.
Paul in Palatine pretends that I say the exact opposite of what I have said around here today.
Thank you Mike for reminding some of us of the awful failures and misdeeds of trump, as way too many appear to be blinded by the accoutrements and trappings offered by money and status; that they cannot [and didn’t] see the forest for the trees, nor distinguish right from wrong or good from bad! The frustration I sometimes feel here, is that we’re preaching to the choir. I just hope that many of us here are offering HCR’s Letters to family, friends and acquaintances each opportunity when we think it might mean something to helping guide them in their decision making when it comes to our ways of life in America, our freedoms and liberties as well as our personal live and safety!
I’ve always said where there’s smoke there’s fire … why would so many people associated with the trump POTUS campaign and administration have so many ties (trips) and associations with Russia, Russian operatives and Putin. But even if there’s nothing there other than coincidence, the “orange J” should never have been allowed (elected) to occupy our White House … and surely Never Again!!!
"Trump killed hundreds of thousands of Americans during COVID for political gain."
Could you please provide a source.
By his own admission he withheld PPE from all states whose governors failed to grovel. See also his conversation with Bob Woodward in which he admitted knowing on Jan 2020 that the COVID virus was dangerous while publicly declaring that it would just magically go away while trying to block cruise ships from reboarding in US ports because it would make his numbers look bad while withdrawing from the WHO while taking over tracking responsibilities that were by rights the CDC's purview. I could go on. Shorter: he politicized a deadly pandemic.
Schmeekle is a well-known agitator on this forum. Best to ignore.
Once he gets in the thread he takes it over. I wish HCR would block him.
I report him every time he's on; I ignore his comments.
Best not to feed the trolls. But despite that, some have persisted notoriously for the past couple of years here.
Yes, I know. But sometimes it's hard to not do so., especially when I'm in a mood.
And what was the effect of his various policy decisions? Do you really think he "killed hundreds of thousands of people"?
The total deaths attributed to COVID (as one of the causes) in 2020 was over 300,000.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/podcasts/2022/20220107/20220107.htm
And how do we assess the issue of comorbidity in covid deaths?
https://acdis.org/articles/news-94-patients-who-died-covid-19-had-complicating-conditions-data-confusion-surrounding
John, medically speaking, Trump's position on Covid-19, downplaying the effectiveness of inoculations and the seriousness of the disease, emulated by others such as Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, resulted in unnecessary deaths and will continue to do so.
Of course, Richard, Precious Mr. Schmeeckle doesn’t want to discuss the focus of HRC’s letter today. He’d rather boost his Precious Donald Trump.
Paul in Palatine ignores my early post responding directly to HCR: The very first post of the day.
And, he himself took advantage of all the medical interventions available when he caught COVID while denying that same help to ordinary Americans. Over a million people died from COVID during his watch. How is that not a crime against humanity?
Worse than that. The one good thing he did was step in with funding to get the vaccines out the door. Then he got the jabs but in secret. When he tried to encourage people to get vaccinated the damage was done and his adoring crowd booed him. Imagine the good he would have done if he and Melania had got their shots on camera. Also imagine the good he could have done by not refusing to wear a mask. The mind boggles at the selfishness and stupidity.
Two points: First of all, manslaughter is different from murder.
Second: The covid vaccines arguably cause more health problems (including documented sudden deaths of healthy atheletes) than the disease.
Of all the stupid, irresponsible and fact-free drivel you have vomited out here, this is the worst. And as the sane commenters can attest, that is saying A LOT.
John, that is absolute, total BS. "Arguably" cause more health problems? I now definitely think that you are a troll. You "toe" the party line.
John Schmeeckle - "First of all, manslaughter is different from murder."
True. Manslaughter is killing without intent or planning. Murder is killing with intent and/or planning (even if only seconds prior).
Both, however, result in a death(s) in which responsibility can be assigned.
(Your "Second:" comment is pure bunk.)
I do not agree with you John about the covid vaccines. There have been some health issues crop up with healthy athletes as you say, and being an old road warrior myself, they concern me. But I have read nothing reliable at all that links those health issues to covid vaccines. I hope that you are not merely spreading around another vaccine denial story. Some of the covid vaccine resistance is from anti-vaxxers who are against all forms of vaccines, for largely unfounded reasons (like vaccines/autism, and vaccines/dementia).
As for Trump - I blame him directly for a large portion of the Covid death toll in the USA. Our Covid death toll would be an international embarrassment were it not so tragic. Instead it should have been an impeachable and convictable offense. Compare us to New Zealand or Japan, or any country that realized the science early on and took the early extreme measures that a serious pandemic warrants, measures of which Trump could have taken but was unwilling to take, and it is crystal clear that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost needlessly. Why? Oh that is as obvious as the nose on your face. Trump didn't want anything to interfere with his false booming economy. And a lockdown would have affected the economy. Period. It was only after things got extremely scary that he did anything at all to address it. What a textbook example of fu_king dereliction of duty. No sir - place a great portion of the blame on him.
Oh, for fuck's sake. The vaccine is proven to be safe and largely protective against COVID and its worst complicstions. Your misinformation is dangerous. Fuck off.
And no, I won't bother to cite articles. You can use Google youself.
John, sometimes you are less than completely right. Here you are totally wrong. Your politicized statements convinced some to not take vaccines. That was and is painfully ignorant of you. But it’s because you spend your time on social media getting unscientific facts. A line in one of my songs deals with people like you. “What do you think if you think at all” “Oh, I read it online that’s all.”
Infection reduction measures are common sense steps reasonable people take for ones' own health and well-being, that of one's family, and everyone that one might come in contact with. Individuals who prevent resonable people from taking steps to protect themselves from infection - should those individuals be held liable when people die from preventable illness because access to treatment was blocked? It's not so complicated, John. Trump's policy, based on blatantly incorrect distortions of scienctific reality (vaccines are developed to fight infections, and the COVID vaccines drasctically reduce the death rate, and the rate of long COVID symptoms for people who take the vaccines, compared to those who don't), and frustrated self -interest (I mean, he and Jared couldn't figure out how to monetize vaccine distrubution for themselves, so they just didn't distrubute the vaccine) resulted in many more people dyng that should have during the pandemic, and I personally think he should be held liable. But, I will be contented if Trump goes to jail for failing to pay E. Jean Carroll the $83 million he now owes her, or goes to prison for stealing classified government documents, or of course, for the treasonous attempted coup. There are lots of things Trump should be held liable for, because he is an equal opportunity criminal. The goal is to stop him from being able to mess with the American public good again you know? You don't approve of Trump's achievements, do you?
Once again, manslaughter is different from murder.
And perhaps you misremember Trump's covid policy. He was responsible for "Operation Warp Speed" that developed the covid vaccines that Biden imposed on the people.
🙄
Stalker the Troll is out and about.
@John Schmeekle Provide a source? Were you living under a rock during COVID?
Schmeekle is a well-known agitator on this forum. Best to ignore.
Spread the Words. “No oxygen”
...said the Thought Control thug.
John doesn't live under a rock, he lives ON a rock. A round one. In space.
You know... another planet.
Yes. Call him Moonbeam. He gets messages from space. (Check out his Substack)
And from Earth :-)
This rabbit hole is mighty deep. Mr. K.B.(Knows Better) Schmeeckle seems to love the game of exhausting his opponent in a debate. I think he is a lousy debater.
He's stupid and lonely. Doesn't have anything else to do and at least gets attention here. I do wish he'd just find someplace else.
Agreed. Frustrating that I and dozens of others here have reported him, and another reader instructed me on how to block him. I've done that--even just checked to make sure that he is still indicated as "blocked" in my account, yet here he is.
This guy really, really is delusional and has as much appeal (and brain power) as a fungal gnat.
Just as pesky, too.
Miselle the Thought Control Thug continues to try to get my attention.
Perhaps Jen Andrews has something better to do than disparaging people with whom she doesn't have an informed disagreement.
Exactly my question too.
Please see my reply to MisTBlu.
Fact: 461,000 Trump associated deaths before COVID even got started. Please get up to speed, this is time consuming. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/02/11/report-trump-associated-with-461000-deaths-in-2018-others-deserve-blame-though/
Then ignore it.
You might consider actually reading your own source. Here's a quote from that link you shared:
"The Lancet Commission’s analyses deemed Trump more a product of what has been a four-decade downward spiral than the cause of a more recent downturn. To say that Trump caused all of the ills of the past four years may be giving Trump too much credit."
I appreciate you reading this John - an article highlighting the legacy of Reaganomics culminating in Trump. The two sentences you picked out to disclaim Trumps culpability came right after this passage: "According to the report, Trump’s policies or lack thereof contributed to the deaths of around 461,000 Americans in 2018. In 2019, about 22,000 deaths resulted from Trump’s dismantling of environmental protection measures alone, based on the Commission’s analyses. And of course, there was 2020, when the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic hit. Many have written about the Trump administration’s failure to mount a scientifically appropriate response to the pandemic. The Commission determined that 40% of Covid-19-related deaths in the U.S. could have been prevented had the U.S. only had the same Covid-19 death rates as those of other Group of Seven (G7) nations, namely Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom."
There's no downward spiral. Rather, this nation, founded with so much determination to undo the domination of four millennia of top down rule and to give us the chance to see if we could rule ourselves from the bottom up with as much fairness and justice as is humanly possible has always been a tension between our best and worst impulses. From Democratic/Republican's support of the worst excesses of the French Revolution and their demonization of George Washington as a monarchist and doddering dimwit (not so far from the current Republican characterization of Joe Biden) to our treatment of blacks, resulting in the most catastrophic episode of our history so far, to the persistent destruction of Native Americans and their culture to our denial of the franchise to half our population until 1919 to efforts to keep the working people under the thumb of wealthy and callous industrialists to Red scares and McCarthyism to the persistent attempts to elevate one faith over all the others for the sake of power to the excesses of the 1960's and to the constant attempt to rewrite our history to excuse all of those small-souled efforts on to today, those who would narrow the definition of what it means to be a valid American to fit a pre-conceived notion have always been with us. All the best in us has consistency fought against such narrow minded and dark-hearted characterizations and false divisions. The only real difference is that for the first time in our history, we elevated a man who was the embodiment of our dark-hearted and small-souled part to the Oval Office. In November we get a chance to see if the best in us can stay in relative control of the worst in us.
🙄
The American people who do not swallow Trump’s Bull $hIt. (That should be source enough for you. I can’t believe you even requested something like that after how tfg handled the entire pandemic.)
Well stated Joyce. Such an amazing question! 🤣🤣🤣
"Trump killed hundreds of thousands," and nobody has a source.
Under Tr**ps leadership, thousands, nearly 1,000,000 people died during the COVID epidemic. Leadership has responsibilities...the buck stops with a leader. Culpability in a public health crisis falls on the President who presides over the country's emergency response to contain it. But then....he wasn't a leader or a real president, was he?
Don’t get me wrong, I hate Trump, but a lot of those needless death were caused by state governors who refused to use any kind of disease mitigation measures.
Under his leadership!
Once again, manslaughter is different from murder, and you might not have your facts straight.
Death is death....and there really few facts in my comment....mostly opinions about how much responsibility and culpability leaders have....in public service.
Hahahahahaha
drumpf suckers are so cute.
So are Biden suckers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEG76hlnhNw
That's so hilarious, I posted it on my facebook
Go away.
Best not to feed the trolls. But despite that, some have persisted notoriously for the past couple of years here.
Some people value the exchange of ideas and differing points of view.
You took the words right out of my mouth!
Chris Hierholzer does his part for thought control around here.
Just by saying “covid is a hoax” Trump influenced his followers not to take any safety precautions.
That's different from willfully killing people. Manslaughter is different from murder.
But the people are still dead. And the blame is still assigned. Let's be generous. If someone was to be convicted of manslaughter and receive a 2 year sentence, it would be based on the idea of that person being responsible for that death.
Trump's behavior, you have agreed, was manslaughter. Let's be arbitrary and say that his irresponsible manslaughter qualifying behavior led to only 50,000 deaths. That's 50,000 counts of manslaughter times 2 years. Clearly Trump should have been sentenced to 100,000 years. Maybe with good behavior, he could have had an early release at 25,000 years. Sound good?
I think that both Trump and Biden deserve to be locked up. I won't vote for either of them.
We all know you plan to write in your own name, troll.
Don't you have a single friend in the world to go play with? Obviously not, you take the time to reply to EVERYONE on here and we all still reject you.
Hey John.
First I tried the Ivermectin. Great! All the worms were gone! But I sounded hoarse.
Then I tried the bleach. After a few days I had a very sore throat and I became blonde. I looked like "Ken"! (BTW, the store brand of bleach works just as well as Chlorox - save your money.)
The lesson? Beware the side effects of "cures" offered by snake oil salesmen as well as those posting nonsensical blather among those who know better.
Do you think that Trump deliberately set out to increase death rates due to the Covid virus??
I think he tried to downplay a Pandemic because the mortality numbers were not a good look. So he discouraged testing and reporting. Which is essentially criminal negligence. And promoting bogus cures made him complicit in the deaths of thousands.
But I am so glad I discovered the bleach. My new look is a girl magnet.
🙄
John,
I found an outstanding source for you. Consider it a gift from an East Texas Farm. This should clear it up for you in your Russian troll farm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruNrdmjcNTc
And here's one for you:
https://youtu.be/wHylQRVN2Qs?si=SIAajk4BbNAQ2iwl
p.s. I'm not aware of any "Russian troll farm," but maybe you know about those things, or maybe you're just regurgitating McCarthyist talking points.
You must live on a hog farm, all you do is spew shit all day long.
So hateful, but always without any thoughtful discussion.
Good gosh John. Get back under your ignorant rock.
Look how much oxygen he has sucked up…
I wish people would just scroll by him.
I do, but it is so annoying to have to scroll, scroll, scroll to see the comments by real people.
Agreed. Many of us here constantly report him, and I Have repeatedly muted and blocked him (which apparently only lasts a day). I have directly contacted Substack when he gets incredibly insulting, they ignore my requests to block him.
If he only had a comment or two, you could scroll past him, but MY GOD THIS GUY HAS NO LIFE!! He inserts his crap everywhere! Often copy/pasting the same junk over and over.
When he gets backed into a corner,, he either calls the resonable person "thugly the troll" or accuses them of using coke. Must be projection as it is a constant theme with him!
Look at his photo and tell me you think otherwise.
he knows that well.
"Real people," as opposed to fans of Joe "Creepy Snuggles" Biden
Exactly. This convo has gone off on a tangent that misses the excellent content of today's Heather's LFAA -- the entire Republican Congress is being led by a single person. The Speaker and the Minority Leader have been given marching orders from PUTIN via TFFG. This is not our border issue -- this is Russia's border expansion policy.
Let that sink in.
tell it MSM, Russia's border expansion policy.
just report him
I have, twice
Said the "know nothing" thought controller.
Just look at the COVID death statistics .
Every single day for at least 2 1/2 years, The NY Times reported the Covid-19 infections and deaths by state and even by county. These statistics were tracked by Johns Hopkins Medical School. Almost all of the states did the same. If anything the numbers were under reported when Fascist Governors like DeSantis fired their Covid-19 trackers and then made up the numbers going forward.
Also, no one is reporting long Covid-19 deaths of which there are hundreds of thousands.
TFFG threw away the CDC pandemic playbook, just like he tossed aside the current border bill. No one is allowed to get credit for anything unless he is President and then everyone else's successes are his successes.
And there were at least a few MAGANAZIs who were dumb enough to drink bleach and hundreds of thousands of other that took the ineffective Hydrochlorothiazide.
May I say that anyone who does not know this, is out to lunch or under the mega spell....same as MAGA spell. Lol
You actually think Trump used Covid to "kill" hundreds of thousands of people??
Read newspapers!
Newspapers have sources, sometimes.
it is not only that trump wants to run on the immigration issue and so does not want this bill to pass. remember, he does not get mad, he gets even. he wants to stiff zelensky for not taking the bait or genuflecting during that famous 'perfect' fone call. the personal and the political have combined to create a 'perfect' storm.
Exactly right Mike Hammer.
And thank you for reminding people. Trumps’s statement about needing the vaccine before the election was a classic. Or leaving a cruise ship out at sea because he did not want their COVID cases to count in the numbers. Surely this guy survived the Roswell incident.
Dead on-point Mike no pun intended.
Didn't you know? Kurds didn't fight in WWII so says historian of inaccurate facts. Therefore we don't need to have their backs says he who has bad feet and bravest thing ever done is hit a golf ball.
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
Yes, “the great replacement theory” as touted by Tucker Carlson. If folks would think clearly a. folks who are in the country illegally cannot and will not vote. b. it takes a long time to become a citizen thereby being eligible to vote. c. and, no one knows how or for which party the new voters will vote.
Is treason now laughable for the MAGA mob?
They're certainly supporting dictators, first among them mass murderer Putin. Seems they're doing it because their orange cretin in diapers loves his dictators, loves anyone who will destroy democracy as he so egregiously did -- or tried to.
But of course there's another calling to which the orange "bing-bing-bong" guy answers, and that's the phalanxes of billionaires all holding themselves above common people. Not just holding themselves above, but actively trying to turn millions into low-wage, obedient, quiescent serfs. By putting idiot ideologues atop school systems. By killing off humanities in schools. By offshoring decent, American working class jobs to any dictator, nationalist, or demagogue who wants them.
Not laughable, these craven ideologues and billionaires.
Yup. Like so much inside the Capitol, this seems like a saga with twists and turns, but anyone with enough common sense to see through the smoke and mirrors should be surprised by zero of these events. The Republicans were never going to agree to any deal on border security. They don't want to solve this problem. They don't want to solve *any* problems, but *especially* not this one. Their base voters hate immigrants. Hate them. Pure, blind, unadulterated fear and loathing. Nothing gets them as worked up as the supposedly ongoing Invasion of Illegals (tm), and the icky, gross cooties that they bring from their dirty-poor-brown-person countries and are spreading all over our formerly nice, clean house.
Why would any soulless politician give such a consistently motivating thing up? Simple: They won't.
And 45% of the country will accept it, because that 45% has grown to learn something with absolute certainty: liberals love crime, and the criminals who commit it! Love it! And their favorite crimminals are the ones who *aren't even from here*! You see, liberals love to sin, what with their wanton sex, twisted mouths, and strange clothes, and they can't stand seeing the pure, disciplined, god-fearing real Americans look like the patriots they are. So they need the criminals to do the crime and destroy as much of our society as they can, because only then can they implement their socialist control where everyone is on welfare and has forgotten Jesus, leaving those who wish to sin to rule the world free of pushback. We must be strong and dominate over these creatures who wish to corrupt and overrun America, the Chosen Land!
Do the Repubs in Congress actually think this? With the exception of a few true nutballs, nah, not really. They work for the Money Men, and the Money Men are quite annoyed by a strong democratic federal government, what with its civil rights protections and social safety net, because that gives autonomy to regular people, and we can't have people walkin' around thinkin' they are as good as anyone else, now can we? The Money Men's preferred elected officials therefore are not there to DO anything, but to STOP anything good from being done, so the Money Men can fill up that sweet sweet power vacuum bit by bit. And if the Money Men's preferred elected officials need to spend a bit of their time pretending to love Jesus and hate immigrants, well that is just fine with the Money Men. They can just keep paying those same immigrants under the table in the meantime. It is amazing how willing to accept abuse people can be if they are desperate enough and can't read the law that they are hiding from!
Compromise immigration reform? In 2024? Yeah, right.
I am much more frightened by the orange baboons base voters than these poor frightened immigrants.
His base are fear based bigots that have normalized violence in their own lives. I'm afraid of alt-right Billionaires that want to turn this country into a Charles Dicken's, Oliver Twist novel.
Lisa, we need a current day Dickens, full of vigor in the pursuit of exposing the darkness lived by the modern day Serfs. Who could that be?
I think right now they are the journalists that work for ProPublica.
I was thinking “fictionalized” history; kinda like Dickens/Michner/Mayer but I agree about ProPublica
Yes!! They are by far, excellent dirt diggers!
Thank you, Dave, for inviting apt nod to Barbara Kingsolver.
"Demon Copperhead."
I do what I can.
We need to spend more and more money. But Biden's Vampire Liberals, building on the earlier work of Trump's Vampire Conservatives, have loaded on so much Unpayable Debt that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve has sounded a warning:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/04/feds-powell-urgent-for-u-s-to-prioritize-debt-sustainability-00139528
Please don't insult baboons, Georgia Girl. A baboon leader will have survival skills unequalled by most humans. A baboon pack may be very hierarchical, but it's a society that functions.This misleader is an agent of chaos, a geriatric Caligula. If he was a baboon, he'd not have rank.
And when old baboon leaders do get geriatric, they're thrown out of the pack...
I've actually seen it happen.
Absolutely!
You should be.
Will, speaking of Tucker Carlson, (" these creatures who wish to corrupt and overrun America.") HCR stated in today's letter that " The Russian Union of Journalists has said they would gladly accept Carlson as a member."
I thought he already was a member! Of course the term "journalist" must be used lightly in his case.
Oh I hate that guy! He was here in Canada just a couple of weeks ago spouting his nonsense. I wonder what little tidbits and observations about Canadian politics he will pass on to Putin.
Amnie, He is one of the people who make me nauseated just to see them.
The others include Trump, of course,
Ted Cruise, MTG, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, and Lindsey Graham, (I used to really like him until he sold his soul to Trump.)
Tuckers going to take the helm as lead anchorman for RT, Russia Today ( Putin’s state propaganda network). I had never heard of it before a trip to Europe in 2017. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Here were b and c American Personalities working for a hostile state propaganda network, Fox News on steroids. RT was heavily promoted/pushed into the American public 2010-2016 on YouTube. RT s programming philosophy is “Everyone lies. Everyone is corrupt. We are the only network that will tell you that. Nothing is true and anything is possible”. RT introduces conspiracy theories into the American minds, claims Democracy is bad, supports Putin’s polices, supports just about everything MAGA. A 2nd Trump term will make RT the new Fox, and down the rabbit hole of radicalization we continue to fall.
Ted, that is so scary!! What's scarier are the people who believe the proganda.
Brilliant!Are you a political satirist? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE!!
Veronica, I agree. Wonder if Will’s fire comes from generations of old guard Republicans “in” the family tree. I know from whence I speak. The satire rings so true as I fondly recall my father’s satire. His staunch Republican father disowned him for supporting Roosevelt and going to art school.
Would like to see his passport cancelled and his citizenship revoked. Wishful thinking.
There are quite a few different US “opinionists” (my new word!) who are Russian apologists. My sister sends me their columns. I always make sure to look at their credentials.
Holy Smokes! The coals are getting hotter. I hear your fury.
The Architect of Our Divided Supreme Court
By Robert C. Post
Jan 22 New Yorker book review
By Jill Lepore
(I can’t seem to post a direct link)
Yes, MAGA's are backing world dictators. I've never felt more embarrassed being an American. MAGA's highjacking aid to Ukraine by calling for and getting a border deal, then crushing it says it all:
"Certainly, once news began to spread that the negotiators were close to a deal, both former president Trump and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who said he was conferring with Trump, came out strongly against the measure even before anyone knew what was in it.
How is it possible that while we believe to be a democracy we have a minority of in-house traitors calling the shots? Tucker Carlson smooching with Putin? Ignoring a bi-partisan border deal so that trump can have a craven policy to run on? This stuff used to be hidden but now is tossed about in broad daylight. How can this possibly end well?
It’s racism deferred from two terms of President Obama. The frightening thought of an able articulate Black president, of Blacks in congress and on the Court, really frightened the White Trash element of our country… those reading at a fifth grade level fear Blacks will eat their lunch.
Exactly so, Sandy.
Thank you.
As if they had anything in their lunch bucket that anyone with a brain would want to eat. 👎🏻
You don't like deep-fried-everything, Dick?
Racist..
Some race has the market on the deep-fried, S. B.?
Folks from all strata of society harbour racism. Not fair to blame only the disadvantaged. Also the phrase “white trash” holds many implications.
Sophia, I've been thinking that what could turn everything around is if it could be revealed which Republicans are receiving money (and how much and for how long) from Putin to do his bidding. Make it blatantly available for all to see! If only that were possible...
Real estate laundering. See Trump.
Why has this only dimly been reported? I guess laundering works....
Hear no evil, see no evil.
Access journalism.
101.
Trumps tax returns from 2007-2012. This was during and post worldwide financial meltdown. Russian money from high oil prices flooded into commercial real estate, saving an entire industry in London and New York, then Florida. The #1 tool to launder money happens to be weak US real estate laws and Trump is a direct beneficiary. It’s well documented Russian mobsters own suits in Trump Towers. But less known is the number of dark LLC’s backed by Russian Capital that purchased Trump properties through Duetche Bank. And then there are the licensee deals of Trump towers and the Miss Universe Moscow, investing in less than Democratic countries. Trump deals were so good for Russian money launderers that taking them abroad seemed like a no brainer. Much of the time the deals are led by former KGB/FSB officers, their family relatives, a mix of oligarchs and the like. The money works its way into corruption of officials and into our political establishment as campaign donations and under the table payroll bribes. case in point Rudy and the NY Lead FBI agent on the take. Republicans will never want to get rid of this money maker on their own. It is the cancer that not dealt with is going to ruin our country. Vote blue is the best thing we can do.
You’re right. The Russians have been grooming The Don for decades.
Yes, let’s get forensics on this. Follow the money.
Been heading this way for a spell, Kevin was not radical enough.
Yes, it keeps getting weirder and weirder. When Johnson was asked if their club was taking direction from trump he dismissively declared, "Of course not." Now that it has been evinced that nothing can soil what comes out of the mouth of their orange boil supreme leader, his minions have become more fiercely and falsely emboldened. Waiting for this house of cards to be shattered into smithereens soon....
Nice poetry, Sophia:
"nothing can soil
what comes out of the mouth of their orange boil"
I hope it is a house of cards. Been watching it be erected for decades
It's never been this bad. The Bush/Cheney/Bumsfeld weapons-of-mass-destruction scheme came close. Nixon was a crook but at least he heeded the writing on the wall....
Because the repub party wasn't full of traitors. Everett Dirksen was about my favorite republican. There were vipers, but they weren't the majority. True, it has never been this bad, in at least my lifetime and I'm older than dirt..
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
TRUMP MAGA GOP FASCIST INSANITY HAS BEEN FEATURED BY RACHEL MADDOW AS SUCH… this latest GOP gesture will destroy our leadership at the UN and at NATO… and will cost us Western Europe… and ultimately - bring on World War III…
100%.
...as he sputters for breath, wiping the foam from his mouth, and grabs his blood-pressure medication
You come across as a sad little man in need of attention
Don’t get into a pissing fight with a skunk: my father’s advice to me.
Georgia, you’ll not reach him.
You come across as a demeaning thought controller.
LOL
Georgia, Join the No Oxygen Brigade
You revel in your self-appointed role.
🙄
Stalker the Troll never has anything to say.
🪞
Better to push for contractual mediation against Substack Inc at the Corp's designated forum JAMS SF. Substack Inc problem not Trolls.
I do not want to lose another CASEY NEWTON quality "Author" ... in my opinion.& intended participation with Substack Inc at JAMS SF.
Screw loose department speaks. First Amendment governs.
1st Amendment does not govern. Substack Inc chose California law in a California forum. California has an express Right of Privacy in our state Constituion.
In developing 2023 case law, CA has expanded new civil wrongs called "torts" expanding the the CA right of privacy creating new 2023 law to deal with the current wave of "digital" & platform owner wrongs including "deep fakes", shallow Trolls & contract violations asserted by "Readers" in the proper confidential forum that Substack Inc. put together..
...as his blood pressure medication kicks in
WHAT!?!? You aren't going to accuse him of being a coke head?
That seems to be your focus most of the time.
Clearly, projection.
Why would I? He's not a coke-head.
🪞
Hey, LOSER---you might actually google Sandy Lewis and discover something about him. Famous, wealthy, influential and intellectual.... all things YOU wish you were, are not and will NEVER be.
But by all means, KEEP POSTING DAILY!! To every other comment!
You call Putin a mass murderer? Would you also call Bush and Netanyahu mass murderers? And then there's Trump: I don't think he's a mass murderer, but he did murder Qasim Soleimani in plain sight, misusing the military to do so, when Soleimani was on a three-way peace mission, according to statements at the time by government spikesmen from Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iraq has a warrant out for Trump's arrest.
A qualified yes. Putin controls the Russian military far more completely than any US President so comparing him to one isn’t a great comparison if we’re discussing culpability. The US military isn’t perfect, but it also doesn’t commit war crimes like there’s a reward for ticking every box.
The Israel/Palestine problem is altogether different and, frankly, one that is unique and intractable. It’s understandable for Israel to not want millions of genocidal anti-semitic non-citizens living and plotting amongst her people. That said, it’s pretty clear Israel is not living up to its values and standards. From settlements to indiscriminate bombings, at a minimum they’re not doing enough to prevent genocide.
What trump is doing now is basically what he’s on trial for in Florida: racketeering. His minions are ignoring their constituents, their colleagues, and their stated values to interfere with government and subvert the will of the majority. Mass death is a predictable result. He’s forcing this to happen with full knowledge of the consequences and the stated intent to “pin it” on his political opponent.
Schmeekle is a well-known agitator on this forum. Best to ignore.
I see what you mean 😉
If he weren't so annoying, he'd just be pathetic. It's amazing that he persists, but narcissism can be a person's downfall, if it supersedes reason.
Yes, Heidi, but here he asks me Qs reasonably enough.
How he loves to be the smartest troll out there???
Heidi tries her hand at thought-control censorship.
🙄
Don't worry, JOhn! Won't work on you! You have to have an actual brain and logical thought processes!
This is a remarkably cogent and clear-eyed response (to a comment that didn't even deserve it).
People are terrible at judging differing levels of culpability. The world can be messy and ugly. Context matters, rather a lot.
Context does indeed matter, and the U.S. government, especially through its control over the International Monetary Fund, is far worse than Putin. Quoting from Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the IMF:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oJzvpfFzIKu76oE1CkzZlarRiVpYIggFMFzSt6OgHx0/mobilebasic
Christopher,
"The US military isn’t perfect, but it also doesn’t commit war crimes like there’s a reward for ticking every box."
Unfortunately, in Afghanistan, US Troops, or one of the many Republican owned "security forces" that got rich on Bush's war, DID commit war crimes.
Here is just one report on one instance of young boys being killed, likely for fun, from two sources. Almost all of the young boys in a village in Afghanistan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?unlocked_article_code=2uOxq3Vjk5kEq8PYilLS7qBcuVhJneWc-8UL067B8wC_UdtERY46JNohjNIJ-fktEkb2pWZvhUjMU39_s1F1nfL5R5nUrWdOkvV5dbohElzvw82jo8kNDNEKYx6pCpyyic3OfckSnBe6Z0ZqLcFbg9ZIGiPKdZauMZX4oNN0lRTbEBMMbWeI6oEr5En-rTq2vPO6CLROTPwM5FcoV4W5VHc-WILNqQapiu8AlAOBTioQKILyZir5FzktIQonari8x0eloQaGWnV7m_2-aoadw8lyoen8MSQlEHoyzOA0VhkxPQbTUmg37R6d-EkAxnUQQz9GaOg&smid=share-url
Link from a Tuscon newspaper:
https://tucson.com/news/world/9-afghan-boys-killed-in-error-by-coalition-copters/article_fba77997-5e8b-57f8-9743-67e9959c6bfd.html
Bush's Iraq war had its fair share of US war crimes committed. Blackwater and many independent kill squads made their mark. We have failed with our revenge wars. What good came out of any of them? Only generations of pain.
Never implied otherwise. Combat is never “clean.” There are major differences though. The scope, intent, internal accountability responses, genuine efforts to learn and improve (or not), are all very different between the US and what’s left of Russian forces (a large part of which are now conscripted criminals).
I wasn't thinking that. I'm not comparing our military responses to Russia. I just think our attempts of Colonizing counties is a complete failure. Afghanistan is a perfect example.
1. Trying to equate Russia’s systemic genocide of Ukrainians with incidents like the one you cited is like equating a cop that shoots a suspect who “fits the description” with a prolific serial killer.
2. Citing an example of a NATO mishap rather than a US specific one doesn’t help and even if it had been US specific, this is an example of leadership acknowledging the mistake. It’s an exception and not the norm.
3. All of that is beside the point: due to the huge differences in systems of government, an Autocrat like Putin will always be more culpable than an executive like Bush. And I’m no fan of Bush. I think he should be impeached for misleading Congress and by extension the public to involve us in Iraq. I’m interested in what a good-faith investigation would turn up and whether there would be grounds for indictment/conviction (assuming high crimes etc are proven).
Boy, he loves to get a long response
Agree, Christopher.
Except for your adjective, "intractable."
We can only call the Israeli-Palestinian cycles of hate and murder intractable if we already agree that no one should call the schools to account.
We could invest in schools so those learning (English, as a starter) might also learn to teach students essay writing personally, to see "others" as individuals in their contexts. The world consensus, however, has only the corporate, departmentally siloed, neutered models of teaching, suitable for continued dominance by the commercially amoral and the nationalistically fanatic.
Sticking with intractable. It’s the right word. Feel free to describe the “charlie foxtrot” however you like.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Regarding U.S. war crimes, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark (under President Johnson) wrote a book, "The Fire This Time":
https://archive.org/details/firethistimeuswa00clar
p.s. Do you think that Putin has a policy of mass murder or targeting civilians?
"Do you think that Putin has a policy of mass murder or targeting civilians?"
John, any right minded person paying attention in Ukraine will know that not only are Russian soldiers killing and torturing civilians but they are also raping the women.
And, yes, Russia routinely bombs civilian targets.
Even a slimy Russian salamander troll living under a Russian paid rock would admit that.
I don't suppose you could provide a source.
I remember the story about Saddam Hussein's soldiers dumping babies in the hospital out of incubators onto the floor to die. This story inflamed the whole country, including me, and helped justify our war against Iraq. Then, afterwards, it was widely reported that the story was a bare-faced lie.
I have seen much of the same in the barrage of propaganda against Russia, but I have no doubt that some of the stories of atrocities are true.
Isolated acts by military units are different from a systematic policy. I have been taking a wait-and-see attitude, remembering how we all got brainwashed in the past.
Regarding the "kidnapped" children, I remember reading that Russia relocated orphans from a war zone to safety in Russia. What's the true story, and how do we find out?
I think that, regarding why the war "unfroze" in 2022, Russia has a case that should be considered, and I think that there is a lot of misinformation exaggerating Russian atrocities, but I think that some atrocities definitely did happen, just like the United States did in Vietnam and Iraq. I said more in this reply:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-17-2023-14e/comment/47632143
My position is that we need to accept that we can't defeat the Russians militarily, which means that we'll eventually have to negotiate with them, so it makes sense to be aware of their side of the story and the underlying big picture.
Furthermore, our government is broke, and Congress is broken:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-18-2024/comment/47632311
Biden's reckless policy, supported by leading Democrats and Republicans since Obama was President, has been to shore up Ukraine's thuggish government and use Ukraine as a weapon against Russia. America leaders, especially Biden, have foolishly undermined American national security and wasted military resources.
I've said more about Ukraine's brutal far-right thug regime here:
https://substack.com/profile/85178460-john-schmeeckle/note/c-46724624
Check the backlog of Malcontents’ situation reports on the subject.
If he wrote it in the sixties, how relevant can it be to comments about modern US military conduct contrasted with Russia’s conduct over the past 30 years and especially over the past ten?
He didn't write it in the sixties.
p.p.s. Netanyahu 's ongoing slaughter in Gaza comes after his role in building up Hamas for many years:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
I know that he does. Even if I didn’t, I would infer it. The idea that the widespread inhumane conduct of his forces isn’t (at a minimum) tacitly condoned by him personally is absurd. At best, he’s created an environment that incentivizes barbarism among his military leaders. Like most things, “there’s levels to this shit.”
Christopher Johnson, it would seem that your condemnation of Putin is misinformed by a monstrous "enemy image" propaganda disinformation campaign.
I remember the story about Saddam Hussein's soldiers dumping babies in the hospital out of incubators onto the floor to die. This story inflamed the whole country, including me, and helped justify our war against Iraq. Then, afterwards, it was widely reported that the story was a bare-faced lie.
I have seen much of the same in the barrage of propaganda against Russia, but I have no doubt that some of the stories of atrocities are true.
Isolated acts by military units are different from a systematic policy. I have been taking a wait-and-see attitude, remembering how we all got brainwashed in the past.
Regarding the "kidnapped" children, I remember reading that Russia relocated orphans from a war zone to safety in Russia. What's the true story, and how do we find out?
I think that, regarding why the war "unfroze" in 2022, Russia has a case that should be considered, and I think that there is a lot of misinformation exaggerating Russian atrocities, but I think that some atrocities definitely did happen, just like the United States did in Vietnam and Iraq. I said more in this reply:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-17-2023-14e/comment/47632143
My position is that we need to accept that we can't defeat the Russians militarily, which means that we'll eventually have to negotiate with them, so it makes sense to be aware of their side of the story and the underlying big picture.
Furthermore, our government is broke, and Congress is broken:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-18-2024/comment/47632311
Biden's reckless policy, supported by leading Democrats and Republicans since Obama was President, has been to shore up Ukraine's thuggish government and use Ukraine as a weapon against Russia. America leaders, especially Biden, have foolishly undermined American national security and wasted military resources.
I've said more about Ukraine's brutal far-right thug regime here:
https://substack.com/profile/85178460-john-schmeeckle/note/c-46724624
When a foreign invading force isolates a city or town, slaughters the adult non-combatants and “relocates” the resulting orphans to their home country to have their cultural identity erased-that’s genocide.
Yes, isolated act by military units ARE different from a systematic policy. I’m not referring to isolated incidents. I’m referring to common practice of a majority of military units with no sign of acknowledgment, let alone apology or improvement from the government.
Emptying out the prisons for conscripts, poorly training and equipping them, and turning them loose in harsh conditions with an overwhelmed and inexperienced officer corps guarantees atrocities will be commonplace. And they have been.
If you really think Biden’s handling of the situation is a disaster, I have to wonder what you think the objective is and what you think an acceptable outcome would be. Because from where I’m sitting, Biden has handled it brilliantly.
Anyway, I can’t help but think this whole conversation is a weird tangent. Putin? Mass murderer. Bebe? Maybe. Probably. Bush? Weakest argument of the group. But if your point was to imply that those of us calling trump a mass murderer would hesitate to characterize the others similarly, no. Without trump’s term it’s likely there would be no Ukraine invasion. It’s also likely things would have gone very differently in Israel and that shit show wouldn’t be happening either. Congress wouldn’t be as fucked because MAGA would have been strangled in its infancy. Hell, we’d be wrapping up two terms of a Clinton presidency and frankly, with her at the helm Covid might not have become the pandemic that it did because the infrastructure Bush and Obama installed specifically for such things wouldn’t have been dismantled. He’s personally responsible first millions of deaths. Millions.
I think you very well know the history of the American C.I.A., John.
But you reasonably enough ask about Bush and Netanyahu.
The former, a stooge, tool of U.S. fossil fuel criminals -- genteel corporate thugs who did business with every dictator / murderer in the world. And lied as much to the public as much as did the genteel U.S. corporate tobacco thugs.
Netanyahu, a slick harvester of U.S. evangelicals humping for the Rapture, and an opportunist licensing murders here and there on behalf of the far-right settlers assiduously stealing West Bank land.
But, too, yes, John -- Putin is mass murderer of the old school, he and his former Soviet nomenklatura goons all financed by hot shot U.S. Ivy League and other despicable hustlers in the early 1990s.
Speaking of the 1990s:
"Genocide: Russia and the New World Order":
https://archive.org/details/AGenocideRussiaAndTheNewWorldOrder1999
Did I miss the part where Bush and Netanyahu attacked before being attacked? Not quite an equivalent. Also, I don't think Bush or Bibi poisoned or iimprisoned their own political rivals, or blew them up on planes. Who knows what Trump would have done if he could have gotten Congress to green light his murderous ambitions.
Ukraine attacked the Donbass republics, finally deep-sixing thr tattered Minsk Agreements, just after Russia signed mutual defense pacts with the Donbass republics, so Russia counter-attacked. You did indeed miss that part.
And then there's this:
Question: How many people died suddenly when they were about to testify against Bill and Hillary Clinton?
Answer: Count 'em up for yourself:
https://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/BODIES.php
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb........
and custard
Join the No Oxygen Brigade
Share the word
I could almost imagine that a thought got provoked.
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
I’d also like two jr bacon cheeseburgers, a five piece nugget, fries, a frosty, and a large iced tea. 😉
"Small fries, Big Mac!"
https://youtu.be/19tjJ0G-8V4?si=lueYF_AHDTekyZ14
That observation isn’t so special. Common knowledge that war is mass murder no matter who’s in charge.
My great-grandmother's Amish ancestors would agree with you.
Edward Luce wrote an OpEd that spells it out.
My point is that we, the United States and the old European "colonial powers" (read NATO, whose countries have voting domination at the IMF) are much worse than Putin and Russia.
Edward Luce's op-ed columns generally don't cite sources,.
Humans are as ridiculous as you are, John, some more, some less!
There was slavery in this country. Slave labor. Now there is slavery in this country. Economic slavery.
Well said, Phil.
The facts and eye-whiteness reports that you draw from finally have some traction. But is it too late to stop the “craven ideologies and billionaires” from completely overwhelming our democracy?
Good Q, Nancy.
To answer it, I suggest we go to Auden's "Under Which Lyre" (1946). In it he referred to our "intellectual marines," those individuals highly individual, speaking up for those with inevitably much less public voice than the billionaires of their time, with all their media, foundations, lobbyists, and small money fans of Tucker, Putin, U.S. House Speaker Howdy Doody, and his syphilitic orange diaper guy.
I had the same thought, Phil. We cannot say that Tucker is a journalist anymore. He is a Russian operative to which he is guilty of. Charging him with treason though? Not unless he has provided govt. secrets to Putin. I am almost certain the FBI & CIA are keeping close tabs on him.
And it wouldn’t be surprising to they are all Christian nationalists.
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
"Although it seemed clear that the measure would pass the House if it came to the floor, Johnson said he would not introduce it."
While it's not going to change any time soon, I have been surprised to see how much power certain individual members of Congress to sabotage the democratic process, such as Johnson and Tuberville. It's no small thing and it's a bug that needs fixing if government by and for the people is to be a reality.
Not to nitpick, but putting Johnson and Tuberville together to illustrate obstructionist gridlock is dodgy. Johnson, loathsome and dangerous theocrat though he may be, is the duly elected Speaker of the House, most likely the second most powerful position in the US following the President. In a properly fuctioning system, you would *expect* the head of one of the legislative branches to call the shots on what policies will get a chance. The difference with the Tuberville situation is there you had a freshman legislator with no leadership position able to neuter the workings of the military chain of command, which one would not expect to happen in a properly functioning system. His sabotage revealed once again just how easily abused the arcane Senate rules are, and how they need to go, preferably yesterday.
It's the difference between a head coach making horrible calls versus allowing a child to wander onto the field and start playing with the ball for an hour instead.
Agreed and I never meant to imply that their role was equivalent, but the concept of checks and balances is meant to extend over the entire government, and no role within it should allow significant perversion of the public will and the public good. That obviously is a tougher call as the degree of public trust and discretionary power increases, but the public should still be able to define the boundaries of misuses of publicly conferred power. What Johnson and McConnell and Tuberville share is the ability to throw wrenches in the works without remedy, short of throwing the rascals out. I don't know what to do about it, but I see reason to wonder if some of our ways of doing things are worth deep reevaluation and reform. Perhaps we fail to make progress because our problems run deeper than our solutions?
Can we even talk about the problematic nature of arbitrary powers, not matter how deeply established, such as executive power of pardon, or are we the people stuck with them forever? Trump has established how problematic pardon by executive whim has become, but it never was consistent with equal protection and due process to begin with, to award that degree of power to one person's judgement. Is it wise to offer pardon, in retrospect, of apparent miscarriages of justice (certainly not preemptively, as Ford did it)? Sure. But the way we do it now is an anachronistic vestige of autocracy.
Excellent analogy, Will. Sadly, the end results represent what comes out of the end of a horse, whether "duly elected leader" or "scrambled brains coach with name recognition".
Jesus Johnson doesn't know what the hell he is doing. He's got Agent Orange and God on speed dial. But, is it God or Leonard Leo? Meanwhile, MAGAQ insurrectionists are grifting there way to glory off the pain and suffering of the rest of the world. It's all game to the coked-up alcoholics that run our government.
That's unfair to coke and alcoholics. These are stupid evil nasty creature doing the bidding of a very sick man, and all the narcissistic sociopaths who think their money gives them to right to control everyone. They use the religious nonsense the fools believe to control them, which is after all the purpose of religion. Just say god made me do it.
The "Christian" Supremacists in any case. It's an all-purpose rationale for extreme sociopathy. The "War is Peace" crowd.
I can dig it. My cousin was a journalist for the Associated Press and was part of the Air Force One fly group for 3 Presidents. I asked her if anyone was sober? She laughed, and said a few. But, just a few. She said they all live in a glass bubble. They are very out of touch with reality. They protect themselves first. We, the voters are an afterthought.
When was your cousin active? My father in law was in the pilot cadre during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
During Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. We went to her to wedding on the Potomac. It was beautiful. All the Italians in my family showed up. It was great.
These bodies make their own rules, and I’m sorry to say that I know next to nothing about the history of it all. It seems that intent to protect minorities has led to minority rule to an absurd degree.
Doesn't it take only one House Rep to force a vote to remove the Speaker? It's in the rules. Perhaps the Democrats in the house could all take turns (200+ turns) introducing such a measure. Who knows, one of them might stick.
Keep in mind, without a Speaker nothing can happen on the floor of the House except for voting for a new Speaker.
But if they do so, who then would become Speaker? The GOP still has a razor-thin majority, though it's been reduced recently by the resignations of Kevin McCarthy and Ohio Rep. Bill Johnson, who resigned to take up an appointed academic position back home. And there is no way any Republican in the House will vote for Hakeem Jeffries. So the stalemate will get even worse and the chances are that eventually the House GOP will vote for an even more extreme Speaker than Johnson.
Also, I believe Rachel Maddow reported last night that dear Marjorie has threatened Mike Johnson with a call to vacate the Speaker's chair if Johnson dares to allow the border security/Ukraine package to come to a floor vote.
Now *that* is a very good question that hadn’t occurred to me. Seems worth a try. I wonder why they don’t, since the other side is so intractable.
The balancing of the rights of a majority with the rights of a minority is clear enough in some respects and intractably tricky in others; part of why many people want to give up on democracy. Liberty and justice for all will always require active pursuit, which is no excuse to not pursue it. That said, it should be self-evident that the government of the people, by the people, for the people should never take actions that deliberately favor our own hired agents interests over the interests of public. That may be commonplace, but it's fundamentally corrupt.
i mean, in the similar sense that electing Obama "led to" various reactionaries hurling themselves out of the woodwork, sure, civil rights gains "led to" the GOP ramping up toxic abuse of the system. realizing that a more-level playing field will diminish your powers might just do that to any number of persons.
It is obscene that a single person, in our government, can make decisions on behalf of our entire country! We are over 300,000,000 strong and our voices keep getting drowned out.
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
If the '24 election yields a Biden win, but even a ONE GOP House or a ONE GOP Senate majority, it's a Trump controlling Congress déjà vu all over again, even if it's from a prison cell.
Vote BLUE up and down the ballot, and tell a friend.
There are 7 competitive Senate races this year. All are popular Dem incumbents and/or running in states Biden won last time. Therefore, the Dem should be considered the slight favorite in each race, but a clean sweep like in '22 will be needed to hold the chamber. The candidates are:
Bob Casey in Pennsylvania
Elissa Slotkin in Michigan
Jacky Rosen in Nevada
Jon Tester in Montana
Ruben Gallego in Arizona
Sherrod Brown in Ohio
Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin
Donate to and volunteer for these people, and *only these people* (until further notice). Don't get distracted by someone charismatic running against someone loathsome in an unwinnable seat. The end of the filibuster is likely if the people I just listed come out ahead. FOCUS your resources, don't dilute them. We can do this.
Will from CA: Thanks for your note. It was a good reminder. I copied it and sent it to friends here in WI. I am going to think about how friends and I can help Baldwin.
Contact your local Democratic Committee and Baldwin's campaign. I visit activist friends in Racine and campaign with them. Gwen Moore is the Representative from that area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Moore
And there is also Bentsens Bakery's kringle!
BTW, my donation to Ukraine (thruTimothy Snider effort) finally went through.
Yes Will from CA and Mary Ellen Spicuzza!
We know better. We don’t just get angry, we do something.
Copy and paste the list from Will from CA
Then do something.
I agree, but with a qualification. One factor that has contributed to Republican extremism is how many seats, especially for down-ballot offices, have them running either without opposition or with feeble opposition. The more people from Team Normal who run, the more they are held to account, which should help temper their extremism, especially if elections are closer than expected.
I’m not explaining this very well. But I’ve been reading David Pepper a lot, and this is one of his pillars. He does explain it well. One of his prime examples of extremists coming into office with no opposition is Mike Johnson himself. Check out Pepper’s Substack or Twitter if you’re interested.
I know precisely what you mean KR; I'm in Ohio too as you should know. The predicted, long term effects of the gerrymandering is what we have in Ohio, wherein there's a realistic psychological effect that bars opposition, democrat, independents, to even go to the bother of running for any given office, so the R's are unopposed. It creates and sustains from lowest office to highest, bandwagon bias, and in some confirmation bias in an unending loop.
Exactly! I think at least some of my contribution dollars are going to go to Blue Ohio, which is trying to support more D candidates.
I had to believe that's what you were trying to explain. And thanks for the David Peppers suggestion; I'll have a look in there. I'm about 20 miles south of Cleveland; what about you, generally is good enough.
We live in the Columbus area. I’m from Shaker Hts. originally, my husband is from Rome, Italy. We moved here from Ann Arbor about 30 years ago. My husband teaches at OSU. I was a commercial real estate consultant/appraiser, then a stay at home mom, and now I have two horses and compete actively. It’s a good life here.
I’m glad you asked - I’ve been wondering where you live!
I’ll add these to my list. But the House is just as important
You may want to check in with Focus on Democracy. It has a good track record of electing the “must elects.”
Unfortunately, one person on your list is different. Sherrod Brown from Ohio is running in a state that Trump won by 8 points, twice. But I am donating and working my backside off to see he wins! And I believe that Trump also won Montana, where Jon Tester is running.
I know that Tester faces some stiff opposition as a Democrat in Montana.
Thank you so much for that Kathleen. Sherrod is deserving.
Wonderful and constructive suggestion Will; thank you. I can speak for one for sure in Ohio, Sherrod Brown. I followed and supported his career from his first 'toe dip' in politics here for Ohio offices. He is profoundly deliberative, consistent and deserving of support, especially if your 'lean' in our politics is towards "a more perfect union." I've followed his voting record on everything and his positions have always mirrored choices I would have made. Now don't get me wrong, I will never call any human a paragon of virtue, etc., etc. I do have some personal issues with him, but those are fixable and besides the point. I will openly tell you that despite my issues, I will fully support and vote for him. If there is a seat occupant worthy of wide support, it is Sherrod Brown.
💙💙💙🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
Thank you, Heather.
''Foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum reflected on the teetering national security measure and wrote: “People will die, today, because of the cynical game played by the American Republican party. Their irresponsibility is breathtaking.”''
"The End Game? An American Authoritarian State''
This obstructionism jeopardizes vital aid to Ukraine, risking further destabilization in Europe and empowering America's adversaries. By prioritizing loyalty to Trump over national security interests, Republicans risk tarnishing America's reputation and embroiling the country in future conflicts. The refusal to pass the bill represents a profound betrayal of both American allies and core national values.
Speak up. Speak out. Pray.
VOTE BLUE.
'Dreamers' left out in the cold by US Senate border bill
By Richard Cowan
'WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - A bipartisan border security bill headed to a U.S. Senate vote this week is likely to dash hopes for a quick, clear path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people brought into the U.S. illegally as children, as Congress takes a harder line on immigration.'
'This group, known as "Dreamers," had been a top priority for Democrats in immigration policy talks for more than a decade.'
'But as Republicans made new border restrictions a condition of aid for U.S. allies Ukraine and Israel sought by Democratic President Joe Biden, the Dreamers question was left off the table.
Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said that at the onset of the just-concluded talks Republicans rejected his plea to include the Dreamers.'
"There are members on the other side that have the position of not one single immigrant under any circumstances," Durbin said in an interview.'
'Some Republican lawmakers said it was unlikely Congress would take up the question of the Dreamers at any time in the foreseeable future.'
'Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, one of three senators who negotiated the bill, acknowledged the lack of progress in helping Dreamers.'
"We still have work to do, like providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented people, but this bill is an important downpayment on immigration reform," he said on Sunday.'
'There are no guarantees that the bipartisan bill will become law. It faces some opposition from both left and right in Congress and may not even be taken up by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, after former President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the idea.
Currently, there are 544,690 Dreamers receiving temporary protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat. While they also are granted work permits under DACA, their status in the United States has to be renewed every two years and the new Senate bill keeps them in limbo.
But there are thought to be as many as 2 million Dreamers in the United States when counting those who currently are not covered by DACA. New sign-ups under the program have been placed on hold by court challenges to the program.'
"To say that it's disappointing and frustrating I think is an understatement," said Diana Pliego, whose parents brought her to the U.S. at the age of three in 1997. "I've been waiting 26 years for Congress to pass a meaningful pathway."
'Now 29, Pliego recounted a lifetime of deportation fears and childhood poverty because of her family's illegal immigration status.'
'She qualified for protection from deportation under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, went on to earn a college degree and now lives in a Washington suburb and works for the National Immigration Law Center. But her childhood fears of deportation linger.' (Reuters) See link below.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/dreamers-left-out-cold-by-us-senate-border-bill-2024-02-05/
Fern, I appreciate this post. One of my nieces is engaged to a dreamer (he's in his mid 20's). This issue has become more personal and far less academic to me in the last 5 years.
Ally, even without a personal connection, such as yours, my grandparents and husband were immigrants, so I identify with 'The Dreamers' and with immigrants, in general.
'How many U.S. residents are from immigrant families? Immigrants and their U.S.-born children number approximately 87.7 million people, or close to 27 percent of the U.S. population in the 2022 CPS, an increase of approximately 14.7 million (or 20 percent) from 2010.' (migrationpolicy.org.)
I am from immigrant stock. My Mom's family left Ireland in the 1870's. My Dad's maternal line came from Germany some time in the 1830's.
Leaving them out hasn't helped get this bill passed, that's for sure.
And, obviously, it doesn't support the 'Dreamers'!
Thank you, Fern.
Thank you, Virginia, for being mindful.
You’re welcome. I try.
It helps to win the Congress as well as the Presidency. Then we can get everything done. If we can't even get a deal by giving up stuff we very much want, then the other side isn't negotiating in good faith. That's the lesson to be drawn. We did our best to win a deal, knowing that we'd have to continue the fight for other stuff -- as we always have to do. We showed good faith. Don't see this as a mistake but as an effort. We're still the good guys. Not voting for Biden is only going to elect Trump which is only going to make our goals impossible -- violent male white supremacy will be the result.
And they should know by now that loyalty to trump gets them nowhere. Just ask Ronna Romney.
She ain’t gone yet, is she
Pray while you are protesting, it might do more good.
We need to do ALL we can.
I like my comfort zone as well as the next guy, but I fear that it will be gone sooner rather than later.
Working daily on 250 AZ GOTV postcards to Dems (Gallego).
This is awesome - thank you!
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
"Vital aid" to Ukraine's corrupt far-right thug regime, where Zelensky is at increasing risk of being overthrown in the aftermath of the dismal failure of his "counter-offensive." Now, more money down the drain?
🙄
Say it loud, “No oxygen”
Thank you!
Thank you!
Distressing news out of Washington. I deeply resent my tax dollars going to pay Mike Johnson’s salary, since he is working for the Trump presidential campaign rather than the American people. Write more letters, make more calls.
Johnson is also a theocrat who has the chutzpah to compare himself to Moses. I share your resentment.
Mike Johnson is 'Charles Koch bagman Leonard Leo's legislative MiniMe'. Not content with court capture, Leo has taken over The Teneo Network which he describes as 'a Federalist Society for everything that's messed up in America.' What he means by 'messed up' is equality before the law, equal representation, providing for the general welfare, and defending the nation.
https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-teneo-videos-documents
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
Thank you lin
The US border. The crisis of global warming alone should make us not look a gift horse in the mouth-we should view the immigrants as partners in building a renewable and sustainable economy. Global warming dictates that we need workers in sustainable agriculture that listens to climate scientists on how best to help meet our needs: food security, zero emissions transportation, energy efficient housing and transition from industries that have a high impact or extractive practices on the environment.
I’ll take immigrants over trolls any day.
THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMENT TODAY! Climate change is ignored (food, water, overpopulation, etc.) while Republicans and trolls distract US and make US blind to what will kill us all if left unaddressed.
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
The mark of a successful column - the trolls appear in the comments. It seems we now have two. Don't feed them, they live for that.
Like the weeds in a lovely garden. It used to be a collection of people we had come to know and were pleased to greet. Well, weeds are weeds, and we know what to do about them.
Piss on em.
https://store.harrybliss.com/product/this-is-bishops-weed/
Sadly, they’ve been here almost since the beginning of this Substack. David Carroll is a longtime poster. They’ve gotten way more ubiquitous, especially since one of them pot stirs, posts tons of repetitive posts trying to get traction, always posts on the first comment, and provokes responses. I try hard to just scroll on by and not read whatever nonsense they spout.
In a way, their presence is a tribute to Dr. Richardson’s, and our, effectiveness as a community.
Oh, I’m not generous at all! It offends me that they clutter up our discourse and derail us from talking about the Letters, which I suppose is their purpose.
Wish I were as generous as you! I agree with Anne Louise. Weeds. Which detract and distract.
Joining the No Oxygen Brigade
How they love recognition. You are so right
Trump is not our elected president, but he refuses to stop trying to run the country. He is the defacto leader of the House of Representatives. MAGA Mike is not the leader he is just a sheep in the Cult of Trump. I hope Putin turns on Tucker Carlson while he is there. It would be a great lesson for the MAGAs on who Putin really is. Clearly they are unable to learn about Trump.
They know, but he hates Dems. Repub goal for at least 45 years.
Run the country? I’d say ruin! But yes, you’re right.
I said "trying to run."
You did! I was trying to be funny
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
And of course the Republicans have a better plan to get voters, make women bare lots of children by removing their options not to, and then use them for child labor and assuming they can brainwash them into voting.
So the Speaker is in consultation with Trump, and says so. Trump? Justification? The gloves are off. Or they're on. And Tucker! Orban must really be on the skids. Staying at top Moscow hotels? How many does he need to stay at? Is he prospecting for the future Trump Tower? Top level negotiations, boss to boss.
Tucker is looking for relevance. Nobody gives a shit about him. He's looking for a job. He's craving validation. He screams, "notice me". He's a spineless fuck wad.
He got too big for his bow tie and cant go back to being a normie. C'est tragique.
The only difference between a right-wing news commentor and the drunk guy yelling at the back of the bus is the precense of a camera. Take that away and they dissolve into the ether.
That's funny, because it's so true.
Will, “I will be relevant, damn it!!!” —-Russio Tuck
Lisa, using the Tokyo Rose pattern? “Russio Tuck”
You hit that nail on the head!
I find it hard to disagree with any of that.
Tucker grew up in wealth and privilege, is physically healthy and meets current criteria for attractiveness. There is no obvious reason for him to act like this. The interpersonal relationships in his family must have been monstrous, to create such a twisted person as he seems to be.
Probably. He's another useless malignant narcissist looking for an audience. He's looking for relevance. He doesn't care how he gets it. He needs a supply. He can afford his own consequences. He doesn't have to worry about paying the light bill. His fucking self entitlement is something else. He's no Mike Wallace. But, he thinks so. All they do is project their own insecurities and babbling on the rest of us. Take away the supply, they got nothing.
But loved by the traitors.
Apparently McConnell too if I read elsewhere correctly.
See Robert Hubbell.
I haven't seen that. Ooh. Ambassador?
I read somewhere (probably Julia Davis, whose Russia reporting is exemplary) that Russian media has been gloating over his presence, and laughing about how he’s been charging his phone by plugging it into USB outlets. What an idiot.
I'm permitting myself a little gloat about that!
Me too!
Probably stealing towels
For personal use? or gifts? or for re-sale on street corners?
I think they are going to be personally signed by his buddy Vlad then mounted in his man cave… so he can talk about the time he shared Vodka and borscht with his good buddy Vlad
😁😁😁
Hey, I know! it's for throwing to crowds sheltering from floods!
“Tucker Carlson has been spotted in Moscow, generating speculation that he’s there to interview President Vladimir Putin, and the liberal commentariat are losing their minds about it.
There’s no valid basis for Westerners to object to Putin being interviewed by a Western pundit. There’s no moral basis because Israeli officials have had unfettered access to a wildly sympathetic Western press throughout four months of administering an active genocide.
There’s no basis on the grounds that it hurts U.S. information interests, because that would be admitting that U.S. information interests depend on hiding information from the public about matters as basic as what a foreign leader thinks about his own actions, and essentially acknowledging that the Western media are supposed to function as propaganda services for U.S. military and intelligence agencies.
Every possible objection is also a confession about what the U.S. empire and its media actually are.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/05/caitlin-johnstone-the-war-on-disobedience/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=77776b95-e8f1-4db1-af4f-2a736e64efc6
Who cares what Tucker fucking does. Like he's taken seriously? He screams of desperation. This is not serious journalism. This is an attention seeking asshole period.
Excellent simplistic mindset.
Would you call anything on cable news serious journalism? How about NYT/WaPo?
Was it serious journalism to interview Saddam? Osama?
I’m no fan of Tucker. Neither will I dismiss truths he happens to utter today just because he has been an asshole and liar in the past.
Lose your mind about Tucker all you want. It’s exactly the reaction Johnstone nails in the quote above.
What are you, my superior? My give a shit bucket is empty. Simple enough for you?
Superior/inferior got nothing to do with it.
Empty give a shit bucket. Yeah, that’s simple enough. Enjoy your Tucker rants.
Trump was slighted by Ukraine not giving him the "dirt" he wanted...REVENGE is his mantra, so no aid to Ukraine, as he urges his propagandized sycophants to endorse. We need Independents to coalesce...they have NO funding as our 2-party system provides. Down-party votes need these Independents to win local elections. Stop this "revenge" cycle.
I certainly do not have the contacts or the power to get American men and women out onto the street, as we see in Germany. Does public protest no longer matter in the USA. When it is completely clear that "doing nothing" will result in huge damage to so many of us and our allies. President Biden can't allow the minority to define our future, and coming November may be too late. How do we get people out onto the street to show what we want?
Support grass roots organizations’ efforts to increase voter registration and get out the vote. The voting booth is the national gathering place.
All I can add Tom is that in Germany, the tide has turned all over since the demonstrations. Even those staying at home felt refreshed in their support of democracy.
My Q also. Do we die with a whimper
my fellow unionized employees of an increasingly corporatized co-op seem to be heading that way.
MOJO, not whimpers
My husband and I were out in Washington marching so many times that we amassed a collection of signs that friends and family began to borrow. I'm ready to return to those streets any time - not sure who can organize the mass demonstrations now, though. People are exhausted
Exhaustion in defense of liberty is no excuse!
We vote!
We spread the word, and we vote.
And we write GOTV postcards which are available with lists of names of Democratic voters and addresses
(to be shredded after one use).
Organize marches. In this political climate, possibly spring coming (I write “possibly” because with climate change we don’t know), you will find it easy to get people in the streets. If you have black friends, they’ll help you, existing groups of all sorts may help you. It’s a good skill to be developing these days. Start with a list of possibilities and go from there. Don’t forget a SIGNS committee!
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
As basic and frustrating as it sounds, my response to today’s “Weird 24 Hours” is to call and leave messages for gop members of congress. I want to do more and worry less. Phone calls voicing awareness and opposition to their obstruction of needed support for Border Security AND support for Ukraine, is an action I can make today.
A weird 24 hours? It's been a weird 70,124 hours! Nevertheless, we don't agonize, we organize!!
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
It will be interesting if in 10 years “who lost Ukraine?” Is a campaign issue.
Imagine the backlash if Americans troops end up fighting in Europe because Republicans blocked military aid to Ukraine. And the draft is reinstated.
Will MAGAts notice. Besides if chump cheats his way back in, we will have peace, Putin style.
Reinstating the draft is how we get the billionaires back into the mainstream. It’s the education they need for becoming part of America again. There are stories..
Absolutely no one will care. Americans have exceedingly short attention spans, the war is still ongoing and they've lost interest.
I have a "Stand with Ukraine" badge as my profile pic on Facebook, and a few days ago, someone on Facebook said to me that my profile picture was "so passé". We really do have short attention spans.
On my walk yesterday, I clocked half a dozen houses within a couple streets radius of mine sporting either the Ukrainian flag or the "Stand with Ukraine" sign, and I dont think we have that many Eastern Europeans in my suburban neighborhood.
I dont buy for a minute that people have lost interest. I think Ukraine support has simply moved from being the Hot Topic Of the Moment to a thing we have incorporated into the background of our politics long-term now.
That said, there *are* definitely people who conceptualize "being involved" as being the first to move on to the next Hot Topic Of the Moment, and those people are not worth taking as seriously as they want us to.
Donated to United24.DefenceUSD yesterday. Really pisses me off that I
have to pay taxes and need to donate for what my government should be doing. Our obligation continues.
Jeri, your comment is a concise explanation of what I think about so much of our domestic policy too. We are constantly bombarded with requests for donations - for things that the government should be doing, most especially those things which lift up the poor.
My husband is Italian. We spend a lot of time in Italy. They are not constantly asked for donations, either charitable or political. Because their government is doing what it’s supposed to do. And that’s Italy, not known for being the best-governed country in the planet.
Efficiency seems to be down on the list of things to be concerned about. Except for Chump, he will fix things in a nanosecond. God forbid. Good for Itally. We used to be builders, not destroyers. Glad to be old.
These comments miss the larger threat. It’s Putin and his quest to take over countries lost from the USSR. Pay attention and for the sake of liberty and democracy think long term.
Absolutely true. Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union as he and his oligarchs steal Russia blind. Trump is Putin’s useful idiot.
Americans will care for a few months if that actually happens. The Western Europeans better shape themselves up.
They are already feeling abandoned, as is NATO
In ten years, it may be more than Ukraine that is lost. Poland? Finland?
ALL OF EUROPE!!!
After losing Ukraine we will have additional problems with voting
I already doubt that TFG's base has 10 years' worth of [remotely accurate] political memory, so, why not?
If we lose Ukraine, will we be voting in 10 years?
Totally irrelevant. Americans don't care about Ukraine.
"Funding Ukraine is popular in the U.S., even among a majority of non-MAGA Republicans." I'm gonna go with what Heather says, not what you say.
Here’s something Americans are going to care about.
Putin’s goal is to restore the former Russian Empire. If he’s not stopped in Ukraine, he’ll march into Poland next. Before WWI and the Russian Revolution, what is now Poland was part of the former Russian Empire.
Poland is a member of NATO. Putin marches into Poland, and BAM! A third land war in Europe. Just what everyone has been dreaming of since 1945.
I’m American, and I care about Ukraine. A lot.
Don't be too sure about that. We just don't know how to crack the nut[case] and get the House to vote.
We would have done it already before giving away our core. They have turned traitors.
I do
Please President Biden, have a prime-time address tonight to outline what this bill would do. Make sure the non-cult republicans understand the issues of national and international security.
So, MJs argument is that Biden wants as many immigrants as possible because then those immigrants can be turned into voters?
A huge example of what a bully will do if you try and stand up to him. Always gets his revenge only this time not against just the person but the whole nation (Ukraine).
And with that, the world.