Today the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the biggest companies on U.S. stock exchanges, closed at a new record high of 5,354. The Nasdaq Composite, which is weighted toward the information technology sector, also closed at a record high of 17,187. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also up, but not to a new record. It closed at 38,807.
Cannot believe two of the most profound traitors and idiots have been appointed to the House Foreign intelligence committee. Is there not a conflict of interest. All of this is being orchestrated by Trump. This has got to stop. Each day everything gets worse. Unbelievable!
Mike Johnson's appointment of untrustworthy players to positions where they can damage national security marks the GOP's devolution from McConnell's Party of No to Trump's Party of Nihilism. Taking literally the destruction of Federal government. But if Americans can be distracted by Republican assaults on their civil rights, then their attention can be diverted from Republican assaults on economic and environmental justice. A government which will not protect equality, will not institute equitable taxation and regulation.
Along with Sam Alito's insurrectionist flags, is Clarence Thomas' assertion that 'civil rights legislation is the new slavery holding down Black men' (we know what he thinks of Black women) and his opposition to the very affirmative action which promoted him to a position where he can sell himself to the highest bidder.
As for American voters, caveat emptor. Whether the temptations of GOP swill or of third party (5th column) snake oil.
The “unworthy players” who Johnson elevated are nothing but criminals and Russian operatives. Everything is going according to Vlad’s plan. I can’t say it’s Trump’s because I refuse to give him any credit for anything. McConnell is the devil incarnate and lord knows how badly I want him to permanently freeze! There has to be a way to combat these appointments. They simply cannot get approved for these positions. I wonder if HSA has a say to override Johnson.
Yes, the people need to rebel. A million man march should be a first step. Democratic leaders need to take off the gloves. Our democracy is being trashed before our very eyes by the republican congress. tRump and his sycophants don't plan to allow a fair upcoming election. Voter suppression will be front and center in all its ugly forms. Voter purges will be successful again. Minority voters don't vote because of this successful practice.
Lynn, as I read the Letter today, I was absolutely disgusted with our legal system at large -- as you say, Georgia, Cannon, corrupt SCOTUS, but also Troupis, a former judge, Cheseboro, etc., not to mention Giuliani, Epshtyn and the rest of MAGA's dirty team. Granted, there have always been compromised attorneys, but to have the rot extend bottom to top is, well, I was going to say shocking, but nothing shocks me anymore.
Meanwhile the media ponders why we have lost so much faith in out legal system
Doug, I too was disgusted as I read about the Republicans' efforts to turn Americans into THEIR visions of what "Great" means.
Except for the encouraging news about the stock performance, everything I read made me feel so hopeless. I can't give in to that hopelessness because our very lives are at stake. As everyone who reads these letters knows, our democracy is at stake.
TRUTH is at stake.
I have to keep reminding myself of
.
W. Clement Stone's words. "Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, (Republicans), disbelief (everyone who sees through Donald Trump and his cultists), or ignorance." (MAGAs. Especially MTG, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, and so many others who are fanatical.)
Of course I added the brackets.
We have to do all we can to help Make America GOOD Again.
What you said, "nothing shocks me anymore" makes me think of how dangerous it is for the media to "ponder" and NORMALIZE what amounts to the "obey in advance" tactics to overturn our very democracy. I AM shocked....and dismayed.
What amazes me is the number of bottom dwellers tRump attracted who have now been exposed. How many more ARE there? Hoping enough sane people are awake & go to the polls.
Why are voters putting criminals in Congress. Our legal system has been functioning albeit imperfectly for over 200 years. It’s the crooks in high office voted in by our fellow citizens that are putting us all at great risk.
Brava, Lynn! At 90 doing as many GOTV and RTV postcards a day as wrist will take. New strategy got me through nearly 100 to AZ yesterday. Bit past door to door, particularly with climate change. Last canvas cut short by sudden October sleet storm.
I'd love it if Merchan put him in jail for a token 30 days with no phone or computer privileges. At least it would be SOMETHING to shut him up for a time.
You are so right, they don’t plan on a fair election. Yet, they are still treated as worthy adversaries. I would join such a march if I had to crawl, and that may be before Nov.
Organizing effective marches and trying to ensure they will not be countered or co-opted may be a more uncertain expenditure of resources than getting out the vote for Democratic candidates. After all - that is how the right wing took over. They marched once a year against Roe. The rest of the time they took over the GOP by becoming the indispensable base and they took every public office they could.
I agree. An organized March could easily be co-opted by MAGAS, or other groups, causing violence and blaming the Democrats. Continuing our GOTV efforts is a better use of our time and resources.
They say when you're afraid to speak out for fear of losing your job, you're already leaving under fascism. I'm sure there are many in this awful position.
And, they (the RR's-holes) are spending billions to 'make it happen'. Seems as if it's coming from heaven... errr 'some' heaven, 'somewhere'. And when we're talking billions, stands to reason a lot of corruption can be bought with it. Keep a close eye on the polls, is all I can say.
Dems need to learn how to turn MAGA insanity into blowback: for example, Byron Donald’s claim that Black families were better off under Jim Crow legislation should be turned back on Donald with questions such as if Jim Crow was so great for Black families, are you going to push for a return to Jim Crow laws? If Jim Crow for Black
Families was so great, are you considering creating Jim Crow laws for whites to shore up white families which are fraying?
Exactly what I’ve been saying. If Dems can’t see that such is a gift from the cretins, then what hope is there. Yet all I see are the same old blathering ads, and emails. Wish you worked for them…
They are like a cornered rabid wolverine. And you are right about the frenzy. If they can’t win with a fair election they have every intention of continuing their criming to win. November is too far off. Our system is not built to save us from elected criminals. Putin is winning in our House and on our Court. All we have is Biden/Harris and ourselves. It’s a scary time, but that is right where they want us, afraid.
They seem to smell blood, the “Repub lawmakers” especially. They are not an enemy in the distance, they are circling and planning…. Just my opinion, Greg Olear has a more optimistic view. Check out his last post. Gave me needed whiplash. But he is smart, attentive, and sees things others miss.
For sure Vlad has plans. I think Trump only acts on narcissistic impulse, an effective WMD in a position of authority. Now if only those Ukrainians were not so troublesome.
Yes! "Trump only acts on narcissistic impulse" are words that everyone needs to keep in mind every time they read or even think that he's some sort of mastermind. I have always though that the sudden uprising of massive support for him following his June 2015 announcement was as much of a surprise to him as it was to all of us. But he took that support, which is predicated on his preternatural ability to speak to the lizard brains of his followers, and ran with it. That all those fine, upstanding Republicans who were appalled by the Access Hollywood tape then jumped on the Trump train is an astonishment that will forever be inexplicable.
I expect that the HSA realizes who these people are and therefore will give them tantalizing bits of information. The Republicans have a 3 seat majority and yet they can destroy the government.
The mental gymnastics required for Donalds, Scott and Thomas to say what they do amaze me. I fear very much what Trump has in mind, as he will destroy us.
Trump is such a dull tool. But, just like Reagon, The Marlboro Man, Nikki, etc, they're all photogenic ... so American looking. Easy to identify with. Elon Musk, Betsey DeVos, both tools with money and influence. Big Media love them like they love Faux News female anchors with cleavage and nice teeth. Crap sells. Advertisers need those hits the "tools". provide. Their handlers (like Putin) use them on every 'job' till they break or wear out. The Trump family is a whole bunch of "dull tools". Looks kill - Look out.
I agree, Kathy. It's totally confounding that Donalds (my rep from FL, I'm embarrassed to say), Scott in the Senate, and Thomas in the SC can act as if they were white nationalists! Boggles the mind!
The appointments of Perry and Jackson to the House Intelligence Committee, the weird flags, and Johnson's non-"come-to-Jesus" moment re: Ukraine aid all point out how secure the MAGAs feel in their currents positions and prospects. They are sure they are going to win in November, as anyone who only watches Faux News would be. They can't win with their current base, and have done nothing to expand it. Mostly, they have alienated whole groups of possible voters with their policies and antics.
The media is not covering this fairly. This morning the Post had a thoughtful article critical of Biden's assertion that the Racial Wealth Gap was closing, yet I have seen no critical articles, thoughtful or otherwise re: MAGA plans to disband the Department of Education, stop all foreign aid, open concentration camps for 12,000,000 immigrants, etc., etc., etc.
There’s so much happening to indicate the Blue win..stay the positive, fill the grassroots banks, and encourage our competent leaders and those running who will flip the many seats blue . The noisy crowd diminished and the loyalists are putting on fake brave smiles/repeating the same lies (only LOUDER)… well they’re running s c a r e d! The ruse is up. People , sufficient amounts, caught on!
Additionally, I often wonder with all the incompetent self-serving "loyalists" T would want/intends to appoint, just how much of a collapse the whole country may see should he/they prevail. Will the banks close/fail? There WILL be massive chaos as the foundations of all our institutions are dynamited by these greedy idiots. Smart enough to PLAN like crazy, ALAS.
This goes beyond destroying just our democracy by threatening all our allies that have to trust us with their information. Such isolation has severe consequences and reminds me more of opportunistic changes and realignments such as the Quislings in Norway at the start of WWII. Is this sort of stuff similar to the angst in Norway as they saw Quisling come to power?
Former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.”
Especially on the anniversary of D-Day
D-Day was one of the very best kept secrets back in a slice of time when Americans couldn't begin to imagine traitors to our country and our allies within high levels of our government revealing.
Ernie Pyle's first of 3 D-Day columns "A Pure Miracle" Marvels and celebrates the Allied successes but also strikes me with the way he kept the secrets that needed to be kept (not naming the units, plans or tactics, etc. The last part of that article brought me to tears for those who fought so bravely and kept the secrets when needed
How do we fight this? Traitors all, following an arrogant child who broke White House porcelain throwing it at the dining room wall (from his high chair, of course). More seriously, we are in grave danger unless we re-elect the current Commander-in-Chief, who gave a good speech in Normandy today.
That worthless Fundamentalist scum Johnson is maintaining his record as a traitor on January 6. When we re-take the House, I hope he's found lying in a dark alley, like a traitor should be.
Well how about this: I hope Mike Johnson's life becomes as difficult as that of a 13 year old girl who has been forced to carry her rapist's baby to term.
Agree, but the other side will use violence as a political tool with abandon when it suits them. As we have seen. We must be prepared to defend ourselves and families as required.
TC is an innocent rough rider. I keep suggesting that if Trump is re-elected, I either return to my old haunts in Europe or beyond, ( I’m told China has a good health care system, lol), or I take up arms training and go out with, as Patrick said, “Give me liberty or give me death” approach if that’s what they want.
Problem is, people willing to use lies and violence have a HUGE advantage over the rest of us, from domestic abuse on up. That's how fascism works. This is not to say the rest of us should behave the same, but as they say, freedom isn't free. It will take a huge amount of COLLECTIVE peaceful resistance to get/keep these folks out of power. I appreciate Biden's governing skills, but we really could use a charismatic leader who could galvanize us right about now.
Emotional stampeding is a long-standing political strategy. The only i can say is that not all Americans are infected with it. As for Biden, as a Canadian, i could only issue a sigh of relief for someone more prosaic than many Americans might wish for. In my mind, he's one of America's most under appreciated presidents. In the polls i remember he was doing well until Afghanistan, it was all dumped on him instead of the underperformance and misjudgement of the military involved. But that did it. He has never recovered. I sometimes think whatever vicarious charges are thrown at him stick unduly. I agree a smooth talking, charismatic Dem leader would be a bonus, but this is the guy, with a hugely successful administration getting through covid, pulling the American economy up by its bootstraps, getting US's international standing more back on track. Israel - Gaza war is something i can not lay on his doorstep, Trump would have Gazans mowed down, if you're looking for alternative policies. Who else btw is going to support reproductive and voting rights in the US these days? What'd you think of Biden's State of the Union anyway?
Also my sentiments.. so aghast at THEIR rude disrespect and continuous threats (no exaggerations there) maintaining a decent caring attitude like it is natural thought , intentional…is less and less , mired down but their water-boarding tactics. It’s a dangerous time this Trumpian epoch.
This is what happens as the nuts and bolts come flying off your country. Those on the left feel double rage - rage with every new assault on the country, and suppressed rage that we on the left must hold ourselves to a higher standard. We feel weak as they act “strong” in their bullying, take no prisoners way. It is hard to feel that you are always turning the other cheek.
I agree utterly though that this the path we must take. Hoping for violence for those on the other side provides a moment of rage relief. But then we are back where we were, and our group has been diminished. We must remain united in solidarity to prevail ultimately in legal ways only. I say “we” but I am Canadian. Nonetheless this remains your greatest challenge and at the end you want to be able to feel and say that you fought with honor and dignity.
Easy to say - incredibly hard to do in the face of daily provocations.
Personally I find myself wondering if this election will even happen. The level of rhetoric is stunning when one considers it is only June. It is going to do nothing but rise in the months ahead and it is hard to see violence and extralegal activity not creeping in. I cannot imagine the potential darkness of October 2024. It is my daily worry. Recklessness is not a trait exactly unknown to Americans.
(I mean really, how do you think we all got here and built a new country in the first place? Took a lot of killing and enslaving. We are their descendants).
For sure. It’s been a long and often brutal ride. The cautious ones fled to Canada as United Empire Loyalists in the War for independence/American Revolution. Not that Canada’s historical record would endorse fully the concept of us being a kinder, gentler nation.
So much of the problems in Canada and the U.S. stem from racial causes.
Yet this situation is not especially so. It seems to me that it’s a naked power grab justified by a flimsy quasi-ideological idea.
If we survive the apocalypse of climate change, historians will once again revive the argument that history is shaped by “great” men. Trump is not the root cause, but when the kindling was stacked he lit the match and started the blaze. Jaws will drop in amazement a century or two from now if sensible citizens do not call a halt to this fever dream by resolutely voting Biden in by an unquestionable margin.
Right. Because Johnson and his fellows seem to wriggle out of the noose tightening around their necks every day with rhetoric teeming with violent implications.
The alley it is. That’s where the fight for democracy has ended up if one is to even glimpse daily at the barrage of traitorous boasts daily by the Republican braggart legislators.
I may seem to be laughing at how the vast US security network could so easily be reduced to nothing -- but this is terrifying.
And, if you didn't know it, NATO allies are worried stiff by the unprecedented dangers if -- as they expect -- the 45th is returned as the 47th US President.
Read the recent essay by McKay Coppins in the Atlantic: What Europe Fears.
Thank you for mentioning the McCay Coppins article. In addition, the Economist issue of May 4th-10th featured a cover photo of French President Emmanuel Macron, with the headline " Europe in Mortal Danger"
Inside there was an interview with President Macron that detailed the fears of our NATO allies that you mentioned. With the Putin Wing in charge of the Republican Party, we are living in dangerous times.
Thank you. I read the interview with President Macron but forgot to mention it. The far right in France has added a thick sugar coating to its poison and has done its damnedest to look palatable; but there has been no lack of Russian finance and Putin fan club stuff during past decades.
There was and doubtless still is a Putin wing among the GOP-aping Républicains, but it is Marine Le Pen's party that may well take up the role once held for decades by the French Communist Party, that of the Kremlin's catspaw in France.
KMD, you conclude, rightly, that we are living in dangerous times. And they would already be very dangerous even if we were free from political problems.
There is much talk of an "authoritarian" takeover, there is talk of fascists, populists, Nazis and the extreme right. (And then, of course, all those warm-hearted, hot-blooded but ignorant and clueless agitators at the other end of the political spectrum who provide the GOPhers with their ammunition...)
But the truth is, we are up against something new. After the Axis forces, after Komintern, the Socialist International, etc., etc., now it is the ORGANIZED CRIME INTERNATIONAL...
As I write, I have just received my copy of something I ought to have read earlier: Hobbes' LEVIATHAN...
Peter, this damage to our standing worldwide may last generations, even if Biden is reelected. If 45 is reelected and becomes the dictator he’s promised on day 1, then it may never recover. Our allies have realized that their safety and security may well rest with the American voter ready to elect a self-proclaimed dictator.
Yes, Europeans are finally waking up to the obvious reality that the US will no longer be a security partner if Trump and the GOP take over. Putin has got to be rubbing his hands in glee.
Many actions have taken place by the members of the Republican Party that many of us could have never imagined. Actions against the books we can read...the rewriting of history....science/health....actions against fellow human beings deemed "different" whether it is the color of ones skin or sexual orientation...blatant disrespect and disregard for women.
We need a new political party that actually cares about our country and its citizens and about our many responsibilities to contribute to the health of our planet and its life....humanity and all life, including plants, animals, our water systems, the air we breath and other vital natural resources.
Too many small minded people who are only concerned about themselves ...and for their immediate future and what they believe to be an opportunity for their prosperity for the short term......have too much power. This is a frightful situation for our world. They are trying to make us a country we were NEVER meant to be. I personally do NOT want to be a part of this corruption.
Patriots have shed their blood...given their lives that we may live within a government that respects the human rights of each and all...that we may live within laws that protect honest citizens and provide fair trials for each of us if needed.
Has a judge gone to "the dark side"? Will there be no accountability?
Emily, who could ever have imagined that, from Reagan and his -omics, as dictated by Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys, the helter-skelter would so soon land us up with the likes of Newt Gingrich? And still, so many miles to fall, lower, lower, down, down, down… Imagining we’d hit rock bottom with Cheney-Rumsfeld and George W. Bush’s crazed, irrelevant, cruel and grandly incompetent invasion of Iraq and its consequences that may last centuries.
We’d seen nothing yet, nothing.
I may have written to a friend on August 30th 2001 that “we’re sleepwalkers on the edge of the abyss”, I may have written on 9/10 that our democracies are like a dog asleep in the middle of the highway, I may have expressed doubt about our survival instincts, I may even, when the time came, have lost friends by predicting that Donald Trump would win the 2016 election, I may have written within weeks of his victory that he’d probably bankrupt oligarchy, just as he’d bankrupted everything he touched… and go for dictatorship, the only thing he (thinks he) understands, I may have wondered if the Republic would survive the attempt, but I still could not have imagined the awfulness of that so-called Administration. And yet… we have seen nothing… nothing to compare with the nightmare promised by this demented golem—if Americans let him. He’ll drag us all down to Hell with him—if he can. Not only Americans, the entire planet. The damage already done is incalculable.
And still Americans sleep on, each group focused exclusively on its bespoke dream of greed and power, its very own Big Rock Candy Mountain, its “supposed interests”—which so many expect him to advance—each individual slavering over “what’s in it for ME…” all except hoodlums ignoring the general chaos and destruction to come… All except hoodlums, the parasites that thrive on such conditions, the vampires, ever ready with their gigantic siphons.
Now, to draw your attention and that of all possible readers to a book which Linda Weide wrote about yesterday: Kathleen BELLEW: Bring the War Home—the white power movement and paramilitary America. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674286078
What is taking place now, the horror that is almost upon us, is the fruit of long planning and preparation. We who are unprepared must make ready to face the onslaught, and resist.
*
I can’t let you go with only this promise of blood, sweat and tears.
Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the landing of 150 000 men on the beaches of Normandy, from which they were to advance, fighting all the way, until the Allied armies met the Red Army on the Elbe in the heart of Germany.
My father worked in Combined Ops at the Admiralty in London, among those planning the logistics of that great invasion, in which the fleet brought its harbor with it… He didn’t take part in it, but was detailed to take part in the invasion of Japan, when he expected to die, facing other islanders…
Much later in life, he seemed not to understand me when I spoke of the spirit but to have accepted the logic of superior material power, and I asked him: “Why, then, if you are so impressed by military might, did you not consider suing for peace after Dunkirk?” (Dunkirk: the hurried evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at end May, early June 1940, leaving France overrun by Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.)
He paused for a moment, then said:
“We knew that it would be hard, we knew that we faced a terrible enemy. Yet throughout the whole length of the war, neither I nor any one of my comrades doubted for one moment that we would overcome.”
I have posted elsewhere asking whether Trump and his Allies in the UK like ex PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, are pro Putin because of the Russian (& Chinese) vastly superior Vangard hypersonic missiles unveiled by their military back in 2018 ?
They are a certainly a military game changer. However, my two cents worth is that their obvious appeasement of Putin is at best ill informed and at worst treacherous. Even if the nuclear option is used wars are only eventually won or lost on the ground 🐈⬛
Monnina, pro-Putin is a rare sin Boris Johnson is not guilty of. On the contrary, he has always championed Ukraine. And made a big show of it, as with everything else he does. As for poor Liz Truss, I have no idea what she may have thought or said -- but... does it matter? Her brief interlude was like something out of postwar Italian or French politics. Maybe a record for brevity even there...
You may perhaps worry about another unpleasant English phenomenon called Nigel Farage, a political scavenger out to tear a hunk out of the wounded Tory party. That, and an accomplished Trumptoady.
Yes, but he means what he says. Remember that Johnson was intimately involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection - a major player - as detailed in Lyn Cheney’s must-reading book. His hands are very dirty.
At this point, we are registering voters in swing states. FT6 has volunteers nationwide calling, texting, etc to targeted states. Florida was added after abortion was added to the ballot. We have several different texting methods.
Absolutely important, Lin. But I still worry that the Convicted Felon's confidence that he will win without the assistance of former Haley supporters suggests he will do so nefariously-- maybe using the courts or god-knows-what.
Yes,I agree.The egregiousness of these 2 MAGATs being on that committee cannot be overstated.What can We The People do? I will call my Congressional reps once again expressing my outrage and outraged I surely am.And Holy Mike continues to show what a small and petty representative he is with zero regard to the will of the American people.
Yep. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, or something like that. I think S. Johnson was referring to false patriotism or jingoism…. That’s what we have today.
In the seemingly unending ways our institutions are under attack from the MAGA right, I noted something encouraging over the weekend. This article from Dean and Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld defines the coming attack on business. Encouraging to me because if business recognizes that it is in their interest to support Biden, they have huge resources to bring to the battle.
Thanks, Gary, for the link. I was one of those who bought the persistent persuasion that a united Big Business would support trump. Biden’s anti-monopoly, pro tax-the-rich, pro-union stance simultaneously made me ecstatic and fearful that they would do whatever it took to crush his candidacy. I feel a bit better now, though it still seems that Big Media is on the side of the demented, vicious, traitorous trump.
What is going on is so disturbing. This could not be happening unless too many Americans were being brainwashed by RW media who care not a wit about the country but only about money. Once again money is the root of all evil.
It behooves us to remember that Trump is not acting alone. He's a puppet. The people influencing/controlling him and his craven cronies are oligarchs, such as the Kochs, Mercers, Crows, deVos, Princes, and other right-wing billionaires. The press rarely mentions them, and when they do they call them donors which sounds not only benign, but beneficial. We need to call them what they are: oligarchs--not donors. For example, lets say "Trump and his oligarchs," not "Trump" or "Trump alone." Wouldn't that change the story?
Christopher, I see this being orchestrated by Vlad and 45 (with Stephen Miller steering 45). This is one way to get 45 (and Vlad) the sensitive intelligence information that the intelligence community is trying to keep out of 45’s hands out of fear that he’ll sell it to the highest bidder.
You can't believe it? We've been watching a pack of criminals and traitors work on ruining our country, so this is just one more step in their march to destruction. Honest to God I don't know how some of those treasonous people can sleep at night. Disgusting scum.
Everyday, Christopher, something happens that leaves me speechless and so raging angry. The citizens of this country better wake the f*ck up before it is too late.
To think the convicted felon tffg is the choice of the GOP astounds me every single day. I cannot make sense of it.
The men of the GOP think of women as property…slaves to their ideologies and must be kept in their place. Next will be taking away our right to vote. Each and every right we have as citizens and women will be gone. I am beyond comfort, hope, and deeply in despair.
Look, the core thrust here is that Republicans just don't trust people. They don't like people much in general, and think that if they aren't controlled society-wide for their own good then all hell will break loose. Period.
They don't trust us to be able to decide when to have kids.
They don't trust us to be able to decide who to love.
...what job to have,
...what to wear,
...what to say,
...where to go,
...to vote,
...to be FREE, in general.
They don't want to contribute a penny in taxes for any cause at any time, because they don't trust people in need not to be phony moochers.
They can't sleep at night unless they are armed to the teeth, because they don't trust their neighbors not to invade their property.
They won't welcome anyone from anywhere else, because they don't trust people of a different skin tone to not be dirty criminals or perverts.
They don't trust anyone to be worth listening to without suspicion: not the government, nor their kids' teachers, nor our most dogged journalists, nor our top scientists, nor our most promising artists.
Well actually, they have found one person to trust, and trust blindly. Ironically, that person is a sadistic pathological liar. Oops!
No wonder they are so angry and unhappy, and no wonder they are so dead-set on convincing themselves and everyone else that everyone else is worthy of such mistrust.
I’ve sensed the cognitive dissonance around me as an adult, but it’s because the government doesn’t work for the people whom they should support, but for the wingnuts. You see new levels of craziness, meanness, and cruelty daily from Trump and his groupies.
I hope there are enough responsible Republicans in the House to oust Michael Johnson for even attempting to put the least trustworthy people we can imagine in such sensitive positions.
The leadership got badly infected, then spread it to the flock. Dissonance 'is' part and parcel. I called it out for that in 2015, but got pooh poohed by some; harassed by others. I'm certain I hit a nerve.
".... Republicans just don't trust people. They don't like people much in general, and think that if they aren't controlled society-wide for their own good then all hell will break loose."
I have been thinking that, '' all hell will break loose for the past 5 months.'' with these mentally deranged terrorists that were once called the Rethuglican Party. My new name for the party is, ''The Domestic Terrorist Party''
Absolutely correct, the Trump GQP party trusts no one, and if their members don’t follow along with the insanity, they find themselves condemned and shunned.
You said it very well, Will. And don’t forget: many of the MAGAts vote for the orange convict _because_ he is an asshole. He is their leading example: they want to be an egocentric, openly racist, nature-hating, pussy-grabbing asshole just like him. And that is why they will never stop supporting him.
As usual, you got it right, Will. I'd sure love to see you share this in a piece for The Atlantic and/or the NYT opinion page and/or any other substantive form of media that might have the guts to publish it.
Seen from another angle, the MAGAs are the latest product of a cultural struggle between the various regions of America going back to colonial times. Not quite a north/south thing, but it could be loosely based on that. Southerners prize a one party system (elite oligarchy), and have worked hard to have one throughout their history. Because only a few people need to know anything to run an oligarchy, they don't value education. Because one-party systems tend to be corrupt, they don't value a free press or individual rights (except those of a select few). They prefer a religion that keeps the have-nots in their place, which focuses on individual salvation (private salvation) as opposed to social justice (public salvation) model the north tends to follow. i think southerners like people well enough, they just don't respect them, and certainly don't trust them to uphold the corrupt system they have and are trying to foist on the rest of us.
I agree 100%. They've been with us since the beginning. In the very early days, they were the Puritans. They wanted religious freedom to practice what THEY believed, but didn't think anyone else should have the same consideration.
They have zero humanities. Does this illiteracy then guarantee lack of trust in people. Or did a pre-inclination to the abstracted-only (and pre-inclination to the numbered, which is what lust for money is, and what stupidity for standardized tests is also) guarantee avoidance of humanities?
They have no interest in educating themselves and learning how to think for themselves. They want their orange wannabe dictator to tell them what to think.
...attitude is a result of looking in their mirrors for too long....
We must look to our fellowman/woman....to encourage...to help meet needs as we are able...to love one another and to appreciate one another.
Our physical world is in need of care....so are the "stars" and the moon and so much we are continuing to understand....
Let's choose some things we can contribute to and do those things the best we can....and let's not wait for compliments we may never experience.
There has never been a greater need for the works of respect, hard work to achieve "better" for our country and patience to see some good come to fruition.
Thanks to the peacemakers.....it is not just about us....the whole earth is filled with need for repair in some way.
It takes enormous strength not to give in or give up. It takes a strong HOPE and BELIEF for better as well as our action ....nothing is too small.
Our President Joe Biden is a great example. He is, inspite of personal heartaches, moving forward...serving....giving himself to the task of "better" for each and all of us. He is still going forward...fighting for freedom....for peace....he is showing us the way.
I had the <sarcasm font> joyous opportunity <sarcasm font> to listen to probably 30-40 of my former professional cohort last Saturday for a couple of hours. EVERYTHING that you listed here reflects what I heard there. My vignette: One of my former sergeants (resident of the small town where I finished my career as the daytime deputy) asked me why I don't come to the "retiree coffee club" on Saturday mornings. It so happens that they hold their club meeting at a restaurant that engaged in direct violation of masking requirements early in the pandemic. (Name of the restaurant was "Along Came Trudy", they lost their liquor license, and the owner's daughter now runs it as "Tall Firs Events and Cafe". They represent all of the glory of MAGA.) I told him, again, that I will never darken their door due to their political bent and hatred of everything that I stand for. Sarge just doesn't get it...
Purely wild speculation on my part. But could the MAGA paranoia be exacerbated (not caused - their parents and friends planted the sicko ideas in their brains) by PFAs and/or the microplastics in everyone's bodies?
What if all our "tendencies" are exaggerated by the chemistry experiment of modern living? Sounds like a Netflix series, I know. But something ain't right here...
Bill, a few years ago there was a wacky tv series about how a small alien life form began infecting politicians in Washington DC. As a result, the pols and their staffers - became more extreme and irrational. Republicans seemed (to me) to be the most susceptible. Once infected, the only cure was wild sex, drugs and rock&roll. I think we need a rerun!
The rnc leadership bought out the rights, own it, live it, and make all rnc leadership prospects study the series and act it out. ... Kidding, but it sure seems that way. Too bad Ocasek and the Cars great song got associated with it though. Song link >
Amazing how one sad, pathetic con man has become the horse they are going to ride to ruin. Their thought process is about putting in place all the things/policies that they have coveted for decades. It does not matter the damage it will do. The end justifies the means. Trump/maga is a boil on the butt of America that needs to be lanced, drained and disinfected.
Heather's column today shows much more than she concludes in her final paragraph.
There, she writes, "MAGA Republicans are out of step with actual Americans. "
But take a look at the date. In Japan, where I am, it's been June 6 all day. In the three most eastern of America's 48-state contiguous four time zones, it's now very early morning June 6. 80 years ago the paratroopers were in the air, just beginning their drops unto Nazi-occupied France. The landing ship transports were circling the waters of the English Channel, readying for their dawn release on those beaches.
They all knew how entrenched, well-fortified the Germans by slave labor had made any and all landing zones. That was evident reality -- so unlike all the Republicans today so in cahoots with their 48-count convicted mad-man criminal.
Yes, they all lie. Totally untethered from the large majority of what Heather terms "actual Americans."
But they're backed by billionaire money. They're backed by world dictators and nationalists spewing everything against which so many young Americans were poised to give up their lives exactly 80 years ago.
For those who don't know much about the D-Day landings on five beaches, the deeply connected Allies successful invasion headed by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
that literally saved us from fascism, you can pick up a copy of Life Magazine's D-Day rememberance at your local check out supermarket aisles and elsewhere. Yes, a very different time, but with the courage of so many that we now can emulate and apparently must do so to save ourselves again.
Almost every time I hear someone cry about how they "just can't afford" a loaf of bread being 15 cents more than last year, and how I need to acknowledge their "real pain" over this, I think of those guys at the very front of the ships reaching Normandy Beach and have to physically restrain myself.
I hear you, Will. They do not understand the concept of committing to something greater than yourself. Nearly every time I've pointed out that the higher prices are a product of "greedflation" I am laughed at for drinking the "liburl Kool-aid".
I remember Trump looking over the graveyard at Normandy when he was there for the 75th anniversary of D-day and saying out loud, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Says a lot, doesn't it?
While many of them are relatives of or direct descendants of those who are buried on foreign soil. As am I and my brother who was named for one so killed. He doesn’t have time to think about the past.
Kathy, I'm glad my friend Mike Reuter is no longer alive to see this. He jumped with his platoon (he was a First Lieutenant) onto Omaha Beach on D Day, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French for his subsequent actions.)
“These guys are Nazis, they’re boogaloo boys, they’re Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II,” Milley said a week after the attack on the Capitol.
They know no history. No novels. No memoirs. Nothing in connection with anything personal or anything otherwise human.
Batshit banshees. Screaming lunatics. Filled with abstracted, poisoned, packaged views of abstracted, poisoned packages. But they've all been brought up in corporate consumerism entitlement culture, so they feel entitled to their insanities.
Same as sickos on the Clarence court who feel entitled to push their package poisons on all.
Will they really be happy in the world they think they want? How long will they be able to benefit from such freedom crushing decisions?
Our world is so connected. Decisions made by each of us influence others in small and large ways world wide.
It is a tragedy that the votes of American citizens placed such weak and selfish humans in such powerful positions. Those voters who placed these selfish, corrupt men and women in these positions of governance are completely oblivious to what will happen to the education and hope for our children....for our world.
Voting these persons into office is the opposite of "prolife" in the larger sense of those words.
Phil, As a child, I recall my Uncle Omar (he was not a blood uncle but it didn’t matter) recount D-Day. No one else in my family was in the military. Papa chose the Coast Guard, a safe bet. Uncle Omar, originally from New Hampshire with a strong down east accent, repeatedly recounted for me the events at Omaha Beach. I think he was there. It was the late 1950s when he recounted these events which was only less than 15 years before. I played with his and Auntie Carmen’s cats, Buster and Tiger, while listening to him recount his tales. Then Auntie Carmen would make a big plate of toasted cheese sandwiches and we would all sit at the dining room table gorging on toasted cheese sandwiches until our tummy’s were full. That’s what D-Day means to me in a personal way.
I was seven years old, Bill, when my parents realized what it meant, a 10th anniversary.
That is, they were reading in the Detroit Free Press how it was that, that day, June 6, 1954, marked a full ten years after D-Day.
They'd already had their own 10th -- they'd married in Los Angeles, Highland Park, at midnight, the last day of 1943. He'd come from the Hungarian neighborhood of St. Margaret's parish out in east Cleveland. She'd been 16, working for the USO when they met summer of '43 at the Santa Anita racetrack where my dad and other G.I.s were stationed, waiting for orders out to the Pacific.
I saw only a small bit of the firepower of military action when I was a G.I. myself nearly three decades later.
The fools who follow Trump -- fools in Congress, bribed and perjured but arrogant fools on the Clarence court -- none of them know anything personal, real, or true about war, firepower, or any organized murder.
I think to say these guys don’t understand anything of sacrifice is rather simplistic. I would suggest that many of them have indeed seen combat in war zones and now think that their overzealous self righteousness gives them cart blanch to force their limited, twisted version of reality by following a demented demigod. I actually don’t fear Trump as much as I fear the seeds that have been sown. Trump is nearing the end of his lifespan. He just wants to go,out destroying as much as he can so his tombstone will read… well that epitaph is in my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums” in my fantasy short story, “Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution.” You’ll see. 😀😀😀
I hope your book doesn't rely so much on the non-active, copulative "is."
I want evidence. Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Clarence Thomas, Anna Luna, Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, inactive reservist Samuel Alito -- yes, Bill, none of them has ever seen "anything of sacrifice."
You "would suggest" otherwise? Dammit, I want evidence. Not specious rhetoric.
Most all the big-mouths, clown-show dupes for the 34-count-criminal-felon, like that criminal himself, similarly have never seen "anything of sacrifice." They all lie. They all posture.
Where do you come up with your evidence-free "simplistic"?
I do hope your book -- which you repeatedly, ever keep pushing here -- has no more than the prominent, stupid, evidence-free "seeds that have been sown" passive voice you indulge here.
Goddammit, and in the name of fellow veterans I have known, speak from evidence, Bill -- no more copulatives, no more patsy passives.
They also don’t know what living under a dictator is really going to be like! The MAGA members of Congress think they will all be rewarded! Ha! Trump will dissolve Congress. They will all be out of the cushy , do nothing jobs, and just like the rest of us , non-free citizens of a country the world then hates.
D-Day was one of the very best kept secrets back in a slice of time when Americans couldn't begin to imagine traitors to our country and our allies within high levels of our government revealing.
Ernie Pyle's first of 3 D-Day columns "A Pure Miracle" Marvels and celebrates the Allied successes but also strikes me with the way he kept the secrets that needed to be kept (not naming the units, plans or tactics, etc. The last part of that article brought me to tears for those who fought so bravely and kept the secrets when needed
"...Before long it will be permitted to name the units that did it. Then you will know to whom this glory should go. They suffered casualties. And yet if you take the entire beachhead assault, including other units that had a much easier time, our total casualties in driving this wedge into the continent of Europe were remarkably low – only a fraction, in fact, of what our commanders had been prepared to accept.
And these units that were so battered and went through such hell are still, right at this moment, pushing on inland without rest, their spirits high, their egotism in victory almost reaching the smart-alecky stage.
Their tails are up. "We’ve done it again," they say. They figure that the rest of the army isn’t needed at all. Which proves that, while their judgment in this regard is bad, they certainly have the spirit that wins battles and eventually wars..."
Besides the three D-Day anniversary column articles, "A Pure Miracle," "The Horrible Waste of War," and "A Long Thin Line of Personal Anguish," the rest of his wartime columns are at
The third column in the series reminded me of my wife's uncle's very much loved dog and the friends and family that took such good care of the dogs and cats of those lost.
"...Always there are dogs in every invasion. There is a dog still on the beach today, still pitifully looking for his masters.
He stays at the water’s edge, near a boat that lies twisted and half sunk at the water line. He barks appealingly to every soldier who approaches, trots eagerly along with him for a few feet, and then, sensing himself unwanted in all this haste, runs back to wait in vain for his own people at his own empty boat..."
My father-in-law's younger brother had started college and hoped to become a USCG officer like my father-in-law had suggested, but ended up being drafted into the Army, with his first action coming after landing in Normandy after the June 19 storm destroyed the original Mulberry Harbor structures. He had written a letter on July 7 indicating a temporary break where they could enjoy a bit of French hospitality, but was killed on July 11th near Sainteny, just as new tactics were helping make a major breakout that appears to have been back and forth until 21 July when it was finally stabilized. Our troops adapted new tactics very quickly such as one described as infantry learning to talk or signal tank crews who had better radio connections when the infantry telephone lines couldn't be established and maintained. We suspect he was actually killed by friendly fire from supporting artillery that was unaware of how far his company had advanced.
My father-in-law opposed wars but enlisted in the USCG after Pearl Harbor since the other recruiters were on lunch break (I think he aimed to join the Marines but didn't want to wait until that recruiter got back from lunch and took the only recruiter staffing the office while the others were at lunch). My mother-in-law joined the USCG SPARS as soon as she could, both becoming radio operators before they met and married. He spent the early years rescuing and recovering crews bodies most memorably from oil tankers in the Gulf.
A lot of landing craft were crewed by USCG, taking troops to the beaches in Normandy and the Pacific. Most USCG sailors, like my sister's fiance, are surprised by the amount of action and persistent risks they face if not in hostile action, in coastal patrolling and rescue operations. Besides her father and mother, my wife's two brothers also served in the Coast Guard.
You bring up Ernie Pyle. My mother was an avid reader of his columns during the war. I remember vividly the day we learned he’d been killed. She sobbed. The day FDR died she did the same. On a side note, when my Marine officer son-in-law was stationed in Okinawa he sent me a glass vial of sand from the island where Pyle died. There is also a school in the L.A. suburb that I taught in for 36 years named after Pyle.
I seem to have crossed paths with several who knew him or were near him including "G.I. Joe" Director William Wellman's son who described his staying at their house discussing the movie being made (shortly before he departed for the Pacific). I even served with an Airman who said he was his nephew though I don't know from which side if at all. One of our student's dad that I met had been at islands off of Okinawa with the Army (but honorary Marine) 77th Infantry Division during the same time frame though they never met.
Beyond that article, I believe he was very slightly wounded by the same accidental bombing of or own troops on July 25 that killed previously wounded Gen Lesley McNair (an extremely interesting story to me since he still helped as the supposed replacement commander of the fictional Army led by General Patton so he could take command of the real 3rd Army). The fictional 1st Army Command was sustained by his visiting the lines and his death was kept secret for the time since he was the highest ranking officer killed at the time, ironically at the head of a fictional unit.
Ernie Pyle was seemingly not affected by the physical wound (if any), but did eventually need to come back to the US as hinted at in the above article:
"....Unfortunately, as his fame spread and the demands on his time from every source increased, his wife Jerry suffered more frequent bouts of depression. Living alone in his absence led her to turn to overdoses of prescription drugs and alcohol. Ultimately, she attempted suicide. Jerry survived the experience, but required continuous medical supervision throughout the remainder of her life.
Jerry and some of Ernie’s friends tried to dissuade the reporter from heading to the Pacific. General Bradley, who got to know Pyle well in Europe, told him that perhaps his luck was running out, considering the number of narrow escapes Ernie had experienced in that theater..."
I'd explored the idea that General McNair had been killed in the same accidental bombing that seems to have wounded Pyle (more psychologically than physically) as his troubles at home didn't help. I could find much more than the coincidence of General McNair's son Douglas was killed on Guam 12 days after his father was killed at or near Ste LO. Douglas was the Deputy Commander of the 77th Infantry Division (an Army but honorary Marine Division for all the Marine like beach assaults they participated in). The proximity of the units and McNairs had me curious about any links to Pyle but seem in the end to just be coincidences, that led to finding interesting other stories I probably wouldn't have found any other way.
Phil, you hit the nail on the head. It's these billionaires that Biden needs to take on yesterday! Our democracy is being torn asunder before our eyes, and all our democratic leadership has done is wring their hands. Jeffries should be organizing a million man march on Washington. The people need to be informed and organized. People are going about their business, as if nothing has happened. The republican congress's actions demand an extraordinary response.
Jackson and Perry - truly horrific appointments. If you have time, Google Ronny Jackson and the evidence leading to his demotion - smh.
I'm not familiar with Perry. But for both of them to have access to the entirety of our national intelligence?? I fear for our democracy, and for the security of our country, and the upcoming elections.
"Former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.”"
Perry helped plan Jan, 6 and at one point Federal investigators got a search warrant for his cell phone as well for his texts and emails. It’s not enough to go after Trump and the rioters, we have to go after the bigger fish in Congress and Senate, as well as the political influencers and financiers of Jan. 6. I’m very concerned we won’t see them or Trump held criminally accountable for their actions.
I have been appalled at these two appointments, and following the thread. But I have also been looking for a place to mention yesterday's On Point podcast on our local NPR station in the DC area. I found this thought to be really frightening. Meghna Chakrabarti, the host, had Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of "Strongmen", and Sarah Longwell, discussing all the Republicans who will not agree to accept the results of the election if Donald Trump is not elected. This podcast is available now ---it has just become available. I think it would be the end of democracy as we know it if the result of a free and fair election was not accepted by Republicans.
Perry is a shrill-seeker; like other nattering nabobs of narcissism speaking for the cognitive under-class, Representative Perry is in it for the cheap shrills. 😳🤬🤢
They are the Shallow State, the Deep State is the multitude of honest agents doing their duty and honoring their oaths no matter whom asks them or tries to force them to do otherwise.
Putting Ronny Jackson and Scott Perry on to the House Intelligence Committee is like putting a fox into a hen house. As someone who, at one time, was processing TOP SECRET/CODEWORD material daily for the White House and others, I am aware of how sensitive such material can be.
We have seen that a president, once in office, does not require a security clearance. Trump’s sense of ‘security’ was dreadful and harmful to American interests. I would hope that ‘January 6th’ Perry and ‘Demoted Doctor’ Jackson would by restricted as to what intelligence level to which they would have access.
Jackal Johnson is dealing cards from his billowing sleeves. What’s next—Jim Jordan and MTG on the House Intelligence Committee? The Republican House needs to be flushed.
Keith, the phrase you mentioned, Putting a fox into a hen house'' reminded me of an episode of one of the old sitcoms, i think it was, Gilligan's Island'' when the skipper said, '' putting Gilligan in charge of us is like putting a lit match in charge of dynamite.'' I also think that would apply to Ronny Jackson and Scott Perry on the House Intelligence Committee.
I recall the story of a kid in I think Indiana that kept shooting at a construction site dynamite shack. He had been stopped more than once but kept going back to shoot at it again days of weeks later. The last time he did it they could only identify him by his shredded shirt.
These jokers will cause destruction far beyond themselves and potentially far into the world of allies that will trust us with anything.
Wow, Jim, how old was that kid??? That sounds like something Donald TUMP would do when he was a kid. TUMP did actually sock one of his teachers in the face when he was 11 years old. His corrupt and evil father had to send him to military school after he was suspended from the school he was going to at the time.
That Hobbit thing in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film reminds me of what Donald TUMP looked and acted like when he was a little kid... UGLY and hateful.
I did read an article yesterday where our allies are extremely concerned about TUMP and the rest of the domestic terrorists in the Senate and House taking charge again.
I seem to recall he was 15 years old. I can't remember whether I read about it during my 1st weather equipment (3-level) tech school (64-65), or 7-level school (72-73) at Chanute AFB, IL, just that it was some time in the 15 months I was stationed there. I think it might have been then current news, but I'm not sure of that either.
Sadly, the Republicans have gerrymandered themselves into power despite their smaller numbers, and I don’t see this changing. They’re using the anti majoritarian structures in th Constitution in an unfair fashion.
Keith, thanks for saying the quiet part out loud there. Those traitors CANNOT be trusted with TS/Codeword material. EVER.
I fervently hope that someday we will see the evidence of the breech of security/trust that was evidenced in the head at Merde a Lardo. I just as fervently hope that elevating those two incompetent and (I need a stronger word) untrustworthy representatives to that committee does not result in anything catastrophic to our nation...and the world.
Thank you, Dr, Richardson, obviously Johnson is an outright traitor. I hope a lot of people watch "Hitler and the Nazis on Trial" although I recall reading the newspaper stories as they were happening this series of films is showing how similar the trumpster's MAGA is to Hitler. Even the slogan Make Germany Great Again was borrowed by trump. If you don't believe - these are actual film clips from the trial - most of the film is reenactment with actors, but there are a significant number of news reels fro the time. I cannot imagine any sane American wanting to put us through that.
Fay Regarding Hitler and Trump, I recently posted a review of an excellent book: TRUMP AND HITLER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN LYING. If if looks like a duck, speaks like a duck, and poops like a duck, it certainly is a duck. Hitler & Trump—a ducky pair.
Sounds like a winner. I read William Shirer's the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich years ago when it first came out. The best and most factual WW2 book I've read
Many civic principles were swept away in America's love affair with Ronald Reagan, and his mentor Milton Friedman's
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
It was not just an offhand quip, but a detailed philosophy that Friedman taught, and Republicans and corporate America eagerly embraced. It became such an orthodoxy that, prior to now, Democrats have seemed reluctant to openly oppose it.
I fully agree, J L, It is another reason I earnestly hope Biden wins. He is the first in 52 years to have the courage and principle to stand up to the obscenely wealthy and tell them he's going to sunset the 2017 tax breaks AND add a wealth tax. That's why Musk and ilk are frantically dumping money in to trump's campaign. The more demented trump gets the better the puppet he makes.
Kay I think that Shirer’s book is still the best non-academic book on the rise and fall of Hitler. There are other more detailed books, including three volumes from a German scholar.
What Shirer captures is the immediacy of the moment. He was a correspondent in Germany for part of the 1930s. Then he was one of ‘Murrow’s boys” in London with CBS, before going off to write this book.
In its quest for viewers, readers, and profit, media has turned politics into a sporting event. Too many "Red" voters don't care of of the threats to national security posed by people like Scott Perry, risks to Medicare and Social Security posed by Senator Ron Johnson or Senator Rick Scott, or the subversion of the Justice system by incompetents like Aileen Cannon or the corrupt like Alito and Thomas. Red simply wants their team to win to "own the libs".
Too many have lost sight of the fact that our political choices have profound impact upon our lives. While we question how an incompetent and now convicted felon could be the "leader/savior" of one of two major political parties in the United States (not to mention all of the corrupt and/or incompetent elected Members of Congress who should have been indicted by now in the role to participate in the false elector scheme and continue their efforts to delay and obstruct justice) there is far more money to be made in a close election -essentially a seven game World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, the guards versus the inmates, the Red versus the Blue. The media works to keep the Presidential race close, and all of the key races.
When the GOP promote legislation and policies that:
1. Diminish the quality of life for most Americans while concentrating more money to the top; and
2. Polarize voters over issues like Reproductive Rights, Gun Violence Prevention, Climate Action, Healthcare, and Voter Rights -while attacking "Wokeness" -a made up term which, at its essence attacks anyone with a conscience, compassion, and empathy -it serves as important misdirection. Instead of a national conversation grounded in the ideas of "Kitchen Table Democracy" in which we rationally discuss what it means to be American and what we aspire to as a society, it just fans the flames of conflict, two teams yelling at one another to kick a ball into a net -abstracted from the profound and direct influence politics (and thus economics) has in our lives, our families, communities, and society itself.
Toxic/negative political campaigns, as well as the circus-like word salad spouted by people like Comer, Jordan, Gaetz, "MT" Greene, and Trump keep everyone distracted while all of our lives and futures are diminished (except for the obscenely wealthy).
What do we aspire toward as a society is an important question that remains intentionally hidden from all -because such questions strike at the heart of the sociopathic circus U.S. politics has become.
George, your statement that "too many have lost sight of the fact that our political choices have profound impact upon our lives" is exactly right. There's a lot of cynics out there, saying that their vote doesn't count, or that they "can't vote for Biden," or that all politicians are crooked... but they don't realize how much our lives will change if tfg is reelected. They have their heads in the sand.
BTW, did anyone else catch Jimmy Kimmel's interview with Kamala Harris recently? I'm not sure what night it aired - I watched it on YouTube last night - but our VP was very impressive, coming across as warm, engaging, and extremely knowledgeable. She brought up some important points that Biden and those who are campaigning for him should be speaking about (e.g., the GOP's efforts to ban contraception, kill the Affordable Care Act). These are issues important to the voters... to the majority of the country.
I know i perseverate on this, but it seems to me that the choice of one's vote is more accurately considered to be a share of civic duty in which to try to make the best possible choice for the good of the country rather than a personal choice that may not be fulfilled. we each do our bit add up to an outcome, and in any major contest the people who have the least are often hurt most by careless choices. Because Biden is decidedly not perfect, I know smart, caring people who say he's no different from Trump. I heard the same in 2016. Especially now, that's dangerous thinking.
Thank you Ellen. I was just talking to leadership in a progressive organization late last night and said that negative/toxic political campaigns (which are pretty much all we see over the last couple of generations -with some notable exceptions) are insidious. One, they work. And two, they cause many people who should be actively engaged in, at a minimum, voting to self-disenfranchise for many of the reasons you cite.
We need some aspirational political communication and imagery, supported by pragmatic tactical plans on implementation.
The first step in restoring the American Dream (aside from doing all we can to defend democracy in its present, deeply flawed form) is to be able to dream again about what is possible when we know what we are working toward.
"media has turned politics into a sporting event."
Exactly, in which "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing"; but it's making lives nastier, more brutish, and shorter; literally. Government that is genuinely "of the people, by the people, for the people" cannot be a contest of winner-take-all; not and deliver Liberty and Justice for All. We the people literally need to get our stuff together and take responsibility for outcomes. We can't keep choosing from the menu others offer us and seriously call ourselves "self-governing". We can't live in a society that is half oppressed and half "free" and think that is liberty, but less a society ruled by big money, HCR's "liberal consensus" had a long way to go toward more perfect union, but for the most part, it seemed to be moving in the right direction. How did we go from there to Trump? Where might we be in terms of liberty, justice, and influence as a nation, to say nothing of climate change, had we taken the more responsible civic direction that we instead allowed to be filled with greed-oriented, Reaganomic plutocracy.?
RE: elevating Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and Scott Perry (R-PA) to the House Intelligence Committee, (giving them oversight of the entire U.S. intelligence community and access to the nation’s most sensitive foreign intelligence) So, Trump will be getting intelligence briefings after all. The slow rolling coup moves forward. This is traitorous.
If social welfare programs break up families - black or otherwise - it’s because they give people in abusive relationships options other than staying with their abusers. Rep Byron Donald’s should also be pinned down on his views in getting rid of no fault divorce, because that’s another step in taking away someone’s ability to escape a bad situation. Also, his statements included a discussion of how black men were now disempowered from providing for their families in what I saw as invoking unfortunate mental imagery:
“There’s a difference between men and women anyway. Men have been created by God to be conquerors, to be hunters," he said. "A Black man in today’s America is looking around and saying, ‘How can I go hunt for my people and hunt for my family?'”
I may be out of line as a white woman for even saying this, but was he trying to give people the mental image of African warriors out hunting with spears, because that’s the image his words evoked to me.
I would like to reiterate that these folks are doing us a favor by ripping the mask off the true mindset of Christian nationalism. In this world, discipline, authority, and purity are cardinal virtues, and they take the form of visible signifiers and structures. One's sole purpose in being alive is to follow the rules from the Holy Book so that one may pass the test and prove worthy of saving. Attaining happiness while alive has absolutely no relevance. On the contrary, such a notion should be regarded with suspicion, as it encourages indulgence, leading you further down the path of sin. Your job is to look the right way and say the right things so you may attain the right kind of family and continue this process through reproduction. All suffering is part of the test, therefore interfering by easing that suffering is robbing someone of their chance to rise above the test, resulting in damnation for all. Essentially, what we call oppression is actually the whole point of life. The gradual social rejection of this oppression is a moral rot that is creeping in from all sides, leaving these poor God-fearing people constantly under siege and with few places to shield their families from this world heading toward ruin.
I'm not being hyperbolic or sarcastic. If you read what I just wrote out loud to the parents of many of my homeschooled childhood friends, they would - possibly literally - begin crying with relief at someone understanding what they are up against. Think about the Repub Rep's statement again: "Men have been created by God to be conquerors." This man is comfortable stating publicly that the sole and divine purpose of one half of the human race is brute force, the opposite of peace. (Make no mistake, a LOT of women have been taught to agree with this.) Sit with it for a while and realize where the problems in this world are still coming from: all in that sentence.
Will, you've hit the nail on the head. Most of my friends don't homeschool, they send their kids to a k-8 "Christian School" where they are carefully taught and nurtured to the standards set forth of the "cardinal virtues" you mention in your first sentence.
Well said. This is a fusion of the authoritarian mindset with religious backing. I just finished the book "On Fascism" in which the author asserts that the authoritarian mindset predates religiosity and boils down to a person's child rearing. Which quality from each pair of traits is more important for a child to have?
1. Respect for Elders OR Independence
2. Self Reliance OR Obedience
3. Good Manners OR Curiosity
4. Being Considerate OR being Well Behaved.
And the main questions of authoritarianism, which require an othering of people to justify itself:
5. Do some groups deserve to be on top while other groups deserve to be on bottom?
Byron Donalds is a good Republican black - in other words, that term the field slaves used for the sellouts to Ol' Massa in the Big House - a "House ni - - er"
No legal basis for statement. "If Trump is reelected, the trial will almost certainly not go forward."
DA in Atlanta is elected, a predominantly Democratic area and it is his/her decision ala Alvin Bragg. Given that a second Trump term would be more outrageous, why would a DA pass on an already indicted litigated case? Remember all the hand wringing about NYC case; it is weak, stretch of the law, AUSA passed on it, assistants quit because it was stalling, impossible to pick a jury without at least one MAGA to hang it, there will be riots in the streets...But 34 convictions later!
Ned, the law makes it very hard to remove a judge and rightfully so as it provides for independence. I disagree with TC, 11th Cir is not the problem. Problem is finding a legal vehicle to get to the 11th Cir with grounds to remove her. BUT stay tuned on the upcoming Motion for Gag Order. She dismissed once on procedural grounds which was aggressive but technically correct as Jack Smith did not confer with opposing counsel prior to filing motion except for asking for an answer circa 5pm Friday before Labor Day Weekend and that is a bit unreasonable. BUT if she fails to issue a Gag Order when A-every judge has done so and B-Trump has violated every Gag Order and C-Appellate Courts have affirmed the Gag Orders...THEN you have a chance to argue Recusal Bias. My bet is that FBI and Jack Smith is looking for evidence that Trump discussed with Cannon about how she owed him if he ever appeared in her court.
Yes! But realize there is a clear 'appearance of conflict' sufficient for judge to recuse herself on her own, but the level of proof needed to impose recusal upon her despite her denial is much higher. THAT is the dissonance.
If being judged by the judge that one personally selected and hired for the job isn't grounds for recusal, is there any such thing? "Blind" justice this certainly isn't. Like everything "GOP", it's corrupt as hell.
Very much appreciate your taking the time to explain the sclerotic mechanics of judicial accountability. Frustrating, but, I guess, necessary for all those instances where the competence is not so questionable and the bias not so blatant. Even then, as I am untrained in the law, perhaps Judge Cannon has valid reasons for what seem like dilatory actions.
🤝
Looking at your initial remark to which I was responding, I may have intended to answer some other comment and mis-placed this one. One thought the Trumpers may be hoping for is the Opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel Opinion, written in 1973 (i.e., during Watergate by a presidential appointee), may defer all indictments against the President, including those in the states, until (s)he leaves office. Apparently, a second 0.L.C. opinion authored during the Clinton Admin. affirms this view.
✍️
Anyone who thinks that this opinion is iron-clad and bias-minimized may be interested in knowing that independent counsels, also stationed in the Department of Justice, in each of the two late twentieth century impeachment situations argued the opposite. So, perspective does temper 'objectivity'. As an onlooker, I have always wondered why a President's job places him above the law while (s)he is in office. From the little I know, the idea is that the President must be impeached and removed prior to pendency of criminal charges.
This article, only a bit of which I have read, asks the same question as it relates to Special / Independent Counsels / Prosecutors. Of course, M.A.G.A. politicoes will scream bias of the article. 'Lawfare' did a bang-up job analyzing the Mueller report to show Trump was anything but exonerated from the anything but a hoax of Russian involvement. (If memory serves, the primary legal beef was the obstruction of the investigation, of which there was ample evidence, similar to the concept underlying Trump's 408-0 shut-out loss to twelve citizens in N.Y.C.) Now those weaponizing M.A.G.A. weenies use the term "lawfare" as an apparent synonym for (non-lethal) warfare by the alleged (deep state or Trump-deranged) weaponizers of government bent on persecuting Trump.
🤢
Sorry for so long a response. I find it all rather tangled and I am easily swirled out in thinking through these concepts. If you, 100 Panthers, or someone else can afford me the double-courtesy of enduring this comment with grace and clarifying concepts, I would be most grateful. 🤞
Is justice delayed til it no longer matters any kind of justice. Besides, the Repub powers that be will kick him to curb before 2026. He is a place holder for Project 2025
It would have been nice if prosecutors realized that it was possible this orange POS would run for President again and initiated their prosecutions earlier. Generally prosecutors move at glacial pace limited only by statute of limitations which is usually 4-6 years after the last act associated with the crime.
"Sam Brody, political reporter for the Boston Globe, noted yesterday that on their website promoting the Republican National Convention to be held in July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Republicans used a photograph not of Milwaukee, but of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City."
Republicans keep picking wildly off-the-mark visual materials. Is the stock photo supplier pranking them or (as I suspect) their contempt for authenticity so complete that they just put up any old picture that seems to reinforce their narrative, regardless of the subject matter or provenance?
Alas, that might be considered an act of war. Send them on a 20 year space mission along with Elon Musk to boldly go where "man" has never gone before (and hope aliens don't retaliate- I mean, there are none in our general neighborhood, right?).
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for explaining the significance of Speaker Johnson's appointment of two opponents of democracy to the House Committee on Intelligence. Not only will they try to rattle the FBI's cage regarding its investigations of January 6, they are likely to deal irresponsibly with classified intelligence reports, perhaps even giving unauthorized information to foreign entities (and enemies).
Republicans Vote to Ban Emergency Contraception. What happens when abortions are banned with no exceptions for rape (even for young girls) and contraceptives are banned? Which states have the most rape related pregnancies (RPP) and ban abortions? Who are the Republicans stripping women of their freedoms? Click on this Map.
We should not be surprised if they intend to force their entire religious dogmatic beliefs on the rest of us. That is what this is about. Nobody in their right mind would force a child to bear her rapist's baby. The zealots believe it was G@d's Will. That is a wackadoodle view of a loving, benevolent G*d.
Effectively, Republican christo-fascists are creating the American Taliban. Just look at women's lives under theocratic-led countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, and more. Religions were fantasies created by men, morphed to control the behavior of others, particularly women. Laws were created by men to control everybody else. It continues apace.
Sisters!, if we women do not step up, protest, act out, and just simply reject what we are being force-fed, the direction that we find ourselves suddenly hurtling in will end in us being nothing more than cattle; to be bred and used as receptacles for the pleasure of men. The lives of non-compliant females, and men that love them, will be threatened. I say, spit flying, fuck that! Fuck the violence-oriented Patriarchy!
I have no doubt that those same pronouns also refer to the authors of that tome.
It never made sense to me that G*d would have any use for gender. Gender is for biological creatures. If there were gender involved in the nature of the Deities, then surely there would be a Mrs G*. But there is no mention of She, Her. And no mention of little baby Deities.
And Eve is created out of Adam, as an afterthought. To be a "Help meet" for him.
I feel like the title to today’s column should be, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!!!!”
I sure hope that the FBI and the CIA are hiding important secrets from the House Intelligence Committee at this point. Or even better, start feeding these 2 idiotic traitors, Jackson and Perry, some false information and then wait for them to leak it and nail them for it.
And picture of Ho Chi Min City on the RNC website for the convention is going to be the cherry on the icing of the cake for me today 🤣
Cannot believe two of the most profound traitors and idiots have been appointed to the House Foreign intelligence committee. Is there not a conflict of interest. All of this is being orchestrated by Trump. This has got to stop. Each day everything gets worse. Unbelievable!
Thanks Heather!
Mike Johnson's appointment of untrustworthy players to positions where they can damage national security marks the GOP's devolution from McConnell's Party of No to Trump's Party of Nihilism. Taking literally the destruction of Federal government. But if Americans can be distracted by Republican assaults on their civil rights, then their attention can be diverted from Republican assaults on economic and environmental justice. A government which will not protect equality, will not institute equitable taxation and regulation.
Along with Sam Alito's insurrectionist flags, is Clarence Thomas' assertion that 'civil rights legislation is the new slavery holding down Black men' (we know what he thinks of Black women) and his opposition to the very affirmative action which promoted him to a position where he can sell himself to the highest bidder.
As for American voters, caveat emptor. Whether the temptations of GOP swill or of third party (5th column) snake oil.
The “unworthy players” who Johnson elevated are nothing but criminals and Russian operatives. Everything is going according to Vlad’s plan. I can’t say it’s Trump’s because I refuse to give him any credit for anything. McConnell is the devil incarnate and lord knows how badly I want him to permanently freeze! There has to be a way to combat these appointments. They simply cannot get approved for these positions. I wonder if HSA has a say to override Johnson.
Yes, the people need to rebel. A million man march should be a first step. Democratic leaders need to take off the gloves. Our democracy is being trashed before our very eyes by the republican congress. tRump and his sycophants don't plan to allow a fair upcoming election. Voter suppression will be front and center in all its ugly forms. Voter purges will be successful again. Minority voters don't vote because of this successful practice.
Couldn't agree more. Before our very eyes. Can we start with the court of appeals in GA, Cannon's court in FL, AND our NOT so supreme court?
C'mon Merchan, lock the SOB up. I will keep calling and knocking on doors in the meantime
Lynn, as I read the Letter today, I was absolutely disgusted with our legal system at large -- as you say, Georgia, Cannon, corrupt SCOTUS, but also Troupis, a former judge, Cheseboro, etc., not to mention Giuliani, Epshtyn and the rest of MAGA's dirty team. Granted, there have always been compromised attorneys, but to have the rot extend bottom to top is, well, I was going to say shocking, but nothing shocks me anymore.
Meanwhile the media ponders why we have lost so much faith in out legal system
Doug, I too was disgusted as I read about the Republicans' efforts to turn Americans into THEIR visions of what "Great" means.
Except for the encouraging news about the stock performance, everything I read made me feel so hopeless. I can't give in to that hopelessness because our very lives are at stake. As everyone who reads these letters knows, our democracy is at stake.
TRUTH is at stake.
I have to keep reminding myself of
.
W. Clement Stone's words. "Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, (Republicans), disbelief (everyone who sees through Donald Trump and his cultists), or ignorance." (MAGAs. Especially MTG, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, and so many others who are fanatical.)
Of course I added the brackets.
We have to do all we can to help Make America GOOD Again.
As General Michael Hayden wrote, "God help us."
What you said, "nothing shocks me anymore" makes me think of how dangerous it is for the media to "ponder" and NORMALIZE what amounts to the "obey in advance" tactics to overturn our very democracy. I AM shocked....and dismayed.
What amazes me is the number of bottom dwellers tRump attracted who have now been exposed. How many more ARE there? Hoping enough sane people are awake & go to the polls.
Why are voters putting criminals in Congress. Our legal system has been functioning albeit imperfectly for over 200 years. It’s the crooks in high office voted in by our fellow citizens that are putting us all at great risk.
Brava, Lynn! At 90 doing as many GOTV and RTV postcards a day as wrist will take. New strategy got me through nearly 100 to AZ yesterday. Bit past door to door, particularly with climate change. Last canvas cut short by sudden October sleet storm.
U are a blessed gift! 10,000 thank u's....
You go, girl! I'm impressed.
I'd love it if Merchan put him in jail for a token 30 days with no phone or computer privileges. At least it would be SOMETHING to shut him up for a time.
You are so right, they don’t plan on a fair election. Yet, they are still treated as worthy adversaries. I would join such a march if I had to crawl, and that may be before Nov.
HaHa. Good for you!
Organizing effective marches and trying to ensure they will not be countered or co-opted may be a more uncertain expenditure of resources than getting out the vote for Democratic candidates. After all - that is how the right wing took over. They marched once a year against Roe. The rest of the time they took over the GOP by becoming the indispensable base and they took every public office they could.
I agree. An organized March could easily be co-opted by MAGAS, or other groups, causing violence and blaming the Democrats. Continuing our GOTV efforts is a better use of our time and resources.
They say when you're afraid to speak out for fear of losing your job, you're already leaving under fascism. I'm sure there are many in this awful position.
We are definitely living under fascism between the Supreme Court and the House. The Senate is barely, by a thread, clinging to democracy.
Eadie. Yes mass outrage, especially on election day. It is our great test.
"Yes mass outrage, especially on election day. It is our great test."
Right out of the MAGA playbook?
Seems they have co-opted everything. What is left for us, self-immolation??
We need to rise up before election day, so that the uninformed electorate knows what's at stake.
There is a way to combat (we can’t stop malevolence but we can slow it down) these appointments: turn the house blue in November!
November is a long way off while still being just around the corner. They are wasting not a nanosecond. A frenzy is coming…
And, they (the RR's-holes) are spending billions to 'make it happen'. Seems as if it's coming from heaven... errr 'some' heaven, 'somewhere'. And when we're talking billions, stands to reason a lot of corruption can be bought with it. Keep a close eye on the polls, is all I can say.
They plan to make more billions, that is their definition of heaven, could the prosperity gospels be wrong???
Dems need to learn how to turn MAGA insanity into blowback: for example, Byron Donald’s claim that Black families were better off under Jim Crow legislation should be turned back on Donald with questions such as if Jim Crow was so great for Black families, are you going to push for a return to Jim Crow laws? If Jim Crow for Black
Families was so great, are you considering creating Jim Crow laws for whites to shore up white families which are fraying?
Did you watch Joy Reid interview him about that? It should be played over and over across the land.
Exactly what I’ve been saying. If Dems can’t see that such is a gift from the cretins, then what hope is there. Yet all I see are the same old blathering ads, and emails. Wish you worked for them…
Yes, it is going to get nastier.
At least in Texas, but the evil has spread.
They are like a cornered rabid wolverine. And you are right about the frenzy. If they can’t win with a fair election they have every intention of continuing their criming to win. November is too far off. Our system is not built to save us from elected criminals. Putin is winning in our House and on our Court. All we have is Biden/Harris and ourselves. It’s a scary time, but that is right where they want us, afraid.
Elected criminals, our Achilles heel. It has happened in red states. And so many MAGAts have moved into Texas that the ground seems to be shifting.
Jeri, a frenzy of what, dare I ask?
They seem to smell blood, the “Repub lawmakers” especially. They are not an enemy in the distance, they are circling and planning…. Just my opinion, Greg Olear has a more optimistic view. Check out his last post. Gave me needed whiplash. But he is smart, attentive, and sees things others miss.
And keep the Senate in Schumer’s hands.
For sure Vlad has plans. I think Trump only acts on narcissistic impulse, an effective WMD in a position of authority. Now if only those Ukrainians were not so troublesome.
Yes! "Trump only acts on narcissistic impulse" are words that everyone needs to keep in mind every time they read or even think that he's some sort of mastermind. I have always though that the sudden uprising of massive support for him following his June 2015 announcement was as much of a surprise to him as it was to all of us. But he took that support, which is predicated on his preternatural ability to speak to the lizard brains of his followers, and ran with it. That all those fine, upstanding Republicans who were appalled by the Access Hollywood tape then jumped on the Trump train is an astonishment that will forever be inexplicable.
Seems to me one would need to be pretty mentally and morally nearsighted tp mistake Trump for Jesus.
He is the ultimate sinner, but not reformed one iota.
I expect that the HSA realizes who these people are and therefore will give them tantalizing bits of information. The Republicans have a 3 seat majority and yet they can destroy the government.
Don't members of that committee need top security clearances? Hard to believe they could qualify.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Community_Oversight#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DMembers_of_Congress_are_not%2Cthe_need-to-know.?wprov=sfla1
Yes, Mr. McConnell deserves the ninth ring of hell.
The mental gymnastics required for Donalds, Scott and Thomas to say what they do amaze me. I fear very much what Trump has in mind, as he will destroy us.
He says so, loud and clear. The only thing loud and clear. Otherwise word salad
Jeri. In this we need to believe him. Is that what MAGA really wants for our country?
YES
Trump is such a dull tool. But, just like Reagon, The Marlboro Man, Nikki, etc, they're all photogenic ... so American looking. Easy to identify with. Elon Musk, Betsey DeVos, both tools with money and influence. Big Media love them like they love Faux News female anchors with cleavage and nice teeth. Crap sells. Advertisers need those hits the "tools". provide. Their handlers (like Putin) use them on every 'job' till they break or wear out. The Trump family is a whole bunch of "dull tools". Looks kill - Look out.
Dull tools, but with a Stepford image
I agree, Kathy. It's totally confounding that Donalds (my rep from FL, I'm embarrassed to say), Scott in the Senate, and Thomas in the SC can act as if they were white nationalists! Boggles the mind!
Kathy. Yes it is very scary, it is such a difficult, critical time.
The appointments of Perry and Jackson to the House Intelligence Committee, the weird flags, and Johnson's non-"come-to-Jesus" moment re: Ukraine aid all point out how secure the MAGAs feel in their currents positions and prospects. They are sure they are going to win in November, as anyone who only watches Faux News would be. They can't win with their current base, and have done nothing to expand it. Mostly, they have alienated whole groups of possible voters with their policies and antics.
The media is not covering this fairly. This morning the Post had a thoughtful article critical of Biden's assertion that the Racial Wealth Gap was closing, yet I have seen no critical articles, thoughtful or otherwise re: MAGA plans to disband the Department of Education, stop all foreign aid, open concentration camps for 12,000,000 immigrants, etc., etc., etc.
The changing of the guard at the WaPo should tell you why this is happening.
And there's this: "Colorado Republican Party calls for burning of all Pride flags as Pride Month kicks off."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/05/colorado-gop-calls-for-burning-pride-flags/73988961007/
This prompted me to get a pride flag. Gets delivered today!
There’s so much happening to indicate the Blue win..stay the positive, fill the grassroots banks, and encourage our competent leaders and those running who will flip the many seats blue . The noisy crowd diminished and the loyalists are putting on fake brave smiles/repeating the same lies (only LOUDER)… well they’re running s c a r e d! The ruse is up. People , sufficient amounts, caught on!
Additionally, I often wonder with all the incompetent self-serving "loyalists" T would want/intends to appoint, just how much of a collapse the whole country may see should he/they prevail. Will the banks close/fail? There WILL be massive chaos as the foundations of all our institutions are dynamited by these greedy idiots. Smart enough to PLAN like crazy, ALAS.
Yup. the Confederacy had it right all along. Damn Lincoln and Johnson for riling up those happy slaves. (or so they say).
This goes beyond destroying just our democracy by threatening all our allies that have to trust us with their information. Such isolation has severe consequences and reminds me more of opportunistic changes and realignments such as the Quislings in Norway at the start of WWII. Is this sort of stuff similar to the angst in Norway as they saw Quisling come to power?
Severe consequences for planet earth
Former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.”
Especially on the anniversary of D-Day
D-Day was one of the very best kept secrets back in a slice of time when Americans couldn't begin to imagine traitors to our country and our allies within high levels of our government revealing.
Ernie Pyle's first of 3 D-Day columns "A Pure Miracle" Marvels and celebrates the Allied successes but also strikes me with the way he kept the secrets that needed to be kept (not naming the units, plans or tactics, etc. The last part of that article brought me to tears for those who fought so bravely and kept the secrets when needed
See https://erniepyle.iu.edu/wartime-columns/pure-miracle.html
How do we fight this? Traitors all, following an arrogant child who broke White House porcelain throwing it at the dining room wall (from his high chair, of course). More seriously, we are in grave danger unless we re-elect the current Commander-in-Chief, who gave a good speech in Normandy today.
Well said, lin•
That worthless Fundamentalist scum Johnson is maintaining his record as a traitor on January 6. When we re-take the House, I hope he's found lying in a dark alley, like a traitor should be.
You are speaking metaphorically about "lying in the dark alley", right TCinLA?
Not only violent but dehumanizing. I have no love for Mike Johnson, but this isn’t cool.
"Not only violent but dehumanizing. I have no love for Mike Johnson, but this isn’t cool."
ThankYou. Exactly.
How about a stint in front of The Myopia Firing Squad-- after his trial for treason?
Since Johnson is a liar and a traitor, lying in a dark alley “ means out of the limelight. No?
I don't mind heated rhetoric, but advancing violent metaphors? is close to playing the GOP at their own game.
Well how about this: I hope Mike Johnson's life becomes as difficult as that of a 13 year old girl who has been forced to carry her rapist's baby to term.
I completely agree, Frank. We must be careful -- advocacy of political violence of *any* sort is another step down that road, to use another metaphor.
Agree, but the other side will use violence as a political tool with abandon when it suits them. As we have seen. We must be prepared to defend ourselves and families as required.
TC is an innocent rough rider. I keep suggesting that if Trump is re-elected, I either return to my old haunts in Europe or beyond, ( I’m told China has a good health care system, lol), or I take up arms training and go out with, as Patrick said, “Give me liberty or give me death” approach if that’s what they want.
Problem is, people willing to use lies and violence have a HUGE advantage over the rest of us, from domestic abuse on up. That's how fascism works. This is not to say the rest of us should behave the same, but as they say, freedom isn't free. It will take a huge amount of COLLECTIVE peaceful resistance to get/keep these folks out of power. I appreciate Biden's governing skills, but we really could use a charismatic leader who could galvanize us right about now.
Emotional stampeding is a long-standing political strategy. The only i can say is that not all Americans are infected with it. As for Biden, as a Canadian, i could only issue a sigh of relief for someone more prosaic than many Americans might wish for. In my mind, he's one of America's most under appreciated presidents. In the polls i remember he was doing well until Afghanistan, it was all dumped on him instead of the underperformance and misjudgement of the military involved. But that did it. He has never recovered. I sometimes think whatever vicarious charges are thrown at him stick unduly. I agree a smooth talking, charismatic Dem leader would be a bonus, but this is the guy, with a hugely successful administration getting through covid, pulling the American economy up by its bootstraps, getting US's international standing more back on track. Israel - Gaza war is something i can not lay on his doorstep, Trump would have Gazans mowed down, if you're looking for alternative policies. Who else btw is going to support reproductive and voting rights in the US these days? What'd you think of Biden's State of the Union anyway?
ThankYou. The right wing's real game is taking over the GOP and the power of government. The rest is a dangerous distraction.
Jeri, as Im sure you’ll agree they've accomplished your step #1, and we must prevent step #2. These distractions are part of their plan.
Also my sentiments.. so aghast at THEIR rude disrespect and continuous threats (no exaggerations there) maintaining a decent caring attitude like it is natural thought , intentional…is less and less , mired down but their water-boarding tactics. It’s a dangerous time this Trumpian epoch.
This is what happens as the nuts and bolts come flying off your country. Those on the left feel double rage - rage with every new assault on the country, and suppressed rage that we on the left must hold ourselves to a higher standard. We feel weak as they act “strong” in their bullying, take no prisoners way. It is hard to feel that you are always turning the other cheek.
I agree utterly though that this the path we must take. Hoping for violence for those on the other side provides a moment of rage relief. But then we are back where we were, and our group has been diminished. We must remain united in solidarity to prevail ultimately in legal ways only. I say “we” but I am Canadian. Nonetheless this remains your greatest challenge and at the end you want to be able to feel and say that you fought with honor and dignity.
Easy to say - incredibly hard to do in the face of daily provocations.
Personally I find myself wondering if this election will even happen. The level of rhetoric is stunning when one considers it is only June. It is going to do nothing but rise in the months ahead and it is hard to see violence and extralegal activity not creeping in. I cannot imagine the potential darkness of October 2024. It is my daily worry. Recklessness is not a trait exactly unknown to Americans.
That last sentence👆.
(I mean really, how do you think we all got here and built a new country in the first place? Took a lot of killing and enslaving. We are their descendants).
For sure. It’s been a long and often brutal ride. The cautious ones fled to Canada as United Empire Loyalists in the War for independence/American Revolution. Not that Canada’s historical record would endorse fully the concept of us being a kinder, gentler nation.
So much of the problems in Canada and the U.S. stem from racial causes.
Yet this situation is not especially so. It seems to me that it’s a naked power grab justified by a flimsy quasi-ideological idea.
If we survive the apocalypse of climate change, historians will once again revive the argument that history is shaped by “great” men. Trump is not the root cause, but when the kindling was stacked he lit the match and started the blaze. Jaws will drop in amazement a century or two from now if sensible citizens do not call a halt to this fever dream by resolutely voting Biden in by an unquestionable margin.
Well put! BLUE TSUNAMI! 💙🙌
TC has spoken with vanity and childish name calling to me in the past here.
He probably will again
And John will ask for it
Jeri, yes of course, but the limits of “civility” exist on a sliding scale, and we each have our own methods of determining such
TC often says my quiet part out loud
TC, your comment is disparaging to dark alleys everywhere, though I'm sure Speaker Johnson has done his fair share of lying in them:)
Right. Because Johnson and his fellows seem to wriggle out of the noose tightening around their necks every day with rhetoric teeming with violent implications.
The alley it is. That’s where the fight for democracy has ended up if one is to even glimpse daily at the barrage of traitorous boasts daily by the Republican braggart legislators.
Salud, TC. On point.
🗽
Speaker Johnson is making a point, here: even stupid people can be traitors of 'intelligence'.
🤭🗽😅
Johnson is further ingratiating himself to Trump.
National Security? NATO security?
Does any such thing still exist after the 45th President? A national and international security risk incarnate.
Surrounded by a veritable constellation of security risks.
No longer a leaky bucket.
No bucket.
I may seem to be laughing at how the vast US security network could so easily be reduced to nothing -- but this is terrifying.
And, if you didn't know it, NATO allies are worried stiff by the unprecedented dangers if -- as they expect -- the 45th is returned as the 47th US President.
Read the recent essay by McKay Coppins in the Atlantic: What Europe Fears.
Thank you for mentioning the McCay Coppins article. In addition, the Economist issue of May 4th-10th featured a cover photo of French President Emmanuel Macron, with the headline " Europe in Mortal Danger"
Inside there was an interview with President Macron that detailed the fears of our NATO allies that you mentioned. With the Putin Wing in charge of the Republican Party, we are living in dangerous times.
Thank you. I read the interview with President Macron but forgot to mention it. The far right in France has added a thick sugar coating to its poison and has done its damnedest to look palatable; but there has been no lack of Russian finance and Putin fan club stuff during past decades.
There was and doubtless still is a Putin wing among the GOP-aping Républicains, but it is Marine Le Pen's party that may well take up the role once held for decades by the French Communist Party, that of the Kremlin's catspaw in France.
KMD, you conclude, rightly, that we are living in dangerous times. And they would already be very dangerous even if we were free from political problems.
There is much talk of an "authoritarian" takeover, there is talk of fascists, populists, Nazis and the extreme right. (And then, of course, all those warm-hearted, hot-blooded but ignorant and clueless agitators at the other end of the political spectrum who provide the GOPhers with their ammunition...)
But the truth is, we are up against something new. After the Axis forces, after Komintern, the Socialist International, etc., etc., now it is the ORGANIZED CRIME INTERNATIONAL...
As I write, I have just received my copy of something I ought to have read earlier: Hobbes' LEVIATHAN...
Peter, this damage to our standing worldwide may last generations, even if Biden is reelected. If 45 is reelected and becomes the dictator he’s promised on day 1, then it may never recover. Our allies have realized that their safety and security may well rest with the American voter ready to elect a self-proclaimed dictator.
Yes, Europeans are finally waking up to the obvious reality that the US will no longer be a security partner if Trump and the GOP take over. Putin has got to be rubbing his hands in glee.
Peter,
Many actions have taken place by the members of the Republican Party that many of us could have never imagined. Actions against the books we can read...the rewriting of history....science/health....actions against fellow human beings deemed "different" whether it is the color of ones skin or sexual orientation...blatant disrespect and disregard for women.
We need a new political party that actually cares about our country and its citizens and about our many responsibilities to contribute to the health of our planet and its life....humanity and all life, including plants, animals, our water systems, the air we breath and other vital natural resources.
Too many small minded people who are only concerned about themselves ...and for their immediate future and what they believe to be an opportunity for their prosperity for the short term......have too much power. This is a frightful situation for our world. They are trying to make us a country we were NEVER meant to be. I personally do NOT want to be a part of this corruption.
Patriots have shed their blood...given their lives that we may live within a government that respects the human rights of each and all...that we may live within laws that protect honest citizens and provide fair trials for each of us if needed.
Has a judge gone to "the dark side"? Will there be no accountability?
Emily, who could ever have imagined that, from Reagan and his -omics, as dictated by Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys, the helter-skelter would so soon land us up with the likes of Newt Gingrich? And still, so many miles to fall, lower, lower, down, down, down… Imagining we’d hit rock bottom with Cheney-Rumsfeld and George W. Bush’s crazed, irrelevant, cruel and grandly incompetent invasion of Iraq and its consequences that may last centuries.
We’d seen nothing yet, nothing.
I may have written to a friend on August 30th 2001 that “we’re sleepwalkers on the edge of the abyss”, I may have written on 9/10 that our democracies are like a dog asleep in the middle of the highway, I may have expressed doubt about our survival instincts, I may even, when the time came, have lost friends by predicting that Donald Trump would win the 2016 election, I may have written within weeks of his victory that he’d probably bankrupt oligarchy, just as he’d bankrupted everything he touched… and go for dictatorship, the only thing he (thinks he) understands, I may have wondered if the Republic would survive the attempt, but I still could not have imagined the awfulness of that so-called Administration. And yet… we have seen nothing… nothing to compare with the nightmare promised by this demented golem—if Americans let him. He’ll drag us all down to Hell with him—if he can. Not only Americans, the entire planet. The damage already done is incalculable.
And still Americans sleep on, each group focused exclusively on its bespoke dream of greed and power, its very own Big Rock Candy Mountain, its “supposed interests”—which so many expect him to advance—each individual slavering over “what’s in it for ME…” all except hoodlums ignoring the general chaos and destruction to come… All except hoodlums, the parasites that thrive on such conditions, the vampires, ever ready with their gigantic siphons.
Now, to draw your attention and that of all possible readers to a book which Linda Weide wrote about yesterday: Kathleen BELLEW: Bring the War Home—the white power movement and paramilitary America. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674286078
What is taking place now, the horror that is almost upon us, is the fruit of long planning and preparation. We who are unprepared must make ready to face the onslaught, and resist.
*
I can’t let you go with only this promise of blood, sweat and tears.
Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the landing of 150 000 men on the beaches of Normandy, from which they were to advance, fighting all the way, until the Allied armies met the Red Army on the Elbe in the heart of Germany.
My father worked in Combined Ops at the Admiralty in London, among those planning the logistics of that great invasion, in which the fleet brought its harbor with it… He didn’t take part in it, but was detailed to take part in the invasion of Japan, when he expected to die, facing other islanders…
Much later in life, he seemed not to understand me when I spoke of the spirit but to have accepted the logic of superior material power, and I asked him: “Why, then, if you are so impressed by military might, did you not consider suing for peace after Dunkirk?” (Dunkirk: the hurried evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at end May, early June 1940, leaving France overrun by Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.)
He paused for a moment, then said:
“We knew that it would be hard, we knew that we faced a terrible enemy. Yet throughout the whole length of the war, neither I nor any one of my comrades doubted for one moment that we would overcome.”
I wish us that spirit.
They don’t have blinders on
I have posted elsewhere asking whether Trump and his Allies in the UK like ex PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, are pro Putin because of the Russian (& Chinese) vastly superior Vangard hypersonic missiles unveiled by their military back in 2018 ?
They are a certainly a military game changer. However, my two cents worth is that their obvious appeasement of Putin is at best ill informed and at worst treacherous. Even if the nuclear option is used wars are only eventually won or lost on the ground 🐈⬛
Monnina, pro-Putin is a rare sin Boris Johnson is not guilty of. On the contrary, he has always championed Ukraine. And made a big show of it, as with everything else he does. As for poor Liz Truss, I have no idea what she may have thought or said -- but... does it matter? Her brief interlude was like something out of postwar Italian or French politics. Maybe a record for brevity even there...
You may perhaps worry about another unpleasant English phenomenon called Nigel Farage, a political scavenger out to tear a hunk out of the wounded Tory party. That, and an accomplished Trumptoady.
Farage is the “political scavenger.” Boy, does that explain him.
Or, just doing as Trump tells him. Otherwise this move is inexplicable.
Yes, but he means what he says. Remember that Johnson was intimately involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection - a major player - as detailed in Lyn Cheney’s must-reading book. His hands are very dirty.
VP??
The horror! But he is horribly ambitious. We could use more articles on all the ways he worships power and disdains democracy.
Many thanks to the nine or ten people who responded to this flip remark with serious brain-power. It helps me. 🤝
Register Democrats -- save the world.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
ThankYou for spotlighting the essential. GOTV for Democrats. And for the link.
Can't say it too many times. Thanks.
At this point, we are registering voters in swing states. FT6 has volunteers nationwide calling, texting, etc to targeted states. Florida was added after abortion was added to the ballot. We have several different texting methods.
Vorerizer.org. https://voterizer.org/
Yes. Keep reminding us all of the many options for getting out the vote. ThankYou.
Absolutely important, Lin. But I still worry that the Convicted Felon's confidence that he will win without the assistance of former Haley supporters suggests he will do so nefariously-- maybe using the courts or god-knows-what.
Only the very worst. Only the worst. Party of Plutocracy.
Party of Plutocracy and Theocracy (to keep Christian Nationalists happy and telling the rest of us how to think and worship.)
Yes,I agree.The egregiousness of these 2 MAGATs being on that committee cannot be overstated.What can We The People do? I will call my Congressional reps once again expressing my outrage and outraged I surely am.And Holy Mike continues to show what a small and petty representative he is with zero regard to the will of the American people.
That's the problem, there is no such "will of the American people". USA is polarized.
I’d like to think that sanity is the majority. The “carnival barker” world used to be for the fringe. I wonder..
Is there some connection between fundamentalism and total lack of patriotism?
Yep. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, or something like that. I think S. Johnson was referring to false patriotism or jingoism…. That’s what we have today.
You just know Johnson & Perry will divulge everything to Trump asap.
Not only to Trump - but to Fox and thus to the Russians and Chinese.
Every nanosecond everything gets worse, Nixon’s cancer was nothing compared to this evil within
In the seemingly unending ways our institutions are under attack from the MAGA right, I noted something encouraging over the weekend. This article from Dean and Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld defines the coming attack on business. Encouraging to me because if business recognizes that it is in their interest to support Biden, they have huge resources to bring to the battle.
https://time.com/6983310/donald-trump-business-capitalism/
Thanks, Gary, for the link. I was one of those who bought the persistent persuasion that a united Big Business would support trump. Biden’s anti-monopoly, pro tax-the-rich, pro-union stance simultaneously made me ecstatic and fearful that they would do whatever it took to crush his candidacy. I feel a bit better now, though it still seems that Big Media is on the side of the demented, vicious, traitorous trump.
What is going on is so disturbing. This could not be happening unless too many Americans were being brainwashed by RW media who care not a wit about the country but only about money. Once again money is the root of all evil.
Minor correction: in the original statement it was the love of money being the root of all evil. A fundamental truth either way. Cheers!
Foxes in the henhouses !
Just like Devin Nunes was until he resigned from Congress.
Exactly.
It behooves us to remember that Trump is not acting alone. He's a puppet. The people influencing/controlling him and his craven cronies are oligarchs, such as the Kochs, Mercers, Crows, deVos, Princes, and other right-wing billionaires. The press rarely mentions them, and when they do they call them donors which sounds not only benign, but beneficial. We need to call them what they are: oligarchs--not donors. For example, lets say "Trump and his oligarchs," not "Trump" or "Trump alone." Wouldn't that change the story?
Christopher, I see this being orchestrated by Vlad and 45 (with Stephen Miller steering 45). This is one way to get 45 (and Vlad) the sensitive intelligence information that the intelligence community is trying to keep out of 45’s hands out of fear that he’ll sell it to the highest bidder.
You can't believe it? We've been watching a pack of criminals and traitors work on ruining our country, so this is just one more step in their march to destruction. Honest to God I don't know how some of those treasonous people can sleep at night. Disgusting scum.
Everyday, Christopher, something happens that leaves me speechless and so raging angry. The citizens of this country better wake the f*ck up before it is too late.
To think the convicted felon tffg is the choice of the GOP astounds me every single day. I cannot make sense of it.
The men of the GOP think of women as property…slaves to their ideologies and must be kept in their place. Next will be taking away our right to vote. Each and every right we have as citizens and women will be gone. I am beyond comfort, hope, and deeply in despair.
Isn’t some minimal level of intelligence required to be on the Intelligence Committee?
Look, the core thrust here is that Republicans just don't trust people. They don't like people much in general, and think that if they aren't controlled society-wide for their own good then all hell will break loose. Period.
They don't trust us to be able to decide when to have kids.
They don't trust us to be able to decide who to love.
...what job to have,
...what to wear,
...what to say,
...where to go,
...to vote,
...to be FREE, in general.
They don't want to contribute a penny in taxes for any cause at any time, because they don't trust people in need not to be phony moochers.
They can't sleep at night unless they are armed to the teeth, because they don't trust their neighbors not to invade their property.
They won't welcome anyone from anywhere else, because they don't trust people of a different skin tone to not be dirty criminals or perverts.
They don't trust anyone to be worth listening to without suspicion: not the government, nor their kids' teachers, nor our most dogged journalists, nor our top scientists, nor our most promising artists.
Well actually, they have found one person to trust, and trust blindly. Ironically, that person is a sadistic pathological liar. Oops!
No wonder they are so angry and unhappy, and no wonder they are so dead-set on convincing themselves and everyone else that everyone else is worthy of such mistrust.
Not the club for me! I like you guys much better!
I like your analysis! What you describe is basically cognitive dissonance and it affects all trump supporters, I believe.
I’ve sensed the cognitive dissonance around me as an adult, but it’s because the government doesn’t work for the people whom they should support, but for the wingnuts. You see new levels of craziness, meanness, and cruelty daily from Trump and his groupies.
I hope there are enough responsible Republicans in the House to oust Michael Johnson for even attempting to put the least trustworthy people we can imagine in such sensitive positions.
Certainly, some security clearance rules should come into play here
Do these repubs even acknowledge rules
"rules for thee but not for me"
“Badges?!!, we don’ knee no stinkin’ badges”
The leadership got badly infected, then spread it to the flock. Dissonance 'is' part and parcel. I called it out for that in 2015, but got pooh poohed by some; harassed by others. I'm certain I hit a nerve.
".... Republicans just don't trust people. They don't like people much in general, and think that if they aren't controlled society-wide for their own good then all hell will break loose."
Spot on Will.
I have been thinking that, '' all hell will break loose for the past 5 months.'' with these mentally deranged terrorists that were once called the Rethuglican Party. My new name for the party is, ''The Domestic Terrorist Party''
Absolutely correct, the Trump GQP party trusts no one, and if their members don’t follow along with the insanity, they find themselves condemned and shunned.
You said it very well, Will. And don’t forget: many of the MAGAts vote for the orange convict _because_ he is an asshole. He is their leading example: they want to be an egocentric, openly racist, nature-hating, pussy-grabbing asshole just like him. And that is why they will never stop supporting him.
As usual, you got it right, Will. I'd sure love to see you share this in a piece for The Atlantic and/or the NYT opinion page and/or any other substantive form of media that might have the guts to publish it.
Seen from another angle, the MAGAs are the latest product of a cultural struggle between the various regions of America going back to colonial times. Not quite a north/south thing, but it could be loosely based on that. Southerners prize a one party system (elite oligarchy), and have worked hard to have one throughout their history. Because only a few people need to know anything to run an oligarchy, they don't value education. Because one-party systems tend to be corrupt, they don't value a free press or individual rights (except those of a select few). They prefer a religion that keeps the have-nots in their place, which focuses on individual salvation (private salvation) as opposed to social justice (public salvation) model the north tends to follow. i think southerners like people well enough, they just don't respect them, and certainly don't trust them to uphold the corrupt system they have and are trying to foist on the rest of us.
I agree 100%. They've been with us since the beginning. In the very early days, they were the Puritans. They wanted religious freedom to practice what THEY believed, but didn't think anyone else should have the same consideration.
Chicken or egg -- which is first here, Will?
They have zero humanities. Does this illiteracy then guarantee lack of trust in people. Or did a pre-inclination to the abstracted-only (and pre-inclination to the numbered, which is what lust for money is, and what stupidity for standardized tests is also) guarantee avoidance of humanities?
They have no interest in educating themselves and learning how to think for themselves. They want their orange wannabe dictator to tell them what to think.
Will,fromCal,
...attitude is a result of looking in their mirrors for too long....
We must look to our fellowman/woman....to encourage...to help meet needs as we are able...to love one another and to appreciate one another.
Our physical world is in need of care....so are the "stars" and the moon and so much we are continuing to understand....
Let's choose some things we can contribute to and do those things the best we can....and let's not wait for compliments we may never experience.
There has never been a greater need for the works of respect, hard work to achieve "better" for our country and patience to see some good come to fruition.
Thanks to the peacemakers.....it is not just about us....the whole earth is filled with need for repair in some way.
It takes enormous strength not to give in or give up. It takes a strong HOPE and BELIEF for better as well as our action ....nothing is too small.
Our President Joe Biden is a great example. He is, inspite of personal heartaches, moving forward...serving....giving himself to the task of "better" for each and all of us. He is still going forward...fighting for freedom....for peace....he is showing us the way.
Will, I'm glad you're here in the LFAA "club".
I had the <sarcasm font> joyous opportunity <sarcasm font> to listen to probably 30-40 of my former professional cohort last Saturday for a couple of hours. EVERYTHING that you listed here reflects what I heard there. My vignette: One of my former sergeants (resident of the small town where I finished my career as the daytime deputy) asked me why I don't come to the "retiree coffee club" on Saturday mornings. It so happens that they hold their club meeting at a restaurant that engaged in direct violation of masking requirements early in the pandemic. (Name of the restaurant was "Along Came Trudy", they lost their liquor license, and the owner's daughter now runs it as "Tall Firs Events and Cafe". They represent all of the glory of MAGA.) I told him, again, that I will never darken their door due to their political bent and hatred of everything that I stand for. Sarge just doesn't get it...
We like you back, Will! Great insight!
They trust money and power, period
Purely wild speculation on my part. But could the MAGA paranoia be exacerbated (not caused - their parents and friends planted the sicko ideas in their brains) by PFAs and/or the microplastics in everyone's bodies?
What if all our "tendencies" are exaggerated by the chemistry experiment of modern living? Sounds like a Netflix series, I know. But something ain't right here...
Bill, a few years ago there was a wacky tv series about how a small alien life form began infecting politicians in Washington DC. As a result, the pols and their staffers - became more extreme and irrational. Republicans seemed (to me) to be the most susceptible. Once infected, the only cure was wild sex, drugs and rock&roll. I think we need a rerun!
Brain Dead with Tony Shaloub. I remember it!
The rnc leadership bought out the rights, own it, live it, and make all rnc leadership prospects study the series and act it out. ... Kidding, but it sure seems that way. Too bad Ocasek and the Cars great song got associated with it though. Song link >
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dOx510kyOs
Excellent, Will! This,to me, looks like projection on a massive scale!
Well said!!
Amazing how one sad, pathetic con man has become the horse they are going to ride to ruin. Their thought process is about putting in place all the things/policies that they have coveted for decades. It does not matter the damage it will do. The end justifies the means. Trump/maga is a boil on the butt of America that needs to be lanced, drained and disinfected.
Hey Will from Cali, You stole my premise. I need to contact my attorney Bernie and sue you for plagiarism. 😀😀😀
Thank you, Will from Cal. I am always happy to see your posts. I actually feel calmer now.
Heather's column today shows much more than she concludes in her final paragraph.
There, she writes, "MAGA Republicans are out of step with actual Americans. "
But take a look at the date. In Japan, where I am, it's been June 6 all day. In the three most eastern of America's 48-state contiguous four time zones, it's now very early morning June 6. 80 years ago the paratroopers were in the air, just beginning their drops unto Nazi-occupied France. The landing ship transports were circling the waters of the English Channel, readying for their dawn release on those beaches.
They all knew how entrenched, well-fortified the Germans by slave labor had made any and all landing zones. That was evident reality -- so unlike all the Republicans today so in cahoots with their 48-count convicted mad-man criminal.
Yes, they all lie. Totally untethered from the large majority of what Heather terms "actual Americans."
But they're backed by billionaire money. They're backed by world dictators and nationalists spewing everything against which so many young Americans were poised to give up their lives exactly 80 years ago.
For those who don't know much about the D-Day landings on five beaches, the deeply connected Allies successful invasion headed by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
that literally saved us from fascism, you can pick up a copy of Life Magazine's D-Day rememberance at your local check out supermarket aisles and elsewhere. Yes, a very different time, but with the courage of so many that we now can emulate and apparently must do so to save ourselves again.
Almost every time I hear someone cry about how they "just can't afford" a loaf of bread being 15 cents more than last year, and how I need to acknowledge their "real pain" over this, I think of those guys at the very front of the ships reaching Normandy Beach and have to physically restrain myself.
I hear you, Will. They do not understand the concept of committing to something greater than yourself. Nearly every time I've pointed out that the higher prices are a product of "greedflation" I am laughed at for drinking the "liburl Kool-aid".
I remember Trump looking over the graveyard at Normandy when he was there for the 75th anniversary of D-day and saying out loud, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Says a lot, doesn't it?
Indeed it does.
They have forgotten the sacrifices these soldiers made.
While many of them are relatives of or direct descendants of those who are buried on foreign soil. As am I and my brother who was named for one so killed. He doesn’t have time to think about the past.
Kathy, I don’t think MAGA Republicans believe in sacrifice. Period. Sacrifice is for losers.
Kathy, I'm glad my friend Mike Reuter is no longer alive to see this. He jumped with his platoon (he was a First Lieutenant) onto Omaha Beach on D Day, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French for his subsequent actions.)
“These guys are Nazis, they’re boogaloo boys, they’re Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II,” Milley said a week after the attack on the Capitol.
Dehumanized, J L.
They know no history. No novels. No memoirs. Nothing in connection with anything personal or anything otherwise human.
Batshit banshees. Screaming lunatics. Filled with abstracted, poisoned, packaged views of abstracted, poisoned packages. But they've all been brought up in corporate consumerism entitlement culture, so they feel entitled to their insanities.
Same as sickos on the Clarence court who feel entitled to push their package poisons on all.
Phil,
Will they really be happy in the world they think they want? How long will they be able to benefit from such freedom crushing decisions?
Our world is so connected. Decisions made by each of us influence others in small and large ways world wide.
It is a tragedy that the votes of American citizens placed such weak and selfish humans in such powerful positions. Those voters who placed these selfish, corrupt men and women in these positions of governance are completely oblivious to what will happen to the education and hope for our children....for our world.
Voting these persons into office is the opposite of "prolife" in the larger sense of those words.
Phil, As a child, I recall my Uncle Omar (he was not a blood uncle but it didn’t matter) recount D-Day. No one else in my family was in the military. Papa chose the Coast Guard, a safe bet. Uncle Omar, originally from New Hampshire with a strong down east accent, repeatedly recounted for me the events at Omaha Beach. I think he was there. It was the late 1950s when he recounted these events which was only less than 15 years before. I played with his and Auntie Carmen’s cats, Buster and Tiger, while listening to him recount his tales. Then Auntie Carmen would make a big plate of toasted cheese sandwiches and we would all sit at the dining room table gorging on toasted cheese sandwiches until our tummy’s were full. That’s what D-Day means to me in a personal way.
I was seven years old, Bill, when my parents realized what it meant, a 10th anniversary.
That is, they were reading in the Detroit Free Press how it was that, that day, June 6, 1954, marked a full ten years after D-Day.
They'd already had their own 10th -- they'd married in Los Angeles, Highland Park, at midnight, the last day of 1943. He'd come from the Hungarian neighborhood of St. Margaret's parish out in east Cleveland. She'd been 16, working for the USO when they met summer of '43 at the Santa Anita racetrack where my dad and other G.I.s were stationed, waiting for orders out to the Pacific.
I saw only a small bit of the firepower of military action when I was a G.I. myself nearly three decades later.
The fools who follow Trump -- fools in Congress, bribed and perjured but arrogant fools on the Clarence court -- none of them know anything personal, real, or true about war, firepower, or any organized murder.
I think to say these guys don’t understand anything of sacrifice is rather simplistic. I would suggest that many of them have indeed seen combat in war zones and now think that their overzealous self righteousness gives them cart blanch to force their limited, twisted version of reality by following a demented demigod. I actually don’t fear Trump as much as I fear the seeds that have been sown. Trump is nearing the end of his lifespan. He just wants to go,out destroying as much as he can so his tombstone will read… well that epitaph is in my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums” in my fantasy short story, “Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution.” You’ll see. 😀😀😀
" . . .'is' rather simplistic," Bill?
I hope your book doesn't rely so much on the non-active, copulative "is."
I want evidence. Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Clarence Thomas, Anna Luna, Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, inactive reservist Samuel Alito -- yes, Bill, none of them has ever seen "anything of sacrifice."
You "would suggest" otherwise? Dammit, I want evidence. Not specious rhetoric.
Most all the big-mouths, clown-show dupes for the 34-count-criminal-felon, like that criminal himself, similarly have never seen "anything of sacrifice." They all lie. They all posture.
Where do you come up with your evidence-free "simplistic"?
I do hope your book -- which you repeatedly, ever keep pushing here -- has no more than the prominent, stupid, evidence-free "seeds that have been sown" passive voice you indulge here.
Goddammit, and in the name of fellow veterans I have known, speak from evidence, Bill -- no more copulatives, no more patsy passives.
They also don’t know what living under a dictator is really going to be like! The MAGA members of Congress think they will all be rewarded! Ha! Trump will dissolve Congress. They will all be out of the cushy , do nothing jobs, and just like the rest of us , non-free citizens of a country the world then hates.
D-Day was one of the very best kept secrets back in a slice of time when Americans couldn't begin to imagine traitors to our country and our allies within high levels of our government revealing.
Ernie Pyle's first of 3 D-Day columns "A Pure Miracle" Marvels and celebrates the Allied successes but also strikes me with the way he kept the secrets that needed to be kept (not naming the units, plans or tactics, etc. The last part of that article brought me to tears for those who fought so bravely and kept the secrets when needed
See https://erniepyle.iu.edu/wartime-columns/pure-miracle.html
"...Before long it will be permitted to name the units that did it. Then you will know to whom this glory should go. They suffered casualties. And yet if you take the entire beachhead assault, including other units that had a much easier time, our total casualties in driving this wedge into the continent of Europe were remarkably low – only a fraction, in fact, of what our commanders had been prepared to accept.
And these units that were so battered and went through such hell are still, right at this moment, pushing on inland without rest, their spirits high, their egotism in victory almost reaching the smart-alecky stage.
Their tails are up. "We’ve done it again," they say. They figure that the rest of the army isn’t needed at all. Which proves that, while their judgment in this regard is bad, they certainly have the spirit that wins battles and eventually wars..."
Besides the three D-Day anniversary column articles, "A Pure Miracle," "The Horrible Waste of War," and "A Long Thin Line of Personal Anguish," the rest of his wartime columns are at
https://erniepyle.iu.edu/wartime-columns/index.html
The third column in the series reminded me of my wife's uncle's very much loved dog and the friends and family that took such good care of the dogs and cats of those lost.
"...Always there are dogs in every invasion. There is a dog still on the beach today, still pitifully looking for his masters.
He stays at the water’s edge, near a boat that lies twisted and half sunk at the water line. He barks appealingly to every soldier who approaches, trots eagerly along with him for a few feet, and then, sensing himself unwanted in all this haste, runs back to wait in vain for his own people at his own empty boat..."
My father-in-law's younger brother had started college and hoped to become a USCG officer like my father-in-law had suggested, but ended up being drafted into the Army, with his first action coming after landing in Normandy after the June 19 storm destroyed the original Mulberry Harbor structures. He had written a letter on July 7 indicating a temporary break where they could enjoy a bit of French hospitality, but was killed on July 11th near Sainteny, just as new tactics were helping make a major breakout that appears to have been back and forth until 21 July when it was finally stabilized. Our troops adapted new tactics very quickly such as one described as infantry learning to talk or signal tank crews who had better radio connections when the infantry telephone lines couldn't be established and maintained. We suspect he was actually killed by friendly fire from supporting artillery that was unaware of how far his company had advanced.
My father-in-law opposed wars but enlisted in the USCG after Pearl Harbor since the other recruiters were on lunch break (I think he aimed to join the Marines but didn't want to wait until that recruiter got back from lunch and took the only recruiter staffing the office while the others were at lunch). My mother-in-law joined the USCG SPARS as soon as she could, both becoming radio operators before they met and married. He spent the early years rescuing and recovering crews bodies most memorably from oil tankers in the Gulf.
A lot of landing craft were crewed by USCG, taking troops to the beaches in Normandy and the Pacific. Most USCG sailors, like my sister's fiance, are surprised by the amount of action and persistent risks they face if not in hostile action, in coastal patrolling and rescue operations. Besides her father and mother, my wife's two brothers also served in the Coast Guard.
You bring up Ernie Pyle. My mother was an avid reader of his columns during the war. I remember vividly the day we learned he’d been killed. She sobbed. The day FDR died she did the same. On a side note, when my Marine officer son-in-law was stationed in Okinawa he sent me a glass vial of sand from the island where Pyle died. There is also a school in the L.A. suburb that I taught in for 36 years named after Pyle.
I seem to have crossed paths with several who knew him or were near him including "G.I. Joe" Director William Wellman's son who described his staying at their house discussing the movie being made (shortly before he departed for the Pacific). I even served with an Airman who said he was his nephew though I don't know from which side if at all. One of our student's dad that I met had been at islands off of Okinawa with the Army (but honorary Marine) 77th Infantry Division during the same time frame though they never met.
I appreciate the information (which includes his meeting Burgess Meredith at the Wellman's, and his death (with the Marines) at Ie Shima I found at https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/wwii-war-correspondent-ernie-pyle/
Beyond that article, I believe he was very slightly wounded by the same accidental bombing of or own troops on July 25 that killed previously wounded Gen Lesley McNair (an extremely interesting story to me since he still helped as the supposed replacement commander of the fictional Army led by General Patton so he could take command of the real 3rd Army). The fictional 1st Army Command was sustained by his visiting the lines and his death was kept secret for the time since he was the highest ranking officer killed at the time, ironically at the head of a fictional unit.
Ernie Pyle was seemingly not affected by the physical wound (if any), but did eventually need to come back to the US as hinted at in the above article:
"....Unfortunately, as his fame spread and the demands on his time from every source increased, his wife Jerry suffered more frequent bouts of depression. Living alone in his absence led her to turn to overdoses of prescription drugs and alcohol. Ultimately, she attempted suicide. Jerry survived the experience, but required continuous medical supervision throughout the remainder of her life.
Jerry and some of Ernie’s friends tried to dissuade the reporter from heading to the Pacific. General Bradley, who got to know Pyle well in Europe, told him that perhaps his luck was running out, considering the number of narrow escapes Ernie had experienced in that theater..."
I'd explored the idea that General McNair had been killed in the same accidental bombing that seems to have wounded Pyle (more psychologically than physically) as his troubles at home didn't help. I could find much more than the coincidence of General McNair's son Douglas was killed on Guam 12 days after his father was killed at or near Ste LO. Douglas was the Deputy Commander of the 77th Infantry Division (an Army but honorary Marine Division for all the Marine like beach assaults they participated in). The proximity of the units and McNairs had me curious about any links to Pyle but seem in the end to just be coincidences, that led to finding interesting other stories I probably wouldn't have found any other way.
Phil, you hit the nail on the head. It's these billionaires that Biden needs to take on yesterday! Our democracy is being torn asunder before our eyes, and all our democratic leadership has done is wring their hands. Jeffries should be organizing a million man march on Washington. The people need to be informed and organized. People are going about their business, as if nothing has happened. The republican congress's actions demand an extraordinary response.
Jackson and Perry - truly horrific appointments. If you have time, Google Ronny Jackson and the evidence leading to his demotion - smh.
I'm not familiar with Perry. But for both of them to have access to the entirety of our national intelligence?? I fear for our democracy, and for the security of our country, and the upcoming elections.
"Former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.”"
Perry is one of the lead traitors and an active participant in the Trumpscum gang.
Perry helped plan Jan, 6 and at one point Federal investigators got a search warrant for his cell phone as well for his texts and emails. It’s not enough to go after Trump and the rioters, we have to go after the bigger fish in Congress and Senate, as well as the political influencers and financiers of Jan. 6. I’m very concerned we won’t see them or Trump held criminally accountable for their actions.
I have been appalled at these two appointments, and following the thread. But I have also been looking for a place to mention yesterday's On Point podcast on our local NPR station in the DC area. I found this thought to be really frightening. Meghna Chakrabarti, the host, had Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of "Strongmen", and Sarah Longwell, discussing all the Republicans who will not agree to accept the results of the election if Donald Trump is not elected. This podcast is available now ---it has just become available. I think it would be the end of democracy as we know it if the result of a free and fair election was not accepted by Republicans.
Perry is a shrill-seeker; like other nattering nabobs of narcissism speaking for the cognitive under-class, Representative Perry is in it for the cheap shrills. 😳🤬🤢
Hello, right-wingnuts. Time for 'Politics 101'.
1. Politics is the art of the possible.
2. Possible means pragmatism.
3. Pragmatism means compromise.
4. Compromise means splitting the difference in favor of your constituents.
5. Adhere to certain principles of republicanism when applying concepts 1-4.
5. Only violate concepts 1-4, when a preponderant majority favours one side's position.
¿So what do y'all do?
Double down on very unpopular, very unconstitutional positions.
And y'all have the temerity to claim you are victims of a deep state.
The only deep state here comes with the depth and state of your stupidity.
You’ve summed this up rather nicely!
Thank you, Kathy; I appreciate the compliment. 🤝
They are the Shallow State, the Deep State is the multitude of honest agents doing their duty and honoring their oaths no matter whom asks them or tries to force them to do otherwise.
Putting Ronny Jackson and Scott Perry on to the House Intelligence Committee is like putting a fox into a hen house. As someone who, at one time, was processing TOP SECRET/CODEWORD material daily for the White House and others, I am aware of how sensitive such material can be.
We have seen that a president, once in office, does not require a security clearance. Trump’s sense of ‘security’ was dreadful and harmful to American interests. I would hope that ‘January 6th’ Perry and ‘Demoted Doctor’ Jackson would by restricted as to what intelligence level to which they would have access.
Jackal Johnson is dealing cards from his billowing sleeves. What’s next—Jim Jordan and MTG on the House Intelligence Committee? The Republican House needs to be flushed.
Keith, the phrase you mentioned, Putting a fox into a hen house'' reminded me of an episode of one of the old sitcoms, i think it was, Gilligan's Island'' when the skipper said, '' putting Gilligan in charge of us is like putting a lit match in charge of dynamite.'' I also think that would apply to Ronny Jackson and Scott Perry on the House Intelligence Committee.
Agreed. Just like putting a lit match in charge of dynamite.
The first time i heard that phrase, i almost lost my breath i laughed so hard... even now reading that comment i made, i still laugh.
I recall the story of a kid in I think Indiana that kept shooting at a construction site dynamite shack. He had been stopped more than once but kept going back to shoot at it again days of weeks later. The last time he did it they could only identify him by his shredded shirt.
These jokers will cause destruction far beyond themselves and potentially far into the world of allies that will trust us with anything.
Wow, Jim, how old was that kid??? That sounds like something Donald TUMP would do when he was a kid. TUMP did actually sock one of his teachers in the face when he was 11 years old. His corrupt and evil father had to send him to military school after he was suspended from the school he was going to at the time.
That Hobbit thing in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film reminds me of what Donald TUMP looked and acted like when he was a little kid... UGLY and hateful.
I did read an article yesterday where our allies are extremely concerned about TUMP and the rest of the domestic terrorists in the Senate and House taking charge again.
I seem to recall he was 15 years old. I can't remember whether I read about it during my 1st weather equipment (3-level) tech school (64-65), or 7-level school (72-73) at Chanute AFB, IL, just that it was some time in the 15 months I was stationed there. I think it might have been then current news, but I'm not sure of that either.
Sadly, the Republicans have gerrymandered themselves into power despite their smaller numbers, and I don’t see this changing. They’re using the anti majoritarian structures in th Constitution in an unfair fashion.
At which they are expert
Keith, thanks for saying the quiet part out loud there. Those traitors CANNOT be trusted with TS/Codeword material. EVER.
I fervently hope that someday we will see the evidence of the breech of security/trust that was evidenced in the head at Merde a Lardo. I just as fervently hope that elevating those two incompetent and (I need a stronger word) untrustworthy representatives to that committee does not result in anything catastrophic to our nation...and the world.
Tuba I greatly admire your capacity for the tasteful understatement.
Keith, love your choice off the word « flushed »!
Thank you, Dr, Richardson, obviously Johnson is an outright traitor. I hope a lot of people watch "Hitler and the Nazis on Trial" although I recall reading the newspaper stories as they were happening this series of films is showing how similar the trumpster's MAGA is to Hitler. Even the slogan Make Germany Great Again was borrowed by trump. If you don't believe - these are actual film clips from the trial - most of the film is reenactment with actors, but there are a significant number of news reels fro the time. I cannot imagine any sane American wanting to put us through that.
Fay Regarding Hitler and Trump, I recently posted a review of an excellent book: TRUMP AND HITLER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN LYING. If if looks like a duck, speaks like a duck, and poops like a duck, it certainly is a duck. Hitler & Trump—a ducky pair.
Sounds like a winner. I read William Shirer's the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich years ago when it first came out. The best and most factual WW2 book I've read
Shirer is prominently featured in the new Netflix documentary. I read his book back in the day. A principled journalist. Somehow seems rare now.
You've certainly got that right. Whatever principles used to be taught in journalism classes have flown out the window.
Many civic principles were swept away in America's love affair with Ronald Reagan, and his mentor Milton Friedman's
"The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits."
It was not just an offhand quip, but a detailed philosophy that Friedman taught, and Republicans and corporate America eagerly embraced. It became such an orthodoxy that, prior to now, Democrats have seemed reluctant to openly oppose it.
I fully agree, J L, It is another reason I earnestly hope Biden wins. He is the first in 52 years to have the courage and principle to stand up to the obscenely wealthy and tell them he's going to sunset the 2017 tax breaks AND add a wealth tax. That's why Musk and ilk are frantically dumping money in to trump's campaign. The more demented trump gets the better the puppet he makes.
One of my dad's "go to" books.
Kay I think that Shirer’s book is still the best non-academic book on the rise and fall of Hitler. There are other more detailed books, including three volumes from a German scholar.
What Shirer captures is the immediacy of the moment. He was a correspondent in Germany for part of the 1930s. Then he was one of ‘Murrow’s boys” in London with CBS, before going off to write this book.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
In its quest for viewers, readers, and profit, media has turned politics into a sporting event. Too many "Red" voters don't care of of the threats to national security posed by people like Scott Perry, risks to Medicare and Social Security posed by Senator Ron Johnson or Senator Rick Scott, or the subversion of the Justice system by incompetents like Aileen Cannon or the corrupt like Alito and Thomas. Red simply wants their team to win to "own the libs".
Too many have lost sight of the fact that our political choices have profound impact upon our lives. While we question how an incompetent and now convicted felon could be the "leader/savior" of one of two major political parties in the United States (not to mention all of the corrupt and/or incompetent elected Members of Congress who should have been indicted by now in the role to participate in the false elector scheme and continue their efforts to delay and obstruct justice) there is far more money to be made in a close election -essentially a seven game World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, the guards versus the inmates, the Red versus the Blue. The media works to keep the Presidential race close, and all of the key races.
When the GOP promote legislation and policies that:
1. Diminish the quality of life for most Americans while concentrating more money to the top; and
2. Polarize voters over issues like Reproductive Rights, Gun Violence Prevention, Climate Action, Healthcare, and Voter Rights -while attacking "Wokeness" -a made up term which, at its essence attacks anyone with a conscience, compassion, and empathy -it serves as important misdirection. Instead of a national conversation grounded in the ideas of "Kitchen Table Democracy" in which we rationally discuss what it means to be American and what we aspire to as a society, it just fans the flames of conflict, two teams yelling at one another to kick a ball into a net -abstracted from the profound and direct influence politics (and thus economics) has in our lives, our families, communities, and society itself.
Toxic/negative political campaigns, as well as the circus-like word salad spouted by people like Comer, Jordan, Gaetz, "MT" Greene, and Trump keep everyone distracted while all of our lives and futures are diminished (except for the obscenely wealthy).
What do we aspire toward as a society is an important question that remains intentionally hidden from all -because such questions strike at the heart of the sociopathic circus U.S. politics has become.
George, your statement that "too many have lost sight of the fact that our political choices have profound impact upon our lives" is exactly right. There's a lot of cynics out there, saying that their vote doesn't count, or that they "can't vote for Biden," or that all politicians are crooked... but they don't realize how much our lives will change if tfg is reelected. They have their heads in the sand.
BTW, did anyone else catch Jimmy Kimmel's interview with Kamala Harris recently? I'm not sure what night it aired - I watched it on YouTube last night - but our VP was very impressive, coming across as warm, engaging, and extremely knowledgeable. She brought up some important points that Biden and those who are campaigning for him should be speaking about (e.g., the GOP's efforts to ban contraception, kill the Affordable Care Act). These are issues important to the voters... to the majority of the country.
I know i perseverate on this, but it seems to me that the choice of one's vote is more accurately considered to be a share of civic duty in which to try to make the best possible choice for the good of the country rather than a personal choice that may not be fulfilled. we each do our bit add up to an outcome, and in any major contest the people who have the least are often hurt most by careless choices. Because Biden is decidedly not perfect, I know smart, caring people who say he's no different from Trump. I heard the same in 2016. Especially now, that's dangerous thinking.
Thank you Ellen. I was just talking to leadership in a progressive organization late last night and said that negative/toxic political campaigns (which are pretty much all we see over the last couple of generations -with some notable exceptions) are insidious. One, they work. And two, they cause many people who should be actively engaged in, at a minimum, voting to self-disenfranchise for many of the reasons you cite.
We need some aspirational political communication and imagery, supported by pragmatic tactical plans on implementation.
The first step in restoring the American Dream (aside from doing all we can to defend democracy in its present, deeply flawed form) is to be able to dream again about what is possible when we know what we are working toward.
"media has turned politics into a sporting event."
Exactly, in which "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing"; but it's making lives nastier, more brutish, and shorter; literally. Government that is genuinely "of the people, by the people, for the people" cannot be a contest of winner-take-all; not and deliver Liberty and Justice for All. We the people literally need to get our stuff together and take responsibility for outcomes. We can't keep choosing from the menu others offer us and seriously call ourselves "self-governing". We can't live in a society that is half oppressed and half "free" and think that is liberty, but less a society ruled by big money, HCR's "liberal consensus" had a long way to go toward more perfect union, but for the most part, it seemed to be moving in the right direction. How did we go from there to Trump? Where might we be in terms of liberty, justice, and influence as a nation, to say nothing of climate change, had we taken the more responsible civic direction that we instead allowed to be filled with greed-oriented, Reaganomic plutocracy.?
I agree with you-well said George 👍!
George A. Polisner, Leadership Matters....
Thank you for sharing the tragic truth. Your last sentence states it all.
RE: elevating Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and Scott Perry (R-PA) to the House Intelligence Committee, (giving them oversight of the entire U.S. intelligence community and access to the nation’s most sensitive foreign intelligence) So, Trump will be getting intelligence briefings after all. The slow rolling coup moves forward. This is traitorous.
Let's see if the MSM pay any meaningful attention to this.
Don’t hold your breath
About the 12th of Never, methinks.
Thank you for this chronical Professor ⭐
The sane, the inane, the profane all well reresented .
Hand it to the Zombie-G.O.P. to cover all its bases. 😉🖕🥳
And some that we hadn’t seen before
If social welfare programs break up families - black or otherwise - it’s because they give people in abusive relationships options other than staying with their abusers. Rep Byron Donald’s should also be pinned down on his views in getting rid of no fault divorce, because that’s another step in taking away someone’s ability to escape a bad situation. Also, his statements included a discussion of how black men were now disempowered from providing for their families in what I saw as invoking unfortunate mental imagery:
“There’s a difference between men and women anyway. Men have been created by God to be conquerors, to be hunters," he said. "A Black man in today’s America is looking around and saying, ‘How can I go hunt for my people and hunt for my family?'”
I may be out of line as a white woman for even saying this, but was he trying to give people the mental image of African warriors out hunting with spears, because that’s the image his words evoked to me.
I would like to reiterate that these folks are doing us a favor by ripping the mask off the true mindset of Christian nationalism. In this world, discipline, authority, and purity are cardinal virtues, and they take the form of visible signifiers and structures. One's sole purpose in being alive is to follow the rules from the Holy Book so that one may pass the test and prove worthy of saving. Attaining happiness while alive has absolutely no relevance. On the contrary, such a notion should be regarded with suspicion, as it encourages indulgence, leading you further down the path of sin. Your job is to look the right way and say the right things so you may attain the right kind of family and continue this process through reproduction. All suffering is part of the test, therefore interfering by easing that suffering is robbing someone of their chance to rise above the test, resulting in damnation for all. Essentially, what we call oppression is actually the whole point of life. The gradual social rejection of this oppression is a moral rot that is creeping in from all sides, leaving these poor God-fearing people constantly under siege and with few places to shield their families from this world heading toward ruin.
I'm not being hyperbolic or sarcastic. If you read what I just wrote out loud to the parents of many of my homeschooled childhood friends, they would - possibly literally - begin crying with relief at someone understanding what they are up against. Think about the Repub Rep's statement again: "Men have been created by God to be conquerors." This man is comfortable stating publicly that the sole and divine purpose of one half of the human race is brute force, the opposite of peace. (Make no mistake, a LOT of women have been taught to agree with this.) Sit with it for a while and realize where the problems in this world are still coming from: all in that sentence.
Why I ran for my life
Will, you've hit the nail on the head. Most of my friends don't homeschool, they send their kids to a k-8 "Christian School" where they are carefully taught and nurtured to the standards set forth of the "cardinal virtues" you mention in your first sentence.
Well said. This is a fusion of the authoritarian mindset with religious backing. I just finished the book "On Fascism" in which the author asserts that the authoritarian mindset predates religiosity and boils down to a person's child rearing. Which quality from each pair of traits is more important for a child to have?
1. Respect for Elders OR Independence
2. Self Reliance OR Obedience
3. Good Manners OR Curiosity
4. Being Considerate OR being Well Behaved.
And the main questions of authoritarianism, which require an othering of people to justify itself:
5. Do some groups deserve to be on top while other groups deserve to be on bottom?
6. Are some groups/people inferior to others.
Byron Donalds is a good Republican black - in other words, that term the field slaves used for the sellouts to Ol' Massa in the Big House - a "House ni - - er"
No legal basis for statement. "If Trump is reelected, the trial will almost certainly not go forward."
DA in Atlanta is elected, a predominantly Democratic area and it is his/her decision ala Alvin Bragg. Given that a second Trump term would be more outrageous, why would a DA pass on an already indicted litigated case? Remember all the hand wringing about NYC case; it is weak, stretch of the law, AUSA passed on it, assistants quit because it was stalling, impossible to pick a jury without at least one MAGA to hang it, there will be riots in the streets...But 34 convictions later!
¿When will Judge Cannon get the boot in favor of more seasoned, less ideological judge?
Ned, the law makes it very hard to remove a judge and rightfully so as it provides for independence. I disagree with TC, 11th Cir is not the problem. Problem is finding a legal vehicle to get to the 11th Cir with grounds to remove her. BUT stay tuned on the upcoming Motion for Gag Order. She dismissed once on procedural grounds which was aggressive but technically correct as Jack Smith did not confer with opposing counsel prior to filing motion except for asking for an answer circa 5pm Friday before Labor Day Weekend and that is a bit unreasonable. BUT if she fails to issue a Gag Order when A-every judge has done so and B-Trump has violated every Gag Order and C-Appellate Courts have affirmed the Gag Orders...THEN you have a chance to argue Recusal Bias. My bet is that FBI and Jack Smith is looking for evidence that Trump discussed with Cannon about how she owed him if he ever appeared in her court.
The elephant in Judge Cannon's courtroom is conflict of interest, and it's biggly.
Yes! But realize there is a clear 'appearance of conflict' sufficient for judge to recuse herself on her own, but the level of proof needed to impose recusal upon her despite her denial is much higher. THAT is the dissonance.
If being judged by the judge that one personally selected and hired for the job isn't grounds for recusal, is there any such thing? "Blind" justice this certainly isn't. Like everything "GOP", it's corrupt as hell.
100 Panthers,
Very much appreciate your taking the time to explain the sclerotic mechanics of judicial accountability. Frustrating, but, I guess, necessary for all those instances where the competence is not so questionable and the bias not so blatant. Even then, as I am untrained in the law, perhaps Judge Cannon has valid reasons for what seem like dilatory actions.
🤝
Looking at your initial remark to which I was responding, I may have intended to answer some other comment and mis-placed this one. One thought the Trumpers may be hoping for is the Opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel Opinion, written in 1973 (i.e., during Watergate by a presidential appointee), may defer all indictments against the President, including those in the states, until (s)he leaves office. Apparently, a second 0.L.C. opinion authored during the Clinton Admin. affirms this view.
✍️
Anyone who thinks that this opinion is iron-clad and bias-minimized may be interested in knowing that independent counsels, also stationed in the Department of Justice, in each of the two late twentieth century impeachment situations argued the opposite. So, perspective does temper 'objectivity'. As an onlooker, I have always wondered why a President's job places him above the law while (s)he is in office. From the little I know, the idea is that the President must be impeached and removed prior to pendency of criminal charges.
⚖️
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/mueller-bound-olcs-memos-presidential-immunity
⚖️
This article, only a bit of which I have read, asks the same question as it relates to Special / Independent Counsels / Prosecutors. Of course, M.A.G.A. politicoes will scream bias of the article. 'Lawfare' did a bang-up job analyzing the Mueller report to show Trump was anything but exonerated from the anything but a hoax of Russian involvement. (If memory serves, the primary legal beef was the obstruction of the investigation, of which there was ample evidence, similar to the concept underlying Trump's 408-0 shut-out loss to twelve citizens in N.Y.C.) Now those weaponizing M.A.G.A. weenies use the term "lawfare" as an apparent synonym for (non-lethal) warfare by the alleged (deep state or Trump-deranged) weaponizers of government bent on persecuting Trump.
🤢
Sorry for so long a response. I find it all rather tangled and I am easily swirled out in thinking through these concepts. If you, 100 Panthers, or someone else can afford me the double-courtesy of enduring this comment with grace and clarifying concepts, I would be most grateful. 🤞
Probably never, since the 11th Circuit is Republican and they all now have their marching orders to commit treason.
See response to Ned above.
Really, you think chump would allow any accountability. I hope you don’t find out.
Trump the one pump chump as President can NOT stop state proceedings, at most they might be delayed during Presidency.
Is justice delayed til it no longer matters any kind of justice. Besides, the Repub powers that be will kick him to curb before 2026. He is a place holder for Project 2025
It would have been nice if prosecutors realized that it was possible this orange POS would run for President again and initiated their prosecutions earlier. Generally prosecutors move at glacial pace limited only by statute of limitations which is usually 4-6 years after the last act associated with the crime.
Our Achilles heel, I fear
"Sam Brody, political reporter for the Boston Globe, noted yesterday that on their website promoting the Republican National Convention to be held in July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Republicans used a photograph not of Milwaukee, but of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City."
Republicans keep picking wildly off-the-mark visual materials. Is the stock photo supplier pranking them or (as I suspect) their contempt for authenticity so complete that they just put up any old picture that seems to reinforce their narrative, regardless of the subject matter or provenance?
please send them to Ho Chi Minh City. Most of us in Milwaukee don't want them here.
Alas, that might be considered an act of war. Send them on a 20 year space mission along with Elon Musk to boldly go where "man" has never gone before (and hope aliens don't retaliate- I mean, there are none in our general neighborhood, right?).
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for explaining the significance of Speaker Johnson's appointment of two opponents of democracy to the House Committee on Intelligence. Not only will they try to rattle the FBI's cage regarding its investigations of January 6, they are likely to deal irresponsibly with classified intelligence reports, perhaps even giving unauthorized information to foreign entities (and enemies).
Republicans Vote to Ban Emergency Contraception. What happens when abortions are banned with no exceptions for rape (even for young girls) and contraceptives are banned? Which states have the most rape related pregnancies (RPP) and ban abortions? Who are the Republicans stripping women of their freedoms? Click on this Map.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/06/05/republicans-vote-to-ban-emergency-contraception-consequences-mapped/
We should not be surprised if they intend to force their entire religious dogmatic beliefs on the rest of us. That is what this is about. Nobody in their right mind would force a child to bear her rapist's baby. The zealots believe it was G@d's Will. That is a wackadoodle view of a loving, benevolent G*d.
If you haven't already, check out Project 2025 which lays out the MAGA Christian Nationalism scheme. It's eerily similar to the Handmaid's Tale.
How Project 2025 Creates A Christian Dictatorship
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/04/28/project-2025-christian-dictatorship-presidentialimmunity-to-kill-rivals/
How PROJECT 2025 Turns Women Into Handmaids
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/04/17/project-2025-bans-abortions-turns-women-into-handmaids-tale/
Thanks, but first link doesn’t work. The second is horrifying.
Wackadoodle is right!
Effectively, Republican christo-fascists are creating the American Taliban. Just look at women's lives under theocratic-led countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, and more. Religions were fantasies created by men, morphed to control the behavior of others, particularly women. Laws were created by men to control everybody else. It continues apace.
Sisters!, if we women do not step up, protest, act out, and just simply reject what we are being force-fed, the direction that we find ourselves suddenly hurtling in will end in us being nothing more than cattle; to be bred and used as receptacles for the pleasure of men. The lives of non-compliant females, and men that love them, will be threatened. I say, spit flying, fuck that! Fuck the violence-oriented Patriarchy!
D, I think you misspelled "have created" the American Taliban. You did not misspell the rest, and I say "Brava"!!!
We. Must. Fight.
In the Bible, G*d's pronouns are "He, Him".
I have no doubt that those same pronouns also refer to the authors of that tome.
It never made sense to me that G*d would have any use for gender. Gender is for biological creatures. If there were gender involved in the nature of the Deities, then surely there would be a Mrs G*. But there is no mention of She, Her. And no mention of little baby Deities.
And Eve is created out of Adam, as an afterthought. To be a "Help meet" for him.
I doubt it.
I feel like the title to today’s column should be, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!!!!”
I sure hope that the FBI and the CIA are hiding important secrets from the House Intelligence Committee at this point. Or even better, start feeding these 2 idiotic traitors, Jackson and Perry, some false information and then wait for them to leak it and nail them for it.
And picture of Ho Chi Min City on the RNC website for the convention is going to be the cherry on the icing of the cake for me today 🤣