We’re in this weird eddy where Republicans are trying to cling to past politics to gain advantage and the Biden administration is trying to move forward. On top of this struggle are stories about how the previous administration pushed the boundaries of our laws or, worse, broke them.
Remember that there was puzzlement about why Trump suddenly appointed a person in the pentagon in January. Now we know why. That’s the only way he works. Appointments to people with complete loyalty to him. So Cheeto Velveeto was that desperate that he cooked up this plot—it’s gonna be wild. And he was delighted to watch the chaos unfold...and the governors of Texas and Mississippi are willing to unleash more strains of Covid on their people and hence the rest of us to stay on his good side—Neanderthal fascists indeed. We’re in trouble for sure.
Perhaps this is an “exciting” or “interesting” time to be alive and witness all that is happening, and has happened, in the US. Journalists, media, talking heads, etc. For an average citizen like me, it’s damn distressing and scary. My hope is that I live long enough to see that our Democracy holds together and ends up even stronger.
Let's not confuse "Texans" with all Texans. Don't forget that millions of us voted for Biden and work hard to further the agenda of his administration.
“We must now demonstrate — with a clarity that dispels any doubt — that democracy can still deliver for our people and for people around the world. We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history; it’s the single best way to realize the promise of our future.”
Pres Biden is more plain-spoken, but there's still something Rooseveltian, even Lincolnesque, about his words today.
The US Senate is preparing to take up S-1, the “For the People” voting rights act.
121 years ago this month, the following speech was made on that same Senate floor.
“... And he [Senator John C. Spooner, of Wisconsin] said we had taken their rights away from them. He asked me was it right to murder them in order to carry the elections. I never saw one murdered. I never saw one shot at an election. It was the riots before the elections precipitated by their own hot-headedness in attempting to hold the government, that brought on conflicts between the races and caused the shotgun to be used. That is what I meant by saying we used the shotgun.
I want to call the Senator’s attention to one fact. He said that the Republican party gave the negroes the ballot in order to protect themselves against the indignities and wrongs that were attempted to be heaped upon them by the enactment of the black code. I say it was because the Republicans of that day, led by Thad Stevens, wanted to put white necks under black heels and to get revenge. There is a difference of opinion. You have your opinion about it, and I have mine, and we can never agree.
I want to ask the Senator this proposition in arithmetic: In my State there were 135,000 negro voters, or negroes of voting age, and some 90,000 or 95,000 white voters. General Canby set up a carpetbag government there and turned our State over to this majority. Now, I want to ask you, with a free vote and a fair count, how are you going to beat 135,000 by 95,000? How are you going to do it? You had set us an impossible task. You had handcuffed us and thrown away the key, and you propped your carpetbag negro government with bayonets. Whenever it was necessary to sustain the government you held it up by the Army.
Mr. President, I have not the facts and figures here, but I want the country to get the full view of the Southern side of this question and the justification for anything we did. We were sorry we had the necessity forced upon us, but we could not help it, and as white men we are not sorry for it, and we do not propose to apologize for anything we have done in connection with it. We took the government away from them in 1876. We did take it. If no other Senator has come here previous to this time who would acknowledge it, more is the pity. We have had no fraud in our elections in South Carolina since 1884. There has been no organized Republican party in the State.
We did not disfranchise the negroes until 1895. Then we had a constitutional convention convened which took the matter up calmly, deliberately, and avowedly with the purpose of disfranchising as many of them as we could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. We adopted the educational qualification as the only means left to us, and the negro is as contented and as prosperous and as well protected in South Carolina to-day as in any State of the Union south of the Potomac. He is not meddling with politics, for he found that the more he meddled with them the worse off he got. As to his “rights”—I will not discuss them now. We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him. I would to God the last one of them was in Africa and that none of them had ever been brought to our shores. But I will not pursue the subject further.
I want to ask permission in this connection to print a speech which I made in the constitutional convention of South Carolina when it convened in 1895, in which the whole carpetbag regime and the indignities and wrongs heaped upon our people, the robberies which we suffered, and all the facts and figures there brought out are incorporated, and let the whole of the facts go to the country. I am not ashamed to have those facts go to the country. They are our justification for the present situation in our State. If I can get it, I should like that permission; otherwise I shall be forced to bring that speech here and read it when I can put my hand on it. I will then leave this matter and let the dead past bury its dead.”
Source: "Speech of Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, March 23, 1900," Congressional Record, 56th Congress, 1st Session, 3223–3224. Reprinted in Richard Purday, ed.,Document Sets for the South in U. S. History (Lexington, MA.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991), 147.
The news is sickening...the pieces of the puzzle are coming into place.
Is this why all of the top officials at the Pentagon were suddenly replaced with loyalists back in November 2020, at the tail end of the last guy’s administration? Once they knew they’d lost the election, even with the Big Lie, were the plans for a Coup underway? The Big Plan?
God help us...the Republicans are once again circling the wagons, time for shiny objects: COVID spread, immigration blame, voter suppression, etc. The Big Lie and the Big Plan, a takeover of the United States by the former demon and his followers by any means possible. Nothing is coincidental. They’re not finished yet.
I watched Beto being interviewed by Nicole Wallace yesterday. He could barely contain his anger and utter bewilderment at Abbott. And, I believe the news of Abbott's twitter had not made it to national level. I'm sure many Texans will ignore the latest Abbott announcement about opening up, and will continue to practice safety. Beto will continue his fight to reach those most in need. And, I'm glad he's getting the national coverage he deserves. At least it shows there are Texans who care about the future of the country, not just the future of Texas.
Dear Friends, rise and go forth today in joy and appreciation. It is March 4, a date that resonates with our finest democratic traditions. 160 years ago today Abraham Lincoln became president and gave his first inaugural address, ushering in the better angels of our nature. The youth of his day had hearts touched with fire, as do our Youngers now. Let us walk in the light of their inspiration, and hold them always in the light.
Your letter today clearly shows that President Biden wants to be the President for all Americans, even for those who didn't vote for him. It is painful to watch Governor Abbott and other radical Republicans get help and respect from Biden and reject him at the same time. It makes me wonder if it's not like trying to put a democratic government in place around the world. Democracy just won't work in some areas in the world and it doesn't seem to be working anymore for some Republicans.
Let’s try it this way. January 6 was the Trump show, motivated by Trump’s enduring life long inherited hatreds and his deep belief that we, as a white nation threatened by color, are, as he is, essentially white racists, fascists and violently intolerant at our core. Trump’s bold and bankrupt strategy will be exposed as it moves now from the Trump Show to the Merritt Garland show, guided by President Biden, Vice President Harris, Majority Whip Clyburn, Chairman Adam Schiff, my friend Cory Booker, the Democrat Manager’s Show and good souls everywhere that need a jolt. Trump and his loose and illegal command will be prosecuted. A president will see jail. The nation and the world will learn how deadly this soap opera was and still is. Trump sought help from Pence to derail the orderly transfer, destroy our democracy, throw out certain states, and guide the election away from the Electoral College to the individual states, one vote per, dominated by the GOP. Pence refused. Flat out. More than once. Abd he went to work for the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas. Stay tuned there. So.. to accomplish his long held goal and stay out of jail, Trump sought to kill Pence and Pelosi, and any that resisted. His apex command was instructed in the language of a mob boss. See Michael Dean Cohen Esq. Michael knows his old boss, and was spot on. He knows. And he said it. More than once. Trump then planned to institute martial law with Flynn 1 now pardoned to deal with the national reaction to dumping Biden Harris which would have been absolutely staggering. Flynn 2 took orders from Trump via Flynn 1, his felon brother, stalling the National Guard for three critical murderous hours. Two fraternal suicides suggest guilt in the complicit. Too many heard the word and were complicit. Sens. Hawley, Johnson, and Cruz were hoping for chaos and control positions. They now must worry about FBI tapes of their calls. The Bureau was corrupted at Barr’s level, not where it matters, which is why Barr resigned. Hawley is worried about tapes. Says this. Barr knew what was coming. Sort of. He stayed off the phone. It did not take long once the White House tapes were turned over. Think back. It won’t take long with the taxes turned over. Who thinks the Trump CFO in his 70s is not talking? In the aftermath, with Covid-19 and mutations in sharp focus, and Israel in the clear, America will stumble around as we seek to address obesity and its cause in farming and livestock, and gun violence will be linked to tetracycline in the water of our beef cattle ostensibly curing while spreading anaplasmosis, as our young and very confused males, our messed up lone murderers, seek suicide killing others. We spent over $600,000 over ten years at Bard College trusting that place to prefer integrity in food. Our best school food service directors are often bribed. Aramark’s New England team of two confessed. And retired, one in tears. The two men that truly know well what’s coming are Anthony Scaramucci and his friend Michael Dean Cohen, both lawyers. These two men have returned to balanced sanity proving their decency after a long period of the other kind. They’ve become friends. Trump does not stand a chance. Georgia will get him. Stacie Abrams is right up there with James Clyburn and the wonderful Mara Gay. This story has its bad guys and its good guys. Our young nation is learning that liars are deadly. The founders did their best. We must now deal with where they messed up terribly. Slavery’s trail is long. Those most trashed have saved us. We must honor them, for their very future is ours.
When I read the account of Ronny Jackson's drinking on the job while traveling overseas with President Obama (and probably on other occasions), I was struck that the president's Secret Service detail was derelict in their duty. It is one thing to be abusive and inappropriate with your staff and another for the White House Physician to be drunk if the President of the United States has a health emergency.
It appears to me that the two governors ending the mask mandate and opening things back up could be more of an attempt to sabotage Joe Biden's presidency than restoring their citizens' "freedoms." If President Biden cannot get the virus under control and get the economy going, he will be seen as a failed president. It is appalling and sickening to me to see how vicious politics is and to what lengths the other side will go to retain power. I also think it is suspicious that three women are just now coming forward with accusations against Governor Cuomo as well.
About corrupt Sec. Elain Chao .... Barr's DOJ refused to investigate, as it did for other high-level appointees who were referred to the DOJ by IGs, such as Wilkies, Zinke, et. al.
Can Garland's DOJ review the IGs' requests, overturn Barr's DOJ, and investigate?
While I don't like an administration investigating its predecessor, I abhor criminal activity being ignored, especially since Trump's team was so corrupt. They must be held accountable as part of an effort to restore faith in government.
Texans and Americans. Abbott gave voice to what was obvious all along: Texans do not consider themselves Americans, they see these as two distinct groups.
Remember that there was puzzlement about why Trump suddenly appointed a person in the pentagon in January. Now we know why. That’s the only way he works. Appointments to people with complete loyalty to him. So Cheeto Velveeto was that desperate that he cooked up this plot—it’s gonna be wild. And he was delighted to watch the chaos unfold...and the governors of Texas and Mississippi are willing to unleash more strains of Covid on their people and hence the rest of us to stay on his good side—Neanderthal fascists indeed. We’re in trouble for sure.
Perhaps this is an “exciting” or “interesting” time to be alive and witness all that is happening, and has happened, in the US. Journalists, media, talking heads, etc. For an average citizen like me, it’s damn distressing and scary. My hope is that I live long enough to see that our Democracy holds together and ends up even stronger.
Let's not confuse "Texans" with all Texans. Don't forget that millions of us voted for Biden and work hard to further the agenda of his administration.
“We must now demonstrate — with a clarity that dispels any doubt — that democracy can still deliver for our people and for people around the world. We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history; it’s the single best way to realize the promise of our future.”
Pres Biden is more plain-spoken, but there's still something Rooseveltian, even Lincolnesque, about his words today.
The US Senate is preparing to take up S-1, the “For the People” voting rights act.
121 years ago this month, the following speech was made on that same Senate floor.
“... And he [Senator John C. Spooner, of Wisconsin] said we had taken their rights away from them. He asked me was it right to murder them in order to carry the elections. I never saw one murdered. I never saw one shot at an election. It was the riots before the elections precipitated by their own hot-headedness in attempting to hold the government, that brought on conflicts between the races and caused the shotgun to be used. That is what I meant by saying we used the shotgun.
I want to call the Senator’s attention to one fact. He said that the Republican party gave the negroes the ballot in order to protect themselves against the indignities and wrongs that were attempted to be heaped upon them by the enactment of the black code. I say it was because the Republicans of that day, led by Thad Stevens, wanted to put white necks under black heels and to get revenge. There is a difference of opinion. You have your opinion about it, and I have mine, and we can never agree.
I want to ask the Senator this proposition in arithmetic: In my State there were 135,000 negro voters, or negroes of voting age, and some 90,000 or 95,000 white voters. General Canby set up a carpetbag government there and turned our State over to this majority. Now, I want to ask you, with a free vote and a fair count, how are you going to beat 135,000 by 95,000? How are you going to do it? You had set us an impossible task. You had handcuffed us and thrown away the key, and you propped your carpetbag negro government with bayonets. Whenever it was necessary to sustain the government you held it up by the Army.
Mr. President, I have not the facts and figures here, but I want the country to get the full view of the Southern side of this question and the justification for anything we did. We were sorry we had the necessity forced upon us, but we could not help it, and as white men we are not sorry for it, and we do not propose to apologize for anything we have done in connection with it. We took the government away from them in 1876. We did take it. If no other Senator has come here previous to this time who would acknowledge it, more is the pity. We have had no fraud in our elections in South Carolina since 1884. There has been no organized Republican party in the State.
We did not disfranchise the negroes until 1895. Then we had a constitutional convention convened which took the matter up calmly, deliberately, and avowedly with the purpose of disfranchising as many of them as we could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. We adopted the educational qualification as the only means left to us, and the negro is as contented and as prosperous and as well protected in South Carolina to-day as in any State of the Union south of the Potomac. He is not meddling with politics, for he found that the more he meddled with them the worse off he got. As to his “rights”—I will not discuss them now. We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him. I would to God the last one of them was in Africa and that none of them had ever been brought to our shores. But I will not pursue the subject further.
I want to ask permission in this connection to print a speech which I made in the constitutional convention of South Carolina when it convened in 1895, in which the whole carpetbag regime and the indignities and wrongs heaped upon our people, the robberies which we suffered, and all the facts and figures there brought out are incorporated, and let the whole of the facts go to the country. I am not ashamed to have those facts go to the country. They are our justification for the present situation in our State. If I can get it, I should like that permission; otherwise I shall be forced to bring that speech here and read it when I can put my hand on it. I will then leave this matter and let the dead past bury its dead.”
Source: "Speech of Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, March 23, 1900," Congressional Record, 56th Congress, 1st Session, 3223–3224. Reprinted in Richard Purday, ed.,Document Sets for the South in U. S. History (Lexington, MA.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991), 147.
The news is sickening...the pieces of the puzzle are coming into place.
Is this why all of the top officials at the Pentagon were suddenly replaced with loyalists back in November 2020, at the tail end of the last guy’s administration? Once they knew they’d lost the election, even with the Big Lie, were the plans for a Coup underway? The Big Plan?
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/pentagon-policy-official-resigns/index.html
God help us...the Republicans are once again circling the wagons, time for shiny objects: COVID spread, immigration blame, voter suppression, etc. The Big Lie and the Big Plan, a takeover of the United States by the former demon and his followers by any means possible. Nothing is coincidental. They’re not finished yet.
Help! Some wisdom and encouragement please.
I watched Beto being interviewed by Nicole Wallace yesterday. He could barely contain his anger and utter bewilderment at Abbott. And, I believe the news of Abbott's twitter had not made it to national level. I'm sure many Texans will ignore the latest Abbott announcement about opening up, and will continue to practice safety. Beto will continue his fight to reach those most in need. And, I'm glad he's getting the national coverage he deserves. At least it shows there are Texans who care about the future of the country, not just the future of Texas.
Dear Friends, rise and go forth today in joy and appreciation. It is March 4, a date that resonates with our finest democratic traditions. 160 years ago today Abraham Lincoln became president and gave his first inaugural address, ushering in the better angels of our nature. The youth of his day had hearts touched with fire, as do our Youngers now. Let us walk in the light of their inspiration, and hold them always in the light.
Your letter today clearly shows that President Biden wants to be the President for all Americans, even for those who didn't vote for him. It is painful to watch Governor Abbott and other radical Republicans get help and respect from Biden and reject him at the same time. It makes me wonder if it's not like trying to put a democratic government in place around the world. Democracy just won't work in some areas in the world and it doesn't seem to be working anymore for some Republicans.
Let’s try it this way. January 6 was the Trump show, motivated by Trump’s enduring life long inherited hatreds and his deep belief that we, as a white nation threatened by color, are, as he is, essentially white racists, fascists and violently intolerant at our core. Trump’s bold and bankrupt strategy will be exposed as it moves now from the Trump Show to the Merritt Garland show, guided by President Biden, Vice President Harris, Majority Whip Clyburn, Chairman Adam Schiff, my friend Cory Booker, the Democrat Manager’s Show and good souls everywhere that need a jolt. Trump and his loose and illegal command will be prosecuted. A president will see jail. The nation and the world will learn how deadly this soap opera was and still is. Trump sought help from Pence to derail the orderly transfer, destroy our democracy, throw out certain states, and guide the election away from the Electoral College to the individual states, one vote per, dominated by the GOP. Pence refused. Flat out. More than once. Abd he went to work for the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas. Stay tuned there. So.. to accomplish his long held goal and stay out of jail, Trump sought to kill Pence and Pelosi, and any that resisted. His apex command was instructed in the language of a mob boss. See Michael Dean Cohen Esq. Michael knows his old boss, and was spot on. He knows. And he said it. More than once. Trump then planned to institute martial law with Flynn 1 now pardoned to deal with the national reaction to dumping Biden Harris which would have been absolutely staggering. Flynn 2 took orders from Trump via Flynn 1, his felon brother, stalling the National Guard for three critical murderous hours. Two fraternal suicides suggest guilt in the complicit. Too many heard the word and were complicit. Sens. Hawley, Johnson, and Cruz were hoping for chaos and control positions. They now must worry about FBI tapes of their calls. The Bureau was corrupted at Barr’s level, not where it matters, which is why Barr resigned. Hawley is worried about tapes. Says this. Barr knew what was coming. Sort of. He stayed off the phone. It did not take long once the White House tapes were turned over. Think back. It won’t take long with the taxes turned over. Who thinks the Trump CFO in his 70s is not talking? In the aftermath, with Covid-19 and mutations in sharp focus, and Israel in the clear, America will stumble around as we seek to address obesity and its cause in farming and livestock, and gun violence will be linked to tetracycline in the water of our beef cattle ostensibly curing while spreading anaplasmosis, as our young and very confused males, our messed up lone murderers, seek suicide killing others. We spent over $600,000 over ten years at Bard College trusting that place to prefer integrity in food. Our best school food service directors are often bribed. Aramark’s New England team of two confessed. And retired, one in tears. The two men that truly know well what’s coming are Anthony Scaramucci and his friend Michael Dean Cohen, both lawyers. These two men have returned to balanced sanity proving their decency after a long period of the other kind. They’ve become friends. Trump does not stand a chance. Georgia will get him. Stacie Abrams is right up there with James Clyburn and the wonderful Mara Gay. This story has its bad guys and its good guys. Our young nation is learning that liars are deadly. The founders did their best. We must now deal with where they messed up terribly. Slavery’s trail is long. Those most trashed have saved us. We must honor them, for their very future is ours.
What a blatant lie Governor Abbott is spreading! It would be laughable except thousands of Texans will believe it.
When I read the account of Ronny Jackson's drinking on the job while traveling overseas with President Obama (and probably on other occasions), I was struck that the president's Secret Service detail was derelict in their duty. It is one thing to be abusive and inappropriate with your staff and another for the White House Physician to be drunk if the President of the United States has a health emergency.
It appears to me that the two governors ending the mask mandate and opening things back up could be more of an attempt to sabotage Joe Biden's presidency than restoring their citizens' "freedoms." If President Biden cannot get the virus under control and get the economy going, he will be seen as a failed president. It is appalling and sickening to me to see how vicious politics is and to what lengths the other side will go to retain power. I also think it is suspicious that three women are just now coming forward with accusations against Governor Cuomo as well.
About corrupt Sec. Elain Chao .... Barr's DOJ refused to investigate, as it did for other high-level appointees who were referred to the DOJ by IGs, such as Wilkies, Zinke, et. al.
Can Garland's DOJ review the IGs' requests, overturn Barr's DOJ, and investigate?
While I don't like an administration investigating its predecessor, I abhor criminal activity being ignored, especially since Trump's team was so corrupt. They must be held accountable as part of an effort to restore faith in government.
Texans and Americans. Abbott gave voice to what was obvious all along: Texans do not consider themselves Americans, they see these as two distinct groups.
Do we know yet if Jan 6 plans are what kept the president-elect’s team in the dark re: Pentagon briefings?