Today the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas for testimony to five members of Congress: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Representatives Scott Perry (R-PA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL). The committee previously invited them to cooperate voluntarily, and they refused. The committee has evidence that these five, in particular, know crucial things about the events of January 6 and activities surrounding the attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s election.
Please may it all be coming down in them and may the voters at last see the reality of what these anti democracy and immoral people have done and tried to do to all of us “we the people “ Thanks Heather for all you’re doing to open eyes 👏💐🇺🇸
Are the Tyson and other meat packing workers unionized? Or are they the same economically vulnerable immigrant laborers we were introduced to by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 9th grade History class?
"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."- Upton Sinclair
I felt physically ill reading this. Not that I didn't know about the meatpacking plants. There were many stories about the horror of it all back then. But rereading about it tonight, on this day where one million COVID deaths are beginning to be marked, a vastly underestimated one million, and decades ahead of us of repercussions from this criminally exploited pandemic -- on this day, reading about the pure evil (let's call it what it is) of the people who run these companies, KILLING thousands of their workers and family members of workers, traumatizing hundreds of thousands more, it hits me somehow more deeply.
And Abbot. Them I did not know about. Baby formula! It's Dickensian.
I used to get angry at corruption at the FDA, back when I was aware of some nasty hanky panky leading to drugs being pushed through that should not have been. I can still get angry at that, especially regarding one drug that affected me personally. But I had no idea that it was something of a privilege to be able to be angry at unacceptable but run-of-the-mill governmental agency corruption, no idea what it would be like to live through times when these agencies would be weaponized to a degree that I'd have thought not possible in this country.
At moments it does feel like we are at the beginning of the reckoning of forty years of decisions. But most of the time it feels like I am experiencing what many people must have felt in Europe as Hitler gained more and more power, complete with a new understanding of why Jews could not believe it would ever get "that" bad.
We're all waking up to the fact we've been living for some time in a dystopian science fiction novel come to life that neither Philip K. Dick or William Gibson could have imagined on their best days.
As I read this letter, I began to feel the way I did when I was much younger and the Watergate affair began to unravel. Sooner or later somebody will come clean and Trump will be history.
It does indeed feel like the beginning of a reckoning. But how far will it go and to what effect? With so many in the country seriously deluded by lies and/or distracted by soaring gasoline and other prices, will the reckoning truly hold people, enough people, to actual serious account? I remain confident of significant legal consequences for Jan. 6 — the system is working, though at a pace that until recently only made the perpetrators happy. But they're now tied to the railroad tracks and hear the train whistle blaring.
But with so many voters disengaged or hopelessly blind to the truths that the good professor illuminates night after long night, it's hard to be confident that a political reckoning of historic proportions is in the offing. Let's hope it is for those who have rigged the co-dependent systems of government and big business.
We keep learning over and over that unfettered capitalism is like the proverbial plague of locusts that consumes anything it can in the name of profit, and then more profit. To mix metaphors, it reminds me of a classmate in the sixth grade at a barbecue. He ate hotdog after hotdog, wandered away to throw up, and came back and ate some more. A disgusting image for sure. But not as disgusting at the rampant price gouging causing economic anguish for millions as companies reap record profits.
If the Democrats want huge and lasting change, they need to rally around the idea of combatting runaway corruption and greed, campaigning with a barn-burning fervor that somehow always escapes them. What we need, frankly, are real bad asses.
The problem is of course what enforcement if any will accompany those subpoenas. At this point have any, even one, of the subpoenas served to anyone above the rubes and nitwits of January 6 lead to any consequences? It is just kabuki theatre. The Dems issue their subpoenas and the traitors and insurrectionists ignore them. After a while the traitors will take back congress through rigged elections and that will be that. Though you can bet once back in power the GQP won’t be so tentative about dealing with their enemies.
President Trump and his economic team see “no need to hastily rewrite the federal government’s antitrust rules,” … in 2020. They saw no problem with the fact that monopolies hurt the consumers, even after shortages had been rampant during the pandemic. Follow the money.
I am encouraged that the January 6 committee and the Department of Justice are bringing the full force of the law to the insurrection and Trump's willful violations of national security. I fear that laws can only be enforced if most people believe they're valid, including the rich and powerful. So many lines have been crossed and so many empowered people and their followers are committed to a polar-opposite version of what's legitimate. I am hopeful but not optimistic. Let's get out the vote to keep Democrats in power.
Is it possible that the repugs’ strategy to dump the Dems and Democracy and take over once and for all is fueled by a simple strategy? Distraction? Nothing fully accomplished with a “stolen election,” and always an upcoming election, an insurrection requiring impeachment, 1/6 committees, justice Dept focused on the insurrection, refused subpoenas, SCOTUS leaks, overturning Roe v Wade, Abortion arguments, banned books, CRT, Russia, Putin, Ukraine with some repugs taking Putin’s side and don’t say his name but the reason for everything: TFG. Oh, and COVID, inflation and conspiracy theories, masks and vaccines. Baby formula. The list is endless. Block and Obstruct.
An article from 2021 on political and social media distraction in The Guardian:
“In TS Eliot’s words, we are “distracted from distraction by distraction”. The unsettling possibility is that if you’re convinced that none of this is a problem for you – that social media hasn’t turned you into an angrier, less empathic, more anxious or more numbed-out version of yourself – that might be because it has.”
On Baby Formula increased production & volume distribution, the Biden Team has coordinated with Gerber & Ricketts on the production side & Target and other national outlets that have powerful distribution networks. Bottlenecks need to be identified along with any unfair business practices.
“In 2013, WH Group (formerly known as Shuanghui International Holdings) purchased Smithfield for $4.7 billion; including debt, the deal valued the firm at $7.1 billion, then the largest acquisition of a U.S. company by a Chinese business”
Among the many reasons to celebrate today's letter is the long-overdue national recognition that our animal agricultural system is broken, corrupt, and unsustainable. Thank you for covering this HCR!!! And behind all of this greed and corruption, at the foundation, are the ten billion+ brutalized, tortured and tormented animals that are slaughtered and/or extremely inhumanely confined each year in the US alone. The industry is truly above the law, so anti-cruelty laws are not enforced. Those seeking to investigate and expose the truth of what goes on in factory farms are treated as criminals. CAFOs must go. VSD must not be allowed. No more tax payer subsidies and bailouts. Animals do NOT belong in factories. There is no excuse for cruelty, and there is no farm in factory. It's a hell on earth filled with living, breathing, thinking, feeling beings who are without a voice or power. No matter how many mouths there are to feed, there is no justification for this. It has to change. This news is just the tip of the iceberg of what Big Ag is doing while we go about our lives. They're the biggest lobbying force in DC and as wicked as it gets. See what Senator Cory Booker has to say on the matter in this great video in a recent NYT op-ed piece. He's a champion of agricultural reform. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/opinion/climate-sustainability-agriculture-lobby.html.
Please, shop with your conscience when buying animal products. Learn as much as you can. Call members of congress and demand change. Support organizations that are lobbying against Big Ag. Do it for the animals, for public heath and safety, for the environment, and for our climate ... for the future generations. Thank you!
I'm speechless. Not about anything the dumpster (I never say his name) would do but at the level of corruption that seems to escalate exponentially on a daily basis. All of us need to be screaming about it at the top of our lungs!
Please may it all be coming down in them and may the voters at last see the reality of what these anti democracy and immoral people have done and tried to do to all of us “we the people “ Thanks Heather for all you’re doing to open eyes 👏💐🇺🇸
Are the Tyson and other meat packing workers unionized? Or are they the same economically vulnerable immigrant laborers we were introduced to by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 9th grade History class?
"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."- Upton Sinclair
I felt physically ill reading this. Not that I didn't know about the meatpacking plants. There were many stories about the horror of it all back then. But rereading about it tonight, on this day where one million COVID deaths are beginning to be marked, a vastly underestimated one million, and decades ahead of us of repercussions from this criminally exploited pandemic -- on this day, reading about the pure evil (let's call it what it is) of the people who run these companies, KILLING thousands of their workers and family members of workers, traumatizing hundreds of thousands more, it hits me somehow more deeply.
And Abbot. Them I did not know about. Baby formula! It's Dickensian.
I used to get angry at corruption at the FDA, back when I was aware of some nasty hanky panky leading to drugs being pushed through that should not have been. I can still get angry at that, especially regarding one drug that affected me personally. But I had no idea that it was something of a privilege to be able to be angry at unacceptable but run-of-the-mill governmental agency corruption, no idea what it would be like to live through times when these agencies would be weaponized to a degree that I'd have thought not possible in this country.
At moments it does feel like we are at the beginning of the reckoning of forty years of decisions. But most of the time it feels like I am experiencing what many people must have felt in Europe as Hitler gained more and more power, complete with a new understanding of why Jews could not believe it would ever get "that" bad.
We're all waking up to the fact we've been living for some time in a dystopian science fiction novel come to life that neither Philip K. Dick or William Gibson could have imagined on their best days.
As I read this letter, I began to feel the way I did when I was much younger and the Watergate affair began to unravel. Sooner or later somebody will come clean and Trump will be history.
It does indeed feel like the beginning of a reckoning. But how far will it go and to what effect? With so many in the country seriously deluded by lies and/or distracted by soaring gasoline and other prices, will the reckoning truly hold people, enough people, to actual serious account? I remain confident of significant legal consequences for Jan. 6 — the system is working, though at a pace that until recently only made the perpetrators happy. But they're now tied to the railroad tracks and hear the train whistle blaring.
But with so many voters disengaged or hopelessly blind to the truths that the good professor illuminates night after long night, it's hard to be confident that a political reckoning of historic proportions is in the offing. Let's hope it is for those who have rigged the co-dependent systems of government and big business.
We keep learning over and over that unfettered capitalism is like the proverbial plague of locusts that consumes anything it can in the name of profit, and then more profit. To mix metaphors, it reminds me of a classmate in the sixth grade at a barbecue. He ate hotdog after hotdog, wandered away to throw up, and came back and ate some more. A disgusting image for sure. But not as disgusting at the rampant price gouging causing economic anguish for millions as companies reap record profits.
If the Democrats want huge and lasting change, they need to rally around the idea of combatting runaway corruption and greed, campaigning with a barn-burning fervor that somehow always escapes them. What we need, frankly, are real bad asses.
The problem is of course what enforcement if any will accompany those subpoenas. At this point have any, even one, of the subpoenas served to anyone above the rubes and nitwits of January 6 lead to any consequences? It is just kabuki theatre. The Dems issue their subpoenas and the traitors and insurrectionists ignore them. After a while the traitors will take back congress through rigged elections and that will be that. Though you can bet once back in power the GQP won’t be so tentative about dealing with their enemies.
President Trump and his economic team see “no need to hastily rewrite the federal government’s antitrust rules,” … in 2020. They saw no problem with the fact that monopolies hurt the consumers, even after shortages had been rampant during the pandemic. Follow the money.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/business/trump-economy-monopoly.amp.html
Last paragraph “It sure feels…” —-rem acu tetigisti, Professor. Thank you today as every day.
I am encouraged that the January 6 committee and the Department of Justice are bringing the full force of the law to the insurrection and Trump's willful violations of national security. I fear that laws can only be enforced if most people believe they're valid, including the rich and powerful. So many lines have been crossed and so many empowered people and their followers are committed to a polar-opposite version of what's legitimate. I am hopeful but not optimistic. Let's get out the vote to keep Democrats in power.
Is it possible that the repugs’ strategy to dump the Dems and Democracy and take over once and for all is fueled by a simple strategy? Distraction? Nothing fully accomplished with a “stolen election,” and always an upcoming election, an insurrection requiring impeachment, 1/6 committees, justice Dept focused on the insurrection, refused subpoenas, SCOTUS leaks, overturning Roe v Wade, Abortion arguments, banned books, CRT, Russia, Putin, Ukraine with some repugs taking Putin’s side and don’t say his name but the reason for everything: TFG. Oh, and COVID, inflation and conspiracy theories, masks and vaccines. Baby formula. The list is endless. Block and Obstruct.
An article from 2021 on political and social media distraction in The Guardian:
https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/07/on-earth-4000-weeks-so-why-lose-time-online-distraction-oliver-burkeman
“In TS Eliot’s words, we are “distracted from distraction by distraction”. The unsettling possibility is that if you’re convinced that none of this is a problem for you – that social media hasn’t turned you into an angrier, less empathic, more anxious or more numbed-out version of yourself – that might be because it has.”
How can we deal with so many issues?
On Baby Formula increased production & volume distribution, the Biden Team has coordinated with Gerber & Ricketts on the production side & Target and other national outlets that have powerful distribution networks. Bottlenecks need to be identified along with any unfair business practices.
“In 2013, WH Group (formerly known as Shuanghui International Holdings) purchased Smithfield for $4.7 billion; including debt, the deal valued the firm at $7.1 billion, then the largest acquisition of a U.S. company by a Chinese business”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2020/04/16/the-chinese-billionaire-whose-company-owns-troubled-pork-processor-smithfield-foods/?sh=5c80b5e62c55
Among the many reasons to celebrate today's letter is the long-overdue national recognition that our animal agricultural system is broken, corrupt, and unsustainable. Thank you for covering this HCR!!! And behind all of this greed and corruption, at the foundation, are the ten billion+ brutalized, tortured and tormented animals that are slaughtered and/or extremely inhumanely confined each year in the US alone. The industry is truly above the law, so anti-cruelty laws are not enforced. Those seeking to investigate and expose the truth of what goes on in factory farms are treated as criminals. CAFOs must go. VSD must not be allowed. No more tax payer subsidies and bailouts. Animals do NOT belong in factories. There is no excuse for cruelty, and there is no farm in factory. It's a hell on earth filled with living, breathing, thinking, feeling beings who are without a voice or power. No matter how many mouths there are to feed, there is no justification for this. It has to change. This news is just the tip of the iceberg of what Big Ag is doing while we go about our lives. They're the biggest lobbying force in DC and as wicked as it gets. See what Senator Cory Booker has to say on the matter in this great video in a recent NYT op-ed piece. He's a champion of agricultural reform. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/opinion/climate-sustainability-agriculture-lobby.html.
Please, shop with your conscience when buying animal products. Learn as much as you can. Call members of congress and demand change. Support organizations that are lobbying against Big Ag. Do it for the animals, for public heath and safety, for the environment, and for our climate ... for the future generations. Thank you!
I'm speechless. Not about anything the dumpster (I never say his name) would do but at the level of corruption that seems to escalate exponentially on a daily basis. All of us need to be screaming about it at the top of our lungs!
Capitalism is such a great invention, right? The few control and no competition