We are in a bizarre moment. If the U.S. government were operating within its normal parameters, my first story tonight would be about new federal charges that Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was acting as an agent of Egypt while chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Democratic rules in the Senate required Menendez to step down from that chair when he was charged with bribery in late September.
Thank you Prof. Heather Cox Richardson. There should be no reasonable doubt to any thinking American that the work of the January 6th insurrectionists continues in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. If Gaetz, Jordan, Biggs, Taylor-Greene, and Gosar were expelled from the House (as Menendez should be from the Senate) -along with the 13 GOP Senators who acted after the fact as election deniers, Congress would be able to perform meaningful work and make progress again.
There is only one way out of the fiasco that is so apparent in the Republican conference’s speakership choice. That is to accept that the conference is ungovernable. That is because the Republican party is actually three parties in an unstable coalition with very differing priorities and agendas. The analogy is the political scene in Italian that has a merry-go-round of shifting alliances that form rapidly morphing serial governments.
So, what are the three factions (parties)?
First up is the chaos caucus that is just out for click bites, believes the conspiracy theories, and just wants to burn it all down.
Second, the largest group and by far the most dangerous, are those supported by the morbidly rich billionaires who brought us Project REDMAP and the gerrymandering efforts in the States, the Federalist Society stacking the courts with Conservative judges, and now the Project 2025 manifesto to remove government regulation of business and to destroy the Executive branch by decimating the Civil service and putting in a layer of political hacks as overseers to insure political “alignment” with a President’s views. This last bit is popping up as the “unitary executive” theory. This is no secret conspiracy—it is all there in 900 black and white pages in Project 2025, available for free on the internet. The goal is to continue to increase the concentration of wealth in this country, which is most easily done in an authoritarian regime. The anti-immigration, anti-abortion, anti-welfare, pro-gun-rights policies are there to generate grievance issues in the electorate to secure majorities and obscure the real purpose of making the morbidly rich richer.
Third are the recently silent “moderates” who remember a time when people realized that in a two-party system, there has to be bipartisanship to get anything done. They are the old “small business” Republicans.
This is not the first time parties in America have fractured and morphed in America. The most recent example may be the split and migration of segregationist southern Democrats to the Republican Party during the 1960s and 1970s. But this is the first time since the Civil War that the threat to our democracy has risen to this level.
So what to do now? Democrats have to start pointing out WHY the Republican conference is dysfunctional. They have to name names in each of the factions and point out what the factions’ agendas are. And they have to make clear that we are now operating in an essentially 4-party system. Democrats have to be explicit in their invitation to seek a coalition with the “small business” group where there is the most overlap on the issues. After all, those “small business” supporters are being destroyed by huge monopolies like Amazon. Being explicit is necessary to explain to Democratic voters what is at stake and why a coalition is necessary, and it provides cover for the “small business” party to combat the “traitor” label that they will be smeared with by parties 1 and 2.
Why do I think this has a chance of working? Only 99 Republicans initially supported Jim Jordan, Trump’s choice for speaker. The cracks are starting to appear and this is the time to leverage them wider. Hakeem Jeffries just stared to widen that crack!!!
Very well thought out -and thank you. While hopeful, I'm not optimistic. One doesn't have to look beyond Liz Cheney as an example for any Congressional Republicans with an iota of country over party courage. While voters in the rust belt and elsewhere who have experienced what I characterize as generational economic despair harbor growing anger and frustration, Rupert Murdoch and others have been able to direct their collective anger to undermine any legislation or policy that could actually yield a better future.
I used to think people would need to experience pain and suffering in order to properly reflect on root cause and drive change. Now I believe that instead of reflection, angry mouth breathers like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and others will "do their thinking for them" and American society will continue to decline while wealth continues to concentrate into the hands of a few making any attempt at meaningful democracy impossible.
How many Republican geniuses are also Climate Change deniers, cheering on the Fossil Fuel sector? Are they our Taliban or Hamas? The potential death count? Loss of species, including Humans, or modern humans (Homo sapiens), the most common and widespread species of primate!
'The Evidence for Rapid Climate Change Is Compelling:
Global Temperature Is Rising'
'The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities.4 Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest. The years 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year on record.'
'The Ocean Is Getting Warmer'
'The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969.6 Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.'
'The Ice Sheets Are Shrinking'
'The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.'
'Glaciers Are Retreating'
'Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.'
'Snow Cover Is Decreasing'
'Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and the snow is melting earlier. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech'
'Sea Level Is Rising'
'Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and accelerating slightly every year.'
'Arctic Sea Ice Is Declining'
'Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.'
'Extreme Events Are Increasing in Frequency'
'The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.'
'Ocean Acidification Is Increasing'
'Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%. This increase is due to humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year).'
The flow of oil (and gas and coal) is a massive and continuous flow of money. Every hour of obfuscation, denial, and delay represents millions of dollars into the hands of Big Oil. And a decent percentage flows back into media and political leadership who will constrain or altogether stop any meaningful climate action. And fighting in the courts will eventually lead to the Supremely corrupt court.
While there is plenty of willful ignorance in the voting population, it is driven by greed, corruption, and subversion of justice and the democracy. And Joe Manchin is proof it is not exclusive to a single party.
Shocking, is it NOT! That's old news: a fortune is reaped by BIG Oil. How much filters into Republican coffers?
PS 'Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, told a local news station on Thursday that he “would think very seriously” about leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent.' (NYTimes, Updated Sept. 27, 2023)
“I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time”
'Sen. Joe Manchin leaves the door open to potential third-party presidential run in 2024
The West Virginia Democrat said running as an independent would help bring a divided nation together, not hand the election to former President Donald Trump.' (TexasTribune, SEPT. 23, 2023)
Another warning. Are voters alert enough as they complain about gas prices and the price of eggs (intimately related) to know it’s blue or death? Seriously.
Haha! Manchin independent of whom, for how much? The morbidly rich combination with armed fear control him as they do other anti-democratic isolationists.
Mathew Chilsom did a great investigative article recently , as well as other along this issue, most I’ve not read. But how to change this is TO ME just one person at a time and I’m doing and have since the 70s improved recycling, less footprint, more earth friendly ...voting for who will fight for this , do their best is the last effort and continuing . I insulated myself best possible long ago. Whether this helps in further destructive happenings is a TBDetermined.
There’s a lot we need to change, and the tax structure balance will be a hard fight. Cinching in my belt is possible but for the many in more dire straights not likely. Or they’ll revolt out of crisis needs.
That may well happen.
Blessings on all who strive to better, give encouragement ragement /ideas/observations.
I like to think this is the moment when things really change.. That the truth of the GOP Congress members inability to bring cohesiveness and critical thinking to their party will begin to become apparent! At least Trump is on the verge of being out of the picture. Financially broke and entangled with the Justice department and lawyers who keep shutting him down. As an intuitive, I have to say I'm sensing we're on the verge of positive change. That's what I'm focusing on.
And subsidizing it. A lot of our problems traces back to the refusal to tax the wealthy and large corporations, subsidizing the fossil fuel companies, refusing to raise the income limit on SS taxes, the states' refusal to support public education in poor districts with no tax bases and, of course, Citizens United. We'd be way further down the road to transitioning from fossil fuels if the politicians weren't bought and paid for by the industry. We might be able to educate more mental health providers and reduce medical costs if the politicians weren't bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. And we might be bale to make better decisions about who to vote for if the media industry wasn't quite literally bought and paid for by the political class that bombards us night and day with inane, fact-free 30-second political ads.
I have been to Alaska and to Torres del Pine in Chile (30 years ago.) In both places, I observed retreating glaciers. They're melting. It's right there in front of our eyes.
The stark evidence is everywhere — and undeniable. And things will get unimaginably worse. Yes, there's been some progress to reduce emissions, but it amounts to a tiny bandage on a gaping, widening wound.
"Republican geniuses. " Perfect Fern. May there be six or seven merely smart ones who put country over party and "simply work with Democrats to elect a Speaker." We need to get moving. We're all in grave danger. Many ideas. No traction.
Fran, I have to agree. This is what is happening right now, yet we have the party of death unable even to elect a Speaker. I am 80 and I figured that I am old enough not to witness what I am seeing. As a longtime gardener, I saw the change happening, but slowly. Now we have continually weather events that aren't supposed to happen very often and the melting of glaciers and polar ice at astonishing speeds. We used to have a frost at least by October 31st here in the Willamette Valley, but the lowest temp I have seen so far is the the 47 this am. I remember going snow shoeing or cross country on Veteran's Day on about five feet of snow. We are now in a El Nino weather pattern, so i wonder how much snow we will get in the mountains and yes, there was a dusting of snow on Mt. Hood this week, but... Of course, now with the internet, everyone is an expert. Or they believe all of this is the work of God. Thank you for laying it out for us in stark terms.
Indeed. And I really enjoy and appreciate your lengthy posts. I tend to be terse, I'm afraid and I am usually just up when I post, so still drinking my am coffee.
Thank you, Fern McBride. It’s good to read a lengthy piece on climate change in this climate section. Climate change, like overpopulation are the elephants in the room during the nightmare of war and plague we are living and dying through.
YES! We are tightening the noose around our OWN necks…despite the fact we are also doing so to OUR whole beautiful planet. These Climate Deniers are not fooling the planet…like they are fooling themselves.
Does anyone think for one nano second that facts matter to those who need to remain stupid. I might have said ignorant, but ignorance is curable by providing information.
I was in Iceland, and our tour guide showed us several places where glaciers used to be. Major changes in the landscape: ponds disappeared, oceans extended themselves, etc.
If Liz were truly the hero, she would not have actively steered the committee away from exposing the complicity of these Republican Congressmen and women during the Jan. 6th Committee's hearings. Yes, she was anti Trump, but she still tried to stay in the Republican Party, and was always on the side of hollowed out government supported by big business monopolies. She was never a small business, Lincoln-type Republican.
I do agree Barbara. In fact, it's a bit challenging to say the name 'Cheney' and not throw up a little. It is very telling about the GOP that when anyone in the Republican party prioritizes the interests of justice and democracy (at least from their perspective) over party interests, it is notable. These days we expect the George Santos and the Lauren Boebert's, the Jim Jordan's and the Steve "I'm like a KKK leader without the baggage" Scalise.
The GOP bar is so low, it's probably fracking well under the surface.
That said, I can't believe anyone else could have led that committee as far as it went. I don't expect to learn a lot from Cassidy Hutchinson's book, but I'm going to buy it, because I think we need more courageous voices from within the Republican party.
George, it’s as though the people hurting are blindfolded because they’ve been told all their lives to revere rich people as having more intelligence and being more hard-working than the average person. In the book “Moral Politics”, George Lakoff verbalizes the idea that helping the downtrodden further weakens them by making them dependent on assistance. I well remember seeing children being told to refuse recovery supplies after a tornado because “we don’t take government handouts, we can survive without their help”. Far too often, the only thing that the poor white people were taught that they could be proud of were: 1) they weren’t “on the government dole” and 2) they weren’t black.
So true. And I suspect Dr. Lakoff would say it's the frame of the rugged individualist cowboy versus the thought of a community (or on a grander scale -a society).
It's why so many are conned by the incompetent narcissist (Musk and Trump both fit). They believe them to be icons of success when the reality is, they have just exploited other people throughout their time on earth. They are each textbook examples of the worst of American society.
George, my personal experience with a very “successful” businessperson was watching them pretend friendship with colleagues only to turn on them to advance in the organization while relishing sneaky, seemingly gratuitous attacks on their colleagues’ self worth.
Sad that the term "successful businessman" is used for tfg - you know the rich successful "businessman" who had how many bankruptcies? I believe it was 4 or 6? Now one I can understand - you learn from it, but as many as fingers on my hand causes me to believe that this guy "is no businessman" - successful or otherwise.
And then we come to the WH meeting with Russians where he handed over classified intelligence? Again with an Australian "billionaire"? How many little incidents like this are we to forgive? Plus the many that we likely are unaware of.
With great sadness and disappointment, I must agree. We have lost our respect for sharing ideas ...for respecting and appreciating one another even if we disagree or being willing to admit we could be wrong.
"Brainwashing" is real and suttle as well as boldly in our faces. Truth seems to matter less and less.
I'm always delighted when there's an opportunity for a respectful "competition of ideas" provided there is a fundamental embrace of facts, evidence, and science. It helps evolve my thinking. It has become all too rare.
The human brain is amazingly adaptive George. Those experiencing "pain and suffering" have mostly done just that. Chronic pain can become much like a bad smell, and poof, olfactory senses can deaden greatly. Spouses and partners just follow along with them per the hot mic event on Fox recently where the host stated that as so. Reportedly, Putin is in a state of perpetual orgasm as Western Civilization appears essentially on the ropes. Meanwhile, we whistle in the wind reminding Hamas about the 'rules of war'.
A cogent assessment. I often share your pessimism, although the last three national elections give me some hope. We'll see how well-placed that hope is in 13 months.
If lightning strikes next November, we'll have the margins needed to narrow the filibuster and deal with the Court. Somewhat more likely, the opportunity will come in '27.
I think of the psych term co-morbidity, relating to people with multiple psychological challenges such as personality disorder, narcissism, and oppositional disorder all rolled into one. I'm not making fun, but voters should be aware if they choose to elect one of these people.
Yea, being morbidly rich is one of those over consumption phrases. Progressives need to stop thinking that way. It's human nature like being morbidly obese. What we need to do is change the tax code to nudge people to use their wealth for the common good. A consumption tax with a pre-bate to cover the taxes on subsistence level consumption would work. We progressives would then thank those with morbid appetites for luxury or food or sex,... if they were paying the taxes. If they used their obsessions to deliver lower costs of living, jobs, peace, infrastructure,... then why not.
1. Regular Conservatives (many Conservative Democrats fit in here as well):
-want a limited government which lets businesses of any size operate with minimal restrictions, regulations, or oversight
-stand for traditional family values (which in reality have never really been traditional)
-maintaining of the traditional socioeconomic hierarchy of generationally wealthy White (Christian) MEN on top (women are included by extension of their father or husband - unless they significantly break the rules dictated by the men of that level) and poor black unwed women with children at the bottom. The hierarchy Conservative Republicans wish to maintain also includes the institutions which help maintain the socioeconomic structure by keeping people from moving up: Religion, which has had a symbiotic relationship with the elites at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy since antiquity, Education and a system which determines who is allowed to learn what and the quality of instructors. It especially includes Ivy League colleges & universities. Banking/Financial Institutions who determine who get can get personal/business loans & mortgages and how much, decide people’s credit rating, etc., Justice System & Law Enforcement, Real Estate which determines where people can live and the quality of education, Mainstream Media & Social Media (can herd society to protect socioeconomic hierarchy & their institutions which keep people in place), Internet Search Engines (control what businesses come up first, cover up search topics, & let wealthy people & corporations hide or minimize sins - kind of like buying religious indulgences), and more.
This group ranges from moderate to extreme.
2. Christian Theocratic faction which is misogynistic, anti-gay/lesbian/trans, and is increasingly extremist.
3. Those who push for small government (so they can get rid of social security, disability, etc and get ride of regulatory agencies like FEC, FCC, FDA, OSHA, Labor Laws, Discrimination Laws, Consumer Protections/Rights, etc. Many of those who say they are “socially liberal but fiscally conservative” fit in this group.
4. Those who are foreign agents and/or who are just anti-democracy
The problem is that once Citizens United was decided and dark money became the driver those old alignments were replaced by allegiances to funding sources. The agendas morphed into the to do lists of the Kochs and company and the corrupt foreign agents.
Georgia, your posts today have been eloquent and spot on accurate. But this one about Citizens United is where it all generates from. The "morbidly rich" buying our democracy. That single decision is the lynch pin that began our spiral dive into banana republic status. Or actually, "Big Oil Republic". A direct line from CU to a worsening of an already horrific Climate Crisis.
Thank you for your excellent, well constructed comments.
(I agree, I think it might have been Thom Hartman who coined the phrase "morbidly rich" - but everyone should run with it :)
John Roberts (like J Kushner) has a cherubic face. But with his decisions in Citizens United and voting rights cases, just to name two examples, he’s a judicial grenade thrower and home wrecker. Don’t let those pleasant faces delude you into thinking there is a nice person inside.
There are always those factions because of Dark Money by SCOTUS Citizens United (and one other ruling, I think?), the Electoral College, and the SocioEconomic framework.
Jeffries is much too kind in his comment that "there are traditional Republicans who are good women and men who want to see government function." I realize he's trying to appeal to their better selves (I think that's the expression), but I'm not sure those "good women and men" still exist among the House Republicans.
Republicans have suspended their animosity toward Democrats while they fight with each other over which despicable choice for Speaker is less worse than the other
Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies?
“Journalist Brian Tyler Cohen, who hosts the podcast No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, summed up the day when he wrote: “The fact that ALL Republicans would rather fight over Scalise (who attended a neo-Nazi event) or Jordan (who allegedly covered up rampant sexual abuse) rather than simply work with Democrats to elect a Speaker says it all.”
Speaking of Jordan, I read last night that the Washington Post newsroom is abuzz about a pending major investigative piece about the profile-in-cowardice ex-wrestler.
“ The cracks are starting to appear and this is the time to leverage them wider. Hakeem Jeffries just stared to widen that crack!!!”
The cracks begun some time ago. As I’ve written here before, the morning I found out that trump won I fervently prayed that the GOP would self implode. My prayers are being answered but for God’s sake, this is crucially the time for the Democrats to grow some cojones….
Project2025 can't be serious and must be stopped. The base rate of authoritarians and dictators is obviously not that good. We don't need a quick takeover of the government by the executive branch.. We need all 3 branches working together.
"The plan (Project 2025) would perform a quick takeover of the entire U.S. federal government under a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory – a theory proposing the president of the United States have absolute power of the executive branch – upon inauguration."
Aaron, thank you for the Wikipedia link. Particularly notable how many news sources are from the past six weeks or so -- TFG may be ranting on his stages in a stream of unconsciousness, but the image of this army of people who agree with him and fueled by this unitary executive theory is stunningly frightening.
Aaron, I was hair-on-fire after reading Project 2025 when it first dropped & sent info/link to friends and family to be aware & alarmed by what they are trying to pull off (more brazenly now than their decades-long behind the scenes efforts). The response I got? “Meh…..” Now THAT alarmed me as well! That said, most all of them vote blue and are left-of-center or political centrists so that is somewhat comforting at least. Knowing what to actively do to counter this *shakes fist at sky* leaves me feeling a bit helpless in countering the forces of power and big money.
Georgia, this is a brilliant expansion of my thoughts about the once-proud GOP (which, in truth, can no longer be nickname for Repubs.) I wish I could gather my thoughts with a fraction of your eloquence; indeed, I wish I could categorize these groups so neatly, as you've done. Brava! And let's hope 5 or more members of that party, whatever we shall call them, can announce a breakaway towards a functioning House, for the good of the country.
Thank you for positive feedback! We are in uncharted waters again because our institutional memory as a nation is so short. Crises are multiplying so fast--undoubtedly because of Putin and Hamas being at the very least opportunistic about our political paralysis, that we all have to think about how to get back to a House that performs its basic function as quickly as possible. That can only happen if Democrats shout out the reasons for the paralysis and push hard for the only solution that will provide a stable government through 2024.
I agree. Those members of the chaos group, as you call them, are not doing the job they were elected to do: represent the People and look out for our interest. This country isn't served well by their objection to good governance -- in fact, it endangers us. If they had an ounce of shame they would see that. Instead, this small cohort of obstructionists is able to tie the House in knots. They are a tiny minority of a bare majority. I'm speaking to the choir, I know, and will end my rant. Courage to us all in these trying days.
I appreciate your clear-eyed analysis. Thank you for the link to the Project 2025 manifesto. The comparison to the chaos that reigns in Italy is so apt and scary too as it has pushed the government ever further to the right. But it doesn't stop there. New Zealand is about to do a 180 away from the liberal-minded policies of Jacinda Ardern to the far right, complete with efforts to strip the Maoris of rights and privilege. Sickening doesn't begin to cover it.
I believe that it is becoming a global issue because the concentration of wealth is not just limited to the US but is itself global. Authoritarianism arises and is stoked by grievance politics. Grievance politics takes root when people believe that their children will be less well off than they are because of the "others" that are taking away their piece of the pie. The genius of those consolidating obscene wealth is that they find puppets like Trump who spread the lies about who is really stealing that piece of pie. In America we have made it incredibly easy by allowing dark money to dominate political fundraising.
Thanks you very much for the nose Count. George A: 6 House seditionists (G,J,B,T-G & G); 13 seditionist Senators + plus the Egypt Agent, Menendez, makes 14. There are others such as Santos if that is his surname.
Professor thank you for calling out the superior Congressional reporting by JAKE SHERMAN. We have an excellent Congressional Press Corps. Hat Tip to ALI VETALI at MSNBC & JACKIE ALEMANY at WAPO who is also gifted on-screen as a Communicator. Valid info is not the problem
217 remains the vital Total Tally number needed now. We all can do the math R's had 212 in their last vote (99+113) & the D's had 213. George A identified possible subtractions to those numbers; HCR has identified "voting present" & other House tactics. I am working on Reps in 4 CA House Districts. There are many possibilities. Have some "Good Trouble".
No blank check for Israel. But the right to defend one’s self. There are innocent Palestinians and Israelis who should not pay the price for Hamas or Netanyahu.
Hamas doesn’t give a shxt about the Palestinians; they are just power hungry crazies. Netanyahu doesn’t give a shxt about Israelis, just himself... he is a crook.
The world for the most part is being run by greed and crooks. Our beautiful democracy is being raped while we watch. It is sad to the point of maddening.
It is almost surreal. Here we are, watching the destroyers of our democracy (Jordan, Gaetz, Scalise, Trump et al.) go about their task of dismantling our democracy, and we are powerless to do anything about it presently.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." Pres. G.W. Bush, White House Correspondents' Dinner, 3-31-2001
Attacks and deprivations enacted on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians go beyond the pale. CBC News (Canadian Broadcast Corporation; freely available on many smart tvs) has been providing reasonably balanced coverage. Footage of injured children and infants from both Israeli and Palestinian populations are nearly unbearable to view. Meanwhile terrorists continue pushing beyond actions any civilized people would find acceptable. They need to be dealt with, but can the "innocents" be spared as much as possible?
'As Israel wages war in Gaza over Hamas' terror, one Palestinian tells CBS News, "They're wiping us out"
'Metula, northern Israel — Israel is warning of a "prolonged" war in Gaza as it prepares to launch a ground invasion of the densely populated Palestinian territory. If ordered by the country's leaders, it would be Israel's first ground offensive in Gaza in almost a decade, but its aerial attacks have already been relentless for six days, and the grim reality for the roughly 2.3 million people trapped in the region is becoming clear.'
'Many of those paying the ultimate price for the brutal weekend terror attack on Israel by Gaza's Hamas rulers are the youngest Palestinians. Hospitals and clinics struggling to keep their lights on since Israel imposed a complete blockade, cutting electricity supplies to the Palestinian enclave, are full of tiny bodies covered in blood and exhausted doctors trying desperately to save their lives.'
'Israel says it's targeting Hamas militants and command centers and that several of the group's leaders have already been killed. But as Israel vows to wipe Hamas out completely, many, including experts at the United Nations who have accused Israel of answering Hamas' war crimes with its own, are asking at what cost.'
'Officials in Gaza said the death toll in the besieged Palestinian territory had surged past 1,300 on Thursday, just six days into Israel's retaliatory attacks. On nearly every street in the 25-mile-long strip of land there have been scenes of anguish as rescue workers gather the remains of the dead.' (CBSNEWS) See link below.
Israel has cut Food, Fuel, Electricity AND WATER off from Gaza. Dr. Richardson left water out of her report today. She knows that without water, in five days, everyone in Gaza is dead. This was reported four times on NPR yesterday (that is my reference, the FM radio). I was working back in my woods listening.
FIVE days from now, Gaza will be one massive grave of former Palestinians with the smell just starting to waft over to Israel.
Are all of the people living in Gaza terrorists? Not even close. Most were just randomly born there and would be happy to move anywhere else than the hell of Gaza strip.
So, while everyone appears to worry about atrocities against the Israeli population, we are standing by, sound asleep, while a massive atrocity is being promulgated on Gaza.
No water for five days and everyone is dead in Gaza Fern.
Apparently, since we, the USA, thought it was OK to bomb and kill civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, even though NONE of the people in those countries had anything to do with flying airplanes into the twin towers, we also think it is OK to exterminate more than a million people in Gaza. Almost ALL of whom had nothing to do with the atrocities that recently occurred in Israel.
As usual, I agree with you Mike. Too many innocents. I don't have the answers or some brilliant way for bloodshed to be avoided. This will be like Carthage.
But I do know that if I had been one of those Israeli peacenicks living on a kibbutz near Gaza - one of the many who were trying to find ways to establish peace and harmony with Palestinians...and my family had been slaughtered...my wife, my child, my mother...would I have had the restraint I had been preaching for years before that? It's quite likely that this peacenick would find a weapon and join the invasion of Gaza and kill everything in my path.
That being said, I think the world should join together and scream "STOP NOW". All of you, just stop. But it won't happen. There will be no end to this until Hamas and Hezbollah are eradicated. They are puppets of Iran and Russia.
One of the smartest observers of the international scene is Diane Francis:
Stabilizing your own territory and protecting your people is one thing, but revenge is another. Especially when your people have little or no ways of protecting themselves. Throwing rocks won’t do it…
Hamas is dedicated to the complete and total elimination of all things Israel. Their stated goal is to KILL and/or remove all Jews from Israel. Hamas cannot continue to exist anymore than ISIS. There will never be any chance for peace in this region as long as Hamas exists. Hamas must be replaced with the PLA or some other governing Palestinian organization that wants the best for it's people.
Hamas has received billions from Qatar and they used that money to make rockets instead of funding healthcare and education.
The horror of what is happening to the innocents in Gaza is beyond awful. It is bone shaking horrible. But just as the Germans and the Japanese of WWII suffered for their support of evil murderous leaders...so will the people of Gaza for not rising up and eschewing the insane and vicious acts of their "government".
And after the decimation and after the complete capitulation of Gaza...maybe, just maybe Israel will finally do what they should have done years ago. Embrace the Palestinians as fellow travelers - fellow descendants of the same humans. Give them full citizenship or their own state. Hamas is a horror. But what could we expect when we put two million people in a cage and deprive them of water? Food. The freedom to travel. The right to raise their children in a healthy way.
This is Netanyahu's mess. And he will be recorded as the most evil and stupid leader in the history of the region. He is the Donald Trump of the Middle East.
Eradicating Hamas is not revenge. It is essential. But they wouldn't exist if Israel had countered Iran by saying: "Wait, these are our people, our neighbors!" Too late now.
In fairness, Mike, I have not heard anyone say it’s OK to kill 1M people in Gaza. Everyone I’ve heard recognizes this is all Hamas—that’s who needs to be wiped out. The victims here are Israeli and Palestinian people just trying to live their lives.
Hamas has dictated the terms of this war and Israel is in full reaction terrorist mode itself. The situation in Gaza is beyond hell and must be walked back with the urgent urging of the US and EU. Precision is called for to root out Hamas and bring hostages to safety. The suffering of innocent, trapped Palestinians will not heal the victims (all Israelis) of Hamas’ attack. Imagining the suffering of all these fellow PEOPLE brings illness to us all.
Who is insisting or even asking Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the leader of an opposition party to stop killing innocent civilians in Gaza, to turn the electricity and water back on, create a corridor out of Gaza for the Palestinians to get to safety? WHO? As though the Israel government doesn't know what it's doing!
Yes, I agree about the UN and, perhaps, Blinken and Biden, but no indication that such discussions, if happening, have moved the Israeli government. The cycle of hatred and the determination for retaliation may be as hard as chromium. Does the Israeli government want anything less than the annihilation of Gaza?
Egypt has closed the corridors for escape, the same pathways that enabled hundreds to flee to Turkey just before last weekend. Yet that gets no notice. Hamas planned for all of this and has booby-trapped much of Gaza so more Israelis will die. This could all end if the hostages were returned. But they are pawns. And most likely murdered already. And - when, exactly, have combatants in a war been tasked with offering sustenance to their enemies?
MLM, this is not my experience. For some of the more far gone ones, Hamas = all Palestinians to them. Nor do they say that Israel is wrong to obliterate the Gaza strip.
I understand there are, shall we say, less well-educated people who think Hamas = Palestinians or that it's OK to bomb Gaza into next month. I have simply been fortunate not to run into any of them.
Its all about Hamas. Innocent people dying because a terrorist group leads Gaza. But here’s the thing, Hamas cares not for its citizens in the short term. They don’t care how many die. Its goal is to incite Israeli leaders to take off all gloves, violate the rules of war and commit sufficient atrocities on Gaza so as to appease the survivors of the terrorist attack as the world reacts to an inhumane Israeli response with disgust
“We finally solved the Hamas problem, so what if a million humans got in the way? Collateral damage. BTW, the Supreme Court of Israel no longer can out me in prison. Long live my Democracy”, quote attributed to an anonymous Israeli leader
I am horrified by this as well, and do not like that President Biden has not called for restraint, but rather sent an aircraft carrier to the area. Admittedly the carrier is likely intended to caution against a larger war.
A better-than-status-quo solution to the areas problems is long overdue. That is on all involved. Nobody will win, be happy, etc. That is how it always works out = the human condition.
Additionally, Hamas was elected by the Palestinians at one point, other forces are using Palestinans for their own gain, neither the US, nor the US people, think exterminating a million people in Gaza is OK. Like the US, Israel has the right to defend itself and its existence.
I do not know why a mixed Israel hasn't evolved, I simply don't remember all the facts over 50 years - but that is how it must evolve. After one generation people move on to a new normal.
Massive areas of Gaza have been literally reduced to dust. Apart from innocent children and adults, isn't it likely that the hostages were in some of those now destroyed buildings?
Thanks Molly for this comment! I wrote the following articles the other day and wanted to get feedback!
The first article is about how: ever since the Israel incident, a large majority of Americans have been turned into blood thirsty individuals fueled by rage and emotion that no one is thinking critically - and they’re proud of it with statements such as “this is no time to think critically, we need to strike!”
So in this article, I compare the majorly events of WWI, WWII, and 9/11 to show how similar events turned Americans from peace loving into war mongering individuals overnight:
In the second article, I try to bring everyone’s humanity back because while we’re caught up by the attack and Israel (and purposely choosing to ignore logic and reason under the guise of “emotional justice” (ps: I address the raping of women and children as well)), at the end of the day, more innocent lives will be lost and those lives fall on everyone who’s supported this “retaliation”
Like 9/11, this horror was designed as the trigger mechanism for a chain reaction.
The effectiveness of that chain reaction depends on the shocked overreaction of the victim and allies. Extreme brutality is not only a product of Gazan rage and frustration, kept white hot by constant propaganda, it is deliberate, calculated to produce and maximize a desired long-term effect.
This assault is in effect a strategic weapon, its success depends on the reactions of the victim.
In the light of this purpose, the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld reaction to 9/11, the so-called War on Terror, spread and perpetuated terror and chaos via such aberrations as the long-term occupation of Afghanistan and the Second Gulf War, ensuring the success of Al-Qaida's action beyond its planners' wildest dreams.
This vile strategic weapon calls for the cold, skilfull response of the bomb disposal squad, controlled explosions to deactivate the warmongers' device, not indiscriminate "bomb 'em all back into the stone age" vengeance.
Unfortunately, today's chain reaction bomb was well-designed by able and utterly ruthless planners who will have protected themselves while sacrificing their own people, the innocent alongside the guilty. On the one hand, using captured hostages, on the other, using Gazan civilians as human shields... and martyrs, whether willing or not.
I would be delighted if the above view could be demolished... but I just don't see that.
*
It is horrible to look into such minds, staring straight into hell.
But... to defeat an enemy, is not such cold observation necessary?
The aim: to stop evil in its tracks... instead of perpetuating it. Now, all we can do is watch what is done.
Watch what is done... This feature especially: the exploitation for political gain of bloodlust baying for vengeance. Not just in Israel where Netanyahu's saber-rattling threats aim at Teheran. (One is bound to suspect that he cannot stand having been outsmarted by despised Palestinians and wants to blame a bigger bogeyman.) In America, elsewhere in Palestine, throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world... Throw the dogs of war a bone and improve your weakening fingerhold on power...
Semantics question, Peter. Has the "Second Gulf War" replaced "Global War on Terrorism" in the naming of the names? I'm curious, because semantics are important.
The only term I recall from 2001 was "the war on terror", which -- of course -- made little sense. The "Global War on Terrorism" may be pompous but the words are more or less understandable. George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and all that followed (and is continuing) were a key feature of that Global War, a "war" that has multiplied and reinforced the international terrorism it was supposed to suppress. In particular, the invasion of Iraq has strengthened regional power Iran's corrupt theocratic regime and empowered the Iranian military-industrial complex. No comment on various forms of hubristic Saudi craziness or on the worldwide development of State-directed or sponsored terrorism.
All you have to do is read the headlines of the New York Times after 9/11. They became war mongers!! The hell with the facts.
Yelling rape gets people even more wanting to kill the offender. How do they know there was rape? Or in desperation to keep the Hamas attack on the front page did they jin up this? Do I feel manipulated? Of course.
YES a blank check for Israel and a blank check for Ukraine. We are facing a world similar to 1939 and it is time for the US and be the backbone for democracy in the world. If it means more taxes, more tanks, fewer cars, restrictions on gas, etc., then so be it. We are at war with chaos around the world and we need a wartime point of view. Re-activate the draft. Send US troops to Ukraine. As Roosevelt said, “The US is the armory for democracy.”
Israel is the mother of Hamas and taught it everything it knows. It is pointless to argue over who's right and who's wrong. It is worse than pointless to encourage further violence but that is the long-standing U.S. policy that Biden is blindly continuing. That is where the American people may have some leverage: changing the inflammatory U.S. policy. But politicians, including Biden, believe that killing innocents in the Middle East is a vote winner.
"But politicians, including Biden, believe that killing innocents in the Middle East is a vote winner."
It is beyond my understanding that, although PBS and NPR are reporting, all day yesterday, that WATER, fuel, food and electricity have been cut off...
NOBODY is calling that out as a pending mass death atrocity against a bunch of people who had nothing to do with Hamas foray into Israel.
NitWitYahoo is just trying to redeem his useless self by creating innocent dead bodies.
Sort of like George W. Bush, who, like NitWitYahoo, had ignored the threat from Al Qaeda provided him by the CIA, tried to redeem himself by creating innocent dead bodies in Afghanistan.
Apparently, killing innocent people is a time tested way for a politician to become popular. It certainly worked for Adolph Hitler.
NitWitYahoo is just following the George W. Bush philosophy.
Create innocent dead bodies in exchange for votes from the ignorant and hateful masses in the hopes that nobody will notice that it is NitWitYahoo's poor leadership and poor oversight that allowed such a massively successful attack on his country.
Murder and war are always wrong. I feel the feelings you have about the loss of innocent lives. But here is some harsh truth you and I agree on. Americans allowed Bush/Cheney to slaughter. Americans elected Donald Trump. Which started the ball rolling on Ukraine. Americans suffer to this day for these insane decisions.
And Palestinians allowed Hamas to rule. Even though a majority of them wanted peace and a decent life - they did not rebel and choose a peace loving government.
The brutality of all this is wrong beyond words. But when a military group like Hamas bases its very existence on the annihilation of an entire nation, please tell me how you would react. What if the leaders of NYC said that the entire state of Vermont must be exterminated. I suspect even Bernie would put on a uniform.
It should all stop and all the bad guys should be singled out for justice. Innocents should be protected. Hard to do when the evil ones use their children and mothers as shields.
I feel everything you are feeling. But it might be a bit ivory tower to tell Israel how to deal with assassins.
You called Bibi what he is. Biden has no choice but to support Israel, despite Bibi’s evil actions. Hopefully he will be held accountable for his part in this. But no one will do it while the country’s heart is burning. It’s why we let W/Dickie taint our country with their evil.
Israel does need need US help to obliterate the Gaza strip. Those people are completely dependent on Israel for everything. Their living conditions are cramped and impoverished. Israel could have started with cutting off gas, water, electricity, food.
The bombing and continued destruction of Gaza has doomed the lives of the hostages. If Gaza has no water, the hostages will have no water.
If the population is living in terror and misery, so are the hostages. Why would Hamas negotiate anything for them....It's over; they won't be "going home". After decades of insults and misery for Palestinians with no effective relief, Hamas pulled off this incredible humiliating and atrocious act. The goal of Hamas was to create this exact result: cause more anti-semitism throughout the world.
The world leaders who support Israel are now thinking and feeling something completely different.
Glad your comment is getting attention, LB: your voice is needed amid all the din. I just got back from a couple of weeks overseas and the perspective from outside the bubble is very interesting. People outside the USA (people with education, experience, and nuance) are just perplexed about what is happening here. The discussions of the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories are also a lot more nuanced, as neither side can claim any kind of innocence--both are culpable and both are also victims. As Michelle Goldberg says in the NYTimes, any celebration of the death and destruction of any civilian population is grotesque and nauseating. However, neither of the "leaders" care a whit about the populations they are supposed to protect: all are merely cannon fodder and opportunities for media frenzies. To say I am utterly disgusted and utterly discouraged is an understatement.
The historian in me is compelled to refer to the great 12th-century philosopher, Moses Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon), whose revolutionary treatise, A Guide for the Perplexed, suggested a way to rationalize biblical and Talmudic theology and interpretation with Aristotelian and Platonic "science" and logic. As a scholar who was read by Jewish, Christian, AND Muslim philosophers, Maimonides was able to transcend--because he was a careful, deeply thoughtful, and relatively NEUTRAL thinker without a specific agenda he was trying to flog (unlike most of the Christian scholars of the day)--the prejudices of the day to accomplish something important for the intellectual community. We need more people like Maimonides these days. But they are excruciatingly hard to find.
Bizarre and utterly surreal for sure. The founders of our country would have never imagined this moment. We’re all wondering what the hell happens or doesn’t happen next in Congress and in the whole world. Blinken and Biden are truly astonishing though. They just keep soldiering on.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, although late in life they worked out their "differences", literally hated each other for years and did everything possible to hamstring the other.
Two men with great minds, one who wrote the beautiful Declaration of Independence and the other (Adams) who wrote, alone in his farmhouse, the first tripartite (Congress, Judicial, Executive) constitution for Massachusetts, much of which became the US Constitution.
Two truly great men hated on each other for years. Hating is something we all are born very good at apparently.
Perhaps they would not be surprised to see the dysfunction we have today? Just shake their heads and say, yep, back to the future.
Digression: has anyone read tfg’s statement in the CO case to keep him off the ballot? Sit down. “It’s not my job to protect the constitution.”
“Trump swore a presidential oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, but the text of the 14th Amendment says it applies to those who have sworn oaths to “support” the Constitution, Blue pointed out the sematic difference in an Oct. 6 filing in the case.”
So far, Hakeem Jeffries has been on target in his relatively patient stance, waiting for the Republicans to get themselves together while offering leadership if Moderate Republicans will join him. If Moderate Republicans do join with the Democrats or if Jeffries, for the good of the country, offers to support a Moderate Republican for Speaker (or Co-Speaker if such a role is imaginable) this should be undertaken European style -- with a written agreement regarding distribution of positions and policy stances -- including aid to Israel and Ukraine.
I agree with you and am putting that stance out wherever I can!
Consider: Who stands to HURT the most when there is no Speaker in November and there IS a government shutdown? THE GOP (besides the American people and the world economy, but this concept is beyond the interest or understanding of the average uninformed voter)
Even if it had shut down two weeks ago and many would blame the GOP, there would be those who would have still blamed the Dems and/or Biden. The GOP, who loves them some media hits, is under a barrage of such hits now. I doubt anyone would not blame them now! And boy would they get hit in 2024!
So how to they save themselves? VOTE IN JEFFRIES. It's a win-win for them in many ways. They can push out the MAGA extremists but not have to take the blame for it. They've never found the spine to do it themselves, so now they can blame the Dems.
They might be able to save their party, as I truly believe that if a viable third party emerges, they will siphon many more voters from the right than the left.
With the Dems in control of the House, Senate and WH---trust me, I know this is a gamble on their part--but they could point to any problems and say "its THEM not US"
Yes, there is a distinct chance that this backfires on them, that the Dems get work done. But IMHO they have painted themselves into a corner and there is no way out without getting that paint wet. They have to find the path that causes the least mess for themselves.
"The crisis in Ukraine has not ended while all eyes are on the crisis in the Middle East."
Indeed.
I can't help but see the hand of Vladimir Putin behind much, if not all, of this, especially the crippling of the US government at the hands of Congressional Republicans. If Robert Menendez is to be expelled from the Senate as a foreign agent acting on behalf of Egypt, and he absolutely should be, then what of the entire Republican Congressional conference? They're acting as witting, or worse, unwitting agents of Russia. Holding up US aid to Ukraine and inhibiting our ability to affect events in the Middle East, (i.e. Ted Cruz in the Senate sitting on the appointment of a US ambassador to Israel,) plays into Putin's hand. It seems he is the only one who stands to benefit from this whole mess, even if he hasn't been able to capitalize on it militarily in Ukraine, yet. Putin has established a track record of successfully manipulating the Republican Party. After all, he put a yellow-haired stooge in the White House.
But what do I know? I'm just a retired electrician living on the shores of a lake in Connecticut. I keep in touch with HCR's letters, the NY Times, and the Guardian, and a walk in the woods to keep perspective on things.
Putin's strategy has always been to exploit the situation by pitting two extremes against each other. This only works when emotions are riled up, and hatred for the other side is inflamed. Putin uses violence and war to create refugee and immigrant crises to achieve his end of destabilizing democracies. He likely did have a hand in arming HAMAS, and is already using the Middle East to distract the west away from supporting Ukraine.
What do you know? That’s a good question, if your ‘keeping in touch’ is limited to HCR/NYT/Guardian. Putin didn’t put the ‘yellow-haired stooge’ in the White House; 40+ years of neoliberal economic policy, endorsed, albeit in slightly different degree, by both political parties, accomplished that historical absurdity.
Any American blaming Russia for American electoral outcomes is as disingenuous as clueless parents blaming everyone but their spoiled, delinquent child for bad/bullying behavior at school.
The American people, apathetic, propagandized, tribal, and consumed with the latest digital devices and creature comforts, put that buffoon in the Oval.
The Republican party is acting as terrorists within the USA. We should be having our own day of rage(on a different day than Hamas) that 1) they cannot elect a speaker who can work with democrats, 2) Tommy Tuberville is blocking military appointments and endangering our country, 3) Paul Rand and Ted Cruz are blocking diplomatic appointments. Americans should be taking to the streets over that. I am in Europe for the time being, and here people do protest more easily. Each week there are demonstrations for all sorts of things, environment, unions, animal research, political positions of the government that people don't agree with. They tend to be in the marketplace, and peaceful. Some is just people standing holding up signs of protest, some have marching and speeches. Still, there is agency. I hope that more people in the USA decide that is something they have to do. It needs to be made visible to the Republicans and the people that voted for them, that they are considered the problem, not the solution.
Thank you once again for such an in-depth summary of the bizarre moment we are living though! I hate looking in my rearview mirror when it comes to politics but, here I go. In 2015 when the orange menace came on the scene and then probably through cheating was elected over a highly qualified candidate, I said to anyone that would listen "we are in big trouble". Over and over I was told that I was an alarmist and it was only four years...what real harm could he do. Well, here we are!
He appointed three Supreme Court Justices and lots of federal judges, the crazies found a new "leader", our Congress has given the crazies there a voice, the greedy have become even more so, and the hate that just us common folk have seen or experienced is at an all time high (at least in my lifetime).
So, where do we go from here? There is a comment from Georgia Fisanick below that I totally agree with. We Democrats AND our elected officials HAVE to start calling out these bastards. We must get people out to VOTE and to grow tough skins because we will take some heat from people who either don't know anything or don't want to know anything. Who would have thought we would have to fight so hard for something so precious as our democracy in this day in age????
“What real harm could he do.” I knew, he told us. He has not disappointed. He should have shocked the socks off the MAGAts. But Rupert made him into a demoGod. Joke on the MAGAts. He is just the worst of humanity.
I knew that 2016 was not about the Presidency, but about SCOTUS. The Bernie Bros and Never Clintons that sat out that election are part and parcel to blame for fpotus and all he's done to America.
No power. No food. The hospitals will soon become morgues. I hope those young men and women in the Israeli army are ready and prepared to cope with this while they cleanse Gaza of skulking Hamas terrorists.
I just watched a report on German News. The situation in Gaza as I understand it is this, they showed papers falling from the sky telling people to get out of the northern part of Gaza. They said that with no electricity and water running out, people are not having even the basic preparations to leave. Hospitals are becoming morgues, because the ill cannot be moved, and they do not have basic equipment and medicines. They say that there is no one leading the people on where to go. That is the problem with a terrorist leadership that has no interest in the people. They have their agenda, and the well being of the people of Gaza is clearly not it. So, Hamas is threatening the Gazans with weapons as they try to leave in a totally chaotic way with no where to go, and no where in Gaza, not one tiny corner where they can feel safe. It makes my problems seem like nothing. I have to remember after what has transpired this past week how good I have it. I am getting ill from seeing images of traumatized children. What a horrid world we live in where the adults are not able to keep the children or themselves safe.
Not meant to diminish the rightful condemnation of Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel nor the dire threat of the conflict spreading, my mind keeps turning to April of 2008, when former President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leaders who committed to a ten-year truce and to acceptance of a Palestinian state were Israel to withdraw to its pre-war 1967 borders. I note this because as long as the pertinent players refuse even to try and reconcile Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land since 1967–the longest occupation in modern history—there will be no end to the violence.
As for the crisis in Ukraine, while I’m not calling for ending the funding, I do fear this crisis is spinning out of control. Sooner rather than later, calls for a cease fire and negotiations will need to be amplified as we increasingly come to recognize that both sides are just strong enough not to lose and just weak enough not to win.
"calls for a cease fire and negotiations will need to be amplified as we increasingly come to recognize that both sides are just strong enough not to lose and just weak enough not to win."
Of course, I don't know what is right here.
However, as a long time (from middle school) opponent of bullies, I would like to see Pukin's sad army pushed back to Moscow and the Ukranian army occupy Red Square and put Pukin in jail with only NPR as his news source.
THAT is what is needed for a bully. Otherwise, they never stop kicking around the little guys.
Mike, While I, too, would like to see the same, given North Korea’s agreement to sell weapons to the Russians, Putin determination to hold on through our 24 elections, and the increasingly apparent impasse between the two sides, I, personally, have no choice but to join with peers who are pressing for a cease fire and negotiations. Franky, I believe the Ukrainians have shown they are a formidable enough force to bring sufficient leverage to the table.
Mike S and Barbara Jo, it seems in both cases, Ukraine vs Russia and Palestinians vs Israel, the world is faced with an apparently eternal conflict between trying to adhere to principle by enforcing previously made agreements or succumbing to what is practically workable. It is manifestly unclear which path is the "right" or "correct" path.
Barbara Jo, I am moved to remember the simple and perhaps naive goodness of Jimmy Carter and his solution, return to previously agreed-upon borders, which seemed to provide at least the cover of apparent peace in a remorselessly violent part of the world while at the same time apparently advocating for accepting new borders in Ukraine as the solution to that crisis.
While the latter makes some sense practically it abandons the principle of the former, accepting and living within previously agreed-upon borders.
A German reporter was saying tonight that his contact in Gaza said that most of the people have left Gaza City, except for those who really want to hold onto their homes. He said that Hamas keeps trying to downplay what the fliers are saying and the warnings from Israel and that things are not going to be that bad. According to his informer, most of the people in Gaza are so fed up with whatever leadership they have had and they just want someone to help them live in peace and safety. I get that. Having a fascistic, terrorist leadership is not what most people want. Who can bring that about? We certainly don't have an ambassador to Israel, and I don't know who is in the region.
Barbara, your last sentence made me gasp - “ both sides just strong enough not to lose and just weak enough not to win”. What an awful situation! I still don’t understand our response to the Ukraine situation. It hasn’t felt right to me from the beginning. I’m not a hawk, and I certainly don’t know what the real story is behind the scenes, but I keep feeling we (the western world) could have and should have ended it quickly. So many lives have been lost!! Both sides - Russia and Ukraine - might be similar in strength, but the Ukrainian people have their hearts and souls in that battle fighting for their homeland - a huge advantage.
Today the 4 GOP members from California from Districts where Biden won by margins from 2-12.9% declared they were going to caucus with Democrats for the remainder of their terms or until such time a Speaker is elected.
"I know it sounds crazy", said one Rep from a District Biden won in a landslide, "but I came here to govern, not play childish games with the security and safety of the country".
"Likewise," added another from a district Biden won by double digits "The extreme faction in this party is out of control and needs to be quashed. We were sent here to address the problems in our Districts and country, not pull stunts to get prime spots on cable news shows"
Upon hearing the news of the California 4, as they are now called, the other 7 GOP members from Biden districts met to discuss their options.
Some of their staffers have indicated there are discussions of caucusing with Democrats as Independents and a few from Districts where Biden won by double digits of switching parties. "It's the only way they see of coming back to the House in 2024" said a staffer who asked not to be named.
Don't I wish that there could be some common sense on display in the House of Representatives. Sadly, that commodity is no longer measured by the bushel but by the teaspoon.
Things can change Ally, you know there are plenty of Republicans personally embarrassed by the GOP sh^t show. Everyone has a breaking point. Let's push on 'em.
Yes, at first I used his name in the quote but was afraid too many readers wouldn’t see the well intended satire.
“Alternative America News”. Is my play on Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts. The difference being her facts were mostly evil lies while my Alternative news is hopeful wishing for ways to turn Congress into a functioning body again.
I hope there aren’t too many people who believe this to be real news. This ain’t Truth Social where critical thinking went to die.
Glad to hear that it was satire, but today I've been writing about how some of those vulnerable Republicans voting for Jeffries is the only way we get a stable government until the next Congress is sworn in in 2025. The rate that news is gushing at us, and how fast the political situation is changing, makes me feel like most of us don't have the bandwidth to sort out your admittedly very clever (in retrospect) post from the deluge.
It has to start somewhere. A lot of things start out as jokes and become reality. Look at Zelensky for example. Just trying to have a little good trouble fun.
It's easy when you make it up. It's very cathartic for me. Glad you enjoyed it. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. The possibilities are endless but whatever it is it will be good news for Alternative America!
Switching to caucus with the Democrats to retain your seat in the House is obviously self-serving. I would only trust them if they each hold a press conference and announce their intentions and what their constituents will gain from them flip-flopping. And even then can they really be trusted?
If the government shuts down because of Matt Gaetz and his friends there will likely be a blood bath in 2024. In the meantime, the House members can only watch the two wars our allies are fighting. What great allies we are -- NOT!
In today's Letter, Heather Cox Richardson, opened with,
'We are in a bizarre moment.'
She then went on to touch upon what seemed like a thousand moments of pain, disorder, violence and lies. I call our woe now, a macabre carousel going round and round. Just mention of Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, US, Russia, Israel, Hamas, Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, Yemen, Sudan...The Republican Party, Climate Change. What would would you call it? What are human beings doing to each other?
‘As Warnings of Crisis in Gaza Mount, Palestinians Struggle to Find Room for the Dead’
‘Israel’s latest strikes on Gaza have drawn warnings from aid workers and residents of a humanitarian catastrophe. “We are facing a huge disaster,” said one U.N. official.’
‘Hospitals crowded with patients are running short on fuel. Fearful residents are racing to U.N.-run schools, seeking shelter from airstrikes. Water and electricity have been cut off, the borders are closed, and even the cemeteries do not have room to accommodate all the newly dead.’
‘The health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday that its health system had “begun to collapse,” and as night fell, most of the territory was plunged into darkness. Its only power plant had shut down on Wednesday for want of fuel.’
‘On Thursday, at least 10 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa. Video from the aftermath of the strike showed a scene covered in gray ash and dust, the bodies and wounded nearly indistinguishable from the rubble around them.’
‘The Gaza Strip, pounded for days by hundreds of Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for Hamas attacks on Saturday that killed more than 1,200 people, is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, residents and aid workers say. The strikes, along with a newly declared siege by Israel, have compounded the problems of years of blockade that had left the strip, a tiny enclave controlled by Hamas, impoverished and desperate even before the latest war.’
“We are facing a huge disaster,” said Adnan Abu Hasna, the media adviser for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees.’
‘Gazans and Israeli officials alike have described the strikes, which began on Saturday, as more severe and widespread than in conflicts past. Satellite imagery of residential areas showed dozens of flattened buildings, and video showed the wreckage of a refugee camp hit by a strike. Residents of Gaza said airstrikes have landed on hospitals, schools and mosques.’
‘Israel has said its strikes are targeting sites connected with Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, saying it believes Hamas members are hiding in homes, schools and hospitals;’
‘Hamas members, as Palestinians from Gaza, live among the community. Israel’s military has asserted that the neighborhood around Al-Shifa Hospital, the strip’s largest medical complex, is a financial hub for Hamas, and many of the limestone villas and high-rise buildings surrounding the hospital have already been reduced to piles of rubble and concrete.’
‘But in the tight, densely populated quarters of Gaza, there is often nowhere for Palestinian civilians to go when a neighborhood is bombed’.
‘Israel’s defense minister has also vowed to allow no food, water, electricity or fuel into the impoverished enclave. The strip, where more than two million people live, has already been under blockade by Israel and Egypt for 16 years.’
‘The situation there was “extremely dire before these hostilities,” the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said this week. “Now it will only deteriorate exponentially.”
'At least 1,537 Palestinians have been killed and 6,612 others wounded since Saturday, according to the Gazan Health Ministry. It was not clear how many of the dead included Palestinian assailants who carried out Saturday’s attack.' (NewYorkTimes) See gifted link for the entire report below.’
What is happening in Gaza is simply horrifying and not a single politician in the USA has said one word that would damp the violence against the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza.
Mike, there doesn't seem to be any room for that. I abhor what Hamas has done, just as I abhor the conditions that Israel has imposed upon the Gaza strip and the conduct that created Hamas in the first place. I have been called out for not being 100% in support of Israel and everything they do. I cannot get behind the response which is to obliterate the Gaza strip and kill every Palestinian within it.
Carole, I think it is horrifying each time, and I have been learning about our lethal behavior toward one another as well as the good, year after year, ever since I was capable of absorbing facts.
I am also horrified at what we do to one another on the negative side of the spectrum as well as the positive side. It is shocking, Helen, and very painful to relearn this over and over again.
“The fact that ALL Republicans would rather fight over Scalise (who attended a neo-Nazi event) or Jordan (who allegedly covered up rampant sexual abuse) rather than simply work with Democrats to elect a Speaker says it all.” Egads... *edit - jfyi, Here's a timely article to share as well if you will > https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2023/how-to-spot-fake-news-israel-hamas-war/
Effectively, today’s Republicans can barely function. They offer The Big Lie, Trump fascism, Trump et al, continuing racism, violent antisemitism and daily mass killings and racial violence, intolerance, racism, fascism, economic incoherence, certain Crash and collapse of the dollar, governmental chaos, nihilism and darkness, no Speaker in the House, Russia overtaking Ukraine and Europe and collapse of NATO, a Nazi rule expanding across the globe from Israel with Hamas ruling from GAZA, a Mideast dominated by Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas, the end of Western Civilization, rising dictatorships, grifting, China, Russia, ISIS and worse... with GOP Rep. George Santos smiling, the House of Representatives dark... failure of the USPS and education, collapse of health care and the IRS, and daily mass killings.. a checkmate on President Biden... political paralysis and silence in our great universities, with kleptocracy and fascism spreading across Planet Earth... societal death and endless violence, cowardice, lies, eternal Hell, to mention a few...
Today’s Democrats offer a coherent Democrat Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, assured collaboration between the Parties, a consensus government, economic coherence, support of Ukraine and Common Sense, the vision of Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin and a Republic we can keep, and dialectical coherence... Truth, economic solvency, a plan, forgiveness and racial tolerance, a liberal education and open libraries, knowledge and courage... and HOPE...
Thank you Prof. Heather Cox Richardson. There should be no reasonable doubt to any thinking American that the work of the January 6th insurrectionists continues in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. If Gaetz, Jordan, Biggs, Taylor-Greene, and Gosar were expelled from the House (as Menendez should be from the Senate) -along with the 13 GOP Senators who acted after the fact as election deniers, Congress would be able to perform meaningful work and make progress again.
There is only one way out of the fiasco that is so apparent in the Republican conference’s speakership choice. That is to accept that the conference is ungovernable. That is because the Republican party is actually three parties in an unstable coalition with very differing priorities and agendas. The analogy is the political scene in Italian that has a merry-go-round of shifting alliances that form rapidly morphing serial governments.
So, what are the three factions (parties)?
First up is the chaos caucus that is just out for click bites, believes the conspiracy theories, and just wants to burn it all down.
Second, the largest group and by far the most dangerous, are those supported by the morbidly rich billionaires who brought us Project REDMAP and the gerrymandering efforts in the States, the Federalist Society stacking the courts with Conservative judges, and now the Project 2025 manifesto to remove government regulation of business and to destroy the Executive branch by decimating the Civil service and putting in a layer of political hacks as overseers to insure political “alignment” with a President’s views. This last bit is popping up as the “unitary executive” theory. This is no secret conspiracy—it is all there in 900 black and white pages in Project 2025, available for free on the internet. The goal is to continue to increase the concentration of wealth in this country, which is most easily done in an authoritarian regime. The anti-immigration, anti-abortion, anti-welfare, pro-gun-rights policies are there to generate grievance issues in the electorate to secure majorities and obscure the real purpose of making the morbidly rich richer.
Third are the recently silent “moderates” who remember a time when people realized that in a two-party system, there has to be bipartisanship to get anything done. They are the old “small business” Republicans.
This is not the first time parties in America have fractured and morphed in America. The most recent example may be the split and migration of segregationist southern Democrats to the Republican Party during the 1960s and 1970s. But this is the first time since the Civil War that the threat to our democracy has risen to this level.
So what to do now? Democrats have to start pointing out WHY the Republican conference is dysfunctional. They have to name names in each of the factions and point out what the factions’ agendas are. And they have to make clear that we are now operating in an essentially 4-party system. Democrats have to be explicit in their invitation to seek a coalition with the “small business” group where there is the most overlap on the issues. After all, those “small business” supporters are being destroyed by huge monopolies like Amazon. Being explicit is necessary to explain to Democratic voters what is at stake and why a coalition is necessary, and it provides cover for the “small business” party to combat the “traitor” label that they will be smeared with by parties 1 and 2.
Why do I think this has a chance of working? Only 99 Republicans initially supported Jim Jordan, Trump’s choice for speaker. The cracks are starting to appear and this is the time to leverage them wider. Hakeem Jeffries just stared to widen that crack!!!
https://www.project2025.org/policy/
Very well thought out -and thank you. While hopeful, I'm not optimistic. One doesn't have to look beyond Liz Cheney as an example for any Congressional Republicans with an iota of country over party courage. While voters in the rust belt and elsewhere who have experienced what I characterize as generational economic despair harbor growing anger and frustration, Rupert Murdoch and others have been able to direct their collective anger to undermine any legislation or policy that could actually yield a better future.
I used to think people would need to experience pain and suffering in order to properly reflect on root cause and drive change. Now I believe that instead of reflection, angry mouth breathers like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and others will "do their thinking for them" and American society will continue to decline while wealth continues to concentrate into the hands of a few making any attempt at meaningful democracy impossible.
How many Republican geniuses are also Climate Change deniers, cheering on the Fossil Fuel sector? Are they our Taliban or Hamas? The potential death count? Loss of species, including Humans, or modern humans (Homo sapiens), the most common and widespread species of primate!
'The Evidence for Rapid Climate Change Is Compelling:
Global Temperature Is Rising'
'The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities.4 Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest. The years 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year on record.'
'The Ocean Is Getting Warmer'
'The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969.6 Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.'
'The Ice Sheets Are Shrinking'
'The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.'
'Glaciers Are Retreating'
'Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.'
'Snow Cover Is Decreasing'
'Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and the snow is melting earlier. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech'
'Sea Level Is Rising'
'Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and accelerating slightly every year.'
'Arctic Sea Ice Is Declining'
'Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.'
'Extreme Events Are Increasing in Frequency'
'The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.'
'Ocean Acidification Is Increasing'
'Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%. This increase is due to humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year).'
(GlobalChange, NASA)
The flow of oil (and gas and coal) is a massive and continuous flow of money. Every hour of obfuscation, denial, and delay represents millions of dollars into the hands of Big Oil. And a decent percentage flows back into media and political leadership who will constrain or altogether stop any meaningful climate action. And fighting in the courts will eventually lead to the Supremely corrupt court.
While there is plenty of willful ignorance in the voting population, it is driven by greed, corruption, and subversion of justice and the democracy. And Joe Manchin is proof it is not exclusive to a single party.
Shocking, is it NOT! That's old news: a fortune is reaped by BIG Oil. How much filters into Republican coffers?
PS 'Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, told a local news station on Thursday that he “would think very seriously” about leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent.' (NYTimes, Updated Sept. 27, 2023)
“I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time”
'Sen. Joe Manchin leaves the door open to potential third-party presidential run in 2024
The West Virginia Democrat said running as an independent would help bring a divided nation together, not hand the election to former President Donald Trump.' (TexasTribune, SEPT. 23, 2023)
Another warning. Are voters alert enough as they complain about gas prices and the price of eggs (intimately related) to know it’s blue or death? Seriously.
Haha! Manchin independent of whom, for how much? The morbidly rich combination with armed fear control him as they do other anti-democratic isolationists.
Manchin has never been a true Dem. He's his own party.
I would love to see him leave the Dems. If you're familiar with WVa at all, you would know the man hasn't done much for his home state.
Mathew Chilsom did a great investigative article recently , as well as other along this issue, most I’ve not read. But how to change this is TO ME just one person at a time and I’m doing and have since the 70s improved recycling, less footprint, more earth friendly ...voting for who will fight for this , do their best is the last effort and continuing . I insulated myself best possible long ago. Whether this helps in further destructive happenings is a TBDetermined.
There’s a lot we need to change, and the tax structure balance will be a hard fight. Cinching in my belt is possible but for the many in more dire straights not likely. Or they’ll revolt out of crisis needs.
That may well happen.
Blessings on all who strive to better, give encouragement ragement /ideas/observations.
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Manchin is a DINO!!
I like to think this is the moment when things really change.. That the truth of the GOP Congress members inability to bring cohesiveness and critical thinking to their party will begin to become apparent! At least Trump is on the verge of being out of the picture. Financially broke and entangled with the Justice department and lawyers who keep shutting him down. As an intuitive, I have to say I'm sensing we're on the verge of positive change. That's what I'm focusing on.
yes, he is. He's not your regular Dem. Never has been. Claiming he's a Dem is a travesty. Joe Manchin belongs to the party of Manchin
Big Oil isn't slowing down, nor is demand. We the people of the world are in essence sanctioning our demise.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/climate/fossil-fuels-arent-going-anywhere.html?unlocked_article_code=XGunZnj9S29F7zU-aoLRO8vc3XZaeMAaxgroqQQ4Q2BlEUuSYdvtqtxwaaMsSF-eMV7QhhNfs-44WB1f6bxUT0tqwRwjV9c2aClcT_47kmTlWVlVrMlkTbgwiW_UjJtWhNjaFpa0WXwv3F28sQsDseptcshumMRW8G1wkxspm1ALONZ1F6d9uYi9EZGmKwBO3cmPWThGhVhSIFxYKAI_lTiKtxb7Yzl-9xJyq9au_Xw3Ji1e8CCOenXXjiYjjE9pny3bdh4NAXpVN7WDMyjBqkIWfbQDdRVmsjTWWrMIdvgul2-9js562MKIGcLHmsll81gSZauis1zW638DUc6F_ekD9gAigsh_FG1T&smid=url-share
And subsidizing it. A lot of our problems traces back to the refusal to tax the wealthy and large corporations, subsidizing the fossil fuel companies, refusing to raise the income limit on SS taxes, the states' refusal to support public education in poor districts with no tax bases and, of course, Citizens United. We'd be way further down the road to transitioning from fossil fuels if the politicians weren't bought and paid for by the industry. We might be able to educate more mental health providers and reduce medical costs if the politicians weren't bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. And we might be bale to make better decisions about who to vote for if the media industry wasn't quite literally bought and paid for by the political class that bombards us night and day with inane, fact-free 30-second political ads.
I have been to Alaska and to Torres del Pine in Chile (30 years ago.) In both places, I observed retreating glaciers. They're melting. It's right there in front of our eyes.
Same for glaciers in the Pacific Northwest.
The stark evidence is everywhere — and undeniable. And things will get unimaginably worse. Yes, there's been some progress to reduce emissions, but it amounts to a tiny bandage on a gaping, widening wound.
Iceland
"Republican geniuses. " Perfect Fern. May there be six or seven merely smart ones who put country over party and "simply work with Democrats to elect a Speaker." We need to get moving. We're all in grave danger. Many ideas. No traction.
Hello, Sander. I think they are harming everything, including their so-called 'Party', their own reputations...EVERYTHING!
I sort of feeling a fleeting guilt laughing at such cute sarcasm . Love it
If the dysfunctionals won't hand the gavel over, the responsibles need to bang the hammer down.
Fran, I have to agree. This is what is happening right now, yet we have the party of death unable even to elect a Speaker. I am 80 and I figured that I am old enough not to witness what I am seeing. As a longtime gardener, I saw the change happening, but slowly. Now we have continually weather events that aren't supposed to happen very often and the melting of glaciers and polar ice at astonishing speeds. We used to have a frost at least by October 31st here in the Willamette Valley, but the lowest temp I have seen so far is the the 47 this am. I remember going snow shoeing or cross country on Veteran's Day on about five feet of snow. We are now in a El Nino weather pattern, so i wonder how much snow we will get in the mountains and yes, there was a dusting of snow on Mt. Hood this week, but... Of course, now with the internet, everyone is an expert. Or they believe all of this is the work of God. Thank you for laying it out for us in stark terms.
Yes, Michele, and we have much in common,
Indeed. And I really enjoy and appreciate your lengthy posts. I tend to be terse, I'm afraid and I am usually just up when I post, so still drinking my am coffee.
Thank you, Fern McBride. It’s good to read a lengthy piece on climate change in this climate section. Climate change, like overpopulation are the elephants in the room during the nightmare of war and plague we are living and dying through.
YES! We are tightening the noose around our OWN necks…despite the fact we are also doing so to OUR whole beautiful planet. These Climate Deniers are not fooling the planet…like they are fooling themselves.
Not to worry. Crops are failing and fisheries crashing.
Have a nice day.
Does anyone think for one nano second that facts matter to those who need to remain stupid. I might have said ignorant, but ignorance is curable by providing information.
I was in Iceland, and our tour guide showed us several places where glaciers used to be. Major changes in the landscape: ponds disappeared, oceans extended themselves, etc.
If Liz were truly the hero, she would not have actively steered the committee away from exposing the complicity of these Republican Congressmen and women during the Jan. 6th Committee's hearings. Yes, she was anti Trump, but she still tried to stay in the Republican Party, and was always on the side of hollowed out government supported by big business monopolies. She was never a small business, Lincoln-type Republican.
I do agree Barbara. In fact, it's a bit challenging to say the name 'Cheney' and not throw up a little. It is very telling about the GOP that when anyone in the Republican party prioritizes the interests of justice and democracy (at least from their perspective) over party interests, it is notable. These days we expect the George Santos and the Lauren Boebert's, the Jim Jordan's and the Steve "I'm like a KKK leader without the baggage" Scalise.
The GOP bar is so low, it's probably fracking well under the surface.
That said, I can't believe anyone else could have led that committee as far as it went. I don't expect to learn a lot from Cassidy Hutchinson's book, but I'm going to buy it, because I think we need more courageous voices from within the Republican party.
George, it’s as though the people hurting are blindfolded because they’ve been told all their lives to revere rich people as having more intelligence and being more hard-working than the average person. In the book “Moral Politics”, George Lakoff verbalizes the idea that helping the downtrodden further weakens them by making them dependent on assistance. I well remember seeing children being told to refuse recovery supplies after a tornado because “we don’t take government handouts, we can survive without their help”. Far too often, the only thing that the poor white people were taught that they could be proud of were: 1) they weren’t “on the government dole” and 2) they weren’t black.
So true. And I suspect Dr. Lakoff would say it's the frame of the rugged individualist cowboy versus the thought of a community (or on a grander scale -a society).
It's why so many are conned by the incompetent narcissist (Musk and Trump both fit). They believe them to be icons of success when the reality is, they have just exploited other people throughout their time on earth. They are each textbook examples of the worst of American society.
George, my personal experience with a very “successful” businessperson was watching them pretend friendship with colleagues only to turn on them to advance in the organization while relishing sneaky, seemingly gratuitous attacks on their colleagues’ self worth.
Sad that the term "successful businessman" is used for tfg - you know the rich successful "businessman" who had how many bankruptcies? I believe it was 4 or 6? Now one I can understand - you learn from it, but as many as fingers on my hand causes me to believe that this guy "is no businessman" - successful or otherwise.
And then we come to the WH meeting with Russians where he handed over classified intelligence? Again with an Australian "billionaire"? How many little incidents like this are we to forgive? Plus the many that we likely are unaware of.
George,
With great sadness and disappointment, I must agree. We have lost our respect for sharing ideas ...for respecting and appreciating one another even if we disagree or being willing to admit we could be wrong.
"Brainwashing" is real and suttle as well as boldly in our faces. Truth seems to matter less and less.
I'm always delighted when there's an opportunity for a respectful "competition of ideas" provided there is a fundamental embrace of facts, evidence, and science. It helps evolve my thinking. It has become all too rare.
The human brain is amazingly adaptive George. Those experiencing "pain and suffering" have mostly done just that. Chronic pain can become much like a bad smell, and poof, olfactory senses can deaden greatly. Spouses and partners just follow along with them per the hot mic event on Fox recently where the host stated that as so. Reportedly, Putin is in a state of perpetual orgasm as Western Civilization appears essentially on the ropes. Meanwhile, we whistle in the wind reminding Hamas about the 'rules of war'.
But I would argue that arguing about the rules of war is the only way back to civilization.
A cogent assessment. I often share your pessimism, although the last three national elections give me some hope. We'll see how well-placed that hope is in 13 months.
If lightning strikes next November, we'll have the margins needed to narrow the filibuster and deal with the Court. Somewhat more likely, the opportunity will come in '27.
THE COUNTRY CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG. No time left. enough fiddling while the climate, the poor, the inevitable wars, and the forests and the oceans burn.
Yeah, I get it. But that's where we are short of a revolution, and that probably wouldn't go well for the environment either.
“Morbidly rich” - gonna steal that phrase.
I can't take the credit. Not the originator. Wish I could remember where I first read it--probably in Robert Reich's or Thom Hartmann's substacks.
Thom Hartmann on Raw Story:
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/why-trump-and-the-gop-are-burning-the-entire-system-down/
thanks but it is behind a pay wall
I think of the psych term co-morbidity, relating to people with multiple psychological challenges such as personality disorder, narcissism, and oppositional disorder all rolled into one. I'm not making fun, but voters should be aware if they choose to elect one of these people.
Sounds like Elon--
But the morbidity I was trying to invoke was Democracy's
Maybe pestilently or malignantly rich is better. What do you think?
Pathologically rich.
I think obesely rich also works.
Absolutely! Your use, Georgia, related to Democracy. I was just reminded of politician behavior.
Thom has been using that for decades. If you don’t listen to him, you’re missing a very insightful source of information .
Thanks! Thom is definitely on my substack inbox list!
Morbidly rich, like morbidly obese, is not a state of good health. Both conditions can lead to death.
Yea, being morbidly rich is one of those over consumption phrases. Progressives need to stop thinking that way. It's human nature like being morbidly obese. What we need to do is change the tax code to nudge people to use their wealth for the common good. A consumption tax with a pre-bate to cover the taxes on subsistence level consumption would work. We progressives would then thank those with morbid appetites for luxury or food or sex,... if they were paying the taxes. If they used their obsessions to deliver lower costs of living, jobs, peace, infrastructure,... then why not.
I’d pegged the R-factions as:
1. Regular Conservatives (many Conservative Democrats fit in here as well):
-want a limited government which lets businesses of any size operate with minimal restrictions, regulations, or oversight
-stand for traditional family values (which in reality have never really been traditional)
-maintaining of the traditional socioeconomic hierarchy of generationally wealthy White (Christian) MEN on top (women are included by extension of their father or husband - unless they significantly break the rules dictated by the men of that level) and poor black unwed women with children at the bottom. The hierarchy Conservative Republicans wish to maintain also includes the institutions which help maintain the socioeconomic structure by keeping people from moving up: Religion, which has had a symbiotic relationship with the elites at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy since antiquity, Education and a system which determines who is allowed to learn what and the quality of instructors. It especially includes Ivy League colleges & universities. Banking/Financial Institutions who determine who get can get personal/business loans & mortgages and how much, decide people’s credit rating, etc., Justice System & Law Enforcement, Real Estate which determines where people can live and the quality of education, Mainstream Media & Social Media (can herd society to protect socioeconomic hierarchy & their institutions which keep people in place), Internet Search Engines (control what businesses come up first, cover up search topics, & let wealthy people & corporations hide or minimize sins - kind of like buying religious indulgences), and more.
This group ranges from moderate to extreme.
2. Christian Theocratic faction which is misogynistic, anti-gay/lesbian/trans, and is increasingly extremist.
3. Those who push for small government (so they can get rid of social security, disability, etc and get ride of regulatory agencies like FEC, FCC, FDA, OSHA, Labor Laws, Discrimination Laws, Consumer Protections/Rights, etc. Many of those who say they are “socially liberal but fiscally conservative” fit in this group.
4. Those who are foreign agents and/or who are just anti-democracy
The problem is that once Citizens United was decided and dark money became the driver those old alignments were replaced by allegiances to funding sources. The agendas morphed into the to do lists of the Kochs and company and the corrupt foreign agents.
Georgia, your posts today have been eloquent and spot on accurate. But this one about Citizens United is where it all generates from. The "morbidly rich" buying our democracy. That single decision is the lynch pin that began our spiral dive into banana republic status. Or actually, "Big Oil Republic". A direct line from CU to a worsening of an already horrific Climate Crisis.
Thank you for your excellent, well constructed comments.
(I agree, I think it might have been Thom Hartman who coined the phrase "morbidly rich" - but everyone should run with it :)
Thank you. I have stuck my toe in the water with writing my own substack. Not sure if it can stand alone but only time will tell on that.
See my comments - I subscribed :)
If you figure out how to write a post, let me know. I'm stymied.
I shared your comments and Substack link on facebook. All The Best!
Good luck! Just subscribed!
John Roberts (like J Kushner) has a cherubic face. But with his decisions in Citizens United and voting rights cases, just to name two examples, he’s a judicial grenade thrower and home wrecker. Don’t let those pleasant faces delude you into thinking there is a nice person inside.
Disagree. Jared Kushner looks like the weasel he is.
I agree with both of you. He was more cherubic looking before his vanity surgery and now weasley-looking.
😂
There are always those factions because of Dark Money by SCOTUS Citizens United (and one other ruling, I think?), the Electoral College, and the SocioEconomic framework.
Jeffries is much too kind in his comment that "there are traditional Republicans who are good women and men who want to see government function." I realize he's trying to appeal to their better selves (I think that's the expression), but I'm not sure those "good women and men" still exist among the House Republicans.
WOW! Georgia, I agree whole heartedly and I hope people will listen! Thank you.
Republicans have suspended their animosity toward Democrats while they fight with each other over which despicable choice for Speaker is less worse than the other
Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies?
“Journalist Brian Tyler Cohen, who hosts the podcast No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, summed up the day when he wrote: “The fact that ALL Republicans would rather fight over Scalise (who attended a neo-Nazi event) or Jordan (who allegedly covered up rampant sexual abuse) rather than simply work with Democrats to elect a Speaker says it all.”
Speaking of Jordan, I read last night that the Washington Post newsroom is abuzz about a pending major investigative piece about the profile-in-cowardice ex-wrestler.
Cannot wait for his up comence
As usual, the closer is sublime.
Great comment, Georgia. Very insightful and offers a viable path forward.
What a starkly grim picture you paint.
“ The cracks are starting to appear and this is the time to leverage them wider. Hakeem Jeffries just stared to widen that crack!!!”
The cracks begun some time ago. As I’ve written here before, the morning I found out that trump won I fervently prayed that the GOP would self implode. My prayers are being answered but for God’s sake, this is crucially the time for the Democrats to grow some cojones….
Project2025 can't be serious and must be stopped. The base rate of authoritarians and dictators is obviously not that good. We don't need a quick takeover of the government by the executive branch.. We need all 3 branches working together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025?wprov=sfti1
"The plan (Project 2025) would perform a quick takeover of the entire U.S. federal government under a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory – a theory proposing the president of the United States have absolute power of the executive branch – upon inauguration."
The unitary executive theory is exactly the opposite of what the founders intended.
Unitary executive is just another term for authoritarian rule. Orwell couldn't do better.
Aaron, thank you for the Wikipedia link. Particularly notable how many news sources are from the past six weeks or so -- TFG may be ranting on his stages in a stream of unconsciousness, but the image of this army of people who agree with him and fueled by this unitary executive theory is stunningly frightening.
Aaron, I was hair-on-fire after reading Project 2025 when it first dropped & sent info/link to friends and family to be aware & alarmed by what they are trying to pull off (more brazenly now than their decades-long behind the scenes efforts). The response I got? “Meh…..” Now THAT alarmed me as well! That said, most all of them vote blue and are left-of-center or political centrists so that is somewhat comforting at least. Knowing what to actively do to counter this *shakes fist at sky* leaves me feeling a bit helpless in countering the forces of power and big money.
Excellent assessment and analysis.
Project 25 is nothing less that an attempt to overthrow the government.
Georgia, this is a brilliant expansion of my thoughts about the once-proud GOP (which, in truth, can no longer be nickname for Repubs.) I wish I could gather my thoughts with a fraction of your eloquence; indeed, I wish I could categorize these groups so neatly, as you've done. Brava! And let's hope 5 or more members of that party, whatever we shall call them, can announce a breakaway towards a functioning House, for the good of the country.
Thank you for positive feedback! We are in uncharted waters again because our institutional memory as a nation is so short. Crises are multiplying so fast--undoubtedly because of Putin and Hamas being at the very least opportunistic about our political paralysis, that we all have to think about how to get back to a House that performs its basic function as quickly as possible. That can only happen if Democrats shout out the reasons for the paralysis and push hard for the only solution that will provide a stable government through 2024.
I agree. Those members of the chaos group, as you call them, are not doing the job they were elected to do: represent the People and look out for our interest. This country isn't served well by their objection to good governance -- in fact, it endangers us. If they had an ounce of shame they would see that. Instead, this small cohort of obstructionists is able to tie the House in knots. They are a tiny minority of a bare majority. I'm speaking to the choir, I know, and will end my rant. Courage to us all in these trying days.
I appreciate your clear-eyed analysis. Thank you for the link to the Project 2025 manifesto. The comparison to the chaos that reigns in Italy is so apt and scary too as it has pushed the government ever further to the right. But it doesn't stop there. New Zealand is about to do a 180 away from the liberal-minded policies of Jacinda Ardern to the far right, complete with efforts to strip the Maoris of rights and privilege. Sickening doesn't begin to cover it.
I believe that it is becoming a global issue because the concentration of wealth is not just limited to the US but is itself global. Authoritarianism arises and is stoked by grievance politics. Grievance politics takes root when people believe that their children will be less well off than they are because of the "others" that are taking away their piece of the pie. The genius of those consolidating obscene wealth is that they find puppets like Trump who spread the lies about who is really stealing that piece of pie. In America we have made it incredibly easy by allowing dark money to dominate political fundraising.
Georgia,
Thank you for more information ....will read "project2025"!
https://youtu.be/9k3UvaC5m7o?si=lq9nO49wqO55vnOh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025?wprov=sfti1
This is excellent! Thanks🫶
Excellent Geogia. May I share? With yoir name?
Just saw this on your Substack site. Shared.
Thanks!
Thanks you very much for the nose Count. George A: 6 House seditionists (G,J,B,T-G & G); 13 seditionist Senators + plus the Egypt Agent, Menendez, makes 14. There are others such as Santos if that is his surname.
Professor thank you for calling out the superior Congressional reporting by JAKE SHERMAN. We have an excellent Congressional Press Corps. Hat Tip to ALI VETALI at MSNBC & JACKIE ALEMANY at WAPO who is also gifted on-screen as a Communicator. Valid info is not the problem
217 remains the vital Total Tally number needed now. We all can do the math R's had 212 in their last vote (99+113) & the D's had 213. George A identified possible subtractions to those numbers; HCR has identified "voting present" & other House tactics. I am working on Reps in 4 CA House Districts. There are many possibilities. Have some "Good Trouble".
Add liar Santos to your list.
1000% THIS 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Send Tuberville along with the rest of them !
Agree 100%.
Definitely
No blank check for Israel. But the right to defend one’s self. There are innocent Palestinians and Israelis who should not pay the price for Hamas or Netanyahu.
Hamas doesn’t give a shxt about the Palestinians; they are just power hungry crazies. Netanyahu doesn’t give a shxt about Israelis, just himself... he is a crook.
The world for the most part is being run by greed and crooks. Our beautiful democracy is being raped while we watch. It is sad to the point of maddening.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are winning.
It is almost surreal. Here we are, watching the destroyers of our democracy (Jordan, Gaetz, Scalise, Trump et al.) go about their task of dismantling our democracy, and we are powerless to do anything about it presently.
And they’ll likely be re-elected! That’s what astonishes me!
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." Pres. G.W. Bush, White House Correspondents' Dinner, 3-31-2001
He said that? Wow. Sadly, he did.
Attacks and deprivations enacted on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians go beyond the pale. CBC News (Canadian Broadcast Corporation; freely available on many smart tvs) has been providing reasonably balanced coverage. Footage of injured children and infants from both Israeli and Palestinian populations are nearly unbearable to view. Meanwhile terrorists continue pushing beyond actions any civilized people would find acceptable. They need to be dealt with, but can the "innocents" be spared as much as possible?
Read the Atlantic article
Thanks! Will look it up.
'As Israel wages war in Gaza over Hamas' terror, one Palestinian tells CBS News, "They're wiping us out"
'Metula, northern Israel — Israel is warning of a "prolonged" war in Gaza as it prepares to launch a ground invasion of the densely populated Palestinian territory. If ordered by the country's leaders, it would be Israel's first ground offensive in Gaza in almost a decade, but its aerial attacks have already been relentless for six days, and the grim reality for the roughly 2.3 million people trapped in the region is becoming clear.'
'Many of those paying the ultimate price for the brutal weekend terror attack on Israel by Gaza's Hamas rulers are the youngest Palestinians. Hospitals and clinics struggling to keep their lights on since Israel imposed a complete blockade, cutting electricity supplies to the Palestinian enclave, are full of tiny bodies covered in blood and exhausted doctors trying desperately to save their lives.'
'Israel says it's targeting Hamas militants and command centers and that several of the group's leaders have already been killed. But as Israel vows to wipe Hamas out completely, many, including experts at the United Nations who have accused Israel of answering Hamas' war crimes with its own, are asking at what cost.'
'Officials in Gaza said the death toll in the besieged Palestinian territory had surged past 1,300 on Thursday, just six days into Israel's retaliatory attacks. On nearly every street in the 25-mile-long strip of land there have been scenes of anguish as rescue workers gather the remains of the dead.' (CBSNEWS) See link below.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-war-hamas-gaza-airstrikes-blockade-palestinian-suffering/
Thank you Fern.
Israel has cut Food, Fuel, Electricity AND WATER off from Gaza. Dr. Richardson left water out of her report today. She knows that without water, in five days, everyone in Gaza is dead. This was reported four times on NPR yesterday (that is my reference, the FM radio). I was working back in my woods listening.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gaza-cut-off-from-food-water-and-fuel-as-israels-punishing-bombardment-continues#:~:text=The%20entire%20Gaza%20Strip%20is,each%20other%20however%20they%20can.
FIVE days from now, Gaza will be one massive grave of former Palestinians with the smell just starting to waft over to Israel.
Are all of the people living in Gaza terrorists? Not even close. Most were just randomly born there and would be happy to move anywhere else than the hell of Gaza strip.
So, while everyone appears to worry about atrocities against the Israeli population, we are standing by, sound asleep, while a massive atrocity is being promulgated on Gaza.
No water for five days and everyone is dead in Gaza Fern.
Apparently, since we, the USA, thought it was OK to bomb and kill civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, even though NONE of the people in those countries had anything to do with flying airplanes into the twin towers, we also think it is OK to exterminate more than a million people in Gaza. Almost ALL of whom had nothing to do with the atrocities that recently occurred in Israel.
Amurca. Gotta love it.
As usual, I agree with you Mike. Too many innocents. I don't have the answers or some brilliant way for bloodshed to be avoided. This will be like Carthage.
But I do know that if I had been one of those Israeli peacenicks living on a kibbutz near Gaza - one of the many who were trying to find ways to establish peace and harmony with Palestinians...and my family had been slaughtered...my wife, my child, my mother...would I have had the restraint I had been preaching for years before that? It's quite likely that this peacenick would find a weapon and join the invasion of Gaza and kill everything in my path.
That being said, I think the world should join together and scream "STOP NOW". All of you, just stop. But it won't happen. There will be no end to this until Hamas and Hezbollah are eradicated. They are puppets of Iran and Russia.
One of the smartest observers of the international scene is Diane Francis:
https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/israel-iran-and-russia
Stabilizing your own territory and protecting your people is one thing, but revenge is another. Especially when your people have little or no ways of protecting themselves. Throwing rocks won’t do it…
Hamas is dedicated to the complete and total elimination of all things Israel. Their stated goal is to KILL and/or remove all Jews from Israel. Hamas cannot continue to exist anymore than ISIS. There will never be any chance for peace in this region as long as Hamas exists. Hamas must be replaced with the PLA or some other governing Palestinian organization that wants the best for it's people.
Hamas has received billions from Qatar and they used that money to make rockets instead of funding healthcare and education.
The horror of what is happening to the innocents in Gaza is beyond awful. It is bone shaking horrible. But just as the Germans and the Japanese of WWII suffered for their support of evil murderous leaders...so will the people of Gaza for not rising up and eschewing the insane and vicious acts of their "government".
And after the decimation and after the complete capitulation of Gaza...maybe, just maybe Israel will finally do what they should have done years ago. Embrace the Palestinians as fellow travelers - fellow descendants of the same humans. Give them full citizenship or their own state. Hamas is a horror. But what could we expect when we put two million people in a cage and deprive them of water? Food. The freedom to travel. The right to raise their children in a healthy way.
This is Netanyahu's mess. And he will be recorded as the most evil and stupid leader in the history of the region. He is the Donald Trump of the Middle East.
Eradicating Hamas is not revenge. It is essential. But they wouldn't exist if Israel had countered Iran by saying: "Wait, these are our people, our neighbors!" Too late now.
"This is Netanyahu's mess."
Yes it its. But, he is causing a lot of bad outcomes.
Agree on all Bill. Restraint is needed, but, as you say, if you and I had been there and our friends slaughtered, how restrained would we be?
I hope some.
Killing more just makes more dead. IT doesn’t bring a single person back from the dead.
In fairness, Mike, I have not heard anyone say it’s OK to kill 1M people in Gaza. Everyone I’ve heard recognizes this is all Hamas—that’s who needs to be wiped out. The victims here are Israeli and Palestinian people just trying to live their lives.
Hamas has dictated the terms of this war and Israel is in full reaction terrorist mode itself. The situation in Gaza is beyond hell and must be walked back with the urgent urging of the US and EU. Precision is called for to root out Hamas and bring hostages to safety. The suffering of innocent, trapped Palestinians will not heal the victims (all Israelis) of Hamas’ attack. Imagining the suffering of all these fellow PEOPLE brings illness to us all.
Who is insisting or even asking Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the leader of an opposition party to stop killing innocent civilians in Gaza, to turn the electricity and water back on, create a corridor out of Gaza for the Palestinians to get to safety? WHO? As though the Israel government doesn't know what it's doing!
I like to think that the UN is doing that in public and Antony Blinken is doing that in private.
Yes, I agree about the UN and, perhaps, Blinken and Biden, but no indication that such discussions, if happening, have moved the Israeli government. The cycle of hatred and the determination for retaliation may be as hard as chromium. Does the Israeli government want anything less than the annihilation of Gaza?
Egypt has closed the corridors for escape, the same pathways that enabled hundreds to flee to Turkey just before last weekend. Yet that gets no notice. Hamas planned for all of this and has booby-trapped much of Gaza so more Israelis will die. This could all end if the hostages were returned. But they are pawns. And most likely murdered already. And - when, exactly, have combatants in a war been tasked with offering sustenance to their enemies?
MLM, this is not my experience. For some of the more far gone ones, Hamas = all Palestinians to them. Nor do they say that Israel is wrong to obliterate the Gaza strip.
I understand there are, shall we say, less well-educated people who think Hamas = Palestinians or that it's OK to bomb Gaza into next month. I have simply been fortunate not to run into any of them.
Its all about Hamas. Innocent people dying because a terrorist group leads Gaza. But here’s the thing, Hamas cares not for its citizens in the short term. They don’t care how many die. Its goal is to incite Israeli leaders to take off all gloves, violate the rules of war and commit sufficient atrocities on Gaza so as to appease the survivors of the terrorist attack as the world reacts to an inhumane Israeli response with disgust
“We finally solved the Hamas problem, so what if a million humans got in the way? Collateral damage. BTW, the Supreme Court of Israel no longer can out me in prison. Long live my Democracy”, quote attributed to an anonymous Israeli leader
Netanyahu is an egotistical crook, who only cares for himself.
And his American Cousin
Water has been cut off MLMinET.
How long can a person go without water?
There are 2 million people without water.
Mass torture
Mass murder!
I am horrified by this as well, and do not like that President Biden has not called for restraint, but rather sent an aircraft carrier to the area. Admittedly the carrier is likely intended to caution against a larger war.
He has, in fact, called for restraint.
A better-than-status-quo solution to the areas problems is long overdue. That is on all involved. Nobody will win, be happy, etc. That is how it always works out = the human condition.
Additionally, Hamas was elected by the Palestinians at one point, other forces are using Palestinans for their own gain, neither the US, nor the US people, think exterminating a million people in Gaza is OK. Like the US, Israel has the right to defend itself and its existence.
I do not know why a mixed Israel hasn't evolved, I simply don't remember all the facts over 50 years - but that is how it must evolve. After one generation people move on to a new normal.
Massive areas of Gaza have been literally reduced to dust. Apart from innocent children and adults, isn't it likely that the hostages were in some of those now destroyed buildings?
Thanks Molly for this comment! I wrote the following articles the other day and wanted to get feedback!
The first article is about how: ever since the Israel incident, a large majority of Americans have been turned into blood thirsty individuals fueled by rage and emotion that no one is thinking critically - and they’re proud of it with statements such as “this is no time to think critically, we need to strike!”
So in this article, I compare the majorly events of WWI, WWII, and 9/11 to show how similar events turned Americans from peace loving into war mongering individuals overnight:
How Wars Are Let To Happen:
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/how-wars-happen-or-how-theyre-let
In the second article, I try to bring everyone’s humanity back because while we’re caught up by the attack and Israel (and purposely choosing to ignore logic and reason under the guise of “emotional justice” (ps: I address the raping of women and children as well)), at the end of the day, more innocent lives will be lost and those lives fall on everyone who’s supported this “retaliation”
You Can Support This or You Can Stop This:
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/this-was-sad-to-read-and-i-hope-it
please let me hear your thoughts!
Like 9/11, this horror was designed as the trigger mechanism for a chain reaction.
The effectiveness of that chain reaction depends on the shocked overreaction of the victim and allies. Extreme brutality is not only a product of Gazan rage and frustration, kept white hot by constant propaganda, it is deliberate, calculated to produce and maximize a desired long-term effect.
This assault is in effect a strategic weapon, its success depends on the reactions of the victim.
In the light of this purpose, the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld reaction to 9/11, the so-called War on Terror, spread and perpetuated terror and chaos via such aberrations as the long-term occupation of Afghanistan and the Second Gulf War, ensuring the success of Al-Qaida's action beyond its planners' wildest dreams.
This vile strategic weapon calls for the cold, skilfull response of the bomb disposal squad, controlled explosions to deactivate the warmongers' device, not indiscriminate "bomb 'em all back into the stone age" vengeance.
Unfortunately, today's chain reaction bomb was well-designed by able and utterly ruthless planners who will have protected themselves while sacrificing their own people, the innocent alongside the guilty. On the one hand, using captured hostages, on the other, using Gazan civilians as human shields... and martyrs, whether willing or not.
I would be delighted if the above view could be demolished... but I just don't see that.
*
It is horrible to look into such minds, staring straight into hell.
But... to defeat an enemy, is not such cold observation necessary?
The aim: to stop evil in its tracks... instead of perpetuating it. Now, all we can do is watch what is done.
Should have learned our lesson with the W/Dickie debacle
Watch what is done... This feature especially: the exploitation for political gain of bloodlust baying for vengeance. Not just in Israel where Netanyahu's saber-rattling threats aim at Teheran. (One is bound to suspect that he cannot stand having been outsmarted by despised Palestinians and wants to blame a bigger bogeyman.) In America, elsewhere in Palestine, throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world... Throw the dogs of war a bone and improve your weakening fingerhold on power...
Semantics question, Peter. Has the "Second Gulf War" replaced "Global War on Terrorism" in the naming of the names? I'm curious, because semantics are important.
Quick response, Ally.
The only term I recall from 2001 was "the war on terror", which -- of course -- made little sense. The "Global War on Terrorism" may be pompous but the words are more or less understandable. George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and all that followed (and is continuing) were a key feature of that Global War, a "war" that has multiplied and reinforced the international terrorism it was supposed to suppress. In particular, the invasion of Iraq has strengthened regional power Iran's corrupt theocratic regime and empowered the Iranian military-industrial complex. No comment on various forms of hubristic Saudi craziness or on the worldwide development of State-directed or sponsored terrorism.
I ran off to the internet for info:
Per the awarding of service medals:
Gulf War I (Roughly encompassing Desert Storm) and its aftermath.
Gulf War II was also tagged as the Iraq War and set as between 2003-2011
Global War on Terrorism went from 9/11/01 to 9/2022 and encompasses most of what is called colloquially “The Sandbox”
9/22 meaning Sept 22 or 2022? Thanks, Ally.
Fixed
All you have to do is read the headlines of the New York Times after 9/11. They became war mongers!! The hell with the facts.
Yelling rape gets people even more wanting to kill the offender. How do they know there was rape? Or in desperation to keep the Hamas attack on the front page did they jin up this? Do I feel manipulated? Of course.
YES a blank check for Israel and a blank check for Ukraine. We are facing a world similar to 1939 and it is time for the US and be the backbone for democracy in the world. If it means more taxes, more tanks, fewer cars, restrictions on gas, etc., then so be it. We are at war with chaos around the world and we need a wartime point of view. Re-activate the draft. Send US troops to Ukraine. As Roosevelt said, “The US is the armory for democracy.”
Are you willing to be drafted?
yes
Israel is the mother of Hamas and taught it everything it knows. It is pointless to argue over who's right and who's wrong. It is worse than pointless to encourage further violence but that is the long-standing U.S. policy that Biden is blindly continuing. That is where the American people may have some leverage: changing the inflammatory U.S. policy. But politicians, including Biden, believe that killing innocents in the Middle East is a vote winner.
I disagree
Me too!
"But politicians, including Biden, believe that killing innocents in the Middle East is a vote winner."
It is beyond my understanding that, although PBS and NPR are reporting, all day yesterday, that WATER, fuel, food and electricity have been cut off...
NOBODY is calling that out as a pending mass death atrocity against a bunch of people who had nothing to do with Hamas foray into Israel.
NitWitYahoo is just trying to redeem his useless self by creating innocent dead bodies.
Sort of like George W. Bush, who, like NitWitYahoo, had ignored the threat from Al Qaeda provided him by the CIA, tried to redeem himself by creating innocent dead bodies in Afghanistan.
Apparently, killing innocent people is a time tested way for a politician to become popular. It certainly worked for Adolph Hitler.
NitWitYahoo is just following the George W. Bush philosophy.
Create innocent dead bodies in exchange for votes from the ignorant and hateful masses in the hopes that nobody will notice that it is NitWitYahoo's poor leadership and poor oversight that allowed such a massively successful attack on his country.
Murder and war are always wrong. I feel the feelings you have about the loss of innocent lives. But here is some harsh truth you and I agree on. Americans allowed Bush/Cheney to slaughter. Americans elected Donald Trump. Which started the ball rolling on Ukraine. Americans suffer to this day for these insane decisions.
And Palestinians allowed Hamas to rule. Even though a majority of them wanted peace and a decent life - they did not rebel and choose a peace loving government.
The brutality of all this is wrong beyond words. But when a military group like Hamas bases its very existence on the annihilation of an entire nation, please tell me how you would react. What if the leaders of NYC said that the entire state of Vermont must be exterminated. I suspect even Bernie would put on a uniform.
It should all stop and all the bad guys should be singled out for justice. Innocents should be protected. Hard to do when the evil ones use their children and mothers as shields.
I feel everything you are feeling. But it might be a bit ivory tower to tell Israel how to deal with assassins.
Murder is always wrong....yes.
You called Bibi what he is. Biden has no choice but to support Israel, despite Bibi’s evil actions. Hopefully he will be held accountable for his part in this. But no one will do it while the country’s heart is burning. It’s why we let W/Dickie taint our country with their evil.
Biden does have a choice. There are many different ways to ‘support’ Israel.
Israel does need need US help to obliterate the Gaza strip. Those people are completely dependent on Israel for everything. Their living conditions are cramped and impoverished. Israel could have started with cutting off gas, water, electricity, food.
The bombing and continued destruction of Gaza has doomed the lives of the hostages. If Gaza has no water, the hostages will have no water.
If the population is living in terror and misery, so are the hostages. Why would Hamas negotiate anything for them....It's over; they won't be "going home". After decades of insults and misery for Palestinians with no effective relief, Hamas pulled off this incredible humiliating and atrocious act. The goal of Hamas was to create this exact result: cause more anti-semitism throughout the world.
The world leaders who support Israel are now thinking and feeling something completely different.
‘Those people’.
Yeah, let’s start by committing war crimes…. Then go on to other war crimes.
You do realize that ‘thinking and feeling something different about Israel’ and coupling that with ‘anti-semitism’ is a logical fallacy.
Lies about beheading babies (or in the case of Iraq/Kuwait, lies about killing babies in incubators) sure can make people lose their minds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA3ZANV2A4o
Netanyahu is a criminal and will protect only himself.
Like someone else we know.
This argument makes no sense to me.
I also disagree.
Amen!
Bizarre moment, indeed. ‘Just like 9/11’.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/people-have-a-serious-case-of-911
Very much like 9/11. The "peasants" invade OUR space and cause terrible death and destruction. We react ....and cause terrible death and destruction.
Thank you Heather.
To say the world is a unrelenting mess is an understatement.
At what point in any of our lives did we think we would be living in this level of disarray?
Never.
Be safe. Be well.
Glad your comment is getting attention, LB: your voice is needed amid all the din. I just got back from a couple of weeks overseas and the perspective from outside the bubble is very interesting. People outside the USA (people with education, experience, and nuance) are just perplexed about what is happening here. The discussions of the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories are also a lot more nuanced, as neither side can claim any kind of innocence--both are culpable and both are also victims. As Michelle Goldberg says in the NYTimes, any celebration of the death and destruction of any civilian population is grotesque and nauseating. However, neither of the "leaders" care a whit about the populations they are supposed to protect: all are merely cannon fodder and opportunities for media frenzies. To say I am utterly disgusted and utterly discouraged is an understatement.
The historian in me is compelled to refer to the great 12th-century philosopher, Moses Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon), whose revolutionary treatise, A Guide for the Perplexed, suggested a way to rationalize biblical and Talmudic theology and interpretation with Aristotelian and Platonic "science" and logic. As a scholar who was read by Jewish, Christian, AND Muslim philosophers, Maimonides was able to transcend--because he was a careful, deeply thoughtful, and relatively NEUTRAL thinker without a specific agenda he was trying to flog (unlike most of the Christian scholars of the day)--the prejudices of the day to accomplish something important for the intellectual community. We need more people like Maimonides these days. But they are excruciatingly hard to find.
Simplified version here:
https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/13/dear-dove/
Thanks, Tom.
Thanks. Brilliant
Linda Bailey, thank you. I would add, help each other.
Well said, Linda.
The chaos in the clown caucus is simply a continuation of the coup attempt of January 6 in which 147 members of Congress voted against certifying President Biden’s election..They continue to seek the destruction of American democracy. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html
The coup continues, and only the guy who started it can fix it. Hahaha, so say the traitors
He thrives on it. He thinks it is in his honor. He’s a bloodthirsty piece of walking evil.
love your adjectives
Thanks for the link. Brilliant
Bizarre and utterly surreal for sure. The founders of our country would have never imagined this moment. We’re all wondering what the hell happens or doesn’t happen next in Congress and in the whole world. Blinken and Biden are truly astonishing though. They just keep soldiering on.
Particularly Blinken in the present circumstances, if one pauses to think exactly what he's doing, who with, and how he gets from place to place.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, although late in life they worked out their "differences", literally hated each other for years and did everything possible to hamstring the other.
Two men with great minds, one who wrote the beautiful Declaration of Independence and the other (Adams) who wrote, alone in his farmhouse, the first tripartite (Congress, Judicial, Executive) constitution for Massachusetts, much of which became the US Constitution.
Two truly great men hated on each other for years. Hating is something we all are born very good at apparently.
Perhaps they would not be surprised to see the dysfunction we have today? Just shake their heads and say, yep, back to the future.
Digression: has anyone read tfg’s statement in the CO case to keep him off the ballot? Sit down. “It’s not my job to protect the constitution.”
“Trump swore a presidential oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, but the text of the 14th Amendment says it applies to those who have sworn oaths to “support” the Constitution, Blue pointed out the sematic difference in an Oct. 6 filing in the case.”
https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-ballot-colorado-c699e7c00687be6bc4bedbaf4182e451
Hard to “like” this but thank you for the link...will read when I have more coffee😞
"It’s not my job to protect the constitution.”
Trump can only think about himself. His brain is too small to take on something like the Constitution.
Plus, that requires that one be able to read reasonably well.
Trump cannot read at all.
But they rekindled their friendship in 1812 - https://www.thoughtco.com/what-were-john-adams-last-words-103946 . And they were friends before they became political rivals.
They wrote to each other until they both died on July 4,1826 just minutes apart.
George HW Bush and Bill Clinton also became friends after they were bitter rivals.
The ex-President's club is a strange club. It will really be weird if anyone ever befriends Trump.
So far, Hakeem Jeffries has been on target in his relatively patient stance, waiting for the Republicans to get themselves together while offering leadership if Moderate Republicans will join him. If Moderate Republicans do join with the Democrats or if Jeffries, for the good of the country, offers to support a Moderate Republican for Speaker (or Co-Speaker if such a role is imaginable) this should be undertaken European style -- with a written agreement regarding distribution of positions and policy stances -- including aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Sanity and functionality are not popular with crowd, but one can dream
I agree with you and am putting that stance out wherever I can!
Consider: Who stands to HURT the most when there is no Speaker in November and there IS a government shutdown? THE GOP (besides the American people and the world economy, but this concept is beyond the interest or understanding of the average uninformed voter)
Even if it had shut down two weeks ago and many would blame the GOP, there would be those who would have still blamed the Dems and/or Biden. The GOP, who loves them some media hits, is under a barrage of such hits now. I doubt anyone would not blame them now! And boy would they get hit in 2024!
So how to they save themselves? VOTE IN JEFFRIES. It's a win-win for them in many ways. They can push out the MAGA extremists but not have to take the blame for it. They've never found the spine to do it themselves, so now they can blame the Dems.
They might be able to save their party, as I truly believe that if a viable third party emerges, they will siphon many more voters from the right than the left.
With the Dems in control of the House, Senate and WH---trust me, I know this is a gamble on their part--but they could point to any problems and say "its THEM not US"
Yes, there is a distinct chance that this backfires on them, that the Dems get work done. But IMHO they have painted themselves into a corner and there is no way out without getting that paint wet. They have to find the path that causes the least mess for themselves.
Miselle - please send the Republicans in the House this plan of action. They are at loose ends and need a plan; this could work for everybody.
Thank you. I have no "ins" in DC. Anyone who does--or those who use social media which are do not--are welcome to forward my plan.
"The crisis in Ukraine has not ended while all eyes are on the crisis in the Middle East."
Indeed.
I can't help but see the hand of Vladimir Putin behind much, if not all, of this, especially the crippling of the US government at the hands of Congressional Republicans. If Robert Menendez is to be expelled from the Senate as a foreign agent acting on behalf of Egypt, and he absolutely should be, then what of the entire Republican Congressional conference? They're acting as witting, or worse, unwitting agents of Russia. Holding up US aid to Ukraine and inhibiting our ability to affect events in the Middle East, (i.e. Ted Cruz in the Senate sitting on the appointment of a US ambassador to Israel,) plays into Putin's hand. It seems he is the only one who stands to benefit from this whole mess, even if he hasn't been able to capitalize on it militarily in Ukraine, yet. Putin has established a track record of successfully manipulating the Republican Party. After all, he put a yellow-haired stooge in the White House.
But what do I know? I'm just a retired electrician living on the shores of a lake in Connecticut. I keep in touch with HCR's letters, the NY Times, and the Guardian, and a walk in the woods to keep perspective on things.
You may be in the woods, but your head is clear and your eyes have perfect vision.
Putin's strategy has always been to exploit the situation by pitting two extremes against each other. This only works when emotions are riled up, and hatred for the other side is inflamed. Putin uses violence and war to create refugee and immigrant crises to achieve his end of destabilizing democracies. He likely did have a hand in arming HAMAS, and is already using the Middle East to distract the west away from supporting Ukraine.
Ralph. Keep taking those walks around your CT lake (and one from me - an old Farmington girl). I like your thinking.
What do you know? That’s a good question, if your ‘keeping in touch’ is limited to HCR/NYT/Guardian. Putin didn’t put the ‘yellow-haired stooge’ in the White House; 40+ years of neoliberal economic policy, endorsed, albeit in slightly different degree, by both political parties, accomplished that historical absurdity.
Any American blaming Russia for American electoral outcomes is as disingenuous as clueless parents blaming everyone but their spoiled, delinquent child for bad/bullying behavior at school.
The American people, apathetic, propagandized, tribal, and consumed with the latest digital devices and creature comforts, put that buffoon in the Oval.
The Republican party is acting as terrorists within the USA. We should be having our own day of rage(on a different day than Hamas) that 1) they cannot elect a speaker who can work with democrats, 2) Tommy Tuberville is blocking military appointments and endangering our country, 3) Paul Rand and Ted Cruz are blocking diplomatic appointments. Americans should be taking to the streets over that. I am in Europe for the time being, and here people do protest more easily. Each week there are demonstrations for all sorts of things, environment, unions, animal research, political positions of the government that people don't agree with. They tend to be in the marketplace, and peaceful. Some is just people standing holding up signs of protest, some have marching and speeches. Still, there is agency. I hope that more people in the USA decide that is something they have to do. It needs to be made visible to the Republicans and the people that voted for them, that they are considered the problem, not the solution.
Thank you once again for such an in-depth summary of the bizarre moment we are living though! I hate looking in my rearview mirror when it comes to politics but, here I go. In 2015 when the orange menace came on the scene and then probably through cheating was elected over a highly qualified candidate, I said to anyone that would listen "we are in big trouble". Over and over I was told that I was an alarmist and it was only four years...what real harm could he do. Well, here we are!
He appointed three Supreme Court Justices and lots of federal judges, the crazies found a new "leader", our Congress has given the crazies there a voice, the greedy have become even more so, and the hate that just us common folk have seen or experienced is at an all time high (at least in my lifetime).
So, where do we go from here? There is a comment from Georgia Fisanick below that I totally agree with. We Democrats AND our elected officials HAVE to start calling out these bastards. We must get people out to VOTE and to grow tough skins because we will take some heat from people who either don't know anything or don't want to know anything. Who would have thought we would have to fight so hard for something so precious as our democracy in this day in age????
“What real harm could he do.” I knew, he told us. He has not disappointed. He should have shocked the socks off the MAGAts. But Rupert made him into a demoGod. Joke on the MAGAts. He is just the worst of humanity.
I knew that 2016 was not about the Presidency, but about SCOTUS. The Bernie Bros and Never Clintons that sat out that election are part and parcel to blame for fpotus and all he's done to America.
No kidding Ally!!!!
6000 rockets in six days is 42 every hour....... for six days. In one of the most crowded locations on the planet.
No power. No food. The hospitals will soon become morgues. I hope those young men and women in the Israeli army are ready and prepared to cope with this while they cleanse Gaza of skulking Hamas terrorists.
Nearly 400 French citizens reached Paris today.
and NO WATER.
I just watched a report on German News. The situation in Gaza as I understand it is this, they showed papers falling from the sky telling people to get out of the northern part of Gaza. They said that with no electricity and water running out, people are not having even the basic preparations to leave. Hospitals are becoming morgues, because the ill cannot be moved, and they do not have basic equipment and medicines. They say that there is no one leading the people on where to go. That is the problem with a terrorist leadership that has no interest in the people. They have their agenda, and the well being of the people of Gaza is clearly not it. So, Hamas is threatening the Gazans with weapons as they try to leave in a totally chaotic way with no where to go, and no where in Gaza, not one tiny corner where they can feel safe. It makes my problems seem like nothing. I have to remember after what has transpired this past week how good I have it. I am getting ill from seeing images of traumatized children. What a horrid world we live in where the adults are not able to keep the children or themselves safe.
Linda,
Pretty ugly, no doubt.
Yep. A war crime. No doubt about it.
But, Israel is our ally. We are standing ready with military support. Those people in Gaza are enemies of Israel, therefore, our enemies.
"Those people in Gaza are enemies of Israel, therefore, our enemies."
Those people in Gaza are, ummm, people. Innocent people for the most part.
Therefore, they are not our enemies and pose no threat to us.
But we’re supplying additional weapons to Israel to help Israel defeat/punish/destroy the enemy.
It doesn't sound to me like they need much military support.
42 missiles per hour, 24 hours a day for 6 days.
This is provoked, but extremely one sided.
At this moment, we are supporting the bad guys. ....our ally.
both sides are pretty bad. But it's not a fair fight
It never has been a fair anything. ......believe me, I think this is what Hamas wanted. and, the orthodox settlers want. Eliminate Palestinians.
It's sickening although inevitable.
Bizarre is quite the understatement Doc.
Not meant to diminish the rightful condemnation of Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel nor the dire threat of the conflict spreading, my mind keeps turning to April of 2008, when former President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leaders who committed to a ten-year truce and to acceptance of a Palestinian state were Israel to withdraw to its pre-war 1967 borders. I note this because as long as the pertinent players refuse even to try and reconcile Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land since 1967–the longest occupation in modern history—there will be no end to the violence.
As for the crisis in Ukraine, while I’m not calling for ending the funding, I do fear this crisis is spinning out of control. Sooner rather than later, calls for a cease fire and negotiations will need to be amplified as we increasingly come to recognize that both sides are just strong enough not to lose and just weak enough not to win.
"calls for a cease fire and negotiations will need to be amplified as we increasingly come to recognize that both sides are just strong enough not to lose and just weak enough not to win."
Of course, I don't know what is right here.
However, as a long time (from middle school) opponent of bullies, I would like to see Pukin's sad army pushed back to Moscow and the Ukranian army occupy Red Square and put Pukin in jail with only NPR as his news source.
THAT is what is needed for a bully. Otherwise, they never stop kicking around the little guys.
Putin and Chump (and Bibi) are bullies of the same ilk.
Mike, While I, too, would like to see the same, given North Korea’s agreement to sell weapons to the Russians, Putin determination to hold on through our 24 elections, and the increasingly apparent impasse between the two sides, I, personally, have no choice but to join with peers who are pressing for a cease fire and negotiations. Franky, I believe the Ukrainians have shown they are a formidable enough force to bring sufficient leverage to the table.
Mike S and Barbara Jo, it seems in both cases, Ukraine vs Russia and Palestinians vs Israel, the world is faced with an apparently eternal conflict between trying to adhere to principle by enforcing previously made agreements or succumbing to what is practically workable. It is manifestly unclear which path is the "right" or "correct" path.
John M. Yes, right is hard to sort out.
And, mostly it means "what is right for me".
Which is the root of the problem.
Makes sense Barbara Jo. I cannot argue with your logic.
Mike, Thank you for your reply.
Barbara Jo, I am moved to remember the simple and perhaps naive goodness of Jimmy Carter and his solution, return to previously agreed-upon borders, which seemed to provide at least the cover of apparent peace in a remorselessly violent part of the world while at the same time apparently advocating for accepting new borders in Ukraine as the solution to that crisis.
While the latter makes some sense practically it abandons the principle of the former, accepting and living within previously agreed-upon borders.
JohnM, While I perceive these conflicts quite differently from you, I won’t be able to reply until I return home later tonight.
A German reporter was saying tonight that his contact in Gaza said that most of the people have left Gaza City, except for those who really want to hold onto their homes. He said that Hamas keeps trying to downplay what the fliers are saying and the warnings from Israel and that things are not going to be that bad. According to his informer, most of the people in Gaza are so fed up with whatever leadership they have had and they just want someone to help them live in peace and safety. I get that. Having a fascistic, terrorist leadership is not what most people want. Who can bring that about? We certainly don't have an ambassador to Israel, and I don't know who is in the region.
Barbara, your last sentence made me gasp - “ both sides just strong enough not to lose and just weak enough not to win”. What an awful situation! I still don’t understand our response to the Ukraine situation. It hasn’t felt right to me from the beginning. I’m not a hawk, and I certainly don’t know what the real story is behind the scenes, but I keep feeling we (the western world) could have and should have ended it quickly. So many lives have been lost!! Both sides - Russia and Ukraine - might be similar in strength, but the Ukrainian people have their hearts and souls in that battle fighting for their homeland - a huge advantage.
Breaking News from Alternative America
Today the 4 GOP members from California from Districts where Biden won by margins from 2-12.9% declared they were going to caucus with Democrats for the remainder of their terms or until such time a Speaker is elected.
"I know it sounds crazy", said one Rep from a District Biden won in a landslide, "but I came here to govern, not play childish games with the security and safety of the country".
"Likewise," added another from a district Biden won by double digits "The extreme faction in this party is out of control and needs to be quashed. We were sent here to address the problems in our Districts and country, not pull stunts to get prime spots on cable news shows"
Upon hearing the news of the California 4, as they are now called, the other 7 GOP members from Biden districts met to discuss their options.
Some of their staffers have indicated there are discussions of caucusing with Democrats as Independents and a few from Districts where Biden won by double digits of switching parties. "It's the only way they see of coming back to the House in 2024" said a staffer who asked not to be named.
More details as they become available.
Well played, BlueRootsRadio.
Don't I wish that there could be some common sense on display in the House of Representatives. Sadly, that commodity is no longer measured by the bushel but by the teaspoon.
Things can change Ally, you know there are plenty of Republicans personally embarrassed by the GOP sh^t show. Everyone has a breaking point. Let's push on 'em.
One of those California Republicans is Mike Garcia.
https://ballotpedia.org/U.S._House_districts_represented_by_a_Republican_in_2022_and_won_by_Joe_Biden_in_2020
Here is what he said yesterday October 12, 2023.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?531099-23/rep-waltz-garcia-speaker-election
He rejects caucusing with Dems. So I ask again, what's your source?
Yes, at first I used his name in the quote but was afraid too many readers wouldn’t see the well intended satire.
“Alternative America News”. Is my play on Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts. The difference being her facts were mostly evil lies while my Alternative news is hopeful wishing for ways to turn Congress into a functioning body again.
I hope there aren’t too many people who believe this to be real news. This ain’t Truth Social where critical thinking went to die.
Glad to hear that it was satire, but today I've been writing about how some of those vulnerable Republicans voting for Jeffries is the only way we get a stable government until the next Congress is sworn in in 2025. The rate that news is gushing at us, and how fast the political situation is changing, makes me feel like most of us don't have the bandwidth to sort out your admittedly very clever (in retrospect) post from the deluge.
It has to start somewhere. A lot of things start out as jokes and become reality. Look at Zelensky for example. Just trying to have a little good trouble fun.
God said, Let there be light. And there was light.
Source????
BlueRoots....best news of the day!!
It's easy when you make it up. It's very cathartic for me. Glad you enjoyed it. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. The possibilities are endless but whatever it is it will be good news for Alternative America!
Thank you
Switching to caucus with the Democrats to retain your seat in the House is obviously self-serving. I would only trust them if they each hold a press conference and announce their intentions and what their constituents will gain from them flip-flopping. And even then can they really be trusted?
If the government shuts down because of Matt Gaetz and his friends there will likely be a blood bath in 2024. In the meantime, the House members can only watch the two wars our allies are fighting. What great allies we are -- NOT!
If it really happened it would be something we've never seen but most likely it would start a trend this country so desperately needs.
Please keep us Jo to date
Up to date
Let's see what tomorrow brings. I like to read HCR first to get my inspiration and creative juices flowing.
In today's Letter, Heather Cox Richardson, opened with,
'We are in a bizarre moment.'
She then went on to touch upon what seemed like a thousand moments of pain, disorder, violence and lies. I call our woe now, a macabre carousel going round and round. Just mention of Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, US, Russia, Israel, Hamas, Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, Yemen, Sudan...The Republican Party, Climate Change. What would would you call it? What are human beings doing to each other?
‘As Warnings of Crisis in Gaza Mount, Palestinians Struggle to Find Room for the Dead’
‘Israel’s latest strikes on Gaza have drawn warnings from aid workers and residents of a humanitarian catastrophe. “We are facing a huge disaster,” said one U.N. official.’
‘Hospitals crowded with patients are running short on fuel. Fearful residents are racing to U.N.-run schools, seeking shelter from airstrikes. Water and electricity have been cut off, the borders are closed, and even the cemeteries do not have room to accommodate all the newly dead.’
‘The health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday that its health system had “begun to collapse,” and as night fell, most of the territory was plunged into darkness. Its only power plant had shut down on Wednesday for want of fuel.’
‘On Thursday, at least 10 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa. Video from the aftermath of the strike showed a scene covered in gray ash and dust, the bodies and wounded nearly indistinguishable from the rubble around them.’
‘The Gaza Strip, pounded for days by hundreds of Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for Hamas attacks on Saturday that killed more than 1,200 people, is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, residents and aid workers say. The strikes, along with a newly declared siege by Israel, have compounded the problems of years of blockade that had left the strip, a tiny enclave controlled by Hamas, impoverished and desperate even before the latest war.’
“We are facing a huge disaster,” said Adnan Abu Hasna, the media adviser for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees.’
‘Gazans and Israeli officials alike have described the strikes, which began on Saturday, as more severe and widespread than in conflicts past. Satellite imagery of residential areas showed dozens of flattened buildings, and video showed the wreckage of a refugee camp hit by a strike. Residents of Gaza said airstrikes have landed on hospitals, schools and mosques.’
‘Israel has said its strikes are targeting sites connected with Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, saying it believes Hamas members are hiding in homes, schools and hospitals;’
‘Hamas members, as Palestinians from Gaza, live among the community. Israel’s military has asserted that the neighborhood around Al-Shifa Hospital, the strip’s largest medical complex, is a financial hub for Hamas, and many of the limestone villas and high-rise buildings surrounding the hospital have already been reduced to piles of rubble and concrete.’
‘But in the tight, densely populated quarters of Gaza, there is often nowhere for Palestinian civilians to go when a neighborhood is bombed’.
‘Israel’s defense minister has also vowed to allow no food, water, electricity or fuel into the impoverished enclave. The strip, where more than two million people live, has already been under blockade by Israel and Egypt for 16 years.’
‘The situation there was “extremely dire before these hostilities,” the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said this week. “Now it will only deteriorate exponentially.”
'At least 1,537 Palestinians have been killed and 6,612 others wounded since Saturday, according to the Gazan Health Ministry. It was not clear how many of the dead included Palestinian assailants who carried out Saturday’s attack.' (NewYorkTimes) See gifted link for the entire report below.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war.html?unlocked_article_code=alT_SxfH6Q016XAZ5C9SWLVLkeoyrgPKzAnRbp_yqv4Br9IdqIU0GInfmHMcnNEG46-DCf274rU1IexDSwxjaORCMox8CNaBZUEef9Jx0VzP1G8h-BsH66g2jObbXMA1Rr7VtTKABv5bUj7EYkuj2QFtiq2DipRA5eGewmVNMxx2lUltpvOJugv6PUdPVb3D9B5BpgBqiHAMDCopJzkx2FXLff2RnLLaDe5VwvimRcJZJl68TIZPPu88w_vpi7VKiizWbhhf9H5AB3w-n9yGZFbX3islu1rsK-_c9GaDquGovsy0hLr2A7EoXaxEkEShhiV9FangcjnnmlXiVHn6xBZU&smid=url-share
Thank you Fern.
What is happening in Gaza is simply horrifying and not a single politician in the USA has said one word that would damp the violence against the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza.
Mike, there doesn't seem to be any room for that. I abhor what Hamas has done, just as I abhor the conditions that Israel has imposed upon the Gaza strip and the conduct that created Hamas in the first place. I have been called out for not being 100% in support of Israel and everything they do. I cannot get behind the response which is to obliterate the Gaza strip and kill every Palestinian within it.
Well, the main reason "there is not any room for pushing back on Israel is because: We do not have a Democracy. We have something akin to a Brothel.
Politicians take money from donors, sometimes big ones, or big blocks, and then do what those donors want.
Biden has big donors that do not want restraints on Israel.
Like is not the appropriate response here, grief, sadness, sorrow that human have learned so little
Carole, I think it is horrifying each time, and I have been learning about our lethal behavior toward one another as well as the good, year after year, ever since I was capable of absorbing facts.
Fern, so true….humans really are a conundrum!
Thank you Fern. I am so despairing.
I am also horrified at what we do to one another on the negative side of the spectrum as well as the positive side. It is shocking, Helen, and very painful to relearn this over and over again.
“The fact that ALL Republicans would rather fight over Scalise (who attended a neo-Nazi event) or Jordan (who allegedly covered up rampant sexual abuse) rather than simply work with Democrats to elect a Speaker says it all.” Egads... *edit - jfyi, Here's a timely article to share as well if you will > https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2023/how-to-spot-fake-news-israel-hamas-war/
Effectively, today’s Republicans can barely function. They offer The Big Lie, Trump fascism, Trump et al, continuing racism, violent antisemitism and daily mass killings and racial violence, intolerance, racism, fascism, economic incoherence, certain Crash and collapse of the dollar, governmental chaos, nihilism and darkness, no Speaker in the House, Russia overtaking Ukraine and Europe and collapse of NATO, a Nazi rule expanding across the globe from Israel with Hamas ruling from GAZA, a Mideast dominated by Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas, the end of Western Civilization, rising dictatorships, grifting, China, Russia, ISIS and worse... with GOP Rep. George Santos smiling, the House of Representatives dark... failure of the USPS and education, collapse of health care and the IRS, and daily mass killings.. a checkmate on President Biden... political paralysis and silence in our great universities, with kleptocracy and fascism spreading across Planet Earth... societal death and endless violence, cowardice, lies, eternal Hell, to mention a few...
Today’s Democrats offer a coherent Democrat Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, assured collaboration between the Parties, a consensus government, economic coherence, support of Ukraine and Common Sense, the vision of Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin and a Republic we can keep, and dialectical coherence... Truth, economic solvency, a plan, forgiveness and racial tolerance, a liberal education and open libraries, knowledge and courage... and HOPE...