“Caravans” of migrants to our southern border are once again headline news on the Fox News Channel, but while these anti-immigrant stories divert attention from news that those on the right would like to bury, as usual, they also establish a larger pattern.
Hillary was fatally wrong to buy her own PR and ignore the Electoral College map - let alone refuse to mend fences with the African American voters she'd insulted with her primary insults to Barack Obama and the progressive voters livid at her DNC scheming against Bernie Sanders. Her 'I can't lose' messaging and sloppy campaign gave many voters, who might otherwise have held their nose to vote for her, an excuse to sit on their hands.
How do I know - I volunteered almost full time for six months to get her elected.
You tried, Lin. Thank you. She had it in the bag, against an entertainer with no government experience who smeared and bullied his way through the R field. Anti-American views, anti-human views. Should have been a cake walk were it not for Russians, bots, Facebook, and treachery. Oh, I forgot to add “deplorables.”
"She had it in the bag ...were it not for “deplorables.”"
Deplorables on all sides. Including the Bernie Bros, Steinherds, and Dirtbags.
Third party pipe dreams and Pied Pipers. Left wing extremists betting on if Trump makes things bad enough then 'come the revolution' no matter the irreparable harm to our most vulnerable neighbors and our fragile planet.
HRC did not have it in the bag. She & her people were over confident.
Trump had an advisor who told him which states he needed to visit in the last week of the campaign where the vote was very close. Clinton's staff missed both the closeness of the vote in those three states & why Trump visited them.
Len, I agree with you that overconfidence was a large factor. The were many factors beyond my short list, including what Jeri Chilcutt replied about Rupert orienting his media machine in idjt's favor. In the end, it is a wonder that Hillary did well in spite of everything by taking the popular vote. I admit to Feeling the Bern in the primary; but fearing I would be doing a 'Ralph Nader' by siphoning off a vote for Hillary in the General if I wrote in Bernie, I joined my wife by voting for HRC. We both realized that it would be disastrously close. Just too many factors -- from within and withoit.
Not for a nanosecond, he ditched Jeb like a hot potato, and switched his evil to matching evil. Why tfg was quoted as saying that Rupert treated him way better than Roger Ailes ever did…
I'm not Hillary's biggest fan and I voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary but even I understand why the DNC wouldn't favor a non Democratic candidate who spent the majority of his political career smearing Dems and making everything about classism to the exclusion of racism over a candidate that in her earlier years was crucified for trying to get affordable, quality healthcare legislation passed. That footnote should have been your first clue that it wasn't Democrats who were holding up progress, but the Republican cum defacto Libertarian party.
Agree. Unless Bernie won by at least 20 million votes he would have been blocked by leaders on both sides. Look what beloved Biden is dealing with! Another clue: the Republicans called Hillary every name in the book, except racist.
I'm pretty sure the competitions between Obama vs Clinton and Clinton vs Sanders are the most interesting and pivotal primaries in American history and will someday be fodder for alternative history fiction.
Richard, To get a closer look at the Libertarian Party check out what the Koch Bros. have done to this country and Charles is still at it. Have you read Dark Money? The Libertarian Party that I'm familiar with is not 'light' in the least.
Christopher Hitchens “I have always thought it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement (Libertarian) in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.”
I have a spreadsheet containing links to articles, blogs and most every video on youtube about them. I am a walking talking anti #KochNetwork carnival barker 24/7.
No, I haven't yet read "Dark Money," but I shall. It's been highly recommended. Jane Mayer has another book for us to read: "Dark Side."
Here is a book I am currently reading that I recommend: "Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War". "Viviremos" means "We will live!" It's a book of essays edited by Claudia De La Cruz, Manolo De Los Santos & Vijay Prashad. Interestingly, "Viay" means "Victory." Published in 2020 by International Publishers & Left Word Books. A complete listing of IP Books is available at intpubnyc.com; Email: service@intpubnyc.com; Phone: 212-366-9820.
Yeah, if only she had pandered to the 80,000 white supremacists in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, she would have won the Electoral College *and* the popular vote.
If only Clinton had built bridges instead of burning them. If only she hadn't taken the allegiance (frayed by Clinton neoliberalism and Clinton arrogance) of a wide swath of historically Democratic voters for granted - while ignoring Democratic and swing states to go to Texas.
Right-wing economists took America for a ride. That is where the blame belongs, and the GOP. The Silent Generation, ironically, especially fell hook, line and sinker for right wing talking points and raised their offspring - my peers - to believe the same garbage.
She lost for a lot of reasons, some of her own making and some not. The main ones: third-party candidates, James Comey (though rogue agents in NYC would have leaked), and never visiting Wisconsin. And who wouldn't have been overconfident against TFG and his blantant immorality?
Hillary's campaign was her biggest problem, however, her strong support of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which, Bill Clinton, signed into law, didn't help. The legislation has been justifiably criticized for sending a disproportionate numbers of African-Americans to prison. In addition, her "superpredators" line didn't win friends in the Black community. In full context, Hillary's '...superpredtors' did link children and superpredators, but nowhere in the speech did she directly label African-American youth this way.' (PolitiFact) Hillary was carrying more baggage than was justified, but she did not have the wherewithal to handle it
Many leaders of the Black Community at the time supported the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Republicans also enthusiastically voted for it. The only way to blame it all on Hillary is to take it out of context and with no understanding of the times in which that event occurred. Looking back, I'm sure we're all at fault for something. If only we knew then what we know now.
Tracy, the beliefs and hopes of Black Leaders concerning the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1993-94 does not speak to its impact, given systemic racism, on Black people between 1995 and 2015. In addition, there was strong opposition in liberal circles to Bill Clinton's Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Hillary supported two major pieces of legislation, which hurt a lot of people more than helping them. The point that I tried to make was that HRC was carrying Bill Clinton's baggage as well as her own -- not making a case against Hillary, just noting a few more issues that lessened her popularity with an important segment of Democratic voters.
I agree 100% that its consequences were devastating. After Reagan, the noose start tightening again around many freedoms we were taking for granted but mostly around the Black community. No doubt about it. Also agree that Hillary was carrying a lot of baggage. My main point is that she wasn't just carrying her baggage but all those belonging to a lot of men who were equally complicit. Again, I wasn't her biggest fan but stopping trump and the racists in the R party has been my agenda since I start voting after Reagan.
I feel somewhat guilty, but, but, quite often I feel like the idiots who didn't vote for Secretary Clinton, deserve what they got, and are getting. Of course, I refer to the voters on the democratic side. They seem to believe if the candidate is not perfect, either vote for the other side or don't vote.
I was a strong Sanders supporter in '16, and quite pissed when he didn't get the nomination. However, I voted for Clinton in the general, and I urged others to do so. It was obvious to me that Trump was a bad person, and that his presidency would be a disaster.
Yes, I think of that photo, too. Just being placed at the same table with Flynn, much less with Putin himself. But ex-KGB man Putin would have made the seating arrangements, wouldn't he?
Don't like Stein at all. I was invited to a house party hosted by Green Party voters after the 2018 midterms when Stacey Abrams lost. My friend didn't mention who was hosting it until we'd almost arrived, otherwise I would have said no thanks. I ended up meeting some of the nicest people and was kicking myself for being so judgmental, until the end of the night when the host started telling me about chem trails and Benghazi. I was so disappointed. Nice or not, they're seriously misguided and selfish for creating voter apathy in the minds of people who don't know any better, and I will never forgive them for that.
Not sure what Stein has to do with this house party (see my post directly above). But as a neighbor, I can tell you that after the '16 election, she kept an extremely low profile, and I suspect she was keeping her distance from the Green Party after that.
Stein, who is a neighbor of mine, is simply naive and a magical thinker. She didn't need money. Her husband is a transplant surgeon and transplant surgeons are very well paid. (He's also a really good, decent guy fwiw). And they don't drive fancy cars, or have fancy stuff.
Hillary and her elite advisors could have won in a breeze if they had gone to the hollers and hoods and listened to those people and convinced them to come out and vote for her. But no, she had to go to rich places like the Hamptons to raise money. In her book, she was foolish to blame Jill Stein and others for her loss.
The campaign had some blind spots. But it was a tough call with Humpty Dumpty running his presidential campaign like a cheap school yard bully/comedy show.
But doing so, ever so shrewdly. Perhaps we were all too slow to catch on to that last part?
DT tapped into the rage that was bubbling close to the surface. He spoke to it. His hate matched theirs. How could Hillary have counteracted that? She was a representative of the 'elite. We didn't suspect how much she was despised. I didn't think she was a good choice to begin with. Obama made a serious mistake. Perhaps, Biden could have beaten Trump in 2016. No sense going back. We had very serious problems before Trump and Facebook whipped them up.
I think you are right. When I first read your email, I thought you were talking about when Hubert Humphrey lost to Nixon. In that case, Vice President to Lindon Johnson Humphrey has stood by Lindon's side loyally. If he had pushed that he was really against the Vietnam war, he might actually have beaten "I am not a crook." Just imagine how different things might have turned out.
TC I know that you are well aware of all the crazy things that have been said about the Clintons. Then came Banghazi. Because of all the baggage that came with her, why did the Dem’s think she had a good shot at the ‘Office ‘ ? Honestly, I just felt like you couldn’t have chosen a more toxic person. Because of that idea, her being friends with TFG. I honestly thought he ran for the benefit of her. He was a Dem so he had to change parties. Likewise his kids. They forgot to change their party and couldn’t vote for him in the primaries .So is George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband really against TFG ? They have an Apt. in Trump Towers. How could a marriage hold up under all that ? Anyway I just felt like we were doomed right out the gate with Hillary. If the Dem’s are the “Deep State “ it appears the Kettle is calling the pot black.
MARCIA LET’S GET BENGHAZI STRAIGHT Diplomating can be a dangerous profession. As a Foreign Service Officer, I know. In the Congo our embassy was the former consulate general with huge plate glass windows and total exposure. The Regional Security Officer from Beirut said that we could hold the embassy against a large-crowd-attack for ‘30 seconds.’ When I was deposited alone from a C-130 or C-46 with a M-16 and/or .45 in rebel-infested Congolese provinces, I did not bring along snorkeling gear with my magazine clips.
Libya was a turbulent place with multiple groups fighting one another. Ambassador Stevens, fluent in Arabic, was extremely knowledgeable about the fluid situation. He chose to visit Benghazi, where we had a small consulate and a larger CIA facility near by. While Ambassador Stevens was there, a large crowd , some with sophisticated arms, assembled. Then an attack was triggered. Help was sought from the near-by CIA facility. The Navy was contacted, but nothing immediate could arrive to intervene in this fire fight. There were a few American deaths, including the ambassador, who had suffocated in the room when he had taken refuge.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had absolutely no operational involvement in the “Benghazi affair.’ The situation flashed up and the ambassador died. One could wildly hypothesize that the failure of Congress to provide more funds to re-enforce diplomatic facilities made a difference, but a priority of re-enforcing a small consulate in Benghazi wouldn’t make the ‘top 200’ list. We’ve had our embassy in Nairobi badly bombed, at least four ambassadors killed in the past forty years, and I expect further Foreign Service casualties. However, more people have been gunned down in Chicago in one night than we have lost Foreign Service Officers over the past 60 years.
Frederick SPOT ON! We have Heather to provide sharp daily focus with historical suspenders. The Republicans have been sharply focused—the Federalist Society on the judiciary since 1970, several scum bum outfits that provide voting suppression text bills to Republican attorney generals, etc. Meanwhile, the Democrats seem like a herd of squalling cats on whom the media feast. President Biden is on the cusp of two historic physical and social infrastructure laws. The media’s focus is diverted to the infighting of crafting a compromise bill. Remember “It’s the economy stupid” in 1992? Every thing that President Biden has being accomplishing AND THE REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN AGAINST AND SABOTAGING can be posted on a single page. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Clear message and staccato repetition.
Progressives simply refuse to address EVERYTHING as a matter of “Insuring Liberty and Justice for All, because our economy DOES NOT”. Capitalism works for a few, but health, safety and protection are the domain of government, our DEMOCRACY. Government must insure our liberties are not violated.
Good government = Good Democracy = Good Government.
I’m in discussion with leaders of two statewide referenda campaign here for 2022, 1) universal health care and 2) universal green electric grid provided by a publicly owned entity. NEITHER campaign can see they are a part of a Build Back Better plan. They both “demand” to go it alone, and therefore compete with dueling messages, campaigns, etc.
I’m as frustrated with Bernie and Liz Warren and Dems for being stupid about using dynamic language, as I am angry about the cons using incredible language to maintain stupidity. We’re stupid out of our ignorance, and their stupid out of their intentionality.
WHICH i more dangerous?! THANK GOD JOE BIDEN GETS IT: Build Back Better. Which, still, could use a moral imperative, such as I have provided with the progressive creed, stated in our Pledge of Allegiance
Thank you Keith for the succinct and forceful Benghazi explanation.
I am ever grateful for the Substack platform where I can find such exceptional commentary as LTAA and the accompanying commentary. I have found no newspaper or magazine with such relevant and knowledgeable information as this forum which makes the historical events of the day understandable and gives them a place in history.
It is however so frustrating to me that I cannot get friends to show enthusiasm. I occasionally forward one or at most two columns to friends in the hope of generating outrage, conversation or I’d even settle for interest. The real hope is that they too will become subscribers but so far only blanks. The friends I’ve approached have been Doctors and Lawyers and such. I think I’ll go back to cowboys. Willie would listen.
Thank you for this, Keith. I sincerely wish there was a way for you to put this comment out there for all to see. It is a succinct and clear explanation about what happened in Benghazi and what foreign service professionals may face in the course of their work.
Daria I posted much of this in NYT comments but, frankly, I don’t think that a great proportion of Americans give a damn about the sacrifices made by people who serve them and their country. As a rambunctious Political Officer in Chile, I was targeted by the Communist press, had over a dozen attempted house break ins, was given a gun to ‘deal with’ intruders, and, for four months, had a police guard protecting me and my family. I felt simply that this went with the territory.
PTSD is a major problem in our country. (I twice experienced PTSD—once as an aftermath of my dad, stepmother, and brother disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle and again as an aftermath of some horrific experiences in the Congo) It is serious.
After Vietnam, the impact of PTSD was generally brushed aside, after many volunteers and draftees were affected from their experiences. More attention is given to Iraq/Afghanistan PTSD, but the general public seems more concerned with football concussions. PTSD is a humongous problem for many of the hospital workers who have dealt with a never-ending crush of Covid-19/Delta patients. They are the latest casualties of front-line personnel serving our country. Who cares?????
Keith, I've given considerable thought to your response to my comment. First, I cannot imagine losing family members in a marine accident of that nature. The uncertainty and lack of closure must have been stunning. Then the Congo. No words. I am grateful for your strength and resilience.
You are right. There are millions of people who pay lip service to patriotism and claim to honor those who serve, whether in uniform or in civil service, yet when asked to show respect and concern for them, turn their backs and make excuses saying their freedom is being compromised, no new taxes, the price tag to support or pay these servants is too great. You sacrificed much. I'm grateful for your dedication and service to the country.
I have lost family members in service to our country. There are 4 generations of family members, including siblings, who spent their careers in federal civil service, each of them proud of the contribution they made to our country every day. Yet one of the things they heard day in and out was thatat they were "only" government employees... Yes, government employees who were only involved in troop movement, dental and cancer research, infrastructure, law enforcement, human genome research, and more. They were only government employees. You and they were and are the backbone of the United States.
Daria I applaud your relatives who paid the ultimate price in serving our country. I and many others do this because we feel obliged to do what is right in being an integral part of our country. The latest heroes are the hospital workers who have far exceeded what could be expected of them because they place humanity above themselves. Our country will survive and stand proud with such selfless heroes, who expect no special recognition.
Hillary was a skilled politician, a big thinker and a team player. She actively supported other woman who in turn supported her. But, no one could survive the sustained barrage of character assassination they subjected her to for decades.
They turned her into an ugly caricature and many fell for it.
Yes, “they” the ones hiding behind acronyms and “non profits” plotting their next move.
I had a neighbor say she couldn’t vote for Hillary because Bill got a blow job while in office and she stayed with him. In the next sentence she dismissed “grab em by the Pussy” and said he was wonderful. When even women dismiss those actions you know there’s something fundamentally wrong with them. I can’t even have a civil conversation with this woman anymore. You don’t blame women for men’s behavior!
Look at the blame thrown at a girl or woman after they have been raped or harassed! Remember? did they dress inappropriately - was that why it happened? Couldnt possibly be the boy/man to blame!
Your neighbor just wasn't going to admit the truth - she refused to vote for a "socialist" Democrat, but she was willing to vote for TFG, as flawed as he was, because he was a Rethuglican.
She honestly thought the way he treated women was acceptable. I argued with her for an hour. I asked how she’d feel if that were her daughters or granddaughters being treated that way and she thought her grandsons should do that to other women. I was appalled. She goes to church and Bible study all the time.
I keep thinking about George Conway. His behaviors have always raised my suspicions. I wanted to believe, but how exactly could a lawyer and Trump’s steadiest unwavering adviser coexist? That remains my question. ❤️🤍💙
John and Martha Mitchell? (For you young ‘ens, John Mitchell had been attorney general under Nixon and would take a bullet for his leader. Martha felt that Nixon was setting up her husband to take the fall for Watergate. She went ballistic and secret service men had to rip the phone out of the wall to stop her babbling. John went to jail for about two years.)
I believe the 'Deep State’ refers to civil service professionals who simply do their duty, which oftent is NOT to the linking of the seditionist conservatives. Correct me if I am wrong
Sedition and treason. I call Paul Gosar and Marjorie Greene and question if they were a past of a treasonous act.
Actually, I do not care about what conservatives call us, because it diverts my attention away from the vital issue of spreading our message (which we do not have)
I am willing to bet that the Trump "administration" deliberately took those actions in the Northern Triangle, cutting aid, to push people into coming to the United States, so they could be used as they were to foment the "border crisis."
Gosar is definitely a traitor. His family has disowned him and actually campaigned against him when he ran for re-election. I will be completely unsurprised when it comes out that the long speech he gave was deliberate in its timing, to hold the House in session for the assault, so that Democratic members could be grabbed. Remember, they brought a gallows with them to the Capitol assault.
These traitors came sooooooo close to carrying off their Coup d'Etat. It wasn't an "insurrection" - that implies a spontaneous act by people who are "mad as hell and not going to take any more." This was planned and manufactured over the two months following their electoral loss. Start calling it what it was: a Coup d'Etat that failed, just barely - an act of treason in "declaring war on the United States" as the crime is defined in the Constitution. And it was led by the President of the United States.
“I will be completely unsurprised when it comes out that the long speech he gave was deliberate in its timing, to hold the House in session for the assault, so that Democratic members could be grabbed.”
Exactly, Reagan started “helping” Central America way back there. After his disasterous amnesty plan, and guess what? A club to beat Dems with forever…
I just saw "Under Fire" for the upteenth time on MGM Channel. Anyone who would like to get a good "bone deep" sense about this country and what we do will be well-educated if you watch this movie. The first script my friend Ron Shelton wrote, Nick Nole and Gene Hackman and Joanna Pacula at their heights. It was released the day after Reagan declared war on Nicaragua.
And the plot thickens... Everything TFG said about the Democrats were projections of what he was doing. You just explained that CNP was/is the deep state. It puts a neat tie around CNP, Citizens United and SCOTUS. TFG was their tool, the "witting idiot". This feels like the climax of a spy/mystery novel. Now to see whether the ending is the triumph of evil or the author decides on a happy ending where democracy is miraculously restored. Shocking. Thank you, Heather, This is a superb piece of putting the pieces together. Frightening though it is.
Frightening. But doesn’t scare me. We, all of us, can turn it around. We’ve just had to have our noses rubbed in it, as TCinLA describes, to really see their dirty little plot has “been done happening” right under our noses. Let’s go! Do the work. Time to get our own cans of whoop ass open. Get the vote out. Start with support pouring toward the gov race in Virginia. Dem agenda needs to wipe the floor of the nonsense instead of squeaking through. We, the people, ARE the agenda.
If I had ever pitched a story with the facts we have here to either a studio executive or a publisher, they would have chased me out of their offices, screaming to never come back, because they didn't want to waste their time on a crazy person. Before June 16, 2015, if you had told me 1/10 of what has happened since that date, I'd have asked if I could have some of whatever it was you were smoking.
What would Tom Clancy say? Would he call the reality of the last five years whacky, unbelievable, too far out to even be taken seriously? or even be a sellable fiction?
Morning Ted. As a fan of the fiction genre of spy, and political intrigue novels, I think I’d ask Ludlum, Eisler, or LeCarre your question before asking Tom Clancy. Although I have liked reading most of his books.
LeCarre would give a far better answer, yes. I have read all his books but the last one. Unfortunately, he paints the bleak picture of the world as it really is. The only for sure thing in his books is that the protagonist usually survives except Alex Leamus.
Those are the two least-ideological of his books. The early ones. You get into the Jack Ryan novels and they get increasingly wingery. When everyone was worried the Japanese were going to overtake us, he had one where we basically re-fought the Pacific War in miniature and beat them again. There was one where the Iranian Mullahs had a conspiracy to infect the US with a super-strain of Ebola. That was the one I didn't finish and left the rest to settle in their swamp.
All the President’s Men being a film based on a book by Bob Woodward that recounts the unveiling of the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation, your sense is right on: we’re LIVING the history that will be the plot of future books and film scripts. Looking forward to a poetic justice ending…
Dr. Richardson, with you I feel like one of a tiny percentage of people on this planet who — with access to your knowledge and exhaustive and well documented research — have access to facts and context that I trust. By reading what you write, and following many of your links, I feel that I am one of only a comparatively few people who know for sure what the hell is going on around here. I don’t have words to express my gratitude! All I can say is, Well Done — again....
When I read about how Heather described how the alt- right wealthy Christians are pushing for a “moral” society, I laugh. Talk about a bunch of immoral characters! It’s not funny. It’s pathetic and frightening. I want to see Ginni Thomas behind bars which would subsequently force good ole Clarence to retire or to be investigated and removed. I dunno…I hear the drums in the distance getting just a little closer.
I’d like to see a very public ethics review for SCOTUS and immediate family. Only a profoundly entitled person would take such a hard provocative public role with a partner serving in the highest court of the land. It seems as if these people believe that nothing can touch them. They had better turn out to be absolutely wrong or, it seems to me, we will all be in for some prolonged difficult times ahead.
Yes, Gus, i upon re-reading the ending to my comment, I realized that I am already convinced, not unlike many of us, the road ahead already promises to deliver a rough ride, no matter what.
When I was at school I had a professor of some renown who was a grad of Harvard Div school. He explained that there are really two traditions in the text and they are Triumphalism and Covenant. The Conventional tradition is based around communitarian ideals and Triumphalism celebrates a vague notion that when you succeed especially in gaining wealth and control over others it's a sign that you're doing God's work. Over the millennia that notion has been the engine of more and greater criminal enterprise than anyone and especially the Triumphalists would ever be willing to admit.
Indeed. The "prosperity gospel" folks are all about embracing the Calvinist notion of "living saints" and identifying wealth, power, and--in case you wondered--whiteness with being members of the Elect. It has been a persistent drumbeat especially in peculiarly American forms of so-called Christianity.
Getting religion involved with politics never works because faith, by definition, doesn't require justification or proof, belief being enough. The Constitution's framers, nominally Christians, knew that and made sure the first words of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights were "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." They saw the mess that Oliver Cromwell created in England during the previous century and the reaction to it. Sunni and Shia Muslims have been fighting for centuries and unfortunately, their religion preaches political involvement. And let's not forget the Crusades and the Inquisition. When it comes to politics, we should leave it at there having been a Creation, and pay little attention to anything that happened thereafter. Privately, of course, anyone can believe whatever they choose to believe.
The evil has been there a good long while – the Crusades and the Inquisitions immediately come to mind. Linda Mitchell, above, zeroes in specifically on the Calvinist (Protestant) contribution to the "evil".
Daria, To their credit, Presbyterians kind of downplay old John and his big 5; unfortunately he has been resurrected by the neo-reformationists of today. The ultra-conservative “elect” who include deplorable “evangelicals” in their prey. I call them all opportunistic neo-Bible beaters.
Wow...trump and triumph are way too close... The far right are masked in this false, religious-freak costume whilst their current cult figure, tfg, is just a 100%, malignant narcissistic, Godless opportunist. Wherever he smells dollar signs he twaddles over to it—doesn't matter whence it comes from. He is an $$ addict besides being a bombastic, lying ignoramus. Now he has an army of sicko/psychophantic minions trying to replicate him now. (Ah, I had to get that out. I feel much better now and can get on with my day—sorry you had to witness my torrent).
Don’t apologize, Penelope. It’s now, especially for women, that the rose colored glasses are off for many of us. It’s time to call a thing a thing and not apologize to others—that even now, scold us, not the enemy, for being name callers or crass or too vocal or “acting” too much like those we criticize or call out.
I’ve got news for detractors supposedly on the side of democracy. A pacifist does not hide its head in the sand. A pacifist is fierce in truth. A pacifist is strategic. A pacifist values freedom and peace but will above all resist and break the chains that choke our voice and enslave us to the ways of a warmonger and a rule of corrupt authority.
I’m in the fight. Scared, but not afraid or fearful.
Thank you. Your comment is so incredibly illuminating. Right down through the ages, an answer to the question, “How could they identify as Christian, while doing these exploitive and often horrific things?”
The most ‘Christian’ thing about the Crusades was the Pope’s interest in collecting money from it. The ‘Children’s Crusade’ was perhaps. The most horrible, with the kids dying for no Christian reason. In Jerusalem, one cynically might say that the Christians conductd themselves with the ‘morality of the Arabs’ and the Arabs with the morality of the “Christians.’ Saladin honored the chivalry of warfare, while the Christian Crusaders often engaged in bloody massacres of civilians.
By the way, can you imagine gentle Jesus singing ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, MARCHING OFF TO WAR, WITH THE CROSS OF JESUS GOING ON BEFORE?
Saladin was indeed more ethical, more chivalrous than the Crusaders. So many innocent victims including the children.
No, I can’t imagine Jesus singing that hymn — or the contradictory “ A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” where believers stay inside the fortress and God battles the evil foe for us....but I did sing them. At the top of my voice, as a child and young Protestant believer. A bay “Elect” scared I was really a reprobate.....What can I say?
I finally was able to see the Light, in spite of old Calvin.
The early Christian Crusaders sharpened their sword blades against a break-away Christian group in southern France before embarking on their ‘holy crusade.’ Holy molely!
Thank you sir. Of course if we think about the Old Testament many of the troubles that haunt us now, with the text so corruptly wielded, are based in the mistakes made when israel became a kingdom under David. The covenant is less effective when an army becomes necessary.
Yeah, their definition of "morality" seems to be a bit skewed. I don't remember that Jesus guy saying some of the things they call "morality". He was more of a "help the poor, do good works" kind of fellow. Now, I know that the Bible scholars will hasten to default to the Old Testament, but c'mon, if you refer to CHRISTianity, those first 6 letters kind of define it, don't they?
While the news and revelations about Trump’s minions just keep getting worse, please remember one thing: If you have elections next week, vote. If you are willing and/or able, make calls for a candidate or volunteer to help in some way. The good folks of Georgia showed us the way forward - and thank God they showed up in droves!
We have local school board elections here. Eyes on the prize-three excellent board members with a true focus on education and the wellbeing of students.
There are a million things happening at the federal level that are gobsmackingly awful but my power remains that of the vote. Small, nearly invisible local election in flyover land. And absolutely the heart of democracy and our future.
Absolutely. Even here in deep blue eastern Massachusetts, we have a school board election including a candidate whose mission in life seems to be disrupting education with trumplican slogans. These local offices matter, a lot.
We dodged the bullet here in Salem, OR with the last school board election where progressives prevailed. Other places here are not so lucky and things are still stewing in Newberg among other places.
I just dropped off my absentee ballot into the ballot box this morning. In the local race it will hardly matter--we hardly have any Democrats on the ballot...haven't for years--but the town's mayoral race has a Democrat, so there's that, even though he has a snowball's chance in hell. Our county was 72% for T***p in 2020, so do the math...STILL! I did my duty.
And while the Republican hoard continues its assault on democracy, there are other disturbing events afoot: yesterday I wrote to my senator Kirstin Gillibrand, who - along with numerous other democrats - has thrown Steven Donziger under the bus after he won a huge settlement against Chevron in Ecuador. In case some of you don't know, Chevron has sued him, resulting in this environmental lawyer being under house arrest. Gillibrand and other prominent democrats are financially beholden to Chevron and their mouths are closed. This is so depressing. Are they ultimately all in the same boat? It's all about money money money...
I so mourned Franken's resignation. One of the best we had. Absolutely motivated, honorable to a fault. Too dangerous to Cruz, McConnell and the rest. Shame it was Franken's own party that did nothing to defend him or stop his resignation! But we sent Rev.Warnock -- less funny but no less honorable.
The outrageous actions of the federalist society connected judges toward Donziger gives me chills when I consider that FSers chose the recent dubious additions to SCOTUS.
For the past few months, I've been working with a documented DACA family that is living in the depths of poverty. I'm fortunate to be receiving essential guidance through the immigration maze from a pro bono immigration law attorney. Unaffiliated immigrants cannot possibly afford to hire an attorney.
"My" family of five lives in an old, old, old mobile home, a holy-mary pass away from a freeway. They keep a very low profile (i.e., live in fear) because they know that the smallest infraction could get them deported. I've seen that process. Before COVID, Mr G and I used to show up with others at a court house in the Twin Cities in solidarity with busloads of immigrants facing their last hearing re deportation. By and large, the immigrants who wind up there are not guilty of anything more than not knowing how to navigate the system!
I know this is not the same thing as this letter about refugees seeking entry, but entry is only the beginning of a long, extremely difficult path. The learning curve is both steep and deep. There are probably people living not far away from you who are in desperate need of volunteer guides through this terrible system. A system that went from bad to a kind of fresh hell for immigrants when the disgraced ex-POTUS seized control of our country. In the U.S., that begins at the border, and extends through years and years for those who survive what comes next.
I'm now seeing the U.S. immigration system from the inside, and it's ugly. Also, arcane, convoluted, unjust, and nowhere near "user-friendly." That people risk their lives fleeing from horrific conditions in other countries (in this case, Guatemala) to live here is testament to their desperation. All of that makes me want to re-write Emma Lazarus's poem to reflect the harsh reality of these times.
And to make it worse, the US more or less created those horrific conditions in the first place, by actively interfering in the politics of the central American countries for the sake of large US corporations. Example: the 1954 CIA-led coup in Guatemala. That coup installed a brutal authoritarian government that grabbed huge amounts of land from its residents and gave it to US agribusinesses like the United Fruit Company. https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/topic/1954-guatemalan-coup-detat
I remember marching against this sort of thing in the 1960s. We kept warning it would lead to the same repressive state at home... I would much prefer to have been wrong.
Ted I wonder if the endless, specious, infotainment bombardment of more recent generations has just been to distracting. Speaking for my own generation Vietnam and more importantly, the draft energized resistance. I wonder where the current middle and monied classes would stand if their kids were at risk of being arbitrarily used as fodder for the next military adventure.
Thank you, Barbara, for highlighting the labyrinthine and lengthy process we call our immigration process.We support and my husband volunteers his paralegal skills at a fabulous center, Hope Community Center, started 40 years ago in Apopka by 4 Catholic nuns as a ministry to Farmworkers. Now, it serves all working poor and disenfranchised. Florida is full of people living in the shadows, undocumented and frightened. DACA young people sometimes do not even find out their actual status until they are in high school! It is a world within a world!
I read an article in Nat Geo some years ago about immigrants being America’s salvation. Our white population is shrinking, and there are desperate, energetic people willing to work, and grateful for the opportunity. They followed some and detailed their struggle. Heartbreaking. This was before Rupert bought Nat Geo so no more of that for awhile. He sold it but who knows what they are now.
I remember that piece and two incomplete thoughts I had. The first was how much energy has to go into surviving as a first-generation migrant, the toil, the minuscule movement toward some sense of security, not the least continuing fear the what I have now can disappear in a moment. The children growing up vasilating between dread and potential become strong from the imigrating parents toil, endurance. The second and really incomplete thought is how in our own lives, those of us 5th generation or wealth secure have a security that minimizes essential need (next meal, clean water, disease, an accident away, fear, hostility, red-blue lights, etc) and the comfort to consider wants and ability to take measured risks (invest, spend capital, save for kids college, buying something lacking utility, imagining needs for a future generation, having discretionary energy and time for non-economic things like reading LFAA, etc) can make us less apt to value the wealth that is inherited freedom, something taken for granted. Perhaps it is this inherited element we come to presume as a right for which we no longer must prove being worthy of having. Like other inherited wealth, maintenance of the "nut" bends toward return on investment and less toward creating something new (opportunity as imagined by the migrant) or valued (some legacy that required us to risk all to create). My generation of is the first, I believe, that became middle class and will die with accumulated wealth to pass on to our children. At this time I am thinking about how that modest amount I will have at death might help or inhibit my heirs.
Good morning everyone! I heard this morning on NPR that folks in places like the Dakotas are getting worried about the continued holdup of the infrastructure bill because their states rely so thoroughly on the federal government's handouts to employ people and to maintain their roads and bridges--because they have such an inadequate tax base. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1048918708/regional-planners-wait-as-bidens-infrastructure-plan-stalls-in-congress
Of course, the person being interviewed was very careful not to blame his Repugnican senators and congressmen, who are actually to blame for the holdup. Thankfully, Steve Inskeep didn't take the low road and egg him on to blame the Dems, since that is the narrative we are hearing. The drums that need to be beaten loudly are those that yell that the Ghastly Obstructionist Party is to blame, and that if all of these "red" states want to see prosperity happen they should support the Dems and get rid of their deranged/moronic/corrupt/totalitarian representatives.
If only there were actually two parties, with one representing a Loyal Opposition. Instead, we have one party desperate to get something positive done, one party determined to destroy as much as they can in a naked bid for untrammeled power, and two oleaginous fu**weasels who are being bought off by malignant corporate interests whose role is to completely gum up the works so that nothing at all gets done because it suits them to do so. This is not democracy--except for the fact that the bums can be thrown out if enough people do their jobs as citizens and vote.
But the Dakotas have oil and gas now. As well as banks willing to act and hold dark cash on the behalf of the most corrupt officials worldwide. They have Fb to support their rhetoric of un reality. But yes, roads and bridges do not lie.
Think "oleo margarine". I'd bet most if not all of us remember that greasy white stuff that required yellow powder to be added in order to masquerade as butter.
non-food...makes me nauseous to think of it. I grew up on a farm, we made our own butter and sister, it was delish! That whole margarine thing, still going on, I just don't understand anyone actually eating it.
But a great analogy for the coup d'etat: treasonous politicians masquerading as legit lawmakers.
Lauren Boebert’s carefully worded statement of “I had no role in the planning or execution of any event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on January 6.” sounds suspiciously like Tonya Harding’s denial of any involvement in the planning of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
I found it curious that she felt a need to add "or anywhere in Washington, DC." They need to subpoena her and find out what and where those other events on January 6th might be. They could also ask her about January 5th. And they could start by asking her whereabouts on the evening of January 5th.
Steve Bannon's name seems to pop up in all the most sinister places, often saying very sinister things. He also asserts that having been a White House employee for a short time, executive privilege covers all his activity since, and he need not heed a congressional summons.
Poor boy! I recommend some jailhouse therapy, several years if need be, to put him on the path of righteousness.
If it wasn't so calamitous, the cast of characters attracted to the trump camp would be hilarious. Hopefully, in a few years we can look back and laugh, and the Coen Brothers can make a movie.
Yeah! Or maybe a Wes Anderson movie, because it is stranger, crazier, and almost surreal, outlandish. Bill Murray as Robert Mercer, Danny McBride as Steve Bannon might be in order.
Ralph, in some ways Bannon is the warped "Catholic" version of the CNP....with all the conniving obsession of "The Family" but much more a Lone Ranger w/out even a Tonto now that the Mercers trotted away taking their money from him. Borowitz has a scathing take down of Bannon based mostly on his lack of hygiene--that lack in itself a micro-indicator of his macro-destructive carelessness.
Heather- once again, we are in your debt for putting the pieces together. My concern is that some of these right wing narratives are beginning to influence or infect the respectable press such as the NYT who are railing that Biden is not moving fast enough or that his administration re immigration is more of the same. The damage wrought by Trump goes deep- so much work has to be done to restore what was lost and Biden has been dealt a weak hand- 50 - 2 senators. Again, Americans need to wake up to the gravity of their current situation. Your letters help.
Article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar 17, 1985, by Lewis Lehrman, ‘Conservative Revolution’ will alter all politics. Just saw this about a year ago, but he laid out all the plans to dominate politics. He was a mouth-piece for Reagan and was picked to head the Citizens for America. “Our economic, our social, our international policies are going to be altered in every significant respect. The President hadn’t even begun the program of constitutional reform and the change in social policy.” I will add that the effort to “help” Nicaragua lead to the mess we have today. In fact, Reagan (and his crew of devotees) are likely as destructive as trump and his crew of destruction. Their state is very deep indeed.
Reagan, the Bush’s, particularly G. W. , and Trump are not smart enough to dream up all of these different schemes and pull them of all on their own. Yes, they do have destructive motivations , but they are not the brains behind the schemes. They’ve got some very big, influential players dreaming these schemes up and are pulling the strings of these republicans, and these same influences have a significant influence on a bunch of Dems. also. Manchin and Sinema are the first to come to mind, but there are others also . And they have the money behind them, as they are the money, to by the influence to pull it off. That’s why if we’re going to play by their rules and do anything about it with money, forget it, as we are not going win at the money game , we have got to figure out some other strategy besides money!!!
But this isn’t a dream. Even though many are being slow walked towards Authoritarianism, as conservatives seek, with the help of some old fascist ideas.
There is no debate that Facebook has this ultimate power to divide, destabilize, and destroy stable countries. It’s a psychological weapon of mass destruction, through manipulative and steady distraction, as it forces endless attraction towards anger over compassion, passions over love, and confrontation over mutual respect and understanding. Social cohesion is now shredded.
But FB was given its birth from the very democracy that made possible free markets/ free people, from valuing education, ingenuity, and hard work that lead to creative breakthroughs. Facebook could end completely the system that made it possible, as well has keep it that way forever.
Imagine FB in the wrong hands, or wrong governments. It’s not hard to, because FB, Google, and Apple are already doing that for Governments in Asia, South America, Russia, Eastern Europe, etc. Now imagine FB under TFG’s thumb combined with NSA tech and a loyal only to him FBI and police forces. That’s what’s at risk now.
Facebook seems devilishly designed for our willful demise.
FB is already in the wrong hands, Ted. Zuckerberg and crew are tyrants as we have found out from the whistleblower. They have created a diabolical scheme to undermine democracy and privacy. This it what their money does.
Yes. I know that. So what. Are their conversations like? Even the clowns know they are part of the circus show.
For us, we realize the history we are living through. Do those in power in the Libertarian faction understand they are unraveling democracy? Do they understand how they are weakening our country?
Yes, I truly believe that is their intent. What boggles my mind is that Zuckerberg is Jewish and his family knows all about how Hitler gained the upper hand. I too, was born to victims of the Holocaust so I am fully aware of how democracy is stripped from the masses. It just doesn’t make any sense to me but it makes me very angry.
Well, I hope Zukk is getting an ear full from his Jewish mother and aunts. I believe it’s in one ear out the other. He is “embedded” in his creation. I don’t think he really believes it can destroy once stable countries. FB is a weapon of mass destruction. Zukk is welding the power of what RFK called “our new connectedness”, but instead of doing what RFK thought would happen, “new technology which brings us closer, dissolving the false masks and illusions of differences”, RFK predicted that “the needs and struggles of one become the needs of all”. But Zukk is using the mew communication technology morally wrong, he has created the opposite, rearing at the social fabric, creating new false masks and new and old illusions of differences. Zukk is mistaken that capitalism and capital markets are a safeguards protecting and insuring democracy.
Read chapter 2 of On Tyranny- Tim Snyder. Institutions are needed to safeguard democracy and we need to support our institutions. The book points out that in 1932 Germany, most Germans and Some German Jews thought/believed that Hitler would mellow with new power as the chancellor, as the folded institutional norms, granting Hitler power.
So I don’t put any possibilities passed the Republicans. They will continue to bend institutional norms to gain power, as they are doing now. They will nationalize FB, or pseudo nationalize it, to cement what Dr. Snyder calls “the politics of eternity”. Say good bye democracy’s succession principle.
Facebook is already in the wrong hands. It has already divided our nation (although most folks from either end of the spectrum have gone willingly to whatever extreme they are inclined to favor.)
David Neiwert’s tweet & the link to the NYT’s video Heather excluded out of concern the server would flag it:
Seeing Paul Gosar emerging as a central player in the planning for the insurrection--particularly with his offer of pardons for all involved--reminded me of this snippet from the NYT's devastating video report on how it happened.
David Niewert goes on to say: “It is unlikely that it's merely coincidental that Gosar was dragging his feet and meandering through his speech while the people besieging the Capitol were drawing near to the House chambers. He appears to be trying to create a situation in which the mob overtakes his colleagues.”
Catherine, It’s definitely NOT coincidental. That crazy bugger is as dirty as we all thought he was. So they gave him something simple, that even he could do: “Keep talking — we need a little more time.”
It's amazing how so many dentists are far right wingers. It used to seem like a requirement that one be a dentist from Orangatang County to be President of the California Republican Assembly. My wife's nephew, a dentist, is a far far right Trumper (that whole wing of her family qualify as despicable deplorables). That "hunter" guy who killed Cecil the Lion was a dentist. The only non-far right dentist I know is a woman here in LA who is Vietnamese.
I have to say that you may be into something, TC. Our dentist of many years grew up with my husband. After he retired, he and his wife decided to troll my FB page. The things they both said to me were appalling! One of my daughters chimed in and gave them hell as well as many friends. It did not deter them until I cut them out of my page. Just because there’s a DDS after their name doesn’t mean they’re smart. Ignorant abhorrent people.
And then there is Orin Scrivello, the dentist played by Steve Martin in Little Shop of Horrors. My all time favourite movie character.
Sorry to reach for levity in today’s letter but it is soooo depressing. America is so deep in this shit it’s hard to realistically picture a peaceful way out of it and even harder to imagine what the future could look like with Republicans led by a vengeance seeking Trump back in power. Will make Orin Scrivello look like someone you want your daughter to date.
While it does seem to be true for most of my colleagues being Rethugs or anti-democracy, you can now say you know another dentist who is non-far right. That would be me, in case that wasn't clear. 😊
You prove an interesting note on this: all the far-right dentists I know are men. You and my friend "Doctor D" here in LA are both women. I suspect that is not coincidental.
In less than 5 hours, Steven Donziger will appear before a three-judge panel from the federal appellate court in Manhattan, who will hear argument on whether he can stay out of prison pending resolution of his appeal of Judge Preska's so-called "conviction" of him on a misdemeanor after denying him a jury of his peers.
If anyone has any ability to influence this case, please do whatever you can to save this man's life. Here is an email he sent yesterday:
10/25/21
This is difficult for me to write, so bear with me.
I write to state as clearly as possible that while my clients in Ecuador’s Amazon continue to suffer the deadly impacts from Chevron’s mass toxic dumping, I as their main lawyer might find myself in one of the most unsafe jails in our country as soon as two days from now. I am writing urgently to enlist your support so I can survive what could be one of the most challenging situations of my life. Before I go further, I want you to know how grateful I am for your support — neither I nor my family could have survived my 800-plus days of house arrest without it.
That said, my situation might quickly grow even more tenuous and perilous within hours.
This is an update on my situation:
1. Tomorrow (10/26/21) at 10:00 a.m. ET in Manhattan, a three-judge panel from the federal appellate court will hear argument on whether I can stay out of prison pending resolution of my appeal of Judge Preska's so-called "conviction" of me on a misdemeanor after denying me a jury of my peers. While I maintain my innocence and expect to be exonerated on appeal, that's not quite the point of Chevron and Preska: they want to press their leverage to intensify their campaign of personal destruction.
Remember, Judge Preska is a leader of the Chevron-funded Federalist Society; my prosecutor comes from a Chevron private law firm. I am being targeted by our nation’s first corporate prosecution. As I have said, I believe it is an outrage that we are even having the argument tomorrow given that no misdemeanor defendant in history ever has been forced to serve the entirety of their sentence prior to their appeal being heard.
As an aside, I am honored to be represented at argument by Professor Stephen Vladeck of the University of Texas law school, one of the nation's leading Constitutional law scholars.
2. But here's the rub. If my team loses this argument, Judge Preska has ordered me to report to custody within 24 hours — a brutal order issued for no reason other than to harass me and my family with her particular brand of gratuitous cruelty that has kept me locked up at home on a misdemeanor for 811 days. What this means in practice is that we are going to potentially live for an additional weeks and months (depending on how long the court takes to rule), not knowing whether within 24 hours I will disappear into the American prison system for six months with destination unknown. Given how I have been mistreated up to this point and how many people die or get injured in U.S. prisons, it's sort of like feeling that you may disappear into a Kafkaesque hell.
Again, this is unheard of: people convicted of a misdemeanor are always allowed to self-report to prison weeks after sentencing to the facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) — in my case, a much safer minimum-security prison given that I have the lowest security score possible under the guidelines and I have no criminal history. So why is Preska trying to manipulate the system to force me into one of the most brutal jails in the country in Brooklyn?
3. I believe my physical safety and integrity could be threatened if I am forced into the federal jail in Brooklyn. I have a bottomless belief in my own strength and resilience, but I don't need to tell you that prison environments can be lawless. Given the raw power and nefarious objectives of the forces arrayed against me (including Chevron and its 60 powerful law firms), I am approaching the prospect of prison with an appropriate degree of fear. The fact Judge Preska is trying to maneuver me into a particular jail rather than adhering to the normal course and letting the BOP decide what minimum-security prison I should go to is just deeply concerning.
4. If the appellate judges tomorrow rule in my favor on this urgent appeal (which is different from my main appeal), I will face a bizarre situation: I will return to house arrest to await resolution of my main appeal. Still, we will count it as the victory that is: a mild rebuke to Judge Preska’s abuse of power. That said, I will not be free. And the U.S. courts will still be in violation of multiple provisions of international law, as determined by five esteemed jurists from the United Nations who issued a powerful ruling recently condemning my treatment and requesting my release.
5. If we “win” tomorrow, I likely will spend over three years on house arrest on a misdemeanor by the time my main appeal is resolved. We will try to change that, but that's the reality of what is starting to feel like a Gulag situation. During this time, I will not be free; will be unable to travel; will be unable to meet my clients in the Amazon; will be unable to meet with funders and lawyers; will be unable to pursue my human rights advocacy; and will be unable to be a full father to my son, who has started the last three years of school knowing that his Dad wears an ankle bracelet shackled to his leg.
6. On timing, the appellate court could rule as soon as tomorrow as to whether I must go to the Brooklyn jail. More likely is the judges will take a few days or weeks to write an opinion while I remain on house arrest. But if they rule against me tomorrow, on Wednesday my new ordeal as a federal inmate is likely to begin.
If I am imprisoned, the #FreeDonziger team will continue sending updates on my behalf. I will do my best from inside to continue working and communicating, but I could well be incommunicado for a long period of time. Most importantly, I will need emotional support: visits, letters, and good energy from as far and as wide as possible. Frequent visits can be its own sort of protection. And of course, please continue supporting my son Matthew and wife Laura as this challenge in many respects is greater for them than it is for me.
The case against me implicates the very fabric of our society and whether human rights and environmental justice lawyering can take place in the United States without advocates being locked up which is what happens in so many countries like Russia, China, and Turkey. I ask each of you to stand by me and the people of Ecuador in this critical moment. Please spread the word and get more people to sign up for our campaign at FreeDonziger.com.
And if you are able to help with our defense fund (legal expenses are mounting rapidly), please contribute $1000, $500, $250, $100, $50, $25, or whatever you can today to help us continue to pursue justice regardless of what happens tomorrow.
Is it really so new? ... bigger, bolder, supremely audacious ... there is a chapter in the Kalevala (ancient Finnish creation song) where the old god, Vainamoinen calls upon the Oceanic Mother to send him a water hero to save the world from dying ... the old oak tree has grown so large, nothing can grow - it's roots have clogged up the land - it's branches fill the skies, blocking out sunlight, stifling the winds ... even the rains cannot fall or ground waters evaporate ... if something is not done, all will die.
Out of the waters, comes a little fellow the size of the old god's thumb. He steps up to Vainamoinen and introduces himself as the water hero, sent by the Oceanic Mother to solve the problem. The old god is incredulous, "You must be joking - what can you do - You are not even as big as my hand?!
The little fellow begins to grow ... he grows, and grows until his trousers span the continents and his head wears the sky like a crown. With 3 great strides, he steps across the continents and with 3 mighty blows of his ax, he fells the mammoth tree.
Now, the sun, winds and rains can resume their circular dance ...
All the people come out of the shadows, gathering up the splinters and branches of the great oak, and take them home to build the world anew.
Who might be our thumbelina/o? Greta T. comes to mind for all things creation. More difficult for me to imagine politically-- though we miss a lot, thinking things and persons are more trivial than they actually are! Thank you!
Thank you too Carol ... actually, in this field, a story is emerging about a boy thumb who carries the drum that calls the young to hunt ... Thumbaloono - first born son of the Thumbali People - People of the Pond who hunt slugs over moss covered rocks - singing as they follow slime trails through the glistening morning dew ..., "Tadpoles, Polliwogs, Beetles and Bugs - Thumbali People are hunters of slugs!"
For anyone unfamiliar with Dzoniger's case, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found a “staggering display of lack of objectivity and impartiality” on the part of Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, who has handled much of the US part of Donziger’s case. See: https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-group-blasts-staggering-bias-of-judge-against-lawyer-fighting-chevron/
Anti-Chevron Crusader Steven Donziger Denied Reprieve, Says He Must Report to Prison Within a Day
An environmental advocate who helped win a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron says he must report to prison to serve his six-month sentence by Wednesday afternoon. A trio of federal appellate judges unceremoniously rejected Steven Donziger’s request for bail pending his appeal.
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the bail motion is DENIED,” the Second Circuit’s unanimous three-judge panel wrote.
Sharing the entirety of the order via Twitter, Donziger—hailed by his supporters as an environmental crusader punished for taking on the powerful and depicted by his opponents as a scofflaw—denounced the brevity of the single-paragraph order.
"After 100 pages of legal briefing, the appellate court today denied my release in 10 words,” Donziger tweeted. “This is not due process of law. Nor is it justice.”
Signaling the support he has received from a Nobel Prize winners, international bar associations, members of Congress, a U.N. working group, and more than 100,000 Twitter followers, Donziger added: “We will get through this,” alongside a muscle and heart emoji.
The ruling marks the latest nadir in a reversal of fortune decades in the making.
On Oct. 1, a federal judge dealt the maximum sentence allowable for misdemeanor contempt of court offenses to Donziger, a now-disbarred environmental attorney who spent the better part of his career helping thousands of indigenous and farmer residents of the Ecuadorean Amazon rainforest sue Chevron and its predecessor Texaco for oil pollution to their ancestral lands.
In 1993, Donziger’s clients sued Texaco in New York, and Chevron acquired that company before successfully fighting to move the case to Ecuador in 2001. Chevron ultimately lost that lawsuit in Ecuador to the tune of billions—and collaterally attacked that lawsuit back in New York, claiming that they had been defrauded.
After Chevron won a civil lawsuit accusing Donziger of racketeering, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan—who presided over that civil case—drafted criminal charges against the lawyer after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to prosecute him. Donziger maintains his innocence over Chevron’s allegations that he obtained the judgment through fraud and bribery, and he never has been charged with any of that conduct criminally. But Chevron’s counteroffensive has saddled him with enormous legal bills, stripped the Harvard-educated lawyer of his license and will soon send him to prison.
The unusual judge-ordered prosecution leveled six counts of contempt of court, accusing Donziger of refusing to comply with post-trial discovery orders or relinquish his interest in the Ecuadorean judgment. Donziger and his supporters cast his prosecution as a corporate retaliation campaign linked to Chevron.
Kaplan tapped attorneys the private law firm Seward & Kissel—which counted Chevron as a former client—to prosecute Donziger before assigning the case to his colleague, Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska. Neither the civil nor the criminal trial faced a jury, over Donziger’s objections. Both judges ruled against him.
In issuing her six-month sentence, Judge Preska likened the penalty to a “proverbial two-by-four between the eyes” and told Donziger it is “time to pay the piper."
Now represented by University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck, Donziger’s appeal attacks the constitutionality of Judge Kaplan’s appointment of a private prosecutor after the U.S. Attorney’s office declined his case. Vladeck urged the court not to let Donziger serve the entirety of his half-year sentence while a lengthy appeals process takes its course.
“Your honor, Mr. Donziger is asking this court only to continue the same bail conditions, including home confinement and electronic monitoring to which he’s been subject since the beginning of this case in August 2019,” Vladeck told the three-judge panel.
Donziger had been on a regime of home detention for more than 800 days.
Attorney Rita Glavin, the private sector lawyer serving as his prosecutor, insisted that circumstance has changed since Donziger’s conviction. She argued that Donziger should be sent immediately to jail because he has political connections inside Ecuador and has a history of flouting court orders.
Circuit Judge Michael Park, a Donald Trump appointee, noted a key distinction.
“There’s a difference between not complying with a discovery order and becoming an international fugitive,” Park said.
Despite that statement, Park joined a unanimous three-judge panel in denying any reprieve for Donziger. Second Circuit Judges Jon O. Newman, a Jimmy Carter appointee, and Eunice Lee, a recent Joe Biden appointee, joined the decision, which did not state its reasoning. The judges granted Donziger an expedited appeal that will see all briefings in by Nov. 18—and set oral arguments on the “first available” date after that.
Thank you Bill. I also connected with Josh Wolf at Pachamama - he says they are closely connected to the case ... I feel, if they do succeed in railroading Donziger into that facility, someone (or many) need to be there on the ground to watch his back, and the administration needs to be surveilled 24/7 to support his safety, and see if it is possible to pull this weed out by the roots. It could be like the baobab tree in The Little Prince - or a resident virus that will take the body with it if you wipe it out ... delicate balances ... peace in one breath, one breath at a time ... truth prevails in due time - and we all have to do our time, one way or another ....
Remember how everyone laughed when Hillary Clinton called out "this vast right wing conspiracy" during the Clinton impeachment? She was right.
She was right about everything.
Sheesh! Clinton cult of personality much?
Hillary was fatally wrong to buy her own PR and ignore the Electoral College map - let alone refuse to mend fences with the African American voters she'd insulted with her primary insults to Barack Obama and the progressive voters livid at her DNC scheming against Bernie Sanders. Her 'I can't lose' messaging and sloppy campaign gave many voters, who might otherwise have held their nose to vote for her, an excuse to sit on their hands.
How do I know - I volunteered almost full time for six months to get her elected.
You tried, Lin. Thank you. She had it in the bag, against an entertainer with no government experience who smeared and bullied his way through the R field. Anti-American views, anti-human views. Should have been a cake walk were it not for Russians, bots, Facebook, and treachery. Oh, I forgot to add “deplorables.”
Thank You. Myself and a cast of thousands tried.
"She had it in the bag ...were it not for “deplorables.”"
Deplorables on all sides. Including the Bernie Bros, Steinherds, and Dirtbags.
Third party pipe dreams and Pied Pipers. Left wing extremists betting on if Trump makes things bad enough then 'come the revolution' no matter the irreparable harm to our most vulnerable neighbors and our fragile planet.
We know the GOP.
'Know thyself', not so much - until 2020.
HRC did not have it in the bag. She & her people were over confident.
Trump had an advisor who told him which states he needed to visit in the last week of the campaign where the vote was very close. Clinton's staff missed both the closeness of the vote in those three states & why Trump visited them.
Len, I agree with you that overconfidence was a large factor. The were many factors beyond my short list, including what Jeri Chilcutt replied about Rupert orienting his media machine in idjt's favor. In the end, it is a wonder that Hillary did well in spite of everything by taking the popular vote. I admit to Feeling the Bern in the primary; but fearing I would be doing a 'Ralph Nader' by siphoning off a vote for Hillary in the General if I wrote in Bernie, I joined my wife by voting for HRC. We both realized that it would be disastrously close. Just too many factors -- from within and withoit.
You forgot that Rupert switched to tfg
Not for a nanosecond, he ditched Jeb like a hot potato, and switched his evil to matching evil. Why tfg was quoted as saying that Rupert treated him way better than Roger Ailes ever did…
Trump is a brilliant con man who will do anything to get his way.
Much more than an entertainer. Don't underestimate him. He could be President again in 2024.
I'm not Hillary's biggest fan and I voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary but even I understand why the DNC wouldn't favor a non Democratic candidate who spent the majority of his political career smearing Dems and making everything about classism to the exclusion of racism over a candidate that in her earlier years was crucified for trying to get affordable, quality healthcare legislation passed. That footnote should have been your first clue that it wasn't Democrats who were holding up progress, but the Republican cum defacto Libertarian party.
Agree. Unless Bernie won by at least 20 million votes he would have been blocked by leaders on both sides. Look what beloved Biden is dealing with! Another clue: the Republicans called Hillary every name in the book, except racist.
I'm pretty sure the competitions between Obama vs Clinton and Clinton vs Sanders are the most interesting and pivotal primaries in American history and will someday be fodder for alternative history fiction.
I've always know the Libertarian Party as "Republican Light." You ain't a gonna get them to vote for Democratic candidates.
Richard, To get a closer look at the Libertarian Party check out what the Koch Bros. have done to this country and Charles is still at it. Have you read Dark Money? The Libertarian Party that I'm familiar with is not 'light' in the least.
Christopher Hitchens “I have always thought it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement (Libertarian) in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.”
I have a spreadsheet containing links to articles, blogs and most every video on youtube about them. I am a walking talking anti #KochNetwork carnival barker 24/7.
No, I haven't yet read "Dark Money," but I shall. It's been highly recommended. Jane Mayer has another book for us to read: "Dark Side."
Here is a book I am currently reading that I recommend: "Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War". "Viviremos" means "We will live!" It's a book of essays edited by Claudia De La Cruz, Manolo De Los Santos & Vijay Prashad. Interestingly, "Viay" means "Victory." Published in 2020 by International Publishers & Left Word Books. A complete listing of IP Books is available at intpubnyc.com; Email: service@intpubnyc.com; Phone: 212-366-9820.
Brilliant....
Yeah, if only she had pandered to the 80,000 white supremacists in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, she would have won the Electoral College *and* the popular vote.
If only Clinton had built bridges instead of burning them. If only she hadn't taken the allegiance (frayed by Clinton neoliberalism and Clinton arrogance) of a wide swath of historically Democratic voters for granted - while ignoring Democratic and swing states to go to Texas.
Right-wing economists took America for a ride. That is where the blame belongs, and the GOP. The Silent Generation, ironically, especially fell hook, line and sinker for right wing talking points and raised their offspring - my peers - to believe the same garbage.
She lost for a lot of reasons, some of her own making and some not. The main ones: third-party candidates, James Comey (though rogue agents in NYC would have leaked), and never visiting Wisconsin. And who wouldn't have been overconfident against TFG and his blantant immorality?
Hillary's campaign was her biggest problem, however, her strong support of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which, Bill Clinton, signed into law, didn't help. The legislation has been justifiably criticized for sending a disproportionate numbers of African-Americans to prison. In addition, her "superpredators" line didn't win friends in the Black community. In full context, Hillary's '...superpredtors' did link children and superpredators, but nowhere in the speech did she directly label African-American youth this way.' (PolitiFact) Hillary was carrying more baggage than was justified, but she did not have the wherewithal to handle it
Many leaders of the Black Community at the time supported the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Republicans also enthusiastically voted for it. The only way to blame it all on Hillary is to take it out of context and with no understanding of the times in which that event occurred. Looking back, I'm sure we're all at fault for something. If only we knew then what we know now.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/analysis-black-leaders-supported-clinton-s-crime-bill-n552961
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/02/why-many-black-politicians-backed-the-1994-crime-bill-championed-by-the-clintons.html
Tracy, the beliefs and hopes of Black Leaders concerning the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1993-94 does not speak to its impact, given systemic racism, on Black people between 1995 and 2015. In addition, there was strong opposition in liberal circles to Bill Clinton's Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Hillary supported two major pieces of legislation, which hurt a lot of people more than helping them. The point that I tried to make was that HRC was carrying Bill Clinton's baggage as well as her own -- not making a case against Hillary, just noting a few more issues that lessened her popularity with an important segment of Democratic voters.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/complex-history-controversial-1994-crime-bill
I agree 100% that its consequences were devastating. After Reagan, the noose start tightening again around many freedoms we were taking for granted but mostly around the Black community. No doubt about it. Also agree that Hillary was carrying a lot of baggage. My main point is that she wasn't just carrying her baggage but all those belonging to a lot of men who were equally complicit. Again, I wasn't her biggest fan but stopping trump and the racists in the R party has been my agenda since I start voting after Reagan.
I feel somewhat guilty, but, but, quite often I feel like the idiots who didn't vote for Secretary Clinton, deserve what they got, and are getting. Of course, I refer to the voters on the democratic side. They seem to believe if the candidate is not perfect, either vote for the other side or don't vote.
I was a strong Sanders supporter in '16, and quite pissed when he didn't get the nomination. However, I voted for Clinton in the general, and I urged others to do so. It was obvious to me that Trump was a bad person, and that his presidency would be a disaster.
Jill Stein didn't help, either. I wonder whose payroll she's on.
What the heck was Jill Stein’s agenda anyway? This photo is what I think of when I think of her. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-are-senate-russia-investigators-interested-jill-stein-n831261
Yes, I think of that photo, too. Just being placed at the same table with Flynn, much less with Putin himself. But ex-KGB man Putin would have made the seating arrangements, wouldn't he?
Don't like Stein at all. I was invited to a house party hosted by Green Party voters after the 2018 midterms when Stacey Abrams lost. My friend didn't mention who was hosting it until we'd almost arrived, otherwise I would have said no thanks. I ended up meeting some of the nicest people and was kicking myself for being so judgmental, until the end of the night when the host started telling me about chem trails and Benghazi. I was so disappointed. Nice or not, they're seriously misguided and selfish for creating voter apathy in the minds of people who don't know any better, and I will never forgive them for that.
Not sure what Stein has to do with this house party (see my post directly above). But as a neighbor, I can tell you that after the '16 election, she kept an extremely low profile, and I suspect she was keeping her distance from the Green Party after that.
Stein, who is a neighbor of mine, is simply naive and a magical thinker. She didn't need money. Her husband is a transplant surgeon and transplant surgeons are very well paid. (He's also a really good, decent guy fwiw). And they don't drive fancy cars, or have fancy stuff.
"Waiting for the unicorn."
Hillary and her elite advisors could have won in a breeze if they had gone to the hollers and hoods and listened to those people and convinced them to come out and vote for her. But no, she had to go to rich places like the Hamptons to raise money. In her book, she was foolish to blame Jill Stein and others for her loss.
The campaign had some blind spots. But it was a tough call with Humpty Dumpty running his presidential campaign like a cheap school yard bully/comedy show.
But doing so, ever so shrewdly. Perhaps we were all too slow to catch on to that last part?
DT tapped into the rage that was bubbling close to the surface. He spoke to it. His hate matched theirs. How could Hillary have counteracted that? She was a representative of the 'elite. We didn't suspect how much she was despised. I didn't think she was a good choice to begin with. Obama made a serious mistake. Perhaps, Biden could have beaten Trump in 2016. No sense going back. We had very serious problems before Trump and Facebook whipped them up.
I think you are right. When I first read your email, I thought you were talking about when Hubert Humphrey lost to Nixon. In that case, Vice President to Lindon Johnson Humphrey has stood by Lindon's side loyally. If he had pushed that he was really against the Vietnam war, he might actually have beaten "I am not a crook." Just imagine how different things might have turned out.
And she still is.
F’ing A right she was!
TC I know that you are well aware of all the crazy things that have been said about the Clintons. Then came Banghazi. Because of all the baggage that came with her, why did the Dem’s think she had a good shot at the ‘Office ‘ ? Honestly, I just felt like you couldn’t have chosen a more toxic person. Because of that idea, her being friends with TFG. I honestly thought he ran for the benefit of her. He was a Dem so he had to change parties. Likewise his kids. They forgot to change their party and couldn’t vote for him in the primaries .So is George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband really against TFG ? They have an Apt. in Trump Towers. How could a marriage hold up under all that ? Anyway I just felt like we were doomed right out the gate with Hillary. If the Dem’s are the “Deep State “ it appears the Kettle is calling the pot black.
MARCIA LET’S GET BENGHAZI STRAIGHT Diplomating can be a dangerous profession. As a Foreign Service Officer, I know. In the Congo our embassy was the former consulate general with huge plate glass windows and total exposure. The Regional Security Officer from Beirut said that we could hold the embassy against a large-crowd-attack for ‘30 seconds.’ When I was deposited alone from a C-130 or C-46 with a M-16 and/or .45 in rebel-infested Congolese provinces, I did not bring along snorkeling gear with my magazine clips.
Libya was a turbulent place with multiple groups fighting one another. Ambassador Stevens, fluent in Arabic, was extremely knowledgeable about the fluid situation. He chose to visit Benghazi, where we had a small consulate and a larger CIA facility near by. While Ambassador Stevens was there, a large crowd , some with sophisticated arms, assembled. Then an attack was triggered. Help was sought from the near-by CIA facility. The Navy was contacted, but nothing immediate could arrive to intervene in this fire fight. There were a few American deaths, including the ambassador, who had suffocated in the room when he had taken refuge.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had absolutely no operational involvement in the “Benghazi affair.’ The situation flashed up and the ambassador died. One could wildly hypothesize that the failure of Congress to provide more funds to re-enforce diplomatic facilities made a difference, but a priority of re-enforcing a small consulate in Benghazi wouldn’t make the ‘top 200’ list. We’ve had our embassy in Nairobi badly bombed, at least four ambassadors killed in the past forty years, and I expect further Foreign Service casualties. However, more people have been gunned down in Chicago in one night than we have lost Foreign Service Officers over the past 60 years.
Conservatives simply framed the 2016 about Hillary. We have NO frame, so even horrible message beats no message at all, and we have NO message
Frederick SPOT ON! We have Heather to provide sharp daily focus with historical suspenders. The Republicans have been sharply focused—the Federalist Society on the judiciary since 1970, several scum bum outfits that provide voting suppression text bills to Republican attorney generals, etc. Meanwhile, the Democrats seem like a herd of squalling cats on whom the media feast. President Biden is on the cusp of two historic physical and social infrastructure laws. The media’s focus is diverted to the infighting of crafting a compromise bill. Remember “It’s the economy stupid” in 1992? Every thing that President Biden has being accomplishing AND THE REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN AGAINST AND SABOTAGING can be posted on a single page. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Clear message and staccato repetition.
And back to ya Keith, Spot On.
Progressives simply refuse to address EVERYTHING as a matter of “Insuring Liberty and Justice for All, because our economy DOES NOT”. Capitalism works for a few, but health, safety and protection are the domain of government, our DEMOCRACY. Government must insure our liberties are not violated.
Good government = Good Democracy = Good Government.
I’m in discussion with leaders of two statewide referenda campaign here for 2022, 1) universal health care and 2) universal green electric grid provided by a publicly owned entity. NEITHER campaign can see they are a part of a Build Back Better plan. They both “demand” to go it alone, and therefore compete with dueling messages, campaigns, etc.
I’m as frustrated with Bernie and Liz Warren and Dems for being stupid about using dynamic language, as I am angry about the cons using incredible language to maintain stupidity. We’re stupid out of our ignorance, and their stupid out of their intentionality.
WHICH i more dangerous?! THANK GOD JOE BIDEN GETS IT: Build Back Better. Which, still, could use a moral imperative, such as I have provided with the progressive creed, stated in our Pledge of Allegiance
Stupidity is the same as evil if you look at the results. Margaret Atwood
Thank you Keith for the succinct and forceful Benghazi explanation.
I am ever grateful for the Substack platform where I can find such exceptional commentary as LTAA and the accompanying commentary. I have found no newspaper or magazine with such relevant and knowledgeable information as this forum which makes the historical events of the day understandable and gives them a place in history.
It is however so frustrating to me that I cannot get friends to show enthusiasm. I occasionally forward one or at most two columns to friends in the hope of generating outrage, conversation or I’d even settle for interest. The real hope is that they too will become subscribers but so far only blanks. The friends I’ve approached have been Doctors and Lawyers and such. I think I’ll go back to cowboys. Willie would listen.
Thank you for this, Keith. I sincerely wish there was a way for you to put this comment out there for all to see. It is a succinct and clear explanation about what happened in Benghazi and what foreign service professionals may face in the course of their work.
Daria I posted much of this in NYT comments but, frankly, I don’t think that a great proportion of Americans give a damn about the sacrifices made by people who serve them and their country. As a rambunctious Political Officer in Chile, I was targeted by the Communist press, had over a dozen attempted house break ins, was given a gun to ‘deal with’ intruders, and, for four months, had a police guard protecting me and my family. I felt simply that this went with the territory.
PTSD is a major problem in our country. (I twice experienced PTSD—once as an aftermath of my dad, stepmother, and brother disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle and again as an aftermath of some horrific experiences in the Congo) It is serious.
After Vietnam, the impact of PTSD was generally brushed aside, after many volunteers and draftees were affected from their experiences. More attention is given to Iraq/Afghanistan PTSD, but the general public seems more concerned with football concussions. PTSD is a humongous problem for many of the hospital workers who have dealt with a never-ending crush of Covid-19/Delta patients. They are the latest casualties of front-line personnel serving our country. Who cares?????
Keith, I've given considerable thought to your response to my comment. First, I cannot imagine losing family members in a marine accident of that nature. The uncertainty and lack of closure must have been stunning. Then the Congo. No words. I am grateful for your strength and resilience.
You are right. There are millions of people who pay lip service to patriotism and claim to honor those who serve, whether in uniform or in civil service, yet when asked to show respect and concern for them, turn their backs and make excuses saying their freedom is being compromised, no new taxes, the price tag to support or pay these servants is too great. You sacrificed much. I'm grateful for your dedication and service to the country.
I have lost family members in service to our country. There are 4 generations of family members, including siblings, who spent their careers in federal civil service, each of them proud of the contribution they made to our country every day. Yet one of the things they heard day in and out was thatat they were "only" government employees... Yes, government employees who were only involved in troop movement, dental and cancer research, infrastructure, law enforcement, human genome research, and more. They were only government employees. You and they were and are the backbone of the United States.
Daria I applaud your relatives who paid the ultimate price in serving our country. I and many others do this because we feel obliged to do what is right in being an integral part of our country. The latest heroes are the hospital workers who have far exceeded what could be expected of them because they place humanity above themselves. Our country will survive and stand proud with such selfless heroes, who expect no special recognition.
Excellent!
Thank you for this
Hillary was a skilled politician, a big thinker and a team player. She actively supported other woman who in turn supported her. But, no one could survive the sustained barrage of character assassination they subjected her to for decades.
They turned her into an ugly caricature and many fell for it.
Yes, “they” the ones hiding behind acronyms and “non profits” plotting their next move.
I agree. The damage began while Bill was in office. Clearly, the Rethugs saw, even then, that she could become a threat.
I had a neighbor say she couldn’t vote for Hillary because Bill got a blow job while in office and she stayed with him. In the next sentence she dismissed “grab em by the Pussy” and said he was wonderful. When even women dismiss those actions you know there’s something fundamentally wrong with them. I can’t even have a civil conversation with this woman anymore. You don’t blame women for men’s behavior!
Look at the blame thrown at a girl or woman after they have been raped or harassed! Remember? did they dress inappropriately - was that why it happened? Couldnt possibly be the boy/man to blame!
It started with Eve, tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden, and it has worked well for men - until NOW. The table is turning, and it's about time.
Your neighbor just wasn't going to admit the truth - she refused to vote for a "socialist" Democrat, but she was willing to vote for TFG, as flawed as he was, because he was a Rethuglican.
She honestly thought the way he treated women was acceptable. I argued with her for an hour. I asked how she’d feel if that were her daughters or granddaughters being treated that way and she thought her grandsons should do that to other women. I was appalled. She goes to church and Bible study all the time.
I keep thinking about George Conway. His behaviors have always raised my suspicions. I wanted to believe, but how exactly could a lawyer and Trump’s steadiest unwavering adviser coexist? That remains my question. ❤️🤍💙
Expedient synergy.
Conway is for real. I always wondered how she could live with HIM....I supposed that a grifter chameleon could live with anyone.
Go watch any of the Tracy-Hepburn comedies.
John and Martha Mitchell? (For you young ‘ens, John Mitchell had been attorney general under Nixon and would take a bullet for his leader. Martha felt that Nixon was setting up her husband to take the fall for Watergate. She went ballistic and secret service men had to rip the phone out of the wall to stop her babbling. John went to jail for about two years.)
Carville and what’s her name.
Mary Matalin. Yeah, that's an odd match, to be sure!
Like I’ve said before,,,, a thousand times,,,, I blame our Trump episode on the D. N. C. of which Clinton was a very strong part of !!!
I believe the 'Deep State’ refers to civil service professionals who simply do their duty, which oftent is NOT to the linking of the seditionist conservatives. Correct me if I am wrong
Frederick you have the first part right but…….you see they are ‘Evil ‘ and do ‘Things ‘ in secret .Wait….. isn’t that what they did ?
Marcia, I’m unsure who you refer to as “they” here.
The Trump base calls the Dems The”Deep State . ‘Evil ‘ doing things in ‘Secret ‘. What would you call what happen at the Capital ?
Sedition and treason. I call Paul Gosar and Marjorie Greene and question if they were a past of a treasonous act.
Actually, I do not care about what conservatives call us, because it diverts my attention away from the vital issue of spreading our message (which we do not have)
NAH
I am willing to bet that the Trump "administration" deliberately took those actions in the Northern Triangle, cutting aid, to push people into coming to the United States, so they could be used as they were to foment the "border crisis."
Gosar is definitely a traitor. His family has disowned him and actually campaigned against him when he ran for re-election. I will be completely unsurprised when it comes out that the long speech he gave was deliberate in its timing, to hold the House in session for the assault, so that Democratic members could be grabbed. Remember, they brought a gallows with them to the Capitol assault.
These traitors came sooooooo close to carrying off their Coup d'Etat. It wasn't an "insurrection" - that implies a spontaneous act by people who are "mad as hell and not going to take any more." This was planned and manufactured over the two months following their electoral loss. Start calling it what it was: a Coup d'Etat that failed, just barely - an act of treason in "declaring war on the United States" as the crime is defined in the Constitution. And it was led by the President of the United States.
“I will be completely unsurprised when it comes out that the long speech he gave was deliberate in its timing, to hold the House in session for the assault, so that Democratic members could be grabbed.”
And if they refuse to prosecute him for the worst crime a president can commit, all in the name of “moving forward,” I might have to riot by myself.
Wait for me, I’m old but can still crawl
Jeri, wait up, I’ll be crawling behind you....
I’ll find us an old school bus💙!
Exactly TC: "a Coup d'Etat that failed."
Yeah, So close — but they’re still smoking the cigar...
I want to write, Hear, Hear! But always wonder if it should be Here, Here! Is it my imagination or do they both work?
It's not your imagination, Jeanne.
Thanks, TC!
Exactly, Reagan started “helping” Central America way back there. After his disasterous amnesty plan, and guess what? A club to beat Dems with forever…
I just saw "Under Fire" for the upteenth time on MGM Channel. Anyone who would like to get a good "bone deep" sense about this country and what we do will be well-educated if you watch this movie. The first script my friend Ron Shelton wrote, Nick Nole and Gene Hackman and Joanna Pacula at their heights. It was released the day after Reagan declared war on Nicaragua.
Is the penalty for treason still death?
Too close there, ayuh.
And the plot thickens... Everything TFG said about the Democrats were projections of what he was doing. You just explained that CNP was/is the deep state. It puts a neat tie around CNP, Citizens United and SCOTUS. TFG was their tool, the "witting idiot". This feels like the climax of a spy/mystery novel. Now to see whether the ending is the triumph of evil or the author decides on a happy ending where democracy is miraculously restored. Shocking. Thank you, Heather, This is a superb piece of putting the pieces together. Frightening though it is.
Except the author is us, all of us, not waiting for a miracle but putting in work to keep and refine democracy.
Frightening. But doesn’t scare me. We, all of us, can turn it around. We’ve just had to have our noses rubbed in it, as TCinLA describes, to really see their dirty little plot has “been done happening” right under our noses. Let’s go! Do the work. Time to get our own cans of whoop ass open. Get the vote out. Start with support pouring toward the gov race in Virginia. Dem agenda needs to wipe the floor of the nonsense instead of squeaking through. We, the people, ARE the agenda.
United! ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
My retirement salary not coming from Soros, but just donated to VA
I have often felt like what is happening could be a movie akin to All the President’s Men, but with the ending unknown. 😬 I am at the edge of my seat.
If I had ever pitched a story with the facts we have here to either a studio executive or a publisher, they would have chased me out of their offices, screaming to never come back, because they didn't want to waste their time on a crazy person. Before June 16, 2015, if you had told me 1/10 of what has happened since that date, I'd have asked if I could have some of whatever it was you were smoking.
What would Tom Clancy say? Would he call the reality of the last five years whacky, unbelievable, too far out to even be taken seriously? or even be a sellable fiction?
Morning Ted. As a fan of the fiction genre of spy, and political intrigue novels, I think I’d ask Ludlum, Eisler, or LeCarre your question before asking Tom Clancy. Although I have liked reading most of his books.
LeCarre would give a far better answer, yes. I have read all his books but the last one. Unfortunately, he paints the bleak picture of the world as it really is. The only for sure thing in his books is that the protagonist usually survives except Alex Leamus.
Yes, what would they say? Has this reality been believable? Or not sellable because it’s that crazy town?
Clancy was a conservative. He'd tell you there's nothing there but them chickens.
Oh no! But I loved Red Storm Rising and The Hunt for Red October!
Those are the two least-ideological of his books. The early ones. You get into the Jack Ryan novels and they get increasingly wingery. When everyone was worried the Japanese were going to overtake us, he had one where we basically re-fought the Pacific War in miniature and beat them again. There was one where the Iranian Mullahs had a conspiracy to infect the US with a super-strain of Ebola. That was the one I didn't finish and left the rest to settle in their swamp.
Me, too! I just covered my face in my hands at the implications of all this.
It’s heavy. That’s for sure.
You said it Ted....
All the President’s Men being a film based on a book by Bob Woodward that recounts the unveiling of the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation, your sense is right on: we’re LIVING the history that will be the plot of future books and film scripts. Looking forward to a poetic justice ending…
So, it wasn’t just me who saw this “conspiracy theory” become reality.
Bill Moyers told us
Just remember that in real life the climax unfolds a lot more slowly than in novels. I worry that impatience could result in "climaxus interruptus"
Dr. Richardson, with you I feel like one of a tiny percentage of people on this planet who — with access to your knowledge and exhaustive and well documented research — have access to facts and context that I trust. By reading what you write, and following many of your links, I feel that I am one of only a comparatively few people who know for sure what the hell is going on around here. I don’t have words to express my gratitude! All I can say is, Well Done — again....
100%. Standing right behind you Gus.
You've described what most of us here think about LFAA. The only early morning read for me as I know it is honest.
Ditto Gus!
When I read about how Heather described how the alt- right wealthy Christians are pushing for a “moral” society, I laugh. Talk about a bunch of immoral characters! It’s not funny. It’s pathetic and frightening. I want to see Ginni Thomas behind bars which would subsequently force good ole Clarence to retire or to be investigated and removed. I dunno…I hear the drums in the distance getting just a little closer.
I’d like to see a very public ethics review for SCOTUS and immediate family. Only a profoundly entitled person would take such a hard provocative public role with a partner serving in the highest court of the land. It seems as if these people believe that nothing can touch them. They had better turn out to be absolutely wrong or, it seems to me, we will all be in for some prolonged difficult times ahead.
Makes me think of the 1962 movie “The Manchurian Candidate.”
K, They are. And we are.
Yes, Gus, i upon re-reading the ending to my comment, I realized that I am already convinced, not unlike many of us, the road ahead already promises to deliver a rough ride, no matter what.
When I was at school I had a professor of some renown who was a grad of Harvard Div school. He explained that there are really two traditions in the text and they are Triumphalism and Covenant. The Conventional tradition is based around communitarian ideals and Triumphalism celebrates a vague notion that when you succeed especially in gaining wealth and control over others it's a sign that you're doing God's work. Over the millennia that notion has been the engine of more and greater criminal enterprise than anyone and especially the Triumphalists would ever be willing to admit.
Indeed. The "prosperity gospel" folks are all about embracing the Calvinist notion of "living saints" and identifying wealth, power, and--in case you wondered--whiteness with being members of the Elect. It has been a persistent drumbeat especially in peculiarly American forms of so-called Christianity.
Getting religion involved with politics never works because faith, by definition, doesn't require justification or proof, belief being enough. The Constitution's framers, nominally Christians, knew that and made sure the first words of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights were "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." They saw the mess that Oliver Cromwell created in England during the previous century and the reaction to it. Sunni and Shia Muslims have been fighting for centuries and unfortunately, their religion preaches political involvement. And let's not forget the Crusades and the Inquisition. When it comes to politics, we should leave it at there having been a Creation, and pay little attention to anything that happened thereafter. Privately, of course, anyone can believe whatever they choose to believe.
Yes, the sacred vs. the profane. Don’t mix well, ever.
These people put the evil in Christianity, and it’s so easy to see.
The evil has been there a good long while – the Crusades and the Inquisitions immediately come to mind. Linda Mitchell, above, zeroes in specifically on the Calvinist (Protestant) contribution to the "evil".
Daria, To their credit, Presbyterians kind of downplay old John and his big 5; unfortunately he has been resurrected by the neo-reformationists of today. The ultra-conservative “elect” who include deplorable “evangelicals” in their prey. I call them all opportunistic neo-Bible beaters.
Gus, I agree, with regard to Presbyterians, I married one😉. I like your term opportunistic neo-Bible beaters.
Doesn’t Pharisees cover many
You have it right on the money as it were!
Wow...trump and triumph are way too close... The far right are masked in this false, religious-freak costume whilst their current cult figure, tfg, is just a 100%, malignant narcissistic, Godless opportunist. Wherever he smells dollar signs he twaddles over to it—doesn't matter whence it comes from. He is an $$ addict besides being a bombastic, lying ignoramus. Now he has an army of sicko/psychophantic minions trying to replicate him now. (Ah, I had to get that out. I feel much better now and can get on with my day—sorry you had to witness my torrent).
Don’t apologize, Penelope. It’s now, especially for women, that the rose colored glasses are off for many of us. It’s time to call a thing a thing and not apologize to others—that even now, scold us, not the enemy, for being name callers or crass or too vocal or “acting” too much like those we criticize or call out.
I’ve got news for detractors supposedly on the side of democracy. A pacifist does not hide its head in the sand. A pacifist is fierce in truth. A pacifist is strategic. A pacifist values freedom and peace but will above all resist and break the chains that choke our voice and enslave us to the ways of a warmonger and a rule of corrupt authority.
I’m in the fight. Scared, but not afraid or fearful.
Love and Light. It has no opposite.
Wow Christine! Glad y’all got those glasses off!
Indeed, Love and Light have no opposite. But they have enemies. The very bad, no good, horrible scary things that are a thing.
So glad to fight them with you. We are ALL scared! We all should be. To quote an unnamed southerner: “If you scared, say you scared.”
And if one is NOT scared, there may be something wrong with your vision!?
My late mother was a pacifist. Your description certainly applies.
Just remember, Trump's family name was likely Drumpf(t) before it was changed to Trump by one of his ancestors.
Hahahahahahaha. There goes Daria again being a stellar example of the warrioress I am talking about.
Old definition.
Trumpery, from trum per, to deceive, cheat.
a. Deceit, fraud
b. Anything calculated to deceive by false show, worthless finery,
c. Things worn out and of no value, useless matter, trifles, rubbish, nonsense .
This idolatrous trumpery and superstition
-South
Trumpery. Trifling, showy but worthless, trashy, paltry
Sure wish I could show the screenshot. Priceless
Yup! It ALL fits like a glove!
Penelope, that was a very well-put torrent! Glad you feel better now.
Thank you, Penelope. The time it took you to assemble the words and thought are helpful.
Thank you. Your comment is so incredibly illuminating. Right down through the ages, an answer to the question, “How could they identify as Christian, while doing these exploitive and often horrific things?”
The most ‘Christian’ thing about the Crusades was the Pope’s interest in collecting money from it. The ‘Children’s Crusade’ was perhaps. The most horrible, with the kids dying for no Christian reason. In Jerusalem, one cynically might say that the Christians conductd themselves with the ‘morality of the Arabs’ and the Arabs with the morality of the “Christians.’ Saladin honored the chivalry of warfare, while the Christian Crusaders often engaged in bloody massacres of civilians.
By the way, can you imagine gentle Jesus singing ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, MARCHING OFF TO WAR, WITH THE CROSS OF JESUS GOING ON BEFORE?
Keith, your great thoughts deserve a reply.
The Pope also wanted relics.
Saladin was indeed more ethical, more chivalrous than the Crusaders. So many innocent victims including the children.
No, I can’t imagine Jesus singing that hymn — or the contradictory “ A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” where believers stay inside the fortress and God battles the evil foe for us....but I did sing them. At the top of my voice, as a child and young Protestant believer. A bay “Elect” scared I was really a reprobate.....What can I say?
I finally was able to see the Light, in spite of old Calvin.
Reprobates, Unite!
I'll raise up my reprobate flag with you any time!
The early Christian Crusaders sharpened their sword blades against a break-away Christian group in southern France before embarking on their ‘holy crusade.’ Holy molely!
Never heard that, but evil is so good at using God for their own purposes
Gilco, very well put.
Thank you sir. Of course if we think about the Old Testament many of the troubles that haunt us now, with the text so corruptly wielded, are based in the mistakes made when israel became a kingdom under David. The covenant is less effective when an army becomes necessary.
Thanks for your post! Triumphalism.... talk about a rewrite!
I had the same reaction- talk about a mischaracterization! “Christian”
"Christian".., hahaa.., Keep yer guard up!
Yeah, their definition of "morality" seems to be a bit skewed. I don't remember that Jesus guy saying some of the things they call "morality". He was more of a "help the poor, do good works" kind of fellow. Now, I know that the Bible scholars will hasten to default to the Old Testament, but c'mon, if you refer to CHRISTianity, those first 6 letters kind of define it, don't they?
Jimmy Carter comes to mind
Nothing would please me more, and yet, she is on few people’s radar.
We can all wish....
Ditto !
While the news and revelations about Trump’s minions just keep getting worse, please remember one thing: If you have elections next week, vote. If you are willing and/or able, make calls for a candidate or volunteer to help in some way. The good folks of Georgia showed us the way forward - and thank God they showed up in droves!
We have local school board elections here. Eyes on the prize-three excellent board members with a true focus on education and the wellbeing of students.
There are a million things happening at the federal level that are gobsmackingly awful but my power remains that of the vote. Small, nearly invisible local election in flyover land. And absolutely the heart of democracy and our future.
Thank heavens for LFAA and all of you.
Absolutely. Even here in deep blue eastern Massachusetts, we have a school board election including a candidate whose mission in life seems to be disrupting education with trumplican slogans. These local offices matter, a lot.
We dodged the bullet here in Salem, OR with the last school board election where progressives prevailed. Other places here are not so lucky and things are still stewing in Newberg among other places.
Thanks, Sheila...Yes, Georgia on my mind this week!
I just dropped off my absentee ballot into the ballot box this morning. In the local race it will hardly matter--we hardly have any Democrats on the ballot...haven't for years--but the town's mayoral race has a Democrat, so there's that, even though he has a snowball's chance in hell. Our county was 72% for T***p in 2020, so do the math...STILL! I did my duty.
Hoping the three win. Thank heavens for your help.
And while the Republican hoard continues its assault on democracy, there are other disturbing events afoot: yesterday I wrote to my senator Kirstin Gillibrand, who - along with numerous other democrats - has thrown Steven Donziger under the bus after he won a huge settlement against Chevron in Ecuador. In case some of you don't know, Chevron has sued him, resulting in this environmental lawyer being under house arrest. Gillibrand and other prominent democrats are financially beholden to Chevron and their mouths are closed. This is so depressing. Are they ultimately all in the same boat? It's all about money money money...
I know it sounds weird - but this reminds me of Hoyt Axton's song
I'm the cop in a little bitty town, and I don't get much pay.
But I've caught 17 out-of-state cars, and 4 of my friends today.
Well, I let the home-town boys go home, they paid $5.00 bail.
But all of them tourists in the out-of-state cars, had to go to jail.
Well, they hollered and they moaned — they cried and they groaned,
They all swore that they'd sue
But the judge was high, and so was I — and we needed the money too.
See, the judge and me got a deal you see — we split the money fair,
'Cept for 20% to the county seat — to keep the law out of our hair.
This behaviour seems ingrained in the legal fraternity.
Ah, Hoyt Axton. "Work your fingers to the bone and whadda ya get?
Bony fingers. Bony fingers."
He must be talking about Slidell, LA, HA. Your point is a good one
I can’t stand her, mostly because of her self-serving role in drumming Al Franken out of the Senate.
We could really use Franken in the Senate now...
I read that he's thinking of running again. Does anyone have news on that front?
We sure could.
I so mourned Franken's resignation. One of the best we had. Absolutely motivated, honorable to a fault. Too dangerous to Cruz, McConnell and the rest. Shame it was Franken's own party that did nothing to defend him or stop his resignation! But we sent Rev.Warnock -- less funny but no less honorable.
Never forget that
The outrageous actions of the federalist society connected judges toward Donziger gives me chills when I consider that FSers chose the recent dubious additions to SCOTUS.
Kristin is as much a Trojan Horse as Sinema and Manchin. Dems need to clean house, hope it’s not too late
For the past few months, I've been working with a documented DACA family that is living in the depths of poverty. I'm fortunate to be receiving essential guidance through the immigration maze from a pro bono immigration law attorney. Unaffiliated immigrants cannot possibly afford to hire an attorney.
"My" family of five lives in an old, old, old mobile home, a holy-mary pass away from a freeway. They keep a very low profile (i.e., live in fear) because they know that the smallest infraction could get them deported. I've seen that process. Before COVID, Mr G and I used to show up with others at a court house in the Twin Cities in solidarity with busloads of immigrants facing their last hearing re deportation. By and large, the immigrants who wind up there are not guilty of anything more than not knowing how to navigate the system!
I know this is not the same thing as this letter about refugees seeking entry, but entry is only the beginning of a long, extremely difficult path. The learning curve is both steep and deep. There are probably people living not far away from you who are in desperate need of volunteer guides through this terrible system. A system that went from bad to a kind of fresh hell for immigrants when the disgraced ex-POTUS seized control of our country. In the U.S., that begins at the border, and extends through years and years for those who survive what comes next.
I'm now seeing the U.S. immigration system from the inside, and it's ugly. Also, arcane, convoluted, unjust, and nowhere near "user-friendly." That people risk their lives fleeing from horrific conditions in other countries (in this case, Guatemala) to live here is testament to their desperation. All of that makes me want to re-write Emma Lazarus's poem to reflect the harsh reality of these times.
And to make it worse, the US more or less created those horrific conditions in the first place, by actively interfering in the politics of the central American countries for the sake of large US corporations. Example: the 1954 CIA-led coup in Guatemala. That coup installed a brutal authoritarian government that grabbed huge amounts of land from its residents and gave it to US agribusinesses like the United Fruit Company. https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/topic/1954-guatemalan-coup-detat
I remember marching against this sort of thing in the 1960s. We kept warning it would lead to the same repressive state at home... I would much prefer to have been wrong.
What put the 1960’s fire out? Was it Kent State? Or the loss of MLK Or RFK? Or all of the above?
How do we reignite that kind of movement?
Great questions.
Ted I wonder if the endless, specious, infotainment bombardment of more recent generations has just been to distracting. Speaking for my own generation Vietnam and more importantly, the draft energized resistance. I wonder where the current middle and monied classes would stand if their kids were at risk of being arbitrarily used as fodder for the next military adventure.
or the realities of 'making a living'?
Economic prosperity. But not everyone’s.
Thank you, Barbara, for highlighting the labyrinthine and lengthy process we call our immigration process.We support and my husband volunteers his paralegal skills at a fabulous center, Hope Community Center, started 40 years ago in Apopka by 4 Catholic nuns as a ministry to Farmworkers. Now, it serves all working poor and disenfranchised. Florida is full of people living in the shadows, undocumented and frightened. DACA young people sometimes do not even find out their actual status until they are in high school! It is a world within a world!
Kudos to you both, Barbara and Carol!!
Kudos to you and your husband! That's essential work that you're supporting/doing. Which you know. Thanks!
I read an article in Nat Geo some years ago about immigrants being America’s salvation. Our white population is shrinking, and there are desperate, energetic people willing to work, and grateful for the opportunity. They followed some and detailed their struggle. Heartbreaking. This was before Rupert bought Nat Geo so no more of that for awhile. He sold it but who knows what they are now.
I remember that piece and two incomplete thoughts I had. The first was how much energy has to go into surviving as a first-generation migrant, the toil, the minuscule movement toward some sense of security, not the least continuing fear the what I have now can disappear in a moment. The children growing up vasilating between dread and potential become strong from the imigrating parents toil, endurance. The second and really incomplete thought is how in our own lives, those of us 5th generation or wealth secure have a security that minimizes essential need (next meal, clean water, disease, an accident away, fear, hostility, red-blue lights, etc) and the comfort to consider wants and ability to take measured risks (invest, spend capital, save for kids college, buying something lacking utility, imagining needs for a future generation, having discretionary energy and time for non-economic things like reading LFAA, etc) can make us less apt to value the wealth that is inherited freedom, something taken for granted. Perhaps it is this inherited element we come to presume as a right for which we no longer must prove being worthy of having. Like other inherited wealth, maintenance of the "nut" bends toward return on investment and less toward creating something new (opportunity as imagined by the migrant) or valued (some legacy that required us to risk all to create). My generation of is the first, I believe, that became middle class and will die with accumulated wealth to pass on to our children. At this time I am thinking about how that modest amount I will have at death might help or inhibit my heirs.
THIS:
"less apt to value the wealth that is inherited freedom" 💯‼️
Go for it, Barbara. Re-write that poem, then have someone set it to music and post it on YouTube.
You have just emboldened me, Ruth. Thanks.
YAYAY!!
Good morning everyone! I heard this morning on NPR that folks in places like the Dakotas are getting worried about the continued holdup of the infrastructure bill because their states rely so thoroughly on the federal government's handouts to employ people and to maintain their roads and bridges--because they have such an inadequate tax base. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1048918708/regional-planners-wait-as-bidens-infrastructure-plan-stalls-in-congress
Of course, the person being interviewed was very careful not to blame his Repugnican senators and congressmen, who are actually to blame for the holdup. Thankfully, Steve Inskeep didn't take the low road and egg him on to blame the Dems, since that is the narrative we are hearing. The drums that need to be beaten loudly are those that yell that the Ghastly Obstructionist Party is to blame, and that if all of these "red" states want to see prosperity happen they should support the Dems and get rid of their deranged/moronic/corrupt/totalitarian representatives.
If only there were actually two parties, with one representing a Loyal Opposition. Instead, we have one party desperate to get something positive done, one party determined to destroy as much as they can in a naked bid for untrammeled power, and two oleaginous fu**weasels who are being bought off by malignant corporate interests whose role is to completely gum up the works so that nothing at all gets done because it suits them to do so. This is not democracy--except for the fact that the bums can be thrown out if enough people do their jobs as citizens and vote.
But the Dakotas have oil and gas now. As well as banks willing to act and hold dark cash on the behalf of the most corrupt officials worldwide. They have Fb to support their rhetoric of un reality. But yes, roads and bridges do not lie.
Need to Google oleaginous, but the fu**weasels I buy 100%
Think "oleo margarine". I'd bet most if not all of us remember that greasy white stuff that required yellow powder to be added in order to masquerade as butter.
non-food...makes me nauseous to think of it. I grew up on a farm, we made our own butter and sister, it was delish! That whole margarine thing, still going on, I just don't understand anyone actually eating it.
But a great analogy for the coup d'etat: treasonous politicians masquerading as legit lawmakers.
And just as phony
My daughter still suffers nightmares. At college, she found the real stuff, butter. I learned later that not all nutrition advice has legs.
Holy Smokes Linda! Good on yer, and with all the way past oleaginous!
You forced me to my greasy dictionary.
I totally agree also that we need enough fat-free citizens to do our job and vote.
Lauren Boebert’s carefully worded statement of “I had no role in the planning or execution of any event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on January 6.” sounds suspiciously like Tonya Harding’s denial of any involvement in the planning of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
Oh, that’s good, Don.
I found it curious that she felt a need to add "or anywhere in Washington, DC." They need to subpoena her and find out what and where those other events on January 6th might be. They could also ask her about January 5th. And they could start by asking her whereabouts on the evening of January 5th.
I just posted one of you favorite amusements. Cheers!
I bet she was giving tours to “constituents” ( insurectionists)
Tanya Harding's secret code is #*#*
"Tanya who"?
Sorry, Tonya. I hate it when people spell my wife's name Tonya so I should be more careful with an actual Tonya.
100%.
It does...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LD4Mj3wZoY
Steve Bannon's name seems to pop up in all the most sinister places, often saying very sinister things. He also asserts that having been a White House employee for a short time, executive privilege covers all his activity since, and he need not heed a congressional summons.
Poor boy! I recommend some jailhouse therapy, several years if need be, to put him on the path of righteousness.
He’s the playground bully who thinks his power is forever. Jailhouse therapy definitely in order
He’s like an overweight and drunk version of Rasputin. Poisoning the well.
If it wasn't so calamitous, the cast of characters attracted to the trump camp would be hilarious. Hopefully, in a few years we can look back and laugh, and the Coen Brothers can make a movie.
Yeah! Or maybe a Wes Anderson movie, because it is stranger, crazier, and almost surreal, outlandish. Bill Murray as Robert Mercer, Danny McBride as Steve Bannon might be in order.
Ralph, in some ways Bannon is the warped "Catholic" version of the CNP....with all the conniving obsession of "The Family" but much more a Lone Ranger w/out even a Tonto now that the Mercers trotted away taking their money from him. Borowitz has a scathing take down of Bannon based mostly on his lack of hygiene--that lack in itself a micro-indicator of his macro-destructive carelessness.
Heather- once again, we are in your debt for putting the pieces together. My concern is that some of these right wing narratives are beginning to influence or infect the respectable press such as the NYT who are railing that Biden is not moving fast enough or that his administration re immigration is more of the same. The damage wrought by Trump goes deep- so much work has to be done to restore what was lost and Biden has been dealt a weak hand- 50 - 2 senators. Again, Americans need to wake up to the gravity of their current situation. Your letters help.
So it turns out there really is a "deep state". Only its not who trump said it was. It's the CNP.... Kelly Ann and Steve among others
Article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar 17, 1985, by Lewis Lehrman, ‘Conservative Revolution’ will alter all politics. Just saw this about a year ago, but he laid out all the plans to dominate politics. He was a mouth-piece for Reagan and was picked to head the Citizens for America. “Our economic, our social, our international policies are going to be altered in every significant respect. The President hadn’t even begun the program of constitutional reform and the change in social policy.” I will add that the effort to “help” Nicaragua lead to the mess we have today. In fact, Reagan (and his crew of devotees) are likely as destructive as trump and his crew of destruction. Their state is very deep indeed.
Reagan, the Bush’s, particularly G. W. , and Trump are not smart enough to dream up all of these different schemes and pull them of all on their own. Yes, they do have destructive motivations , but they are not the brains behind the schemes. They’ve got some very big, influential players dreaming these schemes up and are pulling the strings of these republicans, and these same influences have a significant influence on a bunch of Dems. also. Manchin and Sinema are the first to come to mind, but there are others also . And they have the money behind them, as they are the money, to by the influence to pull it off. That’s why if we’re going to play by their rules and do anything about it with money, forget it, as we are not going win at the money game , we have got to figure out some other strategy besides money!!!
Everything Trump says is projection.
Every utterance
And do you think they are still funded by the whack jobs, the Mercers?
Mercer’s own Breitbart. They own 1/2 of TFG, Putin owns the other 1/2.
And Trump himself is very involved in this same “Deep State” !!!
*it's
“Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?” E.A. Poe
But this isn’t a dream. Even though many are being slow walked towards Authoritarianism, as conservatives seek, with the help of some old fascist ideas.
There is no debate that Facebook has this ultimate power to divide, destabilize, and destroy stable countries. It’s a psychological weapon of mass destruction, through manipulative and steady distraction, as it forces endless attraction towards anger over compassion, passions over love, and confrontation over mutual respect and understanding. Social cohesion is now shredded.
But FB was given its birth from the very democracy that made possible free markets/ free people, from valuing education, ingenuity, and hard work that lead to creative breakthroughs. Facebook could end completely the system that made it possible, as well has keep it that way forever.
Imagine FB in the wrong hands, or wrong governments. It’s not hard to, because FB, Google, and Apple are already doing that for Governments in Asia, South America, Russia, Eastern Europe, etc. Now imagine FB under TFG’s thumb combined with NSA tech and a loyal only to him FBI and police forces. That’s what’s at risk now.
Facebook seems devilishly designed for our willful demise.
FB is already in the wrong hands, Ted. Zuckerberg and crew are tyrants as we have found out from the whistleblower. They have created a diabolical scheme to undermine democracy and privacy. This it what their money does.
Yes. I know that. So what. Are their conversations like? Even the clowns know they are part of the circus show.
For us, we realize the history we are living through. Do those in power in the Libertarian faction understand they are unraveling democracy? Do they understand how they are weakening our country?
Yes, I truly believe that is their intent. What boggles my mind is that Zuckerberg is Jewish and his family knows all about how Hitler gained the upper hand. I too, was born to victims of the Holocaust so I am fully aware of how democracy is stripped from the masses. It just doesn’t make any sense to me but it makes me very angry.
Well, I hope Zukk is getting an ear full from his Jewish mother and aunts. I believe it’s in one ear out the other. He is “embedded” in his creation. I don’t think he really believes it can destroy once stable countries. FB is a weapon of mass destruction. Zukk is welding the power of what RFK called “our new connectedness”, but instead of doing what RFK thought would happen, “new technology which brings us closer, dissolving the false masks and illusions of differences”, RFK predicted that “the needs and struggles of one become the needs of all”. But Zukk is using the mew communication technology morally wrong, he has created the opposite, rearing at the social fabric, creating new false masks and new and old illusions of differences. Zukk is mistaken that capitalism and capital markets are a safeguards protecting and insuring democracy.
Read chapter 2 of On Tyranny- Tim Snyder. Institutions are needed to safeguard democracy and we need to support our institutions. The book points out that in 1932 Germany, most Germans and Some German Jews thought/believed that Hitler would mellow with new power as the chancellor, as the folded institutional norms, granting Hitler power.
So I don’t put any possibilities passed the Republicans. They will continue to bend institutional norms to gain power, as they are doing now. They will nationalize FB, or pseudo nationalize it, to cement what Dr. Snyder calls “the politics of eternity”. Say good bye democracy’s succession principle.
Absolutely! You are so correct that we must not ever become complacent. We will be easily duped if we do not arm ourselves mentally.
Facebook is already in the wrong hands. It has already divided our nation (although most folks from either end of the spectrum have gone willingly to whatever extreme they are inclined to favor.)
... and so, the cell divides ...
tumble me in the surf & tide,
the rhythm of vein
from which we are born.
crash upon me the waves of time & taste
these saline lips — body curled — hand reaching.
let heaven & earth twist beneath the covalent bonds,
lungs on fire, hungry for life — eyes salt-stung
as the light breaks through.
i will find my footing upon this shore
as the twist of helix before me.
i will craft of these scenes
— crescent sighs, troughs of pain —
your temple portico.
i will summon You
with the psalms of the crashing tide & You…
You will shine upon me your terrible beauty;
shine upon my blood & brine.
Joshua Burkhart
My nightmare, nightly, and even when awake
David Neiwert’s tweet & the link to the NYT’s video Heather excluded out of concern the server would flag it:
Seeing Paul Gosar emerging as a central player in the planning for the insurrection--particularly with his offer of pardons for all involved--reminded me of this snippet from the NYT's devastating video report on how it happened.
https://twitter.com/DavidNeiwert/status/1452688688110923776
David Niewert goes on to say: “It is unlikely that it's merely coincidental that Gosar was dragging his feet and meandering through his speech while the people besieging the Capitol were drawing near to the House chambers. He appears to be trying to create a situation in which the mob overtakes his colleagues.”
Catherine, It’s definitely NOT coincidental. That crazy bugger is as dirty as we all thought he was. So they gave him something simple, that even he could do: “Keep talking — we need a little more time.”
Gosar is a fascist nut. And creepy.
In other words, he's a dentist.
Now you have revealed yourself as an anti-dentite. 😄
It's amazing how so many dentists are far right wingers. It used to seem like a requirement that one be a dentist from Orangatang County to be President of the California Republican Assembly. My wife's nephew, a dentist, is a far far right Trumper (that whole wing of her family qualify as despicable deplorables). That "hunter" guy who killed Cecil the Lion was a dentist. The only non-far right dentist I know is a woman here in LA who is Vietnamese.
I have to say that you may be into something, TC. Our dentist of many years grew up with my husband. After he retired, he and his wife decided to troll my FB page. The things they both said to me were appalling! One of my daughters chimed in and gave them hell as well as many friends. It did not deter them until I cut them out of my page. Just because there’s a DDS after their name doesn’t mean they’re smart. Ignorant abhorrent people.
And then there is Orin Scrivello, the dentist played by Steve Martin in Little Shop of Horrors. My all time favourite movie character.
Sorry to reach for levity in today’s letter but it is soooo depressing. America is so deep in this shit it’s hard to realistically picture a peaceful way out of it and even harder to imagine what the future could look like with Republicans led by a vengeance seeking Trump back in power. Will make Orin Scrivello look like someone you want your daughter to date.
Oh yeah - he's great - see the original character in Roger's original LSH.
While it does seem to be true for most of my colleagues being Rethugs or anti-democracy, you can now say you know another dentist who is non-far right. That would be me, in case that wasn't clear. 😊
You prove an interesting note on this: all the far-right dentists I know are men. You and my friend "Doctor D" here in LA are both women. I suspect that is not coincidental.
Dentists also have a high suicide rate, I understand.
Many are easy prey by demagoguery. When Their work becomes dreadful the appeal of the mystic leader redeeming them is too irresistible.
I think ur right about the dentist.
Ha ha ha
Best post I’ve read all night!
TC, I really needed a laugh! Thanks. Read your latest post, agreed with it all and learned some things. I always do.
Flattery will get you *everywhere* Gus. :-)
🤦♀️ yikes...
🤣🤣🤣
With a bobble head.
Devastating to revisit.
Yes, the cold-hearted bloodlust built into the plan is chilling.
In less than 5 hours, Steven Donziger will appear before a three-judge panel from the federal appellate court in Manhattan, who will hear argument on whether he can stay out of prison pending resolution of his appeal of Judge Preska's so-called "conviction" of him on a misdemeanor after denying him a jury of his peers.
If anyone has any ability to influence this case, please do whatever you can to save this man's life. Here is an email he sent yesterday:
10/25/21
This is difficult for me to write, so bear with me.
I write to state as clearly as possible that while my clients in Ecuador’s Amazon continue to suffer the deadly impacts from Chevron’s mass toxic dumping, I as their main lawyer might find myself in one of the most unsafe jails in our country as soon as two days from now. I am writing urgently to enlist your support so I can survive what could be one of the most challenging situations of my life. Before I go further, I want you to know how grateful I am for your support — neither I nor my family could have survived my 800-plus days of house arrest without it.
That said, my situation might quickly grow even more tenuous and perilous within hours.
This is an update on my situation:
1. Tomorrow (10/26/21) at 10:00 a.m. ET in Manhattan, a three-judge panel from the federal appellate court will hear argument on whether I can stay out of prison pending resolution of my appeal of Judge Preska's so-called "conviction" of me on a misdemeanor after denying me a jury of my peers. While I maintain my innocence and expect to be exonerated on appeal, that's not quite the point of Chevron and Preska: they want to press their leverage to intensify their campaign of personal destruction.
Remember, Judge Preska is a leader of the Chevron-funded Federalist Society; my prosecutor comes from a Chevron private law firm. I am being targeted by our nation’s first corporate prosecution. As I have said, I believe it is an outrage that we are even having the argument tomorrow given that no misdemeanor defendant in history ever has been forced to serve the entirety of their sentence prior to their appeal being heard.
As an aside, I am honored to be represented at argument by Professor Stephen Vladeck of the University of Texas law school, one of the nation's leading Constitutional law scholars.
To listen to the argument, click here:
https://ww2.ca2.uscourts.gov/court.html
To read our brief as to why I should be released, click here:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ac2615b8f5130fda4340fcb/t/6161c9ebdf7f7b42ac0c758d/1633798640966/2021-10-08-motion-for-release-pending-appeal.pdf
2. But here's the rub. If my team loses this argument, Judge Preska has ordered me to report to custody within 24 hours — a brutal order issued for no reason other than to harass me and my family with her particular brand of gratuitous cruelty that has kept me locked up at home on a misdemeanor for 811 days. What this means in practice is that we are going to potentially live for an additional weeks and months (depending on how long the court takes to rule), not knowing whether within 24 hours I will disappear into the American prison system for six months with destination unknown. Given how I have been mistreated up to this point and how many people die or get injured in U.S. prisons, it's sort of like feeling that you may disappear into a Kafkaesque hell.
Again, this is unheard of: people convicted of a misdemeanor are always allowed to self-report to prison weeks after sentencing to the facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) — in my case, a much safer minimum-security prison given that I have the lowest security score possible under the guidelines and I have no criminal history. So why is Preska trying to manipulate the system to force me into one of the most brutal jails in the country in Brooklyn?
3. I believe my physical safety and integrity could be threatened if I am forced into the federal jail in Brooklyn. I have a bottomless belief in my own strength and resilience, but I don't need to tell you that prison environments can be lawless. Given the raw power and nefarious objectives of the forces arrayed against me (including Chevron and its 60 powerful law firms), I am approaching the prospect of prison with an appropriate degree of fear. The fact Judge Preska is trying to maneuver me into a particular jail rather than adhering to the normal course and letting the BOP decide what minimum-security prison I should go to is just deeply concerning.
4. If the appellate judges tomorrow rule in my favor on this urgent appeal (which is different from my main appeal), I will face a bizarre situation: I will return to house arrest to await resolution of my main appeal. Still, we will count it as the victory that is: a mild rebuke to Judge Preska’s abuse of power. That said, I will not be free. And the U.S. courts will still be in violation of multiple provisions of international law, as determined by five esteemed jurists from the United Nations who issued a powerful ruling recently condemning my treatment and requesting my release.
https://www.makechevroncleanup.com/press-releases/2021/9/29/breaking-highest-un-human-rights-body-rules-us-government-must-release-steven-donziger-from-arbitrary-detention-and-compensate-him-for-legal-violations
5. If we “win” tomorrow, I likely will spend over three years on house arrest on a misdemeanor by the time my main appeal is resolved. We will try to change that, but that's the reality of what is starting to feel like a Gulag situation. During this time, I will not be free; will be unable to travel; will be unable to meet my clients in the Amazon; will be unable to meet with funders and lawyers; will be unable to pursue my human rights advocacy; and will be unable to be a full father to my son, who has started the last three years of school knowing that his Dad wears an ankle bracelet shackled to his leg.
6. On timing, the appellate court could rule as soon as tomorrow as to whether I must go to the Brooklyn jail. More likely is the judges will take a few days or weeks to write an opinion while I remain on house arrest. But if they rule against me tomorrow, on Wednesday my new ordeal as a federal inmate is likely to begin.
If I am imprisoned, the #FreeDonziger team will continue sending updates on my behalf. I will do my best from inside to continue working and communicating, but I could well be incommunicado for a long period of time. Most importantly, I will need emotional support: visits, letters, and good energy from as far and as wide as possible. Frequent visits can be its own sort of protection. And of course, please continue supporting my son Matthew and wife Laura as this challenge in many respects is greater for them than it is for me.
The case against me implicates the very fabric of our society and whether human rights and environmental justice lawyering can take place in the United States without advocates being locked up which is what happens in so many countries like Russia, China, and Turkey. I ask each of you to stand by me and the people of Ecuador in this critical moment. Please spread the word and get more people to sign up for our campaign at FreeDonziger.com.
And if you are able to help with our defense fund (legal expenses are mounting rapidly), please contribute $1000, $500, $250, $100, $50, $25, or whatever you can today to help us continue to pursue justice regardless of what happens tomorrow.
https://donorbox.org/steve-donziger-legal-defense-7-3-2/
Welcome to the new Fascist America. This instalment brought to you by Chevron Petroleum Products. Powering injustice.
Deleted the last post due to typo.
Is it really so new? ... bigger, bolder, supremely audacious ... there is a chapter in the Kalevala (ancient Finnish creation song) where the old god, Vainamoinen calls upon the Oceanic Mother to send him a water hero to save the world from dying ... the old oak tree has grown so large, nothing can grow - it's roots have clogged up the land - it's branches fill the skies, blocking out sunlight, stifling the winds ... even the rains cannot fall or ground waters evaporate ... if something is not done, all will die.
Out of the waters, comes a little fellow the size of the old god's thumb. He steps up to Vainamoinen and introduces himself as the water hero, sent by the Oceanic Mother to solve the problem. The old god is incredulous, "You must be joking - what can you do - You are not even as big as my hand?!
The little fellow begins to grow ... he grows, and grows until his trousers span the continents and his head wears the sky like a crown. With 3 great strides, he steps across the continents and with 3 mighty blows of his ax, he fells the mammoth tree.
Now, the sun, winds and rains can resume their circular dance ...
All the people come out of the shadows, gathering up the splinters and branches of the great oak, and take them home to build the world anew.
https://tahomahome.weebly.com/stars1.html
Who might be our thumbelina/o? Greta T. comes to mind for all things creation. More difficult for me to imagine politically-- though we miss a lot, thinking things and persons are more trivial than they actually are! Thank you!
Thank you too Carol ... actually, in this field, a story is emerging about a boy thumb who carries the drum that calls the young to hunt ... Thumbaloono - first born son of the Thumbali People - People of the Pond who hunt slugs over moss covered rocks - singing as they follow slime trails through the glistening morning dew ..., "Tadpoles, Polliwogs, Beetles and Bugs - Thumbali People are hunters of slugs!"
For anyone unfamiliar with Dzoniger's case, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found a “staggering display of lack of objectivity and impartiality” on the part of Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, who has handled much of the US part of Donziger’s case. See: https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-group-blasts-staggering-bias-of-judge-against-lawyer-fighting-chevron/
See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pexzV50XszI
10/26/21
Anti-Chevron Crusader Steven Donziger Denied Reprieve, Says He Must Report to Prison Within a Day
An environmental advocate who helped win a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron says he must report to prison to serve his six-month sentence by Wednesday afternoon. A trio of federal appellate judges unceremoniously rejected Steven Donziger’s request for bail pending his appeal.
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the bail motion is DENIED,” the Second Circuit’s unanimous three-judge panel wrote.
Sharing the entirety of the order via Twitter, Donziger—hailed by his supporters as an environmental crusader punished for taking on the powerful and depicted by his opponents as a scofflaw—denounced the brevity of the single-paragraph order.
"After 100 pages of legal briefing, the appellate court today denied my release in 10 words,” Donziger tweeted. “This is not due process of law. Nor is it justice.”
Signaling the support he has received from a Nobel Prize winners, international bar associations, members of Congress, a U.N. working group, and more than 100,000 Twitter followers, Donziger added: “We will get through this,” alongside a muscle and heart emoji.
The ruling marks the latest nadir in a reversal of fortune decades in the making.
On Oct. 1, a federal judge dealt the maximum sentence allowable for misdemeanor contempt of court offenses to Donziger, a now-disbarred environmental attorney who spent the better part of his career helping thousands of indigenous and farmer residents of the Ecuadorean Amazon rainforest sue Chevron and its predecessor Texaco for oil pollution to their ancestral lands.
In 1993, Donziger’s clients sued Texaco in New York, and Chevron acquired that company before successfully fighting to move the case to Ecuador in 2001. Chevron ultimately lost that lawsuit in Ecuador to the tune of billions—and collaterally attacked that lawsuit back in New York, claiming that they had been defrauded.
After Chevron won a civil lawsuit accusing Donziger of racketeering, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan—who presided over that civil case—drafted criminal charges against the lawyer after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to prosecute him. Donziger maintains his innocence over Chevron’s allegations that he obtained the judgment through fraud and bribery, and he never has been charged with any of that conduct criminally. But Chevron’s counteroffensive has saddled him with enormous legal bills, stripped the Harvard-educated lawyer of his license and will soon send him to prison.
The unusual judge-ordered prosecution leveled six counts of contempt of court, accusing Donziger of refusing to comply with post-trial discovery orders or relinquish his interest in the Ecuadorean judgment. Donziger and his supporters cast his prosecution as a corporate retaliation campaign linked to Chevron.
Kaplan tapped attorneys the private law firm Seward & Kissel—which counted Chevron as a former client—to prosecute Donziger before assigning the case to his colleague, Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska. Neither the civil nor the criminal trial faced a jury, over Donziger’s objections. Both judges ruled against him.
In issuing her six-month sentence, Judge Preska likened the penalty to a “proverbial two-by-four between the eyes” and told Donziger it is “time to pay the piper."
Now represented by University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck, Donziger’s appeal attacks the constitutionality of Judge Kaplan’s appointment of a private prosecutor after the U.S. Attorney’s office declined his case. Vladeck urged the court not to let Donziger serve the entirety of his half-year sentence while a lengthy appeals process takes its course.
“Your honor, Mr. Donziger is asking this court only to continue the same bail conditions, including home confinement and electronic monitoring to which he’s been subject since the beginning of this case in August 2019,” Vladeck told the three-judge panel.
Donziger had been on a regime of home detention for more than 800 days.
Attorney Rita Glavin, the private sector lawyer serving as his prosecutor, insisted that circumstance has changed since Donziger’s conviction. She argued that Donziger should be sent immediately to jail because he has political connections inside Ecuador and has a history of flouting court orders.
Circuit Judge Michael Park, a Donald Trump appointee, noted a key distinction.
“There’s a difference between not complying with a discovery order and becoming an international fugitive,” Park said.
Despite that statement, Park joined a unanimous three-judge panel in denying any reprieve for Donziger. Second Circuit Judges Jon O. Newman, a Jimmy Carter appointee, and Eunice Lee, a recent Joe Biden appointee, joined the decision, which did not state its reasoning. The judges granted Donziger an expedited appeal that will see all briefings in by Nov. 18—and set oral arguments on the “first available” date after that.
ADAM KLASFELD
Oct. 26th, 2021, 6:50 pm
https://lawandcrime.com/author/adam-klasfeld/
Have a tip we should know? tips@lawandcrime.com
Thank you Bill. I also connected with Josh Wolf at Pachamama - he says they are closely connected to the case ... I feel, if they do succeed in railroading Donziger into that facility, someone (or many) need to be there on the ground to watch his back, and the administration needs to be surveilled 24/7 to support his safety, and see if it is possible to pull this weed out by the roots. It could be like the baobab tree in The Little Prince - or a resident virus that will take the body with it if you wipe it out ... delicate balances ... peace in one breath, one breath at a time ... truth prevails in due time - and we all have to do our time, one way or another ....