Yesterday, people rallied at more than 600 marches across the country to demonstrate their opposition to Texas’s new restrictions on abortion rights. Today, the Washington Post broke the story that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained more than 11.9 million financial records including emails, spreadsheets, contracts, and so on, that reveal a vast international network of financial schemes to hide money from taxation, investigators, creditors, and citizens. The trove is named the Pandora Papers, after the Greek myth of Pandora, who opened a container and released a host of evils upon the world.
Hello, everyone. Reposting this from a few days ago for those who may not have seen it. Now shorter, clearer, and with a short sample letter at the end that will fit on a post card!
A Call to Action: American democracy is in an unprecedented emergency. If we do not pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Act, our democracy will die with the 2022 elections. I am asking all Americans who care to write or call the seven Republican senators who voted to convict former President Trump of incitement of insurrection, asking them to form a coalition for the sole purpose of saving our republic by voting these bills into law now.
Not the time to argue who is sincere, who has integrity. These Republican leaders are who we've got. For an expert take on why this is our best bet, read Robert Kagan's recent piece in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/robert-kagan-constitutional-crisis/. Below is a list of their Washington addresses and phone numbers. (No email, please. It's not effective.)
Please remember that each of these seven have suffered violent threats for their vote to convict in the impeachment proceedings. My suggestion is to appeal to their love of country, to tell them their nation needs them to prevent radical Trumpians from destroying us, that we need them to step up now as the 2022 elections will otherwise mark our descent into autocracy.
Thank you.
Richard Burr, NC (retiring)
217 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3153
Bill Cassidy, LA
520 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5824
Lisa Murkowski, AK
522 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-6665
Mitt Romney, UT
354 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-228-0836
Ben Sasse, NE
139 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-4224
Patrick J. Toomey, PA (retiring)
248 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-4254
Susan Collins, ME
413 Dirksen Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-622-8414
An example of short letter:
Dear Senator __________,
Our democracy is in grave and immediate danger. I am writing to you today because you showed courage in voting to convict former President Trump. Please form a coalition with other courageous Republicans and vote for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The future of American democracy is in your hands. Thank you.
Regarding the international network of offshore financial schemes . . . it has been going on for a very long time. Rachel Maddow has been talking about the oligarchs of Russia for years and offshore accounts are nothing new! Obviously, the grotesque financial inequity that has grown to 100's of billionaires has fed this situation to a global insanity. From the perspective of U.S. government policy there should to be a huge "reset button" regarding financial aid to countries where leaders and individuals hoard $billions and leave their own people in poverty.
And, in this country, it is totally nuts we do the same thing . . . we go begging for and compromising on infrastructure funds (including social infrastructure) while the self-centered uber rich take multi-minute rocket rides to the edge of space as a pure joy ride. Because of the vast financial and social inequities, the masses end up with no control over their lives (for women it gets right down to their own bodies!) There certainly is no easy way out . . .
For me, dear Professor Richardson, this is the finest letter you've ever written. I believe Texas Republican elected officials have made a huge error with the Abortion Ban law and its vigilante injustice. It is not only alienating Texas women and women across the entire US and beyond, it alienated by brother, a Tea Party conservative. On abortion we are in complete agreement. He even said Governor Abbott was showing his true colors. My brother, an originalist, has written a book on the Constitution and I think he understood how this law defied and defiled the Constitution. That was unacceptable to him.
Here are the written comments I made this evening to the Texas House Redistricting Committee who is holding a hearing this morning (Monday, Oct 4) on the intentionally discriminatory maps they have released taking away six districts from people of color and adding three for whites. I used every character of the 3000 allowed by adding 3 exclamations points on NOW!!! I've been thinking that it is not just white nationalist that want a revolution. I think it is time for a women's revolution!
To the Texas House Redistricting Committee Public Hearing:
Redistricting gives the incumbent party a significant advantage for a full ten years. The maps as presented show intentional discrimination against people of color who made up a super majority portion of the population growth in the past decade. This unfair advantage in the maps mean that the incumbent party will have a six to eight point advantage in all districts which will mean minority rule of that party for the next ten years. Given that that party is truly representing only a minority of the population of Texas this becomes intolerable when they are putting into effect laws which blatantly take away US Constitutional Rights from a majority of citizens - women and people of color -- with the Abortion Ban and the Voter "Integrity" laws. The first is in intentional violation of the U.S. Constitution and fifty years of precedent. A party that believes in the individual freedom to wear a mask or not which protect the right to life of other citizens is taking away my freedom with begins with my body! I will not tolerate vigilante injustice nor do I feel a majority male legislature has any standing to make laws over my body. The second is in violation of the Voting Rights Act Section 2 as intentionally discriminatory. I am not going to tolerate this and will do everything I can to non-violently resist it and to bring about a huge u-turn to a better, more legal direction for our beautiful state one that works for all the people this time. Our representatives no longer represent us because they have been bought by the elite 5% of the population. It is now an oligarchic kleptocracy hollowing out the middle class and weakening capitalism by weakening the consumers. This will destroy capitalism altogether and is has already destroyed democracy in our republic. While I believe minority voices must be heard, I do not believe in minority rule. Having an elite minority lording over everyone else is what we fought the American Revolution over. There are a great many ways to draw fairer maps and I strongly encourage to redraw the current maps and start acting like you still believe in democracy -- by the People -- not your Donors. I plan to work toward an independent commission to draw the 2030 maps. And, note that I said independent -- not bipartisan. The two party system is as John Adams said now becoming the worst evil to befall the Constitution. My idea of fair and just is maps that make all the districts competitive for its constituents so that we have real choices in who represents us. The current gerrymandering is actually a two-edge sword. The incumbent finds himself (and I'm going to make herself the majority!) locked into the extremes of their select constituency and scared of being primaried. These incumbents can no longer negotiate for the good of all because they are locked into keeping the extremes of their party stirred up. This is all intolerable. Redraw these maps into fair and just districts! it is your oath! NOW!!!
Dear Professor HCR -I really can’t express how important and helpful your analysis has been for me, a relatively uneducated but life-long progressive, in understanding the historical and political influences that give me the perspective to see things with a longer view and less emotional upset. Thank you so much!
In regard to the term "heartbeat bill," the OB/GYNs among us can attest to their expertise of clarifying that at about 6 weeks of human embryo gestation, the amalgamation of cells that eventually will become a heart are NOT yet a functioning heart with a beat. The "heartbeat" reference is a deliberately emotionalizing misnomer, and in our messaging, we need to not perpetuate this tactic of the far right.
As for the Women's March of 10/02/2021, men were out there aplenty in support--yay and thank you! The depth and breadth were impressive. Women's Marches were held in all 50 states.
But I respectfully disagree that the Women's March was limited to people marching "for women’s lives and their constitutional right to abortion." Plenty of people's signs and T-shirts addressed the larger issues of patriarchal capitalism, feminism, women's health, gender rights, citizenship, and constitutional overreach. Here are some examples:
"We are Ruthless! Now act accordingly."
"RBG sent me. I dissent."
"Bans off our bodies"
"Republicans hate women, children, refugees, clean air, voting rights"
"Women's rights are human rights."
"Yes to citizenship now"
"Men of quality are not afraid of equality"
"Real men are feminists"
"The system is sexist. Fight for socialism."
"Pro-choice. Pro-vax. Pro-equality."
"Derechos reproductivos son temas LGBTQ!"
"Address institutional racism in reproductive healthcare"
"Regulate guns, not uteruses"
"Authoritarian reproductive control is fueled by misogyny and racism"
"Viagra is govt. funded ($41.6 million / yr), If Pregnancy is God's Will, So Is Limp Dick"
"Texas: where a virus has reproductive rights but a woman doesn't"
"If I wanted the government in my uterus, I would f**k a politician!"
Dems have a bigger problem than gerrymandering. They don't know how to win elections. Rep. Pramila Jayapal has had a national audience for the past week, and not once have I heard her rebut the charge of socialism and creating a dependent welfare state. Perhaps she thinks Americans are intelligent, rational beings who would not believe such bunk. The yard signs are already up in my town.
The message is simple: This is not socialism. That's a bunch of malarkey. We're repairing the social safety net because too many people are falling through the cracks.
Bonus points if you add the creation of Social Security and unemployment compensation, for context.
I'm thinking the Texas "Heartbeat Law" was, finally, a step too far for the Republicans. Given the poll numbers quoted by HCR, it is a distinct possibility. I'm hoping that enough people who generally vote Republican see that it isn't just about former president whatsisname anymore. In fact, it isn't about him at all. It's about a naked stab at the heart of American democracy. We know that, and maybe Greg Abbott and his cohorts in the Texas leg, (pronounced "lej", God I so miss Molly Ivins!) have gone a long way toward making a huge block of Republican voters to see the writing on the wall at last, and become former Republican voters.
I do not understood why men should have the right to tell women what they can do with their bodies. Some women, including the latest appointee to the Supreme Court, and men in positions of political power, have sought to set rules and punishment for those women who, for whatever reason, choose to abort a fetus. I find the religious ‘validation’ unconvincing. In one of the two versions of Genesis, Eve is castigated for eating the apple. Subsequently in the Old Testament (as opposed to the New Testament) man’s superiority over women is writ large.
Without a man, a woman can not get pregnant. Why is it, in the ‘moral’ argument against abortion, that the woman, rather than the man, is the culprit? I am appalled by the term ‘pro life.’ Even more so when the ‘pro lifers’ seek to legislate when a fetus becomes human. Were these ‘pro lifers’ true to their slogan, shouldn’t they be in the forefront of adopting unwanted babies? I am unaware of any ‘pro life’ organization that has its members in the forefront of adopting and caring for unwanted babies. At the same time, some of these purported ‘pro lifers’ have engaged in attacks on abortion clinics and doctors resulting in deaths.
I am appalled by the recent Texas law that empowers citizens to be abortion vigilantes with the inducement of up-to-$10,000 reward for identifying ‘violators. I am equally appalled by the politicalization that could result in our current Supreme Court sharply limiting or even overruling Roe vs. Wade. I believe that there are a diversity of reasons why a woman, with or without a man’s approval, chooses to have an abortion. Indeed, I am certain that the wives or incidental gift friends of some of the ‘pro lifers’ have had abortions. What gives males the right to determine what should occur when they impregnate women? If women are held legally responsible for the aftermath of a sex act, why wouldn’t it be fair to consider castration or some other penalty for the man? Horrors, many people would say. My riposte: then cease applying a double standard in the false ‘morality’ of the ‘pro lifers.’
Or as Balzac put it: "The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.”
In a speech to the State Department on February 4, Biden said that he would put “America’s most cherished democratic values” back at the center of American diplomacy, “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.” Which is why he sent Jake Sullivan to meet with the murdering barbarian Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. To discuss the mutual commitment to "values."
That is best explained by what Prince Metternich said, explaining the Congress of Vienna to a journalist: "Nations have no permanent friends, or permanent enemies - only permanent interests."
And the whole damn week has demonstrated that Otto von Bismarck was correct when he said: "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made."
And I'll finish off with the most accurate piece of political cynicism I ever heard, spoken by a guy I consider the best (in terms of skill and ability in the sausage-making) politician I ever met: "If you can't drink their booze and screw their women, and vote against them the next morning with a smile on your face, you have no business in this business." (Jesse Unruh, inventor of the modern state legislature)
This column highlights exactly why I find the insidious Republican voter suppression laws and gerrymandering so terrifying. We are being set up for permanent minority rule.
Dear Heather: I love the link you've made between the rallies for reproductive rights and the Pandora Papers. It's a brilliant splice! Thank you!
I attended one of those rallies. It was a cold, wet day in VT, but the crowd couldn't have been more warm and fired up for women's rights. Almost as many men as women were in attendance as was an excellent showing from our legislature, including our Attorney General, who, along with a handful of women representatives spoke to the crowd. It made me proud to be a self-proclaimed Vermonter, even if not a seventh-generational one!
Here, too, the ties between excessive wealth/extreme poverty and women's rights were made blatantly clear not in the exact same way, but visible nonetheless in the sordid imbalances which exist when monetary power reveals its grotesque face.
Great connection--I have only one criticism. Using the term 'elite' instead of something more specific like 'super-rich' or 'oligarchs' plays into the current populist authoritarian trend of discrediting education and expertise in all fields.
I am very glad to know that Biden and Blinken care about the scandal of the financial elite (though I note the WP didn't follow routes that would lead to uncovering the owner of the WaPo or any other unscrupulous American billionaire). The return of efforts to abide by the rule of law is going to reduce my stress enormously! But it's not the case that the president also cares about “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights...and treating every person with dignity.” Not if Haitians are "persons," or Afghan women belong to the universe that has rights, or Saudi women's freedom and opportunity deserves defense.
1. Dr. Richardson, you've done it again, thank you! I would never have linked the two.
2. I believe the March was poorly covered by MSNBC. The Saturday hosts--mostly women--had far less than 10 minute segments and very poor video shots. I fast forwarded through each hour and watched each segment. The marchers deserved better.
3. A hearty "well done" to everyone who marched in body, mind, or spirit! You DID contribute to the increasing awareness by uninformed voters who are just beginning to smell the stench of a rotten political party; and you directly told that fetid mess that we are not going to take it anymore!
Hello, everyone. Reposting this from a few days ago for those who may not have seen it. Now shorter, clearer, and with a short sample letter at the end that will fit on a post card!
A Call to Action: American democracy is in an unprecedented emergency. If we do not pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Act, our democracy will die with the 2022 elections. I am asking all Americans who care to write or call the seven Republican senators who voted to convict former President Trump of incitement of insurrection, asking them to form a coalition for the sole purpose of saving our republic by voting these bills into law now.
Not the time to argue who is sincere, who has integrity. These Republican leaders are who we've got. For an expert take on why this is our best bet, read Robert Kagan's recent piece in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/robert-kagan-constitutional-crisis/. Below is a list of their Washington addresses and phone numbers. (No email, please. It's not effective.)
Please remember that each of these seven have suffered violent threats for their vote to convict in the impeachment proceedings. My suggestion is to appeal to their love of country, to tell them their nation needs them to prevent radical Trumpians from destroying us, that we need them to step up now as the 2022 elections will otherwise mark our descent into autocracy.
Thank you.
Richard Burr, NC (retiring)
217 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3153
Bill Cassidy, LA
520 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5824
Lisa Murkowski, AK
522 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-6665
Mitt Romney, UT
354 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-228-0836
Ben Sasse, NE
139 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-4224
Patrick J. Toomey, PA (retiring)
248 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-4254
Susan Collins, ME
413 Dirksen Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-622-8414
An example of short letter:
Dear Senator __________,
Our democracy is in grave and immediate danger. I am writing to you today because you showed courage in voting to convict former President Trump. Please form a coalition with other courageous Republicans and vote for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The future of American democracy is in your hands. Thank you.
Regarding the international network of offshore financial schemes . . . it has been going on for a very long time. Rachel Maddow has been talking about the oligarchs of Russia for years and offshore accounts are nothing new! Obviously, the grotesque financial inequity that has grown to 100's of billionaires has fed this situation to a global insanity. From the perspective of U.S. government policy there should to be a huge "reset button" regarding financial aid to countries where leaders and individuals hoard $billions and leave their own people in poverty.
And, in this country, it is totally nuts we do the same thing . . . we go begging for and compromising on infrastructure funds (including social infrastructure) while the self-centered uber rich take multi-minute rocket rides to the edge of space as a pure joy ride. Because of the vast financial and social inequities, the masses end up with no control over their lives (for women it gets right down to their own bodies!) There certainly is no easy way out . . .
For me, dear Professor Richardson, this is the finest letter you've ever written. I believe Texas Republican elected officials have made a huge error with the Abortion Ban law and its vigilante injustice. It is not only alienating Texas women and women across the entire US and beyond, it alienated by brother, a Tea Party conservative. On abortion we are in complete agreement. He even said Governor Abbott was showing his true colors. My brother, an originalist, has written a book on the Constitution and I think he understood how this law defied and defiled the Constitution. That was unacceptable to him.
Here are the written comments I made this evening to the Texas House Redistricting Committee who is holding a hearing this morning (Monday, Oct 4) on the intentionally discriminatory maps they have released taking away six districts from people of color and adding three for whites. I used every character of the 3000 allowed by adding 3 exclamations points on NOW!!! I've been thinking that it is not just white nationalist that want a revolution. I think it is time for a women's revolution!
To the Texas House Redistricting Committee Public Hearing:
Redistricting gives the incumbent party a significant advantage for a full ten years. The maps as presented show intentional discrimination against people of color who made up a super majority portion of the population growth in the past decade. This unfair advantage in the maps mean that the incumbent party will have a six to eight point advantage in all districts which will mean minority rule of that party for the next ten years. Given that that party is truly representing only a minority of the population of Texas this becomes intolerable when they are putting into effect laws which blatantly take away US Constitutional Rights from a majority of citizens - women and people of color -- with the Abortion Ban and the Voter "Integrity" laws. The first is in intentional violation of the U.S. Constitution and fifty years of precedent. A party that believes in the individual freedom to wear a mask or not which protect the right to life of other citizens is taking away my freedom with begins with my body! I will not tolerate vigilante injustice nor do I feel a majority male legislature has any standing to make laws over my body. The second is in violation of the Voting Rights Act Section 2 as intentionally discriminatory. I am not going to tolerate this and will do everything I can to non-violently resist it and to bring about a huge u-turn to a better, more legal direction for our beautiful state one that works for all the people this time. Our representatives no longer represent us because they have been bought by the elite 5% of the population. It is now an oligarchic kleptocracy hollowing out the middle class and weakening capitalism by weakening the consumers. This will destroy capitalism altogether and is has already destroyed democracy in our republic. While I believe minority voices must be heard, I do not believe in minority rule. Having an elite minority lording over everyone else is what we fought the American Revolution over. There are a great many ways to draw fairer maps and I strongly encourage to redraw the current maps and start acting like you still believe in democracy -- by the People -- not your Donors. I plan to work toward an independent commission to draw the 2030 maps. And, note that I said independent -- not bipartisan. The two party system is as John Adams said now becoming the worst evil to befall the Constitution. My idea of fair and just is maps that make all the districts competitive for its constituents so that we have real choices in who represents us. The current gerrymandering is actually a two-edge sword. The incumbent finds himself (and I'm going to make herself the majority!) locked into the extremes of their select constituency and scared of being primaried. These incumbents can no longer negotiate for the good of all because they are locked into keeping the extremes of their party stirred up. This is all intolerable. Redraw these maps into fair and just districts! it is your oath! NOW!!!
We the People, all of Us This Time!!!
Dear Professor HCR -I really can’t express how important and helpful your analysis has been for me, a relatively uneducated but life-long progressive, in understanding the historical and political influences that give me the perspective to see things with a longer view and less emotional upset. Thank you so much!
"The two stories are not unrelated." Masterful comparison and connection of these two trends in the US. Thank you.
In regard to the term "heartbeat bill," the OB/GYNs among us can attest to their expertise of clarifying that at about 6 weeks of human embryo gestation, the amalgamation of cells that eventually will become a heart are NOT yet a functioning heart with a beat. The "heartbeat" reference is a deliberately emotionalizing misnomer, and in our messaging, we need to not perpetuate this tactic of the far right.
As for the Women's March of 10/02/2021, men were out there aplenty in support--yay and thank you! The depth and breadth were impressive. Women's Marches were held in all 50 states.
https://act.womensmarch.com/event/oct-2-2021-march/search/?source=plannedparenthood_attend&gclid=Cj0KCQjw18WKBhCUARIsAFiW7Jwy-Rxj5F40MWB_CsotI9KTwGD1WKGfh_ZR5SEnh_Q4VJaEU4kH7XoaApNxEALw_wcB
But I respectfully disagree that the Women's March was limited to people marching "for women’s lives and their constitutional right to abortion." Plenty of people's signs and T-shirts addressed the larger issues of patriarchal capitalism, feminism, women's health, gender rights, citizenship, and constitutional overreach. Here are some examples:
"We are Ruthless! Now act accordingly."
"RBG sent me. I dissent."
"Bans off our bodies"
"Republicans hate women, children, refugees, clean air, voting rights"
"Women's rights are human rights."
"Yes to citizenship now"
"Men of quality are not afraid of equality"
"Real men are feminists"
"The system is sexist. Fight for socialism."
"Pro-choice. Pro-vax. Pro-equality."
"Derechos reproductivos son temas LGBTQ!"
"Address institutional racism in reproductive healthcare"
"Regulate guns, not uteruses"
"Authoritarian reproductive control is fueled by misogyny and racism"
"Viagra is govt. funded ($41.6 million / yr), If Pregnancy is God's Will, So Is Limp Dick"
"Texas: where a virus has reproductive rights but a woman doesn't"
"If I wanted the government in my uterus, I would f**k a politician!"
Dems have a bigger problem than gerrymandering. They don't know how to win elections. Rep. Pramila Jayapal has had a national audience for the past week, and not once have I heard her rebut the charge of socialism and creating a dependent welfare state. Perhaps she thinks Americans are intelligent, rational beings who would not believe such bunk. The yard signs are already up in my town.
The message is simple: This is not socialism. That's a bunch of malarkey. We're repairing the social safety net because too many people are falling through the cracks.
Bonus points if you add the creation of Social Security and unemployment compensation, for context.
I'm thinking the Texas "Heartbeat Law" was, finally, a step too far for the Republicans. Given the poll numbers quoted by HCR, it is a distinct possibility. I'm hoping that enough people who generally vote Republican see that it isn't just about former president whatsisname anymore. In fact, it isn't about him at all. It's about a naked stab at the heart of American democracy. We know that, and maybe Greg Abbott and his cohorts in the Texas leg, (pronounced "lej", God I so miss Molly Ivins!) have gone a long way toward making a huge block of Republican voters to see the writing on the wall at last, and become former Republican voters.
I do not understood why men should have the right to tell women what they can do with their bodies. Some women, including the latest appointee to the Supreme Court, and men in positions of political power, have sought to set rules and punishment for those women who, for whatever reason, choose to abort a fetus. I find the religious ‘validation’ unconvincing. In one of the two versions of Genesis, Eve is castigated for eating the apple. Subsequently in the Old Testament (as opposed to the New Testament) man’s superiority over women is writ large.
Without a man, a woman can not get pregnant. Why is it, in the ‘moral’ argument against abortion, that the woman, rather than the man, is the culprit? I am appalled by the term ‘pro life.’ Even more so when the ‘pro lifers’ seek to legislate when a fetus becomes human. Were these ‘pro lifers’ true to their slogan, shouldn’t they be in the forefront of adopting unwanted babies? I am unaware of any ‘pro life’ organization that has its members in the forefront of adopting and caring for unwanted babies. At the same time, some of these purported ‘pro lifers’ have engaged in attacks on abortion clinics and doctors resulting in deaths.
I am appalled by the recent Texas law that empowers citizens to be abortion vigilantes with the inducement of up-to-$10,000 reward for identifying ‘violators. I am equally appalled by the politicalization that could result in our current Supreme Court sharply limiting or even overruling Roe vs. Wade. I believe that there are a diversity of reasons why a woman, with or without a man’s approval, chooses to have an abortion. Indeed, I am certain that the wives or incidental gift friends of some of the ‘pro lifers’ have had abortions. What gives males the right to determine what should occur when they impregnate women? If women are held legally responsible for the aftermath of a sex act, why wouldn’t it be fair to consider castration or some other penalty for the man? Horrors, many people would say. My riposte: then cease applying a double standard in the false ‘morality’ of the ‘pro lifers.’
Here’s a link to an overview of the Pandora Papers that’s unobstructed by a paywall:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/pandora-papers-biggest-ever-leak-of-offshore-data-exposes-financial-secrets-of-rich-and-powerful
Or as Balzac put it: "The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.”
In a speech to the State Department on February 4, Biden said that he would put “America’s most cherished democratic values” back at the center of American diplomacy, “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.” Which is why he sent Jake Sullivan to meet with the murdering barbarian Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. To discuss the mutual commitment to "values."
That is best explained by what Prince Metternich said, explaining the Congress of Vienna to a journalist: "Nations have no permanent friends, or permanent enemies - only permanent interests."
And the whole damn week has demonstrated that Otto von Bismarck was correct when he said: "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made."
And I'll finish off with the most accurate piece of political cynicism I ever heard, spoken by a guy I consider the best (in terms of skill and ability in the sausage-making) politician I ever met: "If you can't drink their booze and screw their women, and vote against them the next morning with a smile on your face, you have no business in this business." (Jesse Unruh, inventor of the modern state legislature)
It's been a tough week for idealists.
This column highlights exactly why I find the insidious Republican voter suppression laws and gerrymandering so terrifying. We are being set up for permanent minority rule.
Dear Heather: I love the link you've made between the rallies for reproductive rights and the Pandora Papers. It's a brilliant splice! Thank you!
I attended one of those rallies. It was a cold, wet day in VT, but the crowd couldn't have been more warm and fired up for women's rights. Almost as many men as women were in attendance as was an excellent showing from our legislature, including our Attorney General, who, along with a handful of women representatives spoke to the crowd. It made me proud to be a self-proclaimed Vermonter, even if not a seventh-generational one!
Here, too, the ties between excessive wealth/extreme poverty and women's rights were made blatantly clear not in the exact same way, but visible nonetheless in the sordid imbalances which exist when monetary power reveals its grotesque face.
Great connection--I have only one criticism. Using the term 'elite' instead of something more specific like 'super-rich' or 'oligarchs' plays into the current populist authoritarian trend of discrediting education and expertise in all fields.
I am very glad to know that Biden and Blinken care about the scandal of the financial elite (though I note the WP didn't follow routes that would lead to uncovering the owner of the WaPo or any other unscrupulous American billionaire). The return of efforts to abide by the rule of law is going to reduce my stress enormously! But it's not the case that the president also cares about “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights...and treating every person with dignity.” Not if Haitians are "persons," or Afghan women belong to the universe that has rights, or Saudi women's freedom and opportunity deserves defense.
Three points:
1. Dr. Richardson, you've done it again, thank you! I would never have linked the two.
2. I believe the March was poorly covered by MSNBC. The Saturday hosts--mostly women--had far less than 10 minute segments and very poor video shots. I fast forwarded through each hour and watched each segment. The marchers deserved better.
3. A hearty "well done" to everyone who marched in body, mind, or spirit! You DID contribute to the increasing awareness by uninformed voters who are just beginning to smell the stench of a rotten political party; and you directly told that fetid mess that we are not going to take it anymore!