Last night, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court declared that voters in Brazil have elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva president, replacing right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro.
Prof. Richardson refers to "Republicans desperate to spin the deadly attack as a reflection of political violence on both sides of the aisle...or—appallingly and without evidence—of a gay tryst gone bad."
Why not mention that the richest man in the world, now the owner of the most influential social media platform in the world, was the most prominent source of the rumor that the Speaker's octogenarian husband is the victim not of an attack by a manicacal political assassin but "of a gay tryst gone bad"?
Nothing seems more consequential to me, even Bolsonaro's defeat, than the takeover of Twitter and Musk's posting a malignant apologia for attempted murder on his first full day at work as Dear Leader.
Mary, I suggest no worries, Musk as 'Chief Twit' is not a big deal. First, a Bolsonaro win had the chance to turn the Amazon jungle from our largest 'carbon sink' into a net carbon emitter and essentially end any chance of avoiding the worst of climate change. Second, Musk horribly over paid for Twitter, he said so explicitly! LMAO! Bought at top of market. He is firing 50% of employees. Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) has already started a competitor called Blue Sky. He is flush with cash from Musk’s overpayment! After Twitter fires 50% of its employees, Dorsey can hire his old staff and eat Twitter for lunch using Musk's money. Tesla shares are down dramatically on worries Musk's attention will be diverted, doubling his miserly and mistake. EPIC bad purchase, causes epic negative change in Musk's fortunes and maybe epic good for society. GM has already suspended advertising on Twitter.
Actually I think we must pay attention to Musk and every billionaire who thinks he’s more powerful than our Democracy, our constitution, our laws. I just posted this link yesterday in Robert Reich. The very nature of our sinking Democracy, to allow tax laws and privileges to benefit the wealthy and corporations means out of control billionaires like Musk can own and control and evidently say, whatever they choose. Our courts have given away powers. Changing campaign limits changed the power of the wealthy and of corporations to influence elections. Connect the dots as we witness the erosion of protection for our Democracy. From a Brennan Center report : “This is perhaps the most troubling result of Citizens United: in a time of historic wealth inequality,” wrote Weiner, “the decision has helped reinforce the growing sense that our democracy primarily serves the interests of the wealthy few, and that democratic participation for the vast majority of citizens is of relatively little value.”
As long as those with the wealth have the "loudest" voices we can not have a functioning democracy. If only those voices were committed to the facts/truth.
And near the root of income inequality is the racism that encourages a significant portion of the U.S. population -- maybe over half of the white population -- to fall in line behind the super-wealthy, who of course are enthusiastically funding every candidate and officeholder who calls every attempt to deal with income inequality "socialism."
In the booklet, On Tyranny, 20 Lessons from the 20th Century by Timothy Snyder, 2017, the Prologue begins: "History does not repeat, but it does instruct. As the Founding Fathers debated our Constitution, they took instruction from the history they knew. Concerned that the democratic republic they envisioned would collapse, they contemplated the descent of ancient democracies and republics into oligarchy and empire. As they knew, Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability, while Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves as tyrants. In founding a democratic republic upon law and establishing a system of checks and balances, the Founding Fathers sought to avoid the evil that they, like the ancient philosophers, called tyranny. They had in mind the usurption of power by a single individual or group, or the circumvention of law by rulers for their own benefit. Much of the succeeding political debate in the United States has concerned the problem of tyranny within American society …"
I also love the pithy Quote before the Prologue, "In politics, being deceived is no excuse." Leszek Kolakowski, Polish philosopher and historian.
When I read this, I reached for my copy of 'On Tyranny' but it wasn't there. I had given it to someone to read. I would hope they did the same. Anyhow, inexpensive used copies are available on Amazon.
I have to make a plea here.....why help Bezos. Here in Oregon we have the wonderful bookstore, Powell's, which is both new and used. I just placed a large order with them yesterday for Christmas presents. My husband and I give each other books, one at a time, and when finished, we get another one.
Here is South Florida, we do not have bookstores like Powells or the Strand in NYC. They usually fail leaving Barnes & Noble as the only choice. As an Amazon Prime member (getting free shipping and Prime streaming TV), I reluctantly support Bezos. But he does own the Washington Post, if that matters.
I don't need to cite or quote statistics, we've all heard the stories of the number of Americans with ZERO saved for retirement. We've seen the gaping divide between the 1% and the rest of us in terms of wealth. We have people living in trailer courts--heck, there was the 60 minute story of people in Alabama with NO SEWAGE SYSTEM., while others, like Mehmet Oz own several mansions.
But those with so little will elect the wealthy to give more to the wealthy.
Before the New Deal reforms, retirement meant sitting on one's adult children's or grandchildren's porch in a rocking chair sipping lemonade, and sleeping in their spare room. This is what the Republicans offer to those who count on them to M. A. G. A. ..... but how great was that kind of retirement anyway? And with families spread out all over the country these days, that is no longer possible, and whatever happened to those front porches?
Perhaps we should better structure our economy so that we don't have billionaires. Even with the steady growth of the planet's total worth, their presence makes it difficult to acheive a fairer, although still unequal, distribution of that wealth among its inhabitants. They should be taxed down to the status of mere millionaires.
The Powerball right now is more than $1 billion. That's an obscene amount of money and more evidence of our social sickness. If I were in charge, I'd make a million million-dollar winners. And if I won, I would do a heck of a lot to help erase income inequality (maybe I'd keep a measly million for myself)....
You are whimsically commenting on this, but many millions of American take the investment they make in Powerball tickets very seriously. And some who can least afford it, spend $20, $50 or much more on them. (When I spend a few bucks on the slots in a casino just for fun, I look around me at those pouring twenty dollar bill after twenty dollar bill into those machines, in the hope of hitting it big, and I know from just looking at them that they can't afford it.) At least the casino games return about 80% of their take as prize money while the lotteries only return about half of their take. There's one born every minute.
There’s a theme here. Odd kids get bullied. They amass personal power one way or another when they grow up. If they’re actual geniuses, as Musk is, they find ways to “show us” they’re in charge now. Bottom line, there’s a theme here.
Completely agree. But the deep seated reactions that play out in the bullied kids head are what we end up dealing with. Musk is the poster child. But we should remember the school shootings by kids who were bullied. Action/reaction.
Reducing bullying by kids is a mission and a critical goal. But bullying isn't going to go away anymore than jealousy and anger. There will always be kids who bully. So how to deal with this?
Red flags go up around these victims if we pay attention and provide support and redirection early on. But that would require a commitment to mental health and money to help these young people - before they become monsters. Neither one of these things are important in our selfish "ME FIRST" society.
When I worked at jr high, my principal would not tolerate bullies. I went with him to bus stops, and other places to deal with such. Word got around, especially after he made popular bully be a protector in the lunchroom for a bullied kid. Needs to come from the top.
There's good news on this front over the past 20 years - Aspergers is on the list of "disabilities" covered by the ADA so schools are now required to support them. With early intervention and counseling, the kid gets the kind of help that would have made me a successful writer in my 20s rather than my late 40s after I worked it all out myself.
Yes, it still happens, but a kid like Musk would have been "rescued" before it got as bad as it did for him, with things as they are now.
It’s always important to recognize learning needs, differences and disabilities as well as the high achievers. However that’s two different issues. Our government regulations, laws, courts and structure allow the economic power and economic disparities. And that is equal opportunity for anyone with family money, good luck or smart economic strategy. Or corrupt and /or evil intentions.
Look at all the monster, bully role models children and adults have in politics and media, and in our Oval office in the prior, so-called "administration." Sickos should not be allowed in politics, social media or have guns...and hammers.
He excuses his own evil. Stop the whining. Most kids with Asperger’s never take it out on the whole world. And yes, I am familiar with the bullying kids do. Also with the bullying the cult does to us all.
Asperger's is just one of the many, many things that make kids the object of bullying. It often starts at home in that some kids are left more defenseless or are bullied and belittled at home. Where was Musk's father, for example? Anyway, mental and emotional health is important for all. As I finish the sections Conclusions and recommendations sections of my ridiculously long and took forever to write book about former gifted kids now grown up (longitudinal "very qualitative" study) social and emotional issues and differences only add to the complexity of lives for my subjects. Siblings, parents, classmates ... some kids are more resilient than others ... but often those who are more resilient had enough qualities to attract admirers, protectors, have enough confidence ... whatever. So complex and yet so clear in so many ways. I love you guys!
Jeri - those kids with Aspergers do take it out more than you think, and the ones who don't wish they could. There is a LOT of pent-up anger and frustration there. Trust me, I know.
There is indeed. I was one of them (not as bad as what I have read about him), got out of there three days after graduation, have never been back to anything associated with school. But have made sure to provide information for the reunions. Loved it a few years ago when one of my friends told me after the 30th that one of the "golden kids" who was one of the tormentors saw my entry and exclaimed "He's more famous than all of us!" I plead guilty to feeling very "fuck you" at that moment.
In a funny way, if I went back there now, I would say "thank you for all you did" to them. It might sound perverse, but what happened made me react in a way that led to being who I am now, rather than accepting "this is the way things are" as they did and going nowhere.
I dunno TC. I don't think he's that bad. I don't agree with his politics, but he has provided society with some very useful things, in contrast to other authoritarians like tfg, who really have contributed nothing.
Hmmm, good authoritarians v. bad authoritarians in the present tense. Behavior of Musk, in present tense, may influence your opinion of him. As for the how authoritarians are affecting democracy, the following was excerpted from a recent report by Freedom House:
'Authoritarians in every region are working together to consolidate power and accelerate their attacks on democracy and human rights, according to Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule. Political rights and civil liberties have declined worldwide for each of the past 16 years, raising the prospect that autocracy could overtake democracy as the governance model guiding international standards of behavior.'
'Checks on abuse of power and human rights violations have eroded within nations and international organizations alike, dealing a serious blow to democracy’s foundations and reputation. Authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, and elsewhere have gained greater power in the international system, and freer countries have seen their established democratic norms challenged and fractured.'
'A total of 60 countries suffered declines in political rights and civil liberties over the past year, while only 25 improved. Fewer countries experienced net improvements in 2021 than in any other year since the current period of global democratic decline began. As of today, some 38 percent of the world’s people live in countries rated Not Free, the highest proportion since 1997. Only two in 10 people live in Free countries.'(FreedomHouse) See link to report below.
Yes, when he "sticks to what he knows that interests him" he's good at things. Elsewhere he's a moron, and because he has $200 billion to finance being a moron, that's dangerous.
The potential karmic justice here is the fickle nature of the consumer public. Is anyone old enough to remember AOL? Then gmail, then Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and ALL the fringe also-ran platforms whose names have already been forgotten. Twitter, for all of its many millions of tweet-ers, followers, influencers, ( ), ( ), will turn the corner and become passe when the 15 minute attention span of the public finds the next latest concept. Musk's 42 billion could evaporate like an ice cube in the hot sun with nothing more than a few highly insulting tweets and the coincident arrival of a younger, more sexy social media platform. His form of venture capital hunger to devour anything and everything around him is happening because he CAN. He can lose 99.9% of his wealth and still be a multi-millionaire 100 times over. I say, let him...eat all you can, until you choke on it, Elon. Then slink back to the world of tech, where you actually HAVE done some remarkable things.
Diminishing Marginal Utility . . . a well studied psychological and economic concept. As I often said "less is often more". This is obviously in direct conflict with capitalism where economic growth is measured by more.
We constantly hear "spend more, spend more" and the media exploits it all. This year spending on Halloween alone is expected to be "a record $10.6 billion, exceeding last year's record of $10.1 billion". ($3.3 billion in 2005) That amount of money hasn't made Halloween any more fun or memorable to kids today versus the much less expensive days of old!
And, of course, we're all aware of the shopping mantra, marketing, and pressures to spend everything we've got in the 4thQ of the year or the economy will collapse!!! Christmas items were on full display at Lowe's inn September. Bigger and more expensive houses has not made for a happier society . . . so on and so forth.
And, all of this results in a throw away society that we have been commenting on for decades . . . most recently in the Boston Globe regarding new disposal restrictions in clothing, furniture, mattress disposal in Massachusetts that begins on November 1st.
You articulated one of my biggest gripes. I detest living in a throw away society. My small town keeps tearing down and rebuilding young buildings. My town has a very poor maintenance plan. I cry seeing the waste. When will we ever learn?
House across the street was built new about ten years ago. Sold this year for asking price $4.5 million, but new owners apparently don’t like its style, as contractors have been there for six weeks. More money than sense?
I've just spent a remarkable 12 days in Paris, France, where the 20 +/- hour work week ables leisure life, together with friends, over discussion, drink and cigarettes. Who could ask for more - but for less smoke! I
And we've never been more satisfied without seeing the sun for nearly two weeks!
It is a good site to explore regarding issues of sustainability, ‘de-growth’ ideas, the vanishing of ‘the commons’, and how there should be alternatives to the idea of the ‘GDP’ being the indicator of a healthy economy….worth perusing their archives on such topics.
As a craftsperson I have at times had to make my own tools to execute a design. This has taught me I don't need to run out and buy every little thing I thing I need. This has led me to question every purchase. How goods are made, packaged and delivered are of concern to me. I oppose gadgets with a vengeance. I often try to make what I need first. I love living in an uncluttered environment. I hate dusting and cleaning so I don't own stuff that needs to be dusted and cleaned. Less is definitely more for me. I have everything I need. My biggest stress today is will my country survive the hateful upheaval? Hopefully we will smarten up ( doubtful ) & Elon Musk is nothing more than an annoying mosquito.
That used to be the way of things a long time ago. And antiques were & are much more valuable (not only financially) than the new cheaply made "stuff". If it was necessary for everyone to "question every purchase" - rather than to use a credit card - we'd be in a lot better shape personally & country wise (or global wise). But currently, not only adults, but children, have been taught that anything they want - they can have - one way or another. Of course, that does not include people living in poverty! Which are many here in this country.
Barbara - thank you for that link. I think about economic growth all the time. The planet is finite, but our economic system treats it as if it is infinite. That may have been OK in the distant past, when humanity's global impact was much less. But now it is catastrophic. Unfettered capitalism, and the quest for ever continuing growth is now the enemy. As is hyper-religiousity especially of the Christian type, where scientific advancement is replaced by blind faith in obsolete ideas thousands of year old. Both turn a blind eye to the reality of the planet we live on. Years ago I would have never admitted I would one day think this way. But now it seems a no-brainer. It would be great to snap one's fingers and turn it around. But I fear human nature, which is not all that different from the nature of any other species wanting to survive in the near term, is incapable of paying enough attention to the long term, and will pay the price. Almost all species who have lived on earth over the eons are extinct.
Actually, for my husband and I it hasn't been difficult. We lost millions in the crash of 2008-09. Had to sell our home for nothing. Lived in an RV for 11 years - traveling for the first two - and it was a blast. Left the U.S. in 2019 to live in Europe where living is so much simpler, easier, and happier. It depends upon the ability to make lemon margaritas out of lemons.
Hubby was diagnosed with Alz end of 07, so missed any chance for such a margarita. Would have loved it. Next 15 years devoted to “downsizing,” the ultimate less is more…
Not everyone feels that way, but advertising pushes people in that direction. Wealthy people have to worry about their security more than ordinary people do. I am happy not to live in a gated community or to imagine my child being kidnapped for ransom.
"If democracy-minded people don’t seize control of the information environment, powerful sociopathic autocrats will do so instead. We leave a power vacuum open at our peril, and at the moment, Musk and Putin are the ones with the most will to fill it."
Warning bells went off with this:¨Musk and his backers believe that the global geopolitical arena was being warped by too much “woke” ideology and censorship, and wanted to fix that by first restoring voices that had previously been silenced —and then implementing technical and algorithmic solutions that allow each user to get the experience they want.¨
A very interesting piece, and quite disturbing. I recall the anti computer voices decades back, who suggested that the technology would be the undoing of us. Money = Power. It appears that some very strange people can end up with world altering power.
He's a rather dangerous philanthropist--too rich to be "bullied" by advisors, too badly educated to have humility or do research into his whims and notions. I exaggerate for clarity, but it is never safe to have public goods dictated or serviced by individuals.
'Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Give Blue Checks Only to Verified Conspiracy Theorists'
'SAN FRANCISCO (The Borowitz Report)—In a policy shift, Twitter announced that it will bestow blue checks only on users it called “verified conspiracy theorists.”
'Elon Musk, the platform’s new owner, said that the policy was designed to “curate a world-class collection of the most prominent paranoiacs working today.”
“We will be vetting conspiracy theorists to insure that they have an established track record of disseminating falsehoods,” he said. “For the benefit of our users, we want to make a clear distinction between the Dinesh D’Souzas of the world and some rookie crackpot hoping to become a major-league crackpot.” (Satire, NewYorker)
Suz-an, I read the description you wrote about your father, his politics, personality and the impact on you and your sister. I imagine that your writing would be helpful to many who suffered from that kind of 'authority'. 🍎 Thank you and a NYC apple for your teaching, imagine a million more of them, Suz-an.
The "Reagan Revolution" and the subsequent devolution of the Republican Party has greatly magnified the power of great sums of money over "government of the people, by the people, for the people". Considering that the two "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" that the Constitution spells out, for which "the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction" are "Treason" and "Bribery". it is difficult to square the current influence of huge fortunes over electoral, legislative, and societal events with the form of governance the Constitution prescribes, especially in it's current, amended form. The goal of the former "Party of Lincoln" now appears closer to refeudalization.
Leigh's calling out candidates pretending to be democrats- it happened here. I was handing out sample democratic ballots outside our voting office. There was a democrat's tent on one side of the sidewalk and a republican's across the way. Two supporters for republicans, one a candidate for mayor and the other school board, stood on our side, insisting their candidate is non-partisan. The current mayor asked them to stand on the other side and they politely refused. Guess they didn't want to stand with the losing team.
Thanks Christine. An example of the hideous tsunami of money and lies they saved up till the last month, just when we were all down to wondering which our last $10 donation would have to be....
Exactly. I am content being a $10 donor to several campaigns dedicated to democracy than giving a $million to traitors intent on changing democracy to something unacceptable resembling a gaseous bag of hot stinking air.
Absolutely!!! Including Google. Yes it's a pain and it's difficult to switch to a different browser, but we have the power to shut down the $$$ of all corporations who are working against us.
We need to get a list published. There must be a way to do that... I will look into this. Having been a radio executive for 20+ years, there were readily available reports on advertiser lists.
It shows how much $$$ companies give to which political parties. I’ll be switching insurance companies due to my current insurance company donates to Republicans
that's fantastic! I was feeling better until at this very. moment I saw that Roberts issued a freeze on the release of trump's taxes... what kind of b.s. is this/ I can't wait for heather's talk today!
"Nothing seems more consequential to me, even Bolsonaro's defeat, than the takeover of Twitter and Musk's posting a malignant apologia for attempted murder on his first full day at work as Dear Leader."
Not to mention that, apparently, a fair bit of the funding that Musk has received to buy twitter came from China and certainly the fact that he is groveling at the feet of the Chinese to keep his manufacturing access and access to Lithium won't help Twitter either.
China comes to twitter through Musk.
I am glad I never acquired an account. No tracking.
I too am so sickened by these tragic events but the fact that this sociopathic wizard is controlling what amounts to being the 'airwaves' is terrifying! There must be a viable alternative! That monster is poisoning our water supply!
Mary, I believe that her paragraph about Mika Brzezinski's comments on Morning Joe had an oblique reference to The Twit. My guess is that she didn't want to give him more oxygen. He promises to be a new layer to the discord that TFG has sown. Since he is really a billionaire, he's even more dangerous than the about-to-be-broke wannabe billionaire.
Respectfuly Nancy, Heather Cox Richardson can't realistically starve Elon Musk of oxygen. She can however pay attention to the danger we in the Real World are suffering, have suffered, will suffer (look at the UK) from billionaires who create alternate realities that undermine our ability to function as a democracy. Or to frame our future, in the face of the overwhelming obstacles (uncluding multiple simultaneous pandemics) that climate change is hatching.
Mary, of course Heather cannot starve Musk or any other prominent person of oxygen. However, as many mainstream news outlets have done, it appears that Heather is attempting in this forum to refuse him the notoriety he so craves. You are correct that we are in the grip of malevolent tyrants who are manipulating the world for their own ends. Heather alone can't control the tide, but she can put it in perspective, as she has done throughout our recent travails. The best we can do is to arm ourselves with knowledge, refuse to be victims of disinformation, and vote - while we still can.
I have tried to deactivate/delete my Twitter account and Twitter is not allowing me to deactivate. I get an error message with a request to try again later. Anyone else have that issue?
I managed to trigger a "review" of my account status & received a confirmation of my request which "may take days". If that does not work. I will try reposting my comment about the Chief Twit to see I can get barred ASAP.
It takes a month of deactivation. If you do not use it during that time, they are supposed to delete your account. But all bets are off now with the Dear Leader owner.
Actually no. It really is important to stay on and continue to speak truth and support truth. Including on the posts of the swamptoads. Staying silent is contributing to their power.
It is too much like reading faux news with the vitriol. I got sick this morning. I can still read it, but am deactivated. Giving nothing to fascists and corporations who support twitter. Keeping my mind for better things. And that is coming from a professional fox troller!!
I do not and have never had a Twitter account, but I respectfully disagree with you. I think that as long as there are millions of accounts to feed his revenue, you can post whatever truths you want and it won't matter a damn. The only thing that matters to these billionaires is MONEY. Hit them in the pocketbook.
Yes ‘a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with gun’…JUST like in Uvalde and Parkland…where tons of cops sat outside while kids are being shot, too afraid to confront the shooter for over an hour! MTG assumes at 4-5am when Paul Pelosi gets up to pee he would have his gun holstered under his PJs. Can’t say enough bad things about that moron MTG!!
I opined last night that instead of "Chief Twit", Musk should be dubbed "Chief Troll". If this is any indication of the future, I suspect there will be a mass exodus from Twitter, both of users and staffers.
“Like Trump, Bolsonaro now faces investigations and possible criminal charges that have been delayed while he enjoyed presidential immunity. He has told two senior officials he is worried that, out of office, he will go to prison.”
I hope that the Brazilian justice system works faster than ours has to date!
And hope that it works better. In the USA, we don't jail oligarchs who commit crimes, even capital offenses (example is the incorporated drug gang of the Sacklers), or regulate corporations. Oligarchs pay money to get out of just punishments and corporations currently regulate government, not the reverse. We are in a number of ways a third world plutocracy, not a first-world democracy.
How low can America sink? What will our lives be like a month from now?
The latest edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index ranks the United States 26th of 167 countries, sandwiched between Chile and Estonia, when measuring electoral process, government functionality, political participation, political culture and civil liberties.
U.S. remains a ‘flawed democracy’ in annual rankings - The Fulcrum
The U.S. is still classified by EIU as a flawed democracy, and has been since 2016. The report points to extreme polarization and “gerrymandering” as key issues facing the country.
There IS a way out of our low ranking, and the powerlessness we feel, which is real.
Democracies flourish with more than two political parties and proportional representation; corrupt plutocracies that claim to be democracies yet leave citizens powerless through gerrymandered districts do not thrive under proportional representation.
How do you gerrymander the districts to place a corrupt party in charge with proportional representation? YOU DON'T!
And this is why the operatives of both of our plutocratic parties don't want voters to (1) know about proportional representation or (2) have it taught in schools.
The fact so few have ever seen such ballots shows the strength of censorship and the brainwashing that we have been exposed to. The two plutocratic parties will not educate citizens about this. We will need to educate ourselves and others, not with the help of our two cartel parties, but in spite of anything that these two plutocratic parties can do to prevent it. Please SHARE as many places as possible!
Speaking of other countries, Rowshan, here is Politics Girl Leigh McGowan speaking to our wonderful ex-pats. Vote vote vote, wherever you are in the world. Our expats, millions of them, can make a difference.
Yes, there are parallels in the Pelosi & Jan. 6 attacks, but an even clearer comparison can be made in the conspiracy to kidnap & kill Michigan’s woman governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Authoritarians become incensed at women in positions of power. Progressive women are their nightmares. Our Sec. of State, Jocelyn Benson, was also threatened by armed men outside of her home.
It appears from this and other historical events that the drone of hate speech provides permission for those who already struggle with violent impulses to act them out on those that malicious propagandists designate, be it society's racial or sexual "untouchables" or other, target nations, as we now see as Russia claims Ukraine. It's not like there has been any shortage of cautionary tales.
Every-time I hear “Where’s Nancy?”, I want to scream “Where’s the DOJ?”
Trump may have condemned what happened to Mr.Pelosi, saying “it was a terrible thing”, but in the same breath he equated it with everyday, Urban violence, thus diluting his own culpability for having caused it. While Trump shapes the court of public opinion, sows the seeds of his violent dictatorship, and sends cryptic messages to his followers on who to attack and when, AG Garland is still gathering evidence. Trump’s message has not just been weaponized, the big lie being propagated like never before. Why is the DOJ investigating the messengers, while the sender is still sending them? It’s treating the symptom and not the problem. Trump turned his message into blood, for all the world to see, and he is still hammering (forgive the pun) away at our Democracy with his big lie, while the DOJ is still building the case that it is even happening. It’s as if they’re chasing after the bullets, rather than the shooter. If the DOJ thinks they’re sending a message’ with the charges they filed, then they can’t deny the impacts (sorry another terrible pun) the ‘messages’ being sent by Trump have. The DOJ cannot deny that damage is being done to our Democracy, while they are busy counting the holes.
We have abundant evidence of Trump’s culpability in seditious behavior undermining the rule of law in this country. The question will ultimately come down to Merrick Garland and his team in our department of justice. Do they have the courage to prosecute Trump? Yes or no. We the citizens are waiting for your answer.
I truly believe that the silence of the ¨us¨ is the tragedy. Where are the people pouring into the streets? Where are the demands being made? Everyone is just sitting at home, whining on the internet expecting others to do the work.
The firehose effect of “Flood the Zone with Shit” leaves the “us” scattered as to how to counter the tsunami of corruption/misinformation/disinformation/
jujitsu-legal perversions to muck up the wheels of justice. THAT’S the perfection of the social media weapon; disperse a miasma of chaos so it’s like fighting fog. The DOJ’s knife in this gun fight is very chilling in that it shreds the curtain of belief that our “laws” -which have turned out to be mostly inept “norms” - are there to protect us. It appears they are impotent. And the chance of conceiving Justice and birthing a new enlightened Democracy are slim. So how do we organize -How do we mobilize- against fog? People will follow a leader. trump has proven that. But how do we get people to follow a good leader? Those leaders are rare ( and usually get assassinated, or obstructed ala Obama & Biden). “WE need to Be the Change” is Gandhi’s quote, and I agree. But I’ve tried herding cats. I’m no good at it. The “silence of the us” is delivering on Ben Franklins warning: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
I wonder if we are still in shock and maybe some of us have PTSD from the events of the past 3to 6 years as we have watched the wavering of our institutions.
I believe that this is true. Americans have not had to deal with long term war on North American soil, and these years have been war. It's so important to support those who are fighting like hell to keep our democracy as well as to take a break, rest, then get back in the fight.
I've had it (the PTSD) since Reagan was elected, and have been worried since then about why we didn't take to the streets. (Notice I did not choose to lead anything political then.....I was busy being a feminist, (taking to the streets ) and we formed a national sewing professionals association .... I see that now as important, but maybe a bit selfish, and ignorant of our democracy's needs.). Maybe we were all a bit ostrich-y, and maybe we just didn't see it coming. But that is the way we were. I think a lot of energy was taken up by our feminist movement, and I am so aware it needs to keep going! But underneath it was this anti-democracy stuff which we never saw. What do you all think?
I think, Kathy, that your comment is true, sort of, but there was a lot of fierceness for feminism, and thank god for that, but let's not be too little too late now!
I have been asking the same question. I have stood on corners with signs and two other people. The pandemic. Weaponized crazies. I want to put signs up about saving our democracy and voting—yet, but I have real safety fears of the Fuck Biden flag jerk down the street. This is how tyranny and fascists win. We REALLY need the DOJ to act for us and slam these terrorists.
Although the first amendment grants protects freedom of speech, it does not give anyone the right to act irresponsibly, including T****. He clearly is promoting violence along with his big lie and the DOJ , will be remembered as the ones to blame for allowing this to go on and on for nearly two years now. Action is needed now.
Tonight, I sat out on my porch with a spooky purple Halloween light, a plastic skull with glowing eyes, several pumpkins, and a big cauldron full of treats, waiting for Trick-or-Treaters. Halloween seems to be fading away as a tradition. Tonight, we had three teen-agers.
I watched the moon, a lovely waxing quarter-moon. I remember seeing the moon in late 2015, as the Beast from the Abyss was clearing the field of presidential contenders -- a full moon, I think -- and it was a great comfort to me. My most distant ancestors had watched that same moon. The pre-Colombian residents of the land I now live in had seen that moon 20,000 years ago. The earliest humans looked up and saw that self-same moon. And the face of Lady Luna looked down and watched empires rise and fall, rise and fall, then rise and fall again. There was, and is, a kind of stability in that, a comfort, unmatched by anything made by humans and wrapped in plastic, whether it is a nougat of sugar, or a government.
But eventually, I pulled out my phone and started reading news articles. A boredom reflex, a modern pathology. I normally just do a quick scan. This went on. And on. And on. And I started to realize that I was not getting any news at all. I was getting pure sewage, masticated, regurgitated, mixed, and delivered up again on a new plate. The Paul Pelosi story is at the top of the fold, as they say, and what is being written by the news services is utter filth.
I stopped reading, and removed all news services from my phone in the same way an alcoholic might remove all of the bottles of liquor from his house.
It isn't that news isn't interesting, or even valuable. It's that what is being published isn't news. It's regurgitated filth. It is a bunch of lamprey eels, stuffed into a barrel, eating each other, striving to get to the top of the barrel for just a moment, to get that by-line, that article. Is it thoughtful? Irrelevant. Is it even true? Equally irrelevant. Does it "sell papers?" Or garner clicks? That's all that matters.
Joseph, your Halloween experience this year was quite sad. And I understand your boredom reflex. Yes, that is a modern pathology. When you wrote about the lovely quarter moon, I was prompted to respond. It was very comforting to me last night, also. And what was especially sweet was that in my neighborhood (inner city, multi-family housing, mixed-income, racially diverse) instead of the anemic few trick-or-treaters, we had a charming stream of mixed ages and family combos visiting our door. And most of the neighbors had decorated their porches. This has not happened before. Some were even having little gatherings out on their lawns to celebrate. Neighbors stopped to chat, which is rare in our everyday lives, we usually keep to ourselves. Yet last night, maybe it was just the beautiful cool weather, or that more young families now live in the area, or after years of hesitating to be around each other, people were out and pleasant. The kids were charming and grateful and polite. I looked up at the moon and just said a “thank you” to the universe, and treasured the moment.
I’ve never had any news apps on my phone, no Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media on my phone. I’ll just wait for Professor Richardson, or Joyce Vance to explain it in clear, unadulterated, terms without “click bait sound bites”. The news media are trying to sell papers - not be fair and balanced. If they were, they would report the lies and easily debunked claims that trump and his minions make. But that won’t sell. So they pretend to “tell both sides”. Total BS.
Thank you for your moon tributes. Always good to meet another fan of that celestial body. My granddaughter offered an app that pinpoints the moon's location. I declined. The moon shows up exactly when I need it, warm reassurance that the world keeps turning. The moon will shine a path through darkness for all who lose their way. My Halloween moon wore a gauzy ghost-like costume, very impressive, never disappoints.
Thank you for relaying that story, Joseph. We had zero guests at our door. There seem to be two elements to this idea of the "trick or treat" phenomenon that we both apparently grew up with. One is the "find the good neighborhoods with the best candy" mentality, which coexists with the organized activities at malls, rec centers, etc. The other is the "stranger danger" fear of our neighbors. (I am exempting the evangelical refusal to permit the acknowledgment of Halloween. The church at the end of our feeder street promoted a "trunk or treat" event at their church. No clue what that was...)
In my Chgo suburb home we had 87 "treaters" --up from 63 last year, on a very damp, overcast day in the high 50s/low 60s.
Some of those treaters were return guests from earlier (LOL) and included about a dozen fully costumed adults (with kids, not alone) and the Amazon delivery man. Since we are 3 blocks from an area that is mostly apartments/condos, generally people cross the main street to get to our best candy area. (missed out at our home: fruit gummies, rice krispie treats as candy purchased ends up gone before the holiday arrives. Full confession)
Trunk or Treat is where the adults have treats in their car trunk and the kids go car to car. I guess it is considered a safer form of treating--no running wild in streets, no fear of tampered treats.
Sadly, even something like that is not allowable for my small grandchildren.
'stability', you think so, Joseph? When has earth been so endangered? What makes you think that Democracy will survive? The losses have been great in recent years.
From your thought:
'The earliest humans looked up and saw that self-same moon. And the face of Lady Luna looked down and watched empires rise and fall, rise and fall, then rise and fall again. There was, and is, a kind of stability in that, a comfort, unmatched by anything made by humans and wrapped in plastic, whether it is a nougat of sugar, or a government.'
To that of Alfred North Whitehead:
“I have never ceased to entertain the idea that the human race might rise to a certain point and then decline and never retrieve itself. Plenty of other forms of life have done that. Evolution may go down as well as up.”
When I'm looking at the moon, my time-scale is much larger than that of the human race. I'm entirely in agreement with Whitehead, but a bit more certain about it, and more philosophical.
I've entered the last third of my life; perhaps the last quarter, or even less. Eighty is only three more presidential elections away. And I WILL die. On my personal yardstick of life, sooner rather than later, since two thirds of my life are already memory. This is an inevitability.
The human race will die. I cannot say if we bipeds will evolve into something beyond human, or if we will simply go extinct. But our end, as humans, is an inevitability.
All life on Earth may end, leaving us like Mars. Or perhaps Gaia will continue until old Sol begins to age, and dim, and get fat, eventually swallowing everything inside the orbit of Jupiter. Brief halcyon days for the moons of Saturn, which will have ample time to form, sustain, and lose civilizations.
I don't like to live in that timescale, because there are things that need doing while I am alive. Taking out the trash. Tasting a new wine. Hearing -- or writing -- a new piece of music. Reading a lovely novel. Sharing time with a loved one.
But it's good -- for me at least, especially when I have my head wrapped around the axle -- to remember how temporary it all is.
(gal pal jumped into my mind,, when I saw your kind message) I have been following your posts, Gail, with gratitude for your spirit, info and fortitude. TC's piece on TAFM tonight comes close to reflecting my mood. My feeling right now may be even darker. I will pop up once in a while, but for the time being, I don't believe that I would be useful. Got to summon some gumption along with information. Here's to you Gail and to our compatriots.
Aw honey, the Sun is going to rise on Wednesday Thursday, Friday, next week, whenever this is decided. And then we begin again. Your POV is much appreciated. And missed.
The blind intensity of hate that the right has stoked has been burning for a long time. But there's something about what happened to Paul Pelosi that helps me not just see it more clearly but feel it. I've imagined myself at the crime scene, struggling with his attacker, and hearing the hammer bashing my skull.
In my heart of hearts, I've known the rabid insurrectionists who unleashed their rage at the Capitol on Jan. 6 will come eventually for more than Democratic leaders if the guardrails of society are overrun. They will come for us. But I didn't want to believe it.
The reaction on the right to what happened to Pelosi — jokes, absurd speculation, whataboutism — says all we need to know. They have been brainwashed into believing Democrats are evil. I keep seeing and hearing the word in interviews. What's happening is no different than what led to Nazi Germany.
Your assessment is spot on. That hatred has been carefully taught, and allowed to see the light of day and be fanned into a fire that will destroy our nation.
Absolutely, Michael. They will come for us. We need to ready ourselves. I doubt we will save our democracy, scott-free, with all the infiltration they have done at all levels in our country. But, I take heart, there are still more of us than them. It just may not be very pretty... We need Justice. Decency. Protection from terrorists in our midst.
tfg tries to delay things, because that's what he does. This time, though, even if Republicans take over the House and Senate in the mid-terms, we still have Joe Biden in the White House and judicial processes well underway to take down tfg and his loyalists like Alex Jones and Steve Bannon. Sure, we'd all like them jailed yesterday. But I expect that justice will be served because this has gone from political tribunals to legal ones.
Gary, but how long will we have Biden? They have already written the Articles of Impeachment to remove him and everyone down the line. They will hold the cards.
I am not confident of anything anymore. It seems like the next logical step, if there is logic operating anywhere, anymore. I like to think that I still live in Earth 1 and the MAGA world lives in Earth 2.
The Republican Party gives us our daily list of reasons why it should not be allowed to exist. It's all very disheartening: watching Kari Lake make a joke of the attack on Paul Pelosi, seeing the tweets from Donald Junior, the near silence of the GOP (which I equate to tacit support of the violence). I wonder what it will take for the Republicans (the members of the T**** cult) to understand what their party is doing. I live in a 'blue' state, but the local Republican candidate in my district for the state representative seat is an election denier, as are the GOP gubernatorial candidate and the head of the state party. T**** is still sowing divisiveness, and the DOJ is taking way too long to bring him to justice. He needs to be kept away from social media, isolated in a cell, in prison, until his trial for treason, for which, on conviction, he could be hanged. His guilt has already been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Letting him continue to roam free and use social media to further his lies is only going to cause more violence.
I agree. My expectation is that indictments will come after the election. My fear is that election challenges, coupled with indictments, will set the country on fire.
In short, Tony Earls and his wife were robbed at a Houston ATM. When the robber fled with his cash, Earls pulled out a gun and fired nine shots into a pickup he mistakenly thought carried the robber. The truck carried the Alvarez family instead. He hit nine year old Arlene Alvarez in the head, killing her.
It gets worse.
Last week, in the face of this callous disregard for human life and public safety, a grand jury declined to bring charges against Mr. Earls, citing "his right to defend his property". Local authorities are searching for the"real murderer", the bank robber. Mr. Earls is a free man, since he cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime.
So we have come to this. In a country where the legal system can consider the negligent killing of an uninvolved nine year old child to be justified in retaliation for a robbery, is it any wonder that people joke about a hammer attack on an 82 year old?
I have had conversations about this particular incident with several people on both "sides" (as if there should be such a thing) of the gun ownership/carry spectrum. Here is my take:
If you have the absolute freedom to carry a weapon, be it a .22 derringer or an AR-15, where ever and how ever you want to, you also have the absolute responsibility for every single round that leaves the end of that weapon, REGARDLESS of how it exits that weapon. Earls may have lacked the intent to kill innocent bystanders, but by gods he had the responsibility for doing so.
Once again, my stance on "gun stuff": pair it up with motor vehicle/driver regulations: License, insurance, and penalties for careless, reckless, intentional (justified or no) and knowingly having rounds exit that weapon. There are no firearms "accidents". There are intentional, unintentional, and negligent actions that cause the round to leave the weapon. Period. Each and every one of those requires responsibility for the outcomes. Period.
There's nothing surprising about the vapid punditry, silence, outrageous defamatory theories circulating about the Pelosi attack. In fact, if the event were simply a "script", fishing for reality TV responses, the writers would come up with a similar set of garbage narratives. Except for the authentic injuries and crimes committed, the fact that it occurred at all is yet another tiring episode in the made-for-TV drivel that is emblematic of our political cycle. How much more of this will we all have to bear with another whole week before voting day still before us? I know it sounds selfish and belittling to the actual victim. I am truly horrified and sympathetic towards Mr. Pelosi; I think the perp is truly nuts, most likely not attached to any radical right-wing conspiracy group, actually worthy of pity, truly a circus clown whose strings are being pulled by the ring master he hears in his head, or perhaps on some right-wing podcast somewhere. But, really, I've had it up to my eyebrows. No amount of additional scaldalization will cause me to change how I feel or how I voted. I thought the best recent news was that from Brasilia. It's fascinating that the South American continent is moving left, even as Europe, the US and parts of Asia are moving right; a sort of shifting of the world-wide political weather under global climate change. What is both sad and alarming is that we have little time remaining to enjoy the political spectator sport of international political trends while we fail to address the increasingly urgent and ACTUAL course of global climate change. Where is my cryogenic chamber? what pill can I take that will allow me 8 days of uninterrupted sleep until November 9 arrives?
Unplug! Turn off the TV (or watch old movies), turn on a radio or stereo & listen to music instead. This is all SO exhausting, but personally, I feel that I must not look away & must bear witness (but not wallow) in what is happening. That said, election night I usually do NOT watch/listen to any of the unfolding election counts…que sera, sera—right? Will find out (probably, unless ballots are still being counted) in the morning & that’s soon enough for me. As for climate change, I am a pessimist that we humans can stop our bickering long enough to keep the world from burning—and I fervently wish I did hold this belief. That the world in all her loveliness will shrug us off and continue w/o us is a soothing thought & gives me odd comfort…I am just pissed that we managed to ‘take out’ so many species & eco-systems along the way.
I would feel better if the Dems would even mention that the repubs plan to kill SS and Medicare. They could win on that alone.. where are the Dem brains! Heads in the sand…buried alive…
On the attack on the Pelosi's home, I note the appropriate coordination between the separate federal & state cases. The federal charges includes 1 count aimed at impeding or interfering with Nancy Pelosi's duties as a USG official. I have reviewed the Federal complaint (USA vs DWD) & update the following: A 2nd count, 18 USC Section 115(a)(1)(A), (b) is for assaulting an immediate family member [Paul] of a Federal Official (Nancy).
Federal criminal investigation rules known as "discovery" starts immediately after Federal arraignment. That discovery information can used to supplement the separate state claims with positive, fully admissible evidence & possible amended state pleadings.
Paul was concious & was able to be interviewed by the SF DA`s office before state charges were filed. Paul is still in intensive care under the treatment of a world class neurological surgery unit at Zuckerberg SF General whose mission statement is that a TBI (traumatic brain injury) is not an event it is a process; Paul is expected to recover over time which definitely takes a process toward full healing. Been there.
Certainly qualifies but, I will have to research the U.S. Code Sections to see if mental capacity is a moderating factor to interfering with Nancy Pelosi's official duties and/or the attack on Paul in his own home with vivid evidence of intent.
I am not a lawyer, nor do I have any direct knowledge of the US Code. I suspect that there is an element of unwillingness to prosecute the "insane" which is different from (I devoutly hope) the radical fringe beliefs. I profoundly hope that a prosecution at both the state and federal levels is successful.
If he is insane, so is a third of the country. Including half my family. I dispute insanity, just people fearing the other and letting emotion override reason. No excuse for cult behavior but this is also true. “Madness, Nietzsche wrote, Is rare in individuals, but in groups it is the norm.” So said Eli Zaretsky on Twitter a while back. I agree…
Should the Democratic Party come out of the upcoming election with gains in both houses, the first item of business must be a federal law spelling out harsh penalties for those commissioning acts of stocastic terrorism.
Bro, I understand where you're coming from, but NOOOOO! That would be tantamount to Putin's 'jail if you criticize the war'. Truly nothing scarier than a law of that type. Criminal penalties exist for intentional acts and gross negligence that leads to foreseeable harms. LMAO remove the immunity social media enjoys while spreading falsehoods so they can be sued for false information and you will hear crickets on Parler Newsmax Infowarped UNtruth Social etc. Remember, any law can be applied to anyone. The radicalized nut who shot at Republicans playing softball and wounded Steve Scalise, ya really want Bill Barr looking into whether he was radicalized by AOC or Bernie Sanders, leaving to his 'judgement' if there is sufficient conneciton?
Justice Robert Jackson's famous 24 page dissent in 1949's Terminiello v. Chicago, in which Chicago's disorderly conduct statute, leveled at a priest whose rantings at a rally incited a riot, was overturned in a 4 page opinion written by Justice Douglas, ended thusly:
"The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."
Justice Jackson was freshly returned from his duties as the Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal.
Weird that there was one idiot who makes the case for both sides. The repubs are 100:1 for idiots acting on their party’s insane bull Schitt. Always wondered if the Scalise attacker was on Repub payroll? No, we’re not as crazy as republicans
One hopes that the Brazillian political parallel of the rise and subsequent fall of a criminal authoritarian leader/political movement carries through to our own elections next Tuesday.
One is guardedly, very guardedly, optimistic.
Another thought this first day of November in 2022; I wish the news media, all of them, including PBS and NPR, would stop treating elections as sporting events, with breathless shouts about this candidate's gaff and this other candidate's "surge" in the polls. All the yelling is aimed not at providing relevant information but to attract readers/listeners/viewers in order to boost sponsor revenue.
About those polls; one of my heroes, the late Mike Royko, (showing my age here,) had this advice. If a pollster contacts you, engage, and lie through your teeth.
Any person or party that CELEBRATES the breaking of an 82 year old man’s skull with a hammer is not only loathsome but has lost all moral sense. They are deplorable.
Prof. Richardson refers to "Republicans desperate to spin the deadly attack as a reflection of political violence on both sides of the aisle...or—appallingly and without evidence—of a gay tryst gone bad."
Why not mention that the richest man in the world, now the owner of the most influential social media platform in the world, was the most prominent source of the rumor that the Speaker's octogenarian husband is the victim not of an attack by a manicacal political assassin but "of a gay tryst gone bad"?
Nothing seems more consequential to me, even Bolsonaro's defeat, than the takeover of Twitter and Musk's posting a malignant apologia for attempted murder on his first full day at work as Dear Leader.
Mary, I suggest no worries, Musk as 'Chief Twit' is not a big deal. First, a Bolsonaro win had the chance to turn the Amazon jungle from our largest 'carbon sink' into a net carbon emitter and essentially end any chance of avoiding the worst of climate change. Second, Musk horribly over paid for Twitter, he said so explicitly! LMAO! Bought at top of market. He is firing 50% of employees. Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) has already started a competitor called Blue Sky. He is flush with cash from Musk’s overpayment! After Twitter fires 50% of its employees, Dorsey can hire his old staff and eat Twitter for lunch using Musk's money. Tesla shares are down dramatically on worries Musk's attention will be diverted, doubling his miserly and mistake. EPIC bad purchase, causes epic negative change in Musk's fortunes and maybe epic good for society. GM has already suspended advertising on Twitter.
Actually I think we must pay attention to Musk and every billionaire who thinks he’s more powerful than our Democracy, our constitution, our laws. I just posted this link yesterday in Robert Reich. The very nature of our sinking Democracy, to allow tax laws and privileges to benefit the wealthy and corporations means out of control billionaires like Musk can own and control and evidently say, whatever they choose. Our courts have given away powers. Changing campaign limits changed the power of the wealthy and of corporations to influence elections. Connect the dots as we witness the erosion of protection for our Democracy. From a Brennan Center report : “This is perhaps the most troubling result of Citizens United: in a time of historic wealth inequality,” wrote Weiner, “the decision has helped reinforce the growing sense that our democracy primarily serves the interests of the wealthy few, and that democratic participation for the vast majority of citizens is of relatively little value.”
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained
6
Income inequality is at the root of the vast majority of our problems. My response addressed Mary’s particular worry.
As long as those with the wealth have the "loudest" voices we can not have a functioning democracy. If only those voices were committed to the facts/truth.
...if only.....
And near the root of income inequality is the racism that encourages a significant portion of the U.S. population -- maybe over half of the white population -- to fall in line behind the super-wealthy, who of course are enthusiastically funding every candidate and officeholder who calls every attempt to deal with income inequality "socialism."
In the booklet, On Tyranny, 20 Lessons from the 20th Century by Timothy Snyder, 2017, the Prologue begins: "History does not repeat, but it does instruct. As the Founding Fathers debated our Constitution, they took instruction from the history they knew. Concerned that the democratic republic they envisioned would collapse, they contemplated the descent of ancient democracies and republics into oligarchy and empire. As they knew, Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability, while Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves as tyrants. In founding a democratic republic upon law and establishing a system of checks and balances, the Founding Fathers sought to avoid the evil that they, like the ancient philosophers, called tyranny. They had in mind the usurption of power by a single individual or group, or the circumvention of law by rulers for their own benefit. Much of the succeeding political debate in the United States has concerned the problem of tyranny within American society …"
I also love the pithy Quote before the Prologue, "In politics, being deceived is no excuse." Leszek Kolakowski, Polish philosopher and historian.
When I read this, I reached for my copy of 'On Tyranny' but it wasn't there. I had given it to someone to read. I would hope they did the same. Anyhow, inexpensive used copies are available on Amazon.
I have to make a plea here.....why help Bezos. Here in Oregon we have the wonderful bookstore, Powell's, which is both new and used. I just placed a large order with them yesterday for Christmas presents. My husband and I give each other books, one at a time, and when finished, we get another one.
Here is South Florida, we do not have bookstores like Powells or the Strand in NYC. They usually fail leaving Barnes & Noble as the only choice. As an Amazon Prime member (getting free shipping and Prime streaming TV), I reluctantly support Bezos. But he does own the Washington Post, if that matters.
This, THIS, is what makes me so incredulous!!
I don't need to cite or quote statistics, we've all heard the stories of the number of Americans with ZERO saved for retirement. We've seen the gaping divide between the 1% and the rest of us in terms of wealth. We have people living in trailer courts--heck, there was the 60 minute story of people in Alabama with NO SEWAGE SYSTEM., while others, like Mehmet Oz own several mansions.
But those with so little will elect the wealthy to give more to the wealthy.
It boggles the mind.
Before the New Deal reforms, retirement meant sitting on one's adult children's or grandchildren's porch in a rocking chair sipping lemonade, and sleeping in their spare room. This is what the Republicans offer to those who count on them to M. A. G. A. ..... but how great was that kind of retirement anyway? And with families spread out all over the country these days, that is no longer possible, and whatever happened to those front porches?
Perhaps we should better structure our economy so that we don't have billionaires. Even with the steady growth of the planet's total worth, their presence makes it difficult to acheive a fairer, although still unequal, distribution of that wealth among its inhabitants. They should be taxed down to the status of mere millionaires.
The Powerball right now is more than $1 billion. That's an obscene amount of money and more evidence of our social sickness. If I were in charge, I'd make a million million-dollar winners. And if I won, I would do a heck of a lot to help erase income inequality (maybe I'd keep a measly million for myself)....
You are whimsically commenting on this, but many millions of American take the investment they make in Powerball tickets very seriously. And some who can least afford it, spend $20, $50 or much more on them. (When I spend a few bucks on the slots in a casino just for fun, I look around me at those pouring twenty dollar bill after twenty dollar bill into those machines, in the hope of hitting it big, and I know from just looking at them that they can't afford it.) At least the casino games return about 80% of their take as prize money while the lotteries only return about half of their take. There's one born every minute.
Ike’s budget??
I guess that's why some in his old Party call him a 'commie.'
Muck used to get chased and beaten up when he was a weird kid. He needs to get chased and beaten up by the financial system for being a weird moron.
There’s a theme here. Odd kids get bullied. They amass personal power one way or another when they grow up. If they’re actual geniuses, as Musk is, they find ways to “show us” they’re in charge now. Bottom line, there’s a theme here.
Musk has said he has Aspergers. Many kids with Aspergers are bullied because their deportment isn’t typical. It’s never, never justified.
Completely agree. But the deep seated reactions that play out in the bullied kids head are what we end up dealing with. Musk is the poster child. But we should remember the school shootings by kids who were bullied. Action/reaction.
Reducing bullying by kids is a mission and a critical goal. But bullying isn't going to go away anymore than jealousy and anger. There will always be kids who bully. So how to deal with this?
Red flags go up around these victims if we pay attention and provide support and redirection early on. But that would require a commitment to mental health and money to help these young people - before they become monsters. Neither one of these things are important in our selfish "ME FIRST" society.
When I worked at jr high, my principal would not tolerate bullies. I went with him to bus stops, and other places to deal with such. Word got around, especially after he made popular bully be a protector in the lunchroom for a bullied kid. Needs to come from the top.
There's good news on this front over the past 20 years - Aspergers is on the list of "disabilities" covered by the ADA so schools are now required to support them. With early intervention and counseling, the kid gets the kind of help that would have made me a successful writer in my 20s rather than my late 40s after I worked it all out myself.
Yes, it still happens, but a kid like Musk would have been "rescued" before it got as bad as it did for him, with things as they are now.
It’s always important to recognize learning needs, differences and disabilities as well as the high achievers. However that’s two different issues. Our government regulations, laws, courts and structure allow the economic power and economic disparities. And that is equal opportunity for anyone with family money, good luck or smart economic strategy. Or corrupt and /or evil intentions.
Look at all the monster, bully role models children and adults have in politics and media, and in our Oval office in the prior, so-called "administration." Sickos should not be allowed in politics, social media or have guns...and hammers.
He excuses his own evil. Stop the whining. Most kids with Asperger’s never take it out on the whole world. And yes, I am familiar with the bullying kids do. Also with the bullying the cult does to us all.
Asperger's is just one of the many, many things that make kids the object of bullying. It often starts at home in that some kids are left more defenseless or are bullied and belittled at home. Where was Musk's father, for example? Anyway, mental and emotional health is important for all. As I finish the sections Conclusions and recommendations sections of my ridiculously long and took forever to write book about former gifted kids now grown up (longitudinal "very qualitative" study) social and emotional issues and differences only add to the complexity of lives for my subjects. Siblings, parents, classmates ... some kids are more resilient than others ... but often those who are more resilient had enough qualities to attract admirers, protectors, have enough confidence ... whatever. So complex and yet so clear in so many ways. I love you guys!
Jeri - those kids with Aspergers do take it out more than you think, and the ones who don't wish they could. There is a LOT of pent-up anger and frustration there. Trust me, I know.
I can’t justify bullying by anyone. It is always wrong, regardless of who/which side is doing it.
TFG's mostly an orange sociopath, at least he seems that way to me. Traumatized growing up, yes. Unlikely Asperger dude tho ... is my guess.
There is indeed. I was one of them (not as bad as what I have read about him), got out of there three days after graduation, have never been back to anything associated with school. But have made sure to provide information for the reunions. Loved it a few years ago when one of my friends told me after the 30th that one of the "golden kids" who was one of the tormentors saw my entry and exclaimed "He's more famous than all of us!" I plead guilty to feeling very "fuck you" at that moment.
In a funny way, if I went back there now, I would say "thank you for all you did" to them. It might sound perverse, but what happened made me react in a way that led to being who I am now, rather than accepting "this is the way things are" as they did and going nowhere.
You definitely hit the nail on the head. You've described one who never got help and the awfulness that can result perfectly.
Mush isn't a genius.
He is proving he might be more like an "idiot savant."
Genius, not genius, it is in the eye and viewpoint of the beholder.
I dunno TC. I don't think he's that bad. I don't agree with his politics, but he has provided society with some very useful things, in contrast to other authoritarians like tfg, who really have contributed nothing.
Hmmm, good authoritarians v. bad authoritarians in the present tense. Behavior of Musk, in present tense, may influence your opinion of him. As for the how authoritarians are affecting democracy, the following was excerpted from a recent report by Freedom House:
'Authoritarians in every region are working together to consolidate power and accelerate their attacks on democracy and human rights, according to Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule. Political rights and civil liberties have declined worldwide for each of the past 16 years, raising the prospect that autocracy could overtake democracy as the governance model guiding international standards of behavior.'
'Checks on abuse of power and human rights violations have eroded within nations and international organizations alike, dealing a serious blow to democracy’s foundations and reputation. Authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, and elsewhere have gained greater power in the international system, and freer countries have seen their established democratic norms challenged and fractured.'
'A total of 60 countries suffered declines in political rights and civil liberties over the past year, while only 25 improved. Fewer countries experienced net improvements in 2021 than in any other year since the current period of global democratic decline began. As of today, some 38 percent of the world’s people live in countries rated Not Free, the highest proportion since 1997. Only two in 10 people live in Free countries.'(FreedomHouse) See link to report below.
https://freedomhouse.org/article/new-report-authoritarian-rule-challenging-democracy-dominant-global-model
Fern, did you just send me an email regarding your niece?!
Yes, when he "sticks to what he knows that interests him" he's good at things. Elsewhere he's a moron, and because he has $200 billion to finance being a moron, that's dangerous.
His contributions are heading into the shadows of his dysfunction....
Amen!
The potential karmic justice here is the fickle nature of the consumer public. Is anyone old enough to remember AOL? Then gmail, then Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and ALL the fringe also-ran platforms whose names have already been forgotten. Twitter, for all of its many millions of tweet-ers, followers, influencers, ( ), ( ), will turn the corner and become passe when the 15 minute attention span of the public finds the next latest concept. Musk's 42 billion could evaporate like an ice cube in the hot sun with nothing more than a few highly insulting tweets and the coincident arrival of a younger, more sexy social media platform. His form of venture capital hunger to devour anything and everything around him is happening because he CAN. He can lose 99.9% of his wealth and still be a multi-millionaire 100 times over. I say, let him...eat all you can, until you choke on it, Elon. Then slink back to the world of tech, where you actually HAVE done some remarkable things.
Personally, I think we need to focus on ‘enough’ not ‘more’: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-10-28/settling-on-enough/?mc_cid=20cb5e2a49&mc_eid=7920841364
Diminishing Marginal Utility . . . a well studied psychological and economic concept. As I often said "less is often more". This is obviously in direct conflict with capitalism where economic growth is measured by more.
We constantly hear "spend more, spend more" and the media exploits it all. This year spending on Halloween alone is expected to be "a record $10.6 billion, exceeding last year's record of $10.1 billion". ($3.3 billion in 2005) That amount of money hasn't made Halloween any more fun or memorable to kids today versus the much less expensive days of old!
And, of course, we're all aware of the shopping mantra, marketing, and pressures to spend everything we've got in the 4thQ of the year or the economy will collapse!!! Christmas items were on full display at Lowe's inn September. Bigger and more expensive houses has not made for a happier society . . . so on and so forth.
And, all of this results in a throw away society that we have been commenting on for decades . . . most recently in the Boston Globe regarding new disposal restrictions in clothing, furniture, mattress disposal in Massachusetts that begins on November 1st.
You articulated one of my biggest gripes. I detest living in a throw away society. My small town keeps tearing down and rebuilding young buildings. My town has a very poor maintenance plan. I cry seeing the waste. When will we ever learn?
House across the street was built new about ten years ago. Sold this year for asking price $4.5 million, but new owners apparently don’t like its style, as contractors have been there for six weeks. More money than sense?
My assisted living is the ultimate trash bin, unconscionable by any measure
I've just spent a remarkable 12 days in Paris, France, where the 20 +/- hour work week ables leisure life, together with friends, over discussion, drink and cigarettes. Who could ask for more - but for less smoke! I
And we've never been more satisfied without seeing the sun for nearly two weeks!
thank you.
Barbara, I will read your link with the reassuring calm I discovered in 1975; that calm was the answer to the question: "How much is enough?"
It is a good site to explore regarding issues of sustainability, ‘de-growth’ ideas, the vanishing of ‘the commons’, and how there should be alternatives to the idea of the ‘GDP’ being the indicator of a healthy economy….worth perusing their archives on such topics.
Thank you for this link. Excellent commentary, makes me think about the impact of my consumerism.
As a craftsperson I have at times had to make my own tools to execute a design. This has taught me I don't need to run out and buy every little thing I thing I need. This has led me to question every purchase. How goods are made, packaged and delivered are of concern to me. I oppose gadgets with a vengeance. I often try to make what I need first. I love living in an uncluttered environment. I hate dusting and cleaning so I don't own stuff that needs to be dusted and cleaned. Less is definitely more for me. I have everything I need. My biggest stress today is will my country survive the hateful upheaval? Hopefully we will smarten up ( doubtful ) & Elon Musk is nothing more than an annoying mosquito.
That used to be the way of things a long time ago. And antiques were & are much more valuable (not only financially) than the new cheaply made "stuff". If it was necessary for everyone to "question every purchase" - rather than to use a credit card - we'd be in a lot better shape personally & country wise (or global wise). But currently, not only adults, but children, have been taught that anything they want - they can have - one way or another. Of course, that does not include people living in poverty! Which are many here in this country.
Improvise, I love it.
Barbara - thank you for that link. I think about economic growth all the time. The planet is finite, but our economic system treats it as if it is infinite. That may have been OK in the distant past, when humanity's global impact was much less. But now it is catastrophic. Unfettered capitalism, and the quest for ever continuing growth is now the enemy. As is hyper-religiousity especially of the Christian type, where scientific advancement is replaced by blind faith in obsolete ideas thousands of year old. Both turn a blind eye to the reality of the planet we live on. Years ago I would have never admitted I would one day think this way. But now it seems a no-brainer. It would be great to snap one's fingers and turn it around. But I fear human nature, which is not all that different from the nature of any other species wanting to survive in the near term, is incapable of paying enough attention to the long term, and will pay the price. Almost all species who have lived on earth over the eons are extinct.
Maybe our species belongs in the La Brea tar pits and the earth or unified field of energy can just start over.
Nice article. Thank you.
I like this article. I've been pondering that ? myself
Thanks for the link!
It is difficult to be content with enough when you know you could have "more".
Actually, for my husband and I it hasn't been difficult. We lost millions in the crash of 2008-09. Had to sell our home for nothing. Lived in an RV for 11 years - traveling for the first two - and it was a blast. Left the U.S. in 2019 to live in Europe where living is so much simpler, easier, and happier. It depends upon the ability to make lemon margaritas out of lemons.
Hubby was diagnosed with Alz end of 07, so missed any chance for such a margarita. Would have loved it. Next 15 years devoted to “downsizing,” the ultimate less is more…
Not everyone feels that way, but advertising pushes people in that direction. Wealthy people have to worry about their security more than ordinary people do. I am happy not to live in a gated community or to imagine my child being kidnapped for ransom.
Lol my husband still has an AOL email. Good post! I too, hope his purchase is a bust.
My husband, too.
How about MySpace? Does anyone even remember that?
Only because my sons both had accounts in their teens. Actually, I had two accounts, because neither of them had email. 😉
Looks reasonable. Mr Dorsey can look forward to some nice lunches. "Blue Skies" is a promising name.
“After Twitter fires 50% of its employees, Dorsey can hire his old staff and eat Twitter for lunch using Musk's money. ”
Best thing I’ve read since the head twit walked in with the sink.
Here is another view of that:
https://davetroy.medium.com/no-elon-and-jack-are-not-competitors-theyre-collaborating-3e88cde5267d
Ending with:
"If democracy-minded people don’t seize control of the information environment, powerful sociopathic autocrats will do so instead. We leave a power vacuum open at our peril, and at the moment, Musk and Putin are the ones with the most will to fill it."
Warning bells went off with this:¨Musk and his backers believe that the global geopolitical arena was being warped by too much “woke” ideology and censorship, and wanted to fix that by first restoring voices that had previously been silenced —and then implementing technical and algorithmic solutions that allow each user to get the experience they want.¨
Everyone to their own echo chamber? What a world. 🙁
“Allow.” I just love being “allowed.”
Beware the genius of mental robots
A very interesting piece, and quite disturbing. I recall the anti computer voices decades back, who suggested that the technology would be the undoing of us. Money = Power. It appears that some very strange people can end up with world altering power.
Is there a difference between Gates and Musk?
The difference between Bill Gates and Musk? Bill plans to give away "virtually all" his fortune. Please read: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/15/bill-gates-plans-to-give-away-virtually-all-his-113-billion-fortune.html
He's a rather dangerous philanthropist--too rich to be "bullied" by advisors, too badly educated to have humility or do research into his whims and notions. I exaggerate for clarity, but it is never safe to have public goods dictated or serviced by individuals.
❤️
Whaa? a world of difference.
I am sure of that.
One hell of an end
Olof Ribbing thank you, worthwhile read.
OK. Thanks for the link.
"Mary, I suggest no worries, Musk as 'Chief Twit' is not a big deal. "
Unbelievable. In every sense Musk's control of Twitter is a big deal.
Yes the muskrat is part of a very much bigger deal...another Dave Troy essay https://washingtonspectator.org/paranoia-on-parade/
My lord! I had no idea about Dorsey's plans! Thank God! Someone just turned the lights on!
oh...I guess I spoke too soon...
Hey Thanks for biz analysis. I know nothing of Dorsey but if he bankrupts Musk, I’m all in
Lets all hope Mask's wallet takes as big a hit as Zuckerberg's has of late. Tome to get serious about taxing these ass clowns.
Regrettably, probably not with respect to Musk and Dorsey. It appears they’re working in concert.
https://davetroy.medium.com/no-elon-and-jack-are-not-competitors-theyre-collaborating-3e88cde5267d
Was hoping Jack would rue the day…
Me too and it’s nerve wracking to see how many people I follow on Twitter plan to shift to BlueSky.
Me
Not nerve-wracking to me! Time for a platform for people with critical thinking skills...like here!
argh...really? REALLY WTF? sorry. but that really pisses me off!
Wow. I wonder if Dave Troy is credible? Sounds like he is. I am not a good judge though. Thx for posting!
If the underlying goal was to open the door wider for Russian bots and trolls a week before a crucial election, then the cost was Priceless.
dear lord...
'Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Give Blue Checks Only to Verified Conspiracy Theorists'
'SAN FRANCISCO (The Borowitz Report)—In a policy shift, Twitter announced that it will bestow blue checks only on users it called “verified conspiracy theorists.”
'Elon Musk, the platform’s new owner, said that the policy was designed to “curate a world-class collection of the most prominent paranoiacs working today.”
“We will be vetting conspiracy theorists to insure that they have an established track record of disseminating falsehoods,” he said. “For the benefit of our users, we want to make a clear distinction between the Dinesh D’Souzas of the world and some rookie crackpot hoping to become a major-league crackpot.” (Satire, NewYorker)
Well said... of course... it's none other than... Andy Borowitz! :D
Suz-an, I read the description you wrote about your father, his politics, personality and the impact on you and your sister. I imagine that your writing would be helpful to many who suffered from that kind of 'authority'. 🍎 Thank you and a NYC apple for your teaching, imagine a million more of them, Suz-an.
PleaseDearGodYes...
The "Reagan Revolution" and the subsequent devolution of the Republican Party has greatly magnified the power of great sums of money over "government of the people, by the people, for the people". Considering that the two "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" that the Constitution spells out, for which "the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction" are "Treason" and "Bribery". it is difficult to square the current influence of huge fortunes over electoral, legislative, and societal events with the form of governance the Constitution prescribes, especially in it's current, amended form. The goal of the former "Party of Lincoln" now appears closer to refeudalization.
Morning Mary. Here’s the latest from Leigh McGowan, Politics Girl.
A comparison worth noting this week.
Unita! 🗽
https://youtu.be/o87GP8Dclxg
I always appreciate you posting Politics Girl! Thank you for another great one!
Thanks. Nutshells so many elections.
Leigh's calling out candidates pretending to be democrats- it happened here. I was handing out sample democratic ballots outside our voting office. There was a democrat's tent on one side of the sidewalk and a republican's across the way. Two supporters for republicans, one a candidate for mayor and the other school board, stood on our side, insisting their candidate is non-partisan. The current mayor asked them to stand on the other side and they politely refused. Guess they didn't want to stand with the losing team.
How pathetic
Ah! thanks. Drop everything and watch.
Thanks Christine. An example of the hideous tsunami of money and lies they saved up till the last month, just when we were all down to wondering which our last $10 donation would have to be....
Exactly. I am content being a $10 donor to several campaigns dedicated to democracy than giving a $million to traitors intent on changing democracy to something unacceptable resembling a gaseous bag of hot stinking air.
They can go f*ck themselves. Immediately.
Salud, Mary.
🗽
So many excellent points.
The situation is happening in many states.
Money and disinformation/lies may change WI, as well.
I love her!
As I commented 2 days ago, boycott the products advertised on the chirping Bird's platform by the Chief Twit.
Absolutely!!! Including Google. Yes it's a pain and it's difficult to switch to a different browser, but we have the power to shut down the $$$ of all corporations who are working against us.
We need to get a list published. There must be a way to do that... I will look into this. Having been a radio executive for 20+ years, there were readily available reports on advertiser lists.
I’ve downloaded an app
Goods Unite Us
It shows how much $$$ companies give to which political parties. I’ll be switching insurance companies due to my current insurance company donates to Republicans
that's fantastic! I was feeling better until at this very. moment I saw that Roberts issued a freeze on the release of trump's taxes... what kind of b.s. is this/ I can't wait for heather's talk today!
Excellent. We all should do that! I love this- thanks!
So, there's no list of their entire list of advertisers, but here's a start...https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/these-top-advertisers-can-stop-musks-twitter-supercharging-online-radicalization
"Nothing seems more consequential to me, even Bolsonaro's defeat, than the takeover of Twitter and Musk's posting a malignant apologia for attempted murder on his first full day at work as Dear Leader."
Not to mention that, apparently, a fair bit of the funding that Musk has received to buy twitter came from China and certainly the fact that he is groveling at the feet of the Chinese to keep his manufacturing access and access to Lithium won't help Twitter either.
China comes to twitter through Musk.
I am glad I never acquired an account. No tracking.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/04/25/does-elon-musks-twitter-deal-give-china-influence-over-the-site/?sh=7d79271a26a8
And the KSA. Senator Chris Murphy is calling for a national security review.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democratic-us-senator-wants-probe-into-saudi-stake-twitter-2022-10-31/
I can't believe no one else has mentioned this!! Between Saudi Arabia now having a huge stake in Twitter, and China owning TikTok... (this is bad).
Lithium, dammit all anyway
I have one thought re Musk; bankrupt Twitter
Good strategy Dave; Musk needs a "business" lesson on how to crater a billion dollar gig.
Perhaps he could ask tRump for business advice...............??
I too am so sickened by these tragic events but the fact that this sociopathic wizard is controlling what amounts to being the 'airwaves' is terrifying! There must be a viable alternative! That monster is poisoning our water supply!
Fox and reaganite/trumplicans traitors to America beat him to it.
So brilliant a post, Mary!
Musk has turned Twitter into a cesspool. After he posted the conspiracy theory I deleted my Twitter account.
👏👏👏👏👏
Mary, I believe that her paragraph about Mika Brzezinski's comments on Morning Joe had an oblique reference to The Twit. My guess is that she didn't want to give him more oxygen. He promises to be a new layer to the discord that TFG has sown. Since he is really a billionaire, he's even more dangerous than the about-to-be-broke wannabe billionaire.
Respectfuly Nancy, Heather Cox Richardson can't realistically starve Elon Musk of oxygen. She can however pay attention to the danger we in the Real World are suffering, have suffered, will suffer (look at the UK) from billionaires who create alternate realities that undermine our ability to function as a democracy. Or to frame our future, in the face of the overwhelming obstacles (uncluding multiple simultaneous pandemics) that climate change is hatching.
Mary, of course Heather cannot starve Musk or any other prominent person of oxygen. However, as many mainstream news outlets have done, it appears that Heather is attempting in this forum to refuse him the notoriety he so craves. You are correct that we are in the grip of malevolent tyrants who are manipulating the world for their own ends. Heather alone can't control the tide, but she can put it in perspective, as she has done throughout our recent travails. The best we can do is to arm ourselves with knowledge, refuse to be victims of disinformation, and vote - while we still can.
Indeed, Muck is mad with money, may he eat his own narcissistic lunch and choke on his vomit, or has he already done that?
what a great visual!
I have tried to deactivate/delete my Twitter account and Twitter is not allowing me to deactivate. I get an error message with a request to try again later. Anyone else have that issue?
I managed to trigger a "review" of my account status & received a confirmation of my request which "may take days". If that does not work. I will try reposting my comment about the Chief Twit to see I can get barred ASAP.
Just post anti-chump info. They will ban you pronto.
It takes a month of deactivation. If you do not use it during that time, they are supposed to delete your account. But all bets are off now with the Dear Leader owner.
I believe you are spot-on Pensa.
Hmmm. I was deactivating but couldn't find my password so I thought I would wait until after the elections. Will do it then.
Meanwhile make like it doesn't exist.
Actually no. It really is important to stay on and continue to speak truth and support truth. Including on the posts of the swamptoads. Staying silent is contributing to their power.
I can't - they depress me beyond words - the French call it a "dialogue de sourds", noisy, exhausting and unproductive. Silence thwarts them.
I know. I am the same. But then I find my rage and keep going.
It is too much like reading faux news with the vitriol. I got sick this morning. I can still read it, but am deactivated. Giving nothing to fascists and corporations who support twitter. Keeping my mind for better things. And that is coming from a professional fox troller!!
I do not and have never had a Twitter account, but I respectfully disagree with you. I think that as long as there are millions of accounts to feed his revenue, you can post whatever truths you want and it won't matter a damn. The only thing that matters to these billionaires is MONEY. Hit them in the pocketbook.
Just saw a tweet by Marjorie TG, how if Pelosi was for gun rights he could have shot the intruder....
Yeah, because everything is about guns with that idiot.
Yes ‘a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with gun’…JUST like in Uvalde and Parkland…where tons of cops sat outside while kids are being shot, too afraid to confront the shooter for over an hour! MTG assumes at 4-5am when Paul Pelosi gets up to pee he would have his gun holstered under his PJs. Can’t say enough bad things about that moron MTG!!
SHe's a waste of breath... dear God...don't let her get any more power : (
I opined last night that instead of "Chief Twit", Musk should be dubbed "Chief Troll". If this is any indication of the future, I suspect there will be a mass exodus from Twitter, both of users and staffers.
He referred to himself as ‘Chief Twit’.
And his post re: Mr. Pelosi was "just a joke", right? Because when an 82 yr old man is assaulted in his home its just too hilarious. SMH.
“Like Trump, Bolsonaro now faces investigations and possible criminal charges that have been delayed while he enjoyed presidential immunity. He has told two senior officials he is worried that, out of office, he will go to prison.”
I hope that the Brazilian justice system works faster than ours has to date!
And hope that it works better. In the USA, we don't jail oligarchs who commit crimes, even capital offenses (example is the incorporated drug gang of the Sacklers), or regulate corporations. Oligarchs pay money to get out of just punishments and corporations currently regulate government, not the reverse. We are in a number of ways a third world plutocracy, not a first-world democracy.
How low can America sink? What will our lives be like a month from now?
The latest edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index ranks the United States 26th of 167 countries, sandwiched between Chile and Estonia, when measuring electoral process, government functionality, political participation, political culture and civil liberties.
U.S. remains a ‘flawed democracy’ in annual rankings - The Fulcrum
https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/Leveraging-big-ideas/flawed-democracy
The U.S. is still classified by EIU as a flawed democracy, and has been since 2016. The report points to extreme polarization and “gerrymandering” as key issues facing the country.
Mapped: The State of Global Democracy in 2022
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-state-of-global-democracy-2022/
There IS a way out of our low ranking, and the powerlessness we feel, which is real.
Democracies flourish with more than two political parties and proportional representation; corrupt plutocracies that claim to be democracies yet leave citizens powerless through gerrymandered districts do not thrive under proportional representation.
How do you gerrymander the districts to place a corrupt party in charge with proportional representation? YOU DON'T!
And this is why the operatives of both of our plutocratic parties don't want voters to (1) know about proportional representation or (2) have it taught in schools.
The fact so few have ever seen such ballots shows the strength of censorship and the brainwashing that we have been exposed to. The two plutocratic parties will not educate citizens about this. We will need to educate ourselves and others, not with the help of our two cartel parties, but in spite of anything that these two plutocratic parties can do to prevent it. Please SHARE as many places as possible!
https://www.accuratedemocracy.com/d_ballot.htm
If it doesn’t, they are screwed
Speaking of other countries, Rowshan, here is Politics Girl Leigh McGowan speaking to our wonderful ex-pats. Vote vote vote, wherever you are in the world. Our expats, millions of them, can make a difference.
Unita 🗽
https://youtu.be/JSFqbCB7CBo
Hear, hear!!!
Yes, there are parallels in the Pelosi & Jan. 6 attacks, but an even clearer comparison can be made in the conspiracy to kidnap & kill Michigan’s woman governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Authoritarians become incensed at women in positions of power. Progressive women are their nightmares. Our Sec. of State, Jocelyn Benson, was also threatened by armed men outside of her home.
It appears from this and other historical events that the drone of hate speech provides permission for those who already struggle with violent impulses to act them out on those that malicious propagandists designate, be it society's racial or sexual "untouchables" or other, target nations, as we now see as Russia claims Ukraine. It's not like there has been any shortage of cautionary tales.
Every-time I hear “Where’s Nancy?”, I want to scream “Where’s the DOJ?”
Trump may have condemned what happened to Mr.Pelosi, saying “it was a terrible thing”, but in the same breath he equated it with everyday, Urban violence, thus diluting his own culpability for having caused it. While Trump shapes the court of public opinion, sows the seeds of his violent dictatorship, and sends cryptic messages to his followers on who to attack and when, AG Garland is still gathering evidence. Trump’s message has not just been weaponized, the big lie being propagated like never before. Why is the DOJ investigating the messengers, while the sender is still sending them? It’s treating the symptom and not the problem. Trump turned his message into blood, for all the world to see, and he is still hammering (forgive the pun) away at our Democracy with his big lie, while the DOJ is still building the case that it is even happening. It’s as if they’re chasing after the bullets, rather than the shooter. If the DOJ thinks they’re sending a message’ with the charges they filed, then they can’t deny the impacts (sorry another terrible pun) the ‘messages’ being sent by Trump have. The DOJ cannot deny that damage is being done to our Democracy, while they are busy counting the holes.
We have abundant evidence of Trump’s culpability in seditious behavior undermining the rule of law in this country. The question will ultimately come down to Merrick Garland and his team in our department of justice. Do they have the courage to prosecute Trump? Yes or no. We the citizens are waiting for your answer.
It feels like “Uvalde” all over again. You’d think we would’ve learned by now.
I truly believe that the silence of the ¨us¨ is the tragedy. Where are the people pouring into the streets? Where are the demands being made? Everyone is just sitting at home, whining on the internet expecting others to do the work.
The firehose effect of “Flood the Zone with Shit” leaves the “us” scattered as to how to counter the tsunami of corruption/misinformation/disinformation/
jujitsu-legal perversions to muck up the wheels of justice. THAT’S the perfection of the social media weapon; disperse a miasma of chaos so it’s like fighting fog. The DOJ’s knife in this gun fight is very chilling in that it shreds the curtain of belief that our “laws” -which have turned out to be mostly inept “norms” - are there to protect us. It appears they are impotent. And the chance of conceiving Justice and birthing a new enlightened Democracy are slim. So how do we organize -How do we mobilize- against fog? People will follow a leader. trump has proven that. But how do we get people to follow a good leader? Those leaders are rare ( and usually get assassinated, or obstructed ala Obama & Biden). “WE need to Be the Change” is Gandhi’s quote, and I agree. But I’ve tried herding cats. I’m no good at it. The “silence of the us” is delivering on Ben Franklins warning: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Propaganda erodes it, at 90decibels 24/7
Well said.
I wonder if we are still in shock and maybe some of us have PTSD from the events of the past 3to 6 years as we have watched the wavering of our institutions.
I believe that this is true. Americans have not had to deal with long term war on North American soil, and these years have been war. It's so important to support those who are fighting like hell to keep our democracy as well as to take a break, rest, then get back in the fight.
I've had it (the PTSD) since Reagan was elected, and have been worried since then about why we didn't take to the streets. (Notice I did not choose to lead anything political then.....I was busy being a feminist, (taking to the streets ) and we formed a national sewing professionals association .... I see that now as important, but maybe a bit selfish, and ignorant of our democracy's needs.). Maybe we were all a bit ostrich-y, and maybe we just didn't see it coming. But that is the way we were. I think a lot of energy was taken up by our feminist movement, and I am so aware it needs to keep going! But underneath it was this anti-democracy stuff which we never saw. What do you all think?
I think, Kathy, that your comment is true, sort of, but there was a lot of fierceness for feminism, and thank god for that, but let's not be too little too late now!
Maybe decades...Reagan. Bush W.. McConnell. Then the pussygrabber...and his fascist rallies. No one stopped them/him.
I have been asking the same question. I have stood on corners with signs and two other people. The pandemic. Weaponized crazies. I want to put signs up about saving our democracy and voting—yet, but I have real safety fears of the Fuck Biden flag jerk down the street. This is how tyranny and fascists win. We REALLY need the DOJ to act for us and slam these terrorists.
Although the first amendment grants protects freedom of speech, it does not give anyone the right to act irresponsibly, including T****. He clearly is promoting violence along with his big lie and the DOJ , will be remembered as the ones to blame for allowing this to go on and on for nearly two years now. Action is needed now.
The first amendment does not protect freedom of hate speech and consequences...or does it?
Probably not I hope, hate speech should fall under hate crimes. But look at who has the final say, the SCOTUS.
Well, they should be kicked out, asap, for not upholding their oaths of office to our Constitution and the people and decency of the USA.
"It’s treating the symptom and not the problem."
This is everywhere in our society.
Chump never accepts responsibility for ANYTHING. Always blame somebody else. He said so. Check it out.
Tonight, I sat out on my porch with a spooky purple Halloween light, a plastic skull with glowing eyes, several pumpkins, and a big cauldron full of treats, waiting for Trick-or-Treaters. Halloween seems to be fading away as a tradition. Tonight, we had three teen-agers.
I watched the moon, a lovely waxing quarter-moon. I remember seeing the moon in late 2015, as the Beast from the Abyss was clearing the field of presidential contenders -- a full moon, I think -- and it was a great comfort to me. My most distant ancestors had watched that same moon. The pre-Colombian residents of the land I now live in had seen that moon 20,000 years ago. The earliest humans looked up and saw that self-same moon. And the face of Lady Luna looked down and watched empires rise and fall, rise and fall, then rise and fall again. There was, and is, a kind of stability in that, a comfort, unmatched by anything made by humans and wrapped in plastic, whether it is a nougat of sugar, or a government.
But eventually, I pulled out my phone and started reading news articles. A boredom reflex, a modern pathology. I normally just do a quick scan. This went on. And on. And on. And I started to realize that I was not getting any news at all. I was getting pure sewage, masticated, regurgitated, mixed, and delivered up again on a new plate. The Paul Pelosi story is at the top of the fold, as they say, and what is being written by the news services is utter filth.
I stopped reading, and removed all news services from my phone in the same way an alcoholic might remove all of the bottles of liquor from his house.
It isn't that news isn't interesting, or even valuable. It's that what is being published isn't news. It's regurgitated filth. It is a bunch of lamprey eels, stuffed into a barrel, eating each other, striving to get to the top of the barrel for just a moment, to get that by-line, that article. Is it thoughtful? Irrelevant. Is it even true? Equally irrelevant. Does it "sell papers?" Or garner clicks? That's all that matters.
No. More. Clicks.
Joseph, your Halloween experience this year was quite sad. And I understand your boredom reflex. Yes, that is a modern pathology. When you wrote about the lovely quarter moon, I was prompted to respond. It was very comforting to me last night, also. And what was especially sweet was that in my neighborhood (inner city, multi-family housing, mixed-income, racially diverse) instead of the anemic few trick-or-treaters, we had a charming stream of mixed ages and family combos visiting our door. And most of the neighbors had decorated their porches. This has not happened before. Some were even having little gatherings out on their lawns to celebrate. Neighbors stopped to chat, which is rare in our everyday lives, we usually keep to ourselves. Yet last night, maybe it was just the beautiful cool weather, or that more young families now live in the area, or after years of hesitating to be around each other, people were out and pleasant. The kids were charming and grateful and polite. I looked up at the moon and just said a “thank you” to the universe, and treasured the moment.
Treasure it, a rarity indeed.
Lovely!
I’ve never had any news apps on my phone, no Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media on my phone. I’ll just wait for Professor Richardson, or Joyce Vance to explain it in clear, unadulterated, terms without “click bait sound bites”. The news media are trying to sell papers - not be fair and balanced. If they were, they would report the lies and easily debunked claims that trump and his minions make. But that won’t sell. So they pretend to “tell both sides”. Total BS.
I’ve started to pare down also, dumping newsletters, disengaging with social media. It was eating my life.
Good idea.
Profoundly poetic, Joseph! And inspirational…
I'm doing it now...deleting the news app from my phone. thanks for the suggestion
Great idea. I'm following your example.
Thank you for your moon tributes. Always good to meet another fan of that celestial body. My granddaughter offered an app that pinpoints the moon's location. I declined. The moon shows up exactly when I need it, warm reassurance that the world keeps turning. The moon will shine a path through darkness for all who lose their way. My Halloween moon wore a gauzy ghost-like costume, very impressive, never disappoints.
Absolutely, tragically, painfully the truth.
Thank you for relaying that story, Joseph. We had zero guests at our door. There seem to be two elements to this idea of the "trick or treat" phenomenon that we both apparently grew up with. One is the "find the good neighborhoods with the best candy" mentality, which coexists with the organized activities at malls, rec centers, etc. The other is the "stranger danger" fear of our neighbors. (I am exempting the evangelical refusal to permit the acknowledgment of Halloween. The church at the end of our feeder street promoted a "trunk or treat" event at their church. No clue what that was...)
In my Chgo suburb home we had 87 "treaters" --up from 63 last year, on a very damp, overcast day in the high 50s/low 60s.
Some of those treaters were return guests from earlier (LOL) and included about a dozen fully costumed adults (with kids, not alone) and the Amazon delivery man. Since we are 3 blocks from an area that is mostly apartments/condos, generally people cross the main street to get to our best candy area. (missed out at our home: fruit gummies, rice krispie treats as candy purchased ends up gone before the holiday arrives. Full confession)
Trunk or Treat is where the adults have treats in their car trunk and the kids go car to car. I guess it is considered a safer form of treating--no running wild in streets, no fear of tampered treats.
Sadly, even something like that is not allowable for my small grandchildren.
Happened when MSM followed Rupert down the rabbit hole. Rake in the money, fools.
Bravo!!! I agree.... No. More. Clicks!
'stability', you think so, Joseph? When has earth been so endangered? What makes you think that Democracy will survive? The losses have been great in recent years.
From your thought:
'The earliest humans looked up and saw that self-same moon. And the face of Lady Luna looked down and watched empires rise and fall, rise and fall, then rise and fall again. There was, and is, a kind of stability in that, a comfort, unmatched by anything made by humans and wrapped in plastic, whether it is a nougat of sugar, or a government.'
To that of Alfred North Whitehead:
“I have never ceased to entertain the idea that the human race might rise to a certain point and then decline and never retrieve itself. Plenty of other forms of life have done that. Evolution may go down as well as up.”
When I'm looking at the moon, my time-scale is much larger than that of the human race. I'm entirely in agreement with Whitehead, but a bit more certain about it, and more philosophical.
I've entered the last third of my life; perhaps the last quarter, or even less. Eighty is only three more presidential elections away. And I WILL die. On my personal yardstick of life, sooner rather than later, since two thirds of my life are already memory. This is an inevitability.
The human race will die. I cannot say if we bipeds will evolve into something beyond human, or if we will simply go extinct. But our end, as humans, is an inevitability.
All life on Earth may end, leaving us like Mars. Or perhaps Gaia will continue until old Sol begins to age, and dim, and get fat, eventually swallowing everything inside the orbit of Jupiter. Brief halcyon days for the moons of Saturn, which will have ample time to form, sustain, and lose civilizations.
I don't like to live in that timescale, because there are things that need doing while I am alive. Taking out the trash. Tasting a new wine. Hearing -- or writing -- a new piece of music. Reading a lovely novel. Sharing time with a loved one.
But it's good -- for me at least, especially when I have my head wrapped around the axle -- to remember how temporary it all is.
In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.
___Marc Chagall
Are you okay Fern? You’ve been mia for a bit, good to see you back.
(gal pal jumped into my mind,, when I saw your kind message) I have been following your posts, Gail, with gratitude for your spirit, info and fortitude. TC's piece on TAFM tonight comes close to reflecting my mood. My feeling right now may be even darker. I will pop up once in a while, but for the time being, I don't believe that I would be useful. Got to summon some gumption along with information. Here's to you Gail and to our compatriots.
Aw honey, the Sun is going to rise on Wednesday Thursday, Friday, next week, whenever this is decided. And then we begin again. Your POV is much appreciated. And missed.
I do get to see the sunrise and you rise with it, Gail. That's what I love about you...top notch motivator with a taste of honey.
Well said, Joseph. Well said.
The blind intensity of hate that the right has stoked has been burning for a long time. But there's something about what happened to Paul Pelosi that helps me not just see it more clearly but feel it. I've imagined myself at the crime scene, struggling with his attacker, and hearing the hammer bashing my skull.
In my heart of hearts, I've known the rabid insurrectionists who unleashed their rage at the Capitol on Jan. 6 will come eventually for more than Democratic leaders if the guardrails of society are overrun. They will come for us. But I didn't want to believe it.
The reaction on the right to what happened to Pelosi — jokes, absurd speculation, whataboutism — says all we need to know. They have been brainwashed into believing Democrats are evil. I keep seeing and hearing the word in interviews. What's happening is no different than what led to Nazi Germany.
I completely understand what you are saying Michael. I felt that hammer on my skull too. It’s sickening and terrifying
Your assessment is spot on. That hatred has been carefully taught, and allowed to see the light of day and be fanned into a fire that will destroy our nation.
No Schitt Sherlock, I’m old, repubs started accusing us of what they were doing decades ago. But Dems always went high. Hahaha
Absolutely, Michael. They will come for us. We need to ready ourselves. I doubt we will save our democracy, scott-free, with all the infiltration they have done at all levels in our country. But, I take heart, there are still more of us than them. It just may not be very pretty... We need Justice. Decency. Protection from terrorists in our midst.
Maybe Bolsonaro and trump can be penpals? One in jail in Brazil and the other in jail in U.S. I can hope can’t I?
In the "pen", certainly.
"Pen" pals - Pun? Husband and I cracked up.
Thank you, Christine.
I was living in Rio during the coup d'etat in 1964, nudged by U. S.
Fuzzy memories of preparations for evacuation ... Tanks in the streets.
Or maybe they could become cellmates, perhaps in an underground supermax.
tfg tries to delay things, because that's what he does. This time, though, even if Republicans take over the House and Senate in the mid-terms, we still have Joe Biden in the White House and judicial processes well underway to take down tfg and his loyalists like Alex Jones and Steve Bannon. Sure, we'd all like them jailed yesterday. But I expect that justice will be served because this has gone from political tribunals to legal ones.
I dream
Gary, but how long will we have Biden? They have already written the Articles of Impeachment to remove him and everyone down the line. They will hold the cards.
There will be a few who won't vote to impeach: this country is tired of that show, don't you think?
You need a supermajority if the Senate to convict him.
Gary, yes. We will see what Tuesday brings.
I'm sorry, Gary, but i don't share your confidence that justice will be served.
I am not confident of anything anymore. It seems like the next logical step, if there is logic operating anywhere, anymore. I like to think that I still live in Earth 1 and the MAGA world lives in Earth 2.
The Republican Party gives us our daily list of reasons why it should not be allowed to exist. It's all very disheartening: watching Kari Lake make a joke of the attack on Paul Pelosi, seeing the tweets from Donald Junior, the near silence of the GOP (which I equate to tacit support of the violence). I wonder what it will take for the Republicans (the members of the T**** cult) to understand what their party is doing. I live in a 'blue' state, but the local Republican candidate in my district for the state representative seat is an election denier, as are the GOP gubernatorial candidate and the head of the state party. T**** is still sowing divisiveness, and the DOJ is taking way too long to bring him to justice. He needs to be kept away from social media, isolated in a cell, in prison, until his trial for treason, for which, on conviction, he could be hanged. His guilt has already been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Letting him continue to roam free and use social media to further his lies is only going to cause more violence.
I can't help but think that if the Senate had voted to impeach Trump, either time, things would be so different.
I'd be willing to bet a little money on the idea that McConnell wishes he HAD voted to impeach.
Yep, Mitch created his own Frankenstein, may it be a fight to the death for both.
That seem to be quintessentially American, no? A stubborn resistance to many great ideas and opportunities to make a “More Perfect Union”.
I agree. My expectation is that indictments will come after the election. My fear is that election challenges, coupled with indictments, will set the country on fire.
I completely agree with you.
"[I]f we’re not going to ostracize people who are yukking it up over taking a hammer to a man in his 80s, then we’re a different society.”
Sorry to break it to you, Dr. Richardson, but we do live in a different society. As evidence, I present this story:
https://www.aol.com/news/grand-jury-declines-indict-texas-174256162.html
In short, Tony Earls and his wife were robbed at a Houston ATM. When the robber fled with his cash, Earls pulled out a gun and fired nine shots into a pickup he mistakenly thought carried the robber. The truck carried the Alvarez family instead. He hit nine year old Arlene Alvarez in the head, killing her.
It gets worse.
Last week, in the face of this callous disregard for human life and public safety, a grand jury declined to bring charges against Mr. Earls, citing "his right to defend his property". Local authorities are searching for the"real murderer", the bank robber. Mr. Earls is a free man, since he cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime.
So we have come to this. In a country where the legal system can consider the negligent killing of an uninvolved nine year old child to be justified in retaliation for a robbery, is it any wonder that people joke about a hammer attack on an 82 year old?
I have had conversations about this particular incident with several people on both "sides" (as if there should be such a thing) of the gun ownership/carry spectrum. Here is my take:
If you have the absolute freedom to carry a weapon, be it a .22 derringer or an AR-15, where ever and how ever you want to, you also have the absolute responsibility for every single round that leaves the end of that weapon, REGARDLESS of how it exits that weapon. Earls may have lacked the intent to kill innocent bystanders, but by gods he had the responsibility for doing so.
Once again, my stance on "gun stuff": pair it up with motor vehicle/driver regulations: License, insurance, and penalties for careless, reckless, intentional (justified or no) and knowingly having rounds exit that weapon. There are no firearms "accidents". There are intentional, unintentional, and negligent actions that cause the round to leave the weapon. Period. Each and every one of those requires responsibility for the outcomes. Period.
God, the insanity of it all
There's nothing surprising about the vapid punditry, silence, outrageous defamatory theories circulating about the Pelosi attack. In fact, if the event were simply a "script", fishing for reality TV responses, the writers would come up with a similar set of garbage narratives. Except for the authentic injuries and crimes committed, the fact that it occurred at all is yet another tiring episode in the made-for-TV drivel that is emblematic of our political cycle. How much more of this will we all have to bear with another whole week before voting day still before us? I know it sounds selfish and belittling to the actual victim. I am truly horrified and sympathetic towards Mr. Pelosi; I think the perp is truly nuts, most likely not attached to any radical right-wing conspiracy group, actually worthy of pity, truly a circus clown whose strings are being pulled by the ring master he hears in his head, or perhaps on some right-wing podcast somewhere. But, really, I've had it up to my eyebrows. No amount of additional scaldalization will cause me to change how I feel or how I voted. I thought the best recent news was that from Brasilia. It's fascinating that the South American continent is moving left, even as Europe, the US and parts of Asia are moving right; a sort of shifting of the world-wide political weather under global climate change. What is both sad and alarming is that we have little time remaining to enjoy the political spectator sport of international political trends while we fail to address the increasingly urgent and ACTUAL course of global climate change. Where is my cryogenic chamber? what pill can I take that will allow me 8 days of uninterrupted sleep until November 9 arrives?
Unplug! Turn off the TV (or watch old movies), turn on a radio or stereo & listen to music instead. This is all SO exhausting, but personally, I feel that I must not look away & must bear witness (but not wallow) in what is happening. That said, election night I usually do NOT watch/listen to any of the unfolding election counts…que sera, sera—right? Will find out (probably, unless ballots are still being counted) in the morning & that’s soon enough for me. As for climate change, I am a pessimist that we humans can stop our bickering long enough to keep the world from burning—and I fervently wish I did hold this belief. That the world in all her loveliness will shrug us off and continue w/o us is a soothing thought & gives me odd comfort…I am just pissed that we managed to ‘take out’ so many species & eco-systems along the way.
I would feel better if the Dems would even mention that the repubs plan to kill SS and Medicare. They could win on that alone.. where are the Dem brains! Heads in the sand…buried alive…
I cannot for the life of me understand why this isn't the driving force of the Democrat's campaign speeches up and down the ballot.
Seems like deliberate , but why??? I stay pissed about this…
I watched a clip yesterday, a section of a fiery speech by Obama, he does mention the SS.
I'm with you, Barbara. If the arc truly swings toward justice, mother earth will indeed have the final say.
On the attack on the Pelosi's home, I note the appropriate coordination between the separate federal & state cases. The federal charges includes 1 count aimed at impeding or interfering with Nancy Pelosi's duties as a USG official. I have reviewed the Federal complaint (USA vs DWD) & update the following: A 2nd count, 18 USC Section 115(a)(1)(A), (b) is for assaulting an immediate family member [Paul] of a Federal Official (Nancy).
Federal criminal investigation rules known as "discovery" starts immediately after Federal arraignment. That discovery information can used to supplement the separate state claims with positive, fully admissible evidence & possible amended state pleadings.
Paul was concious & was able to be interviewed by the SF DA`s office before state charges were filed. Paul is still in intensive care under the treatment of a world class neurological surgery unit at Zuckerberg SF General whose mission statement is that a TBI (traumatic brain injury) is not an event it is a process; Paul is expected to recover over time which definitely takes a process toward full healing. Been there.
The invisible fairy that lived in the bird house told him to attack Pelosi.
He will never see the inside of a prison . Legally insane. A mental institution but not a prison.
Certainly qualifies but, I will have to research the U.S. Code Sections to see if mental capacity is a moderating factor to interfering with Nancy Pelosi's official duties and/or the attack on Paul in his own home with vivid evidence of intent.
I am not a lawyer, nor do I have any direct knowledge of the US Code. I suspect that there is an element of unwillingness to prosecute the "insane" which is different from (I devoutly hope) the radical fringe beliefs. I profoundly hope that a prosecution at both the state and federal levels is successful.
It had better be, or we need to reopen the insane asylums and get ready for an influx
Exactly
If he is insane, so is a third of the country. Including half my family. I dispute insanity, just people fearing the other and letting emotion override reason. No excuse for cult behavior but this is also true. “Madness, Nietzsche wrote, Is rare in individuals, but in groups it is the norm.” So said Eli Zaretsky on Twitter a while back. I agree…
Should the Democratic Party come out of the upcoming election with gains in both houses, the first item of business must be a federal law spelling out harsh penalties for those commissioning acts of stocastic terrorism.
Bro, I understand where you're coming from, but NOOOOO! That would be tantamount to Putin's 'jail if you criticize the war'. Truly nothing scarier than a law of that type. Criminal penalties exist for intentional acts and gross negligence that leads to foreseeable harms. LMAO remove the immunity social media enjoys while spreading falsehoods so they can be sued for false information and you will hear crickets on Parler Newsmax Infowarped UNtruth Social etc. Remember, any law can be applied to anyone. The radicalized nut who shot at Republicans playing softball and wounded Steve Scalise, ya really want Bill Barr looking into whether he was radicalized by AOC or Bernie Sanders, leaving to his 'judgement' if there is sufficient conneciton?
Justice Robert Jackson's famous 24 page dissent in 1949's Terminiello v. Chicago, in which Chicago's disorderly conduct statute, leveled at a priest whose rantings at a rally incited a riot, was overturned in a 4 page opinion written by Justice Douglas, ended thusly:
"The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."
Justice Jackson was freshly returned from his duties as the Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal.
Bro.
Wow!
Thank you, ma'am.
Thanks for this.
You're welcome, ma'am.
Weird that there was one idiot who makes the case for both sides. The repubs are 100:1 for idiots acting on their party’s insane bull Schitt. Always wondered if the Scalise attacker was on Repub payroll? No, we’re not as crazy as republicans
yes... and it's unlikely to happen
One hopes that the Brazillian political parallel of the rise and subsequent fall of a criminal authoritarian leader/political movement carries through to our own elections next Tuesday.
One is guardedly, very guardedly, optimistic.
Another thought this first day of November in 2022; I wish the news media, all of them, including PBS and NPR, would stop treating elections as sporting events, with breathless shouts about this candidate's gaff and this other candidate's "surge" in the polls. All the yelling is aimed not at providing relevant information but to attract readers/listeners/viewers in order to boost sponsor revenue.
About those polls; one of my heroes, the late Mike Royko, (showing my age here,) had this advice. If a pollster contacts you, engage, and lie through your teeth.
Have a nice day, everyone.
Loved Mike, I’m old too
Reading Royko was part of my hs journalism class, he is what truly got me reading the daily newspaper back then. He was brilliant!
Just when you think it can’t get any more crazy and dangerous, it does. I am concerned someone will get seriously injured or killed soon.
Any person or party that CELEBRATES the breaking of an 82 year old man’s skull with a hammer is not only loathsome but has lost all moral sense. They are deplorable.