Once again, HCR, a masterful weaving together in one post of all these appalling developments I've been reading about for a couple of hours, now, over several newspapers.
That last line of President Biden's about the ideal of the nation made me cry, and I'm not a crier:
“We’ve never fully lived up to it,’’ but “[w]e’ve never walked away fr…
Once again, HCR, a masterful weaving together in one post of all these appalling developments I've been reading about for a couple of hours, now, over several newspapers.
That last line of President Biden's about the ideal of the nation made me cry, and I'm not a crier:
“We’ve never fully lived up to it,’’ but “[w]e’ve never walked away from it. These other guys are trying to walk away from it.”
It's worse than walking away from it. They're trying to blow it up. Today's stories make that even more clear than usual.
I'm with you. How can we be unmoved and skeptical when people must put their lives on the line to avoid chaos? Mitt Romney is braver than I knew. Fortunately, he can afford to pay for the security his family needs, but not many people could. (What happened to Paul Pelosi should have made that clear.) Mitch McConnell has failed his party and the American people, and Speaker McCarthy can't control the people he sold out to. Complaints about Joe Biden's age are a distraction.
I am so coldly angry at Mitch McConnell, knowing the damage that his Machiavellian maneuvers have done to the Supreme Court and to all women in this country. He could have pushed the GOP Senators to convict Trump, and we would be free of him running for office ever again. The GOP would likely be healthier because they would have excised the cancer that is Trump.
Of course he left Romney hanging when Romney warned him of the danger about to descend on DC on Jan6. Of course he never responded to him. He does not know how to care for anyone else.
I see the health issues McConnell is having now, and I smile. I see people say how they pity him; I do not.
This man has done so much damage to our country. He will be reviled in history.
Like the CEO's of the major industries McConnell is beholden to the oligarchs; they are all compensated with unlimited money and power to look the other way, discard their humanity and kneel before their minders as they trod over the working people on the way to enriching the real ruling class.
McConnell is an example of the selfish, Machiavellian politician who obstructs and plays dangerous political games for fun. Now the joke could very well be on him. I picture him dropping dead at his desk because he just won't give up his office even though he's even older than Biden, and in lousy health.
yeah, but Mittens is still a hypocrite and has been one ever since his college days. He is not the man--or leader--that his father was. If he was contemptuous and disgusted by the party that he witnessed the Republicans devolving into... He could--at any time--have stepped away or declared himself to be an Independent.
Agreed. Why didn't Mitt volunteer to testify for the Jan 6th House Committee? There are enough breadcrumbs to follow that suggest there was inside help. Why didn't he make headlines with his revelations about Senator King's warnings in January of 2021? Why wait until your book comes out? Really?
The story of the rot inside the House and Senate has only had a prologue, a forward, so to speak. The attempted coup (which continues to this day) will eventually show complicity by more than a few Proud Boys and a sitting president.
I have to believe that as prosecutions continue, there will be more and more "flippers" who will provide clues as to how all this came to pass. Why? Because despite my anger and frustration, I am an optimist. And that optimism is fueled by the fact that when a person is facing hard time in a jumpsuit, they usually do whatever they can to minimize or escape that fate.
That is becoming a common maneuver, consistent with the "Chicago School" notion that personal profit trumps the National Interest. It's a vile, sociopathic concept.
Rot is everywhere and has a function, but a healthy organism or society resists rot, and arrests it's spread into living tissue. America was gaining health (and in some ways, still is), despite serious bouts of illness, prior to the plutocratic capture of the public narrative that Reagan was the face of. Nixon spread rot, but was repelled by our societal "immune system" until Ford abused the power of pardon to hold him above the law. Not that that's a new idea. but I think that perhaps that pardon signaled a turning point in our current rash we are seeing the law used to sabotage the intended functions of the law, perhaps comparable to how a virus commandeers our own genetic processes to increase it's spread.
Trump made many Orwellian appointment designed to sabotage the very functions the appointees were pledged to fulfill, but perhaps the apex of this perversion was the plan to twist the mechanics of the Electoral College in order to negate the empirical, real world election result. That is really a crime worth a chapter in any reasonable history book; and with the RNC resolution, branding the rioters "ordinary citizens engaged in in legitimate political discourse", and condemning all efforts to hold them accountable, the whole "Republican" Party signaled it's ownership of the crime. We have let them get away with far too much "rot" already, and cannot afford to lose the "patient"; which is us, and even our posterity.
By "history," I mean "historians," who, as a group, do a pretty good job of research and of self-correcting. HCR is a wonderful example, but far from the only one.
It seemed to me that Mitt tries to have it both ways. He published an "Open Letter" to President Obama in USA Today, urging Obama to copy the heath plan he supervised, and Obama basically did so; but then as a presidential candidate, Mitt had to distance himself from all that and claim that while the plan was right for his state, it was wrong for America. That was very "Republican" of him.
Well he does have a book coming out,after all. I give him very little credit for FINALY growing a pair,sorry. I do give him credit for voting to impeach T***P, but then he didn't push hard enough!!!
Notice how many politicians spill the beans after they've decided to leave politics. While in office, they keep their mouths shut out of self preservation.
We never asked for perfection. We asked for honesty. We asked for loyalty. We asked for help, consistent betterment , getting represented fairly, our share of the pie.
Thank you President Biden , Kamala, and #Staff.....
They serve those who would be feudal lords and the stratified society that goes with it. And yes, we have never fully lived up to our ideals, and frankly blown it big time in a number of ways, but much of American History displays salient progress against injustice and tyranny. The creation of the Constitution (not an American king), abolition, women's suffrage, workers rights, civil rights, gay rights, and so on. Though it all the plutocrats fought to retain slavery, for laissez faire and the right to monopolize markets, and now, quite frankly, against democracy itself.
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." - Lincoln
Thanks for that, JL. Progress has been shamefully slow, but it has been progressing. I have not the slightest doubt that Biden, Harris and their whole team know better than anyone what is at stake here, and how close we are to complete free fall.
It's hard to take the long view in times like this. Thanks for your perspective. I needed that today.
We have had many moments in our history where the Republic was assailed. There were other tipping points. The American fascists and bigots were quite evident and powerful just before WWII. FDR had them in his cabinet.
But in the grand scheme, we are going to prevail. Sadly, there will be casualties.
I deeply hope so. I think that around they world most people just want a fair shake, but the tricks those who wish to dominate use are effective, as history demonstrates, and today we are turning the stability of our own environment against us and have potentially oppressive technologies Orwell never dreamed of. So some of the tipping points are pretty scary. I never would have believed how many in our society love Big Brother.
But I also see a turning point in the "resistance is futile" apathy that empowers corruption, and modern "Republicans" are going further and further out on a limb. Unfortunately there are always many innocent casualties of these malignantly narcissistic power games. That's why public awareness and engagement is so important, since usually people who are least advantaged who suffer most from our foolish choices. What hath "Reaganomics" wrought? Connect the dots and something monstrous emerges.
Bill, as a gardener I’ve always liked the saying that is something like this: gardeners “plant trees in the shade of which they will never sit”. It is suitable for so many occasions….doing the work & effort that you may never fully benefit from or see come to fruition, but it is worth it.
I read this particular issue and my stomach turned and my blood boiled at the same time. If you check their legislative records I bet Greene, Gaetz, Boebert, Jordan and others have not introduced one bill intended to help the American people. I’m not counting the ridiculous impeachment resolutions. They are not there, as Boebert admitted, to do anything but disrupt.
Mike, they are too busy running around to get their media hits and "likes" in their social media accounts.
I'm sure you heard about Boebert and the Beetlejuice incident this past week. The photo that appeared in many articles was kind--the clip showed her barely keeping her dress up (constant tugging) and I couldn't help but think that if that was AOC the howls from the GQP would have gone viral.
Her ta-tas were falling out of her dress. There is video of her obnoxious behavior, including vaping, which is why people in the theater wanted her removed. She's a sociopath and a narcissist. AOC is a class act - she does her job and knows how to act in public.
They don't believe in the US Constitution, just as these supposed Christians don't believe in the New Testament. Dangerous people - some are throwbacks to Italian, Hungarian and German fascists, while most are old-fashioned far-right autocrats propping up oligarchic rule (think Francisco Franco, whose troops were bankrolled by Texaco and who in turn supported the oligarchs of his time).
Makes me wonder if they even know or understand the Constitution. They seem short-sighted, and narcissistically interested only in themselves and their macabre theater.
It isn’t important to know what they think, it’s important to vote them out. We know what they aren’t ...leaders, honest, worthy.
If the public isn’t willing to vote them out , and in some cases I realize they aren’t able, then most will go down with the ship and they’ll still be pointing the fingers at us.
The majority of ‘us’ know.
Will we take it to the ballot box is the ONLY question Nd the ONLY answer all wrapped into one.
Didn’t know about Texaco and Franco. Just wouldn’t go to Spain to see the Goyas until he was gone. Never got there as it turned out, but the Spanish Civil War haunts more than any other. No sooner climbing out of the Middle Ages than along come the fascists. Now to learn that Big Oil way supported Franco as Big Oil supported Iraq and Afghanistan... Will we wake up and put our energy into growing gardens, enjoying our world, and opening our minds instead of pursuing more money than we need to live? When do we stop worshipping our cars in order to protect the planet, ours and others’ lives? The current strike would be a wonderful moment for capital and labor to come together and agree on not only fair wages, but also retraining to build hybrids until a water proof electric car is possible and to plan electric trolleys in cities.
Alexandra, you know who should be willing to walk away from it? Anyone in a position of public trust/responsibility/authority who KNOWS something is wrong and is willing to give up power and control to do the right thing….if these folks in Congress lived up to their oath, TFFG would have been overwhelmingly impeached and convicted in the Senate.
Barbara, yes. And it's clear from just some of the excerpts from Romney's book that there were dozens of R senators who could have agreed to stand together, form a coalition with Dems, and stop this monster. They had plenty of safety in numbers and they STILL wouldn't do it. Contemptible.
Once again, HCR, a masterful weaving together in one post of all these appalling developments I've been reading about for a couple of hours, now, over several newspapers.
That last line of President Biden's about the ideal of the nation made me cry, and I'm not a crier:
“We’ve never fully lived up to it,’’ but “[w]e’ve never walked away from it. These other guys are trying to walk away from it.”
It's worse than walking away from it. They're trying to blow it up. Today's stories make that even more clear than usual.
I'm with you. How can we be unmoved and skeptical when people must put their lives on the line to avoid chaos? Mitt Romney is braver than I knew. Fortunately, he can afford to pay for the security his family needs, but not many people could. (What happened to Paul Pelosi should have made that clear.) Mitch McConnell has failed his party and the American people, and Speaker McCarthy can't control the people he sold out to. Complaints about Joe Biden's age are a distraction.
I am so coldly angry at Mitch McConnell, knowing the damage that his Machiavellian maneuvers have done to the Supreme Court and to all women in this country. He could have pushed the GOP Senators to convict Trump, and we would be free of him running for office ever again. The GOP would likely be healthier because they would have excised the cancer that is Trump.
Of course he left Romney hanging when Romney warned him of the danger about to descend on DC on Jan6. Of course he never responded to him. He does not know how to care for anyone else.
I see the health issues McConnell is having now, and I smile. I see people say how they pity him; I do not.
This man has done so much damage to our country. He will be reviled in history.
Like the CEO's of the major industries McConnell is beholden to the oligarchs; they are all compensated with unlimited money and power to look the other way, discard their humanity and kneel before their minders as they trod over the working people on the way to enriching the real ruling class.
I'm ashamed to say I agree with you
McConnell is an example of the selfish, Machiavellian politician who obstructs and plays dangerous political games for fun. Now the joke could very well be on him. I picture him dropping dead at his desk because he just won't give up his office even though he's even older than Biden, and in lousy health.
McConnell is not the only one in that "boat".
Mitt Romney waffled and knuckled under rather more than I like, but I see a trace of old school Republican in him.
yeah, but Mittens is still a hypocrite and has been one ever since his college days. He is not the man--or leader--that his father was. If he was contemptuous and disgusted by the party that he witnessed the Republicans devolving into... He could--at any time--have stepped away or declared himself to be an Independent.
Agreed. Why didn't Mitt volunteer to testify for the Jan 6th House Committee? There are enough breadcrumbs to follow that suggest there was inside help. Why didn't he make headlines with his revelations about Senator King's warnings in January of 2021? Why wait until your book comes out? Really?
The story of the rot inside the House and Senate has only had a prologue, a forward, so to speak. The attempted coup (which continues to this day) will eventually show complicity by more than a few Proud Boys and a sitting president.
I have to believe that as prosecutions continue, there will be more and more "flippers" who will provide clues as to how all this came to pass. Why? Because despite my anger and frustration, I am an optimist. And that optimism is fueled by the fact that when a person is facing hard time in a jumpsuit, they usually do whatever they can to minimize or escape that fate.
"Why wait until your book comes out? Really? "
That is becoming a common maneuver, consistent with the "Chicago School" notion that personal profit trumps the National Interest. It's a vile, sociopathic concept.
Rot is everywhere and has a function, but a healthy organism or society resists rot, and arrests it's spread into living tissue. America was gaining health (and in some ways, still is), despite serious bouts of illness, prior to the plutocratic capture of the public narrative that Reagan was the face of. Nixon spread rot, but was repelled by our societal "immune system" until Ford abused the power of pardon to hold him above the law. Not that that's a new idea. but I think that perhaps that pardon signaled a turning point in our current rash we are seeing the law used to sabotage the intended functions of the law, perhaps comparable to how a virus commandeers our own genetic processes to increase it's spread.
Trump made many Orwellian appointment designed to sabotage the very functions the appointees were pledged to fulfill, but perhaps the apex of this perversion was the plan to twist the mechanics of the Electoral College in order to negate the empirical, real world election result. That is really a crime worth a chapter in any reasonable history book; and with the RNC resolution, branding the rioters "ordinary citizens engaged in in legitimate political discourse", and condemning all efforts to hold them accountable, the whole "Republican" Party signaled it's ownership of the crime. We have let them get away with far too much "rot" already, and cannot afford to lose the "patient"; which is us, and even our posterity.
Yeah, history will judge him unkindly.
If recorded history triumphs over propaganda.
Was "history" appointed by a Republican or a Dem? You be the judge...
By "history," I mean "historians," who, as a group, do a pretty good job of research and of self-correcting. HCR is a wonderful example, but far from the only one.
Maybe there would have been another, and another, and another. But no, he folds
It seemed to me that Mitt tries to have it both ways. He published an "Open Letter" to President Obama in USA Today, urging Obama to copy the heath plan he supervised, and Obama basically did so; but then as a presidential candidate, Mitt had to distance himself from all that and claim that while the plan was right for his state, it was wrong for America. That was very "Republican" of him.
Always talks out of both sides of his mouth. Like ALL repubs
Well he does have a book coming out,after all. I give him very little credit for FINALY growing a pair,sorry. I do give him credit for voting to impeach T***P, but then he didn't push hard enough!!!
Notice how many politicians spill the beans after they've decided to leave politics. While in office, they keep their mouths shut out of self preservation.
We never asked for perfection. We asked for honesty. We asked for loyalty. We asked for help, consistent betterment , getting represented fairly, our share of the pie.
Thank you President Biden , Kamala, and #Staff.....
To the GOP: RIP
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
They serve those who would be feudal lords and the stratified society that goes with it. And yes, we have never fully lived up to our ideals, and frankly blown it big time in a number of ways, but much of American History displays salient progress against injustice and tyranny. The creation of the Constitution (not an American king), abolition, women's suffrage, workers rights, civil rights, gay rights, and so on. Though it all the plutocrats fought to retain slavery, for laissez faire and the right to monopolize markets, and now, quite frankly, against democracy itself.
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." - Lincoln
To this very day.
Thanks for that, JL. Progress has been shamefully slow, but it has been progressing. I have not the slightest doubt that Biden, Harris and their whole team know better than anyone what is at stake here, and how close we are to complete free fall.
It's hard to take the long view in times like this. Thanks for your perspective. I needed that today.
We have had many moments in our history where the Republic was assailed. There were other tipping points. The American fascists and bigots were quite evident and powerful just before WWII. FDR had them in his cabinet.
But in the grand scheme, we are going to prevail. Sadly, there will be casualties.
I deeply hope so. I think that around they world most people just want a fair shake, but the tricks those who wish to dominate use are effective, as history demonstrates, and today we are turning the stability of our own environment against us and have potentially oppressive technologies Orwell never dreamed of. So some of the tipping points are pretty scary. I never would have believed how many in our society love Big Brother.
But I also see a turning point in the "resistance is futile" apathy that empowers corruption, and modern "Republicans" are going further and further out on a limb. Unfortunately there are always many innocent casualties of these malignantly narcissistic power games. That's why public awareness and engagement is so important, since usually people who are least advantaged who suffer most from our foolish choices. What hath "Reaganomics" wrought? Connect the dots and something monstrous emerges.
Bill, as a gardener I’ve always liked the saying that is something like this: gardeners “plant trees in the shade of which they will never sit”. It is suitable for so many occasions….doing the work & effort that you may never fully benefit from or see come to fruition, but it is worth it.
As a fellow gardener whose wife is literally a tree hugger...I couldn't agree more.
I read this particular issue and my stomach turned and my blood boiled at the same time. If you check their legislative records I bet Greene, Gaetz, Boebert, Jordan and others have not introduced one bill intended to help the American people. I’m not counting the ridiculous impeachment resolutions. They are not there, as Boebert admitted, to do anything but disrupt.
Mike, they are too busy running around to get their media hits and "likes" in their social media accounts.
I'm sure you heard about Boebert and the Beetlejuice incident this past week. The photo that appeared in many articles was kind--the clip showed her barely keeping her dress up (constant tugging) and I couldn't help but think that if that was AOC the howls from the GQP would have gone viral.
Her ta-tas were falling out of her dress. There is video of her obnoxious behavior, including vaping, which is why people in the theater wanted her removed. She's a sociopath and a narcissist. AOC is a class act - she does her job and knows how to act in public.
No doubt.
They don't believe in the US Constitution, just as these supposed Christians don't believe in the New Testament. Dangerous people - some are throwbacks to Italian, Hungarian and German fascists, while most are old-fashioned far-right autocrats propping up oligarchic rule (think Francisco Franco, whose troops were bankrolled by Texaco and who in turn supported the oligarchs of his time).
Makes me wonder if they even know or understand the Constitution. They seem short-sighted, and narcissistically interested only in themselves and their macabre theater.
It isn’t important to know what they think, it’s important to vote them out. We know what they aren’t ...leaders, honest, worthy.
If the public isn’t willing to vote them out , and in some cases I realize they aren’t able, then most will go down with the ship and they’ll still be pointing the fingers at us.
The majority of ‘us’ know.
Will we take it to the ballot box is the ONLY question Nd the ONLY answer all wrapped into one.
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Didn’t know about Texaco and Franco. Just wouldn’t go to Spain to see the Goyas until he was gone. Never got there as it turned out, but the Spanish Civil War haunts more than any other. No sooner climbing out of the Middle Ages than along come the fascists. Now to learn that Big Oil way supported Franco as Big Oil supported Iraq and Afghanistan... Will we wake up and put our energy into growing gardens, enjoying our world, and opening our minds instead of pursuing more money than we need to live? When do we stop worshipping our cars in order to protect the planet, ours and others’ lives? The current strike would be a wonderful moment for capital and labor to come together and agree on not only fair wages, but also retraining to build hybrids until a water proof electric car is possible and to plan electric trolleys in cities.
Amen! I hurt every time I hear MAGA trying to tear down this country & Constitution! It makes say things that I shouldn’t! When will we ever learn?
Alexandra, you know who should be willing to walk away from it? Anyone in a position of public trust/responsibility/authority who KNOWS something is wrong and is willing to give up power and control to do the right thing….if these folks in Congress lived up to their oath, TFFG would have been overwhelmingly impeached and convicted in the Senate.
Barbara, yes. And it's clear from just some of the excerpts from Romney's book that there were dozens of R senators who could have agreed to stand together, form a coalition with Dems, and stop this monster. They had plenty of safety in numbers and they STILL wouldn't do it. Contemptible.
Yes!