tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9572490271332404272024-03-13T13:12:46.345-07:00Jennifer StewartUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger292125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-58840831324715810122024-01-14T03:47:00.000-08:002024-01-14T06:19:06.192-08:00Houthi Matters<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BwfZnONAFa0?si=0sPpsn1DIJPA79QV" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<p>That's all very well, David Cameron. But it will be as effective as Anthony Blinken telling Netanyahu that Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians. Israel is ignoring that, because Netanyahu knows the US won't withdraw funding. </p><p>Houthi chiefs have already said they'll carry on the attacks. Yes, their attacks have been on commercial shipping but now they're saying they'll go for Israeli ships, which will make them heroes in many people's eyes. They don't care about a show of force from the US and the UK. In fact, it gives them justification to carry on. Just like Israel's behaviour reinforces Hamas. </p><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Cameron recently said the Houthi attacks are separate from Israel/Gaza. Former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove told @TrevorPTweets on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that it's true in a purely analytical sense, but on the Arab street the two are linked. In reality you can't separate them. </span></p><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">It's not just on the Arab street. <br /></span></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">The chanting for Yemen is all across the demonstration<br /><br />"Yemen Yemen make us proud turn another ship around" <a href="https://t.co/wQ296sUPif">pic.twitter.com/wQ296sUPif</a></span></p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">— Harry's Place (@hurryupharry) <a href="https://twitter.com/hurryupharry/status/1746179263064097146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></span></blockquote><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dearlove said that of the three proxy groups in the Middle East; Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah are much more directly controlled by and closer to Iran. The Houthis have always been a troublesome, tribal/religious group, less controlled by Iran, but Iran has enough influence to persuade them to stop the shipping attacks.</span></p><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">They're not doing that, so for Cameron to say this isn't political is fatuous. </span><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">US and UK Govts say what they want us to believe. It's insulting and makes people who are biased against the govt line more entrenched, and it frustrates and angers people who can think for themselves. Worse than that, it creates more conflict and can't ever lead to a resolution. For that to happen, truth and all the complexities must be acknowledged and articulated. Too much to expect from Cameron? </span></p><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">And is the real reason for UK retaliation that Rishi Sunak is playing wag the dog in a desperate effort to win favour with an electorate that generally despises him? Parliament wasn't consulted - and Cameron can't be confronted in the Commons either - because it probably would have said we don't need to do this and we can't afford it. The US has the military capacity, so let's just give them support for now. That will give us time to debate and make a sensible decision.</span></p><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dearlove also said that Houthis don't have an infrastructure in the UK, so a "major conspiracy of terrorism" is unlikely. There could be lone wolf ones, though. Not much of a reassurance. And US/UK govts shouldn't be taking the risk. But lives are cheap for politicians. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">And I still haven't seen any politician or media refer to Houthi rebels as human beings. It's an inconvenient truth, but they are. Desmond Tutu said if you want peace, you don't talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies. You have to listen to them too. Frankly, I don't think there are any leaders in the West with enough intellectual and emotional sophistication to deal with the whole Middle East conflagration. </span></p><p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Where is Barack Obama when you need him.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-83197308817919671222024-01-13T22:00:00.000-08:002024-01-14T04:52:42.949-08:00Defining Classy; a Short, Sloppy but not Wholly Inaccurate History of its Evolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Phoenix</i> by Jennifer Stewart</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the West, there was
a time when <i>Classy</i> was synonymous with class distinction. It was
all about lineage, sophisticated social skills, the kind of wealth that stayed
in the family, and a gene pool that proved not infrequently to be, over the
long run, the fundamental cause of a characteristic commonly referred to as <i>weak in the head </i>and, more recently, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/harry-in-andrew-out-and-let-camilla-be-herself-a-radical-blueprint-to-save-the-monarchy-wpsrqnzd5" target="_blank"><i>creaking stupidity.</i><o:p></o:p></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Royalty. Landed
gentry. Upper crust society. Beautiful manners, gorgeous clothes, glorious
homes, power, mobility. The stuff of fairy tales. Now that was class. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Outsiders—the poor,
the struggling, the serfs and slaves, the farm workers, soldiers, sailors,
tinkers and tailors—all either accepted their place or felt, and were,
powerless to change it. Oh, and let's not forget independent-minded women and
anybody who wasn't white, with the exception of those few notables who
heroically managed to penetrate a ceiling made from the building materials
fortresses were constructed with.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But something happened in the collective psyche of the outsiders. A lust for a
bigger experience, a bigger slice of the pie. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Might have had something to do with the fact that it had a sturdier gene pool,
a broader mix. Something about that seems to open neurological pathways to
creative thinking. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Boom. The Industrial Revolution. Suddenly yobs with no
manners, no refinement, and neither land nor lineage could amass fortunes and
buy the trappings of class. Not independent spirited women, people of color or
different lifestyle choices or foreign alien religions, though. Let's never
forget that. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Nouveau Riche </i>they called themselves. Spurned, of course by the Original Class of Classies, and
using outsiders in exactly the same way they'd been used by their masters. Gradually these upstarts developed manners and <i>accoutrements</i> of
Class and in many cases married into lineage, because its weak gene pool had
left it with land and snobbery but no bucks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And a populace of poor people living—or barely living—off the land, giving
everything of value of themselves to the Classies, became a populace of poor
people still barely living, but doing it in the cities. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Still giving everything
of themselves, but now to the New Classies as slaves, servants, wives, factory
workers. Also, for a while, collectively accepting that they had no option. It
wasn't a pretty picture and the environment began to take a real beating too.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Again, though,
something happened in the collective psyche of those damn outsiders, the slaves
to and enablers of others' pleasure and good fortune. Maybe it's really about
the spirit of the human never being satisfied with being stuck in the dark
ages. Perhaps it's about the human capacity for good needing to prevail over
its capacity for evil. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The outsiders became more aware that moving up was a possibility even for them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Boom. Unions. Higher wages, access to more ideas, demanding education, finding
it, getting it. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Well, what a damn mess. From then on it was one boom after another, the cataclysmic
collapse of the old order happening from decade to decade. The original
Classies' gene pool completely buggered up. The pestilential concept of "What About Me,
What About Them!" spreading like wildfire. </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Youth, women, people of color,
diverse religions, genders, sexual preferences and lifestyle choices making their voices heard, fighting for
their rights and those of others, not waiting for permission but insisting that
they were equal, caring about accountability and the environment. Never giving
up in the face of dreadful persecution in every imaginable application, covert
and overt. Desire for decency to prevail became a conflagration impossible to
control. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As the lust for a better experience seared at hearts, souls and
minds; as compassion for the exploited, and protest at the exploiters grew; as
wealth and access to information became more accessible to so many more;
something else happened. </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Classy</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> began to be synonymous with
decency, inner strength, dignity, compassion and respect for others and self,
good sense, concern for the environment. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nowhere else for it to go, really.
Boom. The Phoenix of the human spirit emerging from the ashes. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That's where we are today. Class is not about what you wear, what you
earn, what you own, your status, the color of your skin, your gender, your religion
or your lifestyle choice. It's about who you are. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just as the outsiders always thought they were as classy as those they were
desperate to be accepted by when the barriers to entry were superficial,
today the ethically challenged who have amassed vast fortunes and or power
swagger around with great <i>braggadocio</i>, loudly trumpeting how classy they are. Utterly oblivious to how obvious it is to the rest of us that whatever they got, it ain't class.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These days, no matter what else you have,
without class of the soul, the kind that actually counts for something humane, you've got nothing. And it shows.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-41349076769929074732022-06-15T12:31:00.013-07:002022-06-17T04:36:53.144-07:00The Eleventh Hour - Rwanda Deportations Blocked<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLZV_9851e_goqBwASzm-RVhOTinqm95GHEbZPm83KC05BU8ySNGgdT54cy03RaGMLQ2Bg4o1G26wdrsGKRSNQWVyBYbba1QAmbjxfibZGyVpw5faZV5zg-JDOg91hTEMq2zFMGnbiDc4Ox-3ftV8ruOT8xHtPv9qwTsyxNla-mdTD87bQ5Ukr2Gnu/s567/Screenshot%202022-06-15%20at%2020.55.17.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="567" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLZV_9851e_goqBwASzm-RVhOTinqm95GHEbZPm83KC05BU8ySNGgdT54cy03RaGMLQ2Bg4o1G26wdrsGKRSNQWVyBYbba1QAmbjxfibZGyVpw5faZV5zg-JDOg91hTEMq2zFMGnbiDc4Ox-3ftV8ruOT8xHtPv9qwTsyxNla-mdTD87bQ5Ukr2Gnu/w579-h366/Screenshot%202022-06-15%20at%2020.55.17.png" width="579" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">What a knife edge drama. First the government was going to forcibly remove a hundred asylum seekers to Rwanda. Then they realised that a few might be real victims. Ninety-three of them, as it happens. In the face of national and international outrage, including from the Archbishops of York and Canterbury and all</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/13/rwanda-deportation-plan-branded-national-shame-church-england/" style="color: purple; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">26 bishops</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">in the House of Lords, the plan stayed on course. Come hell or high water, Ms. Patel and Mr. Johnson insisted that these deportations – all seven of them now – would magically stop other asylum seekers from trying to get here and better still, put a stop to people smuggling. An innovative plan, bragged Johnson.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">One that was tried by Israel and Australia and ditched for being ineffective and wildly expensive. Innovative indeed. Unbelievably, the whole plan hasn't been deemed legal yet. So this deportation was either a cynical distraction or a gamble – with taxpayers’ money and the lives and well-being of asylum seekers who have turned to this country for help – or both. I let that sink in for a minute. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Patel and Johnson thought they could get away with it. They had luck on their side for a while. First a UK high court judge Mr. Justice Swift ruled that the deportation could go ahead, even though the legality hadn’t been decided, because it was in the public interest. That's eye-opening. Which part of the public was he referring to? Aren’t judges supposed to be apolitical? Sure, some people hate asylum seekers if their skin isn’t white. Others think they could be given jobs and contribute to the economy and to cultural diversity. Guess which side Ms. Patel is on. The judge added that the potential harm to the deportees was “in the realm of speculation”. I suppose that’s true, if you don’t bother to check your facts. Something I would have thought a high court judge might want to do. <br /><br />The appeals to the Supreme Court were also dismissed. This is even harder to understand. Admitting that a ruling hadn’t been made yet on the legality of the scheme, they said go ahead send the deportees off and just bring them back if the courts decide the scheme is illegal. Tra la la. No harm done. Except of course to the deportees, already massively traumatised.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">People’s lives spaffed up the wall, along with tax-payers’ money. The Appeals Court judges’ rationale? The UK government gave assurances that the deportees would be brought back. Well, that makes sense! We all know how truthful the UK government is. Of course they wouldn’t lie. Again, thank God for freedom of information and what a shame that Supreme Court judges didn’t bother to avail themselves of it and check whether Rwanda had a policy and infrastructure in place to return the refugees. Which it doesn’t. So the government’s assurances were empty. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Which, of course, Ms. Patel knew and Johnson didn’t care either way, and which the judges could have and should have figured out for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Yesterday, by 10 pm, frantic, last-minute applications to the ECHR had succeeded in whittling the number of the fated down to four. More chest-beating from the government. They were going to do this! Purely out of compassion. They were desperate to stop people drowning in the English Channel, heroically determined to eliminate the gangsterism that exploits asylum seekers. And yes, of course it would be value for money, paying £500,000 to charter a 200-passenger-capacity jet to send four traumatised people on a ten-hour trip to a country with a shocking human rights record. Staff were on board, the runway lights were blazing, the plane’s engines warming up. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Literally at the eleventh hour the ECHR judge overruled the UK judges' decisions and blocked all the removals. Because he checked to see if Rwanda would send the deportees back to the UK if the scheme was deemed illegal. It wasn’t difficult for him to determine the truth. Predictably a furious Johnson said maybe he would withdraw the UK from the ECHR. Patel bragged that the government will appeal, but since any appeal is unlikely to be able to get past the ECHR, the next flight can probably only take place on conclusion of the judicial review of the scheme – at about the end of July. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">If all goes well. Which isn’t likely for Boris Johnson, whose own new cost of living tsar <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnsons-new-cost-of-living-tsar-demanded-he-resign_uk_62a8a25ee4b0c77098a66b1a?d_id=3916210&ncid_tag=fcbklnkukhpmg00000001&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=uk_main&fbclid=IwAR3pEr2NMZQkNGSpHxPUo2BIif6G5EGYmtne2JddUVLWQg0vK6DaTR3LUZk" style="color: purple;">David Buttress said</a> not too long ago, </span><span style="font-family: ProximaNova, serif;">“Never confuse an expensive education with intelligence or integrity. I don’t think Boris is particularly blessed with either.” And breaking news! His ethics adviser Lord Geidt <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61819747" style="color: purple;">has just resigned</a> in protest at Partygate, saying there was a “legitimate question” about whether Johnson broke the ministerial code. No kidding.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: ProximaNova, serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: ProximaNova, serif;">If Johnson hoped to leave all of that behind and cause a whole lot of fun distraction so people forget what a liar and cheat he is, here’s the rub. This deportee scheme has fooled nobody, but it has further alienated his rebellious backbenchers and Tory grandees who like to hold onto the idea that Tories have integrity. They don’t like being dragged into the gutter or slammed by a bevy of bishops. Plus, the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Honiton/Tiverton and Wakefield by-elections happen on 23 June. If the Lib Dems and Labour win respectively, by the end of July Boris Johnson could be out on his ear and with him, probably, possibly, hopefully, Priti Patel. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It will be good riddance to an astonishingly incompetent, intellectually challenged and horrifically immoral, intolerant, cruel, opportunistic duo. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-27344488083687716232022-03-12T07:52:00.004-08:002022-03-12T08:06:18.332-08:00Supporting the Guardian, Cancelling the Independent<div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_gUH8Oif2CySO-LfwNExSd43tzsPQQFjcd_VWWivQWnAQglcFVUeBCS91Mp0OAQHE0tlpj2Kbg9kFGC7hU5hwNptE13xQuoGdGSJT2-H2WiNKkvIlVVKud-Vz1gLy-oGnJQE4f6fgkJfiZbp0gXjaKR_rCGsH0Idu3r9Nq0eRErPynf8iN42QpAb1=s1718" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="1718" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_gUH8Oif2CySO-LfwNExSd43tzsPQQFjcd_VWWivQWnAQglcFVUeBCS91Mp0OAQHE0tlpj2Kbg9kFGC7hU5hwNptE13xQuoGdGSJT2-H2WiNKkvIlVVKud-Vz1gLy-oGnJQE4f6fgkJfiZbp0gXjaKR_rCGsH0Idu3r9Nq0eRErPynf8iN42QpAb1=w622-h108" width="622" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">This morning I learned, from a comment left on an </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-state-tv-putin-ukraine-war-b2033579.html#comments-area" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Independent</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> article, that the paper is owned by
Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev and controlled by the latter. I've been
subscribing for a couple of years but today I cancelled, and subscribed to the
Guardian instead. </span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Vladimir Putin is a psychopath
who has committed countless, savage war crimes, for which he bears
responsibility, but it's also true he has only been able to acquire the power
he has now because in the West we've enabled him with our dependence on Russian
resources and our qualified 'condemnation' bred of our fear of losing the benefits
of trade with Russia. In the UK we've allowed dirty Russian money to infiltrate
politics. But apart from these giant issues, and that if we had focused on
green energy years ago we wouldn't need Russian oil and gas, I have to admit
that I've played my part in that enablement by not checking up on what money is
being used to create, control or prop up resources I access.<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">As far as I've been able to
see, the Independent is free to publish what it wants, which of course is vital
and counts in the Lebedevs’ favour, but it's not the only thing that matters.
In the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/statement-from-the-proprietor-in-response-to-media-speculation-b987541.html" target="_blank">Evening
Standard</a>, which they also own, Evgeny Lebedev wrote passionately about
his family's record of defending freedom of the press in the UK and Russia and
hotly denied that he is in any way connected to Putin. It makes for
convincing reading. He also pointed out that he wrote an open letter to
Vladimir Putin, also published in the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/president-vladimir-putin-please-stop-ukraine-war-evgeny-lebedev-b985076.html">Evening
Standard</a>, pleading with him to stop the war. It’s a short letter, doesn’t
go into much detail. Very politely phrased. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Hardly the kind of condemnation
from somebody who has severed all ties to a psychopath dictator, is outraged by
their war crimes, and neither wants nor needs anything from them. Evgeny also
mentioned the £50,000 raised by his papers’ campaigns for Ukrainians. Great. Perhaps
he contributed the bulk; who knows? But he’s allegedly worth about £300 million.
He could have quadrupled the amount twenty times over and not noticed the
effect on his bank account. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">You can tell a lot about a
person by the company they keep. Evgeny has long been great pals with the easily corruptible, self-deluded
serial liar and cheat who is our esteemed Prime Minister and who has profited
wonderfully from that support, which goes back to his campaign for mayor. We, on
the other hand, have all suffered, and are still suffering (those of us who are alive), as a consequence of
that bolstering by Evgeny – and Johnson’s other powerful friends with deep pockets
– which didn’t stop at mayor but elevated him to the most powerful political
position in the country. A position he is neither equipped for nor deserves in
any way at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">We’re not the only ones
suffering. So are Ukrainian refugees, subjected to inhumane treatment by our
government which brags about being in the vanguard of support with as little
regard for the truth, and the suffering that lying creates, as Vladimir Putin
has. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Further to the company people
keep, in 2017 and 2018 Evgeny Lebedev </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13pt;">sold 30% stakes in the Independent and
the Evening Standard to companies registered in the Cayman Islands, through a
series of “unconventional, complex and clandestine” deals. The front man was Sultan
Mohamed Abuljadayel, a Saudi businessman who has connections with the Saudi
state-owned bank Al Ahli bank. According to an article published in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jul/23/evening-standard-and-independent-unable-to-rebut-concerns-over-saudi-ownership" target="_blank">Guardian</a> in 2019, neither paper knows who employs him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">In a nutshell, the Independent is sustained
with money from mega wealthy individuals or organisations from two countries
with hideous human rights abuse records and with connections to the heads of state
of those countries. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><u1:p><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">It’s easy to be lazy and
dismiss all these things; say to myself it’s all hearsay, and what harm
can I do by subscribing to the Independent? But the reality is that the small
things are building blocks and now we’re up against a giant monolith of
megalomania created from those small blocks. So, I'm cancelling my
subscription to the Independent. </span><u1:p></u1:p></u1:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><u1:p><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Guardian is controlled by the
Scott Trust Ltd, and as far as I can see there are no oligarchs with former or
current links to Putin on the board.<u1:p></u1:p> The current board members are
listen below, in the screenshot from the trust’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Trust_Limited#:~:text=Guardian%20News%20and%20Media%2C%20a,Trader%20on%204%20March%202014" target="_blank">Wiki</a>
page.<o:p></o:p></span></u1:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
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</v:imagedata></v:shape></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Trust_Limited#:~:text=Guardian%20News%20and%20Media%2C%20a,Trader%20on%204%20March%202014" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1087" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZHb-bYETl1iF3OU-y00Sh4TRzYjXnixTmuH3qKgKvz2N500O8uecwcZ7h1NI12TS4R9tXeJziIFlDBN8PaIfIqFDJ95ej-rnmAFlrrOgWb6nD-8TKl565ZpiiYUxzS8b9e73EfJP0PV1GMXn8HgzwrCBlmDFGrsQyzodHdSYM5XgxI46XqyC_9hp3=w572-h304" width="572" /></a></div><br /><div>I wasn't asked to write this article or paid or given a discount by the Guardian.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-47619819760694864182022-01-17T04:41:00.000-08:002022-01-17T04:41:13.747-08:00My Letter to Harriett Baldwin, Tory MP<div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":og"><div aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":oc" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 142px;" tabindex="1"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dear Harriett Baldwin,<br />
<br />
I am writing to you as your constituent. I struggle to give adequate expression
to the outrage I feel at the hideous abuse this whole country has been
subjected to by the over-entitled, lazy, egotistical, brazenly deceitful Boris
Johnson.<br />
<br />
To make things worse, Conservative MPs hiding behind the Sue Gray
'investigation' are rubbing salt into a very painful wound. Pretending that
anything will come of it, or that this deplorable PM is capable of change or
has any desire for it, is a shameless insult to our intelligence. It doesn't take genius to know that Sue Gray's work is done, because the truth is already out. Boris Johnson broke
the law and lied about it. The only investigation needed now is by the Met
Police. Who have backed right away despite having fined people £12,000 for
lesser infractions! Where is the justice in that? <br />
<br />
Sir Keir Starmer asked the PM if he thought the British people were stupid. The
answer to that is clear. And obviously a slew of Conservative MPs and the Met
think we are too. Kudos to the Conservative MPs who have chosen not to hide
behind Ms Gray and have called for Johnson’s resignation.<br />
<br />
But because they’re in the minority, he has been given the opportunity of
foisting all responsibility onto staff members (who relied on him for their jobs) and playing a version of Wag
the Dog by proposing right wing policies that are headline-grabbing, especially
for the ilk of the Daily Mail. All he's doing is trying to save his own skin. Apart from the disgracefulness of it, it’s the
height of stupidity for the PM to throw people who have been loyal to him to
the wolves and for the Party to let him get away with it, staining Conservative
reputation so badly one wonders if it will ever recover, eroded as it already
is.<br />
<br />
Accountability is a core feature of integrity. The Conservative Party sold its
own, along with its soul, long ago when it chose Boris Johnson, despite it
being common knowledge that his character was highly questionable and that he
was clearly unfit to lead. It was public knowledge at the time of his selection
that he was a self-indulgent narcissist with no respect for truth or other
human beings, and had been so since he was young.<br />
<br />
We’ve all suffered horrifically because of that choice and the Party is now
established as being riddled with corruption. Well, who could have predicted
that? The world looks on us with disparagement, distaste and absolute disgust,
much as it looked on the US under Donald Trump.<br />
<br />
I hope you will take this seriously. I want to believe that you have regard for
integrity and truth and an understanding of how vital those qualities are in
any human being, let alone a government. Enough pretense. Enough dancing around Sue Gray. The truth needs to be
acknowledged and Boris Johnson needs to be booted out. As your constituent I
need to know that you will send in your no-confidence letter to the 1922
Committee and show us that you care in a real way about the people you have the
high honour of representing in Parliament</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></div><div aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":oc" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 142px;" tabindex="1"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">
<br />
Yours,<br />
Jennifer Stewart</span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-45908665990287706682021-03-26T06:54:00.006-07:002021-04-17T05:46:09.736-07:00President Joe Biden, Saving America, Fulfilling His Destiny<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6t4wlUsGFaA/YF3Sm8vjtkI/AAAAAAAAJ_s/CrRuWg8uGls8-gGfDVRBowgy27VP-9wJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s965/Biden%2B%2B965%2Bx%2B576.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="965" height="382" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6t4wlUsGFaA/YF3Sm8vjtkI/AAAAAAAAJ_s/CrRuWg8uGls8-gGfDVRBowgy27VP-9wJwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h382/Biden%2B%2B965%2Bx%2B576.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sometimes things don't go, after all,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A people will sometimes step back from war,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">elect an honest man, decide they care</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Some men become what they were born for...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> From "Sometimes" by <a href="https://sheenagh.webs.com/" target="_blank">Sheenagh Pugh</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">President Joe Biden held his first press
conference yesterday, responding to questions with his unique brand of passion,
compassion, honesty and dry humour. Against so many predictions, and in the
face of tremendous hope but little faith, he is succeeding in starting to impact on the damage done to the US – and the world – by the last administration and too
many years of Republican abuse of power.</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">This despite that Democrats don’t have an
easy majority in either the Senate or the House. The one thing that stands out
for me is that he’s so unafraid. Combined with his profound integrity it makes
him a powerful man.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Professor Paul Krugman recently wrote
a piece in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/opinion/republicans-biden-stimulus.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">New
York Times</a> about reasons for the GOP’s sudden ineffectiveness in
blocking progress. “Republicans may simply have lost the ability to take policy
seriously,” he wrote, agreeing with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/03/why-trump-republicans-failed-repeal-obamacare/618337/">Jonathan
Cohn’s</a> argument (with regard to the GOP’s inability to destroy
Obamacare) that Democrats do the work but Republicans, who don't, “no longer know
how to think through hard choices, make the compromises necessary to build
alliances and get things done.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">My take on it is this. Since 2008 I've
never thought that there were any brilliant minds or hard workers in the
Republican Party or that any of their strategies had an ounce of common sense,
apart from gerrymandering and voter suppression which, together with a
mind-bending right wing media exploiting racist fear, is all they've needed to
hold onto so much power.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">When you use corrupt methods to acquire it
and you can abuse it with impunity you get lazy, believe you’re infallible, and
don't notice when your hold on it is becoming tenuous and when opposition is
building momentum. It’s the oldest story in the history books.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">There’s also the possibility that
Republicans weren’t/aren’t smart enough to discern intelligence in their
opposition. Remember when they touted Paul Ryan as the party genius? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Truth is that Democrats have had all the
brains for a long time but as a voting group they’ve been an undisciplined
bunch, squandering opportunity when it was there for the taking because
compromise of any sort was anathema. But this crisis, of what they lost and
what Trump and the GOP were doing to the country, forced them to band together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">That’s the "bipartisanship” that has
needed to happen since 2010, and Biden was/is experienced, wise and smart
enough to recognize it. This president, with a universe of compassion in his
heart and wisdom of the ages, who has had the strength and courage to allow
repeated trauma to fashion him into a man of great stature, fears nobody, not
least of all Republicans. He gave them a chance to work with him and since they
won't he has shrugged and moved on, undaunted. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">At his conference yesterday, when asked
about his promise during the campaign to work with the GOP President Biden came
back smartly with, "I may not have united Congress but I'm uniting the
country." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">At this of monumental crisis, he's risen to
meet the challenges and become the progressive I suspect he always wanted to
be. Humanity, supreme competence, expertise and experience reign supreme.
African Americans, minorities and progressives are represented in government and
have clout. They’re energised! It's all coming together for them now and
falling apart for the GOP, who’ve finally reached that tipping point of being
too weakened by their own corruption to be effective. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">When asked about 2024 and who he thought he’d
be running against, he quipped, "I have no idea whether there’ll be
Republican party. Do you?"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<u1:p></u1:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Joe Biden. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">For a list of top political blogs, visit Feedspot's <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.feedspot.com/political_blogs/&source=gmail&ust=1618744959753000&usg=AFQjCNEVy3beaOZYOM3IwaQOeAgjq8w0UQ" href="https://blog.feedspot.com/political_blogs/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">Top 100 <span style="font-size: small;">Political</span> Blogs</a><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-4715795162115416002021-01-11T09:17:00.011-08:002021-01-11T14:11:45.441-08:00House Democrats Introduce Article of Impeachment<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UHX9b6PrMqA/X_y6Ra675CI/AAAAAAAAJdg/dpiio_4FhfkcACpfNw1-tKUb_QHawZsnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s567/Screenshot%2B2021-01-11%2Bat%2B20.48.34.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="567" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UHX9b6PrMqA/X_y6Ra675CI/AAAAAAAAJdg/dpiio_4FhfkcACpfNw1-tKUb_QHawZsnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screenshot%2B2021-01-11%2Bat%2B20.48.34.png" /></a></div>House Democrats have introduced an <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/articles-impeachment-trump-xml/b0422e292cebafda/full.pdf">Article of Impeachment</a> against Donald Trump for high crimes and misdemeanours, charging the president with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” and including a reference to the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anybody who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the US from holding future office. The measure has 218 co-sponsors to date, enough to guarantee passage, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) has said that if the Vice President doesn’t invoke the 25th by Wednesday, the House will move forward with the impeachment.<br /><br />Watching/reading coverage of the thuggery and criminality on Capitol Hill, driven by white supremacists, it's reassuring to see how US politicians with normal integrity - mostly Democrats - can't swallow the behaviour of Republican congressmen and women who enabled Trump for four years then were either silent in the face of all the lies and bogus attempts to overturn a democratically successful election, or joined in and supported that travesty.<br /><br />Who even now are mute and in hiding – apart from those who have the gall to accuse Democrats of fostering disunity with their insistence on holding Trump to account and going ahead with impeachment. <br /><br />How about Vice President Mike Pence? The mob was chanting "hang Pence, hang Pence". Neither he nor any other Republican believes that Trump didn't cause the violence on Capitol Hill that led to the deaths of five people, or that he has any sanity left at all. <br /><br />They are fully aware that Trump could start a nuclear war today, within five minutes – and that internationally the US has been shamed horrendously, its reputation for being a bastion of Western democracy shredded. The damage done by this president has rippled out across the globe. The planet.<br /><br />But Pence and members of Trump's cabinet who haven't resigned don’t want to invoke the 25th. Are none of them worried that they could have more blood on their hands? Do they think they'll get a warning before Trump does something worse? You’d have to be brain dead to believe they’re not thinking about it, or to think they don’t know full well the risk they’re taking, on behalf of those whose lives they have been elected to protect.<br /><br />No wonder Democrats are wild with righteous anger. Which of us can accept behaviour like that of this band of Republican politicians? It's counter-intuitive to decent people. Humans aren't supposed to be like this. Intellectually we can understand the rank betrayal of normal values and point to all the examples of it in history – past, recent, and still going on - but our heart sand souls still react violently. We’re not built to believe that humans can be evil, cynical, consumed with greed and lust for power.<br /><br />So, thank you Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and all the Democrats and a couple of Republicans who have always spoken out against Trump and are calling for him to be thrown out and banned from ever running again. Who show their faces on TV and speak openly of their disgust, outrage, disdain and horror despite the very real and present danger that doing so exposes them to.<br /><br />The world owes them a debt of gratitude for their clear headedness, strength of purpose and huge courage.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-48092506247791271752020-05-25T03:17:00.001-07:002020-05-25T07:55:41.675-07:00Boris Johnson Beware! The Knives are out for Dominic Cummings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align center">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
The Prime Minister has treated the British people with contempt. <br />
One rule for Dominic Cummings, another for everybody else. <a href="https://t.co/XIFCztZnbu">pic.twitter.com/XIFCztZnbu</a></div>
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1264640099121274880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>
It's pretty much universal: Boris Johnson's support of Dominic Cummings is a suicide move. A petition calling for a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-public-vote-of-no-confidence-in-pm-johnson">public vote of no confidence</a> in the PM has 107,000 signatures so far and cross-party calls for Cummings to go are burgeoning out of control. Nineteen Conservative MPs have gone on record. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/cummings-is-the-real-boss-world-press-pours-scorn-on-boris-johnson" target="_blank">International press</a> is scathing of Johnson. So is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/bishops-turn-on-boris-johnson-for-defending-dominic-cummings" target="_blank">Church of England</a>. Thirteen bishops have publicly expressed their outrage.<br />
<br />
Johnson is trying to brazen it out, unwilling to accept that what worked for him over Brexit and in the GE has turned into a minefield. Even going back to post election, he has cynically tapped into the heroism of the second world war and the spirit of unity, playing at Churchill, to get voters to like him, forgive him his incompetence and faults, and do what he wants. He was successful enough to win a giant majority and then to get most to accept lockdown when Covid-19 hit us between the eyes. But he made the rookie mistake of thinking the loyalty is to him and his government.<br />
<br />
It isn't. It's to the principle of honour. Not difficult to rouse in a country that prides itself on exceptionalism – even though it faded away long ago – and where nationalism has been heavily exploited for political purposes for four years.<br />
<br />
Honour is a fierce animal, though and once roused, it's not easily hoodwinked. So the government's constant lies, incompetence, cover-ups, and the suffering and lives lost as a consequence, have registered; slowly at first but with increasing rapidity. Especially since Keir Starmer took over as leader of the opposition, because he is a man of honour and easily recognizable as such, even to Conservatives.<br />
<br />
The UK is often compared to the US. Now, in backing Dominic Cummings' inexcusable lockdown flout, flying in the face of significant rebellion in his own party and even the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/24/what-planet-are-they-on-the-papers-on-the-pms-defence-of-dominic-cummings">right wing press</a>, and following close on the heels of the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-uk-government-public-trust-boris-johnson-keir-starmer-lockdown-a9518656.html">latest opinion poll</a> that showed Starmer surging ahead in popularity and respect, Johnson is playing Trump's game. It's an unwise move. This isn't America, where Republicans have allowed Trump to reduce them to a pack of zombies. Some Conservatives do have independence of mind, or at least enough to make them see the dangers of siding with Johnson, and they're more open to facing the reality that the power they gained with the last election is disintegrating at the speed of light. <br />
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He also wrote a very punchy letter to Kent Tory councillors urging them to do all they could to stop Johnson winning the leadership 11 months ago... <a href="https://t.co/bdq41MEKOK">https://t.co/bdq41MEKOK</a></div>
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1264531933364707329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
No matter how much power you think you have, you can't survive in politics without friends. Dominic Cummings has made a lot of enemies in the Cabinet, MPs nursing their grudges secretively, craving an opportune moment. That moment is now.<br />
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I’m told there are only three Tory MPs defending the Government on their backbench WhatsApp group tonight, out of 200+. They are IDS, Sheryll Murray and Andrew Mitchell.</div>
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) <a href="https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1264660171797782530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
And a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-dominic-cummings-must-be-sacked">petition</a> calling for Cummings to be sacked has 419,000 signatures and counting fast. That damn hubris. It will take you down every time. <br />
<br />
It's impossible yet to know why Boris Johnson is clinging onto his aide. Speculation is rife on social media that Cummings has something on him. Darker secrets and conspiracy theories aside, Cummings is a vindictive bully. It could be that Johnson doesn't want to get on the wrong side of him or that he's become so dependent he can't bear the idea of life without him. Hopefully his hand will be forced. To date <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-cummings-boris-johnson-tory-mps-backlash-rebellion-a9531111.html" target="_blank">nineteen Conservative MPs</a> have gone on record calling for Cummings to be fired.<br />
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Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt. The government would be better without him.</div>
— Damian Collins (@DamianCollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/DamianCollins/status/1264473525395623938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer is being the leader the whole country is yearning for, so the longer Boris Johnson lets the wounds inflicted by Cummings fester, the better it is for Labour.<br />
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The question now is: do we accept being lied to, patronised and treated by a PM as mugs? The moral question is not for Cummings - it is for PM and ministers/MPs who find this behaviour acceptable. What are we to teach our children? (I ask as a responsible father.)</div>
— Nick Baines (@nickbaines) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickbaines/status/1264600374566100992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-76003172397039856292020-05-20T22:46:00.002-07:002020-05-21T15:11:36.674-07:00UK Government Admits To No Tracking and Tracing as Lockdown Eases<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We need enforced social distancing.<br />
<br />
We need protective kit for our NHS staff.<br />
<br />
And we need testing to happen on a mass scale. <a href="https://t.co/KO51XTcvX4">pic.twitter.com/KO51XTcvX4</a></div>
— Jonathan Ashworth (@JonAshworth) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonAshworth/status/1242168553933062149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US">“The UK decision to abandon tracing on 12
March 2020 is widely viewed as one of the most serious mistakes of this
crisis.” – <a href="https://labour.org.uk/press/ashworth-writes-to-govt-on-proposals-for-contact-tracing/">Jonathan
Ashworth</a>, MP, Labour Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary</span></blockquote>
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It's well
known that if you don't learn by your mistakes or those of others you will
repeat them and every time you do the consequences will be increasingly
disastrous. It's been the modus operandi for the UK government since Covid-19 made
its first appearance.</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
government, led by Boris Johnson the Incompetent– or not, since he was
nowhere to be seen - arrogantly sat back and watched as infection went viral in
Europe. In the blink of an eye the UK was on track to repeat Italy and Spain's
experience, and then we overtook them both to become the worst hit because the
government stopped testing, tracking and tracing in March. At first they said
they stopped in accordance with advice from "the science", pretending
there was no difference between their "science" and that of the WHO. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Then
recently they admitted without shame that they told a barefaced lie and the real reason they stopped testing was a lack of capacity. No attempt back then to get up to speed as quickly as
possible. No hint of lockdown. Let's play a game of herd mentality shall we? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">How
surprising that disaster struck. The government has made empty promises and inaccurate
assertions on a daily basis and showed no remorse for the incompetence, lies
and cover-ups, or the blood on their hands. They kept comparing the UK to the
rest of Europe until the day UK deaths were highest in Europe, 2nd highest in
the world. Then overnight it was a useless comparison.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Why has the government suddenly stopped publishing the international comparison? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PMQs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PMQs</a> <a href="https://t.co/wfUQrp4KOP">pic.twitter.com/wfUQrp4KOP</a></div>
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1260645670215651328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
Now, in
defiance of all good sense and without consulting Scotland and Wales the government
has eased lockdown. There's debate over what the R figure actually is and even
if consensus were reached that it's below 1, it isn't low enough to be safe;
it's an average, meaning that in some areas it's still dangerously high and now
people can drive around the country, carrying infection with them. Good
planning, Boris Johnson. Or is that Dominic Cummings?</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Schools
have been ordered to open on June 1. Teachers and unions are refusing, for good
reason. <a href="https://twitter.com/STVNews/status/1261267899303460868?s=20" target="_blank">Scotland</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/fmwales/status/1261940802294632448?s=20" target="_blank">Wales</a> are refusing to end lockdown. For good reason. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Already in
England vast numbers of people have ignored social distancing and swamped parks
and beaches. As if that weren't bad enough, the government plans to ease lockdown
further in one week <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-nhs-x-app-launch-contact-trace-scheme-uk-a9524191.html" target="_blank">without</a> - you guessed it - adequate testing, tracking and
tracing securely in place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">What could possibly go wrong.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comUnited Kingdom50.548344647545036 -1.602993088451396531.568619147545036 -42.9115840884514 69.528070147545037 39.7055979115486tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-37597886077791340312020-05-17T08:48:00.001-07:002020-05-17T15:45:26.406-07:00Keir Starmer Approval Ratings Overtake Boris Johnson's<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the 2019 general election Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party had its most crushing defeat since 1935, handing Boris Johnson the gift of a lifetime – absolute control in Parliament. Corbyn resigned and the shattered Labour party held a leadership election. On 2 April Keir Starmer won by a landslide. Hope flickered that the next election could be a win for Labour. Then Covid-19 hit us between the eyes.<br />
<br />
Despite the shambling incompetence and criminal negligence of Boris Johnson and his government that has landed us in the unenviable position of being the worst hit in Europe, opinion polls consistently showed the British public supporting the government. But Boris Johnson and his unskilled, bungling cabinet have been living on borrowed time. When Parliament opened again Keir Starmer took the government to task in PMQs with forensic clarity, persistence – and dignity – and he hasn't let up.<br />
<br />
He's the leader that we long for, while Boris Johnson has only made a fool of himself, unable to back up his own assertions, or to answer Starmer coherently.<br />
<br />
Not surprisingly, Starmer's net approval ratings have overtaken Johnson’s. In the latest <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-uk-government-public-trust-boris-johnson-keir-starmer-lockdown-a9518656.html">Opinium</a> poll 35% back Labour's opposition to the government, 20% disapprove, and 33% are neutral. Government approval ratings have plummeted from 65% when lockdown was announced to 39%. Disapproval rose by six points to 42%.<br />
<br />
Calls for an inquiry into the government's failures are increasing in volume. Thought you could do anything you wanted, Boris Johnson. That breaching of the red wall in the election, your control of Parliament? Squandered. There's a revolt in the north, with many cities refusing to end lockdown. Now it looks like the blue wall is going to come crashing down as Keir Starmer proves that integrity in British politics is alive and kicking. That's leadership for you.<br />
<br />
Being in opposition to a government with a large majority doesn't mean you don't have power. Truth is hugely powerful. Some people don't recognise how much they long for it until they hear it. They may not realise how much lies and cover-ups have left them feeling assaulted until they witness integrity.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, in the US, Barack Obama is weighing in again and Joe Biden is doing a brilliant job of uniting Democrats. All of this gives me hope that good will triumph over evil, that the upsurge of the far right, with Donald Trump and Boris Johnson and their respective parties, has been more of a death rattle than the start of anything sustainable.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-7375392256975147072019-06-06T05:22:00.000-07:002019-06-06T06:07:35.508-07:00GOP Candidate Justin Amash Speaking Truth to Power<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US">It takes courage to speak to truth to power
when you're the lone voice in an entire political party but Rep Justin Amash is
undaunted. The only Republican to call for Donald Trump's impeachment, he held
a town hall in Grand Rapids Michigan on May 28 and drew standing ovations from
a crowd of about 900. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Afterwards, he tweeted a long thread highlighting
how Attorney General Barr distorted the truth of the Mueller Report to protect
the president from impeachment. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US">It may have worked in the interim, primarily
because Democrats are holding back on making a commitment that could cost them
in the 2020 elections, but eventually this corrupt house of cards will collapse
and all who have enabled the wannabe demagogue in the White House will go down
with him. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: center;">Whatever Justin Amash's fate as a
Republican politician, he will be the only one who can sleep with a clear
conscience. The man deserves a medal, and a wealth of gratitude, not just from
Americans, but from people around the world, as Trump's policies—and </span><span style="text-align: center;">the lust for power that keeps GOP
politicians slavishly enabling his neuroses and his attacks on equality, human
rights and the health of the planet—increasingly threaten world peace and
economic stability and open the door to the far right.</span><br />
<br />
Amash's tweet and the content of the full thread are below.</div>
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Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller’s report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president’s false narrative about the investigation.</div>
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) <a href="https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/1133410107461689345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-69265002920010798322019-04-22T05:16:00.002-07:002019-05-04T22:36:09.538-07:00Trump Impeachment Threat Gets Real<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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On impeaching the president, House Oversight Committee Chairman <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> told <a href="https://twitter.com/bobschieffer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bobschieffer</a> he "isn't there yet," but he "can foresee that possibly coming."<a href="https://t.co/dQk6oqvkTm">https://t.co/dQk6oqvkTm</a> <a href="https://t.co/htrlRspVEj">pic.twitter.com/htrlRspVEj</a></div>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1120042411579904000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Two narratives have emerged since the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report. One is fiction, that Trump was fully exonerated by it. AG William Barr did what he could to support the distortion, saying there's no there there, releasing a 4 page summary of the 448 page report, then, when pressured, putting out a redacted version of it.<br />
<br />
Democrats were on him like a hive of angry super-bees. But in the first few days there was a lot of focus on this exoneration narrative, even by liberal media, with many saying there was no countering it and that Democrats would shoot themselves in the foot to pursue it. There were reports that some Democrats are afraid it will make a martyr of Trump and give him such a boost that he wins in 2020. They suggested it would be better to focus on the election to get rid of Trump.<br />
<br />
He, of course, has marched around waving at crowds, shooting his mouth off. Seemingly triumphant. Hysteria patently visible just below the surface.</div>
<br />
The other narrative, supported by facts, is that the Mueller report, far from exonerating the president, provides a launch for impeachment proceedings and possible criminal indictment because, while collusion doesn't have a legal definition and isn't a federal crime, obstruction of justice does and is. Among many others, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/us/politics/mueller-report-summary.html">NYT</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/apr/18/mueller-report-trump-russia-key-takeaways">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/19/18507580/mueller-report-trump-russia-obstruction-summary">Vox</a> have covered this and exposed Trump's real vulnerability. <br />
<br />
Now Democrat Representative Jerry Nadler (NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/us/politics/Mueller-subpoena.html">issued a subpoena</a> for the unredacted report and its accompanying evidence to be submitted by 1 May, with a pledge to hold "major hearings".<br />
<br />
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indeed been wary of jumping the gun unless there's bi-partisan support for impeachment in the House and Senate. But, she isn't saying it won't happen. She's just being very measured in her response, making sure that all bases are covered. She's a great strategist and has never taken her foot off the pressure pedal. Her Communications Director and Senior Adviser Ashley Etienne said "as the Speaker has said repeatedly, one step at a time." House Committee Oversight Chairman Democratic Rep Elijah Cummings echoed that (see tweet above).<br />
<br />
However, <a href="https://www.jennifer-stewart.com/2019/04/senator-elizabeth-warren-calls-for_22.html">Senator Elizabeth Warren</a> has publicly called for impeachment. "To ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways. "<br />
<br />
Charles Blow argues for impeachment in his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/opinion/impeach-donald-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">NYT column</a>, writing, "An impeachment vote in the House has, to this point, been the strongest rebuke America is willing to give a president. I can think of no president who has earned this rebuke more than the current one. And, once a president is impeached, he is forever marked. It is a chastisement unto itself. It is the People’s House making a stand for its people."<br />
<div>
<br />
It is a fundamental moral issue, but ultimately, impeachment by the House could also be good strategy. It might give Trump a boost, but it will put a nuclear rocket under and unite Democratic voters who are phenomenally frustrated and have been crying out for action against this corrupt president ever since he was elected.<br />
<br />
Also, it will put the Senate in the same position the House is in now. If they refuse to indict, Democratic voters will be incandescent. Either way, Trump loses. <br />
<br />
Walking on eggshells around a bully never works. It gives them power. You can't back down from a fight for what's right out of fear that justice won't be found. It's a mistake to think that Nancy Pelosi and those like her are doing that or that they're cowards. They're not. They're girding their loins. It doesn't hurt Democrats overall that they're not united; in fact the two positions reinforce each other. And for all his insistence that he's been cleared, Trump is terrified, ranting and scapegoating on Twitter, truth be damned as always.<br />
<br />
He's on the run. Democrats are keeping it that way. They're circling him. Closing in on him. From every direction.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-82774910902402453042019-04-22T03:47:00.004-07:002019-04-22T03:51:11.141-07:00Senator Elizabeth Warren Calls for Trump's Impeachment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align center" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
I was out in Utah talking about environmental issues & on the plane back, the Mueller report came out—so I started reading, & read late into the night. The report hands this now to Congress & the fundamental question for us is: "Is there going to be some accountability here?" <a href="https://t.co/3Wk7ZFC8I0">pic.twitter.com/3Wk7ZFC8I0</a></div>
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1119639531379150850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
'The Mueller report lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump and Donald Trump welcomed that help. Once elected, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> obstructed the investigation into that attack. <br />
<br />
Mueller put the next step in the hands of Congress: “Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.” The correct process for exercising that authority is impeachment.<br />
<br />
To ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways.<br />
<br />
The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.'<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren" target="_blank">Senator Elizabeth Warren</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-81576348435302483922018-09-29T02:07:00.000-07:002019-04-22T02:08:04.166-07:00Attempts to Discredit Dr. Christine Blasey Ford<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's anonymous
accusations of sexual abuse by Brett Kavanaugh in the 1980s were first
revealed, Republicans, so sure of their power, were slow to realize the danger
their candidate for the Supreme Court was in. Denials, support for Kavanaugh,
dismissals of Ford, flooded the media. Republicans insisted that the Committee vote would
happen as scheduled. </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It seemed that their strategy to ram this
nominee into the Supreme Court would work. But in a time when news cycles spin
at the speed of light, this story was no different. Within days Dr. Ford had
gone public. The majority of Republicans stood by their man, but a couple realized
the danger they were in come re-election time and backed down enough to call
for a delay to the vote. Given the GOP's
slim majority in the Senate, it was enough. Both parties were invited to
testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but only under very restrictive
terms. No FBI or Senate investigation into the allegations, and no corroborating
or character witnesses.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Mr. Kavanaugh was fine with that, but Dr.
Ford wasn't. She said she would testify if the FBI reopened their investigation
into Kavanaugh's background, specifically to investigate her allegations. They
could, but not without White House approval, which was withheld, under the
pretext "the FBI doesn't do that". Which isn't true. They do. It's
their job. <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/sep/20/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrong-fbi-limits-kavanaugh-supreme-co/">And
they have done it</a>, in exactly the same circumstances, when Anita Hill
accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/sep/20/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrong-fbi-limits-kavanaugh-supreme-co/"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
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<span lang="EN-US">Fully aware of the falsity of the
president's assertion, nonetheless Republicans vetoed the investigation, saying
they were willing to give Dr. Ford a chance to speak, but that if she didn't
want it, the Committee vote would go ahead. As if she were some kind of sulky
schoolgirl who had been offered cake but didn't want it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Her loss, then. In a feeble attempt to
justify their lack of interest in getting to the truth, and to placate those of
their constituents who find Dr. Ford's allegations credible, mutterings were
made about "mistaken identity". It was so long ago, Dr. Ford could
easily have forgotten who really abused her. That theory was debunked instantly
by a number of credible sources. NYT columnist <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/09/20/charles-blow-christine-ford-kavanaugh-cuomo-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/reaction-to-brett-kavanaugh-allegation/">Charles
Blow</a> addressed the issue when he spoke frankly on CNN about his experience
with abuse.</span></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Please take five minutes to watch this important and profound statement from <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a> columnist <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CharlesMBlow</a>, who discusses his own experience with child sexual abuse and helps us understand what Professor Ford is going through and how to support her. <a href="https://t.co/JeDjbG3Phs">pic.twitter.com/JeDjbG3Phs</a></div>
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) <a href="https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1042628936008646658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Enter Ed Whelan, friend and slavish fan of Judge
Kavanaugh, and, ironically given his behavior in the last few days, president
of the conservative think tank the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Assisted by a prominent Virginia PR firm, CRC
Public Relations, Whelan produced "evidence" that Dr. Ford's abuser
was a high school classmate of Kavanaugh's, namely a photograph showing how
allegedly similar the two friends looked (they don't), and floor plans of the
house Whelan identified as the location of the abuse. He included the name of the
new suspect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Dr. Ford rejected the claim immediately and
it was exposed as pure fabrication. Tail between his legs, Wheelan retracted
his allegations, and apologized
obsequiously. Too little too late for the innocent man.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Republicans, originally excited by
Whelan's story, now distanced themselves from him as fast as they could. Then <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/spokesman-gop-kavanaugh-nomination-resigns-has-been-accused-harassment-past-n912156">news
broke</a> that Garrett Ventry, who was on a leave of absence from CRC to work
help lead the Senate Judiciary's response to Dr. Ford's allegations against Mr.
Kavanaugh, was himself fired from a previous job in part because of an
allegation of sexual misconduct.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
Take a moment to think about that. Both Whelan and Ventry have been hustled off stage.<br />
<br />
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</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-91027224140913555062018-09-27T23:05:00.000-07:002020-05-20T22:51:34.771-07:00Former President Barack Obama Shows Leadership <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mL-OD_sknKE/Wr64Px_NTRI/AAAAAAAAC-U/9vSxze98VaMCIS4suQcAUxaqsILmc1gaACLcBGAs/s1600/Obama%2Bfor%2Bblog%2B18%2BAug%2B2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="477" height="277" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mL-OD_sknKE/Wr64Px_NTRI/AAAAAAAAC-U/9vSxze98VaMCIS4suQcAUxaqsILmc1gaACLcBGAs/s400/Obama%2Bfor%2Bblog%2B18%2BAug%2B2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." <a href="https://t.co/InZ58zkoAm">pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm</a></div>
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/896523232098078720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
"...For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson Mandela</div>
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/896523357272911872">August 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love..."</div>
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/896523304873238528">August 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
With three simple
tweets, former President Barack Obama gave Americans across the spectrum, and
people around the world, what they longed for in the face of the <a href="http://www.jennifer-stewart.com/2017/08/trump-throws-his-weight-behind-white.html">Charlottesville
tragedy</a>: wisdom, sanity, compassion, leadership. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It's been distressing to watch how the current administration has laid siege to
everything that the best of America stands for and all the progress made by Barack
and Michelle Obama and Obama's administration. When this couple were in the
White House it was a place of knowledge, experience, respect, dignity, wisdom, inclusion,
joy, exuberance, celebration of life and of people from every walk of life. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The shock of the
election result wore off quickly, leaving grief, outrage and determination to preserve
values without which no society can exist for long without imploding. The
resistance, from Democratic politicians, citizens, academia and the liberal
media, has been valiant and successful. But the constant deluge of scandals,
back-biting, lies—scum of the earth stuff—has been exhausting to witness. It's hard to resist the idea that social progress in
the US is being swamped and that everything the Obamas worked towards, every
battle fought and won over the years for Civil Rights, equality and justice has
been lost. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But the truth is that in the battle between Good and evil, so well illustrated by Charlottesville,
and Donald Trump equating white supremacists and Nazi supporters to
counter-protesters, Good has triumphed as Republicans, Democrats and world
leaders condemned the president's support of what has been recognized as evil for a
long time now. Nobody but Mr. Trump believes these people have a place at the table. Nobody but Mike Pence has stood with Trump.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Good can seem fragile
in this battle, when overshadowed by monstrous forces, but in truth it has
roots sinking deep into the human psyche, into societies. And that gives it,
ultimately, much greater power.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
America's social progress
hasn't ever been a smooth journey. But it's been a real one with real
successes. They, and the achievements of Barack Obama and his administration
have been assailed, but not dismantled in a way that can't be fixed, even though the government is entirely GOP-controlled. Republicans are at war with each other and their constituents, and the 2018 mid-terms loom. The Trump administration has bully power but nothing else and it is
disintegrating at the speed of light, as is the president, by all accounts. Out of
control, still obsessed with his campaign, he's been firing people at random
when they get more attention than him or displease him, creating such havoc
that nobody wants to work for him.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now he's fired Steve
Bannon, who has gone back to Breitbart News, thrilled at the prospect of war with
the administration. Or <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/08/18/bannon-the-trump-presidency-is-over/">so he
says</a>, as reported by The New York Post. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The president's support base is reportedly shrinking, but former president Barack Obama's tweets about Charlottesville broke the
record for the most Twitter likes. That's a pretty direct poll. And he's not
getting any press coverage these days. There's power in the man, the kind that
lasts because it has love and integrity as a foundation; it's the kind that
rewards and builds.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In this existential
battle in America—one that all of us can relate to in some way or another in our
lives—Good has trodden and is still treading a steady path towards victory. It
will come and then we'll see that social progress is not destructible by evil. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-39821900016985981662018-09-18T15:21:00.000-07:002019-04-22T05:40:44.245-07:00Kavanaugh Confirmation Vote Delayed by #MeToo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4747547/sen-hirono-judge-kavanaugh-heated-exchange-sexual-harassment-judicial-branch" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="512" height="324" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CDRLrObQZos/W6F433phpqI/AAAAAAAADD4/Ppjk1h41juU7k0iTcJaqK6Vbc-DtxCyfwCLcBGAs/s640/Sen%2BHirono%2BKavanaugh.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Judge Kavanaugh. Chief Justice John Roberts has recognized that, quote, "the judicial branch is not immune" end quote, from the widespread problem of sexual harassment and assault and has taken steps to address this issue. As part of my responsibility as a member of this committee to ensure the fitness of nominees for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, I ask each nominee two questions. First question for you: since you became a legal adult have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature?</i></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Senator Maisie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asked this
of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing on Sept. 5
2018. </span>Judge Kavanaugh answered without
hesitation. "No," he said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A week later, news broke of an
accusation that he sexually assaulted a girl when they were both at school in
the 1980s. The accuser had reported the incident via a tip-line in early July,
asking that her identity be kept secret. The complaint had made its way to
Senator Feinstein, who honored that request. Somehow, unbeknownst to the
Senator, the story was leaked, although initially the accuser's identity was
still unknown.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kavanaugh denied the accusations hotly. But
in twelve days what started out as a flicker of a problem for him and those who
want him confirmed erupted into a firestorm, driven by what is now the
considerable heft of #MeToo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at
Palo Alto University who teaches clinical psychology to graduates in a
consortium with Standford University, decided to come out publicly with her
accusation, in an explosive interview with the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html?utm_term=.4732e831d1ab">Washington
Post</a>. She alleged that 17 year-old Brett Kavanaugh and a friend of his,
Mark Judge, both highly intoxicated, corralled her into a bedroom at a party,
locked the door and turned up the music. Kavanaugh then pinned her down and
tried to strip her and force himself on her, covering her mouth to prevent her
from screaming or calling for help. </span>Ford was 15 years old and feared that
Kavanaugh might inadvertently kill her. She alleged that Judge kept calling
out, first saying "go for it" then "stop". She managed to escape, and tried,
unsuccessfully to bury the trauma, until 2012, when she revealed what had
happened, in therapy sessions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Mr.
Kavanaugh again denied the allegations, saying he had never met Dr. Ford, and was willing to testify
before the Senate Judiciary Committee in defense of his integrity. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Blasey Ford also said she would
testify. Adding weight to her credibility is that in August, at the suggestion
of her lawyer Debra Katz, she took and passed a polygraph, administered by an
FBI official. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PA0HQgUP9yo" width="560"></iframe>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For a few days Senate Republicans doggedly
stood by their man and insisted that the confirmation vote on Thursday would go
through. Even the two moderate Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa
Murkowski were tight lipped, despite huge pressure having already been brought
to bear on them from their female constituents to reject Mr. Kavanaugh. A <a href="https://www.crowdpac.com/campaigns/387413/either-sen-collins-votes-no-on-kavanaugh-or-we-fund-her-future-opponent">crowdsourcing
campaign</a> set up by some Maine voters vowing to support Senator Collins'
opponent in 2020 if she votes for Mr. Kavanaugh, has raised over $1.3m. Senator
Murkowski has repeatedly been reminded of her tweet calling for Sen. Al
Franken's resignation for a far less severe allegation. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
We’re seeing a culture of harassment & assault being exposed on a daily basis. Whether you are in the media, politics, or anywhere else abuse of power is unacceptable & shouldn’t be tolerated at any place at any level. Sen. Franken must know that & that’s why he must step down.</div>
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/lisamurkowski/status/938505991511003137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Senator Murkowski hasn't felt the same about Mr. Kavanaugh. It seemed frustratingly clear that he and those who desperately want him in the Supreme Court were banking on the
"who cares?" precedent set by the response to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/clarence-thomas-anita-hill-me-too/548624/" target="_blank">Anita Hill's accusations </a>against then Judge Clarence Thomas. Who is now an Associate Justice. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A lot of people believed Ms. Hill's version
of events and cared deeply, but they didn't have enough power to halt that
confirmation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Much has changed since then. This
confirmation is taking place in the midst of a #MeToo revolution, and the court
of public opinion has developed real political power, making it impossible to
sweep sexual misdeeds under the carpet, no matter how long ago they occurred. Yesterday, Republican Senators
Flake and Cornyn said they would not be comfortable voting for Mr. Kavanaugh
until this issue has been cleared up, and Sens. Collins and Murkowski said they
wanted to hear both sides. Even Kellyanne Conway said that Dr. Ford should not
be ignored, after Donald Trump Jr. mocked Dr. Ford in a tweet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It marked a turning point. Today news broke
that the vote scheduled for Thursday has been postponed and that both Mr.
Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey Ford will testify on Monday. It's a major triumph for
every woman who's ever been assaulted. A triumph for justice and for functional
democracy which requires that politicians listen to their constituents and
truly represent their interests.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In his testimony Judge Kavanaugh can
categorically deny that he assaulted Dr. Ford, and it will be his word against
hers. That she's taken a polygraph of her own volition speaks volumes. Will
Kavanaugh do the same? She's a credible person and over <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/christine-blasey-ford-holton-arms-brett-kavanaugh_us_5b9fb3c2e4b04d32ebfabbc6">200
women</a> who know her have attested to her character. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kavanaugh, however, has very recently and
provably distanced himself from the truth in the hearings. 93% of his record
was withheld for the confirmation hearings. His main witness to the alleged
assault, Mark Judge, was by his own account an alcoholic at the time and often
blind drunk. And of the 65 women who Republicans garnered to swear to Kavanaugh's
character, before Blasey Ford went public, 7 have now reiterated their support, but 5 have declined to comment and
dozens of others either declined to comment or could not be reached, according
to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/16/trump-kavanaugh-allegations-response-826069">Politico</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Whether Mr. Kavanaugh takes a polygraph or
not, can he legitimately deny that he went through a period at a very
permissive school when he drank a lot? He may want to be careful about
categorical denials here, because there would have been plenty of witnesses.
Once that cat is definitively out the bag, Mr. Kavanaugh's denial about the
assault will be meaningless. He might believe he didn't assault Dr. Ford purely
because he can't remember the night in question. </span>The forthcoming testimony isn't a court of
law, but already, judging by the backtracking coming from Republican Senators,
circumstantial evidence is piling up to the point of being impossible to
ignore.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And how many times have men guilty of
assault, from Catholic priests to Hollywood celebrities to the current US
President, claimed their innocence?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/opinion/editorials/brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-hearings.html">NYT
editorial board</a> noted, Mr. Kavanaugh has a questionable relationship with
the truth. He got away with obfuscating it many times in the hearings because
so much of his CV was withheld and because even when it was obvious that he was
lying, Republicans didn't care. But it's doubtful that he can lie his way out
of this one. Not because Republicans suddenly care about the truth, but because
of the heft of #MeToo. Democracy in action.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Bravo to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. May she
be well protected. </span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-68797509796096282672018-09-02T02:39:00.000-07:002018-09-06T02:47:20.503-07:00You did good, Senator John McCain, thank you. Rest in Peace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L370lLLvk9g/W5D1A8HS77I/AAAAAAAADDo/OReR8N0zK5cuhtEEDSxQuwH54zwKn_PWwCLcBGAs/s1600/McCainWithSquadron%2B60%2Bpercent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="608" height="318" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L370lLLvk9g/W5D1A8HS77I/AAAAAAAADDo/OReR8N0zK5cuhtEEDSxQuwH54zwKn_PWwCLcBGAs/s400/McCainWithSquadron%2B60%2Bpercent.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
US Navy Library of Congress</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
At John McCain's funeral service the tributes were moving and inspiring and as truthful and unpretentious as the man who was shot down, badly injured and captured by North Vietnamese, and was a prisoner of war for 5 years, enduring torture and refusing early release out of solidarity with fellow prisoners. Who, on his return, entered politics and served as a Representative and then Senator for 36 years.<br />
<br />
But the most moving of all was Meghan McCain's eulogy to her father who she loved so deeply. She didn't hold her tears back but spoke fiercely and passionately and with the most wonderful articulacy. She unequivocally rebuked and condemned the current president and his behavior without naming him.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_LmvhY5oxic" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
Everybody who spoke did that today, including 95 year old Henry Kissinger. As John McCain undoubtedly knew they would.<br />
<br />
Barack Obama and George Bush spoke their truths about their personal and political relationships with him. They used the platform to promote unity and the ideals McCain believed in that they share. There was plenty of wry humor, but they both always brought it back to the most important thing about McCain - that he believed in equality and never treated a person differently on account of their religion, race or gender. That he spoke his truth to authority without fear. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4ahjLKag4kc" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
The entire ceremony was transfixing. The tremendous respect was foremost and the grief was palpable. Rest in Peace Senator McCain. You did good, choreographing this service the way you did. Bringing people together. This was a sobering and wonderful moment in American history.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-85009664473080119202018-03-30T09:32:00.000-07:002018-03-30T16:20:15.693-07:00In Pursuit of Justice and Equality - and Truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H6lE5pai9fw?rel=0&start=137" width="560"></iframe>
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US">"One of the biggest challenges we have
to our democracy is the degree to which we don't share a common baseline of
facts." President Barack Obama on David Letterman's <i>My Next Guest Needs No
Introduction.</i></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
Aristotle would
have agreed with Obama. In his <a href="http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2012/09/principles-of-democracy-aristotle-politics-loeb-classical-library.html" target="_blank">treatise on politics</a> he wrote, "On questions of equality and justice, even
though it is very difficult to discover the truth about them, nevertheless it
is easier to hit upon it than to persuade people that have the power to get an
advantage to agree to it; equality and justice are always sought by the weaker
party, but those that have the upper hand pay no attention to them." He would have enjoyed meeting Obama, the exception to prove the rule, but would
probably have shrugged his shoulders at the current US president and said, "You see?" <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
However, he
might have been unpleasantly surprised at just how much more difficult it is
now for civilians to hit upon the truth about anything, let alone what concerns
equality and justice, despite our unfettered access to this hallmark of the
21st century, <i>information</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">'ve
been totally enamored of and seduced by it, blindly believing in general that the
accumulation of it equates to wisdom, and that in the political arena, where the
controls lie for developing, protecting and promoting social equality and justice, the more information we have about
candidates and the consequences of their behavior, the better our voting
choices can be. But if that were true, given that there's a glut of
information now, the world would be barreling along in peace, prosperity and
national and international harmony. There would be no poverty, great divides in
income or discrimination of any kind. Equality
and justice would reign supreme.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Instead, established dictators are still getting
away with murder and being congratulated by world leaders for corrupted
elections. Leaders with ambition to be dictators are entrenching themselves in
power, and vast swathes of super-malleable citizens are being tossed and tumbled
about helplessly in tsunamis of terror at the prospect of losing forever a
status quo that was never honestly earned and always gained at the expense of somebody or other. <i>Stolen.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The primary tenets of democracy, once so
easily identifiable, seem to be losing their definition and potency, wasting
away like the muscles of a cancer victim, leaving a skeleton. A lifeless, pitiful, vestigial thing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Equality, freedom, justice; societies that
operate on an understanding that the best interests for all must be enshrined—that's
what we think our western democracies protect. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But democracy simply gives power to whoever garners the most votes. If
the voting system is skewed to provide better voting opportunity to supporters of a corrupt and unqualified candidate, or lies are spread about that candidate's opponent, no matter how well qualified they are, and those who know the truth don't fight hard enough, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">democracy</i> will prevail, but the democratically elected leader will be destructive for all.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We'll be in the realm of dictatorships, whether or
not we see that we've actually chosen it by default, by not holding our
politicians to account, but mostly by not holding ourselves to account and taking
responsibility for the information we soak up and share and act upon. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">The nightmare won't end until we get it, that
information isn't necessarily truth, and until truth is re-established and the
majority of the electorate want it and are capable of discerning it.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“If we are not serious about facts and
what’s true and what’s not, and particularly in an age of social media when so
many people are getting their information in sound bites and off their phones,
if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have
problems.” </span>Barack Obama, on Nov 17 2016 in Berlin. </blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There's no escaping it; the problems he warned us of have burgeoned. The truth
is that we turned our eyes away from the reality that the platform for the free
flow of information has been a tool that's enabled the worst in us. Using the
platform, we've actively facilitated
bombardment of misinformation and have ourselves become a tool for blurring the line
between truth and lies so much that many can't tell the difference any more. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caught by thine own springe. </i></span><br />
<br />
Brexit
and the 2016 US elections woke us up to a living nightmare. Digital
technologies, which we've practically made a god of, were used, primarily by
Russia, to seduce citizens into thwarting the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purpose</i> of democracy, which is to create a system that protects and
nurtures the best in humanity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So now our
democracies in the West are being torn apart and the doors are open wide for an
autocrat with malintent, either actively pursuing destruction, or hell-bent on
it by virtue of being narcissistic, intellectually challenged, over-entitled and
enabled, dysfunctional, overridden by prejudice and fear, and totally out of
control. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It's
dismaying to see how easily misinformation wormed its way into the West through
technologies that have been so helpful in every other way. Terrifying to see
how easily so many were conned. We watch footage of North Korea and can see how
brainwashed the citizens are. It's obscene;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we're quick to cry foul, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can't
they see how they're being manipulated? </i>We proudly believe that in the West
we have much more control over our minds. </span>Yet a
slim majority in the UK voted to leave the EU on the strength of promises made
that nobody ever had any intention of fulfilling.<br />
<br />
Across the Atlantic, America
voted in an incompetent bigot and the world has been gasping in horror daily for
almost a year and a quarter at every new presidential assault on the values
that sustain healthy societies and international relationships.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">For now,
it looks as if the line between truth and misinformation has been irrevocably
blurred for millions and that bigotry, racism, sexism, persecution, are on the
ascendancy, especially in the world's allegedly strongest democracy. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It's been
virtually brought to its knees by a president who, on the campaign, promoted misinformation, exploited race-based fear and
fabricated a 'reality' of carnage within and massive international threat from
without. His actions in the White House have savaged the rights and safety of minorities,
undermined the strong social fabric and economy established by Barack Obama and his
Administration, reset the climate change dial onto fast forward, disrupted the
international culture of diplomacy reintroduced by Obama. He has antagonized
former allies and jeopardized world trade and world stability. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In the
UK, the fallacy of Brexiteers' promise of freedom from pestilential immigrants and greater economic strength and power in independence from that poncy EU has been exposed, as reality
plays out. </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2018/mar/28/11-brexit-promises-leavers-quietly-dropped"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Guardian</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> has tracked 11 promises made that have been
broken. And the government is led by a woman who was a Remainer. </span></span>The Prime Minister, when asked on camera whether Brexit will have been worth the price paid, like young George Washington, couldn't tell the lie. She appears to
have taken seriously her role, seeing it as her responsibility to lead the government to do the will
of the people, but it's an impossible task. What the very slender
majority wanted isn't achievable.<br />
<br />
And, as that's becoming increasingly apparent,
calls for another referendum are gaining momentum. <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">For all
we know, the majority might not want Brexit at all any more. As for the US, the
president won with a minority vote. </span>So who are
the US and British governments serving? Not the will of the people in the way we understand it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The will of
the fearful minority, the prejudiced, the misinformed and misled, i.e. the far right,
which feeds off untruth and which has gained power in other countries, perhaps encouraged by the UK and the US: France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the
Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, Austria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highly exploitable themselves, the far right has used the tools used
against them, primarily by Russian operatives, to exploit the fear and economic need of their friends
and neighbors.<br />
<br />
In the US, still for now the most powerful country in the world,
far right Republicans have jumped on that bandwagon, and organizations like the
NRA have had their field day exploiting it all. It's a hall of distorting mirrors
in a tunnel of horrors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Digital
technologies. They've sped up the flow of information, which works for good and
bad. But they've also made the consequences of whatever choices we make that
much more imminent. Ironically, that could be our saving grace. We can't hide
for very long from our own mistakes as citizens any more. We have to think
about and question what we read, watch, write, say, create, because when we
irresponsibly pursue and share salacious misinformation we con ourselves and
others, and add another signature to the death warrant of our democracies, paving
the way for dictators. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We sow discord and reap the nightmare harvest very
quickly, laying waste to the social fabric of our world and leaving it in chaos
for our children to clean up the mess. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Far
better to get to work now to clean up our own mess, take responsibility for our
actions and our minds. Seek out truth, spurn and expose misinformation. Vote in
droves for politicians who do the same. It's achievable. We can do it. Yes we
can.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">"For generations we have known of knowledge’s infinite power.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Yet somehow, we’ve never questioned the keeper of the keys —</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> The guardians of information." – <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/16/05/lift">Donovan Livingston</a>, Harvard speech</span></blockquote>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-45523629452040075912017-08-16T12:51:00.000-07:002017-08-16T13:12:07.364-07:00Trump Throws His Weight Behind White Supremacists & Nazi Supporters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/world/video/2017/aug/12/far-right-crowd-marches-on-university-of-virginia-campus-video" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
On Tuesday the world
watched in sheer abhorrence as the US president, speaking at length for himself
and without a teleprompter, unequivocally laid equal blame on the protests
against racism and bigotry—which he called the alt-left—and the KKK, white
supremacists and Nazi supporters gathered in Charlottesville. <o:p></o:p><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In the largest
gathering in decades, and as if the Civil Rights Era had never happened, white
supremacists descended at night on the University town of Charlottesville,
Virginia with burning torches, confederate flags, nazi symbols and rifles, chanting
"You will not replace us / Jews will not replace us". They surrounded
a small group of non-violent counter protestors gathered at the statue of Thomas
Jefferson. Shock and horror rippled
throughout the country and beyond its borders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US">“I cannot believe in my heart what
I am witnessing today in America. I wanted to think not only as an elected
official, but as a human being that we had made more progress. It troubles me a
great deal.” Rep. John Lewis.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But not, apparently,
in the White House, which was mute. The next day, white supremacists, itching
for a fight, attacked those protesting against them in ugly violence which
culminated in a Nazi supporter gunning his car into a peaceful gathering of
protestors, injuring 19 and killing Heather Heyer, a courageous young woman who
had dedicated her life to fighting bigotry and hate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Donald Trump, the man
who can't control his Twitter compulsion, waited until late in the day to even
comment. His repugnant refusal to name and shame the KKK, Nazi supporters and
white supremacists drew immediate bi-partisan fire, Democrats not afraid to
directly criticize the president. Some Republicans joined them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The next day, in a
strangely surreal mini-speech, Trump, newly coiffed and made up, did as he had
obviously been told to. He read clumsily from a teleprompter words that had
been patently written by somebody else. Words that he was very uncomfortable
with. Anybody who was fooled hasn't been paying attention for a very long time.
Those of us who have, weren't surprised when he broke out and said what he
really wanted to say on Tuesday at a "press conference" that was mean
to be about infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It didn't take Trump
long to dump the script and lash out at length at the counter protesters,
calling them the alt-left, blaming them for their violence and for attacking
the white supremacists and fascists, giving them an unequivocal boost.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WjFWnnswDIY/WZSjphMdF-I/AAAAAAAAC0Y/4XvY2smtbb4uGxkzBsYY4fmGbMTv8hXfACLcBGAs/s1600/John%2BKelly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="306" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WjFWnnswDIY/WZSjphMdF-I/AAAAAAAAC0Y/4XvY2smtbb4uGxkzBsYY4fmGbMTv8hXfACLcBGAs/s320/John%2BKelly.jpg" width="276" /></a></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
General Kelly stood behind Trump, severely troubled. Did he really think he could control this terrible excuse for a man? Kudos to him for being bothered, but he should have been severely horrified long ago, enough to refuse the job and publicly condemn Trump and his administration.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
Other Republicans also
reacted immediately, except for Mike Pence of course, who praised Trump for
meaning what he says and saying what he means. Hard to understand the logic of
that, given his teleprompted little speech the previous day. There is only one way
for Republicans to illustrate that they have any integrity at all.
Unequivocally condemn Trump, get rid of him, and clean out his administration. <span lang="EN-US">Any Republican who doesn't do that? Their words of protest now are
meaningless. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">America has a white supremacist supporter, a bigot, a serial sexual
abuser, a snake oil salesman, a liar, a cheat and a very stupid man with severe
personality disorders for a president, and too many Republicans have been fine with it. They
may criticize him but they don't care enough to protect their country from him.
And that's the truth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Fortunately, the majority of America do care. Even Trump's base is
dwindling. Ultimately all he'll be left with will be the KKK, neo-nazis and
white supremacists. The toxic dregs of American society.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/830617728" id="4kgT9j0HSxlK9a-yb8l0qA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'4kgT9j0HSxlK9a-yb8l0qA',sig:'D8MqOEzfHZ2Y4OjKwrNpgG_S6UHOCYrgK4JY_gckGMI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'830617728',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script>
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Democrats care a great deal. They have lashed out at Trump in no
uncertain terms. Stalwart of integrity, Civil Rights pioneer and icon
Congressman John Lewis, who has courageously and unerringly devoted his life to
defending Civil Rights and said in January that he didn't consider Trump to be
a legitimate president, spoke out at a town hall meeting in East Point Georgia.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"It troubles me a great deal… Speak
up, speak out, get in the way, get in trouble - good trouble and necessary
trouble. We have to tell our people to
get out and participate in the democratic process."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And while all of this is going on, the
Russia investigation is ramping up. To date, analysts have had little faith in
the likelihood of impeachment, which would need a Republican Congress to act. </span>Recently, as Trump has gotten more and more out of control, more Republicans
are either speaking out clearly against him, or drifting away. Suddenly,
impeachment is starting to look like a real option, because if the GOP lets Trump stay he'll take them all down with him.<br />
<br />
It's
been obvious from the start but they haven't wanted to face it. It's becoming
harder and harder to ignore. America will be rid of this
scourge. The world will breathe a sigh of relief. Until he goes, a Washington Post editorial says it all. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nation-can-only-weep/2017/08/15/d9bd9a10-8202-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.c18733dd6e61" target="_blank">The nation can only weep.</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That car in Charlottesville did not kill or wound just the 20 bodies it struck. It damaged the nation. Mr. Trump not only failed to help the country heal; he made the wound wider and deeper.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."-Wiesel</div>
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/897601315009855488">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>
</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-84423449279618946732017-08-12T00:00:00.000-07:002017-08-12T08:28:02.641-07:00US President Thrills at the Idea of Killing Hundreds of Thousands<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="321" id="nyt_video_player" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://static01.nyt.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000005355708" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" width="480"></iframe>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
"There are no mixed messages… There are no mixed messages… North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." Apart from Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Lest we forget.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Relishing the idea of killing and maiming hundreds of people in the cruelest way imaginable, the US
president continues to recklessly up his rhetoric, poking his middle finger in the eye of a sociopath. Because it makes him look strong. In his own eyes. In those of most Americans and the
rest of the world? Not so much. The administration reiterates ad nauseam that there are no mixed messages, but of course it's just another alternative fact to add to the Trump Administration Collection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Rex Tillerson has oxymoronically tried to perform the magic trick of toning down the inflammatory rhetoric, while also rationalizing it. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has spoken with solemnity, pointing out that nobody needs to be
reminded of the terrible damage done by nuclear war. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Nobody but the US
president. And neither of them are telling him to zip it. Nor is General Kelly. Apparently that's not his job. Senator Lindsay Graham is enabling Trump, as is Nikki Haley and any number of
other Republicans who cling to power, no matter the cost to any number of human beings
on earth. Including Guam residents, who could be the first Americans to go. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Trump had this to say
to Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US">"Tourism, I can tell you this —
tourism, you're going to go up like 10-fold with the expenditure of no money so
I congratulate you… We are with you 1,000 per cent, you are safe…You've become
extremely famous. All over the world they are talking about Guam, and they are
talking about you."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Calvo's response was
that he felt 100% safe with Trump as president. The mind boggles. Fortunately,
some sanity prevails in Guam, whose <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/11/health/guam-homeland-security-attack-preparation-list-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">Homeland Security Agency</a> put out advice for
residents in the event of an "imminent missile threat". Residents should
create emergency supply kits, have an emergency plan, and make a list of
concrete shelters close by, especially ones underground. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When an attack
warning is sounded they mustn't look at the flash or fireball because it can
blind, and they must run for cover. However, <span lang="EN-US">"Fallout
radiation loses its intensity fairly rapidly. In time you will be able to leave
a fallout shelter." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">The Homeland Security website also has a link to an American Red
Cross guide on how to shelter-in-place if there's a chemical or radiation
attack.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
If Kim Jong-un
launches missiles, the US has to hope that its missile detection and
destruction facility works. Wolf Blitzer spoke to a military analyst who said it's been tested but never tried. It would take 14 minutes for a N. Korean ICBM to reach Guam, but the decision to destroy it or not has to happen immediately the launch has been detected. The US literally has a couple of minutes to make a decision to destroy the
missile or let it continue, judging that it will land in the ocean and isn't dangerous.<br />
<br />
If they get it wrong; if the missile doesn't have a miniaturized nuclear warhead and would
have landed in the sea but the US destroys it, preferring to err on the side of caution, Kim Jong-un has justification in his own mind for a real attack.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And the US president, a man with the
personality disorder, has his finger on the red button. But, sure, Donald Trump, show the world how powerful
America is. That's real manhood. Real strength of character. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-50846471158599943562017-08-08T21:28:00.000-07:002019-06-06T06:47:03.110-07:00Hiroshima and Nagasaki Revisited as Trump Provokes N. Korea's Kim Jong-un?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/05/hiroshima-before-and-after-the-atomic-bombing/482526/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="717" height="349" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DCvRM5dSbqU/Wr69kUpIq_I/AAAAAAAAC-w/bLAC-fLwWoYpme9AOTUvuDAu533nFZhewCLcBGAs/s640/Hiroshima%2B1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
On this day, 1945,
the US dropped a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, instantly killing about 40,000 people,
having dropped the world's first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima three days earlier. The horror has lived on in everybody's minds and hearts.</div>
</div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yet yesterday, Donald
Trump threatened N. Korea with "fire and fury" over its nuclear
capacity and its own threat to destroy the US. The world watches, tense, as
this out of control, intellectually challenged man, unleashes his ego, too
narcissistic to understand the consequences and how close he's pushing the whole
world towards nuclear confrontation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When asked what the
government was going to do about N. Korea a short while ago, he said vacuously,
"We'll manage it, we'll manage it." He wouldn't take any more
questions on the subject. Because he didn't have a clue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It's been 201 days of this inept, dysfunctional American president with severe personality
disorders, living in a private bubble utterly detached from reality. Surrounded
by bottom-feeders and acolytes, scrabbling for power like a bunch of starving
hyenas attacking a bloody carcass, snarling and tearing at each other. The
leader of the free world isolating America from international trade, separating
it from the free and the just. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
An ultra conservative
government, largely driven by Evangelical Christian 'principles', dragging the
most powerful democracy back into pre Civil Rights days wherever it can, back
into discrimination, unfair treatment, bigotry, sexism and xenophobia. A
climate change denier in charge of the environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The list goes on.
It's endless now. Over 200 days of human rights violations, scandals,
vulgarities, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html" target="_blank">lies</a>, corrupted souls,
hiring and firing at the whim of a sick man addicted to himself and his
TV enablers. Furiously trying to cover his Russian connection tracks and losing
the battle fast. Swamped by the relentless push of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/trump-russia-investigations/?utm_term=.482ac34c88e7" target="_blank">5 major investigations</a>. Desperately trying to distract, failing abysmally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 107.25pt;">
Hemorrhaging
popularity and <a href="https://r-login.wordpress.com/remote-login.php?action=auth&host=nypost.com&id=56757169&back=http%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2017%2F08%2F08%2Famericans-are-losing-trust-in-trumps-white-house-poll%2F&h=" target="_blank">trust</a>, even in his ever dwindling base. The whole world worrying
about how he'll cope with a real, international disaster. And now it's about to
happen, only he's the author of it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 107.25pt;">
Nuclear
confrontation has suddenly and by degrees become a reality for all of us, as
the sick man with tiny fingers recklessly provokes the world's most frightening
sociopath, Who, it turns out, has the capacity to target the US with intercontinental
ballistic missiles that have miniaturized nuclear warheads attached. It's alarming
how so many military analysts are saying that Kim Jong-un isn't insane, he's
strategic, he knows what he's doing, and he's homicidal but not suicidal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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He's just
saber-rattling, saying that he'll destroy America. The only way to deal with
him is to push back, show him that America means business. Threaten to annihilate
N. Korea. He'll buckle. He knows that a full-on US attack will destroy his
country. He doesn't want that. He just wants to be safe, he wants a deterrent,
and to be treated like one of the big guys at the table.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
They were wrong about
how developed N. Korea's nuclear capacity is. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-now-making-missile-ready-nuclear-weapons-us-analysts-say/2017/08/08/e14b882a-7b6b-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews&utm">Washington
Post</a> reveal surprised everybody. Anything from 25 to 60 missiles that could
reach the west coast of the US and possibly even New York. But they're not wrong about Kim Jong-un?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The worry is that these military analysts are still burying their heads in the sand. The problem with
sociopaths is that they don't function the way most of us do. They don't have a
stabilizing component in their brains. They can be supremely logical, sure; but
their wires are crossed, and their rationale for behaving anti-socially makes
sense to them. We have a prime example in Donald Trump. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Watching Kim Jong-un
survey his gigantic weapons displays, and his mechanized,
mind-vacated, supremely controllable puppet troops and citizens, it doesn't take a
genius to see orgasmic satisfaction that is insane. Out of control. Push him
too far with threats and there's no guarantee that he won't lose it and push
back with an attack because it will give him an orgasm. It'll be too late then, as American cities burn à la
Nagasaki and Hiroshima, to say, <i>Damn! We were
wrong.</i> <o:p></o:p>Too late, also, for Trump voters—and die-hard Bernie Sanders fans—to realize they made a mistake.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/568884547" id="sxstSM9wTX9yk9RFZOMWAQ" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"></a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'sxstSM9wTX9yk9RFZOMWAQ',sig:'11OwlEJhWfPJpNPMrj_YD0KZCBcCBQldIDelutHYTn0=',w:'428px',h:'594px',items:'568884547',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script>
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<br /></div>
Some of them might
even be dead. Or mutilated beyond recognition. Or weeping over their screaming children, helpless to save them. We were all concerned about the
fate of the planet because Trump and his government are in denial about climate
change. We may not have to worry about that any more.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-66749679880668221962017-07-30T02:43:00.002-07:002017-07-30T02:54:44.391-07:00Can Democracy Withstand the Trump Administration Onslaught?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Democracy. In the West we take it for granted that once established, the
power of its values and laws intrinsically protect society from corrupt
governments forming and stripping people of their rights. The Donald Trump
administration has proven us wrong. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Value systems have always collided. In the West the ugly stuff was protected
by legislation and social mores that gave
power and freedom of expression to racists, sexists, bigots, homophobes,
xenophobes, cultural persecutors, and deprived the targets of a platform if not
the right to express their frustration, anger, hurt and outrage and work
towards gaining equality. Gradually, though, the underdog in every sector of
society has gained power. Those who were open to enlightenment embraced the
concept of human rights, and legislated to protect them.<br />
<br />
But you can't legislate what people think, what they want, what they read. Laws
can't control the racism and bigotry that lurks under the surface, building
momentum, lying in wait for an authority figure to grant permission to come out
into the open, be vented and acted upon. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spiteful, mean-spirited, greedy for power, panting for the right to be
cruel without facing punishment and consequence.<br />
<br />
You can't openly legislate for how those who need protection choose to vote,
but you can introduce laws that make it difficult or impossible for them to
even get to the polling stations. You can gerrymander districts so that those
who can vote to protect decent human values don't, effectively, have a voice.
You can use the written media, TV, radio stations, the church, to manipulate
minds that are already leaning that way anyway, distorting truth until it's
unrecognizable. Exploiting fear of change, fear of dark skins, fear of <i>the
other</i>.<br />
<br />
You can target those who don't have resources, who, if they could, would vote
for representatives whose aim is to enfranchise everybody, create a fair
society where equality and equal opportunity are the main principles of every
branch of government.<br />
<br />
In a so-called free society, even in the strongest democracies, much of the
principle of <i>do unto others</i> has to be left to the conscience
of the individual. It's constantly evolving for many, as it should. If that
many isn't the majority, or the minority gets the power, society has a problem.
In the West we're used to seeing corrupt leaders in countries with no functioning democracy. We're
accustomed to watching them destroy economies, commit genocide, imprison,
torture and murder opposition to the government, prohibit freedom of speech.<br />
<br />
We've believed that America was above that. It had long been the
leader of the free world. Free and fair elections, freedom of speech,
protection of the press, the importance of equality at least valued by one
major political party which had an equal shot at gaining the power to improve
society at all levels. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But now? Freedom of the press is under threat, hate crimes are on the
rise alarmingly. Truth, equality and equal opportunity are not valued by the
government, nor are a clean environment or international co-operation. Greed
and destruction prevail in every sector of the administration, out-picturing
the mind of its dysfunctional, mentally unstable leader. As for elections, was
2016 free and fair? How is possible that a man who lost the popular vote by
close to 3 million votes—more than any president in history—could become
president? The point is made <i>ad nauseam</i> that Russian
interference did not affect the actual vote tally. That's not accurate; it
affected the minds of far left and far right voters very successfully. It's not
hard evidence, but lack of evidence doesn't equate in reality to absence of
truth.<br />
<br />
Liberals tend to believe that the search for enlightenment in every aspect of
life is innate to the human race, or at least to the vast majority, that <i>do unto others</i> makes sense to most of us
and dictates how we relate to each other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in our everyday lives, why then are reality shows that thrive on
humiliation, emotional and physical
punishment so popular? What about <i>Mad Men</i>? It depicted the sexism,
feminism, homophobia, antisemitism and racism of 1960's America. Yet it was
widely acclaimed as being the greatest TV show ever. Did the majority watch to
be outraged and celebrate that we've moved on? I doubt it. Was it Roman-type
lust for watching Christians being thrown to the lions and torn apart?
Possibly. Most likely, in the light of the 2016 election result, it was a
hankering after an era where social conscience was a dinosaur. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now a vulgarian who epitomizes that dinosaur is president of what was once
unquestioningly the most powerful democracy on the planet.<br />
<br />
The biggest mistake we make in the West is believing that democracy
automatically delivers what's best for everybody. It doesn't. It doesn't even
deliver what's best for the majority, when the voting system has been so eroded
that a racist, bigot, con artist, arch manipulator, sexual abuser, ignoramus
and compulsive liar can win an election on a minority vote, with the assistance
of a foreign power whose primary objective is to undermine western
democracies.<br />
<br />
The words <i>the American people</i> are bandied about a lot by the
current Administration. Which American people would that be? Those who support
the government and the President are in the minority. Donald Trump has exploited
the fears and lusts of his base and successfully controlled the narrative for them.
There's no doubt in reality that he is an abuser who uses whoever he can,
tossing them aside like so much detritus when they no longer serve him. Yet
they mindlessly endorse his abusive behaviour, his dysfunction as a president,
when the policies he pushes threaten their own lives. They believe anything he
says, even when he directly contradicts himself. Blind loyalty to an abuser? It's
a kind of variation on Stockholm Syndrome. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The liberal press and Democratic politicians have striven valiantly to
keep truth alive and democracy functioning, but in the face of Trump's
monumental lies and his determination to thwart democracy, everybody is
exhausted. <br />
<br />
For democracy to function as a force for good in society, truth must be valued.
When it's under siege and the minority has power, it spells trouble. It always
has. It always will. Ultimately it seems to be true, looking at the big
picture, that good triumphs over evil. That's not much consolation to the lives
that are destroyed in the process. It's no consolation to the Muslim, Jewish, Latino
or African American children who are targeted at school, with the upsurge in
hate crimes since Donald Trump's campaigning. Whose lives will never be the
same again. It's no consolation to the parents who can't protect them.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It'll be no consolation to any of us if the values that keep society
intact are eroded beyond recognition and democracy rendered impotent in the country that is supposed to be leading the free world. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-39353051312567566722017-07-30T02:32:00.000-07:002017-09-07T09:52:18.626-07:00Washing On The Line and All Things Italian<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--s2L7sY6kLw/WTkZnQO699I/AAAAAAAACw0/60Eqti_XYdkIh5oS1yrKK2FsheU_9bVagCLcB/s1600/Washing%2Bon%2Bline%2B459%2Bx%2B305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="459" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--s2L7sY6kLw/WTkZnQO699I/AAAAAAAACw0/60Eqti_XYdkIh5oS1yrKK2FsheU_9bVagCLcB/s1600/Washing%2Bon%2Bline%2B459%2Bx%2B305.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Photo by Jennifer Stewart</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Call me an outlaw, but
I love washing on a line. I didn't always; growing up, it was something for the back yard, fenced in, unseen by the neighbours. Not for nothing did we live by the creed <i>don't hang out your dirty washing</i>. Not, of course, that we did that literally. Anyway when I visited Tuscany for the first time, all my social conditioning flew out the window at the sight of sheets
hanging on lines strung out across streets or from window to window,
nonchalantly billowing in the dappled breeze. <i>Man, </i>I loved that about Italy.
Armani came a close second.<br />
<br />Siena, late summer. I'd gone to visit the Duomo, to feel the grandeur, and
watch the old women in black who kneel for hours muttering imprecations to the
Virgin Mary, I’m sure of it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"<i>Madre, per
favore, il mio sposo, mi ha fatto male per troppo tempo. </i><i><span lang="FR">Prendelo, prendelo, Le prego. Mi da
qualche anni di liberta!</span></i><span lang="FR">"
</span>"Virgin mother, please, my
husband, he's done me wrong for too long now. Take him away. Take him away. I
beg you. Give me some years of liberty!"</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
Imagine: your philandering husband dies and you wear black for the rest of your life.
Actually, imagine he doesn't die and he drives you mad with heartbreak and suppressed rage at your own helplessness. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Eventually the Virgin
Mary answers your prayers, takes him off your hands, and you can't even wear
colorful clothes to celebrate. No wonder they mutter darkly. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I steeped myself in duomic grandeur and satiated my curiosity about the old
women until it became somewhat oppressive</span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">. </i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hot-footing it outside, I gave fervent thanks to the powers that be that I'd shuffled off those Catholic prohibitions against divorce and disobeying your husband. To celebrate</span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">,</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I climbed the
stairs which take you to the top of the part that was never finished, but which
gives you the view anyway.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Italy fills your whole being in some unearthly way. I stood for a while, drinking it in,
<i>Toscana </i>in late summer. Bells rang for someone far across a valley.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-at-qp_bXvWw/Wa6fKC4EiMI/AAAAAAAAC1U/PMNMsdlt_h0-tK92L6U-oQ1m_vMR4kOVgCLcBGAs/s1600/Siena%2Bsketch%2Bchurch%2Band%2Bbells.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="1600" height="227" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-at-qp_bXvWw/Wa6fKC4EiMI/AAAAAAAAC1U/PMNMsdlt_h0-tK92L6U-oQ1m_vMR4kOVgCLcBGAs/s320/Siena%2Bsketch%2Bchurch%2Band%2Bbells.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Sketch by Jennifer Stewart</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Heart full, I descended the stairs to a small cafe, with a couple of
tables on the street. I sat down in the late summer sun, drinking my coffee,
nobody else in sight<i>.</i> The air was still and it was very quiet, early afternoon;
that time in Tuscany when everybody is doing whatever they do behind closed
shutters. Sleeping off a hearty lunch of <i>pasta, gnocchi di patate, pollo
arrosto. Chianti. Pane</i>. They eat more food in one meal than I do in a week<i>, </i>those
Italians; no wonder they need to sleep it off.<br />
<br />
A solitary person or two strolled by. A small slinky black cat with a paw that
was half white, half ginger, came up to me and stroked itself against my leg. I
knew better than to lean down to it; that makes them run away, so I just let it
do its thing. Replete, I. And there across the street was somebody's washing,
hanging out of the window, waving in the slight breeze.<br />
<br />
My my.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-64217471748728591852017-07-10T02:21:00.000-07:002017-09-05T06:19:17.070-07:00Dante's African Inferno<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gOTb20eCM5w/WTkXHL7ooRI/AAAAAAAACwg/e9wvjOr4_iIheu5p9ANFKy2AvZl_sSkrgCLcB/s1600/Dante%2BKaroo%2BInferno.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="461" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gOTb20eCM5w/WTkXHL7ooRI/AAAAAAAACwg/e9wvjOr4_iIheu5p9ANFKy2AvZl_sSkrgCLcB/s400/Dante%2BKaroo%2BInferno.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Photo by Jennifer Stewart</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">African summer in the city. You barely make it through the day, body hot and falling-down-dead lethargic, your flesh like candle-wax too close to the stove. And bones, you haven't got any; there's no structure to you, just this melt-down happening way beyond your control. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'd headed for the open road to get out of that hot as hell and nowhere to escape city. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What did I know of what lay ahead? Zero. What did I care? I didn’t. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
Have you ever driven through the Karoo in a heat wave in a car which doesn't
have air conditioning? Let me tell you first about the Karoo. It goes on
forever, the road as straight as a ruler. It gets almost unbearable, no matter
what you do to try and distract yourself. Your brain is baked anyway. On and on and on without relief, and as for the
heat, if you close the windows you suffocate, but if you open them the hot air
sears your lungs, dry-heat burns your mouth. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even water doesn't
help. How could it? It's hot in the bottle, anyway. Still, you try it and you
shout in frustration, your throat is a furnace. I was trapped in the inferno
before I could say Jack Rabbit. </span><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">It'll get cooler, soon. Soon. </i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">You realize you said the words out loud. Your voice wavering like the shimmering road ahead. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On and on and on and on,
through dry, dusty scrubland. No trees, no animals, no people. Just the
straight road and the heat. </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">It's not going to get cooler. Ever.</i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seconds dragged
themselves lead-heavily, milestones passed interminably, face red, blood
pounding, body a hot and sweat-sticky hell. That's when I knew, <i>it's never
going to end, this road, I'm stuck on a highway to perpetual hell. The ferocity of my longing for the open road in my new car, it
stopped the world, turned it on its head. </i>I'd forever be trapped in a Dante-type open-road-Inferno. I stopped fighting it, stuck in a dry-heat warp. I spoke the words out loud again, <i>I
forgot the damn air conditioning doesn't work. </i>My voice sounded strange and eery, throat
heat-gravel. I stayed silent and my thoughts shouted burningly, searing my
brain. <br />
<br />
The tarmac shimmered. Was that water? No, fool! Time stretched sluggishly, life
became a slow-motion mirage, the straight road a hallucinated river tormenting
me with a never-to-be-fulfilled promise of cool quench to my searing
body-thirst. <br />
<br />
<i>It will never end</i>. The words became a mantra. Something had happened to
the workings of time. It had really stopped. Was I moving, was I imagining it?
Hot air in my face, hot air down my dry throat. <i>Please god let it rain,
please, I'll do anything</i>. No rain. It doesn't rain in the Karoo. If it did,
the rain drops would boil. <i>It can never end</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Suddenly it had. Ended. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The torture was
miraculously over. Out of the blue it was evening, and have you any idea what
that means? It means the sun had set and I had arrived at a small hotel awash
in an oasis sea of green, soft, moist grass, huge willow-green cool trees, cool
on my face, cool under my bare throbbing feet, cool water drenching the thirst
of my sweat-sticky body, cool crisp linen on my luxurious bed.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then I heard the
thunder, and Oh Sweet Heaven. </span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cool rain. </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957249027133240427.post-25584942406040272192017-06-30T10:54:00.000-07:002017-06-30T11:19:17.682-07:00US President Shames America <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mrX3Ql31URA" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It seems a century ago since a couple of
the highest integrity occupied the White House; since America's reputation
internationally was at the highest point it's been for decades; since the
country was moving forward internally on all progressive social fronts, and
internationally as a leader in diplomacy and tackling climate change. Freedom
of the press was taken for granted. The right to a better life for all was
recognized by those who had the power in government to work towards that end. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">From the President down, the administration
was filled with bright, informed, intelligent and highly qualified people.
Issues were discussed at length from every angle. The President listened to his
advisers and took the trouble to do what a president is obliged to do—he made
sure that he too was informed on all aspects of every matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">America had plenty of its own social and
economic problems, but they were acknowledged, and steps were being taken to
address them. The social, familial and individual values that allow for a
society to function, address ills, and move forward, were respected. Truth was
honored. This was a civilized, progressive, forward moving, first world
country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Both the President and the First Lady were
recognized internationally for their leadership qualities. Both were having a
huge impact on the world. The White House was a place that deserved respect.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">From that to this. It's painful now to
think back to the campaign trails of Hillary Clinton and the current occupant
of the White House. There was so much hope that the US would keep moving in the
direction it had been going for seven years. The candidate who was least
qualified—a known liar, bigot, racist, con artist and sexual abuser with very
low intelligence and total absence of integrity—publicly demeaned the Muslim
parents of a soldier who had died in service. He cruelly mocked a disabled
reporter, insulted women, labeled Mexicans as rapists and criminals, talked of
banning all Muslims.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The outrage exploded. The world looked on
with shock as Republican politicians, desperate
for power, made a deal with the devil and endorsed this low-life, as did a
swathe of American citizens, punch-drunk on entitlement to ignore decent human
values. Hate-crime burgeoned. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The putrid underbelly of American society that
had been lurking just below the surface when an African American had the audacity
to run for president and then to win, came into focus and gained momentum. On
the other side, though, Hillary Clinton shattered the glass ceiling, despite
the monumental obstacles thrown in her path. The Obamas campaigned for her
passionately, articulately, energetically. The battle between good and evil
raged, but good seemed to have the upper hand. The liberal press finally got
off the fence, openly endorsing Hillary Clinton.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Unequivocally condemning the Republican
candidate. Who was then revealed to have
been recorded bragging about doing whatever he wanted with women without their
permission, and grabbing them by the pussy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It was the last straw. Women and decent men
of all races and lifestyles, in the US and around the world, expressed their fury,
disgust and pure outrage. A global movement was birthed. Finally the world was
acknowledging that this sexism was not normal, not acceptable and never would
be. Speaking for myself, my world changed. I felt vindicated for my own rage at
abuse I've experienced, and openly and unconditionally supported by millions of
women and decent men. I felt taller, stronger. Shame was driven out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Yet Republicans voted for this vile,
debased excuse for a man. Voter suppression targeted Democrat African
Americans. Russian interference, fake news, conservative media and the far
right slagged Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party 24/7 and pumped the
airwaves with untruths, myths, and wild conspiracy theories about her. Truth
was a lone swimmer in a wild ocean filled with man-eating sharks and predators.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And the unthinkable happened. Evil
triumphed over good. The White House descended into chaos as the current
occupant's utter incompetency and mental and spiritual degradation spread like
a deadly pathogen into every corner of the administration. The US back-pedaled
faster than the speed of light. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Respect, honor, integrity, social values,
competency, intelligence and truth have no place in the American government
now. So it wasn't a surprise when the leader reverted back to his campaign
modus operandi of publicly demeaning women. </span></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
I heard poorly rated <a href="https://twitter.com/Morning_Joe">@Morning_Joe</a> speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..</div>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880408582310776832">June 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!</div>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880410114456465411">June 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The President of the United States. Whose
tweets are official statements.<br />
<br />
CNN host Brian Stelter set the record straight.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
For the record, this is a picture of <a href="https://twitter.com/morningmika">@MorningMika</a> at Mar-a-Lago at the time Trump is claiming she was "bleeding badly." <a href="https://t.co/NJgioOD3Va">pic.twitter.com/NJgioOD3Va</a></div>
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/880440204204666881">June 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
"I put lipstick on a pig", said
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all" target="_blank">Tony Schwartz</a>, ghostwriter of Trump's book Art of the Deal, in July 2016. The words still ring true. Apology to pigs.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com