This afternoon, President-Elect Biden introduced his first Cabinet picks, all of whom are highly qualified and experienced. None is remotely controversial.
Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that he would oppose them all.
One reason he gave was that they had Ivy League educations. On Twitter, one of the many responses was a list of Trump Cabinet members who had gone to Harvard, Yale, and other Ivies. Trump went to UPenn, an Ivy, and Jared Kushner’s dad gave Harvard $2.5 million to grease his entry to Harvard.
Will the race to grab the Trump know-nothing base, e.g., the race to the bottom, encourage Senate Republicans to block any appointments Biden makes? That would create a constitutional crisis and destroy Biden’s Presidency before it begins.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“None is remotely controversial.”
Well, unless you oppose war and torture. And corporate grift. And if you want a habitable planet. And help for ordinary Americans.
But, you’re right, none of those things apply to either Republicans or Democrats, so this should be a no-brainer. They should all be able to agree on highly experienced, qualified and competent warmongers.
Rather than a rant, with all kinds of over the top allusions to Biden’s cabinet being pro-destroying the environment, pro-corporate grift, pro-war and pro-torture, and rabidly AGAINST doing anything for ordinary Americans, why don’t you actually make a case for how much worse one of the Biden picks is than the Trump appointee in the job now.
Don’t link to a different rant that some anti-Democratic Australian who is a favorite of the alt right says.
Just make a reasonable argument of what you are certain Biden’s “pro- destroying the planet” cabinet member plans to do and explain how this is much worse than what the Trump cabinet head who he or she is replacing will do. Again, just ranting that the person is evil is not an argument.
Explain what the Trump appointee has done that you know will be horribly worse because of the Biden replacement and give some reasonable evidence to make your case.
I have seen very progressive arguments for how someone like John Kerry has made compromises on climate issues, or that another cabinet was not good on the environment, but the only place I’ve seen this kind of over the top “all Biden picks are evil” rants are by the very same people who told us Trump is no worse than a Democrat.
dienne77,
Since you posted here, are you suggesting that Marco Rubio should name cabinet members for Biden to consider because you’d approve of them if they came from Rubio?
NYC-psp…you should just ignore her and maybe she will go away? She expects YOU to fight back and that gives her much enjoyment. She threw chum into the water knowing you would be the 1st shark to circle. I used to agree with some of her posts, but lately she has partaken of the wrong colored Kool Aid and no longer shows much credibility.
So fighting for desperate people home and abroad against the rapacious profiteers who feed on them is not “showing credibility”? I should look the other way when “the most progressive president since FDR” stacks his cabinet with proven warmongers and profiteers?
Frankly, I don’t usually care if NYCPSP or any of you “fight back”. It generally gives me no enjoyment because I rarely come back once I’ve posted because, as I see every time I do, I get nothing but uninformed people attacking me personally without bothering to refute a shred of what I’ve posted. So, go on, have your two minute Dienne hate, now that Trump is on his way out. When Biden starts more wars while more Americans suffer and die, I’ll occasionally drive by to tell you I told you so.
Thanks, I’ll miss you. I’m sure Biden will disappoint you. But yes he is far far better than Trump, as are his choices for the Cabinet.
With the exception of one commentator, not a single person who comments here, especially the one’s I vehemently disagree with (excepting, of course that one person), one is “uniformed.” Perhaps it was a typo and you meant to write “indoctrinated.” Or “wacko?”
ones–now THAT was a typo!
Seriously, NYCPSP, re-read what you just posted and tell me how it made any sense in your head when you posted it.
You know who I want in Biden’s cabinet? I want frontline soldiers who have held their best friends in their arms as they died in battle and those who have seen Iraqi and Afghan children shredded by cluster bombs. I want someone who has actually experienced homelessness running HUD. I want someone who has a lifelong medical condition and has had to fight the health insurance industry their whole life running HHS. I want people who live near toxic polluted sites overseeing the fossil fuel industry and companies like DuPont. I want women who had their uteruses removed against their will and immigrant parents separated from their children (both of which practices started during the Obama administration, BTW) in charge of immigration. I want the people who have had to live with the actual outcomes of U.S. policy making decisions, not those who have profited from it.
So, is this what Trump was doing? [I’d say he did a whole bunch of “profiting from it”.]
Why not blast everything Biden is doing when what Trump did was much worse? Maybe I should abide by the advice to not comment because you enjoy adversity???
We actually had those “front-line soldiers” the last time around. Or perhaps you forgot about Flynn, Kelly, Mattis, and the others in this picture. https://www.businessinsider.com/marine-corps-generals-leaving-trump-administration-kelly-mattis-2020-2 And they all agreed to “serve” after the Idiot attacked a Gold Star family. Guess that kind of punctures that self-righteous rant.
I have had and know many other who have had personal experiences that you feel would qualify someone to be in the next cabinet. Present your list of people you feel are qualified to lead national policy on health, climate, finance,…. Perhaps your idea has merit when talking about staff and support positions. Stop posting for dramatic effect and support your ideas with the details that actually show their merit.
dienne77, I agree with your 11/24 5:48 post.🙂
dienne77,
You are right to question my reply. I’m sorry — I believe I first wrote a much longer reply and then the 2nd one, but the first one somehow didn’t post. (Sometimes they do post much later, so if it does, you’ll know I’m telling the truth!)
Maybe you are genuinely concerned, but the problem is you don’t sound like someone who is concerned, you sound like someone exaggerating to demonize the democrats in the exact same way that the right wing does.
For a comparison — I read an informative article on Talking Points Memo that made a good case against Biden’s choice of Avril Haines for Dir. of National Security. It was highly critical, but it didn’t make those sweeping attacks about the Biden White House being pro-torture and pro everything bad. It explained what Haines did without exaggerating what Haines did.
As I mentioned in a different post (possibly the one that never appeared), you get outraged – over the top outraged! – at all of Biden picks and make no distinction between those who are imperfect but very good and those who deserve criticism. And this contrasts with the fact that you spent the last 4 years attacking people here for being outraged at Trump’s picks who are worse than even the worst of Biden’s picks! If you had been even one tenth as critical at the truly horrifying Trump cabinet, your outrage now would be reasonable. But you were not, so it feels manufactured to hear a Trump apologist suddenly professing outrage that cabinet choices aren’t progressive enough.
There is always something that can be criticized in every person, because good people make compromises to get things done and that isn’t always a bad thing. What is a bad thing is the Trump White House which specialized in pushing far right policies. That is not the Biden White House, and when you insist that in your reality that IS the Biden White House, you aren’t even trying to be honest. I don’t get it, if you really are who you say you are.
NYCPSP,
A word to the wise: Back off. Disengage. Don’t take the bait.
^^^and my earlier post just appeared!
Give ‘em what for, Dienne. Wall Street is having a speculation orgy right now. There must be liberal thinkers unwilling to compromise and for liberal thinkers, now that the election is over, honesty is once again the best quality. Pull the Democratic Party to the left, now, at this time, from the grassroots up, and to the left, go left, away from Wall Street, toward Main Street, still many blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue.
Speculation orgy? What the hell is that? All this hysterical squawking on just the first day of cabinet announcements? With almost another two months of chaos still ahead of us? What blood sacrifices will satisfy you? I’ll stick the with optimism and hope expressed by our allies. Seems they understand the reality of this situation better than most Americans.
LeftCoastTeacher,
There are progressives right now who are (thankfully) HONESTY criticizing some of Biden’s picks.
There is a disconnect with you writing “honesty is once again the best quality” and reading those posts as “honest”. Really? Is that how you teach your students to forcefully but honesty make an uncompromised case for progressive action? Even people that generally agree with most of her (self-stated) politics are turned off.
^^”honestly” criticizing…
Just saying to keep the dialogue going. The Biden administration picks are good so far, in my opinion. Senator Warren is saying things about Janet Yellen that give me confidence in her. She went after Wells Fargo. All I’m saying is that any of Biden’s reaching out to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is most likely due to the strength in activist numbers of the progressive wing of the Party, not to Biden’s innate desire to reach out to us. Keep the volume on high.
Greg, Wall Street is hitting record highs while 25% of U.S. children — going to use an Orwellian phrase here — live with food insecurity. Investment executives are thrilled to speculate that deregulation will continue without the threat of trade wars.
NYCpsp, thank you for asking. I do not teach my students to “forcefully but honesty make an uncompromised case for progressive action.” I teach them English composition and literature.
Almost did a spit take at this—well done and thank you:
Janet Yellen graduated from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn. Other grads of Brooklyn public high schools include Senator Bernie Sanders and Supreme Court Justice RBG.
I agree with FLERP!, that was a good one.
LCT, I take it neither of us is an economist or expert on the stock market. Yet your take is quite different from mine. I think investors are reacting in much the same way our neglected allies are feeling: they are confident that a Biden administration will finally deliver some normalcy and hopefully some much-needed boredom. I think pinning corporate betting on food insecurity for potential profits is, it seems to me, more than a bit of a stretch. True, there are business that thrive on this model like Dollar General stores and pay day lenders, but not macroeconomic factors.
Greg,
For what it’s worth, I agree with you. The stock market went up because Wall Street likes stability. It is hopeful that Biden will lead a competent government. It is hopeful that Congress might pass a new relief bill.
Biden is not going left. If he wants to get anything through Congress, he needs to get some Republican senators to vote for it. Any progressive he nominates is likely to be rejected by Mitch McConnell. I’m very impressed with the qualifications, experience, and intelligence of those Biden has chosen so far.
LCT,
touche! (And I didn’t even know you were an English teacher – just meant as a general point).
But aside from the content — part of learning to write is writing persuasively. Students can be writing an essay about anything, but in order to convince the reader of their point of view, it is important to support your point with evidence and argument.
Surely a student who writes “To Kill a Mockingbird is the most racist book I’ve ever read and it’s awful and horrible and there’s nothing good about it at all” is not writing to persuade but to rant. In fact, in a different post, I thought when parents complaining about TKAM were portrayed as people shouting “it’s racist, it’s awful, shouldn’t be read”, it made those parents very easy to criticize. People who argue that way aren’t very effective. Don’t you think they often do more harm than good?
In fact, because of the history of this person (defending Trump against criticism) I often wondered if these kinds of over the top attacks were designed more to discredit the progressive movement. It turns off even progressives.
I posted this article on our new UN Ambassador yesterday. If she’s an example of the reactionary nominees of the Biden administration, then let’s please have more of them.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_6a648a88-2d9f-11eb-9555-5f844fe18aec.html
I was in the car and listened to Biden’s press conference where he introduced his first appointments. I listened from start to finish. How thrilling it was to hear from intelligent, articulate, thoughtful people. How pleasant to hear talk about multilateralism. How delightful to hear discussion of taking climate change seriously. How wonderful it was that no one engaged in slavish praise for Biden or groveled to him as they did for trump.
I enjoyed watching the press conference with Biden’s nominees too. It felt good. It is certainly pleasant to have a real president on the way in. It would be even more pleasant if all the billionaires making all the money off the record high stock market would have to pay some taxes to help out all the people who lost their jobs while the stock market rose. It would be nice. One can dream.
Biden can nominate whoever he wants. If Mitch McConnell doesn’t appreciate having three branches of government with checks and balances, the nominees can become cabinet members as acting secretaries. There are currently two acting secretaries.
Regarding the two camps of the Democratic Party and the back-and-forth between NYCpsp and Dienne, I have almost always been on Dienne’s side. Surprise! I had, until the last few days, been holding my tongue since Super Tuesday. Just wanted to get Trump out of office. No, NYCpsp, it does not turn me off when people make bold, impassioned statements. It only made me cringe during this election season. To be honest, though, if I had less will, your bold, impassioned attacks on the character of Senator Sanders could have turned me off enough to fail to vote again this year. I voted this time, but it’s not easy for me to vote when I have to worry about whether I might wind up having again voted for someone who will put an Arne Duncan on my back. I am still very angry at President Obama. Always will be.
Diane,
I didn’t mean to imply that you posted character assassinations of Bernie. NYCpsp did.
LCT,
If you truly believe that I posted “character assassinations” of Bernie Sanders (who I admire and voted for TWICE!! in the primary), then either I am a horrible writer (very possible) or you are reading my posts with some personal bias toward me in which you are looking for something that isn’t there.
The only thing I can think of is that you didn’t understand when I tried to explain to those who demonized the democrats with sweeping propaganda (like what many of us are responding to here), it is a lie. And to show how much of a lie it is – and how DANGEROUS it is — I gave an example of using that kind of sweeping and dishonest right wing propaganda against Bernie. But I certainly tried to make it very clear that this is WRONG. It is possible that you read a post in which I tried to show how dishonest and wrong it is when it is targeted toward Bernie and you got angry. So then why do you have the double standard where you are fine with it as long as that dishonest demonization is directed toward other democrats?
If it is wrong, it is wrong. You can’t condone that dishonest rhetoric against a different democrat but get angry when it is used against Bernie. It simply legitimizes and normalizes that type of discussion, and it will be turned against politicians you like eventually by the Republicans and it will be too late.
If you don’t stand up for honest criticism and stand up against dishonest demonization for all democrats, that’s wrong.
The progressive politicians I admire most give excellent criticism but refuse to play the game that the mainstream and right wing media wants them to play to demonize the democratic party. I’m not allowed to mention her name, but she has 3 initials, is young, and I hope runs for president when she is old enough. She knows how to make honest criticism. And her non-demonizing criticisms are a lot more truthful — and a lot more convincing and politically useful — than dishonest rants demonizing all democrats.
^^Just to be clear, when I said I voted for Bernie twice, I meant once in the 2016 primary and once in 2020 primary. For the record, I obey the law and only cast my vote once in each election.
Okay.
None is remotely controversial…except in the fever swamps of the fringes of the left and right.
“in the fever swamps”
Don’t worry, I have my chest waders on! 😉
On a more serious note. It is those derogatory kinds of statements by supposed centrists and “calm” people that turn off the denizens of said fever swamps to what they hear from the coastal elites. It helps turnon those on the political regressive right to vote for the likes of the tRump, McConnell, Graham and their ilk and turn off those on the true left progressive side to not vote for centrist neoliberal candidates such as H. Clinton, Biden, Harris, etc. . . .
So, I guess folks like Medea Benjamin Code Pink founder is a fringe left in the swamp, eh:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/23/feminismnotmilitarism-peace-groups-blast-bidens-dni-pick-over-links-drones-torture?fbclid=IwAR0IRy4w1AHdYkKF_t4NHncJtwa0U3IYfhwDD_I7ZbH6pewaHWKjON6TXMw
a habitable planet
help for ordinary Americans
yes please
Had copied that same statement. Concur with you, Dienne. I’ve seen and read plenty of controversy about his picks. Indeed they are controversial, unless one is a hardcore neoliberal Democrat.
There are neo-liberal Democrats? I thought they had all turned into wild-eyed socialists. There cannot be a spectrum of ideas in an American Political party, can there?
Actually, the vast majority of the Dims and all the DNC are neoliberals.
Every campaign against Democrats in the country has had the same message. The Democrats are “socialists” and “radicals” who want to defund the police and destroy America. It’s crazy. In my district, a scientist ran against our Trumper Congressman. He painted her as a wild eyed Red. She’s the mild mannered chair of a chemistry department on a public university. He won. The Big Lie still works.
This is utterly hideous, Biden hasn’t even taken the oath of office and these despicable gargoyles are pledged to destroy Biden’s presidency from A to Z, soup to nuts, from the trivial to the monumental. McConnell will be like the judicial equivalent of the Soup Nazi. McDonnell to Biden: no justices for you, there’s only 4 years left in your presidency not enough time to select any judicial appointments until we have another GOP Q-Anon anti-government apparatchik in the White House.
Ted Cruz went to Princeton, can we dump him, too? Oh, of course not, there’s one set of strict Draconian rules for Democrats and then another set of more relaxed rules for GOPers.
Strict Draconian: whoops, redundancy in service of over emphasis.
But seriously, the Democrats need to play hard ball with the GOP. The Republicans don’t give a damn, they always go full bore nasty, take no prisoners and carpet bomb the Democrats with glee and joy. The R’s don’t care if they alienate the part of the population that votes for Democrats.
They best avenue to playing hardball is to win in Georgia. That would be the cherry on the sundae.
In grade school, Marco Rubio was the kid who wrecked the field trip because he forgot to bring his permission slip.
Not to mention he put sand in the gas tank, slashed the tires and threatened the bus driver with bodily harm.
Hahahahahahahaha! Perfect, Joe.
And Rubio’s brother from another demon mother, DeSatan, went to Yale and then Harvard.
Will the race to grab the Trump know-nothing base, e.g., the race to the bottom, encourage Senate Republicans to block any appointments Biden makes? That would create a constitutional crisis and destroy Biden’s Presidency before it begins.
And this old sad song, keeps Georgia on my mind. . . .
Yon Marco has a lean and hungry look.
That’s because he doesn’t know which side of the fork or spoon is meant for eatin’. Grossly stupid is as grossly stupid does.
Marco is much en-CUR-aged
Methinks Marco Rubio is suffering a bout as the green eyed monster, one of the 7 Deadly Sins: Envy. What spawned this it45-like outburst? Is he jealous that of Alejandro Mayorkas, who will be the first Hispanic (& Cuban) American to lead DHS because he, Marco, received no such appointment from it45, & couldn’t be “the first?”
“Little” Marco Rubio is living up to its nickname for him.
Personally, I think Biden should wait until after the GA Senate runoffs to make most of his Cabinet picks/announcements. Hoping that both Ossoff & Warnock win, there will be smooth sailing. Given the nail-biting circumstances, I think it better to put off these types of uncalled for & ridiculous attacks by lowlifes such as Rubio.(There’s a picture on The Hill where he appears to have an it45-like pout on his face.)
I feel sooo sorry for him that he was “only” able to attend the U of FL & the U of Miami for Law School.
& then, of course, Rubio is unhappy w/Blinken, because, of course, the Obama Admin. wanted to (& did) normalize relations w/Cuba.
Finally, Carl Bernstein just named a # of Republicans (Rubio, of course, among them) who have been privately despising it45 & seething over its being “unfit to be president.” What a cowering simp!
Guess it’s ’cause he did so poorly in the Groveling Old Penumbras’ primary, never got a Cabinet appointment (was called “Little Marco,” instead) &—didn’t attend an “Ivy League School.” Awww…
(& I also agree w/dienne @ 5:48 PM.)
And ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY NO.RAHM.EMANUEL. Now THAT would be a REAL betrayal.
Marco hopes to be first in line for the Black Friday sale on Trump voters.
Rubio despised Trump so he was very quiet during the reign of terror. Now he wants to emerge as someone still “relevant” to the party.
But ’tis common proof, that lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, whereto the climber-upward turns his face; but when he once attains the upmost round, he then turns his back, looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees by which he did ascend. Julius Caesar, II, i
Perfect Bob, just perfect.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-biden-administration-cabinet-picks-pro-war-hawks
And you expected Jacobin to say what?
The truly funny thing about this is that the actual Jacobins instituted the reign of terror that ended the French Revolution and set the stage for Napoleon. And these [fill in blank with word I would like to use] think it’s a good thing! Governing was never really their thang.
Greg: With all due respect, the reign of terror did not occur in a vacuum. It was not so much the result of the radical desire to rid France of the king as it was the desire to get rid of Louis XVI. Until the Champs de Mars massacre, few people in France imagined anything but a constitutional monarchy.
The reign of terror was a response to several events: the invasion of Austria and Prussia, which threatened Paris, just 100 miles from the border of the Austrian Netherlands being chief among them. At home, a populace terrified of the invasion of foreign troops and fully aware of the ancient history of the St. Bartholomew’s day massacre was coming unglued, tearing into suspected royalists with mock trials and vigilante justice. It was all well and good to talk about the rights of man, but things were coming apart.
None if this is to justify the thousands that went to the guillotine and confronted its gruesome if democratic death. Rather, my point is that nothing in history takes place in a spot of its own, all our places being linked.
Of course I recognize you were attempting to be critical of any periodical that would seize the name of Jacobin on purpose, but it is a complex memory i the French mind.
Roy, I respectfully disagree, or perhaps I was unclear. I refer to the the end of the French Revolution, when the fanaticism of purity turned on those who initially led the revolution and, more importantly, its ideals. Executions abounded, including that of Danton, one of “founding fathers” if you will, of the Revolution. These violent excesses sealed the fate of the Revolution and led to the period of Thermidor, which led to the reactionary movement ultimately coopted by Napoleon. Jacobins represent, to me, the fanatical, irrational adherence to ideological righteousness that discards the pragmatism of real world experience as it plows on to an ideal “truth.” A perceived truth that ultimately feeds on and destroys that which it claims to want to achieve.
Greg: You are correct. You respectfully disagree. While I feel that the radical phase of the French Revolution came about because of many things, you look to the personalities of the participants more than the outside influences that threatened the power of the Jacobin few. Point well made. I love respect in an argument. It is in short supply in government.
Upon reflection, I realize I was unclear about your meaning, which you point out so well. You were more focused on larger forces, I on key individuals. On balance I understand your point much better and you’re pulling me more your way.
I was angry with my friend,
I told my wrath, my wrath did end;
I was angry with my foe,
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
I do hope the Georgia vote will come forward for democracy . . . . otherwise, we’ll have GRIDLOCK again, all the way. Rubio and all just CANNOT be gracious.
These people we should “send back to where they belong”: In the crib, highchair, and playpen. CBK
This is the reason why the Democrats must win the two Senate seats in Georgia. Everyone that voted for Biden must vote again for the two Democratic candidates in January for the runoffs.
lI have been following the historian Heather Cox Richardson’s daily “Letters from an American” for the past few months (I think at least one other avid reader of Diane Ravitch has also mentioned these posts). I am currently reading her 2020 book, How the South Won The Civil War. I bring this book up, because it really gives a good historical perspective about how we came to have Donald Trump, as well as why it is not surprising that Marco Rubio would state that he will try to obstruct the Biden Presidency. I recommend this book if you have the time to read it!
Thanks, JP. I’ll have a look at it.
OK. Read the blurbs. She’s right, ofc.
Her posts are an education not to be missed.
Thanks for the info on this historian. Great posts on her page.
Rubio, who has willingly played Trump’s dog for the past 3 3/4 years, is not most en-cur-aged. Why? Because he is a craven opportunist, totally lacking in principle or concern for his country, scornful of his duty to the people, who hopes to shift the Trump voters over to him for 2024.
There will be a lot of this going around among Repugnican invertebrates who have contracted the Moronavirus trumpinskii orangii.
Yikes. “is now most en-cur-aged”
Antony Sabatini, Flor-uh-duh state Repugnican representative, perfectly embodies the Trump GOP:
He tweeted: “Abortion is murder.”
He retweeted: “Kyle Rittenhouse for Congress.”
Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Consider the source… No surprise whatsoever.
Fortunately, for many of these posts, if they were blocked in the Senate, Biden can take a page from the foul Trump playbook and put them in “Acting” positions. However, it seems unlikely that that will be necessary, come what may in Georgia, for Collins, Murkowski, and Romney have all already said that they will vote to confirm Biden’s nominees.
So, a priest, an imam, and a rabbit walk into a bar. The bartender says to the rabbit, “What can I get you?”
And the rabbit replies, “Gee. I don’t know. I’m only here because of autocorrect.”
Do all good jokes–this one belongs to that set–begin with some group walking into a bar?
So, two Corinthians walk into a bar. . . .
or
Ghouliani crawls out of the woodwork into a bar. . . .
or
Barr and a bear walk into a bar. . . .
How about,
Bill Barr walks into a bar and orders a Sex on the Beach. . . .
There, had you on that one, huh?
So, Jabba the Trump slithers into a bar and orders a Sex on the Beach. One bartender looks at the other and says, “I thought these yellow-orange slug creatures were parthenogenic.”
Roy OF COURSE all good jokes begin with walking into a bar . . . where’ve you been? CBK
A minister, a priest, and a rabbi walk into a bar….
I think we’re all going wacko. Too much of Trump is frying our brains.
………………………
A PRIEST, A PASTOR AND A RABBI WALK INTO A BAR.
A priest, a pastor and a rabbi walk into a bar and soon begin arguing over who’s the best at what they do.
Eventually they decide that in order to prove who’s the best, they would all go out alone into the woods and convert a bear to their respective religion.
A few weeks later.. they meet up at the bar and the priest announces, “I found a bear by the river and started talking to him about the Lord. He liked it so much that he now comes to mass every week.”
The pastor says, “Well, I saw a bear in the clearing. I started reading him the bible and he loved it so much that he is now going to be baptized in about a week.”
The priest and the pastor turn to look at the rabbi, who now has a broken arm, a fractured collarbone and several cuts and bruises. The rabbi says, “You know what, looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have started with a circumcision.”
I think we’re all giddy from drinking in that TRUMP LOST. CBK
Catherine: For most of my life…no, I won’t bore you
So two guys walk into a bar. they must have been walking beside each other, the second one would have ducked.
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett walked into a bar. Daniel felt the hair and Davy felt the claws
Bill walked into Barr
And got a big fat bump
Which made him quite a Starr
Among the friends of Trump
So, I watched my Trumpy neighbor set up the nativity scene on his front yard. After he got rid of the Jews, the Arabs, and those magi foreigners, all he had left was a jackass and some sheep.
Looked like a Trump rally.
Not that I am suggesting people do so, but i would point out that “a jackass and some sheep” might also be interpreted in the opposite sense.
Some years ago, I used to follow the ranting of a minister named Sheldon Emery on a right Wing religious broadcast from Arizona. It was called “America’s Promise”, and it was predicated on the historical thesis that the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of America were the actual chosen people discussed in the Old Testament. Emery would have told you that the Jews of the nativity scene went from the diaspora after the fall of Jerusalem into the British Isles and thence through a series of miraculous migrations to become the United States of America. He used a book called the Thirteenth Tribe to offer proof that the Jews we know today are actually descendants of the Kazars, who converted to Judaism as the real Jews migrated through.
The pretzels produced by certain emotional needs are not necessarily related to reality. Nor are they old religious symbols.
I have a neighbor who is convinced that the true church consists of a thirteenth tribe of Israel consisting of black people, the Black Hebrew Israelites. And then there is the British Israelites movement, which claims that the Brits and other European peoples are the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. And, of course, And then there is the LDS Church teaching that Christ came to the Americas to minister to American Indians of the Hebrew tribes of the Lamanites, Jaredites, Mulekites, and Nephites. The various new religious movements of the 19th century are fascinating. The US at that time was a fertile ground for them.
Two Corinthians walk into a bar. One says to the other, “Go on over and talk to here. He who sows bountifully will be rewarded bountifully.”
Two Corinthians walk into a bar and order martinis in coffee cups, for it is written, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels.”
The Chosen and the Frozen
Every church believes
That only they were chosen
And every church just leaves
The others to be frozen
Human imagination abhors a vacuum. Whenever there is a “lost” something historically–Plato’s Atlantis, for example, or the Arthurian grail–there will be someone who “finds” it.
Roy Thank you for contributing this to the post-Trump language lexicon:
Pretzel History. CBK
The Lost and Found
The gloves were lost
And found in box
And folks were bossed
And Moses crossed
The Sea of Red
And finally led
The Israelites
From darkest nights
And they were found
By God, I swear
On hallowed ground
Like gloves in there
Two Corinthians walk into a bar. One asks, “What did we do to receive all this attention?” To which the other responds, “I know! We were just minding our own business and now we’re the butt of all these of jokes!” To wash away their sorrows and frustrations, they proceed to get rip-roaring drunk.
And some folks here give me grief about claiming that current irrational, illogical thought has its roots in any one of the three the Abrahamic religious indoctrinations that almost all are subjected to growing up.
Bob Now THAT’s what I call a “double-whammy.” CBK
This happened in 2018, a clash between two loathsome right wingers, Rubio and Alex Jones. At the time, I despised Jones more than Rubio and even felt a little sorry for Rubio because Jones is so blatantly obnoxious and vile. Now with Rubio’s latest statements about Biden’s cabinet picks, I hope Jones beats the crap out of Rubio again.
From nbcnews, 9-5-18:
Sen. Marco Rubio and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones traded barbs outside a Capitol Hill social media hearing on Wednesday after Jones crashed the Florida lawmaker’s press conference and called Rubio a “little frat boy” and Rubio told Jones, “Don’t touch me again, man.”
Jones disrupted Rubio’s press conference with reporters on a Senate hearing in which technology executives from Twitter and Facebook were testifying about foreign influence on their platforms. Rubio called Jones a “dumbass” and tried to laugh off his interruption. However, the confrontation escalated after Rubio told Jones not to touch him after Jones placed his hand on Rubio’s shoulder while the senator was speaking to reporters.
“Hey, don’t touch me again, man. I’m asking you not to touch me again,” Rubio said.
“Well, sure, I just patted you nicely,” Jones responded.
“I don’t know who you are. You’re not gonna get arrested man, you’re not gonna get arrested, I’ll take care of it myself,” Rubio said, after Jones asked if the lawmaker was going to have him arrested.
“Oh, you’ll beat me up. Look at him he’s so mad,” Jones replied. “You’re not going to silence me. You’re not gonna silence America. You are a little gangster thug. Rubio just threatened to physically take care of me.” end quote
The rest of the world is not bowing to the Orange Swamp Monster.
What The U.S. Election Meltdown Looks Like to Other Countries
Because of the crippling sanctions that have devastated the Iranian economy, U.S. foreign policy has an enormous impact on the lives of Iranians; more than it has on Americans themselves. One tweet about Iran from Donald Trump impacts the Iranian market and the value of its currency. For that reason, Iranians have been following U.S. politics very closely. Ordinary Iranians now know the number of electoral votes in Wisconsin and Michigan, and the latest status of counts in Arizona and Georgia. And this election, like Trump’s presidency itself, has been shocking to many Iranians who have followed U.S. politics over the years.
Iranians have been making fun of every unusual event in this election with jokes and memes, while impatiently waiting for the outcome. Ruhollah Nakhaee, an Iranian journalist in Tehran, tells me that the Iranian state TV is having fun with images of chaos in the United States, and the Ahmadinejad camp is supporting Trump and repeating his conspiracies about election fraud. …
The British public never took to Donald Trump. A recent YouGov poll reported that a mere 15 percent of them thought positively about him, while 74 percent thought negatively about him. In this, Trump was a mirror image of the wildly popular Barack Obama (76 percent positive, 11 percent negative); and even rated a touch behind one Vladimir Putin ( 16 percent positive, 68 percent negative). And the dislike took public form: In the huge demonstrations accompanying Trump’s visits to the United Kingdom; in the endless mockery from cartoonists, satirists and comedians; and in the evident reluctance of most of Britain’s political classes, including, belatedly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives, to appear too close to him…
But there was a sideshow to this tediously slow walk to the Biden victory, in the form of the president’s reaction. This most unpredictable of Presidents for once did exactly as expected: He proved to be the world’s worst loser. Americans should be in no doubt about how bad this looks to allies, friends and admirers around the world; the more so given how many senior Republicans have provided cover for the President. It makes the world’s only superpower seem irretrievably divided, and American democracy, once a model, look broken…
From Kenya, the 2020 election in the United States seemed both familiar and strange. Familiar because it looked very much like the last two Kenyan presidential elections, in 2013 and 2017, which witnessed problematic and delayed vote counts, allegations of rigging and were both eventually decided by the Supreme Court (the first was upheld and the second was annulled). It was strange for the same reason it seemed familiar. A Kenyan election in the United States is not something one sees every day…
A growing number of South Koreans see the United States as a country past its glory days due to Donald Trump’s presidency. It’s evident in how the voting in the U.S. primaries was portrayed in Korea: Broadcasters delivered shocking images of long lines wrapped around polling stations where masks and sanitizer were scant. The contrast was particularly striking to South Koreans who had just voted in their April national election, including me. Lines moved quickly. The government checked temperatures at the entrance, then handed out hand sanitizer and plastic gloves. No sparks in cases could be detected afterward in a country that has been hailed throughout the pandemic for its contact-tracing efforts…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Biden on November 8 and emphasized the fact that he and Biden have known each other for decades. He stopped short of referring to Biden as “president-elect” at the time, probably out of fear of angering Trump, who still has two months left in the Oval Office. But Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, who is Netanyahu’s closest adviser, publicly spoke on Monday of a future “Biden administration” as a given fact—ignoring Trump’s insistence that he, not Biden, had won the election.
Sadly, Trump’s denial of the election results, and his attack on the integrity of the election, could ultimately become a larger feature of his legacy in our part of the world than any policy decisions he made as president. His behavior in the face of defeat is a gift to bad actors in the region, such as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the mullahs in Tehran, who have their own history of undermining and even overturning elections results that threatened their hold on power. However, it has been encouraging to see at least some Republicans, such as President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney, acknowledge Biden’s victory and call for an orderly transfer of power. If American democracy will successfully overcome this current crisis, it will send a clear message all over the world—including in the Middle East…
The Trump era has led many Germans to question the overall stability of American democracy. According to a poll for the public TV station ARD taken the day after the election, while 85 percent of respondents welcomed a Biden victory, 77 percent were worried about developments in the United States in the ensuing weeks and only 38 percent expressed confidence in U.S. courts to adjudicate disputes fairly…
Over these past four years, many in the United States seem to have forgotten the lessons 20th century history has taught us about what happens when xenophobic demagogues get elected via the ballot box. Donald Trump has been trolling democracy and political norms for the past four years, and he is now trolling the Constitution of the United States. And what happens to democracy here has a domino effect for liberal democracies elsewhere around the world, particularly at a time when the United States—and Trump’s diplomatic vandalism and havoc, and his Sinatra Doctrine of “my way or the highway”—has created a vacuum in terms of its geopolitical engagement and constructive leadership…
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/22/us-election-foreign-observers-438691
Did I mention I am writing a book, along the lines of
It’s titled
Potential Emanuels
Making Ramsense Bearable
Rahm Emanuel
Greater threat
Than any animal
You can bet
Emanuel tells all
Emanuel consultation
Will tell us how it works
And give us information
About the perks and jerks
Emanuel consultation
Will tell us every thing
About administration
By Demo corporate wing
I do not support Rubio at all. However, he does identify a significant problem in American Politics. Establishment Democrats and Republicans keep going to the same well for talent. 8 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices are Ivey League. Many in the higher echelon of our Federal Bureaucracy are Ivey Leaguers. Don’t get me wrong, the Ivey League reputation is well earned. However, there are excellent universities throughout the US who can provide talent to Washington and diversify intellectual perspectives. The current geographic isolation of Democrats on both coasts has enhanced the intentional partisanship successfully spread by the Republican Party. The Biden administration has got to find talent with local credibility in the middle states to change this trend.
“The Ivy League reputation is well
earnedheeled”Fixed.
The Well Heeled Ivies
We earned our reputation
By wearing heels of gold
And use our shoe vocation
To keep you from the fold
The Ivy League
Look to Ivy
There you’ll find
Itchy, hivy
Poison kind
Thank you for sharing. This does, however, illustrate my point. One of the commentators here keeps calling Rubio’s comments “stupid” or “dumb”. This feeds into the cynical politics that run throughout Republican circles. It gives them ammunition. Yes, many of these same Republicans are Ivey Leaguers, however they cover this effectively through their grievance politics. They understand that the emotions of the moment overtake reason when confronted with distress. I can sit and nod my head throughout this discussion as I understand the argument. The Republican base ignores such a dialogue because there is little empathy apparent in the dialogue. My argument is to overcome this the Democratic Party has got to learn from Stacy Abrams, role up their sleeves, and engage with the middle of America in a way that shows they care. This could be done through an infrastructure plan or by finding leaders who have credibility in their “red state” communities. The irony here is that this is the very strategy “elite” universities use when recruiting students. They know that intellectual diversity is vital for the academic community. It’s time the Democrats and the media learned the same thing.
I so admire Stacy Abrams. She plays the long game very well, and I hope to see and hear a lot more of her in the future.
Touche’…
I am a daily reader and NPE supporter – BUT – I must respond to your calling those who support DJT his “know nothing base”. This seems unfair and unhelpful. I have family members who voted from him. I love them dearly. And they know something, have studied and worked hard as FDNY, EMS, Army veterans, retired police officers – and they would save/have saved us from harm. Scooping “his base” into the “uneducated/ignorant” is, in my humble opinion, both unkind and destructive. I don’t think we should add to the sad divisiveness we’re experiencing with a phrase like “know nothing base”. Also, I wonder: could some of Biden’s choices turn out to be controversial because of corporate connections and their occasional support of the military-industrial complex?
Ann McCormack Let us then distinguish between ignorance and know-nothing, on the one hand, and POLITICAL ignorance and know-knowingness on the other.
For a long time, I “let live” about Trumpists, especially in my own family. But the more I watched Trump and his followers, the more I recognized cult-like qualities and a total IGNORANCE and disregard, not for DEMOCRATS, but FOR DEMOCRACY ITSELF, and for what Trump was doing to it–THEIR democracy and mine.
In that sense, I’ll stick with the kind of ignorance and know-nothingness (political, at the very least) that equates to calling a spade a spade. You can love them all you want and I encourage you to do so, but they are living in THE BIG LIE and do not. and EVEN REFUSE to know it. No matter, and sorry to disagree, but that’s ignorance. CBK
Love it when we can find common ground, CBK.
GregB . . . a succinct but thorough rendition of the history of “know nothings.” So important to know about. CBK
The term “Know Nothing” has an American historical precedent, one that was actively embraced by the members of the American Party. It does not literally mean they know nothing, it means that there are many issues about which they would rather not be informed as they willingly cling to issues that do not stand up to objective scrutiny. The Know Nothings filled the gap between the demise of the Whig Party and the birth of the Republican Party between the mid-1840s and 1860.
Their platform rejected pluralism and built on a foundation of virulent anti-immigrant, xenophobic sentiments and policy proposals, mostly centered on anti-catholicism. They engaged in violence, closed their eyes to the issue of slavery and its abolition, favored instituting religious tests for public activities. When asked to explain themselves and their ideas, they responded with “I know nothing.” They railed against the federal government’s spending power but were fawning sycophants in support of projects that we would today call pork-barrel spending. Many of those with roots in the Know Nothing movement later became leaders in the Ku Klux Klan and helped kill Reconstruction as leaders in the Redemption movement to establish Jim Crow laws.
Therefore, given obvious these connections to the the present day cult of the Idiot, I would argue that the term “know nothing base” is as concise and accurate as it gets in these days of amorphous and inaccurate use of language.
Socrates Speaks
I know that I know nothing
And that’s what nonsense is
So nonsense is the one thing
That I can surely diss
How reassuring that “religious” people on the R can now assemble and worship their god. Killing each other, and innocents who don’t deserve getting infected, is the end result. There is no fixing ignorance. Nope, can’t pray at home. It’s against the law.
…………………………………
The New York Times
BREAKING NEWS
The Supreme Court blocked New York’s virus-imposed limits on religious services. Justice Amy Coney Barrett was a decisive vote in the 5-4 ruling.
Thursday, November 26, 2020 1:07 AM EST
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberal members in dissent.
The ruling was at odds with earlier ones before Justice Barrett joined the court concerning churches in California and Nevada. In those cases, decided in May and July, the court allowed the states’ governors to restrict attendance at religious services.
In an unsigned opinion, the majority said Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions violated the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion…
The court’s order addressed two applications: one filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, the other by two synagogues, an Orthodox Jewish organization and two individuals. The applications both said Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions violated constitutional protections for the free exercise of religion, and the one from the synagogues added that Mr. Cuomo had “singled out a particular religion for blame and retribution for an uptick in a societywide pandemic.”
Thanks to Amy Coney Barrett, the members of these religious groups may gather in large numbers in their houses of worship, share their germs, then go out into the community and infect others. The SCOTUS definition of “freedom of religion” puts all of us in danger.
Diane The “responses” to the related article in the Washington Post were overwhelmingly against this ruling, and for the minority opinions. Here was my response among the five thousand and growing numbers:
“So . . . it’s illegal for the State to interfere with those who want to attend gatherings that can kill people; but it should be legal for the State to interfere with a woman who wants an abortion. Hmmmm . . . . ” CBK
Catherine King; Good comment.
CBK, excellent response.
People will die because of this decision.
“Coronavirus cases are emerging in their highest numbers of the pandemic, with more than 175,000 a day, on average, in a country that has seen more cases and more deaths than anywhere else in the world.”
The Supreme Court has blocked New York’s virus-imposed limits on religious services. Cases will rise as people demand to go back to church. How reassuring that “religious” people on the R can now assemble and worship their god. Killing each other, and innocents who don’t deserve getting infected, is the end result.
13 states, thanks to Trump’s advice, do not even have laws mandating the wearing of masks.
I truly wonder how this country will ever get COVID-19 under control. Sure, people are getting fatigued. We are at war with a nasty virus that doesn’t care. People in WWII didn’t have the luxury of saying, “I’ve had enough of the war.” People with common sense, know that we NOW also don’t have that luxury.
Our county wouldn’t be in this deep mess if we’d had a leader who believed in science more than his need to get reelected.
I believe that the ‘holy’ people on the Supreme Court have forgotten what Jesus has said:
Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “
“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6).
Might there be a way to require those people to self isolate for the 10-14 days afterward until they can prove that they do not have the virus? God has never protected people from horrific deaths before; I don’t know why they think he will start now.
Just why is it that their right to religious freedom tops my right to life? I should think a case could be made that during a pandemic like this one, ignoring the health and welfare of the community at large is like yelling fire in a crowded theater. Since hospitals are starting to triage patients, maybe those who are known to have ignored health protocols should go to the bottom of the list when it comes to care. Like the ones claiming it’s a hoax as they go on the ventilator.
Way to sound grateful on this day of thanksgiving, huh. Sorry. I don’t wish Covid on anyone.
From The Onion [jokes that seem real]
……………………………..
Biden Receives First Box Of Wadded-Up Napkins And Receipts Comprising Trump Intelligence Briefing
WILMINGTON, DE—Ending two weeks of a transition blockade, President-elect Joe Biden confirmed Wednesday that he had received his first box of wadded-up napkins and greasy receipts comprising President Trump’s intelligence briefing. “We appreciate the Trump administration cooperating in a peaceful transition of power, and our team has already begun sifting through the important information scrawled on the odd banana peel and tuna can,” said Biden, adding that his staff was already using the damp cardboard box of soiled tissues and a plethora of crumpled hamburger wrappers containing possible national security threats to plan foreign policy strategy. “Some of the information we received may just be old take-out menus smeared in grease with some food items circled, but we can’t be sure, so we’ll be keeping them in case they contain any details of CIA covert actions. We’re also meeting with experts from the National Security Council, who are going to help us decipher the state secrets that seem to be written in barbecue sauce on the back of an empty Little Debbie Swiss Rolls box.” At press time, the Biden transition team was reportedly very alarmed by some smeared toothpaste on a Doritos bag that seemed to reference an impending terrorist attack on the United States.
Sent to me by a friend in Canada:
THINKING OF YOU …….. T’was a month before Christmas
A Poem for the Times
Author unknown.
T’was a month before Christmas,
And all through the town,
People wore masks,
That covered their frown.
The frown had begun
Way back in the Spring,
When a global pandemic
Changed everything.
They called it corona,
But unlike the beer,
It didn’t bring good times,
It didn’t bring cheer.
Contagious and deadly,
This virus spread fast,
Like a wildfire that starts
When fueled by gas.
Airplanes were grounded,
Travel was banned.
Borders were closed
Across air, sea and land.
As the world entered lockdown
To flatten the curve,
The economy halted,
And folks lost their verve.
From March to July
We rode the first wave,
People stayed home,
They tried to behave.
When summer emerged
The lockdown was lifted.
But away from caution,
Many folks drifted.
Now it’s November
And cases are spiking,
Wave two has arrived,
Much to our disliking.
Frontline workers,
Doctors and nurses,
Try to save people,
From riding in hearses.
This virus is awful,
This COVID-19.
There isn’t a cure.
There is no vaccine.
It’s true that this year
Has had sadness a plenty,
We’ll never forget
The year 2020.
And just ‘round the corner –
The holiday season,
But why be merry?
Is there even one reason?
To decorate the house
And put up the tree,
When no one will see it,
No-one but me.
But outside my window
The snow gently falls,
And I think to myself,
Let’s deck the halls!
So, I gather the ribbon,
The garland and bows,
As I play those old carols,
My happiness grows.
Christmas ain’t cancelled
And neither is hope.
If we lean on each other,
I know we can cope.
Thanks, Carol.
Hurry, if you want to send Trump and his family a special Christmas card‼️ The space is limited. Gee, I’m getting a top supporter alert. [I don’t have the words to fully express what I think of that.]
……………………………..
Add your name to the top of President Trump’s card
Inbox
Top Supporter Alerts newsletter@thepatriotictimes.com via cp20.com
7:37 AM (15 minutes ago)
We are sending President Trump and his family a special Christmas card. This year, we’re starting early to collect as many signatures as possible!
We’re reaching out to Top Supporters first to make sure you have a chance to sign your name at the top because space is limited! Put your name at the top of the card now >>>
Sign the Card!
We wanted to make the Trump Family’s Christmas extra special by sending this card filled with signatures from supporters all across the nation. President Trump has worked tirelessly to advance to Make America Great Again agenda, and this is our chance to show our appreciation! Sign the card today to wish President Trump and his family Happy Holidays!
Thank you,
Team NRSC
SIGN NOW
If you agree that President Trump and Republicans are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, text MAGA to 55404 to receive mobile alerts! Message and data rates may apply. Text “STOP” to opt-out. T&C/Privacy Policy.
Paid for by the NRSC.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
http://www.NRSC.org
Contributions to the NRSC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
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United States
Ahhh. I was sort of hoping to see him being dragged out of the WH.
………………………………
The Hill:
Trump says he’ll leave White House if Biden declared winner of Electoral College
President Trump on Thursday said he would leave the White House on Jan. 20 if the Electoral College declares President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the election, but indicated he was not prepared to concede defeat.
“Certainly I will. And you know that,” said Trump when asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College voted for Biden.
He added, “If they do, they made a mistake.”
My brother did sent me an email saying that the devil is taking over Pope Francis.
This article shows that he believes we are all connected and need to feel each other’s pain and realize that we all can help each other.
Gee, I wonder which government “shrugged off the painful evidence of mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences” and that “measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom!” [Nah, it couldn’t be our Trump centered government.]
……………………………………….
Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts
To come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be touched by others’ pain.
…With some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives. The exceptions have been some governments that shrugged off the painful evidence of mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences. But most governments acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak.
Yet some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom! Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.
It is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they judge everything.
The coronavirus crisis may seem special because it affects most of humankind. But it is special only in how visible it is. There are a thousand other crises that are just as dire, but are just far enough from some of us that we can act as if they don’t exist. Think, for example, of the wars scattered across different parts of the world; of the production and trade in weapons; of the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing poverty, hunger and lack of opportunity; of climate change. These tragedies may seem distant from us, as part of the daily news that, sadly, fails to move us to change our agendas and priorities. But like the Covid-19 crisis, they affect the whole of humanity.
Look at us now: We put on face masks to protect ourselves and others from a virus we can’t see. But what about all those other unseen viruses we need to protect ourselves from? How will we deal with the hidden pandemics of this world, the pandemics of hunger and violence and climate change?…
To come out of this crisis better, we have to recover the knowledge that as a people we have a shared destination. The pandemic has reminded us that no one is saved alone. What ties us to one another is what we commonly call solidarity. Solidarity is more than acts of generosity, important as they are; it is the call to embrace the reality that we are bound by bonds of reciprocity. On this solid foundation we can build a better, different, human future.
Carolmalaysia “My brother did sent me an email saying that the devil is taking over Pope Francis.”
I sounds to me like Pope Francis actually read the New Testament. CBK
He is a wise and profound thinker.
Noam Chomsky: Trump Has Revealed the Extreme Fragility of American Democracy
November 25, 2020
Trump’s failed coup may look weak, but his refusal to concede could fuel a vile strategy to come roaring back in 2024.
Noam Chomsky: Speculation of course, but I’ll indulge in a bad dream — which could become reality if we are not on guard, and if we fail to recognize that elections should be a brief interlude in a life of engaged activism, not a time to go home and leave matters in the hands of the victors.
I suspect that Trump and associates regard their legal challenges as a success in what seems a plausible strategy: keep the pot boiling and keep the loyal base at fever pitch, furious about the “stolen” election and the efforts of the insidious elites and the “deep state” to remove their savior from office.
That strategy seems to be working well. According to recent polls, “Three-quarters (77%) of Trump backers say Biden’s win was due to fraud” and “The anger among Trump’s base is tied to a belief that the election was stolen.” Rejection of the legal challenges with ridicule may please liberal circles, but for the base, it may be simply more proof of the Trump thesis: the hated elites will stop at nothing in their machinations.
Meanwhile, this strategy requires keeping the wrecking ball — Trump’s symbol — actively at work. Do nothing to deal with the pandemic, even delay in providing data to Biden’s team while a top nurse’s union warns of “catastrophic death” in the growing chaos while “our hospitals are knowingly still not prepared” and the government is on vacation.
Viewed through the lens of this vile strategy, if the pandemic gets worse, so much the better. Then local officials will try to impose restrictions and even lockdowns to control patriotic Americans — in line with the plans of the supposed “Communist-run deep state” — leading to economic harm and intrusions on normal life. Meanwhile, Trump and his associates could abandon other normal governmental activities so that when Biden establishes what they describe as a “fake government” on inauguration day, the immediate problems will be severe and failure likely.
On that day, which will live in infamy among the faithful, Trump might set up what he claims is an authentic government in Mar-a-Lago, with Mitch McConnell’s Senate in his pocket and a furious popular base. The next step would be to make the country ungovernable, a specialty that McConnell has been perfecting for a decade and that an accomplished demagogue like Trump can manage reflexively. Everything that goes wrong can be blamed on the treacherous “elites.”
Trump and associates might, as some have speculated, set up an alternative media empire, incorporating talk radio and other far right outlets but perhaps not Fox, which has shown occasional signs of disobedience. Then they could come roaring back into power in 2022-2024, feeding on growing discontent.
They would then be free to destroy the environment with abandon and maximize short-term profit for their primary constituency, impose discipline on what remains of government, tame the media, institute harsh authoritarian measures elsewhere, and continue with their abject service to their masters — the real elites, the very rich and the corporate sector, the decision-makers, as recent academic research once again establishes very clearly…
https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-trump-has-revealed-the-extreme-fragility-of-american-democracy/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Truthout+Share+Buttons
This from Opinion in the LA Times today: How the U.S. can stamp out Trumpism
BY IAN BASSIN AND JUSTIN FLORENCE
“The United States barely survived the most acute threat to its political system since the Civil War by averting a second Trump term. But Donald Trump was always just a carrier for a political virus that predated and will outlast him. As evidenced by the finding that 8 in 10 Trump voters do not think he should relinquish power, Trumpism as a political movement very much remains.
“A return of Trumpism to the White House would mirror the second wave of COVID-19, which has been worse than the first. Trump 2.0 would have seen America’s openness to strongman rule — and likely be more competent at it. To avoid that, the political virus that gave us Trump must be addressed. It is a disease with two strains, global and national.
“The global strain is a wave of authoritarianism. Over the past 15 years, democracy has been in retreat around the world, with autocrats supplanting democratic governments in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, Venezuela and Poland. Across the globe, citizens are growing less committed to democracy and more open to alternatives. These trends are being driven by factors that transcend borders and include globalization, migration and new information technologies. . . . The United States has not been immune. Openness to the idea of military rule jumped from 1 in 16 Americans 30 years ago to 1 in 6 pre-Trump. And while some of the shift is likely attributable to global factors, this political virus also carries a uniquely American strain.
“The country has become more polarized politically as liberals and conservatives segregate into different geographic areas and consume different media. Previously dominant groups who feel they are losing status in an ever-more diverse nation have captured the Republican Party, turning it into an instrument for holding power at all cost. That party, in turn, has taken advantage of unique structures of American democracy such as the electoral college and the Senate to give itself governmental powers that are out of proportion with the support the party has among voters. For example, Republicans have lost the popular vote in 7 of 8 presidential elections yet dominate the Supreme Court.
“As a result of the global and national strains mixing, Trump was able to go a long way toward executing the modern autocrat’s playbook, which typically involves six things.
“Spreading disinformation: Trump began doing this on Day One with petty efforts to doctor images to make his inauguration crowd seem bigger and continues this behavior today through his false claims of electoral victory. Politicizing independent institutions: Trump sought to do this with the Department of Justice, the intelligence community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even the U.S. Postal Service.
“Delegitimizing vulnerable populations: Trump tried to do this by falsely claiming he would have won the popular vote in 2016 but for millions of ‘illegal votes’ from communities of color, and continued this with abusive immigration policies that separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Aggrandizing executive power: Trump repeatedly did this in such forms as declaring a fake emergency to appropriate funds that Congress refused to authorize for a border wall as well as asserting “the right to do whatever I want” and that his ‘authority is total.’ Quashing dissent: Trump tried to do so by using regulatory powers to retaliate against critics in the media, stoking violence to silence opponents, even attempting to ban books.
“Corrupting elections: Trump was impeached for trying to pressure Ukraine into corrupting the 2020 election. And to this day his baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent are undermining public trust in our electoral system.
“We came far too close to a full authoritarian takeover. Even absent Trump, anti-democratic toxins will remain in our body politic. To purge them, Trump-era abuses must be reckoned with — not as retribution, but to deter recurrence. The U.S. government advises other countries that are emerging from authoritarian regimes to undertake a process of ‘transitional justice’ to return to healthier footing. We should heed our own advice. That means establishing independent investigations to account for abuses that took place, prosecuting violations of law, and restoring ethical and professional norms through government and private-sector actions.
“Immediate reform legislation should be passed to impose stronger guardrails against executive abuses. Congress should be re-empowered to have lead responsibility for making hard decisions on such matters as war powers, emergency powers and spending. And barriers to voting should be removed while better protecting our elections from foreign interference. There are already three bills before Congress that would accomplish this. States need to fix some of the current system’s incentives for counterproductive political behavior. The primary system in many states rewards extreme candidates; uncontrolled gerrymandering enables minority parties to control state legislatures.
“At the national level, President-elect Joe Biden should convene a diverse set of experts and citizens to make recommendations on how to address the representational deficiencies that are built into the Senate and the electoral college, including the way they have translated into an overly politicized federal judiciary.
“Finally, we must reclaim our national identity as a country that derives its strength from its diversity. We’ve seen a skilled demagogue divide us and lead more Americans to see their political adversaries as worthy of violence. To reverse that trend, we need leaders across the political, cultural, religious, business and grass-roots spectrum to consistently tell a more unifying and uplifting story about America in the 21st century — a narrative about how we can become the first truly multiracial, pluralist democracy the world has seen. Then they need to take action to make that story a reality.
“Voting Trump out of office was the treatment our critically ill government needed, but it’s this set of next steps that will be the vaccine.
“Ian Bassin and Justin Florence are co-founders of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Protect Democracy. They previously served as associate White House counsels to President Obama.”
Ohh. Judge Stephanos Bibas is going to be in the dog house for going against Trump. No proof of an unfair election!!! Hoo-rah!!
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The Washington Post
News Alert
Nov. 27, 1:14 p.m. EST
Federal appeals court rejects Trump request to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election results
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said the Trump campaign’s challenge of a district court’s decision had no merit. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” said Judge Stephanos Bibas, who was appointed to the court by President Trump.
Joe and Hunter Biden for Prison – Trump 2020 – Pence 2024
Trump for prison in 2021.