From the New York Times:

Some of the most striking exchanges in the (January 6th’s) committee’s text messages were between Mr. Trump’s longtime adviser Hope Hicks and Julie Radford, the chief of staff to Mr. Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka. In them, both women lamented that Mr. Trump had caused irreparable harm to his own staff as the violence played out. “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter,” Ms. Hicks fumed in a message. “All of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed.”

Sorry, but it’s impossible for any decent person to feel sympathy here.  Trump advisor Hope Hicks signed up to be a to-the-death supporter of a man she knew to be a criminal sociopath, and now she’s worried about being “perpetually unemployed?”

She’s afraid of “looking like a domestic terrorist?”  News flash: You are a domestic terrorist. Best case for you: no criminal charges.  Find yourself a sugar-daddy and stay away from TV cameras.

Good riddance to you in the American workplace.  I wouldn’t hire you to take out my trash, and it pleases me to know that most people feel the same.

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Economist Robert Reich says, “Clarence Thomas should not be allowed to rule on Trump cases after his wife was directly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Recusal should be the absolute minimum. Your thoughts?”

Clarence Thomas has already demonstrated his utter contempt for this law; why are we expecting him to behave differently now?

Put another way, how many times does a high-ranking citizen of the United States have to break a law before he’s held accountable?

Thomas is thumbing his nose at an American rule of law.  Apparently, we don’t really care.

 

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There is no reason that the statement here can’t be true.

It’s quite possible that humankind will, as one, realize that the forces of oppression all around us are unacceptable and demand solutions to environmental collapse, social injustice, and massive, high-level corruption, as seen in the United States, that militates toward fascism.

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The story here from MSN.

In their final meeting, the January 6th committee decided to recommend that the Justice Department take over and bring criminal charges against Trump.

Republicans either quickly rallied behind the former President or stayed silent on the matter.

After the criminal referral was announced, Republicans either came out in support of Trump, offered weak defenses, or didn’t say anything at all.

As we’ve all seen to our horror, congressional Republicans will do or say anything, regardless of how blatantly dishonest, in order to stay in office–and allegiance to Donald Trump is still very much a part of this miasma.

One hopes that the alignment of the GOP with respect to prosecuting Trump makes no difference whatsoever in the Justice Department’s decision to indict the former president on insurrection, obstruction, defrauding the U.S, and perhaps half a dozen other felonies.

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The tale at left is a reminder that we live in a world where kindness is “trending,” to use the popular term.  This became apparent, to me at least, with the imperative to commit “random acts of kindness” concept of perhaps 20 years ago.

Kindness is a profoundly important ingredient in a time in human history in which stories of hate and selfishness tend to make the headlines.

Anyone struggling to find hope for our future should take solace in the fact that intelligent and kind folks outnumber mean and stupid people by a huge margin.

Further, the “mean and stupid” contingent in our society is under great legal pressure and are in the process of finding themselves destitute.   Take Alex Jones and Fox News, not to mention Donald Trump and his associates.

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If you can relate to the meme here, and you’re willing to “surrender to the mystery,” you’ll love the composition of American singer-songwriter Iris Dement, below.

 

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I found this meme from a reader quite interesting.

Personally, I will call 2023 a good year to the degree it represents an overall improved quality of life for the world’s people.  That means:

• Full restoration of American democracy and justice for those who tried to overthrow it

• Russia out of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia out of Yemen, etc.

• Progress in climate change mitigation, which means decarbonizing energy and transportation, and better land use

• A return to fair taxation of the rich, enabling the development of social programs like quality education and universal healthcare

• Progress for every country in both the freedom index and the happiness ranking

If there is a common theme here, it’s that the world’s people begin to think as one in terms of achieving sustainability for all life forms on our home planet.

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I don’t know about you, but I go back and forth on stuff like this…and I don’t use words like “imaginal.”

From her bio:

Dr. Jude Currivan is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, author, previously one of the most senior business women in the UK and co-founder of WholeWorld-View. Having grown up as the daughter of a coal miner in the north of England, she has since journeyed to more than eighty countries around the world and for the last twenty -five years has lived in the sacred landscape of Avebury. She has experienced multidimensional realities since early childhood and worked with the wisdom keepers both incarnate and discarnate of many traditions. Jude integrates leading edge science, research into consciousness and universal wisdom teachings into a wholistic world-view.

I’m not so sure on the “leading edge science.”

From here, what this civilization seems to be facing is not one crisis, but a series of crises.  I think I’d be happier to confront our issues, rather than be told we’re experiencing a “metamorphosis.”

 

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The fact that Trump avoided paying taxes using every means legal should surprise no one; it’s a tactic available to everyone, and the wealthier one is, the more latitude one has to play these tricks.

To most observers, however, there is criminality here, in the form of placing a corrupt IRS commissioner who agreed not to perform his duty re: auditing each tax return of a sitting president.

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If, on top of this, you add corporate control of the media that Americans are force-fed, you have 98+% of the U.S. electorate that are truly powerless to control their financial condition, let alone reproductive rights, etc.

We have the illusion of choice, but beneath that, there is no real substance whatsoever.

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