This photo taken approximately 100 years ago demonstrates that American nationalism didn’t just spontaneously come into being with the 45th president and his tens of millions of supporters.
The notion that we’re a nation of militant white Christian men is an old one indeed, as repulsive as that may be.
Somebody needs a dictionary.
And a heart. And a mind.
From this:
The five voters from Greene’s district sought to have her removed from the ballot, saying that she played a significant role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted Congress’ certification of Biden’s presidential victory. That was a violation of a rarely invoked provision in the 14th Amendment against insurrection or rebellion, they argued.
Obviously. Ever hear of due process? You can’t deprive someone of life, liberty, or property by accusing them of something.
This happened in Salem, MA in 1692; it should never happen again.
Correct.
Our current climate trajectory ends in unprecedented suffering and death for entire populations of people and other living things.
Actor/activist George Takei asks a good question. Considering the rate of change in our world, how long must we hang onto the precise ideas that folks from the 1780s had about how government should conduct itself?
Nobody’ s talking about tossing out the Constitution–only interpreting it so as to serve the needs of people who live in an age when demented kids can buy assault rifles.
As suggested in the meme here, patience and trust are elements of good character. We’d all love to believe our nation is right around the corner from seeing justice rain down on Team Trump.
Here’s a troubling thought, however: witness tampering.
The commission of a crime like this should have been stopped the moment there was probable cause, and that’s been obvious for at least a couple of weeks, i.e., since Trump’s attempted to impede the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson in front of the Select Committee and his more recent phone call to someone who was about to take the stand.
If you want to build an airtight case for seditious conspiracy or treason, we all understand that this can require months of evidence-gathering, and we regard the need for caution and measured progress. However, when a crime is being committed in real time, like a bank robber who’s taken hostages, you don’t go back to your office and prepare an indictment; you simply arrest the perpetrator at the first opportunity. The safety of the American people is a stake.
Garland is emphatic in his statement that no one’s above the law. But if you or I were under investigation for a crime and brazenly contacted someone who was scheduled to testify again us, we’d have been arrested with a few minutes.
Stephen Colbert makes a good point here.
Of course, the people who were gullible enough to believe and promote the “Antifa Lie” do not watch The Late Show, and wouldn’t understand the logic here, even if they did.
From NASA: Continuing a 22-year downward trend, water levels in Lake Mead stand at their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time. As of July 18, 2022, Lake Mead was filled to just 27 percent of capacity.
One might think that the surge of real estate prices in the Southwest would face a limit, as the Earth’s capacity to bring water into the area continues to diminish.
An old friend left Central California 15 years ago, in favor of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sadly, it was “out of the frying pan and into the fire,” literally, as much of the Land of Enchantment is becoming the Land of the Drought-Driven Inferno.
While climate change wreaks catastrophe onto most of Earth’s people, it offers benefits for a few, e.g., those who live more than about 45 degrees from the equator, who are already experiencing lower heating bills and longer growing seasons.
From the time I was a small boy until just the past few years, I believed exactly what Bertrand Russell said here.
Two centuries before Russell, Voltaire had pointed out, referring to religion as the basis for most of our wars, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
For a long while, it seemed that humankind was on the right track here with respect to belief in absurdities. But recently it’s become clear that, as a species, our appetite for inane ideas has taken a significant upturn. What we’re seeing all around us in U.S. politics is all the evidence that anyone could possibly want.
Regardless of short-term trends, there is no long-term evidence that supports Russell’s assertion. In ancient Greece, 2500 years ago, most people believed, for instance, that Helios drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky and sailed around the northerly stream of Ocean each night in a huge cup.
Those who hold ridiculous, anti-scientific explanations for everyday phenomena like COVID, its cures, climate change, the Deep State, the proliferation of assault rifles increasing public safety, and the benevolent character of Donald Trump are just as numerous per capita today as they were thousands of years ago.
When Trump is finally expelled from U.S. politics, it seems likely that Liz Cheney will be able to claim that she was the driving force behind the purge of her party’s pathological lying, criminality, and pure insanity.
It’s the sad truth that today’s GOP actively demands support for Trump, but tomorrow’s almost certainly will not. The mental illness suffered by tens of millions of people cannot last indefinitely, especially when the facts are being exposed so broadly and clearly.
Unless something shifts radically from its current trajectory, Cheney seems to be an excellent choice as a presidential nominee.
