Veteran Vic Meyers takes Republicans to task for misreporting the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, which Trump set up before Trump released 5,000 Taliban from Afghanistan prisons — one of whom conducted the fatal attack on 13 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Afghan citizens during evacuations.
US pullout from Afghanistan — Trump did it
September 2, 2024
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Afghanistan, Donald Trump, History, President Joe Biden, War | Tagged: Afghanistan, History, President Joe Biden, War | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment: Need for mediocre leaders, Roman Hruska
August 8, 2024If it hadn’t been said, someone would have to make it up.
President Richard Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Carswell had an undistinguished career, one that might be described as “mediocre,” which engendered opposition to the nomination.
Nebraska Republican, Sen. Roman Hruska, spoke in defense of the nomination.
Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance? We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos.[11]
The nomination failed.
Leave a Comment » | Famous quotes, History, Infamous Quotes, Leadership, Quotes, U.S. Senate, U.S. Supreme Court | Tagged: History, Mediocrity, Quotes, Sen. Roman Hruska, Supreme Court | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Chess games of the rich and famous: Willie Nelson, again, in 2001
August 1, 2024Willie Nelson is well-known as a dynamite chess player and real fan of the game.
Here’s another photo of Willie at the board, in Austin, Texas, in 2001. Great photo by Scott Newton, the photographer for “Austin City Limits.”
On Facebook, Turk Pipkin said in comments:
Awesome Scott Newton photo of the awesome man himself. I was sitting across the board from Willie. Lost $100 on that game, haha. Scott has been the official photographer for Austin City Limits TV for 50 years. Check out his work – itβs always great.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Willie Nelson’s feed on Facebook.
Leave a Comment » | Chess, History, Music, photography, Willie Nelson | Tagged: Chess, History, photography, Scott Newton, Turk Pipkin, Willie Nelson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Vaccine success in a handy chart
July 25, 2024History tells us vaccines are wonderful things. Vaccines cut horrible, disifiguring, crippling and fatal diseases, and extended the life span of entire populations across the entire world.
Leave a Comment » | History, History of Science, medicine, Science, Vaccinations | Tagged: health, Health care, medicine, Science, Vaccines | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The Economic Case for Democrats over Republicans
July 25, 2024A woman going by the handle Kashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKLive1) on Twitter (X, if you must), lays out in necessary detail the economic case for Democrats over Republicans, in the race for President, and in all races for Congress.
It’s long. Here’s the text from all 24 Tweets in the thread (more may be added later). Bottom line, Democrats in the White House will make America greater and better, while Republican policies will again crash the economy.
Listen up, you guys, we’ve got a democracy to save! And neither the courts nor the media is going to help us. Buckle up for a long thread.π§΅1) Right now we’ve got a third of the country who believe Trump’s lies, a third who see what’s happening and will vote for Biden, even if they’re not fond of him, and a third who are completely clueless. The third group are the people we need to reach.
Sadly, I can’t go out in the world and be around people, so I won’t have the opportunity to talk to folks and tell them what they don’t know, but I’ve got talking points for y’all.2) First, the economy seems to be what folks are fixated on, but they have their facts wrong, so let’s start there.
To sell this economy, you need to start in 2020. People prefer not to remember that time. Remind them. Besides refrigerated morgues, empty shelves, overrun hospitals and people dying, businesses and schools were closed, unemployment went way up, and we had GLOBAL inflation from the GLOBAL pandemic. Please make sure people understand this. Inflation started all over the world before the president took office, in large part due to messed up supply chains caused by the pandemic. (Not to mention corporate greed, but that’s another story.)3) Biden came into an economic mess, and all the financial pundits were predicting a recession for at least the first two years he was in office. So the president focused on getting the country up and running again, first by making vaccines available to everyone, then by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which was also the most substantial climate change initiative in history. But that took almost two years to get passed and then signed into law, and then it takes time for it to be implemented and then more time for the effects to be felt. We are only just barely beginning to feel the real results of that.
4) Now we have an economy that’s the envy of the world. Our inflation is more under control than that of our allies. Unemployment is at 50 year lows, the stock market is at all time highs. The president pulled off an freaking economic miracle and doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it.
But the average person has amnesia about the pandemic and is still mad because groceries cost more, something the president has no control over. The fact is, prices are never going to go back to 2019 levels, no matter who is president, because that’s not how anything works. Over time prices go up, sometimes faster than others. These prices are the new normal.
So we need to explain to literally anyone who will listen that the pandemic caused global economic upset, and that the US has handled it better than any other country. And Trump is now threatening to undo everything Biden did if he’s reelected, and the business community is practically yelling that Trump’s proposed new agenda will be an economic disaster, and cause major inflation.5) If we were to reelect Trump, (we won’t) but if we did the economy would keep humming for a couple of years because it would take him time to wreck it, and you can bet that he’d be taking credit for everything Biden accomplished.
But, again, we’re only just barely beginning to feel the effects of Biden’s policies, and we’re still the envy of the world. It’s only going to get better from here. WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE WANT TO REVERSE COURSE NOW?!6) For people to fully appreciate the economic miracle that is the US they need to remember what was happening when Biden came into office, and stop comparing today to 2019. We’re never going back there. And I think to a certain extent the general sense of malaise and depression many experienced after the pandemic (which is still going on, btw) is affecting their attitudes about how good things are now.
So please go out and remind people where we really were four years ago and how historically amazing our current economy is.7) Once you’ve got folks appreciating what Biden has done, please start dispelling the myth that GOP policies are better for the eonomy. That hasn’t been true in my lifetime. But I have a theory on why it persists, and that’s because people associate the current economy with whoever is in the White House, without taking into consideration that it takes time for policies to be enacted, and then more time for them to take effect.
So look at the pattern over the last 40 years. Reagan did what every Republican administration has done ever since: gave huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations, gutting federal revenues, and creating a ripple effect that starts slow and gains momentum over a period of years. A smart country would prioritize education, FOR EVERYONE, but instead we keep cutting funding to make up for those juicy corporate tax cuts.8) Triple down economics has never worked. Not once. Not even a little, but every single Republican administration tries it again.
9) So look at the pattern. The economy was already in trouble when Bush 41 took over in 1989. What he did was too little too late, and he lost his job for it. Clinton took over an economic mess, and by the time he left the economy was humming. Dubya came in in 2001, and they did the whole tax cuts for billionaires thing again and before the end of his second term we were in a recession. BECAUSE TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS DOESN’T WORK.
So then Obama came into power when things were really bad, unemployment was high, businesses were failing. But after 8 years of Dem policies the economy was cooking again.
Trump came in and took credit for Obama’s economy, and then went right back to tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. He claimed he created the greatest economy, but he created nothing. He just took credit for it. There were already signs that there was going to be another recession in Trump’s second term before the pandemic hit.
And no, the pandemic wasn’t his fault, but the absolutely atrocious way he handled it was. But things would not have turned out that rosy even minus the pandemic effects. We were headed in the wrong direction.10) But Biden won, and instead of the Trump recession we got the Biden rebound. And now we have the best economy in the world, and we’re only just beginning to feel the effects from it. It would be insane and destructive to reverse course now. But that’s exactly what Trump would do. He would cancel everything Biden has done, and take credit for the results of what he couldn’t cancel. It would be a huge mistake.
11) Another myth about Republicans being better for the economy is that they want to bring down spending and cut the deficit, but in fact, when they’re in power they do the exact opposite. It’s been this way for years. Whenever Dems are in power the GOP screams about the deficit, but whenever they’re in power they make it so much worse. They cut spending just a little by hurting the poor and middle class, and they give massive tax cuts to billionaires and corporation which kills our revenue.
Biden’s record is much better on this than Trump’s. Also tell people that they want to defund the IRS so it doesn’t go after rich tax cheats, (to please their rich donors) and that this will actually cost us billions. The money we save by not fully funding the IRS is miniscule compared to the money we lose. And they know this, but they act like they’re doing it to be fiscally responsible.
Tell people this.12) If we really want a spectacular economy, we need to keep Dems in office for more than 8 years. And to do that we need people to start understanding that to know where to place blame or give credit to for the economy, you need to look back four to six years. The economy doesn’t change because an election happened. The economy changes because of the policies enacted. If people could understand that, anyone voting based on the economy would keep voting for Dems.
13) Once you’ve dispelled the myth that Republicans are better for the economy, start reminding people of all the other reasons to vote. The court is HUGE. People ignored the importance of SCOTUS in 2016, and look where that got us. It’s not only women’s right to control their own bodies, this court is doing major damage in other ways. They’re dismantling the administrative state, and taking away the government’s right to protect us. This is another whole thread, and I should probably wait until we see the rest of their rulings.
BUT PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE KNOW THAT WOMEN LOSING THEIR RIGHTS IS BECAUSE OF DONALD TRUMP AND HIS COURT. Getting rid of Roe is one of the only promises he ever kept. But apparently there are people with so little understanding of how government works they think this must be Biden’s fault because he was president when it happens.
And some blame Dems for not codifying Roe without understanding that unless we have 60 votes in the senate, THIS CANNOT HAPPEN. Unless Dems control the senate with at least 60 votes, or eliminate the filibuster, (which I support, but it does have a downside) there is no way to codify Roe. This means women in red states are going to suffer.14) Another GOP scam has been convincing people deregulation is a good thing. In actuality, deregulation means polluted air and water, no safety protections for workers, (or passengers in the case of the airlines) no financial protection for consumers, and no ability to slow down climate change. Deregulation is not our friend, but corporations love it. It saves them money, which they immediately use to benefit shareholders while the rest of us get screwed over. This court wants to eliminate the protections from regulations.
15) This Extreme Court and the Republicans also want to make abortion illegal nationwide, (listen up, blue-staters!) and eliminate access to birth control. THEY HAVE EVERY INTENTION OF DOING THIS. If we elect another Republican, ANY REPUBLICAN, they’re going to appoint justices who will take away protections for birth control, and LBGTQ people will no longer be protected either. Not only could they lose the right to marry, (which is more important for legal reasons than a lot of younger people realize) they could even criminalize gay sex, just like the good old days.
All of this along with this court’s support for gutting voting rights, allowing gerrymandering, etc. will make it a lot harder to fix any of this. Even if you don’t like Biden, whoever gets to appoint the next justices will have an enormous effect on this country for at least a generation. We really REALLY need a Democrat in the White House AND a Democratic controlled senate, or we will suffer for a long time. Probably the rest of my lifetime.16) We need to elect Dems in the House, the Senate, and the presidency, both for the economy, and because if Republicans take control again, the whole country is going to end up like the red states. Women will lose their rights, and the whole country will suffer from red state folly. You’ll notice that the red states have the worst economies, too, and the worst education systems, and the worst healthcare. Why anyone would want Republicans to control the whole country is beyond me, because their record is terrible.
17) So please try to explain all of this to everyone around you, and everyone you meet. Find out about the Dems running in your districts, (statewide offices, too) find out good things about them, and sing their praises to people around you. Get folks to understand the consequences of electing Republicans.
Ask people questions that start with, “Did you know …”
“Did you know that Joe Biden and the Democrats passed the largest and most historic climate change legislation in history?”
“Did you know that Republican controlled states have the worst education, the worst economy, and the worst healthcare in the US?”
“Did you know that we always have a recession toward the end of every eight year Republican term?”18) Help people compare the results from which party is in power.
The recent congresses give you plenty of examples. Obama gave us healthcare, and the GOP (including Trump) have been trying to take it away ever since. In Trump’s first two years he had a Republican Congress and Senate, and really the only thing they accomplished was the usual tax cuts for billionaires thing. He built a couple of miles of wall (which is a stupid idea anyway and this wall is already falling down,) and he came within one vote of taking away healthcare WITH NOTHING TO REPLACE IT WITH. (Thank you, John McCain.) Other than that, they did nothing for the American people. Then we had divided government which means very little gets done.19) In Biden’s first two years with a Dem Congress they passed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the most comprehensive climate legislation the U.S. has even seen. The law invests hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles, environmental justice and more.
The Inflation Reduction Act represents the largest attempt in U.S. history to combat climate change. It includes clean-energy funding covering cars and homes and businesses, while curbing methane emissions, and it sets aside money for communities heavily affected by air pollution, flooding, and other climate-related issues.
This legislation also includes new measures to lower prescription drug costs, including a provision empowering Medicare to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry, a new $2,000 yearly cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions through Medicare, and a $35 monthly insulin cap for Medicare beneficiaries.
They also strengthened our supply chains and set up new programs to support minority businesses, and expanded STEM education opportunities so that more women and minorities can get the skills needed to succeed in a high-tech economy. Plus they gave additional funding to the IRS which raises our revenue.
And passing the Inflation Reduction Act was just the beginning. In the year and a half since its enactment, the administration has focused on developing tax credit guidance and launching programs to implement its many clean energy provisions
The Dem Congress also passed The Electoral Count Reform Act, to try to prevent someone like Trump from trying to steal an election again.
For the two years of a Dem Congress under President Biden, they worked hard to do things that would actually help the American people.20) And what has this Republican Congress done? Mostly a whole lot of nothing. They spent weeks trying to elect a Speaker, and then did that again a few months later. They impeached the Homeland Security Director, investigated Hunter Biden, tried as hard as they could to find a crime they could impeach the president for in spite of having no evidence for it, and they passed a bunch of performative nonsense bills that would accomplish nothing and that they knew had literally zero chance of becoming law, like protecting gas stoves, and naming airports and waterways after the disgraced, twice-impeached, convicted felon they all worship.
They were only barely able to pass a budget, and then the majority of Republicans voted against it. But not once, during this whole time have they even attempted to do anything that actually improves the lives of Americans.
Do we want more of this? Or do we want another congress working for us? If Dems control the House and senate, they will work to make our lives better. And contrary to what the silly owner of this website says, having a divided government doesn’t benefit anybody. It just stops all progress.21) Then there’s Project 2025, which fortunately people are starting to hear about. It’s the blueprint for a fascist takeover. Please tell people about what they intend to do, and explain the damage that would cause. Do you really want a whole country being run by people who put loyalty to Trump over loyalty to the country? Especially knowing Trump will do everything in his power to remain in office to keep himself legally protected. Project 2025’s goals include eliminating access to birth control, eliminating women’s access to a divorce even if they’re suffering from abuse, gutting public education and giving the money to private Christian schools, and giving the president unlimited power. Encourage people to find out about it, because it’s hella scary.
22) If you meet anyone who still believes climate change is a hoax, they may very well be too stupid to reach, but most people know better. Ask people, “Did you know that Joe Biden and the Democrats passed the largest, most historic climate change initiative ever? They’re getting us ready for a clean energy future, and doing it in a way that benefits the economy too. 300,000 new jobs have already been created by this plan, and more to come. Trump and the GOP want to reverse all of it, and give more subsidies to the oil industry.” If you care about climate change at all, you need to vote for Dems, up and down the ticket, because nthe GOP only cares about Big Oil and big donors. They’re even trying to pass laws in some states making it illegal to try to slow down climate change. Republicans are a huge threat to the environment, the planet and our future.
23) Then ask folks if they care about the US’s role in the world. We’re still considered the leader of the free world, even though we’ve done plenty to damage that, but we will lose that if Trump is reelected. Our allies will forgive us for the mistake of electing him once, but if we do it a second time, they will never trust us again. They’re already getting hesitant to share intelligence with us, because they know it isn’t safe if Trump comes back. They will stop altogether if he does, and our whole country will be less safe.
Make sure to dispel the myth that the world doesn’t respect Biden and wants Trump back. The only country leaders who prefer Trump are our enemies, the evil dictators who rule Russia and North Korea. (Also Netanyahu, because although Israel is our ally, Bibi is not, for his own selfish reasons.) But do we really want to elect a president our allies dread and don’t trust and the evil dictators who want to destroy America would rejoice at? The Europeans don’t agree with every detail of how Biden has handled foreign policy, (neither do I) but we all know Trump would be infinitely worse.
I have another whole thread I need to write about NATO, which I’ll add here later, but please make sure folks understand how important NATO is to US and world security. Trump’s threat to pull is out is INSANE, and will make us very much less safe. America First means America alone. NATO is the greatest peacekeeping alliance in recorded history, and leaving them would be extremely dangerous to our national security, not to mention idiotic.
And as far as how the world sees us, how do you think they’ll feel if we elect a convicted felon to be the leader of our country? A criminal whose business organization owes more than a half a billion dollars for fraud convictions? Someone who can’t be trusted with intelligence, and who will sell our foreign policy off to the highest bidder in order to enrich himself. Seriously, it’s downright embarrassing.24) Make sure the low info people you talk to realize that the vast majority of people in Trump’s cabinet (you know, the ones who saw how he actually ran the country) and his Vice President are now refusing to support him, and are saying he’s unfit for the job. This is unheard of in modern history. The people who agreed with Trump’s policies, but saw how he handled being the president are WARNING US NOT TO PUT HIM IN POWER AGAIN. How insane would it be not to listen to them?
I heard today that people actually trust Trump more than Biden to protect democracy. This is nuts. The only reason I can think of for this is that they believe the lies that the president is prosecuting his political rival, something Trump really wanted to do but was held back by the DOJ insisting that there had to be evidence of crimes for them to do this. (Barr tried to find such evidence, but wouldn’t prosecute without it.) Trump won’t be held back by this if he gets another chance.
So if you meet people who believe Biden is unfairly going after Trump for political reasons, tell them this: Merrick Garland stated under oath that he only took the job of Attorney General under the condition that it would be free from political pressure, and that since taking office the White House has never contacted or pressured him about any case. Not about Trump. Not about Hunter. He’s following the facts and the law, and none of this has anything to do with the president. Seriously, if he were directing DOJ, would he allow them to criminally prosecute his own son? Especially for a ridiculous offense that no one is ever prosecuted for.So I’m not done, but I’m going to stop for now because I have things to do and my keyboard has lost its charge. I’ll keep adding to this thread. In the meanwhile, PLEASE, go out and proselytize to every one you meet. Tell all the people not paying attention what the stakes are, and fill them in on all the things they don’t know.
We need to share two stories: 1) the one about the overlooked miracle of Biden’s economic recovery, and all the good policies he managed to enact even with the very slimmest of majorities, and 2) the absolute disaster another Trump term would be. What Trump will do to our country if given the chance, will not be easy to fix if it’s even possible. And fixing it will take decades. For the climate, decades is too late, and for the social and economic policies, those decades will be miserable. Putting Republicans in power will take us backwards.
Really try to get folks to grasp the concept that the economy doesn’t magically and immediately change depending on who is president. It changes due to policies that are enacted, and those take time. They take time to pass, and they take time to implement, and then they take time before we feel their effects. We are only beginning to feel the benefits of what Biden and the Dems have done.
If you want to know who to blame or give credit to for the economy, look back four to six years and see who was doing what. This is why we have a recession at the end of every eight year Republican presidential term. They inherit a great economy from Dems, wreck it, and then Dems have to fix it. Please help people understand the timing thing, because the first four years of a Democratic president’s term the economy always sucks because that’s what they inherited. Then by the end of the second term after Dem policies have had a chance to work, the economy is doing great. Then Republicans win and reap the benefits and people think, “oh yeah, these are good times and a Republican is in the White House, so they must be better for the economy. This isn’t that hard to understand if you can get people to stop and think about it.β’ β’ β’
1 Comment | 2024 Elections, Economics, GOTV - Get Out the Vote, History, President Joe Biden, Taxes | Tagged: 2024 Elections, Donald Trump, Economics, History, Joe Biden, News, Politics, Prosperity, Taxes, Trump, Vote | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore’s bathtub, still grist for the almanacs.
July 9, 2024Richard Daybell gets the details right — more carefully than most.
Leave a Comment » | Bogus history, History, Hoaxes, Humor, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: History, Hoaxes, Millard Fillmore, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Trump’s debate lies
July 2, 2024Biden/Trump debate was notable for the astounding slew of misstatements and outright lies told by Donald Trump.
Now CNN’s champion fact checker Daniel Dale follows Trump’s accuracy, and has done since 2016. Even he was amazed at the avalanche of balderdash from Trump.
We are left to wonder how to disqualify Trump on the basis of his failed performance. Is Trump genuinely unaware of the lies he tells? Then he is not well enough informed to hold high office. Is he aware of the lies, but tells them anyway? Then he is too corrupt and malicious to hold office.
Or has Trump’s already-evident cognitive difficulties advanced so far in 363 months that he is unable to tell fact from fiction? In that case he lacks the cognitive chops to replace Biden, who has done a good job as president fixing the problems Trump created and leading America to genuine greatness?
Trump cannot be a serious candidate, can he? If he believes his own falsehoods, he’s not capable of making good policy. If he knows he’s lying, he’s too corrupt.
7 Comments | 2024 Elections, Accuracy, Donald Trump, History, Joe Biden, President Joe Biden | Tagged: 2024 Election, Debate, Donald Trump, President Joe Biden | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Biden ad from 2020 — still true about Trump’s catastrophic presidency
May 27, 2024We can’t afford four more years of Trump.
3 Comments | 2024 Elections, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Politics, President Joe Biden | Tagged: 2024 Elections, Donald Trump, History, Politics, President Joe Biden | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
. . . and that’s the trufe!
April 30, 2024What Trumpers tell us (according to Luke Zaleski):
This is the actual story republicans are going with: Trump built the wall and gave us world peace and then Democrats and China (Trumpβs pal Xi) made up a phony virus that doesnβt make you sickβand Trump caught it and made a beautiful vaccine that kills you and he saved usβbefore Joe stole the election and Trump had to start an insurrection that didnβt happen that Nancy did just so they could make it look like Trump did it even though he told the attackers he loved them and would pardon them and Obama secretly runs everything and the CIA and FBI do too and George Soros and they started the war Putin started and are behind the Hamas attack as well and Trump will stop it all in 24 hours.
And they heard it all on Fox News, because they never listen to regular media because the stories told there are unbelievable.
You can read it here: https://x.com/ZaleskiLuke/status/1784048405972471816
5 Comments | History | Tagged: Elections 2024, Political cartoons, Politics, Trump | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme”
February 16, 2024
Trombonist with Qatar Symphony, playing “Peter Gunn”
I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Henry Mancini, but I’m probably in the top 100. I love his melodies, his rhythms, harmonies and versatility. I love his direction of a good band, which he always put together.
I also love to find good arrangements of his compositions, and was happy to find this brass ensembler arrangement of “Peter Gunn,” from the Qatar Philharmonic Brass, in 2016.
3 Comments | Geography - Physical, History, Jazz, Music | Tagged: Henry Mancini, Jazz, Music, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What Democrats really stand for: “We stand together”
February 10, 2024Neil Kinnock gave this speech in Wales. It’s true everywhere Democrats run in the U.S. Wherever Kinnock said “Mrs. Thatcher,” replace it with “the Republican Party,” and it still fits, terribly, awesomely, and eye-openingly.
Once upon a time a Democrat was driven from a presidential race for quoting this speech. We need to quote it now, and mean it.
Here it is, from Mr. Kinnock’s own website.
This is an edited version of Neil Kinnock’s speech to the Welsh Labour Party conference in Llandudno, May 15, 1987, in his first election as leader of the Labour Party.
We are democratic socialists. We care all the time. We don’t think it’s a soft sentiment, we don’t think it’s ‘wet’.
We think that care is the essence of strength.
And we believe that because we know that strength without care is savage and brutal and selfish.
Strength with care is compassion – the practical action that is needed to help people lift themselves to their full stature.
That’s real care β it is not soft or weak. It is tough and strong. But where do we get that strength to provide that care?
Do we wait for some stroke of good fortune, some benign giant, some socially conscious Samson to come along and pick up the wretched of the earth?
Of course we don’t.
We cooperate, we collect together, we coordinate so that everyone can contribute and everyone can benefit, everyone has responsibilities everyone has rights. That is how we put care into action. That is how we make the weak strong, that is how we lift the needy, that is how we make the sick whole, that is how we give talent the chance to flourish, that is how we turn the unemployed claimant into the working contributor.
We do it together. It is called collective strength, collective care. And its whole purpose is individual freedom.
When we speak of collective strength and collective freedom, collectively achieved, we are not fulfilling that nightmare that Mrs Thatcher tries to paint, and all her predecessors have tried to saddle us with.
We’re not talking about uniformity; we’re not talking about regimentation; we’re not talking about conformity -that’s their creed. The uniformity of the dole queue; the regimentation of the unemployed young and their compulsory work schemes. The conformity of people who will work in conditions, and take orders, and accept pay because of mass unemployment that they would laugh at in a free society with full employment.
That kind of freedom for the individual, that kind of liberty can’t be secured by most of the people for most of the time if they’re just left to themselves, isolated, stranded, with their whole life chances dependent upon luck!
Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is my wife, Glenys, the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?
Was it because all our predecessors were ‘thick’? Did they lack talent – those people who could sing, and play, and recite and write poetry; those people who could make wonderful, beautiful things with their hands; those people who could dream dreams, see visions; those people who had such a sense of perception as to know in times so brutal, so oppressive, that they could win their way out of that by coming together?
Were those people not university material? Couldn’t they have knocked off all their A-levels in an afternoon?
But why didn’t they get it?
Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football?
Weak? Those women who could survive eleven child bearings, were they weak? Those people who could stand with their backs and their legs straight and face the people who had control over their lives, the ones who owned their workplaces and tried to own them, and tell them, ‘No. I won’t take your orders.’ Were they weak?
Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what we had because they didn’t have the talent, or the strength, or the endurance, or the commitment?
Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand; no arrangement for their neighbours to subscribe to their welfare; no method by which the communities could translate their desires for those individuals into provision for those individuals.
And now, Mrs Thatcher, by dint of privatisation, and means test, and deprivation, and division, wants to nudge us back into the situation where everybody can either stand on their own feet, or live on their knees.
She parades her visions and values, and we choose to contest them as people with roots in this country, with a future only in this country, with pride in this country. People who know that if we are to have and sustain real individual liberty in this country it requires the collective effort of the whole community.
I think of the youngsters I meet. Three, four, five years out of school. Never had a job. And they say to me “Do you think we’ll ever work?”
They live in a free country, but they do not feel free.
I think of the 55-year-old woman I meet who is waiting to go into hospital, her whole existence clouded by pain.
She lives in a free country, but she does not feel free.
I think of the young couple, two years married, living in Mam and Dad’s front room because they can’t get a home. They ask “Will we ever get a home of our own?”
They live in a free country, but they do not feel free.
And I think of the old couple who spend months of the winter afraid to turn up the heating, who stay at home because they are afraid to go out after dark, whose lives are turned into a crisis by the need to buy a new pair of shoes.
They live in a free country – indeed, they’re of the generation that fought for a free country but they do not feel free.
How can they and millions like them – have their individual freedom if there is not collective provision?
How can they have strength if they do not have care?
Now they cannot have either because they are locked out of being able to discharge responsibilities just as surely as they are locked out of being able to exercise rights.
They want to be able to use both.
They do not want feather-bedding, they want a foothold.
They do not want cotton-woolling, they want a chance to contribute.
That is the freedom they want.
That is the freedom we want them to have.
With a tip of the old scrub brush to Dave Weigel on Bluesky Social.
2 Comments | Democracy, Democratic Party, Forgotten speeches, Great Speeches, History, Politics | Tagged: Democracy, freedom, Great Speeches, Neil Kinnock, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Project Veritas admits there was no evidence of election fraud at Pennsylvania post office in 2020 | AP News
February 7, 2024A conservative group and its former leader are taking the unusual step of publicly acknowledging that claims of ballot mishandling at a Pennsylvania post office in 2020 were wrong.
β Read on apnews.com/article/election-pennsylvania-postmaster-ballots-2020-project-veritas-327d470d18ec40792ffe4ead61feeb92
Leave a Comment » | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Truth vs. Fiction on gun safety
January 6, 2024At Bluesky, author/historian James Fallows presents the front page of his local newspaper on January 5, 2024.
Oy.
Convince me the gun lobby is not trying to make us all targets for gun violence.
https://bsky.app/profile/jfallows.bsky.social/post/3kiakrii7zg2m
1 Comment | children, Guns, Politics, Violence | Tagged: children, Gun Safety, James Fallows, Legislation, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What would be insurrection, if Trump on January 6 was not insurrecting?
December 28, 2023Consider the facts. What is required to be “insurrection?”
Greg Sargent at Plumline posted a long series on X (Twitter) discussing just what then-President Trump’s actions should be considered, using evidence that heavily points towards Trump’s intent being insurrection.
It’s an important listing, a point-by-point discussion with facts we have, not what has been revealed in courts. The full thread is below, first level. There are links inside the thread you may wish to explore at “X.”
Read this thread. I would like to pose some hypothetical questions to insurrection-deniers: Is there anything Trump could have done that *would* have unambiguously constituted insurrection β anything that youβd acknowledge *does* require disqualifying him? 1/
What if, in the runup to 1/6, Trump had explicitly told his supporters to descend on the Capitol to stop the VP and Congress from certifying the transfer of power *by any means necessary*? Well, hereβs what he did do: 2/
What if Trump had explicitly told top DOJ officials to fabricate evidence of widespread election fraud because he needed a pretext to justify his premeditated, illegal scheme to sabotage the transfer of power? Well, hereβs what he did do: 3/
What if Trump had repeatedly and explicitly told his VP to ignore the law and abuse his authority to subvert the electoral count in keeping with his premeditated scheme to sabotage the transfer of power? Well, hereβs what he did do: 4/
What if Trump, as he harangued the mob on 1/6, had explicitly told them to force Pence to scuttle the transfer of power, broadcasting a message to Pence that if he failed, heβd face the mobβs fury? Well, hereβs what he did say: 5/
What if, while the mob attacked the Capitol, Trump had tweeted explicit instructions that the rioters should do whatever it takes to force Pence to sabotage the transfer of power? Well, hereβs what Trump did tweet β again, *while* the mob was rampaging: 6/
What if Trump, as people begged him to call off the mob, explicitly said no, because he wanted them to keep going, to intimidate the VP and Congress from certifying the transfer of power? Well, hereβs what he did do: 7/
Would you really deny the sum total of those hypotheticals = insurrection? Doubtful. Yet the line between that and what Trump did do is functionally nonexistent. The case that his insurrection was ambiguous rests on a deliberately blinkered reading of uncontested facts. 8/
Hereβs how the CO ruling defines the threshold for committing insurrection: βa concerted and public use of force or threat of forceβ¦to hinder or prevent the US government from taking the actions necessary to accomplish the peaceful transfer of power.β 9/
Insurrection-deniers should say (1) whether the CO rulingβs description of the threshold Q is a reasonable one; and if so, (2) whether Trumpβs conduct meets it. If your answers are no, what *would* be disqualifying? Or is the claim that Disqualification is a dead letter? 10/
Yes, disqual could have severe consequences/enter new territory. But via
@ianbassin, if trying to end lawful constitutional democracy is not deemed disqualifying, it could also cross a Rubicon: 11/ https://protectdemocracy.org/work/trump-bal
One more point: As
notes, the case for disqualification also rests on whether someone who so flagrantly broke their oath of office can be trusted to take the oath again. Read Parloffβs whole thread: 12/
Roger Parloff, @rparloff
βA construction of Section Three that would nevertheless allow a former President who broke his oath, not only to participate in the government again but to run for and hold the highest office in the land, is flatly unfaithful to the Sectionβs purpose.β /14
Any political discussion of this matter simply must include Trumpβs current threats to *again* serially violate his oath of office and even to be a βdictator.β Are there consequences in green lighting all this? You need to weigh one set of consequences against the other. 13/13
This is a discussion for voters much more than a discussion for prosecutors and courts.
We do not need courts to tell us Trump is unqualified to be president. But we need to mark our ballots to reflect that judgment, as voters, to keep America great.
4 Comments | 2020 Elections, Crime, Donald Trump, Elections, History, Law, Politics, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: 2020 Elections, Constitution, Elections, Greg Sargent, History, insurrection, Violence | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Scrooge’s continuing Christmas gift: Appropriate words for seeing 2023 out, for bracing for 2024
December 24, 2023I wish it were not so. These words of Dickens’s through Scrooge, remain salient, damning and depressing, since well before election day 2016. Now Trump’s was impeached, but left in place. Trump was defeated by American voters, but he still sits on his throne, messing up America in every way he can think to do it. Trump’s been sued and found liable, indicted on 91 criminal counts, but people still threaten to let him wreak vengeance on Americans.
And so our annual post on the lessons we take from “A Christmas Carol.”
Ebenezer Scrooge, up a dark staircase; “Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it.” Illustration by Roberto Innocenti, via Pinterest.
It’s a Quote of the Moment (an encore post for the season, with a bit of context thrown in later), a bitter but too-popular political platform, and life, edited down to just three words, in green:
Darkness is cheap,
and Scrooge liked it.β Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, Stave 1
Isn’t that the entire GOP platform in three words? “Darkness is cheap.” Substitute “Trump” for “Scrooge,” you’ve got the picture. Three more words than the actual Republican National Platform of 2020, but more accurate.
I think of that line of Dickensβs often whenΒ I read of the celebrations of calumny that pass as discourse in Republican politics these days. Although, with the 2008 renewing of Limbaughβs contract, with the 2020 coming of COVID-19, it may no longer be true that his particular brand of darkness is cheap. With the advent of Donald Trump’s insult politics, offending America’s allies and all American ethnic groups possible, with un-ironic calls to drop nuclear weapons, GOP politics is even darker than ever.
Since then, we’ve discovered scheming to cheat voters in six states from their decisions, plans to create violence and perhaps assassinations to disrupt the Constitutional peaceful transfer of power from one party to another. We’ve learned the plot against Americans and America included elected Members of Congress, and perhaps Justices of the Supreme Court.
Cheap or not, darkness remains dark.
Scrooge meets Ignorance and Want, the products of his stinginess (drawing by John Leech, 1809-1870)
Here is the sentence Dickens put before the quote, to add a little context; Scrooge was climbing a very large, very dark staircase.
Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of the street wouldn’t have lighted the entry too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge’s dip.
Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.
Speaking of darkness, a longer excerpt from a bit later in Dickensβs story, when the Ghost of Christmas Present ushers Scrooge to glimpse what is in the present, but what will be the future if Scrooge does not repent:
βForgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,β said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spiritβs robe, βbut I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?β
βIt might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,β was the Spiritβs sorrowful reply. βLook here.β
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.
βOh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!β exclaimed the Ghost.
They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.
βSpirit! are they yours?β Scrooge could say no more.
βThey are Manβs,β said the Spirit, looking down upon them. βAnd they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!β cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. βSlander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!β
βHave they no refuge or resource?β cried Scrooge.
βAre there no prisons?β said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. βAre there no workhouses?β The bell struck twelve.
Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him.
Think of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and since, children abused in Central America and in the Middle East, fleeing as best they can, only to die, off the shores of Greece, on the southern deserts of the U.S., or be cast into incarceration after having achieved a nation whose very name promised them refuge, the United States. “Two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable,” Dickens described. Whose children? “Man’s.” Yours, and mine.
Christmas is a festival to celebrate light, what many Christians call “the light of the world?” If so, let us work to stamp out the darkness which the unrepentant Scrooge so dearly loved.
Darkness may be cheap, but it is not good.Β Light a candle, and run into the darkness, spreading light. We need more light.
Hope you have a merry Christmas in the making for 2023. Let us remember, as Tom and the late Ray Magliozzi always reminded us, the cheapskate pays more in the end, and usually along the way. Is Darkness cheap? Let us then eschew it as too costly for a moral nation, too costly for a moral people.
Are we as smart as Ebenezer Scrooge? Are our hearts as good as Scrooge’s heart?
When we die, who will mourn our passing? Which spirit moves us to action?
God bless us, every one. Or gods, or family and friends bless us, as the case may be.
More:
- Three Career (And Life) Lessons From Ebenezer Scrooge (forbes.com)
- 6 Great Activities To Introduce Kids to Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol.” (loonyliterature.com)
- Ebenezer Scrooge? Alistair Sims, Hands Down. (usedbooksinclass.com)
- Excerpts from Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’: ‘He knew how to keep Christmas well’ (voices.kansascity.com)
- On this Christmas Day, it’s good to hear that transformation is possible (westallen.typepad.com)
- The Malthusian Tragedy: (brothersjuddblog.com)
- “How Ebenezer Scrooge Got Recast as a Capitalist Hero,” Brad Tuttle, Money Magazine, December 9, 2016
- Nate White’s explanation of Donald Trump, in unrebutted, perhaps unrebuttable form
Yes, this is an encore post, mostly. Fighting ignorance is taking a lot longer than anyone thought.
3 Comments | Christmas, Economics, Education, Ethics, History, Literature, Politics, Poverty | Tagged: Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas Carol, Darkness, Ebenezer Scrooge, Economics, Famous quotes, ignorance, Quotes, Scrooge, Want | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 