YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

Happy Halloween!

Michael Jackson's Thriller:

HAVE A SCARY HALLOWEEN

 Found around the internet:

Conservative (Not A Trumpian Proto-fascist), Michael Gerson

The problem with our body politic today is the GQP. It is corrupt. It is detached. It is defined by people like Trump, McConnell, Cruz, MTG, Gaetz, and on and on and on. 

 There is no other entity remotely deserving credit or blame for what we are enduring or the dangers that we face. 

 Michael Gerson, a Conservative, explains: 

 Is it possible to locate ideological hotheads on both left and right who care nothing for democratic procedures and values? Of course. In a country of 330 million people, one can find plenty of anarchist rioters, Marxist college professors and administrators who use tolerance as a club to beat those they deem intolerant. But judging their threat as equivalent to that of the populist right is itself a threat to the country. At some point, a lack of moral proportion becomes a type of moral failure. 

 [skip] 

 Only one party has based the main part of its appeal on a transparent lie. To be a loyal Republican in 2021 is to believe that a national conspiracy of big-city mayors, Republican state officials, companies that produce voting machines and perhaps China, or maybe Venezuela, stole the 2020 presidential election. The total absence of evidence indicates to conspiracy theorists (as usual) that the plot was particularly fiendish. Previous iterations of the GOP tried to unite on the basis of ideology and public purpose. The current GOP is united by a common willingness to believe whatever antidemocratic rot comes from the mouth of an ambitious, reckless liar. 

 [skip] 

 Only one political movement has made a point of denying the existence and legacy of racism, assuring White people that they are equally subject to prejudice, and defending the Confederacy and its monuments as “our heritage.” This is perhaps the ultimate in absurd bothsidesism. My side suffers from economic stagnation and the unfair application of affirmative action. Your side was shipped like coal and sold like cattle; suffered centuries of brutality, rape, family separation and stolen wages; and was then subjected to humiliating segregation and the systematic denial of lending, housing and justice. Who can say which is worse? 

 [skip] 

 Only one president — as released documents show — attempted to overturn the results of a fair election, tried to block the certification of his successor and discussed in the Oval Office the possibility of imposing martial law. Only one president had minions prepare the step-by-step instructions for a constitutional coup.

Dystopia, Texas, USA

 

So Texas Republicans are looking forward to a good ole fascist book "banning/burning." 

Texas House to launch investigation into school library books 

 The chairman of a Texas state House committee tasked with conducting investigations is launching a probe into books that school librarians keep on their shelves in the wake of a measure the legislature passed earlier this year to bar teaching of critical race theory in public schools.

 "...on the list are some more popular works, including: — 

"The Confessions of Nat Turner," a 1967 novel by William Styron written as a first-person narrative of an 1831 slave revolt in Virginia. — 

"The Cider House Rules," John Irving’s 1985 novel about a protagonist whose childhood mentor is an obstetrician who performs abortions. — 

"V for Vendetta," the 1982 graphic novel by Alan Moore about a dystopian, post-apocalyptic England ruled by a fascist regime, which became a hit movie in 2005. — 

"The Handmaid’s Tale," another dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood about a post-revolution United States in which women are subjected by a ruling class of men. 

(Forced pregnancies in Texas and banning "The Handmaid's Tale?" Irony is dead! S.K.)

 "We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy" and "Between the World and Me," an essay collection and memoir by author and essayist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Those Texans are just carrying on a good ole fascist tradition!

 

The former Republican Party's mantra was for small government and local control for decades. The Trumpian cult that has devolved into this current authoritarian entity, The Trumpublican Party, has one interest -- the concentration of power into the hands of those who believe they know best for all. 

The Democrats are trying to invest in infrastructure and the economy, raise wages, make healthcare affordable, and improve people’s lives. 

Meanwhile the GQP cultists are banning books and abortions and ranting like lunatics about baseless conspiracies. Book banning, forced pregnancy, and paying to rat out your neighbors. 

Yeah . Nothing unAmerican about any of that.  

The FBI ranks Texas as the 15th most dangerous state for --sexual assault and rape. But go ahead and ban books -- that'll solve Texas's shocking crime problems. This is what ineffectual governments do: find a problem that doesn't exist, make it a problem, and ignore what the real problems are.

Let's see if banning "A Handmaiden's Tale" will lower the rape and sexual assault stats in this stupidly run, dystopian state.

Two Years Ago Today: Trump vs. Obama

These are Trump's supporters. This is the current GQP.

‘When do we get to use the guns?’: A right-winger's question shows how the GOP is spiraling out of control 

 When Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk spoke at a far-right event in Boise, Idaho, this week, he took questions from people in the audience — including a man who made it clear that he was ready to resort to violence over lies about the 2020 election. 

Media Matters highlighted the clip on its website. Echoing MAGA Republicans' false and debunked claims of voter fraud, and hinting at animosity toward vaccine mandates, the man told Kirk, "At this point, we're living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns? No, and I'm not — that's not a joke. 

I'm not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where's the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?"

**************************************

From my friend Lee Arnold's facebook page: 

 "What Donald Trump and his Brainless followers have done to our country. When Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk spoke at a far-right event in Boise, Idaho, this week, he took questions from people in the audience — including a man who made it clear that he was ready to resort to violence over lies about the 2020 election. Media Matters highlighted the clip on its website. Echoing MAGA Republicans' false and debunked claims of voter fraud, and hinting at animosity toward vaccine mandates, the man told Kirk, "At this point, we're living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns? No, and I'm not — that's not a joke. I'm not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where's the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?"

Trump's lie -- his dirty lie -- about a stolen election has taken root in the weak minds of dangerously stupid people. 

And the article above Mr. Arnold's fb statement illustrates where they hope to take this lie. 

They want to kill their fellow Americans. 

 All because of Trump's DIRTY LIE. 

 IMO, that's how this country will fall apart. 

Trump supporters refuse to step back and see how he's conned every single one of them.

History is full of large groups of people falling for the disinformation and lies spread by evil men who seek power.

"It can't happen here?"

It's happening all around us. Now.

And Trump is responsible.

 DONALD TRUMP, JR., 

IS A LOATHSOME WORM.

Those who keep informed 

will know why I posted that.

Who's surprised?

 

ROLLING STONE Reports:

EXCLUSIVE: Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff 

Two sources are communicating with House investigators and detailed a stunning series of allegations to Rolling Stone, including a promise of a “blanket pardon” from the Oval Office.         

While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence. 

The two sources, both of whom have been granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, describe participating in “dozens” of planning briefings ahead of that day when Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as his election loss to President Joe Biden was being certified. 

 “I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.” 

 [skip] 

 Along with Greene, the conspiratorial pro-Trump Republican from Georgia who took office earlier this year, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” says the organizer.

It's all beginning to come together as more evidence is uncovered by the Congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection by pro-Trump mobs.

According to this new report, members of Congress participated in the planning to overthrow a free and fair election and install the loser of that election, Donald J. Trump, as the illegitimate POTUS.

It's shocking to understand that members of Congress, who swore an oath to the Constitution -- not to Donald J. Trump -- betrayed their oath of office and gave their allegiance to a cheat, a liar, and a fraud, and not to their country.

Those members of Congress who participated should be thrown out in disgrace.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

Seen on a church bulletin:

"Warm" them! "Their will be...CONSEQUENCES..."

SATURDAY NIGHT SINGING AND DANCING

 

Adriano Celentano:

(What you're hearing is gibberish that sounds like American English being sung by Italians.)

P.E. Will Be Away For A Few Days

 Go read Dave Dubya's Freedom Rants' newest post HERE.

Off to Maine's beautiful mid-coast for a few days.

Be excellent to each other!

The Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse is located at the end of a 3/4 mile breakwater and is accessible only by foot. Once you walk out to the lighthouse and back, it’s 1.5 miles round trip. The lighthouse was completed in 1902. 

Camden, Maine

BOOM!

 

Ted Cruz: Proving every day that he's a wanker*:

*wanker

 noun

English Language Learners Definition of wanker

: a stupid, foolish, or unpleasant person

The response from Michael Gunn, Chief Minister for the Northern Territories:

This is one of SNL's best cold opens:

 

So much truth in comedy:

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

Trae Crowder

 The Saturday night dance video is not accessible, so I’ll just let Trae Crowder entertain you.

I often watch Trae Crowder's Liberal Redneck, but realized I've never posted his witty, incisive videos here. So here ya go:

Everything's bigger in Texas -- even the idiots!

 

Texas school official tells teachers that Holocaust books should be countered with ‘opposing’ views 

"A North Texas school district apologized late Thursday after an administrator advised teachers that if they have books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they should also include reading materials that have “opposing” perspectives of the genocide that killed millions of Jews."

Is there an opposing view on genocide -- one that justifies it? Is that what the nincompoop who said this means? What exactly did she mean? Are there more Texans who believe in garbage like this?

Is there a "bothsiderism" to genocide?

"The incident in North Texas is the latest example of how schools, educators and parents nationwide are clashing over what can and can’t be taught in the classroom. Much of the focus has been on the teaching of history, LGBTQ issues and race, specifically critical race theory — an academic framework for examining the way laws and policies perpetuate systemic racism. Conservative lawmakers and right-leaning news outlets have seized on critical race theory in recent months."

YOUR FRIDAY ROUNDUP OF GQP NINCOMPOOPS:

The Current Trumpublican Party -- Really.

 

This was sent to David Corn, DC Bureau Chief of Mother Jones:

Trump, Inc., really believes his followers are a bunch of gullible, hayseed, infantile idiots. Who else would fall for this nonsense? 

BREAKING NEWS: "The January 6 Committee confirms that it will 'enforce its subpoenas' of Trump’s aides by 'pursuing criminal contempt charges' against them and even throwing them 'in jail' because 'nobody is above the law.' "

Also, this is priceless:

Adam Schiff @RepAdamSchiff ·  

Thanks for the shout-out, Mr. Former President. 

 As for your statement that the attack on the Capitol would never have happened if “the people in charge had done their job” 

 You do realize that you were in charge on January 6th? 

Right? 

Just checking.

One of the stories anti-CRT people don't want our children to learn.

 

Bill Parent:

"A little history. 

Back when America was 'great,' this man couldn't buy a house in my home town of Wakefield, Massachusetts. He bought one in Reading, next door, where one night a band of Americans broke in, stole his valuables, smashed his trophies, and shit inside the covers of his and his wife's bed. 

Yes, shit on his bed. 

And every game, he stood stoically for the anthem, looking around at thousands of white faces as they boasted of the 'land of the free and the home of the brave.' 

I could live in Wakefield. But Bill Russell, the greatest player in the history of basketball, the man in this picture wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom, couldn't. 

Don't let anyone tell you there's no such thing as white privilege. 

Don't let any government official, especially a president, tell you or anyone else when it is appropriate to stand, sit, or kneel in protest. 

And most of all, don't fall for this MAGA bullshit."

The "bullshit" Bill Parent refers to is those who want to "Make America Great Again" and take America back to those "good ole days" (see the story above) and who believe teaching critical race theory (which is NOT being taught in public schools) is bad for America. 

It isn't.

And stories like this one -- which happened in the North, not the South, need to be told, not to shame anyone, but to give our children the factual stories of how America treated/treats its minorities. Stories that are the truth.

I know this story quite well, since my sister and her family lived in both Wakefield and Reading. It's true.

But certain groups on the Trumpian far right are afraid of learning about how Americans of color were treated/are treated by their fellow citizens, so afraid that some of them have passed laws that prohibit teaching these truths in American classrooms. Here's one from Tennessee:

"(a) An LEA (local educational agency) or public charter school shall not include or promote the following concepts as part of a course of instruction or in a curriculum or instructional program, or allow teachers or other employees of the LEA or public charter school to use supplemental instructional materials that include or promote the following concepts: 

 (6) An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual's race or sex;"

***************************

The sad, uncomfortable fact for non-p.o.c. and non-gay individuals is that when they find out how p.o.c. and gays and/or non-binary Americans were actually tormented, tortured, and in many cases murdered, those stories DO make anyone hearing them feel "discomfort, guilt, anguish, or some form of distress."  

But that has nothing to do with the race or sex of those learning this history, or feeling "guilty" about hearing the various histories of this country's racism and sexism. It is normal to feel shame about this part of our history. 

The goal should be to get beyond that shame and regret and DO something, LIKE LEARN WHAT WE AMERICANS DID and to make sure succeeding generations do not repeat the dishonorable and contemptible treatment of our fellow Americans by our fellow Americans.

There's nothing wrong with learning the truth about one's country's history. What IS wrong is sheltering our succeeding generations from that truth.

AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TRUMPUBLICANS THINK:

Your Sunday Moment of Zen

 

From George Will's new book, "American Happiness and Discontents."

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

Martha and the Vandelles, Dancing in the Street:

 

 Mick Jagger and David Bowie, Dancing in the Street:

 

Trump has instructed four associates to defy the January 6 Committee's subpoenas.

 

BREAKING NEWS:    President Biden refuses to assert privilege over Trump documents sought by January 6 committee 

 (CNN)The White House has informed the National Archives they are not asserting executive privilege on behalf of former President Donald Trump, paving the way for the Archives to share documents with the House committee investigating the January 6 violence at the US Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.

ALSO:

Just in: Jan. 6 committee announces panel will consider criminal contempt of Congress referral over Trump aides subpoena defiance: “We will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena.”

GOOD!

"Can you say no to a subpoena? 

Don't ever think you can simply ignore a subpoena. Even if you have a legitimate reason to avoid the subpoena, you need to respond and explain your position. If you ignore the subpoena, you can be held in contempt of court." 

POLITICO:

Former President Donald Trump is directing a group of his former aides to ignore a subpoena from the House committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and signaling he will go to court to block their testimony to the investigators. 

The committee has subpoenaed documents and testimony from four Trump administration alumni: former social media czar Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kash Patel, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former White House adviser Steve Bannon. 

The four men were ordered to turn over documents related to Jan. 6 by Thursday and to sit for interviews with investigators next week.  But Trump is saying otherwise. In a letter that POLITICO viewed, a Trump lawyer tells them not to cooperate with the probe. 

The letter stated the committee is seeking materials that are covered by executive privilege, as well as other privileges."

What "executive privilege?" Trump is a private citizen. Because Trump no longer is in office, he cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of the hands of Congress, because President Biden will have some say in the matter. 

Here is is Neil Eggleston, former White House Counselor and Harvard Law Lecturer on the subject: 

Eggleston: "The law is actually fairly clear on this, although there’s always the issue of whether this new Supreme Court would follow the pretty settled law or not. So, let me give you two answers, the first administrative and the second legal. First, neither the current president nor the prior president has physical custody of the materials from the prior presidents. All of these materials are stored at the National Archives. 

I dealt with this as the last White House counsel for Obama, when we had the enormous processes of transferring our data out of the White House and to the Archives. 

If there is a request for what would otherwise be privileged material regarding a prior presidency, representatives of the prior president are supposed to consult with representatives of the current president, and then the current president decides."

*************************

The Former Guy told his lackyes to defy a lawful subpoena. 

As usual, Trump is a lawbreaker and a disrupter who feels rules and laws don't apply to him. His whole life has been an unending series of lying, cheating, and committing fraud. And here he is again, on the wrong side of the law, encouraging his flunkies to break it.

I hope that the Congressional committee issuing the subpoenas teaches The LAWLESS Former Guy, (who lost the last election by 7 million popular votes and an electoral landslide), the meaning of this old saying:

"Eff around and find out."

Trump Believers: The Psychology of Delusion,

 

Thomas Edsall:

"About 35 percent of Americans believed in April that Biden’s victory was illegitimate, with another 6 percent saying they are not sure. What can we say about the Americans who do not think Biden’s victory was legitimate? Compared to the overall voting-age population, they are disproportionately white, Republican, older, less educated, more conservative, and more religious (particularly more Protestant and more likely to describe themselves as born again)."

They also believe this:

“Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background” — ...60 percent of Republicans agreed, as do 55 percent of conservatives."

This is astonishing:

"...among white Republicans, those without college degrees were far more likely to agree “that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” at 69 percent, than white Republicans with college degrees, at a still astonishing 51 percent."

And this:

"The populist Right hates the intellectual Left because they hate being condescended to, they hate what they perceive as their hypersensitivity, and they hate what they view as an anti-American level of femininity (which is for whatever reason associated with intellectualism). 

 At the same time...the intellectual Left really does see the G.O.P. as a bunch of deplorable rubes. They absolutely feel superior to them, and they reveal it constantly on Twitter and elsewhere — further riling up the “deplorables.” 

[SKIP]

"The populist/anti-intellectual Right absolutely believe that the intellectuals are not only out of touch but are also ungodly and sneaky, and therefore think they must be stopped before they ruin America. 

Meanwhile, the intellectual Left really do believe the Trumpers are racist, sexist, homophobic (and so on) authoritarians who can’t spell and are going to destroy the country if they are not stopped."

***************************** 

My take from the Edsall article:

"Meanwhile, the intellectual Left really do believe the Trumpers are racist, sexist, homophobic (and so on) authoritarians who can’t spell and are going to destroy the country if they are not stopped." 

We believe it for a reason. Because it is true. Leaving aside the spelling part for a minute what part of this is not factually correct? None of it. 

Overwhelming social science research, some of it quoted or referred to in this column, shows a strong correlation between racism, sexism, homophobia and trumpism. It is true in the same sense that the blueness of the sky is true. 

Ditto on violence. 

90% of all politically motivated violence is now coming from the right, according to the Edsall column. When Trumpers engage in violence--as they did on January 6th at Trump's direction -- it is insurrection. It is sedition. When anti-trumpers think of political violence they are thinking of self defense. IMO, these two are in no sense equivalents, moral or otherwise."

It’s true that all factions at all times are guilty, to greater or lesser extent, of bias, sometimes deep bias. But it's also true that there is only one faction at present that has accepted, in fact cheered for, history’s only presidential introduction of violence into politics. That same faction is methodically working to change election laws in about a third of the states so that its own partisans can assume the powers of ballot-counting. Its leaders work tirelessly to subvert faith in elections. 

Faction members seek to intimidate election staff, and are credibly linked to what the FBI declares is the biggest terror threat. The contrast to that Trump faction is not just Democrats. The contrast is with decent Americans who want the basic framework of decency norms and practices to be restored and sustained.

Some are actual Republicans, like my governor.

Non-political post of the week!

 

Boston Red Sox win AL wild card slot against the Yankees!

New York Post yesterday (LOLZ!):

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING