#Trump's Takeover of the Library of Congress is about More than Just Books

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Psaki: Trump's takeover of the Library of Congress is about 'more than just books...

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Psaki: Trump's takeover of the Library of Congress is about "more than just children's books that he doesn't like"

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What Are The Main Platform Ideas Of Republicans

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What Are The Main Platform Ideas Of Republicans

National Republican Platform Adopted By The National Republican Convention Held In Chicago May 17 1860 Chicago Press And Tribune Office Chicago Illinois 1860 Library Of Congress Rare Book And Special Collections Division Alfred Whital Stern Collection Of Lincolniana Https://googl/lcbfpa

Resolved, that we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electors of the United States in Convention assembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations:

That the history of the nation during the last four years, has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph.

That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the Rights of the States, and the Union of the States must and shall be preserved.

. . .

Republican Platform Of 1860. A reprint of the original broadside containing the Republican Platform of 1860, adopted by the National Republican Convention held in Chicago, 1860. Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.0180010b.

Study Questions

Apply Special Scrutiny To Refugees Foreign Nationals From Countries Linked To Islamic Terror

Similar to Donald Trump’s proposals for “extreme vetting” of any immigrants and refugees from countries plagued by extreme terror groups, the Republican platform calls for “special scrutiny” to be applied to those seeking entry into the U.S. from “regions associated with Islamic terrorism.” The document, however, did not call for a temporary ban on Muslims stepping foot on U.S. soil — a proposal made by Trump during his presidential campaign.

“To ensure our national security, refugees that cannot be carefully vetted, cannot be admitted to the country, especially those whose homelands have been the breeding grounds for terrorism,” the GOP wrote in its platform.

It goes on, “To keep our people safe, we must secure our borders, enforce our immigration laws, and properly screen refugees and other immigrants entering from any country. In particular we must apply special scrutiny to those foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States from terror-sponsoring countries or from regions associated with Islamic terrorism.”

In 2012, the party platform only made one mention of refugees:

“We affirm our country’s historic tradition of welcoming refugees from troubled lands,” it read. “In some cases, they are people who stood with us during dangerous times, and they have first call on our hospitality.”

How Different Are The Policies Of The Republican And Democratic Parties

The public sees a clear distinction between the policy positions of the Republican and Democratic parties: About half say the positions of the two parties are very different, while another 34% say they are somewhat different. Just 14% say they are either not too or not at all different.

Partisans are especially likely to see the two parties as holding different views: 60% of Republicans and 62% of Democrats say the parties take very different policy positions.

Republicans and Democrats also do not see many good ideas coming out of the other party. Among Democrats, just 21% say the Republican Party has either a lot or some good ideas; 43% say it has a few and 34% say it has almost no good ideas. Views of the Democratic Party’s ideas among Republicans are similarly skeptical: Only 16% say the Democratic Party has a lot or some good ideas, while 40% say it has a few and 43% say it has almost none.

  Why Trumps Team Initially Wanted To Rethink The Gop Platform This Year

Back in 2016, most of the delegates to the Republican National Convention were chosen while Trump’s hostile takeover of the party was still in progress. And as Trump started to clinch the nomination, he mostly ceded the platform-drafting task to those delegates, a process that was dominated by conservative activists.

This resulted in embarrassing stories about how, for instance, the Republican platform had language “conversion therapy”— sending a child to therapy to try to change their sexual orientation. There was also a messy controversy involving a proposed amendment in support of providing lethal aid to Ukraine. Trump advisers helped defeat the amendment, and critics argued that showed they were too supportive of Russia.

Overall, Republicans had a fairly typical platform-drafting process, one in which various delegates are named to a committee and negotiations take place in a way that’s guided but not always controlled by the presidential campaign. It’s a process that seems a bit antiquated. The end product is certainly not optimally designed to serve the interests of the presidential candidate or to speak to voters.

So this May, Axios’s Jonathan Swan reported that Kushner wanted to change all that.

Kushner was probably acting at Trump’s behest, if this later tweet from the president is any indication:

The Republican Party has not yet voted on a Platform. No rush. I prefer a new and updated Platform, short form, if possible.

— Donald J. Trump June 12, 2020

Exclusive: Dozens Of Former Republican Officials In Talks To Form Anti

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– Dozens of former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to former President Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine U.S. democracy, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions told Reuters.

The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved say.

More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to discuss the breakaway group, which would run on a platform of “principled conservatism,” including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law – ideas those involved say have been trashed by Trump.

The plan would be to run candidates in some races but also to endorse center-right candidates in others, be they Republicans, independents or Democrats, the people say.

Evan McMullin, who was chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters that he co-hosted the Zoom call with former officials concerned about Trump’s grip on Republicans and the nativist turn the party has taken.

Three other people confirmed to Reuters the call and the discussions for a potential splinter party, but asked not to be identified.

‘THESE LOSERS’

“The only way we’re going to win is if we come together,” she said.

Greater Agreement With Partys Positions Among The Politically Engaged

Republicans and Democrats who are highly engaged with politics are more likely to agree with their own party’s positions on issues than those who are less engaged.

Among Republicans who are highly engaged with politics , 88% say they agree with the Republican Party’s positions on at least five of seven major issues. Republicans who have medium or low levels of political engagement are less likely to express agreement with their own party on these issues .

The same relationship between political engagement and in-party issue agreement is seen among Democrats. Nine-in-ten highly engaged Democrats agree with their own party on most of the seven issues, compared with 72% of Democrats with medium levels of political engagement and 63% of Democrats with low levels of political engagement.

More politically engaged Republicans and Democrats also are more likely than the less engaged to see large differences between the policies of the two parties and to say the other party has almost no good ideas.

Why Republicans Didnt Write A Platform For Their Convention This Year

TEAM BEPINKU.COMSomething Special

The Republican Party took an unusual approach to writing its convention platform for 2020: It decided not to write one.

Rather, the GOP is reusing its platform from four years ago, which was written before Donald Trump became president. That means Republican delegates will not go through the usual process of deliberating over policies and principles to determine what the party stands for in 2020, as Democrats recently did.

A Republican National Committee resolution on the topic says the reason the party has no new platform is the Covid-19 pandemic, which has necessitated a scaled-back convention this year. Since all the delegates couldn’t gather in person, they claim, they’re not doing a platform.

But that’s not all there is to the story. Just a few months ago, word leaked out that Trump’s team, led by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, had big plans to shake up the platform by dramatically shortening it — plans that drew the ire of some conservative activists, who were used to exerting their influence on the lengthy document.

So, back in June, the party made the decision to skip platform-drafting entirely and just reuse the 2016 document, citing the pandemic as the reason. It’s unclear if this was done deliberately to avoid messy party infighting over the platform, but it certainly had that effect.

Studying The Bible Should Be Offered In Public School Curricula

“A good understanding of the Bible being indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry, we encourage state legislatures to offer the Bible in a literature curriculum as an elective in America’s high schools,” the platform reads.

The 2012 platform made no such push for the Bible in public schools.

Why Did The Democratic And Republican Parties Switch Platforms

02 November 2020

Around 100 years ago, Democrats and Republicans switched their political stances.

The Republican and Democratic parties of the United States didn’t always stand for what they do today. 

During the 1860s, Republicans, who dominated northern states, orchestrated an ambitious expansion of federal power, helping to fund the transcontinental railroad, the state university system and the settlement of the West by homesteaders, and instating a national currency and protective tariff. Democrats, who dominated the South, opposed those measures. 

After the Civil War, Republicans passed laws that granted protections for Black Americans and advanced social justice. And again, Democrats largely opposed these apparent expansions of federal power.

Sound like an alternate universe? Fast forward to 1936. 

Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt won reelection that year on the strength of the New Deal, a set of Depression-remedying reforms including regulation of financial institutions, the founding of welfare and pension programs, infrastructure development and more. Roosevelt won in a landslide against Republican Alf Landon, who opposed these exercises of federal power.

So, sometime between the 1860s and 1936, the party of small government became the party of big government, and the party of big government became rhetorically committed to curbing federal power. 

In A First Republicans Solicit Ideas For Party Platform Online

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Republican leaders on Friday launched an innovative new effort to solicit ideas from and gather information about its grassroots cohorts through a new website designed to build its party platform.

The move is a sharp departure from the party’s traditional top-down, one-voice messaging techniques, and is a bold one at a time when there is plenty of dissent within its ranks.

The web site GOPPLatform2008.com, was launched Friday morning, but news of its first broke on the microblogging service Twitter, where the RNC’s eCampaign Director Cyrus Krohn quietly announced it.

The site requires users to register, and offers them the ability to submit their ideas either through text or via video.

Voters can view each others’ submissions online, and they can discuss their ideas with each other on a .

The site offers users the choice of submitting ideas on any subject they choose, or on a pre-selected group of top issues that include: accountability in education; energy and gas prices; healthcare reform; the economy; judicial nominations; national security and “protecting American values.”

Republican leaders sounded several of this presidential campaign cycle’s popular themes in their video welcome messages.

“This web site really is about you: Your ideas, your issues, and most important of all, your aspirations,” said RNC Chairman Mike Duncan in a pre-recorded online video.

Government Is Not The Solution To Domestic Social Problems

This is pretty universal among Republicans. Government should not be providing solutions to problems that confront people . Those problems should be solved by the people themselves. A Republican would say that relying on the government to solve problems is a crutch that makes people lazy and feel entitled to receive things without working for them.

Religion And The Belief In God Is Vital To A Strong Nation

Republicans are generally accepting only of the Judeo-Christian belief system. For most Republicans, religion is absolutely vital in their political beliefs and the two cannot be separated. Therefore, separation of church and state is not that important to them. In fact, they believe that much of what is wrong has been caused by too much secularism.

Those are the four basic Republican tenets: small government, local control, the power of free markets, and Christian authority. Below are other things they believe that derive from those four ideas.

The Racist Theory That Inspired Murderers Is Now Gop Dogma

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty

Newt Gingrich, Stephen Miller, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others, all keep alluding to the same vicious, violent idea.

The hoods are off, and Republicans are embracing the white supremacist “replacement theory.”

If you’re dismissing this as fear-mongering or click-bait, you probably missed Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and renowned adulterer, espousing replacement theory rhetoric on Fox News earlier this week while talking to host Maria Baritromo, who always has time to offer a platform to dangerous conspiracy peddling. Speaking about Mexican immigrants coming to America during the pandemic, Gingrich said the “radical left” wants to “get rid of the rest of us” and would “love to drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.”

He wasn’t talking about Donald Trump, notorious for being historically ignorant and profoundly incurious, but about those of us with darker skin, who are never seen as “traditional” or “classic” or “real Americans.” Gingrich, a craven political opportunist, parroted the talking points associated with “the great replacement” theory, also known as “white genocide,” which stipulates the white race and “Western civilization” are in dire threat of being weakened and ultimately usurped by immigrants of color, Muslims, feminists, and gays.

For Many Political Compromise Means Their Party Gets More

Most partisans say that, when it comes to how Democrats and Republicans should address the most important issues facing the county, their party should get more out of the deal.

On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 means their party gets everything it wants and 0 means the other party gets everything it wants, about six-in-ten of those in both parties think their side should get more on the key issues facing the nation. Roughly three-in-ten Republicans and Democrats say both parties should get about half of what they want .

Partisans with colder feelings toward the other party are more likely to say that their own side should get more. Among Republicans, 44% of those who feel neutral or warm toward Democrats say their own party should get more than half of what it wants on key issues facing the country. That share rises to 62% of Republicans who give Democrats somewhat cold ratings, and 69% of those who rate Democrats very coldly.

The same pattern is evident among Democrats. Among those who give Republicans a very cold rating, 71% say Democrats should get more in partisan dealings; 69% of those who rate Republicans coldly say the same. By comparison, a smaller share of those who rate Republicans neutrally or warmly say their own party should get most of what it wants.

The Republican Party General Policy And Political Values

The Republican Party is often referred to as the GOP. This abbreviation stands for Grand Old Party. Its logo is an elephant. The Republican Party is known to support right-leaning ideologies of conservatism, social conservatism, and economic libertarianism, among other -isms. Thus, Republicans broadly advocate for traditional values, a low degree of government interference, and large support of the private sector.

One main standpoint of the Republican Party platform is a strong focus on the family and individual freedom. Generally, the Republican Party therefore often tends to promote states’ and local rights. That means that they often wish for federal regulations to play a lesser role in policymaking. Furthermore, the GOP has a pro-business-oriented platform. Thus, the party advocates for businesses to exist in a free market instead of being impacted by tight government regulations.

The Democratic Party General Policy And Political Values

The Democratic Party generally represents left-leaning, liberal and progressive ideological values, thus advocating for a strong government to regulate business and support for the citizens of the United States. Thus, one of the key values emphasized by Democrats is social responsibility. Overall, Democrats believe that a prominent and powerful government can ensure welfare and equality for all. Much like the Republican Party, political opinions within the Democratic Party stretch across a wide spectrum, as both parties are, to a large degree, decentralized. However, from a general point of view, Democrats tend to support heavy taxation of high-income households. In comparison to Denmark, where taxes are generally high, the Democratic taxation policy may not seem excessive, but on a U.S. taxation scale these tax percentages are in the heavy end.

  What Is The Difference Between Republicans And Democrats

Republicans and Democrats are the two main and historically the largest political parties in the US and, after every election, hold the majority seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the highest number of Governors. Though both the parties mean well for the US citizens, they have distinct differences that manifest in their comments, decisions, and history. These differences are mainly ideological, political, social, and economic paths to making the US successful and the world a better place for all. Differences between the two parties that are covered in this article rely on the majority position though individual politicians may have varied preferences.

Civil Rights United States Citizens In Puerto Rico

The 2016 Republican Party Platform declares: “We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state. We further recognize the historic significance of the 2012 local referendum in which a 54 percent majority voted to end Puerto Rico’s current status as a U.S. territory, and 61 percent chose statehood over options for sovereign nationhood. We support the federally sponsored political status referendum authorized and funded by an Act of Congress in 2014 to ascertain the aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico. Once the 2012 local vote for statehood is ratified, Congress should approve an enabling act with terms for Puerto Rico’s future admission as the 51st state of the Union”.

Which Republican President Inspired The Teddy Bear

Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican U.S. president from 1901 to 1909, inspired the teddy bear when he refused to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. The story reached toy maker Morris Michtom, who decided to make stuffed bears as a dedication to Roosevelt. The name comes from Roosevelt’s nickname, Teddy.

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Republican Party, byname Grand Old Party , in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the country’s new territories and, ultimately, for slavery’s complete abolition. During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-fairecapitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies. The party acquired the acronym GOP, widely understood as “Grand Old Party,” in the 1870s. The party’s official logo, the elephant, is derived from a cartoon by Thomas Nast and also dates from the 1870s.

Writing Activity For What Is A Political Platform:

You are becoming disillusioned with the two major political parties. You and your friends have decided to form a third party. You are in charge of developing the party’s platform. After reviewing the respective platforms of the Republicans and Democrats , write a platform that you think will serve your party well. It may be useful to pick three hot topics/issues and focus on them in your platform. For instance, you could choose topics such as student debt, healthcare, and gun rights.

The 2020 Republican Party Platform: Letat Cest Moi

As published on the party’s official web site, the “Resolution Regarding the Republican Party Platform” states:

“RESOLVED, That the Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention.”

We all know that party platforms are traditionally about mom and apple pie—but at least they tell us the party is in favor of apple pie rather than cherry pie. I was on the drafting committee for the 2012 Democratic platform; the process is one of grappling with diverse interests and priorities. The diversity of those issues and interests reflect the challenges of governing.

The Republican resolution cites COVID-19 as a reason for cutting back on platform development. Yes, “strict restrictions on gatherings and meetings” have changed the nature of the 2020 political conventions. Such restrictions, however, did not stop the development of the 2020 Democratic platform to address the issues of the day and let Americans know what the party stood for.

There will be no grappling with the issues raised by our current national crisis by the Republican Party, however. There will be no forward-looking agenda to define what the party stands for.

Views Of Parties Positions On Issues Ideologies

Republicans and Democrats see little common ground between the two parties when it comes to issues, ideas and ideology. Majorities of partisans say the policy positions of the Republican and Democratic parties are very different, and neither Republicans nor Democrats say the other party has many good ideas.

In general terms, both Republicans and Democrats agree with their own party’s policies. In-party agreement extends to specific issues, such as policies to deal with the economy, health care and immigration.

However, there are some issue areas – climate change for Republicans and policies to deal with ISIS for Democrats – where somewhat smaller majorities of partisans say they agree with their own party’s approach. Even then, few partisans express agreement with the other party on these issues.

Overall, about seven-in-ten Republicans and Democrats say they generally agree with their party’s positions almost always or more than half the time. Even larger majorities – 84% of Republicans and 82% of Democrats – disagree with the other party’s positions at least most of the time.

Most Republicans and Democrats also agree with their own party’s policies on a range of specific issues, including the economy, immigration, health care and policies to deal with the Islamic militant group in Iraq and Syria.

However, the shares agreeing with their own party vary by issue, and the patterns of agreement are different within the two parties.

The Platform: A Road Map For A Political Party

One of the most common complaints about politics these days is that the two major parties seem almost indistinguishable. Of course, everyone knows this isn’t really so – it’s clear they’re not ‘exactly’ the same, since they’re fighting all the time – but the policy differences between the two parties can sometimes be hard to figure out.

But it’s not actually that hard to understand what Republicans and Democrats believe about the nation and its future. There are easy-to-find documents that explain their views in great detail. Each party produces a platform. The platform is something like a roadmap; it’s the path the parties would like to follow if they can find their way to a place where they can make those decisions. The platform usually contains a list of the party’s beliefs, policy choices, and ambitions. These are often a lot more specific than candidates tend to be when they’re running for office.

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Contrasting Perceptions Of Parties Ideologies

Republicans and Democrats tend to view the opposing party as highly ideological, while viewing their own party as less ideological.

On an 11-point scale where 10 is very liberal and 0 is very conservative, a 34% plurality of Democrats use the most conservative option to describe the ideology of the Republican Party. Fully 58% of Democrats select one of the three most conservative points to describe the Republican Party’s ideology.1

While most Republicans describe their party as conservative , just 11% of Republicans select the most conservative option. About a third of Republicans rate their party one of the three most conservative points , while about as many give their party a conservative rating that is closer to the midpoint . Just 16% select the midpoint of the scale and only about one-in-ten place themselves on the liberal side of the scale.

A similar pattern is seen in views of the Democratic Party’s ideology. Fully 45% of Republicans select the most liberal option to describe the Democratic Party, and nearly seven-in-ten Republicans use one of the three most liberal points on the scale to describe the party.

Politics & PolicyPolitical PartiesPolitical PolarizationPolitical AnimosityElection 2016

The Platform The Gop Is Too Scared To Publish

What the Republican Party actually stands for, in 13 points

About the author: David Frum is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of . In 2001 and 2002, he was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

Republicans have decided not to publish a party platform for 2020.

This omission has led some to conclude that the GOP lacks ideas, that it stands for nothing, that it has shriveled to little more than a Trump cult.

This conclusion is wrong. The Republican Party of 2020 has lots of ideas. I’m about to list 13 ideas that command almost universal assent within the Trump administration, within the Republican caucuses of the U.S. House and Senate, among governors and state legislators, on Fox News, and among rank-and-file Republicans.

Once you read the list, I think you’ll agree that these are authentic ideas with meaningful policy consequences, and that they are broadly shared. The question is not why Republicans lack a coherent platform; it’s why they’re so reluctant to publish the one on which they’re running.

Annie Lowrey: The party of no content

1) The most important mechanism of economic policy—not the only tool, but the most important—is adjusting the burden of taxation on society’s richest citizens. Lower this level, as Republicans did in 2017, and prosperity will follow. The economy has had a temporary setback, but thanks to the tax cut of 2017, recovery is ready to follow strongly. No further policy change is required, except possibly lower taxes still.

Democrats Plan To Keep Their Primary Strategy

Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party and a former state Senate president, said a proposal to forgo primaries would never receive serious consideration among state Democrats.

She called the idea “ridiculous and undemocratic.” 

“If we had a candidate that recommended it, I think they’d be driven out of town,” Morgan Carroll said. 

She sees the push as part of a larger pattern “by Trump and his loyalists to basically move in an authoritarian direction, take away choices from voters, make it harder to vote, make it hard for the people to decide, and make it easier for them to install whoever they want in whatever position they want.”

Want exclusive political news and insights first? Subscribe to The Unaffiliated, the political newsletter from The Colorado Sun. That’s where this story first appeared. Join now or upgrade your membership.

If the Republican proposal passes, she said it’s hard to know whether more unaffiliated voters would participate in 2022 Democratic primaries because they would be the only primary left they could vote in. 

She thinks the move would backfire for Republicans as they’ve struggled to win elections in Colorado in recent years. “If I were a rank-and-file Republican person, I’d be furious.”

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.

Republican Platform Panders To Israel Zealots

annexationChristian ZionismgopJerusalemoccupationrepublican national committeeRepublican platformrncUnited Nations

The Republican platform for 2016/2020 has a starring role for Israel.

The Republican National Committee platform of 2016, resurrected for 2020, will once again genuflect before Israel – ignoring the realities of human rights, international law, and logic.

Last month, If Americans Knew presented an analysis of the Democratic National Committee’s 2020 platform on Israel/Palestine. In the spirit of impartiality, we now offer a similar review of the Republican counterpart.

Interestingly, the Republican National Committee decided to recycle its 2016 platform for 2020-2024. This document was heavily influenced by Christian conservatives – including Christian Nationalists and Christian Zionists – who have very explicit ideas about the issue of Israel. On the other hand, Christian conservatives with more nuanced viewpoints on the the Bible or the issue of Israel-Palestine , many of whom actively support Palestinian rights, seem to have been ignored.

The platform was likely also influenced by donors like Sheldon Adelson, considered “the most important mega-donor in the Republican Party,” and whose pro-Israel demands have largely determined Trump’s Mideast policies.

The first question, then, is whether the RNC platform reflects the will of Republicans, or just that of certain Republicans.

Do the “representatives” represent the people?

Jerusalem

Political Positions Of The Republican Party

Republicanism in the United States

The platform of the Republican Party of the United States is generally based on American conservatism, contrasting with the modern liberalism of the Democratic Party. The positions of the Republican Party have evolved over time. Currently, the party’s fiscal conservatism includes support for lower taxes, free marketcapitalism, deregulation of corporations, and restrictions on labor unions. The party’s social conservatism includes support for gun rights and other traditional values, often with a Christian foundation, including restrictions on abortion. In foreign policy, Republicans usually favor increased military spending and unilateral action. Other Republican positions include restrictions on immigration, opposition to drug legalization, and support for school choice.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did. – President Trump re Vladimir Putin after their meeting in Vietnam. Putin later added that he knew “absolutely nothing” about Russian contacts with Trump campaign officials. “They can do what they want, looking for some sensation. But there are no sensations.”1 Numerous US intelligence agencies have said otherwise. Former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, responded to Trump’s remarks by declaring: “The president was given clear and indisputable evidence that Russia interfered in the election.” As we’ll see below, there isn’t too much of the “clear and indisputable” stuff. And this, of course, is the same James Clapper who made an admittedly false statement to Congress in March 2013, when he responded, “No, sir” and “not wittingly” to a question about whether the National Security Agency was collecting “any type of data at all” on millions of Americans. Lies don’t usually come in any size larger than that. Virtually every member of Congress who has publicly stated a position on the issue has criticized Russia for interfering in the 2016 American presidential election. And it would be very difficult to find a member of the mainstream media which has questioned this thesis. What is the poor consumer of news to make of these gross contradictions? Here are some things to keep in mind: How do we know that the tweets and advertisements “sent by Russians” -– those presented as attempts to sway the vote -– were actually sent by Russians? The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), composed of National Security Agency and CIA veterans, recently declared that the CIA knows how to disguise the origin of emails and tweets. The Washington Post has as well reported that Twitter “makes it easy for users to hide their true identities.”2 Even if these communications were actually sent from Russia, how do we know that they came from the Russian government, and not from any of the other 144.3 million residents of Russia? Even if they were sent by the Russian government, we have to ask: Why would they do that? Do the Russians think the United States is a Third World, under-developed, backward Banana Republic easily influenced and moved by a bunch of simple condemnations of the plight of blacks in America and the Clinton “dynasty”? Or clichéd statements about other controversial issues, such as gun rights and immigration? If so, many Democratic and Republican officials would love to know the secret of the Russians’ method. Consider also that Facebook has stated that 90 percent of the alleged-Russian-bought content that ran on its network did not even mention Trump or Clinton.3 On top of all this is the complete absence of even the charge, much less with any supporting evidence, of Russian interference in the actual voting or counting of votes. After his remark suggesting he believed Putin’s assertion that there had been no Russian meddling in the election, Trump – of course, as usual – attempted to backtrack and distant himself from his words after drawing criticism at home; while James Clapper declared: “The fact the president of the United States would take Putin at his word over that of the intelligence community is quite simply unconscionable.”4 Given Clapper’s large-size lie referred to above, can Trump be faulted for being skeptical of the intelligence community’s Holy Writ? Purposeful lies of the intelligence community during the first Cold War were legendary, many hailed as brilliant tactics when later revealed. The CIA, for example, had phony articles and editorials planted in foreign newspapers (real Fake News), made sex films of target subjects caught in flagrante delicto who had been lured to Agency safe houses by female agents, had Communist embassy personnel expelled because of phony CIA documents, and much more. The Post recently published an article entitled “How did Russian trolls get into your Facebook feed? Silicon Valley made it easy.” In the midst of this “exposé,” The Post stated: “There’s no way to tell if you personally saw a Russian post or tweet.”5 So … Do the Cold Warriors have a case to make or do they not? Or do they just want us to remember that the Russkis are bad? So it goes. An organization in Czechoslovakia with the self-appointed name of European Values has produced a lengthy report entitled “The Kremlin’s Platform for ‘Useful Idiots’ in the West: An Overview of RT’s Editorial Strategy and Evidence of Impact”. It includes a long list of people who have appeared on the Russian-owned TV station RT (formerly Russia Today), which can be seen in the US, the UK and other countries. Those who’ve been guests on RT are the “idiots” useful to Moscow. (The list is not complete. I’ve been on RT about five times, but I’m not listed. Where is my Idiot Badge?) RT’s YouTube channel has more than two million followers and claims to be the “most-watched news network” on the video site. Its Facebook page has more than 4 million likes and followers. Can this explain why the powers-that-be forget about a thing called freedom-of-speech and treat the station like an enemy? The US government recently forced RT America to register as a foreign agent and has cut off the station’s Congressional press credentials. The Cold War strategist, George Kennan, wrote prophetically: “Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”6 Writer John Wight has described the new Cold War as being “in response to Russia’s recovery from the demise of the Soviet Union and the failed attempt to turn the country into a wholly owned subsidiary of Washington via the imposition of free market economic shock treatment thereafter.” So let’s see what other brilliance the New Cold War brings us. … Ah yes, another headline in the Post (November 18, 2017): “British alarm rising over possible Russian meddling in Brexit”. Of course, why else would the British people have voted to leave the European Union? But wait a moment, again, one of the British researchers behind the report “said that the accounts they analyzed – which claimed Russian as their language when they were set up but tweeted in English – posted a mixture of pro-‘leave’ and pro-‘remain’ messages regarding Brexit. Commentators have said that the goal may simply have been to sow discord and division in society.” Was there ever a time when the Post would have been embarrassed to be so openly, amateurishly biased about Russia? Perhaps during the few years between the two Cold Wars. In case you don’t remember how stupid Cold War Number One was … * 1948: The Pittsburgh Press published the names, addresses, and places of employment of about 1,000 citizens who had signed presidential-nominating petitions for former Vice President Henry Wallace, running under the Progressive Party. This, and a number of other lists of “communists”, published in the mainstream media, resulted in people losing their jobs, being expelled from unions, having their children abused, being denied state welfare benefits, and suffering various other punishments. * Around 1950: The House Committee on Un-American Activities published a pamphlet, “100 Things You Should Know About Communism in the U.S.A.” This included information about what a communist takeover of the United States would mean:Q: What would happen to my insurance?A: It would go to the Communists.Q: Would communism give me something better than I have now?A: Not unless you are in a penitentiary serving a life sentence at hard labor. * 1950s: Mrs. Ada White, member of the Indiana State Textbook Commission, believed that Robin Hood was a Communist and urged that books that told the Robin Hood story be banned from Indiana schools. * As evidence that anti-communist mania was not limited to the lunatic fringe or conservative newspaper publishers, here is Clark Kerr, president of the University of California at Berkeley in a 1959 speech: “Perhaps 2 or even 20 million people have been killed in China by the new [communist] regime.” One person wrote to Kerr: “I am wondering how you would judge a person who estimates the age of a passerby on the street as being ‘perhaps 2 or even 20 years old.’ Or what would you think of a physician who tells you to take ‘perhaps 2 or even twenty teaspoonsful of a remedy’?” * Throughout the cold war, traffic in phony Lenin quotes was brisk, each one passed around from one publication or speaker to another for years. Here’s U.S. News and World Report in 1958 demonstrating communist duplicity by quoting Lenin: “Promises are like pie crusts, made to be broken.” Secretary of State John Foster Dulles used it in a speech shortly afterward, one of many to do so during the cold war. Lenin actually did use a very similar line, but he explicitly stated that he was quoting an English proverb (it comes from Jonathan Swift) and his purpose was to show the unreliability of the bourgeoisie, not of communists.“First we will take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia, then we will encircle the United States, which will be the last bastion of capitalism. We will not have to attack. It will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands.” This Lenin “quotation” had the usual wide circulation, even winding up in the Congressional Record in 1962. This was not simply a careless attribution; this was an out-and-out fabrication; an extensive search, including by the Library of Congress and the United States Information Agency failed to find its origin. * A favorite theme of the anti-communists was that a principal force behind drug trafficking was a communist plot to demoralize the United States. Here’s a small sample:Don Keller, District Attorney for San Diego County, California in 1953: “We know that more heroin is being produced south of the border than ever before and we are beginning to hear stories of financial backing by big shot Communists operating out of Mexico City.”Henry Giordano, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1964, interviewed in the American Legion Magazine: Interviewer: “I’ve been told that the communists are trying to flood our country with narcotics to weaken our moral and physical stamina. Is that true?”Giordano: “As far as the drugs are concerned, it’s true. There’s a terrific flow of drugs coming out of Yunnan Province of China. … There’s no question that in that particular area this is the aim of the Red Chinese. It should be apparent that if you could addict a population you would degrade a nation’s moral fiber.”Fulton Lewis, Jr., prominent conservative radio broadcaster and newspaper columnist, 1965: “Narcotics of Cuban origin – marijuana, cocaine, opium, and heroin – are now peddled in big cities and tiny hamlets throughout this country. Several Cubans arrested by the Los Angeles police have boasted they are communists.”We were also told that along with drugs another tool of the commies to undermine America’s spirit was fluoridation of the water. * Mickey Spillane was one of the most successful writers of the 1950s, selling millions of his anti-communist thriller mysteries. Here is his hero, Mike Hammer, in “One Lonely Night”, boasting of his delight in the grisly murders he commits, all in the name of destroying a communist plot to steal atomic secrets. After a night of carnage, the triumphant Hammer gloats, “I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it. I pumped slugs into the nastiest bunch of bastards you ever saw. … They were Commies. … Pretty soon what’s left of Russia and the slime that breeds there won’t be worth mentioning and I’m glad because I had a part in the killing. God, but it was fun!” * 1952: A campaign against the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) because it was tainted with “atheism and communism”, and was “subversive” because it preached internationalism. Any attempt to introduce an international point of view in the schools was seen as undermining patriotism and loyalty to the United States. A bill in the US Senate, clearly aimed at UNESCO, called for a ban on the funding of “any international agency that directly or indirectly promoted one-world government or world citizenship.” There was also opposition to UNESCO’s association with the UN Declaration of Human Rights on the grounds that it was trying to replace the American Bill of Rights with a less liberty-giving covenant of human rights. * 1955: A US Army 6-page pamphlet, “How to Spot a Communist”, informed us that a communist could be spotted by his predisposition to discuss civil rights, racial and religious discrimination, the immigration laws, anti-subversive legislation, curbs on unions, and peace. Good Americans were advised to keep their ears stretched for such give-away terms as “chauvinism”, “book-burning”, “colonialism”, “demagogy”, “witch hunt”, “reactionary”, “progressive”, and “exploitation”. Another “distinguishing mark” of “Communist language” was a “preference for long sentences.” After some ridicule, the Army rescinded the pamphlet. * 1958: The noted sportscaster Bill Stern (one of the heroes of my innocent youth) observed on the radio that the lack of interest in “big time” football at New York University, City College of New York, Chicago, and Harvard “is due to the widespread acceptance of Communism at the universities.” * 1960: US General Thomas Power speaking about nuclear war or a first strike by the US: “The whole idea is to kill the bastards! At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!” The response from one of those present was: “Well, you’d better make sure that they’re a man and a woman.” * 1966: The Boys Club of America is, of course, wholesome and patriotic. Imagine their horror when they were confused with the Dubois Clubs. (W.E.B. Du Bois had been a very prominent civil rights activist.) When the Justice Department required the DuBois Clubs to register as a Communist front group, good loyal Americans knew what to do. They called up the Boys Club to announce that they would no longer contribute any money, or to threaten violence against them; and sure enough an explosion damaged the national headquarters of the youth group in San Francisco. Then former Vice President Richard Nixon, who was national board chairman of the Boys Club, declared: “This is an almost classic example of Communist deception and duplicity. The ‘DuBois Clubs’ are not unaware of the confusion they are causing among our supporters and among many other good citizens.” * 1966: “Rhythm, Riots and Revolution: An Analysis of the Communist Use of Music, The Communist Master Music Plan”, by David A. Noebel, published by Christian Crusade Publications, (expanded version of 1965 pamphlet: “Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles”). Some chapters: Communist Use of Mind Warfare … Nature of Red Record Companies … Destructive Nature of Beatle Music … Communist Subversion of Folk Music … Folk Music and the Negro Revolution … Folk Music and the College Revolution * 1968: William Calley, US Army Lieutenant, charged with overseeing the massacre of more than 100 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai in 1968, said some years later: “In all my years in the Army I was never taught that communists were human beings. We were there to kill ideology carried by – I don’t know – pawns, blobs, pieces of flesh. I was there to destroy communism. We never conceived of old people, men, women, children, babies.” * 1977: Scientists theorized that the earth’s protective ozone layer was being damaged by synthetic chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons. The manufacturers and users of CFCs were not happy. They made life difficult for the lead scientist. The president of one aerosol manufacturing firm suggested that criticism of CFCs was “orchestrated by the Ministry of Disinformation of the KGB.” * 1978: Life inside a California youth camp of the ultra anti-communist John Birch Society: Five hours each day of lectures on communism, Americanism and “The Conspiracy”; campers learned that the Soviet government had created a famine and spread a virus to kill a large number of citizens and make the rest of them more manageable; the famine led starving adults to eat their children; communist guerrillas in Southeast Asia jammed chopsticks into children’s ears, piercing their eardrums; American movies are all under the control of the Communists; the theme is always that capitalism is no better than communism; you can’t find a dictionary now that isn’t under communist influence; the communists are also taking over the Bibles. * The Reagan administration declared that the Russians were spraying toxic chemicals over Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan – the so-called “yellow rain” – and had caused more than ten thousand deaths by 1982 alone, (including, in Afghanistan, 3,042 deaths attributed to 47 separate incidents between the summer of 1979 and the summer of 1981, so precise was the information). Secretary of State Alexander Haig was a prime dispenser of such stories, and President Reagan himself denounced the Soviet Union thusly more than 15 times in documents and speeches. The “yellow rain”, it turned out, was pollen-laden feces dropped by huge swarms of honeybees flying far overhead. * 1982: In commenting about sexual harassment in the Army, General John Crosby stated that the Army doesn’t care about soldiers’ social lives – “The basic purpose of the United States Army is to kill Russians,” he said. * 1983: The US invasion of Grenada, the home of the Cuban ambassador is damaged and looted by American soldiers; on one wall is written “AA”, symbol of the 82nd Airborne Division; beside it the message: “Eat shit, commie faggot.” … “I want to fuck communism out of this little island,” says a marine, “and fuck it right back to Moscow.” * 1984: During a sound check just before his weekly broadcast, President Reagan spoke these words into the microphone: “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I have signed legislation to outlaw Russia, forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” His words were picked up by at least two radio networks. * 1985: October 29 BBC interview with Ronald Reagan: asked about the differences he saw between the US and Russia, the president replied: “I’m no linguist, but I’ve been told that in the Russian language there isn’t even a word for freedom.” (The word is “svoboda”.) * 1986: Soviet artists and cultural officials criticized Rambo-like American films as an expression of “anti-Russian phobia even more pathological than in the days of McCarthyism”. Russian film-maker Stanislav Rostofsky claimed that on one visit to an American school “a young girl trembled with fury when she heard I was from the Soviet Union, and said she hated Russians.” * 1986: Roy Cohn, who achieved considerable fame and notoriety in the 1950s as an assistant to the communist-witch-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy, died, reportedly of AIDS. Cohn, though homosexual, had denied that he was and had denounced such rumors as communist smears. * 1986: After American journalist Nicholas Daniloff was arrested in Moscow for “spying” and held in custody for two weeks, New York Mayor Edward Koch sent a group of 10 visiting Soviet students storming out of City Hall in fury. “The Soviet government is the pits,” said Koch, visibly shocking the students, ranging in age from 10 to 18 years. One 14-year-old student was so outraged he declared: “I don’t want to stay in this house. I want to go to the bus and go far away from this place. The mayor is very rude. We never had a worse welcome anywhere.” As matters turned out, it appeared that Daniloff had not been completely pure when it came to his news gathering. * 1989: After the infamous Chinese crackdown on dissenters in Tiananmen Square in June, the US news media was replete with reports that the governments of Nicaragua, Vietnam and Cuba had expressed their support of the Chinese leadership. Said the Wall Street Journal: “Nicaragua, with Cuba and Vietnam, constituted the only countries in the world to approve the Chinese Communists’ slaughter of the students in Tiananmen Square.” But it was all someone’s fabrication; no such support had been expressed by any of the three governments. At that time, as now, there were few, if any, organizations other than the CIA which could manipulate major Western media in such a manner.7 NOTE: It should be remembered that the worst consequences of anti-communism were not those discussed above. The worst consequences, the ultra-criminal consequences, were the abominable death, destruction, and violation of human rights that we know under various names: Vietnam, Chile, Korea, Guatemala, Cambodia, Indonesia, Brazil, Greece, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and many others. Al Franken Poor Al, who made us laugh for years on Saturday Night Live, is now disgraced as a woman molester – not one of the worst of the current pathetic crop, but he still looks bad. However, everything is relative, and it must be pointed out that the Senator is guilty of a worse moral transgression. The erstwhile comedian would like you to believe that he was against the war in Iraq since it began. But he went to that sad country at least four times to entertain American troops. Does that make sense? Why does the Defense Department bring entertainers to military bases? To lift the soldiers’ spirits, of course. And why does the military want to lift the soldiers’ spirits? Because a happier soldier does his job better. And what is the soldier’s job? For example, all the charming war crimes and human-rights violations in Iraq that have been documented in great detail for many years. Didn’t Franken know what American soldiers do for a living? Country singer Darryl Worley, who leans “a lot to the right,” as he puts it, said he was far from pleased that Franken was coming along on the tour to Iraq. “You know, I just don’t understand – why would somebody be on this tour if they’re not supportive of the war? If he decides to play politics, I’m not gonna put up with it.”8 A year after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Franken criticized the Bush administration because they “failed to send enough troops to do the job right.”9 What “job” did the man think the troops were sent to do that had not been performed to his standards because of lack of manpower? Did he want them to be more efficient at killing Iraqis who resisted the occupation? The volunteer American troops in Iraq did not even have the defense of having been drafted against their wishes. Franken has been lifting soldiers’ spirits for a long time. In 2009 he was honored by the United Service Organization (USO) for his ten years of entertaining troops abroad. That includes Kosovo in 1999, as imperialist an occupation as you’ll ever want to see. He called his USO experience “one of the best things I’ve ever done.”10 Franken has also spoken at West Point (2005), encouraging the next generation of imperialist warriors. Is this a man to challenge the militarization of America at home and abroad? Tom Hayden wrote this about Franken in 2005 when Franken had a regular program on the Air America radio network: “Is anyone else disappointed with Al Franken’s daily defense of the continued war in Iraq? Not Bush’s version of the war, because that would undermine Air America’s laudable purpose of rallying an anti-Bush audience. But, well, Kerry’s version of the war, one that can be better managed and won, somehow with better body armor and fewer torture cells.”11 While in Iraq to entertain the troops, Franken declared that the Bush administration “blew the diplomacy so we didn’t have a real coalition,” then failed to send enough troops to do the job right. “Out of sheer hubris, they have put the lives of these guys in jeopardy.”8 Franken was implying that if the United States had been more successful in bribing and threatening other countries to lend their name to the coalition fighting the war in Iraq the United States would have had a better chance of WINNING the war. Is this the sentiment of someone opposed to the war? Or in support of it? It is actually the mind of an American liberal in all its depressing mushiness. To be put on the tombstone of Western civilization On November 15, 2017, at Christie’s auction house in New York City, a painting was sold for $450,312,500. * Washington Post, November 12, 2017. * Washington Post, October 10, 2017. * Washington Post, November 15, 2017. * Reuters, November 12, 2017. * Washington Post, November 2, 2017. * Wikipedia entry for George Kennan * Sources for almost all of this section can be found in William Blum, “Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire” (2005), chapter 12; or the author can be queried at moc.loanull@6mulbb * Washington Post, February 16, 2004. * Ibid. * Star Tribune, Minneapolis, March 26, 2009. * Huffington Post, June 2005. http://clubof.info/

[mamiepeers]

Don’t Think of An Elephant Book Summary

Key quotes and thoughts from Don’t Think of An Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff. 

Systemic issues are not easy to explain, but progressive’s ability to frame them in a way conservatives and progressives alike understand is critical if we are to achieve political change to lead to greater freedom and equality. 

Strict Father Morality vs. Nurturing Parent Conservatives believe in “strict father morality” whereas progressives believe in a “nurturing parent.” Think James Dobson and the concept of “spare the rod, spoil the child” who says we should be punished for our transgressions, that people are born evil and need straightening out by a strict father. Conservative women and men tend to see male authority as protective and supportive. Thus, the “war on women” doesn’t resonate with them. 

What binds us together Conservatives and progressives believe in freedom. Rather than using a phrase like the War on Women, better to focus on “Freedom, which allows women to decide for themselves, whatever their views on abortion, contraception, and sex education.” 

Private depends on the public. We need highways, airports to allow business to travel to and from our businesses, to bring in tourists. We need parks to play in and libraries for education. We need an educated workforce to work in companies. “It is the freedom that public resources afford that make them central to democracy.” 

How is freedom achieved? Through the following:

Health = Freedom. Without health, we cannot enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. GOP renamed “Affordable Care Act” to Obamacare to associate it with government takeovers and death panels. We should continue using Affordable Care Act and other names that appropriately label services that give us freedom.

Education = Freedom. “Education tells you about the world and the possibilities in life. If you don’t know what’s possible, you cannot even set goals.”  (p. 63). Education teaches you to think, act, be socially engaged, act rationally, get facts for yourself. It gives you access to art, the beauty in life, and the knowledge to be a productive citizen. It helps people be empathetic and understanding to each other. 

Public education is publicly accountable and thus, not allowed to narrow the information made available to students (for example, teaching creationism versus science). 

Wealth = Freedom. Poverty is a freedom issue. People who are poor send kids to school hungry, have less time to participate in politics, have less access to health and education. Rich people relocate easier, travel easier, eat better food, have more social connections, have access to better jobs. 

“Conservatives see being poor as a personal failure, a failure of individual responsibility. But the reality is that poverty curtails freedom. There is a reason people speak of being trapped in poverty. They are.”

Equality = Freedom. All people should be free to marry whoever they love and want to be committed to for life. Also, women are human beings and have the right to control their bodies. When that is denied, they are not free. Sex education is important for women to control their bodies. Women need to control when they produce or not. Forcing a woman to undergo humiliation (forced ultrasounds) in order to exert control over her body is a freedom issue. Hounding women on the way into an abortion clinic is a freedom issue. 

“You are not free when you are not treated like other human beings with respect to how you function in an institution.”

“Discrimination is a denial of freedom.”

Unions = Freedom. Workers are profit centers yet conservatives like to speak of “wealthy company owners and investors as ‘job creators,’ that they ‘give’ people jobs, as if they just create jobs as gifts for people who are out of work” (p. 68).

Say, “Workers are profit creators.” It is the truth. Versus conservative rhetoric where they say “job creators” which favors corporations.

A decline in unions is a decline in wealth. 

Unions grant freedom from corporate servitude and wage slavery.

The power of many “resources” (as opposed to “asset” workers) is greater than one in ensuring employers do not, for example, steal or misappropriate pensions.  Unions create the best deal for “resource” workers. 

America is a country of immigrants. It is comprised of refugees fleeing from persecution, poverty, discrimination, death. “The issue is empathy and respect for these refugees as human beings” (p. 73). 

Runaway wealth began to accelerate during the 1980s when Reagan cut taxes on the wealthy.  Wealthy people and corporations have lobbying power with public officials, own media outlets, sponsor shows, buy massive advertising. They gain control of state legislature and voting rights of poor. They control information. (read, in Nevada, Adelson owns the Las Vegas Review Journal and recently published a favorable spread about Dean Heller’s productivity along with his colleagues in a Republican congress in 2017 when the forced the tax scam on millions). 

Runaway wealth is out of control and the way to regain control is to change politics. In 1976 in the US, the top 1% had 19.9% of the wealth of the nation. In 2010, the top 1% had 34% of the wealth, top 5% had 63%, top 20% had 88.9% of the wealth. That leaves 80% of the population with only 11% of the world’s wealth. 

As the nation’s wealth to the wealthy rises, the freedom that wealth buys to enjoy life, influence policy, declines for most Americans.

State control is cheaper than national control, which is why it’s critical we ensure control over state politics. As Republicans and the Trump Whitehouse stop federal funding for health care, education and women’s rights, they direct decisions to the states, where they depend on Republican seats to enforce conservative agendas.

Progressives must pay attention to local politics and midterm elections and ensure Democrats are voted in (mission accomplished in Nevada where we have early voting, voting from any poll station rather than only in your jurisdiction, etc!).

We are in a “government by corporation” society now. Corporations have achieved extreme wealth and, by way of Republicans, have been given the rights of human beings and citizens. Corporations govern our lives. Corporations have improved lives by providing pharmaceuticals, computer technology, telecommunications. Their innovations, however, have been made possible, through developments made possible through public resources: computer science, medical research, satellites.

The wealthier corporations get, the more power they have to avoid regulations and to pass the cost of doing business onto consumers. It’s called the “externalization of costs” - an example being waste clean up. Pollution dumped into water sources from fracking are cleaned up by the government; global warming caused by a chemical release from companies is paid for by consumers who pay higher insurance premiums in areas now frequently hit by disasters, for example. 

Will the government by corporation afford us the greatest life, liberty, happiness? 

A nurturant morality views ethical behavior centered on empathy and responsibility (for yourself and others needing your help). Many things follow from this: fairness, minimal violence (for example, justice without vengeance). Conservatives follow a policy of self-interest, using strict father morality as the guide, such as when Bush went ahead with the Gulf War, where a million civilians died of the affects of our war against them and the embargos - we destroyed water treatment plants, hospitals, etc. 

The second Bush led the war in Iraq, which was supposed to cost $40 billion dollars; it cost us $3 trillion so far and counting, if you consider the cost of veterans getting injured. This war was paid for through, at the time, our social security surplus.

Money spent on war drains public resources at home.

[oselatra]

'Too far to turn back now'

The Nine and Clinton condemn Trump, recall past.

It was four days of standing ovations, heartfelt cheers for the Little Rock Nine, applause and reminders that there is still much to do in the way of race relations in America: Thursday's press conference given by the Nine where they talked about such things as the retribution their parents faced for letting them desegregate Central High in 1957. Saturday's house brought down by a feisty, funny, fabulous Mavis Staples urging the crowd at the Robinson Center Performance Hall to respect themselves. Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church pastor's rousing praise of the bravery of the Little Rock Nine at Sunday's interfaith service and his truth-telling about America's original sin of slavery and its continuing harm. Monday morning's commemoration, a call to arms to not let what the Nine went through be for nothing. The names of the Nine — including that of the late Jefferson Thomas — were repeated and repeated and repeated, and every time the people stood and clapped loud and long. They lauded the Nine, now eight, to make it last, because who knows what the number of these heroic figures will be at the 70th anniversary. That's why, Melba Pattillo Beals told the Times last week, she knew the eight survivors would make the trip to Little Rock. "We might not see each other again," she said.

At Monday morning's commemoration at Central High, exactly 60 years to the day the Little Rock Nine were escorted into school by the 101st Airborne, an empty chair on stage was draped with a stole of Central's gold and black, in remembrance of Jefferson Thomas, who died in 2010. "He was the one with the sense of humor," Carlotta Walls LaNier recalled when it came her time to speak. In a 2007 interview with Thomas, he quipped that he didn't have any problem with maintaining a non-violent position in the face of violence. "I was a good runner.")

Dignitaries gathered Monday to honor the Nine included former President Bill Clinton; Governor Hutchinson; Mayor Mark Stodola; Dr. Sybil Hampton, the first African-American to attend Central for all high school years and graduate; Rev. LaVerne Bell-Toliver; and two past student body presidents of Central.

Henry Louis Gates, the noted African-American scholar, writer and TV and radio host, added extra star power. He said he felt like he was visiting a "religious shrine." And if it is a shrine, he said, the Little Rock Nine are "the saints."

Members of the Nine spoke. Beals, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said it was a "joy" to return and to see, for example, people of color as police officers. And she said not all those with whom she attended school with her were unfriendly.

Elizabeth Eckford, who lives in Little Rock, talked of the silence the Nine kept for some 30 years. She began talking when she heard recollections "foreign to my experience here." True reconciliation, she said, is possible only when all acknowledge a painful and shared past.

Ernest Green, of Washington, D.C., said the Nine hadn't aspired to make history. They wanted what the Constitution afforded and what their parents had paid taxes for. He said he dug in his heels after being initially denied admittance.

Green referenced the Arkansas Times cover that posed the question about Central 60 years later: "Progress?"

He said he'd put it, "Progress ellipsis." He said, "Progress is not a single action or moment. It is the small mundane everyday action." A Muhammad Ali becomes a Colin Kaepernick, he said by way of pointed example.

Gloria Ray Karlmark, who lives in Amsterdam, said she never thought she'd be here today, but "it feels pretty good." She recalled getting a yearbook on the final day of school. She was 15. She knew others signed books. "Who would I dare go up to and ask to sign my book?" As she stood there, Becky, a girl she'd secretly exchanged notes with, came up and signed the book. Then another girl signed and wrote, "In another age, we could have been friends."

Carlotta Walls LaNier, who lives in Denver, said City Manager Bruce Moore had asked her more than a year ago for ideas about this week's events. "I would like to have dinner in the White House with President Hillary Clinton," she told him. The crowd applauded.

"But this is the second best, being here."

She said the Nine were worried when finally admitted. They were behind. They didn't know what the year would hold or how Gov. Orval Faubus would continue to affect their experience. She recalled how Gov. Bill Clinton welcomed them in 1987 and how Hillary Clinton, who'd been ill, came downstairs and talked with the Nine until the early morning along with City Director Lottie Shackelford. The welcome 10 years later was "overwhelming and kind and gracious. It was well-meaning and heartfelt."

At the 50th, the Little Rock Nine Foundation had begun to help students to go to college. They were happy, she said. They had a place in the national civil rights movement.

And now, through "45," or President Trump and his Twitter account, she finds something of a return to where people were 60 years ago. But she cited the old spiritual, "We have come too far to turn back now."

Terrence Roberts, who lives in California, said he didn't come to celebrate. "That time has not yet come." From his perspective, he'd first want that the crisis hadn't happened. And he has a vision of a "war against the forces determined to maintain the status quo." He said "willful ignorance" is one of the most deadly sins we face.

Minnijean Brown Trickey, a resident of Canada after a brief return to Little Rock in the 2000s, said she sees the 60th as a pilgrimage, or a search of moral or spiritual significance. "The work is not complete until a beloved community is achieved," she said. She referred obliquely to the current president again, as she had earlier in the week, with a reference to "profound intentional ignorance." She told the audience, "We're not stupid. We know what's going on in this town." She keeps up with the ongoing school divisions — the takeover and all the rest.

Gabriel Wair spoke for his grandmother, Thelma Mothershed Wair. A retired teacher, she said in words he read, "Proliferation of charter schools has given us cause for concern for the future of conventional public education. " She said she didn't want them to become a place for those who fall below standards. It was another applause line.

Central Principal Nancy Rousseau introduced Bill Clinton, noting that most of her students were born after he left the White House (after which she mouthed "sorry" to Clinton).

Clinton reminisced. He was at Central, with Jesse Jackson, at the 20th anniversary, he noted. Then he talked about genetics, as he had at a speech Sunday night at his library, on the opening of an exhibit about Nelson Mandela. The science shows that humankind arose in Africa and that it's a rare person, if any, without a mix of racial genetics. He delved, too, into insects — termites smart enough to air-condition their burrows, the clumps of fire ants that survived Hurricane Harvey, as examples of how their cooperation has meant their survival.

He was going to just give some bromides and sit down, Clinton said. But then other things have happened. He said the Nine could put on their dancing shoes to celebrate the anniversary, but tomorrow, "You have to put on your marching boots and lead us again."

Echoing a theme heard many times over the past few days, Clinton said that many people today who profess to be religious don't remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. Each of the world's religions has a parallel teaching, he said. "What is the matter with us?" he lamented. He referenced Trump's recent campaign rally in Alabama," talking in ways I hadn't heard since the days of George Wallace."

After saying that Wallace had changed in his final years, he said, "We don't want to go back there."

"We have to reject anger and resentment in favor of answers," he said.

***

Hutchinson must have felt very lonely on stage as the commemoration ceremony bore on, with speaker after speaker lambasting the rise of the far right, anti-immigrant fervor and the threat to voting rights and health care that have marked the Republican Party's administration of government.

It was "unimaginable" even as recently as last year, Gates said, that today "we find ourselves again in the struggle for freedom." Cheers and whistles and standing ovations met Gates' demands that people must "defend the right of every American to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice" and "at all cost" defend the affirmative-action program "that launched so many people of color — and women of every color — into positions of authority." The applause thundered when Gates insisted "we must fight for health care as a right ... and to keep the pipeline of opportunity open for the next generation and the next generation after that."

That means standing against homophobia and Islamaphobia and anti-black racism "and, ladies and gentlemen, against white supremacist ideology in all its hateful forms."

There were cries of support when Ernest Green drew a connection between the Little Rock Nine with the nine people slain at prayer by a white supremacist gunman at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.

All eyes were on Hutchinson and Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore as Minnijean Brown Trickey made reference to today's problems in the LRSD: "We know what's going on in this town." Wair's more direct targeting of the "proliferation of charter schools" that are draining students from the public schools brought cheering students to their feet.

When Clinton turned to the crowd to say everyone must put on our "marching boots," the standing O, cheers, applause — an expression of clear disdain for a deranged Republican president — must have left Hutchinson, who supports voter ID laws, the health care bill under debate in Congress that would hurt Arkansans, and who put a charter-school-funding Walton family lackey in charge of the state Department of Education, yearning for an exit to a friendlier place.

That's not to say Hutchinson didn't receive a warm welcome. He did. He lauded the Little Rock Nine for their determination and success in changing an "unfair" system. He noted that the Little Rock Central student body of 2018 will look quite different than that of 1958. He didn't give the number — 18 percent white today against 99 percent white in 1958 (only Ernest Green was a senior.) He urged people to work toward a "more civil society."

He noted the bravery of the Nine, who as mere children faced hate, sometimes physical danger and a "defiant governor" in the days before the fight for civil rights became a national movement. "I want to thank the Little Rock Nine for enduring the pain," he said to the Nine, and gave them a deep bow.

After Hutchinson spoke, moderator Dr. Sybil Hampton quoted Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address: "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here."

***

After the event, the Nine and President Clinton posed for pictures at the front of the stage, within reaching distance of a mob of people with hands outstretched for a handshake and an autograph. Terrence Roberts crouched on the edge of the stage for an interview with a young woman who asked him if he believed racial equality was in danger of losing ground. "We as a people need to be willing to confront that reality," Roberts said. "Until we do there will be no progress that is significant. ...

"We are going forward very slowly because the forces of opposition keep pushing back. Power will concede nothing unless there is a force of equal magnitude pushing back against it. If you are a part of the ruling class, what incentive would there be to give up that status?"

Four members of the senior class, who got to sit on the stage during the event — all African-American girls, all college-bound — said afterward that they didn't get to meet the Nine, but were excited to meet President Clinton. They found his speech a little wandering, but interesting nevertheless.

Clinton salvaged what might have been an embarrassing comment about how no African-Americans are all black and no whites are all white — something that goes without saying — by shifting to Gates' program on PBS about ancestry, "Finding Your Roots." Part of that ancestry is Neanderthal — about 3 percent of our genome, Clinton said., and "that's the part that's been rearing its ugly head" lately, Clinton said.

The former president said that fighting among one another over our differences ignores our 99.5 percent genetic sameness. Such fighting, Clinton said, has been spurred by the fact that a segment of the population has been "fed a steady diet of resentment" that has torn apart the country, and has created a situation where "another country thinks these people are so nuts ... I'll mess with their heads," referring to Russian interference during the U.S. election season last year.

Clinton also took on anti-immigrant resentment that undocumented people are criminals. "The crime rate among immigrants ... is one-half that of the native born. The rate of small business creation, however, is two times that of the native born."

"Do we really want to go back to what it was like before World War II or the '20s or whatever?" Clinton asked, and the audience said, "No."

The Nine brought a measure of justice to the world, Clinton said. "So I ask you to say to them, 'We love you.' "

***

Love was the word for the 60th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine's escort into Central High — the same division that landed in Normandy on D-Day, as Gates noted. If you don't love your brother, speakers at both Monday morning's commemoration and Sunday night's interfaith service at Robinson Performance Hall said quoting 1 John 4:20, you don't love God.

At Sunday's service, Rev. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was co-pastor with his father, gave a rousing talk about the persistence of racism in the United States. He noted the role played by the so-called Christian seg academies in the South to keep segregation alive, saying he didn't know what Bible they read but it wasn't the one he read. "Jefferson Beauregard Session," he said, was aiding the militarization of American police with his decision to send soldier gear their way. America has "unfinished business of racism, poverty and militarism," Warnock said.

Warnock talked about America's indifference to drugs when they were seen a black problem; now, he said, white leadership is vowing to do something about the epidemic of "opioids" — even giving the problem a new name.

As it did on Monday, Kaepernick's name came up: Warnock wondered aloud how it is that the president of the United States can criticize the football players and others who have been taking a knee during the anthem to protest police brutality against black citizens but say there were "good people" among the Nazis in Charlottesville.

And imagine, Warnock said, if the tiki-torch bearers in Charlottesville, Va., had been black instead of white. Would they have been allowed to disperse without police presence — or would they have been met with tanks?

'Too far to turn back now'