#Veterans Defending Democracy

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

An 82-year-old grandmother affiliated with the local Republican Party spat at and attacked a group of veterans during a press conference in Tulsa last Friday, after they vocally protested against the enforced use of religion in public schools.

The incident, which was captured on camera, took place at a press conference called by State Superintendent Ryan Walters on the grounds of Tulsa Public Schools’ administration building.

Attendees were there to show support for E’Lena Ashley, a Tulsa school board member who had been criticized by parents and her fellow board members for praying during a high school graduation ceremony in May. Among those attending the event were members of the local chapter of extremist group Moms for Liberty, which endorsed Ashley’s campaign for school board last year.

Also in attendance were Roberta Pfanstiel and her husband Carl, who were there to support Walters’ call for “religious freedom” in schools. Last month at a Tulsa School Board meeting he called for the promotion of Christianity and “Western heritage” in every classroom, including displaying the Ten Commandments.

At the event, the Pfanstiels were standing next to three activists from Veterans Defending Democracy, who were calling out what they saw as Walters’ hypocritical calls for “religious freedom” in schools.

During the event Pfanstiel, who lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, approached one of the activists, Bailee Tyler, who was sitting on the ground wearing a hat bearing the name of one of the activist groups she is affiliated with, Defense of Democracy.

“[Tyler] was on her knees, on the ground in front of me, and [Pfanstiel] came up from behind her and smacked her hat off of her head,” Erika Stormont, one of the three activists said in a podcast discussing the incident.

Much of the exchange was captured on video and posted online. In the clips Stormont, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 before becoming one of the Army’s first female cavalry scouts in 2015, told Pfanstiel that she cannot touch her or anyone else, and that if she does it again they would press charges.

At one point during the press conference a Christian pastor began praying, and at this point protesters called on Walters to allow a rabbi to pray also if he really believed in religious freedom, chanting “let him pray.”

“And it’s as we’re chanting that, again unprovoked, this woman comes up from behind my friend who’s still on the ground and it looks to me like both of her hands are going for her neck, her shoulders area, and that she made contact,” Stormont said.

In Stormont’s video, posted on TikTok, Pfanstiel’s husband is seen restraining his wife by holding both her elbows.

“As I turned my camera back to her and said: ‘That’s twice, you cannot touch people in public.’ She spits in my face and her saliva lands on my cheek,” Stormont said.

At this point in the video, Stormont is heard telling Pfanstiel to spit again because she has captured it on camera. “I know that’s a very inciting thing to say [but] when I say that, every single part of my body at that point was in fight flight [mode].”

Stormont says she drew on the training she had received in therapy about how to deal with such situations. “I refocused back to the event, I refocused on why I was there, and I ‘gray rocked’ her, which is a term we use when we talk about recovering from narcissistic abuse. You cannot give them any of your energy at that point. And I knew at that point we were going to be pressing charges.”

Stormont filed a police report online and received a tracking number, but told VICE News that she has not heard back from the Tulsa Police Department. She called the department this week to update them with the identity of the person who spat at her, after she had been identified by online sleuths, but had to leave a voicemail. The Tulsa Police Department did not respond to VICE News’ requests for comment on the case.

In total about 100 people attended the event according to Stormont, with about one third of the attendees opposing Walters’ and Ashley’s claims that the school board is being religiously intolerant.

Alongside members of the local Moms for Liberty chapter were prominent members of the state and county Republican Party, including Oklahoma GOP chair Nathan Dahm and Tulsa County GOP chairwoman Ronda Vuillemont-Smith. Moms for Liberty did not respond to questions about Pfanstiel’s affiliation with the group.

Pfanstiel, who deleted her Facebook account this week after VICE News contacted her, has in the past appeared in pictures posted online showing herself and her family with Dahm. One photo was taken in front of the Oklahoma State Capitol on January 6, 2021, to oppose the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections.

Dahm didn’t respond to VICE News’ request for comment but Vuillemont-Smith said the party “is aware of the allegations of assault that took place” and “while the party was not the organizer of this press conference, we are monitoring the situation.”

“The Republican Party of Tulsa County honors all veterans who served, and support the freedom of speech,” Vuillemont-Smith added. “We do not condone nor endorse violence of any kind, nor do we support actions or free-speech that disrupt and impede on others' right to free speech.”

When asked if Pfanstiel is a member of the Tulsa GOP, the chairwoman said “all registered Republicans in Tulsa County are considered members of the Tulsa GOP.”

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

About 75% of veterans and active military vote blue. The armed forces are primarily staffed by people of color, urbanites, recent immigrants, Catholics, and various white & non-white ethnic “minorities”.

In other words only about 1 in 4 are white evangelical crackers. Don’t be fooled, southerners and other rural types are, and always have been, the numerical minority in the military.

The Dems need to change the false perception that RepubliKKKans have created of being more pro-military. We also need to change the false perception that RepubliKKKlans are more patriotic. We need to also take back the iconic symbolism that goes with that.

We are the ones that defend true democracy and the American way. We are the ones helping our neighbors and trying to make America a better place for everyone. These are the true American ideals. Republikkkans are the traitor trash that tried to overthrow the government to install a dictator for life, trampling the Constitution along the way.

Some of you may recall “Tricky Dick” Nixon, the demon who spawned the modern RepubliKKKlan party was a villain in both the Marvel and D.C. comics.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

by David Hume Kennerly

* * *

PLEASE DON’T THANK ME FOR MY SERVICE THIS VETERAN’S DAY

NOV 11, 2023

Please don't thank me for my "service." I was in the military, not the "Service." Service is doing something good. Service is what the person does who fixes your car. When the word "service" is applied to the military, it helps to justify violence as a method for conflict resolution. Like "defending our freedom," or "bringing democracy," the word "service" is used to lower the barriers of aggression. The military solution to conflict is death and destruction. That's not "service." Call it what it is - the military. If you have to hurt someone to solve a problem, you are the Problem. -- Arnold Stieber, US Army Veteran, 1970

I have absolutely no problem understanding exactly what Mr. Stieber wrote above, “back in the day,” with the white-hot heat of youth and the thorough pissed-offness of someone who had seen the side of life nobody ever wants to see. It’s the attitude I came home with from that same war, five years before he did.

I’ve never really gotten used to the new tradition of the past 30 years, for civilians - on discovering they are in the presence of someone who served in the military, - to say “Thank you for your service.” I have very mixed emotions about that. On the one hand, it’s nice that maybe a fourth of them have a clue why they’re saying what they are, that it isn’t merely the mouthing of polite words. On the other hand, I’m not sure why anyone would want to thank someone who served in the war I served in, or the ones that followed.

The war in Vietnam made everything in America worse. For just one thing, it harmed the economy when the government adopted a policy of both “guns” and “butter,” which led to the severe inflation of the 1970s, which gave companies looking for any way to reduce costs to start taking a hard line on employee compensation, which leaves us in the condition where the average American working stiff now makes less in terms of buying power than they did 50 years ago, I don’t know about you, but I’m not up to thanking anyone for that.

Of course, thinking further on this leads one to the obvious conclusion that it wasn’t the kids who got drafted who did any of that. They weren’t sitting in the halls of government thinking about how to distract the citizenry from the fact that this particular imperial war was going bad in all ways, and coming up with the idea of keeping taxes down in a period of increased government spending for things that go “BOOM!” while making sure they could get that new car every three years like they always did. Those decisions are the ones that led to the situation I mentioned above. Made by guys who mostly never got shot at, even in the war they did serve in.

In my experience during my time in the Navy and the years after knowing other vets and working with them, there were very few of us who “wanted” to go to war. Most of my fellow sailors were in the Navy because they figured joining the Navy and getting trained for a good job and “seeing the world” beat the daylights out of being in the Army, so much so it was worth a couple extra years over the two years a draftee served. Ditto the Air Force. Even the Marines were forced to start taking draftees after 1966, when they ran low on guys who believed what John Wayne told them in “Sands of Iwo Jima.”

As close as anyone got to “wanting” to go was when those of us who had joined before the war received the first orders sending us to the war. As my friend Phil Caputo wrote in “A Rumor of War” (a “Vietnam book” you should read), when he learned he and his fellow Marines were headed to DaNang in South Vietnam in 1965, “I thought to myself that when it was over and I went home, I’d be able to look my Tarawa-veteran father in the eye.” I know many others - including me, son of the guy who survived the Kamikazes - the sons of the “greatest generation” who had grown up with all the stories about our father’s “good war,” who “played war” with the cast-off gear from that war, who had similar thoughts.

Vietnam was the last war fought with draftees, and you can bet your bottom dollar today’s leaders will never go back to that system. The draft made everyone think about the war, whether they had to worry about getting drafted out of whatever working class job they had (or didn’t have); even the kids with student deferments had to think about the war when they didn’t work hard enough to keep their grades up and maintain their 2-S status. Mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and friends all had to worry about someone they knew and loved going off to that war. Whether they “supported the president” or came to understand that the war wasn’t worth the loss of that life they knew and loved, they came in the middle of the night to hate the war. And eventually that made itself known in politics. The makers of war became constrained in the war they could make by the lack of support from those who gave them their jobs with their votes.

I’ll tell you something. After I came back, I did all I could to end that draft. But I would be very happy to see it brought back today.

No deferments. The sons and daughters of the rich serve right alongside the sons and daughters of the poor - like they did in World War II. It’ll make the entitled little shits into something better. And it really does unify - it’s hard to hate people you know by name.

But mostly I’m in favor of that because it makes it almost impossible for “They” to decide to fight a 20 year war in Afghanistan, or Iraq. They can’t do it because too many people will be paying attention. And getting pissed off at them. And voting.

But no, for exactly the reasons I am for the draft, the “all-volunteer” army is here to stay. You can’t fight 20-year wars in hellholes nobody knows without it. That way, only about 1-2 percent of the population ever has to think about the war - the kids who join up because they don’t have a future that looks better than what the military offers, their families, their friends - not a big enough group that if they got upset they could muster any political changes, unlike all those folks 50 years ago.

Most of all, if you’re going to thank me or any of us for our service, don’t try to honor us as “heroes.” For one thing, most of us aren’t, and for another, if you haven’t been in the military you really have no idea what being a hero in that context actually is.

It’s not what you think it is.

An old Navy Chief once explained “being a hero” to me: “When you’re so terrified that your brain is so frozen you can’t think, and you’ve pissed your pants and shit your drawers, and you just know you’re going to die, and you still do your job - THAT is being a hero.”

Not the definition too many in our society nowadays want to hear.

“But, Tom,” you say, “don’t you write all these best-selling books about wars and heroes? You must really love war to think about it so much.”

If you have gotten anything even remotely like that from reading any of my books, you really need to reconsider that decision not to take that remedial course in reading comprehension.

Yes, I do honor those out there in the mud and the blood and the ooze. And I appreciate knowing the ones who were out there in the mud and the blood and the ooze and survived to come back to the world of the living. That’s because their willingness to do that has a lot to do with why there is that world of the living to come back to.

Or at least that’s true in the World War II books. That’s the last war that could be divided into the Good Guys and the Bad Guys.

Except it kind of can’t. I’ve known too many guys who served on “the other side” who are just as nice - if not nicer - than anyone I have met from “the good side.”

In fact some of them must be better than anyone who served on this side. That’s a small list. But every guy who served in Vietnam and then had the opportunity to later meet the people they were trying to kill at the time, has met people who have been willing to forgive them for My Lai and Agent Orange and Rolling Thunder and all the rest of it, and offer friendship. And the ones on that side who I have been privileged to meet are definitely honorable men.

A late friend of mine who was a leading ace in “the good war” once told me when we were at a convention of those guys and the honored guests at the event were the guys who they’d been out to kill: “The secret nobody knows is, we always thought the guys we were fighting were the only ones who knew what we were going through. We actually thought we were closer to them than to the other people who were on our side.” I’ve heard similar sentiments from former infantrymen as well as former fliers, so it’s not some “guild of the elite” or “honorable brotherhood.”

Although it probably is an “honorable brotherhood.” The brotherhood of people who were willing to do what it took to defend what they loved - and believe it or not that even applies to the Germans; most of them knew as much about the “larger issues” going on, the terrible things, as any young guy in the US military did in the war I fought. And when they did find out, they were shocked too. The people who did the terrible things tried to keep them secret from everyone else, because they knew they were doing terrible things.

My friend Jim Wright, who’s become well-known in social media in recent years for some straight-shooting talk from a retired Chief Warrant Officer, wrote:

“Mostly we veterans are just people who came when called and did our best under terrible circumstances.”

I’ll end with a quote from a guy who did know what it took to do all that stuff:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier, General, President

[TCinLa :: Thats Another Fine Mess]

[scretladyspider]

I hate America. I hate being American. “Oh you’re so free you have so much” my government regularly uses my tax dollars to fund wars — and as I write this, a genocide — without my consent. America has been at war 2/3 of my life, killing people for America’s own political power. I have no say in if my tax dollars go towards basic infrastructure and things like free healthcare or bombing innocent people who just happened to be born near something the American government wants. They constantly expand the military instead of providing healthcare and education and food to their citizens, creating such poverty that many who join the military (any branch) do so just to pay for college to try to get a better life. My government is using my tax dollars not to help the citizens of Gaza, but to supply the IDF with weapons for an ongoing massacre for a tiny strip of land that’s important in a book that was written over two thousand years ago and which no one can really agree on the meaning of anyway. Those who are deployed either don’t come back or are abandoned by the government they fought for when they do, no matter if they went because they agree with what they were ordered to do or because they were that desperate and manipulated for a better life that they were at the end of their rope. Around 130,000 - 200,000 veterans are homeless. There are no safety nets, not unless you’re rich. My government has funded murder of millions in the name of a few people getting a little bit richer and continues to do so. If you become homeless, you didn’t work hard enough, even though most jobs barely pay enough to survive. If you don’t have a savings account, or generous family, or if you lose your job, you will also be homeless. Nearly every state has “at will” employment, meaning you can be fired at any time and not given reason. Simultaneously race, gender, religion, and disability are supposedly protected under equal opportunity employment. Many in my government want to erase queer and especially trans people from existence and are trying to make it happen. If you get fired due to some type of discrimination, you need money to hire help to take your employer to court. Judges are elected but often run unopposed, but when they are opposed this can drastically effect how they rule a court case. The prison system is modern day slavery and for profit prisons are legal, and common, and just, a thing that actually exists. Medical care is decided by insurance companies, not patients and doctors. This is determined by the cost and risk factor, not what’s best for the patient. Politicians are still advocating for Israel, no matter what they do, but also doing nothing to fight rising antisemitism in the USA. Politicians decide whose vote counts where. Its “majority rule” in democracy— except for the presidency, which os decided by “electors” who are not chosen by the people and who, depending on the state, don’t have to use their electoral votes for the state’s popular vote. Police are so overpowered they often get away with murder and even laugh about it. Children are regularly massacred in schools and teachers somehow can’t understand why they don’t want to do their homework or are acting out in class. People who want gun control are treated as being just as extreme as the people who can’t recognize that their defense of their “hobby” has killed countless people and will kill again and safety from gun violence shouldn’t be a matter of luck. My government is ignoring an ongoing pandemic which has killed and disabled millions of people already. Corporations decide my rights on their own interests by how much money they give what politicians. Studies have been done, and what the people want isn’t likely to pass because money is what matters most. My government is backing the current president of Israel, who has defended the choice to bomb hospitals. I am not proud to be an American. Why would I be? This is broken.

[haggishlyhagging]

After SDS’s [Students for a Democratic Society] hugely successful anti-war march on Washington in April 1965, the organization's ranks swelled. SDS's hypertrophied growth made it markedly more competitive and its leadership more impenetrable for women. The sense of community which SDS veterans so valued dissipated as new members tried to assert themselves and the old guard struggled to defend itself. Although the SDS old guard may not have been anxious to discuss the existence of sex discrimation within the organization, [Sara] Evans observes that many of the most powerful men within SDS were married to women who were questioning sex roles within the Movement. Evans hypothesizes that the men might have been somewhat less resistant had the issue been raised while SDS was still a cohesive movement of friends.

In fact, some men did respond favorably when the question of sex roles was first raised within SDS at the December 1965 National Council meeting. According to SDS chronicler Kirkpatrick Sale, the December "rethinking conference," as it was optimistically dubbed, was supposed to rekindle the spirit of the 1962 SDS Convention at Port Huron. SDS oldtimers hoped that the conference would help SDS solve its problems and grow into an effective "multigenerational" and "multi-issued," radical organization. Many SDS members came to the meeting dissatisfied with the group's lack of ideological coherence and organizational cohesion, and the absence of working democracy. Many of the veterans were also resentful of the newcomers who they felt were taking control of their organization. Moreover, Evans argues that many relationships and marriages among SDS couples “were reaching a breaking point.” Evans speculates that this personal turbulence made the issue of sex roles especially compelling. But it was Casey Hayden and Mary King's, "Sex and Caste"—a "kind of memo" they had circulated among women in the Movement—that finally prompted the National Council to hold a workshop on women's role in SDS. Their paper, an elaboration of the position paper they had written for SNCC a year earlier, was printed with other conference papers. In it, they located the struggle for sexual equality within the new left tradition of dissolving the barrier between the personal and the political:

“all the problems between men and women and all the problems of women functioning in society as equal human beings are among the most basic that people face. We've talked in the movement about trying to build a society which would see basic human problems (which are now seen as private troubles), as public problems and would try to shape institutions to meet human needs rather than shaping people to meet the needs of those with power. To raise questions like those above illustrates very directly that society hasn't dealt with some of its deepest problems and opens discussion of why that is so.”

According to Evans, when the women's workshop first convened, it was composed of both men and women. However, a number of men reacted so defensively that some women resolved to meet by themselves, without the obstructionist men. The women who chose to leave were followed by several men who angrily demanded that they be allowed to participate in the women's discussion group. Even some women who had stayed in the mixed group because they wanted to discuss the issue with men became so frustrated by the men's behavior that they too withdrew to meet with other women. Marilyn Webb recalls that the issue

“galvanized enormous numbers of meetings of women endlessly. I don't even remember anything else happening at that convention. We always used to talk about other people's problems. The reason it was so incredibly interesting was that it was the first time we applied politics to ourselves.”

The workshop issued a statement, endorsed by the National Council, criticizing SDS for failing to encourage women to participate fully in the organization. It further argued that women's status in SDS "reflects not only the inadequacies within SDS but . . . also greater societal problems, namely the role of women in American society today."

-Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America: 1967-75

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The discreet US campaign to defend Brazil’s election

Amid widespread speculation about a coup attempt, the Biden administration pressured politicians and generals to respect the result

As Brazil prepared to hold a presidential election last October, many governments around the world viewed the vote with a mounting sense of foreboding. 

The far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, was openly flirting with subverting the country’s democracy. He attacked the electoral process, claiming that the electronic voting machines used by Brazilian authorities were unreliable and calling for a paper ballot instead. He constantly hinted at the risk of the election being stolen, echoing claims made by Donald Trump in the US.

But in the end, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s win in October was accepted without serious challenge by Bolsonaro and the veteran leftwing politician was inaugurated on January 1.

The fact that the election was not seriously challenged is a testament to the strength of Brazil’s institutions. But it was also in part the result of a quiet, year long pressure campaign by the US government to urge the country’s political and military leaders to respect and safeguard democracy, which has not been widely reported.

Continue reading.

[sataniccapitalist]

Welcome To The Empire

Welcome to the empire Where genocide is self-defense and peace rallies are genocide Where war criminals are the victims and the hospitals are terrorists Where calls for freedom are hateful and ceasefires are anti-semitic Where civilians get called terrorists and real terrorists get Nobel Peace Prizes Where the propaganda is journalism and the journalism is propaganda Where the democracy is real and the apartheid is imaginary Where the corporations are people and the people are corporate resources Welcome to the empire Whose bombs are humanitarian and whose provocations are invisible Whose veterans are heroes and whose victims are forgotten Whose wars are always just and whose enemies are always Hitler Whose cause is always righteous and whose critics are always Russian Whose sufferings are unforgivable and whose crimes are erased from history Whose atrocities are always an unfortunate accident and whose enemies kill civilians for fun Whose disastrous interventions are always innocent mistakes no matter how often they happen Welcome to the empire Ever the victim of unprovoked attacks from the people it has been strangling Ever the shining city on a hill of human corpses Ever the defender of the poor helpless plutocrats of Wall Street Ever the savior of the families incinerated by missiles made by Raytheon Ever the protector of natural resources in the soil of foreign nations Ever the upholder of the rules-based order of a world with a boot on its throat The empire loves you with a heart made of dollars and oil The empire watches over you through your smartphone and your computer The empire is your only friend The empire is the only one who will ever love you You can't leave You can't get rid of the empire If you get rid of the empire, this world could be taken over by tyrants

[militarymenrbomb]

10 November 2023

A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS

             For 248 years, Marines have earned a reputation as the most disciplined and lethal warfighters in the world. This legacy of honor, courage, and commitment passed on to us was paid for in sweat, blood, and sacrifice. From Belleau Wood to Inchon and Tarawa to Sangin, Marines have stepped forward to defend our Constitution when others either could not or would not. Our history is filled with heroes like Chief Warrant Officer 4 Hershel "Woody" Williams, Private First Class Hector Cafferata Jr., Sergeant Major Dan Daly, and thousands of others who performed acts of bravery which went unseen in the heat of battle. We stand on the shoulders of these Marines, and we owe it to them to earn our title "Marine" each and every day.

             Marines have given, and have been willing to give, their lives for Country and Corps in every fight our Nation has entered. Our actions turned back the tide of tyranny in Europe during the Great War, defeated fascism in Asia during World War II, fought for democracy in Korea and Vietnam, and offered the hope of self-determination in the Middle East. We go to war whenever our Nation calls, and in the interwar periods we train, we prepare, and we innovate. We have chosen a life of service and sacrifice — an honorable life that has meaning. We sacrifice so our fellow citizens don't have to, and we seek nothing in return but a chance to be first to fight. Most will never understand why we choose to attack when others do not, why we revel in being covered in mud, why we snap to attention when "The Marines' Hymn" is played, or why we say, "Ooh Rah." We understand it, and this message is for us, for the Marines.

             As Marines, we live on a war footing because someone must. This means that we ruthlessly adhere to our standards of excellence — Marine standards — as we know this will best prepare us for the wars of the future. Our high standards are a prerequisite of professional warfighting, and how we keep our honor clean in the cauldron of combat. They prepare us for the most difficult mission there is: fighting from and returning to the sea. Most importantly they shape our unique Marine culture which is respected at home and across the globe.

             Sergeant Major Ruiz and I are proud of all that you have done this past year to protect and enhance our reputation as America's best warriors. We hope you know that we will be with you every step of the way as we prepare for the fights ahead. We ask that every Marine - active, reserve, and veteran - honor the legacy of those who went before us by continuing to uphold our high standards.

             Protect your fellow Marines and our shared legacy. Happy Birthday Marines!



[head-post]

Colombian veterans join the war in Ukraine due to financial difficulties at home

Three combat veterans who joined the war in Ukraine due to financial difficulties have died, The New York Times reports.

Manuel Barrios joined the war over bank threats to repossess his home in Colombia; Luis Alejandro Herrera returned to the war front to recover savings lost in a failed attempt to enter the US through Mexico; Jhoan Cerón joined the battle to provide for his child.

All three died. They were among hundreds of Colombian veterans who volunteered to fight for Ukraine in order to earn at least three times what they could earned at home.

The stories of Colombian volunteers prove the transformation of the military conflict in Ukraine into a protracted war of attrition.

As the fighting devolves into inconclusive, brutal positional warfare, material motives become more prominent. Cristian Pérez, a retired sniper in Colombia’s Army, is also considering fighting in Ukraine.

I would venture to say that not one Colombian has gone there to defend democracy. I don’t believe they have even heard of Ukraine before the war. Everything comes down to economic motivations.

Read more HERE

[songsofprotestpeacerevolution]

Five for Fighting - Can One Man Save The World ft. The Ukrainian Orchestra

A note from John Ondrasik: It was an honor of a lifetime to perform my new Ukraine tribute song “Can One Man Save the World”, with the Ukrainian Orchestra in the ruins of the Antonov Airport in front of the Ukrainian’s beloved Mriya, the world’s largest cargo plane, that Putin cynically destroyed at the outset of the war.

In sharing this musical collaboration on such hallowed ground, I saw firsthand the fortitude and grace of the Ukrainian people, who whether they are playing a violin or driving a tank, will not be deterred by Putin’s atrocities and aggressions.

I am grateful to my partners in this mission, “Save Our Allies”, one of the several NGO’s I began working with after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, who’s relationship with President Zelensky and the Ukrainian military made this effort a reality. SOA, formed by Afghan vets and the wife of a catastrophically wounded veteran, rescued over 12,000 during a ten-day period at HKIA. Their heroic work in Afghanistan is now being replicated in Ukraine coordinating humanitarian relief. All proceeds from this video and song will go to Save Our Allies to assist them in continuing their humanitarian work in Ukraine. Please donate at https://saveourallies.org if you are so inclined.

Can one man, one person, save the world? Not alone they can’t. Though this song recognizes President Zelensky and all Ukrainians, it is equally about each one of us. I believe we all, as free individuals, and free nations, must do our part in ensuring that freedom and liberty is defended when one of our fellow democracies is being decimated. As the last words of our video state: History Starts Now.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The New Yorker

* * * * *

“Trying to steal history.”

January 9, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

On Monday, President Biden delivered a stirring and spirited speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In June 2015, members of the congregation at the church invited a stranger to join them for services. The stranger killed nine members of the church in the worst church-related shooting (to that point)—a mass killing that was racially motivated. President Obama delivered a eulogy for Pastor Clementa Pinckney of Mother Emmanuel AME Church that included his rendition of Amazing Grace a cappella.

[The video is here, Joe Biden speaks at Charleston church (start at the 26:00 minute mark), and the full text of the speech is here: Remarks by President Biden at a Political Event | Charleston, SC.]

Against the backdrop of the 2015 racially motivated mass shooting, President Biden addressed Trump's use of the “lost cause” of white supremacy to bolster his hate-fueled campaign. Biden said, in part,

On June 17th, 2015, the [nine] beautiful souls and five survivors invited a stranger into this church to pray with them. The word of God was pierced by bullets in hate and rage, propelled by not just gunpowder but by a poison — a poison that’s for too long haunted this nation. What is that poison? White supremacy. Oh, it is; it’s a poison. Throughout our history, it’s ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow, or ever. Now — now we’re living in an era of a second lost cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying — trying to turn a loss into a lie — a lie, which if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. This time, the lie is about the 2020 election, the election which you made your voices heard and your power known.

Biden tied the lost cause of white supremacy to Trump's 2020 loss, identifying both of as existential threats to the nation. He then pivoted to Trump's insurrection on January 6 and Trump's threat to continue that assault on democracy if he is elected to a second term in 2024.

Biden said, Just two days ago, we marked the third anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history: January the 6th. The day in which insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol, trying for the first time in American history to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the country. We all saw with our own eyes the truth of what happened. That violent mob was whipped up by lies from a defeated former President . . . . We saw something on January 6th we’d never seen before, even during the Civil War. Insurrectionists waving Confederate flags inside the halls of Congress built by enslaved Americans. A mob attacked and called Black officers, Black veterans defending the nation those vile of racist names. And yet, an extreme movement of America, the MAGA Republicans, led by a defeated President, is trying to steal history now. They tried to steal an election. Now they’re trying to steal history, telling us that violent mob was, and I quote, “a peaceful protest.” The lies that led to January 6th are part of a broader attack on the truth America today that we all have seen before. The same movement that, throughout the mob at the United States Capitol, isn’t just trying to rewrite history of January 6th, they’re trying to determine to erase history and your future: banning books; denying your right to vote and have it counted; destroying diversity, equality, inclusion all across America; harboring hate and replacing hope with anger and resentment and a dangerous view of America.

Powerful words delivered with passion and dignity befitting the hallowed ground and the proximity to January 6. As Trump's speeches are becoming more unhinged and hateful, Biden’s are becoming more forceful and direct in challenging Trump. If you can spare twenty minutes, watch the video linked above, beginning at the 26:00-minute mark. Your confidence will be renewed.

But I can’t leave this story without commenting on the media coverage. Biden delivered a truly inspirational and important speech on race and democracy. For sixty seconds during Biden’s speech, a protestor stood up and demanded that Biden call for a cease-fire in Israel. Biden handled the protestor with skill and grace. As the protestor was escorted from the church, Biden said,

It's alright. I understand their passion. I’ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.

That sixty-second incident of an otherwise historic speech dominated virtually every headline describing the speech. See, e.g., NYTimes, Protesters Calling for Gaza Cease-Fire Interrupt Biden Speech; The Hill, Biden address in Charleston church interrupted by protesters; and NPR, Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza interrupted Biden's campaign speech.

The bias against Biden is just unbelievable. I wonder if the headline writers or journalists who wrote the articles even bothered to read or listen to the substance of Biden’s speech. I doubt it. Shame on them!

Meanwhile, Trump hopes the economy crashes before he is re-elected.

As Biden continued to call for the preservation of democracy and mourned the tragedies of January 6 and the AME shootings, Trump was telling an interviewer he hoped the economy would crash during Biden’s remaining time in office. See The Hill, Trump says he hopes economy crashes in next 12 months: ‘I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover’.

Trump said,

We have an economy that’s so fragile, and the only reason it’s running now is it’s running off the fumes of what we did. It’s just running off the fumes. And when there’s a crash — I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.

Ha! Trump remembered as Herbert Hoover? He should be so lucky! He will be remembered as Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, and Aldrich Ames—combined!

And, in case you think I am resorting to hyperbole, Trump refused to sign a traditional pledge in Illinois in which presidential candidates pledge not to overthrow the US government. See The Guardian, Donald Trump did not sign Illinois pledge not to overthrow government. Trump signed the pledge in 2016 and 2020, but not in 2024. Hmm . . . it’s almost like he’s planning ahead to overthrow the US government!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[whitesinhistory]

@vicenews:

Veterans who were protesting against an Oklahoma school superintendent with ties to extremist group Moms for Liberty say they were spat on by an 82-year-old grandmother with ties to the local GOP party.

“I served our country twice. You weren’t with me when I was in Afghanistan,” a veteran protester shouted. As the fight between the two sides escalated, the grandmother was heard spitting on members of the group Veterans Defending Democracy.

The event, which was organized by superintendent Ryan Walters, was in support of a noted anti-LGBTQ school board member who received complaints after praying during a graduation ceremony. For the record, school-promoted prayer in schools has been banned since 1962. This does not include students who pray on their own time at school.

The grandmother has been identified as Roberta Pfanstiel.

[mariacallous]

With the election victory of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, a powerful new ally has emerged for Hungary’s nationalist-populist government, which has looked increasingly isolated within the EU recently, especially over its stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its rule-of-law dispute with Brussels.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday congratulated Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, with a concise “Bravo Giorgia” on Facebook. His political director Balazs Orban was more explicit: “In these difficult times we need more than ever friends who share a common vision and approach to Europe’s challenges. Long live the Hungarian-Italian friendship!” he tweeted.

The Rome-born Meloni is on course to win the most votes in Italy’s general election and is expected to form Italy’s next government at the head of a three-party-coalition, comprising veteran Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s Lega.

Orban has cordial relations with all three members and can hope to gain support for his nationalist-conservative ideas at a European level. Meloni could prove to be a staunch ally in his Fidesz party’s anti-migration and anti-LGBT policies. A fellow defender of the “traditional family model”, she is also a fierce critic of abortion, a topic lately picked up on by the Hungarian government.

Experts say Italy, Poland and Hungary could form a triad of Brussels-critical nations in the EU looking to reclaim more national sovereignty and delegate less power to the centre. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also tweeted his congratulations to Meloni on Monday.

“Orban has invested a lot in Meloni in the last years, even when her party was far from power,” Daniel Bartha, a foreign policy specialist and president of the Budapest-based Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID), told BIRN.

Bartha said Orban and Meloni have regularly met at conservative conferences and by now relations between the two are stronger than between Orban and traditional Italian allies Salvini and Berlusconi. “They might not agree on everything, but their anti-migration stance is a strong platform for cooperation,” Bartha said.

The victory of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party could reinvigorate the debate over whether Orban’s Fidesz might join the European Parliament party bloc of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which is presided over by Meloni and also includes Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

But Bartha believes Orban does not see this as a priority at the moment. “What matters for Orban is the European Council, where the decisions are taken. And here, he gains an important ally in Meloni,” he explained.

Hungary’s government is embroiled in a dispute with the EU over its attacks on democratic values and the rule of law. On September 18, it became the first EU member state to have the European Commission freeze budget funds over concerns about numerous breaches of the rule of law by the government of Viktor Orban.

Member states now have a month to decide whether to adopt by a qualified majority – i.e., countries representing a minimum of 65 per cent of the EU population – the EU Commission’s proposal to freeze the 7.5 billion euros in funds. If Poland and Italy stand by Hungary, and a few smaller countries decide to abstain, Orban could even win and get away with democratic backsliding and the embezzlement of EU funds.

Other supporters of Meloni in the CEE region included Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who tweeted: “Congratulations @GiorgiaMeloni, @matteosalvinimi, @berlusconi on the electoral victory! In times of challenges, it is important to hold fast to national interests and goals!”

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[yourreddancer]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

September 2, 2022 (Friday)

Just a week ago, a judge ordered the release of the affidavit on which the FBI applied for a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. That document revealed that Trump had taken highly classified documents from the government and held them in insecure locations. That document was horrifying, but it referred only to documents the government had already recovered, not the ones for which it would go on to search for on August 8.

Today the unsealing of a court filing revealed that the August 8 search turned up more than 11,000 documents or photographs that were not classified, 31 documents marked CONFIDENTIAL, 54 marked SECRET, and 18 marked TOP SECRET. In addition, agents found 48 empty folders marked CLASSIFIED, and 42 empty folders marked to be returned to a military aide. Those documents were not filed with the envelopes.

This story is unprecedented and explosive. As Sue Gordon, who was principal deputy director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019, told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace yesterday, in addition to the potential for exposing national secrets, the exposure of the networks and techniques that were in those documents could unravel intelligence networks that took decades to build.The implications for the destruction of our national security at Trump’s hands are enormous. 

And yet, after President Joe Biden’s speech last night saying that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Republicans have rushed to attack Biden as divisive, hateful, or disparaging of half the country, claiming far more support than they have. Biden offered them an off-ramp from this profound scandal, inviting them to stand on the side of defending democracy, and they refused it.

They have tied themselves to what looks like it is on the way to becoming the biggest attack on our national security in our history, but it is not clear to me that even remaining Republican voters will be okay with the compromise of our national security. National security used to be very important to Republicans.

Trump’s attorney general Bill Barr seemed today to be trying to get whatever is left of the Republican establishment to abandon the former president. He told two different Fox News Channel programs: “I…think for them to have taken things to the current point, they probably have pretty good evidence…. I think the driver on this from the beginning was…loads of classified information sitting in Mar-a-Lago. People say this was unprecedented, well it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club.” “I can’t think of a legitimate reason why they…could be taken…away from the government if they’re classified.” He added that he was “skeptical” that Trump had declassified the documents. “I think it’s highly improbable, [and]...if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them, and said ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such an abuse and…shows such recklessness it’s almost worse than taking the documents.”

(***YET YOU, FATHEAD BARR, DOWNPLAYED MUELLER'S REPORT WHEN YOU KNEW HE WAS GUILTY! DON'T TRY TO REHABILITATE YOURSELF NOW!  YOU ARE AS GUILTY AS HE IS!)

Among all the Republican backlash over Biden’s speech, today, veteran CNN White House reporter John Harwood said:“The core point he made in that political speech about a threat to democracy is true. 

“Now, that’s something that’s not easy for us, as journalists, to say. We’re brought up to believe there’s two different political parties with different points of view and we don’t take sides in honest disagreements between them. But that’s not what we’re talking about. These are not honest disagreements. The Republican Party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue. 

“Many, many Republicans are rallying behind his lies about the 2020 election and other things as well. And a significant portion—or a sufficient portion—of the constituency that they’re leading attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Violently. “By offering pardons or suggesting pardons for those people who violently attacked the Capitol, which you’ve been pointing out numerous times this morning, Donald Trump made Joe Biden’s point for him.” 

Shortly afterward, Harwood announced he was no longer with CNN.

A source told Dan Froomkin of Press Watch that Harwood had been told last month he was being let go, despite his long-term contract, and that he used his last broadcast to send a message.

(***CNN'S NEW BOSS IS A REPTURD SHILL!!!)

[peoplespartymd]

Peoples Party Platform

An Economy That Works for Everyone

An Economic Bill of Rights

Strong Unions and Workplace Democracy

Modernizing our Infrastructure

A Fair Tax Code and Modernizing Small Business

Rein-in Wall Street and Create Public Banks

Fair Trade

Defend and Uphold Democracy

Abolish Corruption and Restore Democracy

Secure and Transparent Election

Defend Civil Liberties

Respect Human Rights, Health and  Human Potential

Medicare for All

Free Public College and Quality Education

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Respecting Disability Rights

Protect the Environment and Defend Biodiversity

Clean Energy and Environment Protection

Animal Welfare

Sustainable Agriculture

Stand for Equality and Justice 

Restorative Justice

Racial Justice

Equal Rights for Women

LGBTQIA Equality

Honor Indigenous Rights

Create a Peaceful Global Community Benefiting from Technology

A Collaborative and Peaceful Global Community

Promise and Peril of Accelerating Technology

Take Care of Veterans

Secure and Transparent Election

Defend Civil Liberties