ProfessorPlum
ProfessorPlum's JournalRoy Edroso reads the wingnuts so that you don't have to: Caging Kids and Coddling Kim
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/06/18/caging-kids-coddling-kim-court-catastrophes-all-wins-for-trump-conservatives-conclude/In the course of this running-dog-and-starving-pony show, Trump shrugged off Kim’s legendary torture and repression of his subjects, saluted an enemy officer, and appeared to offer the dictator a beach condo deal. His new secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, backed Trump’s bullshit 100 percent, his loyalty likely marginally prolonging his own tenure.
Also showing his loyalty: Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who wrote that “the fact that the statement the two leaders signed referred only to ‘complete denuclearization,’ not ‘complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,’ does not mean that Trump gave up verification or irreversibility in the deal, because there is no ‘deal’ yet, only a ‘communique’ that summarized what the two leaders discussed. We are at the start of the negotiating process, not the end.” Denuclearization is not a “destination,” it seems, but a “journey.”
...
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continued its attack on anyone of foreign origin and dark skin, regardless of citizenship status, adding the innovation — unique among liberal democracies — of wrenching children, including breastfeeding infants, out of the arms of their parents and housing them in closed-down Walmarts. This, as observers have pointed out, is what wingnuts used to worry Obama would do to white Americans in their “Jade Helm 15” conspiracy theory, which would be ironic if irony had not long ago died of overwork.
The administration and its factota said it was only obeying the law, which Trump spokesliar Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed “very biblical,” though there is in fact no law requiring that the families be separated. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also cited The Good Book, quoting Romans 13, a passage commonly used by antebellum Southerners to justify holding slaves. And people say what this White House is doing is “unprecedented”!
I'm officially in remission
and getting ready to go back to work. Thanks to everyone for your support. Reading DU has been one of the things that has kept me sane through treatments and feeling sick. . Glad to be on the mend. It looks like the cancer is on hold for now, and hopefully that will last a while.
The Two Ways to Look at Injustice - the Underdog and the Overdog
The world is an inherently unjust place. Some people are on top, some are on the bottom. There is oppression, exploitation, luck, and injustice. Until we have a perfect society, that is just the way things are.
The two main political philosophies arise out of how we react to that injustice. We can either think "things need to change" or "things are a-ok as they are".
"Things need to change" is:
rooting for the underdog
realizing that poor people are not necessarily inherently flawed
that some people achieve wealth and power through the luck of their parentage and birth
that programs that help people who are hungry, jobless, cold, and sick improve the world for everyone
that healthcare and education are for everyone
that disadvantaging people based on attributes they can't change is terrible
supporting strong labor
protecting people against fraud and negligence
"Things are a-ok" is :
rooting for the already wealthy and powerful
believing that rich people are better than everyone else, and are rich because they are virtuous
that poor people are failed humans who deserve to be poor
that helping people makes people weak and dependent
that people should pay for their own healthcare and education
crushing labor in favor of capital
allowing the rich to poison everyone and commit fraud freely
Most people on this site seem to be, like me, people who want to fight for a more just world. Rooting for the Overdog seems like such a lifeless way to live life.
Matt Dillahunty on Christians who assume that good people _can't_ be atheists
I'm not sure why we are being afflicted with this Jordan Peterson person, but Dillahunty here does a great job of describing what Christians do who just can't accept that atheists can be moral.
David Vitter served 10 years in the Senate after hooker-diapergate: Using Our Ethics Against Us
Because the GOP has no morals, ethics, shame, or standards of conduct, no one is ever kicked out of the conservative tent.
failed human Newt Gingrich, child molester Roy Moore, "Keating 5" John McCain, constitution-schmonstitution Ollie North, Cap "my diary would have revealed a criminal conspiracy" Weinberger, Mitt "I'm filthy rich from vulture capitalism" Romney, etc.
and the aforementioned Vitter, who you would have thought would perhaps have died of embarrassment in 2007 when his illegal sexcapades were revealed, but managed to stay on and continue the ruinous harm to our country for 10 more years.
Conservatives never (and are never forced to) condemn their fellow conservatives, no matter how corrupt, law-breaking, or hideous they are. Most are given sinecures at Fox News if their public sector jobs end.
And because they have zero standards, they see progressive ethics as a laughable weakness. If they can just get progressives to turn on each other by pointing out small issues (and appealing to our higher selves), they can break our coalition just because it is made up of fallible, imperfect people. buh bye, Senator Franken.
Let's remember to keep our tent big - anyone fighting for economic and social progress is our ally, even if they are flawed in a way that might not make them our best friends.
Comey is a hero in his own mind. He's been spinning noble tales about himself for at least 10 years
One thing I will always remember about Comey is this story from 2007, when he told the tale of how he rushed to John Ashcroft's hospital bed and protected him from Andrew Card...
His testimony describes the night that the Bush's NSA warrantless eavesdropping program was set to expire, as then AG Ashcroft lay in a hospital Intensive Care Unit with a critical case of pancreatitis. Comey, designated as Acting AG during the AG's illness, had refused the White House demands to certify the NSA program as "legal", as was needed for it to continue. The White House was said to have been furious about it, so Dubya, reportedly, personally called Ashcroft's wife to inform her that his own legal adviser Alberto Gonzalez (who was not yet AG) and Chief of Staff Andy Card, were on their way over to the hospital to have the ailing AG personally sign off on the program.
He describes the ensuing late-night chain of events --- from speeding in his redirected limosine, to an ICU confrontation and an astounding "moment of clarity" from the ailing AG, to a midnight White House showdown over all of this. I'd describe the testimony as "must watch" if you've never seen it, and a great refresher for those of us who saw it at the time. It offers an instructive moment about where nomination hearings for Comey could go if, in fact, he is nominated to replace Robert Mueller as FBI Director. Along with Comey, Mueller performed as one of the "good guys", at least in this particular moment of history.
Maybe it happened exactly this way. Maybe Comey stood up to Bush and all of his cronies. This story has been repeated and repeated as if it was the gospel truth since then, and appears in nearly all accounts of Comey's career.
The thing is though, this story, as far as I know, only comes from Comey. No one else has ever described the events of that night. And so, we are left with Comey's heroic tale of standing athwart warrantless eavesdropping, rescuing his ailing superior in the hospital from political pressure. Comey, the hero. He likes to tell these aw shucks tales about how great and patriotic and moral and ethical he is.
BUT COMEY FUCKED HILLARY OVER ROYALLY. Against his OWN guidelines. No amount of painting himself the grand hero/martyr will erase that.
The thing about Trump supporters is
They will never say, "I voted for Trump, but I really don't like the way he did XYZ. I don't support that."
Democrats do that all the time. I was a big Obama supporter, but there are things he did (and things he didn't do by omission), that I really don't like. And I have no problem saying it.
If those fascists would ever just say, "well, of course Trump has to follow our laws" or "I like the guy, but that last move was low class" , or anything like that, I would have hope for our country. But they don't, and I don't.
Is the march to fascism/fundamentalism/authoritarianism a ratchet?
We slowly slowly slowly have given the wealthy and their corporations the power to set up and enforce the rules to our society. Corporations are people, money is speech, bribery is legal, elections are auctions, corporations force arbitration, unions are destroyed, banks commit fraud with impunity, manufacturers poison us with impunity, the powerful are moral, the poor are immoral.
The elite, in short, are now in charge of making all the rules, including how the elite should treat everyone else. (hint: like shit)
have other countries ever come this close to full blown fascism (where corporate power = governmental power) and come back from the brink? I'm seeing a lot of roadmaps to how Nazi Germany came to be, but not many where fascism loomed but was beaten back. Can it be?
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