Maggie Haberman nailed it at least once

in her book (which I haven't read and won't buy):

"Trump had proven that the majority of Washington Republicans who had initially opposed him were exactly as craven as he had said they were, as he bent them to his will because they saw personally opportunity or necessity for survival, even after the Capitol riot."

Since I read this a couple days ago, it keeps coming back to me.

This is Trump, and this is the overwhelming majority of the Repub elite. ETTD. It's so succinct.

ETA: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/06/1134372699/past-is-prologue-in-two-new-books-that-explore-the-trump-era

Beethoven's 9th by the NY Philharmonic. You won't be disappointed.

This is what we're fighting for. Nothing less than the brotherhood of man.

I am an atheist but this speaks to me.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/ny-phil-plays-beethovens-ode-joy-t0n72a/14182/

I rarely start a thread but this guy is amazing: Anand Giridharadas

I just saw him on PBS Amanpour & Company. I can't find that video yet. But he just came out with a new book so he's making the rounds and here he is on Mika Brzezinski et al. (and that guy, this is how out of it I am).

His book details his quest for finding out WHY democracy and fascism are running neck and neck with the American people and what we are doing wrong and how to change it.

I'm familiar with this guy. I think of him as a sort of philosopher with unconventional ideas who goes deeper than most.

I hope you give him a listen, especially if you can find that dam Amanpour video.

Starving dog nearly gives up until a miracle happens

I just saw an awesome panel discussion by the ABA

titled 2022: Democracy in Peril — How Can We Change the Course for America? panelists include Michael Luttig and Kathleen Jamison.

It's about an hour but the time flew by for me. Everyone was succinct and stated their points with so much intelligence and insight. I begin to think that lawyers can get us out of this mess.

Gunman "wasn't bullied", "he hurt animals"

Toward the end

Today is the 212th mass shooting of 2022.

Voting results so far 8:55 pm

Arrogant, incompetent and corrupt: war is shattering our delusions of the German elite

It is too early to say who will win the war in Ukraine, but one nation has already suffered a catastrophic loss of prestige: Germany. The political and business leaders of Europe’s biggest economy have not only failed to give Ukrainians the help they so desperately need, but in their dealings with Russia they have been exposed as at best naive - and at worst complicit.

This week the German leadership crisis deepened when Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor, claimed to be delivering on his promise to send arms to Ukraine — but was revealed by the tabloid Bild to have secretly refused every item of heavy equipment requested by Kyiv. After Scholz had crossed tanks and artillery off the list, an aid package said to be worth €1 billion (£836 million) had been reduced by more than two thirds.

Meanwhile Berlin has been stonewalling on sanctions, claiming that its industry and consumers cannot bear the pain of cutting off energy supplies from Russia. A decade ago, the Germans lectured Greeks and other southern Europeans about austerity, telling them that “an end with horror is better than a horror without end”. Now, as President Zelensky told German MPs a month ago, they care only about protecting their economy.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/24/arrogant-incompetent-corrupt-war-shattering-delusions-german/

https://web.archive.org/web/20220425002429/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/24/arrogant-incompetent-corrupt-war-shattering-delusions-german/

The making of a modern Republican