Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

HCR wrote:

At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Republican senators accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of “siccing” the FBI on parents who are simply concerned about their child’s education.

The backstory is that there has been a coordinated effort across the country to whip up protests at school board meetings over mask mandates and opposition to teaching Critical Race Theory in K–12 schools (where it is not taught), and they have gotten heated enough that protesters have threatened the lives of school board members, teachers, administrators, and school staff.

In response, the National School Board Association (NSBA) wrote to the administration asking for federal help in addressing the increasing threats. Garland issued a memo calling for federal law enforcement to work with local law enforcement as necessary to protect school board members.

Under pressure from Republican state representatives, the NSBA apologized for some of the language it had used in its initial letter—it suggested the protesters were engaging in domestic terrorism, for example—and today senators tried to get Garland, too, to apologize for his memo.

He refused. "I wish if senators were concerned about this that they would quote my words," he said. "This memorandum is not about parents being able to object in their school boards. They are protected by the First Amendment as long as there are no threats of violence, they are completely protected."

It was painfully obvious that the Republicans, especially Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), were trying to create sound bites for right-wing media, and perhaps to undermine Garland’s credibility should the Department of Justice bring charges against high-ranking lawmakers over the events of January 6. They portrayed Garland as part of a conspiracy to crush American liberty and demanded his resignation.

It appears to be the new conspiracy theory of the Trump Republicans to say that the administration is hunting them: Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson is advertising an upcoming special that appears to suggest that the Democratic-controlled government is launching a war on right-wing Americans.

But that increasing hysteria feels as if it has desperation behind it. We learned recently that 18 members of Trump’s White House staff are cooperating voluntarily with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Only Stephen K. Bannon is not. These voices not only are likely to turn up valuable information, but also indicate that White House staffers are less worried about the wrath of the former president than the wrath of Congress.

If Trump has lost control of his team, it’s a whole new ball game. Anyone who can get out from under the wreckage will do so, and fast. That will make those remaining desperate to regain power. And Trump himself is facing more trouble. Today his lawyers asked a judge to block the IRS from giving his taxes to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Another indication of desperation today came from Georgia, where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Herschel Walker for the Republican nomination for the Senate. Although he brings to the table name recognition as a famous football player, Walker is a deeply problematic candidate. First of all, it is not even clear he can run in Georgia since he lives in Texas—he switched his voting registration to an Atlanta home owned by his wife in August. Walker has a history of domestic violence and questionable business dealings, as well as a history of mental illness. Walker’s ex-wife said he pointed a gun at her and said: “I’m going to blow your f---ing brains out.” Walker’s ex-girlfriend told police he made a similar threat to her.

But Walker has said the 2020 election in Georgia was fraudulent, and Trump strongly endorsed him.

McConnell opposed Walker’s candidacy this summer and, just a week ago, suggested to CNN that the former president should stay out of the midterms. But on Monday, Senator John Thune (R-SD), the second-ranking Republican senator, endorsed Walker. Today Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), the Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference—the third-ranking Republican senator—endorsed him, too. And so did McConnell, bowing to the recognition that the Republicans need Trump’s voters to win so badly that they must let Trump call the shots.

“I am happy to endorse Herschel Walker for U.S. Senate in Georgia,” McConnell said. “Herschel is the only one who can unite the party, defeat Senator [Raphael] Warnock, and help us take back the Senate.” Conservative editor Bill Kristol noted on Twitter that McConnell said nothing about Walker being qualified for the position.

The Republicans want power.

Already, Republican lawmakers are using unprecedented measures to dictate to the Democratic president.

Today, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) called out Cruz for blocking all but four of President Joe Biden’s picks for ambassadorships (he let through former senators or their relatives). By this time in Trump’s presidency, the Senate had confirmed 22 of his ambassadors, 17 by a simple voice vote.

Cruz is putting holds on all Biden’s appointees until the president agrees to do as Cruz wants with regard to sanctions on a Russian company that is supplying gas to Germany. The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline began during the Trump administration, meaning that Biden inherited a mess: our key ally Germany had committed to the pipeline, and sanctioning the company behind it would destabilize that relationship. When Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded that it was “inevitable” that the pipeline would be finished, Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reached a deal saying that if Russia used the pipeline for political pressure, the U.S. would slap sanctions on it.

Cruz wants sanctions now, and he is sabotaging the State Department until he gets his way.

This morning, the conservative magazine The Bulwark and the liberal magazine the New Republic jointly published “An Open Letter in Defense of Democracy.” Written by Todd Gitlin, Jeffrey C. Isaac, and Kristol, and signed by writers, scholars, and pundits from all political backgrounds, the letter deplores the efforts of the Trumpers to take control of our government and calls for Congress to pass voting rights legislation, by adjusting the filibuster if necessary.

The letter was a wake-up call. “[W]e urge all responsible citizens who care about democracy—public officials, journalists, educators, activists, ordinary citizens—to make the defense of democracy an urgent priority now.”

“Now is the time for leaders in all walks of life—for citizens of all political backgrounds and persuasions—to come to the aid of the Republic.”

substack

1 Reply

@hightor,

Quote:

The backstory is that there has been a coordinated effort across the country to whip up protests at school board meetings over mask mandates and opposition to teaching Critical Race Theory in K–12 schools (where it is not taught)

Yes. Truth-telling is not a principle - it's an impediment - when grasping power is the only real purpose modern conservatives have in mind.

Quote:

It appears to be the new conspiracy theory of the Trump Republicans to say that the administration is hunting them: Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson is advertising an upcoming special that appears to suggest that the Democratic-controlled government is launching a war on right-wing Americans.

More on this here

Quote:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced last night his upcoming “documentary” on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that he claimed “answers a lot of the remaining questions from that day,” and based on the trailer, one of those remaining questions seems to be “why is the government being so mean to the people who tried to overthrow the government for Trump?”

- The dark trailer of the documentary, titled “Patriot Purge,” portrays the violent insurrectionists as fighting a righteous war against an oppressive government.
- Violence and patriotism are the themes of the trailer, opening with a military drum riff against images of gunfire, law enforcement agents breaking into buildings, helicopters, and the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
- “The helicopters have left Afghanistan, and they’ve landed here at home,” Carlson declares in the trailer.
- The trailer ends with an interviewee suggesting that the insurrection was a “false flag” operation.
(watch teaser at link)
- And in case you still had any doubts that this documentary is about anything but rebranding the insurrectionists as brave patriots, Carlson commented during his “Tucker Carlson Today” program yesterday that “you can see why the people who showed up in Washington on January 6th were mad.”

https://tpmsite-f8c0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/liz-cheney.jpg

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

I didn't realize how unhinged the man is before his recent rants. I had to quit reading pages back.

Frank Apisa wrote:

blatham wrote:

Quote:
It is an objective FACT that Biden's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the worst foreign incident in the history of the U.S., and it has been documented as such widely.
Can I beg you (and others) to refrain from quoting this idiot. Read him if you wish (though I don't know why you would other than from a sociological or psychological curiosity) but what he writes is mostly just pollution.

Okay, okay.

But my motto is: If someone is going out of his way to show his stupidity...give him all the room he wants. In fact, help him on his journey.

MOT definitely is nuts.

I guess I can ignore him. We'll see.

1 Reply

There’s No Cheap Way to Deal With the Climate Crisis

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@Frank Apisa,

Frank Apisa wrote:

MOT definitely is nuts.

MOT definitely is Longjon, same voting aberrations, same language, and the git keeps pming me as desperate for my attention as Lj.

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@ManOfTruth,

ManOfTruth wrote:

Quote:
However as good progressives everywhere they thoughtlessly require that we judge them, not on the justice or effectiveness of the programs they impose on us, but rather on their presumed good intentions in enacting them. More of their authoritarian " I had to kill a few of them for the good of the others" These are all of course very familiar of behavior t0 students of the Communist and Fascist tyrannies of the 20th century

Could you add a little more to what you're saying here so that I get a better sense of what you mean?

The progressives virtue signal how they're "good people" simply for the sake of optics. They don't actually care one iota about any minority group. If they did, they'd be bussing these illegal immigrant invaders into Barack Obama's neighborhood in Martha's Vineyard instead of into working class areas to take jobs from folks who need them.

Just like how Maxdanconia doesn't live what he speaks. He doesn't cuddle up with grown male illegal Haitian immigrants in his bed even though those "refugees" need a roof over their head.

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Deranged, WATCH: President Joe Biden mentions Donald Trump's name 25 times while campaigning for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.

https://twitter.com/newsmax/status/1453462758155079688

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Just for context here, keep in mind that folks here have taken the position that Biden did a fantastic job with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That's how mentally ill these folks are. They're saying that with a straight face.

So once you realize that, then you know what you're dealing with.

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Good on DeSantis, at least there's one republican who isn't a RINO.

Florida Sues Biden Administration Over Contractor Vaccine Mandate

(Bloomberg) -- Florida sued the Biden administration over vaccine mandates for federal contractors, the latest in a wave of Republican pushback against the president’s orders to fight the pandemic.

In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Tampa, the state called vaccination requirements for government contractors a “radical intrusion on the personal autonomy of American workers.” It alleges that the administration issued the mandate based on a law that doesn’t give it such power.

Among the defendants is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, which has a large presence in the state through the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island. Florida is seeking an injunction against enforcement of President Joe Biden’s executive order.

The White House had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has resisted vaccine and mask mandates, framing the issue as one of personal freedom and not opposing vaccination itself as a public health measure. Still, his events have occasionally involved disinformation about the inoculations, which dramatically cut the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19.

Speaking Thursday from Lakeland, the governor said he expected to announce dates soon for a special session of the Florida legislature next month to block employer vaccine mandates for the private sector. Separate legislation has already targeted “vaccine passports” for consumers.

“In the state of Florida, you have a right to earn a living, and that should not be denied to you based on these shots,” DeSantis said, standing next to the state’s attorney general, Ashley Moody, who filed the lawsuit.

The case is State of Florida v. Bill Nelson et al., 21-cv-2524, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/florida-sues-biden-administration-over-contractor-vaccine-mandate/ar-AAQ3UfO

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How did Florida end up with one of the best COVID-19 case and death rates in the US despite Gov Ron DeSantis refusing to implement mask or vaccine mandates?

During the peak of the recent COVID-19 surge in Florida, the state was recording 101 cases per 100,000 people and 1.77 new deaths per 100,000
Since mid-September, Florida has been seeing declines and is recording nine cases per 100,000 people and less than 0.2 deaths per 100,000
The declines are despite Governor Ron DeSantis insisting the state would not shut down and refusing to implement mask or vaccine mandates and instead focusing efforts on early treatment
Experts have suggested the declines seem to follow a familiar two-month cycle since the pandemic began with cases and deaths increasing for about two months before dropping
This has also been seen in other states that experienced surges over the summer such as Alabama, Louisiana and Texas

Just two months ago, Florida was experiencing the worst COVID-19 surge in the United States.

The Sunshine State had the highest seven-day average of cases per day as well as the highest hospitalization rate in the country.

Despite these grim metrics, Governor Ron DeSantis did not issue new lockdowns, closures or stay-at-home orders, arguing that the spike was due to a seasonal pattern of the virus and urging residents to get vaccinated.

Now, with Halloween and Thanksgiving right around the corner, the Covid crisis looks really different in Florida.

Inexplicably, cases and deaths have been going down despite DeSantis implementing no new mitigation measures.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show Florida is recording one of the best case and death rates in the country.

This is similar to what's been seen nationwide as Covid-related infections and fatalities in the U.S. drop to the lowest levels recorded since April 2021.

Additionally, the state is doing just as well as California, despite the West Coast State taking a very strict approach including implementing mask mandates, limiting gatherings and closings bars and indoor dining at restaurants.

Experts say Covid waves usually occur in a two-month cycle - with infections rising for two months before declining - and instead of trying to prevent the cycle from occurring, DeSantis just let it ride out.

The declining rates could change as Floridians head inside for the winter months, potentially causing cases to rise again, but, as of now, it seems like Florida's downward trends will only continue.

In mid-August, the COVID-19 crisis perhaps looked no more dire than in Florida.

The state reached a record-high 26,000 Covid cases reported in one day or about 101 cases per 100,000 people.

This is 44 percent higher than the previous peak of 18,000 cases per day recorded in January 2021, according to CDC data.

During this time, there were 17,200 COVID-19 hospitalizations - three-fold higher than the 5,700 seen just one month earlier.

Additionally, Florida reported a record-high 227 deaths per day in mid-August or 1.77 per 100,000.

However, Governor DeSantis defended himself against critics and told Fox News in an interview on August 26 that the state was having 'great success' treating COVID-19 patients early with monoclonal antibodies.

He also slammed President Joe Biden for failing to end the pandemic.

'You know, he said he was going to end Covid. He hasn't done that,' DeSantis told host Jesse Watters.

'At the end of the day, he is trying to find a way to distract from the failures of his presidency.'

At the time, doctors and public health experts said that DeSantis's laissez-faire approach was a gamble, but it appears to have paid off.

CDC data show Florida is recording 64 cases per 100,000 people in a week or nine cases per 100,000 people per day as of Wednesday.

This means the The Sunshine State has the best case rate in the country behind California, Mississippi, Hawaii and Alabama, respectively.

Currently, California recording 28 cases per 100,000 people in a week or three cases per 100,000 people per day.

The declines are despite Governor Ron DeSantis insisting the state would not shut down and refusing to implement mask or vaccine mandates and instead focusing efforts on early treatment. Pictured: DeSantis speaks at a press conference at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, August 2021

The declines are despite Governor Ron DeSantis insisting the state would not shut down and refusing to implement mask or vaccine mandates and instead focusing efforts on early treatment. Pictured: DeSantis speaks at a press conference at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, August 2021

Experts have suggested the declines seem to follow a familiar two-month cycle since the pandemic began with cases and deaths increasing for about two months before dropping, which as been seen in other states that experienced surges over the summer such as Alabama, Louisiana and Texas

Experts have suggested the declines seem to follow a familiar two-month cycle since the pandemic began with cases and deaths increasing for about two months before dropping, which as been seen in other states that experienced surges over the summer such as Alabama, Louisiana and Texas

The same curve can be seen with Covid deaths.

Florida is recording 0.2 deaths per 100,000 people in a week - making it the second best state in the nation.

It is behind only California and New Mexico, which are recording 0.1 death per 100,000 people in a week.

Both of these metrics are despite DeSantis refusing to allow business and schools from implementing mask and vaccine mandates.

This is similar to what has been seen in the U.S. with the recent Delta variant-fueled surge.

On September 1, America was averaging 49.9 cases per 100,000. As of Wednesday, this has dropped to 21.2 cases per 100,000.

Despite taking very different approaches to the pandemic, Florida and California are recording nearly the same amount of average cases and deaths per day
Despite taking very different approaches to the pandemic, Florida and California are recording nearly the same amount of average cases and deaths per day

So does the governor deserve all the credit for Florida's improvement? Not necessarily.

These declines seem to follow a familiar two-month cycle since the pandemic began in early 2020 with cases and deaths increasing for about two months before declining, according to David Leonhardt of The New York Times.

Early explanations - such as the virus being seasonal like the flu or compliance of mask wearing and social distancing increasing and decreasing - have not held up.

However, more logical explanations include that as people have contracted COVID-19 over the last two months, the virus is (slowly) running out of people to infect.

'Since the pandemic began, Covid has often followed a regular - if mysterious - cycle. In one country after another, the number of new cases has often surged for roughly two months before starting to fall,' Leonhardt wrote.

'The Delta variant, despite its intense contagiousness, has followed this pattern.'

This means a variant may only need eight weeks to spread throughout a community before it begins to recede.

The two-month cycle theory has also been seen in the U.S. during every surge including the summer 2020 wave and the winter 2020-21 wave +8
The two-month cycle theory has also been seen in the U.S. during every surge including the summer 2020 wave and the winter 2020-21 wave

During the summer 2020 surge in the U.S., cases began rising in early July before declining again in early September.

What's more, during the winter 2020-21 surge, Covid infections steeply increased in late November 2020 only to fall again in late January 2021.

It seems that what has occurred on a nationwide scale is what occurred on a much smaller scale in Florida.

The recent surge saw cases starting to rise in the Sunshine State in early July and declining in mid-September, following the two month-schedule.

And it's not the only state: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas, all of which saw cases surge during the recent fourth wave, have seen declines since early September.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10136983/How-did-Florida-end-one-best-COVID-19-case-death-rates-US.html

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Teen dies of Heart Attack after having Covid-19 Vaccine because it was mandated by his Hockey Team

A 17-year-old boy in Canada died of a heart attack at home on September 27th reportedly two weeks after he received a Covid-19 injection.

Sean Hartman is said to have suffered from “multiple” health problems “immediately” after the jab, including myocarditis, or heart inflammation. He received the COVID jab in order to be able to play hockey in an arena where the shot is required for entry.

“Sean was born on January 31st 2004, and since then there was nothing that Sean was more passionate about than sports, especially hockey as he played his entire life, reads his GoFundMe page. “He started his hockey career playing for the Beeton Stingers and went on to play for TNT in Alliston. Whether watch or play, Sean just loved the game.”

Sean was passionate about sports, especially hockey. He started his hockey career playing for the Beeton Stingers and went on to play for TNT in Alliston. Beeton Athletic paid tribute to 17-year-old with this post:

A small protest was staged close to the hockey arena where the 17-year-old was told that he had to be vaccinated in order to enter the arena:

“He was not allowed to play hockey in the arena because they’d asked him that he has to take the jab. And they said to him ‘you’re not allowed in the arena‘ (inaudible). He got the jab and now two weeks later he’d been sick, he died yesterday.”

Sean’s father has since set up a Twitter page looking for answers on his Son’s death which can be found here.

A tweet posted October 19th read “I’m not saying the vaccine killed my son, I believe it COULD’VE. The people who believe it absolutely COULDN’T HAVE are the ones we need to worry about. MASTER OF PUPPETS PULLING YOUR STRINGS”

Sweden and Denmark recently paused the use of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for younger age groups, pointing to an increase of myocarditis and pericarditis among youths and young adults who had been vaccinated.

Pfizer has also added a warning to its COVID-19 jab fact sheet concerning myocarditis and pericarditis.

Canadian professor of medicine Dr. Steven Pelech has maintained that “Contrary to what a number of people have said, there is no such thing as ‘mild myocarditis.’”

He has noted that when the heart cells die from myocarditis “they are not replaced in your body and are instead replaced by scar tissue, which is from fibroblasts.”

“The remaining muscle cells have to get a little bigger in order to compensate. Every time you get an inflammatory response, you lose more of that contractility and have a greater chance of heart attack and other problems later in life,” Pelech explained.

He has pointed out that the “chances of dying from Covid-19 is about 0.003% for people under the age of 24 in Canada,” and that for those under 19, the chances of injury from the “vaccine is about four to five times higher than getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 itself.”

U.S. researchers have found that boys age 12 to 15 “with no underlying medical conditions, are four to six times more likely to be diagnosed with vaccine-related myocarditis than ending up in hospital with Covid over a four-month period.”. The full study can be viewed here.

https://theexpose.uk/2021/10/24/teen-dies-heart-attack-after-having-covid-19-vaccine-mandated-by-hockey-team/

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Obama referred to a teen girl who had been raped by a transgender in a high school bathroom and then covered up by the school as "right wing propaganda".

The trans male who raped this girl has now been convicted. Obama thinks this sort of thing is perfectly A-Okay. Obama endorses raping teenagers and covering it up as long as it helps his regime gain more power.

Tucker: Barack Obama is a 'heartless monster'

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GOP Sen. Tom Cotton erupts at Attorney General Merrick Garland: 'Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court'

Sen. Tom Cotton confronted Attorney General Merrick Garland during a hearing on Wednesday.
Cotton called for Garland's resignation over a memo he issued earlier this month to address threats against school officials.

"Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court," Cotton told Garland.
Sen. Tom Cotton sparred with Attorney General Merrick Garland and called for his resignation during an intense exchange at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.

The back-and-forth concerned a memo that Garland issued on October 4, in which he directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to meet with state and local officials to address an increase in threats against public school officials.

Republicans have characterized the memo as an attempt by the Department of Justice to prevent parents from expressing concerns at local school board meetings, some of which have grown increasingly heated and even violent over issues like teaching race in the classroom, policies for transgender students, and COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates.

Cotton reiterated the GOP talking point on Wednesday by linking a prominent report of an alleged sexual assault at a school in Loudoun County, Virginia, to Garland's directive.

Garland responded that the reported rape is "the most horrific crime I can imagine" and that parents are "certainly entitled and protected by the First Amendment to protest to their school board about that."

Garland then added that Cotton's framing of his memo was "wrong" before being cut off by the Arkansas Republican.

"This is shameful. This testimony, your directive, your performance is shameful. Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court," Cotton said, referring to Garland's 2016 nomination for the bench by former President Barack Obama, which Senate Republicans blocked at the time.

"You should resign in disgrace, judge," Cotton added.

Garland tried to clarify that the DOJ wants to prevent threats of violence against school officials, not to stop parents from speaking up at school board meetings.

"I wish if senators were concerned about this, they would quote my words. This memorandum is not about parents being able to object in their school boards," Garland said. "They are protected by the First Amendment, as long as there are no threats of violence, they are completely protected. So parents can object to their school boards about curriculum, about the treatment of their children, about school policies, all of that is 100 percent protected by the First Amendment and there is nothing in this memorandum contrary to that."

Besides Cotton, several other Republicans at the hearing ripped into the memo. The committee's ranking member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, pressed Garland to revoke it.

Garland defended his directive, saying it "responds to concerns about violence, threats of violence, other criminal conduct.

"That's all it's about and all it asks is for federal law enforcement to consult with, meet with, local law enforcement to assess the circumstances, strategize about what may or may not be necessary to provide federal assistance if it is necessary," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-sen-tom-cotton-erupts-at-attorney-general-merrick-garland-thank-god-you-are-not-on-the-supreme-court/ar-AAQ1H8j

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LOL!

Al Sharpton to meet with Biden as approval ratings plummet

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@ManOfTruth,

Manoftruth wrote:

Could you add a little more to what you're saying here so that I get a better sense of what you mean?

The progressives virtue signal how they're "good people" simply for the sake of optics. They don't actually care one iota about any minority group. If they did, they'd be bussing these illegal immigrant invaders into Barack Obama's neighborhood in Martha's Vineyard instead of into working class areas to take jobs from folks who need them.

Accurately knowing the inner motives of other individuals is, in my view not possible, though some, perhaps risky, generalizations can be inferred from an analysis of history. I have learned in my life to appreciate the complexity of human nature, and to recognize that everyone has his/her story and the perspectives that result from that experience. I believe people are far more often wrong-headed or ill-informed, than evil and conspiratorial, and have learned the benefit of giving others the benefit of the doubt, when judgments must be made.

History is replete with then popular social and political movements that ended up doing a lot of of harm. From the children's and Albigensians crusades of the early 13th Century to the French revolution and the rise of Marxist movements in the 20th century, a great deal of suffering has been inflicted on large numbers of people by others who loudly proclaimed their good intentions and promised benefits to all that were never achieved. The leaders of these movements were a mixed lot. Some like Robespierre, Lenin, Stalin and Hitler were likely evil at the core, but many, perhaps most, others rationalized their assent and support as a "necessary" way to reach a higher goal. All however suppressed the freedom and destroyed the lives of many others in efforts that led only to suffering, poverty and tyranny for all. To what extent all these people fully recognized what they were doing is very hard to know. Many probably believed it all for a while until the sad reality took over. I know from experience that human powers of rationalizing bad things, seen by them as advantageous, are very great. This affects us all, and people everywhere are subject to such convenient self delusions.

Today we see people who should know better seeking to improve the lives of others by suppressing their freedom, economic initiative through government operated programs ( in many cases managed by themselves) with a consistently poor track record of living up to their promises. Is this evil or merely self-serving delusion? Hard to know the answer. But when there is any doubt, my bet is on convenient self-delusion. .

1 Reply

@georgeob1,

Quote:

Today we see people who should know better seeking to improve the lives of others by suppressing their freedom, economic initiative through government operated programs ( in many cases managed by themselves) with a consistently poor track record of living up to their promises. Is this evil or merely self-serving delusion?

Thank you for clarifying what you were saying. I agree with you. A lot of these people think that what they're doing is for the betterment of society. It all comes down to differing values. Nevertheless, they are infringing upon the freedoms that this country was founded on, and that makes them a threat to every honest, taxpaying citizen. The Nazis also believed that what they were doing was for a just cause.

I would argue that there are exceptions that are demonstrably evil and not just misguided. Hillary Clinton has had God knows how many people murdered including Epstein. All for the sake of gaining power. Obama would definitly fall into the same category, as he has flagrantly trampled upon any and all reasonable examples of what would be considered human virtues, and for all likelihood is currently breaking the law by operating as a shadow president to enact his agenda with an illegal proxy third term.

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@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Quote:
It is an objective FACT that Biden's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the worst foreign incident in the history of the U.S., and it has been documented as such widely.
Can I beg you (and others) to refrain from quoting this idiot. Read him if you wish (though I don't know why you would other than from a sociological or psychological curiosity) but what he writes is mostly just pollution.

Do you believe that such obvious efforts to silence the voices of those with whom you disagree are either in keeping with the expressed values of this web site or even with basic fair play? You have done this here before and appear to make a frequent practice here of trying to suppress voices of which you merely disapprove. That is hardly up to the standards of objective intellectual discourse which you so often express.

2 Replies

@georgeob1,

Quote:

Do you believe that such obvious efforts to silence the voices of those with whom you disagree are either in keeping with the expressed values of this web site or even with basic fair play?

The authoritarian left cares nothing about fairness. The moderators here close each and every topic I start. The only way that the left can "win", is by handicapping and silencing their opponents, because their ideas simply don't stand up to scrutiny on their own merit. Why do you think the sitting president of the U.S. was banned from social media? Why are conservatives constantly banned from social media?

Quote:

That is hardly up to the standards of objective intellectual discourse which you so often express

It's not even that they are just hypocrites. What the authoritarian left does is to purposely accuse others of doing what they, in fact, are guilty of. It's a well documented phenomenon. Just look at the famous video clip of Hillary boasting about how the democrats should dig their heels in and contest the results if Trump won in 2020.

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@Frank Apisa,

Frank Apisa wrote:

[Yeah, we are. But, since the alternative was more of Trump, I consider us lucky to have them. And if it hurts the Dems, I guess they will have to take the hit. Life is not fair.

Quote:
I'm glad to see what appears to have been an awakening to the reality of the present Administration on your part.

I've been here right along, George. I always realized that while Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not perfect, they are a universe better than more of Trump. Why do you think that is something that happened recently?

Thanks for the candid response, Frank. You just might be a good guy (or "worth a ****" in the carrier squadron lexicon I remember so fondly and well).

Hard to tell whether your animosity is focused on Trump or "Conservative Republicans" …. or perhaps both.

Politics only rarely offers us choices between unvarnished good and evil. Mostly we see Better and Worse. I was initially ( during the Primary) repelled by Trump's vulgarity and personal attacks on his opponents. However I later decided (rightly I firmly believe) was a far Better Bet than Hillary. Events later (in my view) proved me right as Trump went on to address serious real issues that were affecting the welfare of our country, achieving significant success in the process. He tamed a growing and long-standing problem on our southern border, significantly stimulated economic growth and energy independence (while reducing our CO2 emissions by relatively more than any signatory of the ill-conceived Rome Treaty, by replacing coal with natural gas for electrical power production, and addressed an alarming decline in American manufacturing capability. We led the world in the timely creation of effective COVID vaccines largely as a result of his initiatives in stimulating and accelerating private sector initiatives.

Effective leaders are not always likeable people in the conventional sense, and many likeable people often turn out to be very poor Leaders. I believe those in leadership should be judged on the basis of the results they achieve in protecting the interests of those they serve. At one time that was the clear rule in the Navy. Sadly much of that is now gone.

Based on that standard Trump did a lot better than ole Joe is doing now. Apart from a few economically destructive Executive Orders, gross misjudgments in National Security Affairs, and a growing cadre of breathtakingly incompetent appointees, he's so far accomplished nothing. It's a sad spectacle watching this declining old man shuffle to and from whatever podium is before him, irritably scolding us all for our bad behavior, while assiduously avoiding any unscripted encounter with the press. It's sadder still for our country.

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So why haven't all the BLM vandals been arrested for all the statues they vandalized last year? Including statues of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.

Oh, I know why this man was arrested, but BLM wasn't. And you do too. It's "An act of hate" to vandalize a statue honoring a drug addict criminal, LOL!

'An act of hate': Actor charged with vandalizing of George Floyd statue in New York City

A man has been arrested after he was accused of defacing a bronze statue of George Floyd in New York City this month.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/an-act-of-hate-actor-charged-with-vandalizing-of-george-floyd-statue-in-new-york-city/ar-AAQ3MAo?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

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