Today, President Joe Biden congratulated the people of India on their 75th anniversary of independence, calling out the relationship between “our great democracies” and “our shared commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity.”
Yes. India was always an experiment in democracy, vulnerable to internal conflicts and self contradictions. Instead of preserving the ideals which drove its overthrow of British tyranny and being an exemplary contrast to its enemies, India has become more like them - a violently racist right wing religious extremist state with an authoritarian executive, a corrupt judiciary, and a legislature dominated by the craven, cowardly, and complicit. With a lot of flag waving to hide a myriad of sins. Oh, wait.
Here at home, our flag has been appropriated by those violently opposed to the virtues it is meant to symbolize. The majority of Americans oppose today's Republican party agenda, but disproportionate power distribution - perpetrated by the constitutional errors of two senators from each state no matter its population and of the electoral college, as well as later injustices such as the filibuster, gerrymandering, and the Leonard Leo Federalist Society corruption of the Supreme Court - make the struggle almost impossibly difficult for democratic minded citizens to prevail.
The Republican Party is developing a new name for itself: the Denier Party. They deny the elections are fair. They deny climate change. They want to deny the American people of their social safety nets of Social Security and Medicare. They have denied women their rights - reproductive rights, right to privacy, right from undue search and seizure, and even the right to life itself. They want to deny LGBTQ the right to marry who they choose and love. They are denying child care support for families working two jobs to make ends meet. They are denying people like my sister with Type 1 diabetes affordable insulin. Let's deny all of them the right to represent us at any level - local, state or federal. Let's deny them our vote. We, the People, united shall not be defeated!
With each day comes a new shocking Trump revelation. It's like a plot to a political thriller that's escaped the novelist's mind and mutated so bizarrely that it nearly defies comprehension. Basically, Trump who claims the election was a hoax has been paying people to, in some cases, copy voting data that they weren't authorized to examine.
And why in the hell is anyone from the private sector allowed to tap into any state or county's election system on behalf of the losing candidate? Who knows what else might have been done. It all adds up to another attack on democracy.
Heather writes: "Trump’s lawyers paid computer experts to copy data from election systems in Georgia. The breach was successful and significant, although authorities maintain the machines can be secured before the next election."
Read WashPo article to which it refers, cited in Heather's notes. WOW! Virtually no fraud in voting, but amazing amount of attempted fraud after voting by Trumpers!
Edited to correct per Mike S. Thanks for correcting me, Mike.
Heather, I love that you've been publishing your Letters "early" rather than in the wee hours. I hope this means your getting some decent shut eye.
"Today, President Joe Biden congratulated the people of India on their 75th anniversary of independence, calling out the relationship between “our great democracies” and “our shared commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity.”
Your opening paragraph displays the ways in which we praise independence on one hand but condone racism, bigotry, religious intolerance, and feminicide on the other. Biden's words reflect a strangely blind perspective with regard to the realities of "law and order" in India, a country in which women and girls can be gang raped on a train or in the street, then, if she lives, is cast out by her family. Where Muslims are attacked by Hindus. We need to hold all of our leaders accountable for the language used to describe such concepts as "commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity.” And isn't it funny, that we have reached a point in our own country where "the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity" are quickly falling by the wayside for millions and millions of US Americans?
the reality in our own country as Mike S rightly pointed out:
"such concepts as "commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity [have] always [been] denied from certain groups from the very origin of “our” country in 1619. And, for the most part, continue to be “fallen by the wayside”.
'...the news today is full not of the defense of democracy, but of those trying to overthrow it.' (Letter)
The determination of Trump, the Republican Party, along with major Donors to overthrow the government of United States of America -- about that, there is no doubt. Remember, connected to the BIG LIES, are the efforts to overturn Joe Biden's presidential victory, limit access to voting and nullify election results, along with whatever Trump may have already done with the classified government documents that he wouldn't turn over. Our rights are being decided away and not by us; books are being banned and political violence isn't in the air (at least not yet) but it is on the ground.
Salman Rushdie is not silent about the subjugation of the people.
"How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.”
"Memory is a way of telling you what's important to you."
"Free speech is life itself."
"There is no such thing as perfect security, only varying levels of insecurity."
"When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy."
"Fundamentalism isn’t about religion, it’s about power."
Salman Rushdie is addressing us all. If We don't protect our rights, who will?
Now let us consider Kash Patel, aide to Devin Nunes then Pentagon chief of staff to honcho Christopher Miller. Patel and Miller are implicated in obstructing deployment of National Guard troops on Jan 6 - and they are among Trump appointees whose Jan 6 text messages have been disappeared. In June, as the DOJ was closing in, Trump appointed Patel one of his official representatives to the National Archives for access to his presidential records. Patel has been peddling the declassified lie (which the Heritage Society has amplified as 'it doesn't matter that there is no evidence as long as Trump thought of declassifying them.') Oh, and Patel's published a children's book peddling the GOP Big Lie - The Plot Against the King. You can't make this stuff up.
On one side of the balance we have landmark legislation across the spectrum of domestic issues, international cooperation in action against Russian hegemony and highly visible evidence for crimes against our democratic institutions through the 1/6 committee and suggested through federal search warrants, subpoenas and hopefully, soon, indictments. On the other side of the balance we have significant traction by the MAGA acolytes across many state and congressional primary winners heading to the general election. The munitions are piling up in anticipation of a full frontal assault on, and defense of democracy in November's election, followed promptly by many declarations of intent to jump into the ring for the 2024 election. These are dramatic and consequential times for our nation. I am hoping and praying that decent Americans of all stripes will see through the barrage of money and campaign messages (alternate facts, fake news, pure wacko anti-democratic platforms, proposed exertion of power against the republic) and do something very simple; vote down the Big Lie and those who endorse it. I doubt there are many who believe that conservative values have no seat at the table in government. I'm confident that a robust majority of the electorate also believes that truth matters and that legislative debate and compromise in the interest of the American people is what the founding fathers meant for Congress, the Senate and all the colonies that became states as well as future states down the decades and centuries to follow. What will destroy our 220+ year experiment in governance by the people will be apathy and low voter turnout. We have an amazing set of events and issues that should serve to galvanize the electorate. May we have eye-popping, unbelievable voter turnout this November as well as a finely honed, aggressive attack on the political misinformation abounding through our media. Ideas matter, people matter. We need better than TV personalities and professional athletes representing us in Washington DC. We need serious, sober individuals who fully intend to swear to defend the constitution, irrespective of where they stand on the political spectrum.
We've gone in less than a human lifetime - 77 years - from being the country that saved the world on August 15, 1945, to the country that is potentially the greatest threat to that victory if a man accused by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of "supporting those beliefs we fought against" and his followers are successful this November.
I’m glad you took a break and I’m especially glad you are back today. None of this was covered in the news. Thank you so much for teaching us and keeping us aware.
Should we believe that all the classified documents in tfg's possession have been recovered?
Also, I would be happy to hear DOJ state that they will handle the Trump case like all other ongoing investigations. Enough "exceptionalism." It's ruining this country.
If the National Guard has not been compromised by election-deniers, I'd like to see The Arrest made. Whenever it comes, it is going to provoke violence, so to me the real question is whether the violence can be contained and extinguished, instance by instance.
I am very concerned for the upcoming mid terms about the integrity of the voting machines that were breached or potentially breached in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona! It has been previously stated that once breached, it is not feasible to attempt to "reprogram" them for accurate use. This really needs to be a priority for replacement. The expense, though large, is minimal compared to the negative impact if those machines are compromised and recounts are demanded, as they should be. Do those states have paper ballots for a recount/backup? A stitch in time saves nine...
On Rachel’s broadcast tonight she spoke of Flynn being under investigation as the 45 was adding him to his cabinet. Didn’t President Obama warn the 45 that he should NOT hire him for any position?
Yes. India was always an experiment in democracy, vulnerable to internal conflicts and self contradictions. Instead of preserving the ideals which drove its overthrow of British tyranny and being an exemplary contrast to its enemies, India has become more like them - a violently racist right wing religious extremist state with an authoritarian executive, a corrupt judiciary, and a legislature dominated by the craven, cowardly, and complicit. With a lot of flag waving to hide a myriad of sins. Oh, wait.
Here at home, our flag has been appropriated by those violently opposed to the virtues it is meant to symbolize. The majority of Americans oppose today's Republican party agenda, but disproportionate power distribution - perpetrated by the constitutional errors of two senators from each state no matter its population and of the electoral college, as well as later injustices such as the filibuster, gerrymandering, and the Leonard Leo Federalist Society corruption of the Supreme Court - make the struggle almost impossibly difficult for democratic minded citizens to prevail.
The Republican Party is developing a new name for itself: the Denier Party. They deny the elections are fair. They deny climate change. They want to deny the American people of their social safety nets of Social Security and Medicare. They have denied women their rights - reproductive rights, right to privacy, right from undue search and seizure, and even the right to life itself. They want to deny LGBTQ the right to marry who they choose and love. They are denying child care support for families working two jobs to make ends meet. They are denying people like my sister with Type 1 diabetes affordable insulin. Let's deny all of them the right to represent us at any level - local, state or federal. Let's deny them our vote. We, the People, united shall not be defeated!
They may yet bring the Trump crime family to justice...
With each day comes a new shocking Trump revelation. It's like a plot to a political thriller that's escaped the novelist's mind and mutated so bizarrely that it nearly defies comprehension. Basically, Trump who claims the election was a hoax has been paying people to, in some cases, copy voting data that they weren't authorized to examine.
And why in the hell is anyone from the private sector allowed to tap into any state or county's election system on behalf of the losing candidate? Who knows what else might have been done. It all adds up to another attack on democracy.
Heather writes: "Trump’s lawyers paid computer experts to copy data from election systems in Georgia. The breach was successful and significant, although authorities maintain the machines can be secured before the next election."
Read WashPo article to which it refers, cited in Heather's notes. WOW! Virtually no fraud in voting, but amazing amount of attempted fraud after voting by Trumpers!
Please to all news outlets and interested parties, leave the DOJ alone to do their job! Unsealing the affidavit would play into Tr’s hands.
We have ALL been waiting for just this! Patience …
Edited to correct per Mike S. Thanks for correcting me, Mike.
Heather, I love that you've been publishing your Letters "early" rather than in the wee hours. I hope this means your getting some decent shut eye.
"Today, President Joe Biden congratulated the people of India on their 75th anniversary of independence, calling out the relationship between “our great democracies” and “our shared commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity.”
Your opening paragraph displays the ways in which we praise independence on one hand but condone racism, bigotry, religious intolerance, and feminicide on the other. Biden's words reflect a strangely blind perspective with regard to the realities of "law and order" in India, a country in which women and girls can be gang raped on a train or in the street, then, if she lives, is cast out by her family. Where Muslims are attacked by Hindus. We need to hold all of our leaders accountable for the language used to describe such concepts as "commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity.” And isn't it funny, that we have reached a point in our own country where "the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity" are quickly falling by the wayside for millions and millions of US Americans?
the reality in our own country as Mike S rightly pointed out:
"such concepts as "commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity [have] always [been] denied from certain groups from the very origin of “our” country in 1619. And, for the most part, continue to be “fallen by the wayside”.
'...the news today is full not of the defense of democracy, but of those trying to overthrow it.' (Letter)
The determination of Trump, the Republican Party, along with major Donors to overthrow the government of United States of America -- about that, there is no doubt. Remember, connected to the BIG LIES, are the efforts to overturn Joe Biden's presidential victory, limit access to voting and nullify election results, along with whatever Trump may have already done with the classified government documents that he wouldn't turn over. Our rights are being decided away and not by us; books are being banned and political violence isn't in the air (at least not yet) but it is on the ground.
Salman Rushdie is not silent about the subjugation of the people.
"How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.”
"Memory is a way of telling you what's important to you."
"Free speech is life itself."
"There is no such thing as perfect security, only varying levels of insecurity."
"When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy."
"Fundamentalism isn’t about religion, it’s about power."
Salman Rushdie is addressing us all. If We don't protect our rights, who will?
Now let us consider Kash Patel, aide to Devin Nunes then Pentagon chief of staff to honcho Christopher Miller. Patel and Miller are implicated in obstructing deployment of National Guard troops on Jan 6 - and they are among Trump appointees whose Jan 6 text messages have been disappeared. In June, as the DOJ was closing in, Trump appointed Patel one of his official representatives to the National Archives for access to his presidential records. Patel has been peddling the declassified lie (which the Heritage Society has amplified as 'it doesn't matter that there is no evidence as long as Trump thought of declassifying them.') Oh, and Patel's published a children's book peddling the GOP Big Lie - The Plot Against the King. You can't make this stuff up.
Special rung in Hell for Patel, kids!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/15/trump-fbi-search-solomon-patel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kash_Patel
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/03/us/politics/jan-6-pentagon-texts.html
On one side of the balance we have landmark legislation across the spectrum of domestic issues, international cooperation in action against Russian hegemony and highly visible evidence for crimes against our democratic institutions through the 1/6 committee and suggested through federal search warrants, subpoenas and hopefully, soon, indictments. On the other side of the balance we have significant traction by the MAGA acolytes across many state and congressional primary winners heading to the general election. The munitions are piling up in anticipation of a full frontal assault on, and defense of democracy in November's election, followed promptly by many declarations of intent to jump into the ring for the 2024 election. These are dramatic and consequential times for our nation. I am hoping and praying that decent Americans of all stripes will see through the barrage of money and campaign messages (alternate facts, fake news, pure wacko anti-democratic platforms, proposed exertion of power against the republic) and do something very simple; vote down the Big Lie and those who endorse it. I doubt there are many who believe that conservative values have no seat at the table in government. I'm confident that a robust majority of the electorate also believes that truth matters and that legislative debate and compromise in the interest of the American people is what the founding fathers meant for Congress, the Senate and all the colonies that became states as well as future states down the decades and centuries to follow. What will destroy our 220+ year experiment in governance by the people will be apathy and low voter turnout. We have an amazing set of events and issues that should serve to galvanize the electorate. May we have eye-popping, unbelievable voter turnout this November as well as a finely honed, aggressive attack on the political misinformation abounding through our media. Ideas matter, people matter. We need better than TV personalities and professional athletes representing us in Washington DC. We need serious, sober individuals who fully intend to swear to defend the constitution, irrespective of where they stand on the political spectrum.
We've gone in less than a human lifetime - 77 years - from being the country that saved the world on August 15, 1945, to the country that is potentially the greatest threat to that victory if a man accused by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of "supporting those beliefs we fought against" and his followers are successful this November.
That's quite an accomplishment.
I’m glad you took a break and I’m especially glad you are back today. None of this was covered in the news. Thank you so much for teaching us and keeping us aware.
Should we believe that all the classified documents in tfg's possession have been recovered?
Also, I would be happy to hear DOJ state that they will handle the Trump case like all other ongoing investigations. Enough "exceptionalism." It's ruining this country.
If the National Guard has not been compromised by election-deniers, I'd like to see The Arrest made. Whenever it comes, it is going to provoke violence, so to me the real question is whether the violence can be contained and extinguished, instance by instance.
Criminal indictment....go get him Merrick!
I am very concerned for the upcoming mid terms about the integrity of the voting machines that were breached or potentially breached in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona! It has been previously stated that once breached, it is not feasible to attempt to "reprogram" them for accurate use. This really needs to be a priority for replacement. The expense, though large, is minimal compared to the negative impact if those machines are compromised and recounts are demanded, as they should be. Do those states have paper ballots for a recount/backup? A stitch in time saves nine...
On Rachel’s broadcast tonight she spoke of Flynn being under investigation as the 45 was adding him to his cabinet. Didn’t President Obama warn the 45 that he should NOT hire him for any position?