What I learned about America and Covid from a cruise vacation and its aftermath
Today is Wednesday, March 30, 2022. After returning from an eight-day Caribbean cruise on Sunday I began to get flu-like symptoms. I took a rapid Covid-19 at home on Monday morning. It was positive. I don’t know if any of you have taken this test, but there are some very specific directions; one is to not read any results until the 15-minute requisite time frame is completed. For this particular test, the positive result is identified by a red bar on the test strip. Mine turned red almost immediately. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, I waited, hoping that at 14:30 into the time frame, the red bar would start disappearing. No such luck. A PCR test I took yesterday will double confirm. Until then, I’m quarantining at home, coughing and NyQuilling away
I came out of the cruise with two take-aways: 1) Covid is still with us, so don’t let down your guard. I did, and am suffering the consequences; and 2) There are lots, and I mean lots, of Trump supporters out there. And they will not back down on their belief that their man is possibly not only the greatest president, but perhaps the greatest man of all time.
Needless to say, I listened when conversations veered into politics (“…boy, that DeSantis is doing a great job in Florida…”), or the Russian invasion of Ukraine (“…if Trump was president this wouldn’t have happened…”) or January 6 and the election (“…Trump won, the election was stolen, stop the steal…”) and didn’t engage.
I left my liberal bubble when I moved from Northern California in 2018. Palm Beach County is not deep blue, but it is blue. Most of my friends are like-minded on almost every issue of importance. Outside south Florida, the state, led by a “faux” right-wing, deceitful, presidential wanna-be governor is, if not deep red, red none-the-less. (I say “faux” because like many of his Ivy League educated youngish, Republican politicians, it is difficult to know whether he believes in the garbage he spews and the laws he signs or if he does it for only one purpose – his own political gain.)
My quarantine is allowing me to watch and read the news even more than usual, if that is actually possible. And, this morning I heard a news item that was so incredible, it actually stopped my coughing in its tracks.
As reported by CNN (and other news outlets)
In a new interview published Tuesday, former President Donald Trump called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release any damaging information he has about the Biden family, in a brazen request for domestic political assistance from America’s top adversary.
It’s the latest example of Trump’s willingness to solicit and embrace domestic political help from foreign powers – even from Putin, who is currently overseeing a bloody war against Ukraine.
In an interview with “JustTheNews,” [a far-right media news site] Trump pushed an unproven claim about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Russia, and asked Putin to release any information that he might have about the situation. It’s not clear that any material exists, or if the Kremlin has access to it.
Just weeks after praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for his “savvy,” and “genius” for his unprovoked attack on Ukraine, the FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, more specifically, the MOST RECENT FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, the FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES who, while president, attempted to extort Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelinsky to provide dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the weaponry that Zelinsky needed to thwart a potential Russian attack,that FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is pandering and reaching out to a man conducting an illegal, bloody, brutal war against a sovereign country and, in so doing is, along with his commanders and enablers, perpetrating what will unquestionably be considered war crimes and crimes against humanity when this war is over.
Oh, to be back on board that ship, if only to listen to what my Trump-loving shipmates are saying in defense of their hero. But why go back on the ship to find out since I know that they’ll simply be parroting what Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Marjorie Taylor Greene and their ilk say?
Kind of makes you want to…quarantine yourself until it’s over. I’m just not sure what “it” is, or how I will know if “it’s over.”
When you combine the reprehensible conduct of GOP senators, with the total deceit of the court Judge Jackson is striving to be on, one wonders, should SCOTUS stand for:
Shameful Court of the United States?
(Note: This is a longer than usual story. But it is also a more important than usual story. If you can, stay until the end; that’s where the shamefulness of the Court, as opposed to the shamefulness of the process, kicks in.)
We have just witnessed the ugliest, most despicable, disgraceful and frankly racist hearing for a Supreme Court nominee in our lifetime…or at least in our recent memory.
L-R, Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh
Yes, I know the Robert Bork hearings in 1987 gave birth to a new verb, “borked.” The 1991 hearings for Clarence Thomas made the news because both the term “Long Dong Silver” and the words, “’Who put pubic hair on my Coke?” were entered into the Congressional Record for the first, and hopefully, the last time. And of course, Lindsey Graham went apoplectic in 2018 when his favorite “frat boy cum judge, Brett Kavanaugh, was questioned about credible accusations of his past instances of sexual harassment. (Of course, it doesn’t take much to induce Graham’s apoplexy. More on both the senior senator from South Carolina and the now longest serving associate justice Thomas later in this story.)
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
No, the confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson top them all.
Why?
Because the opposition to her by the Republicans on the Judicial Committee had nothing to do with the Judge herself. It had nothing to do with her character. And, it had nothing to do with her judicial credentials, which judged by an independent, non-partisan report of an American Bar Association panel, are impeccable. (Just to show how venal, pig-headed and just plain rude and discourteous the GOP members of the Committee are, not one of them attended the testimony from witnesses attesting to Judge Jackson’s qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court). It only had to do with the fact that she was nominated by a Democratic president, Joe Biden.
Let me just call out a few of the attacks from these senators.
Josh Hawley
Josh Hawley encouraging January 6 insurrectionists
The Stanford/Yale educated junior senator from Missouri did his best to “show me” and just about everyone else, why he could be in the top 10 of the most dangerous people in America. As Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post wrote,
How desperate can you get? This desperate: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is pushing the argument that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is dangerously soft on sex offenders, child pornographers in particular. “I’ve noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children,” Hawley tweeted. “I’m concerned that this [is] a record that endangers our children.”
Fact-checkers quickly dismantled Hawley’s nonsense. The Associated Press said the senator’s claims “don’t stand up to scrutiny.” Fact-check reports from the Washington Post and CNN came to the same conclusion. Vox’s Ian Millhiser described Hawley’s attempted smear “genuinely nauseating.” In the National Review, a leading conservative publication, Andrew McCarthy concluded that Hawley’s allegation “appears meritless to the point of demagoguery.” And the Wall Street Journal report added that the senator’s tweets on the subject :were criticized by people across the ideological spectrum who said Mr. Hawley’s commentary lacked context, misconstrued Judge Jackson’s conduct and writings, and created a false dichotomy between protecting children and adhering to outdated sentencing guidelines that were unduly harsh.”
I guess with both the National Review and the Wall Street Journal jumping on the Josh Hawley is full of “**it” bandwagon, he and his allies can’t claim it’s the “lame-stream, radical left-wing media” taking him to task.
Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz holding a book while questioning Judge Jackson, “Do you agree with this book that is being taught to kids that babies are racist?” (I did not make this up!)
The most hated man in the Senate (a view shared by both his Republican and Democratic ‘colleagues’)* Texas’ junior senator was equally vile.
*To substantiate the most hated man in the Senate claim, this from GOP Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska referring to his fellow Republican committee member: “I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities.”
As the commentator Jeff Greenfield wrote in Politico,
…his performance at the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearings was fully in character: a demagogic, bad-faith effort on Tuesday to imply that she would bring a racially focused agenda to the Supreme Court, coupled with a “soft on child pornographers” assault today.
Cruz repeatedly asked her to explain her sentencing of child porn offenders, interrupting Jackson multiple times while she was responding to his questions.
“Why did you sentence someone who had child pornography … to 28 months — 64% below what the prosecutors asked for?” Cruz asked.
Judge Jackson responded by saying, that Cruz had picked a few cases out of her entire sentencing record to pursue his argument.
The pushback on Cruz was quick. Fact-checkers have pointed out that at least two Federal appeals court judges, Trump appointees, had each previously sentenced defendants convicted of possessing child pornography to prison terms well below federal guidelines at the time they were confirmed.
And, Doug Berman, a leading expert on sentencing law and policy at the Ohio State University School of Law, opined, “If and when we properly contextualize Judge Jackson’s sentencing record in federal child porn cases, it looks pretty mainstream.”
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham – no comment necessary.
Lest you were worried I forgot, let me report on Lindsey Graham, the very red, very angry, “rhubarb” on the top of the GOP upside down cake. As the New York Times reported,
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson got into the most heated exchange of Wednesday morning after the senator revived a line of attack on the judge’s sentencing record in cases involving images of child sexual abuse.
Frequently interrupting Judge Jackson’s attempts to answer questions, Graham ended his angry tirade with this.
We are trying to get people to stop this crap [child pornography]. All I can say is that your view on how to deter child pornography is not my view. I think you are doing it wrong, and every judge who does what you are doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited.
Which prompted this response from Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the Senate’s most senior member who called Graham’s performance “beyond the pale,” telling reporters, “I’m just distressed to see this kind of a complete breakdown of what’s normally the way the Senate’s handled.”
Closing out his potentially Oscar-worthy performance, which The Daily Beast, called a “festivus” of grievance, Graham stormed out of the hearing, melting down after a line of questioning over his desire for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to remain open indefinitely.
To this point, everything I’ve written is simply the bizarre, unbecoming “circus car” the Senate, “the world’s most deliberative body,” has become. Fortunately, with Joe Manchin indicating his support for Judge Jackson this morning, unless “wild card” Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona goes off the rails (not totally out of the question), Judge Jackson will be confirmed by at least 50-50 + Vice President Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
There is, however, one SCOTUS issue that needs to be addressed and addressed seriously and immediately.
One of Senator Cruz’s questions to Judge Jackson involved an upcoming case challenging the race-conscious admissions policy Harvard University uses to increase its number of Black and Hispanic students. Both Cruz and Jackson are Harvard Law School graduates and Jackson is also a current member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers.
“If you’re confirmed, do you intend to recuse from this lawsuit?” Cruz, who attended Harvard Law School at the same time as Jackson, asked
“That is my plan, senator,” Jackson responded.
Not an unreasonable question from Cruz; not an unreasonable response from Jackson.
Except for this.
The Washington Post reported this morning,
Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.
The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.
Here’s a link to the article where you can read the details of Virginia Thomas’ advanced “nut-case” symptoms.
What she and Meadows did, as horrible as it is, is not at issue here. That they are both right-wing crazies is what it is.
But what’s at play here is the fact that Mark Meadows, White House Chief of Staff, and Ginni Thomas, THE WIFE OF A SITTING JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT were the players in this episode.
And, if that isn’t bad enough, In February 2021, when the Supreme Court rejected election challenges filed by Trump and his allies, Thomas not only didn’t recuse himself, he wrote in a dissent that it was “baffling” and “inexplicable” that the majority had decided against hearing the cases because he believed the Supreme Court should provide states with guidance for future elections. THE VOTE WAS 8-1 WITH THOMAS THE ONLY DISSENTING VOTE!
Unlike all other federal judges, the justices of the Supreme Court are not subject to a code of ethical conduct. Recusal from a case is determined by the individual justice and no explanation to recuse or not is required.
So, kudos to Judge Jackson for her honorable position. And a Bronx cheer to Justice Thomas for his refusal to recuse when he was in an obvious situation to do so.
With SCOTUS confirmation hearings more like a circus and the Justices themselves left to their own ethical standards, do you agree with me that from now on, SCOTUS should stand for,Shameful Court of the United States?
Around the Block and Heather Cox Richardson unpack Republican amnesia and deceitfulness
Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and professor of history at Boston College. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In her spare time Professor Richardson publishes a daily email newsletter, Letters from an American. Her most recent column began,
Right on cue, Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana today told a reporter that states not only should decide the issue of abortion but should also be able to decide the issues of whether interracial marriage should be legal and whether couples should have access to contraception. He told a reporter: ‘Well, you can list a whole host of issues, when it comes down to whatever they are, I’m going to say that they’re not going to all make you happy within a given state, but we’re better off having states manifest their points of view rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did.’
According Professor Richardson, Braun walked back what he had said after “extraordinary” backlash.
The newsletter gave me pause for two reasons.
First, I was shocked, shocked that a Republican politician, after making what, for all intents and purposes, was an asinine statement, disavowed it, in this case because “he had misunderstood the question!” Yeah, right!
Second, and more importantly, Braun is a member of the so-called “Party of Lincoln.” The (not so) Grand Old Party is very proud of its Lincoln heritage. But do you think that Braun “thought*” for a minute whether the words, “but we’re better off having states manifest their points of view rather than homogenizing it across the country…” would have emanated from Lincoln’s mouth?
*(Is GOP think/thought a contradiction in terms?)
Lest Senator Braun and some of his like non-thinking Republican colleagues forgot, “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” there was a man, Abraham Lincoln, who was President of a land in that galaxy, the United States of America. That man, in his first inaugural address warned that the Constitution required him to make sure “the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.”
As Professor Richardson wrote recently,
Their [the southern states] determination to promote their new philosophy [the Negro is not equal to the white man] meant that the southern states insisted on states’ rights. The majority of Americans, speaking through the federal government, insisted on reining enslavement in, restricting it to the southern states where it already existed, while southern enslavers wanted to expand their “peculiar institution” to the nation’s newly acquired western lands. In white southerners’ view, federal oversight was tyranny, and true democracy meant that state legislatures should be able to do as their voters wished. So long as a majority of voters in the southern states voted for human enslavement, democracy had been served [in the minds of the South].
The Republican Party had organized in the mid-1850s to stand against this version of American democracy. Their point of view was expressed by an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln who, in discussing the overriding issue of the day in 1858, said that the government could not “endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
By the time Lincoln became President, the South had indeed tried to dissolve the Union and had indeed attempted to make the house fall and for it to become divided. The attempt to put this Union back together only began after a horrific and bloody Civil War.
Richardson:
When it [the Civil War] ended…southern state legislatures again tried to circumscribe the lives of the Black Americans who lived within their state lines. The 1865 Black Codes said that Black people couldn’t own firearms, for example, or congregate. They had to treat their white neighbors with deference and were required to sign yearlong work contracts every January or be judged vagrants, punishable by arrest and imprisonment. White employers could get them out of jail by paying their fines, but then they would have to work off their debt.
This southern intransigence led to the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 which guaranteed that “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
So how does this relate to our not-so-good Senator Braun and current events?
Richardson:
Braun walked back what he had said, claiming he had misunderstood the question saying, “Earlier during a virtual press conference I misunderstood a line of questioning that ended up being about interracial marriage, let me be clear on that issue—there is no question the Constitution prohibits discrimination of any kind based on race, that is not something that is even up for debate, and I condemn racism in any form, at all levels and by any states, entities, or individuals.”
But he had stated his position quite clearly, and as he originally stated it, that position was intellectually consistent.
After World War II, the Supreme Court used the Fourteenth Amendment to protect civil rights in the states, imposing the government’s interest in protecting equality to overrule discriminatory legislation by the states.
Now, Republicans want to return power to the states, where those who are allowed to vote can impose discriminatory laws on minorities.
It is, quite literally, the same argument that gave us the claimed right of states to enslave people within their borders before the Civil War, even as a majority of Americans objected to that system. More recently, it is the argument that made birth control illegal in many states, a restriction that endangered women’s lives and hampered their ability to participate in the workforce as unplanned pregnancies enabled employers to discriminate against them. It is the argument that prohibits abortion and gay marriage; in many states, laws with those restrictions are still on the books and will take effect just as soon as the Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges are overturned.
Think about this. If the Braun’s Party of Lincoln prevails in our upcoming “unlevel playing field” elections in 2022 and 2024, is this the country you want to live in?
I’m writing this at sea, after visiting the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire, a “special municipality” of the Netherlands proper, and subject to Netherlands law. It’s beautiful, accessible and outside the Caribbean “hurricane zone.” Maybe, just maybe, I’ve found my long sought “escape.” from Braun and his cohorts.
I’m hoping that when I return from a week at sea the world (and my Apple devices) will be in a better place.
Thank goodness I’m leaving for a week’s vacation tomorrow. Beyond the unfathomable, multiple geopolitical crises and the country’s seemingly unstoppable drift (rush?) to the uninformed, misguided, ignorant right, the last few days have been especially troubling; I need a break.
So what, you ask, put me over the edge?
Apple!
The other day, in the middle of creating a multi-media presentation for a community theater club I belong to, I discovered that my Apple/iCloud ID had to be changed. Have you, or has anyone you know, had to change their iCloud ID? Hopefully not. But, in the unlucky event you have to, and if you, like I, have multiple Apple devices, be prepared for two days of entering and reentering your new password on every device, sometimes more than once, followed by having to deal with Apple’s unweildy two-step security verification, followed by arcane messages that something you’ve never heard of is disconnected due to an iCloud ID error.
And, if all this is not frustrating enough, Apple has not yet found the wisdom to put this little icon…
next to their password entry space so, in the likely event that you mis-type you password, you could at least see the error. I think not having that icon is why I had to change my password…too many unnoticed wrong entries.
But that’s just the beginning of my Apple saga. In the midst of my multi-media presentation project, I found that a key piece of Apple installed software I required, QuickTime, would not open, crashing within nanoseconds of my pressing open. Ever user friendly, I received the following message from Apple:
Needless to say, that didn’t solve my problem so I trudged down to the Apple store to speak to a “genius.”
The closest store to me is at the chic and very large Boca Raton Town Center. I didn’t remember where the Apple store was so I entered near Bloomingdales and discovered that this very fancy mall had no directory posters or help desks. (I guess the regular Town Center devotees know where every store is by heart). And the ceiling mounted directional “call-out” signs every 10 yards or so called out every store in the mall…except the APPLE STORE! Yes, even something called, “Rex Baron” showed up on at least three signs.
Ever ingenious, I turned to my Apple iPhone and opened the Apple map walking directions to guide me to the store. The first instruction was to head “north west.” I thought, am I the only person, standing in the middle of a gigantic mall, who is not aware of which direction “north west is?” I began walking and immediately discovered, not surprisingly, that I had guessed wrong and was going the opposite way, probably “south east.” But after changing directions, the map’s guidance became more and more difficult to follow. So, in a totally uncharacteristic move, I began asking “do you know where the Apple store is,” to every mall kiosk employee. Not very macho, I know, but sometimes you got to do what you got to do.
I finally arrived at the Apple store, sweating and out of breath. I checked and my Apple Watch indicated that I had achieved 6,676 steps on my Apple journey. I was close to “closing my exercise ring!” But I digress.
My “genius,” even after consulting three of four more senior geniuses, couldn’t figure out the problem. He did suggest a inelegant work-around (what would Steve Jobs think) and I headed home wondering, what didn’t I like about Windows?
Hopefully a week away will salve my Apple wounds. And, more importantly, bring an end to Putin’s madness. But then again, I’m bringing my Mac, my iPad, my iPhone and my Apple Watch. And I don’t think the ship I’m sailing on has an Apple store. But, even if it did, I’d never find it.
Rounding the final turn, Abbott and DeSantis are neck and neck
The GOP Governors’ Derby, “The Race to the Bottom,” is rounding the last turn with Texas’ Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis neck and neck, leaving the rest of the field in the mud(slinging).
Abbot had pulled slightly ahead of DeSantis last week after issuing an order directing Texas’ health agencies to handle certain gender-affirming treatments as crimes. Abbott’s order was based on Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s (who’s in his own “AG Race to the Bottom”) determination that providing medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy could “legally constitute child abuse” under Texas law.
But Abbot couldn’t maintain the pace after a Texas judge partially blocked enforcement of his order.
Seeking an advantage with Abbott slowing down, DeSantis moved to pass him on the far right.
In an attempt to build on the momentum of his “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the Florida governor doubled down at a press conference at the University of South Florida in Tampa.*
(*It is beyond my geographic comprehension why the University of SOUTH Florida is in Tampa! Chalk it up to the Sunshine State’s stellar educational system, I guess.)
North is North and South is South, except in Florida
In a shocking display of child abuse of his own, DeSantis yelled at a bunch of students behind him for wearing masks. “You do not have to wear those masks,” he scolded them, angrily. After some of the students nervously laughed, DeSantis chided them, “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.” He then walked to his podium shaking his head in disgust.
Then, at the same press conference, the Governor sought to increase his lead over Abbott when, in praising the courage of the Ukrainian people, he said, “A lot of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there’s any type of adversity. Can you imagine if he [Putin] went into France? Would they do anything to put up a fight? Probably not.”
In an all-out attempt to win, DeSantis, had unsheathed his riding crop, whipping himself into a frenzy. The governor, a magna cum laude graduate of Yale with a degree in history (I kid you not!), apparently forgot that France is the U.S.’ oldest ally, is a member of NATO with one of Europe’s most advanced militaries and one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, and has a president, Emmanuel Macron, who in trying to engage Putin, lamented after his latest communication, “the worst is to come.”*
(*Macron had no comment regarding his last face-to-face meeting with Putin.)
The question now is, can Abbot close the gap on DeSantis? Will there be a late stretch run by a dark horse candidate like Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, whose ‘gibberish’ laden response to the State of the Union speech has moved her from a 1,000-1 shot to the middle of the pack?
Time will tell. But when it comes to “The Race to the Bottom,” my money is on the one and only, our own, Ron DeSantis.
Комментарий/Новости с изюминкой – Commentary/News with a Twist
Сказки могут стать явью, они могут случиться с тобой…
Now that I have your attention, let me explain.
In what many in the West consider a potential escalation of the unprovoked “conventional” war he has unleashed on Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his defense minister and top general, sitting at yet another table as long as a football field, to put Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces on high alert in a “special regime of combat duty.” As the generals listened, they sat motionless and stone-faced knowing that the move means the country’s nuclear weapons will now be increased to “readiness to launch.”
Putin’s rationale for taking a step closer to a nuclear confrontation?
Western leaders “making aggressive statements directed at our country.”
In other words, Putin is ratcheting up his nuclear preparedness because world leaders are saying things about him he doesn’t like.
Clearly, when Putin was only “little Vlady,” he never heard the little ditty that all kids can recite, ”…”Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me…”Which is why, in the interests of world peace, I’m translating the saying into Russian hoping that someone in his inner circle, unafraid of being assassinated, will whisper this into his ear: “Палки и камни могут сломать мне кости, но слова никогда не причинят мне вреда
Apparently however, “little Vlady” didn’t miss one thing while growing up – Russian fairy tales (Народные Русские Сказки), particularly the ones compiled by Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Александр Николаевич Афанасьев) who was considered the Russian equivalent to the Brothers Grimm.
In fact, “little Vlady” loved fairy tales so much, they’ve informed much of who he is today. Just this week, Putin used his own fairy tale to explain to the Russian public that the situation in Ukraine was not a “war” or an “invasion” but simply a limited defensive operation to ‘denazify’ a country whose president, Volodymyr Zelinsky, is Jewish.
(Wouldn’t you know it, the word describing Putin’s statement doesn’t exist in the Russian language; “ironic” is a “borrowed” word from the English: ироничный pronounced, ironichnyy)
Which explains the sub-head to this story, the Russian translation of “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you…”
Of course, that little tune concludes with “…when you’re young at heart.” Since Putin has no heart, neither young nor old, his fairy tales can never come true.
Even in times of world crisis you’ve got to step back and maintain a sense of humor.
I’m not sure if the editors of Quora Digest were chuckling when they sent out today’s subscriber email, but if they weren’t, they should have been.
I pointed out recently how there are some things that “can’t be made up.” This juxtaposition of articles is one of them.
Screenshot from Quora Digest email
Please let me know if you’d like to see the “Read more >>” answers to either, or both, questions. Based on the response, I’ll post the winning answer in a future column.
Also, although I’m not a bettor, if anyone wants to participate in an “over/under” pool on which question gets the most inquiries, please contact “teddythegreek@prodigy.net.com/you’vegotmail.”
In today’s world, a comic line has become the real world
“You can’t make this up” is an expression that comedians often use to introduce a funny bit, a bit based on a small amount of truth, that is so outrageous, so unbelievable, that you literally cannot make it up. Used sparingly, it can be a great way to communicate the incredulity of a situation. Some comedians have used similar lines; Jack Paar’s, “I kid you not,” even became part of his persona.
Lines like these can punch up a joke. Unfortunately, in our current environment I’m finding that “you can’t make this up” is more than a lead-in to a joke. Let me elaborate.
Ukrainian-Russian crisis
Donald Trump, a former president of the United Statessaid, after Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine:I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, “This is genius.” Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, “It’s independent,” a large section of Ukraine. I said, “How smart is that?” And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force… We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well. You can’t make this up!
Mike Pompeo, Trump’s secretary of state said, in the run-up to Putin’s invasion:[Putin is a] “talented,” “savvy,” “capable statesman.” “He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts. He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that.”You can’t make this up!
Russia’s president for life, Vladimir Putin, the perpetrator of the attack on Ukraine said, that he’s striving for “the demilitarization and denazification of” the sovereign democracy in Kyiv. This is a particularly jarring accusation given that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost three family members in the Holocaust. You can’t make this up!
America First Political Action Committee (AFPAC)
Over 80 years since Charles Lindbergh’s America First Committee self-destructed after Pearl Harbor, a group called AFPAC held its annual conference in Florida (where else?). AFPAC is led by 22-year old white supremacist, Nicholas Fuentes who kicked off the meeting by saying, “Our secret sauce here – it’s these young, White men,” lamenting that “the world has forgotten about them, but not us. You know, they say about America, diversity is our strength, you know? And I look at China, I look at Russia, can we give a round of applause for Russia?” To which the crowd raucously cheered, chanting “Putin, Putin.” You can’t make this up!
The special guest speaker at AFPAC was a sitting member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told the crowd, “You’ve been handed the responsibility to fight for our Constitution and stand for our freedoms, and stop the Democrats who are the communist party of the United States of America,” while additionally attacking transgender people, among others. Her speech was immediately followed by a series of virulently racist and homophobic diatribes from prominent extremists including “they want to replace you (whites),” as well as a call for the execution of Dr. Anthony Fauci for “causing the coronavirus pandemic.” You can’t make this up!
And, near and dear to my heart:
Florida’s GOP Leaders
Florida’s junior senator, Rick Scott, who while Governor claimed that he cut taxes 75 times, unveiled a series of policies under his 11-point “Rescue America” plan including a call for all Americans to pay an income tax…and then lied about it. The plan, which calls for the 50% of Americans who pay no income tax, mostly people whose income is so low they don’t meet the minimum income threshold, to pay an income tax because they need to “have skin in the game.” This despite the fact that nearly everyone, even those who don’t pay federal income tax, actually has ‘skin in the game’ by paying some form of taxes, like sales or payroll taxes. When asked by a sycophantic Sean Hannity, “I didn’t see that (a raise in taxes for 50% of Americans) in your plan. Did you have that in your plan? Was that in invisible ink in the copy that I got?” To which Scott responded, “Of course not.” Even though it was. You can’t make this up!
Florida’s senior senator, Marco Rubio equated the threat to freedom and liberty in Ukraine with the erosion of American liberty because of “cancel culture.”“These are people (Ukrainians) who are basically saying we refuse to be Putin’s slaves. We refuse to live under tyranny. We’re prepared to give our life and die for it,” adding (in getting to the point he really wanted to make), “Freedom and liberty is being threatened again (in America), but no one here is being asked to die, no one here is being asked to take up arms and defend it. We’re being asked to win elections, to speak out, to be courageous, to raise our voices, to call it out for what it is.” Rubio’s examples of the threat to freedom in America included what he described as “intolerance of certain views on college campuses,” “digital mobs” policing speech on the internet and “efforts to cancel programs such as certain podcasts.” He failed to mention GOP governors and legislatures dictating public school curricula or local school boards banning books that don’t meet their twisted views of history.You can’t make this up!
And finally, not be outdone, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee convention in Florida (where else?), focused on his COVID-19 response and culture war issues that he has championed,including banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools, outlawing so-called “sanctuary” immigration policies in Florida municipalities and a new state law targeted at protests that get out of control. “We have the opportunity to make 2022 the year that America fought back. We’re going to lead the charge here in Florida but we need people all over the country to be willing to put on that full armor of God. To stand firm against the left’s schemes. You’ll be met with flaming arrows, but the shield of faith will stop them. You will emerge victorious.” (He must of forgotten his newest pet project, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill). You can’t make this up!
In some of my posts, particularly the ones labeled “News with a Twist,” I actually make things up. Successful or not, those post are meant to be ‘satirical.’
What I’ve called out in this post are real examples of “You can’t make this up.” And, they’re dead serious. “I kid you not!
In 2022, the only thing missing from the GOP is Charles Lindbergh
In 2022 Putin’s Russia invaded a sovereign nation, Ukraine, in an unprovoked attack, after annexing part of that sovereign nation, Crimea, in 2014.
In 1939, Hitler’s Germany launched an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation, Poland, after annexing a part of another sovereign nation, the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Stalin’s Soviet Union (aka Russia) supported Germany, invading eastern Poland, until Hitler double-crossed Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union as well.
In 1939, Hirohito’s Japan supported Germany, forming, with the addition of Italy, the Axis. The result? World War II.
In 2022, Xi Jinping’s China supports Russia’s aggression in, perhaps, a pre-justification for his own attack on Taiwan. The result of Putin’s illegal actions and Xi’s support? To be determined.
There is another parallel to that history and current events: the response of the Republican Party.
In the run up to America’s entry into World War II, precipitated by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration did as much as it could to support Britain, fighting alone after the fall of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.
What was the GOP response to Roosevelt’s assistance? Led by Charles Lindbergh and his “America First” movement, it was not only to stay out of war, but to support Hitler’s aggression.
Lindbergh being awarded the Service Cross of the German Eagle
In his advocating American neutrality, Lindbergh, who was awarded the Service Cross of the German Eagle in 1938 by Hermann Göring, viewed the European conflict as a fraternal squabble between an ascendant Germany and those countries which sought to deny it a place of power and prestige. He went so far, in a speech in September 1941, three months before Pearl Harbor, to call “the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration” as “war agitators” who had used “misinformation” and “propaganda” to mislead and frighten the American public.
To be fair, there were some Democratic politicians who also opposed American involvement in the War, most notably Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler. But tellingly, the platform adopted by the Republican party at their 1940 Convention (yes, I know you’re as shocked as I am that the Republican party actually once had something as quaint as a “platform”), read,
The Republican Party is firmly opposed to involving this Nation in foreign war.
We are still suffering from the ill effects of the last World War: a war which cost us a twenty-four billion dollar increase in our national debt, billions of uncollectible foreign debts, and the complete upset of our economic system, in addition to the loss of human life and irreparable damage to the health of thousands of our boys.
We declare for the prompt, orderly and realistic building of our national defense…To this task the Republican party pledges itself when entrusted with national authority…but we deplore explosive utterances by the President directed at other governments which serve to imperil our peace; and we condemn all executive acts and proceedings which might lead to war without the authorization of the Congress of the United States.
It is important to point out, that to a great measure the Republican/America First position in 1940 was as much informed by staying out of a European conflict as by racism and anti-Semitism.
“Our bond with Europe is a bond of race, and not of political ideology,” intoned Lindbergh. “Racial strength is vital, politics is a luxury.” He urged his followers to support Germany in a common struggle against “Asiatic intruders”—Russians, Persians, Turks and Jews—who would defile America’s “most priceless possession: our inheritance of European blood.”
Doesn’t that have a kind of contemporary ring to it. I mean that could have been said today by one of Trump’s “good people.”
Joining Lindbergh in his vitriol were anti-Semites like Avery Brundage, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee at the time, who banned two Jewish runners from the track team at the Berlin games in 1936.
While in Kansas, the America First state chairman told followers that first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the leading liberal light in FDR’s White House, was Jewish that and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a “half-Jew.”
And, in an editorial titled “A Plea for Realism,” the Wall Street Journal argued in 1940 that “our job today is not to stop Hitler,” who had “already determined the broad lines of our national life at least for another generation.”
And today? Here’s what some of our Republican leading lights and their like-minded right-wing media commentators have to say (beyond criticizing Biden for everything he’s done without offering any solutions themselves):
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) pressed Biden to refrain from deploying more troops to Europe and said that Ukraine should not join NATO.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.) said, “We have no dog in the Ukraine fight. Not one American soldier should die there. Not one American bullet should be fired there. We just lost Afghanistan to sandal-wearing goat herders. I assure you [the] Russian military is no joke either.” Gosar added, “Getting involved in a military situation with no U.S. interest is America Last, not America First.” And finally, “We should just call ourselves Ukraine and then maybe we can get NATO to engage and protect our border.” Gosar had previously tweeted: “Putin puts Russia first as he should. Biden should put America first but instead he will let in terrorists and welfare seekers.”
Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance said on Steve Bannon’s podcast, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine,” going on to say “[Ukraine] has nothing to do with our national security” and it is “distracting our idiot ‘leaders’ from focusing on the things that actually do matter to our national security, like securing the border & stopping the flow of Fentanyl that’s killing American kids.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked on air, “Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine?” while repeatedly questioning why defending Ukraine is important, even asking “why the U.S. should side with them (Ukraine) and not Putin.”
Candace Owens, a prominent conservative commentator (full disclosure, prior to researching this story, I had never heard of Candace Owens and, hopefully, I’ll never hear from her again), has gone even further, openly parroting Putin’s talking points. “I suggest every American who wants to know what’s actually going on in Russia and Ukraine, read this transcript of Putin’s address. As I’ve said for month – NATO (under direction from the United States) is violating previous agreements and expanding eastward. WE are at fault.”
And [Steve] Bannon himself, along with pro-Trump commentator Jack Posobiec praised Putin’s pugilistic speech on their podcast, while Gateway Pundit, a popular hub of pro-Trump conspiracy theories and news, downplayed Russia’s aggression. “Ukraine was part of Russia for more than 300 years,” the site declared. “This is not Russian talking points.”
I’m not even going to mention the fawning and praise of Putin and his illegal actions from one former president of the United States and that former president’s secretary of state. Nor will I mention that comments like the ones I’ve called out are being used by Russia for propaganda purposes. Way to go Josh, Paul, JD, Tucker, Candace, Donald and Mike (and the many more) who Putin refers to to as his “useful idiots.” He will be forever in your debt.
So, is history repeating itself? Michael E. Ruane, writing in today’s Washington Post wondered, “Putin’s attack on Ukraine echoes Hitler’s takeover of Czechoslovakia.” How far will Putin go? And how far will we go to stop him? Only time will tell. But until then, that time will be, unfortunately, fraught.
When it comes to ignorance, mean-spiritedness and general lack of class, how low can the GOP go?
Plus a short addendum: Anti-Semitism in Marin County
I was researching and plotting out another story when the above image flashed across my screen. Although the other story was important, it was not time sensitive. Coming right after President’s Day, this one is.
Just in case you missed the nuances of this “classy” image, let me unpack it for you.
Just to be clear, this message is from the Republican National Committee’s official Twitter account. This is the same RNC that recently censured two of its own members, Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, for their participation in the Congressional January 6 Select Committee which, the RNC asserts, is ‘persecuting ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.’ You know, those ordinary citizens who attacked the Capitol of the United States in an armed insurrection.
The tweet itself was an obnoxiously, mean-spirited, self-congratulatory message featuring curiously selected, “great” [GOP] U.S. presidents.
There have been 45 presidencies (not including the current one, Joe Biden, whose term began in 2021), and 44 different individuals have served as president.* I would suggest that any president in the top 10 could be considered “great” or at least “near-great.” Based on that assessment, only three of the nine “such great U.S. presidents,” Lincoln (#1), Eisenhower (#5) and Reagan (#9) make the cut.
(*Grover Cleveland was elected to two nonconsecutive terms, and as such is considered the 22nd and 24th president of the United States.)
Interestingly, the number one ranked president, Abraham Lincoln, the “father of the Republican party,” considered almost as holy as St. Ronald of Reagan (#9), would have a hard time recognizing the party he “founded.” Remember, while the Civil War was about slavery, it was also about states rights. The Southern states wanted to assert their authority over the federal government so they could abolish federal laws they didn’t support, especially laws interfering with the South’s right to keep slaves and take them wherever they wished. On the question of states rights, the red (Republican) states now seem very much like the Southern states then, chaffing against federal laws they don’t like.
The Southern states seceded from the Union; an insurrection, if you will. Lincoln went to war over this insurrection. Republicans now? The attack against the Capitol, an insurrection against the democratic process, was fueled and encouraged by Republican office holders, including the incumbent Republican president (#41 of 44). But then again, official GOP policy is that these folks weren’t insurrectionists but “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
The RNC, by including Trump, (and, bizarrely, Calvin Coolidge[!] left out a GOP president whom presidential historians consider truly great: Theodore Roosevelt who ranks #4, just below his distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (#3).
Of course, as the GOP moves inexorably towards becoming the POT (Party Of Trump), it is also becoming the party of ignorance (historical and other) and hatred. There cannot be a better example of this than this years’ RNC President’s Day greeting.
And just to disabuse the knee-jerk right-wing accusation that the survey participants were “radical left-wing historians,” the panel consisted of over 140 academics and presidential historians from every political persuasion imaginable. Here’s the list: (https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=participants).
Short Addendum to this Post
Just as I was about to press, “publish,” yet another image flashed across my screen, in this case not simply about hatred, ignorance, and mean-spiritedness, but anti-Semitism as well.
As many readers know, I lived in Marin County California for over 43 years. Marin is one of the bluest, most liberal counties in a very blue state. It is also the home to a moderately large Jewish population. Marin has two Jewish congregations, one Reform, the other Conservative. There’s also a Chabad House, a Jewish Day School and a very active, very large, Jewish Community Center.
Novato is Marin’s northernmost city. It includes a neighborhood called Wild Horse Valley. While Novato might be considered by some, a little more politically moderate than the rest of Marin, it would never have been mentioned in the same breath as say, Montgomery or Charlottesville or Little Rock. Until this, as reported by a member of the social network, NextDoor:
Is it my imagination, or did someone once say, “There are fine people on both sides?”
Oh, yeah. Now I remember, #41, the third worst president in U.S. history.
I haven’t asked but if I did, I guess the RNC chairwoman would shrug and say this poster is simply “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
To quote the great Ukrainian*-American comedian, Yakov Smirnoff, “What a country!”
(*Couldn’t resist getting up-to-the-minute current events into this story.)
Around the Block 