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chia
chia's Journal
chia's Journal
July 22, 2020
Honoré is amazing as usual here, says Wolfe should be run out of Washington, has no business being in charge of Homeland Security, and says the federal forces in Portland are a lawless group who wear militarized uniforms to intimidate people, to look like warriors, and aren't good representatives of law enforcement.
Brian Williams pulls no punches either: "When we say Feds what we mean is no name name tags, not easily identifiable militarized camo-wearing quasi-secret police force that our friend Steve Schmidt has called 'federal stormtroopers and jackbooted thugs.'"
Finally: Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny:
Russel Honore on Feds in Portland: 'What kind of bullsh-t is this!?'
Extremely important segment, please watch in full, from the first quote from the Oregon AG filing suit, to Honoré, to Williams' reference to Timothy Snyder's book On Tyranny:
https://www.msnbc.com/11th-hour/watch/russel-honore-on-feds-in-portland-what-kind-of-bullsh-t-is-this-88101445932
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré is blasting the Trump administration for deploying anonymous federal agents into Portland, OR as Trump officials suggest they might do the same in more U.S. cities.
Honoré is amazing as usual here, says Wolfe should be run out of Washington, has no business being in charge of Homeland Security, and says the federal forces in Portland are a lawless group who wear militarized uniforms to intimidate people, to look like warriors, and aren't good representatives of law enforcement.
Brian Williams pulls no punches either: "When we say Feds what we mean is no name name tags, not easily identifiable militarized camo-wearing quasi-secret police force that our friend Steve Schmidt has called 'federal stormtroopers and jackbooted thugs.'"
Finally: Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny:
June 7, 2020
--Karen Attiah, global opinions editor for The Washington Post
After racial violence in the U.S., writer Karen Attiah re-examines the 'Karen' meme
The ‘Karen’ memes and jokes aren’t sexist or racist. Let a Karen explain.
I disagree, taking my direction from Karen Attiah, a woman of color and editor at WaPo:
"Calling the Karen meme the new n-word or asserting that it is a sexist slur only trivializes actual violence and discrimination that destroy lives and communities"
--Karen Attiah, global opinions editor for The Washington Post
After racial violence in the U.S., writer Karen Attiah re-examines the 'Karen' meme
The ‘Karen’ memes and jokes aren’t sexist or racist. Let a Karen explain.
As a millennial black Karen, and a child of immigrants, I find the brouhaha hilarious and twisted. “Karen” is not and will never be an oppressive slur. Anyone who disagrees can take it up with my manag … — I mean, with history...
And to invent oppression when none is happening to you? Well, as a Karen, I just have to say — that is peak Karen behavior.
And to invent oppression when none is happening to you? Well, as a Karen, I just have to say — that is peak Karen behavior.
April 8, 2020
https://billmoyers.com/story/the-wolves-at-the-door/
A Historian Speaks to the Current Moment
A Historian Speaks to the Current Moment
BY BERNARD WEISBERGER
We are possibly at one of the most dangerous moments in our 233 year history as a nation. The delicate arrangements of our Constitution to protect us from tyranny are imperiled. If they should fail the world would lose a model document establishing that a “republican” form of government could sustain itself over a long period of time in a continental expanse of territory embracing a wide diversity of peoples. That radical proposition existed nowhere else in the world in 1787.
. . . .
But in checking the power of the Chief Executive there was a hitch. The framers thought it s essential especially in temporary times of crisis such as war, to give the President special tools-— energy, speed of execution, sometimes even stealth — that could allow him ¨temporarily” to bypass the restraints of reasonable institutions of government.
Unhappily these exceptions could not prevent the emergence and 2016 election of the most cruel and venal President of all 44 to precede him — Donald J. Trump, who by exploiting those very privileges would grasp for the unlimited power of one-man rule. This is where we are now. His reign has brought us face-to-face with the possibility of democracy’s demise.
The latest blow has been this: Reason has fled. In its absence remains the caprice of one man astonishingly buoyed by the absolute loyalty of the Republican party. The provision for impeachment deliberately inserted in the Constitution to rein in a runaway Chief Executive succeeded in the House but was ended by a Senate marching in lockstep with the President. The President’s partisan protectorate refused to condemn his aggravated assaults on common decency, his contempt for allies, his denial of threats such as global warming that he pronounces in his own self-described “unmatched wisdom” and “stable genius” to be a hoax, and his sheer mendacity and sneering disdain for alliances and allies that have left us increasingly friendless in the world community. All of these things will reflect poorly on those of us who failed to stop him and the sycophantic partisans in politics and the media who have fallen cult-like behind him.
. . . .
But in checking the power of the Chief Executive there was a hitch. The framers thought it s essential especially in temporary times of crisis such as war, to give the President special tools-— energy, speed of execution, sometimes even stealth — that could allow him ¨temporarily” to bypass the restraints of reasonable institutions of government.
Unhappily these exceptions could not prevent the emergence and 2016 election of the most cruel and venal President of all 44 to precede him — Donald J. Trump, who by exploiting those very privileges would grasp for the unlimited power of one-man rule. This is where we are now. His reign has brought us face-to-face with the possibility of democracy’s demise.
The latest blow has been this: Reason has fled. In its absence remains the caprice of one man astonishingly buoyed by the absolute loyalty of the Republican party. The provision for impeachment deliberately inserted in the Constitution to rein in a runaway Chief Executive succeeded in the House but was ended by a Senate marching in lockstep with the President. The President’s partisan protectorate refused to condemn his aggravated assaults on common decency, his contempt for allies, his denial of threats such as global warming that he pronounces in his own self-described “unmatched wisdom” and “stable genius” to be a hoax, and his sheer mendacity and sneering disdain for alliances and allies that have left us increasingly friendless in the world community. All of these things will reflect poorly on those of us who failed to stop him and the sycophantic partisans in politics and the media who have fallen cult-like behind him.
https://billmoyers.com/story/the-wolves-at-the-door/
March 3, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/how-to-destroy-a-government/606793/
An inside look at how career civil servants have wrestled these last years with the deluge of ethical dilemmas and either buckled under or left, but stayed silent out of self-preservation. It explains a lot.
Winning His War on American Institutions: How Trump is destroying the civil service
The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions
How Trump is destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will
When Donald Trump came into office, there was a sense that he would be outmatched by the vast government he had just inherited.
The new president was impetuous, bottomlessly ignorant, almost chemically inattentive, while the bureaucrats were seasoned, shrewd, protective of themselves and their institutions. They knew where the levers of power lay and how to use them or prevent the president from doing so. Trump’s White House was chaotic and vicious, unlike anything in American history, but it didn’t really matter as long as “the adults” were there to wait out the president’s impulses and deflect his worst ideas and discreetly pocket destructive orders lying around on his desk.
After three years, the adults have all left the room—saying just about nothing on their way out to alert the country to the peril—while Trump is still there.
The adults were too sophisticated to see Trump’s special political talents—his instinct for every adversary’s weakness, his fanatical devotion to himself, his knack for imposing his will, his sheer staying power. They also failed to appreciate the advanced decay of the Republican Party, which by 2016 was far gone in a nihilistic pursuit of power at all costs. They didn’t grasp the readiness of large numbers of Americans to accept, even relish, Trump’s contempt for democratic norms and basic decency. It took the arrival of such a leader to reveal how many things that had always seemed engraved in monumental stone turned out to depend on those flimsy norms, and how much the norms depended on public opinion. Their vanishing exposed the real power of the presidency. Legal precedent could be deleted with a keystroke; law enforcement’s independence from the White House was optional; the separation of powers turned out to be a gentleman’s agreement; transparent lies were more potent than solid facts. None of this was clear to the political class until Trump became president.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/how-to-destroy-a-government/606793/
An inside look at how career civil servants have wrestled these last years with the deluge of ethical dilemmas and either buckled under or left, but stayed silent out of self-preservation. It explains a lot.
February 9, 2020
"It's become 4chan for Nanas and Grampas." The absolute best description for what FB has become
February 7, 2020
The media consistently disappoints,
and their lack of interest in Warren is an excellent illustration of why and how.
December 13, 2017
Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
...
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
What's Up Alabama
Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
...
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
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