Friday, September 29, 2023

Friday Stuff


Here is President Biden’s recent speech at the McCain Institute about our democracy (here)...speech is about 35:00 – I’m not going to try and paraphrase it because it’s so important that I think we should watch all of it (and I can’t believe he was interrupted like that by that clown yelling about fossil fuels at about 8:50...I don’t give a damn if the guy’s a lefty or not; that interruption was rude and stoo-pid) – someone who is allegedly a doddering old man could not come up with something like this – I have a feeling he wrote a good bit of it, and he did a terrific job delivering all of it...and he’s used that line “not the example of our power but the power of our example” at least once before, and that was at the inaugural – of course, Peter Baker of the New York Times will find a reason to criticize it in an upcoming negative column I’m sure...I wish Biden had spoken more about the “dark money” interests behind atrocities such as Project 2025, which he alluded to a bit with that “Schedule F” remark, but what he said was definitely good enough and motivation for us all to do our best to negate, as much as possible, the garbage in what passes for our political discourse and work to get Democrats elected...



Update: More here.

Update 9/30/23: And as a bit of a “compare and contrast” exercise when it comes to presidents and speeches, I give you this.

...and in Biden’s speech, he made reference to Our Ochre Abomination and #45’s attacks on Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; David Pakman gives us an excerpt of an interview with Milley to air on “60 Minutes,” probably this Sunday (and I realize I shouldn’t dignify Mango Mussolini’s absurd comments on Truth Septic about the Afghanistan withdrawal under President Biden, but I’ll only say this...you can blame Biden for maybe not recognizing how badly the situation on the ground had degraded, as well as overly optimistic thinking of how willing the Afghan army was to fight against the Taliban, but you can also blame 45 for originally setting a thoroughly unrealistic withdrawal date of May 1st, 2021 as well as allowing the Taliban to achieve its greatest level of strength in that country since 2001...as noted here, there wasn’t going to be an easy way to end our nation’s longest war regardless of who the president was...and who was it again who initially invited the Taliban to Camp David for peace talks before the justifiable outcry forced him to cancel the meeting as noted here?)...



..and RIP Dianne Feinstein – yes, her final years were forgettable (I defended her in those remarks to the kids about “my way or the highway” because I thought what she said was taken out of context a bit), but she was definitely a titan of the Senate in her day...what propelled her career, as it turns out, was the twin murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, which I can’t imagine that any sane person would have wanted, but she answered the call as San Francisco mayor and also by serving in the “upper chamber”...big shoes to fill to be sure...



...and Leeja Miller gives us another comprehensive clip on Why The U.S. Has So Many Prisoners (another great report, this time on the history of incarceration in this country pretty much...as Miller correctly points out, it was an easy transition to be fearful of African Americans as slaves and keep them oppressed to being fearful of them as “the other” in the ‘60s and ‘70s in response to civil rights when it came to our criminal justice system and keep them oppressed for that alleged reason also)...and yes, that quote from John Ehrlichman pretty much nails it, as we know...lots of other important history, including the drug stuff that funded the Central American garbage in the ‘80s under The Sainted Ronnie R which played a big role in the crack cocaine epidemic in this country back then, and the 100-to-1 ratio of crack vs. powder that played a role in the beyond-ridiculous mandatory minimum sentencing (with the explosion of incarceration as noted)...and as others have pointed out, the prison furlough policy Michael Dukakis was victimized for in the ’88 presidential contest (the Willie Horton ad of course) was instituted by a Republican Massachusetts governor (here)...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us a video about a GREAT ad from the “Lose Cruz” PAC...I’ll probably have a nightmare now of “Cancun Cruz” yelling “PODCAST!”...this is all good fun I know, but to do something about Cruz for real, click here...and yes, I know it’s Texas and the odds are long, but there’s no hope at all if we choose to do nothing...



...and the weekend is here at last - hallelujah!

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