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Author Topic: Creeping Police State  (Read 20588 times)

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Surly1

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Creeping Police State
« on: May 13, 2019, 10:05:35 am »
Pay attention to this story and its repercussions. It could well be a local one-off, or the start of a troubling trend.

A reporter declined to reveal his source. Then police showed up at his front door with guns.



Bryan Carmody, a freelance reporter in San Francisco, awoke Friday to the sounds of someone trying to break into his house.

About 10 officers from the San Francisco Police Department were bashing the front gate of his home in the Outer Richmond neighborhood with a sledgehammer, he said. It was just after 8 o’clock in the morning.

Carmody called out and said he would let them into the house. The officers showed him a search warrant and proceeded to go through his home — from “top to bottom” he says — with their guns drawn.

“They treated me like I was some kind of drug dealer," he said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Carmody was being raided in connection with a criminal investigation.

Two weeks before, police investigators showed up at his home to ask him, politely he says, to identify the source who provided him with a confidential police report about the February death of the city’s public defender, Jeff Adachi. Carmody, who said he worked with three local television news stations on the story, declined.

He wasn’t about to give up his source on Friday either, despite the escalation — not to the police or two FBI agents in suits who questioned him about the case, he said.

“I’m smart enough not to talk to federal agents, ever,” Carmody said. “I just kept saying ‘lawyer, lawyer, lawyer.' ”

So he stayed handcuffed for the next six hours, he says — a certificate of release from the police department that he distributed says he was in custody from 8:22 a.m. until 1:55 p.m. — as investigators searched his home, then his office, where they found the report in a safe. A search warrant filed in the case notes that it was issued as police investigated “stolen or embezzled property.”

“There’s only two people on this planet who know who leaked this report — me and the guy who leaked it,” Carmody said.

The raid on Carmody’s home and office drew wide First Amendment-related attention in the Bay Area over the weekend. And it added a new twist to the intrigue that surrounded the death of Adachi, who had built up a high profile as a public defender in the 16 years he had held the office.

The only elected public defender in California, Adachi was known as an watchdog on police misconduct. His death, on Feb. 22, at the age of 59, was attributed in early reports to a heart attack.

Then more information came to light.

On Feb. 24, ABC 7 published a story after it said it obtained a police report and photos about Adachi’s death, which included unflattering details about the public defender’s last hours. The story reported that he had been with a woman named Caterina — not his wife — and that he was found unresponsive in an apartment with “an unmade bed, empty bottles of alcohol, cannabis gummies, and two syringes that may have been left by paramedics.”

The publication of those details, which did little to illuminate the nature of Adachi’s death and more to call into question his character, prompted some to wonder if the police department was retaliating against Adachi, even after his death.

“It’s curious that we’re reading leaked details about another ‘woman,’ the renting of an apartment, and entirely unnecessary mentions of alcohol, cannabis, and syringes,” SFist noted at the time. “Certainly the incident ought to be investigated, as any death should, but the information coming out makes it seem like Adachi’s decades-old battles with law enforcement — on behalf of defendants and otherwise — may continue even after his passing.”

[Kamala Harris ‘grew up’ with Jeff Adachi. Then tragedy struck.]

Tim Redmond, editor of the San Francisco news site 48 Hills, called the local coverage “repugnant,” noting how disliked Adachi was by many police officers in the city in a post he wrote at the time.

“Where do you supposed those came from? Why do you suppose they wound up with the sensation-driven TV stations?” he wrote of the provenance of the police report. “The photos have been widely publicized with no context at all. There are photos of ‘an unmade bed’ — a salacious innuendo with no relevance.”

Carmody declined to give specifics about the three outlets he had worked with on the story.

A “stringer” in the parlance of TV news, Carmody occupies the small niche in the world of broadcast journalism that was satirized in the Hollywood film “Nightcrawler.”

He works every night from about 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., when he chases news, such as car crashes, crime scenes, disasters, weather stories, the release of a new video game — “anything that happens overnight,” he says — then sells his services and materials he gathers to local stations for their morning broadcasts. His name is rarely included on the report or corresponding material, he said.

His company, North Bay Television, which is run out of an office downtown stocked with police scanners, computers, and a coffee machine, employs three or four other people, down from a onetime peak of 10.

“Like all media, we are shrinking," he said.

He said he has never paid any of his sources of information or material.

Asked about tensions between the police department and Adachi, Carmody declined to comment on the politics of the case.

“I had no beef with him, I had no beef with anyone, I’m just a journalist in the middle of this,” he said.

He said he believed he was being targeted because he was a freelancer, noting that details in the police report had appeared in other publications, such as the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I don’t think there was a police raid at the Chronicle with a sledgehammer yesterday,” he said.

A medical examiner’s report, which was released to the media in March, filled in more details about Adachi’s death. The office ruled his death an accident due to the effects of **** and alcohol combined with a preexisting heart condition it said Adachi had.

The San Francisco Police Department defended the investigation Saturday in a statement sent to local reporters.

“The citizens and leaders of the City of San Francisco have demanded a complete and thorough investigation into this leak, and this action represents a step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of confidential police material," it said.

An FBI spokeswoman said that the bureau’s agents did not participate in the execution of the search warrant but confirmed that they were present to interview Carmody.

A law enforcement source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Carmody was handcuffed for procedural issues related to “multiple weapons” in the house. Carmody said that he is the lawful owner of an unspecified number of guns.

Carmody says his ability to work is now crippled by the seizure of his electronics. A search warrant and affidavit he distributed noted that police took at least at least four tablets, seven computers, 10 hard drives, a dozen phones, two cameras, reporters’ notebooks and a thumb drive from his home. He has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy more equipment.

Thomas R. Burke, a First Amendment lawyer in the Bay Area who represents Carmody, said that he believes the police overreached significantly.

“The appropriate thing was to issue a subpoena, not a search warrant,” he said, noting the breadth of Carmody’s material they had control over in all of this devices and notebooks. He said he wants to know whether the judges who signed the warrants were aware that they were for a reporter’s home and office.

Carmody said he had never been pressured by law enforcement to give up a source before in 29 years of reporting — mentioning as an example the leaked photographs from San Francisco’s public transportation agency he recently acquired that exposed a safety issue with some trains.

“I am shocked at how far this has gone already,” he said. “It’s already gotten way out of hand.”


AGelbert

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Re: Creeping Police State
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2019, 12:48:48 pm »
Pay attention to this story and its repercussions. It could well be a local one-off, or the start of a troubling trend. 👀

A reporter declined to reveal his source. Then police showed up at his front door with guns.

SNIPPET:

The appropriate thing was to issue a subpoena, not a search warrant, he said, noting the breadth of Carmody's material they had control over in all of this devices and notebooks. He said he wants to know whether the judges who signed the warrants were aware that they were for a reporter's home and office.

Carmody said he had never been pressured by law enforcement to give up a source before in 29 years of reporting — mentioning as an example the leaked photographs from San Francisco’s public transportation agency he recently acquired that exposed a safety issue with some trains.

I am shocked at how far this has gone already,&rhttp://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-190218175943.pngdquo; he said. It's already gotten way out of hand.

Yup. :(






He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I am posting this here because it sheds a bright light on how BAD things have gotten under Trump and his Wrecking Crew:

Russia and the US Trump Big Oil Wrecking Crew MADE A DEAL in the Mayflower Hotel (that 😈 Mueller REFUSED TO MENTION IN HIS REPORT) that involves making GIANT OIL & GAS PROFITS after the MELTING OF THE NORTH POLAR ICE CAP!  That 's right, they want to ACCELERATE CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE!

These Hydrocarbon Hellspawn BASTARDS LIKE what they see in the above graph.

THAT is Trump's GREATEST CRIME.

THAT is why Trump named all those bought and paid for Bg Oil Toadies to so many key government positions

Trump does not give a CRAP about anyone but the oligarchs. His tax "reform" proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt, but putting the hydrocarbon peddle to the metal is an existential threat to ALL humanity!

What Mueller Missed — The Narrative No One Is Talking About: Daniel Sheehan 2019 Class #7


Romero Institute
Published on Apr 24, 2019

Online syllabus and materials can be found at: https://danielpsheehan.com/tja2019

Donate to the Romero Institute: https://romeroinstitute.org/donate
Category Education

 The Fossil Fuelers 🦖 DID THE Clean Energy  Inventions suppressing, Climate Trashing, human health depleting CRIME,   but since they have ALWAYS BEEN liars and conscience free crooks 🦀, they are trying to AVOID   DOING THE TIME or   PAYING THE FINE!     Don't let them get away with it! Pass it on!   
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Creeping Police State
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2019, 03:26:31 pm »
9:10 pm EDT July 8, 2019

Quote
Keenan Reese
An escort who worked for Epstein testified under oath of Trump's involvement with under aged girls. The reason the media hasn't picked up on it is, because of the power these wealthy **** wield.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/quote-epstein-trump-bite-donald/19201/

True. Furthermore, the juridical cover up of decadent, criminally perverse sexual behavior by powerful individuals, in or out of government, is one of the hallmarks of societies within Fascist governments.

If you think Epstein, Trump, Clinton, etc., et al SEXUAL PREDATORS (Congress, particularly the Senate, AND the COURTS are STUFFED FULL OF THEM) are going to pay for their crimes in the Fascist USA, you are naive, to put it mildly.

The Courts are now so crooked that an Appeals Court Judge just dismissed >:( a Constitutional Emoluments Clause Violation Lawsuit against Trump by stating in the decision, with a straight face, that courts should "only deal with real cases".
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Creeping Police State
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2019, 11:41:53 pm »

Are we the First Country to Go Backwards?
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Thom Hartmann Program
Published on Jul 10, 2019

Are we watching Democracy move backwards?

Tucker Carlson's remarks about Rep Ilhan Omar definitely indicate that America could be the first developed country to move backwards away from democracy

But into what and how can we stop the Republicans, Trump and Tucker Carlson from dragging us away from the democracy so many have built over the years?

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Creeping Police State
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2019, 08:27:16 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: This is a truth filled comment on an excellent article ✨ (plus many deeply thought out comments as well 👍).

Quote
July 7, 2019 at 9:03 am JimBob says:
Many years ago, Kurt Vonnegut claimed that the true American anthem was:    F u c k you, Jack, I got mine! Apparently, the Republican party has fully adopted this anthem as it’s own.

July 6, 2019/41 Comments/in Left Theory /by Ed Walker 

 
FREEDOM AND EQUALITY: FREEDOM FROM DOMINATION PART 1

SNIPPET:

Introduction and Index

Elizabeth Anderson wrote a chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Freedom and Equality, titled simply Freedom and Equality. She begins by acknowledging that perfect material equality would require an authoritarian state, and no one seriously argues for that position. On the other hand, Friedrich Hayek argued in The Road To Serfdom that any form of socialism would lead down the slippery slope to totalitarianism, but he was wrong. There are realistic choices short of perfect material equality, such as the societies of Western Europe with their social democratic forms of government and economy.

Anderson writes:
Quote
To make progress on the question of normative trade-offs between freedom and equality within the range of options for political economy credibly on the table, we must clarify our concepts. There are at least three conceptions of freedom — negative, positive, and republican — and three conceptions of equality—of standing, esteem, and authority.

Republican freedom is an unfortunate term, given its association with a political party with a highly … nuanced view of freedom. Philosophers use the term because it is associated with the Roman Republic of Cicero and Cato. And that is another unfortunate juxtaposition, because the leading libertarian think tank is the Cato Institute, which is heavily funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, another group not that interested in broad concepts of freedom. So I’m not going to use the term, and instead will refer to it as freedom from dominanation, or non-domination.

Full article:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/07/06/freedom-and-equality-freedom-from-domination-part-1/



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Trump’s Racist Tweets Fan Hatred, Defining the Coming Election

July 15, 2019

Earlier today, 😈 Senator Lindsay Graham discussed Donald Trump's outrageous and racist tweets from Sunday which told representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna S. Pressley to “go back” to the countries they “originally” came from. And then he bolstered them. Live on Fox News, Graham escalated Trump's attacks calling the four congressional representatives—all women of color—“communists.”

Quote
“We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country. They're calling the guards along our border, the Border Patrol agents, 'concentration camp guards.' They accuse people who support Israel of doing it for the Benjamins. They're anti-Semitic. They're anti-American,” Graham said. “Don't get down. Aim higher. We don't need to know anything about them personally. Talk about their policy.”


The Real News Network's Marc Steiner spoke to Dr. Kimberly Moffitt, an Associate Professor of the Language, Literacy and Culture PhD program and the American Studies department at the University Of Maryland Baltimore County, and Dr. Gerald Horne, John J. And Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston about ongoing and escalating racist rhetoric by the president and the GOP.

Moffitt observed that there is still a debate about whether Trump's comments are noteworthy—clearly an indication that racism remains an issue in the U.S.

“It's even a denial about the role of race in our society as a whole that we don't even believe this is something that we should be focused on because of what Trump is contributing to us, and what many believe is a very strong economy and a willingness to say the things that haven't been said by previous administrations regarding our borders and our trade deals—all that many have felt like had been a bad deal for America,” Moffitt said. “I also see this very much as about a browning of America that really frightens a lot of that 63 million that support President Trump. A lot of folks are struggling with the idea that these very vocal voices. The progressives of our House currently happen to be women, but they are also brown women, and that becomes offensive to a white male that says there is a place for all of us and they aren't maintaining the place that they're supposed to in our society.”

Horne explained that Trump's attacks have been facilitated by the Democratic Party's leaders, such as Nancy Pelosi, in much the same way that the Democrats facilitated Trump's presidential victory.

“In some ways the Democratic Party—at least some elements within the leadership—paved the way for the rise of one Donald J. Trump. I take it that your audience has been paying attention to the New York Times for the past few days,” Horne said. “And then if you look at the origins of this controversy that has brought us to your cameras today, in many ways it starts with an interview that Speaker Nancy Pelosi did with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd when she sharply rebuked, reprimanded, and criticized Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in particular—a congresswoman who has been receiving a steady rain of death threats—and that opened up Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to be receiving even more death threats. She of course clapped back. Speaker Pelosi, rather than taking the high road, then upped the ante and opened the door for Donald J. Trump to enter into this debate. And so once again you see leading Democrats paving the way for the rise of Donald J. Trump's racism."


https://therealnews.com/stories/trumps-racist-tweets-fan-hatred-defining-the-coming-election
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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TD ORIGINALS

JUL 15, 2019 | TD ORIGINALS 

By Natasha Hakimi Zapata —  As the daughter of Iranian and Mexican immigrants, the president’s racist attacks on four congresswomen of color have struck me to my core.



« Last Edit: July 16, 2019, 07:41:11 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it | Yuval Noah Harari
335,332 views


TED

Published on Jun 8, 2018

In a profound talk about technology and power, author and historian Yuval Noah Harari explains the important difference between fascism and nationalism -- and what the consolidation of our data means for the future of democracy. Appearing as a hologram live from Tel Aviv, Harari warns that the greatest danger that now faces liberal democracy is that the revolution in information technology will make dictatorships more efficient and capable of control. "The enemies of liberal democracy hack our feelings of fear and hate and vanity, and then use these feelings to polarize and destroy," Harari says. "It is the responsibility of all of us to get to know our weaknesses and make sure they don't become weapons." (Followed by a brief conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson)

Agelbert NOTE: Excellent video by Yuval Noah Harari and excellent comment by Steve Fortuna (see below).

Quote
Steve Fortuna 👍2 days ago

Boy is this scary. America is breaking up into factions, hard right, tyrannical, oligarchical versus the middle class, and millions of us are watching the disintegration of our empire and alienation of the world due to bellicose foreign and environmental policy. Every day fewer and fewer people are proud to call themselves Americans, make sacrifice for the common good, pay taxes or join the military. 

I will not allow or support my nation to imprison children, torture immigrants, kill Americans without trial or allow billionaires access to power and corruption while suppressing the dreams and opportunities of minorities, the poor and the unconnected and unlucky.  

Russia, China and the Arab countries should be salivating to fill the power vacuum as our nation devolves into infighting, bankruptcy and civil war.   

Oligarchs, no how much they gild their lily, are just fascistic narcissists for whom ALL is their only possible goal. I don't see the US or capitalism as the most beautiful thing anywhere - if we don't stem the tide of the .001% to grab every resource and hoard the last dollar, we will come apart at the seams.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted almost entirely along party lines to condemn President Donald Trump's latest "racist" remarks, with the four tribal citizens in office just as divided as their colleagues on the controversy.

Native lawmakers divided over rebuke of President Trump's 'racist' tweets

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 

By Acee Agoyo

SNIPPET:

While the vote on H.Res.489, Condemning President Trump's racist comments directed at Members of Congress, was almost entirely partisan, four Republicans broke ranks to support it. They were: Rep. Susan W. Brooks (R-Indiana); Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania); Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), who addressed the National Congress of American Indians for the first time earlier this year; and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Michigan).

Amash, who was among a core group of lawmakers who have been voting against Indian Country legislation in the 116th Congress, also voted in support of the rebuke resolution.

Trump's remarks about the minority women in Congress represent the latest in a long line of remarks deemed racist, offensive and riddled with stereotypes. During his days as a commercial casino operator, he frequently targeted tribes using racially charged language.

In reference to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the owners of what was the largest casino in the world at the time, Trump famously told Congress in October 1993: "Now, they don't look like Indians to me."

Such comments, along with others that questioned the legitimacy of tribal nations as well as the integrity of the overall Indian gaming industry, motivated the late Native rights activist Frank LaMere, a longtime Democratic figure, to oppose Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, and he urged Native voters to do the same.

"We need to stand up to this bully," LaMere, who was a citizen of the Winnebago Tribe, told Indianz.Com during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that summer.

Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has repeatedly used the name of a Native woman, Pocahontas, as a slur against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), one of his biggest political rivals. The most glaring incident took place in front of Native war heroes during Native American Heritage Month later that year.

"That's telling of him and his administration that they are not working in any way to build relationships with Indian tribes," Haaland told Indianz.Com at the time. A year later, she won her seat in Congress, making history along Davids as the first two tribally-enrolled women on Capitol Hill.

In this House, we speak truth to power. pic.twitter.com/obQc9WqpY1

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 16, 2019

H.Res.489, Condemning President Trump's racist comments directed at Members of Congress

RESOLUTION
Condemning President Trump’s racist comments directed at Members of Congress.

Whereas the Founders conceived America as a haven of refuge for people fleeing from religious and political persecution, and Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison all emphasized that the Nation gained as it attracted new people in search of freedom and livelihood for their families;

Whereas the Declaration of Independence defined America as a covenant based on equality, the unalienable Rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and government by the consent of the people;

Whereas Benjamin Franklin said at the Constitutional convention, “When foreigners after looking about for some other Country in which they can obtain more happiness, give a preference to ours, it is a proof of attachment which ought to excite our confidence and affection”;

Whereas President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists”;

Whereas immigration of people from all over the Earth has defined every stage of American history and propelled our social, economic, political, scientific, cultural, artistic, and technological progress as a people, and all Americans, except for the descendants of Native people and enslaved African Americans, are immigrants or descendants of immigrants;

Whereas the commitment to immigration and asylum has been not a partisan cause but a powerful national value that has infused the work of many Presidents;

Whereas American patriotism is defined not by race or ethnicity but by devotion to the Constitutional ideals of equality, liberty, inclusion, and democracy and by service to our communities and struggle for the common good;

Whereas President John F. Kennedy, whose family came to the United States from Ireland, stated in his 1958 book “A Nation of Immigrants” that “The contribution of immigrants can be seen in every aspect of our national life. We see it in religion, in politics, in business, in the arts, in education, even in athletics and entertainment. There is no part of our nation that has not been touched by our immigrant background. Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.”;

Whereas President Ronald Reagan in his last speech as President conveyed “An observation about a country which I love”;

Whereas as President Reagan observed, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors, and it is the Statue of Liberty and its values that give us our great and special place in the world;

Whereas other countries may seek to compete with us, but in one vital area, as “a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close”;

Whereas it is the great life force of “each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed” through the 21st century and beyond and is part of the “magical, intoxicating power of America”;

Whereas this is “one of the most important sources of America's greatness: we lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people -- our strength -- from every country and every corner of the world, and by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation”;

Whereas “thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge”, always leading the world to the next frontier;

Whereas this openness is vital to our future as a Nation, and “if we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost”; and


Whereas President Donald Trump’s racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color:

Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—


(1) believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger, and that those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations;

(2) is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith, or country of origin; and

(3) strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should “go back” to other countries, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as “invaders,” and by saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.


Full article:

https://www.indianz.com/News/2019/07/16/native-lawmakers-divided-over-rebuke-of.asp
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Quote
July 18, 2019

Dear Vermonter,   

I have concluded that President Donald Trump should be impeached.

I do not arrive at this conclusion lightly. The power of impeachment granted to Congress by our Founding Fathers should not be casually employed. In our democracy, every deference should be given to the outcome of every election.

However, after 30 months in office, President Trump has established a clear pattern of willful disregard for our Constitution and its system of checks and balances. His presidency has wrought an unprecedented and unrelenting assault on the pillars and guardrails of our democracy, including the rule of law on which our country was founded.

Instead of embracing the fundamental responsibility of every American president to unite our country, this president has unleashed a torrent of attacks on fellow citizens based on their race, gender, religion and ethnic origin.

Instead of respecting the constitutional principle that no person, including the President of the United States, is above the law or beyond accountability, this president attacks our courts and judges and stonewalls Congress in the exercise of its Article 1 oversight responsibility.

Instead of strengthening the institutional pillars of our democracy, this president is methodically tearing them down. He fired the FBI Director and made every effort to derail the Mueller investigation. He calls for the jailing of political opponents and pardons political allies. And at every turn, he demeans, attacks and discredits the free press, dangerously labeling it as the enemy of the people.

And instead of ensuring fair elections, this president and his administration have labored to limit the fundamental right of Americans to vote and welcomed the assistance of hostile foreign powers in his campaigns.

America’s democracy is resilient, but it is also fragile. Its stability and progress depend on the consent of the governed, a respect for the rule of law, and the capacity of our leaders to inspire trust and confidence in each other and in the federal government.

On January 20, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump stood on the West Front of the United States Capitol, placed his left hand on two Bibles, raised his right hand, and swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” I have concluded that he has failed to honor that solemn oath which, in my view, merits impeachment under our Constitution.

Sincerely,



PETER WELCH

Member of Congress

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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How the Rich Will Rewrite the Constitution If
Trump is Reelected
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Thom Hartmann Program
Published on Jul 18, 2019

The Rich are trying to rewrite the United States constitution and if Donald Trump is elected they are going to succeed.

What will happen to the rights of free speech, not to incriminate yourself and other American values?

Is this how democracy is dismantled?

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Published on Jul 19, 2019

Billionaires Want You to Prove Citizenship Before Receiving Healthcare?
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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Creeping Police State
« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2019, 03:32:33 pm »
July 20th, 2019 by The Beam




Quote
Shiggity • 10 hours ago • edited
Remember what it was like before H1B1 visa competition and the billionaire immigration game? I don't, I'm a millennial. I'll remember robber baron mega millionaire and billionaire psychopaths 'explaining' how everything is my fault and I 'just need to work harder'. Women haven't achieved any kind of "equality" except the "equality" of sick personality disorders and obscene mega wealth, Murica!

Get some baby boomers in here to 'explain' the situation better lol. Maybe some completely out of context anecdotes / completely out of context macro economic comparisons?

If women think achieving obscene wealth is "equality" with men, they're fools, pathetic money hungry sociopathic fools.

agelbert  Shiggity • 2 hours ago • edited
Exactly right. I am a baby boomer and have railed all my life against the worship of materialism evidenced by the nearly total commitment my generation had, and still has, to greed and ambition.

That said, I don't see any evidence that the subsequent generations are, as a whole, any different.

However, you need to understand that there are elite propaganda forces in our government that have deliberately shaped this profit over people and planet world view among the masses.

"The rich executed a coup d’état that transformed the three branches of the U.S. government and nearly all institutions, including the mass media, into wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state." -- Chris Hedges

With the advent of social media, the worship of the self has gotten more equality destroying extreme, not less. Watch this video and you will understand what we-the-people, of all genders and ages, are up against.

Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it |😨 Yuval Noah Harari

"Technical knowledge of Carrying Capacity will not save us; only a massive increase in Caring Capacity will." -- A. G. Gelbert

Quote
Steve_S  agelbert • 2 hours ago
Excellent post.

You know, Gene Rodenberry (creator of Star Trek) completely & totally nailed the US Corporate Government when he created the Ferenghi aliens whose only priority is Profit & Profit above ALL ELSE.

The Ferenghi Rules of Acquisition was initially intended as a tongue in cheek chuckle BUT it became serious and is actually how the USG & it's Corporate Masters actually deal with people. People & Governments around the world have finally come to see it for what it is and it doesn't look good.

REF:

The Complete Ferengi Rules Of Acquisition

agelbert  Steve_S • 10 minutes ago
👍 Thank you. I agree the Ferengi aliens are reflections of what was a hidden reality in the US (that is now in-our-faces).

There was another Star Trek episode that reminds me of our anti-democratic situation. The plot is that some human dude (he was from Earth) had violated the Star Trek 'Prime Directive' by interfering on another planet, so the crew of the Starship Enterprise had been tasked to stop the 'interference'. The dude had set up a fascist government because it was 😈 "more efficient".

The MO of his government reminds me of the Trump 🦀 wrecking crew MO.

Sure, Trump is a symptom, not the cause. But, his cruel, arrogant abusive mindset is representative of those fascist oligarchs who put him there.

I checked out some Hitler quotes the other day. I challenge you to find any difference between Hitler's mindset in the following quotes and that of Trump:

“If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!”― Adolf Hitler

“Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”― Adolf Hitler

“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.” ― Adolf Hitler

“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.” ― Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Letters and Notes

“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.” ― Adolf Hitler

“The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.”― Adolf Hitler


Fascists like Trump count on public's lack of introspection. Hitler and Trump are birds of a feather.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Oppressive Nations are always Fearful Nations.
« Reply #13 on: July 21, 2019, 02:12:37 pm »
Quote
Shiggity • a day ago
Remember what it was like before H1B1 visa competition and the billionaire immigration game? I don't, I'm a millennial. I'll remember robber baron mega millionaire and billionaire psychopaths 'explaining' how everything is my fault and I 'just need to work harder'. Women haven't achieved any kind of "equality" except the "equality" of sick personality disorders and obscene mega wealth, Murica!

Get some baby boomers in here to 'explain' the situation better lol. Maybe some completely out of context anecdotes / completely out of context macro economic comparisons?

If women think achieving obscene wealth is "equality" with men, they're fools, pathetic money hungry sociopathic fools.

agelbert  Shiggity
Exactly right. I am a baby boomer and have railed all my life against the worship of materialism evidenced by the nearly total commitment my generation had, and still has, to greed and ambition.

That said, I don't see any evidence that the subsequent generations are, as a whole, any different.

However, you need to understand that there are elite propaganda forces in our government that have deliberately shaped this profit over people and planet world view among the masses.

"The rich executed a coup d’état that transformed the three branches of the U.S. government and nearly all institutions, including the mass media, into wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state." -- Chris Hedges

With the advent of social media, the worship of the self has gotten more equality destroying extreme, not less. Watch this video and you will understand what we-the-people, of all genders and ages, are up against.

Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it |😨 Yuval Noah Harari

"Technical knowledge of Carrying Capacity will not save us; only a massive increase in Caring Capacity will." -- A. G. Gelbert

Quote
Steve_S  agelbert
Excellent post.

You know, Gene Rodenberry (creator of Star Trek) completely & totally nailed the US Corporate Government when he created the Ferenghi aliens whose only priority is Profit & Profit above ALL ELSE.

The Ferenghi Rules of Acquisition was initially intended as a tongue in cheek chuckle BUT it became serious and is actually how the USG & it's Corporate Masters actually deal with people. People & Governments around the world have finally come to see it for what it is and it doesn't look good.

REF:

The Complete Ferengi Rules Of Acquisition

agelbert  Steve_S 
👍 Thank you. I agree the Ferengi aliens are reflections of what was a hidden reality in the US (that is now in-our-faces).

There was another Star Trek episode that reminds me of our anti-democratic situation. The plot is that some human dude (he was from Earth) had violated the Star Trek 'Prime Directive' by interfering on another planet, so the crew of the Starship Enterprise had been tasked to stop the 'interference'. The dude had set up a fascist government because it was 😈 "more efficient".

The MO of his government reminds me of the Trump 🦀 wrecking crew MO.

Sure, Trump is a symptom, not the cause. But, his cruel, arrogant abusive mindset is representative of those fascist oligarchs who put him there.

I checked out some Hitler quotes the other day. I challenge you to find any difference between Hitler's mindset in the following quotes and that of Trump:

“If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!”― Adolf Hitler

“Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”― Adolf Hitler

“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.” ― Adolf Hitler

“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.” ― Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Letters and Notes

“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.” ― Adolf Hitler

“The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.”― Adolf Hitler


Fascists like Trump count on public's lack of introspection. Hitler and Trump are birds of a feather.

[/quote]

Quote
Steve_S  agelbert
Ohhh My ! Yes I know that particular episode very well. Original Series.

Regarding the Hitler Quotes. I studied Nazi history extensively and the militarism it raised (uni study) and once Trump was on the campaign trail I CAUGHT IT. He actually made statements & speeches which echo Hitler to a T. More Recent stuff from "them" continues to echo AH with 21st Century revisions. Even more disturbing is that there are Jewish Rabbis in the USA & Israel calling for the total destruction & annulation of ALL Muslims.... and a few of these characters are Survivors of Concentration Camps and THEY are calling for genocide of a religious group. And then we have the Trump to Israel Marriage which is baffling to say the least.

agelbert  Steve_S
👍👍👍 I never studied Nazi history like you did. In high school I read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. That was pretty much the extent of what I knew about them.

I've picked up a little more over the years. Recently I ran into an outstanding book ("All Honorable Men") about the NAZI world view. You have probably read it, but if you haven't, I'm sort of doing a book report on it on my forum in a series of posts.

If you have time, please check it out and tell me what you think.

COPYRIGHT 1950, BY JAMES STEWART MARTIN

SNIPPET:
Quote
In this book I have tried to tell the story of an important problem and some of the things that happened when we tried to deal with it. Though many of the events occurred in Germany, before and during the military occupation, they seemed in an increasing degree to be echoes of something more fundamental that was happening back in the United States. For whatever reason, the larger pattern is a repetition of what followed after World War I; but the pace has been quicker, as though greater powers were moving more rapidly toward a more catastrophic result.


Quote
Steve_S  agelbert • 4 hours ago
Ohh I got out of studying that sort of thing. Life priorities …

One thing that stands above everything else. Dictatorships are oppressive by their very nature and Oppressive Nations are always Fearful Nations. Fearful Nations become bullies and demand compliance from others or suffer consequences imposed by the bullies. At this moment in time, the single most Paranoid Nation on the planet is the USA, fearing every shadow, every opinion and seeking to find the boogeymen behind every bush. This of course happens when someone bullies, threatens, coerces others resulting in human & civil abuses. When you have a Nation that spends more on it's military than anything else, when there is no actual real wars...

Consider it this way... The USA spends more on Militarism than China, but China spends more on Wind, Solar, Hydro & Nuclear Power Generation than it's own massive 3.5 million man military.

Given that info, plus the fact that the US now owes over $22 Trillion Dollars on it's National Debt, which it has absolutely no hope of ever paying off (or keeping up with the interest alone) is destined for only ONE THING and that is Conflict. What do we see being "prepped up" right now, big militarism, lot's of threats, lot's of "sanctions of one sort or another", attempts to provoke & coerce nations. Luckily Russia & China have been BLUNT that they will not be provoked or coerced into an action, that the USA will have to fire first if it wants conflict. So now Trumpy is fishing for someone else to have a War with...

agelbert  Steve_S • 3 minutes ago • edited
I agree with you 100%. Principle and moral fiber are absent from the US government and the fascist olicarchs that corrupt it. Scratch a fascist bully and you expose a coward.

The despicable Epstein modus vivendi is not an outlier. The elite SCUM in the USA are all part of that cesspool of sexual predators protected by the "Intelligence" (see: POLICE STATE) agencies AND the corrupted judiciary.

That was also true in NAZI Germany. Sexual abuse of minors and routine depravity is another mark of fascist societies. We are there. 😠

Quote
Steve_S  agelbert • an hour ago
Well, I've enough on my personal plate to deal with in the time I have left and many things to complete in that time.

My view on things are maybe a bit different (being terminal does that) as I am not looking for any deluded answers, I just see what I see and experience what I experience. Like when I worked in the arctic and return recently to shock at what changes I saw... which I should not have in my entire lifetime or possibly two. Diverse life experiences with Military, Government, High Tech Corporate and other things like advocacy for Parents & Children's Rights have shaped me because I have seen & dealt with things from a different angle than most. I've also been witness to corruption, racism, discrimination and assorted abuses throughout a lot of that. There is so much Hypocrisy and Optical Justice, I fear humanity is deep in the stew! Luckily, I only have a few (< 5) years left and I won't be here to see All Hell break loose. I'm mostly worried for my 3 surviving daughters and my girlfriend's futures in this crazy world.

Bigger issues with climate change are being totally ignored or downplayed, the entire cascading effect that ripples through the eco system. Ongoing droughts in food producing places will continue to reduce food production. Increasing storms and bad weather will force movement of people causing more migration & tensions. There is so much general anger which no one knows how to direct that Bad Actors are playing on that to focus their agendas, which will only result in conflict. Powder Keg issues such as Race & Religion are being further manipulated as well as potential triggers.

At the Major Cross Roads and which direction will humanity take, or where will it be pushed to ? Who the hell knows at this point, it really boils down to the Joe & Jane on the street to collectively stand up in unison & make change happen. Extinction Revolution ? Business will continue to make consumers for profit and pillage the world. Governments are run by business interests (with the exception of the Chinese, they saw that coming) so no help there. The Great Gazoo (Flintstones Reference) won't land in his spaceship and fix everything either. Unfortunately, there are too many who want to "Light it all up" if they can't get their way, so they'll destroy everything they can in spite.

cascade effect as I put it:
Ice melts off land by tons, land uplifts, affects tectonic plates, causes plate shift / movement, resulting in quakes and increasing volcanic activity along the plates, eject more into the air and harming life in many ways. Meanwhile that melted ice flows into the seas, raising sea levels, adding all that extra tonnage of water into a moving mass also over the tectonic plates, and changing current flows in sea & air while evaporating putting more rain clouds into action, creating bigger storms and hurricanes / monsoons while modifying other air currents that result in more droughts & heat waves in other regions.... won't touch changes in animals, vegetation and all the rest....

The whole damned pile is INTERCONNECTED and the domino effect rolls through like nothing else and people, orgs, groups, cherry pick 1 or 2 and run with it... they cannot grasp (don't want to) the larger picture in it's fully horrifying glory !

BW: Do a News Search on "Arctic Heat Wave" - past month. Google would do but duckduckgo gives more & better. Records are breaking at the highest northern points and not just a bit.

https://disqus.com/home/discussion/im-cleantechnica/female_leaders_are_on_the_rise_empowered_we_are_unstoppable/#comment-4548331016
« Last Edit: July 21, 2019, 07:44:58 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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The 👹 Republican Party
« Reply #14 on: July 21, 2019, 05:45:18 pm »
Trump’s Racist Lies About Ilhan Omar Define the Republican Party

July 19, 2019

The Ilhan Omar quote Trump bastardized came from her conversation with John Nichols, who joins us to look at US history for inspiration and understanding


Story Transcript

MARC STEINER Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Marc Steiner. Good to have you with us.

Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar were not only racist, but in his subsequent tweets and diatribes in North Carolina, when I watched the news clips, when I saw news clips from the 30s, are dangerously reminiscent of people like Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. For us to ignore this, we do at our own peril. Maybe I’m taking it too far. We’ll find out in this conversation.

Our political analyst today is someone who sees much of this in his writing for The Nation and other things he’s done. He wrote an incredible piece in The Nation on Ilhan Omar. We’re talking about John Nichols who is The Nation’s National Affairs Correspondent, host of the podcast “Next Left” for The Nation, author of Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America and co-author with Bob McChesney of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy. I can never get that word right, but John, welcome. Good to have you with us.

JOHN NICHOLS I think you did pretty well on “Trumpocalypse.”

MARC STEINER [laughs] It’s the “citizenless.”

JOHN NICHOLS [laughs] It’s the word for our times. Yes, yes.

MARC STEINER So it’s interesting, the two pieces you wrote in The Nation most recently about Donald Trump and racism and what is going on there. And then your conversation with Ilhan Omar and your defense of her, I think were really important and I want to talk about what you think that really is and what this means. Let me begin. I think there is a piece from Donald Trump where he accuses Ilhan Omar of hating Americans.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP Representative Ilhan Omar, [crowd boos] she looks down with contempt on the hard-working Americans, saying that “ignorance is pervasive in many parts of this country.” [crowd boos and murmurs].

MARC STEINER And then, in “Next Life” when you interviewed Ilhan Omar— as you said, your premiere guest, your first guest on your podcast— she had this to say.

CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR And so, the only leverage you have is that you are part of this contract and you can be part of the negotiations in how many people get settled in your state. And so, it is not that they might not be knowledgeable about this, but they use it as a tool to stir up hate and division. And ignorance really is pervasive in many parts of this country. And as someone who was raised by educators, I really like to inform people about things that they might be ignorant to— willingly or unwillingly.

MARC STEINER How you can parse out one small phrase from a more lengthy answer, trying to explain a situation in Minnesota that gets contorted into this now diatribe against Ilhan Omar and the rest.

JOHN NICHOLS Well, it’s a fascinating circumstance. And I have covered Donald Trump for a very long time and seeing again and again how he distorts things and how he, you know, frankly turns an innocent statement into something that sounds very nefarious or very dangerous, but I’ve never been in the middle of it myself, so it’s kind of a fascinating circumstance this time. When I heard him say that, I knew that it had come from our interview and I was struck by the fact that it was so directly opposite of what she was talking about. She wasn’t attacking working-class Americans. She wasn’t criticizing working-class Americans. Her statement— and it’s part of a much longer discussion— had to do with politicians who seek to play on the complexity and frankly the lack of knowledge that all of us have as regards to the intricacies of immigration and refugee law, seek to play on that in order to create fear and to promote racist and frankly xenophobic thinking.

And the interesting thing was that if you listen to what she’s saying, she is saying that she wants to bring information to the process. She wants to dialogue with people. The broader context of our interview was fascinating because she talked again and again about times where she’s approached Republicans on the floor and had good conversation with them, where she’s worked with people across lines of partisanship and ideology. And so, far from condemning or attacking people she might disagree with, what Ilhan Omar was doing in our conversation was talking about how to break through the spin, how to break through the divisiveness. And for the president to turn it in the way that he did is to my mind a deeply troubling thing. Now, you make comparisons to folks in—

MARC STEINER I did.

JOHN NICHOLS Yeah. In Europe and things of that nature. I don’t necessarily go there. I will go to a long and unfortunate history within the United States of demonization of immigrants, demonization of people of color, and things that have been done—If you go back and you look at some of the rhetoric of the 1910s and 1920s in this country, and again if you look at some of what was said in the 1950s and 1960s, you see very similar patterns. And I don’t think that Ilhan Omar necessarily compares in every way to everyone throughout that history, but I do think that she is in this case a victim of something that has been very much a part of the American experience. And the attempt to make the immigrant the newcomer to the country seem to be dangerous, seem to be threatening, simply because that person may disagree with you politically. And that juxtaposition is a really unsettling and troubling one because what it suggests is something that concerned Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln talked a lot about the notion that people who had come recently— in his time: Irish immigrants, German immigrants— once they had come to this country to become part of this country, he argued that they were part of an extended conversation that went back to the founding of the republic, went back to the Declaration of Independence. And Lincoln went out of his way to say that newcomers were no less a part of that conversation, had no less a place in that conversation than the descendants of the founders. It was a very important message. And Trump seems to be openly at war with that notion, openly at war with the idea that someone who maybe came to this country 20 years ago or 30 years ago, is somehow less free to criticize the country than the rest of us, than those of us who may have deeper roots or more history. Boy, when we get into that game, we really do divide this country in the ugliest and most dangerous of ways.

MARC STEINER Well, I want to come back to two things you said. I do want to come back to the earlier thing about Mussolini and Hitler and I understand what you’re saying. I want to play in a minute here this piece from Trump that ends up in this chant and talk a bit about that. You know, I think what the difference perhaps now, John, is that we are in a world post the Civil Rights Movement, post the growth of the union movement, post the time of when we ended segregation, and a new group of— I’m going to call them— white nationalists in part have taken over the executive branch, are running rampant through our system, tearing down things. Every regulation that protects workers and the environment is just being torn asunder. And the rhetoric is fearsome against people of color and fearsome against immigrants and it’s reached fever pitch. The difference now it seems to me though is that after that long struggle, these folks are in power. And that seems to be very different than some previous moments in our history when that really wasn’t the case completely.

JOHN NICHOLS Well, look, I would caution you again to go back to some of our history. And I’ll talk about two things here. Number one, in 1924 when Robert M. La Follette ran for President of the United States with support from activists in the NAACP, W.E.B. Dubois, and others. When La Follette ran, one of the reasons that he got such traction was because the Ku Klux Klan had become so very dominant within both the Democratic and the Republican parties at their conventions. And this is an important thing to understand. I think we reflect on our own history sometimes so casually and sometimes without a lot of perspective, that we forget we had times in this country within the last century where the Ku Klux Klan was a major force not merely marching in the streets of cities, but in our politics, influencing our politics.

And again, I would suggest to you that in the early 1950s, during the height of the Red Scare, yes, that was a targeting of people who were accused of being communists or fellow travelers. But there was also so much targeting of the Civil Rights Movement, of labor organizations in that. So there’s a long history in this country of people being in power and demonizing immigrants, people of color, those who raise political challenges. So that’s one part of it, Marc, and the only other part I would suggest to you is—I’m finishing a book now on Henry Wallace who was Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President, and in 1944, 75 years ago, Henry Wallace wrote a— I think 43′ or 44’— wrote an essay for The New York Times on what he referred to as “American fascism.”

And it’s an interesting thing that at that time, in the midst of World War II, Wallace said that it was important to understand that there could be an American fascism, that it would be very different from a lot of European fascism. It wouldn’t take the same form. And yet, it would have [inaudible] the core concern, and that is a division of people along lines of race and class and ethnicity and national origin. And that divisiveness would be used to empower economic elites. Now this is Wallace writing in the 1940s, and I really invite you. If you go back and read Henry Wallace’s essay from that time, it sounds an awfully lot like now.

MARC STEINER No, and it does.

JOHN NICHOLS So all I’ll tell you is the historical roots are there.

MARC STEINER No, no. The historic roots are there and I want to play this clip here. You know, one of things I said to you before we went on the air and I’ve said to numerous times over the years, John, is one of the reasons I love talking with you is because I can sometimes get [grunts] and get really negative saying, “this is like 1877.” And then, John, you bring up [laughs] Henry Wallace and the fight with La Follette. It’s good, which I love. That’s good. Thank you.

JOHN NICHOLS No, it’s in 1924 and 1944. Yeah. It’s a long historical discussion.

MARC STEINER So, but let’s take a quick. Before we run, let’s take a quick listen to Trump at this rally talk about Ilhan Omar and the chant that comes after this.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP When you see the four Congresswomen—Oh, isn’t that lovely? [crowd boos] Representative Ilhan Omar. [crowd boos] Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds. [crowd chants “Send her back!”]

MARC STEINER All right. So. Father Coughlin, you can leave [inaudible] and laugh for a minute. [laughs] But what I see here is a dangerous sign. I mean, this is—What you’re talking about, Wallace’s essay, I know that essay you’re talking about. And we are living in a time of a huge divide in this country and it’s driven by this fear. And that fear drives what he just did in that crowd. That’s a danger zone.

JOHN NICHOLS Yeah. Oh, I think it is. And again, this notion of “send her back” or “send him back” or “send them back” is hardly new. And it’s one that we have heard at various times in our history, and we’ve heard it used in various ways. Sometimes it is used against immigrants. One of the important things to remember is that during the Red Scare, the first Red Scare of 1919-1920, and then the second Red Scare of the 1950s. In each of those cases, there was a massive targeting of immigrants and of immigrant groups that—And the interesting thing was, these were people who had come to America, who had become citizens, who were fully part of the American experiment, and yet were suddenly targeted. Why were they targeted? Because they believed in the full promise of the Constitution, their First Amendment, their Bill of Rights.

They believed they could speak up on issues, and speak out, and disagree with the government, or disagree with those in power, that they could organize unions, and they could organize civil rights groups. And these immigrants were attacked for their outspokenness, for their full embrace of the best promise of the American experiment— that we all have a voice in this discourse. And that’s what I think we’re seeing now. And I think we have to be, we have to be very focused on that. I think we have to be very conscious of it because it is important not to lose sight of what Donald Trump is really, in many ways, trying to do here. It’s a two—I think it’s a two-step thing. Number one, it is of course to demonize, to otherize the immigrant. Even in this case, people who aren’t immigrants, people who have deep roots in this country. Remember, Ilhan Omar’s been in this country for decades. And the other three members of Congress that he references were born in this country.

MARC STEINER Right.

JOHN NICHOLS And so, this is first off, sort of, an assault on immigrants. But then much more deeply, an assault on in this case women of color. And finally, finally, an assault on dissenters, an assault on those who disagree with Donald Trump, and even in some cases with their own party. And to my mind, that is—We really ought not lose sight of that. We ought not lose sight of that first off because it’s what’s happening in my view, but also because this has deep roots in America, in the American struggle, and we have beaten this before. We have taken this on, and we have said no, that is not, that is not what America is about. And I really think it’s very vital that people do so again.

And I will remind you that when Joe McCarthy, a Republican, was doing things like this in the early 1950s, it was other Republicans like Margaret Chase Smith who stepped up and really shut him down, or at least challenged him on it. And I would ask you the question, where are those Republicans today? They are needed today. They need to be stepping up in big numbers and saying, Donald Trump is wrong. And it was horrifying to me when the House of Representatives voted on condemning Donald Trump. Instead of, you know, taking that opportunity to step up and do as Margaret Chase Smith had did to say no, 98% of Republicans in the House voted not to condemn Trump. And that’s a, in many ways, to me an even more troubling thing than what Trump says.

MARC STEINER Well, I want to say, John, as we have to go now that it’s really always good to hear you because I think it’s important to have a, kind of, positive message in terms of where we take this fight and not allowing us to be “oh, woe is me” when looking at our history and our future. So John, thank you so much for all you do and your writing. And I look forward to your next book and talking to you sooner than that.

JOHN NICHOLS I’m honored to be with you, my friends. Good conversation.

MARC STEINER Take care. John Nichols, The National Correspondent for The Nation. And I’m Marc Steiner here for The Real News Network. Thank you all for joining us. Take care.

https://therealnews.com/stories/trumps-racist-lies-about-ilhan-omar-define-the-republican-party
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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