How the United States lost the faith of its citizens—and what it can do to win them back
— Read on www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/america-is-not-a-democracy/550931/
-
-
www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/economy/biden-labor-unions.html
the president, by asking Congress to intervene and avert a strike, missed a rare opportunity to improve workers’ bargaining power in ways that could extend beyond the rail sector
Whether this group of workers has sick days or not on some level was not the issue,” said Kim Phillips-Fein, a historian at Columbia University who studies labor. “It was: What can people ask for and expect to win through collective action?”
That Mr. Biden did not take a stronger stand, she added, “suggested a political blindness to what was really at stake.”
Mr. Biden has “gestured in interesting ways in certain moments,” said Gabriel Winant, a labor historian at the University of Chicago. “But it doesn’t seem like he has the stomach to see the gestures through.”
Biden in this case revealed that I’m your friend, but I won’t risk anything for you,” said Joseph A. McCartin, a historian at Georgetown University who has written extensively about transportation labor disputes.
If Biden had intervened in a way that was more favorable and sympathetic to the rail workers, that would have been a sign of him really breaking with that model, and the model itself no longer seeming to fit the current moment,” said Ms. Phillips-Fein, the Columbia historian. “That it didn’t happen suggests the limits of his political imagination.”
-
FRIDAY 23 DECEMBER 2022
MORNING NEWS Notes
- The Jan 6th Committee report came out last night. Most of what is being talked about today is what we already knew. Last night, all they could talk about was that the report hadn’t been issued. This morning all they can talk about is how extensive the report is. Nothing much about what’s in the report. Typical. Nobody can actually read through the report. It’s Christmas. What a population.
- Yesterday, they released the transcript of Cassidy Hutchinson’s interview with the Committee. What a sleaze of a lawyer she had. He has now taken a leave of absence from his law firm. She also went to her father (who is a Trumper) for help and he turned her down. That’s classic.
- Pooper is at the bottom of our bed, curled up in his brown heated bed, sniffing the air. The door to the upstairs patio is open, so he can smell his world. The cats have already been outside for their walk and back in for morning tuna, it’s too cold. Pooper has on his calming collar and has had his anti-depressant this morning. All is right in his world. A few years ago, he was outside under the hood of our car, five weeks old, hungry, alone. Now, he rules the house.
- Paul Gosar was evidently texting with Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” groups while he was holed up in the Capital. Why is he not in jail?
- Fox News is claiming that churches all over the country are under assault by pro-abortion groups.
- Russia has increased the number of missile carriers in the Black Sea.
-
WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2022
Well, it’s the week before Christmas and we have done nothing except put up a tree we haven’t decorated. The corporate media has already started the “feel good” stories, can’t have the masses remember that the country is falling apart on Christmas.
Zelensky is coming to the states and giving an address before Congress tonight. I am terrified. I hope the Republicans don’t even show up. I keep having these flashbacks of Samuel Alito saying “not true” during Obama’s State of the Union speech.
NBC
- McCaffrey: Russia has turned into an “aggressor nation.”
- Russia is strongarming Belarus to take part in a new offensive. This is a crucial time for Ukraine.
- Julia Ioffee: Zelensky was a “deeply unpopular” president at the first of the year. But, with the invasion he demonstrated that he was the man needed. He was especially needed to speak to the media and mobilize support for Ukraine. He demonstrated the spine to not run and also an understanding of social media and communications. A Jewish president has united a country that has had a troubled past with Jewishness. Ukraine is moving forward. Russia is not.
- The new aid package from the U.S. is $44 billion. This includes a Patriot Missile package.
- Biden has expressed agitation with Zelensky in the past about the pace of arming.
- MSNBC Reporter: Republicans see this (blocking funds for Ukraine) as a chance to “bring some of those dollars back home.” (Note: They are planning to bring those dollars back to their doners and themselves).
- (Note: Russia has said that it will move arms near the border with Finland in response to the moves to join NATO.)
- McCaffrey: The money being used in Ukraine is nothing compared with the money spent on Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Ioffe: It’s hard to know about the support for the war in Russia. You can go to jail for “discrediting” the armed forces. Who would tell a pollster in Russia what they really thought about the war? Putin’s hold on power is “stronger than ever.” Over a million Russians have fled the country, they are outside the country and that’s “great for Putin.” He is strongarming Belarus to allow weapons on their territory. Belarus has been resisting this.
- McCaffrey: There is no way Putin will seize the entire Black Sea area. “I had no idea the Russian army was that corrupt.” The Russians undoubtedly have a “spring offensive” coming.
- They are not even sure that Republicans will show up for this speech by Zelensky.
- How much opposition is there from the Republicans? The fact that Schumer has to say he’s not sure the Republicans will show up says it all. McCarthy is attending the speech.
Zelensky/Biden Press Conference
- Biden: Putin is escalating his attacks against Ukraine. This is the 300 day mark since the launching of the invasion.
- (Note: This quoting of a laundry list of numbers “ten.five billion gloves, etc” makes me crazy Who are they talking to? Who do they think listens to this, is impressed by this?)
- (Note: Biden cannot run again.)
- Corporate journalist question: “Mr. Zelensky, what is your message to the American people.” Boy, that was a thought-provoking question.
MSNBC
- “Life is becoming unbearable” former aide to Zelensky says about conditions in Ukraine.
- “The thing that scares me most of this so-called Ukraine fatigue.” Former aide to Zelensky.
-
Alex Murdaugh’s story is a salty stew of wealth, power, corruption, vice and violence. And it’s found a global audience.
— Read on www.postandcourier.com/content/tncms/live/Wonder why this rich, connected white man will not face the death penalty? BECAUSE THEY NEVER DO.
-
If you are poor, the chances of being sentenced to death are immensely higher than if you are rich. There could be no greater indictment of the death penalty than the fact that in practice it is really a penalty reserved for people from lower socio-economic groups
— Read on www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2017/10/death-penalty-disproportionately-affects-poor-un-rights-experts-warn -
Opus Dei Grows in U.S. – ABC News
— Read on abcnews.go.com/US/story -
“Opus Dei is an efficient machine run to achieve worldly power,” wrote investigative reporter Penny Lernoux in her book, People of God.
— Read on churchandstate.org.uk/2019/06/opus-deis-influence-is-felt-in-all-of-washingtons-corridors-of-power/ -
Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine may not have resulted in the dramatic economic collapse some predicted — but they have still had a far-reaching impact.
— Read on www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/12/10/7-unexpected-ways-western-sanctions-have-affected-life-in-russia-a79507 -
Canada’s government on Monday announced the start of a process to seize $26 million in assets from a company owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
— Read on www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/12/19/canada-moves-to-seize-26m-from-russian-oligarch-roman-abramovich-a79744 -
Putin visited Belarus for the first time since 2019 after Moscow’s recent battlefield setbacks, fuelling Ukrainian fears he would pressure Minsk to open a new invasion front.
-
Reached by phone inside Russian hospitals, wounded soldiers described being sent to war with little food, training, bullets or equipment — and watching about two-thirds of their platoon get killed.
Materials recovered from battlefields point to the military’s lack of preparation: a map from the 1960s, a Wikipedia printout on how to operate a sniper rifle, a wildly optimistic timetable for Russia’s invasion. In interviews, one soldier recalled asking how to use his rifle just before heading off to battle, while another described how his supervisor revealed they were going to war: “Tomorrow you are going to Ukraine to fuck up some shit.”
One NATO member is warning allies that Mr. Putin might accept the death or injury of as many as 300,000 Russian troops — roughly three times his estimated losses so far.
-
No surprise Russia’s military wants me for cannon fodder but why did they think I’d be home when they called?
— Read on www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/03/alexander-litvinenko-poison-polonium-kremlin-russia-war-ukraine-spies
Law, Power, and Justice 