Politics-What's on your mind?

[Bèsame*]

[homoe]

Originally Posted by Bèsame*

.........

[GeorgiaMa'am]

"[Trump] leaves office with an approval rating of 34%, a record low for a departing president."

Source: BBC

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Parler.com needs to find a new web hosting service, and get back on the internet. Twitter users who get themselves booted off need to find a new platform.

I know, I know, what people use these services to say is often reprehensible. They spread lies. They are rumor mills for the right wing and Donald T***p.

But many right-wingers believe that their First Amendment right to freedom of speech is being threatened. And do you know what? They're right - in a way. In reality, these people violated the Terms of Service - parler.com with Amazon Web Services, and individual users with Twitter (although I'm not really sure about Twitter - is it against Twitter's TOS to lie? to foment discord? To spout conspiracy theories? to have an unpopular opinion? I doubt it.) The TOS are within the purview of the owners of Amazon and Twitter, though. Just as with newspapers, it's the publisher who has freedom of speech. But when someone is censored from a popular web-based platform, I'm sure to the individual it feels like their freedom of speech has been trampled on.

Now of course, illegal activities should not be tolerated on any web-based platform, nothing from inciting an insurrection of the U.S. government, to child pornography. But unless there's a law preventing it, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and even T***p, should be able to talk about QAnon and voter fraud all they want. Unfortunately there will always be suckers and stupid people who believe them. But please may there always be good people who are willing to stand up and prove them wrong.

Freedom of speech in a democratic society is important. Suppression of speech is what dictators and communist governments do. Even wackos need to express themselves. By allowing them to do so, we help ensure that all voices can be heard - no matter what the current popular opinion is. (I feel kind of stupid even writing this last paragraph. You don't need a Civics lesson from me.)

* * *

To hear an interesting podcast that led me to write about this, check out some dissenting voices on 'What Kind of Message is That?' How Republicans See the Attack on the Capitol from The Daily podcast by the New York Times. It's short, only about 20 minutes.

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by homoe

~~
just think only about 20 hours left of 45!!

https://www.democracynow.org/

[C0LLETTE]

Today's Globe and Mail Editorial:

Canada is not the United States – and amen to that – but no country on Earth has more of a stake in the Great Republic’s success. Our relationship is not that of a competitor who wins when America fails, but rather a partner who can’t get ahead if the other guy keeps falling down on the job, or a neighbour who can’t get a night’s sleep because the people next door won’t stop smashing dishes and setting fires on the lawn.

As comedian Robin Williams once put it, Canada is like someone living above a meth lab – a description the Donald Trump era transformed from joke to geography lesson.

Because we share a continent, a language and the world’s longest undefended border, open to the migration of ideas and culture, our floor and their ceiling aren’t thick enough to keep what goes wrong there, there. As such, we can’t live our best life up here until the family downstairs starts talking seriously about turning their lives around, and gets into rehab.

That’s why Jan. 20, 2021, is a good day for Canada. The swearing-in of President Joe Biden is the first step in America’s 12-step program.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I'm afraid that Jimmy Carter is probably seriously declining in his health. He's 96 years old, after all. But not only that, he didn't attend the inauguration ceremony today. I also noticed that he recently did not attend another gathering where all of the other former presidents were in attendance (although I can't remember what that event was). In both cases, he did make statements that were read aloud at the events.

Whatever anyone may think of President Carter's failures and successes as Governor of Georgia and President of the United States, he is a good man. I believe he has been a force for good in the world. I hope he is well and that he will continue to be with us for a long time.

[~ocean]

I love the way he thinks ~ our President " Biden tells appointees 'I will fire you on the spot' for showing disrespect to colleagues " so many people were bullied by that psychopath. ~ they will find their way back !

[Kätzchen]

Nancy Pelosi invoked Dinah Washington today during her press conference. That makes my heart happy to know that a larger body of voters chose sanity and voted for a Biden-Harris administration.

I also like how she said that lawmakers who had ties to Jan 6th will be prosecuted for their roles in the violent insurrection.



Also, I loved the beautiful coats Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President wore on inauguration day. So beautiful, the colors they wore.

[Orema]

Biden Has Already Fired Three of Trump’s Worst Appointees
By Mark Joseph Stern. Jan 20, 20216:44 PM


President Joe Biden arrives to swear in presidential appointees during a virtual ceremony at the White House. Jim Watson/Getty Images

Many of Donald Trump’s most notorious appointees, including his Cabinet secretaries, resigned shortly before Joe Biden took office. But myriad officials whom Trump installed in the executive branch remained in spite of their antagonism toward the new president’s agenda. Hours into his presidency, Biden has already ousted three of his predecessors’ most unqualified and corrupt appointees. This clean break sends a clear message that Biden will not tolerate hostile Trump holdovers in his administration, including those with time remaining in their terms.

First, Biden terminated Michael Pack, who was confirmed to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media in June. Pack sought to transform the agency, which oversees the international broadcaster Voice of America, into a propaganda outlet for Trump—despite a statutory mandate that prohibits such political interference. He purged the staff of VOA and its sister networks, replaced them with Trump loyalists, demanded pro-Trump coverage, and unconstitutionally punished remaining journalists who did actual reporting on the administration. In a perverse move, he refused to renew visas for foreign reporters who covered their home countries, subjecting them to retribution by authoritarian regimes. Pack also illegally fired the board of the Open Technology Fund, which promotes international internet freedom, and replaced them with Republican activists.

Following whistleblower complaints, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found a “substantial likelihood” that Pack had violated federal law and engaged in “gross mismanagement.” He was eight months into his three-year term when Biden demanded his resignation shortly after taking the oath of office. In his resignation letter, Pack complained that his termination “will long be viewed as a partisan act” without any apparent sense of irony.

Second, Biden sacked Kathleen Kraninger, who was confirmed as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2018. Kraninger, who had no previous experience in consumer protection, immediately tried to undermine the agency’s role as a watchdog for the financial sector. She scrapped a landmark rule that restricted predatory payday lending, pressuring staff to downplay the resulting harm to consumers. And she refused to enforce a federal law that protected military personnel against a broad range of predatory lending. Her decision yanked federal support from military families who were defrauded by lenders. In the midst of the pandemic, Kraninger also approved a rule that allows debt collectors to harass Americans with limitless texts and emails demanding repayment.

Through the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress gave the CFPB’s director significant independence by barring the president from firing her over political disagreements. In 2020, though, the Supreme Court found this protection unconstitutional. Kraninger supported that decision, which paved the way for her termination on Wednesday. Had the court upheld the agency’s independence, Kraninger could have remained in office through the end of 2023.

Third, Biden demanded the resignation of Peter Robb, who was confirmed as the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel in 2017. The NLRB was created to enforce federal laws that guarantee workers the right to form a union and bargain collectively. Yet Robb is vehemently anti-union; during his tenure, he tried to limit employees’ free speech, give managers more leeway to engage in wage theft, hobble unions’ ability to collect dues, and prevent employers from helping workers organize. He also tried to seize near-total control of the agency by demoting every regional director and consolidating power in his office. If successful, this gambit would’ve given him unprecedented authority to bust existing unions and prevent new ones from forming.

Robb’s term is set to end in November, but Biden has authority to fire him before then. On Wednesday evening, Robb announced that he would not step down voluntarily, stating that his resignation “would set an unfortunate precedent.” (In reality, the precedent has already been set: President Harry Truman demanded the resignation of NLRB general counsel Robert N. Denham in 1950 over political disputes.) Biden fired him shortly thereafter.

Pack, Kraninger, and Robb are the tip of the iceberg: Trump spent his presidency packing the federal government with Republicans eager to undermine the missions of the agencies they led. But Biden’s aggressive action upon taking office should be encouraging for progressives, since it indicates that the new president will move swiftly to fire Trump allies with high positions in the executive branch. Moreover, Biden should not have much trouble replacing these holdovers with Democrats in control of the Senate. (Republicans cannot filibuster nominees to the executive branch.) The new president undoubtedly faces legislative challenges ahead. But in the meantime, he can rapidly erase the legacy of the Trump administration by simply replacing Trump’s lackeys with qualified civil servants eager to do the job right.

Update, Jan. 20, 2021: This article has been updated to note that Peter Robb refused to step down.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...eter-robb.html

[Orema]

Why Congress Gave Lloyd Austin a Pass
Another retired general will be secretary of defense—and nobody in Washington seems that bothered by it.

By Fred Kaplan, Jan 21, 20215:34 PM


Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday. Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images

And so another retired general will be secretary of defense. When President Joe Biden nominated former Army commander Lloyd Austin for the post last month, several senators—including some Democrats—said they would oppose his confirmation, leery of eroding the tradition of civilian control over the military.

The Defense Department’s founders, back in 1947, were so adamant about civilian leadership that they wrote a law barring military officers from taking the job until at least seven years after retiring—unless both houses of Congress pass a formal waiver exempting them from the rule. After voting to grant a waiver to retired Gen. Jim Mattis at the start of the Trump administration, Jack Reed, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged never to do so again, saying that it shouldn’t happen more than once a generation. (Mattis was only the second defense secretary in history to get a waiver; the first was Gen. George Marshall, in 1950.)

But on Thursday, after the House approved a waiver, the Senate Armed Services Committee—which Reed now chairs—did the same, and then confirmed his nomination, on a voice vote. The full Senate is almost certain to do the same.

Congress gave Austin a pass for three reasons. First, the Senate tends to let a president choose his top Cabinet secretaries as long as they’re at least somewhat qualified for the job, and Austin—who was the Army’s vice chief of staff as well as commander of U.S. Central Command—is certainly qualified.

Second, Austin would be the first Black defense secretary, and rejecting him, for whatever reason, would send a dangerous signal at a time when even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have openly expressed concern about the rise of white supremacist views within the military ranks. (Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, made precisely this argument on Monday in a letter urging colleagues to vote for a waiver.) This is especially true since Austin, in his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, committed to rooting out extremist views from the armed forces as a top priority. (He also pledged zero tolerance of sexual harassment.)

Finally, at that same hearing, Austin said many times, in many ways, that he would rely heavily on the Pentagon’s top civilian officials, turning to them for advice even more than he would turn to the Joint Chiefs. He even said that he would regard the presumptive deputy secretary of defense, Kathleen Hicks, as a “partner” in setting policy—unusual, as deputy secretaries usually play a more managerial role, running the Pentagon’s day-to-day operations. Austin also said he would routinely consult with Colin Kahl, nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy, touting him at one point as a “very talented young man.” (Kahl will turn 50 this year, though Austin, who is 67, has known him since Kahl was in his late 30s. The two worked closely together during President Barack Obama’s first term, when Austin was the last commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Kahl was deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East affairs.)

Austin’s pledge to work with the Pentagon’s top civilians seemed sincere—he also knew Hicks from when he was commander of CentCom and she was deputy undersecretary for policy. More than that, it stood in stark contrast with Mattis, who, as defense secretary, surrounded himself with a tight entourage of fellow Marine officers and ignored or dismissed civilian advice and analysis. In part for that reason, Mattis was an undistinguished secretary. Though he earned plaudits and scorn for restraining Trump’s belligerence toward U.S. allies, he imposed no discipline on the military’s unleashed appetite for weapons systems and left no legacy on defense policy broadly.

In other words, a great military commander doesn’t make a great secretary of defense; if anything, history suggests the contrary. The two jobs entail very different skill sets. Mattis’ failure, which highlighted this distinction, heightened many lawmakers’ concerns about confirming Austin; they didn’t want the militarization of the job to become normal.

So why did Biden choose Austin? The reason seems clear: Biden has known him for many years, trusts his judgment, and regards him as a member of his inner circle. The same is true of the other top members of his foreign policy team. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Colin Kahl all worked as Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president; Blinken also served as Biden’s staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines also worked on Biden’s Senate staff, then became Obama’s deputy national security adviser and deputy director of the CIA, where she continued to have contact with Biden.

Biden and Austin got to know each other well in Iraq, when Austin was commander of U.S. troops and Biden was entrusted by Obama to work out the details of the American withdrawal. The two became particularly close when Biden’s late son, Beau, served on Austin’s staff in Iraq in 2008–09. As Bryan Bender and Lara Seligman reported in Politico, “Austin and the younger Biden attended Mass together, sitting side-by-side almost every Sunday, and they kept in touch after Beau returned from his deployment.”

There’s nothing wrong with this. A president must have trust in his Cabinet secretaries, especially the defense secretary, who speaks with the highest authority in advising him whether or not to send troops into combat. And this trust can be based on whatever makes the president comfortable. Biden is comfortable with Austin. Austin says he’ll rely for advice on a very competent crew of civilian advisers—not just Hicks and Kahl, but also 22 new midlevel specialists, many of whom worked in the transition team (along with Hicks and Kahl), don’t require Senate confirmation, and were sworn in on Wednesday.

Maybe it will all work out.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...se-waiver.html

[Bèsame*]

I loved how the women made such a huge statement yesterday. Loved each outfit too!

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Originally Posted by Orema

. . . By Fred Kaplan, Jan 21, 20215:34 PM

. . . even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have openly expressed concern about the rise of white supremacist views within the military ranks.

This is so disheartening. I thought the military was one of the great equalizers, like all "I've got your back" and bro-ey, exposing people from different areas of the country to each other, etc. I have probably absorbed too many "join the Army" commercials and movies and episodes of MASH.

Of course, they're misogynistic as hell.

[Kätzchen]

Does it make anybody else mad to know that the Supreme court put the kibosh on the lower courts to not do anything about TP's penchant (behavioral issues) for benefitting from his organization and how he's made a f*ck ton of money off his golfing episodes, and other ripping-off-the-tax-payers at any expense, type of b.s., right in plain sight?

All I'm gonna say is I will be *SO* upset if they let this white collar con-man, sex perp, criminal off the hook.

Please, please, convict this former president.

While we're at it, I know it's wishful thinking (sort of), could be also make sure it went down in history that law makers in the Senate did the right thing and held this horrid person accountable?

Please. For the sake of our future, please please let the 'hands of justice' prevail.

[BullDog]

Rand Paul forced a vote in the Senate today declaring the impeachment trial for Trump was unconstitutional. It failed but only by a 55-45 vote. So only 5 Republican senators voted it was constitutional to hold an impeachment trial for Trump after he incited a violent insurrection to overturn the election and our government, where his own vice president and others were at risk of being executed.

This isn't the final vote - the trial hasn't started yet but we can see where it's headed.

I never thought there would be enough Republicans to convict but this is truly abysmal.


The 5 Republicans who voted that it was constitutional to hold the trial were:

Susan Collins (Maine)
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Mitt Romney (Utah)
Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

[homoe]

Originally Posted by BullDog

Rand Paul forced a vote in the Senate today declaring the impeachment trial for Trump was unconstitutional. It failed but only by a 55-45 vote. So only 5 Republican senators voted it was constitutional to hold an impeachment trial for Trump after he incited a violent insurrection to overturn the election and our government, where his own vice president and others were at risk of being executed.

This isn't the final vote - the trial hasn't started yet but we can see where it's headed.

I never thought there would be enough Republicans to convict but this is truly abysmal.


The 5 Republicans who voted that it was constitutional to hold the trial were:

Susan Collins (Maine)
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Mitt Romney (Utah)
Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

I guess Collins realized at some point Trump didn't learn his lesson after all!

But still, in my opinion, she's a little too late!

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

I guess Collins realized at some point Trump didn't learn his lesson after all!

But still, in my opinion, she's a little too late!

From the lips of Susan Collins around Feb 2020 on her vote NOT to impeach..

[Kätzchen]

I read this op-ed this evening. It's message is crystal clear. I hope more people like her will keep voicing their social opinions on the horrors from yesteryear and why it is so important for accountability, right now.

*****************************
************************
*****************

I witnessed the rise of Nazism firsthand. We must act now to protect American democracy.

Opinion by Irene Butter

Editors Note: Dr. Irene Butter is a Holocaust survivor. She came to the United States in 1945. Since the late 1980s, Dr. Butter has been teaching students about the Holocaust. Her memoir,
"Shores Beyond Shores," details that journey. She is a co-founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Medal and Lecture series at the University of Michigan, and one of the founders of Zeitouna, an Arab-Jewish women's dialogue group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

(CNN) I am a survivor of the Holocaust and a proud American. I first landed on the shores of this country in Baltimore Harbor on December 25, 1945, under a brittle blue, clear sky. My lifeboat was lowered from a Liberty ship into the watery space between ice floes and I stepped onto the land that welcomed me.

I was a 15-year-old refugee with a sixth-grade education, broken English, no money and a small knapsack of belongings. America allowed me to receive an education, build a career, a family, and a new life -- away from the Nazis.

Just as America was there for me and people like me, we must now be there for America. Ours is the land of opportunity. We must now rebuild and protect it against the current fascism that threatens it.

I was born in Berlin in 1930, a Jewish girl who grew up in Nazi-occupied Europe. My childhood was quite idyllic: I had loving, funny parents and grandparents, and a beautiful, music-filled home. I was three years old when the Nazis came to power and began targeting the Jews, step by step.

Early on, Jews were forbidden from owning or working in banks under Nazi race laws, and my father lost his job. He left for Holland in search of one, as well as to escape Hitler. My family -- me, my mom and older brother -- were able to follow not long after. We settled in Amsterdam.

In 1940, the Nazis had occupied the Netherlands and the persecution of Jews escalated. We were eventually deported in cattle cars to Camp Westerbork in eastern Holland, and ultimately to the infamous Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany.

Having barely survived hunger, forced labor, beatings, disease and cold at Bergen-Belsen, my family was included in a prisoner exchange. We were among the limited number of Jews to be traded for German civilians and boarded a train bound for Switzerland.

On January 23, 1945, my father died on the train from malnutrition and a brutal beating by the Nazis. He had gotten his family to freedom. My mother and brother were so ill that they were hospitalized immediately upon arrival in Switzerland. However, the Swiss would not let me stay with my family. So, at age 14, I was separated from them for the first time in my life and sent to a refugee camp in Algeria, North Africa.

A year later, I landed in America, and eventually was reunited with my brother and mother. Up until that moment on Baltimore's shores, my journey had been by command and not by choice. My parents hadn't chosen to move to Amsterdam -- they were forced to. We didn't choose to be sent to the concentration camps -- we were forced to. I didn't choose to live in Algeria alone as a refugee -- I was forced to.

But finally, in America, I had choices and could exercise my free will. There were no restrictions. No yellow stars on clothing. No men with guns stopping people to see papers. Only opportunity.

Now, 75 years later, I see something I never imagined: echoes of the Nazis and their regime. What happened in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, was an attempted coup of our government and an unraveling of the democracy that protects all of our rights. I saw a T-shirt with the words "Camp Auschwitz," as well as other anti-Semitic symbols and slogans used by the rioters.

Decades earlier, I heard an interview on the radio with Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who said, "If you were in the camps, if you smelled the air and heard the silence of the dead, then it's your duty to be a witness and tell the stories." It took me 40 years to start talking, and I am not finished yet.

The disinformation, distortion and denial of human rights and democracy that resulted in the Holocaust must not happen again. We must speak truth to fascism. The United Nations and UNESCO were founded in 1945, the same year as my liberation, in the wake of the Holocaust. Today, the UN and UNESCO educate the contemporary world about this history and how to recognize threats to democracy when they occur. Their work helps to establish an accurate historical record and encourages witnesses and others to speak out and teach truth.

The massive, violent assault on our Capitol is an awakening for us that our American democracy is vulnerable and needs protection. Democratic institutions need to be strengthened and government officials held responsible and accountable.

Four years ago, we could not have guessed that rioters with Nazi symbols would break into the Capitol to subvert a fairly elected president. None of us can afford to be a bystander to history. We all must confront racism and hatred when we see it. We must establish a record, encourage witnesses and others to speak out, and teach truth. Each of us can and must make a difference.

To me, education is the quintessential endeavor to combat the threat of fascism. The crisis in our country today brings opportunities for positive change. Each of us has the opportunity to make a choice:

• to be a survivor defined by the life we make for ourselves, and not a victim defined only by the harm done to us;
  
• to refuse to be enemies, seeking our common humanity;
  
• to never be a bystander to injustice, standing up for others even if we do not know them;
  
• to fill the world with love and hope, not hate and division.

As I share my history through my book, and in schools across the country, I am overcome with gratitude and amazement at students' wisdom and curiosity. Young people are hungry to learn how to stand up against hatred, bullying, oppression and discrimination. They are wise, strong and ready.

Let's stand with these students and continue to educate and involve them -- and allow them to educate us. They will one day be the leaders of this democracy. Let's build a better America and a better world, together.

(LINK)

[nhplowboi]

I would like every one of our cowardly Republican politicians, to stand in front of the families of those killed in the insurrection and explain why Donald Trump should not be held responsible. I understand they were all safely ensconced in their own little hidey spots while others were dying but how can they look the other way when these deaths are on the hands of the Republican Trump administration.

[homoe]

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will have 'conversation' with Marjorie Taylor Greene after her 'disturbing' comments on social media.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has only been representing Georgia’s 14th congressional district in Washington for a few weeks but she’s already made a big name for herself…as one of the most batshit crazy elected officials in recent history, a title for which there is major competition these days. After voicing her support on the campaign trail for such conspiracies as QAnon, Pizzagate, and one about the Pentagon not actually being hit by a plane on 9/11, Greene has wasted no time making it as clear as possible that she is a dangerous lunatic who should not be allowed anywhere near the halls of power. On her first day in office, which took place on January 3, she wore a mask that read, “Trump Won.” Days later, during the certification of Joe Biden’s win, she objected to counting Michigan’s electoral votes. While sheltering in place during the riot that occurred shortly thereafter, she refused to wear a mask, despite being in close proximity with other people.

Here's just the tip of the iceberg:

A review of hundreds of posts and comments on Greene's Facebook page revealed her past support of and engagement with numerous far-right QAnon conspiracy theories.

In April 2018, on a post she wrote about the Obama administration’s Iran deal, a commenter asked her, “Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H & O ???,” meaning Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. To which Greene responded: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

Greene repeatedly expressed support on social media for assassinating leading Democrats, once liking a Facebook comment in 2019 that said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should get a "bullet to the head."

CNN reported that in February 2019, Greene broadcast a Facebook Live video from inside Pelosi's office saying the speaker would "suffer death or she'll be in prison" for treason.

The freshman lawmaker also reportedly endorsed conspiracy theories that both the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which killed 26 people, including 20 elementary-school children, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting - which left 17 dead - were staged.