tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-96485102024-03-07T13:14:15.885-05:00True Blue Liberalhelping reclaim america from the dark side since 2004True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.comBlogger1255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-78958280070167536522024-01-13T19:50:00.004-05:002024-01-13T20:11:50.118-05:00Joe Biden needs to know that this anti-war movement is not going away.<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdA55uuwEw_yavmcUT7obiRzhJkMlMsP3pH2jOrBYK3ZVzRKrebeba_nhWBUnodEEPfm7jDtA56kL2MoJ5WMTjqa6ozYl-2MBCe6mexvkQHHTq-SiU-24ZuecV2F_8JFQoTaHabTq6KISHOglrm2Y1KF72pRjgcj3C6yCY2ppC0tA3co-q4uI/s3056/20240113_153934.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="2215" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdA55uuwEw_yavmcUT7obiRzhJkMlMsP3pH2jOrBYK3ZVzRKrebeba_nhWBUnodEEPfm7jDtA56kL2MoJ5WMTjqa6ozYl-2MBCe6mexvkQHHTq-SiU-24ZuecV2F_8JFQoTaHabTq6KISHOglrm2Y1KF72pRjgcj3C6yCY2ppC0tA3co-q4uI/w232-h320/20240113_153934.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Today's Washington, D.C., march <br />captured on CNN, 1/13/2024</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Those of us who lived through and participated in the anti-[Vietnam]war movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s know that this anti[Gaza]-war movement of 2023-24 will have an effect on the 2024 election, at least at the margins. Joe Biden, who was a politically-aware young adult finishing law school in <a href="https://trueblueliberal.blogspot.com/2023/12/all-way-with-lbj-redux-or-joe-bidens.html" target="_blank">1968 when L.B.J. dropped out of the presidential race a little more than seven months before the election</a>, should know this better than most.<p></p><p>Joe Biden needs to take this movement, which immediately brought thousands of students out on college campuses in October and hundreds of thousands of people of all ages to the streets of Washington, D.C., in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/04/1210678164/tens-of-thousands-rally-in-d-c-for-israel-gaza-cease-fire-at-pro-palestinian-mar" target="_blank">November</a>, December, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/march-on-washington-ceasefire-gaza" target="_blank">today</a>, as seriously as Johnson took the demonstrators protesting "Johnson's war." For many of these protestors, the bombing of Gaza's civilians is as much "Biden's War" and the product of U.S. foreign policy and weapons as it is the fault of Benjamin Netanyahu.</p><p>The people in this march today -- these people and organizations posting on Twitter/X about the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23March4Gaza&src=typeahead_click&f=top" target="_blank">#March4Gaza</a> today -- will not be voting for Donald J. Trump in November, but a significant number of them won't be voting for Joe Biden either. He certainly can't take young voters for granted in this cycle.</p><p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">NOW: We've brought Biden's atrocities to his front lawn.<br /><br />Since October 7th, US-backed Israeli forces have killed over 10,000 children in Gaza. The blood is on Biden's hands!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/March4Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#March4Gaza</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LetGazaLive?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LetGazaLive</a> <a href="https://t.co/rM8UlFRcUl">pic.twitter.com/rM8UlFRcUl</a></p>— CODEPINK (@codepink) <a href="https://twitter.com/codepink/status/1746288716992131142?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Watch a time lapse video showing the enormous size of the historic National <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/March4Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#March4Gaza</a>! Organizers estimate that 400,000 attended<br /><br />Initiated by the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine with ANSWER as National Partner, the action demanded: end the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza! <a href="https://t.co/1fxevLzn3r">pic.twitter.com/1fxevLzn3r</a></p>— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) <a href="https://twitter.com/answercoalition/status/1746315961584546247?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GenocideJoe?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GenocideJoe</a> makes surprise appearance at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/March4Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#March4Gaza</a> <a href="https://t.co/fmB7fgR1pD">pic.twitter.com/fmB7fgR1pD</a></p>— #StopCopCity (@ChuckModi1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckModi1/status/1746314700483068074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">🇵🇸 It’s official! ✌🏼 400,000+ marched on Washington for Gaza today demanding President Biden end the genocide in Gaza and stop all funding to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ApartheidIsrael?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ApartheidIsrael</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LetGazaLive?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LetGazaLive</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreePalestine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FreePalestine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/March4Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#March4Gaza</a> <a href="https://t.co/WkeAEPPY7Y">pic.twitter.com/WkeAEPPY7Y</a></p>— American Muslims for Palestine (@AMPalestine) <a href="https://twitter.com/AMPalestine/status/1746313295198310687?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">📣BIDEN, BIDEN YOU CAN’T HIDE! YOU’RE SUPPORTING GENOCIDE!<br /><br />A beautiful crowd standing in solidarity with Palestine is now forming on Freedom Plaza for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/March4Gaza?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#March4Gaza</a> 🇵🇸 <a href="https://t.co/LlDPXvioxx">pic.twitter.com/LlDPXvioxx</a></p>— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) <a href="https://twitter.com/pslnational/status/1746206871411716313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-61052142982342948932023-12-25T18:47:00.001-05:002023-12-26T09:01:13.730-05:00All the Way with LBJ Redux or: Joe Biden's age problem isn't his age, but the age of his voters.<p><br />I'll start this off by coming clean and saying that I'm 68-years-old and I'll be voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in less than eleven months (or for whichever Democrat is running against Donald Trump or another Republican next November), but if I were 18 years old, I might not be.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezk0TjF4FwmWuEDNjMxkvXl70LWiK78cmidGohe2JuCAflSeKwSG_oeAqyx6q4-4Db2ksUYzxOmS71pIPUMocTF7uZUeJsJz8960BAM3yccoLACcO7gvmUSeiE4WVaLdQjn-Nsc1apwI0YcO_CGa89SftJHGYCGQNaR3BHd8S1jidsfTd5yM/s479/lbj%20campaign%20button.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="All the Way LBJ campaign button" border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="459" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezk0TjF4FwmWuEDNjMxkvXl70LWiK78cmidGohe2JuCAflSeKwSG_oeAqyx6q4-4Db2ksUYzxOmS71pIPUMocTF7uZUeJsJz8960BAM3yccoLACcO7gvmUSeiE4WVaLdQjn-Nsc1apwI0YcO_CGa89SftJHGYCGQNaR3BHd8S1jidsfTd5yM/w192-h200/lbj%20campaign%20button.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>We look back at Lyndon Baines Johnson now and many of us see the lasting legacy of his presidency in the triumph of Great Society programs, when Medicare was passed and when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally codified many of the demands of the Civil Rights movement. In 1968, however, there was nothing on many young people's minds but his role as the face of the Vietnam War. I was a young teen and the voting age was still 21 at the time, but I would have voted for <i>anyone</i> other than the president presiding over that war. I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I walk through neighborhoods where the stickers on lampposts are about the killing that is currently happening in Gaza -- killing that is being fueled by U.S. weapons that are being tied to <a href="https://time.com/6342821/israel-airstrike-us-military-war-crimes/" target="_blank">possible war crimes.</a> There are a lot of young voters who aren't as concerned as older voters with Biden victories like the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, the $1.9 trillion in Covid relief, the confirmation of a large and very diverse crop new Federal judges, or falling unemployment, or a falling rate of inflation, or even avoiding the recession that was being almost uniformly predicted for the last three years. I can say that, for me, <i>none</i> of those domestic issues would have mattered until I was married with a child in the depths of the Reagan/Bush era.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjraTo-xWYG_v47C2Aue28dtjhH_W9ki09-ukKswhXysj0ST2p3-a9UA8iS5a4_PZRyIoVISgYPtrbDBdre30aURHnlj5TSd6_cscZ_Q9cf-6DARwaN9F8BzALH0i_CXwBLWqhwMEAl1x8i_ir5S6_C2DYm7nyE8m-PVLZNZIvHTLwpFKiSnk8/s447/LBJ%20Mushroom%20Cloud%20Button.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="All the Way LBJ protest button" border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="447" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjraTo-xWYG_v47C2Aue28dtjhH_W9ki09-ukKswhXysj0ST2p3-a9UA8iS5a4_PZRyIoVISgYPtrbDBdre30aURHnlj5TSd6_cscZ_Q9cf-6DARwaN9F8BzALH0i_CXwBLWqhwMEAl1x8i_ir5S6_C2DYm7nyE8m-PVLZNZIvHTLwpFKiSnk8/w200-h181/LBJ%20Mushroom%20Cloud%20Button.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />In today's <i>New York Times</i>, the headline "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/24/us/gaza-vietnam-student-protest.html" target="_blank">In Campus Protests Over Gaza, Echoes of Outcry Over Vietnam</a>" appeared and it only confirms what I've been seeing and fearing about young voters. Gaza will be an overriding issue for some of them, and I don't blame them; if I were fifty years younger, I would <i>be</i> them. Will college protesters and others who are horrified by what they see from Gaza on television and social media shift their votes from Biden to Trump in large numbers? Of course not. But they might stay home or vote for Cornell West or RFK, Jr., or Jill Stein. And us old folks can't tell them they're throwing away their votes. Don't we remember that young people are smarter than their elders? I certainly couldn't have been told that I was throwing away my support when -- as a 16-year-old non-voting anti-war protester -- I was 100% behind Bejamin Spock of the People's Party over the too-moderate-for-me George McGovern.<p></p><p>In these days when pundits like to act as if the major party nominees have already been confirmed nine months before the party conventions, it's hard to remember how late in the process LBJ bowed out of the 1968 contest. 1968 was a year of shocks, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy [Sr.], through Russian tanks in Prague, general strikes in France, and violent cops on the streets of Chicago, but before all those events came <a href="https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/lyndon-baines-johnson-withdrawal-speech-31-march-1968/" target="_blank">a routine presidential address about the Vietnam War on March 31, 1968,</a> in which Johnson talked in some detail about his plans for peace in Vietnam for forty minutes and then ended by saying, "With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of this country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." This was on a Sunday night in prime time during a time when presidential addresses pre-empted all broadcast networks and when all we had were broadcast networks; tens of millions of Americans got this same surprise announcement at the same time from a president who had won in a record landslide in 1964.</p><p><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJeLoMCF6Jo?si=oHZzOO7UDDewydnW" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><p>So, it's not a sure thing that we are predestined to a Biden <i>v.</i> Trump rematch in 2024, but if we are, the oldest major-party candidate of all time* can't take the support of young voters for granted. </p><p><br /></p><p>____________</p><p>*Speaking of candidates' ages and in trying to put myself into the shoes of young anti-war activists, I do remember myself as a watcher of politics thinking that Lyndon Johnson was <i>ancient</i>; he was only 59 in the video above.</p><p><br /></p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-64328615167683672962022-12-19T16:27:00.003-05:002022-12-19T16:55:50.359-05:00Chapter 34 of East of Eden is about Donald Trump and Elon Musk (and all the Trumps and Musks of our past and future)<p>I am reading John Steinbeck's <i>East of Eden</i> right now as the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is recommending criminal charges against the ex-President for some of his obvious crimes; during today's hearing, Hope Hicks was shown on video paraphrasing her ex-boss as saying "nobody will care about my legacy if I lose. So, that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning." Late last night I happened to read Chapter 34, which is entirely about legacy and how we are remembered after we're gone (it's also a very short chapter in a very long and great book; if you have seen the movie with James Dean, the events depicted in the movie haven't even begun by Chapter 34). It's an interesting and atypical chapter in the book in that it doesn't even mention a single one of the large cast of characters in the novel by name, but it speaks about and to all of us and gives an insight into John Steinbeck's view of all literature -- of all art.</p><p>I want to pull out lines to emphasize, but the chapter is so short that I'm just reproducing it here...</p><p><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">PART FOUR</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Chapter 34</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b><span style="font-size: medium;"> child may ask, “What is the world’s story about?” And a grown man or woman may wonder, “What way will the world go? How does it end and, while we’re at it, what’s the story about?” </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so that we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught–in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too–in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well–or ill? </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> Herodotus, in the Persian War, tells a story of how Croesus, the richest and most-favored king of his time, asked Solon the Athenian a leading question. He would not have asked it if he had not been worried about the answer. “Who,” he asked, “is the luckiest person in the world?” He must have been eaten with doubt and hungry for reassurance. Solon told him of three lucky people in old times. And Croesus more than likely did not listen, so anxious was he about himself. And when Solon did not mention him, Croesus was forced to say, “Do you not consider me lucky?” </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> Solon did not hesitate in his answer. “How can I tell?” he said. “You aren’t dead yet.” </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> And this answer must have haunted Croesus dismally as his luck disappeared, and his wealth and his kingdom. And as he was being burned on a tall fire, he may have thought of it and perhaps wish he had not asked or not been answered. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> And in our time, when a man dies–if he has had wealth and influence and power and all the vestments that arouse envy, and after the living take stock of the dead man’s property and his eminence and works and monuments–the question is still there: Was his life good or was it evil?–which is another way of putting Croesus’s question. Envies are gone, and the measuring stick is: “Was he loved or was he hated? Is his death felt as a loss or does a kind of joy come from it?” </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> I remember clearly the deaths of three men. One was the richest man of the century, who, having clawed his way to wealth through the souls and bodies of men, spent many years trying to buy back the love he had forfeited and by that process performed great service to the world and, perhaps, had much more than balanced the evils of his rise. I was on a ship when he died. The news was posted on the bulletin board, and nearly everyone received the news with pleasure. Several said, “Thank God that son of a bitch is dead.” </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> Then there was a man, smart as Satan, who lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he ever knew that no gift will ever buy back a man’s love when you have removed his self love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise and, just beneath, with gladness that he was dead. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> There was a third man, who perhaps made many errors in performance but whose effective life was devoted to making men brave and dignified and good in a time when they were poor and frightened and when ugly forces were loose in the world to utilize their fears. This man was hated by the few. When he died the people burst into tears in the streets and their minds wailed, “What can we do now? How can we go on without him?” </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.</span></p></blockquote>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-27700138297002153622022-10-17T23:44:00.001-04:002022-10-17T23:46:32.582-04:00Why Are You Voting for Democrats on November 8? A True Blue Liberal Twitter Poll.<p>There are so many reasons, of course, but what's your number one reason to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VoteBlueIn2022?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#VoteBlueIn2022</a>?</p><p>Do you want to protect democracy and the rule of law by defeating election deniers and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpCoupAttempt?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#TrumpCoupAttempt</a> co-conspirators and apologists? Protect a woman's right to choose by electing Democrats who will codify the protections of Roe <i>v</i>. Wade legislatively and defeating Republicans, some of whom would outlaw abortion nationally? Protect Social Security and Medicare from Republicans under Rick Scott who promise to end these "entitlement" programs that so many of us depend upon (and have paid dedicated taxes to support throughout our working lives)? Or is it some other issue that rises to the top for you this November (if so, add in the comments here and on Twitter)? </p><p> This poll will be open for a week.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br /><br />There are so many reasons, but what's your number one reason to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VoteBlueIn2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VoteBlueIn2022</a>?<br /><br />Protect Democracy and the Rule of Law? Protect a Woman's Right to Choose? Protect Social Security and Medicare? Or Something Else (add in the comments)?</p>— True Blue Liberal ☮️ (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1582199989069303808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p></p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-40746487599663336452022-01-06T14:59:00.002-05:002022-01-06T15:01:21.844-05:00"Remember January 6th" should become as important as "Remember Pearl Harbor" in our national fight against fascism<p> </p>The actions of the trumpists at the U.S. Capitol one year ago should never be whitewashed.<br><br><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ct6MM2gkte4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-65197138936788618862022-01-03T20:45:00.001-05:002022-01-03T20:45:49.855-05:00Twitter Poll: Which member of the #TrumpCrimeFamily will fly the coop first?<p>The slow drip of Trump investigation news continued today with the report that New York Attorney General Letitia James has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/nyregion/letitia-james-ivanka-donald-trump-jr-subpoena.html" target="_blank">subpoenaed Donald Junior and Ivanka</a> as part of the fraud investigation into the Trump Organization. That led me to post a poll on Twitter that I've asked earlier.</p><p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL: Who will be the first member of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpCrimeFamily?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpCrimeFamily</a> to fly to a nation without a U.S. extradition treaty?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1478059115389796352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br />Because we all know that the cowardly crime family members would rather live on a Trump-branded golf course in Dubai than in a jail cell in upstate New York, don't we?<div><br /></div><div><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-44878635037792854952021-04-07T10:51:00.000-04:002021-04-07T10:51:04.408-04:00"The World Is Too Much With Us..." Happy 251st Birthday to William Wordsworth<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> <span style="background-color: white; font-style: inherit;">The World Is Too Much With Us</span></b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><i>William Wordsworth</i></span></p><div class="c-feature-bd" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="o-poem isActive" data-view="PoemView" style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The world is too much with us; late and soon,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Little we see in Nature that is ours;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The winds that will be howling at all hours,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For this, for everything, we are out of tune;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.</span></div></div></div>And if you're looking for books to read (and who isn't), I'd wholeheartedly recommend a book from Jonathan Bate that published in time for Wordsworth's 250th birthday last year, <i>Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World</i>. Or, even better, the beautiful illustrated and annotated edition of Wordsworth's masterpiece, <i>The Prelude,</i> published by David R. Godine in 2016.True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-58006382838256119192021-03-31T10:45:00.000-04:002021-03-31T10:45:01.567-04:00POLL: Who was the G. Gordon Liddy of #StupidWatergate?<p>Yesterday the news broke that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/g-gordon-liddy-dead.html" target="_blank">G. Gordon Liddy</a> died at the age of 90. Liddy was one of the organizers of the original Watergate burglary that eventually led to the downfall of Richard Nixon and he remained totally unrepentant about his actions.</p><p>Liddy's return to the news brings up the obvious question. Who was the G. Gordon Liddy for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StupidWatergate?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#StupidWatergate</a>(s) of the twice-impeached ex-president now hiding out at Mar-a-Lago? </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br />Who was the G. Gordon Liddy of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StupidWatergate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StupidWatergate</a>?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1377258747555381251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2021</a></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-89756365891810918092021-02-27T11:54:00.003-05:002021-02-27T23:33:30.118-05:00Today's True Blue Liberal Bible Lesson for the "Christians" Gathered in Orlando This WeekendIt's been too long since we posted a True Blue Liberal bible verse here on this blog, but the golden T***p statue displayed in Orlando this weekend at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAC2021?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#CPAC2021</a> demands a reference to Exodus chapter 32.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGdonRVZtK4InM-2ZHOikQANsS5jNa2aLA1XwMW6kCh3bYFZJYsYe2Cn-SB_8tQk06ekp2OM791R8qnOiyLbuKy4O-rWd7l0a_6b3Nje3FUXLkrivS43tf6hNvm6qR8XQHe94/s453/Golden+T---p+at+CPAC+2021.PNG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="292" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGdonRVZtK4InM-2ZHOikQANsS5jNa2aLA1XwMW6kCh3bYFZJYsYe2Cn-SB_8tQk06ekp2OM791R8qnOiyLbuKy4O-rWd7l0a_6b3Nje3FUXLkrivS43tf6hNvm6qR8XQHe94/s320/Golden+T---p+at+CPAC+2021.PNG" /></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjcspJpyXNVD0PogP7bMJ_rTwmyc8mreikqyuUULMATSRqsMOnnP9PMZRV3JIHRtrvpB2TCHthdTsUDrE0jZd8XAO-0p8TEw9xtcnFmaFXnzUx5fvvspAQBcRmKVA-LVfswT5X/s435/Exodus+32.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="260" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjcspJpyXNVD0PogP7bMJ_rTwmyc8mreikqyuUULMATSRqsMOnnP9PMZRV3JIHRtrvpB2TCHthdTsUDrE0jZd8XAO-0p8TEw9xtcnFmaFXnzUx5fvvspAQBcRmKVA-LVfswT5X/w239-h400/Exodus+32.PNG" width="239" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Exodus Chapter 32</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods which shall go before us : for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> 2 And Aaron saide unto them, Breake off the golden earerings which are in the eares of your wives, of your sonnes, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> 3 So all the people brake off the golden earerings, which were in their eares and brought them unto Aaron.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving toole, and he had made it a golden calfe : and they said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!</div><div style="text-align: left;"> 5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings : and the people sate downe to eate and drinke and rose up to play.</div></div><br /><br /><br />This is taken, of course, from<a href="https://archive.org/details/holybiblefacsimi00polluoft/page/n319/mode/2up" target="_blank"> the 1611 King James Version</a>, known here at <a href="http://trueblueliberal.org">trueblueliberal.org</a> as "The Real Bible For Real Christians."<div><br /></div><div><br />More video of the overstuffed golden calfe of 2021:<br /><div><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7nddgsAspAk" width="560"></iframe></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-62210477906180633692021-02-27T10:51:00.001-05:002021-02-27T10:52:43.486-05:00POLL: What's the Official Name of Orlando's QAnon Convention This Weekend?<p> </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br />Should the meeting of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cult45?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cult45</a> zealots taking place in Orlando this weekend be officially known as <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAQ?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CPAQ</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/QPAC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#QPAC</a>?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1365680442205229057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br />Here's your reminder that the object of abject veneration at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/QPAC?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#QPAC</a> 2021 (or maybe it's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAQ?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#CPAQ</a>) refused their invitation in 2016 and held his own rally because he was mad at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAC?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#CPAC</a> 2016's star and favorite presidential candidate, "L-Y-E-N" Ted Cruz.<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7-HhC_Pg7w" width="560"></iframe><br />
<div><br /></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 1em 20px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"You have lyin' Ted Cruz.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">I call him.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">I nicknamed him -- lyin'.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">I say ly - in'.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">How would you spell that?</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b>L - Y - E - N.</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Lyin'.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">With a big [<i>making double airquotes with stubby fingers while pausing to search for the big word</i>] apostrophe."</span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">-<b>Donald J. T***p</b>, Wichita, Kansas, 5 March 2016</span></blockquote></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">This concludes your T***p University spelling lesson for the day.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-1112350717722594502021-01-20T11:04:00.002-05:002021-01-20T11:04:38.838-05:00"Our Long National Nightmare is [Almost] Over"<p> I hope President Joe Biden's first remarks as President of the United States [in an hour from now] nod toward the speech of President Gerald Ford<a href="http://inauguralclock.com/inaugural-addresses-3/gerald-fords-remarks-upon-swearing-in-1974/" target="_blank"> delivered on August 9, 1974</a>:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;">"My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."</span></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p></p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-38277686870612474052021-01-13T09:43:00.001-05:002021-01-13T10:02:00.913-05:00POLL: Which Trump Crime Family Member Will Flee from the Country First?<p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">POLL:<br>Which <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpCrimeFamily?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpCrimeFamily</a> member is most likely to be the first to leave the United States and seek shelter in a nation that doesn't have an extradition treaty with us?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1349156024859697156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-10034972413451965152021-01-08T10:41:00.005-05:002021-01-08T22:17:32.701-05:00POLL: Where Will the Evicted White House Resident Be on January 20th?<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL: <br />Where will the evicted <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> resident be at 12 noon on January 20th?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1347560426859589638?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p> </p><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p><p><i>UPDATE:</i></p><p>Within forty minutes of posting my poll, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SoreLoserInChief?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#SoreLoserInChief</a> emerged from a temporary Twitter timeout and eliminated the first choice, which was, of course, no surprise:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR5ap4jkGjjyzOex5UR2SLk9DAU5Ll3noxSdcNfYJxeWCj33B0WYA8TP4onBT52NK-k1LNaCwsphwQIXRL-oRchmNkmeKNM84mna0YWCERbfUL9sHdCsgkoIHPycZ4czPJEI4w/s534/Trump+Inauguration+Decline+1-8-2020.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="534" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR5ap4jkGjjyzOex5UR2SLk9DAU5Ll3noxSdcNfYJxeWCj33B0WYA8TP4onBT52NK-k1LNaCwsphwQIXRL-oRchmNkmeKNM84mna0YWCERbfUL9sHdCsgkoIHPycZ4czPJEI4w/w400-h145/Trump+Inauguration+Decline+1-8-2020.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p><p><i>....and another UPDATE, at 7:45pm on January 8th:</i></p><p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" target="_blank">@realDonaldTrump </a>Twitter account has finally been suspended:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqH4sog5kYiXWo_Xc3GHNc5aRs8X9jtBPVBX6QJEfwtPBePRqEZSoz3swDR8U4bKtBXQFbu2_YbAIB8pf2ytjZZejGdiv_QO5-RsQnorWQUhyphenhyphenaTMXiocTfTe6hVH1DTtfO4bSG/s928/trump+twitter+ban+1-8-2021.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="928" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqH4sog5kYiXWo_Xc3GHNc5aRs8X9jtBPVBX6QJEfwtPBePRqEZSoz3swDR8U4bKtBXQFbu2_YbAIB8pf2ytjZZejGdiv_QO5-RsQnorWQUhyphenhyphenaTMXiocTfTe6hVH1DTtfO4bSG/w400-h179/trump+twitter+ban+1-8-2021.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div>...so, he's talking about starting his own social-media platform, which leads to one more poll question for the day:<br><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">POLL:<br>Twitter exile Tr*mp is looking "at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!"<br><br>What will he name it?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1347723366699069443?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-15699243574474923222021-01-07T11:15:00.001-05:002021-01-07T11:17:03.795-05:00POLL: What's the Best Way to Remove an Orange Stain from the White House? <p>After yesterday's MAGAt invasion of the U.S. Capitol, it's hard to imagine you-know-who squatting in the White House for two more weeks. Who do you think should remove him. Congress? The Vice President and Cabinet? Father Time?</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br />If you could choose your preferred method to remove the orange stain from the <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a>, would you want Congress to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ImpeachAndRemove?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ImpeachAndRemove</a>, Pence & Friends to use the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/25thAmendment?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#25thAmendment</a>, or simply wait two weeks for President Biden's inauguration?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1347179081721405440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-22822750314272786162020-12-14T11:59:00.000-05:002020-12-14T11:59:38.174-05:00A Couple of Entertainment-Only True Blue Liberal Twitter Polls<p>Yesterday there was speculation in the <i>The Guardian</i> about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/13/ivanka-trump-speculation-potential-run-us-senate-florida" target="_blank">Ivanka Tr*mp running for Marco Rubio's Florida Senate seat</a> in 2022, and earlier we have seen multiple articles about <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/529203-lara-trump-leading-republicans-in-2022-north-carolina-senate-poll" target="_blank">Lara Tr*mp running for Richard Burr's North Carolina Senate seat</a> in the same midterm election. That led to the obvious poll question about the other Tr*mp spawn. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">If <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrincessIvanka?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PrincessIvanka</a> Tr*mp runs for Senate from Florida and Lara Tr*mp runs for Senate from North Carolina, which states will <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DonaldJTrumpJr</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EricTrump</a> run to represent in the Tr*mpist Senate? <a href="https://t.co/oW5t1NXi8X">https://t.co/oW5t1NXi8X</a></p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1338324417030533121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>And today, we heard from Tr*mp's most beloved henchman and longest-lived White House staff member (not named Tr*mp or Kushner), <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1338482805299351552?s=20" target="_blank">Stephen Miller, announcing on Fox News</a> that there will be an alternate slate of Tr*mpist electors chosen today as the states' actual electors are voting to confirm President-Elect Biden's November 3rd win.<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br />What will Tr*mp Propaganda Minister Stephen Miller's job be after January 20, 2021?</p>— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1338520712701677569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-69589219697521375662020-11-17T11:59:00.005-05:002021-04-27T13:34:20.796-04:00Did Rudy Giuliani's most destructive act take place in 1996?<p>We hear a lot in recent days about Rudy Giuliani's acts in the end stages of Donald Trump's political career, from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/30/unravelling-rudolph-giulianis-labyrinthine-ties-to-ukraine" target="_blank">his activity in Ukraine</a> that helped lead to Trump's impeachment to his <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-lawyers-giuliani-four-season-landscaping-b1723014.html" target="_blank">current inept attempts</a> to throw out hundreds of thousands of Democratic votes as Trump refuses to accept his overwhelming loss (in the Electoral College as well as the popular vote) to President-Elect Joe Biden.</p><p>But what I've been thinking about today is the action of Mayor Giuliani's that may have done as much as any other to lead Trump to the White House in the first place.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFz_pbykG8I8739eSXhD-zZHxh3Pjz3DXRi2YFkDZQEOPiT_94cGpLffI269POyInpMoZou98-Hbw8jTYWjFyWlv4yLVdG8JflwAdXhgeEt8n9ejoQbDfmFwmvI8xT4CTNVRL/s496/Fox+Giuliani+1996.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="122" data-original-width="496" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFz_pbykG8I8739eSXhD-zZHxh3Pjz3DXRi2YFkDZQEOPiT_94cGpLffI269POyInpMoZou98-Hbw8jTYWjFyWlv4yLVdG8JflwAdXhgeEt8n9ejoQbDfmFwmvI8xT4CTNVRL/w400-h99/Fox+Giuliani+1996.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><p>In 1996, the Fox News Channel was started by Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, with its main studio in New York. However, it was not immediately available in any major television markets, including New York City. There was no internet method of getting video news in 1996, so Fox News was even more invisible than Trump's current favorite online right-wing channel, OANN, to the vast majority of Americans. The only cable provider in NYC was Time Warner, and they said they had a waiting list of 30 other cable stations vying for space and they didn't have room for a nascent cable news channel from the Australian owner of the <i>New York Post</i>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSlxEfyGNG9es3cjL6Vb9KPJj6ciFjqFCmx9fhCWSuTJFppwCWxRxVEW56WZAgPyAmcYPL7zKdbWL89CH82Jp6adVexR6kVNDA7P6vlLd7nrZkPghccu7A1GYP01jmkVCdGmc/s626/Fox+Giuliani+Nov+1996.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="131" data-original-width="626" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSlxEfyGNG9es3cjL6Vb9KPJj6ciFjqFCmx9fhCWSuTJFppwCWxRxVEW56WZAgPyAmcYPL7zKdbWL89CH82Jp6adVexR6kVNDA7P6vlLd7nrZkPghccu7A1GYP01jmkVCdGmc/w400-h84/Fox+Giuliani+Nov+1996.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"It began with a phone call to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on Sept. 20 [1996], an entreaty that would soon mire City Hall in a feud between two media conglomerates. On the line was an old friend of the Mayor, Roger Ailes, a former Republican political consultant who is now chairman of the 24-hour news channel started by Rupert Murdoch." --<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/04/nyregion/an-old-friend-called-giuliani-and-new-york-s-cable-clash-was-on.html" target="_blank"><i>New York Times,</i> November 4, 1996</a></span></p></blockquote><p>It could be just that Ailes was an old friend, or that Rudy's second wife, Donna Hanover, was then working at Murdoch's local station, WNYW-5, or that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/politics/02FOX.html" target="_blank">Rudy saw Fox as a national stage for his own presidential ambitions</a>, or that he was unselfishly trying to save a few hundred NYC media jobs for a fledgling cable station, but the fact remains that he went to bat -- hard -- to get Fox News on New York's only cable provider, engaging much of the mayor's office and staff to do so, and he was ultimately successful. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpaaVBtY2pvTVIYN_CssFS5ZByEF3yqgN2NRJ7tyAR2GDPJoKrGT1QiDaxjpSoYZNKO5NUjE2RNmEnrcZ1kPKXesbxEZzqm21hTHqn2IsW3gFAb_iQ4q12TU7iSlSmTjt8BI8E/s588/Fox+Giuliani+Oct+1996.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="102" data-original-width="588" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpaaVBtY2pvTVIYN_CssFS5ZByEF3yqgN2NRJ7tyAR2GDPJoKrGT1QiDaxjpSoYZNKO5NUjE2RNmEnrcZ1kPKXesbxEZzqm21hTHqn2IsW3gFAb_iQ4q12TU7iSlSmTjt8BI8E/w400-h70/Fox+Giuliani+Oct+1996.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><p>On a personal level, this has stuck in my head (and craw) because in the same year, 1996, Rudy sold the television station I watched most regularly, the city's PBS station WNYC-31, to a private buyer who immediately stopped showing BBC & PBS programming (he also sold my favorite radio station, WNYC-FM and AM, but those airwaves were bought by a foundation that kept the call letters and they have remained the city's main outlets for National Public Radio content.)</p><p>We'll never know if the struggling brainchild of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes would have survived its infancy if it hadn't been able to move into the New York cable market, but maybe more importantly, we'll never know if tri-state real-estate con man Donald Trump would have become PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP without the Trump/Fox feedback loop that created his political "philosophy" and gave him a similarly-brainwashed audience for his political ambitions. Even though Trump had shown some of his political leanings publicly as early as 1989 when he lobbied heavily for the killing of the (innocent) Central Park Five, he was mainly a tabloid punchline for his marriages and affairs and bankruptcies and real-estate battle with Leona Helmsley; it's hard to imagine Trump becoming TRUMP without Fox News. It's hard to imagine now, but there was a real possibility that Fox News never would have appeared on the television screens in the Trump Tower penthouse without the heavy-handed intervention of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. It may be one of Rudy's greatest crimes.</p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-3615298457996681472020-11-15T18:39:00.001-05:002020-11-15T18:39:18.485-05:00Start learning German while you maintain social distancing this winter......so that you can enjoy the best COVID-19 videos; both of these new videos are from the German government: <div><br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/krJfMyW87vU" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UH1757U0aeg" width="560"></iframe>
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You can understand the story of these exceptional heroes of the winter of 2020 without English subtitles, can't you?
</div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-18077125400379365792020-11-11T16:04:00.009-05:002020-11-15T18:12:10.162-05:00Ex-President [Expletive Deleted]<p> </p>From September 15, 1973...<div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dOQBzog8Ud8?start=453" width="560"></iframe><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><b>Mike Stivic:<br /></b></i></span><span style="font-family: courier;">
Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate!<br /></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><b>
Archie Bunker:<br /></b></i></span><span style="font-family: courier;">
Don't say that no more, <i>GODDAMN IT</i>!<br /></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><b>
Edith Bunker:<br /></b></i></span><span style="font-family: courier;">
You shouldn't swear like that.<br /><b><i>
Mike Stivic:<br /></i></b>
You shouldn't swear like that, Arch.<br /><i><b>
Edith Bunker:<br /></b></i>
Ever since this Watergate thing, it's GD this and GD that.<br /></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><b>
Archie Bunker:<br /></b></i></span><span style="font-family: courier;">
That ain't swearing, Edith, GD. The first word there is God. How can that be a swear word? The most popular word in the Bible. The second word, that's damn, that's a perfectly good word, you hear that all the time, like they dammed the river to keep it from flooding, see? And even in the Bible you read where some guy is damned for cheating or stealing or having "insex" in the family. And who damned him? Who else? God. God damned him. Edith, beautiful words right out of the Holy Book. Don't show your ignorance!</span></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>The setting of linguistic standards for broadcast radio and television is a very fluid matter, and it runs in both directions - toward and away from absolute freedom of speech. In my high-school years, <i>All in the Family</i> pushed a lot of limits, using slang descriptions of ethnic groups and sexual orientations in the early 1970s that would be taboo on the air or in polite company in 2020. Their broadcast use of the relatively mild expletive "Goddamn It!" also expanded freedom of televised speech in 1973, and even appended Archie's defense of the everyday expression of disapproval or exasperation. Slightly earlier, its use on the radio with the Grateful Dead's 1970 "Uncle John's Band" also broke broadcast barriers ("<i>God damn well I declare | have you seen the like? | their walls are built of cannon balls | their motto is 'don't tread on me'</i>" [a prophecy of the Tea Party?]) Now, however, because every mention of the words "God" and "damn" in combination will invoke the knee-jerk wrath of self-proclaimed guardians of American Fundamentalist Christianism, the networks have turned into cowards. As quoted in this NPR article "<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2009/08/04/111533311/bleeping-out-words" target="_blank">Bleeping Out Words</a>" from 2009, the Standards & Practices department of <i>All in the Family</i>'s old network CBS replied via email: "No gd on cbs." NBC also told NPR "As a general rule, we would not permit 'GD' to be used on our air. We would bleep one or the other...usually the first word." All of this network cowardice, despite the fact that the FCC does not consider "God damn" or its variants to be legally profane.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is all to show that definitions of profanity change, so there is no reason that the "T-word" -- the family name of the person who is currently squatting in the White House for 70 more days -- should be heard on America's airwaves anymore. It can easily become the eighth word to join the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0&t=18s" target="_blank">Seven Words You Can't Say on TV,</a> and I can stop using it here on my blog even though it's been used in almost every single post since 2015. Standards can change. The euphemisms You-Know-Who, or Mango Mussolini, or Adolf Twitler, or Cheeto Jesus, or Orange Julius Caesar, or Cadet Bone Spurs, or Putin's Puppet, or Putin's Puppy, or Short-Fingered Vulgarian, or Sore Loserman, or Diaper Don, or The Whiner In Chief, or Bunker Boy, or Trumpelthinskin, or The Groper In Chief, or The Dick Tater, or The ImPOTUS, or Tangerine Trash-Can Fire, or Lame Duck à l'Orange, or... , can all be used in place of the T-word without losing any meaning, or causing any confusion about the subject of one's sentence.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-30470188576082063142020-11-02T21:52:00.000-05:002020-11-02T21:52:06.212-05:00True Blue Liberal Poll: When Will We Know The Winner?<p> </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">POLL:<br>In exactly 24 hours, polls in many states will be closing. When will we know the winner of the electoral college?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/1Day?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#1Day</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2020Election?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2020Election</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BidenHarris2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BidenHarris2020</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpPence2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpPence2020</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Poll?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Poll</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VOTE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VOTE</a></p>— True Blue Liberal - #BidenHarris2020 (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1323419623988015105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-55561964823984767302020-11-02T15:54:00.000-05:002020-11-02T15:54:11.575-05:00What America's Voting System(s) Look Like From Abroad.<p> <i>The New York Times</i> showed some details of the archaic United States voting system(s) to residents of some of the worlds newer and less baroque (or broken?) voting systems.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/opinion/elections-foreign-voter-reaction.html" target="_blank">Here's the resulting video</a>:</p><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="321" id="nyt_video_player" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000007423440" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" width="480"></iframe><span style="font-family: courier;"><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">"When we showed voters from around the world what American elections are like in practice, they weren’t impressed. But they were impressed with our resilience and determination. So, while the world’s 'oldest democracy' may be a bit creaky these days, let’s be clear: Go vote! That’s really the best way to make a change."</blockquote></span><br />ONE DAY LEFT!<div><br />VOTE!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-13755055641309801092020-10-30T17:30:00.001-04:002020-10-30T17:34:30.144-04:00"When a man's frauds have been enormous there is a certain safety in their very diversity and proportions."<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">_____________ </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;" trbidi="on"><i>I first posted this on <a href="http://trueblueliberal.org">trueblueliberal.org</a> on <a href="https://trueblueliberal.blogspot.com/2016/08/when-mans-frauds-have-been-enormous.html" target="_blank">August 17, 2016</a> when Donald Trump's chances of a first term still seemed remote (terrifying, but remote). With four days until the election that could give him a second term -- and after all the intervening years with all the new crimes, lies, and misdemeanors from Trump and the #TrumpCrimeFamily -- I still think it's the most important thing that has appeared on this blog about that man. This post explains why vague insinuations about "Hillary Clinton's Emails!" in 2016 or "Hunter Biden's Laptop!" in 2020 can get more media coverage than Trump's sexual assaults and payoffs to porn stars, or his missing tax returns, or the fact that he kowtows to authoritarians like Putin and Erdogan and Kim, or that the First Couple of Nepotism are making millions while working in the White House, or that his last three campaign managers have been arrested, or that he calls Nazis "very fine people," or his impeachment less than a year ago, or..., well, you get the picture. There are too many scandals for any one person to keep up with, which turns out to be his best defense.</i></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;" trbidi="on"><i>So here's the 2016 post again, without further changes.</i></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">_____________</div></blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">At this point, about two thirds through Trollope's <i>The Way We Live Now</i>, shadowy London financier August Melmotte is making his first foray into the political world, running for Parliament and finding out that one of his recent shady real-estate transactions might be exposed publicly right after he had hosted a dinner in his home for the Emperor of China attended by the great men of England and Europe.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CyQAPRO-LW0JTffStdEJSn18NAD4U1yabUN1EXGIMrbgLmCvrWkEj-75usATjFzbBBfZaHKk-S_4ZxZJRgkXXMnTA0llTcmdLAdbPmYizCvQmtIds9rMUIVeKmVKU3Yzg4E4/s1600/004.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CyQAPRO-LW0JTffStdEJSn18NAD4U1yabUN1EXGIMrbgLmCvrWkEj-75usATjFzbBBfZaHKk-S_4ZxZJRgkXXMnTA0llTcmdLAdbPmYizCvQmtIds9rMUIVeKmVKU3Yzg4E4/s320/004.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My current pleasure reading takes a political turn.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CyQAPRO-LW0JTffStdEJSn18NAD4U1yabUN1EXGIMrbgLmCvrWkEj-75usATjFzbBBfZaHKk-S_4ZxZJRgkXXMnTA0llTcmdLAdbPmYizCvQmtIds9rMUIVeKmVKU3Yzg4E4/s1600/004.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>...I think he took some pride in his own confidence as to his own courage, as he stood there turning it all over in his mind. Very much might be suspected. Something might be found out. But the task of unravelling it all would not be easy. It is the small vermin and the little birds that are trapped at once. But wolves and vultures can fight hard before they are caught. With the means which would still be at his command, let the worst come to the worst, he could make a strong fight. When a man's frauds have been enormous there is a certain safety in their very diversity and proportions. Might it not be that the fact that these great ones of the earth had been his guests should speak in his favour? A man who had in very truth had the real Brother of the Sun dining at his table could hardly be sent into the dock and then sent out of it like a common felon. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">(page 472 of Penguin Classics paperback)</span><br />
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</span>
<br />
With legal cases about <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-22/trump-university-judge-says-he-plans-to-let-lawsuit-go-ahead">Trump's so-called "University"</a> still pending, his complicated <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpsMissingReturns?src=hash">tax returns still unreleased</a>, a <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/21/hillary-clinton/yep-donald-trumps-companies-have-declared-bankrupt/" target="_blank">history of bankruptcies</a>, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/07/07/new-usa-today-interactive-database-shows-trump-lawsuits-surpass-4000/86809010/" target="_blank">thousands of "minor" lawsuits</a>, and more, the "diversity and proportion" of Trump's financial shenanigans put August Melmotte's to shame (though Melmotte did it from nothing without being <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/13/us/politics/fred-donald-trump-father.html?_r=0" target="_blank">given a head start by his father</a>). If we do see any of Donald Trump's tax returns before November 8 (unlikely at this point as he continues to thumb his nose at the voters and the media), the chances are that, unless he gave nothing to charity or paid no taxes, the rule-bending in those thousands of pages would be so financially arcane that it would take teams of forensic accountants to root it out and another team to try to reduce it to layman's terms. It's only "the small vermin and little birds that are trapped at once."<br />
<br />
If I entertained any notion that Donald Trump might have the attention span to tackle it, I might think that he had modeled parts of his life on <i>The Way We Live Now</i>.<br />
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True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-3397620362493679072020-10-29T14:26:00.002-04:002020-10-29T14:52:30.790-04:00The "Law And Order" Candidate Has No Respect for People Who Obey the Law.There is one statement of Donald Trump's from the final presidential debate on October 22nd that keeps sticking with me; the topic was immigration:<div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Trump</i>: Catch and release is a disaster. A murderer would come in, a rapist would come in, a very bad person would come in -- we would take their name, we have to release them into our country. And then you say they come back. Less than 1% of the people come back.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Biden</i>: Not true.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Trump</i>: We have to send ICE out and Border Patrol out to find them. We would say, ‘Come back in two years, three years -- we're going to give you a court case. You did Perry Mason, we're going to give you a court case. When you say they come back, they don't come back, Joe. They never come back. Only the really -- I hate to say this -- but those with the lowest IQ, they might come back.</div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">[<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/23/debate-transcript-trump-biden-final-presidential-debate-nashville/3740152001/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>from the </i>USA Today<i> debate transcript</i></span></a>]</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>The part about less than 1% showing up for court cases was a lie, of course (the truth is that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/23/927259692/fact-checking-the-presidential-debate-immigration" target="_blank">83% showed up for all court hearings</a>), but it was that last line about only those with "the lowest IQ" showing up that stuck with me. Trump shows over and over again that he believes only stupid people will voluntarily obey laws.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Smart people," on the other hand, find ways to bend laws (tax laws, nepotism laws, the Hatch Act, emoluments clauses, charity laws, campaign finance laws, etc., etc.), especially if the main enforcement is the honor system. We saw how well the honor system works with the <a href="https://trueblueliberal.blogspot.com/2020/10/karma-still-has-some-work-to-do.html" target="_blank">Trump family when its members were asked to wear masks at the first debate</a>. Once again, just yesterday, Trump found a way to brag that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/28/trump-says-report-that-he-failed-to-pay-287m-debt-tied-to-failing-hotel-shows-hes-a-smart-guy/" target="_blank">not paying a $287 million dollar debt made him a "smart guy"</a> (although the "smart guy" may ultimately be in trouble with the IRS again for not paying taxes on those forgiven loans as income).</div><div><br />The nadir of his insulting the intelligence of those who voluntarily obey the law (or pay what they owe) came in early September when <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/" target="_blank"><i>The Atlantic </i>reported that he called people who died fighting for this country "Losers" and "Suckers.</a>" If the "suckers" and "losers" had been "smart guys" like Donald J. Trump, they would have been smart enough to have been born with rich daddies who could pay off crooked podiatrists for phony "bone spurs" diagnoses to keep them out of the armed forces.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>This Trumpian attitude toward the law has at least two major downsides. One, obviously, is that the family of grifters -- for whom the only overriding philosophical principle is "WINNING" -- will continue to be looking to grab as much as they can while "pushing the envelope" of legality. The second is that Trump believes everyone else is -- at heart -- as venal as he is; that supposition leads him to believe that the only way to keep other people in line is through the use of -- or the threat of -- overwhelming police use of force. That's how someone with no respect for the law can end up having a strong belief in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LawAndOrder?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#LawAndOrder </a>of the most brutal kind.</div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-36527196790545207012020-10-19T12:41:00.000-04:002020-10-19T12:41:35.202-04:00Which Trump Will Leave America First?<p>Donald Trump may be the first president or presidential candidate to threaten to leave the United States if he loses the election (though, if you know of a previous historical example, I'd love to hear it).</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S_PzVTZW--c" width="560"></iframe><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">"<i>Maybe I'll have to leave the country, I don't know.</i>" Donald J. Trump</div><p>He is also the first president to face tax problems with the IRS; legal problems with the Manhattan District Attorney, the Attorney General of New York, and others; private lawsuits from his numerous sexual assault victims; and maturing debts of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/us/trump-taxes.html" target="_blank">at least 421 million</a> coming due from unknown creditors around the world, all on the day he leaves office. Richard Nixon, before Gerald Ford pardoned him, faced possible federal charges after he left the White House, but the depth and breadth of his exposure was nothing compared to Trump's -- and Nixon never threatened to leave the United States.</p>Trump's kids, who are intimately tied to the frauds of the Trump Organization, <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trump-paying-ivanka-consultant-fees-is-tax-fraud-says-watergate-prosecutor/" target="_blank">the tax scams</a>, the fake Trump "charities," etc., are not immune from from serious legal challenges once their Daddy leaves office, so the True Blue Liberal Poll question is this, which member of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpCrimeFamily?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#TrumpCrimeFamily</a> will flee the country first?<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">POLL:<br />Now that Donald Trump has publicly admitted that he might flee from the United States if the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BidenHarris2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BidenHarris2020</a> team is victorious, which principal in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpCrimeFamily?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpCrimeFamily</a> will likely be the first to leave the country to avoid American justice and taxes and debt collectors?</p>— True Blue Liberal - #BidenHarris2020 (@TrueBlueLiberal) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueBlueLiberal/status/1317583618273906688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>And will they start leaving right after the election on November 4? Or will they only begin their exodus after inauguration day on January 20, 2021 (when the chances of their arrests begin to increase dramatically)?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-53398483799750316152020-10-07T16:43:00.007-04:002020-10-07T16:56:10.236-04:00The Banality of Rosenstein<p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">banality </span></b>noun </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>ba·nal·i·ty | \ bə-ˈna-lə-tē , bā- also ba- \ </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><i>plural </i>banalities </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>Definition of <i>banality </i> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>1: something that lacks originality, freshness, or novelty : something banal : COMMONPLACE </div><div>2: the quality or state of lacking new or interesting qualities : the quality or state of being banal</div><div><br /></div><div>Source: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/banality" target="_blank"><i>Merriam-Webster </i>online dictionary</a></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>If you were going to look for an American face or a manner of corporate dress that embodied the words "lacking new or interesting qualities," you would have to search long and hard to find a face and suit more commonplace than Rod Rosenstein's to fit that definition.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bcKitnBSDswjudn-eDhhYp6RqCxzjEJ1YP27_u4BfDP-dKuqDWlVBJu5vi3czJtZUECCzeCplvcdDg-pY_0_6s7vaYw84EusbAdifU0lSZVfA5Lq4i34VoJ7_91jreqDIhm0/s1254/Banality+of+Rod+Rosenstein.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="1254" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bcKitnBSDswjudn-eDhhYp6RqCxzjEJ1YP27_u4BfDP-dKuqDWlVBJu5vi3czJtZUECCzeCplvcdDg-pY_0_6s7vaYw84EusbAdifU0lSZVfA5Lq4i34VoJ7_91jreqDIhm0/w400-h180/Banality+of+Rod+Rosenstein.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Google Image search for "Rod Rosenstein" - 10/7/2020<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>evil </b></span>noun <div><div>\ ˈē-vəl , British often and US sometimes ˈē-(ˌ)vil \</div></div><div><div><div>Definition of <i>evil</i></div></div></div><div><div>1a: the fact of suffering, misfortune, and wrongdoing </div></div><div><div> b: a cosmic evil force </div></div><div><div>2: something that brings sorrow, distress, or calamity</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Source: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evil" target="_blank"><i>Merriam-Webster</i></a></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>And if one were to ask what the most <i>evil </i>action of the Trump Administration was based on those dictionary definitions, a large percentage of Americans would reply with a description of the actions the Administration took to separate parents from their minor children at our southern border, and the suffering and sorrow those actions brought [since more than 200,000 Americans have died in 2020 from an out-of-control COVID-19 outbreak, there might be competition for the most evil act, so let's assume the questions were asked at the end of 2019].</div><div>Both words, and Hannah Arendt's short book, <i>Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, </i>immediately came to mind last night as I read the fourth paragraph in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/us/politics/family-separation-border-immigration-jeff-sessions-rod-rosenstein.html" target="_blank">a <i>New York Times</i> article about the family separations</a>. It was not totally unexpected that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was quoted as saying "We need to take away children" in the Justice Department Inspector General's report on the separations, but it was the following paragraph that made me think of Arendt's book.</div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Rod J. Rosenstein, then the deputy attorney general, went even further in a second call about a week later, telling the five prosecutors that it did not matter how young the children were. He said that government lawyers should not have refused to prosecute two cases simply because the children were barely more than infants."</span></blockquote><div>It's been more than forty years since I read <i>Eichmann in Jerusalem</i> in college, but it has always stuck with me on a very deep level. Evil, real evil, will always need bureaucrats who are simply efficient at doing their jobs, no matter who the boss is. All of us who have worked in the corporate world (I had decades in that environment) have met many potential Eichmanns and Rosensteins who are almost invisible in an office environment, and who would easily and efficiently (if not eagerly) implement or amplify orders without ever questioning the ethics behind them or the effects they might have on other people.</div><span style="font-family: courier;"><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">"For when I speak of the banality of evil, I do so only on the strictly factual level, pointing to a phenomenon which stared one in the face at the trial. Eichmann was not Iago and not Macbeth, and nothing would have been farther from his mind than to determine with Richard III 'to prove a villain.' Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all."</blockquote></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">--Hannah Arendt, <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52090.Eichmann_in_Jerusalem" target="_blank">Eichmann in Jerusalem</a></i></blockquote><p><br /></p><p> </p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9648510.post-85843224285214567072020-10-07T11:29:00.000-04:002020-10-07T11:29:07.312-04:00Watch Joe Biden's Gettysburg Speech - October 6, 2020 - "Again we are a house divided"<p>I'm sure that I'm not the only one who missed seeing Joe Biden's speech on the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, battlefield yesterday. It was easy for the media and voters to be distracted by the steroid-fueled tweetstorm from the recently-dehospitalized White House resident trying to divide us further with strings of short all-caps tweets while Biden was speaking about bringing us together (without mentioning his opponent's name).</p><p>I did miss the speech when it was being delivered live on a Tuesday during a work week, but the beauty of the internet is that I can watch it now -- and so can you, if you have 22 free minutes. You don't need my commentary; just watch it.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tzyKJEv_QoY" width="560"></iframe><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>True Blue Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09304569696691885677noreply@blogger.com0