I haven’t previously posted about the Impeachment trial. Initially, I figured that, since virtually everyone who has an opinion has written, spoken and generally fulminated about those opinions, there wasn’t much of value I could add.
Most of the commentary has–quite correctly–pointed to the cowardice and lack of integrity of all but seven Republican Senators. Columns and editorials have especially zeroed in on the breathtaking hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell; in his speech immediately after the vote, he made it clear that he knew Trump was guilty as charged. The fig leaf that McConnell and his spineless colleagues were frantically trying to hide behind was an utterly unpersuasive opinion that a President who no longer held office could not be constitutionally impeached–an opinion rejected by virtually all constitutional scholars.
It also didn’t escape notice that McConnell was the reason the trial had been delayed until after Biden was inaugurated.
Suffice it to say that the overwhelming hypocrisy and dishonesty in the face of what everyone in that chamber clearly knew was astounding–and it has all been the subject of widespread condemnation. What hasn’t been adequately analyzed, however, is how we got here–“here” being a legislative chamber containing so many Senators clearly unworthy of public office.
I am convinced that the pathetic performance Americans saw last week was the result of forty-plus years of denigrating the very existence of government and belittling those who serve in it.
Reagan started the incessant attacks, and Republican dogma ever since has been that government–far from being an important tool for collective action addressing America’s problems–is always and inevitably a threat that must be constrained and hobbled. Republican messaging has been sneering and dismissive of the very notion that government might be an essential mechanism for achieving the common good. It has been years since I heard a Republican politician employ terms like “statesmanship” and/or “public service.”
When I saw that both of Indiana’s undistinguished, moral-pygmy Senators had (predictably) voted to acquit, I could almost picture them spitting on Dick Lugar’s grave…
The Republican demonization of government has largely succeeded in changing the identity of the GOP. The political culture that produced statesmen like Dick Lugar and Bill Hudnut has been replaced by the slimy “what’s in it for me” opportunism of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump–and Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and too many others.
Honorable, talented people are attracted to careers that those in their particular tribes consider prestigious and admirable. When government employment is denigrated and mocked–“couldn’t get a real job?”– when political actors are expected to be corrupt, and when politics is widely considered the refuge of blowhards and scoundrels, blowhards and scoundrels are who it will attract.
It’s instructive to emphasize that these persistent attacks on government and public service have come overwhelmingly from Republicans. Democrats have been far more likely to defend the importance and worth of America’s political institutions, and I don’t think it is just happenstance that as a result–as we can see at the federal level– Democratic officeholders these days tend to be considerably more public-spirited, honorable and impressive than their Republican peers.
Today’s Democrats have Jamie Raskin; Republicans have Marjorie Taylor Green…
Professor-your words, very simply and logically, describe the current situation. I am a life long, proud, card carrying Democrat and I understand the critical importance of a strong 2 party system. Today, that does not exist. Your comment about Congressman Raskins is right on point. Thank you,
I woke today with this in my head — from Ronald Reagan —
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem.”
If these jack asses hate government so much, WHY on earth do they want to be IN government? For fun and profit I guess.
Like you, patmcc, Ronald Reagan’s words came to mind while reading today’s article except I thought of the CA legislator who once said, ““You could walk through Ronald Reagan’s deepest thoughts and not get your ankles wet.” And down the rabbit hole the country went.
The majority of those 43 sitting Senators who publicly displayed their cowardice and lack of integrity with their votes to acquit Donald Trump AGAIN, have been sitting in the Senate for years. They cannot claim lack of awareness of their duties or lack of experience in the action required of them over the past years under McConnell’s leadership. They have been required to repeat and swear to the same Oath of Office upon reelection as Democratic Senators swore to uphold…and honored.
Not even being among the targeted victims in the Capitol building on January 6th woke them to the dangers to the entire Congressional body, their staff members, custodial workers and the Capitol police who became actual victims had any meaning to them. I have wondered if it would have mattered if one of the Republican members of Congress had been a victim would have made a difference to them?
Well, Reagan was a puppet for the real scoundrels. Don’t forget who really pulled strings inside for Ronny – Roger Ailes. The man who shaped Fox News for Rupert Murdoch & Family.
Charles Koch laughed during an interview when asked about the current GOP condition; he said, “We may have gone a little too far.”
As for scoundrels in politics, really?
I believe the word is sociopaths or sociopathic scoundrels. Not sure how Paul Ogden defends these people. Michael Hicks is a Koch product. Indiana Policy Review is a Koch product. Mike and Greg Pence are Koch products. Braun and Young are Koch products.
What’s sad is that Indiana is so predictably backward that the Koch network doesn’t have to spend its money on political advertising. If we just pretended to be purple or a light shade of blue, the media in this state would get flooded with dollars. Nope.
Don’t forget, if your goal is to replace public servants with corporate puppets, you have to cripple the Fourth Estate and the free press. As a result of Thatcher and Reagan’s policies coupled with 40+ years of Neoliberalism, the UK and US rank 35th and 45th in global free press.
If you want to improve the government and eliminate the sociopathic scoundrels by making them unwelcome due to being scrutinized, we need a powerful free press. Neither party seems interested in correcting the issue. When asked why Congress didn’t charge the GOP Senators who supported/helped Trump’s mob attack Capitol Hill, Nancy Pelosi responded, “We need a strong Republican Party.”
Everything is in place for further destruction and a deeper dive into authoritarianism. The mechanisms to reverse course are nowhere to be seen, nor do I see any efforts along those lines. If anything, bipartisan censorship has started and will only get worse as insurgents will be targeted.
JoAnn, the answer to your question was given by Dave Ball, the chairman of the Washington County Pennsylvania Republican Party. When asked about Senator Toomy’s vote to convict Trump, Ball said, “We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to do the right thing, whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us, and we feel very strongly that he did not represent us.”
So if anyone wonders why there are so many Republicans in public office who do not have a spine, that is the answer. The Republican Party has elected over the years mostly those who do not have a conscience and do not entertain doing the right thing. And those soulless representatives, senators, governors, and state representatives do indeed perfectly represent those who voted for them.
Yes, JoAnn, would it have made a difference if Mike Pence was captured? Did they build the hanging tree just for show? Going forward, what leadership will Pence. Young and Braun provide to Hoosier Republicans and how will they share? They received degrees from celebrated universities, which it now seems had no effect on their morals. Harvard, in particular must rue its accepting as scholars so many elected officials who have disgraced themselves and those hallowed halls. Do we know yet who it was who attached the noose intended for Pence? Imagine the image of the Vice President swinging in the wind. Would Young and Braun have acquitted DJT? Moral midgets, indeed!
Each letter I’ve sent in criticism to Braun he answers, “I’m a Main Street entrepreneur.” That’s not good enough.
Spot on, Todd!
“We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us,” Washington County GOP Chairman Dave Ball told Pittsburgh-area CBS affiliate KDKA-TV.
Yes, he said that in his out side voice, LOL!
There is more to it than just a whittling away, because these individuals have been around a long time, and they’ve surely held these beliefs or leanings from day one when they decided to get involved in politics!
Sadly, they were all waiting for their Messiah, the one who would come along and give them a permission slip to be as nefarious as they desire with no consequences. How liberating it must feel for many of these “waste of human skin” to have a worse piece of scum to look up to!
Dave Balls statement is reminiscent of what happened in Nazi Germany, and it resulted in the Holocaust!
Befehl ist Befehl; “an order is an order” just following orders, Due Obedience!
This all blends nicely with the cultivation of the American permission slip. Why should we be politically correct? Why should I have to follow societal norms? Why can’t I be who I really want to be in a free society? Even if who I want to be threatens that society? This has been brewing for a long time, and not just on the Republican side. It allows people to be self aggrieved, and when a person is self aggrieved, they are open to any and every sort of conspiratorial evidence on why they are actually aggrieved!
Political correctness? Affirmative action? Human dignity? Societal equality?
Why? Because just as the framers of our Constitution, even those that are dumb as a box of rocks claim that they built this, so they can do as they please with it! And, if you are of the others, you must capitulate every ounce of your inner being to be that boot licking symbol of subservience. That, they are on the right side despite the empirical evidence of the contrary.
An example of this was Jewish Nazi soldiers on the Russian front, ” their parents were being deported anyway.” The Nazis killed nearly 2,300 relatives of one group of 1,000 soldiers that were analyzed.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-12-24-mn-12209-story.html
So, does it pay to capitulate with ideologues? In the end you will always lose!
History shows this, but, the Republican Party has cultivated its ideologues contrary to the common good of society, so that they can acquire and retain power over the many! And those “others” that go along eventually meet their demise.
This isn’t a shock, others on this blog have written about this very thing for the past 2, 3 years or more, and, written about the outcome. Because this is something you don’t just wash away or legislate out, this is ingrained as deep as anything can be, from the beginning, our beloved framers of this Constitution were no saints, and many were brutal to those under their purview, because they were just following societal norms at the time, and protecting their investments in their minds!
The willpower is not there to rectify centuries of festering. Because if a part of the body is festering for that long, it’s rotten, or dead! It needs to be cut off and thrown away. How many will be supportive of that? Isn’t that just the opposite side of the same coin?
How can bad be good in the eyes of some? How can good be bad in the eyes of some?
We live in the age of mob mentality which is like the guy drinking at the bar, he’s the toughest guy in the world, and knows everything, until he spitting out teeth, LOL! Because mobs are very patriotic and very brave, LOL, but the individuals that make up their mob are just the opposite! And as you can see with those being arrested for the January 6 insurrection, they’re pointing fingers and laying blame and disavowing their actions!
Land of the free and home of the brave, LOL, not a chance!
I can plainly see that the answer to the question I asked yesterday is: Really, really screwed up.
jon Sorg, you wrote a lot of truth there, but I ain’t LOLing.
I keep getting reminded of my Junior High School US History teacher making the claim that even in today’s world might makes right. If I have the power to force my will on you it doesn’t matter if I’m the government, the military, business or the local militia. I am the authority in your life. Ownership rights come from government, don’t believe me ask the Native Americans. Constitutional rights come from government. Argue about God given rights all you want but God doesn’t through journalists in jail for uncovering corruption. The value of money and the economy would not be as strong without government in place. Those who want a government they can drown in a bathtub don’t give two cares about freedom they just want to be the tyrant. The fact that we use the pilgrim myth to support our desire for religious freedom should be all the evidence you need for that.
Thank you, Sheila for your great (as always) blog today. As I was sharing this with my husband, in response to your comment about forty-plus years of denigrating the existence of government, he asked my (hypothetically), “Who else has been saying that?” The answer is him, my husband.
Patmcc, you ask why these people want to be in government? The real answer is so they can help destroy government.
And as far as what might have happened if Mike Pence or any member of congress had been captured or especially killed–that would have allowed Trump to declare marshal law. That would have allowed him to stop the counting of the votes and possibly stop the inauguration of Biden. We could still be under marshal law with Trump still in power if Pence had been captured and hung.
At the risk of continuing to focus on positive solutions…how about if the considerable brain power of Sheila’s readers focused for this moment on how to get governing roles, especially state and national to be attractive to our best and brightest as a chance to be servant leaders instead of one to get money or personal power?
Todd’s allusions to the Koch financing of candidates went far beyond Indiana. The Koch ‘star chamber’ of mega donors had been at it for decades. The Republican party is their employee base. That’s why they want tax cuts and de-regulations: Greed before duty. Self-service before good government. Ideology before people. And the damned fools bought it, hook, line and sinker.
I lived in California before, during and after Reagan’s idiotic terms as governor there. True. He was as deep as an empty bathtub. Indeed, his party’s implementation of Prop. 13 property tax cut stupidity destroyed the heretofore best community college and state university system in the country if not the world. My entire tuition total for my masters degree was less than $500. Now, it’s more like $500 per credit hour. This action was marketed and sold as tax “relief”, but was actually a disguised plan to keep “those people” from being able to afford higher education. Typical Republican racism.
Government is now the problem, because the Republicans have made it that way.
Theresa @ 8:25 AM,
The only reason I LOL, is the constant denial that what’s happening is really happening!
I think it’s been mentioned before, actually I know it has, history is cyclical! So for those who tell you not to believe your own lying eyes or your lying ears, just concentrate on what they’re telling you at that particular moment, and erase everything else that they’ve said previously, seems to work with the unfortunate amount of the general population.
What can you do but either face palm, or shrug your shoulders or SMH and LOL, because it really is that stupid!
I really don’t think the will power is there to do anything other than that, because it will be painful and tumultuous. And, that’s the whole point of doing what they are doing, if you can cancel the willpower of the majority, the minority rules, just as in Nazi Germany!
I’m not so sure they were cowards. I think they were all in with the short-fingered vulgarian and his drive towards authoritarianism. They knew without question exactly how they should have voted, looked that vote square in the eye, and contemptuously spat on justice and accountability by voting to acquit anyway. Lack of courage to do what was right wasn’t -and isn’t- their problem. They didn’t vote from fear, they voted from commitment: They are fully committed to the destruction of democratic norms, processes, and constraints on authoritarian power, and to the promotion and support of anyone who will lead them in that task.
They are the political arm of domestic terrorism. We need to stop trying to shame them by pointing out their obvious hypocrisies and expecting that to make a difference, and start treating them as the existential threat that they are.
Your right, and why I left the GOP, I saw the Republican Party start the slide into corruption when unknown money could buy an elected office, honor and integrity to serve was a joke and a religious blessing from armorial sources could propel you to the top. When the Tea Party gained their grip on the party, it was dawn your tinfoil hat so they would know you were one of them. The Republican Party is the Trump Party and the GOP is dead. I’m not sure Romney , Chaney or the Lincoln Project can save it, I would like to see a 2 party system that has integrity and respect for each other but those days may be gone. The next 2 elections will determine the fate of our political system. And I hope it’s not Trump land.
I have heard some of the moderate Republicans who voted to convict Trump talk about it being the party that supports individual opportunity. Yet, they are not the party that is willing to address system racism, sexism etc. They don’t seem to understand that there are forces supported by the Republican party that deprive people of opportunity.
Power corrupts. I guess we need some hobbits in our government. They actually don’t desire power.
Two quotes by John Adams in 6/21/1776 – apparently a problem then too.
“Statesmen, my dear Sir, plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”
“The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not have lasting liberty.”
Why do people vote for people in Congress like themselves who only care about number one? It seems that the answer is obvious for both the voter and their selection.
Why do people care only about number one? They’ve been told that everyone else does that so if they don’t they’ll get run over by others. The more you care about only number one the more angry and afraid you are about any competition.
Initiating that culture of only me is a triumph of advertising. It’s no different than selling eternal youth.
Dav Ball’s idiocy is just so reminiscent of a boss I once had, after having gone through enough schooling mohave a master’s degree in my field: Two of us went to her with a suggestion, and we told “We don’t pay you to think!”
The Koch boys have been at it since at least the 1970’s. See “Democracy in Chains: the Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” by Nancy MacLean
I started a list of Reagan’s failings, years ago, and it just keeps growing, as he gets, and appropriately so, connected to so many things that have taken us down as a culture and a country.
His “You can have it all!” and “Facts are just annoyances,” set the stage for “Greed is good,” and “idiocy, and ‘alternative facts’ are marvelous!” Connect these with bigotry, the still unfinished Civl War, and here we are.
From Senator Young:
My Statement on the Impeachment Trial
I remain troubled and saddened by the events leading up to and on the day of the Capitol riots. However, it is improper under the present circumstances for the former president of the United States to be subject to an impeachment trial.
Simply put, the U.S. House of Representatives conducted a rushed and incomplete process for this snap impeachment. In its haste to impeach the former president, the House declined to engage in any fact-finding, investigation, hearing, or testimony before adopting the article of impeachment. Therefore, the former president and his counsel were denied the opportunity to review and test the integrity of the evidence offered against him.
As I warned after the last impeachment, the House majority’s rigged process is creating a dangerous new precedent to weaponize impeachment, a precedent that is increasingly likely to lead to serial impeachments in a polarized America.
Our nation is facing a crisis. It’s time to put this improper impeachment trial behind us and focus on the issues that matter most to the country — bipartisan efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and restore the health of our economy
Oh, I think we can lay the blame on Steroid Capitalism and the corruption it brings. You see Rules and Regulations impede profits. Anything that impedes Profit by definition is bad for business. So Rules and Regulations that protects workers, citizens, must be either eliminated not enforced, or watered down into meaningless words.
So, I was not shocked to read in The Guardian how the US Government is leaning on Mexico hand in glove with Bayer-Monsanto concerning glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer that is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkillers.
Internal government emails reveal Monsanto owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate.
The pressure on Mexico is similar to actions Bayer and chemical industry lobbyists took to kill a glyphosate ban planned by Thailand in 2019. Thailand officials had also cited concerns for public health in seeking to ban the weedkiller, but reversed course after US threats about trade disruption. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-monsanto-mexico-us-glyphosate-ban
It is hideous to think that our own government acts like a Mafia Enforcer whenever Corporations need muscle.
Has anyone else considered the possibility that Mike Pence was Trump’s primary target when he sent his troops to the Capitol on January 6th? A few days earlier his own Vice President announced to the world Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election and he was in the Capitol building to finalize the presidential election results by overseeing the Electoral College count. Pence ignored Trump’s direct orders to overturn the election or he wouldn’t like him any more.
Robert Baker,
Adams was correct in words, but what about deeds? The predominant makeup of people at the time who were considered society were, “white Protestant land owning males!” So, that good old free Constitution did not apply to everyone. It didn’t apply to people of color, because most everybody owned servants or slaves, it didn’t apply to women, they didn’t have the right to vote just have babies, the Muslims who were probably in the United States simultaneously with the Protestants didn’t have religious freedom because they were slaves.
As a matter of fact many of the slaves that built the White House and had worked on the capital building were called Abrahamists (Muslims).
He (Adams) was right about morals, but when religion is manipulated to reflect Amoral morals, then, the not so bright can be easily manipulated. Speeches are great, but, actions are much better because they actually affect something! Of course the stupid and not so bright will settle for speeches as long as they feel it aligns with their self aggrieved issues!
The religious freedom mentioned in the Constitution really just served Protestants and to a lesser amount Catholics, because those 2 groups laid waste to Europe, as the religious wars raged for millennia.
Like I said, the framers of our Constitution and government were no saints, there were many, actually a majority, left out of A society made up of those White Protestant Land Owning Males. So, when a Constitution has been framed 2 1/2 centuries ago, how does that reflect on modern society? The GOP claims the originalist doctrine, instead of the Constitution being a living and breathing document that should be rescinded and re-authored! And not just knee-jerkidly, but thoughtfully and ethically with human dignity, compassion and empathy at the crux of it! If one is looking to our past for fairness, you’ll be looking for an eternity, because there was none.
If you’re looking to the past, look for the wrongs that can be corrected, not for a blueprint for righteousness, because society wasn’t fair nor was religion. Society and its companion religion, was for the chosen few!
Oh Wow, another Gem from the Guardian. It tells you all you need to know about the Reactionary GOP Party Today. As you know Texas has been hit by record breaking cold, snow and ice.
A Texas mayor has resigned after telling residents of his city to “Get off your ass and take care of your own family!” in the face of a devastating once-in-a-generation winter storm that has killed more than 20 people across the country and left millions without power in the state.
Colorado City mayor Tom Boyd told the 4,000 or so of his fellow citizens in his town that he was “sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout” and blamed “a socialist government” for the dire situation.
“No one owes you or your family anything; nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, it’s your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!,” Boyd continued in the career-ending rant he posted on a local community Facebook group.
Instead he suggested that people look to inspiration from their churches. “Only the strong will survive and the weak will perish. Folks, God has given us the tools to support ourselves in times like this,” he said.
Amid widespread outrage Boyd has now apologized resigned. “Please understand, if I had it to do over again, I would have just kept my words to myself and if I did say them I would have used better wording and been more descriptive,” said Boyd.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/texas-mayor-tom-boyd-quits-storm-sink-or-swim
There you have it the Reactionary Right Wing Bible Thumping response. The Strong will survive the Weak will Die. Boyd’s “apology” was revealing in that his inner thoughts what he truly thinks must be censored.
If it were only moral cowardice that accounts for the Republican senators’ vote! It is worse in that their votes were in apparent consonance with the Reaganesque view that government is inherently bad and the views of some that government should be first made small and the “drowned in a bathtub.” Such views are far from those held by our Founders, who considered public service to be a noble exercise rather than one described as greed for power purchased by the Mercers, Kochs and others.
Trump’s recent attempt to destroy what is left of our democracy in favor of dictatorship is in our wake, if temporarily, but since the senators’ vote effectively approved of such conduct we can expect to see him or someone else down the road make such an attempt again. I am sure that if this approval of an attempt to overthrow our government were done during the days of Madison and Jefferson that such senators would be at least expelled if not hung and that their feeble pretense of process over substance would be rightly rejected, as it should have been just recently.
Our task? Stay alert to the next attempt to destroy our democracy and pass legislation that criminalizes such efforts, thus removing the potential for mob rule and dictatorship from the cloakroom to the courtroom.
@Mitch……I agree that the sins of the idiots tend to have underground roots! How to get rid of Reagan? How to get rid of “Shrub” Bush? Of course it’ll take decades to fumigate after the PUSTULE…but, how to air out the office and move on?
When leaders don’t lead and provocateurs spread outright lies – it’s to suport their egos with the size of their audience and resulting profits. The result is too many otherwise honest people that buy into the blatantly false narratives – whether learned via their party and president, over the airwaves or the net, and/or preached to them at their church (even churches need an audience for donations).
It’s obvious after reading that Republican Rep. Kinzinger’s extended Christian family publically denounced his vote with their learned lies. If such Godly people aren’t savy enough to understand that they can’t believe everything they’re told or read – then we’re all doomed to more of the same type of voting preferences that brought us 45.
In my mind, now is the time to reassess the dangers of the 1st Amendment. It’s a slippery slope but integrity should and must rule, and while we now know which Republicans we can trust to assist. If we can’t yell fire in a movie theater, why should we have to rely upon the legal system to quiet the likes of Alex Jones and the many others who have contributed to the growing problem.
I listened to President Biden’s town hall last night on CNN. His emphasis is working on most dire problems facing US, covid pandemic & relief. I wasn’t shocked to hear him say that the previous administration “didn’t think an IG was necessary(over seeing relief money) so they fired him” Biden went on to say his staff looking into where that money went found 40% went to fraud, and wasn’t used as intended! They grifted 40% of our billions of dollars of relief fund! That’s a lot of tax payer money unaccounted for that could have given relief for Americans in dire need. Now Biden has to go big & Republican Senators are c/o too expensive.
I think the money trail needs to be followed, and has a direct tie in why Republican Senators voted to aquit DJT for the second time. By doing that they are saying that their Potus was/is above the law!
This is no surprise. It is the inevitable outcome of the past 50 or so years of the GOP.
When they embraced the Southern Strategy and the Red State Strategy they set themselves on this course.
Then, when they embarked on a plan to disenfranchise as many voters as possible [and the more melanin contained in their skin, the better] they confirmed that this was the course they wanted to continue pursuing.
They decided that catering to corporations and billionaires would be their winning strategy so they had to figure our a way to get people to vote for them despite their policies, not because of them. Guns and abortion and exclusion became their tools and flushing democracy down the drain became their goal.
This is what the party has become and now its members want to destroy the system that put them in power so they can continue holding that power forever. The Republican Party did this —- and it’s been headed in this direction for half a century.
ML,
Lol, committed political suicide in front of the entire ethos, wow.
I will have to say, the things he claimed God told him or he read in the Bible or whatever he claims, none of that stuff is in scripture! And that’s a fact!
Scripture says love your neighbor, it says love god, it also says to love your enemy! It also says to take care of the widows, take care of the children, take care of the fatherless, take care of the infirmed, take care of the downtrodden and victimized. The parable of the Good Samaritan really explains it! So, I’m not sure what church he’s going to, or, what Bible he reads, but his diatribe is completely the opposite of what scripture actually says.
Wayne Moss, I saw that statement from Senator Young. Since Young was actually a witness to the events, you don’t think it would have taken much investigation to convince the jury that something criminal might have happened.
ML, I saw the piece about the Colorado TX city mayor. What you did not say is the meltdown in the Texas power grid stems from a 1930’s deal to remain independent from any control outside of the state. They maintained so much independence, that they choose to ignore Federal Regulations. On top of that, they left it up to free market forces for all of the power generation in the state. The result is everyone cut corners by not worrying about winterization, so gas and coal plants failed when pipes and gauges froze. Unlike the rest of the US that knows you have the occasional ice storm, all of the Wind Generation lacked de-icing.
So much for small government and free markets.
Patrick Sullivan, YES YES YES!!!!!! That is exactly what I have been saying for years…..do these people lack intelligence? Most them yes. Do they lack courage? Yes. But the underlying and most important thing of all is that they do NOT want a democracy……..they want an authoritarian leader who will allow them to rape, plunder, and destroy any and everything and anyone in their path to meet their greed and lust for power!!!