The past few months have been one long and debilitating
depression for me. And for you, as well, I’ll guess.
Trumpist and Trump voters (nearly 50% of Americans) are
racing down the slippery, historic path toward fascism, albeit spiked with an
American blend of Christo/authoritarianism, directed by their anointed demigod.
Today, totally under the psychopathic whims of Trump, the Republican
Party fully endorses and ceaselessly smears all nonbelievers (Democrats) with contrived
and debunked Tucker Carlson/FOX News, white supremacist, American Nazi, “replacement theory” lies, while simultaneously slurring them as “groomers” and pedophiles.
This from the Party that not only advocates but works round
the clock to overthrow the United States Constitution to empower themselves to
crown their candidates regardless of election results.
This from the party that has trashed every reform helping
the 99.9% of Americans since FDR’s first term during the 1930s to this very day.
And, finally, this from the party, along with FOX and Tucker
Carlson, that advocates for Putin over Ukraine, America and our NATO allies.
So, after all this, what has given me hope?
Big John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party candidate
for the U.S. Senate.
Listening to Fetterman slice through the Republican B*S*,
disinformation and misinformation, is like being pulled free of quicksand at
the last second before going under.
Big John is the man I want in office. I want to see him lead
the Democratic Party. I want to see him confront and defeat the Trump/Putin traitorous
Republican Party.
I want to see Big John Fetterman as President.
Gun Violence
John Fetterman: Rolling Stone Interview Special Edition
Andy Kroll spoke with the Lieutenant Governor of
Pennsylvania about how his state flipped for Biden, the continuing appeal of
Trump, legalizing cannabis, and the future issues of the Democratic party.
Only one man unleashed war on Ukraine. He can halt it in a second. Will he?
Please, those of you in Russia who can, please stop him... stop this senseless murder in Ukraine.
Years ago, when I was younger, I would pray for Peace.
Every New Year I silently resolved that killing and war would be no more.
I was a child then.
I believed that my resolving would bring Peace into being.
An old man now, I have observed that my resolving didn’t exactly pan out.
Peace has not arrived despite my annual effort to make it so.
Today I plan to add a few more words to my resolution:
I resolve that killing and war will be no more and that all of us on planet Earth resolve it, too. Together we can make it so.
"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:4
* The bronze sculpture "Let Us Beat Our Swords into Ploughshares," was created by Soviet artist Evgeny Vuchetich, and presented to the United Nations on 4 December 1959 by the Government of the USSR. The sculpture, depicting the figure of a man holding a hammer aloft in one hand and a sword in the other, which he is making into a ploughshare, is meant to symbolize man's desire to put an end to war, and to convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of mankind. It is located in the North Garden of the United Nations Headquarters.
In 2012, Matt Damon helped pay tribute to the late historian and author Howard Zinn. This rendition of a speech Zinn gave in 1970 on civil disobedience is one of his most powerful performances to date. It is still true... The Problem is Still Civil Obedience.
“Back in the 60s and 70s Dr. Zinn was one of the few who understood... and he did his best to tell us... that what was happening to our black brothers and sisters would soon be happening to us, all of us, save the mega-super rich. Today we understand his message was a premonition about our times, too.”
Fighting for the rights of common people is unfortunately not just a recent activity. For instance, Genora (Johnson) Dollinger, of Flint Michigan, co-founder of the Women's Emergency Brigade, became nationally known following the famous 44 day long Sit-Down Strike at the Flint General Motors plant, 1936-1937.
The video below includes a re-enactment of her: “Finally, I got up in the sound truck and I called the police, "Cowards, cowards, shooting into the bellies of unarmed men and firing into the mothers of children". And everything became quiet on both sides of the line. And I appealed to the women, the spectators on both sides, "Breakthrough those police lines and come down here and stand beside your husbands and your brothers and your uncles and your sweethearts". "In the dusk, I could barely see one woman walking down the battle zone. A cop grabbed her by the coat and she went right out of that coat and this was in freezing weather and she just kept right on coming. And as soon as that happened there were other women who followed down, then more men. And there was a big roar of victory." --Genora Johnson
If so, in some ways it is remarkably similar to past autocratic-loving, non-democratic, traitorous, broadcasters like Tokyo Rose or Axis Sally who were used to justify war against America and our allies during WWII. Except, they were forced to do their radio work against their country. It’s clear that Mr. Carlson favors autocrats such as Mr. Putin over democratically elected leaders such as Mr. Biden and Mr. Zelenskiy.
Tokyo Rose, a.k.a. Iva Toguri D'Aquino
"During (WWII), Tokyo Rose was not any one individual, but rather a group of largely unassociated women working for the same propagandist effort throughout the Japanese Empire. ... Toguri was accused of being the "real" Tokyo Rose, arrested, tried, and became the seventh person in U.S. history to be convicted of treason."
“American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally” is the fact-based story of Mildred Gillars, an aspiring American actress who was tried in 1949 on eight counts of treason for her role as a radio propagandist for Nazi Germany during World War II.”
We all know that if decisions were made based upon what is best for humanity we would have banished war a few million years ago. But that is not how our world turns, is it? Throughout history we have had war or wars every so many years because it is profitable and good for business for the people who are pulling our strings.
In fact, there has never been a time in the history of mankind in which we have had no wars, that is … violence, rape, pillaging, killing, slavery, economic subjugation, rebellions, crusades, and multiple holocausts. Reflect for just a second and you will see that today we have continuous war... war without end.
But as human beings and members of the 99.9%, we share a characteristic with millions of our brothers and sisters throughout the world: We just want to live our lives in PEACE and be left alone to enjoy the fruits of our labor. If we have freedom enough for that, well then, we're basically happy.
As it was for my father and mother's generation and their ancestors before them, the crucial question was... Whether keeping our nation alive is worth fighting for. Today, that question is now ours, as well, to answer.
Will we stand up for ourselves and fight to preserve our democracy? Will we resolve that these dead (our ancestors) shall not have died in vain? “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom”? “That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"?
In a few days hence we will choose our destiny... our answer.
What will it be?
Will we become "craven cowards" or choose "love and duty"?
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln, 19 Nov 1863
High Noon (1952) Official Trailer - Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly Movie HD
