Equal Justice Under Law

 

I had a dream last night.

I saw my father trying to dig a fox hole under a hail of artillery fire and bullets. Scared, covered in snow, and freezing, he and his friend were digging in and firing a machine gun at the advancing Germans.

Dad was one of over one million Allied soldiers, battling the last major Nazi offensive at the Battle of the Bulge. His unit, the 80th Infantry Div., part of the Third Army, was pulled from ongoing combat positions, then rushed miles in the worst winter conditions, in open trucks and in summer uniforms, to help stop the Nazi offensive and relieve Bastogne. 

Back home, a group of US Congressmen and America First Party people were demanding that FDR sue for peace with Hitler. They said the vastly superior Nazi armies could not be defeated and the U.S. must immediately get out of the war.

WWII in Europe officially ended just five months later with the surrender of Nazi Germany*. 

A little while later, surviving Nazis gave-up records with the names of the US Congress people and others, paid by the Nazis to influence public opinion and pull our troops out of the war. Sadly, these elites never faced justice for their treasonous activities. They went unpunished.

Prior to Pearl Harbor another group of wealthy white men attempted to overthrow the government of the United States. Their, “Wall Street Putsch” or “The Business Plot,” failed in large part due to Major General Smedley Butler’s public outing them as the traitors they were. But because they, too, were wealthy elites, they were never brought to justice.

While I have never been a supporter of Donald Trump, I realized that he will be credited for one good thing: transforming the Fourteenth Amendment myth into reality.

His crimes were so numerous and so egregious, including his attempted overthrow of the US government, that even his societal position as a white, wealthy, privileged male, and past president, failed to keep him from facing justice.

As a result, “equal justice under law,” finally began to become a reality in the United States. 

That was my dream.

Along with thousands of others, my dad’s comrade died that day. 

That was not a dream. It was a nightmare.

*Battle of the Bulge: The Greatest American Battle of the War

Rachel Maddow uncovers a WWII-era plot against America in 'Ultra' | Fresh Air

Rachel Maddow's new podcast, Ultra, is about ultra-right-wing groups that sided with Hitler's Germany, and plotted to overthrow the U. S. government before World War II. It led to the largest sedition trial in American history. Ultra is also about sitting members of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives who colluded with a German agent to spread Nazi propaganda to millions of Americans with the help of American taxpayers’ money. 

“FRESH AIR” from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.

Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra

Finally: "Can Do" Government

 

Watch: Biden lays out his economy policy proposal for ‘Bidenomics’ | NBC News

Cellophane People

 

Cellophane People

Look hard when you drive through Anytown USA. You will see them. But you really must look hard.

Because you’ve been conditioned not to see them.

We don’t want to see them. We’ve been conditioned to believe they are human failures. Bums. Slackers. Ne’er-do-wells. 

They are the undeserving, lazy scum without homes or jobs. 

They are the Cellophane People. People without names or faces.

And worse, they are people without value to our society. 

Our town councils and state legislatures pass laws to keep them out of our parks and tourists’ areas. Away from downtown merchants’ stores and from sleeping on our sidewalks.

They have nowhere to go. No resources. No hope.

Only despair.

Today, as you drive or walk past them and look away, know that you didn’t see just one of more than one-half million* Cellophane People trying to find a place to sleep tonight.

Not our job? 

Consider: 

We are all just a job loss away during the next politically driven, heartless, economic shutdown. Or, the next time the banks too big to fail, fail. Or, the MAGAt people succeed and eliminate our pitiful safety net.

Please consider asking your city council person to create a local, humane program to help your local cellophane people find a path back to their identity as human beings, a living minimum wage, and a safe place to sleep tonight.

*State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition

Who’s unhoused in California? Largest study in decades upends myths, Sam Levin, The Guardian, 20 Jun 2023.

"The research from UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, based on a representative survey of nearly 3,200 unhoused people, contradicts several persistent myths about the population, including that most unhoused people come from out of state to take advantage of services, as well as stereotypes that homeless people are mostly young adults who prefer to live outside and don’t want help."

“People are homeless because their rent is too high. And their options are too few. And they have no cushion,” Dr Margot Kushel, initiative director and lead investigator, told the Associated Press. “And it really makes you wonder how different things would look if we could solve that underlying problem.”

"The researchers recommended that the state (California) increase access to housing that is affordable to extremely low-income people, including by expanding rental subsidies; expand homelessness prevention through financial support and legal assistance, including for people leaving jails, prisons and drug treatment; expand eviction protections; increase access to treatment; and increase outreach and services for people living on the streets."

America’s Hidden Homeless: Invisible People on the Streets | Poverty in USA Documentary

Big Lie vs Election Truth

 

More than the usual misinformation, misdirection, and propaganda, presented as “NEWS” to viewers, FOX News Network has sunk to a new low for U.S. media organizations by paying its on-air personalities to purposely lie to boost their ratings and increase corporate revenue. 

This, along with two additional, even more heinous reveals, were ferreted out by Dominion Voting Systems Corp. lawyers in the recent pre-trial hearing for summary judgment in Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. 

You may recall that FOX ceaselessly, 24/7, declared false information to viewers about Dominion election software which Mr. Trump and supporters used to substantiate their claim that the 2020 election was, “stolen”. The “stolen election” lie was then used by Trump to instigate the 6 Jan 2021 MAGA insurrection against the United States.

In his ruling Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis found:

“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear than none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true. Therefore, the Court will grant summary judgment in favor of Dominion on the element of falsity,” the ruling read.

While that reveal may not be “real” news to most non-FOX viewers, what also came to light is news. The discovery process uncovered (reveal 2) that FOX personalities Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity spread the stolen election lie and other conspiracy theories even though they themselves knew they were lies.

“Internal text messages and emails from top hosts at Fox showed them throwing cold water on Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud but worrying how fact checking those claims might hurt their standing with their audience.”

“In one email surfaced as part of the lawsuit Rupert Murdoch, owner and co-chairman of Fox Corp., worried to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott that top hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham “went too far” in endorsing former President Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, fillings from Dominion showed.”

“Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” Murdoch wrote to Scott. “All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?”

Most importantly (reveal 3) Judge Davis found:

“Dominion has offered proof demonstrating that the allegations were substantially false,” Davis wrote. “Comparing the allegations at issue to the truth, the truth would have likely had a different outcome on the average viewer, as the statements at issue were dramatically different than the truth.”

“In fact, although it cannot be attributed directly to Fox’s statements, it is noteworthy that some Americans still believe the election was rigged,” the judge added.

It's now clear, had FOX presented Election Truth to their audience instead of the Big Lie, it is likely Mr. Trump’s riot/insurrection would have been dead from the get-go.

VoteVets - Ban (140)

https://votevets.org/press-releases/votevets-ad-calling-for-removal-of-carlson-ingraham-and-hannity-programming-from-tvs-on-military-installations

https://votevets.org/

Links in this Post

Judge sends Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News to trial
Dominick Mastrangelo and Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 31 Mar 2023

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3928459-judge-sends-dominions-1-6-billion-lawsuit-against-fox-news-to-trial/

Sacrificing Our Children

 

Sculptor George Segal and his sculpture in memory of students slain and wounded at Kent State by Ohio National Guardsmen, entitled: In Memory of May 4, 1970: Kent State-Abraham and Isaac.

There are happenings that change everything. 

Occurring in a flash, they are hurricane-like, erasing everything we thought we knew and forcing us into a totally unanticipated, dystopian understanding of our world. Once experienced, we can never go back.

For me, one life-altering moment, 13-seconds long, occurred on 4 May 1970, with the murder of four and wounding of nine Kent State University students. 

Those 13 seconds erased my naïve understanding of myself, my nation, our leaders, and our values. I began to understand that we are a people willing to sacrifice our children for nothing but cult identity membership and feeding our narcissistic egos.

Still, in one way the times have not changed. 

In the 1970s, the “silent majority” willingly sacrificed their children to the Vietnam War god. 

Today, we willingly sacrifice our children to the AR-15 god. 

Only the name of the god has changed. The willingness remains.

This Easter, my prayer is that our eyes and ears will open and that the Peace of Christ, pax Christi, will infuse us all with acceptance for each other.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you” (John 14:27).

Thousands of students walk-out in protest for gun control
The NewsChannel 5 Network in Nashville

Links in this Post

When Demagogues & Incompetence Rule Innocents Die https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2017/02/when-demagogues-incompetence-rule.html

Closure
https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2020/05/closure.html

Sculptor George Segal and his sculpture in memory of students slain and wounded at Kent State by Ohio National Guardsmen, entitled: In Memory of May 4, 1970: Kent State-Abraham and Isaac.
The Bound and the Unbound: Oedipus, Isaac, and Jesus
http://boundandunbound.blogspot.com/

Conjuring Gas Stoves & Drag Queens vs. Life-Changing Accomplishments for the Greater Good

 

While some politicians fixate on conjuring lies like Pres. Biden is going to take away gas stoves and drag queen dancers are going to “sexualize” youth, OTHERS, i.e. Democrats under Pres. Biden’s direction, have gotten some important, life-changing, things accomplished for us, the 99.9%, the everyday Joes and Janes of America.

Robert Reich* expressed what I see in today’s article posted in the British journal, The Guardian: Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigm, Robert Reich, 6 Feb 2023.

“It has taken one of the oldest presidents in American history, who has been in politics for over half a century, to return the nation to an economic paradigm that dominated public life between 1933 and 1980 and is far superior to the one that has dominated it since.

“Call it democratic capitalism.”

“Joe Biden is reviving democratic capitalism.

“From the Obama administration’s mistake of spending too little to pull the economy out of the Great Recession, he learned that the pandemic required substantially greater spending, which would also give working families a cushion against adversity. So he pushed for the giant $1.9tn American Rescue Plan.

“This was followed by a $550bn initiative to rebuild bridges, roads, public transit, broadband, water and energy systems. And in 2022, the biggest investment in clean energy in American history – expanding wind and solar power, electric vehicles, carbon capture and sequestration, and hydrogen and small nuclear reactors. This was followed by the largest public investment ever in semiconductors, the building blocks of the next economy.

“Notably, these initiatives are targeted to companies that employ American workers.

“Biden has also embarked on altering the balance of power between capital and labor, as did FDR. Biden has put trustbusters at the head of the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the justice department. And he has remade the National Labor Relations Board into a strong advocate of labor unions.

“Unlike his Democratic predecessors, Biden has not sought to reduce trade barriers. In fact, he has retained several from the Trump administration. But unlike Trump, he has not given a huge tax cut to corporations and the wealthy. It’s also worth noting that in contrast with every president since Reagan, Biden has not filled his White House with former Wall Street executives. Not one of his economic advisers – not even his treasury secretary – is from the Street.

“I don’t want to overstate Biden’s accomplishments. His ambitions for childcare, eldercare, paid family and medical leave were thwarted by senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. And now he has to contend with a Republican House.

“Biden’s larger achievement has been to change the economic paradigm that has reigned since Reagan. He is teaching America a lesson we once knew but have forgotten: that the “free market” does not exist. It is designed. It either advances public purposes or it serves the monied interests.

“Biden’s democratic capitalism is neither socialism nor “big government”. It is, rather, a return to an era when government organized the market for the greater good."

Please go here for the complete article.

I’m in favor for the “greater good.”

How about you?

*Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

Has Jeff Davis returned?

Republican Kevin McCarthy, the current Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has now allowed the House to tumble backwards into a neo-pre-Civil War era of chaos, hatred, and racism.

My guess is that history will show McCarthy’s watch will be akin to having permitted traitor and supporter of slavery and racism, Confederate President Jefferson F. Davis, to become Speaker after he lost the Civil War.