It's the guns, but it's not just the guns. It's the racism, but it's not just the racism. It's the misogyny, but it's not just the misogyny. It's the attacks on democracy but it's not just the attacks on democracy.
It's the assault on the truth, on teaching history and science, but it's not just the assault on the truth and facts and reality and banning books. It's the corruption but it's not just the corruption and the cover-ups and the obstruction of justice and the gaming of our courts.
What happened in Buffalo is not just about some isolated shooter, some deranged sociopath. He was fueled by an ideology of hate promoted by an American president, by a leading American news channel, by an entire US political party.
His brutality was enabled by decades of massive spending, some of it from enemies like Russia, to not just promote guns in the US but to twist & pervert the interpretation of the Second Amendment to turn America into one of the world's most dangerous, self-destructive societies.
He was part of the very same movement that has political candidates blocking access to the press, offering up the same right wing catechism of hate, seeking to block access of people of color to the polls, seeking to deny gay Americans the right to love whom they want.
From Murdoch to Trump to McConnell to Alito flows the ideology of the superiority of whites...but not just of whites but of white males...and not just of white males but of white Evangelical Christian males. But their mantras and slogans of racial, cultural superiority...
...are accompanied by other doctrines promoting fear of minorities, of white replacement theory gleefully promoted by Tucker Carlson & other despicable lunatics, of racist myths about brown babies in need of formula or caravans of "the other" assaulting our southern borders.
They are not just systematically trying to deny power and basic human rights from control of their own body to the ability to cast a vote to determine the future of the nation in which they live to those with whom they disagree, they are working daily to drown out other views.
They preach "free speech" as a cover for seeking discourse on the web that can promote snake oil and race war & that can destroy the reputations of their enemies even as they seek to quash elements of history, realities of scientific truth, that don't fit their warped worldview.
Compounding their hypocrisy is that the people for whom they assert they are fighting are just dupes, pawns they use to maintain power so the leaders of the movement and its funders can profit, can rig our system to promote inequality and to enhance already obscene riches.
They promote conspiracy theories to distract from the fact that so much of what they do that seems isolated is actually connected, is all part of a plan, is all part of one, coherent, thought out, decades old right wing agenda.
The Buffalo shooting and political candidates selling hate, the SCOTUS decision on abortion and our insane gun laws, our national gun pathology (that the court will only make worse) and banned books in elementary schools and Texan abuse of COVID funds and...
DeSantis throwing reporters out of public meetings and Hawley giving the thumbs up to insurrectionists and Barr blocking prosecution of Trump for obstruction of justice and Ivanka and Jared making millions while in office and groveling to the Russians and...
...blackmailing Ukraine and both impeachments and Congressional Xmas cards featuring kids with assault weapons and threats to hang the Vice President of the United States and the Tree of Life shooting and the babies in cages at the border and...
...tax cuts for billionaires and Elon Musk's reasons for wanting to take over Twitter and the wink and the nod to the murder of Khashoggi and failing to help Puerto Rico after a hurricane or California after devastating fires and...
lying about COVID and promoting horse medicines for people and bleach into your veins and the pillow salesman and the crazies on the right in Congress and 63 Republicans voting not to support Ukraine and Rand Paul blocking aid to that country and...
...Citizens United & Shelby County & the packing of the court and Ginni Thomas helping to promote the Big Lie and the coup and attacking the Squad and "lock her up" and calling people "pedos" and all of it...all of it...is the work of one movement, one that is destroying the US.
The funders are the same, the leaders are the same, the media mouthpieces are the same, the actions compound the effect of other actions, the grassroots supporters are the same and the consequences for each of us, for our society, for our democracy are equally dire.
To defeat them takes seeing the scope of what is happening for what it is...seeing their intents are to compound the past with further abuses, attacks on our rights, institutionalization of their minority view, suppression of the will of the majority of us.
It will require us to be as systematic as they are and as thorough. It requires not just winning races but undoing the damage they have done, restoring core principles to the operations of our government and of our society, ideas like equal justice under the law and decency,
tolerance and one person one vote, defending the truth and common sense, honesty and the willingness to fight within the parameters of the law to defend what we value. We must do all that. It won't be easy. The outcome is not guaranteed. The risks are immense.
But it all begins with seeing the big picture, recognizing the links, identifying the origins of this tragic chapter in our history.
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Given the number of ways that a candidate can communicate directly with voters--the relevance and wisdom of doing so through intermediaries who will filter the news and who often will bend it to suit other agendas has diminished. That seems reasonable to me.
The argument that the press is the objective presenter of facts has been weakened as virtually all media seek to adjust their presentation of content to suit business or political objectives. There are fewer and fewer journalists who can be relied upon to seek objective truth.
Too many are compromised not only by the agenda of their company's owners but by their own history of access journalism or sensationalism or focusing on the trending rather than the important story. They howl at being ignored or bypassed. But they share some of the blame.
The argument that Harris is somehow not speaking enough to the press is ridiculous on several levels: 1.) She actually does speak to the press, 2.) She has been visible constantly since she became the candidate, 3.) She has been clear and detailed about all her policy goals.
4.) She has been readily available to the press for four years. There are few questions about her that have not already been asked and answered. 5.) The goal of the campaign is for her to communicate with voters. So far, they seem to have responded well to what she has said.
6.) Her opponent is actually not campaigning, is primarily speaking to patsies in the press when he does speak to the media, and lies constantly so it doesn't matter what he is asked because he won't answer truthfully.
Folks, if you want a US policy toward Israel and Gaza that is more focused on relieving the suffering the people of Gaza and achieving a lasting, just peace, disrupting the campaign of the one person most likely to deliver that is a bad idea. Especially when...
...she has indicated a willingness to meet with groups that share your views. She may not agree with all of your ideas and suggestions. But she is by far your best and only legitimate hope of change and weakening her is a crazily self-destructive process.
You may not like this reality. But you would like the alternatives--Trump or the status quo--much much much less. You may not feel you can wait for our political processes to work out...but frankly, there is no alternative choice that is available or possible.
To all the geniuses who feel Harris should have picked Shapiro to "win Pennsylvania" I ask, um, when was the last time that was the reason a VP was picked? (Hint: It is seldom if ever the reason a VP candidate was picked.)
Here, let me do some quick math for you. Biden certainly didn't pick Harris to win a contested state. Trump picked neither Vance nor Pence to win contested states. HRC picked Tim Kaine to help in Va., that's true, and he helped. It was an outlier.
Do you think McCain picked Palin to win Alaska? Edwards did not help Kerry win North Carolina. Did Cheney get picked to help Bush in Montana? No. How about Lieberman to help Gore in Connecticut. No. Clinton did win Al Gore's home state of Tennessee...
The recent discussion about Biden has gone through phases. The first was about the debate performance. The second was about whether that was a signal of potential problems to come. But we are now in a third phase which turns more fears about the state of the campaign.
These concerns are largely from political professionals (not commentators). They turn not just on setbacks since the debate but on the fact that the campaign was seemingly spinning its wheels even beforehand. I sense a bunch of it is from worried folks down the ballot.
These conversations seem to be continuing despite Biden's repeated statements that he is definitely running and in it for the long haul and have not been helped by recent polling data, the Cook Report downgrade of Dem battleground prospects, etc.
It's pretty clear. Biden is standing for, believes in and still fights for the values that led Americans to the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago. And Trump and the MAGA movement oppose and seek to undermine all those values.
Trump is on the wrong side in the struggle that caused World War II. He is on the side of fascism. Of the enemy. He derogates our heroes. He seeks to undo the gains we made by winning that war. He attacks our allies and our alliances. He supports our enemies.
Trump had a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed. Trump's own cabinet members said he defended Hitler. Watching the 80th Anniversary of D-Day commemorations we should try to understand the full implications of Trump & MAGA in the context of WWII and the last century.