This is a bunch of anti-American rhetoric and communist crap again and again and again
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jan 10, 2019, at 7:39 AM, Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>
> The following is worth reading and considering.
> Carl Jarvis
> *******
>
> Has the Ruling Class Finally Had Enough of Trump?
>
> Andrew Harnik / AP
>
> As the United States lurches toward its 2020 presidential election cycle, it
> is useful to revisit the central tension of Donald Trump's presidency. I'm
> speaking, of course, about his phony populism and the politico-financial
> establishment's utter contempt for his political ascent. As the Democratic
> field slowly takes shape, the question now is whether the ruling class has
> finally had enough.
>
> This is not to suggest that these elites dislike Trump for the same reasons
> a Truthdig reader might. Those who stand atop the nation's power structures
> have long been comfortable with American corruption, patriarchy, racism and
> outright sociopathy. For evidence, look no further than the disparate
> presidencies of the so-called American century.
>
> No, what's different and problematic for our country's oligarchs is that
> while the presidency has long served America's imperial interests, it has
> typically done so while purporting to stand for something more noble. The
> U.S. government and, above all, its executive branch, are expected to
> masquerade as forces for "good"-democracy, liberty and peace, at least in
> the abstract, and an outwardly multilateralist management of world affairs.
>
> Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both Ivy League law school graduates, were
> skilled and telegenic masters of that ruse. Even the comparatively dimwitted
> George W. Bush had the basic courtesy to cover his hideous machinations in
> Iraq with the rhetoric of freedom. "Dubya" knew better than to openly and
> theatrically boast of U.S. arms sales to the murderous and absolutist rulers
> of Saudi Arabia.
>
> Trump is a new and different kind of presidential animal. He makes no
> pretense of himself, the presidency or the United States being about
> anything more than mercenary and socio-pathological self-interest. He gives
> not one flip about racial and ethnic diversity, equality or the state of
> global affairs, much less the fate of our planet.
>
> Trump openly mocks and assaults science, expertise and intellectual rigor,
> denying the obviously anthropogenic nature of our climate crisis. Openly
> assaulting the very notion of veracity, he repeats the same false statements
> long after they've been proven false by exhausted reporters.
>
> The president adamantly refuses to pretend that he, his office or the nation
> he represents lay any special claim to the notions of dignity or integrity.
> He eschews civility and graciousness, instead basking in an Archie
> Bunker-like disregard for political correctness. And he continues to use his
> Twitter account to pounce on his perceived personal and political enemies,
> turning Washington into an "Apprentice"-style (un)reality show.
>
> Trump embodies what we might call American unexceptionalism, behaving like
> one of the bizarre and petulant Third World dictators the U.S. has long
> sponsored around the world.
>
> But beyond being bad for the brand, Trump brazenly flouts ruling-class
> institutions and conventions. He does not consult the Council on Foreign
> Relations, the Atlantic Council, the Wilson Center or the Brookings
> Institution on foreign or domestic policy. He doesn't read policy briefs or
> white papers from establishment think tanks.
>
> Instead, he prefers to take advice from fellow wacky billionaires and
> right-wing media personalities with whom he regularly consults by phone late
> at night, alone in his bedroom, or via Fox News. He claims to know more
> about developments in other nations than his own top generals and spooks.
>
> It is unimaginable that any previous U.S. president would have defied his
> own intelligence agencies' finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
> Salman ordered the killing of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist
> Jamal Khashoggi. Or stood next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki to say that he
> believed the Russian president-and not the CIA-when he said that Russia did
> not interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
>
> Neither would any previous American president have deployed troops to the
> southern border in a transparent attempt to rally Republican voters on the
> eve of a midterm election. Or shut down the federal government, possibly
> "for years," in Trump's words, if Congress doesn't give him the money to
> build a useless wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
>
> Ultimately, Trump is the first man to ascend to the post-WWII U.S.
> presidency from outside the global consensus. In and of itself, that has
> been an incredible development, bothersome indeed to the United States'
> economic and military establishment. (The bad news, for the rest of us, is
> that he emerged from the white nationalist right rather than the egalitarian
> and social democratic left.)
>
> Still, there are real limits to the establishment's discomfort with Trump,
> who has been useful to the nation's rulers and owners in four key ways.
>
> First, for all his talk of protectionism, Trump is a rapacious neoliberal
> who has rewarded the 1 percent with personal and corporate tax cuts, as well
> as deregulation designed to funnel wealth upward. The superrich and their
> retainers in Washington have been willing to tolerate his misbehavior
> because his policies have lined their pockets.
>
> Second, the endless Trump circus functions to divert the masses from the
> corporate looting that his administration and much of Congress is advancing
> behind the scenes to devastating effect.
>
> Third, even as he serves the moneyed elite, the mendacious mogul currently
> occupying the White House has been deceptively labeled a "populist." His
> base is widely (and, for the most part, falsely) considered to be "the
> working class"-the white and "heartland" working class more specifically.
>
> The ruling class especially likes that. It allows it to point out what
> happens when the rabble is allowed to run rampant in politics, without
> proper checks and balances from the top down. It also gives it cover to
> suppress the genuine populism it fears most-democratic socialism. Unlike the
> reactionary "populism" of the right, which directs its rage at vulnerable
> communities, Bernie Sanders and his ilk are seriously and substantively
> opposed to corporate plutocracy and its enablers in the professional class.
>
> Fourth, Trump's awfulness lowers the bar for whoever might replace him in
> the White House. "Anybody but Trump" is understandable, but it opens the
> door for millions of Americans to gratefully welcome a Wall Street Democrat
> like Joe Biden, a cipher like Beto O'Rourke or, perish the thought, Hillary
> Rodham Clinton herself. Anybody-but-Trumpism is hard to resist, given the
> creeping fascism of our current president, but it intensifies the deadly
> superficiality of a candidate-selection process that functions to elect
> presidents well to the right of actual majority-progressive public opinion.
> And it marginalizes a genuine progressive like Sanders, who would likely
> have defeated Trump in 2016.
>
> So could the dual pressures of the working and corporate classes end Trump's
> presidency before the 2020 elections, whether through impeachment, the 25th
> Amendment or resignation? Up until last year, I felt highly confident in
> saying, "Not a chance," given the durability of his base and Republican
> control of the Senate, where 67 votes are required to remove a president
> following impeachment in the House.
>
> But things have changed radically since November.
> .The Mueller investigation, which likely contains blockbuster findings, is
> finally coming to a head-this after guilty pleas from Trump's former
> campaign manager and deputy campaign manager, his former national security
> advisor, his personal lawyer and a bevy of lesser players, all of whom have
> turned state's evidence on their former boss. It is distinctly possible that
> the final report will reveal Trump has engaged in criminal and impeachable
> activities.
> .Longtime fixer Michael Cohen named the president as an "unindicted
> co-conspirator" in criminal payoffs meant to keep Trump's sexual peccadillos
> out of the media on the eve of the 2016 election.
> .Robert Mueller's inquiry has invited separate inquiries into Trump's
> business practices, his administration and his associates. Subjects include
> obstruction of justice, money laundering, influence peddling by Gulf
> monarchies, and corruption in Trump's inauguration committee. It's about
> much more than just alleged collusion with Russia.
> .The midterm elections damaged Trump's stature in Washington, with the
> record Democratic turnout a referendum on his chaotic presidency.
> .The new Democrat-controlled House will bombard the administration with
> subpoenas, document requests and hearings that will certainly produce new
> disclosures of corruption, both in the executive branch and the Trump
> organization.
> .Numerous key White House personnel, including a chief of staff and a
> secretary of defense, have all but quit in disgust, and Trump is finding it
> difficult to fill the vacancies.
> .Top Republicans who were once strong Trump backers have publicly criticized
> some of his recent actions, including his unflagging support of the Saudi
> kingdom after the gory murder of Khashoggi, as well as his abrupt decision
> to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. These Republicans have expressed open
> dismay over former Defense Secretary James Mattis' resignation.
> .Trump's approval rating has recently fallen to its lowest level since he
> infamously acknowledged "good people on both sides" of a neo-Nazi rally in
> Charlottesville, Va., in the summer of 2017.
> .U.S. stock markets just had their worst December since the Great
> Depression, with top financial analysts reporting widespread concern that
> Trump's trade policies-above all his trade war with China-could bring on a
> recession.
> .Economic turmoil seems ever more imminent, something that will sink Trump's
> approval rating to new lows, making him more of a liability than ever to
> many Senate and House Republicans.
> .An unhinged, increasingly isolated Trump has opened the new year with a
> ridiculous and highly unpopular government shutdown that has left roughly
> 800,000 federal workers without paychecks-all in the name of a preposterous
> wall along the southern border.
>
> All of this and more could convince the rich and Republican elites that
> Trump's presidency poses clear and present dangers to their economic and
> political bottom lines, and that it is therefore time to unseat him before
> the next national elections. Whether he stays or goes, however, the American
> ruling class is likely to escape a long-overdue rebellion that transcends
> the narrow confines of U.S. electoral and constitutional politics.
>
> Paul Street
>
> Contributor
>
> Paul Street holds a doctorate in U.S. history from Binghamton University. He
> is former vice president for research and planning of the Chicago Urban
> League. Street is also the author of numerous books,.
> _______________________________________________
> acb-chat mailing list
> acb-chat@acblists.org
> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
Thursday, January 10, 2019
food for thought
The following is worth reading and considering.
Carl Jarvis
*******
Has the Ruling Class Finally Had Enough of Trump?
Andrew Harnik / AP
As the United States lurches toward its 2020 presidential election cycle, it
is useful to revisit the central tension of Donald Trump's presidency. I'm
speaking, of course, about his phony populism and the politico-financial
establishment's utter contempt for his political ascent. As the Democratic
field slowly takes shape, the question now is whether the ruling class has
finally had enough.
This is not to suggest that these elites dislike Trump for the same reasons
a Truthdig reader might. Those who stand atop the nation's power structures
have long been comfortable with American corruption, patriarchy, racism and
outright sociopathy. For evidence, look no further than the disparate
presidencies of the so-called American century.
No, what's different and problematic for our country's oligarchs is that
while the presidency has long served America's imperial interests, it has
typically done so while purporting to stand for something more noble. The
U.S. government and, above all, its executive branch, are expected to
masquerade as forces for "good"-democracy, liberty and peace, at least in
the abstract, and an outwardly multilateralist management of world affairs.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both Ivy League law school graduates, were
skilled and telegenic masters of that ruse. Even the comparatively dimwitted
George W. Bush had the basic courtesy to cover his hideous machinations in
Iraq with the rhetoric of freedom. "Dubya" knew better than to openly and
theatrically boast of U.S. arms sales to the murderous and absolutist rulers
of Saudi Arabia.
Trump is a new and different kind of presidential animal. He makes no
pretense of himself, the presidency or the United States being about
anything more than mercenary and socio-pathological self-interest. He gives
not one flip about racial and ethnic diversity, equality or the state of
global affairs, much less the fate of our planet.
Trump openly mocks and assaults science, expertise and intellectual rigor,
denying the obviously anthropogenic nature of our climate crisis. Openly
assaulting the very notion of veracity, he repeats the same false statements
long after they've been proven false by exhausted reporters.
The president adamantly refuses to pretend that he, his office or the nation
he represents lay any special claim to the notions of dignity or integrity.
He eschews civility and graciousness, instead basking in an Archie
Bunker-like disregard for political correctness. And he continues to use his
Twitter account to pounce on his perceived personal and political enemies,
turning Washington into an "Apprentice"-style (un)reality show.
Trump embodies what we might call American unexceptionalism, behaving like
one of the bizarre and petulant Third World dictators the U.S. has long
sponsored around the world.
But beyond being bad for the brand, Trump brazenly flouts ruling-class
institutions and conventions. He does not consult the Council on Foreign
Relations, the Atlantic Council, the Wilson Center or the Brookings
Institution on foreign or domestic policy. He doesn't read policy briefs or
white papers from establishment think tanks.
Instead, he prefers to take advice from fellow wacky billionaires and
right-wing media personalities with whom he regularly consults by phone late
at night, alone in his bedroom, or via Fox News. He claims to know more
about developments in other nations than his own top generals and spooks.
It is unimaginable that any previous U.S. president would have defied his
own intelligence agencies' finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman ordered the killing of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist
Jamal Khashoggi. Or stood next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki to say that he
believed the Russian president-and not the CIA-when he said that Russia did
not interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Neither would any previous American president have deployed troops to the
southern border in a transparent attempt to rally Republican voters on the
eve of a midterm election. Or shut down the federal government, possibly
"for years," in Trump's words, if Congress doesn't give him the money to
build a useless wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ultimately, Trump is the first man to ascend to the post-WWII U.S.
presidency from outside the global consensus. In and of itself, that has
been an incredible development, bothersome indeed to the United States'
economic and military establishment. (The bad news, for the rest of us, is
that he emerged from the white nationalist right rather than the egalitarian
and social democratic left.)
Still, there are real limits to the establishment's discomfort with Trump,
who has been useful to the nation's rulers and owners in four key ways.
First, for all his talk of protectionism, Trump is a rapacious neoliberal
who has rewarded the 1 percent with personal and corporate tax cuts, as well
as deregulation designed to funnel wealth upward. The superrich and their
retainers in Washington have been willing to tolerate his misbehavior
because his policies have lined their pockets.
Second, the endless Trump circus functions to divert the masses from the
corporate looting that his administration and much of Congress is advancing
behind the scenes to devastating effect.
Third, even as he serves the moneyed elite, the mendacious mogul currently
occupying the White House has been deceptively labeled a "populist." His
base is widely (and, for the most part, falsely) considered to be "the
working class"-the white and "heartland" working class more specifically.
The ruling class especially likes that. It allows it to point out what
happens when the rabble is allowed to run rampant in politics, without
proper checks and balances from the top down. It also gives it cover to
suppress the genuine populism it fears most-democratic socialism. Unlike the
reactionary "populism" of the right, which directs its rage at vulnerable
communities, Bernie Sanders and his ilk are seriously and substantively
opposed to corporate plutocracy and its enablers in the professional class.
Fourth, Trump's awfulness lowers the bar for whoever might replace him in
the White House. "Anybody but Trump" is understandable, but it opens the
door for millions of Americans to gratefully welcome a Wall Street Democrat
like Joe Biden, a cipher like Beto O'Rourke or, perish the thought, Hillary
Rodham Clinton herself. Anybody-but-Trumpism is hard to resist, given the
creeping fascism of our current president, but it intensifies the deadly
superficiality of a candidate-selection process that functions to elect
presidents well to the right of actual majority-progressive public opinion.
And it marginalizes a genuine progressive like Sanders, who would likely
have defeated Trump in 2016.
So could the dual pressures of the working and corporate classes end Trump's
presidency before the 2020 elections, whether through impeachment, the 25th
Amendment or resignation? Up until last year, I felt highly confident in
saying, "Not a chance," given the durability of his base and Republican
control of the Senate, where 67 votes are required to remove a president
following impeachment in the House.
But things have changed radically since November.
.The Mueller investigation, which likely contains blockbuster findings, is
finally coming to a head-this after guilty pleas from Trump's former
campaign manager and deputy campaign manager, his former national security
advisor, his personal lawyer and a bevy of lesser players, all of whom have
turned state's evidence on their former boss. It is distinctly possible that
the final report will reveal Trump has engaged in criminal and impeachable
activities.
.Longtime fixer Michael Cohen named the president as an "unindicted
co-conspirator" in criminal payoffs meant to keep Trump's sexual peccadillos
out of the media on the eve of the 2016 election.
.Robert Mueller's inquiry has invited separate inquiries into Trump's
business practices, his administration and his associates. Subjects include
obstruction of justice, money laundering, influence peddling by Gulf
monarchies, and corruption in Trump's inauguration committee. It's about
much more than just alleged collusion with Russia.
.The midterm elections damaged Trump's stature in Washington, with the
record Democratic turnout a referendum on his chaotic presidency.
.The new Democrat-controlled House will bombard the administration with
subpoenas, document requests and hearings that will certainly produce new
disclosures of corruption, both in the executive branch and the Trump
organization.
.Numerous key White House personnel, including a chief of staff and a
secretary of defense, have all but quit in disgust, and Trump is finding it
difficult to fill the vacancies.
.Top Republicans who were once strong Trump backers have publicly criticized
some of his recent actions, including his unflagging support of the Saudi
kingdom after the gory murder of Khashoggi, as well as his abrupt decision
to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. These Republicans have expressed open
dismay over former Defense Secretary James Mattis' resignation.
.Trump's approval rating has recently fallen to its lowest level since he
infamously acknowledged "good people on both sides" of a neo-Nazi rally in
Charlottesville, Va., in the summer of 2017.
.U.S. stock markets just had their worst December since the Great
Depression, with top financial analysts reporting widespread concern that
Trump's trade policies-above all his trade war with China-could bring on a
recession.
.Economic turmoil seems ever more imminent, something that will sink Trump's
approval rating to new lows, making him more of a liability than ever to
many Senate and House Republicans.
.An unhinged, increasingly isolated Trump has opened the new year with a
ridiculous and highly unpopular government shutdown that has left roughly
800,000 federal workers without paychecks-all in the name of a preposterous
wall along the southern border.
All of this and more could convince the rich and Republican elites that
Trump's presidency poses clear and present dangers to their economic and
political bottom lines, and that it is therefore time to unseat him before
the next national elections. Whether he stays or goes, however, the American
ruling class is likely to escape a long-overdue rebellion that transcends
the narrow confines of U.S. electoral and constitutional politics.
Paul Street
Contributor
Paul Street holds a doctorate in U.S. history from Binghamton University. He
is former vice president for research and planning of the Chicago Urban
League. Street is also the author of numerous books,.
Carl Jarvis
*******
Has the Ruling Class Finally Had Enough of Trump?
Andrew Harnik / AP
As the United States lurches toward its 2020 presidential election cycle, it
is useful to revisit the central tension of Donald Trump's presidency. I'm
speaking, of course, about his phony populism and the politico-financial
establishment's utter contempt for his political ascent. As the Democratic
field slowly takes shape, the question now is whether the ruling class has
finally had enough.
This is not to suggest that these elites dislike Trump for the same reasons
a Truthdig reader might. Those who stand atop the nation's power structures
have long been comfortable with American corruption, patriarchy, racism and
outright sociopathy. For evidence, look no further than the disparate
presidencies of the so-called American century.
No, what's different and problematic for our country's oligarchs is that
while the presidency has long served America's imperial interests, it has
typically done so while purporting to stand for something more noble. The
U.S. government and, above all, its executive branch, are expected to
masquerade as forces for "good"-democracy, liberty and peace, at least in
the abstract, and an outwardly multilateralist management of world affairs.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both Ivy League law school graduates, were
skilled and telegenic masters of that ruse. Even the comparatively dimwitted
George W. Bush had the basic courtesy to cover his hideous machinations in
Iraq with the rhetoric of freedom. "Dubya" knew better than to openly and
theatrically boast of U.S. arms sales to the murderous and absolutist rulers
of Saudi Arabia.
Trump is a new and different kind of presidential animal. He makes no
pretense of himself, the presidency or the United States being about
anything more than mercenary and socio-pathological self-interest. He gives
not one flip about racial and ethnic diversity, equality or the state of
global affairs, much less the fate of our planet.
Trump openly mocks and assaults science, expertise and intellectual rigor,
denying the obviously anthropogenic nature of our climate crisis. Openly
assaulting the very notion of veracity, he repeats the same false statements
long after they've been proven false by exhausted reporters.
The president adamantly refuses to pretend that he, his office or the nation
he represents lay any special claim to the notions of dignity or integrity.
He eschews civility and graciousness, instead basking in an Archie
Bunker-like disregard for political correctness. And he continues to use his
Twitter account to pounce on his perceived personal and political enemies,
turning Washington into an "Apprentice"-style (un)reality show.
Trump embodies what we might call American unexceptionalism, behaving like
one of the bizarre and petulant Third World dictators the U.S. has long
sponsored around the world.
But beyond being bad for the brand, Trump brazenly flouts ruling-class
institutions and conventions. He does not consult the Council on Foreign
Relations, the Atlantic Council, the Wilson Center or the Brookings
Institution on foreign or domestic policy. He doesn't read policy briefs or
white papers from establishment think tanks.
Instead, he prefers to take advice from fellow wacky billionaires and
right-wing media personalities with whom he regularly consults by phone late
at night, alone in his bedroom, or via Fox News. He claims to know more
about developments in other nations than his own top generals and spooks.
It is unimaginable that any previous U.S. president would have defied his
own intelligence agencies' finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman ordered the killing of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist
Jamal Khashoggi. Or stood next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki to say that he
believed the Russian president-and not the CIA-when he said that Russia did
not interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Neither would any previous American president have deployed troops to the
southern border in a transparent attempt to rally Republican voters on the
eve of a midterm election. Or shut down the federal government, possibly
"for years," in Trump's words, if Congress doesn't give him the money to
build a useless wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ultimately, Trump is the first man to ascend to the post-WWII U.S.
presidency from outside the global consensus. In and of itself, that has
been an incredible development, bothersome indeed to the United States'
economic and military establishment. (The bad news, for the rest of us, is
that he emerged from the white nationalist right rather than the egalitarian
and social democratic left.)
Still, there are real limits to the establishment's discomfort with Trump,
who has been useful to the nation's rulers and owners in four key ways.
First, for all his talk of protectionism, Trump is a rapacious neoliberal
who has rewarded the 1 percent with personal and corporate tax cuts, as well
as deregulation designed to funnel wealth upward. The superrich and their
retainers in Washington have been willing to tolerate his misbehavior
because his policies have lined their pockets.
Second, the endless Trump circus functions to divert the masses from the
corporate looting that his administration and much of Congress is advancing
behind the scenes to devastating effect.
Third, even as he serves the moneyed elite, the mendacious mogul currently
occupying the White House has been deceptively labeled a "populist." His
base is widely (and, for the most part, falsely) considered to be "the
working class"-the white and "heartland" working class more specifically.
The ruling class especially likes that. It allows it to point out what
happens when the rabble is allowed to run rampant in politics, without
proper checks and balances from the top down. It also gives it cover to
suppress the genuine populism it fears most-democratic socialism. Unlike the
reactionary "populism" of the right, which directs its rage at vulnerable
communities, Bernie Sanders and his ilk are seriously and substantively
opposed to corporate plutocracy and its enablers in the professional class.
Fourth, Trump's awfulness lowers the bar for whoever might replace him in
the White House. "Anybody but Trump" is understandable, but it opens the
door for millions of Americans to gratefully welcome a Wall Street Democrat
like Joe Biden, a cipher like Beto O'Rourke or, perish the thought, Hillary
Rodham Clinton herself. Anybody-but-Trumpism is hard to resist, given the
creeping fascism of our current president, but it intensifies the deadly
superficiality of a candidate-selection process that functions to elect
presidents well to the right of actual majority-progressive public opinion.
And it marginalizes a genuine progressive like Sanders, who would likely
have defeated Trump in 2016.
So could the dual pressures of the working and corporate classes end Trump's
presidency before the 2020 elections, whether through impeachment, the 25th
Amendment or resignation? Up until last year, I felt highly confident in
saying, "Not a chance," given the durability of his base and Republican
control of the Senate, where 67 votes are required to remove a president
following impeachment in the House.
But things have changed radically since November.
.The Mueller investigation, which likely contains blockbuster findings, is
finally coming to a head-this after guilty pleas from Trump's former
campaign manager and deputy campaign manager, his former national security
advisor, his personal lawyer and a bevy of lesser players, all of whom have
turned state's evidence on their former boss. It is distinctly possible that
the final report will reveal Trump has engaged in criminal and impeachable
activities.
.Longtime fixer Michael Cohen named the president as an "unindicted
co-conspirator" in criminal payoffs meant to keep Trump's sexual peccadillos
out of the media on the eve of the 2016 election.
.Robert Mueller's inquiry has invited separate inquiries into Trump's
business practices, his administration and his associates. Subjects include
obstruction of justice, money laundering, influence peddling by Gulf
monarchies, and corruption in Trump's inauguration committee. It's about
much more than just alleged collusion with Russia.
.The midterm elections damaged Trump's stature in Washington, with the
record Democratic turnout a referendum on his chaotic presidency.
.The new Democrat-controlled House will bombard the administration with
subpoenas, document requests and hearings that will certainly produce new
disclosures of corruption, both in the executive branch and the Trump
organization.
.Numerous key White House personnel, including a chief of staff and a
secretary of defense, have all but quit in disgust, and Trump is finding it
difficult to fill the vacancies.
.Top Republicans who were once strong Trump backers have publicly criticized
some of his recent actions, including his unflagging support of the Saudi
kingdom after the gory murder of Khashoggi, as well as his abrupt decision
to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. These Republicans have expressed open
dismay over former Defense Secretary James Mattis' resignation.
.Trump's approval rating has recently fallen to its lowest level since he
infamously acknowledged "good people on both sides" of a neo-Nazi rally in
Charlottesville, Va., in the summer of 2017.
.U.S. stock markets just had their worst December since the Great
Depression, with top financial analysts reporting widespread concern that
Trump's trade policies-above all his trade war with China-could bring on a
recession.
.Economic turmoil seems ever more imminent, something that will sink Trump's
approval rating to new lows, making him more of a liability than ever to
many Senate and House Republicans.
.An unhinged, increasingly isolated Trump has opened the new year with a
ridiculous and highly unpopular government shutdown that has left roughly
800,000 federal workers without paychecks-all in the name of a preposterous
wall along the southern border.
All of this and more could convince the rich and Republican elites that
Trump's presidency poses clear and present dangers to their economic and
political bottom lines, and that it is therefore time to unseat him before
the next national elections. Whether he stays or goes, however, the American
ruling class is likely to escape a long-overdue rebellion that transcends
the narrow confines of U.S. electoral and constitutional politics.
Paul Street
Contributor
Paul Street holds a doctorate in U.S. history from Binghamton University. He
is former vice president for research and planning of the Chicago Urban
League. Street is also the author of numerous books,.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...
Donald Trump Jr. says zoo enclosures show 'walls work'
Humpty Trumpty sat on his wall.
Humpty Trumpty had a great fall
And all of his Judges, his staff and his Kin,
Couldn't put Trumpty together again.
Carl Jarvis
Humpty Trumpty sat on his wall.
Humpty Trumpty had a great fall
And all of his Judges, his staff and his Kin,
Couldn't put Trumpty together again.
Carl Jarvis
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Re: [blind-democracy] Civil Rights Institute Cancels Gala Honoring Angela Davis After Outcry From Jewish Community
Angela Davis, one of our finest minds. I place her with Noam Chomsky
on my list of "Most perceptive" Americans.
As for Birmingham's prominent civil rights museum? If they had any
integrity they would blush with shame and close their doors forever.
Angela Davis's response was Classic Angela Davis.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/8/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Civil Rights Institute Cancels Gala Honoring Angela Davis After Outcry From
> Jewish Community
> By Michael Harriot, The Root
> 08 January 19
>
> One of the nation's most prominent civil rights museums has reneged on its
> plans to celebrate one of America's most outspoken freedom fighters,
> igniting a national controversy after seemingly genuflecting to grumbles
> from the area's Jewish community.
>
> On Jan. 4, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute released a weirdly
> nonspecific statement canceling its plans to bestow the institute's highest
> honor upon Angela Davis, a Birmingham, Alabama, native. The ceremony was
> supposed to serve as the centerpiece of the museum's annual gala, planned
> for Feb. 19.
>
> In October, AL.com reported that Andrea Taylor, the Institute's CEO, called
> Davis "one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving
> voice to those who are powerless to speak," announcing that they were
> "thrilled" to honor the educator, author, activist, and Birmingham native.
>
> Then suddenly, they weren't so thrilled.
>
> "In September of 2018, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's Board of
> Directors selected Angela Davis to receive the prestigious Fred
> Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala in February 2019," the
> statement posted on the BCRI's website began, continuing:
>
> In late December, supporters and other concerned individuals and
> organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make
> requests that we reconsider our decision.
>
> Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis' statements and public record, we
> concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which
> the award is based. Therefore, on January 4, BCRI's Board voted to rescind
> its invitation to Ms. Davis to honor her with the Shuttlesworth Award. While
> we recognize Ms. Davis' stature as a scholar and prominent figure in civil
> rights history, we believe this decision is consistent with the ideals of
> the award's namesake, Rev. Shuttlesworth.
>
> We regret that this change is necessary, and apologize to our supporters,
> the community and Ms. Davis for the confusion we have caused. We will move
> forward with a keen focus on our mission: to enlighten each generation about
> civil and human rights by exploring our common past and working together in
> the present to build a better future.
>
> The associated gala event, scheduled for February 16th at Haven has been
> cancelled. Ticket purchasers will received a full refund.
>
> Because the BCRI was less than transparent in its statement, many people
> wondered why the institute would moonwalk back its support for the hometown
> heroine. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin cleared up some of the confusion
> in expressing his discontent with the Institute's decision. In a statement
> Sunday, Woodfin said:
>
> As I consider the controversy over the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's
> decision to honor Dr. Angela Davis with the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human
> Rights Award and its subsequent decision to rescind that honor after
> protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies, my
> overriding feeling is one of dismay.
>
> "I am dismayed because this controversy is playing out in a way that harks
> backward, rather than forward," Woodfin continued, adding that the decision
> "portrays us as the same Birmingham we always have been, rather than the one
> we want to be."
>
> According to people familiar with BCRI's decision, the institute's reversal
> is centered around the local Jewish community's opposition with what the
> Associated Press describes as Davis' support for the Boycott, Divestment,
> and Sanctions movement, which seeks to rectify Israel's treatment of
> Palestinians. Soon after the institute announced their plans to honor Davis,
> Southern Jewish Life magazine published what could only be described as a
> "hit piece" detailing Davis's support of policies that are often seen as
> anti-Israel.
>
> "Something not included in the Institute's publicity for the event," the
> article reads, "is that Davis has also been an outspoken voice in the
> boycott-Israel movement, and advocates extensively on college campuses for
> the isolation of the Jewish state, saying Israel engages in ethnic cleansing
> and is connected to police violence against African-Americans in the United
> States."
>
> According to AL.com, local organizers have vowed to protest the institution
> if the author and internationally known academic does not receive the award.
> Activists and academics around the country were outraged by the
> organization's decision to bow to outside pressure, noting, among other
> things, Davis' long history in the struggle for equality for people of all
> colors, races, religions, and gender.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Davis was born and raised in Birmingham's "Dynamite Hill," whose nickname
> comes from the more than 50 bombings by white supremacists trying to thwart
> integration during the civil rights era. She became a professor at the
> University of California's Los Angeles campus and was known for her radical
> feminism and her involvement with both the Communist Party USA and the Black
> Panthers.
>
> After authorities accused Davis of purchasing weapons used in a 1970
> courtroom takeover and police shooting, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover made
> Davis the third woman to ever be listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted
> Fugitives list. She briefly went on the run, was arrested, and placed in
> solitary confinement.
>
> Davis was acquitted of all charges.
>
> She has authored a dozen books on race, class, feminism, sexual abuse, and
> mass incarceration. Her life's work has been fighting for justice and
> equality around the world.
>
> Using the hashtag #IStandWithAngela, social media users have pointed out
> that Davis' position on Israel is not only consistent with her work and
> teachings, but it is also right.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Such is the problem with so-called allies.
>
> Their support is always contingent upon their control. They believe that
> they should have a say over what and whom Black America deems "acceptable."
> Black protest is respectable until it appears on their street, dishonors
> their agenda, or pops up during their football games. Everyone is cool with
> the march as long as their toes aren't stepped on.
>
> Even worse, we are often all too willing to comply.
>
> But I shouldn't say "we."
>
> More than half of the BCRI's Board of Directors, including its chairman, are
> not black.
>
>
>
> Email This Page
>
>
> e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
>
>
>
>
on my list of "Most perceptive" Americans.
As for Birmingham's prominent civil rights museum? If they had any
integrity they would blush with shame and close their doors forever.
Angela Davis's response was Classic Angela Davis.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/8/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Civil Rights Institute Cancels Gala Honoring Angela Davis After Outcry From
> Jewish Community
> By Michael Harriot, The Root
> 08 January 19
>
> One of the nation's most prominent civil rights museums has reneged on its
> plans to celebrate one of America's most outspoken freedom fighters,
> igniting a national controversy after seemingly genuflecting to grumbles
> from the area's Jewish community.
>
> On Jan. 4, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute released a weirdly
> nonspecific statement canceling its plans to bestow the institute's highest
> honor upon Angela Davis, a Birmingham, Alabama, native. The ceremony was
> supposed to serve as the centerpiece of the museum's annual gala, planned
> for Feb. 19.
>
> In October, AL.com reported that Andrea Taylor, the Institute's CEO, called
> Davis "one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving
> voice to those who are powerless to speak," announcing that they were
> "thrilled" to honor the educator, author, activist, and Birmingham native.
>
> Then suddenly, they weren't so thrilled.
>
> "In September of 2018, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's Board of
> Directors selected Angela Davis to receive the prestigious Fred
> Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala in February 2019," the
> statement posted on the BCRI's website began, continuing:
>
> In late December, supporters and other concerned individuals and
> organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make
> requests that we reconsider our decision.
>
> Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis' statements and public record, we
> concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which
> the award is based. Therefore, on January 4, BCRI's Board voted to rescind
> its invitation to Ms. Davis to honor her with the Shuttlesworth Award. While
> we recognize Ms. Davis' stature as a scholar and prominent figure in civil
> rights history, we believe this decision is consistent with the ideals of
> the award's namesake, Rev. Shuttlesworth.
>
> We regret that this change is necessary, and apologize to our supporters,
> the community and Ms. Davis for the confusion we have caused. We will move
> forward with a keen focus on our mission: to enlighten each generation about
> civil and human rights by exploring our common past and working together in
> the present to build a better future.
>
> The associated gala event, scheduled for February 16th at Haven has been
> cancelled. Ticket purchasers will received a full refund.
>
> Because the BCRI was less than transparent in its statement, many people
> wondered why the institute would moonwalk back its support for the hometown
> heroine. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin cleared up some of the confusion
> in expressing his discontent with the Institute's decision. In a statement
> Sunday, Woodfin said:
>
> As I consider the controversy over the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's
> decision to honor Dr. Angela Davis with the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human
> Rights Award and its subsequent decision to rescind that honor after
> protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies, my
> overriding feeling is one of dismay.
>
> "I am dismayed because this controversy is playing out in a way that harks
> backward, rather than forward," Woodfin continued, adding that the decision
> "portrays us as the same Birmingham we always have been, rather than the one
> we want to be."
>
> According to people familiar with BCRI's decision, the institute's reversal
> is centered around the local Jewish community's opposition with what the
> Associated Press describes as Davis' support for the Boycott, Divestment,
> and Sanctions movement, which seeks to rectify Israel's treatment of
> Palestinians. Soon after the institute announced their plans to honor Davis,
> Southern Jewish Life magazine published what could only be described as a
> "hit piece" detailing Davis's support of policies that are often seen as
> anti-Israel.
>
> "Something not included in the Institute's publicity for the event," the
> article reads, "is that Davis has also been an outspoken voice in the
> boycott-Israel movement, and advocates extensively on college campuses for
> the isolation of the Jewish state, saying Israel engages in ethnic cleansing
> and is connected to police violence against African-Americans in the United
> States."
>
> According to AL.com, local organizers have vowed to protest the institution
> if the author and internationally known academic does not receive the award.
> Activists and academics around the country were outraged by the
> organization's decision to bow to outside pressure, noting, among other
> things, Davis' long history in the struggle for equality for people of all
> colors, races, religions, and gender.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Davis was born and raised in Birmingham's "Dynamite Hill," whose nickname
> comes from the more than 50 bombings by white supremacists trying to thwart
> integration during the civil rights era. She became a professor at the
> University of California's Los Angeles campus and was known for her radical
> feminism and her involvement with both the Communist Party USA and the Black
> Panthers.
>
> After authorities accused Davis of purchasing weapons used in a 1970
> courtroom takeover and police shooting, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover made
> Davis the third woman to ever be listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted
> Fugitives list. She briefly went on the run, was arrested, and placed in
> solitary confinement.
>
> Davis was acquitted of all charges.
>
> She has authored a dozen books on race, class, feminism, sexual abuse, and
> mass incarceration. Her life's work has been fighting for justice and
> equality around the world.
>
> Using the hashtag #IStandWithAngela, social media users have pointed out
> that Davis' position on Israel is not only consistent with her work and
> teachings, but it is also right.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Such is the problem with so-called allies.
>
> Their support is always contingent upon their control. They believe that
> they should have a say over what and whom Black America deems "acceptable."
> Black protest is respectable until it appears on their street, dishonors
> their agenda, or pops up during their football games. Everyone is cool with
> the march as long as their toes aren't stepped on.
>
> Even worse, we are often all too willing to comply.
>
> But I shouldn't say "we."
>
> More than half of the BCRI's Board of Directors, including its chairman, are
> not black.
>
>
>
> Email This Page
>
>
> e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
>
>
>
>
Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
A good question, Jack. Just who is going to do our menial grunge work
if we keep the Hispanics on the Mexican side of the continent? As far
as American citizens doing the labor in the fields, it's not a
question of being too lazy. It's a question of not earning enough to
afford to exist.
As a child, we would load up the old Hudson and head out to explore
our great state of Washington. In Central Washington, around Yakima,
I remember seeing long rows of what looked like large chicken hatches.
I asked my dad what sort of animals were kept there. "Human animals",
he told me. "Those are the shacks the laborers live in when they're
picking crops.
As a teenager, along with a bunch of school chums, I spent my summers
picking strawberries and beans and pie cherries. Back in 1952 through
1954, I tucked away enough to pay for my first year at college. Of
course back then college was close to free. Tuition for a quarter was
$50. Books ran about $3 or $4 each. I lived at home and spent ten
cents each way on the bus. On a good day I could earn about $12, and
seldom less than $8. Most of the farmers had trucks or buses that
would park early in the morning at the Sears parking lot. Many of the
men from Skid Road would show up, along with large numbers of migrant
workers. Usually the Skid Road men would pick one day and then be
gone for the next two or three days. The migrant workers showed up
every day. Some of them, mostly mothers who were hauling small
children along, could pick about $20 in a day. My best day ever was
$15. Beans paid 2.5 cents a pound. Strawberries paid by the
flat...but I've forgotten how much that was.
It was hard, dirty, hot work. But I was a teenager out with a crowd
of friends. The others were trying to earn enough to survive. They
were not young, and they were not having fun.
Over the years during which I worked in an office with a great number
of white collar folks, there was a tendency to "Put Down" manual
laborers. And among the government workers there was status snobbery.
Supervisors looked down on clerical, managers looked down on their
staffs, and Directors felt superior to everyone. I used to tell my
coworkers that our boss was the state legislature. And the
legislature, mostly self employed or doctors or professors, believed
that all state workers were slugs and whiners. From Director to
Janitor, we were all a blight on humanity.
My dad was fond of saying, "There is dignity in all labor". But we
live in a world whose bottom line is profit. So we screw down on
those beneath us in order to squeeze every extra red cent out of their
labor. We sneer at them and belittle them and tell them that they
made their own bed.
If we truly believe that some of us are superior to others and deserve
to be treated royally, then there is no answer to your question. But
if we believe that together we can assist one another to realize our
maximum potential, then we must take action.
First we need to come together and discuss our common outcomes, our
goals. Then we must discuss how to structure a government that will
support our goals. Then we must plan on the most effective way of
transforming our existing government. This would be nice and easy
except for one sticky little point. Those now in control do not have
any plans to turn over control.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/9/19, Jack Zimmerman via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
> Here is a question I have asked many many times and no one has ever aniwered
> it to my satisfaction so I'll ask it on here.
> Who pray tell, just exactly who, do tell me? Is gonna do the jobs
> immigrants are willing to do, to make money to suppot their families to try
> and MAKE a better life for themselves? Who is gonnd do that work that
> american workers do not want to do or have become TO Lazy or uncarsh to
> do?? THE late John MacCain said something I really liked. And I am not his
> biggest fan but he said, America became great from pulling walls DOWN, not
> building them!
>
>
>
>
>
> Jack and Bex
> :-)
>
>
>
>
>> On Jan 8, 2019, at 4:28 PM, Carl Jarvis via acb-chat
>> <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Ray, and a special Hello to those Left Wing Mumbo Jumbos.
>> I've never been able to understand why some folks need to discredit
>> the opinions of others. I mean, like, did someone crown them God All
>> Mighty?
>> This goes back to my problem with labeling. We say, "mumbo jumbo" and
>> that labels what the other person says as stupid. If this is how some
>> folks like to be treated, just email me off-list and I'll fill your
>> quota of insults. But on this list we ought to treat others opinions
>> in the manner we want our opinions treated...we don't have to believe
>> them, but we can at least treat them with respect.
>> Ray wrote: "the steady influx of outsiders does nothing more than
>> weaken America."
>> Good comment, Ray. Do you know who first uttered those words? It was
>> Sitting Bull. And was he right! Old SB had been fighting for a wall
>> along the Eastern Seaboard. His fellow Chieftains argued that a few
>> foreigners would be okay for the Buffalo hunts and the smoking of the
>> tons of meat needed for survival over the long cold winters.
>> I think it's just Human Nature that gives us that, "Dog in the Manger"
>> attitude. We got this land and we're damned if we're gonna share.
>>
>> I was talking with Kicks a Hole in the Sky, and Everybody Talks About,
>> the other day outside their brand new Casino and Guest Hotel, right
>> next to their 18 hole golf course.
>> "Let the immigrants come on over," they told me. "You White folk
>> don't want to work, and you're undependable and always bitching about
>> wanting more money."
>> "You got some place to talk," I came back. "Look at all the garbage
>> you guys toss out your doors until it's higher than the houses".
>> "We're just protecting the land," they told me.
>> Damned uppity Indians, anyway!
>>
>> Carl Jarvis
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 1/8/19, Ray Williams via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>> it would seem that the left wing mumbo jumbo holds sway here also.
>>> did anyone ever stop to think that he may just be correct in trying to
>>> do something about this countrys lax security? after all, the influx
>>> of central and south American people is in fact nothing more than a
>>> slow motion invasion. that is in fact the case no matter how uyoiu
>>> look at it. the steady influx of outsiders does nothing more than
>>> weaken America. and if that is not enough, the demos seem hell-bent
>>> on grabbing total power at any cost. they just don't care about you
>>> or me at all. they want power just for the sake of having power. in
>>> point of fact, they have nothing constructive to add at this point.
>>> all they want is to tear down what has been built at such high const
>>> by those who have gone before us---ray
>>>
>>>> On 1/8/19, Bob Hachey via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>>> Hi Frank,
>>>> Thanks for sharing and I stand corrected. Somehow, I thought maybe it
>>>> was
>>>> the cap on state tax deductions that got you.
>>>> This elimination of deductible expenses will be very hard on many folks
>>>> as
>>>> you say and could hit many small businesses very hard if I'm
>>>> understanding
>>>> this stuff correctly. Trump and the Republicans promised to simplify
>>>> the
>>>> tax
>>>> code, but it llooks like they simply created a different set of winners
>>>> and
>>>> losers. This looks to be a more regressive tax code. Hey there,
>>>> Republicans,
>>>> thanks a heap!!!
>>>> Bob Hachey
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Frank Ventura via acb-chat [mailto:acb-chat@acblists.org]
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2019 8:00 PM
>>>> To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
>>>> Cc: Frank Ventura
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Bob, I have a great deal of out-of-pocket work related expenses that
>>>> are
>>>> not
>>>> reimbursed by my employer. In the past I have taken them as federal
>>>> deductions. According to my tax accountant, under the new code those
>>>> are
>>>> eliminated in lieu of an increased standard deduction which still is
>>>> considerably less than the deduction I was getting due to those
>>>> expenses.
>>>> With the increase in health care insurance cost (11 percent) and
>>>> reduction
>>>> in pay (2 percent), 2018 was an horrific year financially for me. Don't
>>>> even
>>>> get me started on the rather steep rise in prescription drug costs.
>>>> Can you imagine how bad this will be for folks who have lots of work
>>>> expenses like plumbers or auto technicians? I suspect many working
>>>> folks
>>>> will be pushed into unemployment because it will be too expenseive to
>>>> stay
>>>> working.
>>>> Frank
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Bob Hachey via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 8:04 AM
>>>> To: 'General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.'
>>>> <acb-chat@acblists.org>
>>>> Cc: Bob Hachey <bhachey@verizon.net>
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Hi Frank,
>>>> I didn't know that the Republican tax cuts actualy raised taxes for
>>>> some.
>>>> Please explain how your tax burden increased by that substantial
>>>> amount.
>>>> Was it because investments you have made substantial gains in 2018? Is
>>>> it
>>>> possible that these tax policy changes were worse than I'd thought? One
>>>> thing is for sure, they have markendly increased our national debt. Our
>>>> taxes were reduced slightly.
>>>> We really do need to return to some of the fairer tax policies we had
>>>> before
>>>> the regan devolution.
>>>> Bob
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Frank Ventura via acb-chat [mailto:acb-chat@acblists.org]
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2019 2:28 AM
>>>> To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
>>>> Cc: Frank Ventura
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Hmm... lets see my 20188 tax burden will be $18k more than what I paid
>>>> in
>>>> 2017, even though my income was less. Well at least my accountant won't
>>>> have
>>>> so much work to do. RIP poor departed working class.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: William Grussenmeyer via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2019 6:20 PM
>>>> To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
>>>> <acb-chat@acblistsorg>
>>>> Cc: William Grussenmeyer <wdg31415@gmail.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Trump is great, Helen. You just don't like him because he does not
>>>> want
>>>> to
>>>> give anyone a free handout.
>>>>
>>>>> On 1/6/19, Helen Murphy via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>>>> WE HAVE A TOTAL MADMAN IN OFFICE, HE CARES OF NO ONE, WORKERS,
>>>>> DISABLED, THE ELDERLY, CHILDREN, MOTHERS WITH INFANTS, PLEASE WAKE ME
>>>>> UP WHEN THE NIGHTMARE IS ALL OVER , HE IS HURTING THE WORKING PERSON,
>>>>> AS WELL THE MANS JUST PURE EVIL,
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 7:32 PM lasterhenry78--- via acb-chat <
>>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> [image: BitBounce]
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>> 0ZmUyM2JcIl19In0>
>>>>>> cryptocurrency
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *I'm from a business* — what are my *delivery options*
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>>>>>> MyZmI3ZGM4YzhjOWFcIl19In0>
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>>>>>> GMzMjg0ODFcIl19In0> Made by Turing Technology Inc. in San Mateo,
>>>>>> California *Sign Up for
>>>>>> BitBounce*
>>>>>> <https://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/bitbounce.com?p=eyJzIjo
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>>>>>> hkNDdjXCIsXCJ1cmxfaWRzXCI6W1wiNDUyMDEyYjdkZWZkYjBlZGE0NDViYzdmNjI4N2U
>>>>>> 5OGY2MTAzYjFlN1wiXX0ifQ>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> William Grussenmeyer
>>>> PhD Student, Computer Science
>>>> University of Nevada, Reno
>>>> NSF Fellow
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> acb-chat mailing list
>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>
>>
>
>
>
if we keep the Hispanics on the Mexican side of the continent? As far
as American citizens doing the labor in the fields, it's not a
question of being too lazy. It's a question of not earning enough to
afford to exist.
As a child, we would load up the old Hudson and head out to explore
our great state of Washington. In Central Washington, around Yakima,
I remember seeing long rows of what looked like large chicken hatches.
I asked my dad what sort of animals were kept there. "Human animals",
he told me. "Those are the shacks the laborers live in when they're
picking crops.
As a teenager, along with a bunch of school chums, I spent my summers
picking strawberries and beans and pie cherries. Back in 1952 through
1954, I tucked away enough to pay for my first year at college. Of
course back then college was close to free. Tuition for a quarter was
$50. Books ran about $3 or $4 each. I lived at home and spent ten
cents each way on the bus. On a good day I could earn about $12, and
seldom less than $8. Most of the farmers had trucks or buses that
would park early in the morning at the Sears parking lot. Many of the
men from Skid Road would show up, along with large numbers of migrant
workers. Usually the Skid Road men would pick one day and then be
gone for the next two or three days. The migrant workers showed up
every day. Some of them, mostly mothers who were hauling small
children along, could pick about $20 in a day. My best day ever was
$15. Beans paid 2.5 cents a pound. Strawberries paid by the
flat...but I've forgotten how much that was.
It was hard, dirty, hot work. But I was a teenager out with a crowd
of friends. The others were trying to earn enough to survive. They
were not young, and they were not having fun.
Over the years during which I worked in an office with a great number
of white collar folks, there was a tendency to "Put Down" manual
laborers. And among the government workers there was status snobbery.
Supervisors looked down on clerical, managers looked down on their
staffs, and Directors felt superior to everyone. I used to tell my
coworkers that our boss was the state legislature. And the
legislature, mostly self employed or doctors or professors, believed
that all state workers were slugs and whiners. From Director to
Janitor, we were all a blight on humanity.
My dad was fond of saying, "There is dignity in all labor". But we
live in a world whose bottom line is profit. So we screw down on
those beneath us in order to squeeze every extra red cent out of their
labor. We sneer at them and belittle them and tell them that they
made their own bed.
If we truly believe that some of us are superior to others and deserve
to be treated royally, then there is no answer to your question. But
if we believe that together we can assist one another to realize our
maximum potential, then we must take action.
First we need to come together and discuss our common outcomes, our
goals. Then we must discuss how to structure a government that will
support our goals. Then we must plan on the most effective way of
transforming our existing government. This would be nice and easy
except for one sticky little point. Those now in control do not have
any plans to turn over control.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/9/19, Jack Zimmerman via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
> Here is a question I have asked many many times and no one has ever aniwered
> it to my satisfaction so I'll ask it on here.
> Who pray tell, just exactly who, do tell me? Is gonna do the jobs
> immigrants are willing to do, to make money to suppot their families to try
> and MAKE a better life for themselves? Who is gonnd do that work that
> american workers do not want to do or have become TO Lazy or uncarsh to
> do?? THE late John MacCain said something I really liked. And I am not his
> biggest fan but he said, America became great from pulling walls DOWN, not
> building them!
>
>
>
>
>
> Jack and Bex
> :-)
>
>
>
>
>> On Jan 8, 2019, at 4:28 PM, Carl Jarvis via acb-chat
>> <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Ray, and a special Hello to those Left Wing Mumbo Jumbos.
>> I've never been able to understand why some folks need to discredit
>> the opinions of others. I mean, like, did someone crown them God All
>> Mighty?
>> This goes back to my problem with labeling. We say, "mumbo jumbo" and
>> that labels what the other person says as stupid. If this is how some
>> folks like to be treated, just email me off-list and I'll fill your
>> quota of insults. But on this list we ought to treat others opinions
>> in the manner we want our opinions treated...we don't have to believe
>> them, but we can at least treat them with respect.
>> Ray wrote: "the steady influx of outsiders does nothing more than
>> weaken America."
>> Good comment, Ray. Do you know who first uttered those words? It was
>> Sitting Bull. And was he right! Old SB had been fighting for a wall
>> along the Eastern Seaboard. His fellow Chieftains argued that a few
>> foreigners would be okay for the Buffalo hunts and the smoking of the
>> tons of meat needed for survival over the long cold winters.
>> I think it's just Human Nature that gives us that, "Dog in the Manger"
>> attitude. We got this land and we're damned if we're gonna share.
>>
>> I was talking with Kicks a Hole in the Sky, and Everybody Talks About,
>> the other day outside their brand new Casino and Guest Hotel, right
>> next to their 18 hole golf course.
>> "Let the immigrants come on over," they told me. "You White folk
>> don't want to work, and you're undependable and always bitching about
>> wanting more money."
>> "You got some place to talk," I came back. "Look at all the garbage
>> you guys toss out your doors until it's higher than the houses".
>> "We're just protecting the land," they told me.
>> Damned uppity Indians, anyway!
>>
>> Carl Jarvis
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 1/8/19, Ray Williams via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>> it would seem that the left wing mumbo jumbo holds sway here also.
>>> did anyone ever stop to think that he may just be correct in trying to
>>> do something about this countrys lax security? after all, the influx
>>> of central and south American people is in fact nothing more than a
>>> slow motion invasion. that is in fact the case no matter how uyoiu
>>> look at it. the steady influx of outsiders does nothing more than
>>> weaken America. and if that is not enough, the demos seem hell-bent
>>> on grabbing total power at any cost. they just don't care about you
>>> or me at all. they want power just for the sake of having power. in
>>> point of fact, they have nothing constructive to add at this point.
>>> all they want is to tear down what has been built at such high const
>>> by those who have gone before us---ray
>>>
>>>> On 1/8/19, Bob Hachey via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>>> Hi Frank,
>>>> Thanks for sharing and I stand corrected. Somehow, I thought maybe it
>>>> was
>>>> the cap on state tax deductions that got you.
>>>> This elimination of deductible expenses will be very hard on many folks
>>>> as
>>>> you say and could hit many small businesses very hard if I'm
>>>> understanding
>>>> this stuff correctly. Trump and the Republicans promised to simplify
>>>> the
>>>> tax
>>>> code, but it llooks like they simply created a different set of winners
>>>> and
>>>> losers. This looks to be a more regressive tax code. Hey there,
>>>> Republicans,
>>>> thanks a heap!!!
>>>> Bob Hachey
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Frank Ventura via acb-chat [mailto:acb-chat@acblists.org]
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2019 8:00 PM
>>>> To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
>>>> Cc: Frank Ventura
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Bob, I have a great deal of out-of-pocket work related expenses that
>>>> are
>>>> not
>>>> reimbursed by my employer. In the past I have taken them as federal
>>>> deductions. According to my tax accountant, under the new code those
>>>> are
>>>> eliminated in lieu of an increased standard deduction which still is
>>>> considerably less than the deduction I was getting due to those
>>>> expenses.
>>>> With the increase in health care insurance cost (11 percent) and
>>>> reduction
>>>> in pay (2 percent), 2018 was an horrific year financially for me. Don't
>>>> even
>>>> get me started on the rather steep rise in prescription drug costs.
>>>> Can you imagine how bad this will be for folks who have lots of work
>>>> expenses like plumbers or auto technicians? I suspect many working
>>>> folks
>>>> will be pushed into unemployment because it will be too expenseive to
>>>> stay
>>>> working.
>>>> Frank
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Bob Hachey via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 8:04 AM
>>>> To: 'General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.'
>>>> <acb-chat@acblists.org>
>>>> Cc: Bob Hachey <bhachey@verizon.net>
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Hi Frank,
>>>> I didn't know that the Republican tax cuts actualy raised taxes for
>>>> some.
>>>> Please explain how your tax burden increased by that substantial
>>>> amount.
>>>> Was it because investments you have made substantial gains in 2018? Is
>>>> it
>>>> possible that these tax policy changes were worse than I'd thought? One
>>>> thing is for sure, they have markendly increased our national debt. Our
>>>> taxes were reduced slightly.
>>>> We really do need to return to some of the fairer tax policies we had
>>>> before
>>>> the regan devolution.
>>>> Bob
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Frank Ventura via acb-chat [mailto:acb-chat@acblists.org]
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2019 2:28 AM
>>>> To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
>>>> Cc: Frank Ventura
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Hmm... lets see my 20188 tax burden will be $18k more than what I paid
>>>> in
>>>> 2017, even though my income was less. Well at least my accountant won't
>>>> have
>>>> so much work to do. RIP poor departed working class.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: William Grussenmeyer via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2019 6:20 PM
>>>> To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
>>>> range
>>>> of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever
>>>> comes
>>>> to
>>>> mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
>>>> <acb-chat@acblistsorg>
>>>> Cc: William Grussenmeyer <wdg31415@gmail.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [acb-chat] just some food for thought
>>>>
>>>> Trump is great, Helen. You just don't like him because he does not
>>>> want
>>>> to
>>>> give anyone a free handout.
>>>>
>>>>> On 1/6/19, Helen Murphy via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>>>> WE HAVE A TOTAL MADMAN IN OFFICE, HE CARES OF NO ONE, WORKERS,
>>>>> DISABLED, THE ELDERLY, CHILDREN, MOTHERS WITH INFANTS, PLEASE WAKE ME
>>>>> UP WHEN THE NIGHTMARE IS ALL OVER , HE IS HURTING THE WORKING PERSON,
>>>>> AS WELL THE MANS JUST PURE EVIL,
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 7:32 PM lasterhenry78--- via acb-chat <
>>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org> wrote:
>>>>>
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>>>>>>
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>>>>>> 5OGY2MTAzYjFlN1wiXX0ifQ>
>>>>>> is powered by the *Credo*
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>>>>>> 0ZmUyM2JcIl19In0>
>>>>>> cryptocurrency
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *I'm from a business* — what are my *delivery options*
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>>>>>> p=eyJzIjoiTUNhZk5YSGltMkNLMjkwaXFhaE9RQzd2Rzh3IiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInV
>>>>>> cIjozMDQ4OTk3NSxcInZcIjoxLFwidXJsXCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL2J1c2luZXNz
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>>>>>> MyZmI3ZGM4YzhjOWFcIl19In0>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> BitBounce and Credo are transacted through *CredoEx*
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>>>>>> 5OGY2MTAzYjFlN1wiXX0ifQ>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> William Grussenmeyer
>>>> PhD Student, Computer Science
>>>> University of Nevada, Reno
>>>> NSF Fellow
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> acb-chat mailing list
>>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> acb-chat mailing list
>> acb-chat@acblists.org
>> http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
>>
>>
>
>
>
Friday, January 4, 2019
Fwd: [acb-chat] the daily worker
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2019 16:20:27 +0000
Subject: [acb-chat] the daily worker
To: "General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or
whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion
list." <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Cc: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Hi William,
A bit more regarding the source of the article I posted yesterday.
Article: This was published in the People's World. That is the
official newspaper of the Communist Party, USA and it is the direct
descendant of the Daily Worker.
During WW II, the Daily Worker was a fixture in my parent's home.
Also present were such other biased publications such as the Wall
Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Seattle Times, Psychology Today,
Reader's Digest, Humpty Dumpty, Ladies Home Companion, The Family
Circle, Good Housekeeping, and piles of library books on just about
anything. As a family, we spent much time reading and talking
together. We also had an old Army tent that we tossed in the trunk of
the 1938 Hudson, and headed out on camping trips around Washington,
Oregon and Idaho. We hiked, fished and roasted Smores. But during
the long Northwest rainy season, we spent lots of time at the public
library, checking out piles of books.
I'm a strong advocate for the NLS for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped. I'm always rocked back on my heels when, as a rehab
teacher, I push Talking Books to a newly blind client, and hear them
say, "I don't read".
As you know, I'm also an advocate for positive support groups. So
after getting over the news that a client does not read, I push
support groups, believing that in this way a newly blind person can
find answers to the many annoying problems that come with blindness.
As a totally blind man, for the past 54 years, I do my "reading" with
my JAWS and through Talking Books. But I tune in FOX News, NBC, ABC,
CBS and NPR from time to time in order to keep up on the strange
antics of our ruling Oligarchy...sorry, I slipped...
But my main sources for current events today are Thom Hartman,
Alternative Radio, Democracy Now, Dr. Richard Wolff, Chris Hedges and
other observers of social events.
While I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Communist
Party, or for that matter, of any Party other than the
Democrats...which I now disclaim, and for a long period of years a
member of the Protestant Faith...now abandoned. And I almost forgot
the most radical of all organizations, from 1969 to 1980 I was a very
active member of the National Federation of the Blind. After several
disagreements with Kenneth Jernigan, Washington and California were
kicked out of the NFB. Washington formed the United Blind of
Washington State, and for the next ten years operated independently.
In 1990 we merged with the Washington Council of the Blind, and the
ACB.
Again, while I am not a member of any political party at the present
time, I believe, with only limited reading, that Karl Marx is a Hell
of a lot smarter than most of the people who dump their anger and
hatred on his long dead head. Smearing is a lazy man's way out.
Our hope for our future is wrapped up in developing something called,
"Thinking". Thinking. however, needs food for thought. Reading
widely and listening carefully are the best sources of such food.
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
_________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________
acb-chat mailing list
acb-chat@acblists.org
http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
From: Carl Jarvis via acb-chat <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2019 16:20:27 +0000
Subject: [acb-chat] the daily worker
To: "General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or
whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion
list." <acb-chat@acblists.org>
Cc: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Hi William,
A bit more regarding the source of the article I posted yesterday.
Article: This was published in the People's World. That is the
official newspaper of the Communist Party, USA and it is the direct
descendant of the Daily Worker.
During WW II, the Daily Worker was a fixture in my parent's home.
Also present were such other biased publications such as the Wall
Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Seattle Times, Psychology Today,
Reader's Digest, Humpty Dumpty, Ladies Home Companion, The Family
Circle, Good Housekeeping, and piles of library books on just about
anything. As a family, we spent much time reading and talking
together. We also had an old Army tent that we tossed in the trunk of
the 1938 Hudson, and headed out on camping trips around Washington,
Oregon and Idaho. We hiked, fished and roasted Smores. But during
the long Northwest rainy season, we spent lots of time at the public
library, checking out piles of books.
I'm a strong advocate for the NLS for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped. I'm always rocked back on my heels when, as a rehab
teacher, I push Talking Books to a newly blind client, and hear them
say, "I don't read".
As you know, I'm also an advocate for positive support groups. So
after getting over the news that a client does not read, I push
support groups, believing that in this way a newly blind person can
find answers to the many annoying problems that come with blindness.
As a totally blind man, for the past 54 years, I do my "reading" with
my JAWS and through Talking Books. But I tune in FOX News, NBC, ABC,
CBS and NPR from time to time in order to keep up on the strange
antics of our ruling Oligarchy...sorry, I slipped...
But my main sources for current events today are Thom Hartman,
Alternative Radio, Democracy Now, Dr. Richard Wolff, Chris Hedges and
other observers of social events.
While I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Communist
Party, or for that matter, of any Party other than the
Democrats...which I now disclaim, and for a long period of years a
member of the Protestant Faith...now abandoned. And I almost forgot
the most radical of all organizations, from 1969 to 1980 I was a very
active member of the National Federation of the Blind. After several
disagreements with Kenneth Jernigan, Washington and California were
kicked out of the NFB. Washington formed the United Blind of
Washington State, and for the next ten years operated independently.
In 1990 we merged with the Washington Council of the Blind, and the
ACB.
Again, while I am not a member of any political party at the present
time, I believe, with only limited reading, that Karl Marx is a Hell
of a lot smarter than most of the people who dump their anger and
hatred on his long dead head. Smearing is a lazy man's way out.
Our hope for our future is wrapped up in developing something called,
"Thinking". Thinking. however, needs food for thought. Reading
widely and listening carefully are the best sources of such food.
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
_________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________
acb-chat mailing list
acb-chat@acblists.org
http://www.acblists.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Re: [blind-democracy] A Brief History of Everything That Happened Because of George H.W. Bush's Insecurity
It struck me at the time that Americans would never elect a "Wimp" for
president.
Then I reviewed the list of those who held the title prior to George
Bush. Then the Media looked at this bland, meek appearing man and
seized upon the term, "Kinder, Gentler"
This should have alarmed the American People, this bold face lie.
Even his signing of the ADA could not override his careless use of
American Troops, and the murder of thousands of innocent people.
But still, looking back through the long list of men holding the
presidency, George Bush is in good company, America's "Murderers Row".
Carl Jarvis
On 12/10/ A Brief History of Everything That Happened Because of
George H.W. Bush's
> Insecurity
> By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
> 10 December 18
>
> He was called a wimp. He overcompensated. People went to jail and died.
>
> It's become fashionable in some circles this week to denounce the newly
> buried George. H.W. Bush as a war criminal, but that seems gratuitous.
> After
> all, from a technical standpoint, what American president isn't a war
> criminal? It's probably a short list.
>
> Thanks to the invasion(s) of Iraq, the bombing of civilians in places like
> Cambodia and Laos, Guantanamo Bay/torture, the overthrow of numerous
> democratically elected foreign regime, and support of repressive states
> like
> Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, "war criminal" is kind of a weak accusation to
> throw at a commander-in-chief.
>
> We've had a few presidents that would have proudly tattooed the term on
> their pecs or had it emblazoned on their limo flags. In this sense, George
> H.W. "Poppy" Bush didn't particularly stand out, compared to his son
> least of all.
>
> If anything, the defining characteristic of the elder Bush is that he didn'
> t really have one - at least, not as a politician. There's evidence that as
> a Navy pilot he showed considerable bravery and ingenuity. He came from a
> generation when children of the very rich still fought in the wars their
> parents arranged to enter, and Poppy flew real combat planes by the age of
> 19, escaping probable death by cannibalism in one remarkable episode.
>
> He also supposedly had a legit 11 handicap, which isn't bad for a
> president. Only Jack Kennedy and, oddly enough, Donald Trump are said to
> have better scores. (Trump is actually a crack golfer despite an
> even-for-presidents bad rep for cheating.)
>
> For most of his political life, George Herbert Walker Bush was basically
> the
> unimaginative proxy for other powerful interests. He was always the front
> man for the fellas at the club, be it Skull and Bones or the CIA (he
> retains
> the dubious distinction of being the only spy head to become president). He
> excelled in this brute-behind-the-scenes role.
>
> But once fashioning himself as something other than Ronald Reagan's
> wingman, politics demanded he offer the national public glimpses of his
> personality. Sadly, he was president before he found out he didn't really
> have one.
>
> This would have been fine, if he'd been a more confident person. But Bush
> was not satisfied to be remembered as a dull imperial steward, and his
> flailing efforts to carve out a macho personal myth on par with Reagan or
> Kennedy marred both his presidency and large swaths of the planet.
>
> Unable to let insults stand, he dreamed up stunt after stunt in an attempt
> to counter Heathers-style media taunts that grew out of inside jokes
> circulated in Washington during the Reagan years.
>
> His presidency turned into an endless cycle: Bush would do something
> goofy/out of touch, the press would bash his brains in for it and he'd
> overreact, often by having someone bombed or jailed.
>
> Here are the top five moments in this progression:
>
> 1. The "manhood problem"
>
> In the age of Trump, it looks like a misdemeanor, but people forget Poppy
> was a pioneer of fake news. A key moment came in his October 12th, 1984
> debate against congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
>
> Bush seemed to resent being thrust into the role of first male to debate a
> woman on the presidential stage. A Bonesman to the core, that wasn't the
> history he wanted to make. He was hyper-aggressive throughout, and in a key
> moment, over-reached factually. Referring to the deaths of Marines in
> Beirut
> at the hands of terrorists, Bush said:
>
> "For somebody to suggest, as our two opponents have… these men died in
> shame - they better not tell the parents of those young Marines."
>
> But neither Ferraro nor Walter Mondale had ever uttered anything of the
> sort. Ferraro pounced, saying, "No one has ever said that those young men
> who were killed through the negligence of this Administration and others
> ever died in shame."
>
> Mondale labeled the accusation "unpardonable" and demanded an apology. The
> take-cornered Veep refused.
>
> The day after the debate, Bush gave an address to a bunch of longshoremen
> in
> Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was overheard saying, "I tried to kick a little
> ass." If you believe Kitty Kelley's account in The Family, this is what
> happened next:
>
> Hours later his staff showed up on the press plane wearing buttons that
> said, "We kicked a little ass." Some reporters started calling the Vice
> President "Kick-Ass George," others wore hats made of jockstraps.
>
> A few days later, Barbara Bush, while engaged in what the New York Times
> described as "banter" with reporters, said Ferraro was a
> "four-million-dollar - I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich." Poppy's
> press secretary, Peter Teeley, said Ferraro was "too bitchy."
>
> It was absurd enough that the former Yale first baseman fled to the company
> of longshoremen after his debate with Ferraro, but things got even sillier
> when he told the press the "kick a little ass" remark was an "old Texas
> football expression" that he and his children (remember that part) used
> "all the time."
>
> After all this, Mondale decided to take a shot at Bush, right in the
> jockstrap. He said Bush "doesn't have the manhood to apologize."
>
> A few weeks later, the Doonesbury comic strip - which was a big deal in an
> age when everyone read newspapers - ran a cartoon playing on the theme of
> Bush's "manhood problem." Cartoonist Garry Trudeau had newsman character
> Roland Hedley Jr. doing a standup outside the White House, announcing, "In
> a White House ceremony today, Bush will formally place his embattled
> manhood
> in a blind trust."
>
> The legend of Bush's "manhood problem" had begun. It's impossible to
> tally the final consequences of this series of events, but it's not crazy
> to suggest that our ongoing bombing of the Middle East three decades later
> is due at last in part to it. Because of…
>
> 2. The "wimp factor"
>
> The Bush family never got over the Doonesbury thing. "He's been reduced to
> a cartoon," fumed son Jeb in a 1987 Newsweek cover story called "BUSH
> BATTLES THE WIMP FACTOR" that, to be fair, was one of the all-time lows in
> campaign journalism. The Newsweek piece was one of the worst examples of a
> type of campaign reporting that involves pundits formalizing the inane
> Beltway caricatures of politicians.
>
> Bush throughout Reagan's presidency had been the target of razzing
> depicting him as a lackey, Reagan's brown-nosing yes-man, or worse. There
> were a lot of jokes playing on the theme of Bush "serving under Ronald
> Reagan," and some suggested he should add Reagan UN Ambassador Jeane
> Kirkpatrick to his ticket to add "machismo" for his 1988 run.
>
> The Newsweek piece formalized all of this. It had some true observations
> ("His political identity was fuzzy from the start"), but mainly focused on
> a "problem" that Bush had an "image" of a "guy who takes direction," a
> character issue the magazine claimed 51 percent of the electorate heading
> into the 1988 election believed "poses problems for his candidacy."
>
> After the "Wimp" cover, Doonesbury doubled down - among other things,
> depicting Bush as literally invisible, which caused the Bushes to overreact
> in historic fashion. Bush himself admitted in an interview that he wanted
> to
> "kick the hell" out of Trudeau dating back to 1984, and his sons George
> and Jeb actually reached out to the cartoonist, who was a Yale classmate of
> W. This is in Poppy's recollection:
>
> ″Trudeau says to our son, 'Well, I hope your family doesn't take this
> personally.' And George says, 'They don't take it personally, but my
> brother (Jeb) wanted to come up and kick your ass all over New York."
>
> This all seems absurd now, but Bush spent the rest of his political career
> beating back the wimp/manhood thing.
>
> He made sure the press saw him eating pork rinds on the campaign trail. He
> had himself photographed in a nuclear bomber. An infamous exchange with Dan
> Rather in January 1988 was informed by the "wimp" subtext. Rather was
> pursuing a legitimate line of questioning about why Bush had gone along
> with
> the monstrous Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages plan, when Bush lashed out.
>
> "I don't think it's fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran,"
> he said. "How would you like it if I judged your whole career by those
> seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?"
>
> Bush was referring to Rather's infamous tantrum-walkout after the CBS
> Evening News was shortened to finish a U.S. Open broadcast.
>
> After the exchange with Rather, Poppy tore off his earpiece, but his mic
> was
> still on. "That guy makes Lesley Stahl look like a pussy," he barked,
> nonsensically, referring to the CBS journalist. He seemed to be reaching
> for
> some other insult.
>
> Bush went on to get elected, among other things, thanks to the media
> deciding to launch an even more asinine "wimp" campaign against Mike
> Dukakis. The Duke's crime was being a small Greek man who allowed himself
> to be photographed in a tank.
>
> Without the triple foils of Rather, Dukakis and "Veepette" Dan Quayle
> (Quayle was often depicted as a Himbo, which might have been part of the
> reason he was picked), George H.W. Bush might have struggled to get
> elected.
>
> This was the ultimate example of how the press screws itself with its own
> phony narratives. Instead of answering questions about Iran-Contra and
> other
> serious issues, Bush got to run, successfully, against his own concocted
> "wimp" image.
>
> In this, he was aided by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who composed Bush's
> hyper-manly 1988 nomination acceptance address. Bush's speech was basically
> a long-winded promise to kick more little asses, but with real arms this
> time.
>
> "Weakness tempts aggressors. Strength stops them," he growled. "I will
> not allow this country to be made weak again. Never."
>
> His image rose with male voters after this address. Then he got elected,
> and
> started picking fights all over the place.
>
> 3. The "rite of passage"
>
> After Bush's election, Doonesbury infuriatingly refused to stop depicting
> him as invisible. What the hell? Wasn't being president enough to end this
> intransigence?
>
> In December 1989, Bush invaded Panama, ostensibly to capture former
> American
> client/human rights monster Manuel Noriega. The New York Times cheered Bush
> for going through the "rite of passage" of the presidency, which involved
> "a need to demonstrate the willingness to shed blood."
>
> The paper was one of many to describe the invasion as a triumph over both
> Newsweek and Doonesbury:
>
> For President Bush… a man still portrayed in the Doonesbury comic strip as
> the invisible President - showing his steel had a particular significance.
>
> The Ottawa Citizen ran a typically Canadian series of articles about the
> military action, focusing as foreigners sometimes do on things like the
> deaths of actual people. "Fearful civilians run for cover," read one
> December 21st, 1989 headline, describing "women and children" out on the
> streets fleeing in terror during shoreline bombing. At the bottom of the
> page there was a blunt picture of Poppy over the caption: "Wimp label
> gone."
>
> But bombing a few Panamanians wasn't enough. People simply refused to
> forget certain episodes, like the time Poppy was overheard asking for just
> another "splash" of coffee. His efforts to "rub off" what the New York
> Times euphemistically called "the Patina" never stopped.
>
> Even within his own party, Bush was still getting it, even after Panama. In
> 1990, columnist George Will accused the Bush administration of
> "intellectual and moral flaccidity" and worried about "the sagging of
> America into a peripheral role abroad."
>
> George Will using the words "flaccid" and "sagging" is about as profane
> as country club Republicanism used to get. In a later insult, Will's
> brother-by-another-overused-Thesaurus, William Safire, ripped an
> insufficiently aggressive Bush address about the collapse of the Soviet
> Union as the "Chicken Kiev" speech.
>
> Bush then invaded Iraq. In an act of breathtaking pettiness and
> self-involvement, he chose Newsweek as the venue to explain to Americans
> why
> their sons and daughters were being sent to get shot halfway around the
> world. "Why We Are In The Gulf," was published in November 1990, about 10
> months after George Will metaphorically accused him of having a soft penis.
>
> About half-a-year later, the president appeared at the Malibu home of Jerry
> Weintraub, producer of The Karate Kid. He also played a round of golf that
> day with his ex-boss Reagan at the Sherwood Country Club, where, as the
> Times noted, "the tee markers are little brass archers." After the game,
> he told reporters he was still pissed about the Newsweek thing.
>
> "You're talking to the 'wimp,'" he said. "You're talking to the guy
> that had a cover of a national magazine, that I'll never forgive, put that
> label on me."
>
> In the end, Bush finally got some pop culture credit for being a mean
> dirtbag. The Simpsons had him wrestling Homer in a drain pipe, with Bush
> saying: "If he thinks George Bush will stay out of the sewer, he doesn't
> know George Bush!"
>
>
>
>
>
> 4. Bush vs. crack
>
> Bush once sent a poor black kid to a real prison for real years for the
> crime of being a political prop.
>
> In the summer of 1989, while vacationing avec speedboat in his
> Kennebunkport, Maine, estate, Bush came up with the brilliant idea, or at
> least acceded to one dreamed up by aides. He would do a live address to the
> country while holding up a bag of crack that had been sold just outside the
> White House. The idea was to show that crack could "be bought anywhere."
>
> The problem was, nobody sold crack in Lafayette Square near the White
> House,
> which is where Bush aides wanted the crack found. There is a long backstory
> here that involves administration officials tasking the DEA with securing a
> bust near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They ended up having an undercover
> agent
> contact an 18-year-old named Keith Jackson from a poor neighborhood in
> southeast Washington. He was asked to bring his wares to the White House.
>
> "Where the fuck is the White House?" he asked.
>
> "We had to manipulate him to get him down there," a DEA agent later
> admitted. "It wasn't easy."
>
> Bush ended up doing his idiotic address to the nation about the dangers of
> crack. It had pretty much the opposite effect of what he intended.
>
> Almost immediately, Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live did a mock Oval
> Office speech that savaged Bush, prefacing the crack tale by telling
> audiences he'd been "doing loop-de-loops" in his speedboat in
> Kennebunkport and not catching anything while fishing ("not… the…
> point!" Carvey quipped). Carvey then pulled out a giant bag of "coke"
> which, he joked, had been sold "three feet from this desk."
>
> I had to research this incident for a book about the late Eric Garner
> called
> I Can't Breathe (Garner was also busted for crack dealing around that
> time), and one of the amazing and underreported aspects of this case was
> that Jackson, who was clearly entrapped in the most absurd fashion, ended
> up
> doing eight years in prison so that Bush could have his stupid photo op.
>
> The federal judge in the case, Stanley Sporkin, wanted desperately to not
> impose a stiff sentence on Jackson, but - in a problem none of the Bush
> aides who cooked up this dumb scheme thought of - mandatory sentencing laws
> handcuffed Sporkin. So the kid was sentenced to 10 years (he was later
> paroled). Sporkin, a former CIA general counsel appointed by Reagan,
> suggested Jackson ask Bush for a pardon:
>
> "He used you, in the sense of making a big drug speech… But he's a decent
> man, a man of great compassion. Maybe he can find a way to reduce at least
> some of that sentence."
>
> Bush blew that off and instead issued pardons to six Iran-Contra defendants
> on Christmas Day in 1992.
>
> 5. The apple
>
> It is absolutely logical to blame George H.W. Bush for the catastrophes of
> his son's presidency.
>
> For one thing, Poppy surely helped get Bush The Younger elected, by being
> part of a narrative that made W look human. A lot of the male campaign
> reporters liked W because, as a reporter put it to me once in '04, "Hey,
> the guy had a dick for a father."
>
> If you want an example of how that reality impacted the thinking of even
> Bush's harshest critics, watch Oliver Stone's W. By the end, the film has
> you rooting for the try-hard cheerleader forced by fate to swim upstream
> against King Daddy's sneering disdain over things like not being able to
> hold down a real job before the age of 40. The opening line of the W.
> trailer is Poppy's voice, played by master character actor James Cromwell,
> sneering at his disappointing heir, "If I remember correctly, you didn't
> like the sporting goods job."
>
> The plot of that underrated movie: "Hey, I can be a crappy president,
> too!"
>
> As bitterly as W wanted to outdo his Dad - particularly by winning
> re-election and conquering all of Iraq - he had been even more offended by
> the "Wimp Factor" piece than his father. When the Rather episode happened
> in 1988, young W reportedly stormed into his Dad's campaign headquarters
> yelling, "Macho! Macho!"
>
> When he himself became president, W basically set fire to the Middle East
> in
> defiance of "moderates" like Colin Powell, in order to show everyone how
> not-flaccid the Bushes were. The fact that Saddam Hussein "tried to kill my
> Dad" was somehow openly a factor in all of this.
>
> W's belief that his father's failure to take Baghdad and topple Saddam had
> cost him re-election in 1992 - ironically, Bush's own son believed his Dad
> to be a wimp about that - was a major reason we ended up occupying the
> whole
> country, for years, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives at the very
> least.
>
> The younger Bush - said to be aggrieved both by the "Wimp Factor" charge
> and by Daddy's vacillating stances between gunboat diplomacy and a
> "kindler and gentler" nation - made being "decisive" the cornerstone of
> his moronic presidency.
>
> We now know his father disagreed with his son about Iraq.
> Characteristically
> he was too passive-aggressive to confront him head-on, reportedly using a
> Brent Scowcroft editorial to express his doubts about junior's military
> misadventures.
>
> Years later, we not only are still in the Middle East, but have a Star
> Wars-style permanent garrison of bases with which we've droned and bombed
> the region more or less uninterruptedly since the early 2000s.
>
> Poppy's last act, in death, was to be elevated to icon status by the same
> Democrat-neocon alliance that turned the funeral of John McCain into
> something like a national religious rite.
>
> Since one of Donald Trump's defining characteristics is his lack of
> reverence for anyone who's not himself, the establishment-in-exile has made
> Trump's lack of public prostration before Poppy's corpse another
> unforgivable blow to the dignity of Washingtonhood.
>
> Brian Krassenstein of the flying #Resistance Krassensteins notes that Poppy
> once cursed at the TV at the sight of Trump, so "I like George H.W. Bush
> even more now." (Why did you like him before?)
>
> And the Washington Post went ape because Trump didn't recite the Apostles'
> Creed as part of the interminable Soviet-style funeral ceremonies of this
> week.
>
> The paper said Trump stood, "lips not moving," while all the other
> dignitaries paid homage to the fallen patriarch. This was likely because
> Trump is an ignoramus and didn't know he was supposed to read, or maybe
> he's not actually religious, or maybe he was thinking about his next
> cheeseburger - whatever, it became a thing. Once again, Poppy was elevated
> by a less-popular foil.
>
> Bush the elder had some decent qualities, or at least relatable ones. He
> served his country bravely and was famous for the thoughtful notes he sent
> to almost everyone, demonstrating a memory for people that would be
> commendable in the social director of a cruise liner, or the president of a
> charity.
>
> Bush's problem was that he was totally ruthless about pursuing real power
> without much of a clue why - "the vision thing." To win an election he
> sank to Trumpian lows with the Willie Horton episode, even as his reasons
> for running seemed elusive.
>
> He's being elevated this week, among other things as a way of taking a shot
> at Trump by comparison. But let's not confuse that with George H.W. Bush
> being a great president. He was kind of a hack, actually. In fact, maybe
> the
> most special thing about him was a lack of a sense of humor so extreme,
> people may have lost their lives to it.
>
>
>
> Email This Page
>
>
> e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
>
>
>
>
president.
Then I reviewed the list of those who held the title prior to George
Bush. Then the Media looked at this bland, meek appearing man and
seized upon the term, "Kinder, Gentler"
This should have alarmed the American People, this bold face lie.
Even his signing of the ADA could not override his careless use of
American Troops, and the murder of thousands of innocent people.
But still, looking back through the long list of men holding the
presidency, George Bush is in good company, America's "Murderers Row".
Carl Jarvis
On 12/10/ A Brief History of Everything That Happened Because of
George H.W. Bush's
> Insecurity
> By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
> 10 December 18
>
> He was called a wimp. He overcompensated. People went to jail and died.
>
> It's become fashionable in some circles this week to denounce the newly
> buried George. H.W. Bush as a war criminal, but that seems gratuitous.
> After
> all, from a technical standpoint, what American president isn't a war
> criminal? It's probably a short list.
>
> Thanks to the invasion(s) of Iraq, the bombing of civilians in places like
> Cambodia and Laos, Guantanamo Bay/torture, the overthrow of numerous
> democratically elected foreign regime, and support of repressive states
> like
> Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, "war criminal" is kind of a weak accusation to
> throw at a commander-in-chief.
>
> We've had a few presidents that would have proudly tattooed the term on
> their pecs or had it emblazoned on their limo flags. In this sense, George
> H.W. "Poppy" Bush didn't particularly stand out, compared to his son
> least of all.
>
> If anything, the defining characteristic of the elder Bush is that he didn'
> t really have one - at least, not as a politician. There's evidence that as
> a Navy pilot he showed considerable bravery and ingenuity. He came from a
> generation when children of the very rich still fought in the wars their
> parents arranged to enter, and Poppy flew real combat planes by the age of
> 19, escaping probable death by cannibalism in one remarkable episode.
>
> He also supposedly had a legit 11 handicap, which isn't bad for a
> president. Only Jack Kennedy and, oddly enough, Donald Trump are said to
> have better scores. (Trump is actually a crack golfer despite an
> even-for-presidents bad rep for cheating.)
>
> For most of his political life, George Herbert Walker Bush was basically
> the
> unimaginative proxy for other powerful interests. He was always the front
> man for the fellas at the club, be it Skull and Bones or the CIA (he
> retains
> the dubious distinction of being the only spy head to become president). He
> excelled in this brute-behind-the-scenes role.
>
> But once fashioning himself as something other than Ronald Reagan's
> wingman, politics demanded he offer the national public glimpses of his
> personality. Sadly, he was president before he found out he didn't really
> have one.
>
> This would have been fine, if he'd been a more confident person. But Bush
> was not satisfied to be remembered as a dull imperial steward, and his
> flailing efforts to carve out a macho personal myth on par with Reagan or
> Kennedy marred both his presidency and large swaths of the planet.
>
> Unable to let insults stand, he dreamed up stunt after stunt in an attempt
> to counter Heathers-style media taunts that grew out of inside jokes
> circulated in Washington during the Reagan years.
>
> His presidency turned into an endless cycle: Bush would do something
> goofy/out of touch, the press would bash his brains in for it and he'd
> overreact, often by having someone bombed or jailed.
>
> Here are the top five moments in this progression:
>
> 1. The "manhood problem"
>
> In the age of Trump, it looks like a misdemeanor, but people forget Poppy
> was a pioneer of fake news. A key moment came in his October 12th, 1984
> debate against congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
>
> Bush seemed to resent being thrust into the role of first male to debate a
> woman on the presidential stage. A Bonesman to the core, that wasn't the
> history he wanted to make. He was hyper-aggressive throughout, and in a key
> moment, over-reached factually. Referring to the deaths of Marines in
> Beirut
> at the hands of terrorists, Bush said:
>
> "For somebody to suggest, as our two opponents have… these men died in
> shame - they better not tell the parents of those young Marines."
>
> But neither Ferraro nor Walter Mondale had ever uttered anything of the
> sort. Ferraro pounced, saying, "No one has ever said that those young men
> who were killed through the negligence of this Administration and others
> ever died in shame."
>
> Mondale labeled the accusation "unpardonable" and demanded an apology. The
> take-cornered Veep refused.
>
> The day after the debate, Bush gave an address to a bunch of longshoremen
> in
> Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was overheard saying, "I tried to kick a little
> ass." If you believe Kitty Kelley's account in The Family, this is what
> happened next:
>
> Hours later his staff showed up on the press plane wearing buttons that
> said, "We kicked a little ass." Some reporters started calling the Vice
> President "Kick-Ass George," others wore hats made of jockstraps.
>
> A few days later, Barbara Bush, while engaged in what the New York Times
> described as "banter" with reporters, said Ferraro was a
> "four-million-dollar - I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich." Poppy's
> press secretary, Peter Teeley, said Ferraro was "too bitchy."
>
> It was absurd enough that the former Yale first baseman fled to the company
> of longshoremen after his debate with Ferraro, but things got even sillier
> when he told the press the "kick a little ass" remark was an "old Texas
> football expression" that he and his children (remember that part) used
> "all the time."
>
> After all this, Mondale decided to take a shot at Bush, right in the
> jockstrap. He said Bush "doesn't have the manhood to apologize."
>
> A few weeks later, the Doonesbury comic strip - which was a big deal in an
> age when everyone read newspapers - ran a cartoon playing on the theme of
> Bush's "manhood problem." Cartoonist Garry Trudeau had newsman character
> Roland Hedley Jr. doing a standup outside the White House, announcing, "In
> a White House ceremony today, Bush will formally place his embattled
> manhood
> in a blind trust."
>
> The legend of Bush's "manhood problem" had begun. It's impossible to
> tally the final consequences of this series of events, but it's not crazy
> to suggest that our ongoing bombing of the Middle East three decades later
> is due at last in part to it. Because of…
>
> 2. The "wimp factor"
>
> The Bush family never got over the Doonesbury thing. "He's been reduced to
> a cartoon," fumed son Jeb in a 1987 Newsweek cover story called "BUSH
> BATTLES THE WIMP FACTOR" that, to be fair, was one of the all-time lows in
> campaign journalism. The Newsweek piece was one of the worst examples of a
> type of campaign reporting that involves pundits formalizing the inane
> Beltway caricatures of politicians.
>
> Bush throughout Reagan's presidency had been the target of razzing
> depicting him as a lackey, Reagan's brown-nosing yes-man, or worse. There
> were a lot of jokes playing on the theme of Bush "serving under Ronald
> Reagan," and some suggested he should add Reagan UN Ambassador Jeane
> Kirkpatrick to his ticket to add "machismo" for his 1988 run.
>
> The Newsweek piece formalized all of this. It had some true observations
> ("His political identity was fuzzy from the start"), but mainly focused on
> a "problem" that Bush had an "image" of a "guy who takes direction," a
> character issue the magazine claimed 51 percent of the electorate heading
> into the 1988 election believed "poses problems for his candidacy."
>
> After the "Wimp" cover, Doonesbury doubled down - among other things,
> depicting Bush as literally invisible, which caused the Bushes to overreact
> in historic fashion. Bush himself admitted in an interview that he wanted
> to
> "kick the hell" out of Trudeau dating back to 1984, and his sons George
> and Jeb actually reached out to the cartoonist, who was a Yale classmate of
> W. This is in Poppy's recollection:
>
> ″Trudeau says to our son, 'Well, I hope your family doesn't take this
> personally.' And George says, 'They don't take it personally, but my
> brother (Jeb) wanted to come up and kick your ass all over New York."
>
> This all seems absurd now, but Bush spent the rest of his political career
> beating back the wimp/manhood thing.
>
> He made sure the press saw him eating pork rinds on the campaign trail. He
> had himself photographed in a nuclear bomber. An infamous exchange with Dan
> Rather in January 1988 was informed by the "wimp" subtext. Rather was
> pursuing a legitimate line of questioning about why Bush had gone along
> with
> the monstrous Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages plan, when Bush lashed out.
>
> "I don't think it's fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran,"
> he said. "How would you like it if I judged your whole career by those
> seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?"
>
> Bush was referring to Rather's infamous tantrum-walkout after the CBS
> Evening News was shortened to finish a U.S. Open broadcast.
>
> After the exchange with Rather, Poppy tore off his earpiece, but his mic
> was
> still on. "That guy makes Lesley Stahl look like a pussy," he barked,
> nonsensically, referring to the CBS journalist. He seemed to be reaching
> for
> some other insult.
>
> Bush went on to get elected, among other things, thanks to the media
> deciding to launch an even more asinine "wimp" campaign against Mike
> Dukakis. The Duke's crime was being a small Greek man who allowed himself
> to be photographed in a tank.
>
> Without the triple foils of Rather, Dukakis and "Veepette" Dan Quayle
> (Quayle was often depicted as a Himbo, which might have been part of the
> reason he was picked), George H.W. Bush might have struggled to get
> elected.
>
> This was the ultimate example of how the press screws itself with its own
> phony narratives. Instead of answering questions about Iran-Contra and
> other
> serious issues, Bush got to run, successfully, against his own concocted
> "wimp" image.
>
> In this, he was aided by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who composed Bush's
> hyper-manly 1988 nomination acceptance address. Bush's speech was basically
> a long-winded promise to kick more little asses, but with real arms this
> time.
>
> "Weakness tempts aggressors. Strength stops them," he growled. "I will
> not allow this country to be made weak again. Never."
>
> His image rose with male voters after this address. Then he got elected,
> and
> started picking fights all over the place.
>
> 3. The "rite of passage"
>
> After Bush's election, Doonesbury infuriatingly refused to stop depicting
> him as invisible. What the hell? Wasn't being president enough to end this
> intransigence?
>
> In December 1989, Bush invaded Panama, ostensibly to capture former
> American
> client/human rights monster Manuel Noriega. The New York Times cheered Bush
> for going through the "rite of passage" of the presidency, which involved
> "a need to demonstrate the willingness to shed blood."
>
> The paper was one of many to describe the invasion as a triumph over both
> Newsweek and Doonesbury:
>
> For President Bush… a man still portrayed in the Doonesbury comic strip as
> the invisible President - showing his steel had a particular significance.
>
> The Ottawa Citizen ran a typically Canadian series of articles about the
> military action, focusing as foreigners sometimes do on things like the
> deaths of actual people. "Fearful civilians run for cover," read one
> December 21st, 1989 headline, describing "women and children" out on the
> streets fleeing in terror during shoreline bombing. At the bottom of the
> page there was a blunt picture of Poppy over the caption: "Wimp label
> gone."
>
> But bombing a few Panamanians wasn't enough. People simply refused to
> forget certain episodes, like the time Poppy was overheard asking for just
> another "splash" of coffee. His efforts to "rub off" what the New York
> Times euphemistically called "the Patina" never stopped.
>
> Even within his own party, Bush was still getting it, even after Panama. In
> 1990, columnist George Will accused the Bush administration of
> "intellectual and moral flaccidity" and worried about "the sagging of
> America into a peripheral role abroad."
>
> George Will using the words "flaccid" and "sagging" is about as profane
> as country club Republicanism used to get. In a later insult, Will's
> brother-by-another-overused-Thesaurus, William Safire, ripped an
> insufficiently aggressive Bush address about the collapse of the Soviet
> Union as the "Chicken Kiev" speech.
>
> Bush then invaded Iraq. In an act of breathtaking pettiness and
> self-involvement, he chose Newsweek as the venue to explain to Americans
> why
> their sons and daughters were being sent to get shot halfway around the
> world. "Why We Are In The Gulf," was published in November 1990, about 10
> months after George Will metaphorically accused him of having a soft penis.
>
> About half-a-year later, the president appeared at the Malibu home of Jerry
> Weintraub, producer of The Karate Kid. He also played a round of golf that
> day with his ex-boss Reagan at the Sherwood Country Club, where, as the
> Times noted, "the tee markers are little brass archers." After the game,
> he told reporters he was still pissed about the Newsweek thing.
>
> "You're talking to the 'wimp,'" he said. "You're talking to the guy
> that had a cover of a national magazine, that I'll never forgive, put that
> label on me."
>
> In the end, Bush finally got some pop culture credit for being a mean
> dirtbag. The Simpsons had him wrestling Homer in a drain pipe, with Bush
> saying: "If he thinks George Bush will stay out of the sewer, he doesn't
> know George Bush!"
>
>
>
>
>
> 4. Bush vs. crack
>
> Bush once sent a poor black kid to a real prison for real years for the
> crime of being a political prop.
>
> In the summer of 1989, while vacationing avec speedboat in his
> Kennebunkport, Maine, estate, Bush came up with the brilliant idea, or at
> least acceded to one dreamed up by aides. He would do a live address to the
> country while holding up a bag of crack that had been sold just outside the
> White House. The idea was to show that crack could "be bought anywhere."
>
> The problem was, nobody sold crack in Lafayette Square near the White
> House,
> which is where Bush aides wanted the crack found. There is a long backstory
> here that involves administration officials tasking the DEA with securing a
> bust near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They ended up having an undercover
> agent
> contact an 18-year-old named Keith Jackson from a poor neighborhood in
> southeast Washington. He was asked to bring his wares to the White House.
>
> "Where the fuck is the White House?" he asked.
>
> "We had to manipulate him to get him down there," a DEA agent later
> admitted. "It wasn't easy."
>
> Bush ended up doing his idiotic address to the nation about the dangers of
> crack. It had pretty much the opposite effect of what he intended.
>
> Almost immediately, Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live did a mock Oval
> Office speech that savaged Bush, prefacing the crack tale by telling
> audiences he'd been "doing loop-de-loops" in his speedboat in
> Kennebunkport and not catching anything while fishing ("not… the…
> point!" Carvey quipped). Carvey then pulled out a giant bag of "coke"
> which, he joked, had been sold "three feet from this desk."
>
> I had to research this incident for a book about the late Eric Garner
> called
> I Can't Breathe (Garner was also busted for crack dealing around that
> time), and one of the amazing and underreported aspects of this case was
> that Jackson, who was clearly entrapped in the most absurd fashion, ended
> up
> doing eight years in prison so that Bush could have his stupid photo op.
>
> The federal judge in the case, Stanley Sporkin, wanted desperately to not
> impose a stiff sentence on Jackson, but - in a problem none of the Bush
> aides who cooked up this dumb scheme thought of - mandatory sentencing laws
> handcuffed Sporkin. So the kid was sentenced to 10 years (he was later
> paroled). Sporkin, a former CIA general counsel appointed by Reagan,
> suggested Jackson ask Bush for a pardon:
>
> "He used you, in the sense of making a big drug speech… But he's a decent
> man, a man of great compassion. Maybe he can find a way to reduce at least
> some of that sentence."
>
> Bush blew that off and instead issued pardons to six Iran-Contra defendants
> on Christmas Day in 1992.
>
> 5. The apple
>
> It is absolutely logical to blame George H.W. Bush for the catastrophes of
> his son's presidency.
>
> For one thing, Poppy surely helped get Bush The Younger elected, by being
> part of a narrative that made W look human. A lot of the male campaign
> reporters liked W because, as a reporter put it to me once in '04, "Hey,
> the guy had a dick for a father."
>
> If you want an example of how that reality impacted the thinking of even
> Bush's harshest critics, watch Oliver Stone's W. By the end, the film has
> you rooting for the try-hard cheerleader forced by fate to swim upstream
> against King Daddy's sneering disdain over things like not being able to
> hold down a real job before the age of 40. The opening line of the W.
> trailer is Poppy's voice, played by master character actor James Cromwell,
> sneering at his disappointing heir, "If I remember correctly, you didn't
> like the sporting goods job."
>
> The plot of that underrated movie: "Hey, I can be a crappy president,
> too!"
>
> As bitterly as W wanted to outdo his Dad - particularly by winning
> re-election and conquering all of Iraq - he had been even more offended by
> the "Wimp Factor" piece than his father. When the Rather episode happened
> in 1988, young W reportedly stormed into his Dad's campaign headquarters
> yelling, "Macho! Macho!"
>
> When he himself became president, W basically set fire to the Middle East
> in
> defiance of "moderates" like Colin Powell, in order to show everyone how
> not-flaccid the Bushes were. The fact that Saddam Hussein "tried to kill my
> Dad" was somehow openly a factor in all of this.
>
> W's belief that his father's failure to take Baghdad and topple Saddam had
> cost him re-election in 1992 - ironically, Bush's own son believed his Dad
> to be a wimp about that - was a major reason we ended up occupying the
> whole
> country, for years, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives at the very
> least.
>
> The younger Bush - said to be aggrieved both by the "Wimp Factor" charge
> and by Daddy's vacillating stances between gunboat diplomacy and a
> "kindler and gentler" nation - made being "decisive" the cornerstone of
> his moronic presidency.
>
> We now know his father disagreed with his son about Iraq.
> Characteristically
> he was too passive-aggressive to confront him head-on, reportedly using a
> Brent Scowcroft editorial to express his doubts about junior's military
> misadventures.
>
> Years later, we not only are still in the Middle East, but have a Star
> Wars-style permanent garrison of bases with which we've droned and bombed
> the region more or less uninterruptedly since the early 2000s.
>
> Poppy's last act, in death, was to be elevated to icon status by the same
> Democrat-neocon alliance that turned the funeral of John McCain into
> something like a national religious rite.
>
> Since one of Donald Trump's defining characteristics is his lack of
> reverence for anyone who's not himself, the establishment-in-exile has made
> Trump's lack of public prostration before Poppy's corpse another
> unforgivable blow to the dignity of Washingtonhood.
>
> Brian Krassenstein of the flying #Resistance Krassensteins notes that Poppy
> once cursed at the TV at the sight of Trump, so "I like George H.W. Bush
> even more now." (Why did you like him before?)
>
> And the Washington Post went ape because Trump didn't recite the Apostles'
> Creed as part of the interminable Soviet-style funeral ceremonies of this
> week.
>
> The paper said Trump stood, "lips not moving," while all the other
> dignitaries paid homage to the fallen patriarch. This was likely because
> Trump is an ignoramus and didn't know he was supposed to read, or maybe
> he's not actually religious, or maybe he was thinking about his next
> cheeseburger - whatever, it became a thing. Once again, Poppy was elevated
> by a less-popular foil.
>
> Bush the elder had some decent qualities, or at least relatable ones. He
> served his country bravely and was famous for the thoughtful notes he sent
> to almost everyone, demonstrating a memory for people that would be
> commendable in the social director of a cruise liner, or the president of a
> charity.
>
> Bush's problem was that he was totally ruthless about pursuing real power
> without much of a clue why - "the vision thing." To win an election he
> sank to Trumpian lows with the Willie Horton episode, even as his reasons
> for running seemed elusive.
>
> He's being elevated this week, among other things as a way of taking a shot
> at Trump by comparison. But let's not confuse that with George H.W. Bush
> being a great president. He was kind of a hack, actually. In fact, maybe
> the
> most special thing about him was a lack of a sense of humor so extreme,
> people may have lost their lives to it.
>
>
>
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