tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69726592024-03-14T22:06:11.992-07:00jim hancock<strong>is this who we are?</strong>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.comBlogger1157125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-49015501172066324122024-03-02T11:39:00.000-08:002024-03-13T10:47:04.835-07:00One man holds the power to kill a democracy...<p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313235; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>... and all he has to do is <i>stall</i>.</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313235; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This week the <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28774">Kyiv Post reports</a>:</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313235; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313235; font-family: "Source Serif 4", serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/topic/Verkhovna-Rada" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #c61f40; text-decoration: none;">Verkhovna Rada</a>, Ukraine’s parliament, wrote on his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stefanchuk.official/posts/pfbid038GY1ThTaWek3k9naA3U5koYkoaDM6HX1GWeKFW5iXTHtPr59UNzCbZ1Prh1KuZ6Zl" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #c61f40; text-decoration: none;">Facebook</a> page that the speakers of 23 parliaments, along with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, have written an open letter to the speaker of <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/topic/us" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #c61f40; text-decoration: none;">the US</a> House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313235; font-family: "Source Serif 4", serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">They are urging him to submit the draft law that will provide Ukraine with $60.06 billion in military aid to continue its fight against Russian aggression. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313235; font-family: "Source Serif 4", serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Stefanchuk, who initiated the letter, expressed gratitude to his colleagues for “their quick and widespread support.”</p><p> <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28774">https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28774</a></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here's the transcribed text of that letter. </span></div><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">27 February 2024</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Dear Mr Speaker.<span> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In recent days a solemn anniversary loomed large, commemorating the two year mark since Russia and its dictatorial regime invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked and unjustified act of aggression. This invasion has obviously endangered not only the independence sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine but has also challenged the entire democratic, world jeopardizing the security in the whole European and Euro-Atlantic area.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Over these past two years the countries that remain committed to our shared values and believe in a world based on rules and respect to the UN Charter have united to help Ukraine and its people in repelling the brutal aggression that is claiming hundreds of lives every day. Our joint assistance has helped to stop the aggressor and liberate a large share of previously occupied territories of Ukraine. We welcome the indispensable and prominent role of the United States in this joint effort. The US has consistently demonstrated strong bipartisan support for Ukraine's victory in its fight against the Russian invasion.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We also observe that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a significant impact on the development of the security situation in the world. We see that while Iran and North Korea have begun to provide direct military support to Russia, the criminal actions of the Kremlin regime have inspired other dictatorial and undemocratic regimes, become a catalyst for the escalation of old conflicts and put us on the brink of new confrontations. Today, the world is rapidly moving towards the destruction of the sustainable world order.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We see it as our responsibility and our task to prevent this descent into chaos and impunity and therefore our countries are committed to further increasing our support to Ukraine and its defense forces, seeing it as a considerable investment in our individual and collective security. The axis of evil must be defeated, and all perpetrators brought to justice. This will serve as a significant deterrent to further conflicts and will return a sense of control and security to our peoples.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We believe that thanks to your personal leadership the Congress will demonstrate historic bipartisan unity in support of the collective efforts to assist Ukraine therefore we ask you to take the next step toward adopting a historic decision on HR 815 that will secure US assistance to foreign countries and provide Ukraine with the necessary funds to continue its fight.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has not, at this time, released the text of the letter, nor has he yet permitted the bipartisan bill passed by the US Senate, to come to the floor of the House, where it is almost certain to pass. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Speaker Johnson is (A) unjustifiably smug about being smarter than democracy's leaders in the US and around the world ... (B) weirdly dedicated to enabling Vladimir Putin's criminal acts in Ukraine, no matter what the cost to literally everybody else ... or (C) a genuine enemy of democracy and the rules-based international order.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">None of these is a good look for a person who publicly claims the associations Speaker Johnson claims.</span></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-84351305963820747062024-02-25T13:38:00.000-08:002024-02-25T13:45:06.107-08:00Divide and Command<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOGU2ylWPkS52RdQPLRH-QujwmfjNIP-8g4esczjJp17tLgwzriUHIXh2FEtMkIRGB9MC_cPhyphenhyphene9Z9_7AtuNTRExxlaWw9LY5vW7_y7aoELZODzp44LyFjcXBQN2b45cZRcZoYhhv3mQMh0p9s0P9OH0YQ2ekTA3f1uG9Wv-OReiFLDKaT4Z6e/s2500/IMG_3167.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2084" data-original-width="2500" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOGU2ylWPkS52RdQPLRH-QujwmfjNIP-8g4esczjJp17tLgwzriUHIXh2FEtMkIRGB9MC_cPhyphenhyphene9Z9_7AtuNTRExxlaWw9LY5vW7_y7aoELZODzp44LyFjcXBQN2b45cZRcZoYhhv3mQMh0p9s0P9OH0YQ2ekTA3f1uG9Wv-OReiFLDKaT4Z6e/w400-h334/IMG_3167.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-31010140035760430962024-02-17T07:41:00.000-08:002024-02-17T07:41:19.009-08:00They are supposed to represent the best of us.<div><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Y</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">our Republican Member of the US House of Representatives will be home for the next 12 days — apparently at a loss about what the US Congress could possibly do to make anything better (or less worse) than it is right now. </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, maybe drop by their local office, or a town hall meeting, and deliver a note asking why they support — or at least tolerate — the Putin Wing of the Republican Party in failing to protect US national security ... failing to even consider real immigration reform ... failing to act to support US allies who have supported us when we needed them. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">T</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">he US Senate is doing good-faith work for the sake of the nation and the world ... why isn't the House of Representatives? I don't think that's what people mean when they call it 'the lower house.'</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe suggest that, since Republican Members of the US House don't appear to be meaningfully interested in governance, you would be happy to repatriate them into the private sector and help them seek meaningful service in their local district.<br /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let them know they can demonstrate good faith by showing up for work early on February 28, and doing the job </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">they signed up for. Maybe they could devise a buddy system to help them stand up the bullies and get the layabouts to put their shoulder to the wheel.<br /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, if you're a Putin Republican yourself, maybe revisit the Federalist Papers ... the US Constitution ... the Declaration of Independence. There's a lot of good stuff there about why people like Putin (and people who like Putin) are bad role models for creating a more perfect union.</span></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-19953016311122763412024-01-21T10:26:00.000-08:002024-01-21T10:26:46.872-08:00Read It Yourself . Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address<p> </p><h1 class="page-title topper__title news" data-beat-topper="1" data-beat="1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; animation-delay: 0.35s !important; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; flex: 0 0 auto; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 44px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.015em; line-height: 58.080002px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 629.328125px;"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/01/20/inaugural-address-by-president-joseph-r-biden-jr/">Inaugural Address by President Joseph R. Biden,<span class="dewidow" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span>Jr.</a></h1><div><br /></div><div><p class="has-text-align-center" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 467px;">The United States Capitol</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">11:52 AM EST [January 20, 2021]</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">THE PRESIDENT: Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">This is America’s day.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">This is democracy’s day.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">A day of history and hope.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Of renewal and resolve.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Through a crucible for the ages America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We have learned again that democracy is precious.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Democracy is fragile.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We look ahead in our uniquely American way – restless, bold, optimistic – and set our sights on the nation we know we can be and we must be.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I thank them from the bottom of my heart.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">You know the resilience of our Constitution and the strength of our nation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">As does President Carter, who I spoke to last night but who cannot be with us today, but whom we salute for his lifetime of service.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I have just taken the sacred oath each of these patriots took — an oath first sworn by George Washington.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">On “We the People” who seek a more perfect Union.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">This is a great nation and we are a good people.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Much to repair.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Much to restore.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Much to heal.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Much to build.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And much to gain.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Few periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">A once-in-a-century virus silently stalks the country.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Millions of jobs have been lost.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy:</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Unity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Unity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">In another January in Washington, on New Year’s Day 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">When he put pen to paper, the President said, “If my name ever goes down into history it will be for this act and my whole soul is in it.”</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">My whole soul is in it.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this:</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Bringing America together.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Uniting our people.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And uniting our nation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I ask every American to join me in this cause.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Uniting to fight the common foes we face:</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Anger, resentment, hatred.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Extremism, lawlessness, violence.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Disease, joblessness, hopelessness.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">With unity we can do great things. Important things.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can right wrongs.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can put people to work in good jobs.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can teach our children in safe schools.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can overcome this deadly virus.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can reward work, rebuild the middle class, and make health care<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />secure for all.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can deliver racial justice.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">But I also know they are not new.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">The battle is perennial.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Victory is never assured.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Through the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setbacks, our “better angels” have always prevailed.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">In each of these moments, enough of us came together to carry all of us forward.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, we can do so now.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can treat each other with dignity and respect.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">No progress, only exhausting outrage.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">No nation, only a state of chaos.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, we must meet this moment as the United States of America.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">If we do that, I guarantee you, we will not fail.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We have never, ever, ever failed in America when we have acted together.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And so today, at this time and in this place, let us start afresh.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">All of us.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Let us listen to one another.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Hear one another.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />See one another.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Show respect to one another.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, we must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">My fellow Americans, we have to be different than this.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">America has to be better than this.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, I believe America is better than this.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Just look around.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Here we stand, in the shadow of a Capitol dome that was completed amid the Civil War, when the Union itself hung in the balance.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Yet we endured and we prevailed.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Here we stand looking out to the great Mall where Dr. King spoke of his dream.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Here we stand, where 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protestors tried to block brave women from marching for the right to vote.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Today, we mark the swearing-in of the first woman in American history elected to national office – Vice President Kamala Harris.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Don’t tell me things can’t change.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Here we stand across the Potomac from Arlington National Cemetery, where heroes who gave the last full measure of devotion rest in eternal peace.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And here we stand, just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, and to drive us from this sacred ground.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">That did not happen.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">It will never happen.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Not today.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Not tomorrow.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Not ever.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">To all those who supported our campaign I am humbled by the faith you have placed in us.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">To all those who did not support us, let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And if you still disagree, so be it.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">That’s democracy. That’s America. The right to dissent peaceably, within the guardrails of our Republic, is perhaps our nation’s greatest strength.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Yet hear me clearly: Disagreement must not lead to disunion.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And I pledge this to you: I will be a President for all Americans.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Many centuries ago, Saint Augustine, a saint of my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">What are the common objects we love that define us as Americans?</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I think I know.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Opportunity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Security.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Liberty.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Dignity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Respect.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Honor.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, yes, the truth.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">There is truth and there are lies.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Lies told for power and for profit.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I understand that many Americans view the future with some fear and trepidation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I understand they worry about their jobs, about taking care of their families, about what comes next.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I get it.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">If we show a little tolerance and humility.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Because here is the thing about life: There is no accounting for what fate will deal you.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">There are some days when we need a hand.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">There are other days when we’re called on to lend one.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">That is how we must be with one another.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">My fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us, we will need each other.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We are entering what may well be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We must set aside the politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I promise you this: as the Bible says weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will get through this, together</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">The world is watching today.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">So here is my message to those beyond our borders: America has been tested and we have come out stronger for it.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We have been through so much in this nation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, in my first act as President, I would like to ask you to join me in a moment of silent prayer to remember all those we lost this past year to the pandemic.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">To those 400,000 fellow Americans – mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will honor them by becoming the people and nation we know we can and should be.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Let us say a silent prayer for those who lost their lives, for those they left behind, and for our country.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Amen.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">This is a time of testing.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We face an attack on democracy and on truth.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">A raging virus.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Growing inequity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">The sting of systemic racism.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">A climate in crisis.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">America’s role in the world.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Now we must step up.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">All of us.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, this is certain.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Will we rise to the occasion?</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Will we master this rare and difficult hour?</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I believe we must and I believe we will.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And when we do, we will write the next chapter in the American story.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">It’s a story that might sound something like a song that means a lot to me.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">It’s called “American Anthem” and there is one verse stands out for me:</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">“The work and prayers<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />of centuries have brought us to this day<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />What shall be our legacy?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />What will our children say?…<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Let me know in my heart<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />When my days are through<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />America<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />America<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />I gave my best to you.”</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">If we do this then when our days are through our children and our children’s children will say of us they gave their best.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">They did their duty.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">They healed a broken land.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />My fellow Americans, I close today where I began, with a sacred oath.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Before God and all of you I give you my word.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I will always level with you.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I will defend the Constitution.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I will defend our democracy.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I will defend America.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">I will give my all in your service thinking not of power, but of possibilities.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Not of personal interest, but of the public good.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Of unity, not division.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Of light, not darkness.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">An American story of decency and dignity.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Of love and of healing.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Of greatness and of goodness.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">May this be the story that guides us.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">The story that inspires us.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">The story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">We met the moment.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">That democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch but thrived.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">That our America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">That is what we owe our forebearers, one another, and generations to follow.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">So, with purpose and resolve we turn to the tasks of our time.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Sustained by faith.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Driven by conviction.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">And, devoted to one another and to this country we love with all our hearts.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">May God bless America and may God protect our troops.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(10, 36, 88); color: #0a2458; font-family: MercurySSm-Book-Pro_Web, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28.16px; margin: 0px auto 25px; max-width: calc(50% - 20px); padding: 0px; width: 467px;">Thank you, America.</p></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-37841871076793996972023-11-21T09:31:00.000-08:002023-11-21T09:31:45.525-08:00Who are we? What are we doing?<p>Thanks to my friend, Daniel Skepple in Canada, for reminding me of this, from Stephen Colbert.</p><p>I’d forgotten it ... it was in Episode 6161 of <i>The Colbert Report. </i>December 09 2010.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-sXWy3Boce486ZB9I7xAB1ZFPGUyuOkngAxe_2nQIOZ481sjZFo7Sl9wTEdPDzaB_PrOEARTjGMwKHiyBuIPO1gvmG0WetUpCvuYyzAZgFlfQuFYqWzsp6JXCX1yMWSI1U_AYiOUot5cpw-AAXaQwBjEGLq-re7PdS-C0dxi8bErP9whIYQC/s960/400614894_6717679491620527_7172307404889688718_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-sXWy3Boce486ZB9I7xAB1ZFPGUyuOkngAxe_2nQIOZ481sjZFo7Sl9wTEdPDzaB_PrOEARTjGMwKHiyBuIPO1gvmG0WetUpCvuYyzAZgFlfQuFYqWzsp6JXCX1yMWSI1U_AYiOUot5cpw-AAXaQwBjEGLq-re7PdS-C0dxi8bErP9whIYQC/w400-h400/400614894_6717679491620527_7172307404889688718_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />That's the night Paul Simon sang the remarkable "Getting Ready for Christmas Day" [Feat. Rev J.M. Gates] from his remarkable, then new, album, <i>So Beautiful or So What</i>.<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_y4IqeQe8">Getting Ready for Christmas Day . Paul Simon . YouTube</a><div><h2 class="single-track-title clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #373328; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Getting Ready For Christmas Day<a class="title-back-link" href="https://www.paulsimon.com/songs/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7e7563; float: right; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; margin-right: 50px; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">« see all songs</a></h2><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Lyrics:</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">From early in November to the last week of December<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />I got money matters weighing me down<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Oh the music may be merry, but it’s only temporary<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />I know Santa Claus is coming to town</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">In the days I work my day job, in the nights I work my night<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But it all comes down to working man’s pay<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Getting ready, I’m getting ready, ready for Christmas Day</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Reverend Gates:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Getting ready for Christmas Day.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And let me tell you, namely, the undertaker, he’s getting ready for your body<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Not only that, the jailer he’s getting ready for you.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Christmas Day. Hmm? And not only the jailer, but the lawyer, the police force<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Now getting ready for Christmas Day, and I want you to bear it in mind.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">I got a nephew in Iraq it’s his third time back<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But it’s ending up the way it began<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />With the luck of a beginner he’ll be eating turkey dinner<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />On some mountain top in Pakistan </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Getting ready, oh we’re getting ready<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For the power and the glory and the story of the<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Christmas Day</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Reverend Gates:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Getting ready, for Christmas Day. Done made it up in your mind that I’m going, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago. I’m going, on a trip, getting ready, for Christmas Day. But when Christmas come, nobody knows where you’ll be. You might ask me. I may be layin’ in some lonesome grave, getting ready, for Christmas Day.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Getting ready oh we’re getting ready<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For the power and the glory and the story of the<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Christmas Day<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Yes, we’re getting ready</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Reverend Gates:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Getting ready, ready for your prayers, “I’m going and see my relatives in a distant land.”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Getting ready, getting ready for Christmas Day. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">If I could tell my Mom and Dad that the things we never had<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Never mattered we were always okay<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Getting ready, oh ready, ready for Christmas Day<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ready, getting ready<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For the power and the glory and the story of the<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Christmas Day</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(56, 52, 43); color: #38342b; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">© 2010 Music by Paul Simon Words by Paul Simon and Rev. J. M. Gates</p></div></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-84260473160550190452023-11-19T15:25:00.000-08:002023-11-20T09:00:37.519-08:00Who’s fighting human trafficking?<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Wanna know who’s working effectively to end human trafficking?</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I think it’s the International Justice Mission. </span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Some people talk, and promote, and raise awareness; IJM <i>does</i> … and has been doing for more than two decades in what may be the most persistent, far-reaching, and effective nongovernmental interventions against bonded enslavement and human trafficking ever. (I say "nongovernmental" because IJM is a nongovernmental organization ... But, to be clear, they submit evidence to law enforcement officials in the cases they investigate.)</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">And, when it comes to who’s fighting effectively to end human trafficking in the governmental sphere, the people working to end that obscenity are led by Volodomyr Zelenkskyy and Joseph R. Biden, and the leaders of more than 50 nations who put their money where their mouth is through the carefully considered strategies and tactics of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Because Vladimir Putin, has stolen more than 20,000 Ukrainian children from their homes — probably many more — and moved them to Russia. </span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">That’s why it makes sense to tell my members of congress I want them to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal war of aggression.</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">And it’s why it makes sense to send some money to support the work of International Justice Mission at the closing of the year. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">
</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Because IJM, and Ukraine and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group of nations are doing the work to end human trafficking for good. </span></p><p><a href="https://www.ijm.org/"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">International Justice Mission | End Modern Slavery for Good</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and">Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova</a></span></p><p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67121574"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Russia returns four Ukrainian children in Qatari deal</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-children-taken-ukraine/32527298.html"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">More Than 700,000 Ukrainian Children Taken To Russia Since Full-Scale War Started, Official Says</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4200250-tens-of-thousands-of-ukraines-children-have-been-kidnapped-its-time-for-action/"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Tens of thousands of Ukraine’s children have been kidnapped — it’s time for action</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://cepa.org/article/women-enter-the-putin-regimes-crosshairs/?fbclid=IwAR0CHPI7ktl-00yDKCn6YAGMviy7d8DDllj0qMs3QxXDCzBNOvo445fkj1A"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Women Enter the Putin Regime’s Crosshairs</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://religiondispatches.org/a-twisted-love-story-how-american-evangelicals-helped-make-putins-russia-and-how-russia-became-the-darling-of-the-american-right/"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">A Twisted Love Story: How American Evangelicals Helped Make Putin’s Russia and How Russia Became the Darling of the American Right</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/november/evangelical-political-division-ukraine-gop-primary.html"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">American Evangelicals Divide over Ukraine</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/nato-ukraine-zelenskyy-war-russia-us-1d22ae0a2315c2377af0a241e7950f1d"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Ukraine's Zelenskyy joins a meeting of global defense leaders to make a direct plea for military aid</span></a></p>
<p style="color: #0a529f; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><a href="https://wapo.st/47jWaIC"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Opinion | Joe Biden: The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas</span></a></p><div><br /></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-26235958235738741462023-11-18T10:24:00.000-08:002023-11-18T10:24:52.334-08:00Interpreting the Colorado court decision that seems to cut both against and for Donald Trump<p><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/11/18/judge-rules-trump-had-the-purpose-of-inciting-insurrection-on-january-6/">Marcy Wheeler, on emptywheel, offers a useful and accessible summary and analysis</a> of the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24171434-231117-trump-insurrection-ruling">November 17, 2023 Colorado District Court order by Judge Sarah Wallace</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Wheeler finds a clear path through the Court's ruling that:</span></p><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">A. Donald Trump did engage in insurrection, and </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">B. Judge Wallace does not use that finding of fact to exclude Donald Trump from the 2024 Colorado primary election ballot, electing instead to push the decision to the Colorado Supreme Court to the extent that the higher Court agrees to accept the case on appeal and rule on it's application. </span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times;">To that end, Judge Wallace writes:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #f5f6f2; caret-color: rgb(99, 110, 74); color: #636e4a; font-size: 17px;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Court has endeavored to give the Colorado Supreme Court all the information it needs to resolve this matter fully and finally without the delay of returning it to this Court.</span></span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">FWIW, I think the Final Order from Judge Wallace and Dr. Wheeler's analysis are both careful, clear reading for folks outside the legal professions.</span></p><p><br /></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-55229767118571039662023-11-06T09:26:00.001-08:002023-11-14T09:21:45.112-08:00To me, it doesn't seem like a close call<div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A year ago, heading into the 2022 US midterm elections, I posted:</span></div><div dir="auto"></div></div><blockquote><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">With corporate profits at a 70-year high … and CEO’s pay rising about three times faster than everybody else … I don’t think it’s a freak coincidence that *Inflation* is at a 40-year high. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I’m thinking about that in this midterm election between the party that wants America’s corporate citizens to pay their fair share for the upkeep and advancement of the nation and the party that’s intent on supporting corporate free riders regardless of the drain on the real economy.</span></div></div></blockquote><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"></div></div><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Oh, man, has that aged well politically.... </span></span></p><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="afse2-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="afse2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="afse2-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">On the business end, it's not clear that folks at the topmost corporate earning pyramids have yet rediscovered the concept of 'enough' ... but a lot of workers have made headway on wages in the real economy. Find a just and reasonable equilibrium in all that, and history demonstrates what common sense declares: that there is enough for everyone when we regard our neighbors as we regard ourselves. </span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="f0cfv-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f0cfv-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="f0cfv-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="h5g-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="h5g-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="h5g-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">On the political side, a vanishingly small minority of the US House majority took national and global security hostage last week — giving aid and comfort to enemies of democracy in general (looking at you, Russia) and the United States in particular. Why? Maybe they're on the take ... maybe they're neo-fascists ... maybe they suffer from peripheral vision loss *and* nearsightedness.... In any event, the net effect coddles wealthy individual and corporate free-riders and tax cheats by hobbling the good faith efforts of the Internal Revenue Service — and US law — to locate and collect taxes due to the US Treasury for the benefit of us all, as a people. </span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="drk5s-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="drk5s-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="drk5s-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="1adsg-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1adsg-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1adsg-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Now, one year out from a profoundly important election season, I am [still] paying attention to the differences between the party that insists on America’s corporate citizens paying their fair share for the upkeep and advancement of the nation and the party that protects the interests of already wealthy free-riders at the expense of everyone else.</span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="as4in-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="as4in-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="as4in-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="443vv" data-offset-key="fbjsa-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fbjsa-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="fbjsa-0-0"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">To me, it doesn't seem like a close call.</span></span></div></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-11375905107743606692023-11-01T10:51:00.002-07:002023-11-01T10:51:45.962-07:00who are the neo-nazis voting for?<p><span data-offset-key="6nstt-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpZyTeakfqw6Xi1N1hUR1L2r2c91i-RDWX3ljW7D_R4vEFOMTSRFa7600340lwYBi4GhYeQcg4SdUd8dGVIdHLBgPOOJajdy_N4E0HLToLEIXWiG5Iw1pi-wNCxwzfCiigH6WjJiYU-wnWh6rap-6U97KN4JWkh5Bh4AAaK_JUkVE6mXHhNqI/s1488/who%20are%20the%20neo-nazis%20voting%20for%3F.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1488" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpZyTeakfqw6Xi1N1hUR1L2r2c91i-RDWX3ljW7D_R4vEFOMTSRFa7600340lwYBi4GhYeQcg4SdUd8dGVIdHLBgPOOJajdy_N4E0HLToLEIXWiG5Iw1pi-wNCxwzfCiigH6WjJiYU-wnWh6rap-6U97KN4JWkh5Bh4AAaK_JUkVE6mXHhNqI/w320-h123/who%20are%20the%20neo-nazis%20voting%20for%3F.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span data-offset-key="6nstt-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three years back, days ahead of the national elections in 2020, </span><span class="xv78j7m" data-offset-key="6nstt-1-0" end="74" spellcheck="false" start="64" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ted Swartz</span><span data-offset-key="6nstt-2-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reminded us of the company we keep. </span></p><p></p><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="b3a2o-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="f9on6-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f9on6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="f9on6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The neo-nazis lost that election almost everywhere ... and many of the exceptions — in both 2020 and two years later in the midterms —were in places they apparently won because of gerrymandered voting districts that have since been, or are being, restructured under court order. </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="bsjn2-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bsjn2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="bsjn2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="11j6j-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="11j6j-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="11j6j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Which is to say that, had neo-nazi-adjacent Republican legislators not illegally and/or immorally suppressed the votes of folks they believed would vote for the other side ... which they seem to interpret — perhaps accurately — as votes against them ... the US House of Representatives would not be in the mess it's in, with a newly anointed Speaker who, this week, is prepared to hold our national security and our obligations to allies and to vulnerable and oppressed people in Ukraine, Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank hostage. </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="73i4o-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="73i4o-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="73i4o-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="djr81-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="djr81-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="djr81-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">And the price Speaker Johnson and MAGA Republicans are demanding? They're demanding that Members of the House agree to go easy on wealthy tax cheats and free-riders by defunding the enforcement capacity of the Internal Revenue Service ... an enforcement capacity that recovers $12 for every one dollar spent on audits of the top 10 percent of earners. (</span><span class="x1fey0fg" style="font-family: inherit;">https://cdn.policyimpacts.org/cms/Welfare_Audits_ad1284984d.pdf</span><span data-offset-key="djr81-2-0" style="font-family: inherit;">)</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="eu270-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eu270-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="eu270-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="4bfnr" data-offset-key="7oe6g-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7oe6g-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="7oe6g-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Not that it will be easy, but let’s finish the job. Let’s do the work necessary to elect Democrats to the US House and Senate until such time as Republicans return to — and hold each other accountable for — fidelity to the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the rule of law, and a good faith commitment to the ongoing formation of a more perfect union. </span></div></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-28115402294065508422023-10-30T08:51:00.000-07:002023-10-30T08:51:02.520-07:00I did not see this coming, Mr. Speaker!<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last week, Speaker of the Republican-led House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, provided the key for understanding his philoosphy of governance in an interview on Fox News:</span></p><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="9rdj0-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9rdj0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="9rdj0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="21pnl-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="21pnl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="21pnl-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">“Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="2ktq0-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2ktq0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="2ktq0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="c77la-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c77la-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span class="x1fey0fg" style="font-family: inherit;">https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1717718043525099743</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="8v0qt-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8v0qt-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="8v0qt-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="kec6-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="kec6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="kec6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">This is super-handy to those among us who are somewhat familiar with the biblical texts!</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="f346r-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f346r-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="f346r-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="1fnto-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1fnto-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1fnto-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I, for one, can’t wait to see Speaker Johnson sponsor and shepherd legislation through House committee to a floor vote to send the United States Senate a bill that embodies Exodus 22:25 (here rendered in the New American Standard Version with NASB footnotes):</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="3k8b-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3k8b-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="3k8b-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="b3ttq-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b3ttq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="b3ttq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">“If you lend money to My people, to the poor [z] among you, you are not to [aa] act as a creditor to him; you shall not [ab] charge him interest.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="d1ghs-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d1ghs-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="d1ghs-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">[z] Lit *with*</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="36c5g-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="36c5g-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="36c5g-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">[aa] Lit *be*</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="5fdta" data-offset-key="b3ieu-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b3ieu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="b3ieu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">[ab] Lit *lay upon* </span></div></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-53785285843762599692023-10-28T09:23:00.000-07:002023-10-28T09:23:08.963-07:00Everything has changed! (Has it though?)<div class="center" style="caret-color: rgb(68, 72, 74); color: #44484a; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">The more things change, the more they stay the same — French critic, journalist and novelist Alphonse Karr in 1849 in the monthly journal Les Guêpes.</span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">W</span></b>e've been here before.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In 1950, going into the midterm elections, President Harry S. Truman summed up the difference between the world views of Democrats and Republicans. See if any of this sounds familiar....</span></p><p></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Democratic Party can aford to be frank and truthful, because it is working for the general welfare of all our citizens. It does not serve any narrow group or clique. This makes it easy for the Democratic Party to put its program before the country openly and completely. We have nothing to hide from the people. Our strength lies in explaining our program and our policies to the people. And the more thoroughly we explain to them what the Democratic Party is trying to do, the more certain we can be of their continued support.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are many diferences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. But I think the greatest diference is that the Democratic Party is the party of afirmative action--it is for measures to achieve prosperity and progress. The Republican Party is the party of negative inaction--it is always against things.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">You know, I think the principal thing the Republicans are against, of course, is the Democratic Party. They just can't win on that plank alone. They must try to find reasons for being against the Democratic Party. They must persuade the people to vote against the Democratic Party. And that is getting harder and harder to do year by year.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the reasons it's hard to do is that the Republican Party has no afirmative program of its own. It refuses to face the problems of our economy. It refuses to take thought and to make plans for the future. Instead of presenting a positive program of their own, the Republicans sit around waiting for us to make a proposal, and they react with an outburst of scare words. They are like the cuttlefish that squirts out a black cloud of ink whenever its slumber is disturbed. We have disturbed the Republican sleepers many times in the last 18 years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Right now, the main problem of the Republican leaders seems to be to find some new scare words. They have not had much luck along that line, lately. They tried using the phrase "welfare state" as a scare word for a while, but they discovered that the people are in favor of a government that promotes their welfare. So they dropped that one as a scare slogan. Then they tried "statism." But my good friend Governor Lehman took care of that one in the New York election--and so they had to drop it, too.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, the Republican leaders have to go back to an old standby. Frankly, I don't think it's as good as some of the others, but it appears to be the best they can think of. Their current scare word is "socialism."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's perfectly safe to be against "socialism." The dificult thing is to make the country believe that the Democratic Party stands for socialism. How in the world can the Republicans persuade people that all you Democrats at all these dinners are socialists? I just don't believe they can do it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I know it can't be done. But the Republicans will try it just the same. That's what they've been trying to do ever since 1933. For the last 17 years they have called every new Democratic measure "socialism" or "communism," and they have made constant predictions of doom and disaster. The plans and proposals that we have advanced for improving the conditions of the people of this country have been greeted by these same old scare tactics during all these years. And I'm going to prove that to you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Let us take it step by step. This is most interesting.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1933, this country faced some of the greatest problems in its history--the problems of providing food and work for millions of jobless persons and their families, of saving millions of farms and homes from foreclosure, of restoring a banking system that had collapsed, of placing the entire economy on the way to recovery.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Democratic Party rolled up its sleeves and went to work. It took steps to provide relief and jobs, to save farms and homes, to restore banks and businesses. Bit by bit the economy responded to these vigorous measures. Income began to grow, confidence returned, business activity mounted. This was the response of the economy to our farm and labor and business programs-our programs for resource development and public works and the building of homes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As this miracle of recovery unfolded, what was the attitude of the Republican Party?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1934--and I ran for the Senate in 1934, and I remember this well--the Republican National Committee issued a policy statement--a policy statement. And in that statement they said:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"American institutions and American civilization are in greater danger today than at any time since the foundation of the republic."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That sort of talk may have frightened the members of the Union League Club. But it didn't frighten the people who had been saved by the New Deal from breadlines and bankruptcy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1936, the Republicans thought the danger was worse. That was when President Roosevelt was running for his second term. In that year, the Republican platform cried out:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"America is in peril. The welfare of American men and women and the future of our youth are at stake .... The New Deal administration"-- this is from the 1936 Republican platform--"The New Deal administration has bred fear and hesitation in commerce and industry, thus discouraging new enterprises, preventing employment, and prolonging the depression."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">People weren't scared by that one either. They knew it just didn't make sense, because the national income had risen more than 50 percent in the previous 4 years, and it was still rising.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1940, the Republicans tried to scare us again. This time their platform said:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"The Administration has imposed upon us a regime of regimentation which has deprived the individual of his freedom and has made of America a shackled giant .... The New Deal administration has failed America."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That's what the Republicans said, but the America that the New Deal had saved--the economy that the New Deal had freed and made productive again became the arsenal of democracy that overwhelmed the forces of totalitarian aggression.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But that still didn't teach the Republicans anything. In 1944, when we stood at the peak of our wartime production--the economic bulwark of the free world--the Republican Party platform proclaimed: "The fact remains that under the New Deal, American economic life is being destroyed." That's what they said in 1944--"American economic life is being destroyed."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Apparently, they never learn anything. Today, when we have a national output of over $250 billion a year and a higher standard of living than ever before in the history of the world, the Republican Party still cannot see anything good about the situation. In their policy statement issued 10 days ago, the Republican National Committee declared: "The major domestic issue today is liberty against socialism: . . . Basic American principles"--they said--"are threatened by the administration's program . . ."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's the same old story--the same old words, the same old music--the same empty and futile attempt to scare the American people--in complete contradiction of the plain facts that are visible to every citizen in his daily life to see. The country is not going to let them get away with it. Don't worry about it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For the past 17 years, the same outcry has greeted every proposal advanced by the Democratic Party--whether it has been for better housing, social security, rural electrification, farm price supports, minimum wages, or any other program for the general welfare of the people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They have been against all these proposals, but now they are for all of them. But, are they? Are they? I think they showed you conclusively what they would do if they had control of the Government when they had the 80th Congress.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1944, Representative Joseph W. Martin, Jr.--who was the Republican leader in the House, and who is the minority leader now-- summarized the Republican attitude toward all these progressive steps in one brief paragraph when he said:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"For 11 years we have been steadily drifing into a regimented nation, with absolute control vested in a power-mad group of bureaucrats and social planners. Unless there is a change in government this year we can be reconciled to some kind of totalitarian government." That was in 1944.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That is what the Republicans said about our program in 1944. That is the way they talked about our programs in 1948. That is what they are saying about them now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Today we are proposing further development of our resources, further strengthening of our economy, new measures for the welfare of the people. And what do we hear? The same old story. It is all repeated in that latest statement of the Republican National Committee:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"This program"--they said, and they were talking about the program of the Democratic Party--not their own, for they haven't one-"This program is dictated by a small but powerful group of persons who believe in socialism, who have no concept of the true foundation of American progress, whose proposals are wholly out of accord with the true interests and the real wishes of the workers, farmers, and businessmen." That is a quotation from their very solemn policy statement.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, let's look at the record. What is our program? Where did it come from? Our program is the platform adopted by the Democratic Party at its Convention in 1948. And it has been voted on by the people of this country, including the workers, farmers, and businessmen.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If our program was dictated, as the Republicans say, it was dictated at the polls in November 1948. And it was dictated by a "small but powerful group" of 24 million voters.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And I think they knew more than the Republican National Committee about the real wishes of the workers, farmers, and businessmen. What do you think?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, of course, this program is not socialism. It is based upon a firm faith in the strength of free enterprise. It is designed to strengthen the markets of free enterprise and to expand the investments of free enterprise. It will make our citizens economically secure, well educated, and confident of the future. Only in a nation of such citizens can free enterprise grow and expand and reach its full possibilities.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The program of the Democratic Party is aimed to promote the prosperity and welfare of all the American people. It is aimed to increase the freedom of all the American people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Freedom is not an abstraction. Freedom is a reality in our daily lives. The programs of our party have freed workers from the economic subjection of their employers. These programs have freed farmers from the fear of bankruptcy. These programs have released farm wives from bondage and ceaseless drudgery. These programs have freed older people from the fear of a dependent old age.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">These programs--our programs--look forward to the day when our people will be freed from fear of inadequate medical care from crushing medical expenses. They are aimed at freeing our young people from ignorance and a poor education.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is the record and the promise of the Democratic Party in expanding the freedom of the American people. But when the Republican Party proclaims that we are engaged in restricting freedom--that we are enemies of freedom--I ask, "Whose freedom?'' Let the American people look into their own lives and ask themselves whether they enjoy greater freedom or less than they did 18 years ago.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">About the only freedom we have limited is the freedom of Republicans to run the country. I have an idea that is what they are complaining about.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For the Republicans to drag out the same old moth-eaten scarecrow of "socialism" again in 1950--afer having used it, or something very like it, in opposition to every progressive step the Nation has taken since 1933--is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. Out of the great progress of this country, out of our great advances in achieving a better life for all, out of our rise to world leadership, the Republican leaders have learned nothing. Confronted by the great record of this country, and the tremendous promise of its future, all they can croak is "socialism!"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Democratic Party is going right ahead to meet the needs and carry out the aspirations of the American people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Our objective is to advance in freedom-to create a system of society that is even more responsive to the needs of the people--to establish democratic principles so firmly in the hearts of the people that they can never be uprooted.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the present anxieties and troubles of the world, the real strength of our country lies not in arms and weapons, important as they may be, but in the freedom of our citizens in their faith in a democratic society. Among the nations of the world we stand as an example of what free men can do when they are in control of their own afairs and dedicated to the concept of a better life for all. </span></p>— President Harry S. Truman . excerpt from the Address at the Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner . February 16, 1950 . <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/39/address-jefferson-jackson-day-dinner">https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/39/address-jefferson-jackson-day-dinner</a></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">NOTE FWIW: Measured by then current US life expectancy, President Truman was at or near his expiration date when he made these remarks ... the life expectancy for American men in 1950 was 65.6 years from their year of birth ... President Truman turned 66 in May, 1950. As it turned out, he lived another 22 years</span></p><p></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-35455705366318155312023-10-21T09:55:00.001-07:002023-10-21T10:00:41.396-07:00Read it Yourself . National Security Emergency Funding Request<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1E9MIWJFkoHfYNpBgVh8GMsGNQjgn_pKXOXGdng0nZF7dAHQK57k_KImD5l7ccriVoj5l4E8fvFcrML8BxHI424QG-zITi6yJWjoU_jH4sOeLXItU7IQTuvMbUkfjGsskEwjk0Wyo1cwkGM4t30kXFJIyi4VLrzfMD8J3aLdKb4BwPVRR4Ozs/s1466/OMB%20Request.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="1466" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1E9MIWJFkoHfYNpBgVh8GMsGNQjgn_pKXOXGdng0nZF7dAHQK57k_KImD5l7ccriVoj5l4E8fvFcrML8BxHI424QG-zITi6yJWjoU_jH4sOeLXItU7IQTuvMbUkfjGsskEwjk0Wyo1cwkGM4t30kXFJIyi4VLrzfMD8J3aLdKb4BwPVRR4Ozs/s320/OMB%20Request.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>Here's the October 20, 2023 letter from US Office of Management and Budget Director <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Shalanda D. Young</span> to the US House of Representatives asking Congress for fiscal year <span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">2024 emergency supplemental funding for key national security priorities.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">This letter includes the breakout of specific dollar allocations and conditions for the disbursement of funds.</span></p><p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-regarding-critical-national-security-funding-needs-for-FY-2024.pdf">https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-regarding-critical-national-security-funding-needs-for-FY-2024.pdf</a></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-1232966699807171782023-10-16T08:36:00.005-07:002023-10-16T08:40:07.326-07:00Four U.S. Objectives re Israel, Gaza, and the regionOfficial U.S. Policy Objectives re Israel, Gaza, and the region . 10.15.23 <div><br /></div><div>"We came here with four key objectives: to make clear that the United States stands with Israel; to prevent the conflict from spreading to other places; to work on securing the release of hostages, including American citizens; and to address the humanitarian crisis that exists in Gaza." — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken . in Cairo, Egypt . October 15 2023 </div><div><br /></div><div>[https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-12/?fbclid=IwAR0GpRADKv9EYfUby4xznK7tUlEgVdGkwhQG223i1rpBIRBtcdKgPprFwTA]</div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-30847322982064068822023-09-23T08:44:00.002-07:002023-09-23T08:44:39.416-07:00No difference between Red + Blue? Really?<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So a Democratic Senator is indicted on serious charges, and no Democrats attacking the Justice Department, no Democrats attacking the prosecutors, no Democrats calling for an investigation of the prosecution, and no Democrats calling to defund the Justice Department. </span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Weird, huh?” </div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">— former Republican representative from Illinois, Joe Walsh . 09..22.<span style="font-family: inherit;">23 . h/t </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="xt0psk2" style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: currentcolor; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson?__cft__[0]=AZVGM1pEL00YvPeEixRAsl_gqk52bWZwGthyZ7WNbDAJYqT2QSZ5rIpB4EQWMKEFFa9Cj8LMXl7RWxxyK7p1JjCO6Od9PQNbjMBTVc2eB4xD9YyXWBpn7tZQWBOLdhh4SigQwgratZibwypgLiJHOqGX4JpperQV9x2j9JUtRrstwg&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: currentcolor; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0">Heather Cox Richardson</a></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1705258251636666568">https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1705258251636666568</a></div></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-27365066180054049442023-09-20T08:32:00.000-07:002023-09-20T08:32:08.925-07:0010 Days Before a Needless Government Shutdown<p>Dear Speaker McCarthy, </p><p>Would you rather be humiliated by the riffraff fringe of your party in the House because you make a last ditch effort on behalf of democracy, national security, and the global economy ... or, who knows, *they* might be the ones who end up humiliated ... or would you rather to be humiliated in the next election by the farmers, small business owners, and working folks in your district who will say, "He had his shot and he blew it"? </p><p>Choose your own adventure.</p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-27490041026558238572023-09-02T09:33:00.003-07:002023-09-02T09:37:10.257-07:00Hey, what if we could do this to American Women?<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5tGGKZxQg5H-z1cL3fxZ1zooWfNAqhqyLL1ibS8JpFHuFMSZWuOUcg_SfyXV_RH7TG5nl1P4rz7jXASJxBLPtdwQX82y5ZNQxsv4aT8mV14Cqh9HNcoQ1a3znJQf-qWuKOOXI792bthTZoRocJ1Z4mm7MpBm8eMxo4SMv_wsTK27MZgvBr4q/s1248/The%20Handmaid's%20Tale%20cover.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1248" data-original-width="816" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5tGGKZxQg5H-z1cL3fxZ1zooWfNAqhqyLL1ibS8JpFHuFMSZWuOUcg_SfyXV_RH7TG5nl1P4rz7jXASJxBLPtdwQX82y5ZNQxsv4aT8mV14Cqh9HNcoQ1a3znJQf-qWuKOOXI792bthTZoRocJ1Z4mm7MpBm8eMxo4SMv_wsTK27MZgvBr4q/w131-h200/The%20Handmaid's%20Tale%20cover.png" width="131" /></a></div><p><b>I</b>t's as if some elected officials read about the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fugitive-slaves.html">Fugitive Slave laws of 1793 and 1850</a> and said, "Is there any reason we couldn't do that to women in 2023?"</p><p><b>I</b>t's as if some elected officials read the German <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1935v02/d305">Reich Citizens Law of September 15, 1935</a>, and said, "Hey, why can't <i>we</i> decide that women are no longer protected citizens?"</span></p><p><b>I</b>t's as if some elected officials read <i><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Handmaid_s_Tale/ZrsVZKWJg4UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">The Handmaids Tale</a></i> and said, 'Yeh, let's do that."</p><p><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/6972659/2749004102655823857#">From Boston College political historian Heather Cox Richardson, 09.01.23</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"<span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year, after the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision ending the recognition of the constitutional right to an abortion, I suggested to a group of people that it was only a question of time until we saw laws designed to make it impossible for women to travel across state lines. They told me there was no way such a thing could happen in the United States.</span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet, here we are."</span> </p></blockquote><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(228, 230, 235); font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-85603592663283504652023-08-01T17:01:00.000-07:002023-08-01T17:01:15.259-07:00Read It Yourself . US v Donald J. Trump . 08.01.23<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149.1.0_1.pdf" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPOsmooCNOcGztC-FXcXgVy6cNsBBuqXnPVVmFj6FTlaM7G33tuos8N2Jpfzu_QSIrJkR_CXYzX5yQL3xlflV7NZmsdId7pnKeqzCeD8LvxW5X4gZpH7OmUhN_WEd0KfNdvNXIvtM3Nukx61rqM3pO8eChkM-7erroPeHroCmG37bRxqKj8ZI/w400-h300/IMG_2836.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149.1.0_1.pdf">https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149.1.0_1.pdf</a></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-28047117552512714572023-07-09T18:19:00.004-07:002023-07-09T18:28:55.353-07:00History Rhymes . The 14th Amendment at 155<h4 style="text-align: center;">"[H]istory repeats her tale unconsciously, and goes off into a mystic rhyme"*</h4><p>155 years since the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution passed, what was protected by that amendment is once again under attack from the right flank.</p><p>The promises of liberty and equality under law in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution must, over and over, be defended from the forces of authoritarianism and anti-democracy among our own people.</p><h4 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-8-2023">https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-8-2023</a></h4><p><br /></p><p>* Book Review of “A History of the Church in Russia” by A. N. Mouravieff . <i>The Christian Remembrancer,</i> Volume 10 . October, 1845</p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-51568823611419200572023-06-14T14:30:00.003-07:002023-06-14T14:30:40.559-07:00Read It Yourself . Donald Trump Indictment . 06.08.23<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump-Nauta_23-80101.pdf" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2480" data-original-width="3378" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCKPmwEWNYQfiJneKBqid7QAWxYL59-1WydrbEr05VHKx9uVbIgnUhk_Ux91oH3ingUeDfLoq6--5H_HFU1kMDw3c38-ql6YyHVcxo_GvD0-Et_YgUJtqNQw4599HWkepKRtASHsHe9HiufxjVMttYhQ_5SxsfQhm8VFKkDx_rD_rN9UpmA/w640-h470/06.23%20Trump%20Indictment%20image.png" title="https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump-Nauta_23-80101.pdf" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">S</span></b>o far, it seems to me that, regardless of party, political operatives have one reaction to the Espionage Act indictments of Donald J. Trump and Walt Nauta, and members of the legal, military, national security, and intelligence communities have another.<p></p><p>When it comes to whose reaction I’m more likely to trust, it’s not a close call.</p><p>If you haven’t already, you can read it for yourself in a searchable PDF direct from the Department of Justice website:</p><p> <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump-Nauta_23-80101.pdf">Read the June 08, 2023 Federal Indictment of Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-7873996979852989032023-02-26T11:01:00.002-08:002023-02-26T14:57:11.212-08:00Read It Yourself . U.S. Secretary of State Speaks to the United Nation About Russia and Ukraine<p></p><p><span style="color: #333333; letter-spacing: -0.25px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote></blockquote><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixn48ajSuMHOQKyv8_y-QPzaezvQtBbEq-F-u89wairu6x4Rc0RBI2OE6rECi3qOgr3GnT5Z2Rg9WPSjG3CrMuEj207ncbBY82pElOMiLzuspyvDvAd5NWWENdeQTDLPRhviKO_M8Uz6GgmgNg5Upt17Q3umb0GDctvq2xnCmbf-6PiETC1w/s2048/27D9E798-8A7A-4860-AEC3-1775823C1EFB.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1209" data-original-width="2048" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixn48ajSuMHOQKyv8_y-QPzaezvQtBbEq-F-u89wairu6x4Rc0RBI2OE6rECi3qOgr3GnT5Z2Rg9WPSjG3CrMuEj207ncbBY82pElOMiLzuspyvDvAd5NWWENdeQTDLPRhviKO_M8Uz6GgmgNg5Upt17Q3umb0GDctvq2xnCmbf-6PiETC1w/w400-h236/27D9E798-8A7A-4860-AEC3-1775823C1EFB.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 25px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-weight: bold;">Secretary Blinken’s Remarks at the United Nations Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">UNITED NATIONS</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">NEW YORK, N.Y.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">FEBRUARY 24, 2023</span></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #333333; letter-spacing: -0.25px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">One year and one week ago – on February 17th, 2022 – I warned this council that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine.</span></blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I said that Russia would manufacture a pretext, and then use missiles, tanks, soldiers, cyber attacks to strike pre-identified targets, including Kyiv, with the aim of toppling Ukraine’s democratically elected government.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Russia’s representative – the same representative who will speak today – called these, and I quote, “groundless accusations.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Seven days later, on February 24th, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Due to fierce resistance by Ukraine’s defenders, President Putin failed in his primary objective to conquer Ukraine, end its existence as an independent country, and absorb it into Russia.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Then, he dusted off his Crimea playbook from 2014: He called snap referenda in four occupied parts of Ukraine, deported Ukrainians, bussed in Russians, held sham votes at gunpoint, and then manipulated the results to claim near unanimous support for joining the Russian Federation.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When President Putin couldn’t break the Ukrainian military, he intensified efforts to break Ukrainians’ spirit. Over the last year, Russia has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian men, women, and children; uprooted more than 13 million people from their homes; destroyed more than half of the country’s energy grid; bombed more than 700 hospitals, 2,600 schools; and abducted at least 6,000 Ukrainian children – some as young as four months old – and relocated them to Russia.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">And yet, the spirit of the Ukrainians remains unbroken; if anything, it’s stronger than ever.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When Ukraine launched a counteroffensive that retook large swaths of its territory, President Putin conscripted an additional 300,000 men – throwing more and more of Russia’s young people into a meat grinder of his own making. And he unleashed the Wagner Group – mercenaries who have committed atrocities from Africa to the Middle East, and now, in Ukraine.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Of course, that’s not the whole story of the last year.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There is also the story of Ukraine’s people. Vastly outnumbered, they have fought bravely to defend their nation, their freedom, the right to determine their own future. And they’ve demonstrated inspiring unity in helping one another endure Moscow’s relentless assault.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Teachers and community members give classes in bunkers to children. City workers improvise patches to restore heat and power and water to residents. Neighbors set up soup kitchens to feed the hungry.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There’s also the story of how the international community has come together.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The vast majority of member-states have voted multiple times to condemn Russia’s violations of the UN Charter and reject its illegal attempt to seize Ukrainian territory. Yesterday, 141 countries voted in the General Assembly for a resolution that reaffirms the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, denounces Russia’s atrocities, expresses support for a just and comprehensive peace, in accordance with the United Nations Charter.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When President Putin tried to weaponize hunger – exploiting the worst global food crisis since the creation of the UN – the international community responded swiftly.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Since the United States chaired a Food Security meeting last May, more than 100 countries have signed onto a set of concrete commitments to alleviate hunger. Thanks in large part to the Secretary-General Guterres and Türkiye, the Black Sea Grain Initiative loosened Russia’s stranglehold on Ukraine’s ports and brought down the cost of grain for the world. Now, as Moscow again tries to throttle its output, we have to ensure that that initiative is extended and expanded.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When President Putin tried to weaponize energy, we redirected natural gas supplies from across the world, so that countries Russia targeted could keep their people warm in the winter. And Europe took extraordinary steps to end its dependence on Russian energy.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No country has endured greater hardship from Russia’s war than Ukraine, but almost every country has felt the pain. And yet, nations around the world continue to stand with Ukraine. Because we all recognize that if we abandon Ukraine, we abandon the UN Charter itself, and the principles and rules that make all countries safer and more secure.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No seizing land by force.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No erasing another country’s borders.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No targeting civilians in war.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No wars of aggression.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">If we do not defend these basic principles, we invite a world in which might makes right, the strong dominate the weak. That’s the world this body was created to end. And members of this council have a unique responsibility to make sure that we do not return to it. We can do that in three ways.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">First, we must push for a just and durable peace.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Now I expect that many countries will call for peace today.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people. And the United States has long made clear – even before this war – that we’re prepared to engage in any meaningful diplomatic effort to stop Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">But history teaches us that it’s the nature of peace that matters.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">For peace to be just, it must uphold the principles at the heart of the UN Charter: sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">For peace to be durable, it must ensure that Russia can’t simply rest, rearm, and relaunch the war in a few months or a few years.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Any peace that legitimizes Russia’s seizure of land by force will weaken the charter and send a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they can invade countries and get away with it.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">President Zelenskyy has put forward a ten-point plan for a just and durable peace. President Putin, by contrast, has made clear that there is nothing to talk about until Ukraine accepts, and I quote, “the new territorial realities,” while doubling down on his brutal tactics.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Members of this council have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that any peace is just and durable.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Council members should not be fooled by calls for a temporary or unconditional ceasefire. Russia will use any pause in fighting to consolidate control over the territory it’s illegally seized and replenish its forces for further attacks. That’s what happened when Russia’s first assault on Ukraine froze in 2015. Look at what followed.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">And members of this council should not fall into the false equivalency of calling on both sides to stop fighting, or calling on other nations to stop supporting Ukraine in the name of peace.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No member of this council should call for peace while supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the UN Charter.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In this war, there is an aggressor and there is a victim.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Russia fights for conquest. Ukraine fights for its freedom.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">If Russia stops fighting and leaves Ukraine, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The fact remains: One man – Vladimir Putin – started this war; one man can end it.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Second, even as we work to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, members of this council must continue to address other challenges to international peace and security.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We hear the concerns of countries who worry that standing with Ukraine and holding Russia accountable is diverting focus and resources from others in need.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">To those countries, I would say, simply, look at our actions.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">And when you hear Russia and its defenders accuse the countries who support Ukraine of ignoring the rest of the world – I say look at Moscow’s actions.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Compare the numbers. In addition to the $13.5 billion in food aid that the United States contributed to fight hunger over the last year, we also fund more than 40 percent of the World Food Program’s budget. Russia contributes less than 1 percent of that budget.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">That’s not an outlier. Based on the latest UN figures, the United States donates over nine times as much as Russia to UN peacekeeping. We donate 390 times as much as Russia to UNICEF. We give nearly a thousand times as much as Russia to the UN Refugee Agency.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Third, we must reaffirm our commitment to upholding what the UN Charter calls, and I quote, “the dignity and worth of the human person.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We must continue to compile evidence of Russia’s ongoing and widespread atrocities, including executions; torture; rape and sexual violence; the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We must continue to document Russia’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, and share this evidence with investigators and prosecutors, so that one day, the perpetrators can be held accountable.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Day after day of Russia’s atrocities, it’s easy to become numb to the horror, to lose our ability to feel shock and outrage. But we can never let the crimes Russia is committing become our new normal.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Bucha is not normal. Mariupol is not normal. Irpin is not normal. Bombing schools and hospitals and apartment buildings to rubble is not normal. Stealing Ukrainian children from their families and giving them to people in Russia is not normal.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We must not let President Putin’s callous indifference to human life become our own.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We must force ourselves to remember that behind every atrocity in this wretched war, in conflicts around the world, is a human being.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I recently visited an exhibit of artwork made by Ukrainian children affected by the war.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">One painting I saw was made by a ten-year-old girl named Veronika. Last April, Russian forces shelled her home in Vuhledar, killing her whole family. When first responders dug her from the rubble, a piece of shrapnel was lodged in her skull. Her left thumb had been ripped off. Doctors saved her life, but the attack left her right hand mostly paralyzed, and she can’t see out of her left eye.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In her painting, Veronika drew herself in a bright pink and orange dress, holding a bouquet of flowers. A building stands next to her. When asked who lived there, she said it was a place where all the people she knew who had been killed in the war could be safe.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">“We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…” That’s how the UN Charter begins.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Fellow members of this council: Now is the time to meet that promise. There are so many people in Ukraine who want the same thing as that little girl, Veronika: a world where they can live in peace, in their own country, and keep the people they love safe.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We have the power, we have the responsibility to create that world, today and for generations to come. We cannot – we will not – let one country destroy it.</span></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p></blockquote><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.25px; line-height: 28px; margin: 18px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-35025757295838959032023-02-25T09:12:00.001-08:002023-02-25T09:12:31.579-08:00Changing the conversation so people can disagree without feeling obliged to hate each other<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmvVDf5xZdI9W5OGlu6-M2vV5dN8qBiGVwUKCphQ-0aZrVgBdF88LxLG3e7QSuMgtYttfDc2eGJlsmOUAZ4RNfTktuYQIbcofQrIq0RmQq7D3HYS6KFJPbx-46Lj_Fp4Sb8iWNrJzHPYoJXqJuIqz0Nm4SC5EQguK1pIj34f7PvTVXMlvuSw/s2550/3P%20Book%20Cover%20final%2006.20.22.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmvVDf5xZdI9W5OGlu6-M2vV5dN8qBiGVwUKCphQ-0aZrVgBdF88LxLG3e7QSuMgtYttfDc2eGJlsmOUAZ4RNfTktuYQIbcofQrIq0RmQq7D3HYS6KFJPbx-46Lj_Fp4Sb8iWNrJzHPYoJXqJuIqz0Nm4SC5EQguK1pIj34f7PvTVXMlvuSw/s320/3P%20Book%20Cover%20final%2006.20.22.png" width="207" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Three years ago, I posted this to Facebook:</span><p></p><p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Are you in a reading group?</span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Do you wish you had a book about talking to ideological opponents without feeling obliged to agree? </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Consider 3Practices for Crossing the Difference Divide. </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/3-Practices-Crossing-Difference-Divide/dp/1712206427/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3A4RA8VF3GAD6&keywords=3practices+for+crossing+the+difference+divide&qid=1677344798&sprefix=3pract%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Visit Amazon for details</a> (click on the Kindle edition to read an excerpt).</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Get in touch with me directly, and I’ll get a special price for your group.</span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, three years on, <span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">there’s an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/3-Practices-Crossing-Difference-Divide/dp/1712206427/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3A4RA8VF3GAD6&keywords=3practices+for+crossing+the+difference+divide&qid=1677344798&sprefix=3pract%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1" target="_blank">updated edition of <i>3Practices for Crossing the Difference Divide</i></a>, celebrating what we’ve learned alongside 150 3Practice Circle Referees in hundreds of open Circles, and hundreds more private Circles in organizations and institutions from The Salvation Army to the Office of the President of the University of California.</span></span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Together, we’re changing the conversation so people can disagree without feeling obliged to hate each other.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">This little book is </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">about that.</span></span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">[<a href="https://3practices.com" target="_blank">3Practice Circle Referee training</a> cohorts show folks how to do that in the communities, organizations, and institutions they care about.</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">]</span></p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"></span>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-74501367822379023692022-11-24T08:52:00.000-08:002022-11-24T08:52:32.773-08:00Thanksgiving Day, 1864<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmFlhSXKby_84VFEFiFatk04KdhMWUSN_56ryZ5U3yN3kzRnnoWpnrpgtbfm4sySOmoDhP9XItklZ8k6qbxU8R6j9nN0IYv8jNiqNtA8Et1U99PzeFJp1CoGCnVJrMWhOgkUiVvkh4F-PUfHwj1gbqfE3fLuQjqyXhEdXB2rRspqVyrRN2g/s1384/A87D26B2-271E-40DE-9932-1D66398A83FE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmFlhSXKby_84VFEFiFatk04KdhMWUSN_56ryZ5U3yN3kzRnnoWpnrpgtbfm4sySOmoDhP9XItklZ8k6qbxU8R6j9nN0IYv8jNiqNtA8Et1U99PzeFJp1CoGCnVJrMWhOgkUiVvkh4F-PUfHwj1gbqfE3fLuQjqyXhEdXB2rRspqVyrRN2g/s320/A87D26B2-271E-40DE-9932-1D66398A83FE.jpeg" width="250" /></a></div><br />Thanksgiving Day, 1864</span><p></p><div class="field-docs-content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5rem 0px 2rem;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"></p><center style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">By the President of the United States of America</em><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">A Proclamation</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></center><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"></p><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">By the President:</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">WILLIAM H. SEWARD,</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Secretary of State</em> .</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"></p></div><div class="field-prez-document-citation" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; border-top-color: rgb(67, 180, 224); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 2rem 0px; padding-top: 10px; width: 664px;"><p class="ucsbapp_citation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation 118—Thanksgiving Day, 1864 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/202432</p></div>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-22408845260256450222022-11-07T23:00:00.001-08:002022-11-07T23:30:24.913-08:00voting is one crap I do not care to give<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHDT8WPHWq2qpp5zXeZLuId0h937Gy6ZdKsHSU-wNSjOlXabI-LPN6tgzTO4Vwz7Jf4gY0oVD39R7kbiJS0twD6pz9YIt-ZyfSwvYgatGdqLBdJxMBYqfUW2SWdi6wl7ykcDMJRLRdosLsxIMmRkSFo8pb2P3O-3HebBtoCkootlhzKEnByg/s245/great-expectations.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="245" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHDT8WPHWq2qpp5zXeZLuId0h937Gy6ZdKsHSU-wNSjOlXabI-LPN6tgzTO4Vwz7Jf4gY0oVD39R7kbiJS0twD6pz9YIt-ZyfSwvYgatGdqLBdJxMBYqfUW2SWdi6wl7ykcDMJRLRdosLsxIMmRkSFo8pb2P3O-3HebBtoCkootlhzKEnByg/s1600/great-expectations.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span> few years back — long past the time anything could be done about that year's elections — someone I prize a great deal wisecracked, "I don’t vote, so I don't give a crap."</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" />
<span face=""arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Without much thought, but I hope not too ungenerously, I cracked back: "Should that be, 'I don't give a crap, so I don’t vote?'"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /></span><span face=""arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">I</span> get it that some people don't believe their vote can make a difference in the kind of world (or neighborhoods) where we live, raise children, and hope for the best. But I'm still surprised when someone young, or a parent, or a would-be parent, or a teacher, or a youth worker, or anyone else who cares about the young, don't force their way to the front of the voting line — just in case it should turn out they're wrong about voting ... just in case it should turn out their vote is the one that tips an important race one way or the other.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span face=""arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span face=""arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Is it too late to vote today?</span></div>
Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-76140092268664101222022-11-03T11:35:00.011-07:002022-12-31T09:47:42.440-08:00Closing Arguments For + Against Democracy in America<h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoQSwsa14jS1nZrVWOcClEDZBLxC2nKB2gOwJX1O8Db-SRVb5Xs-2LawclKFk450s1S6yd8IrHoclLOBjWJPAoHBdAxNGI2l4AjCf7HZxNBg9yfOskgEIkdElA4RK71qD3R7Hm0t8gtln3TDtePqni3H0W1Ty1B2cgsvrMuKsQL1PA6UkrFw/s960/I%20want%20you%20to%20save%20democracy.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="712" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoQSwsa14jS1nZrVWOcClEDZBLxC2nKB2gOwJX1O8Db-SRVb5Xs-2LawclKFk450s1S6yd8IrHoclLOBjWJPAoHBdAxNGI2l4AjCf7HZxNBg9yfOskgEIkdElA4RK71qD3R7Hm0t8gtln3TDtePqni3H0W1Ty1B2cgsvrMuKsQL1PA6UkrFw/s320/I%20want%20you%20to%20save%20democracy.jpeg" width="237" /></a></div></span><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p></p></h4>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he closing argument in political campaigns used to go something like, “Elect me and I will work every day to deserve your vote.”</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of course, that’s still the political argument of candidates who are committed to a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people — core principles of the old Republican Party when it was founded in the 1850s.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But, this year, a candidate in Wisconsin told supporters that "Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I'm elected governor." Is there a way to keep that promise without overriding democratic processes for voter registration, casting votes, accurately counting votes, and legally certifying the outcome to the vote? Or was he just bullshitting?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He’s not the only one. Following in the footsteps of a former President of the United States who, before the votes were cast and counted, contested the results in the election, six Republican candidates for governor or the US Senate in battleground states would not commit to abiding by next week’s election results … five more ignored or declined to answer the question.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When people show you who they are, believe them, Maya Angelou advised.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I </span>can think of fewer than five Republicans in, or running for the next US Senate — and no Republicans in or running for the next US House of Representatives — who haven’t already shown us that they are unwilling or unable to mount a robust defense of democracy against the prevailing power of the new Republican Party — the MAGA Republicans who look an awful lot like the old Democratic Party when it tried to unravel the Declaration of independence and the Constitution in the 19th century.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Since then, the parties have traded places and they have shown us who they are. The values that drove the old Democratic Party are the values that drive the new Republican Party: government of the few, by the few, and for the few.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>oday, Democrats mean to deepen and broaden conscientious liberty and equal protection of the law for every citizen. That’s governance in the service of equality. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Republicans, based on legislative action the last two years mean to decrease liberty and impose or reimpose restrictions on the protection of citizens whom they do not regard as equal. That’s governance in the service of hierarchy.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The US Constitution and Declaration of Independence leave no doubt about the American preference for a genuinely representative democracy over any sort of autocratic monarchy or oligarchy. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In this political moment, Republicans have shown us that they cannot be trusted to serve the ends of American democracy and I am persuaded that a red vote in 2022 is a vote against America’s core values.</p>
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<p style="color: #dca10d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/the-2020-and-2024-presidential-votes-loom-large-in-wisconsins-2022-election-for-governor/">https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/the-2020-and-2024-presidential-votes-loom-large-in-wisconsins-2022-election-for-governor/</a></p>
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<p style="color: #dca10d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://electionlawblog.org/?p=131983">https://electionlawblog.org/?p=131983</a></p>
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<p style="color: #dca10d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/when-people-show-you-who-they-are-believe-them-video">https://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/when-people-show-you-who-they-are-believe-them-video</a></p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6972659.post-87015032083671346162022-10-31T13:04:00.002-07:002023-10-31T08:54:06.540-07:00What is *The Point* of American Democracy?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZkk50CklFz7EMkHYuO3P50GL57T7MMfXCuG7HeCrD7epfui3vGkhcot8_LFFWX5CoVu1TzzT8EvphCkjW20HBG8xXlvBkda7CNS1j3SaXYMyPs3FzFb4yMYBp76H2eUAHk5WBD8B4x2nxgm_qL-_DiKPd_F_LFaWAtaQ-5kyJw2Wb9Q38_A/s960/I%20want%20you%20to%20save%20democracy.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZkk50CklFz7EMkHYuO3P50GL57T7MMfXCuG7HeCrD7epfui3vGkhcot8_LFFWX5CoVu1TzzT8EvphCkjW20HBG8xXlvBkda7CNS1j3SaXYMyPs3FzFb4yMYBp76H2eUAHk5WBD8B4x2nxgm_qL-_DiKPd_F_LFaWAtaQ-5kyJw2Wb9Q38_A/s960/I%20want%20you%20to%20save%20democracy.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjz1v1ugNmWDM53gu6CcjLtDQ7jnOIWScWcZTRx2ulyJhaYv692mXiyuxYEJNyL1ARQGcteD8rMkQSsbKKN0rWw1I8IZ_AjEBuRnoRayIombk3vwLlPd1XIhQoK5mQLNdJQl_7IyhvrHZXIHDlGYd8wVAH5gRKS8ifCN91pOFYcaseNiZH9aA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3428" data-original-width="3222" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjz1v1ugNmWDM53gu6CcjLtDQ7jnOIWScWcZTRx2ulyJhaYv692mXiyuxYEJNyL1ARQGcteD8rMkQSsbKKN0rWw1I8IZ_AjEBuRnoRayIombk3vwLlPd1XIhQoK5mQLNdJQl_7IyhvrHZXIHDlGYd8wVAH5gRKS8ifCN91pOFYcaseNiZH9aA=w301-h320" width="301" /></a></div></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">A</span> few weeks ago — when Donald Trump said that, should he be indicted for mishandling classified documents, there would be big problems ... that he doesn’t think Americans would stand for it — I said that, indeed, I *would* stand for it. I’m persuaded that, if evidence supports an indictment, Americans will not only stand for it but will *insist* on him having his day in court, like any American.<p></p><p>A friend responded saying that he felt “more concerned about how the current administration is dismantling and destroying this country on their own, and throwing ‘trumpian danger’ out there to distract people from it.” … a concern I told him I think is counterfactual. “I think President Biden is doing extraordinary work in extraordinary circumstances." I said, and "I’ll be happy to enumerate my reasons for that if you wish.” My friend said be his guest and then life happened for a while, as it does: deadlines … Covid … rebound Covid … catching up from Covid … business travel … and blah, blah, blah.… Now, finally, I’m ready to enumerate some of the reasons I think President Biden is doing good work. Whether it will satisfy my friend, I don’t know, but here it is….</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">M</span>y first reason for supporting Joe Biden is simply that I agree with his governing philosophy. He believes, and in this he concurs with the founders and framers, that there is *a point* to democratic governance. </p><p>That point, I think, is outlined in the 1776 Declaration of Independence ... explained in quite a bit of detail in the 1789 Constitution, which replaced the 1781 Articles of Confederation ... and refined in the 27 Amendments to the Constitution that began with a flurry of 10 Amendments in 1791.</p><p>Something all these legal concords have in common is a good faith attempt that splits the difference between anarchy and monarchy or oligarchy. </p><p>Democracy prevents everyone from doing whatever the hell they want to whomever they want (if they can get away with it). And democracy keeps one person or family or cabal or faction from doing whatever they want to whomever they want (if they can get away with it).</p><p>Democracy says to monarchs mobs and mafias: <i>You *can’t* get away with it. We declare ourselves mutually bound to ensure for each other a set of permanent rights that include the pursuit of life, liberty, and freedom from haplessness … and, by mutual consent, we form a new government built on those principles and organized and empowered to pursue safety and happiness for us all.</i></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Constitution and Amendments amplify and define the Declaration’s requirement that the government establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure liberty from each generation to the next … all in pursuit of a more perfect union.</p><p>President Biden’s philosophy of governance is shaped and guided by those principles and practices. So I’m already happier than I would be if he pursued authoritarianism on one hand or laissez-faire leadership on the other — neither of which has a good historical record of securing the blessings of liberty outlined in the paragraphs above.</p><p>In no particular order, I see evidence that President Biden:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Follows through on commitments to support liberty of conscience and secure equal protection of the law for every American</li><li>Advocates privacy in medical decisions, most famously in women's health care</li><li>Supports and works at generating cultural, educational, and economic opportunity for every American</li><li>Promotes individual, collective, and corporate responsibility under law</li><li>Prefers a politics of invitation, persuasion, inclusion and sharing credit</li><li>Generally resists the temptation to claim that opponents can't have good ideas</li><li>Is more inclined to compare apples to apples — where differences exist — rather than comparing apples to oranges</li><li>Frames economic wellbeing starting with people who work for wages … recognizing the thread that connects 1) job growth and increased wages for working people with, 2) the sustainable growth of corporations and capital with, 3) sales and property taxes that support local and state government-based services like education, healthcare, law enforcement and judicial services, infrastructure development and maintenance with, 4) federal taxes that support activities that must scale nationally in order to succeed: regional, interstate, and national infrastructure and resource management, interstate commerce, banking and contract law, postal services, law enforcement and judicial services, safe food, water and air standards and practices, healthcare standards and practices, worker safety standards and practices, international treaties, and national intelligence and defense. </li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Biden Administration is less than two years in office. So, lots more time to promote liberty, justice, and the general health, happiness, and fortunes of Americans. Meanwhile, in no particular order, here are a few early policies and laws that give me concrete reasons to back President Biden…</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Expanding the pool of Americans who can access high quality, reasonably priced healthcare services, and driving the law that enables bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals to control costs and cap the price of life-saving drugs to some of America’s most vulnerable citizens</li><li>The overall proactive and sustained response to COVID-19, starting with effective vaccine distribution and continuing by collaborating with the legislative branch on devising and funding a remarkable economic recovery via the American Rescue Plan</li><li>The landmark reduction in child poverty accomplished through the American Rescue Plan … and calls on Congress to renew funding to make elevating early childhood development a sustainable national priority</li><li>The Executive Order on Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices on May 05, 2022</li><li>Action on national and global tax policy and enforcement to close loopholes for wealthy corporate and individual free riders, and beginning the 10-year project of properly restaffing the IRS to provide necessary services</li><li>Promoting and signing into law the first meaningful, common sense gun safety measures since the 90s</li><li>Promoting and signing into law the first meaningful, common sense environmental protection measures since the 70s</li><li>Ending and reversing federal sentences on marijuana convictions for simple possession and encouraging US states to follow suit</li><li>Reestablishing clear and consistent diplomatic links with both allies and adversaries for a rules-based international order </li><li>Redefining international conflict and coalition-building by leading the international response to Russian aggression against Ukraine [See, for example, David Rothkopf on the work accomplished *before* the Russian invasion of Ukraine that set the stage for the international direct actions to frustrate Vladimir Putin’s aggression without going to war against Russia: https://www.thedailybeast.com/secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-on-russia-ukraine-and-natos-rebirth?ref=scroll]</li><li>A clear call to preserve and extend democracy, liberty, and equal protection under law at a global scale</li><li>Restoring professional competence and accountability standards in cabinet-level departments across the government — especially, in my view, Justice and State</li><li>Declining to claim ongoing, blanket executive privilege for former presidents </li><li>Staying out of the work of the January 6 Congressional Committee and the Department of Justice</li><li>Reemphasizing and taking action to revitalize the quality of US jobs across the real economy, and especially in research & development, high tech, chip manufacturing, energy, automotive, and durable goods manufacturing jobs geared for the future</li><li>Working to reduce the trade deficit (beyond the baked-in reductions that occurred as Covid supports wound down for businesses and citizens)</li><li>Believing and then proving that the federal government can work for the benefit of the American people</li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">C</span>ircling back to the beginning, I suppose my answer could have begun with then *President-Elect* Biden’s remarks, on January 6, 2021, responding to the assault on the US Capitol. What Joe Biden said that afternoon — a few hours before the vote count of his election to the presidency was belatedly confirmed by the US Congress in joint session — strikes me as the right words, spoken in the right tone, at a time when it looked as if the sitting president might not say anything at all. In my opinion, Mr. Trump’s statement, released a little later that afternoon via Twitter, did not rise to the same heights. Here’s a link to Joe Biden’s message that day: https://www.c-span.org/video/?507742-1/president-elect-biden-at-hour-democracy-unprecedented-assault</p><p>What we’ve learned since January 6, 2021 — through sworn testimony, mostly by Republicans, before the Congressional Committee investigating the events on and leading up to January 6, and through court findings of fact regarding the likely commission of crimes to illegally obstruct official government proceedings and conspiracy to defraud the United States — amplifies those differences. See, for example, https://january6th.house.gov/news/watch-live and https://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Dkt.%20372%2C%20Order%20Re%20Privilege%20of%20Remaining%20Documents.pdf</p><p>Do I think Joe Biden’s first 20 months in office were perfect? Of course not. </p><p>Do I agree that the facts support my friend’s concern that, "the current administration is dismantling and destroying this country on their own, and throwing ‘trumpian danger’ out there to distract people from it”? On the facts, I do not.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his is a big deal to me in the midterm elections next week. </p><p>The governing philosophy that underlies the Biden Administration promotes *equality.* On the other side, since MAGA Republicans’ control of the party is so overwhelming at present, no convincing resistance can be made from within the party to stop them doing whatever they want to whomever they want (if Democrats and Independents don’t stop them). In that light, I don’t think it’s too much to say that, practically speaking, a vote for a Republican in 2022 is a vote for hierarchy over equality. Just the sort of thing the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were meant to end.</p><p>To be fair, there was time when the governing philosophy and practices of Democrats and Republicans were reversed — in the lead-up to the American Civil War, Republicans promoted equality and Democrats defended hierarchy. Not anymore.</p><p>The Boston College political historian, Heather Cox Richardson, helpfully notes that, "In reality, the parties have switched sides since the 1850s." Don’t be misguided by people trying to muddy the water. She continues: "Rather than focusing on party names, it makes more sense to follow two opposed strands of thought, equality and hierarchy, as the constants." See https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-29-2022</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">O</span>n balance, I’m persuaded that Joe Biden’s philosophy of governing based on equality is quintessentially American, and that philosophies of governing based on hierarchy are not … they are foreign to the spirit of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence. </p><p>For the future, I like our chances with Democrats’ governing philosophy of equality <i>way</i> better than the governance by hierarchy philosophy on the other side.</p>Jim Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15459723439431806283noreply@blogger.com0