Who are we? What are we doing?

Thanks to my friend, Daniel Skepple in Canada, for reminding me of this, from Stephen Colbert.

I’d forgotten it ... it was in Episode 6161 of The Colbert Report. December 09 2010.

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, So Beautiful or So What.

Getting Ready for Christmas Day . Paul Simon . YouTube

Getting Ready For Christmas Day« see all songs

Lyrics:

From early in November to the last week of December
I got money matters weighing me down
Oh the music may be merry, but it’s only temporary
I know Santa Claus is coming to town

In the days I work my day job, in the nights I work my night
But it all comes down to working man’s pay
Getting ready, I’m getting ready, ready for Christmas Day

Reverend Gates:
Getting ready for Christmas Day.
And let me tell you, namely, the undertaker, he’s getting ready for your body
Not only that, the jailer he’s getting ready for you.
Christmas Day. Hmm? And not only the jailer, but the lawyer, the police force
Now getting ready for Christmas Day, and I want you to bear it in mind.

I got a nephew in Iraq it’s his third time back
But it’s ending up the way it began
With the luck of a beginner he’ll be eating turkey dinner
On some mountain top in Pakistan 

Getting ready, oh we’re getting ready
For the power and the glory and the story of the
Christmas Day

Reverend Gates:
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.

Getting ready oh we’re getting ready
For the power and the glory and the story of the
Christmas Day
Yes, we’re getting ready

Reverend Gates:
Getting ready, ready for your prayers, “I’m going and see my relatives in a distant land.”
Getting ready, getting ready for Christmas Day. 

If I could tell my Mom and Dad that the things we never had
Never mattered we were always okay
Getting ready, oh ready, ready for Christmas Day
Ready, getting ready
For the power and the glory and the story of the
Christmas Day

© 2010 Music by Paul Simon Words by Paul Simon and Rev. J. M. Gates

Who’s fighting human trafficking?

Wanna know who’s working effectively to end human trafficking?

I think it’s the International Justice Mission. 

Some people talk, and promote, and raise awareness; IJM does … 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.)

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.

Because Vladimir Putin, has stolen more than 20,000 Ukrainian children from their homes — probably many more — and moved them to Russia. 

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.

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. 

Because IJM, and Ukraine and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group of nations are doing the work to end human trafficking for good. 

International Justice Mission | End Modern Slavery for Good

Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova

Russia returns four Ukrainian children in Qatari deal

More Than 700,000 Ukrainian Children Taken To Russia Since Full-Scale War Started, Official Says

Tens of thousands of Ukraine’s children have been kidnapped — it’s time for action

Women Enter the Putin Regime’s Crosshairs

A Twisted Love Story: How American Evangelicals Helped Make Putin’s Russia and How Russia Became the Darling of the American Right

American Evangelicals Divide over Ukraine

Ukraine's Zelenskyy joins a meeting of global defense leaders to make a direct plea for military aid

Opinion | Joe Biden: The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas

Interpreting the Colorado court decision that seems to cut both against and for Donald Trump

Marcy Wheeler, on emptywheel, offers a useful and accessible summary and analysis of the November 17, 2023 Colorado District Court order by Judge Sarah Wallace. 

Dr. Wheeler finds a clear path through the Court's ruling that:

A. Donald Trump did engage in insurrection, and 

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. 

To that end, Judge Wallace writes:

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.

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.

To me, it doesn't seem like a close call

A year ago, heading into the 2022 US midterm elections, I posted:

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.

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.

Oh, man, has that aged well politically....

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.

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.

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.

To me, it doesn't seem like a close call.

who are the neo-nazis voting for?

Three years back, days ahead of the national elections in 2020, Ted Swartz reminded us of the company we keep.

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.

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.

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. (https://cdn.policyimpacts.org/cms/Welfare_Audits_ad1284984d.pdf)

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.

I did not see this coming, Mr. Speaker!

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:

“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.”

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1717718043525099743

This is super-handy to those among us who are somewhat familiar with the biblical texts!

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):

“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.

[z] Lit *with*

[aa] Lit *be*

[ab] Lit *lay upon*

Everything has changed! (Has it though?)

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.

We've been here before.

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Let us take it step by step. This is most interesting.

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.

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.

As this miracle of recovery unfolded, what was the attitude of the Republican Party?

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:

"American institutions and American civilization are in greater danger today than at any time since the foundation of the republic."

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.

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:

"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."

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.

In 1940, the Republicans tried to scare us again. This time their platform said:

"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."

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.

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."

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 . . ."

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.

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.

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.

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:

"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.

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.

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:

"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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!"

The Democratic Party is going right ahead to meet the needs and carry out the aspirations of the American people.

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.

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.  

— President Harry S. Truman . excerpt from the Address at the Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner . February 16, 1950 . https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/39/address-jefferson-jackson-day-dinner

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

Read it Yourself . National Security Emergency Funding Request

Here's the October 20, 2023 letter from US Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda D. Young to the US House of Representatives asking Congress for fiscal year 2024 emergency supplemental funding for key national security priorities.

This letter includes the breakout of specific dollar allocations and conditions for the disbursement of funds.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-regarding-critical-national-security-funding-needs-for-FY-2024.pdf

Four U.S. Objectives re Israel, Gaza, and the region

Official U.S. Policy Objectives re Israel, Gaza, and the region . 10.15.23 

"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 

[https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-12/?fbclid=IwAR0GpRADKv9EYfUby4xznK7tUlEgVdGkwhQG223i1rpBIRBtcdKgPprFwTA]

No difference between Red + Blue? Really?

“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.

Weird, huh?”

— former Republican representative from Illinois, Joe Walsh . 09..22.23 . h/t Heather Cox Richardson

https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1705258251636666568

10 Days Before a Needless Government Shutdown

Dear Speaker McCarthy, 

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"? 

Choose your own adventure.

Hey, what if we could do this to American Women?

It's as if some elected officials read about the Fugitive Slave laws of 1793 and 1850 and said, "Is there any reason we couldn't do that to women in 2023?"

It's as if some elected officials read the German Reich Citizens Law of September 15, 1935, and said, "Hey, why can't we decide that women are no longer protected citizens?"

It's as if some elected officials read The Handmaids Tale and said, 'Yeh, let's do that."

From Boston College political historian Heather Cox Richardson, 09.01.23:

"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.

And yet, here we are."