Category: Politics

everything to do with the execution of politics

Insurrection Update #15

A continuing series on the aftermath of the 06 January insurrection by Trump supporters.

First there has been actions taken on police officers that were part of the insurrection….

The US Capitol Police said Saturday it has recommended disciplinary action in six cases after an internal review of officer behavior stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility opened 38 internal investigations and was able to identify 26 of the officers involved, the police said in a statement. It said in 20 of the cases, no wrongdoing was found. However, the police said “violations were sustained and disciplinary action was recommended” for six of the cases — including three for “conduct unbecoming,” one for failure to comply with directions, one for “improper remarks” and one for “improper dissemination of information,” per the AP.

It was unclear in the statement whether a case was an individual officer or if an officer could be cited in more than one case. Names of the officers involved and details about the behavior or actions that led to the alleged violations were not made public. The statement also said the US attorney’s office did not find sufficient evidence that any of the officers committed a crime. More than 600 people face charges in the Jan. 6 attack, in which a mob loyal to then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, battled police and tried to stop the certification of the election victory for President Joe Biden. The statement said an internal review of one other case is pending of an official accused of “unsatisfactory performance and conduct unbecoming.” It said that internal investigation started after a criminal investigation, and no charges were filed.

Five people died in the Capitol attack and its aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by police. A police officer who battled the mob died later, and several officers later took their own lives. This week, the USCP provided the information to the Justice Department as part of its ongoing prosecution of those involved in the Jan. 6 attack. The police opened the internal investigation in February, and announced at the time it was suspending six officers with pay. Whether they were among those recommended for discipline was unclear in the statement. The department said the six cases “should not diminish the heroic efforts” of the Capitol Police on Jan. 6

Those that committed a wide array of crimes (allegedly) continue to whine about their ordeal…..this one is whining about his ankle bracelet….

A man accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 is asking a judge to remove his ankle monitor because it’s noisy, embarrassing, and interfering with his business. Gabriel Garcia, a former GOP candidate who oversees 14 employees at Supreme Aluminum Florida, a Miami-based business he founded in 2017, has made numerous requests to remove the ankle monitor and a 10pm-to-6am curfew since he was arrested Jan. 19 on charges of civil disorder, entering a restricted building, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, per the Washington Post and Business Insider.

A court removed only the curfew after Garcia said in May that he wanted to operate his business 24 hours a day to help pay for legal fees, per the Post. In a new filing, his lawyers say the ankle monitor “has randomly started beeping loudly around potential clients, immediately followed by an embarrassing phone call from pretrial services asking for his exact location.” They also claim the monitor is a safety hazard that catches on the rungs of ladders. “One time, he almost fell off the ladder” as a result, they add. Prosecutors filed a Wednesday motion to deny the request, which awaits a judge’s ruling, arguing there’s been no meaningful change to the circumstances that led to the original court order.

Prosecutors say Garcia filmed himself in a confrontation with Capitol Police officers inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6. “We just went ahead and stormed the Capitol. It’s about to get ugly,” he allegedly said in a live video shared on Facebook. He also allegedly urged members of the crowd to storm a line of officers who were trying to block the mob from advancing and yelled “Free Enrique,” apparently referring to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who’d been arrested days previously. Prosecutors believe Garcia, a former US Army captain, is a member of the far-right Proud Boys group and say he participated in at least one other “hostile demonstration” in Washington, DC, before Jan. 6.

Poor little piglet!

Here is an idea for this slug…..maybe he would not have to indulge the courts if he had not decided to participate in the insurrection.

Just a thought.

The there is the guy that claims his signature was forged on his court documents….

A Capitol rioter who was sentenced to prison in July is now claiming, through his new attorney, that his signature was forged on a plea agreement.

Paul Hodgkins, a crane operator from Florida, is attempting to take back his guilty plea, arguing that his previous attorney — Patrick LeDuc — bullied him into accepting it.

During a hearing Wednesday, Hodgkins’ new attorney — Carolyn Stewart — claimed a handwriting expert will testify that someone forged her client’s signature on the plea agreement. Hodgkins says he “can’t remember what he signed and wouldn’t have signed this version,” according to reports.

https://www.rawstory.com/paul-hodgkins-guilty-plea/

It is far from over….the actions of 06 January were just the opening salvo of the coup attempt…..

The New York Times, conservative National Review writer Kevin Williamson outlined how Republicans are still trying to execute former President Donald Trump’s coup attempt — and how the Capitol attack on January 6 was only the beginning of the effort.

“As the Republican Party tries to make up its mind between wishing away the events of Jan. 6 or celebrating them, one thing should be clear to conservatives estranged from the party: We can’t go home again,” wrote Williamson. “The attempted coup’s foot soldiers have dug themselves in at state legislatures. For example, last week in Florida State Representative Anthony Sabatini introduced a draft of legislation that would require an audit of the 2020 general election in the state’s largest (typically Democratic-heavy) counties, suggesting without basis that it may show that these areas cheated to inflate Joe Biden’s vote count.”

Meanwhile, noted Williamson, there has been a heavy effort from the GOP to downplay or even valorize the Capitol riot itself.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-capitol-riot-2654971440/

This saga continues and the insurrection is still at a boiling point.

Watch this Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Coming Insurrection (Part Two) Was A Dud

Yesterday the predicted next assault on the Capitol was at best a dud.

Some predictions were there would be thousands of protesters showing up and instead they got hundreds…..

Demonstrators who met in Washington on Saturday to decry the jailing of compatriots in the attack on the Capitol received a far different reception than the rioters did in January. The building was empty this time. The crowd could see the Capitol but was unable to get near it this time; the grounds were surrounded by fencing and heavy dump trucks. There were hundreds of police officers, who easily outnumbered the protesters, Reuters reports, and counterprotesters also were in town. There also may have been more journalists watching than “Justice for J6” rally participants, per the Hill.

The crowd didn’t top 200, well short of the 700 attendees organizers had predicted, but allied leaders had said that the event was a trap and that protesters would be arrested. The Proud Boys had told its members not to go, per the Washington Post. Other rumors warned that opposition activists would come dressed as supporters of former President Trump and disrupt the event. The rally included speakers who repeatedly told the crowd that the people arrested, jailed and charged in the January riot are “political prisoners.” Matt Braynard, the main organizer, said, “This is about justice and disparate treatment.” The protesters sporadically chanted: “Let them go, let them go.”

It was over by midafternoon. Police reported two arrests, both involving weapons violations, per the Post. There were a few confrontations, mostly shouting matches between protesters and counterprotesters, that police broke up. One demonstrator, Eugene Sibick, said his son is jailed in DC, facing charges in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Investigators say Thomas Sibick tore DC police officer Michael Fanone’s badge off him and stole his police radio, then buried the badge in his backyard. His father said that Sibick complains about the jail food and that his jailing is “a disgrace to this country.” He added: “There were things that happened last summer in Seattle and Portland that were more egregious than what happened here, and those people were let out.”

Not what the idiots had wanted.

Could those embers of insurrection becoming cold?

Is the Trump-ite alt-Right losing its luster?

Personally I do not think it is over yet…..just slowing the burn.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–15Sep21

For decades the GOP has had two idols….Reagan and Lincoln…..but all that has apparently changed. It appears the Abe Lincoln is losing some of his luster among those that pray at the altar of Trump….

With all the hoopla around the removal of statues that celebrate the Traitorous generals of the Confederacy it seems that some are now turning on Lincoln in retaliation for the removals….

This week, the statue of General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia — one of the largest standing monuments to the Confederacy — was taken down from Monument Avenue, a major victory for activists who have long sought to remove white supremacist symbols in the public square.

Republican Missouri state Rep. Tony Lovasco tweeted that people should be “fair and balanced” about “tearing down statues of reprehensible people” — and accompanied this with a picture of the Lincoln Memorial.

Lovasco did not clarify why he considered the father of the Republican Party — and the president widely credited with saving America from the Civil War and bringing about the end of slavery — to be “reprehensible,” but doubled down in a follow-up tweet, insisting he didn’t support the Confederacy either.

https://www.rawstory.com/robert-e-lee-statue/

Has some in the GOP driven so far up Trump’s ass that they will ignore the founder of the Republican Party?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Please, Return Sanity To Foreign Policy

The problem with our foreign policy is that the government is no longer in charge of directing the direction….

“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business,” Goldberg wrote, quoting Ledeen.

Those like Ledeen, the neoconservative intellectual henchman type, often get away with this kind of provocative rhetoric for various reasons. American intelligentsias, especially those who are close to the center of power in Washington DC, perceive war and military intervention as the foundation and baseline of their foreign policy analysis. The utterances of such statements are usually conveyed within friendly media and intellectual platforms, where equally hawkish, belligerent audiences cheer and laugh at the war-mongering muses. In the case of Ledeen, the receptive audience was the hardline, neoconservative, pro-Israel American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Predictably, AEI was one of the loudest voices urging for a war and invasion of Iraq prior to that calamitous decision by the George W. Bush Administration, which was enacted in March 2003.

US Foreign Policy Adrift: Why Washington is No Longer Calling the Shots

For too long the US has pursued a policy on the international stage of intervention….diplomacy has taken a back seat to the use of force thanks to the influence of the war industry on our foreign policy…..time for that to change….time to return to the days where diplomacy was the first reaction and not the use of extreme force.

The group Win Without War has some fine points that would go about returning sanity to our foreign policy….

. Our foreign policy is intimately interlinked with our domestic policy, so we must apply our shared values to the United States’ engagement abroad just as we do at home. The militarization of our foreign policy is intertwined with the militarization of our own society, whether in policing, incarceration and deportation, mass surveillance, or the rise of hateful ideologies like anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and racism. At home and abroad, we must commit to advance policies of liberation and work to dismantle policies that subjugate Black, brown, and other disenfranchised communities. Our foreign policy must fulfill the same values of human rights, justice, and self-determination we seek at home by reinforcing intersectional grassroots movements to win real change.

People in the United States have the right to personal safety – as do peoples all around the globe. Endless wars, the empowerment of autocrats and human rights abusers, and the pursuit of the interests of the few at the expense of the many will not keep us safe. The United States’ safety depends on building security for all people around the world, not simply on the might of our military. Only by helping to make others secure will we ourselves become more secure.

. For too long we have applied the use of military force to a variety of security challenges that do not have military solutions, with disastrous results. Most security challenges do not have a military solution, nor does every security challenge present an existential threat to the United States. We believe that the U.S. must reorient its national security framework to be based on conflict prevention, locally-led development, democratic governance reform, accountability, and peacebuilding, and avoid policies that foment more conflict.

Principles of a Progressive Foreign Policy for the United States

I find their approach is something I can support…..and in 2024 I will be looking for a candidate that embraces a more sane foreign policy.

It maybe is just wishful thinking for as long as money and donations drive the politics in this country I will once again not vote for a winner.

But once again I can say that while I voted for a loser I have not compromised my principles that I have held for 50 years.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–14Sep21

Now that the US has pulled out of Afghanistan…there should be funds that will not be needed to prolong that war any further ….if you thought that then you would be mistaken…..

House Armed Services Committee voted to increase President Biden’s military budget for 2022 by almost $24 billion.

The effort was led by Republicans who don’t think Biden’s $753 billion request is enough to face China and Russia. The panel passed the $23.9 billion increase in a vote of 42 to 17, with 14 Democrats voting in favor.

In July, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a similar increase of $25 billion that also had bipartisan support. The budget will ultimately be decided by appropriations bills, but the fact that both House and Senate panels passed such measures means the increase has a good chance of passing.

Biden’s $753 billion budget request breaks down into two categories: $715 billion for the Pentagon and $38 billion for military-related spending for other agencies, such as the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons programs. The panel’s increase would apply to the Pentagon’s share, bringing its total budget to about $740 billion and overall military spending to a whopping $778 billion.

(antiwar.com)

Regardless the defense industry will get their pound of taxpayer flesh….

A look at how this worked in Afghanistan….

Weapons firms and defense contractors consume over half of the Pentagon’s $740 billion budget and the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan poses a threat for their share-holders and executives. 

That concern was laid bare in a new investigative report by In These Times’ Sarah Lazare on CACI International, a Pentagon contractor currently two years into a five-year $907 million contract to provide “intelligence operations and analytics support” for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. CACI’s CEO warned investors in an August 12 earnings call, “we have about a 2 percent headwind coming into FY 2022 because of Afghanistan,” referring to a negative impact on profits from the withdrawal.

Lazare points out that CACI is a corporate sponsor of the Institute for Study of War, a hawkish think tank whose experts argued in an August 20 paper that “Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey are weighing how to take advantage of the United States’ hurried withdrawal.” ISW’s board chair, Jack Keane, a former General Dynamics board member and current chairman of Humvee manufacturer AM General, has been making the rounds of Fox News shows, blasting the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

ISW has not disclosed the financial conflict of interest between its criticisms of Biden’s withdrawal and its corporate sponsor’s financial ties to the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan.  Fox News does not disclose Keane’s role as chairman of a Pentagon contractor or ISW’s funding from defense contractors including CACI and General Dynamics.

How the defense industry helped prolong the war in Afghanistan

As Yogi once said…”It ain’t over ’til it’s over”

New enemies will magical appear and the funds will follow the BS.

We cannot depend on Dems for sanity in defense spending for they are owned as much as the GOP by defense industry….

By a 42-17 vote on Wednesday, 14 Democrats joined with Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to add nearly $25 billion to the 2022 defense budget, Politico’s Connor O’Brien reported. That brings the total in Pentagon spending to $740 billion, up from the $715 billion that had been requested by the White House.

For 20 years this country pissed away trillions on war….

Brown University’s Costs of War Project released a new report Monday detailing post-9/11 spending by the Pentagon. The study found that of the over $14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since the start of the war in Afghanistan, one-third to one-half went to private military contractors.

The report, authored by William Hartung of the Center for International Policy, said $4.4 trillion of the total spending went towards weapons procurement and research and development, a category that directly benefits corporate military contractors. Private contractors are also paid through other funds, like operations and maintenance, but those numbers are harder to determine.

Out of the $4.4 trillion, the top five US weapons makers — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman — received $2.2 trillion, almost half. To put these huge numbers into perspective, the report pointed out that in the 2020 fiscal year, Lockheed Martin received $75 billion in Pentagon contracts, compared to the combined $44 billion budget for the State Department and USAID that same year.

Pentagon Paid the Arms Industry at Least $4.4 Trillion Since 9/11

They, Dems, can cooperate with the GOP on war but not on the needs of the people of this country.

Can you now see why I have no use for Dems….they are worthless and gutless.

I still hold that we need new thinking in our foreign policy apparatus.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Time For The US To Reassess

It is the 21st century and the US needs to reassess so many policies that have been in effect for over a century…..we need to reassess so many issues and so little time.

But for this post I will be talking about one of our allies….an ally that pays dearly for political control of the government and the media, the two sectors that control our thinking…..

This time it is Israel……

Israeli has issued a threat to the world….

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday said Israel “reserves the right” to act against Iran to stop it from obtaining nuclear weapons if the rest of the world doesn’t take action.

“The world needs to stop Iran from getting a nuclear capability, no matter the price. If the world doesn’t do it, Israel reserves the right to act,” Lapid said in Moscow while meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Israel is constantly claiming that Iran is racing to develop a nuclear bomb when that is not the case. Iran’s current nuclear activity includes enriching uranium at 60 percent, the highest level Iran has ever attempted. But this is still well below the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade uranium, and it is only being done in response to Israeli covert attacks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Like other Israeli officials, Lapid pretends Israel doesn’t have nuclear weapons and claimed if Iran obtains a nuclear bomb, it would “lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.”

(antiwar.com)

Who do these little piss ant holy rollers think they are?

And why would the US who many thinks is the most powerful country on the planet take these threats seriously?

Then they issue a warning to the US….

This time Israel was cautioned the US over criticisms…..

According to a report from The Times of Israel, Israeli officials have cautioned their counterparts in the Biden administration against heavily criticizing Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Israeli concern is that if the US puts too much pressure on the Arab nations, they will become more friendly with Tehran.

An Israeli source told the Times that while Israel is mainly concerned with the Arab nations forming friendly ties with Iran, they also fear US pressure could make them more reliant on Russia and China.

While Israel has had diplomatic ties with Egypt for decades and doesn’t have formal relations with Saudi Arabia, a major aspect of the recent US push for normalization between Israel and Arab states was to isolate Iran. Trump administration officials frequently cited Iran as a reason to broker the Abraham Accords, which normalized ties between Israel and several countries, including the UAE and Bahrain.

(antiwar.com)

Seriously?

We have been cautioned?

To that I say ‘bite me’….who is Israel to caution anyone?

Time for us to reassess our relationship with Israel….

In April 1996, Israeli artillery shells rained down on a United Nations compound where hundreds of civilians were taking refuge. As the shells exploded and the building collapsed, 106 civilians died and another 116 were injured.

The attack, now known as the Qana Massacre, was part of a larger Israeli offensive known as Operation Grapes of Wrath, a 16-day campaign of aggression in southern Lebanon.

The United Nations investigated the Qana Massacre and determined the Israeli shelling was deliberate. Then-UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghani condemned the attack, writing it was “all the more serious because civilians, including women and children, had sought refuge” in the compound the Israelis destroyed.

The commander of the unit that launched the assault was a man named Naftali Bennett, who’d go on to boast, “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.”

Bennett, of course, is now Israel’s prime minister. And on August 25, he arrived for a visit at the White House.

It’s Time To Reassess Our Relationship With Israel

This bloodthirsty lot does not deserve and quarter until they start acting like a responsible member of the world society….this ‘David vs Goliath’ bullshit is archaic and does NOT deserve any support from any nation.

But sadly the cash that flows into politician’s wallets will determine the outcome of this proposal……allowing Israel to be held to a lower standard than other countries the US criticizes…..

Their cash buys a lot of ‘looking the other way’….and their media friends do all possible to make Israel look like a victim….

I have been calling for this reassessment since the murderous attack by Israel on a US unarmed ship, USS Liberty, an attack that killed 34 American sailors and injured 171….and Israel has NEVER been held accountability for this cowardly attack…..they are murderers.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Ivermectin Makes You Sterile

Closing Thought–13Sep21

These days the idiot Right is fixated on a horse de-wormer as a ‘cure/vaccine’ for the Covid virus…..it is getting so toxic that QAnon is screaming and threatening people to use the animal drug Ivermectin as a treatmenr for Covid…..

Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory recently launched a protest to demand an ill COVID patient be treated with the controversial livestock drug, Ivermectin.

According to The Chicago Sun Times, QAnon backers targeted the Amita Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago as a small group of conspiracy theorists flooded the medical facility with phone calls while others held an in-person protest.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/angry-group-of-qanon-believers-demand-patient-be-treated-with-livestock/

One of the headlines I read over the weekend was basically the title of this post…Ivermectin makes men sterile….

A study published in 2011 and widely circulated in September 2021 found that 85% of men treated with ivermectin for a tropical disease known as river blindness were found to be sterile.

Does Ivermectin Cause Sterility in Men?

Would make a good meme for social media but the FDA put the brakes on this ‘conspiracy’….

  • The FDA does not list male sterility as one of the side effects of taking ivermectin. 
  • Scientific studies typically undergo a rigorous peer-review process that assesses the methods and results of a study to ensure that it meets a certain standard of scientific quality. 
  • Ivermectin has not been approved as a treatment against COVID-19.
See the sources for this fact-check
 
I constantly ask just what does someone gain by pushing slimy and dodgey ‘cure’ for Covid?
 
Proponents of ivermectin as a treatment for covid are now in damage-control mode after a series of stories about people overdosing on horse paste and sheep drench from feed stores.

Such luminaries as Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Brett Weinstein and United States Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) stoked demand for the dewormer, only to have the craze blow up in the faces when the ginned-up demand outstripped the pharmaceutical supply and people started self-medicating with horse paste.

The zeal of the ivermectin prophets was self-defeating. The whole point of being an Ivermectin Guy is that you can indulge in antivaxx conspiracy theories while sounding smarter than the Microchip Guys. That’s why they get so mad when you call it “horse paste.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/ivermectin-conspiracy-theories/

I still cannot understand why someone to would take the word of a babbling radio personality over the advice of experts in the field of infectious diseases….instead they listen to the advice of those that are experts in stupid.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What To Expect From Centrists

I have made my thoughts known about what I think of so-called “centrists”……not a big fan of the term…but for those that missed my past posts…..

https://lobotero.com/2014/07/29/centrists-the-bane-of-politics/
 
As an example I will use the civil rights fight John Clyburn (this will get me into trouble for attacking an icon like him)….this is about bowing to cash in opposition to progress……
James Clyburn is a Dixiecrat on almost every issue except segregation, and even then he repeatedly chided the Civil Rights Movement for “going too far.” His pivotal endorsement of Obama said more about Obama’s real political character than Clyburn’s. But say this for the Dixiecrats of old, they based their politics largely on conviction, debased convictions to be sure. Clyburn follows the money (He’s pocketed more than $1 million from the health “care” lobby alone). He is one of the premier transactional politicians of our time, a contract killer hired to protect the agenda of corporate America.
 
(Jeffery St. Clair)
He is an example and by NO MEANS a solitary figure….this is how progress comes to a halt….bowing to cash and lobbyist.
 
Cash buys even civil rights icons….so how can we get anything done in the nation?
 
When will this era of buying government come to an end?
 
To answer my own question….since I am an old fart….not in my lifetime….greed is more powerful than  allegiance to country and its people.
 
This has to end.
 
We need dedicated representatives….not toadies standing in the payday line at lobbying firms.
 
But that is a pipe dream as long as dark money is throwing in the direction of our politicians….federal funding is the answer.
 Corporation can give all they desire but t would go into a fund and not in the pockets of individuals….
 
Money has given rise to the idiocy of today…..and only the loss of that cash will stop the spread of the political cancer we are suffering with now.

A complaint filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission accuses 18 super PACs—which dumped over $200 million into races from 2017 to 2020—of deliberately misleading voters by concealing their connections to the major party political action committees that financed them.

“Voters have a right to know when big money is flowing into their elections from D.C.-based groups hiding their agendas and funding behind fake names,” said Adav Noti, senior director of trial litigation and chief of staff at Campaign Legal Center (CLC) Action, and former associate general counsel of the FEC, in a statement.

“The vast scope of this illegal concealment should prompt swift investigation and a firm crackdown by the FEC,” he added.

 
Even Progressives are not at all pleased with the antics of these Centrists….

House Democrats from both sides of the political spectrum are finding it hard to contain their annoyance at their 10 colleagues threatening to topple President Joe Biden’s entire agenda — for no real reason. 

The centrist group claims that Americans can’t wait a moment longer for the hard infrastructure upgrades, and that the bipartisan bill shouldn’t be used as a “political football.” 

 
I have been told by friends that I may be a bit too hard on the Centrists (Moderates)….but his says I am not…..
With Democrats clinging to just an eight-seat majority in the House of Representatives, even a small number of defectors can hold up the party’s legislative agenda. That reality was on vivid display last week, when nine moderate Democrats threatened to vote no on moving forward with Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution unless the House first voted to pass the Senate’s bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package.
 
We need a government of the best people….not the best people money can buy….and Centrists are owned by the dollars from Lobbyists and corporations.
 
In this political climate in the US Centrists are holding Progress up because they are paid to do just that.
 
As my earlier posts prove just how pathetic these people are…..and how the nation needs reps with balls and not those that worship money.
 
Why are Dems so ineffectual?
 
Easy answer….
 
Image
 
It is just that easy to explain.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Going Public

Closing Thought–10Sep21

As the Right attempts to turn a protester shot during the violent attack on the symbols of this country….something I tried to explain …….https://lobotero.com/2021/08/18/right-searches-for-a-martyr/

Now the cop that shot this slag is going public to answer to all the crap spread by Right wing news….

Now that he has been officially cleared by the Capitol Police, the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot wants the public to hear his side of the story. The officer, who has been denounced by Trump supporters and the former president himself, will reveal his identity in an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt at 6pm Eastern on Thursday, reports CNBC. “The officer will share his perspective on the events of that day, including the aftermath of the deadly insurrection and the threats he has received,” NBC said. He will also discuss his exoneration by the Capitol force’s internal review.

The officer—who shot the 35-year-old Babbitt as she tried to climb through a broken part of a door to an area leading to the House chamber—was also cleared of wrongdoing by federal prosecutors. In a Fox interview last month, Trump described Babbitt as an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman.” He also described the events of Jan. 6, in which around 150 officers were injured, as “a lovefest between the Capitol Police and the people who walked down to the Capitol” and claimed to have heard that the officer was part of a high-ranking Democrat’s security detail, per Vox.

The officer’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, said Monday that exonerating the officer was “the only correct conclusion.” “The bravery shown by the Lieutenant in organizing and coordinating the defense of the House and its members and staff was nothing short of heroic,” Schamel said in a statement, per NBC. “The Lieutenant’s conduct saved lives and helped to end the violent insurrection.” He also said his client had been forced from his home by “many credible death threats.”

Personally I think this person, the cop, has done nothing wrong in the execution of his mandate.

On a side note….would things have been different if the insurrectionists had been black/brown?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is It Money Well Spent?

Let’s just step back and take a look at just what the War on Terror has cost this country.

The War on Terror has been a money pit since 9/11.

So just how much money has been spent in the years after 9/11 attacks?

A damn good question, right?

Well hang on to your jock strap……

In the 20 years since the September 11 attacks, the United States government has spent more than $21 trillion at home and overseas on militaristic policies that led to the creation of a vast surveillance apparatus, worsened mass incarceration, intensified the war on immigrant communities, and caused incalculable human suffering in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and elsewhere.

According to State of Insecurity: The Cost of Militarization Since 9/11 (pdf), a report released Wednesday by the National Priorities Project, the U.S. government’s so-called “War on Terror” has “remade the U.S. into a more militarized actor both around the world and at home” by pouring vast resources into the Pentagon, federal law enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency established in response to the September 11 attacks.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/01/911-us-has-spent-21-trillion-militarism-home-and-abroad

Can you imagine what $21 trillion could have done to help the people of this country?

Beyond that let’s look at the war in Afghanistan since 9/11……

the Cost of War Project at Brown University estimates that the war in Afghanistan cost U.S. taxpayers $2.3 trillion to date and resulted in the deaths of 2,324 U.S. military personnel, 4,007 U.S. contractors and 46,319 Afghan civilians — but those costs weren’t shared by everyone.

While the American people financed the war with their tax dollars, and in some cases their lives, the top five Pentagon contractors enjoyed a boom in growth in federal contracts over the course of the war in Afghanistan. Stephen Semler, co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, found that Congress gave $2.02 trillion to the top five weapons companies — Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman — between 2001 and 2021.

And between 2002 and 2020, federal funding for those five weapons companies grew by 188 percent. 

Top defense firms spend $1B on lobbying during Afghan war, see $2T return

Not a bad return on investment, huh?

The federal deficit runs about $3.3 trillion…..and fiscal conservatives (the hypocritical wing of our government) scream about the deficit and yet continue to fund a failed war on terror.

Just like the War on Drugs the War on Terror is a money pit and corporations profit from the misery the loss of funds for programs that aid the people of this country.

I realize that no one cares about this….it is far more important to focus on wedge issues instead on the pissing away of taxpayer funds.

When will we ever learn?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”