You don't fight fascism because you're going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
quote unquote: Jean-Paul Sartre
You don't fight fascism because you're going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
quote unquote
Executive earmark: Instead of a wall, it would be "far cheaper to erect a 50-foot concrete statue of a middle finger and point it towards Latin America." -- Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Tx)
A bizarre law is overcrowding California's public schools
In California, traditional neighborhood schools are forced to give space to charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated. This is causing all kinds of headaches for students and parents.
Is Bernie Sanders an empty suit?
Many in the Hillary Clinton camp continue to allow their bitterness over the loss to Donald Trump to misdirect their anger at Bernie Sanders. Especially nonsensical is the charge that the Vermonter, despite having been elected and reelected numerous times as mayor, Member of the House and U.S. Senator, is a "failed politician."
Serving in Congress is largely a matter of compromise and influence. To measure Sanders' record you would need to include such factors as his ability to work with the opposition to get things done (to take an example going back to his ealiest days in office, coordinating with the business community to revitalize the lakefront as the socialist mayor of Burlington); his effectiveness in the House; the committee leadership positions he has been trusted with by the Senate Democratic caucus and the fact that the DSCC (led by Sen. Chuck Schumer at the time) protected his reelection to the Senate from challenge by a nominal Democratic opponent; and his founding and chairing of the congressional Progressive Caucus. Most significant -- and most galling to the party establishment -- is that he has helped to move the Democratic Party away from neoliberalism and toward more traditional liberal/progressive policies and proposals.
Inconvenient facts:
Nobody in congress has gotten more amendments passed than Bernie Sanders. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
California Democrats to Dianne Feinstein: "Good work on Trump. Now come home."
Okay. I'm one who applauded: "Dianne Feinstein is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore."
But the thundering hosannas for her releasing of the Fusion GPS testimony have begun to drown out reality.
Sen. Feinstein's action was admirable. If she had not done it, she would have been complicit in the blatant lying of Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham. But she is far from being the Second Coming of FDR.
She has been the strongest Democratic proponent in the Senate of the security state, she has dependably supported the Long War, and she has carried water for corporate and financial interests throughout her career, as when she voted for the bill that repealed Glass-Steagall’s banking reforms (California's other U.S. Senator, Barbara Boxer, voted nay). After decades in office, she is out of step. left behind by her increasingly liberal constituency; even with the advantages of incumbency in a blue state, she is only getting about 40% in support of her reelection campaign.
You have to ask yourself why at 84 she is running at all. My guess is that the party poobahs, realizing that if she retires the seat will almost certainly fall into the hands of a progressive, have decided that she remains their best hope to hold the seat for the donors; she will almost certainly be one of the two standing candidates after the primary (out-of-staters may not know that in California the general election is a run-off between the top two primary vote-getters, even if they are from the same party or no party at all), and Democratic leaders are betting she will get enough Democratic and all Republican votes to win (the other candidate will be a Democrat to her left -- there is no other kind; the GOP is not a factor at the state level in California); then, after a year or two, she will step down and the new governor, presumably Gavin Newsom, a Democrat in any case, will appoint a reliable supporter of business-as-usual.
Sen. Feinstein deserves all credit for unilaterally releasing the transcript of Glenn Simpson's testimony before her committee, and I hope she continues to hold Grassley's and Graham's feet to the fire.
When you think about it, though, this would be a perfect moment to retire. The primary will be bitter and divisive, and since experience suggests there is every likelihood that the poobahs have it wrong anyway, possibly pointless:
Instead, for the good of the nation, she could go out as Fighting Dianne Feinstein, spending her final days of service battling the criminalized GOP (as she is doing in taking a lead in rejecting Trump's off-shore drilling scam and supporting the Dreamers). What an honorable way to go.
Extra credit:
> The Republicans Fake Investigation by Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch (New York Times)
> Sen. Dianne Feinstein Releases Full Testimony From Co-Founder of Firm Behind Russia Dossier by Molly Olmstead (Slate)
> The full text of Glenn Simpson's interview before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 2017/08/22 (PDF)
> Dianne Feinstein survived childhood abuse, assassination attempts, and a brutal fight with the CIA. Now it’s time to take on Trump: The Lioness in Winter by Gail Sheehy (Mother Jones)
> In a rare meeting, the Democratic senator finds little common ground with hometown activists: Dianne Feinstein Town Hall Shows Why She’s a Conservative by San Francisco Standards by Matt Tinoco (Mother Jones)
> California's feverish political moment creates opportunity for a Feinstein challenge — or a few by Seema Mehta and Melanie Mason (Los Angeles Times)
> Kevin de León, president of the California Senate, is challenging the longtime senator next year, creating a dilemma for the party's 2020 hopefuls: The Democrats’ Dianne Feinstein Problem by David Dayen (New Republic)<br />
> Alison Hartson announced she's running for U.S. Senate: New liberal challenger to Sen. Dianne Feinstein launches bid on 'The Young Turks' by Sarah D. Wire (Los Angeles Times)
Some choice
Who was right, George Orwell or Aldous Huxley?
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
"Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
"As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny 'failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.' In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
"In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us." -- Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin).
Our civil polity is in free fall
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. ... Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. -- Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 1852(AP/January 4, 2021) President-elect Oprah Winfrey, with Vice President-elect Ellen DeGeneres, appeared in the White House press room Monday afternoon to announce the first appointments to the new cabinet. The soon-to-be Commander in Chief had special praise for Secretary of State nominee Rachel Raye, who was in attendance, saying she "is the right person to cook up a new foreign policy" for the nation.
Other designees on hand included Treasury Secretary Suze Orman, Attorney General Judge Judy Sheindlin, Labor Secretary Phil "Dr. Phil" McGraw, Commerce Secretary Stacy London, HUD Secretary Mehmet “Dr. Oz” Oz, and Surgeon General Jenny McCarthy.
In an attempt heal some hurt feelings from a hard-fought campaign, Dwayne "The Rock " Johnson will take over at Defense. In a surprise move, Bob Greene, who had been expected to be Surgeon General, has been named special advisor to the President; he will share an office with the already appointed Gayle King, and is expected to work closely with Chief of Staff Steve Harvey. Meryl Streep, an early backer of the president-elect's run for office, will be the new U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St James. Mark Cuban will be sent to Finland.
In a separate briefing, Press Secretary Kanye West announced that the Secret Service had to call in all available agents because of the crush of citizens seeking selfies and autographs.
[Note to The Hill: Just took an informal poll of Democrats on prospect of Oprah presidential run. Couldn't find a single one that could be described as "thrilled." Prospect of President Winfrey thrills Dems by Amie Parnes (The Hill)]
"An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." -- Simon Cameron *
Happy days are here again
Really psyched about the people's uprising in Tehran and the Persian countryside. Hope we don't miss the opportunity to lend a hand in Iran like we did in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Goodbye, good luck, and good riddance:
"Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the longest-serving GOP senator in U.S. history, is retiring at the end of his term."
The rate and severity of shootings are accelerating.
"The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history came in October, when a gunman pent up in a Las Vegas hotel tower showered gunfire on concertgoers across the street, leaving 59 people dead and more than 500 others injured. A month later, a man opened fire on churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26. There were dozens of smaller-scale events this year. The Gun Violence Archive reports more than 14,000 people were killed and over 29,000 were injured in mass shootings in 2017. That might make it the worst year on record."
(The map shown here does not include incidents after October 2.)
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