July 16, 2022

An Historic Case For Accountability

Letters from an American: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-15-2022

'On this date in 1870, Congress voted to readmit Georgia to the United States after the Civil War....(T)here was never a legal reckoning for even the leaders of those who had tried to destroy the nation...(F)ormer Confederates.. clung to Lost Cause mythology, convincing themselves that theirs was the true version of America despite their defeat, and that their cause was noble...Within a decade, they had regained control of their states and were pushing their Black neighbors into second-class citizenship.

Without any cost for adherence to the Lost Cause, there was no reason for Confederate symbols to disappear. They have continued to play an astonishingly large role in our society, and not just in the South. They have made a spectacular comeback since the 1980s until finally, on January 6, 2021, the Confederate battle flag flew in the U.S. Capitol.

This time, though, there is a chance to change the story. Prosecutions have January 6 participants like Reffitt trying to hide their actions, and jail time will almost certainly dampen the enthusiasm of those who were happy to be part of an insurrection until they discovered there was a legal cost. While U.S. leaders after the Civil War thought their best hope of building a nation based on racial equality was to avoid prosecutions, scholars who study the restoration of democracy after an authoritarian crisis are very clear: central to any such restoration is enforcing the rule of law.'

Note: Prosecutors are asking for a 15 year sentence for Reffitt

July 14, 2022

Remember this? Joe Biden to have new Secret Service team amid concern about Trump loyalty

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/31/joe-biden-secret-service-team-trump-loyalty

'Several “senior” Secret Service agents are poised to return to the president-elect’s protection team and Biden knows these agents well because they guarded him and his family during his time as vice-president, according to the article, echoed in a report by CNN, citing a law enforcement source.'

Gives new meaning to this: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/politics/secret-service-text-messages-erased/index.html

'Secret Service erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021 -- after oversight officials asked for them, watchdog says'

July 13, 2022

Lots of folks displaying the mean gene here lately

Maybe it's just me.

July 13, 2022

I've had enough of Joe Scarborough...

This morning while discussing the Trump Big Lie and comparing Trump to Nixon, he brings up a topic I've never heard (I'm 73 yrs old). The theory is Kennedy stole the 1960 election from Nixon. I'm not going to give this statement any credence, but here is a NYT article about it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/books/review/campaign-of-the-century-kennedy-nixon-1960-irwin-f-gellman.html

July 12, 2022

Cipollone destroying Trump in J6 C hearing.

July 11, 2022

'Joe Biden appears to be centering his presidency around the idea of rebuilding the middle class'

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-10-2022
Letters from an American

As usual this 'letter' is chock full of information. But let's focus on Biden (my words).

'...Democratic president Joe Biden appears to be centering his presidency around the idea of rebuilding the middle class through government investment in ordinary Americans. This is a major shift...the Republicans are counting on anger over inflation, shortages, and gas prices to win control over the House...and the Senate...

The election of Ronald Reagan meant radical tax cuts (from a top marginal rate of 74% in 1980 to the 27% it is today), business deregulation, and the gutting of social safety nets. In 1980, 60% of us were in the middle class; now fewer than half of us are. Republicans promised that permitting business concentration would lead to innovation and opportunity; instead, we have seen an end to competition...Biden’s investment in the U.S. economy...has produced significant results...The economy added 372,000 jobs in June...And in the past year, wages have gone up 5.1%.

There is a coming showdown between the Democrats’ approach to the economy and the old Republican approach. Biden and the Democrats are trying to pass a $52 billion U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) that would invest in U.S. science and technology to boost American industry, support research, and fund the manufacture of semiconductor chips to free the U.S. from relying on Chinese products...But... Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has vowed to kill the measure unless the Democrats back off on a budget package that would fund Medicare by placing a 3.8% tax on income...by individuals making more than $400,000 a year and...allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, significantly lowering costs to consumers.'

ME: UPDATE 1: Marginal Tax Rate: I'm no expert on tax rates, but focusing on this small difference seems to lose sight of the bigger issues. Here is some clarifying info: https://taxfoundation.org/70-tax-rate-entrepreneurial-income/

ME: UPDATE 2: Taking a break from DU. I encourage everyone to sign up for Dr. Richardson's newsletter. She's a wealth of information. Take care, folks.

July 9, 2022

Mary Trump: Donald is Terrified

But is that enough to stop him

July 9, 2022

Mary Trump: Donald is Terrified

But is that enough to stop him?

July 7, 2022

Are Lindsey Graham and Rupert Murdoch about to be brought down?

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-6-2022

Letters from an American:

'Yesterday, a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury issued a subpoena for Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), among others, and today Graham’s lawyers said they will challenge the subpoena...They assert that as then-chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham “was well within his rights to discuss with state officials the processes and procedures around administering elections.”

...the Supreme Court is unlikely to agree that the state of Georgia is a branch of the federal government... “an arrogant[,] pompous and legally weak argument from Graham [that] should be slam-dunk rejected by any court that hears it.”

The slow accumulation of facts over fiction might well become a financial crisis for those who participated in Trump’s narrative. The Fox News Corporation, One America News Network, and Newsmax are currently facing multibillion dollar lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, a voting machine company and an election software company.'