https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/07/13/fascism-is-on-our-doorstep-column/

Guest Column
Leonard Pitts Jr.

Fascism is on our doorstep
With all the threats facing our democracy, does it really matter that Joe Biden is old?

:::snip:::

Not to deny Biden’s failings or to dismiss concern over his advanced years. Certainly there would be, in normal times, plenty of room to argue both.

But the point is, these are not normal times. And if, as the saying goes, you don’t change horses in the middle of a stream, you sure as heck shouldn’t do it in the middle of a tsunami.

On Monday, Stuart Stevens, a veteran Republican operative, took to Twitter begging Democrats to understand this. “As a former R. consultant,” he wrote, “I bear responsibility for the democracy eating monster the party became, so I get Dems don’t want to hear this from me. But I’d plead with Dems to rally around (President Biden). He’s your guy. You’re going to win with him or lose with him. Make the choice to win.”

It is advice Republicans would never need to hear and Democrats can’t hear often enough. If we are lucky, there will again come a time when we can afford to argue whether a president is too old or his poll numbers too low. But this is not it. Democracy is under mortal threat.

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/07/13/fascism-is-on-our-doorstep-column/


To deliberately choose to throw away the advantage of incumbency in the current political climate is a suicide pact for our democracy. I will support President Joe Biden for re-nomination and re-election in 2024, without reservation and with no regret. He entered office facing enormous challenges, and has done as well or better than anyone else could have done... and he rescued us from Trump.

Furthermore, I will regard those who attempt to discourage him from seeking re-election, or god forbid, anyone who would challenge him for re-nomination, as being no friend to our democracy, or to our country...

of Donald Trump, by ranking minority member of the January 6th committee, Rep. Liz Cheney....



Of course "they" will call her "a Republican in name only"...

but the truth is, she is one of the very few true 'Republicans' left in that party.


Of course we disagree on almost every other issue... but she has been true to her oath.



It was a good move to have her deliver these details, rather than from a Democrat... there is no partisanship here, and all claims of such have the floor cut out from under them, when they are delivered by a Republican bearing her heritage in that party...

I think all Democrats in her Wyoming district must consider changing registration to support her in her party's upcoming primary, since no one but Republicans get elected in Wyoming anyway-- and she is better than any GQP alternative....

On the other hand, if she is rejected by her own party for re-election... that would be one less impediment for her to launch an independent presidential campaign against Donald Trump in 2024.


She stated publicly to the effect that she 'would do anything to prevent Donald Trump from being elected president again'...

the Republicans will continue to have no interest in reasonable gun control.


They do not care about children dying, they have no interest... it does not strike 'close enough to home'.
After all, they care nothing about children, after they are actually born...


(I will try to be absolutely clear here, this post is not meant to advocate violence in any way-- I am just "saying it like it is".)



Furthermore, I suspect they will continue to have no interest in any form of gun control-- unless and until they might succeed in stealing our democracy-- at which point the "fall" of some of their heroes would be more likely to happen.

Then "the shoe" would be on "the other foot", wouldn't it ??


They don't feel "the loss" of innocent school-children. They are not "unborn babies". Of course, they "are sorry" and all that... but as President Biden said, "no action" will be the result. Hell, many of their partisans APPLAUD the murder of black Americans which happened a few days prior...

(Sorry for my despair on the issue, but that is the way it is.... and personally, I have some belief in the second amendment-- but never interpreted it as getting as many guns in the hands of as many unstable persons as is possible...)



P.S.S. in reply to comments--- yeah, it is likely that most of the gun-humpers would not care even after some of their gun-humper heroes fell to gun violence-- but it seems like the only thing that might break through some of their too-thick gun-humper skulls...

P.S.S.S. but the majority of the American people, in polls, continue to want more control exercised over the gun epidemic.... unfortunately, we are the victims of minority rule, at this time, even though we "won" the elections...

He just happened to land at the right place at the right moment-- like Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania.

Of course, the 'wizard' in the film was a man with a good heart, in the end---

Dr. Oz is worse than that, he is an outright fascist and nazi-wannabe.

none-the-less, I root for him to ultimately win the GQP PA Senate primary. He is the best representative of what their party has become.



The Fetterman campaign, and national DNC senate campaign should take advantage of his unusual and unlikely name...
and run some negative ads with 'The Wizard of Oz' tie-in, in my humble opinion...

I envision one advertisement, with 'Toto' pulling back the curtain on the 'false wizard', and exposing a list of extremist-right political positions which he has taken, which the vast majority of the citizens of Pennsylvania oppose...


Others more clever than I may come up with something better, and that would be fine.

Republican extremist candidates are giving us a gift in this difficult year, and we should take the goddamn gloves off and take advantage of all such things. "They hate us for telling the truth about them".

Inflation be damned!! It is their only possible defense against what monsters they have become!

We should be able to destroy them, with THEIR OWN WORDS, in this cycle...

Tonight I was re-watching the film "The Other Boleyn Girl",
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Boleyn_Girl_(2008_film) ,
a perhaps historically flawed dramatization of the relationships between King Henry of England and the Boleyn sisters, one of whom he abandoned his first wife to marry, but later had executed... all while abandoning the Catholic church...

While the film had nothing to do with abortion, it had everything to do with women being treated as nothing but chattel, and a uterus, by the King and by their own family, who hoped to use their child-birthing abilities to gain position and power... and somehow that reminded me of the current political situation...


Do not be mistaken! Republicans and their stolen Supreme Court do not want to "take American women back to the 1950s". Oh NO.


They want to take American women back to the middle ages-- when women were nothing more than property, and their uterus was nothing more than a tool for all-powerful men to attempt to ensure their immortality through producing an heir... and the men who controlled them were 'all-powerful'-- ("the good old days" ?? as conservatives think of it)

Hell, a good number of GOP partisans have stated publicly how it was "a mistake" to have given women the right to vote!
(probably even a few candidates for office, although I don't have links for that just now)

To me, in this tale, Ann Boleyn represented anti-choice women-- she enthusiastically took advantage of her possession of a uterus, giving up her own body to the desires of a powerful man, in attempting to secure position and political power for herself (that's just my take on it)... but it did her no good in the end, and she paid for it with her life, when she failed to produce a male heir for the adulterous king... used up and then thrown away when she failed to satisfy the man's aims...


The King was obviously a Republican. They care nothing for the lives of women, only for their own power, over women, and everyone else...


The vast majority of Americans do not want to see women's healthcare go back to the state of the middle ages--- but a minority of Americans, mostly aligned with the Republican party, DO want it. I only pray that they will fail in the end.

If this is not the time for pro-life and pro-freedom Democrats to "take off the gloves", I don't know when that would be...

(Pardon me for co-opting one of the terms of the far-right, "pro-life"... but which party has established itself as more in favor of protecting "life" in the past 2 years--- Democrats or Republicans?? "My body, my choice"?? How soon they forget co-opting that phrase!) IF the pending overturning of the 'Roe v. Wade' decision is accomplished, it will result in the deaths of thousands of American women, if not more...

Life as we know it has always been defined by 2 dates-- the date of birth, and the date of death. The Jewish religion, which is the basis for Christianity, recognizes it as such.

(thus ends my rebuttal of the religious argument-- as any astute observer recognizes, the "religious right" will recognize, they cherry-pick whatever verses from the Bible which will support their political arguments, and ignore the rest, but I thought I should put that out there anyway). Republicans only care about "life", before it actually draws breath... after that, they cannot be bothered with it.

The purported "pending" decision of this "Supreme Court", is as illegitimate as the 'Dred Scot' decision-- which likewise adjudicated a large number of American citizens as non-citizens, as non-deserving of the rights afforded to all recognized citizens of this country.... In this case, it is even worse--- they attempt to strip the reproductive rights of more than half of all of the citizens of this country, all the women!!!

However, the decision is not "official", yet.... the 'leak' has afforded the opportunity for the American people to make their opinions heard on the matter, before the 'decision' is official...

What I propose, is that "the masses" make their voices heard, and SEEN... and that rank-and-file democrats "take off the gloves"...

"politics is not 'beanball' ", maybe you heard that somewhere....


I propose that protesters against this 'pending decision' make themselves known--- NOT just in front of the Supreme Court building, but AT THE HOMES of those justices who are noted as supporting it!!!! (I would be there myself, if I were closer)

These justices who are in favor of eliminating the sacred right of a woman, to control their own bodies--- are threatening the rights of a woman in her own home--- should they not feel the blowback against that threat in their own homes? I say YES!!!

YES, I say "DOXX THEM!" They are about to vote against the 'right to privacy' against all American women! What's good enough for more than 50% of the population of America, is good enough for 4 white men and one misguided American woman!


FURTHERMORE, I say that those protesters against this pending decision, who make their presence known at the personal homes of these renegade justices (as far as local laws will allow), should be visibly ARMED!
(They are just as deserving of all protections of the Constitution of the United States as the right-wing, aren't they ??? Besides that, the will have legitimate concerns about 'personal self-defense') If the local law will not support the display of long guns, I say that those protesters should arm themselves with baseball bats... or perhaps, pitchforks..


(If those right-wing justices "feel threatened" by such a display, well, that will be just too goddamned bad... they support the "right to bear arms", don't they? They support the doctrine that the many deaths of children in school shootings, and other mass shootings, is "the price of liberty" supporting the 2nd amendment, don't they??)


If they are going to ultimately vote for this decision, they should feel the pressure from the American people, who ultimately have no legal recourse against such a decision, other than screaming from the rooftops-- or screaming in front of the house of these justices... they should feel the pressure inside their own homes, as do all American women right now, who care about their reproductive freedom!

"This is not our way" ???

Fuck that. We are too nice. The time for "nice" is over. It obviously has not worked, anyway. The mass of voters seem to see "nice" as "weak". It is time for Democrats, and democrats, to make a show of force--- over this issue, because we love our women-- and because we love women. This issue is where they are 'crossing the line'.


(Personally, as a citizen of Michigan, I felt that the far-right 'crossed the line' when they occupied the Capital building in Michigan in April 2020-- HEAVILY ARMED--- in protest of COVID policies which were intended to protect "life"---- fortunately, no one triggered their arms, but they obviously made their "opinions" visible... I do not think they should be un-answered).


(In this post I am in no sense 'advocating violence' against those we oppose politically, or against any justices.....
If they feel 'threatened' by the constitutionally-protected "right to bear arms", that will be just too goddamned bad.... but that right is not afforded only to the far right... Unfortunately, IMHO, the right is much more heavily armed than than left, so the left is much more justified in feeling the need to afford themselves of the right of armed "self-defense"...)

LET THOSE JUSTICES FEEL THE DISPLEASURE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, IN THEIR HOMES!!!





And until the official decision is actually issued... and after that...



Those who say "we are too good for that"? Well, bless you, you are right, we are.... but that does us no good in this instance, it does nothing to win the fight, it is "unilateral disarmament". Stay in your homes, and be better than the Republicans... and maybe someday, our moral superiority will be recognized by the voters. For the moment, they only seem to recognize "strength"--- or a facsimile thereof.

As I implied before, I want these justices to feel the strength of the displeasure of the American people at the cancellation of a freedom which has stood for 49 years. If the resulting protests result in their fear for the safety of themselves, or members of their families, that is TOO GODDAMN BAD! (that is the cost of maintaining '2nd amendment freedoms', as we have been told by them, many times...!!!! "FREEDOM" is not only for the far-right!!!)


It is long past time for 'the shoe to be placed upon the other foot'.
Let them sow what they have reaped!

Teddy Daniels (R), a far-right Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, was removed from his home this week after his wife asked a court for emergency protections against abuse,” Rolling Stone reports.

This is at least the third relationship in which Daniels has been accused in court documents of mistreating a female partner.

Under the terms of the Tuesday order, Daniels is barred from the couple’s home in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania, until the court orders otherwise. The order bars Daniels from contacting his wife and gives her temporary custody over their child. It also notes that there are firearms present in the couple’s home and bars Daniels from possessing or acquiring any firearms while the order is in effect, and to relinquish any he currently possesses to the court or an approved third party.

In handwritten notes from Daniels’ wife that the court included in its Tuesday order, Daniels’ wife alleges that her husband — whom the court lists at 6-foot-four and weighing 360 pounds — “grabbed me by the shirt” during an incident in August and “threatened to kill [our] family dog in front of children.”

more:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/teddy-daniels-pennsylvania-domestic-abuse-1343762/




It really is a "high quality" group of GOP candidates we have this year, isn't it??
/s

(Something we will be sending to Ukraine)


&t=67s

He Is THE MAN for This Moment (which most of us had no idea was coming...)


He IS a "strong leader", no matter what the polls say, no matter if he may have stuttered in the 'State of the Union' speech... I voted for "calm steady leadership" and by God, that is what we have now!!!

(Fairly and legitimately elected) President Joe Biden has displayed calm and measured leadership, in the present crisis. which is what I voted for-- and by God, he is delivering it!!!

I had no anticipation of any major international crisis (perhaps I was naive, because of my self-imposed 'news blackout' after the orange guy was installed). I thought the threat of nuclear was was finally in the past, in 2020-2021. The news in the past few days is a very rude awakening--- but I am especially thankful, that the man who has his finger on the nuclear button is not a bleeding drunken cocaine-addled idioit!!!! (He may be a couple years older than the former moron, but age is wisdom!!)


I was far to the left of President Biden... if i had adhered to "ideological purity" I would have voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.. and I am thankful for Sanders' loyalty to 'the cause' of those of us on the left... but I thought the most important thing was to advance the strongest candidate against Trump in 2020, so I voted for Joe Biden in the Michigan Democratic presidential primary, which Joe Biden won...


and the longer I observe President Biden in office, the more right I realize that I was, in spite of myself!
(but Joe and I are old friends, i supported him in 1988 before his withdrawal... and he WAS shafted by the press, much ado over very little)

Anyway, he is responding to this war crisis in exactly the way that I would have him do.. "calm and measured" and who knows what the former orange cretin would have done in this situation-- either "nothing" or "too much"--- (after all, an all-out nuclear war between the US and Russia would devastate many of the largest cities in the United States--- killing millions of Democrats who would have voted to prevent fascism in this country, is it not so?? Trump would have considered that a victory, and probably correctly).



I think my votes in the 2020 primary and general election were the best votes I ever cast!


(PS I don't know if I 'thank God' or not, it was just something I was raised on, but does not seem consistent with 'science'. You know how it is...)


"Too old" or "dementia addled", BULLSHIT! I am thankful that President Joe Biden is in the White House, and I support him 100%!!!


Who is with me ????