As I posted somewhere else - the break-in of the Columbia building - shattered windows - vandalism inside - plus the screaming & shouting down of any other opinion - brings back my memory of January 6th 2021! Anyone else?
I voted for McCarthy, but no go. I think right now Pete Buttigieg should have the mission to go to the most difficult and high-visibility campuses to lay out the disastrous effects of not supporting President Biden and the need for domestic and international context. It is possible that the President will be able to secure an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel to secure a permanent secure homeland for the Palestinians. That is the Win! Support it!
Not to rub it in, but Russell Baker once wrote about how "they" decided to "show" Richard Nixon, and he said thanks to that, we would be repeating the so-called benefits of the Nixon Supreme Court when Julie and Tricia were "counting silver threads among the gold and black."
As it turned out, Nixon's appointees weren't hopelessly stupid. But those who decided that Al Gore and Hillary Clinton weren't liberal enough for them belong in the internment camps that republicans are planning for us if they regain power.
The message from that sign holder is like somebody with a bomb pack strapped to themselves saying don't make me detonate this. Normally you just thank the forces of Darwinism, but there are too many peoples deaths implicated in this message. And I do mean deaths.
Collegiate Democratic group is playing into the hands of Russian trolls fanning the fire on social media and the non affiliated college people populating and poisoning the protest!
I couldn’t vote in ‘68 as I was too young, but if I could I would never have voted for Tricky Dick. It was just a sick twist of fate that Bobby Kennedy got killed just when there was some hope of stopping the shit in Vietnam and fixing this country’s problems, but that was not meant to be and here we are, years later on a similar cusp of history. Has this country learned anything from all the BS that went down from Tricky Dick to the present or is it lights out for democracy? God, I hate living in interesting times…and there’s six months to go until November…
Gen. Jack D. Ripper was also interested in "purity", the purity of our precious bodily fluids - didn't work out too well for him. It won't work out well for these types either. Zealots can never compromise or negotiate, and they tend to lose all sense of proportion. There is no doubt that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza (in WW2, we ALL committed war crimes by current standards), and that is on Bibi and his Israeli-fascist cabal. But throwing away American democracy to teach Bibi a lesson seems a bit extreme. The very worst disaster for the Palestinians would be for Israel to be defeated and the Jews forced to vacate the middle east. In 5 years the Palestinians would still be the poorest of the people in the Mediterranean middle east, but this time with no Israeli economy with its better salaries.....
The Palestinians are so bereft of everything that no ME nation is stepping up and attempting to deal with Netanyahu on the Palestinians' behalf. Qatar is alledgedly on the case, but who would know it?
I beat you to it and wrote in Eugene McCarthy in 1968. With the same sad results.
I don't honestly think that the students threatening to vote against Biden over Gaza will actually follow through when standing in front of the ballot box. They are seething with emotion right now, but they aren't actually stupid.
I agree that taking over the building went too far and has hurt the cause of the protestors. But the hurt is mostly (see below) because of the concentration of the media on that particular event. And I will bet you large amounts that it would not have happened had the cops not cleared the first protest within 24 hours of its beginning based, as far as I can tell, on loud noise and thus far UNVERIFIED reports of antisemitic comments made to students. Where? The protestors were on the lawn, not roaming about the walkways. And as far as I can tell even the complaints were about "slurs", not actual violence or even threatened violence. What about that first encampment made the whole campus "unsafe for Jewish students?" Give us some actual evidence, please. Has a Jewish student NEVER been confronted with antisemitism on campus before this?
No, we have to have people who were not even there pronouncing about safety based on--well--prejudice. Islamophobia, to be precise. Assumptions that everyone participating was out to bop Jewish students. That is the very DEFINITION of prejudice: attributing a quality of a few to the all.
Violence in other protests lately has been linked in at least two cases by instigation from counter protestors. And at least one university has AGREED with students to look into investments into companies which support the Israeli government's position so far. In other words, that protest worked. Do we see any headlines blaring "student protestors negotiate successfully with campus authorities?"
And that inclusion of "criticizing Israel's government" in the definition of antisemitism is as much an act of performative 6-years-olds as anything students are now claiming about Biden. "Mommy, that bad man dared criticize Bibi. He's an authoritarian tyrant, but he's OUR authoritarian tyrant."
I'll bet that at the university whose administration agreed to look into investments, the actions at the schools where police were called in didn't happen.
And lots of the criticism is being created by the right - using distortions of things said and done by the protesters. The same things happened in the 60s.
Oh, I remember the distortions of the 60s well. If you were anti-war, you were "communist." So said even my sad sack stepfather, making dinner time rather tense. Wish I could find the story about that university. Far as I remember it did involve tents but I could be wrong. Yelling, I'm not so sure about. But the negotiations took place pretty quickly after the protest began. Presumably the administration hadn't been excoriated in public by Stefanik.
Ah, here it is. Brown University AND Evergreen State College in Washington. I'd seen the Evergreen one first, on local news.
One. Being drafted as one of McNamara's Morons I spent 1968 enjoying the nightlife in Chu Lai, Vietnam. All I knew of 1968 was one photo in the Stars & Stripes of some hippie getting the shit beat out of hin in Chicago and I wondered what that was about. During my anti-war activities after I got out I found question after question that I had no answer for. What was up with those two guys at the Olympics with their fists in the air? It took me years to unravel what I'd missed (Lawrence O'Donnells book "Playing With Fire" is my bible). My protest brought me eventually to join the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Two. For over fifty years Barry Romo was a leader of VVAW, I have a photo saved of him with Joan Baez and a diplomat on their way to Hanoi. He passed away two days ago and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his lifelong efforts we can never repay.
Three. I am a retired spectroscopist and spent years working with the best and most highly educated chemists there are. One posted yesterday that he will not vote for Biden. I know that there are was to talk about this, but I knew him well enough not to bother and told him he gave the professional agitators a win and waited for the argument, which of course never came.
And today Hope Hicks is crying on the stand and I'm supposed to give a shit. I've had it; I can't be mad anymore.
That Biden is taking the heat for Netanyahu’s insane actions must give chump and the MAGAts (of all stripes) such hope. I know smart people who love chump, proof that brains can be easily warped by prevailing winds. Could be that Netanyahu has more than one goal on his mind.
Thank you for owning up to the Nixon blip. The guy standing next to me at NASA when JFK was murdered made me painfully aware of the right-wing nuts in our midst. When he said “it’s about time somebody did that, it was a wake up call that I never forgot. I cannot watch five seconds of this insanity. I was hoping that young people had more sense and moxie than the old Fox idiots. Seems that the egos are as out of control as the egos for the Rupert morons. This mess is a boon for chump. Make no mistake, the dirty tricksters are paying attention and using these passionate morons to stick it to Dems. Anybody seen Roger Stone and James O’Keefe lately. This is way worse than the immigration fiasco. The evil is orgasmic…
I hope the press will follow up on the disposition of the cases of the Columbia students (?) who were arrested for illegal entry and destruction of property. If I were a cub reporter I'd be loitering in the lobby of the NYC Prosecutor's office. The public needs to know just who those arrested really are.
The only "cub" reporter I saw was a young woman who was on site during the time the police entered the building. I can't recall her name, but she was clearly too emotional and too involved to be called upon to give any kind of rational report. It was obvious that her "sources" were probably a handful of the more righteous among the protestors who saw her as a useful tool to get their message into the media. Fortunately, her fifteen minutes of fame "reporting" was cut short by producers at the network who seemed to have a few more brain cells than she did. I too want to know who was involved with that destruction. Taking advantage of a critical situation and hysterical kids with more hormones than sense is unforgiveable. They should have the book thrown at them.
I stuffed envelops for McGovern in '72. I was 14. I hated Nixon. Never thought there'd be anything worse, but...then came Ronnie who called his wife 'mommy' and Daddy and Shrub and now Libidinous Defendant.
I went door-to-door for McGovern, only one household invited us in to talk, but for some reason the Bishop's house was on our list, so that was cool. Maybe we should have cut our hair.
I worked my tail off for Carter, canvassed for Dukakis, did stuff for Move-On for Kerry, did everything I could in 2008, cold-called people for Hilary and here we are, again.
I raised 2 million for Obama, calling regular people and asking them for the $2,800 maximum; most of them had never donated $200 before, but they did it, because that is how much they wanted change they could believe in, which we didn't get (thank you Rahm you POS).
One funny story from that time, because it's Friday. One Sunday afternoon I was calling, and the next name that came up on the computer was James Gandolfini. I told myself, there's no way he answers, but I called because that was procedure. And he answered! And gave the max, and then asked if the people who were over at his house for dinner could donate. I got the forms to do it offline and he called them over and told them to donate. Obama got $28,000 from "The Soprano Family."
Methinks the Russian & Chinese Farcebok & Xitter bots may be rubbing their hands with glee, thinking they have in 2024's "Free Gaza" a repeat of 2016's "Hillary's emails"
1968 is a year I remember well. It was my first election, I became a Naturalized Citizen in 1967, I had campaigned every weekend end for Bobby Kennedy and was devastated following the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby. But I disliked Nixon so much I would have voted for Mickey Mouse if that was his only opposition so I did vote fore Hubert Humphrey as the only choice. No better luck than you, Tom, so don't beat yourself up too badly. I also voted for McGovern more willingly than Hubert Humphrey. I still can't believe how many Americans believed Nixon's bullshit about ending the Vietnam War.
Unlike the current GOP goon, at least Nixon didn't say that had he been president "none of this would have ever happened." (My teeth go on autognash every time that nitwit says that.) Nixon just thought people would believe he had an actual plan. His "plan" was no better than the plan to end the war I had developed as I pondered such things while cooking oatmeal for kids.
What he and Kissinger finally accepted in December 1972 after bombing the shit out of Hanoi was essentially the exact same deal Johnson's negotiators said yes to in November 1968, that Nixon sabotaged.
No honor among thieves, those Republicans!! Then came Reagan to sink Carter with the trick to delay the release of the hostages in Iran. Then Gingrich, Cheney (W was too dim to connive.), Rove, Stone, Leo, and all of today's right wing cabal which appears to have gone international in their efforts to destroy the world order because power over Americans just isn't enough for them.
it seems to be an actual talking point for a lot of these very young fools who run around calling themselves "anarchists" (they have, as far as I can make out, NO knowledge of classic anarchist thought) and used that to do things like refuse to get vaccinated. some of the more "discerning" ones use the more appropriate (but equally heinous) label "Libertarian Anarchists."
Especially helpful work here T.C. The tapestry is huge and you pull up just the right threads. Pleased to see my subscription renewed today. Thank you for all.
Yup - that says it all, Tom.
As I posted somewhere else - the break-in of the Columbia building - shattered windows - vandalism inside - plus the screaming & shouting down of any other opinion - brings back my memory of January 6th 2021! Anyone else?
Hee Hee. One person who did not make that connection apparently was JD Vance on CNN. He had to be reminded of it.
I had the same reaction.
Amen brother.
I voted for McCarthy, but no go. I think right now Pete Buttigieg should have the mission to go to the most difficult and high-visibility campuses to lay out the disastrous effects of not supporting President Biden and the need for domestic and international context. It is possible that the President will be able to secure an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel to secure a permanent secure homeland for the Palestinians. That is the Win! Support it!
Not to rub it in, but Russell Baker once wrote about how "they" decided to "show" Richard Nixon, and he said thanks to that, we would be repeating the so-called benefits of the Nixon Supreme Court when Julie and Tricia were "counting silver threads among the gold and black."
As it turned out, Nixon's appointees weren't hopelessly stupid. But those who decided that Al Gore and Hillary Clinton weren't liberal enough for them belong in the internment camps that republicans are planning for us if they regain power.
All correct. However, not noted is the fact that every "Big Gargoyle" in the GOP today got his start as a "small gargoyle" working for Nixon.
And all Nixon was doing was finding a way to make the Goldwater wing's open racism more palatable.
Yes indeed.
The message from that sign holder is like somebody with a bomb pack strapped to themselves saying don't make me detonate this. Normally you just thank the forces of Darwinism, but there are too many peoples deaths implicated in this message. And I do mean deaths.
Yes indeed!
Or "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog"
I've been wondering if any of them understand they'd be shot in a Trump 'administration'
Collegiate Democratic group is playing into the hands of Russian trolls fanning the fire on social media and the non affiliated college people populating and poisoning the protest!
I couldn’t vote in ‘68 as I was too young, but if I could I would never have voted for Tricky Dick. It was just a sick twist of fate that Bobby Kennedy got killed just when there was some hope of stopping the shit in Vietnam and fixing this country’s problems, but that was not meant to be and here we are, years later on a similar cusp of history. Has this country learned anything from all the BS that went down from Tricky Dick to the present or is it lights out for democracy? God, I hate living in interesting times…and there’s six months to go until November…
Yes indeed. I've had all the interesting times I need, but I'm sure my vote on that won't count.
Gen. Jack D. Ripper was also interested in "purity", the purity of our precious bodily fluids - didn't work out too well for him. It won't work out well for these types either. Zealots can never compromise or negotiate, and they tend to lose all sense of proportion. There is no doubt that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza (in WW2, we ALL committed war crimes by current standards), and that is on Bibi and his Israeli-fascist cabal. But throwing away American democracy to teach Bibi a lesson seems a bit extreme. The very worst disaster for the Palestinians would be for Israel to be defeated and the Jews forced to vacate the middle east. In 5 years the Palestinians would still be the poorest of the people in the Mediterranean middle east, but this time with no Israeli economy with its better salaries.....
a silly point I'm making, but did Jack D. Ripper do any worse than the rest of the world when the fallout cleared?
no one was left to investigate.
Perhaps - he was dead sooner.....
yeah, but he died a lot quicker which, in this case, was definitely preferable. radiation sickness really SUCKS.
The Palestinians are so bereft of everything that no ME nation is stepping up and attempting to deal with Netanyahu on the Palestinians' behalf. Qatar is alledgedly on the case, but who would know it?
I beat you to it and wrote in Eugene McCarthy in 1968. With the same sad results.
I don't honestly think that the students threatening to vote against Biden over Gaza will actually follow through when standing in front of the ballot box. They are seething with emotion right now, but they aren't actually stupid.
I agree that taking over the building went too far and has hurt the cause of the protestors. But the hurt is mostly (see below) because of the concentration of the media on that particular event. And I will bet you large amounts that it would not have happened had the cops not cleared the first protest within 24 hours of its beginning based, as far as I can tell, on loud noise and thus far UNVERIFIED reports of antisemitic comments made to students. Where? The protestors were on the lawn, not roaming about the walkways. And as far as I can tell even the complaints were about "slurs", not actual violence or even threatened violence. What about that first encampment made the whole campus "unsafe for Jewish students?" Give us some actual evidence, please. Has a Jewish student NEVER been confronted with antisemitism on campus before this?
No, we have to have people who were not even there pronouncing about safety based on--well--prejudice. Islamophobia, to be precise. Assumptions that everyone participating was out to bop Jewish students. That is the very DEFINITION of prejudice: attributing a quality of a few to the all.
Violence in other protests lately has been linked in at least two cases by instigation from counter protestors. And at least one university has AGREED with students to look into investments into companies which support the Israeli government's position so far. In other words, that protest worked. Do we see any headlines blaring "student protestors negotiate successfully with campus authorities?"
And that inclusion of "criticizing Israel's government" in the definition of antisemitism is as much an act of performative 6-years-olds as anything students are now claiming about Biden. "Mommy, that bad man dared criticize Bibi. He's an authoritarian tyrant, but he's OUR authoritarian tyrant."
I'll bet that at the university whose administration agreed to look into investments, the actions at the schools where police were called in didn't happen.
And lots of the criticism is being created by the right - using distortions of things said and done by the protesters. The same things happened in the 60s.
Oh, I remember the distortions of the 60s well. If you were anti-war, you were "communist." So said even my sad sack stepfather, making dinner time rather tense. Wish I could find the story about that university. Far as I remember it did involve tents but I could be wrong. Yelling, I'm not so sure about. But the negotiations took place pretty quickly after the protest began. Presumably the administration hadn't been excoriated in public by Stefanik.
Ah, here it is. Brown University AND Evergreen State College in Washington. I'd seen the Evergreen one first, on local news.
I have three things to say.
One. Being drafted as one of McNamara's Morons I spent 1968 enjoying the nightlife in Chu Lai, Vietnam. All I knew of 1968 was one photo in the Stars & Stripes of some hippie getting the shit beat out of hin in Chicago and I wondered what that was about. During my anti-war activities after I got out I found question after question that I had no answer for. What was up with those two guys at the Olympics with their fists in the air? It took me years to unravel what I'd missed (Lawrence O'Donnells book "Playing With Fire" is my bible). My protest brought me eventually to join the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Two. For over fifty years Barry Romo was a leader of VVAW, I have a photo saved of him with Joan Baez and a diplomat on their way to Hanoi. He passed away two days ago and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his lifelong efforts we can never repay.
Three. I am a retired spectroscopist and spent years working with the best and most highly educated chemists there are. One posted yesterday that he will not vote for Biden. I know that there are was to talk about this, but I knew him well enough not to bother and told him he gave the professional agitators a win and waited for the argument, which of course never came.
And today Hope Hicks is crying on the stand and I'm supposed to give a shit. I've had it; I can't be mad anymore.
That Biden is taking the heat for Netanyahu’s insane actions must give chump and the MAGAts (of all stripes) such hope. I know smart people who love chump, proof that brains can be easily warped by prevailing winds. Could be that Netanyahu has more than one goal on his mind.
Thank you for owning up to the Nixon blip. The guy standing next to me at NASA when JFK was murdered made me painfully aware of the right-wing nuts in our midst. When he said “it’s about time somebody did that, it was a wake up call that I never forgot. I cannot watch five seconds of this insanity. I was hoping that young people had more sense and moxie than the old Fox idiots. Seems that the egos are as out of control as the egos for the Rupert morons. This mess is a boon for chump. Make no mistake, the dirty tricksters are paying attention and using these passionate morons to stick it to Dems. Anybody seen Roger Stone and James O’Keefe lately. This is way worse than the immigration fiasco. The evil is orgasmic…
I hope the press will follow up on the disposition of the cases of the Columbia students (?) who were arrested for illegal entry and destruction of property. If I were a cub reporter I'd be loitering in the lobby of the NYC Prosecutor's office. The public needs to know just who those arrested really are.
The only "cub" reporter I saw was a young woman who was on site during the time the police entered the building. I can't recall her name, but she was clearly too emotional and too involved to be called upon to give any kind of rational report. It was obvious that her "sources" were probably a handful of the more righteous among the protestors who saw her as a useful tool to get their message into the media. Fortunately, her fifteen minutes of fame "reporting" was cut short by producers at the network who seemed to have a few more brain cells than she did. I too want to know who was involved with that destruction. Taking advantage of a critical situation and hysterical kids with more hormones than sense is unforgiveable. They should have the book thrown at them.
Betcha that the repubs have paw prints all over
betcha right.
it feels more to me like coitus interruptus.
Sure hope you are right.
You've said it well, Tom. This binary election is 'do or die" for Democracy. The election cannot hinge on one issue when so much is at stake.
I stuffed envelops for McGovern in '72. I was 14. I hated Nixon. Never thought there'd be anything worse, but...then came Ronnie who called his wife 'mommy' and Daddy and Shrub and now Libidinous Defendant.
This is "The We Can't Fuck Around" election.
I went door-to-door for McGovern, only one household invited us in to talk, but for some reason the Bishop's house was on our list, so that was cool. Maybe we should have cut our hair.
I worked my tail off for Carter, canvassed for Dukakis, did stuff for Move-On for Kerry, did everything I could in 2008, cold-called people for Hilary and here we are, again.
I raised 2 million for Obama, calling regular people and asking them for the $2,800 maximum; most of them had never donated $200 before, but they did it, because that is how much they wanted change they could believe in, which we didn't get (thank you Rahm you POS).
One funny story from that time, because it's Friday. One Sunday afternoon I was calling, and the next name that came up on the computer was James Gandolfini. I told myself, there's no way he answers, but I called because that was procedure. And he answered! And gave the max, and then asked if the people who were over at his house for dinner could donate. I got the forms to do it offline and he called them over and told them to donate. Obama got $28,000 from "The Soprano Family."
good to know. and nice work, Tom.
Bada-Bing!!!!
Wow,TC. Please keep telling these stories. As I sit here thinking I’m doing enough while living my very comfortable life.
Highly pertinent mea culpa Tom.
Methinks the Russian & Chinese Farcebok & Xitter bots may be rubbing their hands with glee, thinking they have in 2024's "Free Gaza" a repeat of 2016's "Hillary's emails"
1968 is a year I remember well. It was my first election, I became a Naturalized Citizen in 1967, I had campaigned every weekend end for Bobby Kennedy and was devastated following the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby. But I disliked Nixon so much I would have voted for Mickey Mouse if that was his only opposition so I did vote fore Hubert Humphrey as the only choice. No better luck than you, Tom, so don't beat yourself up too badly. I also voted for McGovern more willingly than Hubert Humphrey. I still can't believe how many Americans believed Nixon's bullshit about ending the Vietnam War.
Unlike the current GOP goon, at least Nixon didn't say that had he been president "none of this would have ever happened." (My teeth go on autognash every time that nitwit says that.) Nixon just thought people would believe he had an actual plan. His "plan" was no better than the plan to end the war I had developed as I pondered such things while cooking oatmeal for kids.
What he and Kissinger finally accepted in December 1972 after bombing the shit out of Hanoi was essentially the exact same deal Johnson's negotiators said yes to in November 1968, that Nixon sabotaged.
No honor among thieves, those Republicans!! Then came Reagan to sink Carter with the trick to delay the release of the hostages in Iran. Then Gingrich, Cheney (W was too dim to connive.), Rove, Stone, Leo, and all of today's right wing cabal which appears to have gone international in their efforts to destroy the world order because power over Americans just isn't enough for them.
I'm beginning to think that
karma's finger is going to
show a lot of people,
organizations, including the
68 grand a year college
students, exactly what it's
like to live in a fascist state.
You get what you vote, or
don't vote for. Am ashamed
to say my daughter and her
husband, refuse to vote. 😪
They can never say I haven't
warned and begged them.
“Refuse to vote”. That sort of shocks me.
it seems to be an actual talking point for a lot of these very young fools who run around calling themselves "anarchists" (they have, as far as I can make out, NO knowledge of classic anarchist thought) and used that to do things like refuse to get vaccinated. some of the more "discerning" ones use the more appropriate (but equally heinous) label "Libertarian Anarchists."
fuck them. I piss on their eyes.
Love your last sentence, who deserves it more
thank you.
😢 So sad. And spoiled.
Especially helpful work here T.C. The tapestry is huge and you pull up just the right threads. Pleased to see my subscription renewed today. Thank you for all.
Thank you for being here.