Cox is trying to save her life in addition to her uterus.
The GOP's position on more weapons to Ukraine, on one hand makes sense; the endgame is assuredly going to be some kind of ugly. But their position has to questioned re whether it's a sincere position or just posturing. Ukraine and Israel have been windfalls for our exceptional munitions businesses and I'm not sure they want to see that tap turned off sooner than it must.
And as ever with Donnie, the question needs to be asked how much what he does aligns with what the party wants. which leads to another problem, but one I have no interest in addressing other than noting: The establishment media's new thing of considering the possibility of his being a dictator ignores that overlap. And speaking of dictatorial behavior, there's SCOTGOP.
Ohhhh, looks like I sort of (accidentally!) came full circle. I'm back to Dobbs ad Cox.
Not much pundit bullshit shocks me anymore, but Cooper’s “so we suspend democracy for a while, no biggie” was one of them. Talk about whistling past the cemetery (presuming it doesn’t come from some deeper place of cynicism). It reminds me of those who said after the 2020 election, “look, let Trump rant and rave about stolen elections, what’s he going to do about it, really? He’ll go quietly when it comes right down to it.”
It’s like these people think democracy on its own isn’t merely a concept, but is some kind or rock solid edifice with a will of its own that will ultimately repel all usurpers. But democracy is only an idea that institutions, policies, and people make feasible. Change the institutions, create different policies, and draft a different cast of characters to work in them and put them forward, and *POOF* no more democracy.
Dec 12, 2023·edited Dec 12, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
The Kate Cox situation is absolutely heartbreaking, and I’m in awe of her courage. From the first she had dozens of offers (likely some from Dem politicians looking for cred) to fly expense-free to a blue state to get the medical termination she needs. But she chose to fight, and tried to establish a precedent for others. True courage.
Aside from the personal tragedy of Cox’s situation, it would be political malpractice if the Dems are not pulling Ken Paxton’s and Texas Supreme Court quotes for ads in 2024, and every Dem should be prepared to say some version of this on the stump: “You never believed them when they talked about medical exceptions, and why should you? You know they’ve been working tirelessly for decades to end the ability of women to control what happens to their own bodies. Now you have proof, in their own words and actions, that medical exceptions are a lie. They don’t care about life, that’s another lie. They didn’t care about Kate Cox’s life. They didn’t care about her family’s lives. They didn’t care about the lives of future children she may no longer be able to have. They care about control, about controlling YOUR life. They want to control every womb in America.”
I couldn’t agree with you more. Part of the problem is everyone is focusing on a “particular” tree and they can’t see the forest. We have a select few Jewish hedge-fund billionaires calling for the heads of elite universities. Don’t they realize they are contributing to the troupes that Jews control the media and banking system? Do they realize that while they are outraged that a small group of protesters are calling for a Jewish genocide, that an actual genocide is taking place against women and children?
“The widespread fear that Trump will actually be a dictator, however, is misplaced. If Trump wins the 2024 election, American democracy might be suspended, at least temporarily. But it won’t be replaced by a dictatorship, which is a coherent and recognizable system of government.”--William Cooper
And herein lies the rub! Guys like Cooper want us to believe that we should take Trump figuratively, not literally, yet Trump has the Heritage Foundation (right-wing think tank) ready to replace 50,000 civil servants that know how to keep our government functioning with loyalists and we shouldn’t take this seriously?
We have the Federal Society and Family Research Council ready to replace all impartial judges with hand-picked religious zealots and we shouldn’t take this seriously? SCOTUS has already gutted the Civil Rights Act and allowed unlimited dark money in politics. They’ve also proven to be a bunch of corrupt kleptocrats in the pockets of conservative billionaires and non-profit conservative organizations.
Additionally, we have more than half of the Republican caucus in Congress as members of the Freedom Caucus, with a speaker that believes dinosaur’s roamed the earth with man, and we shouldn’t take this seriously?
We have all of Trump’s sycophants and acolytes telling us that he will weaponize the DOJ, FBI, IRS and military to do his nefarious bidding, and we shouldn’t take this seriously?
He’s already tried to usurp an election, and he failed. Yet, if you are a student of American history, you’d know that the religious fanatics could lose every battle, and in the end, they win the war; simply by mere exhaustion and attrition. How do you think Johnson became speaker and SCOTUS is currently filled with Federalist Society judges?
If Trump wins, we will pull out of NATO. Ukraine will fall and Poland and Moldova will be next on Putin’s menu. Western alliances will crumble, and we will suffer an economic depression as our global economic system is uprooted, and thrown into chaos.
And Trump will have his Reichstag moment so he can implement Martial Law. It will most likely occur at the southern border. Perhaps a Hamas terrorist attack that in response to Biden’s support for Israel.
Either way, Trump will weaponize the military and intelligence services for his own nefarious purposes and turn them on the American people; especially his enemies, while the MSM and democrats are too busy fighting over insignificant issues; like whether college campuses are too woke!
"We shouldn't be spending billions on Ukraine! We could use that money [to help poor single mothers right here!/to send to Mexico to stop the immigrants!/to rebuild our infrastructure!/to help feed poor families!/to improve our schools!/(other fantasy project)]."
I hear this from my sister all the time. But when I suggest we actually spend money on ANY of those things, well, that's just no gonna happen. Because why waste taxpayer money on any of those things?
I’m going to outsource most of my dictatorship fears to the Liberal Redneck (an ad begins 2:50; and he returns to praise Taylor Swift, and slam Martha Blackburn as a puppy eating monster at, appropriately, 4:20)
Money quote. “it’s like a babysitter tried and failed to abduct your child, and you went and rehired her because her replacement takes too many naps..”
In too many small, and not just southern, towns, democracy is not really embraced because they are functionally (and generally Baptist/evangelical) police states.
The idiot attack on clueless University presidents, not a group I generally feel much sympathy for, and the manufacturing of outrages to hide the outrageous conduct of the Gaza War or anti abortion Judges, e.g. shows a media wanting horse races and avoiding the real awful facts...
Well done. One of the things I loved about "The Crown" was that it made the Duke of Windsor's traitorous perfidy crystal clear, and it was gratifying to see his beloved Lillibet reject and isolate him for it.
Churchill saw it coming, DeGaulle saw it coming, and both were exiled, figuratively or literally, for it. (Also DeGaulle, having escaped to England with only a couple hundred supporters, was condemned to death by Vichy.) The historical models for the present moment in American politics are crystal clear, and anyone who thinks Trump is less than a lethal threat to our democracy is a fool — and a collaborator.
Here in Fairhope, Alabama, we are facing an attempt to restrict access to books in the public library. But don't say books will be "banned," only that they will be reclassified in such a way that the audience for whom they are written (specifically, teens) will not have access. Some folks, being conflict-adverse, think that the problem will go away if we accede to some small measure of censorship. Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is egregious bullshit. Resistance does not assure a positive outcome, but lack of it guarantees that you are well and truly fucked.
Please don’t confuse me for Tom Friedman in a taxi. A few weeks back I was chatting with an African-American small business owner in a low income neighborhood in Jackson Mississippi and out of the blue he mentioned that aid to Ukraine made him angry because the money could be better spent in places like Jackson. So their message apparently getting through much better than I would have thought. The Dems should learn from that and ask why we are sending so much “aid” to a country with a highly effective military that is in no danger of losing and has a higher standard of living than we have. Of course some would say the question is anti-Semitic, but fuck them.
But there is some truth to the idea that a country the size of Ukraine can never truly triumph over Russia. I mean, the only way is if we fight Russia to total military defeat, not just defeat in Ukraine, but decimate Russia's military capability overall, because Putin will not stop otherwise. So we keep throwing money to Ukraine and the bombing continues, and Putin keeps trading oil for missiles and mercenaries. Both sides are now using depleted uranium shells, so the world's "Bread Basket" is being defiled and polluted for generations to come. When/how does this war end? You can call it defeatism, or blame MAGA jerks like Vance for being selfish isolationists, but what's the endgame? I don't buy that if we don't keep financing Ukraine, that we will have to fight Putin ourselves when he invades a NATO country. He knows that could go nuclear. Why not cede some of the Russian controlled areas, negotiate access to the Sea of Azov and ports for Ukraine, and rebuild military to resist any further incursions? And push for a putsch of Putin? I mean, he's not forever, right? How can we strengthen the resistance within Russia?
Ukraine is fighting very well. Russia is losing badly. 350K casualties, vast amounts of material destroyed - unimaginable losses. For ex., the Russian Black Sea flagship, a missile cruiser, was sunk. Six thousand tanks, hundreds of aircraft, etc. etc. Morale is abysmal among ill-equipped front line troops, miserably entrenched or sent in waves to die with kill teams behind them to prevent retreat. Command is beyond inept - no combined-arms capability in spite of having the necessary vehicles/gear. The Russians are relying on artillery, drones, and throwing tens of thousands of men at lines that hold.
Their Afghan war lasted ten years, and is said to have speeded the collapse of the Soviet Union. Their Ukraine war has, in less than two years, cost Russia much much more. If Ukraine capitulates, Russia could hold what they seized in the East. As things are going, they could lose Zaporizhzhia Oblast and even Crimea. This is a very good time for Ukraine's allies to supply them with alot of stuff.
But hey, I tend to follow pro-Ukraine sources. Maybe I'm missing something. However, some facts can't be disputed, even if they come from friends of Ukraine. Russia will lose if Ukraine is properly supported.
<<What is notable is that Cooper thinks if “American democracy” is “suspended,” it might be “temporary.”>>
Hey, it's not without precedent. Look to history: Hitler's reign was only temporary, for example, and Germany is an economic powerhouse today. There were only a few bumps along the way!
"I think there may be a connection in the change between the old way and the new way in the utter and complete exposure of both Republicanism and its religious offshoot, evangelicalism, as total grifts and fakes..."
There are times when I feel like they're not even trying anymore. Specifically, not trying to formulate an argument (or even a set of talking-points) that might actually be plausible to non-insane people.
Case in point: If you want to attack the college students protesting for Palestine on our college campuses, isn't the obvious attack that they're dupes? They mean well, these kids, and they see people dying on their YouTubes, so they want a ceasefire, not understanding that the ceasefire helps Hamas, which wants to kill MORE people (please don't @ me, not my opinion, thanks) I feel like any Republican politician of past decades could have pulled this off easily, but is that the line of attack they're following today? No, of course not, it's the ludicrous claim that a hundred students marching through the quad waving signs saying "Ceasefire Now" are ANTISEMITES who are for GENOCIDE.
Sometimes I feel like an old man from a bygone era who just doesn't understand how things are done today, but I still hold, foolishly perhaps, to the idea that politics is about persuasion, about getting other people to adopt your point of view as their own. And yet it's clear Republicans have completely left this behind, everything has to be amped-up to the highest level of aggression to excite the right-wing loons cheering from the crowd right in front of them, with either no awareness or no concern that said loons are not a representative sample of the American population.
Why do they do it? Have they got some card up their sleeve, that they no longer need to persuade normal, non-wingnut folks? The last few elections certainly don't indicate that, but they persist just the same.
A few minor points...
Cox is trying to save her life in addition to her uterus.
The GOP's position on more weapons to Ukraine, on one hand makes sense; the endgame is assuredly going to be some kind of ugly. But their position has to questioned re whether it's a sincere position or just posturing. Ukraine and Israel have been windfalls for our exceptional munitions businesses and I'm not sure they want to see that tap turned off sooner than it must.
And as ever with Donnie, the question needs to be asked how much what he does aligns with what the party wants. which leads to another problem, but one I have no interest in addressing other than noting: The establishment media's new thing of considering the possibility of his being a dictator ignores that overlap. And speaking of dictatorial behavior, there's SCOTGOP.
Ohhhh, looks like I sort of (accidentally!) came full circle. I'm back to Dobbs ad Cox.
Not much pundit bullshit shocks me anymore, but Cooper’s “so we suspend democracy for a while, no biggie” was one of them. Talk about whistling past the cemetery (presuming it doesn’t come from some deeper place of cynicism). It reminds me of those who said after the 2020 election, “look, let Trump rant and rave about stolen elections, what’s he going to do about it, really? He’ll go quietly when it comes right down to it.”
It’s like these people think democracy on its own isn’t merely a concept, but is some kind or rock solid edifice with a will of its own that will ultimately repel all usurpers. But democracy is only an idea that institutions, policies, and people make feasible. Change the institutions, create different policies, and draft a different cast of characters to work in them and put them forward, and *POOF* no more democracy.
The Kate Cox situation is absolutely heartbreaking, and I’m in awe of her courage. From the first she had dozens of offers (likely some from Dem politicians looking for cred) to fly expense-free to a blue state to get the medical termination she needs. But she chose to fight, and tried to establish a precedent for others. True courage.
Aside from the personal tragedy of Cox’s situation, it would be political malpractice if the Dems are not pulling Ken Paxton’s and Texas Supreme Court quotes for ads in 2024, and every Dem should be prepared to say some version of this on the stump: “You never believed them when they talked about medical exceptions, and why should you? You know they’ve been working tirelessly for decades to end the ability of women to control what happens to their own bodies. Now you have proof, in their own words and actions, that medical exceptions are a lie. They don’t care about life, that’s another lie. They didn’t care about Kate Cox’s life. They didn’t care about her family’s lives. They didn’t care about the lives of future children she may no longer be able to have. They care about control, about controlling YOUR life. They want to control every womb in America.”
If Tim Ryan had run as a Proud Biden Democrat we wouldn't be listening to that asshole Vance.
Good article !
Roy, you are 100% spot on. Mic drop!!!!
I couldn’t agree with you more. Part of the problem is everyone is focusing on a “particular” tree and they can’t see the forest. We have a select few Jewish hedge-fund billionaires calling for the heads of elite universities. Don’t they realize they are contributing to the troupes that Jews control the media and banking system? Do they realize that while they are outraged that a small group of protesters are calling for a Jewish genocide, that an actual genocide is taking place against women and children?
“The widespread fear that Trump will actually be a dictator, however, is misplaced. If Trump wins the 2024 election, American democracy might be suspended, at least temporarily. But it won’t be replaced by a dictatorship, which is a coherent and recognizable system of government.”--William Cooper
And herein lies the rub! Guys like Cooper want us to believe that we should take Trump figuratively, not literally, yet Trump has the Heritage Foundation (right-wing think tank) ready to replace 50,000 civil servants that know how to keep our government functioning with loyalists and we shouldn’t take this seriously?
We have the Federal Society and Family Research Council ready to replace all impartial judges with hand-picked religious zealots and we shouldn’t take this seriously? SCOTUS has already gutted the Civil Rights Act and allowed unlimited dark money in politics. They’ve also proven to be a bunch of corrupt kleptocrats in the pockets of conservative billionaires and non-profit conservative organizations.
Additionally, we have more than half of the Republican caucus in Congress as members of the Freedom Caucus, with a speaker that believes dinosaur’s roamed the earth with man, and we shouldn’t take this seriously?
We have all of Trump’s sycophants and acolytes telling us that he will weaponize the DOJ, FBI, IRS and military to do his nefarious bidding, and we shouldn’t take this seriously?
He’s already tried to usurp an election, and he failed. Yet, if you are a student of American history, you’d know that the religious fanatics could lose every battle, and in the end, they win the war; simply by mere exhaustion and attrition. How do you think Johnson became speaker and SCOTUS is currently filled with Federalist Society judges?
If Trump wins, we will pull out of NATO. Ukraine will fall and Poland and Moldova will be next on Putin’s menu. Western alliances will crumble, and we will suffer an economic depression as our global economic system is uprooted, and thrown into chaos.
And Trump will have his Reichstag moment so he can implement Martial Law. It will most likely occur at the southern border. Perhaps a Hamas terrorist attack that in response to Biden’s support for Israel.
Either way, Trump will weaponize the military and intelligence services for his own nefarious purposes and turn them on the American people; especially his enemies, while the MSM and democrats are too busy fighting over insignificant issues; like whether college campuses are too woke!
So be afraid.....:)
"We shouldn't be spending billions on Ukraine! We could use that money [to help poor single mothers right here!/to send to Mexico to stop the immigrants!/to rebuild our infrastructure!/to help feed poor families!/to improve our schools!/(other fantasy project)]."
I hear this from my sister all the time. But when I suggest we actually spend money on ANY of those things, well, that's just no gonna happen. Because why waste taxpayer money on any of those things?
Dictator for a day; King for life.
I’m going to outsource most of my dictatorship fears to the Liberal Redneck (an ad begins 2:50; and he returns to praise Taylor Swift, and slam Martha Blackburn as a puppy eating monster at, appropriately, 4:20)
https://youtu.be/5_9yo82sVPA?si=8n8Z9PCOQ635Hnur
Money quote. “it’s like a babysitter tried and failed to abduct your child, and you went and rehired her because her replacement takes too many naps..”
In too many small, and not just southern, towns, democracy is not really embraced because they are functionally (and generally Baptist/evangelical) police states.
The idiot attack on clueless University presidents, not a group I generally feel much sympathy for, and the manufacturing of outrages to hide the outrageous conduct of the Gaza War or anti abortion Judges, e.g. shows a media wanting horse races and avoiding the real awful facts...
Well done. One of the things I loved about "The Crown" was that it made the Duke of Windsor's traitorous perfidy crystal clear, and it was gratifying to see his beloved Lillibet reject and isolate him for it.
Churchill saw it coming, DeGaulle saw it coming, and both were exiled, figuratively or literally, for it. (Also DeGaulle, having escaped to England with only a couple hundred supporters, was condemned to death by Vichy.) The historical models for the present moment in American politics are crystal clear, and anyone who thinks Trump is less than a lethal threat to our democracy is a fool — and a collaborator.
Here in Fairhope, Alabama, we are facing an attempt to restrict access to books in the public library. But don't say books will be "banned," only that they will be reclassified in such a way that the audience for whom they are written (specifically, teens) will not have access. Some folks, being conflict-adverse, think that the problem will go away if we accede to some small measure of censorship. Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is egregious bullshit. Resistance does not assure a positive outcome, but lack of it guarantees that you are well and truly fucked.
Please don’t confuse me for Tom Friedman in a taxi. A few weeks back I was chatting with an African-American small business owner in a low income neighborhood in Jackson Mississippi and out of the blue he mentioned that aid to Ukraine made him angry because the money could be better spent in places like Jackson. So their message apparently getting through much better than I would have thought. The Dems should learn from that and ask why we are sending so much “aid” to a country with a highly effective military that is in no danger of losing and has a higher standard of living than we have. Of course some would say the question is anti-Semitic, but fuck them.
I first encountered the quote "The devil will try to convince you he's already won" in the 00s-era webcomic Fans!, but it's probably older than that.
Either way, I try to keep it in mind.
But there is some truth to the idea that a country the size of Ukraine can never truly triumph over Russia. I mean, the only way is if we fight Russia to total military defeat, not just defeat in Ukraine, but decimate Russia's military capability overall, because Putin will not stop otherwise. So we keep throwing money to Ukraine and the bombing continues, and Putin keeps trading oil for missiles and mercenaries. Both sides are now using depleted uranium shells, so the world's "Bread Basket" is being defiled and polluted for generations to come. When/how does this war end? You can call it defeatism, or blame MAGA jerks like Vance for being selfish isolationists, but what's the endgame? I don't buy that if we don't keep financing Ukraine, that we will have to fight Putin ourselves when he invades a NATO country. He knows that could go nuclear. Why not cede some of the Russian controlled areas, negotiate access to the Sea of Azov and ports for Ukraine, and rebuild military to resist any further incursions? And push for a putsch of Putin? I mean, he's not forever, right? How can we strengthen the resistance within Russia?
Ukraine is fighting very well. Russia is losing badly. 350K casualties, vast amounts of material destroyed - unimaginable losses. For ex., the Russian Black Sea flagship, a missile cruiser, was sunk. Six thousand tanks, hundreds of aircraft, etc. etc. Morale is abysmal among ill-equipped front line troops, miserably entrenched or sent in waves to die with kill teams behind them to prevent retreat. Command is beyond inept - no combined-arms capability in spite of having the necessary vehicles/gear. The Russians are relying on artillery, drones, and throwing tens of thousands of men at lines that hold.
Their Afghan war lasted ten years, and is said to have speeded the collapse of the Soviet Union. Their Ukraine war has, in less than two years, cost Russia much much more. If Ukraine capitulates, Russia could hold what they seized in the East. As things are going, they could lose Zaporizhzhia Oblast and even Crimea. This is a very good time for Ukraine's allies to supply them with alot of stuff.
But hey, I tend to follow pro-Ukraine sources. Maybe I'm missing something. However, some facts can't be disputed, even if they come from friends of Ukraine. Russia will lose if Ukraine is properly supported.
<<What is notable is that Cooper thinks if “American democracy” is “suspended,” it might be “temporary.”>>
Hey, it's not without precedent. Look to history: Hitler's reign was only temporary, for example, and Germany is an economic powerhouse today. There were only a few bumps along the way!
"I think there may be a connection in the change between the old way and the new way in the utter and complete exposure of both Republicanism and its religious offshoot, evangelicalism, as total grifts and fakes..."
There are times when I feel like they're not even trying anymore. Specifically, not trying to formulate an argument (or even a set of talking-points) that might actually be plausible to non-insane people.
Case in point: If you want to attack the college students protesting for Palestine on our college campuses, isn't the obvious attack that they're dupes? They mean well, these kids, and they see people dying on their YouTubes, so they want a ceasefire, not understanding that the ceasefire helps Hamas, which wants to kill MORE people (please don't @ me, not my opinion, thanks) I feel like any Republican politician of past decades could have pulled this off easily, but is that the line of attack they're following today? No, of course not, it's the ludicrous claim that a hundred students marching through the quad waving signs saying "Ceasefire Now" are ANTISEMITES who are for GENOCIDE.
Sometimes I feel like an old man from a bygone era who just doesn't understand how things are done today, but I still hold, foolishly perhaps, to the idea that politics is about persuasion, about getting other people to adopt your point of view as their own. And yet it's clear Republicans have completely left this behind, everything has to be amped-up to the highest level of aggression to excite the right-wing loons cheering from the crowd right in front of them, with either no awareness or no concern that said loons are not a representative sample of the American population.
Why do they do it? Have they got some card up their sleeve, that they no longer need to persuade normal, non-wingnut folks? The last few elections certainly don't indicate that, but they persist just the same.
Tom Snyder today calls US and other democracies supporting Ukraine "Doing well by doing right".
https://snyder.substack.com/p/doing-well-by-doing-right