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| Richardson |
It’s free, although you can sign up for $5 a month to join in the
healthy back and forth discussion between subscribers which follows the free “Letter
from an American” each day. As Thomas Jefferson may, or may not, have
said or written, “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Clicking
on “Letter from an American” helps you to at least keep your eyes open. We are living in perilous times.
And
while on this subject, in an email to the local Democratic group in our
community, its Chairman, Bruce Brodsky, compared the acts of the extreme right
with the “Profiles in Courage” about which John Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote, and
referred to their position as “Profiles in Cowardice.”
He wrote that …
These words ring with
truth. While we earnestly hope that the forty-fifth president will soon be no
more than a bitter memory, which is not a certainty, those that supported him, and whose votes he was
able to steer to elect legislators favorable to his ideas, will still be
around.
We must monitor them
very carefully in days and years to come.
Some are already angry at Trump for not having succeeded in changing America
to the undemocratic, bigoted, dictatorship they so desire, a nation where the
only things that are good are those which are good for those who share their
agenda, an agenda which excluded many from life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. And many of them are willing
to fight for that dark agenda.
And if you haven't yet read today's "Letter from an American," please CLICK HERE.
JL
(Item added 1/18/2021)
Those of you who remember the first Trump impeachment hearings certainly recall the impressive testimony of National Security Council appointee, Fiona Hill, She was honest and pulled no punches, but of course swayed none of the Trumpublicans who voted against that impeachment in the House. Last week, Ms. Hill explained the "coup" which Trump unsuccessfully attempted on January 6. To read her Politico article, JUST CLICK HERE. (I wonder if the eight Senators and 147 House Republicans who assisted in Trump's attempt, either knowingly or not, by voting not to accept the Electoral College results from one or more States will ever admit to their aiding and abetting it.)
JL
(Item added 1/18/2021)
Today, we honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King. Here is the text of his Washington, DC, 1963, "I have a dream" speech.
JUST CLICK HERE FOR ITS FULL TEXT
(Item added 1/19/2021)
Trump's Contamination of Law Enforcement
Remember back in 2017 when Donald Trump spoke before a group of police officers, all ranged behind him on the stage. (It was in Suffolk County, New York, I seem to recall.) He frequently spoke to such groups. They weren’t there to protect the President. Really, they were his audience that day. When they applauded, it established a link between them. Could they not applaud? After all, he’s the President and he had come to speak before them.
And when Trump said, “please
don’t be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re
protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t
hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody — don’t hit their head, you can
take the hand away, okay,” that sent a message to them … and
to law enforcement all over the country.
The way things work out, much
of the work of local law enforcement in this country is in Black and Latino
neighborhoods. Often, people there need
the police more than elsewhere to preserve law and order and to protect
them. Often, that’s where the “bad guys”
are. But make no mistake, many officers
feel they are following the leadership of the President when they try to
operate the way his words suggest they want him to, not being “too nice.” And that means that many of those who live in such neighborhoods are potentially suspects to start with in the eyes of misguided local law
enforcement. And then bad things happen in places like Minneapolis by overly zealous, Trump-inspired law enforcement.
And this attitude goes for
Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement people as well. They know the President’s feeling toward
those with whom they deal and act accordingly.
He’s their boss, ultimately, in their eyes.
All these officers wear a
badge on their chests, but they often, even if they are not Federal officers,
wear an American Flag shoulder patch as well.
In the minds of some, this puts them on the same team as the President
who was always surrounded by many American flags when he appeared in public. He’s their commander in chief, just like in
the armed forces.
(And a question for another
day is how much of this insurrectionism is present in those armed forces, who
supposedly take orders from a commander-in-chief, who turns out to be
sympathetic to domestic terrorists? And
this also can involve veterans who maintain this loyalty.)
Sometimes, this feeling
extends into the politics of some law enforcement people. Some clearly were
overly gentle, too polite, with the white domestic terrorists who invaded the Capitol during
the Trump Insurrection on January 6.
Some might have even been part of it, and they should be severely
punished.
How do we resolve this
problem? How do we de-politicize law
enforcement? As good citizens, they
certainly should have the right to engage in political activities and to
vote. But that should in no way affect
the way they do their jobs.
Never. Ever.
(Items added 1/20/2021)
Take a breath! By the time you are reading this, Donald Trump will no longer be our president. Our job now is to remove the stain, as Nancy Pelosi called it, that he left on the presidency. Halleluyah!
* * *
For years, Florida has been a place of refuge for law-breakers and those on the path to becoming law-breakers. Miami and Miami Beach were often the destinations of those who felt safer in the sunny South, particularly those with Mafia or shady business connections. Well, it's still going on, but those coming here these days are white supremacists who feel comforted by the presence of ex-president Trump here, and many others on the far right who enjoy lying to the many ignorant and gullible residents of Florida ... and the rest of the nation. Read the article in today's Sun-Sentinel about one of these groups in West Palm Beach by CLICKING HERE.
(Item added 1/21/2021)
Accountability
On the
evening of the Trump-incited insurrection, January 6, and into the wee hours of
the next morning, both the House and the Senate voted to certify the Electoral
College results of the 2020 presidential election, despite the insurrection’s violent
efforts, in which five people died, to stop those votes from taking place.
Because they chose to
believe the unsubstantiated lies circulated
by the Trump administration, even in the shadow of the insurrection taking
place in the Capitol, eight Senators and 147 House
Representatives, all Republicans, voted not to certify the results from
at least one State. They did so to
maintain the loyalty of their extremist base, some of whom supported domestic
terrorism on that day in person or from afar. Some legislators even
had encouraged the insurrectionists.
Before
the new administration can work to bring all Americans together, some sort of accountability for the actions of these Senators and
Congresspersons must occur. Their
actions cannot be swept under a rug. Only
then can the nation, under the leadership of President Biden, move ahead.
JL
(Items added 1/23/2021)
Covid19 Vaccinations
As I see it, although the supply of vaccines is growing, its method of distribution to the public, right now basically those
over age 65, is “all over the place.”
The vaccine supply is often in the wrong places (like hospitals whose
staff and patients already have been vaccinated). No program should require non-patients to
visit hospitals for vaccinations. I
don’t think that’s a good idea.
The problem is that setting up
appointments at the right places for those in line to be vaccinated is in the
hands of various State and local government entities, or even hospitals or
pharmacies, not prepared for the enormity of the task. Overwhelmed websites (or
phone lines) are frequently changed from what they were “last week,” often crash,
and people cannot get appointments to get vaccinated. But those skillful or
patient enough to manage to negotiate this maze do get appointments.
Right now, those over 65 in Palm Beach County can try to get an appointment (even if it is in Broward County) by calling 866-201 6313. The online websites apparently have been abandoned.
Obviously, while administering the vaccine through local
government facilities and pharmacies is the way to go, the setting up of
vaccination appointments should be a federally managed program,
through websites or by telephone.
The Federal government’s Medicare and Social Security websites have far greater capacity to do this than do pitiful local efforts. It should be a program which recognizes and coordinates where the ever-changing inventory of vaccine is and where those seeking appointments are. We have the technology to put man on the moon and travel in space. Certainly we can do this as well.
Free Speech for Insurrectionists?
Yesterday, Press Secretary Psaki mentioned 'respect for constitutionally protected free speech and political activities' in approaching the problem of domestic violent extremism. This has to be carefully balanced with how we deal with those who still advocate sedition and insurrection, including some in law enforcement, the military and those with background in those areas, not to mention the ex-president.
JL
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