IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND OTHERS YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT.
* *
* *
Competing with Tucker Carlson
 |
RICHARDSON |
With that in mind, I recommend that you visit “Letters from an American,”
a daily newsletter posted by Professor Heather Cox Richardson of Boston College
if you are not already doing so.
It's free, although you can pay a monthly fee to be able to add comments
to it and to see the comments made by others, as many do each day. She also
publishes a podcast.
Besides providing an intelligent summary of the day’s news (with links
to sites where her source material may be read), Professor Richardson often
shares her historical expertise with you.
Check out the site by visiting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ CLICKING HERE WILL GET YOU THERE TOO.
If you like it, please pass this message on to four or five of your
friends and relatives. That’s one way of competing with Tucker Carlson.
JL
* *
* *
“Falsehood flies and truth comes limping after it.” … Jonathan Swift
JL
* *
* *
Outdoor Sweat on Your Brow
There’s something noble about having sweat on your brow. To some it’s more wholesome than doing
something for a living that doesn’t necessitate physical labor. And doing it out in the open countryside is
better than doing it in a city or in an enclosed structure, if you have the
choice. Beyond being romantic, some
consider that to be the essence of being patriotic, American and politically, I
sense it to be Republican.
Clever marketers have capitalized on this by naming a hardware store
chain that caters to such non-urban people as the “Tractor Supply Company.” I doubt that many of its customers own
tractors. Similarly, the image of hardworking, muscular stevedores on the docks
or loading railroad cars is the theme of hardware stores that call themselves
“Harbor Freight Company.”
Very subtly, the image suggested by the very names of these chain stores
excludes many Americans from their supposed customer base, even though anyone’s
money or credit card is acceptable there. It is hard to pin down, but there is something
vaguely uncomfortable about the idea of individuals being able to do things for
themselves and not along with others. I
sense that no one who shops in either place belongs to a union.
There is something about the marketing approach of Tractor Supply and Harbor Freight stores, making individualism appear more important than cooperation, which is not unlike that of undemocratic forces on the far right of our political spectrum. It’s that self-sufficient “cowboy” mentality that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980 showing up again in our culture, the idea that all dressing up requires is a cleaner pair of blue jeans than the ones you wore when you cleaned out your cesspool.
For me, Home Depot, Lowes and Ace Hardware stores seem more democratic, the last mentioned being about the closest one can get to a ‘mom and pop’ operation today. (It's interesting that neither Tractor Supply nor Harbor Freight sells paint, but almost all Ace Hardware locations do, probably the key to their survival.)
Amazon, I won’t even
mention.
JL
* *
* *
Once in a while I check out “Common Sense,” a daily blog posted
by former New York Times editorial staffer, Bari Weiss. Sometimes she writes the content and often
she passes on the thoughts of others.
Ms. Weiss frequently addresses the phenomenon of “institutional capture,”
where she believes some of America’s
most important institutions (examples: Medicine, Hollywood, Education,
Newspapers) have betrayed their own missions, having been transformed by an
illiberal ideology. In fact, Ms. Weiss resigned from the New York Times and
started her blog because of that. The
other day, Ms. Weiss addressed the practice of law as follows:
“Ok, so we’ve lost a lot. A whole lot. But at least we haven’t lost the
law. That’s how we comforted ourselves. The law would be the bulwark against
this nonsense. The rest we could work on building anew. But what if the country’s legal system was
changing just like everything else?
Today, Aaron Sibarium, a reporter who has consistently been ahead of the pack on this beat, offers a groundbreaking piece on how
the legal system in America, as one prominent liberal scholar put it, is at
risk of becoming “a totalitarian nightmare.”
To read it, visit bariweiss.substack.com
where it appears under the title of “The Takeover of America’s Legal System.” or CLICK HERE . An example of this “takeover” can be witnessed in the ongoing hearings
for the appointment of Judge Ketanji Brown
Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Judge Jackson is
actually being criticized by some Republicans for having served as a public
defender in the past and having had Guantanamo prisoners as clients. They think this will affect how she will rule
on cases before the SCOTUS. They don’t
understand what lawyers do and what the law is all about. To them, everything
is politicized and this is what Sibarium warns of and fears.
JL
* *
* *
More About the
Composition of the SCOTUS
With six
"originalists" on the SCOTUS, the almost certain appointment of
Justice Jackson will change little. Waiting for their retirement or death and
hoping it occurs during a presidency and Senate that values democracy over
traditionalism is not a viable solution because by then, democracy in America
will be dead and buried, with the philosophy of Antonin Scalia, or even worse,
Robert Bork, in the ascendency. Expansion of the SCOTUS must be on the agenda
of any Democratic administration that has a majority in the Senate.
JL
* *
* *
To supplement the list of companies still doing business with Russia despite their invasion of Ukraine, contained in the following article, check out https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-400-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain or just CLICK HERE TO GET THERE.
But first, read Dana Milbank’s recent Washington Post column
 |
| Millbank |
Zelenskyy Says Peace over Profit – Look Who
Disagrees
Dana Milbank
Washington Post Columnist
In his gut-wrenching address to Congress,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the United States for more — and
more he will get.
U.S. leaders across the spectrum saluted
Zelenskyy after he spoke to them Wednesday from Kyiv in his olive-drab T-shirt
— part Winston Churchill and part Che Guevara. Neither lawmakers nor the
administration support a U.S.-led no-fly zone or troop commitment.
But Zelenskyy made another ask and it’s
something all Americans can help with. We can stop buying the
products of businesses that continue to fund Vladimir Putin’s war machine, even
after its full horrors are obvious to the world.
'All American companies must leave Russia. . . .
Leave their market immediately, because it is flooded with our blood,' the
young leader said, asking lawmakers 'to make sure that the Russians do not
receive a single penny that they use to destroy our people in Ukraine. . . .
Peace is more important than income.'
Most American companies get that. Some 400 U.S.
and other multinational firms have pulled out of Russia, according to Yale’s
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who has kept the authoritative list. Oil companies (BP, Shell,
ExxonMobil) and tech companies (Dell, IBM, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter)
led the way, and many others (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola) eventually
followed.
But
at the other extreme, 33 companies (as of Wednesday) form a 'hall of shame,'
defying demands that they exit Russia or reduce activities there.
'They
are funding the Russian war machine, and they are undermining the whole idea of
the sanctions,' Sonnenfeld told me. 'The
whole idea is to freeze up civil society, to get people out on the streets and
outraged. They’re undermining an effective resolution.'
Those who want to stop Russia’s murderous attack
against Ukraine should stop investing in or buying the products of these
companies.
Koch Industries, whose owners gave to
right-wing causes for years, is now financing Putin’s war. The people who make Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper, Vanity
Fair napkins and Georgia-Pacific lumber are abetting the spilling of Ukrainians’
blood.
Like Reebok shoes? They’re being used to stomp on
Ukraine. Authentic Brands Group, which also owns Aeropostale, Eddie
Bauer, Brooks Brothers and Nine West, among others, is in the hall of shame.
Before you bite into a Cinnabon (or Carvel ice cream, Schlotzsky’s sandwich or Auntie Anne’s pretzel) consider that parent company Focus Brands is
taking a bite out of democracy in Ukraine. So is Subway, selling you the All-American Club while
refusing to cut loose 446 Russian franchises.
Several other household brands — Truvia and Diamond Crystal salt (Cargill), Avon cosmetics (Natura), LG appliances, ASUS laptops, Mission tortillas (Gruma) and Pirelli tires — are produced by companies on the
shameful list.
Let’s name and shame all the others among the
33: advertising
firms BBDO, DDB and Omnicom; accountant Baker Tilly; industrial companies Air
Liquide, Air Products, Greif, IPG Photonics, Linde, Mettler Toledo, Nalco and
Rockwool; French hotelier Accor and retailers Auchan, Decathlon and Leroy
Merlin; German wholesaler Metro; cloud service Cloudflare; International Paper;
and Sweden’s Oriflame Cosmetics.
An additional 72
multinationals have made only partial pullbacks from Russia, such as reducing
current operations or holding off on new investments — actions Sonnenfeld calls
'smokescreens.' Included here: Dunkin’ Donuts, General Mills, Mondelez (Oreos
and other Nabisco products), candymaker Mars, Procter & Gamble, Yum Brands
(Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott.
All these businesses could be doing more to
stop Putin’s savagery and war crimes. Because they won’t, we all should do more
to stop them and reward the vast majority of companies that share Zelenskyy’s
belief that peace is more important than profit.
JL
* *
* *
No comments:
Post a Comment