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Sunday evening I watched the program "Love and the Constitution" featuring Jamie Raskin, a constitutional law professor and member of the Jan 6 committee. He was elected to Congress in 2016 and the program started with his election. It was interesting to have my memory jogged on what the first couple of years of the DT administration were like - like shutting down the government etc. It was a wonderful program and puts Rep. Raskin on a short list of people I would vote for for President. It might be refreshing to have a Constitutional scholar who loves the Constitution to repair the damage that has been done to the Constitution by all three branches of government. The shadow docket of the Supreme Court and its dismantling of democracy is one thing that needs to be fixed. The Congress as a supposed democratic institution needs the have some adults elected to the Congress. President Biden is doing an amazing job in extremely difficult circumstances. The two party system that John Adams called the worst evil to befall the Constitution should be buried with the Republican party. We can do better than a system that leads to such dysfunctional extremes. Let's celebrate the Biden Boom! Let's celebrate the Constitution. But, make it work for All the People this time.

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There should be articles, ads, multiple news stories as to what daily life would be like with an authoritarian goverment. But then, many people probably wouldn't believe it until it happens. Really. It appears they have no idea!

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Oh geez, every letter has a gut punch, with something new, something shocking, but true, but this one really hit with extra realization. So now we know where the Zuck’ gets his orders from. How long has Billionaire Peter Theil been on the FB/Meta board? Probably at least since 2015? Enough time to facilitate selling out every single American psyche on the “platform” to the Russian Internet Research Agency trolls, bots, etc, or at least just looking the other way to make a few more $, as tens of millions of Americans have been radicalized, or better yet, fanatic’ised beyond reason. It’s a new age of digital demagoguery, but the motives are old, and selfish, and as evil as ever.

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Officially, the only platform that the Republican Party has right now is to obstruct everything that Biden and the democratically controlled Congress does. That is their sole objective. No legislative agenda whatsoever. Obstruct the emerging diversity society at all costs, democracy be damned.

So what does it mean to be a Republican in this decade?

• Attacking immigrants (because they’re not white)

• Putting up walls on the southern border (because those immigrants will dilute the white population)

• Straights only: no rainbows please. (Please? PLEASE? There is nothing kind or considerate about how Republicans and their white supremacist membership treats non-straights. Violence.)

• Rich people only, which means exploiting everybody else so the rich can get richer off of everyone else (think Republican tax cuts)

• Attack every non-white who is nominated or elected for a position of authority, especially if it’s a she, because we only want whites in charge and we only want mostly men in charge, and if a woman is in charge, that’s ok only if she has been trained to defer to men and to accept the authority of men over women

• No government assistance for the poor people, or even the middle class, assistance only for rich people. That includes FDR and the New Deal, arguably the most important administration in the 20th century because of the magnitude of its new innovations like Social Security and Medicare

• No abortions, for the dual purpose of keeping men in charge of women AND increasing the number of white babies. Notice how young mother assistance programs run by a particular brand of Christian (non-Planned Parenthood) group focus nearly exclusively on getting white teenage mothers to deliver their white babies?

It took months and months and months of discussion with all of you here, and reading and absorbing Heather’s pieces, for me to get to the bottom of the Republican versus Democrat enigma. My freshly formed (in the last two years) political opinions are in huge part a product of my time here with all of you. Thank you all 🙏

Oddly and hideously, you can break down nearly every Republican and even “conservative“ ideology and issue and culture war complaint to this:

• keep whites in charge

• keep men in charge

• keep rich people in charge

• keep straights in charge

Republicans are the people who like white supremacy, male supremacy, wealth supremacy, and straight supremacy.

Try it sometime with the next distasteful or revolting piece of news coming from them. Test that news against this template. While you’re at it, why limit yourself to America. Whenever you hear about something in Europe or Russia or South America or elsewhere that has been called “nativist“ or “tribal“ or “far right wing,” see if the shoe fits.

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"The vote for letting the new maps stand was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the liberals against the new right-wing majority, in control thanks to the three justices added by Trump."

And some people claim the Court is not political.

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I am simply numb. In the state where I live, the Dems are spinning wheels, doing the same old things, thinking things will work out because they always have, even though that is part of the mythology of this state. We've got some good young people and some seasoned old hands, and a bunch of people who just don't seem to pay attention. The Progressives (here a separate party, not a branch of the Dems, though sometimes it's hard to tell) are attracting people with obstructionist tendencies. My local Dem committee does not meet. We lost a brilliant young communications director to another job: she was like a beacon, drawing people in. Damn, I'll miss her.

I write letters because that is what I can do. Today's was promoting a bright, capable challenger to an incumbant on our select board who is one of the aforementioned obstructionist Progs. And a misogynist.

And today I came across an article from the December Atlantic about the state I was born in: the eastern Oregon secession movement, as if they just discovered it. Holy cow. It's been around as long as Oregon has, and just now being exploited by rich men for their own purposes, and they are adding new myths to the old ones (now they want to go to the ocean). At least they got the part about it being really a way to keep the reactionary right from going off the deep end. And there's my irony: my folks left Idaho to get away from Idaho, and Idaho followed them there. So most of us ended up in Washington (the state), including me until I took a job in Vermont, and got stuck here. Guess I'm not as settled in as I thought. Still miss the NW, especially NW Washington. But here I am. So I will keep on doing what I can.

Maybe tomorrow I'll feel better. It stopped snowing, the sun came out for a day or so, and I have a new dog who is a beauty and delightful.

Most of all, a cherished friend in Oregon is back in the saddle, after a scary week in the hospital because of delayed treatment of a non-covid condition that could have ended up costing him his life. And we all know why that is happening.

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I believe that the RNC statement of “legitimate political discourse,” the defeated x45 manchild speech that promised more riots and pardons and the stories of scotch taped papers are the usual tfg red herrings to get the media off the story of obstruction of justice and jury tampering. Well past time to lock up those who ignore subpoenas and threaten violence to poll workers, school committees and other public officials, including Dr Fauci. It’s February already and the all-important primaries begin in a few weeks.

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Damn, I should have waited til morning to read this and the continuing treason and outrageous behavior of the Republicans who Kiss the Don’s butt shamelessly. I will probably dream of attempting to rectify the situation in ways that my Quaker friends from high school would not approve. ☠️

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Feb 8, 2022·edited Feb 8, 2022

Thanks, Heather. The Republicans have thrown down the gauntlet of destroying our democracy, officially. The enemy to our own democracy lies within our corporatocracy and maintaining the caste system against anyone who is not white, male and privileged. This is February 8, 2022. Is it now time to treat aiders and abetters of sedition as the anti-democracy criminals they are— according to our Constitution?

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I was moved by Adam Schiff's closing lines at tfg's impeachment trial, and they continue to give me chills today:

“'History will not be kind to Donald Trump. If you find that the House has proved its case, and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel and for all of history.'"

The singular indignity and contempt with which the RNC discharges its duties belongs in the gutter alongside its idol, the "golden calf" and his abominable Republican minions. How any human being can yearn to link their name to his is beyond comprehension.

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TFG had advisors who fed him lines of BS? Remember, he chose his advisors. When they stopped saying what he wanted to hear, he sacked them and appointed new ones, with accelerating frequency as his term came to a close. He seemed to have a talent for picking a rogue's gallery of "advisors", several of whom have already been convicted and served time for one form of white collar crime or another. And, now he has the RNC in his pocket as well. But, the closer and closer he flies to the flame, the more other Republicans will slowly succumb to the fear that being associated with him will destroy their chances with more moderate and orthodox party voters and independents. We still have nearly 3 years to the 2024 election, plenty of time for him to continue spouting increasingly outrageous lies and self incriminating statements, even IF the DOJ can't summon the courage to indict and prosecute him. The only court he cares about is the one with 160 million members in the jury box. It's worth remembering that he DID capture a personal record number of voters in 2020 and still lost by 5 million+ AND the electoral college. There just won't be enough voters in his base willing to stick with him in spite of himself to carry an election. He may wreak havoc in the primary, but the Republican orthodoxy (do they even exist anymore?) will have to make the brutal choice to perish in flames with him, or summon the courage to put him out to pasture and choose new champions. I haven't seen much evidence of courage in the current generation of elected national Republican leaders, so I wouldn't lay odds on their behaving as king-makers for anyone "new" in 2024. One simply can't speak from a position of strength while attempting to split the baby, to stand straight upright on the fractured ground of a huge pile of lies.

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Thanks Heather again for concise, penetrating commentary and insight. Hopefully the dam is going to break at some point and those (somewhat) honest Republicans in office will finally break with the "fringe" that now dominates the remains of the party. In all the polling and statistics, it seems that this country has about 30 some percent of voters who are aligned with all the Trump et al lies. (A higher percentage of Republicans of course.) The challenge now, is to get a winning majority of the remaining 70 percent of voters to come over the the Truth, Facts, and Science of the Democrat party. How to do seems to me to be the challenging political matter at hand today. What is the way?????? Who shall lead??? That seems to be the great unanswered question. Biden is caught up in dealing with the everyday trying to deliver the goods right now----and succeeding magnificently (look at jobs added, etc.) even though the MSM can't see that. In Addition: For what it is worth, take a look at The American Prospect web and emails that point out the REAL problem behind the bottleneck in trucking and distribution. It is the lack of good, well-paying jobs. The scandal is the fact that so many truckers have been reduced to contractors, unions have been squeezed out, the turnover in truckers is about 94% per year---Get the article and confirm the details and then write letters to newspapers, and all the rest. It isn't the lack of drivers---it is the lack of jobs that pay decently, have benefits, and all the rest. (which was the status of things until trucking was DEREGULATED----end of this rant.) Peace and Courage to all. And sleep well; be ready for tomorrow........

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Just when you think the atrocities that DT committed in which more come to light each day, are absolutely the craziest you can think of, you realize we are running out of superlatives to describe them. AND he’s seemingly untouchable and unaccountable for nothing short of high crimes of treason. How can this be possible?

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Feb 8, 2022·edited Feb 8, 2022

Reading this letter, really a summary of more crazy TFG stunts and the news today, I have to stop and breathe. Holding my breath until the next discovery. Nixon had secret tapes. TFG wasn’t even hiding his destruction of documents. Interesting that his staff taped the ripped pieces together. Why wasn’t that leaked to the public? Obstruction of Justice. What’s next? We are extremely lucky, very very lucky, this crazy man didn’t start WW3. But if we ask his diehard supporters, this is no big deal. We will have to rely on the 1/6 committee and the law.

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The comments by billionaire Peter Thiel are chilling.

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The GOP can't have it both ways; either you are a part of the corrupt Trump cult-and complicit in his authoritarianism-or you break completely and declare how dangerous this blighted human being is for the future of democracy in America.

Trump and his brownshirts have spoken their intentions out loud, providing no quarter for GOP fence-sitters.

Attempting to attract Trump's followers while seeking some semblance of distance from Trump is nothing more than a morbid exercise in dystopian pretzel logic.

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