Glenn Kirschner – From Trump DOJ Official Pleading the 5th to Congress on Cusp of Subpoenaing its Own: December Recap
Meidas Touch – Michael Cohen thinks Jan 6 text leaks are not what they appear (and he has some good points)
The Lincoln Project – In Their Words
NBC News – Remembering Those We Lost in 2021 – I said I was dreading this, but it’s worth knowing (Yes, Betty White died on December 31, but they made this on the 31st before the news got out.)
Really American – Trump To Deliver DANGEROUS Speech On January 6 (he has wimped out, though)
Woman Adopts Grandparents’ Grumpy Cat
Beau – Let’s talk about human rights or constitutional rights….
Monday, some things happened after I scheduled the post, and what with the computer, I didn’t get them in to yesterday’s post. Probably the main thing is that Governor Polis has imposed a two-week moratorium on prison visiting. That is sad, but also good. Safety is the most important thing at this point. Also, I have a prescription to pick up which I ordered delivered. The original order disappeared, and I had to call, and that detail got missed. I’d get help picking it up, but they’re close and have a sealed drive-up window. So yesterday I donned an N95 and gloves and picked it up at the window. And I also heard from WWWendy WW. She is still involved in settling TC’s estate (no surprise to anyone who has ever dealt with an estate, I’m sure). But she has also experienced the death of another very close friend. I am still having trouble with the computer, to the point where the video thread will be short today. I’m pretty sure my modem is obsolete and I will need a new one, but before I could get to CenturyLink on the phone, it was too late for a human being. So, today.
Transcript – uh good evening board members my name is melanie moore i am the parent of a third and fourth grader in district two and i’m grateful for the opportunity to speak with you this evening the issue i would like to address is the need for equitable education in all areas but first i’d like to share a little something personal i struggle with depression i have for many years i’ve gone to counselors throughout the years and one of the first things they ask me is tell me about your family of origin tell me about your past what happened to you in your past that is causing the current trauma and pain that you’re feeling in the same way our country cannot begin to heal until we deal with the pain trauma and hurt from our past we must teach our children the truth about the past and then show them how to be the change we wish to see in the world we can help them connect the dots from the awful events of the past to the current issues that face our country so that real change can happen as members of the white community we have got to stop pushing the agenda that diversity and truth and education is all about indoctrination shaming or placing guilt at the feet of white people no one is asking you to get up and place your head on the chopping block for the wrongs of the past people are simply asking for their stories to be heard and taught as ours have been for generations i would not allow my children to wallow in anger pain and self-pity i would do all i could to help them to be the very best versions of themselves even if it hurts to point out some painful truths about their behavior in the same way we have got to be honest with ourselves and admit that systemic racism is real that this country was created and prospered under the ideals of white supremacy and that we are responsible for righting the wrongs of our forefathers we did not create this mess but we are the ones that have to clean it up starting with honest equitable education practices now that will teach our children the hard truths about our past so that they can create a better future i understand that change is hard but it’s got to come racism is alive and well in this country it’s seen in the groups of white men with torches chanting you will not replace us to the fact that in 2021 we still don’t have a federal anti-lynching hate crime law we need to know better and then we need to do better happy pride happy early
You can click through to the tweet, or to the YouTube video, but it’s really all here Feel free to share wherever you think it will do come good.
Mother Jones – Chuck Schumer Just Announced a Major Potential Vote on the Future of the Filibuster
Quote – Schumer made his announcement three days before the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot. In his letter, Schumer drew comparisons between the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and Republican officials who have seized on Trump’s election lies to enact anti-democratic legislation across the country. Click through for details. He knows what’s at stake. Wish him all strength and best luck in getting it through.
Crooks and Liars – Trump Abruptly Cancels January 6 Press Conference
Quote – Among other things, several advisors – formal and informal – told him the press conference was a mistake and/but it was becoming clear he wasn’t likely to get the live TV coverage he was hoping for. — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 4, 2022 Click through. Looks like Amato won.
Yesterday, I had some computer-internet issues. I got things done, just very s – l – o – w – l – y. I’m very glad this didn’t turn up a few days ago.
Cartoon –
Short Takes
Letters from an American – January 2, 2022
Quote – The New York Times editorial board—which consists of opinion journalists who weigh in on important issues—warned that the attack on democracy we witnessed so traumatically on January 6 has not ended. It persists in ongoing threats to election officials, threats to murder opponents, and new state laws skewing elections toward Republicans. “In short,” they wrote, “the Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends.” Click through for full essay. This might be worth hanging on to for reference.
Crooks and Liars – Media Matters Prez: Talk Radio As GOP Disinformation Engine
Quote – “And they continue to run with that story that vaccines were part of a plot and a conspiracy by Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates in order to put microchips in people, or there is a very, very prominent conspiracy theory that it’s actually – the vaccine is designed to open up an interdimensional portal.” Click through – Carusone is a hero, listening to right wing talk radio so that we don’t have to. We need to take him seriously.
Wonkette – Kevin McCarthy Furious Democrats Doing So Little To Protect Capitol From Republican Trump Insurgents
Quote – “Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again.” Wait, was THAT the “central question”? Why the Capitol was so unprepared and vulnerable? Was the Capitol walking by itself very late at night? Was it wearing a short skirt? And why, praytell, is the Capitol hitting itself? Tell us more, Kevin McCarthy, about how the “central question” of what happened that day was how the Capitol was so unprepared to be attacked by hordes of Donald Trump’s terrorists. Click through. I swear you cannot make this stuff up.
Yesterday, I kind of piddled around, pulled out the next sweater I intend to wear to visit Virg and Jewelry to go with (I may wear one weddig or wedding-type ring and one religious pendant inside, and I like to take earringd along to put into my ears when I leave to keep the piercing open) – took out some recyclables (There is room now, it got picked up), found where all the old comments are and figured out how to get to a particular page – checked what os low in the kitchen freezer and moved things from the porch freezer to re-stock – glued some cord ends onto cords – did a little knitting – downloaded some free patterns (with no clear projects in mind, I just liked some ideas) – did a little gaming – just small stuff.
Cartoon –
Short Takes
Politico – FDIC’s GOP chair to resign after partisan brawl
Quote – Earlier this month, the Democratic majority on the FDIC’s board voted to take public feedback on potential changes to the agency’s bank merger approval process. McWilliams did not participate in the vote, and the FDIC in an official statement said the action was not valid. A legal debate ensued over whether a majority of the board can put items up for a vote without the consent of the chair, with Democrats maintaining they had clear authority. Click through for details. So, now we’ll have a Democratic chair (at least for a while). In what universe canthe top dog invalidate a vote by simply not voting when everyone else does vote? If that isn’t autocracy, I don’t know what is. Even BBM couldn’t get away with that.
Daily Kos – Adhara Pérez, 10, has a higher IQ than Einstein and Hawking. She has her sights set on NASA
Quote – When she was just 5, Pérez finished elementary school. At 6 she finished middle school, and at 8 she finished high school. Today, she’s studying two careers online—Industrial engineering in mathematics at UNITEC and systems engineering at CNCI. The University of Arizona has offered her a scholarship. Click through for story. Of course it’s a story not without bullying in it. But there seem to be enough people in her corner now to provide her some protection. I hope.
The Guardian – Capitol attack: Cheney says Republicans must choose between Trump and truth
Quote – Cheney told CBS the blame lay squarely with her own party. “Far too many Republicans are trying to enable the former president, embrace the former president or look the other way and hope that the former president goes away, or trying to obstruct the activities of this committee, but we won’t be deterred. At the end of the day, the facts matter, the truth matters.” Click through. I really do hope they don’t kill her.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
This article is several months old, but I missed it when it was new. It deals with something I have literally opposed since I was nine – forcing religion into government. I have never grasped why more people don’t recognixe the horrors of losing the separation of church and state – horrors which are even worse for the church than they are for the state (when the church beomoes about nothing but temporal power, it becomes the worst kind of cult.) Of course, now, after seeing the lengths of insanity to which “conservatives” have gove (the latest is that norses are now witches -seriously) – I still don’t understand it, but a least I have a clue why I don’t understand it.
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How ‘In God We Trust’ bills are helping advance a Christian nationalist agenda
City vehicles in Chesapeake, Virginia, will soon be getting religion.
At a meeting on July 13, 2021, city councilors unanimously voted in favor of a proposal that would see the official motto of the U.S., “In God We Trust,” emblazoned on every city-owned car and truck, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of US$87,000.
Meanwhile, the state of Mississippi is preparing to defend in court its insistence that all citizens, unless they pay a fee for an alternative, must display the same four-word phrase on their license plates. Gov. Tate Reeves vowed last month to take the issue “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court should we have to.”
“In God We Trust” became the national motto 65 years ago this month. But over the past few years a string of bills and city ordinances has sought to expand its usage and presence. Such efforts include legislation requiring or encouraging the motto be displayed in government buildings and schools, on license plates and on police vehicles.
The rise of bills across the country at this time is no coincidence. It fits with a concerted effort by Christian nationalists who view the motto as a tool to help legitimize an agenda of passing legislation that privileges conservative Christian values.
Christian nationalism is a political ideology that fuses conservative religious beliefs with a – usually white – American identity. Christian nationalists assume that the laws of the land should be based on Christian morals.
As a scholar of religious and political rhetoric, I have observed how Christian nationalists are using what I call “theistnormative” legislation – government-endorsed policies, rituals, laws and symbols that use vague religious references, such as “God” – to encourage people to view the United States as a theistic collective – that is to say, as a nation of believers in God.
From coins to national motto
Christian nationalists played a key role in getting “In God We Trust” put on coins during the Civil War and ever since have attempted to use the motto as “proof” that the United States is a Christian nation.
Early Christian nationalists criticized the Founding Fathers for failing to recognize the United States as an explicitly Christian nation in the Constitution. An early Christian nationalist organization, The National Reform Association, pushed for a “Christian Amendment” that would correct what they called the “original sin” of not recognizing Jesus Christ in the Constitution.
Their efforts failed. But Christian nationalists had better success in getting the more ambiguous motto “In God We Trust” put on coins in 1864. It followed a report to the U.S. Treasury by the director of the U.S. Mint, James Pollock, an active member of the National Reform Association, in which he asked: “We claim to be a Christian Nation – why should we not vindicate our character by honoring the God of Nations in the exercise of our political Sovereignty as a Nation?”
Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase amends ‘In God is our Trust’ to ‘In God We Trust’ in an 1863 letter to James Pollock, director of the Philadelphia mint. National Archives and Records Administration
Amid fears of “atheistic communism” during the Cold War a century later, Christian nationalists in the U.S. again tried and failed to pass a “Christian Amendment.” But they again found success in advocating for legislation that used vague religious references, culminating in the adding of “under God” to the pledge of allegiance and making “In God We Trust” the national motto on July 30, 1956.
Two years before making ‘In God We Trust’ the national motto, President Eisenhower introduces a stamp carrying the slogan. Bettmann / Getty Images
Earlier this year, Mississippi state Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith justified legislation that would ban voter registration on Sundays by holding up a dollar bill and saying, “This says, ‘The United States of America, in God we trust.’ … In God’s word in Exodus 20:18, it says ‘remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.‘”
While most Christian nationalists claim to support religious freedom – which would seemingly apply to all faiths – most believe Christianity, specifically white conservative Christian values, should be privileged in the public sphere.
‘Project Blitz’
Christian nationalists have increasingly turned to “In God We Trust” bills as a way to further legitimize their agenda. This is particularly evident in the “Project Blitz” initiative, led by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, which states its aim as “restoring Judeo-Christian principles to their rightful place.”
Project Blitz started in 2015 with the purpose of “blitzing” the country with legislation advancing Christian nationalism. As David Barton, a leader in the initiative, explained in a 2018 conference call with state legislators: “It’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it’ll drive ‘em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this.”
After Project Blitz generated negative publicity in 2018, it was misleadingly rebranded as “Freedom for All.” During a recorded strategy meeting that was later circulated by the social justice think tank Political Research Associates, Lea Carawan of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation explained, “As soon as we understood that they knew they were on to us, we changed the name; shifted things around a little bit […] we’ve renamed and moved on but it’s moving just as strong and just as powerfully.”
While those behind “Project Blitz” claim the bills are not about converting people to Christianity, they also argue that the U.S. should be a Christian nation whose laws and policies “reflect Judeo-Christian or biblical values and concepts.”
As such, “In God We Trust” bills set the foundation for more explicitly conservative Christian legislation.
The playbooks suggest “In God We Trust” bills can “shore up later support for other governmental entities to support religious displays” to help America accept its “Christian heritage.” The Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation also recommends legislators push for other types of bills including, as stated in their 2018-2019 playbook, a resolution to establish policy “favoring intimate sexual relations only between married, heterosexual couples.”
The risk of opposing
What makes “In God We Trust” bills so successful is that they often receive bipartisan support. In Louisiana, for example, it was a Democratic governor who signed the 2019 bill requiring the motto be displayed in all schools. Politicians who do oppose “In God We Trust” bills run the risk of being labeled as “anti-faith.”
Despite its being the national motto for only 65 years, Christian nationalists have framed “In God We Trust” as part of the U.S.‘s founding tradition. Moreover, the motto has become an important rhetorical weapon for Christian nationalists – using it to advance their belief that governments and people are to “trust in God,” and more specifically their perception of a conservative Christian God.
================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, a sweet little phrase like “In God We Trust” sounds so harmless, so innocent. But it isn’t. In the first place, it’s a lie – we don’t all trust in God (least of all those who so loudly claim to do so). In the second place, it’s lazy – and dangerous – to “trust in God” in lieu of doing what you should be doing. I could go on, but all of us probably could. What was the matter with “E pluribus unum“, for the sweet sake of the sweet universe? At least it was pro-diversity, as our national motto should be. “Christian Nationalism” is nothing but a way to destroy Christianity and the nation (whatever nation gets caught up oin it) simultaneously.
(P. S. I just heard Beau define “heritage” as “peer pressure from the dead.” I could not possibly have said it better.)
Oh, and one last thing –
