Those of us of a certain age (ancient) probably remember the Perry Como Show segment addressing the letters they received each week with their signature song:

“Letters – We Get Letters, We Get Stacks & Stacks of Letters …”

Well, I came across a Diary at Daily Kos just a day ago about the impact of receiving letters, and it restored my faith in humanity.  So I decided to share it with you today

There’s a WWII Vet, a Mr. Joe Cuba (better known as “GI Joe”) who resides at Brookdale Assisted Living facility in Wichita Falls, TX who will turn 100 y/o on March 2^nd.

The germ of an idea on how to mark that day started when his oldest daughter, Beverly, wanted to do something special for her Dad’s Centennial Celebration.  Joe (who is the son of Czechoslovakian immigrant parents), Beverly and the Brookdale staff talked it over, and he shared with them that he thought it’d be nice if he were to receive a Birthday card for every year he's lived.

The staff jumped into action and posted a very simple request on Brookdale’s manager (Stephanie Veitenheimer) Facebook page:

Then a local news outlet, Texoma’s, picked up the story – and the ball started rolling.

From there, it was picked up by the USA Today Network … and the dynamite went “BOOM!”.

Veitenheimer said: "We've had people all over the U.S. call us to ask if it's a legit post.  It's been just humbling to know that people want to help us celebrate his 100th."

Medical equipment companies have reached out to her to see if they could give Joe any medical equipment he might need for his birthday.

"Teachers have said their students are learning about the Greatest Generation and want to send cards to him. It's just awesome," she said.

Joe was the second born of 12 children – 6 boys and 6 girls – who grew up on a farm in Archer County, Texas raising livestock, cotton and wheat.  The entire family only spoke Czech, and Joe didn’t learn English until he started school.

While there was plenty of work for all of them to do on the farm, the Depression they lived through wasn’t as hard on them as on people in the city – they always had food on the table.

(Reminds me of what my Mom always said, who was born in 1916 and grew up on a farm in Illinois with 3 brothers.  They never went hungry, and the Depression was much easier on farm folks than city folks.  And similar to Joe’s family, they only spoke German at home.)

Before heading off to war with the U.S. Army Air Corps, Joe made sure to marry the love of his life, Nida, on Aug. 3, 1943.  He later served in Guam and vividly recalls the 33 days it took for them to sail across the Pacific on the “iron ship” from Seattle.  He swears he’ll never eat another sardine or powdered eggs again.

The USA Today Network story got so much positive feedback, they did a follow-up story featuring the response not only from locals – but from people across the country.  And of course the cards started to trickle in.

And about “Gi Joe’s” wish for those 100 cards – one for each year?  Well, that trickle turned into a deluge!  He has gotten over SIXTEEN-THOUSAND CARDS AND LETTERS from well-wishers far and wide … and still counting!  (We all probably pity the poor postman.)

It’s been a response so exceeding their expectations that Brookdale had to dedicate an entire room just to store all the greetings and gifts.

GI Joe takes care to share the good wishes he’s received with the other residents at Brookdale, and especially enjoys it when other Veterans come to visit.

Without a doubt, it’s a Centennial Celebration that will be long-remembered and cherished … and one that helped restore my faith in humanity!

9

Here is the one hundred fiftieth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winner is a Republican Representative and Trump Sycophant Matt Gaetz (R-FL). He is so honored for congressional witness intimidation on behalf of his Fuhrer.

A top ally of President Trump appeared to threaten a witness on the eve of a high-profile congressional hearing, suggesting Tuesday that he would expose the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen as a womanizer should he testify against Trump.

“Hey @MichaelCohen212 — Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a fierce defender of the president, wrote on Twitter Nazi delinked]. “Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot.”

The comment elicited instant pushback from House Democrats, who accused Gaetz of trying to intimidate their star witness.

Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and longtime associate, is set to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday. He will accuse the president of “lies, racism and cheating,” according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the expected testimony. And Cohen is expected to detail Trump’s role in his hush-money payments to two women alleging sexual relationships with Trump during the 2016 election…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

It’s worse than the article appears, as CNN’s Don Lemon explains.

Gates deserves his parade, because his behavior was so Republican.

RESIST!!

Nancy Pelosi is an old hand.  She has the wisdom of experience.  She knows her way around government better than most.  Donald Trump is the exact opposite.  Years of repeated failure demonstrate his incompetence.  He’s a political neophyte, whose ego is as big as his hands, etc. are small.  Therefore, is it any wonder that she beat him again?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi just keeps racking up wins over Donald Trump, partly because she expertly knows how things work, and Trump largely doesn’t. Take for instance the procedural maneuver that Pelosi just pulled off which, regardless of how the vote goes, will end up helping the Democrats and harming Trump and the Republicans.

Nancy Pelosi and her allies like Joaquin Castro introduced what’s called a “privileged resolution” to bring an end to Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration. This means that not only will it be voted on in the House (where it’ll pass), it will also have to be voted on in the Senate; Mitch McConnell can’t block it. It also only needs a simple majority to pass, thus sidestepping the sixty vote supermajority that sometimes derails Senate votes.

This means that just four Republican Senators have to vote for this resolution, and it’ll pass the Senate. There’s buzz right now that there may indeed be four or more such votes. We’ll see if that happens, or if the GOP ends up being as big a bunch of cowards as ever. But that’s not what matters here… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Palmer Report>

Photo Credit: imgflip.com

I agree.  If it passes the Senate, Trump will veto it, and we won’t get the 67 Senate votes need to override the veto.  Long term, we’ll win this one in the courts, but now, we will have forced every Republican Senator and Representative to vote on it.  Those few that vote for America will earn the wrath of the rabid Republican base.  Those who goose-step behind their Fuhrer will alienate everyone else.  Either way, that’s a win for our side.

RESIST!!

The Republican Reich views their failure to establish a totalitarian white homeland as a reason for violent civil war.  It's not new.  Trump is an excuse and a symptom, not a cause.  This was going on long before Trump's infamous visit to the Ritz Carlton Hotel. This morning I found an excellent article by Daily Kos staff writer David Neiwert on the history of this phenomenon.

We’ll never know for certain whether accused domestic-terrorist-in-the-making Christopher Hasson ever would have acted on the desire to spark a racial civil war for white supremacy by committing the assassinations and mass killing for which he had so thoroughly prepared and about which he endlessly fantasized. We do know, however, exactly what might have been the spark to send the 49-year-old Coast Guardsman from Baltimore off on a killing rampage, though: the impeachment of President Trump.

Buried in Hasson’s deleted emails, along with correspondence to neo-Nazi leaders and ruminations on his admiration for Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, were his working notes for events around which he was planning actions, notably: “what if trump illegally impeached” and “civil war if trump impeached”.

As Chris Hayes adroitly observed, it’s not hard to find where Hasson might have obtained the belief that civil war would erupt if President Trump were to face impeachment: Civil war has become an endemic talking point and source of speculation among right-wing pundits. Only this week, longtime Republican operative Joseph diGenova went on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show and warned:

We are in a civil war in this country. There's two standards of justice, one for Democrats, one for Republicans. The press is all Democrat, all liberal, all progressive, all left—they hate Republicans, they hate Trump. So the suggestion that there's ever going to be civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future in this country is over. It's not going to be. It's going to be total war. And as I say to my friends, I do two things—I vote and I buy guns.

This seemingly hysterical pronouncement, in fact, is fast becoming a commonplace among right-wing pundits. (Watch for it to become a permanent talking point at Fox.) That’s because it has been circulating on the right for a good long while now, and is now being whipped up to new heights—notably, well into the mainstream of conservative-movement discourse… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

I encourage you to click through and read the article in it's entirety.  David built it around the following four four video clips, totaling about forty minutes.  Consider this a "Barf Bag Alert!!" for all of them.  They are raw.  They are hate filled.  And they represent today's Republican Reich.

The radical right's early civil war push: The Turner Diaries, The Order, and Tim McVeigh

Reaction to Obama's presidency fuels far-right revival, agitation for civil war

Conspiracy theorists, Klansmen and radio hosts talk up civil war as Obama's tenure wanes

Trump's defenders claim the radical left is trying to create the civil war they've been hoping for

Having seen these I trust you agree that merely defeating the Republican Reich is not enough.  The Republican Party must either be transformed into an organization that values decency and what's best for Americans, or it must be eradicated.

RESIST!!