So here he is, using burner phones, hiding messages, inciting a mob, and nothing happens to him. And here are all these poor dumb schmucks who think they are doing something patriotic, who listen to his lies and take them seriously, who are egged on by the President of the U.S., and they go to jail. They should go to jail, but so should the man who instigated the action.
That, however, is not how justice works in America. Ask Clarence Thomas’s wife.
During World War I thousands of African-Americans were sent to Europe to fight, but they fought under the French flag. Many white Americans refused to consider the idea of a white soldier saluting a Black superior officer.
When the Black soldiers were assigned to the French command, General John Pershing issued a directive to the French commanders. He instructed the French to “treat black Americas as white Americans did,” and went on to say “we must not eat with them, must not shake hands or seek to talk or meet with them outside the requirements of military service. We must not commend too highly the black American troops, particularly in the presence of Americans. We must prevent the rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy between French officers and black.”
Two quick points:
The French ignored the directive.
The situation had not changed at the beginning of World War II.
The quote is from Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army 1940-1941. N.Y.: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020. I recommend this book. It is an amazing account of how Gen. Marshall and FDR rebuilt the American armed forces prior to Pearl Harbor.
1st candidate: I kissed Trump’s ass more than you did.
2nd candidate: No, I was kissing his ass from the very beginning. I’m a much better ass-kisser.
3rd candidate: You guys must be kidding. I am the most passionate Trump ass kisser who ever lived.
The debate continues like this for another hour.
I love movies. I see two a month now that we can go back into movie theaters. Before Covid I would often see one a week. I taught a class in political films. I occasionally watch Turner Classic Films. I am what is called a movie buff.
So why is an industry whose main reason for being is entertainment unable to put on an Academy Award show that isn’t stupid and boring. What is with that?
And why wasn’t “Jackass Forever” up for an award?
In order to get the Democratic candidate for the 122nd District of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on the ballot, we needed to gather the signatures of 300 Democrats in Carbon County Pennsylvania, and we had only eight days to do it.
Today we turned in the petitions for our candidate, Richard Kost of Palmerton. A team of 30 volunteers gathered 526 signatures in eight days! What an amazing effort. If we can sustain that, we can win the 122nd in November.
I’ve heard people blame Biden for Europe’s dependence on Russian energy supplies. A C.I.A. memo warned that the gas pipeline from Siberia to Germany was direct threat to the future of Western Europe and would cause a dangerous reliance on Russia’s products.
This was a C.I.A. memo from four decades ago. It was for President Ronald Reagan, who, to his credit, took the memo seriously. In 1981 Reagan tried to block the pipeline, but he received blowback from the Kremlin, from European nations who wanted the gas, and–wait for it–the American oil and gas companies that hoped to make a killing. Exxon was one of them.
Now, after the Ukrainian invasion, Shell, BP, and Exxon say they will end their Russian investments. It is too late. About 40% of Europe’s gas is imported from Russia.
See Hiroko Tabuchi, “How Europe Got Hooked on Russian Natural Gas,” New York Times (Mar. 24, 2022), pp. B1, B4.
Axis Sally
Real name Mildred Gillars. Radio personality working for Nazi Germany. Directed propaganda at American GIs during WWII. American citizen. First woman convicted of treason. Released from prison in 1961.
Tokyo Rose
Collective name given to a number of Japanese women broadcasting to soldiers in the South Pacific. After the war one woman, American citizen Iva Toguri D’Aquino, was convicted of treason. Pardoned by President Ford because of witness tampering propagated by the American Legion and the FBI.
Hanoi Hannah
Vietnamese propagandist who urged American troops to desert, but somewhat popular because of the music she played. Real name Trinh Thi Ngo. Died in 2016 at the age of 85.
Tucker Carlson
Fox News broadcaster in the U.S. who beams Russian propaganda and lies to a large audience in the U.S. Sponsored by major American businesses. Still broadcasting.
