;)
Sunday
May142023
May 14, 2023
Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden declared on Saturday that white supremacy is 'the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland' and warned a predominantly Black audience that 'sinister forces' embraced by his predecessor and putative challenger are trying to reverse generations of racial progress in America. Mr. Biden never named ... Donald J. Trump in his sometimes stark commencement address to the graduating class of Howard University, the nation’s most prestigious historically Black college. He alluded, however, to Mr. Trump's past statements to link him to racist elements in American society and suggest that the presidential campaign that has just gotten underway will determine whether justice will prevail over hate, fear and violence." CNN's story is here.
Republicans Back Vigilante Killer. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "In the nearly two weeks since Daniel Penny was recorded killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway with a minutes-long chokehold, the 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran has faced calls to be arrested, been denounced as a vigilante by activists and been labeled a 'murderer' by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). But in the lead-up to the Manhattan district attorney's office charging him with second-degree manslaughter, Penny has found a groundswell of financial and online support from high-profile Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox News personalities and conservatives on Elon Musk's Twitter. Many of them have rallied around Penny and hailed the veteran as a 'hero' and 'good Samaritan.' 'The Marine who stepped in to protect others is a hero,' tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).A legal-defense fund set up by Penny's attorneys on a crowdfunding site that has hosted fundraisers for defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Kyle Rittenhouse had raised more than $1 million as of Saturday afternoon." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. Good Samaritan?? In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan (who represents an "outsider" group) helps a Jewish guy left for dead by the side of the road. Penny, who is a white guy (thus an "insider"), killed the guy in distress by the side of the subway. The point of the Good Samaritan parable is to establish "who is my neighbor?": the outsider Samaritan, or some "insider" priestly fellows who ignored the man in distress. The answer is obvious. That is, DeSantis is holding up Penny as a good neighbor. Katie, bar the door.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times thinks Kaitlin Collins was "terrific" and airing the Trump Show was a good thing. "Trump is spiraling into even more of a self-deluded narcissist, if that's possible.... The town hall was enlightening -- and frightening. But we needed that reminder to be on full alert, because Trump is not just an unhinged and dangerous extremist; he is also a cunning and dominating insurgent. The argument that the media should ignore Trump and keep him under a bushel basket is ridiculous.... President Biden needs to see what he's up against." ~~~
~~~ The Lincoln Project disagrees. Here's a video they have labeled "Wrongump":
Anna Fazackerley of the Guardian/Observer: "Some of the UK's top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year. Since then..., several users with millions of followers who propagate false statements about the climate emergency, including Donald Trump and rightwing culture warrior Jordan Peterson, have had their accounts reinstated. Climate scientists say the change has been stark, and they are fighting to make themselves heard over a 'barrage' of often hostile comments. 'There's been a massive change,' said Mark Maslin, professor of earth system science at University College London and the author of popular books including How to Save Our Planet.”
Beyond the Beltway
North Carolina. Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, vetoed a ban on abortion that was passed by the state's Republican-led legislature. The bill prohibited abortion past 12 weeks, with some exceptions for rape, incest or to preserve the life and health of the mother. The veto by Mr. Cooper, a Democrat, sets him up for a showdown with the legislature, which now has a slim Republican supermajority. That means it has the power to override his veto and enact the ban, if the party can muster enough votes. Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning in Raleigh for Mr. Cooper's 'veto rally' to watch him sign as a way to call attention to his fight with Republicans."
Way Beyond
Turkey. Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Voters across Turkey headed to the polls Sunday in a crucial election pitting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has rallied a broad coalition of opposition parties to his side, leaving Erdogan more vulnerable to defeat than ever before.... Kilicdaroglu has promised to usher Turkey, a NATO member, into a new era by revitalizing democracy after years of government repression and refreshing ties with Turkey’s allies in the West."
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Berlin on a visit that could help repair the strained ties between Kyiv and Germany, a country that for decades has preferred to avoid involvement in military conflicts. At a news conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky described a new German defense package as 'a very strong pillar of support' and thanked Germany 'for every life in Ukraine you saved.'... Zelensky also met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the trip, his first to the country since the Russian invasion began.... For the first time, Russia appeared to acknowledge Ukrainian claims of an advance in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut. Russian troops retreated from some northwest positions in Bakhmut, according to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, who described the move as a decision to 'enhance defense lines.'"
Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met [Pope] Francis in the Vatican on Saturday, part of a whirlwind visit to Rome that included talks with Italy's president and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, both of whom offered their full support.... Ms. Meloni, who greeted Mr. Zelensky warmly before a 70-minute meeting, affirm[ed] her staunch support of Ukraine's war effort.... The pope has sought to position himself as a potential peacemaker in a way that critics, including Ukrainian officials, argue is counterproductive to the achievement not only of Ukrainian victory, but also of a real and just peace. To preserve the Vatican's traditional neutrality, Francis, while consistently expressing sympathy for the suffering of Ukrainians, has made often confusing and contradictory remarks about whether he blames President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.... [He said recently he was working on a secret peace plan.] Asked afterwards on Italian television whether Francis ... could be a peacemaker between him and Mr. Putin, Mr. Zelensky said 'with all respect for His Holiness,' Ukraine did not need mediators because 'you can't do mediation with Putin.'"
Erica Solomon & Christopher Schuetze of the New York Times: "Germany on Saturday sent the strongest signal yet of its commitment to backing Ukraine in its battle against Russian occupiers, promising more tanks, armored vehicles and substantial air defense systems in its largest weapons package for Kyiv. The arms package, totaling 2.7 billion euros, or about $2.95 billion, amounted to roughly as much as Germany's total military aid to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. The move was part of a budding effort by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to draw a line under a year of rocky relations over Germany's hesitancy to provide weapons and solidify a partnership that may prove increasingly critical to maintaining European unity in backing the war."
John Hudson & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has won the trust of Western governments by refusing to use the weapons they provide for attacks inside Russia.... But behind closed doors, Ukraine's leader has proposed going in a more audacious direction -- occupying Russian villages to gain leverage over Moscow, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, a NATO member, and privately pining for long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia's borders, according to classified U.S. intelligence documents detailing his internal communications with top aides and military leaders. The documents, which have not been previously disclosed, are part of a broader leak of U.S. secrets circulated on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post. They reveal a leader with aggressive instincts that sharply contrast with his public-facing image as the calm and stoic statesman weathering Russia's brutal onslaught."
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Reader Comments (6)
Daniel Penny, the former Marine who killed Jordan Neely on a New York City Subway is a hero to the right because he’s a white guy who saved others from a “scary” black guy. I guess being black, homeless, and hungry, and asking for money for something to eat is now a crime. My first thought when hearing about this was a recollection of the infamous subway vigilante of the 1980’s, Bernhard Goetz, who shot four black kids who asked him for money.
The difference back then, for me, as I recalled it, was that after the boys were down, “subdued”, so to speak, Goetz stood over one of the boys and, saying “Have another”, shot him again in the back, paralyzing him for life.
Penny might not have shot his “scary black guy”, but putting him in a sleeper hold for fifteen minutes is akin to saying “Have another. And another. And another. And a few more.” In fact, once it was clear that Neely was incapacitated, non-responsive, maintaining that sleeper hold could certainly be looked at as murder, manslaughter at the very least.
But Goetz walked on the murder charge. Rittenhouse did too. And so might Penny.
But whatever the outcome he’ll always be a hero on the right. He was the “brave” white guy, the “Good Samaritan” who “saved” others from a “scary black guy”.
Bernhard Goetz became a celebrity. I seem to recall him running for mayor of New York. Maybe Penny can run for president. The right’s current front runner claims he could shoot someone in Times Sq. and not lose a vote. That would be especially true if the person he shot happened to be black. So maybe a guy who killed someone under Times Sq. could get the same consideration. Especially (and only) because the person he killed was black.
Can you imagine if this had been a black ex-marine who killed a homeless white man? They’d want him sentenced to three days in the electric chair.
This is a perfect encapsulation of the fact that, for right-wingers, black lives don’t matter. Only white lives. Especially if those white people are being momentarily inconvenienced by a black guy.
When Oliver Wendall Holmes was ninety -one he tried to read a poem he liked about the Civil War, but broke down in tears before he could finish.They were not tears for the war, they were what the war had destroyed. Holms had grown up in a highly cultured, homogeneous world, a world of which he was, in many ways, the consummate product : idealistic, artistic, and socially committed. He then watched that world bleed to death in a war that learning and brilliance had been powerless to prevent. When he returned from that war Boston had changed and so had American life. Holmes, too, had changed but he never forgot what he had lost. After the Civil War the world never seemed quite right.
Today we have another kind of civil war and it's slowly eating us alive.
And today is Mom's Day so they say––-so hooray for us moms–- if only for a day, then it's back to business interfering in the business of women choosing whether they WANT to be Moms.
@Akhilleus: DeSantolini, Miss Margie and others cannot possibly know the particulars in the killing of Jordan Neely, so the primary basis of aggrandizing Penny is "White guy kills Black guy, probably without provocation." That's disgusting.
Marie,
They don’t even try to hide their bone deep racial hatred. That in itself however isn’t bad. It’s who they really are. What’s truly disgusting is that there are voters out there who elected them, and will do so again, for just that reason.
That, and their appeals to hatred, bigotry, conspiracy nuts, authoritarian and autocratic rule, and the eternally baffling combination of sensibilities of both victimization and superiority, the toxic mixture that people like Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, the Murdochs, and now the Trumps, have made millions pushing and exploiting.
We went for a walk with our son to the Four Freedoms park at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in NYC today. It was a beautiful day.
FDR's ideal: Freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom of want, and freedom from fear.
According to the Right, you are free to express yourself in the ways they deem appropriate. You are free to worship their god in the way they deem appropriate. Freedom from want? Tough shit, we've got ours, go away. And freedom from fear? They love fear.
I am not comfortable with how some on the Left view certain aspects of word usage. The Right doesn't have a monopoly on restricting expression. But the other freedoms? It gave me chills reading FDR's words on this glorious sunny day.