The Conversation -- December 8, 2024
Marie: Okay, a few more days in Reality Chex limbo. However, it's quite a decent limbo, as contributors have linked to some very good articles in the Comments section yesterday and the day before. The result is sort of what I originally envisioned for Reality Chex when I started it in 2008 -- that is, that there would be only about five or six articles we should all read every day to know what was going on. What happened, however, was that the right wing went really crazy really fast in 2009, so that government-as-usual, both of the federal and local levels, became crazy enough to gain attention. The result was that often I couldn't keep up with the news, because the right was sending up dangerous flares everywhere. Millions of Americans still don't get it (RAS found one good reason why in yesterday's links), but those warnings of what could happen were real. Some of the dangers have come to pass, and a much bleaker future seems imminent.
⭐AP: "The Syrian government collapsed early Sunday, falling to a lightning rebel offensive that seized control of the capital of Damascus and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate the end of the Assad family's 50 years of iron rule. Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been set free."
AP: "As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killer goes on, investigators are reckoning with a tantalizing dichotomy: They have troves of evidence, but the shooter remains an enigma. Police don't know who he is, where he is, or why he did it, though they are confident it was a targeted attack instead of a random act."
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"US announces nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support for Ukraine"
"Now Is the Time for Courage
By Marc Elias
One month after the election of Donald Trump I feel more certain about who he is and what he aims to achieve but less certain about who stands in opposition to him. Trump is an aspiring dictator who aims to aggregate his power to reward his friends and punish his enemies.
When he was 28 and living in the Jim Crow South, King gave another, less famous speech that speaks to our times. He spoke about the need to confront fear with courage.
Courage breeds creative self‐affirmation; cowardice breeds destructive self-abnegation. Courage faces fear and thereby masters it; cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. So we must constantly build dykes of courage to ward off the flood of fear."
RAS,
Thanks for the "Democracy Docket" link. I didn't know of it.
Here in the blue part of WA ST as we await the coming storm, it's hard for me to know what to do. The storm is still off the coast, gathering strength, but it hasn't yet hit our shores, so it's hard to know what actions to take to prepare for it or to fight it off.
I see one sign of things to come in my morning emails that tell me the vanguard has already arrived. Beyond and behind and below the headlines that we all see about the loony nominations, the Pretender acting presidential on the world stage, and the endless Truth Social rants are the deluge of right wing mails that now litter my inbox, mails that heretofore either missed me entirely or ended up in my spam folder where they belonged.
Why or how that's happening to me I don't know, but if it's a common experience, it might mean something, and that something is not good.
Splendid isolation has its limits and mine have been electronically breached.
Anne Applebaum, in The Atlantic, on how Assad’s fall offers the possibility of change.
"When Putin talks about a new world order or a 'multipolar world,' as he did again last month, this is what he means: He wants to build a world in which his cruelty cannot be limited, in which he and his fellow dictators enjoy impunity, and in which no universal values exist, not even as aspirations.
This kind of cold, deliberate, well-planned cruelty has a logic to it: Brutality is meant to inspire hopelessness. Ludicrous lies and cynical propaganda campaigns are meant to create apathy and nihilism.
....
But all such 'eternal' regimes have one fatal flaw: Soldiers and police officers are members of the public too. "
Ken,
Yeah, Elias is always in the middle of so many of the good fights to protect our rights. It is hard to keep up with all the separate sources for information these days. A lot of time I come across individual articles at meme orandum. Some of them are interesting and some of them are right-wing trash.
And yeah, the right-wing has plenty of tricks to get their trash in front of you no matter how hard you try to avoid it. I somehow got on the NRA's mailing list this last year. They keep sending me requests to sign up and pay dues. It's annoying.
For the Holiday Season
George Santos Claus
Just another reason to keep Florida politics and politicians in Florida and off the national stage
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/710746-florida-pauses-federal-move-to-increase-family-eligibility-for-kidcare-insurance-program/
We’ll try it without the html link…
More gobbledygook from an imbecile.
So the murderous tyrant Assad has fled. It’s a standard part of the autocrat’s playbook. After years of torture, murder, oppression, pocket lining, imprisonment of dissidents, when karma comes calling, run away.
And here’s the Fat Fascist, on the cusp of his own dictatorship babbling nonsense about Syria, Russia, the US, Ukraine…and oh yeah, “China can help.” Help what?
First it sounds like Assad’s demise is a good thing, but oh-oh, Russia can’t help, even though they want to? Should? Who knows? Fatty sez it’s Ukraine’s fault that Russia can’t help Assad. Wait…I thought it was a good thing Assad is gone. No? Yes?
This moron has no fucking clue what he’s talking about. He gibbers non-stop ragtime even as he’s in Paris pretending to be a great world leader.
I remember when the Bushies had no idea of the differences between Shiites and Sunnis. This idiot has never heard of either.
But now he’s in charge.
But hey…China can help.
Jesus.
Can’t wait for our tyrant to flee. I guess “flee” is maybe not the right word. How about waddles?
https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/08/president-babble/
Assad has arrived in Moscow.
Putin has arranged for him to have a very nice hotel room. High up. Great view. Lots of windows.
NOT a gift link (gift links don't seem to be available on photo essays)
Alan Taylor, in The Atlantic
Photos: Syrians Celebrate the Fall of Assad
"After enduring years of civil war, Syrians took to the streets to celebrate the sudden fall of Assad, both in their own country and in huge refugee communities that have grown across the Middle East and Europe."
I saw several outtake clips of the DiJiT-Welker interview today, off and on as I was doing chores. I saw several of them more than once. I was reminded of something but couldn't put my finger on it.
Until this evening listening to the NBC news, where they repeated some of the snippets.
Interviewing DiJiT is like playing with a Magic 8 Ball. A response floats to the surface, sort of off-kilter and murky, but the words can in no way be described as "an answer."
Four more years of this crap? What can't be cured must be endured.
I hate like hell that the doddering, blubbering, dithering piece of s*** that the morons in this country elected is out there pretending to be a chief executive. I hate like hell that apparently the president of France invited him. Does no one know that Joe Biden is the president? Some outfit said that Biden declined to go, and sent his wife. Ye gods. There is more action happening here about the murder of an unfortunate CEO of a certain health outfit (mine, unfortunately) and that is more important that the overseas appearance of the Worst Pig In The World who doesn't have a clue what is happening anywhere. This is all about as random as anything can be. The Idiot pretends to know that Notre Dame burned six years ago, and he is wondering why this is a big deal to be opening again. Yes, idiot, this is not a grocery store opening. I don't think I can bear to think any more tonight about this Filthy Piece of Crap.