Hi, all. We have one person posting comments with environmental conspiracy theories. I have removed her comments. Please email me if you see more such activity by replying to the newsletter to let me know. Please identify the user name of the person so I can remove the comments. Thanks!
"I’ve literally talked to people when phonebanking who didn’t know which party opposed abortion rights and which supported them." Jessica Craven's comment in today's Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter stunned me. I know some people's lives are so complex and demanding that they can't follow the news closely, but what about skimming headlines? What about everyone else?
How can we pro-democracy activists overcome this appalling willful ignorance and indifference about attacks on our rights from our own elected leaders?
Of course it is way easier to not pay attention, to not care. But people's lives are at stake, as is our country's future. Imagine what people in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and other countries would say if they knew Americans were willing to toss their rights in the trash. Imagine how excited they would be if they could comment in public about their own country's leaders and politics without fear of imprisonment or death. Americans' willful apathy is shameful and a tragedy.
Here's something people concerned about abortion rights can do that can make a huge difference. Sign up with Vote Forward, and send letters to Ohio voters to get out on 8/8/2023 and vote down a Republican effort to increase the threshold for state initiatives from 50% to 60%, a blatant effort to allow a minority of 40% to block what the majority clearly want. A state initiative to amend the Ohio state Constitution to preserve access to abortion services to all Ohio residents, is set to be voted on 11/7/2023. In the alternative there are post-card campaign and phone banks also working on this - pick one and help Ohio voters get what the majority wants. Don't let a motivated minority run the show. If public policy reflected public opinion, the U.S. would be a far more progressive place (gun regulation, abortion rights, safety net, access to health care, climate crisis action, etc., etc.).
So Senator Tuberville is blackmailing the DOD by blocking thousands of promotions. I doubt that there is absolutely no way to work around his obstination, but for argument's sake let's assume there isn't.
Thus the DOD finds itself between a rock and a hard place. They can't give in to the demands of this evangelical zealot, on the other hand they can't put their servicewomen in harms way by deploying them to red states. So a reasonable response would be to announce that forthwith no female personnel would be deployed to red states, the ones already there would be relocated.
Additionally a significant scale down of personnel in military installations in red states should be announced as not only active servicewomen but also female family members of servicemen face serious threats in red states.
As a first state to introduce this policy Alabama comes to mind.
Military installations are a huge economic factor in the respective states and counties. Huge! And money talks. So I wouldn't be surprised if his MAGA followers would fairly rapidly be able to 'convince' the Senator to change his vote.
Robert Hubbell gently but forcefully reminds his readers just how out of control the Supreme Court has become, both in its rulings and its unethical conduct. When the third Trump Justice was confirmed, I had a mostly negative reaction to calls for actions that would add Justices or impose tenure restrictions.
But having now lived through two terms of this renegade--and retrograde--court, I no longer feel the country can afford such high-minded principles. We must, next year, regain control of the House, as well as expand our slim margin in the Senate, if there is to be any hope of reining in these purely ideological, tendentious decisions that are chipping away at a carefully-constructed consensus about how our nation is to be governed. I increasingly agree with Samuel Johnson that we should all rather be hanged as a goat than as a sheep.
I would just like to say thank you, Robert, for taking the time to write your newsletter and working to keep us informed with fact-based information about the state of the nation. I am actually in the UK right now and have been visiting sites of Anglo-Saxon and Roman and medieval and Elizabethan strife, and while that historical perspective certainly does now condone complacency, it does underline the importance of continuing to fight for the values of democracy and individual freedoms, a struggle that is the hallmark of this young country’s history, too.
I do not understand the practice of adding amendments to bills, in the US Congress, that have nothing to do with the main intention of the bill. Funding the military should take precedence over any other issue. Roll on 2024. The GOP is going to reap what it has sowen. I vote from abroad and mine will be Blue.
If anyone still nurses the fantasy that there are any "good" Republicans, any "sane moderates," the votes on the NDAA should drive a stake through that. ALL of the alleged "moderates," the "Biden district Republicans" voted in lockstep with the fascists. As Dan Goldman said of the seven Confederate scum who snuck through last fall in New York, "We're going to hang these votes around their necks till November 2024." Personally, I'd be fine with something else being wrapped around their necks.
Harry Truman was right back in 1948: "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." The Republican Party is America's Enemy.
Hi Robert, thank you for your newsletter. I find it enlightening and very helpful. I live in Collier County, Florida. It’s a very red county controlled by a Republican MAGA grocery store owner, Alfie Oakes. Alfie took two bus loads of people to the January 6th attempted coup. Since then, he has bought two conservative county commissioners and three conservative school board members. Now Alfie and commissioner Chris Hall want to make Collier County a Sanctuary for the Bill of Rights. Using the anti-commandeering doctrine, their goal is to make Collier free from any federal law or executive order that they deem unconstitutional. I see this as the first step towards secession as their ultimate goal is to make Florida a Sanctuary for the Bill of Rights. Is there any hope for saving Collier County and Florida?
I am not sure what Jack Smith is planning vis a vis indictments and trials, but he is a brilliant attorney and he is laying out a masterful case and STRATEGY. I do not have clarity on why I think this, but somehow I suspect that while everyone is ranting about Judge Cannon, the case in DC that he will bring, while legally more challenging, will proceed, I suspect, in a direct and expedient manner. Whatever I think about Merrick Garland being too namby pamby in his process, he knows brilliance and legal mastery when he sees it, and he knows it exists in Jack Smith, a very very different breed than Robert Muller. An aside about Garland. My husband has long said that Obama made a huge mistake in appointing him to SCOTUS. Had he made a bolder nomination, perhaps an African American woman, it would have been harder for McConnell to hold up the confirmation process. Appointing center, slightly left, Garland, who everyone liked, took away any personal arguments in this process. Everyone on both sides of the aisle liked Garland. And, this is consistent with Obama. Make safe choices when possible. Oh well, that is my rant for today. As always, thank you Robert.
Perhaps Judge Ponsor should be invited to hold,a professional development day for the justices, who I hope are utterly ashamed at having to be (rightfully) schooled by a lower court.
Reflecting in current times, I blame the most Republican senators for unleashing a maniac devoted to ending our democracy, so that they can keep their Senate seat. My feeling on that one is mostly anger.
Re the Supreme Court, my feeling is sadness and profound disappointment. It will take decades to build trust again, if ever.
Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry's response in Thursday's hearing on climate change calling John Kerry a "grifter" was despicable. Set aside the fact that Perry, an unrelenting science denier, is deadly wrong on the issue, his words were a breach of congressional decorum and should have been stricken from the record.
Ambassador Kerry's service to our country in Vietnam, the United States Senate and the executive branch of our government is far more impressive than anything Perry has or will accomplish.
Oh wait, perhaps "grifter" is high praise coming from a Trump-loving MAGAite who worships the Great Grifter with impunity.
The ideological add ons to the Defense budget are exactly why we must end Republican control of Congress. Its crazed supporters will be happy with nothing less than the soul of our country, as if such a thing were achievable.
The politicization of women’s reproductive health in the military will negatively affect recruitment. Having missed recruitment goals for for the past several years, this is something the our military cannot afford.
Hi, all. We have one person posting comments with environmental conspiracy theories. I have removed her comments. Please email me if you see more such activity by replying to the newsletter to let me know. Please identify the user name of the person so I can remove the comments. Thanks!
"I’ve literally talked to people when phonebanking who didn’t know which party opposed abortion rights and which supported them." Jessica Craven's comment in today's Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter stunned me. I know some people's lives are so complex and demanding that they can't follow the news closely, but what about skimming headlines? What about everyone else?
How can we pro-democracy activists overcome this appalling willful ignorance and indifference about attacks on our rights from our own elected leaders?
Of course it is way easier to not pay attention, to not care. But people's lives are at stake, as is our country's future. Imagine what people in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and other countries would say if they knew Americans were willing to toss their rights in the trash. Imagine how excited they would be if they could comment in public about their own country's leaders and politics without fear of imprisonment or death. Americans' willful apathy is shameful and a tragedy.
Here's something people concerned about abortion rights can do that can make a huge difference. Sign up with Vote Forward, and send letters to Ohio voters to get out on 8/8/2023 and vote down a Republican effort to increase the threshold for state initiatives from 50% to 60%, a blatant effort to allow a minority of 40% to block what the majority clearly want. A state initiative to amend the Ohio state Constitution to preserve access to abortion services to all Ohio residents, is set to be voted on 11/7/2023. In the alternative there are post-card campaign and phone banks also working on this - pick one and help Ohio voters get what the majority wants. Don't let a motivated minority run the show. If public policy reflected public opinion, the U.S. would be a far more progressive place (gun regulation, abortion rights, safety net, access to health care, climate crisis action, etc., etc.).
So Senator Tuberville is blackmailing the DOD by blocking thousands of promotions. I doubt that there is absolutely no way to work around his obstination, but for argument's sake let's assume there isn't.
Thus the DOD finds itself between a rock and a hard place. They can't give in to the demands of this evangelical zealot, on the other hand they can't put their servicewomen in harms way by deploying them to red states. So a reasonable response would be to announce that forthwith no female personnel would be deployed to red states, the ones already there would be relocated.
Additionally a significant scale down of personnel in military installations in red states should be announced as not only active servicewomen but also female family members of servicemen face serious threats in red states.
As a first state to introduce this policy Alabama comes to mind.
Military installations are a huge economic factor in the respective states and counties. Huge! And money talks. So I wouldn't be surprised if his MAGA followers would fairly rapidly be able to 'convince' the Senator to change his vote.
Robert Hubbell gently but forcefully reminds his readers just how out of control the Supreme Court has become, both in its rulings and its unethical conduct. When the third Trump Justice was confirmed, I had a mostly negative reaction to calls for actions that would add Justices or impose tenure restrictions.
But having now lived through two terms of this renegade--and retrograde--court, I no longer feel the country can afford such high-minded principles. We must, next year, regain control of the House, as well as expand our slim margin in the Senate, if there is to be any hope of reining in these purely ideological, tendentious decisions that are chipping away at a carefully-constructed consensus about how our nation is to be governed. I increasingly agree with Samuel Johnson that we should all rather be hanged as a goat than as a sheep.
I would just like to say thank you, Robert, for taking the time to write your newsletter and working to keep us informed with fact-based information about the state of the nation. I am actually in the UK right now and have been visiting sites of Anglo-Saxon and Roman and medieval and Elizabethan strife, and while that historical perspective certainly does now condone complacency, it does underline the importance of continuing to fight for the values of democracy and individual freedoms, a struggle that is the hallmark of this young country’s history, too.
Joyce Vance posted a Tweet today from "No Lie With Brian Tyler Cohen":
"Fundraising numbers from April-June:
Donald Trump 35M
Ron DeSantis 20M
Nikki Haley 7M
Tim Scott 6M
Mike Pence 1M
Joe Biden 72M
And 97% of Joe Biden's donations were small grassroots donations"
I suggest that this is a more accurate representation of polling efforts than that which we are subjected to in the media.
Have a nice weekend ya'll. Looking forward to seeing Robert's finished swing set project!
I do not understand the practice of adding amendments to bills, in the US Congress, that have nothing to do with the main intention of the bill. Funding the military should take precedence over any other issue. Roll on 2024. The GOP is going to reap what it has sowen. I vote from abroad and mine will be Blue.
If anyone still nurses the fantasy that there are any "good" Republicans, any "sane moderates," the votes on the NDAA should drive a stake through that. ALL of the alleged "moderates," the "Biden district Republicans" voted in lockstep with the fascists. As Dan Goldman said of the seven Confederate scum who snuck through last fall in New York, "We're going to hang these votes around their necks till November 2024." Personally, I'd be fine with something else being wrapped around their necks.
Harry Truman was right back in 1948: "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." The Republican Party is America's Enemy.
Hi Robert, thank you for your newsletter. I find it enlightening and very helpful. I live in Collier County, Florida. It’s a very red county controlled by a Republican MAGA grocery store owner, Alfie Oakes. Alfie took two bus loads of people to the January 6th attempted coup. Since then, he has bought two conservative county commissioners and three conservative school board members. Now Alfie and commissioner Chris Hall want to make Collier County a Sanctuary for the Bill of Rights. Using the anti-commandeering doctrine, their goal is to make Collier free from any federal law or executive order that they deem unconstitutional. I see this as the first step towards secession as their ultimate goal is to make Florida a Sanctuary for the Bill of Rights. Is there any hope for saving Collier County and Florida?
I am not sure what Jack Smith is planning vis a vis indictments and trials, but he is a brilliant attorney and he is laying out a masterful case and STRATEGY. I do not have clarity on why I think this, but somehow I suspect that while everyone is ranting about Judge Cannon, the case in DC that he will bring, while legally more challenging, will proceed, I suspect, in a direct and expedient manner. Whatever I think about Merrick Garland being too namby pamby in his process, he knows brilliance and legal mastery when he sees it, and he knows it exists in Jack Smith, a very very different breed than Robert Muller. An aside about Garland. My husband has long said that Obama made a huge mistake in appointing him to SCOTUS. Had he made a bolder nomination, perhaps an African American woman, it would have been harder for McConnell to hold up the confirmation process. Appointing center, slightly left, Garland, who everyone liked, took away any personal arguments in this process. Everyone on both sides of the aisle liked Garland. And, this is consistent with Obama. Make safe choices when possible. Oh well, that is my rant for today. As always, thank you Robert.
Can someone explain how a single senator (Tommy Tuberville) can hold the military hostage. Don't committees and subcommittees vote on DoD issues?
Perhaps Judge Ponsor should be invited to hold,a professional development day for the justices, who I hope are utterly ashamed at having to be (rightfully) schooled by a lower court.
Reflecting in current times, I blame the most Republican senators for unleashing a maniac devoted to ending our democracy, so that they can keep their Senate seat. My feeling on that one is mostly anger.
Re the Supreme Court, my feeling is sadness and profound disappointment. It will take decades to build trust again, if ever.
Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry's response in Thursday's hearing on climate change calling John Kerry a "grifter" was despicable. Set aside the fact that Perry, an unrelenting science denier, is deadly wrong on the issue, his words were a breach of congressional decorum and should have been stricken from the record.
Ambassador Kerry's service to our country in Vietnam, the United States Senate and the executive branch of our government is far more impressive than anything Perry has or will accomplish.
Oh wait, perhaps "grifter" is high praise coming from a Trump-loving MAGAite who worships the Great Grifter with impunity.
The ideological add ons to the Defense budget are exactly why we must end Republican control of Congress. Its crazed supporters will be happy with nothing less than the soul of our country, as if such a thing were achievable.
The politicization of women’s reproductive health in the military will negatively affect recruitment. Having missed recruitment goals for for the past several years, this is something the our military cannot afford.