Weekend Comments from Readers
July 8, 2023
The purpose of this short note is to open the Comments section for the weekend. There is a lot to talk about. But before turning to the topics for the weekend, I highly recommend the comments to yesterday’s newsletter, many of which describe involvement by readers in efforts to fight climate change.
New topics for the weekend include:
Another strong jobs report for June. See President Biden’s statement, here: Statement from President Joe Biden on June Jobs Report | The White House.
President Biden made the controversial decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine. BBC News, Cluster bombs: Biden defends decision to send Ukraine controversial weapons. Per BBC News,
US President Joe Biden has defended his "very difficult decision" to give Ukraine cluster bombs, which have a record of killing civilians.
The president said it had taken him "a while to be convinced to do it", but he had acted because "the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition".
Ukraine's leader hailed the "timely" move, while a Moscow envoy slammed Washington's "cynicism".
Cluster bombs are banned by more than 120 countries.
The extremist GOP Freedom Caucus voted to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene for working with Kevin McCarthy. It is not clear whether the vote was successful. In other words, the Freedom Caucus is a mess, which means that the House GOP caucus is a mess. But we knew that already. Freedom Caucus members voted to oust Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. It's unclear if it worked. (nbcnews.com).
A DC bar disciplinary panel recommended the disbarment of Rudy Giuliani. One Step Closer: DC Bar Panel Recommends Giuliani Be Disbarred - Talking Points Memo.
Feel free to raise other topics for discussion. As always, please be respectful and “like” worthy comments to promote them to the top for other readers. (Reminder: New comments are posted at the bottom; so if you believe your comment “disappeared,” look to the very bottom of the Comments section.
Talk to you on Monday!
Friends, we often visit in this space about how this fight is as important on the local and state as well as the national level. Heavy on my heart this weekend is that the NRA is hoping to relocate to Texas, a leader in mass shootings, fresh off the May 6, Allen Outlet Mall that killed children and parents.
Specifically, the plan is that State Farm Inc., would sublease a space to the NRA in Richardson, TX, my home. Richardson is a city that has successfully navigated much change in the last 50 years, but this would give us a black eye, rightfully, and send a horrible message.
Yes, there's lots of organizing going on, to what avail I do not know. But if you could spare five minutes to send a quick email sentence or two to our Council members as to the message this sends to others around the country, I would be grateful.
Cathy Murphree
Addresses at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bcSZamIMx30r6M2O11ZEabjty8ICTBBRS-7GZu3DCqY/edit?usp=sharing
I recently completed an 8-day cross country trip (I-90 east to west ) and I want everyone to know this is a beautiful vast country worth all of our interests to keep up our fight to preserve and strengthen our democracy . And that I thought i would see a lot of visual Trump propaganda in the form of apparel, flags, signs etc… and I didn’t! In Cody Wyoming I interacted with staff in a national grocery store wearing pride flag pins. Bozeman Montana Main St. most stores had pride flags. We are making a difference. If you are discouraged, I want to share there is hope at the local level. We must be loud and proud that President Biden is governing with a steady hand and smart policy and that we can support him by getting out the vote-
Locally, regionally and nationally.