Stirring up a Tweet Storm(y)"
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
.Twitter.
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Greetings, everyone. For this week's column, I am trying something a little different. Instead of an essay on a single topic, I am offering for your consideration a collection of the Tweets that I have posted since Dec. 29, 2022. (The Tweets for 2023 are identified only by month-and-date.) If you find one or more of them to be of interest, you can sign up to receive them regularly, at my Twitter handle, which is: https://twitter.com/tpjmagazine.
And so, to begin:
Dec 29, 2022
Click Here. Trump and George Santos: Untruth-tellers. But not the same kind. Trump is liar. When he is not telling the truth, he knows it. Santos is a fabulist. When he is not telling the truth he doesn't realize it, at least at the time(s) he says what he says.
Dec 30, 2022
From the play "Other Desert Cities," by Jon Robin Baitz, set in Palm Springs, CA primarily in 2004, with the last scene set in 2010. In that scene, the lead character says, talking about the Repubs.: "Your Party. Taken over by Zealots marinated into intolerance." In 2010 that was!
Jan 2
The Athletic Pulse, Jan. 2, 2023: The Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars are the hottest teams in the National Football Leagues. Let's hear it for the cats!!! (Note: I am a long-time cat lover, and have been staff to many of them. By the way, do you know the difference between dogs and cats as pets? Dogs have owners; cats have staff.)
Jan 5
Trump's "Reichstag Fire" that Could Have Been: Click Here.
Jan 5
Click Here. Funeral today [of ex-Pope Benedict XVI}. But why the resignation in 2013, the 1st in 600 years? Two common speculations (https://bbc.com/news/magazine-25121121): the Church was in worse financial shape than could have been imagined, and the priest-sex-scandals had been covered up for far too long.
Jan 17
On Forbidden Music
JEWISH COMPOSERS BANNED BY THE NAZIS. From Yivo: Exilarte Center in Vienna rediscovers musical treasures suppressed by the Third Reich. So this is where the Republo-fascists, from DeSantis down (or up) to Right-wing School Bds., book censors get their ideas.
Jan 17
Click Here. Like Willie Mays and others, Tom Brady stayed one year too long. (Actually, in Willie's case it was 2.) But unlike any of the others, he lost not only some of the sheen on his career, but by breaking his deal with his wife to quit sooner, he lost her too.
Jan 28
Click Here. 5 Memphis cops beat up and kill a Black man at a traffic stop. Unlike so many other cops-who-kill, they are (correctly) immediately fired and charged w/ murder. What's different about them from the many cops who get away with murder? Why they are Black.
Feb 9
On Ari Berman's MSNBC program, 2-8-23, James Carville, well-known Dem. Activist from Louisiana, called M. T. Greene a "cracker." Coming from where he comes from, Carville knows whereof of he speaks. As if on cue, earlier in the day Ms. Greene introduced the term "f-----g" into a formal House hearing.
Feb 14
Click Here. Gov. Murphy (NJ), is expanding the College Board Advanced Placement Afro-Amer studies course for his state. Actually, I had been thinking that a solution for the C.B. would be to offer two courses, the full one for most states and the DeSantistizedversion for those in denial.
Feb 27
Click Here. Clearly, Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons. Is any other sign needed indicating they think that they are losing? In the meantime, the offer seems to be "stop sending arms and we will stop threatening nuclear war."
Feb 27
Click Here. As he takes over Disney, which has been run without a problem for FL for decades, other than its preaching of tolerance, DeSantis is quoted: ""There's a new sheriff in town, and accountability will be the order of the day." And boy does he mean "Sheriff."
Mar 1
Click Here. A bipartisan Cong. comm. opens hearings on "China." The Repub. chair, Gallagher (WI), red-baiting, refers to that nation as the "Chinese Communist Party." Its name is actually the "Peoples Republic of China." That might be a good place to start to accomplish anything positive.
Mar 4
Click Here. This shows just how desperate the Republo.-Right is getting. There is an environmental disaster caused by a railroad co. and Trump's weakened rules, and they try to blame any demonstrations/other-responses to it (and none have been violent) on Erin Brokovich?!?!
Mar 5
Click Here. What is the best indication that Trump will be indicted? The words of the potential indictee himself, at CPAC '23: "Ahead of his speech, Trump told reporters that he would continue his third presidential campaign even if indicted." Who knows better?
Mar 7
So, Kevin McCarthy hands over Jan. 6 tapes to "Tucker," who of course cherry picks them to make believe that the Insurrection was really just a peaceful visit to the Capitol. Why did McCarthy do this? Why because he is running as the last-resort candidate for the Repub. Pres. Nomination.
Mar 9
Click Here. Ooops! Another Norfolk-South. train derailment, this one just before their CEO was to testify before Congress. It was in the South. One wonders if the tracks were ones used by the Confederacy. That would certainly fit well with the Repub. New Secessionist plans.
Mar 14
Click Here. A South Carolina high teacher shoved a student against a wall after the teenager refused to stop for the reading of the Pledge of Allegiance, on her way to class. Apparently that teacher has never read the last line of the Pledge: "With liberty and Justice for all."
Mar 20
Click Here. Ah yes, DeSantis uses the Magic Modern Word for "Jew:" Soros. See my column: Click Here. Despite the number of Jews living in his state, some of whom support him, DeSantis has joined the Let's-Use-Anti-Semitism-in-the-Elections crowd. Way to go, Ron.
Mar 25
Click Here. Why is Trump going what all political sides are calling "B-S Crazy?" Well he, more than anyone, knows he is guilty, in NYC, in GA, etc. and the walls are closing in. He needs to get out of the US with at least some of his money, before his passport is lifted. That trip is coming soon. In the meantime, distract, distract, distract.
Mar 27
Click Here. Trump is right (really?) Yes, really. The Criminal Justice System is indeed weaponized against him. That's what the CJS is: the weaponization of Justice against criminals.
Mar 27
House Repub. Committee chairs Comer, Jordan & Steil (click here) want to violate the principle of Federalism which Repubs. ordinarily defend to the death (like on voting anti-rights and guns-without-limits). When did the Federalism exception for not allowing States to investigate ex-Presidents get put into the Constitution? I must have missed that one.
Mar 28
Click Here. [Modified.] On the Reagan principle, "the laws must be followed 'except by us' " "Oct. Surprise" [referring to his deal with Iran on holding onto the hostages]. Another version of the sabotage-of-Carter did circulate: that it was George H.W. Bush who made the trip to Spain to carry out the treasonous plot, with a stop-over the night before at a nice chateau on the River Loire.
Apr 1
A prime characteristic of 20th cent. fascism (except for Japan) was that there was a "maximum leader" whose word was law and who could do no wrong. See what the Repubs. are all saying, or not, about the Trump indictment which, of course, no one has seen.
Apr 3
Click Here. Of course, Trump will do his best to turn the whole thing, from arraignment thru trial to its judicial outcome, into a political spectacle. He knows better than anyone else that he's guilty of one or more crimes in these cases. What else can he do?
Apr 3
Click Here JEB on how the crim. just. syst. should work: Bragg's predecessor declined the case. DOJ didn't take it up. Bragg said he wouldn't take it, then changed his mind. "This is very political, not a matter of justice. In this case, let the jury be the voters."
Apr 3
Click Here. Apparently LBJ engaged in election fraud when first running for the Senate in TX. (And it is well-known that JFK may have benefited from it in Chicago in the 1960 election.) And so, here's a new argument for Trump's lawyers: two wrongs DO make a right.
Apr 5
April 4, 2023 may, in the future, be noted as the date upon which U.S. bourgeois liberal democracy, with all of its defects still far superior to Republo-fascism (Click Here), began its comeback with the indictment of Trump, and the electoral wins of Janet Protaseiwicz (WI) and Brandon Johnson (Chicago).
Apr 7
Click Here. Clarence Thomas is a truly amazing person. He does not deny that he and his wife, Ms. Republican, went on many trips funded by a Repub. mega-donor (who just happens to be a collector of Nazi art, click here). He just claims that they weren't reportable. Now there's ethics for you: just never thought about it.
April 11
Click Here. "Trump's response to criminal charges revives election lies." He doesn't have anything else, so why not go back to his old reliable "Magic Trick No. 2" (Click Here): "Always attack; Never Defend."