What I Missed in Just One Week #219
By Hank Silverberg
You may have noticed I did not post a blog this past week. My wife and I took a trip of a thousand miles to see family for the first time since the start of the pandemic for Passover. It was good to see them all.
We had a celebration of my mother's life, since the pandemic prevented a funeral a year ago, and then we had a huge family Seder that included all of her nine great-grandchildren for the first time. I love this type of event.
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| (Take the bridge and avoid NYC) |
What surprised me most were all the things that happened in the 72 hours where I was not paying much attention to the news. (I had one or two hours of listening to all-news radio in near D.C. and New York City, for traffic reports, but music is a better companion on long trips.)
While I was tuned out, it seems Ron DeSantis, the bizarre Republican Governor of Florida, picked a fight with The Disney Corporation, his state's largest employer.
Disney basically has said it will ignore the Governor's "Don't Say Gay" decree and will treat its employees and guests equally regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or anything else. And the company will no longer support candidates who favored the bill. It seems that the big corporation has a better concept of America than Florida's highest elected official. DeSantis noted that Disney is based in California, and he said "California values" don't hold up in Florida, as if California was a distant planet with an alien race. I wonder what the Republicans in very conservative Amadar County, Ca, would say about that.
DeSantis thinks he is playing to his base and is trying to out-trump Trump for a possible presidential run in 2024. My guess is, if he keeps this up, he will be running to some of his right-wing friends next year looking for a job after the voters tell him where to go this coming November. Sorry Ron, but Mickey Mouse polls better than you do.
What else did I miss?
It seems the House Minority Leader got caught having to eat his own words again. The New York Times reported that after the January 6th insurrection, Kevin McCarthy planned to ask Donald Trump to resign, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told allies that impeachment was warranted.
"I’ve had it with this guy,” is what McCarthy actually told a group of Republican leaders.
McCarthy has since backed off and is now saying nice things about Trump again. He denies he ever said that. But here's the thing. The Times has an audio recording of the conversation, which you can actually hear at the link below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/politics/trump-mitch-mcconnell-kevin-mccarthy.html
We all knew that McCarthy waffles a lot and changes his mind from day to day, but this one is
far beyond normal political shifts. He's denying something we can all hear for ourselves. This guy wants to be Speaker of The House. Heaven help us if that happens.
Good News Elsewhere
Marjorie Taylor Greene may never get a chance to run for re-election. She is facing a lawsuit from a group of non-partisan voters who say Greene
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Amendment 14
Section 3
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
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Greene had gone to court this past week seeking a preliminary injunction and restraining order against the lawsuit, but U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg of Georgia has now denied that request. That means the lawsuit goes forward.
Similar lawsuits have been filed against Republican Congressmen Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
Preventing those three from running again would be a wonderful thing for this country. For the record, the lawsuits are NOT about the stupid uninformed things the Congressional members said. Most members of Congress in both parties say dumb things at times. This has nothing to do with the First Amendment rights. They have the freedom to say something stupid or even lie.
This is about these particular Congressional members' active support of the January 6th insurrection, which can be considered domestic terrorism.
If they are not on the ballot and not in Congress, the GOP may have a good chance to make Republicans, Republicans again.
Glory To Ukraine/Vive La France
I am completely flabbergasted by any politician or media type in the U.S.A. who doesn't understand the stakes involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how important a Ukraine victory is to the U.S. and the world as a whole. It's not a hard concept to understand. A Democratic state, with a legally elected government, has been attacked by its much larger neighbor with an autocratic leader who has visions of empire.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has already proven he has contempt for human life by letting, or probably even encouraging, his troops to commit mass murder to meet his goals.
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| (Courtesy Library of Congress) |
The general public in the United States, meanwhile, continues to be bombarded by a well-run propaganda campaign from Russia that is aimed at easily pliable politicians on the right, and a sharply divided political populace spurred by right wing media.
I don't often look to France to come up with any constructive solutions on this type of aggression because history has proven they are inept at doing so. But this past weekend the French electorate proved they are smart enough to reject right-wing manipulation and soundly reject the far-right candidate for president, Marine Le Pen. The current French President, Emmanuel Macron, has not always been swift in his actions, but he does know the danger of an aggressive Russia and will continue to work with NATO to halt any Russian expansionism. (Le Pen had talked about withdrawing from NATO a la Trump.)
While the French have not always been our best friends, this time we can say Vive La France.
There is a message here for the American electorate.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/24/world/french-election-runoff-results
Chinese Space Station
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| (Landing of the Chinese space station crew last week Courtesy of China's official Xinhua News Agency) |
Like the Russians, the Chinese have also developed missiles that can destroy satellites in space, though both countries have signed a treaty banning weapons platforms in space, on the moon or other planets.
According to newspapers in India there has been some official criticism from the Chinese over private space missions by American billionaire Elon Musk and others. The Chinese have complained that two Space-X missions have come too close to their new space station.
It's A Hologram!
So, what do you do if you are in space and you need a doctor? Star Trek Voyager fans know you can just activate the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), and Doc will appear with his poor bedside manner and witty stories. But that, of course, is science fiction. Or is it?
A NASA flight surgeon, Josef Schmid, was "holoported" to the International Space Station in
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| (EMH?) |
You have to wear a special virtual headset such as Microsoft's HoloLens. So far, it's just one way. The astronauts could see Schmid, but Schmid couldn't see the astronauts. But that's coming soon. Eventually when everyone involved is equipped with such devices, you could actually jump into someone else's reality.
This of course not only works in outer space. Scientists say by 2030 we all may have the capability, say, to sit in an office in New York and join a meeting in Paris where both sides would be able to see each other like they were really together in the same room. This would be much more interactive and enable collaborations much more involved than the current 2-D video call.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
A return once again to our most-often quoted person in Dumbest Quotes of The Week. Yes, it's the nitwit Republican Congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene! She was on the witness stand during a hearing for that lawsuit mentioned above. She was asked about her well documented relationship with the right-wing insurrectionists, "Proud Boys."
“I've heard about them. I don’t know what they do. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys.”
I was going to post a picture of Greene posing with the "Proud Boys," but unlike her, I deal in facts and couldn't track down the source of the photo, so I am not posting it. But that one comment alone may end up haunting Greene later on at a possible perjury trial.
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
(My book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:
HankSilveruberg@gmail.com for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature. )
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796
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