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Comments Posted By choicelady

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Rallies in St. Louis for Peace, for Justice, for All the Trayvons

Glad you went, Murph. There was a rally here, too, but unless you’d been told where and when by someone, there was NO information to find. So I did not go to one today. Thank you for doing this!

I agree with AdLib – I don’t think this is over. I don’t actually think Newtown is over either. The obvious shows of rallies and marches and press conferences, yes, but not over for the dedicated work to make change. It’s more like what happened with ACA – calls, letters, visits to legislators, unremarked and unsung by the media, unrelenting on the ground. It’s not the 60s anymore. We learned long ago that marches over the Edmund Pettus bridge HAVE to be followed by the Civil Rights Act. That’s where we’re headed. That’s where the energies will lie.

Why were there no young? Because their parents told them to stay home. Too freaking dangerous even with all of you, all in the going and coming, never mind it’s too hot for hoodies. Across the country the conspicuous absence of boys (and they still are) Trayvon’s age was its own kind of witness about what happened. Little children, adults, grandparents – sure. But no young men. Cannot risk that, not even teen-aged girls, not now.

But yeah – where were the white people? Maybe it was like here. The organizer of the Sacramento rally was unknown to me – never heard of her – and she made a rather conspicuous statement about reaching out to secular groups not even Black churches never mind anyone else. So we have to build that coalition. I’d love it if it was never needed again, but we should build it nevertheless. The folks from NAACP did not seem to know either, so work is required, no doubt about it. We’re all like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz – rusty with disuse.

I’m not as pessimistic about this as you, and it’s not because I’m in CA – quite the opposite. I’m energized by the actions in 100 cities across the nation. I’m energized by the frank and open conversations many of us are having. It won’t be easy, but what worth doing ever is? But we won’t back down either. New allies are forming, and new people are getting engaged, and a different mood of anger clearly focused on real change has gripped millions.

So thank you for being “the open and visible sign…” (you know what I mean; we share those roots) for all the world to see. Every journey begins with a single step. You just too a big one. Thank you.

» Posted By choicelady On July 20, 2013 @ 11:45 pm

Please Sign the NAACP Petition for Peace and for Justice

Welcome, FerraKnows – we’ve not met, but I agree with your position. I am also stunned by your revelation – that came out ONLY from the firearm trainer – that little George lied because it’s part of the permit process. No one made THAT point, did they.

I don’t want to trivialize Trayvon’s death as I know you are not, but your description of being “Martinized” made me laugh out loud for its incredible wit AND its awfulness.

I have a couple of friends who’ve challenged the Aryan Nation, skinheads, Christian Identity who are in hiding, armed to the teeth, because those folks are seriously after them. I was visiting one when the house was surrounded, and I was damned glad there were guns! My out loud statement about going to the car to get them ENDED the people creeping through the trees. They’d apparently not expected that we’d be armed, too. So guns? Not a problem per se. Nope. Not in this society.

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 1:05 pm

LOL!!! That’s the part the RW don’t understand. As you and FerraKnows below both note – lots of us have experience with and possession of firearms. Why? to protect us against RW extremists THAT’s why.

I am totally in favor of gun laws but am NOT anti gun. Not in this society!

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 12:57 pm

I saw a LTE in the Sacramento Bee this morning that was identical to posts on a couple of blogs – word for word, idea for idea – that screams BOILERPLATE from some group. It disavows the idea that there is any guilt for anything, no gun issue, no race. Cannot tell for sure who put it out, but there is a large machine on the Right that cranks out such letters and gets shills to post or print them.

This is the new meme: just poor judgement by both Zimmerman and Martin. That’s all. So sad.

Pernicious in the extreme since there are horrific injustices that must be addressed, and this gives comfort to the indifferent who don’t wish to be engaged.

My organization is putting out a ‘mini study guide’ on what needs to be revived in our congregations on this issue. Several clergy – mostly white – preached in hoodies again this week. We will NOT back down.

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 10:13 am

Thanks – knew the story, not the woman’s name.

Stand your ground is for white males only.

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 10:08 am

Hi Murph – yes, I did read this on the other post, and it’s sickening. I am scared that people feel both embattled and empowered to kill Black people with impunity now. The disgusting attitudes towards the Obamas – in particular the characterization of them as ignorant thugs or ‘hos’ – says we have really lost our minds. I shudder to think what is looming on the horizon for people of color.

Here is the statement. It is public though not yet picked up be media (why does that not surprise me…) but certainly NOT confidential.

—–

Federal Investigation Regarding Trayvon Martin

“As the Department first acknowledged last year, we have an open investigation into the death of Trayvon Martin. The Department of Justice’s Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to evaluate the evidence generated during the federal investigation, as well as the evidence and testimony from the state trial. Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction, and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the Department’s policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial.”

Because of interest in this matter, the Department of Justice has set up an e-mail address to receive correspondence concerning the federal investigation.

Sanford.Florida@usdoj.gov

Unfortunately, the Department will not be able to respond to all messages received.

———–

Feel free to share this far and wide with people who need to know the DOJ is paying attention.

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 10:07 am

As of about 2 pm this afternoon, our US Attorney’s office forwarded a message to those of us on the local civil rights hate crimes task force from the DOJ affirming that the Martin case is OPEN for investigation under civil rights and hate crimes laws. They have set up a specific email that allows anyone with more information to report it directly, no intermediaries. That’s fantastic since some people may be wary about going to the US Attorney or FBI and being seen there.

Murph – I got lucky and got into the NAACP site just as it first came online. I understand from emails from Benjamin Jealous that they already have over one MILLION signatures!!!

This is an issue that is NOT going away. Thanks for your advocacy for the cause! Keep trying everyone. The more who sign, the more it helps. GREAT to have this post, Murph. Thank you very much!

» Posted By choicelady On July 17, 2013 @ 11:32 pm

Hi Sue – I am not familiar with the case. Can you elaborate?

» Posted By choicelady On July 17, 2013 @ 11:27 pm

Debating the Existence of Racism (and Gravity if We Have Time)

To both Murph and Assumed: In the 60s those of us in the North who had very little skin in the game, used to sneer at white people for their reticence. Black people stepped up to the plate mostly – but they LITERALLY had nothing left to lose. It was win one’s civil rights or die. It was that bad. There comes a time when Janice Joplin is absolutely correct: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…”

But for white southerners, it was losing EVERYTHING they had – family, friends, jobs, business, church, home, everything. Watching even now to see people do the right thing EVEN IF they do it quietly – it’s not that different.

What CAN be different is our solidarity with one another, our willingness to be a small community within the larger one. We did not do that in the 60s. We can do it now. That means Black people taking in white people for what they can give and white people giving it. We, the white folks, are far less empowered because we do NOT have community without Black people. We don’t have security.

It’s not a uniform set of social relationships. Everywhere, every place is different. But where Murph is – it’s hard. Not that many people Black or white have that kind of courage.

The shopkeeper did what he could for now. Maybe next step will be easier. And the one after that. “Every journey begins with a single step”. And the shopkeeper took it. Hallelujah!

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 8:46 pm

Can’t reply directly…

I was a temporary resident of that town and not risking much. They didn’t like me anyway as a Yankee, so… It was the other white folks – longtime residents – who had the REAL backbone because yes, they risked a lot standing as ‘race traitors’ in that insular community. THAT is courage.

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 1:10 pm

He likely knew Murph would support him in his refusal to sell the shirts and NEEDED the sense that he wasn’t in that alone.

Back in the Civil Rights days, after Rev. King was assassinated, several white people came out of the woodwork in response to a letter I and my then husband had written to the local Tennessee paper. They – and we – were deeply frightened by doing this.

I think we northern types discount how terribly DANGEROUS it can be to be seen as a ‘race traitor’ in communities that are homes to prejudice. As one who has encountered physical violence from white supremacists over my being with the ‘wrong’ people, I can attest to the fact that they are not to be dismissed. Living in a place that has circled the wagons around prejudice and fear, those outside the circle are at risk not from everyone but from enough. Losing your business over principle? Big risk, too.

All the people who are not inside the circle of frightened and angry people need one another, always, at all times, everywhere. It is going to be as bad now as it was then I think. It will take all of us working in solidarity to stand OUR ground on justice.

» Posted By choicelady On July 18, 2013 @ 10:25 am

It has been simmering since Reagan gave white people permission to hate people of color. He justified it as protesting ‘Welfare Queens’, but it’s just racist BS crawling back out from under the rock where it’s been. It never really went away. All we have to do is remember Jasper, TX to know.

This happened all over the South and border states in 1968. The best thing that could happen is a crackdown by the DOJ though since it’s in the hands of “those people” it might not work as it would were the occupants of the DOJ and White House also white.

So it’s up to us. I am going to DC for the 50th anniversary March on Washington. It is critically important for white people to be there. Anyone else wants to come, we’ll also have a party together – GROW could finally BE Grass Roots Over Washington in Washington! As an enticement, many of the hotels seem to have lowered their rates – not that they’re cheap – compared to their usual ones. There are still good vacancies, so…

We will stay in touch if anyone decides to go. AdLib can put us all together so we can have a meet up. Only regret I have is that my fave place, the Hawk and Dove, the Dem staffer hang out where I once sat next to Ted Kennedy’s staff, is now yupped up and not the wonderful dive it had been. Oh, well. We can find something.

» Posted By choicelady On July 17, 2013 @ 11:40 pm

This is an excellent summation of a millennial long problem. That’s exactly the case. Throughout history those losing their supremacy and control and privileges begin acting in violent and repressive ways. Such is the stand of white people who cannot tolerate being equal with others not like themselves. Truth be told there are hierarchies within the white community, male to female, class, status. But with the exception of the male-female relationships, they don’t tend to resolve themselves routinely as violently as race seems to engender.

Excellent analysis, AB. Thank you.

» Posted By choicelady On July 17, 2013 @ 7:51 am

AdLib – this is the essential issue. It has underscored very RW and EmoProg nastiness since January 2009. It has simmered since 1965 when it went underground but never went away. Have things changed? Of course – and for the better overall – but beginning in 1980 Reagan and his ‘Welfare Queen’ gave the conservatives the right to be openly racist and openly violent.

I want to say to Juror B37 that when I come up on her and challenge HER right to be wherever she is, and she gets angry and pushes back, do I then have the right to shoot HER? Because that can happen. If we decide all strangers are suspicious, she’s just as much at risk as anyone. Failure to understand that means she sees this entirely through the prism of white privilege and racist profiling. She has no clue she could be next.

But the overall issue is not her. It’s the residual groups of people, even faux progressives, who have always believed that people of color are inferior. Lots of that is changing. Too much of it is not.

This may be the last hurrah for white supremacy, but it terrifies me that many more people will die – innocent kids included – sacrificed to the death throes of racism. And the old white men who make policy in the states and in our Congress will not usher in justice and equality easily and willingly. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

» Posted By choicelady On July 16, 2013 @ 9:13 pm

Justice, Politics and Other Multiplayer Games

I read something last week (forgot to save it and can’t recall where) that the FISA court revolves annually having new members that are set by some formula but not by Roberts. I will try to unearth that because I know very little about WHO is on the courts, but I do understand they did exist before 2001 and are not the product of the Patriot Act. FISA warrants were obtained by the FBI and various police jurisdictions to do the ‘sneak and peek’ reading of the computer interactions between anti-choice zealots in the US and James Kopp, the fugitive who fled to Ireland then France after murdering Barnett Slepian, the abortion provider in Buffalo, NY.

While Kopp was abroad, the interactions required FISC intervention and proof to the justices that such a warrant was essential. It took the police weeks and substantial revelations of compelling evidence to get the warrant that led to a major break in the case on Kopp’s location where he was arrested. They did not take entering a suspect’s home lightly at all. This occurred PRE 9/11, and such court intervention has proven time and again to be highly demanding and exacting. The corruption that occurred AFTER 9/11 was the Bush administration’s refusal to bother with warrants or FISC at all. Courts and later Congressional action ended those abuses.

I think we all need to learn a ton more about the court system, good, bad, ugly. I do think the SCOTUS decisions have been a very mixed bag over the past decade plus, but that variability means that it becomes more and more critical to have a good president who appoints good justices who actually understand the LAW.

» Posted By choicelady On July 12, 2013 @ 11:15 pm

As one who has waded through volumes of handwritten legal cases from the 17th-early 19th century, I’d say we’re actually no different from what we’d been. The Common Law is highly convoluted. However, resting on precedent, it is THE system that lets us settle differences largely without revolution, with appeal to justice not just in the formal sense but as in the sense of ‘seeing right done’ and with a serious eye on basic human rights as the chief concern of our system.

What has happened over the 20th century (with roots in the 19th) is the rise of more and more legislation rather than appeal to those precedents. That’s where the real harm starts – legislative directives that remove our ability to appeal to ‘common and customary’ laws. Here is where the power of money and status do prevail. This outcome resembles far too often the rigidity of the Roman Code that then demands legislative rather than court appeal to do or undo. And therein lies frustration when the electorate does not vote wisely.

I am not at all sure what verdict will be returned in the Zimmerman case, but what he did seems, based on evidence, NOT to have been ‘stand your ground’ at all. We do need to be able to say that what got done was legal, but what he did seems inconsistent with that law as bad as it is. I have hope that the jury will find him guilty because stalking someone kind of removes the right to feel threatened. At ALL. It’s inconsistent with both common law AND with the statute itself.

But even bad laws in a democracy are better than none. The NSA court decisions(common law as much as anything) and Congressional reviews vastly improved the mandate to follow our Constitution and the process we have treasured over the centuries. Warrants, review, guaranteed rights all were secured by the law both as case law and statute and both appealing to our Common Law heritage embedded in the Bill of Rights.

I’m not as pessimistic when courts do intervene – not that they are perfect – but I do want legislation to slow down. That call by the Tea Party to read the section of the Constitution that underpinned whatever bills they introduced? EXCELLENT. The REAL problem is that lasted about two days – they are not following the Constitution because – voila! – it turns out it doesn’t say what they wanted it to say. So they stopped. THAT is the real problem. If we did that, if we appealed to the Constitution seriously, in every piece of legislation, we’d have a very different outcome.

So the courts are what backs up the Constitution when the fools, knaves, and mountebanks take over and ride roughshod over our basic rights. And I hope – HOPE – that the jury in the Zimmerman trial will be given serious charge by the judge who will remind them that laws aren’t just what we WISH they were – they are what they really say. And their finding of facts should give a decent outcome for the Martin family and everyone who has been appalled by this case.

Let’s hope the jury seriously wants right done. We will see.

» Posted By choicelady On July 10, 2013 @ 8:11 pm

Let the battle for a new voting rights movement begin

The more I go over the Arizona decision, the more clear it is that NO STATE CAN DEMAND ID AT ALL. While I’m definitely in favor of activism to help people get it, I’m MORE in favor of people getting in the face of any official who demands it illegally.

This is the new ‘sit in’ moment – occupying court houses demanding the official comply with the Arizona decision, calling in the feds to enforce it.

We shall NOT be forced to get ID when the Supreme Court said no state can make the federal application for voting HARDER than the federal standard. No special laws – isn’t that the anti-equality whine from the Right? Well – no special laws for white supremacists trying to block other people’s right to vote.

» Posted By choicelady On June 26, 2013 @ 9:24 pm

Yup – that’s it. I finally motivated myself to look and realized I’d forgotten it was AZ v. indigenous people who ought to be asking Jan Brewer for HER papers, IMHO.

With this ruling (7-2 not 8-0 sorry) the flurry of slavering white old men to impose new standards on registration are totally NOT going to work. The Section 4 voiding does not change this ruling AT ALL. How dumb are they to think this suddenly, a few days later, doesn’t matter??? The DOJ has every capacity to stick it to the states that violate this law.

And why do I keep asking “how dumb are they” when the answer is perfectly clear…

» Posted By choicelady On June 26, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

Very pithy and to the point assessment, Murph. Thank you!

The one thing I cannot unearth due to inattention is the previous ruling earlier this week (or maybe last) that 8-0 maintained that states may NOT override the federal guidelines on registration and voting. I know I’m not making that up – I read it. But now it’s as if it’s disappeared from the radar. This was the decision that peeved Jan Brewer and all the voter ID fanatics. So…

How the HELL can the Red Southern White Old Men states suddenly take the lack of prior oversight as license to void the earlier decision?

What the Grumpy Old Poops seem to forget is that voiding Section 4 is NOT voiding federal actions and/or jurisdictions. It means it shifts to a case by case basis, but doing something as dumb as violating a SCOTUS ruling that is still warm off the presses seems pretty blatant.

While I stand totally with you on voting, reigniting a new Voting Rights Movement, I also think we will see a major uptick in federal crackdowns against Red State actions. And I for one will welcome the laser beam being turned on Ohio et al. for their disgusting racism.

This may have opened a can of worms OK – and it may NOT be to the interests of the tottering white guys. They seem to be over-reaching right from the git go, and that could be SO FUN to watch as they get shot down.

And all the while we’re mobilizing, moving, educating, changing, and VOTING.

Wow. Brand new day.

» Posted By choicelady On June 26, 2013 @ 10:33 am

Supreme Court Arsonists: Pouring Gasoline on the Embers of the Civil War

OK all – let me weigh in here with a bit of hope.

One thing the states instantly deciding to impose ID and other laws upon voting have missed was the EARLIER decision that, well, they can’t. In the hoopla today they think they won – they did not, and the 8-0 ruling in favor of the federal voting laws that trump state wackadoodle will put paid to a lot of this crap.

The VRA is NOT dead. What it has done is made enforcement a heavier lift. It will be perfectly OK for anyone to prefer suits and charges against any Good ol’ Boys ANYWHERE such as, oh, Kacich? The DOJ can and will act at that point. Section 4 made it vastly easier to monitor places such as Shelby AL – but maybe these are NOT the only places needing oversight?

I agree with Melissa Harris Perry that the vastly better way to go would be expanding inclusion of assholes rather than the exclusion of everyone on the presumption they suddenly are choir boys. But even as they sent the oversight list back for Congressional review, they did NOT – did NOT – gut the act itself. That’s important for us to keep hold of. Reporting jerks trying to restrict voting is the new activism of the new Freedom Riders. The DOJ does NOT have to have Congress give them a blanket groups to review – it does need all of us to be eyes and ears.

It’s heavier lifting. No doubt about it. But it is NOT over, VRA is NOT dead, and we CAN make this work. The critical issue however is that what Congress we elect in 2014 and onward depends on all of us not throwing up our hands and deciding we cannot vote.

The ONLY way we take back democracy is voting. There is no excuse for anyone not voting. NO EXCUSE. In the meantime – if you live where voter ID is now being demanded – get in your car and help someone who needs it get it. Pay for it if you must. And then drive that person to the polls next election. No use ever saying we can’t thwart the SOBs. We have. We can. We will. We must.

» Posted By choicelady On June 25, 2013 @ 7:40 pm

Man of Steel: High Flying….mostly

I’m not a fan of sci-fi precisely for the robotization (made up word) of all human interactions. Went to see the latest Star Trek prequel though and had a much different reaction since the development of characters was quite pronounced and interesting (GREAT casting, too). So I was interested in your affirmation of those aspects of Superman.

So much contemporary sci-fi is predicated on shaky camera work, fast movement through confusing backdrops, and it always leaves me feeling confused and disoriented. If you can’t take in the surroundings, it’s hard to get a fix on the action. That was part of Star Trek, but only AFTER they’d allowed you to get oriented in time and place. Still and all, if there is no story or people about whom you can care, the insistence on speed and demolition leave me, at least, leaving the show feeling totally cheated.

It’s grand having a new “movie reviewer” in the house who has the same interests and can reveal whether the film has enough meat on its bones to be worthwhile. Thanks for letting us be part of your new “career”. Keep it coming!

» Posted By choicelady On June 16, 2013 @ 9:02 am

Well Murph – I had no idea you had the gift of reviews in you as well as everything else that is so excellent!

I normally would not go see this. You’ve rather piqued my curiosity though, so I might just give it a whirl. I think the analysis of the ending – the folks making the film did not seem to know how to ‘bring it home’ was accurate but sad. Film makers who don’t understand the profundity of “flyover country”‘s thoughts and values would not find the ending you did. Clark’s childhood in simple places, simple but loving households does not seem to be important to the makers of the film. Their loss I’d say.

Thank you for an offbeat post; it’s delicious NOT to be worrying about anything we’ve discussed over the past days but being able to think about the nuances of both film making and national myth. Thank you for making that well worth reading!

» Posted By choicelady On June 15, 2013 @ 8:01 pm

Weekend Music Thread-Let’s Try To Save The World

That, too, is bloody brilliant. It makes it very meaningful for those of us privileged to talk with you! Thank you!

» Posted By choicelady On June 15, 2013 @ 7:53 pm

You did this all after VOX? Freaking brilliant, KT, and so appropriate given our global, national, and personal concerns. This is really wonderful – great idea and great selections.

And, apropos of my failure to remember almost ANYONE’s performance, “you mean Creedance Clearwater did ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain?'” ????? I didn’t – surprise – remember that. Thanks!

» Posted By choicelady On June 15, 2013 @ 8:54 am

In Security – Greater Protection Through Greater Vulnerability

Thank you for these thoughtful observations, AdLib. I am very late to the table on this – I’d like to say it’s work, but I’ve been goofing off. So it’s anti-work.

Today, driving home from work, I heard “Fresh Air” with John Oliver, the Brit with the wit to stand in for Jon Stewart. He was explaining his shock at Americans who think we have tyranny in America. He said, “Tyranny? Tyranny?? I’ll show you tyranny – we INVENTED tyranny! It’s not raising taxes a few cents – it’s screwing your thumbs off! You want tyranny we’ll be happy to bring it back to you again!”

Our goal as a society is to balance security from people who quite obviously wish to kill us against the freedoms which if given up means the people trying to kill us won.

Along the way someone has to point out that Barak Obama, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, the Dems in general are actually trying to find this balance while the GOP is paying no attention and the Left is pretending it’s not happening.

Tyranny? We do have tyranny – but it resides in each of us when we dismiss others, act with prejudice, classify whole populations as evil, dismiss solutions that require our engagement to fulfill. We are quite happily imposing tyranny on ourselves.

When people are most happy when they are miserable, we have no need of government or even private corporations to take away our freedoms. We already gave them up.

» Posted By choicelady On June 14, 2013 @ 6:32 pm

Weekend Music Theme-As You Please

I have thought of that – but at 65 on I-5, it seems a bit impractical! They give tickets and fines for texting while driving, but I think writing in a notebook with a pencil carries a life sentence.

I have taken glenn’s advice and Googled lines I remember, but there again, first you have to REMEMBER.

I think I’m hopeless. I have recovered a few things on YouTube, but there’s a lot of fun coming here on Saturdays and discovering – Oh! So THAT is who did this!

And then, forgetting again, but oh, well.

» Posted By choicelady On June 9, 2013 @ 12:09 am

KT – Great selections by you and glenn. Today, seeing glenn’s remark over getting technical help posting, I think it’s time to come clean on my ‘disability’ about the Music Thread. Where glenn has posting problems (solvable) mine lie in almost never being able to remember who did what number.

All my life I’ve grown to like something I heard, usually on the car radio, and by the time I get somewhere, I’ve totally forgotten who did it or what it was called. “Hum a few bars and we’ll fake it” does not seem to work getting anyone to recall what it was.

When they started putting out ‘retrospective’ CDs on late night paid ad shows, I was shocked to discover so and so had done such and such – wow. You mean THEY did that number? I can recall most Beatles, Mamas and Papas, and one or two Abba songs – and that’s IT. I’m not proud I remember the latter ones. Oh – and Elton John some. But I lurk here playing what you’ve linked and being surprised how much I know – and did not recall at all until you put it up for us.

You’re providing a corrective for a sort of amnesia that has plagued me all my life.

I’d be delighted to add stuff. If I only knew what it was…

That, unlike the technical help for glenn, I don’t think you can fix. I can’t even hum a few bars for you.

Sigh.

So thank you for letting me “in” on music of my own life. It’s lovely having someone give it back to me. Not that I will ever remember a month from now what it was. But it’s a pleasure while it lasts.

» Posted By choicelady On June 8, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

Think Tanks and Foundations Supported or Funded by The Koch Family

I think it’s overwhelming! You have given us so much in these posts, it’s impossible to respond in full. I had the advantage of reading them all at once, and I found I had to sum up on this one because it’s TOO MUCH TO TAKE IN!!! It’s scary – seeing this much power in the hands of one family is awesome in the most negative sense of the word.

I suspect our fellow Planeteers read it all but are whomperjawed (Molly Ivins’ fave word for totally overwhelmed) by it all. That does not mean we’re not paying attention – it means we have to let it percolate. I think we will treat these posts as research resources, as our encyclopedia on this topic – saved, reflected upon, and taken out over and over to keep ourselves informed and aware.

It’s a masterful job, Sue. Thank you.

» Posted By choicelady On June 4, 2013 @ 10:37 pm

Sue – I’ve been out of town for DAYS so am just now catching up. I used to do “corporate power research” following these threads, and I will tell you that the Kochs almost never surfaced when we did this 30 years ago. That you’ve unpacked this much information on them is beyond amazing.

We knew even in the 70s that one of the key issues of control were ‘think tanks’ and foundations. What you’ve found here is shocking – the capacity of these two men to shape public opinion. Were there liberals of equivalent status and power, we might not be where we are today. But few will throw money around as the Kochs do even when they have it.

What amazes me oddly is how LITTLE they actually inform PUBLIC opinion. The one thing that seems very different is the insular nature of Heritage, Cato, etc. They are speaking to their own choirs more and more. That wasn’t true in the 80s and 90s, but I think they’ve tipped their hand once too often. I hope that continues to be true – the decline of their influence cannot come too soon. That is not to say they don’t have it, but their own narrow views and open contempt for Americans has just finally gone too far for many people. Still and all – they ARE billionaires and still have enormous influence.

The work you have done here though – powerful. It’s appalling how MUCH these two men have controlled, how horrid their father was, and how un-American their views. We would not have known all that without your work. Thank you for all this! It’s a resource of incomparable proportions! I wish Bob Edgar were alive to read this – he’d be in awe. The Kochs were a very big concern to him. He’d be singing your praises!

» Posted By choicelady On June 4, 2013 @ 3:37 pm

Happy Mother’s Day

Family is anguish. Family is glory. I’ve known both. Holding everyone together is an act of heroism and easy as pie. Raising children is incredibly hard even if they’re bright and haven’t a problem in the world. Loving them is awful – it hurts – but the most glorious thing ever, and yes, there ARE happy, healthy families that last through many generations. And there are wonderful people who, as the product of damaged families, still find the strength to end the abuse and find hope.

And mothers are the source of at least half of this struggle to survive and, more difficult, flourish. To every mother out there raising kids or grandkids – Happy Mother’s Day. That goes to the step moms, too – those “not cruel stepmothers of the world” who love the kids by proxy passionately and forever.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who brought smiles to kids’ faces just for being there. You’ve done a GREAT job!

» Posted By choicelady On May 12, 2013 @ 2:25 pm