In the modern world, the level of democratic society is measured, among other things, through state policy aimed at ensuring equal rights for all citizens. Every citizen is an inseparable part of civil society, he is entitled to all the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. All people are free and equal in their dignity and rights. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in response to a petition calling for the legalization of gay marriage.
At the heart of the Russian attack – attacks, is more accurate – on Ukraine is that Ukraine considers itself European and wants to be integrated into the European Union and Russia considers The Ukraine an integral part of Russia. It is an argument that goes back a long time much of which Ukraine was part of Russia or Poland or, even Lithuania but, recently, mostly Russia. Still, I think that countries, like individual people, should have the right to be who they want to be, and most Ukrainians, who do speak a different language and have a different culture than Russia, want to be part of the European Union. Looking at the differences in the quality of life between Russia and the European Union nations, it seems like a good choice.
Last Night, Michele and I watched Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom by Evgeny Afineevsky which is about one of the battles in that ongoing conflict. It is a hard movie to watch and, to be accurate, I watched the movie and Michele gave up after watching the first two-thirds. The movie follows the eighty-nine days of the buildup, from a feeble start of a relatively few protestors in November 2013 to the five-day Revolutionof Dignity in February 2014. The Revolutionof Dignity was a big hunk of the Ukrainian people against pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his refusal to sign a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. For lack of a better way to put it, the movie is shot from inside the protests and while that robs the movie of some context, what it does well is showing us the feeling and tenor of the conflict.
It also put us, the movie-goers, on the side of the protestors while we follow the evolution of the protest from a small group of protestors to hundreds of thousands of protestors. As the protests elevated in size and ferocity, the encampment, in Independence Square – its name in English, in Anglicized Ukrainian, it is Maidan Nezalezhnosti and the revolution, itself is often called The Maidan Revolution – took on the aspects of its own city within Kyivn with kitchens, first aid posts, and a stage. I thought the movie was fascinating but I’ve become very interested in all things Ukrainian and it isn’t for everybody.
While Winter On Fire is intimate and graphic, Ukraine: The Latest a daily podcast by the staff of the English newspaper The Telegraph is equally fascinating but much more cerebral and heavy on context. They talk about everything from explaining the HIMARS system to analyzing the insurance problems with shipping grain in a war zone. I highly recommend Ukraine: The Latest, again, if you are interested.
We went for a walk on Russian Ridge the other day and I was gob-smacked over the soft beauty of the grass-covered hills. I once read that humans have a natural affinity to landscapes like this because we evolved in the Savana and, at the time, it seemed logical to me. Now I am not so sure. Over the years, I’ve met enough people from lusher areas who were not enamored with our dry hills to convince me that they are an acquired taste. Either way, I find them beautiful.
Less is more when it comes to hearing from lawmakers. Big shout-out to whoever jettisoned the common practice of letting every committee member prattle on at every hearing. That genius deserves a bonus. And a medal. And should be put in charge of future hearings. from an editorial in the New York Times by Michelle Cottle.
I want to write a little about the 8th hearing on January 6, but first I want to talk about Fox News. OK, not Fox News per se, but their website on July 22, the day after the hearing. One of the discussions I’ve had with friends – I’m saying discussions because I don’t think they have ever risen to the level of arguments – is about Fox News lying.
My position is that Fox doesn’t lie, they are like the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, or the LA Times – or anybody, really – in that they just curate the news. But sometimes curating is so heavy-handed that it is the same as lying and Fox News on the day after the last Jan 6 Hearing, is one of those times. Looking at the front page above, the first thing I saw was the headline then the four snippets or pseudo-paragraphs below. In three of the four references, the Seattle police are featured and I erroneously jumped to the conclusion that the whole Seattle police force had resigned, big news indeed. Big news that nobody else seemed to notice.
It turns out that what I overlooked was the police badge in the center of the picture and the start of the first pseudo-paragraph that clearly says FLASHBACK. Those are clues – which I missed – that this headline is not about Jan 6th, July 21st, or Seattle. It is about something that happened in Kenly, a small town in North Carolina, a week or two earlier. It’s hard for me to not think that the day after the damning Jan 6th Committee hearing, the headline and pseudo-paragraphs are misleading on purpose.
Anyway, on to the hearings, where, because Democratic Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson was out with Covid, it was almost an all-Republican show. Not surprisingly, the hearings were better for it. It was two and a half hours of testimony about President Donald Trump trying to work up a crowd to change the results of an election. As an example, after the attempted insurrection had begun and after all of Trump’s advisors were begging him to calm everybody down, Donald Trump tweeted, Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done. It was powerful and damning to have a Republican Congressperson, Liz Chaney, ask questions of a fellow Republican, Matthew Pottinger, a former National Security Council official and a former Trump advisor who, in reference to the Tweet, answered “I read it and was quite disturbed by it. I — I was disturbed and worried to see that the President was attacking Vice President Pence for doing his constitutional duty…that was the moment that I decided that I was going to resign”. It was even more powerful because Pottinger had just said, “I felt then as I do now that it was a privilege to serve in the White House…I’m also very proud of President Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments.”
Usually, these kinds of hearings consist of various committee members trying to play to the crowd; their posturing is almost unbearable to watch. This was different, this hearing was actually choreographed to play to the crowd at the expense of individual committee members and it made for much better TV. To hear Sarah Matthew say, “I am a lifelong Republican and I joined the Trump reelection campaign in June of 2019. I was one of the first communications staffers actually on board for his reelection campaign”…and “It was obvious that the situation at the Capitol was violent and escalating quickly. And so I thought that the tweet about the Vice President was the last thing that was needed in that moment. And I — I remember thinking that this was going to be bad for him to tweet this because it was essentially him giving the green light to these people, telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the Capitol and entering the Capitol was Ok, that they were justified in their anger.”
It is easy to say that “the attempted insurrection is over, and we should just move on” but that ignores the deaths of five Capitol police officers, that ignores the physical damage that was done to our Nation’s Capitol, and, most importantly, it ignores the damage done to our nation’s psyche. As Matthew Pottinger said, “And that is, that it — I — I think it emboldened our — our enemies by helping give them ammunition to feed a narrative that our system of government doesn’t work, that the United States is in decline.”
No wonder Fox News wanted us to think about something else, like Kenly, North Carolina.
Courtney, Gina, Michele, and I went to Michele’s family cabin in Olympic Valley last week. Part of it was that Michele just wanted to spend some time at her childhood home but what triggered the trip was a semi-retrospective show of Michael Moore paintings at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. We left for Olympic Valley, the new name for the place formally known as Sq**w Valley just after a shooting in Chicago that killed seven people and wounded 47 other people and got back to Portola Valley just before a shooting in Downey, California that killed three people*. In between, there were probably other shootings that we missed which is the good news. In today’s United States of America, that’s one of the nice things about traveling; missing shootings.
Mike’s show was small but striking and the centerpiece is a picture I knew as Another Enigma of the Sheldon Range when it hung first in my office in Cupertino and then in our bedroom. Now it is just called Enigma of the Sheldon Range and it is good company.
The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno is a jewel. It is designed by Will Bruder Architects, a firm from Portland, Oregon, which, for some reason seems to design a lot of buildings in the desert. The facade is painted a dark greyish-brown and is said to echo rock formations near the Black Rock Desert although it looks more like the columnar basalt formations in western Oregon to me. The museum itself is about 70,000 square feet. When we were there, the museum had a show of Judy Chicago’s fireworks – I had no idea that she did fireworks – and a large wall labeled Custom Wallpaper.
We also went on a nice walk near the Donner Party Picnic Area. Considering that this is where several people starved to death, the name seems a little macabre but the hike was lovely.
*As an aside, why do newspapers print the name of the killers? It seems to me that giving these poor, disturbed, people publicity is counterproductive. Publicity just makes getting famous by killing more attractive to these losers. We should know the victims’ names, not the killer’s. End aside.
What are we doing? A 10-year-old rape victim was impregnated in Ohio, tried to have an abortion after 6 weeks and 3 days, was denied as 3 days late, and had to travel to Indiana for the procedure. Ten. Years. Old. A Tweet by Don Lewis @DonLew87
Now is the time to organize. New York is a legal abortion state, but people will need help getting here. We have compiled a direct multi-abortion fund link to help people seek the medical care they need. 100% goes to them & covers regions across the US. A Tweet by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOCUS Representative,NY-14 (BX & Queens).
A woman’s fundamental health decisions are her own to make, in consultation with her doctor & her loved ones – not to be dictated by far-right politicians. While Republicans seek to punish & control women, Democrats will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law. Nancy Pelosi @SpeakerPelosi
Congress can change the number of justices on the Supreme Court at any time and has done so 7 times throughout history. Since 1869, the last time the court was expanded, the U.S. population has grown by over 800%, yet the court has stayed stagnant at 9 justices. A Tweet by Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN Mom, Refugee and Congresswoman for #MN05.
Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen American women are having their rights taken by 5 unelected Justices on the extremist MAGA court These justices—appointed by Republicans and presiding without accountability—have stolen the fundamental right to abortion. A Tweet by Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer Official Account of Senator Chuck Schumer, New York’s Senator and the Senate Majority Leader.
First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; Martin Luther King Jr. in Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963
I put a question mark after Happy because this seems like a sober 4th to me. I originally titled this post Roe Vs. Wade: RIP June 24, 2022, but, when the writing of it bled into July 4th, I changed the title (but not, really, the point).
When I became politically sentient, in the late 1950s, Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was a Republican but Republicans were different then and I felt that the Supreme Court was on my side, protecting my rights. Then came another Republican, Warren E. Burger, then another, William Rehnquist, and another Republican, John Roberts, and it still seemed as if the Supreme Court was on my side, on the side of increased tolerance and personal liberties. It seemed like the natural order of things, but it wasn’t.
On June 24th, 2022, for the first time in my lifetime, the United States Supreme Court took away the Federal protection of a right. In this case, it is a woman’s right to have an abortion. Just as worrying was Clarance Thomas’ hint – well, OK, more than a hint – that the reasoning behind that decision could apply to same-sex marriages and the right to take contraception. Right now, there are a huge number of people, mostly Democrats, it seems, who are outraged over the Court decision, still, the question I have is Will this outrage translate into meaningful action, or will the outrage be tamped down by the social pressure to be civil? Don’t make waves, Leave well enough alone. and Let sleeping dogs lie. are powerful instincts, not just in American culture but, I think, in human culture. For a lot of people change is scary.
Because of an earlier leak from person(s?) unknown, we all knew or should have known, that, in many states, the nullification of Roe was coming but, it seems, many Democratic politicians preferred to think that that change wasn’t really coming. As soon as the opinion was announced they seemed shocked and I started getting emails telling me how important it is to vote for the Democrats and asking for money. Almost nobody offered an idea of what to do. I say almost because some politicians must have thought The Supreme Court will probably invalidate Roe, what should we do about it? But, as far as I can tell from Twitter and emails asking for money, not many Democratic politicians did think about it, not Speaker Pelosi, not Majority Leader Schumer or President Biden, all they did was wring their hands, tell us how important the vote is, and ask for money. I am sure there are other politicians that thought about what we should do about the Court’s decision but the only ones that I got emails from were members of the Squad.
As an aside, I get two kinds of emails from politicians wanting money. To greatly oversimplify, one group is running on a platform of I’m not Trump or the Republicans are trying to take away your rights and I’m not a Republican, and the other group is running on what they want to do. Given that I have a limited amount of money to donate to political causes, I only donate to politicians who are in the second group and I have been unsubscribing to emails from the first group. I say this to qualify the statement in the last paragraph. Many of those I unsubscribed to may, at this very moment, be sending Here’s what I want to do emails and I’m not getting them but, of the emails I am getting, the Squad seems to be the only one sending out emails telling me what they want to do. End aside.
With that caveat, here is what AOC Tweeted:
Here’s how Dems can and must do more than wait for an election. Let’s start w/ why: 7 of the 9 justices were appointed by a party that hasn’t won a popular vote more than once in 30 years 1 of those seats was stolen Several lied to Congress to secure their appointment… 1 justice’s family (Thomas) was paid by right wing groups for years and he never disclosed it, violating Federal law. The same justice’s spouse participated in 1/6 and he used his SCOTUS seat to vote to keep potential info related to his wife from investigators in Congress. 2 justices stand very credibly accused of sexual assault
And that’s the tip of the iceberg. Election or not, the Supreme Court has a legitimacy crisis and the public reaffirms it: 75% of the US public reports lacking confidence in SCOTUS, & those numbers were *pre-Roe ruling*In a legitimacy crisis, the solution Biden and Dem leaders must offer can’t just be one of voting, but of statute & authority. Compared to Exec and Leg branches, checks on Court overreach and misconduct are little to none. Leaders must share their plans for Roe AND a rogue court.
Past Presidents, from Lincoln to FDR, understood the dangerous stakes of allowing an unchecked Court to overreach its authority and threaten our democracy. Lincoln ignored the court to issue the emancipation proclamation. FDR, in the plunges of the Great Depression, also sought…to confront the Court’s structure (and core gerontocracy problem of lifetime appointments) via a public appeal. While he did not succeed, that check came from the ppl & Congress, NOT Scotus.
The ruling is Roe, but the crisis is democracy. Leaders must share specific plans for both…The President & Dem leaders can no longer get away with familiar tactics of “committees” and “studies” to avoid tackling our crises head-on anymore: Restrain judicial review. Open clinics on federal lands. Court expansion. Expand Fed access/awareness of pill abortions.
For the moments when we DO insist on elections, we must be PRECISE with what we need and we will do with that power: How many seats does the party need to Codify Roe? Dems must SAY THAT. Not just “go vote” or “give us $6 to win.” That is demoralizing, losing, unfocused nonsense.
Dem leaders must tell voters the plan: What’s the *actual* need? Which specific seats are we focused on? WHAT votes do we need & WHERE (what states and races?) And, what’s the return? What is Biden/Congress ACTUALLY willing+able to do at 52/60 seats? Be honest. Details motivate.
So let’s wake up everybody! What’re good Democrats! If you don’t like what I’ve laid out here, then please present YOUR plan instead of little “why we can’t” lists!! Let’s cut the handwringing and get moving! Chop chop! No more show tunes till November unless it’s for GOTV!!
So with that, remember that the United States of America is chockablock full of great people, on both sides of the political divide. Happy 4th of July to everyone.
