When our fragrant old roses bloomed in spring, we harvested blossoms and covered them with vodka. We've let the infusion sit since that time. Today, we decanted this essence. It’s so powerfully fragrant and has such a beautiful taste of rose flavor.
"The embattled Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is vowing to use the arsenal of tools at his disposal, including defunding, to target the U.S. Dept. of Justice after ex-president Donald Trump was convicted in a New York State prosecution on 34 felony charges last week."
"ProPublica has once again, and heroically, lifted the rock and revealed the worms wiggling beneath it. The Trump Campaign is so mad about the report that they have already threatened to sue. Now it’s up to our elected officials to launch further investigations and our federal and state authorities to bring witness tampering charges if the evidence, even if largely circumstantial, ultimately supports them."
“They are treating you like a convicted felon. Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration. Some of them blindly worship convicted felons.”
Robert L. Borosage explains why a Trump election would be worse this time around:
"There’s now a real, organized effort to transform his resentments and impulses into policy. It’s called Project 2025. …
We can be certain that if Trump is elected, America will become more corrupt, more xenophobic, more bellicose, less inclusive, less democratic, and less secure."
"To that end, authoritarians conjure existential threats from an ever-expanding roster of enemies —immigrants, Jews, LGBTQ+ people, and Muslims among them—-and present violence as the only way to save the people from annihilation and save the nation from utter ruin. 'If you don't fight like hell, you won't have a country anymore,' Trump raged to the thugs assembled on Jan. 6, before he sent them off to assault the Capitol."
"Since the Fascist years, authoritarians have used propaganda and their personality cults to change the perception of violence among their followers. The goal is to remove hesitations about tolerating or participating in violence against one’s compatriots by presenting that violence as necessary and even morally righteous."
Trump will do any and everything to prevail in this election.
Given Trump’s history combined with his new level of desperation, law enforcement must be on guard for threats or violence from the MAGA faithful. And so should we.
"Few things bring Republicans together quite like the idea that their leaders might be held accountable for their misdeeds, especially when power is at stake (you’ll remember the explosive rage that erupted when Brett Kavanaugh’s spotless character was besmirched). From the center-right to the far right, from the establishment to the rebels, they’re all together now."
"Who does have the Moral High Ground? You, if you’re a decent person who believes in the dignity of all people, who loves people for who they are, who believes people should love who they love. You, if you’re a person of integrity who at least mostly tries to be kind to people who have it worse than you, including at your polling place. You, if you believe in democracy and the rule of law."
"Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company."
~ Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski
"The benefits have flowed from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement."
"Mexico is famous for its macho culture. Women here didn’t win the right to vote for president until 1953 — three decades after their U.S. counterparts. As recently as nine years ago, there wasn’t a single female state governor. Yet Mexico has just elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in what was essentially a race between two women engineers."
Evan Hurst announces that he's responding to Trump's historic felony conviction (guiltyguiltyguilty – 34 times) and the tantrum his followers are now throwing by launching a new blog called The Moral High Ground.
About that tantrum, he writes,
"These people are desperate for society to respect them, to love them, to think they’re smart, to think they have something to offer, something to teach, something to add to the culture."
"They’re desperate for somebody to want to be like them, without being forced.
But nobody does. Nobody in America, absent some kind of coercion, chooses to be a bitter, hate-filled Traditional Values MAGA Christian, and as long as people have true agency, they’re unlikely to start. Nobody looks at these people and says, oh boy, I want what they’ve got."
"These people do not have the Moral High Ground. In fact, it’s laughable that anyone still pretends they do, in any way, shape or form. But that toxic tumor of an idea is still out there, metastasizing. Whenever it’s found, it should be mocked, ridiculed, excised, and people should make offhand comments about whether these people should be allowed to be alone with children."
"The people having this tantrum are absolutely, 100 percent certain that they have sole proprietorship over The Moral High Ground. They have God on their side, they will ultimately be victorious, on earth as it is in heaven, give us this Trump our daily bread, etc. This is why they believe the rules don’t apply to them (see: Alito, Samuel and Martha-Ann) and why they feel so damned confident passing moral judgment on people (see: Butker, Harrison)."
"The movie’s claims were immediately debunked as so patently absurd that even Fox News wouldn’t cover them. That did not stop Trump from airing the film at Mar-a-Lago and touting it as proof that he’d rightfully won the presidency in 2020. And in his bid to keep his bar license in DC, Rudy Giuliani even cited the movie as evidence that his election fraud claims were true. (Spoiler Alert: LOL.)"
Interested in building a better world and standing in solidarity with others who share that goal. For biographical information, please see https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/109539508828689842 "Writing is the way I fight." ~ James Cone #solidarity #democracy #HumanRights #LGBTQ