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Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Dave, I agree that human sex trafficking is beyond horrifying.  Unfortunately, if we are going to truly overcome this and other evils of our present time, hearts have to change. This can only happen through the love and knowledge of Christ and an honest acknowlegment of how we came to this  place. 

 https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-documentary-exposes-direct-link-between-abortion-and-us-sex-trafficking

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Jim 

You’ve probably never heard the rest of what Hillary said in that speech since the part you referenced got all the press and all the outrage. She put HALF the Trump supporters into that deplorable description. That the racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic element in that deplorable basket so clearly wrapped themselves around the former president and his words and tweets was no more clearly evidenced than by the horrific siege of the Capitol. 

Actually, In that speech, Hillary went on to say that there was another basket of his supporters. And that the other basket of people “are people who feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."

I certainly wouldn’t put the deplorables at half the supporters. But the element exists for the right and the left, neither of which will help bring our country together to solve the real problems we face. I'm even willing to admit there are more baskets--some who aren't upset with the givernment, like their life and are willing or see no need to excuse the meanness and disrespect. I’m not sure why you would immediately group yourself with the deplorables in your response to Dave’s message and assume that's where Dave was grouping you, except that you never knew there was a legitimate Hillary-identified distinction.

Happy Presidents' Day. 😷  👋
Clare
 

David Mitchell

Jim,

I deleted most of my post and the follow up post last night. But I want to add part of it back. I think it is important to be clealy understood on this. 

My disappointment in your comment was because you couldn't seem to discern that I was pointing at a certain element which I hope to God you would not identify with. 

I was talking about the anit-peaceful rabble of poeple who broke into the Capital, beat and tackled law officers, sprayed tehm in the face with pepper spray, and ran loose in the building seeking to find and kill the Vice President of the United States. 

It is difficult for me to fathom how you could possibly think that I was referring to someone like you - unless you prefer to identify with those lawless gangs of disenchanted misfits who think drinking and beating people up is the best way to be heard. 

Your comment struck deep, and I hope you yourself would not even dream of calling them "patriots".  That we Americans are not able to make such a distinction is deeply troubling.

David Mitchell

Mary Margaret,

Thanks for that great post. This introduces me to yet another aspect of the "trafficking" issue that I had not known much about. I keep discovering more websites and more organizations that are involved in tracking and exposing this horrifying "business". 

I did not yet watch the video but may add comments later. 

And just last night I learned of another person Tim Ballard, and his orgnaization "Operation Undergraound Railroad", who has launched quite an effort to expose this issue. He tells some horrific stories - like one about breaking up a Mexican child trafficking ring with a film studio in California used for filming child rape videos for commercial production. (children as young as FIVE! )

I know this is an extremely painful subject but it just won't let me go since I first learned about it some 3 or 4 years ago.

I think all of this converges at the same single simle point. Do we believe each human life is sacred, and therfore worthy of the right to have a safe "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"?

It just breaks my heart that Joe B can't stand up for his own (claimed) beliefs. But I really don't think the answer will come through political means.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave M.,

I had read your (now deleted) post and I am definitely not a member of any of those right wing groups you mentioned.

As for those who attacked the Capitol Building on 6 January, I noticed that in your Post #9045 you did not define what groups were responsible, right wing, left wing or both. Probably slipped your mind. Of course, I am not sure that has all been settled.

Your Post #9036 comments mentioning "dysfunctional thugs" had stuck a chord with me (I was not the only one who interpreted it this way) because it appeared to me you were painting President Trump's supporters with a broad brush. I am glad you have clarified your intentions.

Throughout the past 4-plus years we conservatives who support President Trump's policies have heard (and read) very unkindly remarks and names that he has been called. Also, those of us who support him have been tagged with every "-ist" and "-phobic" suffixes available. We are sick of that kind of labeling. That has occurred in many places, including on this Forum.

It has always been my approach to not use personal attacks, labels or use "school yard" names on this Forum for people with whom I disagree politically or otherwise. I think it is unbecoming of an adult discussion and weakens an argument. On the other hand debating policies is healthy conversation. But that is my opinion.

Happy Presidents' Day,

Jim

Michael McLeod

Ok then while we are on the subject of rules of engagement I gotta say it's lame argumentation when people be like:  "Gee You dems are still obsessed with Trump."

Well duh. I still read up on Jack the Ripper. Does that make me crazy?

It's just the argument I'm critique-ing. Not the person or even the belief that trump was sliced bread with honey on it or that, as Jim says, we've a tendency to tar everyone in his camp or fond of his style and his weltanshauung with the same brush. 

Jim: Though Dave may not have mentioned it specifically it there's quite a bit of objective evidence about who those rioters were and what particular political camp and world view many though certainly not all of them favor and there will be a lot more of that objective information coming as many though not all of them go to trial. 

Ok now that's settled: I'm assuming since Trump wasn't impeached, the Nobel Peace Prize is still on the table, amiright?

I apologize for using weltanshauung in a sentence but when am I ever going to get this chance again? And did they really need those two "u"s - wasn't one enough?  What the hell was it with the Germans that made them come up with a language that's, like, how a heavy metal band only wishes they could sound like?

Speaking of which:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3q8Od5qJio

David Mitchell

Jim,

Now I am sorry I deleted most of my two texts. You have once again altered the context of my statements. If you think I was not specific enough as to who I was talking about, then you must NOT have read both of my deleted posts. I'll give it another try. 

My use of the word "dysfuntional thugs" was clearly aimed, not at a number of my good friends who support Trump, but specifically at those right-wing gangs that Trump courted and baited for months before inviting them to Washington for his Jan 6th rally - "Be there - it'll be wild".  We read plenty of news items about their plans laeding up to the event - including even such details that the Proud Boys announcedd they would not be wearing their black and yellow kilts. Any suggestion that this was a plot by some Antifa groups is quite a stretch.   I am sure they had ideas about interfering, but any notion that they were large enough to be anything close to the moving force behind this riot is almost laughable.

(and to hell with them for being so utterly stupid anyway)

I specifically mentioned several by name; The Proud Boys (the ones who have been bullying people in Portland, Oregon (and getting away with it for several years - apparently with local Police sympathy according to my son and daughter-in-law, who live there), The Prayin' Patriots, (from nearby Vancouver WA), the "One Percenters", and Stuart Rhodes' group of mostly former police and military "Oath Keepers". I forgot to mention the "Boobaloo Boiz" and there are others less well-known.

I cannot fathom how you could have read my post and missed those specific mentions. But more to the point, I certainly would have thought you would affirm and agree with the difference between you and them. I simply cannot fathom how you could have missed it. There was no "broad brush" about it. I was very specific. I used what I consider to be the most accurate "names" I could think of. And for you to take offense at me calling out those "thugs" (and that is simply what they are) who attacked and threatened our own government, with the intent to murder Bill and Nancy leaves me utterly baffled. 

And I am sure you are not one who would call those who broke into the building, bashed police, sprayed them with pepper spray, and roamed the halls looking to kill, "Patriots". 

(Now I am really sorry I erased my earlier remarks.)

John Maxwell

David Mitchell

For any of you who enjoy Hisotry and Public TV, my local channels are showing a documentary about the "Black Church" tonight. It will be 9:00 pm locally and I imagine many of your PBS channels may also be carying it as part of "Black History Month". There have been some fascinating shows on this series so far this month - much of it stuff I have never seen aired on TV before.

(Last night a terrific documentary about the legendary Black singer Marian Anderson. )

You may have seen Profesor Gates series on ancestry with famous people, which runs currently on PBS stations. Or one of his excellent bi-ennial African history documentaires. He was also famous for beeing arrested by white cops, while attempting to get into his own house near Boston, after returng home late one night from abroad and unable to find his house keys. 

As for tonight's program, my friend, the pastor of our local AME (African Methtodist Episcopal) Church told me "it's about our church". I don't know if he meant this local church or the AME churches in general. But it sounds intersting.

Michael McLeod

From Garrison Keillor.

Michael McLeod

From a news report:

As his state was racked by an electricity crisis that left millions of people without heat in frigid temperatures, the governor of Texas took to television to start placing blame.

His main target was renewable energy, suggesting that the systemwide collapse was caused by the failure of wind and solar power.

“It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states to make sure we will be able to heat our homes in the winter times and cool our homes in the summer times,” said Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News. Other conservative talk-show hosts had already picked up the theme.

As frigid weather grips the center of the nation, causing widespread power outages, freezing temperatures, slippery roads and weather-related deaths, Governor Abbott’s voice was among the most prominent in a chorus of political figures this week to quickly assert that green energy sources such as wind and solar were contributing to the blackouts. The talking points, coming largely from conservatives, reinvigorated a long-running campaign to claim that emissions-spewing fossil fuels are too valuable a resource to give up.

The efforts came despite the fact that the burning of fossil fuels — which causes climate change by releasing vast amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere — is helping to drive the phenomenon of increasingly dangerous hurricanes and other storms, as well as unusual weather patterns.

“Green energy failure” read the banner on the bottom of the screen of Fox News stories about power outages. Social media posts mocked renewable energy as “unreliables.” A Wall Street Journal editorial called for more reliance on coal to help endure frigid temperatures. Some politicians and analysts spread lies and disinformation to advance their defense of fossil fuels.

“Every time we have challenges with the grid, whether it’s in California this past summer or Texas right now, people try to weaponize this for their pet project, which is fossil fuels,” said Leah Stokes, an assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work has focused on battles over energy policy. “Our infrastructure cannot handle extreme weather events, which these fossil fuels are ironically causing.”

Joseph D. McCarthy

MEMORIES, OH MEMORIES

David Mitchell

Mary Margaret,

A second thanks for pointing out the video about sex-trafficking in your post #9043. I finally got a cahnce to view the whole video. As you all know this is a subject I feel strongly about - but have still much to learn. I keep discovering more and more sights devoted to exposing and fighting this problem.

Until watching that video, I was unaware how many young women are forced to have abortions, simply to rid them of the pregnancy, so they can be put back out on the street to be prostituted again (and again, and again) by their Pimps. Studies claim that many of these "enslaved" young women have had 5 to 10 (or more) abortions. 

(NOTE: Most of us think of it as an Eastern European or Oriental problem, but according to reports it is now the third highest source of income for the American Mafia. And these are American kids.

I found a short clip from to the film mentioned in your video ("Blind Eyes Opened") that really grabbed me by the heart. It is a short clip interview by Dr. Brook Parker-Bellow, a former "trafficked" young girl, and now founder of More Too Life inc, another anti-trafficking organization. 

If anyone has the stomach, here is that short clip;

David Mitchell

Jack,

I'll have a go at your question. 

Librarian

Waitress

Midwife

Seamstress (in a sweat shop)

Dishwasher

I think it would have been a bit earlier than 1873, but my father's grandmother was a young Irish immigrant orphan who washed dishes in a tavern in Springfled, Mass. She was only allowed in the back door to the kitchen. A sign in the front window read; 

"no niggers, dogs, or irish allowed".

Janie Albright (Blank)

Just want to send prayers to all of Texas and in particular our classmates Linda Baer, Bonnie Jonas (and Guido Boggioni), Carolyn Winchester and Steve Roach and their loved ones. 
 

Michael McLeod

Whoa. Thanks for the rush, Joe.

Brings back many a night of under-aged drinking of 3.2 beer at that place.

Then going home after curfew and finding the front door locked because my dad was pissed off at me.

And climbing up to the second story to crawl in the bathroom window and scare the crap out of my mom.

But it was worth it, in the idiot priorities of my peewee adolescent brain, to feel cool as a high-schooler hanging out on campus with all those college kids.

David Mitchell

I have aso been wondering about Texas, especaialy Bonnie.

If youre out there girl, give us a shout about how you're doing.

------------

Mike,

I seem to recall you driving me (and maybe Keith Groff?) home one night from that wretched den of sin and debauchery (but fun too). And when you saw the length of my dark driveway, and the closeness of a couple tree trunks, you refused to drive down into it. You made me get out at the top of the driveway and walk to the door. Not a big deal, but it was kind of funny.

I still owe you a free ride somewhere sometime. Next time you're drunk, give me a call.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Rush

You may not have agreed with him, but you just gotta love those ties! 

I know, they are out of style but they are so much more festive than those dull ones of today. 

Can you still find Jerry Garcia ties? They were the only ones to rival Rush's. 

My opinion, of course...

RIP, Rush.

Jim

Thomas McKeon

AMEN 

John Jackson

This may surprise you all but I get a pretty good dose of Rush almost every day – Mick, my machinist and jack of all trades (easily my best employee and the one I would be really hard-pressed to replace) is a gun enthusiast and devotee of wacko right wing radio.  When I touch base with Mick every day in his machine shop Rush is blaring (it’s not as inconsiderate as it sounds since Mick is the only person who works in the shop and he needs to be able to hear Rush while he is milling and drilling, etc).  So over the last twenty years I’ve been treated to a fair amount of Rush in 5 and 10 minute increments.

Rush fancied himself a teller of uncomfortable truths but if you ask me his whole schtick was to stoke the grievance of white males who, economically or culturally, feel left behind.  I agree that not all his supporters are “deplorables” (Mick is certainly not) but if there was ever anyone who is deserving of the term, it’s Rush.  

Can I suggest an epitaph:

His mean-spiritedness appealed to the very worst instincts of human nature - the world is a far better place now that he is gone.

Michael McLeod

John: He knew it, too. He was fully aware of what he was doing and to whom and what he was pandering. I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing to say about him.

Jim: 

I wanted to update you about the progress of my friend Lezlie, who is a retired English professor who mentored me as a teacher. I'm posting this rather than sending it to you because the story and the information might be of interest to all. Again, I can't thank you enough for your messages to me about her situation,  and your patience explaining medical issues, covid and otherwise, to me and everyone else over the course of this thing.  I also value our relationship as an exercise in remaining friends, though somewhat chippy friends, while at opposite ends of a philosophical spectrum. I give myself a C+ on that so far.

Lezlie is our age. She is home alone now after roughly a month of hospitalization, having lost a hell of a lot of weight as someone who didn't have much weight on her to begin with. She is tethered to an oxygen tank because her damaged, scarred lungs now remain too frail to sustain her.

She wrote me: "I feel like a lizard. All I do is sit, and breathe, and blink."

She's exagerrating somewhat but that gives everyone a sense of how traumatized and isolated this thing can render you. 

An array of health professionals come to her home regularly to aid her in her recovery in building back up her strength. But how can friends help?

Well, knowing that her sense of taste has diminished, my brilliant and lovely girlfriend - how the hell a guy like me wound up with her I'll never know - has been preparing her  healthy but carefully spiced and very nutritious, protein rich foods. Lezlie loves them.

I've suggested music to her as a way of keeping herself calm and entertained and her mind engaged.

Because that's an issue. She has to slowly come back mentally as well as physically.

We don't call. We text. That way we don't disturb her, or force her into exchanges she's not ready for, because her brain and her psyche are also traumatized.

When Denise drops off food she stays outside the door, and masked - not just for her own sake but for Lezlie, whose immune system is obviously compromised, so she does have to remain isolated.

These are all small but important things we've employed and discovered and I thought I'd put this out here in case any of our classmates find themselves caring for friends.

PS I'm two days away from shot #2.  

PS again!!! Just got this message from her! So excited! She said it was ok to share!

Doing so much better today.  I have only been sleeping about 2-3 hours a night, and that makes everything worse. But got a sleep med yesterday and slept 9 hours last night.  So fabulous.  It’s come to this.  wow.  So much to tell you.  And can’t wait to see you. 
I end my quarantine today, but I’m still stunningly weak, and talking is hard because of the oxygen.  But i desperately want to talk to you and Denise.  Soon, I hope you will come over and sit on my back porch distanced from me and talk.  That will be good medicine for me.

Thank you for your love!

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

John, what continues to bother me about political interactions on this forum are the inflammatory rhetoric of certain terms such as your referenced "wacko" right wing radio. Those who differ from your political opinions such as myself, could refer to many on the left, such as those who are featured on CNN and MSNBC, as "wacko" as well, but we refrain because that has the effect of lumping everyone who listens to or watches those programs as "wackos" and we certainly do not believe that to be true.  For the sake of civil and respectful debate with our friends here (and I do hope despite our differing views, we can still consider each other as friends), perhaps we could avoid such future references. 

Michael McLeod

MM In fairness to John I thought he qualified his statement - he pointedly said not all of the listeners were "deplorables." But yeah, "wackos" is probably worthy of a crack on the knuckles, though I do think it's fair to say that people who favor someone whose rhetoric  relies so very heavily on insults and name-calling and demeaning statements attracts an audience with a high percentage of listeners - note I'm saying some, not all - who aren't into the subtleties of a logical debate and like logical short-cuts and schoolyard-level taunts. I'd love to see someone do an objective, peer-reviewed analysis of Trump's public statements. I think you'd see that the percentage of insults versus rational argumentation would be roughly equivalent to, say, an old-school WWF wrestling match.

And you saw how that turned out.

John Jackson

MM, I took pains to say that although he listens to a wacko deplorable like Rush, I don’t consider Mick, my best employee, a deplorable (or, by extension, a wacko).  

One of the saddest things today is how people on the right are willing to defend beyond-the-pale behavior by Rush, Trump, etc that would have been roundly condemned by Republicans of an earlier, gentler time (80’s, 90s).  The normalization and acceptance of extreme behavior on the right (energized by extreme right wing websites and out-of-control social media  “news”) doesn’t bode well for the future of our nation.  Calling this behavior “wacko” is just my feeble attempt to object to the normalization of ideas and behavior that would have been unthinkable not all that long ago.

Michael McLeod

As you can see, we're not the only ones wrestling with the challenge of giving a disrespectful person a respectful farewell.

Interesting that both he and Trump felt free to mock the afflicted.

I'd Rather Talk About Michael J. Fox

By Connie Schultz

How do we acknowledge the death of someone who made a career of inflicting harm?

Perhaps I should start with a story.

I first met Michael J. Fox in 2006, not long after Rush Limbaugh had mocked his involuntary movements caused by Parkinson's disease. Michael was in Ohio for a rally in support of stem cell research that could save countless lives.

This is how I described our encounter in a book about my husband's Senate campaign:

"It is heartbreaking to watch this gracious, talented actor and father of four struggle to perform the simplest of tasks — like sitting still, for example, or completing a sentence. He has made it clear, time and again, that he does not expect to live long enough to benefit from the research he is championing — and yet there he was, sitting onstage with Sherrod along with a number of other people afflicted with diseases that stem cell research might cure.

"I got a healthy dose of humility from Michael J. Fox that day. Sherrod and I sat on either side of Michael, watching as a sixth-grade boy with Type 1 diabetes gave a speech. He was going on a bit, and I smiled nervously at Sherrod. I was worried that all of this waiting would tire Michael.

"Michael leaned over and whispered in my ear, 'You know, it is going to make him feel so good to get his whole story out.' He smiled at me, and I was appropriately reprimanded. When it was Michael's turn at the microphone, he turned to the boy and said, 'At any age, you feel the need to tell your story, and I consider you an inspiration.'"

This was my first thought after I heard that Rush Limbaugh had died on Wednesday. Lucky me.

Limbaugh died of lung cancer at age 70. The response on social media was the predictable ricochet of emotions. Many on the right tried to cast him as a fallen god; many on the left celebrated his demise. This is the world he created.

I kept trying to figure out how to publicly acknowledge Limbaugh's death in a way that didn't make me feel worse about myself in the typing. In the end, I posted the ultimate cop-out:

"This is one of those days when I know I'm still my mother's daughter because no matter how many ways I try to type my response to the news I feel her gentle hand on my arm as she says, 'But who does this help?'"

Some misinterpreted my words as a scolding or a recycling of the admonishment to never speak ill of the dead. This was not my intention. This was an act of self-preservation. I wanted to keep my soul intact.

On his show, Limbaugh had called me "brain-dead" and "blitheringly ignorant," and once speculated that I lacked "an IQ of three figures." Every time he mentioned me, his mob heard the same message: "Go get her." My inbox would fill with mountains of hate mail.

This was nothing compared to his attacks on other women, the LGBTQ community, racial minorities — anyone who didn't fit his idea of a patriot, which demanded loyalty only to him.

Now the video of Limbaugh jeering at Michael J. Fox and accusing him of faking his symptoms is making the rounds again. You may have seen it in some of the coverage. I don't know how this makes him feel, but I can encourage you to listen to what he has to say.

Last November, Fox released his fourth book: "No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality." It is a meditation on aging, told by a man whose body betrayed him long ago. After 40 years in public life, he is "straddling the void."

"I'm probably the only person who has been featured on the cover of Rolling Stone and AARP in the same year," he writes. "I'm living the life of a retired person, a decade too soon. My world is contracting, not expanding. In terms of the space-time continuum, I'm closer to my exit than to my entrance point."

And yet.

"When I visit the past now, it is for wisdom and experience, not for regret or shame. I don't attempt to erase it, only to accept it. Whatever my physical circumstances are today, I will deal with them and remain present. If I fall, I will rise up."

Repeatedly, he insists, "With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable."

Not one word about the rabid, millionaire talk-show host who held him up to scorn and ridicule.

Moving forward, I hope to follow his lead.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and professional in residence at Kent State University's school of journalism. She is the author of two non-fiction books, including "...and His Lovely Wife," which chronicled the successful race of her husband, Sherrod Brown, for the U.S. Senate. She is also the author of The New York Times bestselling novel, "The Daughters of Erietown." To find out more about Connie Schultz (schultz.connie@gmail.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com