The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, etc.

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Message" button to add your entry to the forum.

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Joanie, please share the names of those to whom Trump has already been so cruel. I would certainly like to know.  Please add names of schools and churches that you know have been inhumanely invaded and please give details. Also, hanging out with wealthy people seems to be unavoidable when one is in politics... and is wealthy, too.  Do you know something bad about wealthy people that you'd like to share? If so, do tell.  As for pardoning people who are fraught with threats, that indeed is troubling.  If they follow through with their threats, I imagine they will find themselves right back in prison. I certainly hope not.  Nor do I hope that any of the 4000+ Biden pardons result in a return to criminal behavior. Meanwhile, doesn't it make you feel safer to know that illegal immigrants, who are known criminals, are being sought-out and sent from our shores?  Doesn't it make you feel good that Mexican cartels have joined the list of terrorist organizations and will be highly targetted, curbing the stream of drugs across our border, bringing the death toll of our youth down, saving kids from trafficking?

 As for the voting public, which (if any) of the 8 possibilites I listed about J6, do you think might be applicable?  None? Not even one?  

(I'm sorry, Jack, would you please ask me again about which point I am to gather data? Is it that 50% thing? Does it still somehow matter? If so, I've forgotten why. Alas, I do that a lot these days).

Jack Mallory

Sorry, Nori, if you need an intellectual aide you'll have to look elsewhere. Local old folks homes might provide that kind of service. And how can you possibly have the gall to ask Joanie for the kind of details that you yourself can't/won't provide after being asked over and over again? Oh, that's right. You forget. 

********

I, probably others, see the First Felon's pardons of those who brutalized the police at the Capitol as cruel. Certainly causing moral injury as I've documented before and, again, here:

On Jan. 6, 2021, rioters dragged police officer Michael Fanone down the Capitol steps, tasered him and beat him until he was unconscious. He suffered a heart attack, a concussion and a traumatic brain injury.

None of that is under dispute.

Fanone watched in horror as President Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of the more than 1,500 people he termed the “J6 hostages,” including the leaders of the extremist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups who were serving 22- and 18-year sentences respectively for their roles in the violence and attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Fanone is now among those fearing for their safety as Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, whose sentence was commuted, was granted meetings with Republican congressional members last week in an effort to secure further pardons for fellow Oath Keepers.

"I find fault and hold the American people responsible," Fanone says. "Not just those that supported Donald Trump, but those that sat out the last election and, quite frankly, those who didn't do enough in their own communities, didn't fight hard enough. Why is it that the ideals that we all have come to associate with ourselves as Americans like courage, honor, integrity have been replaced by indifference and cowardice?"

5 questions with Michael Fanone

Could you even process at the time what happened on Jan. 6, 2021?

"I mean, yes and no. The first time that I really kind of grasped the severity of the assault was the first time I watched my body-worn camera footage, which was the day that I was released from the hospital.

"I remember gathering around one of my colleagues' desks while we pulled up the footage and, you know, a friend of mine, he was watching the footage and he actually had to step out into the hallway, and he got sick."

What happened when you heard the pardons?

"You know, my initial reaction was, I was angry that the American people had voted for this because there's no one that could tell you with honesty that they didn't know that this was coming.

"Donald Trump announced that he was going to pursue these pardons day one of his candidacy. He announced his candidacy in Waco, Texas, the scene of a bloody and violent confrontation between members of the American extremist movement and law enforcement, in which many law enforcement officers lost their lives. And this is the place that Donald Trump chose to announce his candidacy. Really not any other reason to announce it other than to ingratiate yourself into that insurrectionist, anti-government movement."

You haven't held back since the pardons. Who else are you angry at?

"Ultimately, I find fault and hold the American people responsible, not just those that supported Donald Trump, but those that sat out the last election and, quite frankly, those who didn't do enough in their own communities, didn't fight hard enough.

"Why is it that the ideals that we all have come to associate with ourselves as Americans like courage, honor, integrity have been replaced by indifference and cowardice?"

There have been threats against you, threats against your mom. She was hit with a bag of feces?

"Yeah, I mean, she's been the victim of a number of pretty vicious attacks. She was out raking the leaves. An individual drove up in a black pickup truck. He screamed at her, ‘traitor, traitor,’ and then he threw a brown paper bag containing feces at her.

"But these are the type of people that Donald Trump employs as supporters to intimidate people who would speak out against him.

"He knew what he was doing when he pardoned these individuals. He was sending his militia back out onto the streets of America to silence those that would oppose him."

You have four daughters who you were thinking of when you thought you were going to die. Other kids where you live tell your girls, 'Our family loves Trump,' or that their dad is a traitor. You say you feel helpless. What do you do with that?

"I mean, you try to do the best you can. I've exhausted every means that I have at my disposal to legally protect myself from these individuals. I tried to obtain protective orders from the individuals who assaulted me, and I was denied that capability by the Department of Justice when they refused to provide me with the information that I need.

"No one in my family is protected and quite frankly, the only people that can protect my family are me and my family members. I've told them that their best bet is to purchase a gun and learn how to use it.

"Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to relocate myself or my family. I still haven't even been able to find gainful employment. And the reality is that the American people don't want to hire somebody like me, somebody who's willing to stand up and speak truth to power because they're afraid that it, you know, the target on my back, they might get, you know, hit in the crossfire, so to speak.

"I mean, I've learned a valuable lesson about this country, and it's not that country that I thought it was."

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/01/27/michael-fanone-jan-6-pardons

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jack, thank you for that great interview with Michael Fallone. The perpetrators that attacked him and other police officers should NEVER have been released...what happened to respect for the police. Instead Trump will be installing these criminals to do his bidding I'm sure. The police were standing up to defend the Capitol that day. Nori, it sounds like you realize that it wasn't good if some violent criminals got out, and they did...Here is a link to let you know Nori, that Trump has given the ok for schools and churches to no longer be off limits even for undocumented immigrants. My heart aches for the poor children that will be so scared or that will come home and have no parents waiting for the. Where is humanity in all this. Love, Joanie

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/21/nx-s1-5269899/trump-immigration-enforcement-schools-churches

Joan Ruggles (Young)

In answer to Nori's question about exactly which churches would be raided, the link Joanie provided says that the felon's border czar, Tom Horman "declined to provide specific information on locations." Maybe Nori missed that. Well of course he didn't provide locations! Maybe he should start at the National Cathedral. I bet Bishop Marion Budde is hiding scores of scared criminals. 

There seems to be a suggestion that those of us who resist the felon are somehow opposed to the deportation of criminals. Where did that idea come from? Are you aware that in 2023 Biden deported 271,000 immigrants? That's more than the felon ever did. Nobody thinks criminals should be kept in the US, but some of us object to churches and schools being raided. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36e41dx425o

Look Jack, you'll love this. Homan is using military terms about migrants."Speaking on the deportations, Homan said the agency arrested convicted or previously arrested criminals, as well as any “collateral” migrants in the country illegally they were found with "https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/01/26/trump-administration-border-czar-defends-ice-arrests-in-schools-churches/

And here comes that old fear-mongering about threats of immigrants who are flooding our country with drugs. There may be drugs being brought here by immigrants but the truth is that at least with fentanyl "The new dataset shows that US citizens comprised 80 percent of individuals caught with fentanyl during border crossings at ports of entry from 2019 to 2024."  https://www.cato.org/blog/us-citizens-were-80-crossers-fentanyl-ports-entry-2019-2024?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=wp_todays_worldview

But who cares? Just keep repeating the lies and eventually, the MAGAs will believe it. 

I for one find it adorable that Nori is defending the moral rectitude of rich people! I guess she doesn't see something fishy in the BFF relationship between our president and a man who forked over $521,000,000 to his campaign and Trump, in his usual transactional way, gave him an office in the White House and a powerful government job? Is that a normal thing buddies do for each other. No quid pro quo here? No of course not. How could I be so cynical?  https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/politics/elon-musk-trump-campaign-finance-filings/index.html

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jack and Joan, thank you so much for your posts going into detail about the horrendous things Trump is doing by pardoning so many violent criminals who were prosecuted for what they did on January 6...That report about Officer Fanone you posted Jack really shows the truth of what happened that day. No way to sugar coat it. The message is if you are supporting Donald Trump and take part in an insurrencction to overthrow the US government, that is ok...you deserve to be back out on the streets. Trump isn't just going after criminals but undocumented workers who have not committed any crimes but are working hard and contributing to our society. Many are doing jobs that Americans don't want to do. Fear is being stoked by Trump. Trump has said he wants to instill fear. I think he feels that is a way to maintain power  . Nori, as Joan explained so well, these billionaires that are teaming up with Trump are not there to help everyday folks. Trump plans to put back the tax cut for the wealthy...they don't need a tax cut. How about them contributing a small amount of their wealth for the greater good. As Joan said Musk was trying to buy the election for Trump with spending  huges sums of his own money. Of course there is nothing wrong with someone being rich, but not so they can affect Trumps policies to make sure they get richer and the poor are tossed aside for instance by freezing medicaid that so many desperately need and plans to cut SNAP and food stamps. . This is a cruel administration...Trump really cares nothing for anyone but himself. Its sad that he got in. Love, Joanier

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-orders-temporary-funding-freeze-that-could-affect-trillions-of-dollars

Jack Mallory

I have a friend, another old student. I will not post their name, it's unnecessary. Think of them as "A." 

That's right. A uses they/them pronouns, and identifies as non-binary. Neither male nor female. I think I had mentioned A on a post to the forum before they "formally" defined as non-binary. 

A had wanted to serve in the U.S. Army since they were very young. The weekend after they graduated from high school, I attended what for most other graduates would have been a graduation party, but for A it was a night before going off to basic training party, and then to war. 

Basic training, followed by training as a 68W, a combat medic. Eventually, off to Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division. A was assigned to whatever a forward surgical unit like in MASH is called nowadays. Among her experiences was once doing heart compressions in an emergency opened chest--after flatlining and recovering several times, the patient died with As hand inside. Like many combat medics, A saw a lot of things that brought them home with an honorable discharge and PTSD.

A came back to Santa Cruz, looked me up, over time told me about their combat tour. I helped get them into VA assessment and eventual PTSD treatment.

A then got an EMT credential, worked with emergency services. Not a good idea for someone with combat PTSD. Their therapists got A out of that line of work. But A has since been doing well working as a phlebotomist at the local UC, and running 50 kilometer races in the coastal mountains for both fun and therapy.

So A yearned to serve this country in its military, volunteered, saw combat, treated those lying bleeding on the battlefield, and sacrificed their psychological health. I call A "Doc," the honorific that they earned in combat. 

They are now told by the Commander in Chief that "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service . . . adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life." https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/prioritizing-military-excellence-and-readiness/

A's service, courage, and sacrifice could not exist because of their divergent gender identity. They haven't satisfied the standards of military service. They failed to commit to honor, truth, and discipine. 

THIS FROM A MAN WHO DOESN'T KNOW THE MEANING OF HONOR, TRUTH, AND DISCIPLINE!

Looking for cruel, Nori? Cruel and disgusting. 

A is a better human being than Bone Spurs could even imagine.

Jack Mallory

Joan, thank you, sort of, for the Homan "collateral" mention. Would seem like an apropos use to anyone who's seen what collateral damage means in a war zone: the suffering of the innocent glossed over with verbiage. 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

That is a moving story Jack about A. I am sorry they is subjected to such a cruel man as Trump. Everyday he tries to do another cruel thing. I'm so glad that the freeze on grants and funding that would hurt so many is paused but I hope this won't work ultimately. Trump seems very happy to spread misery for the less fortunate. Love, Joanie

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

More then half of the Immigrants arrested by ICE on Sunday had no criminal record. Its all so sad...Love,Joanie

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/more-than-half-of-immigrants-arrested-in-ice-raids-had-no

Stephen Hatchett

 A couple thoughts:

I am coming to believe that it is a very deliberate and concious plan by the felonious liar and the cronies that enable and plan for "it" (perhaps an appropriate pronoun for Dump) to inundate us citizens with unending assaults for our attention. Fatigue is its purpose.  In that way it is similar to Putin's war-fighting strategy against Ukraine. Perhaps it will backfire like it may be doing with  Putin, where there is no benefit, but only loss to the citizenry. 

I am also coming to think that there is an element of religious zealotry to many of MAGA defenders.  MAGA defenders seem to fall into at least two camps  -- those who will reap short-term monetary or power benefits, and those who have become "true believers" , for whom their MAGA beliefs are now faith based and for whom no evidence, of the sort that would stand up in a courtroom, is needed or even relevant. If it is a religious belief, you are unikely to talk someone out of it.  They might possibly grow/think themselves out of it.  That happens.  I once had a friend who read Ayn Rand and became a true believer in libertarianism.  They simply denied any possibility of proving that it would not work.  After I reaized it was their religion, there was no further point, or need to discuss it.

And a ittle gossip (3rd hand) note.  A friend I often hike with has  some some friends seen regularly down at a local watering hole. One of those knew dump as a litte kid -- says he was a bully at age 7.  His dad must have taught him well.

Jack Mallory

Same thoughts, Stephen. Conscious, planned, with the intent to overwhelm and demoralize, draw attention away from deeper plans to centralize power under the Felon's control. 
 

A local perspective. Our immigrant population, as I understand it, consists of folks from a variety of regions. Not so many of the Latinos from this hemisphere, but small numbers of East Africans, Nepalese, Afghans.

Families of refugees approved to resettle in New Hampshire are in limbo after their flights to the U.S. were canceled last week. The cancellations came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugees Admissions Program.

Jean Hakuzimana works at Ascentria Care Alliance, an organization that supports refugees in New Hampshire. He was working with 12 refugees who were expected to arrive here within the next few months. 

He recently spoke with NHPR Morning Edition host Rick Ganley about the impact of their canceled travel plans — and how Trump's actions are impacting refugee communities more broadly.

Editor’s note: This has been lightly edited for clarity.

First, can you tell us more about the refugees who were scheduled to come? Who are they, and where were they coming from?

Those are refugees who were cleared. They were background checked by the U.S. government [and] in good standing to come in New Hampshire, and mostly to join their families because their families have been resettled here in prior years, and they were coming mostly from Africa and mostly the Congo.

Can you give me some more specific stories about who they are and their families here in New Hampshire they were coming to?

We have a single mom who [has] been here for quite a few months, and she came pregnant, and she had a baby. And the baby and the mom, they were expecting to see the dad coming next week, and he will not be able to come because of the executive order. All those are challenging times for them now, because it's now history.

They've been anticipating his arrival, and now this is all on hold.

Yeah.

You're the one that needs to break the news to people that their spouses or their children aren't coming to the U.S. as expected. How do they react to that news?

I think mostly there are emojis of crying if you send it on WhatsApp, for example, or if you call them, it's a total silence. Imagine someone who has been here for a while and who has been expecting someone that they have not been able to meet for quite [some] years. And they had a chance or an opportunity, and now it's no longer. And that goes across many spectrums. We can speak about Afghans, people from Afghanistan, people from Ukraine. I mean, people from different backgrounds of refugees. So they were expecting theirs in many ways, and now it's not a possibility.

(Related story from NPR: Afghans who helped the U.S. are in dangerous limbo after Trump's order on refugees)

So these refugees were cleared and scheduled to come here. What happens to them now?

I don't know. But they have to return to refugee camps if they have refugee camps. If they have urban areas where they've been living or some U.S. base — like Afghans — they are living in spaces where the U.S. has provided them to stay. But so far, they have to return and their families have to wait.

I'm imagining that some of these folks have been in refugee camps for years now.

Ten years, 20 years, more than that. Across the many fronts of the areas where we have these refugees coming from, the war is going on. There are bullets flying over the towns. Let's say Congo, eastern Congo, it's now in total shambles. The war is going on. The whole entire eastern Congo there is an imminent war going on. The government soldiers have surrendered in some areas. The rebels are taking over some areas. That's a news story that has been there for many years, and that history has pushed the refugees — some of them, not all of them — to be able to come in the USA. But with these programs, it's impossible for them to find that hope they used to have.

Refugees have legal status in entry to the U.S. What kind of vetting process have they had to go through to even get to the point where they were scheduled to fly here?

I think it's a long process that is done through the government agencies... So it starts overseas. Even from the refugee camp, they do medical screenings, they do a background check and everything. So for refugees, they are scrutinized. They are really background checked. They come here vetted, and they have a go ahead to come, compared to the national conversation that we've been hearing around.

What else are you hearing more broadly from the refugee community right now, after the news that the refugee admissions program has been suspended?

I think that there is a, I can say, a worry. People are worried because the misinformation is raging wild and many people are sometimes confusing illegal versus legal. I don't want to go into those terminologies, but what I can say is that refugees, they resettled into the USA through the legal channels of the U.S. government. They are not breaking any rules to come here, and it is the USA who is asking them or helping them to resettle in the country.

I imagine there's a lot of confusion and worry about the future here.

There are many confusions, and we are talking about people who have spent years in refugee camps, who have survived many hurdles or bullets and war going on in their country. So seeing something like this, hearing something like this, you don't know how much it can impact their lives, their mental health and reviving their memories. You know, you don't know how much this can destroy their wellbeing. So someone needs to come out and say something. You are here legally. You are okay. No one is going to take anything from you.

We're at the beginning of Trump's second term here. What are your concerns? What are your worries? What are your hopes?

I think that I don't hear much from our leadership in this state about legal immigrants. We have Afghans, we have Ukrainians, we have Africans who came through those legal channels. You have people from Latin America. But they need to be reassured that you are in New Hampshire and you are safe. No one is going to do anything. If you go on social media, you can see the virulent rhetoric that is against immigrants. And I mean, I don't know how they feel, but it takes into consideration anyone who is probably not white or I don't know how they consider…

I can tell you, I think, two weeks ago, the governor was presiding [over] the naturalization of citizens. So those are people who came here legally. They come from different backgrounds of the world. And having that ceremony already taking place, presided by the governor, that's a very good sign that we are talking about people who are legal and people should understand that they are safe and they can continue their activities without worries and scares.

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-01-28/new-hampshire-refugee-resettlement-flights-canceled-president-trump-executive-order

Jack Mallory

AI has the Bible, and I suppose a myriad of other religious texts, in its voluminous brain: I asked ChatGPT what lessons the Bible held concerning the treatment of immigrants in the modern U.S.  Not that some self-professed Christians seem to acknowledge much Biblical relevance to the treatment of our fellow humans.

He/she/they/it answered: 

The Bible contains many teachings relevant to modern immigration, particularly regarding how to treat foreigners and the vulnerable. Here are some key lessons that can apply to the U.S. immigration context:

1. Treating Immigrants with Compassion
    •    Leviticus 19:33-34 – “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
    •    This passage emphasizes welcoming and treating immigrants with dignity, recognizing shared human experiences.
    •    Matthew 25:35 – “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in.”
    •    Jesus’ words encourage hospitality and care for strangers, which can be applied to how society treats immigrants today.

2. Justice and Fairness for Immigrants
    •    Exodus 22:21 – “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
    •    A reminder that societies should not exploit or oppress immigrants but instead ensure fairness in laws and policies.
    •    Zechariah 7:9-10 – “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.”
    •    Calls for a just system that protects immigrants from oppression.

3. Recognizing the Contributions of Immigrants
    •    Ruth 1:16 – Ruth, a Moabite immigrant, played a key role in biblical history, showing that immigrants can contribute meaningfully to society.
    •    Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 41:39-41) – Joseph, a foreigner in Egypt, rose to a position of power and helped save the country from famine, illustrating the potential immigrants have to benefit their new homeland.

4. Balancing Law and Mercy
    •    Romans 13:1 – “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”
    •    This verse acknowledges the importance of laws, including immigration laws, but does not negate the biblical calls for compassion and justice.
    •    Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
    •    A balanced approach: upholding justice while showing mercy to those in difficult situations, including immigrants.

Conclusion

Biblical teachings suggest that a compassionate, just, and fair immigration system should balance enforcing laws with treating immigrants humanely. The Bible repeatedly calls for hospitality, justice, and the recognition that many in society were once strangers in a foreign land. These principles remain highly relevant in modern U.S. immigration discussions.

******

I asked the same question, replacing the Bible with the Torah, the Koran, and Hindu religious texts, got relevant answers each time. 

DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI bot which is reputedly very thorough, bombs when asked about Tiananmen Square. The Guardian tried it, got "Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else." https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/we-tried-out-deepseek-it-works-well-until-we-asked-it-about-tiananmen-square-and-taiwan

Jay Shackford

(Deadcenter Shacks suggests that everyone watch the actual video of Caroline Kennedy, who was the young daughter of JFK (the Camelot years) when we were in high school at BCC.   It’s very powerful.  To vote to confirm or support RFK,Jr.’s  nomination to oversee our nation’s complex and multi-faceted health system totaling hundreds of billions of dollars is insane — if not criminal.) 

Caroline Kennedy warns of “predator” RFK, Jr. 

in searing letter, video 

By Jacqueline Alemany, Dan Diamond and Liz Goodwin/The Washington Post/Jan. 28, 2025

Caroline Kennedy warned senators Tuesday about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling her cousin — now President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — a “predator” whose victims have included family members and the parents of sick children.

In a letter obtained by The Washington Post and sent to lawmakers ahead of Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, the former ambassador to Australia and Japan alleges that her cousin, “addicted to attention and power,” has given hypocritical advice by discouraging parents from vaccinating their children while vaccinating his own children. She alleged that his “crusade against vaccination” has also served to enrich him.

“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together,” Caroline Kennedy wrote. “It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.”

A spokeswoman for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kennedy is scheduled to face the Senate’s Finance Committee on Wednesday and its Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday.

Caroline Kennedy goes on to claim in her letter that through “the strength of his personality,” other family members followed Kennedy “down the path of drug addiction.”

“His basement, his garage, his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”

She commended Kennedy for “pulling himself out of illness and disease” but lamented that “siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life.”

Caroline Kennedy has been hesitant to publicly comment on her cousin’s politics, and she told senators Tuesday that she only reluctantly is speaking up now.

“I have never wanted to speak publicly about my family members and their challenges,” she wrote.

She did not criticize him during the presidential campaign, but at an event in November at the National Press Club in Canberra, the capital of Australia, she dismissed her cousin’s views on vaccines as “dangerous” and said they did not reflect the opinions of “most Americans” and the rest of the Kennedy family.

“I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views,” Caroline Kennedy said at the time.

In Tuesday’s letter, she cited a New York Times report that her cousin would keep his financial stake in litigation against a manufacturer of a vaccine that protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. The vaccine, which is administered to adolescents, can prevent cervical cancer.

In other words, he is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls,” Caroline Kennedy wrote. She also referenced her work in Australia on the Quad Cancer Moonshot, where she learned that cervical cancer is a top form of cancer among women in most countries.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is among Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees. Former vice president Mike Pence and his conservative advocacy group have raised concerns about his past support for abortion. Several Republican senators, including Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), who chairs the Senate’s Health Committee, have said he has wrongly questioned the safety of vaccines. Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), a polio survivor, does not appear to have granted a meeting with Kennedy, raising questions about whether he will vote to confirm him, and other Republican senators have also not said where they stand on the nomination.

To win confirmation, Kennedy can lose only three Republican votes if all Democrats vote against him.

While Caroline Kennedy’s testimonial may not sway Republicans, it could shore up Democrats’ opposition to her cousin’s nomination. Many Democrats have said they will approach Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation with an open mind and are not ruling out voting for him, though they have cited deep concerns about his views on vaccines. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) and some other senators have signaled that they are open to supporting Trump’s nominees and have agreed with some of Kennedy’s views on the health-care industry.

Kennedy has spent more than a month meeting with dozens of senators, seeking to sway them, although it is not clear whether his efforts have secured additional votes or further antagonized his skeptics.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), a prominent Kennedy critic, told The Washington Post that it was the most troubling meeting that she has had with a Cabinet nominee in her entire career.

Some of Kennedy’s family members spoke out against his presidential campaign and his endorsement of Trump, saying he did not represent their family’s Democratic values, but they had been largely silent on his nomination to run the nation’s health department.

In a letter to the editor published Tuesday in The Washington Post, Patrick J. Kennedy, a Democratic former congressman from Rhode Island and a co-author of “Profiles in Mental Health Courage,” defended Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from unnamed critics.

“To portray him as fundamentally opposed to modern medicine is misinformed and seems more calibrated to advance a political narrative than to help those struggling with addiction,” he wrote.

When it comes to addiction policy, he added, “I believe he is the leader we need to meet this moment.”

Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups, meanwhile, have heavily contested Kennedy’s nomination, arguing that the longtime anti-vaccine activist is not fit to oversee agencies responsible for the nation’s vaccine supply, would restrict abortion access and would take other steps to weaken the nation’s public health infrastructure.

Protect Our Care, a Democratic-aligned advocacy group running a “Stop RFK” war room, has commissioned advertisements highlighting Kennedy’s 2019 visit to Samoa and meetings with anti-vaccine activists before an outbreak of measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, hit the island nation. Another liberal advocacy group, 314 Action, unveiled ads Monday that also focus on Kennedy’s rhetoric and Samoa’s outbreak.

Kennedy has maintained that he is not anti-vaccine and has denied any connection with Samoa’s measles outbreak.

He is also facing pressure from some conservatives who say they do not trust the longtime liberal and scion of a famous Democratic family to pursue the GOP’s priorities.

Advancing American Freedom, a conservative group backed by Pence, has commissioned its own ads featuring video of then-candidate Donald Trump deriding Kennedy last year as “more liberal” than any Democratic candidate for president. Pence and his group have also urged conservative Republicans to scrutinize Kennedy’s stance on abortion in the upcoming hearings.

Trump allies have tried to rally support for Kennedy’s nomination. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy organization, has touted Kennedy as a reformer who can take on special interests that have harmed Americans’ health.

In her letter, Caroline Kennedy contrasted health-care researchers and scientists against her cousin’s record.

“They deserve a Secretary committed to advancing cutting-edge medicine to save lives, not rejecting the advances we have already made. They deserve a stable, moral, and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency,” she wrote. “They deserve better than Bobby Kennedy — and so do the rest of us.”

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jay, thanks for posting Caroline Kennedy comments about RFKjr.  I heard her last night and saw her reading aloud her objections to him to lead Health and Human Services.  She was very courageous to come forward. I pray they won't confirm him.  He is unfit and dangerous. Love, Joanie

Jack Mallory

Nori, maybe you should cut back a little? 



“For years, clinicians, family and friends who knew heavy cannabis users understood that their memories were ‘shot’ — there’s even a term for this, ‘stoner,’ as in ‘forgot the grocery list, couldn’t follow a recipe, couldn’t get it together,’” 

“And there is some evidence that a period of abstinence from alcohol can lead to recovery of brain tissue,” Gowin added. “But when it comes to chronic marijuana use and the brain, it’s an area in which investigation is ongoing. Right now we just don’t know.” 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/28/health/marijuana-working-memory-study-wellness/index.html

Janet Lowry (Deal)

Stephen, you have put more clearly than I could my understanding that some MAGA supporters are committed to Felon 47 with a kind of religious fervor. And F47 is consuming and perpetuating it. There is no room there to distinguish the difference between knowledge and belief. No amount of logic can breach that barrier. Logical argument is out of the question.

I also agree that occasionally a person does eventually look at actual evidence and have a revelation of sorts, but the accompanying moral injury can be devastating. It's hard to admit that you fell for a con, and the longer you do it the harder it is to admit.

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Project 2025 is very familiar in the things Trump is doing. Hmm, he said he knows little about it. Read this. He is putting forth so much cruely and destruction. The 2025 group and Trump want to destroy the govenment to install sycophants to Trump.. Too bad that the people who are experts working for the American people are targets for elimination. To think that General Milley just had his security detail revoked. He has a history of such bravery and alliegence to the Constitution....Trump has alliegence to his bone spurs so he could fake it and get out of military service. Love, Joanie

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/trump-s-early-actions-mirror-project-2025/ar-AA1xOiy1

Jack Mallory

"It's hard to admit that you fell for a con, and the longer you do it the harder it is to admit."

Gratifying to see someone acknowledging the difficulties in admitting one has been taken in, Janet--especially one taken in as enthusiastically as I was when I enlisted in the Army early in 1966! I was a true believer for several years until I got to Vietnam in 1969, and my disenchantment took much of that year to fully develop. But it flourished quickly once back in the states. 

I got back from Vietnam on Tuesday, May 5, 1970, 6 days after the Cambodian invasion began. My unit was on alert to go across the border when I left. Kent State took place while I was in the air between Vietnam and "the real world," as we called the U.S. I got back home to Chevy Chase on the 6th, I think.

My brother Mark was the editor of the Tattler at the time, and when I articulated some barely formed criticisms of the war he immediately enlisted me in the BCC anti-war demonstration coming up on Friday the 8th. And two days later, May 10, I was in downtown DC at the big, national protest against the war and the Kent State murders.

This was before I knew anything about the anti-war movement--ideologies, tactics, culture, anything. I had smoked my first joint only a day or so before, the day after getting off that Freedom Bird! But I took that first step against the war within days of being back in the states and out of the Army. 

I think that made my later full-scale conversion much easier. I learned from recruiting for Vietnam Veterans Against the War how difficult, stressful, it was for some vets to do what seemed like a 180, from a uniformed participant in the war to a "hippy" protestor. Most had probably spent much more time than I between their return and their decision to publically oppose the war. And until VVAW became prominent in the media, vets were assumed to be, were treated as if they were, solid supporters of the war. 

Expectations can shape behavior: once others--friends and family--have defined your politics, perhaps it's much harder to define your own. That vets might have an anti-war role was a novel idea both to the public and also to many vets! I was an anti-warrior almost from the moment I set foot on the runway at Travis Air Force Base. And with family who quickly endorsed that opinion, I was soon on my way to my antiwarrior FBI file. 

Thanks for providing the stimulus for the retrospective. 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

I was also in the anti Vietnam war marches. There is strength in numbers. As was shown when there was an outcry from so many about the illegal freezing of federal funds, Trump rescinded it, especially too when a judge halted it. It's hard to understand why so many support this destroyer of so much good but his actions will adversely affect them too and might change a few minds. Love, Joanie. 

Jack Mallory

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/30/nx-s1-5276336/donald-trump-jan-6-rape-assault-pardons-rioters

Among those pardoned by the First Felon for their January 6 attack on our Capitol--at least one, and in some cases several:

rapist (in one case of a 7 year old)

pornographer

wife beater

criminal pedophile

child abuser

war criminal

drug dealer

manslaughterer

and your run of the mill assaulters of police, makers of terroristic threats against the police, felons with firearms, accused photographers of their rape victims genitalia, etc. 

Sorry, forgot to mention the rapist who urinated in his victim's mouth. 
 

But all patriots, the Felon says, and worthy of his blanket pardons. And the Forum's Trump apologizers remain supportively silent.

Yeah, it's tough to admit you've been conned. But for anyone with any sense of decency there comes a time when you say, to yourself and the world, ENOUGH! If that time never comes, are you being conned, or conning yourself?

Jay Shackford

Donald Trump’s Cabinet of Revenge

By Susan Glasser/The New Yorker

January 30, 2025

It was a mega-maga morning on Capitol Hill. In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the F.B.I., faced hostile questioning from Democrats about his past as a QAnon-adjacent promoter of conspiracy theories and his extensive public vows to exact revenge on Trump’s “deep-state” enemies. In another hearing room, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, sparred with skeptical senators from both parties who worried about his record of undermining public confidence in vaccines. And, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee to serve as the director of National Intelligence, did little to help her nomination—perhaps the most politically uncertain of them all—when she was confronted about her controversial views on everything from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Edward Snowden. At the hearing’s start, she preëmptively dismissed the criticism as “lies and smears,” though hours of sharp queries from senators suggested that for Gabbard, as for Patel and Kennedy, the best evidence against her confirmation had come from her own voluble past.

That this Trump trifecta faced simultaneous confirmation hearings appeared to be a masterstroke in outrage management by the Senate’s Republican scheduling gods: Who could possibly keep track of the overwhelming number of controversies, concerning revelations, and just plain weirdness to come out of the hearings? But, after I watched all three sessions, thanks to the magic of C-span and the Internet, it seemed clear that these three appointments have more in common than just their concurrent hearings: they have perfectly met the qualification that Trump cares most about—a proven record of tearing down the credibility of the institutions that he has chosen them to lead.

Let’s stipulate that many of Trump’s other nominees are flawed or ill-suited to high office—thin résumés and sizable Fox News contracts might well be the distinguishing characteristic for many in his new Cabinet. But Thursday’s trio stands out for the sheer destructive Trumpiness of their time in public life. Patel once promised that, if he became F.B.I. director, he’d shut down the Bureau’s headquarters and reopen it the next day “as a museum of the ‘deep state.’ ” Kennedy’s long career as a scourge of the scientific establishment includes comparing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the agencies he would oversee as H.H.S. chief, to “fascism” and its childhood-vaccination program to “Nazi death camps.” Gabbard, as a left-wing congresswoman turned right-wing Trump acolyte, has often questioned foundational conclusions of the American intelligence community. These are not problems as far as the President is concerned—they’re selling points.

This came through, perhaps unintentionally, in an early moment during Patel’s hearing, when Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chairman, complained at length about the F.B.I.’s participation in “a political scheme to take down Trump.” Then Grassley went on to address the nominee directly: “They have yet to learn a lesson, and I hope you’ll teach that lesson.” Patel, in other words, is there to wreak payback for Trump. So are the others. These are Cabinet appointments as a form of revenge.

There was a certain slow-motion-car-crash appeal in watching the contortions of Republican senators like Grassley as they strained to justify or explain away these embarrassing nominations. The most gimmicky approach was that of Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican charged with introducing Patel. In an effort to veer away from the many shocking statements Patel has made during television appearances, podcast interviews, and in his own writings, he prepared a handout: “Kash Bingo,” with phrases, such as “enemies list” and “deep state,” that he expected Democrats to harp on in their questions. I’m surprised he didn’t follow Patel’s example and turn the whole thing into a children’s cartoon book. (See “The Plot Against the King,” Patel’s 2022 recounting of the injustices done to Trump, in which he stars as Kash the Distinguished Discoverer.)

The senators’ squirming was nothing, though, compared with that of the nominees themselves. The most politically costly squirm might have come in Kennedy’s hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, when Senator Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, questioned him. Cassidy, the committee’s chairman and a medical doctor himself, is a key vote in determining whether Kennedy’s nomination succeeds or fails. He opened by acknowledging it was “no secret” that he had “reservations” about Kennedy, then voiced his concern that Kennedy would undermine vaccines in the role of America’s top health official. “Will you reassure mothers unequivocally . . . that the measles and hepatitis-B vaccines do not cause autism?” Cassidy asked. Kennedy started in on a rambling answer about data, but Cassidy cut him off: It was a yes-or-no question. Still, Kennedy would not offer an answer. Up next, Senator Bernie Sanders found himself in an unfamiliar role as a wingman to the conservative Louisianan. “Vaccines do not cause autism,” Sanders said. “Do you agree with that?” Again, Kennedy would not answer. Had he just failed the Cassidy test? Later, Cassidy suggested that might well have been the case. “Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” he said. “Can I trust that that is now in the past?”

Each of the three nominees tried a similar evasion technique when presented with problematic aspects of their own past. Sometimes, they lapsed into pure brazenness, as when Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, asked Patel if he was familiar with Stew Peters, a prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist. “Not off the top of my head,” Patel said. Durbin responded dryly, “You’ve made eight separate appearances on his podcasts.” When Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat, asked Patel about his so-called enemies list—sixty members of the “Executive Branch Deep State,” many of them Republicans who disagreed with him or who tried to block him from obtaining more powerful positions in Trump’s first Administration, which were listed as an appendix in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters”—Patel insisted, “It is not an enemies list. It is a total mischaracterization. It is a glossary.”

Not all of the attacks, incidentally, came from Democrats. In the Intelligence Committee, senators from both parties pushed Gabbard to say whether she believed Snowden’s leaks about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs made him a “traitor.” She declined to answer when James Lankford, a Republican of Oklahoma, asked her. He asked again. “I’m focussed on the future,” Gabbard replied. Then Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, asked her the same question—four different times. “That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are this high!” he said at one point, but she again refused to answer. By the time Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana and a key vote on Gabbard’s nomination, asked whether Snowden had harmed American national security, he was the fourth senator to push her on the issue. “It’s notable you didn’t say yes,” Young told her. “It would befit you and be helpful to the way you are perceived to the members of the Intelligence Committee if you would at least acknowledge that the greatest whistle-blower in American history, so-called, harmed national security.”

As if the three hearings didn’t provide enough distractions, President Trump walked into the White House briefing room late on Thursday morning for a press conference on the previous night’s tragic plane crash over the Potomac, the first deadly accident involving a commercial airliner near Washington, D.C., since 2009. He read prepared remarks calling the country “one family” in the face of tragedy. Then he looked up and discarded the platitudinous talking points to bash his Democratic predecessors, air-traffic controllers themselves, and an amorphous “diversity push,” baselessly suggesting that all were somehow responsible for the crash. He said that Pete Buttigieg, the Biden Administration’s Transportation Secretary, had run the agency “right into the ground with his diversity,” and insisted that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden had rejected his proposed standards to insure that only those air-traffic controllers of the “highest intellect” could be hired. “Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse,” he said.

These were hardly the consoling words needed by a grieving nation. But, in the end, Trump’s performance was, perhaps, the day’s most revealing, with little of the obfuscation that came from his nominees on Capitol Hill. Trump said loud and clear what those surrounding him often try to hide on his behalf: He does not care about facts. He does not care about leading the country. He will seek political advantage in anything, even the death of sixty-seven people in a horrific accident in the second week of his Presidency.

It was hard to turn back to the confirmation hearings after listening to him. The maga-palooza in the Senate, after all, was but a reflection of Trump himself—these are his nominees, his choices, the fights that he has chosen to pick. He overshadowed any of the crazy or outrageous or disturbing things they had to say with his own words. Gabbard, Kennedy, and Patel are not the crisis in America set off by his reëlection, they are the consequences of it. Trump is the crisis—is, was, and will continue to be. Want to know how the next four years are going to go? Rewatch, if you can stand it, that press conference. This is it. ♦︎

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Great article by Susan Glasser. Thanks Jay  The three recent nominees are all horrendous. They are Trump sycophants planning retribution for Trump. Gabbard is so extreme that allies im sure would no longer share intelligence with us.  And yes it was disgraceful that Trump politicized the tragic plane and helicopter crash by making up lies and blaming Biden and diversity on it. He is a blatant White Supremacist as is the agenda he is following of project 2025. Love, Joanie

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

https://abcnews.go.com/US/federal-employees-told-remove-pronouns-email-signatures-end/story?id=118310483

Wow, this is the latest assault on civil rights. Trump is a real dictator and not just on day one. Its a real tragedy that enough Americans fell for his lies. we can all see he isn't at all concerned with the price of eggs, or with everyday folks. He is padding his administration with billionaires. I have nothing against the wealthy but they should pay their fair share and the ones he is putting alongside him are for the most part trying to destroy our government. Its blatant discrimination to go after diversity programs. Love, Joanie

Stephen Hatchett

Re T's press conference following the plane crash in the Potomac, as reported many places:  It displayed a gut-wrenching, abject failure to lead. Imagine what it would have said if it were president after 9/11. 

Re pronouns (on email signatures or elsewhare):   Biology does indeed matter. If  you know biology well enough to know what goes on in another human's brain, body, and mind, then show us your cards.  If not, then respect what that other human's biology says are their pronouns. If you cannot display that respect, you do not deserve any yourself; your pronouns are "it, it, and its" !

Jack Mallory

Class, Stephen has introduced our new vocabulary words for today:

Kakistocracy

Exorsexism

Our assignment for this evening is to use each of them in a sentence. 
 

Extra credit option: write a paragraph describing the intersection of kakistocracy and exorsexism in recent news. DO NOT USE AI ASSISTANCE!