Let’s start with the obvious. I support the right to protest. I have in fact led protests on Parliament's grounds—including one where we as students protested against spiralling education costs briefly occupied the steps. When I led those protests we often discussed the fact that if we crossed certain lines we knew we would get arrested. I was always of the view that the cause or the issue was what mattered most, and we would strive to make our point, and then move on to live to fight another day.
Protest is important in our democracy, but like all freedoms it comes with responsibilities. The protest we have seen at Parliament this week is driven by wild, false, dangerous conspiracy theories and people with an extreme agenda. Even then the people involved have a right to be there. But when they threaten, harass and disrupt people and a whole city they lose that right. They have been trespassed, they need to leave.
I have had so many constituents contact me over the last week distressed at what is happening to our city. School pupils spat at and harassed for wearing a mask, roads blocked delaying public transport and emergency services and businesses shut down.
Not to mention the obvious threats of violence against politicians and the media. Looking down on a protest that wants to hang me as a politician, a sign that compares the Prime Minister to the March 15th terrorist, calls for arrest and execution of me and other leaders you might understand why I believe the Police need to move them on.
It is entirely up to the Police how they enforce the law, and it is important that it stays that way in our democracy. I want to thank them for doing their hard and difficult job in trying conditions. As the local MP I have been in regular contact with them and the City Council to support the rights of Wellingtonians to go about their lives free from harassment and severe disruption.
I am confident that this will happen, though it will no doubt take some time.
I am also re-assured that this group of people do represent a small minority. Just yesterday, two things happened to remind me of that. Northland DHB reached 90% first dose vaccination rate. We have done what no one thought could be done—all DHBs have reached this target.
And yesterday afternoon, we passed the 10 million vaccines mark. This is New Zealanders looking after themselves and each other. We have done so incredibly well. Thousands of lives have been saved and while it is tough for some sectors, we have kept people in jobs and the economy moving forward.
So, thank you again Aotearoa, you are the best.
Grant Robertson
Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
Minister of Finance
Member of Parliament for Wellington Central
Showing posts with label Worth Quoting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worth Quoting. Show all posts
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Worth Quoting: Grant Robertson
New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Grant Robertson, posted this message on Facebook today:
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Worth Quoting: Pete Buttigieg
The video above is of the announcement of the nomination of Pete Buttigieg to be Secretary of Transportation. Here’s an approximate transcript of Pete’s remarks:
Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, thank you so much for entrusting me with this opportunity to serve the American people. I am humbled by your confidence, and eager to do everything in my power to ensure that this administration succeeds.
My hometown of South Bend, Indiana, was built by the power of American transportation: from trade along the river whose bend gives our city its name, to the rail lines that connected us to the rest of the country back when we were considered the West, to the livelihoods created by good-paying union jobs at places like the aeronautical supplier Bendix and the giant auto assembly of Studebaker. And now, climate and infrastructure innovation have helped bring my community into the 21st century.
I’ve also had a personal love of transportation ever since childhood. More than once, as a college student, I would convince a friend to travel nearly a thousand miles back to Indiana with me on Amtrak, though I know that in this administration, I will at best be the second biggest train enthusiast around. I spent a spring break in graduate school studying on board a cargo ship. Travel in my mind is synonymous with adventure, growth, and, even love, so much so that I proposed to my husband, Chasten, in an airport terminal. Don’t let anybody tell you O’Hare isn’t romantic.
And let me take this chance to thank Chasten for everything that he gives, everything he sacrifices, to support me in pursuing public service.
The first time I ran for office was on a platform of supporting the Obama-Biden administration’s rescue of the auto industry. And when I did first take office as mayor of a city fighting its way out of the teeth of the Great Recession, infrastructure was at the heart of our vision.
We reimagined how vehicles and people moved through the city, unlocking new economic vibrancy in our urban core. We built up partnerships, from a regional collaboration to improve rail service to the public-private partnership that put our city at the cutting edge of bicycle mobility. We developed new forms of support for lower-wage workers in their commutes, and added electric vehicle charging infrastructure to help prepare a more sustainable future.
I also dealt with the challenges created by generations of often inadequate state and federal infrastructure funding. With just enough resources to repave every lane-mile of street only every one hundred years or so, I faced a constant battle with that natural enemy of every mayor: potholes. In a community where more than a quarter of our residents lived in poverty, we worked to fill in the gaps that were created when underfunded transit resources left too many cut off from opportunity, just because they didn’t have the means to own a car.
At its best, transportation makes the American Dream possible: Getting people and goods to where they need to be, directly and indirectly creating good-paying jobs. At its worst, misguided policies and missed opportunities can reinforce racial, economic, and environmental injustice, dividing or isolating neighborhoods, undermining government’s basic role of empowering everyone to thrive.
And now an historic opportunity. This administration can deliver policy and resources in that can create jobs, rise to the climate challenge, and equitably serve all Americans, all while continuing to ensure the safety of travellers and workers alike. America has given this Administration a mandate to build back better—and step one in building back better, literally, is to build.
Americans shouldn’t settle for less than our peers in the developed world when it comes to our roads and bridges, our railways and transit systems. The U.S. should lead the way—and I know that in this administration, we will. We’ll bring together leaders and communities from every corner—labor and business, left, right and center, urban and rural, communities of color, tribal nations, mayors, counties, and states, everyone who has a stake in American infrastructure—to design a better future. Americans expect us to see to it that the idea of an “infrastructure week” is associated with results, and never again let it be a media punch line.
My view of this opportunity is also shaped by being the youngest member so far named to this cabinet, and the first Millennial to be at that table. Newer generations have a lot at stake in infrastructure policy that, that by its nature, must contemplate both the immediate and the long-term. The question of how America will look by the middle of this century—the competitiveness of our economy, the security of our climate—for me this is not academic, it’s personal.
I am also mindful of that the eyes of history on this appointment—knowing this is the first time an American president has ever sent an openly LGBTQ cabinet member to the Senate for confirmation.
I can remember watching the news, seventeen years old, in Indiana, and seeing a story about an appointee of President Clinton, named to be an ambassador, attacked and denied a vote in the Senate because he was gay, ultimately only able to serve only by a recess appointment. At the time, I had no aspirations of being appointed by a president to anything—at that age, I was hoping to be an airline pilot. And I was a long way from coming out, even to myself. But still, I watched that story, I learned something about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong. But just as important, I saw how those limits could be challenged.
So, two decades later, I can’t help but think of a seventeen-year-old somewhere who might be watching us right now, somebody who wonders whether and where they belong in the world, or even in their own family, and I’m thinking about the message that today’s announcement is sending them.
So thank you, Mr. President-elect, thank you for honouring your commitment to diversity with this administration you’re assembling. And thank you, Madam Vice President-elect, for your trailblazing leadership, your encouragement, and your friendship.
There is no greater source of meaning in professional life than the chance to serve others. I felt that meaning every time I laced up my boots when I was in the military, every day coming to work as mayor. And I feel it here now, joining this historic team, with such an important mission, preparing to deliver for all Americans.
Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, thank you so much for entrusting me with this opportunity to serve the American people. I am humbled by your confidence, and eager to do everything in my power to ensure that this administration succeeds.
My hometown of South Bend, Indiana, was built by the power of American transportation: from trade along the river whose bend gives our city its name, to the rail lines that connected us to the rest of the country back when we were considered the West, to the livelihoods created by good-paying union jobs at places like the aeronautical supplier Bendix and the giant auto assembly of Studebaker. And now, climate and infrastructure innovation have helped bring my community into the 21st century.
I’ve also had a personal love of transportation ever since childhood. More than once, as a college student, I would convince a friend to travel nearly a thousand miles back to Indiana with me on Amtrak, though I know that in this administration, I will at best be the second biggest train enthusiast around. I spent a spring break in graduate school studying on board a cargo ship. Travel in my mind is synonymous with adventure, growth, and, even love, so much so that I proposed to my husband, Chasten, in an airport terminal. Don’t let anybody tell you O’Hare isn’t romantic.
And let me take this chance to thank Chasten for everything that he gives, everything he sacrifices, to support me in pursuing public service.
The first time I ran for office was on a platform of supporting the Obama-Biden administration’s rescue of the auto industry. And when I did first take office as mayor of a city fighting its way out of the teeth of the Great Recession, infrastructure was at the heart of our vision.
We reimagined how vehicles and people moved through the city, unlocking new economic vibrancy in our urban core. We built up partnerships, from a regional collaboration to improve rail service to the public-private partnership that put our city at the cutting edge of bicycle mobility. We developed new forms of support for lower-wage workers in their commutes, and added electric vehicle charging infrastructure to help prepare a more sustainable future.
I also dealt with the challenges created by generations of often inadequate state and federal infrastructure funding. With just enough resources to repave every lane-mile of street only every one hundred years or so, I faced a constant battle with that natural enemy of every mayor: potholes. In a community where more than a quarter of our residents lived in poverty, we worked to fill in the gaps that were created when underfunded transit resources left too many cut off from opportunity, just because they didn’t have the means to own a car.
At its best, transportation makes the American Dream possible: Getting people and goods to where they need to be, directly and indirectly creating good-paying jobs. At its worst, misguided policies and missed opportunities can reinforce racial, economic, and environmental injustice, dividing or isolating neighborhoods, undermining government’s basic role of empowering everyone to thrive.
And now an historic opportunity. This administration can deliver policy and resources in that can create jobs, rise to the climate challenge, and equitably serve all Americans, all while continuing to ensure the safety of travellers and workers alike. America has given this Administration a mandate to build back better—and step one in building back better, literally, is to build.
Americans shouldn’t settle for less than our peers in the developed world when it comes to our roads and bridges, our railways and transit systems. The U.S. should lead the way—and I know that in this administration, we will. We’ll bring together leaders and communities from every corner—labor and business, left, right and center, urban and rural, communities of color, tribal nations, mayors, counties, and states, everyone who has a stake in American infrastructure—to design a better future. Americans expect us to see to it that the idea of an “infrastructure week” is associated with results, and never again let it be a media punch line.
My view of this opportunity is also shaped by being the youngest member so far named to this cabinet, and the first Millennial to be at that table. Newer generations have a lot at stake in infrastructure policy that, that by its nature, must contemplate both the immediate and the long-term. The question of how America will look by the middle of this century—the competitiveness of our economy, the security of our climate—for me this is not academic, it’s personal.
I am also mindful of that the eyes of history on this appointment—knowing this is the first time an American president has ever sent an openly LGBTQ cabinet member to the Senate for confirmation.
I can remember watching the news, seventeen years old, in Indiana, and seeing a story about an appointee of President Clinton, named to be an ambassador, attacked and denied a vote in the Senate because he was gay, ultimately only able to serve only by a recess appointment. At the time, I had no aspirations of being appointed by a president to anything—at that age, I was hoping to be an airline pilot. And I was a long way from coming out, even to myself. But still, I watched that story, I learned something about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong. But just as important, I saw how those limits could be challenged.
So, two decades later, I can’t help but think of a seventeen-year-old somewhere who might be watching us right now, somebody who wonders whether and where they belong in the world, or even in their own family, and I’m thinking about the message that today’s announcement is sending them.
So thank you, Mr. President-elect, thank you for honouring your commitment to diversity with this administration you’re assembling. And thank you, Madam Vice President-elect, for your trailblazing leadership, your encouragement, and your friendship.
There is no greater source of meaning in professional life than the chance to serve others. I felt that meaning every time I laced up my boots when I was in the military, every day coming to work as mayor. And I feel it here now, joining this historic team, with such an important mission, preparing to deliver for all Americans.
Tuesday, August 06, 2019
What a real president says
Former President Barack Obama issued a statement from him and Michelle on the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings in the USA:
Obama later Tweeted a link to an article from Vox, “Democrats have been discussing the same ideas on guns for 25 years. It’s time to change that.”, in which German Lopez argues that "There should be a Medicare-for-all or Green New Deal for ending gun violence." His article is as much a review of how the USA’s politics on guns became so skewed to the Right as it is a call for Democrats to begin a bigger conversation rather than advocating the same minor changes over and over. While some of the proposals talked about in the article go far beyond what Democrats have called for in the past, they’re also common-sense, tried and true measures that work. We should at least talk about these solutions.
And, the USA should have a president who understands that promoting racism and intolerance is never, ever, acceptable. The USA needs a president who will stand up to the forces of hatred, call it by its proper name, and do everything feasible to end it. In 2020, the country will get the chance to make sure that happens, to make sure it gets a real president again.
Update – Tuesday, August 6 (US time, August 7 NZ time): A White House spindoctor has attacked President Obama for his remarks. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox "News" (of course): "For [President Obama] to interject himself into this conversation, this debate, at this point, it’s his right to do it. But the fact is Donald Trump is the president of all Americans. He’s trying to move this country forward, and comments like that take us backwards and take us to a dark place that we never want to be and we never want to visit again.” Hogan clearly mixed up the presidents he was talking about…
Michelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shootings. Even if details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true.This is what a real president says, down to getting the names of both cities right. Even two years after leaving office, he’s still demonstrating what acting like a US President means, how it should be done.
First, no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings that we see in the United States. No other developed nation tolerates the levels of gun violence that we do. Every time this happens, we're told that tougher gun laws won't stop all murders; that they won't stop every deranged individual from getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places. But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings. They can save some families from heartbreak. We are not helpless here. And until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.
Second, while the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully known, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy. Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they've been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet. That means that both law enforcement agencies and internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups.
But just as important, all of us have to send a clarion call and behave with the values of tolerance and diversity that should be the hallmark of our democracy. We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. Such language isn't new – it's been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, here in America and around the world. It is at the root of slavery and Jim Crow, the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It has no place in our politics and our public life. And it's time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much – clearly and unequivocally.
Obama later Tweeted a link to an article from Vox, “Democrats have been discussing the same ideas on guns for 25 years. It’s time to change that.”, in which German Lopez argues that "There should be a Medicare-for-all or Green New Deal for ending gun violence." His article is as much a review of how the USA’s politics on guns became so skewed to the Right as it is a call for Democrats to begin a bigger conversation rather than advocating the same minor changes over and over. While some of the proposals talked about in the article go far beyond what Democrats have called for in the past, they’re also common-sense, tried and true measures that work. We should at least talk about these solutions.
And, the USA should have a president who understands that promoting racism and intolerance is never, ever, acceptable. The USA needs a president who will stand up to the forces of hatred, call it by its proper name, and do everything feasible to end it. In 2020, the country will get the chance to make sure that happens, to make sure it gets a real president again.
Update – Tuesday, August 6 (US time, August 7 NZ time): A White House spindoctor has attacked President Obama for his remarks. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox "News" (of course): "For [President Obama] to interject himself into this conversation, this debate, at this point, it’s his right to do it. But the fact is Donald Trump is the president of all Americans. He’s trying to move this country forward, and comments like that take us backwards and take us to a dark place that we never want to be and we never want to visit again.” Hogan clearly mixed up the presidents he was talking about…
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
They Are Us
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| Via Internet (source unknown). |
I’ve been struggling with this post for days. What can anyone really say about a terrorist attack, like what New Zealand experienced this past Friday? So much of what would be obvious also risks sounding empty and superficial in the face of so much pain and hurting. There will be public policy and political things to be said, but not now, not in this post. Instead, this a personal reflection. And, it’s also a beginning of trying to resume normal life.
I won’t re-hash all the facts about the attack, since it’s been so extensively covered by the world’s news media. I’m not a journalist, and I have no new facts to report. All that I, or anyone else, has to offer that’s unique is how we feel about and react to despicable acts like this. Still, it's necessary to talk about some of the details of that day in order to explain how I reacted.
I heard about the attack not long after it began. I heard there was a “mass shooting” in Christchurch, and that six people were believed dead. Then, it was 12. And then, as the TV news switched to live broadcasts, talk of numbers ceased and they instead focused on what was known, and attempts to understand what was going on.
TVNZ’s One News, which I was watching, had a fixed camera providing live shots of the police blocking the road that one of the mosques is on. It was mostly to provide moving images while the anchor, Simon Dallow, talked to experts by phone. I watched the cops there holding their assault rifles at the roadblock and thought how focused they looked.
I was watching when a car approached the roadblock. The cops tried to gesture to the driver to turn away, and the driver didn’t immediately comply. I saw the cops lower their rifles and point them at the car. I’ve never seen that in New Zealand before. I would never have thought I would see that in New Zealand. The car did turn away, clearly not a danger, but maybe driven by someone who was confused and unsure what to do. Maybe it was a friend or relative of a victim who was desperate to get to the mosque. I doubt we’ll ever know. But the image of police weapons aimed at a civilian car was the first jarring image I saw.
Later, of course, there were images of survivors leaving the mosque area, their clothes stained with the blood of victims. I’ve never seen that in New Zealand before. I would never have thought I would see that in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been having an ordinary Friday visiting parts of New Zealand, until everything changed. She spoke to us [WATCH] shortly before boarding a flight back to Wellington, where the national civil defense efforts are coordinated. “This is one of New Zealand’s darkest days,” she said. “Many of those who will have been directly affected by the shooting may be migrants to New Zealand, they may even be refugees here. They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. They are us.”
It was the perfect response at a time when there was still so much that wasn’t known. We needed reassurance and certainty at a time when neither were evident. As the news coverage continued, there was eventually footage of the terrorist being arrested—alive. Cops from a rural area of the South Island who happened to be in Christchurch for routine firearms training, responded to the call. They rammed the terrorist’s car, which could be seen with its front end up on the police car, its wheel still spinning because it was in gear. The cops cuffed the terrorist and took him away. At the time they had no idea what weapons the terrorist still had, nor did they know he’d put improvised bombs in a vehicle he’d used. All they knew was that they had a duty to end the event, to stop the terrorist, and to protect the people of New Zealand. They did so and became instant heroes to us all.
More time passed. Reporters talked about how the Prime Minister would speak again once she was briefed in Wellington, and they suggested we should expect the casualty numbers to go much higher. They were right.
When the Prime Minister addressed us again [WATCH], she told us that there were 40 dead and at least that many more injured. which was the best information they had at that time. She said it was a terrorist attack, and she reassured us that the terrorist was in custody. Then she spoke to us in calm, measured tones, saying exactly what needed to be said:
Christchurch was the home of these victims. For many, this may not have been the place they were born. In fact, for many, New Zealand was their choice. The place they actively came to, and committed themselves to. The place they were raising their families. Where they were part of communities that they loved, and who loved them. It was a place that many came to for its safety, a place where they were free to practice their culture, and their religion.The Prime Minister’s words moved me to tears, for both her compassion for the victims and their community, and also for her defiance of the forces of hatred and racism. She consistently did both every time she spoke in the immediate aftermath.
For those of you who are watching at home tonight and questioning how this could have happened here, we, New Zealand, we were not a target because we’re a safe harbour for those who hate, we were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we’re an enclave for extremism. We were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things. Because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it. And those values, I can assure you, will not, and cannot be shaken by this attack.
We are a proud nation of more than 200 ethnicities, 160 languages, and amongst that diversity we share common values, and the one that we place the currency on right now, and tonight, is our compassion and the support for the community of those directly affected by this tragedy. And secondly, the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology of the people who did this. You may have chosen us, but we utterly reject and condemn you.
On Saturday the Prime Minister led a multi-party delegation to Christchurch to express support for the survivors and their community, to mourn with all those who are grieving, and to demonstrate clearly that New Zealand will not tolerate extremist racism.
There were many photos of the Prime Minister wearing a headscarf in support of the Muslim community, and of her comforting those who were mourning. She was, in that moment, every decent and rational New Zealander.
Some New Zealanders have taken a small measure of comfort that the terrorist was not one of us, but a foreigner who targeted us. But evil knows no nationality. Hatred is hatred. Our mission is to stamp out hatred wherever it exists, not to blame the people of the country where a monster happened to be born.
And yet, in the immediate aftermath it was good to think that we don’t have home-grown violent extremists, even though we know that’s not actually true. In the days and months ahead, we’ll find out for sure how extensive this cancer is. The message so far has been clear that we will not tolerate violent racism in this country.
When the Prime Minister said of the victims, “They are us”, she was right. But it’s equally true that the racists among us are “us”, too, not because we literally are them—we reject them. However, because we don’t do enough to stop racism, we are complicit in its continuation. And because we don’t object to small expressions of racism, it can give fertiliser to those who will go on to commit acts of racist violence, including terrorism. We must do more.
This isn’t the duty of one race alone, but white people are the only ones in a position to stamp out white supremacism by forcefully rejecting it. This is where our work now lies: We all have a duty to stand up to racism whenever it pops up. That means that many of us will need to learn how to stand up to racism whenever it pops up, because New Zealanders by nature aren’t a confrontational people. I think that maybe this can lead us to develop ways to respond, even to racist “jokes”, in ways that don’t end up escalating the situation. The goal is to get people to stop being racist, not to publicly shame them or to make them angry; we want change, not to incite them.
In the meantime, though, jaded and cynical as I am, I've been ASTOUNDED by the reaction of ordinary Kiwis. They have embraced our Muslim fellow Kiwis in a way I've never seen happen before or anywhere else. It makes me get all teary-eyed when I see it on TV. Others are wearing a green ribbon in support of Muslim Kiwis. Some have gone to their nearest mosque to lay flowers and to be there in case anyone needs a hug. Yesterday in the Ponsonby neighbourhood of Auckland, a bunch of ordinary white, middle class-looking office workers, all millennials, I think, went on their lunch hour to a local mosque to join with the Muslims worshipping there. It was, to be honest, funny watching the dolled-up ladies taking off their expensive high heels to go inside—but it was very touching, too, and inspiring, So, too, have been the numerous stories of ordinary Kiwis just doing what they can to help, and it was gratifying to see the newsmedia report on what they were doing.
The terrorist—and I am doing the same as the Prime Minister who said, "one thing I can assure you, you won't hear me speak his name"—the terrorist tried to sow hatred and division. He utterly failed. It wasn’t just the nation he inadvertently brought together, he also specifically united New Zealanders regardless of background, religious beliefs, whether we were born here or came from somewhere else. We have, though this horrible event, become a stronger and more united people. I hope it can continue.
We will all move on from this, as always happens. The shock will fade, the rawness will go away, and the pain will ease. That’s what always happens. But we mustn’t let the unity and focus fade, too. We have so much work to do to cure the cancers of terrorism and white supremacism.
Now, let’s get to work.
Friday, January 04, 2019
Worth Quoting: Nancy Pelosi
Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi spoke during the opening session of the 116th Congress immediately following her election as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and before her swearing in. Below are her remarks as prepared*:
Thank you, Leader McCarthy. I look forward to working with you in a bipartisan way for the good of our country, respecting the constituents who sent each of us here.
Every two years, we gather in this Chamber for a sacred ritual. Under the dome of this temple of our democracy, the Capitol of the United States, we renew our great American experiment.
I am particularly proud to be the woman Speaker of the House of this Congress, which marks 100 years of women winning the right to vote, as we serve with more than 100 women in the House of Representatives – the highest number in history.
Each of us comes to this Chamber strengthened by the trust of our constituents and the love of our families. We welcome all your families who are with us today.
Let me thank my family: my husband Paul; our five children Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra; our grandchildren, and my D’Alesandro family from Baltimore.
Here in spirit are my mother and father and my brother Tommy, who taught us through their example that public service is a noble calling, and that we should serve with our hearts full of love – and that America’s heart is full of love.
In that spirit, let me especially thank my constituents in San Francisco, who have entrusted me to represent them in Congress in the spirit of Saint Francis, our patron saint – whose song of Saint Francis is our anthem: “Lord, make me a channel of thy peace” – as we beautifully sang in church this morning.
And let us all thank our men and women in uniform, veterans, and their families and caregivers, whose service reminds us of our mission: to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.
We enter this new Congress with a sense of great hope and confidence for the future, and deep humility and prayerfulness in the face of the challenges ahead.
Our nation is at an historic moment. Two months ago, the American people spoke, and demanded a new dawn.
They called upon the beauty of our Constitution: our system of checks and balances that protects our democracy, remembering that the legislative branch is Article I: the first branch of government, co-equal to the president and judiciary.
They want a Congress that delivers results for the people, opening up opportunity and lifting up their lives.
When our new Members take the oath, our Congress will be refreshed, and our Democracy will be strengthened by the optimism, idealism and patriotism of this transformative Freshman Class.
Working together, we will redeem the promise of the American Dream for every family, advancing progress for every community.
We must be pioneers of the future.
This Congress must accelerate a future that advances America’s preeminence in the world, and opens up opportunities for all – Building an economy that gives all Americans the tools they need to succeed in the 21st Century: public education, workforce development, good-paying jobs and secure pensions.
We have heard from too many families who wonder, in this time of innovation and globalization, if they have a place in the economy of tomorrow.
We must remove all doubt that they do, and say to them: we will have an economy that works for you.
Let us declare that we will call upon the bold thinking needed to address the disparity of income in America – which is at the root of the crisis of confidence felt by so many Americans.
As Justice Brandeis said, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
We must end that injustice and restore the public’s faith in a better future for themselves and their children.
We must be champions of the middle class, and all those who aspire to it – because the middle class is the backbone of democracy.
It has been so since the birth of democracy itself.
Aristotle said, “It is manifest that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class…in which the middle class is large and stronger than all of the other classes.”
We must fight for the middle class in a way that is fair and fiscally sound – protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
We must also face the existential threat of our time: the climate crisis – a crisis manifested in natural disasters of epic proportions.
The American people understand the urgency. The people are ahead of the Congress. The Congress must join them.
That is why we have created the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The entire Congress must work to put an end to the inaction and denial of science that threaten the planet and the future.
This is a public health decision for clean air and clean water; an economic decision for America’s global preeminence in green technology; a security decision to keep us safe; and a moral decision to be good stewards of God’s creation.
We have no illusions that our work will be easy, that all of us in this chamber will always agree. But let each of us pledge that when we disagree, we will respect each other and we will respect the truth.
We will debate and advance good ideas no matter where they come from – And in that spirit, Democrats will be offering the Senate Republican appropriations legislation to re-open government later today – to meet the needs of the American people, to protect our borders, and to respect our workers.
And I pledge that this Congress will be transparent, bipartisan and unifying; that we will seek to reach across the aisle in this Chamber and across the divisions in this great nation.
In the past two years, the American people have spoken. Tens of thousands of public events were held. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out. Millions of calls were made.
Countless families – even sick little children, the Little Lobbyists – bravely came forward to tell their stories. And they made the difference.
Now, the Floor of this House must be America’s Town Hall: where the people will see our debates, and where their voices will be heard and affect our decisions.
This House will be For The People! Empowered by our mandate, we will pursue our mission:
To lower health care costs and prescription drug prices, and protect people with pre-existing conditions.
To increase paychecks by rebuilding America with green and modern infrastructure – from sea to shining sea.
To pass HR 1 to restore integrity to government, so that people can have confidence that government works for the public interest, not the special interests.
This House will take action on overdue legislation that has bipartisan support in the Congress and across the Country:
We will make our communities safer and keep our sacred promise to the victims, survivors and families of gun violence by passing commonsense bipartisan background check legislation.
We will make America fairer by passing the Equality Act to end discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.
And we will make America more American by protecting our patriotic, courageous Dreamers!
As President Reagan said in his last speech as President: “If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”
Our common cause is to find and forge a way forward for our country. Let us stand for the people – to promote liberty and justice for all;
And always, always to keep our nation safe from threats old and new, from terrorism and cyberwarfare, from overseas and here at home.
That is the oath we all take: to protect and defend.
I close by remembering a cherished former Member of this body, who rose to become a beloved President, and who, last month, returned once more to lie in state.
That week, we honored President George Herbert Walker Bush with eulogies, tributes and tears.
Today, I single out one of his great achievements – working with both Democrats and Republicans to write the Americans With Disabilities Act into the laws of our land.
In 2010, we marked the 20th anniversary of the Act by making it possible for our colleagues with disabilities to preside over the House.
In that same spirit of equality and justice, let me announce that, this afternoon, the first Speaker Pro Tempore of the 116th Congress will be: Congressman Jim Langevin of Rhode Island.
As we take the oath of office today, we accept responsibility as daunting and demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced.
Guided by the vision and values of our Founders, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and the aspirations that we have for our children, let us meet that responsibility with courage, wisdom and grace.
Together, we will let it be known: that this House will truly be the People’s House!
Let us pray that God may bless our work, and crown our good with brotherhood and sisterhood, from sea to shining sea.
God bless you, and God bless America.
Today Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the US House of Representatives for the second time, the first time since the 1950s that a former Speaker because speaker again. She will be Speaker during the centennial of women getting the vote in the USA: The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, passed Congress in 1919, and it was ratified the following year.
What I personally found noticeable were two things. First, that the Republican Caucus was overwhelmingly male and white and older, while the Democratic Caucus looked like America—more women, more people who are not white, and people of all ages. But it’s in the number of women that the change in the US House is most obvious: Thirty years ago, in 1989, there were 29 women in the US House, of which 19 were Democrats and 13 were Republicans. In 2019, the House has 102 women, of which 89 are Democrats and Republicans STILL have only 13 women Representatives.
The other thing that struck me were all the children present on the House floor. It was great to see. Speaker Pelosi, who said she was taking the Oath on behalf of all the children of America, invited the kids present to join her if they wanted to, and plenty did. Also, at one point as she gave her speech a baby cried, and she said, “that’s the sound of the future”.
Democrats re-taking the US House won’t by itself restore democracy to the USA, nor will Speaker Pelosi by herself save the USA from the excesses and crimes of the current occupant of the White House. But Democrats and Pelosi can at least slow down the damage the current regime and Congressional Republicans are trying to do to the country, and they may be able to start laying the groundwork for beginning the process for healing and building the USA, and restoring democracy to it. But that will be decades-long work, nothing that can happen overnight. But we have to start somewhere, and today was the first step, and that in itself is important.
*The speech as delivered differed from the prepared version, mainly because Pelosi apparently skipped some of it.
Thank you, Leader McCarthy. I look forward to working with you in a bipartisan way for the good of our country, respecting the constituents who sent each of us here.
Every two years, we gather in this Chamber for a sacred ritual. Under the dome of this temple of our democracy, the Capitol of the United States, we renew our great American experiment.
I am particularly proud to be the woman Speaker of the House of this Congress, which marks 100 years of women winning the right to vote, as we serve with more than 100 women in the House of Representatives – the highest number in history.
Each of us comes to this Chamber strengthened by the trust of our constituents and the love of our families. We welcome all your families who are with us today.
Let me thank my family: my husband Paul; our five children Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra; our grandchildren, and my D’Alesandro family from Baltimore.
Here in spirit are my mother and father and my brother Tommy, who taught us through their example that public service is a noble calling, and that we should serve with our hearts full of love – and that America’s heart is full of love.
In that spirit, let me especially thank my constituents in San Francisco, who have entrusted me to represent them in Congress in the spirit of Saint Francis, our patron saint – whose song of Saint Francis is our anthem: “Lord, make me a channel of thy peace” – as we beautifully sang in church this morning.
And let us all thank our men and women in uniform, veterans, and their families and caregivers, whose service reminds us of our mission: to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.
We enter this new Congress with a sense of great hope and confidence for the future, and deep humility and prayerfulness in the face of the challenges ahead.
Our nation is at an historic moment. Two months ago, the American people spoke, and demanded a new dawn.
They called upon the beauty of our Constitution: our system of checks and balances that protects our democracy, remembering that the legislative branch is Article I: the first branch of government, co-equal to the president and judiciary.
They want a Congress that delivers results for the people, opening up opportunity and lifting up their lives.
When our new Members take the oath, our Congress will be refreshed, and our Democracy will be strengthened by the optimism, idealism and patriotism of this transformative Freshman Class.
Working together, we will redeem the promise of the American Dream for every family, advancing progress for every community.
We must be pioneers of the future.
This Congress must accelerate a future that advances America’s preeminence in the world, and opens up opportunities for all – Building an economy that gives all Americans the tools they need to succeed in the 21st Century: public education, workforce development, good-paying jobs and secure pensions.
We have heard from too many families who wonder, in this time of innovation and globalization, if they have a place in the economy of tomorrow.
We must remove all doubt that they do, and say to them: we will have an economy that works for you.
Let us declare that we will call upon the bold thinking needed to address the disparity of income in America – which is at the root of the crisis of confidence felt by so many Americans.
As Justice Brandeis said, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
We must end that injustice and restore the public’s faith in a better future for themselves and their children.
We must be champions of the middle class, and all those who aspire to it – because the middle class is the backbone of democracy.
It has been so since the birth of democracy itself.
Aristotle said, “It is manifest that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class…in which the middle class is large and stronger than all of the other classes.”
We must fight for the middle class in a way that is fair and fiscally sound – protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
We must also face the existential threat of our time: the climate crisis – a crisis manifested in natural disasters of epic proportions.
The American people understand the urgency. The people are ahead of the Congress. The Congress must join them.
That is why we have created the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The entire Congress must work to put an end to the inaction and denial of science that threaten the planet and the future.
This is a public health decision for clean air and clean water; an economic decision for America’s global preeminence in green technology; a security decision to keep us safe; and a moral decision to be good stewards of God’s creation.
We have no illusions that our work will be easy, that all of us in this chamber will always agree. But let each of us pledge that when we disagree, we will respect each other and we will respect the truth.
We will debate and advance good ideas no matter where they come from – And in that spirit, Democrats will be offering the Senate Republican appropriations legislation to re-open government later today – to meet the needs of the American people, to protect our borders, and to respect our workers.
And I pledge that this Congress will be transparent, bipartisan and unifying; that we will seek to reach across the aisle in this Chamber and across the divisions in this great nation.
In the past two years, the American people have spoken. Tens of thousands of public events were held. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out. Millions of calls were made.
Countless families – even sick little children, the Little Lobbyists – bravely came forward to tell their stories. And they made the difference.
Now, the Floor of this House must be America’s Town Hall: where the people will see our debates, and where their voices will be heard and affect our decisions.
This House will be For The People! Empowered by our mandate, we will pursue our mission:
To lower health care costs and prescription drug prices, and protect people with pre-existing conditions.
To increase paychecks by rebuilding America with green and modern infrastructure – from sea to shining sea.
To pass HR 1 to restore integrity to government, so that people can have confidence that government works for the public interest, not the special interests.
This House will take action on overdue legislation that has bipartisan support in the Congress and across the Country:
We will make our communities safer and keep our sacred promise to the victims, survivors and families of gun violence by passing commonsense bipartisan background check legislation.
We will make America fairer by passing the Equality Act to end discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.
And we will make America more American by protecting our patriotic, courageous Dreamers!
As President Reagan said in his last speech as President: “If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”
Our common cause is to find and forge a way forward for our country. Let us stand for the people – to promote liberty and justice for all;
And always, always to keep our nation safe from threats old and new, from terrorism and cyberwarfare, from overseas and here at home.
That is the oath we all take: to protect and defend.
I close by remembering a cherished former Member of this body, who rose to become a beloved President, and who, last month, returned once more to lie in state.
That week, we honored President George Herbert Walker Bush with eulogies, tributes and tears.
Today, I single out one of his great achievements – working with both Democrats and Republicans to write the Americans With Disabilities Act into the laws of our land.
In 2010, we marked the 20th anniversary of the Act by making it possible for our colleagues with disabilities to preside over the House.
In that same spirit of equality and justice, let me announce that, this afternoon, the first Speaker Pro Tempore of the 116th Congress will be: Congressman Jim Langevin of Rhode Island.
As we take the oath of office today, we accept responsibility as daunting and demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced.
Guided by the vision and values of our Founders, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and the aspirations that we have for our children, let us meet that responsibility with courage, wisdom and grace.
Together, we will let it be known: that this House will truly be the People’s House!
Let us pray that God may bless our work, and crown our good with brotherhood and sisterhood, from sea to shining sea.
God bless you, and God bless America.
• • • • •
Today Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the US House of Representatives for the second time, the first time since the 1950s that a former Speaker because speaker again. She will be Speaker during the centennial of women getting the vote in the USA: The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, passed Congress in 1919, and it was ratified the following year.
What I personally found noticeable were two things. First, that the Republican Caucus was overwhelmingly male and white and older, while the Democratic Caucus looked like America—more women, more people who are not white, and people of all ages. But it’s in the number of women that the change in the US House is most obvious: Thirty years ago, in 1989, there were 29 women in the US House, of which 19 were Democrats and 13 were Republicans. In 2019, the House has 102 women, of which 89 are Democrats and Republicans STILL have only 13 women Representatives.
The other thing that struck me were all the children present on the House floor. It was great to see. Speaker Pelosi, who said she was taking the Oath on behalf of all the children of America, invited the kids present to join her if they wanted to, and plenty did. Also, at one point as she gave her speech a baby cried, and she said, “that’s the sound of the future”.
Democrats re-taking the US House won’t by itself restore democracy to the USA, nor will Speaker Pelosi by herself save the USA from the excesses and crimes of the current occupant of the White House. But Democrats and Pelosi can at least slow down the damage the current regime and Congressional Republicans are trying to do to the country, and they may be able to start laying the groundwork for beginning the process for healing and building the USA, and restoring democracy to it. But that will be decades-long work, nothing that can happen overnight. But we have to start somewhere, and today was the first step, and that in itself is important.
*The speech as delivered differed from the prepared version, mainly because Pelosi apparently skipped some of it.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Worth Quoting: Jim Mattis
Today US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis resigned after a major policy disagreement with the current occupant of the White House. This is the full text of his resignation letter [a PDF of the letter is available from the Department’s website]:
Dear Mr. President:
I have been privileged to serve as our country's 26th Secretary of Defense which has allowed me to serve alongside our men and women of the Department in defense of our citizens and our ideals.
I am proud of the progress that has been made over the past two years on some of the key goals articulated in our National Defense Strategy: putting the Department on a more sound budgetary footing, improving readiness and lethality in our forces, and reforming the Department's business practices for greater performance. Our troops continue to provide the capabilities needed to prevail in conflict and sustain strong U.S. global influence.
One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. NATO's 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations is further proof.
Similarly, I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model - gaining veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic, and security decisions - to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.
My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.
Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February. Further, that a full transition to a new Secretary of Defense occurs well in advance of the transition of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September in order to ensure stability within the Department.
I pledge my full effort to a smooth transition that ensures the needs and interests of the
2.15 million Service Members and 732,079 DoD civilians receive undistracted attention of the Department at all times so that they can fulfill their critical, round-the-clock mission to protect the American people.
I very much appreciate this opportunity to serve the nation and our men and women in uniform.
Mattis was the last grown-up in the current regime, and his departure raises grave concerns. Without adult guidance, the current occupant will have no one to stop him from acting on impulse, like declaring war through a Tweet (never mind that only Congress can actually declare war—he's never read the Constitution, if he can even read, so he wouldn't know).
To protect the USA—indeed, the whole world—from the aggressive and irrational impulses of the current occupant, it's vital that the US Senate does NOT confirm any replacement unless they are sure that person is independent, and not another lackey for the current occupant. We may not get another adult to take Mattis' place, but we all need to be sure that the replacement won't obey unconstitutional orders or the irrational whims of the emotionally unstable current occupant of the White House.
December 20, 2018
Dear Mr. President:
I have been privileged to serve as our country's 26th Secretary of Defense which has allowed me to serve alongside our men and women of the Department in defense of our citizens and our ideals.
I am proud of the progress that has been made over the past two years on some of the key goals articulated in our National Defense Strategy: putting the Department on a more sound budgetary footing, improving readiness and lethality in our forces, and reforming the Department's business practices for greater performance. Our troops continue to provide the capabilities needed to prevail in conflict and sustain strong U.S. global influence.
One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. NATO's 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations is further proof.
Similarly, I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model - gaining veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic, and security decisions - to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.
My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.
Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February. Further, that a full transition to a new Secretary of Defense occurs well in advance of the transition of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September in order to ensure stability within the Department.
I pledge my full effort to a smooth transition that ensures the needs and interests of the
2.15 million Service Members and 732,079 DoD civilians receive undistracted attention of the Department at all times so that they can fulfill their critical, round-the-clock mission to protect the American people.
I very much appreciate this opportunity to serve the nation and our men and women in uniform.
• • • • •
Mattis was the last grown-up in the current regime, and his departure raises grave concerns. Without adult guidance, the current occupant will have no one to stop him from acting on impulse, like declaring war through a Tweet (never mind that only Congress can actually declare war—he's never read the Constitution, if he can even read, so he wouldn't know).
To protect the USA—indeed, the whole world—from the aggressive and irrational impulses of the current occupant, it's vital that the US Senate does NOT confirm any replacement unless they are sure that person is independent, and not another lackey for the current occupant. We may not get another adult to take Mattis' place, but we all need to be sure that the replacement won't obey unconstitutional orders or the irrational whims of the emotionally unstable current occupant of the White House.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Worth Quoting: Willie Jackson
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is attending the United Nations General Assembly and spoke yesterday. Her partner, Clarke Gayford, and their baby, Neve, were in the audience. Apparently, it was the first time a baby had been there.
In response, Labour MP Willie Jackson posted this on his Facebook Page:
This is the speech Willie Jackson was responding to, given at the United Nations General Assembly during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit:
In response, Labour MP Willie Jackson posted this on his Facebook Page:
Let's just take a pause from all the angry politics and allow the joy of Jacinda, Clarke and beautiful wee Neve at the UN to wash over us and feel pride at our leader and us as a people.I completely agree with him. It’s time not just for a new generation of leaders, but also a new generation of leadership, and Jacinda is an example of that.
"We must not be silent in the face of intolerance, hate and discrimination. We must speak for those who do not have voice", when Jacinda spoke these words at the UN General Assembly during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, while Clarke held Neve, she not only channeled a new type of leadership based on kindness and compassion, she challenged every stereotype that has locked women and men into the career or family trap. They showed everyone that with support, people can have family and career.
She has also shown the planet that leadership doesn't require brutal tough guy masculinity, there can be an equally strong leadership through simple kindness. She has done more for our international standing in one appearance than many Prime Ministers manage in a lifetime. We should all feel a deep pride in the way Jacinda, Clarke and Neve have shone and represented us on the global stage. Their humble grace reminds us all of our basic humanity. There is a joy in all of this and we should all drink deeply from it, this is a moment where we are all included and have all been served wonderfully by our Prime Minister and her family.
We can get back to arguing and bickering about politics tomorrow, but today was truly special.
This is the speech Willie Jackson was responding to, given at the United Nations General Assembly during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit:
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
McCain's Farewell Statement
My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,
Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.
I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.
I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
“Fellow Americans” – that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.
We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.
We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.
Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.
I feel it powerfully still.
Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.
Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.
This farewell statement from Senator McCain was read today by Rick Davis, Senator McCain’s former presidential campaign manager and a family spokesman, at a press conference at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona today. [SOURCE]
_______
I can’t remember a public figure who has worked out a final statement to be delivered after they’ve died, which makes this very unusual. So, too, is the extent to which it calls out to what President Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature”—how we can, and should, be better than we are.
Many mainstream media commentators noted the veiled attack on the current occupant of the White House (“when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down”), and there was that and others. But I also noted a direct attack on the white nationalism that’s at the core of the current regime: “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil.” [emphasis added]. That phrase is beloved by white supremacists, and McCain’s use of it cannot be accidental. I'd never have known about that if I hadn't read the entire statement.
People can disagree about McCain, his record and his legacy, and they certainly will do so. That’s healthy in a democracy. But the powerful optimism in McCain’s final statement is undeniable, even if some of us may not entirely share it. But whether we believe, as he did, that “We will come through [these challenging times] stronger than before. We always do,” maybe it couldn’t hurt for us to be encouraged to make that happen.
If Senator McCain can encourage less permanent acrimony and more bipartisanship, how is that a bad thing? Hard to achieve, absolutely, but a worthy ideal to aim for.
Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.
I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.
I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
“Fellow Americans” – that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.
We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.
We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.
Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.
I feel it powerfully still.
Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.
Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.
This farewell statement from Senator McCain was read today by Rick Davis, Senator McCain’s former presidential campaign manager and a family spokesman, at a press conference at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona today. [SOURCE]
_______
I can’t remember a public figure who has worked out a final statement to be delivered after they’ve died, which makes this very unusual. So, too, is the extent to which it calls out to what President Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature”—how we can, and should, be better than we are.
Many mainstream media commentators noted the veiled attack on the current occupant of the White House (“when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down”), and there was that and others. But I also noted a direct attack on the white nationalism that’s at the core of the current regime: “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil.” [emphasis added]. That phrase is beloved by white supremacists, and McCain’s use of it cannot be accidental. I'd never have known about that if I hadn't read the entire statement.
People can disagree about McCain, his record and his legacy, and they certainly will do so. That’s healthy in a democracy. But the powerful optimism in McCain’s final statement is undeniable, even if some of us may not entirely share it. But whether we believe, as he did, that “We will come through [these challenging times] stronger than before. We always do,” maybe it couldn’t hurt for us to be encouraged to make that happen.
If Senator McCain can encourage less permanent acrimony and more bipartisanship, how is that a bad thing? Hard to achieve, absolutely, but a worthy ideal to aim for.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Worth quoting: Sen John McCain
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| US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) |
Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.
President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.
It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.
Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.
No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.
________
It's fair to say that I often disagree with Senator McCain, and always have, however, when he's right, he's right. And he's been critical of the current occupant of the White House when most Republican politicians choose to remain silent, for whatever reason. And that means that there are times I not only agree with him, I appreciate his words, and the fact he's taking a stand. What he's saying here is the truly patriotic thing to do. I'm sharing this because of all that, and because I haven't seen the full text shared anywhere.
Wednesday, May 09, 2018
Worth Quoting: Barack Obama
Today former President Barack Obama posted the following statement on Facebook:
There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of nuclear weapons, or the potential for even more destructive war in the Middle East. That’s why the United States negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the first place.
The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working – that is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current U.S. Secretary of Defense. The JCPOA is in America’s interest – it has significantly rolled back Iran’s nuclear program. And the JCPOA is a model for what diplomacy can accomplish – its inspections and verification regime is precisely what the United States should be working to put in place with North Korea. Indeed, at a time when we are all rooting for diplomacy with North Korea to succeed, walking away from the JCPOA risks losing a deal that accomplishes – with Iran – the very outcome that we are pursuing with the North Koreans.I agree with President Obama. I’ll have more to say about this topic tomorrow.
That is why today’s announcement is so misguided. Walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies, and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated. In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next. But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.
Debates in our country should be informed by facts, especially debates that have proven to be divisive. So it’s important to review several facts about the JCPOA.
First, the JCPOA was not just an agreement between my Administration and the Iranian government. After years of building an international coalition that could impose crippling sanctions on Iran, we reached the JCPOA together with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, China, and Iran. It is a multilateral arms control deal, unanimously endorsed by a United Nations Security Council Resolution.
Second, the JCPOA has worked in rolling back Iran’s nuclear program. For decades, Iran had steadily advanced its nuclear program, approaching the point where they could rapidly produce enough fissile material to build a bomb. The JCPOA put a lid on that breakout capacity. Since the JCPOA was implemented, Iran has destroyed the core of a reactor that could have produced weapons-grade plutonium; removed two-thirds of its centrifuges (over 13,000) and placed them under international monitoring; and eliminated 97 percent of its stockpile of enriched uranium – the raw materials necessary for a bomb. So by any measure, the JCPOA has imposed strict limitations on Iran's nuclear program and achieved real results.
Third, the JCPOA does not rely on trust – it is rooted in the most far-reaching inspections and verification regime ever negotiated in an arms control deal. Iran’s nuclear facilities are strictly monitored. International monitors also have access to Iran’s entire nuclear supply chain, so that we can catch them if they cheat. Without the JCPOA, this monitoring and inspections regime would go away.
Fourth, Iran is complying with the JCPOA. That was not simply the view of my Administration. The United States intelligence community has continued to find that Iran is meeting its responsibilities under the deal, and has reported as much to Congress. So have our closest allies, and the international agency responsible for verifying Iranian compliance – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Fifth, the JCPOA does not expire. The prohibition on Iran ever obtaining a nuclear weapon is permanent. Some of the most important and intrusive inspections codified by the JCPOA are permanent. Even as some of the provisions in the JCPOA do become less strict with time, this won’t happen until ten, fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years into the deal, so there is little reason to put those restrictions at risk today.
Finally, the JCPOA was never intended to solve all of our problems with Iran. We were clear-eyed that Iran engages in destabilizing behavior – including support for terrorism, and threats toward Israel and its neighbors. But that’s precisely why it was so important that we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Every aspect of Iranian behavior that is troubling is far more dangerous if their nuclear program is unconstrained. Our ability to confront Iran’s destabilizing behavior – and to sustain a unity of purpose with our allies – is strengthened with the JCPOA, and weakened without it.
Because of these facts, I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake. Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East. We all know the dangers of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. It could embolden an already dangerous regime; threaten our friends with destruction; pose unacceptable dangers to America’s own security; and trigger an arms race in the world’s most dangerous region. If the constraints on Iran’s nuclear program under the JCPOA are lost, we could be hastening the day when we are faced with the choice between living with that threat, or going to war to prevent it.
In a dangerous world, America must be able to rely in part on strong, principled diplomacy to secure our country. We have been safer in the years since we achieved the JCPOA, thanks in part to the work of our diplomats, many members of Congress, and our allies. Going forward, I hope that Americans continue to speak out in support of the kind of strong, principled, fact-based, and unifying leadership that can best secure our country and uphold our responsibilities around the globe.
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
Worth Quoting: Former President Obama
Earlier today, former US President Barack Obama issued the following statement, shared to his Facebook Page:
Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules.I completely agree with President Obama. However, for me to say more would require me to use somewhat intemperate language to talk about the current regime, the guy currently occupying the White House, or this particular issue. One thing I'm certain of is that I’ll have plenty of opportunities to do that other times, without sullying the words of President Obama.
But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license.
Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked together to write legislation that would have told these young people – our young people – that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here a certain number of years, and if you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you’ll get a chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill.
That bill never came. And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited resources, and it makes sense to focus those resources on those who come illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result.
But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?
Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. They are that pitcher on our kid’s softball team, that first responder who helps out his community after a disaster, that cadet in ROTC who wants nothing more than to wear the uniform of the country that gave him a chance. Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.
It is precisely because this action is contrary to our spirit, and to common sense, that business leaders, faith leaders, economists, and Americans of all political stripes called on the administration not to do what it did today. And now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these young people to Congress, it’s up to Members of Congress to protect these young people and our future. I’m heartened by those who’ve suggested that they should. And I join my voice with the majority of Americans who hope they step up and do it with a sense of moral urgency that matches the urgency these young people feel.
Ultimately, this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated. It’s about who we are as a people – and who we want to be.
What makes us American is not a question of what we look like, or where our names come from, or the way we pray. What makes us American is our fidelity to a set of ideals – that all of us are created equal; that all of us deserve the chance to make of our lives what we will; that all of us share an obligation to stand up, speak out, and secure our most cherished values for the next generation. That’s how America has traveled this far. That’s how, if we keep at it, we will ultimately reach that more perfect union.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Thought for Presidents’ Day 2017
– Former President Theodore Roosevelt, writing in the Kansas City Star, 7 May 1918.
This quote can be found on Wikiquotes and has been verified by Snopes. The painting of Roosevelt is his official portrait as president, and is by John Singer Sargent [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Worth quoting: Robert Reich
Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration and now Professor of Public Policy at University of California at Berkeley, posted this today on his Facebook Page:
The second reason he does this is more sinister: He’s trying to undermine and delegitimise democracy itself. Throughout the campaign, he made constant and repeated incendiary and false statements about election “fraud”, declaring the election was “rigged”. Observers took that to mean he expected to lose, and so, was setting the state for his next self-promotion campaign post-election.
I disagree.
I think the reason he lied back then, and the reason he’s lying now, is to weaken people’s faith in democracy. Also, his constant lies about things we all know and can easily check are about undermining people’s faith in newsmedia and even facts themselves. In so doing, facts become what he says they are, truth is what he declares it to be, and democracy is what promotes him and the interests of the oligarchs and plutocrats, and anything that stands in the way is anti-democracy.
Don and his gang are setting the stage for authoritarian rule, where they control everything, including people’s memories and beliefs. He wants people to truly love Big Brother*, and the only way to do that is to delegitimise democracy and everything that makes it possible.
His lie about the election is stupid for being so utterly, completely and demonstrably false, but that doesn’t matter to him. His goal isn’t to be believed, it’s to become loved like Big Brother. The real question is, will the Republican Party let him get away with it?
It’s become evident that George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four will become a constant reference point for however long Don is in office.
Some of Trump’s lies are more dangerous than others. Today, White House press secretary Sean Spicer reiterated that Trump believes millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the presidential election. Trump has “stated his concern of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign and continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence people have brought to him." Pressed for evidence, Spicer said Trump’s view is “based on studies and information he has."I completely agree with Robert Reich about this. It seems to me that what Don is trying to do is, first, assert his legitimacy. This has to do with his massive ego, because as someone with severe narcissistic personality disorder, he simply cannot tolerate any negative views of him or evidence that he’s not “the best”. The fact that Don lost the popular votes by nearly 3 million upsets him, so he lies about it in order to feel better about himself and to restore his delusional self-belief in his own perfection and superiority.
But there are no such studies or evidence.
Trump repeated the same allegation of massive voter fraud yesterday at a meeting with Congressional leaders.
This particular lie is especially dangerous because it plants in the public’s mind a concern about voter fraud, which he and Republicans will use to legitimize more draconian voter ID requirements, more demands that foreign-born citizens prove their citizenship before voting, and more procedural limits on voting – all designed to suppress the votes of likely Democratic voters in 2018 and beyond.
The media must fight back, demanding evidence. Democratic leaders who happen to be in Trump’s presence when he makes this claim must dispute them. We all have an obligation to spread the truth.
The second reason he does this is more sinister: He’s trying to undermine and delegitimise democracy itself. Throughout the campaign, he made constant and repeated incendiary and false statements about election “fraud”, declaring the election was “rigged”. Observers took that to mean he expected to lose, and so, was setting the state for his next self-promotion campaign post-election.
I disagree.
I think the reason he lied back then, and the reason he’s lying now, is to weaken people’s faith in democracy. Also, his constant lies about things we all know and can easily check are about undermining people’s faith in newsmedia and even facts themselves. In so doing, facts become what he says they are, truth is what he declares it to be, and democracy is what promotes him and the interests of the oligarchs and plutocrats, and anything that stands in the way is anti-democracy.
Don and his gang are setting the stage for authoritarian rule, where they control everything, including people’s memories and beliefs. He wants people to truly love Big Brother*, and the only way to do that is to delegitimise democracy and everything that makes it possible.
His lie about the election is stupid for being so utterly, completely and demonstrably false, but that doesn’t matter to him. His goal isn’t to be believed, it’s to become loved like Big Brother. The real question is, will the Republican Party let him get away with it?
It’s become evident that George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four will become a constant reference point for however long Don is in office.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
John Kerry apologises to LGBT people
Today US Secretary of State John Kerry issued a formal apology for the State Department’s years of open discrimination and persecution of LGBT people:
This is merely the latest move in support of LGBT Americans by the Obama Administration, and the State Department specifically. It’s a welcome thing in itself, and a nice gesture as the Obama Administration prepares to leave office.
Today, too, Gallup released the results of a poll in which Americans assess progress under President Obama on a number of issues. On the “Situation for gays and lesbians”, 68% felt we made progress, 11% felt we stood still, and 16% felt we lost ground. Calling this “a Clear Bright Spot”, they commented:
My gut feeling—and it’s only that, because I know of no research to back this up—is that the 11% who felt things had “stood still” are probably on the Leftward side of Left, and the 16% who felt things went backwards are among the hardcore anti-LGBT people on the Right. I say this because overall, the average percentage of hardcore anti-LGBT people is a minority even among the rightwing, so 16% sounds like a reasonable guess for those who think that the USA should be anti-LGBT—to them, the USA has “lost ground” and “gone backward”.
Similarly, I think the reason that 11% say progress “stood still” is because of their ideology. In my view, it’s indisputable by any reasonable and rational measure that, overall, LGBT Americans have made progress. However, I can clearly see that there’s obviously still much work to be done, more progress to be made. The difference is that my own ideology doesn’t blind me to actual progress, while—in my personal experience—those on the Leftward side of Left take an “all or nothing” approach, so, since 110% of the necessary progress hasn’t been made, therefore, the USA has merely stood still. I quite obviously think that’s silly.
Secretary Kerry’s apology is probably the last positive thing for LGBT people we’ll see from the White House or federal departments for at least four years, given the open hostility to LGBT people by many of Don’s incoming gang, and virtually the entire Republican caucus controlling the US Congress. Next year, and every year for at least four, if Gallup polls on the same question, they’ll probably find a growing reversal of the “Made Progress” and “Lost Ground” percentages until 2020, when they will have completely reversed. So far, there’s been no absolutely reason for LGBT people to be optimistic about the next two, four, or more, years.
For now, though, this was a good and right thing to do.
For some background: Kerry apologizes for past LGBT discrimination at State Department – Politico
Update: Gallup reported recently that "In US, More Adults Identifying as LGBT", which found that 10 million American adults identify as LGBT (4.1%), that LGBT millennials are up from 5.8% in 2012 to 7.3% in 2016, and that LGBT identification is higher among women.
Throughout my career, including as Secretary of State, I have stood strongly in support of the LGBTI community, recognizing that respect for human rights must include respect for all individuals. LGBTI employees serve as proud members of the State Department and valued colleagues dedicated to the service of our country. For the past several years, the Department has pressed for the families of LGBTI officers to have the same protections overseas as families of other officers. In 2015, to further promote LGBTI rights throughout the world, I appointed the first ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons.Kerry is referring to what has been called the “Lavender Scare” that was particularly evident in the 1950s and 1960s during which LGBT people were purged from the US Government. Much of this was done during the “Red Scare” purges, but it persisted longer.
In the past – as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades – the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place. These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today.
On behalf of the Department, I apologize to those who were impacted by the practices of the past and reaffirm the Department’s steadfast commitment to diversity and inclusion for all our employees, including members of the LGBTI community.
This is merely the latest move in support of LGBT Americans by the Obama Administration, and the State Department specifically. It’s a welcome thing in itself, and a nice gesture as the Obama Administration prepares to leave office.
Today, too, Gallup released the results of a poll in which Americans assess progress under President Obama on a number of issues. On the “Situation for gays and lesbians”, 68% felt we made progress, 11% felt we stood still, and 16% felt we lost ground. Calling this “a Clear Bright Spot”, they commented:
Americans saw more progress on the situation for LGBT Americans than any other issue. Sixty-eight percent believe the situation for gays and lesbians improved under Obama, compared with 16% who say it lost ground. This likely reflects the shift toward majority approval of same-sex marriage during Obama's terms in office and the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. [Link in the original]I think Gallup’s assessment is correct, and a great many studies and polls now back up the assertion that acceptance in general for LGBT Americans has been growing, and also for marriage equality specifically.
My gut feeling—and it’s only that, because I know of no research to back this up—is that the 11% who felt things had “stood still” are probably on the Leftward side of Left, and the 16% who felt things went backwards are among the hardcore anti-LGBT people on the Right. I say this because overall, the average percentage of hardcore anti-LGBT people is a minority even among the rightwing, so 16% sounds like a reasonable guess for those who think that the USA should be anti-LGBT—to them, the USA has “lost ground” and “gone backward”.
Similarly, I think the reason that 11% say progress “stood still” is because of their ideology. In my view, it’s indisputable by any reasonable and rational measure that, overall, LGBT Americans have made progress. However, I can clearly see that there’s obviously still much work to be done, more progress to be made. The difference is that my own ideology doesn’t blind me to actual progress, while—in my personal experience—those on the Leftward side of Left take an “all or nothing” approach, so, since 110% of the necessary progress hasn’t been made, therefore, the USA has merely stood still. I quite obviously think that’s silly.
Secretary Kerry’s apology is probably the last positive thing for LGBT people we’ll see from the White House or federal departments for at least four years, given the open hostility to LGBT people by many of Don’s incoming gang, and virtually the entire Republican caucus controlling the US Congress. Next year, and every year for at least four, if Gallup polls on the same question, they’ll probably find a growing reversal of the “Made Progress” and “Lost Ground” percentages until 2020, when they will have completely reversed. So far, there’s been no absolutely reason for LGBT people to be optimistic about the next two, four, or more, years.
For now, though, this was a good and right thing to do.
For some background: Kerry apologizes for past LGBT discrimination at State Department – Politico
Update: Gallup reported recently that "In US, More Adults Identifying as LGBT", which found that 10 million American adults identify as LGBT (4.1%), that LGBT millennials are up from 5.8% in 2012 to 7.3% in 2016, and that LGBT identification is higher among women.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Worth Quoting: Jan Schakowsky
US Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL, pictured) released a statement on Don’s appointment of his “Chief Strategist”. I agree with what she says:
Donald Trump has failed his first test as President-Elect. Only days after declaring that his presidency would strive to bring our country together, he has chosen to put one of the most important roles of his Administration in the hands of a man who could not possibly be more divisive.
Steve Bannon has a documented history of anti-Semitism and support for white nationalism. As Chairman of Breitbart News, he is responsible for the rise of the alt-right movement and has provided a forum for these racist, hate-filled views to develop and thrive. I am appalled that such a figure would even be considered for a position of this stature.
I would like to be able to work with the incoming administration to support hard-working Americans across our country. However, this will not be possible if the hatred and bigotry that characterized the President-Elect’s campaign is transferred into his administration.
I will continue to defend the rights and liberties of everyone in this country. If Donald Trump truly wants to be the President for all Americans, Steve Bannon and others like him should have no place in the White House.
Full disclosure: Jan Schakowsky is my US Representative; I voted for her in the recent elections and every other year she’s been the Democratic candidate for the US House of Representatives.
Steve Bannon has a documented history of anti-Semitism and support for white nationalism. As Chairman of Breitbart News, he is responsible for the rise of the alt-right movement and has provided a forum for these racist, hate-filled views to develop and thrive. I am appalled that such a figure would even be considered for a position of this stature.
I would like to be able to work with the incoming administration to support hard-working Americans across our country. However, this will not be possible if the hatred and bigotry that characterized the President-Elect’s campaign is transferred into his administration.
I will continue to defend the rights and liberties of everyone in this country. If Donald Trump truly wants to be the President for all Americans, Steve Bannon and others like him should have no place in the White House.
Full disclosure: Jan Schakowsky is my US Representative; I voted for her in the recent elections and every other year she’s been the Democratic candidate for the US House of Representatives.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Worth Quoting: Harry Reid
US Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (pictured) released the following statement on Don’s election as president. It's a good one.
I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.
White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.
I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.
I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.
We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.
If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.
If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.
[emphasis added]
Over the years, there have been times I’ve disagreed with Senator Reid, especially in the first two years of the Obama Administration. Even so, I’ve respected him and his service to the US Senate. I also FULLY endorse this message, especially the parts I made bold.
Note: The link above to Reid’s official Senate site will end when the current Senate adjourns. The link on Yahoo News or other sites may remain active, however.
White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.
I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.
I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.
We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.
If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.
If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.
[emphasis added]
• • • • •
Over the years, there have been times I’ve disagreed with Senator Reid, especially in the first two years of the Obama Administration. Even so, I’ve respected him and his service to the US Senate. I also FULLY endorse this message, especially the parts I made bold.
Note: The link above to Reid’s official Senate site will end when the current Senate adjourns. The link on Yahoo News or other sites may remain active, however.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Worth Quoting: Hillary Clinton
This morning I received this final email from Hillary Clinton:
Thank you.
Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.
This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for, and I'm sorry we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.
But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together -- this vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America, and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it too. And so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful, and it will be for a long time. But I want you to remember this: Our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love -- and about building an America that's hopeful, inclusive, and big-hearted.
We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America -- and I always will. And if you do, too, then we must accept this result -- and then look to the future.
Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.
Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power, and we don't just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things -- the rule of law, the principle that we're all equal in rights and dignity, and the freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these things too -- and we must defend them.
And let me add: Our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years, but all the time. So let's do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear: making our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top; protecting our country and protecting our planet; and breaking down all the barriers that hold anyone back from achieving their dreams.
We've spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American Dream is big enough for everyone -- for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities.
Our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek. And I know you will.
I am so grateful to stand with all of you.
Thank you.
Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.
This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for, and I'm sorry we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.
But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together -- this vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America, and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it too. And so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful, and it will be for a long time. But I want you to remember this: Our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love -- and about building an America that's hopeful, inclusive, and big-hearted.
We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America -- and I always will. And if you do, too, then we must accept this result -- and then look to the future.
Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.
Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power, and we don't just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things -- the rule of law, the principle that we're all equal in rights and dignity, and the freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these things too -- and we must defend them.
And let me add: Our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years, but all the time. So let's do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear: making our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top; protecting our country and protecting our planet; and breaking down all the barriers that hold anyone back from achieving their dreams.
We've spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American Dream is big enough for everyone -- for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities.
Our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek. And I know you will.
I am so grateful to stand with all of you.
Friday, October 14, 2016
Worth Quoting: Smacking Donald down
David E. McCraw, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of the New York Times Company, wrote this stinging reply to Donald’s lawyers:
I write in response to your letter of October 12, 2016 to Dean Baquet concerning your client Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States. You write concerning our article "Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately" and label the article as "libel per se." You ask that we "remove it from [our] website, and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology." We decline to do so.The final paragraph is a particularly important one, because Donald has frequently talked of jailing journalists who dare to criticise him—along with political opponents, of course. So, the New York Times is standing on principle.
The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a "piece of ass." Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.
But there is a larger and much more important point here. The women quoted in our story spoke out on an issue of national importance – indeed, an issue that Mr. Trump himself discussed with the whole nation watching during Sunday night's presidential debate. Our reporters diligently worked to confirm the women's accounts. They provided readers with Mr. Trump's response, including his forceful denial of the women's reports. It would have been a disservice not just to our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices. We did what the law allows: We published newsworthy information about a subject of deep public concern. If Mr. Trump disagrees, if he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to say and that the law of this country forces us and those who would dare to criticize him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight.
Sincerely,
David E. McCraw
But their other point is every bit as important: The paper couldn’t possibly have damaged Donald’s reputation by publishing the newsworthy accounts of women Donald allegedly sexually assaulted because Donald has already created his reputation as a man who engages in unwanted, non-consensual sexual advances, as well as bragging about actual sexual assault.
The fact that Donald is morally bankrupt is beyond dispute. The mystery is how anyone who is not morally bankrupt could ever contemplate voting for him.
The full letter is available as a PDF.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Quoting Dan Rather again
Veteran journalist Dan Rather posted this yesterday on his Facebook Page:
I think Dan Rather has a point: None of the vile things that Donald has said in the past were enough, but now it is. The implicit question is, why now? Sure, it’s great they’re finally disavowing Donald, but what took them so long? It’s not as if this latest outrage is anything new for him.
Dan is no fan of Donald’s, and I’ve also shared another of his Facebook Posts on a different subject. The right will dismiss what he says, but I don’t think they should: He’s damn right.
Still, all of this will likely serve to rile up Donald’s frothing base. They heckled and booed Paul Ryan at the Wisconsin event that Donald was disinvited from (and I saw one Trumpette claim they’d shouted Ryan off the stage, which they didn’t. At all.). There will probably be more boorish behaviour (probably worse, possibly far worse…) over the next few weeks, assuming Donald stays in the race (which, at the moment, seems certain).
However, plenty of mainstream people—including non-insane conservatives—are repulsed by Donald’s behaviour, as they have been countless times before, of course. This time, however, growing numbers of people are committing to ensure that Donald is not elected president. Maybe this really is the final turning point in bringing about Donald’s defeat?
Hope springs eternal.
The headlines of the moment are in the growing roll call of prominent Republicans who are rescinding their support for Donald Trump. But I am left wondering how his candidacy and those who supported, enabled it, and abetted him until now, will be viewed through the long lens of history. It should be noted that many conservative editorial boards and critics have already come out against Trump long before this latest bombshell in very stark terms.
Apparently everyone has a line, and yet do you feel things would be different if all of these politicians thought Trump could still win in November?
And what should we make of all the other groups who have been insulted and marginalized by Trump and yet his supporters stood by him?
He attacked Mexicans as rapists and murderers – but that was not enough.
He called for barring Muslims from entering the country – but that was not enough.
He incited violence in his rallies – but that was not enough.
He publicly mocked the disabled – but that was not enough.
He retweeted anti-Semitic memes – but that was not enough.
He demeaned a Gold Star Family – but that was not enough.
He insulted the press and railed against their Constitutional freedoms – but that was not enough.
He said that those who suffer from PTSD were weak – but that was not enough.
He had a long history of misogynist and sexist comments – but that was not enough.
He repeatedly lied on issues big and small – but that was not enough.
He refused to release his tax records or health records – but that was not enough.
He joked about violence against his political rival – but that was not enough.
I could go on, and I ask you to do so in the comments section. Perhaps we can tag it with #butthatwasnotenough.
I know some equate Donald Trump with Nazisim Рthat goes way too far for me. But in recent hours I have been hearing echoes of the chilling poem by the German anti-Nazi theologian Martin Niem̦ller about the culpability of his country's elite in the rise of Nazism.
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
America's better nature has always been to speak out for the marginalized and dispossessed. It is an ideal for which we have all too often fallen far short. What about now?
I think Dan Rather has a point: None of the vile things that Donald has said in the past were enough, but now it is. The implicit question is, why now? Sure, it’s great they’re finally disavowing Donald, but what took them so long? It’s not as if this latest outrage is anything new for him.
Dan is no fan of Donald’s, and I’ve also shared another of his Facebook Posts on a different subject. The right will dismiss what he says, but I don’t think they should: He’s damn right.
Still, all of this will likely serve to rile up Donald’s frothing base. They heckled and booed Paul Ryan at the Wisconsin event that Donald was disinvited from (and I saw one Trumpette claim they’d shouted Ryan off the stage, which they didn’t. At all.). There will probably be more boorish behaviour (probably worse, possibly far worse…) over the next few weeks, assuming Donald stays in the race (which, at the moment, seems certain).
However, plenty of mainstream people—including non-insane conservatives—are repulsed by Donald’s behaviour, as they have been countless times before, of course. This time, however, growing numbers of people are committing to ensure that Donald is not elected president. Maybe this really is the final turning point in bringing about Donald’s defeat?
Hope springs eternal.
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