bigtree

bigtree's Journal

January 21, 2022

I am American posts

Katie Porter’s White Board @OhDangitEvie 3h
Take a moment - really look at the I am American posts. Made by parents, grandparents, children, siblings, neighbors, friends. Teachers, bus drivers, doctors, nurses, every level of military and government. These people aren’t just Americans, they are America. They are beautiful.

https://twitter.com/search?q=I%20am%20American%20&src=typeahead_click

#IAmAmerican

January 13, 2022

Sinema, 'inspired' by a woman who filbustered in the Senate against the elimination of the poll tax

https://twitter.com/SenatorSinema/status/1481675660133347328

Kyrsten Sinema @SenatorSinema Jan 12
#OnThisDay in 1932, Hattie Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

https://twitter.com/rflld/status/1481676518334124034

Caraway voted against the antilynching law of 1938 and, in 1942, joined other southern Senators in a filibuster to block a proposed bill that would have eliminated the poll tax.
https://legallegacy.wordpress.com/2022/01/12/january-12-1932-hattie-wyatt-caraway-becomes-the-1st-woman-elected-to-the-u-s-senate/

https://twitter.com/kyrstensinema/status/1481347751824834563

...Sinema, 'inspired' by a woman who joined a filbuster in the Senate against the elimination of the poll tax, which was designed to keep blacks from voting.

January 9, 2022

Yes, the boat hit the iceberg, but putting children in lifeboats is destructive to their psyche

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Yes, the boat hit the iceberg, but putting the children in lifeboats is the most destructive thing imaginable to their psyche. It's time for us to stop all this evacuation talk and just complete the voyage.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Yes, the first 7 watertight compartments are now flooded with frigid North Sea water, but it's time for us to stop being ruled by our fears and get back to our normally scheduled travel. We MUST open the shuffleboard courts on the lido deck.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Look at children's faces when they're in lifeboats. They're frightened. They're confused. They don't want to be there. Their parents don't want them there. We need to put them back on the boat, whose deck is now pitched at 90 degrees.

It's time to declare this sinking OVER.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Look, I too want to survive this sinking, but I look at how people insist on wearing constrictive life-vests and taking to life boats and I sympathize with those who wants to spend their time drilling holes in the hull. Better to show this ocean we don't fear it than to cower.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Do you know what a full evacuation of this sinking ship will DO to our scheduled arrival time?

The cure can't be worse than the *glub glub glub*

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Wow, there is a lot of drowning on both sides of this evacuation issue.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
I don’t think people shoving their children into lifeboats understand how cruel they’re being.

Lifeboats are terrifying. They indicate a ship about to sink. What a terrible message to send impressionable children.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
We need to trust parents as the true experts. Parents understand exactly how much sea water their child can swallow, and what their child’s core body temperature should be. It isn’t our place to shove our opinions on drowning down their throats.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
What you alarmists in your lifeboat bubbles don’t realize is ordinary people don’t care about life jackets or buoyancy or physics, and when you talk about those things you sound out-of-touch.

Lifeboat isn’t real life. Go outside. Touch grass. Or seaweed; whatever’s down there.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
If lifeboats work, then why are so many people in lifeboats still getting cold and wet. Answer me that.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
The pro-evac crowd needs to improve its messaging.

Don’t call me anti-evac, that is a slur as bad as any that has been used in history.

A.R. Moxon @JuliusGoat Jan 6
Soon we will be forced to wear armbands to identify ourselves, like this one that I am wearing right now, which I made and put on myself, while I harass the crew, for trying to help.

thread:

https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1479058487825125378

January 6, 2022

Joe Biden defined what it means to be an American, for generations to come

...his Jan. 6 remembrance speech, a bookend to John F. Kennedy's American University Address in 1963.

President Biden laid down a distinct and unmistakable marker at the feet of those who attacked our democracy that day, and are still working to undermine our political process.

He challenged all of us to decide which side we are on. Not what political party we support, but whether we're either going to stand on the side of democracy and the rule of law, or if we're going to fall in with those who would dismantle and destroy it.

He made clear in his unwavering, forceful address that the over 150 million Americans who voted in that election were the 'patriots' in this nation who represent the nation - not the insurrectionists, and not those who, months later, sought to violently reject the votes cast that day.

Pres. Biden expressed this choice in terms which will resonate far into our political future, and define those who would block or deny legitimate votes cast in our elections, or seek to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in our nation as illegitimate and abhorrent to everything our democracy is supposed to represent and provide for us.

President Biden:

...at this moment, we must decide: What kind of nation are we going to be?

Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm?

Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people?

Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?

We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it.

The Big Lie being told by the former president and many Republicans who fear his wrath is that the insurrection in this country actually took place on Election Day — November 3rd, 2020.

Think about that. Is that what you thought? Is that what you thought when you voted that day? Taking part in an insurrection? Is that what you thought you were doing? Or did you think you were carrying out your highest duty as a citizen and voting?

The former president and his supporters are trying to rewrite history. They want you to see Election Day as the day of insurrection and the riot that took place here on January 6th as the true expression of the will of the people.

Can you think of a more twisted way to look at this country — to look at America? I cannot.

Here’s the truth: The election of 2020 was the greatest demonstration of democracy in the history of this country.

More of you voted in that election than have ever voted in all of American history. Over 150 million Americans went to the polls and voted that day in a pandemic — some at great- — great risk to their lives. They should be applauded, not attacked.

Just as John Kennedy reminded Americans in 1963 of our government's responsibility to "provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within our authority," the way we expect other nations to treat their own countryfolk, President Biden reminded that the way we conduct our elections defines our nation to the rest of the world...

From China to Russia and beyond, they’re betting that democracy’s days are numbered. They’ve actually told me democracy is too slow, too bogged down by division to succeed in today’s rapidly changing, complicated world.

And they’re betting — they’re betting America will become more like them and less like us. They’re betting that America is a place for the autocrat, the dictator, the strongman.

I do not believe that. That is not who we are. That is not who we have ever been. And that is not who we should ever, ever be.

Our Founding Fathers, as imperfect as they were, set in motion an experiment that changed the world — literally changed the world.

Here in America, the people would rule, power would be transferred peacefully — never at the tip of a spear or the barrel of a gun.

With his speech at the Capitol, the President made clear that those who love and value our democracy adhere to the rule of law, and protect and defend our process of elections - and those who are determined to unravel our votes, denying our citizens' most vital contributions to our more perfect union, are a grave threat to those ideals which buttress our system of government.

History will remember that this president determinedly led the nation to the defense of our own democratic volition today, in the face of those in the country (and without) who dare threaten the national unity expressed in our votes which are intended to ensure the peaceful transfer of presidential authority.

watch the full speech:

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Maryland
Member since: Sun Aug 17, 2003, 11:39 PM
Number of posts: 86,013