QUOTABLES: Biden's Bible

Abdul Matin Azizi, a neighbor who saw the attack. Azizi, 20, said the explosion occurred as the family returned home Sunday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. Azizi said he ran next door to help and found a gruesome scene, the air thick with smoke. “The bodies were covered in blood and shrapnel, and some of the dead children were still inside the car,” he said. -- Washington Post

Biden's Bible

 “Those who have served through the ages have drawn inspiration from the Book of Isaiah. When the Lord says, ‘who shall I send, who shall go for us?’ The American military has been answering for a long time, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me.’” -- Speech to the Nation

Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia Prof

The sad truth is that the American political class and mass media hold the people of poorer nations in contempt, even as they intervene relentlessly and recklessly in those countries. Of course, much of America’s elite hold America’s own poor in similar contempt. -- Market Watch

Dr. Anthony Fauci

"I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in school is a good idea."

"This is not something new. We have mandates in many places in schools, particularly public schools, that if in fact you want a child to come in -- we've done this for decades and decades requiring (vaccines for) polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis," he said. "So this would not be something new, requiring vaccinations for children to come to school." -- CNN

Seth Meyers

 “I mean, how does this shit keep getting dumber and dumber? First it was hydroxychloroquine, then it was bleach, powerful lights, now it’s horse dewormer? I’m honestly terrified to imagine what’s next. One day we’re gonna wake up and Brian Kilmeade’s gonna be telling people you can cure COVID by eating kibble and sleeping in a bed of kitty litter.” -- Late Night

INDEPENDENCE DAY QUOTABLES

Dorian Warren, the president of Community Change, a D.C.-based social justice organization

What Is Post-Trump Patriotism? ~ I thought of Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” It is a searing indictment of the hard truths of our history, of plunder, of enslavement, of a range of exploitative and unjust actions at the highest levels. At the same time, I’m a black person in America so I have no choice but to fight for the promise of America. -- Capital & Main

Dr. Gyan Pathak

Vaccination against COVID-19 suffers from inequality and sluggishness nationalism, competition, and charity retreat and make room for internationalism, cooperation and solidarity, the world will be propelled towards an unprecedented tragedy in the history of mankind. -- National Herald of India

Robert P. Jones, author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity” 

It’s time to exorcise the ahistorical notion of white Christian supremacy and innocence. Patriotism is not the purview of those who see a white Christian America as the divinely ordained end of human achievement. We can no longer sustain its mythical vision of God and country where white Christians are always heroes, inheriting and defending America as their own divinely ordained promised land. -- RNS

 

We observe this #July4th in the shadows of a #SCOTUS decision gutting our voting rights, following a white supremacist insurrection to undermine a fair election & a GOP that seeks it’s preservation by burying truth & stoking fear. We have to face the darkness and fight for light.

— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) July 4, 2021

On this 4th of July we acknowledge the gap between our nation’s ideals and the racism that pervades our criminal legal system. While we create new polices, expand language access, and end the death penalty in San Francisco, we continue to fight for our ideals.

— Chesa Boudin 博徹思 (@chesaboudin) July 4, 2021

I, too, sing America...

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

~Langston Hughes pic.twitter.com/NNh9TRwdiO

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) July 4, 2021

Trump is going but Trumpism still rules the highest court.

Thousands of unmasked Hasidic sect members squeeze inside the Yetev Lev temple in Brooklyn for the wedding of a chief rabbi’s grandson. Similar weddings have been happening in Brooklyn for months in violation of city ordinances — with precautions such as covering windows with paper and guards at the doors in case an inspector shows up to keep them from being detected.

The Supreme Court's 5-4 midnight ruling, which prevents New York city and state officials from imposing limits on the Roman Catholic Diocese or Brooklyn's Hasidic sect during the pandemic, had little to do with the broad issue of religious freedom. Rather it was a signal to Trump's MAGA death cult and his evangelical base that the extreme right-wing majority, led by DT's newly-appointed religious cultist, Amy Coney Barrett, was on the job and will be for decades to come. 

The immediate effect on New York City is moot because the state had already lifted the particular orders under review. The grave, imminent danger lies in the rest of the country, where public health authorities will feel hamstrung to limit the size of religious gatherings even where the virus is spreading out of control.

The decision also heralds tough times ahead for Democrats and civil-rights activists. It's being interpreted by the right as an affirmation of the notion that religious beliefs about racial or gender discrimination trump civil rights and social justice.

The court majority's message to the Democrats: Even though you may have won the election, there's more than one center of power now and it's not bound by the Constitution. Trumpism rules the nation's highest court. 

The generals' revolt. Why it's important.

On the steps of the  Lincoln Memorial, June 2, 2020. (Photo credit: Martha Raddatz).

"When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.” -- Gen. Mattis in The Atlantic. 

Trump has taken a political beating in the media over his threatened use of the Insurrection Act as a means to deploy the military against civilian demonstrators and send federal troops into the cities to "dominate" the protesters. State governors and local mayors are throwing him a collective middle finger on that one. But they're not his main problem.

His clownish, but dangerous maneuver Monday night to clear protesters out of Lafayette Park, stroll across H Street and hold up a Bible in front of the historic St. John's Church -- all the while flocked by a phalanx of law enforcement officials. actually cost him support among white evangelical supporters. Something few thought would ever happen.

Even more significant was the open revolt by a group of top military brass, including his own Sec. of Defense Mark Esper, at the prospect of the use of federal troops to put down the protests. General Mark Milley, the top US commander, even issued a memo to military leaders reminding them of their oaths to protect the US Constitution and the "right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly".

All this came the heels of the resignation of James Miller, a former undersecretary of defense for policy. He announced his resignation from the Science Defense Board in the Washington Post upbraiding Esper for being such a political toady. Then came an open letter from Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, who chimed in with his own strongly worded statement criticizing Trump directly for his divisive rhetoric during the protests.

Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, superintendent of the Air Force Academy, also spoke up this week in support of the protests for racial justice, with Silveria directly repudiating the use of violence against fellow Americans. In addition, Air Force Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, who heads the National Guard Bureau, put out a statement Wednesday entitled “We Must Do Better,” denouncing the racism that has resulted in the deaths of so many unarmed African Americans

Troops from Fort Hood refused orders to go to Chicago to crush protests in 1968/ 

What the hell's going on you might ask?

Well for starters, with Trump's reelection campaign floundering and poll numbers showing Joe Biden pulling ahead, especially in key battleground states, any plan by Republicans to cancel or rig the elections in November or to hang onto power after a loss to Democrats, would require military and paramilitary logistical support.

Then there's the likelihood that the generals themselves are fearing dissension in their own ranks? Are they afraid of a revolt in the event troops are ordered to fire on members of their own communities? It wouldn't be the first time.

I'm thinking back to 1968 when the order for troops from Ft. Hood to go to Chicago for “Riot control” duty at the Democratic National Convention led to one of the most powerful rebellions by African-American soldiers who came to be known as the Ft. Hood 43.

Buckle up. These past four months have been a wild ride. The next five could get even wilder.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Cook County Jail is now the national epicenter for COVID-19.

Prof. Marc Lamont Hill 

Easter calls us to remember the plight of the prisoner. Because of his political activism and message of social justice, Jesus was declared an enemy of the Roman State and sentenced to the death penalty...The story of Jesus is a reminder to challenge state authority, question unjust laws, and offer humanizing mercy to the prisoner. -- Ebony

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her support for Biden

I don’t think this conversation about changes that need to be made is one about throwing the progressive wing of the party a couple of bones — I think this is about how we can win. -- New York Times

Chris Wallace, responds to Trump

"One of us has a daddy problem, and it’s not me." -- The Hill

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin 

“Wisconsin has a long pattern of this … Time after time, they have acted to disenfranchise people to make it tougher and tougher to vote.” -- MSNBC

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert.

Earlier social distancing measures 'obviously' would have saved more lives. We make a recommendation. Often, the recommendation is taken," Fauci said. "Sometimes, it's not. But ... it is what it is. We are where we are right now." -- NBC