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The Moral of the Story - GNR for Bluesday, September 20th [1]

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Date: 2022-09-20

A big part of the socialization process we hopefully went through as children was to learn about and accept the moral compact at the core of our national identity. Truth, justice, fair play, and opportunity feature prominently. We haven’t always managed to live up to the soaring rhetoric, but we’ve generally spent the last couple of hundred years moving closer to our ideal.

What republicans are engaged in today is a repudiation of our historical shared moral vision. Selfishness and bigotry have supplanted compassion and unity as tenets of republican political and religious philosophy. Practically speaking, any republican angels have exchanged their wings for horns and cloven hooves.

We are not talking about moral bankruptcy or moral decrepitude. Both of those descriptors imply at least a scintilla of moral fiber to begin with. Any group of people who can justify kids in cages would not recognize a moral choice if it was laser etched into the empty place where their souls are supposed to dwell. The safe containing all those bills of soul sale must be stuffed beyond capacity by now.

When historians sit down to write the story of the decline and fall of the republican party, we’ll be able to trace it to the 1960s and their embrace of racism and general divisiveness. Before that their main downside was being lackeys of the obscenely wealthy.

Let’s take a peak at the current republican roster: bottom feeders, predators, thieves, bigots, hatemongers, hypocrites, zealots, bullies, racists, misogynists, homophobes, and other assorted assholes. It just doesn’t get any sleazier.

A synthesis of blatant hatred, divisiveness, and deceit is neither reasonable nor viable as a governing strategy. Previous attempts have ended badly for the haters — The Third Reich, The Confederate States of America, and The Soviet Union come immediately to mind.

As we’ve watched the performance of the Russian army in their war of unwarranted aggression, I wonder whether it’s possible for a bullshit factory to culminate. At some point does the cumulative total of all that smoke blown up our collective ass result in a reactive eruption strong enough to burn all the hair out of their noses and blow them into the irrelevance they so richly deserve?

Regardless as to whether you describe them as immoral, amoral, deranged, or simply evil, we can accelerate their removal from our political stage by vigorously contesting their lies and inspiring our fellow citizens to get to the polls this November.

GET OUT THE VOTE!

We have the power. We have the ability. We can and we will do this.

Slava Ukraini!

Remember the Children

Screw you, Samuel Alito

Don Caron has a spot on take about election deniers. [3:31]

x YouTube Video

Seth was on fire last night [12:43]

x YouTube Video

Hey look, there’s news. (although there was something happening in the UK that took up a lot of space)

Another Day, Another Blunder

This little bit of insanity raises an important question — Do their brains even connect to their mouths?

x Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said today it's "scandalous" that the White House is not leaking national security secrets.



"Where are the leaks right now about what's happening from the White House dealing with our national security?" pic.twitter.com/8ZKjeLgmnk — David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) September 19, 2022

The Critique Around Pooty-Poot’s Unjust War Intensifies Inside Russia

Being an international war criminal isn’t a particularly good starting point for a regime. Having your nation’s Dolly Parton call you out for it isn’t going to help the situation. Here’s hoping Putin has another horrible, awful day today (and every other day until he’s done and gone).

The Week: Peter Weber: Russian pop icon Alla Pugacheva criticizes Ukraine invasion, asks to be labeled 'foreign agent'

Alla Pugacheva, a hugely and broadly popular pop singer in Russia since the Soviet era, criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Sunday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been facing increasing internal criticism of the war since Russian forces were pushed out of Kharkiv province in an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive, and Putin conceded at a recent summit of allies that China and India have "concerns" about his foreign adventure. But Pugacheva seems to have been pushed into dissent by Russia labeling her husband Maxim Galkin a "foreign agent" over his criticism of the war.✂️ "I request to be added to the ranks of foreign agents of my beloved country," Pugacheva, 73, wrote on Instagram, where she has 3.4 million follower. "I am in solidarity with my husband, an honest, respectable, and genuine person who is a true and incorruptible patriot of Russia, who wishes his Motherland prosperity, peaceful life, freedom of speech, and the end of the death of our guys for illusory goals that are turning our country into a pariah and worsening the lives of our citizens." "Scores of major Russian cultural figures have already criticized the war," The New York Times reports, but "Pugacheva is uniquely popular among a broad cross-section of Russians" and throughout the former Soviet Union. "Who is the analogous person to Alla Pugacheva in the U.S.?" former U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul mused on Twitter. "Dolly Parton? Oprah? This is a big blow to Putin." The Times in 2000 called Pugacheva "the goddess of Russian pop, Moscow's Tina Turner with a hint of Edith Piaf."

Another Attempt to Drag Out tfg’s Accounting Has Ended

I guess they thought if they could delay and obstruct long enough none of this stuff would ever be exposed. Guess what? They were wrong.

Huffington Post: Mary Papenfuss: Trump's Former Accounting Firm Now Turning Over His Financial Records To Congress: Report

Musical Interlude

I think the folks at Playing for Change keep hitting it out of the park with their Songs Around the World series

x YouTube Video

For today’s song from Ukraine, here’s something else from Dakhabrakha, recorded after the start of the invasion.

x YouTube Video

On the Lighter Side

Closing Notes

Ok, so it’s not Saturday. But, in honor of tljdk, here’s a performance from April 1972, at the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark from the Dead’s Europe ‘72 tour.

x YouTube Video

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/20/2122181/-The-Moral-of-the-Story-GNR-for-Bluesday-September-20th

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