Monday Musings on current and historical events
Will Congressional Democrats finish the course
Lawmaking in the hallowed halls of Congress has often been likened to sausage making in that few people really want to know how unpleasant the process of making processed meat can be, but they sure enjoy the final result once those Register, Jimmy Dean, and Conecuh links end up on their plates. The same holds true for legislation, and as we enter into the fall political season, the question that remains is whether the Biden budget and Infrastructure Bills will be passed by a slight majority Democratic Congress?
While the jury is still out on either measure being passed and signed into law, the fact that such is up for debate continues to highlight a key difference between the two major parties in the modern era. Meaning, a Republican Senate majority typically does whatever it deems necessary to pass its agenda on to a Republican President—and think nothing of complaints coming from progressives about the fairness of the process. Further, Republicans in both chambers, loathe it or love it, generally tend to set aside differences to keep their eyes on the party agenda, while Democrats seem far too willing to remain ideologically rigid and split among moderate and progressive factions.
Such rigidity is the primary reason that Democrats across the country are anxious right now with legit fears that if one (or both) of these crucial measures fail to become law this fall, that the national party will have that much harder of a time in key mid-term races next fall making the pitch that Democrats are best suited to ensure that the country's fiscal fitness improves.
Rep. Liz Cheney speaks on 60 Minutes
Speaking of Republican congressional orthodoxy, I do not mean to suggest that Republicans don't have their own internecine battles in Washington—they do! The very fact that Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former VP Dick Cheney, was ousted from party leadership earlier this year all because she refused to believe the "Big Lie" that Donald Trump was the victim of massive election fraud last year, is telling that there are problems within the GOP's home--and a GOP civil war that is being waged between the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney loyalists, and Donald Trump’s devotees.
Still, when it comes time to vote on legislative measures, Cheney votes like the staunch conservative that she has always been, this despite even more lies about her politics from hardcore Trump sycophants like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene.
What I find quite interesting is that there are conservative Republicans who support Cheney in private—but are too timid to support her in public. Yesterday, during a segment on "60 Minutes," anchor Leslie Stahl asked Cheney whether "members of Congress, Republicans, come up to you privately and whispered in your ear, 'Way to go Liz,' and encouraged you, but won't come forward and say that publicly?" Cheney replied, "Yes...both in the House and the Senate."
I do not doubt for one second that the extremely conservative Cheney is privately still held in high regards among many of her fellow Republicans. I also do not doubt that many have shared their support in hushed tones due to their fear that former President Trump, one who still has a firm grip on the hearts and minds of his Republican supporters and fans, will encourage his followers to support a loyal Trumpist in a primary challenge. Which, I submit, is cowardice; when I consider someone to be a political ally, while I may not agree with them on every single issue, I fear no man or woman so much that I would mute my supportive opinions simply to placate others or beg for their support.
Cheney concluded the segment by warning against the dangers of those within her party who have reviewed the numbers from last year's election, including the recently concluded third Arizona recount that showed that Biden won that typically red state by an even larger number than expected. Cheney said, "Silence enables the liar. And silence helps it to spread. So the first thing you have to do is say, 'No. I'm not going to accept that we're going to live in a post-truth world.' It's a toxin, Lesley, in, in our political bloodstream. Because when we allow that to continue to go on in the face of rulings of the courts, in the face of recounts, in the face of everything that's gone on to demonstrate that there was not fraud that would have changed the outcome, then we all -- if we do that, we are contributing to the undermining of our system. And it's a really serious and dangerous moment because of that."
Indeed, Rep. Cheney!
And to remind how fair and balanced Ol' Hobbs is on this topic, three years ago, when Florida's constitutionally mandated recount of the 2018 gubernatorial race began, I was tapped to become one of Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum's legal observers for the recount in Madison County, Florida. On a chilly November day, I watched at rapt attention for what seemed like an eternity as each electronic ballot was hand counted by local officials—and then reviewed by legal observers for both the Gillum and Republican Ron Desantis campaigns.
When the vote recount ended statewide with Desantis still in the lead, I did what any rational and intelligent person should do—I acknowledged Desantis's victory even despite my personal disappointment in the outcome. It is far too bad that too many of Cheney's fellow Republicans refuse to exhibit similar rationality and intelligence about the 2020 presidential election.
Golden State Forward hesitant to take Covid vaccine
Speaking of a lack of rationality, Golden State Warriors’ forward Andrew Wiggins recenlty was told that his request for a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccine mandates in San Francisco was denied. This means that Wiggins, the 1st overall pick in the 2014 draft, will not be able to play home games in San Fran or road games in any city that has similar mandates this year.
What's irrational is the fact that Wiggins went to college at the University of Kansas and upon enrolling, had to show proof of immunization shots for Mumps, Measles, and Rubella, the same as every other student across America. My advice to Wiggins is to take the shot, young man, and play the sport that you love! Failing to do so not only jeopardizes your promising career, but it lets down all of your teammates who are counting on you to help win games during the 2021-22 season.
Little known Shoshone Massacre of 1863
I was always taught that learning is a life-long undertaking and even at 49-years of age, nothing excites me more than to learn new facts.
Yesterday, while pleasure reading I learned about a grisly U.S. Army massacre of the Shoshone Tribe in January 1863—one committed during the pivotal third year of the U.S. Civil War.
Known as "The Bear River Massacre" near what’s now Preston, Idaho, that January, after a white man named John Smith was allegedly murdered by four Shoshone men, a regiment of California based U.S. Army cavalry and infantry soldiers slew 350 members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation—including 90 women and children.
The Bear River Massacre was over three time deadlier than the Wounded Knee Massacre that would take place 27 years later in 1890, but is rarely mentioned in history books—thus, Hobbs the Historian's surprise to learn of the macabre event this past weekend!
I can only surmise that as deadly as the Bear River Massacre was, that the timing was such that it barely made a blip on the radar of major newspapers back east, like the NY Times, that were far more preoccupied with the thousands of Union and Confederate battle deaths at Antietam and Shiloh in the fall of 1862, and Gettysburg and Vicksburg later on in 1863.
Still, it is crucial that we commemorate such murderous and malevolent acts by an American government that, while fighting down south to remove Black human flesh from Confederate property rolls, in its own lust for property and material wealth out west, decided that the oft mentioned "Indian Problem" could only be solved by bullets ripping into Indian flesh and barbed wire fences taking lands that Native peoples had inhabited for millennia.
Lest we forget...
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