SEVEN DAYS. Tabs, Tues., Oct. 29, 2004
That's how many days.
Hola, ahora es el tiempo de tabs.
Vamonos.
Contra their claims that the gross, fucked up, racist joke that mediocre white loser told about Puerto Ricans somehow did not represent Donald Trump’s views, you should know that the Trump campaign took out one of Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes where he called Kamala Harris a C-word. The Puerto Rico one? Cool! The other racist ones? Cool! Calling women C-words? No, they’re currently panicking because most women hate them because of Dobbs, and other reasons. Scratch that joke OUT. [Bulwark]
Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout “spreading like wildfire” in Pennsylvania, says Politico. Huh! [Politico]
Joe Biden voted. FOR JILL STEIN? No for Kamala Harris. [New York Times]
Harris will be giving her closing argument tonight in a speech at the Ellipse, after which there will be no attacks on the Capitol, because she’s not a fascist or literally Hitler. TV coverage will start at 7 p.m. ET, at least on MSNBC. Didn’t check the other channels. [NBC 4 Washington]
Unhinged Trump freak adviser Russell Vought has plans for how to use the military against Americans citizens and how to make civil servants miserable. He describes it as “put[ting] them in trauma.” And so much more. [ProPublica]
Zoinks, over 200,000 subscriptions there at the Washington Post. Guess people aren’t buying their bullshit no more. [NPR]
Jeff Bezos wrote a stupid 911-word op-ed to whine about waaaaaaaah and “No quid pro quo! No quid pro quo! You’re the quid pro quo!” TL;DR it doesn’t say “I should shut my face and sell this newspaper to my ex-wife, who is better than I am.” [Washington Post]
Fox News found the extremism of Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada, it is “supports assault weapons ban” and “supports Obamacare.” [Aaron Rupar]
Our pal the futurist said last week that it’s not time to panic, so, ya know, don’t. [Cassidy Steele Dale]
Now that the Washington Post has hurtled past the New York Times in the contest for whose democracy can die in darkness the fastest, we don’t even know what to do with our longrunning joke about how NYT sucks for everything but food, then we give you a recipe from the NYT. Is there joy in that? Fine, One-Pot Japanese Chicken Curry and Rice. Made it last night. FOR JILL STEIN? No, for me. It’s good. [NYT recipe blog]
Finally, at my Friday place this week, I did a deep dive into the big gross pervert speech Tucker Carlson gave for Trump. No, not the one at Trump’s Nazi rally, the one before that! Too many Nazi speeches! COME READ AND SUBSCRIBE, audio version out this morning. [The Moral High Ground / audio version]
OK that’ll be enough tabs fer ye. Too many and you get greedy for tabs.
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This Saturday we are doing a Special Movie Night. As requested by Bill Penzey we are watching 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐲𝐚𝐧.
In an email today from Penzeys Spices, Bill explains why this election is so important:
"October 25, 2024 George Mullins voted. June 6, 1944 George came ashore in Normandy. He voted by mail. He insisted that the ballot needed to be taken to the post office and handed directly to the postal worker. “Can’t take any chances in these times.”
It was LST #311 that brought him 100 yards from the shore of Utah Beach on D-Day. The water was cold and up to his neck. He kept an eye on the shorter soldiers to make sure their heavy packs would not drag them under. Together they all made it ashore. So many of those George went ashore with never made it home.
George Mullins lived through the unfathomable violence it took to face down fascism. He made it home but left so much behind. Forever since he has had to carry a hurt and a loss that thankfully most of us have never known.
His experience has left him with thoughts on this election and about those who would once again intentionally unleash the unspeakable horrors he had hoped were forever in the past.
Two weeks ago George posted his thoughts on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070325051316) for the book he wrote of his WWII experience, Foxhole.
Buy his book, I highly recommend it.
As is the nature of Facebook, and social media, and the times we live in, one of the most valuable pieces that will ever be written about this election now sits there with just 72 likes.
George’s daughter and longtime Penzeys customer, Sheila, wrote hinting that maybe I could bring more attention to his words. Yes. A very big Yes. Coincidentally enough (if there are coincidences) his were exactly the words I was then searching for.
Not eight hours before Sheila’s email arrived I had just finished rewatching Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. I’m convinced it is in the unspeakable sacrifice of so many Americans eighty years ago where the key to understanding just how much is at stake on 11.5.24 lives or dies.
But where to find the words? I looked to Saving Private Ryan because Spielberg has good words, and there are good words there but his, like mine, are of an outsider looking in. Where could I find the words I needed? And as fate would have it they arrived all tied neatly with a bow and accompanied by a breathtaking photo.
And I won’t give away all George Mullins’s words, please read all of them for yourself. But in short, today he is deeply troubled by the direction he sees our country heading.
“I didn’t fight in World War II, standing on the front lines of history, so that we could one day find our country on the brink of dictatorship or authoritarian rule. The freedoms I defended, and believe in, the sacrifices my comrades and I made, were for the preservation of democracy—of freedom, fairness, and the right to live without fear of tyranny.”
There’s so much we take for granted, but all that George and those he fought alongside achieved came at a terrible cost. And as much as we know words like fascism, and Nazi, and even freedom, how much do we really understand this is about the difference between living free and having to live in fear of your government?
By 1944 everyone understood, but today it’s something we’ve forgotten, something we take for granted. George Mullins went ashore shoulder to shoulder with men like him willing to give their lives so that others may live free. Let that sink in.
And now the leaders of the Republican party are not only throwing that sacrifice away, they are forcing our children to relive it. Why? Because they don’t have the strength to stand up to Donald Trump’s never-ending need for ever greater power. We must do better. We must share George Mullins’s warning.
What we’ve found is good words travel far, but good words attached to a great offer know no boundaries. Our best offer is $50 Gift Cards for just $35.
I know money attached to sacrifice is wrong, but it’s the only way I know to have George’s much-needed words reach thousands of times more people while they can still make a difference.
I promise we will do everything we can to use the entirety of what you spend on gift cards with this offer to have this post reach ever-greater numbers of people.
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And really good $8.69 Granulated Garlic free with $5 purchase. Just show this email in stores or the printed-out coupon from above. Online at penzeys.com simply enter GARLIC into the applied code box at checkout. It’s easy.
And two outstanding Steven Spielberg words. I’ve seen Saving Private Ryan several times since its release. Each time I’ve seen something new in it. This time I was struck by Tom Hanks’s Captain Miller’s words to Matt Damon’s Ryan. “Earn this.”
This time against the backdrop of this election it hit home more than before that these two words weren’t between two people but between all those who gave so much and all of us who have lived our lives with the gifts their terrible sacrifice brought. Earn this. We truly do owe them that much.
And I did ask George’s daughter Sheila about what was going through his mind as he cast his vote in this election. She asked him over dinner. He told her this:
"When I voted I felt happy to place my signature on a ballot against the Dictator. I was hoping more people wake up and check the right box.”
That one of those white men struggling ashore on the 6th of June so many years ago should live to vote for America’s first Black woman President is a testament to this country and to all who serve.
And I admit that at first I felt uncomfortable with George’s word Dictator. It felt over the top. But then it set in that he is the one who knows, not me.
He is the one with the knowledge, and the experience, and the words we all must learn if we are to go through what his generation went through and re-emerge once again as America on the other side.
So much to earn. So much at stake. Please help us help George Mullins's message reach everyone while it can still make a difference.
And please visit George’s Facebook page and share a like, a hug, or even a heart. He has already earned it and so much more. What a life.
Time for us to be worthy,
Bill"