A Few Thoughts for Those Who Can't Sleep -- May 14 Edition

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[00:00:02]Hello to everybody.

[00:00:05]Uh here I am. It is Thursday, May 14th.

[00:00:11]It is 10:27 p.m. Eastern time. And here I am uh after a day or two of not being here because somehow or other everything got busy. Oh, I see. Poof. People are appearing. Hello folks showing up. Hey there, Missouri. Several Missouri coming at the same time. Is this really happening?

[00:00:37]Yes, it's really happening. Hey. Hey.

[00:00:40]Um, hello to everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm glad to see you all here.

[00:00:47]Um, and I am glad to be here this evening. I've had stuff all kinds of stuff going on uh in the evening that has made it more complicated for me to be here. Uh but tonight, not tonight.

[00:01:01]So, um here I am. Um I wanted to talk about uh well, corruption.

[00:01:14]Not that I want to talk about corruption, but what's on my mind is uh a story that's bouncing around some hasn't been fully fleshed out, hasn't been decided. uh there aren't final decisions I guess being made but um it's even in the realm of um Trumpian corruption uh MAGA corruption this ranks. So, um, apparently there is talk that Trump will, uh, drop his enormous multibillion dollar claim, uh, against the IRS, charging them with leaking tax information in exchange for having, I believe it's $1.7 billion be, excuse me, be put into a fund that will be um giving reparations of some kind to people who claim that they were attacked through the weaponization techniques of the Biden administration.

[00:02:38]And included in that package of people who supposedly are victims of Biden weaponization, particularly of the Department of Justice, guess what?

[00:02:49]January 6th folk who not only get pardoned, but now according to this brewing idea, get money because they were unjustly.

[00:03:03]the justice system was they were it was weaponized against them unjustly. Okay, so we're talking about corruption. Uh we're talking on a on a massive scale. I think um Chris Hayes tonight called this idea the cyine chapel uh of Trump corruption. it ranks. Um, so in and of itself, the idea that, you know, the Treasury Department apparently has some kind of judgment fund which they use in cases where people have been mistreated somehow or other and that that would be helping to create this money, this fund that would be giving money to people who were supposed victims of weaponization, the weaponization of the Justice Department under President Biden.

[00:03:59]Um, so already it was corrupt enough that Trump was suing essentially his own Treasury Department to get money, our money to him. Yeah, I see Blue Jay says, "Effing G." Yes, indeed. And the Sistine Chapel is not amused. Thank you, Tim. It is not. Um, so there's just the simple fact of this.

[00:04:24]Add to the simple fact of it the fact that these are people included in the mix of people who are now supposedly if this all happens eligible for this funding.

[00:04:37]These are people among the group who tried to freaking overturn a presidential election violently.

[00:04:46]Yep. And to claim that accusing them of having done that is somehow a case of weaponization, that punishing them for having done that is the weaponization of the Department of Justice. What the what?

[00:05:11]Certain things that seemingly just won't go away.

[00:05:16]one is January 6th. No matter how people want to spin it, who like it, it was a group of people who tried to violently overturn a free and fair election. And I don't care how many people say that Trump really won, he didn't.

[00:05:38]And there's all kinds of lawsuits and any number of other things that have proven that time and time again. Doesn't matter how much evidence there is, there will be people claiming either claiming that he didn't win or refusing uh claiming that he did win, forgive me, or refusing to say that he didn't.

[00:05:59]So, we have people who tried violently to overturn an election and now supposedly they're going to be rewarded because the system was turned against them unfairly because I guess they did nothing wrong really. So, it's corruption of the highest order and it's also spitting on the rule of law, spitting on our simple democratic process where you have an election and people vote and someone wins and someone loses. And that's the way democracy works. And if you don't like the fact that you lost and it was a fair election, too bad.

[00:06:46]So that never goes away, right? The election doesn't ever go away. It's continually being, you know, not talked about because no one wants to be the one to say, "Yeah, actually Trump didn't win." January 6th is the thing that keeps coming back and haunting us over and over and over again because it's linked to that same thing, right? That oh well, it wasn't a crime if people were trying to do something that would have made the election fair.

[00:07:14]The logic there is really faulty.

[00:07:17]Regardless, we now have the the cyine chapel of corruption again hasn't been entirely settled yet.

[00:07:26]Maybe it won't happen. I don't know. But the idea now is our government will be giving essentially our money to people who tried to overturn an election and were justifiably punished for it.

[00:07:43]But now we're going to reward them for being victims.

[00:07:48]Now the the the Mala folk and some of the GOP as well, but particularly the MAGA folk, it's really important for them to be victims because they don't have a lot of justification for the hate and the antagonism and the fist waving and the demand for their rights.

[00:08:20]A lot of what they are claiming and demanding and insisting upon as being their due, it's grounded on the fact that they claim that they're victims. We've been victimized. What we deserve has been taken away from us.

[00:08:36]Victimization is at the heart of what MAGA is. They don't really have policies per se other than um stripping away any positive to do with anyone who isn't white and often male.

[00:09:00]but they don't really have um you know planks, a policy um ways of of offering a vision that the majority of Americans go along with because the fact of the matter is the majority of Americans don't approve of what they're doing. But what they do have and what they play up as much as they can possibly play it up is the idea that the world has been against them. They have been unfairly criticized. They have their their due their rights their entitlement has been attacked and they are victims and so they deserve to fight back and get their due. That is the motto of the MAGA folk. That is the ongoing cry of Trump. That is the non-stop recording of what they claim over and over again. And so this idea that somehow people who tried to overturn an election and were justifiably punished for it now deserve to be rewarded for that punishment for essentially a crime because they were victims.

[00:10:16]Victims of justice, the law, the rule of law. I don't know. You name victims of of democracy. Victims of democracy.

[00:10:29]The victimization arc is is broad with these folks. It's what it really truly is what they rest on, what they rely on.

[00:10:38]But the idea of meshing together the idea that these people who tried to overturn an election are victims who deserve to be rewarded for being punished.

[00:10:50]Linking in with that the idea that trying to overturn the election, not only was it not a crime, but it was a-ok. Okay.

[00:10:59]Think about on the most basic level what that says.

[00:11:06]We the people voted.

[00:11:10]We had an election. We voted.

[00:11:13]We made a decision as to who we wanted for president.

[00:11:18]That's how democracy works. And because the person who lost didn't like that, we had January 6th and everything that's come after it supposedly born of the unfairness of the fact that he lost the election. That's like one of the original anti-democratic sins. Right? If you think about democracy in a functioning democracy, functioning democracy, it's about contests for power in which people vote for the people they want and someone wins and someone loses.

[00:12:02]Pretty straightforward. If you don't like it when you lose, then the next time there's a contest, you work it in a different way. You have a different policy. You come up with a different strategy. You engage in politics in a free and fair way. That's the basics of any kind of democratic government. So from the beginning, the simple fact that people thought it was okay to try and overturn an election that was like, you know, anti-democratic stab, maybe not number one, but a big one from the very outset of where we are now. And it's just been continuing all the way along. And if you can't point your finger at what happened on January 6th and acknowledge that that was wrong, then everything that comes after that, it's going to be easy to claim that a sea of things that are very obviously wrong are not wrong. Right? That's the most obvious one. I'm sorry. Seems obvious to me. Call me wacky.

[00:13:14]overturning an election with violence.

[00:13:18]Wrong.

[00:13:21]One might think that um erasing black majority voting districts as quickly as possibly can be done in these southern states.

[00:13:32]I don't know. Seems like that's pretty obviously wrong. It's not just partisan.

[00:13:40]as I've said somewhere or other that I can't even remember now where I've said it, but the idea that the Voting Rights Act was gutted and within days these southern states were like bam, we got a new map. We're going black majority districts gone. They were ready for that. They were waiting for that.

[00:14:02]They were proving the need for the Voting Rights Act. So thing after thing after thing after thing in one way or another fundamentally violating the the premises of democracy that we all deserve to vote that American citizens all have the vote that we have a right to be able to vote that it shouldn't be hard for us to vote that people shouldn't be trying to take our vote away from us for no reason that people who are fighting the democratic process trying to overturn it shouldn't be rewarded for that. That our money shouldn't be going to reward those people. Nor should our money be going to build a ballroom or an arch or any of these other wacky things that no one wants except this president and his supporters.

[00:15:05]The number of ways in which we the people we're even be beyond like do not matter.

[00:15:12]the number of ways in which we the people are just invisible at this point and that occasionally, you know, they sort of wave in our direction and say like, you know, after the assassination attempt or whatever it was uh at the um congressional uh the White House correspondents dinner um that from that point on, somehow or other that proves we need a ballroom.

[00:15:39]That was that was a pretty desperately weird connection. But basically again and again and again and again.

[00:15:47]We the people really fundamentally don't matter. And then the president said it out loud. He said it when he was asked something along the lines of, "Well, don't you think about Americans and the money that the that there the fact that prices are going up and inflation is going up and this all has to do with what's going on in Iran.

[00:16:11]Doesn't that ever cross your mind?" And the president said, "No, it never crosses my mind." Nope. I don't think about Americans in that way at all.

[00:16:23]Occasionally, he tells the truth. So, we are essentially um invisible and it's it's even beyond smash and grab at this point. It's just grab.

[00:16:37]It's just a flailing, grasping free-for-all of people trying to get as much money and power as they can possibly get for as long as they can get it. And that's that's where the majority of the Republicans have gone now. That is where that is what we are living amidst. Now there was a really interesting article in it's online in in liberal currents uh that I posted maybe I posted or reposted it on blue sky today. Um essentially saying you know we're not at an almost moment. We're not at a moment where gosh, people should start to think seriously about taking big action. That the the the revolution is at hand. You know, the regime is already flailing and overturning things. That this is a moment when people need to wake up and realize this is a time for for people to speak up, to wake up, to act up. And as that article makes clear, that's not a that's not a call for violence.

[00:17:49]It is a call for people to realize the brink that we're on right now. And I realize that it's been years that people have been saying democracy is at risk.

[00:18:03]We may lose democracy. Years and years and years. I have been saying that for years and years and years and years. I will readily admit that. And I have been truthfully believing that for years and years and years. But the fact of the matter is it's true.

[00:18:20]It's where we are. It really is. And we can't be numb to that idea. We can't think, "Oh, this is just political corruption, blah, blah, blah. Oh, this is just nasty partisanship, blah, blah, blah. Oh, stuff like this has happened before." Whatever.

[00:18:40]This is kind of a perfect storm of corruption and anti-democratic grabbing, right?

[00:18:52]Individual parts of what's happening now. They've happened before. We've had um a lot of attempts to keep people of color from voting. We've had um people violating the rule of law. We've had people attacking elections. We a lot of the things that we're seeing now, we've had them. It's not like individually the threads of bad that we're living amidst now are new. But add them up all together and put them alongside a regime that honest to goodness really doesn't believe in democracy.

[00:19:34]They don't believe that we the people have rights. They don't believe that we the people matter at all. They don't care about having a political system in which everyone on all sides has the right to speak up and vote in which people can oppose them and be good American citizens even as they're opposing them. They're not keen on opposition which means they're not keen on democracy.

[00:20:03]This is where we are.

[00:20:06]So, as much as we've been hearing this forever and ever and ever and ever, it's true. Find that liberal currents article. Um, it's very much worth reading. It talks about this. Um, I la last night last night last night um I did an event at uh Barnes & Noble in the 80s on the west side here in New York.

[00:20:33]Um and um you know we we we were talking mostly about um a book um that is a kind of a conversation and a collection of essays um by um Jim DS and Katherine Clinton about America at 250 from the revolution through the culture wars or the history wars, not the culture wars, the history wars. Um, so the the event was about that book, but eventually it got to a discussion of where we are now, the the the history wars that we're living amidst, the political war that we're living amidst. And and again, a panel of us in front of an audience and we were saying in one way or another, we are on the cusp.

[00:21:21]We're on the cusp. You know, I and I I hate to say that at 10:49 at night. I I try to to sort of make it so that, you know, at the end of the day, we can say, "Okay, these bad things happen." Um but, you know, we we we have hope, too. And we do have hope. I'm coming back to the hope. But, um we are on the cusp. and this utter mound of corruption. This idea that people who were allegedly attacked by the Biden administration for gasp breaking the law, trying to overturn elections and and because that they were potentially the law was brought against them, that means that the law, the Department of Justice was weaponized against them. the projection of these people. They're all about weaponizing the government against their opponents.

[00:22:18]They live to weaponize the government against their opponents. And so now they're accusing the other side and they want to pay the alleged victims who suffered from that. I mean, I know it's it's obvious in some ways or another. The projection is obvious, the corruption is obvious, the over-the-topness is obvious. The greed, the power grabbing, it's all obvious. I realize that.

[00:22:45]But that doesn't mean we should stop calling it out. We need to keep calling it out. We need to keep screaming about it. We need to stand up. Yes, we um and I see someone saying, "We will need historians to draw us a map out of this." Well, there are historians standing up and speaking out and we definitely need to keep doing that. But um now is not a good time to feel defeated.

[00:23:15]This is a good time to stand up and push back. This is an essential time to stand up and push back in whatever way you can think. And that might just mean speaking up. That might mean talking to people you know and explaining to them the danger of the moment that we're in. That might mean contacting people locally, nationally who have power. That might be petitioning. That might be marching.

[00:23:40]That might anything at this moment. We should be doing any and everything that we can think of to do.

[00:23:49]We should not wait to be creative and assertive in meeting this moment. We do not want to find ourselves x number of months down the road thinking, why didn't I realize a couple of months earlier that was a moment to really take stock and figure out how to stand up and push back. We're we're at that moment.

[00:24:18]We're at that moment. And as I've said many times, there's a spectrum of resistance. Many, many things count as resistance. So don't feel that you don't matter. Yes, peacefully. As I said a moment ago, I'm not talking about violence. I'm talking about finding ways to resist. And there are many, many ways to do that. And you can be forceful and loud and not violent all at the same time. And it's important. It's really important. Um, and voting is part of it.

[00:24:54]Getting people to register to vote is part of it. All of that's part of it, too. But we can't wait till November and then say, you know, well, okay, let's go vote. We need to be a lot louder and pushing back a lot harder before we get to that point. And I think more people are doing that all the time.

[00:25:14]I mean, actually, this isn't necessarily a sign of resistance, but there was a vote, I believe, in the House about ending the war in Iraq, and it was a tie vote. It failed because it was a tie, but it was a tie.

[00:25:32]Worth noting. So, I'm not standing here saying, you know, um, it's all over. I would I would never say that, folks. I would never say that. I do not believe that. I believe that we the people matter more more than we know. I do. It is not all over. But man oh man, they're flailing and grabbing and grasping and doing everything they can possibly do. And it's going to keep getting worse because they know that they're backed against a wall. And it's not going to get better for them going forward.

[00:26:10]Now, um, tomorrow morning on on history matters and so does coffee. Um, I'm going to talk a little bit about China.

[00:26:20]Um, which I I didn't want to talk I thought about doing a little bit tonight and I'm not going to. Um what I want to discuss tomorrow about China is um the fact that you know Trump and a bunch of businessmen went to China um and they're talking seemingly about business things right about making money this this you know I don't know what we the people have to do with that but you know Elon Musk needs to be there apparently. So and I there's a list of all of the CEOs and other such people who all went to China. I don't know um you know uh if there's anyone there who knows anything about China. I do not know. Um regardless um what's going on in China is part of this larger pattern. That's what I will talk about tomorrow. America has a long history of um looking at China and in one way or another really exposing themselves. That's what I'll talk about tomorrow. But it's part of the same machine of trying to figure out ways to get money every way possible. Uh, and there's never enough money apparently, ever, ever, ever. So, at any rate, um, that's what I wanted to talk about tonight. I wanted to rant a little bit about corruption, about this idea of supposedly having a fund. I think it's $1.7 billion dollars to pay people who were supposedly weaponized against by the Biden administration.

[00:27:52]Don't know, as I said, I don't know if it's going to happen, but there's a lot of talk about it right now that Trump gives up the the the charges he has against the Treasury Department in exchange for this.

[00:28:05]I don't know which one's better or worse. Um, but actually, I do. Paying these people is worse. I don't want him to get billions of dollars from the Treasury Department, but paying people who literally tried to overturn democracy with violence.

[00:28:20]Yeah, that ranks as as lower than low. Anyway, that is um what I wanted to talk about.

[00:28:30]I'm trying to catch up um to see what you guys are saying. Um turn enragement into engagement, says Jamie. That's very good. Um, oh, look at that. Bluesy plays going to their first protest on Saturday.

[00:28:47]Excellent. Now, there you go. That's resistance. If you show up and go to a protest, it is. And and you know, um I I know that that launches a you know, the whole conversation of what does it do?

[00:29:01]Who cares? You go to a protest, why does it matter? But it does because people see it happening. when you go, it matters. But also, people can see that there are people out there in the streets, that they're not alone in what they're thinking and feeling. People need to know in every way possible that the majority of us don't like what these folks are doing because that's just a fact. But people need to know that. And it can be really hard not to see that when you're in isolation sitting at home talking into a laptop. Trust me, I know, right? It's hard. It can be hard to see the simple fact that you are part of a majority of people who feel outraged at what this regime is doing. And that's one of the things that protests can accomplish. Um, and and now people are naming other protests. Lake Forest Park every Saturday at 11. There you go. Um, Les says, "I'm with Indivisible and we protest twice a week every week." Look at you guys. Look at you guys. Look at you. Um, yeah, we're not going to talk about uh Cash going snorkeling in Pearl Harbor.

[00:30:18]I'm not even going to bring that up right now as as detestable as that seems. Um, no, it isn't just words. It's it's someone says words aren't going to get us out of this. No, but anything that alerts people to the corruption that is going on and to the vast number of us who are objecting to it, that matters.

[00:30:44]It is really easy to not see the wave of outrage that surrounds us at what's going on. It's it it feels that it shouldn't be easy to overlook because we feel it.

[00:31:00]Um Leslie says, 'I don't look like I'm talking into a laptop. Well, that's good because sometimes I honestly think I remember feeling this way when the um pandemic started and I was teaching classes into my laptop. Uh and I remember thinking, you know, on a certain level I'm I'm teaching a class and I can see my students and on another level I'm giving a lecture and laughing at my own jokes all by myself and it really felt insane. So, it's good that I don't look like I'm talking into a laptop. But you get my larger point, which is that we have strong feelings, but often we have them in isolation. And that's not helpful. It's not helpful to us, and it's not helpful to spreading the word. And how much outrage and how much resistance there is out there, that people aren't a minority in hating what's going on. They're the majority.

[00:31:52]That's so important to get across.

[00:31:55]Um, there's more. Uh, there's a protest every Tuesday in Fullerton.

[00:32:01]Um, you guys are great. Um, oh, and yes, Annie. Yes, Ros. So, Rosie, oddly enough, Rosie is like, I'm not going to take this personally.

[00:32:16]Rosie seemingly puts herself to bed the minute I start doing this. She she's nestled up against her little toy. I'm not going to take that personally. Um but indeed she has put herself to bed as she has for many a night. So yes, we are the majority. Never forget that. Um we are and all of the ways in which we can think of to resist and act on to resist will prove that point again and again and again.

[00:32:51]That's important. Okay. So, um, yes, Rosie, her work is done. And, and yes, she did. She had a very active day. I the I was cleaning in the apartment.

[00:33:04]Vacuum cleaners are not good things for small green birds. She had a very active day. Um, so yes, she she I relax her or else I bore her. I'm not even going to think about it. But at any rate, that is what I wanted to discuss tonight. Um, group hug is a fine idea. Um, someone saw protesters in SG's Park in Colorado.

[00:33:26]Look at you guys. Um, okay.

[00:33:31]Here we go. It's hutzbah time as someone always says. Um, we need hutzbah. We need a hell of a lot of hutzbah. We need buckets and buckets of hutzbah. Um, and we've got it, but we're going to need a lot more in in coming months. Um, we need a lot of host, but we've got it.

[00:33:51]We're going to need even more. We got to We have to stand up and be loud, folks.

[00:33:57]And we need to stand up and be loud with others, uh, with family, with friends, with community, with strangers. Um, we have to find ways to alert people to the fact that we the people exist.

[00:34:14]There's a we. There is. People might not know it's there, but it is. There's a big Wii. And people need to know that they're part of it and that that matters. The whistle of we. It will become the whistle of we yet again tonight.

[00:34:29]Also, we need to be strong and of good courage. Always, always, always. We already are. We already are. I'm I'm proud of us for being strong and of good courage. But we need to keep being strong and of good courage. Um, which I know we can do. Um, and last but definitely not least, I love you all for being here. For being here night after night, for being engaged, for saying again and again, as an is just saying, stronger together we are.

[00:35:07]That's the magic of this kind of community. It does some of the work that I'm talking about here that there's a wei.

[00:35:15]Here we are being a wei from all over the place. From in the United States, from outside of the United States, from all over the place that's an that's a miracle in its way, folks. And that is what will help us move ahead. Community, community, community, community. And that is what we are here every time we get together and meet. And you can take that spirit and spread it wherever you are. The more community the better because community equals we and we are the power.

[00:35:51]Period.

[00:35:54]Okay. Um I am going to wish everyone a good night. Uh tomorrow morning, Friday morning, 10 a.m. Eastern time, history matters, I will be talking about China.

[00:36:08]uh and what it reveals about us now and what it's revealed about us in the past.

[00:36:12]I have a really comical Thomas Jefferson quote that I will not give you now, but I will give you tomorrow. It just made me laugh out loud uh on some thoughts he had about China. Um I'll I'll keep you in suspense. But tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.m., same bat time, same bat channel, you'll be able to beam in through my YouTube channel. Uh and in the meantime, everyone have a good night's sleep. Um, I think uh Heather and I will be doing our thing on Saturday. I may be back tomorrow night and or Saturday night. I don't know. But I'll be back very soon on an evening near you. So, more of me than you ever wanted. Um, but the most immediate place I'll be in the future is uh online at History Matters 10:00 a.m.

[00:36:58]tomorrow. Sleep well, everybody. Sleep well. Uh, go give somebody a hug. And I will see a bunch of you tomorrow. Bye everybody.