Category Archives: Current Affairs

Watergate Reruns, Richard Burr & Other Pipe Dreams

Today, after the Comey firing & many other shocks, some of us are hoping to see this story re-enacted in and around today’s Senate, complete with Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman skulking in the background.
Unfortunately, one of our wiser peers, retired editor & columnist Edwin Yoder, has just thrown a big bucket of ice water on these nostalgic fantasies. In the Raleigh NC News & Observer, he lays out the more realistic, gloomy scenarios:

“Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been touted by some admirers as a potential reincarnation of the late Sen. Sam Ervin. Ervin’s Senate select committee on campaign abuses began the unwinding of the Watergate scandal. . . .

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Breaking: Barber Goes National – Updated

The Kairos Center [an organization created by Union Theological Seminary inNew York City] is excited to announce that the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II will be transitioning out of his role as the president of the North Carolina Conference of the NAACP in June, in order to join the growing leadership of the New Poor People’s Campaign. [The New PPC is a project of the Kairos Center.] The North Carolina NAACP announced the news in a press release this morning,

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Never Mind Armageddon: World War III Is Coming First — I’ve Seen the Secret Plan

And you better read fast, because according to this source, D-Day for what they’re confidently calling “Operation Clean Sweep” is 1500 hours (3 PM for civilians) Central Daylight Time in “early May.” (BTW come to think of it, I’m writing this post in “early May,” and it’s past 3PM; so maybe today is not this extra “Mother’s Day.” Maybe.)

Perhaps you’re tempted to snicker, or even guffaw at all this, especially considering the source.

Well, laugh if you want, but be careful, because maybe the joke is on you.

After all, this blogger is rather late coming to the party involving exploring the ties between this paper and the Oval Office guy. Much bigger, weightier media types have been all over it for quite awhile.

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Gorsuch Defended Torture: That should END His Nomination

In the Iraq War which was launched in 2003, one of the worst of its many horrors was the use of torture. I have protested that practice for more than ten years, calling for ACCOUNTABILITY for those who created, justified and/or carried out that program.

This week you have the chance to HOLD ACCOUNTABLE one of those who justified official torture: NEIL GORSUCH. As reported by your colleague Senator Dianne Feinstein, as a white House lawyer Gorsuch justified torture and advised on ways officials could evade accountability for it. (Details here: http://bit.ly/2nYHgUZ )

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Ringing Spring’s Bell for Continued Quaker Resistance

The talk was lively and nonstop, even with breaks. The gathering moved almost seamlessly into broader issue discussion, with resource people as participants, to consider ways to keep moving and build cooperation and momentum.
The Consultation was not aimed at producing resolutions or a new organization, but to assist in encouraging and facilitating cooperation for continued resistance. Encouragement also seemed in plentiful supply, and we closed with some music, from Scott Holmes, who doubles as an aggressive lawyer fighting mass incarceration when he’s not writing songs. He’d written a new resistance song just for us.
Perhaps this model of locally-driven multi-issue and multi-group consultations would be of use to other Meetings. It is neither expensive nor complicated, and the organizing was done by a small cadre of volunteers, using social media as the main means of promotion. And one of its most welcome outcomes was a lift in spirits. We’ll all need more of those; there’s still much to ring the resistance bell about.

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