He's made it to 100, but Henry Kissinger won't live forever. His war crimes will

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday May 27, 2023 · 11:46 AM PDT

2023/05/27 · 11:46

I’m not going to belabor this with my personal views except to note that one of my tasks for a few years of my stint at the Los Angeles Times was being Henry Kissinger’s editor for the 1990s essays he wrote for the opinion pages of the Times and other papers, and the supervisor of the editors later assigned that task. Given his record and my earlier activism around the Vietnam War and U.S. policy in Latin America—a region I studied as the backbone of my two degrees—this was an almost intolerable job. It was made more so by the fact even a suggested comma change had to be cleared with him personally.

But let others tell pieces of the story. For instance, this: Henry Kissinger, War Criminal—Still at Large at 100. Excerpt:

Henry Kissinger should have gone down with the rest of them: Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean, and Nixon. His fingerprints were all over Watergate. Yet he survived—largely by playing the press.

Until 1968, Kissinger had been a Nelson Rockefeller Republican—though he also served as an adviser to the State Department in the Johnson administration. Kissinger was stunned by Richard Nixon’s defeat of Rockefeller in the primaries, according to the journalists Marvin and Bernard Kalb. “He wept,” they wrote. Kissinger believed Nixon was “the most dangerous, of all the men running, to have as President.”

It wasn’t long, though, before Kissinger had opened a back channel to Nixon’s people, offering to use his contacts in the Johnson White House to leak information about the peace talks with North Vietnam. Still a Harvard professor, he dealt directly with Nixon’s foreign policy adviser, Richard V. Allen, who in an interview given to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia said that Kissinger, “on his own,” offered to pass along information he had received from an aide attending the peace talks. Allen described Kissinger as acting very cloak-and-dagger, calling him from pay phones and speaking in German to report on what had happened during the talks.

Nixon campaign, “They’re breaking out the champagne in Paris.” Hours later, President Johnson suspended the bombing. A peace deal might have pushed Hubert Humphrey, who was closing in on Nixon in the polls, over the top. Nixon’s people acted quickly; they urged the South Vietnamese to derail the talks.

Through wiretaps and intercepts, President Johnson learned that Nixon’s campaign was telling the South Vietnamese “to hold on until after the election.” If the White House had gone public with this information, the outrage might also have swung the election to Humphrey. But Johnson hesitated. “This is treason,” he said, as quoted in Ken Hughes’s excellent Chasing Shadows: The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate. “It would rock the world.”

Johnson stayed silent. Nixon won. The war went on. [...]

And this: Henry Kissinger is 100, but his legacy is still shaping how US foreign policy works. How Kissinger centralized White House power, went corporate, and never apologized. Excerpt:

In 2001, firebrand author Christopher Hitchens made the case in The Trial of Henry Kissinger that Kissinger was liable for war crimes. At the time, Kissinger sought assurances before doing media interviews that the book would not be raised. He still rarely answers reporters’ questions about the Vietnam War.

Kissinger has been the original “don’t apologize and just tweet through it.” It’s part of how Reagan, Bush, and Trump have persevered and survived — Kissinger modeled that you can play foreign policy like chess and not have to answer domestically for the disastrous consequences in other countries. And it’s had a major impact on the way leaders subsequently have conducted themselves internationally. “The methods employed by Nixon and Kissinger to circumvent democratic scrutiny of foreign policy have since become standard; they were deployed recently to discredit critics of and spread disinformation about the invasion of Iraq,” historian Greg Grandin has written.

“He’s never apologized,” Carolyn Eisenberg, a professor of history at Hofstra University, told me. And this says as much about the foreign policy establishment as Kissinger himself. “It’s taking place in a context where the damage of these policies has not really been acknowledged — the killing of huge amounts of people in Laos, and Cambodia, and the list goes on.”

As Eisenberg said, “The fact that Kissinger’s kind of immune from criticism is a consequence of that larger failure.” [...]

And this:

Blood On His Hands: Survivors of Kissinger’s Secret War in Cambodia Reveal Unreported Mass Killings:

Key Takeaways

Henry Kissinger is responsible for more civilian deaths in Cambodia than was previously known, according to an exclusive archive of U.S. military documents and groundbreaking interviews with Cambodian survivors and American witnesses.

The archive offers previously unpublished, unreported, and underappreciated evidence of hundreds of civilian casualties that were kept secret during the war and remain almost entirely unknown to the American people.

Previously unpublished interviews with more than 75 Cambodian witnesses and survivors of U.S. military attacks reveal new details of the long-term trauma borne by survivors of the American war.

Experts say Kissinger bears significant responsibility for attacks in Cambodia that killed as many as 150,000 civilians — six times more noncombatants than the United States has killed in airstrikes since 9/11.

When questioned about these deaths, Kissinger responded with sarcasm and refused to provide answers.

And if you’ve got the time, Hitchens’ book itself: The Trial of Henry Kissinger.

Earth Matters: Texas Republicans tried to ax renewables; gallows humor as climate anxiety therapy?

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Thursday May 25, 2023 · 4:57 PM PDT

2023/05/25 · 16:57

COLORADO CITY, TX - JANUARY 21: Wind turbines are viewed at a wind farm on January 21, 2016 in Colorado City, Texas. Wind power accounted for 8.3 percent of the electricity generated in Texas during 2013. Texas, which in just the last five years has tripled its oil production and delivered hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy, is looking at what could be a sustained downturn in oil prices. Oil, which has now fallen to under $30 a barrel, has forced many oil companies to let go of workers and to abandon future projects. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) — Wind farm near Colorado City, Texas.

A few weeks ago, BloombergNEF released an analysis projecting that by 2030 a phenomenal increase of 600 gigawatts of solar and wind energy capacity could be added in the United States. Enough to provide electricity to 100 million Americans. For comparison, the U.S. now has about 1,200 gigawatts of capacity from all sources. Natural gas makes up about 44% of that capacity and coal about 19%, a sharp drop for the latter over the past 30 years. Solar and wind now make up 15% of capacity and are growing fast. The other clean sources—nuclear, hydro, geothermal, biomass—make up all but a couple of percentage points of the rest.

These numbers are in tremendous flux. That, in part, is because solar and wind plus back-up storage are now the cheapest way to go when building new electricity-generating projects. Last year, U.S. utility-scale solar output rose 60% over the previous year. This is extremely encouraging, and despite the expected collection of start-up hiccups, the Biden tax credits and other incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act seem to already be having significant positive effects on proposed renewables projects despite the Federal Reserve’s relentless effort to drop-kick the economy into the next recession.

But there are obstacles. In state after state, many Republicans and a few Democrats are undermining the green transition, in particular solar and wind farms. Texas is a prime example

The state has a long history in the energy biz. Oil. Big Oil. Little OIl. Wildcatter Oil. And natural gas, of course, although historically and still today, they’ve flared off more of that since the first oil well was drilled than they’ve pulled up for domestic use and export. But wind power is also a big deal in the Lone Star State. In fact, last year 15,000 wind turbines generated close to 32% and solar about 9% of the state’s electricity. That’s compared with 42% from natural gas.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Tuesday May 23, 2023 · 2:03 PM PDT

2023/05/23 · 14:03

DETROIT, MI - JUNE 24: A flag spray painted with Defend Abortion hangs on a fence outside where abortion rights activists gather to protest the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health case on June 24, 2022 in Detroit, Michigan. The Court's decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health case overturns the landmark 50-year-old Roe v Wade case, removing a federal right to an abortion. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images)

“Since 1977, there have been 11 murders, 42 bombings, 200 arsons, 531 assaults, 492 clinic invasions, 375 burglaries, and thousands of other incidents of criminal activities directed at patients, providers, and volunteers [at the nation’s abortion clinics].”—National Abortion Federation

Two weeks ago, the National Abortion Federation published its annual assessment of violence, threats, and disruptions against abortion clinics and the professionals and volunteers who work at them, as well as patients seeking their services. NAF cataloged an increase in 2022 for most of these threats and attacks.

Last year, there was a 231% rise in burglaries, a 229% rise in stalking, a 100% rise in arsons, a 25% rise in clinic invasions, and a 20% rise in threats of harm and death threats. Many of these crimes took place in states that are protective of reproductive rights, including abortion.

From the report:

he 2022 statistics show a decrease in some activities, including trespassing and assault and battery, which are likely attributed to clinic closures. In 2022, dozens of clinics across the country were forced to close as a result of state-level abortion bans and anti-abortion extremism. Some of the closed clinics were unable to report any data in 2022 and others only reported for part of the year. These closures account for some decreases in incidents, including reports of assault & battery as one of the clinics that closed had reported more than 100 incidents in 2021 and reported no data for 2022. We also suspect underreporting in some categories due to provider fatigue, staff turnover, and some clinics not having the staff or capacity to monitor or report protesters or other anti-abortion activity, especially as they managed surges inpatients.

We have also seen anti-abortion individuals and groups begin to use encrypted communication tools and services like Signal, Telegram, Discord, and Session. These tools allow extremists to coordinate and share anti-abortion sentiment, actions, and tactics more privately and anonymously. This shift likely contributed to a slight decrease in the incidents of hate email/internet harassment that we were able to document in 2022.

Fortunately, since 2009, no more abortion providers have been gunned down at a clinic, church, or home. That clearly doesn’t mean the threat has vanished.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Thursday May 18, 2023 · 5:11 PM PDT

2023/05/18 · 17:11

Lake Powell release of water to clear sediment and rebuild sandbars and the like to emulate the normal scouring of the Grand Canyon before the dam was built. — Managers at the Glen Canyon Dam released a vast amount of water from Lake Powell two weeks ago to clear sediment and rebuild sandbars and the like to emulate the normal scouring of the Grand Canyon before the dam was built. This was the first time in decades that this kind of surge happened in spring instead of later in the year.

A few weeks ago, Lake Powell fell to levels it hadn’t seen since the Colorado River was dammed to create it in 1963. At the same time downstream, Lake Mead, the largest U.S. reservoir by capacity, fell lower than it had been since 1937 when the Hoover Dam began backing up the river. The alarm bells scientists and some officials had been ringing since 2000 have gotten a lot louder in the past couple of years because the lakes and the hydroelectric dams that enclose them are the lifeblood of farmers, Indigenous tribes, and cities in seven states. By late 2021, some of the talk about the region’s two-decade-long megadrought had become positively apocalyptic, with disaster perceived as imminent.

But then came this winter’s stunningly wet weather throughout much of the West, adding high levels—record levels in parts of southern Colorado—to the Rocky Mountain snowpack that melts each spring and summer to feed the river. Levels of both lakes have risen substantially in the spring run-off, and the big melt has only just gotten underway with the arrival of warmer temperatures.

Consequently, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a division of the Department of Interior that oversees the dams, has revised upward its projections for what lake levels will look like at the water-year’s end on Sept. 30. Expectations now are that Lake Powell will reach 70 feet higher than it was at the end of last September. Already, the rising water has allowed managers at the lake to release more water than usual faster than usual in an experiment to see whether such surges can help rehabilitate wildlife and ecosystems along the Grand Canyon. The release, of course, also raises water levels at Lake Mead, which is already making recreational visitors happy.

While the change is a welcome relief, experts warn that the crisis isn’t over and improvement this year is likely to be temporary. Bart Leeflang, the Colorado River program manager for the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, told Scott Dance at The Washington Post, “It’s maybe a year’s worth of breathing room. The crisis is still very real and very much in front of us.” At best, that 70-foot rise would mean raising the lake’s current level from 20% of its capacity to 30%, he said. “It’s not massive gains.” The bureau forecasts that at the end of July the lake will hit 39% of capacity. Right now, both lakes together are at 26%.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 16, 2023 · 6:52 PM PDT

2023/05/16 · 18:52

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 27: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) attends the confirmation hearing for Secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee Denis McDonough before the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill January 27, 2021 in Washington, DC. Previously McDonough was White House Chief of Staff and Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. (Photo by Leigh Vogel-Pool/Getty Images) — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III

Sen. Joe Manchin did everything in the power granted him by the narrow Democratic margin in the Senate to butcher the Biden administration’s plans to invest $3.5 trillion over 10 years into energy-related and environmental justice-related programs. But he came around eventually to support the $369 billion reconciliation bill that includes an unprecedented amount of money for climate-related programs over 10 years. Thus, this Inflation Reduction Act will provide about 3.75% of what will be spent by the Department of Defense over that decade.

And though advocates of the climate-related investment breathed a sigh of relief last year that at least something positive was ultimately hammered out, the price paid for Manchin’s support was several provisions promoting new fossil fuel projects, one of which—coal—has made Manchin a rich man.

For the past few months, however, he has been bellyaching about the details of how the tax credits for electric vehicles and clean energy will operate. He’s blasted Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and threatened to sue. The IRA provisions, he has claimed, were not about climate but rather energy security—in case you’re curious, that’s code for expanded U.S. production of fossil fuels.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Thursday May 11, 2023 · 4:03 PM PDT

2023/05/11 · 16:03

An activist from the climate action group Extinction Rebellion holds placards as they march from the offices of oil and gas company Shell, towards Parliament Square, in central London on September 8, 2020. (Photo by ISABEL INFANTES / AFP) (Photo by ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty Images) — An activist from the climate action group Extinction Rebellion holds placards as they march from the offices of oil and gas company Shell, towards Parliament Square, in central London on September 8, 2020.

Last week, the oil giant Shell posted a first quarter profit of $9.65 billion, up from $9.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022. It put $6 billion of that into stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. This wasn’t the highest ever quarterly profit for the world’s fourth largest oil company. For the final three months of 2022, Shell reported $9.8 billion in profit, and a record annual profit of $40 billion. That’s more in one quarter than the average of what the Inflation Reduction Act was originally expected to lay out on a yearly basis to address the climate crisis.

Meanwhile, according to Dutch climate activist Vatan Hüzeir, as reported by Birte Schohaus and Merel de Buck at the investigative journalism site Follow the Money, Shell, like Exxon-Mobil and others, has known for a very long time that its operations risked dire consequences for the Earth. In 1986, its own internal study—The Greenhouse Effect noted that “The environment may be degraded to such an extent that some parts of earth will become uninhabitable.’”

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Thursday May 11, 2023 · 9:48 AM PDT

2023/05/11 · 09:48

A woman walks past a working oil pumpjack in front of million dollar homes in Signal Hill, Los Angeles County, California, on February 17, 2022, where gas prices have hit an all-time high. - Oil was first discovered in Signal Hill in 1921 and California was once the source of one-quarter of the world's entire oil output but Los Angeles last month voted to ban new oil and gas wells and phase out old ones over five years. While Hollywood, palm trees and sunny skies may be the popular image of the second biggest city in the United States, the metropolis is also the largest urban oil field in the country. Thousands of active wells sit in densely populated and mostly low-income neighborhoods, abutting schools, homes, parks, shopping malls or cemeteries. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) — A woman walks past an oil pumpjack in front of million-dollar homes in Signal Hill, Los Angeles County, California.

A new study published this week in the peer-reviewed “Environmental Research: Health” found that polluting emissions from oil and gas production were responsible for 7,500 premature deaths in the United States in 2022, 410,000 asthma attacks, and 2,200 additional cases of child asthma. Besides the deaths, the emissions also had other impacts, from heart attacks to birth defects and pregnancy complications, for a tally of $77 million in health damages.

Mind you, that’s not from burning fossil fuels. It is just for extracting and making them ready to burn. These processes also create methane emissions in the form of leaks and intentional venting; methane can help contribute to the formation of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5, also known as soot) and ozone. The study was based on 2016 data because that was all that was available when the research began. Given the rise in production, the number of premature deaths and health impacts may be greater.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Friday May 05, 2023 · 8:41 AM PDT

2023/05/05 · 08:41

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 30: U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questions former FBI Director James Comey, who was appearing remotely, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. Comey was testifying in the committee's probe into the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. (Photo by Ken Cedeno-Pool/Getty Images) — Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse slammed Republican debt ceiling bill's attempt to demolish energy tax credits.

It’s no surprise a U.S. senator with an appalling lifetime score of 6% from the League of Conservation Voters for his environmental votes and a history of rejecting climate science would ridicule Democratic actions to address the impacts of the global warming crisis. At a debt ceiling hearing of the Senate Budget Committee Thursday, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas attacked Democratic green policies generally and remarked, “Jupiter is the Roman god of climate and weather. Indra was the Hindu god; Horus the Egyptian god of climate and weather; Zeus, the Greek mythology god. I ask you: Who is America’s climate god. Is it John Kerry? Is it Al Gore? Why do we get this religious experience with climate rather than using common sense?”

If your gag reflex gets triggered any time a Republican talks about somebody’s lack of common sense, you’re not alone. Notice that Marshall didn’t mention Koalemos, the Greek god of stupidity.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Wednesday May 03, 2023 · 6:49 AM PDT

2023/05/03 · 06:49

Gov. J. Pritzler signs assault weapons bills Jan. 10, 2023 — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs assault weapons ban

From the first one passed by California 34 years ago to the most recent one passed by Washington last month, state assault weapons bans, typically including a limit on the capacity of ammunition magazines, have sparked sharp division and litigation. But none has ever been ruled on by the Supreme Court. This could be about to change. Since I first speculated on this one month ago, even more challenges to these bans have begun working their way through the lower courts. Given that judges in these courts have issued opposite rulings on various bans—including last month in Illinois—it seems inevitable the Supreme Court will soon have to review one or a consolidated group of these cases to bring clarity to the situation.

One reason for renewed litigation is that assault weapons bans were proposed in several states in the past 12 months. Besides Washington, Delaware enacted a ban in June, and Illinois enacted its ban in January. But Colorado failed to get a ban out of committee, which was likewise the case in New Mexico. In Michigan, where several new gun laws were passed this session, the legislature pointedly avoided taking up a ban. In all five of those states, Democrats control both houses of the legislature, and the governorships. In a special legislative session called by the Republican governor but not yet scheduled, Tennessee will also take up a ban bill that is almost certainly doomed to failure, along with some other proposed reforms. As it stands now, 10 states plus the District of Columbia have assault weapons bans on the books. But all of them may fail to survive judicial scrutiny, which could happen soon.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 28, 2023 · 11:52 AM PDT

2023/04/28 · 11:52

From rejecting climate science to impugning stepmothers, scarcely a day goes by without Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene delivering some unfactual, bigoted, or otherwise outrageous remark that gains her yet another round of media attention. That, of course, is her point. With that attention comes a lot of head-shaking and eye-rolling, but also more campaign cash.

Amplifying this incendiary political hooligan’s spew has benefits for Democrats, of course. As J. Miles Coleman, an election analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told E&E News, “The Democrats are very much going to want to make people like Marjorie Taylor Greene the face of the Republican Party, even if that is fair or not.” Indeed, after her Wednesday remarks in Congress that the “climate’s always changing” and “people are not affecting” it, Rep. Ted Lieu of California tweeted: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is the face of @HouseGOP.”

If those moderate Republicans some media like to fantasize about were truly moderate, they would have long ago done something to stop Greene from being the party’s face. Instead, she’s been exalted, just as GOP extremists in general have been. She’s rapidly becoming one of the most recognized faces in America, period. Truly sickening.

Don’t get me wrong. This trash-talker deserves being relentlessly trashed, her antics dissected. But, personally, I’d like to see media (and diary) coverage of what she and other extremist Republicans say and do——in Congress and state legislatures—balanced with coverage of the right-on remarks and actions of Democrats. The contrast is what we’re about, right?

Here’s just one example:

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Heritage Foundation's latest blueprint for wrecking the federal gov't was published Friday

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Monday April 24, 2023 · 10:31 AM PDT

2023/04/24 · 10:31

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee June 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. - Carson and Mark Calabria, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, testified before the committee on the topic of federal housing regulations. (Photo by Astrid Riecken / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ASTRID RIECKEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) — Dr. Ben Carson authored the Heritage Foundation's Housing and Urban Development chapter of its new blueprint for remaking the federal government.

Hoping perhaps to gain some new relevance after 50 years of pushing its reactionary agenda, the Heritage Foundation on Friday published the latest edition of its “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” a rightist manifesto of 900 pages spread over 30 chapters—some of it written by former Trump officials—on how to wreck federal agencies, including kneecapping environmental regulations.

In a statement, Heritage President Kevin Roberts said:

“For over two years, the Left has ignored the voice of everyday Americans leading to crippling inflation, biological males dominating women’s sports, rampant violence, and a crisis in education not seen in decades. Our country is all but unrecognizable.”

The authors of those 30 chapters include William Perry Pendley, who, on an acting basis, headed up the Bureau of Land Management under Trump. He wrote the chapter on the Interior Department, asserting that environmental radicals have controlled the department since the Carter administration. He didn’t mention the crooked extremist James G. Watt, who ran the Interior for two years under Ronald Reagan, or the extremist Gale Norton who ran it for five years under George W. Bush.

Ken Cuccinelli, who formerly served as a U.S. senator, attorney general of Virginia, and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, wrote the Homeland Security chapter. Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, who formerly led the Housing and Urban Development, wrote the HUD chapter.

Kelsey Burger at E&E News wrote on Friday (paywall):

Bernard McNamee, a former commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, wrote the section on the Department of Energy and FERC. And by Mandy Gunasekara, the former Trump EPA chief of staff and Heritage fellow, wrote the EPA chapter.

“The challenge of creating a conservative EPA,” she wrote, “will be to balance justified skepticism toward an agency that has long been amenable to being coopted by the Left for political ends against the need to implement the agency’s true function: protecting public health and the environment in cooperation with the states.”

Gunasekara suggests reversing or easing many environmental regulations, like on air quality and superpollutants known as hydrofluorocarbons, and removing the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program for operations not currently being regulated.

McNamee argues for “American energy dominance,” code for promoting more fossil fuel projects, and wants a future Republican administration to eliminate “climate-change interference” in Department of Energy approvals of liquefied natural gas exports.

The mandate costs $35.

Here’s the whole chapter list:

Chapter 1: White House Office, Rick Dearborn
Chapter 2: Executive Office of the President of the United States, Russ Vought
Chapter 3: Central Personnel Agencies: Donald Devine, Dennis Dean Kirk, and Paul Dans
Chapter 4: Department of Defense, Christopher Miller
Chapter 5: Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli
Chapter 6: Department of State, Kiron K. Skinner
Chapter 7: Intelligence Community, Dustin J. Carmack
Chapter 8: U.S. Agency for Global Media, Mora Namdar; Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Mike Gonzalez
Chapter 9: Agency for International Development, Max Primorac
Chapter 10: Department of Agriculture, Daren Bakst
Chapter 11: Department of Education, Lindsey M. Burke
Chapter 12: Department of Energy and Related Commissions, Bernard L. McNamee
Chapter 13: Environmental Protection Agency, Mandy M. Gunasekara
Chapter 14: Department of Health and Human Services, Roger Severino
Chapter 15: Department of Housing and Urban Development, Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD
Chapter 16: Department of the Interior, William Perry Pendley
Chapter 17: Department of Justice, Gene Hamilton
Chapter 18: Department of Labor and Related Agencies, Jonathan Berry
Chapter 19: Department of Transportation, Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Chapter 20: Department of Veterans Affairs, Brooks D. Tucker
Chapter 21: Department of Commerce, Thomas F. Gilman
Chapter 22: Department of the Treasury, William L. Walton, Stephen Moore, and David R. Burton
Chapter 23: Export-Import Bank, Veronique de Rugy and Jennifer Hazelton
Chapter 24: Federal Reserve, Paul Winfree
Chapter 25: Small Business Administration, Karen Kerrigan
Chapter 26: Trade, Peter Navarro and Kent Lassman
Chapter 27: Securities and Exchange Commission, David R. Burton; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Robert Bowes
Chapter 28: Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr
Chapter 29: Federal Election Commission, Hans A. von Spakovsky
Chapter 30: Federal Trade Commission, Adam Candeub

GOP presidential candidate Ramaswamy suggests idiotic plan to protect Taiwan from China with AR-15s

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday April 22, 2023 · 12:42 PM PDT

2023/04/22 · 12:42

This guy, who in February declared himself a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, provided the stupidest tweet I saw all last week. And that’s saying a lot given the competition. The speech that it highlighted was just as ludicrous but with more words.

Here’s how we protect Taiwan without going to war with China: open a branch of the @NRA in Taiwan, put an AR-15 in the hands of every family, and train them how to use it. That’ll give Xi Jinping a taste of American exceptionalism. pic.twitter.com/PmDYClYxll
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) April 21, 2023

Remember, these are the guys who say the AR-15 is not a battle rifle.

Sometime during the next 18 months, there is a pretty good possibility that the Supreme Court will overturn D.C.’s and all 10 state assault weapons bans on constitutional grounds, meaning a federal ban would be out of bounds too. I bet that scares Xi Jinping a hell of a lot less than it will parents of elementary school children in the U.S.

______________________________

America discovers the true meaning of 'an armed society is a polite society' by Mark Sumner

The Second Amendment is a failed experiment, and it's time for reasonable people to admit that fact by Mark Sumner

AR-15 manufacturers marketed the guns as tools for 'good' mass murder. That's the whole appeal by Hunter

New report on Uvalde mass shooting exposes why law enforcement sat on their hands for over an hour by Walter Einenkel

Washington's Assault Weapon Ban Bill clears Senate, next House vote before signed into law by Lefty Coaster

Forget your guns, we are coming for you...by vjr7121

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He's made it to 100, but Henry Kissinger won't live forever. His war crimes will

Earth Matters: Texas Republicans tried to ax renewables; gallows humor as climate anxiety therapy?

There's good reason to believe rising violence and threats against abortion clinics will get worse

Earth Matters: Lake Powell and Lake Mead are rising, but experts warn water crisis is far from over

Joe Manchin can take his Republican trope of "radical climate agenda” and shove it

Earth Matters: Shell oil makes another $10 billion profit; 14,000 'orphan' oil wells need plugging

New study: Oil and gas production exclusive of burning causes 7,500 premature U.S. deaths yearly

Earth Matters: Dems rip GOP climate cuts at Senate budget hearing; USPS's new EV vans are delayed

Illinois state's or city's assault weapons ban could be the one Supreme Court finally weighs in on

We should focus on Democratic positives at least as much as on M.T. Greene's ignorant arrogance

Heritage Foundation's latest blueprint for wrecking the federal gov't was published Friday

GOP presidential candidate Ramaswamy suggests idiotic plan to protect Taiwan from China with AR-15s