As we continue our Thanksgiving Fest, here's a wonderful scene from an episode of The West Wing. We're going to have a bunch of The West Wing today, because Aaron Sorkin seemed to love doing Thanksgiving shows, and they were great. This here is the Butterball Hotline scene --
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It's that time o' year, and I think it's near-impossible on Thanksgiving to not start our festival off by celebrating with this classic by Stan Freberg, from his great Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America. Here is his version of how Thanksgiving actually came about. It begins with the local mayor decided a bit of self-promotion would help him if he threw a big gala and invited some Indians to show what a great guy he was. Which leads to a Freberg gem, "Take an Indian to Lunch." And once the holiday event was decided upon, things didn't go as smoothly as plans would hope.
Heading back to What's My Line? for the Mystery Guest segment, the guest is Andy Griffith. It's a fun one, and the audience has a good time, especially when they pick up on the voice he's chosen to use to disguise himself. If you want to jump right to this part of the show, it starts around the 16:00 mark. For the longest while – years – when reading about right-wing violence and militia groups, which has only grown significantly over the last five years during Trump, enabled by the Republican Party, I’ve wanted to quote a government report I recalled about this, but haven’t been able to track it down.
I couldn’t remember exactly when it was, but thought it was written during the Obama Administration. And I couldn’t remember all the specifics it said, any points it made were general ones in my mind, too difficult to be of help in finding it. All I could remember clearly was that the report warned that far-right white nationalists were the biggest terrorist threat the United States faced. And right-wing Republicans in Congress were oh-so outraged by this that they forced the report to be edited before being accepted. I kept wanting to make the point that this all wasn’t new. That it wasn’t (subsequently) just because of Trump, but it was the base of the Republican Party, and they opened the door and built the path for Trump to walk through and build on it. But I just couldn’t find the specifics in order to reference it. Until now. Finally. That’s because the author of the report, Darryl Johnson remember his saga very well and wrote about it in the Washington Post. He published his article a couple of months ago, but other breaking news got in the way for me to bring it up. But the news the past few weeks made it all the more timely, so I’ve finally gotten around to it. The title of his piece was “I warned of right-wing violence in 2009. Republicans objected. I was right.” And the sub-heading was “White nationalists have only gotten more dangerous since then.” At the time, Johnson was a senior analyst for domestic terrorism in the Department of Homeland Security, which was headed by Janet Napolitano. As he notes at the beginning of his article, “Eight years ago, I warned of a singular threat — the resurgence of right-wing extremist activity and associated violence in the United States as a result of the 2008 presidential election, the financial crisis and the stock market crash. My intelligence report, meant only for law enforcement, was leaked by conservative media.” That’s when the political backlash hit. Johnston notes that it was because of the right-wing objection to the label “right-wing extremism.” He also was prescient in describing how returning military veterans were a target for recruitment by extremists. As he explains, “Republican lawmakers demanded then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rescind my report. The American Legion formally requested an apology to veterans. Some in Congress called for me to be fired.” And as a result of all the faux-outrage and controversy, the real tragedy was that his warning got lost by both parties. “Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security caved to the political pressure: Work related to violent right-wing extremism was halted. Law enforcement training also stopped. My unit was disbanded. And, one-by-one, my team of analysts left for other employment. By 2010, there were no intelligence analysts at DHS working domestic terrorism threats.” And the article builds on that. And the point holds: This far-right, white supremacist terrorism and violence wasn’t new. It wasn’t just because of Trump -- but it was the base of the Republican Party, who opened the door and built the flower-strewn pathway for Trump to walk through and build on it. The Republican Party did not just become fascist. They’ve been building to it. And got oh-so faux-outraged when anyone pointed it out. You can read the whole thing here. Let's head back to Richard Wiseman, the entertaining psychology professor who developed the Quirkology brand. This time, we have some more of his "10 Bets You Will Always Win." |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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