Joy Behar thinks the people of East Palestine, OH got what they deserve because they voted for Trump. The National Transportation Safety Board says the braking regulation rolled back under congressional pressure by Donald Trump would not actually have impacted the derailment. It was a different issue. But Behar does not care. She does not like those people because they voted for Trump.
From 1000 feet, we see enemy lines. From a few feet away, we see neighbors, co-workers, and people we interact with every day. Let's start there and be real. Let crazy town on both sides tweet away.
I know you write this with your heart, head and sense of history informing your words. Fact is we are in a different place. I believe what you write is possible, but it will take a national awakening the type of which we’re seeing on some college campuses. It’s the only way. Driving God and spirituality out of the public square is the cause. Bringing both back is the only path forward…
Really don’t like it when you push so hard for the “fairness on all sides” position. I would really like to see you use your influence to push back on the lies and idiocracy that is pushed so aggressively toward the center and center right.
When is the last time you saw a conservative say “they got what they deserved” like the Joys did?
Come on Erick….you have the platform just be a bit more aggressive about the leftist lies and smugness.
As for MTG….just ignore her….but, I did like her SOTU shoutout. The lies were just piling up….uncontested.
My better angels say it is always best not to make personal attacks, but to stick to the issues. The issue that stumps me is how we come together as a nation when there are two very different goals for the country?
Erick, I started reading paragraph 7 and my heart started pumping with positive passion. Not until I saw ‘better angels of our nature’ did I realize it was Lincoln’s words, not yours, but an excellent quote.
I think except for slavery, Northern and Southern citizens of Lincoln's time largely agreed on most things. I’d suggest that the extra-biological positions of those on the left, men can become women, etc., are a huge strain on unity. But the fringes, I think mostly of the left, have a very large megaphone.
Super response...stand above the decisiveness...focus on legitimate discourse and exchange of opinions...point out, unabashedly, those who through ignorance or intent seek to harm and destroy.
If my suppositions are correct, then the chemicals might not have needed to be burned off at the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck had the tanker cars containing the explosive materials been placed at least one car away from any other such tanker.
When I worked -- decades ago -- for a mega-railroad, I was told by our Environmental Protection people that yardmasters assembling trains at classification yards weren't supposed to place next to one another tank cars containing hazardous materials. The intent was to prevent huge fires in the event of a derailment.
The pictures at the East Palestine wreck strike me, at least, as having had tank cars containing highly flammable materials riding next to one another.
I've seen no reporting on this. Were the cars carrying explosive chemicals -- Vinyl chloride,
Butyl acrylate, Ethylhexyl acrylate and Ethylene glycol monobutyl --riding the rails next to one another?
What federal rules must railroads follow when classifying tanker cars loaded with "hazardous materials?" I've read since the train wreck that the chemicals weren't classified as "hazardous" by federal railroad regulations, but they certainly were highly explosive, once set afire.
Does that mean that the yardmaster who assembled the 150-car train could legally put the tankers containing these chemicals next to one another?
In general, Republicans have sought to unite and Democrats after JFK... and certainly more recently, since "love their guns and religion" commenting Obama... have taken the path of political divisiveness.
There is a good reason for that shift. It has to do with the fact that Democrat ideas were not working. And nothing they were bringing to the table in the liberal progressive box was appealing to the majority of the voters. They knew it... and they saw the political winds.
So they went negative.
And it worked.
And Trump noted it. He also noted the Democrat shedding of the forgotten American working-class as it morphed into the party of big-money corporatism and coastal elitism... basically HIS people.
And so Trump took out that same playbook page and went negative against the Democrats and all they connect to.
And it worked.
Until 2020 when establishment Republicans elected the divisive Democrats back in power because they could not stand the divisive Republican in power.
And here is the final honest critical thinker question that all Republicans need to ask themselves. Will attacking and destroying those divisive fighters within your own party lead to a better outcome for the country? Asked another way, do you really think at this time in our current state of politics, media and everything else that Reaganesk Republican leader(s) can emerge and lead the country to a new cooperative and better outcome?
Or, are the foundational structures of our political and media system so corrupted, and Democrats so successful in the acquisition of power to persuade and influence voters to hate each other so that they can harvest the political benefits from the division, that Republicans have no choice to to bring the same fire to the fight?
Or to simplify the question, what approach will actually work to save the country?
AMEN! I have long said the right candidate should focus on the 75% that binds us instead of the 25% that divides us. I just read a story this morning about Reagan's speech at the opening of the Carter Presidential Center in 1986. While acknowledging their differences, Reagan chose to praise Carter for his service to the nation and for those things they could agree upon like race, science, and human rights. He finished by saying "Our differences attest to the greatness of this nation. For I can think of no other country on Earth where two political leaders could disagree so widely, yet come together in mutual respect. To paraphrase Mr. Jefferson: We are all Democrats, we are all Republicans, because we are all Americans."
"If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. " (Romans 12:18) I would concur that we should not see others as enemies and although I do not want to see a civil war in this nation the sentiment is out there and growing. In my mind, abortion is the moral issue of our time. And after that Dobbs decision, to paraphrase Lincoln, "this nation cannot survive half-life and half infanticide". As we sort ourselves out as abortion destination states and pro-life states, a split may be coming. And not to see that, is to stick your head in the sand.
And in a similar vein, can we come together as a nation when there seems to be two different goals for the country? And it is not just abortion. How about chemical and surgical mutilation of children? I am not giving an inch on that issue.
I liked this post! And I especially liked this part ... "We all all use more grace and charity towards each other to think differently, vote differently, work differently, live differently, and still be American together." I would hope that you could be an example and let grace soften your feelings toward former President Donald Trump. He may not be as polished as other presidents, but there is no doubt that he loves America! He accomplished a lot ... especially in spite of having no former political experience and with enemies all around him. He did make America Great, only to have to watch it be diminished again. That should anger and frustrate us all.
Using Behar's logic, all the democrats who voted for Biden and now can't make ends meet every month got what they voted for. I think she is nasty and twisted and representative of the problematic logic of the left.
From 1000 feet, we see enemy lines. From a few feet away, we see neighbors, co-workers, and people we interact with every day. Let's start there and be real. Let crazy town on both sides tweet away.
I love this piece, Erick. thank you for the encouragement.
I know you write this with your heart, head and sense of history informing your words. Fact is we are in a different place. I believe what you write is possible, but it will take a national awakening the type of which we’re seeing on some college campuses. It’s the only way. Driving God and spirituality out of the public square is the cause. Bringing both back is the only path forward…
Really don’t like it when you push so hard for the “fairness on all sides” position. I would really like to see you use your influence to push back on the lies and idiocracy that is pushed so aggressively toward the center and center right.
When is the last time you saw a conservative say “they got what they deserved” like the Joys did?
Come on Erick….you have the platform just be a bit more aggressive about the leftist lies and smugness.
As for MTG….just ignore her….but, I did like her SOTU shoutout. The lies were just piling up….uncontested.
My better angels say it is always best not to make personal attacks, but to stick to the issues. The issue that stumps me is how we come together as a nation when there are two very different goals for the country?
Erick, I started reading paragraph 7 and my heart started pumping with positive passion. Not until I saw ‘better angels of our nature’ did I realize it was Lincoln’s words, not yours, but an excellent quote.
I think except for slavery, Northern and Southern citizens of Lincoln's time largely agreed on most things. I’d suggest that the extra-biological positions of those on the left, men can become women, etc., are a huge strain on unity. But the fringes, I think mostly of the left, have a very large megaphone.
Super response...stand above the decisiveness...focus on legitimate discourse and exchange of opinions...point out, unabashedly, those who through ignorance or intent seek to harm and destroy.
If my suppositions are correct, then the chemicals might not have needed to be burned off at the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck had the tanker cars containing the explosive materials been placed at least one car away from any other such tanker.
When I worked -- decades ago -- for a mega-railroad, I was told by our Environmental Protection people that yardmasters assembling trains at classification yards weren't supposed to place next to one another tank cars containing hazardous materials. The intent was to prevent huge fires in the event of a derailment.
The pictures at the East Palestine wreck strike me, at least, as having had tank cars containing highly flammable materials riding next to one another.
I've seen no reporting on this. Were the cars carrying explosive chemicals -- Vinyl chloride,
Butyl acrylate, Ethylhexyl acrylate and Ethylene glycol monobutyl --riding the rails next to one another?
What federal rules must railroads follow when classifying tanker cars loaded with "hazardous materials?" I've read since the train wreck that the chemicals weren't classified as "hazardous" by federal railroad regulations, but they certainly were highly explosive, once set afire.
Does that mean that the yardmaster who assembled the 150-car train could legally put the tankers containing these chemicals next to one another?
To be fair, I sometimes think that big cities get the crime that they voted for
In general, Republicans have sought to unite and Democrats after JFK... and certainly more recently, since "love their guns and religion" commenting Obama... have taken the path of political divisiveness.
There is a good reason for that shift. It has to do with the fact that Democrat ideas were not working. And nothing they were bringing to the table in the liberal progressive box was appealing to the majority of the voters. They knew it... and they saw the political winds.
So they went negative.
And it worked.
And Trump noted it. He also noted the Democrat shedding of the forgotten American working-class as it morphed into the party of big-money corporatism and coastal elitism... basically HIS people.
And so Trump took out that same playbook page and went negative against the Democrats and all they connect to.
And it worked.
Until 2020 when establishment Republicans elected the divisive Democrats back in power because they could not stand the divisive Republican in power.
And here is the final honest critical thinker question that all Republicans need to ask themselves. Will attacking and destroying those divisive fighters within your own party lead to a better outcome for the country? Asked another way, do you really think at this time in our current state of politics, media and everything else that Reaganesk Republican leader(s) can emerge and lead the country to a new cooperative and better outcome?
Or, are the foundational structures of our political and media system so corrupted, and Democrats so successful in the acquisition of power to persuade and influence voters to hate each other so that they can harvest the political benefits from the division, that Republicans have no choice to to bring the same fire to the fight?
Or to simplify the question, what approach will actually work to save the country?
Would it be possible to exchange Marjorie Taylor Greene for Russian political prisoner Alexei Navalny? Both would be happier, I think.
AMEN! I have long said the right candidate should focus on the 75% that binds us instead of the 25% that divides us. I just read a story this morning about Reagan's speech at the opening of the Carter Presidential Center in 1986. While acknowledging their differences, Reagan chose to praise Carter for his service to the nation and for those things they could agree upon like race, science, and human rights. He finished by saying "Our differences attest to the greatness of this nation. For I can think of no other country on Earth where two political leaders could disagree so widely, yet come together in mutual respect. To paraphrase Mr. Jefferson: We are all Democrats, we are all Republicans, because we are all Americans."
When I read things like This I want to weep. Because I’m not hopeful that will will ever see that kind of respect again.
"If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. " (Romans 12:18) I would concur that we should not see others as enemies and although I do not want to see a civil war in this nation the sentiment is out there and growing. In my mind, abortion is the moral issue of our time. And after that Dobbs decision, to paraphrase Lincoln, "this nation cannot survive half-life and half infanticide". As we sort ourselves out as abortion destination states and pro-life states, a split may be coming. And not to see that, is to stick your head in the sand.
And in a similar vein, can we come together as a nation when there seems to be two different goals for the country? And it is not just abortion. How about chemical and surgical mutilation of children? I am not giving an inch on that issue.
I liked this post! And I especially liked this part ... "We all all use more grace and charity towards each other to think differently, vote differently, work differently, live differently, and still be American together." I would hope that you could be an example and let grace soften your feelings toward former President Donald Trump. He may not be as polished as other presidents, but there is no doubt that he loves America! He accomplished a lot ... especially in spite of having no former political experience and with enemies all around him. He did make America Great, only to have to watch it be diminished again. That should anger and frustrate us all.
Using Behar's logic, all the democrats who voted for Biden and now can't make ends meet every month got what they voted for. I think she is nasty and twisted and representative of the problematic logic of the left.
I keep coming back to "love thy neighbor as thy self" and also "he who is without sin can cast the first stone".