Lex Anteinternet: Hurling invectives.

We published this on March 31: 

Lex Anteinternet: Hurling invectives.: This may seem like a strange thing to put up for Easter Morning, but maybe it isn't. One of our major elected office holders in this sta...

Today, the Tribune has a very similar article by a Wyoming poet laureate, entitled:

What we say when we speak

Saturday, April 1, 1944. The closing curtain for the Axis.

Today in World War II History—April 1, 1944: Countdown to D-day: Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay (Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force) takes operational control of US naval forces for D-day.

Sarah Sundin's blog. 

There's so much good stuff on her blog today, that I thought about just not posting anything else here.  She notes, in addition to the above:

1.  The Allied Combined Bomber Offensive officially ended due to achieving air superiority over Europe.

2.  The US Fifteenth Air Force began operations to evacuate Yugoslavian partisans, women, and children.

On other topics, Task Force 58 attacked Woleai islands in an ongoing devastating aerial assault in the Caroline's.

In the Admiralities, the US occupied Ndrilo and Koniniat.

Roosevelt spoke on Victory Gardens:

I hope every American who possibly can will grow a victory garden this year. We found out last year that even the small gardens helped.

The total harvest from victory gardens was tremendous. It made the difference between scarcity and abundance. The Department of Agriculture surveys show that 42 percent of the fresh vegetables consumed in 1943 came from victory gardens. This should clearly emphasize the far-reaching importance of the victory garden program.

Because of the greatly increased demands in 1944, we will need all the food we can grow. Food still remains a first essential to winning the war. Victory gardens are of direct benefit in helping relieve manpower, transportation, and living costs as well as the food problem. Increased food requirements for our armed  (cut off at this point)

Patton spoke to US Troops in Northern Ireland.

 

Last prior edition:

Friday, March 31, 1944. Japanese command disaster.

Hurling invectives.

This may seem like a strange thing to put up for Easter Morning, but maybe it isn't.

One of our major elected office holders in this state is a Catholic.  And yet, in spite of that, he makes vile accusations against entire classes of people constantly.  Other members of the "Freedom Caucus" claim to be Christian, but their speech sure doesn't indicate it.  One, the session before last, who claimed in her native state of Illinois that Muslims worship a different God than Christians (they don't, Allah is simply the Arabic word for "God", and while they may understand God's nature differently than we do, they worship the same God) claimed that "we are not our brother's keeper".  The hard populist right around here frequently cites to religion, even if they are not all the same religion.  

Christ could be angry, as his chasing the money changers out of the Temple indicates.  We have to wonder what will occur to a Presidential candidate, whose connection with Christianity is paper thin, will receive in the next life for hawking Bibles as part of his campaign. But for now, we can wonder how a group of people who claim to be the representatives of the culture can behave so badly.

People who do this routinely are not speaking intelligently, and in fact are attempting to distract from intelligent debate.

You should consider that when listening to public figures.

We live in an age in which intelligent debate has declined to an all-time low.  In its place, we have now what the Nazis and the Communist had, insulters who scream, while saying very little that's intelligent or worth considering. Their goal is to inspire hatred, as if love for an idea won't be forthcoming, hatred of a demonized class will do.

Politicians and figures who routinely insert words like "radical", "leftist", "fascist", "Marxist", and "Communist" into their speech are not arguing points, they're trying to inspire hatred and avoiding thought.   

For days, I've been getting emails from a figure I at least somewhat respected, and have voted for in the past, accusing the current administration of being "radical", sometimes in the most absurd ways.  One such missive asserts the Democrats are intentionally out to make things worse for Americans, which is flat out absurd.  It's constant.  The contest locally, right now, is in the GOP itself, and given that, as I'm still reluctantly registered as a Republican, I'll be struggling in regard to my vote in the primary, with the question being whether I should cast a vote at all.  I likely will, but come the general election, I'm going to weigh this behavior.

A current state office holder who is a co religious cannot speak without speaking of his opponents as "Radical leftists and liberal elites", whipping up ire towards imagined categories that simply really aren't here.  There are no Red bands roaming the prairies around Cheyenne.

For that matter, being an "elite" is a good thing.  In this context, "elite" implies highly educated and successful.  If the highly educated and successful think your position is dimwitted, it probably is.

More than one Populist, who are not Conservatives, now run around constantly accusing Governor Gordon of being a Democrat, by which they mean not a Populist. We're teetering on the brink of RINO meaning "not a fascist".  It already darned near means that the speaker is a Southern Populist with ideas that are not native to this state, and which are being spouted in an unthinking manner.

Taking it nationally, the former President, who apparently has so little grasp of political categories that he doesn't understand the difference between communism and fascism (Wharton School of Business. . . why are you respected?) recently stated “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections”.

A person who links all those categories together is, frankly, is either ignorant or bizarrely deluded.  People who swallow this up, are really ignorant.

Now, let's be honest.  At one time, particularly in the 60s and 70s, the far left did the same thing.  Everyone who opposed them or who wasn't with them was a "fascist".  And in more modern times, the far left progressives have done the same, often with really bizarro accusations that everyone who isn't with them is part of a widespread "white" and "male" conspiracy.  

But that's the point.  To a large degree, nobody really take the far left in the United States seriously, usually, because they are clowns.  Recently they have been successful, however, in a gender bending effort, which is helping to give rise to the Populist far right.

But both sides are anti-natural, anti-scientific, swimming in the toddler section movements.  They're unthinking.

And as we have real problems, we need real thought, now.

And at any rate, running around that your opponent must be a Communist, Marxist, Monarchist, Anarchist, Pedophile, Audiophile, Anglophile, RINO is not dignified. 

And for those who claim to be Christian, well you should reconsider your presentation. 

You might want to reconsider your personal lives also, particularly if you are one of the numerous members of the Christian Nationalist camp whom St. Paul might have a few things to address them about.

Sunday, March 26, 1944. Unaddressed lynching and The Road To Victory.

Black minister and farmer, Rev. Isaac Simmons, was lynched in Amite County, Mississippi by a party of six seeking to take his land, which they in fact did. They were not convicted for their crimes, and his terrorized family fled the area.

Winston Churchill delivered his Road To Victory speech:

I HOPE you will not imagine that I am going to try co make some extraordinary pronouncement tonight and tell you exactly how all the problems of mankind in the war and in peace are going to be solved.

I only thought you would like me to have a short talk with you about how we are getting on and to thank you for all the kindness with which you have treated me in spite of my many shortcomings.

It is a year almost to the day since I spoke to you on a broadcast here at home. This has been a time of disappointments as well as successes, but there is no doubt that the good news has far outweighed the bad, and that the progress of the United Nations toward their goal has been solid, continual and growing quicker.

The long and terrible march which the rescuing powers are making is being accomplished stage by stage, and we can now say not only with hope but with reason that we shall reach the end of our journey in good order, and that tragedy which threatened the whole world and might have put out all its lights and left our children and descendants in darkness and bondage perhaps for centuries—that tragedy will not come to pass.

He is a rash man who tries to prophesy when or how or under what conditions victory will come.

But come it will—that at least is sure.

It is also certain that unity of aims and actions and singleness of purpose among us all—Britons at home and our Allies abroad—will make it come sooner.

A year ago the Eighth Army which had marched 1,500 miles across the desert from Alamein was in battle for the Mareth Line and the First British Army and American Army were beating their way forward to Tunisia. We were all confident of victory but we did not know that in less than two months the enemy would be driven with heavy slaughter from the African continent, leaving at one stroke 335,000prisoners and dead in our hands.

Since then the successful campaign in Sicily brought about the fall of Mussolini and the heartfelt repudiation by the Italian people of the Fascist creed.

Mussolini indeed escaped to eat the bread of affliction at Hitler's table, to shoot his son-in-law and help the Germans wreak vengeance among the Italian masses whom he had professed to love and over whom he had ruled for more than twenty years.

This fate and judgment more terrible than death has overtaken the vainglorious dictator who stabbed France in the back and thought his crime had gained him an empire of the Mediterranean.

The conquest of Sicily and Naples brought in their train the surrender of Sardinia and the liberation of Corsica, islands which had been expected to require for themselves a serious expedition and a hard campaign.

We now hold one-third of the mainland of Italy. Our progress has not been as rapid or decisive as we had hoped. I do not doubt we shall be victors both at the Anzio bridgehead and on the main front to the southward and that Rome will be rescued.

Meanwhile, we have swept out of the struggle sixty-six Italian divisions and we are holding in Italy, for most part in close action, nearly twenty-five divisions and a noteworthy part of the German Air Force, all of whom can bleed and burn in the land of their former ally while other and even more important events which might require their presence are impending elsewhere.

We have been disappointed in the Aegean Sea and its many islands which we have not yet succeeded in dominating.

But these setbacks in the eastern Mediterranean are offset, and more than offset, by the panic and frenzy which prevailin Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, by the continued activities of Greek guerrillas and above all by the heroic struggle of the Partisans of Yugoslavia under the leadership of Marshal Tito.

In the Near and Middle East we have certainly traveled a long way forward from those autumn days in 1940 when we stood all alone—when Mussolini was invading Egypt, when we were driven out of British Somaliland, when all Ethiopia was in Italian chains and we wondered whether we could defend the Suez Canal, the Nile Valley, the Sudan and British East Africa.

There is much still to be done in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean. But here again I do not doubt the task will be finished in a workmanlike manner.

We who dwell in the British Isles must celebrate with joy and thankfulness our deliverance from the mortal U-boat peril—which deliverance lighted the year which has ended.

When I look back upon the fifty-five months of this hard and obstinate war, which makes ever more exacting demands upon our life-springs of energy and contrivance, I still rate highest among the dangers we have overcome the U-boat attacks upon our shipping, without which we cannot live or even receive the help which our dominions and our grand and generous American ally have sent us.

But there are other deliverances which we should never forget. There was the sea mining peril which loomed so large in 1939 and which has been mastered by superior science, ingenuity and by the often-forgotten but almost-unsurpassed devotion to duty of our minesweepers' crews and the thousand ships they work and man that we may eat and live and thus fight for the good cause.

We have been delivered from the horrors of invasion at a time when we were almost unarmed. We have endured without swerving or failing the utmost fury Hitler could cast upon us from the air, and now the tables are turned and those who sought to destroy their enemies by the most fearful form of warfare are themselves reeling and writhing under the prodigious blows of British and American air power.

We had ourselves a large air force in this island this time last year. We have a larger one today, but besides all that our American Allies have now definitely overtaken and outnumbered us in the mighty air force they have established here. The combination in true brotherhood of these two air forces-either of which is nearly as large in numbers and in power much greater than the whole air force of Germany-aided as it will be by another Allied air force in Italy almost as large which is now established there, these together will produce results in these coming months which I shall not attempt to measure in advance but which will certainly be of enormous advantage to the cause of the Allies.

Not only have the British and Americans this great preponderance in numbers which enables them to send out a thousand bombers as often as the enemy is able to send a hundred against us, but also by sharing all our secrets with one another we have won leadership in the marvels of radar, both for attack and defense.

Surveying these famous and massive events on land, sea and air in the war waged by the two western Allies—Britain and the United States—against Hitlerism, we are entitled, nay bound, to be encouraged and be thankful and resolve to do better than we ever have done before.

It would be quite natural if our Soviet friends and allies did not appreciate the complications and difficulties which attend all sea crossings—amphibious is the word—operations on a large scale. They are the people of great land spaces and when foes threaten the sacred soil, Russia, it is by land that they march out to meet and attack them.

Our tasks are difficult and different, but the British and American peoples are filled with genuine admiration for the military triumphs of the Russian Army.

I have paid repeated tributes to their splendid deeds, and now I must tell you that the advance of their armies from Stalingrad to the Dniester River, with vanguards reaching out toward the Prut—a distance of 900 miles—accomplished in a single year constitutes the greatest cause of Hitler's undoing.

Since I spoke to you last, not only have the Hun invaders been driven from the land they have ravaged but the guts of the German Army have been largely torn out by Russian valor and generalship.

The peoples of all the Russias have been fortunate in rinding in their supreme ordeal of agony a warrior leader, Marshal Stalin, whose authority enables him to combine and control the movements of armies numbered by many millions upon a front of nearly 2,000 miles and to impart a unity and concert to the war direction in the east which has been very good for Soviet Russia and very good for all her allies.

When a moment ago I spoke of the improvements for the Allied cause which are taking place in Hungary and in the satellites in the Balkans, I was reserving the acknowledgment that the victorious advance of the Soviet Army has been the main cause of Hitler's approaching downfall in those regions.

I have now dwelt with the progress of the war against Hitler Germany. But I must also speak of the other gigantic war which is proceeding against the equally barbarous and brutal Japanese. This war is waged in vast preponderance by the fleets, air forces and armies of the United States. We have accepted their leadership in the Pacific Ocean just as they accepted our leadership in the Indian theatre.

We are proud of the contributions made by Australia and New Zealand against Japan. The debt which the British and the Commonwealth of Nations owe to the United States for the fact that their operations against the Japanese shielded Australia and New Zealand from Japanese aggression and from mortal peril during the period when the mother country was at full stretch in the struggle against Germany and Italy. That debt is one which will never be forgotten in any land where the Union Jack is flown.

Remarkable success has attended the work of the American Navy and American, Australian and New Zealand troops. The progress in New Guinea is constant American victories in the Pacific and, in particular their latest conquest and liberation of the Marshall Islands, constitute a superb example of a combination naval, air and military force.

It is possible that the war in the Pacific may progress more rapidly than was formerly thought possible. The Japanese are showing signs of great weakness. Attrition of their shipping, especially their oil tankers, and their air forces on all of which President Roosevelt dwelt with sure foresight a year ago, has become not merely evident but obvious. The Japanese have not felt strong enough to risk .their fleets, in general engagements for the sake of their outer defense lines. In this they have been prudent, considering the immense expansion of United States naval power since the Japanese' treacherous assault at Pearl Harbor.

What fools the Japanese ruling caste were to bringagainst themselves the might and latent war energy of the great Republic all for the sake of carrying out a base and squalid ambuscade.

The British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations have pledged themselves to right side by side with the United States against Japan no matter what it costs or how long it lasts.

Actually we have suffered from Japanese injuries even greater than those which have roused the armed wrath of the American Union. In our theatre of war, in Burma and the Bay of Bengal, we shall strive our utmost to aid the Americans in their contacts with China and to add to our own.

The more we can fight and engage the Japanese and especially wear down their air power the greater the diversion we make from the Pacific theatre and the more help we give to the operations of the United States.

In Burma those plans which were prepared last August at Quebec are now being put into practice. Young men are at the helm. Admiral Mountbatten infused the spirit of energy and confidence into the heavy forces gathered to recover Burma and by that means to defend the frontiers of India and reopen the road to China.

Our airborne operations enable us to attack the Japanese rear. They, for their part, have got behind our front by infiltration at various places and fierce fighting is going on at many points. It is too soon to proclaim the results in this vast area of mountain and jungle, but in nearly every combat we are able to count three or four times more Japanese dead —and that is what matters—than we have ourselves suffered in killed, wounded and missing.

Individual fighting superiority in the jungle has definitely passed to the British and Indian soldiers as compared with the Japanese. Farther to the north an American column of experienced jungle fighters and a considerable Chinese army under General Stilwell of the United States service are progressing with equal mastery.

Later on I shall make to you or Parliament a further report on all this hard fighting which, mind you, is not by any means decided yet.

Meanwhile, we have placed a powerful battle fleet under Admiral Somerville in Indian waters in order to face the main part of the Japanese fleet should it turn westward after having declined battle against the Americans.

When I spoke a year ago I drew attention to the possibility that there would be a prolonged interval between the collapse of Hitler and the downfall of Japan. I still think there will be an interval, but I do not consider it will be as long an interval as I thought a year ago. But be it long or be it short, we shall go through with our American brothers with our utmost strength to the very end.

I have now tried to carry you, as if in Mosquito aircraft, on a reconnoitering duty over the world-wide expanse of this sterile and ferocious war. And I trust you have gained not only some glimpse of the particular scenes, but also have the feeling of the relative size and urgency of the various things that are going on. There are, as you see, quite a lot of things going on.

Still, I remember when I spoke to you on March 21 of last year I gave up the main part of what I said to what we were planning to do to make our island a better place for all its people after the war was over, whenever that should be. I told you there would have to be a general election and a new House of Commons, and, if I was still thought fit to be of any further use, I should put to the country a four-year plan to cover the transition period between war and peace and bring the soldiers, sailors and airmen back to a land where there would be food, work and homes for all.

I dwelt on how wrong it would be to make promises which could not be fulfilled and for one set of politicians to try to outbid another in visionary scheming and dreaming. But I mentioned five or six large fields in which practical action would have to be taken.

Let me remind you of them—a reform on a great scale of the education of the people, a nation-wide uplifting of their physical health. I spoke of the encouragement of agriculture and food production and of vigorous revival of healthy village life. I dwelt upon the importance of a national compulsory insurance scheme for all classes, for all purposes from the cradle to the grave, and of the sound scheme of demobilization which would not delay the rebuilding of industry and not seem unfair to the fighting men. I also spoke about the maintenance of full employment and about the rebuilding of our cities and the housing of the people, and I made a few tentative suggestions about the economic and financial policy and what one might call the importance of making both ends meet.

All this was to happen after the war was over. No promises were to be made beforehand but every preparation that was possible without impeding war effort, including legislative preparation, was to be set on foot.

Now, my friends—as your unfailing kindness encourages me to call you—I am a man who has no unsatisfied ambitions except to beat the enemy and to help you in any way I think right, and, therefore, I hope you will not suppose that in what I am going to say I am looking for votes or trying to glorify this party or that. But I do feel that I may draw your attention to the fact that several of these large matters, which a year ago I told you might be accomplished after war was over, have already been shaped and framed and presented to Parliament and the public.

For instance, you have the greatest scheme of improved education that has ever been attempted by a responsible government. This will soon be on the statute book. It involves a heavy cost upon the State, but I do not think we can maintain our position in the post-war world unless we are an exceptionally well-educated people and unless we can handle easily and with comprehension the problems and inventions of the new scientific age.

Then there is the very far-reaching policy of a National Health Service, which already has been laid before Parliament in outline and received with a considerable measure of acceptance.

Before this session is out we shall lay before you our proposals about the extensions of national insurance, upon which a vast amount of patient work has been done.

So here you have, or will have very shortly, three of the important measures, which I thought would be put off until after the war already, fashioned and proclaimed at a time when no one can tell when the war can end, and all this has been done without relaxing the war effort or causing any party strife to mar the national unity. But there are several other large problems upon which the Ministers and their assistants have toiled and wrought and which are far advanced.

And, indeed, if this process continues and war goes on long enough a greater part of my four-year plan of a year ago may very well be perfected and largely in operation before we reach a general election and give the people a chance to say what they think about it.

b. Now I must say that one might have expected His Majesty's Government would receive many compliments upon the remarkable progress they have made not only with the war but with the preparation for the social and domestic welfare at the armistice or peace.

Last Oct. 1 I thought the time had come to ask the King to appoint Lord Woolton to be Minister of Reconstruction, with a seat in the War Cabinet. His was a record which rightly commanded respect. However, there is a large number of respectable and even eminent people who are not at all burdened with responsibility who have a lot of leisure on their hands and who feel quite most sincerely that the best work they can do at this present time of hard effort and anxiety is to belabor the Government with criticism and condemn them as unprofitable servants because they are not, in the midst of this deadly struggle, ready at any moment to produce fool-proof solutions for the whole future world as between nation and nation, as between victors and vanquished, as between man and man, as between capital and labor, as between the state and individual, and so forth and so on.

The harshest language is used, and this national Government, which has led the nation and the empire and, as I hold, a large part of the world, out of mortal danger, through the dark valleys into which they had wandered, largely through their own folly, back onto the broad uplands where the stars of peace and freedom shine, is reviled as a set of dawdlers and muddlers unable to frame a policy or take a decision or make a plan and act upon it.

I know you will not forget that this Administration, formed in an hour of disaster by the leaders of the Conservative, Labor and Liberal parties in good faith and good will, has brought Britain out of the jaws of death. Back from the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. I know you will not forget that.

There are two subjects of domestic policy which I mentioned last year on which we have not produced an account of our course of action. This first is housing. We set before ourselves the provision of homes for all who need them with priority for service men, as and when they come home from the war. Let me first lay down an absolute rule—nothing can or must be done in housing or rehousing which by weakening or clogging the war effort prolongs the war. Neither labor not material can be diverted in any way which hampers the vast operations which are in progress or impending.

Subject to that there are three ways in which the business of housing and rehousing the people should be attacked.

Let me tell you about it. Now I do not take the view myself that we were a nation of slum dwellers before the war. Nearly 5,000,000 new approved houses or dwellings were built out of about 11,000,000 in this small island between the two wars, and the British people as a whole were better housed than almost any people on the Continent of Europe, or, I will add, in many parts of the United States of America. But now about 1,000,000 homes have been destroyed or grievously damaged by the fire of the enemy. This offers a magnificent opportunity for rebuilding and replanning, and while we are at it we had better make a clean sweep of all those areas of which our civilization should be ashamed.

However, I have given my word that, so far as it may lie in my power, the soldiers, when they return from the war, and those who have been bombed out and made to double up with other families, shall be restored to homes of their own at the earliest possible moment.

The first attack must evidently be made upon houses which are damaged, but which can be reconditioned into proper dwellings. This must go forward during the war. And we hope to have broken the back of it during this year. It is a war measure, for our allies are here among us in vast numbers and we must do our best for them.

The second attack on the housing problem will be made by what are called the prefabricated, or emergency, houses. On this the Minister of Works, Lord Portal, is working wonders. I hope we may make up to half a million of these, and for this purpose not only plans but actual preparations are being made during the war on a nation-wide scale. Factories have been assigned, the necessary set-up is being made ready, materials are being ear-marked as far as possible, the most convenient sites will be chosen, the whole business is to be treated as a military evolution handled by the government with private industry harnessed to its service.

And I have every hope and a firm resolve that several hundred thousand of our young men will be able to marry several hundred thousand of our young women and make their own four-year plan.

Now what about these emergency houses? I have seen the full-sized model myself and steps are being taken to make sure that a good number of housewives have a chance of expressing their views about it. These houses will make a heavy demand upon the steel industry and will absorb in a great measure its overflow and expansion for war purposes. They are, in my opinion, far superior to the ordinary cottage as it exists today. Not only have they excellent baths, gas or electric kitchenettes and refrigerators, but their walls carry fitted furniture—chests of drawers, hanging cupboards and tables which today it would cost eighty pounds to buy. Moreover, for the rest of the furniture standard articles will be provided and mass produced so that no heavy capital charge will fall upon the young couples or others who may become tenants of the houses.

Owing to the methods of mass production which will be used, I am assured that these houses, including the £80 worth of fitted furniture, will be available at a very moderate rent. All these emergency houses will be publicly owned and it will not rest with any individual tenant to keep them in being after they have served their purpose of tiding over the return of the fighting men and after permanent dwellings are available. As much thought has been and will be put into this plan as was put into the invasion of Africa, though I readily admit that it does not bear comparison in scale with the kind of things we are working at now.

The swift production of these temporary houses is the only way in which the immediate needs of our people can be met in the four or five years that follow the war. In addition to this and to the reconditioning of the damaged dwellings, we have the program of permanent rebuilding which the Minister of Health, Mr. Willink, has recently outlined and by which we shall have two or three hundred thousand permanent houses built or building by the end of the first two years after the defeat of Germany.

Side by side with this comes the question of the employment of the building trade. We do not want a frantic splurge of building, to be followed by a sharp contraction of the trade. I have a sympathy with the building trade, and with the bricklayers. For they are apt to be the first to be taken for the wars and in time of peace they all know if they work at their job, that when it is finished they may have to look for another. If we are to secure the best results, it will be necessary that our twelve-year plan for the building trade on which Mr. Bevin [Minister of Labor and National Service] and Lord Portal have spent so much time—a plan which will guarantee steady employment for long periods and increased reward for increased efforts or superior skill we have —it will be necessary to see that that plan is carried out.

Then we are told by the busy wiseacres: How can you build houses without the land to put them on; when are you going to tell us your plans for this? But we have already declared in 1941 that all land needed for public purposes shall be taken at prices based on the standards of values of March 31, 1939. This was a formidable decision of state policy which selected property and land for a special, restricted imposition. Whereas stocks and shares and many classes of real property have gone up in value during the war, and when agricultural land, on account of the new proposals and new prospects opened to farmers, has also risen in value, the state has the power, which it will on no account surrender, to claim all land needed bona fid a for war industry or for public purposes at values fixed before wartime conditions supervened. There are certain hard cases which will best be adjusted by Parliamentary debate, but in the main you may be sure that ample land will be forthcoming when and where it is needed for all the houses, temporary or permanent, required to house our people far better than they have ever been housed before.

Nobody needs be deterred from planning for the future by the fear that they may not be able to obtain the necessary land. Legislation to enable the local authorities to secure any land required for the reconstruction of our towns has been promised and will be presented to Parliament this session. There are some comfortable people, of course, who want to put off everything until they have planned and got agreed to in every feature, a White Paper or a blueprint for the regeneration of the world, before, of course, asking the electors how they feel about it.

These people would rather postpone building the homes for the returning troops until they had planned out every acre in the country to make sure the landscape is not spoiled. In time of war we have to face immediate needs and stern realities, and it surely is better for us to do that than to do nothing whilst preparing to do everything.

Here is my difficulty. I put it frankly before you. I cannot take anything that will hinder the war. And no one-except the very clever ones—can tell when the war will end or whether it will end suddenly or peter out. Therefore, there must be an emergency plan, and that is what Ministers concerned have been working at for some time past. But in spite of this and of all I have said, I cannot guarantee that everything will be perfect or that if the end of the war came suddenly, as it might do, there will not be an interval when things will be pretty rough.

But it will not be a long interval, and it will be child's play compared to what we have already gone through. Nor need we be frightened about the scale of this task. It looks to me a small one—this housing—compared to some of those we have handled and are handling now.

The value of the land involved is between one-twentieth and one-thirtieth of the cost of the houses to be built upon it, and our population itself is unhappily about to enter upon a period of decline—numerical decline—which can only be checked by the most robust treatment of housing and of all its ancillaries.

There is one other question on which I should like to dwell tonight, but for a reason which I will mention later I only intend to utter a passing reassurance—I mean demobilization.

Now, I know about as much about this as most people, because I was Secretary of State for War and Air at the time of the great demobilization after the last war, when in about six months we brought home from abroad, released from military service and restored to their families nearly 3,000,000 men. Great plans had been prepared before the armistice by the planners to bring home all the key men first, and any soldier who could get a telegram from someone at home saying that he was wanted for a key job had priority over the men who had borne the burden and heat of the war. The troops did not think this was fair, and by the time I went to the War Office a convulsion of indiscipline shook the whole of our splendid army which had endured unmoved all danger, slaughter, privation.

I persuaded the Cabinet to reverse this foolish and inequitable plan and to substitute the simple rule—first out, first home—with the result that discipline was immediately restored and the process of demobilization went forward in a smooth and orderly fashion.

Now, my friend, Mr. Bevin, the Minister of Labor, for whose deep sagacity and knowledge of the wage-earning masses I have high admiration—Mr. Bevin has devised a very much less crude but equally fair and healthy scheme in which I have the greatest confidence, in which all concerned may have the greatest confidence.

Why am I not going to tell you all about it tonight? Or why will Mr. Bevin not tell you about it in the near future?

Here is the reason. This is not the time to talk about demobilization.

The hour of our greatest effort and action is approaching. We march with valiant Allies who count on us as we count on them. The flashing eyes of all our soldiers, sailors and airmen must be fixed upon the enemy on their front. The only homeward road for all of us lies through the arch of victory.

The magnificent armies of the United States are here, or are pouring in. Our own troops, the best trained and best equipped we have ever had, stand at their side in equal numbers and in true comradeship. Leaders are appointed in whom we all have faith. We shall require from our own people here, from Parliament, from the press, from all classes, the same cool, strong nerves, the same toughness of fiber which stood us in good stead in those days when we were all alone under the German blitz.

And here I must warn you, that in order to deceive and baffle the enemy as well as to exercise the forces, there will be many false alarms, many feints and many dress rehearsals. We may also ourselves be the object of new forms of attack from the enemy.

Britain can take it. She has never flinched or failed, and when the signal is given, the whole circle of avenging nations will hurl themselves upon the foe and batter out the life of the crudest tyranny which has ever sought to bar the progress of mankind.

The Battle of Sangshak ended with a Japanese tactical victory, but a British strategic one, as the British holding action had allowed them to send reinforcements to Kohima.

New Zealand Army sniper at Monte Cassino, March 26, 1944.

Reorganization of the 5th Army in Italy commences, with the French Corps and New Zealand Corps removed from the line in favor of units of the British 8th Army.

The fifteen captured OSS men of Operation Ginny II were summarily executed by the German under Hitler's Commando Order.

Large elements of the German 1st Panzer Army were cut off at Kamenets-Podolski

The USS Tullibee was sunk north of Palau due to a torpedo malfunction.  Only 1 of its 60 man crew would survive.  At the same time, Japanese observers again observe US naval forces and decide to disperse their own.

Combat damaged equipment being worked on, on Manus Island, March 26, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, March 25, 1944. Ioannina.

Popesplaining.

Sigh. . . 

March 10, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Pope Francis stated in an interview with a Swiss journalist:

In Ucraina c’è chi chiede il coraggio della resa, della bandiera bianca. Ma altri dicono che così si legittimerebbe il più forte. Cosa pensa?

“È un’interpretazione. Ma credo che è più forte chi vede la situazione, chi pensa al popolo, chi ha il coraggio della bandiera bianca, di negoziare. E oggi si può negoziare con l’aiuto delle potenze internazionali. La parola negoziare è una parola coraggiosa. Quando vedi che sei sconfitto, che le cose non vanno, occorre avere il coraggio di negoziare. Hai vergogna, ma con quante morti finirà? Negoziare in tempo, cercare qualche paese che faccia da mediatore. Oggi, per esempio nella guerra in Ucraina, ci sono tanti che vogliono fare da mediatore. La Turchia, si è offerta per questo. E altri. Non abbiate vergogna di negoziare prima che la cosa sia peggiore”.

Anche lei stesso si è proposto per negoziare?

“Io sono qui, punto. Ho inviato una lettera agli ebrei di Israele, per riflettere su questa situazione. Il negoziato non è mai una resa. È il coraggio per non portare il paese al suicidio. Gli ucraini, con la storia che hanno, poveretti, gli ucraini al tempo di Stalin quanto hanno sofferto….”.

Translated:

In Ukraine there are those who ask for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you think?

“It's an interpretation. But I believe that those who see the situation, those who think about the people, those who have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate are stronger. And today it can be negotiated with the help of international powers. The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you need to have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time, look for some country to act as a mediator. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey offered itself for this. And other. Don't be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.

Have you also offered to negotiate?

“I'm here, period. I sent a letter to the Jews of Israel to reflect on this situation. Negotiation is never a surrender. It is the courage not to lead the country to suicide. The Ukrainians, with the history that they have, poor things, the Ukrainians at Stalin's time, how much they suffered...”.

This has been reported, in accurately, as the Pope calling upon the Ukrainians to surrender, which isn't exactly what he said. 

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was in the US, calling up Congress to free up support for Ukraine.

March 11, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Pope's comments of yesterday have brought rebuke.

One of the odd aspects of personality is that certain people can be really bad at speaking and not be aware of it, and even enjoy public speaking, while some highly articulate people immensely dislike speaking, publically or even in general, and eschew it.

Our talents are unevenly distributed.

Pope Francis is one of the most confusing people to listen to in regard to speaking that's in the current public eye.  We have others, I'd note, that far surpass him in that category, so he's not unique in that way in any fashion.  The Pope, additionally, seemingly likes to speak, and so he gives interviews to reporters and says things essentially off the cuff.  As he is, of course, the Pope, nearly anything he says will be reported.

More often than not, whatever he says will not only be reported, but reported badly, which compounds any confusion his statements cause.  He's not free from responsibility for this, however, as by this point in time he ought to know that will happen.  And not only will it happen, it will undercut his ability to convey a message.

Examples of this abound, and not just in the spoken word, but in the written one, and even just in messaging.  We just went through, for example, the entire agonizing series of events caused by Fiducia Supplicans. Released just before Christmas, and not penned by the Pope but endorsed by him, it resulted in a series of nearly immediate explanations as to what it was saying and not saying.  That situation has semi stabilized, but we're now seeing Bishops act on the followups and basically opt out of the option provided for, which the explanations allow for.  As this was occurring Pope Francis made a comment about the African Church which was cultural in nature which even if it was correct, was culturally insensitive and may frankly shed more of a light on what the culture in the dying West holds as opposed to the culture in the remainder of the globe.

All this caused one Catholic commentator to note who many Catholics are by now simply "weary" in regard to things coming from Pope Francis. We wrote on this earlier, and I'd count myself as weary.

"We are weary".

Of course, that hasn't stopped Pope Francis from giving interviews.

Now, of course a person could simply state, why should it?  Well, the answer is that it's making us all the more weary, and we have a lot to be weary about.  We're weary due to trying to understand Fiducia Supplicans, we're wearing due to the vague nature of the Synod on Synodality, which is still ongoing, we're wearing from trying to grasp why Fr. James Martin, S.J., continues to seemingly get a pass while Cardinal Dolan does not, and we're weary from waiting for the Pope to do something about the German Church. 

And now we have this.

To be fair, as is often the case, what Pope Francis says is often inaccurately reported, and interestingly the conservative things he says, and there are definitely a set of them, aren't reported on hardly at all.  Here, Pope Francis didn't really tell the Ukrainians to surrender, which is how it is being reported.

In Ukraine there are those who ask for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you think?

“It's an interpretation. But I believe that those who see the situation, those who think about the people, those who have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate are stronger. And today it can be negotiated with the help of international powers. The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you need to have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time, look for some country to act as a mediator. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey offered itself for this. And other. Don't be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.

Have you also offered to negotiate?

“I'm here, period. I sent a letter to the Jews of Israel to reflect on this situation. Negotiation is never a surrender. It is the courage not to lead the country to suicide. The Ukrainians, with the history that they have, poor things, the Ukrainians at Stalin's time, how much they suffered...”.

I don't know what the Swiss journalist's intent was, but Pope Francis really walked into it.  The journalist asked if the Ukrainians should surrender.  The Pope didn't say "yes," he said that they should negotiate a peace.  Lots of people have said that who support Ukraine and back-channel, where people speak their honest opinions, no serious person believes that Ukraine can achieve something like an unconditional surrender from Russia. There's going to have to be some sort of negotiation. The question is what does that look like. Finland in 1944?  Russia would regard that as a defeat, and Ukraine ought to regard that as a victory.

So what he said wasn't really "Surrender", and it isn't really all that different from what many Ukrainian supporters have said.  But the reporter used the term "white flag" and he picked right up on it.

Sigh.

Weary.

The 2024 State of the Union Address.

We'll note a few takeaways, and then comment below.

I didn't watch it live for various reasons.  I didn't see the GOP response either, but I wish I had, given the reaction to it and the few snippets of it I've seen.

Okay, some comments.

The portion on Ukraine was excellent and drew at least a few GOP accolades from the audience.

At least one Republican Senator nodded in agreement on the border discussion.

There was an exchange with Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is an embarrassment to mammals, which he apparently got the best of.

Once again, the Democrats felt compelled to lash themselves to the bloody decks of abortion.

The speech.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 8: 2024.  President Biden delivered the 2024 State of the Union Address.

The United States Capitol

Good evening. 

Mr. Speaker. Madam Vice President. Members of Congress. My Fellow Americans. 

In January 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to the nation. 

He said, “I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.” 

Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe. 

President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment.   

Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world. 

Tonight I come to the same chamber to address the nation. 

Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union. 

And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. 

Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today. 

What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time. 

Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond. 

If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. 

But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking. They are not asking for American soldiers. 

In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. And I am determined to keep it that way. 

But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world. 

It wasn’t that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” 

Now, my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, “Do whatever the hell you want.” 

A former American President actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. 

It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable. 

America is a founding member of NATO the military alliance of democratic nations created after World War II to prevent war and keep the peace.  

Today, we’ve made NATO stronger than ever. 

We welcomed Finland to the Alliance last year, and just this morning, Sweden officially joined NATO, and their Prime Minister is here tonight. 

Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to NATO, the strongest military alliance the world has ever known. 

I say this to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill. 

History is watching. 

If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk. 

Europe at risk. The free world at risk, emboldening others who wish to do us harm. 

 

 

My message to President Putin is simple.  

We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down. 

History is watching, just like history watched three years ago on January 6th. 

Insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy. 

Many of you were here on that darkest of days. 

We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots. 

 

They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. 

January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. 

But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. 

But we must be honest the threat remains and democracy must be defended. 

My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th. 

I will not do that. 

This is a moment to speak the truth and bury the lies. 

And here’s the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when you win. 

As I’ve done ever since being elected to office, I ask you all, without regard to party, to join together and defend our democracy! 

Remember your oath of office to defend against all threats foreign and domestic. 

Respect free and fair elections! Restore trust in our institutions! And make clear –political violence  

has absolutely no place in America! 

History is watching. 

And history is watching another assault on freedom.  

Joining us tonight is Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama. 14 months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of IVF. 

She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF treatments across the state, unleashed by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. 

She was told her dream would have to wait. 

What her family has gone through should never have happened. And unless Congress acts, it could happen again. 

So tonight, let’s stand up for families like hers! 

To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide! 

Like most Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade got it right. And I thank Vice President Harris for being an incredible leader, defending reproductive freedom and so much more. 

But my predecessor came to office determined  

to see Roe v. Wade overturned. 

He’s the reason it was overturned. In fact, he brags about it. 

Look at the chaos that has resulted. 

Joining us tonight is Kate Cox, a wife and mother  

from Dallas. 

When she became pregnant again, the fetus had a fatal condition. 

Her doctors told Kate that her own life and her ability to have children in the future were at risk if she didn’t act. 

Because Texas law banned abortion, Kate and her husband had to leave the state to get the care she needed. 

What her family has gone through should never have happened as well. But it is happening to so many others. 

There are state laws banning the right to choose, criminalizing doctors, and forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states as well to get the care they need. 

Many of you in this Chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. 

My God, what freedoms will you take away next? 

In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote, “Women are not without – 

electoral or political power.” 

No kidding. 

Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. 

They found out though when reproductive freedom   

was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again, in 2024. 

If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again! 

America cannot go back. I am here tonight to show the way forward. Because I know how far we’ve come. 

Four years ago next week, before I came to office, our country was hit by the worst pandemic and the worst economic crisis in a century. 

Remember the fear. Record job losses. Remember the spike in crime. And the murder rate. 

A raging virus that would take more than 1 million American lives and leave millions of loved ones behind. 

A mental health crisis of isolation and loneliness. 

A president, my predecessor, who failed the most basic duty. Any President owes the American people the duty to care. 

That is unforgivable. 

I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. 

And we have. It doesn’t make the news but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. 

So let’s tell that story here and now. 

America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all of America, in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind! 

The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer. 

Turning setback into comeback. 

That’s America! 

I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now our economy is the envy of the world! 

15 million new jobs in just three years – that’s a record! 

Unemployment at 50-year lows. 

A record 16 million Americans are starting small businesses and each one is an act of hope. 

With historic job growth and small business growth for Black, Hispanic, and Asian-Americans. 

800,000 new manufacturing jobs in America and counting. 

More people have health insurance today than ever before. 

The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years. 

Wages keep going up and inflation keeps coming down! 

Inflation has dropped from 9% to 3% – the lowest in the world! 

And trending lower. 

And now instead of importing foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs – right here in America where they belong! 

 

 

And the American people are beginning to feel it. 

Consumer studies show consumer confidence is soaring. 

Buy American has been the law of the land since the 1930s.  

 

Past administrations including my predecessor failed to Buy American. 

Not any more. 

On my watch, federal projects like helping to build American roads bridges and highways will be made with American products built by American workers creating good-paying American jobs! 

Thanks to my Chips and Science Act the United States is investing more in research and development than ever before. 

During the pandemic a shortage of semiconductor chips drove up prices for everything from cell phones to automobiles.  

Well instead of having to import semiconductor chips, which America invented I might add, private companies are now investing billions of dollars to build new chip factories here in America! 

Creating tens of thousands of jobs many of them paying over $100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree. 

In fact my policies have attracted $650 Billion of private sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America! 

Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities – modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems. 

Removing poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water without risk of getting brain damage. 

Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live. 

Urban, suburban, and rural communities — in red states and blue. 

Record investments in tribal communities. 

Because of my investments, family farms are better be able to stay in the family and children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living.  

It’s transformative.  

 

A great comeback story is Belvidere, Illinois. Home to an auto plant for nearly 60 years.  

 

Before I came to office the plant was on its way to shutting down. 

 

Thousands of workers feared for their livelihoods. Hope was fading. 

 

Then I was elected to office and we raised Belvidere repeatedly with the auto company knowing unions make all the difference. 

The UAW worked like hell to keep the plant open and get those jobs back. And together, we succeeded! 

Instead of an auto factory shutting down an auto factory is re-opening and a new state-of-the art battery factory is being built to power those cars. 

Instead of a town being left behind it’s a community moving forward again! 

Because instead of watching auto jobs of the future go overseas 4,000 union workers with higher wages will be building that future, in Belvidere, here in America! 

Here tonight is UAW President, Shawn Fain, a great friend, and a great labor leader. 

And Dawn Simms, a third generation UAW worker  in Belvidere. 

Shawn, I was proud to be the first President in American history to walk a picket line. 

And today Dawn has a job in her hometown providing stability for her family and pride and dignity. 

Showing once again, Wall Street didn’t build this country! 

The middle class built this country! And unions built the middle class! 

When Americans get knocked down, we get back up! 

We keep going! 

That’s America! That’s you, the American people! 

It’s because of you America is coming back!  

It’s because of you, our future is brighter! 

And it’s because of you that tonight we can proudly say the State of our Union is strong and getting stronger!  

 

Tonight I want to talk about the future of possibilities that we can build together. 

A future where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and biggest corporations no longer get all the breaks. 

I grew up in a home where not a lot trickled down on my Dad’s kitchen table. 

That’s why I’m determined to turn things around so the middle class does well the poor have a way up and the wealthy still does well. 

We all do well. 

And there’s more to do to make sure you’re feeling the benefits of all we’re doing. 

Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anywhere else. 

It’s wrong and I’m ending it. 

With a law I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally beat Big Pharma! 

Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a month! 

And now I want to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it! 

For years people have talked about it but I finally got it done and gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs just like the VA does for our veterans. 

That’s not just saving seniors money. 

It’s saving taxpayers money cutting the federal deficit by $160 Billion because Medicare will no longer have to pay exorbitant prices to Big Pharma. 

This year Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis. 

Now it’s time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500 drugs over the next decade. 

That will not only save lives it will save taxpayers another $200 Billion! 

Starting next year that same law caps total prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare at $2,000 a year even for expensive cancer drugs that can cost $10,000, $12,000, $15,000 a year. 

Now I want to cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for everyone! 

Folks Obamacare, known as the Affordable Care Act is still a very big deal. 

Over one hundred million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. 

But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take that protection away by repealing the Affordable Care Act I won’t let that happen! 

We stopped you 50 times before and we will stop you again! 

In fact I am protecting it and expanding it. 

I enacted tax credits that save $800 per person per year reducing health care premiums for millions of working families. 

Those tax credits expire next year. 

I want to make those savings permanent! 

Women are more than half of our population but research on women’s health has always been underfunded.  

That’s why we’re launching the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, led by Jill who is doing an incredible job as First Lady. 

Pass my plan for $12 Billion to transform women’s health research and benefit millions of lives across America! 

I know the cost of housing is so important to you.  

If inflation keeps coming down mortgage rates will come down as well. 

But I’m not waiting. 

I want to provide an annual tax creditthat will give Americans $400 a month for the next two years as mortgage rates come down to put toward their mortgage when they buy a first home or trade up for a little more space. 

My Administration is also eliminating title insurance fees for federally backed mortgages. 

When you refinance your home this can save you $1,000 or more. 

For millions of renters, we’re cracking down on big landlords who break antitrust laws by price-fixing and driving up rents.  

I’ve cut red tape so more builders can get federal financing, which is already helping build a record 1.7 million housing units nationwide. 

Now pass my plan to build and renovate 2 million  affordable homes and bring those rents down! 

To remain the strongest economy in the world we need the best education system in the world. 

I want to give every child a good start by providing access to pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds. 

Studies show that children who go to pre-school are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a 2- or 4-year degree no matter their background. 

I want to expand high-quality tutoring and summer learning time and see to it that every child learns to read by third grade. 

I’m also connecting businesses and high schools so students get hands-on experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they go to college. 

And I want to make college more affordable. 

Let’s continue increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families and increase our record investments in HBCUs and Hispanic and Minority-serving Institutions 

I fixed student loan programs to reduce the burden  of student debt for nearly 4 Million Americans including nurses firefighters and others in public service like Keenan Jones a public-school educator in Minnesota who’s here with us tonight. 

He’s educated hundreds of students so they can go to college now he can help his own daughter pay for college.  

Such relief is good for the economy because folks are now able to buy a home start a business even start a family. 

While we’re at it I want to give public school teachers a raise! 

Now let me speak to a question of fundamental fairness for all Americans. 

I’ve been delivering real results in a fiscally responsible way. 

I’ve already cut the federal deficit by over one trillion dollars. 

I signed a bipartisan budget deal that will cut another trillion dollars over the next decade. 

And now it’s my goal to cut the federal deficit $3 trillion more by making big corporations and the very wealthy finally pay their fair share.  

Look, I’m a capitalist. 

If you want to make a million bucks – great! 

Just pay your fair share in taxes. 

A fair tax code is how we invest in the things –  

that make a country great, health care, education, defense, and more. 

But here’s the deal. 

The last administration enacted a $2 Trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and exploded the federal deficit. 

They added more to the national debt than in any presidential term in American history. 

For folks at home does anybody really think the tax code is fair? 

Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax breaks? 

I sure don’t. I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it fair! 

Under my plan nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in federal taxes. 

Nobody. Not one penny. 

In fact the Child Tax Credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes for millions of working families and cut child poverty in HALF. 

Restore the Child Tax Credit because no child should go hungry in this country! 

The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very wealthy finally pay their share. 

In 2020 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 Billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes.  

Not any more! 

Thanks to the law I wrote and signed big companies  now have to pay a minimum of 15%.  

But that’s still less than working people pay in federal taxes. 

It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21% so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share. 

I also want to end the tax breaks for Big Pharma, Big Oil, private jets, and massive executive pay! 

End it now! 

There are 1,000 billionaires in America.  

You know what the average federal tax rate for these billionaires is? 8.2 percent! 

That’s far less than the vast majority of Americans pay.  

No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker, a nurse! 

That’s why I’ve proposed a minimum tax of 25% for billionaires. Just 25%. 

That would raise $500 Billion over the next 10 years. 

Imagine what that could do for America. Imagine a future with affordable child care so millions of families can get the care they need and still go to work and help grow the economy. 

Imagine a future with paid leave because no one should have to choose between working and taking care of yourself or a sick family member.   

Imagine a future with home care and elder care so seniors and people living with disabilities can stay in their homes and family caregivers get paid what they deserve! 

Tonight, let’s all agree once again to stand up for seniors! 

Many of my Republican friends want to put Social Security on the chopping block.  

If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them! 

Working people who built this country pay more into Social Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair. 

We have two ways to go on Social Security. 

Republicans will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. 

I will protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their fair share! 

Too many corporations raise their prices to pad their profits charging you more and more for less and less. 

That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing. 

In fact, snack companies think you won’t notice when they charge you just as much for the same size bag  

but with fewer chips in it. 

Pass Senator Bob Casey’s bill to put a stop to shrinkflation! 

I’m also getting rid of junk fees those hidden fees added at the end of your bills without your knowledge. My administration just announced we’re cutting credit card late fees from $32 to just $8. 

The banks and credit card companies don’t like it. 

Why? 

I’m saving American families $20 billion a year with all of the junk fees I’m eliminating. 

And I’m not stopping there. 

My Administration has proposed rules to make cable travel utilities and online ticket sellers tell you the total price upfront so there are no surprises. 

It matters. 

And so does this. 

In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. 

The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen  

in this country. 

That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers.  

100 more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases. 

4,300 more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in 6 months instead of 6 years. 

100 more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl into America. 

This bill would save lives and bring order to the border. 

It would also give me as President new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border  when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming.  

The Border Patrol Union endorsed the bill. 

The Chamber of Commerce endorsed the bill. 

I believe that given the opportunity a majority of the House and Senate would endorse it as well. 

But unfortunately, politics have derailed it so far. 

I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. 

It’s not about him or me.  

It’d be a winner for America! 

My Republican friends you owe it to the American people to get this bill done.   

We need to act. 

And if my predecessor is watching instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to block this bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it! 

We can do it together. But here’s what I will not do. 

I will not demonize immigrants saying they “poison the blood of our country” as he said in his own words. 

I will not separate families. 

I will not ban people from America because of their faith. 

Unlike my predecessor, on my first day in office I introduced a comprehensive plan to fix our immigration system, secure the border, and provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and so much more. 

Because unlike my predecessor, I know who we are  

as Americans. 

We are the only nation in the world with a heart and soul that draws from old and new. 

Home to Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years. Home to people from every place on Earth. 

Some came freely. 

Some chained by force. 

Some when famine struck, like my ancestral family in Ireland. 

Some to flee persecution. 

Some to chase dreams that are impossible anywhere but here in America. 

That’s America, where we all come from somewhere, but we are all Americans. 

We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. 

Send me the border bill now! 

A transformational moment in our history happened 59 years ago today in Selma, Alabama. 

Hundreds of foot soldiers for justice marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Grand Dragon of the KKK, to claim their fundamental right to vote.  

They were beaten bloodied and left for dead. 

Our late friend and former colleague John Lewis was at the march.  

We miss him. 

Joining us tonight are other marchers who were there including Betty May Fikes, known as the “Voice of Selma”. 

A daughter of gospel singers and preachers, she sang songs of prayer and protest on that Bloody Sunday, 

to help shake the nation’s conscience. Five months later, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.   

 

But 59 years later, there are forces taking us back in time. 

Voter suppression. Election subversion. Unlimited dark money. Extreme gerrymandering.  

John Lewis was a great friend to many of us here. But if you truly want to honor him and all the heroes who marched with him, then it’s time for more than just talk. 

Pass and send me the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act! 

And stop denying another core value of America our diversity across American life. 

Banning books. 

It’s wrong! 

Instead of erasing history, let’s make history!  

I want to protect other fundamental rights! 

Pass the Equality Act, and my message to transgender Americans: I have your back! 

Pass the PRO Act for workers rights! And raise the federal minimum wage because every worker has the right to earn a decent living! 

We are also making history by confronting the climate crisis, not denying it. 

I’m taking the most significant action on climate ever in the history of the world. 

I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030. 

Creating tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs, like the IBEW workers building and installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations. 

Conserving 30% of America’s lands and waters  by 2030. 

Taking historic action on environmental justice for fence-line communities smothered by the legacy of pollution.  

And patterned after the Peace Corps and Ameri Corps, I’ve launched a Climate Corps to put 20,000 young people to work at the forefront of our clean energy future. 

I’ll triple that number this decade. 

All Americans deserve the freedom to be safe, and America is safer today than when I took office. 

The year before I took office, murders went up 30% nationwide the biggest increase in history. 

That was then. 

Now, through my American Rescue Plan, which every Republican voted against, I’ve made the largest investment in public safety ever. 

Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years.  

But we have more to do. 

Help cities and towns invest in more community police officers, more mental health workers, and more community violence intervention.  

Give communities the tools to crack down on gun crime, retail crime, and carjacking. 

Keep building public trust, as I’ve been doing by taking executive action on police reform, and calling for it to be the law of the land, directing my Cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana, and expunging thousands of convictions  for mere possession, because no one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana! 

To take on crimes of domestic violence, I am ramping up federal enforcement of the Violence Against Women Act, that I proudly wrote, so we can finally end the scourge of violence against women in America!  

And there’s another kind of violence I want to stop. 

With us tonight is Jasmine, whose 9-year-old sister Jackie was murdered with 21 classmates and teachers at her elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. 

Soon after it happened, Jill and I went to Uvalde and spent hours with the families. 

We heard their message, and so should everyone in this chamber do something. 

I did do something by establishing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House that Vice President Harris is leading. 

Meanwhile, my predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he was President. 

After another school shooting in Iowa he said we should just “get over it.” 

I say we must stop it.  

I’m proud we beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years! 

Now we must beat the NRA again! 

I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines! 

Pass universal background checks! 

None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners. 

As we manage challenges at home, we’re also managing crises abroad including in the Middle East. 

I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America. 

This crisis began on October 7th with a massacre by the terrorist group Hamas. 

1,200 innocent people women and girls men and boys slaughtered, many enduring sexual violence. 

The deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 

250 hostages taken. 

Here in the chamber tonight are American families whose loved ones are still being held by Hamas. 

I pledge to all the families that we will not rest until we bring their loved ones home. 

We will also work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul, Americans being unjustly detained all around the world. 

Israel has a right to go after Hamas. 

Hamas could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages, laying down arms, and surrendering those responsible for October 7th. 

Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population. But Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza. 

This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined. 

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed. 

Most of whom are not Hamas. 

Thousands and thousands are innocent women and children. 

Girls and boys also orphaned. 

Nearly 2 million more Palestinians under bombardment or displaced. 

Homes destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin. 

Families without food, water, medicine. 

It’s heartbreaking. 

We’ve been working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last for at least six weeks. 

It would get the hostages home, ease the intolerable humanitarian crisis, and build toward something more enduring. 

The United States has been leading international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. 

Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. 

No U.S. boots will be on the ground. 

This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day. 

But Israel must also do its part. 

Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the cross fire. 

To the leadership of Israel I say this. 

Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. 

Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority. 

As we look to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution. 

I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel and the only American president to visit Israel in wartime. 

There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy. 

There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live with peace and dignity. 

There is no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.  

Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by Iran.  

That’s why I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. 

I’ve ordered strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities and defend U.S. Forces in the region. 

As Commander in Chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and military personnel.  

For years, all I’ve heard from my Republican friends and so many others is China’s on the rise and America is falling behind. 

They’ve got it backward. 

America is rising. 

We have the best economy in the world. 

Since I’ve come to office, our GDP is up. 

And our trade deficit with China is down to the lowest point in over a decade. 

We’re standing up against China’s unfair economic practices. 

And standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. 

I’ve revitalized our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific. 

I’ve made sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in China’s weapons. 

Frankly for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do that. 

We want competition with China, but not conflict.  

And we’re in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st Century against China or anyone else for that matter. 

Here at home I’ve signed over 400 bipartisan bills.  

But there’s more to do to pass my Unity Agenda. 

Strengthen penalties on fentanyl trafficking. 

Pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online. 

Harness the promise of A.I. and protect us from its peril.  

Ban A.I. voice impersonation and more! 

And keep our one truly sacred obligation, to train and equip those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home, and when they don’t.  

That’s why I signed the PACT Act, one of the most significant laws ever, helping millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and who now are battling more than 100 cancers. 

Many of them didn’t come home. 

We owe them and their families. 

And we owe it to ourselves to keep supporting our new health research agency called ARPA-H and remind us that we can do big things like end cancer as we know it! 

Let me close with this. 

I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. 

And when you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever before. 

I know the American story. 

Again and again I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation. 

Between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future. 

My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. 

A future based on the core values that have defined America. 

Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality. 

To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor.  

Now some other people my age see a different story.  

An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. 

That’s not me. 

I was born amid World War II when America stood for freedom in the world. 

I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware among working people who built this country. 

I watched in horror as two of my heroes, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, were assassinated and their legacies inspired me to pursue a career in service. 

A public defender, county councilman, elected United States Senator at 29, then Vice President, to our first Black President, now President, with our first woman Vice President. 

In my career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old. 

Whether young or old, I’ve always known what endures. 

Our North Star. 

The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. 

We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. 

And I won’t walk away from it now. 

My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are it’s how old our ideas are? 

Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. 

But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. 

To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be. 

Tonight you’ve heard mine. 

I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it. 

I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away. 

I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes. 

I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence. 

Above all, I see a future for all Americans! 

I see a country for all Americans! 

And I will always be a president for all Americans! 

Because I believe in America! 

I believe in you the American people. 

You’re the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future! 

So let’s build that future together! 

Let’s remember who we are! 

We are the United States of America. 

There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together! 

May God bless you all. 

May God protect our troops.

Apparently the Republican reply (I didn't watch any of this life) was rather over the top and is being widely panned.  This from a Twitter comment:

I don’t mean to be overly harsh toward the lady, but putting aside the content for a moment, Sen. Britt’s (YOB 1982) manner of delivery last night pretty well encapsulates everything that Gen X (YOB here 1973) finds nauseating about Millennials….