Joe Biden the divider

   

By Reginald Johnson

Commentary

   Prior to last Thursday night’s speech by President Biden at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, entitled “A Battle for the Soul of America,”  administration officials promised that the address would be high-minded and non-political.

 Well, it was anything but that. In fact, Joe Biden delivered one of the most divisive and irresponsible speeches ever given by a President during an official address.

 Speaking in dark lighting with two Marines standing guard in the background, Biden lashed into Donald Trump and his supporters --- that’s about 75 million people ---and effectively called them enemies of the state.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden said. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent in extremism that threatens the very foundation of our republic.”

 Since most of the Republican Party are Trump supporters, Biden was calling Republicans traitors.

 Joe McCarthy couldn’t have done it better.

 Remember, this is the same Joe Biden who urged Americans during his Inaugural Address on Jan. 20, 2021 to “lower the temperature” and work with him to “unite” the country. What hypocrisy.

Instead of bringing the country together, Biden’s speech --- together with other recent comments where he called Trump supporters “semi-fascists” ----  deepens the polarization in our land, already severe.

For someone who voted for Biden, this is a deep disappointment.

It appears that Biden and the Democrats --- looking at low poll numbers heading into the 2022 congressional elections and probably weak prospects in terms of retaining the presidency in 2024 --- have decided to go all out with a vitriolic campaign demonizing the Republicans and the likely 2024 GOP nominee,  Donald Trump.

As pollster and political analyst Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics said on Thursday night, the Democrats are going “scorched-earth.”

This approach is in no way uplifting and will not help to move our country forward.

Biden condemned the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots perpetrated by Trump supporters which caused a great amount of damage, a lot of injuries and clearly interrupted the electoral process from going forward as provided for in the Constitution. On this one, Biden is right.  The violent behavior of Trump supporters at that incident was a disgrace and the prosecution of people who were involved in that is entirely proper and I certainly favor a continuing and objective investigation of what happened that day.

 But the implication that since some Trump backers were involved in that sorry chapter and Republicans in general hold objectionable views, means all Trump supporters and Republicans represent a “unique threat” to American democracy is flat-out dishonest.

President Joe Biden (Wikimedia commons)

 The fact of the matter is that some Democrats and their allies in the administrative state have also worked in recent years to subvert  the democratic process. As facts now amply demonstrate, the charge made in 2016 and 2017 that Trump was somehow colluding with Russia and that Russia was aiding him in getting elected was based on lies and fabrications made up in large part by operatives in the Hillary Clinton campaign.

  Democratic allies in the Federal Bureau of Investigation then aided and abetted this phony campaign first by trying to thwart Trump’s election chances and then trying to undermine his presidency after the New York businessman beat Clinton in the 2016 election. This was a coup attempt.

  As we all know, the Mueller investigation, after spending some $40 million and turning over every rock, found out that the claims about Trump Russia collusion were baseless.

  A Department of Justice Inspector General’s report and other investigations showed that many FBI and DOJ officials acted illegally during this period, lying to investigators and signing false affidavits, among other things.

  We also now know from whistleblowers stepping forward that FBI operatives worked behind the scenes to downplay the seriousness of the Hunter Biden corruption investigation in 2020 and tried to make sure that the media would not publicize any information about Hunter Biden’s alleged wrongdoing prior to the 2020 election.

 Playing the Russia card again, FBI officials along with other intelligence leaders, spread the false claim that what was in the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation.” According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, FBI officials told Facebook officials that the negative information coming out of Biden’s laptop was likely from Russia and could not be trusted. As a result, Facebook and other media censored stories alleging illegal activity by Hunter Biden in his business dealings overseas --- and Joe Biden’s possible links to that corruption.

  The FBI suppression tactics clearly benefited Joe Biden in his presidential bid. Recent polls have shown that many Americans who voted for Biden now say that if they had known about the Hunter Biden laptop and what was in it prior to the election, they wouldn’t have voted for Joe Biden.

So this was clearly election interference and an attack on American democracy, perpetrated by Democrats and their allies in the intelligence community and media.

In in another case, Democrats and abortion rights activists launched an irresponsible campaign against a sacred institution in our government when they engaged in illegal protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices prior to the decision on overturning Roe v. Wade. The protests, combined with the arrest of a man bent on killing Justice Kavanaugh, were intimidating and represented an attack on the work of the court.

The upshot of all this is that Democrats as well as Republicans have engaged in or condoned improper and undemocratic activities in the past. Neither side is pure.

As a friend of mine in Bridgeport would say, ‘there’s been shit on both sides.’

What we need in this country are leaders who can rise above the fray, not pander to their bases and not engage in the politics of demonization. It would be helpful as well, if the media would do the same.

It’s going to take all of us, or at least a good majority of us --- and that includes Republicans --- to really move this country forward. The nation is plagued by a number of serious crises related to the economy and how we spend our budget dollars. On that last point alone, do we want to spend billions and billions of dollars on pointless and destructive wars overseas, or spend them on addressing critical needs at home? I think there’s common ground there.

 But it’s going to take real leaders to find those areas of agreement, to nurture them and move forward.

Joe Biden, instead of sounding like a demagogue villifying an opposition group, would do well to follow the words he spoke at his Inauguration: “We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. For without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos… We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility.”

 Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Peace group calls for cease-fire in Ukraine

   By Reginald Johnson 

  The Connecticut Peace and Solidarity Coalition, a group which opposes wars of intervention and advocates for cuts in military spending, has taken out a full-page ad in the New Haven Register, demanding an end to the war in Ukraine.

  “The war in Ukraine is costing thousands of lives, generating millions of refugees and causing the destruction of billions in infrastructure.  We demand it quickly end,” the ad began. “The only way it can end is through honest negotiations, not actions that lead to the escalation of violence.”

“We call on Ukraine, Russia the United States and its NATO allies to immediately agree on a prompt cease-fire, stop pouring weapons, trainers and troops into Ukraine and quickly negotiate steps towards peace and common security for all parties.”

  The statement also said that “The longer the war lasts the greater chance that nuclear weapons will be used, creating global catastrophe.”

 The Peace and Solidarity Coalition, composed of activists from around the state, has been fighting a lonely battle to try to stop the Ukraine war since it began five months ago after the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s request for military aid has won almost blanket support in Congress and in the media. Support for the war among the public has been more evenly divided.

 Just this year the US has sent over $50 billion in support to Ukraine. Even so-called progressive Democrats have joined in backing the military assistance.

Negotiations to end the conflict are at a standstill and the Biden administration has said almost nothing about the need to settle the war, despite calls for peace talks by several European leaders such as France’s Emanuel Macron.

The Ukrainian army has been given billions of dollars in military hardware by the United States.

Few questions are asked in Congress or in the media about the US and NATO’s role in provoking the conflict, by pouring billions of dollars in weaponry into Ukraine over the years as well as to other eastern European countries that are close to Russia; allowing for the eastward expansion of NATO toward Russia; allowing Ukraine to attack the Russian-speaking, separatist Donbas region and violating the Minsk Agreement in the process.

 The coalition ad blasted the press for its role in supporting the war.

 “We reject mainstream media’s ongoing cheerleading for the war, similar to what we saw when the US prepared to invade Iraq.”

  The coalition statement urged people to call Congress at 202-224-3121 and the White House at 202-456-1111 and ask that United States push for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war.

  To contact the Connecticut Peace and Solidarity Coalition email the group at CTPeaceAndSolidarity@gmail.com.

  To take more action on this issue, go to: https://tinyurl.com/NegotiatePeace

 

 

Taliban at Cornell: Cancelling Lincoln

By Reginald Johnson 

    Commentary

  One of the things I am getting increasingly tired of is “Cancel Culture.”

   This is the trend in recent years of blotting out, erasing or cancelling the legacy of some great person in history due to concern about some moral shortcomings or some specific thing they did wrong or possibly some comments, now deemed inappropriate, they might have made.

  The whole thing is really out of hand. We’re in danger of  “Talibanizing” this nation. The living and the dead must hold the correct views --- or else.

 There’s a totalitarian ring to this and it’s deeply troubling.

 You recall the Taliban, the Islamic extremists who run Afghanistan. In 2001, they decided to blow up the ancient Buddhist sculptures at Bamiyan, because, they said, the monuments represented “idols” to the wrong religion. Heresy will not be tolerated.

  In a few seconds, one of the great works of art in world history was destroyed.

  The attacks on heresy are strong in this country also, particularly at universities. Our greatest leaders are being denounced to the point where demands are being made that names be removed from buildings and statues taken down.

  Even Abraham Lincoln, probably our greatest president --- a man who kept the union together through a brutal civil war and ended slavery in the process --- is being attacked.

  At Cornell University, officials recently decided to remove a bust of Lincoln and a plaque of the immortal Gettysburg Address from the library. It’s not entirely clear why this happened --- university officials are being evasive --- but the action was taken after “a complaint was made.” 

  So that’s all it takes today.  Some unnamed person makes a “complaint” and weakling university officials --- apparently scared of being cancelled themselves --- cave in and remove whatever is deemed “inappropriate.”

   Shame on Cornell. Not only was Lincoln a great president but the Gettysburg Address is one of the great speeches of all time. Lincoln made the speech after the decisive battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in which thousands of men died. He honored those who “gave their lives that the nation might live.”

   Lincoln then said: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us --- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain --- that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom --- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

More schools, less bombs

 

By Reginald Johnson

  Peace activists in Connecticut are spreading the word that the United States has to spend less money on the military and wars abroad and more money on addressing domestic needs.

 Members of the Connecticut Peace and Solidarity Coalition recently passed out flyers in Middletown and New Haven urging that the country needs to “Fund Human Needs, Not Killing Machines.”

  They did so at the same time as the “Mass Poor Peoples and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly” gathered in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Poor Peoples Campaign.

  That event drew thousands of people demanding that the United States take steps to end poverty and close the enormous wealth divide.

  Coalition member Henry Lowendorf said in Middletown the peace group passed out 50-75 flyers to passersby at the corner of Main Street and Washington Avenue  and engaged a number of people in conversation about the need to reorder the nation’s priorities.

   “Basically what we said was the Poor Peoples Campaign in Washington is having an assembly, trying to change the priorities of this country and trying to focus on people and what people need and one of the planks in the peoples campaign is cutting the military budget. So we support that,” Lowendorf said.

  One of the flyers said that despite a multitude of crises plaguing the country --- including record inflation, lack of affordable housing,  poor health coverage and underfunded schools --- “Washington has no problem proposing a record $813 billion on wars and weapons, half of federal spending.”

 The flyer added, “That’s more than the next 12 countries, including 10 allies, combined. Or finding $53 billion to prolong the war in Ukraine...Spend your tax dollars on human needs, not endless wars!”

  The information sheet pointed out that “Not building just one F-35 nuclear bomber would provide FOOD for over 21,000 3-person families for 1 year”  and “Not funding the new Space Force for 2021 would provide 2.2 million families with MEDICAL CARE for 1 year.”

   The peace and solidarity coalition is also speaking out against the Ukraine war and supporting negotiations to bring peace. The conflict has cost thousands of lives, including civilians and soldiers for both Ukraine and Russia. The United States and other nations in NATO have sent tens of billions of dollars in weaponry to Ukraine.

 The policy of aiding Ukraine has had wide support in Congress and in the media. Generally the American people have backed the effort, as well. But the winds may be shifting as the war drags on, Lowendorf said.

 “I hear more people saying, ‘Where is Ukraine, and why are we sending so much aid. over there?’ ’’ he said.

  Lowendorf  maintained the war in Ukraine is actually a proxy war by the US against Russia, and more people are waking up to this fact. “This not about defending Ukraine’s freedom,” he said.

 Coalition member Steve Krevisky said the group is planning more actions in the coming months.

 

  

 

 

 

  

We must head off a wider war in Ukraine

 

(I recently submitted the following opinion piece to the Connecticut Post, advocating for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The Post published the piece in full on June 16.)

 

 

 Recently both the United States and United Kingdom shipped more lethal aid to Ukraine, to help that nation in its war with Russia.

 The US sent Harpoon anti-ship missiles and howitzers; the British sent long-range missiles which can hit targets with high precision 50 miles away.

 The weapons shipments ramp up an already deadly conflict, which has cost thousands of lives of both civilians and military personnel.

Where is all this headed? Nowhere good.

With each passing day, the chances increase that this regional war could erupt into a global war between the nuclear-armed United States and its NATO allies and nuclear armed Russia, with potentially catastrophic consequences. It’s safe to say that the world as we know it would not survive a nuclear war between the US and Russia.

There is a pressing need for a cease-fire and negotiations to end this brutal conflict.

The Ukrainian army has been given billions of dollars in weaponry by the US

 The basic outline of a settlement is clear: Russian forces must totally withdraw from Ukraine; Ukraine must agree to be neutral and not join NATO; Russia must provide humanitarian aid to help Ukraine rebuild; and there must be self-governance for Ukraine’s eastern provinces, as agreed to previously in the Minsk Accords.

This is all achievable. But there has to be a desire for it.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have both been encouraging negotiations to end the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is open to talks. Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy has said at different times there needs to be negotiations.

 But the United States has been silent on talks to end the war.

That’s because officials in the State Department, the Pentagon and others in the Biden administration don’t want a quick end to this war. They are using the Ukraine conflict to wage a proxy war against Russia --- keep Russia bogged down in a long draining war that will eventually trigger regime change in Moscow.

 But that scenario means many more Ukrainians and Russians will die in the process and billions more in American treasure will be wasted.

 This is not an acceptable policy and it must be stopped.

 To prevent further bloodshed and head off a much wider and catastrophic conflict, there must be an immediate cease-fire and negotiations to end the brutal war in Ukraine.

 

Reginald Johnson

Bridgeport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perversion of justice in D.C.

By Reginald Johnson 

Commentary

As everyone knows, unless you’ve been on the moon, politics have become extremely polarized in this country.

The most polarized I’ve ever seen, even more than during the Vietnam War days, which was pretty bad.

People are stuck in their positions, and by golly, they’re not gonna move. This is particularly true when it comes to the issue of one Donald Trump and all things Trump. Supporters adore him, and listen to his speeches as if in rapture. They’re not about to question anything The Donald might say, no matter how stupid it might be.

The haters, meanwhile, are hysterical and filled with rage. Trump is a demon and nothing will persuade them otherwise.

Their hate is so strong, it seems, that they’re willing to look the other way at, ahem, illegal tactics used by the Democrats to undermine Trump.

 How else do you explain the completely non-sensical “Not Guilty” verdict rendered by a Washington, D.C. jury to a lawyer who was charged with lying to the FBI when he fed false information to the bureau about Trump?

 Attorney Michael Sussman was charged with misrepresenting himself when he met with FBI Counsel James Baker in September of 2016, when Republican presidential nominee Trump was locked a tight election battle against Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton.

Sussman told Baker he wanted to meet with him to provide evidence of Trump links to Vladimir Putin and a Russian bank. He assured Baker he was not representing any client ---- he was just acting as a good citizen who had some important information.

Well, that was a bald-faced lie. Sussman was working for the Hillary Clinton campaign, and investigators found a check made out to him by the campaign.

Federal law makes it very clear --- you can’t lie to the FBI about who you are and who you’re working for.  It’s a felony.

Sussman also turned over bogus “information” about supposed  connections between a Trump Tower computer server and Russia’s Alfa Bank. It was all made up.

 As Gregg Jarrett, legal analyst for FOX News said, “The evidence of the defendant’s guilt was obvious and overwhelming. Special Counsel John Durham’s prosecutors presented incontrovertible evidence that Clinton’s campaign lawyer knowingly peddled phony Trump-Russia collusion Sussmann information to the FBI and lied about whom he was representing.”

 But no matter. The jurors, who were chosen from the overwhelmingly Democratic Party-leaning District of Columbia, came to the rescue. They quickly found the defendant not guilty.  Sussman, who should have been sent to jail and disbarred, walked free.

  Conflicts abounded on the jury. Several jurors were Clinton donors;  another has a daughter who plays on the same tennis team with Sussman’s daughter. The prosecution challenged the sitting of that juror due to the conflict, but their plea was rejected by the U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who issued a number of rulings unfavorable for Durham’s team.

 Cooper’s impartiality in the case was also questioned, since his wife, an attorney, represents Lisa Paige, the ex-FBI agent who is suing the Justice Department over the release of her phone texts with fellow agent Peter Strzok in the 2016 election year.  The texts showed both agents expressing a strong dislike for Trump. At one point, Strzok talked of having an “insurance policy” to stop him.

 But Cooper didn't recuse himself.

You can’t say for an absolute certainty that the jury rejected the government’s case simply due to bias against Trump and any efforts to exonerate him, but it sure looks  that way.

After the trial was over, the jury forewoman gave a strong indication of how the jury felt about the government’s case.

  “Personally, I don’t think it should have been prosecuted because I think we have better time or resources to use or spend to other things that affect the nation as a whole than the possible lie to the FBI. We could spend that time more wisely,” she told a reporter.

  This is astounding. Apparently this juror, and probably the others, thought this case was stupid and a waste of time. Really? Lying to a federal agent about an illegal scheme to undermine a presidential campaign is unimportant?

 It’s not the job of jurors to assess whether a government prosecution is worthwhile or not. Their task is simply to look at the facts presented and determine whether they support the charge. That’s all. It’s that simple.

 What appears to have happened here is what’s called “jury nullification.” This is when, as Jarrett explains, “The triers of fact perversely ignore the evidence and repudiate the rule of law to acquit a plainly guilty man.”

  Jarrett believes that from the start Sussman may have been banking on jury nullification as his best way to beat the charge.

 What happened in the Sussman case is very corrosive to the integrity of our judicial system. Politics cannot determine people’s guilt or innocence.

 Hopefully, Special Counsel Durham will get a fairer hearing in the coming months when he brings more indictments connected with the sordid “Trump-Russia Collusion” scandal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Indigenous people and Remington Woods

 

                          

By Reginald Johnson

 

   

  BRIDGEPORT, CT --- The Remington Woods open space tract --- zoned by the city for commercial and residential development --- may have been an area where indigenous people lived thousands of years ago.

  In the late 1990s, when development ideas for the woods were first discussed, then Connecticut State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni did an assessment survey of the area. Bellantoni recommended that the 423-acre forest be preserved due to “archaeological sensitivity” and called for a full exploration and inventory of findings.

   That full exploration was never done and Bellantoni, now retired, could not be reached for extensive comment on his research. But local resident Jeff Kohut, who was in touch with Bellantoni at the time, said that the state official based his recommendation in good part on the discovery decades earlier of artifacts from a Native-American camp on land right next to Remington Woods.

  That land is where the Nob Hill Condominiums, on Nob Hill Circle in the northeast section of Bridgeport, now sit. Kohut said that ancient Indian artifacts were discovered during the construction of the condos just after World War II. The artifacts, dating to 7,000 years ago, indicated the presence of a camp and tool making site and “prolonged habitation.”

  “Unfortunately, the artifacts were discovered only after major disruption of the site/building had occurred, so a full assessment/reconstruction of the habitation by Native Americans was impossible,” said Kohut.

 Kohut said Bellantoni had also located 7,000-year old habitation sites in the Pequonnock River Valley in Trumbull, about 1 mile from Remington Woods. The Pequonnock River Valley is close to Church Hill Road and Daniels Farm Road.

  Kohut also noted that he had discovered ancient artifacts, including an arrowhead and ax head, on property in the Lake Forest area of Bridgeport, also about 1 mile from Remington Woods. The artifacts were authenticated by Bellantoni and also dated from 7,000 years ago.

  The current state archaeologist, Sarah Sportman, said that prior to the creation of a lake on the Remington property (Lake Success),  “there were streams and wetlands which likely made the area attractive to indigenous people.”

        

The lake at Remington Woods. Ancient indigenous artifacts were found nearby. 

  Currently, the property is owned by the Sporting Goods company, a subsidiary of Corteva Corporation, previously part of DuPont. The tract --- of which 347 acres are in Bridgeport and 76 acres in Stratford --- was once used by the Remington Arms company to test guns and ammunition. In recent years, there has been an EPA-monitored hazardous waste clean-up of the area.

  Sporting Goods officials are now mulling options for development of the site, following the city’s approval of a zoning designation of “Residential-Office” late last year.

  That approval came after dozens of people spoke out at a public hearing supporting the idea of preserving the woods as open space and as a wildlife refuge. Some speakers also raised the archaeological questions associated with the site and wondered why development would be allowed to go ahead with those questions unanswered. 

      

Artifacts dating to 7,000 years ago, found in the Lake Forest area, about a mile from Remington Woods.

  According to multiple histories of the southern Connecticut area, indigenous people, primarily the Paugussett tribe, inhabited the region for centuries if not millenia prior to the arrival of European settlers.

  “The Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe has been a part of Greater Bridgeport’s history from time immemorial,” said Charles Brilvitch, an historian and author of the book “A History of Connecticut’s Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe.”

  Brilvitch said the Paugussetts lived in a number of areas of what is now Bridgeport, Trumbull, Stratford and Fairfield. There were Paugussett villages in the area of Golden Hill Street and Elm Street in downtown Bridgeport; on land where Mountain Grove cemetery sits near the mouth of Ash Creek; and at the head of Johnson’s Creek near the Bridgeport-Stratford line, among other locations, he said.

      

Downtown Bridgeport, not far from City Hall. Centuries ago, the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe had a village on this land. 

  After Dutch and English immigrants arrived in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, the Paugussetts were systematically driven off their land, either violently by settlers or by government decree. 

  Today, a small Paugussett tribe remains, with a quarter-acre reservation in Trumbull.

  A Paugussett leader said the tribe is in the beginning stages of finding out what’s going on at Remington Woods and what the Sporting Goods company has in mind.

  “We are planning on having a meeting with them so that our council and us can go to the land. We can talk, we can meet, we can see, get our questions out and see what they have to say before we can comment on anything,” said Shoran, the Clan Mother and Tribal Head Leader of the Golden Hill Paugussetts.