Also on today’s menu:
Café Chatter
In a speech to Republican donors on March 6, former president Donald Trump reinforced his affection for authoritarians. After backing away from his glowing praise of Vladimir Putin during Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, Trump turned to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, calling the dictator “seriously tough.” Trump said he envied the way aides and generals “cowered” under Kim’s leadership and the “total control” he had over his staff. “I looked at my people and said I want my people to act like that,” he told the crowd.
Yesterday, Putin spelled out what that kind of control can mean, speaking of dissidents as “scum” that must be eliminated. “Any people, and particularly the Russian people, will always be able to tell the patriots from the scum and traitors and spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths,” Putin said. “I am convinced that this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion, and readiness to meet any challenge.”
Marina Ovsyannikova, a producer at Russia state television’s Channel 1, received “a small fine” after holding up a sign behind the news anchor, saying, “They’re lying to you.” The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament denounced her protest as a “betrayal” and called for her to be punished “with all strictness.”
Brian Klaas, in The Atlantic, writes that Putin is succumbing to the “dictator trap.” He said, “The strategies [dictators] use to stay in power tend to trigger their eventual downfall. Rather than being long-term planners, many make catastrophic short-term errors — the kinds of errors that would likely have been avoided in democratic systems. They hear only from sycophants, and get bad advice. They misunderstand their population. They don’t see threats coming until it’s too late. And unlike elected leaders who leave office to riches, book tours, and the glitzy lifestyle of a statesman, many dictators who miscalculate leave office in a casket, a possibility that makes them even more likely to double down.”
George Orwell said in his novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, that clamping down on free speech is a tool for controlling the population, and another Atlantic writer, Conor Friedersdorf, noted that the urge is not confined to dictators.
The lessons of U.S. history are still lost on some Americans, judging by recent calls for authoritarian crackdowns on speech related to the war in Ukraine, including remarks from former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who is accused of spreading false Russian propaganda for expressing concern about “U.S. funded biolabs” in Ukraine and her worry that pathogens therein could escape as a consequence of fighting in the country.
“Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda,” Senator Mitt Romney declared. “Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.” But Gabbard engaged in constitutionally protected speech, not treasonous speech.
On the ABC daytime talk show The View, several hosts suggested that Gabbard and Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, should be investigated by federal authorities for peddling Russian propaganda. The broadcaster Keith Olbermann agreed, telling his nearly 1 million followers, without evidence, “They are Russian Assets and there is a war. There’s a case for detaining them militarily. Trials are a sign of good faith and patience on the part of democracy.” In fact, there is no lawful case for detaining either of them militarily, and trials are a due-process right, not a courtesy.
Americans should have learned by now that the United States does not always act righteously. Biolabs in Ukraine cannot be ruled out, given the U.S. government’s history of experimenting on its own citizens, as it did with the LSD tests on unsuspecting Americans in the mid-20th century. Chemical weapons in Ukraine may be a Russian “false flag” to provide an excuse to use weapons of mass destruction in their brutal attack on that country; but it is a fair question to ask if that propaganda does not have a measure of truth.
Russia’s blocking of western news reports and social media is met in equal measure by western countries’ blocking of Russia Today and other state-sponsored media in that country. We need to hear all sides of all issues in order to understand our world today, and censorship in any form hinders that understanding.
Café Chatter
We have renamed this section to bring it in line with our community café theme. From snippets to full-blown commentary, Café Chatter allows our readers to express their views over that imaginary cup of coffee. We hope other readers will join in the conversation.
A Sugar Hill visitor last night. I heard very canine-sounding howling during the night. Perhaps a coyote?
— Susan Duncan, Bristol
Teaching is Out of Control: Let’s talk about HB1255. This bill does just the opposite of what one writer said about shutting down our kids learning history. HB1255 takes the mind control of our kids away from the teachers. The teachers are the ones promoting mind control when they express their own opinions as facts and don’t allow our kids to formulate their own conclusion or allow them to do some critical thinking. Some teachers taint our kids daily with their liberal opinions, teaching them white people are privileged, Americans are bad or racist and capitalism is evil all in the name of HISTORY.
What they should be teaching are the ABC’s, Reading, Math, English, Science, Technology and untainted History. This type of teaching will improve test scores and free our kids to learn truths, be good citizens and be productive in society. Instead, they teach our kids unproven theories as fact. They teach the kids they can be a boy if they’re a girl or girl if they’re a boy or something in between if boy or girl. They teach opinions instead of truths. They teach one side of history instead of both sides.
HB1255 helps control these out-of-control teachers even if they took an oath. We the parents, grandparents and others who care must start standing up for our kids or forever lose them.
They definitely don’t teach them about God and I mean the Christian God and His son Jesus, that is factual history unless they taint that too. They don’t teach this same Jesus was crucified on a cross for us all. All God asks of each of us is to acknowledge that Jesus is His son, He died for you, He is coming again and He wants you to repent (change from your corrupt ways, all of us have sinned, ALL). No, teachers will NEVER mention God in a public school unless to promote some other option of half-truths against God.
As liberals do, they label people or call us names like Nutcase, Extremist Element, Fanatic, Right wing, and so on. HB1255 is a bill that is needed. The teachers need to be stopped. They need to stop labeling people. Especially those dreadful Liberty Alliance, Libertarians and Free Staters. Those Free Staters who are taking over NH by want to hold our schools accountable and provide our kids a better education, be free, pay less taxes, have liberties and yes smaller government. Boy do some teachers and many others HATE those Free Staters. They love to label people to divide us and set us in groups so we argue against each other instead of focusing on the issue which are our kids being controlled not to think for themselves, believe in fiction as fact, unproven theories, and half-truths.
Lastly, when I refer to teachers, I am not grouping ALL teachers into one bucket as liberals do because there are still some good, honest, caring teachers out there.
— John Sellers, Bristol
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Should we continue to "spring ahead" and "fall back", or just keep Standard Time? My friends and I have been discussing this for a few days now. An interesting article was written in the Concord Monitor recently, headlined
"Sleep docs say Standard Time Best." The long and short of it says that experts say humans are "diurnal" (they function better in daylight) and that delaying daylight due to clock setting (forward/backward) can have adverse effects on the quality of daily human functioning. They further say that the desire to add light later in the day is an attempt to extend summer days. And who doesn't want longer summer days, right?