“Civilized people must, I believe, satisfy the following criteria:
1) They respect human beings as individuals and are therefore always tolerant, gentle, courteous and amenable ...
2) They have compassion for other people besides beggars and cats…
3) They respect other people's property, and therefore pay their debts.
4) They are not devious, and they fear lies as they fear fire. They don't tell lies even in the most trivial matters. To lie to someone is to insult them, and the liar is diminished in the eyes of the person he lies to. Civilized people don't put on airs; they behave in the street as they would at home, they don't show off to impress their juniors…
5) They don't run themselves down in order to provoke the sympathy of others…
6) They are not vain. They don't waste time with the fake jewellery of hobnobbing with celebrities… True talent always sits in the shade, mingles with the crowd, avoids the limelight...
7) If they do possess talent, they value it ... They take pride in it ... they know they have a responsibility to exert a civilizing influence on [others] rather than aimlessly hanging out with them. And they are fastidious in their habits.
8) They work at developing their aesthetic sensibility ... Civilized people don't simply obey their baser instincts ...
And so on. [From a letter to Nikolay Chekhov, March 1886]”
~ Anton Chekhov
One of the great tragedies of the Trump era is the demise of decency.
Mike Lee, a United States Senator from Utah began trolling on his social media accounts shortly after Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota State Representative and her husband were assassinated on Saturday in Minnesota. He posted two messages on his X account that appeared to associate the perpetrator with political causes on the left.
It’s really beyond the pale. I’m reminded of the famous statement spoken in 1954 by Joseph Welch (the chief counsel for the US Army) during the McCarthy hearings:
"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”
~Salman Rushdie
Must Read:
Subject: A note from Sen. Tina Smith’s deputy chief of staff.
I knew Melissa Hortman. Many people in this office did. She was a longtime friend of Senator Smith’s, who had seen her hours before she was murdered. So you’ll forgive my candor as I speak through enormous grief.
It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend. I am not sure what compelled you or your boss to say any of those things, which, in addition to being unconscionable, also may very well be untrue.
But that is not the point.
Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people’s grief? Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of US Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination—is that a successful day of work on Team Lee? Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend?
Let’s recap Saturday so you fully understand what Minnesota was going through. Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered. Sen. Hoffman and his wife were shot numerous times and remain hospitalized. By the grace of God it appears they will survive. Senators are discovered to be on a hit list of an armed man on the run—Senator Lee’s colleagues.
And the decision of the office of Senator Mike Lee was not to publicly condemn the violence or to express condolences to her shattered children—it was to intimate that Melissa and Mark somehow deserved this? By making jokes? Did you have any consideration for the survivors in her family? For the Hoffmans in the hospital? For their families?
You exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats. Did you see this as an excellent opportunity to get likes and retweet? Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?
I pray to God that none of you ever go through anything like this. I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings. And I pray that if God forbid, you ever find yourselves having to deal with anything similar, you find yourselves on the receiving end of the kind of grace and compassion that Senator Mike Lee could not muster.
Lastly I suggest you take a few minutes today to read about Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. They were remarkable people. Here’s a story in the St. Paul Pioneer press called “Melissa Hortman: Once a teenager with a job making burritos, she became a powerful MN lawmaker who trained service dogs.”
She was a force. And a human being. And I beg of you to exercise some restraint on social media as we continue to grieve.
Ed Shelleby, Office of Senator Tina Smith (D,MN)
Quote of the day:
“Utah voters: Are these really your values? Mike Lee is the best you can do?”
~ George Takei
What I’m reading today…
Is our common sense of decency dead? Today in America, it certainly can feel that way. Deportations of two-year-old children. Food bank funding cuts that leave thousands hungry. Culture wars that envelop city council and school board meetings. The continued coarsening of our daily interactions, even among family and close friends.
Indecency abounds. Are we really okay with where we are headed as a country—as people?
To hear Lee’s friends, allies, and former staffers tell it, Lee is all but unrecognizable. Once a good-natured Latter-day Saint whose idea of edgy was doing corny impersonations of his fellow senators, he now regularly engages in crude conspiracy theories. Once a politician who seemed to be fashioning himself as a modern Daniel Patrick Moynihan of the right, Lee is now a very online MAGA influencer. It’s as if Ned Flanders became a 4chan troll.
Mike Lee Needs an Intervention
Utah’s senior senator has drawn widespread condemnation for his behavior since the political assassinations over the weekend in Minnesota. Within hours of the murder of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, Lee had gone to his happy place: engrossed in the X app on his phone, using it to spread nonsense conspiracy theories and crack cruel jokes about the violence.
On Tuesday afternoon, Lee deleted the offending tweets. But the fact that he put them up in the first place—and that it apparently took a very rare, personal rebuke from a fellow senator to get him to take them down—is the clearest illustration to date of the fact that even United States senators can have their brains (and hearts) rotted out by social media….
During that time period (30 days), the senator posted nearly 1,400 times, or about 46 posts a day. Of those posts, about half (697) were original tweets. The rest where retweets of other accounts or his own posts. The posts came mostly during normal business hours. But not exclusively. Of the nearly 700 posts Lee authored on Twitter, 47 of them came between the hours of 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. eastern daylight time.
In a show of decency, US Senator Eric Schmitt denounces Minnesota shootings
I’m not all that surprised that President Donald Trump refused to call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after politically motivated shootings there — compassion and empathy is not 47’s style. However, I was pleased to see that Missouri U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Republican, had enough decency to condemn the political violence that claimed the life of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told reporters said Lee’s decision to comment online over the weekend “seems insensitive, to say the least, inappropriate, for sure” and “not even true… what happened is absolutely, positively unacceptable in any political environment, and it’s tragic.” Pressed on Lee’s response, Cramer added, “He maybe should have waited longer before he responded. I don’t know where he stands today on it... I just think whenever you rush to a judgment like this, when your political instincts kick in during a tragedy, you probably should realign some priorities.”
Trump says he won’t call Minnesota Gov. Walz after lawmaker shootings because it would ‘waste time’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday ruled out calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the targeted shootings of two state lawmakers, saying that to do so would “waste time.”
Presidents often reach out to governors, mayors and other elected officials at times of tragedy, such as after mass killings or natural disasters, to offer condolences and, if needed, federal assistance.
A spokesperson for Walz, responded with a statement that said, “Governor Walz wishes that President Trump would be a President for all Americans, but this tragedy isn’t about Trump or Walz. It’s about the Hortman family, the Hoffman family, and the State of Minnesota, and the Governor remains focused on helping all three heal.”
America’s Political Violence Problem
The shootings come at a time of rising political violence and ideologically driven attacks, prompting new concerns among elected officials about their personal security. And with violence emanating from across the political spectrum, driven in large part by internet culture and social media, there does not seem to be an easy way to reverse course.
‘This is not a joke’: Sen. Amy Klobuchar rips Mike Lee for posts about a deadly Minnesota shooting
Sunday, over 30 hours into a manhunt, Lee was making posts that falsely tied the slayings to Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who was his party’s nominee for vice president last year. Numerous onlookers characterized Lee’s tone as mocking…Despite claims like those Lee amplified that Minnesota’s governor had close ties to the suspected shooter, Vance Boelter, Walz’s staff say the governor did not know the alleged shooter. His office merely reappointed Boelter to a bipartisan advisory board in 2019.
What did you all think was going to happen?
Now, the fact that this guy idolized Trump doesn't make Trump directly responsible for the killings… Crazy people gonna do crazy things. But I'd like to think it would result at least some soul-searching among Republicans, as to whether their party's increasingly hostile and conspiratorial rhetoric might be contributing to an atmosphere where political violence is the norm. If the Based Senator from Utah is any indication, not so much.
Mike Lee’s Unbelievable Response When Confronted Over His Assassin Tweet
Republican Sen. Mike Lee refused to take responsibility for his crass social media posts about the assassination of a Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota even after he was confronted by a Senate colleague.
“I don’t think this is a person who’s used to being confronted. I don’t think he’s somebody who’s used to being challenged. And I think he didn’t quite know what to do.”
Walz calls for ‘decency’ after Minnesota shootings: ‘It’s not about mean tweets’
“That’s the embodiment of how things are supposed to work. It’s not about hatred. It’s not about mean tweets. It’s not about demeaning someone,” Walz said.
“It’s leading with grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency,” he added in remarks highlighted by Mediaite.
His remarks came after President Trump in a weekend interview called the shootings “a terrible thing.” In remarks with ABC’s Rachel Scott, Trump also referred to Walz as a “grossly incompetent person.”
Children of slain Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman: 'We are devastated'
"We are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark," Sophie and Colin Hortman said in a statement. "They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can't believe they are gone. Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much."
‘Our beloved Melissa’: grief over Minnesota killings
Brooklyn Park mayor Hollies Winston said Hortman built a “huge legacy” in his community, as did her husband, Mark. Her fingerprints are all over the city and the state, in the visible legislative accomplishments, but also the quiet ways she helped.
She worked with a youth mentor program in the area, bringing kids into her home to teach them about politics, he said. “She contributed greatly to that without really taking any credit for it,” Winston said.
“When you talk about amazing people, the community is really grieving that loss,” he said. “And I think now we’re kind of pivoting to, how do we honor that legacy, and how do we heal from what has occurred?”
Trump’s Goon Squad Strikes Again
Federal agents in New York City handcuffed another Democratic official: Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a current candidate for mayor. Video taken inside a New York immigration court showed Lander standing next to someone who ICE agents—some in plainclothes, some masked—were trying to take into custody. Lander repeatedly demanded to see a warrant, and kept an arm locked with the man as agents tried to take him away, walking in a scrum with them down the hallway. Moments later, agents placed Lander under arrest as well.
Have You No Sense of Decency, Secretary Kennedy?
Kennedy has now proceeded to do exactly what he reportedly pledged not to doopens in a new tab or window. In an administration that maintains that government should be run like a business, it is odd that someone who misrepresented his intentions as blatantly as Kennedy did is still in his position….Abruptly retiring and replacing the entire membership of ACIP is not a step in the right direction. Vaccine policy is too important to the health of the American people to be mired in conspiracy theories in the name of "viewpoint diversity."
Trump Hates Canada for its Decency
…efforts to find some kind of economic justification for Trump’s Canada-hatred have the feeling of desperate efforts to avoid the obvious. Canada is a pretty decent place, as nations go. And Trump, whom nobody would describe as a decent person, dislikes and maybe even fears people who are.
I mean, look at the people Trump has chosen to play prominent roles in his administration. I guess if you search hard enough you can find officials without a sex scandal, a financial scandal, a history of anti-semitism or racism, or a record of substance abuse in a senior position. But it isn’t easy. It really looks as if being vile is a fundamental job qualification.
2024 was a bad year for basic decency in America. You can thank Trump for that.
2024 marked by Trump, hateful rhetoric, loony conspiracy theories…An entire community of legal immigrants in Ohio got labeled dog-eaters to give stupid politicians something to fearmonger. A convicted felon who had been found liable for sexual abuse and charged with a multitude of other crimes, a guy who lies with such reckless abandon he has all but eradicated the idea of “facts,” got elected president ‒ again ‒ on a promise of cruelty toward others. A nutball who thinks vaccines, one of the greatest achievements in medical history, are bad and we should all fight diseases by drinking bacteria-laden raw milk got hoisted up as a person who should oversee the nation’s health…A South Dakota governor admitted she murdered her dog Cricket in a gravel pit and, by the end of the year, was nominated to run the Department of Homeland Security.
He is now and will forever be a stain on American history, a man whose narcissism and lust for power and money led him to sacrifice American decency at an altar he built to honor himself.
Trump Has Us On His Golden Escalator to Hell
He stood before troops at Fort Bragg and used them as political props, again seeking to associate the power of the military with his own plans to remake America into an authoritarian state. He screened out those who might not support him. He egged on the crowd to applaud his divisive rhetoric. He sold his merch. He debased the Army even as he ostensibly was honoring it. Again, he was embracing force, suggesting that violence was one of the options he and his supporters had to advance their goals.
What I’m listening to…
What I am watching…
Bipartisanship…
“We don’t need to pass a law to turn down the rhetoric….”
What I read every day…
