The Rosen Report

Today In History: The Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863- A reprint of a two year old article, with a new epilog.  Ok all you Civil War Buffs, I know you know what I'm talking about. The last gasp of the Confederacy, their "High Watermark", which was never really that high. Some say the turning point for the Civil War.  I bring up Picketts Charge for my usual reasons when I am discussing history. In the hope that the people who read my stuff can get some insight on what is happening today, and gain the added perspective that seeing modern events through the lens which past history can give. In other words, "are we going to keep making the same goddamn mistakes over and over and over again"?  I am not a leading Civil War expert, but I know enough about it, the political/strategic context, and the Battle of Gettysburg to make the point I want to make.  Hopefully I don't make any egregious factual errors. In fact, I'm not looking anything up, I'm relyin...

What Really Motivates  The Murdochs, Tucker Carlson, And Fox News? In response to my shared Facebook memory of yesterday, (FB link here)   https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02GjkUHFkc7g3eWjhcsRLiQeAkawpvzSJnpmirrk3Zm1t7RiYscNhD7RxWBze7CT93l&id=100001688856411 which was a broadside against Tucker Carlson from a year ago, a Facebook friend replied by saying that in effect, all these guys are about is running a scam to get rich. That they are driven by greed, which is a natural outgrowth of American Capitalism. That Carlson is a clown in an empty suit who is just playing to a "niche" market to fulfill a demand and get rich off of it.  We had some back and forth, which I think is worthwhile posting. I'm not trying to get in the last word or win a debate. It's a teaching moment that I thought should be socialized, because I'm sure others have had the same thought and I wanted to address it.  This is, in my view, an example of how we are conditioned t...

Why Clarence Thomas Should Be Impeached, But Won't Be-- Clearly Clarence Thomas is a candidate for impeachment, given his apparent conflict of interest related to wife Ginni's involvement in Trump's fascist coup attempt of January 6th, and Thomas' rulings on the Court which served to shield both her and Trump. But there are two reasons it won't happen.  The first is "electionitis." There is a belief that Trump's MAGA movement is divided into a moderate wing and an "ultra" MAGA, and that the Democrat's key to minimizing their impending losses is to carve out a moderate MAGA voting block which will crossover and vote for either centrist Democrats or anti-Trump Republicans. The Democratic Party is actually working to elect what they believe are "non-MAGA" Republicans in some places where they think they won't win, in order to weaken Trump. But there are also credible reports that Democratic operatives were working to help elect...

 On the 58th Anniversary Of Signing Into Law The US Civil Rights Act--June 29, 1964 This introduction to a two year old Facebook shared memory post will serve as Part 2 of my series on "How To Overcome Fear, And Climb Out Of The Bunker." It is easy to romanticize the leaders of the 1960's Civil Rights leaders as heroes, because in fact they were. They changed the United States and the world. How did they do it? Well, it started with confronting yesterday's MAGA, the Ku Klux Klan, which went by the name "White Citizens Councils". .  They were beaten with billy clubs, had their homes and Churches firebombed, were tear-gassed, bitten and dragged by attack dogs, hit with high pressure firehoses, arrested, tried and jailed on false charges, defamed and slandered, harassed by the FBI, lynched and murdered.  And this was for what? For wanting to register to vote. For marching peacefully. For wanting to sit anywhere on the bus, eat at any cafeteria, use a bathroom a...

The Thrill Of Defeat, The Agony Of Victory-- Some needed reality after Cassidy Hutchinson's "Bombshells" You won't want to hear this. Too bad, here it is anyway. Today's events might be the end of Trump, whether he is indicted or not. Which means our crisis of democracy has worsened.  Today's hearings seems like good news at first, but the prospects for a DeSantis Presidency just doubled. DeSantis is evil, but not mentally unstable. That makes him more dangerous than Trump in terms of the long term damage he can do. As a result, the GOP bloc that had been resigned to a Trump nomination but was nervous about him and might not have turned out, or even might have crossed over, now has a non-insane but calculatedly malignant pseudo-Christian fascist to rally around. This means that the GOP base will now orient toward the program for mass murder and dictatorship of DeSantis in Florida, the "11 point Program to Save America," of Florida Republican Senator ...

Some people object to the comparisons of Trump and Hitler, citing the difference in scale and scope of their crimes, and that the comparison itself demeans the memory of the Holocaust.  To that I say the following-- He has already caused the death of at least 800,000 people and ruined the health of millions of others through his criminal negligence on covid.  His policies on dismantling Social Security, Medicare, plans to overturn Obamacare with it's protections for pre-existing conditions, reversing Roe vs Wade, and enabling the gun lobby will cause the deaths of many more, especially the first two categories.  That is, IF he and the GOP assume total power.  Get a pencil and paper out, and do the math. It should be easy, look up the number of people with lower income or none, solely dependent on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps, etc, and project a year into the future what will happen to them when they lose these things. Count them up.  Prete...

  Clarence Thomas' recent comments regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and their "hate group" designations being libelous or defamatory are revealing. (Exposés regarding "Coral Ridge Ministries Inc," and their bigoted propaganda against LGBTQ citizens rights)  It is more than another step toward press censorship.  It is Thomas openly defending various extremist organization's right to conduct hate speech, speech which is provably incitement to violence against targeted minorities and public figures. It is an atrocious legal provocation by an extreme right-wing charismatic Catholic religious bigot which is more suited for Tomas de Torquemada's Spanish Inquisition than the Supreme Court of the United States This comment by Thomas exposes his transparent political and religious bias, as these are the very groups which his wife Ginni and other Trump acolytes organized in large numbers and brought to the Capitol on buses to violently obstruct th...