The dramatic events in Nashville last week, when Republican legislators expelled state representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two young Black men, for speaking out of turn when they joined protesters calling for gun safety, highlighted a demographic problem facing the Republican Party.
It is about time Jordan is finally getting some push back. I sure hope when Jack Smith indicts people on J6 for seditious conspiracy Jordan is on that list. I think he was in the conspiracy to overthrow the last election and he is using the gov right now to try and get the upper hand to exonerate his own guilt.
"... Jordan is on that list." You betcha' Brandy, on all counts. How fitting was it that he was photographed with his 'yellow' tie on - an appropo color matching the yellow duckling look of his gerrymandered district (they may have altered the shape recently, I haven't checked. It seems that Ohio gop hypocrisy 'may' only go so far, appearance wise anyway). Cheers Brandy !
Oh no, make no mistake about the OH GOP. They’re down for sure with more hypocrisy. My sister is teaching her last year in OH public schools. They just passed stinky voter suppression laws for this May’s primary. Jordan is grossly unpopular everywhere else in OH other than his extremely gerrymandered commode shaped district.
J.D. Vance is not well thought of.
I’m so disappointed the DNC left Tim Ryan out to dry. He is very well liked. He could’ve beat Vance easily and we could’ve flipped 2 senate seats in 2022.
He’s a wonderful statesman. I hope we haven’t heard the last of him.
Their Gov is still taking heat for the East Palestine train derailment as an eighteen wheeler over turned on a state road carrying toxic soil away from the site. So much unnecessary drama, people are sick to death of it. I live 40 minutes west of OH/WV state line and 45 minutes north of WV/Morgantown. Whew!! PA is doing great things. I feel for the residents of those states. Watching them struggle for real under Republican suppression of rights reminds me everyday how fortunate I am at this time in history and I intend to do my part to keep my state blue.
The whole country lost when Tim Ryan was not elected to the Senate. I certainly hope he can at least get his House seat back. But he would be a great Senator.
Ohio is stuck with the Republican who doesn’t even know what he stands for or who he is. Ryan is Ohio’s Big Loss for six long years. And the Nation’s as well.
This Ohioan was heartsick when Ryan lost to Vance - an arrogant Yale graduate with hillbilly roots. Vance had zero chance of winning until Trump endorsed him. The irony that Vance had bitterly criticized Trump previously was lost on the MAGA voters. I'm in Ryan's district and have voted for him in every election. Supported his campaign with donations. Same for Sherrod Brown. Both good men dedicated to public service. Sherrod is up for re-election next year.
As for Jordan, I think his rabid Trump worship is a strategy to get chosen as Trump's running mate. Even if Trump doesn't get the nomination (and runs as a 3rd party candidate) Jordan would gladly jettison his Republican allegiance for a chance to be VP. Red hot ambition that will be his undoing. #Greektragedy
'Increasingly Unhinged Jim Jordan Subpoenas Himself'
'WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—House Republicans expressed alarm after an increasingly unhinged Rep. Jim Jordan subpoenaed himself to testify before Congress.
'In a blistering statement, the House Judiciary Committee chairman demanded that he comply with his subpoena and called himself a' “toadying Soros-backed flunky.” (Satire, NewYorker)
TWO spontaneous laughs today in this comment section about Ohio State's former enabler of sexual assault and current permanent implant on the backside of the Mar-a-Lago Maniac. I have never found anything humorous about Gym Jordan until today. Thank you, Fern. I don't usually read the Borowitz Report and when I do they don't usually make me laugh, but this one is a gold plated keeper!
'The double expresses the opposition between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, reason and instinct. Freud argues that, through the double, one is able to extend oneself; having a doppelganger meant that one was indestructible.'
or
'The double refers to a representation of the ego that can assume various forms (shadow, reflection, portrait, double, twin) that is found in primitive animism as a narcissistic extension and guarantee of immortality, but which, with the withdrawal of narcissism, becomes a foreshadowing of death, a source of criticism …'
Always truth, simple, no conjecture, no opinion, just the facts. Bless you, Heather. Here’s hoping the MAGA cult of right wing extremism goes down in flames 🔥 my most fervent wish.
It is not just MAGA. With the exception of 2 or 3 pp the entire GQP is silent when trangressions, threats and violence occur. Focusing on MAGA and exonerating the other GQP is a grave error.
They came for the teachers... then the historians... then the librarians. Oh, and the climate scientists, too. I'm afraid to find out who they will go after next.
I saw that and thought that I am glad I don't live in Missouri. I am Hoosier born however, and my own state is full of wing nuts. Praising the NRA??? I can imagine how the convention in Indy will go as both death star and the Mother's hubby will be there. And here in Oregon next door we have Idaho which has just made certain kinds of travel a felony. But we also have Washington which is well on its way to banning assault weapons. I am interested too in the water problems in the Southwest as a lot of those cities, as far as I am concerned, should not even exist. Also I saw an article this last week about a lake that existed before it was drained for farming and now it is growing thanks to all the atmospheric rivers CA is getting. Just had one here in Salem, OR., and over the last couple days we have had over two inches. Frost forecast for tomorrow. As I read the news, I always think of our hubris and what a mess we have made of things.
I saw that NYT story on Tulare Lake and it was really interesting. I was amazed to hear how much the land in the Central Valley of California has actually sunk because of the decades of draining the aquifer underneath it. It's part of the reason why the lake is refilling after decades, that and run-off from all the rain and snow. It will flood whole towns, but so be it. Just try and stop it. Even though it will mostly hurt migrant families who do the work of the huge corporate farms there (who's surprised??), they shouldn't have built there to begin with. Nature always does seem to find a way to fix itself in spite of all we do to it.
The draining of the aquifer both in California and other places is so freaking short sighted as to be befuddling. I imagine Planet Earth going to the doctor about this "human infestation" and the doctor suggesting a diuretic and a heat pack to get rid of it...
Yes and see Bruce's post below. Too often we do these sorts of things and then they come back to bite us. Not surprised by Missouri the show me state....show me how bad Rs are.
We who live in the west (of the 100th meridian) should (in my opinion) read a book titled “Cadillac Desert”. It points out that that towards the end of the 19th and into the 20th century, the west was in a wet cycle. So: climate change, weather cycles (think centuries or at least decades), and weather ( will it rain today?). But at that point in US history, it isn’t surprising that people didn’t understand that much of the west really is dry over the long run. And perhaps we should even give those long-dead men who crafted the Colorado pact some grace for good intentions. But just a bit! (😵💫). And for Mr. Sellers,, even more interesting is the discovery of paleo valleys in California. I have to read more about them, but it seems they are subterranean formations that collect water runoff, and send it along to aquifers. There is a move to be certain these valleys can do their job by prohibiting building on them which diverts runoff. Perhaps there is hope for Mono Lake if we are in an extended wet period, which apparently occurs under El Niño. I think this is one of HCR’s best essays.
Applause to you for mentioning Cadillac Desert; it is a really good one to read. Agree that those who enacted the Colorado River pact should not be condemned because of modern conditions; their job was to prevent civil war over water rights, and the compact did just that. The compact needs to be modernized, but it did its job for the time.
I read about the paleo valleys and was equally fascinated. Apparently they're natural formations that can sink billions of gallons of runoff water into the aquifers below without us having to do anything except prevent development on the surface? And California could, if it chose, spend money to redirect runoff in other places to those valleys and store even more water? That is a no-brainer of the nth order
Which is why we'll probably not do it, and instead pave the valleys. Sigh.
I was amazed when, as an adult, I realized how little many people on the east coast understand about the west. For anyone scratching their head about the 100th meridian: east of the 100th meridian there is enough rain/water to support agriculture without irrigation, west of the 100th there isn’t. I think that must have come from Cadillac Desert. Some time after I had read it, I flew across the country and the skies were clear all the way. Sure enough, it is almost like there is a line drawn from north to south: west there is brown land with green circles, east it is green. Another fact, even more startling to me, though it shouldn’t be, is that weather forecasting didn’t exist until the early 20th century, and it was, relatively speaking. Shane: you are the book guru. What was the book about the huge hurricane that his Galveston in the early 20th (first decade)? The city had no idea it was coming or how large/strong it would be.
HCR neglects the fact that an exploding population is what's using up the west's water, and that we need to stanch the flow of immigrants into the US because that is the major cause of the population explosion. The Census Bureau projects the US will grow over the next 40 years by 75 million, nearly equivalent to four New York states, 90% of that growth from immigration.
Additionally, moving all those people into the US is going to greatly worsen global warming. That's because the US is the major western industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions--the worst place on the planet to put more people--and most immigrants come from third world countries with low per capita GH emissions. Thus, the average immigrant's GH emissions rise threefold after arrival in the US.
I hate to think of the country my brother's grandchildren--now four years old--are going to inherit.
And I would give HCR a lesser grade for missing the damage being done to the US by mass immigration.
David: you are correct of course. So, I was born on VJ Day. The question is “during my lifetime, by what % has the human population of the planet increased”? I’m not much of a mathematician, but I do understand simple models of the carrying capacity of an ecosystem. I suspect as a species, we are over the carrying capacity of the planet, and the planet will address that fact. To go on a tangent: there was an interesting article in the NYT about the reasons for extreme weather events in the US (can’t remember if it was a Science Times section article or not, but it appeared during the last couple of weeks, I think); therefore, climate issues will not create, but exacerbate, more extreme weather events.
'Missouri Senate set to restore funds to public libraries cut from House spending plan'
'Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that the panel will place $4.5 million back in the budget, which covers spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1.'
'“There is no way that money is not going back into the budget,” Hough told the Post-Dispatch.'
'The restoration could mark the second reversal of a House budget priority that has stirred controversy under the Capitol dome. Hough and Senate President Caleb Rowden earlier said they oppose Republican language in the House blueprint that would prohibit the state from spending tax dollars on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.' (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) See link below.
Linda, I think Mike S article stated that the house has passed it, and that it is unlikely to get passed in the Senate. But who knows. And it’s very vindictive.
Bonnie, yes I did see that after I posted it. My Librarian friend said that if it gets to the Senate, it's a toss up given current events. Another option they have is to "give" them an unworkable budget amount. Scary and sad at the same time.
It has not passed in the Senate. An article published just a couple of days ago in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch indicated that it may not go through. See my comment right around yours.
I am totally with you. I have said this before- There are NO good R's now. None. If they are still a member of this party/cult after all that has happened then they are an enemy to a majority of Americans.Advocating mayhem and violence or simply by staying silent, this group is evil personified imho.
The failure of Public Schools to educate is behind so much of this. Time to get liberal arts degreed young people, well paid or, at least well encouraged and supported by their communities, back in classrooms.
New book out on the humanities by Sarah Bakewell, Humanly Possible. It's on my list. Also I see lots of memes dissing college degrees. Not everyone needs to go to college and certainly we also need people trained in various trades, but we can do both and stop setting those two paths against each other.
My personal suggestion is that after turning 18, that there be some form of mandatory national service requirement. 3 years (get to the age of "majority") in either the military, the Peace Corps, or a resurrected Civilian Conservation Corps (where maintenance/building type work is learned and performed). Then, figure out "the next step". Meet people from other parts of the country (and world in some instances).
"...mandatory national service requirement. 3 years...."
Much Agreed. And for many reasons. Let young Americans learn and experience something about service and sacrifice. It will bring them closer together and benefit the nation as a whole. When young people from around the country—people from different regions, races, religions, et al—have the chance to talk and discuss different beliefs, there is a much better chance of redeeming the nation than depending on the national “leaders” who just yell at each other and keep the government in gridlock.
No mandatory military service. There will be enough young people who choose that area of national service willingly. Serving under a professional military core, they can determine whether they want to make it a career or not. Also, allow them to be vocal in a civil manner without the threat of being sent to a military prison or to another endless Mideast war to increase the oil industries' never-ending greed to steal other countries' petroleum. (Or undoubtedly soon-to-be wars in African nations to steal their resources.)
For the young hoping to be doctors, nurses, or other professions in the medical industry; they could begin their national service by working as aides in nursing homes, especially in substandard nursing homes where the destitute elderly are often neglected or otherwise abused. They could further serve as a voice for change.
The CCC was a brilliant program: a win-win all-around. The workers were given jobs during the Great Depression which saved them and their families from despair, destitution, and subsequent premature deaths. The CCC workers worked in outdoor, healthy environments, lived in tents, and were fed nutritious food. They were paid $1 a day, and $25 of their $30 monthly salaries were required to be sent home to their families who would then put that money back in circulation toward their food and rent. If workers were illiterate, they were required to take courses at night to become literate. For accomplishments, they planted many millions of new trees; built or rebuilt lodges, cabins, and maintenance buildings in National and State parks; built damns; developed multiple means for water conservation; and on and on.
Through a well-administered national service program, we could become a shining example for the rest of the world instead of a government which caters to billionaires who in turn lock more billions into their vaults.
I like this idea. We did three years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone after college. Changed our lives. We were also married there by our principals.
Have long supported this idea; before I retired I assisted college students w/ student aid (and all that goes along with it) & helped a number of students who had participated in the CA Conservation Corps (if I’m recalling the name correctly); the students could ‘earn’ some funds to help with college costs. Agree that if it were mandatory, folks from different walks of life would mingle and learn about each other. At least that would be my vision of it…oh, and communities would greatly benefit as well.
Loved Alexandra Robbins, author of The Teachers, 17 min interview on Amanpour 2 nights ago, Virginia. Content rich including that there is not a teacher shortage; there is a shortage of Support for teachers! Worth listening.
"Why Are Teachers Quitting? | Video | Amanpour & Company | PBS
The Republican party needs a more accurate label. I think they take the Right label to mean right as in correct. I think we need to start calling them what they truly represent the Regressive Right.
President Biden needs to lay out the numbers to support this fact. He is the one consistently trying to separate maga nuts from "mainstream repugnicons". They are all racist hateful nazis imo.
The quicksand of time has now moved to their shoulders. Ratpublicans are grasping at their gunslinger mob and their Godslinger mob to save them from sinking. For decades they have been their lifeline, and attrition continues to grind those numbers down daily. Sink, or swim. Evolve or devolve. This is where humanity finds itself. My scientist self has faith our Gen Xers will grow the necessary cortical pathways to realize they are compelled to become the change the world needs. Don't ever look back, Mother Earth is not going that way.
Very true comment. I say all the time, we do not move backward. Anything attempting to block the flow of progressive energy will be buried in the backwash. Not Mother Nature or human nature will be denied progress. Civilizations rise and fall but the flow of time and tide will continue beyond all endeavors to hinder their forward motion.
Yes to all your responses. However, as seen in generation z voting the only guarantee of anything changing is physical action. Hopefully that gets the intellectual action revved up too?By physically getting out and getting truth out young people can help heal this country. Let’s give them our support.
And of course Heather is my “Spiritual Mother” I am so in need of!
Jean Muriel; great ideas and plans for engaging gen Z & other older active voters. Sadly, I am unable to engage except online as I am mobility impaired and homebound, dare I admit elderly? I’ve come to hate that word. Whatever comments I post come from the heart to the people I can reach with my only tool, my iPadPro and it’s Pencil for typing. They are my lifeline to the world 🌎 I cannot physically reach or even breathe the fresh air. Admire so very much many voices on this platform; Dan Rather at 92 so very active in all ways; his mind as sharp as ever with nearly a century of experience to share in “Steady.” How I would love to rally for change on so many issues. But my adventures in such action are in the memories of my past. I cling to friends here; the best media platform available to me and am eternally grateful for it. The “notes” are just fantastic, don’t you think? If you are younger and able bodied, I trust you will carry on for me when my journey takes me away from all the “troubles” in which we currently find ourselves. 💔🕊️
Dear Judith, I am glad you are reaching out with words. Nothing really more powerful , and those who can , will actively march forward. We, I too am “elderly” , and do not like using it as an excuse for my self , but facts are facts and limited energy has gripped my fantasies about myself in a tight reality mode. So, I look toward my friends who are in their nineties and absorb all the sunshine they emote. I am a late 70’s . I try to powerhouse as much energy as I can for younger people to cling to. God knows they need our intellectual strength if nothing more.
I have a young friend who flipped over on his trick bike, ( just one more flip) , landed on his neck and became a quadriplegic at 17. May 21 he will graduate from college and go forward sharing his ideas on computers. My 92 year old friend keeps my heart purring with her unconditional love toward me.
We are a wonderful community of sharing, caring , thinking humans. How powerful is that?
It’s a good club, don’t you agree? I’ll be here as long as I “am” & will likely never stop speaking truth to power as I learn more every day and feel this need to share useful bits as a purpose for just “being.” Love your choice of emojis. Thank you for replying! 🎶💃🏼💦☔️🌎🕊️😘
So much to absorb, but the one thing that jumped out at me was “Later this week, Republican leaders will speak at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, where firearms, as well as backpacks, glass containers, signs, and umbrellas, are prohibited.” The irony of banning guns from a gun defending group. Insane.
Also note that the US Supreme Court prohibits guns (and many other items) that “may pose a potential safety hazard” as quoted from the supremecourt.gov website. But let’s go ahead and allow guns in schools. Because, you know, a potential safety hazard to children is different than a potential safety hazard to a Supreme Court justice.
My, my, my. Seems like, to follow their philosophy everywhere else, the GOP should ensure that everyone coming to the NRA convention is armed--you know, "the more guns, the safer we are." I hear that from MAGA folks/Fox viewers a lot.
Yes! Logic is not a strong point for supporters 2A who take these issues to the very edge of common sense. Imagine bringing guns into the realm of “divinity” as the pro-2A supporters have been known to do. The connection, as I try to understand it, is that the Founding Fathers were Christians. As such, the documents they produces were divinely inspired. Therefore, the Second Amendment is divine. Alive and well, thanks to Christian nationalists.
The Founding Fathers were not Christians. A number of them were Deists. They believed God existed but did not act in human affairs. They wanted separation of church and state, to have America be s secular country. The "Christian nation" business is a lie.
JennSH from NC: as a UNC-CH alum of the ‘50’s and 60’s, thank you for bringing up the Enlightenment, which is the basis of our constitution. Deists were not who the “theists” want to make them. They were our path out from the Medievalists (to which current tea party, etc., would like to return US).
I thought it was deliciously dry wit, finely tuned. And that is something I do enjoy, very much. Heather has that gift too, and it tickles me when sometimes it flies right past some folks!
I feel like I better understood the madness around guns and 2A zealots after reading Kathleen Belew's book Bring the War Home. This country's militia movement explains a lot about right wing talking points and the right wing ecosystem. Even if Republicans aren't militia members, I believe they are often sympathetic to the militia motivations (hatred/suspicion of government, anti-tax, Christian nationalism), and thus the general uniting sentiments are growing. Scary!
That and the Fox News propaganda playing 24/7 on every military base. How did that ever come to be?Maybe some great investigative journalist will try to get to the bottom of that some day. Did Ronnie boy give an executive order saying so, to aid and abet his buddy, Rupert? I would not be surprised at this point to learn of something equally malicious
Yes. And the Fox channel seems to give just enough of a nod to the really wacky further right outlets, so that more reasonable people and Q-anon types are actually getting the same talking points. If I remember correctly, Kathleen Belew describes this as similar to different Al-Queda cells. Not everyone will commit an act of terror of course, yet they are loosely connected and supporting each other in their growing radicalism.
I think we should have “gun libraries. “ If you need a gun go to the library and check it out , get a huge tax on it , ammunition is sold next door at the ammo library. One can only get a library card if they can actually read the fine print. Ammo costs as much as a Tesla, and the due date is placed on a public screen with your name and date you checked out your gun! You will also need to leave a signed note with the reason you need the gun.
Makes one want to March outside the convention: "Stop the ban on carrying weapons at NRA events" or "No safe convention unless everyone is armed" or "Only real 2nd amendment patriots dare to carry at NRA get-togethers."
Nah, she's too busy dealing with her son, who knocked up a young girl barely 16, and covering up a car accident (one of two, apparently) that he was involved in. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...
Ironic, indeed, where the gun manufacturers and gun advocates will not allow ANY sort of weapon during their convention! They KNOW the danger of weapons and won't risk any renegades in their midst.
All you report here, Heather, is so important. However, what I consider major important news - the Colorado River's water shortage - I fear will be relegated to the back pages of our media, though I have confidence that Vox will cover it. Thank you for putting this story on your radar.
For many years I’ve thought that the next war would be over water. Cannot survive without it. How much water is wasted in desert areas keeping their golf courses green, keeping their landscapes lush, etc. what will happen when California farmers are no longer able to supply produce to much of the country?
California's farmers (and other state's farmers, too) are part of the problem. Based on antiquated water-rights laws they have little incentive to be judicious in using water. I don't know what it will take for everyone to recognize that the status quo is unsustainable.
In what state did they sell water rights to the Saudi 's or did the governor gave it away ! I read that somewhere but I can't remember the state ??? Anyone hear the same thing ??
Yikes! WTF! And all the rest... The numbers are astounding - costs, acre feet, value of the land vs annual lease, households, age of the aquifer - for how many damn cows in Saudi Arabia?
I get that we have to be careful in how we interact with the most powerful and biggest bullies on the world stage in order to protect lives, however, WTF do they get our precious water for such a cheap price???
And:
“"These declassified FBI documents state that if it wasn't for the Saudi government agency officials' assistance, there were zero percent chance of 9/11 happening," McGinley said.
Regarding: Khashoggi’s rendezvous with ex-agent Catherine Hunt on the same day as he contacted a Saudi official was surmised to be related to threat’s to his son.
“A little less than a year before his murder in Istanbul, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi spoke to an investigator for the 9/11 families suing Saudi Arabia and sent a text message to senior officials for the kingdom that day.“
I vote for every unemployed artist to move to the Dakotas. Water usage and traffic jams in LA would take a nosedive, those electoral votes would flip right quick, and we might get another Mount Rushmore or two. Seems like a win-win. Except for the Christaliban, of course.
Do we really need to take more Indigenous lands and mountains for carved granite celebrations of white patriarchy? I'm not inclined to think so--but other than that, a good idea, Will.
Obviously, you have never been to Los Angeles, and you also need to reset your satire detector. Everybody in LA hates the place at least three times a week, usually after dealing with the @@#$##@!! traffic. Or anything else here. And having escaped the moron stupidity of the red Mountain West, you couldn't drag me back there with a herd of rhinoceri. Let the Mountain West go back to being the Great American Desert.
Just like the radical christians love the idea of LA facing destruction for it’s evil ways? So easy to say as a toss away comment. But the people of those areas are not going to vanish or be beamed aboard the Jesus-spaceship-of-Rapture. They are going to migrate. Remember the Dust-Bowl? History repeats. But hey, everybody loves migrants, right!?
This issue has been major news for decades, but the rest of us have managed to ignore it because it wasn't our backyard. Left out of the discussion entirely are the indigenous people who were not even consulted. They are demanding an active role because the water that they need to even live is being routinely redirected to the Colorado River compact. Under law, the native people's have first rights, but that has routinely been ignored by the compact.
The lakes should be allowed to go dry, and the non-indigenous people should face the reality that their way of life is unsustainable. The argument about food production needs to be reframed: that water is for the purpose of benefiting producers, who are just now being forced to recognize that they need to adapt to the existing conditions. Some took the initiative and are doing so successfully. Others cling to what they consider their "rights", which do not legally exist. It is past time for a Bolt-style legal decision recognizing the invalidity of the Colorado River compact.
So much so that I have long been for much more restrictive water usage. But people all want what they want which is to use however much water they want to without thought of everyone else and the other-than-human worlds. The troubles are exacerbated by the inability of the seven states that are parties to the agreement to agree. We really are in the same boat and need to be far more conscentious about our personal responsibility. In other words, less selfishness, more cooperation.
Lynell you have hit on EXACTLY the most important news item presaging the very things which will fundamentally alter our ways of life in increasingly irreversible ways, guns or no guns!
I remember a public tv documentary on the Dust Bowl, with all its horrendous impacts: deaths from inhaling the dust, large scale migrations of families driven off their land by the drought. At the end of the documentary, I remember a brief but horrifying mention of the fact that mono-culture agri-businesses are growing corn in the same five states where the Dust Bowl occurred. Corn requires excessive amounts of water, which is being pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer. And the prediction? The Ogallala will be exhausted in twenty years, leading to the possibility of another Dust Bowl. Capitalism needs to be leashed, not “unleashed,” as Repugs constantly demand. Insanity.
Morning, Lynell. I tend to agree with you that the water shortage that is bedeviling the west is freaking huge. I've noted that in spite of this winter of "atmospheric rivers" and a snow pack of 279% above normal, neither is expected to restore the water in either Lake Powell or Lake Mead.
I realize this water-shortage news is not new, especially for those of you out West.
My husband was born in the West Indies, on an island surrounded by water but not a drop to drink without the mitigation efforts they have put in place. He thinks California could have captured most all that rainwater and snow-melting if they had only got to work years ago with similar mitigation as many islands have had to do. Instead, he said, all that potentially potable water got washed back into the ocean.
The most important people in American politics are young people getting involved directly, either as organizers (such as Victor Shi), or elected officials (such as the two Tenessee Justins). The second most important group are those Americans of older generations (such as the Justins' compatriot Gloria Johnson) who have correctly recognized the youth vote and youth energy as a growing but still much-untapped source for good in America. This isn't a "get out of the way, old people" moment we are living through, this is an "all hands on deck" moment we are living through. Their allyship is welcome and invaluable.
As someone right on the borderline of the Millenial-Gen Z divide, I really feel it my patriotic duty to keep harping on this. The healthiest way to get us through America's current minefield is to increase participation in democracy through voting and volunteering, and the quickest and most efficient manner in which that can be achieved is by engaging as many younger citizens as possible. It astonishes me the gourmet pretzels my older liberal compatriots will still twist themselves in making up excuses and rationalizations for why their neighbors could vote tfg ("we need to try and understand!"), ditto the energy they will expend handwringing about which direction in the wind the elusive "suburban moderates" will decide to blow next time... Yet I still sense so much knee-jerk judgement as to why younger people do not vote more often, as if we have not had multiple cycles of historically high turnout.
People use the word apathy to describe our younger yet-to-participate citizens. This frustrates me. Apathy indicates people have checked out of the process of using their power because they can't be bothered to care. As someone in the thick of things, that is not what I see most often. A better word is discouragement. So many of my fellow younger citizens DO accurately see what is going on, and DO care. Yet for too many, the basics of political participation seem at a remove, like an old club they are not part of. In my view, the bigger and more damaging cultural perception among my cohort is not that "both sides" are "all the same," but the perception that the two sides are split between the malicious and the ineffective. It is not that people don't see or care about the threats to democracy, but that they are mistakenly unconvinced that available alternatives will deliver enough to merit their participation.
The best way to engage? Simply have open conversations with the younger people in your life, or those you encounter. Instead of browbeating with the severity of the threats we face, offer examples of positive change/results that the good actors in our political system have accomplished. Make voting sound easy, positive, communal, a no-brainer gimmie. Don't shame people for having not boarded the train yet. Sell them a ticket instead, by painting a picture of a better destination. I promise you that you will be shocked by how receptive an audience you will find. People in general, especially younger people, WANT to believe in a better future for themselves. They WANT to believe they can make a difference. They just need the nudge.
Look at those Wisconsin campus numbers. Please be the nudge.
Good morning Will! As a formerly retired (I kind of sucked at being retired) boomer, I can say the issues that most animated the 20 and thirty-somethings I worked with were student debt relief, followed closely by reproductive rights, and climate change (honestly, folks of my generation care about climate change, but in the backs of our collective minds is a sign that says "not your issue - you'll be dead long before it gets really bad").
I belong to the "me" generation, the last generation that had a real shot at doing better financially than our parents. All subsequent generations I lump into the "sold" generation. Most either had to literally mortgage their future to get and education or buy the idea that higher education is not worth it - a popular fallacy that is completely untrue. The choices set up for you are either to pay too much for "a way up and out", or to remain "mud-sills". I am happy to see that most of you aren't buying either option, but instead are working to create your own.
I will continue to nudge where I can. You are correct in that honest, respectful engagement works much better than the lecture/shame approach (which implies that you really can't be trusted with your own futures). The future is yours, I trust you with it. The present is ours - all of us, this time!
The way my son will have a similar standard of living; He's the only one inheriting my estate. He is learning how to invest his savings now, while in high school. He is learning how to live within his means; we don't practice inflation of our standard of living. He WILL get a higher education, one way or the other. If he washes out of college, I'll lean on him to join the military, peace corp or something like one of them. He won't get access to our estate until he has the maturity to not blow through it. It'll be locked up in a trust that requires him to contribute to his own personal maintenance. We aren't the Rockefeller family by any means, but we understand the generational aspect of wealth; one stands on the shoulders of one's parents' generation. And, I will expect him to make good use of the inheritance; do good in the world in a "pay it forward" sense.
"A better word is discouragement. So many of my fellow younger citizens DO accurately see what is going on, and DO care. Yet for too many, the basics of political participation seem at a remove, like an old club they are not part of."
I also cringe when I hear it said that the youth will save us by accomplishing some goal we gave up on. Perhaps so, but we all have a share of choice and responsibility to make self-governance work as advertised, and we can't do that without somehow improving the national conversation between all stakeholders, with enough of us pulling together. If we are to steer to ship of state, we have to come to some kind if agreement about where we are going, and adequately know the rocks and the ropes.
I mostly agree with you and also respect the next generation and support them. I don’t agree, though, we oldsters have given up, at least not all of us. The repubs have had years of machinations, severe gerrymandering, regular lying, etc., etc. while we were not paying close enough attention, not realizing their long game, whatever. We do now.
I am not saying all oldsters have given up, but there is a line of thinking that I encounter that posits that it's up to the young to put things right when in fact it needs an effort by enough of all.
One area in particular is education, especially "science literacy" where I encounter an assumption that this is something acquired only in one's early years, and yet I think the young would acquire it more readily if they saw it more appreciated and practiced in the adult world they are preparing to negotiate. The test score is not the ultimate goal. Acquiring a usable life skill is.
And my definition of "science literacy" diverges from my impression of most school curricula I a aware of. The technical data and formulae are secondary, especially for those NOT contemplating "STEM" careers, to practicing disciplined thinking involving logic and evidence. That Republicans can spout the garbage that they do every single day and not be nearly universal objects of scorn suggests that our standards are slipping.
Will, I believe that my nephew is just a couple years older than you (he's 34) and he is a proponent of exactly what you're talking about. My contact with your cohort is mostly through either casual contacts (like the market) or in the musical groups I play in. I've had good conversations with people in casual situations that give me hope.
I am (if we get into the naming of generations) a tag-end boomer and the oldest kid, so I really identify with what's called the "Jones Generation". One foot as a boomer, the other foot as a GenX, and neither fits...
"mistakenly unconvinced that available alternatives will deliver enough to merit their participation": VERY well put. It seems to be a form of cynicism which is sad to see in the young. I was young in the sixties and the civil rights movement and activism changed my life. Seeing the Tennessee Three REALLY brings back memories AND hope. Whose democracy? OUR DEMOCRACY! I see too much apathy or disengagement and am constantly bugging my own friends of several generations to basically wake up and get involved in any way they can. Thank you for your excellent comments, Will (I was a Californian for a long time too)
Arizona is mismanaging water and it must be investigated. There is a Saudi company in the Butler Valley that is pumping millions of gallons of groundwater for pennies a day in order to have 4 seasons of growing alfalfa. (We raised horses with one growing season in upstate NY... )But they aren’t the only ones. There is an Australian company that is determined to mine on Apache land, threatening to pollute and reduce resources. There are other mining companies that are lurking over the land.They promise the moon to the environments and neglect the land once they raid it. Why do people keep allowing this? No amount of money can replace clean water or limited water, once it is ransacked.
There have been years and hundreds of warnings, but somehow, foreign money is allowed to raid our resources. It is insanity.
Unfortunately, there also are thousands of Arizona residents (including two households of my family’s members) who insist on feeding their swimming pools and manicured lawns with the precious resource. Can’t understand how they miss to see the larger, impending picture—unless they plan to bathe and cook with pool water five years from now…
But with the dry climate there, those pools would soon evaporate away. It's criminal that people in those areas are allowed to have pools and lawns that suck up this precious resource. And, in the whole country we clamber for cheap veggies and would gripe if we had to pay what those veggies actually cost in the use of resources and paying a fair wage to the workers.
We are barely a blip in geological time. There's hardly anything we can do to this planet that can't be erased in one cataclysmic event like the world has seen several times in pre-history. Not to say we shouldn't take care of our environment; I am all for finding a new way, but I also realize that we are not the masters of the universe that we think we are. Out species could tolerate a 98% die off and still preserve most of the essential knowledge we have acquired over a couple of millenia. The remnant would inherit a world ready to provide us a second chance. Maybe the next pandemic will do it?
I've thought that one very lethal virus could pretty much wipe out most of us. However, while we're here it would be better if we didn't do so many things that cause such a great number of extinctions of other species. Having a chance at life is such a gift, and that we are so reckless with our own and other species' lives is a tragedy. But of course, it will all be over in 4.5 billion years, when our sun goes into its red giant phase and swallows up the earth.
Jeanie, We simply can’t keep up with “all the underground” insanity.
My Father told me as a four year old that “ anything you put in your soil you will drink later”. He understood many issues about the environmental purity necessary to keep life going.
We are sold down the toilet concerning just who is running the show. Foreign ownership is usually secret. Thanks for knowing these issues and in putting them out for all of us. Share, share, share!!!!🥰❤️👏🏻
Meanwhile, in the “show me” state, the Missouri House Republicans voted to defund all of the state’s public libraries, in a proposed $45.6 billion state budget that will soon move to a vote in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
As Beau of the Fifth Column points out, the Missouri state constitution expressly mandates that public libraries shall be funded publicly. That's "shall", not "may". https://youtu.be/Ko18Du0dJaw
Has anyone figured out *exactly* how the "originalists" have established this conduit into the minds of the wig-wearing men of centuries past? They certainly don't seem to have much use for the actual published writings of the wig-wearers. Do they use a Ouija board or something?
It's like presuming one is speaking for God (Job be damned) and somehow GOD always wants whatever I (with a capital "I") happen to prefer. Republicans have been "good" at that, as were "Dixiecrats" (and who could forget Putin?). Yes, they magically mind-meld with the Framers, (including the slave-owners) and deliver the WORD on high.
The thing is, I don't quite know where is was that the Framers told us that it was THEIR WORD that was LAW, but rather a set of evolving principles to guide We, the living who were bequeathed their legacy. We inherited a vision of governance by "We the (currently sentient) People" as the ultimate legitimating engine of self-governance. The established social contract slows down rash decision making, such as some of the (mostly Republican) "rules no longer apply" fever that followed 9/11.
I am thinking of all the time energy &$$$$$ that will be spent on law suits re unconstitutional laws that are being passed in super majority states. They sure know how to waste tax payer $$$$
Properly pled by government attorneys "costs" can be recoverable as part of the Final Judgment as well as "attorney fees" and. monetary sanction$ where appropriate per statute, rules of court and/ or case law.
At Law School, ANY school of law, one learns to read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs of ANY opinion to get the Court's decisions (plural) on matters that really matter in ANY case to the client and, yes, Taxpayers. Taxpayers actually paid for the building the Court is sitting in & also pay for the Sheriffs protecting ALL the persons in the Courthouse
We know who are the modern equivalent to slaves, right? We teach them to say "fries with that?" They are the ones that work two jobs and still come up short at the end of the month. Their "education" didn't prepare them for much more than that.
Most library material is available on line, so Missourians could access it there. Somebody, of course has to keep paying for their servers, but leave it to librarians to figure this out. They can be a very creative bunch.
TC in LA this is how Mao Zedong got his strong hold into China. Lock up the intellectuals into reeducation camps. The dumber people act the better. We could beginning “The Long March” to nowhere.
Irony is, as a former library employee, I can testify that not all the books we carried on our shelves would add brain cells to anyone's noggin. Seems like every other week our New Arrivals display was clogged up with the latest bile-filled volume from a right-wing media whore. This was in the SF Bay Area, mind you! Hey, if folks requested 'em, we bought 'em, bastion of free speech yadda yadda. And let me tell you, the folks who checked those out were unfailingly the uppity-est customers of all. For my part, I played a continuing game of oopsie-daisy, finding new nooks and crannies those terrible tomes could accidently slide into, or behind! I sure wasn't getting paid enough to *not* make my own fun!
Do you remember the scene where Guy walks into the living room and his wife is actually participating in the soap opera on the TV? The face on the screen asks "What do you think, Mildred?" (Julie Christie) And she guides the script. Bradbury at his best. Sadly, prescient.
The media have been gushing approval of Tennessee Governor Lee’s call for some vague form of a red flag law and his executive order allegedly tightening some background checks. We all approve of any movement forward but it is apparent that these weak measures do not come anywhere close to meaningful legislation. It is an old trick to get the heat off a very hot issue. Please do not be fooled by this maneuver and please continue to support real reform.
Another side step by other Republican politicians is to call for more police presence all day in front of all schools “like banks” they say. Doesn’t work and it’s the guns in the hands of the wrong people who are killing our kids and so many others! I believe that England put in stringent controls years ago and they haven’t had a single mass school shooting since. Is that correct?
The answer resides in our ballot boxes and 2024 is when GenZ shows its cards as it just did remarkably well in Wisconsin-overwhelmingly! If you want to be part of the solution-- really and truly part of reforming American politics as to gun violence, protecting reproductive rights, stepping way up on the battlefield of climate change, preserving public libraries in every state and reforming gerrymandering at the state level, please help a spectacular group of Harvard students working to register high school and college students and young women by the hundreds of thousands and more NONPARTISAN in 2,700 schools plus on all social media by going to www.turnup.us to contribute and then pass it along to your friends and family by email. Thank you! It’s time....if we make good use of it to save our Democracy! You can play a role in that effort now and going forward. We really appreciate your support.
"The answer resides in our ballot boxes and 2024 is when GenZ shows its cards as it just did remarkably well in Wisconsin-overwhelmingly! If you want to be part of the solution--"
Make the gerrymander run for dear life! Make government Of the People, By the People, For the People cool again; with a cyclone of ballots.
What a letter! Each of today’s stories shows something some citizens, voters, politicians attempt to ignore when making and breaking policies, regulations, laws, promises. Consequences. Start with Water Wars in California in the 1920s. Today everyone in California and other states pay for the broken promises and lies creating a system that couldn’t work in the long run. Consequences. Instead of thinking about the future, even when it’s clearly in front of them, they react or purposely lie or break the law, knowing that there is a possibility they will get away with their crime, which they often delude themselves they are doing for a good cause or the chances of getting caught are low or they are so used to slipping under the law without punishment or detection they don’t think at all. Tfg is the best example of a serial liar and crook. But he is surrounded by liars. He has not acted alone in trying to steal the presidential election. More than one presidential election. The legislators who expelled the Tennessee Three had no problem in trying to wipe out these representatives’ careers even though they had been voted into office. Gun laws: who needs them when the states and courts allow open carry and sales of military assault weapons. The misinterpretation of second amendment. And again the courts. Abortion rights, even essential drugs that suddenly will not be available. Citizens United. Voting Rights. If even some justices are corrupt then what will an appeal do. January 6, a perfect example of getting away with murder. How many participants out of the thousands will pay for their crimes, including the planners and liars who never stepped onto the scene of the Insurrection. Or the Ultimate Criminal who believes if he runs for president again and by some obscure law will be protected from prosecution. TFG and the repubs are on Fifth Avenue NOW. Stop the traffic and arrest them all. The crooks are threatening our Democracy. The party of Fascism is out in the open in America.
Until last week, Anthony Comstock had been largely been forgotten. But then he was resurrected by Texas federal judge grasping for a justification to limit women's reproductive rights.
"Comstock Resurrected" shows what his contemporaries thought of him.
The drawing is superb! Actually, the portly figure causing such consternation in Hell has a very familiar look... Did they have golden escalators in those days?
What a brilliant, creative approach to history! I love it. Thank you, Peter. I subscribed, and apologize that right now I cannot be a paid supporter. But that will change. Your substack is a treasure that deserves support.
Thank you, Peter. Comstock is resurrected. I’m guilty as charged. Undeniable. I gave birth to a naked child. And I’m not sorry. Once again: “The party of Fascism is out in the open in America.”
Yes, fascism is on the run in the US. Sadly our institutions were designed with some assumption of “country over self-interest.” It’s time to shore up our democratic norms and mechanisms.
Read Judd Legum’s newsletter, provided by HRC, which touches on the fact that that weasel of a speaker of the Tenn. House, may not, in fact, live in the district he is supposed to be serving in. So many bad actors everywhere, it makes me ill. Speaking of weasels, there’s no match when if comes to Jim Jordan. The man does not have a lick of knowledge about the judicial system. So glad Bragg filed a lawsuit against him! Hope it sticks.
Wow! WowWowWow!! Sledgehammer today has me singing... https://youtu.be/ln7Vn_WKkWU Stuck In the Middle With You cause of 'clowns to the left of me jokers to the right of me'.
I'm a Seeger fan, not so much Bob Dylan. I'd add a whole lot of others, especially women. But it's true how music often expresses the tone of our experiences. My brother (10 yrs younger than I) have decidedly different tastes in music overall, but we both have the same sound track for the war and political action. A long list of mutual favorites. I'd go home to visit during his teens and we'd drive our parents mad by playing Arlo Guthrie over and over and over....
I still have LPs from that era, but I duplicated many with CDs. I picked these two because they were so influential in themselves and on other artists. Dylan's music of that era was so different from his later material. I prefer his early stuff.
With this latest episode in Nashville and the anti-abortion legislation that the states are promoting, the Republicans - who are so vocal about "grooming" - are grooming an entire generation of young potential voters to vote Democrat or Independent. They also managed to push the two young TN Justins into national prominence. It's going to be quite a while until they win the popular vote in Presidential elections again.
Absolutely, yes. I saw someplace today that, thanks to the ruling on mifepristone, the endless series of school shootings, the shenanigans of the Tennessee lege (and this was only this week) young voters are turning away from the GOP in droves.
If the younger voter turnout keeps rising and repeats the pattern of 2022, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of Republican minority rule.
It has destroyed literal lives and lives worth living for millennia. Under the hood I see malignant narcissism, which I believe we need to get a lot better at spotting and avoiding. Hubris is a hint.
To err is human, but it takes a pro to disseminate deliberate lies. I've been hoping that a large portion of votes for Republicans might be attributable to absent-mindedness in the balloting process? Maybe misprints? Even Trump admits that if enough people voted "you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,”.
And the cheating by gerrymandering, running bogus-ish candidates with similar names to popular candidates, misleading ads, etc. Too bad it can’t be straight up a legit & honest ‘contest’.
I've heard/read from a number off sources that Congressional Republicans are actively coordinating with TFG's legal defense team in their campaign of intimidation and harrassment of New York DA Alvin Bragg and his staff.
If true, is this not obstruction of justice along with conspiracy to obstruct justice on the part of Jim Jordan et al, TFG's legal defense team, and TFG himself as well?
The Republican Party has been completely captured by the Unreconstructed Confederacy, following Nixon inviting them in and Reagan welcoming them. Now they are the New Confederacy, and thus are The Enemy. When we get through with them this time, they don't get to keep their sidearms and their horses for the spring planting.
Officer, I couldn't stand seeing the video of the rookie policeman approaching the Perp at a bank in Kentucky & getiing shot by AR-15 body-ripping ammo; I am not in danger of yelling at the TV but, an expletive did fill the room. 🙏
I fervently hope he fully recovers…well, as much as you can after such an experience AND that he (and all injured) get any and all the help he/they need. As I understand it, his brother is currently at the police academy.
Barbara, I believe you are correct on all facts and the need for help for all the injured. I believe the young officer, Nikolas Wilt, 26, was moving ahead of hisTraining Officer who was able to take cover behind a retaining wall & return accurate fire. Officer Wilt is reported "critical but, stable" by a local KY TV outlet.
This time in Spring everyone in Louisville has one thing in mind --- possible 3 year old Champion fillies & colts not a fire fight at the downtown bank.
"Later this week, Republican leaders will speak at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, where firearms, as well as backpacks, glass containers, signs, and umbrellas, are prohibited. Those speakers will include former president Trump and former vice president Mike Pence." While I don't mean to advocate violence, I wonder what would happen if an insanely huge number of protesters would show up at the doors of that convention, depositing huge numbers of backpacks, glass containers, signs and umbrellas ... all peaceful everyday items...
Seriously? "Later this week, Republican leaders will speak at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, where firearms, as well as backpacks, glass containers, signs, and umbrellas, are prohibited.” ??No packing heat? The party that wants to arm teachers? Say it ain’t so.
Well, what might be in those forbidden backpacks to begin with? Snacks? Chocolate bunnies? Or maybe loaded guns that everybody should carry at all times, including in schools - just not at the NRA meeting? Surprise surprise -
It is about time Jordan is finally getting some push back. I sure hope when Jack Smith indicts people on J6 for seditious conspiracy Jordan is on that list. I think he was in the conspiracy to overthrow the last election and he is using the gov right now to try and get the upper hand to exonerate his own guilt.
"... Jordan is on that list." You betcha' Brandy, on all counts. How fitting was it that he was photographed with his 'yellow' tie on - an appropo color matching the yellow duckling look of his gerrymandered district (they may have altered the shape recently, I haven't checked. It seems that Ohio gop hypocrisy 'may' only go so far, appearance wise anyway). Cheers Brandy !
And here I was thinking it was an open acknowledgement of his status as a yellow-bellied coward.
Oh no, make no mistake about the OH GOP. They’re down for sure with more hypocrisy. My sister is teaching her last year in OH public schools. They just passed stinky voter suppression laws for this May’s primary. Jordan is grossly unpopular everywhere else in OH other than his extremely gerrymandered commode shaped district.
J.D. Vance is not well thought of.
I’m so disappointed the DNC left Tim Ryan out to dry. He is very well liked. He could’ve beat Vance easily and we could’ve flipped 2 senate seats in 2022.
He’s a wonderful statesman. I hope we haven’t heard the last of him.
Their Gov is still taking heat for the East Palestine train derailment as an eighteen wheeler over turned on a state road carrying toxic soil away from the site. So much unnecessary drama, people are sick to death of it. I live 40 minutes west of OH/WV state line and 45 minutes north of WV/Morgantown. Whew!! PA is doing great things. I feel for the residents of those states. Watching them struggle for real under Republican suppression of rights reminds me everyday how fortunate I am at this time in history and I intend to do my part to keep my state blue.
The whole country lost when Tim Ryan was not elected to the Senate. I certainly hope he can at least get his House seat back. But he would be a great Senator.
Ohio is stuck with the Republican who doesn’t even know what he stands for or who he is. Ryan is Ohio’s Big Loss for six long years. And the Nation’s as well.
Correction! I meant to say I live EAST of OH!! Sheesh 🙄. And I love geography!!!
East/west confusion.... I have it BIG TIME. I know what I mean, it just isn't always what I say/write.
Thank you! I was going mad trying to figure out your home state.
Thx for the correction; I read on, but in background my brain was trying to divide by 0.
I am in blue New Mexico and feel the same.
This Ohioan was heartsick when Ryan lost to Vance - an arrogant Yale graduate with hillbilly roots. Vance had zero chance of winning until Trump endorsed him. The irony that Vance had bitterly criticized Trump previously was lost on the MAGA voters. I'm in Ryan's district and have voted for him in every election. Supported his campaign with donations. Same for Sherrod Brown. Both good men dedicated to public service. Sherrod is up for re-election next year.
As for Jordan, I think his rabid Trump worship is a strategy to get chosen as Trump's running mate. Even if Trump doesn't get the nomination (and runs as a 3rd party candidate) Jordan would gladly jettison his Republican allegiance for a chance to be VP. Red hot ambition that will be his undoing. #Greektragedy
Vance is one very glaring illustration demonstrating the limits of education. You can lead a horse to water...
There's a great picture of him, looking like an Easter Island statue in a shirt.
How unfortunate. The Easter Island statues are so magnificent.
But remember, the people who once lived there did themselves in leaving the statues as mute reminders of how foolish we humans can be.
Well, isn't the way he pictures himself?
Gerrymander for Goons!
There is a long list of despicable characters in Congress and JJJ* belongs on top along with crazy MTG.
*Jacketless Jim Jordan the grandstanding jerk.
Whenever I see a picture of him, my thoughts go to " If the combo of halitosis and body odor had a face......"
You win the prize for the best comment on “JJJ” ever! Brava!!!
That you for the spontaneous laugh.
an overzealous rabid chihuahua (no offense to dogs).
'Increasingly Unhinged Jim Jordan Subpoenas Himself'
'WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—House Republicans expressed alarm after an increasingly unhinged Rep. Jim Jordan subpoenaed himself to testify before Congress.
'In a blistering statement, the House Judiciary Committee chairman demanded that he comply with his subpoena and called himself a' “toadying Soros-backed flunky.” (Satire, NewYorker)
TWO spontaneous laughs today in this comment section about Ohio State's former enabler of sexual assault and current permanent implant on the backside of the Mar-a-Lago Maniac. I have never found anything humorous about Gym Jordan until today. Thank you, Fern. I don't usually read the Borowitz Report and when I do they don't usually make me laugh, but this one is a gold plated keeper!
'Gold plated', CC! What about 'the double'?
'The double expresses the opposition between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, reason and instinct. Freud argues that, through the double, one is able to extend oneself; having a doppelganger meant that one was indestructible.'
or
'The double refers to a representation of the ego that can assume various forms (shadow, reflection, portrait, double, twin) that is found in primitive animism as a narcissistic extension and guarantee of immortality, but which, with the withdrawal of narcissism, becomes a foreshadowing of death, a source of criticism …'
😆😆😆😆
Thank you for mentioning this, Liz. I hadn't heard anything about it. I hope it's still in production. https://www.wvxu.org/media/2022-06-08/george-clooney-documentary-hbo-ohio-state-sex-abuse-scandal
Always truth, simple, no conjecture, no opinion, just the facts. Bless you, Heather. Here’s hoping the MAGA cult of right wing extremism goes down in flames 🔥 my most fervent wish.
It is not just MAGA. With the exception of 2 or 3 pp the entire GQP is silent when trangressions, threats and violence occur. Focusing on MAGA and exonerating the other GQP is a grave error.
Sabrina,
Silence speaks. Look what just happened in Missouri and NOBODY is reporting on it or talking about it.
https://missouriindependent.com/2023/04/10/missouris-new-effort-to-punish-libraries-is-vindictive-and-harmful/
https://heartlandsignal.com/2023/04/11/missouri-house-republicans-vote-to-defund-libraries/#:~:text=Missouri%20House%20Republicans%20voted%20to,the%20GOP%2Dcontrolled%20state%20Senate
Yep. Missouri Republicans just defunded ALL Public Libraries.
I guess they are afraid of folks like us who might learn to think for themselves a bit.
They came for the teachers... then the historians... then the librarians. Oh, and the climate scientists, too. I'm afraid to find out who they will go after next.
Mao did the same thing in his revolution. They came for the intellectual and professional classes first.
As did the Nazis when they invaded Poland. Dictators do not want anyone who can think.
As did the Khmer Rouge in the killing fields of Cambodia.
The rest of us?
😱😵😰.......I can't even...no words. None. Fffing unbelievable.
I saw that and thought that I am glad I don't live in Missouri. I am Hoosier born however, and my own state is full of wing nuts. Praising the NRA??? I can imagine how the convention in Indy will go as both death star and the Mother's hubby will be there. And here in Oregon next door we have Idaho which has just made certain kinds of travel a felony. But we also have Washington which is well on its way to banning assault weapons. I am interested too in the water problems in the Southwest as a lot of those cities, as far as I am concerned, should not even exist. Also I saw an article this last week about a lake that existed before it was drained for farming and now it is growing thanks to all the atmospheric rivers CA is getting. Just had one here in Salem, OR., and over the last couple days we have had over two inches. Frost forecast for tomorrow. As I read the news, I always think of our hubris and what a mess we have made of things.
The Tulare Lake story is absolutely fascinating, isn't it. I am aghast at the Missouri politicians that want to eliminate public libraries.
I saw that NYT story on Tulare Lake and it was really interesting. I was amazed to hear how much the land in the Central Valley of California has actually sunk because of the decades of draining the aquifer underneath it. It's part of the reason why the lake is refilling after decades, that and run-off from all the rain and snow. It will flood whole towns, but so be it. Just try and stop it. Even though it will mostly hurt migrant families who do the work of the huge corporate farms there (who's surprised??), they shouldn't have built there to begin with. Nature always does seem to find a way to fix itself in spite of all we do to it.
The draining of the aquifer both in California and other places is so freaking short sighted as to be befuddling. I imagine Planet Earth going to the doctor about this "human infestation" and the doctor suggesting a diuretic and a heat pack to get rid of it...
Yes and see Bruce's post below. Too often we do these sorts of things and then they come back to bite us. Not surprised by Missouri the show me state....show me how bad Rs are.
We who live in the west (of the 100th meridian) should (in my opinion) read a book titled “Cadillac Desert”. It points out that that towards the end of the 19th and into the 20th century, the west was in a wet cycle. So: climate change, weather cycles (think centuries or at least decades), and weather ( will it rain today?). But at that point in US history, it isn’t surprising that people didn’t understand that much of the west really is dry over the long run. And perhaps we should even give those long-dead men who crafted the Colorado pact some grace for good intentions. But just a bit! (😵💫). And for Mr. Sellers,, even more interesting is the discovery of paleo valleys in California. I have to read more about them, but it seems they are subterranean formations that collect water runoff, and send it along to aquifers. There is a move to be certain these valleys can do their job by prohibiting building on them which diverts runoff. Perhaps there is hope for Mono Lake if we are in an extended wet period, which apparently occurs under El Niño. I think this is one of HCR’s best essays.
Applause to you for mentioning Cadillac Desert; it is a really good one to read. Agree that those who enacted the Colorado River pact should not be condemned because of modern conditions; their job was to prevent civil war over water rights, and the compact did just that. The compact needs to be modernized, but it did its job for the time.
I read about the paleo valleys and was equally fascinated. Apparently they're natural formations that can sink billions of gallons of runoff water into the aquifers below without us having to do anything except prevent development on the surface? And California could, if it chose, spend money to redirect runoff in other places to those valleys and store even more water? That is a no-brainer of the nth order
Which is why we'll probably not do it, and instead pave the valleys. Sigh.
I was amazed when, as an adult, I realized how little many people on the east coast understand about the west. For anyone scratching their head about the 100th meridian: east of the 100th meridian there is enough rain/water to support agriculture without irrigation, west of the 100th there isn’t. I think that must have come from Cadillac Desert. Some time after I had read it, I flew across the country and the skies were clear all the way. Sure enough, it is almost like there is a line drawn from north to south: west there is brown land with green circles, east it is green. Another fact, even more startling to me, though it shouldn’t be, is that weather forecasting didn’t exist until the early 20th century, and it was, relatively speaking. Shane: you are the book guru. What was the book about the huge hurricane that his Galveston in the early 20th (first decade)? The city had no idea it was coming or how large/strong it would be.
HCR neglects the fact that an exploding population is what's using up the west's water, and that we need to stanch the flow of immigrants into the US because that is the major cause of the population explosion. The Census Bureau projects the US will grow over the next 40 years by 75 million, nearly equivalent to four New York states, 90% of that growth from immigration.
Additionally, moving all those people into the US is going to greatly worsen global warming. That's because the US is the major western industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions--the worst place on the planet to put more people--and most immigrants come from third world countries with low per capita GH emissions. Thus, the average immigrant's GH emissions rise threefold after arrival in the US.
I hate to think of the country my brother's grandchildren--now four years old--are going to inherit.
And I would give HCR a lesser grade for missing the damage being done to the US by mass immigration.
David: you are correct of course. So, I was born on VJ Day. The question is “during my lifetime, by what % has the human population of the planet increased”? I’m not much of a mathematician, but I do understand simple models of the carrying capacity of an ecosystem. I suspect as a species, we are over the carrying capacity of the planet, and the planet will address that fact. To go on a tangent: there was an interesting article in the NYT about the reasons for extreme weather events in the US (can’t remember if it was a Science Times section article or not, but it appeared during the last couple of weeks, I think); therefore, climate issues will not create, but exacerbate, more extreme weather events.
Heather knows. She Retweeted about it yesterday. More to come I'm sure.
If people can't see what is going on by now, I've really lost faith.
Mike S, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! This article is chilling. I would not have tripped across it unless you gave us a heads-up!
'Missouri Senate set to restore funds to public libraries cut from House spending plan'
'Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that the panel will place $4.5 million back in the budget, which covers spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1.'
'“There is no way that money is not going back into the budget,” Hough told the Post-Dispatch.'
'The restoration could mark the second reversal of a House budget priority that has stirred controversy under the Capitol dome. Hough and Senate President Caleb Rowden earlier said they oppose Republican language in the House blueprint that would prohibit the state from spending tax dollars on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.' (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) See link below.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-senate-set-to-restore-funds-to-public-libraries-cut-from-house-spending-plan/article_75add4d1-0ce4-5d2f-985d-216b799d741e.html
🤬🤬🤬🤬
Mike, did it pass? I was alerted about this from a Librarian friend last month that it was proposed.
Linda, I think Mike S article stated that the house has passed it, and that it is unlikely to get passed in the Senate. But who knows. And it’s very vindictive.
Bonnie, yes I did see that after I posted it. My Librarian friend said that if it gets to the Senate, it's a toss up given current events. Another option they have is to "give" them an unworkable budget amount. Scary and sad at the same time.
It has not passed in the Senate. An article published just a couple of days ago in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch indicated that it may not go through. See my comment right around yours.
Alex Wagner (MSNBC) did a segment about Missouri public libraries last night
WHAT??? This is such insanity!
I am totally with you. I have said this before- There are NO good R's now. None. If they are still a member of this party/cult after all that has happened then they are an enemy to a majority of Americans.Advocating mayhem and violence or simply by staying silent, this group is evil personified imho.
Not just staying silent, but colluding in murder and violence with every vote they cast for the Rethuglicans.
The failure of Public Schools to educate is behind so much of this. Time to get liberal arts degreed young people, well paid or, at least well encouraged and supported by their communities, back in classrooms.
New book out on the humanities by Sarah Bakewell, Humanly Possible. It's on my list. Also I see lots of memes dissing college degrees. Not everyone needs to go to college and certainly we also need people trained in various trades, but we can do both and stop setting those two paths against each other.
Agreed. It isn't either/or. It is both.
My personal suggestion is that after turning 18, that there be some form of mandatory national service requirement. 3 years (get to the age of "majority") in either the military, the Peace Corps, or a resurrected Civilian Conservation Corps (where maintenance/building type work is learned and performed). Then, figure out "the next step". Meet people from other parts of the country (and world in some instances).
"...mandatory national service requirement. 3 years...."
Much Agreed. And for many reasons. Let young Americans learn and experience something about service and sacrifice. It will bring them closer together and benefit the nation as a whole. When young people from around the country—people from different regions, races, religions, et al—have the chance to talk and discuss different beliefs, there is a much better chance of redeeming the nation than depending on the national “leaders” who just yell at each other and keep the government in gridlock.
No mandatory military service. There will be enough young people who choose that area of national service willingly. Serving under a professional military core, they can determine whether they want to make it a career or not. Also, allow them to be vocal in a civil manner without the threat of being sent to a military prison or to another endless Mideast war to increase the oil industries' never-ending greed to steal other countries' petroleum. (Or undoubtedly soon-to-be wars in African nations to steal their resources.)
For the young hoping to be doctors, nurses, or other professions in the medical industry; they could begin their national service by working as aides in nursing homes, especially in substandard nursing homes where the destitute elderly are often neglected or otherwise abused. They could further serve as a voice for change.
The CCC was a brilliant program: a win-win all-around. The workers were given jobs during the Great Depression which saved them and their families from despair, destitution, and subsequent premature deaths. The CCC workers worked in outdoor, healthy environments, lived in tents, and were fed nutritious food. They were paid $1 a day, and $25 of their $30 monthly salaries were required to be sent home to their families who would then put that money back in circulation toward their food and rent. If workers were illiterate, they were required to take courses at night to become literate. For accomplishments, they planted many millions of new trees; built or rebuilt lodges, cabins, and maintenance buildings in National and State parks; built damns; developed multiple means for water conservation; and on and on.
Through a well-administered national service program, we could become a shining example for the rest of the world instead of a government which caters to billionaires who in turn lock more billions into their vaults.
I like this idea. We did three years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone after college. Changed our lives. We were also married there by our principals.
Have long supported this idea; before I retired I assisted college students w/ student aid (and all that goes along with it) & helped a number of students who had participated in the CA Conservation Corps (if I’m recalling the name correctly); the students could ‘earn’ some funds to help with college costs. Agree that if it were mandatory, folks from different walks of life would mingle and learn about each other. At least that would be my vision of it…oh, and communities would greatly benefit as well.
Loved Alexandra Robbins, author of The Teachers, 17 min interview on Amanpour 2 nights ago, Virginia. Content rich including that there is not a teacher shortage; there is a shortage of Support for teachers! Worth listening.
"Why Are Teachers Quitting? | Video | Amanpour & Company | PBS
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/why-are-teachers-quitting-8iktlo/ "
The Republican party needs a more accurate label. I think they take the Right label to mean right as in correct. I think we need to start calling them what they truly represent the Regressive Right.
I have long called them regressive. But now I have switched to the party of death.
Moving backwards just feels un-American to me. It's ironic that the ones who wave flags and chant USA! are supportiing such unpatriotism.
I find it also disgusting.
The Regressive Right is appropriate.
President Biden needs to lay out the numbers to support this fact. He is the one consistently trying to separate maga nuts from "mainstream repugnicons". They are all racist hateful nazis imo.
All Republicans vote in lockstep. There are no mainstream Republicans, just some who don't say as much.
The quicksand of time has now moved to their shoulders. Ratpublicans are grasping at their gunslinger mob and their Godslinger mob to save them from sinking. For decades they have been their lifeline, and attrition continues to grind those numbers down daily. Sink, or swim. Evolve or devolve. This is where humanity finds itself. My scientist self has faith our Gen Xers will grow the necessary cortical pathways to realize they are compelled to become the change the world needs. Don't ever look back, Mother Earth is not going that way.
Very true comment. I say all the time, we do not move backward. Anything attempting to block the flow of progressive energy will be buried in the backwash. Not Mother Nature or human nature will be denied progress. Civilizations rise and fall but the flow of time and tide will continue beyond all endeavors to hinder their forward motion.
Love "Time and tide wait for no man." (Or woman.) My late husband chose it as his gravestone quote.
Noted; agreed!
Dear Judith,
Yes to all your responses. However, as seen in generation z voting the only guarantee of anything changing is physical action. Hopefully that gets the intellectual action revved up too?By physically getting out and getting truth out young people can help heal this country. Let’s give them our support.
And of course Heather is my “Spiritual Mother” I am so in need of!
Thank you all who read and share and act!🌈🥰🎶👏🏻
Jean Muriel; great ideas and plans for engaging gen Z & other older active voters. Sadly, I am unable to engage except online as I am mobility impaired and homebound, dare I admit elderly? I’ve come to hate that word. Whatever comments I post come from the heart to the people I can reach with my only tool, my iPadPro and it’s Pencil for typing. They are my lifeline to the world 🌎 I cannot physically reach or even breathe the fresh air. Admire so very much many voices on this platform; Dan Rather at 92 so very active in all ways; his mind as sharp as ever with nearly a century of experience to share in “Steady.” How I would love to rally for change on so many issues. But my adventures in such action are in the memories of my past. I cling to friends here; the best media platform available to me and am eternally grateful for it. The “notes” are just fantastic, don’t you think? If you are younger and able bodied, I trust you will carry on for me when my journey takes me away from all the “troubles” in which we currently find ourselves. 💔🕊️
Dear Judith, I am glad you are reaching out with words. Nothing really more powerful , and those who can , will actively march forward. We, I too am “elderly” , and do not like using it as an excuse for my self , but facts are facts and limited energy has gripped my fantasies about myself in a tight reality mode. So, I look toward my friends who are in their nineties and absorb all the sunshine they emote. I am a late 70’s . I try to powerhouse as much energy as I can for younger people to cling to. God knows they need our intellectual strength if nothing more.
I have a young friend who flipped over on his trick bike, ( just one more flip) , landed on his neck and became a quadriplegic at 17. May 21 he will graduate from college and go forward sharing his ideas on computers. My 92 year old friend keeps my heart purring with her unconditional love toward me.
We are a wonderful community of sharing, caring , thinking humans. How powerful is that?
Welcome to our club!🥰❤️🎶🦋👏🏻
It’s a good club, don’t you agree? I’ll be here as long as I “am” & will likely never stop speaking truth to power as I learn more every day and feel this need to share useful bits as a purpose for just “being.” Love your choice of emojis. Thank you for replying! 🎶💃🏼💦☔️🌎🕊️😘
You are in my heart and I love learning from you. Thank you !🎶🦋🎶🪐🌍🥰
Mine as well. 🔥
So much to absorb, but the one thing that jumped out at me was “Later this week, Republican leaders will speak at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, where firearms, as well as backpacks, glass containers, signs, and umbrellas, are prohibited.” The irony of banning guns from a gun defending group. Insane.
Also note that the US Supreme Court prohibits guns (and many other items) that “may pose a potential safety hazard” as quoted from the supremecourt.gov website. But let’s go ahead and allow guns in schools. Because, you know, a potential safety hazard to children is different than a potential safety hazard to a Supreme Court justice.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/visiting/prohibited-items.aspx
My, my, my. Seems like, to follow their philosophy everywhere else, the GOP should ensure that everyone coming to the NRA convention is armed--you know, "the more guns, the safer we are." I hear that from MAGA folks/Fox viewers a lot.
The ultimate hypocrisy, no? No guns, no backpacks? Why NRA ?????????????
All it takes for a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun unless of course it is the Uvalde police dept.
There were no good guys. There were cowards.
Or the security guards at the bank In Tennessee this week 😢🤔
I hear this all the time such as" you want to ban protections for children" the argument for more guns.
One word: Uvalde.
So true, Chris. Somebody should organize a protest rally against the NRA for stomping on their A2 rights!
A protest consisting of 200 first- and second-graders
Yes!
Yes! Logic is not a strong point for supporters 2A who take these issues to the very edge of common sense. Imagine bringing guns into the realm of “divinity” as the pro-2A supporters have been known to do. The connection, as I try to understand it, is that the Founding Fathers were Christians. As such, the documents they produces were divinely inspired. Therefore, the Second Amendment is divine. Alive and well, thanks to Christian nationalists.
The Founding Fathers were not Christians. A number of them were Deists. They believed God existed but did not act in human affairs. They wanted separation of church and state, to have America be s secular country. The "Christian nation" business is a lie.
JennSH from NC: as a UNC-CH alum of the ‘50’s and 60’s, thank you for bringing up the Enlightenment, which is the basis of our constitution. Deists were not who the “theists” want to make them. They were our path out from the Medievalists (to which current tea party, etc., would like to return US).
JennSH, I do believe that Anne was making that point through satire. Brilliantly done, I think.
Thank you, Annie! Sometimes I do get a tad sarcastic! But I appreciate the fact that you appreciate it!
I thought it was deliciously dry wit, finely tuned. And that is something I do enjoy, very much. Heather has that gift too, and it tickles me when sometimes it flies right past some folks!
I know! That’s why the”divinity” of the second amendment is a whole lot of wishful thinking. On their part.
Anne Dempsey "Logic is not a strong point for supporters 2A who take these issues to the very edge of common sense."
"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤." -- Robert Heinlein
I feel like I better understood the madness around guns and 2A zealots after reading Kathleen Belew's book Bring the War Home. This country's militia movement explains a lot about right wing talking points and the right wing ecosystem. Even if Republicans aren't militia members, I believe they are often sympathetic to the militia motivations (hatred/suspicion of government, anti-tax, Christian nationalism), and thus the general uniting sentiments are growing. Scary!
That and the Fox News propaganda playing 24/7 on every military base. How did that ever come to be?Maybe some great investigative journalist will try to get to the bottom of that some day. Did Ronnie boy give an executive order saying so, to aid and abet his buddy, Rupert? I would not be surprised at this point to learn of something equally malicious
Yes. And the Fox channel seems to give just enough of a nod to the really wacky further right outlets, so that more reasonable people and Q-anon types are actually getting the same talking points. If I remember correctly, Kathleen Belew describes this as similar to different Al-Queda cells. Not everyone will commit an act of terror of course, yet they are loosely connected and supporting each other in their growing radicalism.
A much more sophisticated response to the logic vs prejudice! Thanks!
Gun-nuts take A2 matters well beyond the edge of common sense--regularly.
What struck me was that Trump and Pence will be speaking. (To each other, as well?)
NRA reopens trumps cesspool!
The NRA is a domestic terrorist group.
Ah yes a simple logical question leads to piles of dirt when thinking about these 2.
Sounds like a good place for a rope sale.
I think we should have “gun libraries. “ If you need a gun go to the library and check it out , get a huge tax on it , ammunition is sold next door at the ammo library. One can only get a library card if they can actually read the fine print. Ammo costs as much as a Tesla, and the due date is placed on a public screen with your name and date you checked out your gun! You will also need to leave a signed note with the reason you need the gun.
Makes one want to March outside the convention: "Stop the ban on carrying weapons at NRA events" or "No safe convention unless everyone is armed" or "Only real 2nd amendment patriots dare to carry at NRA get-togethers."
Heck no. Insanity would be letting a bunch of gun-toting numbskulls into the venue.
Boebert not attending, then? Or can she be separated from her Glock these days?
for her and others it seems to be a sex toy
She gets to bring a water pistol as a transition object.
Nah, she's too busy dealing with her son, who knocked up a young girl barely 16, and covering up a car accident (one of two, apparently) that he was involved in. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...
Ironic, indeed, where the gun manufacturers and gun advocates will not allow ANY sort of weapon during their convention! They KNOW the danger of weapons and won't risk any renegades in their midst.
Every day brings new absurdities.
All you report here, Heather, is so important. However, what I consider major important news - the Colorado River's water shortage - I fear will be relegated to the back pages of our media, though I have confidence that Vox will cover it. Thank you for putting this story on your radar.
For many years I’ve thought that the next war would be over water. Cannot survive without it. How much water is wasted in desert areas keeping their golf courses green, keeping their landscapes lush, etc. what will happen when California farmers are no longer able to supply produce to much of the country?
Me too. I go ballistic when I see someone hosing their driveway with water instead of sweeping debris. I feel like for some
'thinking' is out of style these days.
California's farmers (and other state's farmers, too) are part of the problem. Based on antiquated water-rights laws they have little incentive to be judicious in using water. I don't know what it will take for everyone to recognize that the status quo is unsustainable.
The media will pick it up once the excrement impacts the impeller.
Will they blame Biden? or Buttigieg?
Oh, no . . . it is still all Obama's fault according to the repugs!
You forgot Hillary.
Both, Anne-Louise!
Any and all except themselves.
It already has and this news still gets below the fold treatment - if it gets any at all.
In what state did they sell water rights to the Saudi 's or did the governor gave it away ! I read that somewhere but I can't remember the state ??? Anyone hear the same thing ??
Arizona.
https://azpbs.org/horizon/2022/06/saudi-water-deal-threatening-water-supply-in-phoenix/
Fools.
Yikes! WTF! And all the rest... The numbers are astounding - costs, acre feet, value of the land vs annual lease, households, age of the aquifer - for how many damn cows in Saudi Arabia?
I get that we have to be careful in how we interact with the most powerful and biggest bullies on the world stage in order to protect lives, however, WTF do they get our precious water for such a cheap price???
And:
“"These declassified FBI documents state that if it wasn't for the Saudi government agency officials' assistance, there were zero percent chance of 9/11 happening," McGinley said.
"We need to hold the Kingdom accountable. They need to come clean," Strada added.”. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/newyork/news/some-911-families-say-while-killing-of-ayman-al-zawahiri-is-good-step-they-want-saudi-government-held-accountable-as-well/
Regarding: Khashoggi’s rendezvous with ex-agent Catherine Hunt on the same day as he contacted a Saudi official was surmised to be related to threat’s to his son.
“A little less than a year before his murder in Istanbul, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi spoke to an investigator for the 9/11 families suing Saudi Arabia and sent a text message to senior officials for the kingdom that day.“
https://www.courthousenews.com/9-11-families-detail-meeting-with-slain-reporter-khashoggi/
😨😨😨
I vote for Phoenix and LA drying up and blowing away.
Rude, T.C.!
I vote for every unemployed artist to move to the Dakotas. Water usage and traffic jams in LA would take a nosedive, those electoral votes would flip right quick, and we might get another Mount Rushmore or two. Seems like a win-win. Except for the Christaliban, of course.
Do we really need to take more Indigenous lands and mountains for carved granite celebrations of white patriarchy? I'm not inclined to think so--but other than that, a good idea, Will.
Obviously, you have never been to Los Angeles, and you also need to reset your satire detector. Everybody in LA hates the place at least three times a week, usually after dealing with the @@#$##@!! traffic. Or anything else here. And having escaped the moron stupidity of the red Mountain West, you couldn't drag me back there with a herd of rhinoceri. Let the Mountain West go back to being the Great American Desert.
Just like the radical christians love the idea of LA facing destruction for it’s evil ways? So easy to say as a toss away comment. But the people of those areas are not going to vanish or be beamed aboard the Jesus-spaceship-of-Rapture. They are going to migrate. Remember the Dust-Bowl? History repeats. But hey, everybody loves migrants, right!?
Everybody in LA hates LA, didn't you know? The only one who didn't was Randy Newman. :-)
Randy Newman - I Love L.A. (Official Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcADqxnQA_4
This issue has been major news for decades, but the rest of us have managed to ignore it because it wasn't our backyard. Left out of the discussion entirely are the indigenous people who were not even consulted. They are demanding an active role because the water that they need to even live is being routinely redirected to the Colorado River compact. Under law, the native people's have first rights, but that has routinely been ignored by the compact.
The lakes should be allowed to go dry, and the non-indigenous people should face the reality that their way of life is unsustainable. The argument about food production needs to be reframed: that water is for the purpose of benefiting producers, who are just now being forced to recognize that they need to adapt to the existing conditions. Some took the initiative and are doing so successfully. Others cling to what they consider their "rights", which do not legally exist. It is past time for a Bolt-style legal decision recognizing the invalidity of the Colorado River compact.
So much so that I have long been for much more restrictive water usage. But people all want what they want which is to use however much water they want to without thought of everyone else and the other-than-human worlds. The troubles are exacerbated by the inability of the seven states that are parties to the agreement to agree. We really are in the same boat and need to be far more conscentious about our personal responsibility. In other words, less selfishness, more cooperation.
Lynell you have hit on EXACTLY the most important news item presaging the very things which will fundamentally alter our ways of life in increasingly irreversible ways, guns or no guns!
Thank you, John. This is another example where "thoughts and prayers" won't get us out of this mess.
I remember a public tv documentary on the Dust Bowl, with all its horrendous impacts: deaths from inhaling the dust, large scale migrations of families driven off their land by the drought. At the end of the documentary, I remember a brief but horrifying mention of the fact that mono-culture agri-businesses are growing corn in the same five states where the Dust Bowl occurred. Corn requires excessive amounts of water, which is being pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer. And the prediction? The Ogallala will be exhausted in twenty years, leading to the possibility of another Dust Bowl. Capitalism needs to be leashed, not “unleashed,” as Repugs constantly demand. Insanity.
Morning, Lynell. I tend to agree with you that the water shortage that is bedeviling the west is freaking huge. I've noted that in spite of this winter of "atmospheric rivers" and a snow pack of 279% above normal, neither is expected to restore the water in either Lake Powell or Lake Mead.
I realize this water-shortage news is not new, especially for those of you out West.
My husband was born in the West Indies, on an island surrounded by water but not a drop to drink without the mitigation efforts they have put in place. He thinks California could have captured most all that rainwater and snow-melting if they had only got to work years ago with similar mitigation as many islands have had to do. Instead, he said, all that potentially potable water got washed back into the ocean.
The most important people in American politics are young people getting involved directly, either as organizers (such as Victor Shi), or elected officials (such as the two Tenessee Justins). The second most important group are those Americans of older generations (such as the Justins' compatriot Gloria Johnson) who have correctly recognized the youth vote and youth energy as a growing but still much-untapped source for good in America. This isn't a "get out of the way, old people" moment we are living through, this is an "all hands on deck" moment we are living through. Their allyship is welcome and invaluable.
As someone right on the borderline of the Millenial-Gen Z divide, I really feel it my patriotic duty to keep harping on this. The healthiest way to get us through America's current minefield is to increase participation in democracy through voting and volunteering, and the quickest and most efficient manner in which that can be achieved is by engaging as many younger citizens as possible. It astonishes me the gourmet pretzels my older liberal compatriots will still twist themselves in making up excuses and rationalizations for why their neighbors could vote tfg ("we need to try and understand!"), ditto the energy they will expend handwringing about which direction in the wind the elusive "suburban moderates" will decide to blow next time... Yet I still sense so much knee-jerk judgement as to why younger people do not vote more often, as if we have not had multiple cycles of historically high turnout.
People use the word apathy to describe our younger yet-to-participate citizens. This frustrates me. Apathy indicates people have checked out of the process of using their power because they can't be bothered to care. As someone in the thick of things, that is not what I see most often. A better word is discouragement. So many of my fellow younger citizens DO accurately see what is going on, and DO care. Yet for too many, the basics of political participation seem at a remove, like an old club they are not part of. In my view, the bigger and more damaging cultural perception among my cohort is not that "both sides" are "all the same," but the perception that the two sides are split between the malicious and the ineffective. It is not that people don't see or care about the threats to democracy, but that they are mistakenly unconvinced that available alternatives will deliver enough to merit their participation.
The best way to engage? Simply have open conversations with the younger people in your life, or those you encounter. Instead of browbeating with the severity of the threats we face, offer examples of positive change/results that the good actors in our political system have accomplished. Make voting sound easy, positive, communal, a no-brainer gimmie. Don't shame people for having not boarded the train yet. Sell them a ticket instead, by painting a picture of a better destination. I promise you that you will be shocked by how receptive an audience you will find. People in general, especially younger people, WANT to believe in a better future for themselves. They WANT to believe they can make a difference. They just need the nudge.
Look at those Wisconsin campus numbers. Please be the nudge.
Good morning Will! As a formerly retired (I kind of sucked at being retired) boomer, I can say the issues that most animated the 20 and thirty-somethings I worked with were student debt relief, followed closely by reproductive rights, and climate change (honestly, folks of my generation care about climate change, but in the backs of our collective minds is a sign that says "not your issue - you'll be dead long before it gets really bad").
I belong to the "me" generation, the last generation that had a real shot at doing better financially than our parents. All subsequent generations I lump into the "sold" generation. Most either had to literally mortgage their future to get and education or buy the idea that higher education is not worth it - a popular fallacy that is completely untrue. The choices set up for you are either to pay too much for "a way up and out", or to remain "mud-sills". I am happy to see that most of you aren't buying either option, but instead are working to create your own.
I will continue to nudge where I can. You are correct in that honest, respectful engagement works much better than the lecture/shame approach (which implies that you really can't be trusted with your own futures). The future is yours, I trust you with it. The present is ours - all of us, this time!
The way my son will have a similar standard of living; He's the only one inheriting my estate. He is learning how to invest his savings now, while in high school. He is learning how to live within his means; we don't practice inflation of our standard of living. He WILL get a higher education, one way or the other. If he washes out of college, I'll lean on him to join the military, peace corp or something like one of them. He won't get access to our estate until he has the maturity to not blow through it. It'll be locked up in a trust that requires him to contribute to his own personal maintenance. We aren't the Rockefeller family by any means, but we understand the generational aspect of wealth; one stands on the shoulders of one's parents' generation. And, I will expect him to make good use of the inheritance; do good in the world in a "pay it forward" sense.
"A better word is discouragement. So many of my fellow younger citizens DO accurately see what is going on, and DO care. Yet for too many, the basics of political participation seem at a remove, like an old club they are not part of."
As a genuine old coot I fully agree. It is painful to care and be patronized. I have not been aware of the DNC really reaching out to, involving, and listening to the young in my lifetime. Naive illusion or not, I and my immediate cohort had more of a sense of inclusion when JFK was alive, but fare less so since. Too often I see entrenched political power steamroll what seems like actual grass root agendas. https://www.salon.com/2016/02/13/un_democratic_party_dnc_chair_says_superdelegates_ensure_elites_dont_have_to_run_against_grassroots_activists/
I also cringe when I hear it said that the youth will save us by accomplishing some goal we gave up on. Perhaps so, but we all have a share of choice and responsibility to make self-governance work as advertised, and we can't do that without somehow improving the national conversation between all stakeholders, with enough of us pulling together. If we are to steer to ship of state, we have to come to some kind if agreement about where we are going, and adequately know the rocks and the ropes.
I mostly agree with you and also respect the next generation and support them. I don’t agree, though, we oldsters have given up, at least not all of us. The repubs have had years of machinations, severe gerrymandering, regular lying, etc., etc. while we were not paying close enough attention, not realizing their long game, whatever. We do now.
I am not saying all oldsters have given up, but there is a line of thinking that I encounter that posits that it's up to the young to put things right when in fact it needs an effort by enough of all.
One area in particular is education, especially "science literacy" where I encounter an assumption that this is something acquired only in one's early years, and yet I think the young would acquire it more readily if they saw it more appreciated and practiced in the adult world they are preparing to negotiate. The test score is not the ultimate goal. Acquiring a usable life skill is.
And my definition of "science literacy" diverges from my impression of most school curricula I a aware of. The technical data and formulae are secondary, especially for those NOT contemplating "STEM" careers, to practicing disciplined thinking involving logic and evidence. That Republicans can spout the garbage that they do every single day and not be nearly universal objects of scorn suggests that our standards are slipping.
Exactly…ALL of us!
Will, I believe that my nephew is just a couple years older than you (he's 34) and he is a proponent of exactly what you're talking about. My contact with your cohort is mostly through either casual contacts (like the market) or in the musical groups I play in. I've had good conversations with people in casual situations that give me hope.
I am (if we get into the naming of generations) a tag-end boomer and the oldest kid, so I really identify with what's called the "Jones Generation". One foot as a boomer, the other foot as a GenX, and neither fits...
I will be the nudge.
"mistakenly unconvinced that available alternatives will deliver enough to merit their participation": VERY well put. It seems to be a form of cynicism which is sad to see in the young. I was young in the sixties and the civil rights movement and activism changed my life. Seeing the Tennessee Three REALLY brings back memories AND hope. Whose democracy? OUR DEMOCRACY! I see too much apathy or disengagement and am constantly bugging my own friends of several generations to basically wake up and get involved in any way they can. Thank you for your excellent comments, Will (I was a Californian for a long time too)
Keep sending this message Will.
It will have to be a joint effort to make the changes so badly needed!
Arizona is mismanaging water and it must be investigated. There is a Saudi company in the Butler Valley that is pumping millions of gallons of groundwater for pennies a day in order to have 4 seasons of growing alfalfa. (We raised horses with one growing season in upstate NY... )But they aren’t the only ones. There is an Australian company that is determined to mine on Apache land, threatening to pollute and reduce resources. There are other mining companies that are lurking over the land.They promise the moon to the environments and neglect the land once they raid it. Why do people keep allowing this? No amount of money can replace clean water or limited water, once it is ransacked.
There have been years and hundreds of warnings, but somehow, foreign money is allowed to raid our resources. It is insanity.
Unfortunately, there also are thousands of Arizona residents (including two households of my family’s members) who insist on feeding their swimming pools and manicured lawns with the precious resource. Can’t understand how they miss to see the larger, impending picture—unless they plan to bathe and cook with pool water five years from now…
But with the dry climate there, those pools would soon evaporate away. It's criminal that people in those areas are allowed to have pools and lawns that suck up this precious resource. And, in the whole country we clamber for cheap veggies and would gripe if we had to pay what those veggies actually cost in the use of resources and paying a fair wage to the workers.
We are barely a blip in geological time. There's hardly anything we can do to this planet that can't be erased in one cataclysmic event like the world has seen several times in pre-history. Not to say we shouldn't take care of our environment; I am all for finding a new way, but I also realize that we are not the masters of the universe that we think we are. Out species could tolerate a 98% die off and still preserve most of the essential knowledge we have acquired over a couple of millenia. The remnant would inherit a world ready to provide us a second chance. Maybe the next pandemic will do it?
I've thought that one very lethal virus could pretty much wipe out most of us. However, while we're here it would be better if we didn't do so many things that cause such a great number of extinctions of other species. Having a chance at life is such a gift, and that we are so reckless with our own and other species' lives is a tragedy. But of course, it will all be over in 4.5 billion years, when our sun goes into its red giant phase and swallows up the earth.
No mention anywhere of the water due the Dine (Navajo is a perjorative) by treaty!
😭
Jeanie, We simply can’t keep up with “all the underground” insanity.
My Father told me as a four year old that “ anything you put in your soil you will drink later”. He understood many issues about the environmental purity necessary to keep life going.
We are sold down the toilet concerning just who is running the show. Foreign ownership is usually secret. Thanks for knowing these issues and in putting them out for all of us. Share, share, share!!!!🥰❤️👏🏻
11JEAN ! there will Eventually Be Another " fresh water War !!" MICHIGAN !/ WISCONSIN !
HANG ON ! TO YOUR SHORTS !!
That's what Mohammad Mosaddegh, former PM of Iran had been thinking.
😭
Meanwhile, in the “show me” state, the Missouri House Republicans voted to defund all of the state’s public libraries, in a proposed $45.6 billion state budget that will soon move to a vote in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
As Beau of the Fifth Column points out, the Missouri state constitution expressly mandates that public libraries shall be funded publicly. That's "shall", not "may". https://youtu.be/Ko18Du0dJaw
Only Republicans know how to "interpret" constitutions. In this case "shall" means "shall not never ever".
Has anyone figured out *exactly* how the "originalists" have established this conduit into the minds of the wig-wearing men of centuries past? They certainly don't seem to have much use for the actual published writings of the wig-wearers. Do they use a Ouija board or something?
Original intent, according to conservatives, means "any way I want to interpret it".
It's like presuming one is speaking for God (Job be damned) and somehow GOD always wants whatever I (with a capital "I") happen to prefer. Republicans have been "good" at that, as were "Dixiecrats" (and who could forget Putin?). Yes, they magically mind-meld with the Framers, (including the slave-owners) and deliver the WORD on high.
The thing is, I don't quite know where is was that the Framers told us that it was THEIR WORD that was LAW, but rather a set of evolving principles to guide We, the living who were bequeathed their legacy. We inherited a vision of governance by "We the (currently sentient) People" as the ultimate legitimating engine of self-governance. The established social contract slows down rash decision making, such as some of the (mostly Republican) "rules no longer apply" fever that followed 9/11.
Originalist = premeditated bull sh!+!
Yeah, in a nutshell.
Good question. The results suggest Ouija board. Knock once for yes, twice for no. What's that, three?
The crystal is getting cloudy.
It seems that way, doesn’t it?
Those last words sound too much like Hillary's memorable line about universal health care.
Another Beau fan here!! And of Brian Tyler Cohen!!
Heather's recommendation of Beau was the first I read. You know he's a keeper if he gets Heather's vote!
I am thinking of all the time energy &$$$$$ that will be spent on law suits re unconstitutional laws that are being passed in super majority states. They sure know how to waste tax payer $$$$
Properly pled by government attorneys "costs" can be recoverable as part of the Final Judgment as well as "attorney fees" and. monetary sanction$ where appropriate per statute, rules of court and/ or case law.
At Law School, ANY school of law, one learns to read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs of ANY opinion to get the Court's decisions (plural) on matters that really matter in ANY case to the client and, yes, Taxpayers. Taxpayers actually paid for the building the Court is sitting in & also pay for the Sheriffs protecting ALL the persons in the Courthouse
"Costs to the People".
It's what the GQP's do best!
The Confederacy doesn't work if they don't keep 'em ignorant.
We know who are the modern equivalent to slaves, right? We teach them to say "fries with that?" They are the ones that work two jobs and still come up short at the end of the month. Their "education" didn't prepare them for much more than that.
That will show the libs. Will Missouri cars sprout bumper sticks that say: "Books, What Are They Good For? Absolutely Nothing!"
Why waste your time reading when you make it all up anyway?
Who’s going to be able to read a bumper sticker in MO after all books are banned?
Most library material is available on line, so Missourians could access it there. Somebody, of course has to keep paying for their servers, but leave it to librarians to figure this out. They can be a very creative bunch.
"Say it again y'all . . ."
lol.. Joanne and Michael
voting to keep people illiterate....news at 11
Good ONLY for the undertaker!!
Good Gawd, y’all!
Induction!
Destruction!
Who wants to die! OHHHH,
WAR! HUH!
Oh oh oh oh ohhhh oh
Sorry,All. But anytime I get a chance to sing along to that great Edwin Starr song, I jump at it!
Rebirth of the 19th century Know Nothing Party.
But now it's aggressive nihilism, the violent promotion of ignorance.
The Importance of Knowing Nothing.
Nothing... Who SHE???
No. Rebirth of the Unreconstructed Confederacy,.
TC in LA this is how Mao Zedong got his strong hold into China. Lock up the intellectuals into reeducation camps. The dumber people act the better. We could beginning “The Long March” to nowhere.
TC, surely they weren't such a bunch of total imbeciles as we're seeing today...
Evidence of decline of a nation?
Gee ya don't want the people smart ; they might get uppity !
Irony is, as a former library employee, I can testify that not all the books we carried on our shelves would add brain cells to anyone's noggin. Seems like every other week our New Arrivals display was clogged up with the latest bile-filled volume from a right-wing media whore. This was in the SF Bay Area, mind you! Hey, if folks requested 'em, we bought 'em, bastion of free speech yadda yadda. And let me tell you, the folks who checked those out were unfailingly the uppity-est customers of all. For my part, I played a continuing game of oopsie-daisy, finding new nooks and crannies those terrible tomes could accidently slide into, or behind! I sure wasn't getting paid enough to *not* make my own fun!
Well, everyone knows that bastion of licentiousnesses San Fran needed those religious books, right?
Unbelievable is it not?? I just saw this someplace else and could not believe it. It us truly unbelievable.
https://missouriindependent.com/2023/04/10/missouris-new-effort-to-punish-libraries-is-vindictive-and-harmful/
https://heartlandsignal.com/2023/04/11/missouri-house-republicans-vote-to-defund-libraries/#:~:text=Missouri%20House%20Republicans%20voted%20to,the%20GOP%2Dcontrolled%20state%20Senate
This is utterly disgusting. I cannot conceive of the hubris.
Same here, Mike S. It really is unbelievable.
Defund all libraries??
Now I have seen everything. Fahrenheit 451 comes true.
'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451
Do you remember the scene where Guy walks into the living room and his wife is actually participating in the soap opera on the TV? The face on the screen asks "What do you think, Mildred?" (Julie Christie) And she guides the script. Bradbury at his best. Sadly, prescient.
? What ? !
🤬🤬🤬🤬
The media have been gushing approval of Tennessee Governor Lee’s call for some vague form of a red flag law and his executive order allegedly tightening some background checks. We all approve of any movement forward but it is apparent that these weak measures do not come anywhere close to meaningful legislation. It is an old trick to get the heat off a very hot issue. Please do not be fooled by this maneuver and please continue to support real reform.
Another side step by other Republican politicians is to call for more police presence all day in front of all schools “like banks” they say. Doesn’t work and it’s the guns in the hands of the wrong people who are killing our kids and so many others! I believe that England put in stringent controls years ago and they haven’t had a single mass school shooting since. Is that correct?
The answer resides in our ballot boxes and 2024 is when GenZ shows its cards as it just did remarkably well in Wisconsin-overwhelmingly! If you want to be part of the solution-- really and truly part of reforming American politics as to gun violence, protecting reproductive rights, stepping way up on the battlefield of climate change, preserving public libraries in every state and reforming gerrymandering at the state level, please help a spectacular group of Harvard students working to register high school and college students and young women by the hundreds of thousands and more NONPARTISAN in 2,700 schools plus on all social media by going to www.turnup.us to contribute and then pass it along to your friends and family by email. Thank you! It’s time....if we make good use of it to save our Democracy! You can play a role in that effort now and going forward. We really appreciate your support.
"The answer resides in our ballot boxes and 2024 is when GenZ shows its cards as it just did remarkably well in Wisconsin-overwhelmingly! If you want to be part of the solution--"
Make the gerrymander run for dear life! Make government Of the People, By the People, For the People cool again; with a cyclone of ballots.
The founder of the group (Zev Shapiro) is a very motivated young man. Thank you for sharing the info.
Done!
The throw them a bone and trickle down theory....
What a letter! Each of today’s stories shows something some citizens, voters, politicians attempt to ignore when making and breaking policies, regulations, laws, promises. Consequences. Start with Water Wars in California in the 1920s. Today everyone in California and other states pay for the broken promises and lies creating a system that couldn’t work in the long run. Consequences. Instead of thinking about the future, even when it’s clearly in front of them, they react or purposely lie or break the law, knowing that there is a possibility they will get away with their crime, which they often delude themselves they are doing for a good cause or the chances of getting caught are low or they are so used to slipping under the law without punishment or detection they don’t think at all. Tfg is the best example of a serial liar and crook. But he is surrounded by liars. He has not acted alone in trying to steal the presidential election. More than one presidential election. The legislators who expelled the Tennessee Three had no problem in trying to wipe out these representatives’ careers even though they had been voted into office. Gun laws: who needs them when the states and courts allow open carry and sales of military assault weapons. The misinterpretation of second amendment. And again the courts. Abortion rights, even essential drugs that suddenly will not be available. Citizens United. Voting Rights. If even some justices are corrupt then what will an appeal do. January 6, a perfect example of getting away with murder. How many participants out of the thousands will pay for their crimes, including the planners and liars who never stepped onto the scene of the Insurrection. Or the Ultimate Criminal who believes if he runs for president again and by some obscure law will be protected from prosecution. TFG and the repubs are on Fifth Avenue NOW. Stop the traffic and arrest them all. The crooks are threatening our Democracy. The party of Fascism is out in the open in America.
Great summary. The global "we" is certainly unable to see beyond the nose on their face.
Until last week, Anthony Comstock had been largely been forgotten. But then he was resurrected by Texas federal judge grasping for a justification to limit women's reproductive rights.
"Comstock Resurrected" shows what his contemporaries thought of him.
https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/comstock-resurrected-1873
"Comstockery" certainly describes the modern GOP. And the red states certainly are "provincial" and "second rate."
“Comstockery” was a popular term to criticism him back in the day. It’s one of the search terms I used
Loved George Bernard Shaw's comments! Thanks, Peter.
Same here, Lynell! And equally relevant today as during Comstock’s time.
There’s a link to the entire article. (I only used a portion of Shaw article)
I read the link!
Bravo! Pure gold! Thank you, Peter Pappas.
Blush
The drawing is superb! Actually, the portly figure causing such consternation in Hell has a very familiar look... Did they have golden escalators in those days?
He does bear a resemblance
What a brilliant, creative approach to history! I love it. Thank you, Peter. I subscribed, and apologize that right now I cannot be a paid supporter. But that will change. Your substack is a treasure that deserves support.
Annie, thanks for subscribing. It will stay free. So you can freely enjoy some “fun-size” history.
Peter….really appreciate that!
Thank you, Peter. Comstock is resurrected. I’m guilty as charged. Undeniable. I gave birth to a naked child. And I’m not sorry. Once again: “The party of Fascism is out in the open in America.”
Yes, fascism is on the run in the US. Sadly our institutions were designed with some assumption of “country over self-interest.” It’s time to shore up our democratic norms and mechanisms.
That is incredible, Peter. Thank you for sharing that.
Read Judd Legum’s newsletter, provided by HRC, which touches on the fact that that weasel of a speaker of the Tenn. House, may not, in fact, live in the district he is supposed to be serving in. So many bad actors everywhere, it makes me ill. Speaking of weasels, there’s no match when if comes to Jim Jordan. The man does not have a lick of knowledge about the judicial system. So glad Bragg filed a lawsuit against him! Hope it sticks.
Marlene, speaking of weasels, Tom McClintock is “my” rep and for years has been criticized for living out of our district. Another Teflon Man. https://californiaglobe.com/fr/jessica-morse-tom-mcclintock-lives-out-of-district/amp/
I hate that guy
HCR, not HRC, please. Credit where credit is due, and I doubt HRC is any fan of Judd's Popular Information.
Wow! WowWowWow!! Sledgehammer today has me singing... https://youtu.be/ln7Vn_WKkWU Stuck In the Middle With You cause of 'clowns to the left of me jokers to the right of me'.
Perfect, Gailee!!
That's the sound track theme from the Michael Smerconish talk show on Sirius POTUS radio channel.
OK, but first it was the theme song for all of us who lived through the 1970s and the Viet Nam war- and all the stuff that came out of that.
My crowd of the 60s and 70s saw that theme as coming from Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.
I'm a Seeger fan, not so much Bob Dylan. I'd add a whole lot of others, especially women. But it's true how music often expresses the tone of our experiences. My brother (10 yrs younger than I) have decidedly different tastes in music overall, but we both have the same sound track for the war and political action. A long list of mutual favorites. I'd go home to visit during his teens and we'd drive our parents mad by playing Arlo Guthrie over and over and over....
I still have LPs from that era, but I duplicated many with CDs. I picked these two because they were so influential in themselves and on other artists. Dylan's music of that era was so different from his later material. I prefer his early stuff.
Yes! Gailee, an Anthem. Stuck!
With this latest episode in Nashville and the anti-abortion legislation that the states are promoting, the Republicans - who are so vocal about "grooming" - are grooming an entire generation of young potential voters to vote Democrat or Independent. They also managed to push the two young TN Justins into national prominence. It's going to be quite a while until they win the popular vote in Presidential elections again.
Absolutely, yes. I saw someplace today that, thanks to the ruling on mifepristone, the endless series of school shootings, the shenanigans of the Tennessee lege (and this was only this week) young voters are turning away from the GOP in droves.
If the younger voter turnout keeps rising and repeats the pattern of 2022, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of Republican minority rule.
Hey! A girl can dream.
I sure hope so. I can't fathom how Republican candidates get any more votes than can be attributed to error.
Blind partisanship. Wish America had developed a vaccine for that disease. It destroys the brain.
The vaccine for Willful Ignorance can’t come soon enough.
It has destroyed literal lives and lives worth living for millennia. Under the hood I see malignant narcissism, which I believe we need to get a lot better at spotting and avoiding. Hubris is a hint.
When you say error, are you including errors in judgement? Because you must admit we Murcans are famous for encouraging those.
To err is human, but it takes a pro to disseminate deliberate lies. I've been hoping that a large portion of votes for Republicans might be attributable to absent-mindedness in the balloting process? Maybe misprints? Even Trump admits that if enough people voted "you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/30/trump-republican-party-voting-reform-coronavirus
And the cheating by gerrymandering, running bogus-ish candidates with similar names to popular candidates, misleading ads, etc. Too bad it can’t be straight up a legit & honest ‘contest’.
Gerrymandering, of course.
Hoping. It’s taken what seems like eons to even begin to publicly “censure” TFG and some of his fans are more rabid than ever.
I've heard/read from a number off sources that Congressional Republicans are actively coordinating with TFG's legal defense team in their campaign of intimidation and harrassment of New York DA Alvin Bragg and his staff.
If true, is this not obstruction of justice along with conspiracy to obstruct justice on the part of Jim Jordan et al, TFG's legal defense team, and TFG himself as well?
DA Alvin Bragg might have to hire more staff.
I think Gym is looking for the names on the grand jury so dumpster supporters can intimidate and harass ! I mean that's what dumpster does !
The Republican Party has been completely captured by the Unreconstructed Confederacy, following Nixon inviting them in and Reagan welcoming them. Now they are the New Confederacy, and thus are The Enemy. When we get through with them this time, they don't get to keep their sidearms and their horses for the spring planting.
Agreed, TC. No more second chances.
Officer, I couldn't stand seeing the video of the rookie policeman approaching the Perp at a bank in Kentucky & getiing shot by AR-15 body-ripping ammo; I am not in danger of yelling at the TV but, an expletive did fill the room. 🙏
I fervently hope he fully recovers…well, as much as you can after such an experience AND that he (and all injured) get any and all the help he/they need. As I understand it, his brother is currently at the police academy.
Barbara, I believe you are correct on all facts and the need for help for all the injured. I believe the young officer, Nikolas Wilt, 26, was moving ahead of hisTraining Officer who was able to take cover behind a retaining wall & return accurate fire. Officer Wilt is reported "critical but, stable" by a local KY TV outlet.
This time in Spring everyone in Louisville has one thing in mind --- possible 3 year old Champion fillies & colts not a fire fight at the downtown bank.
I haven't been able to watch that. I'll have to, sooner or later.
Nicely phrased, TC. I sure hope.
this time it's smart phones and SUVs.
"Later this week, Republican leaders will speak at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, where firearms, as well as backpacks, glass containers, signs, and umbrellas, are prohibited. Those speakers will include former president Trump and former vice president Mike Pence." While I don't mean to advocate violence, I wonder what would happen if an insanely huge number of protesters would show up at the doors of that convention, depositing huge numbers of backpacks, glass containers, signs and umbrellas ... all peaceful everyday items...
Seriously? "Later this week, Republican leaders will speak at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis, where firearms, as well as backpacks, glass containers, signs, and umbrellas, are prohibited.” ??No packing heat? The party that wants to arm teachers? Say it ain’t so.
Indiana...the source for all the automatic weapons on the streets of Chicago.
Well, maybe not backpacks...
Well, what might be in those forbidden backpacks to begin with? Snacks? Chocolate bunnies? Or maybe loaded guns that everybody should carry at all times, including in schools - just not at the NRA meeting? Surprise surprise -
😂😂😂😂