On April 12, 1945, a visibly exhausted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt jerked in his chair while having his portrait painted in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Good morning, Professor! This is exactly what Biden is trying to do, bring everyone together, create jobs (which he’s done), stimulate the economy, in spite of inflation which he nor the Dems are responsible for. He has called out the world’s biggest enemy as a murderer, creating genocide. He is absolutely correct. I used to get mad at him for being what I thought was a loose cannon, when he spoke. I do not think that anymore. He is our century’s replica of FDR. He is juggling buckets of issues and is doing it quite well. Thank you for showing the words at FDR’s memorial. I take that to heart.
"The law I have just signed was passed to put people back to work, to let them buy more of the products of farms and factories and start our business at a living rate again. This task is in two stages; first, to get many hundreds of thousands of the unemployed back on the payroll by snowfall and, second, to plan for a better future for the longer pull. While we shall not neglect the second, the first stage is an emergency job. It has the right of way.
The second part of the Act gives employment through a vast program of public works. Our studies show that we should be able to hire many men at once and to step up to about a million new jobs by October 1st, and a much greater number later. We must put at the head of our list those works which are fully ready to start now. Our first purpose is to create employment as fast as we can, but we should not pour money into unproved projects..."
"Between these twin efforts--public works and industrial reemployment -- it is not too much to expect that a great many men and women can be taken from the ranks of the unemployed before winter comes. It is the most important attempt of this kind in history. As in the great crisis of the World War, it puts a whole people to the simple but vital test:--"Must we go on in many groping, disorganized, separate units to defeat or shall we move as one great team to victory?"
From: Franklin Roosevelt's Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act, June 16, 1933.
The contents of this newsletter needs a much bigger audience and should be sent to every legislator in DC...why is it that people refuse to learn from history?
Sophia - "why is it that people refuse to learn from history?" I just finished reading a huge book on FDR. Republicans fought FDR tooth and nail the entire time he was in office. They never "learned" anything at all. They called it all "socialism", a redistribution of wealth. They felt they knew better how to run the country and the economy. And they saw that their corruption was being checked and that their fortunes were being limited. Sound familiar? Back then though, Republicans were not in control. Not even close. Today, they are either in control or threatening to be. So my point is that Republicans will n ever think the FDR years were right. That is exactly what they are hell bent on avoiding, and for the same reasons as back then.
It's beyond me...how did the Republicans of the Abraham Lincoln administration turn into the GOP of today? Why has the term "socialism" gotten such a bad rap when it's what the Declaration of Independence is all about?
The Republicans of Abraham Lincoln are the Democrats of today. What Lincoln's party stood for is almost exactly what the Democrats stand for today. There are others who can explain it better than I can, but over time, the Republican's drifted over to the party of big business and the rich. And the Democrats drifted over to the party of the common citizen. Not quite that simple but that is the gist of it.
“He is juggling buckets of issues and is doing it quite well.”
He’s doing the best he knows how to do under trying circumstances.
Doing quite well? The majority of those polled do not seem to agree.
From NBC
“And during the nation’s largest inflation spike in 40 years, overwhelming majorities said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy.
Those are some of the major findings of the new national NBC News poll, which found that Biden’s overall job approval rating had declined to 40 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.
The erosion in Biden’s approval rating has been across the board among key demographic groups, including Black respondents (from 64 percent approve in January to 62 percent now), women (from 51 percent approve to 44 percent), Latinos (from 48 percent to 39 percent) and independents (36 percent to 32 percent).
Seventy-one percent of Americans said they believe the nation is headed on the wrong track, compared to 22 percent who said they believe it’s headed in the right direction, which is unchanged from January’s poll.“
Polls measure perceptions, not necessarily reality. People expect instant solutions to long-term problems, as if there is a "magic pill" that will fix an economy that has been sliding towards disaster for decades, and very nearly reached that point during the last administration. The reality is that there are no magic solutions, and sometimes we have to make sacrifices to resolve our problems.
The other issue is that the President is dealing with a sharply divided Congress, and Republicans who refuse to even consider ANY solution that would require their rich donors to pay even a dime more in taxes. Never mind the faction that refuses to recognize the President as the legitimate President.
He's also dealing with the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployables of the Washington Press Corpse - all of whom rate a minimum of 10 chucktodds (a chucktodd being an internationally-recognized unit of measure of political moron stupidity).
I ceased watching Meet the Press after he was appointed as "moderator". I also change the channel if I'm on NBC or MSNBC and he shows up. Cannot stand that person.
I think you nailed it. People have become so used to instant gratification and on-demand that they think that is the way the world works, and it doesn't. Biden inherited a mess and he's trying to clean it up. The Republicans ... I don't know. They just seem like a depressing bunch. You would think all their money would make them happy, but it doesn't seem to be working. What a waste of resources.
Also, I think people rely too much on polls and not enough on their own observations. Joe Biden is a decent person and he should have our support. Otherwise, we will just tear ourselves apart, which appears to be what we want right now.
Joe Biden is a decent person but he’s not an inspirational leader. He’s no Churchill, no Roosevelt. He’s not even a President Obama. He just can’t seem to get Americans to rally around the flag.
More of a Mister Rogers gone to Washington.
When he kept repeating time and again that Mitch McConnell was his friend and believed that Manchin could find him ten good Republican Senators, I knew that he was living in an alternate reality. Not in todays bare knuckle brawling political world.
Voted for him last time, and if he runs in ‘24, I’ll do it again. Just because he’s a nice guy.
He’s far more capable and knowledgeable than anyone gives him credit for. Look what he restored with our European leaders? A consensus after TFG tried to destroy years of work.
People on a steady diet of Fox have no idea what the truth is. He is not senile, but he is old. His cognition is intact, and I wish I had half his energy. We are so lucky to have him. No one else could have done what he’s done with an obstructionist GOP. The media indeed needs to report the successes. They won’t garner near the attention that negative stories do, but it’s true that hearing it often enough causes it to be accepted.
I'm tired of reading about his poll ratings and inflation. Why can't they talk about actions and accomplishments? Even NPR got on the ratings bandwagon with the headline that Zelensky is more popular than Biden.
I think people are getting sick of nothing but negative, sensationalist headlines. I think we need to change that perception. I think there are lots of decent, intelligent people out there that are hungry for a different kind of reporting, one that champions the wins, not just the obstruction and losses. Let's get behind the Biden Administration and push. Try a fresh approach and champion the good once in a while.
Yes, do it because he’s a nice guy—caring, good character but also because of his vast experience, his historical knowledge. That can’t be emphasized enough. He remembers the past. He’s grounded in experience and has deep and long lasting ties in politics.
Two things to remember always:
Shakespeare wrote: “ What is past is prologue,”
and George Santayana wrote: “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Hey, Susan. I have observed that nothing makes the R's happy, at least in the public eye. They were busy crying even back when 45 was occupying the WH and they controlled the Senate, with a majority SCOTUS. Sad.
Thanks, Susan. Yes, it's all baed on the people's perception and what channel they watch. Do the polls even ask/report the respondents what things the administration has done? I don't think people know what this administration has done. The polls, therefore, are doing a disservice! They are part of media-bashing the Dems are experiencing.
Lots of Americans had huge hopes and dreams based on Biden’s campaign promises. Tax reform, immigration reform, crime reduction, expanded voter participation, more free stuff, on and on and on.
When I was in the business world, we lived by the saying “Under promise: over produce “
For a variety of reasons Biden has underproduced. Manchin and Sinema standout as among the primary causes.
I read opinion pieces from a wide variety of sources and have yet to read one, not even one, that predicts that Democrats will hold the House majority come midterms. Will that be Biden’s fault? Not really but it will happen anyway.
Again and again, the same colossal problem facing democracy, today's voters' naïve gullibility, their inability to think even a single step beyond the first issue facing them, let alone to seek the causes. Elections call for thought, nothing terribly demanding, but a refusal to think undermines the entire process. And here the voter is up against politicians whose approach is that of bank robbers creating a diversion; the voter pays attention to the diversion while the robbers complete their heist.
There is something exceptional about this particular deception: the media don't usually help bank robbers, yet here they do their damnedest to help political mountebanks bamboozle the public.
Another way of looking at it: I'm reminded of the schoolkid asked about the causes of thunderstorms who answered: "It's because God's angry with us".
Here, however, it's not God who's angry but the voter who treats the President like a god that's failed to come up to expectations, so he wants to return him to the store and buy a new one. However, the real effect of his angry vote in midterm elections is to cripple this presidential god supposedly endowed with magical powers, depriving him of the means to do anything for anyone.
How absurd. And, since many voters today seem so uneducated and uneducable as to be incapable of anything as complex as a game of billiards, let alone chess... let alone poker... we're up against a structural problem that makes the land ungovernable and plays into the hands of the country's enemies, especially those within the gates.
Only bigger carrots -- greed -- and fear of an even bigger stick stand any chance of showing voters the consequences of their actions.
But then, look at how deeply Putin and his robber band (duly blessed by KGB Patriarch) despise the people... of Russia and Ukraine, look at how Orban Drumpf and DeSantis scorn the voters they manipulate...
Good government demands respect for citizens, including fools, if not for all they think, say or do. When it comes to voting we can judge a politician's suitability by the respect and self-respect he or she shows.
Only... people who've been watching too many third-class soaps couldn't tell a real human being from a fake... Hence the perfect simulacrum, Reagan. Hence Agent Orange.
Is this because the average voter thinks only of himself/herself rather than the community? What's good for the whole community (besides myself)? We live in a country that has been raised on independence and pulling yourself up by your own boot straps. I personally know people in the $100,000 earnings range who begrudge paying taxes b/c they don't realize how the taxes benefit them. Yes, people just don't get it.
From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square game board, winner take all. But, what if we don't play the game, make up our own, like Zelenskyy, and call it democracy?
In trial by jury, the judge issues instructions, guiding jurors step by step through the different items of evidence they must consider, asking them to weigh up on that basis which case is the most convincing. This isn’t foolproof—nothing is—but it does at least help ensure that jurors take account of all relevant factors and are at every stage guided by evidence rather than their prejudices.
There are no such safeguards when it comes to elections—there should be, but even if there were it’s doubtful that they would have the slightest influence over most voters’ decision as reason and commonsense have little weight in these proceedings. If the issue were one of rendering justice, chances are it would be more like a lynching or the mob’s trial of Jesus… which was, of course, presided over by a politician…
Passion, prejudice, I like/don’t like his/her face, together with entertainments called “debate” that are more like a boxing match than anything involving reasoned argument—remember that flabby hunk with the orange-peel skin and the strange hair circling around Mrs. Clinton like an all-in wrestler looking for a hold and which way to throw her off the stage?—and millions of dollars get thrown to the four winds… but the political arena remains a largely thought-free zone. Such thoughts as get through have a rough time competing with Big Money.
#
I’d almost forgotten when it was that I wrote of today’s America in terms of the Nika Riots. So I just checked and, yes, it was well before January 6th 2021. In fact it was in January 2017, just after that geriatric Caligula thought he’d been made Emperor.
A few excerpts from my notes at the time. First, from an excellent essay by Amanda Taub in the New York Times of January 11th 2017: The real story about fake news is partisanship.
“In his farewell address as president Tuesday, Barack Obama warned of the dangers of uncontrolled partisanship. American democracy, he said, is weakened ‘when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service, so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent’.”
#
“Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.”
Here, I jotted down: “A mix of video game automatisms and tribalism”. My notes continued:
“In this context, the word ‘tribalism’ sounds all too appropriate. It's supposedly politics that are divisive, but may not politics provide a perfect alibi, the screen onto which people project their hatreds? And, for that, any other screen would do the trick.”
I went on to wonder about the kind of things that can happen once politics have become sidelined by public entertainment. It starts with ritualized warfare but…
“What I wonder is whether the mass folly now engulfing country after country is not a repeat performance of what nearly brought down Byzantium, with Blues and Greens coming close to destroying the city and overthrowing the emperor. And whether, given modern armaments, at least in America, we don't risk something infinitely worse than the Nika riots and the mass killing that put an end to them.”
[Curious. Read this in the light of current events near Kyiv.]
#
“…Interesting that our political parties should be distant descendants of the Byzantine Blues and Greens. Violence and partisan support for teams were of the essence, political causes, secondary. Just issues to latch onto as a pretext for a fight.
Thanks for your post. I hadn't read about the Niko riots. I was thinking more of the Italian city republics, local monarchy living in towers.
"In 1277 the popular organization of Padua forbade the presence of the election officials of all sailors, gardeners, agricultural labourers, landless men and herdsmen' and various other categories, including all men assessed for taxation at less than100 L.". Presumably the danger was that the powerful might use them to intimidate the electors.".
As Koch and friends are currently rounding up the wild Mustangs by helicopter on our public lands and shipping them off to Mexico and Canada under horrible conditions for meat, I doubt if we'll see chariot races very soon. On the other hand, bashing towers seems to be a popular way to for an autocrat to start an inserrection. Mussolini used a fire to advance his career, Hitler used the Reightxdmstsge (sp?) Fire, 911 seemed like an attempt to start a war...
The Italian City,-Republics, by Daniel Waley, World University Library, 1973.
Thank you, Karen, but it doesn't make me happy to say these things...
On the one hand, we're up against the press-button pop-a-pill mentality that demands instant satisfaction while guaranteeing dissatisfaction. On the other, it's the tribal voter who believes that because the party for which she is voting has the same name as the party Dad and Granddad voted for, it's the same party.
Nowadays, that can be like Little Red Riding Hood casting her vote for the Wolf that's swallowed Grandma and stolen her clothes..
One conclusion of the petulant toddler faced with failure of his/her instant demand for satisfaction; "you're not my mommy!" equating dissatisfaction with responsibility of the parent. Literally, the voter equates "hard times" with bad leadership. Bad leadership makes good times harder, bad times even worse. Good leadership responds to bad times rationally, exhorts the public to reasonable and necessary sacrifices to set things on a more stable course, reminds of us of our interdependence, even as the political toddlers continue to bemoan their fate, equated to the responsibility of the leader of the moment.
I understand Peter. It is disheartening to see so many people expecting this “powerful”person to fix everything yesterday. Unfortunately, that mindset (along with Putin) got Trump elected. After all “he alone could fix it”. We have seen the “dumbing down” of America since the Regan years. And his Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, gutted the Federal support for Civics education. Consequently, so many people today don’t have a clue about engaging in the political process, or the rights and responsibilities of citizens. That creates the perfect scenario for an authoritarian President.
That said, depressing as it may be, I am hopeful that with work we can hold on to our democracy. It seems like there are so many things going in the wrong direction, but we are not. I learn so much from Heather and all of this group, as well as others I follow on Substack. It is reassuring to know so many that are aware, concerned, and doing what they can to hold on to our democracy.
In addition to what Susan Radke points out is the fantasy Americans have bought into because of television that all problems will be resolved within a 50 minute time period (allowing 10 minutes for commercials of products you just have to go out and buy). The murder can be discovered, the autopsy performed, the blood/digestive contents analyzed, the DNA determined and matched (or not) through multiple data bases, witnesses found and interviewed, tire tracks matched and the vehicle found, the bad guys & gals located & arrested, lawyers found, juries seated, and a trial conducted with an appropriate sentence issue - ALL within 50 minutes. And the very people who expect 4 years of internal and international damage corrected, (not to mention a pandemic brought to heel) done and dusted within 15 months are the ones who are most resistant to looking at reality and the details of what is possible when there are not enough Democrats in the Senate to offset the wall of obstruction that has been the mission of the Republican leader since 2007. Now, let's mix in a single dictator who thinks he has the right to invade an innocent nation and our justifiable outrage. Piece of cake, right?
Thank you, but I don't think it's just TV that gives the impression all problems can be solved in 50 minutes or less. Politicians make elaborate promises to fix all our problems within 100 days in or der to get votes, but once in office all is forgotten, and reality rears its ugly head once again!
You refer to Ukraine as "innocent," and you refer to Putin as a "dictator." I'll suggest that both of those are debatable at best. Why do you use those two words?
I used the word "innocent" in reference to Ukraine because it did nothing to justify this invasion by Putin. There were no Nazis or Nazi-type government in Ukraine - Putin just used a flash word to try to get the Russian people aggravated and supportive. He couldn't use the Donbas region as an excuse; the Russians and Ukrainians had been fighting over that land grab for 8 years. The only reason Putin went into Ukraine was because he thought it would be an easy land grab, justified as having once been part of the USSR and Putin wants to get back to that level of world power (and "respect"). Ukraine was declared a democracy and independent nation after the USSR was broken up - back in Reagans time. Putin was in the wrong and the world is standing up and saying so.
I used the word "dictator" for Putin because it fits. A dictator is a ruler with total power over a country, an autocrat, a tyrant (as in everyone is afraid of telling him the truth when it is not what he wants to hear), an absolute ruler, an oppressor. The military actions in Ukraine have employed nothing less than a scorched earth policy. The kidnapping and absconding of thousands of children and women, taking them into unknown places in Russia (kidnapping), the bombing of well known/identified hospitals and residential areas, children's schools - none of these were a threat to his troops and materials. These are not the actions of a responsible leader. They very much are the actions of someone who believes he has supreme rights - a dictator. I'll stand by what I said, John.
Thank you Rusty for your very patient, educational and eloquent explanation to John. Good grief! Debatable???????“Innocent” people are being murdered!!! Would you want to “debate” that if it were you or your loved ones being slaughtered? . Unbelievable.
Beyond that, the Ukrainian military has been slaughtering innocent ethnic Russians in the Donbass by the thousands, going on for eight years, and Putin finally put a stop to it. The Ukrainians were massed for a full-scale invasion of the breakaway area when the Russians invaded Ukraine first, just after the Ukrainians publicly talked about developing nuclear weapons.
The hypocrisy of people who choose to ignore U.S. culpability for the most far-reaching genocide in history (with tens of millions of victims).
Quoting from Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr. Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers."
"The charges that I make are not light charges - they are charges that touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishing and maintaining international economic order and global efficiency."
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance."
"In guilt and self-realization of my own worthlessness as a human being, what I would like to do most of all is to so propel myself that I can get the man-in-the-street of North and South and East and West and First and Second and Third and Fourth and All Other Worlds to take an interest in what is happening to his single planet, his single habitat, because our institution was allowed to evolve in a particular way in late twentieth century international society, and allowed to become the supra-national authority that controls the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of people everywhere."
"We get away with our works of Dracula hiding behind the mask of Superior Technocracy and a Greater Wisdom striving for “financial balance” and “structural adjustment” in the Third World."
"And so it goes on and on and on. And nothing changes in the developing world except more death and destitution for the people in the slums, and more power for the Fund. And with the passing of every meeting our staff becomes even more reinvigorated; they wield a sharper and more bloodied tool; an even more terrifying Executor’s Axe stand poised for service everywhere in the South. And the children scream, Sir; my God, how they scream!"
(Budhoo is referring here to the incessant screaming of starving infants. When they stop screaming, you know that death is near.)
Find something more contemporary, then find something that suggests it's more dominant in Ukraine than in other Eastern European nations. The do yourself a favor (oops, I'm being peremptory again) and figure out how many in the right-wing also support Russia and Putin.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for 70 years. I have no doubt that considerable similarities remain. Ukraine has had 30 years to chart it's own path; up until 2013 it followed a path not unlike that of Russia. It had, and has, pro-Russian elements amongst its population, and yes, there are likely some fascist elements as well. However, that doesn't justify invasion by Russia as a means to influence Ukrainian affairs. Autocratic behaviors in Russia in the last several weeks have been highlighted; arrest and incarceration of political opponents, muzzling of independent news sources, the flight of capital and upwardly mobile, highly educated citizens all speak to something other than a rules-based political system. Ukraine has demonstrated its intent from 2013 and on into the present. Their movement has been towards representative government. Not perfect, not a straight line, but unmistakable and internal. How would we react if Mexico dreamed up justification to support separatist elements in Texas, then invaded from the south to "de-Nazify" the US , establish international borders between Texas and surrounding states and "keep the peace" for Texans of hispanic descent? Would we legitimize their just efforts to avoid "genocide" of Hispanic populations in Texas? And, how would the world react?
I could write a lengthy rebuttal, covering points that I've made already. For now I'll just mention one thing: The thug regime in Ukraine recently suspended ALL opposition parties, and you didn't know that.
No, they haven't. Only the parties that openly support subjugation to Russia, and at this point, giving political comfort and aid to Russia is clearly treason.
It's a shame they haven't evolved beyond that Soviet era behavior. It's hard to imagine legitimizing Russian military intervention as a solution to that, however...
You are a semi-literate moron who can't write three consecutive words that make sense, like every other inbred Trump-loving pissant Putin-loving traitor.
Go. Fuck. Off.
And when you get through doing that, go over there and Fuck. Off.
And then go there and Fuck. Off.
And then go catch the Covid hoax and Make America Great Again.
John, please provide evidence, a trustworthy link, or site a reputable author to verify your assertion here. When you use terms like "thug regime" I suspect that you are not too well-versed in the topic but just parroting far-right memes.
Clearly this is a loaded question. If Putin is not a dictator, the word has no meaning. I am sure Ukraine just like all countries has its bad actors, but nothing that merited the current blood bath with a daily abundance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If you want further debate, look elsewhere..........
To blame Biden for inflation seems ignorant. I don’t understand how people can believe that a president can control and fix all things… especially when trying to work with those who refuse to do the work and now persist only to defeat the other “team.”
The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive economy would absorb these costs.
3. Instead, they’re passing these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In many cases they’re raising prices higher than those cost increases, using the cover of inflation to increase their profit margins even more.
4. They’re doing so because they face little or no competition. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers.
5. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated. This concentration gives corporations the power to raise prices because it makes it easy for them to informally coordinate price increases with the handful of other companies in their same industry -- without risking the possibility of losing customers, who have no other choice.
6. Corporations are using these near-record profits to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Stock buybacks hit a new record last year. So far this year they’re on track to exceed that record. Stock buybacks are predicted to hit $1 trillion this year -- an all-time high.”
Mr Rose, so what’s your point? Instead of regurgitating statistics as you have, what should the President do instead? We’re all waiting for your wisdom….
It would seem, with both the New York Times and the Washington Post shifting from cover-up mode and now admitting that Hunter Biden's laptop is real (and not Russian disinformation), the Establishment is getting ready to throw Biden under the bus.
WaPo had experts look at the information that was provided to them from a thumb drive. The experts were only able to verify some of the data as real but none of it implied wrong doing. The information had been copied and accessed mulitple times after Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop. What the feds seem to be investigating are problems with taxes. I don't think this equates to Jan 6 and possibly 2billion from the Saudis, let alone all the other 'stuff' during Trump's tenure.
The MSM seems stuck in the look at and trumpet only the bad about everything. It would be nice if they did more comprehensive pieces about the good things happening and potentially happening. Lastly, they just need to stop with the horse race aspect of elections and talk about the candidates and their positions.
Theresa Gauvin, you write like someone who never went to college. The final paragraph of the introduction is the thesis statement of the whole book: All the facts, if there's more than smoke and mirrors, come in the following chapters.
My family name is a cross that I simply must bear. My grandfather, a small businessman, had a reputation for honesty. In his memory, I hope that I may deserve the same.
It's actually a book published a few months ago. If you know of any factual distortions in that book, please share them. In my experience, both Fox and CNN have a lot of fake news, but not all the time.
Hopefully, the news about Jared Kushner’s new equity firm’s influx of $2 billion from Saudi Prince Mohammad will mitigate the outrage about Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings.
A forensic analysis by experts found files have been added after Giuliani had possession of the info. The laptop is real; the provenance stinks to high Heaven, and data may have been corrupted/manipulated. There is much to investigate about Hunter Biden, but the laptop info gets smellier and smellier
When Hunter's laptop and his seat on the board of foreign companies returns to the front page, I'll know that our preoccupation with Donald Jr, Eric, Evanka and Jarrod have faded into tabloid irrelevance. Interestingly, Hunter is NOT a senior advisor to the White house. He's treated a bit like the prodigal son, who has still not come home begging to be re-admitted to the family home.
The book "Laptop from Hell" alleged a news media cover-up of Joe Biden's dirty dealings; and that supposedly ensured that Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
That's half the issue.
From the publisher:
"This is the unvarnished story of what’s really inside the laptop and what China knows about the Bidens, by the New York Post journalist who brought it into the open.
"It exposes the coordinated censorship operation by Big Tech, the media establishment, and former intelligence operatives to stifle the New York Post’s coverage, in a chilling exercise of raw political power three weeks before the 2020 election.
"A treasure trove of corporate documents, emails, text messages, photographs, and voice recordings, spanning a decade, the laptop provided the first evidence that President Joe Biden was involved in his son’s ventures in China, Ukraine, and beyond, despite his repeated denials."
Let's assume all that dirt is there, AND has been successfully suppressed all this time. Let's assume for the moment that Biden's political history is no cleaner than all of his peers. How does that negate the voice of 156 million votes? 75 million for tfg and 81 million for Biden? How does that address the fact that tfg's own head of the Justice department could not find adequate evidence of widespread voter fraud to warrant taking any action? So, we voted out a belligerent dictator wannabe and voted in an imperfect politician with plans to address a large number of societal issues in short order, on top of a global pandemic and subsequent major regional war on Europe's doorstep? Where IS that laptop? Why not copy the drives in their entirety, release them to every conceivable media enterprise and let them go about tracking down every lead? The story couldn't be any more sordid than what we have endured since 2016. If I have to choose amongst crooks, I'll choose gentle, compassionate and collaborative over the man who would be King every time.
My assessment, even though I could never vote for Trump, was that Biden was/is even worse.
I'll suggest that the rights and wrongs of the laptop are, practically speaking, less important than what the Establishment intends to do with all. They now clearly have the option to throw Biden under the bus and, if they want, bring Trump back for another term.
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Overall, we rate Sputnik Questionable based on the frequent promotion of conspiracies and PRO-RUSSIA PROPAGANDA, as well as the use of poor sources and numerous failed fact checks.
So... Do you trust whoever wrote that as unbiased?
Have you noticed that the mainstream U.S. news media has a pronounced anti-Russian bias?
Do you think it isn't worth bothering to check what the other side has to say?
Or are you just looking for someone else's validation of your predisposition to ignore it?
I notice that you didn't question any specific item of "information" (or claims or assertions) in the link I shared about Ukrainian genocide (if that's the term) in the Donbass over the past 8 years -- thousands and thousands of ethnic Russians slaughtered, similar to what the Serbs did to the Bosnians, provoking a NATO bombing campaign.
Now it's Russia's turn to stop ethnic cleansing on their doorstep by an oligarchic thug neo-Nazi regime that bought a Jewish actor as window-dressing to play the role of President???
How much (if any) validitity does that argument have?
How do you go about assessing?
Once again, is it worth the effort to observe what the other side has to say?
Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? OK, if you don't trust the US media (which does make errors - the NYT makes corrections regularly) then check out a highly regarded German source.
In fact if you just ask the question "did Ukraine commit genocide against Russians in Ukraine" you will find pages and pages of straight up reporting that establish that this claim by Putin is total nonsense. Absolute balderdash. Yet you continue....to be hoodwinked. Or maybe...
You are simply a bot trolling this forum? Good bye.
Is the US media anti-Russian (or at least anti-Putemkin)? I should hope to kiss a pig it is. At least most of it--not counting the anti-democratic pro-Putemkin fragment on the far right. The overwhelming majority of Americans recognize the corrupt dictator's attempt to impose his totalitarian desires upon his neighbor for what it is. And the media reflects that. And don't waste our time by braying that there is some fair-minded way to paint Russian aggression as anything other than what it is.
You are putting yourself in the same group with Lord Haw Haw and Tokyo Rose--and apologist for brutality and murder, if not outright genocide.
It means that your assigning even possible validity to the Russian argument for invading Ukraine destroys your credibility in other matters. When you qualify your quoting the Russian position by asking "How much (if any) validitity does that argument have?", you add credibilty to that position, even if you might believe there is none. Whatever 'historic' validity the Russian argument might claim is negated by their violence in trying to make their point. This reminds me of a murderer's defense attorney who does whatever he or she can to weaken a prosecutor's position.
There is value in learning how those with radically different opinions think or more likely feel. It only takes few minutes to read John Schmeeckle's posts. They highlight how entrenched people can be in their worldview. I want to avoid that so I will take the thoughts he expresses into consideration. I know Ukranian refugees with family still in the country. Speaking many languages (Russian, Ukranian, Polish, etc.) besides English, they have sources of information and knowledge I don't. So far they would disagree with JS's assertions.
Assertions have some basis in fact. Or they are opinions. Which we all are entitled to have. But JS is either lying or he he is willfully ignorant or worse. In this case the true facts are there to read - everywhere.
If there is any factual basis for these "assertions" by Putin, a mass murderer, I would like to read them today.
That is vaguely worded, without any specific examples. Russia has been complaining about Ukrainian atrocities -- wanton killings of civilians in the breakaway portions of the Donbass -- for years.
I'll pose my old question once again, followed by an example:
Whose fake news do you believe?
Is the New York Times reliable? Was the New York Times reliable when it dismissed Hunter Biden's laptop as "Russian disinformation"? (Mwah hah hah...)
Is the New York Times now reliable when it admits that Hunter Biden's laptop is real?
Ignoring his posts is ignoring what many Americans believe. You may disagaree with them but they are there and his posts provide a microcosm of what they think, enabling us to "know the enemy." Not doing so can be dangerous. In Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," which is applicable in political as well as military situations, it is written that "If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." (Chapter 3 - Attack by Strategem - No. 18) Hence, his comments here help us in 'knowing the enemy,' and therefore should not be ignored.
I see that your source is simply parroting the propaganda being fed to the Russians. You will not find that kind of “information” in any reputable source in the world. Not even in a Tucker Carlson entertainment session.
It seems that you obviously have a slant and narrative you are trying to prove. If nothing is true then everything must be a coverup or something. But the NY Times did actually correct their reporting regarding the Hunter Biden laptop. They aren't perfect but do take ownership and make corrections of things they print incorrectly. The whole story of the laptop in itself is a wild ride anyway.
Finally, both the WSJ and VOX did really great write ups on the contents of the laptop. It's journey and whole history of it with great context. I read a variety of sources so they are all interesting reads.
I guess it's good that Hunter Biden doesn't have any role in our government and his company just didn't get a $2B injection of funds from Saudi Arabia huh? I guess it's also great that the Biden family isn't making hundreds of millions of dollars just due to their Dad being President like the last administration right? See I can mudsling and do whataboutisms as well.
Just food for thought, it seems you obviously are used to trolling or looking for engagement since you seem to have a habit of copying and pasting blurbs without context and trying to use them as "gotcha" moments against people you are engaging with. But in cases like this it just makes you look immature, you haven't added anything meaningful to this thread. If anything it seems you just have an issue with us really appreciate Dr.Richardson's blog all of our mutual appreciation of history. Unlike some people, the majority of people who read this newsletter really don't look at politics as a zero sum game or an us vs them. It's all about being informed to a certain level, most healthy people consume various media from different sources.
Hmmm. here’s one current example. Suddenly Donbas is the location of numerous “genocides”, Ukrainian children taught to hate Russians (by being taught about the Russian-created famine and other history, of course), etc etc
As I've repeatedly said, whose fake news do you believe?
My assessment of the habitual mendacity of the mainstream U.S. news media, including its deplorable coverage of the situation in Ukraine, together with my inclinication to condemn the genocidal imperialism emanating from Washington, D.C., has been strongly influenced over the past three decades by my reading of Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund, which I view as essentially honest, and which is a taboo subject, blacked out of the mainstream news media.
And now, for the first time, the first 29 pages are readily available online. I'll share a few quotes:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr. Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers."
"The charges that I make are not light charges - they are charges that touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishing and maintaining international economic order and global efficiency."
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance."
"In guilt and self-realization of my own worthlessness as a human being, what I would like to do most of all is to so propel myself that I can get the man-in-the-street of North and South and East and West and First and Second and Third and Fourth and All Other Worlds to take an interest in what is happening to his single planet, his single habitat, because our institution was allowed to evolve in a particular way in late twentieth century international society, and allowed to become the supra-national authority that controls the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of people everywhere."
"We get away with our works of Dracula hiding behind the mask of Superior Technocracy and a Greater Wisdom striving for “financial balance” and “structural adjustment” in the Third World."
"And so it goes on and on and on. And nothing changes in the developing world except more death and destitution for the people in the slums, and more power for the Fund. And with the passing of every meeting our staff becomes even more reinvigorated; they wield a sharper and more bloodied tool; an even more terrifying Executor’s Axe stand poised for service everywhere in the South. And the children scream, Sir; my God, how they scream!"
(Budhoo is referring here to the incessant screaming of starving infants. When they stop screaming, you know that death is near.)
I note that your”assessment” of US news sources and the US government uses some erudite but vitriolic words in a very general way. They are certainly not objective and unbiased words.
Thank you for the reference to Davison Budhoo. I must admit that I had never heard of him, so I did some research and found several reviews of his Letter.
He also used very vitriolic language about IMF operations which caused some reviewers to wonder if that would affect the response of the IMF and governments. Apparently they did respond, however. His letter achieved results. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4398304.
His very specific complaints against one portion of the world’s governing agencies should not, however, be taken out of context to justify general condemnation of all government operations of the United States.
I have always found it intriguing that FDR, who by upbringing and socioeconomic background would clearly „belong“ to the Republican party (a „trust fund kid“ if there ever was one), would become the beacon of Social Democracy (which is the political science designation anywhere in the world but the USA).
From reading many biographies, I see three factors:
1. Social Democracy - the „New Deal“, as he labeled it - was REASON‘s solution for the problems before him
2. Eleanor, his wife, influenced him deeply in this regard. FDR realized there could not be a just society in the spirit of the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution without equal rights for women (I do not know enough about his personal theory for the suppression of non-whites)
3. POLIO, which struck him as a grown-up, was THE major educational influence on him. While he was arrogant and light-headed before, polio made him humble about every facet of his life.
FDR's achievements with his New Deal were admirable, but let's not forget that the reason for the New Deal was not to bring down capitalism but to save it. People were so angry and desperate after the stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression, there was a genuine concern in the Roosevelt administration that without immediate and drastic changes in the way the country was run, there would be a genuine Bolshevik-style revolution in the United States
True, but social democracy is not incompatible with capitalism. Social democracy designates which services are better supplied by the government vs. private enterprise, such as mail delivery, libraries, schools, etc.
Yes Peter, FDR`s 'reasoned solutions' which is why Hunter College at Roosevelt House is "Celebrating Frances Perkins". See, www.roodevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu. I think New York renamed a stretch of East 65th for FDR's cabinet member near the Public Policy Institute.
FDR catered to white supremacy in the US because he thought it politically necessary to hold support for his New Deal programs from racist whites in Congress. During WWII, FDR refused to bomb train tracks leading to Hitler’s death camps because he thought helping Jews might turn antisemites against US participation in the war.
“Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.
Government officials from the State Department to the FBI to President Franklin Roosevelt himself argued that refugees posed a serious threat to national security”
My grandparents supposedly were on a boat to Cuba and were turned away. They subsequently died in the gas camp called Chelmno, 1942. My own mother took the USS Cunard from Liverpool to the US in December 1939. What people were kept from was that the atrocities happening to Germany and Poland, started in the 1930’s. America was late to the game because communications here were totally misconstrued by our “intelligence”. Jews who were already here kept pleading with government officials about the devastation. They got letters and telegraphs from their homeland. Tragedy abound!
Please explain, Mike S upstateNY, what you are trying to express:
The vaccine against Polio became available to the public in 1955. The USA has been polio-free since 1979.
Only two countries in the world are still categoized by the WHO as polio-endemic: Pakistan and Afghanistan (there has been a flare-up in Nigeria recently).
One polio vaccine dose costs about 2 USD (the supply chain has to be temperature-controlled, however, and causes more costs). As the vaccination is part of public health plans for small children and as its costs are covery by universal health care insurance in all civilized countries but the USA, neither cost nor economic standing play a role (dark religion still does, however). Rotary International, with its more than 46,000 clubs and more than 1,4 million members, has played an important grass roots level role in countries like Pakistan in fighting the crippling disease.
So what do you mean with your reference to "...make sure all rich people stay Republican"?
I believe Mike is saying that the polio vaccine removed one more potential humbling experience from the upbringing of rich people. (It removed it from the upbringing of poor people as well, of course, but they didn't really need the lesson.) Without that experience, it's unlikely FDR would have grown up to be the person he was, and both global and American history of the mid-20th century would likely have been very different.
I'm old enough to know people of multiple economic classes who contracted polio as children, before the vaccine was developed. For all of them, it was a defining part of their childhood. We as children learned the lesson that privilege and wealth could not insulate us from the darker turns life could take. I learned that lesson again when a childhood friend died of leukemia at 14, another disease that today can be treated with the application of large amounts of money. Back then we took the March of Dimes seriously because most of us knew people who had had polio. I still think about it when I look at FDR's image on our 10-cent coin.
Another dark turn that was also eliminated, this one man-made, was the military draft. The volunteer army gave young rich folk yet one more way to reduce their risk and live the lives they and their parents had planned for them.
The constant shift of risk from rich to poor over the past 70 years or so has echoed the increase in wealth inequality to give the people who won the genetic lottery less and less reason to identify with those less fortunate than they. It is too bad that FDR got polio, but that twist of fate ultimately made our country a better place. I like to hope that he felt it made him a better person, as well.
Anyway, that's my take on the defeat of polio giving rich people one less reason to empathize with others. Mike, I hope I got your position right, but that's mine, anyway.
In Dr. Richardson's notes she makes the observation that Roosevelt's compassion, likely, emitted from his tough experience with polio. Now, perhaps he would have had compassion without that tough experience which resulted in him being different, disabled.
But, nobody will have that experience, rich nor poor, in America, anymore to build humility and build understanding.
Because the vaccine keeps us all healthy and well and, if we are born rich, as was Roosevelt, then, that opportunity to learn by being bent, is no more.
“…he undertook to rebuild the nation after republicans had run it into the ground.” How many times has this been repeated since then? The republicans scream “socialism” about everything Dems do and everybody quakes. When will people quake over the repeating effort by republicans to run the nation into the ground. From csd on Twitter some time back. Still fits “They piss themselves every presidency, while we “tax and spend” libs have to buy new sheets.”
The repos empty the treasury, the demos replenish, the repos empty the treasury, the demos replenish, the repos empty the treasury, the demos replenish……………
'Males are generally socially dominant over female mammals but there are exceptions. In general, if females are larger than males, they tend to be socially dominant, as is true of chinchillas and hyenas,'
So what you are implying is that we need really big women? And what about the grizzlies where the male leaves the family or eats the children? Lastly I have witnessed very small women reduce very large men just by the power of their intellect. And second to lastly I have personally subdued and commanded the respect of many overbearing men who literally overlooked me. I am pretty sure that lots of women say that size matters. I personally would rather go at an NFL player than stand in the way of the incoming tide of people like yourself or AOC or scores of other women champions. And Withering in face of such uneven odds is not my idea of a good way to lose. And lastly for the last time while good men are amongst us, when you get the whole herd together I would disdain to pack them through the wilderness.
Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow yesterday: "Another argument against the Republican claim that “government spending” causes inflation was made by Senator Debbie Stabenow, who said, 'There was $7 trillion in new debt and 2.6 million jobs lost during Trump. But when McConnell comes to this podium, all he does is complain that we’re not cleaning up their mess fast enough."
Republicans have long thought/used the "if you're not succeeding, you're lazy," argument; both sincerely and insincerely. Last week, I read Benn Steil's excellent, factual book The Marshall Plan, Dawn of the Cold War. When Harry Truman invited Republican Congressmen to the White House in September, 1947 to make his case of the plan, Republican Congressman John Tabor told him, he "had seen no 'underfed people' in his European travels (have to wonder where he went in 1947 Europe besides state dinners and hotels). Their problem was that they were simply 'not working as hard or as vigorously as they should. We in the United States,' he said, 'got where we are because we worked harder.'" Simple, grade-school-level analyses and solutions for incredibly complex situations and times (now, even more than then). Of course! Exactly what we need!
We would do well to remember that we ended the war with the help of dropping the atom bomb on Japan. We continue to threaten peace at every turn, knowing we have to rely on sane leaders who have the power of world destruction literally in their hands.
I think the majority of people just want the opportunity to make something of their lives, care for their loved ones, and do meaningful, productive work. Capitalism uncontrolled and taken to its logical end resulted in the chaos of the Great Depression. My greatest generation parents were deeply affected by what they saw and experienced during the Depression years. They were especially impacted by seeing families losing everything because they were foreclosed on by lenders, either person or institution, who stood to benefit from the families’ misfortunes. That’s what is really disturbing about the anti-democracy people--their willingness to hurt others even to the point of being gleeful about their meanness, because they can.
Thank you Heather for your excellent presentation last night in Portland! Your ability to tie our history in with our current issues is amazing. I’m also glad you enjoyed the Columbia River Gorge and the waterfalls. Please come back soon!
Thank you Karen for welcoming our weary time traveler to Oregon. Mom was a candy striper for 35 years before getting her RN at Longview. She worked at the hospital in Astoria when she wasn’t on the Anne B fishing salmon. A big thank you and your splendid steadfastness in the ongoing Covid crises.
Thank you for your kind words and support for nurses. I am so impressed with your mom. Nursing can be challenging and requires a lot of stamina, but she was also salmon fishing out of Astoria! Wow, what a strong and dedicated woman.
She was my heart. Born in a barn near Fallon Mt. On the banks of the Yellowstone. We sent her off the docks on the Columbia with the outgoing tide on a bed of a thousand roses.
Yes indeed, excellent presentation last night! Though I'm in Portland, I was watching the livestream along with at least 700 other ticket-holders. We don't usually get snow in April, really!!
I attended with my wife, Suzame. Let's just say I'll never read Letters from an American the same way again. HCR's lecture tied together all the issues she's raised here and more. Today's edition is more resonant because of seeing and hearing the professor in person last night.
Listening to her podcasts had given me a sense of her personality, but I had no idea how she could rivet the attention of hundreds, gathered in the ornate splendor of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Of course Heather's brilliance shone through. But damn, she is funny. Self-deprecating, too. And make no mistake, she loves this community!
It was great. But I miscalculated when I said several years ago. My husband said it was more like 8 years. So I looked it up and it was 12 years ago😹. The older I get the faster time seems to go. But the concert was amazing. It was Neil alone, no band, just him and his guitars and harmonica. It seems like it was yesterday. I keep hoping he will come back. But I don’t know if he is still touring.
Checked around — no tour dates announced for this year. But his website is excellent. A study in nostalgia. Recommend the streaming documentary with Crazy Horse. "Barn: A Band, A Brotherhood, A Barn." https://neilyoungarchives.com/movie-night/subscriber-features
Speaking of nostalgia...when I was in college, my roommate and I found out when "Harvest" was being released. It was February 1972, the year we graduated. We bought it at a record store (remember those!) the first day it was available. A masterpiece then, and just as good today.
Very cool. The technology seemed to work very well. A friend and I had hoped to go in person, but due to concerns about covid, we opted for the virtual experience--a good thing too, because my friend had to have surgery last week and is still recovering. We texted our enthusiastic reactions to the presentation instead. OHS also had a presentation a few weeks ago from Dr. Timothy Snyder. That was excellent as well.
There were 577 when I logged on. When I registered, it looked like a pretty well filled hall, but I didn’t want to have to deal with parking, so I watched from the com fort of home.
I need to become an OHS member; I totally missed the Timothy Snyder presentation.
Yes, we need to have an Oregon meetup; this summer, perhaps. I know that Michelle lives in Newberg, and I have another friend here in town that would be "all in" for that.
I sure wish I'd been able to talk my wife into a mid-week outing to go up and hear the Professor in person. We watched on the livestream, and it was incredible.
I don't know; per the email I got with my virtual ticket, I should get a recording of the lecture that will be available for two days. Here's more on the Hatfield Lecture Series, and you might ask them if there's a way to get the recording:
So... Where is the call among Democrats (besides Tulsi Gabbard) to reinstate the Glass-Stegall "firewall" between commercial banking (mortgages and small business loans to keep our communities moving) and parasitic Wall Street speculation? It was an essential part of FDR Democrats' rehabilitation of our financial system, but we got rid of it under Clinton, the best "Republican" president we ever had (just kidding; I'm a fan of Lincoln and Eisenhower).
John I'm with you, Lincoln & Ike "got it". As did FDR. This has been a pretty intense few years lately...it has the same polarized and creative energy of the 1960's. This forum has become my "must read" in the morning. Heather is a history angel who types for all of us to understand our world better.
Tulsi Gabbard's hard right turn has been a bit shocking. Her early views were promising and at times seemed almost too good to be true. When she was elected I remember thinking DC could use some Aloha. But a change this drastic makes no sense for a person of conscience. I wish someone would update her Wikipedia page because she reads like a perfectly sane, sympathetic person.
Hmm. "hard right turn" might not be the best way to describe Tulsi's strongly-phrased anti-Establishment views, but perhaps you're thinking of something else.
Tulsi, alone among Democratic candidates in 2020 election cycle, had significant support among military personnel. Do you think that's important?
It’s important to the extent it shows that our military seems to support authoritarian candidates operating outside the reality based world. Turning off Fox News on bases would likely help. Note: I haven’t checked your assertion, and doubt that no other D candidate had support among military personnel.
Careful please: I said SIGNIFICANT support. Military Democrats were Tulsi's hard core of nationwide grass-roots support.
If people like Biden (who has very little grassroots support but a lot of Establishment support) can't attract support from military personnel, is that a problem? Does how the average serviceman/woman views the Commander in Chief play a role in combat readiness? And is it fair to describe Trump (if that is who you had in mind) as an "authoritarian candidate operating outside the reality based world"?
It's hard to think that you were describing Tulsi there.
You’re right, I don’t know if she’s authoritarian or not. She certainly acts like either a Russian agent or a useful idiot a la Tucker Carlson. And of course it’s fair to describe TFG thusly.
I got curious, and did a little research on your assertion. Surprisingly (to me, at least), it was Bernie Sanders who garnered the most support among military personnel during the primary season. Not just among Democrats, but overall as well. Like any other group, the military isn’t a monolith, and there are lots of disparate beliefs within.
Perhaps you're echoing Hillary Clinton's talking point when you smear Tulsi as a "Russian agent." Tulsi retorted by calling Hillary the "corrupt queen of the war-mongers."
If you have a source for 2020 military support for Bernie, I'd be interested in looking at it.
That may be the case, but it doesn't affect the fact that military people formed (and still form) the core of Tulsi's support base. Personally, I'm not inclined to follow her away from the Democratic Party.
I’m a New Deal liberal, otherwise derided as a “socialist” by The Democrats of today. FDR is a hero to me, although I liked Henry Wallace even better.
Today’s Republicans won’t rest until they completely erase the New Deal and the rest of the 20th Century, post-Lochner.
Ron Brownstein posits that cultural issues are more powerful than economic issues to voters today. I’m tending to agree. Is this the last breath of the Lost Cause & white supremacy? I wonder … and hope we’re a better people than the ilk that tried to overthrow the Government on January 6th. But with the Democrats perfecting the art of rescuing defeat from the jaws of victory, I’m afraid their fecklessness and inability to break free of their donors will keep us in interesting times for quite a while.
"But with the Democrats perfecting the art of rescuing defeat from the jaws of victory,..."
You mean like in 2020 when the Democrats won the White House, Senate and House? Or when President Biden vaccinated 200 million Americans in 100 days? Or the Recovery Act, Child Care Tax Credit, gathering NATO to fight Russia? etc.
The Democrats have rebuilt an economy, vaccinated anyone willing, navigated a war with Russia, established the January 6 Commission, successfully nominated a black woman for Supreme Court Justice, all the while battling a Pandemic, rampant disinformation campaigns, roadblocks from Republicans and Putin breathing down their necks.
I was unclear. I meant that a Presidential race will offer only 2 candidates with a chance of winning: Democratic and Republican. Third party candidates don't seem to work out well. If there are other options I'm open. But with the current system Democrats have to do what republicans do and wholeheartedly support their Presidential candidate. We didn't with HRC and that definitely didn't work out.
I agree with you that CULTural issues are drivings R's these days....and hopefully this is the last breath of the "Lost Cause"...but I doubt it. It's diminishing, but there are too many white young people who still buy into it. This ain't boring, is it?
To the point about cultural issues, if you haven't already, google and read "The Anger Games, Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 1016 Election and Why?" by two Univ. of Kansas professors, published in Feb. 2018.
I can think of little redeeming about Tulsi Gabbard. Her position on reinstating a firewall does not offset horrible positions on many other issues. Other than that, you’re spot on.
Actually, reinstating Glass Steagall wouldn't address very much of the 21st century US economy at all.
I agree that stronger, deeper and broader regulation of all aspects of all financial industries (banking, equity trading, insurance) needs to be in place, but Glass-Stegall is a solution for early-20th Century economic institutions that lost accountability.
In the first 2/3 of the 20th century, retail bankers kept their loans and made profit by managing their margin - that is, the difference between interest rates on loans and interest rates on savings.
Even with Glass-Steagall, banks could, and did, sell parts of their mortgage loan portfolios to other banks or investment managers. But today, it's a rare bank that keeps ownership of the mortgage loan it initiates.
Today, there's no need for a firewall, since retail banks no longer have much in the way of loan portfolios anyway. I know becasue I helped sell a large regional bank's entire mortgage portfolio years before Glass-Stegall was repealed.
I'm not arguing against effective regulation, just against regulations like Glass-Stedall that had outlived their usefulness because bankers and equity traders had already figured out how to circumvent them.
Most serious economists agree that had it been in effect in 2008, it would have had little if any effect on the 2008 Great Recession.
This reminds me of a similar situation with the Fairness Doctrine. Reagan’s dropping it, combined with dropping limitations on concentration of control of media, had a large role in our current problems. Simply reinstating it would not be enough, because media have changed and the related problems also need addressing.
What 21st Century financial industry problem would Glass-Steagall solve? Identify in your answer how regulations designed around financial institutions of 1933 address abuses by the financial institutions of 2022.
Glass-Steagall was largely irrelevant when it was repealed becasue bankers and brokers had already figured work-arounds to it.
Glass-Steagall created "walls" between retail and commercial banking and banking and equity trading. It focused on banking's internal processes.
Consider a better way to regulate that actually addresses concentration of wealth instead of compromising by limiting regulation to financial institutions' internal processes.
Your peremptory tone is not well received. As I already said, Glass-Steagall, or an updated version thereof, would prevent ordinary deposits from being invested in the derivatives market, which is (as a Japanese government minister once said) financial AIDS.
I love that there is such an amazingly wide pool of experience in the followers of LFAA. Interesting to read your comment, Steve, to be reminded that many of the 'vintage' regulations, whether still in force or not, have little to no applicability due to change over time, especially after we entered into the digital era. It makes me wonder what, if any, efforts take place to keep them relevant with the pace of change we live with now.
It's not just about loan portfolios, it's about prohibiting commercial banks from investing your savings account in (for example) the derivatives market.
Other laws already prevent investment of savings in low-grade securities and junk bonds. That set of issues is already addressed by requiring retail banks - and commercial banks, much to the chagrin Goldman Sachs - to meet stress tests by having diversified portfolios that avoid the kinds of concentrations many held in 2008. Glass Steagall didn't address those; it presumed that banks' income portfolios were largely in their own loans. But that's not where banks make money any more. Most loans are sold to mortgage bankers, then securitized and sold in the derivatives market, which is also now more regulated than in 2008.
Glass Stegall also did not prevent banks even in the early 1980s from selling their mortgage portfolios to brokers who could bundle then securitize them into derivatives. If you want a good study on the topic of the legal and financial aspects of derivatives, I recommend "Capital Markets, Derivatives and the Law," by Ala N. Rechtschaffen (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009). Many of the ills of unregulated derivatives have already been addressed in Dodd-Frank and other laws passed in the wake of 2008.
Right now, they pay almost nothing on deposits precisely becasue deposits can't be invested in high-risk/high-yield assets and still be insured by FDIC.
What should banks do to make enough money to pay interest on deposits?
What background do you have in how 21st century banking works?
Hmmm, which issues? Tulsi, a combat veteran (a medic) favors bringing the troops home from endless foreign occupations. Do you disagree? Tulsi also favors requiring a paper trail for computerized voting machines. Do you disagree?
Those are the issues (big issues in my mind) where I clearly agree with Tulsi. I also like her inclination toward bipartisanship -- in this day and age of across-the-aisle hatred, that was a breath of fresh air when she was in Congress.
WHAT she says (03/13, she worried about “US-funded bio labs” being hit by Russian forces and that she was “deeply concerned” about claims of Ukrainian bio weapons; when she knows the labs are focused on getting rid of biological weapons but then later claimed she was misunderstood and claiming that her concern was about accidental releases of pathogens) and WHAT she does (appearing on Tucker Carlson’s right wing smear fest to claim she’s a victim of Mitt Romney all the while repeating Russian talking points) and and with whom she is associated (Russian state tv anchors, Conspiracy monger Tucker Carlson).
I'm not sure what to make of that. You make a lot of strong charges/assertions/conclusions without backup. You give the impression of being a rabid McCarthyist; I hope I'm wrong.
Regarding Ukrainian bio-labs, I'm going to search a bit and see what the "other side" has to say, and (hopefully) come back and add a link so we can compare it to what Tulsi says.
EDIT: Here is an article from Sputnik News (owned by the Russian government) from March 31, retailing what the Russian Minister of Defense said, naming the names of alleged Americans involved in Ukrainian bio-weapons research:
I have always thought FDR was an interesting Politician as well as that time period to be intriguing as it showed this country for what it was. In many ways, "it's deja vu all over again". People were not so different. You had blatant racism and fiscal separation. Still do. This country also had a pull together mentality with the lower incomes. I'm seeing this again. There were 2 houses sold near me recently that are 2 family houses. Both houses were purchased by parents and their children. The retired parents were downsizing and the children have small families . Brilliant actually. This keeps families together, built in baby sitter of the children and role reversal as the parents age, split mortgage, taxes, upkeep. 2 cars not 4 cars. ++++++
As a side note, if you haven't already read Dr Fiona Hill's latest article about Trump, you should. " This was Trump pulling a Putin".
Trump's retort via the New York Times, " She doesn't know the first thing she's talking about. If she didn't have the accent she would be nothing. " Can it be that he is that stupid?
Yay, Ally! The NYT Magazine story that the Salon and Raw Story pieces are on is the one I posted a couple days ago. It is about the best summation of things that I have yet read. And then T***p's quote is the icing on the cake of his stupidity (like we needed any further proof the man's dumb as a box of hammers...). Here again is the NYT story, if you can get around the pay wall. It's compelling reading:
Yes he can. it is amazing to me that he needs to answer every negative observation with something a middle school would come up with. Thin orange skin.
I call it "pragmatic capitalism," a system that works for everyone instead of a select few, in contradistinction to "crony capitalism," which works for the few, an oligarchy. I'm not sure that the term "pragmatic capitalism" is original with me, so I can't claim it as my own. Lincoln made the point that without labor, capital would not exist, and that therefore Labor needs a seat at the table, a condition that Republicans have denied since Ronald Reagan was in office. As to FDR, the real architect of the New Deal was FDR's Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins.
Good point. Clearly it is capitalism and not Socialism as claim by the Republicans. It is an effective talking point for them when, for instance, Bernie calls himself a Democratic Socialist. Respectfully, he isn't a Socialist and to claim to be one politically is stupid.
“FDR recognized that the economic crisis created by unfettered capitalism threatened to end democracy forever as starving Americans turned either to communism or to fascism, as Europeans were doing.”
I would posit that the election of Trump, January 6 and the current shift of the Republican Party to the hard right are examples again of half the population turning away from democracy and, in this case, turning towards fascism or an authoritarian form of government, one that they hope will restore to them what they feel they’ve been losing. Unfettered capitalism drives us democrats to despair the same as unfettered regulation of social, racial and economic issues drives them.
Biden a Roosevelt for our times. That we should be in need of this not even one hundred years since Roosevelt changed the landscape for all of us speaks to the tenacity of politicians to divide us into classes and keep those that labor from achieving any type of equity.
We need to remember that for many years it was the Republican that led the fight for the working class and not the Democrats, but sometime in mid 20th century they switched to what we have now.
First, thank you for recognizing Roosevelt's BD and his ability to steer America out of one (of many) Republican economic debacles. The next one is likely to be the debt reckoning that has to come at some point given the feckless, irresponsible spending that America has undertaken since Reagan showed the way to irresponsible fiscal spending in 1980.
Second, I see it IS possible for the Feds to indict and charge a government official!!
It is possible, that is, IF THEY ARE BLACK. No surprise there.
We all await any sign of a hint that any of the white people, in government, who openly, blatantly, fragrantly, irresponsibly, with great hubris, that broke the law on Jan 06 will ever be indicted.
Mike, April 12 was the day FDR died (his birthday was in January, I believe).
I think you're spot on in the next challenge being debt reckoning.
I also think that if any white congresscritters are held to account for their roles in the sedition of 6 January it will be nothing short of a miracle. I suspect if the tables had been turned, and it was a BLM and/or Antifa assault on the Capitol, heads would already have rolled.
Eventually the pendulum of history's rightward direction will reach the point where it starts swinging back toward where FDR took us. Until that happens, we have cause for concern about damage done to democracy and the potential for violence.
Hi Professor - it is almost 2:30 am in Seattle - your letter has not arrived in my email ... I did a search for 'Heather Cox Richardson April 12, 2022' and here it is - just on case other are having the same problem ... thank you so much for sharing the fruits of your labors!!
It wasn't in my email, either, so I wrote to Substack support, and it arrived mid-afternoon. Second time in a couple of weeks. Like you, I did find it online both times.
Russian Tech Industry Faces ‘Brain Drain’ as Workers Flee
Since their country invaded Ukraine, Russian tech workers have left by the thousands. They appear intent on rebuilding their lives and businesses in other countries.
Christopher, there was, also, a massive brain drain from old Soviet areas including Russia in the early 1990's. Ass soon as the wall came down, mathematicians and physicists packed their bags and moved to the west in droves. Those folks helped fuel the technology that was implemented in various aspects of the World Wide Web.
We received thousands of brilliant mathemeticians from formerly Soviet dominated areas.
Good morning, Professor! This is exactly what Biden is trying to do, bring everyone together, create jobs (which he’s done), stimulate the economy, in spite of inflation which he nor the Dems are responsible for. He has called out the world’s biggest enemy as a murderer, creating genocide. He is absolutely correct. I used to get mad at him for being what I thought was a loose cannon, when he spoke. I do not think that anymore. He is our century’s replica of FDR. He is juggling buckets of issues and is doing it quite well. Thank you for showing the words at FDR’s memorial. I take that to heart.
Marlene, more FDR words to take to heart:
"The law I have just signed was passed to put people back to work, to let them buy more of the products of farms and factories and start our business at a living rate again. This task is in two stages; first, to get many hundreds of thousands of the unemployed back on the payroll by snowfall and, second, to plan for a better future for the longer pull. While we shall not neglect the second, the first stage is an emergency job. It has the right of way.
The second part of the Act gives employment through a vast program of public works. Our studies show that we should be able to hire many men at once and to step up to about a million new jobs by October 1st, and a much greater number later. We must put at the head of our list those works which are fully ready to start now. Our first purpose is to create employment as fast as we can, but we should not pour money into unproved projects..."
"Between these twin efforts--public works and industrial reemployment -- it is not too much to expect that a great many men and women can be taken from the ranks of the unemployed before winter comes. It is the most important attempt of this kind in history. As in the great crisis of the World War, it puts a whole people to the simple but vital test:--"Must we go on in many groping, disorganized, separate units to defeat or shall we move as one great team to victory?"
From: Franklin Roosevelt's Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act, June 16, 1933.
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odnirast.html
The contents of this newsletter needs a much bigger audience and should be sent to every legislator in DC...why is it that people refuse to learn from history?
Because they don’t like what it reveals….
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair
So why do they want to repeat what was revealed that didn't work?
Sophia - "why is it that people refuse to learn from history?" I just finished reading a huge book on FDR. Republicans fought FDR tooth and nail the entire time he was in office. They never "learned" anything at all. They called it all "socialism", a redistribution of wealth. They felt they knew better how to run the country and the economy. And they saw that their corruption was being checked and that their fortunes were being limited. Sound familiar? Back then though, Republicans were not in control. Not even close. Today, they are either in control or threatening to be. So my point is that Republicans will n ever think the FDR years were right. That is exactly what they are hell bent on avoiding, and for the same reasons as back then.
It's beyond me...how did the Republicans of the Abraham Lincoln administration turn into the GOP of today? Why has the term "socialism" gotten such a bad rap when it's what the Declaration of Independence is all about?
The Republicans of Abraham Lincoln are the Democrats of today. What Lincoln's party stood for is almost exactly what the Democrats stand for today. There are others who can explain it better than I can, but over time, the Republican's drifted over to the party of big business and the rich. And the Democrats drifted over to the party of the common citizen. Not quite that simple but that is the gist of it.
Oops, I meant that Lincoln’s Republican Party has turned into today’s Democrats…thank you….
And we all continue to cherish the beautiful public works that were created through that blessed jobs program! Buildings! Art! Crafts!
National Park trails and trees
Beautiful stone structures in our National Forest campgrounds and picnic areas
Amazing isn't it how many public buildings from 1935 to 1950 are still functioning or have survived and been re-purposed?
Our Bethlehem NH town swimming pool was a WPA project and is still enjoyed 85 years later every summer.
And priceless oral history!
Thank you, Rowshan! These sentences should be repeated over and over and over again!
My great-uncle worked for the WPA. It was a huge help to his family.
“He is juggling buckets of issues and is doing it quite well.”
He’s doing the best he knows how to do under trying circumstances.
Doing quite well? The majority of those polled do not seem to agree.
From NBC
“And during the nation’s largest inflation spike in 40 years, overwhelming majorities said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy.
Those are some of the major findings of the new national NBC News poll, which found that Biden’s overall job approval rating had declined to 40 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.
The erosion in Biden’s approval rating has been across the board among key demographic groups, including Black respondents (from 64 percent approve in January to 62 percent now), women (from 51 percent approve to 44 percent), Latinos (from 48 percent to 39 percent) and independents (36 percent to 32 percent).
Seventy-one percent of Americans said they believe the nation is headed on the wrong track, compared to 22 percent who said they believe it’s headed in the right direction, which is unchanged from January’s poll.“
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/bidens-job-approval-falls-lowest-level-presidency-war-inflation-fears-rcna21679
Polls measure perceptions, not necessarily reality. People expect instant solutions to long-term problems, as if there is a "magic pill" that will fix an economy that has been sliding towards disaster for decades, and very nearly reached that point during the last administration. The reality is that there are no magic solutions, and sometimes we have to make sacrifices to resolve our problems.
The other issue is that the President is dealing with a sharply divided Congress, and Republicans who refuse to even consider ANY solution that would require their rich donors to pay even a dime more in taxes. Never mind the faction that refuses to recognize the President as the legitimate President.
He's also dealing with the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployables of the Washington Press Corpse - all of whom rate a minimum of 10 chucktodds (a chucktodd being an internationally-recognized unit of measure of political moron stupidity).
Ha. Good definition.
Thanks for ”chucktodd”— now my favorite new expression to replace “dullard.” Never understood how he managed to rise in the newscaster ranks.
I ceased watching Meet the Press after he was appointed as "moderator". I also change the channel if I'm on NBC or MSNBC and he shows up. Cannot stand that person.
I think you nailed it. People have become so used to instant gratification and on-demand that they think that is the way the world works, and it doesn't. Biden inherited a mess and he's trying to clean it up. The Republicans ... I don't know. They just seem like a depressing bunch. You would think all their money would make them happy, but it doesn't seem to be working. What a waste of resources.
Also, I think people rely too much on polls and not enough on their own observations. Joe Biden is a decent person and he should have our support. Otherwise, we will just tear ourselves apart, which appears to be what we want right now.
Joe Biden is a decent person but he’s not an inspirational leader. He’s no Churchill, no Roosevelt. He’s not even a President Obama. He just can’t seem to get Americans to rally around the flag.
More of a Mister Rogers gone to Washington.
When he kept repeating time and again that Mitch McConnell was his friend and believed that Manchin could find him ten good Republican Senators, I knew that he was living in an alternate reality. Not in todays bare knuckle brawling political world.
Voted for him last time, and if he runs in ‘24, I’ll do it again. Just because he’s a nice guy.
Me too. Mr Rodgers doesn’t sound like a bad idea today.
Much needed, in fact.
The same problem Jimmy Carter had. Frustrating to see that so many want a publicity hound “rock star,” which explains how 45 got elected.
He’s far more capable and knowledgeable than anyone gives him credit for. Look what he restored with our European leaders? A consensus after TFG tried to destroy years of work.
People on a steady diet of Fox have no idea what the truth is. He is not senile, but he is old. His cognition is intact, and I wish I had half his energy. We are so lucky to have him. No one else could have done what he’s done with an obstructionist GOP. The media indeed needs to report the successes. They won’t garner near the attention that negative stories do, but it’s true that hearing it often enough causes it to be accepted.
I'm tired of reading about his poll ratings and inflation. Why can't they talk about actions and accomplishments? Even NPR got on the ratings bandwagon with the headline that Zelensky is more popular than Biden.
I think people are getting sick of nothing but negative, sensationalist headlines. I think we need to change that perception. I think there are lots of decent, intelligent people out there that are hungry for a different kind of reporting, one that champions the wins, not just the obstruction and losses. Let's get behind the Biden Administration and push. Try a fresh approach and champion the good once in a while.
Just shut up already, Rose. You’re starting to piss me off.
Yes, do it because he’s a nice guy—caring, good character but also because of his vast experience, his historical knowledge. That can’t be emphasized enough. He remembers the past. He’s grounded in experience and has deep and long lasting ties in politics.
Two things to remember always:
Shakespeare wrote: “ What is past is prologue,”
and George Santayana wrote: “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I'll take a decent person over the vast majority of the current GOP any day!
Hey, Susan. I have observed that nothing makes the R's happy, at least in the public eye. They were busy crying even back when 45 was occupying the WH and they controlled the Senate, with a majority SCOTUS. Sad.
Thanks, Susan. Yes, it's all baed on the people's perception and what channel they watch. Do the polls even ask/report the respondents what things the administration has done? I don't think people know what this administration has done. The polls, therefore, are doing a disservice! They are part of media-bashing the Dems are experiencing.
Lots of Americans had huge hopes and dreams based on Biden’s campaign promises. Tax reform, immigration reform, crime reduction, expanded voter participation, more free stuff, on and on and on.
When I was in the business world, we lived by the saying “Under promise: over produce “
For a variety of reasons Biden has underproduced. Manchin and Sinema standout as among the primary causes.
I read opinion pieces from a wide variety of sources and have yet to read one, not even one, that predicts that Democrats will hold the House majority come midterms. Will that be Biden’s fault? Not really but it will happen anyway.
Then get your lazy ass up and do something about it, Mr Monday Morning Quarterback. You make me sick.
For all that, you can thank the Republicans. Forget the variety of reasons. They are trying to hamstring Biden like they did Obama
❤❤
Again and again, the same colossal problem facing democracy, today's voters' naïve gullibility, their inability to think even a single step beyond the first issue facing them, let alone to seek the causes. Elections call for thought, nothing terribly demanding, but a refusal to think undermines the entire process. And here the voter is up against politicians whose approach is that of bank robbers creating a diversion; the voter pays attention to the diversion while the robbers complete their heist.
There is something exceptional about this particular deception: the media don't usually help bank robbers, yet here they do their damnedest to help political mountebanks bamboozle the public.
Another way of looking at it: I'm reminded of the schoolkid asked about the causes of thunderstorms who answered: "It's because God's angry with us".
Here, however, it's not God who's angry but the voter who treats the President like a god that's failed to come up to expectations, so he wants to return him to the store and buy a new one. However, the real effect of his angry vote in midterm elections is to cripple this presidential god supposedly endowed with magical powers, depriving him of the means to do anything for anyone.
How absurd. And, since many voters today seem so uneducated and uneducable as to be incapable of anything as complex as a game of billiards, let alone chess... let alone poker... we're up against a structural problem that makes the land ungovernable and plays into the hands of the country's enemies, especially those within the gates.
Only bigger carrots -- greed -- and fear of an even bigger stick stand any chance of showing voters the consequences of their actions.
Or as Churchill once put it, "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
But then, look at how deeply Putin and his robber band (duly blessed by KGB Patriarch) despise the people... of Russia and Ukraine, look at how Orban Drumpf and DeSantis scorn the voters they manipulate...
Good government demands respect for citizens, including fools, if not for all they think, say or do. When it comes to voting we can judge a politician's suitability by the respect and self-respect he or she shows.
Only... people who've been watching too many third-class soaps couldn't tell a real human being from a fake... Hence the perfect simulacrum, Reagan. Hence Agent Orange.
Is this because the average voter thinks only of himself/herself rather than the community? What's good for the whole community (besides myself)? We live in a country that has been raised on independence and pulling yourself up by your own boot straps. I personally know people in the $100,000 earnings range who begrudge paying taxes b/c they don't realize how the taxes benefit them. Yes, people just don't get it.
From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square game board, winner take all. But, what if we don't play the game, make up our own, like Zelenskyy, and call it democracy?
In trial by jury, the judge issues instructions, guiding jurors step by step through the different items of evidence they must consider, asking them to weigh up on that basis which case is the most convincing. This isn’t foolproof—nothing is—but it does at least help ensure that jurors take account of all relevant factors and are at every stage guided by evidence rather than their prejudices.
There are no such safeguards when it comes to elections—there should be, but even if there were it’s doubtful that they would have the slightest influence over most voters’ decision as reason and commonsense have little weight in these proceedings. If the issue were one of rendering justice, chances are it would be more like a lynching or the mob’s trial of Jesus… which was, of course, presided over by a politician…
Passion, prejudice, I like/don’t like his/her face, together with entertainments called “debate” that are more like a boxing match than anything involving reasoned argument—remember that flabby hunk with the orange-peel skin and the strange hair circling around Mrs. Clinton like an all-in wrestler looking for a hold and which way to throw her off the stage?—and millions of dollars get thrown to the four winds… but the political arena remains a largely thought-free zone. Such thoughts as get through have a rough time competing with Big Money.
#
I’d almost forgotten when it was that I wrote of today’s America in terms of the Nika Riots. So I just checked and, yes, it was well before January 6th 2021. In fact it was in January 2017, just after that geriatric Caligula thought he’d been made Emperor.
A few excerpts from my notes at the time. First, from an excellent essay by Amanda Taub in the New York Times of January 11th 2017: The real story about fake news is partisanship.
“In his farewell address as president Tuesday, Barack Obama warned of the dangers of uncontrolled partisanship. American democracy, he said, is weakened ‘when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service, so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent’.”
#
“Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.”
Here, I jotted down: “A mix of video game automatisms and tribalism”. My notes continued:
“In this context, the word ‘tribalism’ sounds all too appropriate. It's supposedly politics that are divisive, but may not politics provide a perfect alibi, the screen onto which people project their hatreds? And, for that, any other screen would do the trick.”
I went on to wonder about the kind of things that can happen once politics have become sidelined by public entertainment. It starts with ritualized warfare but…
“What I wonder is whether the mass folly now engulfing country after country is not a repeat performance of what nearly brought down Byzantium, with Blues and Greens coming close to destroying the city and overthrowing the emperor. And whether, given modern armaments, at least in America, we don't risk something infinitely worse than the Nika riots and the mass killing that put an end to them.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/nika.html
Over a year later, I wrote in my notebook that:
“For years, the Kremlin encouraged the growth of gangs of neo-Nazi football supporters, employed as the regime’s freelance roughnecks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/24/russia-neo-nazi-football-hooligans-world-cup
[Curious. Read this in the light of current events near Kyiv.]
#
“…Interesting that our political parties should be distant descendants of the Byzantine Blues and Greens. Violence and partisan support for teams were of the essence, political causes, secondary. Just issues to latch onto as a pretext for a fight.
Too many recent events echo the Nika riots.”
Thanks for your post. I hadn't read about the Niko riots. I was thinking more of the Italian city republics, local monarchy living in towers.
"In 1277 the popular organization of Padua forbade the presence of the election officials of all sailors, gardeners, agricultural labourers, landless men and herdsmen' and various other categories, including all men assessed for taxation at less than100 L.". Presumably the danger was that the powerful might use them to intimidate the electors.".
As Koch and friends are currently rounding up the wild Mustangs by helicopter on our public lands and shipping them off to Mexico and Canada under horrible conditions for meat, I doubt if we'll see chariot races very soon. On the other hand, bashing towers seems to be a popular way to for an autocrat to start an inserrection. Mussolini used a fire to advance his career, Hitler used the Reightxdmstsge (sp?) Fire, 911 seemed like an attempt to start a war...
The Italian City,-Republics, by Daniel Waley, World University Library, 1973.
That’s why that Larry David Super Bowl commercial was so funny “Every one can vote!” “Even the stupid ones?!? Arrrgh!”
Very well said Peter!
Thank you, Karen, but it doesn't make me happy to say these things...
On the one hand, we're up against the press-button pop-a-pill mentality that demands instant satisfaction while guaranteeing dissatisfaction. On the other, it's the tribal voter who believes that because the party for which she is voting has the same name as the party Dad and Granddad voted for, it's the same party.
Nowadays, that can be like Little Red Riding Hood casting her vote for the Wolf that's swallowed Grandma and stolen her clothes..
One conclusion of the petulant toddler faced with failure of his/her instant demand for satisfaction; "you're not my mommy!" equating dissatisfaction with responsibility of the parent. Literally, the voter equates "hard times" with bad leadership. Bad leadership makes good times harder, bad times even worse. Good leadership responds to bad times rationally, exhorts the public to reasonable and necessary sacrifices to set things on a more stable course, reminds of us of our interdependence, even as the political toddlers continue to bemoan their fate, equated to the responsibility of the leader of the moment.
That's it in a nutshell, Nathan.
I understand Peter. It is disheartening to see so many people expecting this “powerful”person to fix everything yesterday. Unfortunately, that mindset (along with Putin) got Trump elected. After all “he alone could fix it”. We have seen the “dumbing down” of America since the Regan years. And his Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, gutted the Federal support for Civics education. Consequently, so many people today don’t have a clue about engaging in the political process, or the rights and responsibilities of citizens. That creates the perfect scenario for an authoritarian President.
That said, depressing as it may be, I am hopeful that with work we can hold on to our democracy. It seems like there are so many things going in the wrong direction, but we are not. I learn so much from Heather and all of this group, as well as others I follow on Substack. It is reassuring to know so many that are aware, concerned, and doing what they can to hold on to our democracy.
Wonderful analogy! [Wolf in Grandma's clothes].
Democrats fail miserably where the Republicans are pros
- the propaganda department.
The Goebbels department?
It is not politicians but the judiciary that will have to sort out what look to me like professional criminals.
The fate of the country hangs on the action of the Justice Department and on the accused being treated in exactly the same way as lesser miscreants.
In addition to what Susan Radke points out is the fantasy Americans have bought into because of television that all problems will be resolved within a 50 minute time period (allowing 10 minutes for commercials of products you just have to go out and buy). The murder can be discovered, the autopsy performed, the blood/digestive contents analyzed, the DNA determined and matched (or not) through multiple data bases, witnesses found and interviewed, tire tracks matched and the vehicle found, the bad guys & gals located & arrested, lawyers found, juries seated, and a trial conducted with an appropriate sentence issue - ALL within 50 minutes. And the very people who expect 4 years of internal and international damage corrected, (not to mention a pandemic brought to heel) done and dusted within 15 months are the ones who are most resistant to looking at reality and the details of what is possible when there are not enough Democrats in the Senate to offset the wall of obstruction that has been the mission of the Republican leader since 2007. Now, let's mix in a single dictator who thinks he has the right to invade an innocent nation and our justifiable outrage. Piece of cake, right?
Thank you, but I don't think it's just TV that gives the impression all problems can be solved in 50 minutes or less. Politicians make elaborate promises to fix all our problems within 100 days in or der to get votes, but once in office all is forgotten, and reality rears its ugly head once again!
You refer to Ukraine as "innocent," and you refer to Putin as a "dictator." I'll suggest that both of those are debatable at best. Why do you use those two words?
I used the word "innocent" in reference to Ukraine because it did nothing to justify this invasion by Putin. There were no Nazis or Nazi-type government in Ukraine - Putin just used a flash word to try to get the Russian people aggravated and supportive. He couldn't use the Donbas region as an excuse; the Russians and Ukrainians had been fighting over that land grab for 8 years. The only reason Putin went into Ukraine was because he thought it would be an easy land grab, justified as having once been part of the USSR and Putin wants to get back to that level of world power (and "respect"). Ukraine was declared a democracy and independent nation after the USSR was broken up - back in Reagans time. Putin was in the wrong and the world is standing up and saying so.
I used the word "dictator" for Putin because it fits. A dictator is a ruler with total power over a country, an autocrat, a tyrant (as in everyone is afraid of telling him the truth when it is not what he wants to hear), an absolute ruler, an oppressor. The military actions in Ukraine have employed nothing less than a scorched earth policy. The kidnapping and absconding of thousands of children and women, taking them into unknown places in Russia (kidnapping), the bombing of well known/identified hospitals and residential areas, children's schools - none of these were a threat to his troops and materials. These are not the actions of a responsible leader. They very much are the actions of someone who believes he has supreme rights - a dictator. I'll stand by what I said, John.
Thank you Rusty for your very patient, educational and eloquent explanation to John. Good grief! Debatable???????“Innocent” people are being murdered!!! Would you want to “debate” that if it were you or your loved ones being slaughtered? . Unbelievable.
Beyond that, the Ukrainian military has been slaughtering innocent ethnic Russians in the Donbass by the thousands, going on for eight years, and Putin finally put a stop to it. The Ukrainians were massed for a full-scale invasion of the breakaway area when the Russians invaded Ukraine first, just after the Ukrainians publicly talked about developing nuclear weapons.
The hypocrisy of people who choose to ignore U.S. culpability for the most far-reaching genocide in history (with tens of millions of victims).
Quoting from Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr. Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers."
"The charges that I make are not light charges - they are charges that touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishing and maintaining international economic order and global efficiency."
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance."
"In guilt and self-realization of my own worthlessness as a human being, what I would like to do most of all is to so propel myself that I can get the man-in-the-street of North and South and East and West and First and Second and Third and Fourth and All Other Worlds to take an interest in what is happening to his single planet, his single habitat, because our institution was allowed to evolve in a particular way in late twentieth century international society, and allowed to become the supra-national authority that controls the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of people everywhere."
"We get away with our works of Dracula hiding behind the mask of Superior Technocracy and a Greater Wisdom striving for “financial balance” and “structural adjustment” in the Third World."
"And so it goes on and on and on. And nothing changes in the developing world except more death and destitution for the people in the slums, and more power for the Fund. And with the passing of every meeting our staff becomes even more reinvigorated; they wield a sharper and more bloodied tool; an even more terrifying Executor’s Axe stand poised for service everywhere in the South. And the children scream, Sir; my God, how they scream!"
(Budhoo is referring here to the incessant screaming of starving infants. When they stop screaming, you know that death is near.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oJzvpfFzIKu76oE1CkzZlarRiVpYIggFMFzSt6OgHx0/mobilebasic"
I have to respectfully question or outright disagree with literally everything you said in your most recent post.
Regarding entrenched neo-Nazis in Ukraine, here's a starter, from a well-established liberal American source:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
Three-year old article.
Find something more contemporary, then find something that suggests it's more dominant in Ukraine than in other Eastern European nations. The do yourself a favor (oops, I'm being peremptory again) and figure out how many in the right-wing also support Russia and Putin.
Go back to taking that eyeball tour of your colorectal system, you Trumpmoron.
Having a heckuva time ❤️ing people’s replies! 😤Great response TC!
TCinLA - Mr. Schmeekle called me "imperious" and I wasn't even as blunt as you!
Welcome to the club, Steve. :-)
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for 70 years. I have no doubt that considerable similarities remain. Ukraine has had 30 years to chart it's own path; up until 2013 it followed a path not unlike that of Russia. It had, and has, pro-Russian elements amongst its population, and yes, there are likely some fascist elements as well. However, that doesn't justify invasion by Russia as a means to influence Ukrainian affairs. Autocratic behaviors in Russia in the last several weeks have been highlighted; arrest and incarceration of political opponents, muzzling of independent news sources, the flight of capital and upwardly mobile, highly educated citizens all speak to something other than a rules-based political system. Ukraine has demonstrated its intent from 2013 and on into the present. Their movement has been towards representative government. Not perfect, not a straight line, but unmistakable and internal. How would we react if Mexico dreamed up justification to support separatist elements in Texas, then invaded from the south to "de-Nazify" the US , establish international borders between Texas and surrounding states and "keep the peace" for Texans of hispanic descent? Would we legitimize their just efforts to avoid "genocide" of Hispanic populations in Texas? And, how would the world react?
I could write a lengthy rebuttal, covering points that I've made already. For now I'll just mention one thing: The thug regime in Ukraine recently suspended ALL opposition parties, and you didn't know that.
No, they haven't. Only the parties that openly support subjugation to Russia, and at this point, giving political comfort and aid to Russia is clearly treason.
It's a shame they haven't evolved beyond that Soviet era behavior. It's hard to imagine legitimizing Russian military intervention as a solution to that, however...
You are a semi-literate moron who can't write three consecutive words that make sense, like every other inbred Trump-loving pissant Putin-loving traitor.
Go. Fuck. Off.
And when you get through doing that, go over there and Fuck. Off.
And then go there and Fuck. Off.
And then go catch the Covid hoax and Make America Great Again.
Permanently.
John, please provide evidence, a trustworthy link, or site a reputable author to verify your assertion here. When you use terms like "thug regime" I suspect that you are not too well-versed in the topic but just parroting far-right memes.
Clearly this is a loaded question. If Putin is not a dictator, the word has no meaning. I am sure Ukraine just like all countries has its bad actors, but nothing that merited the current blood bath with a daily abundance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If you want further debate, look elsewhere..........
My initial thought was this: is this a Putin plant, a made-up person who spreads doubt and disinformation?
Richard Sutherland,
This is me, but the photo (taken in Korea, where I was an English teacher) is ten years old:
https://independent.academia.edu/JohnSchmeeckle
EDIT: Spreading doubt is what got Socrates killed.
To blame Biden for inflation seems ignorant. I don’t understand how people can believe that a president can control and fix all things… especially when trying to work with those who refuse to do the work and now persist only to defeat the other “team.”
The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive economy would absorb these costs.
3. Instead, they’re passing these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In many cases they’re raising prices higher than those cost increases, using the cover of inflation to increase their profit margins even more.
4. They’re doing so because they face little or no competition. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers.
5. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated. This concentration gives corporations the power to raise prices because it makes it easy for them to informally coordinate price increases with the handful of other companies in their same industry -- without risking the possibility of losing customers, who have no other choice.
6. Corporations are using these near-record profits to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Stock buybacks hit a new record last year. So far this year they’re on track to exceed that record. Stock buybacks are predicted to hit $1 trillion this year -- an all-time high.”
I "liked", but who (apart from those raking in the spoils) can like this parasitical one-way feudalism?
A couple of remarks on greed (which in fact lies at the root of all Putin's politics, leading up to the war on Ukraine):
Greed makes men stupid.
Greed rules the world.
So why be surprised that we are ruled by idiots?
#
"For greed all Nature is too little."
Seneca... who also rubbished another American fetish "success":
"Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody."
I never look at any Murdick media.
Wise woman.
That's a first! It only took 73 years.
Mr Rose, so what’s your point? Instead of regurgitating statistics as you have, what should the President do instead? We’re all waiting for your wisdom….
Yeah, I thought so.
H.A Rose - do you think LFAA's April 11, 2022, letter, addresses those polling results?
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-11-2022?s=r
It would seem, with both the New York Times and the Washington Post shifting from cover-up mode and now admitting that Hunter Biden's laptop is real (and not Russian disinformation), the Establishment is getting ready to throw Biden under the bus.
WaPo had experts look at the information that was provided to them from a thumb drive. The experts were only able to verify some of the data as real but none of it implied wrong doing. The information had been copied and accessed mulitple times after Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop. What the feds seem to be investigating are problems with taxes. I don't think this equates to Jan 6 and possibly 2billion from the Saudis, let alone all the other 'stuff' during Trump's tenure.
The MSM seems stuck in the look at and trumpet only the bad about everything. It would be nice if they did more comprehensive pieces about the good things happening and potentially happening. Lastly, they just need to stop with the horse race aspect of elections and talk about the candidates and their positions.
Judy, your impression about Hunter Biden's laptop is strongly contradicted by this source (24 pages available online):
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Laptop_from_Hell/mb0oEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Quoting from the concluding paragraph of the introduction:
"The president cannot extricate his family's moneymaking schemes from America's foreign policy imperatives."
John, exactly. President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared made $640 million while serving in the White House. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-income-b1799464.html?amp
They were representing the US in an official capacity at the time.
Are you sure Ms Devine wasn't writing about the Trump family??
Quoting from the concluding paragraph of the introduction:
"The president cannot extricate his family's moneymaking schemes from America's foreign policy imperatives."
That’s opinion, not fact. Stay in the fact lane please.
Theresa Gauvin, you write like someone who never went to college. The final paragraph of the introduction is the thesis statement of the whole book: All the facts, if there's more than smoke and mirrors, come in the following chapters.
I guess if my name was Schmeeckle, I'd be a fucking moron too.
https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Schmeeckle-Family-Tree-114
My family name is a cross that I simply must bear. My grandfather, a small businessman, had a reputation for honesty. In his memory, I hope that I may deserve the same.
My initials are J.S.S. (name that Hebrew prophet)
Article written by Fox News Contributer Miranda Devine...Just sayin'
It's actually a book published a few months ago. If you know of any factual distortions in that book, please share them. In my experience, both Fox and CNN have a lot of fake news, but not all the time.
Which President is being referred to here?
It says President Trump.
Hopefully, the news about Jared Kushner’s new equity firm’s influx of $2 billion from Saudi Prince Mohammad will mitigate the outrage about Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings.
A forensic analysis by experts found files have been added after Giuliani had possession of the info. The laptop is real; the provenance stinks to high Heaven, and data may have been corrupted/manipulated. There is much to investigate about Hunter Biden, but the laptop info gets smellier and smellier
But,but, but, Hillary’s e-mail.
I'll also suggest that the Establishment is playing footsie with Trump, testing if he has what it takes to be the new "comeback kid."
I'll further suggest that what is really going here is a so-called "strategy of tension":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension
What rock did you crawl out from under? thanks for the reminder that LFAA should limit comments to those who pay for the privilege.
Get a life elsewhere Schmeeckle, no one is buying what you are hawking on this forum. What time is Tuck C. on?
I wouldn't know; hope you don't miss your show.
He’s not a kid.
When Hunter's laptop and his seat on the board of foreign companies returns to the front page, I'll know that our preoccupation with Donald Jr, Eric, Evanka and Jarrod have faded into tabloid irrelevance. Interestingly, Hunter is NOT a senior advisor to the White house. He's treated a bit like the prodigal son, who has still not come home begging to be re-admitted to the family home.
That's not the real issue.
The book "Laptop from Hell" alleged a news media cover-up of Joe Biden's dirty dealings; and that supposedly ensured that Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
That's half the issue.
From the publisher:
"This is the unvarnished story of what’s really inside the laptop and what China knows about the Bidens, by the New York Post journalist who brought it into the open.
"It exposes the coordinated censorship operation by Big Tech, the media establishment, and former intelligence operatives to stifle the New York Post’s coverage, in a chilling exercise of raw political power three weeks before the 2020 election.
"A treasure trove of corporate documents, emails, text messages, photographs, and voice recordings, spanning a decade, the laptop provided the first evidence that President Joe Biden was involved in his son’s ventures in China, Ukraine, and beyond, despite his repeated denials."
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Laptop-from-Hell/Miranda-Devine/9781637581056
Let's assume all that dirt is there, AND has been successfully suppressed all this time. Let's assume for the moment that Biden's political history is no cleaner than all of his peers. How does that negate the voice of 156 million votes? 75 million for tfg and 81 million for Biden? How does that address the fact that tfg's own head of the Justice department could not find adequate evidence of widespread voter fraud to warrant taking any action? So, we voted out a belligerent dictator wannabe and voted in an imperfect politician with plans to address a large number of societal issues in short order, on top of a global pandemic and subsequent major regional war on Europe's doorstep? Where IS that laptop? Why not copy the drives in their entirety, release them to every conceivable media enterprise and let them go about tracking down every lead? The story couldn't be any more sordid than what we have endured since 2016. If I have to choose amongst crooks, I'll choose gentle, compassionate and collaborative over the man who would be King every time.
My assessment, even though I could never vote for Trump, was that Biden was/is even worse.
I'll suggest that the rights and wrongs of the laptop are, practically speaking, less important than what the Establishment intends to do with all. They now clearly have the option to throw Biden under the bus and, if they want, bring Trump back for another term.
Thanks, Nathan. Wish I could have had all my ducks in a row as you do here, but those were my scattered thoughts. Quack, quack.
Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop! What about The All-Important Laptop?
Marlene Lerner-Bigley wrote, "...creating genocide."
Speaking of genocide...
https://sputniknews.com/donbass-genocide-2014-2022/
QUESTIONABLE SOURCE
A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.
Overall, we rate Sputnik Questionable based on the frequent promotion of conspiracies and PRO-RUSSIA PROPAGANDA, as well as the use of poor sources and numerous failed fact checks.
Source: Media Bias Fact Check
So... Do you trust whoever wrote that as unbiased?
Have you noticed that the mainstream U.S. news media has a pronounced anti-Russian bias?
Do you think it isn't worth bothering to check what the other side has to say?
Or are you just looking for someone else's validation of your predisposition to ignore it?
I notice that you didn't question any specific item of "information" (or claims or assertions) in the link I shared about Ukrainian genocide (if that's the term) in the Donbass over the past 8 years -- thousands and thousands of ethnic Russians slaughtered, similar to what the Serbs did to the Bosnians, provoking a NATO bombing campaign.
Now it's Russia's turn to stop ethnic cleansing on their doorstep by an oligarchic thug neo-Nazi regime that bought a Jewish actor as window-dressing to play the role of President???
How much (if any) validitity does that argument have?
How do you go about assessing?
Once again, is it worth the effort to observe what the other side has to say?
Is our fake news better than theirs?
Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? OK, if you don't trust the US media (which does make errors - the NYT makes corrections regularly) then check out a highly regarded German source.
https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-russia-falsely-blames-ukraine-for-starting-war/a-60999948
In fact if you just ask the question "did Ukraine commit genocide against Russians in Ukraine" you will find pages and pages of straight up reporting that establish that this claim by Putin is total nonsense. Absolute balderdash. Yet you continue....to be hoodwinked. Or maybe...
You are simply a bot trolling this forum? Good bye.
Thanks Bill.
Yes, can we all just stop talking intelligently to this guy/bot? He/it is without merit. Good riddance !
https://www.blatantpropaganda.org/propaganda/articles/journalists-are-intellectual-prostitutes-says-John-Swinton-of-the-New-York-Times.html
Is the US media anti-Russian (or at least anti-Putemkin)? I should hope to kiss a pig it is. At least most of it--not counting the anti-democratic pro-Putemkin fragment on the far right. The overwhelming majority of Americans recognize the corrupt dictator's attempt to impose his totalitarian desires upon his neighbor for what it is. And the media reflects that. And don't waste our time by braying that there is some fair-minded way to paint Russian aggression as anything other than what it is.
You are putting yourself in the same group with Lord Haw Haw and Tokyo Rose--and apologist for brutality and murder, if not outright genocide.
Now that's over-the top. You ooze contempt, and you revel and delight in your anti-Russian bigotry. Shame on you.
I only oozed contempt? Clearly, I fell short. I'll try to do better next time.
I second Jon Margolis. Many people on this site do. Sickening the stuff you are saying.
You risk being 'hoist by your own petard.'
Amen. Biting my tongue. A lot.
Me too.
???
Perhaps you actually know what that means, but I'm not convinced.
It means that your assigning even possible validity to the Russian argument for invading Ukraine destroys your credibility in other matters. When you qualify your quoting the Russian position by asking "How much (if any) validitity does that argument have?", you add credibilty to that position, even if you might believe there is none. Whatever 'historic' validity the Russian argument might claim is negated by their violence in trying to make their point. This reminds me of a murderer's defense attorney who does whatever he or she can to weaken a prosecutor's position.
You are confused. Putin is entirely different from Russians.
There is value in learning how those with radically different opinions think or more likely feel. It only takes few minutes to read John Schmeeckle's posts. They highlight how entrenched people can be in their worldview. I want to avoid that so I will take the thoughts he expresses into consideration. I know Ukranian refugees with family still in the country. Speaking many languages (Russian, Ukranian, Polish, etc.) besides English, they have sources of information and knowledge I don't. So far they would disagree with JS's assertions.
Assertions have some basis in fact. Or they are opinions. Which we all are entitled to have. But JS is either lying or he he is willfully ignorant or worse. In this case the true facts are there to read - everywhere.
If there is any factual basis for these "assertions" by Putin, a mass murderer, I would like to read them today.
That is vaguely worded, without any specific examples. Russia has been complaining about Ukrainian atrocities -- wanton killings of civilians in the breakaway portions of the Donbass -- for years.
I'll pose my old question once again, followed by an example:
Whose fake news do you believe?
Is the New York Times reliable? Was the New York Times reliable when it dismissed Hunter Biden's laptop as "Russian disinformation"? (Mwah hah hah...)
Is the New York Times now reliable when it admits that Hunter Biden's laptop is real?
https://nypost.com/2022/04/01/new-york-times-finally-admit-hunters-laptop-is-real-but-only-to-protect-joe-biden/
The deal breaker for me was when Schmeekle thought the words “innocent” used to describe Ukraine and “dictator” used to describe Putin were debatable.
❤️(Heart not working on your comment.) Guess I'm just trying to stay civil. It's difficult. There seems to be more hostility here today than usual.
Time to put Der Schmeeckle on the Ignore List.
Plop him
Ignoring his posts is ignoring what many Americans believe. You may disagaree with them but they are there and his posts provide a microcosm of what they think, enabling us to "know the enemy." Not doing so can be dangerous. In Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," which is applicable in political as well as military situations, it is written that "If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." (Chapter 3 - Attack by Strategem - No. 18) Hence, his comments here help us in 'knowing the enemy,' and therefore should not be ignored.
I see that your source is simply parroting the propaganda being fed to the Russians. You will not find that kind of “information” in any reputable source in the world. Not even in a Tucker Carlson entertainment session.
Harry C, please understand that I did not endorse that source; I simply recognize its existence.
Perhaps you could you mention one specific point where you disagree with that source.
Once again, whose "reputable" fake news do you believe?
Is the New York Times reliable? Was the New York Times reliable when it dismissed Hunter Biden's laptop as "Russian disinformation"? (Mwah hah hah...)
Is the New York Times now reliable when it admits that Hunter Biden's laptop is real?
https://nypost.com/2022/04/01/new-york-times-finally-admit-hunters-laptop-is-real-but-only-to-protect-joe-biden/
It seems that you obviously have a slant and narrative you are trying to prove. If nothing is true then everything must be a coverup or something. But the NY Times did actually correct their reporting regarding the Hunter Biden laptop. They aren't perfect but do take ownership and make corrections of things they print incorrectly. The whole story of the laptop in itself is a wild ride anyway.
See examples from the Times here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-laptop.html
Finally, both the WSJ and VOX did really great write ups on the contents of the laptop. It's journey and whole history of it with great context. I read a variety of sources so they are all interesting reads.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hunter-biden-laptop-scandal-corruption-new-york-times-post-media-bias-2020-11648076107
https://www.vox.com/22992772/hunter-biden-laptop
I guess it's good that Hunter Biden doesn't have any role in our government and his company just didn't get a $2B injection of funds from Saudi Arabia huh? I guess it's also great that the Biden family isn't making hundreds of millions of dollars just due to their Dad being President like the last administration right? See I can mudsling and do whataboutisms as well.
Just food for thought, it seems you obviously are used to trolling or looking for engagement since you seem to have a habit of copying and pasting blurbs without context and trying to use them as "gotcha" moments against people you are engaging with. But in cases like this it just makes you look immature, you haven't added anything meaningful to this thread. If anything it seems you just have an issue with us really appreciate Dr.Richardson's blog all of our mutual appreciation of history. Unlike some people, the majority of people who read this newsletter really don't look at politics as a zero sum game or an us vs them. It's all about being informed to a certain level, most healthy people consume various media from different sources.
Philly T - thank you.
Thank you Steve, this is a great community and I've seen you stick up for others on this blog as well before :).
Thank you, PhillyT!! Great rebuttal!
Mommy wants her computer back, little Schmeeckle.
Hmmm. here’s one current example. Suddenly Donbas is the location of numerous “genocides”, Ukrainian children taught to hate Russians (by being taught about the Russian-created famine and other history, of course), etc etc
https://sputniknews.com/donbass-genocide-2014-2022/
Straight out of the Russian propaganda machine, yes?
As I've repeatedly said, whose fake news do you believe?
My assessment of the habitual mendacity of the mainstream U.S. news media, including its deplorable coverage of the situation in Ukraine, together with my inclinication to condemn the genocidal imperialism emanating from Washington, D.C., has been strongly influenced over the past three decades by my reading of Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund, which I view as essentially honest, and which is a taboo subject, blacked out of the mainstream news media.
And now, for the first time, the first 29 pages are readily available online. I'll share a few quotes:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr. Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers."
"The charges that I make are not light charges - they are charges that touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishing and maintaining international economic order and global efficiency."
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance."
"In guilt and self-realization of my own worthlessness as a human being, what I would like to do most of all is to so propel myself that I can get the man-in-the-street of North and South and East and West and First and Second and Third and Fourth and All Other Worlds to take an interest in what is happening to his single planet, his single habitat, because our institution was allowed to evolve in a particular way in late twentieth century international society, and allowed to become the supra-national authority that controls the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of people everywhere."
"We get away with our works of Dracula hiding behind the mask of Superior Technocracy and a Greater Wisdom striving for “financial balance” and “structural adjustment” in the Third World."
"And so it goes on and on and on. And nothing changes in the developing world except more death and destitution for the people in the slums, and more power for the Fund. And with the passing of every meeting our staff becomes even more reinvigorated; they wield a sharper and more bloodied tool; an even more terrifying Executor’s Axe stand poised for service everywhere in the South. And the children scream, Sir; my God, how they scream!"
(Budhoo is referring here to the incessant screaming of starving infants. When they stop screaming, you know that death is near.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oJzvpfFzIKu76oE1CkzZlarRiVpYIggFMFzSt6OgHx0/mobilebasic"
I note that your”assessment” of US news sources and the US government uses some erudite but vitriolic words in a very general way. They are certainly not objective and unbiased words.
Thank you for the reference to Davison Budhoo. I must admit that I had never heard of him, so I did some research and found several reviews of his Letter.
He also used very vitriolic language about IMF operations which caused some reviewers to wonder if that would affect the response of the IMF and governments. Apparently they did respond, however. His letter achieved results. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4398304.
His very specific complaints against one portion of the world’s governing agencies should not, however, be taken out of context to justify general condemnation of all government operations of the United States.
"As I've repeatedly said, whose fake news do you believe?"
If it is all fake news why do you bother reading and commenting on it?
I have always found it intriguing that FDR, who by upbringing and socioeconomic background would clearly „belong“ to the Republican party (a „trust fund kid“ if there ever was one), would become the beacon of Social Democracy (which is the political science designation anywhere in the world but the USA).
From reading many biographies, I see three factors:
1. Social Democracy - the „New Deal“, as he labeled it - was REASON‘s solution for the problems before him
2. Eleanor, his wife, influenced him deeply in this regard. FDR realized there could not be a just society in the spirit of the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution without equal rights for women (I do not know enough about his personal theory for the suppression of non-whites)
3. POLIO, which struck him as a grown-up, was THE major educational influence on him. While he was arrogant and light-headed before, polio made him humble about every facet of his life.
FDR's achievements with his New Deal were admirable, but let's not forget that the reason for the New Deal was not to bring down capitalism but to save it. People were so angry and desperate after the stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression, there was a genuine concern in the Roosevelt administration that without immediate and drastic changes in the way the country was run, there would be a genuine Bolshevik-style revolution in the United States
True, but social democracy is not incompatible with capitalism. Social democracy designates which services are better supplied by the government vs. private enterprise, such as mail delivery, libraries, schools, etc.
Definitely. Those are the principles espoused by Frances Perkins.
Excellent point. Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway are excellent examples of this.
Yes Peter, FDR`s 'reasoned solutions' which is why Hunter College at Roosevelt House is "Celebrating Frances Perkins". See, www.roodevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu. I think New York renamed a stretch of East 65th for FDR's cabinet member near the Public Policy Institute.
FDR catered to white supremacy in the US because he thought it politically necessary to hold support for his New Deal programs from racist whites in Congress. During WWII, FDR refused to bomb train tracks leading to Hitler’s death camps because he thought helping Jews might turn antisemites against US participation in the war.
And it took President Truman to desegregate the military.
And the ocean liner St. Lewis in 1939
“Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.
Government officials from the State Department to the FBI to President Franklin Roosevelt himself argued that refugees posed a serious threat to national security”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/
We really need an icon for "agree with you and don't like it at all".
Humility in facing our history is recognizing our mistakes and continuing on in an attempt to make this a better democracy.
❤️
And the vilification of "others" persists.
It's the key element in authoritarianism - never mind how badly we treat you, we will protect you from those terrible monster-people over there.
And, of course, it's for your own good....
Or the alternative - no matter how badly we treat you, rest assured we will treat people who don't look like you even worse.
Yes, I only read about this recently. Dark days those were. Almost nobody stood up for the Jewish population.
My grandparents supposedly were on a boat to Cuba and were turned away. They subsequently died in the gas camp called Chelmno, 1942. My own mother took the USS Cunard from Liverpool to the US in December 1939. What people were kept from was that the atrocities happening to Germany and Poland, started in the 1930’s. America was late to the game because communications here were totally misconstrued by our “intelligence”. Jews who were already here kept pleading with government officials about the devastation. They got letters and telegraphs from their homeland. Tragedy abound!
I’m so sorry about your grand parents. I can’t even imagine such horror.
Thank you, Theresa. Yes, we all were robbed.
Requisitioned by the Government, RMS “Mauretania” was armed with two 150 mm guns and some smaller weapons & was painted in battle grey.
Sailed to NYC on 10th Dec 1939 with 166 passengers and 2,000 tons of cargo. Arrived on the 16th, and was docked at Cunard's Pier 90.
And now we have the polio vaccine to make sure all rich people stay Republican. Who knew?!
Please explain, Mike S upstateNY, what you are trying to express:
The vaccine against Polio became available to the public in 1955. The USA has been polio-free since 1979.
Only two countries in the world are still categoized by the WHO as polio-endemic: Pakistan and Afghanistan (there has been a flare-up in Nigeria recently).
One polio vaccine dose costs about 2 USD (the supply chain has to be temperature-controlled, however, and causes more costs). As the vaccination is part of public health plans for small children and as its costs are covery by universal health care insurance in all civilized countries but the USA, neither cost nor economic standing play a role (dark religion still does, however). Rotary International, with its more than 46,000 clubs and more than 1,4 million members, has played an important grass roots level role in countries like Pakistan in fighting the crippling disease.
So what do you mean with your reference to "...make sure all rich people stay Republican"?
Please, dear Mike, let me know. Thank you!
-Peter-
Mike S, this is why the /s tag is so necessary.
I believe Mike is saying that the polio vaccine removed one more potential humbling experience from the upbringing of rich people. (It removed it from the upbringing of poor people as well, of course, but they didn't really need the lesson.) Without that experience, it's unlikely FDR would have grown up to be the person he was, and both global and American history of the mid-20th century would likely have been very different.
I'm old enough to know people of multiple economic classes who contracted polio as children, before the vaccine was developed. For all of them, it was a defining part of their childhood. We as children learned the lesson that privilege and wealth could not insulate us from the darker turns life could take. I learned that lesson again when a childhood friend died of leukemia at 14, another disease that today can be treated with the application of large amounts of money. Back then we took the March of Dimes seriously because most of us knew people who had had polio. I still think about it when I look at FDR's image on our 10-cent coin.
Another dark turn that was also eliminated, this one man-made, was the military draft. The volunteer army gave young rich folk yet one more way to reduce their risk and live the lives they and their parents had planned for them.
The constant shift of risk from rich to poor over the past 70 years or so has echoed the increase in wealth inequality to give the people who won the genetic lottery less and less reason to identify with those less fortunate than they. It is too bad that FDR got polio, but that twist of fate ultimately made our country a better place. I like to hope that he felt it made him a better person, as well.
Anyway, that's my take on the defeat of polio giving rich people one less reason to empathize with others. Mike, I hope I got your position right, but that's mine, anyway.
Exactly correct. Many thanks. I just got back in from working.
Can’t ❤️ this!
❤️
Thank you, Peter. Dr. Albert Bruce Sabin did some excellent vaccine creation work as well. As a kid, I got the Sabin Vax in a pink sugar cube.
Thank you, Peter.
Hi Peter,
In Dr. Richardson's notes she makes the observation that Roosevelt's compassion, likely, emitted from his tough experience with polio. Now, perhaps he would have had compassion without that tough experience which resulted in him being different, disabled.
But, nobody will have that experience, rich nor poor, in America, anymore to build humility and build understanding.
Because the vaccine keeps us all healthy and well and, if we are born rich, as was Roosevelt, then, that opportunity to learn by being bent, is no more.
“…he undertook to rebuild the nation after republicans had run it into the ground.” How many times has this been repeated since then? The republicans scream “socialism” about everything Dems do and everybody quakes. When will people quake over the repeating effort by republicans to run the nation into the ground. From csd on Twitter some time back. Still fits “They piss themselves every presidency, while we “tax and spend” libs have to buy new sheets.”
The repos empty the treasury, the demos replenish, the repos empty the treasury, the demos replenish, the repos empty the treasury, the demos replenish……………
It’s an old pattern. What’s more recent, is that many RepeatHate politicians are such followers of Putin and his goal of damaging this country.
Excellent point Joan
'Males are generally socially dominant over female mammals but there are exceptions. In general, if females are larger than males, they tend to be socially dominant, as is true of chinchillas and hyenas,'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp246rpr2ck
So what you are implying is that we need really big women? And what about the grizzlies where the male leaves the family or eats the children? Lastly I have witnessed very small women reduce very large men just by the power of their intellect. And second to lastly I have personally subdued and commanded the respect of many overbearing men who literally overlooked me. I am pretty sure that lots of women say that size matters. I personally would rather go at an NFL player than stand in the way of the incoming tide of people like yourself or AOC or scores of other women champions. And Withering in face of such uneven odds is not my idea of a good way to lose. And lastly for the last time while good men are amongst us, when you get the whole herd together I would disdain to pack them through the wilderness.
How about the song?
Working on it.
Okay okay you managed to wreck me again. Your right I’m wrong. Don’t get up I’ll get it for you!
The tide is out.
Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow yesterday: "Another argument against the Republican claim that “government spending” causes inflation was made by Senator Debbie Stabenow, who said, 'There was $7 trillion in new debt and 2.6 million jobs lost during Trump. But when McConnell comes to this podium, all he does is complain that we’re not cleaning up their mess fast enough."
Ooooh. That's good.
Republicans have long thought/used the "if you're not succeeding, you're lazy," argument; both sincerely and insincerely. Last week, I read Benn Steil's excellent, factual book The Marshall Plan, Dawn of the Cold War. When Harry Truman invited Republican Congressmen to the White House in September, 1947 to make his case of the plan, Republican Congressman John Tabor told him, he "had seen no 'underfed people' in his European travels (have to wonder where he went in 1947 Europe besides state dinners and hotels). Their problem was that they were simply 'not working as hard or as vigorously as they should. We in the United States,' he said, 'got where we are because we worked harder.'" Simple, grade-school-level analyses and solutions for incredibly complex situations and times (now, even more than then). Of course! Exactly what we need!
We would do well to remember that we ended the war with the help of dropping the atom bomb on Japan. We continue to threaten peace at every turn, knowing we have to rely on sane leaders who have the power of world destruction literally in their hands.
I think the majority of people just want the opportunity to make something of their lives, care for their loved ones, and do meaningful, productive work. Capitalism uncontrolled and taken to its logical end resulted in the chaos of the Great Depression. My greatest generation parents were deeply affected by what they saw and experienced during the Depression years. They were especially impacted by seeing families losing everything because they were foreclosed on by lenders, either person or institution, who stood to benefit from the families’ misfortunes. That’s what is really disturbing about the anti-democracy people--their willingness to hurt others even to the point of being gleeful about their meanness, because they can.
Capitalism only works when democracy provides the rules and refs.
Precisely! Thanks, MaryPat.
Indeed!
Thank you Heather for your excellent presentation last night in Portland! Your ability to tie our history in with our current issues is amazing. I’m also glad you enjoyed the Columbia River Gorge and the waterfalls. Please come back soon!
Thank you Karen for welcoming our weary time traveler to Oregon. Mom was a candy striper for 35 years before getting her RN at Longview. She worked at the hospital in Astoria when she wasn’t on the Anne B fishing salmon. A big thank you and your splendid steadfastness in the ongoing Covid crises.
Thank you for your kind words and support for nurses. I am so impressed with your mom. Nursing can be challenging and requires a lot of stamina, but she was also salmon fishing out of Astoria! Wow, what a strong and dedicated woman.
She was my heart. Born in a barn near Fallon Mt. On the banks of the Yellowstone. We sent her off the docks on the Columbia with the outgoing tide on a bed of a thousand roses.
What an incredible and giving life she lived. And what a touching and beautiful send off.🌹💖
Beautiful!!! For a beautiful life!
Wasn't that wonderful?! (and then Heather followed me back on Twitter overnight... I'm fangirling big time)!
Yes indeed, excellent presentation last night! Though I'm in Portland, I was watching the livestream along with at least 700 other ticket-holders. We don't usually get snow in April, really!!
I attended with my wife, Suzame. Let's just say I'll never read Letters from an American the same way again. HCR's lecture tied together all the issues she's raised here and more. Today's edition is more resonant because of seeing and hearing the professor in person last night.
Listening to her podcasts had given me a sense of her personality, but I had no idea how she could rivet the attention of hundreds, gathered in the ornate splendor of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Of course Heather's brilliance shone through. But damn, she is funny. Self-deprecating, too. And make no mistake, she loves this community!
To see the concert hall: https://www.portland5.com/sites/default/files/styles/carousel-large/public/carousel/SchnitzerHall-InteriorBalcony-JasonQuigley-780x400.jpg?itok=BX5TfaHk
Yes, I loved her quick trip through history and her humor. I would love to listen to it again and see it shared widely
I totally agree Michael. Heather is amazing, and The Arlene Schnitzer is a beautiful concert hall. I saw Neil Young there several years ago.
How did I miss Neil Young? Must have been fantastic.
It was great. But I miscalculated when I said several years ago. My husband said it was more like 8 years. So I looked it up and it was 12 years ago😹. The older I get the faster time seems to go. But the concert was amazing. It was Neil alone, no band, just him and his guitars and harmonica. It seems like it was yesterday. I keep hoping he will come back. But I don’t know if he is still touring.
Checked around — no tour dates announced for this year. But his website is excellent. A study in nostalgia. Recommend the streaming documentary with Crazy Horse. "Barn: A Band, A Brotherhood, A Barn." https://neilyoungarchives.com/movie-night/subscriber-features
Speaking of nostalgia...when I was in college, my roommate and I found out when "Harvest" was being released. It was February 1972, the year we graduated. We bought it at a record store (remember those!) the first day it was available. A masterpiece then, and just as good today.
When I logged on, I was number 702! I was late, and had to call to get my link. The very nice lady at the OHS was also an "Ally".
Very cool. The technology seemed to work very well. A friend and I had hoped to go in person, but due to concerns about covid, we opted for the virtual experience--a good thing too, because my friend had to have surgery last week and is still recovering. We texted our enthusiastic reactions to the presentation instead. OHS also had a presentation a few weeks ago from Dr. Timothy Snyder. That was excellent as well.
I chickened out at the last minute due to Covid concerns, too - and I'm so pleased they provided the livestream.
When/if Covid is over we should have an HCR meetup!
Can those of us in The Couve be included?!
Of course!
There were 577 when I logged on. When I registered, it looked like a pretty well filled hall, but I didn’t want to have to deal with parking, so I watched from the com fort of home.
Oh, I would have loved to hear his presentation! I follow him on Substack and have read his books. I think I will join OHS also.
I need to become an OHS member; I totally missed the Timothy Snyder presentation.
Yes, we need to have an Oregon meetup; this summer, perhaps. I know that Michelle lives in Newberg, and I have another friend here in town that would be "all in" for that.
I would be all in for an Oregon meetup too!
I sure wish I'd been able to talk my wife into a mid-week outing to go up and hear the Professor in person. We watched on the livestream, and it was incredible.
Is the lecture available online?
I don't know; per the email I got with my virtual ticket, I should get a recording of the lecture that will be available for two days. Here's more on the Hatfield Lecture Series, and you might ask them if there's a way to get the recording:
https://www.ohs.org/events/hatfield-historians-forum.cfm
So... Where is the call among Democrats (besides Tulsi Gabbard) to reinstate the Glass-Stegall "firewall" between commercial banking (mortgages and small business loans to keep our communities moving) and parasitic Wall Street speculation? It was an essential part of FDR Democrats' rehabilitation of our financial system, but we got rid of it under Clinton, the best "Republican" president we ever had (just kidding; I'm a fan of Lincoln and Eisenhower).
John I'm with you, Lincoln & Ike "got it". As did FDR. This has been a pretty intense few years lately...it has the same polarized and creative energy of the 1960's. This forum has become my "must read" in the morning. Heather is a history angel who types for all of us to understand our world better.
As does Biden....get it.
Piss on Tulsi
Jeri, so what are you really saying ? 🤔
heh heh
Tulsi Gabbard's hard right turn has been a bit shocking. Her early views were promising and at times seemed almost too good to be true. When she was elected I remember thinking DC could use some Aloha. But a change this drastic makes no sense for a person of conscience. I wish someone would update her Wikipedia page because she reads like a perfectly sane, sympathetic person.
Mazie Hirono is amazing. Schatz is pretty good too. At least Tulsi is out of office for now.
Hmm. "hard right turn" might not be the best way to describe Tulsi's strongly-phrased anti-Establishment views, but perhaps you're thinking of something else.
Tulsi, alone among Democratic candidates in 2020 election cycle, had significant support among military personnel. Do you think that's important?
It’s important to the extent it shows that our military seems to support authoritarian candidates operating outside the reality based world. Turning off Fox News on bases would likely help. Note: I haven’t checked your assertion, and doubt that no other D candidate had support among military personnel.
Careful please: I said SIGNIFICANT support. Military Democrats were Tulsi's hard core of nationwide grass-roots support.
If people like Biden (who has very little grassroots support but a lot of Establishment support) can't attract support from military personnel, is that a problem? Does how the average serviceman/woman views the Commander in Chief play a role in combat readiness? And is it fair to describe Trump (if that is who you had in mind) as an "authoritarian candidate operating outside the reality based world"?
It's hard to think that you were describing Tulsi there.
You’re right, I don’t know if she’s authoritarian or not. She certainly acts like either a Russian agent or a useful idiot a la Tucker Carlson. And of course it’s fair to describe TFG thusly.
I got curious, and did a little research on your assertion. Surprisingly (to me, at least), it was Bernie Sanders who garnered the most support among military personnel during the primary season. Not just among Democrats, but overall as well. Like any other group, the military isn’t a monolith, and there are lots of disparate beliefs within.
Perhaps you're echoing Hillary Clinton's talking point when you smear Tulsi as a "Russian agent." Tulsi retorted by calling Hillary the "corrupt queen of the war-mongers."
If you have a source for 2020 military support for Bernie, I'd be interested in looking at it.
Pete Buttiegieg had more military support than Tulsi Gabbard.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/17/tulsi-gabbard-pete-buttiegieg-veterans-still-running-president.html/amp
That may be the case, but it doesn't affect the fact that military people formed (and still form) the core of Tulsi's support base. Personally, I'm not inclined to follow her away from the Democratic Party.
I’m a New Deal liberal, otherwise derided as a “socialist” by The Democrats of today. FDR is a hero to me, although I liked Henry Wallace even better.
Today’s Republicans won’t rest until they completely erase the New Deal and the rest of the 20th Century, post-Lochner.
Ron Brownstein posits that cultural issues are more powerful than economic issues to voters today. I’m tending to agree. Is this the last breath of the Lost Cause & white supremacy? I wonder … and hope we’re a better people than the ilk that tried to overthrow the Government on January 6th. But with the Democrats perfecting the art of rescuing defeat from the jaws of victory, I’m afraid their fecklessness and inability to break free of their donors will keep us in interesting times for quite a while.
"But with the Democrats perfecting the art of rescuing defeat from the jaws of victory,..."
You mean like in 2020 when the Democrats won the White House, Senate and House? Or when President Biden vaccinated 200 million Americans in 100 days? Or the Recovery Act, Child Care Tax Credit, gathering NATO to fight Russia? etc.
The Democrats have rebuilt an economy, vaccinated anyone willing, navigated a war with Russia, established the January 6 Commission, successfully nominated a black woman for Supreme Court Justice, all the while battling a Pandemic, rampant disinformation campaigns, roadblocks from Republicans and Putin breathing down their necks.
https://oliverwillis.com/joe-biden-accomplishments-the-full-list/#:~:text=As%20of%20February%202022%20there%20are%20114%20verified%20accomplishments%20for%20Biden%20on%20the%20comprehensive%20list.
I really really hated poking the bear so early in the day. The Democrats in disarray is a worn out trope at best.
Amen and thank you. Circle the wagons. Defend Democrats because the only realistic alternatives are republicans.
In what sense is it realistic?
I was unclear. I meant that a Presidential race will offer only 2 candidates with a chance of winning: Democratic and Republican. Third party candidates don't seem to work out well. If there are other options I'm open. But with the current system Democrats have to do what republicans do and wholeheartedly support their Presidential candidate. We didn't with HRC and that definitely didn't work out.
Well said, Barbara!
❤️
I agree with you that CULTural issues are drivings R's these days....and hopefully this is the last breath of the "Lost Cause"...but I doubt it. It's diminishing, but there are too many white young people who still buy into it. This ain't boring, is it?
There are many who dont.
To the point about cultural issues, if you haven't already, google and read "The Anger Games, Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 1016 Election and Why?" by two Univ. of Kansas professors, published in Feb. 2018.
Like Putin, it is not policy, it is cultural for the Republicans.
To the detriment of the vast majority.
I can think of little redeeming about Tulsi Gabbard. Her position on reinstating a firewall does not offset horrible positions on many other issues. Other than that, you’re spot on.
Actually, reinstating Glass Steagall wouldn't address very much of the 21st century US economy at all.
I agree that stronger, deeper and broader regulation of all aspects of all financial industries (banking, equity trading, insurance) needs to be in place, but Glass-Stegall is a solution for early-20th Century economic institutions that lost accountability.
In the first 2/3 of the 20th century, retail bankers kept their loans and made profit by managing their margin - that is, the difference between interest rates on loans and interest rates on savings.
Even with Glass-Steagall, banks could, and did, sell parts of their mortgage loan portfolios to other banks or investment managers. But today, it's a rare bank that keeps ownership of the mortgage loan it initiates.
Today, there's no need for a firewall, since retail banks no longer have much in the way of loan portfolios anyway. I know becasue I helped sell a large regional bank's entire mortgage portfolio years before Glass-Stegall was repealed.
I'm not arguing against effective regulation, just against regulations like Glass-Stedall that had outlived their usefulness because bankers and equity traders had already figured out how to circumvent them.
Most serious economists agree that had it been in effect in 2008, it would have had little if any effect on the 2008 Great Recession.
This reminds me of a similar situation with the Fairness Doctrine. Reagan’s dropping it, combined with dropping limitations on concentration of control of media, had a large role in our current problems. Simply reinstating it would not be enough, because media have changed and the related problems also need addressing.
Perhaps not enough, but (as with Glass-Steagall) a necessary step in the right direction.
What 21st Century financial industry problem would Glass-Steagall solve? Identify in your answer how regulations designed around financial institutions of 1933 address abuses by the financial institutions of 2022.
Glass-Steagall was largely irrelevant when it was repealed becasue bankers and brokers had already figured work-arounds to it.
Glass-Steagall created "walls" between retail and commercial banking and banking and equity trading. It focused on banking's internal processes.
Consider a better way to regulate that actually addresses concentration of wealth instead of compromising by limiting regulation to financial institutions' internal processes.
Your peremptory tone is not well received. As I already said, Glass-Steagall, or an updated version thereof, would prevent ordinary deposits from being invested in the derivatives market, which is (as a Japanese government minister once said) financial AIDS.
I love that there is such an amazingly wide pool of experience in the followers of LFAA. Interesting to read your comment, Steve, to be reminded that many of the 'vintage' regulations, whether still in force or not, have little to no applicability due to change over time, especially after we entered into the digital era. It makes me wonder what, if any, efforts take place to keep them relevant with the pace of change we live with now.
❤️
Natalie -
Here's a good primer.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/063015/what-are-major-laws-acts-regulating-financial-institutions-were-created-response-2008-financial.asp
Another excellent history lesson, and one that isn't often heard.
It's not just about loan portfolios, it's about prohibiting commercial banks from investing your savings account in (for example) the derivatives market.
Other laws already prevent investment of savings in low-grade securities and junk bonds. That set of issues is already addressed by requiring retail banks - and commercial banks, much to the chagrin Goldman Sachs - to meet stress tests by having diversified portfolios that avoid the kinds of concentrations many held in 2008. Glass Steagall didn't address those; it presumed that banks' income portfolios were largely in their own loans. But that's not where banks make money any more. Most loans are sold to mortgage bankers, then securitized and sold in the derivatives market, which is also now more regulated than in 2008.
Glass Stegall also did not prevent banks even in the early 1980s from selling their mortgage portfolios to brokers who could bundle then securitize them into derivatives. If you want a good study on the topic of the legal and financial aspects of derivatives, I recommend "Capital Markets, Derivatives and the Law," by Ala N. Rechtschaffen (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009). Many of the ills of unregulated derivatives have already been addressed in Dodd-Frank and other laws passed in the wake of 2008.
Methinks he doth protest too much...
Banks should be prohibited from INVESTING ordinary deposits (not talking about bundling mortgages).
John -
Right now, they pay almost nothing on deposits precisely becasue deposits can't be invested in high-risk/high-yield assets and still be insured by FDIC.
What should banks do to make enough money to pay interest on deposits?
What background do you have in how 21st century banking works?
Hmmm, which issues? Tulsi, a combat veteran (a medic) favors bringing the troops home from endless foreign occupations. Do you disagree? Tulsi also favors requiring a paper trail for computerized voting machines. Do you disagree?
Those are the issues (big issues in my mind) where I clearly agree with Tulsi. I also like her inclination toward bipartisanship -- in this day and age of across-the-aisle hatred, that was a breath of fresh air when she was in Congress.
What does Tulsi say that you don't like?
WHAT she says (03/13, she worried about “US-funded bio labs” being hit by Russian forces and that she was “deeply concerned” about claims of Ukrainian bio weapons; when she knows the labs are focused on getting rid of biological weapons but then later claimed she was misunderstood and claiming that her concern was about accidental releases of pathogens) and WHAT she does (appearing on Tucker Carlson’s right wing smear fest to claim she’s a victim of Mitt Romney all the while repeating Russian talking points) and and with whom she is associated (Russian state tv anchors, Conspiracy monger Tucker Carlson).
I'm not sure what to make of that. You make a lot of strong charges/assertions/conclusions without backup. You give the impression of being a rabid McCarthyist; I hope I'm wrong.
Regarding Ukrainian bio-labs, I'm going to search a bit and see what the "other side" has to say, and (hopefully) come back and add a link so we can compare it to what Tulsi says.
EDIT: Here is an article from Sputnik News (owned by the Russian government) from March 31, retailing what the Russian Minister of Defense said, naming the names of alleged Americans involved in Ukrainian bio-weapons research:
https://sputniknews.com/20220331/who-are-the-americans-coordinating-bioweapons-research-in-ukraine-labs-1094370470.html
I haven't read this; I barely skimmed it, but I'll get back to it later.
But my earlier question seems worth repeating:
Whose fake news do you believe?
And not Tulsi Gabbard's, either.
Here's some reasonably diverse journalism on the topic, all debunking the "bio-weapons labs" assertions of the Russian Army's agitprop section..
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1114272
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/18/ukrainian-bioweapons-labs-qanon-fox-news
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-who-says-it-advised-ukraine-destroy-pathogens-health-labs-prevent-2022-03-11/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/11/how-right-embraced-russian-disinformation-about-us-bioweapons-labs-ukraine/
You make a wild frothing reference to "the Russian Army's agitprop section," sort of like that famous wizard saying, "Don't look behind that curtain!"
I like Tulsi, except when she parrots Russian talking points…
Thank you Heather.
I have always thought FDR was an interesting Politician as well as that time period to be intriguing as it showed this country for what it was. In many ways, "it's deja vu all over again". People were not so different. You had blatant racism and fiscal separation. Still do. This country also had a pull together mentality with the lower incomes. I'm seeing this again. There were 2 houses sold near me recently that are 2 family houses. Both houses were purchased by parents and their children. The retired parents were downsizing and the children have small families . Brilliant actually. This keeps families together, built in baby sitter of the children and role reversal as the parents age, split mortgage, taxes, upkeep. 2 cars not 4 cars. ++++++
As a side note, if you haven't already read Dr Fiona Hill's latest article about Trump, you should. " This was Trump pulling a Putin".
Trump's retort via the New York Times, " She doesn't know the first thing she's talking about. If she didn't have the accent she would be nothing. " Can it be that he is that stupid?
Be safe. Be well.
https://www.salon.com/2022/04/11/fiona-hill-details-how-jan-6-scheme-was-years-in-the-making-this-was-pulling-a-putin_partner/
Thank you, Ally, for the link. I always appreciate not having to hunt around for an article cited in a comment.
Yay, Ally! The NYT Magazine story that the Salon and Raw Story pieces are on is the one I posted a couple days ago. It is about the best summation of things that I have yet read. And then T***p's quote is the icing on the cake of his stupidity (like we needed any further proof the man's dumb as a box of hammers...). Here again is the NYT story, if you can get around the pay wall. It's compelling reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/magazine/trump-putin-ukraine-fiona-hill.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DJDm8biOEcDIGS-kHAIrZ5et4rmiyGWN5HdaIsXvVzyOIaMU1qTQDtopqAnNIFPyAx48qVb18B4qjsD_o-4CO4KS6wMvt-z7my-ErZaGfgDffUzXFycVl6pcNnc0X63nZc2q7CFeZ20oR41a0gD4toBmtVPFn8tPTsDBR5Ot2Df0ucvlFwA7cFLGmVyd2M6LsAcxFQDEbFTB585WU76NBfPrAHLfq1bk5gKIel3-JnWiE_J5ypBpYxW4HTi71p1LbKohCPw8KzrO4k18PYosO4yBWqss7OuS0oYQ&smid=fb-share
And I thank you, too, Bruce Sellers!
The link is already unlocked, non-subscribers can read the article.
Thanks Ally. It never let's me link from my phone.
Thanks for the link.
Thanks for the link!
Yes he can. it is amazing to me that he needs to answer every negative observation with something a middle school would come up with. Thin orange skin.
Michele, spot on. I have yet to hear an intelligent retort from him.
He isn't capable of anything intelligent. He just hisses.
I call it "pragmatic capitalism," a system that works for everyone instead of a select few, in contradistinction to "crony capitalism," which works for the few, an oligarchy. I'm not sure that the term "pragmatic capitalism" is original with me, so I can't claim it as my own. Lincoln made the point that without labor, capital would not exist, and that therefore Labor needs a seat at the table, a condition that Republicans have denied since Ronald Reagan was in office. As to FDR, the real architect of the New Deal was FDR's Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins.
Let's call it what it has to be: regulated Capitalism.
Good point. Clearly it is capitalism and not Socialism as claim by the Republicans. It is an effective talking point for them when, for instance, Bernie calls himself a Democratic Socialist. Respectfully, he isn't a Socialist and to claim to be one politically is stupid.
A woman from Maine btw
Democracy Capitalism = Pragmatic Capitalism.
“FDR recognized that the economic crisis created by unfettered capitalism threatened to end democracy forever as starving Americans turned either to communism or to fascism, as Europeans were doing.”
I would posit that the election of Trump, January 6 and the current shift of the Republican Party to the hard right are examples again of half the population turning away from democracy and, in this case, turning towards fascism or an authoritarian form of government, one that they hope will restore to them what they feel they’ve been losing. Unfettered capitalism drives us democrats to despair the same as unfettered regulation of social, racial and economic issues drives them.
I think that you're in the ballpark with your last paragraph. I, however, would have spelled "unfettered regulation of..." as "equality for all".
I totally agree with you as to how we see these controls.
Biden a Roosevelt for our times. That we should be in need of this not even one hundred years since Roosevelt changed the landscape for all of us speaks to the tenacity of politicians to divide us into classes and keep those that labor from achieving any type of equity.
We need to remember that for many years it was the Republican that led the fight for the working class and not the Democrats, but sometime in mid 20th century they switched to what we have now.
Right. And I also see a parallel of compassion and empathy in Joe. He has suffered grievously too.
Dr. Richardson.
First, thank you for recognizing Roosevelt's BD and his ability to steer America out of one (of many) Republican economic debacles. The next one is likely to be the debt reckoning that has to come at some point given the feckless, irresponsible spending that America has undertaken since Reagan showed the way to irresponsible fiscal spending in 1980.
Second, I see it IS possible for the Feds to indict and charge a government official!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/nyregion/brian-benjamin-resigns-indicted.html
It is possible, that is, IF THEY ARE BLACK. No surprise there.
We all await any sign of a hint that any of the white people, in government, who openly, blatantly, fragrantly, irresponsibly, with great hubris, that broke the law on Jan 06 will ever be indicted.
Mike, April 12 was the day FDR died (his birthday was in January, I believe).
I think you're spot on in the next challenge being debt reckoning.
I also think that if any white congresscritters are held to account for their roles in the sedition of 6 January it will be nothing short of a miracle. I suspect if the tables had been turned, and it was a BLM and/or Antifa assault on the Capitol, heads would already have rolled.
If Americans can understand and remember anything, this is it!!! Please America know this history!!!
Eventually the pendulum of history's rightward direction will reach the point where it starts swinging back toward where FDR took us. Until that happens, we have cause for concern about damage done to democracy and the potential for violence.
Hi Professor - it is almost 2:30 am in Seattle - your letter has not arrived in my email ... I did a search for 'Heather Cox Richardson April 12, 2022' and here it is - just on case other are having the same problem ... thank you so much for sharing the fruits of your labors!!
I used to be able to pull up LFAA from a bookmark or email and start reading. Now I have to sign in every day. I don’t know why this is started.
I leave the tab open now, and just refresh every morning. I don’t have to sign in again. But I’m using my iPad, not my computer.
... termites ...?
Gremlins, even though AMC is long gone.
🤣 Dave, we had a green one with Gucci interior!
We used to say if anyone could develop PC to stop a Gremlin or a Yugo, the shift bought coffee for them. Never happened.
It wasn't in my email, either, so I wrote to Substack support, and it arrived mid-afternoon. Second time in a couple of weeks. Like you, I did find it online both times.
Mine, too.
Russian Tech Industry Faces ‘Brain Drain’ as Workers Flee
Since their country invaded Ukraine, Russian tech workers have left by the thousands. They appear intent on rebuilding their lives and businesses in other countries.
(Gifted)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DJDm8ZiPgYCIiG_EPKarskfcYoxDWSAcNMO79qW_tozeJFJAptVwys6NOiqagyHh8U-8i1T39kmNXER6w5-jvnKWLkJL8gyeDh-h7eYGH1XKCM0mkrIFlkvZsyJVusjCcOwv2WR_VnmYUrhYdXDZh8QTcGYyOKueC5SEktfYXbMWyPr1U-SOpbWjrMnNOD67hmcAxaDF3OT3oX8n9roZoHe4tRZPCjWkZmLMnugrwRCXhqKJOqBfAyRovSkLZqsN3duLIe277QHHD65BegM0b1ai4&smid=tw-share
Christopher, there was, also, a massive brain drain from old Soviet areas including Russia in the early 1990's. Ass soon as the wall came down, mathematicians and physicists packed their bags and moved to the west in droves. Those folks helped fuel the technology that was implemented in various aspects of the World Wide Web.
We received thousands of brilliant mathemeticians from formerly Soviet dominated areas.
As was the case with post WWII Germany
Christopher, thanks for the link.
You're welcome
Thanks
You're welcome
I did not receive my morning Letter. Are there problems with transmission again? So glad i could come here to read it:)
Neither did I!
Finally received via email about 30 minutes ago.