“The United States of America must always pay bills already incurred without gamesmanship, brinksmanship, or partisanship. House Democrats will oppose any effort to hold the economy hostage as part of any scheme by Extreme MAGA Republicans to jam its right-wing agenda down the throats of the American people.” Hakeem Jeffries
“The United States of America must always pay bills already incurred without gamesmanship, brinksmanship, or partisanship. House Democrats will oppose any effort to hold the economy hostage as part of any scheme by Extreme MAGA Republicans to jam its right-wing agenda down the throats of the American people.” Hakeem Jeffries
Well said, Rep. Jeffries! And thank you, Heather for your important link to the past.
Really? Had I known I would have mentioned it in the letter I wrote to several Georgia officials protesting the Confederate celebration at Stone Mountain (another stain on Georgia's reputation).
It had TFG's ass - punim along with " For unto us a Son is born, for unto us a child is given ". I'm not religious but I found it offensive because the Trumpvangelicals were praising " GOP Jesus " again.
Wheww? You mean they (They - the "r"s ) actually put up a billboard? I mean, like no kidding, a billboard? Looks like someone read my posts months ago where I presented that idea, i.e, "billboards". Well.., The Demo's need to litter the landscape with some that expose the lies and hypocrites faces.. "shove" that out into public view til the election is over. Or maybe leave em up for a while :)))) //ss//
MoveOn had a billboard request for funds in the last year which I contributed to but sadly I can't remember what it was for. Our County Dem women's club put one up for 1.month and it was $5000 for the sign and the billboard. Great location but we still have 5 all Repub commissioners, 2 new Republican members of our 5 School Board (non partisan positions) members. It's expensive even in our rural conservative country in blue Maryland. The repubs every couple of.months had new disgusting billboard anti Biden Harris signs for the whole 2 years b4 2022 elections. Money talks!
They should've made it a DIGITAL billboard. That way someone could just pull out the plug. I'm surprised that it wasn't stuck by lightning. THAT would've aided my belief in a benevolent Supreme Being. Or maybe that TACKY statue of Trump would've " mysteriously " moved & been found imbedded in that blasphemous billboard !
If you need a laugh about the whole equating #45 with Jesus, take a look at the Saturday Night Live skit from Easter.
I'm a Christian. If you are also and are thin-skinned about jokes about Jesus and the Resurrection, don't watch. But if you deeply value our First Amendment rights, enjoy it!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj6E2_3nraQ
Juanita, I watched this last night with my knitting group - one Jew, two Catholics, one Lutheran, one Methodist. I literally could not speak for a couple of minutes I was laughing so hard. Best therapy in a politically fraught week.
Oh, good grief, Mr. Appleton! That is so utterly revolting...I can't believe any (true) Christian would even think of endorsing such a blasphemous sentiment--and I am not a religious believer by any means.
The MAGAs seem absolutely welded to Dump--and for the life of me, I simply cannot understand what tfg's grievance-filled whiny narratives offer them that they cling so tightly to his pant legs.
Rage, hatred, envy and self-pity are an incredibly inadequate substitute for...well, almost anything.
The MAGATs became infected by him, he goes right into the cortex. If I had a worst enemy, I would tell him / her that they were " fired " & replaced by the " spray - tanned tapeworm ".
And realizing that the gop will hold on to their refusal to eliminate the trickle-less-trump tax cuts for two reasons: First because their rich donors hold the reins, and second -and most important- eliminating the foolish tax cuts would drive down the national debt under Biden terrifically, furthering our legitimate claim to “Things are better under Democrats” (to paraphrase Simon Rosenberg from Hopium)
I am going to tell my reps, both local and national (all Dems, bless them) to loudly say what the Dominion case proved about Fox. Otherwise it’s going to be ignored by the mag-nuts who are supporting a mass murderer who attacked his own administration on January 6. A million people died and are still dying because he made covid political. Gym Jordan and others who ignored subpoenas need to be jailed. Next year we vote. Do you want to see tfg’s 💩face all over the news agsin?
Yes indeedy but as long as he sees his face on the news, and collects cash, he won’t leave the stage. Just read about this new PAC in the NYT and it’s encouraging. I like it because it’s so local.
Gifted NYT article about a new PAC targeting mag-nuts.
Thanks for this referral, BK. I started reading Rosenburg’s site and enjoy the fact-based commentary. For starters, his welcome message that “part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day” is spot on. His numbers-based conclusion that the “last 3 Republican Presidents have brought recession, spiraling deficits, [and economic] decline” is what needs to be advertised loudly and broadly (on billboards, as others are suggesting here today), supported with graphs. I’ll chip in for that!
BK’s posting has ushered me further reading, like this Washington Monthly article that urges Democrats to “Tout Your Economic Record”! This one should inspire our collective efforts:
Yes, Rose, we must tout Biden’s economic success. I’d add that Dems campaign messaging across the US can be so simple: Compare Rep and Dem goals. Reps legislatures vote to increase gun violence; to encourage the health and financial crashes of climate change; to remove women’s rights to control their own bodies; to keep women in the home; to drive-up the wealth gap; to defund the IRS so it cannot collect from wealthy Americans; to eliminate affordable healthcare and public education….
i have long encouraged local progressives to tout Biden's successes, economic and otherwise, but some of them have problems getting past their own demands that they want right now without understanding how progress actually occurs. We just received the voter pamphlet for the upcoming May election which is mostly school board members and it would behoove everyone to pay attention to these. As for the MAGAs, they are the dupes for the wealthy who, as Heather pointed out, have tried to destroy programs to help ordinary people since 1933. Keystone Kev and the rest of Kops continually prove that they don't know what they are doing and we can only hope that they will not be our undoing with the debt ceiling. And BK, I do like the name Bodirt. Kudos.
Stanley, I agree. I also suspect that most of us here are already touting Dems results, and that we must, and will, continue to do our part there. The unhelpful fact is that Democratic politicians aren't doing the same from their own pulpits to reinforce us. The Democratic party is so limp, unengaged and fickle on messaging that it's enraging. Republicans in contrast, even when touting a baseless lie, are confident, usually strident and unfailingly consistent, giving talking points even when no one asked.
I emailed both Senators and my district's HOR member a few months before midterms last. I wrote that the wins people were enjoying from COVID policy competence, stimulus for working people and seniors, unemployment extensions, pharmaceutical savings, actual job growth and the promise of jobs from the IRA, were being drowned out by right-wing fear messaging about the border, inflation and culture war gibberish. I implored them to start touting the wins they made for everyday people on air, at every opportunity in plain language. I encouraged them to get fellow legislators do the same. I warned that without these changes, there would likely be a bloodbath in the midterms. The response from all of them? A form letter, no noticeable change in messaging from most, a narrow majority in the Senate and net loss of seats in the HOR. I am added to their form email blurbs now, so I guess there's that. /S
Yet in spite of ALL the positives coming from Biden's accomplishments, he is still barely at a 30% approval rating, one of the lowest ever. We HAVE to ask ourselves, "What is going wrong??" If things are going so well economically, WHY is there still so much negativity with regard to Biden? I mean c'mon, right-wing media is simply not THAT influential. There must be something else going on. I still think that the average American family is STILL struggling, in spite of all the positive numbers. I read somewhere about the numbers about inflation receding are as a result of several things taken together. However, when taken separately, food prices are exceeding the overall inflation rate, and for many people that is the first and most direct impact. Prices for goods continue to go up, and the sizes of those goods (i.e. what you get for your money) continue to noticeably shrink. I know this is true within my own little life. I think there's a disconnect somewhere. These rosy economic numbers are somehow not passing much muster with the average "Joe Blow" out here. We'd better figure it out, and FAST!
We must not underestimate the influence of right-wing media. Fox-watcher hears doorbell, sees Black teen boy, shoots through the glass door because he is very afraid. Seems he watches tv with his gun in his lap.
Our own immediate concerns can blind us to the big picture, especially if the big picture is rarely presented. In the past when the price of orange juice went way up, we accepted the fact that freezing weather in Florida was the cause. Today’s rise in the cost of food or gasoline has more than a single natural cause, so it is easier to listen to those who pin the blame on Biden. ( I hear from a friend the problem is all that free money Biden gave people in the pandemic. She and I received it, too, and were not upset about it enough to send it back to the Treasury.)
I still refuse to believe that conservative media has the clout to convince two-thirds of the American populace that Biden is a failure. That is giving them WAY too much influence that doesn't hold up to scrutiny, if one considers other polling numbers. I firmly believe something else is at play here. Whatever it is, and I'm not naming it because I don't know what it is, we HAVE to do better at getting the message out.
Rose Agreed! The best defense is a strong offense—and President Biden has lots of which to be proud, especially contrasted to the blathering of the Republicans.
The wealthy ones are not the stupid ones. The wealthy vote R to preserve their wealth. They’re awful people, nearly all of them, but they’re not stupid. The stupid ones, and the ones responsible for every Republican victory since 1968, are the white working class, who are, by a two-to-one margin, vicious white supremacists out for blood. They’ve been that way since forever but the Republicans didn’t understand that until 1968. Since then, they’ve been riding the Southern Strategy to victory on a regular basis. The Southern Strategy works in about 30 states, not just the 11 Confederate states,
The wealthy will remain wealthy. They have planned for all contingencies. It is the rest of us who will suffer. Nothing new here. There could have been something new in the US, but rampant racism prevents it.
Without the dumbing down of America, Republicans wouldn't be able to elect a dogcatcher. They are against almost everything which is in the best interests of the majority of the American people. Yet many millions vote for them for all of the wrong reasons. I am not talking about daily newspaper readers or followers of blogs like this one, but of the many millions who do not understand the meaning of, and the difference bettween, things like our government's deficit and its debt. Pick out a few people at random and ask them. You would be surprised at the answers, most of which would be some version of 'Duh.' (And I will check out Rosenburg's site.)
I don’t see any dumbing down of the US electorate over the 60+ years I’ve been tracking it. They’ve been just as viciously stupid since 1960 (at least, and probably at least ten years longer than that) as they are now. If anything, they were, hard as it is to imagine, even more pervasively white supremacist in 1960 than they are now. It’s just that the Republicans didn’t figure out until 1968 how much they could gain by milking the white supremacist cow. They initiated their Southern Strategy in 1968 and have ridden it to every victory they’ve had since then. They will keep the milking machines operating continuously and at full speed, unless the milk runs dry, which will not happen until the US electorate is majority minority in most states, and maybe considerably longer because they will have established extreme voter suppression by that time. Our only hope is to get out the votes we have, nearly 100% of them, get a solid majority in the Senate and a majority in the House, pass laws against voter suppression, especially gerrymandering, and expand the Supreme Court. Accomplishing that is a faint hope, I admit, but unfortunately it is our only hope.
Why is the media forever talking trash... I understand FOX but why all the others? Do they only survive by creating chaos? I just don’t get why they aren’t giving us the good news along with the bad.
"BODIRT"... !!%&#*%#......aaahahhaaaahaaahaaa... BK...are you referring to the new Urination Control Officer down in Wash DC? Well, there's a 'bladder control' issue for the "Don...ald" to deal with, huh. //s// (am I being snarky enuff?). Other than it kinda causing me to lose control here.., I liked your post. Rock on, while I clean up.
The historical parallel drawn in today's Letter about the Republicans' (reps in the House) gameplan to not pass the Debt Ceiling unless government services for the American people are undone is good up to a point. The parallel depends on the American people knowing what's going on - understanding what the small minority of the Radical Right-Wing in the House are doing. That is a BIG IF!
‘Their (the Republicans today and now serving in the House) refusal to negotiate over the nation’s finances puts them in good company. We have seen a scenario just like this one before. In 1879, when the positions of the parties were reversed, Democratic former Confederates won control of Congress for the first time since the Civil War.'
‘Hayes stood firm, recognizing that allowing a radical minority of the opposition party to dictate to the elected government by holding it hostage would undermine the system set up in the Constitution. The parties fought it out for months until, in the end, the American people turned against the Democrats, who backed down. In the next presidential election, which had been supposed to be a romp for the Democrats, voters put Garfield, the Republican who had stood against the former Confederates, into the White House.’ (Letter)
The American people decided the future by their votes. We now have the propaganda engines of the far-right going full blast on Fox and social media, while state legislatures in the Red States have been cutting access to voting for Seniors, minorities and the young. Getting out the vote as never before and spreading the truth about the Democratic Party's and the Biden administration's accomplishments to the people are crucial.
Biden’s Covid recovery, and a strong as well as equitable economic recovery are Biden’s top economic accomplishments. 'The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since 1969, and wage increases have been larger for lower-income workers than higher earners. Black unemployment often takes more than four years to recover from a recession. This time, it took two years.'
The stimulus plan and the scope of his legislation is impressive. 'It includes bills to reduce medical costs; rebuild bridges, highways and other infrastructure; and expand broadband internet service, public transportation and the nation’s semiconductor sector.'
“In terms of magnitude, you have to go back to the ’50s and early ’60s to find a similar approach,” referring to infrastructure. ‘…those investments will spark investments by private companies. Already, Intel and Micron are planning semiconductor factories in response.'
What about Climate Change: '...Biden’s investments to accelerate the transition away from greenhouse gases may end up being the most important part of his economic legacy.' (NYTimes) See gifted link below.
Thank you for the link to Hopium Chroncicles. I will definitely read more of Rosenburg’s pieces. This is one of my favorite quotes:
To be optimistic is to assume things will work out. To be hopeful is to realize things can work out if you work at them. Hope requires responsibility and agency; optimism relieves us of both. In rooting for your sports team, choose optimism. In rooting for democracy, choose hope. - Eric Lui
Let us always have the wonder of optimism combined with the action of hope.
I love Rosenburg's "Hopium," which combines hope with optimism. As he writes: "Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win."
Well said BK. One of several books I’ve read in the last five or six years is entitled “Shadow Networks” by Anne Nelson. Two paragraphs in the prologue of this book pretty much explains how and why the repubs have devolved into Cult that it is today.
“The CNP (Council for National Policy, was founded in 1981 dy a small group of archconservatives who realized that the tides of history had turned against them. They represented an American past dominated by white Protestant male property owners. They dreamed of restoring a nineteenth-century patatriarchy
that limited the civil rights of women, minorities, immigrants, and workers, with no income tax to vex the rich or social safety net to aid the poor. Now they faced a future in which minorities, women, gays and atheists were gaining in number, rights, and political influence. If the country abided by a clear-cut democratic process, these constituencies, leaning Democratic, would consolidate their power based on majority rule.
So the CNP decided or change the rules. This task would require developing a long-range strategy to target critical districts and activate previously Un engaged voting blocs. But, as author David Daley pointed out, the conservatives faced a deadline: once Democratic-leaning youth minorities reached a decisive majority- which could be as early as 2031- there might no turning back.”
Two other books were “Democracy in Chains” and “Dark Money”.
Has any Democrat ever bothered to ask a republican how they have or plan on making America Great Again? WTF?
Interesting how so many of us from original comment on had '-burg'. I had even gone to his Substack before responding. The brain is a tricky beast - even without the autocorrect fight!
“The United States of America must always pay bills already incurred without gamesmanship, brinksmanship, or partisanship. House Democrats will oppose any effort to hold the economy hostage as part of any scheme by Extreme MAGA Republicans to jam its right-wing agenda down the throats of the American people.” Hakeem Jeffries
Well said, Rep. Jeffries! And thank you, Heather for your important link to the past.
It would make a good billboard.
That would make a MUCH BETTER billboard than the one they put up in Atlanta this past Christmas equating Loser Lard - Butt # 45 with Jesus.
Really? Had I known I would have mentioned it in the letter I wrote to several Georgia officials protesting the Confederate celebration at Stone Mountain (another stain on Georgia's reputation).
It had TFG's ass - punim along with " For unto us a Son is born, for unto us a child is given ". I'm not religious but I found it offensive because the Trumpvangelicals were praising " GOP Jesus " again.
Wheww? You mean they (They - the "r"s ) actually put up a billboard? I mean, like no kidding, a billboard? Looks like someone read my posts months ago where I presented that idea, i.e, "billboards". Well.., The Demo's need to litter the landscape with some that expose the lies and hypocrites faces.. "shove" that out into public view til the election is over. Or maybe leave em up for a while :)))) //ss//
MoveOn had a billboard request for funds in the last year which I contributed to but sadly I can't remember what it was for. Our County Dem women's club put one up for 1.month and it was $5000 for the sign and the billboard. Great location but we still have 5 all Repub commissioners, 2 new Republican members of our 5 School Board (non partisan positions) members. It's expensive even in our rural conservative country in blue Maryland. The repubs every couple of.months had new disgusting billboard anti Biden Harris signs for the whole 2 years b4 2022 elections. Money talks!
They should've made it a DIGITAL billboard. That way someone could just pull out the plug. I'm surprised that it wasn't stuck by lightning. THAT would've aided my belief in a benevolent Supreme Being. Or maybe that TACKY statue of Trump would've " mysteriously " moved & been found imbedded in that blasphemous billboard !
Daniel Appleton - It had TFG's ass - punim along with " For unto us a Son is born, for unto us a child is given ".
See, for instance:
https://newschannel9.com/news/local/pastor-criticizes-now-removed-fort-oglethorpe-billboard-comparing-trump-to-jesus
The Gross Trumpkin is an equal - opportunity offender. There's something to offend, or disgust everybody. He's like Bizarro Santa !
If you need a laugh about the whole equating #45 with Jesus, take a look at the Saturday Night Live skit from Easter.
I'm a Christian. If you are also and are thin-skinned about jokes about Jesus and the Resurrection, don't watch. But if you deeply value our First Amendment rights, enjoy it!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj6E2_3nraQ
Brings back “The Life of Brian” and the embarrassing, gulping laughter that evoked.
Monty Python at its best!
I needed this today!!
Juanita, I watched this last night with my knitting group - one Jew, two Catholics, one Lutheran, one Methodist. I literally could not speak for a couple of minutes I was laughing so hard. Best therapy in a politically fraught week.
Jesus of Azkaban. Who knew? 🤣🤣🤣
Oh, good grief, Mr. Appleton! That is so utterly revolting...I can't believe any (true) Christian would even think of endorsing such a blasphemous sentiment--and I am not a religious believer by any means.
The MAGAs seem absolutely welded to Dump--and for the life of me, I simply cannot understand what tfg's grievance-filled whiny narratives offer them that they cling so tightly to his pant legs.
Rage, hatred, envy and self-pity are an incredibly inadequate substitute for...well, almost anything.
What the chief criminal defendant (aka tfg) and the GOP offer is preservation of systemic white advantages. The magats accept that offer with gusto.
The MAGATs became infected by him, he goes right into the cortex. If I had a worst enemy, I would tell him / her that they were " fired " & replaced by the " spray - tanned tapeworm ".
Great idea!👍🏻
And realizing that the gop will hold on to their refusal to eliminate the trickle-less-trump tax cuts for two reasons: First because their rich donors hold the reins, and second -and most important- eliminating the foolish tax cuts would drive down the national debt under Biden terrifically, furthering our legitimate claim to “Things are better under Democrats” (to paraphrase Simon Rosenberg from Hopium)
Shorter, Rowshan: we do not negotiate with terrorists.
Truth!!
Republican fake news debt crisis.
Here is Leigh McGowAn, Politics Girl, on the sheer audacity of KMcCarthy blaming the crisis of their own making on, well, on us.
https://youtu.be/0exegLfO3Ss
Salud, Rowshan.
🗽
I love her. ❤️
Thanks so much! Salud, Christine!
I am going to tell my reps, both local and national (all Dems, bless them) to loudly say what the Dominion case proved about Fox. Otherwise it’s going to be ignored by the mag-nuts who are supporting a mass murderer who attacked his own administration on January 6. A million people died and are still dying because he made covid political. Gym Jordan and others who ignored subpoenas need to be jailed. Next year we vote. Do you want to see tfg’s 💩face all over the news agsin?
He is already posted on the front page most days! For the life of me I don't get it! I want this old crook to crawl back under his slimy rock already!
Yes indeedy but as long as he sees his face on the news, and collects cash, he won’t leave the stage. Just read about this new PAC in the NYT and it’s encouraging. I like it because it’s so local.
Gifted NYT article about a new PAC targeting mag-nuts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-boebert-gaetz.html?unlocked_article_code=jBYKvtAJgAdWIBHl53m9CFAy9ZgIICtMPjXotQky5DTNC8kGvlzAIwZMCE3uBr9hM3vqM0NF6M7dkGpLubiuvNnBferfjkrJUHue-Huwvz1UIGpAPARynpWfu9mWyK-3OakuB_vdTPvjc_dUpU7NM-5uv--FN49LiqkuAuSHDFMg9jAxBmrfyBYz95JSiwIbeF-LeyBCZUpHlEwGfGqTMeAg9PjZ4gnfntsfU_h_gJsi_sE4HkblrpdU7r80PrJIjolrp0j0aqFK-U01_Us_rg1WwVMqBYtToIkI8MExL7ACujUt5qFZZzN9pJ4Mcht4qvAxOrTqpWn-yOY41_TrLQjWyoDOQZGrKZi9wbheNzzKDw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Gifted NYT article about a new PAC targeting mag-nuts. I am hopeful!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-boebert-gaetz.html?unlocked_article_code=jBYKvtAJgAdWIBHl53m9CFAy9ZgIICtMPjXotQky5DTNC8kGvlzAIwZMCE3uBr9hM3vqM0NF6M7dkGpLubiuvNnBferfjkrJUHue-Huwvz1UIGpAPARynpWfu9mWyK-3OakuB_vdTPvjc_dUpU7NM-5uv--FN49LiqkuAuSHDFMg9jAxBmrfyBYz95JSiwIbeF-LeyBCZUpHlEwGfGqTMeAg9PjZ4gnfntsfU_h_gJsi_sE4HkblrpdU7r80PrJIjolrp0j0aqFK-U01_Us_rg1WwVMqBYtToIkI8MExL7ACujUt5qFZZzN9pJ4Mcht4qvAxOrTqpWn-yOY41_TrLQjWyoDOQZGrKZi9wbheNzzKDw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Would love to see them be successful!
Thanks for this referral, BK. I started reading Rosenburg’s site and enjoy the fact-based commentary. For starters, his welcome message that “part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day” is spot on. His numbers-based conclusion that the “last 3 Republican Presidents have brought recession, spiraling deficits, [and economic] decline” is what needs to be advertised loudly and broadly (on billboards, as others are suggesting here today), supported with graphs. I’ll chip in for that!
BK’s posting has ushered me further reading, like this Washington Monthly article that urges Democrats to “Tout Your Economic Record”! This one should inspire our collective efforts:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/10/20/cmon-democrats-tout-your-economic-record/
Yes, Rose, we must tout Biden’s economic success. I’d add that Dems campaign messaging across the US can be so simple: Compare Rep and Dem goals. Reps legislatures vote to increase gun violence; to encourage the health and financial crashes of climate change; to remove women’s rights to control their own bodies; to keep women in the home; to drive-up the wealth gap; to defund the IRS so it cannot collect from wealthy Americans; to eliminate affordable healthcare and public education….
i have long encouraged local progressives to tout Biden's successes, economic and otherwise, but some of them have problems getting past their own demands that they want right now without understanding how progress actually occurs. We just received the voter pamphlet for the upcoming May election which is mostly school board members and it would behoove everyone to pay attention to these. As for the MAGAs, they are the dupes for the wealthy who, as Heather pointed out, have tried to destroy programs to help ordinary people since 1933. Keystone Kev and the rest of Kops continually prove that they don't know what they are doing and we can only hope that they will not be our undoing with the debt ceiling. And BK, I do like the name Bodirt. Kudos.
Stanley, I agree. I also suspect that most of us here are already touting Dems results, and that we must, and will, continue to do our part there. The unhelpful fact is that Democratic politicians aren't doing the same from their own pulpits to reinforce us. The Democratic party is so limp, unengaged and fickle on messaging that it's enraging. Republicans in contrast, even when touting a baseless lie, are confident, usually strident and unfailingly consistent, giving talking points even when no one asked.
I emailed both Senators and my district's HOR member a few months before midterms last. I wrote that the wins people were enjoying from COVID policy competence, stimulus for working people and seniors, unemployment extensions, pharmaceutical savings, actual job growth and the promise of jobs from the IRA, were being drowned out by right-wing fear messaging about the border, inflation and culture war gibberish. I implored them to start touting the wins they made for everyday people on air, at every opportunity in plain language. I encouraged them to get fellow legislators do the same. I warned that without these changes, there would likely be a bloodbath in the midterms. The response from all of them? A form letter, no noticeable change in messaging from most, a narrow majority in the Senate and net loss of seats in the HOR. I am added to their form email blurbs now, so I guess there's that. /S
Great points, Stanley!
Yet in spite of ALL the positives coming from Biden's accomplishments, he is still barely at a 30% approval rating, one of the lowest ever. We HAVE to ask ourselves, "What is going wrong??" If things are going so well economically, WHY is there still so much negativity with regard to Biden? I mean c'mon, right-wing media is simply not THAT influential. There must be something else going on. I still think that the average American family is STILL struggling, in spite of all the positive numbers. I read somewhere about the numbers about inflation receding are as a result of several things taken together. However, when taken separately, food prices are exceeding the overall inflation rate, and for many people that is the first and most direct impact. Prices for goods continue to go up, and the sizes of those goods (i.e. what you get for your money) continue to noticeably shrink. I know this is true within my own little life. I think there's a disconnect somewhere. These rosy economic numbers are somehow not passing much muster with the average "Joe Blow" out here. We'd better figure it out, and FAST!
We must not underestimate the influence of right-wing media. Fox-watcher hears doorbell, sees Black teen boy, shoots through the glass door because he is very afraid. Seems he watches tv with his gun in his lap.
Our own immediate concerns can blind us to the big picture, especially if the big picture is rarely presented. In the past when the price of orange juice went way up, we accepted the fact that freezing weather in Florida was the cause. Today’s rise in the cost of food or gasoline has more than a single natural cause, so it is easier to listen to those who pin the blame on Biden. ( I hear from a friend the problem is all that free money Biden gave people in the pandemic. She and I received it, too, and were not upset about it enough to send it back to the Treasury.)
I still refuse to believe that conservative media has the clout to convince two-thirds of the American populace that Biden is a failure. That is giving them WAY too much influence that doesn't hold up to scrutiny, if one considers other polling numbers. I firmly believe something else is at play here. Whatever it is, and I'm not naming it because I don't know what it is, we HAVE to do better at getting the message out.
Rem poll numbers did not tell the story in our 2022 election. Forget the polls. Do not forget the media for their failure.
Rose Agreed! The best defense is a strong offense—and President Biden has lots of which to be proud, especially contrasted to the blathering of the Republicans.
Remember KISS-Keep it simple stupid.
Love that KISS acronym, Keith! Even I will be able to remember that 🙃
Haunting: the stupidity and cupidity of wealthy Republicans.
The wealthy ones are not the stupid ones. The wealthy vote R to preserve their wealth. They’re awful people, nearly all of them, but they’re not stupid. The stupid ones, and the ones responsible for every Republican victory since 1968, are the white working class, who are, by a two-to-one margin, vicious white supremacists out for blood. They’ve been that way since forever but the Republicans didn’t understand that until 1968. Since then, they’ve been riding the Southern Strategy to victory on a regular basis. The Southern Strategy works in about 30 states, not just the 11 Confederate states,
If they bring down the country to “retain” their wealth? Are they changing their dollars for…?
The wealthy will remain wealthy. They have planned for all contingencies. It is the rest of us who will suffer. Nothing new here. There could have been something new in the US, but rampant racism prevents it.
The GOP 2023: the puddle that remains after a party has dissolved - no platform, no budget, no ideas. 'No' is all they have left.
Without the dumbing down of America, Republicans wouldn't be able to elect a dogcatcher. They are against almost everything which is in the best interests of the majority of the American people. Yet many millions vote for them for all of the wrong reasons. I am not talking about daily newspaper readers or followers of blogs like this one, but of the many millions who do not understand the meaning of, and the difference bettween, things like our government's deficit and its debt. Pick out a few people at random and ask them. You would be surprised at the answers, most of which would be some version of 'Duh.' (And I will check out Rosenburg's site.)
I don’t see any dumbing down of the US electorate over the 60+ years I’ve been tracking it. They’ve been just as viciously stupid since 1960 (at least, and probably at least ten years longer than that) as they are now. If anything, they were, hard as it is to imagine, even more pervasively white supremacist in 1960 than they are now. It’s just that the Republicans didn’t figure out until 1968 how much they could gain by milking the white supremacist cow. They initiated their Southern Strategy in 1968 and have ridden it to every victory they’ve had since then. They will keep the milking machines operating continuously and at full speed, unless the milk runs dry, which will not happen until the US electorate is majority minority in most states, and maybe considerably longer because they will have established extreme voter suppression by that time. Our only hope is to get out the votes we have, nearly 100% of them, get a solid majority in the Senate and a majority in the House, pass laws against voter suppression, especially gerrymandering, and expand the Supreme Court. Accomplishing that is a faint hope, I admit, but unfortunately it is our only hope.
Thanks for the link.
I've felt for months that the media was talking us into a recession. Why are we hoomans so attracted to bad news?
Why is the media forever talking trash... I understand FOX but why all the others? Do they only survive by creating chaos? I just don’t get why they aren’t giving us the good news along with the bad.
I guess it's the old 'if it bleeds, it ledes' adage. We're attracted to bad news, the more sensational, the better.
"BODIRT"... !!%&#*%#......aaahahhaaaahaaahaaa... BK...are you referring to the new Urination Control Officer down in Wash DC? Well, there's a 'bladder control' issue for the "Don...ald" to deal with, huh. //s// (am I being snarky enuff?). Other than it kinda causing me to lose control here.., I liked your post. Rock on, while I clean up.
The historical parallel drawn in today's Letter about the Republicans' (reps in the House) gameplan to not pass the Debt Ceiling unless government services for the American people are undone is good up to a point. The parallel depends on the American people knowing what's going on - understanding what the small minority of the Radical Right-Wing in the House are doing. That is a BIG IF!
‘Their (the Republicans today and now serving in the House) refusal to negotiate over the nation’s finances puts them in good company. We have seen a scenario just like this one before. In 1879, when the positions of the parties were reversed, Democratic former Confederates won control of Congress for the first time since the Civil War.'
‘Hayes stood firm, recognizing that allowing a radical minority of the opposition party to dictate to the elected government by holding it hostage would undermine the system set up in the Constitution. The parties fought it out for months until, in the end, the American people turned against the Democrats, who backed down. In the next presidential election, which had been supposed to be a romp for the Democrats, voters put Garfield, the Republican who had stood against the former Confederates, into the White House.’ (Letter)
The American people decided the future by their votes. We now have the propaganda engines of the far-right going full blast on Fox and social media, while state legislatures in the Red States have been cutting access to voting for Seniors, minorities and the young. Getting out the vote as never before and spreading the truth about the Democratic Party's and the Biden administration's accomplishments to the people are crucial.
Biden’s Covid recovery, and a strong as well as equitable economic recovery are Biden’s top economic accomplishments. 'The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since 1969, and wage increases have been larger for lower-income workers than higher earners. Black unemployment often takes more than four years to recover from a recession. This time, it took two years.'
The stimulus plan and the scope of his legislation is impressive. 'It includes bills to reduce medical costs; rebuild bridges, highways and other infrastructure; and expand broadband internet service, public transportation and the nation’s semiconductor sector.'
“In terms of magnitude, you have to go back to the ’50s and early ’60s to find a similar approach,” referring to infrastructure. ‘…those investments will spark investments by private companies. Already, Intel and Micron are planning semiconductor factories in response.'
What about Climate Change: '...Biden’s investments to accelerate the transition away from greenhouse gases may end up being the most important part of his economic legacy.' (NYTimes) See gifted link below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/briefing/brian-deese-economy-biden.html?unlocked_article_code=9l44I4BrTnzW0Nlb2o3eCoyxaA_H_CbHpaYH9dNCuRp8u_Erk_CaahWqnP1pnT8kkXUs3DxlZFpjF6cnCYg5llfXx9RInlMOvIzcFSiv5fwO48Ne1457MqDDnrWBrVOlfaHerOetPWWDqg1OJ5lOCvZ6sMW5QX3gCPS6ugtn2A61_B-FmXAwHJz3EWo13Z_FqIcKubDXvpseeVp8I1Qa4NfxPYC8UIoLBVjzueAstyG1EP-vKv0mhRPtBmlGOsSj_KAV2RWedbcnVmQHGKqEbV4i1gKw00CYlai4yEXJgkQqHxvzk97OBOaMNOvdQCZzR6LC1Rrkcj3KDc80NaGs-Uxs1J8&giftCopy=0_NoCopy&smid=url-share
Thank you for the link to Hopium Chroncicles. I will definitely read more of Rosenburg’s pieces. This is one of my favorite quotes:
To be optimistic is to assume things will work out. To be hopeful is to realize things can work out if you work at them. Hope requires responsibility and agency; optimism relieves us of both. In rooting for your sports team, choose optimism. In rooting for democracy, choose hope. - Eric Lui
Let us always have the wonder of optimism combined with the action of hope.
I love Rosenburg's "Hopium," which combines hope with optimism. As he writes: "Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win."
Well said BK. One of several books I’ve read in the last five or six years is entitled “Shadow Networks” by Anne Nelson. Two paragraphs in the prologue of this book pretty much explains how and why the repubs have devolved into Cult that it is today.
“The CNP (Council for National Policy, was founded in 1981 dy a small group of archconservatives who realized that the tides of history had turned against them. They represented an American past dominated by white Protestant male property owners. They dreamed of restoring a nineteenth-century patatriarchy
that limited the civil rights of women, minorities, immigrants, and workers, with no income tax to vex the rich or social safety net to aid the poor. Now they faced a future in which minorities, women, gays and atheists were gaining in number, rights, and political influence. If the country abided by a clear-cut democratic process, these constituencies, leaning Democratic, would consolidate their power based on majority rule.
So the CNP decided or change the rules. This task would require developing a long-range strategy to target critical districts and activate previously Un engaged voting blocs. But, as author David Daley pointed out, the conservatives faced a deadline: once Democratic-leaning youth minorities reached a decisive majority- which could be as early as 2031- there might no turning back.”
Two other books were “Democracy in Chains” and “Dark Money”.
Has any Democrat ever bothered to ask a republican how they have or plan on making America Great Again? WTF?
Robert🙏
Thank you for pointing to Simon Rosenburg!
It's 'RosenbErg'. (Your nitpick for today.)
Interesting how so many of us from original comment on had '-burg'. I had even gone to his Substack before responding. The brain is a tricky beast - even without the autocorrect fight!
...adjusted for purchasing power, they exceed $50,000 in Mississippi, America’s poorest state—higher than in France."
Holy mascarpone!