The repetition and promotion of the Big Lie just blows my mind. The idiocy. The whole Naked Emperor fable-come-true of it all. But then, I was watching a couple of Masterpiece Theater productions set in WWII, and thought about the good people who suffered through the atrocities of Hitler’s Big Lies and there is the sad truth of history repeating itself.
Education has to be the answer, because I can only believe that ignorance gives the Big Lie the air it needs to spread.
There is a huge psychological aspect to this as well. Willingness to believe a lie comes from a position of fear, or something like fear. That’s what makes it so difficult for the “believers”.
That is exactly was the Repubs have been doing for many years...feeding their constituents the lies of fear. “Fear the black man. Fear that your taxes will be raised by the Dems and that they’ll come for your children.” That is their modus operandi.
I think, too, that they are looking for simple answers to complex problems. If you can believe that Democrats want to take your money and give it to Black and Brown people and that this is the source of all your woes, then you know exactly who and what to target with your rage.
I feel this is very correct. I have two brothers who support the GOP/Drump. Both of them have a fear base that ignites their anger. I know one brother just used the tremendous economy and how it has affected his life. He refuses to realize that he and his wife have worked extremely hard in the last decade to better their lives financially. Drump did nothing to enhance their lives at all. And, they have been experiencing much criminal activity in their area of which they attribute to people of color. Fear leads to anger, and false information helps manipulate that.
I was just thinking along the same lines—how is it possible that so many folks believe a scam, the lie. In Germany, people were depressed and vulnerable. They had just lost WWI and were looking for answers, for salves. The German folks were primed to cast blame and believe Hitler.
What happened to the folks here to cause them to latch onto Trump’s BS. I think fear. They must feel threatened.
Ever growing wealth disparity, crappy jobs, lousy salaries, unaffordable housing, smartphone zombie syndrome, too many smart-assed libs appearing to be living better than they are, 24-hour-a-day misinformation and disinformation, easy access to synthetic heroin substitutes. Fear and Envy.
Too many people watch faux. Believe me, I know quite a few who only watch them. Also, most of them are one issue voters.
And believe me, they bitch and moan about how they can't get ahead in life while refusing to admit that their own choices are the reason why they cant get ahead.
One person took out a loan to refinance their house, buy a new car and pay off eight maxed out credit cards.
Less than three years later, they have maxed out another eight credit cards and can't understand why they can't pay their bills, while they buy a kayak because their two young grandkids (both under four years) will want to use in the future.
I had to step away from that friendship. Got sick of all the anger and stupidity.
I don't think personal irresponsibility is the major driver of white resentment, though. We have seen a pervasive and consistent movement of wealth from the poor and middle class to the elites, while those same elites blame the poor and POC for the inequality. It's insidious and false, but it seems to be working.
You said: "And believe me, they bitch and moan about how they can't get ahead in life while refusing to admit that their own choices are the reason why they can't get ahead." That kind of sums it up for those die-hard Trumpsters doesn't it. Cue the tiny violin.
I think this is an insidious belief. They have a misperception of the source of their malaise, but thinking of them as irresponsible rubes is a disservice to them and ignores the fact that they have been soaked by the rich just like the rest of us. They blame the wrong people (BIPOC, primarily) for their problems, but have nonetheless been brought to their knees by the same corporate interests that have done the rest of us in.
I'd add just one thing. If one interacts with them, approaching them as irresponsible rubes or some such is not going to help them begin to listen to us. To have any hope of moving them, it's important to listen to them, and treat them with respect. Even if it only leads to one out of ten changing their minds, its' worth it.
Thank you for pointing that out, Reid. Poor choices are made at all economic levels, true. But when you have nothing, have no prospect of ever having something, you want to look for someone to blame. T**** gave poor and working class white people liberal "elites" to blame - even though it has been wealthy elites like T**** himself who have not only degraded their chances of rising to the middle class, but have made it increasingly difficult for educated "elites" to stay in the middle class.
I saw on The tv this morning that 51% of Republicans believe that the people that stormed the Capitol on January 6th were “peaceful “. How can we ever convince them of the truth when they won’t believe their own eyes?
"We" can never convince this 51% of Republicans of anything. They see us as incorrigible "socialists" (or worse!) and can hardly believe we don't see the same good old-fashioned American "truth" they see.
They believe we intend to steal their money via taxation, take away their guns and their huge thundering gas-guzzling, gravel-spraying, mud-splashing, smoke-bellowing, toad-crushing 4x4 pickups. They believe we want to force them to live next door to people DIFFERENT FROM THEM and send their children across town to public schools infested with BIPOC children. They believe those of us with dark skins or turbans or funny accents will move in next door and drive down the value of their homes while we set up crack houses just around the corner. They believe we will prevent them from practicing their several "evangelical" religions and force their women to have abortions. They believe we are trying to implant "chips" into them via COVID19 vaccine injections. The believe we want to cancel Christmas. A few of them believe we want to eat their babies.
They are afraid of us and the leaders we have elected and of the legislation we all support. They see this as a life or death struggle to keep a grip on everything they hold dear.
A few of the things I mentioned above they have good reason to be afraid of, the others not so much. You and I know which are which.
So, where does this leave us? Well, we can take heart from the likelihood that 51% of the Republicans amount to 1/4 (or less) of potential voters, that despite their fears and beliefs, they are just people like us in many important ways and will find ways to adapt to a changed and better America. All we have to do is vote in amazingly large numbers, keep up the pressure on our more recalcitrant DEM Senators, lead upstanding lives and love our neighbors and ourselves and our planet.
You engage is a great deal of stereotyping here. It's convenient to think of them as a homogenous, contemptible bunch, but it's neither truthful nor kind.
David is actually not that far off the mark, Reid. I am SURROUNDED by these people and I'm reminded of it every time I go out and have to interact with these folks. Where I live voted over 71% for Trump. I especially love his line about the 4x4s. Every friggin' day I drive anywhere around here these mega-gas-guzzling behemoths--that almost are big enough to merit their own zip code--are everywhere. The damn things are a nuisance on the road and almost always they are the ones speeding, riding right on your butt, or cutting you off. They've become the new HumVees--remember those? They were a right-wing status symbol down here. Again, come down here to one of the reddest parts of one of the--until recently--reddest states in the country. Covid regulations have been openly defied here--in the pharmacy my mom uses not ONE pharmacist or employee has worn a mask during the entire pandemic. You'd think they would be conscious of the risks. I'd be curious here to see the percentage of noncompliance getting the vaccine in these parts. It must be pretty high. These ultra-red pockets DO exist in this country, and my guess would be you could find it in eastern Washington state too. It's very real.
I am not arguing these folks don't exist and have spent considerable time among them (I'm even related to some). What I AM arguing is that painting them all with such a broad brush is not useful or accurate, in fact, the dismissiveness of such characterizations is counterproductive. Think of it the other way around. Many of them assume we are all tax and spend liberals with a socialist agenda who want to give their jobs to immigrants and their money to Black people. But we are a diverse group with a wide range of opinions and beliefs. As you can see here, some of us are more concerned about immigration than others, some about taxes or deficits or inequitable distribution of tax-supported assistance. They have a similar diversity of opinion and experience.
You don't need to go all the way to Eastern Washington to do that. All you need to do is drive outside the city limits of Seattle or Olympia. Lewis County (to the south of Seattle on I-5, 1/2-way to Portland, OR) has been ultra-red since at least 1919, when a still-disputed encounter between local chapters of the American Legion and the IWW resulted in 6 deaths and ongoing division in Centralia over who did what to whom. As housing costs in King and Pierce Counties has sky-rocketed, the influx of more liberal-minded retirees to Lewis County has changed the political scene to a slightly bluish red, but the stereotypical still fits pretty well.
I can attest to Bruce's narrative. I'm in a northeast Atlanta suburb, and it's pretty conservative, but nothing like Bruce's area. The populace is rabidly conservative there. Marjorie Taylor Greene lives not very far from that area. Reading Bruce's posts these many months, and knowing his approximate location, I can assure you that what he is saying is not an exaggeration. It will eventually change, I think, just as my area has over the years, but if you're living in the Pacific Northwest, you really can't judge the rural Southeast. There are many people who are liberal, many who are intellectual, but that is not the majority, and unless you have a lot of experience here, you just can't assume that the population is being painted with the same brush by an elitist. I know that you didn't say that, but diversity in north Georgia isn't a thing - yet.
Perhaps the stereotype fits better in some communities than others. As I read that second paragraph, it felt like a perfect description of my neck of the woods. I don't presume to know what the 51% "looks" like in other neighborhoods, towns, or cities, but that's an apt portrayal of the people in my own town (especially the part about the 4X4's - only here they are often festooned with Confederate flags attached to all four corners of the back of the truck...it's actually a terrifying spectacle...you might have seen some of these vehicles on the news when they attempted to force Kamala Harris' campaign off the interstate?) One only has to scroll through the local FB "hate page" from my town and read a few of the (mostly illiterate) angry comments to get a feel of our version of the 51%. I know this is not kind. By and large, these individuals themselves are not kind and their anger is palpable and frightening - plus they open carry and don't wear masks and attack those who do wear masks. Just my two cents from my little corner of the world.
Oh, yes, I know they exist; I'm even related to some! I mostly fear we risk underestimating these folks as well as alienating them further. If this truly is a culture war with no common ground, we may as well give up now. But I don't believe this.
Well, yes, it is stereotyping. It is difficult to even discuss these things without some resort to generalization. No doubt, not all of the 51% of Republicans (Annette's statistic, not mine) believe all of what I attribute to them. A few of them may drive electric cars, some are probably not armed to the teeth and I'm sure most of them love their children.
My intent is not to dehumanize them but simply to acknowledge that their opinions of me - and, I imagine of most of the of the people who post comments here - are a mirror image (in negative) of our own. They have their info sources, we have ours, and these Republicans are as horrified about what sort of America we want as we are about the America they want. I believe the contrast between positions is now so stark that there is little hope of anyone convincing anyone, and that any solution will come by way of the vote and new laws that have a positive effect on the lives of most Americans, including GOP true believers and Trump fanatics. It is still possible to have majority rule in the USA if all adult citizens can vote freely and easily. I think that's the best we can hope for at the moment.
Well, I am angry that after 40 years of Republicans and Demopublicans running our country (I assume Obama would have done better, given half a chance), I'm nearing 70 and my beloved USA is still F****d up in the same ways it was when I was a teenager, arguably even more f****d up now than then. I hope I still have time to see real improvement, and the present moment strikes me as crucial, make or break, so I do get a little worked up about all this. Please excuse my F****h.
I would presume that Faux "News" only showed video of peaceful people walking to the capitol and nothing else. The lie-believers are not curious people. They don't want to know anything different because it's a commy/fascist/deep state lie anyway, right? So if Faux shows them peaceful, then it WAS peaceful. We here look at all the footage, read lots of sources, dig deeper. They do not.
I would put this slightly differently. These people don't have the same news sources that we do, and their news sources tell them what they want to hear. (And they are incurious, as you say.) I think it's important to try to develop a sympathetic understanding of them--hard as one may find that--if there is going to be any hope of bringing them around. For a model of this, I would recommend my long-ago Berkeley professor, Arlie Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.
There will always be (at least) two parties with strongly held belief systems. I don't aspire to "bringing them around." I know they are out to implement their agenda which, in the main, is diametrically opposed to mine. What I hope is that there is a (literal?) Come to Jesus moment for as many as possible of them to see how cruel, prejudiced, etcetc, their agenda is and maybe, just maybe, will change to some degree. But much like people who are abusers of others or substances, there comes a point when the sane people have to walk away, let it run its course, and be there to guide them when/if they come out on the other side. THEY have to wake up and change. I cannot do that for them or even help them at this point.
A very good read is "Mediocre," by Ijeoma Oluo, in which she posits that throughout our history, white supremacy has taught white men that they deserve to be on top, to have money, position, and power. However, since at least the Reagan years, it has become more and more difficult for the average white guy to achieve what he's been taught he deserves by birthright. The women who depend upon the status of their men have also been sliding down the scale. If you think you haven't been getting what you deserve (this isn't about earning, but about deserving), and some guy comes along who tells you that it is the fault of the 'elites' (i.e., liberals) that you haven't got it, it's the fault of immigrants, Muslims, the Chinese, that's going to be music to your ears. That guy gives you a target for all of your anger and frustration.
Lanita, I really appreciate what you wrote here. I find this explanation a bit more helpful of the underpinnings of white male wannabe privilege and the women who depend on their slippery status. This book sounds like a good read to help me understand their psyches a bit better.
Didn't this begin with the Koch-fueled tea party? I remember one realtor here in Texas who began to answer her door with a loaded rifle and another woman who literally stock piled her pantry with duct tape rolls. It was nuts even back then...I never could figure out what had scared them so much.
I also find it tough to understand how people can believe the Big Lie. It might be that letting go of these beliefs would force them to confront Trump's mendacity and their part in supporting it? Anywho, I'm going to continue my own education by reading Dr. R's letters and the edifying comments - I've learned so much here!
What I find even more insidious is that Rs no longer need to promote the Big Lie or even purport to believe it because they used the Big Lie to sow doubt in their constituents, and are now using the Big Doubt and not the Big Lie as justification for voter suppression. They created a crisis and are now exploiting it for their own ends.
Did you coin “the Big Doubt?” That’s also where the far right is going under the cover of so called nonpartisan Facebook groups soliciting an army of donors and voters to activate through the innocuous sounding American Culture Project.
I may have coined The Big Doubt; I never thought about it. I'm not surprised to hear that the Rs are leveraging their dishonesty to nefarious ends. They are so convinced their cause is just that they can justify just about anything.
Fox News continues to be a major contributor to the Big Lie and all the little lies that support it. My sister is changing in front of my eyes. Her middle son has been heavily influenced by his right wing friend and has now enrolled his parents in his delusion. Fox News is the background noise in their daily lives. It has become another contagion that is far from contained. And of course they are very hesitant to take vaccines.
Diane, sorry to hear about your sister and family. Clearly it was not how she was raised that made her vulnerable to Fox and the Big Lie. For many people, group belonging is so critical that they will align with whatever that group believes.
I agree about Fox. It is the one constant among all the Trumpublicans I know. They are all Fox devotees. I really wish we could neutralize Fox. And MSNBC as well, really.
Agree. It is "LOVE Fox, and hate any other news outlet" mentality. I see a lot of social media responses that accuse a poster for watching CNN or MSNBC's false news. What?!
There's another thing going on here and I think it's about how people pay attention, mainly with their emotions or mainly with their intellect. The Former Guy speaks in very simple sentences and repeats himself. And he favors simple, happy promises and simple gut -grabbing insults and fear-monger lies. He knows how to grab people's basic emotions and be memorable. Even smart people, if they pay attention mainly emotionally, are going to be vulnerable to his schtick. That's why not all his voters are "the uneducated" whom he says he loves.
People who pay attention mainly with their intellect, or at least try to gather high-quality information and listen with their critical thinking skills as well as their gut, have an easier time discounting TFG's emotional hooks.
A lot of Dems and progressives love to dive into all the details. We always want to explain every nuance. So we come out with these long sentences with many clauses. Complicated theories. Multi-part how-to's, whereas's, and party of the first second, and third parts. We talk like multi-page contacts. We are policy wonks.
In always portraying the whole, complicated truth, we forget something. It doesn''t sell. It's doesn't grab people by the guts. Many people don't have the patience for policy wonk dissertations, present company mostly excluded. Dems have to learn this fact and learn to use it. Myself included.
Which may contribute to many on the right wing thinking that we think we are better than they are. How many of us here found ourselves being mocked as children in school by our classmates who either got lower grades, or who achieved good marks by never questioning the authority of the teachers? I always asked too many questions - at school, at church, on the playground. I thought that chewing everything over was really fun. My siblings and classmates thought I was boring. Teachers were a little worried about me. Oh, well. Them's the breaks.
Yep, me too. Even at my advanced age I can still be disappointed that others don't want to talk about all the whys and wherefores of the subject at hand. They think I'm argumentative. I think they're no damn fun.
I love students like you! I think I was always curious, too. I might not have always asked the questions, but leaned in for the answers when others did!
Jeanne Doyle, absolutely the longterm answer to the Big Lie is more and better education. We need much better education in basic science, more clear-eyed education in history especially on how tyranny takes root, much better and mandatory civics education in how our democracy functions, the critical role of a free press and the responsibilities of citizenship, and finally, education through all twelve grades in critical thinking skills.
But in the short term, education of kids won't fix the (6? 7?) in 10 Republicans who believe the Big Lie. The best antidote would be for all the Repubs to publically admit TFG lost and they all lied. Never happen. Is it enough for Biden to just keep serving the people and fixing the problems, and selling his programs, to shift enough "base" minds? How do we get through the TPG/Repub voters' information bubble?? What will un-brainwash enough minds to disempower the Big Lie, so no one can ever weaponize it again, as TFG did on Jan. 6?
And yet, at least in Texas, most charter and public schools give VERY little focus to history and social sciences in elementary years - because the kids aren't tested on it until middle school. Imagine kids going in to middle school not knowing that there are 7 continents. We specifically chose a liberal arts charter school that is no-technology, balanced on history and science, and teaches cursive for our elementary kids.
If the Fairness Doctrine were reinstated, would Fox have to either A) tell the truth or B) call themselves Fox Opinions? Or would it just be a strong suggestion?
I hear you Elizabeth. It might take generations to undo trump damage. And I like what you said about Biden serving the people and fixing the problems. His constancy and the gradual improvement of many lives may start to change minds and hearts.
Unfortunately, if the education is only in school and not at home, a lot of very good input will be wasted. Don't you all remember classmates who were getting a completely different message at home that made the messages at school slide off them like water off a duck's back? And then there is the periodic wave of curricula and method changes that sweeps across the system with a new silver bullet. Even at the community college level, I had to struggle at times with required materials that were not suitable for either my teaching style or the learning styles of my students. "Education" covers such a broad range of issues and I can't conceive of a group of educators agreeing on what is needed. The director of my department used to say that his job was like "herding cats".
Un-brainwash by stopping dangerous lies and propaganda on Twitter, FB, Instagram, Fox, OAN. At what moment does freedom of speech become seditious to our democracy? Dangerous slope we are trying to recover from.
Great comment! But I would urge you to spell out The Former Guy instead of using an acronym. I'm pretty knowledgeable, but it took me 10-15 seconds to figure it out. My philosophy about acronyms that are not in common parlance, like DNA and MPG, is that they do to prose what a dead cow in a stream does to the flow and water quality. I write about medicine and the over reliance of medical people on acronyms is one of my pet peeves.
I didn't succeed in figuring out the acronym - assuming (because of my foul-mouthed mind) that the 'F' was a pejorative; however, I didn't have any problem figuring out to whom you referred.
I agree with the willfulness observation. The BIG LIE is willfully being promoted when these elected officials know for certain that the election was a good one. Truthful facts cannot be ignored. And, the wave of GOP state legislators who have very swiftly developed legislation to suppress the vote is a very organized and willful act. Actually every single action and oppositional word have been a very organized and willful plan to skew American democracy in order for criminals to hang on to power in our governments, state and federal.
What amazes me is how many of them can justify their antidemocratic actions. How can they square these with fairness, morality, honor, or any other core value? I understand there are a few true believers who think that unless they use whatever means they can to thwart the Democrats we will have some sort of apocalyptic social environment with rampant abortion and uncontrolled social spending, but it seems to me that most of them are simply power-hungry cynics using the current environment to seize and hold control. This level of cynicism is shocking to me, even after 65 years of observing it play out.
I would like to see an independent and peer-reviewed, large scale study of the 2020 election that investigates state by state how the process was planned and executed, with particular note of any changes to election law and accommodations made for pandemic conditions, with a section looking at possibilities for and accusations of fraud. I suppose it's a pipe dream, but it would be nice to have a comprehensive and definitive answer to the crazies. Maybe a gov't. commission or a University Poli-Sci dep't?
I don't doubt that. I was having a "discussion" ( or a simulacrum of one) with a trumper (trumpette?) during the post-election period who insisted the election was stolen. This was after the 60 lawsuits had been refused or refuted, and I kept asking, where's the proof? Why isn't it presented in court? He was, and is, convinced the courts are rigged against trump and not valid. This is why I'd love to see an in depth study done. I don't think it would convince my acquaintance, but I think such a resource could be used to quiet the "legitimate" media sources and personalities who profit from amplifying the Lie, and so erode its credibility.
I get it that logistically it's a dead issue. That horse has left the barn, and the time needed to produce such a report would render its impact on perceptions muted at best. Still, a man can dream!
Education will not help. The science on this is solid (see Ch 4 of Ezra Klein’s book on polarization for a summary). The only solution is to outvote them.
Both/and paradigm. Outvote them now (and out-lobby and out-finance). Education for the longer term.
You can change a society in a generation—20 years. Hitler did it, largely through propaganda and controlling the education system. Then the Allies followed with the Marshall Plan and de-nazification.
In the meantime, can you elaborate on Ezra Klein’s book “Chapter 4 The Press Secretary in Your Mind?”
The experiments Klein discusses ask participants mathematical questions. When the questions are presented as straight math, answers are correct or incorrect corresponding to education level and talent. When the questions are asked with a slight political bias, answers correspond to the political biases of the participants. Those with higher levels of education exhibit even stronger inclinations toward incorrect answers reflecting their politicsl biases than those with less education. The experiment has been done in many contexts by different scientists with similar results. Klein observes that disagreeing wirh your friends incurs significant costs, but rejecting science is free.
In a way, education has led to the Big Lie getting firmly set into GOP supporters through rallies, social media, and Faux Entertainment. I don't know if anyone here pays attention to the opinion staff on this station, but they are outrageously out of control. 90% of their focus is to use as many unattractive and cutting adjectives as they can in an hour program to describe Democrats. All Democrats. Or GOP who mumble a liberal idea. They talk very fast and rarely take breaths between sentences all the while using laughter, grimacing, anger, etc. to slam ideas into their viewers. You speak of education at the younger life phases of our citizens when common sense and good knowledge are so easily manipulated through igniting fear and anger with false statements.
I guess I am thinking of education at the youngest ages at school. I know education happens at home, and maybe the Republicans or Trumpublicans we know get their "education" as adults from the propagandist Faux News. But I do feel that in the public school districts here in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota are working hard to make public education equitable, representative of the population, and representative of multiple and varied perspectives. I am excited about the changes that are happening already. It's too late for the older people I know, perhaps. It's not too late for the new generations.
Once again, Professor Richardson is being understated and far kinder to failed-former-45 than he deserves. The scammed money was not only an interest free loan from the supporters who realized the extra taking and asked for refunds. It was also theft, perhaps legal, from everyone whose money was maneuvered from them for however long. We will never know how many people were scammed but did not ask refunds, for whatever reasons. From the outside, of course, it’s no surprise that a con man cheated his marks in one more way.
So, given that contributions were solicited through various means, including e-mail, snail mail, etc., can't he be nabbed for mail and wire fraud? I mean, first he robbed Peter, then he robbed Peter again to repay Peter...He never even had to reach out beyond his woefully stupid base. It's the ultimate pyramid scheme
"Woefully stupid base" says it all. Being ignorant of the facts and sufficiently gullible to swallow the "big lie" are no longer adequate explanations for their actions. Yes, the former president's base is composed of woefully stupid people. Six out of ten Republicans fit this description, still believing that the former president actually was re-elected and voting for candidates supporting agendas not even close to their interests. (Someday, some may see the light and slap their palms against their foreheads shouting aloud to themselves, "Stunat!", even if they're not of Italian descent.)
The former president meticulously avoids coming out and saying something. He suggests, implies, hints at or describes what someone's course of action might be, but words signifiying his intent never are spoken by him. Michael Cohen's book, "Disloyal" cites numerous examples. If anyone chooses to sue him, it means years in court and most lack the resources to do that. I am pretty sure the repeated donation withdrawals were explained somewhere on the website, but like the thousands of words in tiny print (usually in gray on a slightly lighter shade of gray background) on the back of your paperwork when you purchase a car or appliance, no one ever really reads them. On a computer, they just click "agree."
The Big Lie turns out to be nothing more than just another chapter in the Big Fraud. Use other people's money to build a grotesque palace, skim the early returns into the Trump bank accounts, launch a new grotesque scheme, then pay back only those investors in the previous scam who are such sore losers that they demand their money back -- until you have to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying back anything substantial at all. Let's not dignify this perversion any longer by calling it propaganda or Free Speech or an assault on the Constitution. It's just fraud, by a fraudster, for a fraudster in the pursuit of the next fraud. When the law finally catches up to him by following his long trail of victims, the suspect will be listed as having no fixed address, no known occupation, with a list of aliases that will run beyond the margins of the police blotter.
Yet many (most?) trump die-hard supporters are so blind to who and what TFG really is that they think he knew nothing about this fraud. One such dupe was quoted on NPR yesterday as blaming the people who ran the fundraising effort for the scam, believing that their hero’s hands are perfectly clean. The only thing washed is his brain.
Skip a letter, you jest! The cat and I, snuggled in bed in the mornings, will never skip a letter. 😻 This one actually gave me a frisson of what I think must be glee. I haven’t felt it for so long I am not quite sure, but it is certainly not the usual feeling of anxiety or dread that I face the news with each day. Gaetz facing his comeuppance....yay! The word is apparently derived from to ‘come up’ before the court. There is nothing more satisfying than the idea of nefarious dudes and dudettes facing up to their evil deeds in a public forum. If he has any dirt on Epstine he could bargain with and I could see Prince Andrew hanging out to dry I would do a happy dance indeed. McConnell is unhappy...aww, heck, it could not happen to a nicer guy. He is a crook, so bent he can see his own backside. A sterling example of diligent evil like him deserves every twinge of alarm that his house of cards might be starting to topple. I can feel the wind shifting...lets hope its not an ill wind but one that finally blows some good.
I'm with you Robin (but with poodle, not kitty--my fam is allergic to cats, alas). The NYTimes exposé is a great read--the ultimate Ponzi scheme starring our favorite cast of execrables, including Roger Stone. But it was not "interest free" as loans go: the suckers who did not read (or could not--it was really tiny) the small print paid a ton a fees for cancelling the weekly--sometimes daily--charges on their debit cards and the credit card companies paid millions for the hefty fees associated with clawing back the money. They should sue the Cheeto and his campaign leaders. What it reminds me of is the scams used by internet thieves who steal identities through fake PayPal accounts that they then use to drain unsuspecting people's accounts.
As for Murderous Mitch and his Malevolent Minions, bless their mendacious little hearts, my heart doesn't bleed for them. And my keenest desire is to see Gaetz and Greene stripped of their congressional positions and trundled off to jail. Maybe in a tumbril. That would be fun.
A frisson of glee! Perfect description of what I'm feeling right now about every single word written in tonight's letter. I love it! If I weren't prone I'd do a happy dance.
As usual, Heather is right on target: "Today’s overarching story is connected to this one["the Trump campaign scammed supporters out of more than $122 million by tricking them into “recurring” donations."]. It is the same as yesterday’s big story, and the day before that, reaching on backward until the 2020 election. Republican Party leaders continue to insist, without evidence, that former president Donald Trump won the 2020 election and that Democrats stole it from him through voter fraud. A new Reuters/Ipsos found that six in ten Republicans believe this Big Lie.
However, "The Hill" broke a story by Alexander Bolton at 6:28PM last night: "The Senate parliamentarian [Elizabeth MacDonough] ruled Monday that Democrats can use special budgetary rules to avoid a GOP filibuster on two more pieces of legislation, setting the stage for President Biden's infrastructure agenda to pass in two packages with simple-majority votes.
It's a win for Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that allows him to pass Biden's $2.25 trillion package by revising the fiscal 2021 Budget Resolution.
Schumer could pass a budget resolution for fiscal 2022 to do a third reconciliation package for the second half of the Biden infrastructure agenda. Or the fiscal 2021 budget could be revised a third time to set up a third reconciliation package."
This, along with a majority-passed exception to the filibuster for Election Laws, would clear the way for cornerstone items on President Biden's agenda.
Wonderful news with one caveat, Manchin. He’s declared Democrats will have to go through him & 10 other unnamed Senators to pass the infrastructure bill. He wants changes/reductions.
Joe Manchin is all hat and no horse, as far as I'm concerned. For instance, I believe he wouldn't back Neera Tanden because of Tanden's criticism of Manchin's daughter, Heather, who was CEO of of Mylan, Maker of EpiPens, when its price was raised astronomically. Just as LBJ did when needed for his landmark legislation, Mr. Biden needs to call him and the other ten senators into his office for a heart-to-heart. It worked then and I believe it will now.
I think they are going to pass the infrastructure bill through reconciliation and there will be enough pork in the bill that they will get Manchin and the rest of the conservative Ds to agree. Biden is paying lip service to the idea of bipartisanship and Manchin is engaging in some face-saving. Watch for him to return from recess declaring that his constituents told him that they want the infrastructure bill. That ought to do the trick.
I heard this last night, and, while realizing I might be overly optimistic, it's beginning to look as though the stars just might be aligning for Joe. Happy dance, anyone?
When I heard about McConnell telling corporations they should stay out of politics, I thought McConnell had gone mad. Then I realized there was another reason the corporations are turning toward the Democrats with their criticism of the voter suppression laws. Corporations want to be on the good side of the Democrats as they pass the For the People Act to try to keep the corporate tax rate lower.
They may not like the corporate rates, but they'll live with them. They're intelligent enough to realize that the things Biden is doing, both for infrastructure and for the people who are their customers, make their lives better and easier.
The global economic leading countries should adopt 1 corporate rate. Eliminate the threat of leaving one country over tax rates. Treat globalization as it should be treated. Address complex challenges and problems with cooperation and common sense, not as another conspiracy.
Except it will never happen. Countries like Ireland with low corporate tax rates have every incentive to keep them low and zero incentive to raise them.
I think corporations tend to be more attuned to trends and staying ahead of their markets in order to satisfy their investors, whereas Republican politicians are scrambling and cheating to hold onto a waning power base, particularly now as they see their Gingrich era long term plan failing to produce a conventional majority of voter support.
Most corporations are neither moral nor immoral. They are amoral, driven by profit alone. It is the job of government to require corporations, via regulation and taxation, to behave in ways that enhance the public good, such as requiring them not to pollute, or requiring them to help pay for the roads and bridges they use to move goods around the nation. And that alone is enough to make me vote Democratic- because they too believe in this role for government. What is happening now, with corporations speaking out, is the Invisible Hand of the market made visible. Corporations are realizing that our consumption driven economy requires consumers to want their products, which they will not do if those companies suppress their rights. Good.
I must disagree that corporations are inherently amoral. Corporations are as moral as their leadership. If the leadership thinks only the accumulation of wealth matters the corporation is amoral on all other dimensions. Even large corporations can be ethical if their leadership has ethical values. I worked as a senior executive in a highly ethical Fortune 100 technology corporation for over two decades. The founder and CEO was a highly moral man and the motto of the company was "Do the Right Thing". We lived that motto doing the right thing by our customers and by each other. It was an extraordinary place to work at least until the founder left. We knew we were changing the world and we did. The concept and implementation of net neutrality of the Internet was one result, for example. You can also see this in our government with the amoral "leadership" of DT vs. the morals and empathy of our current President. My solution would be a national well-being index NWI where all legislation and actions of the government must show how it enhances the well-being of all. Great Britain is already doing this. See Dr. Martin Seligman's Theory of Well-Being at https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
Yes. Capitalism, without conscience or soul, needs Democracy's conscience and soul (We the People, All of Us This Time) in order to have the infrastructure, rules of the game, and educated workers to succeed. When Capitalism is allowed to buy democracy (in this case, the Republican Party), both systems fail.
"Most corporations are neither moral nor immoral. They are amoral, driven by profit alone." I would argue that being driven by profit alone IS immoral.
It may be rare but there are moral corporations out there. Size is not the determiner; it is the values of the leadership. Profit does not have to be the highest priority. For instance, in the Fortune 100 corporation the sales force did not work on commission. That way they could sell the customer what they needed not what would make them the largest commission. That created customer loyalty and therefore long term profit.
Of course, ALWAYS a hitch. Always! Let’s not start expecting corporations to have heart or integrity. It’s all about what serves them. But at this point I’ll take it!
But do you do this by serving them, or by duping them? Other than MLB, have we seen anything substantive come to pass in all this? Pearls have been duly clutched, but very little pain has actually been inflicted.
Again, the Fortune 100 corporation I worked for also "valued differences". We felt more perspectives made our product solutions stronger and better. They did things like open a manufacturing plant in Roxbury, MA, primarily Black citizens. At the manufacturing plant in New Mexico, the two Euro-American managers were in the minority it was so diverse. Everyone in the company got a fair shot at promotions and the fun, challenging jobs. Everyone was on a first name basis which was unusual in the 1970s when I started working there. We did "management by walking around". Almost everyone in the company had a personal story to tell about meeting the CEO. The VP of Human Resources was a marvelous black man. Every one at all levels felt valued. Instead of a few corporate jets for the senior executives, we had the largest helicopter fleet outside the military and everyone could use them. From my office in Maynard, MA, I frequently took the helicopter to my boss's staff meeting in New Hampshire. As a woman and an engineering manager, I was judged on my abilities and potential and never felt held back being a woman. Certainly I had to first correct the perception that being a woman and being an engineer were conflicting stereotypes but then one was accepted for one's technical expertise and managerial skills. Yes, I broke the glass ceiling and even had the CEO personally supporting me. It was a great company. It wasn't just a technically innovative corporation; it was also a leader in organization design and values. I loved it and felt I belonged.
Skip a letter? Yeah, no. I saw the Douglas Blackmon tweet yesterday; very cogent assessment of what the impacts of voter restriction look like in Georgia. McConnell's whining about corporations is just hilarious. I look forward to indictments on McConnel and Chao and their "empire" as well as on the former guy.
I caught a podcast yesterday from Meidas Touch featuring Mark Elias, the attorney fighting all the Republican lawsuits and now the voting suppression bills. He was so clear on how this bill suppresses the vote. For example, the requirement that voters send in proof of ID with absentee ballots. Besides the obvious that most people don’t have a scanner/copier in their home, sending in a copy of a driver’s license can invite identity theft. Especially when the envelope is clearly marked as a ballot. The remedy for that would be, say, a secure drop box. But that, too, is being reduced or eliminated. So much more...give it a listen if you can.
What's this about a Rift in McC's caucus?? Let me get my hammer and chisel to do what I can to make that rift into a chasm!! I pray that clearer thinking Repubs will chip away at the iron fist of insanity that's gripping them.
Now the big question is ..."How do you dress up the "John lewis" bill and other corrollary measures, blasting gerrymandering and voter suppression out of the water, as budget measures that can go through the new recapitulation opening that the Senate parliamentarian has just offered the Democrats?
Just needs one or two recalcitrant Democratic Senators to agree to go along and the change in Senate rules passes on a simple majority reinforced by VP Harris' deciding vote.
He's going to be there still till at least 2022 or 24 whatever. So i would seriously recommend a good bunch of carrots and perhaps flowers be offered behind a falsely sincere smile and the corporate "stick" be casually held behind the back. He needs a "good" reason to do what the people of States other than West Virginia obviosly desire.
Better yet, make it obvious that the people of West Virginia - like the majority of Americans generally, of whatever party - are strongly in favor of voting rights. Manchin may be grandstanding, but there's nothing wrong with representing your state and showing your voters you are genuinely working on their behalf.
I think that's more likely. As much as I want HR 1 to pass, if I were parliamentarian even I would not let that pass through reconciliation. But doing away with the filibuster for voting rights bills makes good sense and I think it could happen.
I would love to be listening in on the zoom screens of whichever legal eagle staffers are working on wording for such a change. It will need to allow the current voting rights support, ideally with improvements later, without doing anything else.
Yeah, that's the whole challenge, isn't it? Along with the fact that if you carve out an exception for one thing, when the Rs take back the Senate they will be able to carve out their own exceptions. A double-edged sword, for sure.
All the shenanigans with drop boxes and shortened voting times mean nothing compared to the fact that they can just overturn elections they don’t like the results of.
Precisely. That needs to be the argument. This is an existential crisis. The soul of our country and the future of our democracy are on the line, nothing less than that.
“To continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back — that in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy,” Chief Medaria Arradondo testified.
It was astounding to see the Police Chief of Minneapolis, Medaria Arradonda, tell the TRUTH in a court of law charging policeman, Derek Chauvin, with the murder of George Floyd.
Arrandonda fired Chavin in less than a day after the murder. A police Chief testifying against a cop; how is that for truth telling?
Chief Arrandonda was a perfect witness for George Floyd, Floyd's family, the police, justice and the American people. There is no way to avoid lies in the USA, especially Trump's BIG LIE, which Heather referred to. in today's LETTER The Republican Party, along with so many Americans have been infected by lies. Say Medaria Arrandona's name. Watch a video of his testimony. The truth is alive and we need to see more of it.
'A fifth-generation Minnesota resident, Arradondo joined the MPD in 1989 as a patrol officer in the Fourth Precinct and worked his way up through the police ranks until he was named the inspector for the First Precinct.[1] In 2007, he and four other African-American officers sued the department alleging discrimination in promotions, pay, and discipline.[2][3] The lawsuit was settled by the city for $740,000, and in December 2012 Arrandondo was promoted to head of the Internal Affairs Unit responsible for investigation of allegations of officer misconduct.[4] (Wikipedia) Arrandondo is 53rd Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department and assumed office on July 21th, 2017
I will leave you with Police Chief, Medaria Arradonda,, for now
Chief Arradondo has had a meteoric rise in the MPD. Lifer in the force. Roughly two years from promotion to promotion to promotion. Cadet to Chief of Police. Highly regarded, principled, respected (except by the likes of Chauvin and the trumpist-mega-rascal head of the MPD police union, who has announced "retirement"/may already have retired).
I agree this is remarkable and significant, but I do wonder if they are throwing Chauvin under the bus in order to avoid a systemic examination of police practices in Minneapolis and the country at large. Don't get me wrong--I'm overjoyed to see him under that bus. But he is a symptom rather than the disease, and I fear the disease is going to go untreated.
Not the case here. Minneapolis is undergoing a painful and extensive examination of its policing (historic and in the here and now). The systemic issues are being dug up like so many fishing worms. Lots of worms.
Reid, I understand your question, but if you learn about Arradondo's background and watch his testimony, I don't think you will doubt his honesty and dedication.
Reid, I'm guessing that Chauvin is motivated by a desire for power and control, which isn't unusual in law enforcement. He came equipped, and didn't necessarily need a corrupt structure to encourage its manifestation. The fact that Arradondo came up through the ranks, sued the department for discrimination and mistreatment, and wasn't squashed like a bug speaks volumes for the Minneapolis PD, in my opinion.
Thank you, Fern, for pointing out how a BIG LIE can be disproved. It has to come from the top, which will be difficult in our government. The fact that Arradondo rose to his position after having been the victim of racism and discrimination should give all of us hope that the current dilemma in our political system can be rectified from within. It's too easy to be defeatist and give up. I just don't believe that it is preordained that the liars, cheaters, and grifters who have infected our imperfect government will prevail. If we choose to elect principled officials, I think the ship can be righted. We've already done it in 2020.
Yes, Nancy we agree about the importance of achieving a more civil society. To achieve that goal a more educated citizenry in ethics, morals and reasoning is necessary. Without an understanding of the role of government, reducing corruption, greater scrutiny of political candidates and an educated citizenry we will continue to fight against the wind.
Regarding Trump’s scamming supporters into “giving” him interest-free loans: Trump is a modern day Calvera (from The Magnificent Seven) who said “If God did not want them shorn, He would not have made them sheep.”
This schism - between deplorable populists and corporatists - has been in the making at least since trump rode down the elevator. The deplorable army (led by Trump, with lieutenants like Cruz, Gaetz, Hawley, Greene, Noem, Paul, Cotton, et al) want an end to immigration, an end to abortion and women's rights, an end to gay marriage and LGBTQ rights, promotion of white privilege, restricted minority rights, a ban on Muslims, guns guns guns, an end to globalization and a Christian theocracy installed in government institutions. Corporations just want to make money, with as few taxes and regulations as possible. The corporate backers of the GOP are mostly in favor of gay rights, minority rights and women's rights, and very much in favor of immigration and globalization. Corporations are mostly opposed to Christian dominion-ism and the proliferation of guns. Since Reagan, there's been an unspoken alliance between these two camps. Corporations have ignored the gun-humping, bible-thumping, nativist, racist platform of the populists in the GOP, in return for tax cuts and de-regulation. Now corporations are realizing that supporting deplorables is bad for business. Poor, poor Mitch. The GOP has risen to power by distracting the rubes with rants about gays, god and guns, while collecting corporate $$ billions to win elections. It's coming apart...so sad.
Immigration is more nuanced than you indicate. And the worst of it is that we are in danger of losing the Senate and the House over immigration. FYI, I'm a Bernie Sanders Dem, from a family of Dems. My great uncle, Phillip Hornbein, a union lawyer, was de facto head of the CO Dem Party for most of the first half of the last century.
Very briefly, there is way too much immigration--too much for environmental sustainability, as we already have four times the population that would be sustainable with current consumption https://www.overshootday.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
and too much to allow American workers to get decent pay because there is an oversupply of cheap labor, which devalues these workers. (here's a concise, clear explanation)
Democratic reps on the Texas/New Mexico border have warned about this, as David Leonhardt wrote 3/21 in the NYT
"Some Democrats are unhappy, too. Biden’s policy “incentivizes droves of people to come, and the only way to slow it down is by changing policy at our doorstep,” Representative Vicente Gonzalez of Texas told The Washington Post. Henry Cuellar, another House Democrat from Texas, said the administration was sending “a terrible message.”"
To understand where immigration is problematic, it's important to know the numbers. from 1990-present immigration added 43 million to the US population, equivalent to two New York States plus 3 million. That was on top of native increase of two more NY States. (Do you ever wonder why traffic keeps getting worse, why schools and emergency rooms keep getting more crowded? Why tick-born diseases have become more common? Now you know.)
The Biden plan would add a New York State every decade.
When Barbara Jordan ran a commission on immigration under Pres Clinton (to those too young to remember, she was an African American Democrat from Texas who made her name on the House Watergate Committee), she recommended cutting immigration nearly in half, to half a million and change annually. At this point, I think it needs to be cut down a lot further, to 250-300k, given how global warming is already reducing Earth's and the US's carrying capacities.
Here's what I'd consider a reasonable immigration compromise. Legalize dreamers and those who have lived in the US more than five years with citizenship for the former, and green cards for the latter. A national, mandatory E-Verify, with heavy fines for companies that knowingly hire people here illegally and/or jail time for their CEOs. Strict limits on annual immigration of 250-300k, regardless of numbers of immigrants relatives who want to come in, numbers of refugees, people already in line for immigration, etc. Our country badly needs to reduce its population, or at least stabilize it.
If this is done, we won't need a $15/hour minimum wage. Wages will rise as companies compete for workers. Emergency rooms will get a lot less hectic. Sprawl will become less of a problem. Traffic will stop getting worse. Schools will do a better job educating students (A friend who is one of the top hard scientists in the US--whose name you'd probably recognize--was appalled to learn, in the mid-'90s, that his daughter, in a majority immigrant public school in one of the California university cities, was in the 34th percentile nationally in math. "Not to worry, the teacher told him, "your daughter is the star of the class") (Daughter is now tops in her field.)
David, there's a lot to unpack (and correct) in your post on immigration. Yes, as you say, there are a lot of Dems who are anti-immigration. They're often basing that opposition on misinformation, and scapegoating immigrants for other problems.
First off, we are a country of immigrants. Immigrants built (and continue to build) America. It's not like immigrants are an add-on, they are us, we are all immigrants, immigrants are our foundation. Secondly, anti-immigrant sentiment in various guises goes back 200 years. People have been arguing forever that there's no more room, that immigrants bring disease ("tick borne illnesses" - you really want to go there?), that they steal jobs, that they crowd our schools and hospitals - these arguments are neither new nor accurate.
The question of the US population and environmental impact is much bigger, and more nuanced than "we can't have immigration because of environmental sustainability". It's true that Americans consume far more resources than people living in many other countries. That has nothing to do with immigration. Eliminating immigration isn't going to reduce global warming. We Americans need to change our lifestyles, not blame immigrants.
Data show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than the population as a whole. They're not the ones crowding our schools, or emergency rooms (there's a pandemic going on, don't you know). They tend to avoid hospitals and emergency rooms (they're younger, and they want to avoid detection by authorities). Rather than creating an imaginary crowding problem, immigrants can help solve a declining population problem. There are parts of the country that are emptying out, and need people to move there. They need immigrants.
The economic arguments for and against immigration are also less black-and-white than you imply. Immigrants do take jobs that otherwise might go to Americans, like farm work and working in meat packing plants. At the same time, immigrants help the economy grow. Every immigrant is a consumer - they buy goods, they pay taxes. Their net impact on the economy is generally positive. And, importantly, immigrants tend to be younger, which means they're able to pay our Social Security and care for our rapidly aging population. Many economists argue that we need to increase immigration, for the strength of our long-term economy.
JR, I've been following this issue VERY closely for more than two decades.
First of all, you are wrong to characterize me, and other democrats who would reduce immigration, as "anti-immigrant." And you are wrong to characterize us as scapegoating immigrants. My problem isn't with immigrants per se. It's with the huge numbers of them. (You obviously did not read my post carefully, where I said 250-300k would be a reasonable number of immigrants. I'm guessing you don't even know how many people are coming into our country every year.) But we've been having too much immigration for more than 40 years. It's a matter of ***numbers***. This is the nuance that you don't seem to get.
Too much immigration leads to increased global warming because we are the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita GH emissions. The average immigrant's emissions rise 3-4fold after arrival here. (Think about the consumption in the countries they come from. Not nearly as great as ours.)
My comment about tick-borne diseases was not meant to imply that immigrants bring those diseases to the United States. The problem is overpopulation. It disrupts normal ecological relationships, and the relative lack of such disruption which when I was a kid in the '50s and '60s meant that tick borne diseases were almost unheard of. They were still not all that common through the '80s. They have become far more common as the population has grown from 248 million in 1990 to the current 328 million. (I've interviewed people who study tick-borne diseases.)
Did I say anything about immigrants stealing jobs? I'll thank you not to put words in my mouth. I don't fault immigrants for trying to come here. My problem is with our government, especially the GOPers who undermined unions, in no small part by voting for more immigration under Reagan and Bush--because they like the cheap labor that makes their big biz friends rich! But it's Econ 101 that the greater the supply of a resource, the less its value. That means that when you're importing a million-plus workers annually, workers' wages stagnate or plummet, which is why meat packers, who got a good union wage north of $20/hr a generation ago are now getting barely minimum, under atrocious working conditions.
Which brings up your point about jobs Americans won't do. There are no jobs Americans won't do. But imagine yourself beginning as a meat packer in, say, 1980, at twenty-something dollars an hour. If you stuck with the work, you'd have been down to minimum wage some time in the '00s. By the way, some US companies actually imported cheap foreign labor to replace American workers. You can read about that here, in The Atlantic
As for crowding emergency rooms, there were a lot of articles in the NYT on that in the '00s.
As for growing the economy, there's no question that adding people grows GNP. But what matters to you and me is not gross domestic product, but PER CAPITA gross domestic product. The only people whose per capita GDP goes up are the most recent immigrants and business owners.
As for immigrants being younger than Americans, the difference in average ages is only a couple of years. And half of all immigrants--the low/no-skilled ones--have such low earnings that they are a net fiscal burden. So they're not going to contribute to your social security.
You are talking about issues where you seem to lack any knowledge. Invoking the pandemic as if that were my reason for saying immigrants are crowding ERs when I've been watching this issue for over 20 years is one of the signs of that. Why don't you read the links in both of my posts on this article, which could at least get you started.
The scary thing is that Biden's immigration policies, as I pointed out in my previous post (see links) are likely to lose us the House and the Senate. Unless you educate yourself on at least that part of this issue, you're going to help steer us towards the disaster of giving control back to the GOP.
There are about 30 million legal immigrants living in the US today, who became naturalized citizens over the past 50 years but weren’t born here. There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants living today in the US. How many immigrants are “too many”? What are the calculations that go into that number?
It seems only fair that, to decrease global warming, we do everything we can to keep as many people as possible living in subsistence conditions. Why not reverse immigration, and send Americans to live in poverty in Central America? That would reduce the GHG emissions of every emigrant by 75%. Or maybe we acknowledge that everyone should be afforded a decent standard of living, and we do the work to accomplish that sustainably.
Tick borne diseases have risen in the US because of climate change (warmer winters mean fewer ticks killed by cold), reforestation of the northeast and midwest (resulting in rising rodent and deer populations) and the growth of suburbia (more people living where the deer and the rodents are). Human population growth in New England (where I live) has been slow to stagnant over the past 25 years. Tick borne diseases here have grown significantly. It has nothing to do with immigration.
Wages in meat packing plants in the 1980s averaged $10 an hour, lower than said wages in the 1970s. Wages today average $10 to $13 an hour. https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=1038 What drove down wages in the meat packing industry from 1970 to today was moving meat packing plants to rural areas (where cheaper workers live) and breaking unions, the same factors that drove down wages in the textile and furniture making industries. Not the use of immigrant labor, which didn’t really start to rise until the 1990s (after wages had fallen).
“Researchers found that 11 percent of adults living illegally in California had visited a hospital emergency room in the past year, a rate significantly lower than the 20 percent of U.S. born adults in California. That ‘negates the myth that undocumented immigrants are responsible for [emergency department] overcrowding,’ the researchers wrote in the latest issue of the journal Health Affairs.” It is true that undocumented immigrants go to ERs, because they don’t have Medicaid or health insurance. They do so at lower rates than the rest of us. We can’t blame the significant problems in our healthcare system on immigrants.
The average age of Americans is 38. “The average age of newly arrived legal and illegal immigrants has increased from 26 in 2000 to 31 in 2017. The newly arrived are those who have lived in the country for 1.5 years or less at the time of the survey.”
We have a rapidly aging population, with Americans having fewer kids, and with fewer young people to pay into Social Security. “According to New American Economy, undocumented immigrants contributed $13 billion into the Social Security funds in 2016 and $3 billion to Medicare.” Which they can’t access, because they can’t qualify for benefits.
We benefit from immigration, including undocumented immigration. Unless we educate voters on this fact, fear and ignorance are going to push voters to support xenophobic candidates.
The population of Massachusetts increased by half a million over the last 15 years to 7 million. It was a little over 5 million when I was a kid. And I can tell you whereas when I came back here in '99 I didn't have to worry about traffic in the middle of the day, now I do. And the sprawl has grown. I recently saw my doctor for a physical. In the middle of my appointment, her phone rang and she took it--something she'd never done before. I asked her why she'd had to take it. She said that a lot of people are now getting stuck in traffic on the way in, and call to see if they can come a little later.
$10 in 1980 equals $33 today.
Here's Northeastern University on the rise of tick borne diseases:
"Thanks to increasing urban and suburban sprawl, forests are being parceled into smaller pockets of vegetation. Parks and backyards in the suburbs are now the perfect size to sustain mice, but not quite large enough to sustain foxes. That means mice can run rampant with no natural predators to keep their population at bay. And with mice, come ticks."
Bringing in lots of immigrants was part of the union breaking strategy. And immigration had already started to rise in the '70s. From the Atlantic article I provided in my first post that you didn't read:
"The immigrant workers arrested in Mississippi the other day were earning about $12.50 an hour. Adjusted for inflation, during the late 1970s, the wages of meatpacking workers in Iowa and Colorado were about $50 an hour."
And if it hadn't been for mass immigration the wages would have remained high, because there wouldn't have been this oversupply of cheap labor.
My comments about emergency room crowding are not restricted to unauthorized immigrants, unlike yours.
I don't know where you're getting your figures on the age of immigrants as compared to Americans but they are wrong.
Your worries about social security ignore the fact that labor productivity has been increasing steadily, and that--according to recent articles in both the NYT and the New Yorker, automation may put half of all working people out of jobs over the next two decades. And like I said, half of all immigrants are low/no-skilled, and a net fiscal drain.
Contrary to what you say, according to Pew, over the next 45 years, there will be a native increase of 17 million. But it would be a blessing if our population dropped. The notion that the economy needs a growing population is a Ponzi scheme and not true. Right now, we're in the midst of one of the six or seven greatest mass extinctions in the history of our planet--caused by an exploding population. When animal and plant populations shrink, ecosystem services--clean air, clean water, pollination, fertile soil, and a host of others--become less, and that endangers humans.
And again, go back to my first post where I explain--with references--that too much immigration is putting the US at risk of losing a Democratic majority on Capitol Hill, and of keeping a Democrat in the White House. As the former guy administration demonstrated, the GOP in power puts our Democracy at risk.
Anyone can demonize immigrants. It’s easy. It’s also morally wrong to do so. As I’ve demonstrated, every one of your “facts” is partially true, and also misses or denies a significant part of the story.
We can throw data at each other all day long. That’s not important. What is, is this question: are we going to continue to be a country that welcomes “the tired, the hungry and the poor who yearn to breathe free”? Or are we going to become a stingy, selfish, narrow-minded country that turns its back on its heritage and its foundation? Every American generation has wrestled with this issue.
True, the GOP knows how to exaggerate and exploit fear of immigrants for political gain. That’s wrong, it’s indefensible. We will also be wrong if we cave to their fear, and join in demonizing immigrants.
I’ve wondered about this aluminum plant n Kentucky. If it was such a great deal, why didn’t Alcoa ( an American public company) put a plant there? With such corruption, how can our public companies compete? We saw something similar with an Indian Titanium mine, bribed and gave contracts to the Russians. Boeing relys on titanium, aluminum, and carbon fiber to build airplanes. Internationally Oligarchs like Dimitri Firtash can bribe and blackmail corrupt politicians around the world to get what they want, subverting market forces and control global commodity prices. State run oil is the best known big one, but it’s everywhere, and this hurts western corporations the most.
I remember learning that getting aluminum from a recycled aluminum can takes 95 percent less water and energy than making a new aluminum can from bauxite ore.
JR, I read the article in NY Times about Chao family when it first appeared. Your first link about the proposed aluminum project in Kentucky is full leads. Thank you. It appears that Steve Mnuchin's involvement with the country's sanctions on Russia and the aluminum project call for more scrutiny. The project continues to be problematic. I posted a link here, the most recent on the subject that I could find:
He is too clever for this. He is all about plausible deniability. He would also not hesitate to throw his own mother under the bus if he remains unscathed. No scruples whatsoever.
There is something satisfying about having a place to post. It is like doing a painting where you already know where it is going to hang. The flip side to that, as there is always a flip side, is that you already know the extent to which you might be understood or misunderstood.
Years ago I became convinced that despite the political, sociological, biochemical strata of evident human experience there was a more subtle and pervasive connection that we experience less consciously. This layer has to do with the quality of thought and emotion. I learned of this in the wilderness survival environment where subtlety is abundant and nature is undisturbed but it was my experience in the emergency department that convinced me. Despite the high levels of emotion people are experiencing they are in crisis and therefore they are not as set in their way. They are more susceptible to influence. Without changing my physical practice I began to pay attention to the thoughts and emotions around me and to interact with them in my personal consciousness with, not an expectation exactly, but an open door to the possibility that it could have an effect. And, it did.
I began to be able to sense how entrenched an individual was in their experience. This entrenchment was independent of the severity of the clinical situation. The more entrenched they were the less I would attempt this mechanism because it simply wouldn’t work. This had no correspondence to intelligence, education, race, age or time of day. It was completely individual in my observation. I didn’t share this with colleagues or patients of course for two reasons. One, anonymity added to the effectiveness and two, I didn’t want to be singled out as crazy. I did mention that perhaps instinct had a role to play in clinical medicine and that it could be trained along with the intellect. As you can imagine this idea had no legs.
I bring this up because despite our letter writing campaigns and our notion of a liberal future or our understandings of how corrupt our leaders always seem to be the progress of recent history is more clearly seen by understanding the manipulations of the advertising industry. This is why big money wins. The effect of advertising through social media, fake news outlets, propaganda outlets and politicians who have a voice because of our insatiable appetite for daily controversy have a palpable effect on the same level of being that I sensed in the ED.
I suggest that this is how the brain washing works. It is not the topic of the day at all, it is the subtle energetic accompaniment that rides all that physical activity like mold on a shipping pallet. Our current mix of media is so much more powerful in this way than newspaper or old style TV that this is now the dominant strata of human experience. So, is it more effective to write a letter to your senators, who are some of the most entrenched personalities I have ever sensed, or is it as beneficial to simply sip your coffee and order your thoughts?
Of course it takes all kinds and the purpose isn’t to rule the day but to guide it toward a future that has a better chance of being pleasant for your grand children. And, for those that see it, a better place for your next life.
I've always considered that my unconscious half is a much more intelligent and knowledgeable than that which has managed to make itself conscious. The instinct that comes from this, and to which i listen assiduously, is, to me, my inner self teaching, training, expanding and directing the outer conscious personality. In combination the 2 can, in my mind interreact with their external non-human environment and other human "consciousness/unconscious combinations and change the course of things.
I agree with what you are saying except that the Jung/ Freud's legacy of separating ourselves into two places conscious and unconscious is limiting. What if there are many more parts than just two?
Oh I would LOVE to pick your brain.... I am starting to research how our instinctual center of intelligence can act in different ways based on core wiring. A lot of what you're saying makes a LOT of sense to me.
Well, I feel the development with potentially the farthest reaching affect is today’s announcement from Senate Parlimentarian, who has ruled that Senate Democrats may pass another THREE legislative initiatives through the Senate, due to the Budget Reconciliation process. But there is something much more exciting, and it happens this morning .....
More importantly to all of our personal lives, is the opportunity for one and all to ask a personal question of America’s leading journalist, at 11AM ET, TODAY, on Maine Public call-in talk show, “Maine Calling.” (mpbn.org) And that journalist is, of course, ...
Judy Woodruff.
My “Mrs". and I are so gob-smacked at this idea, that for the first time ever, I may be too nervous to speak on live, public radio (after having personally hosted a public radio program for several years)!. Alas, we recently learned that our endearing Professor Richardson was interviewed a week ago Friday. HOWEVER - tomorrow is, at last, our chance to graciously thank our dinner guest of nearly every mid-week meal, of the past six or seven years. And Judy Woodruff has indeed been our most favorite guest! She IS such wonderful company, you should know!
I will have dreams tonight, of being on the phone throughout my adopted home state, with thousands of listeners, with my “Shero” of American journalism. I already anticipate how she will FINALLY answer the question my heart has longed to ask ...
I was SOOOO nervous, and DID NOT ask her to have dinner with us along the Maine coast, at any time of her choosing! I ought to have ..... We’ve had dinner with her practically EVERY day since .... 2014! But, I’m glad the host welcomed my question.
McConnell helped create the monster and now he is learning that he can't control it. It makes me think of some of the excerpts from Boehner's upcoming book about the chaos created in congress with the advent of the Tea Party.
You think so? I don't. McConnell is playing the long game and every bit of evidence points to the fact that he is going to win. Rs will regain the House in 2022 via gerrymandering and voter suppression. They may also retake the Senate. At this point I would call the 2024 presidential race a tossup. McConnell is not even breaking a sweat, merely playing the pieces he's been given and waiting for his checkmate to become evident. Never underestimate The Snake.
I agree about not underestimating him. I do think, his world has been shaken by Insurrection Day (Jan.6) and large donors pausing donations to Republican candidates and PACS. Also, I don't think he likes being the Minority Leader in the Senate, no matter how precarious the edge of the Majority.
The repetition and promotion of the Big Lie just blows my mind. The idiocy. The whole Naked Emperor fable-come-true of it all. But then, I was watching a couple of Masterpiece Theater productions set in WWII, and thought about the good people who suffered through the atrocities of Hitler’s Big Lies and there is the sad truth of history repeating itself.
Education has to be the answer, because I can only believe that ignorance gives the Big Lie the air it needs to spread.
There is a huge psychological aspect to this as well. Willingness to believe a lie comes from a position of fear, or something like fear. That’s what makes it so difficult for the “believers”.
That is exactly was the Repubs have been doing for many years...feeding their constituents the lies of fear. “Fear the black man. Fear that your taxes will be raised by the Dems and that they’ll come for your children.” That is their modus operandi.
Plus the Black Guy is going to take your guns. 🤦🏼♂️
And don’t forget repetition! It’s the bedrock of learning & memory. It’s why propaganda works.
I think, too, that they are looking for simple answers to complex problems. If you can believe that Democrats want to take your money and give it to Black and Brown people and that this is the source of all your woes, then you know exactly who and what to target with your rage.
I feel this is very correct. I have two brothers who support the GOP/Drump. Both of them have a fear base that ignites their anger. I know one brother just used the tremendous economy and how it has affected his life. He refuses to realize that he and his wife have worked extremely hard in the last decade to better their lives financially. Drump did nothing to enhance their lives at all. And, they have been experiencing much criminal activity in their area of which they attribute to people of color. Fear leads to anger, and false information helps manipulate that.
I was just thinking along the same lines—how is it possible that so many folks believe a scam, the lie. In Germany, people were depressed and vulnerable. They had just lost WWI and were looking for answers, for salves. The German folks were primed to cast blame and believe Hitler.
What happened to the folks here to cause them to latch onto Trump’s BS. I think fear. They must feel threatened.
Ever growing wealth disparity, crappy jobs, lousy salaries, unaffordable housing, smartphone zombie syndrome, too many smart-assed libs appearing to be living better than they are, 24-hour-a-day misinformation and disinformation, easy access to synthetic heroin substitutes. Fear and Envy.
Too many people watch faux. Believe me, I know quite a few who only watch them. Also, most of them are one issue voters.
And believe me, they bitch and moan about how they can't get ahead in life while refusing to admit that their own choices are the reason why they cant get ahead.
One person took out a loan to refinance their house, buy a new car and pay off eight maxed out credit cards.
Less than three years later, they have maxed out another eight credit cards and can't understand why they can't pay their bills, while they buy a kayak because their two young grandkids (both under four years) will want to use in the future.
I had to step away from that friendship. Got sick of all the anger and stupidity.
I don't think personal irresponsibility is the major driver of white resentment, though. We have seen a pervasive and consistent movement of wealth from the poor and middle class to the elites, while those same elites blame the poor and POC for the inequality. It's insidious and false, but it seems to be working.
Ever since Reagan was elected.
Yes! Based in political techniques Nixon pioneered.
You said: "And believe me, they bitch and moan about how they can't get ahead in life while refusing to admit that their own choices are the reason why they can't get ahead." That kind of sums it up for those die-hard Trumpsters doesn't it. Cue the tiny violin.
I think this is an insidious belief. They have a misperception of the source of their malaise, but thinking of them as irresponsible rubes is a disservice to them and ignores the fact that they have been soaked by the rich just like the rest of us. They blame the wrong people (BIPOC, primarily) for their problems, but have nonetheless been brought to their knees by the same corporate interests that have done the rest of us in.
I'd add just one thing. If one interacts with them, approaching them as irresponsible rubes or some such is not going to help them begin to listen to us. To have any hope of moving them, it's important to listen to them, and treat them with respect. Even if it only leads to one out of ten changing their minds, its' worth it.
Thank you for pointing that out, Reid. Poor choices are made at all economic levels, true. But when you have nothing, have no prospect of ever having something, you want to look for someone to blame. T**** gave poor and working class white people liberal "elites" to blame - even though it has been wealthy elites like T**** himself who have not only degraded their chances of rising to the middle class, but have made it increasingly difficult for educated "elites" to stay in the middle class.
Let’s mot forget that Fake 45 revered Hitler and supposedly had a copy of Mein Kampf by his bedside. Melania must’ve had to read it to him.
Think it was Hitler's speeches. Which makes more sense, sadly.
*Not* grrrr
That was a bon mot!
Must have been the Russian copy.
It is written in Trump's first book that he had written by another person. Can't remember names right now. But, he reported this in the book.
I saw on The tv this morning that 51% of Republicans believe that the people that stormed the Capitol on January 6th were “peaceful “. How can we ever convince them of the truth when they won’t believe their own eyes?
"We" can never convince this 51% of Republicans of anything. They see us as incorrigible "socialists" (or worse!) and can hardly believe we don't see the same good old-fashioned American "truth" they see.
They believe we intend to steal their money via taxation, take away their guns and their huge thundering gas-guzzling, gravel-spraying, mud-splashing, smoke-bellowing, toad-crushing 4x4 pickups. They believe we want to force them to live next door to people DIFFERENT FROM THEM and send their children across town to public schools infested with BIPOC children. They believe those of us with dark skins or turbans or funny accents will move in next door and drive down the value of their homes while we set up crack houses just around the corner. They believe we will prevent them from practicing their several "evangelical" religions and force their women to have abortions. They believe we are trying to implant "chips" into them via COVID19 vaccine injections. The believe we want to cancel Christmas. A few of them believe we want to eat their babies.
They are afraid of us and the leaders we have elected and of the legislation we all support. They see this as a life or death struggle to keep a grip on everything they hold dear.
A few of the things I mentioned above they have good reason to be afraid of, the others not so much. You and I know which are which.
So, where does this leave us? Well, we can take heart from the likelihood that 51% of the Republicans amount to 1/4 (or less) of potential voters, that despite their fears and beliefs, they are just people like us in many important ways and will find ways to adapt to a changed and better America. All we have to do is vote in amazingly large numbers, keep up the pressure on our more recalcitrant DEM Senators, lead upstanding lives and love our neighbors and ourselves and our planet.
You engage is a great deal of stereotyping here. It's convenient to think of them as a homogenous, contemptible bunch, but it's neither truthful nor kind.
David is actually not that far off the mark, Reid. I am SURROUNDED by these people and I'm reminded of it every time I go out and have to interact with these folks. Where I live voted over 71% for Trump. I especially love his line about the 4x4s. Every friggin' day I drive anywhere around here these mega-gas-guzzling behemoths--that almost are big enough to merit their own zip code--are everywhere. The damn things are a nuisance on the road and almost always they are the ones speeding, riding right on your butt, or cutting you off. They've become the new HumVees--remember those? They were a right-wing status symbol down here. Again, come down here to one of the reddest parts of one of the--until recently--reddest states in the country. Covid regulations have been openly defied here--in the pharmacy my mom uses not ONE pharmacist or employee has worn a mask during the entire pandemic. You'd think they would be conscious of the risks. I'd be curious here to see the percentage of noncompliance getting the vaccine in these parts. It must be pretty high. These ultra-red pockets DO exist in this country, and my guess would be you could find it in eastern Washington state too. It's very real.
I am not arguing these folks don't exist and have spent considerable time among them (I'm even related to some). What I AM arguing is that painting them all with such a broad brush is not useful or accurate, in fact, the dismissiveness of such characterizations is counterproductive. Think of it the other way around. Many of them assume we are all tax and spend liberals with a socialist agenda who want to give their jobs to immigrants and their money to Black people. But we are a diverse group with a wide range of opinions and beliefs. As you can see here, some of us are more concerned about immigration than others, some about taxes or deficits or inequitable distribution of tax-supported assistance. They have a similar diversity of opinion and experience.
You don't need to go all the way to Eastern Washington to do that. All you need to do is drive outside the city limits of Seattle or Olympia. Lewis County (to the south of Seattle on I-5, 1/2-way to Portland, OR) has been ultra-red since at least 1919, when a still-disputed encounter between local chapters of the American Legion and the IWW resulted in 6 deaths and ongoing division in Centralia over who did what to whom. As housing costs in King and Pierce Counties has sky-rocketed, the influx of more liberal-minded retirees to Lewis County has changed the political scene to a slightly bluish red, but the stereotypical still fits pretty well.
I can attest to Bruce's narrative. I'm in a northeast Atlanta suburb, and it's pretty conservative, but nothing like Bruce's area. The populace is rabidly conservative there. Marjorie Taylor Greene lives not very far from that area. Reading Bruce's posts these many months, and knowing his approximate location, I can assure you that what he is saying is not an exaggeration. It will eventually change, I think, just as my area has over the years, but if you're living in the Pacific Northwest, you really can't judge the rural Southeast. There are many people who are liberal, many who are intellectual, but that is not the majority, and unless you have a lot of experience here, you just can't assume that the population is being painted with the same brush by an elitist. I know that you didn't say that, but diversity in north Georgia isn't a thing - yet.
Perhaps the stereotype fits better in some communities than others. As I read that second paragraph, it felt like a perfect description of my neck of the woods. I don't presume to know what the 51% "looks" like in other neighborhoods, towns, or cities, but that's an apt portrayal of the people in my own town (especially the part about the 4X4's - only here they are often festooned with Confederate flags attached to all four corners of the back of the truck...it's actually a terrifying spectacle...you might have seen some of these vehicles on the news when they attempted to force Kamala Harris' campaign off the interstate?) One only has to scroll through the local FB "hate page" from my town and read a few of the (mostly illiterate) angry comments to get a feel of our version of the 51%. I know this is not kind. By and large, these individuals themselves are not kind and their anger is palpable and frightening - plus they open carry and don't wear masks and attack those who do wear masks. Just my two cents from my little corner of the world.
Oh, yes, I know they exist; I'm even related to some! I mostly fear we risk underestimating these folks as well as alienating them further. If this truly is a culture war with no common ground, we may as well give up now. But I don't believe this.
Well, yes, it is stereotyping. It is difficult to even discuss these things without some resort to generalization. No doubt, not all of the 51% of Republicans (Annette's statistic, not mine) believe all of what I attribute to them. A few of them may drive electric cars, some are probably not armed to the teeth and I'm sure most of them love their children.
My intent is not to dehumanize them but simply to acknowledge that their opinions of me - and, I imagine of most of the of the people who post comments here - are a mirror image (in negative) of our own. They have their info sources, we have ours, and these Republicans are as horrified about what sort of America we want as we are about the America they want. I believe the contrast between positions is now so stark that there is little hope of anyone convincing anyone, and that any solution will come by way of the vote and new laws that have a positive effect on the lives of most Americans, including GOP true believers and Trump fanatics. It is still possible to have majority rule in the USA if all adult citizens can vote freely and easily. I think that's the best we can hope for at the moment.
Well said.
I have to agree with you on most of your observations. I picked up a lot of anger in your words, and I can fully relate to that.
Well, I am angry that after 40 years of Republicans and Demopublicans running our country (I assume Obama would have done better, given half a chance), I'm nearing 70 and my beloved USA is still F****d up in the same ways it was when I was a teenager, arguably even more f****d up now than then. I hope I still have time to see real improvement, and the present moment strikes me as crucial, make or break, so I do get a little worked up about all this. Please excuse my F****h.
I would presume that Faux "News" only showed video of peaceful people walking to the capitol and nothing else. The lie-believers are not curious people. They don't want to know anything different because it's a commy/fascist/deep state lie anyway, right? So if Faux shows them peaceful, then it WAS peaceful. We here look at all the footage, read lots of sources, dig deeper. They do not.
I would put this slightly differently. These people don't have the same news sources that we do, and their news sources tell them what they want to hear. (And they are incurious, as you say.) I think it's important to try to develop a sympathetic understanding of them--hard as one may find that--if there is going to be any hope of bringing them around. For a model of this, I would recommend my long-ago Berkeley professor, Arlie Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.
There will always be (at least) two parties with strongly held belief systems. I don't aspire to "bringing them around." I know they are out to implement their agenda which, in the main, is diametrically opposed to mine. What I hope is that there is a (literal?) Come to Jesus moment for as many as possible of them to see how cruel, prejudiced, etcetc, their agenda is and maybe, just maybe, will change to some degree. But much like people who are abusers of others or substances, there comes a point when the sane people have to walk away, let it run its course, and be there to guide them when/if they come out on the other side. THEY have to wake up and change. I cannot do that for them or even help them at this point.
And propagandist brainwashing. Repeat the message over and over. T***p followed Hitler's playbook.
A very good read is "Mediocre," by Ijeoma Oluo, in which she posits that throughout our history, white supremacy has taught white men that they deserve to be on top, to have money, position, and power. However, since at least the Reagan years, it has become more and more difficult for the average white guy to achieve what he's been taught he deserves by birthright. The women who depend upon the status of their men have also been sliding down the scale. If you think you haven't been getting what you deserve (this isn't about earning, but about deserving), and some guy comes along who tells you that it is the fault of the 'elites' (i.e., liberals) that you haven't got it, it's the fault of immigrants, Muslims, the Chinese, that's going to be music to your ears. That guy gives you a target for all of your anger and frustration.
Lanita, I really appreciate what you wrote here. I find this explanation a bit more helpful of the underpinnings of white male wannabe privilege and the women who depend on their slippery status. This book sounds like a good read to help me understand their psyches a bit better.
Didn't this begin with the Koch-fueled tea party? I remember one realtor here in Texas who began to answer her door with a loaded rifle and another woman who literally stock piled her pantry with duct tape rolls. It was nuts even back then...I never could figure out what had scared them so much.
I also find it tough to understand how people can believe the Big Lie. It might be that letting go of these beliefs would force them to confront Trump's mendacity and their part in supporting it? Anywho, I'm going to continue my own education by reading Dr. R's letters and the edifying comments - I've learned so much here!
What I find even more insidious is that Rs no longer need to promote the Big Lie or even purport to believe it because they used the Big Lie to sow doubt in their constituents, and are now using the Big Doubt and not the Big Lie as justification for voter suppression. They created a crisis and are now exploiting it for their own ends.
Did you coin “the Big Doubt?” That’s also where the far right is going under the cover of so called nonpartisan Facebook groups soliciting an army of donors and voters to activate through the innocuous sounding American Culture Project.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-midterms-digital-influence/2021/04/03/391103a8-8c0e-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html
I may have coined The Big Doubt; I never thought about it. I'm not surprised to hear that the Rs are leveraging their dishonesty to nefarious ends. They are so convinced their cause is just that they can justify just about anything.
The Big Doubt is useful for describing this voter suppression response to The Big Lie.
In getting support from the middle, progressives cannot just stand by and observe. We need to figure out how to act effectively.
Yes! I couldn't agree more.
Fox News continues to be a major contributor to the Big Lie and all the little lies that support it. My sister is changing in front of my eyes. Her middle son has been heavily influenced by his right wing friend and has now enrolled his parents in his delusion. Fox News is the background noise in their daily lives. It has become another contagion that is far from contained. And of course they are very hesitant to take vaccines.
Diane, sorry to hear about your sister and family. Clearly it was not how she was raised that made her vulnerable to Fox and the Big Lie. For many people, group belonging is so critical that they will align with whatever that group believes.
Echoing your sentiments re Diane's sister and family. Diane, I'm very sorry, that must really hurt. I hope they come around before too long.
I agree about Fox. It is the one constant among all the Trumpublicans I know. They are all Fox devotees. I really wish we could neutralize Fox. And MSNBC as well, really.
Agree. It is "LOVE Fox, and hate any other news outlet" mentality. I see a lot of social media responses that accuse a poster for watching CNN or MSNBC's false news. What?!
There's another thing going on here and I think it's about how people pay attention, mainly with their emotions or mainly with their intellect. The Former Guy speaks in very simple sentences and repeats himself. And he favors simple, happy promises and simple gut -grabbing insults and fear-monger lies. He knows how to grab people's basic emotions and be memorable. Even smart people, if they pay attention mainly emotionally, are going to be vulnerable to his schtick. That's why not all his voters are "the uneducated" whom he says he loves.
People who pay attention mainly with their intellect, or at least try to gather high-quality information and listen with their critical thinking skills as well as their gut, have an easier time discounting TFG's emotional hooks.
A lot of Dems and progressives love to dive into all the details. We always want to explain every nuance. So we come out with these long sentences with many clauses. Complicated theories. Multi-part how-to's, whereas's, and party of the first second, and third parts. We talk like multi-page contacts. We are policy wonks.
In always portraying the whole, complicated truth, we forget something. It doesn''t sell. It's doesn't grab people by the guts. Many people don't have the patience for policy wonk dissertations, present company mostly excluded. Dems have to learn this fact and learn to use it. Myself included.
Which may contribute to many on the right wing thinking that we think we are better than they are. How many of us here found ourselves being mocked as children in school by our classmates who either got lower grades, or who achieved good marks by never questioning the authority of the teachers? I always asked too many questions - at school, at church, on the playground. I thought that chewing everything over was really fun. My siblings and classmates thought I was boring. Teachers were a little worried about me. Oh, well. Them's the breaks.
Right there with you. I had a very similar experience growing up.
Yep, me too. Even at my advanced age I can still be disappointed that others don't want to talk about all the whys and wherefores of the subject at hand. They think I'm argumentative. I think they're no damn fun.
No damn fun at all!
I love students like you! I think I was always curious, too. I might not have always asked the questions, but leaned in for the answers when others did!
Jeanne Doyle, absolutely the longterm answer to the Big Lie is more and better education. We need much better education in basic science, more clear-eyed education in history especially on how tyranny takes root, much better and mandatory civics education in how our democracy functions, the critical role of a free press and the responsibilities of citizenship, and finally, education through all twelve grades in critical thinking skills.
But in the short term, education of kids won't fix the (6? 7?) in 10 Republicans who believe the Big Lie. The best antidote would be for all the Repubs to publically admit TFG lost and they all lied. Never happen. Is it enough for Biden to just keep serving the people and fixing the problems, and selling his programs, to shift enough "base" minds? How do we get through the TPG/Repub voters' information bubble?? What will un-brainwash enough minds to disempower the Big Lie, so no one can ever weaponize it again, as TFG did on Jan. 6?
And yet, at least in Texas, most charter and public schools give VERY little focus to history and social sciences in elementary years - because the kids aren't tested on it until middle school. Imagine kids going in to middle school not knowing that there are 7 continents. We specifically chose a liberal arts charter school that is no-technology, balanced on history and science, and teaches cursive for our elementary kids.
If the Fairness Doctrine were reinstated, would Fox have to either A) tell the truth or B) call themselves Fox Opinions? Or would it just be a strong suggestion?
I hear you Elizabeth. It might take generations to undo trump damage. And I like what you said about Biden serving the people and fixing the problems. His constancy and the gradual improvement of many lives may start to change minds and hearts.
That is my thinking also. Maybe enough R’s will see improvements in their lives and recognize that Biden is responsible for that.
Unfortunately, if the education is only in school and not at home, a lot of very good input will be wasted. Don't you all remember classmates who were getting a completely different message at home that made the messages at school slide off them like water off a duck's back? And then there is the periodic wave of curricula and method changes that sweeps across the system with a new silver bullet. Even at the community college level, I had to struggle at times with required materials that were not suitable for either my teaching style or the learning styles of my students. "Education" covers such a broad range of issues and I can't conceive of a group of educators agreeing on what is needed. The director of my department used to say that his job was like "herding cats".
Un-brainwash by stopping dangerous lies and propaganda on Twitter, FB, Instagram, Fox, OAN. At what moment does freedom of speech become seditious to our democracy? Dangerous slope we are trying to recover from.
Great comment! But I would urge you to spell out The Former Guy instead of using an acronym. I'm pretty knowledgeable, but it took me 10-15 seconds to figure it out. My philosophy about acronyms that are not in common parlance, like DNA and MPG, is that they do to prose what a dead cow in a stream does to the flow and water quality. I write about medicine and the over reliance of medical people on acronyms is one of my pet peeves.
Goid point about the opacity ofacrnyms, David. I will spell them out. Thanks!
I didn't succeed in figuring out the acronym - assuming (because of my foul-mouthed mind) that the 'F' was a pejorative; however, I didn't have any problem figuring out to whom you referred.
Hahaha right! 😉
Sorry for poor spelling "of acronyms"!
I'm not so sure. Much of their ignorance is willful. You can lead a horse to water, etc.
I agree with the willfulness observation. The BIG LIE is willfully being promoted when these elected officials know for certain that the election was a good one. Truthful facts cannot be ignored. And, the wave of GOP state legislators who have very swiftly developed legislation to suppress the vote is a very organized and willful act. Actually every single action and oppositional word have been a very organized and willful plan to skew American democracy in order for criminals to hang on to power in our governments, state and federal.
What amazes me is how many of them can justify their antidemocratic actions. How can they square these with fairness, morality, honor, or any other core value? I understand there are a few true believers who think that unless they use whatever means they can to thwart the Democrats we will have some sort of apocalyptic social environment with rampant abortion and uncontrolled social spending, but it seems to me that most of them are simply power-hungry cynics using the current environment to seize and hold control. This level of cynicism is shocking to me, even after 65 years of observing it play out.
I would like to see an independent and peer-reviewed, large scale study of the 2020 election that investigates state by state how the process was planned and executed, with particular note of any changes to election law and accommodations made for pandemic conditions, with a section looking at possibilities for and accusations of fraud. I suppose it's a pipe dream, but it would be nice to have a comprehensive and definitive answer to the crazies. Maybe a gov't. commission or a University Poli-Sci dep't?
They would simply say it was another plank in the vast left wing conspiracy and dismiss it out of hand.
I don't doubt that. I was having a "discussion" ( or a simulacrum of one) with a trumper (trumpette?) during the post-election period who insisted the election was stolen. This was after the 60 lawsuits had been refused or refuted, and I kept asking, where's the proof? Why isn't it presented in court? He was, and is, convinced the courts are rigged against trump and not valid. This is why I'd love to see an in depth study done. I don't think it would convince my acquaintance, but I think such a resource could be used to quiet the "legitimate" media sources and personalities who profit from amplifying the Lie, and so erode its credibility.
I get it that logistically it's a dead issue. That horse has left the barn, and the time needed to produce such a report would render its impact on perceptions muted at best. Still, a man can dream!
Or a well- made documentary.
Education will not help. The science on this is solid (see Ch 4 of Ezra Klein’s book on polarization for a summary). The only solution is to outvote them.
Both/and paradigm. Outvote them now (and out-lobby and out-finance). Education for the longer term.
You can change a society in a generation—20 years. Hitler did it, largely through propaganda and controlling the education system. Then the Allies followed with the Marshall Plan and de-nazification.
In the meantime, can you elaborate on Ezra Klein’s book “Chapter 4 The Press Secretary in Your Mind?”
The experiments Klein discusses ask participants mathematical questions. When the questions are presented as straight math, answers are correct or incorrect corresponding to education level and talent. When the questions are asked with a slight political bias, answers correspond to the political biases of the participants. Those with higher levels of education exhibit even stronger inclinations toward incorrect answers reflecting their politicsl biases than those with less education. The experiment has been done in many contexts by different scientists with similar results. Klein observes that disagreeing wirh your friends incurs significant costs, but rejecting science is free.
In a way, education has led to the Big Lie getting firmly set into GOP supporters through rallies, social media, and Faux Entertainment. I don't know if anyone here pays attention to the opinion staff on this station, but they are outrageously out of control. 90% of their focus is to use as many unattractive and cutting adjectives as they can in an hour program to describe Democrats. All Democrats. Or GOP who mumble a liberal idea. They talk very fast and rarely take breaths between sentences all the while using laughter, grimacing, anger, etc. to slam ideas into their viewers. You speak of education at the younger life phases of our citizens when common sense and good knowledge are so easily manipulated through igniting fear and anger with false statements.
I guess I am thinking of education at the youngest ages at school. I know education happens at home, and maybe the Republicans or Trumpublicans we know get their "education" as adults from the propagandist Faux News. But I do feel that in the public school districts here in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota are working hard to make public education equitable, representative of the population, and representative of multiple and varied perspectives. I am excited about the changes that are happening already. It's too late for the older people I know, perhaps. It's not too late for the new generations.
Once again, Professor Richardson is being understated and far kinder to failed-former-45 than he deserves. The scammed money was not only an interest free loan from the supporters who realized the extra taking and asked for refunds. It was also theft, perhaps legal, from everyone whose money was maneuvered from them for however long. We will never know how many people were scammed but did not ask refunds, for whatever reasons. From the outside, of course, it’s no surprise that a con man cheated his marks in one more way.
So, given that contributions were solicited through various means, including e-mail, snail mail, etc., can't he be nabbed for mail and wire fraud? I mean, first he robbed Peter, then he robbed Peter again to repay Peter...He never even had to reach out beyond his woefully stupid base. It's the ultimate pyramid scheme
From your mouth, Daria . . . It certainly has the reek of mail fraud.
"Woefully stupid base" says it all. Being ignorant of the facts and sufficiently gullible to swallow the "big lie" are no longer adequate explanations for their actions. Yes, the former president's base is composed of woefully stupid people. Six out of ten Republicans fit this description, still believing that the former president actually was re-elected and voting for candidates supporting agendas not even close to their interests. (Someday, some may see the light and slap their palms against their foreheads shouting aloud to themselves, "Stunat!", even if they're not of Italian descent.)
Love the Italian reference! Let me add another one. The big lie is just “un sacco di merda”.
Ah...the similarities with the French!
I had to google "stunat." Thanks, Jacob, for the education in Italian slang :-)
They are not all stupid. They ARE all conned, and among them many are smart people. Hitler did the same.
Not sure you can say they are all conned. Those rethuglican idiots have been voting against their interests for years. I'd say both stupid and conned.
And think of it - his own base who just LOVE him wanted 122 million dollars back. That’s a lot of people.
Unfortunately the burden is on the prosecution to prove that there was fraud and/or intent to fraud
The former president meticulously avoids coming out and saying something. He suggests, implies, hints at or describes what someone's course of action might be, but words signifiying his intent never are spoken by him. Michael Cohen's book, "Disloyal" cites numerous examples. If anyone chooses to sue him, it means years in court and most lack the resources to do that. I am pretty sure the repeated donation withdrawals were explained somewhere on the website, but like the thousands of words in tiny print (usually in gray on a slightly lighter shade of gray background) on the back of your paperwork when you purchase a car or appliance, no one ever really reads them. On a computer, they just click "agree."
Sounds like a ponzi scheme to me. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Isn't that what put Bernie Maddoff in jail?
Nah! Ponzu schemes are for “the little people”!
The Big Lie turns out to be nothing more than just another chapter in the Big Fraud. Use other people's money to build a grotesque palace, skim the early returns into the Trump bank accounts, launch a new grotesque scheme, then pay back only those investors in the previous scam who are such sore losers that they demand their money back -- until you have to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying back anything substantial at all. Let's not dignify this perversion any longer by calling it propaganda or Free Speech or an assault on the Constitution. It's just fraud, by a fraudster, for a fraudster in the pursuit of the next fraud. When the law finally catches up to him by following his long trail of victims, the suspect will be listed as having no fixed address, no known occupation, with a list of aliases that will run beyond the margins of the police blotter.
"It's just fraud, by a fraudster, for a fraudster in the pursuit of the next fraud." Easy reading. Thanks, Albert!
Similar to "Lies and the lying liars who tell them." Hey look, it's the same darn people!
Glad to "see" you again, TPJ. I was about to send out a search party!
Yet many (most?) trump die-hard supporters are so blind to who and what TFG really is that they think he knew nothing about this fraud. One such dupe was quoted on NPR yesterday as blaming the people who ran the fundraising effort for the scam, believing that their hero’s hands are perfectly clean. The only thing washed is his brain.
You nailed it!
Skip a letter, you jest! The cat and I, snuggled in bed in the mornings, will never skip a letter. 😻 This one actually gave me a frisson of what I think must be glee. I haven’t felt it for so long I am not quite sure, but it is certainly not the usual feeling of anxiety or dread that I face the news with each day. Gaetz facing his comeuppance....yay! The word is apparently derived from to ‘come up’ before the court. There is nothing more satisfying than the idea of nefarious dudes and dudettes facing up to their evil deeds in a public forum. If he has any dirt on Epstine he could bargain with and I could see Prince Andrew hanging out to dry I would do a happy dance indeed. McConnell is unhappy...aww, heck, it could not happen to a nicer guy. He is a crook, so bent he can see his own backside. A sterling example of diligent evil like him deserves every twinge of alarm that his house of cards might be starting to topple. I can feel the wind shifting...lets hope its not an ill wind but one that finally blows some good.
Crook http://www.word-detective.com/2010/07/crook/
I'm with you Robin (but with poodle, not kitty--my fam is allergic to cats, alas). The NYTimes exposé is a great read--the ultimate Ponzi scheme starring our favorite cast of execrables, including Roger Stone. But it was not "interest free" as loans go: the suckers who did not read (or could not--it was really tiny) the small print paid a ton a fees for cancelling the weekly--sometimes daily--charges on their debit cards and the credit card companies paid millions for the hefty fees associated with clawing back the money. They should sue the Cheeto and his campaign leaders. What it reminds me of is the scams used by internet thieves who steal identities through fake PayPal accounts that they then use to drain unsuspecting people's accounts.
As for Murderous Mitch and his Malevolent Minions, bless their mendacious little hearts, my heart doesn't bleed for them. And my keenest desire is to see Gaetz and Greene stripped of their congressional positions and trundled off to jail. Maybe in a tumbril. That would be fun.
The guillotine, with Madame DeFarge looking on with her knitting...
Had to look up "tumbril", and laughed out loud when applied here. Thanks, Linda, for an early morning chuckle'
I looked it up too! Love this forum. I always learn something.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Well said 👍😎
Oh, yes indeedy, in a tumbril!
A frisson of glee! Perfect description of what I'm feeling right now about every single word written in tonight's letter. I love it! If I weren't prone I'd do a happy dance.
I think we'd like a video of that.
I have to (get to) look up "frisson." Thanks D!
well..."shivver" me timbers, me hearties!
As usual, Heather is right on target: "Today’s overarching story is connected to this one["the Trump campaign scammed supporters out of more than $122 million by tricking them into “recurring” donations."]. It is the same as yesterday’s big story, and the day before that, reaching on backward until the 2020 election. Republican Party leaders continue to insist, without evidence, that former president Donald Trump won the 2020 election and that Democrats stole it from him through voter fraud. A new Reuters/Ipsos found that six in ten Republicans believe this Big Lie.
However, "The Hill" broke a story by Alexander Bolton at 6:28PM last night: "The Senate parliamentarian [Elizabeth MacDonough] ruled Monday that Democrats can use special budgetary rules to avoid a GOP filibuster on two more pieces of legislation, setting the stage for President Biden's infrastructure agenda to pass in two packages with simple-majority votes.
It's a win for Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that allows him to pass Biden's $2.25 trillion package by revising the fiscal 2021 Budget Resolution.
Schumer could pass a budget resolution for fiscal 2022 to do a third reconciliation package for the second half of the Biden infrastructure agenda. Or the fiscal 2021 budget could be revised a third time to set up a third reconciliation package."
This, along with a majority-passed exception to the filibuster for Election Laws, would clear the way for cornerstone items on President Biden's agenda.
Wonderful news with one caveat, Manchin. He’s declared Democrats will have to go through him & 10 other unnamed Senators to pass the infrastructure bill. He wants changes/reductions.
Joe Manchin is all hat and no horse, as far as I'm concerned. For instance, I believe he wouldn't back Neera Tanden because of Tanden's criticism of Manchin's daughter, Heather, who was CEO of of Mylan, Maker of EpiPens, when its price was raised astronomically. Just as LBJ did when needed for his landmark legislation, Mr. Biden needs to call him and the other ten senators into his office for a heart-to-heart. It worked then and I believe it will now.
The statute of limitations hasn’t run out on that scandal either, I think.
Good point!
I think you have something there. Didn't know about the Tanden/Heather story. I think Biden can "convince" him. "C'mon, man - this will be epic."
I think they are going to pass the infrastructure bill through reconciliation and there will be enough pork in the bill that they will get Manchin and the rest of the conservative Ds to agree. Biden is paying lip service to the idea of bipartisanship and Manchin is engaging in some face-saving. Watch for him to return from recess declaring that his constituents told him that they want the infrastructure bill. That ought to do the trick.
Thank you for the insight.
This is rather significant...
Consider that there are years that budget reconciliation isn't possible. I don't understand the mechanism, but three in one year is huge.
I heard this last night, and, while realizing I might be overly optimistic, it's beginning to look as though the stars just might be aligning for Joe. Happy dance, anyone?
Whoooo hoooooo!!
When I heard about McConnell telling corporations they should stay out of politics, I thought McConnell had gone mad. Then I realized there was another reason the corporations are turning toward the Democrats with their criticism of the voter suppression laws. Corporations want to be on the good side of the Democrats as they pass the For the People Act to try to keep the corporate tax rate lower.
They may not like the corporate rates, but they'll live with them. They're intelligent enough to realize that the things Biden is doing, both for infrastructure and for the people who are their customers, make their lives better and easier.
Did you see Yellen proposal for a global corporate tax rate?
Yes! Then I read how much higher most developed nations’ rates are than ours. Great idea though.
The global economic leading countries should adopt 1 corporate rate. Eliminate the threat of leaving one country over tax rates. Treat globalization as it should be treated. Address complex challenges and problems with cooperation and common sense, not as another conspiracy.
Oh, I entirely agree this is what they should do. But they won't.
Except it will never happen. Countries like Ireland with low corporate tax rates have every incentive to keep them low and zero incentive to raise them.
To say never would claim that leadership doesn’t exist.
To say it could happen is to believe that self-interest isn't the main driver of policy.
Yes and many of them have children and grandchildren who’s lives will be made better by their taking a stand in support of democracy
I think corporations tend to be more attuned to trends and staying ahead of their markets in order to satisfy their investors, whereas Republican politicians are scrambling and cheating to hold onto a waning power base, particularly now as they see their Gingrich era long term plan failing to produce a conventional majority of voter support.
Most corporations are neither moral nor immoral. They are amoral, driven by profit alone. It is the job of government to require corporations, via regulation and taxation, to behave in ways that enhance the public good, such as requiring them not to pollute, or requiring them to help pay for the roads and bridges they use to move goods around the nation. And that alone is enough to make me vote Democratic- because they too believe in this role for government. What is happening now, with corporations speaking out, is the Invisible Hand of the market made visible. Corporations are realizing that our consumption driven economy requires consumers to want their products, which they will not do if those companies suppress their rights. Good.
I must disagree that corporations are inherently amoral. Corporations are as moral as their leadership. If the leadership thinks only the accumulation of wealth matters the corporation is amoral on all other dimensions. Even large corporations can be ethical if their leadership has ethical values. I worked as a senior executive in a highly ethical Fortune 100 technology corporation for over two decades. The founder and CEO was a highly moral man and the motto of the company was "Do the Right Thing". We lived that motto doing the right thing by our customers and by each other. It was an extraordinary place to work at least until the founder left. We knew we were changing the world and we did. The concept and implementation of net neutrality of the Internet was one result, for example. You can also see this in our government with the amoral "leadership" of DT vs. the morals and empathy of our current President. My solution would be a national well-being index NWI where all legislation and actions of the government must show how it enhances the well-being of all. Great Britain is already doing this. See Dr. Martin Seligman's Theory of Well-Being at https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
We the People, All of Us This Time!
How wonderful that you had that experience. I stand corrected.
Yes. Capitalism, without conscience or soul, needs Democracy's conscience and soul (We the People, All of Us This Time) in order to have the infrastructure, rules of the game, and educated workers to succeed. When Capitalism is allowed to buy democracy (in this case, the Republican Party), both systems fail.
"Most corporations are neither moral nor immoral. They are amoral, driven by profit alone." I would argue that being driven by profit alone IS immoral.
It may be rare but there are moral corporations out there. Size is not the determiner; it is the values of the leadership. Profit does not have to be the highest priority. For instance, in the Fortune 100 corporation the sales force did not work on commission. That way they could sell the customer what they needed not what would make them the largest commission. That created customer loyalty and therefore long term profit.
in the Fortune 100 corporation I worked for...
Of course, ALWAYS a hitch. Always! Let’s not start expecting corporations to have heart or integrity. It’s all about what serves them. But at this point I’ll take it!
Where is the buying power of the people concentrated? Corps have to make a decision or face erosion of their brands in the cities and suburbs.
You mean do black people buy things?:)
Bingo!
Real simple. Don't piss off your customers.
But do you do this by serving them, or by duping them? Other than MLB, have we seen anything substantive come to pass in all this? Pearls have been duly clutched, but very little pain has actually been inflicted.
Initiatives on DE&I are THE focus at many corporations, large and small. It's hard to preach DE&I to your employees if you're not "for" all of them.
Here's a short video about the history of Digital Equipment Corporation and teh Legacy of Ken Olsen, its founder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6We6VDtyHY
Again, the Fortune 100 corporation I worked for also "valued differences". We felt more perspectives made our product solutions stronger and better. They did things like open a manufacturing plant in Roxbury, MA, primarily Black citizens. At the manufacturing plant in New Mexico, the two Euro-American managers were in the minority it was so diverse. Everyone in the company got a fair shot at promotions and the fun, challenging jobs. Everyone was on a first name basis which was unusual in the 1970s when I started working there. We did "management by walking around". Almost everyone in the company had a personal story to tell about meeting the CEO. The VP of Human Resources was a marvelous black man. Every one at all levels felt valued. Instead of a few corporate jets for the senior executives, we had the largest helicopter fleet outside the military and everyone could use them. From my office in Maynard, MA, I frequently took the helicopter to my boss's staff meeting in New Hampshire. As a woman and an engineering manager, I was judged on my abilities and potential and never felt held back being a woman. Certainly I had to first correct the perception that being a woman and being an engineer were conflicting stereotypes but then one was accepted for one's technical expertise and managerial skills. Yes, I broke the glass ceiling and even had the CEO personally supporting me. It was a great company. It wasn't just a technically innovative corporation; it was also a leader in organization design and values. I loved it and felt I belonged.
Diversity, equity and inclusion?
yes
Skip a letter? Yeah, no. I saw the Douglas Blackmon tweet yesterday; very cogent assessment of what the impacts of voter restriction look like in Georgia. McConnell's whining about corporations is just hilarious. I look forward to indictments on McConnel and Chao and their "empire" as well as on the former guy.
Set me straight, Ally. Does McConnell's statement for corporations to stay out of politics mean he wants to rescind Citizens United? https://twitter.com/kurtbardella/status/1379276199042678785?s=20
They always cry foul when their own tactics are used against them.
Rivers of crocodile tears🤥😭
Sorry, I ran out of tissues!
Oh, yes, I forgot...my bad!
Not a chance!
Dang, thought I could slip that one in!
Of course not. I'm sure there's a logical (hypocritical) exception.
Rats!
True, they ALL are rats!
I caught a podcast yesterday from Meidas Touch featuring Mark Elias, the attorney fighting all the Republican lawsuits and now the voting suppression bills. He was so clear on how this bill suppresses the vote. For example, the requirement that voters send in proof of ID with absentee ballots. Besides the obvious that most people don’t have a scanner/copier in their home, sending in a copy of a driver’s license can invite identity theft. Especially when the envelope is clearly marked as a ballot. The remedy for that would be, say, a secure drop box. But that, too, is being reduced or eliminated. So much more...give it a listen if you can.
What's this about a Rift in McC's caucus?? Let me get my hammer and chisel to do what I can to make that rift into a chasm!! I pray that clearer thinking Repubs will chip away at the iron fist of insanity that's gripping them.
LOL, Barbara. Let me know if you need any help!
Now the big question is ..."How do you dress up the "John lewis" bill and other corrollary measures, blasting gerrymandering and voter suppression out of the water, as budget measures that can go through the new recapitulation opening that the Senate parliamentarian has just offered the Democrats?
Good thought, Stuart. Or maybe make civil rights and voting rights issues exempt from the filibuster. Is that possible?
Just needs one or two recalcitrant Democratic Senators to agree to go along and the change in Senate rules passes on a simple majority reinforced by VP Harris' deciding vote.
Maybe their corporate donations dry up as well if they don’t.
He's going to be there still till at least 2022 or 24 whatever. So i would seriously recommend a good bunch of carrots and perhaps flowers be offered behind a falsely sincere smile and the corporate "stick" be casually held behind the back. He needs a "good" reason to do what the people of States other than West Virginia obviosly desire.
Better yet, make it obvious that the people of West Virginia - like the majority of Americans generally, of whatever party - are strongly in favor of voting rights. Manchin may be grandstanding, but there's nothing wrong with representing your state and showing your voters you are genuinely working on their behalf.
That's a great idea. Who is paying Manchin's and Sinema's bills anyway?
I was wondering how a rules change could happen without 60 votes to bring it to the floor. Thanks, Stuart.
I think that's more likely. As much as I want HR 1 to pass, if I were parliamentarian even I would not let that pass through reconciliation. But doing away with the filibuster for voting rights bills makes good sense and I think it could happen.
I would love to be listening in on the zoom screens of whichever legal eagle staffers are working on wording for such a change. It will need to allow the current voting rights support, ideally with improvements later, without doing anything else.
Yeah, that's the whole challenge, isn't it? Along with the fact that if you carve out an exception for one thing, when the Rs take back the Senate they will be able to carve out their own exceptions. A double-edged sword, for sure.
Reid, if the bill passes, we might not have to worry a great deal about the Rethugs winning for some time. Just sayin'
That is certainly what the radical right seems to think.
But if the Dems win the elections....
I'm pessimistic. Sadly, all of the signs point to their ascension, unless HR 1 passes, in which case we have a fighting chance.
Yes, although they will anyway, and if you don't pass a voting rights law the R autocrates will takeover and make elections irrelevant.
All the shenanigans with drop boxes and shortened voting times mean nothing compared to the fact that they can just overturn elections they don’t like the results of.
Precisely. That needs to be the argument. This is an existential crisis. The soul of our country and the future of our democracy are on the line, nothing less than that.
“To continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back — that in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy,” Chief Medaria Arradondo testified.
It was astounding to see the Police Chief of Minneapolis, Medaria Arradonda, tell the TRUTH in a court of law charging policeman, Derek Chauvin, with the murder of George Floyd.
Arrandonda fired Chavin in less than a day after the murder. A police Chief testifying against a cop; how is that for truth telling?
Chief Arrandonda was a perfect witness for George Floyd, Floyd's family, the police, justice and the American people. There is no way to avoid lies in the USA, especially Trump's BIG LIE, which Heather referred to. in today's LETTER The Republican Party, along with so many Americans have been infected by lies. Say Medaria Arrandona's name. Watch a video of his testimony. The truth is alive and we need to see more of it.
'A fifth-generation Minnesota resident, Arradondo joined the MPD in 1989 as a patrol officer in the Fourth Precinct and worked his way up through the police ranks until he was named the inspector for the First Precinct.[1] In 2007, he and four other African-American officers sued the department alleging discrimination in promotions, pay, and discipline.[2][3] The lawsuit was settled by the city for $740,000, and in December 2012 Arrandondo was promoted to head of the Internal Affairs Unit responsible for investigation of allegations of officer misconduct.[4] (Wikipedia) Arrandondo is 53rd Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department and assumed office on July 21th, 2017
I will leave you with Police Chief, Medaria Arradonda,, for now
Chief Arradondo has had a meteoric rise in the MPD. Lifer in the force. Roughly two years from promotion to promotion to promotion. Cadet to Chief of Police. Highly regarded, principled, respected (except by the likes of Chauvin and the trumpist-mega-rascal head of the MPD police union, who has announced "retirement"/may already have retired).
Union head is a bit of a thug, and neither Mr G nor I would be at all surprised to learn that he was in DC on January 06. (Mr G: my husband)
Didn't know about union head. I'll remember Mr. G. Glad you identified him!
I agree this is remarkable and significant, but I do wonder if they are throwing Chauvin under the bus in order to avoid a systemic examination of police practices in Minneapolis and the country at large. Don't get me wrong--I'm overjoyed to see him under that bus. But he is a symptom rather than the disease, and I fear the disease is going to go untreated.
Not the case here. Minneapolis is undergoing a painful and extensive examination of its policing (historic and in the here and now). The systemic issues are being dug up like so many fishing worms. Lots of worms.
That's certainly good to hear. The proof will be in substantially changed philosophies of policing, though. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Reid, I understand your question, but if you learn about Arradondo's background and watch his testimony, I don't think you will doubt his honesty and dedication.
Reid, I'm guessing that Chauvin is motivated by a desire for power and control, which isn't unusual in law enforcement. He came equipped, and didn't necessarily need a corrupt structure to encourage its manifestation. The fact that Arradondo came up through the ranks, sued the department for discrimination and mistreatment, and wasn't squashed like a bug speaks volumes for the Minneapolis PD, in my opinion.
Outstanding!
Thank you, Fern, for pointing out how a BIG LIE can be disproved. It has to come from the top, which will be difficult in our government. The fact that Arradondo rose to his position after having been the victim of racism and discrimination should give all of us hope that the current dilemma in our political system can be rectified from within. It's too easy to be defeatist and give up. I just don't believe that it is preordained that the liars, cheaters, and grifters who have infected our imperfect government will prevail. If we choose to elect principled officials, I think the ship can be righted. We've already done it in 2020.
Yes, Nancy we agree about the importance of achieving a more civil society. To achieve that goal a more educated citizenry in ethics, morals and reasoning is necessary. Without an understanding of the role of government, reducing corruption, greater scrutiny of political candidates and an educated citizenry we will continue to fight against the wind.
Sorry for the the typos, friends.
I didn’t notice them but god knows that I belatedly notice mine every time I post one. They are very small in the scheme of things.
Thank you, Dick. I hate that I've missed them, when it seems too late to delete.
When you’ve missed them it’s always too late to delete and correct 🤷♂️
When it's an egregious typo, you can highlight and save the post, delete it, re-enter it, make the correction(s) and repost the comment.
I knew that Mrs. G.
Dear Professor HCR,
The light of your insights always precedes the dawn. Thank you for allowing us to see those truths before Republicans taint it with their false hues.
So true and so eloquently stated. 😍
Regarding Trump’s scamming supporters into “giving” him interest-free loans: Trump is a modern day Calvera (from The Magnificent Seven) who said “If God did not want them shorn, He would not have made them sheep.”
😔
This schism - between deplorable populists and corporatists - has been in the making at least since trump rode down the elevator. The deplorable army (led by Trump, with lieutenants like Cruz, Gaetz, Hawley, Greene, Noem, Paul, Cotton, et al) want an end to immigration, an end to abortion and women's rights, an end to gay marriage and LGBTQ rights, promotion of white privilege, restricted minority rights, a ban on Muslims, guns guns guns, an end to globalization and a Christian theocracy installed in government institutions. Corporations just want to make money, with as few taxes and regulations as possible. The corporate backers of the GOP are mostly in favor of gay rights, minority rights and women's rights, and very much in favor of immigration and globalization. Corporations are mostly opposed to Christian dominion-ism and the proliferation of guns. Since Reagan, there's been an unspoken alliance between these two camps. Corporations have ignored the gun-humping, bible-thumping, nativist, racist platform of the populists in the GOP, in return for tax cuts and de-regulation. Now corporations are realizing that supporting deplorables is bad for business. Poor, poor Mitch. The GOP has risen to power by distracting the rubes with rants about gays, god and guns, while collecting corporate $$ billions to win elections. It's coming apart...so sad.
Immigration is more nuanced than you indicate. And the worst of it is that we are in danger of losing the Senate and the House over immigration. FYI, I'm a Bernie Sanders Dem, from a family of Dems. My great uncle, Phillip Hornbein, a union lawyer, was de facto head of the CO Dem Party for most of the first half of the last century.
Very briefly, there is way too much immigration--too much for environmental sustainability, as we already have four times the population that would be sustainable with current consumption https://www.overshootday.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
and too much to allow American workers to get decent pay because there is an oversupply of cheap labor, which devalues these workers. (here's a concise, clear explanation)
https://americancompass.org/the-commons/worker-power-loose-borders-pick-one/
What should really scare you about Biden's immigration plan is that a majority of Americans, including some Democrats, oppose it.
Both Politico and Thomas Edsall (NYT columnist) have written about this very recently.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/18/immigration-politics-democrats-469732
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/opinion/house-senate-2022-2024.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20210331&instance_id=28676&nl=the-morning®i_id=57299399&segment_id=54559&te=1&user_id=2622f4c35fb33d018d00f0d31784bbd2
Democratic reps on the Texas/New Mexico border have warned about this, as David Leonhardt wrote 3/21 in the NYT
"Some Democrats are unhappy, too. Biden’s policy “incentivizes droves of people to come, and the only way to slow it down is by changing policy at our doorstep,” Representative Vicente Gonzalez of Texas told The Washington Post. Henry Cuellar, another House Democrat from Texas, said the administration was sending “a terrible message.”"
To understand where immigration is problematic, it's important to know the numbers. from 1990-present immigration added 43 million to the US population, equivalent to two New York States plus 3 million. That was on top of native increase of two more NY States. (Do you ever wonder why traffic keeps getting worse, why schools and emergency rooms keep getting more crowded? Why tick-born diseases have become more common? Now you know.)
The Biden plan would add a New York State every decade.
When Barbara Jordan ran a commission on immigration under Pres Clinton (to those too young to remember, she was an African American Democrat from Texas who made her name on the House Watergate Committee), she recommended cutting immigration nearly in half, to half a million and change annually. At this point, I think it needs to be cut down a lot further, to 250-300k, given how global warming is already reducing Earth's and the US's carrying capacities.
Here's what I'd consider a reasonable immigration compromise. Legalize dreamers and those who have lived in the US more than five years with citizenship for the former, and green cards for the latter. A national, mandatory E-Verify, with heavy fines for companies that knowingly hire people here illegally and/or jail time for their CEOs. Strict limits on annual immigration of 250-300k, regardless of numbers of immigrants relatives who want to come in, numbers of refugees, people already in line for immigration, etc. Our country badly needs to reduce its population, or at least stabilize it.
If this is done, we won't need a $15/hour minimum wage. Wages will rise as companies compete for workers. Emergency rooms will get a lot less hectic. Sprawl will become less of a problem. Traffic will stop getting worse. Schools will do a better job educating students (A friend who is one of the top hard scientists in the US--whose name you'd probably recognize--was appalled to learn, in the mid-'90s, that his daughter, in a majority immigrant public school in one of the California university cities, was in the 34th percentile nationally in math. "Not to worry, the teacher told him, "your daughter is the star of the class") (Daughter is now tops in her field.)
David, there's a lot to unpack (and correct) in your post on immigration. Yes, as you say, there are a lot of Dems who are anti-immigration. They're often basing that opposition on misinformation, and scapegoating immigrants for other problems.
First off, we are a country of immigrants. Immigrants built (and continue to build) America. It's not like immigrants are an add-on, they are us, we are all immigrants, immigrants are our foundation. Secondly, anti-immigrant sentiment in various guises goes back 200 years. People have been arguing forever that there's no more room, that immigrants bring disease ("tick borne illnesses" - you really want to go there?), that they steal jobs, that they crowd our schools and hospitals - these arguments are neither new nor accurate.
The question of the US population and environmental impact is much bigger, and more nuanced than "we can't have immigration because of environmental sustainability". It's true that Americans consume far more resources than people living in many other countries. That has nothing to do with immigration. Eliminating immigration isn't going to reduce global warming. We Americans need to change our lifestyles, not blame immigrants.
Data show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than the population as a whole. They're not the ones crowding our schools, or emergency rooms (there's a pandemic going on, don't you know). They tend to avoid hospitals and emergency rooms (they're younger, and they want to avoid detection by authorities). Rather than creating an imaginary crowding problem, immigrants can help solve a declining population problem. There are parts of the country that are emptying out, and need people to move there. They need immigrants.
The economic arguments for and against immigration are also less black-and-white than you imply. Immigrants do take jobs that otherwise might go to Americans, like farm work and working in meat packing plants. At the same time, immigrants help the economy grow. Every immigrant is a consumer - they buy goods, they pay taxes. Their net impact on the economy is generally positive. And, importantly, immigrants tend to be younger, which means they're able to pay our Social Security and care for our rapidly aging population. Many economists argue that we need to increase immigration, for the strength of our long-term economy.
JR, I've been following this issue VERY closely for more than two decades.
First of all, you are wrong to characterize me, and other democrats who would reduce immigration, as "anti-immigrant." And you are wrong to characterize us as scapegoating immigrants. My problem isn't with immigrants per se. It's with the huge numbers of them. (You obviously did not read my post carefully, where I said 250-300k would be a reasonable number of immigrants. I'm guessing you don't even know how many people are coming into our country every year.) But we've been having too much immigration for more than 40 years. It's a matter of ***numbers***. This is the nuance that you don't seem to get.
Too much immigration leads to increased global warming because we are the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita GH emissions. The average immigrant's emissions rise 3-4fold after arrival here. (Think about the consumption in the countries they come from. Not nearly as great as ours.)
My comment about tick-borne diseases was not meant to imply that immigrants bring those diseases to the United States. The problem is overpopulation. It disrupts normal ecological relationships, and the relative lack of such disruption which when I was a kid in the '50s and '60s meant that tick borne diseases were almost unheard of. They were still not all that common through the '80s. They have become far more common as the population has grown from 248 million in 1990 to the current 328 million. (I've interviewed people who study tick-borne diseases.)
Did I say anything about immigrants stealing jobs? I'll thank you not to put words in my mouth. I don't fault immigrants for trying to come here. My problem is with our government, especially the GOPers who undermined unions, in no small part by voting for more immigration under Reagan and Bush--because they like the cheap labor that makes their big biz friends rich! But it's Econ 101 that the greater the supply of a resource, the less its value. That means that when you're importing a million-plus workers annually, workers' wages stagnate or plummet, which is why meat packers, who got a good union wage north of $20/hr a generation ago are now getting barely minimum, under atrocious working conditions.
Which brings up your point about jobs Americans won't do. There are no jobs Americans won't do. But imagine yourself beginning as a meat packer in, say, 1980, at twenty-something dollars an hour. If you stuck with the work, you'd have been down to minimum wage some time in the '00s. By the way, some US companies actually imported cheap foreign labor to replace American workers. You can read about that here, in The Atlantic
https://tinyurl.com/3kwvetuw
And here: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html
As for crowding emergency rooms, there were a lot of articles in the NYT on that in the '00s.
As for growing the economy, there's no question that adding people grows GNP. But what matters to you and me is not gross domestic product, but PER CAPITA gross domestic product. The only people whose per capita GDP goes up are the most recent immigrants and business owners.
http://cis.org/NAS-Study-Workers-and-Taxpayers-Lose-Businesses-Benefit
As for immigrants being younger than Americans, the difference in average ages is only a couple of years. And half of all immigrants--the low/no-skilled ones--have such low earnings that they are a net fiscal burden. So they're not going to contribute to your social security.
You are talking about issues where you seem to lack any knowledge. Invoking the pandemic as if that were my reason for saying immigrants are crowding ERs when I've been watching this issue for over 20 years is one of the signs of that. Why don't you read the links in both of my posts on this article, which could at least get you started.
The scary thing is that Biden's immigration policies, as I pointed out in my previous post (see links) are likely to lose us the House and the Senate. Unless you educate yourself on at least that part of this issue, you're going to help steer us towards the disaster of giving control back to the GOP.
There are about 30 million legal immigrants living in the US today, who became naturalized citizens over the past 50 years but weren’t born here. There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants living today in the US. How many immigrants are “too many”? What are the calculations that go into that number?
It seems only fair that, to decrease global warming, we do everything we can to keep as many people as possible living in subsistence conditions. Why not reverse immigration, and send Americans to live in poverty in Central America? That would reduce the GHG emissions of every emigrant by 75%. Or maybe we acknowledge that everyone should be afforded a decent standard of living, and we do the work to accomplish that sustainably.
Tick borne diseases have risen in the US because of climate change (warmer winters mean fewer ticks killed by cold), reforestation of the northeast and midwest (resulting in rising rodent and deer populations) and the growth of suburbia (more people living where the deer and the rodents are). Human population growth in New England (where I live) has been slow to stagnant over the past 25 years. Tick borne diseases here have grown significantly. It has nothing to do with immigration.
Wages in meat packing plants in the 1980s averaged $10 an hour, lower than said wages in the 1970s. Wages today average $10 to $13 an hour. https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=1038 What drove down wages in the meat packing industry from 1970 to today was moving meat packing plants to rural areas (where cheaper workers live) and breaking unions, the same factors that drove down wages in the textile and furniture making industries. Not the use of immigrant labor, which didn’t really start to rise until the 1990s (after wages had fallen).
“Researchers found that 11 percent of adults living illegally in California had visited a hospital emergency room in the past year, a rate significantly lower than the 20 percent of U.S. born adults in California. That ‘negates the myth that undocumented immigrants are responsible for [emergency department] overcrowding,’ the researchers wrote in the latest issue of the journal Health Affairs.” It is true that undocumented immigrants go to ERs, because they don’t have Medicaid or health insurance. They do so at lower rates than the rest of us. We can’t blame the significant problems in our healthcare system on immigrants.
The average age of Americans is 38. “The average age of newly arrived legal and illegal immigrants has increased from 26 in 2000 to 31 in 2017. The newly arrived are those who have lived in the country for 1.5 years or less at the time of the survey.”
We have a rapidly aging population, with Americans having fewer kids, and with fewer young people to pay into Social Security. “According to New American Economy, undocumented immigrants contributed $13 billion into the Social Security funds in 2016 and $3 billion to Medicare.” Which they can’t access, because they can’t qualify for benefits.
We benefit from immigration, including undocumented immigration. Unless we educate voters on this fact, fear and ignorance are going to push voters to support xenophobic candidates.
The population of Massachusetts increased by half a million over the last 15 years to 7 million. It was a little over 5 million when I was a kid. And I can tell you whereas when I came back here in '99 I didn't have to worry about traffic in the middle of the day, now I do. And the sprawl has grown. I recently saw my doctor for a physical. In the middle of my appointment, her phone rang and she took it--something she'd never done before. I asked her why she'd had to take it. She said that a lot of people are now getting stuck in traffic on the way in, and call to see if they can come a little later.
$10 in 1980 equals $33 today.
Here's Northeastern University on the rise of tick borne diseases:
"Thanks to increasing urban and suburban sprawl, forests are being parceled into smaller pockets of vegetation. Parks and backyards in the suburbs are now the perfect size to sustain mice, but not quite large enough to sustain foxes. That means mice can run rampant with no natural predators to keep their population at bay. And with mice, come ticks."
https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/05/10/ticks-creep-into-the-city-bringing-lyme-disease-with-them/
Bringing in lots of immigrants was part of the union breaking strategy. And immigration had already started to rise in the '70s. From the Atlantic article I provided in my first post that you didn't read:
"The immigrant workers arrested in Mississippi the other day were earning about $12.50 an hour. Adjusted for inflation, during the late 1970s, the wages of meatpacking workers in Iowa and Colorado were about $50 an hour."
And if it hadn't been for mass immigration the wages would have remained high, because there wouldn't have been this oversupply of cheap labor.
My comments about emergency room crowding are not restricted to unauthorized immigrants, unlike yours.
I don't know where you're getting your figures on the age of immigrants as compared to Americans but they are wrong.
Your worries about social security ignore the fact that labor productivity has been increasing steadily, and that--according to recent articles in both the NYT and the New Yorker, automation may put half of all working people out of jobs over the next two decades. And like I said, half of all immigrants are low/no-skilled, and a net fiscal drain.
Contrary to what you say, according to Pew, over the next 45 years, there will be a native increase of 17 million. But it would be a blessing if our population dropped. The notion that the economy needs a growing population is a Ponzi scheme and not true. Right now, we're in the midst of one of the six or seven greatest mass extinctions in the history of our planet--caused by an exploding population. When animal and plant populations shrink, ecosystem services--clean air, clean water, pollination, fertile soil, and a host of others--become less, and that endangers humans.
And again, go back to my first post where I explain--with references--that too much immigration is putting the US at risk of losing a Democratic majority on Capitol Hill, and of keeping a Democrat in the White House. As the former guy administration demonstrated, the GOP in power puts our Democracy at risk.
Anyone can demonize immigrants. It’s easy. It’s also morally wrong to do so. As I’ve demonstrated, every one of your “facts” is partially true, and also misses or denies a significant part of the story.
We can throw data at each other all day long. That’s not important. What is, is this question: are we going to continue to be a country that welcomes “the tired, the hungry and the poor who yearn to breathe free”? Or are we going to become a stingy, selfish, narrow-minded country that turns its back on its heritage and its foundation? Every American generation has wrestled with this issue.
True, the GOP knows how to exaggerate and exploit fear of immigrants for political gain. That’s wrong, it’s indefensible. We will also be wrong if we cave to their fear, and join in demonizing immigrants.
Where is the book about Mitch? When will justice throw the book at him? Any thoughts JR?
There were rumors of Mitch being investigated because of a "bribe for killing sanctions" scheme with a Russian oligarch who then built an aluminum plant in Mitch's home state (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-a-mcconnell-backed-effort-to-lift-russian-sanctions-boosted-a-kentucky-project/2019/08/13/72b26e00-b97c-11e9-b3b4-2bb69e8c4e39_story.html). He's also come under scrutiny, along with his wife (Trump transportation sec'y and heir to a shipping fortune) for favoritism for his father-in-law's shipping company and the Chinese (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/politics/transportation-secretary-elaine-chao.html). Mitch is a sneaky one, always managing to stay just this side of blatant corruption (as far as we know). And his power protects him. Wouldn't it be so fitting to have AG Merrick Garland investigate and prosecute Mitch? Talk about turn-about being fair play. I'd love to see that.
Thanks, JR. I knew about his wife and her family. I'll reads the links. Oh that corny saying, 'Hope springs eternal'. At least, it is spring.
Mitch is such a bad person that his three daughters are long estranged from him.
I’ve wondered about this aluminum plant n Kentucky. If it was such a great deal, why didn’t Alcoa ( an American public company) put a plant there? With such corruption, how can our public companies compete? We saw something similar with an Indian Titanium mine, bribed and gave contracts to the Russians. Boeing relys on titanium, aluminum, and carbon fiber to build airplanes. Internationally Oligarchs like Dimitri Firtash can bribe and blackmail corrupt politicians around the world to get what they want, subverting market forces and control global commodity prices. State run oil is the best known big one, but it’s everywhere, and this hurts western corporations the most.
Russians haven't funded Mitch's AL mine to nowhere. Do you think if other guy won the WH, this would still be the case?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-17/russian-backer-halts-funds-in-new-blow-to-u-s-aluminum-project
Does an aluminum plant create environmental problems?
Yes. All mining does one way or another. Nature does deal well with high concentrations of anything. Water quality is the first threat around mines.
Does not (ops!)
I remember learning that getting aluminum from a recycled aluminum can takes 95 percent less water and energy than making a new aluminum can from bauxite ore.
JR, I read the article in NY Times about Chao family when it first appeared. Your first link about the proposed aluminum project in Kentucky is full leads. Thank you. It appears that Steve Mnuchin's involvement with the country's sanctions on Russia and the aluminum project call for more scrutiny. The project continues to be problematic. I posted a link here, the most recent on the subject that I could find:
https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/aluminum-company-pleads-for-more-time-to-build-ky-plant/article_bc49816e-722d-11eb-8d1d-237f4faddb3a.html
You might check Bloomberg News for more info if you are interested.
Thanks for these links, Fern!
He is too clever for this. He is all about plausible deniability. He would also not hesitate to throw his own mother under the bus if he remains unscathed. No scruples whatsoever.
When it comes, I hope it's the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica or something equally voluminous.
Love the punchy and pungent way you say it!
Precisely
There is something satisfying about having a place to post. It is like doing a painting where you already know where it is going to hang. The flip side to that, as there is always a flip side, is that you already know the extent to which you might be understood or misunderstood.
Years ago I became convinced that despite the political, sociological, biochemical strata of evident human experience there was a more subtle and pervasive connection that we experience less consciously. This layer has to do with the quality of thought and emotion. I learned of this in the wilderness survival environment where subtlety is abundant and nature is undisturbed but it was my experience in the emergency department that convinced me. Despite the high levels of emotion people are experiencing they are in crisis and therefore they are not as set in their way. They are more susceptible to influence. Without changing my physical practice I began to pay attention to the thoughts and emotions around me and to interact with them in my personal consciousness with, not an expectation exactly, but an open door to the possibility that it could have an effect. And, it did.
I began to be able to sense how entrenched an individual was in their experience. This entrenchment was independent of the severity of the clinical situation. The more entrenched they were the less I would attempt this mechanism because it simply wouldn’t work. This had no correspondence to intelligence, education, race, age or time of day. It was completely individual in my observation. I didn’t share this with colleagues or patients of course for two reasons. One, anonymity added to the effectiveness and two, I didn’t want to be singled out as crazy. I did mention that perhaps instinct had a role to play in clinical medicine and that it could be trained along with the intellect. As you can imagine this idea had no legs.
I bring this up because despite our letter writing campaigns and our notion of a liberal future or our understandings of how corrupt our leaders always seem to be the progress of recent history is more clearly seen by understanding the manipulations of the advertising industry. This is why big money wins. The effect of advertising through social media, fake news outlets, propaganda outlets and politicians who have a voice because of our insatiable appetite for daily controversy have a palpable effect on the same level of being that I sensed in the ED.
I suggest that this is how the brain washing works. It is not the topic of the day at all, it is the subtle energetic accompaniment that rides all that physical activity like mold on a shipping pallet. Our current mix of media is so much more powerful in this way than newspaper or old style TV that this is now the dominant strata of human experience. So, is it more effective to write a letter to your senators, who are some of the most entrenched personalities I have ever sensed, or is it as beneficial to simply sip your coffee and order your thoughts?
Of course it takes all kinds and the purpose isn’t to rule the day but to guide it toward a future that has a better chance of being pleasant for your grand children. And, for those that see it, a better place for your next life.
I've always considered that my unconscious half is a much more intelligent and knowledgeable than that which has managed to make itself conscious. The instinct that comes from this, and to which i listen assiduously, is, to me, my inner self teaching, training, expanding and directing the outer conscious personality. In combination the 2 can, in my mind interreact with their external non-human environment and other human "consciousness/unconscious combinations and change the course of things.
I agree with what you are saying except that the Jung/ Freud's legacy of separating ourselves into two places conscious and unconscious is limiting. What if there are many more parts than just two?
I certainly prefferred Jung's thoughts on the matter to Freud's.
Many with more esoteric education and tendancies would advance a figure of 7 different entities within the One.
The Apache considered 23 levels coincidently similar to the number of dimensions in combined string theory. Odd factoid category.
Native Americans as ever have much to teach us.
Oh I would LOVE to pick your brain.... I am starting to research how our instinctual center of intelligence can act in different ways based on core wiring. A lot of what you're saying makes a LOT of sense to me.
email is pmunson1954@gmail.com
Well, I feel the development with potentially the farthest reaching affect is today’s announcement from Senate Parlimentarian, who has ruled that Senate Democrats may pass another THREE legislative initiatives through the Senate, due to the Budget Reconciliation process. But there is something much more exciting, and it happens this morning .....
More importantly to all of our personal lives, is the opportunity for one and all to ask a personal question of America’s leading journalist, at 11AM ET, TODAY, on Maine Public call-in talk show, “Maine Calling.” (mpbn.org) And that journalist is, of course, ...
Judy Woodruff.
My “Mrs". and I are so gob-smacked at this idea, that for the first time ever, I may be too nervous to speak on live, public radio (after having personally hosted a public radio program for several years)!. Alas, we recently learned that our endearing Professor Richardson was interviewed a week ago Friday. HOWEVER - tomorrow is, at last, our chance to graciously thank our dinner guest of nearly every mid-week meal, of the past six or seven years. And Judy Woodruff has indeed been our most favorite guest! She IS such wonderful company, you should know!
I will have dreams tonight, of being on the phone throughout my adopted home state, with thousands of listeners, with my “Shero” of American journalism. I already anticipate how she will FINALLY answer the question my heart has longed to ask ...
Manchin.
Any one of 50 can play the Manchin card. But they will find a way to continue to work together. They still recognize a huge orange common enemy.
I was SOOOO nervous, and DID NOT ask her to have dinner with us along the Maine coast, at any time of her choosing! I ought to have ..... We’ve had dinner with her practically EVERY day since .... 2014! But, I’m glad the host welcomed my question.
McConnell helped create the monster and now he is learning that he can't control it. It makes me think of some of the excerpts from Boehner's upcoming book about the chaos created in congress with the advent of the Tea Party.
Didn’t you love how Boehner said what an ass Ted Cruz was? Cracked me up!
I suppose it takes one to know one!
It's also the unvarnished words and feelings on display, which we rarely see from politicians, even in memoirs.
Tea party = Sado Populism ( vote against your own interest, hurting themselves)
As did many voters for the former guy
You think so? I don't. McConnell is playing the long game and every bit of evidence points to the fact that he is going to win. Rs will regain the House in 2022 via gerrymandering and voter suppression. They may also retake the Senate. At this point I would call the 2024 presidential race a tossup. McConnell is not even breaking a sweat, merely playing the pieces he's been given and waiting for his checkmate to become evident. Never underestimate The Snake.
I agree about not underestimating him. I do think, his world has been shaken by Insurrection Day (Jan.6) and large donors pausing donations to Republican candidates and PACS. Also, I don't think he likes being the Minority Leader in the Senate, no matter how precarious the edge of the Majority.
The Snake.
Shades of "Fantasia!" The Sorcerer's Apprentice, starring Mickey McConnell!
So, Trump supporters were scammed out of $122 million and then gave him enough more contributions to allow him to pay them back?
I had the same thought.
What happened to "I'm so rich I will fund my own campaign"?
Yet more evidence that supporters of the former president are not distinguished by their critical thinking skills.
Stupid is as stupid does.
We never believed him.