The Democratic National Committee today released a platform that lays out the history of the last four years and explains how and why the Biden-Harris administration has oriented the United States government toward ordinary Americans.
So much that I'll be sharing today from last night. This above all: “Our nation is at an inflection point What kind of America will we be? A land of more freedom, or less freedom? More rights or fewer? An economy rigged for the rich and powerful, or where everyone has a fair shot at getting ahead?” - From the Democratic Party Platform Preamble
Yes, today here in the U.S. there are 806 billionaires that have the accumulated wealth of 163,000,000 Americans, that's one-half of the American population. What that means is that we are an oligarchy. With that kind of wealth, they can afford to buy all the print and air time that they need to spew their propaganda and wedge issues: immigrants, abortion, Muslims, gay rights, etc. We really are at war and the line in the sand is now very distinctly drawn.
Off to the polls where I am signing people in to vote. No, there will be no illegal immigrants permitted to vote.
There are three stories. A “comedy” is about the innocent victims of the protagonist’s naïve optimism, a “tragedy” is about the innocent victims of the protagonist’s cynical pessimism, and “the hero’s journey” is about the world becoming a better place because of the protagonist’s pragmatic optimism.
In 2024, the Republican party's story has become a tragedy, and the Democratic party's story has become the hero’s journey.
In today's WaPo, columnist Karen Attiah bent history, logic, and ethics into a pretzel concluding that it would be hard for Black women not to vote for Harris: "But if that’s what it takes to put this human rights catastrophe in the spotlight, so be it.""
Attiah is saying: If what it takes to tell off Democrats is electing Trump - and all that implies. So be it.
Much like what I heard from the Chicago Gaza protestors.
As if the human rights catastrophe in Gaza was not in the spotlight.
A Karen of a different color. A privileged and protected member of the Washington establishment appropriating Palestinian suffering to indulge in the theatre of holier than thou self righteousness and make her bones with the worst of the Left. She can afford to say "So be it" to another Trump term. And is smugly content to throw everyone and everything under the Trump train.
And the strangest thing is that the right and Trump have NO PLANS and no actions that would appease any Palestinian suffering. In fact, Trump cut them out of any consideration and negotiations at all while he was president. They helped set the stage for the modern Isreali hard Right wing government.
Trump's self vaunted Abrahamic Accords was a solution to "the Palestinian problem" - which excluded Palestinian participation. And Trump moving the US embassy to contested Jerusalem effectively ended two state negotiations. Trump brags on "giving Golan to Netanyahu' and is such a booster for Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, that there is a settlement in occupied territory named in Trump's honor.
Barbara, this is precisely the point that seems to elude the protestors. There's no scenario where Trump's election would alleviate the plight of Palestinian civilians. Additionally, his election could spell disaster for Ukraine. I hope that VP Harris emphasizes the profound contrast between her vision and Trump's regarding America's global stance in her Thursday speech. The critical point is that Trump's policies will erode democracy domestically and abandon its defense internationally.
lin, if death star is elected, the Gaza protesters will reap what they sow. This is classic cutting off your nose to spite your face. Have they forgotten the part about deporting people, about stringent immigration rules which also apply to those from the middle east, about the hatred of Islam, about a theocracy of white Christian nationalists. Death star is with Bibi.
The problem is, if Trump wins, our most vulnerable neighbors, fragile planet, and endangered democracy will bear the brunt. Privileged people like Attiah and many of the protestors will be relatively sheltered from the worst results of their bad choices.
Those who crave absolute power divide and conquer. Those that empower open our "eyes" and our "hearts". I often repeat posting this, but some words are worthy of of it. It needs some mental updating to meet with modern understandings, but once again I think Lincoln nailed an overriding principle social justice:
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
These deliberately inane idiots are worse than MAGAts. As bad as chump, having their egos the main thing in the mirror. I couldn’t despise them and their self-righteous preening any more. Just come right out and line up with another ego pretending to be human.
Please forgive my tendency to find conspiracies. Almost everyone is opposed to the suffering of Gaza citizens. Netanyahu, like DJT, wants to cover his ass by upheaval. But IMHO, the protests, beginning with "liberal" campuses, are a little too vehemently opposed to Biden and Dems. Good, bright women presidents were made to step down for the thinnest of reasons. While I wrote to the White House to halt weapons sales, I also understand America's pledge to protect Israelis and protect us from Iran. What I am saying is the protests smack of Putin's usual election-disrupting efforts and the aspirations of right-wing Americans who want to be just like him.
There is fraught history between the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, and Israel. It gets very complicated. And today's 'Gaza protests' are not monolithic. In what you say, I see righteous protests - over Israel's disproportionate response to the Hamas atrocities, creating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza - being appropriated by other agendas. Including Jill Stein type trashing of Democrats (for which after Trump's win, Putin rewarded her at a dinner where she was seated with Putin and that other useful idiot Mike Flynn.) Of course - Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu support each other.
Photos in a Chicago newspaper show a field full of stacks of signs - never used by the unexpectedly small crowd. The organizers were passing a bucket for contributions but I doubt that is the primary funding for the slick mass produced signs.
The shame of it all, is that a disciplined and focussed protest would lay out the case for enforcing the Leahy Laws - fact by irrefutable fact. That, more than all the vitriol and emotionalism, might contribute to useful real world improvements for Palestinians.
This pendulum has been swinging for at least a thousand years (thinking of the crusades). Neither Christians nor Muslims have been able to figure out how to live side by side peaceably, why should Jews in Israel be able to figure it out in three generations (since Israel and Palestine became separate countries in 1948)?
Trump and Netanyahu certainly don't have any solutions. Both are just power grubbers looking to save their own skins without a second thought for the civilians and children at heinous risk because of their callous disregard.
Let this Karen of another color (great coinage, btw) join their rank ranks.
So much for religion and the "my god is better than your god" routine. As long as religious leaders of whatever religious persuasion, preach that those who don't follow their particular superstition are less than, then the doors will be open for violence and bloodshed.
Thank you... I have been feeling angrier and angrier about this whole situation, i.e. people willing to sit out the election as if 'teaching the Dems a lesson' would actually help the innocents who are suffering in Gaza -- which it will not. That's the part these protesters seem to gloss over. And of course they're throwing everyone else under the bus as well, including Europe and Ukraine, if Trump is elected.
The pushback in the comments at WAPO is great. "So be it" is the price for righteousness. I don't fault the paper. We should know this view, as myopic as it is. No thoughts to consequences after the satisfaction of punishing by withholding a vote. Then the protester has to live with the consequences and perhaps cover over with feelings of being principled, convincing oneself of having integrity and standing up to injustice as opposed to actually doing something that might help.
The whole 'Vote Your Conscience' thing is upside down. It is used as a call to put your individual inclinations above all. But 'conscience' is supposed to be that which tells us to put a greater good over our personal feelings.
Ok...I hear what you are saying. Nothing said by this lady is going to make me vote for the Dumpster. However, we should also be clear of what Biden has done to expand and prolong the suffering in Gaza at the hands of Israel's Trump replica. Sending a two-carrier task force was clearly over the top and meant to send a message to those who would dare protect Palestinian civilians and making sure that Palestinians continued to be expendable. A Karen of a different color? You may or may not have some justification for that assessment. Everyone has a right to their opinion, so long as it is based on factual evidence and not blowhard assertions such as Trump and his minions would offer. I would caution anyone however, to look at the history of the Zionist state in the past 76 years amid the brutalities it has inflicted upon Palestinians just for the right to have human dignity and a right to live on the land on which they have lived for centuries. Invading Palestine in 1947 with state-of-the-art weaponry against a civilian population armed with one shot carbines was a no match conflict destined to be lost by the Palestinians. That was bad enough and admittedly, the price of war. The real story is what happened after the dust settled, only for far more dust to be created by an ethnic cleansing campaign to which the world in most cases turned a blind eye. Save for those who investigated the realities of that conflict, people like Count Folke Bernadotte or those who sought a peace agreement like Israel's own Yitzak Rabin, those brave folks faced the assassins bullet for which Israel has become so infamous. This is the reality of their mindset and unfortunately, President Biden supported the way to historically and blindly accept and walk into the Zionist's mind trap. It wasn't too long ago when a thug, no less than one than Trump and very much in Trump's orbit on how to govern, Netanyahu lavished praise on Biden for being a "catholic Zionist." Really?!? For me, that was as insulting an opulent statement, and pretentious as could be, as one could ever hope to avoid. Unfortunately, Biden accepted it. However, Karen Attiah may think about world conflicts, whether right or wrong and whether we agree with her or not, on this particular point, she has a legitimate opinion.
Karen Attiah telling Black women that their choice is between spotlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or voting for Kamala Harris - is both inaccurate and indefensible.
Inaccurate 1. because the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has eclipsed humanitarian crises on almost every continent. It is already in the spotlight.
2. The choice is between Harris and Trump.
Indefensible because in the context of any concern - whether it is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or any other concern - voting for Harris is the only defensible choice. Not voting or voting for anyone but Harris, is in effect voting to put Trump in power - and all that comes with that. Enactment of the racist right wing religious extremist Project 2025 for us. Free rein for the racist right wing religious extremist Netanyahu regime in Israel and Palestine.
I will not rehearse the modern history of Palestine and Israel. Suffice it to say, Hamas' Yahya Sinwar and Israel's Netanyahu are two sides of the same coin - both prefer unmitigated slaughter and suffering to a two state solution. The Biden administration has
built international consensus for two state negotiations, but Sinwar and Netanyahu will not even agree to a cease fire.
We must see what happens in the next few days. This ends in the utter destruction / self destruction of Israel and Palestine or it ends at the negotiating table. No matter how many bodies must be climbed over to get there. And negotiations must leave out historic grievances and national myth making, in order to focus entirely on the legal framework and logistics for sovereign and geographically autonomous Israeli and Palestinian states. Once that is accomplished, there will be a space for truth and reconciliation efforts.
Someone posted last night soon after Hillary's speech that HRC was recycling some HCR points. I noticed that HRC did put the history of Woman national candidates in proper chronological context leading to ... Go Kamala "we're not going back".
Kathy, your points will be front & center later today. Per the Michigan 'Lansing State Journal' on 8/19/24 the Orange Felon will be in Howell, MI at the Livingston County Sheriff's Office. 150 S. Highlander Way, Howell, for some sort of weird, full-of-hate, white supremacy gathering.
Oh jeez - that's where the Nazi march was just recently, right? I'm from Michigan - outside Detroit and then Ann Arbor. It's a wonderful place, but there's always been that evil, dark underbelly hiding in the weeds. Not hiding anymore.
"Henry Ford's picture hung on Adolf Hitler's office wall."
"We look on Heinrich Ford as the leader of the growing Fascisti movement in America,” Hitler said in 1923. “We admire particularly his anti-Jewish policy which is the Bavarian Fascisti platform.” "
Along with Joseph Kennedy, Ford probably returned the compliment.
"The relationship of Ford and GM to the Nazi regime goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, when the American car companies competed against each other for access to the lucrative German market. Hitler was an admirer of American mass production techniques and an avid reader of the antisemitic tracts penned by Henry Ford."
I opted for Michoacan over Michigan when I felt forced out of the US in 2021. I may be a coward or an irredeemable cynic, but all of the US is too scary for me, no matter who gets elected.
If the felon, the carnage will begin immediately; if Harris, we'll get the backlash when she leaves office. I could easily be wrong, but I believe that we only got Cheato in 2016 as a backlash to our first non-white president. What will they conjure up after a FEMALE non-white president? I fear Gilead, and I'd rather live out my declining years anywhere but a nuclear dump site (again referencing The Handmaid's Tale).
Our daughter was born in 1974 Mt Clemens while we were stationed at Selfridge ANGB. We saw some of the best and a bit too much of the worst in Michigan while there. Most memorable was a Black family moving into a home in New Baltimore, and being burned out before dawn the next day. 25 years later when I was doing my 170,000 mile version of Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" (in a big rig I called "Rocinante" like his GMC Camper), I often took the Friday trip from Irvine, CA's Jaccuzzi plant to 5 stops in the Detroit area that other drivers shied away from. It was supposed to take 2 days for the 5 tops starting in Ann Arbor, Walled Lake, Howell, Utica, and ending up in Dearborn Heights at a Fergusons warehouse just down the street from our fuel stop. I never failed to complete all 5 stops in one day, so I could end up spending the night in a familiar safe place (no matter what it looked like to others).
Like Vietnam, where I traveled about 60,000 miles through all of South Vietnam and a 6 base circuit in Thailand, I felt I had a pretty good sense of where you could go and when (and especially when you should leave an area). Lesson one was not to make any enemies you didn't need to, be sensitive to the mood of the people in an area and you can travel through many more areas than many would think.
There's plenty of independent media that calls it out many times a day, Jen. MSM is a dying breed.
And we'll all be sickened, regardless of bias, by the next pandemic if the felon is in charge... "bleach all around, drinks are on me," he'll say and then stiff the bartender.
I spent my undergraduate years at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and it took me a while to realize how conservative (and now radical right) parts of Michigan were and are. That death star chose Howell does not surprise me. When I did my student teaching at Kalamazoo Central High, the student teacher before me was Catholic. She had a story about the KKK burning a cross in the yard of her grandfather in St.Joseph, MI. My mother was born in Grand Rapids and my grandparents ended up in a small town west of there called Conklin. My uncle was from Muskegon. I doubt any of them were KKK members, but they were certainly racists.
This rally will be poorly attended and may even have walkouts, if the Wilkes Barre event is any indicator. Even racists get bored by unintelligible babble.
I did encounter the types that expressed the worst sounding racist language, but seemed to do so out of ignorance and next zero interpersonal experience with those they so carelessly bad mouthed.
Having my life [saved] possibly 4 times by 3 Black strangers and 1 I knew, I'm very slow to bad mouth anyone based on race (though I must admit I do get angry at some behaviors by people of any race or financial status).
He is probably one of them! I find that most lawmen get their jobs because they can't keep or get another job! They have been known to get paid little in our area.
I have represented a number of law-enforcement officers, and have dealt with others in agencies up to and including the Secret Service. Almost all of the officers I have known have been dedicated, honest and hard-working, often working much harder than me.
They've created that fear in you with their threats. Keep yourself safe, and beyond that know you have done all YOU can do to prevent their threats from becoming real. The Serenity Prayer is a good tool for us going forward into America 2.0.
I look on them pretty much like the supposed Nazi Werewolf "resistance" fighter s after Germany surrendered. They talked tough, but did little when they realized there was very little potential support for them (and likely internal resistance would rise against them if they tried to do as they planned).
As important is (from what I was told) policies that restricted over concentration of media ownership, and anti-trust in general. That is essential to a"free country" as well as a meaningful "free market. Anti-trust has become a mere wispy shadow of it's former self.
Just can’t imagine the amount of work Democrats have done in Florida in order that no race for the state house doesn’t have a Democrat running in it. Such a GIANT effort! It can’t be easy to run for office in deep red Florida. Talk about heroes!!!!!!
I’ve written postcards to several counties. TonyTheDemocrat will email addresses if you have or buy postcards. My birthday presents were mostly a lot of Etsy’s chicken postcards—fun to write because fun to look at. I’m hoping to write enough between hundreds for Tester (gotta keep the last farmer in the senate with climate change and price gouging of food) to help get all the Florida Dems voted in!
Concentration of wealth and income inequality are serious issues for our society, and are driving much of the anger and resentment that leads people to embrace a con artist, criminal and insurrectionist. Billionaires, however, and the wealthy in general, are not a monolithic anti-democratic mass. Most understand that constitutional democracy and the rule of law are good for business. In an authoritarian system of strongman rule, economic stability is eroded. Investment declines (who wants to invest when the whims of the Big Man may determine the outcome of their investment?), the country's currency depreciates, interest rates and risk premiums on government borrowing rise, along with inflation. Billionaires understand far better than most how damaging a second tRump term would be to the economy and their personal balance sheets. Those who don't are delusional, like the oligarchs who think their financial and personal survival doesn't depend on staying in Putin's good graces.
Chris, I like what you have written. What stymies me is how so many people are on the MAGAt train, where hatred and anger rule, and there is such a strong desire for the White Christian Nationalism to be imposed on the country.
I too, wonder, Ally. Here are some of my thoughts. 1) Republicans since Reagan have been told to band together no matter what. Only now are we seeing some peel away for their country's sake. 2) Since Milton Friedman and the billionaires' concerted efforts, most of America and the world believe the hype of a trickle-down economy and rule by the richest. 3) Powerful forces are at work to undermine America and democracy. Not the least of these actors is Vladimir Putin. More than most, I believe Putin's extraordinary reach is active and invasive. He loves nothing more than pitting people and nations against each other so that they will self-destruct. (Israel vs. Iran is his current favorite.) It's been proven that he or his benefactors are active in the destruction of democracies throughout the world, and he touts his own Orthodox Christianity, which we know is a dog whistle for misogyny, racism, and wealth. It's pathetic that Trump calls Democrats communists while he holds hands with communist dictators and wants to be like them, since they've all accumulated wealth at the detriment to their citizens.
Hope, I would say that all of those dictators are communists in name only. What I see is a return of pre-Revolutionary Russia and China where the oligarchs rule instead of aristocrats....in short nothing has changed. They are all absolute dictatorships no matter what they call their political parties. And Putin is using Orthodox Christianity in the same way that death star is using evangelicals here. Nothing Christian about either one of them.
For those who see Trump clearly, it's bewildering that he commands such strong support. The fact that so many fervently back him highlights a deeper issue that urgently needs addressing. At the core of this issue might be the rapid societal changes concerning immigrants and minority rights, including those of sexual minorities. These changes, which have come swiftly, are difficult for many to accept, leading to a backlash against what they perceive as unwelcome transformations. This resistance to change often drives people to support someone who promises to oppose these shifts.
My sense is that very few of the wealthy who vote Republican share that vision. They're doing it for one reason-- tax cuts. That is extremely cynical, short-term thinking, because fiscal deficits and a growing debt burden are also destabilizing and cause interest rates and inflation to rise. The underlying fraud of MAGA is that most of the people funding it on a large scale (not the small-dollar donors, who really have drunk the KoolAde) think it's all nonsense but believe they'll benefit from decreased regulation and lower taxes. I believe most of the GOP congress (with notable exceptions) is in the same category--they know better but have signed on for reasons of political and personal survival. J.D. Vance the poster child for this kind of opportunism.
I would like to, in my lifetime, live in a country in which the uber-wealthy express gratitude for the wealth common workers have helped them amass. (I would also like to live in a country in which I can walk down the street past a person of color and not sense that a black man is self conscious because of discrimination and harassment he's experienced, or past a single woman who doesn't feel wary and scared because she doesn't know if I'm more like Trump or more like Walz.) I would like to see crime in subsidized housing complexes drop because the residents have jobs, hope, and predictability. I would like a rational conversation about how to transition to cleaner fuels while preserving economic freedoms and opportunity. I want to welcome again my Russian colleagues because their country has rejoined reality. Alas, there are many more hopes, but I have another infernal Zoom mtg to attend, but those hopes will blossom under a sane Democratic administration.
Chris, I agree with your take on what's driving the anger and resentment in our society.
That said, I am wondering how people can justify to themselves buying Tesla automobiles, knowing that the fellow at the top of the Tesla organization is even more dangerous to democracy than TFG. In the town where I live (10 miles north of Boston), those cars are as ubiquitous as VW Beetles and Toyota Priuses used to be.
How is it possible to be so willfully blind as this?
Gentle reminder that VW Beetles originated in nazi Germany, that Henry “Henriech” Ford was a Nazi sympathizer, and yes, Musk is a social jerk, mildly autistic with an emotional IQ of 0 and a Trump supporter. However, Teslas are designed and built by tens of thousands of workers (non Union but very well paid), and happen to be the most American sourced car, and the brand that miraculously jump started our move towards electrification after GM dropped the ball for corporate greed over national need. As adults, I believe it’s possible to hold these kinds of opposing ideas at once, that Musk is weird but Teslas are innovative and excellent cars, and not throw the baby out with the bath water. That said, given these tumultous times, I get why people are so emotional about it.
Billionaires are not monolithic but the ultra-plutocratic ones are empirically warping our republic, to the point of affecting a coup d'etat. Look at how their proteges rend the Constitution in $COTUS, the Koch-funded "Tea Party", the Powell Letter, the billions spent on lobbying that patently affects societal outcomes, that the banks "own the place" (Congress), that the cost of getting elected to any major office has skyrocketed.
Yesterday in the rain outside a grocery store, I met a guy putting his bags into his car. Spotting my bright red TeslaY he asked, ‘Do you like it?’ I hesitated. Finally I said yes, it’s great to drive, BUT I was planning to sell it because of its company’s head, Elon Musk; I’ll buy something else electric. He seemed astonished. Said, but Musk’s so smart and successful! My reply: He’s not the engineer for the design of the cars, but he helped fund the riots in Great Briton and supports similar dangerous policies here. Yes, I’m going to exchange this car asap.
I can’t stand driving around in a car with his name. It was all in all a friendly exchange as we both took a shower.🚿 After that I went home to finish eh writing post cards.
It's a shame that folks only look at "smart and successful" and not "smart and successful in building a successful business by filling a societal gap". While being smart and successful can be quite useful to society, those qualities don't confer wisdom on how to use one's success beyond the narrow focus of a specific business.
I got to meet Wally Rippel at a meeting at the South Coast AQMD, and made a complete ass out of myself not having done my homework on him and the great work he did for JPL, A/C Propulsion, Tesla, and AeroVironment (down the street from where I worked).
A statistic came out today, that the average worker for an S&P 500 company would have had to start working in 1755 to have earned as much as the average CEO in one year today.
I am reading Timothy Snyder's book, The Road to Unfreedom. I hate to say it but I am only on page 96 and am wondering where I was during some of those years. (They weren't that many years ago.) My life has been so "rose colored". I understand and yet I don't how we can be so blind. Tffg and his followers are using Putin's playbook and many have no clue what is happening. We can't "go back". I hope there are others out there that are aware and will continue to work to save our country and the other democracies around our world. This isn't a football or basketball game! Thank you Heather for waking this old lady up! I wish I was younger and know what I am learning now.....my years are short and I feel helpless in the fact that I am so limited physically/mentally now in what I can actually accomplish! Somedays I can't remember if I brushed my teeth!
I'm older too, and hoping to stay involved as long as I can. I totally understand about physical/mental limits, but don't sell yourself short: I think it's wonderful that you are reading Timothy Snyder and learning things you never knew. I wish I could say the same for my own relatives!
I am happy to say, Richard, that I think you are wrong. The billionaires (some of whom were in the hall last night, have much more influence than they should, but they do not control the nation. We do.
806 billionaires that have the accumulated wealth of 163,000,000 Americans... What that means is that we are an oligarchy. With that kind of wealth, they can afford to buy all the print and air time that they need to spew their propaganda and wedge issues.....
Richard, spot on. As long as there are no limits on the money spent on elections those with unlimited funds will spend what they think is necessary to preserve their wealth and power. And the greatest impedance to their goal is DEMOCRACY. The haves vs the have-nots. And whatever the have-nots want is of course, SOCIALISM. The perennial scare word.
Agree completely, Alexandra. What I take away from Heather's post today is that Democrats HAVE a platform, a clear path to the future for every American, and that the Republicans have no platform, no way forward except to kiss up to a man who will never come through on any of his false promises.
I think the Republican platform is pretty clear. It’s called Project 2025. American voters should return to the old HS lesson of ‘compare and contrast’ and decide which version of American life they want for themselves and vote accordingly.
The only thing not clear is how hard they now try to keep people from actually reading and comprehending Project 2025 (and the deceptive language in 2025 that they only detail in other, clearer language in what they would like to keep from all but their own Quizlings).
How can you believe that? It is rigged for the rich. The donors to the DNC are the ones rigging it. Why is the DNC spending millions to frivolous challenges to keep RFKJR off the ballots? How is that preserving democracy?
Here you go again John. Never any proof just like DonOLD and the other Republicans pundits and politicians.
Citizens United made all of the BIG money possible. And that was Roberts, Alito and Thomas. Obama and RBG called them out immediately knowing full well this is what would happen.
I too am horrified by the citizens united decision.And I don’t think it’s fair, that’s a word HCR used in her letter Today, that the Two Parties candidates get huge contributions yet independent candidates can’t.The only explanation I’ve gotten to explain why we shouldn’t have RFKJR on the ballot and in the debates is because you are afraid it may take votes from Harris and allow Trump to get elected.How can anyone think it’s ok to make that exception or any other to not be democratic?Isnt that how authoritarian regimes begin?
RFK Jr is not a democrat but an opportunist, asking dumpy for a job for his endorsement, then trying that nonsense with VP Harris, who I'm sure told him to take a walk...the man is not ok, but seems mentally ill to me, just like dumpy.
RFKJR would be viewed as an opportunist by anyone who believes what the Washington Post, the NYTIMES and most of the nightly news says about him.i have listened to many of his interviews and keep up with his posts on x. So I know that characterizing him as an opportunist doesn’t ring true. He was meant to run for president and to carry on in the same way his dad and uncle did.Did you know that he is a recovered addict?And that he follows the 12 step AA program?The way recovered Addicts stay sober is by helping others and restoring our government to the middle class is how RFKJR helps others.If you would listen to some of his interviews instead of what the media is saying about him you might have a different opinion .
Well, I used to have a New York Times and Washington Post subscription, but I gave them both up because of all their support of dumpy. And I actually was interested in RFK Jr and listened to his videos and interviews. I bought his Fauci book and read most of it until I got too depressed. I am concerned about the side effects of vaccines and the negative effects especially on children. I also saw a lot of vaccine injured people in my small acupuncture practice after the MNR vaccines got rolled out. So I was actually interested in what RFK Jr had to say until he said that Biden was worse than dumpy and a bigger threat to our democracy. After that, I just couldn’t listen to anything else that he had to say. So when he goes knocking on dumpy‘s door, looking for a job and doesn’t get one and then goes knocking at VP Harris‘s door for a job , I call that opportunism. I am aware of his previous addictions and I’m glad he’s clean. But I don’t think he’s qualified for the presidency. VO Harris is much, much more qualified. But of course a woman especially a mixed race woman would need to be way more qualified for men to support her…
How odd to post this when RFKJR seems to have gone hat in hand to both Harris and Trump in hopes of negotiating a position. I wonder what his uber wealthy running mate thinks about his waste of her money.
Hi Gail, good to hear from you.It isn’t true that RFKJR wanted to make a deal with either Trump or Harris for conceding the campaign. Please look at his x post about the Harris contact a few days ago. He makes it abundantly clear he couldn’t support her.And as far as being opportunistic as Terry said , I see it as answering his calling to do this.He believes he was meant to do it and to carry on for his dad and uncle.He is a recovered addict who adheres to the 12 step AA program. To be happy with himself, he has to help others. That’s what recovered Alcoholics do to find meaning in life. Helping the middle class reclaim our government from the wealthy is his purpose.For me, I support him because his dad and uncle saved us from nuclear annihilation and then were assassinated.He is promoting their ideals for our country.Not beholden to the corporations as are both Trump and Harris.This is so clear to me.
He is most definitely NOT his father or uncle- far from it. What about the bear incident in Central Park? He was 60 years old at the time not a frat boy. That’s dry drunk behavior if ever, I saw it.
I’m really bummed now because of the Shanahan interview suggesting they may endorse Trump. I will be voting for Jill Stein if that happens. But I think we are likely to have more surprises coming out . What if it turns out Harris is an alcoholic for example?So I hope he stays in , especially after all the hard work people have put into getting him on the ballots
It was a wonderful night full of hope and possibilities....and love for a GREAT President. Bravo to all, on the positives...but I do believe there was a sub plot to bait Trump and set up his anger....since he is, his own worst nightmare. We will see how that plays out today. I look forward to the rest of this convention and your coverage/reflections.
All of the women looked great, very strong...very capable. While the convention is to get the faithful fired up...it's main goal is to get those folks who can still be moved to our side of the table, to get them to start thinking about their vote. The we need to each close the deal, all across the country. Bring over 1,2, 3...it adds up
Barometers are pointing to record lows of slanderous GOP demagoguery. FEMA and the National Weather Service warns to be on the look out for strong gusts repugnant rhetoric, as well as potentially destructive squalls of all caps.
I do think it really was blood. I nipped my ear a few days ago triming hair and it bled like crazy. It appears that he really was within an inch or 2 of being blown away.
Mike, I really don't know what to think. I have had injuries from projectiles (training rounds, which are paintball type rounds designed to be fired from a modified duty weapon for as realistic force on force scenario training as can be delivered) to less tender areas of my body that lasted far longer than the injury fpotus sustained, and left marks for a time after they healed. The FBI has said it was a grazing .223 round, but I just don't buy it. I'd believe glass shrapnel easily, and the quick healing would bear that out; note that there isn't even a scab where the injury was.
There was a computer game my daughter used to play, Disney made it I think, called Toon Town.
It was full of goofy cartonon characters, and the bad guys were puffed up cigar smoking corporate boss caricatures that, when they lost, spun around faster and faster until they exploded.
That's how I imagine the orange dumpster fire and his sycophants.
I can’t wait to see the deflating gas bag zooming around the room, making that squeaky balloon noise, and landing on the ground, an empty fleshy gas bag, in a coat. Will they run to him with pumps, tanks of flatulent, to reanimate him! We shall see…no open flames please.
"The Republicans’ platform is heavy on slogans—many of which are in all caps—saying things like “We will defeat Inflation, tackle the cost-of-living crisis, improve fiscal sanity, restore price stability, and quickly bring down prices,” without any suggestion of how they will bring about such sweeping changes. "
No matter which Republican politician you listen to, MSM right wing talking head or even the myriad comment board --- NONE of the ever 1) suggest how they will affect changes they promise to make 2) ever supply any facts to support their weird policies.
The other thing they NEVER do is tell how. in the 4 years DonOLD was President he made America great.
And they NEVER EVER mention DonOLD's age or his dimentia or that he is a convicted felon.
Keep lobbing those softballs MSM. Very few of you have the kahunas to ask DonOLD a tough question.
Gary, the Republican promises of bringing down inflation while raising Chinese tariffs on ALL products are like an Olympic runner who says they will win the 100 meter race by running in the opposite direction for 50 meters before turning and chasing the other runners. We need to explain that tariffs are NOT a tax on the Chinese, but on importers who pass the tax along to American consumers in higher prices.
Theres a scary article in the NYT today about the trouble the Chinese economy is in due to its failure to grow. Yesterday there was one on the trouble it's in because people can't move their money, and the government insists people buy Chinese bonds, which are not a safe place.
We need a realistic policy to help China, not demonize it. Their policies don't work, and a desperate political class will do anything to keep power. We should be carefully thinking about how to help shepherd in lasting democratic changes to their political system to stabilize their economy, not playing on the stupidity of fear.
Drumpf s ideas, such as the are , are so yesterday. And so simplistic and stupid.
This is the stuff of leadership and moral clarity: “I need my neighbor's children to be okay so that my children will be okay,” he said. I need all of my neighbor’s children to be okay, poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia, I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza, I need Israelis and Palestinians, I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine, I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay.”
I am working half way around the world, so wasn't able to watch the procedings live. But reading your letter today, I feel as if I was there. And I read it with tears in my eyes, for the America I have always loved, and for the future we are creating. Nothing can stop us now!!
Me too Nancy Ellen! A spirit is alive that can renew the face of the earth! (In time and with dedication of course). Extremely inspiriting to me even at 83! Write on Heather Cox Richardson.
I hate watching stuff like the convention, but it was on in the house, and I watched a bit of it. Very powerful. I haven't trundled over to Facebook yet today to see what the MAGAts are saying about it. I just want to have some joy and positivity before I get irritated today.
Ally, I’ve never watched one before, but I tuned in to catch Biden. I watched Warnock, who was inspiring, Clinton, who was on fire and made me weep for what could have and should have been, and Biden who was on the top of his game. But man that went on late.
There was pomp and circumstance, there were many speeches, some fine speeches, but the best of the best was Mr Biden himself. What a gracious man, what an extraordinary citizen, politician and statesman, what at an extraordinary DOer in a single term accomplishing more than most of his predecessors in twice the time. I will bear my private little cross for him, that his time was cut short, but he is showing only the best of patriotism and team spirit for his VP as she carries the ticket.
“ The nation’s government, and the globe, have been skewed toward a few rich people”
Todays DNC program gave me some reserved hope, but the existential threat is for our species because the few rich have sacrificed the environment for their accumulation of wealth that they can’t possibly have enough time to use. Science is now warning that we have already lost the window of holding warming to 1.5 c and is now 1.6 which will have serious consequences.
We must hold corporations/manufacturers/farmers/ranchers/fishermen/advertisers/ and our governments accountable for our very ability to exist on this planet, The consequences of a warming ocean will be loss of oxygen and water. How can we continue to be so blind?
Your citations are now beyond dispute, though you'll never be able to get MAGA onto the page that climate scientists worldwide agree on, and I suspect, often despair, considering the deceit and foot dragging. It isn't that the world hasn't gone through warm spells before, it's the fact that thanks to scale and technology, in geological terms CC has been made a virtually instantaneous event. I suspect we are already past more than a few points of no return.
Thank President Biden for much of our good news. Without Biden and his pick of VP Harris, none of this would have been possible. The success of the Biden administration will never be told to the American people by the American press because it is not to their financial advantage to do so. The republican party and its backers own most entities that make up cable news, radio, social media, and the print media, half of which are out and out fascist and the other half is scared to death of being labeled liberal. These assholes are never going to help or in any way benefit the Democratic party because as criminal associates of the Republicans, there is no profit, $$$$$$, for them to do so. We knew it was all on us the voters, now we have to prove we can lift this fantastic ticket to the top. Tell the media and the t-minions to mind their own damned business, cause we aint going back.
Right you are Frank. The difference is dump and the media have a mutual admiration relationship. Every time he criticizes cnn or the nyt, they show him love by bailing him out. They both make money and admirers off this relationship. snakes of a feather shed together.
... and Jamie Raskin: "Someone should’ve told Donald Trump that the president’s job under Article 2 of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed…. J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the [Republican] ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor!”
As Dems go forward, let's hope they keep their focus on the good things they celebrate now.
Yes, but as they do that, let's hope they make some connections -- often -- between the MAGA hatreds and the Clarence court corruption both, on one hand, and on the other hand the most festering vitriol in the world with which the MAGA and Clarence ally.
That is, they ally with Putin's eastern orthodox priests all decked out in their long skirts, long beards, and jewelry -- all calling for the mass murders befitting their religious nationalism as do both MAGA and Clarence and their medieval Handmaid's Tale agenda.
They ally with the far-right settlers ever stealing land on the West Bank, keeping the world stoking stupid war and hatred in permanent cycles there, keeping idiot U.S. evangelicals lusting for rapture.
They ally with the Iranian mullahs -- also in their long beards, skirts, and jewelry, also preaching hatreds, murder, suppression of women.
MAGA and Clarence have their Project 2025 agenda. They have their convicted criminal behind whom they ally for more criminality, more suppression of freedoms, more tilt to monarchy and oligarchy, more misogyny, more racism, final killing of democracy.
Let's hope Dems do keep their constructive, positive, welcoming agenda. But, please, let's keep it paired with the larger, rancid evils lacerating the larger world.
Corrupt. Arrogant. Bribe-taking. Monarchical. Kiss-ass to the oligarchy. Betrayers of everything decent in America.
Let's just hope for a massive defeat of the orange felon's little army. Then we can figure out what next. Anyway, hope for adding four more to make 13 on that court -- one justice for each of the federal circuits it supervises.
To figure out what’s the allure, the shiny object, the draw? What is the MAGA crowd most drawn to. Are there two different types , the ‘heros’ and the followers?
I also tried to link why the beef or where’s the beef, Phil . Like..so who are the happiest people? Norway and Denmark supposedly. The why was then broken down into many subsets. Health, activity, freedoms, …
If people are ripe to the MAGA pitch because their basic comforts ( greater disparities) aren’t met ( but America usually goes into recession and added debt during Republican control) how does that equate? Duped by the lie(s)? Same with their ‘team’…high turnover rates, few supportive after serving fewer after ‘being fired’ or ‘thrown under the bus’ and worser falling to deaths by ‘accidents’ there seems an eager set to vie for positions . Doesn’t add up , even the oligarchs…or am I’m. Missing something?
American is on this high right now , eager for joy, smiles, and sensible solutions knowing there’s no magic wand (nor are any promised). The Harris/Walz train is at full steam and people waiting to applaud.
Still the facts of the Biden Miracle 1) aren’t acknowledged , are in fact 2) denied happening , they believe facts skewed by the ‘alternate news’ -also known liars and 3) given little headline press -most of whom have been bought by the oligarchs- nor is that pointed out .
If Substack were the news source for more would it penetrate the shroud laid by MAGA? Who has obscured the truth, and gotten away with it. Will a BLUE TSUNAMI see the irrevocably guilty tried and jailed?
So flashy liars, their lies , shiny objects, make believe, and bullying work?
🤦♀️🤷♀️🤔🤥
Slowly we see Republicans for Harris emerge.
Slowly we hear the experienced former staff admit the chaos, insanity, difficulty factor to control or manage , and history walks through the door again slapping aside reason.
Slowly the polls tick up …while the deception goes into overdrive? Waiting for the shoe to drop..anyone?
I'm now reading Anthony Doerr's novel, "All the Light We Cannot See." It's a detailed look at the lives of a young German boy and a young French girl as they grow up over a ten-year period before and during WWII.
I'd say any culture that has people willing to read, capable of reading such details in the lives of others is "happiest."
The truths of the details in their lives include attention to nature, seasons, food, and the pain which arrives to others wherever leaders posture slogans and lies.
Barbara Kingsolver has a similarly detailed novel in her recent "Demon Copperhead." Set in American Appalachia. I wonder if anyone has anything similar set anywhere in the vicinity of Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza.
Interesting. Let me know, please. (and) ‘Oh boy two more books to read’, she said happily! Yes…They’re definitely a lucky faction.
Be happy don’t worry.
Some others are the PTSD,maimed, high % vets & homeless, thier caretakers/SWs/nurses.
There’s a story in everyone but few are written. Seems all issues should be solved from the amount of experience,hearing just last night a newly retired say she was happy helping/seeing someone recover,get their life back, and re-engage, a nurse. Some we don’t or can’t reach.q
I think the helping, togetherness, is key too.
Got the books on the list, Phil..this group has some great suggestions!
In the statement that there are Republicans that will vote for Harris but still do not favor things in the Democratics platform. That echoes what Heather has said many times in wanting a liberal democracy where we do not agree on all things but we can come together on the things we do agree on and then work on coming together on the rest. Healthy, respectful debate is essential to a healthy democracy.
"That coalition includes Republicans eager to stop Trump and his allies. They have signed on to elect Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz in order to preserve democracy, but are clear they are not embracing the Democratic Party’s policies. The Harris-Walz campaign has welcomed them."
Solidarity, the foundation of responsible diversity, the foundation of a just democracy. Or is it another way around? Maybe you just can't have the one without the others.
So much that I'll be sharing today from last night. This above all: “Our nation is at an inflection point What kind of America will we be? A land of more freedom, or less freedom? More rights or fewer? An economy rigged for the rich and powerful, or where everyone has a fair shot at getting ahead?” - From the Democratic Party Platform Preamble
Yes, today here in the U.S. there are 806 billionaires that have the accumulated wealth of 163,000,000 Americans, that's one-half of the American population. What that means is that we are an oligarchy. With that kind of wealth, they can afford to buy all the print and air time that they need to spew their propaganda and wedge issues: immigrants, abortion, Muslims, gay rights, etc. We really are at war and the line in the sand is now very distinctly drawn.
Off to the polls where I am signing people in to vote. No, there will be no illegal immigrants permitted to vote.
What has me concerned is that some of them literally want bloodshed, and we can’t allow that to happen any more than it already does.
That's how sick the nominally Republican Party has become.
There are three stories. A “comedy” is about the innocent victims of the protagonist’s naïve optimism, a “tragedy” is about the innocent victims of the protagonist’s cynical pessimism, and “the hero’s journey” is about the world becoming a better place because of the protagonist’s pragmatic optimism.
In 2024, the Republican party's story has become a tragedy, and the Democratic party's story has become the hero’s journey.
In today's WaPo, columnist Karen Attiah bent history, logic, and ethics into a pretzel concluding that it would be hard for Black women not to vote for Harris: "But if that’s what it takes to put this human rights catastrophe in the spotlight, so be it.""
Attiah is saying: If what it takes to tell off Democrats is electing Trump - and all that implies. So be it.
Much like what I heard from the Chicago Gaza protestors.
As if the human rights catastrophe in Gaza was not in the spotlight.
A Karen of a different color. A privileged and protected member of the Washington establishment appropriating Palestinian suffering to indulge in the theatre of holier than thou self righteousness and make her bones with the worst of the Left. She can afford to say "So be it" to another Trump term. And is smugly content to throw everyone and everything under the Trump train.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/19/harris-gaza-palestinians-israel/
And the strangest thing is that the right and Trump have NO PLANS and no actions that would appease any Palestinian suffering. In fact, Trump cut them out of any consideration and negotiations at all while he was president. They helped set the stage for the modern Isreali hard Right wing government.
ThankYou. Exactly.
Trump's self vaunted Abrahamic Accords was a solution to "the Palestinian problem" - which excluded Palestinian participation. And Trump moving the US embassy to contested Jerusalem effectively ended two state negotiations. Trump brags on "giving Golan to Netanyahu' and is such a booster for Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, that there is a settlement in occupied territory named in Trump's honor.
Barbara, this is precisely the point that seems to elude the protestors. There's no scenario where Trump's election would alleviate the plight of Palestinian civilians. Additionally, his election could spell disaster for Ukraine. I hope that VP Harris emphasizes the profound contrast between her vision and Trump's regarding America's global stance in her Thursday speech. The critical point is that Trump's policies will erode democracy domestically and abandon its defense internationally.
That brought on the Oct. 7 attack in response.
lin, if death star is elected, the Gaza protesters will reap what they sow. This is classic cutting off your nose to spite your face. Have they forgotten the part about deporting people, about stringent immigration rules which also apply to those from the middle east, about the hatred of Islam, about a theocracy of white Christian nationalists. Death star is with Bibi.
And Putin!
The problem is, if Trump wins, our most vulnerable neighbors, fragile planet, and endangered democracy will bear the brunt. Privileged people like Attiah and many of the protestors will be relatively sheltered from the worst results of their bad choices.
Those who crave absolute power divide and conquer. Those that empower open our "eyes" and our "hearts". I often repeat posting this, but some words are worthy of of it. It needs some mental updating to meet with modern understandings, but once again I think Lincoln nailed an overriding principle social justice:
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
These deliberately inane idiots are worse than MAGAts. As bad as chump, having their egos the main thing in the mirror. I couldn’t despise them and their self-righteous preening any more. Just come right out and line up with another ego pretending to be human.
ThankYou JD
Sometimes it just has to be said.
Please forgive my tendency to find conspiracies. Almost everyone is opposed to the suffering of Gaza citizens. Netanyahu, like DJT, wants to cover his ass by upheaval. But IMHO, the protests, beginning with "liberal" campuses, are a little too vehemently opposed to Biden and Dems. Good, bright women presidents were made to step down for the thinnest of reasons. While I wrote to the White House to halt weapons sales, I also understand America's pledge to protect Israelis and protect us from Iran. What I am saying is the protests smack of Putin's usual election-disrupting efforts and the aspirations of right-wing Americans who want to be just like him.
There is fraught history between the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, and Israel. It gets very complicated. And today's 'Gaza protests' are not monolithic. In what you say, I see righteous protests - over Israel's disproportionate response to the Hamas atrocities, creating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza - being appropriated by other agendas. Including Jill Stein type trashing of Democrats (for which after Trump's win, Putin rewarded her at a dinner where she was seated with Putin and that other useful idiot Mike Flynn.) Of course - Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu support each other.
Photos in a Chicago newspaper show a field full of stacks of signs - never used by the unexpectedly small crowd. The organizers were passing a bucket for contributions but I doubt that is the primary funding for the slick mass produced signs.
The shame of it all, is that a disciplined and focussed protest would lay out the case for enforcing the Leahy Laws - fact by irrefutable fact. That, more than all the vitriol and emotionalism, might contribute to useful real world improvements for Palestinians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Russia_relations
This pendulum has been swinging for at least a thousand years (thinking of the crusades). Neither Christians nor Muslims have been able to figure out how to live side by side peaceably, why should Jews in Israel be able to figure it out in three generations (since Israel and Palestine became separate countries in 1948)?
Trump and Netanyahu certainly don't have any solutions. Both are just power grubbers looking to save their own skins without a second thought for the civilians and children at heinous risk because of their callous disregard.
Let this Karen of another color (great coinage, btw) join their rank ranks.
So much for religion and the "my god is better than your god" routine. As long as religious leaders of whatever religious persuasion, preach that those who don't follow their particular superstition are less than, then the doors will be open for violence and bloodshed.
Thank you... I have been feeling angrier and angrier about this whole situation, i.e. people willing to sit out the election as if 'teaching the Dems a lesson' would actually help the innocents who are suffering in Gaza -- which it will not. That's the part these protesters seem to gloss over. And of course they're throwing everyone else under the bus as well, including Europe and Ukraine, if Trump is elected.
Yes. We are banging our heads against the same brick wall.
Writing comments is cathartic. Writing postcards to voters is therapeutic. (Mobilize for our mental health. Oh, and for Democracy;)
https://fieldteam6.herokuapp.com/getting_started
I get WaPo I couldn't stomach even reading her bullshit.
The pushback in the comments at WAPO is great. "So be it" is the price for righteousness. I don't fault the paper. We should know this view, as myopic as it is. No thoughts to consequences after the satisfaction of punishing by withholding a vote. Then the protester has to live with the consequences and perhaps cover over with feelings of being principled, convincing oneself of having integrity and standing up to injustice as opposed to actually doing something that might help.
""So be it" is the price for righteousness."
For self righteousness?
The whole 'Vote Your Conscience' thing is upside down. It is used as a call to put your individual inclinations above all. But 'conscience' is supposed to be that which tells us to put a greater good over our personal feelings.
Ok...I hear what you are saying. Nothing said by this lady is going to make me vote for the Dumpster. However, we should also be clear of what Biden has done to expand and prolong the suffering in Gaza at the hands of Israel's Trump replica. Sending a two-carrier task force was clearly over the top and meant to send a message to those who would dare protect Palestinian civilians and making sure that Palestinians continued to be expendable. A Karen of a different color? You may or may not have some justification for that assessment. Everyone has a right to their opinion, so long as it is based on factual evidence and not blowhard assertions such as Trump and his minions would offer. I would caution anyone however, to look at the history of the Zionist state in the past 76 years amid the brutalities it has inflicted upon Palestinians just for the right to have human dignity and a right to live on the land on which they have lived for centuries. Invading Palestine in 1947 with state-of-the-art weaponry against a civilian population armed with one shot carbines was a no match conflict destined to be lost by the Palestinians. That was bad enough and admittedly, the price of war. The real story is what happened after the dust settled, only for far more dust to be created by an ethnic cleansing campaign to which the world in most cases turned a blind eye. Save for those who investigated the realities of that conflict, people like Count Folke Bernadotte or those who sought a peace agreement like Israel's own Yitzak Rabin, those brave folks faced the assassins bullet for which Israel has become so infamous. This is the reality of their mindset and unfortunately, President Biden supported the way to historically and blindly accept and walk into the Zionist's mind trap. It wasn't too long ago when a thug, no less than one than Trump and very much in Trump's orbit on how to govern, Netanyahu lavished praise on Biden for being a "catholic Zionist." Really?!? For me, that was as insulting an opulent statement, and pretentious as could be, as one could ever hope to avoid. Unfortunately, Biden accepted it. However, Karen Attiah may think about world conflicts, whether right or wrong and whether we agree with her or not, on this particular point, she has a legitimate opinion.
Karen Attiah telling Black women that their choice is between spotlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or voting for Kamala Harris - is both inaccurate and indefensible.
Inaccurate 1. because the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has eclipsed humanitarian crises on almost every continent. It is already in the spotlight.
2. The choice is between Harris and Trump.
Indefensible because in the context of any concern - whether it is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or any other concern - voting for Harris is the only defensible choice. Not voting or voting for anyone but Harris, is in effect voting to put Trump in power - and all that comes with that. Enactment of the racist right wing religious extremist Project 2025 for us. Free rein for the racist right wing religious extremist Netanyahu regime in Israel and Palestine.
I will not rehearse the modern history of Palestine and Israel. Suffice it to say, Hamas' Yahya Sinwar and Israel's Netanyahu are two sides of the same coin - both prefer unmitigated slaughter and suffering to a two state solution. The Biden administration has
built international consensus for two state negotiations, but Sinwar and Netanyahu will not even agree to a cease fire.
We must see what happens in the next few days. This ends in the utter destruction / self destruction of Israel and Palestine or it ends at the negotiating table. No matter how many bodies must be climbed over to get there. And negotiations must leave out historic grievances and national myth making, in order to focus entirely on the legal framework and logistics for sovereign and geographically autonomous Israeli and Palestinian states. Once that is accomplished, there will be a space for truth and reconciliation efforts.
That should be a clue for the “undecideds.”
Too many people are not reading Heather's letters today! Damn!
Someone posted last night soon after Hillary's speech that HRC was recycling some HCR points. I noticed that HRC did put the history of Woman national candidates in proper chronological context leading to ... Go Kamala "we're not going back".
Anyone who can't decide desperately needs at least a clue, JD. A brain would also help.
Clues abound
Kathy, your points will be front & center later today. Per the Michigan 'Lansing State Journal' on 8/19/24 the Orange Felon will be in Howell, MI at the Livingston County Sheriff's Office. 150 S. Highlander Way, Howell, for some sort of weird, full-of-hate, white supremacy gathering.
Oh jeez - that's where the Nazi march was just recently, right? I'm from Michigan - outside Detroit and then Ann Arbor. It's a wonderful place, but there's always been that evil, dark underbelly hiding in the weeds. Not hiding anymore.
Henry Ford's picture hung on Adolf Hitler's office wall.
No real surprise that Michigan is home to these Fascisits.
But, if I was forced to leave man and could pick a state to move to, it would be Michigan.
We have fresh water here. Its the future
"Henry Ford's picture hung on Adolf Hitler's office wall."
"We look on Heinrich Ford as the leader of the growing Fascisti movement in America,” Hitler said in 1923. “We admire particularly his anti-Jewish policy which is the Bavarian Fascisti platform.” "
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/henry-ford-anti-semitism/675911/
Along with Joseph Kennedy, Ford probably returned the compliment.
"The relationship of Ford and GM to the Nazi regime goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, when the American car companies competed against each other for access to the lucrative German market. Hitler was an admirer of American mass production techniques and an avid reader of the antisemitic tracts penned by Henry Ford."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm?noredirect=on#:~:text=The%20relationship%20of%20Ford%20and,tracts%20penned%20by%20Henry%20Ford.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ford-and-fuhrer/
I opted for Michoacan over Michigan when I felt forced out of the US in 2021. I may be a coward or an irredeemable cynic, but all of the US is too scary for me, no matter who gets elected.
If the felon, the carnage will begin immediately; if Harris, we'll get the backlash when she leaves office. I could easily be wrong, but I believe that we only got Cheato in 2016 as a backlash to our first non-white president. What will they conjure up after a FEMALE non-white president? I fear Gilead, and I'd rather live out my declining years anywhere but a nuclear dump site (again referencing The Handmaid's Tale).
Our daughter was born in 1974 Mt Clemens while we were stationed at Selfridge ANGB. We saw some of the best and a bit too much of the worst in Michigan while there. Most memorable was a Black family moving into a home in New Baltimore, and being burned out before dawn the next day. 25 years later when I was doing my 170,000 mile version of Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" (in a big rig I called "Rocinante" like his GMC Camper), I often took the Friday trip from Irvine, CA's Jaccuzzi plant to 5 stops in the Detroit area that other drivers shied away from. It was supposed to take 2 days for the 5 tops starting in Ann Arbor, Walled Lake, Howell, Utica, and ending up in Dearborn Heights at a Fergusons warehouse just down the street from our fuel stop. I never failed to complete all 5 stops in one day, so I could end up spending the night in a familiar safe place (no matter what it looked like to others).
Like Vietnam, where I traveled about 60,000 miles through all of South Vietnam and a 6 base circuit in Thailand, I felt I had a pretty good sense of where you could go and when (and especially when you should leave an area). Lesson one was not to make any enemies you didn't need to, be sensitive to the mood of the people in an area and you can travel through many more areas than many would think.
Drumpf gave them permission to come out from under their rocks.
That permission is being revoked.
Yes. No, not hiding.
They feel no shame for their Nazi leanings.
Will that get any media attention? It’s disgusting that there’s such a bias that glosses over his unAmerican and inhuman actions. I’m sickened.
That is the biggest Dem problem, that our media followed Rupert down the money hole.
Rupert and his patron Reagan.
There's plenty of independent media that calls it out many times a day, Jen. MSM is a dying breed.
And we'll all be sickened, regardless of bias, by the next pandemic if the felon is in charge... "bleach all around, drinks are on me," he'll say and then stiff the bartender.
Their plan!
I spent my undergraduate years at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and it took me a while to realize how conservative (and now radical right) parts of Michigan were and are. That death star chose Howell does not surprise me. When I did my student teaching at Kalamazoo Central High, the student teacher before me was Catholic. She had a story about the KKK burning a cross in the yard of her grandfather in St.Joseph, MI. My mother was born in Grand Rapids and my grandparents ended up in a small town west of there called Conklin. My uncle was from Muskegon. I doubt any of them were KKK members, but they were certainly racists.
This rally will be poorly attended and may even have walkouts, if the Wilkes Barre event is any indicator. Even racists get bored by unintelligible babble.
I did encounter the types that expressed the worst sounding racist language, but seemed to do so out of ignorance and next zero interpersonal experience with those they so carelessly bad mouthed.
Having my life [saved] possibly 4 times by 3 Black strangers and 1 I knew, I'm very slow to bad mouth anyone based on race (though I must admit I do get angry at some behaviors by people of any race or financial status).
Maybe the sheriff can find cause to arrest him.
He is probably one of them! I find that most lawmen get their jobs because they can't keep or get another job! They have been known to get paid little in our area.
I have represented a number of law-enforcement officers, and have dealt with others in agencies up to and including the Secret Service. Almost all of the officers I have known have been dedicated, honest and hard-working, often working much harder than me.
Got that right Sharon.
Apparently, the "sheriff" is the host. 3:00 PM Eastern per the Orange Felon & Parrot's official campaign notice.
The far right-wing turns to threatening bloodshed as a last resort. Once they bring out the violence card, you know they have nothing left.
Some seem to use it as the first resort.
If they are evil enough to try, I will rejoice in personally helping to get rid of them permanently.
They've created that fear in you with their threats. Keep yourself safe, and beyond that know you have done all YOU can do to prevent their threats from becoming real. The Serenity Prayer is a good tool for us going forward into America 2.0.
Which makes them potential terrorists playing with fire…I hope we are monitoring them and the money…
For sure follow the money.
I look on them pretty much like the supposed Nazi Werewolf "resistance" fighter s after Germany surrendered. They talked tough, but did little when they realized there was very little potential support for them (and likely internal resistance would rise against them if they tried to do as they planned).
Reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine across all media platforms
Reinstitute as the bare minimum; Improve it for the 21st century.
As important is (from what I was told) policies that restricted over concentration of media ownership, and anti-trust in general. That is essential to a"free country" as well as a meaningful "free market. Anti-trust has become a mere wispy shadow of it's former self.
Oh absolutely JL ; I watched helplessly as Sinclair gobbled away at most all rural markets, etc. Who was going to listen ?
This.
Richard, thank you for being a poll worker in Florida. Primary Day here where we have 0 uncontested races for the statehouse. We had 34! In 2022.
We voted on the first day of early voting to start the habit.VOTE on Day 1 !
❤️🤍💙
Just can’t imagine the amount of work Democrats have done in Florida in order that no race for the state house doesn’t have a Democrat running in it. Such a GIANT effort! It can’t be easy to run for office in deep red Florida. Talk about heroes!!!!!!
I’ve written postcards to several counties. TonyTheDemocrat will email addresses if you have or buy postcards. My birthday presents were mostly a lot of Etsy’s chicken postcards—fun to write because fun to look at. I’m hoping to write enough between hundreds for Tester (gotta keep the last farmer in the senate with climate change and price gouging of food) to help get all the Florida Dems voted in!
Concentration of wealth and income inequality are serious issues for our society, and are driving much of the anger and resentment that leads people to embrace a con artist, criminal and insurrectionist. Billionaires, however, and the wealthy in general, are not a monolithic anti-democratic mass. Most understand that constitutional democracy and the rule of law are good for business. In an authoritarian system of strongman rule, economic stability is eroded. Investment declines (who wants to invest when the whims of the Big Man may determine the outcome of their investment?), the country's currency depreciates, interest rates and risk premiums on government borrowing rise, along with inflation. Billionaires understand far better than most how damaging a second tRump term would be to the economy and their personal balance sheets. Those who don't are delusional, like the oligarchs who think their financial and personal survival doesn't depend on staying in Putin's good graces.
Chris, I like what you have written. What stymies me is how so many people are on the MAGAt train, where hatred and anger rule, and there is such a strong desire for the White Christian Nationalism to be imposed on the country.
I too, wonder, Ally. Here are some of my thoughts. 1) Republicans since Reagan have been told to band together no matter what. Only now are we seeing some peel away for their country's sake. 2) Since Milton Friedman and the billionaires' concerted efforts, most of America and the world believe the hype of a trickle-down economy and rule by the richest. 3) Powerful forces are at work to undermine America and democracy. Not the least of these actors is Vladimir Putin. More than most, I believe Putin's extraordinary reach is active and invasive. He loves nothing more than pitting people and nations against each other so that they will self-destruct. (Israel vs. Iran is his current favorite.) It's been proven that he or his benefactors are active in the destruction of democracies throughout the world, and he touts his own Orthodox Christianity, which we know is a dog whistle for misogyny, racism, and wealth. It's pathetic that Trump calls Democrats communists while he holds hands with communist dictators and wants to be like them, since they've all accumulated wealth at the detriment to their citizens.
Hope, I would say that all of those dictators are communists in name only. What I see is a return of pre-Revolutionary Russia and China where the oligarchs rule instead of aristocrats....in short nothing has changed. They are all absolute dictatorships no matter what they call their political parties. And Putin is using Orthodox Christianity in the same way that death star is using evangelicals here. Nothing Christian about either one of them.
So true! TY!
Call others what you are, accuse others of what you do. Has been the go to since Goebbel’s hatred first stirred.
That does seem true, JD. Look how many opponents he calls "crooks!"
For those who see Trump clearly, it's bewildering that he commands such strong support. The fact that so many fervently back him highlights a deeper issue that urgently needs addressing. At the core of this issue might be the rapid societal changes concerning immigrants and minority rights, including those of sexual minorities. These changes, which have come swiftly, are difficult for many to accept, leading to a backlash against what they perceive as unwelcome transformations. This resistance to change often drives people to support someone who promises to oppose these shifts.
This is your brain on GOP.
"Rule by the richest" or warped rule by the worst of the richest instead of the foundations laid by egalitarian capitalists like Benjamin Franklin?
I forget who offered "Corporate Capitalists" but that does inspire further thoughts on the consequences of excessively concentrated wealth.
My sense is that very few of the wealthy who vote Republican share that vision. They're doing it for one reason-- tax cuts. That is extremely cynical, short-term thinking, because fiscal deficits and a growing debt burden are also destabilizing and cause interest rates and inflation to rise. The underlying fraud of MAGA is that most of the people funding it on a large scale (not the small-dollar donors, who really have drunk the KoolAde) think it's all nonsense but believe they'll benefit from decreased regulation and lower taxes. I believe most of the GOP congress (with notable exceptions) is in the same category--they know better but have signed on for reasons of political and personal survival. J.D. Vance the poster child for this kind of opportunism.
Power = money
yes, and one can reverse that equation and it works equally well.
The racism is just jealousy of the other, at least in those I know. Pecking order must be maintained with Jesus used, not loved. What blind hypocrisy…
The Christian version of Sharia Law.
I suspect that their expectations of what that would look like are pretty delusional.
I would like to, in my lifetime, live in a country in which the uber-wealthy express gratitude for the wealth common workers have helped them amass. (I would also like to live in a country in which I can walk down the street past a person of color and not sense that a black man is self conscious because of discrimination and harassment he's experienced, or past a single woman who doesn't feel wary and scared because she doesn't know if I'm more like Trump or more like Walz.) I would like to see crime in subsidized housing complexes drop because the residents have jobs, hope, and predictability. I would like a rational conversation about how to transition to cleaner fuels while preserving economic freedoms and opportunity. I want to welcome again my Russian colleagues because their country has rejoined reality. Alas, there are many more hopes, but I have another infernal Zoom mtg to attend, but those hopes will blossom under a sane Democratic administration.
What a wonderful vision
Chris, I agree with your take on what's driving the anger and resentment in our society.
That said, I am wondering how people can justify to themselves buying Tesla automobiles, knowing that the fellow at the top of the Tesla organization is even more dangerous to democracy than TFG. In the town where I live (10 miles north of Boston), those cars are as ubiquitous as VW Beetles and Toyota Priuses used to be.
How is it possible to be so willfully blind as this?
Willfully blind, and weaponized ignorance
Gentle reminder that VW Beetles originated in nazi Germany, that Henry “Henriech” Ford was a Nazi sympathizer, and yes, Musk is a social jerk, mildly autistic with an emotional IQ of 0 and a Trump supporter. However, Teslas are designed and built by tens of thousands of workers (non Union but very well paid), and happen to be the most American sourced car, and the brand that miraculously jump started our move towards electrification after GM dropped the ball for corporate greed over national need. As adults, I believe it’s possible to hold these kinds of opposing ideas at once, that Musk is weird but Teslas are innovative and excellent cars, and not throw the baby out with the bath water. That said, given these tumultous times, I get why people are so emotional about it.
I hadn't thought about it that way myself... thanks!
Billionaires are not monolithic but the ultra-plutocratic ones are empirically warping our republic, to the point of affecting a coup d'etat. Look at how their proteges rend the Constitution in $COTUS, the Koch-funded "Tea Party", the Powell Letter, the billions spent on lobbying that patently affects societal outcomes, that the banks "own the place" (Congress), that the cost of getting elected to any major office has skyrocketed.
Again Richard, you’re an inspiration.
Yesterday in the rain outside a grocery store, I met a guy putting his bags into his car. Spotting my bright red TeslaY he asked, ‘Do you like it?’ I hesitated. Finally I said yes, it’s great to drive, BUT I was planning to sell it because of its company’s head, Elon Musk; I’ll buy something else electric. He seemed astonished. Said, but Musk’s so smart and successful! My reply: He’s not the engineer for the design of the cars, but he helped fund the riots in Great Briton and supports similar dangerous policies here. Yes, I’m going to exchange this car asap.
I can’t stand driving around in a car with his name. It was all in all a friendly exchange as we both took a shower.🚿 After that I went home to finish eh writing post cards.
Good on you. Hope people have gotten over that “he’s so smart and successful.”
It's a shame that folks only look at "smart and successful" and not "smart and successful in building a successful business by filling a societal gap". While being smart and successful can be quite useful to society, those qualities don't confer wisdom on how to use one's success beyond the narrow focus of a specific business.
I got to meet Wally Rippel at a meeting at the South Coast AQMD, and made a complete ass out of myself not having done my homework on him and the great work he did for JPL, A/C Propulsion, Tesla, and AeroVironment (down the street from where I worked).
See https://heritageproject.caltech.edu/interviews-updates/wally-rippel#tesla-as-a-viable-company
Very much nicer than Elon (to me).
A statistic came out today, that the average worker for an S&P 500 company would have had to start working in 1755 to have earned as much as the average CEO in one year today.
Something is way fucked up.
I am reading Timothy Snyder's book, The Road to Unfreedom. I hate to say it but I am only on page 96 and am wondering where I was during some of those years. (They weren't that many years ago.) My life has been so "rose colored". I understand and yet I don't how we can be so blind. Tffg and his followers are using Putin's playbook and many have no clue what is happening. We can't "go back". I hope there are others out there that are aware and will continue to work to save our country and the other democracies around our world. This isn't a football or basketball game! Thank you Heather for waking this old lady up! I wish I was younger and know what I am learning now.....my years are short and I feel helpless in the fact that I am so limited physically/mentally now in what I can actually accomplish! Somedays I can't remember if I brushed my teeth!
Sharon, you have a lot of company. We lived in a bubble, never connecting the dots.
I'm older too, and hoping to stay involved as long as I can. I totally understand about physical/mental limits, but don't sell yourself short: I think it's wonderful that you are reading Timothy Snyder and learning things you never knew. I wish I could say the same for my own relatives!
We need to return to fair and just taxation. Reaganism promoted income, inequality and polarization.
I am happy to say, Richard, that I think you are wrong. The billionaires (some of whom were in the hall last night, have much more influence than they should, but they do not control the nation. We do.
806 billionaires that have the accumulated wealth of 163,000,000 Americans... What that means is that we are an oligarchy. With that kind of wealth, they can afford to buy all the print and air time that they need to spew their propaganda and wedge issues.....
Richard, spot on. As long as there are no limits on the money spent on elections those with unlimited funds will spend what they think is necessary to preserve their wealth and power. And the greatest impedance to their goal is DEMOCRACY. The haves vs the have-nots. And whatever the have-nots want is of course, SOCIALISM. The perennial scare word.
Thanks for doing that, Richard.
Thank you Richard. You do good work!
Good for you, Richard. I keep writing the postcards to get voters to vote or to re-register where they’ve been taken off rolls (FL).
I'm also sharing last night's searing video ad, spelling out exactly who the opposition is and why we have to defeat him. https://x.com/AlexSokoloff/status/1825824199002222721
Partisan as hell, but backed up with fact-checking. Great ad.
It is the DNC Frank.
Blue wave, blue tsunami. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Daniel, what a great resource! I'm going to do some of that social storming training for pointers. Thank you!
That's fantastic! Thanks so much for posting the link.
Thanks for sharing, Laurie!
Wow. Wow. Wow. The truth hurts, eh Donnie?
That video truly shows this is NOT your father's (nor your mother's) presidential election!
Wow! That says it all!
Thank you Alexandra!!
TY!
Alexandra, thx so much for sharing! The contrast couldn’t be starker. Thank you!
Agree completely, Alexandra. What I take away from Heather's post today is that Democrats HAVE a platform, a clear path to the future for every American, and that the Republicans have no platform, no way forward except to kiss up to a man who will never come through on any of his false promises.
I think the Republican platform is pretty clear. It’s called Project 2025. American voters should return to the old HS lesson of ‘compare and contrast’ and decide which version of American life they want for themselves and vote accordingly.
The only thing not clear is how hard they now try to keep people from actually reading and comprehending Project 2025 (and the deceptive language in 2025 that they only detail in other, clearer language in what they would like to keep from all but their own Quizlings).
How can you believe that? It is rigged for the rich. The donors to the DNC are the ones rigging it. Why is the DNC spending millions to frivolous challenges to keep RFKJR off the ballots? How is that preserving democracy?
Here you go again John. Never any proof just like DonOLD and the other Republicans pundits and politicians.
Citizens United made all of the BIG money possible. And that was Roberts, Alito and Thomas. Obama and RBG called them out immediately knowing full well this is what would happen.
Have you looked at projectfalcon2025.com
I too am horrified by the citizens united decision.And I don’t think it’s fair, that’s a word HCR used in her letter Today, that the Two Parties candidates get huge contributions yet independent candidates can’t.The only explanation I’ve gotten to explain why we shouldn’t have RFKJR on the ballot and in the debates is because you are afraid it may take votes from Harris and allow Trump to get elected.How can anyone think it’s ok to make that exception or any other to not be democratic?Isnt that how authoritarian regimes begin?
Go away troll.
I’m an American with just as much right to speak as you
Why yes you do.
And I can still say go away troll.
Name calling is what Trump does
RFK Jr is not a democrat but an opportunist, asking dumpy for a job for his endorsement, then trying that nonsense with VP Harris, who I'm sure told him to take a walk...the man is not ok, but seems mentally ill to me, just like dumpy.
RFKJR would be viewed as an opportunist by anyone who believes what the Washington Post, the NYTIMES and most of the nightly news says about him.i have listened to many of his interviews and keep up with his posts on x. So I know that characterizing him as an opportunist doesn’t ring true. He was meant to run for president and to carry on in the same way his dad and uncle did.Did you know that he is a recovered addict?And that he follows the 12 step AA program?The way recovered Addicts stay sober is by helping others and restoring our government to the middle class is how RFKJR helps others.If you would listen to some of his interviews instead of what the media is saying about him you might have a different opinion .
Well, I used to have a New York Times and Washington Post subscription, but I gave them both up because of all their support of dumpy. And I actually was interested in RFK Jr and listened to his videos and interviews. I bought his Fauci book and read most of it until I got too depressed. I am concerned about the side effects of vaccines and the negative effects especially on children. I also saw a lot of vaccine injured people in my small acupuncture practice after the MNR vaccines got rolled out. So I was actually interested in what RFK Jr had to say until he said that Biden was worse than dumpy and a bigger threat to our democracy. After that, I just couldn’t listen to anything else that he had to say. So when he goes knocking on dumpy‘s door, looking for a job and doesn’t get one and then goes knocking at VP Harris‘s door for a job , I call that opportunism. I am aware of his previous addictions and I’m glad he’s clean. But I don’t think he’s qualified for the presidency. VO Harris is much, much more qualified. But of course a woman especially a mixed race woman would need to be way more qualified for men to support her…
How odd to post this when RFKJR seems to have gone hat in hand to both Harris and Trump in hopes of negotiating a position. I wonder what his uber wealthy running mate thinks about his waste of her money.
Hi Gail, good to hear from you.It isn’t true that RFKJR wanted to make a deal with either Trump or Harris for conceding the campaign. Please look at his x post about the Harris contact a few days ago. He makes it abundantly clear he couldn’t support her.And as far as being opportunistic as Terry said , I see it as answering his calling to do this.He believes he was meant to do it and to carry on for his dad and uncle.He is a recovered addict who adheres to the 12 step AA program. To be happy with himself, he has to help others. That’s what recovered Alcoholics do to find meaning in life. Helping the middle class reclaim our government from the wealthy is his purpose.For me, I support him because his dad and uncle saved us from nuclear annihilation and then were assassinated.He is promoting their ideals for our country.Not beholden to the corporations as are both Trump and Harris.This is so clear to me.
He is most definitely NOT his father or uncle- far from it. What about the bear incident in Central Park? He was 60 years old at the time not a frat boy. That’s dry drunk behavior if ever, I saw it.
I’m really bummed now because of the Shanahan interview suggesting they may endorse Trump. I will be voting for Jill Stein if that happens. But I think we are likely to have more surprises coming out . What if it turns out Harris is an alcoholic for example?So I hope he stays in , especially after all the hard work people have put into getting him on the ballots
The wealthiest in the right wing want to preserve a feudalistic system in their own favor.
It was a wonderful night full of hope and possibilities....and love for a GREAT President. Bravo to all, on the positives...but I do believe there was a sub plot to bait Trump and set up his anger....since he is, his own worst nightmare. We will see how that plays out today. I look forward to the rest of this convention and your coverage/reflections.
The tan suit was sub-plot GOLD💛
And Kamala looked amazing in it too!!!
All of the women looked great, very strong...very capable. While the convention is to get the faithful fired up...it's main goal is to get those folks who can still be moved to our side of the table, to get them to start thinking about their vote. The we need to each close the deal, all across the country. Bring over 1,2, 3...it adds up
and how about the men...who cares how a woman looks, it's how she wields power I'm interested in!
Your comment is spot on!
Look for Fraud Trump to explode on Truth(Lie)Social today. All day.
Trump will likely have the mother of all hissy fits!
Watch out for the ketchup.
Barometers are pointing to record lows of slanderous GOP demagoguery. FEMA and the National Weather Service warns to be on the look out for strong gusts repugnant rhetoric, as well as potentially destructive squalls of all caps.
lol, hilarious meteorological imagery, JL.
👏😂
well said...
Should we buy Ketchup stocks?
I do think it really was blood. I nipped my ear a few days ago triming hair and it bled like crazy. It appears that he really was within an inch or 2 of being blown away.
Mike, I really don't know what to think. I have had injuries from projectiles (training rounds, which are paintball type rounds designed to be fired from a modified duty weapon for as realistic force on force scenario training as can be delivered) to less tender areas of my body that lasted far longer than the injury fpotus sustained, and left marks for a time after they healed. The FBI has said it was a grazing .223 round, but I just don't buy it. I'd believe glass shrapnel easily, and the quick healing would bear that out; note that there isn't even a scab where the injury was.
But it could have been shrapnel as some of the other onlookers mentioned.
Anyway, not a great day to buy ketchup stock as Berkshire Hathaway (owners of Heinz) is at an all time high.
Darn, I should have had ketchup stock to sell.
Methinks it was the ketchup he threw at the wall during the J6 riot?
Investigate please. Too many things don’t add up
That's good...may I use it "mother of all hissy fits" ??
There was a computer game my daughter used to play, Disney made it I think, called Toon Town.
It was full of goofy cartonon characters, and the bad guys were puffed up cigar smoking corporate boss caricatures that, when they lost, spun around faster and faster until they exploded.
That's how I imagine the orange dumpster fire and his sycophants.
An everyday occurrence for Trump.
There are probably workers in hazmat suits swarming the halls of Mar-a-Lago today, cleaning up all the ketchup coating the walls, windows and floors.
I can’t wait to see the deflating gas bag zooming around the room, making that squeaky balloon noise, and landing on the ground, an empty fleshy gas bag, in a coat. Will they run to him with pumps, tanks of flatulent, to reanimate him! We shall see…no open flames please.
Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's Trumpty.
"The Republicans’ platform is heavy on slogans—many of which are in all caps—saying things like “We will defeat Inflation, tackle the cost-of-living crisis, improve fiscal sanity, restore price stability, and quickly bring down prices,” without any suggestion of how they will bring about such sweeping changes. "
No matter which Republican politician you listen to, MSM right wing talking head or even the myriad comment board --- NONE of the ever 1) suggest how they will affect changes they promise to make 2) ever supply any facts to support their weird policies.
The other thing they NEVER do is tell how. in the 4 years DonOLD was President he made America great.
And they NEVER EVER mention DonOLD's age or his dimentia or that he is a convicted felon.
Keep lobbing those softballs MSM. Very few of you have the kahunas to ask DonOLD a tough question.
Gary, the Republican promises of bringing down inflation while raising Chinese tariffs on ALL products are like an Olympic runner who says they will win the 100 meter race by running in the opposite direction for 50 meters before turning and chasing the other runners. We need to explain that tariffs are NOT a tax on the Chinese, but on importers who pass the tax along to American consumers in higher prices.
Theres a scary article in the NYT today about the trouble the Chinese economy is in due to its failure to grow. Yesterday there was one on the trouble it's in because people can't move their money, and the government insists people buy Chinese bonds, which are not a safe place.
We need a realistic policy to help China, not demonize it. Their policies don't work, and a desperate political class will do anything to keep power. We should be carefully thinking about how to help shepherd in lasting democratic changes to their political system to stabilize their economy, not playing on the stupidity of fear.
Drumpf s ideas, such as the are , are so yesterday. And so simplistic and stupid.
All hat no cattle
The cattle, and sheep, ran way long ago…
This is the stuff of leadership and moral clarity: “I need my neighbor's children to be okay so that my children will be okay,” he said. I need all of my neighbor’s children to be okay, poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia, I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza, I need Israelis and Palestinians, I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine, I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay.”
-Raphael Warnock (D) GA.
Of all the speeches, that was my personal favorite. Beautiful words well spoken.
Yes, and Raskin, and Crocket, and AOC! Values leaders for ‘values voters’…remember those!!!
My God!
Values! The devil and/or better angels are in the details.
I am working half way around the world, so wasn't able to watch the procedings live. But reading your letter today, I feel as if I was there. And I read it with tears in my eyes, for the America I have always loved, and for the future we are creating. Nothing can stop us now!!
Me too Nancy Ellen! A spirit is alive that can renew the face of the earth! (In time and with dedication of course). Extremely inspiriting to me even at 83! Write on Heather Cox Richardson.
I hate watching stuff like the convention, but it was on in the house, and I watched a bit of it. Very powerful. I haven't trundled over to Facebook yet today to see what the MAGAts are saying about it. I just want to have some joy and positivity before I get irritated today.
Ally, I’ve never watched one before, but I tuned in to catch Biden. I watched Warnock, who was inspiring, Clinton, who was on fire and made me weep for what could have and should have been, and Biden who was on the top of his game. But man that went on late.
Joe was phenomenal, Hilary was once again the woman I voted for, and AOC lit me up.
What a great start to a convention! I'm all-in and it's only the first day.
If this enthusiasm persists, Guilty Donny hasn't got a chance. VOTE BLUE!!
“Kamala Harris has a résumé,” she said. “Donald Trump has a rap sheet.”
Bullseye.
Play it again, Jasmine Crockett! You nailed it!
So many great political ads can be made from yesterday's proceedings. Hopefully, there's enough money to get the message out there.
Yeah, JL, a real “mic drop” moment!!!!
There was pomp and circumstance, there were many speeches, some fine speeches, but the best of the best was Mr Biden himself. What a gracious man, what an extraordinary citizen, politician and statesman, what at an extraordinary DOer in a single term accomplishing more than most of his predecessors in twice the time. I will bear my private little cross for him, that his time was cut short, but he is showing only the best of patriotism and team spirit for his VP as she carries the ticket.
I wonder what else he will have in store during the last months. 🙂
As Judy Woodruff pointed out, perhaps the best gift he could bring to Harris is a settlement in Israel/Palestine. Can he do it?
He ain’t done yet
Interest rate drop…
“ The nation’s government, and the globe, have been skewed toward a few rich people”
Todays DNC program gave me some reserved hope, but the existential threat is for our species because the few rich have sacrificed the environment for their accumulation of wealth that they can’t possibly have enough time to use. Science is now warning that we have already lost the window of holding warming to 1.5 c and is now 1.6 which will have serious consequences.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2444314-best-case-scenario-for-climate-change-is-now-1-6c-of-warming/?utm_source=nsday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nsday_200824&utm_term=Newsletter%20NSDAY_Daily
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26335050-100-why-the-underground-home-of-the-worlds-weirdest-wildlife-is-in-danger/?utm_source=nsday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nsday_200824&utm_term=Newsletter%20NSDAY_Daily
We must hold corporations/manufacturers/farmers/ranchers/fishermen/advertisers/ and our governments accountable for our very ability to exist on this planet, The consequences of a warming ocean will be loss of oxygen and water. How can we continue to be so blind?
Your citations are now beyond dispute, though you'll never be able to get MAGA onto the page that climate scientists worldwide agree on, and I suspect, often despair, considering the deceit and foot dragging. It isn't that the world hasn't gone through warm spells before, it's the fact that thanks to scale and technology, in geological terms CC has been made a virtually instantaneous event. I suspect we are already past more than a few points of no return.
Our coverage of the convention in Utah was interrupted several times by severe storm warnings, and they weren't all for the same place.
Thank President Biden for much of our good news. Without Biden and his pick of VP Harris, none of this would have been possible. The success of the Biden administration will never be told to the American people by the American press because it is not to their financial advantage to do so. The republican party and its backers own most entities that make up cable news, radio, social media, and the print media, half of which are out and out fascist and the other half is scared to death of being labeled liberal. These assholes are never going to help or in any way benefit the Democratic party because as criminal associates of the Republicans, there is no profit, $$$$$$, for them to do so. We knew it was all on us the voters, now we have to prove we can lift this fantastic ticket to the top. Tell the media and the t-minions to mind their own damned business, cause we aint going back.
Remember, Hoyt, Trump and MAGA are equally down on MSM, so what gives?
Right you are Frank. The difference is dump and the media have a mutual admiration relationship. Every time he criticizes cnn or the nyt, they show him love by bailing him out. They both make money and admirers off this relationship. snakes of a feather shed together.
Beautifully written! Thank you, HCR.
You must be exhausted.
Thanks so much!
Awesome night at the DNC!
Absolutely loved President Biden’s fiery speech!
Fraud Trump had washed up Clowns Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock and wife beater Dana White. Harris had America’s Coach, Patriot Steve Kerr!
... and Jamie Raskin: "Someone should’ve told Donald Trump that the president’s job under Article 2 of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed…. J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the [Republican] ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor!”
JD - did you hear that????
One of the best lines of the night!
Damnnnnnn Jaime!!!! Telling it like it IS 🔥🔥🔥
#TruthHurts #SorryNotSorry #WatchOutJD
Love this & very true! It’s a great perspective of the corrupt MAGA party. Also very chilling.
I missed that live, but holy moly, is that an absolute gem, or what?
As Dems go forward, let's hope they keep their focus on the good things they celebrate now.
Yes, but as they do that, let's hope they make some connections -- often -- between the MAGA hatreds and the Clarence court corruption both, on one hand, and on the other hand the most festering vitriol in the world with which the MAGA and Clarence ally.
That is, they ally with Putin's eastern orthodox priests all decked out in their long skirts, long beards, and jewelry -- all calling for the mass murders befitting their religious nationalism as do both MAGA and Clarence and their medieval Handmaid's Tale agenda.
They ally with the far-right settlers ever stealing land on the West Bank, keeping the world stoking stupid war and hatred in permanent cycles there, keeping idiot U.S. evangelicals lusting for rapture.
They ally with the Iranian mullahs -- also in their long beards, skirts, and jewelry, also preaching hatreds, murder, suppression of women.
MAGA and Clarence have their Project 2025 agenda. They have their convicted criminal behind whom they ally for more criminality, more suppression of freedoms, more tilt to monarchy and oligarchy, more misogyny, more racism, final killing of democracy.
Let's hope Dems do keep their constructive, positive, welcoming agenda. But, please, let's keep it paired with the larger, rancid evils lacerating the larger world.
"Rancid" is a good word here.
Is it possible with a clear majority in Senate and House , and WH , the Dems can impeach Thomas and Alito, I’d hear we could. Maybe ask Joyce Vance?
Those two are just so corrupt, Patricia.
Corrupt. Arrogant. Bribe-taking. Monarchical. Kiss-ass to the oligarchy. Betrayers of everything decent in America.
Let's just hope for a massive defeat of the orange felon's little army. Then we can figure out what next. Anyway, hope for adding four more to make 13 on that court -- one justice for each of the federal circuits it supervises.
Your last two sentences are pure gold, Phil. "...larger, rancid evils lacerating the larger world." indeed.
To figure out what’s the allure, the shiny object, the draw? What is the MAGA crowd most drawn to. Are there two different types , the ‘heros’ and the followers?
I also tried to link why the beef or where’s the beef, Phil . Like..so who are the happiest people? Norway and Denmark supposedly. The why was then broken down into many subsets. Health, activity, freedoms, …
If people are ripe to the MAGA pitch because their basic comforts ( greater disparities) aren’t met ( but America usually goes into recession and added debt during Republican control) how does that equate? Duped by the lie(s)? Same with their ‘team’…high turnover rates, few supportive after serving fewer after ‘being fired’ or ‘thrown under the bus’ and worser falling to deaths by ‘accidents’ there seems an eager set to vie for positions . Doesn’t add up , even the oligarchs…or am I’m. Missing something?
American is on this high right now , eager for joy, smiles, and sensible solutions knowing there’s no magic wand (nor are any promised). The Harris/Walz train is at full steam and people waiting to applaud.
Still the facts of the Biden Miracle 1) aren’t acknowledged , are in fact 2) denied happening , they believe facts skewed by the ‘alternate news’ -also known liars and 3) given little headline press -most of whom have been bought by the oligarchs- nor is that pointed out .
If Substack were the news source for more would it penetrate the shroud laid by MAGA? Who has obscured the truth, and gotten away with it. Will a BLUE TSUNAMI see the irrevocably guilty tried and jailed?
So flashy liars, their lies , shiny objects, make believe, and bullying work?
🤦♀️🤷♀️🤔🤥
Slowly we see Republicans for Harris emerge.
Slowly we hear the experienced former staff admit the chaos, insanity, difficulty factor to control or manage , and history walks through the door again slapping aside reason.
Slowly the polls tick up …while the deception goes into overdrive? Waiting for the shoe to drop..anyone?
I’m voting blue…
💙💙VOTE BLUE END THIS COUP💙💙
Who indeed, Patricia, are the happiest people?
I'm now reading Anthony Doerr's novel, "All the Light We Cannot See." It's a detailed look at the lives of a young German boy and a young French girl as they grow up over a ten-year period before and during WWII.
I'd say any culture that has people willing to read, capable of reading such details in the lives of others is "happiest."
The truths of the details in their lives include attention to nature, seasons, food, and the pain which arrives to others wherever leaders posture slogans and lies.
Barbara Kingsolver has a similarly detailed novel in her recent "Demon Copperhead." Set in American Appalachia. I wonder if anyone has anything similar set anywhere in the vicinity of Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza.
Interesting. Let me know, please. (and) ‘Oh boy two more books to read’, she said happily! Yes…They’re definitely a lucky faction.
Be happy don’t worry.
Some others are the PTSD,maimed, high % vets & homeless, thier caretakers/SWs/nurses.
There’s a story in everyone but few are written. Seems all issues should be solved from the amount of experience,hearing just last night a newly retired say she was happy helping/seeing someone recover,get their life back, and re-engage, a nurse. Some we don’t or can’t reach.q
I think the helping, togetherness, is key too.
Got the books on the list, Phil..this group has some great suggestions!
I with you ,we’re voting BLUE💙
In the statement that there are Republicans that will vote for Harris but still do not favor things in the Democratics platform. That echoes what Heather has said many times in wanting a liberal democracy where we do not agree on all things but we can come together on the things we do agree on and then work on coming together on the rest. Healthy, respectful debate is essential to a healthy democracy.
"That coalition includes Republicans eager to stop Trump and his allies. They have signed on to elect Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz in order to preserve democracy, but are clear they are not embracing the Democratic Party’s policies. The Harris-Walz campaign has welcomed them."
Solidarity, the foundation of responsible diversity, the foundation of a just democracy. Or is it another way around? Maybe you just can't have the one without the others.
Opposition Coalition like 1854 and the anti- Kansas-Nebraska Act "Wide Awakes"
Thanks to AOC and Crockett, now and forever, Trump will be nothing more than a “two bit union buster” with “a rap sheet”. God bless Joe.