There have been more developments today surrounding yesterday’s indictment of former president Trump for conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding as he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and install himself in office over the wishes of the American people.
Democrats should be playing the Fitch downgrade as a klaxon warning of what will happen if MAGA Republicans' fiscal policies get reinstated. This has to have a huge media push or otherwise the Republicans will make it about "Biden's failed policies." Yes the timing of the announcement sucks but but this is a grenade that has to be tossed back into the Republicans lap ASAP.
Totally agree Georgia. I spent my career in the investment management business (it changed dramatically-and not for the better- over the decades) and this is definitely a "shot across the bow" as Wall Street "does not like uncertainty" and chaos is not usually well received. However, let us not forget the movers and shakers in the financial business tend to lean to the right politically and have done absolutely nothing to speak out against trump. They have no honor. CEO's, hedge fund managers, etc. pockets are overly lined (and they have the ability to protect their pot of gold unlike the masses) so they could care less as long as they get to amass and keep their money, control, and power. I'll get off that soap box for now!
“extremism by Republican officials—from cheerleading default, to undermining governance and democracy, to seeking to extend deficit-busting tax giveaways for the wealthy and corporations—is a continued threat to our economy.”
Our current fiscal problems can be traced back to Reagan. He had a likeable personality and his success in dealing with the Soviet Union makes him somewhat immune to attack, but his domestic policies, well beyond fiscal, were abominable.
Absolutely the case, George. Reagan tripled the national debt and began the war on the Middle Class and labor unions while giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy, amounting to their plundering the national treasury. G.H.W. Bush added another trillion. Then G.W. Bush doubled it again with the Iraq War and the Wall Street extraction of more trillions, leading us to the brink of a depression. Obama bailed them out without requiring that they repay. Then Trump in 2017 gave the big corps and the wealthy another $2 trillion tax break, resulting in part to a $7.8 trillion deficit, the largest by number of any president, but it is still less than Reagan's tripling the national debt. We're $32 trillion in the hole, dumping this debt on our children and grandchildren. These plunderers have no conscience.
I despised Reagan from the get go. He indeed is responsible for all the things Richard has mentioned as well as shafting mental health and low income housing adding to what we see today. Right now there is a thread going on next-door here in Salem about taxes and housing costs. I agree about housing costs, but those values also mean higher property taxes. Poverty by America, the author argues that we could solve our problems if people just paid what they owe. Locally here we have at the top of the list a sleazy developer and a COVID central church.
His success in dealing with the Soviet Union had partly to due with just how badly Soviet communism worked--their products were terrible as I learned first hand when a friend brought a Russian bicycle home--and when a needed product was in stores there were long lines for it, as one of my Soviet specialist father's favorite "Russian jokes" played on. The other ingredient in Reagan's success was that Gorbachev was a very sensible, very decent man, who genuinely cared about his country and people.
George, I totally agree. His fiscal policies were indeed abominable. I guess that’s why some refer to his policies as supply-side economics or trickle -down economics, Reagan and his advocates preferred to call it free-market economics. Alternately, his opponents called it VOODOO economics!
The best thing Bush Sr. did for the U.S. was telling us that Reagan's economic proposals/plans were Voodoo Economics. He said that in the summer of 1980. Soon after that, Reagan chose Bush Sr. to be his VP. Birds of a feather.
Reagan was a talking head, and a somewhat empty one at that.
He took direction from a Kitchen Cabinet of wealthy supporters who appealed to his ego when he ran for Governor of CA, gave him a script to campaign with, and then expanded their membership and influence as he won the Presidency.
His abysmal domestic policies were focused on preserving and enchanting the wealth of the “1%”, that have become the overriding goal of today’s Republican Party. The Middle Class of this country was hollowed out and is only now beginning to recover under President Biden’s policies.
That same shadow group controlled much of Trump’s actions as President, though many of them realized they were working with an emotionally disturbed individual who could go off the tracks at any time. And he did so following the election results in November 2020!
Tim, yes to all that and you also could mention that he was also run by his wife's horoscope. Then there is a doctor's first amendment rights relative to abortion.
Like it or not, it is all about the money now. Thinking 'Dollars Defending Democracy" here, I find enormous encouragement, and ability to do so when I attempt to imagine the hardships the Ukranian people are being forced to endure at the hands of their own madman. It is imperative that we remove as many of the Republicockroaches from elected office as is humanly possible!
". . . at the hands of their own madman." What do you mean? Putin launched the attack on Ukraine, hitting civilian targets and taking Ukrainian children back to Russia. Putin has now been indicted as a war criminal.
My wife has made the same comment about Wall Street not liking chaos. And she has predicted that WS will put pressure on the trumpers to.... oh, I don't know, maybe follow the law...
So far I can see no difference.
The only way real change occurs is when someone is in pain. And that pain needs to come in the form of lost elections and lost revenue. I love that President Biden yanked the space command headquarters from Alabama and returned it to Colorado.
I agree, but my objection is that lawyers and likely Trump himself will use the exposure to stir up violence. Even police in the courtroom may be sympathetic to him. Better to have reporters and drawings. It will help keep courtroom decorum.
It needs to be televised! Trump will certainly throw his tantrums and play to his followers ad nauseum outside the courtroom. The judge assigned to this case is perfectly capable of controlling his behavior in her courtroom. Any of his outbursts there will not help his image with anyone. I also believe that televising the trial would short circuit possible support for him by police in the courtroom, which concerns you. Aside from a few characters/politicians like trump, it’s amazing how knowing that your behavior is being televised and millions of people are watching (and can hit replay) moderates your behavior.
I expect that the trump crowd will only watch the clips selected by the faux news outlets. Like the January 6th hearings, millions would watch at least parts of the trial, especially if sources like MSNBC televise the entire thing. (I recorded it) Many others would not have the time or care enough to watch the whole thing, but recorded clips on the mainstream media nightly news would get their attention and make an impression. This is important for the survival of our democracy and totally outweighs any risk of bad behavior in the courtroom.
It’s not behavior in the courtroom that worries me. It’s guns and organized mayhem outside it, signaled from the courtroom by the master of TV rebellions.
Disagree. tRump will stir up his brainwashed magates regardless if televised or not. And they will be violent either way. Show us the TRUTH IN REAL TIME!
But, yes, this judge probably will not want it televised because tRump would turn it into a circus as that is tRump's specialty. If cameras cause the trial to be delayed, I'm not for it. I do hope it can be filmed for posterity though. Maybe the Library of Congress would want the video history for the record.
Any judge has the power to take steps against anyone, defendant or attorney, who tries to turn the courtroom into a circus.
I rather like the concept of a glass cube with one-way sound transmission. Defendant will be present and can hear everything said in the courtroom but cannot interrupt and otherwise act to disrupt - something I do agree is entirely possible. I have difficulty imagining tfg keeping his trap shut for hours in the courtroom.
I don't think this exposure will stir up as much violence as much as censoring it would. Besides, it's a great opportunity to expose once again what a compete psychopath Donald is. Bring on Mary!
Former Federal prosecutor Joyce Vance is a strong advocate FOR televising this trial, and I totally agree with her:
"Finally, cameras in the courtroom. Chief Justice Roberts could ensure these proceedings were made publicly available. He can order that there be cameras in the courts. And he should. That final charge makes it clear that we are all victims of this crime. We have the right to watch the proceedings."
And Vance twice quotes brilliant US Attorney Joyce Alene on X/Twitter:
"I'll say it again. The Chief Justice must authorize televising Trump's trial on charges connected to his attempts to interfere in the outcome of the 2024 election. Justice demands it."
"Chief Justice Roberts should immediately amend the rules to permit cameras in federal courts. The American public is entitled to watch the proceedings against Trump in their entirety. Anything less would be an injustice."
But Proud Boys and their allies will watch too and can easily be exhorted to violence. Trump and his lawyers may already have a plan and have military and police cooperation. Better to have reporters and artists plus film from the 1/6 Committee.
Part of the reason it took 2 years to reach today's DOJ indictment of tRump's conspiracy to overthrow our election was that Garland et al had to flip all the little insurrectionists first, thereby also capturing, disarming, and neutralizing tRump's Brown Shirt Brigade. My Proud Boy neighbor isn't marching anywhere these days. We, The people, All of Us This Time, need to see and hear the tRump trial.
The conspiracy trial MUST BE TELEVISED. Having the important opportunity as a college student on break to watch the Watergate Hearings in the summer of 1973 with my mother, I was witness to our country's deep corrupt pit, and our waking up, changing, becoming stronger. The primary focus of these hearings will be on the witnesses' testimony and cross examinations. Faux News will splice much of the truth away, but their remaining audience can not be reached by truth anyway. It is that college student, or a young mother, or middle aged worker, who should see first hand how deftly Jack Smith will excoriate tRump and his fellow cons, and end their tyranny.
But the Watergate Hearings took place in a different world. And this is a trial where the ex-president, TV personality, who is a tantrum-prone child with a following of organized armed bands who can be called to violence from the courtroom.
tRump will tantrum on Faux before, during and after. At least in court the Judge can silence him. We need good ole' Republicans (who voted for tRump because they were bamboozled) to see tRump in court, and to see and hear the witnesses. And this time, unlike last, our military leaders trust Pres. Biden and would, if need be, intervene if violent armed bands heard their dog's whistle.
"...heard a bunch of whining by former prosecutors and MSNBC anchors yesterday about how wonderful if would be if they allowed cameras in the federal courtroom for the trial of Defendant Trump whenever that happens. Why? So Defendant Trump can do his level best to appear as a victim of a wrongful prosecution every day like O.J. did? Maybe all the experts and anchors on MSNBC and CNN should go back and have a look at the verdict after all that wall-to-wall coverage of poor O.J., who was portrayed as the real victim, remember, instead of his dead wife and Ronald Goldman."
If they don’t televise the trial, the networks/publishers like FOX, INFO WARS, Breitbart and Newsmax will continue to spin the narrative to back up Trumps cries of being the victim of a witch-hunt. It will allow the Cult of Trump to continue to bury their collective heads in the sand and cry foul.
We The People NEED to see it in realtime so there is no doubt of the actual narrative.
Zella, Thank You very very much for posting this link. (I'm a huge fan of Neal Katyal.) Televising the trial has the almost-sure potential of insuring that
Georgia Fisanick's image of the hand grenade with the pin pulled out is a DUD. Otherwise, misinformation and lies will proliferate causing lots of blood and gore.
Thank You Zella! Katyal is amazing! And impactful. And Scotus Roberts is worried about his reputation which already has rats in it from tRump's gutter. If enough legal and political experts like Katyal speak up for televising the hearings, Roberts will more likely allow it. And smile so humbly.
As long as there's the possibility of a Trump/GOP reelection, whether 2024 or later, and MAGA dominates the GOP, Fitch have a point in looking to possible government financial instability. I imagine this has an immediate impact on the cost of US borrowing?
Frank, from my own perspective as an engineer, not an economist (meaning I can use non-linear models, the vast majority of economic models are linear):
It has been clear since the Trump tax cuts and perhaps even since the Bush II tax cuts that US debt is not sustainable. Right now, the US relies on the fact that we are the world's resolution/reserve currency to support our debt. However, there are efforts to erode the status of the dollar. It will take time, but, the fact that we have unsustainable debt SUPPORTS moving to a more stable currency for worldwide transactions.
Additionally, we grew our debt by a trillion dollars in something like a month or two recently.
Lastly, and most telling, our debt is 129% of the Gross Domestic Product. The last time it was this high was at the end of WW II. Then, taxes were raised to pay down that debt and that debt was lowered to near zero under Jimmy Carter.
Then, Reagan, while talking about "fiscal responsibility" went on spending spree AND lowered taxes AND sponsored TWO recessions. He did all this while brainwashing America into thinking he had a great economy.
As long as Republicans are unwilling to raise taxes even on Warren Buffett who has VOLUNTEERED to pay higher taxes publicly, the US is in real threat of default on its debt.
I think that another one or two downgrades is more accurate than the current rating made yesterday.
US debt is in real, obvious, serious trouble of real default. Making that clear to the suckers who are buying it is important.
Last, but far from least: Trump is reasonably likely to be President again. US debt could be worthless fairly soon after that. Trump has authored bankruptcy no less than SIX times in his life. Bankruptcy is Trump's ONLY real expertise in his life.
You don’t have to know advanced mathematics --just read “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein. Reaganomics is a ploy to wipe out the middle class and allow the neonazi, fascist billionaires, like Charles Koch, to rule as oligarchs. THAT is the heart of Repug policy: To that effect, the RNC, through “Citizens United,” is a crime syndicate run by a coterie of billionaires under the likes of Koch and Leo.
I think you’re stuck in the deficit myth. The current economic models are still built on an idea of economics as a mathematical model, and there is just no way to take into account all the variables. It’s more complex than climate.
I’m a scientist, which is very different from being an engineer, and I’m able to juggle very complex systems. I think the deficit is quite manageable as long as there is growth and economic activity, just as Keynes taught. And that’s what’s fueling the economy. I do agree the W II and drumpf cuts, hell let’s go back to Reagan, have been stupid.
I would probably be more worried had I not had Stephanie Kelton read the Defict Myth to me.
Three times, because the first two I couldn’t quite think it could be true. Ideas so contrary to the “popular opinion”( and we know what that’s worth).
Jen, I am not nearly as sanguine about debt at 130% of GDP. After WW II, with MUCH higher tax rates than today, the debt was small but not zero 30 years later.
So. IF we revert to the tax and spending ratios post WW II it will be 30 years, maybe, to get back to solid.
Not including Trump’s Openly spoken threat to just default. Right? He is working for Putin.
"Reasonably likely" makes no sense. He's either likely, or he isn't. And he isn't, in my opinion. But he's out for retribution, as is the Republican party, whom he has convinced that he's a victim of the mythical "deep state," Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, the "Swamp," and damn it, when he was five the Tooth Fairy forgot to leave a dime under his pillow. Trump is capable of even more damage than he's already done, and he's going to get worse.
"I imagine this has an immediate impact on the cost of US borrowing?"
I'm no financial whiz, but the short answer is no.
For what it's worth, Goldman Sachs said the report "contains no new information and "should have little direct impact." Jamie Dimon (JPMorganChase) called it "kind of ridiculous" but thinks it "doesn't really matter." So... *shrugs?*
I don't like him on a personal level in any way. But he is one of the top bankers in the world, so in this specific case his opinion was relevent, I felt.
Georgia At Moody’s Investors Service in the 1970s I was EVP responsible for rating the credit of all taxable debt instruments worldwide, including sovereign states.
At the time England and many other countries were well below Aaa. In 2011 I agreed with the Standard & Poors reduction of the U. S. Credit rating from AAA to AA+. It had gone from a belt and two suspenders credit to something less. There was some likelihood that, because of Congress, there could be a default on debt obligations.
I see a similar situation today. The Fitch drop in the US credit rating seems appropriate. There is no assurance that Congress will approve in a timely manner the payment of US debt obligations.
Long term, personally I would have no problem holding US long-term debt. Short-term it seems less assured on timely payments than Aaa-rated debt instruments. The interest difference would be marginal, though some funds may be restricted to Aaa/AAA-rated debt instruments.
I agree that the reality of the downgrade is not catastrophic. But the PERCEPTION of the reality is what counts these days. Right now the Republicans are desparate for talking points and the downgrade gives them a big one to distort and the truth is that a government shutdown will hurt many people. Which spin will "win"? "Biden governed so horribly that he destroyed the US credit worthiness and caused the national debt and your creidt card bill to surge because of higher interest rates." or "Right wing Republican extremists in the House refused to do their duty and legislate the funding of the government and forced a shutdown." I know which one the Republicans will lob-- What I am not hearing in the media is a Democratic response.
Georgia How many people were aware that S&P had cut US credit for AAA to AA+ in 2011 and has kept it there ever since? Moody’s still Aaa and Fitch considered 2nd tier credit rating agency.
An additional problem is Biden's "Vampire Liberal" policies of mammoth increases in the national debt -- sucking resources out of the rest of the world -- to pay for Worthwhile Programs that we really can't afford.
You seem to misunderstand my reference to Vampire Liberals, who suck resources out of other countries (by issuing more and more unpayable Treasury Bonds) to fund Worthwhile Projects. Of course there are Vampire Conservatives as well...
My guy, what I have caught you doing is making sh!t up. Literally no one else besides you has ever used this phrase. You can Google it in quotation marks and the only actual hit is you, on this comment page. Which, considering there are 1.2 billion English-language internet users, and an astonishing percentage of them also seem dedicated to the task of endlessly making sh!t up, is impressive. This is a newsletter/forum dedicated to historical connections to current events, scrupulously and factually researched by a leading scholar. Don't be surprised no one here is interested in engaging in a debate with your one-man school of thought.
The difference is the conservative Vamps give the money to the Dragons, in the form of tax breaks and incentives, who horde their wealth for themselves. While the liberal Vamps use it for the common good (worthwhile projects). A lot of those projects Need to happen sooner than later, whether we can “afford” them or not.
Far above 100 with lengthy reports about platform obligations to Authors & Readers along with developing Platform liability law nationally & in California & other states.
Dave Smucker, assuming that you're not a Biden Bully, if you click on my name, you will find a series of "notes" -- replies to HCR pointing out her errors and dubious statements.
I think he must be in his glory with all the attention he is getting lately. He currently likes to attach prior Letters comments. I sure don't waste the time to read them. I actually don't read most of his comments--he just repeats, repeats, repeats. I might mention he is a troll to people who have not had prior experience being called "Thugly" by him. (LOL--don't you love that one!!)
It's because you address other commenters with contempt, your own comments are inaccurate, hostile and repetitive, and stop using your own comments as references, please. You're lazy; you use right wing nonsense and ridicule because you are trying to provoke people, and that's simply being an asshole. Am I clear?
Try this, you incredibly stupid, obnoxious troll: Go fuck yourself. How dare you throw such ugly crap in my direction when I never made similar attacks on you. You really make me sick. I guess you just can't stand to be told the truth about yourself and must resort to sick crap about alcoholism and misogyny. Your whole purpose in being here is to offend people, in hopes that anyone will think you're worth engaging with. I pity you, I really do, and although you should go fuck yourself, maybe someday you'll learn how to respect others with whom you disagree. There's really something seriously wrong with you.
"Vampire Liberal"? I guess you Pravda employees are running out of English words these days? You are throwing around the word inane today I also see. Goodness.
Vampire and Liberal. Now, what word might we associate with that marriage of fantasy and reality? Let's take a poll Speck.
Wasn't the Dems which have been endlessly seeking tax cuts for the rich and very, John. GOP policy is not thus? Check out US Military spending, by far the single largest spending line, outsizing by huge margins the next 4 largest military budgets on the planet. "Vampire Liberal"? give us a break!
It's really just a matter of US electorate and political financing corporate world being willing to tax appropriately. US is unbelievably behind eg European countries in supporting social support spending. Still has to resolve long term financing of existing Social Security policies.
John, you know that the Republicans have siphoned trillions out of the national treasury. Reagan tripled the national debt and gave massive tax breaks to the large corps and wealthy individuals. This continued with G.H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush and Donald Trump, Trump adding $7.8 trillion to the national debt. Your statement is devoid of facts and reason.
Richard Sutherland, I think it's fair to say that Trump pulled a Reagan when he was President.
The problem is, even though Biden wants to spend money on worthwhile projects, we are basically stealing from other countries, who have to hold U.S. Treasury Bonds as a currency reserve for settlements of international trade. Basically, we're exporting inflation with our endless generation of increasingly toxic Treasury Bonds.
of people spend money they can't really afford. How about a new furnace replacing a roof that is falling down. You have a rip in your shirt and don't repair it. It then gets worse. These are minor things, but if you don't spend a little to fix things now, it will only get worse later.
It seems that trump spent a lot of money (lost it too in reducing the country's revenue with the tax "break".)
Fitch is run by Hearst heirs. They saw Trump is toast and decided to make a lame attempt to sabotage Biden. Purely to protect their low taxes and keep democracy on the ropes.
I don't think they'd have anything to gain by doing that. And simply blaming the messenger is ridiculous. Fitch just downgraded Egypt's credit rating considerably after Al Sisi let the bills slide while pouring borrowed money into his pet "investment" projects that do nothing for the country or its millions of poor people. The US is not a stable democracy anymore, but one rated as "at risk," and that's because of the events that have taken place over the last 10 years. We have an economy that's strong, but the huge spending by the Bush, Trump and Biden administrations has had a negative effect, especially the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.
This downgrade is terrible because by election day, all the voters will remember is that it happened on Joe Biden's watch. They don't pay attention to details.
I thought just that too, but they need to hear and see examples of the damage this grenade will cause to their real lives; what they will lose that is very important to them. Does anyone on this site have concrete examples? “Fiscal policies” is too general for them to understand.
You sound like the guy who leans against the wall outside the house where the party is being held and only wants to talk to people who also hate the party.
Yeah, see, I am an adult who doesn't need the emotional comfort of thinking "they" care about "us" or "me." Every non-tribal human society has had a government, I take my participation in my society seriously, part of that is by always voting, and my vote is given to the party who is currently supporting most of the stances I support. No more, no less. I'm satisfied with my Biden vote not because I think those fundraising emails he sends me are real and he really would be my buddy if we got to know each other, I'm satisfied with my vote because I like 90-95% of the actions he has taken in office.
*scrolls down* Oh, wait, you're a Covid conspiracy theorist who thinks the Civil War was Lincoln's fault and WWIII is on the way. Have a nice life, I guess.
The Insurrection Act and Trump's desire to use the military to quash dissent somehow got buried under all the recent crazy. Thank you, Heather, for focusing on the enormous threat it posed and reminding us of the actions taken to avert it by true patriots.
The connection between Eastman and Cruz in retrospect is terrifying. I had been wondering why Cruz was so low-profile recently. Perhaps he has recognized the legal peril he may be in.
That brings up the possibility that there may be further rounds of charges and indictments related to a larger conspiracy of the politicians who participated. That notable lack of action to date on the Republican members of Congress is thought provoking. So is the lack of mention of the others involved in the January 6th War Room. Perhaps there will be another superseding indictment here as well as in the espionage indictments.
I wrote to the NYT in the spring of 2020 that I was concerned that Trump was going to stage a coup, and my worry was that he would use the military to do it because I knew that the military had a big problem with White Supremacists. This came up through my students' research for a Veterans Day Assembly we were presenting. The NYT refused to print what I had said, and I was talking about this with my friend that I walk with each morning. I was so worried about a coup, and no one was saying anything about it. Next thing I notice was that there were some political writers talking about it too. That made me even more angry that the Times would not print what I said about being worried that Trump was going to stage a coup. I mean he was telling us all that is what he was going to do early on. Trump is the worst USA president of all time, and Biden is the best.
I wince whenever I see the word "President" anywhere near that name. He was an embarrassing fake, a fraud, a very dirty trick, a piece of sabotage. It should never have happened, and when people like Linda tried to warn, they were treated like Cassandra.
I say that he was "installed." He never won the popular vote and he had a lot of
hostile domestic and foreign entities interfering. When he kept saying if he "did not win, the election is rigged," anyone who understands brainwashing projection knew he knew things were being rigged in his favor. I believe he was installed into position. Rachel Maddow had information on all of this early on who the oligarchs were who were positioning and funding Manafort, Bannon, Conway and Co.. I do hope someone has been investigating 2016 deeply. T'would be lovely to make the entire rethuglican party and their dictator's stain on our Oval office seat and all their actions for the past 7 years completely null and void. And as the party of the coup d'etat, they pay every penny back we/they spent on their skulduggery plus extra for pain, suffering and deaths caused by their actions.
And to make sure I used skulduggery correctly in this instance—I looked it up: "Skulduggery is dishonest words that are meant to trick people, like your brother's fast-talking that leaves you doing all of his chores and your own, plus giving him your allowance." He's a master of skulduggery. So perfectly fits the maga cult-leader and many of his propaganda cronies, no?
Yes. I agree that he did not win the popular election and the electoral college is some antiquated piece of garbage that gives voice to the rural over the urban. Bush and Trump were placed in by this horrendous tool, which Trump is poised to manipulate. When Gore did not win because of Florida, Dems did not go stop the steal, like we should have. Then Nader was the third party spoiler. I wonder if he is able to feel badly about the role he has played in the destruction of our environment. If Gore had become president we would have had a different environmental trajectory. Also, given how Tipper was so big into protecting children from television and songs, I would imagine there would have been much greater efforts made to protect us all from the technology running our lives. I do not consider the midterms legitimate, but have been analyzing the immigration patterns to see how a preponderance of immigrants from post Soviet European countries, and so called socialist Latin American countries has converged to make us much more conservative as a nation. Unfortunately not everyone who leaves a fascist country knows how to live in or understand a democracy.
Linda, I think about that travesty with Bush installed over Gore all the time, and how this climate tragedy would have been a priority for decades, now. It's heartbreaking. I agree 100%, we should have been all hands on deck to stop that steal.
I think it's more accurate to say that the Supreme Court stole the 2000 election for Bush2, but that's a quibble. I've been an activist on immigration for two decades, which I consider big biz' way of reducing wages, as well as a major environmental problem--the average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise threefold after arrival in the US, as we're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita GH emissions and thus the worst place on the planet to put more people, and if you've come up with something solid suggesting that immigration is making us much more conservative, I'd be very interested to speak with you. The email I give out in public places is supernova1@aol.com--email me there and I'll give you my phone number.
Yes, Roger Stone created the chaos to enable the Supreme Court to steal the election after Federalist Society puppies, Brett and Amy, traveled to Florida to "help count" the ballots. It was all a scam. As to immigration issues, I am not up on the environmental impact of immigrant labor, but it makes sense. I do have 2 friends who are immigration lawyers and their stories are heartbreaking.
The Electoral College was part of the set of compromises that made the Union possible in the first place. Does messing with it risk undermining the Union?
Anne-Louise Luccarini; I wish Trump had never been elected. IMO and of others, if Hillary had won, there would have been no Covid Crap. There would not have been four years of "Russian Interference" BS and two impeachments.
Sure, Hillary might have started WW III sooner than Biden but so what?
All Trump did was delay the shit coming by four years. I'm not getting any younger and the past three years were total shite.
It is helpful to try to look at where we are today as a positive in that every brick in the foundation of America has dark, smelly issues etched into them and we are now having to finally face their impacts in these modern times. It is our turn to look at ourselves as country and do some soul-searching in who we are and who we want to be. We must face our shadows of racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, gender phobias, immature narcissism, white privilege and corporate domination and invasive algorithms. All of this impacts what we are taught and intentionally not taught. How we live in this century of rapid technology whose impact and control upon us is barely beginning to be understood on a mass level. We need to re-create America and bring her up to date with stricter laws, swifter justice, facts, and educate people on our real history, hone critical thinking skills and our responsibilities to one another and to a planet that cannot sustain this level of greed. The old days of white, colonial, corporate domination and the days of keeping women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen are over.
We are hearing the screams and smelling the stinking lies of the dominators who feel the death knell of those days and desperately want them back. We must deal with all our isms in this huge melting pot of multi-tinted citizens. Our form of democracy may have to look different if people cannot mutually respect rules, laws, one another and this sphere we live upon. I have no interest to return to the wild west nor to some fearful, apocalyptic vision of the future where everyone has concealed weapons and fights like hell for scraps. Let's move towards a future of decency instead of scarcity, fear and ignorance.
Pensa, this assessment is accurate. Until we (as a country) address that our rise to power (which was meteoric for the times) has as its foundation the theft of Indigenous Lands and the near genocide of the Indigenous Peoples combined with the kidnapping and enslavement of Black Africans, we cannot move forward through the sludge of presumed white supremacy and Christian dogma (as adopted by Christian Nationalists). Then we can address the other "isms" of gender, class, and orientation.
My brother and his family just moved to Singapore where safety is extremely important and they give up certain rights to maintain that safety. I am in the process of studying how they have no crime and poor behavior is checked swiftly. I would like to understand their system since they are a huge melting pot of people from around the world. (rather wealthy). I would give up certain rights if we could stop the constant massacres of American children... and abuses of the 1st Amendment that has now moved into mass brainwashing.
Pensa_VT: I agree with most of your comment. Unfortunately every country on Earth has bricks with dark smelly issues etched in them.
Saying you are against racism and then mentioning "white privilege" and "white...domination" just feeds the fire. Race is a myth, a lie, developed by the eugenicists.
You are defeating your own arguments by putting "white" or any other skin color in your arguments. I try hard not to do that. It sometimes slips in anyway. So many people use color of skin to describe people. It's eugenics propaganda.
I agree with you that Americans need to learn about the past. Don't destroy it or bury. Don't tear down statues and cancel history. How do we learn where we came from?
Oliver Cromwell sent 50,000 Irish slaves to the American colonies during his invasion of Ireland in 1649-52. The Irish slaves were free. The African slaves cost money. But all people hear and read about are the African slaves.
Free Africans in the colonies owned both Irish and African slaves. In the Caribbean the Irish and African slaves united in slave revolts. The first person to petition the Virginia House of Burgess to make the buying of African slaves legal in Virginia was a free African man himself who also owned Irish slaves.
And this myth about male domination keeping women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen is something I've never run into. I agree with Terry Thomas in the film "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". America is the biggest matriarchy on the planet. Women sit under hair dryers eating bon-bons gabbing away while their husbands work themselves to death and die early from heart attacks.
That was one of life's worst shocks. She had outclassed him in absolutely every field. He'd displayed himself as an ignorant oaf. How could it have happened? Then we started finding out.
Anne_Louise Luccarini: Barrack Obama chastised Hillary for not going to Wisconsin, Michigan, and the other swing states in 2016. Hillary believed the polling data. She got lazy. Trump is a lot of things but he isn't lazy. The guy is a dynamo of energy. Trump campaigned hard.
Plus, all the media coverage (hatred) of Trump just gave him millions of dollars of free advertising.
The Democrats lost that election through stupidity and hubris.
His "I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any votes" was NO JOKE.
Forget "pro-life." The Federal government had put a hold on executions for a myriad of important reasons (to scratch the surface - killing of innocent people, inequities in sentencing with rich people rarely being held to account, pharmaceutical companies refusing to have products affiliated with the practice, refusal of medical societies from participating the killing of individuals, and on and on). Yet djt had called for the execution of the Exonerated Five when they were initially falsely arrested, and he NEVER apologized nor acknowledged his error. So in addition to making plans for the use of the military against civilians, he incited white supremists like Nazis, confederates, anti-government militias and domestic terrorists by calling them "fine people" and promising to give blanket pardons.
During the Trump administration, the Federal government was directed to resume executions. He had THIRTEEN PEOPLE executed - FIVE AFTER HE LOST THE 2020 ELECTION, in the time between the November Election Day until the January 21 Inauguration Day. That is homicidal, NOT pro-life.
The NYT also did not publish it when I wrote in to an article about Trump's son getting covid that Child Welfare should have removed Barron from the home for neglect.
Mine was about the unmitigated gall of Casey DeSantis in imitating Jackie's style (and JFK the brave promoter of civil rights), to sell their sick Fascist agenda. I didn't add that the south murdered our beloved president or that his nephew is a spoiled spoiler if there ever was one and brings shame upon the whole family.
Judy Dyer - tfg hated President Barack Obama so much that he fully intended for the line of succession of Presidents to END at 45.
He refused to believe he could lose to Joe Biden and not go on to be the despot he always envisioned, a la Putin or the one he kept love letters from, Kim Jong Un.
This week happens to be the anniversary of Hitler becoming the absolute dictator (Fuhrer) of Germany - August 2, 1934.
I loved Barack Obama so much! But, darn close to hating white people ...and, I'm one of them. I really REALLY hate white supremacists. THE MOST unAmerican thing one can be.
Linda Weide: Woodrow Wilson and Abraham Lincoln are the worst Presidents. Wilson was a bigot who re-segregated the Army and Navy. He gave us the Income Tax, Federal Reserve, and involved the USA in WWI which led to WWII and Communism etc. Wilson was a disaster.
Abraham Lincoln's war killed more Americans than any other war in the country's history.
Do you have proof of this "White Supremacist" policy in the Armed Forces? Last I looked all the leaders of the US military were African-Americans.
Timmy, when we were doing a presentation on the military I had different students researching the history of different groups in the military, like women, Asians, Native Americans. One of my students wanted to do "White Men," so we looked them up. Every single article was on how White Supremacy is a big problem in the military. Then we read that at least 1/3 of the people in the military say they know someone in the military who is a White Supremacist and how that is a problem. Here are some articles on it.
It was reading these stats that had me worried about Trump staging a coup. I was not sure whether the military would stand up to him or support him in his coup desires. We now see that they stood up to him.
I have been talking about presidents in my lifetime. I was not alive for Wilson or Lincoln. However, Wilson is not alone in being a bigot, so that is not a criteria I use, but he did not have the global environmental impact that Trump has had. By following the Reagan playbook (the second worst president in my lifetime and perhaps the globally more important problem) putting industry insiders into regulatory agencies and filling the court with people who are destroying any environmental protections we have, Trump will have more negative impact on the USA and the planet than any president prior to him at a point in time when these actions are now irreversible. Biden is attempting to undo this. I certainly feel the government is responsible for our well being. We are global players and a president needs to be making sure we have strong alliances with other countries who back us up against our enemies.
Linda Weide: Thanks for the reply. I'm no fan of the military so I'm not surprised by your research results. IMO the US military should be disbanded. The National Guard in each state and the Coast Guard is all we need for self defense.
Biden has already undone all of Trump's executive orders. Biden can't control much. The government debt is out of control and getting worse. Each President has increased the debt since Clinton. The last President in my lifetime who was any good was JFK and look what happened to him.
Timmy we are going to have to disagree. We are not Costa Rica, who can get away without a military it seems. We can not. My daughter was living with a family in Costa Rica recently who live in a small town. Their 5 year old son has asthma and the medical center does not have an asthma specialist, so when he is having asthma problems he has to lie down and take it easy. This is not true for my daughter who also has asthma that has been controlled by medications until she outgrew the need to take regular ones, and now just has emergency ones like I do. So, Costa Rica probably cannot afford to have a military. I posit that we can afford to have one. People are in poverty in this country not because the money is going to the military, although I would like to get rid of the waste, but because we don't manage our nation in a way that ensures people and children will not be in poverty. The money is here in this country to take care of people, but we don't. We could be giving more money in welfare for example, but policies have taken that away. One of my aunts in Germany explained to me that the reason people there get more money from the government is that they don't want them to fall into a depression while they are getting it together. Wish that were the attitude here, but try telling that to Joe Manchin. We need to tax the wealthy at a higher percent, and we can start with billionaires and millionaires. We should not allow dual citizenship with countries that allow Americans to hide their money from taxation. Let Clarence Thomas' billionaire pal Crow move to the Caribbean Island where he has become a citizen to shelter his money. Biden has not yet undone all of Trumps and Reagans destruction of the government. We have enemies, and until they are gone, I think we do need a military.
Linda Weide: The Founders of the uSA hated standing armies. They knew that a federal military was a threat to liberty. The Army will be used against the people of America. It has been used before. Look at what happened to the Bonus Army in DC. Or look at the Coal Wars or the Draft Riots in NYC.
People don't get money from the government. The government has no money. Every dime the government has is taken from the workers of the USA.
Sure, the Fed prints currency to fund the government, but then we all pay the Inflation Tax to pay for that currency printing.
The USA can't afford to have a military. The Federal Government will pay $1 trillion in interest on the debt this year alone. That's $1 trillion going right to the people you want to tax even more.
Your support of the US Military and the debt it causes is making the rich richer.
I think South Carolina attacked Fort Sumpter. The south succeeded. Do you wish that would have been successful? Should slavery still exist, and if not when should it have ended?
Christopher D Austin: No one was injured or died in the bombing of Ft. Sumter. The Federal troops in the fort were allowed to leave a few days later after they surrendered.
The War Between the States was not about slavery, at least not at first. It was about tariffs and taxes. Abe Lincoln did not abolish slavery in Kentucky, Maryland, or West Virginia (the border states that stayed neutral). Lincoln also did not abolish slavery in the northern states. His famous Emancipation Proclamation only abolished slavery in the Confederacy over which he had no authority.
You end slavery the same way the British Empire did. Buy the slaves from the slave owners and set them free. Lincoln could have done this but he didn't. Lincoln wanted a strong central government. Lincoln was a railroad man. He supported Wall Street and the Big Boys in NYC. They wanted to rape the South and they did.
Timmy ! , There has been Bad Presidents , in the Past, granted. There is GOOD , Bad , and UGLY !, in this " World Order , & there WILL BE ! , " untill JESUS ! , RETURNS ! { tRUMP ! , TAKES the CAKE !, for a LOSER !) a TOUNGUE ! , that Calls OUR VETERANS " LOSERS, and SUCKERS ! , Should have THAT Tounge ,,,,, CUT OUT ! " Nuff SAID !"
Regarding Ted Cruz, I think his makeover as a MAGA crusading knight was well-performed, if you can think of contemporary American politics as a real-life horror movie featuring Trump as the reincarnation of Godzilla and Biden as Dracula.
John, The ReThugs !, TOTAL the SUM ! , of that COMPLETE HORROR SHOW !! ( MANKIND ! , NEEDS , To Be RE ADJUSTED ! IT ! , Will Be SOONER, Than We will ALL , THINK !}
Georgia, I think no stone will be left unturned by SC Smith. They will all have their comeuppance. They were all out in the open and STILL are. Lock them up, eventually. But get them out of the Congress now.
When a misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood, smothers truth under indifference or insults, a nation turns its back on progress, and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe (Frédéric Bastiat).
This is what the conspirators of Donald Trump have been engaging since 2020 elections. If they realize that their claims are under constant scrutiny, they hid behind the First Amendment and manufacture another version of truth to appear as if they are victims of political persecutions. They really wanted to benefit from violence to find a door to introduce military into the elections and quote even Insurrection Act to appear as using the constitution but behind their back, they wanted to overturn every unimaginable claim into their favor and select which part of the law to butter with.
I agree Edwin with one exception. I think the orange blob and his co-conspirators have been engaging in and disrupting everything they can since LONG before 2020. Their crusade began in 2015 and blossomed like a nuclear bomb throughout his first reign of terror.
Georgia we’re on the same track. Yesterday I wrote:
Will there be indictments for the Republican members of the House and Senate who were in on (part of) the conspiracy/ conspiracies? After all 147 of them voted against certifying the election results!
No doubt! That was the undeniable and very public indicator that they were absolutely committed to doing whatever was necessary to hold onto power even at the expense of vacating principles and expectations of a well run democracy.
The DOJ has emphasized the fact that it is non-political, however, it is aware of the political calendar. The scope of Smith's January 6th indictment is narrow to eliminate as many procedural delays as possible in order to get these charges to trial as soon as possible. The other actors, inside and outside of Congress, should have their day in court if we have a functioning democracy after November 2024, but only if Trump is tried first.
Jack Smith did say that investigations are ongoing, which gives me hope that he will eventually reach into the House and Senate Members who participated. I doubt a superseding indictment since it's probably best to keep Trump's trial separate from the Co-conspirators, but that does not eliminate the possibility of more indictments.
From your mouth to God's ear. I too have been wondering when the hammer would come down on the co-conspirators in Congress. Many made no effort to hide their actions. If Cruz gets caught up in the net of his own making, good riddance to bad rubbish. All of America should celebrate, not just Texans.
JOHN ! , Bravo ! , I will Buy THAT ! Too ! Amidst ALL of the Piles of RUBISH ! , that CONTINUES , to Spew, from that UnControlled TOUNGUE !! John ! PLEASE !, Understand, You are Bucking AGANST MANY here ! , That STAND ! , for President Joe Bidens RELENTLESS rightious Work, TO MAKE Right, TOO Many WRONGS !! May OUR GOD! , Continue to Pour, HIS HOLY SPIRIT ! Into the GOOD HEARTS ! , of TRUE America !! ( AND MUCH !, for YOU ! , DR. RICHARDSON !! )
So, no policy disagreements? The “grabbing” issue is paramount in your mind? Or, do you suspect that the “locker room talk” comment was a lie? (You know that it is not illegal to lie, right, John?)
At the time I had already decided that I could never again vote for blood-soaked Hillary, the Butcher of Libya, who pressured a reluctant Obama to go far beyond the U.N. mandate and break the country with regime change, creating an ongoing festering wound out of the country that had once been the financial pillar of the African Union.
In 2020, I supported Tulsi Gabbard, who condemned Hillary as the "corrupt queen of the war-mongers."
Uh... that's a parody account. As in, Jack Smith does NOT have a Twitter account, so someone else is free to create one under his name, provided they don't use @realJackESmith as the actual handle. We get the entertaining badass lines he would never say in real life, the person running the account gets clicks and giggles. Pre-Musk, it would be easier to spot immediately because there world be no blue check authentication. Now, not so much.
Of course, you probably already know this, but for people that did not...
Jack Smith is not tweeting his thoughts aboit his speacal council job. They only speak threw cout filing. He is not taking questions. People need to stop being so gullible.
Trump's lawyer, interviewed by NPR and elsewhere today, spewed lies and half truths . They were all designed to influence potential jurors. They included the free speech absurdity, "Biden's Justice Department" indicted Trump, and the former president was only following legal advice (a defense widely ridiculed by legal experts).
NPR's interviewer simply let the lawyer drone on with well-prepared talking point, barely ever daring to meekly challenge him. Chicken-sh*t journalism at its finest, which has become an NPR standard.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the free press will be suppressed — or worse — if Trump wins.
Michael, of late I have been disappointed with NPR as the newscasters seem to ask questions that parrot Republican talking points, many of them false or outright lies, in ways that validate the interviewee.
Just following MSM which followed Fox. Where are the people who go out to see if it is raining. I try to get a bit from a lot of places, BBC has less bs, it seems
I start the morning with BBC radio news. They seem to scour the globe for items that are enough to curdle milk. But they pronounce all those African names with unhesitating fluency....
I grew up listening to transistor radios with long rabbit ear-like antennas ten times taller than the radios. I sometimes wonder if that is why I enjoy podcasts and audio books so much.
100% agreement. NPR used to provide reliable 'centrist' to 'center-left' to left viewpoints. They have slid past center into clearly partisan rightist views and some of their journalists are a joke--letting the rightwingers gabble on without push-back or providing context. As you pointed out, often the interviewers ask questions designed to let rightwingers "speechify" following their so-called conservative talking points. It's definitely making me rethink my financial support of the local NPR stations.
His lawyer Paul Mauro was also on the PBS NewsHour with his "Biden's Justice Department" talking points, and Geoff Bennett countered well with multiple questions. We are in for a long, grueling slog, which we should expect from Trumpworld.
My favorite Lauro-ism was the bit where he stated that the Biden administration has spent 3 and a half years investigating Trump...so let's see: August 2023, minus 3.5 equals February 2020. This is the legal genius/minion carrying the rancid water this time.
Bennet tried to counter with good questions but to no avail. At least they followed with another interview with the lawyer who worked on the Impeachment committee, he was an excellent counter to the defense attorney.
Not expressing opinions is professional. But letting lies go without pushback is dangerous, especially when it is done only to assure continued access to the liar/“guest”. Personalities drive/hold eyeballs. Reports do not need to have a conversation with a personality to state facts. But the “guest” model of MSM is entrenched. It is the corroding truth factor. We crave it and support it with our attention. The advertisers/corporate sponsors need that assurance for their business-model-bottom-line support. We get an interpretive-dance of information called “News”. But it only shallowly informs citizens, and more greatly dumbs down democracy.
Just reported on MSNBC (just as an aside-not the story) that Trump went out to dinner with Fox News executives. 😳 They are his propaganda cable show. Period!
When Trump was in the WH he used to talk by phone every night with Sean Hannity, and he'd call in on a regular basis to the Fox morning show as well, to the point where some of them were annoyed by it.
Have been since Jeb flamed out. Chump said a while back that Rupert called him way more than Roger Ailes did. Rupert must think that they can lie enough to put him back in office. And they might. Master class propaganda so far. Nothing I would love so much as to see both in orange and cuffs.
That's why I watch the NewsHour. Plus, it has minimal commercials, so there's more time for news. And if you can't watch it live, you can find it on YouTube.
I saw that Mauro dude. Some of these folks are so clever. Have no shame about being a lyer and can spin on a dime ! Hopefully I'll never get in that kind of trouble but If I do, I know who to call - with his lying @$$ ! : )
I was pleasantly surprised to see/hear Gayle King on CBS Mornings go head-to-head with that lawyer yesterday. Ed O'Keefe was there, too, and went after him. They ran out of time, but you could tell Ed especially was eager to keep arguing with him.
In the past, journalists who went easy on interview subjects involved in big controversial stories were looked down upon by their peers. Apparently no more.
Agree, Michael. I was listening to the NPR interview in the car & screaming @ the interviewer. TFG’s lawyer had time to air all of his refutable/ disputable talking points .
It starts to feel like a denial of service attack on our democracy. Throw enough wrenches in the works and the democracy comes to a grinding halt. We must persevere through this.
Thought NPR's Newshour did a better job interviewing Trump’s attorney than CBS did. CBS let the guy drone on without challenge. At least NPR challenged him, quoting the released indictment.
I gave up on NPR over a year ago. So depressing that they went over to the dark side. The both sides bullshit is just evil when the threat is fascism and the genocide that historically follows it.
My understanding is that in order to claim the advice of counsel defense, Trump would have to take the stand and testify himself. I cannot imagine his lawyers letting him do that.
What happens in the court of public opinion is not the same as what happens in a court of law. It’s dangerous, to be sure, but I don’t think helpful to Trump’s case in the end.
The Earth will stop spinning if Trump testifies. And if his lawyers use the “following-my-attorneys’-advice defense,” prosecutors will easily debunk it.
Michael Bales, that is why the trial must not be televised. It will bring guns to the streets. Comparison with the HEARINGS of Senator Sam Erwin during the Nixon nightmare is inappropriate. We have had those with the 1/6 Committee.
Given the unprecedented gravity of the charges and with the future of democracy on the line, I agree that the trial should be televised. Are there risks as Virginia points out? Absolutely. But the nation is better served by witnessing the proceedings rather than only getting filtered accounts.
However, are federal trials ever televised? I don't believe so.
Although generally I would agree with Joyce Vance, this time, given the fear, anger, and stupidity in this well-armed country, having read about the presence of Trump’s lawyers on TV, plus the master manipulator manipulating from the dock, I think it’s asking for armed “militias” (particularly racist ones) in the streets. My first thought was to look forward to seeing the trial, but when I thought what the sight of DT in the dock would do to inflame the Proud Boys who aren’t in jail, plus the congresspersons who are “with” him and have microphones, I changed my mind. The strength of the Fifth Column in America is more like Franco’s than many of US can accept.
William Barr: “As the indictment says, they're not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. Free speech doesn't give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”
(*jaw drop*) In what UNIVERSE isn't Trump morally inferior to...well, almost anyone who is not Trump. There are several notable exceptions, of course--his most trusted capos (Roger Stone, Stephen Miller, etc., etc.)
Comparing Biden's morals to Trump's complete lack thereof would be comical--that is, if this mess was in any way amusing. It. Is. Not.
It is why parents teach their children not to lie because it erodes or taints the truth when it is presented. We won’t believe the truth when someone is known to lie.
What a terrible mess - Trump must be stopped for the sake of all who live under the protection of the United States. These are dangerous times. A reader from county Clare, Ireland.
Yes. I live in Mountshannon, East Clare, on the shore of Lough Derg. There are loads of Dooley here. They must be an original family in the parts. If you like, I can give you the email of my friend Audrey, as she is a Dooley, and she might be able to help you. We are about 45 miles from Coole, so your people may be a different branch.
Christopher Eccles: My great-grandmother on my father's side of the family was named Emily Dooley. She died in childbirth in Minnesota when my Dad's father was born. Emily was one of ten sisters who emigrated to America. Emily stayed in America. Her nine sisters went back to Ireland.
Emily Dooley's father was a school teacher in Coole. He married Bridgette Fitzgerald at the Catholic church north of Gort. My wife and I visited the remains of that church in May 2004. The roof is gone but the walls and graveyard are still there.
I found a grave of a Dooley from Coole in the graveyard. There was an empty bottle of whiskey by the head of the gravestone. Just like the Finnegan's Wake song.
I don't want to bother Audrey Dooley. But thanks for the offer.
IIRC the first ever downgrade of the US credit rating was due to earlier reckless economic malfeasance by the so-called "conservative", so-called, "Republican Party".
Thanks Heather! It appears that the indictment is a masterpiece in application of the law. When Nixon lied everyone was horrified on both sides of the aisle. When Trump lies he has the almost unanimous support (with few notable exceptions) of the GOP. What happened to citizenship?
And what has happened to our gut rejection of lies and liars? Nixon's abuses of power were, while properly deemed unacceptable given the impact of a president's duties and powers, seem rather quaint in light of over four decades of much bigger lies and "dirty tricks" that became standard operating procedures for the "Republican Party". Have no doubt that lies are dangerous; during COVID, promoting wars, persecuting minorities. Many people have suffered and many have died due to lies. Free speech, and especially protection of unpopular speech is essential to a free society; but... It becomes a concern for a society when lies, or any behavior, imposes harms on others. In unclear cases I am inclined to err on the side of free speech, but there are cases where the impact of lies is unacceptable, fraud being one of them, for example, collecting money for "charity" one intends to keep. And egregious lies and liars that may be legal can still be condemned by the court of public opinion.
I still wonder about political promises that are promoted by ongoing and demonstrably knowing lies that benefit the liars and measurably harm the public. Is that just free expression, or is it arguably fraud?
And follow a despot's playbook that's plagued humanity for eons. "Government" per se, the ground rules we share when we so much as play a game of cards together, was never "the problem".
Authoritarianism; corruption; any significant abuse of power IS.
Perhaps I should add that in my view "abuse of power" is involved in nearly any harmful negligent or bullying human interaction, from bullies in a schoolyard, abusive relations between couples, exploitive employee relations, murder, racism, wars, etc., etc. It is additionally odious when those entrusted with fiduciary duties to others abuse their powers, from abusive parents to cheating, opportunistic civil officers of any sort.
That's exactly what the Dominion civil jury decided. Somehow corporations seem to get far more traction in the use of our legal system than "we the people".
Actually I'm misstating this a bit now that I think about it.. My memory is that the judge expressed skepticism of Sidney Powell's argument that no political speech should be taken seriously, and Dominion and Fox settled out of court because the handwriting was on the wall. I was disappointed that the perps would not be grilled further.
I think that S.P. Jack Smith’s indictment may hopefully spark the needed awareness around Free Speech / First Amendment concerns. As a democracy we state boldly that Free Speech undergirds everything. trump & co. have led us to a moment where many of us are questioning the wisdom of the First Amendment. Yet S.P.Jack Smith rightly brings this query into focus. trump may say what ever he wants, believe what he wants, lie to others. BUT, it DOES NOT protect him from being held accountable for unlawful actions. Our great challenge as a democracy -for all democracies- is to actually prosecute/hold accountable the unlawful actions of people. We do not do this. We can site more cases of liars and cheats beating the system than we can of JUSTICE actually being served in a meaningful way. There seem to be little stomach/courage/ability to actually/effectively hold liars/cheats/grifters accountable. THAT we need to fix. The First Amendment is not our problem. Enforcing laws on the powerful and well-positioned is.
So Trump almost remained President by using the military to impose his will on the country that had told him by 7 million votes that they wanted Biden and Fitch IS telling US and the world what it thinks of the Republican fiscal mayhem in the House and Senate….
What part of these horrors don’t we understand. Tomorrow afternoon at 4 in DC a very clear message about all of this is being formalized….Thank you Jack Smith.
"A story in the New York Times today ... outlined how former president Donald Trump and his allies are planning to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024."
If Trump is reelected, I believe he and his cronies will do exactly that. Then, having been installed as the newly elected President of the United States, he would be the lawful Commander in Chief of the military, and yes, he would then invoke the Insurrection Act to put down any protests. Senior military officers could resign rather than follow Trump's orders, but that would just push the problem down to the next lower level.
So we can't count on the military to protect our democracy from Trump's planned dictatorship. If he wins the election they'll be working for him, like it or not.
If you missed the July 17 letter, you should read it. It's scary. The Republicans are very open about what they plan to do, much more open than I would have expected.
“Project 2025” As several others have pointed out, Trump telegraphs his actions time and again. No one should be surprised at his declaration of war on our current form of government. He’s very much a “hold-my-beer” kind of person.
I have actually decided to get it either September or October of this year. I am not taking any chances on waiting to the very last minute. I am totally sick of the TFG and his totally insanity. I just wish he was gone from this earth. I can't stand the sight of him. With his diet and obesity i would have figured he would have croaked by now. I would be dead if i eat what he does. I had open heart surgery 9 years ago and i have to be careful what i eat..
Since "t" the republican Party has lost its way. Just pay attention to the obvious :pro Putin....No respect for Ukraine's desire for self-governance, desire to control the military, admiration for despots around the world, disregard for women in general (other than as useful objects), lack of necessary healthcare for women and the ownership of guns without regard for a person's possible vulnerable.....or dangerous mental state, the Saudis and golf investments, lack of focus on building up the infrastructure, lack of interest in the real and honest education of our children with more concern to brainwash children regarding our history, disrespect for persons who are black or brown, LGBTQ, lack of desire to help with the obvious struggles at the border...only pointing fingers (their wall did NOT work...blocking a portion of the river with barrels did not work....officers with guns...roughing up women and children has not worked) thanks to regular citizens of Texas and clergy, who have been pouring out care and meeting needs for shelter, food and clothing...helping with processing of immigrants ....for YEARS!!! Many have more concern for big oil production=big money for the short term chosen over the care for the life of our planet and the long term health and safety of our human population....disregard and lack of support to deal with the reality of climate change issues, taking land which has been assigned as a National Park for selfish purposes.....doing little to help persons of countries who could use their forests, or minerals for themselves with no regard or respect for the lives of human beings who have lived in that country/location all their lives...these persons need teaching and training as to the benefit to them regarding their resources....not to be used as slaves. I realize that many people are used by their own leaders or that their "leaders" are benefiting from outsiders' greed.
I know that we as US citizens are far from perfect but I just believe that to whom much has been given, much is expected. AND I cannot criticize others for being greedy while we each have our own issues. We have been entrusted with so much, individually I believe we must examine ourselves as to what good we can do...large or small each day. It is important. And we must be serious about the character of persons we vote into power.
Thanks Heather for making what is most important stand out from the chaos that dominates the social media headlines. While all of these developments are vile, I have to say something about the maniacal and pathetic Guliani. As a New Yorker, I could never stand him. As an education reporter during his administration, I saw how he screwed several City School Chancelors -- I think he went through four of them within a couple of years, micro-managing a complex school system in his ham-fisted style. As the niece of a former NYC police officer and later a top security official for the Twin Towers (he had the day off when the towers were hit, and never forgave himself for not being on the job that day to save more lives) I knew Guiliani put the entire complex, and city in jeopardy that day, by his egotistical need to house all the city security and communications staff in the building next to the towers, which was buried under the rubble. I read the link to the story about his sexual fantasies and possible rape of his assistant. WHO DO THESE SICK MEN (TRUMP, EPSTEIN, GUILIANI, BILL CLINTON, FORMER ELLIOT SPITZER) THINK THEY ARE!!! Watching a bit too much porn fantasy, and Shades of Grey domination fantasies. These degenerates need to be called out and humiliated in public, and never heard from again -- consensual? NOT! Sickening. Sorry for the rant
Reading the full indictment this evening, and it strikes me anew... this plan, and this guy, are really, really, really f#ck!ng stupid. Nefarious, and dangerous, and reckless, and evil, yeah yeah yeah all that. But stupid. It's not even well thought out! They're not even going about it that cleverly! So, so, so deeply stOoOoOoOped. And desperate. So pathetically desperate. They're just making crap up as they go along, even within the same conversation! Like, they wanna be the Kremlin, but they're ending up as the Keystone Kops, and expecting people to just... not notice? Or be too scared to say no? Too scared by what? Anytime there are quotation marks in this document the words in between reach a level of cringe comedy that defy belief, especially the dumbass phony vauge wannabe mobster cr@p plopping out of Agent Orange's head-hole, which sounds more like a kindergartner trying to convince someone they really did meet the tooth fairy last night. What an epically pathetic crybaby loser. A toddler playacting at dictatorship, as transparently obvious as that puke-streak-down-the-stall-wall mess of a combover.
To believe anything this idiot is saying about his own downfall, you'd have to genuinely think he is so smart he knows something everyone else doesn't, or sees something no one else will. BUT PEOPLE DO! THEY FELL FOR IT! TENS OF MILLIONS OF 'EM!!!!!(???[!!!]) Is there some widespread tradition in this country that I'm not aware of where folks bounce babies on their skulls like a basketball, so they don't learn anything past object permanence? Nah, just kidding, we all know what it is. These masses of morons have found their Moron Messiah, because finally these was someone who said all the horrible things out loud in a way that reflected their own brand of hateful stupid in a way that the educated charlatans they had been voting for before never could muster up with enough authenticity, and was finally willing to do what no one else was willing to do to crush those stupid libruls and their tyrannical insistence on niceness and book learnin' once and for all.
God, I'm so done with this horsesh!t, and these imbeciles. So, so done. I love this country, but ONLY IN AMERICA!
This is sort of hilarious in an odd way (OK, I have a weird sense of humor 😂) What a bunch of incompetent sociopathic wackos!
“Along with political consultant Steve Bannon, Epshteyn created a cryptocurrency called “$FJB, which officially stands for “Freedom. Jobs. Business.” but which they marketed to Trump loyalists as “F*ck Joe Biden.” By February 2023, Nikki McCann Ramirez reported in Rolling Stone that the currency had lost 95% of its value.”
Nothing says Freedom Jobs Business like campaigning *against* the guy who has created the longest string of job growth and most new small businesses in most people's lifetime, much less doing it by creating a failed scam business. Irony and self-awareness are not fascist strong suits, it appears.
P.S. Walk into a large Business and ask a low-level employee if they feel their Job is helping them attain more Freedom in their lives. Dollars to donuts, not so much!
Bannon and Epshteyn made money off of it--they undoubtedly knew it was crap and shorted it. It was the little MAGAs that bought it that lost their shirts. Just like those who bought the Trump trading cards.
On January 6, 2020, when war was declared against the United States by insurrectionists, people, ordinary people, people standing up to Trump and his minions, understood their duty and service to the United States. People serving in the pressured States by Trump did their sworn duty and protected the voting process. They protected the constitution and did not cave to the pressure being placed on them. These are the unsung heroes in the Trump insurrection. They joined, unknowingly, with the military leaders who understood their duty to protect the constitution and served their county. Add the Capital Police and others serving the House and Senate who put their lives on the line to defend the people in those institutions, and the United Stated was held together by ordinary people doing extraordinary service.
People protecting Trump during this chaos are the ones who need to be examined. They failed in their duty and failed as American citizens. The freedom spotlight needs to be shown on those failed individuals so they can never block and harass the voting process again.
I believe that a great proportion of the situation we’re in can be traced back to the Supreme Court decision:
“The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.”
And we have the image of Clarence Thomas smoking fat cigars with his Fat Cat zillionaire special friend, not that Thomas was the only one who voted for that corrupt decision.
Maybe I am too deep into this stuff as many of my fellow readers here are: I pegged Boris as the 6th unnamed individual from the first day of the indictment! I posted the Fitch downgrade on my Facebook page moments after it was announced.
What’s frighteningly sad is that - even though it’s still a little early in the election year cycle, there are or is a poll showing Biden and Trump tied ... are you kidding me? You mean that there are that many people who pay no attention to the politics of America until the last minute, really have no sense or very limited knowledge about government and governance that it’s hard for them to distinguish right from wrong, or that we have that many racist, bigoted, low intelligence individuals among us that might indicate or suggest that our system of government(s) are just too sophisticated for them? Whatever the rational, there should be no validly logical explanation as too why Biden should be tied in the polls with this “idiot”? Is MT-G the only [conservative] person who recognizes and can tie all the good programs the Democrats have offered up that are liked, appreciated and beneficial to so many Americans?
"...are you kidding me? You mean that there are that many people who pay no attention to the politics of America until the last minute?"
Well, yeah. Anything you read before the end of next summer trying to project what will happen is pretty pointless. That said, the reputable polls the last few weeks have been:
NYT/Siena: tie
Echelon: Biden +1
Morning Consult: Biden +2
YouGov/Economist: Biden +1
YouGov/Yahoo: Biden +4
Monmouth: Biden +7
Quinnipiac: Biden +5
Marquette: Biden +1
Emerson: tie
NBC/Hart: Biden +4
...BUT DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THEM AND JUST GET OTHER PEOPLE TO VOTE!!! (Also, follow Simon Rosenberg's Hopium Chronicles, obvs.)
Looking at my family dynamics, I say you are right. The Foxers dismiss anything that is outside the fox realm. Propaganda got us here, starting long ago and ramped up with chump and money. The cult is a cult, defying any reason or logic. Hateful emotions rule the fools…
Jeri, relative to "the Foxers," I remember reading here some time ago that Rupert was planning to pivot away from support of TFG? Anyone noticing that happening?
He certainly hadn’t pivoted toward truth and sanity. I read, somewhere, that he was impressed with Youngkin in VA. God forbid. Just a cheap chump…. Don’t depend on Rupert for anything but power. He admitted that in the UK. Of course, money plays with power very well.
One of the things that annoys me is that only 25 percent of the electorate identifies as Republican. Independents make up half the voting block. They will determine election results. No one ever seems to take this fact into their calculations.
This is a warranted point, but a fraught one. Firstly, the actual number of Independents among registered voters is not half, it is just shy of 40%. But more importantly, most Independents LEAN toward one party reliably enough that they can pretty much just be lumped in with that party, for all political purposes. Actual swing voters are, especially in today's climate, maaaaaybe ~10% of voters. Furthermore, while these folks are perceived by themselves and others as having some real nifty out-of-the-box thinking skills because of their refusal of partisan loyalty, research has shown they are actually some of the least informed voters; they tend to pay attention only very close to an election, and to whoever gets their attention first.
With this in mind, it should make perfect sense that the two leading candidates of the two major parties would be polling closely this far out, no matter who those people are. The typical partisans and partisan-leaning Independents will give an automatic affirmation of their camp, while the 10% of voters the campaigns are actually chasing will continue to give a gosh-I-dunno-not-really-a-fan-of-anyone shrug until 3 months out, when they actually start even trying to learn anything. This goes double with something like Biden vs. TFG. TFG is a polarizing cult leader; his floor is high, his ceiling is low. The Biden camp is banking on a healthy margin of victory being provided by the true swings, who'll tune in after Labor Day, realize things are actually going much better than they thought, no way they want that horrid other guy back (especially if other guy is literally under House arrest), and check the box again accordingly.
Infuriating for those of us who actually TRY to keep abreast and exercise some in-depth thinking, but that's the lay of the land.
Will, reading “his floor is high, his ceiling low” I momentarily had a satisfying vision of TFG in a trash compactor. TFG makes my hackles rise, but then I remember he lost the popular vote when he was first elected, then lost it (and the Electoral College) this last time as well. I’ve been snookered before, but aside from his slavish cult members (and it is gobsmacking to listen to them speak about him), his latest actions aren’t winning him any popularity contests, so I imagine (fingers crossed!) should he be the R candidate, he’d lose by an even wider margin. I hope all the brouhaha surrounding him motivates the fence-sitters to engage & vote.
Will, also frustrated with the apparent disconnection of most poll results with the rest of the news and given the vast variety of information distribution and uptake, I have come to seriously doubt the ability of ANY organization to effectively poll the populace. How would they accomplish contact with enough different people on enough different platforms who are actually willing to respond to represent the populace in general?!
Oh, it can be done; there are decades upon decades of solid mathematics behind the methods used by reliable practicioners in the field. The thing people tend to struggle with is understanding that even the most perfectly-weighted, gold-star poll has a margin of error and confidence interval, and since things like voter attitudes towards candidates are fluid, you are aiming your dart at a moving target. If you can be 95% sure that your poll results have a margin of error of 3%, that would be considered a job well done, and useful to a campaign. Yet if you are a reader looking to know who is "ahead," and the poll says Candidate A is ahead by 3%, all that actually means is that at the very second you're reading the article Candidate A is somewhere in the range of losing by a fraction of a percent to winning handily by 6, except for the 5% chance where either a win or a loss is even bigger, and who the heck knows in three weeks?
So... always look at averages and trends, not a single poll. Ever. And preferably don't look at them much at all. Just make some phone calls for who you want to win and then go read something fun instead.
Thanks for the lead. I decided to do a very quick research “project” and my first result was “A Deep Dive Into Party Affiliation, Sharp Differences by Race, Gender, Generation, Education”, but from PEW Research, April 2015. But it is a good start with a very informative chart and breakdown table at the beginning.
I would really, really, really caution using any statistics on this topic that are almost nine years old. In fact, I wouldn't do so at all. I think we can all agree that was a world ago.
It's a conundrum I ponder. Money, manipulation, ossification and our history all lead to this house divided. Of no help at all is the absence of independent electoral bodies to set voter registration, boundaries etc. And the failed experiment of our Electoral College about which there have been complaints at least since Andrew Jackson (and I'm no fan of his but he did have a point there).
Don’t forget climate change is a background (foreground to more and more of US) bringing fear to many who do not want to face it except with bad choices. That underlies much of the anti-democratic stupid choices people are making (DT and autocracy).
Jim, yesterday I had a telco from a staffer @ a medical establishment I use & had been watching the news when she called & I mentioned something about the indictment. She replied that she didn’t know about it, nor pays any attention to the news or involve herself in anyway with such goings-on. She is a very helpful and pleasant person to deal with and, curious, I gently inquired why. She indicated she would get overly anxious and miserable, so instead she opted to, as she put it “live in her bubble” and dote on her pets and embrace her faith. Said it made day to day living so much better. While that is not my path, as I think it is important to pay attention and stay engaged (but not wallow) in current events (and w/ HCR’s help, how current events are informed/related to history), I DO understand her need. This is her one ride on this pale blue dot we call Earth, and should be able to embrace what gives her the most joy/contentment…. Not my way, but this is a conscious “wellness” choice on her part, not apathy (which to me is more worrisome).
Barbara, I am of the opinion that key or keys to our fulfilling the dreams of some of our country’s founders, many of our ancestors and quite a number of us today for the success of our governance and governmental system(s) and our Constitution requires many of us like or similar thinkers to educate and motivate those need to be about why we need to pay a bit more attention to our individual obligations for our democracy to not just survive - but also to prosper ... voting is a right and obligation that many have died fighting for here ... and this is what distinguishes us from a lot of other countries around our world. No one here gets a free ride. We all must pay taxes in some form and for those who don’t or can’t governments (federal, states and locals) provide services in some shape or form to help those who find it hard to provide for themselves.
What the Democratic Party has going for itself - especially since the Great Depression - FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Obama and now Biden!!! People better get over this age thing ... look at the successes the Biden/Harris administration has brought to fruition ... American history will record idiot trump as probably the worst president in our history ... ooopps, [just went to my trusted Google machine] he’s already close to the bottom!!!
That poem is awesome!! I had never read it before, but, just, wow! I like to think I am verse 1, with an element of verse 3. I think of otters, who hold each other's hand whilst they sleep.
She covers a lot of ground in her work and I have enjoyed coming back to her poems from time to time over many years….once even got her autograph in a book of poetry I brought to a book signing in my small college town….years and years ago.
Thanks Barbara, interesting, but her life seems fascinatingly more interesting ... hadn’t heard of her but when I can find some free - non-work time - I’ll spend a bit more time reading about her creativity. Be safe and thanks for the exchanges.
"...but this is a conscious “wellness” choice on her part, not apathy (which to me is more worrisome)." Worrisome, indeed, because she could end up being well in a very unhealthy place.
I think sometimes these ''polls'' are misleading and biased by the areas they are taken from. How many people do they usually poll? In the polls i have taken part in, there are several million people polled. From what i have participated in, the Dems and Democratic values and President Biden are way ahead. Some of the ones i have did, the Democrats were ahead by 20 percentage points... but, then again, those polls i did could have been biased too... I honestly don't know what to believe when it comes to polls. It is hard to believe TUMP is tied with Biden, and i do agree with you about the racist, bigoted, low intelligence, hicks that are among us and that many of them among us, that is frightening to me. I think i am too deep into all of this too, but i certainly hope TUMP and the Fascist Rethugs aren't running the show after next year.
Jim, I thankfully comment that President Joe Biden is actually a President of the United States of America. He is knowledgable, he is freedom-loving. His governing is about our country working together as a united body even with our differences! In his opinion, we can do it! He is experienced and like every human being......or at least as most wise persons....knows his limitations. He and we can see his love of this country and care for relationships worldwide. He realizes that for our world to be safe ....we must work together.
President Biden knows how to work with others to negotiate for the American people. He does not do this alone. I am thankful for the brilliant, humble, hardworking members of our government who love freedom....it is costly. These men and women are so sacrificial, wise and patient as they diligently serve the people of our country and encourage freedom throughout the world.
Still, it is Joe who has given his life in service to this country, not to be worshiped , but to serve. He knows how to reach across the aisle.....he WANTS to reach across the aisle. This is the United States of America. Joe has reminded us that we can do anything when we work together.
Democrats should be playing the Fitch downgrade as a klaxon warning of what will happen if MAGA Republicans' fiscal policies get reinstated. This has to have a huge media push or otherwise the Republicans will make it about "Biden's failed policies." Yes the timing of the announcement sucks but but this is a grenade that has to be tossed back into the Republicans lap ASAP.
Totally agree Georgia. I spent my career in the investment management business (it changed dramatically-and not for the better- over the decades) and this is definitely a "shot across the bow" as Wall Street "does not like uncertainty" and chaos is not usually well received. However, let us not forget the movers and shakers in the financial business tend to lean to the right politically and have done absolutely nothing to speak out against trump. They have no honor. CEO's, hedge fund managers, etc. pockets are overly lined (and they have the ability to protect their pot of gold unlike the masses) so they could care less as long as they get to amass and keep their money, control, and power. I'll get off that soap box for now!
“extremism by Republican officials—from cheerleading default, to undermining governance and democracy, to seeking to extend deficit-busting tax giveaways for the wealthy and corporations—is a continued threat to our economy.”
Our current fiscal problems can be traced back to Reagan. He had a likeable personality and his success in dealing with the Soviet Union makes him somewhat immune to attack, but his domestic policies, well beyond fiscal, were abominable.
Absolutely the case, George. Reagan tripled the national debt and began the war on the Middle Class and labor unions while giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy, amounting to their plundering the national treasury. G.H.W. Bush added another trillion. Then G.W. Bush doubled it again with the Iraq War and the Wall Street extraction of more trillions, leading us to the brink of a depression. Obama bailed them out without requiring that they repay. Then Trump in 2017 gave the big corps and the wealthy another $2 trillion tax break, resulting in part to a $7.8 trillion deficit, the largest by number of any president, but it is still less than Reagan's tripling the national debt. We're $32 trillion in the hole, dumping this debt on our children and grandchildren. These plunderers have no conscience.
I despised Reagan from the get go. He indeed is responsible for all the things Richard has mentioned as well as shafting mental health and low income housing adding to what we see today. Right now there is a thread going on next-door here in Salem about taxes and housing costs. I agree about housing costs, but those values also mean higher property taxes. Poverty by America, the author argues that we could solve our problems if people just paid what they owe. Locally here we have at the top of the list a sleazy developer and a COVID central church.
...and let's not forget Kent State's deaths. Thom Hartmann, a Substack author, today posted about that and that TFG would have wanted to do just that on a national scale. https://hartmannreport.com/p/history-must-record-trumps-plan-for-992
Piracy is a crime. It should apply to financial institutions. Maybe the Puritans had an idea.
His success in dealing with the Soviet Union had partly to due with just how badly Soviet communism worked--their products were terrible as I learned first hand when a friend brought a Russian bicycle home--and when a needed product was in stores there were long lines for it, as one of my Soviet specialist father's favorite "Russian jokes" played on. The other ingredient in Reagan's success was that Gorbachev was a very sensible, very decent man, who genuinely cared about his country and people.
George, I totally agree. His fiscal policies were indeed abominable. I guess that’s why some refer to his policies as supply-side economics or trickle -down economics, Reagan and his advocates preferred to call it free-market economics. Alternately, his opponents called it VOODOO economics!
Yes, his own vice president, GHW, use that to describe Regan’s economic plans during the primaries. And look where that got him!
The best thing Bush Sr. did for the U.S. was telling us that Reagan's economic proposals/plans were Voodoo Economics. He said that in the summer of 1980. Soon after that, Reagan chose Bush Sr. to be his VP. Birds of a feather.
Reagan was a talking head, and a somewhat empty one at that.
He took direction from a Kitchen Cabinet of wealthy supporters who appealed to his ego when he ran for Governor of CA, gave him a script to campaign with, and then expanded their membership and influence as he won the Presidency.
His abysmal domestic policies were focused on preserving and enchanting the wealth of the “1%”, that have become the overriding goal of today’s Republican Party. The Middle Class of this country was hollowed out and is only now beginning to recover under President Biden’s policies.
That same shadow group controlled much of Trump’s actions as President, though many of them realized they were working with an emotionally disturbed individual who could go off the tracks at any time. And he did so following the election results in November 2020!
Tim, yes to all that and you also could mention that he was also run by his wife's horoscope. Then there is a doctor's first amendment rights relative to abortion.
👍
Exactly. Wall Street has no honor or sense of morality.
I find it so ironic that unruly Wallstreet doesn't like chaos
and cant see it's nose in front of it's face😂🤣😭
No conscience. Like a football franchise. We in our democracy must provide and enforce rules and guardrails.
Like it or not, it is all about the money now. Thinking 'Dollars Defending Democracy" here, I find enormous encouragement, and ability to do so when I attempt to imagine the hardships the Ukranian people are being forced to endure at the hands of their own madman. It is imperative that we remove as many of the Republicockroaches from elected office as is humanly possible!
". . . at the hands of their own madman." What do you mean? Putin launched the attack on Ukraine, hitting civilian targets and taking Ukrainian children back to Russia. Putin has now been indicted as a war criminal.
I read that as they have their own tRump madman in Putin.
Your culture is money.
There's That.
"They could NOT care less" is far more accurate Janet.
My wife has made the same comment about Wall Street not liking chaos. And she has predicted that WS will put pressure on the trumpers to.... oh, I don't know, maybe follow the law...
So far I can see no difference.
The only way real change occurs is when someone is in pain. And that pain needs to come in the form of lost elections and lost revenue. I love that President Biden yanked the space command headquarters from Alabama and returned it to Colorado.
It's a start.
Thank Goodness for your soapbox. May you revisit it often.
Your image of "a grenade that has to be tossed back into the Republicans lap ASAP"
is vivid.
The entire time 45 has been in the spotlight, he has been a grenade with the pin pulled out.
Someone either needs to hold on to the safety lever
or fall down on it, sacrificing so others in the kill zone are spared.
I like the idea of him exploding. But alas, this is a metaphor. And he is kind of a dud in most ways. :-)
Which is why the trial MUST NOT BE ON TELEVISION. Please let your senator know.
Respectfully, I disagree. I think that every American has a right, if not an obligation, to watch this trial.
I agree, but my objection is that lawyers and likely Trump himself will use the exposure to stir up violence. Even police in the courtroom may be sympathetic to him. Better to have reporters and drawings. It will help keep courtroom decorum.
It needs to be televised! Trump will certainly throw his tantrums and play to his followers ad nauseum outside the courtroom. The judge assigned to this case is perfectly capable of controlling his behavior in her courtroom. Any of his outbursts there will not help his image with anyone. I also believe that televising the trial would short circuit possible support for him by police in the courtroom, which concerns you. Aside from a few characters/politicians like trump, it’s amazing how knowing that your behavior is being televised and millions of people are watching (and can hit replay) moderates your behavior.
I expect that the trump crowd will only watch the clips selected by the faux news outlets. Like the January 6th hearings, millions would watch at least parts of the trial, especially if sources like MSNBC televise the entire thing. (I recorded it) Many others would not have the time or care enough to watch the whole thing, but recorded clips on the mainstream media nightly news would get their attention and make an impression. This is important for the survival of our democracy and totally outweighs any risk of bad behavior in the courtroom.
It’s not behavior in the courtroom that worries me. It’s guns and organized mayhem outside it, signaled from the courtroom by the master of TV rebellions.
Disagree. tRump will stir up his brainwashed magates regardless if televised or not. And they will be violent either way. Show us the TRUTH IN REAL TIME!
But, yes, this judge probably will not want it televised because tRump would turn it into a circus as that is tRump's specialty. If cameras cause the trial to be delayed, I'm not for it. I do hope it can be filmed for posterity though. Maybe the Library of Congress would want the video history for the record.
Any judge has the power to take steps against anyone, defendant or attorney, who tries to turn the courtroom into a circus.
I rather like the concept of a glass cube with one-way sound transmission. Defendant will be present and can hear everything said in the courtroom but cannot interrupt and otherwise act to disrupt - something I do agree is entirely possible. I have difficulty imagining tfg keeping his trap shut for hours in the courtroom.
I don't think this exposure will stir up as much violence as much as censoring it would. Besides, it's a great opportunity to expose once again what a compete psychopath Donald is. Bring on Mary!
It’s not censorship. It’s normal federal trial procedure —reporters and drawings.
Former Federal prosecutor Joyce Vance is a strong advocate FOR televising this trial, and I totally agree with her:
"Finally, cameras in the courtroom. Chief Justice Roberts could ensure these proceedings were made publicly available. He can order that there be cameras in the courts. And he should. That final charge makes it clear that we are all victims of this crime. We have the right to watch the proceedings."
And Vance twice quotes brilliant US Attorney Joyce Alene on X/Twitter:
"I'll say it again. The Chief Justice must authorize televising Trump's trial on charges connected to his attempts to interfere in the outcome of the 2024 election. Justice demands it."
"Chief Justice Roberts should immediately amend the rules to permit cameras in federal courts. The American public is entitled to watch the proceedings against Trump in their entirety. Anything less would be an injustice."
But Proud Boys and their allies will watch too and can easily be exhorted to violence. Trump and his lawyers may already have a plan and have military and police cooperation. Better to have reporters and artists plus film from the 1/6 Committee.
Part of the reason it took 2 years to reach today's DOJ indictment of tRump's conspiracy to overthrow our election was that Garland et al had to flip all the little insurrectionists first, thereby also capturing, disarming, and neutralizing tRump's Brown Shirt Brigade. My Proud Boy neighbor isn't marching anywhere these days. We, The people, All of Us This Time, need to see and hear the tRump trial.
Let 'em try it. The Feds will be waiting.
ll the better. Smoke 'em out.
No what? I don't understand what you're referring to.
The conspiracy trial MUST BE TELEVISED. Having the important opportunity as a college student on break to watch the Watergate Hearings in the summer of 1973 with my mother, I was witness to our country's deep corrupt pit, and our waking up, changing, becoming stronger. The primary focus of these hearings will be on the witnesses' testimony and cross examinations. Faux News will splice much of the truth away, but their remaining audience can not be reached by truth anyway. It is that college student, or a young mother, or middle aged worker, who should see first hand how deftly Jack Smith will excoriate tRump and his fellow cons, and end their tyranny.
But the Watergate Hearings took place in a different world. And this is a trial where the ex-president, TV personality, who is a tantrum-prone child with a following of organized armed bands who can be called to violence from the courtroom.
tRump will tantrum on Faux before, during and after. At least in court the Judge can silence him. We need good ole' Republicans (who voted for tRump because they were bamboozled) to see tRump in court, and to see and hear the witnesses. And this time, unlike last, our military leaders trust Pres. Biden and would, if need be, intervene if violent armed bands heard their dog's whistle.
Then there is this from Lucian Truscot IV:
"...heard a bunch of whining by former prosecutors and MSNBC anchors yesterday about how wonderful if would be if they allowed cameras in the federal courtroom for the trial of Defendant Trump whenever that happens. Why? So Defendant Trump can do his level best to appear as a victim of a wrongful prosecution every day like O.J. did? Maybe all the experts and anchors on MSNBC and CNN should go back and have a look at the verdict after all that wall-to-wall coverage of poor O.J., who was portrayed as the real victim, remember, instead of his dead wife and Ronald Goldman."
If they don’t televise the trial, the networks/publishers like FOX, INFO WARS, Breitbart and Newsmax will continue to spin the narrative to back up Trumps cries of being the victim of a witch-hunt. It will allow the Cult of Trump to continue to bury their collective heads in the sand and cry foul.
We The People NEED to see it in realtime so there is no doubt of the actual narrative.
YES!
Zella, Thank You very very much for posting this link. (I'm a huge fan of Neal Katyal.) Televising the trial has the almost-sure potential of insuring that
Georgia Fisanick's image of the hand grenade with the pin pulled out is a DUD. Otherwise, misinformation and lies will proliferate causing lots of blood and gore.
Thank You Zella! Katyal is amazing! And impactful. And Scotus Roberts is worried about his reputation which already has rats in it from tRump's gutter. If enough legal and political experts like Katyal speak up for televising the hearings, Roberts will more likely allow it. And smile so humbly.
BEV Georgia IS Right ! FRAGS ! That are in UNSTABLE Hands, Is a Threat to All, around IT ! HEAVE IT !, Back Where it can DO !,, " the most GOOD ! "
Do you think the 1% will ever come to their senses?
Never.
As long as there's the possibility of a Trump/GOP reelection, whether 2024 or later, and MAGA dominates the GOP, Fitch have a point in looking to possible government financial instability. I imagine this has an immediate impact on the cost of US borrowing?
Frank, from my own perspective as an engineer, not an economist (meaning I can use non-linear models, the vast majority of economic models are linear):
It has been clear since the Trump tax cuts and perhaps even since the Bush II tax cuts that US debt is not sustainable. Right now, the US relies on the fact that we are the world's resolution/reserve currency to support our debt. However, there are efforts to erode the status of the dollar. It will take time, but, the fact that we have unsustainable debt SUPPORTS moving to a more stable currency for worldwide transactions.
Additionally, we grew our debt by a trillion dollars in something like a month or two recently.
Lastly, and most telling, our debt is 129% of the Gross Domestic Product. The last time it was this high was at the end of WW II. Then, taxes were raised to pay down that debt and that debt was lowered to near zero under Jimmy Carter.
Then, Reagan, while talking about "fiscal responsibility" went on spending spree AND lowered taxes AND sponsored TWO recessions. He did all this while brainwashing America into thinking he had a great economy.
As long as Republicans are unwilling to raise taxes even on Warren Buffett who has VOLUNTEERED to pay higher taxes publicly, the US is in real threat of default on its debt.
I think that another one or two downgrades is more accurate than the current rating made yesterday.
US debt is in real, obvious, serious trouble of real default. Making that clear to the suckers who are buying it is important.
Last, but far from least: Trump is reasonably likely to be President again. US debt could be worthless fairly soon after that. Trump has authored bankruptcy no less than SIX times in his life. Bankruptcy is Trump's ONLY real expertise in his life.
You don’t have to know advanced mathematics --just read “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein. Reaganomics is a ploy to wipe out the middle class and allow the neonazi, fascist billionaires, like Charles Koch, to rule as oligarchs. THAT is the heart of Repug policy: To that effect, the RNC, through “Citizens United,” is a crime syndicate run by a coterie of billionaires under the likes of Koch and Leo.
I think you’re stuck in the deficit myth. The current economic models are still built on an idea of economics as a mathematical model, and there is just no way to take into account all the variables. It’s more complex than climate.
I’m a scientist, which is very different from being an engineer, and I’m able to juggle very complex systems. I think the deficit is quite manageable as long as there is growth and economic activity, just as Keynes taught. And that’s what’s fueling the economy. I do agree the W II and drumpf cuts, hell let’s go back to Reagan, have been stupid.
But let’s hold our fire on the deficit for now.
Thank you, Jen. There’s no need for panic over the debt or the deficit. Which has been shrinking under Biden.
I would probably be more worried had I not had Stephanie Kelton read the Defict Myth to me.
Three times, because the first two I couldn’t quite think it could be true. Ideas so contrary to the “popular opinion”( and we know what that’s worth).
Jen, I am not nearly as sanguine about debt at 130% of GDP. After WW II, with MUCH higher tax rates than today, the debt was small but not zero 30 years later.
So. IF we revert to the tax and spending ratios post WW II it will be 30 years, maybe, to get back to solid.
Not including Trump’s Openly spoken threat to just default. Right? He is working for Putin.
"Reasonably likely" makes no sense. He's either likely, or he isn't. And he isn't, in my opinion. But he's out for retribution, as is the Republican party, whom he has convinced that he's a victim of the mythical "deep state," Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, the "Swamp," and damn it, when he was five the Tooth Fairy forgot to leave a dime under his pillow. Trump is capable of even more damage than he's already done, and he's going to get worse.
I dunno, I'm 65 and I've ben hearing that unsustainable argument my entire life. It hasn't happened yet.
:)
There's that word "terrifying" again. Stop using it, please. We are not sniveling children who are "terrified" of nightmare scenarios. We are adults.
Correct.
Well. Then, you go right ahead and be "terrified." It's neither ill mannered nor immature to call for courage in hard times, but hey, what do I know?
Please may we not have a public trial!
But. All trials ARE public. Are they not?
If people are allowed in the courtroom, but some are closed or limited to observers. Federal trials aren’t televised because of safety concerns.
Thank you. 😊
"I imagine this has an immediate impact on the cost of US borrowing?"
I'm no financial whiz, but the short answer is no.
For what it's worth, Goldman Sachs said the report "contains no new information and "should have little direct impact." Jamie Dimon (JPMorganChase) called it "kind of ridiculous" but thinks it "doesn't really matter." So... *shrugs?*
Jaime Dimon is a nothing. He would take the last penny from a widow.
I don't like him on a personal level in any way. But he is one of the top bankers in the world, so in this specific case his opinion was relevent, I felt.
YES ! Put the BLINDERS ON ! , and Get Ready , for the " BIG FLUSH !! " WAKE UP ! , MANKIND ! JESUS ! , is at Your FRONT DOOR ! ( LORD! , Have MERCY !)
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-2-2023/comment/21791343
Georgia At Moody’s Investors Service in the 1970s I was EVP responsible for rating the credit of all taxable debt instruments worldwide, including sovereign states.
At the time England and many other countries were well below Aaa. In 2011 I agreed with the Standard & Poors reduction of the U. S. Credit rating from AAA to AA+. It had gone from a belt and two suspenders credit to something less. There was some likelihood that, because of Congress, there could be a default on debt obligations.
I see a similar situation today. The Fitch drop in the US credit rating seems appropriate. There is no assurance that Congress will approve in a timely manner the payment of US debt obligations.
Long term, personally I would have no problem holding US long-term debt. Short-term it seems less assured on timely payments than Aaa-rated debt instruments. The interest difference would be marginal, though some funds may be restricted to Aaa/AAA-rated debt instruments.
Thank You, Keith! I can handle this knowing we still have a belt (and maybe one suspender?)!
MP Or you can have a belt of Scotch and then suspend your judgment.
LOL!
I agree that the reality of the downgrade is not catastrophic. But the PERCEPTION of the reality is what counts these days. Right now the Republicans are desparate for talking points and the downgrade gives them a big one to distort and the truth is that a government shutdown will hurt many people. Which spin will "win"? "Biden governed so horribly that he destroyed the US credit worthiness and caused the national debt and your creidt card bill to surge because of higher interest rates." or "Right wing Republican extremists in the House refused to do their duty and legislate the funding of the government and forced a shutdown." I know which one the Republicans will lob-- What I am not hearing in the media is a Democratic response.
Georgia How many people were aware that S&P had cut US credit for AAA to AA+ in 2011 and has kept it there ever since? Moody’s still Aaa and Fitch considered 2nd tier credit rating agency.
YES Georgia, Biden needs to shout from the mountain tops.
An additional problem is Biden's "Vampire Liberal" policies of mammoth increases in the national debt -- sucking resources out of the rest of the world -- to pay for Worthwhile Programs that we really can't afford.
Did you run out of knitting yarn John?
This is the correct response. Hi-five.
BRAVO !! , Chris ! ....
Reported
Chris Hietholzer, your comment is so innane that it might not qualify as trolling.
It's inane. With 1 middle "n." Just because I dont mind being pedannntic. Or, as you might freshly term it, a "Vampire Linguist."
Vampire Linguistics, the stuff my nightmares are made of. 😉
Will, you caught me with a misspelled word.
You seem to misunderstand my reference to Vampire Liberals, who suck resources out of other countries (by issuing more and more unpayable Treasury Bonds) to fund Worthwhile Projects. Of course there are Vampire Conservatives as well...
My guy, what I have caught you doing is making sh!t up. Literally no one else besides you has ever used this phrase. You can Google it in quotation marks and the only actual hit is you, on this comment page. Which, considering there are 1.2 billion English-language internet users, and an astonishing percentage of them also seem dedicated to the task of endlessly making sh!t up, is impressive. This is a newsletter/forum dedicated to historical connections to current events, scrupulously and factually researched by a leading scholar. Don't be surprised no one here is interested in engaging in a debate with your one-man school of thought.
The difference is the conservative Vamps give the money to the Dragons, in the form of tax breaks and incentives, who horde their wealth for themselves. While the liberal Vamps use it for the common good (worthwhile projects). A lot of those projects Need to happen sooner than later, whether we can “afford” them or not.
If no one comments on John’s absurd comments then he might go away. Please, let John stew in his own vacuum.
The real test will be how many times John will repeat his original coment today, based on past posts I guessing 17.
A form of Platform disruption of Subscribers. Reported.
So report 18 times. Will beat my old record for reporting him.
Far above 100 with lengthy reports about platform obligations to Authors & Readers along with developing Platform liability law nationally & in California & other states.
Dave Smucker appears to be trying to make an ass of himself.
Such an honor, thank you.
Dave Smucker, assuming that you're not a Biden Bully, if you click on my name, you will find a series of "notes" -- replies to HCR pointing out her errors and dubious statements.
But you gotta admit, Chris's response was pretty funny, and oh, did I need a laugh today!
Substack Inc has Terms &; Conditions that can be enforced contractually by "Readers". Reported.
I must say though I wish there was a feature to block him.
I think he must be in his glory with all the attention he is getting lately. He currently likes to attach prior Letters comments. I sure don't waste the time to read them. I actually don't read most of his comments--he just repeats, repeats, repeats. I might mention he is a troll to people who have not had prior experience being called "Thugly" by him. (LOL--don't you love that one!!)
Miselle, you seem to be another Biden Bully. "Thugly" was my name for Jeri Chilcutt, who has stopped being abusive recently.
My principle: Stand up to bullies, even if you get knocked flat.
Joyce, whoever that is, wants other people to not like me. :-(
It's because you address other commenters with contempt, your own comments are inaccurate, hostile and repetitive, and stop using your own comments as references, please. You're lazy; you use right wing nonsense and ridicule because you are trying to provoke people, and that's simply being an asshole. Am I clear?
No you're not. You sound like you've been drinking, but perhaps you chose to do an impersonation of a nagging housewife.
Try this, you incredibly stupid, obnoxious troll: Go fuck yourself. How dare you throw such ugly crap in my direction when I never made similar attacks on you. You really make me sick. I guess you just can't stand to be told the truth about yourself and must resort to sick crap about alcoholism and misogyny. Your whole purpose in being here is to offend people, in hopes that anyone will think you're worth engaging with. I pity you, I really do, and although you should go fuck yourself, maybe someday you'll learn how to respect others with whom you disagree. There's really something seriously wrong with you.
I’m with them.
...said the Usual Suspect, with a typical trollish grunt.
Don't go away mad. Just go away.
You do a pretty darn good job at that yourself.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-2-2023/comment/21807328
Ha! That's a new one for me Speck.
"Vampire Liberal"? I guess you Pravda employees are running out of English words these days? You are throwing around the word inane today I also see. Goodness.
Vampire and Liberal. Now, what word might we associate with that marriage of fantasy and reality? Let's take a poll Speck.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-2-2023/comment/21791343
Mike - Isn’t that like an oxymoron?
Wasn't the Dems which have been endlessly seeking tax cuts for the rich and very, John. GOP policy is not thus? Check out US Military spending, by far the single largest spending line, outsizing by huge margins the next 4 largest military budgets on the planet. "Vampire Liberal"? give us a break!
Obviously, there is a lot to say about Vampire Conservatives as well as Vampire Liberals.
It's really just a matter of US electorate and political financing corporate world being willing to tax appropriately. US is unbelievably behind eg European countries in supporting social support spending. Still has to resolve long term financing of existing Social Security policies.
Dr. Richardson doesn't seem to want to engage with her readers, unfortunately. If she did, she'd delete this troll. Please don't converse with him.
John, you know that the Republicans have siphoned trillions out of the national treasury. Reagan tripled the national debt and gave massive tax breaks to the large corps and wealthy individuals. This continued with G.H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush and Donald Trump, Trump adding $7.8 trillion to the national debt. Your statement is devoid of facts and reason.
Richard Sutherland, I think it's fair to say that Trump pulled a Reagan when he was President.
The problem is, even though Biden wants to spend money on worthwhile projects, we are basically stealing from other countries, who have to hold U.S. Treasury Bonds as a currency reserve for settlements of international trade. Basically, we're exporting inflation with our endless generation of increasingly toxic Treasury Bonds.
of people spend money they can't really afford. How about a new furnace replacing a roof that is falling down. You have a rip in your shirt and don't repair it. It then gets worse. These are minor things, but if you don't spend a little to fix things now, it will only get worse later.
It seems that trump spent a lot of money (lost it too in reducing the country's revenue with the tax "break".)
Old farmer wisdom, "You don't have to paint the barn but you damn well need to fix the roof."
Fitch is run by Hearst heirs. They saw Trump is toast and decided to make a lame attempt to sabotage Biden. Purely to protect their low taxes and keep democracy on the ropes.
I don't think they'd have anything to gain by doing that. And simply blaming the messenger is ridiculous. Fitch just downgraded Egypt's credit rating considerably after Al Sisi let the bills slide while pouring borrowed money into his pet "investment" projects that do nothing for the country or its millions of poor people. The US is not a stable democracy anymore, but one rated as "at risk," and that's because of the events that have taken place over the last 10 years. We have an economy that's strong, but the huge spending by the Bush, Trump and Biden administrations has had a negative effect, especially the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.
Excellent, glad WH tried to do that
Hope Mike Bloomberg has the same thoughts/ could hear you!
This downgrade is terrible because by election day, all the voters will remember is that it happened on Joe Biden's watch. They don't pay attention to details.
Now is the time for everyone who cares about our future ..media, Democrats, individuals to shout out what this rating says and causes for all of us
I thought just that too, but they need to hear and see examples of the damage this grenade will cause to their real lives; what they will lose that is very important to them. Does anyone on this site have concrete examples? “Fiscal policies” is too general for them to understand.
Georgia Fisanick: I hope that the Republicans and Democrats hold the grenade(s) together and they both get blown to Kingdom Come!
You sound like the guy who leans against the wall outside the house where the party is being held and only wants to talk to people who also hate the party.
Will, from Cal: I hate both parties. They don't give a shit about us.
Yeah, see, I am an adult who doesn't need the emotional comfort of thinking "they" care about "us" or "me." Every non-tribal human society has had a government, I take my participation in my society seriously, part of that is by always voting, and my vote is given to the party who is currently supporting most of the stances I support. No more, no less. I'm satisfied with my Biden vote not because I think those fundraising emails he sends me are real and he really would be my buddy if we got to know each other, I'm satisfied with my vote because I like 90-95% of the actions he has taken in office.
*scrolls down* Oh, wait, you're a Covid conspiracy theorist who thinks the Civil War was Lincoln's fault and WWIII is on the way. Have a nice life, I guess.
The Insurrection Act and Trump's desire to use the military to quash dissent somehow got buried under all the recent crazy. Thank you, Heather, for focusing on the enormous threat it posed and reminding us of the actions taken to avert it by true patriots.
The connection between Eastman and Cruz in retrospect is terrifying. I had been wondering why Cruz was so low-profile recently. Perhaps he has recognized the legal peril he may be in.
That brings up the possibility that there may be further rounds of charges and indictments related to a larger conspiracy of the politicians who participated. That notable lack of action to date on the Republican members of Congress is thought provoking. So is the lack of mention of the others involved in the January 6th War Room. Perhaps there will be another superseding indictment here as well as in the espionage indictments.
I wrote to the NYT in the spring of 2020 that I was concerned that Trump was going to stage a coup, and my worry was that he would use the military to do it because I knew that the military had a big problem with White Supremacists. This came up through my students' research for a Veterans Day Assembly we were presenting. The NYT refused to print what I had said, and I was talking about this with my friend that I walk with each morning. I was so worried about a coup, and no one was saying anything about it. Next thing I notice was that there were some political writers talking about it too. That made me even more angry that the Times would not print what I said about being worried that Trump was going to stage a coup. I mean he was telling us all that is what he was going to do early on. Trump is the worst USA president of all time, and Biden is the best.
I wince whenever I see the word "President" anywhere near that name. He was an embarrassing fake, a fraud, a very dirty trick, a piece of sabotage. It should never have happened, and when people like Linda tried to warn, they were treated like Cassandra.
I say that he was "installed." He never won the popular vote and he had a lot of
hostile domestic and foreign entities interfering. When he kept saying if he "did not win, the election is rigged," anyone who understands brainwashing projection knew he knew things were being rigged in his favor. I believe he was installed into position. Rachel Maddow had information on all of this early on who the oligarchs were who were positioning and funding Manafort, Bannon, Conway and Co.. I do hope someone has been investigating 2016 deeply. T'would be lovely to make the entire rethuglican party and their dictator's stain on our Oval office seat and all their actions for the past 7 years completely null and void. And as the party of the coup d'etat, they pay every penny back we/they spent on their skulduggery plus extra for pain, suffering and deaths caused by their actions.
And to make sure I used skulduggery correctly in this instance—I looked it up: "Skulduggery is dishonest words that are meant to trick people, like your brother's fast-talking that leaves you doing all of his chores and your own, plus giving him your allowance." He's a master of skulduggery. So perfectly fits the maga cult-leader and many of his propaganda cronies, no?
Yes. I agree that he did not win the popular election and the electoral college is some antiquated piece of garbage that gives voice to the rural over the urban. Bush and Trump were placed in by this horrendous tool, which Trump is poised to manipulate. When Gore did not win because of Florida, Dems did not go stop the steal, like we should have. Then Nader was the third party spoiler. I wonder if he is able to feel badly about the role he has played in the destruction of our environment. If Gore had become president we would have had a different environmental trajectory. Also, given how Tipper was so big into protecting children from television and songs, I would imagine there would have been much greater efforts made to protect us all from the technology running our lives. I do not consider the midterms legitimate, but have been analyzing the immigration patterns to see how a preponderance of immigrants from post Soviet European countries, and so called socialist Latin American countries has converged to make us much more conservative as a nation. Unfortunately not everyone who leaves a fascist country knows how to live in or understand a democracy.
Linda, I think about that travesty with Bush installed over Gore all the time, and how this climate tragedy would have been a priority for decades, now. It's heartbreaking. I agree 100%, we should have been all hands on deck to stop that steal.
A well orchestrated parade in 2000 in Florida has Canadian forests burning in 2023.
2000 Florida recount: How the 'Brooks Brothers Riot' killed the Bush-Gore ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/11/15/its-insanity-how-brooks-brothers-riot-killed-recount-miami/
I think it's more accurate to say that the Supreme Court stole the 2000 election for Bush2, but that's a quibble. I've been an activist on immigration for two decades, which I consider big biz' way of reducing wages, as well as a major environmental problem--the average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise threefold after arrival in the US, as we're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita GH emissions and thus the worst place on the planet to put more people, and if you've come up with something solid suggesting that immigration is making us much more conservative, I'd be very interested to speak with you. The email I give out in public places is supernova1@aol.com--email me there and I'll give you my phone number.
Yes, Roger Stone created the chaos to enable the Supreme Court to steal the election after Federalist Society puppies, Brett and Amy, traveled to Florida to "help count" the ballots. It was all a scam. As to immigration issues, I am not up on the environmental impact of immigrant labor, but it makes sense. I do have 2 friends who are immigration lawyers and their stories are heartbreaking.
The Electoral College was part of the set of compromises that made the Union possible in the first place. Does messing with it risk undermining the Union?
“Skulduggery!” I’ll have to remember that one to apply within any future reference to tfg. Thank you!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
In addition to our home grown oligarchs "installing tRump", Putin and his fellow Russian Yacht Brigade contributed to the coronation.
Anne-Louise Luccarini; I wish Trump had never been elected. IMO and of others, if Hillary had won, there would have been no Covid Crap. There would not have been four years of "Russian Interference" BS and two impeachments.
Sure, Hillary might have started WW III sooner than Biden but so what?
All Trump did was delay the shit coming by four years. I'm not getting any younger and the past three years were total shite.
It is helpful to try to look at where we are today as a positive in that every brick in the foundation of America has dark, smelly issues etched into them and we are now having to finally face their impacts in these modern times. It is our turn to look at ourselves as country and do some soul-searching in who we are and who we want to be. We must face our shadows of racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, gender phobias, immature narcissism, white privilege and corporate domination and invasive algorithms. All of this impacts what we are taught and intentionally not taught. How we live in this century of rapid technology whose impact and control upon us is barely beginning to be understood on a mass level. We need to re-create America and bring her up to date with stricter laws, swifter justice, facts, and educate people on our real history, hone critical thinking skills and our responsibilities to one another and to a planet that cannot sustain this level of greed. The old days of white, colonial, corporate domination and the days of keeping women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen are over.
We are hearing the screams and smelling the stinking lies of the dominators who feel the death knell of those days and desperately want them back. We must deal with all our isms in this huge melting pot of multi-tinted citizens. Our form of democracy may have to look different if people cannot mutually respect rules, laws, one another and this sphere we live upon. I have no interest to return to the wild west nor to some fearful, apocalyptic vision of the future where everyone has concealed weapons and fights like hell for scraps. Let's move towards a future of decency instead of scarcity, fear and ignorance.
Pensa, this assessment is accurate. Until we (as a country) address that our rise to power (which was meteoric for the times) has as its foundation the theft of Indigenous Lands and the near genocide of the Indigenous Peoples combined with the kidnapping and enslavement of Black Africans, we cannot move forward through the sludge of presumed white supremacy and Christian dogma (as adopted by Christian Nationalists). Then we can address the other "isms" of gender, class, and orientation.
Unresolved national trauma which is now showing its' 'shadow side.'
Thank you for your inspiring vision of a renewed nation.
My brother and his family just moved to Singapore where safety is extremely important and they give up certain rights to maintain that safety. I am in the process of studying how they have no crime and poor behavior is checked swiftly. I would like to understand their system since they are a huge melting pot of people from around the world. (rather wealthy). I would give up certain rights if we could stop the constant massacres of American children... and abuses of the 1st Amendment that has now moved into mass brainwashing.
Pensa_VT: I agree with most of your comment. Unfortunately every country on Earth has bricks with dark smelly issues etched in them.
Saying you are against racism and then mentioning "white privilege" and "white...domination" just feeds the fire. Race is a myth, a lie, developed by the eugenicists.
You are defeating your own arguments by putting "white" or any other skin color in your arguments. I try hard not to do that. It sometimes slips in anyway. So many people use color of skin to describe people. It's eugenics propaganda.
I agree with you that Americans need to learn about the past. Don't destroy it or bury. Don't tear down statues and cancel history. How do we learn where we came from?
Oliver Cromwell sent 50,000 Irish slaves to the American colonies during his invasion of Ireland in 1649-52. The Irish slaves were free. The African slaves cost money. But all people hear and read about are the African slaves.
Free Africans in the colonies owned both Irish and African slaves. In the Caribbean the Irish and African slaves united in slave revolts. The first person to petition the Virginia House of Burgess to make the buying of African slaves legal in Virginia was a free African man himself who also owned Irish slaves.
And this myth about male domination keeping women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen is something I've never run into. I agree with Terry Thomas in the film "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". America is the biggest matriarchy on the planet. Women sit under hair dryers eating bon-bons gabbing away while their husbands work themselves to death and die early from heart attacks.
But I agree with most of your comment.
Beautifully said and facing facts of what we have become.
That was one of life's worst shocks. She had outclassed him in absolutely every field. He'd displayed himself as an ignorant oaf. How could it have happened? Then we started finding out.
Anne_Louise Luccarini: Barrack Obama chastised Hillary for not going to Wisconsin, Michigan, and the other swing states in 2016. Hillary believed the polling data. She got lazy. Trump is a lot of things but he isn't lazy. The guy is a dynamo of energy. Trump campaigned hard.
Plus, all the media coverage (hatred) of Trump just gave him millions of dollars of free advertising.
The Democrats lost that election through stupidity and hubris.
I have never called him president. Not once.
You were right on target.
His "I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any votes" was NO JOKE.
Forget "pro-life." The Federal government had put a hold on executions for a myriad of important reasons (to scratch the surface - killing of innocent people, inequities in sentencing with rich people rarely being held to account, pharmaceutical companies refusing to have products affiliated with the practice, refusal of medical societies from participating the killing of individuals, and on and on). Yet djt had called for the execution of the Exonerated Five when they were initially falsely arrested, and he NEVER apologized nor acknowledged his error. So in addition to making plans for the use of the military against civilians, he incited white supremists like Nazis, confederates, anti-government militias and domestic terrorists by calling them "fine people" and promising to give blanket pardons.
During the Trump administration, the Federal government was directed to resume executions. He had THIRTEEN PEOPLE executed - FIVE AFTER HE LOST THE 2020 ELECTION, in the time between the November Election Day until the January 21 Inauguration Day. That is homicidal, NOT pro-life.
It is in Orwell-Double-Speak
TELL IT !! , BEV !! ( AGAIN ! LORD, HAVE MERCY !)
Thank you
The Times has a tendency to censor left-wing comments, based on my personal experience.
The NYT also did not publish it when I wrote in to an article about Trump's son getting covid that Child Welfare should have removed Barron from the home for neglect.
Good idea. No excuse to censor.
Mine was about the unmitigated gall of Casey DeSantis in imitating Jackie's style (and JFK the brave promoter of civil rights), to sell their sick Fascist agenda. I didn't add that the south murdered our beloved president or that his nephew is a spoiled spoiler if there ever was one and brings shame upon the whole family.
Linda Weide: That's kidnapping by the government. You crossed a red line there. Not cool.
Worst?
His “Presidency “ was a big mistake.
I refuse to recognize it.
Judy Dyer - tfg hated President Barack Obama so much that he fully intended for the line of succession of Presidents to END at 45.
He refused to believe he could lose to Joe Biden and not go on to be the despot he always envisioned, a la Putin or the one he kept love letters from, Kim Jong Un.
This week happens to be the anniversary of Hitler becoming the absolute dictator (Fuhrer) of Germany - August 2, 1934.
I loved Barack Obama so much! But, darn close to hating white people ...and, I'm one of them. I really REALLY hate white supremacists. THE MOST unAmerican thing one can be.
Linda Weide: Woodrow Wilson and Abraham Lincoln are the worst Presidents. Wilson was a bigot who re-segregated the Army and Navy. He gave us the Income Tax, Federal Reserve, and involved the USA in WWI which led to WWII and Communism etc. Wilson was a disaster.
Abraham Lincoln's war killed more Americans than any other war in the country's history.
Do you have proof of this "White Supremacist" policy in the Armed Forces? Last I looked all the leaders of the US military were African-Americans.
Timmy, when we were doing a presentation on the military I had different students researching the history of different groups in the military, like women, Asians, Native Americans. One of my students wanted to do "White Men," so we looked them up. Every single article was on how White Supremacy is a big problem in the military. Then we read that at least 1/3 of the people in the military say they know someone in the military who is a White Supremacist and how that is a problem. Here are some articles on it.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/deep-history-white-supremacy-within-us-military
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/09/white-supremacist-group-patriot-front-one-in-five-applicants-tied-to-us-military
It was reading these stats that had me worried about Trump staging a coup. I was not sure whether the military would stand up to him or support him in his coup desires. We now see that they stood up to him.
I have been talking about presidents in my lifetime. I was not alive for Wilson or Lincoln. However, Wilson is not alone in being a bigot, so that is not a criteria I use, but he did not have the global environmental impact that Trump has had. By following the Reagan playbook (the second worst president in my lifetime and perhaps the globally more important problem) putting industry insiders into regulatory agencies and filling the court with people who are destroying any environmental protections we have, Trump will have more negative impact on the USA and the planet than any president prior to him at a point in time when these actions are now irreversible. Biden is attempting to undo this. I certainly feel the government is responsible for our well being. We are global players and a president needs to be making sure we have strong alliances with other countries who back us up against our enemies.
Linda Weide: Thanks for the reply. I'm no fan of the military so I'm not surprised by your research results. IMO the US military should be disbanded. The National Guard in each state and the Coast Guard is all we need for self defense.
Biden has already undone all of Trump's executive orders. Biden can't control much. The government debt is out of control and getting worse. Each President has increased the debt since Clinton. The last President in my lifetime who was any good was JFK and look what happened to him.
Timmy we are going to have to disagree. We are not Costa Rica, who can get away without a military it seems. We can not. My daughter was living with a family in Costa Rica recently who live in a small town. Their 5 year old son has asthma and the medical center does not have an asthma specialist, so when he is having asthma problems he has to lie down and take it easy. This is not true for my daughter who also has asthma that has been controlled by medications until she outgrew the need to take regular ones, and now just has emergency ones like I do. So, Costa Rica probably cannot afford to have a military. I posit that we can afford to have one. People are in poverty in this country not because the money is going to the military, although I would like to get rid of the waste, but because we don't manage our nation in a way that ensures people and children will not be in poverty. The money is here in this country to take care of people, but we don't. We could be giving more money in welfare for example, but policies have taken that away. One of my aunts in Germany explained to me that the reason people there get more money from the government is that they don't want them to fall into a depression while they are getting it together. Wish that were the attitude here, but try telling that to Joe Manchin. We need to tax the wealthy at a higher percent, and we can start with billionaires and millionaires. We should not allow dual citizenship with countries that allow Americans to hide their money from taxation. Let Clarence Thomas' billionaire pal Crow move to the Caribbean Island where he has become a citizen to shelter his money. Biden has not yet undone all of Trumps and Reagans destruction of the government. We have enemies, and until they are gone, I think we do need a military.
Linda Weide: The Founders of the uSA hated standing armies. They knew that a federal military was a threat to liberty. The Army will be used against the people of America. It has been used before. Look at what happened to the Bonus Army in DC. Or look at the Coal Wars or the Draft Riots in NYC.
People don't get money from the government. The government has no money. Every dime the government has is taken from the workers of the USA.
Sure, the Fed prints currency to fund the government, but then we all pay the Inflation Tax to pay for that currency printing.
The USA can't afford to have a military. The Federal Government will pay $1 trillion in interest on the debt this year alone. That's $1 trillion going right to the people you want to tax even more.
Your support of the US Military and the debt it causes is making the rich richer.
Lincoln war? WTF
Christopher D Austin: Lincoln attacked the Confederacy. The states had a right to secede.
I think South Carolina attacked Fort Sumpter. The south succeeded. Do you wish that would have been successful? Should slavery still exist, and if not when should it have ended?
Christopher D Austin: No one was injured or died in the bombing of Ft. Sumter. The Federal troops in the fort were allowed to leave a few days later after they surrendered.
The War Between the States was not about slavery, at least not at first. It was about tariffs and taxes. Abe Lincoln did not abolish slavery in Kentucky, Maryland, or West Virginia (the border states that stayed neutral). Lincoln also did not abolish slavery in the northern states. His famous Emancipation Proclamation only abolished slavery in the Confederacy over which he had no authority.
You end slavery the same way the British Empire did. Buy the slaves from the slave owners and set them free. Lincoln could have done this but he didn't. Lincoln wanted a strong central government. Lincoln was a railroad man. He supported Wall Street and the Big Boys in NYC. They wanted to rape the South and they did.
Timmy ! , There has been Bad Presidents , in the Past, granted. There is GOOD , Bad , and UGLY !, in this " World Order , & there WILL BE ! , " untill JESUS ! , RETURNS ! { tRUMP ! , TAKES the CAKE !, for a LOSER !) a TOUNGUE ! , that Calls OUR VETERANS " LOSERS, and SUCKERS ! , Should have THAT Tounge ,,,,, CUT OUT ! " Nuff SAID !"
Cruz needs to be headlined, but there are so many evil weasels. He is clever, greedy and without a shred of moral fiber.
I'm inclined to view Jeri Chilcott as a toxic, foul-mouthed troll, but in this case I'm inclined to actually agree with her.
Rude!
Also... rude.
Will,
Rude Jeri Chilcutt had it coming.
Regarding Ted Cruz, I think his makeover as a MAGA crusading knight was well-performed, if you can think of contemporary American politics as a real-life horror movie featuring Trump as the reincarnation of Godzilla and Biden as Dracula.
John, The ReThugs !, TOTAL the SUM ! , of that COMPLETE HORROR SHOW !! ( MANKIND ! , NEEDS , To Be RE ADJUSTED ! IT ! , Will Be SOONER, Than We will ALL , THINK !}
SOMEone just had to go on the record with a sneer.
Still trying to make friends John?
No need to try.
Georgia, I think no stone will be left unturned by SC Smith. They will all have their comeuppance. They were all out in the open and STILL are. Lock them up, eventually. But get them out of the Congress now.
Get them out of Congress, indeed!
When a misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood, smothers truth under indifference or insults, a nation turns its back on progress, and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe (Frédéric Bastiat).
This is what the conspirators of Donald Trump have been engaging since 2020 elections. If they realize that their claims are under constant scrutiny, they hid behind the First Amendment and manufacture another version of truth to appear as if they are victims of political persecutions. They really wanted to benefit from violence to find a door to introduce military into the elections and quote even Insurrection Act to appear as using the constitution but behind their back, they wanted to overturn every unimaginable claim into their favor and select which part of the law to butter with.
I agree Edwin with one exception. I think the orange blob and his co-conspirators have been engaging in and disrupting everything they can since LONG before 2020. Their crusade began in 2015 and blossomed like a nuclear bomb throughout his first reign of terror.
Sure. Because I remember that's when Trump started the campaign
Georgia we’re on the same track. Yesterday I wrote:
Will there be indictments for the Republican members of the House and Senate who were in on (part of) the conspiracy/ conspiracies? After all 147 of them voted against certifying the election results!
No doubt! That was the undeniable and very public indicator that they were absolutely committed to doing whatever was necessary to hold onto power even at the expense of vacating principles and expectations of a well run democracy.
The DOJ has emphasized the fact that it is non-political, however, it is aware of the political calendar. The scope of Smith's January 6th indictment is narrow to eliminate as many procedural delays as possible in order to get these charges to trial as soon as possible. The other actors, inside and outside of Congress, should have their day in court if we have a functioning democracy after November 2024, but only if Trump is tried first.
🤞🏻🙏🏻
🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Jack Smith did say that investigations are ongoing, which gives me hope that he will eventually reach into the House and Senate Members who participated. I doubt a superseding indictment since it's probably best to keep Trump's trial separate from the Co-conspirators, but that does not eliminate the possibility of more indictments.
From your mouth to God's ear. I too have been wondering when the hammer would come down on the co-conspirators in Congress. Many made no effort to hide their actions. If Cruz gets caught up in the net of his own making, good riddance to bad rubbish. All of America should celebrate, not just Texans.
Oh! Intrigued! I bet you are right.
Georgia Fisanick,
Are you buying into the Biden administration's weaponized partisan conspiracy theory about Trump?
Please understand that I will never vote for Trump, but I think that Biden is even worse.
I have shared my own thoughts on Trump's Jan. 6 indictment here:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-2-2023/comment/21789709
Lol. You may want to actually read the indictment. From this nonsensical comment it’s obvious you’ve not bothered.
I’m curious, John, why will you never vote for Trump?
It was the Billy Bush tape, with Trump's "locker room talk."
Never.
JOHN ! , Bravo ! , I will Buy THAT ! Too ! Amidst ALL of the Piles of RUBISH ! , that CONTINUES , to Spew, from that UnControlled TOUNGUE !! John ! PLEASE !, Understand, You are Bucking AGANST MANY here ! , That STAND ! , for President Joe Bidens RELENTLESS rightious Work, TO MAKE Right, TOO Many WRONGS !! May OUR GOD! , Continue to Pour, HIS HOLY SPIRIT ! Into the GOOD HEARTS ! , of TRUE America !! ( AND MUCH !, for YOU ! , DR. RICHARDSON !! )
So, no policy disagreements? The “grabbing” issue is paramount in your mind? Or, do you suspect that the “locker room talk” comment was a lie? (You know that it is not illegal to lie, right, John?)
Paul,
At the time I had already decided that I could never again vote for blood-soaked Hillary, the Butcher of Libya, who pressured a reluctant Obama to go far beyond the U.N. mandate and break the country with regime change, creating an ongoing festering wound out of the country that had once been the financial pillar of the African Union.
In 2020, I supported Tulsi Gabbard, who condemned Hillary as the "corrupt queen of the war-mongers."
AMEN!
So, no policy disagreements with Trump? Just “grabbing”?
My favorite quote from Jack E Smith, when asked if he thinks the charges will stick:
"I didn't come back from the Hague to write him a parking ticket."
Wow, from where did you hear that, Ed? Perfect comeback!
Wow, that's right up there with "I need ammunition, not a ride".
He X'ed it, or tweeted it in a question period yesterday I think. If I find it, I'll post it.
He’s on Twitter and answering questions 😳😳😳are you certain it’s not a parody account?
I can’t see him doing that?
I think Jack E. Smith is a parody account--but sometimes funny AF
Great, thanks, Ed!
(Laughter) Did he really say that? a Jack Smith voice emerges.
No, he didn't, but it IS a funny thing to imagine.
he said it on twitter
Uh... that's a parody account. As in, Jack Smith does NOT have a Twitter account, so someone else is free to create one under his name, provided they don't use @realJackESmith as the actual handle. We get the entertaining badass lines he would never say in real life, the person running the account gets clicks and giggles. Pre-Musk, it would be easier to spot immediately because there world be no blue check authentication. Now, not so much.
Of course, you probably already know this, but for people that did not...
Thank you Will. Exactly what I suspected. If the highly educated LFAA readers fall for the parody accounts imagine how many others do.
Jack Smith is not tweeting his thoughts aboit his speacal council job. They only speak threw cout filing. He is not taking questions. People need to stop being so gullible.
OH YeSSS ! Ann- Louise ! Right ON !
Delicious 🖤
Best quote citation today! (even if it is not factually true)
SO !! AGREED ! , ED ! HALLEHLUJA !!
Trump's lawyer, interviewed by NPR and elsewhere today, spewed lies and half truths . They were all designed to influence potential jurors. They included the free speech absurdity, "Biden's Justice Department" indicted Trump, and the former president was only following legal advice (a defense widely ridiculed by legal experts).
NPR's interviewer simply let the lawyer drone on with well-prepared talking point, barely ever daring to meekly challenge him. Chicken-sh*t journalism at its finest, which has become an NPR standard.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the free press will be suppressed — or worse — if Trump wins.
Michael, of late I have been disappointed with NPR as the newscasters seem to ask questions that parrot Republican talking points, many of them false or outright lies, in ways that validate the interviewee.
Just following MSM which followed Fox. Where are the people who go out to see if it is raining. I try to get a bit from a lot of places, BBC has less bs, it seems
The Guardian Is a reliable, objective source as well.
I do that
I start the morning with BBC radio news. They seem to scour the globe for items that are enough to curdle milk. But they pronounce all those African names with unhesitating fluency....
What is a radio?? Kidding, will check that out...
“What is a radio??”
LOL
I grew up listening to transistor radios with long rabbit ear-like antennas ten times taller than the radios. I sometimes wonder if that is why I enjoy podcasts and audio books so much.
Yep, those were the days.
I have noticed this pattern as well on the PBS news hour.
100% agreement. NPR used to provide reliable 'centrist' to 'center-left' to left viewpoints. They have slid past center into clearly partisan rightist views and some of their journalists are a joke--letting the rightwingers gabble on without push-back or providing context. As you pointed out, often the interviewers ask questions designed to let rightwingers "speechify" following their so-called conservative talking points. It's definitely making me rethink my financial support of the local NPR stations.
NPR has gotten very good at using the passive voice to slide right wing views into its reporting.
His lawyer Paul Mauro was also on the PBS NewsHour with his "Biden's Justice Department" talking points, and Geoff Bennett countered well with multiple questions. We are in for a long, grueling slog, which we should expect from Trumpworld.
My favorite Lauro-ism was the bit where he stated that the Biden administration has spent 3 and a half years investigating Trump...so let's see: August 2023, minus 3.5 equals February 2020. This is the legal genius/minion carrying the rancid water this time.
Clearly, math is not his strong suit
Bennet tried to counter with good questions but to no avail. At least they followed with another interview with the lawyer who worked on the Impeachment committee, he was an excellent counter to the defense attorney.
Where is the guts to call them what they are proud to be. Shrills for evil.
Reporters and anchors should not express opinions. When they do, they lose credibility. That is why Fox "News" is such an abomination.
Not expressing opinions is professional. But letting lies go without pushback is dangerous, especially when it is done only to assure continued access to the liar/“guest”. Personalities drive/hold eyeballs. Reports do not need to have a conversation with a personality to state facts. But the “guest” model of MSM is entrenched. It is the corroding truth factor. We crave it and support it with our attention. The advertisers/corporate sponsors need that assurance for their business-model-bottom-line support. We get an interpretive-dance of information called “News”. But it only shallowly informs citizens, and more greatly dumbs down democracy.
They are not news, never have been. Ronnie and Rupert's greatest scam on the blathering fools impressed with celebrity.
Just reported on MSNBC (just as an aside-not the story) that Trump went out to dinner with Fox News executives. 😳 They are his propaganda cable show. Period!
When Trump was in the WH he used to talk by phone every night with Sean Hannity, and he'd call in on a regular basis to the Fox morning show as well, to the point where some of them were annoyed by it.
Have been since Jeb flamed out. Chump said a while back that Rupert called him way more than Roger Ailes did. Rupert must think that they can lie enough to put him back in office. And they might. Master class propaganda so far. Nothing I would love so much as to see both in orange and cuffs.
But they should analyze and offer perspective and context. Those attributes are slipping away, too.
That's why I watch the NewsHour. Plus, it has minimal commercials, so there's more time for news. And if you can't watch it live, you can find it on YouTube.
I was heartened to watch that also.
I saw that Mauro dude. Some of these folks are so clever. Have no shame about being a lyer and can spin on a dime ! Hopefully I'll never get in that kind of trouble but If I do, I know who to call - with his lying @$$ ! : )
I was pleasantly surprised to see/hear Gayle King on CBS Mornings go head-to-head with that lawyer yesterday. Ed O'Keefe was there, too, and went after him. They ran out of time, but you could tell Ed especially was eager to keep arguing with him.
In the past, journalists who went easy on interview subjects involved in big controversial stories were looked down upon by their peers. Apparently no more.
Agree, Michael. I was listening to the NPR interview in the car & screaming @ the interviewer. TFG’s lawyer had time to air all of his refutable/ disputable talking points .
I was in in the car, too. I used some choice words that my nearly 18-year-old son endures with eye rolls that say "there he goes again."
(Oh, those teenage eye-rolls...)
It starts to feel like a denial of service attack on our democracy. Throw enough wrenches in the works and the democracy comes to a grinding halt. We must persevere through this.
Steve Bannon's plan, still being carried out.
Absolutely. No easy times ahead.
AMEN ! Robert ! FAITH !!
I find it "dangerous" to listen to any talk radio in my 2500-pound car. 😈
Trump indicted trump ... the MAGA-cult and the Republican Party indicted trump ... this fiasco was and is far worst than I could have ever imagined!!!
Jim ! , IT !, is Written : " A House, DIVIDED, Will NOT STAND !! "
Jeff Bennett on PBS Newshour was actively challenging the sophist liar Trump lawyer. Great journalist
Those of you who find the NewsHour ineffective, please note that Bennett is with the NewsHour.
Thought NPR's Newshour did a better job interviewing Trump’s attorney than CBS did. CBS let the guy drone on without challenge. At least NPR challenged him, quoting the released indictment.
I gave up on NPR over a year ago. So depressing that they went over to the dark side. The both sides bullshit is just evil when the threat is fascism and the genocide that historically follows it.
"Only following legal advice". He's never "only" done anything.
Worse
My understanding is that in order to claim the advice of counsel defense, Trump would have to take the stand and testify himself. I cannot imagine his lawyers letting him do that.
What happens in the court of public opinion is not the same as what happens in a court of law. It’s dangerous, to be sure, but I don’t think helpful to Trump’s case in the end.
The Earth will stop spinning if Trump testifies. And if his lawyers use the “following-my-attorneys’-advice defense,” prosecutors will easily debunk it.
Michael Bales, that is why the trial must not be televised. It will bring guns to the streets. Comparison with the HEARINGS of Senator Sam Erwin during the Nixon nightmare is inappropriate. We have had those with the 1/6 Committee.
I disagree, Virginia. This trial needs to be as accessible as possible. Read some of Joyce Vance's writings on the subject.
Given the unprecedented gravity of the charges and with the future of democracy on the line, I agree that the trial should be televised. Are there risks as Virginia points out? Absolutely. But the nation is better served by witnessing the proceedings rather than only getting filtered accounts.
However, are federal trials ever televised? I don't believe so.
Although generally I would agree with Joyce Vance, this time, given the fear, anger, and stupidity in this well-armed country, having read about the presence of Trump’s lawyers on TV, plus the master manipulator manipulating from the dock, I think it’s asking for armed “militias” (particularly racist ones) in the streets. My first thought was to look forward to seeing the trial, but when I thought what the sight of DT in the dock would do to inflame the Proud Boys who aren’t in jail, plus the congresspersons who are “with” him and have microphones, I changed my mind. The strength of the Fifth Column in America is more like Franco’s than many of US can accept.
How much of the case against Trump ALSO consists of lies and half-truths? I shared my thoughts on this post:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-2-2023/comment/21789709
William Barr: “As the indictment says, they're not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. Free speech doesn't give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”
EXACTLY!!!
Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Barr is speaking truth, unlike his lying alter ego while in power.
Just his ego, Michael. That man is as dirty as they come. He has a big attachment to Opus Dei and to Leonard Leo.
He’s just covering his ample derrière.
And he polished up W
But Barr also said last night that he doesn't think "Biden is morally superior to Trump." What planet. . .
Uranus?
Excellent, Barbara!🤣
(*jaw drop*) In what UNIVERSE isn't Trump morally inferior to...well, almost anyone who is not Trump. There are several notable exceptions, of course--his most trusted capos (Roger Stone, Stephen Miller, etc., etc.)
Comparing Biden's morals to Trump's complete lack thereof would be comical--that is, if this mess was in any way amusing. It. Is. Not.
Must be the thought of being co-conspirator no. ___
Indeed, hard to believe any truth is being uttered by his forked tongue!
It is why parents teach their children not to lie because it erodes or taints the truth when it is presented. We won’t believe the truth when someone is known to lie.
The classic "Yelling 'FIRE' in a crowded theater", tho should be updated to include 'READY! AIM!' to keep abreast of the times...
What a terrible mess - Trump must be stopped for the sake of all who live under the protection of the United States. These are dangerous times. A reader from county Clare, Ireland.
Christopher Eccles: Some of my ancestors came from the town of Coole in County Clare. Their name was Dooley. Do you know any Dooley's?
Yes. I live in Mountshannon, East Clare, on the shore of Lough Derg. There are loads of Dooley here. They must be an original family in the parts. If you like, I can give you the email of my friend Audrey, as she is a Dooley, and she might be able to help you. We are about 45 miles from Coole, so your people may be a different branch.
Christopher Eccles: My great-grandmother on my father's side of the family was named Emily Dooley. She died in childbirth in Minnesota when my Dad's father was born. Emily was one of ten sisters who emigrated to America. Emily stayed in America. Her nine sisters went back to Ireland.
Emily Dooley's father was a school teacher in Coole. He married Bridgette Fitzgerald at the Catholic church north of Gort. My wife and I visited the remains of that church in May 2004. The roof is gone but the walls and graveyard are still there.
I found a grave of a Dooley from Coole in the graveyard. There was an empty bottle of whiskey by the head of the gravestone. Just like the Finnegan's Wake song.
I don't want to bother Audrey Dooley. But thanks for the offer.
Tim McGraw
Thank you Heather.
A U.S. government shutdown is coming -brought to you by a collection of GOP liars, extremists, incompetents, and criminals.
IIRC the first ever downgrade of the US credit rating was due to earlier reckless economic malfeasance by the so-called "conservative", so-called, "Republican Party".
And friends of Putin who want to see funding for Ukraine cut off.
Thanks Heather! It appears that the indictment is a masterpiece in application of the law. When Nixon lied everyone was horrified on both sides of the aisle. When Trump lies he has the almost unanimous support (with few notable exceptions) of the GOP. What happened to citizenship?
It's also a masterpiece in telling a story: simple, easy-to-understand narrative supported with concrete, easy-to-grasp facts.
And what has happened to our gut rejection of lies and liars? Nixon's abuses of power were, while properly deemed unacceptable given the impact of a president's duties and powers, seem rather quaint in light of over four decades of much bigger lies and "dirty tricks" that became standard operating procedures for the "Republican Party". Have no doubt that lies are dangerous; during COVID, promoting wars, persecuting minorities. Many people have suffered and many have died due to lies. Free speech, and especially protection of unpopular speech is essential to a free society; but... It becomes a concern for a society when lies, or any behavior, imposes harms on others. In unclear cases I am inclined to err on the side of free speech, but there are cases where the impact of lies is unacceptable, fraud being one of them, for example, collecting money for "charity" one intends to keep. And egregious lies and liars that may be legal can still be condemned by the court of public opinion.
I still wonder about political promises that are promoted by ongoing and demonstrably knowing lies that benefit the liars and measurably harm the public. Is that just free expression, or is it arguably fraud?
Repubs have most assuredly read the parts of Mein Kampf about lying and propaganda. They follow it to a tee.
And follow a despot's playbook that's plagued humanity for eons. "Government" per se, the ground rules we share when we so much as play a game of cards together, was never "the problem".
Authoritarianism; corruption; any significant abuse of power IS.
Perhaps I should add that in my view "abuse of power" is involved in nearly any harmful negligent or bullying human interaction, from bullies in a schoolyard, abusive relations between couples, exploitive employee relations, murder, racism, wars, etc., etc. It is additionally odious when those entrusted with fiduciary duties to others abuse their powers, from abusive parents to cheating, opportunistic civil officers of any sort.
Abuse of power - the despot's playbook. 100% correct
Fraud. It's intended that members of the public should believe what is said. It's not comedy, it's not satire, it's fraud.
That's exactly what the Dominion civil jury decided. Somehow corporations seem to get far more traction in the use of our legal system than "we the people".
Actually I'm misstating this a bit now that I think about it.. My memory is that the judge expressed skepticism of Sidney Powell's argument that no political speech should be taken seriously, and Dominion and Fox settled out of court because the handwriting was on the wall. I was disappointed that the perps would not be grilled further.
I think that S.P. Jack Smith’s indictment may hopefully spark the needed awareness around Free Speech / First Amendment concerns. As a democracy we state boldly that Free Speech undergirds everything. trump & co. have led us to a moment where many of us are questioning the wisdom of the First Amendment. Yet S.P.Jack Smith rightly brings this query into focus. trump may say what ever he wants, believe what he wants, lie to others. BUT, it DOES NOT protect him from being held accountable for unlawful actions. Our great challenge as a democracy -for all democracies- is to actually prosecute/hold accountable the unlawful actions of people. We do not do this. We can site more cases of liars and cheats beating the system than we can of JUSTICE actually being served in a meaningful way. There seem to be little stomach/courage/ability to actually/effectively hold liars/cheats/grifters accountable. THAT we need to fix. The First Amendment is not our problem. Enforcing laws on the powerful and well-positioned is.
So Trump almost remained President by using the military to impose his will on the country that had told him by 7 million votes that they wanted Biden and Fitch IS telling US and the world what it thinks of the Republican fiscal mayhem in the House and Senate….
What part of these horrors don’t we understand. Tomorrow afternoon at 4 in DC a very clear message about all of this is being formalized….Thank you Jack Smith.
I also want to say.... Thank you Jack Smith!!! Your work is appreciated.
On July 17 Ms Richardson wrote:
"A story in the New York Times today ... outlined how former president Donald Trump and his allies are planning to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024."
If Trump is reelected, I believe he and his cronies will do exactly that. Then, having been installed as the newly elected President of the United States, he would be the lawful Commander in Chief of the military, and yes, he would then invoke the Insurrection Act to put down any protests. Senior military officers could resign rather than follow Trump's orders, but that would just push the problem down to the next lower level.
So we can't count on the military to protect our democracy from Trump's planned dictatorship. If he wins the election they'll be working for him, like it or not.
If you missed the July 17 letter, you should read it. It's scary. The Republicans are very open about what they plan to do, much more open than I would have expected.
They have told us what they will do, and they will. Not only chump, but any R, as well as the stupid third party nuts.
“Project 2025” As several others have pointed out, Trump telegraphs his actions time and again. No one should be surprised at his declaration of war on our current form of government. He’s very much a “hold-my-beer” kind of person.
I read it, i didn't like it. It was scary and sickening. Made me want to go get a passport in the very near future..
Better get your passport while you still can! TFG wants to expunge all the civil servants.
I have actually decided to get it either September or October of this year. I am not taking any chances on waiting to the very last minute. I am totally sick of the TFG and his totally insanity. I just wish he was gone from this earth. I can't stand the sight of him. With his diet and obesity i would have figured he would have croaked by now. I would be dead if i eat what he does. I had open heart surgery 9 years ago and i have to be careful what i eat..
Maybe the Military will not go along with this?
Since "t" the republican Party has lost its way. Just pay attention to the obvious :pro Putin....No respect for Ukraine's desire for self-governance, desire to control the military, admiration for despots around the world, disregard for women in general (other than as useful objects), lack of necessary healthcare for women and the ownership of guns without regard for a person's possible vulnerable.....or dangerous mental state, the Saudis and golf investments, lack of focus on building up the infrastructure, lack of interest in the real and honest education of our children with more concern to brainwash children regarding our history, disrespect for persons who are black or brown, LGBTQ, lack of desire to help with the obvious struggles at the border...only pointing fingers (their wall did NOT work...blocking a portion of the river with barrels did not work....officers with guns...roughing up women and children has not worked) thanks to regular citizens of Texas and clergy, who have been pouring out care and meeting needs for shelter, food and clothing...helping with processing of immigrants ....for YEARS!!! Many have more concern for big oil production=big money for the short term chosen over the care for the life of our planet and the long term health and safety of our human population....disregard and lack of support to deal with the reality of climate change issues, taking land which has been assigned as a National Park for selfish purposes.....doing little to help persons of countries who could use their forests, or minerals for themselves with no regard or respect for the lives of human beings who have lived in that country/location all their lives...these persons need teaching and training as to the benefit to them regarding their resources....not to be used as slaves. I realize that many people are used by their own leaders or that their "leaders" are benefiting from outsiders' greed.
I know that we as US citizens are far from perfect but I just believe that to whom much has been given, much is expected. AND I cannot criticize others for being greedy while we each have our own issues. We have been entrusted with so much, individually I believe we must examine ourselves as to what good we can do...large or small each day. It is important. And we must be serious about the character of persons we vote into power.
Thanks Heather for making what is most important stand out from the chaos that dominates the social media headlines. While all of these developments are vile, I have to say something about the maniacal and pathetic Guliani. As a New Yorker, I could never stand him. As an education reporter during his administration, I saw how he screwed several City School Chancelors -- I think he went through four of them within a couple of years, micro-managing a complex school system in his ham-fisted style. As the niece of a former NYC police officer and later a top security official for the Twin Towers (he had the day off when the towers were hit, and never forgave himself for not being on the job that day to save more lives) I knew Guiliani put the entire complex, and city in jeopardy that day, by his egotistical need to house all the city security and communications staff in the building next to the towers, which was buried under the rubble. I read the link to the story about his sexual fantasies and possible rape of his assistant. WHO DO THESE SICK MEN (TRUMP, EPSTEIN, GUILIANI, BILL CLINTON, FORMER ELLIOT SPITZER) THINK THEY ARE!!! Watching a bit too much porn fantasy, and Shades of Grey domination fantasies. These degenerates need to be called out and humiliated in public, and never heard from again -- consensual? NOT! Sickening. Sorry for the rant
Great comment, i appreciate your rant very much...
Reading the full indictment this evening, and it strikes me anew... this plan, and this guy, are really, really, really f#ck!ng stupid. Nefarious, and dangerous, and reckless, and evil, yeah yeah yeah all that. But stupid. It's not even well thought out! They're not even going about it that cleverly! So, so, so deeply stOoOoOoOped. And desperate. So pathetically desperate. They're just making crap up as they go along, even within the same conversation! Like, they wanna be the Kremlin, but they're ending up as the Keystone Kops, and expecting people to just... not notice? Or be too scared to say no? Too scared by what? Anytime there are quotation marks in this document the words in between reach a level of cringe comedy that defy belief, especially the dumbass phony vauge wannabe mobster cr@p plopping out of Agent Orange's head-hole, which sounds more like a kindergartner trying to convince someone they really did meet the tooth fairy last night. What an epically pathetic crybaby loser. A toddler playacting at dictatorship, as transparently obvious as that puke-streak-down-the-stall-wall mess of a combover.
To believe anything this idiot is saying about his own downfall, you'd have to genuinely think he is so smart he knows something everyone else doesn't, or sees something no one else will. BUT PEOPLE DO! THEY FELL FOR IT! TENS OF MILLIONS OF 'EM!!!!!(???[!!!]) Is there some widespread tradition in this country that I'm not aware of where folks bounce babies on their skulls like a basketball, so they don't learn anything past object permanence? Nah, just kidding, we all know what it is. These masses of morons have found their Moron Messiah, because finally these was someone who said all the horrible things out loud in a way that reflected their own brand of hateful stupid in a way that the educated charlatans they had been voting for before never could muster up with enough authenticity, and was finally willing to do what no one else was willing to do to crush those stupid libruls and their tyrannical insistence on niceness and book learnin' once and for all.
God, I'm so done with this horsesh!t, and these imbeciles. So, so done. I love this country, but ONLY IN AMERICA!
"... finally the[r]e was someone who said all the horrible things out loud in a way that reflected their own brand of hateful stupid..." ✅
That sentence is a gem among gems.
Fatally stupid, but so freaking effective.
This is sort of hilarious in an odd way (OK, I have a weird sense of humor 😂) What a bunch of incompetent sociopathic wackos!
“Along with political consultant Steve Bannon, Epshteyn created a cryptocurrency called “$FJB, which officially stands for “Freedom. Jobs. Business.” but which they marketed to Trump loyalists as “F*ck Joe Biden.” By February 2023, Nikki McCann Ramirez reported in Rolling Stone that the currency had lost 95% of its value.”
Nothing says Freedom Jobs Business like campaigning *against* the guy who has created the longest string of job growth and most new small businesses in most people's lifetime, much less doing it by creating a failed scam business. Irony and self-awareness are not fascist strong suits, it appears.
P.S. Walk into a large Business and ask a low-level employee if they feel their Job is helping them attain more Freedom in their lives. Dollars to donuts, not so much!
Glad you’re back Will!
Ha! Me, too!
I have a macabre sense of humor also, Dr. B and I also thought “HA! They lost a lot!”
Bannon and Epshteyn made money off of it--they undoubtedly knew it was crap and shorted it. It was the little MAGAs that bought it that lost their shirts. Just like those who bought the Trump trading cards.
"little MAGAs," love it, Georgia!
The “grift that keeps on grifting”…..
Ha!!
They’re pariahs.
We may need a $FDT account.
On January 6, 2020, when war was declared against the United States by insurrectionists, people, ordinary people, people standing up to Trump and his minions, understood their duty and service to the United States. People serving in the pressured States by Trump did their sworn duty and protected the voting process. They protected the constitution and did not cave to the pressure being placed on them. These are the unsung heroes in the Trump insurrection. They joined, unknowingly, with the military leaders who understood their duty to protect the constitution and served their county. Add the Capital Police and others serving the House and Senate who put their lives on the line to defend the people in those institutions, and the United Stated was held together by ordinary people doing extraordinary service.
People protecting Trump during this chaos are the ones who need to be examined. They failed in their duty and failed as American citizens. The freedom spotlight needs to be shown on those failed individuals so they can never block and harass the voting process again.
I believe that a great proportion of the situation we’re in can be traced back to the Supreme Court decision:
“The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.”
And we have the image of Clarence Thomas smoking fat cigars with his Fat Cat zillionaire special friend, not that Thomas was the only one who voted for that corrupt decision.
Maybe I am too deep into this stuff as many of my fellow readers here are: I pegged Boris as the 6th unnamed individual from the first day of the indictment! I posted the Fitch downgrade on my Facebook page moments after it was announced.
What’s frighteningly sad is that - even though it’s still a little early in the election year cycle, there are or is a poll showing Biden and Trump tied ... are you kidding me? You mean that there are that many people who pay no attention to the politics of America until the last minute, really have no sense or very limited knowledge about government and governance that it’s hard for them to distinguish right from wrong, or that we have that many racist, bigoted, low intelligence individuals among us that might indicate or suggest that our system of government(s) are just too sophisticated for them? Whatever the rational, there should be no validly logical explanation as too why Biden should be tied in the polls with this “idiot”? Is MT-G the only [conservative] person who recognizes and can tie all the good programs the Democrats have offered up that are liked, appreciated and beneficial to so many Americans?
"...are you kidding me? You mean that there are that many people who pay no attention to the politics of America until the last minute?"
Well, yeah. Anything you read before the end of next summer trying to project what will happen is pretty pointless. That said, the reputable polls the last few weeks have been:
NYT/Siena: tie
Echelon: Biden +1
Morning Consult: Biden +2
YouGov/Economist: Biden +1
YouGov/Yahoo: Biden +4
Monmouth: Biden +7
Quinnipiac: Biden +5
Marquette: Biden +1
Emerson: tie
NBC/Hart: Biden +4
...BUT DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THEM AND JUST GET OTHER PEOPLE TO VOTE!!! (Also, follow Simon Rosenberg's Hopium Chronicles, obvs.)
Thanks, quite informative!!
The polls that really count are the ones ya go to to vote. Hopium Chronicles - good name drop.
Looking at my family dynamics, I say you are right. The Foxers dismiss anything that is outside the fox realm. Propaganda got us here, starting long ago and ramped up with chump and money. The cult is a cult, defying any reason or logic. Hateful emotions rule the fools…
Jeri, relative to "the Foxers," I remember reading here some time ago that Rupert was planning to pivot away from support of TFG? Anyone noticing that happening?
He certainly hadn’t pivoted toward truth and sanity. I read, somewhere, that he was impressed with Youngkin in VA. God forbid. Just a cheap chump…. Don’t depend on Rupert for anything but power. He admitted that in the UK. Of course, money plays with power very well.
One of the things that annoys me is that only 25 percent of the electorate identifies as Republican. Independents make up half the voting block. They will determine election results. No one ever seems to take this fact into their calculations.
This is a warranted point, but a fraught one. Firstly, the actual number of Independents among registered voters is not half, it is just shy of 40%. But more importantly, most Independents LEAN toward one party reliably enough that they can pretty much just be lumped in with that party, for all political purposes. Actual swing voters are, especially in today's climate, maaaaaybe ~10% of voters. Furthermore, while these folks are perceived by themselves and others as having some real nifty out-of-the-box thinking skills because of their refusal of partisan loyalty, research has shown they are actually some of the least informed voters; they tend to pay attention only very close to an election, and to whoever gets their attention first.
With this in mind, it should make perfect sense that the two leading candidates of the two major parties would be polling closely this far out, no matter who those people are. The typical partisans and partisan-leaning Independents will give an automatic affirmation of their camp, while the 10% of voters the campaigns are actually chasing will continue to give a gosh-I-dunno-not-really-a-fan-of-anyone shrug until 3 months out, when they actually start even trying to learn anything. This goes double with something like Biden vs. TFG. TFG is a polarizing cult leader; his floor is high, his ceiling is low. The Biden camp is banking on a healthy margin of victory being provided by the true swings, who'll tune in after Labor Day, realize things are actually going much better than they thought, no way they want that horrid other guy back (especially if other guy is literally under House arrest), and check the box again accordingly.
Infuriating for those of us who actually TRY to keep abreast and exercise some in-depth thinking, but that's the lay of the land.
Will, reading “his floor is high, his ceiling low” I momentarily had a satisfying vision of TFG in a trash compactor. TFG makes my hackles rise, but then I remember he lost the popular vote when he was first elected, then lost it (and the Electoral College) this last time as well. I’ve been snookered before, but aside from his slavish cult members (and it is gobsmacking to listen to them speak about him), his latest actions aren’t winning him any popularity contests, so I imagine (fingers crossed!) should he be the R candidate, he’d lose by an even wider margin. I hope all the brouhaha surrounding him motivates the fence-sitters to engage & vote.
" I momentarily had a satisfying vision of TFG in a trash compactor."
Barbara, you just made my day.
Will, also frustrated with the apparent disconnection of most poll results with the rest of the news and given the vast variety of information distribution and uptake, I have come to seriously doubt the ability of ANY organization to effectively poll the populace. How would they accomplish contact with enough different people on enough different platforms who are actually willing to respond to represent the populace in general?!
Oh, it can be done; there are decades upon decades of solid mathematics behind the methods used by reliable practicioners in the field. The thing people tend to struggle with is understanding that even the most perfectly-weighted, gold-star poll has a margin of error and confidence interval, and since things like voter attitudes towards candidates are fluid, you are aiming your dart at a moving target. If you can be 95% sure that your poll results have a margin of error of 3%, that would be considered a job well done, and useful to a campaign. Yet if you are a reader looking to know who is "ahead," and the poll says Candidate A is ahead by 3%, all that actually means is that at the very second you're reading the article Candidate A is somewhere in the range of losing by a fraction of a percent to winning handily by 6, except for the 5% chance where either a win or a loss is even bigger, and who the heck knows in three weeks?
So... always look at averages and trends, not a single poll. Ever. And preferably don't look at them much at all. Just make some phone calls for who you want to win and then go read something fun instead.
Thanks for the lead. I decided to do a very quick research “project” and my first result was “A Deep Dive Into Party Affiliation, Sharp Differences by Race, Gender, Generation, Education”, but from PEW Research, April 2015. But it is a good start with a very informative chart and breakdown table at the beginning.
I would really, really, really caution using any statistics on this topic that are almost nine years old. In fact, I wouldn't do so at all. I think we can all agree that was a world ago.
My use of the word “but” - twice is my way of stating caution ... but I appreciate your warning - thanks!
Touche!
It's a conundrum I ponder. Money, manipulation, ossification and our history all lead to this house divided. Of no help at all is the absence of independent electoral bodies to set voter registration, boundaries etc. And the failed experiment of our Electoral College about which there have been complaints at least since Andrew Jackson (and I'm no fan of his but he did have a point there).
Don’t forget climate change is a background (foreground to more and more of US) bringing fear to many who do not want to face it except with bad choices. That underlies much of the anti-democratic stupid choices people are making (DT and autocracy).
Completely agree.
Jim, yesterday I had a telco from a staffer @ a medical establishment I use & had been watching the news when she called & I mentioned something about the indictment. She replied that she didn’t know about it, nor pays any attention to the news or involve herself in anyway with such goings-on. She is a very helpful and pleasant person to deal with and, curious, I gently inquired why. She indicated she would get overly anxious and miserable, so instead she opted to, as she put it “live in her bubble” and dote on her pets and embrace her faith. Said it made day to day living so much better. While that is not my path, as I think it is important to pay attention and stay engaged (but not wallow) in current events (and w/ HCR’s help, how current events are informed/related to history), I DO understand her need. This is her one ride on this pale blue dot we call Earth, and should be able to embrace what gives her the most joy/contentment…. Not my way, but this is a conscious “wellness” choice on her part, not apathy (which to me is more worrisome).
Barbara, I am of the opinion that key or keys to our fulfilling the dreams of some of our country’s founders, many of our ancestors and quite a number of us today for the success of our governance and governmental system(s) and our Constitution requires many of us like or similar thinkers to educate and motivate those need to be about why we need to pay a bit more attention to our individual obligations for our democracy to not just survive - but also to prosper ... voting is a right and obligation that many have died fighting for here ... and this is what distinguishes us from a lot of other countries around our world. No one here gets a free ride. We all must pay taxes in some form and for those who don’t or can’t governments (federal, states and locals) provide services in some shape or form to help those who find it hard to provide for themselves.
What the Democratic Party has going for itself - especially since the Great Depression - FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Obama and now Biden!!! People better get over this age thing ... look at the successes the Biden/Harris administration has brought to fruition ... American history will record idiot trump as probably the worst president in our history ... ooopps, [just went to my trusted Google machine] he’s already close to the bottom!!!
Jim, I often recall this poem by Marge Piercy when I think about true public servants (whatever level) and those who band together for a cause or effort. “To Be Of Use”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57673/to-be-of-use
That poem is awesome!! I had never read it before, but, just, wow! I like to think I am verse 1, with an element of verse 3. I think of otters, who hold each other's hand whilst they sleep.
You might enjoy this one from her, the tenor a bit more forceful, about organizing: https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/piercylowroad.html
She covers a lot of ground in her work and I have enjoyed coming back to her poems from time to time over many years….once even got her autograph in a book of poetry I brought to a book signing in my small college town….years and years ago.
Thanks!!
Thanks Barbara, interesting, but her life seems fascinatingly more interesting ... hadn’t heard of her but when I can find some free - non-work time - I’ll spend a bit more time reading about her creativity. Be safe and thanks for the exchanges.
"...but this is a conscious “wellness” choice on her part, not apathy (which to me is more worrisome)." Worrisome, indeed, because she could end up being well in a very unhealthy place.
Beth, yes, my thoughts too….but her choice & is content with it…as is said “everybody’s got to be someplace”!
I think sometimes these ''polls'' are misleading and biased by the areas they are taken from. How many people do they usually poll? In the polls i have taken part in, there are several million people polled. From what i have participated in, the Dems and Democratic values and President Biden are way ahead. Some of the ones i have did, the Democrats were ahead by 20 percentage points... but, then again, those polls i did could have been biased too... I honestly don't know what to believe when it comes to polls. It is hard to believe TUMP is tied with Biden, and i do agree with you about the racist, bigoted, low intelligence, hicks that are among us and that many of them among us, that is frightening to me. I think i am too deep into all of this too, but i certainly hope TUMP and the Fascist Rethugs aren't running the show after next year.
Jim, I thankfully comment that President Joe Biden is actually a President of the United States of America. He is knowledgable, he is freedom-loving. His governing is about our country working together as a united body even with our differences! In his opinion, we can do it! He is experienced and like every human being......or at least as most wise persons....knows his limitations. He and we can see his love of this country and care for relationships worldwide. He realizes that for our world to be safe ....we must work together.
President Biden knows how to work with others to negotiate for the American people. He does not do this alone. I am thankful for the brilliant, humble, hardworking members of our government who love freedom....it is costly. These men and women are so sacrificial, wise and patient as they diligently serve the people of our country and encourage freedom throughout the world.
Still, it is Joe who has given his life in service to this country, not to be worshiped , but to serve. He knows how to reach across the aisle.....he WANTS to reach across the aisle. This is the United States of America. Joe has reminded us that we can do anything when we work together.