“It is my Great Honor to report that the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company that has an even more incredible future,” President Donald Trump wrote yesterday afternoon on social media.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
It’s sad. The world’s wealthiest country increased taxes on and stripped benefits from the poor—to feed the wealthy. Give heathcare, food, and living wages to everyone and charge it to the wealthy that cannot be satisfied. To what purpose is a $ billion? Hoarding. I made protest signs for your protests. Protesting is now critical for Occupied D.C. There is time to get signs printed for your protest group. Fill the hands of the signless. Where are your signs? It is time to post them so that others can use them. FreeDC!
It was usually the church. Tithing. But, we all should give 10% to causes we believe in. I believe in journalism...Independent journalism. And, donating to Black causes to make up, a little, for my White advantages.
If you don't want to part with the funds now, you can make your stock account belong to a charity, when you no longer need it. Frankly, the kids got enough..........
Emphasis on FILTHY. There are very few solidly rich people doing much to help anyone with their wealth, even less who are willing to speak out. What's the matter? Afraid you won't get invited to the other rich person's party?
I can't march either. I bring a chair and enjoy my tribe. When they march I visit with the rest of us "old hippies" and wave my sign and chant. I am never bored.
You go Margaret! Mi sis just got a shirt that reads: Old white hippie. she's the one who stands on the corner of Main St. (a very Red town) with her protest signs & shirts. We agree with 'don't mess with an old woman who votes' is on shirts on the way to us. I think I need a chair now. Knees complain.
IT know-how about this URL? Because Safari gave me a window that said, "This connection is not private. The website may be impersonating "remove coalition.org" to steal your personal or financial information. You should close this page". Using Firefox and Chrome, I did not get these warnings.
Nor did I, re., Firefox and Chrome. I do find that Safari can be overly cautious; All in all, not a terrible things these days. Caution at provision is more or less how I roll.
To others reading Rick’s comments on this thread - I choose not to respond to him because he does not have a back and forth conversation that is productive. He has his opinions, belittles work I’m proud of, and isn’t worth the time to respond.
Meghan, the reason you don’t wanna respond to me is because you don’t have an answer to levelheaded common sense thinking has nothing to do with productivity it’s not productive because you don’t agree with it and you’re not in control of it and that’s the bottom line which is fine with me. What you don’t see because you’re inside the bubble is that the people here are probably representative of 5% of the Democrat party or about 2 1/2% of the public at large.
You have no idea what the 77 million people that voted for trump think feel and reason for that that’s called ignorance which is not a useful behavioral pattern in education
Thanks so much Megan! Every time you post this is another opportunity for me to send it out to a whole new group of people. So appreciate your dedication to the cause.
We do deserve SO much better a reminder that also goes out with the list
Thanks to Megan, I have been calling again. I broke off for a while. I have been getting more humans when I call. The very young-sounding staff member for my pathetic Representative was only thinly disguising his annoyance at my courteous questions. (I asked if the Rep supported Ukraine)
Who ever answers a reps phone ask them who they work for. They will likely reply they work for so an so rep. But NO they work for you! Explain that to them, they are most likely paid Federal employees. They work for us. We the people!
Ya I remember my semi racist father calling for state's rights during the street troubles in the 1960s. Probably by 1968 upon MLK’s assassination, daddy was heard to say, “It’s not the ones born in Hartford that are causing’ all the trouble it’s the ones comin’ up from the south.” He was so proud to have his one Black friend over for lunch now and again. But it was just a cover. Oh he was for ‘states rights.’ But so weren’t the Founders for different reasons. Or were they different?
Megan in the streets as well. Labor protests arrive.
They were highly educated, contemplative and wise. Not always correct but wise.
Reading the Constitutional Convention debates and the Federalist papers, one can not come away with anything but awe how these men referred to the classics, history, social, cultural and structural institutions and norms, along with an understanding of human behavior how they reasoned and thought things through.
In many ways they were enlightened.
They laid the road to a liberal society, it was up to others to follow it.
There is a superb book by historian Edward Larson called "Franklin and Washington" - it ends with the Constitutional Convention, and Franklin's opinion of the Constitution. He knew slavery was wrong, but he came to believe that the Constitution was the best that could be crafted at the time, and a great good. Therefore, he supported it fully. A great read. Larson tells the story beautifully.
Agreed. There is also a fine description of the Constitutional Convention in Jill LaPore's These Truth, a fairly recent history of the US which I recommend in its entirety.
They were a product of Enlightenment Era thinking, and while the thoughts that time and place produced are not the all time end all, be all, that was exactly the point. After centuries with a brake on progress, the enlightenment rejected the ultimate authority of persons over opening questions and seeking empirical answers. By no means were they the first to do so, but they produced a wave, as we see in different parts of the world at different times, a wave of intensified and accelerated inquiry, looking not just to human authority of prophets or Aristotle, but at what reality itself is prepared to reveal if we pay enough attention. That is actually a democratizing process, even if subject to peer review.
Moreover, if you "question everything" you have to look at values as well as beliefs, which is tied to our humanness, and not so easily settled as a laboratory experiment. And I think that is where wisdom comes in, a subject I think we talk waaaay to little about in modern life. I think wisdom has always been a bit elusive to define, but as far as I can tell it appears to involve seeing the big picture along with the most critical details; the forest AND the trees; and since both are vastly greater than any human mind can hold, an ability to detect at least some of the details and connections that most matter to human, individually and as a species, security, justice, and fulfillment. Focus and triage. What, when all is said and done, most matters??? Most matters.
I may be in the minority but in a federalist-republican system the EC is the best solution yet to the problem of mob rule. Small states are valued as well as large powerful states.
Regarding the 3/5ths compromise, yes it did lay the foundation. Consider the alternative, a split country with the South embracing slavery. The result would likely have been the continuation of slavery well past 1865, if not a even bloodier war between nations.
Without the 3/5ths compromise there would be no union to fight for later with a "...nation, under God, (that) shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”.
A good house cannot be built without a strong foundation.
Indeed, our hope today in these difficult times rests on that foundation.
I like, Gary, how you weigh the workable parts from back then.
Let's add, too, how well-versed were the Founders and many of their wives, too, in languages, the classics, and literature from many cultures, many times. That's on display in The Federalist Papers.
In other words, they knew human nature -- not in any idealized way, and certainly not in the mad rationality of groups, categories, and linear-logic-only such as all testing imposes today.
I do believe thousands of people fought, and lost their lives, because they believed in building that foundation. And what did the well protected intellectuals believe? Seems to me that they decided that appeasing the oligarchs of the time was more important than recognizing the value of those unwashed, "uneducated" masses. Pretty much the same today, isn't it?
Well protected individuals? I'm starting to think you maybe a little confused about the Founding Fathers and Framers of the Constitution.
Washington spent eight years in combat knowing if he were to be captured he would be hung and quartered as a traitor.
Hamilton the same.
Madison the same.
Monroe the same.
Jefferson the same.
And the list goes on.
That also went for every signatory of the Declaration of Independence.
They even wanted to hang old Ben Franklin for treason. Remember his quip to the Second Continental Congress when debating the Declaration of Indepence, “We must all hang together or we will all hang separately”
The majority of signers of the Constitution were either military veterans, held other offices that risked their lives and fortunes, or served in the Continental Congress, an act punishable by death and impoundment of any wealth of the family.
No sir, the Founding Fathers were not "well protected". Bone Spurs and what we see today is nothing like them.
(As someone once noted, Trump would have to stand on Vance's shoulders just to kiss Washington's ass.)
Fellow commenter Mathew Foresta, a bit below, has best answer to your Q, Bill.
Replying to Kasey Coff, he points out the imaginative limits the Founders brought with them -- that they simply never saw or imagined "Indigenous People, Black folks, LGBTQ, and women as equal citizens."
Again, this is where our schools (humanized -- not test-driven) could take needed initiative.
Bingo Phil. Every Sunday, and I mean every Sunday, our whole family piled into our 1962 Chevy sky-blue station wagon and went to Sunday school and church. There were no people of color there and the lessons from the Bible were mostly about men written by men and delivered to us by men. White men.
The women (our mothers and grandmother's included) cooked and cleaned the church and chatted amongst themselves while the women got the food ready for the entire congregation.
The pastor's wife was busy raising her kids and wasn't really allowed to work outside the home and the church of course which was right next door to the church owned parsonage.
My mother was one of the few women that had a full time 8-5 job in an office. I remember hearing derogatory comments at church from the other women about women that worked outside the home and neglecting their families.
And my high school class of 765 had a handful of Asians, no blacks and no Hispanic kids.
So why do I abhor the patriarchy and all that it stands for and why do I fail to understand why the MAGAs are such total assholes?
I was raised Methodist. Our church used to host monthly luncheons for the Rotary club. My mother would help set up the Fellowship Hall for the event, cook the food, serve the men and clean up afterwards. One day I asked her what they did. “It’s a service group that helps communities,” she said. I asked, are you a member of it? “No. It’s only men,” she answered. I became a little thorn in her side about it from then on. “How come you ladies serve these people but you can’t be part of their group?” I think now women can join, but that was one of the lessons of growing up in the times PINO and his ilk want us to go back to!!!!
As a musician and standup guy that once enjoyed going to a Methodist open mic, I once strode bravely to the mic and with a Twaining nerve, announced that God had made a mistake allowing Man up the evolutionary trail. That the Bonobos originally had the tickets but Man grabbed them and ran like hell. Not a peep in the audience. A month later I asked the host why there was such consternation over my standup and she shouted at me, “Because God doesn’t make mistakes.” Oh my God that was so funny. They eventually banned me after reading a piece from my book on how Trump and my cat Babe have something in common and when Babe gets to lick my skittle he craps diarrhea all over my house just like Trump will do. That did it. I’m persona non grata.
I don’t have much patience with religious people. I was brought up in a catholic school and they expelled my by 7th grade. So it goes.
GJ.., that is one great paragraph, as it encapsulates the MAGA Picture. The blue 62 Chevy, going to church, women getting the food and tables set up kids playing (mostly all white kids). Hahahaahaa.., and a country "under God" (1954'). Little House on the Prairie.., Susanne Sommers (rip), Andy Griffith. Yeah.., "those" were the days, huh? Forget those canaries that died in the coal-mine! The downhill-slide had begun. I believe we will salvage this. We've 350 years of experience. Say what you like about the CA Gov, but he's getting on the 'Front Page', and he's not in some "clown car" either. At the moment he's employing some badly needed levity from the other side of the coin. Levity gets a lot more view(ers) than doom & gloom?(ers). No? C'mon.., how did numbnuts get elected? Welp.., he entertained US (the U.S.) didn't he? Ya might even call this guy Ally Oop.
Meanwhile, here on the East Coast, let's start by dumping Sen Collins and put an Oyster Farmer in her place.., he'll do just fine. "Say his name"!
Mad, I can also remember going to Sunday School. I do not think I took to it very much and I was a great disappointment to my mother. This was a Disciples of Christ church and people always laughed when I said I was a Christian...it was called First Christian Church. I was baptized by immersion and I called out, "Help, Mother, he's drowning me" which ruined any idea of a sacred occasion. I grew up in the 50s when things seemed good and all the problems we see now were under the table, happening but not talked about or making news.
I love what Newsom is doing as he has death star's patois down to a tee.
I am very unhappy about Intel which is a big presence here in Oregon. Someone here yesterday gave a very good explanation on how this is just the start of death star awarding oligarchs a la Russia. I thought it was right on.
And yes, remove all talk no walk, full of concern Susie Q. I am all for oysters and love them pan fried.
I'm surprised at the Letters to the editor in The Ellsworth American and the other local weeklies around Hancock county. Rarely, if ever does anyone criticize Susan Collins. And there has been plenty that she has done that is not helping her constituents.
MM Harris! KaaBlammo.., A real Thankyou to MM Harris, for this "link" by The Guardian. GRAHAM PLATNER, let's say that name.., out loud. And, by all means, read the article. When Graham Platner comes to town, we need to show up. He's got a rough road ahead. The sicko-psycho's lcated at 1601 Pornhub Close (Rose Garden) are going to try to turn his words into some kind of pretzel - Don't let that crowd dupe us again! Remember this? "Smiling faces.. Sometimes" 1971' the Undisputed Truth. Hannity/Homan/Miller/Vance/Bondi/Melohnia/Patel/Grassley/Abbott/Rubio/Gabbard/Collins/Cruze/Putin/GHISLANE..., yuperrr.. "can you dig it"? You better.
My own mother used to make derogatory (but I always thought jealous) remarks about one of my friend's mothers who worked full time. My friend was an only child. I was one of four children. My mother gave up a bookkeeping job after marriage.
Mine gave up a job as a human computer when she got married. Didn't go back to work until the end of my freshman year in college. My two younger sisters were 16 and 14 then. When she returned to work, she learned scientific programming on the job, and did well at it until forced to retire at age 75.
Christina, My mother worked at the telephone company before she was married...yes, one of those ladies plugging in all those wires. She never worked after that and most women in our neighborhood did not work, so they did have time to have coffee or tea and chat. My mother was expected to have a meal ready at 12:15 and 5:15 when my dad arrived home from work. She was also obsessed with having a clean house.
Vivid Gary; And truth I have no doubts. I can relate, regardless all that being the 'apple pie, god, love, and country' narrative maga leadership falsely profess. Yet despite evidence to the contrary there's that percentage that has taken it hook, line and sinker. Maddening is it not ?
Consider state schools. Penn State eliminated about 7 campuses. The whole system is under water. Republican state legislators don't want to fund any public education.
"Legislatures Require Colleges to Cut Degrees in Low Demand
Republicans in multiple states passed laws this year pushing institutions to ax academic programs that graduate few students—and requiring them to appeal to state leaders if they want exemptions. Faculty lament the trend.
By Ryan Quinn" “Campuses are forced to respond to legislative mandates that have arisen from a narrow understanding of what higher education is,” said Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association. Students who pursue public higher education will be “getting a reduced version of what a degree should be,” she said.."
Indiana Public Universities to ‘Voluntarily’ End 19% of Degrees
Ahead of a new law setting a minimum number of graduates for academic programs, institutions have vowed to cut or merge more than 400 undergraduate and graduatedegrees.
West Virginia University (WVU) eliminated numerous academic programs in 2023 and 2024 due to budget shortfalls, including degrees in world languages, mathematics, and public administration, affecting hundreds of students and leading to faculty layoffs. More recently, in early 2025, Governor Morrisey's executive order banning state funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives prompted West Virginia State University to review its programs, although WVU was already closing its DEI division.
WVU Program Cuts (2023-2024)
In late 2023, WVU's Board of Governors approved cuts to academic programs and faculty to address a $45 million budget shortfall, a plan informed by a cost-cutting consulting group.
What was cut:
Nearly three dozen academic programs were eliminated.
Specific examples include degrees in world languages, mathematics, public administration, and art history.
Some programs were merged, such as those in theater production.
All world languages were eliminated.
Some graduate programs like biomedical sciences and coaching were terminated in late 2024.
Reasons for cuts:
A significant budget shortfall, partly due to decreased state appropriations and tuition dollars.
Declining student interest in certain programs.
Impact:
Over 400 undergraduate and graduate students were affected.
169 faculty positions were eliminated.
Other State Actions
Governor's Executive Order:
In early 2025, Governor Patrick Morrisey issued an order that prohibits state institutions from using state funds for DEI staff, procedures, or programs.
Impact of the Order:
This led West Virginia State University to review its programs and consider potential cuts.
Key Takeaways
The program cuts at WVU were significant, impacting numerous programs and faculty.
The cuts were driven by financial challenges, with a $45 million budget shortfall being a primary factor.
A recent executive order from the governor targeting DEI initiatives is now also influencing some state institutions' program reviews.
West Virginia University looks to cut nearly 3 dozen academic programs, including all world languages | Higher Ed Dive
Aug 11, 2023
Higher Ed Dive
Flagship public universities likely to cut more humanities, staff
Dec 15, 2023 — – Lisa Di Bartolomeo, West Virginia University Spokesperson Alecia Lipton said the proposed reductions are in response...
Louisiana Illuminator
WVU budget cuts: Which programs and faculty were cut
This should be a top tier post! It’s so important! The magats hate education and educated peeps, since as we know, educated people tend to be liberal. Thanks for posting.
Daniel, what is happening is 'built to fail'.., and it will. We Americans have had it pretty good because we made it pretty good. We're not about to settle for driving Lada Grande's. And the Goon-Squad recruits lathered with tattoo's, limited reading skills, zero personal skills, an F-word augmented vocabulary, are in for some surprises as they get thrown under the bus one by one two by two. This administration, if you want to call it that, is pathetic.
Thank God I graduated from college in 1966, before any of this crap started. I was at the University of California, and except for when Reagan was governor, the state wouldn't stand for such antics.
I recall as a teen in 1960's Ohio that California seemed to be leading the nation with innovative education. Then Reagan and the anti-tax revolt happened. Who really gained and who suffered due to that?
I went to a dedicated "Liberal Arts" school, and I cherish the foundation it provided for me. It didn't just top up our memory banks, it was literally "consciousness expanding", both in the sense of day to day understanding and skills. It was based on the Robert M. Hutchins "Great Books" program, where we read (decidedly Western) "original sources" from ancient Greeks to modern, even some popular theories that historically did not pan out. It was sort of a tour of the evolution of Western modern understandings. That tool is useful in nearly any set of circumstances. There was, however, a big fight with the board of trustees who wanted to install a more conventional program. The best of professors were summarily fired or resigned in sympathy, and a few years later the school closed, though the program exists in some form as an option in a larger university. I was lucky to complete my degree when I did.
Pretty sure you already know this, the American Legislative Exchange Council, but others wandering here may not.
It, along with the Heritage Foundation, are the two biggest far-right workhorses ensuing from the Powell memo (of Aug. 23, 1971).
ALEC and Heritage are both enormously well-funded, with ALEC having the job of lobbying state legislatures -- originally to kill humanities in schools, then to kill state funding, and since, as you chronicle, to kill programs and departments.
Diabolical, but very-well orchestrated and coordinated. $$$-greased.
Not that you do, but let’s not forget or brush aside people with disabilities. Or more aptly put, people who are excluded because of societal infrastructure that’s designed for the majority.
Human behavior is extremely complex and we can easily go down the either or road and the end result is to isolate. No such thing as being semi-pregnant but there can be argument on whether a person is racist or not. And I emphasize “can” in this instance. Since we practice identification politics to the max and it’s either one side or the other, this mentality has done much to get us to the place we are at.
I moved to Syracuse NY in 1972. Things were still really heated up racially, at least in the North. So, there I was a 21-year-old Kentucky girl never having even gone to school with a black person. I was raised non-racist. One day I was pumping gas for my 1968 VW bug. A group of black guys showed up at the pumps. They called me every bad name for a white woman and then some. I was hurt and shocked that they would do this. I remember thinking "You don't know me. Why are you just looking at my skin?"
At that very moment I got it. All through every cell of my body I got it. Since then, of course, as a woman I have gotten what it means to struggle in a white man's world. Now add in being an old woman in America and I am really cooked.
State's Rights may have been a principle for Jefferson but since then it's just been used as a strategy for one thing or another. Strom Thurmond ran for President in 1948 on the States' Rights Party, but by State's Rights he meant Jim Crow. Trump is for State's Rights on Abortion and I am now for States' Rights on policing and cooperation with ICE or not. It remains to be seen whether we are moving toward dissolution of the Union.
And, may all the gerrymandering done by TX and on the docket for other red states backfire and be a total disaster as those who they thought would vote republican vote democratic.
In order for that to happen, every horror story of trump's disastrous occupation of the WH must remain visible with massive protests and inundating every member of congress and the media with the message that WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!! (ala the 1976 movie, Network but it's not for ratings, it's for survival of democracy).
“I just need you to find me 147 more seats in Congress, Brad - and 15 more Senators! And 11 State Legislatures! C'mon, Brad, not gonna look good for you if I can’t get these seats, Brad!”
I've been watching a 2025 Netflix limited series "Hostage". Haven't finished the last couple of episodes, but there is a lesson of not giving up. If one gives into terrorism, it very simply never stops! We have a constitution that is/was supposed to be the guiding document of a people oriented (albeit imperfect) democracy. Once that is violated and there are no repercussions, then in fact we do sink into chaos with an authoritarian despot at the helm. The game is different today as nuclear weapons will undoubtedly be used as tools to garner submission.
In the meantime, I, as well as dozens of others, am capturing a few stories for my experience regarding the 2000 arrival of "The Lost Boys of Sudan" and the impact this special group of 3,800 former refugees (300 in Eastern MA) had on me over the past 2.5 decades. The hope, the good and difficult times, the entire journey we had and continue to have (now with the addition of the next generation) would never occur under the trump occupation. In fact, he specifically has targeted the S. Sudanese! I count my blessings each and every day that I know these families who have become my family. And I will always defend and support their rights and their well-being.
School officially starts tomorrow so I won’t be staying up late and trying to be one of the first handful of comments to get views on the sheet. Part of me is grieving not being able to be active like I have been during the summer. I’ll just have to accept and be ok with a new normal during the school year ❤️🩹
This is not conservatism it's fascism...the felon child rapist hates everything good this country once stood for and hates the American people, even the magats...he wants blood in the streets and if he's not stopped he will have it!
Yet it is easier to defining how we got here by identifying "it's" roots in history. And it is Movement Conservatism. This is not a European societal virus. It grew up in America through hate of taxes, regulations Blacks, women and social welfare programs. And now, of course their ranks are advancing when led by a felon child rapist.
Damn it all! Why can't people understand demented fearless leader is no more than a Jack-in-the-Box?!? If someone winds him up enough, at a certain point, he will jump up and scare you. The real issue is, who is winding him up?
There are lots of people winding him up. All the project 2025 authors Steve Miller all the tech fascist boys like mask, Peter Thiel dudes over Google. Of course there’s Putin and Mitch McConnell and all those piece of shit senators and Congress people and of course it’s sedition is six on the Supreme Court. And you know what there are people we don’t even know their names but they’re rich and they’re powerful and they hate democracy.
Tell that to the 10 countries where he’s been involved in peace deals with three of them including 70,000 Buddhist monks from him Cambodia nominating him for a Nobel
I live in a purple state (NC), and all 3 of my Congressional Reps are Republican. I still call and give my opinion. Short and sweet. We must let them know we are not asleep. That said, I quit calling for a while. First task, take care of ourselves.
Thanks to Megan, I also called Angus King this week, to thank him for standing up. Anyone who stands up needs and deserves our support.
I love what Anne said about sending support to those not in your own state. And while it’s disheartening and emotionally draining, keep reaching out to those red reps.
I don’t think we’ll see many big waves (like a major MAGA Congress member changing their opinions), however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently. I think we can cause ripples to push news organizations to be more honest and maybe even a bit accusatory about what’s happening. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
I choose an issue each week and write a short email in defense of our democracy. This is sent to senators across the country. Sometimes, i focus on committee members.
Yes, thank you. This is so sad in without doubt my last years for I’m 93. Oh I hope the country is safe from maga and on the right track of caring for its people before I’m 100.
It turns out I have to turn off my ad blocker to get the link. I finally figured it out when coming to reply and seeing that "bit.ly" did not appear in your answer. I appreciate knowing how to get the link.
Am I opinion you should all stop posting here walk out of your house walk into the street and try reality. Do you know the real America where progress is being made every day
Your encouragement always makes me smile! Also fun timing, not many people call me Meg (I like it, just not many do), but my dad always did. He’s been gone almost 4 years now, but his birthday was 2 days ago, so when I read your “Go Meg go” it’s 100% exactly what he would say 💙💙
Great question! You can just copy the link you have on your webpage and share it anywhere. You can also share the bit.ly/Goodtrouble link, or this longer one -
Let’s embrace Heather’s view of democracy where, really, all are equal.
In this world, schools are strongest teaching skills to respect all others – all, so we can be open to new things, places, rising above all labeling, stereotyping.
Not only open, but generously explorative, growing literacy for more analogy, more far-reaching comparisons, enjoying serendipity, being patient with contradictions, able to house complications in wider, more apt contexts.
Life can be good in a world of equality. We can be proud of diversity. We can include wider reference points in novels, memoirs, histories, essay collections, biographies, and books celebrating travel, film, and music.
Control, having others control us – like the police state Donald covets, like the world of the rich and powerful preying on underage children, as Donald’s closest friends did for years – has its roots in schools of control, such Diane Ravitch chronicles in “The Language Police.”
Phil, great ideas and vision for democracy and our educational system!
However it’s hard to ignore the fact that the person now occupying the Oval Office is a mob boss.
As Heather states:
“It is wild to see Republicans cheering on a president who publicly threatened a CEO and stated openly that he shook the man down for a major share in his company.”
¿What about @timothySnyder's idea of a shadow government so Americans can see how reasonable policies can be made through conciliatory deliberations among diverse factions?
Hear, hear. To show agreement with the speaker. And I'm all for putting this regime in the dustbin of history. We have a lot of trials to face in our efforts to regain freedom, and in the courts, to put all these mother******s away.
D4N, technically -- per the gospel according to GOOGLE -- the term is "Here, here." I willfully make the mistake of saying "Hear, here!" In that mis-quote, I intend to say: "Listen to what this (wo)man has to say, right here, right now."
Get speeches -- three, four minutes tops, each -- on all the fields for which cabinet posts stand. Showcase the great variety of Dem voices.
Then vote, ranked voting, for best candidate for each cabinet slot. Dems could run for two, three, or four cabinet shadow appointments, so if someone really beats the other Dems for one particular slot, those other Dems may have better luck for other cabinet positions.
In actuality, Phil, what I would die to see is that good conservatives (e.g., Senators Flake and Romney as well as Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger) participate so people can see how compromises work for democracies.
I'd like to see outreach to Republicans include Dems funding decent candidates in all red districts -- and brining in the heavy artillery from the better-known Dems to support blue Davids facing red Goliaths.
Dems should do this as a conscious restorative, so Dems everywhere get closer to America's working classes. Cite some of the great novels, songs, and films connecting to what are local issues in red districts today.
And yes, Ned -- invite many Republican moderates to Dem mock convention for a shadow cabinet. Reach out. Respect those whom Dem elites have ignored for too long.
Well, with Dr Snyder's idea of a shadow government, like that in the U.K., the Democrats and decent Republicans can present a living, breathing political platform responsive in almost real-time to public discourse.
But, first, the Democratic Party needs to boost its young politicoes, including David Hogg, to slot them into leadership now lest the once-again big blue wave turns out to be a baby blue ripple.
What the shadow cabinet can do, as you aptly suggest with your great idea, Phil, is start mainstreaming traditional (i.e., cooperative) conservatives. If the Democratic Party is bold enough to do that, we may see a new polity that recalls that best of mid-century politics.
Phil, I love that idea of a shadow convention to create this cabinate; let in decent G.O.P. thrown-aways like Reps Kinzinger and Cheney (even Lawler), Mrs McCain, Senators Romney and Flake. There would be live debate. The most important task ahead is to get the message out to red-country that we in blue states of mind--can include R.I.N.O.es--understand their hurt and anger. That while they have been left behind, policies did that, not the republican experiement we seek to keep.
Trump ran a shadow government (ok not so much in the shadows) all through Biden's term. He hosted foreign strongmen, controlled state registration, and clearly told the Congress what to do.
Powerful point, there, Kay. Thank you. What I would like to see is a shadow cabinet with explicit, parallel lanes of intellectual authority as the real cabinet so people can see an institutional response, if apparent only, to these policies.
Let Them Hate as Long as They Fear by Paul Krugman NYTimes 3/7/2003
Why does our president condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials? Has 'oderint dum metuant' really become our motto?" So reads the resignation letter of John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat who recently left the Foreign Service in protest against Bush administration policy.
"Oderint dum metuant" translates, roughly, as "let them hate as long as they fear." It was a favorite saying of the emperor Caligula,
"Let them hate as long as they fear." Obviously, the entire Republican Congressional delegation is in fear of DJT and now he has an Army of brown shirts thanks to Trump's OBBBA.
I hate those that try to rule by fear. I have no respect for those that illegitimately installed the corrupt Judges and who have kept Gerrymandering the curse of a legitimate democracy. I will do my best to show no fear (for me, but due fear for others), and no respect for any of their strident supporters.
Oh now they’re corrupt judges. Oh my LMFAO. They weren’t corrupt judges when they struck down this administrations policies. …. In a small district and try to make them National. Now this is perfect now that they’ve ruled against you now all the sudden they’re corrupt. Omg. You folks are pathetic
Our educational system turned to shit from the The day, the department of education was founded… and ever since then our public education system has gotten worse from being first of the world upon its founding to 19th in the world 30 years later to 40th in the world today. If you call that progress, we don’t want any. go sell it elsewhere
I read "Our educational system turned to shit from the The day, the department of education was founded" and then stopped, as you do to Heather's writing. No need to go further. Of course, you must know that only the states have any control of curriculums in schools (Oh I forgot that laws mean nothing to you MAGATs). The real destruction of education in the country is done by education rules in shithole red states (your idol's terminology), where I suppose you live.
Lmao. Deluions again phil? A human American combatant! Every state suffered a decline in education. Mostly in blue “let’s inculcate them” with meaningless wokeisms. 40TH in the world now. But school choice is resurrecting education. Yeah baby
You actually believe that? Try getting school choice funded nationally?
Try having a 50-50 faculty staff instead of a 95 five faculty staff.
You are so lost. Why have we gone from 1st to 40th in education in the world? Kids all over the country. Don’t know how to add. Subtract multiply divide write read speak. In fact, go ask some questions of your student, what’s the preamble to the constitution? Who did we fight in the revolutionary war? How many senators do we have in this country how many congressmen? Even as recent, as who did we fight in the second world war? And the best one I’ve tested myself what year was 911. I’ve asked 100 high school graduates and not one of them could give me the year. Do you know why because history is no longer being taught in school?
You people are supposed to be the informed, not the uninformed !!
Have you seen the actual statistics of the US decline in educational quality? Do you realize that 95% of instructors and professors are Democrats? If you would like to do five facts, do so at your own peril
Yeah, well guess what in this case bullshit is real so you need to read it because it’s total common sense which is what your people like to try to destroy. Like men participating in women’s sports. Bro, you don’t like to read that either? You people are supposed to be the empty informed that the uninformed
If you're going to make assertions as objective fact, it's a good idea to cite articles and reputable sources. We all know that schools are funded by a state's/county's tax base. I live in a high tax county; our schools are always found to be excellent; we offer bilingual programs in French, Spanish and Chinese; International Baccalaureate programs; gifted and talented classes; and an excellent English As A Second Language instruction. I know - I taught in this system. And teachers are paid handsomely while delivering a quality education. Students have always been subject to experimentation or culture wars. Republicans have assailed public schools by supporting vouchers, which divert money from public education to subsidize tuition at private and religious schools. An article in The Hechinger Report, a nonpartisan journal, declared vouchers a failure. Eventually schools and VOTERS in Utah, Florida and Arizona rejected vouchers. Then you add the racist origins of school choice and the denial of Black students to attend well funded schools, which certainly impacted their educational success. There is also the distrust fueled by right wing groups with wild accusations about teachers grooming their students to be gay or Marxist. Who can teach or learn in that environment? Schools are only as good and students are only as successful as the communities, states and country value universal education and provide well-supplied libraries and a curriculum that includes arts and science, physical education, etc. (some of these programs have had to be eliminated due to lack of funding.) We should give the same to all children. (Could we add social media preoccupation, poor diet and lack of exercise, more interest with fun and less with the hard work of study?) A consumer/celebrity culture, which we embrace, can be quite distracting.
Let me add that an entire high school is devoted to industrial and other trades in my county; we recognize that not everyone needs to go to college, but we make sure our students are prepared for future employment......
Looks like you got nothin'. You addressed not a single argument, fact or point I made. How come??? You're like a kitten hissing at everyone who passes by.
You still didn't provide me with any sources, statistics, studies, etc. I did, plus the historical record is available if you are willing to spend the time reading and learning rather than hurling rude comments. You never addressed any of the points I made. Debate is acceptable and welcomed because it should encourage critical thinking skills, evaluating evidence with clear articulation. You have not. You merely provided your opinion. (And RFK can't force anyone to follow better dietary and lifestyle choices.) It matters what you believe; any changes are possible in the presence of sufficient knowledge. And you are not providing sufficient knowledge, only your anger. I know you wish to be respected and listened to. And I appear to be the only one who engages with you. (Please provide a source when you say that govt didn't want to take Ed from public schools.....). Because when the facts change my position should change..... Use your aggression in constructive ways.
Idiots like Trump and you are conned into believing that school curricula are set by the department when it's actually the individual states who are responsible. They are the ones who are responsible for turning out a generation of morons like you and Trump and the whole MAGA horde.
Some allow municipalities much more flexibility in curricula.
But, too, all face onslaught of far-right, coordinated, grossly-well-funded ALEC lobbying. That's the American Legislative Exchange Council, set up following the Powell memo (issued Aug. 23, 1971).
Please, Russell, note, too, the possibility that Rick Sender may not at all be an individual, but several, all with Russian names, all paid for by Putin, all working as a team with one moniker, all using AI English.
I wonder what justice Powell would have thought about Trump, a president who thinks nothing of acquiring a government stake in a private corporation; a president who tries to bully private companies into complying with government policy. I wonder what he would think of Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, as the person nominated to reform the US education system. Not much I suspect.
As for poor Rick, I don't know, you may be right. But if this is typical of Russian interference in US politics then I don't think you anything to fear. The views he expresses here are archetypical MAGA opinions, the kind one sees in those humorous YouTube videos.
In Florida, there are more and more Charter schools. A state decision to allow this. With a Dept of Education, there can be established academic norms for teaching and the Constitution's separation of Church and State can be respected. We are now seeing the effects of the dismantling of a strong Dept of Education. All countries with high academic results have strong, centralized Depts of Education.
Still waiting for your answer Steve I gave you my response to your ridiculous statement. I’m not using my words I’m using the public’s words, and I’m using the publics telling you the story with their wallet and their checkbook.
Answer what ? what I had for lunch. . Do you have anything important to relevant to ask me the bears upon the the majority of Americans in this country? I'll wait.
The history of the USA and its rise as an economic and especially as a technological power is a VERY clear story of the power of diversity and immigration.
So many immigrants, non-heteronormative, and otherwise outside of the mainstream folks have added to the unparalleled creativity, inventiveness, and just plain greatness of this country.
Destroying that openness to new ideas will destroy what has made this country great.
When was the last time you heard of a game-changing idea or technology from Hungary (Cheetolini’s wet dream state)?
When I think of innovation, Putin’s wretchedly stupid, corrupt, polonium-filled kleptocracy never comes to mind. I do think, however, about Ukrainians now manufacturing their own accurate drones and long-range missiles. Something about both diversity and urgent necessity, perhaps.
Good one. Assholes are the people that allowed 15 million illegal immigrants into this country unvetted. In the asshole who by mistake disarmed Ukraine in the mid 90s guess who that was. And he was a great president, but he made two big mistakes. Once again, ignore if you’d like, but we would not be in this position is not for Bill Clinton
I practiced law in Silicon Valley for several decades. About one-half of my clients were immigrants. They were all entrepreneurial. They came from everywhere: Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil and more. They started companies, one going to more than $1 billion. This war on immigrants is misguided. We need those people. Look at Japan, Germany and the Scandinavian countries where the population is growing old. They actively "import" younger people as workers. We are no different. We are paying the price for our racism. And along the way we are slipping ever so quickly into fascism. Los Angeles, D.C., Chicago - what's next? San Francisco? Boston? Denver?
Not only a war on immigrants, the ultra-rich, and the repugnant politicians they bought and paid for are waging war on the rest of the country. The white evangelicals, the racists, and the misogynists will be placed in positions of power to brutally enforce the wishes of the ultra-rich, and the remaining population will suffer while the fascists continue to loot the resources and treasure of our nation.
It is good to see HRC start to focus on the evil that is the Republican (fascist) party.
I agree with you 100% - the oligarchs, manipulating the racist Christo-fascists, are in control. I have written to a number of candidates for national office imploring them to strike a different chord. This is one of those letters:
August 22, 2025
Representative Pamela Stevenson
702 Capital Avenue, Annex Room 460
Frankfort, KY 40601
Re: How to defeat Republicans and take back our country
Dear Representative Stevenson:
Thank you for your email info, but you have not laid out your battle plan, your strategy for garnering votes, particularly of those Americans in their 30's, 40's and 50's, whose futures are now on the line.
Your run for the Senate can be a runaway landslide. Why? It is because you have a Unique Selling Proposition that is going to spread like wildfire. What is it? It’s a new NEW DEAL. I’m 85 years old and I prospered as a result, in large part, of the New Deal economy. I’m now retired with money in the bank, I’m debt free. But, your case is different. The case is different for tens/hundreds of millions of Americans now in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s – because the oligarchs have stripped $40 trillion out of the U.S. economy over the past forty-five years, chances are excellent that you and those in those age ranges will not get Social Security or Medicare, or in any amount that matters. This is devastating. We’ve been watching the theft by the oligarchs take place right before our eyes. The Democrats need a new, fierce rallying cry, almost akin to “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The battle cry is for a new New Deal. Out with the oligarchs, they are the enemy. Republicans in Congress are their toadies. Our goal is to save the lives (figuratively) of those Americans now in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Fear of loss is one of the prime motivators to get people to take action. Vote Republican: lose your Social Security and Medicare. Read on. We need a “killer” of a message. You are the perfect person to launch this campaign.
Studies of the matter tell us why the oligarchs have won. They bought newspapers, television networks and radio stations and have used wedge issues (abortion, women's and gay rights advocates, minorities and immigrants) to lure ordinary Americans into voting against their own best economic interests. [Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" 2004 and Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War," 2020. Heather's book is an excellent treatise on the ever-present tension between capital and labor.] There's another study conducted by two Univ. of Kansas professors published in the Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, Critical Sociology, entitled, "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?"] Hate is the key motivator. Trump's voters wanted Trump to crush the immigrants, minorities, the gay and women's rights advocates, and more.
Reagan launched the war on the Middle Class, i.e., against New Deal policies, in 1981. And in the past 45 years, the wealthy have stripped $40 trillion out of the economy and will continue to do that unless we stop them, and we can. How? The argument has long been that the wealthy are entitled to those billions of dollars because they're responsible for creating jobs and wealth, giving little or no credit to the people. In a word, that is BS. There are now 900,000 people in the U.S. with a net worth of $10 million or more and 902 billionaires. If the U.S. population were only 3.4 million people, there would be no billionaires. But, we are a nation of 340 million people and as a result we have one million very wealthy people, i.e., 0.24% of the population. So, why should 1/4 of 1% receive trillions in aid while 99.76% of the population are exploited? And but for the people, they would not, could not, have that much wealth.
So, what to do? What's fair? Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and the person responsible for our having Social Security hit the nail on the head in terms of what government's purpose or function should be: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to facilitate the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life." Sound familiar? It should. Excerpted from Matthew 25: 34-46: 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, , I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ So, what about our "Christian" Republican politicians who voted for Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" that takes food, shelter, health care and more from "the least of these" and hands trillions of dollars to the ultra wealthy? Here it is: 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
I inserted the above into this space because we're in a fight with almost biblical consequences and there are many Christians who voted for Trump and MAGA Republicans. We desperately need to start promoting and advancing a new New Deal right now. A new New Deal – an economy of the people, by the people and for the people. With the ultra-wealthy, the oligarchs, continuing to extract trillions of dollars out of the American economy, there will be nothing left for the people your age. Those Americans now in their 30's, 40's and 50's are most likely not going to get Social Security and Medicare when they retire. This is very, very serious. In the last 20% of one's life, one incurs 80% of one's medical bills. That's definitely true for me (I’m 85.) More than 50% of the personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are the result of medical bills that ordinary Americans can't pay. We need to get this message out to the voters, particularly those in their 30's, 40's and 50's.
What's the battle cry that every single Democrat running to get elected to Congress or the U.S. Senate should shout? “Down with the oligarchs; up with the people.” America for Americans. We need a new New Deal, starting right now. That’s our message and your key to victory.
For the record, I am an atheist through and through. Still, Matthew 25: 34-46 is right on, as is Frances Perkins. I was brought up Presbyterian in Texas, so I did learn some Bible. It's because of Matthew 25: 34-46 that I believe that many of the Republican politicians are not really Christians, on the one hand, or that they are simply ignorant, on the other hand. Their voting for Trump's Big Beautiful Bill will consign them to eternal fire. They took from the needy and gave to the wealthy. That is low life to the nth degree. They are weaklings and cowards. My disgust for them is almost palpable.
True, the letter is rather long, Phil. The bullet-points idea is a good one. I could revise it and send it to those to whom I've already sent this letter. What do you see as the important points? For me, one of the most important is the fact that the billionaires and decamillionaires have that wealth because there is a large enough population to generate that much wealth. This is where Frances Perkins comes in - we're all in this together, let's ensure that everyone's needs are met. The older I get (now 85) the more I gravitate to her theory of government. I was amazingly lucky to have been born when I was and to get the breaks that I got, 12 years of college, grad school and law school for less than $17,000 in tuition. I had no money. I was one of seven children (#5). I'm now retired, debt free, own my home outright, money in the bank. That is in large part because of the NEW DEAL economy, destroyed by the oligarchs.
Stop using the word oligarchs at all. First of all 90% of people have no clue of what you’re referring to and we don’t have any oligarchs here.
If we did, you wouldn’t be able to have a no kings protest, you wouldn’t be able to be printing what you’re printing right here on this thread… idiots.
The Democrats hired thirdway.org to tell them what words not to use, but you continue to use them to no avail
You FORGOT THE WIRD LEGAL IN YOUR DIATRIBE. OOOOPS.
Don’t seem to understand the difference. ?? Through legal checkpoints or viable visas or tps. Nobody on the right has any problem with that you morons just shut up. It’s illegal, unvetted criminals etc. So tell Congress to pop the limit and it’s done. Congress pal….not the White House.
It was true before Bond, James Bond. Who do you really think was behind the Civil War and what were their motives, besides enslaving fellow humans JL ? The whole of history repeats itself today. The moneyed educated class in the south wrote the playbook with nearly the same means and methods; They controlled the local information and gov't offices. Southern 'preachers' spread the gospel of the local moneyed class, lest they lose their largest tithers. They incited the local, far less educated masses, then gave them larger guns, an army and a false "cause."
What HCR has not mentioned and perhaps she has and I missed it is the northern business families. When I hear of someone who is named as a merchant in their write up now I think oh no! It’s the 1776 musical truth to power song from a Southern plantation owner challenging the duplicity of the Nothern colonies. The recent redo of the musical highlighted that and I think the director said she almost fell out if the chair while reading the trianglur trade song.
This was and is still part and parcel of our current problem.
Chris Collin’s of Patriot Millionaires is in his own way trying to change the concept of family trust funds.
So the elite do not and for some families do not live as we do. If one has a housekeeper no grocery shopping sometimes no cooking unless it’s a desire to not a need. Gardening can be design but not the weeding or pruning. There is no need for drivers license because one is driven. There is no need for a library card because one can just purchase.
There is a vast vat of folks from vets to farmers to even healthcare workers to teachers to frontline workers who have for several decades experienced trauma and PSTD from the events of this current century not only post WWII. The divisions were plied apart more by the folks HCR writes about today.
At least now I know what was going on as budget cuts and so much changed in my social service profession. It was almost destroyed. And the healing hadn’t yet happened. Look at the lack of professionals assessing the t president. Only Bandy X Lee MD and some of the very old folks like Judith Herman and Peter Levine, Gabe Mate, and others are behind her. And the voices of healers from diverse cultures also squashed. They are there if you can find them.
I was in East Berlin for a day. That was beyond enough to under stand tyranny. I can only hope for some reset and a true and better vision of our country.
I do so love your thoughts here Mary. Perhaps I'll spend some time another day sharing my thoughts on this share of yours. Please remind me if I fail to.
But what you liberals Don’t understand that history keeps repeating itself…. but humanity doesn’t change an effing thing. Wars wars wars. We never learn.
I think that unless and until we acknowledge that "The history of the USA and its rise as an economic and especially as a technological power is a VERY clear story of the power of diversity and immigration" has as its foundation the theft of Indigenous Lands with the attempted genocide of the Indigenous Peoples and the economy based on Black enslavement we CANNOT legitimately claim that power of "diversity and immigration" (that took a ton of constitutional decisions to establish that are now being wiped out by a SCROTUS that is ready to destroy the system of government) that got us to this point.
It's being Sunday morning, I'm happy to have you read from my sermon notes.
Although I was born in New York, all of my public schooling took place in Western Pennsylvania, in very white small communities. My education in math, science and the humanities was excellent, so I had no idea that my education in U.S. history was extremely whitewashed.
Only through close personal relationships with Black, Latino and indigenous descendants did I learn the true history of the U.S. There is plenty of cause for shame, and I feel that shame every time I think about our past as a nation.
It is easy for me to feel shame because shame is a primary operand in the evangelicalism I was brought up in. It is the default destination of all evangelical teaching. No wonder the evangelical-MAGA cult loathes DEI and "woke!"
But shame is not the point of remembering.
The point of remembering is to inspire and spur us to love and embrace the richness of our diverse heritage – and be better than our past.
Yes! I too grew up in Western PA and got the same kind of education that you did. I too had my eyes opened to the White washed version of American history that we were fed. I also believe the hatred of DEI, or “woke”, or whatever you want to call it, is based on the intolerable surfacing of repressed feelings of guilt and shame about the savage repression of indigenous peoples and POC. You bring clarity to the issue and your prescription at the end is perfect. Well said!
My father's parents got married in western Pennsylvania -- this was 115 years ago. It was in one of the mining camps south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river -- one which welcomed Slovak and Hungarian workers.
They were in their 20s -- she five years older than him. She'd left a village at the base of a castle in a Hungarian river valley all settled by Slovaks. She felts herself, mid-20s, too old to get married, too tall to get married, and too ugly to get married.
The Hungarian guy she met had come from Munkacs, in western Ukraine (also part of Hungary then). He was five years younger than her, six inches shorter, and also ugly.
Had three kids in Cleveland, St. Margaret's parish, where my grandfather, a carpenter, on his own built a two-story house, with front porches on first and second floors all across the front, and kitchen porch in back, leading to full backyard garden (cherries, gooseberries, currants, tomatoes, live chickens). Stayed married, in that home, till both died, two months apart, in 1964.
My father's parents got married in western Pennsylvania -- this was 115 years ago. It was in one of the mining camps south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river -- one which welcomed Slovak and Hungarian workers.
They were in their 20s -- she five years older than him. She'd left a village at the base of a castle in a Hungarian river valley all settled by Slovaks. She felts herself, mid-20s, too old to get married, too tall to get married, and too ugly to get married.
The Hungarian guy she met had come from Munkacs, in western Ukraine (also part of Hungary then). He was five years younger than her, six inches shorter, and also ugly.
Had three kids in Cleveland, St. Margaret's parish, where my grandfather, a carpenter, on his own built a two-story house, with front porches on first and second floors all across the front, and kitchen porch in back, leading to full backyard garden (cherries, gooseberries, currants, tomatoes, live chickens). Stayed married, in that home, till both died, two months apart, in 1964.
Phil, it is a very small world. For a few years, my family lived in Connellsville, a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad town on the Youghiogheny River that originates near the point where West Virginia wraps around the panhandle of Maryland, meanders through Southwestern PA and empties into the Monongahela at McKeesport.
We lived in an enormous Victorian house with push-button light switches on Carnegie Avenue across from the Carnegie Public Library, one of those granite biblio-temples donated to the city by Andrew Carnegie. When school was out for summer, I walked over to the library virtually every morning and read books while seated at tables sized for children. The librarians taught me how to use the Dewey Decimal System to find whatever book I was interested in. At noon, Mom would call and ask the librarian on duty to send me home for lunch. After lunch, I walked back over and read more until the library closed at 5:00.
Mine, Dale, was the Dearborn Public Library, on West Michigan Ave.
A neo-colonial style building -- beautiful. I could check out a dozen books or more. Read them at home in suburban Dearborn. Which also had fine public pools in summer. Skating rinks in winter. And plenty of playgrounds for pick-up baseball.
No one is destroying inventiveness but liberals with useless woke education and art history degrees. Not to mention. How are we providing well balanced education when about 95% of faculty members are Democratic. ? ?
Especially in college. Ooooooops. This is what you TOTALLY IGNORE.
Well, 1st things 1st: ⚖️ hunt down and destroy the latter day Gestapo for I.C.E.'s continued harassment of🤬, without due-process for, Salvadoran immigrant el Sr. Kilmar Abrego García.🤢
What they’ve put this one man through — never seen such abysmal cruelty combined with complete fuckupism in my life.
We must never ignore the human, institutional and financial cost of all this sadism and bullshit. Andry Hernandez details his ordeal in a moving interview with Tim Miller after having been abducted and spirited to CECOT before finally being released in Venezuela.
As a gentle, slight, gay man abandoned to the cruelties of one of the worst places on earth reserved for terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers, Hernandez not only got out alive, but managed to befriend the 128 other Venezuelans he was thrown into prison with. “We came in as strangers, we left as brothers,” he told Miller. Now he’s suing the United States — a country he loves — for the illegality of his capture, loss of human rights and dignity, and torment he endured while there.
As a patriotic American first and foremost, filled with shame and embarrassment at how my once great country could treat this man (and so many others), and as an old gay guy, I am cheering him and his lawyers on.
The government has more resources than Kilmar. Despite a rep of the government admitting in court sending him out of the country was a mistake 47 NEVER loses, and Kilmar is his pawn. He will never, never be safe as long as 47 & co are in power. Now they want to send him even further: Uganda.
Dr Lee specializes in working with violent criminals to re-orient them, if possible, while in prison. Her work is a standard text-book on this subject. Dr Lee has paid a heavy price at the hands of people who, and institutions that, know better in their souls but remain too frightened and / or opportunistic to act on those principles.
True. I am hoping that Governor Moore sets up a security detail to assure this man is not kidnapped prior to his receiving due process. I rather think el Sr Abgrego García will be found entirely innocent and that all this frenetic scheiße is Team Treason trying to avoid looking bad or weak.
I watched the interview you spoke of. After hearing about all of Andry Hernandez' suffering, which infuriated and repulsed me on his behalf, I was struck by the man's gentle humanity AND by his willingness to forgive. I seriously wonder if I would have the strength of character Mr. Hernandez shows.
That interview was hugely emotional, mixed for me with feelings of anger, hope, and respect for that young man. An incredible example of how the positive human spirit, endures and survives. It did give me hope for the future, whether it will be in my own lifetime, I don’t know. Reading Heather‘s excellent review magnifies what needs to be accomplished to get to a better time.
Just listened to Joyce Vance and Allison Gill who covered the legal aspects of Mr. Abrego's "journey." They talked about the government's offer to send him to Costa Rica with refugee status where he and his family could live out their days in relative peace, but he had to "plead guilty to both charges against him" (I forget what those were!). The government also said when they found out he would not accept the deal which included pleading guilty, they would send him to Uganda.
Such a coalition of hatred united against diversity, D4N.
Since most U.S. schools effectively voided themselves of humanities (following concerted lobbying by the far-right foundations set up after the Powell memo), Americans nurtured no awareness of the great novels, films, memoirs, and songs rich in this diversity.
They got instead the packaging, grouping, and categorizing by which testing taught all only impersonally to abstract and stereotype "others." U.S. elites could play these dead soul rationality games and enter the meritocracy fine. U.S. working classes not only got the shaft from its schools, but also for elites who offshored the millions of jobs, then additional betrayal by elite Dems who had zero humanities to see any of the working classes they abandoned.
And now, as you say, D4N: such a coalition of hatred against diversity.
Terry, I agree with D4N. Donald is a walking textbook of psychological disorders including antisocial personality disorder. However, he is also intellectually challenged. As such, he would have just been annoying or a burden on society, had he not been elevated to the White House. There, he is a danger, not because he's cruel, but because he's a tool.
The real dangers in the White House are Stephen Miller and Russell Vought. They, too, are sociopaths, but are not hampered by limited intellect. In fact, with their superior intellects and innate cruelty, they are using Donald to effect cruel actions against the groups they hate first, and eventually, everyone, if Donald remains in place.
I agree that Trump rates at least a chapter in an abnormal psychology textbook. Had he not inherited a huge fortune he would probably have been dismissed as just another annoying A-hole. Of course, without all the money, circumstances might not have allowed him to become so assholian. He seems to be a profoundly lazy thinker who lies about just about everything, and always gets away with it because he's so rich.
Somehow entire segments of society can be egged into a sociopathic-like state. I can recall someone lecturing about family-man Nazi doctors who performed torture experiments on Jewish children. Whole societies become predatory, but generally at the narcissistic behest of a few powerful individuals. "Trump", a chosen family name, trumps up all his charges.
I felt the same, Ned. There are so many podcasts, etc., out there, it's hard to decide which ones to choose Glad you took the time to listen to Joyce and Allison.
I subscribe to Joyce Vance. There is too much material for me to keep up with everyone. I had skipped the vid., but your rec. impelled me to watch. Thank you for doing that, Lynell.
100%, Ned. I think the difficulty, at least for me, is the links/videos that are shared by Heather's readers end up being worth our time, knowing full well there are only so many hours in the day we can afford to spend!
Hi Lynell ! I tried to listen to it live with poor results. My gut feeling is that there were so many watching, that often strained the bandwidth capabilities. I see that sometimes with HCR's live views also, and trying to get a question in through the massive flood of the "chat" feature feels futile. That's both good news and bad news as I see it though; It means more and more are 'tuning in' - a wonderful thing I'm grateful for. It is a sliver of hope that they are getting through, and that's the best of hopes. For myself and hopefully others, I'll have to revisit the session via recordings. Thanks: It is just like you to share the link.
Evening, D4N! I, too, sometimes can't get through when trying to access a link. So frustrating! Thanks for trying. Allison Gill provided her own link if you want to try that.
I do agree with you; the more of us who tune in, the better...though most times I prefer to adopt Ally House's "View from the Back Row" approach - watching without trying to comment!
I can think of several other hunts that should come first my friend to strangle the beast first. And I know where they live. *For one, there's a mansion in Maine that needs burned to the ground owned by the grand master of project 2025 and so much more in this conspiracy. Other creatures live in Maryland suburbs. There are others, but we can get to them in turn. There is no other word for it; Conspiracy and a long term premeditated one at that. There are great financial costs to the nation to consider as well.
Oh, I agree. So, we have to be prepared, should that evil eventuality ensue, to grit our teethe and gut it out by crushing the violent M.A.G.A.s without mercy while extending a warm welcome to the non-violent ones.
Ned..."Let’s embrace Heather’s view of democracy where, really, all are equal."
Let's not, because it just ain't true. When I was working with companies in the old East Block (while Browder was buying up USSR company shares), a Polish writer explained in his writings to his readers that they had better understand the "Democracy does not mean Equality". Adam Przeworski argued extensively that democracy does not automatically produce equality, especially economic equality. He contends that while democracy theoretically gives equal rights and opportunities to citizens, actual outcomes are constrained by preexisting social and economic inequalities. These inequalities often generate political inequality, as those with more resources can exert greater influence, and this dynamic tends to reproduce economic disparities. Those who did not head his words were flattened by the oncoming "Democracy" steamroller and are the root of some of Eastern Europe's continued issues with Democracy. We are also dealing with those inequalities in America at this very moment. Recognizing the root of the myriad in-equalities in the "US social system" may be the route to peace in America. Without first recognizing the divide and fixing it (I think as President Biden tried) there will be no real Democracy in our America.
Of course "democracy does not automatically produce equality," bruce.
Great schools, along with access to health care, clean environment, jobs, and voting rights (goodbye gerrymandering) will, however, produce the imaginations necessary.
Phil, I too want believe in what you say, but look around you my friend. So many inequalities in so many "Democratic states". All of those factors have still not counteracted the greed and avarice inherent in so many of us. Why? Even we were talking about the excesses which House members allowed and gave themselves over those they represented. There's something that smells like dead fish...
Democracy in and of itself can easily result in a tyranny of the majority, thus the US was conceived of as a constitutional democratic republic that attempts to defend individual rights as well as rights of association and the common weal. The founders were wary of mob rule. Lincoln attempted to repair the inherited abridged view of equality in the new nation, conceived in and dedicated to the proposition that all men (sic) are created equal. Equal protection under law has been incorporated into the Constitution, but how well do we defend it?
Or a friggin' control freak. We have 'a way', we all agreed then and now, except for the one's with their fingers crossed behind their backs, who demand 'their way' or no way. I say give them one island in the Carribean and one PT boat for protection.
Unfortunately, a "Plan" is not a "Result" in my world. As good as the plan might be it ceases to be THE plan as soon as the action starts as long as the opposition isn't as f**ing dumb as the DNC.
When we dehumanize schools, we get elites blind to the inequalities you cite. We get elites who think the only way to get into the meritocracy is by following all those deadly conceits built into testing.
And they're deadly conceits because they elevate all the most impersonal of rationality packaging. They stress linearity logic, which is exactly opposite the nuances of opening up more widely, as essaying allows. (And if tests have "essays," they're typically the AI and machine gradable formulaic, only good for producing more zombies.)
Give up the friggin schools testing fixation, Phil. Or take it somewhere else where it’s wanted and more appropriate. Tired of seeing your constant derailment of whatever concrete political discussion is going on into your own fixation — at our expense. Thank you for your attention to this matter….
So many “kneecapped” before they get to the starting line for myriad reasons. Others are carried to the starting line on magic carpets. Some struggle mightily to get there and make it. The starting line is out of reach for many and the ones who make it race on, leaving the ones who couldn’t/didn’t in the dirt. The real race is actually run before many can walk or even know that there is a race.
I saw a great video a few (5-8 years back or so) that had a group of students (I believe it was one of those college intro courses that all freshmen are required to take; there were 50 or so participants). Everyone on the starting line to begin, and then there were 10-15 questions: Take a step forward if.... you are not the first person in your family to go to college. If you went to private school. If your family never needed food stamps or Section 8 housing. If you do not have to work during the school year. If you come from a two-parent household. If you do not have to work during the school year to afford school. If both parents have college degrees. If you own a car. (and some others I've forgotten).
It was astounding; at least 10 had taken no steps, and most of the rest were scattered between 50-90% affirmative. There were 5 that had taken all the steps.
They trundled back to the classroom, and the professor asked what they had learned from the exercise. The first person (one who had taken all the steps) blurted out "Privilege is a thing." Sadly, not everyone agreed.
I was the first person in my family that I know of to have gone to college, but benefited from many forms of privilege nevertheless, most obviously one of race. Privilege arises in part from random circumstances, and sometimes from admirable action, though I think, far less often than claimed. Double-standard privilege is corruption, and this regime starkly embodies it. Privilege is a form of power, and power tends to corrupt. We can't adjust all of the circumstances that burden some more than others, such as inherent ill health, but we can, as reasonably honest and just human beings, at the very least cooperate to increase justice in our human-made societies, and remedies to the natural slings and arrows flesh is heir to.
OMG... How I wish you could find that ! If we 'ever' get back to requiring middle or high school civics, something like that should be required viewing or experiencing, with thoughtful essays required.
For good measure, and 'not' to hold myself out as totally unique and deserving of any special consideration, a 'few' cautionary pages could be added about factual life experiences over 20 years or so regarding how life in general - despite best and honorable efforts, can go very upside down; A fictitious nom de guerre added of course.
And, JD...The cost of knowledge is going to zero as the capabilities of AI increase exponentially. Yet, the value of critical thinking, unique insights, and trusted sources remains significant in a world overflowing with inexpensive data. (Mustafa Suleyman + Helen Lee Bouygues). So where do the smart young people without the money start? Critical thinking and becoming indispensable in areas like:
• Quality and Trustworthiness: Free access does not always guarantee accuracy, bias-free results, or contextualization.
• Depth of Understanding: While surface-level facts are easily accessible, deep expertise, critical insight, and creativity still have value and may not be replaced by AI alone.
• Gatekeeping and Regulation: Intellectual property, paywalls, and privacy concerns continue to shape access to certain types of information.
• Skill and Application: Possession of knowledge is different from its application, strategic thinking, or original creation.
*JL, did you write that with a poker face ? Lol... I think we now know with certainty that one such should never be taken for granted; Ever cognizant and accepting of the fallibility of human kind. Paragons of virtue will always be a reach, perhaps too far for human expectation. That said.... Felons ? Hell no.
This is why it is also important to provide support to adults as well as to children. A parent who is struggling, perhaps working two jobs just to pay rent and put food on the table, has little left in time or energy to help the kids. The school day doesn't correspond to the work day, either. There needs to be more before/after school programs to accommodate this.
Yes, true, Kathy, as to what you say of much-needed programs.
But imagine an America where the rich were not so phenomenally greedy. Where, for their own benefit as human beings, and as citizens, members of communities, fellow inhabitants of environments, the billionaires would eagerly pay taxes befitting their fellowship.
Or are the lessons from mass testing just final and murderous: that there's nothing personal in life? -- that it's all but a neutered game, to get to the "top" (in test points or in income), to take as much as one can get -- and eff everyone below (down in test rankings, down in income level)?
Economic Darwinism ! Which can, and has been overcome many times by social and educational programs. And I have many examples of how this country has benefited !
As far as (the real) Darwin goes, I notice that my teeth and claws are pretty pathetic compared to a big jungle cat, or even my pet dog. Many human traits work to advantage humans though, including what we think, what we make and what we care about. Social Darwinism is BS-pseudoscience that is slanderous to Darwin. And the apologists for human bullying are unlikely to acnowledge synergistic, mutualistic behavioral bonds between unrelated species.
I thing the use of Darwin's name in sociopathic philosophies lends them a false legitimacy. Darwin's focus was on the emergence and persistence of whole species, and part of our success as a species is our capacities for complex cooperation and articulate foresight. We are so capable of imposing our whims on the world that we are clever enough to drive our own species into early extinction, but also clever enough (but are we willing enough?) to choose a wiser course. If not, "nature" will continue to "experiment".
As brilliant as he was / is, he neglected a major element of our law, as has the maga element. It is our credo in law to "pursue a more perfect union." The unspoken part of that is it was recognized as imperfect at the start.
Some people want to believe that perfection is something we lost and must return to. To be sure we can learn from the past, but the good and the bad of it, but time is a one way street and the traffic never stops. We may progress, retreat, go sideways, but never truly return. Now evolves from then.
Isn't time only a one-way street only in testing, where all life collapses to linear logic only?
Doesn't it matter that human beings have memories, too, and that personal debts from the past well call out ever on?
Oughtn't more essay writing imbue more with respect for complexity, ambiguity, contradictions, layerings, and different drums such as Thoreau heard, a room of her own such as Virginia Woolf embraced, apart from the masses all caught in the congestion of freeways?
Obviously, and I consistently agree with you on that, and agree our circumstances and what we learn is extends into the past and informs our present. But Now is always on the move, and with Now comes the opportunity and necessity of choice, since even no choice is a choice; and with it, some measure of responsibility.
My understanding - is that living in a democratic society, a citizen has equal rights and opportunity, ("Equal before the law"), that does NOT mean they are 'equal '- that is patently false, and that seems to be the basis for the big misunderstanding.
That is correct. However, many people don't understand the distinction especially if you have just come out of a dictatorship as experienced by those under USSR communism.
Bruce, to a point, I agree with you. Paul Stookey was wrong. Where two or more people are gathered together, there is ... not love! There is inequality!
Our problems as individuals and as a society are: first, how we define inequality, then, how we address it.
If we define inequality as "some are better than others," and the majority of us do, we are off on the wrong foot. With that definition, we are either fascists who embrace that concept and try to enforce it, or we are (small d) democrats who try to make our society disadvantage the "betters" and advantage the "others." As we have seen over and over, both approaches breed contempt.
If we define inequality as "we are all different one from the other," the goal of a society should then become "how can we accommodate all the differences among us, ensuring that each of us succeeds in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness?"
The operand for that is not love, but respect.
If there's a name for that kind of society, I don't know what it is. I always fall back on original indigenous American culture as a model.
What is "love"? One way we often use the word is as in "I love chocolate" or "I love murder mysteries". That just means I like it. Liking can accompany loving, but not necessarily. Not in the (literal) Christian sense, not in the Buddhist sense, and not even in a psychological sense. Core to the more expansive sort of love is R*E*S*P*E*C*T, and and a sense of non-partisan compassion. It is respect for the rights of any human being as a human being, irrespective of their behavior; and certainly there are many behaviors a flat out unacceptable. As an abiding if frequently misplaced ideal of American Justice, even convicted criminals are presumed to have certain rights. I think that successful marriage thrives on mutual respect and understanding, not just so long as it is fun. The latter criterion can be just plain narcissistic, any might explain our very high divorce rates; although all of us are capable of poor choices, and a mismatched marriage deserves other options, such as repair or dissolution. It's a matter of respecting other's reasonable boundaries. The other's right to make >responsible< choices to pursue happiness.
And we should respect many things in life that are not human; dogs and cats, birds and bees; the integrity of rare landscapes. We should not trash a planet that belongs at least as much to posterity as it does to us, in our hour upon the stage. Malignant narcissism is our species own worst enemy.
As for equity, I don't know how we could ever deliver it perfectly given the vicissitudes of nature, but we can aim for do so a whole lot better than we do. Universal health care, accommodations for the disabled, equal opportunity at least comparable with the most equal of wealthy societies. What kind of society to we really want? For all of their flaws, the founders had to think pretty deeply about that one. The question is still open.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
- Lincoln
"I don't tell you what to say
I don't tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That's all I ask of you"
- John Madara, David White, performed by Lesley Gore
That conclusion deserves some critical thought. The problem example is the Comanche Empire. They treated each man according to rank in the war parties, they treated women as chattel still part of the war party, they had slaves, and they reveled in the superiority their horse culture gave them in battle against Plainsmen and woodsmen. I'm not so sure .....maybe your view of the first Nations is somewhat idealized. Maybe Inuit were closer to what you are saying, with their division of labor and constant fight against the elements. Now it gets a bit long. Here's what I found about Inuit culture in more detail in my sources:
Anthropological and ethnographic research shows that traditional Inuit societies are characterized by a strong egalitarian ethos, notably in their decision-making processes, social norms, and resource distribution.
Key Findings from Anthropological Studies
• Egalitarian Social Structure: Many Inuit groups, like the Copper Inuit, traditionally had no formal leadership but instead relied on elders and consensus decision-making. Social organization was family, kin, and band-oriented, focusing on cooperation and harmonious relationships. Their bands operated democratically, with collective well-being and resource sharing as core principles.
• Consensus Based Decision-Making: Important matters were decided via consensus, and everyone’s input—regardless of age or gender—was valued, ensuring that no single person dominated decision-making.
• Resource Sharing and Reciprocity: Survival in harsh Arctic conditions depended on the sharing of food, tools, and other essentials. Traits like fairness, humility, and cooperation form fundamental parts of Inuit social norms, and there is a strong ethic of reciprocity: those with abundance shared with those in need.
• Gender and Division of Labor: While traditional roles often divided tasks by gender (men hunting, women managing households), there was flexibility, and women could hunt or men could take on domestic tasks as needed. The naming system and language lack gendered distinctions.
• Social Norms and Values: Humility, collective responsibility, and equality permeate Inuit society, helping to prevent the concentration of power or wealth and maintaining social harmony.
What Is Their Egalitarianism Based On?
Egalitarianism was heavily shaped by environmental necessity—harsh Arctic conditions made cooperation, sharing, and collective decision-making essential for survival. The lack of economic incentives to accumulate wealth, along with social values that discouraged domination or hierarchy, helped maintain equality. Family, kinship ties, and reciprocal relationships were social mechanisms strengthening this ethos.
In summary, Inuit egalitarianism has not only been studied but found to be deeply embedded in both cultural values and practical survival strategies, with environmental and social factors converging to reinforce equity, sharing, and collective well-being
So, we need to be put into a harsh environment. Maybe Mother Nature is doing that now as she reacts to our abuse. There's hope!?
Admittedly, Bruce, my experience and relationships are with members of the Choctaw and Quapaw nations, classified by whites as "civilized" tribes.
The so-called "wild" tribes may have had their disagreeable internal social structures, but their cultures were governed by harsher climate conditions, necessitating a different approach to survival. Still, they maintained respect for the natural environment in which they lived.
We don't really live in democracy we live in capitalism. The root of everything is money...and white privilege. Also a fair amount of it's not what you know it's who you know, which is connected to the good old boy network that's all about rich white guys taking care of each other and exploiting women and people of color...
And yet, I have seen societies of which private enterprise is very much part of the picture, but is kept more civil by legal boundaries. Where, whether of not the people really come first, the clearly receive more attention; and where inequality is not so extreme as in the USA, or does not seem to be. For decades I have repeatedly heard the MSM report that some initiative is materially needed and/or is widely favored by the public but cannot get past this or that "powerful lobby". Isn't that corruption they are talking about? A blatant betrayal of government of, by and for the people? How can that be? How do we change it? Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us always, shame on us.
You have described the underlying philosophical driver of John Rawls's 'Theory of Justice' to a 'j'. That is NOT to say you are mimicking Dr Rawls but that capture the spirit of message succinctly (unlike the good Dr Rawls himself).
Phil, while a child spends much of their life in school and therefore is highly impacted by what goes on there, you cannot discount the role of parents and family. If home life revolves around watching funny cat videos, Duck Dynasty and Family Guy (I don't watch a lot of TV so don't really know what's out there), if the news is rarely, if ever, discussed and books are not read, the child's exposure to ideas and the thought process are limited. If home life consists of interactive discussions, watching educational documentaries, and a value placed on reading, travel, and education, the child will learn to think beyond the tests. There are exceptions, of course, but home life, especially in the early years, has a tremendous influence. It's not JUST school structure and tests (although I agree the way schools teach these days is baffling).
The roots of this lay much further in American History. With every move forward, the labor movement, Reconstruction, etc.. There has been an attempt to push back against it. The fascist base of this nation, from the Klan of old to the Magas and Proud Boys of today will never allow real equality. That's why you cannot compromise with fascism, you must destroy it.
For decades since the war, America's openess and diversity has been one of its superpowers. Some 50% of its PhD's are earned by overseas students in some of the world's finest universities. many of them stay in the States and make a signifcant contribution.
You now have an education secretary who calls artificial intelligence 'A1', as though it were some kind of grading system and has vowed to dismantle the Department of Education in the mistaken belief that it controls schools' curricula.
Can one be so sure what was in her mind? My guess was that she had seen references to AI in official papers crossing her desk and thought that it said 'A1'. I really don't how a steak sauce could be a part of education reform but with this administration one cannot rule it out.
Phil, I really appreciate how you frame democracy as something lived and learned through openness, patience, and respect. What struck me most is your reminder that schools can either nurture curiosity and equality or reinforce control and fear. That tension feels central to our future. When we choose to cultivate imagination, empathy, and the ability to hold complexity, we’re building the habits of a freer society. It’s a hopeful vision, and one that resonates deeply with me.
Phil, speaking of education, my son is a Geology Professor at a university in Pennsylvania. He said the faculty received a message this week, stating that everyone would have to turn in their 2025 spring semester syllabus. We can all, here, guess why. My son said he was going to refuse, but then their union got involved and said mo way was that happening. Project 2025 is now attacking smaller schools and institutions which they think cant or won't fight back.
An early off-shoot of the Powell memo, the American Legislative Exchange Council lobbies all 50 state legislatures -- more, and more effectively in red and purple states.
It has masses of money from the Dark Money people in the Jane Mayer book by that name. It is wondrously staffed by teams of the best and the brightest test takers who, by those test points, got high up in the U.S.'s machine-humming, impersonal meritocracy.
Putin has oodles of money to maintain teams of techies there in Moscow, all using English AI, all posting (often several at the same time) under the same moniker.
You should be worried. we don’t succeed nor do we win by diversity….we succeed and win and invent by merit. WITHOUT REGARD from where the merit comes from. As diverse as it gets. MERIT is the reason America wins
This country is winning every single day. It’s just you’re not in control so you don’t like the winning. The border is closed.. crime is down, especially in DC The stock market is his all-time record high so all of your people all of you hypocrites for making tons of money
And as soon as Slow poke Powell lowers the rates, this country’s gonna soar. America has been restored in the world and we are now at the Center of the world attention and alliance with few exceptions Donald Trump has been involved with five major peace deals and has been nominated to Nobel Peace Prize by 70,000 Buddhist monks from Cambodia and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbijan and Israel.
Oh, and the renegade, moron maniac no longer has weapons of mass destruction of the world is thankful for that. WINNING.
The Right rejects full democracy. That's a mainstream idea in their circles now. They admire the likes of Curtis Yarvin, an explicitly anti-democratic thinker. Trump tried to overthrow the country when he lost an election. Eisenhower was many things, including a blood-soaked imperialist, but at least he acknowledged domestic elections.
You are responding to a 3-year-old here but for one reason only — to get you to pay attention to his incoherent, whiny ramblings and fart up the elevator for everybody else. Please consider denying him that pleasure. Many of us have learned the hard way. Don’t take dumb bait. He just farts even more.
Another delusionary fellow, that apparently believes that a couple hundred unarm citizens could overthrow the government of United States.
Wait till you see all the video and of course you have actually haven’t seen the video of Nancy Pelosi taking responsibility for it on a video talking to her daughter has to. Yes, I should’ve sent the capital police but I didn’t.
What you’re seeing right now is democracy at its purest. The only difference is you’re not in control. That’s where the hate and frustration begin.
But you shouldn’t worry Trump will only be in the office another 3 1/2 years. However, he could hand it over to Vance unabated in his third year or so and advance. Does a good job or if Trump had done a good job eight more years for republican in the White House.
You’re also one of the ones that should pay attention to a hired consulting firm by the Democrats called thirdway.org. Which suggest you stop using certain words that you currently are using. Not to worry though countries in great hands, everything’s running exactly how it should be only even a little bit better in a little bit quicker.
And almost everything would be fine if Biden had not open the borders, especially on purpose to get people to non citizens to vote which was his predicated reason in the first place. Don’t question me there’s proof. Oooops
Is it democrats who deny people the right to choose the car they want to drive or the right to carry a gun or the right to send your children to the school of their choice or to decide whether they want to smoke or not provide it it’s not marijuana or to decide what healthcare to have? And you think it’s the Republicans? yikes wake up pal.
Eisenhower was only blood-soaked insofar as he helped us win WWII. He supported NATO, which is a defensive, not an imperialist, organization. There are many reasons to admire the Founders, but they would be surprised at the growth and the reach of the federal govt in programs and culture. The progressivism of the Dems is a main reason they lost in 2024. Lots of Republican voters support democracy, they just don't like the policies and projects of the Dems. States rights and the tenth amendment have a strong place in our system. Trump is wrong to think the federal govt can or should try to eliminate mail-in voting; the conduct of elections is for the states to determine.
The ovens are soon to be 100 years old so stop trying to bring them back from the past and relate them to anything that’s happening today dear Daniel. Try thirdway.org. A consultant firm hired by the Democrats to help them to find a better vocabulary. Fascism and Nazism or two words they suggest you never use. These guys were hired by you. Check out some of the other words you’ll get a kick out of them. Chest feeder. Birthing person
Latinx which you were going to hear about for the next three years when it comes to Newsom… See what other choice words were there… but here’s their overall view
For a party that spends billions of dollars trying to find the perfect language to connect to voters, Democrats and their allies use an awful lot of words and phrases no ordinary person would ever dream of saying. The intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace. The effect of this language is to sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness. To please the few, we have alienated the many—especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant. A indicted murderer is now cold and incarcerated person. And of course, one of the favorite couple of words are ….the unhoused. Oligarchy. These are words from the Democratic party consultant said stop using. Do you don’t come for me? Check it out yourself thirdway.org
Again, it shows that you are not capable of debating in the Arena of Ideas. You can only name call and censor. What are your alternative policies to Trumps? I am waiting, please advise.
Again, projection Russ. Many of them in the leadership of that coalition are crooked and self serving. Since they are so, they're so shallow as to believe everyone else is too; And being the control freak types, they have a plan that's better (for them), and it's their way or no way.
Daniel responses so blind it’s sad So who are they serving when they allowed 11 million OR MORE illegals in and try to get them to vote ? And there’s proof of that
There’s nothing more self-serving than violating the most precious tenet of our democracy. There’s your Democrats right there.
So is that like you can’t choose what kind of car you drive you have to drive an electric car… thank God, at least the Congress in California stop Newsome from that authoritarian move. you can’t choose where you go to school you have to go to public school… you can’t choose to carry a gun… can’t choose to smoke unless it’s marijuana then it’s OK. You can’t choose what kind of stove you cook on. You can’t choose how you get your energy to your home or use fossil fuel Can’t choose the size if your soft drink in New York according to Bloomberg… you can’t choose what kind of straw you use? Or where you get your health insurance. Any other choices the left doesn’t allow, you to make?
You People are so close minded… add as well as the saying goes whatever you’re using someone else of us exactly what you’re doing yourself. Voilà. This is how blind your people are, and how offensive your rhetoric is
I ABSOLUTELY AGREE…. I have one minute distinction to point out… when Democrats are not in power chaos ensues. Very recently it was a survey done by CNN, I believe and here were the results. This is not a poll…It was an actual survey.
85% of Republicans were proud of themselves and proud of America when Republicans were in charge, and 82% of Republicans were proud of America and Americans when Democrats were in charge
85% of Democrats are proud of America and Americans when Democrats are in charge but only 36% of Democrats are proud of Americanand Americans when Republicans are in charge. And there it is.
"This study adds to this line of inquiry by examining whether important structural changes to the media system in 1996, which included the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the introduction of Fox News, affected TV news’ contribution to affective polarization."
The New York Times wrote that “experts in the field” suggest this Intel travesty could be described as an example of “state-managed capitalism.”
It’s an EXTORTION RACKET is what it is. And if “legacy” media won’t call it for what it is, you can bet your ass Faux News is already describing it as ‘America wins again’ or some other equally dishonest, degrading bullshit.
The guy who got a 10% cut from Intel — the guy shaking down Harvard, Columbia, UCLA and other universities, the racist whining about the Smithsonian not showing slavery in a more positive light — is the same crook who once told Volodymyr Zelenskyy back in 2019 that “I want you to do a little something for me first” — meaning, make up dumb shit about Hunter Biden so Donnie could use it to sling mud at Joe Biden — a man of great moral character, patriotism and intelligence — three attributes that make Donnie’s thin little skin ooze with hatred and resentment..
This Zelenskyy wouid have nothing to do with, though he was desperate for America’s help then, just as now. Career civil servants and diplomats lost their jobs for reporting the truth of this back then. Donnie got off scot free.
Now Donnie tries to pester, manipulate and intimidate Fed Chair Powell to lower interest rates AFTER he’s personally bought $100 million worth of bonds since January. (Hint: what happens to the value of bonds when interest rates fall?)
Everything connected with this pissant crook is just GRAFT by any other name. Greedier than Midas. Less restrained than a roving hyena. Nothing “state-managed” about it.
“T he New York Times wrote that “experts in the field” suggest this Intel travesty could be described as an example of “state-managed capitalism.”
The shameless groveling and spineless complicity of the Times and the Bezos Post towards this fascist regime is difficult to watch. And disgusting as well. Without complicity, tyrants and dictators like the one who currently squats in the Oval Office, are nowhere. This is not Corporate Media’s finest hour, not by long shot. And Congress? Those bootlickers deserve a special place in Hell, along with his toadies on the high court. A trifecta of cowards, Media, Congress and the Court, has sold us all down the river, all in service to a stupid muddle-headed idiot who hasn’t the brains to take out the garbage. Yeah, we’re real exceptional.
After much deliberation, I just cancelled my Post subscription.
In the days before Bezos started really kissing Trump butt, the Post used to have a freewheeling, largely untouched comment system. It made for great commentary -- some better than the reporting -- in a professional community where expertise, intelligence and higher education are as common as dandelions. As the best and the brightest reporters started packing their bags, Bezos suddenly replaced everything with a Ninny Bot that sorted all comments into wholly artificial, made-up categories: (1) controversial (2) thoughtful (3) clarifying and the goofiest of all -- (4) new to me. Thousands of commenters wrote in to say WTF is this nonsense?
Then the Ninny Bot started working overtime, striking comment after comment with "your comment does not conform to our guidelines." Not the obvious obscenities or hate-speech. You couldn't criticize RFK, Jr. Anything. And just try calling Laura Loomer a loonie and watch happened to your comment! I wrote to their Comments Editor and told him (without resort to scatological language, even) what tens of thousands of us must have thought of this, pointing out that Ninny didn't bother telling us what *was* acceptable -- it was all just an exercise in virtuous hand-slapping. I never even received an insincere "thank you for taking the time to contact us" letter back.
Finally, after having six comments about my own city's military occupation stricken, something just snapped. Enough. Basta. I am relying on my local Channel 4, Substack and other resources for news about my own back yard. I know Bezos won't miss my measly $170 or whatever it is, but I could no longer justify giving him a single dime to kiss Trump's fat criminal ass, while insulting my intelligence and slapping my little hand at the same time.
This probably won’t make you feel any better, but I was permanently banned from commenting on the Post even before that stupid new system was put into place. No explanation for why or which comment twisted their panties in a knot. I wrote to the content moderator pleading my case and got no response, that was a couple of years ago, before the dictator was installed and Bezos put the screws to Ann’s cartoon. Anyway, if by some chance you change your mind, never pay more than $29/year. That’s all I’ve paid for the last 3 years. Hold out on re-upping, they’ll come crawling with the offer. And if not, it’s no loss. It’s become Fox News in print.
A little background information to inform the discussion.
Intel Corporation, founded in 1968 by two Fairchild Semiconductor engineers and a venture capitalist in CA, has grown and grown over the years and invested heavily in research and manufacturing facilities around the world….until of late. It has also gone through a succession of leadership change including two within the last year. Its stock is widely held and publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Until last year it was a Down Jones Average company.
Beginning in about 2020-2022, it seems to have developed a case of indigestion from eating too much silicon. The semiconductor business, btw, is as competitive as wholesale groceries. Or car insurance. It did not used to be that way. The Halcyon days are over. Due to the increasingly effective competition of AMD and other semiconductor producers, in 2018, its market share in its bread and butter lines began to slip considerably from what had been one of dominance, to merely big. We can presume that margins narrowed. A Dun and Bradstreet report would not be a bad idea.
In August of 2022, Intel got a transfusion of wealth iao $30B from an “asset management company”, aka, hedge fund, aka, venture capitalist, aka investment bank, named Brookfield Asset Management, by joint venturing with it for the purposes of sustaining investments in factories which Intel had already built. It other words, it lightened load by giving this investor a big piece of the action, and probably spinning them off in to a subsidiary. Nevertheless, with this expansion having been just completed and refinanced, and with more factories being built or in the works, on the 31st of January in 2023, Intel followed up on announced layoffs by making $30B in payroll cuts through reductions in white collar pay, bonus, merit pay, and retirement fund contributions.
This is more or less straight from Wikipedia. Do you see a trend ?
Maybe not. Maybe this could merely be called “restructuring”. Growing pains. But this time last year Intel posted a Second Quarter loss of $1.6B. That’s B as in Billion. On the heels of that it announced a further 15K cut in jobs to take place starting then in order to achieve a further savings of $10B.
On the 1st of November, 2024, Intel was dropped from the Dow Jones Average “of leading industrials”. Nvidia took its place.
In July of this year, Intel announced that it was scrapping plans for tens of billions of dollars of investment in new computer chip plants in Europe…plans that had only been laid a year or two prior. And it announced that it would be laying off another 24K workers this year, or about 15% of its work force. “As part of a restructuring”.
During this period Intel has seen a succession of chief executives come and goes, starting with the departure of one Pat Gelsinger, who was ousted by the Board, no doubt following a rowdy meeting with investors as a result of a further $16.6B in losses that accrued during his tenure, which of course led to a decline in its stock price and caused its fall from investor favor.
But he had been brought in for the very purpose of turning the company around, and his departure left Intel with no one at the helm, and we can surmise, in an uncontrolled state with three sheets to the wind. Two interim Co-CEOs from the ranks were appointed to take his place.
In March of this year Lip-Bu Tan was appointed CEO Intel. Under him, in pursuit of profits, and mere sustainability it seems, Intel has continued its incredible shrinking act, cancelling expansion plans everywhere, letting employees go by the thousands, selling sidelines, spinning off new ventures, and closing plant notably in several US locations. California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas.
Footnote. Lip-Bu Tan is ethnic Chinese American citizen from Malaysia and semiconductor business executive who has held many high positions in US based firms that have shown exceptional results during this same period, notably by developing strong customer relations China and other Far East countries, and sales growth there. The company he was recently with was fined over $100M for selling banned products to China. But he appears to have taken a good opportunity to leave that company in advance thereof. Tan holds degrees from Singapore (Nanyang), MIT and Berkeley, in Physics, Nuclear Engineering, and Business. He lives with his wife in Piedmont, CA. They have two children.
Enter Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, and Donald Trump.
By and on behalf of the United States of America, they buy a 9.9% interest in Intel common stock. They execute a side agreement disclaiming any interest in running the company, having a seat on the board, or otherwise overseeing its management. The details are worth noting. The US Treasury bought 433.3M shares of Intel, presumably on the open market. The price was $20.47 a share. This is interesting in and of itself, since it is nearly $4 a share less than what Intel’s original investor paid for his 10% interest in the company at the time it was formed in 1968, two years before there had been an initial public offering. That, of course was in 1968 dollars.
Do the math. That is $8.66.6B and change that the US Treasury just put down to own a large and potentially controlling interest in Intel common stock. Query, where did the money come from ? Where will this be carried on the books of United States ? Who will oversee this investment ? What will happen to it ? We hear that it came from appropriated funds. From the “CHPs Act, or whatever it is called. What ever, this is not exactly the kind of investment that was contemplated by Congress when it passed that and Biden signed it in to law. But no matter. Let us give Trump the benefit of the doubt, and say Biden did this. Or blessed it.
What governmental purpose is this serving ? A bailout ? Supporting the stock price of a critical US company, too important to fail ?? That is tenuous since just the week before Trump ran down the stock price of Intel by calling for Tan to resign, because of friendly relations with Chinese business associates and desire to do business in China. On that theory, the Treasury should buy Tesla, lock, stock, and barrel. You might call it the reverse of a pump and dump scheme.
But getting back to the subject, what on the merits would be the good governmental purpose served by this purchase. Will this investment pay off ? Will it earn a decent return over time ? Better that what the US Treasury is paying on the maturity of 10Y T bills expect to come due soon ? Or what medium term Treaduries are currently yielding ? Why ? Because, if the US Treasury has money to spare, more say, than it needs to meet current obligations, then instead of making this investment, it might have bought back some of its own obligations, and saved a lot of interest expense, say, in the range of 4 to 6 percent. It could have paid down the national debt by this amount. And that is the opportunity cost to the US taxpayer of having made this purchase.
How will Intel now perform ? We shall see. But I suspect any boost may be temporary. Trump wants Intel to stop doing business with China. He has imposed punitive tariffs that will kill trade. And Intel stock is down 60% from where it was a few years ago. And not headed up soon.
This is a test run by Trump et Alia. They have just made an example of Intel by investing it. Their claims are not to be credited. There will be more purchases. Who will be next ? Whoever does not toe the line. But do they really know what they are doing ? Do they have a plan ? Or are they just experimenting with state control of private enterprise ? Dabbling in fascism.
Hey, John, those you call bootlickers, cowards, toadies?
All did very nicely, thank you, on all those standardized tests which so nicely, thank you, elevate our most-easily neutered high into our meritocracy machinery.
Nope. I've run across at least two reports that say the deal does not come with any "board seats or other governance and information rights". And one report that the funds are actually from the CHIPS Act that were awarded but not yet paid to Intel. T**** doesn't like the CHIPS Act, but he's using it to his political advantage.
See James' post. Not in Trump's account. But direct govt ownership in a company, even 10%, is something we should watch closely. Theoretically, this helps Intel, a US chip making company, become stronger.
I did see his post Bob (can I call you that). I would submit that neither James or any other has seen what ledger that goes in, or if it does. You see, and hopefully know, that whenever the cur moves it's lips, it's probably lying. Hell of it is (though capitalist purity fail), "if" it were thoughtfully placed in a renewed SS "Trust" fund, I would skip, dance and praise the ogre for it. That's my thought re., "spinning it into gold." And yes; not only would it serve as capitalist purity departure, it would give Intel a distinct advantage with all of us holding said stake and voting might. As I think of it, he could use that rationale to hold the stake privately as his own - rationalizing that he's 'protecting' the U.S. voting stake... Damn Bob, it's stinky all the way around isn't it.
After WWII, the horrors of fascism were etched into the governments of the world, and America was held up as the a savior of liberal democracy.
Now, eighty years later, those memories have faded into oblivion. By any metric,America now has a fascist government. The Intel heist is just the latest evidence of this.
And, “ The whole world is watching.”, to quote 1968.
He's already confiscated the FIFA Club World Cup trophy and undisclosed "gifts" from his first term. I expect him to start "collecting" other art masterpieces into his personal collection, not because he appreciates art, but because they're worth big bucks.
His actual taste in art leans toward dogs smoking cigars around a poker table. And gold, of course. Even if it's yellow anodized aluminum, he wouldn't know the difference.
The answer is one most are not ready to hear; buy a gun while you still can, organize resistance and start fighting back. Either that, or live with it. There’s no voting our way out of this.
Question for Dr. Richardson and all you brilliant readers: isn't it time to at last assess the American Conservative movement and, indeed, the entire Republican Party, as a failed ideology equal to Communism and Fascism?
This essay you wrote tonight is so helpful, so chock-full of context and history. Thank you! I too think of everything going to hell with Reagan. But that's not quite right, is it? Richard Nixon ran his presidency like a crime syndicate as well. Just listen to those Watergate tapes! That his Congressional colleagues insisted he resign probably had less to do with their outrage, and much more to do with their conviction that the country wouldn't stand for it and they would lose their jobs. I have a friend who is 107 years old. He remembers in 1935 when his conservative father was outraged that Roosevelt initiated Social Security. It was to him pure Socialism if not Communism. What I am asking is whether the real fact is that Conservatives (post-Depression Republicans) never actually believed any of their political platforms from the beginning. And that they were only ploys to gain sufficient political power to take over the United States and essentially eliminate democracy.
The reason I ask, and why this seems so important to me, is that if it is as true as I have come to believe, there is no "redemption" of the Republican Party. It is simply a terrorist organization that must not have a further role in American politics. I write this knowing that even now this sounds extreme. But in hindsight it could end up so obvious that future Americans will wonder why non-Republicans couldn't see it.
I see Heather as connecting dots from the past that help us understand our present, and how we got here, which is invaluable. Less clear is what do we do now.
I remember my mother telling me her memories of how Eleanor Roosevelt was hounded, attacked, vilified and smeared every day by Republicans while FDR was in office. When Gingrich and other low-lifes started smearing Hillary Clinton, claiming she was some kind of weird alien space bitch because she actually said “I’m not some little ole’ Tammy Wynette, standin’ by her man” it brought back painful memories of how Eleanor had been forced to endure the same nonsense 50 years earlier.
Very much for that reason, my mother never wavered in her support for Hillary. I will always be grateful she didn’t live to see the current slime mold take office in 2017.
Yes, the character smearing seems to be a constant. But I'm wondering about the entire platform of the Republican Party. For instance, did Republicans ever really believe in States Rights, or was that actually a tactic in a plan to ultimately neutralize the Democratic Party and take full control of the United States? I sure don't hear ANY Republicans now having a problem with Trump's military takeover of Democratic states. I think about this because I don't recall Democrats ever having the position that their goal was to eliminate the Republican Party. Now I recognize that Republicans may have had that position from the beginning and that their platform of limited government and states rights was just a fig-leaf until they had total control of all three branches of our government.
It’s still bizarre to me how this party of freeholders, abolitionists and authors of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments managed to metamorphose into a gang of fundamentalist fuckheads, prune-faced racists, stupid trolls and greed-driven cowards who will one day be remembered only for giving a criminal a free get out of jail card. It didn’t used to be like that.
Based on the actions taken by the current regime, the Republicans don't want just to eliminate the Democrat Party, they want to eliminate the Democrats. No other regime has taken so many actions that have caused or will cause physical harm to citizens. I fear that we will end up with a situation akin to Israel-Palestine, where each faction wants the complete destruction of the other. We've been through this movie, and it does not end well. It simply does not end.
Good points & I agree. They’vve gradually built a matrix woven through & around just enough Americans to capture Fed gubminnt. It’s a fake reality tv model of manipulation. Imo, Democracy is a zombie in USA. To defend ourselves & democracy we have to be able to communicate truth. We need search engines & social media platforms that are independent of & defended against subversion by fascist mafia state oligopolist techbros. Dem states produce 70% of US GDP. We probably have the resources to do it: Better to start now. <> https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/its-time-for-americans-to-start-talking?r=41pd0&utm_medium=ios
So true, Russell, the people who claim to be conservative today still proclaim their pride in Reagan. There hasn't been a right-wing president who deserves any respect whatsoever since Dwight Eisenhower. The Southern Strategy began with Richard Nixon in 1968, and Republicans have embraced it to this day.
Russell, I agree...no "redemption" of the GOP at this point. It is now a terrorist organization. I wonder if we will arrive at an American Revolution 2.0.
Russell, I have a couple thoughts (not necessarily answers) on your question. The current Republican Party is rather hard to pin down in terms of ideology. It is certainly not conservative anymore, given their commitment to staggering levels of spending and indebtedness and their determination to insert their government into every bedroom and womb in the nation.
In any case, the GOP is a political party, not a political and economic system, as are communism and fascism, so it's a bit of an apples/oranges situation. And for that matter, can we say they are failed systems? I think we sometimes forget that China and North Korea are communist nations. Like it or not, they seem to be succeeding. Russia is weak, but couldn't be pronounced "dead," yet. Is Hungary a fascist state? Some would say so.
Regarding the beginnings of Republican ideology, I submit that protecting the wealthy, white supremacy and misogyny were built into the original U.S. Government designed by those ever-revered "Founding Fathers." Those "conservative" priorities were first embraced by the party named "Democrats," but were later swapped with the Republican Party's priorities. Along with that swap, Republicans introduced christianist supremacy with forced Christian prayer in schools, emblazoning "In God We Trust" on our currency and inserting "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.
Over the years, we were able to undo some of the discrimination built into the original system of government, but vestiges persist even today. The current regime is simply trying to roll us back to those early days when the wealthy had all the power and people of color and women were not persons.
I'm not sure anyone has put a label to the current set of Republican priorities. It seems to be less a "system" and better described as a ball of chaos.
thank you for those observations! I called American Conservativism/Republican Party a failed ideology because we now experience without question that it leads to dictatorship. As does Communism and Fascism. It fails because it purports to particular ideas for governance, but devolves into one-man rule. That should bring into question the validity of all its sacred cow positions—limited government, states rights, no gun controls, criminalizing abortion—since the ultimate purpose is to destroy democracy.
I would add to this outstanding piece that Citizens United in 2010 was just in time to skew the 2010 election in state legislatures by using corporate PAC money to buy up ads and distort the political landscape by lying about previously well respected state legislators and taking over state governments in the nick of time to impact 2012 redistricting, starting the process of ensuring that corporations decided jurisdictions and candidates, leading to the losses in the 2014 election which ended the Obama second term with a whimper. In 2013 Shelby County brought the civil rights era into decline and white supremacy began its reemergence step by step through policies and procedures such as vote purging, strict voter ID laws, shutting down precincts in predominantly black and other minority communities and systematically shutting down precincts on or near universities and colleges in jurisdictions previously covered by preclearance before any change to a policy or practice could occur.
For those who aren't current on the diminishing of voting rights at the same time government power is being corrupted you might like to review these 2 fact sheets and watch this film.
Fact sheet 1 : 2025 John Lewis Advancement Act reintroduced 3/25 HR 14
Publish that and spread it over and over till folks get tired of seeing it on all social and MSM media Al ! Taking a page out of the maga book, "flood the zone." And thanks for sharing that friend ~
Agree MS. I would not say he began the slide, I have said that he definitely shifted the slide into high gear. Gads; And most of the while, with engaging, rhetorical narratives, peppered as it was with sprinklings of a new "GOP speak".
The GOP is the fascist party and it is long past time to admit it. I stand by my description of Reagan, and that has been my opinion since 1980, you will never convince me that he isn't responsible for the long descent to today's US fascism.
Thank you, Heather, for so clearly tracking the trail of blood from Republican back stabbing Democracy that leads to the present day. No deep state. It's all in the open.
I remember plenty of problems and repubs being on the wrong side of them all. But with Rupert’s sanewashing, Michael Deaver’s PR genius, and Frank Luntz’ wordsmithing, for starters. Nazi propaganda came on strong with the scapegoating, and religious hatred.
I spent my working life in the highway and heavy construction end of things, from the wooden end of a shovel to coming off a 777 Manitowoc as my last rig. In that time and through that experience, both OHSA and MHSA have been critical toward saving lives and preventing accidents. So then, from my end of things, OHSA has worked.
I was a maintenance professional in heavy industry / manufacturing for a lifetime and a half in Ohio; A "business friendly state" as they crow about. What they don't tell anyone about is all the legal compromises made, most especially regarding one's health and safety on the job, in order to achieve that "business 'friendly' status. If it were common knowledge (* which appears is shied away from) would definitely change the calculus of any sentient human being's approach to the world of work in such a state. It most certainly would've changed my thinking drastically. Even attorneys don't, won't or are unable to spell out all the 'fine print' regarding on the job, work injuries. In my particular instance, I'm just now, 8.5 years after becoming 100 percent disabled due to work injuries, finding out how entirely screwed one is upon work place injury in this "Business 'friendly' state of Ohio, and with zero options. I am screwed; Worst of all, my household and spouse are screwed. I find myself in utter despair with no options; I made promises I can't keep, and that absolutely craters my life - in every aspect you cannot even imagine or relate. Ohio's workers comp scheme is legally framed as a "no fault" insurance as I've only learned on my own research and large enterprises are allowed upon maintaining some bond or surety of some sort, to identify as 'self insured', therefore released from paying into the workers compensation fund, yet once injured one is required - 'legally' ostensibly to go through the worker's compensation bureaucracy, wherein one recovery process or disability status is in the hands of gop staffed bureaucrats along with indoctrination 'approved' medical personnel and doctors, who deliver at best, sketchy medical business as opposed to care one would get privately. Your best interests are a secondary priority and that arrangement, in cases I'm aware of with family members and friends often goes horribly, sometimes fatally badly. Holding the economic / paltry compensation over one's head as an affective cudgel, injured parties are compelled into serious life altering and / or ending compromises, and never in the injured party's favor. Compensation system is horrible skewed to the disadvantage of the injured from the start; No better in any conclusion, even permanent disability or death. Compensation rates are horribly skewed; Most surprisingly 'against' any "wage" earner on multiple levels. The 'rates' for a "wage earner" is based glaringly very nearly the "3/5's Compromise" value of slave labor from our 'Civil war' era of roughly 60 percent of a whole person, the representation compromise percentage, for permanent disability or death. It's further skewed in that the compensation value counts only approximately 60 percent of the "'average' wage earner" - it doesn't include the salary earners above some level, therefore excluding those 'salary earners' above some level, including corporate executives, and those above some lesser level, most negatively affecting the overall compensation pool for any consideration of wage earners. "Words" matter in the world of 'lawfare,' and tragically as it is for any 'wage' earners. Even as a maintenance professional, I fell into the category of a 'wage' earner.
***Note: Fatigue is beating me up pretty well as I compose this. The precise figure is 66 2/3 percent, paltry more in 'the real world' of today's financial mess, but my overall point is no less true.* I dug that actual figure up, after the fact of composing this, as I choose to be extremely truthful, if even to any embarrassing fault; It's just 'how I roll.' I suppose therefore, I might be too "woke" if that means as I take it, as having an actual conscience.
An equally sad reality is that a number of organizations and agencies are compensated to safeguard our health, safety, and welfare. They all failed miserably in my experience and likely scores of others. The negative influence of the 'OiDs' influence from 'OiD' 1 and OiD 2 contributed immensely to the negative consequences in my particular case. His ever threats to agencies began even before he commenced 'OiD 1.' All agencies and departments you must recall were under tremendous threat of extinction, even in the run up to OiD 1, even running on a campaign of threats to slash and burn. As a real result, most agencies were operating under as low a profile as they possibly could, lest they attract 'any' attention. I became permanently disabled; I'd guess that there are others. His 'OiD' affect played a major role in yielding both proof and gross fault of my injury, not to mention corrective actions for the sake of others in the future, a major concern of mine. Yet, as it turns out, in a "no fault state" like Ohio, one is screwed anyway, even if the employer is "most oddly" self insured within a system of laws so badly skewed - in law against the wage earner. Upon any degree of consideration, this does provoke 'many' questions.
The consequences are quite grave. My financial and physical ability to live my days out so compromised are in extreme doubt, all things considered. I have found myself in the deepest of dark despair; Even moreso for my spouse, who I in the best of good faith to provide for.
There is no - zero intention on my part to "trauma dump" on any herein nor anywhere else. And any notion to derive any sympathy is not any consideration whatsoever. I simply am stating facts in reality and evidence, so that folks understand the world, country, and state as they are in reality more fully and consequentially. I find it shocking as well that none of this is broadly published for common knowledge. Then there is that catchall legal narrative that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." It is my belief that the state and the country should and could do much better for the common man or woman; Those who possess zero privilege.
~D, or 'DAN' - ie., the number 4 resemble an 'A' with a broken leg, if you ever wondered about the nom de guerre. My sense of humor has few limits; I think it may have kept me alive, for what little that's worth. 🤔
The end of the draft and the voting rights change to eighteen years old resulted from the anti-war demonstrations during that era.
The Vietnam War went on for years longer because Nixon illegally convinced the North Vietnamese not to agree to a peace deal with the Johnson administration. Reagan caused the Iran hostages and their families to suffer longer because he made a deal with the Iranians not to release the hostages until he became the President. The Iran-Contra affair was part of that deal. They traded weapons for the hostages and used the CIA to sell crack cocaine in US urban areas to fund it. Ronald Reagan is responsible for the crack epidemic. George H.W. Bush was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal, and he pardoned everyone who could testify against him so he couldn't be held responsible. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney profited from lying the country into the Iraq war. He waged both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars off the budget and when Obama put them in the budget, the right-wing blames Obama for the resulting hike to the national debt. Now, trump, the grand dragon of the Republican (fascist) party, is on the verge of destroying our democracy.
Heather's today is all about control -- from that cabal of fascists in 1937 to today's MAGA fascists.
They want a small, corrupt group to control all of America. To align with authoritarians around the world.
I've another post here in answer to that, in answer to ideologues seeking narrow control for themselves, seeking government shorn of all its practical benefits -- and seeking openly militarized control of cities and elections
I think we can get over that, past that, only if we firmly stand for the best our schools can do -- really the highest standards of communication for all of us in an equal society, a democracy of respect and literate, humane tools for respect.
But I want here to underline my respect particular for Heather, and her directly confronting the evils that have so coalesced over time and have so united against us and what till 45 years ago was our democracy.
Also want to express my sorrow that, as to this longer etiology, Heather saw fit to ignore the Powell memo. And on the very day of its anniversary, from Aug. 23, 1971.
Do all ignore that because, after all, all its first decade's work was to kill humanities in our schools -- and most all Heather's readers can't see the centrality of humanities as the far-right foundations of the Powell memo certainly saw them: as getting them out of the schools was absolutely first, key license to their subsequent, decades-long packaging bundles of other evils?
Phil, here’s information on the Powell Memo by Robert Reich. Heather’s letter can only be so long. Glad we have a number of resources to make our own connections.
Margaret, I hear you! I am of very limited means, so am mostly a “free” subscriber to all but LFAA Substacks (HCR was my first & make it work to support her, as I wish I could do for others); some, not most, allow free subscribers to comment (learn a lot from commenters!), but discovered that Substacks are the new “medium with the message” folks….something much of the MSM is missing. Also have to limit my perusal of them or I will stay glued to my iPad and miss just “being in & experiencing” the world!
Barbara, my means are also limited. But when I cancelled my WAPO subscription, I repurposed those "savings" to my new Information Budget! I still have a few dollars left but I subscribe to so many sources now that I don't have enough time to regularly read anything more. It's now 10 a.m. where I am and I've been reading steadily for five hours. Nonetheless, I HAD to read Kari's link to Robert Reich (above) which has let me to yet other references that sound well-worth checking out. Sigh.
Margaret, I am a subscriber and supporter of Heather Cox Richardson, Asha Rangappa and Joyce Vance among others, but read Robert Reich and still others without pay walls.
I can't afford them all, and frankly don't have enough time either. There is a wealth of knowledge available here, and we've barely scratched the surface!
I don't know if there's a way to search what interests another Substacker is following but it would probably be revealing.
Hello Phil... Schools are important, but I'll argue that the Values passed down by Parents, and their Community are more important to the formation of Children's Character... Children are Smart, and are like little Sponges in their Environment... They want to please, and see what succeeds... Parents should strive to always set a good example.... DJT is setting the very Worst Example of what succeeds...
Yes, but schools offer an alternative point of view to those which are taught by parents and communities. Addendum: and teach critical thinking; how to assess and discern what’s taught and what’s happening.
Hello Ferbie... Yes, that can be True, like all things in Life, it depends on the Schools, and what the Ideals are set to be... That is why I am for Universal Public Service so that People are forced to go out to meet, and work with other... Fareed Zakaria had a Special this Weekend that discussed the Destructive effects of the Little Screens on developing Brains of our Children particularly Young Men... You should watch it....
Phil, as someone who has spent many years writing on deadline, I can tell you that sometimes, you have to quit when the project is excellent, not when it's perfect.
I think it isn't only a quest for power that's driving the (let's face it) Republican party - it's the lust for wealth.
My senators (Indiana) aren't concerned with their constituents. The fix is in: big-money donors, lobbyists with connections, corrupt party officials, can override voters.
I think what we are truly seeing is the fruition of the white supremacy America was founded on. The Constitution and Declaration never recognized Indigenous People, Black folks, LGBTQ, and women as equal citizens. When you build a structure like that it tends to lean towards how it was built. The system is functioning as it was designed to.
This is of course a bad thing, but it requires us to rebuild from the base, a real democracy where all are equal. That means moving democracy into other reals, democracy in the workplace, a clean environment, economic equity, equity between nations. None of this is the reality, but it could be. These systems were made by humans, and we can unmake them.
Wealth, power, status, and sex (lust, gratuitous.) I was taught many years ago that these were coined by Freud as “the four neurotic pursuits of man,” but Thich Nhat Hanh discussed them in several of his books/teachings, so Freud probably nicked them.
I only mention this to broaden the motive from that of “wealth” to include these other three. In my experience over the years, I’ve been hard pressed to identify any motive behind harm done to others that wasn’t promulgated by one of these four. One could debate that some are motivated by these four in some way or another even when their objective is to help and do no harm.
I know I’m in the weeds, but just to clarify that “neurotic” in the context of “neurotic pursuits” doesn’t mean “moody” or “overly emotional.” “Irrational” is probably a better word for modern day. It’s an explanation for why someone is vehemently pursuing something that ultimately is not in their interest. To destroy the very thing that these politicians aim to benefit from is irrational. Thus, we are all scratching our heads. Or, more aptly, WTF?
Kasey will explain: nicking something is stealing it. When I nick an article, I'm sharing it somewhere - usually FB. Technically, I haven't gotten permission from the author to copy it, so I admit I'm stealing it. To be fair, I give credit where credit is due. I don't pass things off as mine. 😉
Kasey, I am familiar with the meaning of "nick," but for the life of me, couldn't figure out what you'd nicked. The comment that provoked Margaret-Rose's question appears fairly personal. What part of that comment did you nick? I would suggest that if you're nicking any text, put it inside quotation marks so what you've copy/pasted is identifiable.
Thank you, but I've been using the term for years in this context and shall continue to do so. I nick photos, music, video clips - and articles, but always properly accredited.
In this case I nicked Dr Richardson's article, sharing it to Facebook. I don't see as there was anything personal about it, and I would only use quotation marks to offset a short excerpt.
I'd feel silly sharing an entire article using quotation marks. Or did I miss something...? 🤔
Where does this story begin to turn? The power of this brazen fascist movement, so emboldened by its successes manipulating media and duping a population, chipped away at democracy, defied significant legal consequence, warped Constitutional integrity, and now openly rigging gerrymandered voter districting— these people no longer appear to care or depend upon what the public thinks or wants. Trump may be the expendable puppet. Where does this story turn? What manner of “civil war” are we facing if the basic tenants of democracy shatter?
Right-wing gerrymandering has been going on for many decades, forcing the left to gerrymander to try to keep a level political playing field. The right has never been concerned about equal rights; they only seem to care about securing great wealth for themselves.
Once Chief Roberts led the way in allowing Citizens United to become a way for the Repubs to receiving corporate dollars and from foreign entities, it’s been an uphill battle for Democrats. We simply are not aligned with oligarchs nor heavy hitters from big corporations. Imagine a see-saw with a Dem candidate sitting at the bottom and the R candidate holding all the dough, at the top. It is imbalanced and definitely not equal. Way past time for us to let our reps just to sit on their laurels. That’s why protests, phone-calling, letter writing, social media, and etc. has to be implemented incessantly.
More and more it seems that Chief Roberts is the key player in the takeover with Citizens United, the weakening of Voting Rights laws and finally giving the president broad immunity from prosecution. He saved Trump from jail and allowed him on the ballot. Of course he had the votes of the other four, but at any point he could have made a historic difference and he did not. Was he sent to the Court for this moment?
Like the crew of Apollo 13 and those on the ground who helped them, we must accept that our mission has changed, reassess our condition, figure out to the best of our abilities the chain of events that has gone wrong, and develop a plan for survival. Now is not the time to panic or abandon hope or point fingers. Adapt and adjust. Thank you Heather, for being the planet earth that I am trying to line up in my window.
The Mayor of Kyiv, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Vitali Klitschko, has a T-shirt with "Failure Is Not An Option" (in English) stenciled on it.
In the book, "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism" George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson document the take over of the US by neoliberalist ideology by Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises who were from Vienna. They came up with ideas that fit more and more how the oligarchs wanted economics to be, and then the oligarchs funded think tanks like the Heritage Foundation to legitimize their views, and university departments to legitimize and teach and spread their economic views. The book makes the case that neoliberal economics naturally leads to fascism. So, here we are.
Linda, Project 2025 is a Heritage Foundation product, and the Heritage Foundation in recent years has been heavily influenced by the Danube Institute, a Hungarian think tank dedicated to exporting the strategies of Viktor Orban's "illiberal democracy." That's a misnomer, but if they follow the Orban model, the goal is not to end elections, but to render them meaningless by controlling all the levers of democratic participation.
I refuse to ever reference The Heritage Foundation as a ‘Think Tank’.
Well, what is a "think tank?" Most of the "think tanks" are just that. They are places that spread illiberal ideas to benefit the rich, so this is how they name themselves, but the question is what does it mean? A tank to control the thinking of other people? Anyway, I read Project 2025 with my political book club group, which was formed last summer for that purpose. At the election we decided to continue our group and read things that teach us more about democracy. We just are finishing Anne Applebaum's "Autocracy, Inc" and read the Monbiot, Hutchinson book before that. We have also read articles as well. Do you have another word for the Heritage Foundation and others institutions pushing neoliberal ideas, which would include the University of Chicago.
Thanks for the recommendation Gregg. I will add it to the list we are creating and selecting books from. Monbiot would not agree with Stiglitz in that he thinks capitalism leads to autocracy because of greed, whereas it sounds like Stiglitz feels that capitalism can be controlled and harnessed by a lot of government regulation.
Earlier this year we read historian Jefferson Cowie's "Freedom's Dominion" which taught us about the struggle for voting rights, and how the DOJ was needed to uphold rights for Native Americans and Blacks, but let them down too. We also learned about a White, male idea of Dominion which the Oligarchs believe in as do the White Supremacists of Free for me but not for thee. Cowie spoke in Berlin and we heard him tell us that because 2/3 of Americans not having college degrees, for the democratic party to win they need to have a populist candidate. I wrote this piece about what Cowie was saying after that talk.
Then we invited Cowie to talk and he told us that he did not think that the Dems defended the right to vote enough, and that was a problem. I wrote this piece after that talk.
Stiglitz was at the Chicago School of Economics with Friedman et al during a part of his career and witnessed the rise of neoliberalist doctrine there. I thought it may be of historical insight for you.
Gregg it is of interest to me. I am less left than Monbiot, though his book makes an excellent case for his pov. However, I would like to hear more about Stiglitz's government intervention. I found this The Guardian discussion of his book.
Hi Linda, This is my opinion on why the Heritage Foundation should not be called a think tank. I have done change facilitation in my career while being trained in Six Sigma, and so my reference to think tanks are that they are positive game changers, who analyze and determine the root causes of the obstacles. This might include analyzing procedural rules, committee structures, or the effect of lobbying and campaign finance on the process.
The Heritage Foundation promoted wrecking our democratic institutions and that’s why Trump would not provide transparency during the campaign and our main stream media put their head in the sand.
Think tanks could apply the structured, data-driven methodology of Six Sigma to enrich political institutions by systematically identifying and improving processes related to public policy, governance, and civic engagement.
Think tank consultants could advise with training government employees and non-profits in Six Sigma principles and coaching them through specific improvement projects. By focusing on measurable outcomes rather than partisan talking points, they could help restore public trust and institutional effectiveness.
Here are ways think tanks could apply structure to improving change in political institutions:
1. Identify areas for process improvement.
2. Collect and analyze data to quantify the problem.
3. Use statistical analysis to pinpoint the root causes of the problem.
4. Work with stakeholders to develop and implement data-backed solutions.
5. Establish standardized procedures and a feedback loop to ensure the improvement is sustained.
6. Verify & pilot the new policy on a small scale, if possible, to confirm it achieves the desired. outcomes and meets stakeholder requirements.
7. Promote transparency and accountability.
8. Foster cross-party collaboration.
9. Empower civil servants.
10. Benchmark performance and track long-term impact.
This would move political discourse from purely ideological arguments toward evidence-based problem-solving, increasing efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
The Heritage Foundation follows an Authoritarian approach which stands in contrast to democracy, which emphasizes individual freedom and the right to choose leaders. The Heritage Foundation perpetuates inequality with disinformation. We are not building trust and integrity with our citizens or our foreign allies. It may seem like small betrayals, but it has global consequences.
Okay JaKsaa, can you please name an organization that you consider to be a real think tank. Also, does this include Universities?
What made you think my book club could not access the document. My book club had easy access to the Mandate for Leadership PDF from the Heritage Foundation website, and we figured out a pace that worked for us to read through it over many months. We appreciated the support that we got from being in a group. We also read discussions by many people of the different chapters, so we really studied it. Most people don't read, and no one put it on a podcast which is why most don't know what is in it. It was horrid prose and we slogged through it. We turned to Andra Watkins to better understand the Christian Nationalist applications. This is how I can tell who read it and who used AI to report on Project 2025.
Margarete-Rose, when we were reading "Invisible Doctrine" we decided to slow it down. We had decided that when we read Timothy Snyder's "On Freedom" as well. So now we are going through a book by reading a few chapters for discussion each week. In this way we are having more in-depth discussions. We tie what we read to past authors we have read and to the current political scape. We felt that Monbiot's ideas fit nicely with Snyder's even though Snyder does not talk about neoliberalism. It is clear that there is more than one understanding of "freedom" and that bears understanding. Cowie is explaining a very different concept of freedom than Snyder or Monbiot do. One sort of freedom lacks social responsibility, the other has it as its core.
As you know, I and so many others are so grateful to you for researching this fall of the American Empire, day by day, by Republicans who have not guts, no balls, no ethics, no concern for their felow/madames Americans, but there is one question I am asked by so many here in France and my friends in the USA: Why is no one doing anything to stop him. Except Gavin Newsome perhaps. Have too many human beings evolved into robots whose ethics are simply not evident any longer, replaced by greed, narcissism and a loss of the interiour insular cortex in the brain where empathy and compassion should exist? Where, I ask again, WHERE are the political heroes (REPUBLICANS) who could make history with strong mutual resitance against this maniac? Just say no......
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
DC in September.
https://removalcoalition.org/
It’s sad. The world’s wealthiest country increased taxes on and stripped benefits from the poor—to feed the wealthy. Give heathcare, food, and living wages to everyone and charge it to the wealthy that cannot be satisfied. To what purpose is a $ billion? Hoarding. I made protest signs for your protests. Protesting is now critical for Occupied D.C. There is time to get signs printed for your protest group. Fill the hands of the signless. Where are your signs? It is time to post them so that others can use them. FreeDC!
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/sign-off-i-call-for-a-sign-off?r=3m1bs
I don't name them the "wealthy" anymore. From now on they are the "filthy-rich" to me.
They are this era's robber barons.
at least they had "swagger!" The filthy rich tech bros are dorks! ;)
I do like that term!
how 'bout THIEVES!
Traitors! It's un-American to become wealthy without putting 90% back into the country.
They didn't listen in Sunday School when it was explained the need to give 10% of your money to help others.
They also didn’t listen or hear that America is a melting pot.
It was usually the church. Tithing. But, we all should give 10% to causes we believe in. I believe in journalism...Independent journalism. And, donating to Black causes to make up, a little, for my White advantages.
If you don't want to part with the funds now, you can make your stock account belong to a charity, when you no longer need it. Frankly, the kids got enough..........
How many of them do you think there are? You do realize that they’re on both sides of the aisle. Ooooops
Emphasis on FILTHY. There are very few solidly rich people doing much to help anyone with their wealth, even less who are willing to speak out. What's the matter? Afraid you won't get invited to the other rich person's party?
Thank you. I can no longer march but will spread the word.
I can't march either. I bring a chair and enjoy my tribe. When they march I visit with the rest of us "old hippies" and wave my sign and chant. I am never bored.
Old hippie too. May give that a try a chair.
You go Margaret! Mi sis just got a shirt that reads: Old white hippie. she's the one who stands on the corner of Main St. (a very Red town) with her protest signs & shirts. We agree with 'don't mess with an old woman who votes' is on shirts on the way to us. I think I need a chair now. Knees complain.
We need to start a movement: old hippies who sit ;-)
Save yourself the March you don’t wanna get caught on TV embarrassing yourself like the rest of these fools
Here are a few signs I’ve made over the last 7 months.
https://davea.substack.com/p/the-chaotic-trump-presidency-in-protest
Several of these, Dave A., should be very much in demand by others.
Might you have the patience (and a little up-front, reserve cash) to have large-size copies professionally printed, and mounted on stout sticks?
Let people see them as available, and have another sign saying, yes, take one -- but please also, fellow public, consider a donation to defray costs.
Many will see these as not only beautiful, witty, and apt, but also collector's items.
Awesome Dave!
Brilliant work Dave
you have a very low bar there Dan
Wonderful signs Dave! I've not an artistic bone in my body so, just have slogans.
Stop protesting and get an agenda geez you’ve had nine months
https://substack.com/@signsofthetime?r=etnl9&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile
Carl, please see the history we are creating and sharing
@signsofthetime. We are also on Substack and Facebook.
Wrong as usual, get a new crystal ball.
Daniel, Thank you for this.
And Heather, always Thanking you.
Excellent resource, Daniel. Thamks,
Morning, Lynell. Agreed.
Morning, Ally!
Thank-you for this link,Daniel
IT know-how about this URL? Because Safari gave me a window that said, "This connection is not private. The website may be impersonating "remove coalition.org" to steal your personal or financial information. You should close this page". Using Firefox and Chrome, I did not get these warnings.
You have made me even more glad that Safari is my go-to browser. Thank you, Joan.
Nor did I, re., Firefox and Chrome. I do find that Safari can be overly cautious; All in all, not a terrible things these days. Caution at provision is more or less how I roll.
Great contribution there Daniel; Thank you.
Awesome protest. We will be there. Thanks, Daniel!
Daniel, America saving coalition. Thank you.
I’ll add the link to my spreadsheet, thank you!
So how many votes of your spreadsheet got you so far Meghan? Get an agenda and a rational leader, not a spreadsheet
To others reading Rick’s comments on this thread - I choose not to respond to him because he does not have a back and forth conversation that is productive. He has his opinions, belittles work I’m proud of, and isn’t worth the time to respond.
Meghan, the reason you don’t wanna respond to me is because you don’t have an answer to levelheaded common sense thinking has nothing to do with productivity it’s not productive because you don’t agree with it and you’re not in control of it and that’s the bottom line which is fine with me. What you don’t see because you’re inside the bubble is that the people here are probably representative of 5% of the Democrat party or about 2 1/2% of the public at large.
You have no idea what the 77 million people that voted for trump think feel and reason for that that’s called ignorance which is not a useful behavioral pattern in education
Daniel, Good Luck. Thank you for doing this
Great 👏👊👊👊‼️
Thanks for links Daniel Solomon
Thanks so much Megan! Every time you post this is another opportunity for me to send it out to a whole new group of people. So appreciate your dedication to the cause.
We do deserve SO much better a reminder that also goes out with the list
Thanks to Megan, I have been calling again. I broke off for a while. I have been getting more humans when I call. The very young-sounding staff member for my pathetic Representative was only thinly disguising his annoyance at my courteous questions. (I asked if the Rep supported Ukraine)
Who ever answers a reps phone ask them who they work for. They will likely reply they work for so an so rep. But NO they work for you! Explain that to them, they are most likely paid Federal employees. They work for us. We the people!
Thank you for speaking up! Amazing!
Thank you so much for helping share it!
Ya I remember my semi racist father calling for state's rights during the street troubles in the 1960s. Probably by 1968 upon MLK’s assassination, daddy was heard to say, “It’s not the ones born in Hartford that are causing’ all the trouble it’s the ones comin’ up from the south.” He was so proud to have his one Black friend over for lunch now and again. But it was just a cover. Oh he was for ‘states rights.’ But so weren’t the Founders for different reasons. Or were they different?
Megan in the streets as well. Labor protests arrive.
Yes, they were very different.
They were highly educated, contemplative and wise. Not always correct but wise.
Reading the Constitutional Convention debates and the Federalist papers, one can not come away with anything but awe how these men referred to the classics, history, social, cultural and structural institutions and norms, along with an understanding of human behavior how they reasoned and thought things through.
In many ways they were enlightened.
They laid the road to a liberal society, it was up to others to follow it.
There is a superb book by historian Edward Larson called "Franklin and Washington" - it ends with the Constitutional Convention, and Franklin's opinion of the Constitution. He knew slavery was wrong, but he came to believe that the Constitution was the best that could be crafted at the time, and a great good. Therefore, he supported it fully. A great read. Larson tells the story beautifully.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Two extraordinary men.
Yes, the idea that the Framers could have ended slavery is fantasy. They did what they could, with what they had at the time.
Agreed. There is also a fine description of the Constitutional Convention in Jill LaPore's These Truth, a fairly recent history of the US which I recommend in its entirety.
I think the closest we’ve come recently to their level of intelligence is Obama.
Wow.. Thanks Anne
They were a product of Enlightenment Era thinking, and while the thoughts that time and place produced are not the all time end all, be all, that was exactly the point. After centuries with a brake on progress, the enlightenment rejected the ultimate authority of persons over opening questions and seeking empirical answers. By no means were they the first to do so, but they produced a wave, as we see in different parts of the world at different times, a wave of intensified and accelerated inquiry, looking not just to human authority of prophets or Aristotle, but at what reality itself is prepared to reveal if we pay enough attention. That is actually a democratizing process, even if subject to peer review.
Moreover, if you "question everything" you have to look at values as well as beliefs, which is tied to our humanness, and not so easily settled as a laboratory experiment. And I think that is where wisdom comes in, a subject I think we talk waaaay to little about in modern life. I think wisdom has always been a bit elusive to define, but as far as I can tell it appears to involve seeing the big picture along with the most critical details; the forest AND the trees; and since both are vastly greater than any human mind can hold, an ability to detect at least some of the details and connections that most matter to human, individually and as a species, security, justice, and fulfillment. Focus and triage. What, when all is said and done, most matters??? Most matters.
The best book I've read on wisdom is the Tao de Ching.
Yep, the electoral college and the 4/5 count definitely laid the road to a liberal society, if you were part of thar period's oligarchy.
I'm guessing you meant the 3/5ths compromise.
I may be in the minority but in a federalist-republican system the EC is the best solution yet to the problem of mob rule. Small states are valued as well as large powerful states.
Regarding the 3/5ths compromise, yes it did lay the foundation. Consider the alternative, a split country with the South embracing slavery. The result would likely have been the continuation of slavery well past 1865, if not a even bloodier war between nations.
Without the 3/5ths compromise there would be no union to fight for later with a "...nation, under God, (that) shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”.
A good house cannot be built without a strong foundation.
Indeed, our hope today in these difficult times rests on that foundation.
I like, Gary, how you weigh the workable parts from back then.
Let's add, too, how well-versed were the Founders and many of their wives, too, in languages, the classics, and literature from many cultures, many times. That's on display in The Federalist Papers.
In other words, they knew human nature -- not in any idealized way, and certainly not in the mad rationality of groups, categories, and linear-logic-only such as all testing imposes today.
Agreed, we are reminded in Federalist 10, written by Madison, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."
I would guess that Trump could not pass a reading comprehension quiz on Federalist 10.
Then again, I wonder how many on both sides of the aisle understand that the Framers were more leary of democracy than they realize.
I do believe thousands of people fought, and lost their lives, because they believed in building that foundation. And what did the well protected intellectuals believe? Seems to me that they decided that appeasing the oligarchs of the time was more important than recognizing the value of those unwashed, "uneducated" masses. Pretty much the same today, isn't it?
Well protected individuals? I'm starting to think you maybe a little confused about the Founding Fathers and Framers of the Constitution.
Washington spent eight years in combat knowing if he were to be captured he would be hung and quartered as a traitor.
Hamilton the same.
Madison the same.
Monroe the same.
Jefferson the same.
And the list goes on.
That also went for every signatory of the Declaration of Independence.
They even wanted to hang old Ben Franklin for treason. Remember his quip to the Second Continental Congress when debating the Declaration of Indepence, “We must all hang together or we will all hang separately”
The majority of signers of the Constitution were either military veterans, held other offices that risked their lives and fortunes, or served in the Continental Congress, an act punishable by death and impoundment of any wealth of the family.
No sir, the Founding Fathers were not "well protected". Bone Spurs and what we see today is nothing like them.
(As someone once noted, Trump would have to stand on Vance's shoulders just to kiss Washington's ass.)
Donald, I agree. 'We' don't amount to a hill of beans to those people.
Ah, The Enlightenment!
That was then, this is now!
Fellow commenter Mathew Foresta, a bit below, has best answer to your Q, Bill.
Replying to Kasey Coff, he points out the imaginative limits the Founders brought with them -- that they simply never saw or imagined "Indigenous People, Black folks, LGBTQ, and women as equal citizens."
Again, this is where our schools (humanized -- not test-driven) could take needed initiative.
Bingo Phil. Every Sunday, and I mean every Sunday, our whole family piled into our 1962 Chevy sky-blue station wagon and went to Sunday school and church. There were no people of color there and the lessons from the Bible were mostly about men written by men and delivered to us by men. White men.
The women (our mothers and grandmother's included) cooked and cleaned the church and chatted amongst themselves while the women got the food ready for the entire congregation.
The pastor's wife was busy raising her kids and wasn't really allowed to work outside the home and the church of course which was right next door to the church owned parsonage.
My mother was one of the few women that had a full time 8-5 job in an office. I remember hearing derogatory comments at church from the other women about women that worked outside the home and neglecting their families.
And my high school class of 765 had a handful of Asians, no blacks and no Hispanic kids.
So why do I abhor the patriarchy and all that it stands for and why do I fail to understand why the MAGAs are such total assholes?
I was raised Methodist. Our church used to host monthly luncheons for the Rotary club. My mother would help set up the Fellowship Hall for the event, cook the food, serve the men and clean up afterwards. One day I asked her what they did. “It’s a service group that helps communities,” she said. I asked, are you a member of it? “No. It’s only men,” she answered. I became a little thorn in her side about it from then on. “How come you ladies serve these people but you can’t be part of their group?” I think now women can join, but that was one of the lessons of growing up in the times PINO and his ilk want us to go back to!!!!
As a musician and standup guy that once enjoyed going to a Methodist open mic, I once strode bravely to the mic and with a Twaining nerve, announced that God had made a mistake allowing Man up the evolutionary trail. That the Bonobos originally had the tickets but Man grabbed them and ran like hell. Not a peep in the audience. A month later I asked the host why there was such consternation over my standup and she shouted at me, “Because God doesn’t make mistakes.” Oh my God that was so funny. They eventually banned me after reading a piece from my book on how Trump and my cat Babe have something in common and when Babe gets to lick my skittle he craps diarrhea all over my house just like Trump will do. That did it. I’m persona non grata.
I don’t have much patience with religious people. I was brought up in a catholic school and they expelled my by 7th grade. So it goes.
GJ.., that is one great paragraph, as it encapsulates the MAGA Picture. The blue 62 Chevy, going to church, women getting the food and tables set up kids playing (mostly all white kids). Hahahaahaa.., and a country "under God" (1954'). Little House on the Prairie.., Susanne Sommers (rip), Andy Griffith. Yeah.., "those" were the days, huh? Forget those canaries that died in the coal-mine! The downhill-slide had begun. I believe we will salvage this. We've 350 years of experience. Say what you like about the CA Gov, but he's getting on the 'Front Page', and he's not in some "clown car" either. At the moment he's employing some badly needed levity from the other side of the coin. Levity gets a lot more view(ers) than doom & gloom?(ers). No? C'mon.., how did numbnuts get elected? Welp.., he entertained US (the U.S.) didn't he? Ya might even call this guy Ally Oop.
Meanwhile, here on the East Coast, let's start by dumping Sen Collins and put an Oyster Farmer in her place.., he'll do just fine. "Say his name"!
Mad, I can also remember going to Sunday School. I do not think I took to it very much and I was a great disappointment to my mother. This was a Disciples of Christ church and people always laughed when I said I was a Christian...it was called First Christian Church. I was baptized by immersion and I called out, "Help, Mother, he's drowning me" which ruined any idea of a sacred occasion. I grew up in the 50s when things seemed good and all the problems we see now were under the table, happening but not talked about or making news.
I love what Newsom is doing as he has death star's patois down to a tee.
I am very unhappy about Intel which is a big presence here in Oregon. Someone here yesterday gave a very good explanation on how this is just the start of death star awarding oligarchs a la Russia. I thought it was right on.
And yes, remove all talk no walk, full of concern Susie Q. I am all for oysters and love them pan fried.
Thanks Michele. I'm going over to Damariscotta in a few minutes and have some.
Brava !
I'm surprised at the Letters to the editor in The Ellsworth American and the other local weeklies around Hancock county. Rarely, if ever does anyone criticize Susan Collins. And there has been plenty that she has done that is not helping her constituents.
Graham Platner is his name, & many of us think he has a good chance to unseat Susan. She must be extra " concerned".!
Just in case there is someone who cannot say his name because they don't know it yet: . https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/24/graham-platner-maine-senate-oysterman
MM Harris! KaaBlammo.., A real Thankyou to MM Harris, for this "link" by The Guardian. GRAHAM PLATNER, let's say that name.., out loud. And, by all means, read the article. When Graham Platner comes to town, we need to show up. He's got a rough road ahead. The sicko-psycho's lcated at 1601 Pornhub Close (Rose Garden) are going to try to turn his words into some kind of pretzel - Don't let that crowd dupe us again! Remember this? "Smiling faces.. Sometimes" 1971' the Undisputed Truth. Hannity/Homan/Miller/Vance/Bondi/Melohnia/Patel/Grassley/Abbott/Rubio/Gabbard/Collins/Cruze/Putin/GHISLANE..., yuperrr.. "can you dig it"? You better.
Yours here, Mad, reminds me of some of the best parts of "October Sky."
You’ve explained why I’m an atheist today.
As am I or as Ally says, she is a non-theist.
Yeah Mike, like no shit!
My own mother used to make derogatory (but I always thought jealous) remarks about one of my friend's mothers who worked full time. My friend was an only child. I was one of four children. My mother gave up a bookkeeping job after marriage.
Mine gave up a job as a human computer when she got married. Didn't go back to work until the end of my freshman year in college. My two younger sisters were 16 and 14 then. When she returned to work, she learned scientific programming on the job, and did well at it until forced to retire at age 75.
Christina, My mother worked at the telephone company before she was married...yes, one of those ladies plugging in all those wires. She never worked after that and most women in our neighborhood did not work, so they did have time to have coffee or tea and chat. My mother was expected to have a meal ready at 12:15 and 5:15 when my dad arrived home from work. She was also obsessed with having a clean house.
Great character like your mother, Michele, in Richard Russo's "Nobody's Fool."
Vivid Gary; And truth I have no doubts. I can relate, regardless all that being the 'apple pie, god, love, and country' narrative maga leadership falsely profess. Yet despite evidence to the contrary there's that percentage that has taken it hook, line and sinker. Maddening is it not ?
Yep
Ditto Gary; We must be similarly afflicted.
More bad news on that score:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/08/15/university-of-chicago-cutting-back-admissions-in-several-phd-programs/
Trump wants to cut TRIO, Upward Bound, other programs. "These programs help poor students with college. Trump wants to pull the funding
August 22, 20255:05 AM By MichaelVasquez
"https://www.npr.org/2025/08/22/nx-s1-5501580/trump-proposes-cuts-programs-poor-students-colleges
Consider state schools. Penn State eliminated about 7 campuses. The whole system is under water. Republican state legislators don't want to fund any public education.
"Legislatures Require Colleges to Cut Degrees in Low Demand
Republicans in multiple states passed laws this year pushing institutions to ax academic programs that graduate few students—and requiring them to appeal to state leaders if they want exemptions. Faculty lament the trend.
By Ryan Quinn" “Campuses are forced to respond to legislative mandates that have arisen from a narrow understanding of what higher education is,” said Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association. Students who pursue public higher education will be “getting a reduced version of what a degree should be,” she said.."
Indiana Public Universities to ‘Voluntarily’ End 19% of Degrees
Ahead of a new law setting a minimum number of graduates for academic programs, institutions have vowed to cut or merge more than 400 undergraduate and graduatedegrees.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/curriculum/2025/07/02/ind-public-universities-voluntarily-ending-19-degrees
West Virginia University (WVU) eliminated numerous academic programs in 2023 and 2024 due to budget shortfalls, including degrees in world languages, mathematics, and public administration, affecting hundreds of students and leading to faculty layoffs. More recently, in early 2025, Governor Morrisey's executive order banning state funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives prompted West Virginia State University to review its programs, although WVU was already closing its DEI division.
WVU Program Cuts (2023-2024)
In late 2023, WVU's Board of Governors approved cuts to academic programs and faculty to address a $45 million budget shortfall, a plan informed by a cost-cutting consulting group.
What was cut:
Nearly three dozen academic programs were eliminated.
Specific examples include degrees in world languages, mathematics, public administration, and art history.
Some programs were merged, such as those in theater production.
All world languages were eliminated.
Some graduate programs like biomedical sciences and coaching were terminated in late 2024.
Reasons for cuts:
A significant budget shortfall, partly due to decreased state appropriations and tuition dollars.
Declining student interest in certain programs.
Impact:
Over 400 undergraduate and graduate students were affected.
169 faculty positions were eliminated.
Other State Actions
Governor's Executive Order:
In early 2025, Governor Patrick Morrisey issued an order that prohibits state institutions from using state funds for DEI staff, procedures, or programs.
Impact of the Order:
This led West Virginia State University to review its programs and consider potential cuts.
Key Takeaways
The program cuts at WVU were significant, impacting numerous programs and faculty.
The cuts were driven by financial challenges, with a $45 million budget shortfall being a primary factor.
A recent executive order from the governor targeting DEI initiatives is now also influencing some state institutions' program reviews.
West Virginia University looks to cut nearly 3 dozen academic programs, including all world languages | Higher Ed Dive
Aug 11, 2023
Higher Ed Dive
Flagship public universities likely to cut more humanities, staff
Dec 15, 2023 — – Lisa Di Bartolomeo, West Virginia University Spokesperson Alecia Lipton said the proposed reductions are in response...
Louisiana Illuminator
WVU budget cuts: Which programs and faculty were cut
Sep 15, 2023
Mountain State Spotlight
Show all
This should be a top tier post! It’s so important! The magats hate education and educated peeps, since as we know, educated people tend to be liberal. Thanks for posting.
Daniel, what is happening is 'built to fail'.., and it will. We Americans have had it pretty good because we made it pretty good. We're not about to settle for driving Lada Grande's. And the Goon-Squad recruits lathered with tattoo's, limited reading skills, zero personal skills, an F-word augmented vocabulary, are in for some surprises as they get thrown under the bus one by one two by two. This administration, if you want to call it that, is pathetic.
Mad, all the Goon- squad recruits would be 'Involuntarily Committed' if a Psych team every had the chance to do MH reviews.
Same Old Serpent Plutocracy.
I had no idea that Lada had a Grande model. Must be India's contribution to the world's luxury car models.
Thank God I graduated from college in 1966, before any of this crap started. I was at the University of California, and except for when Reagan was governor, the state wouldn't stand for such antics.
I recall as a teen in 1960's Ohio that California seemed to be leading the nation with innovative education. Then Reagan and the anti-tax revolt happened. Who really gained and who suffered due to that?
I went to a dedicated "Liberal Arts" school, and I cherish the foundation it provided for me. It didn't just top up our memory banks, it was literally "consciousness expanding", both in the sense of day to day understanding and skills. It was based on the Robert M. Hutchins "Great Books" program, where we read (decidedly Western) "original sources" from ancient Greeks to modern, even some popular theories that historically did not pan out. It was sort of a tour of the evolution of Western modern understandings. That tool is useful in nearly any set of circumstances. There was, however, a big fight with the board of trustees who wanted to install a more conventional program. The best of professors were summarily fired or resigned in sympathy, and a few years later the school closed, though the program exists in some form as an option in a larger university. I was lucky to complete my degree when I did.
I take it, you didn't read HRC's Letter today? (Actually, I have no idea what you mean by antics)
All you cite here, Daniel, comes via ALEC.
Pretty sure you already know this, the American Legislative Exchange Council, but others wandering here may not.
It, along with the Heritage Foundation, are the two biggest far-right workhorses ensuing from the Powell memo (of Aug. 23, 1971).
ALEC and Heritage are both enormously well-funded, with ALEC having the job of lobbying state legislatures -- originally to kill humanities in schools, then to kill state funding, and since, as you chronicle, to kill programs and departments.
Diabolical, but very-well orchestrated and coordinated. $$$-greased.
Our society will suffer for this.
Not that you do, but let’s not forget or brush aside people with disabilities. Or more aptly put, people who are excluded because of societal infrastructure that’s designed for the majority.
"semi-racist" is the same as being semi-pregnant.
I believe both are a yes or no situation Bill.
Human behavior is extremely complex and we can easily go down the either or road and the end result is to isolate. No such thing as being semi-pregnant but there can be argument on whether a person is racist or not. And I emphasize “can” in this instance. Since we practice identification politics to the max and it’s either one side or the other, this mentality has done much to get us to the place we are at.
You said "semi-racist" Bill. It really is an on/off switch. Racist/not racist.
Racism is a chasm from identity politics. Hatred of the other in any form or shade of grey is what has gotten us here. No "semi" about it.
Yes ma’am
True story:
I moved to Syracuse NY in 1972. Things were still really heated up racially, at least in the North. So, there I was a 21-year-old Kentucky girl never having even gone to school with a black person. I was raised non-racist. One day I was pumping gas for my 1968 VW bug. A group of black guys showed up at the pumps. They called me every bad name for a white woman and then some. I was hurt and shocked that they would do this. I remember thinking "You don't know me. Why are you just looking at my skin?"
At that very moment I got it. All through every cell of my body I got it. Since then, of course, as a woman I have gotten what it means to struggle in a white man's world. Now add in being an old woman in America and I am really cooked.
Racism is not an abstract thing. It is cellular.
Perfect, Barbara.
State's Rights may have been a principle for Jefferson but since then it's just been used as a strategy for one thing or another. Strom Thurmond ran for President in 1948 on the States' Rights Party, but by State's Rights he meant Jim Crow. Trump is for State's Rights on Abortion and I am now for States' Rights on policing and cooperation with ICE or not. It remains to be seen whether we are moving toward dissolution of the Union.
And, may all the gerrymandering done by TX and on the docket for other red states backfire and be a total disaster as those who they thought would vote republican vote democratic.
In order for that to happen, every horror story of trump's disastrous occupation of the WH must remain visible with massive protests and inundating every member of congress and the media with the message that WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!! (ala the 1976 movie, Network but it's not for ratings, it's for survival of democracy).
Wouldn’t *that* be a hoot?
“I just need you to find me 147 more seats in Congress, Brad - and 15 more Senators! And 11 State Legislatures! C'mon, Brad, not gonna look good for you if I can’t get these seats, Brad!”
I've been watching a 2025 Netflix limited series "Hostage". Haven't finished the last couple of episodes, but there is a lesson of not giving up. If one gives into terrorism, it very simply never stops! We have a constitution that is/was supposed to be the guiding document of a people oriented (albeit imperfect) democracy. Once that is violated and there are no repercussions, then in fact we do sink into chaos with an authoritarian despot at the helm. The game is different today as nuclear weapons will undoubtedly be used as tools to garner submission.
In the meantime, I, as well as dozens of others, am capturing a few stories for my experience regarding the 2000 arrival of "The Lost Boys of Sudan" and the impact this special group of 3,800 former refugees (300 in Eastern MA) had on me over the past 2.5 decades. The hope, the good and difficult times, the entire journey we had and continue to have (now with the addition of the next generation) would never occur under the trump occupation. In fact, he specifically has targeted the S. Sudanese! I count my blessings each and every day that I know these families who have become my family. And I will always defend and support their rights and their well-being.
And there she is again; The little engine that 'could' - aka Megan Rothery ! Brava Meg !
School officially starts tomorrow so I won’t be staying up late and trying to be one of the first handful of comments to get views on the sheet. Part of me is grieving not being able to be active like I have been during the summer. I’ll just have to accept and be ok with a new normal during the school year ❤️🩹
This is not conservatism it's fascism...the felon child rapist hates everything good this country once stood for and hates the American people, even the magats...he wants blood in the streets and if he's not stopped he will have it!
Yet it is easier to defining how we got here by identifying "it's" roots in history. And it is Movement Conservatism. This is not a European societal virus. It grew up in America through hate of taxes, regulations Blacks, women and social welfare programs. And now, of course their ranks are advancing when led by a felon child rapist.
Damn it all! Why can't people understand demented fearless leader is no more than a Jack-in-the-Box?!? If someone winds him up enough, at a certain point, he will jump up and scare you. The real issue is, who is winding him up?
I fear that he is a symptom of how poorly D have defined the alternative. It's the billionaires who own elections now who are winding him up.
There are lots of people winding him up. All the project 2025 authors Steve Miller all the tech fascist boys like mask, Peter Thiel dudes over Google. Of course there’s Putin and Mitch McConnell and all those piece of shit senators and Congress people and of course it’s sedition is six on the Supreme Court. And you know what there are people we don’t even know their names but they’re rich and they’re powerful and they hate democracy.
Tell that to the 10 countries where he’s been involved in peace deals with three of them including 70,000 Buddhist monks from him Cambodia nominating him for a Nobel
Thanks, Megan! I use this every week!
Would you share your ideas on the best way to use it please? I live in a red, red state and everyone here is slavishly devoted to 47.
I live in a purple state (NC), and all 3 of my Congressional Reps are Republican. I still call and give my opinion. Short and sweet. We must let them know we are not asleep. That said, I quit calling for a while. First task, take care of ourselves.
Thanks to Megan, I also called Angus King this week, to thank him for standing up. Anyone who stands up needs and deserves our support.
I love what Anne said about sending support to those not in your own state. And while it’s disheartening and emotionally draining, keep reaching out to those red reps.
I don’t think we’ll see many big waves (like a major MAGA Congress member changing their opinions), however I think we can cause little ripples. I’m thinking staff members who hear the same thing over and over via voicemail, phone calls, letter after letter, email after email - maybe they’ll be a little more receptive each time they hear from us. Maybe they’ll talk more about our talking points to friends and family, maybeeee they’ll vote differently. I think we can cause ripples to push news organizations to be more honest and maybe even a bit accusatory about what’s happening. As a collective, our volume matters. And, at the end of the day, if we just annoy and overwhelm some staffers working for people hurting the average American, I’m ok with that too 🙃
I choose an issue each week and write a short email in defense of our democracy. This is sent to senators across the country. Sometimes, i focus on committee members.
Thank you for being involved!!
Involved in what exactly?
Wow ! Thank you for this. I'll check it out.
Yes, thank you. This is so sad in without doubt my last years for I’m 93. Oh I hope the country is safe from maga and on the right track of caring for its people before I’m 100.
🤞 hoping!! Thank you for being aware and active at 93! You’re phenomenal!!
why have you quit posting the link? How can a person who didn't jump on it early on find it?
I didn’t stop. It’s in my original comment but as a bit.ly so it’s shorter and easy to remember/less words more likely to be read
It turns out I have to turn off my ad blocker to get the link. I finally figured it out when coming to reply and seeing that "bit.ly" did not appear in your answer. I appreciate knowing how to get the link.
Oh! Does this one show?
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
Yes, it does. And I have downloaded the spreadsheet from your prior answer. Thank you!
Oh good to know! I wonder if it can’t be seen for others too then! I’ll adjust my normal comment
Am I opinion you should all stop posting here walk out of your house walk into the street and try reality. Do you know the real America where progress is being made every day
"There" she is; Right at the top of the stack, where she rightly belongs. Go Meg go ! Brava !
Your encouragement always makes me smile! Also fun timing, not many people call me Meg (I like it, just not many do), but my dad always did. He’s been gone almost 4 years now, but his birthday was 2 days ago, so when I read your “Go Meg go” it’s 100% exactly what he would say 💙💙
Megan , I agree 100%. However, the leadership of the Democratic party must have a plan as well.
Oh I 100% agree. We can also reach out to them right now to stress what we need and what we will vote for
Thank you for this excellent information. On my phone it says I do not have permission to share or edit. How do I get your permission? Thanks.
Great question! You can just copy the link you have on your webpage and share it anywhere. You can also share the bit.ly/Goodtrouble link, or this longer one -
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
Thank you for helping share it! Whatever helps people be extra loud right now! 🤞
Thank you!!! Here’s other information which needs to be passed along to as many influential people as possible:
Ideas for Offence & Defence of Democracy and protecting our people:
Offence:
https://substack.com/@anchorlightpublications/note/c-147588197?r=73vlo&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Defence:
https://substack.com/@lisawinfeld/note/c-114133014?r=73vlo&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Let’s embrace Heather’s view of democracy where, really, all are equal.
In this world, schools are strongest teaching skills to respect all others – all, so we can be open to new things, places, rising above all labeling, stereotyping.
Not only open, but generously explorative, growing literacy for more analogy, more far-reaching comparisons, enjoying serendipity, being patient with contradictions, able to house complications in wider, more apt contexts.
Life can be good in a world of equality. We can be proud of diversity. We can include wider reference points in novels, memoirs, histories, essay collections, biographies, and books celebrating travel, film, and music.
Control, having others control us – like the police state Donald covets, like the world of the rich and powerful preying on underage children, as Donald’s closest friends did for years – has its roots in schools of control, such Diane Ravitch chronicles in “The Language Police.”
Phil, great ideas and vision for democracy and our educational system!
However it’s hard to ignore the fact that the person now occupying the Oval Office is a mob boss.
As Heather states:
“It is wild to see Republicans cheering on a president who publicly threatened a CEO and stated openly that he shook the man down for a major share in his company.”
¿What about @timothySnyder's idea of a shadow government so Americans can see how reasonable policies can be made through conciliatory deliberations among diverse factions?
Yes the idea has merit, though I am increasingly in favor of relegating the current regime to the shadows ASAP.
Here here... or is it hear hear ?
Hear, hear. To show agreement with the speaker. And I'm all for putting this regime in the dustbin of history. We have a lot of trials to face in our efforts to regain freedom, and in the courts, to put all these mother******s away.
I use it so little, the correct method escapes me in the rare moments James. I do know this; All herein know what I mean. Thanks friend ~
Yes, James. Whether is tis "here, here" or "hear, hear", we know "where, where" needs to go without collecting two hundred dollars.
Both, hear and here….and now!
D4N, technically -- per the gospel according to GOOGLE -- the term is "Here, here." I willfully make the mistake of saying "Hear, here!" In that mis-quote, I intend to say: "Listen to what this (wo)man has to say, right here, right now."
Merriam-Webster, the Cambridge dictionary, MasterClass, and WordSmarts all say 'hear, hear' is the correct usage. Google? I think not.
On second thought, your "Hear, here" is just the ticket.
Dems could hold a shadow convention, Ned.
Get speeches -- three, four minutes tops, each -- on all the fields for which cabinet posts stand. Showcase the great variety of Dem voices.
Then vote, ranked voting, for best candidate for each cabinet slot. Dems could run for two, three, or four cabinet shadow appointments, so if someone really beats the other Dems for one particular slot, those other Dems may have better luck for other cabinet positions.
In actuality, Phil, what I would die to see is that good conservatives (e.g., Senators Flake and Romney as well as Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger) participate so people can see how compromises work for democracies.
Totally agree, Ned.
I'd like to see outreach to Republicans include Dems funding decent candidates in all red districts -- and brining in the heavy artillery from the better-known Dems to support blue Davids facing red Goliaths.
Dems should do this as a conscious restorative, so Dems everywhere get closer to America's working classes. Cite some of the great novels, songs, and films connecting to what are local issues in red districts today.
And yes, Ned -- invite many Republican moderates to Dem mock convention for a shadow cabinet. Reach out. Respect those whom Dem elites have ignored for too long.
Well, with Dr Snyder's idea of a shadow government, like that in the U.K., the Democrats and decent Republicans can present a living, breathing political platform responsive in almost real-time to public discourse.
But, first, the Democratic Party needs to boost its young politicoes, including David Hogg, to slot them into leadership now lest the once-again big blue wave turns out to be a baby blue ripple.
What the shadow cabinet can do, as you aptly suggest with your great idea, Phil, is start mainstreaming traditional (i.e., cooperative) conservatives. If the Democratic Party is bold enough to do that, we may see a new polity that recalls that best of mid-century politics.
Phil, I love that idea of a shadow convention to create this cabinate; let in decent G.O.P. thrown-aways like Reps Kinzinger and Cheney (even Lawler), Mrs McCain, Senators Romney and Flake. There would be live debate. The most important task ahead is to get the message out to red-country that we in blue states of mind--can include R.I.N.O.es--understand their hurt and anger. That while they have been left behind, policies did that, not the republican experiement we seek to keep.
Yesss, but we Democrats have to invest in the Organizational infrastructure it takes to run an effective Shadow Government.
In this day of didgital pamphleteering, should not take too long to do.
Trump ran a shadow government (ok not so much in the shadows) all through Biden's term. He hosted foreign strongmen, controlled state registration, and clearly told the Congress what to do.
Powerful point, there, Kay. Thank you. What I would like to see is a shadow cabinet with explicit, parallel lanes of intellectual authority as the real cabinet so people can see an institutional response, if apparent only, to these policies.
Who describes his extortionate victory as "a Great Honor".
An unrepentant crook.
Trump does.
Great question, rhetorical or otherwise.
Let Them Hate as Long as They Fear by Paul Krugman NYTimes 3/7/2003
Why does our president condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials? Has 'oderint dum metuant' really become our motto?" So reads the resignation letter of John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat who recently left the Foreign Service in protest against Bush administration policy.
"Oderint dum metuant" translates, roughly, as "let them hate as long as they fear." It was a favorite saying of the emperor Caligula,
https://www.mit.edu/people/fuller/peace/oderint_dum_metuant.htm
J L, I just read the transcript of Paul Krugman's substack with Philips O'Brien he posted yesterday https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-with-phillips-obrien?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=2bqjpz&triedRedirect=true
I was just thinking about it as I saw your post.
"Let them hate as long as they fear." Obviously, the entire Republican Congressional delegation is in fear of DJT and now he has an Army of brown shirts thanks to Trump's OBBBA.
O'Brien here, GJ, super good on alliances and adaptability. Thank you.
The Krugman/O'Brien piece- fascinating reading! Thanks very much for sharing!!
great vid.
Paul has been writing some seriously good stuff. I've grown a renewed affection for his work.
I hate those that try to rule by fear. I have no respect for those that illegitimately installed the corrupt Judges and who have kept Gerrymandering the curse of a legitimate democracy. I will do my best to show no fear (for me, but due fear for others), and no respect for any of their strident supporters.
Oh now they’re corrupt judges. Oh my LMFAO. They weren’t corrupt judges when they struck down this administrations policies. …. In a small district and try to make them National. Now this is perfect now that they’ve ruled against you now all the sudden they’re corrupt. Omg. You folks are pathetic
The crisis is NOW
Our educational system turned to shit from the The day, the department of education was founded… and ever since then our public education system has gotten worse from being first of the world upon its founding to 19th in the world 30 years later to 40th in the world today. If you call that progress, we don’t want any. go sell it elsewhere
Back again, BS troll.
I read "Our educational system turned to shit from the The day, the department of education was founded" and then stopped, as you do to Heather's writing. No need to go further. Of course, you must know that only the states have any control of curriculums in schools (Oh I forgot that laws mean nothing to you MAGATs). The real destruction of education in the country is done by education rules in shithole red states (your idol's terminology), where I suppose you live.
This troll may live in Moscow, Barney -- where Putin has many such living.
And as he uses AI English, could be not a he but a they: multiple trolls under one moniker.
Any other delusions that allow you not to believe facts.
Here’s a good citizen from DC talking about the Trump invasion
https://x.com/stoiccountryboy/status/1958917390466687460?s=57
Turn on your sound
Lmao. Deluions again phil? A human American combatant! Every state suffered a decline in education. Mostly in blue “let’s inculcate them” with meaningless wokeisms. 40TH in the world now. But school choice is resurrecting education. Yeah baby
Define "woke." Not words you think are "woke," what actually is it. Define it.
You actually believe that? Try getting school choice funded nationally?
Try having a 50-50 faculty staff instead of a 95 five faculty staff.
You are so lost. Why have we gone from 1st to 40th in education in the world? Kids all over the country. Don’t know how to add. Subtract multiply divide write read speak. In fact, go ask some questions of your student, what’s the preamble to the constitution? Who did we fight in the revolutionary war? How many senators do we have in this country how many congressmen? Even as recent, as who did we fight in the second world war? And the best one I’ve tested myself what year was 911. I’ve asked 100 high school graduates and not one of them could give me the year. Do you know why because history is no longer being taught in school?
I did not read beyond "You actually believe that?" That was enough bullshit for the day.
So you’re one of those jurors that makes up his mind without hearing from both sides of a case. Perfect. Lmao
You people are supposed to be the informed, not the uninformed !!
Have you seen the actual statistics of the US decline in educational quality? Do you realize that 95% of instructors and professors are Democrats? If you would like to do five facts, do so at your own peril
Yeah, well guess what in this case bullshit is real so you need to read it because it’s total common sense which is what your people like to try to destroy. Like men participating in women’s sports. Bro, you don’t like to read that either? You people are supposed to be the empty informed that the uninformed
If you're going to make assertions as objective fact, it's a good idea to cite articles and reputable sources. We all know that schools are funded by a state's/county's tax base. I live in a high tax county; our schools are always found to be excellent; we offer bilingual programs in French, Spanish and Chinese; International Baccalaureate programs; gifted and talented classes; and an excellent English As A Second Language instruction. I know - I taught in this system. And teachers are paid handsomely while delivering a quality education. Students have always been subject to experimentation or culture wars. Republicans have assailed public schools by supporting vouchers, which divert money from public education to subsidize tuition at private and religious schools. An article in The Hechinger Report, a nonpartisan journal, declared vouchers a failure. Eventually schools and VOTERS in Utah, Florida and Arizona rejected vouchers. Then you add the racist origins of school choice and the denial of Black students to attend well funded schools, which certainly impacted their educational success. There is also the distrust fueled by right wing groups with wild accusations about teachers grooming their students to be gay or Marxist. Who can teach or learn in that environment? Schools are only as good and students are only as successful as the communities, states and country value universal education and provide well-supplied libraries and a curriculum that includes arts and science, physical education, etc. (some of these programs have had to be eliminated due to lack of funding.) We should give the same to all children. (Could we add social media preoccupation, poor diet and lack of exercise, more interest with fun and less with the hard work of study?) A consumer/celebrity culture, which we embrace, can be quite distracting.
Let me add that an entire high school is devoted to industrial and other trades in my county; we recognize that not everyone needs to go to college, but we make sure our students are prepared for future employment......
Perfect! Used to be in ALL HIGH SCHOOLS. They had shop …auto repair, electrical/plumbing…and other technical curriculum.
Don’t give me the bull about blacks not allowed…Racist.
Well, then you need to go back to your history books. Why did the Supreme Court issue Brown?
Also, please remove any intimacy from your responses. I am not your dear. I hardly know you. What credentials do you rely on to inform your opinions?
Life on the streets not history books written by people who are dead a long time ago. Try to live in today Stephanieita lot more effective
And it’s real
Looks like you got nothin'. You addressed not a single argument, fact or point I made. How come??? You're like a kitten hissing at everyone who passes by.
Wow do you make this up as you go along? Watch and learn now that money will go directly to the schools instead of useless bureaucrats.
And school choice WITH FUNDING will make all the difference. It only failed because the gov didn’t want to take Ed from public schools Logic m’dear.
And all that curriculum re: diet EXERCISE education etc is being restored by RFK.
You still didn't provide me with any sources, statistics, studies, etc. I did, plus the historical record is available if you are willing to spend the time reading and learning rather than hurling rude comments. You never addressed any of the points I made. Debate is acceptable and welcomed because it should encourage critical thinking skills, evaluating evidence with clear articulation. You have not. You merely provided your opinion. (And RFK can't force anyone to follow better dietary and lifestyle choices.) It matters what you believe; any changes are possible in the presence of sufficient knowledge. And you are not providing sufficient knowledge, only your anger. I know you wish to be respected and listened to. And I appear to be the only one who engages with you. (Please provide a source when you say that govt didn't want to take Ed from public schools.....). Because when the facts change my position should change..... Use your aggression in constructive ways.
Idiots like Trump and you are conned into believing that school curricula are set by the department when it's actually the individual states who are responsible. They are the ones who are responsible for turning out a generation of morons like you and Trump and the whole MAGA horde.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/3-claims-department-education/story?id=119724050
U. S. states also, Russell, vary greatly.
Some allow municipalities much more flexibility in curricula.
But, too, all face onslaught of far-right, coordinated, grossly-well-funded ALEC lobbying. That's the American Legislative Exchange Council, set up following the Powell memo (issued Aug. 23, 1971).
Please, Russell, note, too, the possibility that Rick Sender may not at all be an individual, but several, all with Russian names, all paid for by Putin, all working as a team with one moniker, all using AI English.
I wonder what justice Powell would have thought about Trump, a president who thinks nothing of acquiring a government stake in a private corporation; a president who tries to bully private companies into complying with government policy. I wonder what he would think of Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, as the person nominated to reform the US education system. Not much I suspect.
As for poor Rick, I don't know, you may be right. But if this is typical of Russian interference in US politics then I don't think you anything to fear. The views he expresses here are archetypical MAGA opinions, the kind one sees in those humorous YouTube videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wr7XjbfKDc
Thanks for the video, Russell.
Nice to be reminded as to the output of too many U.S. schools.
You are completely full of shit and so are your comments. We don’t want any of your twaddle, go sell it elsewhere.
Well it’s of more use here as EVERYONE ELSE…AKA all the rational people you don’t find here ALREADY KNOW.
KHRAEUPH UPB/TPOUPBD/D
lol
There's my little doggie, Hi Little Doggie!
Yapping away about the Department of Education, yip, yip, yip.
Like the little dog in the window barking away at what it doesn't understand, so yips my doggie.
You gonna quote the Pharaoh again? LOL
In Florida, there are more and more Charter schools. A state decision to allow this. With a Dept of Education, there can be established academic norms for teaching and the Constitution's separation of Church and State can be respected. We are now seeing the effects of the dismantling of a strong Dept of Education. All countries with high academic results have strong, centralized Depts of Education.
Thank you!
Asshole! 🤣 You didn't bother reading what she even said!
Rick Sender, what did you have for lunch yesterday?
Rick was busy eating his own poop.
Liberals. Not very filling though. Pretty hollow…not a lot of nutrients
Not an answer. Just answer, no snark.
Still waiting for your answer Steve I gave you my response to your ridiculous statement. I’m not using my words I’m using the public’s words, and I’m using the publics telling you the story with their wallet and their checkbook.
https://t.co/HtRM61q35y I’m offering this in peace and hopefully this will help
Answer what ? what I had for lunch. . Do you have anything important to relevant to ask me the bears upon the the majority of Americans in this country? I'll wait.
The history of the USA and its rise as an economic and especially as a technological power is a VERY clear story of the power of diversity and immigration.
So many immigrants, non-heteronormative, and otherwise outside of the mainstream folks have added to the unparalleled creativity, inventiveness, and just plain greatness of this country.
Destroying that openness to new ideas will destroy what has made this country great.
When was the last time you heard of a game-changing idea or technology from Hungary (Cheetolini’s wet dream state)?
When I think of innovation, Putin’s wretchedly stupid, corrupt, polonium-filled kleptocracy never comes to mind. I do think, however, about Ukrainians now manufacturing their own accurate drones and long-range missiles. Something about both diversity and urgent necessity, perhaps.
Idiot! If Clinton didn’t majorly f up….we WOULD NOT EVEN BE HAVING THIS CRISIS!!!1.
Same with Biden at the border. If Biden didnt let in milllions unvetted, ice would be normalized again. Uh oh. Facts ….shit.
Assholes always gotta capitalize to show others they're just assholes.
Go sit on a Ukrainian trident, Rick.
Good one. Assholes are the people that allowed 15 million illegal immigrants into this country unvetted. In the asshole who by mistake disarmed Ukraine in the mid 90s guess who that was. And he was a great president, but he made two big mistakes. Once again, ignore if you’d like, but we would not be in this position is not for Bill Clinton
I practiced law in Silicon Valley for several decades. About one-half of my clients were immigrants. They were all entrepreneurial. They came from everywhere: Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil and more. They started companies, one going to more than $1 billion. This war on immigrants is misguided. We need those people. Look at Japan, Germany and the Scandinavian countries where the population is growing old. They actively "import" younger people as workers. We are no different. We are paying the price for our racism. And along the way we are slipping ever so quickly into fascism. Los Angeles, D.C., Chicago - what's next? San Francisco? Boston? Denver?
Not only a war on immigrants, the ultra-rich, and the repugnant politicians they bought and paid for are waging war on the rest of the country. The white evangelicals, the racists, and the misogynists will be placed in positions of power to brutally enforce the wishes of the ultra-rich, and the remaining population will suffer while the fascists continue to loot the resources and treasure of our nation.
It is good to see HRC start to focus on the evil that is the Republican (fascist) party.
I agree with you 100% - the oligarchs, manipulating the racist Christo-fascists, are in control. I have written to a number of candidates for national office imploring them to strike a different chord. This is one of those letters:
August 22, 2025
Representative Pamela Stevenson
702 Capital Avenue, Annex Room 460
Frankfort, KY 40601
Re: How to defeat Republicans and take back our country
Dear Representative Stevenson:
Thank you for your email info, but you have not laid out your battle plan, your strategy for garnering votes, particularly of those Americans in their 30's, 40's and 50's, whose futures are now on the line.
Your run for the Senate can be a runaway landslide. Why? It is because you have a Unique Selling Proposition that is going to spread like wildfire. What is it? It’s a new NEW DEAL. I’m 85 years old and I prospered as a result, in large part, of the New Deal economy. I’m now retired with money in the bank, I’m debt free. But, your case is different. The case is different for tens/hundreds of millions of Americans now in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s – because the oligarchs have stripped $40 trillion out of the U.S. economy over the past forty-five years, chances are excellent that you and those in those age ranges will not get Social Security or Medicare, or in any amount that matters. This is devastating. We’ve been watching the theft by the oligarchs take place right before our eyes. The Democrats need a new, fierce rallying cry, almost akin to “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The battle cry is for a new New Deal. Out with the oligarchs, they are the enemy. Republicans in Congress are their toadies. Our goal is to save the lives (figuratively) of those Americans now in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Fear of loss is one of the prime motivators to get people to take action. Vote Republican: lose your Social Security and Medicare. Read on. We need a “killer” of a message. You are the perfect person to launch this campaign.
Studies of the matter tell us why the oligarchs have won. They bought newspapers, television networks and radio stations and have used wedge issues (abortion, women's and gay rights advocates, minorities and immigrants) to lure ordinary Americans into voting against their own best economic interests. [Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" 2004 and Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War," 2020. Heather's book is an excellent treatise on the ever-present tension between capital and labor.] There's another study conducted by two Univ. of Kansas professors published in the Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, Critical Sociology, entitled, "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?"] Hate is the key motivator. Trump's voters wanted Trump to crush the immigrants, minorities, the gay and women's rights advocates, and more.
Reagan launched the war on the Middle Class, i.e., against New Deal policies, in 1981. And in the past 45 years, the wealthy have stripped $40 trillion out of the economy and will continue to do that unless we stop them, and we can. How? The argument has long been that the wealthy are entitled to those billions of dollars because they're responsible for creating jobs and wealth, giving little or no credit to the people. In a word, that is BS. There are now 900,000 people in the U.S. with a net worth of $10 million or more and 902 billionaires. If the U.S. population were only 3.4 million people, there would be no billionaires. But, we are a nation of 340 million people and as a result we have one million very wealthy people, i.e., 0.24% of the population. So, why should 1/4 of 1% receive trillions in aid while 99.76% of the population are exploited? And but for the people, they would not, could not, have that much wealth.
So, what to do? What's fair? Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and the person responsible for our having Social Security hit the nail on the head in terms of what government's purpose or function should be: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to facilitate the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life." Sound familiar? It should. Excerpted from Matthew 25: 34-46: 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, , I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ So, what about our "Christian" Republican politicians who voted for Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" that takes food, shelter, health care and more from "the least of these" and hands trillions of dollars to the ultra wealthy? Here it is: 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
I inserted the above into this space because we're in a fight with almost biblical consequences and there are many Christians who voted for Trump and MAGA Republicans. We desperately need to start promoting and advancing a new New Deal right now. A new New Deal – an economy of the people, by the people and for the people. With the ultra-wealthy, the oligarchs, continuing to extract trillions of dollars out of the American economy, there will be nothing left for the people your age. Those Americans now in their 30's, 40's and 50's are most likely not going to get Social Security and Medicare when they retire. This is very, very serious. In the last 20% of one's life, one incurs 80% of one's medical bills. That's definitely true for me (I’m 85.) More than 50% of the personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are the result of medical bills that ordinary Americans can't pay. We need to get this message out to the voters, particularly those in their 30's, 40's and 50's.
What's the battle cry that every single Democrat running to get elected to Congress or the U.S. Senate should shout? “Down with the oligarchs; up with the people.” America for Americans. We need a new New Deal, starting right now. That’s our message and your key to victory.
With best regards,
Richard Sutherland, J.D., Ph.D.
Harvard '73
4-year U.S. Army veteran
Could you get your marvelous letter here, Richard, to a few bullet points?
You could then use those bullet points in future posts -- with a link to your full letter here.
Love best yours on Frances Perkins, with next a ref to the gospel according to Matthew.
For the record, I am an atheist through and through. Still, Matthew 25: 34-46 is right on, as is Frances Perkins. I was brought up Presbyterian in Texas, so I did learn some Bible. It's because of Matthew 25: 34-46 that I believe that many of the Republican politicians are not really Christians, on the one hand, or that they are simply ignorant, on the other hand. Their voting for Trump's Big Beautiful Bill will consign them to eternal fire. They took from the needy and gave to the wealthy. That is low life to the nth degree. They are weaklings and cowards. My disgust for them is almost palpable.
True, the letter is rather long, Phil. The bullet-points idea is a good one. I could revise it and send it to those to whom I've already sent this letter. What do you see as the important points? For me, one of the most important is the fact that the billionaires and decamillionaires have that wealth because there is a large enough population to generate that much wealth. This is where Frances Perkins comes in - we're all in this together, let's ensure that everyone's needs are met. The older I get (now 85) the more I gravitate to her theory of government. I was amazingly lucky to have been born when I was and to get the breaks that I got, 12 years of college, grad school and law school for less than $17,000 in tuition. I had no money. I was one of seven children (#5). I'm now retired, debt free, own my home outright, money in the bank. That is in large part because of the NEW DEAL economy, destroyed by the oligarchs.
A masterpiece Richard.
EASY. stop the hate AND have a f ing agenda.
I agree. See my response above: war against the oligarchs and white Christian nationalists who want a theocracy in place of a democracy.
Stop using the word oligarchs at all. First of all 90% of people have no clue of what you’re referring to and we don’t have any oligarchs here.
If we did, you wouldn’t be able to have a no kings protest, you wouldn’t be able to be printing what you’re printing right here on this thread… idiots.
The Democrats hired thirdway.org to tell them what words not to use, but you continue to use them to no avail
Racist of one of the words you should stop using because the minute you do your credibility is zero
Yikes. You poor suffering souls.
You FORGOT THE WIRD LEGAL IN YOUR DIATRIBE. OOOOPS.
Don’t seem to understand the difference. ?? Through legal checkpoints or viable visas or tps. Nobody on the right has any problem with that you morons just shut up. It’s illegal, unvetted criminals etc. So tell Congress to pop the limit and it’s done. Congress pal….not the White House.
As if that mattered to sociopaths. Domination and absolute power is ALL that matters. It turns out Bond villains are real.
It was true before Bond, James Bond. Who do you really think was behind the Civil War and what were their motives, besides enslaving fellow humans JL ? The whole of history repeats itself today. The moneyed educated class in the south wrote the playbook with nearly the same means and methods; They controlled the local information and gov't offices. Southern 'preachers' spread the gospel of the local moneyed class, lest they lose their largest tithers. They incited the local, far less educated masses, then gave them larger guns, an army and a false "cause."
What HCR has not mentioned and perhaps she has and I missed it is the northern business families. When I hear of someone who is named as a merchant in their write up now I think oh no! It’s the 1776 musical truth to power song from a Southern plantation owner challenging the duplicity of the Nothern colonies. The recent redo of the musical highlighted that and I think the director said she almost fell out if the chair while reading the trianglur trade song.
This was and is still part and parcel of our current problem.
Chris Collin’s of Patriot Millionaires is in his own way trying to change the concept of family trust funds.
So the elite do not and for some families do not live as we do. If one has a housekeeper no grocery shopping sometimes no cooking unless it’s a desire to not a need. Gardening can be design but not the weeding or pruning. There is no need for drivers license because one is driven. There is no need for a library card because one can just purchase.
There is a vast vat of folks from vets to farmers to even healthcare workers to teachers to frontline workers who have for several decades experienced trauma and PSTD from the events of this current century not only post WWII. The divisions were plied apart more by the folks HCR writes about today.
At least now I know what was going on as budget cuts and so much changed in my social service profession. It was almost destroyed. And the healing hadn’t yet happened. Look at the lack of professionals assessing the t president. Only Bandy X Lee MD and some of the very old folks like Judith Herman and Peter Levine, Gabe Mate, and others are behind her. And the voices of healers from diverse cultures also squashed. They are there if you can find them.
I was in East Berlin for a day. That was beyond enough to under stand tyranny. I can only hope for some reset and a true and better vision of our country.
I do so love your thoughts here Mary. Perhaps I'll spend some time another day sharing my thoughts on this share of yours. Please remind me if I fail to.
But what you liberals Don’t understand that history keeps repeating itself…. but humanity doesn’t change an effing thing. Wars wars wars. We never learn.
I think that unless and until we acknowledge that "The history of the USA and its rise as an economic and especially as a technological power is a VERY clear story of the power of diversity and immigration" has as its foundation the theft of Indigenous Lands with the attempted genocide of the Indigenous Peoples and the economy based on Black enslavement we CANNOT legitimately claim that power of "diversity and immigration" (that took a ton of constitutional decisions to establish that are now being wiped out by a SCROTUS that is ready to destroy the system of government) that got us to this point.
It's being Sunday morning, I'm happy to have you read from my sermon notes.
Although I was born in New York, all of my public schooling took place in Western Pennsylvania, in very white small communities. My education in math, science and the humanities was excellent, so I had no idea that my education in U.S. history was extremely whitewashed.
Only through close personal relationships with Black, Latino and indigenous descendants did I learn the true history of the U.S. There is plenty of cause for shame, and I feel that shame every time I think about our past as a nation.
It is easy for me to feel shame because shame is a primary operand in the evangelicalism I was brought up in. It is the default destination of all evangelical teaching. No wonder the evangelical-MAGA cult loathes DEI and "woke!"
But shame is not the point of remembering.
The point of remembering is to inspire and spur us to love and embrace the richness of our diverse heritage – and be better than our past.
Yes! I too grew up in Western PA and got the same kind of education that you did. I too had my eyes opened to the White washed version of American history that we were fed. I also believe the hatred of DEI, or “woke”, or whatever you want to call it, is based on the intolerable surfacing of repressed feelings of guilt and shame about the savage repression of indigenous peoples and POC. You bring clarity to the issue and your prescription at the end is perfect. Well said!
For both Dale and Mohave:
My father's parents got married in western Pennsylvania -- this was 115 years ago. It was in one of the mining camps south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river -- one which welcomed Slovak and Hungarian workers.
They were in their 20s -- she five years older than him. She'd left a village at the base of a castle in a Hungarian river valley all settled by Slovaks. She felts herself, mid-20s, too old to get married, too tall to get married, and too ugly to get married.
The Hungarian guy she met had come from Munkacs, in western Ukraine (also part of Hungary then). He was five years younger than her, six inches shorter, and also ugly.
Had three kids in Cleveland, St. Margaret's parish, where my grandfather, a carpenter, on his own built a two-story house, with front porches on first and second floors all across the front, and kitchen porch in back, leading to full backyard garden (cherries, gooseberries, currants, tomatoes, live chickens). Stayed married, in that home, till both died, two months apart, in 1964.
For both Dale and Mohave:
My father's parents got married in western Pennsylvania -- this was 115 years ago. It was in one of the mining camps south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river -- one which welcomed Slovak and Hungarian workers.
They were in their 20s -- she five years older than him. She'd left a village at the base of a castle in a Hungarian river valley all settled by Slovaks. She felts herself, mid-20s, too old to get married, too tall to get married, and too ugly to get married.
The Hungarian guy she met had come from Munkacs, in western Ukraine (also part of Hungary then). He was five years younger than her, six inches shorter, and also ugly.
Had three kids in Cleveland, St. Margaret's parish, where my grandfather, a carpenter, on his own built a two-story house, with front porches on first and second floors all across the front, and kitchen porch in back, leading to full backyard garden (cherries, gooseberries, currants, tomatoes, live chickens). Stayed married, in that home, till both died, two months apart, in 1964.
Phil, it is a very small world. For a few years, my family lived in Connellsville, a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad town on the Youghiogheny River that originates near the point where West Virginia wraps around the panhandle of Maryland, meanders through Southwestern PA and empties into the Monongahela at McKeesport.
We lived in an enormous Victorian house with push-button light switches on Carnegie Avenue across from the Carnegie Public Library, one of those granite biblio-temples donated to the city by Andrew Carnegie. When school was out for summer, I walked over to the library virtually every morning and read books while seated at tables sized for children. The librarians taught me how to use the Dewey Decimal System to find whatever book I was interested in. At noon, Mom would call and ask the librarian on duty to send me home for lunch. After lunch, I walked back over and read more until the library closed at 5:00.
My mom grew up in Connellsville. I lived in Wilkinsburg until we moved to Pittsburgh when I was 8 or 9 years old.
Mine, Dale, was the Dearborn Public Library, on West Michigan Ave.
A neo-colonial style building -- beautiful. I could check out a dozen books or more. Read them at home in suburban Dearborn. Which also had fine public pools in summer. Skating rinks in winter. And plenty of playgrounds for pick-up baseball.
So relatable Dale.
Bravo, Dale!
Well said…
Or maybe, “Amen”!
😊
No one is destroying inventiveness but liberals with useless woke education and art history degrees. Not to mention. How are we providing well balanced education when about 95% of faculty members are Democratic. ? ?
Especially in college. Ooooooops. This is what you TOTALLY IGNORE.
Well, 1st things 1st: ⚖️ hunt down and destroy the latter day Gestapo for I.C.E.'s continued harassment of🤬, without due-process for, Salvadoran immigrant el Sr. Kilmar Abrego García.🤢
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/24/who-is-kilmar-abrego-garcia-donald-trump-immigration-crackdown-el-salvador-uganda
What they’ve put this one man through — never seen such abysmal cruelty combined with complete fuckupism in my life.
We must never ignore the human, institutional and financial cost of all this sadism and bullshit. Andry Hernandez details his ordeal in a moving interview with Tim Miller after having been abducted and spirited to CECOT before finally being released in Venezuela.
As a gentle, slight, gay man abandoned to the cruelties of one of the worst places on earth reserved for terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers, Hernandez not only got out alive, but managed to befriend the 128 other Venezuelans he was thrown into prison with. “We came in as strangers, we left as brothers,” he told Miller. Now he’s suing the United States — a country he loves — for the illegality of his capture, loss of human rights and dignity, and torment he endured while there.
As a patriotic American first and foremost, filled with shame and embarrassment at how my once great country could treat this man (and so many others), and as an old gay guy, I am cheering him and his lawyers on.
Garcia is a pawn in corrupt sociopathic theater. We the people not only owe him legal rights; we allow these precedents at our own peril.
The government has more resources than Kilmar. Despite a rep of the government admitting in court sending him out of the country was a mistake 47 NEVER loses, and Kilmar is his pawn. He will never, never be safe as long as 47 & co are in power. Now they want to send him even further: Uganda.
I don't get how the government has any legal authority to deport anyone to anywhere except their country of origin.
Classic case of Trump's et al.s' severee case of L.D.S. (little dork syndrome).
Dr Bandy Lee has led a small group of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, intellectuals et al. in sounding the alarm about Trump's psychopathy.
https://bandyxlee.substack.com/p/how-to-emerge-from-our-current-death-f34
Dr Lee specializes in working with violent criminals to re-orient them, if possible, while in prison. Her work is a standard text-book on this subject. Dr Lee has paid a heavy price at the hands of people who, and institutions that, know better in their souls but remain too frightened and / or opportunistic to act on those principles.
True. I am hoping that Governor Moore sets up a security detail to assure this man is not kidnapped prior to his receiving due process. I rather think el Sr Abgrego García will be found entirely innocent and that all this frenetic scheiße is Team Treason trying to avoid looking bad or weak.
While looking abominable.
I watched the interview you spoke of. After hearing about all of Andry Hernandez' suffering, which infuriated and repulsed me on his behalf, I was struck by the man's gentle humanity AND by his willingness to forgive. I seriously wonder if I would have the strength of character Mr. Hernandez shows.
That interview was hugely emotional, mixed for me with feelings of anger, hope, and respect for that young man. An incredible example of how the positive human spirit, endures and survives. It did give me hope for the future, whether it will be in my own lifetime, I don’t know. Reading Heather‘s excellent review magnifies what needs to be accomplished to get to a better time.
I hope he wins “bigly”, cheering here also
I.C.T.T., thank you for a remarkably powerful story of a 'small' man standing tall in spirit.
Just listened to Joyce Vance and Allison Gill who covered the legal aspects of Mr. Abrego's "journey." They talked about the government's offer to send him to Costa Rica with refugee status where he and his family could live out their days in relative peace, but he had to "plead guilty to both charges against him" (I forget what those were!). The government also said when they found out he would not accept the deal which included pleading guilty, they would send him to Uganda.
Starts approx. at minute 11:20:
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/live-with-allison-gill-and-joyce?
The charges are extremely serious, and of course, false. People talk about Trump’s sociopathy, but those around him may have the same illness.
Oh they definitely do Terry; Most worse than him. He's just a useful "tool" for them and the coalition.
What will we do if they are successful in preventing free midterms?
Riot.
Such a coalition of hatred united against diversity, D4N.
Since most U.S. schools effectively voided themselves of humanities (following concerted lobbying by the far-right foundations set up after the Powell memo), Americans nurtured no awareness of the great novels, films, memoirs, and songs rich in this diversity.
They got instead the packaging, grouping, and categorizing by which testing taught all only impersonally to abstract and stereotype "others." U.S. elites could play these dead soul rationality games and enter the meritocracy fine. U.S. working classes not only got the shaft from its schools, but also for elites who offshored the millions of jobs, then additional betrayal by elite Dems who had zero humanities to see any of the working classes they abandoned.
And now, as you say, D4N: such a coalition of hatred against diversity.
Terry, I agree with D4N. Donald is a walking textbook of psychological disorders including antisocial personality disorder. However, he is also intellectually challenged. As such, he would have just been annoying or a burden on society, had he not been elevated to the White House. There, he is a danger, not because he's cruel, but because he's a tool.
The real dangers in the White House are Stephen Miller and Russell Vought. They, too, are sociopaths, but are not hampered by limited intellect. In fact, with their superior intellects and innate cruelty, they are using Donald to effect cruel actions against the groups they hate first, and eventually, everyone, if Donald remains in place.
I agree that Trump rates at least a chapter in an abnormal psychology textbook. Had he not inherited a huge fortune he would probably have been dismissed as just another annoying A-hole. Of course, without all the money, circumstances might not have allowed him to become so assholian. He seems to be a profoundly lazy thinker who lies about just about everything, and always gets away with it because he's so rich.
Yes Dale; At least a cautionary tome on dangerously pathological disorders of character and psychology.
Somehow entire segments of society can be egged into a sociopathic-like state. I can recall someone lecturing about family-man Nazi doctors who performed torture experiments on Jewish children. Whole societies become predatory, but generally at the narcissistic behest of a few powerful individuals. "Trump", a chosen family name, trumps up all his charges.
Amazing vid. Feel great for the 1st time in sooooooooo long. Thank you for the morale-booster shot, Lynell!
I felt the same, Ned. There are so many podcasts, etc., out there, it's hard to decide which ones to choose Glad you took the time to listen to Joyce and Allison.
I subscribe to Joyce Vance. There is too much material for me to keep up with everyone. I had skipped the vid., but your rec. impelled me to watch. Thank you for doing that, Lynell.
100%, Ned. I think the difficulty, at least for me, is the links/videos that are shared by Heather's readers end up being worth our time, knowing full well there are only so many hours in the day we can afford to spend!
Hi Lynell ! I tried to listen to it live with poor results. My gut feeling is that there were so many watching, that often strained the bandwidth capabilities. I see that sometimes with HCR's live views also, and trying to get a question in through the massive flood of the "chat" feature feels futile. That's both good news and bad news as I see it though; It means more and more are 'tuning in' - a wonderful thing I'm grateful for. It is a sliver of hope that they are getting through, and that's the best of hopes. For myself and hopefully others, I'll have to revisit the session via recordings. Thanks: It is just like you to share the link.
Evening, D4N! I, too, sometimes can't get through when trying to access a link. So frustrating! Thanks for trying. Allison Gill provided her own link if you want to try that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NasgqiJGKMo
I do agree with you; the more of us who tune in, the better...though most times I prefer to adopt Ally House's "View from the Back Row" approach - watching without trying to comment!
Will tune in later.
I can think of several other hunts that should come first my friend to strangle the beast first. And I know where they live. *For one, there's a mansion in Maine that needs burned to the ground owned by the grand master of project 2025 and so much more in this conspiracy. Other creatures live in Maryland suburbs. There are others, but we can get to them in turn. There is no other word for it; Conspiracy and a long term premeditated one at that. There are great financial costs to the nation to consider as well.
You're not being very clear here. Are you really advocating violence against people and property?
Too vague. I can see how one could conclude or wonder such. Take the sensible and chalk derivatives up to fatigue and anger.
My concern as well. Yet, I think that is where things will end up going.
It may, but that is what MAGAs are itching for. Civil wars are ugly no matter who wins.
Oh, I agree. So, we have to be prepared, should that evil eventuality ensue, to grit our teethe and gut it out by crushing the violent M.A.G.A.s without mercy while extending a warm welcome to the non-violent ones.
Ned..."Let’s embrace Heather’s view of democracy where, really, all are equal."
Let's not, because it just ain't true. When I was working with companies in the old East Block (while Browder was buying up USSR company shares), a Polish writer explained in his writings to his readers that they had better understand the "Democracy does not mean Equality". Adam Przeworski argued extensively that democracy does not automatically produce equality, especially economic equality. He contends that while democracy theoretically gives equal rights and opportunities to citizens, actual outcomes are constrained by preexisting social and economic inequalities. These inequalities often generate political inequality, as those with more resources can exert greater influence, and this dynamic tends to reproduce economic disparities. Those who did not head his words were flattened by the oncoming "Democracy" steamroller and are the root of some of Eastern Europe's continued issues with Democracy. We are also dealing with those inequalities in America at this very moment. Recognizing the root of the myriad in-equalities in the "US social system" may be the route to peace in America. Without first recognizing the divide and fixing it (I think as President Biden tried) there will be no real Democracy in our America.
Of course "democracy does not automatically produce equality," bruce.
Great schools, along with access to health care, clean environment, jobs, and voting rights (goodbye gerrymandering) will, however, produce the imaginations necessary.
Phil, I really appreciate what you keep contributing.
Hear, here!
Phil, I too want believe in what you say, but look around you my friend. So many inequalities in so many "Democratic states". All of those factors have still not counteracted the greed and avarice inherent in so many of us. Why? Even we were talking about the excesses which House members allowed and gave themselves over those they represented. There's something that smells like dead fish...
Democracy in and of itself can easily result in a tyranny of the majority, thus the US was conceived of as a constitutional democratic republic that attempts to defend individual rights as well as rights of association and the common weal. The founders were wary of mob rule. Lincoln attempted to repair the inherited abridged view of equality in the new nation, conceived in and dedicated to the proposition that all men (sic) are created equal. Equal protection under law has been incorporated into the Constitution, but how well do we defend it?
Lincoln's take ion democracy was to be neither a slave or a master. My take less eloquently is don't be a friggin' bully.
Or a friggin' control freak. We have 'a way', we all agreed then and now, except for the one's with their fingers crossed behind their backs, who demand 'their way' or no way. I say give them one island in the Carribean and one PT boat for protection.
This is where y'all remind me of (my limited understanding of) John Rawls. https://youtu.be/EM5G-cXH_9M
Unfortunately, a "Plan" is not a "Result" in my world. As good as the plan might be it ceases to be THE plan as soon as the action starts as long as the opposition isn't as f**ing dumb as the DNC.
I get where you're coming from there bruce. But could it be that there's more to learn in all that ?
Exactly, bruce. But here you prove my point.
When we dehumanize schools, we get elites blind to the inequalities you cite. We get elites who think the only way to get into the meritocracy is by following all those deadly conceits built into testing.
And they're deadly conceits because they elevate all the most impersonal of rationality packaging. They stress linearity logic, which is exactly opposite the nuances of opening up more widely, as essaying allows. (And if tests have "essays," they're typically the AI and machine gradable formulaic, only good for producing more zombies.)
Give up the friggin schools testing fixation, Phil. Or take it somewhere else where it’s wanted and more appropriate. Tired of seeing your constant derailment of whatever concrete political discussion is going on into your own fixation — at our expense. Thank you for your attention to this matter….
So many “kneecapped” before they get to the starting line for myriad reasons. Others are carried to the starting line on magic carpets. Some struggle mightily to get there and make it. The starting line is out of reach for many and the ones who make it race on, leaving the ones who couldn’t/didn’t in the dirt. The real race is actually run before many can walk or even know that there is a race.
I saw a great video a few (5-8 years back or so) that had a group of students (I believe it was one of those college intro courses that all freshmen are required to take; there were 50 or so participants). Everyone on the starting line to begin, and then there were 10-15 questions: Take a step forward if.... you are not the first person in your family to go to college. If you went to private school. If your family never needed food stamps or Section 8 housing. If you do not have to work during the school year. If you come from a two-parent household. If you do not have to work during the school year to afford school. If both parents have college degrees. If you own a car. (and some others I've forgotten).
It was astounding; at least 10 had taken no steps, and most of the rest were scattered between 50-90% affirmative. There were 5 that had taken all the steps.
They trundled back to the classroom, and the professor asked what they had learned from the exercise. The first person (one who had taken all the steps) blurted out "Privilege is a thing." Sadly, not everyone agreed.
I was the first person in my family that I know of to have gone to college, but benefited from many forms of privilege nevertheless, most obviously one of race. Privilege arises in part from random circumstances, and sometimes from admirable action, though I think, far less often than claimed. Double-standard privilege is corruption, and this regime starkly embodies it. Privilege is a form of power, and power tends to corrupt. We can't adjust all of the circumstances that burden some more than others, such as inherent ill health, but we can, as reasonably honest and just human beings, at the very least cooperate to increase justice in our human-made societies, and remedies to the natural slings and arrows flesh is heir to.
OMG... How I wish you could find that ! If we 'ever' get back to requiring middle or high school civics, something like that should be required viewing or experiencing, with thoughtful essays required.
For good measure, and 'not' to hold myself out as totally unique and deserving of any special consideration, a 'few' cautionary pages could be added about factual life experiences over 20 years or so regarding how life in general - despite best and honorable efforts, can go very upside down; A fictitious nom de guerre added of course.
What a clever way to demonstrate my point. Thank you,
And, JD...The cost of knowledge is going to zero as the capabilities of AI increase exponentially. Yet, the value of critical thinking, unique insights, and trusted sources remains significant in a world overflowing with inexpensive data. (Mustafa Suleyman + Helen Lee Bouygues). So where do the smart young people without the money start? Critical thinking and becoming indispensable in areas like:
• Quality and Trustworthiness: Free access does not always guarantee accuracy, bias-free results, or contextualization.
• Depth of Understanding: While surface-level facts are easily accessible, deep expertise, critical insight, and creativity still have value and may not be replaced by AI alone.
• Gatekeeping and Regulation: Intellectual property, paywalls, and privacy concerns continue to shape access to certain types of information.
• Skill and Application: Possession of knowledge is different from its application, strategic thinking, or original creation.
?????
I think there may even be value in the now antiquated notion of honor.
A president that acts with honor, worthy of honor would be very nice.
*JL, did you write that with a poker face ? Lol... I think we now know with certainty that one such should never be taken for granted; Ever cognizant and accepting of the fallibility of human kind. Paragons of virtue will always be a reach, perhaps too far for human expectation. That said.... Felons ? Hell no.
The major question, has Rupert’s bull horn bought into AI, I would say by the back door so far with the goal of a frontal assault.
What is RBH?
Could not find it, sorry
This is why it is also important to provide support to adults as well as to children. A parent who is struggling, perhaps working two jobs just to pay rent and put food on the table, has little left in time or energy to help the kids. The school day doesn't correspond to the work day, either. There needs to be more before/after school programs to accommodate this.
Yes, true, Kathy, as to what you say of much-needed programs.
But imagine an America where the rich were not so phenomenally greedy. Where, for their own benefit as human beings, and as citizens, members of communities, fellow inhabitants of environments, the billionaires would eagerly pay taxes befitting their fellowship.
Or are the lessons from mass testing just final and murderous: that there's nothing personal in life? -- that it's all but a neutered game, to get to the "top" (in test points or in income), to take as much as one can get -- and eff everyone below (down in test rankings, down in income level)?
Therein, "is" the war.
Economic Darwinism ! Which can, and has been overcome many times by social and educational programs. And I have many examples of how this country has benefited !
As far as (the real) Darwin goes, I notice that my teeth and claws are pretty pathetic compared to a big jungle cat, or even my pet dog. Many human traits work to advantage humans though, including what we think, what we make and what we care about. Social Darwinism is BS-pseudoscience that is slanderous to Darwin. And the apologists for human bullying are unlikely to acnowledge synergistic, mutualistic behavioral bonds between unrelated species.
Really ?
I thing the use of Darwin's name in sociopathic philosophies lends them a false legitimacy. Darwin's focus was on the emergence and persistence of whole species, and part of our success as a species is our capacities for complex cooperation and articulate foresight. We are so capable of imposing our whims on the world that we are clever enough to drive our own species into early extinction, but also clever enough (but are we willing enough?) to choose a wiser course. If not, "nature" will continue to "experiment".
As brilliant as he was / is, he neglected a major element of our law, as has the maga element. It is our credo in law to "pursue a more perfect union." The unspoken part of that is it was recognized as imperfect at the start.
Some people want to believe that perfection is something we lost and must return to. To be sure we can learn from the past, but the good and the bad of it, but time is a one way street and the traffic never stops. We may progress, retreat, go sideways, but never truly return. Now evolves from then.
We do know there are many fools about; I have to presume they had a few back then. Then was yesterday; What will be today ? What will I do.
THE question of the moment, no?
Aye brother...
Not so fast there, J L.
Isn't time only a one-way street only in testing, where all life collapses to linear logic only?
Doesn't it matter that human beings have memories, too, and that personal debts from the past well call out ever on?
Oughtn't more essay writing imbue more with respect for complexity, ambiguity, contradictions, layerings, and different drums such as Thoreau heard, a room of her own such as Virginia Woolf embraced, apart from the masses all caught in the congestion of freeways?
Obviously, and I consistently agree with you on that, and agree our circumstances and what we learn is extends into the past and informs our present. But Now is always on the move, and with Now comes the opportunity and necessity of choice, since even no choice is a choice; and with it, some measure of responsibility.
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
Thank you for quoting my late husband’s favorite poem. One I put in the Order of Service at his funeral. He was an optimistic realist, but no fool.
My understanding - is that living in a democratic society, a citizen has equal rights and opportunity, ("Equal before the law"), that does NOT mean they are 'equal '- that is patently false, and that seems to be the basis for the big misunderstanding.
People also conflate "equal" with "same".
One size fits none.
That is correct. However, many people don't understand the distinction especially if you have just come out of a dictatorship as experienced by those under USSR communism.
Bruce, to a point, I agree with you. Paul Stookey was wrong. Where two or more people are gathered together, there is ... not love! There is inequality!
Our problems as individuals and as a society are: first, how we define inequality, then, how we address it.
If we define inequality as "some are better than others," and the majority of us do, we are off on the wrong foot. With that definition, we are either fascists who embrace that concept and try to enforce it, or we are (small d) democrats who try to make our society disadvantage the "betters" and advantage the "others." As we have seen over and over, both approaches breed contempt.
If we define inequality as "we are all different one from the other," the goal of a society should then become "how can we accommodate all the differences among us, ensuring that each of us succeeds in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness?"
The operand for that is not love, but respect.
If there's a name for that kind of society, I don't know what it is. I always fall back on original indigenous American culture as a model.
What is "love"? One way we often use the word is as in "I love chocolate" or "I love murder mysteries". That just means I like it. Liking can accompany loving, but not necessarily. Not in the (literal) Christian sense, not in the Buddhist sense, and not even in a psychological sense. Core to the more expansive sort of love is R*E*S*P*E*C*T, and and a sense of non-partisan compassion. It is respect for the rights of any human being as a human being, irrespective of their behavior; and certainly there are many behaviors a flat out unacceptable. As an abiding if frequently misplaced ideal of American Justice, even convicted criminals are presumed to have certain rights. I think that successful marriage thrives on mutual respect and understanding, not just so long as it is fun. The latter criterion can be just plain narcissistic, any might explain our very high divorce rates; although all of us are capable of poor choices, and a mismatched marriage deserves other options, such as repair or dissolution. It's a matter of respecting other's reasonable boundaries. The other's right to make >responsible< choices to pursue happiness.
And we should respect many things in life that are not human; dogs and cats, birds and bees; the integrity of rare landscapes. We should not trash a planet that belongs at least as much to posterity as it does to us, in our hour upon the stage. Malignant narcissism is our species own worst enemy.
As for equity, I don't know how we could ever deliver it perfectly given the vicissitudes of nature, but we can aim for do so a whole lot better than we do. Universal health care, accommodations for the disabled, equal opportunity at least comparable with the most equal of wealthy societies. What kind of society to we really want? For all of their flaws, the founders had to think pretty deeply about that one. The question is still open.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
- Lincoln
"I don't tell you what to say
I don't tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That's all I ask of you"
- John Madara, David White, performed by Lesley Gore
That conclusion deserves some critical thought. The problem example is the Comanche Empire. They treated each man according to rank in the war parties, they treated women as chattel still part of the war party, they had slaves, and they reveled in the superiority their horse culture gave them in battle against Plainsmen and woodsmen. I'm not so sure .....maybe your view of the first Nations is somewhat idealized. Maybe Inuit were closer to what you are saying, with their division of labor and constant fight against the elements. Now it gets a bit long. Here's what I found about Inuit culture in more detail in my sources:
Anthropological and ethnographic research shows that traditional Inuit societies are characterized by a strong egalitarian ethos, notably in their decision-making processes, social norms, and resource distribution.
Key Findings from Anthropological Studies
• Egalitarian Social Structure: Many Inuit groups, like the Copper Inuit, traditionally had no formal leadership but instead relied on elders and consensus decision-making. Social organization was family, kin, and band-oriented, focusing on cooperation and harmonious relationships. Their bands operated democratically, with collective well-being and resource sharing as core principles.
• Consensus Based Decision-Making: Important matters were decided via consensus, and everyone’s input—regardless of age or gender—was valued, ensuring that no single person dominated decision-making.
• Resource Sharing and Reciprocity: Survival in harsh Arctic conditions depended on the sharing of food, tools, and other essentials. Traits like fairness, humility, and cooperation form fundamental parts of Inuit social norms, and there is a strong ethic of reciprocity: those with abundance shared with those in need.
• Gender and Division of Labor: While traditional roles often divided tasks by gender (men hunting, women managing households), there was flexibility, and women could hunt or men could take on domestic tasks as needed. The naming system and language lack gendered distinctions.
• Social Norms and Values: Humility, collective responsibility, and equality permeate Inuit society, helping to prevent the concentration of power or wealth and maintaining social harmony.
What Is Their Egalitarianism Based On?
Egalitarianism was heavily shaped by environmental necessity—harsh Arctic conditions made cooperation, sharing, and collective decision-making essential for survival. The lack of economic incentives to accumulate wealth, along with social values that discouraged domination or hierarchy, helped maintain equality. Family, kinship ties, and reciprocal relationships were social mechanisms strengthening this ethos.
In summary, Inuit egalitarianism has not only been studied but found to be deeply embedded in both cultural values and practical survival strategies, with environmental and social factors converging to reinforce equity, sharing, and collective well-being
So, we need to be put into a harsh environment. Maybe Mother Nature is doing that now as she reacts to our abuse. There's hope!?
Admittedly, Bruce, my experience and relationships are with members of the Choctaw and Quapaw nations, classified by whites as "civilized" tribes.
The so-called "wild" tribes may have had their disagreeable internal social structures, but their cultures were governed by harsher climate conditions, necessitating a different approach to survival. Still, they maintained respect for the natural environment in which they lived.
We don't really live in democracy we live in capitalism. The root of everything is money...and white privilege. Also a fair amount of it's not what you know it's who you know, which is connected to the good old boy network that's all about rich white guys taking care of each other and exploiting women and people of color...
And yet, I have seen societies of which private enterprise is very much part of the picture, but is kept more civil by legal boundaries. Where, whether of not the people really come first, the clearly receive more attention; and where inequality is not so extreme as in the USA, or does not seem to be. For decades I have repeatedly heard the MSM report that some initiative is materially needed and/or is widely favored by the public but cannot get past this or that "powerful lobby". Isn't that corruption they are talking about? A blatant betrayal of government of, by and for the people? How can that be? How do we change it? Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us always, shame on us.
Bruce, the missing verb or verbs is/are “…tries or attempts…to give equal rights, privileges, opportunities to all”.
You have described the underlying philosophical driver of John Rawls's 'Theory of Justice' to a 'j'. That is NOT to say you are mimicking Dr Rawls but that capture the spirit of message succinctly (unlike the good Dr Rawls himself).
Phil, while a child spends much of their life in school and therefore is highly impacted by what goes on there, you cannot discount the role of parents and family. If home life revolves around watching funny cat videos, Duck Dynasty and Family Guy (I don't watch a lot of TV so don't really know what's out there), if the news is rarely, if ever, discussed and books are not read, the child's exposure to ideas and the thought process are limited. If home life consists of interactive discussions, watching educational documentaries, and a value placed on reading, travel, and education, the child will learn to think beyond the tests. There are exceptions, of course, but home life, especially in the early years, has a tremendous influence. It's not JUST school structure and tests (although I agree the way schools teach these days is baffling).
The roots of this lay much further in American History. With every move forward, the labor movement, Reconstruction, etc.. There has been an attempt to push back against it. The fascist base of this nation, from the Klan of old to the Magas and Proud Boys of today will never allow real equality. That's why you cannot compromise with fascism, you must destroy it.
-Mathew
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/
I 'liked' your comment since I can agree with the imperfections. Wallowing in them and throwing up our hands is not our duty.
I love you educated derelicts…. have you seen the thirdWay.org. Have you?
Consulting group by the DNC to help LIBS find an agenda and stop using vocabulary words that are either offensive or don’t work or are meaningless.
Check it out. Birthing person… murder suspect is now called an incarcerated person… don’t use fascism or use the word unhoused. LGBTQIA’s banned
Latinx …chest feeder. Many others. Alas you persist and keep losing voters..AND hearts and minds.
https://vtnews.ai/stories/5b04b53e-cc2f-4581-9bc9-181c90f3eaea
Hired by The Democratic Party. https://dcinboxinsights.substack.com/p/was-it-something-the-democrats-said
For decades since the war, America's openess and diversity has been one of its superpowers. Some 50% of its PhD's are earned by overseas students in some of the world's finest universities. many of them stay in the States and make a signifcant contribution.
You now have an education secretary who calls artificial intelligence 'A1', as though it were some kind of grading system and has vowed to dismantle the Department of Education in the mistaken belief that it controls schools' curricula.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2nC8hvpTmds
You should all be very, very worried.
The fool is thinking of an American brand steak sauce by that name, Russell.
Can one be so sure what was in her mind? My guess was that she had seen references to AI in official papers crossing her desk and thought that it said 'A1'. I really don't how a steak sauce could be a part of education reform but with this administration one cannot rule it out.
Phil, I really appreciate how you frame democracy as something lived and learned through openness, patience, and respect. What struck me most is your reminder that schools can either nurture curiosity and equality or reinforce control and fear. That tension feels central to our future. When we choose to cultivate imagination, empathy, and the ability to hold complexity, we’re building the habits of a freer society. It’s a hopeful vision, and one that resonates deeply with me.
Phil, speaking of education, my son is a Geology Professor at a university in Pennsylvania. He said the faculty received a message this week, stating that everyone would have to turn in their 2025 spring semester syllabus. We can all, here, guess why. My son said he was going to refuse, but then their union got involved and said mo way was that happening. Project 2025 is now attacking smaller schools and institutions which they think cant or won't fight back.
ALEC you know, Pam, engineers these assaults.
An early off-shoot of the Powell memo, the American Legislative Exchange Council lobbies all 50 state legislatures -- more, and more effectively in red and purple states.
It has masses of money from the Dark Money people in the Jane Mayer book by that name. It is wondrously staffed by teams of the best and the brightest test takers who, by those test points, got high up in the U.S.'s machine-humming, impersonal meritocracy.
Heather’s only view of democracy is that the Democrats are in control of it otherwise it’s not a democracy… there it is in its fullest definition
BS troll
Wendyl, Wendyl.
Didn't you know?
Putin has oodles of money to maintain teams of techies there in Moscow, all using English AI, all posting (often several at the same time) under the same moniker.
Yeah I know. I comment to alert those who don't know Sick Render. So they can ignore him, not respond
You should be worried. we don’t succeed nor do we win by diversity….we succeed and win and invent by merit. WITHOUT REGARD from where the merit comes from. As diverse as it gets. MERIT is the reason America wins
Sooooooo much winning
This country is winning every single day. It’s just you’re not in control so you don’t like the winning. The border is closed.. crime is down, especially in DC The stock market is his all-time record high so all of your people all of you hypocrites for making tons of money
And as soon as Slow poke Powell lowers the rates, this country’s gonna soar. America has been restored in the world and we are now at the Center of the world attention and alliance with few exceptions Donald Trump has been involved with five major peace deals and has been nominated to Nobel Peace Prize by 70,000 Buddhist monks from Cambodia and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbijan and Israel.
Oh, and the renegade, moron maniac no longer has weapons of mass destruction of the world is thankful for that. WINNING.
You sound mad. Cognitive dissonance is painful.
The Right rejects full democracy. That's a mainstream idea in their circles now. They admire the likes of Curtis Yarvin, an explicitly anti-democratic thinker. Trump tried to overthrow the country when he lost an election. Eisenhower was many things, including a blood-soaked imperialist, but at least he acknowledged domestic elections.
-Mathew
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/
You are responding to a 3-year-old here but for one reason only — to get you to pay attention to his incoherent, whiny ramblings and fart up the elevator for everybody else. Please consider denying him that pleasure. Many of us have learned the hard way. Don’t take dumb bait. He just farts even more.
Another delusionary fellow, that apparently believes that a couple hundred unarm citizens could overthrow the government of United States.
Wait till you see all the video and of course you have actually haven’t seen the video of Nancy Pelosi taking responsibility for it on a video talking to her daughter has to. Yes, I should’ve sent the capital police but I didn’t.
What you’re seeing right now is democracy at its purest. The only difference is you’re not in control. That’s where the hate and frustration begin.
But you shouldn’t worry Trump will only be in the office another 3 1/2 years. However, he could hand it over to Vance unabated in his third year or so and advance. Does a good job or if Trump had done a good job eight more years for republican in the White House.
You’re also one of the ones that should pay attention to a hired consulting firm by the Democrats called thirdway.org. Which suggest you stop using certain words that you currently are using. Not to worry though countries in great hands, everything’s running exactly how it should be only even a little bit better in a little bit quicker.
And almost everything would be fine if Biden had not open the borders, especially on purpose to get people to non citizens to vote which was his predicated reason in the first place. Don’t question me there’s proof. Oooops
Is it democrats who deny people the right to choose the car they want to drive or the right to carry a gun or the right to send your children to the school of their choice or to decide whether they want to smoke or not provide it it’s not marijuana or to decide what healthcare to have? And you think it’s the Republicans? yikes wake up pal.
Are you advocating armed resistance to the government, Rick? Should someone perhaps alert the authorities?
Eisenhower was only blood-soaked insofar as he helped us win WWII. He supported NATO, which is a defensive, not an imperialist, organization. There are many reasons to admire the Founders, but they would be surprised at the growth and the reach of the federal govt in programs and culture. The progressivism of the Dems is a main reason they lost in 2024. Lots of Republican voters support democracy, they just don't like the policies and projects of the Dems. States rights and the tenth amendment have a strong place in our system. Trump is wrong to think the federal govt can or should try to eliminate mail-in voting; the conduct of elections is for the states to determine.
They have not for more than a hundred years Mathew... Have you only now arrived at that ?
And you'd send yourself to the ovens.
The ovens are soon to be 100 years old so stop trying to bring them back from the past and relate them to anything that’s happening today dear Daniel. Try thirdway.org. A consultant firm hired by the Democrats to help them to find a better vocabulary. Fascism and Nazism or two words they suggest you never use. These guys were hired by you. Check out some of the other words you’ll get a kick out of them. Chest feeder. Birthing person
Latinx which you were going to hear about for the next three years when it comes to Newsom… See what other choice words were there… but here’s their overall view
For a party that spends billions of dollars trying to find the perfect language to connect to voters, Democrats and their allies use an awful lot of words and phrases no ordinary person would ever dream of saying. The intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace. The effect of this language is to sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness. To please the few, we have alienated the many—especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant. A indicted murderer is now cold and incarcerated person. And of course, one of the favorite couple of words are ….the unhoused. Oligarchy. These are words from the Democratic party consultant said stop using. Do you don’t come for me? Check it out yourself thirdway.org
BS troll.
Again, it shows that you are not capable of debating in the Arena of Ideas. You can only name call and censor. What are your alternative policies to Trumps? I am waiting, please advise.
Hahaha. I don't debate with trolls.
Well, I imagined for a second that you had an original thought. Alas I was wrong.
You know I don't read your BS comments, troll.
Trump's use of words is what you would presumably support then?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZRXESV3R74&t=5s
He's the dumbest president in modern times.
It's the far right and MAGA that does not believe that the US is a democracy.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C8bRuGxi3jQ
They do not understand what a democracy is and they are idiots like you.
Again, projection Russ. Many of them in the leadership of that coalition are crooked and self serving. Since they are so, they're so shallow as to believe everyone else is too; And being the control freak types, they have a plan that's better (for them), and it's their way or no way.
Daniel responses so blind it’s sad So who are they serving when they allowed 11 million OR MORE illegals in and try to get them to vote ? And there’s proof of that
There’s nothing more self-serving than violating the most precious tenet of our democracy. There’s your Democrats right there.
So is that like you can’t choose what kind of car you drive you have to drive an electric car… thank God, at least the Congress in California stop Newsome from that authoritarian move. you can’t choose where you go to school you have to go to public school… you can’t choose to carry a gun… can’t choose to smoke unless it’s marijuana then it’s OK. You can’t choose what kind of stove you cook on. You can’t choose how you get your energy to your home or use fossil fuel Can’t choose the size if your soft drink in New York according to Bloomberg… you can’t choose what kind of straw you use? Or where you get your health insurance. Any other choices the left doesn’t allow, you to make?
You People are so close minded… add as well as the saying goes whatever you’re using someone else of us exactly what you’re doing yourself. Voilà. This is how blind your people are, and how offensive your rhetoric is
Rick - you’ve missed a key point of Heather’s: that at least two parties are essential for our strength as a democracy.
Please don't feed it Cindy.
Substack Inc does, my wayward neighbor in SF.
Hope you got my post below. lol. Have to be AT LEAST two parties
I ABSOLUTELY AGREE…. I have one minute distinction to point out… when Democrats are not in power chaos ensues. Very recently it was a survey done by CNN, I believe and here were the results. This is not a poll…It was an actual survey.
85% of Republicans were proud of themselves and proud of America when Republicans were in charge, and 82% of Republicans were proud of America and Americans when Democrats were in charge
85% of Democrats are proud of America and Americans when Democrats are in charge but only 36% of Democrats are proud of Americanand Americans when Republicans are in charge. And there it is.
I was following along and agreeing until she said " ... after 1994 the Fox News Channel amplified it."
Fox News didn't come along until 1996 after Clinton and Gingrich passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281764660_Structural_Changes_in_Media_and_Attitude_Polarization_Examining_the_Contributions_of_TV_News_Before_and_After_the_Telecommunications_Act_of_1996
"This study adds to this line of inquiry by examining whether important structural changes to the media system in 1996, which included the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the introduction of Fox News, affected TV news’ contribution to affective polarization."
👍
I believe equality for all is the answer.
Me too. Equality. NOT SPECIAL TREATMENT. EQUALITY.
Finland knows how to do it!
Bye. We are not Finland.
The New York Times wrote that “experts in the field” suggest this Intel travesty could be described as an example of “state-managed capitalism.”
It’s an EXTORTION RACKET is what it is. And if “legacy” media won’t call it for what it is, you can bet your ass Faux News is already describing it as ‘America wins again’ or some other equally dishonest, degrading bullshit.
The guy who got a 10% cut from Intel — the guy shaking down Harvard, Columbia, UCLA and other universities, the racist whining about the Smithsonian not showing slavery in a more positive light — is the same crook who once told Volodymyr Zelenskyy back in 2019 that “I want you to do a little something for me first” — meaning, make up dumb shit about Hunter Biden so Donnie could use it to sling mud at Joe Biden — a man of great moral character, patriotism and intelligence — three attributes that make Donnie’s thin little skin ooze with hatred and resentment..
This Zelenskyy wouid have nothing to do with, though he was desperate for America’s help then, just as now. Career civil servants and diplomats lost their jobs for reporting the truth of this back then. Donnie got off scot free.
Now Donnie tries to pester, manipulate and intimidate Fed Chair Powell to lower interest rates AFTER he’s personally bought $100 million worth of bonds since January. (Hint: what happens to the value of bonds when interest rates fall?)
Everything connected with this pissant crook is just GRAFT by any other name. Greedier than Midas. Less restrained than a roving hyena. Nothing “state-managed” about it.
“T he New York Times wrote that “experts in the field” suggest this Intel travesty could be described as an example of “state-managed capitalism.”
The shameless groveling and spineless complicity of the Times and the Bezos Post towards this fascist regime is difficult to watch. And disgusting as well. Without complicity, tyrants and dictators like the one who currently squats in the Oval Office, are nowhere. This is not Corporate Media’s finest hour, not by long shot. And Congress? Those bootlickers deserve a special place in Hell, along with his toadies on the high court. A trifecta of cowards, Media, Congress and the Court, has sold us all down the river, all in service to a stupid muddle-headed idiot who hasn’t the brains to take out the garbage. Yeah, we’re real exceptional.
After much deliberation, I just cancelled my Post subscription.
In the days before Bezos started really kissing Trump butt, the Post used to have a freewheeling, largely untouched comment system. It made for great commentary -- some better than the reporting -- in a professional community where expertise, intelligence and higher education are as common as dandelions. As the best and the brightest reporters started packing their bags, Bezos suddenly replaced everything with a Ninny Bot that sorted all comments into wholly artificial, made-up categories: (1) controversial (2) thoughtful (3) clarifying and the goofiest of all -- (4) new to me. Thousands of commenters wrote in to say WTF is this nonsense?
Then the Ninny Bot started working overtime, striking comment after comment with "your comment does not conform to our guidelines." Not the obvious obscenities or hate-speech. You couldn't criticize RFK, Jr. Anything. And just try calling Laura Loomer a loonie and watch happened to your comment! I wrote to their Comments Editor and told him (without resort to scatological language, even) what tens of thousands of us must have thought of this, pointing out that Ninny didn't bother telling us what *was* acceptable -- it was all just an exercise in virtuous hand-slapping. I never even received an insincere "thank you for taking the time to contact us" letter back.
Finally, after having six comments about my own city's military occupation stricken, something just snapped. Enough. Basta. I am relying on my local Channel 4, Substack and other resources for news about my own back yard. I know Bezos won't miss my measly $170 or whatever it is, but I could no longer justify giving him a single dime to kiss Trump's fat criminal ass, while insulting my intelligence and slapping my little hand at the same time.
I dropped my subscription too — the Post’s a joke compared to what it used to be.
Dropped mine, too, Greg.
Also dropped mine earlier to the NYT for the same reasons ICTT cites above.
This probably won’t make you feel any better, but I was permanently banned from commenting on the Post even before that stupid new system was put into place. No explanation for why or which comment twisted their panties in a knot. I wrote to the content moderator pleading my case and got no response, that was a couple of years ago, before the dictator was installed and Bezos put the screws to Ann’s cartoon. Anyway, if by some chance you change your mind, never pay more than $29/year. That’s all I’ve paid for the last 3 years. Hold out on re-upping, they’ll come crawling with the offer. And if not, it’s no loss. It’s become Fox News in print.
A little background information to inform the discussion.
Intel Corporation, founded in 1968 by two Fairchild Semiconductor engineers and a venture capitalist in CA, has grown and grown over the years and invested heavily in research and manufacturing facilities around the world….until of late. It has also gone through a succession of leadership change including two within the last year. Its stock is widely held and publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Until last year it was a Down Jones Average company.
Beginning in about 2020-2022, it seems to have developed a case of indigestion from eating too much silicon. The semiconductor business, btw, is as competitive as wholesale groceries. Or car insurance. It did not used to be that way. The Halcyon days are over. Due to the increasingly effective competition of AMD and other semiconductor producers, in 2018, its market share in its bread and butter lines began to slip considerably from what had been one of dominance, to merely big. We can presume that margins narrowed. A Dun and Bradstreet report would not be a bad idea.
In August of 2022, Intel got a transfusion of wealth iao $30B from an “asset management company”, aka, hedge fund, aka, venture capitalist, aka investment bank, named Brookfield Asset Management, by joint venturing with it for the purposes of sustaining investments in factories which Intel had already built. It other words, it lightened load by giving this investor a big piece of the action, and probably spinning them off in to a subsidiary. Nevertheless, with this expansion having been just completed and refinanced, and with more factories being built or in the works, on the 31st of January in 2023, Intel followed up on announced layoffs by making $30B in payroll cuts through reductions in white collar pay, bonus, merit pay, and retirement fund contributions.
This is more or less straight from Wikipedia. Do you see a trend ?
Maybe not. Maybe this could merely be called “restructuring”. Growing pains. But this time last year Intel posted a Second Quarter loss of $1.6B. That’s B as in Billion. On the heels of that it announced a further 15K cut in jobs to take place starting then in order to achieve a further savings of $10B.
On the 1st of November, 2024, Intel was dropped from the Dow Jones Average “of leading industrials”. Nvidia took its place.
In July of this year, Intel announced that it was scrapping plans for tens of billions of dollars of investment in new computer chip plants in Europe…plans that had only been laid a year or two prior. And it announced that it would be laying off another 24K workers this year, or about 15% of its work force. “As part of a restructuring”.
During this period Intel has seen a succession of chief executives come and goes, starting with the departure of one Pat Gelsinger, who was ousted by the Board, no doubt following a rowdy meeting with investors as a result of a further $16.6B in losses that accrued during his tenure, which of course led to a decline in its stock price and caused its fall from investor favor.
But he had been brought in for the very purpose of turning the company around, and his departure left Intel with no one at the helm, and we can surmise, in an uncontrolled state with three sheets to the wind. Two interim Co-CEOs from the ranks were appointed to take his place.
In March of this year Lip-Bu Tan was appointed CEO Intel. Under him, in pursuit of profits, and mere sustainability it seems, Intel has continued its incredible shrinking act, cancelling expansion plans everywhere, letting employees go by the thousands, selling sidelines, spinning off new ventures, and closing plant notably in several US locations. California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas.
Footnote. Lip-Bu Tan is ethnic Chinese American citizen from Malaysia and semiconductor business executive who has held many high positions in US based firms that have shown exceptional results during this same period, notably by developing strong customer relations China and other Far East countries, and sales growth there. The company he was recently with was fined over $100M for selling banned products to China. But he appears to have taken a good opportunity to leave that company in advance thereof. Tan holds degrees from Singapore (Nanyang), MIT and Berkeley, in Physics, Nuclear Engineering, and Business. He lives with his wife in Piedmont, CA. They have two children.
Enter Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, and Donald Trump.
By and on behalf of the United States of America, they buy a 9.9% interest in Intel common stock. They execute a side agreement disclaiming any interest in running the company, having a seat on the board, or otherwise overseeing its management. The details are worth noting. The US Treasury bought 433.3M shares of Intel, presumably on the open market. The price was $20.47 a share. This is interesting in and of itself, since it is nearly $4 a share less than what Intel’s original investor paid for his 10% interest in the company at the time it was formed in 1968, two years before there had been an initial public offering. That, of course was in 1968 dollars.
Do the math. That is $8.66.6B and change that the US Treasury just put down to own a large and potentially controlling interest in Intel common stock. Query, where did the money come from ? Where will this be carried on the books of United States ? Who will oversee this investment ? What will happen to it ? We hear that it came from appropriated funds. From the “CHPs Act, or whatever it is called. What ever, this is not exactly the kind of investment that was contemplated by Congress when it passed that and Biden signed it in to law. But no matter. Let us give Trump the benefit of the doubt, and say Biden did this. Or blessed it.
What governmental purpose is this serving ? A bailout ? Supporting the stock price of a critical US company, too important to fail ?? That is tenuous since just the week before Trump ran down the stock price of Intel by calling for Tan to resign, because of friendly relations with Chinese business associates and desire to do business in China. On that theory, the Treasury should buy Tesla, lock, stock, and barrel. You might call it the reverse of a pump and dump scheme.
But getting back to the subject, what on the merits would be the good governmental purpose served by this purchase. Will this investment pay off ? Will it earn a decent return over time ? Better that what the US Treasury is paying on the maturity of 10Y T bills expect to come due soon ? Or what medium term Treaduries are currently yielding ? Why ? Because, if the US Treasury has money to spare, more say, than it needs to meet current obligations, then instead of making this investment, it might have bought back some of its own obligations, and saved a lot of interest expense, say, in the range of 4 to 6 percent. It could have paid down the national debt by this amount. And that is the opportunity cost to the US taxpayer of having made this purchase.
How will Intel now perform ? We shall see. But I suspect any boost may be temporary. Trump wants Intel to stop doing business with China. He has imposed punitive tariffs that will kill trade. And Intel stock is down 60% from where it was a few years ago. And not headed up soon.
This is a test run by Trump et Alia. They have just made an example of Intel by investing it. Their claims are not to be credited. There will be more purchases. Who will be next ? Whoever does not toe the line. But do they really know what they are doing ? Do they have a plan ? Or are they just experimenting with state control of private enterprise ? Dabbling in fascism.
Hey, John, those you call bootlickers, cowards, toadies?
All did very nicely, thank you, on all those standardized tests which so nicely, thank you, elevate our most-easily neutered high into our meritocracy machinery.
What, expect human, humane integrity, too?
It's not very much about the state, unless Trumpty is claiming "le etat c'est moi."
What this buy in gives him is a voting seat on the Intel board.
Nope. I've run across at least two reports that say the deal does not come with any "board seats or other governance and information rights". And one report that the funds are actually from the CHIPS Act that were awarded but not yet paid to Intel. T**** doesn't like the CHIPS Act, but he's using it to his political advantage.
He’s always been duplicitous.
Yes, that too.
But, did OiD give the stock to the U.S. or is it in his account. I can see a way they might 'spin this into gold.'
See James' post. Not in Trump's account. But direct govt ownership in a company, even 10%, is something we should watch closely. Theoretically, this helps Intel, a US chip making company, become stronger.
I did see his post Bob (can I call you that). I would submit that neither James or any other has seen what ledger that goes in, or if it does. You see, and hopefully know, that whenever the cur moves it's lips, it's probably lying. Hell of it is (though capitalist purity fail), "if" it were thoughtfully placed in a renewed SS "Trust" fund, I would skip, dance and praise the ogre for it. That's my thought re., "spinning it into gold." And yes; not only would it serve as capitalist purity departure, it would give Intel a distinct advantage with all of us holding said stake and voting might. As I think of it, he could use that rationale to hold the stake privately as his own - rationalizing that he's 'protecting' the U.S. voting stake... Damn Bob, it's stinky all the way around isn't it.
The Treasuries "Sovereign Wealth Fund" no doubt. Set up by Scott Bessent. Subject to Trump's control. While he is in office
Just one example of why I canceled my subscription to the Times.
Yep
Does trump do anything that doesn't involve extortion?
No one has explained to me why it wasn’t enforced in DT’s first term!
My husband read somewhere that she and Jared are coming back to the WH...ugh!
I think those two are avoiding the WH. Too busy cashing in.
LOL, Cindy - Not!
Good advice!
After WWII, the horrors of fascism were etched into the governments of the world, and America was held up as the a savior of liberal democracy.
Now, eighty years later, those memories have faded into oblivion. By any metric,America now has a fascist government. The Intel heist is just the latest evidence of this.
And, “ The whole world is watching.”, to quote 1968.
He's already confiscated the FIFA Club World Cup trophy and undisclosed "gifts" from his first term. I expect him to start "collecting" other art masterpieces into his personal collection, not because he appreciates art, but because they're worth big bucks.
His actual taste in art leans toward dogs smoking cigars around a poker table. And gold, of course. Even if it's yellow anodized aluminum, he wouldn't know the difference.
It don’t mean a thing if you can’t grift some thing…
Exactly so.
The answer is one most are not ready to hear; buy a gun while you still can, organize resistance and start fighting back. Either that, or live with it. There’s no voting our way out of this.
🎯🎯🎯🎯
Question for Dr. Richardson and all you brilliant readers: isn't it time to at last assess the American Conservative movement and, indeed, the entire Republican Party, as a failed ideology equal to Communism and Fascism?
This essay you wrote tonight is so helpful, so chock-full of context and history. Thank you! I too think of everything going to hell with Reagan. But that's not quite right, is it? Richard Nixon ran his presidency like a crime syndicate as well. Just listen to those Watergate tapes! That his Congressional colleagues insisted he resign probably had less to do with their outrage, and much more to do with their conviction that the country wouldn't stand for it and they would lose their jobs. I have a friend who is 107 years old. He remembers in 1935 when his conservative father was outraged that Roosevelt initiated Social Security. It was to him pure Socialism if not Communism. What I am asking is whether the real fact is that Conservatives (post-Depression Republicans) never actually believed any of their political platforms from the beginning. And that they were only ploys to gain sufficient political power to take over the United States and essentially eliminate democracy.
The reason I ask, and why this seems so important to me, is that if it is as true as I have come to believe, there is no "redemption" of the Republican Party. It is simply a terrorist organization that must not have a further role in American politics. I write this knowing that even now this sounds extreme. But in hindsight it could end up so obvious that future Americans will wonder why non-Republicans couldn't see it.
I see Heather as connecting dots from the past that help us understand our present, and how we got here, which is invaluable. Less clear is what do we do now.
I remember my mother telling me her memories of how Eleanor Roosevelt was hounded, attacked, vilified and smeared every day by Republicans while FDR was in office. When Gingrich and other low-lifes started smearing Hillary Clinton, claiming she was some kind of weird alien space bitch because she actually said “I’m not some little ole’ Tammy Wynette, standin’ by her man” it brought back painful memories of how Eleanor had been forced to endure the same nonsense 50 years earlier.
Very much for that reason, my mother never wavered in her support for Hillary. I will always be grateful she didn’t live to see the current slime mold take office in 2017.
Yes, the character smearing seems to be a constant. But I'm wondering about the entire platform of the Republican Party. For instance, did Republicans ever really believe in States Rights, or was that actually a tactic in a plan to ultimately neutralize the Democratic Party and take full control of the United States? I sure don't hear ANY Republicans now having a problem with Trump's military takeover of Democratic states. I think about this because I don't recall Democrats ever having the position that their goal was to eliminate the Republican Party. Now I recognize that Republicans may have had that position from the beginning and that their platform of limited government and states rights was just a fig-leaf until they had total control of all three branches of our government.
It’s still bizarre to me how this party of freeholders, abolitionists and authors of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments managed to metamorphose into a gang of fundamentalist fuckheads, prune-faced racists, stupid trolls and greed-driven cowards who will one day be remembered only for giving a criminal a free get out of jail card. It didn’t used to be like that.
Awwwww. are we upset? 3 1/2 more years
Based on the actions taken by the current regime, the Republicans don't want just to eliminate the Democrat Party, they want to eliminate the Democrats. No other regime has taken so many actions that have caused or will cause physical harm to citizens. I fear that we will end up with a situation akin to Israel-Palestine, where each faction wants the complete destruction of the other. We've been through this movie, and it does not end well. It simply does not end.
I agree, repubs had a few I respected but rare as hen’s teeth
Good points & I agree. They’vve gradually built a matrix woven through & around just enough Americans to capture Fed gubminnt. It’s a fake reality tv model of manipulation. Imo, Democracy is a zombie in USA. To defend ourselves & democracy we have to be able to communicate truth. We need search engines & social media platforms that are independent of & defended against subversion by fascist mafia state oligopolist techbros. Dem states produce 70% of US GDP. We probably have the resources to do it: Better to start now. <> https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/its-time-for-americans-to-start-talking?r=41pd0&utm_medium=ios
So true, Russell, the people who claim to be conservative today still proclaim their pride in Reagan. There hasn't been a right-wing president who deserves any respect whatsoever since Dwight Eisenhower. The Southern Strategy began with Richard Nixon in 1968, and Republicans have embraced it to this day.
Russell, I agree...no "redemption" of the GOP at this point. It is now a terrorist organization. I wonder if we will arrive at an American Revolution 2.0.
Russell, I have a couple thoughts (not necessarily answers) on your question. The current Republican Party is rather hard to pin down in terms of ideology. It is certainly not conservative anymore, given their commitment to staggering levels of spending and indebtedness and their determination to insert their government into every bedroom and womb in the nation.
In any case, the GOP is a political party, not a political and economic system, as are communism and fascism, so it's a bit of an apples/oranges situation. And for that matter, can we say they are failed systems? I think we sometimes forget that China and North Korea are communist nations. Like it or not, they seem to be succeeding. Russia is weak, but couldn't be pronounced "dead," yet. Is Hungary a fascist state? Some would say so.
Regarding the beginnings of Republican ideology, I submit that protecting the wealthy, white supremacy and misogyny were built into the original U.S. Government designed by those ever-revered "Founding Fathers." Those "conservative" priorities were first embraced by the party named "Democrats," but were later swapped with the Republican Party's priorities. Along with that swap, Republicans introduced christianist supremacy with forced Christian prayer in schools, emblazoning "In God We Trust" on our currency and inserting "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.
Over the years, we were able to undo some of the discrimination built into the original system of government, but vestiges persist even today. The current regime is simply trying to roll us back to those early days when the wealthy had all the power and people of color and women were not persons.
I'm not sure anyone has put a label to the current set of Republican priorities. It seems to be less a "system" and better described as a ball of chaos.
thank you for those observations! I called American Conservativism/Republican Party a failed ideology because we now experience without question that it leads to dictatorship. As does Communism and Fascism. It fails because it purports to particular ideas for governance, but devolves into one-man rule. That should bring into question the validity of all its sacred cow positions—limited government, states rights, no gun controls, criminalizing abortion—since the ultimate purpose is to destroy democracy.
I would add to this outstanding piece that Citizens United in 2010 was just in time to skew the 2010 election in state legislatures by using corporate PAC money to buy up ads and distort the political landscape by lying about previously well respected state legislators and taking over state governments in the nick of time to impact 2012 redistricting, starting the process of ensuring that corporations decided jurisdictions and candidates, leading to the losses in the 2014 election which ended the Obama second term with a whimper. In 2013 Shelby County brought the civil rights era into decline and white supremacy began its reemergence step by step through policies and procedures such as vote purging, strict voter ID laws, shutting down precincts in predominantly black and other minority communities and systematically shutting down precincts on or near universities and colleges in jurisdictions previously covered by preclearance before any change to a policy or practice could occur.
For those who aren't current on the diminishing of voting rights at the same time government power is being corrupted you might like to review these 2 fact sheets and watch this film.
Fact sheet 1 : 2025 John Lewis Advancement Act reintroduced 3/25 HR 14
https://www.brennancenter.org/media/12337/download/2024_03_JohnLewis_AdvancementAct_FactSheet_update.pdf?inline=1
Fact sheet 2: Growing Racial Disparities in Turnout 2008-2022
https://www.brennancenter.org/media/12347/download/2024_02_Growing%20Racial_Disparities_in_Voter%20Turnout_Report.pdf?inline=1
Link to Movie: John Lewis : Good Trouble
https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&sca_esv=831661049e449a6f&q=watch+john+lewis:+good+trouble&si=AMgyJEtvZg6c1zJn5rVz0o_-BGOINtjoezvqphh_f-p7eIjOhkG-lhD_OiZ3EiGhMvMoh1fyq4bilPPP0BAkM66a5OwgNzgBViWoyjz5dKvZtUUlJCXLsDOiwk2Kcy9g-WC4P5siHafsWNuEjRpAQg_gH4ZkGIx_6A%3D%3D&ved=2ahUKEwjC6Oavk6KPAxUXJjQIHRzCKpcQyNoBKAB6BAgXEAA&ictx=1&biw=987&bih=547&dpr=3.5
You might also look at the loss of democracy in American states These Maps are critical to understanding vote suppression in America, state by state.
https://www.lgbtmap.org/democracy-maps/by_category
Thank you
Tomorrow maybe. That's a big assignment.
And... it is all facts in evidence along with citations. It should go absolutely viral !
🤣 …you ARE joking, right? (Should, but won’t.)
99.9% of Republicans are trump chumps; they are the real Republicans.
Publish that and spread it over and over till folks get tired of seeing it on all social and MSM media Al ! Taking a page out of the maga book, "flood the zone." And thanks for sharing that friend ~
All of those current and former Republicans still site Ronald Reagan as their political hero.
Reagan was the one to begin the slide to fascism.
Agree MS. I would not say he began the slide, I have said that he definitely shifted the slide into high gear. Gads; And most of the while, with engaging, rhetorical narratives, peppered as it was with sprinklings of a new "GOP speak".
The GOP is the fascist party and it is long past time to admit it. I stand by my description of Reagan, and that has been my opinion since 1980, you will never convince me that he isn't responsible for the long descent to today's US fascism.
Thank you, Heather, for so clearly tracking the trail of blood from Republican back stabbing Democracy that leads to the present day. No deep state. It's all in the open.
Since Eisenhower, no Republican President or Congress has done one positive thing for this country. It’s time to expel the lot of them.
Nixon created the E.P.A., Scott. And OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).
But can you think of one problem that we have today that wasn’t created or made worse by republicans of this century.
He can't JD.
I remember plenty of problems and repubs being on the wrong side of them all. But with Rupert’s sanewashing, Michael Deaver’s PR genius, and Frank Luntz’ wordsmithing, for starters. Nazi propaganda came on strong with the scapegoating, and religious hatred.
Hard to believe Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act into law also.
And oh, how the right wing howled.
But OHSA hardly works, from my personal experience Phil.
I spent my working life in the highway and heavy construction end of things, from the wooden end of a shovel to coming off a 777 Manitowoc as my last rig. In that time and through that experience, both OHSA and MHSA have been critical toward saving lives and preventing accidents. So then, from my end of things, OHSA has worked.
I was a maintenance professional in heavy industry / manufacturing for a lifetime and a half in Ohio; A "business friendly state" as they crow about. What they don't tell anyone about is all the legal compromises made, most especially regarding one's health and safety on the job, in order to achieve that "business 'friendly' status. If it were common knowledge (* which appears is shied away from) would definitely change the calculus of any sentient human being's approach to the world of work in such a state. It most certainly would've changed my thinking drastically. Even attorneys don't, won't or are unable to spell out all the 'fine print' regarding on the job, work injuries. In my particular instance, I'm just now, 8.5 years after becoming 100 percent disabled due to work injuries, finding out how entirely screwed one is upon work place injury in this "Business 'friendly' state of Ohio, and with zero options. I am screwed; Worst of all, my household and spouse are screwed. I find myself in utter despair with no options; I made promises I can't keep, and that absolutely craters my life - in every aspect you cannot even imagine or relate. Ohio's workers comp scheme is legally framed as a "no fault" insurance as I've only learned on my own research and large enterprises are allowed upon maintaining some bond or surety of some sort, to identify as 'self insured', therefore released from paying into the workers compensation fund, yet once injured one is required - 'legally' ostensibly to go through the worker's compensation bureaucracy, wherein one recovery process or disability status is in the hands of gop staffed bureaucrats along with indoctrination 'approved' medical personnel and doctors, who deliver at best, sketchy medical business as opposed to care one would get privately. Your best interests are a secondary priority and that arrangement, in cases I'm aware of with family members and friends often goes horribly, sometimes fatally badly. Holding the economic / paltry compensation over one's head as an affective cudgel, injured parties are compelled into serious life altering and / or ending compromises, and never in the injured party's favor. Compensation system is horrible skewed to the disadvantage of the injured from the start; No better in any conclusion, even permanent disability or death. Compensation rates are horribly skewed; Most surprisingly 'against' any "wage" earner on multiple levels. The 'rates' for a "wage earner" is based glaringly very nearly the "3/5's Compromise" value of slave labor from our 'Civil war' era of roughly 60 percent of a whole person, the representation compromise percentage, for permanent disability or death. It's further skewed in that the compensation value counts only approximately 60 percent of the "'average' wage earner" - it doesn't include the salary earners above some level, therefore excluding those 'salary earners' above some level, including corporate executives, and those above some lesser level, most negatively affecting the overall compensation pool for any consideration of wage earners. "Words" matter in the world of 'lawfare,' and tragically as it is for any 'wage' earners. Even as a maintenance professional, I fell into the category of a 'wage' earner.
***Note: Fatigue is beating me up pretty well as I compose this. The precise figure is 66 2/3 percent, paltry more in 'the real world' of today's financial mess, but my overall point is no less true.* I dug that actual figure up, after the fact of composing this, as I choose to be extremely truthful, if even to any embarrassing fault; It's just 'how I roll.' I suppose therefore, I might be too "woke" if that means as I take it, as having an actual conscience.
An equally sad reality is that a number of organizations and agencies are compensated to safeguard our health, safety, and welfare. They all failed miserably in my experience and likely scores of others. The negative influence of the 'OiDs' influence from 'OiD' 1 and OiD 2 contributed immensely to the negative consequences in my particular case. His ever threats to agencies began even before he commenced 'OiD 1.' All agencies and departments you must recall were under tremendous threat of extinction, even in the run up to OiD 1, even running on a campaign of threats to slash and burn. As a real result, most agencies were operating under as low a profile as they possibly could, lest they attract 'any' attention. I became permanently disabled; I'd guess that there are others. His 'OiD' affect played a major role in yielding both proof and gross fault of my injury, not to mention corrective actions for the sake of others in the future, a major concern of mine. Yet, as it turns out, in a "no fault state" like Ohio, one is screwed anyway, even if the employer is "most oddly" self insured within a system of laws so badly skewed - in law against the wage earner. Upon any degree of consideration, this does provoke 'many' questions.
The consequences are quite grave. My financial and physical ability to live my days out so compromised are in extreme doubt, all things considered. I have found myself in the deepest of dark despair; Even moreso for my spouse, who I in the best of good faith to provide for.
There is no - zero intention on my part to "trauma dump" on any herein nor anywhere else. And any notion to derive any sympathy is not any consideration whatsoever. I simply am stating facts in reality and evidence, so that folks understand the world, country, and state as they are in reality more fully and consequentially. I find it shocking as well that none of this is broadly published for common knowledge. Then there is that catchall legal narrative that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." It is my belief that the state and the country should and could do much better for the common man or woman; Those who possess zero privilege.
~D, or 'DAN' - ie., the number 4 resemble an 'A' with a broken leg, if you ever wondered about the nom de guerre. My sense of humor has few limits; I think it may have kept me alive, for what little that's worth. 🤔
Thanks for the updates, everyone. I guess I need to change my note to “since Nixon’s first term”. Better?
I was 16 when Nixon canceled the draft, and he signed my Eagle Scout certificate, so he did a few good things. That was the last of them, though.
Let’s not forget the HMO Act of ‘73, and the can of worms it opened.
The end of the draft and the voting rights change to eighteen years old resulted from the anti-war demonstrations during that era.
The Vietnam War went on for years longer because Nixon illegally convinced the North Vietnamese not to agree to a peace deal with the Johnson administration. Reagan caused the Iran hostages and their families to suffer longer because he made a deal with the Iranians not to release the hostages until he became the President. The Iran-Contra affair was part of that deal. They traded weapons for the hostages and used the CIA to sell crack cocaine in US urban areas to fund it. Ronald Reagan is responsible for the crack epidemic. George H.W. Bush was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal, and he pardoned everyone who could testify against him so he couldn't be held responsible. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney profited from lying the country into the Iraq war. He waged both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars off the budget and when Obama put them in the budget, the right-wing blames Obama for the resulting hike to the national debt. Now, trump, the grand dragon of the Republican (fascist) party, is on the verge of destroying our democracy.
We are in a fight for the soul of America,
Imo, we need search engines & social media platforms that are independent of & defended against subversion by fascist mafia state oligopolist techbros. Dem states produce 70% of US GDP. We probably have the resources to do it: Better to start now. <> https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/its-time-for-americans-to-start-talking?r=41pd0&utm_medium=ios
Dems would be better off taking their 70+% of GDP and cutting flyover country loose to become the next failed nation state.
Heather's today is all about control -- from that cabal of fascists in 1937 to today's MAGA fascists.
They want a small, corrupt group to control all of America. To align with authoritarians around the world.
I've another post here in answer to that, in answer to ideologues seeking narrow control for themselves, seeking government shorn of all its practical benefits -- and seeking openly militarized control of cities and elections
I think we can get over that, past that, only if we firmly stand for the best our schools can do -- really the highest standards of communication for all of us in an equal society, a democracy of respect and literate, humane tools for respect.
But I want here to underline my respect particular for Heather, and her directly confronting the evils that have so coalesced over time and have so united against us and what till 45 years ago was our democracy.
Also want to express my sorrow that, as to this longer etiology, Heather saw fit to ignore the Powell memo. And on the very day of its anniversary, from Aug. 23, 1971.
Do all ignore that because, after all, all its first decade's work was to kill humanities in our schools -- and most all Heather's readers can't see the centrality of humanities as the far-right foundations of the Powell memo certainly saw them: as getting them out of the schools was absolutely first, key license to their subsequent, decades-long packaging bundles of other evils?
Phil, here’s information on the Powell Memo by Robert Reich. Heather’s letter can only be so long. Glad we have a number of resources to make our own connections.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/today-is-the-anniversary-of-the-worst?r=9vmv5&utm_medium=ios
Thank you, Kari, for sharing this. I can only pay for and read so many Substack contributors 😔
Margaret, I hear you! I am of very limited means, so am mostly a “free” subscriber to all but LFAA Substacks (HCR was my first & make it work to support her, as I wish I could do for others); some, not most, allow free subscribers to comment (learn a lot from commenters!), but discovered that Substacks are the new “medium with the message” folks….something much of the MSM is missing. Also have to limit my perusal of them or I will stay glued to my iPad and miss just “being in & experiencing” the world!
Barbara, my means are also limited. But when I cancelled my WAPO subscription, I repurposed those "savings" to my new Information Budget! I still have a few dollars left but I subscribe to so many sources now that I don't have enough time to regularly read anything more. It's now 10 a.m. where I am and I've been reading steadily for five hours. Nonetheless, I HAD to read Kari's link to Robert Reich (above) which has let me to yet other references that sound well-worth checking out. Sigh.
Margaret, I am a subscriber and supporter of Heather Cox Richardson, Asha Rangappa and Joyce Vance among others, but read Robert Reich and still others without pay walls.
I can't afford them all, and frankly don't have enough time either. There is a wealth of knowledge available here, and we've barely scratched the surface!
I don't know if there's a way to search what interests another Substacker is following but it would probably be revealing.
Hello Phil... Schools are important, but I'll argue that the Values passed down by Parents, and their Community are more important to the formation of Children's Character... Children are Smart, and are like little Sponges in their Environment... They want to please, and see what succeeds... Parents should strive to always set a good example.... DJT is setting the very Worst Example of what succeeds...
It appears that being brought up in a white evangelical environment results in a whole bunch of fascist assholes.
Yes, but schools offer an alternative point of view to those which are taught by parents and communities. Addendum: and teach critical thinking; how to assess and discern what’s taught and what’s happening.
Hello Ferbie... Yes, that can be True, like all things in Life, it depends on the Schools, and what the Ideals are set to be... That is why I am for Universal Public Service so that People are forced to go out to meet, and work with other... Fareed Zakaria had a Special this Weekend that discussed the Destructive effects of the Little Screens on developing Brains of our Children particularly Young Men... You should watch it....
Phil, as someone who has spent many years writing on deadline, I can tell you that sometimes, you have to quit when the project is excellent, not when it's perfect.
Hey Phil, that’s exactly what I said if you’re not in control, there’s no democracy.
BS troll
If the fascist bot used artificial intelligence, it sure doesn't show in its posts.
The history of how we got here is enlightening.
I think it isn't only a quest for power that's driving the (let's face it) Republican party - it's the lust for wealth.
My senators (Indiana) aren't concerned with their constituents. The fix is in: big-money donors, lobbyists with connections, corrupt party officials, can override voters.
And I nicked this.
I think what we are truly seeing is the fruition of the white supremacy America was founded on. The Constitution and Declaration never recognized Indigenous People, Black folks, LGBTQ, and women as equal citizens. When you build a structure like that it tends to lean towards how it was built. The system is functioning as it was designed to.
This is of course a bad thing, but it requires us to rebuild from the base, a real democracy where all are equal. That means moving democracy into other reals, democracy in the workplace, a clean environment, economic equity, equity between nations. None of this is the reality, but it could be. These systems were made by humans, and we can unmake them.
-Mathew
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/
Wealth, power, status, and sex (lust, gratuitous.) I was taught many years ago that these were coined by Freud as “the four neurotic pursuits of man,” but Thich Nhat Hanh discussed them in several of his books/teachings, so Freud probably nicked them.
I only mention this to broaden the motive from that of “wealth” to include these other three. In my experience over the years, I’ve been hard pressed to identify any motive behind harm done to others that wasn’t promulgated by one of these four. One could debate that some are motivated by these four in some way or another even when their objective is to help and do no harm.
That is, Freud probably nicked them from Buddhism.
I know I’m in the weeds, but just to clarify that “neurotic” in the context of “neurotic pursuits” doesn’t mean “moody” or “overly emotional.” “Irrational” is probably a better word for modern day. It’s an explanation for why someone is vehemently pursuing something that ultimately is not in their interest. To destroy the very thing that these politicians aim to benefit from is irrational. Thus, we are all scratching our heads. Or, more aptly, WTF?
I would be reluctant to debate you - I bow to your superior knowledge. 🙇♀️
🙄 oh my, just passing along what’s been shared with me.
Kasey will explain: nicking something is stealing it. When I nick an article, I'm sharing it somewhere - usually FB. Technically, I haven't gotten permission from the author to copy it, so I admit I'm stealing it. To be fair, I give credit where credit is due. I don't pass things off as mine. 😉
I suspect they were all me. 😁 And no harm in asking...
Kasey, I am familiar with the meaning of "nick," but for the life of me, couldn't figure out what you'd nicked. The comment that provoked Margaret-Rose's question appears fairly personal. What part of that comment did you nick? I would suggest that if you're nicking any text, put it inside quotation marks so what you've copy/pasted is identifiable.
Thank you, but I've been using the term for years in this context and shall continue to do so. I nick photos, music, video clips - and articles, but always properly accredited.
In this case I nicked Dr Richardson's article, sharing it to Facebook. I don't see as there was anything personal about it, and I would only use quotation marks to offset a short excerpt.
I'd feel silly sharing an entire article using quotation marks. Or did I miss something...? 🤔
Where does this story begin to turn? The power of this brazen fascist movement, so emboldened by its successes manipulating media and duping a population, chipped away at democracy, defied significant legal consequence, warped Constitutional integrity, and now openly rigging gerrymandered voter districting— these people no longer appear to care or depend upon what the public thinks or wants. Trump may be the expendable puppet. Where does this story turn? What manner of “civil war” are we facing if the basic tenants of democracy shatter?
P2025 tells us
Right-wing gerrymandering has been going on for many decades, forcing the left to gerrymander to try to keep a level political playing field. The right has never been concerned about equal rights; they only seem to care about securing great wealth for themselves.
Nazis were shooting for a 1,000 year Reich. How long did that last?
Same as this one ...too long!
The orange child rapist has been occupying our heads for 10 years!
Once Chief Roberts led the way in allowing Citizens United to become a way for the Repubs to receiving corporate dollars and from foreign entities, it’s been an uphill battle for Democrats. We simply are not aligned with oligarchs nor heavy hitters from big corporations. Imagine a see-saw with a Dem candidate sitting at the bottom and the R candidate holding all the dough, at the top. It is imbalanced and definitely not equal. Way past time for us to let our reps just to sit on their laurels. That’s why protests, phone-calling, letter writing, social media, and etc. has to be implemented incessantly.
More and more it seems that Chief Roberts is the key player in the takeover with Citizens United, the weakening of Voting Rights laws and finally giving the president broad immunity from prosecution. He saved Trump from jail and allowed him on the ballot. Of course he had the votes of the other four, but at any point he could have made a historic difference and he did not. Was he sent to the Court for this moment?
Yup
Like the crew of Apollo 13 and those on the ground who helped them, we must accept that our mission has changed, reassess our condition, figure out to the best of our abilities the chain of events that has gone wrong, and develop a plan for survival. Now is not the time to panic or abandon hope or point fingers. Adapt and adjust. Thank you Heather, for being the planet earth that I am trying to line up in my window.
The Mayor of Kyiv, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Vitali Klitschko, has a T-shirt with "Failure Is Not An Option" (in English) stenciled on it.
I just watched that documentary on Netflix. Perfect analogy.
I'm rewatching it right now. A good thing to share. Thank you.
In the book, "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism" George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson document the take over of the US by neoliberalist ideology by Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises who were from Vienna. They came up with ideas that fit more and more how the oligarchs wanted economics to be, and then the oligarchs funded think tanks like the Heritage Foundation to legitimize their views, and university departments to legitimize and teach and spread their economic views. The book makes the case that neoliberal economics naturally leads to fascism. So, here we are.
Linda, Project 2025 is a Heritage Foundation product, and the Heritage Foundation in recent years has been heavily influenced by the Danube Institute, a Hungarian think tank dedicated to exporting the strategies of Viktor Orban's "illiberal democracy." That's a misnomer, but if they follow the Orban model, the goal is not to end elections, but to render them meaningless by controlling all the levers of democratic participation.
I refuse to ever reference The Heritage Foundation as a ‘Think Tank’.
Well, what is a "think tank?" Most of the "think tanks" are just that. They are places that spread illiberal ideas to benefit the rich, so this is how they name themselves, but the question is what does it mean? A tank to control the thinking of other people? Anyway, I read Project 2025 with my political book club group, which was formed last summer for that purpose. At the election we decided to continue our group and read things that teach us more about democracy. We just are finishing Anne Applebaum's "Autocracy, Inc" and read the Monbiot, Hutchinson book before that. We have also read articles as well. Do you have another word for the Heritage Foundation and others institutions pushing neoliberal ideas, which would include the University of Chicago.
You might be interested in The Road To Freedom by Joseph E. Stiglitz.
Thanks for the recommendation Gregg. I will add it to the list we are creating and selecting books from. Monbiot would not agree with Stiglitz in that he thinks capitalism leads to autocracy because of greed, whereas it sounds like Stiglitz feels that capitalism can be controlled and harnessed by a lot of government regulation.
Earlier this year we read historian Jefferson Cowie's "Freedom's Dominion" which taught us about the struggle for voting rights, and how the DOJ was needed to uphold rights for Native Americans and Blacks, but let them down too. We also learned about a White, male idea of Dominion which the Oligarchs believe in as do the White Supremacists of Free for me but not for thee. Cowie spoke in Berlin and we heard him tell us that because 2/3 of Americans not having college degrees, for the democratic party to win they need to have a populist candidate. I wrote this piece about what Cowie was saying after that talk.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/is-populism-the-way-to-go?r=f0qfn
Then we invited Cowie to talk and he told us that he did not think that the Dems defended the right to vote enough, and that was a problem. I wrote this piece after that talk.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/voting-rights-come-before-all-others?r=f0qfn
Stiglitz was at the Chicago School of Economics with Friedman et al during a part of his career and witnessed the rise of neoliberalist doctrine there. I thought it may be of historical insight for you.
Gregg it is of interest to me. I am less left than Monbiot, though his book makes an excellent case for his pov. However, I would like to hear more about Stiglitz's government intervention. I found this The Guardian discussion of his book.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/12/the-road-to-freedom-economics-and-the-good-society-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-review-an-ardent-but-flawed-defence-of-progressive-capitalism
Both Stiglitz and Monbiot are against Neoliberalism, as am I. We need an anti-Neoliberalism movement. They have dominated the press.
Hi Linda, This is my opinion on why the Heritage Foundation should not be called a think tank. I have done change facilitation in my career while being trained in Six Sigma, and so my reference to think tanks are that they are positive game changers, who analyze and determine the root causes of the obstacles. This might include analyzing procedural rules, committee structures, or the effect of lobbying and campaign finance on the process.
The Heritage Foundation promoted wrecking our democratic institutions and that’s why Trump would not provide transparency during the campaign and our main stream media put their head in the sand.
Think tanks could apply the structured, data-driven methodology of Six Sigma to enrich political institutions by systematically identifying and improving processes related to public policy, governance, and civic engagement.
Think tank consultants could advise with training government employees and non-profits in Six Sigma principles and coaching them through specific improvement projects. By focusing on measurable outcomes rather than partisan talking points, they could help restore public trust and institutional effectiveness.
Here are ways think tanks could apply structure to improving change in political institutions:
1. Identify areas for process improvement.
2. Collect and analyze data to quantify the problem.
3. Use statistical analysis to pinpoint the root causes of the problem.
4. Work with stakeholders to develop and implement data-backed solutions.
5. Establish standardized procedures and a feedback loop to ensure the improvement is sustained.
6. Verify & pilot the new policy on a small scale, if possible, to confirm it achieves the desired. outcomes and meets stakeholder requirements.
7. Promote transparency and accountability.
8. Foster cross-party collaboration.
9. Empower civil servants.
10. Benchmark performance and track long-term impact.
This would move political discourse from purely ideological arguments toward evidence-based problem-solving, increasing efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
The Heritage Foundation follows an Authoritarian approach which stands in contrast to democracy, which emphasizes individual freedom and the right to choose leaders. The Heritage Foundation perpetuates inequality with disinformation. We are not building trust and integrity with our citizens or our foreign allies. It may seem like small betrayals, but it has global consequences.
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Linda, many of us grassroots activists saw the public struggle to read the 922-page PDF “Project 2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL”
< https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf >
I’m sorry that your book club could not access the easy-to-read version(s) of the 922-page Project 2025.
Here is a PDF educational document called “The People's Guide (48-page) to Project 2025”
< https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-05_Peoples-Guide-Pro-2025.pdf >
Here is an online link for educational help from Red Wine & Blue Jul 31, 2024 “Project_2025_Explainer”
< https://redwine.blue/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/project_2025_explainer.pdf?utm_campaign=Engagement&utm_source=confirmation-screen&utm_medium=download&utm_content=®ion=National&oa_audience=&oa_medium=download&oa_source=confirmation-screen&oa_content=&oa_campaigntype=Engagement >
Okay JaKsaa, can you please name an organization that you consider to be a real think tank. Also, does this include Universities?
What made you think my book club could not access the document. My book club had easy access to the Mandate for Leadership PDF from the Heritage Foundation website, and we figured out a pace that worked for us to read through it over many months. We appreciated the support that we got from being in a group. We also read discussions by many people of the different chapters, so we really studied it. Most people don't read, and no one put it on a podcast which is why most don't know what is in it. It was horrid prose and we slogged through it. We turned to Andra Watkins to better understand the Christian Nationalist applications. This is how I can tell who read it and who used AI to report on Project 2025.
Margarete-Rose, when we were reading "Invisible Doctrine" we decided to slow it down. We had decided that when we read Timothy Snyder's "On Freedom" as well. So now we are going through a book by reading a few chapters for discussion each week. In this way we are having more in-depth discussions. We tie what we read to past authors we have read and to the current political scape. We felt that Monbiot's ideas fit nicely with Snyder's even though Snyder does not talk about neoliberalism. It is clear that there is more than one understanding of "freedom" and that bears understanding. Cowie is explaining a very different concept of freedom than Snyder or Monbiot do. One sort of freedom lacks social responsibility, the other has it as its core.
As you know, I and so many others are so grateful to you for researching this fall of the American Empire, day by day, by Republicans who have not guts, no balls, no ethics, no concern for their felow/madames Americans, but there is one question I am asked by so many here in France and my friends in the USA: Why is no one doing anything to stop him. Except Gavin Newsome perhaps. Have too many human beings evolved into robots whose ethics are simply not evident any longer, replaced by greed, narcissism and a loss of the interiour insular cortex in the brain where empathy and compassion should exist? Where, I ask again, WHERE are the political heroes (REPUBLICANS) who could make history with strong mutual resitance against this maniac? Just say no......