Tomorrow, civil rights activists will gather at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., both to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and to emphasize that the struggle for civil rights is ongoing. Monday, August 28, is the actual anniversary of the 1963 march, which is famous today primarily because it was the occasion when the final speaker, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered what became known as the “I Have a Dream” speech.
Thank you Heather! The GOP has one objective -the concentration of wealth, and thus -power. Everything else they do is intended to divide and conquer -whether racism, misogyny, cries of "socialism", anti-"wokeness", and more. It's all intended to misdirect anger and frustration.
Even absent the years of evidence that so-called "trickle-down" economics does not grow the economy -it merely concentrates wealth, if Americans stopped to think about it they would recognize it as a fraud perpetrated by the obscenely wealthy on workers and the impoverished.
No form of meaningful democracy can survive when wealth is concentrated into the hands of a few.
George, I agree that concentration of wealth is one objective but I don't think wealth is the only objective by a long shot. Small, mean people making themselves feel better about themselves by oppressing others has a whole hell of a lot to do with it.
Fully agree -the GOP uses that from a strategic standpoint. I think that's an important part of the strategy -to shift from personal responsibility to blaming and hating others. To me, that is the "distraction and polarization/divide/conquer" strategy.
Perpetual power (through concentrated wealth) is (again, to me) the objective -by whatever means they can accomplish it. If I can turn my $10 Billionaire into a $20 Billionaire -they can write a big check to Leonard Leo, and create a majority in SCOTUS, I can shift State Legislatures, and I can win with a minority of people (who proceed to vote against their own and societal self-interest).
They play the resentment card masterfully and direct it towards the Democrats who actually try to help the less affluent and working class. Tax the wealthy fairly and raise wages for those who actually go to work every day.
I think that it is safe to say that Frances Perkins, the person most responsible for Social Security and other elements of the New Deal, spoke for us:
"The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life." All the people. Everyone.
Apart from simple moral arguments of fairness and equity, improving the social, educational and economic lives of the less advantaged benefits everyone, since this injects demand into the national economy and that injects profit into the goods and services providing corporations, not to mention businesses of every kind. That's "socialism"?
You get it Frank. But the GQP see it all as a zero sum game. In their narrow bigoted minds, there is just one little economic pie. "And I am not gonna share it with 'them'..."
What a super powerhouse of a nation we could be if every kid had the same opportunity to create new businesses or thrive in a company. What a nation we could be if everyone had the chance to be nourished with quality food, cultivated with equal education and didn't suffer for lack of proper healthcare. What we could be!!!
Not only would the average citizen benefit, but we would be the envy of the world. Our system of democracy would be emulated and the world would be a better place. Now? The international community looks at us and they shake their collective heads with dismay. Instead they look at countries like Finland. We should learn from Finland and others who provide a social underpinning for the basics of life and support a successful but regulated private enterprise system.
Everything that the wealthy don't want is labeled socialism. Most wealthy are white Republicans, many have received large inheritances, and they use the phrase "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable" that "I can get if I work at it." See the book The Big Myth for a complete history since the late 19th century of the tried and true strategies of privilege and greed. All lies and jest, as Sinon and Garfunkel put it.
Frank, an open hand and heart to give, builds up, a closed hand and heart destroys. I am on the side of building up, encouraging, providing hope and opportunity.
There is nothing greater than to see the joy on someones face who has just been given a little hope, a little encouragemet, a little faith that they can have a chance at "The American Dream".
In my understanding of this ideal.....it is also the way to build a stronger more productive country...and world.
Thank you, Alexandra. Without a doubt, Frances Perkins is one of the most important persons ever to serve in U.S. government. Sadly, she never really got the accolades that she deserves during her lifetime.
Appealing to deep emotions often “trumps” reason. When people feel threatened we react almost automatically. We are in one of history’s hinge eras when “the center cannot hold” and “things fall apart “ anxiety and discontent are affecting us all. The 2016 election was influenced by the limbic brain on fire election fueled by social media and malign big money and Russian meddling. Hillary won the popular vote none the less. She was too reasonable to prevail by a whisker in so called swing states. Who know he much voter suppression and confusion was the crucial factor?
A lot of people know that something is amiss, but many of them do not know exactly what it is. Into this comes the purveyors of misinformation and pot stirring playing on their fears. I was interested in an article in I think, the NYT about safer places to be in terms of climate change which I think, has become part of the fear without understanding the human role in it or denying that totally. One of the places was the midwest and then near Detroit and in parts of northern Ohio we had an outbreak of nasty tornadoes and flooding in places like Detroit. The wealthy know that this is a problem also and they are determined to get all the money and power out of the system because they foolishly believe their money will save them.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”— Frank Wilhoit
But that's still a bit abstract. Perhaps a plainer version it that modern Republicans, as a whole, want to dominate not cooperate. They excuse themselves for being bullies.
I have heard that quote and agree with Wilhoit and with you. I fear the people who think cooperate is another word for yield or obey. (It is, if you are a child who must “cooperate” with powerful adults.) I hope someone can come up with a simple phrase to counter the idea that every man IS an island, it’s every man for himself, a dog eat dog world, a zero sum game.
Ironically, the post-Reagan GQP movement to demonize the opposition and use racism as a weapon took a big step when they installed our longest serving Supreme Court justice, a man who has proven to be a racist, misogynist, insurrection supporter, and totally corrupt. The destruction of the US courts has been the destruction of civil rights.
Yes! Read “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein. The GOPigs’ “trickle down economics” aims to wipe out the Middle Class and to stir up unrest allowing rich, fascist oligarchs to seize wealth and power. For them, racism and bigotry is a tool...little wonder they have even provided an abundance of guns.
Yes, love Naomi Klein. Also, of course, HCR, John Kenneth Galbraith, George Lakoff, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noam Chomsky, and, when depressed… Hunter Thompson for a quick “pick-me-up”.
George ‘Rent a Congressman’ has a long tradition. Indeed, I hear that there are over 43,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, at least ten for every member of Congress.
Is it a surprise that a number of 2a.m. Inserts in congressional bills provide relief to individual and corporate fat cats?
I grew up in Haverford, a small suburb of Philadelphia. The local scuttlebutt was that J. Howard Pew, the owner of Sun Oil and with an estate that had 8 gardeners (during the Depression), would make his annual Pennsylvania State Assembly choices. He would offer $$$ and wait for a majority to accept, before he shut the Assembly largesse gate until the next year.
These ‘good old days’ remain writ large in Congress, especially on the Republican side. Why else have taxes on truly rich not be raised to confront what Republicans lament as our ‘debt crisis?’
P. S. One day I got a ride on a milk truck up to the Pew house. (I saw the 8 gardeners being assembled). I was selling magazine subscriptions. I knocked on the door, which a butler opened. I told him my request, but the lady of the house, I was told, was not interested.
Some years later I was teaching at The Haverford School. Ricky Pew (related to J. Howard) was in my 7th grade social studies class. He was bright and extremely shy. He had to leave early one vacation, since the Pew RR car was headed to Florida.
Don't forget about SCOTUS members being appointed indirectly by the wealthy, but they are also good buddies with these wealthy people. Thomas comes to mind.
I see below that George agrees with you Alexandra, as do I. The wealthy learned how to manipulate the racism, misogyny, xenophobia and homophobia of the white Christians to vote for policies that have allowed them to plunder our natioanl treasury, enriching themselves beyond their wildest imaganings - $32 trillion to date. Thomas Frank documented this in his 2004 book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and then professors David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley, both with the Univ. of Kansas, sealed it with their study, "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump int he 2016 Election, and Why?" Google it.
Somehow the GOP's persistent grip on electoral power doesn't seem to fade away. Once the Democrats had an almost monopoly of Federal power. Is it only unfair practices which have lost them a chance or acquire even a modicum of a chance and acquiring majorities sufficient to get by the Supreme Court, the US Senate? Of course, as Nikki Haley pointed out to Republicans the other night on abortion, there is no way the GOP can obtain a supermajority or even a decent senate majority to shoulder through a national abortion ban, something a majority of Americans oppose. 2024 is going to be another major political struggle. As always, organize, propagate, propagandize on the high or even just everyday moral road. Will look up that book!
Frank, I fear when the Democrats get into power by gaining the White House and majorities in both houses of congress, they become more and more like the Republicans by increasingly ignoring their working class base. I fear that for all the benefits of the Clinton epoch we like to cite, especially the return to not only a balanced budget but a surplus,
came from their alliance with big business and off-shoring of so much of our manufacturing. This left the working class out of jobs and Democrats losing the support of their base.
JohnM upstateNY: Clinton also was responsible for so-called “Welfare Reform,” which turned what had been a federal entitlement for poor, mostly single-parent families into a state-controlled program with lifetime caps of five years (or less, at state choice). As a result, states were able to require punitive obstacles. And since “Welfare Reform” was block granted to the States, dollars in many southern states were diverted into moralistic activities such as parenting classes, drug testing, etc. Actual spending that flowed to families for rent, clothing, etc. dropped from the original standard of FPL (federal poverty level) to 15% of Area Median Income. States with the highest proportion of impoverished Black families ended up with the lowest benefits. Homelessness surged.
John, I too have wondered this but I think there has been a definite shift via the bejeezus scared out of some, by the real threat of dictatorship. The question is, is the shift adequate enough to balance everyone's interests and is it sustainable? I think the public's lack of trust in future actions is reflected in the President's low polling numbers.
I hope we have learned from the mistakes of all our predecessors, from Reagan on, and can take the knowledge (thank you, historians!) so hard won to keep working to attain the goals of equity and fairness. There will ALWAYS be headwinds, but that must not stop us from continuing to sail! Never give up.
... it seems to swing like a pendulum ... has anyone noticed that most candidates and causes appeal for funding through a single resource? Feels almost like being corralled into the chute in a slaughterhouse ... will we ever evolve beyond the polarity of partisan/bipartisan contention?!
It isn't a book. It was published in the Feb. 2018 issue of Critical Sociology, a peer-reviewed journal. You can google it. Today's MAGA are the same as the 1920's KKK. Absolutely no difference. "The Anger Games: . . . ." and Timothy Egan's "A Fever in the Heartland" are virtually essential to understand what we're dealing with presently. Racism. Misogyny. Xenophobia. Homophobia.
Alexandra Sokoloff, I agree harming people is a common means and end to power. All the insanity we see and feel reflects an insatiable and obsessive appetite for getting and/or holding onto power. Financial wealth is a form of power in our society, as is fame, for example. Both will get you power and help you hold onto power. But power itself is not bad. It is how an individual or a group uses it ---- to destroy or make better.
I think the racists are afraid of people of other nations (color/religion) because they may find out that these people are better, more talented, more athletic, and smarter than they are.
Money IS power and with it, I can persuade a perfect stranger to give me a sandwich. Or, from the "right" vendor, contract murder for hire. The "right" public official will grant me special governmental favors in exchange for financial help, and these days, most of this latter exchange is not even illegal thanks to the "GOP" for expanding our palette of purchasing options; provided you have the scratch. Political position and violence are also forms of personal power, and can often deliver what you want. Some like to combine all three.
But Democracy is a radical division of power into equal shares. We empower our fiduciaries by combining our votes, as opposed to a Big Boss being born into the "right" family or commanding a personal army. When it comes to matters of state, we are supposed to enjoy ‘ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE’; although there there remain a number of nettlesome barriers to that ideal being fully realized.
"But Democracy is a radical division of power into equal shares."
Unfortunately, the USA is a Social Democratic House of Prostitution, not really a Democracy in the meaning you note.
Sure, I can vote, for, say, Kathy Hochul here in NY. But, once she is in office, lifted there by my vote, her big donors tell her what to do and she does it.
Example: Upon Kathy Hochul's election as NY State governor her highest priority became providing no less than $600 MILLION dollars to one family, the owners of the Buffalo Bills, the Pegula family, in Buffalo, NY, where she is from. The money was, ostensibly, "to keep the Buffalo Bills from moving out of state" except, there was no threat of that happening.
The Pegula family is a very large donor to Kathy Hochul's campaign funds.
So, I can vote for Hochul, but, as part of the Social Democratic House of Prostitution called "Democracy" here in the USA, does my vote matter?
I really cannot say I think it does.
I would NEVER have socialized the cost of a new stadium for football and privatized the profit like Kathy Hochul did, NEVER.
$600 Million dollars could have put a LOT of kids through state Universities here in NY.
I am happy that some folks can enjoy a football game or any other sporting event. But we have turned professional sports (and now college) into a money grubbing machine for the rich to get richer. We have allowed the oligarchs to turn it into a religion of sorts. The worship of sports stars is just another example of redirecting our collective wealth into the hands of a few. Seen from space, it might be viewed as "wow...they haven't changed much since the days of the Romans and the coliseum."
Your story about the stadium makes me want to hurl. But sadly, it happens all over the world where we value the ability to throw and catch a ball more than we value a kids nutrition, healthcare and education. It is simply stupid and cruel.
Bill, you could get me started on college football. The dismemberment of the Pac 12 conference chasing big football money is disgusting. Football plays one game a week with a bye week in about a 14 week season. Other sports (notably women's sports, but I'm going to include both men's and women's basketball in this as well) play two or three games a week. It is one thing for softball (the game I used to umpire at the collegiate level) to have to travel from Seattle to Los Angeles (or vice versa) for a 3 game series. It is absurd to travel to New York or Pennsylvania for a 3 game series. Only slightly less absurd to travel to the mid west for games in March.
We could go a long way towards strengthening education in general by separating "sports" from academic institutions. There are many models other than the American model. Community leagues and club sports can develop athletic talent at all levels. The fact that universities are willing to pay coaches 10-20x what the most accomplished academic scholars and teachers earn is scandalous.
Agreed. Mike Belotti, who coached Oregon for 15 or so years makes more from PERS in a month that I mark in a year (after 28 years service as a cop, an I made more than teachers.
We could go a long way towards strengthening education in general by separating "sports" from academic institutions. There are many models other than the American model. Community leagues and club sports can develop athletic talent at all levels. The fact that universities are willing to pay coaches 10-20x what the most accomplished academic scholars and teachers earn is scandalous.
The other problem, of course, is the system of one state, two Senators. California has 40 million people and two senators. Sixteen states have a combined population of 40 million, with 32 Senators. Ultimately, that fact and the configuration of the Electoral College will probably spell the end of this Great Experiment.
Yes Richard, our "original sin" was the efforts of our founders to weave together disparate colonies with vastly different sources of income and social organization. Their compromises worked until they didn't resulting in the Civil War wherein President Lincoln, a man of the people if ever there was one, forced a reunion which his successor, Andrew Johnson pulled apart those loosened strings of union by allowing essentially the same leadership in the South to remain in power in the service of less disruption and appearing to extend the magnanimity Lincoln, through General Grant, first embraced by allowing the Confederate soldiers to return home with their horses and guns necessary to return to agricultural productivity. We have made the same mistake several times since with such things as the pardon of Nixon by Ford and the failure to hold Regan accountable for his illegal Iran Contra scandal. It seems we as a nation have difficulties providing both appropriate punishment for the leaders guilty of malfeasance while simultaneously showing beneficence to the ordinary people who have fallen under their sway.
Mike, I live in Western NY state, and follow the Bills. Yet, I don’t believe the team needed a new stadium. I agree that money could certainly have been much more usefully invested in education, starting with the Buffalo School District, whose performance ranks among the lowest (with a score of 4/10) in the state and struggles with staff shortages and poor-to-failing student proficiencies. It’s ironic that those same functionally illiterate students are some of the Bills’ most faithful fans. A greater irony might be that the new, fancy stadium might still not lead to a Bills’ Superbowl win…
... right, but it seems to me like whoever is running this game doesn't want kids going to universities - or even schools to educate them for opportunities to get out of the streets with butts in the air - the younger and fresher the better ... sorry to say, that is what I see - in the worst possible way (speaking of prostitution!!) ... and yes, children are being 'groomed' for sex work - only I cannot believe it is just about 'Democrats' ... not a partisan trend - more like the trenches into which we are born, or forced by circumstance ... I give thanks I never brought a child into this sick, sick world!!
Exactly Mike S, she lost sight of her political base in the working class! Too much money concentrated with a few people becomes a power multiplier for anyone with the ego necessary to run for office.
The most “nettlesome barrier” to democratic civil society is enforcement of Justice . We have plethoras of laws “on the books”. It’s not so much “the rule of law” as the actual, equitable application of those laws. We lack this. And it shows. The closer you get to monied-greed, the less enforcement there is. An that seems to be a self-perpetuating cycle: more concentrated wealth, the more hacking/buying/capturing of justice.
Very true. Aside from addressing the extreme concentration of wealth, a society must be educated, informed, and engaged for any form of meaningful democracy to thrive.
Yes, and my inspiration as well. “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti- intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov
I perceive a condescension by the intellectuals (who may not be all that "smart") towards those who succeed in life outside collegiate ivy walls, and who have been conned by the media monsters of industry. Get rid of Fox news and this whole country will become intelligent!
It seems Republican Party has two agendas only; get power and protect the wealthy. When the goal is to reach the end, the means doesn't matter. Voter suppression and restriction has been the mantra of the Party since the Civil Rights era. The 1960s was really important for the black community to emancipate themselves from the voting discrimination that had sidelined them from representation, economic participation, access to health facilities, access to transport, access to schools without segregation, access to protests, access to government institutions, access to legal representation, and access to everything that matter to the lives as human beings. But the Republican chose otherwise and since then, it has become their identity.
By reintroducing voter restrictions in 2020, the Party sent a signal that they are out of touch with the common people, doesn't respect voters, racial segregation still runs in its blood, systemic discrimination is possible and within their manifesto, the constitution is inferior to their goals, and that the major aim is to regain and stay in power with whatever illegal means they got.
But one think stands out; the 21 century vigilance has been bolstered with the continuous strengthening of the institutions and the power of social media. Citizens can nowadays act out of the national institutions that perpetuate systemic discrimination and suppresses voters by rallying behind a United common good for the overall public. If Reverend Martin Luther King and Lewis had the social media tools that are pervasive nowadays, racism, voter suppression, economic jeopardy, and wedging disunity among the people would have ended even before the the Congress and the Federal end it. If Republican wants to be in WH, they should speak the language of the common and allow the distribution of wealth. But, I am sorry, that place has been taken by the Democrats.
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You are mostly correct Edwin, except for the Civil War Era. Then, the Republicans were the good guys and the Democrats were the bigots, racists, and snobs. They reversed roles in the 1930's when Franklin Delano Roosevelt fought against the moneyed interests in favor of the American majority. The final switch occurred in the 1960's with the "southern strategy" drew the former Democrats to the newly minted, racist, Republicans. I emigrated to the States in 1958, having always been a Liberal Progressive, I chose the Democratic Party when I finally achieved citizenship in 1967. I'm not suggesting that all Democrats are good and all Republicans are bad. It's just that overall there are fewer greedy, what's in it for me, Democrats than there are in the Republican/Libertarian groups. We need to pass the new Voting Rights Act. We may even need to get it embedded i the Constitution as an Amendment, if possible. Most of all Americans need to accept that we are all the same animal, Homo sapiens, one genus; one species. No sub-species, no sub-groups. There is not a dimes worth of difference between your DNA and mine. (except mine is a hell of a lot older than yours, (:-) )
Happy to note about that reversed roles. Sometimes, in response to their opponents, politicians may not stay grounded in their mission. And I think that is what might have happened in the civil era and the great Deal time. Sure, the New Voting Rights can be the new direction to take. Thank you Fay Reid
I agree with a lot of what you say F.R. But I think Blacks and Whites need to acknowledge that we are "wired" differently, accept our differences and then move on. If man survives, that will happen. There are folks that hope that it will never happen . They're also actively doing things to make sure that it won't happen.
Yes, were anatomically the same. Culturally different. Some try to make it a small thing - it's a big thing ! Overtime ? It will be a small thing but we have to get there.
It is a big thing. But, it doesn't make one less than the other. Differences is a good thing. I really hope we get there. I don't believe for a minute that this is the way it's supposed to be. I was raised to see people, not race. I raised my kids the same way. I wish everyone would. It would be a kinder world. (Yes, I'm idealistic. I can't help it).
"If Reverend Martin Luther King and Lewis had the social media tools that are pervasive nowadays,"
If they had sufficient access. Part of the problem (there are many) with privatizing everything when someone has thousands of dollars to every one that you have, they get heard and you don't. There are some work-arounds, but in a media dominated society underfunded success is a longshot.
I think traditional media has been overtaken by political parties, but social media despite its weakness is distributed and no one can control how people respond unless the company itself suppress it.
Sadly -social media is now mostly controlled by Zuckerberg and Musk. We're working to change that with a public benefit corp. owned social civic network.
But they can predict how persons will respond based on scraped knowledge of their personalities. This makes social media vulnerable to the incivility virus more than any other media.
"Social" media are easily corrupted and distorted by bots and other technologies designed to weaponize the programming behind the platforms. It is a mistake to assume that (say) a Facebook account necessarily represents an actual human being. Far too many of them actually represent nothing but software bots.
So called "social" media platforms are easily manipulated by political organizations, businesses, and anyone else with an agenda and enough money to but the necessary technology. There are plenty of traditional media outlets that have not been "taken over by political partiers."
YES J L! One need only contemplate the effects of the choices a Rupert Murdoch's Fox News or an Elon Musk make with his Earth-Link system in Ukraine, Space-Ex and the hundreds of satellites surrounding our earth that he owns and controls and the former Twitter, now X)!
There's another more insidious way GOPers and big biz more generally have been concentrating wealth and power.
In 1980, meat packers were primarily Black, earning a decent middle class wage, thanks to decades of organizing. By that decade's end, meat packers were mostly immigrant, laboring for barely above minimum wage under atrocious conditions, where amputations were common.
This scenario was repeated in numerous low/no-skill metiers. The details are laid out in a scholarly, yet highly readable manner in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($14 on Amazon but check your local bookstore).
Beck covers the relevant academic economic history, statements of Black leaders, beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to this phenomenon, Black periodicals, and gov't commisions on on immigration reform, notably the Barbara Jordan commission under President Clinton, where the Black Texas Democrat who made her name during Watergate on the Judiciary Committee recommended roughly halving immigration numbers, and strict enforcement of immigration reform.
Beck, who'd spent 30 years as an environmental journalist, also used his own reporting. Giving the lie to the notion that there are jobs Americans won't do, he interviewed Black workers recently fired from a poultry plant to enable hiring of immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back if they could, he asked them? No, they told him. The wages would force them to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Beck wishes Americans would care as much for the descendants of slavery as they seem to care for immigrants. He also notes that with the gumption that many immigrants have, enabling them to walk from Central America to the US, they could probably turn their own countries around if we didn't make it so easy for them to stay in the US.
I suppose I'm a bleeding heart liberal. I care about exploitation and abuse in any form. When it comes to the immigration system in the United States, I cannot view the brutality of US foreign policy and intervention in places like El Salvador and separate that from the poverty, violence, and gangs so many attempt to flee from to the very country that helped to create the horror. One doesn't need to look further than Georgia and the School of the America's for the evidence. Many of the people who had the "gumption" to fix their own nations were disappeared and systematically tortured and killed.
So I think all workers should have a living wage, decent benefits, and health/safety laws protecting them from exploitation and abuse, and there should be consistent and clear laws and policy about immigration and a pathway to U.S. citizenship.
And while the horrors of slavery can never be fully addressed by an apology and a check, reparations must be paid to all who have suffered due to historically evil acts, whether addressing slavery, the Trail of Tears, or other past crimes directed by American society at classes of people.
I'm not sure ANY "objective" in this sense is important to the Republicans. It seems to me that they are a "gang." In a different world, they would be rabid socialists. In a still-different world, they would be anarchists. In yet a different world, they would be members of a punitive religious cult.
What matters to them, I think, is the insularity and group-think. They happen to have constellated around "conservatism" as their group-think, but I don't think that drives them. What seems to drive them is strutting about in the view of their fellow gang members.
In other words, they are trying to be perfect little fascists.
I went to see Pan's Labyrinth when it came out, years ago, thinking that it was going to be a fantasy film. Which it was, but.... One of the things that struck me was that, in the beginning, the Captain had recently taken command of his men, and they were demoralized and disorganized. There is the scene where the Captain gruesomely kills the man who was captured while hunting rabbits, and you see the soldiers horrified and cringing at the brutality of it. By the end of the film, you see that the soldiers have become the Captain.
It's Lord of the Flies all over again. Not just the descent into raw savagery, but the clustering of "us" against "them," with rituals that serve to hold the boundaries, and ensure momentary rank -- celebrity -- within the group.
Some may well be burn it all down anarchists, but I think there is overwhelming evidence that it is all about power at any cost. And Pan’s Labyrinth was an excellent film.
This is such a concise and true comment, Mr. Polisner, I wanted to thank you for it. We’re in a daily struggle to fight disinformation and your thoughts are a great help.
There’s an old saying “Sell to the classes, eat with the masses. Sell to the masses, eat with the classes.” Supply side economics is “selling to the classes”, concentrating wealth at the very top. Demand side economics is “selling to the masses”. These are Biden’s policies and they lift everyone.
This proposition in the House Republicans' proposed “American Confidence in Elections” Act says everything about the moral state of the R party: "Prohibits taking food and water to those waiting in line to vote."
Reminds one of the lines formed by fresh arrivals at Auschwitz.
"Freedom" has all too often been taken to mean in America the right to visit onto others -- native Americans, black slaves and their descendants -- the savagery suffered by countless generations of oppressed Europeans.
A process that can -- and will -- go on for ever and ever, until today's carriers of this deadly disease awaken to the evil that possesses them, and turn away, and are healed.
At root, "Woke" is not a blowback black reaction to ingrown racism but white America's all-too-gradual awakening to the vile reality of their own vast shadow: endemic white savagery.
Peter, evil is the word. There is a deep vein of sadism in human beings that I don't think we've fully confronted. It's been there throughout history and tffg has tapped straight into it. He's emboldened people with that tendency to drop even their thin mask of decency.
Alexandra, you describe the ugly reality of how one human being can give voice to the repressed hatreds, rage and resentments of many millions. Hitler had this ability and used it, Putin too has tried to harness this power for his own mean purposes.
As when cancer ceases to be hidden and becomes visible, spreading its metastases everywhere, as when a hidden abscess breaks surface, there can no longer be any hiding from the blood-and-pus reality of that suppurating wound. The ever-present reality of our death is here, staring us in the face... and, in so doing, this ugliness is forcibly reminding us of Life, spurring us to rejoice in the treasure we still have as long as we breathe.
No longer can we die our lives, now we live intensely this fragile, marvelous moment we've been given.
So, crisis is a time for taking courage, a time for overcoming fear and despair.
Nor shall I forget how, as a teenager in a boarding school where patterns of bullying and abuse had been handed down for over three decades, my own generation simply cast all that off once and for all. It was so simple, turning our backs on all that crap. Gone like smoke...
We must take care to accept the reality of our shadow side without according too much importance to "the powers of darkness". They can place a lid on the light, they can't shine darkness into it.
“We must take care to accept the reality of our shadow side without according too much importance to "the powers of darkness". They can place a lid on the light, they can't shine darkness into it.” I deeply wish this beautiful idea would see more light.
Rose, "this" is in the nature of things, I cannot see it as a mere idea, even a beautiful one -- we have far too many of those, far more than our gut could ever digest. Our ideological constipation has rendered us quite unable to perceive what simply is and to adjust to our perceptions. We are beings of day and daylight, we are not scorpions, lice or creepie-crawlies from under a stone.... And yet we've grown so divorced from the natural world and from our own true nature that there's often little left of humanity beyond our human appearance.
A true smile tells more of reality than all the toothy fixed grimaces we and politicians force upon one another, more of what really matters than all the endless mind pollution, the ersatz round-the-clock imitations of politics, philosophy and religion force-fed to us by cheap salesmen via telescreen and smartphone.
You are absolutely correct, Peter. But rather than a commonplace natural state, it currently is more an ideal, a sought-after alternative to a distorted, inhumane and surreal reality where the darker elements and figures of society dominate social and mass media. I wish that tfg’s protagonist role could be sidelined. Alas, thanks especially to network TV and his clan of supporters, he keeps dropping into our consciousness like a recurring nightmare. How can his darkness be avoided and/or illuminated?
Wow! Peter and Rose, right on target! I fear, however, that the stakes for this battle with our shadow side have risen to planetary significance for now we must deal with so much more than nastiness and evil, we must help so many of our fellow citizens let go of their self-interests in the many ways they have grown accustomed to take advantage of our "blue dot" in the galaxy by continuing to buy and use devices which spew CO2 and add to the earth's burdens of pollution by chemicals, plastics and poisons. We are not evil because we pursue our comforts and pleasures, we become so when we do this despite harming our children, grandchildren and ultimately the very planet upon which we live and depend...and it is all happening right now, in plain view!
It’s hard to believe, John, isn’t it? At least some of us acknowledge it is not right and we should do something to preserve our world for our children and their future wellbeing. I have friends and relatives on “the other (far Right) side” who fervently believe our climate is not in crisis but experiencing a natural cycle and that we are exaggerating the situation to promote Liberal agendas. Argh!!! Worse yet is my friend who is so religious (Christian) she believes God will save her from all harm if she prays hard enough. She embodies the “perfect-storm”Kool-aid recipe!
... so, faced with the inevitable dilemma of being swallowed by 'the darkness', our call is to shine our light into that darkness ... how else will it ever be dispelled ...?!
Hi Peter, and Mike - and Fern ... I am not able to keep up with the conversation these days - peace and love to all of you!!! ka
Kathleen, it is so good to hear your voice, JohnM speaks for me. I hope you are well, above all that your wise, probing conversation with yourself is bringing you strength and serenity.
Thank you Peter. This life and these times spin like a whirlwind of epic proportions - makes tornadoes look like pretzels!! It is all I can do to seek the eye of the storm, and stitch together scattered fragments as able - one breath at a time ... thank you so much for your kind words and wishes ...
Kathleen Allen, so good to see you. Yes, it has been a while. At, this moment, the feeling of seeing you has reached my skin, which is radiating the goodness of your greeting to us.
In a somewhat sorrowful mood, I returned to the forum this afternoon. I had been to The March on Washington in 1963; feeling that experience, a sense of history, America and democracy today and Climate Change -- it feels like a miracle to have met your light at this moment. Thank you for coming to us.
When I read the ancient words below for the first time, they sent a course of energy through me from head to toe. I'm honored to be able to share them with you.
This prayer was written by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk of the Mahayana tradition who lived around 700 AD. He was a devoted practitioner who authored the Bodhicaryavatara or Bodhisattva Way of Life.
It is said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama considers this text to be THE source for developing altruism in your character and the "Spirit of Awakening." It is also said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama recites this prayer every morning as part of his waking rituals. So, if you give it a try, you are in good company!
*****
Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity
"May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened."
*****
Now, take a deep breath and be still for a brief moment.
What did you feel when reading those words?
The transmission I got is that our highest purpose in this life is to be a source of love and light for others. We're all in this together.
Thank you, Alexandra. But it was all so simple and uncomplicated. We were anything but ideal, we were just the usual mixed bunch. We preferred to do our own thing and let the dead bury their dead.
Nor have I forgotten some of the last sad examples of what we left behind, those boys of 17 or 18 who looked and behaved just like their grandfathers aged 71 or 81....
There's that verse from Auden's September 1st 1939 (four weeks before my birth...):
"I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."
I am very taken with the razor-sharp irony of a great Frenchman, Montesquieu, commenting on the slave trade in 1748...
"It is impossible for us to take those people for men; because, if we were to take them for men, we'd begin to think that we ourselves are not Christians..."
"If I had to justify our right to enslave negroes, here is what I'd say:
' The peoples of Europe having exterminated those of America, had to enslave those of Africa, using them to develop such vast tracts of land... Sugar would be too dear if we did not use slaves to cultivate the plant that produces it...'"
..." It is so natural to think that skin color is the essence of humanity..."
Alexandra Sokoloff. I agree! Everytime a politician says. "being cruel is not who we are", I understand their positivity and desire to inspire us, but
I disagree with their part truth. As you say we need to face the truth. As human beings, we are ruthless and relentless cruelty and genuine and gentle compassion to each other and to every other species on earth.
M Tree, I don't actually believe ALL human beings are sadistic. That's not what history shows us. There were always plenty of people "back in those times" who didn't act monstrously toward other people.
It's pretty easy to identify sadistic tendencies. We don't do it enough. Children with psychopathic tendencies do respond to loving boundaries and can be brought up to do much less damage. The ones beyond redemption need to be isolated from the rest of humanity to contain their damage. Instead, they're way too often glorified.
Alexandra Sokoloff, I took your original comment to mean that human behavior varies in its destructiveness and that we need to look more closely, face ourselves, and speak and tell the truth about the underbelly of human beings. I agreed with you. Perhaps, I misinterpreted your comment.
Peter, I think you are absolutely correct when you state, "'Freedom' has all too often been taken to mean in America the right to visit onto others -- native Americans, black slaves and their descendants -- the savagery suffered by countless generations of oppressed Europeans." When one looks at how power, and the money to stay in power, are wielded with respect to the environment, voting rights, abortion/reproductive healthcare, and the economy generally, by the wealthy, it appears almost as if they and QWing of the former republican party are trying (sadly, with some success) to create a feudal state out of our representative democracy - the feudalism the original white people left behind on the European continent when they came here. The other motives of those “colonizers” (read, “invaders”) - to force their religious views on everyone (except for good old Roger Williams), to commit genocide against the indigenous populations, to obtain an ACTUAL serf class by force (chattel slavery is functionally the same as serfdom while the enslaved people remain on their masters' land, although profoundly and horrifyingly different in that they could be sold off it, unlike the medieval serfs) - are more obvious, but unlike the deeply held beliefs of the founders of our republic, there is that dreadful undercurrent masked as religion, economic conservatism, human rights for fetuses, etc. At least now it is out in the light, courtesy of the useful idiot Tramp and his minions.
WE of Western European ancestry were the chosen ones to find and conquer the New World. WE freed these lands and mastered the indigenous inferiors who ran uncontrolled and without purpose or use across its plains and mountains. It is OUR birthright to retain OUR position in a world made right by OUR traditions, OUR religion, OUR rule and dominion over America's bounties and American's exceptionalism. IMHO this is the tribal problem for our democracy to realize it's promise. Religious zeal, White nationalism, bonding together in today's Republican tribe, and all the concerns we focus upon (e.g., concentrated wealth, wokeness, ethocentrism, etc) are all manifestations of the WEness being defended by 50+ percent of adults in our country. The remaining 50+ percent of us who believe in a diverse, intelligent, and progressive agenda probably need to disabuse ourselves of for what and where the fight, the war for American Democracy lies. Until that WEness changes, our battle will remain intergenerational. WEness has cripple more than one European empire and been justification to keep the strain pure and beliefs in tribal superiority a useful reason to invade, conquer, and pillage neighbors whose behaviors violated any number of the criteria by which the conquerors distinguished themselves for their WEness. The war for our democracy will not be won be examining the public reasons, the shadowing dancing before us or left there for us to debate. It will come, IMHO, only when our national attitudes are aligned with the fervent goals proposed in OUR Declaration of Independents among at least three generations of the young and enlighted. Just saying.
“Royalty pollutes people’s minds, boy. Honest men start bowing and bobbing just because someone’s granddad was a bigger murdering bastard than theirs was.” Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
This is the only part your message left out - it isn't just "WE" are better, it's also "OUR leader is bigger/stronger/more powerful/BETTER than anyone else's, and that's why we follow him" (it's always a him). Hence the rise of the horrors of Trampism.
Go back to when Reagan went after the unions. Why? They funded the liberals, but nothing was said about the republican funding from businesses. Then SCOTUS made bribery legal.
Alexandra, when pastors preaching the Sermon on the Mount are told that Jesus was too weak, there is definitely a lack of true Christianity in some of the churches.
Mary, I was "happy" (not really, but you get me) to see this. I know there are many non-believers in the forum but most are respectful of others views. While I became a lapsed Catholic with the pandemic, I've never lost the belief in Jesus (or any other name for a higher power, I respect all religions) I told someone that I am a Democrat BECAUSE I am a Christian--the hate that I see in the religious right is just wrong. When people argue that I can't be Christian and support abortion (apparently in some minds the only thing that matters) I say that I will support the Anti-abortion faction WHEN there is free contraceptives, affordable housing, JOBS, and safe, inexpensive childcare, and all people in this bounteous land are FED. Then IF the pregnancy was not a product of rape AND the mother or fetus does not have any life threatening conditions, and the abortion is clearly a matter of convenience due to lack of responsibly (lots of "ands" there, sorry) then I will not attempt to stop the abortion but I will look at the action with disgust. But also question what fell short such that it happened and attempt change so it will not happen again.
While the conservatives used to tout "WWJD" I don't see it that much anymore, and yet, it's something I think of all the time. It seems a good guideline to me. Apparently they Evangelicals don't think so anymore.
Miselle, when US citizens are forced by law to donate blood, stem cells, and organs to save the lives of cancer victims, then I will accept the argument that it is good to put a mother’s life at risk to save an unborn baby’s life. Otherwise, the laws are forcing women (and young girls) to sacrifice their health while giving men a free pass.
Update in GA Alexandra , on 8/18/23, a Federal Judge sitting in Georgia STRUCK DOWN a Georgia Election Law that barred giving water to Voters sweltering in line. ( Hat Tip to Diane Gallagher at CNN.)
'An estimated 250,000 Americans in all arrived by bus, by train and on foot to participate in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Together, they forged a cornerstone moment in American history and in the struggle for African American equality that enslavement and Jim Crow had long denied.’
‘The Washington Post spent this summer interviewing participants in the March on Washington, including young civil rights soldiers, curious bystanders and behind-the-scenes leaders, as well as voices from ensuing generations. Together, their quotes below capture the story of Aug. 28, 1963, beyond Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech, and what that day means now.’’
'Courtland Cox'
'Then: 22, march representative from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.'
'Now: 82, chair of the SNCC Legacy Project.'
'As we talk about the March on Washington, its historic significance can only be given in context.
A big change started happening, I would say, 20 years before 1963, because Black people who were veterans of World War II came back with what they called the Double V program: victory abroad and victory at home. They were not going to deal with fighting for “freedom overseas” and coming out here and being slapped and hung in military uniforms.'
'It’s hard 60 years later to talk about the kind of fear, but basically most Black people were in a war zone. For any reason, not only the police but any vigilante could engage in violence against a Black person.'
'Janus Adams'
'Then: 16, incoming college student who attended with her mom.'
'Now: 76, Emmy Award-winning journalist and historian.'
'Every night on the news was another assault. You were watching people brutalized by their own government while you ate dinner with Walter Cronkite.'
'Frank Smith'
'Then: 20, SNCC activist in Mississippi.'
'Now: 80, executive director of the African American Civil War Museum.'
'Sort of like today, being in the civil rights movement, your life revolved around tragedies.'
'Charles Neblett'
'Then: 22, founding member of the SNCC Freedom Singers.'
'Now: 82, activist and retired magistrate.'
'I was the same age as Emmett Till when he was killed [in 1955]. It was horrible, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do, and I was just depressed. I was amazed that anybody could come and kill me and literally get away with it.'
'Joyce Ladner'
'Then: 19, college student and activist.'
'Now: 79, sociologist, author and former interim president of Howard University.'
'Adult men were lynched, but this was the first time a child was dragged out of his home and had his eye gouged out. I coined the term “the Emmett Till Generation.” We all vowed, in one way or another, to avenge his death when we got older.'
'Charles Neblett'
'It was about three or four months later that I saw King and Rosa Parks on TV. It was the first time I saw people publicly standing up for their rights, and it was like a weight lifted off me. There was an answer. There was a way out. I saw people risking going to jail and being lynched standing up. I said,' “When I’m of age, I’ll be right there.”
'E.T. Williams Jr.'
'Then: 25, Peace Corps staffer living in D.C.'
'Now: 85, retired New York City businessman and art collector.'
'We knew [activists] needed money, so we raised money for the sit-ins. And that’s how I got involved and then followed Dr. King.'
'Rachelle Horowitz'
'Then: 24, aide to Bayard Rustin and transportation coordinator for the march.'
'Now: 84, retired political director of the American Federation of Teachers.'
'Both Mr. Randolph and Bayard [Rustin] understood that the fight for civil rights had to be moved to Washington. It had to be federalized.'
'Eleanor Holmes Norton'
'Then: 26, SNCC organizer in New York.'
'Now: 86, D.C. delegate to the House of Representatives.'
'Of all places, the nation’s capital was a segregated city. I went to segregated public schools.' (WAPO)
Thank you, Fern. I wonder what percentage of the voting public knows much of anything about the turmoil of the civil rights era (from WWII to the '60s). "Firing Line" this week is an interview with Richard Dreyfuss: his push for civics education is a just cause, and that education is sorely needed.
'Voting Laws Roundup: June 2023' (BrennanCenterForJustice)
'State legislatures have passed a near-record number of new restrictive voting laws so far this year, while a pro-democracy movement presses on.'
'The state legislative push to restrict voting and undermine faith in elections has moved at a near-record pace this year, driven by a still-active election denier movement. At the same time, the pro-democracy movement has continued to press for legislation to boost voting access.'
'Thus far, more expansive laws have passed than restrictive and election interference laws. The geographical divide of previous years persists, with expansive legislation tending to pass in some states while restrictive legislation tends to pass in other states.'
'Just under a third of state legislatures are still in session this year. Between January 1 and May 29, 2023, the following voting legislation has passed:'
'At least 11 states enacted 13 restrictive laws. Two more restrictive bills in two states were passed by both chambers of the legislature and are awaiting the governors’ approval. Legislation is categorized as restrictive if it contains one or more provisions that would make it harder for eligible Americans to register, stay on the voter rolls, or cast a ballot as compared to existing state law.'
'At least four states enacted five election interference laws. An additional bill in Texas was passed by the legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature. Legislation is categorized as election interference if it either threatens the people and processes that make elections work or increases opportunities for partisan interference in election administration or outcomes.'
'At least 13 states enacted 19 expansive laws.footnote5_rzcrma15 An additional four bills in two states were passed by the legislature and are awaiting the governors’ approval. Legislation is categorized as expansive if it contains one or more provisions that would make it easier for eligible Americans to register, stay on the rolls, or cast a ballot as compared to existing state law.'
'One troubling development: lawmakers have begun to target direct democracy, aiming to limit ways that voters can pass ballot measures. Another notable trend in voting legislation this year is a continued push to criminalize election-related activities. And in Texas, the legislature has considered multiple bills that would hamper election administration in Harris County, a trend that is unusual in its targeting of one particular county.'
'Meanwhile, several states have taken steps to provide legal protections for election workers as they face increased threats to their safety.'
'Restrictive Legislation'
'Between January 1 and May 29, at least 11 states enacted 13 restrictive laws. Of these laws, 7 curb access to mail voting,footnote8_oo3c36q8 and 6 implement stricter photo ID requirements for voter registration or in-person voting.'
'A law passed in Florida targets voter registration efforts in a manner that could shut down registration drives in advance of the 2024. The rush to restrict voting access after the 2020 election has waned somewhat this year, it is still near record highs. By comparison, at roughly the same point in 2021 — the last year when every state’s legislature met — at least 14 states had passed 22 restrictive laws.'
'The total of 13 restrictive laws enacted so far this year surpasses the total number of restrictive laws enacted in any year in the last decade except 2021.'
'Overall, at least 322 restrictive bills were introduced in 45 states. Of these, 35 bills are still moving through 10 state legislatures. Moving bills are those that have passed at least one chamber of the state legislature or have had some sort of committee action (e.g., referral to committee, a hearing since the beginning of 2023, or an amendment). Included in the number of moving bills are one in Oklahoma and one in Texas that have each passed both chambers of the legislature and are awaiting the respective governors’ approval. The Oklahoma bill would risk purging voters from the rolls based on unreliable information. The Texas bill would increase the maximum number of voters that can be assigned to a polling place, which can burden election officials, increase the likelihood of long lines, and depress voter turnout, particularly for voters of color. Among the other moving bills, more than half (22) would restrict access to mail voting, 7 would impose stricter voter ID requirements, and 6 would increase the risk of faulty voter purges.'(BrennanCenterForJustice) See link below.
James K. Vardaman (1861-1930), U.S. Senator and former governor of Mississippi, known as the "Great White Chief" summed it all up: "If it is necessary every Negro in the state will be lynched; it will be done to maintain white supremacy"..."The Mississippi Constitutional Convention was held for no other reason than to eliminate the nigger from politics". A building at the University of Mississippi is named after him.
And then there's Alfred Waddell (1834-1912), a U.S. Senator who staged a successful coup and massacre in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898 to remove a duly elected multiracial government: "We will no longer be ruled, and will never again be ruled by men of African origin". He was allowed to stay in office for many years.
White supremacy is an enduring legacy in America. I get that talking about race is difficult, but we have to acknowledge that this is how our laws and systems operate. Imagine if Obama operated like Trump or if Black people stormed the capital.
Skin color is a fixed trait, just like eye color or hair texture. To be regarded as "non-white" and treated as less than human has been a day to day struggle for survival over centuries, yet we persist hoping to "save the soul" of America.
Frederick Douglass had great hopes for America being able to demonstrate to the world that "liberty and equality" are possible in a multiracial democracy. He was advocating for Chinese immigration and celebrating all of the cultures contributing to America when he made his "Composite Nation" speech in 1867 in Boston. Google the speech-it's worth reading. I wonder what he would think of America now.
My teenage self saw all the activity in the '60s from a place that didn't seem to have any connection to the strife. It saddens me that here we are, 60 years later, and we have made so little progress toward that 'more perfect union'. Seeing snippets of the GOP debate just reinforced that impression. We have a party that has lost touch with reality, given up any defense of the Constitution, and is actively doing harm to the electorate in advocating for voting restrictions. They must be stopped. I hope the constitutional scholars who have been saying that T**** is no longer eligible to run for the office he should have been removed from long ago are correct, and we will not have to worry about Republicans in power again in my lifetime.
It's quite long, and puts forward various interesting legal viewpoints. It ends thus:
"Alas, nothing might dissuade MAGA primary voters from nominating Trump. In that case, a broad coalition of Americans will simply have to defeat him in November 2024 — decisively."
But having Fox and their comrades piping out distortions and hatred is harmful to our national health. Maybe the Dems need to buy more commercial time to deliver their “truths”.
Truman was right in 1948 and even more right today: The only "good Republicans" ARE "pushing up daisies." Actually the Republican Party is more correctly called the Confederate White People's Treason Party.
TC--from my view in the Chicago area, weather in California seems awful out there. There is plenty of water here, no big fires since 1871, rather decent weather in comparison to much of the country. Lots of cultural institution, and a beautiful lakefront. Chicago still has racial issues but I do think they are sloooooowwwwly improving.
The house next door to me is for sale. I'd love to live next door to you. Just saying. ;-D
The winters aren't what they used to be, TC. The last two years, I've used my snowblower once each season. Climate change--even my spring bulbs come up a month earlier than they used to. But yes, humidity is no fun.
Last time I was there in 2001, there was one day the humidity was so bad that by the time I got out of the shower, dried off, and walked down to the guest room at my friend's house, I felt like I needed another shower.
My favorite place back there is West Dundee, where another friend lives. The place was founded in 1872 and doesn't have a house in town built after 1900. All you have to do is change the cars on the street to change the time. They shot "Road to Perdition" there.
"Black voting, they insisted, would lead to a redistribution of wealth and thus was essentially socialism."
Yet the same people enthusiastically support laws and policies and any other impediments to a redistribution of wealth to a small minority of ultra-wealthy individuals. And that's good because why? Wasn't that the principal problem with the Gilded Age? My High School history book seemed to think it was, "I owe my soul to the company store"? Who wants that?
The line "Greed is good" was original cautionary fiction, but Republicans took it up as a motto, and repeated it endlessly until The Great Recession made it more irritating. Greed is greed because someone is deprived for no reason. Except for greed.
"Yet the same people enthusiastically support laws and policies and any other impediments to a redistribution of wealth to a small minority of ultra-wealthy individuals. "
The Republicans are NOT against Socialism. They are just against helping anyone who may not vote for them.
For example, the Trillion dollar "Farm Bill" is basically a monster welfare giveway for (mostly) rich white farmers since the large corporate farms get most of the money.
Only for rich people, or people who might thereby become rich, and therefore owe them something in return. Kinda like Clarence Thomas and cabal. Perpetuating the problem, generation after generation.
I think the term "socialism" means different things to different people and the term has been misused by the GQP for many years to spread fear. But the way we look at it, it is a system where tax dollars are used to support things for all the people. Think of fire departments, public schools, police departments, public libraries, public pools or recreational facilities, healthcare, etc. So, everyone pays in a relatively small amount so benefits can be shared by many.
In Europe, people pay taxes and they receive free health care and their children go to colleges and universities for free. Some people would call that socialism and certainly it qualifies as such but, I would rather think that my tax dollars were used for something that we could see more benefits instead of another bomber.
Here? My tax dollars in NY State go to, for example, a $600 million dollar subsidy for the new Buffalo Bills Stadium for the Buffalo Bills which is owned by one single family (a rich one).
How many kids could go to college on $600 million? BUT, young people cannot give Kathy Hochul big campaign contributions so they don't get free education.
The rich get richer while the poor get children - black, white, Hispanic, and all the poor people. As we are seeing play out before our very eyes. We thought this had been resolved back in 1973; I guess we'll just have to teach it to them again.
There was a long haul of public-interest-oriented political leaders and social movement to wrest a share of power from the 1% in the intervening year from the Gilded Age, and substantial progress was made. Yet much of it abandoned for the glitzy false promises of Reagan et al, and the deliberate re-stoking of the Civil War.
It's also worth recalling that both Nixon and Carter were environmentally-oriented presidents, and Reagan most certainly not.
Yup. The public was suckered into building fancy new sports stadiums for (big) profit making teams. The mayor said it was just like supporting the symphony, but I'll bet that a cellist does not take home the kind of pay that these guys do.
MIssissippi can top that! Bret Favre's volleyball stadium was paid for with TANF money. TANF FUNDS! Criminal prosecutions are ongoing, apparently, following certain pleas to wire fraud and bribery charges, and the State of Mississippi has filed a civil suit against these thieves and scoundrels to recover the misspent funds. https://www.mississippifreepress.org/27465/in-depth-how-brett-favre-secured-6-million-in-welfare-funds-for-a-volleyball-stadium. The people involved it this scheme are named in the article, from September 2022.
How does this happen? Who are these people who think this is even colorably moral?
Yes, I read about that. Corruption with a capital "C", and it's on a roll. Power tends to corrupt, thus the need for checks and balances. And the need to stop corruption, misuse of power, before it seems overwhelming, no matter who is doing it.
The dictionary definition of socialism is collective or state ownership of the means of production. Can someone point me to an instance where that is actually in effect in the United States. Not big gifts or grants, ownership.
Not seeing government (the “state”) owned means of production. I assume these are local cooperatives. In my view, and that of rightist congresspersons, not the same thing, but probably good for the local economy.
In socialism the government owns manufacturing and controls production, in some systems at least. Profits go back to the people, not to someone’s bank account or yacht.
Pure socialism is less state control than communism, but I suggest, as displayed before the Temple at Delphi, avoid excess. I have encountered Republicans who believe that absolutely NO service should be dispensed without a profit attached (just like Jesus said, right?) roads, schools, whatever. Back in the 70's I encountered students who claimed that virtually nothing should be private. Both seem fanatical to me. Surely there are some services that are so vital and sometimes so dangerous if misused, that that it is folly to remove them from public provision and oversight. Think Wagner. Of, by and for the people. We should get to decide.
I also think that free enterprise is an important part of a free society, and does some things very well. Neither business or individuals should be regulated more than necessary, and we need to be enduringly proactive about that; but as much as it takes, just like highways. What's wrong with that? We need to be attentive to preserving rights for ALL the people, as individuals and as the general welfare. Not easy, but well worth a good-faith effort.
You are welcome, I must credit Professor Richard Wolff for the definition, which I paraphrased from one of his lectures. He has authored numerous books on socialism and his lectures are on YouTube. He favors democratic socialism where the workers make managerial decisions.
I would love to see "Beau of the Fifth Column" do a concise clip on that, one that we could all forward to friends/family and post on our social media, if we use that.
At least in effect. Wealth is a bit like climate, the flow of which is complicated and always on the move, like people. But is it being distributed in one big pile controlled by a small minority or spread around? Either way there are statute and de facto rules that favor one way or the other.
I am speaking of money in terms of how it flows though the whole of a society. In the Gilded Age, government corruption allowed the rules to be bent to direct it into the pockets of so called "Robber Barons". Police would come out to beat up striking workers. Between then and Reagan, the middle class grew, poverty was being somewhat remediated, and pubic protections and infrastructure increased, until plutocrats and Republicans managed to put the brakes on. Wealth like political power (and they go together) can be capture and concentrated in a few hands, or more widely share around the society. I don't think the media takes those "big picture" looks very much.
One of the manifestations of this is climate change. The big picture is reveals fundamental trends that are, in the end, most impactful.
Good ones below. Perhaps in politics more than other fields I think people regularly use the same word to mean many very different things. "Freedom"? "Patriotism" "Government"? "Religion". How can we communicate without some agreed "landmarks?".
Well there is the constraints of the dictionary 'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings, but we have a fair degree of freedom to define a word narrowly, or perhaps unconventionally for a specific discussion. The main thing that irks me is when Republicans claim the sacredness of something like "Free Trade" when what they mean is anti-antitrust. When semi-monopolies bully workers and consumers, what kind of "freedom" is that? "Defense of Marriage" when they are trying to keep people from doing it? A lot of their "definitions" smack of "Newspeak". They far too often get a pass on that.
Sad but true. A dictionary is meaningless to them, if they've ever come across one - I mean, why should they explore word meanings? You get everything you want from the television. Or, off the television.
Amen. The saddest part of all of this is that the MAGA rowdies think that what they are doing with violence is equivalent to what Lewis and King did non-violently.
True Justice can be found in the voting booth, and those who seek to invalidate votes through gerrymandering, or to impede and disenfranchise voters are subverting justice.
Voting rights within each state must be restored and respected. It would happen sooner if we were able to abolish the Electoral College, that celebration of real estate over democracy.
“This is not about issues for one group or one ethnic group,” Mr. King said. “It’s about Americans. It’s about creating a climate for America to fulfill its true promise for all of its citizens.” It’s beginning to dawn on me that the racists and GOP don’t consider anyone outside their clique to be Americans. The voting process in Australia is so simple - automatically one person, one vote and it’s illegal not to vote. Why can’t America do that? The GOP does nothing but throw wrenches in any attempt at democracy for those outside of their cliques. They should be outlawed or there’s no future for decent people in America, citizen or not.
At 80 years of age, I lived those 1960 days. However, I was so embroiled in my young life at the time it was difficult to put it all into perspective. Once again "our Heather" has laid out what we have lived over the past 60 years - and here we are. We must, we must not give up. We're on the cusp of real change - the 2024 election will be the most important election in my lifetimes - perhaps in our history. We must get every Democrat out to VOTE. Every one.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. We fought for this in the 1960's, we marched, registered voters, wrote letters and won. Now 60 years later we're fighting the same battle again. If the racists don't like it they can move to Russia. This time we have to make the right to vote stick so firmly that no fascist can ever remove it again.
I do wish ALL of the racist MAGA's would move to Russia, and take Donald TUMP with them, then they could kiss Putin's rear end every day since they love and cherish him and TUMP so much.
I had also posted this on Robert Hubbell's substack.
I just watched Oliver Anthony's video regarding the use of his song ¨Rich Men North of Richmond at the opening of the republican debate.¨ I encourage everyone here to watch that video and also, after watching, to watch his song on YouTube, read the responses from people world wide. If that doesn't cause you to understand hopelessness..........
Mike, my very slim mother grew up on a farm - I have a huge appreciation for the work you must have done, and that farmworkers still do for the rest of us.
There's a heartbreaking obesity epidemic across the US, and race has nothing to do with it.
But I think the song itself is pretty clearly playing into the carefully constructed "welfare queen" trope.
That's what the essence of America is about. Each has a right to an opinion. Those of us who know people living the lives of songs like this have empathy as well as frustration. These words, evidently, speak to a U.S. that you simply don't see.
Gailee, you can speak to the problems of the white downtrodden of the US without clapping back to the racist "welfare queen" straw horse created by the exact rich men north of Richmond, specifically Reaganite Republicans, that the song invokes. Do you really not see why I would have a problem with that?
Relying on racist tropes is excluding a whole lot of people from this supposed empathy.
Did you not listen to his video? Do you not realize that his song was directed to the people on the stage at the debate as well as politics and politicians regardless of party? Regardless of country? It has struck a nerve with millions of people world wide. Different countries. Different races. Understandably, there are those to whom it will not reach. Have a beautiful weekend 💐
Gailee, I know what he said about it. I'm having this conversation with you because of these exact lyrics of the song, which I think are both mean and racist. Even if you don't agree that they're racist, do you really not think that they're mean? This IS what he says:
Your privilege shines quite brightly if you dismiss these lyrics as a racial, welfare queen trope. I get why you might recoil, but the message goes way beyond race or gender.
Welfare: food stamps, WIC, and Medicaid helped me survive a rough childhood. This man is not hating on the poor or obese or people of color.
He’s lamenting that the government supports the corporate agenda that makes us fat. The industrial food complex is knowingly killing us. Welfare rules perversely work to fatten us up while feeding corporate coffers.
We live in a country where working is dying. Why can’t we live in a country that ensures we make enough to not need welfare?
V Omar, I'm 100% with you that the US should ensure we make enough to not need welfare.
But those lyrics say nothing about "the government supporting the corporate agenda that makes us fat." THAT is some stretch of imagination you've got going there.
Neither do they say anything about starving children, as the songwriter has tried to claim was his inspiration.
I am looking at the exact lyrics.
What they say is:
"And the obese milkin' welfare
But God if you're five foot three
And you're three hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay
For your bags of fudge rounds"
Again - even if you don't think the "welfare queen" trope isn't resonating from that (and I'm certainly not the only person who thinks so) I don't see how you can dismiss the nastiness in those words.
Alexandra, I'd agree with you, but thankfully for me, I watched the video of his explanation of his song first. All the way to the end of it. Then I watched the song.
Miselle, the lyrics say what they say. People who buy the song don't get it with some video explanation of how he didn't really mean to say what he said.
Are those lyrics mean, or not? Do they clap back to the racist, constructed trope of a "welfare queen" or not?
You are so kind. I also hadn't heard of him. For me, he is singing the pain of the many caught in nets that society does not serve, and those of us it does serve but we are frustrated with the inability to help those in need in huge ways that matter. The posts on his YouTube song, for me, echo this.
The now unrecognizable GOP should be renamed the POP, Party of Putin, because their tactics, their ground game and their goals call for concentration of wealth into the hands of a few white nationalists. They want to control everybody who is not like them. They would legalize imprisonment and execution of people who differ from them.
This started long before inmate PO1135809, who was installed because he is a useful tool (racist, misogynist who perfectly plays a victim). That is a siren call to disenfranchised white men, their families and friends. The reason for their disenfranchisement: opportunities for women, people of color, LGBTQ, and disabled persons. It’s that simple, and it has been that simple for centuries.
It is my fervent hope that this informs voters to elect representatives who support the will of all people: easy to vote, rescind Citizens United, allow unfettered access to abortion, pass the Equal Rights Amendment, believe in/act upon climate change, ensure wealthy people/corporations pay their taxes and provide affordable, quality health care for all.
All other candidates should take a long walk on a short pier, or so opines the commenter.
In my mind, nothing, but the GQP uses the term "Socialism" to make people believe that they are giving up democracy, which just weaponizes it to their advantage. Their voters don't seem to want to dig a little deeper.
Many of the Fascist GQP voters are too dumb and stupid and lazy to dig a little deeper. Some of them won't believe anything except what TUMP spews at them. My ex sister in law is a prime example. My daughter says she has a sign up in her trailor that reads, '' I am an Ultra MAGA'' Her and Maggot Traitor Goon would make a good pair of deluded and brainwashed GQP wingnuts to the extreme.
That is a real bummer. I was accosted by someone recently who didn't like my "Biden Harris" bumper sticker. We had hired his uncle to drive us in our car to the airport (that is 125 miles from where we live). His uncle hired him because we had to take two cars due to family coming with us. He threatened to remove the bumper sticker before we came home. As his tone of voice became more threatening and louder he kept saying "What don't you want to hear the other side?" and that "We must be rich" and to be Biden supporters. We aren't rich but we have lived frugally most of our lives so we could retire. Our son finally stepped in and told him he was disrespecting me and that he was hired to drive not to share his political opinions. The whole incident with that MAGA asshat was very upsetting.
Oh my, that guy didn't have any business saying anything about your BIDEN/HARRIS bumper sticker, much less to try to start a confrontation with you.. I had something kind of similar to that when we had a BIDEN/HARRIS yard sign up just before the General Election in 2020. My next door neighbor and his bratty loud mouth son started heckling us about the sign and threatened to take it down, the neighbor's bratty son came up to in one of those golf cart things, and he had one of the neighbors down the road with him me and said, '' why don't you take that sign down??'' I told him he better no bother my sign,, and i went on to say, '' i wouldn't vote for TUMP or any Rethuglicans that was always insisting that they were going to destroy my Social Security, and i warned him again, that he had better not bother my sign. He looked stunned. and so did the neighbor down the road. He didn't say a word, and took off like a bat of hell in the golf cart. A few days after that, my daughter had a flat tire, and a big gash in the tire with a knife blade broken off in it. One tire on my mini van was flattened. The fat pig neighbor down the road later tried to keep me from going down the gravel road in front of his house, i went anyway, and when i got to where him and his ugly wife were standing, they wouldn't even say anything to me, i give them a ''go to hell' look and went down the gravel road anyway. Later on, they would curse at us from their jacked up pick-up trucks, and one day my oldest grown granddaughter was at my house when they drove by and started cursing, and my oldest granddaughter yelled back at them, '' GO TO HELL'' very loudly at them, they never did harass us after she told them that.. I am surrounded by these MAGAT wingnuts here, but it is very upsetting to me how these insane wingnuts act about the worst criminal in the world, Donald TUMP. I am sick of these brain diseased, irrational, mental midgets. they are entrenched into a cult, and there is no reasoning with these nutty idiots. We have to out vote them in next year's elections, somehow, some way.
What a horrible experience for you and your family John. I feel like every time I think I see light at the end of the tunnel with all of this it is just another oncoming train filled with loud mouthed haters that can carry guns without impunity! I am glad that no one in your family was physically injured by these malignant oafs! We really have to put them back under their rocks with our votes. But seeing this unfold it isn't too difficult to see how Jim Jones got his followers to drink the tea or how Hitler rose to power...very scary, indeed.
Yes , Colette, it was a horrible experience to us. And that bratty neighbor's son has posted Christmas pictures of him and his whole family clutching AR 15 rifles in front of their Christmas tree last year ,he even had his 3 year old son with his little hands around the barrel of the rifle. And yes. the people are malignant oafs to the extreme. I haven't spoken to his Father or Mother that live right beside me in 3 years now. I want nothing to do with them. It's a wonder they haven't shot at my house with one of those rifles. The Jim Jones thing comes to mind when i think about these deluded TUMP followers. It's a huge and dangerous cult. If i could convince my daughter and grandson to go with me, i would sell my house and move to Nova Scotia, Canada. I could make enough profit on my house, plus what money i have saved and move. These MAGA asshats have me very concerned. I am beyond sick and tired of all of this. Donald TUMP has ruined hundreds or thousands of the lives of the good citizens of the United States.
Thank you Heather! The GOP has one objective -the concentration of wealth, and thus -power. Everything else they do is intended to divide and conquer -whether racism, misogyny, cries of "socialism", anti-"wokeness", and more. It's all intended to misdirect anger and frustration.
Even absent the years of evidence that so-called "trickle-down" economics does not grow the economy -it merely concentrates wealth, if Americans stopped to think about it they would recognize it as a fraud perpetrated by the obscenely wealthy on workers and the impoverished.
No form of meaningful democracy can survive when wealth is concentrated into the hands of a few.
George, I agree that concentration of wealth is one objective but I don't think wealth is the only objective by a long shot. Small, mean people making themselves feel better about themselves by oppressing others has a whole hell of a lot to do with it.
Fully agree -the GOP uses that from a strategic standpoint. I think that's an important part of the strategy -to shift from personal responsibility to blaming and hating others. To me, that is the "distraction and polarization/divide/conquer" strategy.
Perpetual power (through concentrated wealth) is (again, to me) the objective -by whatever means they can accomplish it. If I can turn my $10 Billionaire into a $20 Billionaire -they can write a big check to Leonard Leo, and create a majority in SCOTUS, I can shift State Legislatures, and I can win with a minority of people (who proceed to vote against their own and societal self-interest).
They play the resentment card masterfully and direct it towards the Democrats who actually try to help the less affluent and working class. Tax the wealthy fairly and raise wages for those who actually go to work every day.
I think that it is safe to say that Frances Perkins, the person most responsible for Social Security and other elements of the New Deal, spoke for us:
"The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life." All the people. Everyone.
Apart from simple moral arguments of fairness and equity, improving the social, educational and economic lives of the less advantaged benefits everyone, since this injects demand into the national economy and that injects profit into the goods and services providing corporations, not to mention businesses of every kind. That's "socialism"?
You get it Frank. But the GQP see it all as a zero sum game. In their narrow bigoted minds, there is just one little economic pie. "And I am not gonna share it with 'them'..."
What a super powerhouse of a nation we could be if every kid had the same opportunity to create new businesses or thrive in a company. What a nation we could be if everyone had the chance to be nourished with quality food, cultivated with equal education and didn't suffer for lack of proper healthcare. What we could be!!!
Not only would the average citizen benefit, but we would be the envy of the world. Our system of democracy would be emulated and the world would be a better place. Now? The international community looks at us and they shake their collective heads with dismay. Instead they look at countries like Finland. We should learn from Finland and others who provide a social underpinning for the basics of life and support a successful but regulated private enterprise system.
It's "socialism" in the minds of the gullible and ill-informed.
Everything that the wealthy don't want is labeled socialism. Most wealthy are white Republicans, many have received large inheritances, and they use the phrase "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable" that "I can get if I work at it." See the book The Big Myth for a complete history since the late 19th century of the tried and true strategies of privilege and greed. All lies and jest, as Sinon and Garfunkel put it.
Frank, an open hand and heart to give, builds up, a closed hand and heart destroys. I am on the side of building up, encouraging, providing hope and opportunity.
There is nothing greater than to see the joy on someones face who has just been given a little hope, a little encouragemet, a little faith that they can have a chance at "The American Dream".
In my understanding of this ideal.....it is also the way to build a stronger more productive country...and world.
Richard, I love that you keep Frances Perkins in the forefront of conversations! She is an American heroine.
Thank you, Alexandra. Without a doubt, Frances Perkins is one of the most important persons ever to serve in U.S. government. Sadly, she never really got the accolades that she deserves during her lifetime.
Seth - it is masterful. Genius strategy on their part, really.
Appealing to deep emotions often “trumps” reason. When people feel threatened we react almost automatically. We are in one of history’s hinge eras when “the center cannot hold” and “things fall apart “ anxiety and discontent are affecting us all. The 2016 election was influenced by the limbic brain on fire election fueled by social media and malign big money and Russian meddling. Hillary won the popular vote none the less. She was too reasonable to prevail by a whisker in so called swing states. Who know he much voter suppression and confusion was the crucial factor?
A lot of people know that something is amiss, but many of them do not know exactly what it is. Into this comes the purveyors of misinformation and pot stirring playing on their fears. I was interested in an article in I think, the NYT about safer places to be in terms of climate change which I think, has become part of the fear without understanding the human role in it or denying that totally. One of the places was the midwest and then near Detroit and in parts of northern Ohio we had an outbreak of nasty tornadoes and flooding in places like Detroit. The wealthy know that this is a problem also and they are determined to get all the money and power out of the system because they foolishly believe their money will save them.
Experts on writing and executing business plans and strategies, it was a natural, profitable shift.
Personal responsibility for you and impunity for me.
That would be a wonderful slogan, as it is the true spirit of Republicans. But the perfect word, impunity, would be a head-scratcher for too many.
A phrase making the rounds is:
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”— Frank Wilhoit
But that's still a bit abstract. Perhaps a plainer version it that modern Republicans, as a whole, want to dominate not cooperate. They excuse themselves for being bullies.
I have heard that quote and agree with Wilhoit and with you. I fear the people who think cooperate is another word for yield or obey. (It is, if you are a child who must “cooperate” with powerful adults.) I hope someone can come up with a simple phrase to counter the idea that every man IS an island, it’s every man for himself, a dog eat dog world, a zero sum game.
Ironically, the post-Reagan GQP movement to demonize the opposition and use racism as a weapon took a big step when they installed our longest serving Supreme Court justice, a man who has proven to be a racist, misogynist, insurrection supporter, and totally corrupt. The destruction of the US courts has been the destruction of civil rights.
Yes! Read “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein. The GOPigs’ “trickle down economics” aims to wipe out the Middle Class and to stir up unrest allowing rich, fascist oligarchs to seize wealth and power. For them, racism and bigotry is a tool...little wonder they have even provided an abundance of guns.
Yes, love Naomi Klein. Also, of course, HCR, John Kenneth Galbraith, George Lakoff, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noam Chomsky, and, when depressed… Hunter Thompson for a quick “pick-me-up”.
George Lakoff!!! He is key to understanding how the right-wing weaponizes and distributes their propaganda.
George ‘Rent a Congressman’ has a long tradition. Indeed, I hear that there are over 43,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, at least ten for every member of Congress.
Is it a surprise that a number of 2a.m. Inserts in congressional bills provide relief to individual and corporate fat cats?
I grew up in Haverford, a small suburb of Philadelphia. The local scuttlebutt was that J. Howard Pew, the owner of Sun Oil and with an estate that had 8 gardeners (during the Depression), would make his annual Pennsylvania State Assembly choices. He would offer $$$ and wait for a majority to accept, before he shut the Assembly largesse gate until the next year.
These ‘good old days’ remain writ large in Congress, especially on the Republican side. Why else have taxes on truly rich not be raised to confront what Republicans lament as our ‘debt crisis?’
P. S. One day I got a ride on a milk truck up to the Pew house. (I saw the 8 gardeners being assembled). I was selling magazine subscriptions. I knocked on the door, which a butler opened. I told him my request, but the lady of the house, I was told, was not interested.
Some years later I was teaching at The Haverford School. Ricky Pew (related to J. Howard) was in my 7th grade social studies class. He was bright and extremely shy. He had to leave early one vacation, since the Pew RR car was headed to Florida.
Don't forget about SCOTUS members being appointed indirectly by the wealthy, but they are also good buddies with these wealthy people. Thomas comes to mind.
I see below that George agrees with you Alexandra, as do I. The wealthy learned how to manipulate the racism, misogyny, xenophobia and homophobia of the white Christians to vote for policies that have allowed them to plunder our natioanl treasury, enriching themselves beyond their wildest imaganings - $32 trillion to date. Thomas Frank documented this in his 2004 book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and then professors David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley, both with the Univ. of Kansas, sealed it with their study, "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump int he 2016 Election, and Why?" Google it.
Richard, I've read The Anger Games. Excruciatingly enlightening.
Somehow the GOP's persistent grip on electoral power doesn't seem to fade away. Once the Democrats had an almost monopoly of Federal power. Is it only unfair practices which have lost them a chance or acquire even a modicum of a chance and acquiring majorities sufficient to get by the Supreme Court, the US Senate? Of course, as Nikki Haley pointed out to Republicans the other night on abortion, there is no way the GOP can obtain a supermajority or even a decent senate majority to shoulder through a national abortion ban, something a majority of Americans oppose. 2024 is going to be another major political struggle. As always, organize, propagate, propagandize on the high or even just everyday moral road. Will look up that book!
Frank, I fear when the Democrats get into power by gaining the White House and majorities in both houses of congress, they become more and more like the Republicans by increasingly ignoring their working class base. I fear that for all the benefits of the Clinton epoch we like to cite, especially the return to not only a balanced budget but a surplus,
came from their alliance with big business and off-shoring of so much of our manufacturing. This left the working class out of jobs and Democrats losing the support of their base.
I’ll happily take the chance. Repubs are intrinsically evil these days.
JohnM upstateNY: Clinton also was responsible for so-called “Welfare Reform,” which turned what had been a federal entitlement for poor, mostly single-parent families into a state-controlled program with lifetime caps of five years (or less, at state choice). As a result, states were able to require punitive obstacles. And since “Welfare Reform” was block granted to the States, dollars in many southern states were diverted into moralistic activities such as parenting classes, drug testing, etc. Actual spending that flowed to families for rent, clothing, etc. dropped from the original standard of FPL (federal poverty level) to 15% of Area Median Income. States with the highest proportion of impoverished Black families ended up with the lowest benefits. Homelessness surged.
I have never forgiven Clinton.
John, I too have wondered this but I think there has been a definite shift via the bejeezus scared out of some, by the real threat of dictatorship. The question is, is the shift adequate enough to balance everyone's interests and is it sustainable? I think the public's lack of trust in future actions is reflected in the President's low polling numbers.
I hope we have learned from the mistakes of all our predecessors, from Reagan on, and can take the knowledge (thank you, historians!) so hard won to keep working to attain the goals of equity and fairness. There will ALWAYS be headwinds, but that must not stop us from continuing to sail! Never give up.
... it seems to swing like a pendulum ... has anyone noticed that most candidates and causes appeal for funding through a single resource? Feels almost like being corralled into the chute in a slaughterhouse ... will we ever evolve beyond the polarity of partisan/bipartisan contention?!
And, i gather, converting to the GOP? And what, since then, would have made them remain thus? Cultural wars?
I've never heard of the book, Richard. Thanks! Maybe historians will name our era "The Anger Games".
It isn't a book. It was published in the Feb. 2018 issue of Critical Sociology, a peer-reviewed journal. You can google it. Today's MAGA are the same as the 1920's KKK. Absolutely no difference. "The Anger Games: . . . ." and Timothy Egan's "A Fever in the Heartland" are virtually essential to understand what we're dealing with presently. Racism. Misogyny. Xenophobia. Homophobia.
Oh thanks so much, Richard Sutherland, for the source!
I looked at it briefly, so I saved it to read later. Thanks for the info!
Is all of a piece. Runaway ego and obsession with pursuit of absolute power.
Alexandra Sokoloff, I agree harming people is a common means and end to power. All the insanity we see and feel reflects an insatiable and obsessive appetite for getting and/or holding onto power. Financial wealth is a form of power in our society, as is fame, for example. Both will get you power and help you hold onto power. But power itself is not bad. It is how an individual or a group uses it ---- to destroy or make better.
Lyndon Johnson famously said you can deprive a white man of anything if you can point to a Black man in worse condition. Honest
I think the racists are afraid of people of other nations (color/religion) because they may find out that these people are better, more talented, more athletic, and smarter than they are.
Karen, I don't have the slightest doubt about that.
Alexandra,
That is the truth. A campaign showing pictures of evil, mean , corrupt , bullies and then a question: “ Is this who you are?”
And then a huge picture of any spiritual leader( Jesus, Mother Teresa.........) and say “call for help”.
Same thing.
Money IS power and with it, I can persuade a perfect stranger to give me a sandwich. Or, from the "right" vendor, contract murder for hire. The "right" public official will grant me special governmental favors in exchange for financial help, and these days, most of this latter exchange is not even illegal thanks to the "GOP" for expanding our palette of purchasing options; provided you have the scratch. Political position and violence are also forms of personal power, and can often deliver what you want. Some like to combine all three.
But Democracy is a radical division of power into equal shares. We empower our fiduciaries by combining our votes, as opposed to a Big Boss being born into the "right" family or commanding a personal army. When it comes to matters of state, we are supposed to enjoy ‘ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE’; although there there remain a number of nettlesome barriers to that ideal being fully realized.
"But Democracy is a radical division of power into equal shares."
Unfortunately, the USA is a Social Democratic House of Prostitution, not really a Democracy in the meaning you note.
Sure, I can vote, for, say, Kathy Hochul here in NY. But, once she is in office, lifted there by my vote, her big donors tell her what to do and she does it.
Example: Upon Kathy Hochul's election as NY State governor her highest priority became providing no less than $600 MILLION dollars to one family, the owners of the Buffalo Bills, the Pegula family, in Buffalo, NY, where she is from. The money was, ostensibly, "to keep the Buffalo Bills from moving out of state" except, there was no threat of that happening.
The Pegula family is a very large donor to Kathy Hochul's campaign funds.
So, I can vote for Hochul, but, as part of the Social Democratic House of Prostitution called "Democracy" here in the USA, does my vote matter?
I really cannot say I think it does.
I would NEVER have socialized the cost of a new stadium for football and privatized the profit like Kathy Hochul did, NEVER.
$600 Million dollars could have put a LOT of kids through state Universities here in NY.
I am happy that some folks can enjoy a football game or any other sporting event. But we have turned professional sports (and now college) into a money grubbing machine for the rich to get richer. We have allowed the oligarchs to turn it into a religion of sorts. The worship of sports stars is just another example of redirecting our collective wealth into the hands of a few. Seen from space, it might be viewed as "wow...they haven't changed much since the days of the Romans and the coliseum."
Your story about the stadium makes me want to hurl. But sadly, it happens all over the world where we value the ability to throw and catch a ball more than we value a kids nutrition, healthcare and education. It is simply stupid and cruel.
Bill, you could get me started on college football. The dismemberment of the Pac 12 conference chasing big football money is disgusting. Football plays one game a week with a bye week in about a 14 week season. Other sports (notably women's sports, but I'm going to include both men's and women's basketball in this as well) play two or three games a week. It is one thing for softball (the game I used to umpire at the collegiate level) to have to travel from Seattle to Los Angeles (or vice versa) for a 3 game series. It is absurd to travel to New York or Pennsylvania for a 3 game series. Only slightly less absurd to travel to the mid west for games in March.
We could go a long way towards strengthening education in general by separating "sports" from academic institutions. There are many models other than the American model. Community leagues and club sports can develop athletic talent at all levels. The fact that universities are willing to pay coaches 10-20x what the most accomplished academic scholars and teachers earn is scandalous.
Agreed. Mike Belotti, who coached Oregon for 15 or so years makes more from PERS in a month that I mark in a year (after 28 years service as a cop, an I made more than teachers.
We could go a long way towards strengthening education in general by separating "sports" from academic institutions. There are many models other than the American model. Community leagues and club sports can develop athletic talent at all levels. The fact that universities are willing to pay coaches 10-20x what the most accomplished academic scholars and teachers earn is scandalous.
Ally, 100% with you on football. It's a humanity-killer.
Bread and circuses. Oh, no - actually, just circuses. And apparently circuses are enough.
The other problem, of course, is the system of one state, two Senators. California has 40 million people and two senators. Sixteen states have a combined population of 40 million, with 32 Senators. Ultimately, that fact and the configuration of the Electoral College will probably spell the end of this Great Experiment.
Yes Richard, our "original sin" was the efforts of our founders to weave together disparate colonies with vastly different sources of income and social organization. Their compromises worked until they didn't resulting in the Civil War wherein President Lincoln, a man of the people if ever there was one, forced a reunion which his successor, Andrew Johnson pulled apart those loosened strings of union by allowing essentially the same leadership in the South to remain in power in the service of less disruption and appearing to extend the magnanimity Lincoln, through General Grant, first embraced by allowing the Confederate soldiers to return home with their horses and guns necessary to return to agricultural productivity. We have made the same mistake several times since with such things as the pardon of Nixon by Ford and the failure to hold Regan accountable for his illegal Iran Contra scandal. It seems we as a nation have difficulties providing both appropriate punishment for the leaders guilty of malfeasance while simultaneously showing beneficence to the ordinary people who have fallen under their sway.
Mike, I live in Western NY state, and follow the Bills. Yet, I don’t believe the team needed a new stadium. I agree that money could certainly have been much more usefully invested in education, starting with the Buffalo School District, whose performance ranks among the lowest (with a score of 4/10) in the state and struggles with staff shortages and poor-to-failing student proficiencies. It’s ironic that those same functionally illiterate students are some of the Bills’ most faithful fans. A greater irony might be that the new, fancy stadium might still not lead to a Bills’ Superbowl win…
https://www.investigativepost.org/2022/01/10/buffalo-schools-struggle-to-catch-up/
Sounds so like the Fall of the Roman Empire: brutal games for the crazed crowd.
... right, but it seems to me like whoever is running this game doesn't want kids going to universities - or even schools to educate them for opportunities to get out of the streets with butts in the air - the younger and fresher the better ... sorry to say, that is what I see - in the worst possible way (speaking of prostitution!!) ... and yes, children are being 'groomed' for sex work - only I cannot believe it is just about 'Democrats' ... not a partisan trend - more like the trenches into which we are born, or forced by circumstance ... I give thanks I never brought a child into this sick, sick world!!
Wow !
Exactly Mike S, she lost sight of her political base in the working class! Too much money concentrated with a few people becomes a power multiplier for anyone with the ego necessary to run for office.
Kathy Hochul has been a disappointment, for sure -- another 'Manchin' Democrat?
I can see that well established Penn State vs. Oregon rivalry will bring a lot of visiting fans to the opponent's stadium. <sarcasm font>
Sorry Ally House. I accidentally deleted my post! LOL!! I’ll go as far west as Northwestern!!
The most “nettlesome barrier” to democratic civil society is enforcement of Justice . We have plethoras of laws “on the books”. It’s not so much “the rule of law” as the actual, equitable application of those laws. We lack this. And it shows. The closer you get to monied-greed, the less enforcement there is. An that seems to be a self-perpetuating cycle: more concentrated wealth, the more hacking/buying/capturing of justice.
No form of meaningful democracy can survive when ignorance is cultivated as a replacement for intelligence.
Very true. Aside from addressing the extreme concentration of wealth, a society must be educated, informed, and engaged for any form of meaningful democracy to thrive.
Hence the right wing attacks on education in general and higher education in particular. Dictators always go after the universities first.
Excellent. May I borrow it?
Yes, and my inspiration as well. “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti- intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov
I perceive a condescension by the intellectuals (who may not be all that "smart") towards those who succeed in life outside collegiate ivy walls, and who have been conned by the media monsters of industry. Get rid of Fox news and this whole country will become intelligent!
Faux News is a symptom, not the disease. Ditto for Trumpism. But thanks for demonstrating the anti-intellectualism Asimov mentioned.
Your arrogance is impressive.
It seems Republican Party has two agendas only; get power and protect the wealthy. When the goal is to reach the end, the means doesn't matter. Voter suppression and restriction has been the mantra of the Party since the Civil Rights era. The 1960s was really important for the black community to emancipate themselves from the voting discrimination that had sidelined them from representation, economic participation, access to health facilities, access to transport, access to schools without segregation, access to protests, access to government institutions, access to legal representation, and access to everything that matter to the lives as human beings. But the Republican chose otherwise and since then, it has become their identity.
By reintroducing voter restrictions in 2020, the Party sent a signal that they are out of touch with the common people, doesn't respect voters, racial segregation still runs in its blood, systemic discrimination is possible and within their manifesto, the constitution is inferior to their goals, and that the major aim is to regain and stay in power with whatever illegal means they got.
But one think stands out; the 21 century vigilance has been bolstered with the continuous strengthening of the institutions and the power of social media. Citizens can nowadays act out of the national institutions that perpetuate systemic discrimination and suppresses voters by rallying behind a United common good for the overall public. If Reverend Martin Luther King and Lewis had the social media tools that are pervasive nowadays, racism, voter suppression, economic jeopardy, and wedging disunity among the people would have ended even before the the Congress and the Federal end it. If Republican wants to be in WH, they should speak the language of the common and allow the distribution of wealth. But, I am sorry, that place has been taken by the Democrats.
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You are mostly correct Edwin, except for the Civil War Era. Then, the Republicans were the good guys and the Democrats were the bigots, racists, and snobs. They reversed roles in the 1930's when Franklin Delano Roosevelt fought against the moneyed interests in favor of the American majority. The final switch occurred in the 1960's with the "southern strategy" drew the former Democrats to the newly minted, racist, Republicans. I emigrated to the States in 1958, having always been a Liberal Progressive, I chose the Democratic Party when I finally achieved citizenship in 1967. I'm not suggesting that all Democrats are good and all Republicans are bad. It's just that overall there are fewer greedy, what's in it for me, Democrats than there are in the Republican/Libertarian groups. We need to pass the new Voting Rights Act. We may even need to get it embedded i the Constitution as an Amendment, if possible. Most of all Americans need to accept that we are all the same animal, Homo sapiens, one genus; one species. No sub-species, no sub-groups. There is not a dimes worth of difference between your DNA and mine. (except mine is a hell of a lot older than yours, (:-) )
Happy to note about that reversed roles. Sometimes, in response to their opponents, politicians may not stay grounded in their mission. And I think that is what might have happened in the civil era and the great Deal time. Sure, the New Voting Rights can be the new direction to take. Thank you Fay Reid
Exactly!!! Thanks you. Keep it clear and simple.
I agree with a lot of what you say F.R. But I think Blacks and Whites need to acknowledge that we are "wired" differently, accept our differences and then move on. If man survives, that will happen. There are folks that hope that it will never happen . They're also actively doing things to make sure that it won't happen.
I've always thought the only differences in humans is cultural.
Yes, were anatomically the same. Culturally different. Some try to make it a small thing - it's a big thing ! Overtime ? It will be a small thing but we have to get there.
It is a big thing. But, it doesn't make one less than the other. Differences is a good thing. I really hope we get there. I don't believe for a minute that this is the way it's supposed to be. I was raised to see people, not race. I raised my kids the same way. I wish everyone would. It would be a kinder world. (Yes, I'm idealistic. I can't help it).
"If Reverend Martin Luther King and Lewis had the social media tools that are pervasive nowadays,"
If they had sufficient access. Part of the problem (there are many) with privatizing everything when someone has thousands of dollars to every one that you have, they get heard and you don't. There are some work-arounds, but in a media dominated society underfunded success is a longshot.
I think traditional media has been overtaken by political parties, but social media despite its weakness is distributed and no one can control how people respond unless the company itself suppress it.
Sadly -social media is now mostly controlled by Zuckerberg and Musk. We're working to change that with a public benefit corp. owned social civic network.
I agree with you. It has become algorithm-led, but when the people's voices surpass that, it can be helpful for the society.
But they can predict how persons will respond based on scraped knowledge of their personalities. This makes social media vulnerable to the incivility virus more than any other media.
"Social" media are easily corrupted and distorted by bots and other technologies designed to weaponize the programming behind the platforms. It is a mistake to assume that (say) a Facebook account necessarily represents an actual human being. Far too many of them actually represent nothing but software bots.
So called "social" media platforms are easily manipulated by political organizations, businesses, and anyone else with an agenda and enough money to but the necessary technology. There are plenty of traditional media outlets that have not been "taken over by political partiers."
YES J L! One need only contemplate the effects of the choices a Rupert Murdoch's Fox News or an Elon Musk make with his Earth-Link system in Ukraine, Space-Ex and the hundreds of satellites surrounding our earth that he owns and controls and the former Twitter, now X)!
Let's remove the idea of political party and call the conservative and libertarian politicians.
..and using the word 'socialism' wrongly.
Not you but media.
“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
-SCOTUS Justice Louis Brandeis
And as you stated...power is concentrated among the wealthy. That is why the issue of Clarence Thomas’ ethics are so suspect!
There's another more insidious way GOPers and big biz more generally have been concentrating wealth and power.
In 1980, meat packers were primarily Black, earning a decent middle class wage, thanks to decades of organizing. By that decade's end, meat packers were mostly immigrant, laboring for barely above minimum wage under atrocious conditions, where amputations were common.
This scenario was repeated in numerous low/no-skill metiers. The details are laid out in a scholarly, yet highly readable manner in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($14 on Amazon but check your local bookstore).
Beck covers the relevant academic economic history, statements of Black leaders, beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to this phenomenon, Black periodicals, and gov't commisions on on immigration reform, notably the Barbara Jordan commission under President Clinton, where the Black Texas Democrat who made her name during Watergate on the Judiciary Committee recommended roughly halving immigration numbers, and strict enforcement of immigration reform.
Beck, who'd spent 30 years as an environmental journalist, also used his own reporting. Giving the lie to the notion that there are jobs Americans won't do, he interviewed Black workers recently fired from a poultry plant to enable hiring of immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back if they could, he asked them? No, they told him. The wages would force them to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Beck wishes Americans would care as much for the descendants of slavery as they seem to care for immigrants. He also notes that with the gumption that many immigrants have, enabling them to walk from Central America to the US, they could probably turn their own countries around if we didn't make it so easy for them to stay in the US.
I suppose I'm a bleeding heart liberal. I care about exploitation and abuse in any form. When it comes to the immigration system in the United States, I cannot view the brutality of US foreign policy and intervention in places like El Salvador and separate that from the poverty, violence, and gangs so many attempt to flee from to the very country that helped to create the horror. One doesn't need to look further than Georgia and the School of the America's for the evidence. Many of the people who had the "gumption" to fix their own nations were disappeared and systematically tortured and killed.
So I think all workers should have a living wage, decent benefits, and health/safety laws protecting them from exploitation and abuse, and there should be consistent and clear laws and policy about immigration and a pathway to U.S. citizenship.
And while the horrors of slavery can never be fully addressed by an apology and a check, reparations must be paid to all who have suffered due to historically evil acts, whether addressing slavery, the Trail of Tears, or other past crimes directed by American society at classes of people.
I'm not sure ANY "objective" in this sense is important to the Republicans. It seems to me that they are a "gang." In a different world, they would be rabid socialists. In a still-different world, they would be anarchists. In yet a different world, they would be members of a punitive religious cult.
What matters to them, I think, is the insularity and group-think. They happen to have constellated around "conservatism" as their group-think, but I don't think that drives them. What seems to drive them is strutting about in the view of their fellow gang members.
In other words, they are trying to be perfect little fascists.
I went to see Pan's Labyrinth when it came out, years ago, thinking that it was going to be a fantasy film. Which it was, but.... One of the things that struck me was that, in the beginning, the Captain had recently taken command of his men, and they were demoralized and disorganized. There is the scene where the Captain gruesomely kills the man who was captured while hunting rabbits, and you see the soldiers horrified and cringing at the brutality of it. By the end of the film, you see that the soldiers have become the Captain.
It's Lord of the Flies all over again. Not just the descent into raw savagery, but the clustering of "us" against "them," with rituals that serve to hold the boundaries, and ensure momentary rank -- celebrity -- within the group.
Some may well be burn it all down anarchists, but I think there is overwhelming evidence that it is all about power at any cost. And Pan’s Labyrinth was an excellent film.
They're all about white power. The south is loath to reject its odious "traditions." Everything stems from that.
No doubt that is a part of it.
This is such a concise and true comment, Mr. Polisner, I wanted to thank you for it. We’re in a daily struggle to fight disinformation and your thoughts are a great help.
There’s an old saying “Sell to the classes, eat with the masses. Sell to the masses, eat with the classes.” Supply side economics is “selling to the classes”, concentrating wealth at the very top. Demand side economics is “selling to the masses”. These are Biden’s policies and they lift everyone.
This proposition in the House Republicans' proposed “American Confidence in Elections” Act says everything about the moral state of the R party: "Prohibits taking food and water to those waiting in line to vote."
There are no words.
Reminds one of the lines formed by fresh arrivals at Auschwitz.
"Freedom" has all too often been taken to mean in America the right to visit onto others -- native Americans, black slaves and their descendants -- the savagery suffered by countless generations of oppressed Europeans.
A process that can -- and will -- go on for ever and ever, until today's carriers of this deadly disease awaken to the evil that possesses them, and turn away, and are healed.
At root, "Woke" is not a blowback black reaction to ingrown racism but white America's all-too-gradual awakening to the vile reality of their own vast shadow: endemic white savagery.
Peter, evil is the word. There is a deep vein of sadism in human beings that I don't think we've fully confronted. It's been there throughout history and tffg has tapped straight into it. He's emboldened people with that tendency to drop even their thin mask of decency.
Alexandra, you describe the ugly reality of how one human being can give voice to the repressed hatreds, rage and resentments of many millions. Hitler had this ability and used it, Putin too has tried to harness this power for his own mean purposes.
As when cancer ceases to be hidden and becomes visible, spreading its metastases everywhere, as when a hidden abscess breaks surface, there can no longer be any hiding from the blood-and-pus reality of that suppurating wound. The ever-present reality of our death is here, staring us in the face... and, in so doing, this ugliness is forcibly reminding us of Life, spurring us to rejoice in the treasure we still have as long as we breathe.
No longer can we die our lives, now we live intensely this fragile, marvelous moment we've been given.
So, crisis is a time for taking courage, a time for overcoming fear and despair.
Nor shall I forget how, as a teenager in a boarding school where patterns of bullying and abuse had been handed down for over three decades, my own generation simply cast all that off once and for all. It was so simple, turning our backs on all that crap. Gone like smoke...
We must take care to accept the reality of our shadow side without according too much importance to "the powers of darkness". They can place a lid on the light, they can't shine darkness into it.
“We must take care to accept the reality of our shadow side without according too much importance to "the powers of darkness". They can place a lid on the light, they can't shine darkness into it.” I deeply wish this beautiful idea would see more light.
"This beautiful idea..."
Rose, "this" is in the nature of things, I cannot see it as a mere idea, even a beautiful one -- we have far too many of those, far more than our gut could ever digest. Our ideological constipation has rendered us quite unable to perceive what simply is and to adjust to our perceptions. We are beings of day and daylight, we are not scorpions, lice or creepie-crawlies from under a stone.... And yet we've grown so divorced from the natural world and from our own true nature that there's often little left of humanity beyond our human appearance.
A true smile tells more of reality than all the toothy fixed grimaces we and politicians force upon one another, more of what really matters than all the endless mind pollution, the ersatz round-the-clock imitations of politics, philosophy and religion force-fed to us by cheap salesmen via telescreen and smartphone.
You are absolutely correct, Peter. But rather than a commonplace natural state, it currently is more an ideal, a sought-after alternative to a distorted, inhumane and surreal reality where the darker elements and figures of society dominate social and mass media. I wish that tfg’s protagonist role could be sidelined. Alas, thanks especially to network TV and his clan of supporters, he keeps dropping into our consciousness like a recurring nightmare. How can his darkness be avoided and/or illuminated?
Alexandra, Peter, Rose,.....And yet, how little humanity has changed.....
Wow! Peter and Rose, right on target! I fear, however, that the stakes for this battle with our shadow side have risen to planetary significance for now we must deal with so much more than nastiness and evil, we must help so many of our fellow citizens let go of their self-interests in the many ways they have grown accustomed to take advantage of our "blue dot" in the galaxy by continuing to buy and use devices which spew CO2 and add to the earth's burdens of pollution by chemicals, plastics and poisons. We are not evil because we pursue our comforts and pleasures, we become so when we do this despite harming our children, grandchildren and ultimately the very planet upon which we live and depend...and it is all happening right now, in plain view!
It’s hard to believe, John, isn’t it? At least some of us acknowledge it is not right and we should do something to preserve our world for our children and their future wellbeing. I have friends and relatives on “the other (far Right) side” who fervently believe our climate is not in crisis but experiencing a natural cycle and that we are exaggerating the situation to promote Liberal agendas. Argh!!! Worse yet is my friend who is so religious (Christian) she believes God will save her from all harm if she prays hard enough. She embodies the “perfect-storm”Kool-aid recipe!
... so, faced with the inevitable dilemma of being swallowed by 'the darkness', our call is to shine our light into that darkness ... how else will it ever be dispelled ...?!
Hi Peter, and Mike - and Fern ... I am not able to keep up with the conversation these days - peace and love to all of you!!! ka
Kathleen, shine a light indeed!! Shine a beacon! Shine a galaxy of lights into all the dark places in our lives!
Indeed, JohnM ... light of truth ... light of love ... lights of conscience ... integrity ... compassion ... patience ...
forgiveness ... peace ... heaven, earth, breath of life ...
sunrise everywhere ... we are the horizon ...
I so appreciate your voice in this forum JohnM ... I can't keep up right now ...
hopefully, I will catch up with myself and my own healing process and rejoin the conversation next year.
By some miraculous twist of fate and fortune, I have entered a new post about cleanup (not!) at Hanford nuclear waste dump in Washington State.
I invite you and all to check it out at the ENERGY MATTERS Substack page:
https://kathleenallen.substack.com/p/of-all-the-many-issues-hitting-the?sort=top
... peace in one breath ... one breath at a time ...
Kathleen, it is so good to hear your voice, JohnM speaks for me. I hope you are well, above all that your wise, probing conversation with yourself is bringing you strength and serenity.
May you be happy and free, come what may!
Thank you Peter. This life and these times spin like a whirlwind of epic proportions - makes tornadoes look like pretzels!! It is all I can do to seek the eye of the storm, and stitch together scattered fragments as able - one breath at a time ... thank you so much for your kind words and wishes ...
same to you, and more of it!!
Kathleen Allen, so good to see you. Yes, it has been a while. At, this moment, the feeling of seeing you has reached my skin, which is radiating the goodness of your greeting to us.
In a somewhat sorrowful mood, I returned to the forum this afternoon. I had been to The March on Washington in 1963; feeling that experience, a sense of history, America and democracy today and Climate Change -- it feels like a miracle to have met your light at this moment. Thank you for coming to us.
Love and light, dear friend.
Dear Kathleen Allen, I feel your touch and share Peter's care for you. 🌳🕊️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0qAYq1GVec
From Nick Polizzi at The Sacred Science
https://www.thesacredscience.com/
When I read the ancient words below for the first time, they sent a course of energy through me from head to toe. I'm honored to be able to share them with you.
This prayer was written by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk of the Mahayana tradition who lived around 700 AD. He was a devoted practitioner who authored the Bodhicaryavatara or Bodhisattva Way of Life.
It is said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama considers this text to be THE source for developing altruism in your character and the "Spirit of Awakening." It is also said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama recites this prayer every morning as part of his waking rituals. So, if you give it a try, you are in good company!
*****
Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity
"May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened."
*****
Now, take a deep breath and be still for a brief moment.
What did you feel when reading those words?
The transmission I got is that our highest purpose in this life is to be a source of love and light for others. We're all in this together.
Stay curious,
Nick Polizzi
Host of Healing Kitchen: Let Food Be Thy Medicine
& Founder of The Sacred Science
https://www.thesacredscience.com/
Wow, Peter, have you written about your boarding school experience? If not, you really should!
Thank you, Alexandra. But it was all so simple and uncomplicated. We were anything but ideal, we were just the usual mixed bunch. We preferred to do our own thing and let the dead bury their dead.
Nor have I forgotten some of the last sad examples of what we left behind, those boys of 17 or 18 who looked and behaved just like their grandfathers aged 71 or 81....
There's that verse from Auden's September 1st 1939 (four weeks before my birth...):
"I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."
I am very taken with the razor-sharp irony of a great Frenchman, Montesquieu, commenting on the slave trade in 1748...
"It is impossible for us to take those people for men; because, if we were to take them for men, we'd begin to think that we ourselves are not Christians..."
"If I had to justify our right to enslave negroes, here is what I'd say:
' The peoples of Europe having exterminated those of America, had to enslave those of Africa, using them to develop such vast tracts of land... Sugar would be too dear if we did not use slaves to cultivate the plant that produces it...'"
..." It is so natural to think that skin color is the essence of humanity..."
Alexandra Sokoloff. I agree! Everytime a politician says. "being cruel is not who we are", I understand their positivity and desire to inspire us, but
I disagree with their part truth. As you say we need to face the truth. As human beings, we are ruthless and relentless cruelty and genuine and gentle compassion to each other and to every other species on earth.
M Tree, I don't actually believe ALL human beings are sadistic. That's not what history shows us. There were always plenty of people "back in those times" who didn't act monstrously toward other people.
It's pretty easy to identify sadistic tendencies. We don't do it enough. Children with psychopathic tendencies do respond to loving boundaries and can be brought up to do much less damage. The ones beyond redemption need to be isolated from the rest of humanity to contain their damage. Instead, they're way too often glorified.
Alexandra Sokoloff, I took your original comment to mean that human behavior varies in its destructiveness and that we need to look more closely, face ourselves, and speak and tell the truth about the underbelly of human beings. I agreed with you. Perhaps, I misinterpreted your comment.
M Tree, I think I misinterpreted yours! We agree.
Well said Peter!
Peter, I think you are absolutely correct when you state, "'Freedom' has all too often been taken to mean in America the right to visit onto others -- native Americans, black slaves and their descendants -- the savagery suffered by countless generations of oppressed Europeans." When one looks at how power, and the money to stay in power, are wielded with respect to the environment, voting rights, abortion/reproductive healthcare, and the economy generally, by the wealthy, it appears almost as if they and QWing of the former republican party are trying (sadly, with some success) to create a feudal state out of our representative democracy - the feudalism the original white people left behind on the European continent when they came here. The other motives of those “colonizers” (read, “invaders”) - to force their religious views on everyone (except for good old Roger Williams), to commit genocide against the indigenous populations, to obtain an ACTUAL serf class by force (chattel slavery is functionally the same as serfdom while the enslaved people remain on their masters' land, although profoundly and horrifyingly different in that they could be sold off it, unlike the medieval serfs) - are more obvious, but unlike the deeply held beliefs of the founders of our republic, there is that dreadful undercurrent masked as religion, economic conservatism, human rights for fetuses, etc. At least now it is out in the light, courtesy of the useful idiot Tramp and his minions.
Wow. A powerful statement. Thank you.
WE of Western European ancestry were the chosen ones to find and conquer the New World. WE freed these lands and mastered the indigenous inferiors who ran uncontrolled and without purpose or use across its plains and mountains. It is OUR birthright to retain OUR position in a world made right by OUR traditions, OUR religion, OUR rule and dominion over America's bounties and American's exceptionalism. IMHO this is the tribal problem for our democracy to realize it's promise. Religious zeal, White nationalism, bonding together in today's Republican tribe, and all the concerns we focus upon (e.g., concentrated wealth, wokeness, ethocentrism, etc) are all manifestations of the WEness being defended by 50+ percent of adults in our country. The remaining 50+ percent of us who believe in a diverse, intelligent, and progressive agenda probably need to disabuse ourselves of for what and where the fight, the war for American Democracy lies. Until that WEness changes, our battle will remain intergenerational. WEness has cripple more than one European empire and been justification to keep the strain pure and beliefs in tribal superiority a useful reason to invade, conquer, and pillage neighbors whose behaviors violated any number of the criteria by which the conquerors distinguished themselves for their WEness. The war for our democracy will not be won be examining the public reasons, the shadowing dancing before us or left there for us to debate. It will come, IMHO, only when our national attitudes are aligned with the fervent goals proposed in OUR Declaration of Independents among at least three generations of the young and enlighted. Just saying.
“Royalty pollutes people’s minds, boy. Honest men start bowing and bobbing just because someone’s granddad was a bigger murdering bastard than theirs was.” Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
This is the only part your message left out - it isn't just "WE" are better, it's also "OUR leader is bigger/stronger/more powerful/BETTER than anyone else's, and that's why we follow him" (it's always a him). Hence the rise of the horrors of Trampism.
Peter,
Sadly the absolute truth!
No water, but you can give money to politicians to bribe their votes.
Go back to when Reagan went after the unions. Why? They funded the liberals, but nothing was said about the republican funding from businesses. Then SCOTUS made bribery legal.
EVERY ACCUSATION IS A CONFESSION.
Every time, Rickey. Every time.
Alexandra, when pastors preaching the Sermon on the Mount are told that Jesus was too weak, there is definitely a lack of true Christianity in some of the churches.
https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706?amp=1
Wow, Mary. I've always thought MAGA evangelicals are the opposite of what Christian is supposed to be, but that's still shocking.
Mary, I was "happy" (not really, but you get me) to see this. I know there are many non-believers in the forum but most are respectful of others views. While I became a lapsed Catholic with the pandemic, I've never lost the belief in Jesus (or any other name for a higher power, I respect all religions) I told someone that I am a Democrat BECAUSE I am a Christian--the hate that I see in the religious right is just wrong. When people argue that I can't be Christian and support abortion (apparently in some minds the only thing that matters) I say that I will support the Anti-abortion faction WHEN there is free contraceptives, affordable housing, JOBS, and safe, inexpensive childcare, and all people in this bounteous land are FED. Then IF the pregnancy was not a product of rape AND the mother or fetus does not have any life threatening conditions, and the abortion is clearly a matter of convenience due to lack of responsibly (lots of "ands" there, sorry) then I will not attempt to stop the abortion but I will look at the action with disgust. But also question what fell short such that it happened and attempt change so it will not happen again.
While the conservatives used to tout "WWJD" I don't see it that much anymore, and yet, it's something I think of all the time. It seems a good guideline to me. Apparently they Evangelicals don't think so anymore.
Miselle, when US citizens are forced by law to donate blood, stem cells, and organs to save the lives of cancer victims, then I will accept the argument that it is good to put a mother’s life at risk to save an unborn baby’s life. Otherwise, the laws are forcing women (and young girls) to sacrifice their health while giving men a free pass.
I read about that earlier this week. Holy Carp!!!
There's a reason for that: they decided an antichrist offered a better deal: https://www.christiantimes.com/news/trumps-offer-to-christians-is-similar-to-devils-offer-to-christ-says-eric-sapp.html
Update in GA Alexandra , on 8/18/23, a Federal Judge sitting in Georgia STRUCK DOWN a Georgia Election Law that barred giving water to Voters sweltering in line. ( Hat Tip to Diane Gallagher at CNN.)
"Prohibits taking food and water to those waiting in line to vote." Now, there’s a thought of which any white Christian nationalist can be proud.
'An estimated 250,000 Americans in all arrived by bus, by train and on foot to participate in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Together, they forged a cornerstone moment in American history and in the struggle for African American equality that enslavement and Jim Crow had long denied.’
‘The Washington Post spent this summer interviewing participants in the March on Washington, including young civil rights soldiers, curious bystanders and behind-the-scenes leaders, as well as voices from ensuing generations. Together, their quotes below capture the story of Aug. 28, 1963, beyond Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech, and what that day means now.’’
'Courtland Cox'
'Then: 22, march representative from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.'
'Now: 82, chair of the SNCC Legacy Project.'
'As we talk about the March on Washington, its historic significance can only be given in context.
A big change started happening, I would say, 20 years before 1963, because Black people who were veterans of World War II came back with what they called the Double V program: victory abroad and victory at home. They were not going to deal with fighting for “freedom overseas” and coming out here and being slapped and hung in military uniforms.'
'It’s hard 60 years later to talk about the kind of fear, but basically most Black people were in a war zone. For any reason, not only the police but any vigilante could engage in violence against a Black person.'
'Janus Adams'
'Then: 16, incoming college student who attended with her mom.'
'Now: 76, Emmy Award-winning journalist and historian.'
'Every night on the news was another assault. You were watching people brutalized by their own government while you ate dinner with Walter Cronkite.'
'Frank Smith'
'Then: 20, SNCC activist in Mississippi.'
'Now: 80, executive director of the African American Civil War Museum.'
'Sort of like today, being in the civil rights movement, your life revolved around tragedies.'
'Charles Neblett'
'Then: 22, founding member of the SNCC Freedom Singers.'
'Now: 82, activist and retired magistrate.'
'I was the same age as Emmett Till when he was killed [in 1955]. It was horrible, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do, and I was just depressed. I was amazed that anybody could come and kill me and literally get away with it.'
'Joyce Ladner'
'Then: 19, college student and activist.'
'Now: 79, sociologist, author and former interim president of Howard University.'
'Adult men were lynched, but this was the first time a child was dragged out of his home and had his eye gouged out. I coined the term “the Emmett Till Generation.” We all vowed, in one way or another, to avenge his death when we got older.'
'Charles Neblett'
'It was about three or four months later that I saw King and Rosa Parks on TV. It was the first time I saw people publicly standing up for their rights, and it was like a weight lifted off me. There was an answer. There was a way out. I saw people risking going to jail and being lynched standing up. I said,' “When I’m of age, I’ll be right there.”
'E.T. Williams Jr.'
'Then: 25, Peace Corps staffer living in D.C.'
'Now: 85, retired New York City businessman and art collector.'
'We knew [activists] needed money, so we raised money for the sit-ins. And that’s how I got involved and then followed Dr. King.'
'Rachelle Horowitz'
'Then: 24, aide to Bayard Rustin and transportation coordinator for the march.'
'Now: 84, retired political director of the American Federation of Teachers.'
'Both Mr. Randolph and Bayard [Rustin] understood that the fight for civil rights had to be moved to Washington. It had to be federalized.'
'Eleanor Holmes Norton'
'Then: 26, SNCC organizer in New York.'
'Now: 86, D.C. delegate to the House of Representatives.'
'Of all places, the nation’s capital was a segregated city. I went to segregated public schools.' (WAPO)
Thank you, Fern. I wonder what percentage of the voting public knows much of anything about the turmoil of the civil rights era (from WWII to the '60s). "Firing Line" this week is an interview with Richard Dreyfuss: his push for civics education is a just cause, and that education is sorely needed.
'Voting Laws Roundup: June 2023' (BrennanCenterForJustice)
'State legislatures have passed a near-record number of new restrictive voting laws so far this year, while a pro-democracy movement presses on.'
'The state legislative push to restrict voting and undermine faith in elections has moved at a near-record pace this year, driven by a still-active election denier movement. At the same time, the pro-democracy movement has continued to press for legislation to boost voting access.'
'Thus far, more expansive laws have passed than restrictive and election interference laws. The geographical divide of previous years persists, with expansive legislation tending to pass in some states while restrictive legislation tends to pass in other states.'
'Just under a third of state legislatures are still in session this year. Between January 1 and May 29, 2023, the following voting legislation has passed:'
'At least 11 states enacted 13 restrictive laws. Two more restrictive bills in two states were passed by both chambers of the legislature and are awaiting the governors’ approval. Legislation is categorized as restrictive if it contains one or more provisions that would make it harder for eligible Americans to register, stay on the voter rolls, or cast a ballot as compared to existing state law.'
'At least four states enacted five election interference laws. An additional bill in Texas was passed by the legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature. Legislation is categorized as election interference if it either threatens the people and processes that make elections work or increases opportunities for partisan interference in election administration or outcomes.'
'At least 13 states enacted 19 expansive laws.footnote5_rzcrma15 An additional four bills in two states were passed by the legislature and are awaiting the governors’ approval. Legislation is categorized as expansive if it contains one or more provisions that would make it easier for eligible Americans to register, stay on the rolls, or cast a ballot as compared to existing state law.'
'One troubling development: lawmakers have begun to target direct democracy, aiming to limit ways that voters can pass ballot measures. Another notable trend in voting legislation this year is a continued push to criminalize election-related activities. And in Texas, the legislature has considered multiple bills that would hamper election administration in Harris County, a trend that is unusual in its targeting of one particular county.'
'Meanwhile, several states have taken steps to provide legal protections for election workers as they face increased threats to their safety.'
'Restrictive Legislation'
'Between January 1 and May 29, at least 11 states enacted 13 restrictive laws. Of these laws, 7 curb access to mail voting,footnote8_oo3c36q8 and 6 implement stricter photo ID requirements for voter registration or in-person voting.'
'A law passed in Florida targets voter registration efforts in a manner that could shut down registration drives in advance of the 2024. The rush to restrict voting access after the 2020 election has waned somewhat this year, it is still near record highs. By comparison, at roughly the same point in 2021 — the last year when every state’s legislature met — at least 14 states had passed 22 restrictive laws.'
'The total of 13 restrictive laws enacted so far this year surpasses the total number of restrictive laws enacted in any year in the last decade except 2021.'
'Overall, at least 322 restrictive bills were introduced in 45 states. Of these, 35 bills are still moving through 10 state legislatures. Moving bills are those that have passed at least one chamber of the state legislature or have had some sort of committee action (e.g., referral to committee, a hearing since the beginning of 2023, or an amendment). Included in the number of moving bills are one in Oklahoma and one in Texas that have each passed both chambers of the legislature and are awaiting the respective governors’ approval. The Oklahoma bill would risk purging voters from the rolls based on unreliable information. The Texas bill would increase the maximum number of voters that can be assigned to a polling place, which can burden election officials, increase the likelihood of long lines, and depress voter turnout, particularly for voters of color. Among the other moving bills, more than half (22) would restrict access to mail voting, 7 would impose stricter voter ID requirements, and 6 would increase the risk of faulty voter purges.'(BrennanCenterForJustice) See link below.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-june-2023
James K. Vardaman (1861-1930), U.S. Senator and former governor of Mississippi, known as the "Great White Chief" summed it all up: "If it is necessary every Negro in the state will be lynched; it will be done to maintain white supremacy"..."The Mississippi Constitutional Convention was held for no other reason than to eliminate the nigger from politics". A building at the University of Mississippi is named after him.
And then there's Alfred Waddell (1834-1912), a U.S. Senator who staged a successful coup and massacre in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898 to remove a duly elected multiracial government: "We will no longer be ruled, and will never again be ruled by men of African origin". He was allowed to stay in office for many years.
White supremacy is an enduring legacy in America. I get that talking about race is difficult, but we have to acknowledge that this is how our laws and systems operate. Imagine if Obama operated like Trump or if Black people stormed the capital.
Skin color is a fixed trait, just like eye color or hair texture. To be regarded as "non-white" and treated as less than human has been a day to day struggle for survival over centuries, yet we persist hoping to "save the soul" of America.
Frederick Douglass had great hopes for America being able to demonstrate to the world that "liberty and equality" are possible in a multiracial democracy. He was advocating for Chinese immigration and celebrating all of the cultures contributing to America when he made his "Composite Nation" speech in 1867 in Boston. Google the speech-it's worth reading. I wonder what he would think of America now.
Thank you, Fern, for this precious documentation.
I never forgot that key phrase among Afrikaner champions of Apartheid:
"Would you give a vote to a baboon?"
My answer as a respecter of baboons:
"No, but I have far more confidence in their survival instincts than in our own."
And Elon Musk is an Afrikaner.
I cannot wait for his run for President. That should be almost as comically ridiculous as Trump's.
Except there are too many voters who think if you are rich you are smart.
He can’t run unless he’s going to buy the Constitution and then change it so he can.
Be careful what you wish for.
Musk can’t run for President.
My teenage self saw all the activity in the '60s from a place that didn't seem to have any connection to the strife. It saddens me that here we are, 60 years later, and we have made so little progress toward that 'more perfect union'. Seeing snippets of the GOP debate just reinforced that impression. We have a party that has lost touch with reality, given up any defense of the Constitution, and is actively doing harm to the electorate in advocating for voting restrictions. They must be stopped. I hope the constitutional scholars who have been saying that T**** is no longer eligible to run for the office he should have been removed from long ago are correct, and we will not have to worry about Republicans in power again in my lifetime.
This looks like a good place to mention Jennifer Rubin's weekly letter on WaPo: The time to stop Trump's nomination is now" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/25/newsletter-donald-trump-2024-republicans/
Drat. Paywall. I guess I should probably subscribe.
It's quite long, and puts forward various interesting legal viewpoints. It ends thus:
"Alas, nothing might dissuade MAGA primary voters from nominating Trump. In that case, a broad coalition of Americans will simply have to defeat him in November 2024 — decisively."
Mike, try this one:
https://wapo.st/3styDW9
WAPO is the last big newspaper that I subscribe to. Thank you for this heads-up, Anne-Louise!
But having Fox and their comrades piping out distortions and hatred is harmful to our national health. Maybe the Dems need to buy more commercial time to deliver their “truths”.
Truman was right in 1948 and even more right today: The only "good Republicans" ARE "pushing up daisies." Actually the Republican Party is more correctly called the Confederate White People's Treason Party.
TC--from my view in the Chicago area, weather in California seems awful out there. There is plenty of water here, no big fires since 1871, rather decent weather in comparison to much of the country. Lots of cultural institution, and a beautiful lakefront. Chicago still has racial issues but I do think they are sloooooowwwwly improving.
The house next door to me is for sale. I'd love to live next door to you. Just saying. ;-D
Two kids in Chicago, 1 in L.A., 1 in SC. I have wonderful vacations! (From the best place in the USA, Northern Michigan!)
That midwestern summer humidity... and then there's winter... :-)
The winters aren't what they used to be, TC. The last two years, I've used my snowblower once each season. Climate change--even my spring bulbs come up a month earlier than they used to. But yes, humidity is no fun.
Last time I was there in 2001, there was one day the humidity was so bad that by the time I got out of the shower, dried off, and walked down to the guest room at my friend's house, I felt like I needed another shower.
My favorite place back there is West Dundee, where another friend lives. The place was founded in 1872 and doesn't have a house in town built after 1900. All you have to do is change the cars on the street to change the time. They shot "Road to Perdition" there.
It’s more likely they’re pushing up stinging nettles.
"Black voting, they insisted, would lead to a redistribution of wealth and thus was essentially socialism."
Yet the same people enthusiastically support laws and policies and any other impediments to a redistribution of wealth to a small minority of ultra-wealthy individuals. And that's good because why? Wasn't that the principal problem with the Gilded Age? My High School history book seemed to think it was, "I owe my soul to the company store"? Who wants that?
The line "Greed is good" was original cautionary fiction, but Republicans took it up as a motto, and repeated it endlessly until The Great Recession made it more irritating. Greed is greed because someone is deprived for no reason. Except for greed.
"Yet the same people enthusiastically support laws and policies and any other impediments to a redistribution of wealth to a small minority of ultra-wealthy individuals. "
The Republicans are NOT against Socialism. They are just against helping anyone who may not vote for them.
For example, the Trillion dollar "Farm Bill" is basically a monster welfare giveway for (mostly) rich white farmers since the large corporate farms get most of the money.
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4169819-the-farm-bill-offers-an-opportunity-to-reform-costly-subsidies/
The "Farm Bill" is a joke. It provides HUGE "subsidies" (i.e., WELFARE) to the most profitable farms which are ALL owned by white folks.
Welfare for White People is something that Republicans are big supporters of (i.e., the Farm Bill).
So, don't ever let a Republican tell you they don't like welfare. They do.
But, only for white people.
In rural states, especially.
Only for rich people, or people who might thereby become rich, and therefore owe them something in return. Kinda like Clarence Thomas and cabal. Perpetuating the problem, generation after generation.
Rich white people. Can’t leave that out.
What is the accepted plain-English description of socialism?
I think the term "socialism" means different things to different people and the term has been misused by the GQP for many years to spread fear. But the way we look at it, it is a system where tax dollars are used to support things for all the people. Think of fire departments, public schools, police departments, public libraries, public pools or recreational facilities, healthcare, etc. So, everyone pays in a relatively small amount so benefits can be shared by many.
In Europe, people pay taxes and they receive free health care and their children go to colleges and universities for free. Some people would call that socialism and certainly it qualifies as such but, I would rather think that my tax dollars were used for something that we could see more benefits instead of another bomber.
Colette,
Here? My tax dollars in NY State go to, for example, a $600 million dollar subsidy for the new Buffalo Bills Stadium for the Buffalo Bills which is owned by one single family (a rich one).
How many kids could go to college on $600 million? BUT, young people cannot give Kathy Hochul big campaign contributions so they don't get free education.
Sad, isn't it! The rich get richer while the poor stay poorer.
The rich get richer while the poor get children - black, white, Hispanic, and all the poor people. As we are seeing play out before our very eyes. We thought this had been resolved back in 1973; I guess we'll just have to teach it to them again.
There was a long haul of public-interest-oriented political leaders and social movement to wrest a share of power from the 1% in the intervening year from the Gilded Age, and substantial progress was made. Yet much of it abandoned for the glitzy false promises of Reagan et al, and the deliberate re-stoking of the Civil War.
It's also worth recalling that both Nixon and Carter were environmentally-oriented presidents, and Reagan most certainly not.
Yup. The public was suckered into building fancy new sports stadiums for (big) profit making teams. The mayor said it was just like supporting the symphony, but I'll bet that a cellist does not take home the kind of pay that these guys do.
MIssissippi can top that! Bret Favre's volleyball stadium was paid for with TANF money. TANF FUNDS! Criminal prosecutions are ongoing, apparently, following certain pleas to wire fraud and bribery charges, and the State of Mississippi has filed a civil suit against these thieves and scoundrels to recover the misspent funds. https://www.mississippifreepress.org/27465/in-depth-how-brett-favre-secured-6-million-in-welfare-funds-for-a-volleyball-stadium. The people involved it this scheme are named in the article, from September 2022.
How does this happen? Who are these people who think this is even colorably moral?
Yes, I read about that. Corruption with a capital "C", and it's on a roll. Power tends to corrupt, thus the need for checks and balances. And the need to stop corruption, misuse of power, before it seems overwhelming, no matter who is doing it.
The dictionary definition of socialism is collective or state ownership of the means of production. Can someone point me to an instance where that is actually in effect in the United States. Not big gifts or grants, ownership.
United States
*AK Press, Chico, CA[3]
Alvarado Street Bakery, Petaluma, CA
Arizmendi Bakery
Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat & Conference Center, Detroit, OR[4]
Che Cafe
Cheese Board Collective, Berkeley, CA
Citybikes Workers' Cooperative, Portland, OR
Dollars and Sense, Boston, MA[5]
East Harlem Cleaning LLC, New York City
Equal Exchange, West Bridgewater, MA[6]
Evergreen Cooperatives, Cleveland, OH
Firestorm Books & Coffee
Green Worker Cooperatives, the Bronx, NY
Hard Times Café, Minneapolis, MN[failed verification]
Little Grill Collective, Harrisonburg, VA
Lucy Parsons Center, Boston, MA[7]
Means TV, Detroit, MI
New Era Windows, Chicago, IL[8]
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, San Francisco, CA
Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, Baltimore, MD[9]
Seward Community Cafe, Minneapolis
TESA Collective
The Drivers Cooperative, New York City
Not seeing government (the “state”) owned means of production. I assume these are local cooperatives. In my view, and that of rightist congresspersons, not the same thing, but probably good for the local economy.
So, what's to be afraid of?
Authoritarians. And the would be kings who detest sharing.
Who benefits from what? Follow the money.
That is ALWAYS the case!
In socialism the government owns manufacturing and controls production, in some systems at least. Profits go back to the people, not to someone’s bank account or yacht.
If "yacht" is the right word for it https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/12/superyacht-industry-booms-during-covid-pandemic . They were talking about having to take a bridge down just to get Bezos' yacht out of the boatyard.
Pure socialism is less state control than communism, but I suggest, as displayed before the Temple at Delphi, avoid excess. I have encountered Republicans who believe that absolutely NO service should be dispensed without a profit attached (just like Jesus said, right?) roads, schools, whatever. Back in the 70's I encountered students who claimed that virtually nothing should be private. Both seem fanatical to me. Surely there are some services that are so vital and sometimes so dangerous if misused, that that it is folly to remove them from public provision and oversight. Think Wagner. Of, by and for the people. We should get to decide.
I also think that free enterprise is an important part of a free society, and does some things very well. Neither business or individuals should be regulated more than necessary, and we need to be enduringly proactive about that; but as much as it takes, just like highways. What's wrong with that? We need to be attentive to preserving rights for ALL the people, as individuals and as the general welfare. Not easy, but well worth a good-faith effort.
The government governs. So far, so good.
(Ultimately) "We the People".
Thank you, Jack. I made my comment before I saw yours, but I’m leaving it up because I want some answers to my question.
You are welcome, I must credit Professor Richard Wolff for the definition, which I paraphrased from one of his lectures. He has authored numerous books on socialism and his lectures are on YouTube. He favors democratic socialism where the workers make managerial decisions.
Thirty years ago I led a lot of workplace bargaining agreement work with my teams. They were unreceptive at first, then they understood.
Liberal socialism.
Enlightened self-interest.
NO.
I would love to see "Beau of the Fifth Column" do a concise clip on that, one that we could all forward to friends/family and post on our social media, if we use that.
I think what successful social movements have in common is persistence and a focused message the penetrates the smoke screen.
Nevertheless, she persisted.
She does indeed. Perseverance furthers.
Re-distribution of wealth in a nutshell.
At least in effect. Wealth is a bit like climate, the flow of which is complicated and always on the move, like people. But is it being distributed in one big pile controlled by a small minority or spread around? Either way there are statute and de facto rules that favor one way or the other.
I have NO idea what you are saying?
I am speaking of money in terms of how it flows though the whole of a society. In the Gilded Age, government corruption allowed the rules to be bent to direct it into the pockets of so called "Robber Barons". Police would come out to beat up striking workers. Between then and Reagan, the middle class grew, poverty was being somewhat remediated, and pubic protections and infrastructure increased, until plutocrats and Republicans managed to put the brakes on. Wealth like political power (and they go together) can be capture and concentrated in a few hands, or more widely share around the society. I don't think the media takes those "big picture" looks very much.
One of the manifestations of this is climate change. The big picture is reveals fundamental trends that are, in the end, most impactful.
Good ones below. Perhaps in politics more than other fields I think people regularly use the same word to mean many very different things. "Freedom"? "Patriotism" "Government"? "Religion". How can we communicate without some agreed "landmarks?".
Agreed or imposed? (Google is a good thesaurus!)
Well there is the constraints of the dictionary 'cause you know sometimes words have two meanings, but we have a fair degree of freedom to define a word narrowly, or perhaps unconventionally for a specific discussion. The main thing that irks me is when Republicans claim the sacredness of something like "Free Trade" when what they mean is anti-antitrust. When semi-monopolies bully workers and consumers, what kind of "freedom" is that? "Defense of Marriage" when they are trying to keep people from doing it? A lot of their "definitions" smack of "Newspeak". They far too often get a pass on that.
Sad but true. A dictionary is meaningless to them, if they've ever come across one - I mean, why should they explore word meanings? You get everything you want from the television. Or, off the television.
Proto-MAGA:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
Amen. The saddest part of all of this is that the MAGA rowdies think that what they are doing with violence is equivalent to what Lewis and King did non-violently.
We have devolved into a different people in many ways. Lost much.
True Justice can be found in the voting booth, and those who seek to invalidate votes through gerrymandering, or to impede and disenfranchise voters are subverting justice.
Subverting justice is exactly what they are doing, deliberately and with malace…
Voting rights within each state must be restored and respected. It would happen sooner if we were able to abolish the Electoral College, that celebration of real estate over democracy.
In the presence of diversity racism is an embarrassment. In our pluralistic society racism is a luxury we can’t afford. Thanks for the heads up, HCR.
“This is not about issues for one group or one ethnic group,” Mr. King said. “It’s about Americans. It’s about creating a climate for America to fulfill its true promise for all of its citizens.” It’s beginning to dawn on me that the racists and GOP don’t consider anyone outside their clique to be Americans. The voting process in Australia is so simple - automatically one person, one vote and it’s illegal not to vote. Why can’t America do that? The GOP does nothing but throw wrenches in any attempt at democracy for those outside of their cliques. They should be outlawed or there’s no future for decent people in America, citizen or not.
At 80 years of age, I lived those 1960 days. However, I was so embroiled in my young life at the time it was difficult to put it all into perspective. Once again "our Heather" has laid out what we have lived over the past 60 years - and here we are. We must, we must not give up. We're on the cusp of real change - the 2024 election will be the most important election in my lifetimes - perhaps in our history. We must get every Democrat out to VOTE. Every one.
Why vote Democrat they too are owned by big money?
Thank you Dr. Richardson. We fought for this in the 1960's, we marched, registered voters, wrote letters and won. Now 60 years later we're fighting the same battle again. If the racists don't like it they can move to Russia. This time we have to make the right to vote stick so firmly that no fascist can ever remove it again.
I do wish ALL of the racist MAGA's would move to Russia, and take Donald TUMP with them, then they could kiss Putin's rear end every day since they love and cherish him and TUMP so much.
Chump’s duty is to turn us over to Putin. He will do it if he has the chance
I had also posted this on Robert Hubbell's substack.
I just watched Oliver Anthony's video regarding the use of his song ¨Rich Men North of Richmond at the opening of the republican debate.¨ I encourage everyone here to watch that video and also, after watching, to watch his song on YouTube, read the responses from people world wide. If that doesn't cause you to understand hopelessness..........
There is a world in pain beyond substacks..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9uMXiY29s
https://youtu.be/sqSA-SY5Hro?si=08K-wcg69-q_plS2
I don't know, Gailee - I have a big problem with lyrics like these:
"Lord, we got folks in the street
Ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
But God if you're five foot three
And you're three hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay
For your bags of fudge rounds"
That's tapping in to the worst, racist cliches. Not okay.
Alexandra,
You have to go out to the rural farms (anywhere in the US).
Those folks have become enormously fat since I left in 1978. The Farm Bill, (welfare for white people) insures they stay fat.
When I lived on my farm, the farmers still did their own work using local (us kids) as labor. Nobody was fat. Too much work to have time to eat.
Now? Slim, strong Mexicans do all the hard work and white folks eat (constantly).
Mike, my very slim mother grew up on a farm - I have a huge appreciation for the work you must have done, and that farmworkers still do for the rest of us.
There's a heartbreaking obesity epidemic across the US, and race has nothing to do with it.
But I think the song itself is pretty clearly playing into the carefully constructed "welfare queen" trope.
That's what the essence of America is about. Each has a right to an opinion. Those of us who know people living the lives of songs like this have empathy as well as frustration. These words, evidently, speak to a U.S. that you simply don't see.
Gailee, you can speak to the problems of the white downtrodden of the US without clapping back to the racist "welfare queen" straw horse created by the exact rich men north of Richmond, specifically Reaganite Republicans, that the song invokes. Do you really not see why I would have a problem with that?
Relying on racist tropes is excluding a whole lot of people from this supposed empathy.
Did you not listen to his video? Do you not realize that his song was directed to the people on the stage at the debate as well as politics and politicians regardless of party? Regardless of country? It has struck a nerve with millions of people world wide. Different countries. Different races. Understandably, there are those to whom it will not reach. Have a beautiful weekend 💐
Gailee, I know what he said about it. I'm having this conversation with you because of these exact lyrics of the song, which I think are both mean and racist. Even if you don't agree that they're racist, do you really not think that they're mean? This IS what he says:
"Lord, we got folks in the street
Ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
But God if you're five foot three
And you're three hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay
For your bags of fudge rounds"
Thank you for your words. Have a wonderful weekend. 🌺
Your privilege shines quite brightly if you dismiss these lyrics as a racial, welfare queen trope. I get why you might recoil, but the message goes way beyond race or gender.
Welfare: food stamps, WIC, and Medicaid helped me survive a rough childhood. This man is not hating on the poor or obese or people of color.
He’s lamenting that the government supports the corporate agenda that makes us fat. The industrial food complex is knowingly killing us. Welfare rules perversely work to fatten us up while feeding corporate coffers.
We live in a country where working is dying. Why can’t we live in a country that ensures we make enough to not need welfare?
These are the messages I hear.
V Omar, I'm 100% with you that the US should ensure we make enough to not need welfare.
But those lyrics say nothing about "the government supporting the corporate agenda that makes us fat." THAT is some stretch of imagination you've got going there.
Neither do they say anything about starving children, as the songwriter has tried to claim was his inspiration.
I am looking at the exact lyrics.
What they say is:
"And the obese milkin' welfare
But God if you're five foot three
And you're three hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay
For your bags of fudge rounds"
Again - even if you don't think the "welfare queen" trope isn't resonating from that (and I'm certainly not the only person who thinks so) I don't see how you can dismiss the nastiness in those words.
Alexandra, I'd agree with you, but thankfully for me, I watched the video of his explanation of his song first. All the way to the end of it. Then I watched the song.
Miselle, the lyrics say what they say. People who buy the song don't get it with some video explanation of how he didn't really mean to say what he said.
Are those lyrics mean, or not? Do they clap back to the racist, constructed trope of a "welfare queen" or not?
Thank you for the links. Eye-opening music from a real songwriter. Wow. Just wow.
I know. Just...wow. The responses on YouTube from people all around the world, for me, are equally moving.
I was unaware of this singer, and I clicked on it as I have seen many of your comments on here and respect your opinions.
I am very grateful that you put the link to his explanation above the song, and that I watched that ALL the way to the end--FIRST.
Then the song.
Very powerful music, and as he says in the explanation video, this isn't R or L or even US. You need only look at all the comments posted to the song.
Thank you.
Hi Miselle,
You are so kind. I also hadn't heard of him. For me, he is singing the pain of the many caught in nets that society does not serve, and those of us it does serve but we are frustrated with the inability to help those in need in huge ways that matter. The posts on his YouTube song, for me, echo this.
Thank you for caring.
💐
The now unrecognizable GOP should be renamed the POP, Party of Putin, because their tactics, their ground game and their goals call for concentration of wealth into the hands of a few white nationalists. They want to control everybody who is not like them. They would legalize imprisonment and execution of people who differ from them.
This started long before inmate PO1135809, who was installed because he is a useful tool (racist, misogynist who perfectly plays a victim). That is a siren call to disenfranchised white men, their families and friends. The reason for their disenfranchisement: opportunities for women, people of color, LGBTQ, and disabled persons. It’s that simple, and it has been that simple for centuries.
It is my fervent hope that this informs voters to elect representatives who support the will of all people: easy to vote, rescind Citizens United, allow unfettered access to abortion, pass the Equal Rights Amendment, believe in/act upon climate change, ensure wealthy people/corporations pay their taxes and provide affordable, quality health care for all.
All other candidates should take a long walk on a short pier, or so opines the commenter.
In my mind, nothing, but the GQP uses the term "Socialism" to make people believe that they are giving up democracy, which just weaponizes it to their advantage. Their voters don't seem to want to dig a little deeper.
Many of the Fascist GQP voters are too dumb and stupid and lazy to dig a little deeper. Some of them won't believe anything except what TUMP spews at them. My ex sister in law is a prime example. My daughter says she has a sign up in her trailor that reads, '' I am an Ultra MAGA'' Her and Maggot Traitor Goon would make a good pair of deluded and brainwashed GQP wingnuts to the extreme.
That is a real bummer. I was accosted by someone recently who didn't like my "Biden Harris" bumper sticker. We had hired his uncle to drive us in our car to the airport (that is 125 miles from where we live). His uncle hired him because we had to take two cars due to family coming with us. He threatened to remove the bumper sticker before we came home. As his tone of voice became more threatening and louder he kept saying "What don't you want to hear the other side?" and that "We must be rich" and to be Biden supporters. We aren't rich but we have lived frugally most of our lives so we could retire. Our son finally stepped in and told him he was disrespecting me and that he was hired to drive not to share his political opinions. The whole incident with that MAGA asshat was very upsetting.
Any dealings with the MAGAts are upsetting.
Oh my, that guy didn't have any business saying anything about your BIDEN/HARRIS bumper sticker, much less to try to start a confrontation with you.. I had something kind of similar to that when we had a BIDEN/HARRIS yard sign up just before the General Election in 2020. My next door neighbor and his bratty loud mouth son started heckling us about the sign and threatened to take it down, the neighbor's bratty son came up to in one of those golf cart things, and he had one of the neighbors down the road with him me and said, '' why don't you take that sign down??'' I told him he better no bother my sign,, and i went on to say, '' i wouldn't vote for TUMP or any Rethuglicans that was always insisting that they were going to destroy my Social Security, and i warned him again, that he had better not bother my sign. He looked stunned. and so did the neighbor down the road. He didn't say a word, and took off like a bat of hell in the golf cart. A few days after that, my daughter had a flat tire, and a big gash in the tire with a knife blade broken off in it. One tire on my mini van was flattened. The fat pig neighbor down the road later tried to keep me from going down the gravel road in front of his house, i went anyway, and when i got to where him and his ugly wife were standing, they wouldn't even say anything to me, i give them a ''go to hell' look and went down the gravel road anyway. Later on, they would curse at us from their jacked up pick-up trucks, and one day my oldest grown granddaughter was at my house when they drove by and started cursing, and my oldest granddaughter yelled back at them, '' GO TO HELL'' very loudly at them, they never did harass us after she told them that.. I am surrounded by these MAGAT wingnuts here, but it is very upsetting to me how these insane wingnuts act about the worst criminal in the world, Donald TUMP. I am sick of these brain diseased, irrational, mental midgets. they are entrenched into a cult, and there is no reasoning with these nutty idiots. We have to out vote them in next year's elections, somehow, some way.
What a horrible experience for you and your family John. I feel like every time I think I see light at the end of the tunnel with all of this it is just another oncoming train filled with loud mouthed haters that can carry guns without impunity! I am glad that no one in your family was physically injured by these malignant oafs! We really have to put them back under their rocks with our votes. But seeing this unfold it isn't too difficult to see how Jim Jones got his followers to drink the tea or how Hitler rose to power...very scary, indeed.
Yes , Colette, it was a horrible experience to us. And that bratty neighbor's son has posted Christmas pictures of him and his whole family clutching AR 15 rifles in front of their Christmas tree last year ,he even had his 3 year old son with his little hands around the barrel of the rifle. And yes. the people are malignant oafs to the extreme. I haven't spoken to his Father or Mother that live right beside me in 3 years now. I want nothing to do with them. It's a wonder they haven't shot at my house with one of those rifles. The Jim Jones thing comes to mind when i think about these deluded TUMP followers. It's a huge and dangerous cult. If i could convince my daughter and grandson to go with me, i would sell my house and move to Nova Scotia, Canada. I could make enough profit on my house, plus what money i have saved and move. These MAGA asshats have me very concerned. I am beyond sick and tired of all of this. Donald TUMP has ruined hundreds or thousands of the lives of the good citizens of the United States.
I've got a former work cohort who made a post that said, "well, it looks like I've been promoted from "deplorable" to "Ultra MAGA"." Unbelievable.
Not a badge of courage for sure!
You can say that again!