As far as Democrats “stealing” Republican talking points, that’s yet another farce. Nothing was stolen. The Republicans left them on the floor. They were there for the picking up. As a lifelong Democrat, I guess I always thought those things were AMERICAN. They applied to me as well.
Democrats have had a history of allowing Republicans to claim things that any thinking person could see they do not stand for and have not as long as I have been around. Now it is about time Dems claim things they really more truly stand for like family, less government invasion, more government protections of living, breathing people. Dems always win on diversity, even though the Republicans could highlight it more. Nikki could use her real name, and Vance could bring his wife into the light culturally. None of them do that. I can see why. Still, Kamala and Walz on stage in the end showcased the bridging of the White America and Multicultural America as they gathered with their families, and with this bridge they say, "We are not going back!" to segregation and sexism. It is brilliant. Republican plans and policies are both ridiculous to fully implement and evil. The press is being circumvented by this campaign as long as it continues on its' journey to prop up Trump and ear down Democrats for clicks and likes. Biden has paid the price and Harris is having none of it. I have read that her campaign feted influencers instead of MSM at the DNC. Wise move. They are starting to go after Project 2025 in ways that make it clear to their audiences what it means for all of us. Here is an example of the Trans community using a website on Project 2025, called How Will project 2025 Affect Me on TikTok, that then allows you to scroll by topic and find out. It is created by a man using AI to help him go through The Mandate For Leadership document. https://www.tiktok.com/discover/Im-trans-how-will-project-2025-affect-me
The convention made clear that Project 2025 is something you want to learn more about if you do not know about it. I think the convention was brilliantly staged. Viva la Kamala!
I’m old too. I prefer influencers (as flawed as they are) to algorithms. Algorithms are the means by which corporations design profits AGAINST WE THE PEOPLE. They’re as soulless as the corporations that use them.
I like that statement. I’ll use it somewhere. But let’s not fall into the trap that we often fall into. Anything they say we contradict. This is the norm for thousands of years. in ancient Egypt, the ruler in power often had noses chopped off the stone statues of the previous ruler so as to prevent its breath from giving it life. The present we are so preoccupied with Trump’s wall and we shouldn’t be because there is no gain to be had. There is nothing wrong with adequate security at the border. Most Americans want a secure border. Every nation on earth wants secure border. Oy. Leave it alone.
Reading earlier today that several Republican administration lawyers signed a letter where they say that they are voting for Harris because they don't have to agree with her on all things, she will protect the rule of law and our democracy. It made me think that the DNC was a sort of Job interview for her and she aced it. I think we will see more Republicans coming over to her side. Not MAGAs, but Republicans. It feels like a revolution. Viva la Kamala!
Yes. Also these "influencers" were chosen with care. That is the wise thing to do. The MSM is flabbergasted that the Harris-Walz campaign is not following the old paradigm, but somehow not flabbergasted that all the MAGAs do is like cheat and steal! Let us include rape, sexually assault and basically everything in the TOXIC MALE playbook. Stand down MAGA, stand up Walzers. He is leading the men to role model other ways to be "manly", and we all know that we are part of this diverse, integrated family, if we stick with the Dems. Viva la Kamala.
Carla, from another old person, I, too do not like the algorithms that "lean" to the side of the toxic white male view of the world. I'm not really fond of influencers either because even though pretty much anyone can go onto TikTok or YouTube and espouse positive or negative stuff, it is often the ones who say or do outrageous things that get the hits. I just read about a group called "Tradwomen." They want women back in the kitchen and birthing room and away from the male sphere. They have a lot of followers. It is not clear if the "followers" are interested in doing that or just watching a bunch of crazy women. In either case, it is pretty misogynistic. Maybe more Democrats need to become "influencers" if that is the way to reach young people with something healthy.
I prefer them to sensationalized ads. I’ve disliked ads for over 30 years. We’ve become so detached from our food, many don’t know and can’t conceive of eating produce that comes straight from the ground… carrots, potatoes, etc… children would enjoy planting a garden, watching it grow and eating the harvest, but the school session generally is off during peak gardening season.
Carla, several of our schools had raised bed gardens which the students would plant in the fall (the garlic) and everything else in the spring (the annuals) and would tend until school was out then take turns going in to help weed and harvest during the summer. In the fall, one of our schools always held a sweet potato feast with all kinds of dishes made of the sweet potatoes they grew in the garden with any other veggies left at the time of the harvest. Unfortunately 2 of the schools closed that had gardens and the land of one of the other school's garden was sold for a cell phone tower. The corporation was supposed to replace the gardens they destroyed, but somehow never did, surprise surprise, we are a very disadvantaged school district, so none of those corporate guys thought they should have to keep their word or contract or whatever it was. I love the idea of kids tending gardens. Some of the kids were truly excellent stewards of the gardens and learned how to teach others, children and adults how to do the work. These were elementary schools.
"Toxic white male"= AKA "Christian Nationalists!". There will likely be a Parting of the Parties. Democrats will become firmly centrist and inclusive of conservative (as in decent) Republicans. Progressives will increase their numbers from that wing of the party and emphasize climate and defiance of authoritarian, corrupt leaders and their wars. Ergo: a three-party party system.
I really appreciate Science Explainers like Richard Feynman, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Physics Girl, Dianna Cowern (one of the most unfortunate limited victims of Long Covid now).
Physics Girl (Physics Explainer) looks into Hydrogen in four episodes, starting with “I drove 1800 miles in a Hydrogen Car” (a Toyota Mirai like a friend owns).
Spoiler alert, Hydrogen advantages are far more important in larger vehicles, fleets, and heavy industrial uses where it can replace Diesel, covered in the later 3 episodes.
She also happened to have done two episodes on the LIGO Hanford Gravitational Wave Detector and answered a question I didn’t have time to ask when I visited during the shut down/update modifcation period when visits could take place. I wouldn’t have been able to travel there again before they started another year or more active detection period.
JD, like every other means of communication, influencers can be used for good or for evil. They are simply people whom other people look up to and may imitate.
TFFG uses influencers who are racists, misogynists and anti-everyone not on their side. And those influencers have certainly influenced MAGATs toward lawlessness and violence.
The Kamala/Walz campaign is using influencers that model kindness, generosity, and selfless patriotism: Oprah, Michelle Obama, TIM WALZ, etc. In my mind this is the best way to begin a wave of positivity to counteract TFFG!
And the humor really helps, too! This column was a real influence on my mood today…..and would drive TFFG crazy - if he actually reads anything!
So right Marge, influencers includes all the panoplays of power and authority, anyone trying to get a message or perspective across, whatever its nature. I also suspect we're over-demonizing algorithm, which is just another word for a set of rules, often automated. But without algorithms, mathematics would not even exist.
Marj are you aware that Heather Cox Richardson is an influencer? Makes $5 a month from each of us. A monthly expense I find far more useful than the larger amount I’ve been sending the increasingly right-wing and sloppy Washington Post.
Do you not think HCR deserves to be paid for what she does instead of sleeping, in the very little spare time a humanities professor can scrape together? All influencers work for the money they make, and most put in long hours doing other work as well.
I don't mean to disparage HCR in any way or her tirelessness, but I believe she has a team—perhaps grad students—who help with rapid research, fact-finding, and specific information, such as footnotes. (I vaguely recall reading that somewhere.) I don't begrudge that, but I hope we can call that something other than 'influencing,' a vapid term. I love this Substack because of its precision and truth-finding, unlike influencing.
It is not "unlike influencing"--it is actually "influencing." HCR is one of the people who went to the Convention with this in mind. You and Marj and many here may hate the term--I certainly do--but it includes more than teenagers chatting on Tik-Tok about a particular kind of brightly colored recycled socks!
I go with Mary on this one. Right now skepticism and distrust of institutions, including scientific, runs as top speed. Look what's happening to national vaccination programs. Climate change, another. Popularizers of modern science and technology are above all influencers. So are Evangelical preachers and media. Oh, musicians, of course!
Those were the days when women weren’t allowed to work, or have their own credit, could be denied an apartment if they had children (1988) … when women were the caretakers (for free) of children and elderly parents… the social organizers…all the things that were “expected” of them
Yes the free labor of women over almost the entire history of money economies is an astonishing story whose historians somehow never get Pulitzers. We understand how much the wealth and infrastructure of this country depended on the labor of slaves, both male and female. But we leave the room or change the subject when the free labor of wives and daughters arises as an economic topic.
Carla, and I'm so glad those days are past for anyone who wants them to be past. There are "influencers" like "Tradwomen" who want to go back to those "good ol' days" so they can experience baby after baby, cleaning and cooking all day for a guy who gets to be out with other people and who not only has no clue what she does all day, but disparages everything she does as being lazy, not working hard like he does. Who would want that, but those influencers sit in perfectly clean rooms with no kids around and make sure they look happy, not frazzled as they really are. I think that influencer persona is their alter-ego.
JD, if you look at the IRS tax code, you will find it littered with rules that exempt very specific companies from taxes that every other company has to pay. In the 1980’s our advanced tax professor, for a term paper, had us draw a piece of tax code and determine the company and its owner. Mine was a small drilling company owned by T. Boone Pickens. The code specified location of headquarters, service and an upper/lower number of employees. Just to say that, in the early 1980’s, T. Boone had Congress critters bought and paid for.
My Mom used to say, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Same deal now. But the “Greed is good” mantra has replaced Rose Kennedy’s message to her children. From those who were given much, much is expected.
I agree and I'm old too. My daughter-in-law and son aren't impressed with Influencers either. But her campaign should use every tool in the box to get Kamala Harris elected.
Same here but I have young adult children who follow influencers so to keep connected with my kids I’ve learned about them, kinda of like texting. I would call my kids but now I text. Adapting with the times but I still don’t get it.
Adapting to the times is necessary if you don’t aspire to be a fossil. It’s why I sat my rear in computer classes years ago. Apparently texting will be passe soon, as voice will take the place of keyboards (so says a computer guru that I know). Now just try to keep up with the grands.
Influencers reach pockets of people that may not be watching the news (propaganda) staying tuned to mainstream media. Since MSM seems so anti American(pro Trump).. I'm thinking it is a good thing
lol, i was countering the point that MSM is pro-Trump, an allegation frequently repeated in this commentator community. Besides being "the enemy of the people" Trump was asked in 2016 or so by a reporter if he planned to let up on msm, his answer was "so you won't believed".... he meant that. Flip side of course if Fox a blatant propagandist for Trump et al and filterer of current news
Its a strategy for allowing himself to blame news he doesn't like as fake news. But MSM is owned by billionaires who know keeping Trump in power will allow them the financial benefits that the wealthy have now.
My reading is limited, so I can't really address your thesis. We know that both parties are beholden to wealthy donors, and likewise, media like other large business are owned by wealthy people or other corporations. So by your thinking, the Dems might just be a populist prop to manage their base, or do billionaires possess a variety of views and often cover their bases by financing both major political parties and cut various media a fair bit of slack ie "editorial independence" I did google the topic and got a lot of interesting material, more than i can absorb right off or comment on in a knowledgeable manner. I did see, i recall from reading long ago, that American media tended to be very partisan.
One thing i strongly suspect is that the wealthy already have a pretty good idea what they might be in for under the Democrats, and it will be like skimming a little cream off the top. As things stand, top income earners already cover much government spending. Income tax comes almost entirely from the top 20%. Much of social security is already half paid or more by businesses. Those costs are in turn passed on through pricing, it behaves much like an ecosystem. If more regulation means more costs, same idea.
I, too, am old and find the term Influencer to be suspect. What happened to simply putting forth opinions so folks can decide what they think on their own. The term Influencer is too close to propagandist.
As Trump tries to run away from his alliance with P2025/Heritage, this excellent investigative reporting directly ties Florida GOP and indirectly other GOP-controlled state legislatures.
“From bathrooms to banking, records show the architects of Project 2025 worked closely with Ron DeSantis and Florida Republican leaders to turn some far-right ideas into new state laws.”
Florida and Texas are examples of what Project 2025 will try to do to this country. They are mini-fascist states under one Party control, where the voices of the people are squelched.
“Transgender people can no longer obtain a driver’s license that reflects their gender identity under a new policy that treats “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver license” as fraud punishable by civil and criminal penalties plus cancellation, suspension, or revocation of the license.”
✔️In addition to school vouchers going to private, religious schools(with NO requirement for teacher cert/accredidation), vouchers may be used for theme park tickets, SUPs, and wide-screen tv’s
✔️The anti LGBQT legislation is being championed by legislators who believe, as spoken on the Fl House floor, “Our Terrorist Enemies Hate Homosexuals More Than We Do”
Kathy, yes and dear little Ron DeSantis, a near descendant of immigrants wants a dictator like they had in Italy so long ago, or something like that but as long as he has power in the running of it. Just like so many Republicans, totally self-absorbed, but wanting control over others' lives.
Kathy, thanks for posting this! I wish all the Undecideds could/would read this in order to understand the implications of voting Red. Since the MSM is pro-trump, are there places the Undecideds go for their news?
Linda, thanks for the link! The more all of us learn about Project 2025, the better! I’d love to see Harris, when asked about specifics in her campaign, to repeat what she’s already said and then pivot to Agenda 47’s generalizations with the accompanying Project 2025’s specifics.
Thanks Mary. And, make no mistake, Trump's words may now be that he does not support P2025, or the abortion bans inherent throughout it, but he is not going to be the one implementing most of this, just signing documents, and saying stupid things to the public. Others, who are very committed to this anti-women, anti-people agenda are going to be carrying it out. It would be hard to extricate just those parts, because they are in every branch of government, including a Department of Life. Apparently that can replace education and some other departments on the chopping block. Viva la Democrats, Viva la Kamala!
Linda, WTH, the Department of Life??? Everything about the current R party and their manifesto Project 2025 is all about death which is why I call them the party of death and himself death star. They are a monstrous festering cancer that needs to be removed.
Linda, it really is scary that people don't understand the level of incapacity Trump is dealing with right now. He did next to nothing when he was in office 4 years ago and his staff knew it, but somehow the word didn't get out until Trump had left office, then we were told that was just a myth; Trump was a hard worker! That was a big lie and we know for sure Trump will not be doing any of the work should he be re-elected, but the Steves, Roger, and the rest of Trumplandia will be waiting to fill in the blanks and those blanks will be many. What will they fill those blanks with, lots of money for themselves power to hurt anyone or any group they don't like or rather anyone who is not rich, white, maybe straight, and male and that is most of us. Project 2025 will be their weapon and they will have the court system on board since there are sufficient judges and justices at every level to give them whatever they want. They have done a pretty good job so far and there is no reason to suspect things will be less in their favor then. Disgusting!
You are so right that though Trump steals the limelight there is a potent organized movement behind things like Project 2025, of course the anti-abortion movement, and so on, a combination of "more religion" and ... regulation is is dubious item, since it all depends...
What an insightful post, Linda! Your comment that 'together Harris and Walz represent the coming together, or bridge, of White America and Multicultural America' is powerful. Images of Harris and Walz will now resonate with me more deeply and meaningfully. Symbols are so powerful and important! I also love your comment that "it is about time Dems claim things they really more truly stand for like family, less government invasion, more government protections of living, breathing people." Your ideas--the coming together, bridge, and list--need to be amplified!
Democrats struggled with jingoistic Republicans from the battles with Joe McCarthy starting in the early 50s through the latter few years of the Vietnam war nearly 25 years later. The first Dems to fight against these forces were the young and the liberal, but over time the fight became a Democratic fight in all cases. The pre-MAGA, neo-confederate GOP of the day waved flags, called themselves patriots, and called those opposing them pinkos or commies.
Police forces were rightwing, generally, chiefly the Chicago police force of 1968, and so cops generally became identified with the repressive right. The GOP waved the flag over such repressive ideas that I think Dems let it go as somehow tainted.
But that was then. The current idea that the military owns the flag is the idea of political rightwingers. I was in the military. I don’t feel that way, and the only military that I met who feel that way were the dimwitted.
It is time to place our patriotic symbols back in the hands of the entire citizenry, and always call out their use for a purely partisan political issue.
The American flag belongs to those ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ who served in the military to defend our country. Bone Spur Donald, whose ‘Vietnam’ was to avoid a social disease, does not qualify.
Patriotism is for those who support the Constitution. Doo Doo Donald sought to trash the Constitution and the Capitol Building.
I am proud of my immigrant background. Did Trump marry two immigrants, because no ‘real American’ would?
It's interesting how virtually every musician has condemned DonOLD for playing their songs, while Democrats are free to play any artist they want except perhaps Kid Rock, Greenwood and a handful of others.
Gary, and it would not have been too difficult to get permission if the artists wanted their songs played for a candidate. It is great exposure. However, a lot of artists wouldn't want their music played for a would-be dictator who hates everyone or at least despises them. Having hate speech tied to one's works would not be a good association for most people.
Thanks for bring him up Dave. I couldn't pull that name out of my addled brain. Ted hosted many hunting expeditions on his land in Michigan. Although, my brother-in-law is a Democrat he jumped at the chance to go. He was impressed with what a cordial host Ted was. It just goes to show you, how CFDT has poisoned the political waters with his hate, anger, resentment, revenge and misinformation.
I knew Nugent personally for about ten years way back in the day. He has personable capabilities when it suits him. Its an act. In actuality, his ego and “it’s all about me” rivals Trump.
Maybe if he actually stopped scamming money. Having the bucks to sue/delay/buy judges really makes a mockery of our justice system. How I would love to see him broke.
There are well-defined regulations about using music in campaigns, and clear licensing requirements. The Trump campaign is just ignoring them and (in classic Trump fashion) playing what they want and seeing what they can get away with. Yes, the artists can kick up a fuss (as can ASCAP and BMI), but by the time the cease and desist orders are out, the rallies are past.
Yes, but the money still comes in later and can be used however the artists wish. (I know first hand from my husband's experience with a major film producer.) And that donation can be much more effective for a(n opposing) campaign than hearing a song at a rally.
They got permission from Beyonce to play Freedom and permission from Neil Young to play Rockin' in the Free World. Don't know about others, but I would imagine they got permission from them as well.
"Art is what we call it when what we do might connect us." —Seth Godin.
Translation: Real artists are always thinking "united we stand and divided we fall" whereas DonOLD (great meme, Gary) and his minions are always thinking "divide and conquer."
The most pathetic thing of all is one just can't make this stuff up! It's not only weird, it is bizarre beyond comprehension. Those people who have always supported and continue to support trump are the most puzzling and in my mind are literally psychologically messed up. Many loose screws in those heads. It is incomprehensible that most of them think trump is an appropriate choice as president of the U.S. when he is dangerously unqualified to hold any job. He would have long ago been instantly fired from all companies/educational institutions, other political positions.
May all the hard work, record-breaking fundraising, positive messaging and enthusiasm catapult this spectacularly qualified, talented, and compassionate team to a landslide victory in November!! And, most importantly the support for them from all of us after the election must remain on high octane -although not all the time and not by everyone at once! We don't need to live daily in the political weeds (that's why we elect good people and read Heather!) but I'm very much looking forward to what Harris/Walz and an inclusive administration of theirs can accomplish. Even their missteps won't be teeth gnashing or stomach grinding episodes :)
Janet W. -I’m with you wondering about the people who support and vote for DJT. Whenever I drive by a house with the Trump/Vance sign I wonder what these folks are all about. It’s one thing to support him-it’s another thing to advertise that support in our communities. I usually come away thinking those are some mean, nasty and “weird” people.
Gina, I am staring in horror at the men and women that I worked with for years and their unfailing support for fpotus, and their mental gymnastics at looking past the criminal conduct (all arguments involve "judicial persecution") and I have no freaking clue how they rationalize the classified documents stored in a bathroom at his golf club. Their lack of support for a prosecutor and state Attorney General seems rooted in her administration changing the felony status of theft monetary threshold to $900+; no mention of her work in prosecuting and enhancing child abuse sentences in her prosecutorial and administrative roles.
These people are cops, or married to cops, and I cannot for the life of me imagine how they do the mental gymnastics required to support that guy.
Yes, I agree. I have a neighbor who is a VietNam vet, has a son who is active military and has several granddaughters and he is Flying a yuge Trump flag in tandem with an Air Force one. It seems almost unreal. How these folks who are female, black, LGTBQ, Hispanic, military, teachers... how these people can support tfg is beyond belief.
My neighbor is a respected retired school teacher. She has been wearing a maga hat forever on her daily walks. I noticed she put his bumper sticker on her car. It seems she is working overtime to show people how stupid she is.
I want a 'Harris Obviously' yard sign! Oh btw, she doesn't speak to me anymore. We've been neighbors for 30 years.
You're exactly right Joyce. I have a family of Republican voters too. I told my Mother yesterday we live in alternate realities when she asked me to try and find one thing good about DJT. We were discussing the Pastor's sermon that day about "Loving your enemies". The only thing I could think of was that he was tall. Lol She said that she'd failed me bc I have so much anger and contempt for the man. Hard to love a predator. I gave up. I'll be so glad when he's gone. We mostly just avoid the topic.
Just a bit west of Boston, things get a little “gamey” so to speak. Some of the signage trumpsters
put on their front lawns is disgusting.
My youngest little grands (their parents are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from S.Sudan) have asked me what some of the words (which I won’t repeat here) on some lawn signs/flags mean. I told them those are not words but just identify to people driving by that the people in that house are not well. Obviously with the older kids there is a more age-appropriate discussion.
Their parents just don’t understand why some Americans are so nasty and mean (and broadcast it) when the country offers so much. And these are folks who deal with being Black in America and survived a genocide yet work multiple jobs and are grateful for everything they have.
"Those people who have always supported and continue to support trump are the most puzzling and in my mind are literally psychologically messed up. Many loose screws in those heads."
Trump: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for me." (Kudos to Maureen Dowd.) And Nicholas Kristof yesterday calling out the fraud of Republicans calling themselves the "party of the American family,"(!) He backs it up with facts about domestic violence caused by their idiotic approach to child care (revoking the child care tax credit) and the resultant poverty of so many children in this country.
Republicans made patriotism look “like the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Or as Johnson elaborated, “can be used to distract people from the real motives of a scoundrel.” How prescient was he…. And it never was about love of country anyway, just another power play to deceive.
The "Repubbies" live in their own little "brainwashed" world. I hope they wake up. The consequences of their mistaken choices will ruin their families and hope for the future great possibilities for this nation.
Can one imagine how gleefully our enemies are watching and hoping for the destruction of this great nation?
The stability of this great nation is at risk. Our vote is our weapon. We must use it wisely. We each have one chance....one choice.....one vote!!!!
Derek, the hubris that the Kurtz’s of the Republican machinery has is breathtaking. Imagine that they believe that approx half the country is ineligible to the notions of Patriotism and The Flag
Their inability to recognize the divisions they foment is at the root cause of our current societal rancor
When Patriotism and Allegiance to the Constitution is put into definition, its easy to see who fails the test
That is so completely insane! It's disgusting that the right has been so successful in coopting our American symbols! It's also partly our fault for letting them!
I confess that I turned my flag upside down when Trump was President, but turned it right-side up again at January 6, because the upside down flag became a symbol of the insurgency!
I thought long and hard about flying the National Colors upside down, and eventually decided against it. I have flown them daily since 9/11/01, and since about 2011 have flown an adjacent Pride flag or a COPS flag (black field with a single wide blue stripe laterally; I used to have a "thin blue line" flag, but took it down after Ferguson, MO.) I added a Ukrainian flag in 2022.
I have a question for you Ally. In our little town of about 2,000 people there is ONE Trump sign. The house has a 4' x 8' sign opposing Kamala and they attached two flags to the sign. One is a US flag and the other is a Trump/Vance flag. The Trump/Vance flag is about 5 feet higher than the US Flag. I thought that the US flag always had to be flown at or above every other flag. True or False?
I will always fly my American Flag as I am proud to be an American and proud of My Country USA. The republicans cannot highjack OUR Flag. This is ridiculous!!!
I burst out laughing when I read your telling of Kurtz’s comment. Good thing I wasn’t sipping coffee!
Given the constant falsehoods streaming from the right wing media, after years of brainwashing and the fact that the Faux news station did not cover the three Republicans speaking at the DNC, this election which should have Kamala winning in an absolute landslide will still be close.
Yes, it’s been pointed out many times that the entire function of the Republican Party — entirely — is to transfer wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra-wealthy. That’s it. All the rest — militarism, racist dog whistles, balanced budget, small government, national security, immigration, crime, anti-abortion, family values rhetoric — is a ruse to get the “low information” voters to go along.
Hoyt, I agree with you, and I can’t understand why some people can’t see the pattern: everything the Rs oppose would benefit the people and everything they support benefits the corporate/donor oligarchs.
I believe a lot of folks rely on their oversized gut instinct because their small brains are not capable of rational thinking. This programming of the illiterate has been promoted for years as education has became a privilege to some and not a mandatory part of everyone's life.
Don't you mean 'performance art' JL ? They've blown wind far and wide in their culture wars about being 'all the things' American and good - list them on several pages to burn at some point. They've been mostly unchallenged so far until recently, and frankly I'm guilty of not cutting loose on them for their ridiculous self centeredness and self righteousness. The stuff just seemed so senseless to invest any effort in.
The way I see it, D4N and JL, is for the past several years many of us acted like deer caught in the headlights as Republicans took all the glory for being good patriots. I think Joe did the best he could to counter this false premise. But my opinion is it was Harris who first took her "hat pin" and burst that bubble wide open that now allows all of us to reject the idea that only Republicans hold the mantle of patriotism and goodness.
Just by his act of putting the country above his personal desire or ambition, Joe Biden has shown more patriotism than all of the Republican Presidents since Nixon, added together and multiplied by any factor one cares to name.
As much as I love and admire Kamala Harris and am cheering madly for her to be our first female President, she is harvesting (and adding to it, of course) the incredible hope and goodwill generated by the solid that Biden has done for the Democratic Party and for the country.
President Joe Biden is a gift to us and to the free world. He has served this country with his life, with devotion to its greatest ideals, demonstrating love of family, love of our country.......HE CARES FOR ALL OF US!!!
I admire Kamala as well. I also believe she is smart enough and wise enough to prioritize those things that are best for our country not to leave anyone behind, to give everyone a voice in our governance, and for the advancement of a free world!
President Joe Biden deserves our eternal praise for so much good he has done and continues to do....for the friendships he has built with leaders of other countries....for the respect he has earned by being a leader of character.
Hi Lynell. More importantly, and I mean to take nothing away from Harris - more folks in general are seeing through the BS. That's my hope anyway. We always - most all of us anyway, always held those 'mantles' as I see it. Joe did fabulous... he is the uncontested MVP of my lifetime. His action to pass on the baton / torch was the touch of a master. I so wish I could have served him some way. I have to say I also have high hopes for Harris. I researched her exhaustively and fully understood the initial propositions to justify her elevation to significance. Great to chat with you, but I'm fading fast. I should be long asleep.
Don't give it a second thought TL. We do seem to do that; But after all, we are all in the same echo chamber are we not. I think it's a good thing to be cognizant of that dynamic. In any event, I thoroughly enjoy reading your 'takeaways' on all matters. Bravo TL
Peter Drucker's famous quote is, "Culture eats strategy for lunch." And it's true. "We're the good guys and they're the bad guys" is much easier to understand than how to achieve justice for all. But chaos is inevitably exhausting, which is why strategy eats culture for supper.
I have thought for years that Democrats should re-claim the imagery of the flag, which was so co-opted by the GOP that when I saw a flag flying in front of someone's house, I assumed they were Republican - because their patriotism had changed into full on xenophobia. I love seeing the Democrats sweep it up and wave it happily, as opposed to beating up police officers with flag poles!
I've posted a number of times about my display of the National Colors at my home and her pairing with (depending on the month) a COPS flag (flown in May; a black field with a blue center lateral stripe; NOT a "thin blue line" flag that you see everywhere which has come to denote "police can do no wrong"), a Pride flag (flown from June to September) and a Ukrainian flag (flown until May). These flags are flown on my garage (faces the street) with the National Colors on the left (as seen from the street) 24/7/365 properly illuminated at night and the other flags flown on the right, illuminated by a blue light (which both represents autism awareness and fallen law enforcement officers--I have a friend who was murdered in the line of duty, and I honor him with that display.
When we moved to Las Cruces, NM, we immediately put up a flag pole and fly both the American flag and the New Mexico flag. As does our Democratic neighbor across the street. I have up my Harris sign - and my Harris/Walz sign will soon arrive. My Gabe Vasquez sign is full center. We can't back off. We won't go back!
A homeowner in a neighboring community had a "F*** Biden" flag, a Trump flag, and a U.S. Marine Corps flag on his lawn. We've noticed that only the Marine Corps flag is still there. Maybe he's finally realized that Trump disparages the military.
Don’t assume Laurie, I’m a vet and have been flying my flag for over 50 years, I was a John McCain republican, there is nothing that the repugnantkins espouse today that I in any way agree with, I fly my flag as a patriotic act, and will vote for Kamala/Tim the first chance I get. Those bastards don’t exclusively own the flag, all US citizens do. It’s high time the democrats wrapped themselves in it, they own it as much as anyone else. The flag has spoken to people ever since Betsy Ross first sewed it, I was thrilled to see it given the prominence it had at the DNC. If that bothers the repugnantkins, all the better, anything that bothers them I’m in favor of.
Louis-Although it’s often understated I think white nationalism is the tie that binds Trump supporters. Their support is stated and rationalized as policy but the fear of losing privilege and the idea of “DEI” is what motivates too many even if they won’t admit it.
“Opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one and republicans asses are just more prominent and always stink” They just thought they stole our patriotism, they are about to have a rude and crude awakening in 71 days. I plan to fly my flag until they cry "uncle"
You would think. My MAGAt cop friends (retired, like me) think otherwise. Boy, do they contort around his law breaking, and peddle Harris as soft on crime.
When you throw Democracy away, confuse patriotism with treason, mix the Constitution with greed, bind faith to power, and excommunicate everyone who loves America from those who love the cult leader, these are not things you value. The fire sale of true American values to the arsonist who would burn it all down to regain power, when it is saved from the trash heap by real Americans is theirs to rescue and defend, those who abandoned it have lost. You break it, you lose it. Screw the whining babies who want praise for selling out our values have no place in government. I hope Kemp endorses Kamala.
I hope Kemp will endorse her as well. Here is a quote by Hannah Arendt, a fierce advocate for the constitution and the rule of law https://images.app.goo.gl/JPzM5B7Ce9UQVtQA8
Peggy Noonan's complaint, as reported by Professor Richardson, is ridiculous, of course, but there's a grain of truth in it. Republicans since Reagan have "weaponized" patriotism, among other things, stealing it from Democrats. George Lakoff has been saying for years that Democrats have to change their messaging, and here they finally are doing it, to the dismay of Republicans. We've been helped as the extremely unpatriotic, nontraditional aims of Republicans' Project 2025 have been revealed. It's no wonder Trump has belatedly tried to distance himself from its authoritarian provisions.
Ditto, Carla. Claim of theft makes no sense. Meanwhile, love that the efforts of corruption continuing in the Trump camp of thieves with the arrest of Durov in advance of the "big announcement" fills me with hope that the jig is finally up. Stay tuned, indeed. The whole world is watching you, Donald. And a substantial number of us don't like, or in any way trust, what you're saying and what we're seeing.
Carla, I, too considered faith, family, and this nation what I hold dear. Republicans have not valued those things for decades, probably not since the beginning of the 20th century. Remember, the only family they considered important or of value at all were their own families, and then, not so much. Look at the people they have elected to office, how many of them had divorced (not that divorce is a problem, except that they say divorce is wrong and they only got one because . . .). Then, there are the children of many of the leadership, not always treated so well, particularly if they didn't toe the line in behavior and "lifestyle." As for faith, who knows what faith Republicans have. Many claim christianity, but, I can't find anything Christian in their practice or non-practice of christianity. Our nation is just a place for so many of the Republican leadership to live and take advantage of the poor folks who don't know what is being done to them while they blame Democrats and anyone else for their troubles, just as those Republican leaders wish. Harris and Walz see life quite differently and do actually value family, love each other and have a faith that shows in the way they treat people. They do love this nation not for what they can get from it, but for what we can do together to make life better for everyone. Quite a contrast, right!
That's just Peggy Noonan's desperate attempt to find something, anything, to write about the DNC that wasn't positive. She sees the writing ( or should I say WRITING) on the Truth Social Wall and she is not blind to the Trump Clown Show. She knows his campaign is tanking, but she can't bring herself to say anything good about Trump, so she gives faint praise to Harris and the DNC, but then takes it all back by saying the Dems stole Republican 'themes.' As though faith and patriotism were the domain of Republicans. Peggy was moved by the DNC, but of course she had to tone her enthusiasm down because, you know, she's been a Republican standard bearer at least as long, if not longer, than George Will. She's as appalled by the prospect of a Trump election as we are, but she still isn’t willing to hang up her pen, so she's trying some both sideism gimmicks to keep going.
Cannot become complacent. Gambling sites show renewed interest in Trump. Beware of an October surprise. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
I am a texting fool on FT 6 BYOB, TextAtcade, textbank, to ostensible (unregistered) Democrats, and whereas we used to get a lot of negative reactions, we get virtually none.
We have a window of opportunity to register new Democrats. Early voting starts Sept 26 in Pa, registration ends October 7 in Florida. We need volunteers, especially in phone banking.
They will still prop him up (like the Inca priests did their dead emperors) until they can kick his crazy arse to the curb and install their choice. The SC is on board with whatever…
Mary Barber and HCR, it is an succinct sumation. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive is the unspoken theme of the Trump Republican Party. The commercial news industry is more than codependent in the making of his malignant influence. It is inspiring to see the rise of natural claiming of higher ground by the uninfected and clear framing of corrective action.
Heather, reading tonight’s letter was just pure joy. I found myself smiling and laughing all of the way through it. I imagine that you had a good time writing it because I could swear you got snarky at times. :)
I just had "Too Much Fun" reading the Good Doctor's words tonight. They were a welcome change, like the convention, from the depressing drone of deviceviness oozing continually from the MAGA camp. My soul is dancing, across party lines, to the music of the DNC Convention. So many of the speakers provided 'Music to my ears" in so many ways. It's called Optimism, and I love it!
One party is selling pragmatic optimism, the other party is selling cynical pessimism, and the polls are still close. It defies logic, but the cognitive dissonance of MAGA supporters is becoming more precarious as it becomes more obvious as it becomes more elaborate.
We have a serious person with cults here in America. The cult of Trump, but also "religious" cults like the Moonies (still active) and many televangelists who claim to talk with God. We need to find ways to deprogram them. Steve Hassan was once a Moonie, and has studied cults for years. He has some helpful suggestions.
I read the “Steve Hassan” Wikipedia article. To use a J. D. Salinger metaphor, it looks to me like he’s a downstream “catcher in the rye” (keep children from running toward and potentially falling off the cliff) kind of person. I’m an upstream “but also find out how they got into the field of rye in the first place” kind of person.
WRT a criticism sited in the Wikipedia article, if Hassan’s primary purpose is to convince cult members to abandon their faith, and if that purpose is unstated, then the criticism is valid. Conversely, convincing cult members to have faith in the moral “treat others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot” principle is an unassailably valid primary purpose. Just be explicit.
It is by learning that moral principle that one is cured from the “cult” disease. And it is by learning that same moral principle that children acquire immunity.
In the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan complained that Democrats “stole traditional Republican themes (faith, patriotism) and claimed them as their own”—as if somehow Democrats shouldn’t be able to claim either faith or patriotism—and worried that Trump “is famously off his game.”
Professor Richardson experienced the DNC first hand for four days and was able to interview delegates, speakers and candidates. She is doing a wonderful job of relaying her experiences mixed with history.
Sorry Peggy, chump’s game was always deception and he is still devoted to it, albeit on auto. Just blathering all he knows. Not an original idea. As he said, I can win if I just call her a communist. A worm would have starved to death in his brain.
JD, did you happen to see the interview with Roger Stone shortly after the 2016 election? Stone was very honest about CFDT's strategy of attack, attack, attack and deny, deny, deny. It doesn't seem to have changed except that CFDTs getting nastier and trying to generate maximum fear with his posts.
I missed that but it was evident from the start. Thought such crap would only appeal to the brain dead. Underestimated how many there were thanks to the years of Fox killing brain cells all over the land.
Morning, Ally! So, next up - among other things to keep us going til November 5! - is Joyce Vance's coverage of Jack Smith's appeal to the 11th Circuit Court regarding Cannon's dismissal of the "documents" case. I can't shake my head enough over this travesty of justice.
And BTW, CBS missed their chance both yesterday and today when they interviewed National Security guy McMaster and did not ask him whether he supports McConvict having stolen all those boxes of national security documents and storing them at his private residence in Florida.
“A number of prominent Republicans who will be voting for Harris spoke there, providing a permission structure for other Republicans to shift their support to Harris and Walz. But that message did not make it through to viewers of the Fox News Channel. Media Matters, which monitors right-wing media, reported that the Fox News Channel did not air any of the Republicans’ DNC speeches.”
We know our assignment…If Fox is purposely not covering the Republican support for Harris/Walz, we need to shout it out! 🇺🇸💙🗳️❤️🗳️🇺🇸
I've been wondering whether there's a precedent for people in the opposing party making speeches at national political conventions. Has this happened before? Anyone know?
"They join conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig, who endorsed Harris on Wednesday and wrote: “In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”"
We can disagree on many things in a competition of ideas (which is what politics should be). Regardless of the path forward, we must agree upon a foundation of justice, democracy, and equality. We may have different perspectives on how to form a "more perfect union", however discarding the rule of law and shredding the Constitution are not politics, they represent an assault upon the very system we are struggling to improve for all.
George, it remains astonishing to me that the Republicans have become a cult of autocracy, anarchy, and chaos. "Anti-establishment" my ass -- as has been pointed out they support an anti-democratic arsonist candidate that willingly will burn it all down to win, leaving rubble and ash, the American carnage he spoke of in his inaugural speech.
Harris/Walz wants to raise us up on a rising tide of hope. They are the rudder and oarsman of democracy, adjusting course as needed to land on that distant shore this country has been heading for since its founding. Our sturdy ship confounds the cult, for the more who cling to it, including many brave Republicans such as Judge Luttig and others, the more buoyant it becomes. They see that, although this isn't the voyage they intended to take -- it's a lifesaving mission, and they can work out directional differences with the crew once the safety of all is assured.
And the puppet masters behind it all are Leonard Leo, the Koch family and other libertarians who have created the Heritage Foundation to disseminate and establish their own anti democratic vision of our nation. Trump, too, the master of the art of the manipulation of his base, is being played by these sinister, greedy, narrow-minded people. I can’t stop being appalled at what is at stake in this election.
So very true Betty. Barre Seid, Harlan Crow, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and many more working to subvert the justice system and eviscerate any thought of democracy, justice, and equality in the United States.
If they can afford to drop a billion dollars into The Federalist Society, it’s a clear indication that the capital gains and estate tax rates are far too low.
Thank you, George, for expanding my statement and filling in some ‘gaps’. Of course, the Federalist Society is also a major ‘player’ in the scheme to implement the conservative and libertarian policies of the far right. And DJ Vance, who could, in a few months, be the person a heartbeat away from the presidency, is obviously a puppet of Peter Thiel. This is all stranger than fiction but more sinister because it is a real threat and a very real danger.
An assault spearheaded by the guardians of the Law, the Justices who go to make up the supposedly "conservative" majority shoehorned into the Supreme Court.
These jurists have undermined the democratic foundations of America's Republic. Now they are waiting for TrumpMAGA to set off the explosives in the basement. An update of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot against King James I of England and Parliament...
Indeed Peter. And as this set of “Justices” include those who place luxurious gifts, extremism, and clear bias ahead of their duty to Constitution and Country -I find it best to place “Justice” in double-quotes until they are removed or the court is expanded making their bent opinions as meaningless as their commitment to ethics.
Thank you George. You're right. We can disagree on many things, and politics is a competition of ideas. But there is one thing we must all agree on, and that is adhering to the moral "treat others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot" principle. The minute we stop doing that is the minute we stop engaging in political practice and start committing political malpractice.
This is something I don't know that even Michael Luttig understands, even now. The rule of law is a "rule," and not a "principle." When the choice is between breaking a rule and violating the moral principle, break the rule, but be prepared to explain why.
Rules are made to be broken, and the moral principle is made to be adhered to in literally every context. To be more specific, whenever following a rule is not a way of adhering to the moral principle in a rule-specific context, it becomes an excuse for violating the principle.
Thank you James -and yes indeed, an excellent reminder about rules. I suppose I consider “the rule of law” to be at the intersection of law, morality, and ethics -as opposed to just a rule or a law. It becomes more complicated when people attempt to interpret a law that is written in an ambiguous manner.
There are two ways to look at it. One way is to say there is one “moral” principle, every rule explains how to adhere to the principle in a specific context, and there is a hierarchy of contexts and context-specific rules. The other way is to say there is a hierarchy of principles, and every principle is specific to a context, except for the one context-independent “moral” principle. Either way, it’s just a matter of agreeing on terminology. But you’re right in implying that two adversaries interpreting a law written in an ambiguous manner can become an incredibly difficult dilemma assuming both parties are adhering to the moral principle, but it’s also a positive-sum game because both parties end up winning in the long run. Otherwise, it’s a negative-sum game because even the short-term winner ends up losing in the long run. And that is a lesson DonOLD tRump has—till now—avoided learning. The bigger they get, the harder they fall.
Yes, thank you for making this essential distinction.
For sìmilar reasons, I have objected to the common use at the highest level possible -- and by Dr. Cox Richardson -- of the term "the rules-based international order"; for rules are not the basis but the means, and it is dangerous, it is pernicious to confuse the two, since whatever is based on rules must be subject to all the ills of mortality.
And now the very basis -- upholding and preserving peace with justice -- is under direct attack everywhere, wars rage and a new infestation of Nazi-formatted criminals is proliferating in what will always have seemed the unlikeliest of places, in those countries, among those peoples that suffered most and fought the hardest to uproot Nazism and Fascism.
How many people want to attempt to understand this concept? Not many, or so it seems. And why not? Not because it complicated. But thanks for letting me know I’m not alone.
In a rules-based international order, the powerful write the rules. They’ll have my support if I believe they’re serving an inclusive interest that includes me, but if I believe they’re serving an exclusive interest that excludes me, then I’ll see them as a to-be-neutralized threat, and people support authoritarians who promise to neutralize the threat.
What are the legitimate reasons for believing that authoritarian support will not collapse soon after the international order is explicitly based on the moral principle? I can’t think of any.
"and linked to a Telegram channel set up on August 6, the same day Eric posted that such a project was in the works.
Telegram is a social media app launched by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, and it is the main communications tool in Russia. Durov was arrested today in France on charges that Telegram has been used for money laundering and other crimes. "
According to Le Monde, Tucker Carlson has said: « Pavel Durov is in a French prison this evening. It's a warning to all platforms refusing to censor the truth at the demand of the government." There's another article, headed "Elon Musk appears to be unstoppable", which I haven't read yet.
I certainly could have missed it, but has any entity in the MSM had a screaming headline about this new connection between the Trump family mob and Russia?
All the news of Trump and his allies: beyond insane, criminal, out of touch.
How did U.S. billionaires and the world's worst oligarchs all so conspire to wreck this monstrosity on us?
Thing is, with a bit of time, and digging deep into native resilience, Americans recovered, got their poise back, and came up with strength from the roots -- coastal cities, prairie small towns, farms, and ranches.
The corrupt and the criminal elites have no sense of where these truer roots come from. Enervated, dehumanized, these elite living dead had no idea of the wider compassion, love, and cooperation abroad the land.
It's harnessed now. Kamala, Tim, their families, their larger families like the Obamas, Clintons, and so many other decent souls in Congress, on decent U.S. courts, and in historians such as the many we see on the news and we read in Heather herself honored to try to keep up with miracles.
"How did U.S. billionaires and the world's worst oligarchs all so conspire to wreck this monstrosity on us?"
Way too many beguiled by "Reaganomics". The evil root has blossomed and is trying to spread its seed. Good stewards of civilization and the planet are redoubling their efforts to root it out. (But I know your question was rhetorical.)
More than rhetorical, J L -- but, rather, inviting properly-searching-more such as yours.
There's a mentality abroad the world, and I wouldn't reduce it to Reaganomics. Minae Mizumura in her "The Fall of Language in the Age of English" (English, Columbia U Press, 2016) argues it's an impatience with or avoidance of all the world's smaller languages -- a dismissal of so many humanities.
Diane Ravitch in her "The Language Police" (2003) argues it's how we've standardized, how the world has gotten packaged, homogenous not just for commerce, finance, and cargo containers, but (much worse) for standardized testers all the more easily to quantify all life as units, life itself mere linear chronology in measurable categories. Machines, computers, algorithms do the measuring.
Reaganomics gets part of it. But no one who focuses there also sees what the world's schools are doing or not doing.
I'll add a bit here, as I'd like to return to the great new cheer abroad the land.
I'd like to give an example of the energy, the humanity, the decency to which schools can contribute -- if those schools have teachers who so value humanities as to keep arts high in their curriculum.
Here's a flash mob -- not in America, but they're successful in America, too, where community groups draw on resources of all ages, and where schools also have students draw on their own vitality.
So just to remember what schools and youth (and others) can do, here's an American song at an Amsterdam train station:
Hi Phil, correction. Wrong town, wrong country. This was Antwerp Central Station in Belgium, maybe a setting even more magnificent than Amsterdam Centraal...
Still stupefies me, Rickey, how the U.S. press fawns over those rich and celebrities.
Do all schools of journalism teach only the suck-up arts? Or is student loan debt just another rite of passage to show fealty to "higher" ed's having been long ago financialized (i.e., set to the tunes of all the Powell memo's far-right foundations, and to whatever corporate plundering U presidents since the Powell memo have all drooled in serving)?
I believe that it is journalists that have changed; they are now privileged , many of whom never went without medical care, food, or employment, unlike the journalists of the past.
I hadn’t heard of this “awards” ceremony until you mentioned it. Not only is it disgusting, but looks like somebody is trying to make a buck off one of the most sordid, appalling days in our history.
I couldn't agree more, TCinLA. Even when it first came out, i suspected that Crypto was a huge scam. Of course, my youngest son, (who is a TUMP fanatic) said it was legitimate. Birds of a feather always flock together.
I am guilty of schnadenfreude tonight - and it’s all your fault! For which I thank you! After all the nastiness emanating from TFG, it does my soul good to see at least a few tables turning.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Republican politicians are frantically trying to figure out how to unhook their horses from CFDT before the stagecoach goes over the cliff.
Hopefully, the Democrats can take back the House and build on their lead in the Senate so Harris/Walz and an excellent cabinet can continue their work of rebuilding the middle class.
Hopefully decency will win out in this election and our government can get on with leading us back to normal times. Now is the time to stand up for our Country, our Democracy and our Constitution.
Insecurity, whipped up deliberately by fear, can be a powerful motivator for someone looking for an outside solution to what is unsatisfying in their life. The more the Dems remind voters of how "unserious" Trump is, how unable he is to solve anyone's problems, the more inroads they will make, at least with those wavering or on the edge.
Some Trumpers in my extended family simply are not paying attention to the conventions, the campaigns, or anything political. They are just leading their lives, with the Trump of 2016 fixed in their minds. I don't know what will get them to wake up.
That ultra right winger in may extended family that he did not have facts available to explain his beliefs but that people he trusted did. To some degree we all do that, such as consulting a specialist doctor (although more than once it's been worth getting a second or third opinion). Some commitments are best approached with due diligence, if only, as with the docs, to weigh different points of view against each other. Core cult MAGA effectively prohibits that, and that makes it a cult.
JL, I can only imagine that the MAGAts in my retired cop cohort are most attracted to the "return" of white, Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered men to their "rightful" place at the top of the heap. Their wives are right along with them.
I noticed that RFK Jr started right off lying at the Trump campaign event in Arizona, stating that “American children are the most unhealthy in the world”. The actual statistics state that out of 180 countries, America stands at 39 in children’s health. So he fits right in with DJT. (I think he has a fantasy of taking over the party.)
"Meh. Kids aren't important, fetuses are, and we will protect each and every one, because that's who we are. Once they come into the world, they're on their own. Because that's who we are."
Here in the UK we have the NHS, but The Times reports this morning that a comprehensive study details that in some parts of this country nearly half of all children are obese. Sadly mainly with obese parents and in deprived economic areas. It doesn’t mention where we are in the world’s league table.
“So he turned to right-wing media outlet Newsmax, where he continued his diatribe. “
I read the last word as “diarrhea”… I’m flabbergasted that the media still allow Rump and Vance to simply tell blatant lies, like Kamala planning to give every illegal alien $ 25.000. Doesn’t matter what you spout, as long as it angers your cult followers? Have they no decency left? Have you no decency left, Mr media?
It sounds as if they heard the plan to give first-time home buyers a boost by offering them up to $25,000 down-payment money and turned that into money for immigrants. Is this s sign of deliberate lying or of the inability to keep from conflating unrelated facts, perhaps a sign of dementia?
"Have you no decency?" in this case is actually a rhetorical question. It's quite obvious what the answer is, and that he never will have, nor the others who parade their malfeasance so boldly as a badge of belonging, not honor. It is difficult for many to perceive how deeply flawed beyond repair this group has become in the race to grasp power, in the completely unholy pursuit of power and money at the expense of the rest of the world who aren't them.
Oh, Rump and his cult followers are definitely beyond repair and redemption. But I am shocked as to how much of a platform the media is giving them, and how much the downplay and/or ignore the successes of Biden and the Democrats. Ok, the billionaires who own the media of course prefer the Orange Felon because he will destroy democracy, eliminating the pesky rules that protect the common people and hinder the billionaires from getting even more rich. But did they have to make it so blatantly and shamelessly obvious?
With Trump on a self destructive mission, I expect the ratlike oligarchs will soon be abandoning his sinking ship. They have wasted millions of dollars on a losing bet.
They are too caught up in the horserace -- that's what presidential races were in the past, and they haven't gotten over the fact that one side is not "playing fair." They feel they have to give the other side the benefit of the doubt. And it takes time to investigate claims. Not apologizing for them, just stating my theory.
I'd like to see Professor Heather Cox Richardson get the The Presidential Medal of Freedom (the Nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.)
Professor Richardsons books and letters predicted the American people would again rise to affirm our belief that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
What an amazing list of cascading failures! At the rate the Trimp campaign is self-destructing they might not make it to November. Donny is nearly a basket case already!
If the Democrats had stumbled even half as badly they'd be washed up by now.
If the Harris campaign continues on the path they've set and lets the Trimp-ists continue to embarrass themselves like they've been, half of the work is done. Forward!
Trump is coming apart at the seams, but somehow still the Messiah to so many media-captured Americans. I hoping some are getting sick of his monotonous, poisonous psycho-rants.
I think you're seeing it correctly. Trying to convert Donny's hard-core followers in the short time available would be futile. But bringing the undecided voters and dissatisfied old-school repubs around is an altogether different proposition. It's a systems engineering truism that a 'pull' system works more effectively than a 'push' system. Donny only ever understood 'push', so now he's at a loss for how to respond and he & JD are alienating people whenever they speak!
Brilliant observation there Gary, the whole 'push v pull' truism. I hope by revealing that you've not given our trolls any free opposition research. Just mentioning...
As far as Democrats “stealing” Republican talking points, that’s yet another farce. Nothing was stolen. The Republicans left them on the floor. They were there for the picking up. As a lifelong Democrat, I guess I always thought those things were AMERICAN. They applied to me as well.
Democrats have had a history of allowing Republicans to claim things that any thinking person could see they do not stand for and have not as long as I have been around. Now it is about time Dems claim things they really more truly stand for like family, less government invasion, more government protections of living, breathing people. Dems always win on diversity, even though the Republicans could highlight it more. Nikki could use her real name, and Vance could bring his wife into the light culturally. None of them do that. I can see why. Still, Kamala and Walz on stage in the end showcased the bridging of the White America and Multicultural America as they gathered with their families, and with this bridge they say, "We are not going back!" to segregation and sexism. It is brilliant. Republican plans and policies are both ridiculous to fully implement and evil. The press is being circumvented by this campaign as long as it continues on its' journey to prop up Trump and ear down Democrats for clicks and likes. Biden has paid the price and Harris is having none of it. I have read that her campaign feted influencers instead of MSM at the DNC. Wise move. They are starting to go after Project 2025 in ways that make it clear to their audiences what it means for all of us. Here is an example of the Trans community using a website on Project 2025, called How Will project 2025 Affect Me on TikTok, that then allows you to scroll by topic and find out. It is created by a man using AI to help him go through The Mandate For Leadership document. https://www.tiktok.com/discover/Im-trans-how-will-project-2025-affect-me
The convention made clear that Project 2025 is something you want to learn more about if you do not know about it. I think the convention was brilliantly staged. Viva la Kamala!
Influencers, that word has a very negative meaning to me, but then I’m old. Smacks of propaganda but I’m beyond impressed with what they have done.
I’m old too. I prefer influencers (as flawed as they are) to algorithms. Algorithms are the means by which corporations design profits AGAINST WE THE PEOPLE. They’re as soulless as the corporations that use them.
Algorithms in the hands of power-hungry cretins make Goebbels methods seem primitive
Algorithms used by AIG to insure would be worthless tranches of Big Bank ‘bad bets’ begat the financial crash of 2008 !
Too big to fail is too big to exist. Ye hear that Elon…
And the current housing crisis.
I like that statement. I’ll use it somewhere. But let’s not fall into the trap that we often fall into. Anything they say we contradict. This is the norm for thousands of years. in ancient Egypt, the ruler in power often had noses chopped off the stone statues of the previous ruler so as to prevent its breath from giving it life. The present we are so preoccupied with Trump’s wall and we shouldn’t be because there is no gain to be had. There is nothing wrong with adequate security at the border. Most Americans want a secure border. Every nation on earth wants secure border. Oy. Leave it alone.
How dense can we be sometimes.
Onward: Harris/Walz 2024
Reading earlier today that several Republican administration lawyers signed a letter where they say that they are voting for Harris because they don't have to agree with her on all things, she will protect the rule of law and our democracy. It made me think that the DNC was a sort of Job interview for her and she aced it. I think we will see more Republicans coming over to her side. Not MAGAs, but Republicans. It feels like a revolution. Viva la Kamala!
Adequate security is another whole animal from the hatred spewed on any and all immigrants.
Correction: Obama’s Wall
Yes. Also these "influencers" were chosen with care. That is the wise thing to do. The MSM is flabbergasted that the Harris-Walz campaign is not following the old paradigm, but somehow not flabbergasted that all the MAGAs do is like cheat and steal! Let us include rape, sexually assault and basically everything in the TOXIC MALE playbook. Stand down MAGA, stand up Walzers. He is leading the men to role model other ways to be "manly", and we all know that we are part of this diverse, integrated family, if we stick with the Dems. Viva la Kamala.
Linda, I do like your phrase "Viva La Kamala!" I want to get a shirt with it in beautiful large letters on the front and maybe back too.
Ruth, there are Tshirts with 'la if that is close enough.
Ruth, I do too. Right now I am waiting for a couple of political t-shirts and then, we shall see. I like the way it sounds.
Carla, from another old person, I, too do not like the algorithms that "lean" to the side of the toxic white male view of the world. I'm not really fond of influencers either because even though pretty much anyone can go onto TikTok or YouTube and espouse positive or negative stuff, it is often the ones who say or do outrageous things that get the hits. I just read about a group called "Tradwomen." They want women back in the kitchen and birthing room and away from the male sphere. They have a lot of followers. It is not clear if the "followers" are interested in doing that or just watching a bunch of crazy women. In either case, it is pretty misogynistic. Maybe more Democrats need to become "influencers" if that is the way to reach young people with something healthy.
I prefer them to sensationalized ads. I’ve disliked ads for over 30 years. We’ve become so detached from our food, many don’t know and can’t conceive of eating produce that comes straight from the ground… carrots, potatoes, etc… children would enjoy planting a garden, watching it grow and eating the harvest, but the school session generally is off during peak gardening season.
Carla, several of our schools had raised bed gardens which the students would plant in the fall (the garlic) and everything else in the spring (the annuals) and would tend until school was out then take turns going in to help weed and harvest during the summer. In the fall, one of our schools always held a sweet potato feast with all kinds of dishes made of the sweet potatoes they grew in the garden with any other veggies left at the time of the harvest. Unfortunately 2 of the schools closed that had gardens and the land of one of the other school's garden was sold for a cell phone tower. The corporation was supposed to replace the gardens they destroyed, but somehow never did, surprise surprise, we are a very disadvantaged school district, so none of those corporate guys thought they should have to keep their word or contract or whatever it was. I love the idea of kids tending gardens. Some of the kids were truly excellent stewards of the gardens and learned how to teach others, children and adults how to do the work. These were elementary schools.
"Toxic white male"= AKA "Christian Nationalists!". There will likely be a Parting of the Parties. Democrats will become firmly centrist and inclusive of conservative (as in decent) Republicans. Progressives will increase their numbers from that wing of the party and emphasize climate and defiance of authoritarian, corrupt leaders and their wars. Ergo: a three-party party system.
Both corrupt.
I really appreciate Science Explainers like Richard Feynman, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Physics Girl, Dianna Cowern (one of the most unfortunate limited victims of Long Covid now).
Physics Girl (Physics Explainer) looks into Hydrogen in four episodes, starting with “I drove 1800 miles in a Hydrogen Car” (a Toyota Mirai like a friend owns).
Spoiler alert, Hydrogen advantages are far more important in larger vehicles, fleets, and heavy industrial uses where it can replace Diesel, covered in the later 3 episodes.
See all 4 starting with “The truth about driving a hydrogen car” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghIckc7nrY
She also happened to have done two episodes on the LIGO Hanford Gravitational Wave Detector and answered a question I didn’t have time to ask when I visited during the shut down/update modifcation period when visits could take place. I wouldn’t have been able to travel there again before they started another year or more active detection period.
See “Why are there giant tunnels in the desert?” ( physically 4 km long but effectively 1,200 km) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjcS1kRkc6M
JD, like every other means of communication, influencers can be used for good or for evil. They are simply people whom other people look up to and may imitate.
TFFG uses influencers who are racists, misogynists and anti-everyone not on their side. And those influencers have certainly influenced MAGATs toward lawlessness and violence.
The Kamala/Walz campaign is using influencers that model kindness, generosity, and selfless patriotism: Oprah, Michelle Obama, TIM WALZ, etc. In my mind this is the best way to begin a wave of positivity to counteract TFFG!
And the humor really helps, too! This column was a real influence on my mood today…..and would drive TFFG crazy - if he actually reads anything!
So right Marge, influencers includes all the panoplays of power and authority, anyone trying to get a message or perspective across, whatever its nature. I also suspect we're over-demonizing algorithm, which is just another word for a set of rules, often automated. But without algorithms, mathematics would not even exist.
Influencers= business model=lots of money. This is how I see the influencer thing. It always comes down to money.
Marj are you aware that Heather Cox Richardson is an influencer? Makes $5 a month from each of us. A monthly expense I find far more useful than the larger amount I’ve been sending the increasingly right-wing and sloppy Washington Post.
Do you not think HCR deserves to be paid for what she does instead of sleeping, in the very little spare time a humanities professor can scrape together? All influencers work for the money they make, and most put in long hours doing other work as well.
I don't mean to disparage HCR in any way or her tirelessness, but I believe she has a team—perhaps grad students—who help with rapid research, fact-finding, and specific information, such as footnotes. (I vaguely recall reading that somewhere.) I don't begrudge that, but I hope we can call that something other than 'influencing,' a vapid term. I love this Substack because of its precision and truth-finding, unlike influencing.
It is not "unlike influencing"--it is actually "influencing." HCR is one of the people who went to the Convention with this in mind. You and Marj and many here may hate the term--I certainly do--but it includes more than teenagers chatting on Tik-Tok about a particular kind of brightly colored recycled socks!
I go with Mary on this one. Right now skepticism and distrust of institutions, including scientific, runs as top speed. Look what's happening to national vaccination programs. Climate change, another. Popularizers of modern science and technology are above all influencers. So are Evangelical preachers and media. Oh, musicians, of course!
My granddaughter used the word "influencers" and that was the first I heard of it. She is 16.
Was there ever a time when it didn't. I remember when money didn't drive EVERYTHING
Those were the days when women weren’t allowed to work, or have their own credit, could be denied an apartment if they had children (1988) … when women were the caretakers (for free) of children and elderly parents… the social organizers…all the things that were “expected” of them
Yes the free labor of women over almost the entire history of money economies is an astonishing story whose historians somehow never get Pulitzers. We understand how much the wealth and infrastructure of this country depended on the labor of slaves, both male and female. But we leave the room or change the subject when the free labor of wives and daughters arises as an economic topic.
Carla, and I'm so glad those days are past for anyone who wants them to be past. There are "influencers" like "Tradwomen" who want to go back to those "good ol' days" so they can experience baby after baby, cleaning and cooking all day for a guy who gets to be out with other people and who not only has no clue what she does all day, but disparages everything she does as being lazy, not working hard like he does. Who would want that, but those influencers sit in perfectly clean rooms with no kids around and make sure they look happy, not frazzled as they really are. I think that influencer persona is their alter-ego.
JD, if you look at the IRS tax code, you will find it littered with rules that exempt very specific companies from taxes that every other company has to pay. In the 1980’s our advanced tax professor, for a term paper, had us draw a piece of tax code and determine the company and its owner. Mine was a small drilling company owned by T. Boone Pickens. The code specified location of headquarters, service and an upper/lower number of employees. Just to say that, in the early 1980’s, T. Boone had Congress critters bought and paid for.
Wealth writ large always moves; always has. The question is which directions?
My Mom used to say, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Same deal now. But the “Greed is good” mantra has replaced Rose Kennedy’s message to her children. From those who were given much, much is expected.
still doesn't buy happiness.
Making any kind of living involves money, JD, though i figure you mean "too much"
I agree and I'm old too. My daughter-in-law and son aren't impressed with Influencers either. But her campaign should use every tool in the box to get Kamala Harris elected.
Same here but I have young adult children who follow influencers so to keep connected with my kids I’ve learned about them, kinda of like texting. I would call my kids but now I text. Adapting with the times but I still don’t get it.
Adapting to the times is necessary if you don’t aspire to be a fossil. It’s why I sat my rear in computer classes years ago. Apparently texting will be passe soon, as voice will take the place of keyboards (so says a computer guru that I know). Now just try to keep up with the grands.
I don’t like that word either. Is too much like manipulator. Can’t we just call them The New Newspaper.
Influencers reach pockets of people that may not be watching the news (propaganda) staying tuned to mainstream media. Since MSM seems so anti American(pro Trump).. I'm thinking it is a good thing
So why does Trump dump on MSM so much?
Really? He whines about everything!
lol, i was countering the point that MSM is pro-Trump, an allegation frequently repeated in this commentator community. Besides being "the enemy of the people" Trump was asked in 2016 or so by a reporter if he planned to let up on msm, his answer was "so you won't believed".... he meant that. Flip side of course if Fox a blatant propagandist for Trump et al and filterer of current news
Its a strategy for allowing himself to blame news he doesn't like as fake news. But MSM is owned by billionaires who know keeping Trump in power will allow them the financial benefits that the wealthy have now.
My reading is limited, so I can't really address your thesis. We know that both parties are beholden to wealthy donors, and likewise, media like other large business are owned by wealthy people or other corporations. So by your thinking, the Dems might just be a populist prop to manage their base, or do billionaires possess a variety of views and often cover their bases by financing both major political parties and cut various media a fair bit of slack ie "editorial independence" I did google the topic and got a lot of interesting material, more than i can absorb right off or comment on in a knowledgeable manner. I did see, i recall from reading long ago, that American media tended to be very partisan.
One thing i strongly suspect is that the wealthy already have a pretty good idea what they might be in for under the Democrats, and it will be like skimming a little cream off the top. As things stand, top income earners already cover much government spending. Income tax comes almost entirely from the top 20%. Much of social security is already half paid or more by businesses. Those costs are in turn passed on through pricing, it behaves much like an ecosystem. If more regulation means more costs, same idea.
I agree, JD. This kind of use of AI troubles me.
I prefer “independent journalists.” “Influencers” makes me think of essential oils.
I, too, am old and find the term Influencer to be suspect. What happened to simply putting forth opinions so folks can decide what they think on their own. The term Influencer is too close to propagandist.
“My name is Kamala Harris and I am here for the people” is our mantra and this quote speaks actual truth, not msm platitudes.
As Trump tries to run away from his alliance with P2025/Heritage, this excellent investigative reporting directly ties Florida GOP and indirectly other GOP-controlled state legislatures.
“From bathrooms to banking, records show the architects of Project 2025 worked closely with Ron DeSantis and Florida Republican leaders to turn some far-right ideas into new state laws.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/jasongarcia/p/the-think-tank-behind-project-2025?r=fqsxl&utm_medium=ios
Florida and Texas are examples of what Project 2025 will try to do to this country. They are mini-fascist states under one Party control, where the voices of the people are squelched.
Cheryl, I saw an article this week about how Texas has made life harder for trans people vis a vis their driver licenses. Appalling.
Also in Florida:
“Transgender people can no longer obtain a driver’s license that reflects their gender identity under a new policy that treats “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver license” as fraud punishable by civil and criminal penalties plus cancellation, suspension, or revocation of the license.”
https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/01/30/new-state-policy-denies-gender-affirming-driver-licenses-to-transgender-people/
Missed this, but not surprised. If you are trans, you don't exist.
Kathy, thanks for sharing this link! I’d missed how Project 2025 has already been used in Florida.
Yes,to add to Jason Garcia’s excellent reporting:
✔️ DeSantis twice vetoed 💲 money for reversible contraception, as requested by the Florida Catholic Conference.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/529498-veto-list-gov-ron-desantis-vetoes-long-acting-birth-control-funding-again/
✔️In addition to school vouchers going to private, religious schools(with NO requirement for teacher cert/accredidation), vouchers may be used for theme park tickets, SUPs, and wide-screen tv’s
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/632365-expanded-education-voucher-pays-for-theme-park-tickets-big-screen-tvs-paddleboards-and-more/
✔️The anti LGBQT legislation is being championed by legislators who believe, as spoken on the Fl House floor, “Our Terrorist Enemies Hate Homosexuals More Than We Do”
https://x.com/CarlosGSmith/status/1653239584640172033
Please keep sharing !!! 📣
Thanks💙
Kathy, yes and dear little Ron DeSantis, a near descendant of immigrants wants a dictator like they had in Italy so long ago, or something like that but as long as he has power in the running of it. Just like so many Republicans, totally self-absorbed, but wanting control over others' lives.
Sharing this with my university list-serv. Thank you very much!
Thank you, Mary !
Kathy, thanks for posting this! I wish all the Undecideds could/would read this in order to understand the implications of voting Red. Since the MSM is pro-trump, are there places the Undecideds go for their news?
Linda, thanks for the link! The more all of us learn about Project 2025, the better! I’d love to see Harris, when asked about specifics in her campaign, to repeat what she’s already said and then pivot to Agenda 47’s generalizations with the accompanying Project 2025’s specifics.
Thanks Mary. And, make no mistake, Trump's words may now be that he does not support P2025, or the abortion bans inherent throughout it, but he is not going to be the one implementing most of this, just signing documents, and saying stupid things to the public. Others, who are very committed to this anti-women, anti-people agenda are going to be carrying it out. It would be hard to extricate just those parts, because they are in every branch of government, including a Department of Life. Apparently that can replace education and some other departments on the chopping block. Viva la Democrats, Viva la Kamala!
Linda, WTH, the Department of Life??? Everything about the current R party and their manifesto Project 2025 is all about death which is why I call them the party of death and himself death star. They are a monstrous festering cancer that needs to be removed.
Linda, it really is scary that people don't understand the level of incapacity Trump is dealing with right now. He did next to nothing when he was in office 4 years ago and his staff knew it, but somehow the word didn't get out until Trump had left office, then we were told that was just a myth; Trump was a hard worker! That was a big lie and we know for sure Trump will not be doing any of the work should he be re-elected, but the Steves, Roger, and the rest of Trumplandia will be waiting to fill in the blanks and those blanks will be many. What will they fill those blanks with, lots of money for themselves power to hurt anyone or any group they don't like or rather anyone who is not rich, white, maybe straight, and male and that is most of us. Project 2025 will be their weapon and they will have the court system on board since there are sufficient judges and justices at every level to give them whatever they want. They have done a pretty good job so far and there is no reason to suspect things will be less in their favor then. Disgusting!
Linda: absolutely!!! How can we reach the Undecideds to let them know that electing TFFG means rule by these people?!
You are so right that though Trump steals the limelight there is a potent organized movement behind things like Project 2025, of course the anti-abortion movement, and so on, a combination of "more religion" and ... regulation is is dubious item, since it all depends...
Linda, I sense Miller’s hateful rhetoric all over the immigration section of Project 2025.
What an insightful post, Linda! Your comment that 'together Harris and Walz represent the coming together, or bridge, of White America and Multicultural America' is powerful. Images of Harris and Walz will now resonate with me more deeply and meaningfully. Symbols are so powerful and important! I also love your comment that "it is about time Dems claim things they really more truly stand for like family, less government invasion, more government protections of living, breathing people." Your ideas--the coming together, bridge, and list--need to be amplified!
Thank you Imogene!
Democrats struggled with jingoistic Republicans from the battles with Joe McCarthy starting in the early 50s through the latter few years of the Vietnam war nearly 25 years later. The first Dems to fight against these forces were the young and the liberal, but over time the fight became a Democratic fight in all cases. The pre-MAGA, neo-confederate GOP of the day waved flags, called themselves patriots, and called those opposing them pinkos or commies.
Police forces were rightwing, generally, chiefly the Chicago police force of 1968, and so cops generally became identified with the repressive right. The GOP waved the flag over such repressive ideas that I think Dems let it go as somehow tainted.
But that was then. The current idea that the military owns the flag is the idea of political rightwingers. I was in the military. I don’t feel that way, and the only military that I met who feel that way were the dimwitted.
It is time to place our patriotic symbols back in the hands of the entire citizenry, and always call out their use for a purely partisan political issue.
I think that just happened with Kamala and the DNC. Republicans are being wimps the Dems have stolen their "talking points".
The American flag belongs to those ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ who served in the military to defend our country. Bone Spur Donald, whose ‘Vietnam’ was to avoid a social disease, does not qualify.
Patriotism is for those who support the Constitution. Doo Doo Donald sought to trash the Constitution and the Capitol Building.
I am proud of my immigrant background. Did Trump marry two immigrants, because no ‘real American’ would?
It was indeed a well thought out, well staged convention. Why would anyone vote Republican…
I just hope the era of Democratic passivity is over.
Outstanding summation Linda. Thanks.
Republicans think they have trademarked anything American, but it's all existing art,
It's interesting how virtually every musician has condemned DonOLD for playing their songs, while Democrats are free to play any artist they want except perhaps Kid Rock, Greenwood and a handful of others.
I don't know this for a fact, Gary, but I got the impression that Democrats did not co-opt but sought permission from the artists to play their songs.
Well, for sure Neil Young gave his permission for Harris to use Rockin the Free World. Great song, great sentiments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvxxdZpMFHg
That's my impression as well Lynell. It's just the right thing to do in my opinion.
Gary, and it would not have been too difficult to get permission if the artists wanted their songs played for a candidate. It is great exposure. However, a lot of artists wouldn't want their music played for a would-be dictator who hates everyone or at least despises them. Having hate speech tied to one's works would not be a good association for most people.
The Dems explicitly get permission from the artists.
Well I can pretty much say with some assuredness that Dave Grohl and company would NOT have given Trump permission to use any of their music.
Thanks, Emily. I did not know that for sure, so did not want to assume that they did indeed get permission from the artists.
I read that Kamala got Beyoncé's permission to use Freedom as her theme music. That is as good an endorsement as any. Viva la Kamala!
Ted Nugent has a song called Jailbait. I wonder why its being ignored by the Trump Campaign. It literally speaks to the character
That's a terrible thing to say Dave, especially because it is true!
Thanks for bring him up Dave. I couldn't pull that name out of my addled brain. Ted hosted many hunting expeditions on his land in Michigan. Although, my brother-in-law is a Democrat he jumped at the chance to go. He was impressed with what a cordial host Ted was. It just goes to show you, how CFDT has poisoned the political waters with his hate, anger, resentment, revenge and misinformation.
I knew Nugent personally for about ten years way back in the day. He has personable capabilities when it suits him. Its an act. In actuality, his ego and “it’s all about me” rivals Trump.
Why aren’t they suing the bastards…
Some of them threaten to sue and maybe some actually sue CFDT, but he has mastered the ability to delay court cases for years.
Maybe if he actually stopped scamming money. Having the bucks to sue/delay/buy judges really makes a mockery of our justice system. How I would love to see him broke.
JD, Broke and homeless. Then I would believe in Karma.
There are well-defined regulations about using music in campaigns, and clear licensing requirements. The Trump campaign is just ignoring them and (in classic Trump fashion) playing what they want and seeing what they can get away with. Yes, the artists can kick up a fuss (as can ASCAP and BMI), but by the time the cease and desist orders are out, the rallies are past.
Here’s an excellent explainer: https://www.nbcwashington.com/decision-2024/donald-trump-kamala-harris-campaign-music/3699719/?amp=1
Yes, but the money still comes in later and can be used however the artists wish. (I know first hand from my husband's experience with a major film producer.) And that donation can be much more effective for a(n opposing) campaign than hearing a song at a rally.
The felon 'illegally' used a Foo Fighter song at one of his rallies and Dave Grohl is contesting (?) and said he'd donate the proceeds to Kamala.
They got permission from Beyonce to play Freedom and permission from Neil Young to play Rockin' in the Free World. Don't know about others, but I would imagine they got permission from them as well.
"Art is what we call it when what we do might connect us." —Seth Godin.
Translation: Real artists are always thinking "united we stand and divided we fall" whereas DonOLD (great meme, Gary) and his minions are always thinking "divide and conquer."
Love Seth Godin! He is my marketing guru!
Ted nugent
During a Sunday panel discussion on Fox News, Howard Kurtz accused Democrats of "political theft" over the use of American flags at their convention.
The most pathetic thing of all is one just can't make this stuff up! It's not only weird, it is bizarre beyond comprehension. Those people who have always supported and continue to support trump are the most puzzling and in my mind are literally psychologically messed up. Many loose screws in those heads. It is incomprehensible that most of them think trump is an appropriate choice as president of the U.S. when he is dangerously unqualified to hold any job. He would have long ago been instantly fired from all companies/educational institutions, other political positions.
May all the hard work, record-breaking fundraising, positive messaging and enthusiasm catapult this spectacularly qualified, talented, and compassionate team to a landslide victory in November!! And, most importantly the support for them from all of us after the election must remain on high octane -although not all the time and not by everyone at once! We don't need to live daily in the political weeds (that's why we elect good people and read Heather!) but I'm very much looking forward to what Harris/Walz and an inclusive administration of theirs can accomplish. Even their missteps won't be teeth gnashing or stomach grinding episodes :)
Ever onward Harris/Walz!!
Janet W. -I’m with you wondering about the people who support and vote for DJT. Whenever I drive by a house with the Trump/Vance sign I wonder what these folks are all about. It’s one thing to support him-it’s another thing to advertise that support in our communities. I usually come away thinking those are some mean, nasty and “weird” people.
Gina, I am staring in horror at the men and women that I worked with for years and their unfailing support for fpotus, and their mental gymnastics at looking past the criminal conduct (all arguments involve "judicial persecution") and I have no freaking clue how they rationalize the classified documents stored in a bathroom at his golf club. Their lack of support for a prosecutor and state Attorney General seems rooted in her administration changing the felony status of theft monetary threshold to $900+; no mention of her work in prosecuting and enhancing child abuse sentences in her prosecutorial and administrative roles.
These people are cops, or married to cops, and I cannot for the life of me imagine how they do the mental gymnastics required to support that guy.
Yes, I agree. I have a neighbor who is a VietNam vet, has a son who is active military and has several granddaughters and he is Flying a yuge Trump flag in tandem with an Air Force one. It seems almost unreal. How these folks who are female, black, LGTBQ, Hispanic, military, teachers... how these people can support tfg is beyond belief.
My neighbor is a respected retired school teacher. She has been wearing a maga hat forever on her daily walks. I noticed she put his bumper sticker on her car. It seems she is working overtime to show people how stupid she is.
I want a 'Harris Obviously' yard sign! Oh btw, she doesn't speak to me anymore. We've been neighbors for 30 years.
I have a family of GOP voters. Too much FOX and far right radio people ranting. And they are unhappy about how their choices turned out.
You're exactly right Joyce. I have a family of Republican voters too. I told my Mother yesterday we live in alternate realities when she asked me to try and find one thing good about DJT. We were discussing the Pastor's sermon that day about "Loving your enemies". The only thing I could think of was that he was tall. Lol She said that she'd failed me bc I have so much anger and contempt for the man. Hard to love a predator. I gave up. I'll be so glad when he's gone. We mostly just avoid the topic.
Just a bit west of Boston, things get a little “gamey” so to speak. Some of the signage trumpsters
put on their front lawns is disgusting.
My youngest little grands (their parents are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from S.Sudan) have asked me what some of the words (which I won’t repeat here) on some lawn signs/flags mean. I told them those are not words but just identify to people driving by that the people in that house are not well. Obviously with the older kids there is a more age-appropriate discussion.
Their parents just don’t understand why some Americans are so nasty and mean (and broadcast it) when the country offers so much. And these are folks who deal with being Black in America and survived a genocide yet work multiple jobs and are grateful for everything they have.
Thank you Janet W:
"Those people who have always supported and continue to support trump are the most puzzling and in my mind are literally psychologically messed up. Many loose screws in those heads."
Trump: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for me." (Kudos to Maureen Dowd.) And Nicholas Kristof yesterday calling out the fraud of Republicans calling themselves the "party of the American family,"(!) He backs it up with facts about domestic violence caused by their idiotic approach to child care (revoking the child care tax credit) and the resultant poverty of so many children in this country.
Harris & Walz!
GO PROSECUTOR KAMALA! GO COACH TIM!
Republicans made patriotism look “like the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Or as Johnson elaborated, “can be used to distract people from the real motives of a scoundrel.” How prescient was he…. And it never was about love of country anyway, just another power play to deceive.
Wow the Repubbies really do seem to think they own patriotism. What fools they are; what a caricature they have made of a love for one's own country.
TL Mills,
The "Repubbies" live in their own little "brainwashed" world. I hope they wake up. The consequences of their mistaken choices will ruin their families and hope for the future great possibilities for this nation.
Can one imagine how gleefully our enemies are watching and hoping for the destruction of this great nation?
The stability of this great nation is at risk. Our vote is our weapon. We must use it wisely. We each have one chance....one choice.....one vote!!!!
Derek, the hubris that the Kurtz’s of the Republican machinery has is breathtaking. Imagine that they believe that approx half the country is ineligible to the notions of Patriotism and The Flag
Their inability to recognize the divisions they foment is at the root cause of our current societal rancor
When Patriotism and Allegiance to the Constitution is put into definition, its easy to see who fails the test
Whose Howie Kurtz anyway?
Some schmuck?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kurtz
That is so completely insane! It's disgusting that the right has been so successful in coopting our American symbols! It's also partly our fault for letting them!
I confess that I turned my flag upside down when Trump was President, but turned it right-side up again at January 6, because the upside down flag became a symbol of the insurgency!
I thought long and hard about flying the National Colors upside down, and eventually decided against it. I have flown them daily since 9/11/01, and since about 2011 have flown an adjacent Pride flag or a COPS flag (black field with a single wide blue stripe laterally; I used to have a "thin blue line" flag, but took it down after Ferguson, MO.) I added a Ukrainian flag in 2022.
I have a question for you Ally. In our little town of about 2,000 people there is ONE Trump sign. The house has a 4' x 8' sign opposing Kamala and they attached two flags to the sign. One is a US flag and the other is a Trump/Vance flag. The Trump/Vance flag is about 5 feet higher than the US Flag. I thought that the US flag always had to be flown at or above every other flag. True or False?
You've got to be kidding.
I will always fly my American Flag as I am proud to be an American and proud of My Country USA. The republicans cannot highjack OUR Flag. This is ridiculous!!!
😆😂🤣🙄
I burst out laughing when I read your telling of Kurtz’s comment. Good thing I wasn’t sipping coffee!
Given the constant falsehoods streaming from the right wing media, after years of brainwashing and the fact that the Faux news station did not cover the three Republicans speaking at the DNC, this election which should have Kamala winning in an absolute landslide will still be close.
We have a lot of outreach to do.
🤮
When you have nothing to say, you sound stupid when you do.
Yes, it’s been pointed out many times that the entire function of the Republican Party — entirely — is to transfer wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra-wealthy. That’s it. All the rest — militarism, racist dog whistles, balanced budget, small government, national security, immigration, crime, anti-abortion, family values rhetoric — is a ruse to get the “low information” voters to go along.
Hoyt, I agree with you, and I can’t understand why some people can’t see the pattern: everything the Rs oppose would benefit the people and everything they support benefits the corporate/donor oligarchs.
I believe a lot of folks rely on their oversized gut instinct because their small brains are not capable of rational thinking. This programming of the illiterate has been promoted for years as education has became a privilege to some and not a mandatory part of everyone's life.
Excellent summation. Seems so obvious.
Don't you mean 'performance art' JL ? They've blown wind far and wide in their culture wars about being 'all the things' American and good - list them on several pages to burn at some point. They've been mostly unchallenged so far until recently, and frankly I'm guilty of not cutting loose on them for their ridiculous self centeredness and self righteousness. The stuff just seemed so senseless to invest any effort in.
The way I see it, D4N and JL, is for the past several years many of us acted like deer caught in the headlights as Republicans took all the glory for being good patriots. I think Joe did the best he could to counter this false premise. But my opinion is it was Harris who first took her "hat pin" and burst that bubble wide open that now allows all of us to reject the idea that only Republicans hold the mantle of patriotism and goodness.
Just by his act of putting the country above his personal desire or ambition, Joe Biden has shown more patriotism than all of the Republican Presidents since Nixon, added together and multiplied by any factor one cares to name.
As much as I love and admire Kamala Harris and am cheering madly for her to be our first female President, she is harvesting (and adding to it, of course) the incredible hope and goodwill generated by the solid that Biden has done for the Democratic Party and for the country.
TL Mills,
President Joe Biden is a gift to us and to the free world. He has served this country with his life, with devotion to its greatest ideals, demonstrating love of family, love of our country.......HE CARES FOR ALL OF US!!!
I admire Kamala as well. I also believe she is smart enough and wise enough to prioritize those things that are best for our country not to leave anyone behind, to give everyone a voice in our governance, and for the advancement of a free world!
President Joe Biden deserves our eternal praise for so much good he has done and continues to do....for the friendships he has built with leaders of other countries....for the respect he has earned by being a leader of character.
VOTE!!!
Agree, TL, 1000%!
Hi Lynell. More importantly, and I mean to take nothing away from Harris - more folks in general are seeing through the BS. That's my hope anyway. We always - most all of us anyway, always held those 'mantles' as I see it. Joe did fabulous... he is the uncontested MVP of my lifetime. His action to pass on the baton / torch was the touch of a master. I so wish I could have served him some way. I have to say I also have high hopes for Harris. I researched her exhaustively and fully understood the initial propositions to justify her elevation to significance. Great to chat with you, but I'm fading fast. I should be long asleep.
to D4N: We readers of LFAA all seem to have similar thoughts. I posted my comment before I had read yours. Sorry about that....
Don't give it a second thought TL. We do seem to do that; But after all, we are all in the same echo chamber are we not. I think it's a good thing to be cognizant of that dynamic. In any event, I thoroughly enjoy reading your 'takeaways' on all matters. Bravo TL
Peter Drucker's famous quote is, "Culture eats strategy for lunch." And it's true. "We're the good guys and they're the bad guys" is much easier to understand than how to achieve justice for all. But chaos is inevitably exhausting, which is why strategy eats culture for supper.
James-great Drucker quote. Our “culture wars” dominate our politics more than policy.
I agree 1000% about Joe, D4N. Yet it seemed to me that many others did not appreciate the fabulous job he has done and is still doing.
Keep resting; we've got a ways to go til November 5!
I have thought for years that Democrats should re-claim the imagery of the flag, which was so co-opted by the GOP that when I saw a flag flying in front of someone's house, I assumed they were Republican - because their patriotism had changed into full on xenophobia. I love seeing the Democrats sweep it up and wave it happily, as opposed to beating up police officers with flag poles!
We fly the American flag with the progressive pride flag to let friends and neighbors know our claiming of patriotism and inclusion.
OOOH! What a good idea! I fly a Peace sign in rainbow colors. Maybe I will add an American flag!
I've posted a number of times about my display of the National Colors at my home and her pairing with (depending on the month) a COPS flag (flown in May; a black field with a blue center lateral stripe; NOT a "thin blue line" flag that you see everywhere which has come to denote "police can do no wrong"), a Pride flag (flown from June to September) and a Ukrainian flag (flown until May). These flags are flown on my garage (faces the street) with the National Colors on the left (as seen from the street) 24/7/365 properly illuminated at night and the other flags flown on the right, illuminated by a blue light (which both represents autism awareness and fallen law enforcement officers--I have a friend who was murdered in the line of duty, and I honor him with that display.
Great idea
Just checking, is this the American Pride Flag?🏳️🌈
When we moved to Las Cruces, NM, we immediately put up a flag pole and fly both the American flag and the New Mexico flag. As does our Democratic neighbor across the street. I have up my Harris sign - and my Harris/Walz sign will soon arrive. My Gabe Vasquez sign is full center. We can't back off. We won't go back!
We’ve been flying the flag for years, now proudly displayed along with our lonely Biden/Walz sign.Please join us !!
🇺🇸🪧
A homeowner in a neighboring community had a "F*** Biden" flag, a Trump flag, and a U.S. Marine Corps flag on his lawn. We've noticed that only the Marine Corps flag is still there. Maybe he's finally realized that Trump disparages the military.
There just might be hope for him!
"....only the Marine Corps flag is still there...." Maybe the bombs bursting in air lately changed his mind?
Don’t assume Laurie, I’m a vet and have been flying my flag for over 50 years, I was a John McCain republican, there is nothing that the repugnantkins espouse today that I in any way agree with, I fly my flag as a patriotic act, and will vote for Kamala/Tim the first chance I get. Those bastards don’t exclusively own the flag, all US citizens do. It’s high time the democrats wrapped themselves in it, they own it as much as anyone else. The flag has spoken to people ever since Betsy Ross first sewed it, I was thrilled to see it given the prominence it had at the DNC. If that bothers the repugnantkins, all the better, anything that bothers them I’m in favor of.
Indeed!!
The only Republican value, which they can keep, is white nationalism!
Louis-Although it’s often understated I think white nationalism is the tie that binds Trump supporters. Their support is stated and rationalized as policy but the fear of losing privilege and the idea of “DEI” is what motivates too many even if they won’t admit it.
“Opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one and republicans asses are just more prominent and always stink” They just thought they stole our patriotism, they are about to have a rude and crude awakening in 71 days. I plan to fly my flag until they cry "uncle"
And I certainly think Harris (as a law enforcer and then law maker) can claim more rights to the "rule of law" than Trump as a law breaker...
You would think. My MAGAt cop friends (retired, like me) think otherwise. Boy, do they contort around his law breaking, and peddle Harris as soft on crime.
Carla Childresss - Bravo!
When you throw Democracy away, confuse patriotism with treason, mix the Constitution with greed, bind faith to power, and excommunicate everyone who loves America from those who love the cult leader, these are not things you value. The fire sale of true American values to the arsonist who would burn it all down to regain power, when it is saved from the trash heap by real Americans is theirs to rescue and defend, those who abandoned it have lost. You break it, you lose it. Screw the whining babies who want praise for selling out our values have no place in government. I hope Kemp endorses Kamala.
I hope Kemp will endorse her as well. Here is a quote by Hannah Arendt, a fierce advocate for the constitution and the rule of law https://images.app.goo.gl/JPzM5B7Ce9UQVtQA8
Just like Adam Kinzinger said. Democrats are just as patriotic as republicans.
Peggy Noonan's complaint, as reported by Professor Richardson, is ridiculous, of course, but there's a grain of truth in it. Republicans since Reagan have "weaponized" patriotism, among other things, stealing it from Democrats. George Lakoff has been saying for years that Democrats have to change their messaging, and here they finally are doing it, to the dismay of Republicans. We've been helped as the extremely unpatriotic, nontraditional aims of Republicans' Project 2025 have been revealed. It's no wonder Trump has belatedly tried to distance himself from its authoritarian provisions.
And you were right.
At least we didn’t steal that wizened relic of the Reagan era, Peggy Noonan.
Ditto, Carla. Claim of theft makes no sense. Meanwhile, love that the efforts of corruption continuing in the Trump camp of thieves with the arrest of Durov in advance of the "big announcement" fills me with hope that the jig is finally up. Stay tuned, indeed. The whole world is watching you, Donald. And a substantial number of us don't like, or in any way trust, what you're saying and what we're seeing.
Carla, I, too considered faith, family, and this nation what I hold dear. Republicans have not valued those things for decades, probably not since the beginning of the 20th century. Remember, the only family they considered important or of value at all were their own families, and then, not so much. Look at the people they have elected to office, how many of them had divorced (not that divorce is a problem, except that they say divorce is wrong and they only got one because . . .). Then, there are the children of many of the leadership, not always treated so well, particularly if they didn't toe the line in behavior and "lifestyle." As for faith, who knows what faith Republicans have. Many claim christianity, but, I can't find anything Christian in their practice or non-practice of christianity. Our nation is just a place for so many of the Republican leadership to live and take advantage of the poor folks who don't know what is being done to them while they blame Democrats and anyone else for their troubles, just as those Republican leaders wish. Harris and Walz see life quite differently and do actually value family, love each other and have a faith that shows in the way they treat people. They do love this nation not for what they can get from it, but for what we can do together to make life better for everyone. Quite a contrast, right!
“Left them on the floor” ,perfect!
That's just Peggy Noonan's desperate attempt to find something, anything, to write about the DNC that wasn't positive. She sees the writing ( or should I say WRITING) on the Truth Social Wall and she is not blind to the Trump Clown Show. She knows his campaign is tanking, but she can't bring herself to say anything good about Trump, so she gives faint praise to Harris and the DNC, but then takes it all back by saying the Dems stole Republican 'themes.' As though faith and patriotism were the domain of Republicans. Peggy was moved by the DNC, but of course she had to tone her enthusiasm down because, you know, she's been a Republican standard bearer at least as long, if not longer, than George Will. She's as appalled by the prospect of a Trump election as we are, but she still isn’t willing to hang up her pen, so she's trying some both sideism gimmicks to keep going.
This is such an epic list of his weirdness and evidence he’s falling apart. It’s truly amazing to watch. Thanks for encapsulating it so well.
Good night. In every sense. Sleep well all!
Cannot become complacent. Gambling sites show renewed interest in Trump. Beware of an October surprise. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
I am a texting fool on FT 6 BYOB, TextAtcade, textbank, to ostensible (unregistered) Democrats, and whereas we used to get a lot of negative reactions, we get virtually none.
We have a window of opportunity to register new Democrats. Early voting starts Sept 26 in Pa, registration ends October 7 in Florida. We need volunteers, especially in phone banking.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Guarantee there will be an October surprise. Roger Stone has been busy. Do not become complacent, repeat ad nauseam
Will Roger Stone age out! Please!
so many old coots need to age out. But only the MAGAmorons.
ThankYou Daniel. Thanks to you I've started writing with fieldteam6. They make it very easy.(Turnout is backlogged with requests for postcards.)
I am going to share your texting info with my local democratic committee.
I must be old because I don't understand the meaning of at least half of your message.
They will still prop him up (like the Inca priests did their dead emperors) until they can kick his crazy arse to the curb and install their choice. The SC is on board with whatever…
Mary Barber and HCR, it is an succinct sumation. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive is the unspoken theme of the Trump Republican Party. The commercial news industry is more than codependent in the making of his malignant influence. It is inspiring to see the rise of natural claiming of higher ground by the uninfected and clear framing of corrective action.
Heather, reading tonight’s letter was just pure joy. I found myself smiling and laughing all of the way through it. I imagine that you had a good time writing it because I could swear you got snarky at times. :)
I just had "Too Much Fun" reading the Good Doctor's words tonight. They were a welcome change, like the convention, from the depressing drone of deviceviness oozing continually from the MAGA camp. My soul is dancing, across party lines, to the music of the DNC Convention. So many of the speakers provided 'Music to my ears" in so many ways. It's called Optimism, and I love it!
One party is selling pragmatic optimism, the other party is selling cynical pessimism, and the polls are still close. It defies logic, but the cognitive dissonance of MAGA supporters is becoming more precarious as it becomes more obvious as it becomes more elaborate.
We have a serious person with cults here in America. The cult of Trump, but also "religious" cults like the Moonies (still active) and many televangelists who claim to talk with God. We need to find ways to deprogram them. Steve Hassan was once a Moonie, and has studied cults for years. He has some helpful suggestions.
I agree. America has a serious cult problem.
I read the “Steve Hassan” Wikipedia article. To use a J. D. Salinger metaphor, it looks to me like he’s a downstream “catcher in the rye” (keep children from running toward and potentially falling off the cliff) kind of person. I’m an upstream “but also find out how they got into the field of rye in the first place” kind of person.
WRT a criticism sited in the Wikipedia article, if Hassan’s primary purpose is to convince cult members to abandon their faith, and if that purpose is unstated, then the criticism is valid. Conversely, convincing cult members to have faith in the moral “treat others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot” principle is an unassailably valid primary purpose. Just be explicit.
It is by learning that moral principle that one is cured from the “cult” disease. And it is by learning that same moral principle that children acquire immunity.
In the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan complained that Democrats “stole traditional Republican themes (faith, patriotism) and claimed them as their own”—as if somehow Democrats shouldn’t be able to claim either faith or patriotism—and worried that Trump “is famously off his game.”
Professor Richardson experienced the DNC first hand for four days and was able to interview delegates, speakers and candidates. She is doing a wonderful job of relaying her experiences mixed with history.
I always disliked Peggy Noonan. She actively promotes Reagan’s lies. I can just hear Stuart Stevens saying it was all a lie.
Noonan was a fool for Nixon and continues to be one for the sorry crew that has stolen the "Grand Old Party" (not that it ever truly WAS "grand").
Promoted, not promoted
She still blathers the crap she wrote for him, just now it’s for the B cast.
Sorry Peggy, chump’s game was always deception and he is still devoted to it, albeit on auto. Just blathering all he knows. Not an original idea. As he said, I can win if I just call her a communist. A worm would have starved to death in his brain.
JD, did you happen to see the interview with Roger Stone shortly after the 2016 election? Stone was very honest about CFDT's strategy of attack, attack, attack and deny, deny, deny. It doesn't seem to have changed except that CFDTs getting nastier and trying to generate maximum fear with his posts.
I missed that but it was evident from the start. Thought such crap would only appeal to the brain dead. Underestimated how many there were thanks to the years of Fox killing brain cells all over the land.
He was such a self-incriminating braggart about his dirty tricks in the documentary "Get Me Roger Stone"
See https://www.netflix.com/title/80114666
Agree, Gary. I am so happy that she is continuing the story for us.
Morning, Lynell. I so agree; I am loving the mixture of reporting and historical context.
Morning, Ally! So, next up - among other things to keep us going til November 5! - is Joyce Vance's coverage of Jack Smith's appeal to the 11th Circuit Court regarding Cannon's dismissal of the "documents" case. I can't shake my head enough over this travesty of justice.
And BTW, CBS missed their chance both yesterday and today when they interviewed National Security guy McMaster and did not ask him whether he supports McConvict having stolen all those boxes of national security documents and storing them at his private residence in Florida.
Night Night, Peggy
Morning, Marlene! The professor's Letter provides the icing on the cake that was the convention itself!
;)
So true, Marlene!
I was also struck by HCRs observation:
“A number of prominent Republicans who will be voting for Harris spoke there, providing a permission structure for other Republicans to shift their support to Harris and Walz. But that message did not make it through to viewers of the Fox News Channel. Media Matters, which monitors right-wing media, reported that the Fox News Channel did not air any of the Republicans’ DNC speeches.”
We know our assignment…If Fox is purposely not covering the Republican support for Harris/Walz, we need to shout it out! 🇺🇸💙🗳️❤️🗳️🇺🇸
I've been wondering whether there's a precedent for people in the opposing party making speeches at national political conventions. Has this happened before? Anyone know?
Thank you Professor Richardson.
This is such a critical perspective:
"They join conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig, who endorsed Harris on Wednesday and wrote: “In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”"
We can disagree on many things in a competition of ideas (which is what politics should be). Regardless of the path forward, we must agree upon a foundation of justice, democracy, and equality. We may have different perspectives on how to form a "more perfect union", however discarding the rule of law and shredding the Constitution are not politics, they represent an assault upon the very system we are struggling to improve for all.
George, it remains astonishing to me that the Republicans have become a cult of autocracy, anarchy, and chaos. "Anti-establishment" my ass -- as has been pointed out they support an anti-democratic arsonist candidate that willingly will burn it all down to win, leaving rubble and ash, the American carnage he spoke of in his inaugural speech.
Harris/Walz wants to raise us up on a rising tide of hope. They are the rudder and oarsman of democracy, adjusting course as needed to land on that distant shore this country has been heading for since its founding. Our sturdy ship confounds the cult, for the more who cling to it, including many brave Republicans such as Judge Luttig and others, the more buoyant it becomes. They see that, although this isn't the voyage they intended to take -- it's a lifesaving mission, and they can work out directional differences with the crew once the safety of all is assured.
Eloquent and powerful Doug. Thank you.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍👍💥
Well said; I love your analogy there.
And the puppet masters behind it all are Leonard Leo, the Koch family and other libertarians who have created the Heritage Foundation to disseminate and establish their own anti democratic vision of our nation. Trump, too, the master of the art of the manipulation of his base, is being played by these sinister, greedy, narrow-minded people. I can’t stop being appalled at what is at stake in this election.
So very true Betty. Barre Seid, Harlan Crow, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and many more working to subvert the justice system and eviscerate any thought of democracy, justice, and equality in the United States.
If they can afford to drop a billion dollars into The Federalist Society, it’s a clear indication that the capital gains and estate tax rates are far too low.
Thank you, George, for expanding my statement and filling in some ‘gaps’. Of course, the Federalist Society is also a major ‘player’ in the scheme to implement the conservative and libertarian policies of the far right. And DJ Vance, who could, in a few months, be the person a heartbeat away from the presidency, is obviously a puppet of Peter Thiel. This is all stranger than fiction but more sinister because it is a real threat and a very real danger.
So 100% right.
An assault spearheaded by the guardians of the Law, the Justices who go to make up the supposedly "conservative" majority shoehorned into the Supreme Court.
These jurists have undermined the democratic foundations of America's Republic. Now they are waiting for TrumpMAGA to set off the explosives in the basement. An update of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot against King James I of England and Parliament...
Indeed Peter. And as this set of “Justices” include those who place luxurious gifts, extremism, and clear bias ahead of their duty to Constitution and Country -I find it best to place “Justice” in double-quotes until they are removed or the court is expanded making their bent opinions as meaningless as their commitment to ethics.
I have used (in)Justice Thomas/Alito. I also use both SCROTUS and $COTUS...
Those are traitorous actions.
Yes. And there’s a list available for a future AG that will be more concerned with their responsibility to justice than looking “too political”.
https://electiondeniers.org/congressional#congressional-members-section
Every last one of them needs to be expelled from congress.
At very least.
Thank you George. You're right. We can disagree on many things, and politics is a competition of ideas. But there is one thing we must all agree on, and that is adhering to the moral "treat others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot" principle. The minute we stop doing that is the minute we stop engaging in political practice and start committing political malpractice.
This is something I don't know that even Michael Luttig understands, even now. The rule of law is a "rule," and not a "principle." When the choice is between breaking a rule and violating the moral principle, break the rule, but be prepared to explain why.
Rules are made to be broken, and the moral principle is made to be adhered to in literally every context. To be more specific, whenever following a rule is not a way of adhering to the moral principle in a rule-specific context, it becomes an excuse for violating the principle.
Thank you James -and yes indeed, an excellent reminder about rules. I suppose I consider “the rule of law” to be at the intersection of law, morality, and ethics -as opposed to just a rule or a law. It becomes more complicated when people attempt to interpret a law that is written in an ambiguous manner.
There are two ways to look at it. One way is to say there is one “moral” principle, every rule explains how to adhere to the principle in a specific context, and there is a hierarchy of contexts and context-specific rules. The other way is to say there is a hierarchy of principles, and every principle is specific to a context, except for the one context-independent “moral” principle. Either way, it’s just a matter of agreeing on terminology. But you’re right in implying that two adversaries interpreting a law written in an ambiguous manner can become an incredibly difficult dilemma assuming both parties are adhering to the moral principle, but it’s also a positive-sum game because both parties end up winning in the long run. Otherwise, it’s a negative-sum game because even the short-term winner ends up losing in the long run. And that is a lesson DonOLD tRump has—till now—avoided learning. The bigger they get, the harder they fall.
Yes, thank you for making this essential distinction.
For sìmilar reasons, I have objected to the common use at the highest level possible -- and by Dr. Cox Richardson -- of the term "the rules-based international order"; for rules are not the basis but the means, and it is dangerous, it is pernicious to confuse the two, since whatever is based on rules must be subject to all the ills of mortality.
And now the very basis -- upholding and preserving peace with justice -- is under direct attack everywhere, wars rage and a new infestation of Nazi-formatted criminals is proliferating in what will always have seemed the unlikeliest of places, in those countries, among those peoples that suffered most and fought the hardest to uproot Nazism and Fascism.
How many people want to attempt to understand this concept? Not many, or so it seems. And why not? Not because it complicated. But thanks for letting me know I’m not alone.
In a rules-based international order, the powerful write the rules. They’ll have my support if I believe they’re serving an inclusive interest that includes me, but if I believe they’re serving an exclusive interest that excludes me, then I’ll see them as a to-be-neutralized threat, and people support authoritarians who promise to neutralize the threat.
What are the legitimate reasons for believing that authoritarian support will not collapse soon after the international order is explicitly based on the moral principle? I can’t think of any.
"and linked to a Telegram channel set up on August 6, the same day Eric posted that such a project was in the works.
Telegram is a social media app launched by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, and it is the main communications tool in Russia. Durov was arrested today in France on charges that Telegram has been used for money laundering and other crimes. "
But of course.
Birds of a feather, flock together.
Do they ever.
According to Le Monde, Tucker Carlson has said: « Pavel Durov is in a French prison this evening. It's a warning to all platforms refusing to censor the truth at the demand of the government." There's another article, headed "Elon Musk appears to be unstoppable", which I haven't read yet.
Elon Musk thinks he is unstoppable. How I hope he has overplayed his hand. Another big ego who is about to pop. My prayer…
Please, Lord!
Tucker … 🙄
I certainly could have missed it, but has any entity in the MSM had a screaming headline about this new connection between the Trump family mob and Russia?
Nah, they missed it
Can’t make this shit up.
Doesn’t that shock anybody. Certainly not me.
All the news of Trump and his allies: beyond insane, criminal, out of touch.
How did U.S. billionaires and the world's worst oligarchs all so conspire to wreck this monstrosity on us?
Thing is, with a bit of time, and digging deep into native resilience, Americans recovered, got their poise back, and came up with strength from the roots -- coastal cities, prairie small towns, farms, and ranches.
The corrupt and the criminal elites have no sense of where these truer roots come from. Enervated, dehumanized, these elite living dead had no idea of the wider compassion, love, and cooperation abroad the land.
It's harnessed now. Kamala, Tim, their families, their larger families like the Obamas, Clintons, and so many other decent souls in Congress, on decent U.S. courts, and in historians such as the many we see on the news and we read in Heather herself honored to try to keep up with miracles.
"How did U.S. billionaires and the world's worst oligarchs all so conspire to wreck this monstrosity on us?"
Way too many beguiled by "Reaganomics". The evil root has blossomed and is trying to spread its seed. Good stewards of civilization and the planet are redoubling their efforts to root it out. (But I know your question was rhetorical.)
More than rhetorical, J L -- but, rather, inviting properly-searching-more such as yours.
There's a mentality abroad the world, and I wouldn't reduce it to Reaganomics. Minae Mizumura in her "The Fall of Language in the Age of English" (English, Columbia U Press, 2016) argues it's an impatience with or avoidance of all the world's smaller languages -- a dismissal of so many humanities.
Diane Ravitch in her "The Language Police" (2003) argues it's how we've standardized, how the world has gotten packaged, homogenous not just for commerce, finance, and cargo containers, but (much worse) for standardized testers all the more easily to quantify all life as units, life itself mere linear chronology in measurable categories. Machines, computers, algorithms do the measuring.
Reaganomics gets part of it. But no one who focuses there also sees what the world's schools are doing or not doing.
I'll add a bit here, as I'd like to return to the great new cheer abroad the land.
I'd like to give an example of the energy, the humanity, the decency to which schools can contribute -- if those schools have teachers who so value humanities as to keep arts high in their curriculum.
Here's a flash mob -- not in America, but they're successful in America, too, where community groups draw on resources of all ages, and where schools also have students draw on their own vitality.
So just to remember what schools and youth (and others) can do, here's an American song at an Amsterdam train station:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_hlvRNgGOQ
Hi Phil, correction. Wrong town, wrong country. This was Antwerp Central Station in Belgium, maybe a setting even more magnificent than Amsterdam Centraal...
Yes, indeed, Peter -- I got it wrong, got it wrong.
But I hope I got correct the great spirit of young people, school youth, contributing to their community, being alive through art.
The "gathering" in Davos is a good starting point.
Still stupefies me, Rickey, how the U.S. press fawns over those rich and celebrities.
Do all schools of journalism teach only the suck-up arts? Or is student loan debt just another rite of passage to show fealty to "higher" ed's having been long ago financialized (i.e., set to the tunes of all the Powell memo's far-right foundations, and to whatever corporate plundering U presidents since the Powell memo have all drooled in serving)?
I believe that it is journalists that have changed; they are now privileged , many of whom never went without medical care, food, or employment, unlike the journalists of the past.
If CFDT wrote that message to Brian Kemp himself, then I wrote the Magna Carta, the Gettysburg Address, and the entire Lennon-McCartney playbook.
Wow, Margaret...you're the bee's knees LOL!
Don't forget "the J6 Awards," a disgusting idea even by Trump standards.
High camp.
Digging into the magma.
If you'll not be disgusted by my junior high brain, I think you misspelled smegma...
I hadn’t heard of this “awards” ceremony until you mentioned it. Not only is it disgusting, but looks like somebody is trying to make a buck off one of the most sordid, appalling days in our history.
Bad news for Trump and Republicans = Good News for America.
Crypto is a scam that should be declared illegal and those involved in it - who are all scammers - should end in prison for long terms.
I share that opinion. Too many unknowns.
I couldn't agree more, TCinLA. Even when it first came out, i suspected that Crypto was a huge scam. Of course, my youngest son, (who is a TUMP fanatic) said it was legitimate. Birds of a feather always flock together.
I forgot to mention that Libertarianism should be in the DSM, under "personality disorders."
🤣
Fastest way to ruin…
I fail to see any logic in the promise of "crypto". It fails all the tests of reasonableness, and smells highly of a scam.
The 21st century equivalent of the 18th century's "tulip madness."
' "...called a “scream-of-consciousness,” ' This is the authentic Trump and it is this authenticity that is destroying him at last.
I am guilty of schnadenfreude tonight - and it’s all your fault! For which I thank you! After all the nastiness emanating from TFG, it does my soul good to see at least a few tables turning.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Republican politicians are frantically trying to figure out how to unhook their horses from CFDT before the stagecoach goes over the cliff.
Hopefully, the Democrats can take back the House and build on their lead in the Senate so Harris/Walz and an excellent cabinet can continue their work of rebuilding the middle class.
DOWN-BALLOT GOP: I condemn the behavior of Donald J Trump.
AMERICAN VOTERS: Nice try. Next you'll say Project 2025 is not going to be your playbook for the next 20 years.
Gary: My mother thanks you; my father thanks you; and my horses thank you!
Hopefully decency will win out in this election and our government can get on with leading us back to normal times. Now is the time to stand up for our Country, our Democracy and our Constitution.
I am cautiously optimistic. Weird and creepy how many still attach themselves to Trump.
Insecurity, whipped up deliberately by fear, can be a powerful motivator for someone looking for an outside solution to what is unsatisfying in their life. The more the Dems remind voters of how "unserious" Trump is, how unable he is to solve anyone's problems, the more inroads they will make, at least with those wavering or on the edge.
Some Trumpers in my extended family simply are not paying attention to the conventions, the campaigns, or anything political. They are just leading their lives, with the Trump of 2016 fixed in their minds. I don't know what will get them to wake up.
That ultra right winger in may extended family that he did not have facts available to explain his beliefs but that people he trusted did. To some degree we all do that, such as consulting a specialist doctor (although more than once it's been worth getting a second or third opinion). Some commitments are best approached with due diligence, if only, as with the docs, to weigh different points of view against each other. Core cult MAGA effectively prohibits that, and that makes it a cult.
Ditto friend.
JL, I can only imagine that the MAGAts in my retired cop cohort are most attracted to the "return" of white, Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered men to their "rightful" place at the top of the heap. Their wives are right along with them.
For this I pray
I noticed that RFK Jr started right off lying at the Trump campaign event in Arizona, stating that “American children are the most unhealthy in the world”. The actual statistics state that out of 180 countries, America stands at 39 in children’s health. So he fits right in with DJT. (I think he has a fantasy of taking over the party.)
Maybe American children would be healthier if Republicans did not block supplemental food and medical care for children? Florida alone rejected $250M in food assistance for kids in poverty! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/06/ron-desantis-rejects-federal-food-aid-children
100Panthers:
"Meh. Kids aren't important, fetuses are, and we will protect each and every one, because that's who we are. Once they come into the world, they're on their own. Because that's who we are."
Yes they did; I read that article when it came out. Left me wondering and disgusted.
Yes, that would be a start for the party that brought you Ketchup as a vegetable .
Wondering how many of the1-38 are the industrialised democracies that actually HAVE national health care systems...
Here in the UK we have the NHS, but The Times reports this morning that a comprehensive study details that in some parts of this country nearly half of all children are obese. Sadly mainly with obese parents and in deprived economic areas. It doesn’t mention where we are in the world’s league table.
America is still number one!
We can sure do a lot better, but whose fault that we don't? I suppose that Trump would claim we were number one when he was busy bashing Fauci?
I think it’s funny that RFK Jr is now with TFG considering how brutally TFG trashed him before. I would like to see this shared widely.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_Gl9Q4ylDx/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==
Weird and weirder.
Brain worms are contagious?
Birds of a feather, flock together.
Annie, RFk has fantasies of any level of relevance.
You can’t run a country on hyperbole.
“So he turned to right-wing media outlet Newsmax, where he continued his diatribe. “
I read the last word as “diarrhea”… I’m flabbergasted that the media still allow Rump and Vance to simply tell blatant lies, like Kamala planning to give every illegal alien $ 25.000. Doesn’t matter what you spout, as long as it angers your cult followers? Have they no decency left? Have you no decency left, Mr media?
It sounds as if they heard the plan to give first-time home buyers a boost by offering them up to $25,000 down-payment money and turned that into money for immigrants. Is this s sign of deliberate lying or of the inability to keep from conflating unrelated facts, perhaps a sign of dementia?
Both.
I agree.
"Have you no decency?" in this case is actually a rhetorical question. It's quite obvious what the answer is, and that he never will have, nor the others who parade their malfeasance so boldly as a badge of belonging, not honor. It is difficult for many to perceive how deeply flawed beyond repair this group has become in the race to grasp power, in the completely unholy pursuit of power and money at the expense of the rest of the world who aren't them.
Oh, Rump and his cult followers are definitely beyond repair and redemption. But I am shocked as to how much of a platform the media is giving them, and how much the downplay and/or ignore the successes of Biden and the Democrats. Ok, the billionaires who own the media of course prefer the Orange Felon because he will destroy democracy, eliminating the pesky rules that protect the common people and hinder the billionaires from getting even more rich. But did they have to make it so blatantly and shamelessly obvious?
With Trump on a self destructive mission, I expect the ratlike oligarchs will soon be abandoning his sinking ship. They have wasted millions of dollars on a losing bet.
I certainly hope so, and I would certainly entertain a lot of Schadenfreude if that happens.
They are too caught up in the horserace -- that's what presidential races were in the past, and they haven't gotten over the fact that one side is not "playing fair." They feel they have to give the other side the benefit of the doubt. And it takes time to investigate claims. Not apologizing for them, just stating my theory.
No
Newsmax is not the media. But, I get your point.
I stand corrected. But not only Newsmax gives Rump a platform to spew his vitriole...
I'd like to see Professor Heather Cox Richardson get the The Presidential Medal of Freedom (the Nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.)
Professor Richardsons books and letters predicted the American people would again rise to affirm our belief that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
I’d like to see her monitor the debate.
What an amazing list of cascading failures! At the rate the Trimp campaign is self-destructing they might not make it to November. Donny is nearly a basket case already!
If the Democrats had stumbled even half as badly they'd be washed up by now.
If the Harris campaign continues on the path they've set and lets the Trimp-ists continue to embarrass themselves like they've been, half of the work is done. Forward!
VOTE BLUE!!
Trump is coming apart at the seams, but somehow still the Messiah to so many media-captured Americans. I hoping some are getting sick of his monotonous, poisonous psycho-rants.
I think you're seeing it correctly. Trying to convert Donny's hard-core followers in the short time available would be futile. But bringing the undecided voters and dissatisfied old-school repubs around is an altogether different proposition. It's a systems engineering truism that a 'pull' system works more effectively than a 'push' system. Donny only ever understood 'push', so now he's at a loss for how to respond and he & JD are alienating people whenever they speak!
Brilliant observation there Gary, the whole 'push v pull' truism. I hope by revealing that you've not given our trolls any free opposition research. Just mentioning...
You mean like, "Come to the Dark Side - we have cookies!"?
Lol.... your sense of humor tickles me to no end Gary. Bravo !
My messiah would never resort to hate speech.
I see your spelling of TFG as “Trimp”, and wonder if it’s ‘cause you think of him as a “shrimp?”
(Which I think is pretty awesome, actually! 😁)
chimp, shrimp, limp, pimp... associations just come spilling out!
Wimp.
😁
😁
Simp.
😁😁😁 !
lol !