And without gerrymandering and now, changing election laws and rules, and the electoral college, we know and they know, they would never be elected. That criminal Paxton in Texas should share a cell with Defendant Trump… I can’t bear this.
Carla, yes you can bear this. You can make phone calls and send texts and write postcards and donate. You can talk to people about 2025, just one point at a time. I talk about my grandkids who need clean air and water. People agree. We can do this together.
Let me tell you a story. At the gas station today, I met Tim Walz. I pulled in on the wrong side of the pump, and as I get back into the car to do a three-point turn, a man came over to me and, very gently, urged me to put my seatbelt on. When I explained that I was just turning around, he started back to his car. Then I got back out of my car and thanked him for caring about my safety. And he smiled and said, "We have to take care of each other. We're just one community." Wow! Tim Walz is alive and well all over the country, including at a gas station on Cape Cod.
Sleep well, friends, and wake up in the morning ready to fight and win.
Complete sidebar re: you betcha: I went through a fast food drive up the other day (in Oregon). At the completion of the order, and my agreement to "round up and add a dollar for community food banks", the order taker said "thank y'all". I said "you betcha". When I got to the window we shared a good laugh over the personal colloquialisms we had shared.
Fred, I like that we are all part of one another and the kindness of a stranger does make a difference and is not petty or ridiculous, but what life really is about. It's something we all can participate in. It feels so much better than trying to live with the negativity.
Here's one thing anyone with spare money can do, and a second thing everyone can do. The first is donate to an initiative headed by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, editor and contributor to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017). The initiative is an all-day Washington conference intended to expose the dangers of a second Trump presidency presented from a psychiatric perspective. The second is to simply pay attention to the September 24 conference.
I just finished writing 50 postcards to my home state and I am happy, proud, and excited. Today I signed up for another 50. Field Team 6 made it easy. Feel the hope! Join us! https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Our Dem Women's Club had 2 events this past week. The watch party where we wrote postcards and watched from 6-9 30. 2ndly Sunday from 4-6 at another locally owned restaurant. A total of close to 100 people showed up and we wrote 2500 postcards! And we'll have another party to finish up the last batch and still have packs of 20 that people took home to write till we finish the total of 7000 we'll mail. It's so thrilling and hope-inspiring!
Me too! I got the addresses from Postcards to Swing States. FAQ: turnoutpac.org/postcards-faq The handwritten postcards are due to be mailed Oct. 24. Plenty of time to do 200! Like I said, Yippee!
Yesterday afternoon when I was getting back into my car at the grocery store, a woman saw all my Dem bumper stickers and yelled "Go Kamala" and I turned around to see her smile her thumbs up! YES WE CAN!
Betsy, what a wonderful story to start my day! Thank you for sharing this “Mr. Rogers” story. That man was definitely one of “the helpers” that he told us to look for.
Magamandering has replaced gerrymander in the dictionary since maga is more synonymous with malicious meddling and tinkering with democracy. The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry,[a][5] Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process.
As someone who has often pointed out, that tRump speaks the truth, except it is exactly the opposite of the truth. Every once in a while he will drop a pearl like the one you quoted. Here is one other of his very rare pearls: "People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you."
I live in Australia which is one of the few countries that has compulsory voting. Voting is a duty we discharge to maintain the health of our democracy. Compulsory jury service is also such a duty. I would be interested to know whether compulsory voting has ever been seriously debated in the US.
Compulsory voting may not yet be on the horizon. But the recent wave of advocacy has given the issue a greater spotlight than it has had in a century. Amid this momentum, we have much to learn from exploring compulsory voting’s overlooked American history. From the colonies to the Progressive Era to the twenty-first century, Americans have seriously considered making voting a duty of citizenship. That history helps illuminate the depth of democratic creativity in our Progressive past. And, given our crises of democracy today, that past should push us to keep reviving this powerful policy today.
Hoyt, thanks for the illuminating reference. It is instructive to read the arguments deployed historically for and against compulsory voting in light of the circumstances in 2024. The fundamental question remains unchanged: Is voting a "privilege" or is it a "duty". The exercise of a "privilege" cannot be compelled. The discharge of a duty can be compelled.
My only concern Mark is that unfortunately many potential voters do not have the capacity for making voting decisions and the information they use to make their decision on who to vote for will be disastrous. Compulsory voting may leave us with more trumps in our future.
Hoyt, it is worth considering that around 75-80 million eligible citizens did not vote in the 2020 presidential election. If it is likely that the majority of those citizens would have the capacity to make informed voting decisions, compulsory voting may leave us with less Trumps in the future. A complex issue to be sure, but a debate worth having.
Jury duty was compulsory when I lived in California, although you could ask to be excused under certain circumstances. I was called every single year, and couldn’t figure it out (originally from Canada, so only had to actually go to jury duty after I got citizenship). I finally asked someone and they told me it was because people simply don’t show up. You can be charged with contempt of court if you don’t show up, but apparently people know the courts are too busy to chase them. I was taught growing up that it was my responsibility to vote, and to show up if you were called to jury duty. I never did have to be seated on a jury, but came close a couple of times.
Our ancestors were good friends of U.S. Grant (actually Hiram Ulysses Grant until West Point got his name wrong), and passed on the story of his first vote for President. He said he voted for Buchanan because he didn't know him, and against Fremont (the first Republican candidate for President), because he did know him.
Not sure, but think jury duty, until business interests intervened, was also compulsory in the US. Certainly it was as recently as the 1970’s. I was called perhaps four times in five years.
Every Canadian citizen can be called as a prospective juror. You have to show up but you can be excused for a number of reasonable reasons - you are disabled in a way the duty would impose a hardship, you care for someone who needs care, you have vacation reservations (you have to show your tickets), you have a profession which may cause a conflict of interest (such as journalism), or the granddaddy excuse - that you are biased and would not be able to be objective. Also, if the court runs short of prospective jurors, the Sheriff can go out on the street and find random people and they have to come to court and if you don't have a valid reason and both the defence and Crown have no objection, then, by gum, you're a juror.
At least in Georgia, jury duty is compulsory. The state compensates jury members at a $15/hour rate and failure to appear can result in a fine, although I don't know how often it's enforced. Compulsory voting? 'Sounds interesting and since whether someone voted is a matter of public record here, it could lead to some curious questions for candidates: "Mr. Candidate, isn't it true that you illegally failed to vote in four elections over the last 10 years?"
Gerrymandering, whether mainly the fault of Republicans, has been countered by Democrats to a fair degree I've read, and just didn't start the other day. Here's a Wiki on it, maybe not the best, but opinions suggest it's become a bit of a mixed bag. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States#Democracy
Unfortunately we can either sit back and let them go all out fascist or we can counter in heavily blue states to insure this does not happen. And yes, both parties had been doing it for years but to the degree and the addition of undermining a semi-democratic system has weighted the electoral college on top of magamandering to the point that we may need ten million more votes this time to win.
Given a Harris/Congress win, USA needs major electoral reform, incl esp gerrymandering. I believe that's on the Harris policy ticket. Internationally, US is rated as an "imperfect democracy".
But just heavily blue states has little punch. The Dems could win by ten million votes but it is only the electoral college that matters - sadly and wrongly.
Hoyt, I’d like to see a national law passed that Congressional district maps and state district Representative and Senate maps have to be drawn by an impartial (equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans) committee hired by the state.
Mary, I believe some states, not sure who have a more even handed approach to this process. Republican legislatures and courts have of course perverted that process and we know the repugs are not willing to say impartial much less act on the possibility of that occurring. This is why we can not have nice things. Honestly.
Carla: it will also be glorious because a national wave of voter registrations by understandably proud Black populations in NC, GA, and even FL already have been, and will be, will be registering to vote and voting in spectacular numbers, as well as in the battleground states! At the same time, massive numbers of Republican women as well as Democratic and Independent women each will be registering and voting to protect reproductive rights and to elect Democrats up and down the ballot who make it possible! Younger voters in record numbers are already starting the process!
Everyone: please play your part in this glorious process as a volunteer, or as a generous contributor to www.TurnUp.US which is leading the way in 23 “truly competitive” Congressional Districts and four key Senate elections as a nonpartisan taxdeductible defender of abortion and our Democracy!
I noticed in the beginning that he mentions the AKA's which is the Black sorority that Harris belongs to. I looked up their membership, which is 360,000, and I am sure this year all of them are going to be working tirelessly to get out the vote for Harris. https://aka1908.com/membership/
However, getting people registered to vote is just part of the whole equation. Showing them how to vote is just as important. The Democratic party is well advised to get a ballot and make an ad that shows how to vote from planning in the time, what the poll hours are, what your rights are, and the different methods of how you vote, and then how to fill it out. They can make versions for each state. As a lifelong teacher, I guarantee that this is the final piece in getting the youth vote out. I have 4 Gen Zers that I am supporting in voting this fall. Not easy. One just graduated college, one is working on his PhD, one is an undergraduate in a city away from home, and one is voting from Germany where she is going to University, through Democrats Abroad. All of them need support. I recommend everyone take a Gen Zer under your wing and offer them support to vote, starting with them checking whether they are registered, and then checking what their voting plan in on voting day. If it is complicated, they should get a mail in ballot. Then, check with them around the time of your state sending them out, and then check that they have filled it in, and posted it. Many really need this level of support. I think voting numbers will go up if there is help like this.
Absolutely right, Linda. Even here in Australia, where voting is compulsory, and everything is very clear and above board, party campaigners send out dummies of the ballots showing exactly how to fill them out.
And Anne-Louise, planning in the time is a problem too. For example, since US has elections during the school and work week, unlike Germany where I am living now, my nephew had classes until 6 pm, polls were open until 7 and it would take him 2 hours to get to where he was registered at his parents house, because he had moved a week before and had not reregisted where he votes. When that happened, it illustrated for me how much organization, and extra effort it is to vote in person when you do not plan out how to do it.
My partner (who is ex-USA) told me that the day of voting is "High Ritual" - and as a result is unchangeable - here in Australia, Saturdays are always voting days - and schools are the usual polling locations. Sausage sizzles at the venue are mandatory!
given the use of social media vs paper or tv ads, I'd say have multiple influencers (am I the only one put off by this moniker) produce a tik tok video and share widely.
Thank you for the link. It is very important we reassure the white guys following t that they won’t be ignore. Their real, sometimes out of ignorance, fears need to be listened to and addresses. Don’t know how many will get it but we must try. Very pleased Kamala and Tim are campaigning in Georgia.
Thank you, Linda! Good idea. I will be in touch with grandchild and his wife and be sure they know all they need to know. Meanwhile writing postcards, learning the counties of Florida through TonyTheDemocrat!
Female voters over all are going to be a force like no other in 2024. And nicely, Kamala as stimulated a wave of younger voters who overall lean Democrat I believe.
Carla, my sister lives in rural Michigan not far from Lansing. Her weekends, she says, are filled with distant machine gun fire. That has her worried sick about the anniversary of January 6.
My experience in Florida has been the opposite. In 2020, Trump flags were everywhere. In 2024, they have all but disappeared.
The pendulum swing of Barack Obama was met with the surprisingly forceful swing to Trump. When Harris wins, we must set our eyes on 2028 and 2032 to blunt the kickback that follows progress.
Complacency was the dropped ball of the Obama years. The calls to “be confident but not complacent” are wise and encouraging.
Seeing the years 2028 and 2032 in print hit home and I'm all for scenarios and visualizations so I'll fall back on a metaphor of being in a rocking canoe. Tipping one way and another before balancing toward forward movement is a process happening in time. I'm setting my sights on staying in balance in elongated time, gliding with skill, humans, and nature together. Can we stay there for a decade or two while we streamline?
Shawn, I'm in Florida also and see the same swing while seeing more and more Harris/Walz signs and bumper stickers.
A sign supporting the indicted scammer has become an embarrassment for all but the most deluded among us, poor souls that they are.
If anyone gets a pardon, it should be they as without the Fairness Doctrine in place Fox and selfish politicians have been allowed to scare the bejesus out of them all.
I was so excited when we drove past a house in our Fl neighborhood yesterday and saw another Harris/Walz sign so yelled out to the guy in the yard…”I Love Your Sign!” My hubby,” That was the Amazon delivery guy.” 🤣
So now we have two H/W signs in my peninsula community of nearly 800 and more Trump signs going up every day.Yesterday it was the pink Women For Trump…sigh.Although I truly don’t despair because it actually fires me up to GOTV! Of course, while wearing my new Harris/Walz t.
Ellen, business owners who are smart don't put up political signs. Also a lot of people avoid businesses like Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A. I also assume, based on experience, that many small businesses are R. I once had a conversation with the man who had just done our floors. First, he attacked public employees and I told him he had just finished floors for two public employees. Then he attacked public education and I informed him that one of us was a public school educator. Then it was the ACLU and I wanted to tell him we were members, but I was fed up talking to him.
Linda, following your lead and agree on providing a level of support for GenZ. I’ve taken on my nephew and niece, one works full-time while attending college, the other is a teen-age mom, also working full-time.Both are living on their own so life gets complicated.Frequent contact,providing links by text and encouraging VBM,recruiting older nephew to assist sister,
and sharing Fl political news that directly affects them. My nephew is getting fired up and wants to be more involved. So proud when he recently sent ME a link for actions to take on DeSantis’ recent stealth plan to develop state parks!
The DeSantis plan for Florida State Parks needs to be condemned far and wide. It is so appalling as to be almost unbelievable—except that we know DeSantis.
Gerrymandering, stacking & diluting has been defeated in several important States where fair districts have been drawn such as 2 new non-racist minority voter controlled districts in Georgia, fairly drawn districts in Michigan, blue districts in North Carolina turning bright blue based on hard 2020 data like Durham NC & the NC 'Triangle' strongly-for-Biden, plus the data supplied by HCR. Prodemocracy, strong movements are growing fast, including young people, women voters & others.
We have a new political landscapes folks -- ready for a lot of hard work. Harris & Walz opportunities abound through 11/5/2024.
I’d love a bill where AI could “Fair-Mander—every district to be 50/50 so every politician had to earn their victory. (I like Dems’ chances in 100% of those races.)
Add to that federally funded elections, a 3-month campaigning season, and overturn Citizens United and a lot of issues would be fixed. The arc of history would whip toward justice.
I wish we could just elect a President by popular vote. Period. The fact that a vote in less populated areas counts more than one from a city drives me crazy.
That's what's nice about ranked choice voting. In 2016 if we had had ranked choice voting, Hillary would have probably won since Jill Stein had more than enough votes to get Hillary over 50%. And even with the electoral college instead of the popular vote Hillary would have taken PA, WI and MI. That would have been enough for her to win.
Laurie, without a constitutional amendment, the best that we can do is a form of the 270 Compact, in which each each state awards their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.
I have to give credit to auto-fill. It gets creative sometimes. Probably like AI. One never knows what to give or take credit for, or who to blame. I just didn’t correct when I saw it. Thanks for the humor.
While the Constitution allows the states to figure out how to go about voting, one would think that even unintentional voter suppression would be seen as knife in the heart of the most fundamental axioms of the republic.
MAGAs don’t really like the fundamental axioms on which the Republic was founded as expanded by various Amendments to the founding document, the Constitution. Most prefer the country as it was before, say, 1845.
I have read that Trump's strategy is not to win the popular vote, which sucks for his party members who are running, but to win the electoral college. Let us work on defeating that plan. Since it is the plan that counts. For Harris both count.
I keep seeing media calls for Harris to lay out her policy plans...but absolutely no calls for tfg to do the same (since he is publicly disavowing Project 2025, which clearly contains his intentions and policies).
That link inspired me to look at more of the 2025 related stuff while also considering the impact and counter arguments about what the plans are for Civil Service in light of the book, "The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience" I'm currently reading. Besides Chapter 9 - Motherhood and all the issues that led to so many women dying in childbirth, it describes her becoming the executive secretary of the Maternity Center Association and helped reduce the maternal death rate by 60 percent in the areas they were able to reach. That to me can be compared to the cruel fight to return to the pre-Roe days, the health risks to women and the economic consequences of the lack of principled care for women (briefly implied to be a primary issue, abortion, in today's LFAA).
I was tickled by her response to Al Smith who had hired her without realizing she wasn't a Democrat. She told him she, then nearly 40, wasn't allowed to vote so why should she join a party.
The following is what I sent to conservative friends on what I consider another very important threat related to their plans:
Preliminary, perhaps imperfect notes on the Frances Perkins biography I'm currently reading.
A couple of takes on Project 2025 and Trump’s avoidance of it (from the Daily show and then Wall Street Journal).
My own immediate interest was in the gutting of Civil Service that started with Lincoln’s difficulties in finding honest agent appointees based on abilities and free of undo control by politicians.
The Civil Service Commission didn’t get started until the Grant administration and was unfunded after two years but revived under the following Presidents before Chester Artur got the Pendleton Act passed. “The Pendleton law required certain applicants to take the civil service exam in order to be given certain jobs; it also prevented elected officials and political appointees from firing civil servants, removing civil servants from the influences of political patronage and partisan behavior”
It was not always as effective as it should have been, but it did manage to keep a lot more dedicated, experienced and capable people in most jobs that could be otherwise be replaced at the whim of corrupt officials.
In “The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience,” I found out a lot of favorable information about Al Smith, and some of the weakness of Hebert Hoover (whom I’d always had a greater appreciation of). Joe Galloway told me his parents helped him form a better appreciation for Al Smith,
[This is a faulty memory, it was actually Alf Landon, whom Joe Galloway met some years later]
which I never understood until I read about how he gave Frances Perkins one of the most important opportunities in her life, leading eventually to her appointment by FDR to be Secretary of Labor for 12 years.
She found the department neglected by Hoover and corrupt. AN NYC policeman told her gangsters had gotten control of the agency and were using their enforcement powers to shake down frightened newcomers. “They were raiding private parties and arresting those in attendance, including foreigners lawfully in the country, threatening to deport them if they did not pay fines.” “Top department officials knew about their activities and were either taking a cut of the profits or looking the other way.”
I believe she understood corruption, but like Al Smith, was more interested in the correcting the dysfunction that caused the most damage. One quick fix was rotating inspectors so it was harder for dishonest ones to collude with those they were inspecting.
It sheds new light for me to reevaluate my previous beliefs (and understand why Joe Galloway thought differently from me about them). We seemed very much in agreement on other issues as I appreciated him being more like Ernie Pyle in looking at the views of the common soldiers.
Harry Truman knew she had personal issues with her mentally challenged husband’s care and appointed her to the Civil Service Commission. Though not in the book as far as I have read, I appreciate her contributions in getting honest and competent hiring practices as well as protection for Civil Servants from those who don’t want any but personal or party loyalists retained. I suspect a big unmentioned part of that is an intention to eliminate as many Black or other minorities as possible.
The two takes, one biting revelatory comedy, and the other more traditional, more financial issues perspective.
Project 2025 Leaks Reveal Trump Connection, While He Continues to Play Dumb -| The Daily Show
Perhaps someone can identify the unidentified speaker in those 45 seconds for me.
From the transcript:
[Unidentified speaker]
“…But they won't just hire anyone.
If you've been convicted of a crime, you will not be serving in the federal government.
Crimes, such as fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion, show a lack of moral character…”
[Desi Lydic]
“Yeah, we'd hate to have fraudsters and tax evaders work for the Trump administration, go on”
[Unidentified speaker]
“To obtain employment in government, it is not favorable if you have accumulated debt and filed for bankruptcy.”
[Desi Lydic]
“You might want to run this up the chain to the boss, because it's starting to feel personal, no tax evasion, no bankruptcies, no weird hairstyles, no one who had a cameo in Home Alone 2.”z
Of course watching the whole thing will also enable you to see the Hillsdale ads interspersed in and around it. Same as with the more serious Wall Street Journal take on Project 2025 at:
That is what I just read in the Guardian. Which is why I read somewhere recently that it was brilliant in Kamala's speech that she pointed out that Trump was silly but the effects of his behavior are serious and dangerous, to get around people saying not to take him seriously. Trump cannot disavow Project 2025 if you read it. It has made for Trump written all over it. Trump as puppet to the fascists at the Heritage Foundation while his Chief of Staff acts as gatekeeper and policy enforcer. However Tech Bros want to also run the White House through Trump as their proxy president. That is why Vance is supposed to use Article 25 to call Trump unfit and then take his place. That would be a fine mess like Ronald Reagan was, who at least had governed a State although I don't think he did a good job, but others do. He certainly messed us up, but Trump will do more. Anyway, we should all be writing to anyone we see calling for this without calling for it from Trump too.
The longer it's been since Reagan was in office, the bleaker his legacy. His tax cuts for the rich sent the deficit skyrocketing. And perhaps even worse was breaking the air traffic controllers union and allowing mergers of large corporations with other corporations in the same field. Competition is good as are small agile innovative start-ups. Check out Food Inc 2 which outlines the anti-competitive large corporations like Walmart, Tyson, Perdue, Kellogg's, etc.
Today, the NYT reported that years ago RFK Jr’s daughter reported that her father sawed off the head of a dead whale and strapped it to the family’s minivan. An environmental group is now calling for an investigation. This guy is just weird. A perfect addition to the group of Trump endorsers.
Bear it we must, although it hurts my soul like nothing else. My country looking like pre-war Germany in more ways than I can count. It’s hard to laugh at the insane weirdness of the cult repubs, but we must mock, resist, donate what we can, and work our tails off. Wish the MSM would help but it’s on us. For my kids and yours. And sadly, for the world…
JD, I visited Germany for the first time in 2012. As I walked through a timeline set up in a museum, I was struck by the similarities in 1930 Germany and 2012 USA. It has only gotten worse in the last 10 years.
I started noticing it when Obama was reelected. My s-I-l spoke at her church with such venom. Lost any respect I had for her. I just thought that the number of haters was way lower than became obvious when chump reared his phony putrid self and the cult became loud and proud.
You can't bear this Carla, BUT, WE can bear this. You are not alone! You are an important part of a WE now. Take a break, take a walk, breathe. The law of impermanence insures that this crazy-maker parasite trump will be going through more rough times ahead. Far more. We will succeed at ridding ourselves of this dangerous menace so long as we remain a WE !
Vote. Tell your kids to vote. Tell your friends' kids to register to vote. Paxton and Abbot and Cruz and Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk will sometime pass from the front pages. They'll be shown the door. Voted out, removed or impeached. Paxton can go to jail. Texas's fever dreams will abate.
My Millennial nephew just moved in with us. He's getting his documentation in place to change his ID to his current address so he can register to vote in our county.
Well - - TX is the 2nd most populous state with 30 mio residents. They aren't all MAGA. Gerrymandering, RedMap, those connivances have distorted representation.
So true, but I have had first hand experience in rural areas since early 60’s. The shift has been seismic, started in 1994 with Rove’s bull Schittery with W. I’m surrounded by purple now, but red is all around. Albeit a corruption of a beautiful color. Hope Rove pays for his treachery…
Ambition unchanged. Tom Delay hugely helped things along. Now you've got Cruz, Abbott and Paxton. I believe the world will tire of these self serving charlatans.
Both Paxton and TUMP should be put under a prison along with all of the other vermin under there. There are some very horrible people in the Domestic Terrorist Party, formerly the GQP. It's truly sickening that these corrupt criminals are even being allowed to run for any political office!
Stagger breathe, Carla. Let us carry the line while you catch your breath, and come back in when you can. The line stays strong when we help each other out.
My oldest (who lives in TX) and I (who lives in IN) have had to be back and forth with involvement due to health issues caused by stress… this is ridiculous. Generally, I am empathetic and would prefer to assist, but I’m just OVER these unintelligent, hateful people. How dare they inflict this toxic scourge on the rest of us!? Trying to keep my eyes on the light beyond the slog through 💩 that will be the challenge of this election… up to the swearing in of President Harris.
I know we are not supposed to be able to understand tRumpf supporters, but I can't help myself. How on earth does someone look at those trading cards and think "oh my goodness, this gentleman would make a great prez"! Imagine the stats on the back...indictments, impeachments and convictions, oh my! disgusting.
I've bent over backwards to try to understand, to empathize while educating, to seek common ground while consoling, yet these "dumbasses" as you call them TC, remain stubbornly, just that.
Do you think the Harris Waltz bus will go through there? My family lives in that area and the signs are sickening. I imagine (hope?) MTG p lans to show up. I hope her democratic opponent does. Die hard Republican area now, in the worst way. My relatives are republicans as well, and will hold their noses and continue to vote that way. They don’t like big government.
Hate and venom seems to be all they have. I became a Democrat while i was still in high school while taking the Government class and learning all about the evils of the Rethuglican party and their selfish and greedy principles.
As a tag end boomer (really generation Jones, but I digress) I didn't go to high school with many of them, but I sure worked with a bunch. It is so sad to see a bunch of retired cops bending over backwards to justify his criminal conduct...
Some were sort of pitiful in 7th grade, became obnoxious by 11th. Help needed early on, or parent transplant. That stretch from intermediate through graduation taught me a lot.
Post Reagan, the rich wag the dog a whole lot more. We all have try to do as you are doing, but it's going to be a big deal to stuff the evil genie back into the bottle, at least most of the way. Humanity keeps playing this out again and again, and now the stakes are higher.
I went to UGA with Dan Mitchell who was formerly with The Heritage Foundation. He was a horror of a human being in college, but his power was limited. He's still a horror of a human being, but now has power to destroy.
I graduated high school in 1966 in a small town in north eastern Pennsylvania. I can honestly say that I cannot remember any one who would even associate with someone like Trump. I maintain that at least once upon a time ( and I hope it can be said today) there was a basic sense of decency and empathy among children and adolescents and the courage to do the right thing especially when it came to looking out for the little guy.
Actually, it was the last classes before the Boomers that were the real dumbasses. I graduated in 1964, the first class of Boomers, born in late 1945 and early 1946. We were the biggest class ever seen and the class behind us was bigger yet.
At every protest against the Vietnam War that I ever took part in (including the First March in Washington DC in April of 1965) the Anti protestors that lined the way were from the Silent Generation and their children.
The difference between those who had stayed at home and those who went off to war was huge. Especially for the men like my father who grew up in small agricultural towns, the experiences of being introduced to a much wider world gave his expectations a jolt that he passed on to his children. The men who were too old for the service didn't get that jolt and were disappointed/angry /frustrated that the world was forever changed.
So, the boomers you talk about may have been the same age, but were the younger children of the Silent generation, not the children of the young men and women who were changed by the War. Those, IMNSHO, were the ancestors of today's MAGA freaks.
The fantasy of returning to "the good old days" is much older than the boomers.
I'm cl;ass of '62, so next-to-last of the war babies. Interestingly - and I say this as someone who was a pretty serious participant in the events of the Sixties, only some 15% of the generations took part in "the Sixties." For the rest, the Fifties never stopped. And that is the boomers I am talking about - the people not from the big cities.
They are white people who are desperate to preserve their systemic political, legal, economic, and social advantages. It’s as simple as that. All other factors are down somewhere in the noise.
So, I may offend some with what I have to say. There is a lot of difference between and religion. The definition of faith in the Oxford dictionary “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”“strong belief in (a) (g)od or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. And of religion it says “the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods”. Religiosity in the US has twisted the faith of those in a that particular religious practice. It is my opinion that people who ascribe to a religious practice become enthralled by the leader of their religious sect and that leads to abandonment of their faith to the words of the religious leader. There are example through out history where societies have been manipulated by leaders that have lead the faithful into the belief that the other is evil (different race, gender, ethnicity, place of origin, faith, class, education, etc) are the faithful are better than the others. I am of the opinion that it requires a suspension of critical thinking to fall under the thrall of such “leaders” and into their fantasies. We are seeing in our country today the rise of the religion of tRumpism. History will judge this period, depending on how our election turns out, as the completion of the rise of fascism or the end of the rise of fascism in the US. My HOPE is that we will survive this time with democracy intact. This requires free and fair elections with all voters being able to access ballots and have their vote counted. My hope is that the religion of trump will go down in flames!
I realize that people in the name of religion have done good things for others. However, religions are run by people and people are imperfect. Religions have their dark side.
Religions have survived since antiquity by being an ally of the Elite.
Elites & Religious have had a partnership since elites figured out how to use it to their advantage.
Elites permit religion to survive. They fund Religions (eg. tax breaks and donations), they make a show of their respect for and tout their good standing within a religion, and have the ear of top religious leaders.
Religions in turn, show deference and give preferential treatment to the elite, which in the eyes of the religious community, would elevate the elite to being closer to their deity than commoners. The elite would be an authority over them.
Religions teach a social order which benefit both themselves and the elite (eg. women’s place in society).
Both elites and religions cover each other’s sins. Look at how sexual crimes by religious leaders gets treated and is not part of the laws of the land (such as they are).
Changes in the political power structure is often accompanied by the rise in power of different branches of a religion or a different religion entirely. They approve each other which allows for greater acceptance by the people.
Here’s an example of the relationship between elites and religion:
I guess the other word for that goal is racist, perhaps. Let’s keep the country white, let’s keep the power with white men only and let’s all be Christians.
We are all desperate to preserve our systemic political, legal, economic, and social advantages. The only question is who do "we" include versus exclude. "Everyone" is the right answer, and "not everyone" is the MAGA Republican answer.
It is sophistic to equate the oppression perpetrated by a dominant class to the aspirations of the oppressed. The opressed seek fair treatment. The oppressors seek to preserve a shameful system.
An individual either cares about the people who are influenced by the individual's behavior, or they don't. Oppressors oppress because they don't care. If everyone cared, it would still be less than perfect, but everyone would be trying to give everyone fair treatment, and there wouldn't be any oppression. That's not sophism. That's logic.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." - MLK
Rex-Thanks for saying it plainly. It’s too bad people don’t understand the detrimental impact of sorting people by skin color to keep us divided against each other.
Plus a little bit cut out from his SUIT! It's like the holy relics of antiquity. I wonder if there's a sliver of ear, mounted on gauze? Extra special price, cannot be duplicated.
Don't you believe it, if it will make trump money.
there are THOUSANDS of pieces of "the true cross" in existence - plus Jesus' toenails, John the Baptists foreskin, St. Peter's eyelashes. . . . you could reconstruct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from all the remains.
I've seen St Catherine's FINGER in the church of San Domenico in Siena. And St Stephen's hand (found miraculously a couple of centuries after his death) in the cathedral in Budapest!
Hitler was certainly right about the BIG LIE. “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility…they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie because they themselves tell small lies about small matters but would be ashamed to resort to large scale falsehoods.” Mein Kampf, James Murphy translation
Lauren, there have always been awful, hateful, despicable, frightened, ignorant and mean spirited people. Lots of them. But many of them had the sense and decency to stay hiding under their rocks - they know they are vastly outnumbered by decent folks. They knew if they became vocal, they would be shamed.
But Trump gave them permission to crawl out and be their awful selves. They have been joyfully wallowing in their vile and vicious muck ever since. They are the "deplorables". They were raised to hate. They were raised to be arrogant and oblivious to the rights and feelings of others. The concept of empathy and the power of loving thy neighbor - these things are lost on them.
How could they think the Orange Menace would make a "great prez"? He is the mirror image of their broken and evil selves. But they are the minority. And more younger people believe in diversity, tolerance and inclusion than don't. And most of them haven't been programmed in a church that teaches bigotry and hate. The trends are with us. We'll get through this. I hope.
Thanks Bill. Yes...i love the statistic that we lost 20.2M older voters off the rolls and have already added more than 40M to the rolls - many who are aging into the system, like my soon-to-be 18 year old...so sad we have to count on our kids to save us, instead of the other way around.
Bill, right on, as usual. I see some of the people at the 45 rallies with the same looks on their faces as those yelling at Ruby in the 1950’s ( when he mentions “tainting the blood”).
I like the spirit of your comment, but they are not vastly outnumbered. If they were, Trump would not have been president, and this election wouldn’t be close. They are just barely outnumbered, and, what’s even worse, is that they comprise a majority of white voters.
Republicans are angry, jealous, petty, selfish, racist, sexist, abusive, and yes, weird. It’s been hard for them to find someone who can represent who they are, oozing pustules and all, until Donald Trump came along. They’re not giving him up.
Republicans have long seen the Democratic Party as the Blacks & other Freeloaders Party, who are always grasping for more largess from hardworking White people. They look at the Biden Administration and agenda and at Harris campaign and they see a major assault on their bank balance & their “we’re better than ‘them’” platform they’re always stood on. The media has certainly helped inflame those fears.
They feel angry that they think the rug is being pulled out from underneath them.
They feel angry about their kids having to go to public school with disadvantaged children (who may or may not be Black/People of Color) who threaten their kids physically, teach them bad behavior, and get government help in failing up.
However, many White people are at least somewhat aware of the at least general inequality between men & women, Whites & BlPOC, Young & Old, wealthy & non-wealthy, those who have full set of spoons & those missing spoons, etc., but most don’t want to give up anything to correct those problems.
Even if they don’t have to give up anything, many simply refuse, feeling that only the ‘strong’ deserve to survive, and never consider the irony.
Whites have been living an artificially elevated existence in America since the Indigenous Peoples took pity on some of the early White pre-America colonists and helped them survive.
White people took human beings from Africa as slaves and had them build America, take care their children, wipe their butts, and far, far, worse.
White people used abusive labor tactics on Asians (mainly Chinese) workers in mines, building railroad, and in factories.
White people allowed children of poor, desperate parents, to work in factories.
White people don’t want to acknowledge that the kind of people who did this, and who still feel entitled to continue allowing things like this, are the rotten core of America. They are the people who Donald Trump stands for and represents.
Most White people, no matter how recently they came to America, also don’t want to acknowledge that they themselves have profited or at least benefited from the abuse of others in America’s history…and present.
If Whites continue to allow these inequities, atrocities, & corruptions, we will destroy ourselves and everyone else.
Lauren. Absolutely. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone in their right mind think the felon, womanizer, creep could be a candidate for presidency 😜😝🤨
This is one of Heather’s best letters ever. In the nearly three years I’ve been subscribed tonight she has laid out our situation and how we got here in words any grade school kid can understand. So forgive us when we say, “What is WRONG with people?!?!”
Recently neuroscientists reported that power, and the thirst for it, literally changes the brain. (Worms, perhaps? Just kidding). Seriously, I think this is being demonstrated right before our eyes.
Much of the blame, IMO, belongs to the media- and not just social media- for making politics a game and a sporting event. Winning and losing becomes an identity issue. If our “team”is losing, then “we” are “losers” (and therefore flawed). Good grief!
Yale historian Timothy Snyder via The New York Times: “Trump is in the classic dictatorial position: He needs to die in bed holding all executive power to stay out of prison. This means that he will do whatever he can to gain power, and once in power will do all that he can to never let it go. This is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It is entirely inconsistent with democracy.”
Bibi is definitely Israel’s Trump. They are both murderers, in my opinion. One let 1 million+ die to the hands of Covid and the other is currently killing innocent people while slowly looking for hostages. Both destroy lives with their want for more greed and power.
Very interesting on the latest neuroscience: I recall long ago reading drug addiction can change the morphology of the brain and often posited the same was probably similar with power given behavior we've all seen. I just wasn't sure which politician would allow such a study. Have you a reference to this work? I'd love to know more.
Dr. Catherine Shanahan in "Deep Nutrition" talks about the affects of food on your DNA. She does talk some about the pharmaceutical affects of drugs on your physiology.
As an ER doctor and a GP she has seen the first hand negative results of vegetable oils and sugar on your cardiovascular system.
Like many others, she discounts the Keys study on cholesterol which has enriched the pharmaceutical industry and brainwashed several generations of Americans and others around the world.
This caught my eye in today's letter - "Predictions about future elections and an average of $3.08 will get you a cup of coffee these days, but there are some interesting signs out there today. "
HCR lives a couple hours down the coast and I assume she has similar options for coffee, which include Dunkin' Donuts and a few local coffee places.
My family has been razzing me about using disposable cups before I finally switched to a reusable insulated cup. Now my local coffee place charges me $1.59 for 20 oz. of Joe, half of what HCR says she pays.
The best part for me is the razzing has stopped. At least, the coffee razzing. Apparently I have many bad habits that I need to be reminded about.
So HCR -- I know you're on the road a lot of the time, but when you're in ME, you can save $1.50 on coffee or Buddy can. /S
That report from neuroscientists sounds fascinating. I know that there is research that indicates that playing violent video games changes brain structure; I suspect that the speed of video images overwhelms the brain unless it adapts.
I remember reading that video games taught our children to think fast and use whatever information they had to make decisions. If those decisions turned out to be bad, then you just moved on to the next stage accepting and learning from that mistake.
In contrast to those of us who were taught to research before making decisions. In today's world we are left behind while our children are coping with a world moving too fast for us!
There are two games. The first is the positive-sum (everyone wins) game. The second is the negative-sum (everyone loses) game. People play the negative-sum game because it appears to be a zero-sum game, except that the appearance is an illusion. In the end, the number of zero-sum games is zero.
Below is the most frightening paragraph in this Substack commentary. It has all the earmarks of Nazi behavior before Hindenberg appointed Hitler Chancellor in 1933.
“And then, this evening, Quil Lawrence and Tom Bowman of NPR explained the story behind the surprising photos of Trump on Monday giving a thumbs-up over a grave in Arlington National Cemetery. The reporters wrote that ‘[t]wo members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official’ at the cemetery, where ‘[f]ederal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities.’ When a cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering the section where the grave was located, ‘campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside.’ A Trump campaign spokesperson said the official who tried to prevent the staff from holding a political event in the cemetery was ‘clearly suffering from a mental health episode.’”
It is chilling and seeing Trump give a “thumbs up” is a pure desecration to the honor of the soldiers who are buried there. But what really got me were the smiles on each of the faces of the people who lost their loved ones. What kind of bullshit was that?
That was my first thought. Many of us have loved ones that died or were wounded in battle. I am appalled at the lack of respect DonOLD shows for everyone that has ever served in the military.
Of course, that disrespect goes back to the 1960's when his daddy get him out of the draft 5 times.
And he dares to denigrate Walz's 24 years in the national guard.
Ironic considering how Trump belittles those injured in battle and reportedly wanted all those damaged warriors out of sight during his time in office. They shouldn't be allowed through the gates of Arlington IMO.
Since this kind of political activity at Arlington Cemetery is a crime, will there be any legal action brought against Trump? Against the campaign staffers who physically assaulted a federal employee?
Barry, if you'd like to read a detailed report from another LFAA reader, try this one. As you might guess from the title, there is a substantial use of "colorful metaphors" as described by Spok in "Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home".
Senator Graham is right, he deserves condemnation. He and the political class who still allow the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society tax exemption to continue hauling in the dough for this contemptible man. At the grave of a fallen soldier!!! OMG. He is not even a man.
JD, I usually don’t do conspiracy theories, but Graham changed (and has stayed changed) after just one one-on-one golf game with 45. Wondering what was said.
Ralph Nader wrote a tribute to Phil Donahue (four days ago after the news of his passing).
Donahue pioneered a live daily TV show before a live studio audience and television audience in 200 cities around the country. He would take questions from his audience and from call-in viewers.
Donahue's kind of earnestness, authentic courtesy and persistence in giving voice to the underdogs in our society that propelled him for nearly 30 years to become America’s leading daytime national TV talk show host.
Before Donahue's TV audience of some 10 million viewers, he would introduce to the nation first the pioneers of civil rights, consumer justice, prosecutors of corporate crimes, safer environments, workplace safety, and gay rights.
Other talk show hosts are cowed by their paying advertisers. Not Phil. He took using the people’s public airwaves seriously. Daring but self-effacing, Donahue knew his guests, though outspoken and challenging to power structures, represented large numbers of silenced Americans.
'I’ve called Phil Donahue the greatest DEFENDER and ENABLER of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, petition and assembly in the 20TH CENTURY. Hands down. There has been no one remotely close then or since, given the frequency of his shows and his audience size. He helped citizens put forces in motion for a more just America and world that continue to this day.' ~Ralph Nader
“Dissent is very difficult in this country. We have a media which is rewarded by telling people what they want to hear. And that’s not our job. We’re not supposed to be popular. We’re not supposed to be extolled as wonderful people who make us happy. We have to show the pain. And we are obliged to say what we feel about the decisions of powerful people.”
~Phil Donahue
(See, Ralph Nader Radio Hour interview of June 18, 2016).
Donohue was one of my very favorites. He was relentless and he was also a big promoter of women’s rights which made me adore him even more. I was very sad when I learned he had passed away.
I remember Phil Donahue's first years starting in Dayton when I was a child- I was roundeyed hearing Madalyn Murray O'Hare speak directly about her beliefs while Phil ran track around the studio getting the mike to whoever waved at him to come over. His show blew up quickly, moving him to Chicago, and I think now that he was one of the first journalists dedicated to hearing women's voices and questions directly, as well as other marginalized people. It took nerve to take the risks he did, and the Dayton stations weren't that thrilled with him in the 60s. That's a great Nader quote, thanks for sharing it, Kathleen.
And if it weren’t for Ralph Nader taking 90,000 votes in Florida in 2000 thereby preventing President Al Gore from the White House, we would’s have had wars in the Middle East and we wouldn’t have had a majority of extremist Supreme Court judges. All praise to the megalomaniac Ralph Nader.
The results of that election made me a much stronger supporter of open primaries, Ranked Choice Voting, and Willie Velasquez's non-partisan Southwest Voter Registration Education Project participants that enlightened the rest of us Bernie supporters (who did vote for Hillary in the General Election).
I had the privilege of a few exchanges of emails with Joe Galloway after his fellow author friend, Keith William Nolan, passed away. Joe was another that spoke for the common man, particularly soldiers, the way he was inspired to do by Ernie Pyle. He was the 4th to sign the legacy guest book on the first day, I was the 9th a day later.
"...In 2002, Knight Ridder asked Galloway to return to reporting after a stint as an adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell to bolster its Washington bureau’s skeptical coverage of the Bush administration’s case for ousting Hussein.
Galloway did that by contributing, often anonymously, to his colleagues’ stories and by writing a column that often was critical of Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their aides who were bent on invading Iraq.
John Walcott, Galloway’s longtime editor and friend, recounted how an exasperated Rumsfeld finally asked Joe to meet with him alone in his office. When Joe arrived, he was greeted by Rumsfeld — and a group of other high-ranking Pentagon officials.
“Good,” Galloway reported when he returned to the Knight Ridder office. “I had ‘em surrounded.”
Galloway then described how after Rumsfeld accused him of relying on retired officers and officials, he had told the group that most of his sources were on active duty, and that some of them “might even be in this room.”
Asked by his colleagues if that was true, Galloway replied, “No, but it was fun watching ‘em sweat like whores in church...”
Harris and Walz campaign should stock their quivers with that arrow nicely. Add it to the arsenal of disrespectful and outright insults Trump has levied on the military.
Is there anything more thrilling than the Harris campaign completely owning the media. The final numbers from viewership of the convention conclusively confirm their influence is waning at best or on a slow death march, also for the best. The corporate media has way overstepped their bounds and now they are paying for it. The 2024 Democratic National Convention credentialed over 200 content creators to cover the convention in person and hundreds of others to cover remotely, reaching a combined following count of 500 million. This dwarfed the republican controlled corporate media by significant margins. Now that same feckless media is determined to present trump as a legitimate candidate and as punishment for the Democrats, they criticize Kamala and Tim for not bending the knee to them.
Yessir, the media aint happy, aint happy at all. We need to ignore them as much as possible and support independent content creators who seem to be much more in tune with facts, not the lies and projection that the trump backed corporate CEO’s feed us. Corporate Media, she's just not into you. You gotta move on. She's just not into you.
I keep hearing “She has to do an interview” and I keep wondering why? She’s getting her message out. We don’t need production news casts. We need truthful news casts. They seem unable to pull that off.
As has been pointed out, she has never failed to speak to the "press" when she is campaigning. She answers questions and she doesn't shrug them off. But, it's hard for the "press" to play gotcha when she is answering and then goes on her way. It has also been noted that the "press" screams and yells and talks over her. Quite unlike the fawning behavior when dealing with the MAGA candidate. The fourth estate is riddled with termites.
We don't need her to sit down with a media that will only ask her to talk about T...not policy. We saw what media did to Biden... especially when he cooperated.
Glory hallelujah, this will shut the press up for about 5 minutes. Just googled and the leads are that kamala is scared she will lose to dump if she does not give an interview. Lordy. 😂
Hoyt, the leads are “see? She’s afraid of us so she’s doing a press conference in genuflection. She has no power unless WE provide her with it. We knew she was weak and this proves it. See how critical WE are?”
I’m hoping Harris uses her prosecutor face when telling them all “where to get off”
Her campaign is changing the media as we know it. Shaking things up is fair and it is good because we and everyone else have to stop being complacent with the garbage that MSM spews out.
The Times printed over 20 questions they would ask Harris in an interview. Many were ridiculous. My response was why not ask these of Trump first and demand answers from him.
Harris is doing the right thing to ignore “unserious” media.
Yep I saw that. That is beyond crazy, the nyt whining and crying after they placed themselves in a box. How can a media that supports trump be serious, Kamala said he was unserious but poses a very serious threat. Understatement of the year candidate. LOL
I still love Joe Biden. The media, which needs to sell controversy, seems to continue pooh-poohing his accomplishments. But historians, who have the luxury of objective hindsight, will put Biden's amazing accomplishments in proper perspective; one of America's greatest presidents and a gift to all of us.
I'm quickly learning to love Kamala Harris. What a miraculous transition. And I believe she will win big-time on Nov 5.
We can see victory in the voter numbers starting at the 81 million who voted for Joe, in her contributions, in her engaging and hopeful messaging, in women's health choices, in her taking back to the Democratic Party the fundamental words of "freedom", "patriotism", "loyalty","joy", her outreach to all Americans, her dismissal of Trump as unserious thereby incapable of trolling Democrats, and so forth. Who to vote for is such a simple choice; Goodness and Joy or Trump and MAGA's Awfulness.
We can see victory in the tidal wave of new volunteers joining the millions of grassroots activists who have been working since 2016 to bring back a Democratic majority in Congress and the White House. This majority will arrive and pass historic legislation for Americans.
For all of us who grew up in the midst of Vietnam protests and the Civil Rights movements, we know the power of the most potent force in our democracy; The Consent of the Governed. Given time and diligence, it will overwhelm the the enemy we face; The Tyranny of the Minority.
Trump's final act will not be overthrowing our Democracy but finally electing a woman POTUS in America.✌️✌️
“This is not about this president. It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing,” then–majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues. “It has always been about November 3, 2020. It’s about flipping the Senate.” May this evil man, for whom power and money are the only concerns he has, rot in his grave.
Ridicule the grifter, the con man, the orange fraud.
So, in addition to Heather noting the felon again hawking more merchandise, says Michael Tomasky, editor of The New Republic.
We're Americans (most of us signed on to Heather's site). We can "enjoy" what lowest common denominators oligarchs, dictators, autocrats all have
We could include those ensconced in the traditions of patriarchy, such as the old men yet riding top institutions in otherwise democratic Japan, and those who push medievalism over the U.S. Constitution, such as they of the Clarence court aiming to package all women, ruling their orange felon over law that regards the rest of us equally.
What do they have in common? Superciliousness.
That is, they all puff themselves above the rest of us so as to see us ever only as parts of packages, abstractions. For them of most limited imagination, the rest of us are but numbers, units, or (with a biological nod to nature) mere molecules. They are all dehumanized, so can't help but reduce all others as mere parts of treadmills, linear, 1-2-3, and causal machineries. Algorithms, computers, and tests can easily measure all this – life all without subtleties, complications, or any other “loose ends.”
They’re bullies, these oligarchs, dictators, autocrats, patriarchs, Clarence toadies.
Well, there’s those and then there’s those that… the only way I can figure it is they have “television brain rot” … some wannabe entertainer, unreality tv personality, mobster style criminal for President?!?! There is no way it makes any bit of sense.
People who learn some respect for humanities in that proportion may learn regard for others. They who dehumanize -- zero access to any novels, films, theater plays, music, or other arts -- so untether themselves from awe, appreciation, good debt to our fellows.
They may vary in the ways they float -- Trump ever huckstering, Mohammed bin Salman hacksawing journalists, Putin destroying hospitals, schools, museums, shopping centers, and residential housing, Netanyahu siccing far right settlers unto ever more stolen West Bank land, Clarence craving more yacht trips. It all varies madly.
But it all gets guaranteed in some forms of idiocy -- all makes pathetic sense -- to the degree one shucks off one's possible humanities.
I’ve thought about this… comprehending warp loop insanity would make me crazy … and so long as I am still on this mortal coil, shedding my humanity and not appreciating its wonders would be a waste of a perfectly fine life.
Unless Harris can get 281 electoral votes without the States where local election officials can obstruct certification until after January 6, the election will go to the House. ( I know 270, but the extra is coffin-nailing insurance { I hope})
A new wave of people registering as Democrats, especially among key minority groups, speaks volumes about the extraordinary rapid change we're living through. It's unprecedented, certainly in my seven-plus decades. We must do everything in our power to maintain the momentum. MAGA voter suppression and other deceitful actions they have planned are the only things standing in the way of saving our democracy.
It is with pleasure that I view the disarray of the Maga Hats and their Abomination in Chief. More voter registrations and swelling donations, bolster the reality we are experiencing. When we Fight...
Wow brilliant powerful letter covering so very much Love the way you bring it round to congress Yes the founders could have never anticipated that the freedom fought for could one day create a monster Thanks Heather
The earth is flat, bleach can be injected to cure Covid, Biden created worldwide inflation, pizza parlors that don’t have basements have basements, and cats are the aliens we’ve been searching for. #AlternativeFacts
I get it. But I just want them to disappear. I don’t want to consider a healing process for them or assimilating them back into society… just go away. Poof 💨
And once that comes to pass, wherever Guilty Donny is buried I plan to get a photo of me standing on his grave making a BIG thumbs-up and with a wide smile. Perhaps I'll dance a hornpipe as well.
Look, don’t be so sure and I’ll tell you why. For many years, I wished the same thing on Kissinger. That man didn’t kick the bucket until this year and he was 100!🤬
And without gerrymandering and now, changing election laws and rules, and the electoral college, we know and they know, they would never be elected. That criminal Paxton in Texas should share a cell with Defendant Trump… I can’t bear this.
Carla, yes you can bear this. You can make phone calls and send texts and write postcards and donate. You can talk to people about 2025, just one point at a time. I talk about my grandkids who need clean air and water. People agree. We can do this together.
Let me tell you a story. At the gas station today, I met Tim Walz. I pulled in on the wrong side of the pump, and as I get back into the car to do a three-point turn, a man came over to me and, very gently, urged me to put my seatbelt on. When I explained that I was just turning around, he started back to his car. Then I got back out of my car and thanked him for caring about my safety. And he smiled and said, "We have to take care of each other. We're just one community." Wow! Tim Walz is alive and well all over the country, including at a gas station on Cape Cod.
Sleep well, friends, and wake up in the morning ready to fight and win.
Oh man, Betsy…that’s one great story!! I am surprised you didn’t give him a big hug!
Because Tim is alive in each of us, we just might see him elected VP? You betcha!
Complete sidebar re: you betcha: I went through a fast food drive up the other day (in Oregon). At the completion of the order, and my agreement to "round up and add a dollar for community food banks", the order taker said "thank y'all". I said "you betcha". When I got to the window we shared a good laugh over the personal colloquialisms we had shared.
Fred, I like that we are all part of one another and the kindness of a stranger does make a difference and is not petty or ridiculous, but what life really is about. It's something we all can participate in. It feels so much better than trying to live with the negativity.
Here's one thing anyone with spare money can do, and a second thing everyone can do. The first is donate to an initiative headed by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, editor and contributor to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017). The initiative is an all-day Washington conference intended to expose the dangers of a second Trump presidency presented from a psychiatric perspective. The second is to simply pay attention to the September 24 conference.
Here's the link: https://bandylee.com/
Thank you fir the info & link!
Partner with FT 6.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I just finished writing 50 postcards to my home state and I am happy, proud, and excited. Today I signed up for another 50. Field Team 6 made it easy. Feel the hope! Join us! https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Our Dem Women's Club had 2 events this past week. The watch party where we wrote postcards and watched from 6-9 30. 2ndly Sunday from 4-6 at another locally owned restaurant. A total of close to 100 people showed up and we wrote 2500 postcards! And we'll have another party to finish up the last batch and still have packs of 20 that people took home to write till we finish the total of 7000 we'll mail. It's so thrilling and hope-inspiring!
This is so encouraging, Sandra. Thanks and let's keep going. Yippee!
Way to go Sandra.
I have 200 postcards to send to 8 states other than my own We can do this!
Me too! I got the addresses from Postcards to Swing States. FAQ: turnoutpac.org/postcards-faq The handwritten postcards are due to be mailed Oct. 24. Plenty of time to do 200! Like I said, Yippee!
Dee, yes, that's what community is, sharing the good news of a movement that can make a positive difference for everyone, not just those involved.
I admire your persistence and it does influence me.
Thanks so much for the link.
Fantastic interview on MeidasTouch with Heather Cox Richardson!!!!! (12 hours ago)
An hour plus worth every second!!!!! Politics Girl puts it all on the line!!!! WOW!!
Trump THROWN OFF Course by BIGGEST Kamala Event | PoliticsGirl
I agree. Awesome and insightful interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY_8fbEvxqo.
Margaret, thanks for the link!
Thank you, a must watch! She speaks so coherently and cogently.
It’s a damn scary wake up call.
WJB, thanks for the heads up! Did you find out about it ahead of time?
Meidas Touch...Stephanie Miller.....John Fuglesang make up my standard everyday media update. I cancelled my cable 5 years ago
Wow! What an incredible episode. PoliticsGirl and HCR are a force. Not shy to say what's at stake but also full of hope.
Yesterday afternoon when I was getting back into my car at the grocery store, a woman saw all my Dem bumper stickers and yelled "Go Kamala" and I turned around to see her smile her thumbs up! YES WE CAN!
Coach - he inspires and on a daily basis reminds us how we should all aspire being.
Right on Betsy!
Betsy, what a wonderful story to start my day! Thank you for sharing this “Mr. Rogers” story. That man was definitely one of “the helpers” that he told us to look for.
What a great attitude. I hear it's catching on quickly. Not going back!
Magamandering has replaced gerrymander in the dictionary since maga is more synonymous with malicious meddling and tinkering with democracy. The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry,[a][5] Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process.
Trump claimed out loud that if more people voted "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again".
MAKE IT SO!!!
He stoled that quote from Eugene Debs over 20 or 30 years ago.
One of the few times he was right.
From his mouth to heaven’s ears.
He stoled that quote from Eugene Debs over 20 or 30 years ago
As someone who has often pointed out, that tRump speaks the truth, except it is exactly the opposite of the truth. Every once in a while he will drop a pearl like the one you quoted. Here is one other of his very rare pearls: "People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you."
So that's where it came from! Thank you.
I live in Australia which is one of the few countries that has compulsory voting. Voting is a duty we discharge to maintain the health of our democracy. Compulsory jury service is also such a duty. I would be interested to know whether compulsory voting has ever been seriously debated in the US.
Mark, ask and receive. I speed read but have marked it for more in-depth later. Great question and I get further enlightenment. A bit lengthy, but informative https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-137/compulsory-votings-american-history/
Conclusion
Compulsory voting may not yet be on the horizon. But the recent wave of advocacy has given the issue a greater spotlight than it has had in a century. Amid this momentum, we have much to learn from exploring compulsory voting’s overlooked American history. From the colonies to the Progressive Era to the twenty-first century, Americans have seriously considered making voting a duty of citizenship. That history helps illuminate the depth of democratic creativity in our Progressive past. And, given our crises of democracy today, that past should push us to keep reviving this powerful policy today.
Hoyt, thanks for the illuminating reference. It is instructive to read the arguments deployed historically for and against compulsory voting in light of the circumstances in 2024. The fundamental question remains unchanged: Is voting a "privilege" or is it a "duty". The exercise of a "privilege" cannot be compelled. The discharge of a duty can be compelled.
Thank you, Hoyt. I will read this with much interest. Compulsory voting may suppress voter suppression.
My only concern Mark is that unfortunately many potential voters do not have the capacity for making voting decisions and the information they use to make their decision on who to vote for will be disastrous. Compulsory voting may leave us with more trumps in our future.
Hoyt, it is worth considering that around 75-80 million eligible citizens did not vote in the 2020 presidential election. If it is likely that the majority of those citizens would have the capacity to make informed voting decisions, compulsory voting may leave us with less Trumps in the future. A complex issue to be sure, but a debate worth having.
Jury duty was compulsory when I lived in California, although you could ask to be excused under certain circumstances. I was called every single year, and couldn’t figure it out (originally from Canada, so only had to actually go to jury duty after I got citizenship). I finally asked someone and they told me it was because people simply don’t show up. You can be charged with contempt of court if you don’t show up, but apparently people know the courts are too busy to chase them. I was taught growing up that it was my responsibility to vote, and to show up if you were called to jury duty. I never did have to be seated on a jury, but came close a couple of times.
I finally reminded the court when I was 75 and received a jury summons that I was too old. And the court apologized.
Our ancestors were good friends of U.S. Grant (actually Hiram Ulysses Grant until West Point got his name wrong), and passed on the story of his first vote for President. He said he voted for Buchanan because he didn't know him, and against Fremont (the first Republican candidate for President), because he did know him.
Not sure, but think jury duty, until business interests intervened, was also compulsory in the US. Certainly it was as recently as the 1970’s. I was called perhaps four times in five years.
Every Canadian citizen can be called as a prospective juror. You have to show up but you can be excused for a number of reasonable reasons - you are disabled in a way the duty would impose a hardship, you care for someone who needs care, you have vacation reservations (you have to show your tickets), you have a profession which may cause a conflict of interest (such as journalism), or the granddaddy excuse - that you are biased and would not be able to be objective. Also, if the court runs short of prospective jurors, the Sheriff can go out on the street and find random people and they have to come to court and if you don't have a valid reason and both the defence and Crown have no objection, then, by gum, you're a juror.
At least in Georgia, jury duty is compulsory. The state compensates jury members at a $15/hour rate and failure to appear can result in a fine, although I don't know how often it's enforced. Compulsory voting? 'Sounds interesting and since whether someone voted is a matter of public record here, it could lead to some curious questions for candidates: "Mr. Candidate, isn't it true that you illegally failed to vote in four elections over the last 10 years?"
Gerrymandering, whether mainly the fault of Republicans, has been countered by Democrats to a fair degree I've read, and just didn't start the other day. Here's a Wiki on it, maybe not the best, but opinions suggest it's become a bit of a mixed bag. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States#Democracy
Unfortunately we can either sit back and let them go all out fascist or we can counter in heavily blue states to insure this does not happen. And yes, both parties had been doing it for years but to the degree and the addition of undermining a semi-democratic system has weighted the electoral college on top of magamandering to the point that we may need ten million more votes this time to win.
Given a Harris/Congress win, USA needs major electoral reform, incl esp gerrymandering. I believe that's on the Harris policy ticket. Internationally, US is rated as an "imperfect democracy".
But just heavily blue states has little punch. The Dems could win by ten million votes but it is only the electoral college that matters - sadly and wrongly.
Hoyt, I’d like to see a national law passed that Congressional district maps and state district Representative and Senate maps have to be drawn by an impartial (equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans) committee hired by the state.
See how California selected the 2020 Commisisoners at https://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/about-us/
Mary, I believe some states, not sure who have a more even handed approach to this process. Republican legislatures and courts have of course perverted that process and we know the repugs are not willing to say impartial much less act on the possibility of that occurring. This is why we can not have nice things. Honestly.
I agree gerrymandering has been used, or abused, by both sides. It is the picking of voters by the professional politicians.
Stay the course and stay strong. I can see trouble ahead.
Me too. It’s going to be ugly.
Carla: it will also be glorious because a national wave of voter registrations by understandably proud Black populations in NC, GA, and even FL already have been, and will be, will be registering to vote and voting in spectacular numbers, as well as in the battleground states! At the same time, massive numbers of Republican women as well as Democratic and Independent women each will be registering and voting to protect reproductive rights and to elect Democrats up and down the ballot who make it possible! Younger voters in record numbers are already starting the process!
Everyone: please play your part in this glorious process as a volunteer, or as a generous contributor to www.TurnUp.US which is leading the way in 23 “truly competitive” Congressional Districts and four key Senate elections as a nonpartisan taxdeductible defender of abortion and our Democracy!
I was reading an article in the Bulwark this morning about how the Harris campaign is redefining what it means to be masculine
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/kamala-harris-wants-to-redefine-masculinity-and-demolish-trumps?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
and they mentioned DL Hugely's speech. Here is a link to that speech.
https://youtu.be/oF3LcW9QDHA?si=xOBuWZXH7eSToTbY
I noticed in the beginning that he mentions the AKA's which is the Black sorority that Harris belongs to. I looked up their membership, which is 360,000, and I am sure this year all of them are going to be working tirelessly to get out the vote for Harris. https://aka1908.com/membership/
However, getting people registered to vote is just part of the whole equation. Showing them how to vote is just as important. The Democratic party is well advised to get a ballot and make an ad that shows how to vote from planning in the time, what the poll hours are, what your rights are, and the different methods of how you vote, and then how to fill it out. They can make versions for each state. As a lifelong teacher, I guarantee that this is the final piece in getting the youth vote out. I have 4 Gen Zers that I am supporting in voting this fall. Not easy. One just graduated college, one is working on his PhD, one is an undergraduate in a city away from home, and one is voting from Germany where she is going to University, through Democrats Abroad. All of them need support. I recommend everyone take a Gen Zer under your wing and offer them support to vote, starting with them checking whether they are registered, and then checking what their voting plan in on voting day. If it is complicated, they should get a mail in ballot. Then, check with them around the time of your state sending them out, and then check that they have filled it in, and posted it. Many really need this level of support. I think voting numbers will go up if there is help like this.
Absolutely right, Linda. Even here in Australia, where voting is compulsory, and everything is very clear and above board, party campaigners send out dummies of the ballots showing exactly how to fill them out.
And Anne-Louise, planning in the time is a problem too. For example, since US has elections during the school and work week, unlike Germany where I am living now, my nephew had classes until 6 pm, polls were open until 7 and it would take him 2 hours to get to where he was registered at his parents house, because he had moved a week before and had not reregisted where he votes. When that happened, it illustrated for me how much organization, and extra effort it is to vote in person when you do not plan out how to do it.
My partner (who is ex-USA) told me that the day of voting is "High Ritual" - and as a result is unchangeable - here in Australia, Saturdays are always voting days - and schools are the usual polling locations. Sausage sizzles at the venue are mandatory!
For those in the U.S., Joyce Vance had her five questions with Laura Brill, CEO of the Civics Center, on how to register young voters:
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/five-questions-with-laura-brill-how
https://www.thecivicscenter.org/
Yes. I read that one and commented much like I am now.
That was excellent! Morning, Lynell!
Lynell, thanks for the link! I’d missed it.
This is excellent. For decades, Democrat success has always depended on "getting out the vote".
given the use of social media vs paper or tv ads, I'd say have multiple influencers (am I the only one put off by this moniker) produce a tik tok video and share widely.
Thank you for the link. It is very important we reassure the white guys following t that they won’t be ignore. Their real, sometimes out of ignorance, fears need to be listened to and addresses. Don’t know how many will get it but we must try. Very pleased Kamala and Tim are campaigning in Georgia.
Thank you for gifting this, Linda!
Thank you, Linda! Good idea. I will be in touch with grandchild and his wife and be sure they know all they need to know. Meanwhile writing postcards, learning the counties of Florida through TonyTheDemocrat!
Thank you… yes, it will be a beautiful thing in the end… I could do without the mayhem in the middle
Female voters over all are going to be a force like no other in 2024. And nicely, Kamala as stimulated a wave of younger voters who overall lean Democrat I believe.
Carla, my sister lives in rural Michigan not far from Lansing. Her weekends, she says, are filled with distant machine gun fire. That has her worried sick about the anniversary of January 6.
My experience in Florida has been the opposite. In 2020, Trump flags were everywhere. In 2024, they have all but disappeared.
The pendulum swing of Barack Obama was met with the surprisingly forceful swing to Trump. When Harris wins, we must set our eyes on 2028 and 2032 to blunt the kickback that follows progress.
Complacency was the dropped ball of the Obama years. The calls to “be confident but not complacent” are wise and encouraging.
Seeing the years 2028 and 2032 in print hit home and I'm all for scenarios and visualizations so I'll fall back on a metaphor of being in a rocking canoe. Tipping one way and another before balancing toward forward movement is a process happening in time. I'm setting my sights on staying in balance in elongated time, gliding with skill, humans, and nature together. Can we stay there for a decade or two while we streamline?
Streamline and pull together!
Indeed! My focus is 11/5. On 11/6, I'll start rocketing toward 2032.
Shawn, I'm in Florida also and see the same swing while seeing more and more Harris/Walz signs and bumper stickers.
A sign supporting the indicted scammer has become an embarrassment for all but the most deluded among us, poor souls that they are.
If anyone gets a pardon, it should be they as without the Fairness Doctrine in place Fox and selfish politicians have been allowed to scare the bejesus out of them all.
Ralph, I highly recommend the substack Decoding Fox News. It's a snapshot of what Fox watchers watch. Once you see the world through their eyes, the delusions they believe make sense https://open.substack.com/pub/decodingfoxnews?r=4j5a4&utm_medium=ios
I was so excited when we drove past a house in our Fl neighborhood yesterday and saw another Harris/Walz sign so yelled out to the guy in the yard…”I Love Your Sign!” My hubby,” That was the Amazon delivery guy.” 🤣
So now we have two H/W signs in my peninsula community of nearly 800 and more Trump signs going up every day.Yesterday it was the pink Women For Trump…sigh.Although I truly don’t despair because it actually fires me up to GOTV! Of course, while wearing my new Harris/Walz t.
Please join our lonely Harris/Walz signs! 🪧🇺🇸
Yesterday I noticed Trump signs in front of two different businesses. Bad idea, guys. I will take my dollars elsewhere.
Ellen, business owners who are smart don't put up political signs. Also a lot of people avoid businesses like Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A. I also assume, based on experience, that many small businesses are R. I once had a conversation with the man who had just done our floors. First, he attacked public employees and I told him he had just finished floors for two public employees. Then he attacked public education and I informed him that one of us was a public school educator. Then it was the ACLU and I wanted to tell him we were members, but I was fed up talking to him.
Excellent points
Well said Shawn.
Thanks. The ricochet from Obama to Trump has scarred me. Fortunately scars are life lessons that never leave you.
But we will fight and when we fight We Win!
Linda, following your lead and agree on providing a level of support for GenZ. I’ve taken on my nephew and niece, one works full-time while attending college, the other is a teen-age mom, also working full-time.Both are living on their own so life gets complicated.Frequent contact,providing links by text and encouraging VBM,recruiting older nephew to assist sister,
and sharing Fl political news that directly affects them. My nephew is getting fired up and wants to be more involved. So proud when he recently sent ME a link for actions to take on DeSantis’ recent stealth plan to develop state parks!
The DeSantis plan for Florida State Parks needs to be condemned far and wide. It is so appalling as to be almost unbelievable—except that we know DeSantis.
Gerrymandering, stacking & diluting has been defeated in several important States where fair districts have been drawn such as 2 new non-racist minority voter controlled districts in Georgia, fairly drawn districts in Michigan, blue districts in North Carolina turning bright blue based on hard 2020 data like Durham NC & the NC 'Triangle' strongly-for-Biden, plus the data supplied by HCR. Prodemocracy, strong movements are growing fast, including young people, women voters & others.
We have a new political landscapes folks -- ready for a lot of hard work. Harris & Walz opportunities abound through 11/5/2024.
Go for it!
I’d love a bill where AI could “Fair-Mander—every district to be 50/50 so every politician had to earn their victory. (I like Dems’ chances in 100% of those races.)
Add to that federally funded elections, a 3-month campaigning season, and overturn Citizens United and a lot of issues would be fixed. The arc of history would whip toward justice.
I wish we could just elect a President by popular vote. Period. The fact that a vote in less populated areas counts more than one from a city drives me crazy.
Only election anywhere where the one who gets the most votes loses.
That's what's nice about ranked choice voting. In 2016 if we had had ranked choice voting, Hillary would have probably won since Jill Stein had more than enough votes to get Hillary over 50%. And even with the electoral college instead of the popular vote Hillary would have taken PA, WI and MI. That would have been enough for her to win.
Anything would be an improvement over current system. Easily manipulated and outright bought.
Laurie, without a constitutional amendment, the best that we can do is a form of the 270 Compact, in which each each state awards their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.
More info on that which you would share Mary ?
Fair-mander, let’s go for it. Agree with you 209%
209%! Such a specific sum. I love the enthusiasm 1027%
I have to give credit to auto-fill. It gets creative sometimes. Probably like AI. One never knows what to give or take credit for, or who to blame. I just didn’t correct when I saw it. Thanks for the humor.
I'll never forget the author of my economics textbooks quote, "The stock market has predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions."
See https://www.azquotes.com/author/12933-Paul_Samuelson#google_vignette
Some new to me:
"Good Questions outrank easy answers"
"Every good cause is worth some inefficiency."
Shawn, love your words. 🎯 I will use "Fair-Mander" . That is a good one as in 'Fairmandering' Congressional Districts. 👍🏻
Absolutely Shawn. Your thought/solution priorities mirror mine. Great ideas friend ! 🎯
While the Constitution allows the states to figure out how to go about voting, one would think that even unintentional voter suppression would be seen as knife in the heart of the most fundamental axioms of the republic.
MAGAs don’t really like the fundamental axioms on which the Republic was founded as expanded by various Amendments to the founding document, the Constitution. Most prefer the country as it was before, say, 1845.
One would think … I suspect they’re too busy hating to think.
I have read that Trump's strategy is not to win the popular vote, which sucks for his party members who are running, but to win the electoral college. Let us work on defeating that plan. Since it is the plan that counts. For Harris both count.
I think he may have given up on the electoral college and is proceeding to election interference and fraud. Next step, violence.
That is clearly a large part of the plan. Gerrymandering is how his MAGA Project 2025 implementing colleagues are helping him.
I like our friends idea to make it personal and call it "magamandering" or perhaps alternatively "gopmandering."
All the above, they will leave no evil stone unturned.
Hence the welcome for Kennedy - hope that he'll swing the balance and win the Electoral College. He'd better not. This is like Russian roulette.
Yes, and the MAGAs would not know how to play fair if it hit them on the head. So, they are losing people who are tired of being with losers, who can only win by stealing. Popularity counts, even though I am reading in the Guardian this morning they are going after Walz like the bully boys they are. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/27/trump-supporters-attack-tim-walz-campaign-military-coaching-background?utm_term=66cdb1b2d51a97680e025d6bce83b4b6&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email
Nothing about policy though, other than claims that Kamala's policy makes her a Marxist. Wonder what old Karl would have to say about that.
I keep seeing media calls for Harris to lay out her policy plans...but absolutely no calls for tfg to do the same (since he is publicly disavowing Project 2025, which clearly contains his intentions and policies).
There a great You-Tube video that "highlights" CFDT's attempt at giving an intellectual speech (as he called it). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90C5rZPTy5g
This is from Comedy Central and is very funny in my opinion.
Gary-Thanks for the laugh about Trump’s intellectual speech. I can’t believe that people really want him to be America’s leader.
I needed that this morning!!!
Gary, thanks for the link!
That link inspired me to look at more of the 2025 related stuff while also considering the impact and counter arguments about what the plans are for Civil Service in light of the book, "The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience" I'm currently reading. Besides Chapter 9 - Motherhood and all the issues that led to so many women dying in childbirth, it describes her becoming the executive secretary of the Maternity Center Association and helped reduce the maternal death rate by 60 percent in the areas they were able to reach. That to me can be compared to the cruel fight to return to the pre-Roe days, the health risks to women and the economic consequences of the lack of principled care for women (briefly implied to be a primary issue, abortion, in today's LFAA).
I was tickled by her response to Al Smith who had hired her without realizing she wasn't a Democrat. She told him she, then nearly 40, wasn't allowed to vote so why should she join a party.
The following is what I sent to conservative friends on what I consider another very important threat related to their plans:
Preliminary, perhaps imperfect notes on the Frances Perkins biography I'm currently reading.
A couple of takes on Project 2025 and Trump’s avoidance of it (from the Daily show and then Wall Street Journal).
My own immediate interest was in the gutting of Civil Service that started with Lincoln’s difficulties in finding honest agent appointees based on abilities and free of undo control by politicians.
The Civil Service Commission didn’t get started until the Grant administration and was unfunded after two years but revived under the following Presidents before Chester Artur got the Pendleton Act passed. “The Pendleton law required certain applicants to take the civil service exam in order to be given certain jobs; it also prevented elected officials and political appointees from firing civil servants, removing civil servants from the influences of political patronage and partisan behavior”
It was not always as effective as it should have been, but it did manage to keep a lot more dedicated, experienced and capable people in most jobs that could be otherwise be replaced at the whim of corrupt officials.
In “The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience,” I found out a lot of favorable information about Al Smith, and some of the weakness of Hebert Hoover (whom I’d always had a greater appreciation of). Joe Galloway told me his parents helped him form a better appreciation for Al Smith,
[This is a faulty memory, it was actually Alf Landon, whom Joe Galloway met some years later]
which I never understood until I read about how he gave Frances Perkins one of the most important opportunities in her life, leading eventually to her appointment by FDR to be Secretary of Labor for 12 years.
She found the department neglected by Hoover and corrupt. AN NYC policeman told her gangsters had gotten control of the agency and were using their enforcement powers to shake down frightened newcomers. “They were raiding private parties and arresting those in attendance, including foreigners lawfully in the country, threatening to deport them if they did not pay fines.” “Top department officials knew about their activities and were either taking a cut of the profits or looking the other way.”
I believe she understood corruption, but like Al Smith, was more interested in the correcting the dysfunction that caused the most damage. One quick fix was rotating inspectors so it was harder for dishonest ones to collude with those they were inspecting.
It sheds new light for me to reevaluate my previous beliefs (and understand why Joe Galloway thought differently from me about them). We seemed very much in agreement on other issues as I appreciated him being more like Ernie Pyle in looking at the views of the common soldiers.
Harry Truman knew she had personal issues with her mentally challenged husband’s care and appointed her to the Civil Service Commission. Though not in the book as far as I have read, I appreciate her contributions in getting honest and competent hiring practices as well as protection for Civil Servants from those who don’t want any but personal or party loyalists retained. I suspect a big unmentioned part of that is an intention to eliminate as many Black or other minorities as possible.
The two takes, one biting revelatory comedy, and the other more traditional, more financial issues perspective.
Project 2025 Leaks Reveal Trump Connection, While He Continues to Play Dumb -| The Daily Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-jvD0SgPY
Watch from 3:24 to 4:09
Perhaps someone can identify the unidentified speaker in those 45 seconds for me.
From the transcript:
[Unidentified speaker]
“…But they won't just hire anyone.
If you've been convicted of a crime, you will not be serving in the federal government.
Crimes, such as fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion, show a lack of moral character…”
[Desi Lydic]
“Yeah, we'd hate to have fraudsters and tax evaders work for the Trump administration, go on”
[Unidentified speaker]
“To obtain employment in government, it is not favorable if you have accumulated debt and filed for bankruptcy.”
[Desi Lydic]
“You might want to run this up the chain to the boss, because it's starting to feel personal, no tax evasion, no bankruptcies, no weird hairstyles, no one who had a cameo in Home Alone 2.”z
Of course watching the whole thing will also enable you to see the Hillsdale ads interspersed in and around it. Same as with the more serious Wall Street Journal take on Project 2025 at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y16SZhZJHkI
That is what I just read in the Guardian. Which is why I read somewhere recently that it was brilliant in Kamala's speech that she pointed out that Trump was silly but the effects of his behavior are serious and dangerous, to get around people saying not to take him seriously. Trump cannot disavow Project 2025 if you read it. It has made for Trump written all over it. Trump as puppet to the fascists at the Heritage Foundation while his Chief of Staff acts as gatekeeper and policy enforcer. However Tech Bros want to also run the White House through Trump as their proxy president. That is why Vance is supposed to use Article 25 to call Trump unfit and then take his place. That would be a fine mess like Ronald Reagan was, who at least had governed a State although I don't think he did a good job, but others do. He certainly messed us up, but Trump will do more. Anyway, we should all be writing to anyone we see calling for this without calling for it from Trump too.
The longer it's been since Reagan was in office, the bleaker his legacy. His tax cuts for the rich sent the deficit skyrocketing. And perhaps even worse was breaking the air traffic controllers union and allowing mergers of large corporations with other corporations in the same field. Competition is good as are small agile innovative start-ups. Check out Food Inc 2 which outlines the anti-competitive large corporations like Walmart, Tyson, Perdue, Kellogg's, etc.
Linda, I'm not *unconvinced that both parties "stretch" reality and fair-play.
Today, the NYT reported that years ago RFK Jr’s daughter reported that her father sawed off the head of a dead whale and strapped it to the family’s minivan. An environmental group is now calling for an investigation. This guy is just weird. A perfect addition to the group of Trump endorsers.
Bear it we must, although it hurts my soul like nothing else. My country looking like pre-war Germany in more ways than I can count. It’s hard to laugh at the insane weirdness of the cult repubs, but we must mock, resist, donate what we can, and work our tails off. Wish the MSM would help but it’s on us. For my kids and yours. And sadly, for the world…
JD, I visited Germany for the first time in 2012. As I walked through a timeline set up in a museum, I was struck by the similarities in 1930 Germany and 2012 USA. It has only gotten worse in the last 10 years.
I started noticing it when Obama was reelected. My s-I-l spoke at her church with such venom. Lost any respect I had for her. I just thought that the number of haters was way lower than became obvious when chump reared his phony putrid self and the cult became loud and proud.
You can't bear this Carla, BUT, WE can bear this. You are not alone! You are an important part of a WE now. Take a break, take a walk, breathe. The law of impermanence insures that this crazy-maker parasite trump will be going through more rough times ahead. Far more. We will succeed at ridding ourselves of this dangerous menace so long as we remain a WE !
Vote. Tell your kids to vote. Tell your friends' kids to register to vote. Paxton and Abbot and Cruz and Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk will sometime pass from the front pages. They'll be shown the door. Voted out, removed or impeached. Paxton can go to jail. Texas's fever dreams will abate.
My Millennial nephew just moved in with us. He's getting his documentation in place to change his ID to his current address so he can register to vote in our county.
Auntie has been relentless in prodding him.
Good for you!
Thank you Auntie ! (- ;
Are you sure…
Well - - TX is the 2nd most populous state with 30 mio residents. They aren't all MAGA. Gerrymandering, RedMap, those connivances have distorted representation.
So true, but I have had first hand experience in rural areas since early 60’s. The shift has been seismic, started in 1994 with Rove’s bull Schittery with W. I’m surrounded by purple now, but red is all around. Albeit a corruption of a beautiful color. Hope Rove pays for his treachery…
Ambition unchanged. Tom Delay hugely helped things along. Now you've got Cruz, Abbott and Paxton. I believe the world will tire of these self serving charlatans.
Even waiting for much Of my long life, they just seem to metastasize
Both Paxton and TUMP should be put under a prison along with all of the other vermin under there. There are some very horrible people in the Domestic Terrorist Party, formerly the GQP. It's truly sickening that these corrupt criminals are even being allowed to run for any political office!
Stagger breathe, Carla. Let us carry the line while you catch your breath, and come back in when you can. The line stays strong when we help each other out.
My oldest (who lives in TX) and I (who lives in IN) have had to be back and forth with involvement due to health issues caused by stress… this is ridiculous. Generally, I am empathetic and would prefer to assist, but I’m just OVER these unintelligent, hateful people. How dare they inflict this toxic scourge on the rest of us!? Trying to keep my eyes on the light beyond the slog through 💩 that will be the challenge of this election… up to the swearing in of President Harris.
What's 'stagger breathe Ally ? Btw, I've not heard from you in a bit..
LOCK’em UP !
Paxton, the one who knows all about women's health and overturned an abortion verdict. Abbott is no winner either.
It is horrible. But Betsy is right.
Hold yourself in resolve, and let's do this thing.
I know we are not supposed to be able to understand tRumpf supporters, but I can't help myself. How on earth does someone look at those trading cards and think "oh my goodness, this gentleman would make a great prez"! Imagine the stats on the back...indictments, impeachments and convictions, oh my! disgusting.
Remember all those boomer dumbasses you knew in High School? The ones you couldn'tget away from fast enough?
They got worse.
I've bent over backwards to try to understand, to empathize while educating, to seek common ground while consoling, yet these "dumbasses" as you call them TC, remain stubbornly, just that.
They did get worse indeed
Was their 'middle ground' with Confederacy, Sen. Joe McCarthy, Mao, Hitler et al?
Some things are 'black and white'.
John Birch society? Anyone remember them? Extremist reactionaries.
At one point, they were a force in North Georgia in the area represented now by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Do you think the Harris Waltz bus will go through there? My family lives in that area and the signs are sickening. I imagine (hope?) MTG p lans to show up. I hope her democratic opponent does. Die hard Republican area now, in the worst way. My relatives are republicans as well, and will hold their noses and continue to vote that way. They don’t like big government.
Fits
Meeting my first one was why I became a Democrat. He oozed hate and venom
Hate and venom seems to be all they have. I became a Democrat while i was still in high school while taking the Government class and learning all about the evils of the Rethuglican party and their selfish and greedy principles.
JD-Dr. MLK said it well- “I decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Chad Mitchell Trio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5f1KpfngH4
My parents were John Birchers
Damn Sooz.....
🙈
🙉
🙊
As a tag end boomer (really generation Jones, but I digress) I didn't go to high school with many of them, but I sure worked with a bunch. It is so sad to see a bunch of retired cops bending over backwards to justify his criminal conduct...
That's gotta be disappointing as all hell - watching them sell out everything they said they stood for.
The stupid is sooooo strong in some . . .
I knew some damaged souls when I worked at high school. Most are dedicated MAGAts. Seems that damage seeks damage. Rational they ain’t
Damage is what they know and how they are conditioned. Yes, damaged seek damaged...
Some were sort of pitiful in 7th grade, became obnoxious by 11th. Help needed early on, or parent transplant. That stretch from intermediate through graduation taught me a lot.
The ones who ate paste?
Yes.
😃
...and I'm at the "tail"end of that Boomer...wagging the dog as much as I can.
Post Reagan, the rich wag the dog a whole lot more. We all have try to do as you are doing, but it's going to be a big deal to stuff the evil genie back into the bottle, at least most of the way. Humanity keeps playing this out again and again, and now the stakes are higher.
I agree JL, even if we win by large numbers (which I don't believe) the going is going to stay tough. The Nazi's are awake!
I went to UGA with Dan Mitchell who was formerly with The Heritage Foundation. He was a horror of a human being in college, but his power was limited. He's still a horror of a human being, but now has power to destroy.
I graduated high school in 1966 in a small town in north eastern Pennsylvania. I can honestly say that I cannot remember any one who would even associate with someone like Trump. I maintain that at least once upon a time ( and I hope it can be said today) there was a basic sense of decency and empathy among children and adolescents and the courage to do the right thing especially when it came to looking out for the little guy.
Actually, it was the last classes before the Boomers that were the real dumbasses. I graduated in 1964, the first class of Boomers, born in late 1945 and early 1946. We were the biggest class ever seen and the class behind us was bigger yet.
At every protest against the Vietnam War that I ever took part in (including the First March in Washington DC in April of 1965) the Anti protestors that lined the way were from the Silent Generation and their children.
The difference between those who had stayed at home and those who went off to war was huge. Especially for the men like my father who grew up in small agricultural towns, the experiences of being introduced to a much wider world gave his expectations a jolt that he passed on to his children. The men who were too old for the service didn't get that jolt and were disappointed/angry /frustrated that the world was forever changed.
So, the boomers you talk about may have been the same age, but were the younger children of the Silent generation, not the children of the young men and women who were changed by the War. Those, IMNSHO, were the ancestors of today's MAGA freaks.
The fantasy of returning to "the good old days" is much older than the boomers.
I'm cl;ass of '62, so next-to-last of the war babies. Interestingly - and I say this as someone who was a pretty serious participant in the events of the Sixties, only some 15% of the generations took part in "the Sixties." For the rest, the Fifties never stopped. And that is the boomers I am talking about - the people not from the big cities.
They are white people who are desperate to preserve their systemic political, legal, economic, and social advantages. It’s as simple as that. All other factors are down somewhere in the noise.
It amazes me that there are women, blacks and Hispanics among Trump groupies. Truly sad. Voting against their futures.
Terry-Racism seeps into all of us. women, Black and Hispanic folks all want to be accepted and part of the privileged crowd. Racism is insidious.
I think Big Religion has a major roll in that.
So, I may offend some with what I have to say. There is a lot of difference between and religion. The definition of faith in the Oxford dictionary “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”“strong belief in (a) (g)od or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. And of religion it says “the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods”. Religiosity in the US has twisted the faith of those in a that particular religious practice. It is my opinion that people who ascribe to a religious practice become enthralled by the leader of their religious sect and that leads to abandonment of their faith to the words of the religious leader. There are example through out history where societies have been manipulated by leaders that have lead the faithful into the belief that the other is evil (different race, gender, ethnicity, place of origin, faith, class, education, etc) are the faithful are better than the others. I am of the opinion that it requires a suspension of critical thinking to fall under the thrall of such “leaders” and into their fantasies. We are seeing in our country today the rise of the religion of tRumpism. History will judge this period, depending on how our election turns out, as the completion of the rise of fascism or the end of the rise of fascism in the US. My HOPE is that we will survive this time with democracy intact. This requires free and fair elections with all voters being able to access ballots and have their vote counted. My hope is that the religion of trump will go down in flames!
I realize that people in the name of religion have done good things for others. However, religions are run by people and people are imperfect. Religions have their dark side.
Religions have survived since antiquity by being an ally of the Elite.
Elites & Religious have had a partnership since elites figured out how to use it to their advantage.
Elites permit religion to survive. They fund Religions (eg. tax breaks and donations), they make a show of their respect for and tout their good standing within a religion, and have the ear of top religious leaders.
Religions in turn, show deference and give preferential treatment to the elite, which in the eyes of the religious community, would elevate the elite to being closer to their deity than commoners. The elite would be an authority over them.
Religions teach a social order which benefit both themselves and the elite (eg. women’s place in society).
Both elites and religions cover each other’s sins. Look at how sexual crimes by religious leaders gets treated and is not part of the laws of the land (such as they are).
Changes in the political power structure is often accompanied by the rise in power of different branches of a religion or a different religion entirely. They approve each other which allows for greater acceptance by the people.
Here’s an example of the relationship between elites and religion:
https://time.com/6167332/putin-russian-orthodox-church-war-ukraine/
There is no reason to give up religion, but people should be aware that it can mislead and that it is beholden to elites.
I guess the other word for that goal is racist, perhaps. Let’s keep the country white, let’s keep the power with white men only and let’s all be Christians.
White Christian Nationalism...it is what they crave.
We are all desperate to preserve our systemic political, legal, economic, and social advantages. The only question is who do "we" include versus exclude. "Everyone" is the right answer, and "not everyone" is the MAGA Republican answer.
It is sophistic to equate the oppression perpetrated by a dominant class to the aspirations of the oppressed. The opressed seek fair treatment. The oppressors seek to preserve a shameful system.
An individual either cares about the people who are influenced by the individual's behavior, or they don't. Oppressors oppress because they don't care. If everyone cared, it would still be less than perfect, but everyone would be trying to give everyone fair treatment, and there wouldn't be any oppression. That's not sophism. That's logic.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." - MLK
Doubling down on sophism doesn’t turn it into logic.
On that, we agree.
No argument here.
Rex-Thanks for saying it plainly. It’s too bad people don’t understand the detrimental impact of sorting people by skin color to keep us divided against each other.
I like the way you cut straight through to the obvious, fundamental truth behind everything, Rex.
Agreed
Plus a little bit cut out from his SUIT! It's like the holy relics of antiquity. I wonder if there's a sliver of ear, mounted on gauze? Extra special price, cannot be duplicated.
"cannot be duplicated."
Don't you believe it, if it will make trump money.
there are THOUSANDS of pieces of "the true cross" in existence - plus Jesus' toenails, John the Baptists foreskin, St. Peter's eyelashes. . . . you could reconstruct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from all the remains.
Thanks for my 4am laugh out loud.
You're welcome - that's when we need them most.
Truth in humor
I've seen St Catherine's FINGER in the church of San Domenico in Siena. And St Stephen's hand (found miraculously a couple of centuries after his death) in the cathedral in Budapest!
Me too. It was amazingly creepy.
The Buddha’s Tooth is enshrined at a temple in Singapore!
Oh, Good Grief! - Don't say the Buddhists have got into this as well?
I thought they were supposed to be above all that. . .
Expect him to start selling indulgences soon.
He hasn't already?
🤣
Oh my… as soon as I read that,multiple revolting scenarios flashed through my mind 😱🤯🤢
Lady—can you imagine a card with a Trump toenail clipping? <sarcasm>
I hadn't.
Unfortunately, now that you mention it, I can. . .
Sounds like a follow up to all those sperm specimen containers the J.D. Vance fans were brandishing. . .
This has suddenly taken a nauseous turn!
🤣
🤢
🤣 Omg....lol LE !!! 🤣 That coincidentally reminds me of a joke.
So pukifying
Worse. He's only holy because he says so, but we have seen and heard the truth, lies and all.
Hitler was certainly right about the BIG LIE. “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility…they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie because they themselves tell small lies about small matters but would be ashamed to resort to large scale falsehoods.” Mein Kampf, James Murphy translation
Lauren, there have always been awful, hateful, despicable, frightened, ignorant and mean spirited people. Lots of them. But many of them had the sense and decency to stay hiding under their rocks - they know they are vastly outnumbered by decent folks. They knew if they became vocal, they would be shamed.
But Trump gave them permission to crawl out and be their awful selves. They have been joyfully wallowing in their vile and vicious muck ever since. They are the "deplorables". They were raised to hate. They were raised to be arrogant and oblivious to the rights and feelings of others. The concept of empathy and the power of loving thy neighbor - these things are lost on them.
How could they think the Orange Menace would make a "great prez"? He is the mirror image of their broken and evil selves. But they are the minority. And more younger people believe in diversity, tolerance and inclusion than don't. And most of them haven't been programmed in a church that teaches bigotry and hate. The trends are with us. We'll get through this. I hope.
Dunning-Kruegerr Effect - morons who think they're geniuses are attracted to "My Uncle was at MIT, that means I'm really smart."
Thanks Bill. Yes...i love the statistic that we lost 20.2M older voters off the rolls and have already added more than 40M to the rolls - many who are aging into the system, like my soon-to-be 18 year old...so sad we have to count on our kids to save us, instead of the other way around.
Bill, right on, as usual. I see some of the people at the 45 rallies with the same looks on their faces as those yelling at Ruby in the 1950’s ( when he mentions “tainting the blood”).
Good assessment, Bill.
I like the spirit of your comment, but they are not vastly outnumbered. If they were, Trump would not have been president, and this election wouldn’t be close. They are just barely outnumbered, and, what’s even worse, is that they comprise a majority of white voters.
Truly disgusting.
Republicans are angry, jealous, petty, selfish, racist, sexist, abusive, and yes, weird. It’s been hard for them to find someone who can represent who they are, oozing pustules and all, until Donald Trump came along. They’re not giving him up.
Republicans have long seen the Democratic Party as the Blacks & other Freeloaders Party, who are always grasping for more largess from hardworking White people. They look at the Biden Administration and agenda and at Harris campaign and they see a major assault on their bank balance & their “we’re better than ‘them’” platform they’re always stood on. The media has certainly helped inflame those fears.
They feel angry that they think the rug is being pulled out from underneath them.
They feel angry about their kids having to go to public school with disadvantaged children (who may or may not be Black/People of Color) who threaten their kids physically, teach them bad behavior, and get government help in failing up.
However, many White people are at least somewhat aware of the at least general inequality between men & women, Whites & BlPOC, Young & Old, wealthy & non-wealthy, those who have full set of spoons & those missing spoons, etc., but most don’t want to give up anything to correct those problems.
Even if they don’t have to give up anything, many simply refuse, feeling that only the ‘strong’ deserve to survive, and never consider the irony.
Whites have been living an artificially elevated existence in America since the Indigenous Peoples took pity on some of the early White pre-America colonists and helped them survive.
White people took human beings from Africa as slaves and had them build America, take care their children, wipe their butts, and far, far, worse.
White people used abusive labor tactics on Asians (mainly Chinese) workers in mines, building railroad, and in factories.
White people allowed children of poor, desperate parents, to work in factories.
White people don’t want to acknowledge that the kind of people who did this, and who still feel entitled to continue allowing things like this, are the rotten core of America. They are the people who Donald Trump stands for and represents.
Most White people, no matter how recently they came to America, also don’t want to acknowledge that they themselves have profited or at least benefited from the abuse of others in America’s history…and present.
If Whites continue to allow these inequities, atrocities, & corruptions, we will destroy ourselves and everyone else.
Lauren. Absolutely. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone in their right mind think the felon, womanizer, creep could be a candidate for presidency 😜😝🤨
You’d think that they’d be fully embarrassed!!! Wonder how Lindsey Graham feels about them…for example.
He sold his soul long ago - for cheap.
I can’t believe anyone would pay for that garbage, but there’s a sucker born every minute. Those cards are gag-worthy, ICK!
This is one of Heather’s best letters ever. In the nearly three years I’ve been subscribed tonight she has laid out our situation and how we got here in words any grade school kid can understand. So forgive us when we say, “What is WRONG with people?!?!”
Recently neuroscientists reported that power, and the thirst for it, literally changes the brain. (Worms, perhaps? Just kidding). Seriously, I think this is being demonstrated right before our eyes.
Much of the blame, IMO, belongs to the media- and not just social media- for making politics a game and a sporting event. Winning and losing becomes an identity issue. If our “team”is losing, then “we” are “losers” (and therefore flawed). Good grief!
Yale historian Timothy Snyder via The New York Times: “Trump is in the classic dictatorial position: He needs to die in bed holding all executive power to stay out of prison. This means that he will do whatever he can to gain power, and once in power will do all that he can to never let it go. This is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It is entirely inconsistent with democracy.”
Does this also describe Netanyahu?
Bibi is definitely Israel’s Trump. They are both murderers, in my opinion. One let 1 million+ die to the hands of Covid and the other is currently killing innocent people while slowly looking for hostages. Both destroy lives with their want for more greed and power.
Anybody smell Putin in this mix
Yes.
His stink is unmistakable
Brothers from different mothers Marlene. Sadistic wannabe dictators.
Trump is the only wannabe (Putin, Maduro, Orban, Kim Jon Un).
The rest are doing a great job of enriching themselves and driving their economies off a cliff).
Not Bibi?
As they would say in Minnesota, "You bet."
And Maduro
And Orban.
Yes
Very interesting on the latest neuroscience: I recall long ago reading drug addiction can change the morphology of the brain and often posited the same was probably similar with power given behavior we've all seen. I just wasn't sure which politician would allow such a study. Have you a reference to this work? I'd love to know more.
Dr. Catherine Shanahan in "Deep Nutrition" talks about the affects of food on your DNA. She does talk some about the pharmaceutical affects of drugs on your physiology.
As an ER doctor and a GP she has seen the first hand negative results of vegetable oils and sugar on your cardiovascular system.
Like many others, she discounts the Keys study on cholesterol which has enriched the pharmaceutical industry and brainwashed several generations of Americans and others around the world.
This caught my eye in today's letter - "Predictions about future elections and an average of $3.08 will get you a cup of coffee these days, but there are some interesting signs out there today. "
HCR lives a couple hours down the coast and I assume she has similar options for coffee, which include Dunkin' Donuts and a few local coffee places.
My family has been razzing me about using disposable cups before I finally switched to a reusable insulated cup. Now my local coffee place charges me $1.59 for 20 oz. of Joe, half of what HCR says she pays.
The best part for me is the razzing has stopped. At least, the coffee razzing. Apparently I have many bad habits that I need to be reminded about.
So HCR -- I know you're on the road a lot of the time, but when you're in ME, you can save $1.50 on coffee or Buddy can. /S
🤣
Polls are part of the game…they are like the board at the racetrack taking odds on which horse will win.
Agreed, Sandra.
That report from neuroscientists sounds fascinating. I know that there is research that indicates that playing violent video games changes brain structure; I suspect that the speed of video images overwhelms the brain unless it adapts.
I remember reading that video games taught our children to think fast and use whatever information they had to make decisions. If those decisions turned out to be bad, then you just moved on to the next stage accepting and learning from that mistake.
In contrast to those of us who were taught to research before making decisions. In today's world we are left behind while our children are coping with a world moving too fast for us!
There are two games. The first is the positive-sum (everyone wins) game. The second is the negative-sum (everyone loses) game. People play the negative-sum game because it appears to be a zero-sum game, except that the appearance is an illusion. In the end, the number of zero-sum games is zero.
Media. The Australian press are back to supporting Trump this week.
Surely not, or is Rupert back down there. Maybe one of his evil turds (children).
If he's back, they must have smuggled him in in a camera-proof cardboard box. No, I guess he still knows how to operate a smartphone.
His evil travels in mysterious ways
read Autocracy Inc., Sandra...and Money.
Below is the most frightening paragraph in this Substack commentary. It has all the earmarks of Nazi behavior before Hindenberg appointed Hitler Chancellor in 1933.
“And then, this evening, Quil Lawrence and Tom Bowman of NPR explained the story behind the surprising photos of Trump on Monday giving a thumbs-up over a grave in Arlington National Cemetery. The reporters wrote that ‘[t]wo members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official’ at the cemetery, where ‘[f]ederal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities.’ When a cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering the section where the grave was located, ‘campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside.’ A Trump campaign spokesperson said the official who tried to prevent the staff from holding a political event in the cemetery was ‘clearly suffering from a mental health episode.’”
There was definitely a mental health episode, but it did not involve the mental health of the official.
It is chilling and seeing Trump give a “thumbs up” is a pure desecration to the honor of the soldiers who are buried there. But what really got me were the smiles on each of the faces of the people who lost their loved ones. What kind of bullshit was that?
My Dad is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. I am certain his New England sternness would have a few words to say about “respect.”
DJT’s mere presence on that hallowed ground is a desecration to the men and women who lie there!
That was my first thought. Many of us have loved ones that died or were wounded in battle. I am appalled at the lack of respect DonOLD shows for everyone that has ever served in the military.
Of course, that disrespect goes back to the 1960's when his daddy get him out of the draft 5 times.
And he dares to denigrate Walz's 24 years in the national guard.
Marlene, the complete and utter type. Read TC in LA's Substack on that topic; I linked it further down the comments line on this thread.
Ally, thanks for posting the link! I’ll look for it.
Thanks, Ally. I will read it.
Yes. We've been seeing brown shirts everywhere for nine long years, if not much longer.
Ironic considering how Trump belittles those injured in battle and reportedly wanted all those damaged warriors out of sight during his time in office. They shouldn't be allowed through the gates of Arlington IMO.
YES! And why weren't they arrested/fined if this is prohibited? Why did they get away with the verbal abuse and pushing? Isn't that assault?
Since this kind of political activity at Arlington Cemetery is a crime, will there be any legal action brought against Trump? Against the campaign staffers who physically assaulted a federal employee?
Barry, if you'd like to read a detailed report from another LFAA reader, try this one. As you might guess from the title, there is a substantial use of "colorful metaphors" as described by Spok in "Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home".
https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/donnie-dickwad-desecrates-arlington/comments
Thanks. I was shocked again at the way The NY Times reported on the cemetery putsch. If you didn’t click on the NPR link in the Times story, you’d have no idea what happened. I’m increasingly concerned about the role the Times is playing in normalizing Trump. Free to read link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/27/us/politics/trump-arlington-cemetery-clash.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU4.Yuls.hOElR88Md5pp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
I canceled my subscription today. They actually wanted to raise my rate!
The NY Times is becoming irrelevant. I’ve wanted to cancel many times. A sub price raise just might do it.
Senator Graham is right, he deserves condemnation. He and the political class who still allow the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society tax exemption to continue hauling in the dough for this contemptible man. At the grave of a fallen soldier!!! OMG. He is not even a man.
Not even a man... an entity maybe? Denigrating the name of the good people of that lovely island off the coast of Greece by association.
Graham has gotten brain-worm disease
Symptoms are lust for power and money, by any means.
Maybe a little blackmail involved. But you are so right. Lust for power and money beats lust for sex any day. Some might disagree…
JD, I usually don’t do conspiracy theories, but Graham changed (and has stayed changed) after just one one-on-one golf game with 45. Wondering what was said.
Someday the tale will be told. I thought HRC was right years ago when she said there was a right wing conspiracy going on. I had Newt all suited up…
She was spot on correct.
The Psychopath went somewhere he was not allowed to go and did something no one is allowed to do. Will there be any consequences? Of course not!
Ralph Nader wrote a tribute to Phil Donahue (four days ago after the news of his passing).
Donahue pioneered a live daily TV show before a live studio audience and television audience in 200 cities around the country. He would take questions from his audience and from call-in viewers.
Donahue's kind of earnestness, authentic courtesy and persistence in giving voice to the underdogs in our society that propelled him for nearly 30 years to become America’s leading daytime national TV talk show host.
Before Donahue's TV audience of some 10 million viewers, he would introduce to the nation first the pioneers of civil rights, consumer justice, prosecutors of corporate crimes, safer environments, workplace safety, and gay rights.
Other talk show hosts are cowed by their paying advertisers. Not Phil. He took using the people’s public airwaves seriously. Daring but self-effacing, Donahue knew his guests, though outspoken and challenging to power structures, represented large numbers of silenced Americans.
'I’ve called Phil Donahue the greatest DEFENDER and ENABLER of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, petition and assembly in the 20TH CENTURY. Hands down. There has been no one remotely close then or since, given the frequency of his shows and his audience size. He helped citizens put forces in motion for a more just America and world that continue to this day.' ~Ralph Nader
By Ralph Nader | August 23, 2024
https://nader.org/2024/08/23/phil-donahue-1935-2024-greatest-champion-of-free-speech-for-the-peoples-interest-of-the-20th-century/
<<<
“Dissent is very difficult in this country. We have a media which is rewarded by telling people what they want to hear. And that’s not our job. We’re not supposed to be popular. We’re not supposed to be extolled as wonderful people who make us happy. We have to show the pain. And we are obliged to say what we feel about the decisions of powerful people.”
~Phil Donahue
(See, Ralph Nader Radio Hour interview of June 18, 2016).
Donohue was one of my very favorites. He was relentless and he was also a big promoter of women’s rights which made me adore him even more. I was very sad when I learned he had passed away.
Ditto Marlene
I remember Phil Donahue's first years starting in Dayton when I was a child- I was roundeyed hearing Madalyn Murray O'Hare speak directly about her beliefs while Phil ran track around the studio getting the mike to whoever waved at him to come over. His show blew up quickly, moving him to Chicago, and I think now that he was one of the first journalists dedicated to hearing women's voices and questions directly, as well as other marginalized people. It took nerve to take the risks he did, and the Dayton stations weren't that thrilled with him in the 60s. That's a great Nader quote, thanks for sharing it, Kathleen.
Loved Phil, Ralph, not so much after 2000. Before that he was a fav. After that he was trash…
Jeri, me either.
I also remember Phil's WHIO (Dayton) radio show, "Conversation Piece." which was the forerunner to his TV interview show.
And if it weren’t for Ralph Nader taking 90,000 votes in Florida in 2000 thereby preventing President Al Gore from the White House, we would’s have had wars in the Middle East and we wouldn’t have had a majority of extremist Supreme Court judges. All praise to the megalomaniac Ralph Nader.
In actual fact, Gore did win the election. It has been proven. It was the SCOTUS that stopped the recount and declared Bush the winner.
Ralph’s ego was his downfall. He will forever be remembered for that and NEVER forgiven, nice man that he is???
I expect he believed in his cause, thought the American people would embrace it...and didn't choose what he did, based on partisanship.
Damn, I knew that he would be a spoiler. Otherwise I would have been on his team. I liked what he said. But egos rule
The results of that election made me a much stronger supporter of open primaries, Ranked Choice Voting, and Willie Velasquez's non-partisan Southwest Voter Registration Education Project participants that enlightened the rest of us Bernie supporters (who did vote for Hillary in the General Election).
I had the privilege of a few exchanges of emails with Joe Galloway after his fellow author friend, Keith William Nolan, passed away. Joe was another that spoke for the common man, particularly soldiers, the way he was inspired to do by Ernie Pyle. He was the 4th to sign the legacy guest book on the first day, I was the 9th a day later.
See https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/08/18/journalist-joe-galloway-chronicler-of-vietnam-war-dies/
"...In 2002, Knight Ridder asked Galloway to return to reporting after a stint as an adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell to bolster its Washington bureau’s skeptical coverage of the Bush administration’s case for ousting Hussein.
Galloway did that by contributing, often anonymously, to his colleagues’ stories and by writing a column that often was critical of Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their aides who were bent on invading Iraq.
John Walcott, Galloway’s longtime editor and friend, recounted how an exasperated Rumsfeld finally asked Joe to meet with him alone in his office. When Joe arrived, he was greeted by Rumsfeld — and a group of other high-ranking Pentagon officials.
“Good,” Galloway reported when he returned to the Knight Ridder office. “I had ‘em surrounded.”
Galloway then described how after Rumsfeld accused him of relying on retired officers and officials, he had told the group that most of his sources were on active duty, and that some of them “might even be in this room.”
Asked by his colleagues if that was true, Galloway replied, “No, but it was fun watching ‘em sweat like whores in church...”
Harris and Walz campaign should stock their quivers with that arrow nicely. Add it to the arsenal of disrespectful and outright insults Trump has levied on the military.
Is there anything more thrilling than the Harris campaign completely owning the media. The final numbers from viewership of the convention conclusively confirm their influence is waning at best or on a slow death march, also for the best. The corporate media has way overstepped their bounds and now they are paying for it. The 2024 Democratic National Convention credentialed over 200 content creators to cover the convention in person and hundreds of others to cover remotely, reaching a combined following count of 500 million. This dwarfed the republican controlled corporate media by significant margins. Now that same feckless media is determined to present trump as a legitimate candidate and as punishment for the Democrats, they criticize Kamala and Tim for not bending the knee to them.
Yessir, the media aint happy, aint happy at all. We need to ignore them as much as possible and support independent content creators who seem to be much more in tune with facts, not the lies and projection that the trump backed corporate CEO’s feed us. Corporate Media, she's just not into you. You gotta move on. She's just not into you.
I keep hearing “She has to do an interview” and I keep wondering why? She’s getting her message out. We don’t need production news casts. We need truthful news casts. They seem unable to pull that off.
As has been pointed out, she has never failed to speak to the "press" when she is campaigning. She answers questions and she doesn't shrug them off. But, it's hard for the "press" to play gotcha when she is answering and then goes on her way. It has also been noted that the "press" screams and yells and talks over her. Quite unlike the fawning behavior when dealing with the MAGA candidate. The fourth estate is riddled with termites.
The problem for ‘The Press’ is that apparently Kamala is not entertaining enough for them.
In contrast, We the people are thrilled to hear straight talk about the concerns of our nation.
What a concept. Truth .
We don't need her to sit down with a media that will only ask her to talk about T...not policy. We saw what media did to Biden... especially when he cooperated.
Agree. Remember the Hu report? They’re vile.
Agreed
Carla 'they' are a fascist filter to indoctrinate us to their point of view.
I read she and Tim are doing a joint presser Thursday.
Glory hallelujah, this will shut the press up for about 5 minutes. Just googled and the leads are that kamala is scared she will lose to dump if she does not give an interview. Lordy. 😂
Hoyt, the leads are “see? She’s afraid of us so she’s doing a press conference in genuflection. She has no power unless WE provide her with it. We knew she was weak and this proves it. See how critical WE are?”
I’m hoping Harris uses her prosecutor face when telling them all “where to get off”
“I’m speaking”. I hope she follows precedent and answers the question she wants rather than the one asked!
Her campaign is changing the media as we know it. Shaking things up is fair and it is good because we and everyone else have to stop being complacent with the garbage that MSM spews out.
Yes - I don't hear any great clammer for in-depth interviews. Only from Republicans and legacy media. And since legacy media has done such poor job...
Hoyt! Where you been. Great post. I agree completely. Love it!
Hey Eileen, missed you. Had to take a sabbatical to recharge for the final lap. Hope you are doing well and are ready for the final countdown.
Ready, aim, you're fired, Trump! ForEVAH!
The Times printed over 20 questions they would ask Harris in an interview. Many were ridiculous. My response was why not ask these of Trump first and demand answers from him.
Harris is doing the right thing to ignore “unserious” media.
Yep I saw that. That is beyond crazy, the nyt whining and crying after they placed themselves in a box. How can a media that supports trump be serious, Kamala said he was unserious but poses a very serious threat. Understatement of the year candidate. LOL
Welcome back, Hoyt! Thanks for utilizing the back row's use of stagger breathing.
Wow. Clear and concise journalism. As rare in MSM as an ethical republican in many decades.
Thank you Professor Richardson for the many character attributes you possess and for your time in creating these most valuable essays.
She’s really working hard on passing on her work appearing for many interviews and podcasts. We owe her a great debt for her efforts.
I still love Joe Biden. The media, which needs to sell controversy, seems to continue pooh-poohing his accomplishments. But historians, who have the luxury of objective hindsight, will put Biden's amazing accomplishments in proper perspective; one of America's greatest presidents and a gift to all of us.
I'm quickly learning to love Kamala Harris. What a miraculous transition. And I believe she will win big-time on Nov 5.
We can see victory in the voter numbers starting at the 81 million who voted for Joe, in her contributions, in her engaging and hopeful messaging, in women's health choices, in her taking back to the Democratic Party the fundamental words of "freedom", "patriotism", "loyalty","joy", her outreach to all Americans, her dismissal of Trump as unserious thereby incapable of trolling Democrats, and so forth. Who to vote for is such a simple choice; Goodness and Joy or Trump and MAGA's Awfulness.
We can see victory in the tidal wave of new volunteers joining the millions of grassroots activists who have been working since 2016 to bring back a Democratic majority in Congress and the White House. This majority will arrive and pass historic legislation for Americans.
For all of us who grew up in the midst of Vietnam protests and the Civil Rights movements, we know the power of the most potent force in our democracy; The Consent of the Governed. Given time and diligence, it will overwhelm the the enemy we face; The Tyranny of the Minority.
Trump's final act will not be overthrowing our Democracy but finally electing a woman POTUS in America.✌️✌️
Biden is on my list of favorite Presidents too.
“This is not about this president. It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing,” then–majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues. “It has always been about November 3, 2020. It’s about flipping the Senate.” May this evil man, for whom power and money are the only concerns he has, rot in his grave.
Mitch McConnell will go down in history as the ultimate rotten apple of his party. He is a viper. Just the worst.
May he freeze up before our very eyes…permanently. I will not be kind to the devil incarnate.
I found that I couldn't "like" this one, but only because I have Parkinson's and can't wish this one anyone. (Otherwise, good comment. :-) )
My cousin’s husband and another friend have it also, kd. My very best to you as you battle this relentless disease. ❤️
Thanks, Marlene!
Ridicule the grifter, the con man, the orange fraud.
So, in addition to Heather noting the felon again hawking more merchandise, says Michael Tomasky, editor of The New Republic.
We're Americans (most of us signed on to Heather's site). We can "enjoy" what lowest common denominators oligarchs, dictators, autocrats all have
We could include those ensconced in the traditions of patriarchy, such as the old men yet riding top institutions in otherwise democratic Japan, and those who push medievalism over the U.S. Constitution, such as they of the Clarence court aiming to package all women, ruling their orange felon over law that regards the rest of us equally.
What do they have in common? Superciliousness.
That is, they all puff themselves above the rest of us so as to see us ever only as parts of packages, abstractions. For them of most limited imagination, the rest of us are but numbers, units, or (with a biological nod to nature) mere molecules. They are all dehumanized, so can't help but reduce all others as mere parts of treadmills, linear, 1-2-3, and causal machineries. Algorithms, computers, and tests can easily measure all this – life all without subtleties, complications, or any other “loose ends.”
They’re bullies, these oligarchs, dictators, autocrats, patriarchs, Clarence toadies.
Well, there’s those and then there’s those that… the only way I can figure it is they have “television brain rot” … some wannabe entertainer, unreality tv personality, mobster style criminal for President?!?! There is no way it makes any bit of sense.
The warp loop insanity does make sense, Carla.
People who learn some respect for humanities in that proportion may learn regard for others. They who dehumanize -- zero access to any novels, films, theater plays, music, or other arts -- so untether themselves from awe, appreciation, good debt to our fellows.
They may vary in the ways they float -- Trump ever huckstering, Mohammed bin Salman hacksawing journalists, Putin destroying hospitals, schools, museums, shopping centers, and residential housing, Netanyahu siccing far right settlers unto ever more stolen West Bank land, Clarence craving more yacht trips. It all varies madly.
But it all gets guaranteed in some forms of idiocy -- all makes pathetic sense -- to the degree one shucks off one's possible humanities.
I’ve thought about this… comprehending warp loop insanity would make me crazy … and so long as I am still on this mortal coil, shedding my humanity and not appreciating its wonders would be a waste of a perfectly fine life.
Yes, Phil.
Throw the Bums out!.
Vote with our wallets.
Refuse to subscribe/unsubscribe to the established news outlets that pander to Trump.
It’s killing me to not renew to The NYT and WaPo. Send a letter, both real hard copy and electronic to the publishers telling them why.
Who knows? They might pay attention.
Heritage toadies?
Unless Harris can get 281 electoral votes without the States where local election officials can obstruct certification until after January 6, the election will go to the House. ( I know 270, but the extra is coffin-nailing insurance { I hope})
A new wave of people registering as Democrats, especially among key minority groups, speaks volumes about the extraordinary rapid change we're living through. It's unprecedented, certainly in my seven-plus decades. We must do everything in our power to maintain the momentum. MAGA voter suppression and other deceitful actions they have planned are the only things standing in the way of saving our democracy.
It is with pleasure that I view the disarray of the Maga Hats and their Abomination in Chief. More voter registrations and swelling donations, bolster the reality we are experiencing. When we Fight...
Wow brilliant powerful letter covering so very much Love the way you bring it round to congress Yes the founders could have never anticipated that the freedom fought for could one day create a monster Thanks Heather
I must admit, I’m so completely partisan - towards ethical, honorable, patriotic, thinking, compassionate people.
MAGAs are completely partisan, but towards unethical, dishonorable, treasonous, criminal dullards.
I’m not so sure any more that “partisanship” is the best way to describe diametrically opposed world views of humanity.
Well put
Good thoughts, John. My "go to" is to indicate my belief is that their sky is a different color and their compasses don't point towards true North.
The earth is flat, bleach can be injected to cure Covid, Biden created worldwide inflation, pizza parlors that don’t have basements have basements, and cats are the aliens we’ve been searching for. #AlternativeFacts
Ok, maybe the one about cats
Ditto John; thoughtful comment friend.
And when they're destroyed, I intend to piss on their grave.
I get it. But I just want them to disappear. I don’t want to consider a healing process for them or assimilating them back into society… just go away. Poof 💨
Yes. That would make the world a better place.
Donny *will* die. Time is on our side.
And once that comes to pass, wherever Guilty Donny is buried I plan to get a photo of me standing on his grave making a BIG thumbs-up and with a wide smile. Perhaps I'll dance a hornpipe as well.
Look, don’t be so sure and I’ll tell you why. For many years, I wished the same thing on Kissinger. That man didn’t kick the bucket until this year and he was 100!🤬
Lol TC.... don't hold anything back on us; How do you really feel friend ? lol...