It did not surprise me to receive the Letter this Sunday morning. No stunning picture of the Maine coast, light shimming on the water and the dark sky streaked with orange and gold; instead, words on the screen told us about the people marching this weekend for voting rights.
"We are not going to stop": Thousands gathered on Saturday for the annual "March On for Voting Rights". 58 years ago Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at the first March on Washington. 58 years ago and we're still marching because access to the vote is never guaranteed for Blacks and Browns in the United States of America. Eighteen states have already enacted 30 laws this year that will make it harder for Americans to vote.
Heather didn't trudge herself to bed at a decent hour on Saturday night because the alarm clock in her mind warned her that 'our right to have a say in our government is slipping out of our hands'. (Letter)
The truth of Biden's presidential win was just to hard to bare. It couldn't be true. The election was a rigged. There was fraud. Trump really won in a landslide.
A Cyber Ninja Audit in Maricopa, Arizona would provide the evidence for election fraud. The Ninjas have been auditing the returns since April 22th, 2021, It is now August 29, 2021. What's up Cyber Ninjas?
Take a quick break. This is really happening. In the midst the pandemic, which is now surging ,again; a dangerous hurricane, Ida, about to hit Louisiana; our country is getting wetter and drier as the temperatures soar -- Climate Change is changing faster than the scientists predicted. -- and to top that off, we have radically undemocratic Republicans working like demons to rob Americans of their voting rights.
'Two agencies that oversee Arizona elections went on the offensive Thursday to debunk and discredit the soon-to-be released results of the Senate's unconventional and partisan review of Maricopa County's 2020 general election.'
'Two reports released by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, highlighted the erroneous and insecure nature of the audit conducted by Senate contractors. They also reiterated the ways that the county and state verified the election was sound.'
'The bipartisan effort to discredit the results from lead contractor Cyber Ninjas before they are released was not coordinated, Richer said. But both were seemingly aimed at the same purpose — getting ahead of misinformation or inaccuracies that may be in the Cyber Ninjas report.' (AZCentral)
All is not lost, but we have yet to get a national voting act bill passed. 'The House approved the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Tuesday in a party-line vote, kicking the legislation to the Senate — where it faces longer odds of passage. The bill is seen as having a better chance of moving forward than a more sweeping voting rights measure known as the For the People Act.'
'Either legislation could get to President Biden’s desk if all 50 Democrats agreed to make an exception to the filibuster, but Manchin and fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are against any kind of filibuster reform'. (The Hill)
I say both pieces of legislation could and should get to the presidents desk for signing.
This is where we enter. In the next few weeks we will be contacting President Biden and our Senators because we are on the front lines to get these bills passed. We cannot permit our say in government slip out of our hands. We are the anti-filibuster Army.
Your banner, just unfurled by Dr. Cox Richardson, bears the words of Martin Luther King:
“Our country is backsliding to the unconscionable days of Jim Crow. And some of our senators are saying, ‘Well, we can’t overcome the filibuster,’.... I say to you today: Get rid of the filibuster. That is a monument to white supremacy we must tear down.”
That monument, that one—not stone statuary, not the dead burying the dead, that institutionalized sabotage, that taking a sand bucket to the machinery of state.
You have gifted commanders like Stacey Abrams. Follow them!
This will mean persistent marching, day after day—the example comes from little Belarus— but America is not yet under a despot’s heel, you are still a nation of laws. And not yet all couch potatoes… The people will face no little danger, much organization will be needed behind the lines, securing powerful support where needed,forming firm alliances, twisting arms too, and building strong fallback defensive positions.
If resolute, disciplined, perseverant and well-led, the movement will snowball, going from strength to strength not only throughout America but worldwide. Worldwide. If you dare, tyrants will watch, and will tremble.
Thanks to HCR for staying up late and once again informing us in a clear-eyed way about what challenges we face. The 'old' socio-political is dying and fighting back hard to continue. But the tide of demography is running counter to that. I prefer to put my energy towards the 'new'.
There are many skirmishes to be fought now. And the forces of hate, greed, and delusion will win a few, but humanity's consciousness is awakening. Watch how the afghani refugees are welcomed into new communities and (regrettably) how the survivors of Hurricane Ida will be helped by their brethren. Those are the signals of truth, all the rest is noise meant to distract.
You have two Senators who will support the voting rights bills. There is no need to contact them. Their support is in the bag. But I have two Senators who will oppose them, regardless of what those they represent say, and State legislation making replacing them at the polls difficult at best. Where does that leave the anti-filibuster Army in such an environment?
Same here in Floriduh. I do not write to Rick Scott who is obtuse or Marco Rubio who is insane. There is no point. I am of the Sane Minority here who have no representation.
These psychopaths are like a disease that enters communities, even nuclear families, spreading hatred and dissension between neighbors, between parents and children, brothers and sisters. At the outset, Cruz scared me far more than Trump...
I understand how you feel Rob, I live in Floriduh, as well. I have no representation. I live in a deeply red county. I donate what I can, I’m a retired Special Ed teacher, and keep voting. I will admit, some days, I feel so defeated.
Before we even speak of taking to America’s streets and meeting places or of besieging corporate power, let us turn to the southeast and see what terrible arguments real power—that of Nature—brings to bear.
England was saved from a landing by Spain’s Invincible Armada by smaller ships that could outmaneuver galleons, but mainly by bad weather conditions. Japan was spared from invasion by the Mongols when the Wind of the Gods—the Kamikaze—destroyed the invaders’ fleet. No King Knut can command the waves.
Watch now the progress of hurricane Ida from New Orleans through Jackson MS and Nashville TN and thence to Washington DC. May the power of Nature not have an impact even on zombie believers in whatever food for goats their tinsel idol’s feedlot provides? Propaganda won’t save those on the rooftops or clinging to jetsam amidst raging floodwaters.
?? Any unnecessary destruction and suffering will be blamed on Biden in those states. Even the IPCC report does not blame climate change for hurricanes or flooding.
Of course not. The IPCC report doesn't blame climate change for hurricanes or flooding, they have always occurred. What the report concludes is that climate change is making hurricanes, floods and other weather extremes even more frequent and more extreme.
"What was remarkable in the IPCC report was put most succinctly in University of Leeds climate physicist Piers Forster’s pair of tweets on Monday, outlining the good and bad news from the report. The bad news was familiar: we are seeing “more intense and more frequent” weather extremes. We are close to 1.5C of warming and will reach it by mid-century." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/ipcc-latest-climate-report-hope
I feel anything but “Canadian cool”. What strikes me now is the contrast between this forum which is partly talking shop and partly deeply committed people trying to save their country, and the indifference of millions of others who just vote.
I don’t feel a *broad* sense of urgency in the American left and centre. LFAA is a cocoon, a necessary and valorous cocoon, but a cocoon nonetheless.
Dr. Heather’s posts convey a rising sense of urgency, I note. But I’m generally reluctant to post now. I feel it’s either preaching to the choir or it will be piling on, as my mood is much like Jeremiah. I cannot feel even a shred of optimism now, as it feels like a point of no return has come and Americans is simply waiting for the gavel to fall when the Voting Rights legislation implodes for once and all.
I read the posts and appreciate those who are hanging in with implacable determination. Many others strike me as whistling past the graveyard with their eternal “Go Blue” theme and nothing of substance. In fairness of course, people need and seek that consolation, so the better part of me senses that it comes from the deepest trauma. But the gremlin in me sees these posts as delusional.
It’s been a long time coming, but I think the wall has been hit. America has sown the wind and is now reaping the whirlwind.
And it will indeed be bitter. I have heard such spite, stupidity and braying from others on the other side (they are here too, by the way), that they come to feel like an alien race to me.
Two saving graces, completely different: Selfishly this is giving me momentum to finish my book, as I feel, perhaps quite wrongly, that my thesis is being amplified with every passing day.
And the example of righteous action that I so seek comes from Michigan’s Governor Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessell meet the forces of darkness head on when they crawl out from under their rocks. This week a woman has been felony charged with making odious death threats to regional health officials who had the temerity to institute a K-6 mask mandate in schools. 3 felony charges, maximum 20 years in the pokey. The black part of my soul loved it. Go Michigan. There’s been a lifetime’s worth of abuse from the jackals of that state.
And Fern, I will conclude that I stand little chance of being accused of writing a coherent list after the above mishmash.
I am truly glad that you came back again, Eric. You released your sense of us, America, the forum, Michigan, the left and unafraid to lay an egg. It is my way, sometimes, to cut through the solemnity with a bit of naughtiness, or worse. l have read some uncool words of yours in the past and wondered if you would thoroughly dispense with signs of 'cool' and 'calm' as you have, but 'steadfast' you cannot deny.
It hurts me, too, that this country seems without the level of organization the times demand. There was a long pause here as I considered the pandemic but that is not the cause behind our quietness. There is trauma and social media, loneliness but still a spirit. A friend and I in different places and without text, except at the very beginning and at the end, spent fifteen minutes this morning in total silence as we considered the fallen soldiers, the Afghan people our families and whatever our minds delivered. Meditation, church, feelings, restoration, peace -- we search for strength and both of us were content in our support with calm deliberation.
However torn you may feel about America and us, your voice, Eric, has deep feeling, and I am glad to hear it. If we feed your book, so be it; that is not our calling. We ring bells together and apart. It is far too early to predict where our house will be a couple of years from now.
It is reassuring to hear that you and your friend found solace in meditation. It can be very hard to slow down and look at big perspective.
You note that “it is far too early to predict where our house will be a couple of years from now”. That is certainly true and it is a vexing truth. I would ask you this, however. In your bones, do you intuit that America will be in a better place and on the mend and rise? Or do you feel it more likely that the downward spiral will continue? Obviously I’m asking for an answer from a place beyond hope. We both share that hope.
Dr. King famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
That may be a consoling platitude (for who can successfully refute it?), or it may be the most penetrating truism.
My own feeling is that it is a truism. In asking you the question above it’s only fair that I give my own feeling. In my heart my sense is that within our lifetimes, the arc of the moral universe *will* bend towards justice in America. However, before that happens the country will pass through a terrible trial, the likes of which has only been hinted at in the last five years. But somehow, some way, the good people of America will say, “Enough”, and those who have taken America into this ghastly new world will be vanquished.
That time has not yet come. The forces of anarchy are still in the ascendancy and they fight with no quarter and no shame. On the other side, the centrist and progressive left have not been galvanized in sufficient numbers to say with one voice, “Enough”, and then rise up to assert the ascendancy of goodness.
In truth, it seems to me that most Americans of good intention are still watching unfolding events as if they were a multi-part Netflix series.
They need a leader of more charisma, vigor, and sheer force of will to start the ball rolling in the right way.
I hate writing this, but as implied above, Biden is not the man. He is giving his heart and experience to the enterprise. He provides moral clarity in abundance. Legislatively he has done as much as could be expected, though I’m not sure where he’d be without Leader Pelosi.
But he is a product of the same cyclical forces that brought us Trump. He has been a Senator longer than anything else, and he craves bipartisanship too much for a time like this. This is war for the soul of America *in a new world*. I cannot help but feel that this, in the end, will make him a dupe of the forces who make a mockery of that world.
None of us could ask more of Joseph Robinette Biden. But in some ways he is too good a person for this battle.
Until America is at the very brink of being vanquished as a moral force, until a leader of enormous charisma and unyielding will emerges, I feel the degradation will become worse.
I have often quoted Churchill’s summary of your country: “America always does the right thing, but only after exhausting all other options”.
I bring it up here because I think it’s never been truer than now.
But someday, within our lifetimes, the next Abraham Lincoln will come to the fore and Americans of decent character will rise up in sufficient numbers to rout this odious gang.
And then the world will have to contend as one in the fight against the climate crisis.
I am curious to know what your intuition is telling you.
Eric, My reply to you was almost done and then gone. To start again:
You have asked the most difficult question. It has been with me for years, particularly insistent as a recurring mode for the last eleven months and most persistent in recent weeks.
'In your bones, do you intuit that America will be in a better place and on the mend and rise? Or do you feel it more likely that the downward spiral will continue?'
I cannot answer you right away; ' it will take another day or two.
Paul Celan's poem 'Death Fugue' was brought to my attention two months ago. I read it several times and again yesterday. The poem is not a riddle. The sense of it echoes in a strand of where I think America is today. I almost wrote 'where we are today'. My intuition is both small and large but do not know how much I can encompass. Below is a link to the poem:
Ah, a last Emperor of the Incas reference. Yes, even after his final victory in a devastating Civil War with a faction led by his half-brother, it did not go well for Atahualpa, who was shortly later executed by Francisco Pizzaro. Efforts to preserve minority rule seldom end well for those seeking to suppress the voice of the majority of those they govern.
Biden hasn't called for the elimination of the fillibuster (yet) either. He's a Senate veteran and remembers well that the rules work in both directions. IF the DEMS lose the Senate in 2022, they will wish that they had retained the fillibuster. The current calls for its elimination are short-sighted.
I respectfully disagree. This claim does not gain credibility from constant repetition. The DEMS know what they have to do to retain or expand their Senate majority. The odds against it are high anyway, but the answer is one word: ORGANIZE.
A friend posted this on Face Book today. It's from RARE BAGS with John Farrell, August 26, 2021, at 3:14 AM. The author is the great thinker Arundhati Roy. You may remember her novel "The God of Small Things."
"What is this thing that has happened to us? It's a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus... It has mad the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to 'normality', trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
I love her writing. Thank you for posting this fabulous quote. She is not the only one who has expressed these thoughts of a rupture with the past and a turn toward something new. I just hope continually it will be something more life giving that what we've had to live with up until now.
If a "Republican extremist" does win in 2024 through obvious rigging of the vote, I predict the country will come apart with the secession of the west coast and New England by 2026 and possibly a civil war by 2026. That's if the Republicans don't win control of 4 more state legislatures in 2022 and call a Constitutional Convention under Article V, an act that could result in as thorough a reworking/replacement of the Constitution as happened in the first constitutional convention called in 1787 to amend the Articles of Confederation when they were thrown aside and replaced with the Constitution (and under Article V there is no limitation on what a convention once convened can do, just like 1787, thank you very much Mr. Madison).
As important as people say the new voting laws are, they are 100 times moreso when one considers the varieties of dark future failing to enact them portends.
Until recently I thought the call for a constitutional convention resided in the fever swamp of the radical right. Not that the radicals are mainstream the possibilities TC warns about seem more and more possible. Civil war indeed.
Your math is off (or incomplete). Republicans control 29 state legislatures today. It takes 34 states to call for a Constitutional Convention (CC), and 38 states to ratify any changes (amendments). I agree that such a CC would be a right-wing clown show. I doubt that anything enacted there could get 38 states to ratify it. In any case, as a New Englander, I’m in favor of seceding. There’s no living with, or reasoning with, Republicans. I’m just so tired of their belligerent ignorance.
I'm with you, JR! Any thoughts of Canada adopting us? I think medical care, fresher, cooler air, clean water, and the absence of Puritanical obsessions about reproductive rights.
I’m always amazed at the chutzpa of secessionists. No regard for the people of their state who would be deprived of their rights under the Constitution.
And I’m amazed at the chutzpah of Republicans, who have no regard for the Americans who are deprived of their rights under the Constitution by Republican voter suppression, promotion of religion, rejection of science and racism.
No, it takes more than 34 states since there are already 34 states that have signed these calls for a convention. Any time in the past 20 years the GOP has controlled a legislature, they have done it, then if it should change hands, the democrats haven't taken the threat seriously, so they don't rescind it and it stays "on the books" and on the list.
If I recall correctly, the blue states on the coasts are the main economic engines of the country, and in the federal budget (to use the odious parlance of Movement Conservatives against them) the blue states are mostly the "makers" while the red states are mostly "takers." The Republicans have already started the civil war, and are attempting to win it without firing a shot, by changing the laws to cement their policies (rich/white rights instead of civil rights, ban abortion, "Christian" govt, more guns with no regulation, screw the climate full carbon ahead, etc.) AND this year, by rigging elections to ensure they get a one-party autocracy.
But if most of the money is made in the blue states, how would the Republicans fund a pist civil war truncated country consisting only of the red states? That's why they're trying to win the current phase of this civil war with a sudden Blitzkrieg of changed state laws to enthrone their policies and rig elections to ensure they always win. The red states couldn't fund their country without the blue states. The single thread they cling to is the fillibuster, which enables minority rule in the Senate. All of us across the country have to keep pressing hard to eliminate the fillibuster for voting rights legislation at the very least.
I’ve been terrified of the prospect of a new Constitutional Convention for a long time. I am utterly convinced that the provisions of at least 8 of the first 10 Amendments and most of the others will be gutted; that the 2nd Amendment will be strengthened; that the policies and ideology of Movement Conservatives and the current brand Republican extremists will be thoroughly baked into the new Constitution that would emerge. Gone would be any notion of equality before the law, of civil rights or even human rights as the country would, as Firesign Theater phrased it, “march forward, into the past,” a past of repression, of institutional racism, Jim Crow and second class citizenship for those unfortunate enough to be born into an unfavored caste: People of Color, the LGBTQ, immigrants, intellectuals, adherents of the wrong religion, and women. I believe that the country would emerge with a new Constitution that is the mirror image of our current Constitution; that those rewriting the Constitution will be swept, in the words of Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin, “up into the White House with powers that will make martial law seem like anarchy!”
TC-have you thought of posting your Article V blog on FB and other platforms to raise awareness? I didn't know that the margin for passing it was so low. Given the TFG fans in places of importance (i.e. R-lead legislatures) are now so numerous, the country's basis in law itself is truly at risk. I wouldn't put it past them to essentially demand autocracy.
I don't post on FleeceBlock anymore, said collection of clucks having decided 14 months ago that I was the hacker who had taken over my page and locking me out (thank god, I'd never have gotten away otherwise). That said, I'm fine with any of my readers doing a copy/paste with things they think are important.
WAAAAAAAAAAIT, y'all!! Let me get out first! I want no part of some red-state oligarchy...besides there would be NO oligarchy here because the vast bulk of the US $$$ is tied up in what are blue state economies. The red states grow the food. Anyway, I tend to wonder how long a "country" run by the likes of Fox News would last. Whatever, just LET ME GET OUT!
@TCinLA, thanks for your alarming post here and the full argument you posted on your Substack platform. Alert: I successfully subscribed to your letter and received the confirmation email, but the signup process never required me to supply a payment method. I would like to actually pay.
Republicans have zero interest in amending the Constitution as far as I can tell. It works finevfor them, especially with their majority on the Court. Tossing the Constitution, that’s a Democratic thing.
"The leadership of the COS is staffed with alumni of various conservative organizations.[18] Meckler is a founder of the Tea Party Patriots and writer at The Daily Caller. O'Keefe is a founding Board Member of the Institute for Free Speech, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and numerous other conservative groups. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint both serve as senior advisors to COS. DeMint resigned from the Senate to become the president of the Heritage Foundation but was ousted after failing to resolve issues to the satisfaction of the board.[19] Coburn is a Republican politician who has been called "one of the real far-right guys" for his stances as "a top anti-abortion crusader," proclaiming "I am a global warming denier" and fearmongering over what he calls the "gay agenda" alongside austerity budgeting.[20][21][22] Coburn joined the Manhattan Institute in 2016 as a Senior Fellow.[23]
COS boasts endorsements of its ideas from Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Gov. Greg Abbott, Rand Paul, Gov. Sarah Palin, Ben Shaprio, Sen. Marco Rubio, Charlie Kirk, James O'Keefe, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Ron Johnson, David Horowitz and other conservatives.[24]"
This is an incredibly disturbing Letter. Acurate, none the less, disturbing. Although, the numbers are in our favor, the intent of the GOP is both overwhelming and disastrous. When the GOP take the wheel, most all of us in this Community, will not see Democracy as we knew it again in our lifetime.
We are past the time to clutch our beads. The GOP played the long game. This set up has been in the works very likely for decades. As they quietly, and in some cases, not so quietly pushed ahead, we gave them the benefit of the doubt that they would play with integrity.
When the midterm elections come to pass, the layout of the land will be quite different. Mary Trump, Donald's niece was quoted yesterday as saying her Uncle will run in 2024. I believe her. As much as we thought he wouldn't be able to physically achieve this, he will be there.
We couldn't possible be in a worse dynamic as a Nation as we are right now.
If Biden doesn't run again, we've got nothing. The Democrats should have been priming that pump 2 election cycles ago.
End the f*cking filibuster. It should never have come down to this, yet here we are.
If Biden doesn't run again, the Democrats do have some strong candidates like Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobachar, Jay Inslee, Michael Bennett, Sheldon Whitehouse, Val Demings, Gretchen Whitmer. We could see the Republican Party split or fall apart or just have no platform at all except fear and misinformation.
Cathy, one problem is that none of them are bullet proof to overcome the onslaught of the GOP. We can't lose Klobuchar from the Senate. Harris is being marginalized. Beto needs to straighten out Texas. This Country is still not accepting enough for Pete, Stacey or Val. And so on.
As crazy as it sounds, the GOP will have a twice Impeached, heavily defeated, frankly old candidate . That will work for them.
No one is bullet proof. Beto has grownup; Buttigieg is now in the bigtime. Biden has been through a great deal. He needs our support more then ever, but in a year or so there will be a strong group to choose from.
For Them but not for Us!! WE are the Majority. Let us not forget that. Put our feet on the ground, our hands to the print and our money where our mouths are.
Yes, but all that is still two and a half years out. We might be so fearful of climate change then
that any democrat would win. Or we could be in a civil war or have parts of the country seceding. If one of the old white crazy AOP (awful old party) I personally will join the rebellion.
Then, please Linda, quit being more scared than determined. Quit being more scared than ferocious. Quit being more scared than sure of how important women are to this battle that looms.
Being late to this Letter with a few its responses of doom and gloom, I have the benefit of echoing the words of Christine to instead be determined, ferocious, and resolute. Adding to that, I take responsibility for reposting Stuart Attewell’s Lincolnian reminder:
“It doesn't necessarily portend well depending on your point of view. It certainly is a day that well illustrates the pains and joys of post-columbian history in the Americas. Work to be done to fashion the outcome that meets the test of Lincoln's words in his Gettysburg address:
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Among those who would be willing to join the rebellion against a future loss of democracy in the United States, I wonder how many would be willing to put their lives on the line, as the signers of the Declaration of Independence did in 1776 when they pledged their lives to their cause? There was a price on their heads! And is there a Democratic leader who would lead such a rebellion?
I am 80, in good health, still working, and have energy to spare. I have told my grandkids that I will put my life, what’s left of it, on the line for democracy, and die a good death. Roar!! (Meanwhile, I’m safe at home writing letters, dreaming of taking ferocious action.)
Girl, your words every day in comments are ferocious. Trust me, will be the same as physical action if the time knocks on your door. You Mana Bear Mary B.
But what happens when your letters and dreams, if you talk about them outside, render you unsafe, even at home? This sort of rebellion reminds me of the failed Children's Crusade during the Middle Ages, only the participants are at the other end of the age spectrum, as are we.
She is the model of the person I want representing me. I should say FIGHTING FOR ME. I can no longer accept representation who can't fight. I can fight (friends say I have a good murder left in me).
I believe that is an important question, Cary. I’ve heard that comment from others wanting to discredit the Dems. That the Republican Party has found ways to “marginalize” VP Harris. I know that one way is that they NEVER refer to her as “Vice President”.
And they use the word “marginalize” of course because she is a woman.
If they are trying to rile someone up, they’ve succeeded.
Cary, from the beginning they referred to as the "Whore" and worse. "She has no experience" Once in office there was the constant , "where is Kamala? " mantra from peanut gallery. Then the ultimate turn their back, by not mentioning her. Pretty sad. I like her and all she represents.
Amazing that propaganda has had such a strong grip on me and my country: The US has the lead for democracy in the world, and Americans are good winners. When actually democracy has been undermined in the US all along, and the losers of the civil war are such terribly bad losers. Not only voting rights are under attack, but also the integrity of courts and institutions. - Does not make us better, but we are losing a leader badly needed in the world.
I was recently afforded the opportunity to visit Ms. Richardson's great state of Maine. While there I watched from the shore as the workboats of the lobster and fishermen began each day at sunrise or before and then return at the close of day. But always and throughout the day, a steady parade of magnificent and majestic private yachts proudly plied the same waters. Each festooned with a full complement of the "beautiful people"! To my post modern, jaundiced eye, the disparity could not be more obvious. In the course of my observations I noted that many of the vessels from both "classes" carried the flag, some quite large and dramatically displayed. It made me wonder what we can possibly have left in common between those that "work" for a living and those that live off the efforts of others. Of course I can hear people saying "the wealthy work too" and while that is true in a sense I'm talking here about the hugh and expanding wealth gap that exists today between what we might call the moneyed folk and the rest of us. The people I have in mind often make their fortunes by using the velocity of money itself to make more money sometimes without generating any directly related product.
This is of course the nature of the modern world and nothing new really. However, what's new is the increasing moral detachment from the consequences of this dissociation. I believe now that the turbulence of the modern world has provided a kind of doomsday rationale for the rich to horde and gerrymander the product of society in an attempt to insure their survival at any cost.
These people are not stupid and they are aware of all the things that can and are going wrong in the world today and they too are concerned with the rising instability of governments and economies but they believe that the path forward must be maintained by the exercise of power and position. They intend to maintain control whatever the cost. Democracy is not essential to them and in fact is often counterproductive for maintaining their privilege and hegemony. They will and have begun to use force and they will keep whatever "forces" are necessary as they see the old order collapse. In fact, it is to their advantage to facilitate that collapse and they will point to the chaos to make the case for their repressive measures.
Climate change, pandemics, war, famine and revolt will not reach them in their private enclaves if they just manage it correctly like any other enterprise. One might say "Well how does anyone avoid climate change or famine or pestilence?" To that I say when you have been able to control the engines of wealth for so long and avoid the consequences of your malfeasance perhaps you can have the confidence that you'll be able to use disaster to restructure the world in your favor yet again. Consider for example the aspiration to build a space ship to colonize Mars and perhaps open new Amazon warehouse! People of this type might arguably have the notion that you can protect yourself while allowing the forces of chaos and ruin to help winnow the heard making life even better for them.
Should we expect these people to favor democracy!? I think not.
The aristocrats have always been parasites throughout history. Now they know full well what is happening, but think their money will save them. It won't in the end. One of my ex-students, who has plenty of money, but is not among the super rich, observed that there is no longer any place to move to. She is correct. Climate change problems are everywhere.
I live in the beautiful now very dry Willamette Valley. The guy who sells pork at the Saturday Market told us his spring has dried up and he now is using the house water to take care of the hogs. In southern Oregon, people are finding their water supply for their houses is now gone as farmers and ranchers use up what's in the water table. The state is delivering water to people there. Then there are the fires....with places like Lake Tahoe shutting down because people can't breathe. Yet in other places people have too much water with devastating floods.
Interesting discussion going on here in Salem where an empty building might become an Amazon brick and mortar. The negatives there far outweigh the positives for such a move.
Good for AOC. We don't have someone like her locally. People did have some good ideas for the building. We do have a very large Amazon warehouse. We also have a distribution center occupying a building formerly occupied by an outfit that took the tax write off and then ran. The building in question is downtown and the suggestion is for an actual department store.
Good points Michele! However, I'm pretty sure there are people that believe they can buy a mountain or an entire area and have the resources that will keep them safe from the looming disasters. Unfortunately, they're wrong and we'll all be together in lifeboat earth! Call me mean spirited, but I'd like to make them swim!
(Your observation that “aristocrats have have always been parasites throughout history” brings to mind the new favorite “cure” for covid: a dose of animal strength ivermectin…)
I recommend two recent articles in The New Yorker: Aug 30 issue, Evan Osnos’ “The Big House” about white collar offenders and the Aug 23 issue, Sam Knight’s “Home Truth” about the legacy of British country estates and the National Trust. Humans have always had the potential for greed and cruelty without remorse……
We subscribe to the New Yorker, so thanks for heads up for those two articles. I am an Anglophile, so always interested in things British too. I read lots of history from all over and some science and the world's religions as well. I just finished a book by DeWaal, (hope I have his name right) who is a primatologist, who argues that our morality has some evolutionary basis. The volume also contains some answers to him.
Good morning Gilco. My expectation meets yours. However….
Hmmm. As an educator, I’ve always been a student of the hidden resources of the classes…their strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the type of calamity which might overwhelm… be it climate calamity or voter and election suppression calamity…that very well might decide survival of the fittest. In many instances (and I know I will be ridiculed for this observation) my bet (the substance of which is raw survival skill, not money) goes for the poverty over middle and wealth class strata.
And note… I do not use term “lower” or “upper” in defining class. Economic class is a continuous spectrum, not a clear-cut distinction. Most scholars and students only regard socioeconomic class in terms of money and what it “can do” for you. Ignored is the true culture of resource within each class.
For instance, the wealth class and how they spend their time depends greatly on how and what they outsource to paid individuals to spend time with an issue.
For instance, if the system collapses (a somewhat example was the pandemic shutdown in 2020), I found it curious that the poverty class had little issue with finding food and taking care of children and getting on with things. Despite what the media bemoaned of “poor” children not having in school access. Actually, it was the middle class which freaked out. And now those same people rabidly will oppose any governmental intervention in the pandemic. In fact, ignore it and keep everything open.
Thank you for reading and responding. There are some considerations in what you've said I need to think about. I recall that it has been said that the "the poor will always be with us" , but I think that whatever skills and resources they posses may not be enough for the trials of the new world. That is at least the "new world" I think I see emerging.
Yes. But if the new world will be one as Arundhati Roy described in earlier post by a subscriber…
“Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
If this is the case, there are no people with little luggage but with a great store of inner personal strength who share their last dollar or meal, more capable than the poverty class. I’ll be holding onto their coattails.
Perhaps I'll try again. Thanks. I hadn't read any reviews, just picked it up because I've liked so many other of his science-and-technology informed novels.
Through your reporting, I spy some humor and empty vessels. From you I feel the heat of conscience and care for children, women and men. There will be Justice.
Well written, thank you. I think of Afghanistan at the moment. Surely, it will feel to the remaining citizens that the controlling aliens are leaving while the remaining earthlings perish in chaos and ruin.
"Consider for example the aspiration to build a space ship to colonize Mars and perhaps open new Amazon warehouse! People of this type might arguably have the notion that you can protect yourself while allowing the forces of chaos and ruin to help winnow the heard making life even better for them."
Definitely a portentous day.......in 1533, Pizzaro executed the last Inca Emporer, in 1862 General Lee won the 2nd Battle of Bull Run and in 1970-71 Native Americans occupied Mt Rushmore to protest the breaching of the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. It doesn't necessarily portend well depending on your point of view. It certainly is a day that well illustrates the pains and joys of post-columbian history in the Americas. Work to be done to fashion the outcome that meets the test of Lincoln's words in his Gettysburg address:
" It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
Stuart, after tending to my elderly mother the past two days and being late to the Letters, I am taking responsibility for reposting your Lincolnian reminder to a few of tonight’s commenters in need of such forward looking resolve.
I hope your mother is doing well. Mine is in England and thus inaccessible currently but is cared for by a trio of wonderful professional ladies in a system that i have organized.
Thank you. She’s in decline and it’s challenging to navigate the healthcare system to help her feel comfortable. Reliable, compassionate people are so good to have.
"Article 1 Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature there of; BUT the CONGRESS may at any time by Law, make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."
The constitution specifically gives congress the power to right the kinds of laws and rules being enacted today. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but the constitution did not condition this article by instituting the damn filibuster. GET RID OF IT.
In Collier County Florida we are working hard to inform all voters about these vague laws and their impact. We must gather all true citizens together to vote the scoundrels out, we can't match the oligarchs, like Koch brothers and their organizations working to control State legislatures and the Judicial system with money but our only weapon is to marshal voters. The oligarchs have succeeded and the bell is tolling for Democracy.
We are losing democracy because we are already an oligarchic kleptocracy. Income disparity must be corrected! What I think they don't realize is that they are destroying capitalism as well by keeping wages down and hollowing out the middle class, the would-be consumers. If we don't repeal Citizen's United we never get back to one person one vote since money is now considered Free Speech to buy elections.
Think about it for a minute: who would dare to try to manipulate the vote in a democracy? The vote is the most powerful means for expression of our rights as citizens and cannot be diminished by anyone seeking political office or access to the power and resources of that office. Yet, over the decades, the power of the vote has been weakened by people bent on possessing the power of political office because “they want what they want”, no matter the Constitution, or the many laws and statutes derived from it. We have to see the new voting rights bills enacted during Biden’s term(s) in office if we want to help win a key battle in the ongoing fight to preserve and protect our Democracy, during this era of the American Experiment. The fact that most of us can vote so easily, and without any interference, makes this effort harder to accomplish. But as one looks at the various initiatives currently being pushed forward by the Biden Administration and it’s supporters in Congress, voting rights is right up there with infrastructure and the environment as “ must haves” for our country. These bills will ultimately pass because it’s what the majority of Americans need and want to see happen; we have to do what we can to help see passage happen, now. Try writing a hand written letter to your representative and a moderate senator like Manchin or Collins; no email, no contribution….write and mail one out every day for a month. Keep the note short and respectful. Good luck.
Old professor trick to test for comprehension. The first sentence in the letter asked, 'please read this entire letter'. The last sentence was 'please do not send me an automated form letter in response'. I got the form letter exactly the same one my neighbors got when they sent a letter. Total automation. I doubt a human ever saw it.
A fundamental premise of democracy, even a representative democracy, is the power of the voice of the people. In two of our last six elections, a Republican was elected President with a minority of the popular vote. The system that produced these wins for Republicans is contrary to the fundamental premise of the power in a democracy of the voice of the people having primacy and power. If Republicans wish to make an argument for the abandonment of the Electoral College their insistence on suppressing the voice of the people in elections could be the winning argument for ending the Electoral College system. It is unlikely that can sustain minority rule forever. It may be preserved for the short term, but is unlikely to be sustainable beyond a limited period of time. History has shown that minority rule has a limited life expectancy. History also shows that it tends not to end well for the minorities that have suppressed the majority to attempt to preserve their power. Perhaps Republicans should spend a bit of time studying their history to instruct their views on electoral power and preservation of it.
Exactly. I think the Movement Conservative shtick has about run its course. Even traditional Republicans here in Barry Goldwater territory are embarrassed and angry at the whole Cyber Ninja debacle. It will not end well for them.
Dang Bruce. Every time I read your comments, I picture you in front of the misguided, privileged, loud, inappropriate, cowardly, Republican kids (Greene, Gaetz, you complete the class roster) lecturing their butts within an inch of their lives.
I’ve always called you Professor Bruce in my mind.
"On a day that harks back to both John Lewis’s fight for voting rights and Strom Thurmond’s fight against them, I wonder which man’s principles will shape our future."
I know "which man's principles [must] shape our future." We cannot allow the people and laws of these united states to slip back into bigotry and discriminatory practices. We cannot allow a few white men and women to dictate or reinstate Jim Crowism. It must not be permitted!
Long-term the future of the US or A as a vibrant, participatory democracy depends on John Lewis' principles prevailing, but I worry that this will take much longer than it should (ie, not likely in this Congress). ;-(
It did not surprise me to receive the Letter this Sunday morning. No stunning picture of the Maine coast, light shimming on the water and the dark sky streaked with orange and gold; instead, words on the screen told us about the people marching this weekend for voting rights.
"We are not going to stop": Thousands gathered on Saturday for the annual "March On for Voting Rights". 58 years ago Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at the first March on Washington. 58 years ago and we're still marching because access to the vote is never guaranteed for Blacks and Browns in the United States of America. Eighteen states have already enacted 30 laws this year that will make it harder for Americans to vote.
Heather didn't trudge herself to bed at a decent hour on Saturday night because the alarm clock in her mind warned her that 'our right to have a say in our government is slipping out of our hands'. (Letter)
The truth of Biden's presidential win was just to hard to bare. It couldn't be true. The election was a rigged. There was fraud. Trump really won in a landslide.
A Cyber Ninja Audit in Maricopa, Arizona would provide the evidence for election fraud. The Ninjas have been auditing the returns since April 22th, 2021, It is now August 29, 2021. What's up Cyber Ninjas?
Take a quick break. This is really happening. In the midst the pandemic, which is now surging ,again; a dangerous hurricane, Ida, about to hit Louisiana; our country is getting wetter and drier as the temperatures soar -- Climate Change is changing faster than the scientists predicted. -- and to top that off, we have radically undemocratic Republicans working like demons to rob Americans of their voting rights.
'Two agencies that oversee Arizona elections went on the offensive Thursday to debunk and discredit the soon-to-be released results of the Senate's unconventional and partisan review of Maricopa County's 2020 general election.'
'Two reports released by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, highlighted the erroneous and insecure nature of the audit conducted by Senate contractors. They also reiterated the ways that the county and state verified the election was sound.'
'The bipartisan effort to discredit the results from lead contractor Cyber Ninjas before they are released was not coordinated, Richer said. But both were seemingly aimed at the same purpose — getting ahead of misinformation or inaccuracies that may be in the Cyber Ninjas report.' (AZCentral)
All is not lost, but we have yet to get a national voting act bill passed. 'The House approved the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Tuesday in a party-line vote, kicking the legislation to the Senate — where it faces longer odds of passage. The bill is seen as having a better chance of moving forward than a more sweeping voting rights measure known as the For the People Act.'
'Either legislation could get to President Biden’s desk if all 50 Democrats agreed to make an exception to the filibuster, but Manchin and fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are against any kind of filibuster reform'. (The Hill)
I say both pieces of legislation could and should get to the presidents desk for signing.
This is where we enter. In the next few weeks we will be contacting President Biden and our Senators because we are on the front lines to get these bills passed. We cannot permit our say in government slip out of our hands. We are the anti-filibuster Army.
Fern, your closing sentence is the crucial one.
Your banner, just unfurled by Dr. Cox Richardson, bears the words of Martin Luther King:
“Our country is backsliding to the unconscionable days of Jim Crow. And some of our senators are saying, ‘Well, we can’t overcome the filibuster,’.... I say to you today: Get rid of the filibuster. That is a monument to white supremacy we must tear down.”
That monument, that one—not stone statuary, not the dead burying the dead, that institutionalized sabotage, that taking a sand bucket to the machinery of state.
You have gifted commanders like Stacey Abrams. Follow them!
This will mean persistent marching, day after day—the example comes from little Belarus— but America is not yet under a despot’s heel, you are still a nation of laws. And not yet all couch potatoes… The people will face no little danger, much organization will be needed behind the lines, securing powerful support where needed,forming firm alliances, twisting arms too, and building strong fallback defensive positions.
If resolute, disciplined, perseverant and well-led, the movement will snowball, going from strength to strength not only throughout America but worldwide. Worldwide. If you dare, tyrants will watch, and will tremble.
There is no choice but to dare.
and you will be with us, Peter Burnett.
Yes.
Thanks to HCR for staying up late and once again informing us in a clear-eyed way about what challenges we face. The 'old' socio-political is dying and fighting back hard to continue. But the tide of demography is running counter to that. I prefer to put my energy towards the 'new'.
There are many skirmishes to be fought now. And the forces of hate, greed, and delusion will win a few, but humanity's consciousness is awakening. Watch how the afghani refugees are welcomed into new communities and (regrettably) how the survivors of Hurricane Ida will be helped by their brethren. Those are the signals of truth, all the rest is noise meant to distract.
Hi Charlie. Your spirit brought out my smile. Salud!
You have two Senators who will support the voting rights bills. There is no need to contact them. Their support is in the bag. But I have two Senators who will oppose them, regardless of what those they represent say, and State legislation making replacing them at the polls difficult at best. Where does that leave the anti-filibuster Army in such an environment?
Same here in Floriduh. I do not write to Rick Scott who is obtuse or Marco Rubio who is insane. There is no point. I am of the Sane Minority here who have no representation.
I am from Texas......Cruz and Cornyn.....need I say more.
Poor you, poor Texas...
These psychopaths are like a disease that enters communities, even nuclear families, spreading hatred and dissension between neighbors, between parents and children, brothers and sisters. At the outset, Cruz scared me far more than Trump...
I understand how you feel Rob, I live in Floriduh, as well. I have no representation. I live in a deeply red county. I donate what I can, I’m a retired Special Ed teacher, and keep voting. I will admit, some days, I feel so defeated.
Before we even speak of taking to America’s streets and meeting places or of besieging corporate power, let us turn to the southeast and see what terrible arguments real power—that of Nature—brings to bear.
England was saved from a landing by Spain’s Invincible Armada by smaller ships that could outmaneuver galleons, but mainly by bad weather conditions. Japan was spared from invasion by the Mongols when the Wind of the Gods—the Kamikaze—destroyed the invaders’ fleet. No King Knut can command the waves.
Watch now the progress of hurricane Ida from New Orleans through Jackson MS and Nashville TN and thence to Washington DC. May the power of Nature not have an impact even on zombie believers in whatever food for goats their tinsel idol’s feedlot provides? Propaganda won’t save those on the rooftops or clinging to jetsam amidst raging floodwaters.
It will result in more suffering...and more propaganda. They do now want the truth, even as they disbelieve their lies.
?? Any unnecessary destruction and suffering will be blamed on Biden in those states. Even the IPCC report does not blame climate change for hurricanes or flooding.
Of course not. The IPCC report doesn't blame climate change for hurricanes or flooding, they have always occurred. What the report concludes is that climate change is making hurricanes, floods and other weather extremes even more frequent and more extreme.
"What was remarkable in the IPCC report was put most succinctly in University of Leeds climate physicist Piers Forster’s pair of tweets on Monday, outlining the good and bad news from the report. The bad news was familiar: we are seeing “more intense and more frequent” weather extremes. We are close to 1.5C of warming and will reach it by mid-century." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/ipcc-latest-climate-report-hope
I meant the change in hurricanes and floods.
Not what you wrote and the IPCC clearly states that climate change is aggravating and accelerating extremes in weather events.
Marching on.
Cyber Ninjas gets paid by the hour, I have to assume.
Tour de force, Fern.
How nice to see you, Eric. We need some Canadian cool, calm and steadfast. Welcome!
I feel anything but “Canadian cool”. What strikes me now is the contrast between this forum which is partly talking shop and partly deeply committed people trying to save their country, and the indifference of millions of others who just vote.
I don’t feel a *broad* sense of urgency in the American left and centre. LFAA is a cocoon, a necessary and valorous cocoon, but a cocoon nonetheless.
Dr. Heather’s posts convey a rising sense of urgency, I note. But I’m generally reluctant to post now. I feel it’s either preaching to the choir or it will be piling on, as my mood is much like Jeremiah. I cannot feel even a shred of optimism now, as it feels like a point of no return has come and Americans is simply waiting for the gavel to fall when the Voting Rights legislation implodes for once and all.
I read the posts and appreciate those who are hanging in with implacable determination. Many others strike me as whistling past the graveyard with their eternal “Go Blue” theme and nothing of substance. In fairness of course, people need and seek that consolation, so the better part of me senses that it comes from the deepest trauma. But the gremlin in me sees these posts as delusional.
It’s been a long time coming, but I think the wall has been hit. America has sown the wind and is now reaping the whirlwind.
And it will indeed be bitter. I have heard such spite, stupidity and braying from others on the other side (they are here too, by the way), that they come to feel like an alien race to me.
Two saving graces, completely different: Selfishly this is giving me momentum to finish my book, as I feel, perhaps quite wrongly, that my thesis is being amplified with every passing day.
And the example of righteous action that I so seek comes from Michigan’s Governor Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessell meet the forces of darkness head on when they crawl out from under their rocks. This week a woman has been felony charged with making odious death threats to regional health officials who had the temerity to institute a K-6 mask mandate in schools. 3 felony charges, maximum 20 years in the pokey. The black part of my soul loved it. Go Michigan. There’s been a lifetime’s worth of abuse from the jackals of that state.
And Fern, I will conclude that I stand little chance of being accused of writing a coherent list after the above mishmash.
Fondest wishes. :)
I am truly glad that you came back again, Eric. You released your sense of us, America, the forum, Michigan, the left and unafraid to lay an egg. It is my way, sometimes, to cut through the solemnity with a bit of naughtiness, or worse. l have read some uncool words of yours in the past and wondered if you would thoroughly dispense with signs of 'cool' and 'calm' as you have, but 'steadfast' you cannot deny.
It hurts me, too, that this country seems without the level of organization the times demand. There was a long pause here as I considered the pandemic but that is not the cause behind our quietness. There is trauma and social media, loneliness but still a spirit. A friend and I in different places and without text, except at the very beginning and at the end, spent fifteen minutes this morning in total silence as we considered the fallen soldiers, the Afghan people our families and whatever our minds delivered. Meditation, church, feelings, restoration, peace -- we search for strength and both of us were content in our support with calm deliberation.
However torn you may feel about America and us, your voice, Eric, has deep feeling, and I am glad to hear it. If we feed your book, so be it; that is not our calling. We ring bells together and apart. It is far too early to predict where our house will be a couple of years from now.
It is reassuring to hear that you and your friend found solace in meditation. It can be very hard to slow down and look at big perspective.
You note that “it is far too early to predict where our house will be a couple of years from now”. That is certainly true and it is a vexing truth. I would ask you this, however. In your bones, do you intuit that America will be in a better place and on the mend and rise? Or do you feel it more likely that the downward spiral will continue? Obviously I’m asking for an answer from a place beyond hope. We both share that hope.
Dr. King famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
That may be a consoling platitude (for who can successfully refute it?), or it may be the most penetrating truism.
My own feeling is that it is a truism. In asking you the question above it’s only fair that I give my own feeling. In my heart my sense is that within our lifetimes, the arc of the moral universe *will* bend towards justice in America. However, before that happens the country will pass through a terrible trial, the likes of which has only been hinted at in the last five years. But somehow, some way, the good people of America will say, “Enough”, and those who have taken America into this ghastly new world will be vanquished.
That time has not yet come. The forces of anarchy are still in the ascendancy and they fight with no quarter and no shame. On the other side, the centrist and progressive left have not been galvanized in sufficient numbers to say with one voice, “Enough”, and then rise up to assert the ascendancy of goodness.
In truth, it seems to me that most Americans of good intention are still watching unfolding events as if they were a multi-part Netflix series.
They need a leader of more charisma, vigor, and sheer force of will to start the ball rolling in the right way.
I hate writing this, but as implied above, Biden is not the man. He is giving his heart and experience to the enterprise. He provides moral clarity in abundance. Legislatively he has done as much as could be expected, though I’m not sure where he’d be without Leader Pelosi.
But he is a product of the same cyclical forces that brought us Trump. He has been a Senator longer than anything else, and he craves bipartisanship too much for a time like this. This is war for the soul of America *in a new world*. I cannot help but feel that this, in the end, will make him a dupe of the forces who make a mockery of that world.
None of us could ask more of Joseph Robinette Biden. But in some ways he is too good a person for this battle.
Until America is at the very brink of being vanquished as a moral force, until a leader of enormous charisma and unyielding will emerges, I feel the degradation will become worse.
I have often quoted Churchill’s summary of your country: “America always does the right thing, but only after exhausting all other options”.
I bring it up here because I think it’s never been truer than now.
But someday, within our lifetimes, the next Abraham Lincoln will come to the fore and Americans of decent character will rise up in sufficient numbers to rout this odious gang.
And then the world will have to contend as one in the fight against the climate crisis.
I am curious to know what your intuition is telling you.
Eric, My reply to you was almost done and then gone. To start again:
You have asked the most difficult question. It has been with me for years, particularly insistent as a recurring mode for the last eleven months and most persistent in recent weeks.
'In your bones, do you intuit that America will be in a better place and on the mend and rise? Or do you feel it more likely that the downward spiral will continue?'
I cannot answer you right away; ' it will take another day or two.
Paul Celan's poem 'Death Fugue' was brought to my attention two months ago. I read it several times and again yesterday. The poem is not a riddle. The sense of it echoes in a strand of where I think America is today. I almost wrote 'where we are today'. My intuition is both small and large but do not know how much I can encompass. Below is a link to the poem:
https://poets.org/poem/death-fugue
It is strange that you have posed this question, brought forward the hardest one to wrestle with; it a question of life and death.
On another question Fern...Atahualpa!
Ah, a last Emperor of the Incas reference. Yes, even after his final victory in a devastating Civil War with a faction led by his half-brother, it did not go well for Atahualpa, who was shortly later executed by Francisco Pizzaro. Efforts to preserve minority rule seldom end well for those seeking to suppress the voice of the majority of those they govern.
I never expected them on the forum this morning.
You are a gentleman. Thank you.
You are more than welcome, Fern.
Yes, yes, yes Fern.
Biden hasn't called for the elimination of the fillibuster (yet) either. He's a Senate veteran and remembers well that the rules work in both directions. IF the DEMS lose the Senate in 2022, they will wish that they had retained the fillibuster. The current calls for its elimination are short-sighted.
I respectfully disagree. This claim does not gain credibility from constant repetition. The DEMS know what they have to do to retain or expand their Senate majority. The odds against it are high anyway, but the answer is one word: ORGANIZE.
A friend posted this on Face Book today. It's from RARE BAGS with John Farrell, August 26, 2021, at 3:14 AM. The author is the great thinker Arundhati Roy. You may remember her novel "The God of Small Things."
"What is this thing that has happened to us? It's a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus... It has mad the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to 'normality', trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
I love her writing. Thank you for posting this fabulous quote. She is not the only one who has expressed these thoughts of a rupture with the past and a turn toward something new. I just hope continually it will be something more life giving that what we've had to live with up until now.
Thank you, Richard. Arundhati Roy breathed life into our tiredness and lightened our burden.
I need to learn about her. Thank you for posting this quote.
I adore her.
A beautiful prayer to remember. A place to help us through sorrow and hope.
If a "Republican extremist" does win in 2024 through obvious rigging of the vote, I predict the country will come apart with the secession of the west coast and New England by 2026 and possibly a civil war by 2026. That's if the Republicans don't win control of 4 more state legislatures in 2022 and call a Constitutional Convention under Article V, an act that could result in as thorough a reworking/replacement of the Constitution as happened in the first constitutional convention called in 1787 to amend the Articles of Confederation when they were thrown aside and replaced with the Constitution (and under Article V there is no limitation on what a convention once convened can do, just like 1787, thank you very much Mr. Madison).
As important as people say the new voting laws are, they are 100 times moreso when one considers the varieties of dark future failing to enact them portends.
We read your Article V blog post yesterday with great interest— and horror.
https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/article-v-is-coming-for-us
Really scary. Really well done.
Something intelligent people who care need to be aware.
Until recently I thought the call for a constitutional convention resided in the fever swamp of the radical right. Not that the radicals are mainstream the possibilities TC warns about seem more and more possible. Civil war indeed.
Your math is off (or incomplete). Republicans control 29 state legislatures today. It takes 34 states to call for a Constitutional Convention (CC), and 38 states to ratify any changes (amendments). I agree that such a CC would be a right-wing clown show. I doubt that anything enacted there could get 38 states to ratify it. In any case, as a New Englander, I’m in favor of seceding. There’s no living with, or reasoning with, Republicans. I’m just so tired of their belligerent ignorance.
I'm with you, JR! Any thoughts of Canada adopting us? I think medical care, fresher, cooler air, clean water, and the absence of Puritanical obsessions about reproductive rights.
I’m always amazed at the chutzpa of secessionists. No regard for the people of their state who would be deprived of their rights under the Constitution.
And I’m amazed at the chutzpah of Republicans, who have no regard for the Americans who are deprived of their rights under the Constitution by Republican voter suppression, promotion of religion, rejection of science and racism.
Me, too. It’s beside the point, though.
No, it takes more than 34 states since there are already 34 states that have signed these calls for a convention. Any time in the past 20 years the GOP has controlled a legislature, they have done it, then if it should change hands, the democrats haven't taken the threat seriously, so they don't rescind it and it stays "on the books" and on the list.
Over the past 10-15 years, up to 34 states may have called for a Constitutional Convention to consider a balanced budget amendment. Some have rescinded the call since then, or the call has expired. According to USNews, today 17 states have passed an active resolution calling for a CC. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2021-05-11/wisconsin-to-vote-on-calling-a-constitutional-convention
If I recall correctly, the blue states on the coasts are the main economic engines of the country, and in the federal budget (to use the odious parlance of Movement Conservatives against them) the blue states are mostly the "makers" while the red states are mostly "takers." The Republicans have already started the civil war, and are attempting to win it without firing a shot, by changing the laws to cement their policies (rich/white rights instead of civil rights, ban abortion, "Christian" govt, more guns with no regulation, screw the climate full carbon ahead, etc.) AND this year, by rigging elections to ensure they get a one-party autocracy.
But if most of the money is made in the blue states, how would the Republicans fund a pist civil war truncated country consisting only of the red states? That's why they're trying to win the current phase of this civil war with a sudden Blitzkrieg of changed state laws to enthrone their policies and rig elections to ensure they always win. The red states couldn't fund their country without the blue states. The single thread they cling to is the fillibuster, which enables minority rule in the Senate. All of us across the country have to keep pressing hard to eliminate the fillibuster for voting rights legislation at the very least.
pardon my freudian typo, "a pist civil war truncated country", instead of " post"
The Great City of New York, of the Great State of New York vote for the Great Succession. 'f-em!
No so fast my compatriot. We need, first, to deliberate.
OK. Set something up with my people.
OK, Have your people call my people.
I’ve been terrified of the prospect of a new Constitutional Convention for a long time. I am utterly convinced that the provisions of at least 8 of the first 10 Amendments and most of the others will be gutted; that the 2nd Amendment will be strengthened; that the policies and ideology of Movement Conservatives and the current brand Republican extremists will be thoroughly baked into the new Constitution that would emerge. Gone would be any notion of equality before the law, of civil rights or even human rights as the country would, as Firesign Theater phrased it, “march forward, into the past,” a past of repression, of institutional racism, Jim Crow and second class citizenship for those unfortunate enough to be born into an unfavored caste: People of Color, the LGBTQ, immigrants, intellectuals, adherents of the wrong religion, and women. I believe that the country would emerge with a new Constitution that is the mirror image of our current Constitution; that those rewriting the Constitution will be swept, in the words of Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin, “up into the White House with powers that will make martial law seem like anarchy!”
Just posted your terrifying (and hopefully mobilizing?) Article V piece on fb. It needs much wider dissemination, though.
TC-have you thought of posting your Article V blog on FB and other platforms to raise awareness? I didn't know that the margin for passing it was so low. Given the TFG fans in places of importance (i.e. R-lead legislatures) are now so numerous, the country's basis in law itself is truly at risk. I wouldn't put it past them to essentially demand autocracy.
I don't post on FleeceBlock anymore, said collection of clucks having decided 14 months ago that I was the hacker who had taken over my page and locking me out (thank god, I'd never have gotten away otherwise). That said, I'm fine with any of my readers doing a copy/paste with things they think are important.
“FleeceBlock”. In the next lifetime or even this one, an ad agency would be brilliant in hiring you to brand ANYTHING.
Sizzlin’ as usual, TC.
WAAAAAAAAAAIT, y'all!! Let me get out first! I want no part of some red-state oligarchy...besides there would be NO oligarchy here because the vast bulk of the US $$$ is tied up in what are blue state economies. The red states grow the food. Anyway, I tend to wonder how long a "country" run by the likes of Fox News would last. Whatever, just LET ME GET OUT!
NO!
@TCinLA, thanks for your alarming post here and the full argument you posted on your Substack platform. Alert: I successfully subscribed to your letter and received the confirmation email, but the signup process never required me to supply a payment method. I would like to actually pay.
Good for you! He’s worth it!
Republicans have zero interest in amending the Constitution as far as I can tell. It works finevfor them, especially with their majority on the Court. Tossing the Constitution, that’s a Democratic thing.
Oh, really? https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Convention_of_States_Action#Ties_to_Conservative_Groups_and_Politicans
"The leadership of the COS is staffed with alumni of various conservative organizations.[18] Meckler is a founder of the Tea Party Patriots and writer at The Daily Caller. O'Keefe is a founding Board Member of the Institute for Free Speech, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and numerous other conservative groups. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint both serve as senior advisors to COS. DeMint resigned from the Senate to become the president of the Heritage Foundation but was ousted after failing to resolve issues to the satisfaction of the board.[19] Coburn is a Republican politician who has been called "one of the real far-right guys" for his stances as "a top anti-abortion crusader," proclaiming "I am a global warming denier" and fearmongering over what he calls the "gay agenda" alongside austerity budgeting.[20][21][22] Coburn joined the Manhattan Institute in 2016 as a Senior Fellow.[23]
COS boasts endorsements of its ideas from Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Gov. Greg Abbott, Rand Paul, Gov. Sarah Palin, Ben Shaprio, Sen. Marco Rubio, Charlie Kirk, James O'Keefe, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Ron Johnson, David Horowitz and other conservatives.[24]"
Forget it. These guys do not call the shots in the Republican Party. A few senators and governors may give them lip service. That’s about it.
I hope, fervently, that we will strive toward being the America of John Lewis.
He is a role model for all of us with his gentle strength of character. I would have liked to have met him.
He was a gentleman and a kind soul.
Thank you Heather.
This is an incredibly disturbing Letter. Acurate, none the less, disturbing. Although, the numbers are in our favor, the intent of the GOP is both overwhelming and disastrous. When the GOP take the wheel, most all of us in this Community, will not see Democracy as we knew it again in our lifetime.
We are past the time to clutch our beads. The GOP played the long game. This set up has been in the works very likely for decades. As they quietly, and in some cases, not so quietly pushed ahead, we gave them the benefit of the doubt that they would play with integrity.
When the midterm elections come to pass, the layout of the land will be quite different. Mary Trump, Donald's niece was quoted yesterday as saying her Uncle will run in 2024. I believe her. As much as we thought he wouldn't be able to physically achieve this, he will be there.
We couldn't possible be in a worse dynamic as a Nation as we are right now.
If Biden doesn't run again, we've got nothing. The Democrats should have been priming that pump 2 election cycles ago.
End the f*cking filibuster. It should never have come down to this, yet here we are.
Be safe, be well.
If Biden doesn't run again, the Democrats do have some strong candidates like Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobachar, Jay Inslee, Michael Bennett, Sheldon Whitehouse, Val Demings, Gretchen Whitmer. We could see the Republican Party split or fall apart or just have no platform at all except fear and misinformation.
Cathy, one problem is that none of them are bullet proof to overcome the onslaught of the GOP. We can't lose Klobuchar from the Senate. Harris is being marginalized. Beto needs to straighten out Texas. This Country is still not accepting enough for Pete, Stacey or Val. And so on.
As crazy as it sounds, the GOP will have a twice Impeached, heavily defeated, frankly old candidate . That will work for them.
No one is bullet proof. Beto has grownup; Buttigieg is now in the bigtime. Biden has been through a great deal. He needs our support more then ever, but in a year or so there will be a strong group to choose from.
'...more than ever...'
For Them but not for Us!! WE are the Majority. Let us not forget that. Put our feet on the ground, our hands to the print and our money where our mouths are.
Yes, but all that is still two and a half years out. We might be so fearful of climate change then
that any democrat would win. Or we could be in a civil war or have parts of the country seceding. If one of the old white crazy AOP (awful old party) I personally will join the rebellion.
But it's the midterms that are scaring me.
Then, please Linda, quit being more scared than determined. Quit being more scared than ferocious. Quit being more scared than sure of how important women are to this battle that looms.
Please.
Christine, then I should quit having an opinion as well?
Being late to this Letter with a few its responses of doom and gloom, I have the benefit of echoing the words of Christine to instead be determined, ferocious, and resolute. Adding to that, I take responsibility for reposting Stuart Attewell’s Lincolnian reminder:
“It doesn't necessarily portend well depending on your point of view. It certainly is a day that well illustrates the pains and joys of post-columbian history in the Americas. Work to be done to fashion the outcome that meets the test of Lincoln's words in his Gettysburg address:
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Among those who would be willing to join the rebellion against a future loss of democracy in the United States, I wonder how many would be willing to put their lives on the line, as the signers of the Declaration of Independence did in 1776 when they pledged their lives to their cause? There was a price on their heads! And is there a Democratic leader who would lead such a rebellion?
I am 80, in good health, still working, and have energy to spare. I have told my grandkids that I will put my life, what’s left of it, on the line for democracy, and die a good death. Roar!! (Meanwhile, I’m safe at home writing letters, dreaming of taking ferocious action.)
Girl, your words every day in comments are ferocious. Trust me, will be the same as physical action if the time knocks on your door. You Mana Bear Mary B.
Brava!
But what happens when your letters and dreams, if you talk about them outside, render you unsafe, even at home? This sort of rebellion reminds me of the failed Children's Crusade during the Middle Ages, only the participants are at the other end of the age spectrum, as are we.
What about Kamala?? She's got my vote already.
Lynn, but the GOP have marginalize her since her first day in office and they will pull out all stops if need be. Sadly. I like her.
Stop letting the gop form our opinions. Kamala is a strong capable WOMAN !
She is the model of the person I want representing me. I should say FIGHTING FOR ME. I can no longer accept representation who can't fight. I can fight (friends say I have a good murder left in me).
Joe needs to turn her loose, SOMEONE needs to turn up the heat on these bullies.
What are you referring to?
Marginalized her how, if you please?
I believe that is an important question, Cary. I’ve heard that comment from others wanting to discredit the Dems. That the Republican Party has found ways to “marginalize” VP Harris. I know that one way is that they NEVER refer to her as “Vice President”.
And they use the word “marginalize” of course because she is a woman.
If they are trying to rile someone up, they’ve succeeded.
Cary, from the beginning they referred to as the "Whore" and worse. "She has no experience" Once in office there was the constant , "where is Kamala? " mantra from peanut gallery. Then the ultimate turn their back, by not mentioning her. Pretty sad. I like her and all she represents.
Republican Party... just have no platform at all except fear and misinformation.
That's the way they roll. Ever meet their voters?
(Sweden)
Amazing that propaganda has had such a strong grip on me and my country: The US has the lead for democracy in the world, and Americans are good winners. When actually democracy has been undermined in the US all along, and the losers of the civil war are such terribly bad losers. Not only voting rights are under attack, but also the integrity of courts and institutions. - Does not make us better, but we are losing a leader badly needed in the world.
Not only voting rights are under attack, but also the integrity of courts and institutions. So true!
Thanks for that perspective. I admit to being just about ready to accede to a self-destructive wish to see my country disappear from the world map.
Don’t believe 90% of what you hear about this country, except that nothing much in our media stands up to scrutiny. That part is true.
Good point.
I was recently afforded the opportunity to visit Ms. Richardson's great state of Maine. While there I watched from the shore as the workboats of the lobster and fishermen began each day at sunrise or before and then return at the close of day. But always and throughout the day, a steady parade of magnificent and majestic private yachts proudly plied the same waters. Each festooned with a full complement of the "beautiful people"! To my post modern, jaundiced eye, the disparity could not be more obvious. In the course of my observations I noted that many of the vessels from both "classes" carried the flag, some quite large and dramatically displayed. It made me wonder what we can possibly have left in common between those that "work" for a living and those that live off the efforts of others. Of course I can hear people saying "the wealthy work too" and while that is true in a sense I'm talking here about the hugh and expanding wealth gap that exists today between what we might call the moneyed folk and the rest of us. The people I have in mind often make their fortunes by using the velocity of money itself to make more money sometimes without generating any directly related product.
This is of course the nature of the modern world and nothing new really. However, what's new is the increasing moral detachment from the consequences of this dissociation. I believe now that the turbulence of the modern world has provided a kind of doomsday rationale for the rich to horde and gerrymander the product of society in an attempt to insure their survival at any cost.
These people are not stupid and they are aware of all the things that can and are going wrong in the world today and they too are concerned with the rising instability of governments and economies but they believe that the path forward must be maintained by the exercise of power and position. They intend to maintain control whatever the cost. Democracy is not essential to them and in fact is often counterproductive for maintaining their privilege and hegemony. They will and have begun to use force and they will keep whatever "forces" are necessary as they see the old order collapse. In fact, it is to their advantage to facilitate that collapse and they will point to the chaos to make the case for their repressive measures.
Climate change, pandemics, war, famine and revolt will not reach them in their private enclaves if they just manage it correctly like any other enterprise. One might say "Well how does anyone avoid climate change or famine or pestilence?" To that I say when you have been able to control the engines of wealth for so long and avoid the consequences of your malfeasance perhaps you can have the confidence that you'll be able to use disaster to restructure the world in your favor yet again. Consider for example the aspiration to build a space ship to colonize Mars and perhaps open new Amazon warehouse! People of this type might arguably have the notion that you can protect yourself while allowing the forces of chaos and ruin to help winnow the heard making life even better for them.
Should we expect these people to favor democracy!? I think not.
The aristocrats have always been parasites throughout history. Now they know full well what is happening, but think their money will save them. It won't in the end. One of my ex-students, who has plenty of money, but is not among the super rich, observed that there is no longer any place to move to. She is correct. Climate change problems are everywhere.
I live in the beautiful now very dry Willamette Valley. The guy who sells pork at the Saturday Market told us his spring has dried up and he now is using the house water to take care of the hogs. In southern Oregon, people are finding their water supply for their houses is now gone as farmers and ranchers use up what's in the water table. The state is delivering water to people there. Then there are the fires....with places like Lake Tahoe shutting down because people can't breathe. Yet in other places people have too much water with devastating floods.
Interesting discussion going on here in Salem where an empty building might become an Amazon brick and mortar. The negatives there far outweigh the positives for such a move.
Amazon tried in The Bronx. Then AOC organized.
Good for AOC. We don't have someone like her locally. People did have some good ideas for the building. We do have a very large Amazon warehouse. We also have a distribution center occupying a building formerly occupied by an outfit that took the tax write off and then ran. The building in question is downtown and the suggestion is for an actual department store.
Good points Michele! However, I'm pretty sure there are people that believe they can buy a mountain or an entire area and have the resources that will keep them safe from the looming disasters. Unfortunately, they're wrong and we'll all be together in lifeboat earth! Call me mean spirited, but I'd like to make them swim!
Most of the wealthy here have made arrangements in New Zealand.
(Your observation that “aristocrats have have always been parasites throughout history” brings to mind the new favorite “cure” for covid: a dose of animal strength ivermectin…)
I recommend two recent articles in The New Yorker: Aug 30 issue, Evan Osnos’ “The Big House” about white collar offenders and the Aug 23 issue, Sam Knight’s “Home Truth” about the legacy of British country estates and the National Trust. Humans have always had the potential for greed and cruelty without remorse……
We subscribe to the New Yorker, so thanks for heads up for those two articles. I am an Anglophile, so always interested in things British too. I read lots of history from all over and some science and the world's religions as well. I just finished a book by DeWaal, (hope I have his name right) who is a primatologist, who argues that our morality has some evolutionary basis. The volume also contains some answers to him.
Good morning Gilco. My expectation meets yours. However….
Hmmm. As an educator, I’ve always been a student of the hidden resources of the classes…their strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the type of calamity which might overwhelm… be it climate calamity or voter and election suppression calamity…that very well might decide survival of the fittest. In many instances (and I know I will be ridiculed for this observation) my bet (the substance of which is raw survival skill, not money) goes for the poverty over middle and wealth class strata.
And note… I do not use term “lower” or “upper” in defining class. Economic class is a continuous spectrum, not a clear-cut distinction. Most scholars and students only regard socioeconomic class in terms of money and what it “can do” for you. Ignored is the true culture of resource within each class.
For instance, the wealth class and how they spend their time depends greatly on how and what they outsource to paid individuals to spend time with an issue.
For instance, if the system collapses (a somewhat example was the pandemic shutdown in 2020), I found it curious that the poverty class had little issue with finding food and taking care of children and getting on with things. Despite what the media bemoaned of “poor” children not having in school access. Actually, it was the middle class which freaked out. And now those same people rabidly will oppose any governmental intervention in the pandemic. In fact, ignore it and keep everything open.
Just some thoughts this morning. Enjoy your day!
Christine:
Thank you for reading and responding. There are some considerations in what you've said I need to think about. I recall that it has been said that the "the poor will always be with us" , but I think that whatever skills and resources they posses may not be enough for the trials of the new world. That is at least the "new world" I think I see emerging.
Yes. But if the new world will be one as Arundhati Roy described in earlier post by a subscriber…
“Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
If this is the case, there are no people with little luggage but with a great store of inner personal strength who share their last dollar or meal, more capable than the poverty class. I’ll be holding onto their coattails.
Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you about the Great Depression?
I'm in the middle of reading Kim Stanley Robinson's "Ministry for the Future." It touches on all of the themes in your reply - and more!
Me too - good book but so terrifying in many ways…
I read about 1/3 then quit - too real & depressing. We can see it happening globally.
I'm finding it depressing, too, but a review I read said it ends in hope, so I carry on.
Perhaps I'll try again. Thanks. I hadn't read any reviews, just picked it up because I've liked so many other of his science-and-technology informed novels.
Through your reporting, I spy some humor and empty vessels. From you I feel the heat of conscience and care for children, women and men. There will be Justice.
Fern:
Thank you for taking notice and for your kind assessment. I hope you re right about justice. It is sorely needed.
"...the increasing moral detachment from the consequences of this dissociation".
More strongly: The piper MUST BE PAID! Stay on the right side of this and all's well.
Well written, thank you. I think of Afghanistan at the moment. Surely, it will feel to the remaining citizens that the controlling aliens are leaving while the remaining earthlings perish in chaos and ruin.
This can not happen:
"Consider for example the aspiration to build a space ship to colonize Mars and perhaps open new Amazon warehouse! People of this type might arguably have the notion that you can protect yourself while allowing the forces of chaos and ruin to help winnow the heard making life even better for them."
Take comfort during these times.
You tell them, Daniel, loud and clear with a Bronx cheer!
The filibuster should not be applied to voting rights which are essential to the foundation of our Democracy.
Absolutely agree. How can Manchin and Sinema not agree? What am I missing?
Great point.
Definitely a portentous day.......in 1533, Pizzaro executed the last Inca Emporer, in 1862 General Lee won the 2nd Battle of Bull Run and in 1970-71 Native Americans occupied Mt Rushmore to protest the breaching of the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. It doesn't necessarily portend well depending on your point of view. It certainly is a day that well illustrates the pains and joys of post-columbian history in the Americas. Work to be done to fashion the outcome that meets the test of Lincoln's words in his Gettysburg address:
" It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
Stuart, after tending to my elderly mother the past two days and being late to the Letters, I am taking responsibility for reposting your Lincolnian reminder to a few of tonight’s commenters in need of such forward looking resolve.
Can someone on the east coast tell me when to catch Heather & Cie live on whatever feed?? Anne just west of Philadelphia
I hope your mother is doing well. Mine is in England and thus inaccessible currently but is cared for by a trio of wonderful professional ladies in a system that i have organized.
Thank you. She’s in decline and it’s challenging to navigate the healthcare system to help her feel comfortable. Reliable, compassionate people are so good to have.
May I quote you on my FB page?
Of course, Anne
Thank you!
"Article 1 Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature there of; BUT the CONGRESS may at any time by Law, make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."
The constitution specifically gives congress the power to right the kinds of laws and rules being enacted today. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but the constitution did not condition this article by instituting the damn filibuster. GET RID OF IT.
In Collier County Florida we are working hard to inform all voters about these vague laws and their impact. We must gather all true citizens together to vote the scoundrels out, we can't match the oligarchs, like Koch brothers and their organizations working to control State legislatures and the Judicial system with money but our only weapon is to marshal voters. The oligarchs have succeeded and the bell is tolling for Democracy.
We are losing democracy because we are already an oligarchic kleptocracy. Income disparity must be corrected! What I think they don't realize is that they are destroying capitalism as well by keeping wages down and hollowing out the middle class, the would-be consumers. If we don't repeal Citizen's United we never get back to one person one vote since money is now considered Free Speech to buy elections.
Such a salient point about destroying capitalism, Cathy Learoyd.
(Among your other good points.)
Let’s go back to standing in the senate. Filibuster on your feet, Senators. Stand and Deliver.
Yes.
Agreed.
Yes. Why not?
Think about it for a minute: who would dare to try to manipulate the vote in a democracy? The vote is the most powerful means for expression of our rights as citizens and cannot be diminished by anyone seeking political office or access to the power and resources of that office. Yet, over the decades, the power of the vote has been weakened by people bent on possessing the power of political office because “they want what they want”, no matter the Constitution, or the many laws and statutes derived from it. We have to see the new voting rights bills enacted during Biden’s term(s) in office if we want to help win a key battle in the ongoing fight to preserve and protect our Democracy, during this era of the American Experiment. The fact that most of us can vote so easily, and without any interference, makes this effort harder to accomplish. But as one looks at the various initiatives currently being pushed forward by the Biden Administration and it’s supporters in Congress, voting rights is right up there with infrastructure and the environment as “ must haves” for our country. These bills will ultimately pass because it’s what the majority of Americans need and want to see happen; we have to do what we can to help see passage happen, now. Try writing a hand written letter to your representative and a moderate senator like Manchin or Collins; no email, no contribution….write and mail one out every day for a month. Keep the note short and respectful. Good luck.
Postcards. Letters take longer to sort and get to through the system.
Tried that with Sinema. Didn't work. Got a standard email back.
You got a response. Why does that mean it didn’t work? A response sounds like it got through.
Old professor trick to test for comprehension. The first sentence in the letter asked, 'please read this entire letter'. The last sentence was 'please do not send me an automated form letter in response'. I got the form letter exactly the same one my neighbors got when they sent a letter. Total automation. I doubt a human ever saw it.
How did the country ever survive 332 years without these voter “protections” I wonder?
Filibuster on their feet. No button pushing.
I totally agree.
A fundamental premise of democracy, even a representative democracy, is the power of the voice of the people. In two of our last six elections, a Republican was elected President with a minority of the popular vote. The system that produced these wins for Republicans is contrary to the fundamental premise of the power in a democracy of the voice of the people having primacy and power. If Republicans wish to make an argument for the abandonment of the Electoral College their insistence on suppressing the voice of the people in elections could be the winning argument for ending the Electoral College system. It is unlikely that can sustain minority rule forever. It may be preserved for the short term, but is unlikely to be sustainable beyond a limited period of time. History has shown that minority rule has a limited life expectancy. History also shows that it tends not to end well for the minorities that have suppressed the majority to attempt to preserve their power. Perhaps Republicans should spend a bit of time studying their history to instruct their views on electoral power and preservation of it.
Exactly. I think the Movement Conservative shtick has about run its course. Even traditional Republicans here in Barry Goldwater territory are embarrassed and angry at the whole Cyber Ninja debacle. It will not end well for them.
Dang Bruce. Every time I read your comments, I picture you in front of the misguided, privileged, loud, inappropriate, cowardly, Republican kids (Greene, Gaetz, you complete the class roster) lecturing their butts within an inch of their lives.
I’ve always called you Professor Bruce in my mind.
Actually, minority rule has a much longer history of persistence than democracy. Ours is long in the tooth at only the age of 100.
"On a day that harks back to both John Lewis’s fight for voting rights and Strom Thurmond’s fight against them, I wonder which man’s principles will shape our future."
I know "which man's principles [must] shape our future." We cannot allow the people and laws of these united states to slip back into bigotry and discriminatory practices. We cannot allow a few white men and women to dictate or reinstate Jim Crowism. It must not be permitted!
Long-term the future of the US or A as a vibrant, participatory democracy depends on John Lewis' principles prevailing, but I worry that this will take much longer than it should (ie, not likely in this Congress). ;-(
If it doesn't happen in this Congress it may never be a democracy again. That's how high the stakes are for us, the People.
The Texas house bill that restricts history education sounds like a fascist decree! We are so close to losing everything!
Yes, Cathy. The stakes are so high. For All of Us this time.