The reality that Joe Biden is about to become president and Kamala Harris is about to become vice president is sinking in across Washington, and today gave us some indications of what that’s going to mean.
1. When are they going to get rid of that Rusky problem problem permanently? It’s only going to get worse!!
2. Chris Christie as President?? After his morbidity obese self backed all of Trump’s stupidity, not the least of it his pandemic maskless non-plan? Christie who got covid & used Trump privilege to get expensively healed of Covid & Likely on taxpayers dime?!
He can suck giant popsicles through his nostrils.
3. No kidding trickle-down economics doesn’t work.
I’m White & college-educated.I grew up with Middle Class privileges (a stay-at-home mom, two cars, a father with a white collar job, & a pet).
But since I graduated college, I live in increasingly tiny apartments which cost more than half my monthly income and where I now feel fortunate it has a toilet that I don’t need to share with a stranger and it has a tiny range. I’m one lost week’s pay away from disaster.
I can’t afford to pay into 401K and my only retirement plan is to die before my employers push me out for being too old to work to their desired capacity.
I haven’t had a raise, not even a cost of living increase in almost a decade, yet costs of rent, utilities, food, cars, gas, etc have all gone up significantly. Even my employers product still makes profit because they continually raise the cost.
The upper managers always have nice new cars and get bonuses.
(Please don’t say get a 2nd or different job. I worked 2 jobs for years until my health started to fail and I tried several times over the years to change industries, but didn’t find one when the economy wasn’t in crises and which didn’t start with same or higher salary and was terrified of having to wait 4-6 months to accrue enough time for health benefits to kick in. )
I still feel privileged because it is so much worse for Blacks & Latinx.
It just doesn’t have to be this way. Why are the majority of citizens paying for military, government, & infrastructure and not the wealthy and big corporations?
The bottom 60% on the income scale has suffered by far the most from the greed and corruption of the top 1%. Those of us who have fought to gain advanced degrees, fought to keep our jobs, fought to help and train the following generations are losing every day. EVERYONE--including Reagan and Gingrich--knew from the beginning that "trickle down" was a scam. They wanted the scam because they decided that the only way to enrich themselves was to train their under-educated (white) followers that the wealth at the top was more important than the pennies they distributed at the bottom. And then they could call anyone who objected by the dreaded S word to further demonize humane economic policy.
Right there with you Linda. These days, I think about community living such as I have read about in Europe where, in one case, a group of women created independent living situations in a community space. I like the idea of independence within the greater circle of interdependence. Can be all ages, married, single, etc., with the intention of community, however that be defined.
The ‘trickle-down’ theory: the principle that the poor, who must subsist on table scraps dropped by the rich, can best be served by giving the rich bigger meals.
I used to read Bill Blum until I found the only empire he was opposed to was the American one. He praised Russia/USSR and Stalin and China too. I am opposed to ALL empires.
Companies like IBM started increasing the differences between "Director-Level" staff and those below in 1990.....when they were hitting the wall and had to hire a cost cutter to run the show. That meant little or no raise for those not in that elite and big raises, paygroup improvements, pension increases, stock-options and major bonuses for those within the ruling group. Result....loss of purchase power by the former and bonanza for the latter.
It’s so stupid too. We’re a big part of the economy. If the 60% can’t afford to purchase things other than mainly necessities, they’re crippling themselves.
They’ve farmed out so many of our jobs to foreign countries to keep up the profit, but now we’ve declined again and further.
The pandemic economy proved how precarious our economy is by baring all of our weaknesses.
We’ve experienced this before and the people who are traditionally in power know this and scream ‘Socialism’ when smart people want to protect ALL of us from repeats.
I commented earlier that Americans seriously need better education which includes a detailed Civics program and Economics. I can only assume it’s by design that such information is only glossed over when I can now see it is literally Life & Death to understand how our government works and how to make changes.
I’m grateful beyond words Dr Richardson for all that you’ve taught me through your Letters From An American posts.
In 1998 Raytheon ran into some problems because of mistakes made by upper management. Therefore, only upper management got raises that year. The CEO's raise was equivalent to a software engineer's yearly salary.
I posted this elsewhere, but I thought you might be interested (even if it has been several days).
XKCD graphic, “Money: A chart of (almost) all of it, where it is and what it can do.” See the worker/CEO compensation comparison between 1965 and 2007 (reported in 2011 dollars). (Zoom to the lower right corner of the green DOLLARS section.)
I’m so sorry to hear of your struggles, Lisa. A college degree should carry with it the promise of a better life along with an increased income. My gifted granddaughter has been applying to colleges, and I now fear for her future as your story is, unfortunately, an often common one. I hope that better days are ahead for you..
I hope that policies the Democrats will restore (especially if they win two Senate seats in Georgia) will help you. What galls me is that milliions of Americans in the same boat as you continue to vote for Republicans and even supported Trump. Ignorance on the part of voters has been the trump card for the G.O.P. since Reconstruction. This is a flaw in American democracy which the Founding Fathers recognized and upon which Andrew Jackson capitalized.
A recent study looked at the average age at which men left Mamma's place in Italy.....38yrs old. It's not just the cooking etc but the inability to afford an appartment in major cities without at least 2 salaries...if not 3 or 4! Average purchase price per Sq Ft in Paris approx $1200...minimum monthly wage approx $1450. The mass of workers cannot afford much if any space anywhere near their work and have to spend hours travelling to work. The average annual Income in Paris is actually $65,000 because of the preponderance of outlyers which average $300,000......they have a little less of a problem and tend to form a rich ghetto driving the non-elite into the furthest suburbs.
Lisa, I started to laugh at the image of Chris Christie with a pair of popsicles up his nose....then I read on and got thoroughly depressed. You wrote "It...doesn't have to be this way", but it always has been this way. There have always been the Kelly Loefflers, who I sincerely hope will soon lose her "job", and there have always been the homeless. The difference now is that the gap has become greater and the people at the "top" are not getting 50 times the income of those at the bottom, but 500 times.
Can anybody justify the chairman of a company making a bad decision which puts 1,000 employees out of work with 4 weeks' pay; then he gets fired for this decision and gets $20 million in bonuses?
I really intended for just snark, but my anger over middle class decline has really reached its peak these past four years. I thought Obama would have made better inroads, but I’ve learned a lot since Trump took office and see the games and roadblocks.
Yes, it’s always been this way. It’s because of Survival of the Whitest ”gene”. It kicks in to ensure its survival, at any cost, whenever it feels threatened.
Only time, persistence, education, strength, integrity & fairness (after a fashion) can change that.
And you’re right, there’s no justification (moral or ethical, that is).
I honestly feel for you & everyone else in this "boat". My daughter is right there with you. I worry about her & help her when she lets me, but one paycheck away - oh yeah. Hopefully when she gets her taxes back (!) next year - she will make arrangements to move back up here in NY - where, if nothing else, she & my granddaughter will be close enough to (hopefully) be able to see them. It will be a year Chrismas since I have. I'm so lucky my son is close by - thank god. I'd be in a different "boat" if he wasnt. So believe me I feel you!
I appreciated the "suck giant popsicles through his nostrils" --- Heather's flock can be really rough...and laughed at that moment. I quickly sobered up by your description of our reality and our continued colonial capitalism which really has swung way too far on the pendulum. Time for a change.
Thanks for appreciating my snark and sharing my concerns over the state of our economy.
It has just occurred to me that we as a society really don’t discuss our economic situations. While understand most people are loathe to share such private information, this has really helped cover up a robbery by our own government.
Same thing about not discussing salaries. It covers up a lot of sneakiness.
Lisa, I shall refrain from replying, not because I agree or disagree with you, but any discussion of United States history (which I have both studied and taught) in relation to "survival of the whitest" and treatment of the non-whites would take up volumes.
Obama was a disaster as President, unfortunately, because the cards were all stacked against him by the intransigent Republicans, just as HCR has often said. He also suffered from the Carter Syndrome; a micro-manager is not a good decision maker.
Amen, to this, Lisa. I wrote that graf not because the information was news to anyone paying any attention, but because the fact that Bloomberg was running the story seemed to me a big deal.
That's truly awful, what you are going through. Clearly the system that grinds people down into poverty has to change! We must find a way to put that message across. Biden has to listen to the message and act to change the way things work. The wealthy people who are holding back change have to understand that it can't go on this way.
If there’s ever the opportunity, I’d love to spend an evening hanging out and having a drink with any of you. These comments are where my hope comes from.
I imagine, before someone wrote about just getting a link from here to a zoom session, that those who want to connect can just send heather sherd@gmail.com their emails and we can have group emails, private emails or just links to zoom chat sessions. I will send you my email, Robin.
Karen, if you know how to set up a zoom and post the link here, we can try it out and see how that works.
I think reaching out to heathersherd@gmail.com first is critical. We have too many trolls here (you know some of them by name) and I do not think we want to have them on our Zoom chat.
Maybe schedule a meet after Georgia election is settled? Or Congress approves Electoral College votes. Much more fun to zoom and be happy than to zoom and weep.
Robin, I sent an email to that address and it came back “undeliverable.” I will double check that I sent it to the correct address. Meanwhile, I received an anonymous invitation to accept a document from someone in my address book. Do you know anything about that?
I don't know anything about the document from someone in your address book. I would not open it without sending them a second email asking about it first. Regarding my email, try it again. heathersherd@gmail.com. Other people seem to be getting through.
After I set up the email, Rev Judith suggested I contact Heather directly through her FB page. So I sent her a message, but have not heard anything back yet. If she has been doing all those videos, she obviously has more tech savvy than I do.
I think that's a great idea. I get so much from reading the comments here, it would be wonderful to actually talk with some of you. I haven't used Zoom yet, but I would eagerly learn it.
I’m so glad I’m not the only low-to-no tech person here...first step is downloading zoom onto your computer or device. Then I guess we need to figure out the email thing. (How to connect to each other).
1. If someone is willing and able to set up a gmail account for this purpose, then he or she could post it here on Heather’s Substack. Also, any post can be deleted by the poster.
2. There is the Facebook UNOFFICIAL Heather Cox Richardson Resource and Discussion Room (with 30,689 members!) that might be a resource for organizing get together groups at least virtually.
Wonderful! Thank you, Robin! Could you repeat this email address as a Reply to the bottom of others’ subthreads here to help spread the word? At least to Rev.Judith who said she’s a Zoom pro and of course, Heather herself who replied 7 hours ago that she might be able to do it from her end! (I’m not a Zoom pro and am off to work.)
I can only assume that one’s reply here gets sent to that person’s email. Besides private message on Heather’s Facebook, you could reply to Heather’s reply to Pam Peterson in this thread.
Pan Peterson — Zoom is cool. (ditto FaceTime and a similar app available through Google). I do Zoom frequently and am grateful for a technology that lets me “visit” with family abd friends in real time. Try it — you might like it.
I have had a regularly scheduled meeting with some of my high school friends (from 50 years ago!) every two weeks. We all share the same political view and one of them turned me on to HCR. We call it the “blue team” and these calls have also kept me sane.
It is very easy. Just download it and you can send email "invites" to people. Then you admit them when they respond to the link in their email. Easier first to have someone invite you so you see how it works.
I've done FB chat once or twice And, I know Zoom will be in my future, but I try to stay away from as much cyber stuff as possible. I'll stop short of calling myself a luddite.
Luddites actually firstly broke the machines in 1810 in a Leicester stocking factory....cotton perhaps coming from Southern Plantations as well as silk and wool. An early opponent of the original English origins of Plantation ideology in defense of workers rights, perhaps?
Perhaps verify with HRC herself to determine her perspective on whether it’s advisable to form an “offshoot” group. There may be concerns about monitoring, etc.
How does one do that? I Just created this as a way to collect emails for those interested in Zooming. I don't knowhow to reach Heather directly, and this seemed like something that might be helpful.
I think I can do it from my end, but it just can't be too big or no one gets to talk, really. The good thing about zoom is that there is a sort of... writing space-- the "chat"-- so people can connect even when others are talking.
The possibility of a Zoom meeting of Heathers groupies would be great, but utter chaos I fear. There are too many of us who would love to have a chance to "meet" each other.
I’m happy to report that Heather’s Herd has actually become a group! Our mission is to provide peer support, share information, and channel our energy to effective organizations in support of democracy—action! Our current focus is voting rights. We Zoom every other Saturday and have an email site with a beautiful banner:
Tonight I fortuitously stumbled upon these posts in the course of googling a prospective member. It’s also interesting timing that Katya became a member today. I asked her to let you know of our existence.
Rana and Sayeed from the Unofficial HCR FB are members, and we will coordinate our groups down the road.
We are hoping to host a Zoom max 100 person meet and greet open to HCR Substackers.
Our Admin group (of 4) can be contacted at the same email Robin created on 12/17/2020:
A private zoom meeting can be set up that requires a password to attend. The password and link could be posted here for people to log in - we wouldn’t need to post emails.
Maybe when it is safe to travel and gather in large groups again we could have a gathering of some sort. It would be nice to do it somewhere in Maine... 😉
Did you get much snow? Here in NY theres between 2 & 3 feet right now - lucky its light & fluffy but really after a certain point - no place to put it! My son will be over to plow me out but hes waiting for the Town to plow the roads - Its been a long long time since we had this much snow.
Wow, that’s a LOT! Are you in the lake-effect western NY area or in the mountains? In Waldoboro (Maine) the proximity to yhe ocean suppresses huge snows (for the most part), so only half a foot or so today. 🤗
Someone over here said 14", but Buddy thought that was high. I went for a long walk on the unplowed roads and it was a big mistake. They were hideously slippery. A snowplow was in the ditch, which can't be a good sign! :)
I saw on the news that Endicott NY had 40" & thats about 30 minutes away from me so went out with a measuring tape!!! & I was low - its about 38-40" here as close as I can tell (hard with a tape) - I'm in Southern NY close to the NY-PA border.
There used to be a wonderful essayist at USA Today, I think, who wrote essays about upstate New York, especially in the snow. We were just talking about him today.
There are good comments regarding this, so I wasn’t really sure where to jump in. If I repeat what others have said elsewhere, sorry… If it’s already done, thanks…
I would like access to a curated collection of timely, forceful, succinct, fact-checked messages tailored for various media (from letters to posts) and audiences (from pols to misguided friends to the not-so-friendly). Keep this conversation alive. That's all...
This would be wonderful...But I hope that more would join us who will let go of the blind loyalty to tRump and his sycophants. Our communities are so divided...I live in a small town in Vermont (one traffic light) and there is a building with one of those horrifying thin blue line flags on the front porch, and a rainbow flag hanging out the 2nd floor window (different tenants)....I wonder how long this will go on. I hope that tRump goes silent somehow tangled up in lawsuits and the resistance to hi occupation of Mar-a-bozo as his residence.
Small world...ask them about the flags hanging on on building in center of town...maybe they will send you a pic! Perhaps you are close to Mass MOCA? On my list of places to visit...
That goes for me too. Absence of flights and various "bug" issues might effectively get in the way of either big gettogethers and international affaires...but zoom or local gettogethers would be great for a start. For Zoom we are going to be faced with the time-zone problem though. Paris is GMT+1. I think we might just about span the globe. I'm in for any other suggestions.
They needed a study to figure out trickle down economics doesn’t work? Pfft! The disappearance of the middle class, and my diminished checking account, was the obvious indicator. But I guess some people only see it if it’s been studied.
Today 43 people were sent home from my school for contact tracing from positive Covid cases. Teachers and students alike. I tell my students treat me like I have cooties, and keep your distance! When the opening of schools was debated over the summer, some parents said the percentage of people that will die is so small it’s ridiculous to make everyone stay home. The superintendent was shocked! Me too! No doubt the insane push for herd immunity swayed their opinions. One little girl today said I can’t get the vaccine because I’m allergic to penicillin. How do you reassure a child that has blatantly been put at risk because of politics! I said that’s why I will get the vaccine! To help protect you!
Thank you Heather! I appreciate being more informed!
The Study by Hope and Limberg merely confirmed the results of a previous paper published by Thomas Picketty in 2014 by the American Economics. It shows clearly that the mega-rich and suppleant recipients of tax cuts kept the benefits to themselves and even negotiated salary increases (CEOs of major Cos). The result was major and continuous increase in inequality resulting from investment and spending decisions that only generated financial and not material flows of economic gain.....no jobs!no trickle down.! just more wealth!
Why would the wealthy do anything else? Tax cuts reward them for what they are doing. Raise taxes and force the companies to invest if they want to lower their tax bill
Historically (19thC) they created new manufacturing as there was opportunity, a underdeveloped financial market and very limited "globalization" mostly focussed on developing export markets in exchange for prime ressources. Since globalization and a bonfire of national controls over capital flows has developed a "market" for "legal" tax avoidance schemes that has freed the elite from the "obligation" to share their wealth with the people that (at least) co-produced it.
Piketty is brilliant! His ‘Capitalism in the 21st Century’ reviews trends going back 200 years! For one who never studied economics, it’s weighty, but even I, avec détermination, can wade through it. He, along with Paul Klugman, is my go-to economist; when he speaks, I listen.
I would have a distinct preference for Klugman. Since the Capital book, Picketty, who runs a private research/teaching center here in Paris, has had a slight problem of exponential growth of self esteem!
Ha! Not surprised; no one is immune to the head-swelling effect of acclaim. He’s young, still. He’ll undoubtedly gain wisdom and perspective in time. Economics, so I’ve heard, is an imperfect and subjective science, and economists grow and change their perspective with time, like most of us, non? 😊
There has been significant criticism of some of his data, his measures of inequality and his statistical definitions especially in the work done for the 21st C Capital book. They don't necessarily invalidate his general conclusions but they reinforce the impression of political bias in his work.
Not to mention the whole Chicago school of economic thought. Laffer has been considered something of a "Laffing stock" (with my apologies for the play on words) for his simplistic curve and considerably discounted.
At the end of the day you look at them all and form your own idea of how the economy works. What is certain is that has worked very much against the interests of the people . It is time that the dominance of politics over economics be re-established to bring the wealth back to the people who really produce it rather than to those that "own" it.
Indeed all economists (and other social theorists) choose data and measures that back their desired conclusions. But in the case of supply-side approaches, we have 50 years of accumulated information about outcomes about tax policies, regulatory changes, income distributions and their knock-on effects, etc. It is inevitable that there are different uses of these measures and different conclusions drawn from them. But some track closer to the masses of data than others.
For a simple presentation of the Piketty approach, Saez and Zucman published a slideshow that summarizes their book "The Triumph of Injustice":
I agree with Stuart that Krugman's analyses and suggestions for improvement are in many respects closer to well-confirmed data. If you want to go further into the weeds on this, here is a CUNY panel discussion which includes all of them:
But as welcome as these contentions and the new UK study are, none of them doubt that trickle-down was a successful spin of a set of policies disastrous for the bulk of the people.
It doesn't work in part because the politicians leave the largesse recipients with freedom of choice about what they do with their ill-gained and fortuitous wealth increase and leave them far too many tax-credit havens which are totally unproductive.
Denise Huddle, I didn't need a study to tell me supply economics did not work either. I am sorry about your school. I hope things get better for you soon.
Actually, anyone paying attention knew it was a lie from the start. If enriching the rich benefitted everyone and make the economy stronger, the market would not have crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression would not have happened. Plus, the whole meaning of great wealth is that the wealthy have enough money to spend whatever they want. Giving them more isn't going to change that.
I wish I was retired. I have been very grateful to have found another position with a different company that has allowed me to work from home after being furloughed without pay due to COVID back in March/April. However, just had a mandatory end of year all-staff meeting in which we were “encouraged” (strongly) to get the vaccine so we could return to business as usual. I am disheartened by this and worried - especially after reading that there has been at least one severe allergic reaction to the vaccine. I have had an allergic reaction to a different vaccine and worry that it could happen again. So now my ‘safe haven’ of a job doesn’t feel so safe anymore.
Here is my earlier commentbon allergies and tge COVID-19 vaccine. You should not be rushed to get it until we know more, and possibly have a safer vaccine from a different company: "Folks with allergies can still get the COVID vaccine, it just must be done in a very controlled environment with epi-pen and IVs and airway support at the ready. Currently we can effectively treat allergic reactions, but we can't effectively treat COVID-19 (unless of course your name is Trump or Dr. Ben Carson or Giuliani or...). There may also be a difference in allergy risk with the different vaccines produced by different companies. Since your student will be low on the vaccine priority list, by the time it is available to her, there may be a safer option."
Sometimes the news is full of commotion that makes no logical sense. Given that the vaccine is going to be scarce at first anyway, prioritize to whom it is offered and encourage anyone more at direct risk from vaccine reactions than covid to wait. Let anyone worried about it for any reason wait. Once everyone who actually wants the vaccine has it, which is maybe half the population, there will be more evidence of effects and there will have been time for a second round with improvements to have come available. Then, bring out the advertising campaigns.
Folks with allergies can still get the COVID vaccine, it just must be done in a very controlled environment with epi-pen and IVs and airway support at the ready. Currently we can effectively treat allergic reactions, but we can't effectively treat COVID-19 (unless of course your name is Trump or Dr. Ben Carson or Giuliani or...). There may also be a difference in allergy risk with the different vaccines produced by different companies. Since your student will be low on the vaccine priority list, by the time it is available to her, there may be a safer option.
Here's my take on what Mitch McConnell is doing: he sees that if the Democrats win in Georgia, his power will be sharply curtailed, and he wants to hang on to that no matter what it takes. He doesn't care about people who are hungry, or whose water or electricity are being cut off, or who are being evicted, with nowhere to go. He doesn't care that there are children who are being affected by all this, or what is happening to them (see hungry, no water, no electricity, etc., above). He is only interested in the power. So, quick, let's pass a bill to make the Republicans in GA look good so maybe they win and I can remain all-powerful! He is as transparent as new glass...and more slimy in his way than Trump. His brand of politics needs to be eradicated. A pox on him.
I believe it was pointed out here a few weeks ago that part of his long game is to force as many states and cities as possible into bankruptcy, where their spending power will be handed over to (mostly Republican-appointed) federal judges who are likely to curtail most social welfare spending, hence his obdurate opposition to aid for cities and states.
Mitch McConnell doesn't do ANYTHING that doesn't benefit him and his. I find it hard to believe that the remainder of "good" Senators could not have stopped him at some point. He has a hold on them just like Trump does on his band of thieves. What is it that makes perfectly rational people follow or kowtow to these men? I think we better figure that out and soon or IMO we are lost as a democracy.
You are absolutely right that McConnell is, and has always been, driven by gaining and retaining political power, and that the Republican disdain for the common good long precedes the current pandemic-driven crisis. It is also, I think, worth noting that even in his calculations that some kind of relief bill might help the GA Repo candidates that the "compromises" he has apparently been offering to Dem Senators are appallingly inadequate to the needs on the ground. He is negotiating down from a position of strength, and it is the Dems who have had to pare down goal after goal. And he will get his "look at what we've done" bill.
As of a couple of days ago, Jon Ossoff was 2 points behind in the polls. McConnell is flooding the state with millions of dollars. If you can do something (donate, call, text, postcards) or do more than you're already doing to support Ossoff and Warnock, now's the time.
Thank you, Heather, You just explained to me why Majority Leader McConnell decided to go ahead with a COVID relief bill and what would seem a break with President Trump by acknowledging Biden and Harris as President and Vice President elect. It's all about McConnell staying in power in the Senate when the two Republican Senatorial candidates are being trounced in Georgia because the Senate has not passed such a bill! Simple. Staying in power is worth angering DT a bit. It has nothing to do with him acknowledging how badly it is needed across the country. Maybe DT should look for election fraud in Kentucky since McConnell is very much under Putin and the Russian oligarchs thumb.
No, He decided his personal power was in jeopardy if he didn't pass the relief bill so the two Republicans would win the Georgia run-off Senate election. For the Grim Reaper it had nothing to do with Americans needing help.
And they already helped themselves in the stock market when they first heard about the virus and its potential. People who need more and more money no matter how much they have must be very empty inside and that void won't be filled with having the most toys.
What surprises me is how little McConnell has done for the people of Kentucky who elected him. Kentucky ranks 40th among the states, "Fiscal Stability" 45th, "Education" 38th, "Health Care" 44th. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky
Lol...but i'm not sure that they would "serv" anybody but themselves. How about "Dingos" as they have dropped the "Pee" from GOP? Or just plain "hippos" as they lost their horn (poached for the Chinese aphrodisiac market) and are practically immobile on land!
Rep. Porter's emphasis on the need for campaign finance reform as a starting point, noting that no European country would allow such corruption (my word, not hers), is a very important understanding. Without campaign finance reform, the decline in the quality of elected officials and legislation will continue. To me, campaign finance reform is the essential starting point for a return to meaningful representation of, by, and for the people.
One phrase from Paul Alexander‘s rantings sums up the entire philosophy of the Trump Administration — “who cares.” From the lives of ordinary people to the environment to the very principles of democracy, they just don’t care how much damage they cause and how many lives are lost.
I was so outraged by those emails. Can you imagine the sheer hubris of casually saying that it was fine to kill people because you, and you alone, over all the rest of the world, knew that that was the right course of action? I'm getting mad all over again.
Ding ding ding. You said the magic word: indifference.
My axis of evil — remember that bushism — is:
Greed. Speed. Indifference to Need.
It makes for an interesting Venn Diagram defining the crossover characteristics.
Speed refers to moving too fast to think, especially in regards to one’s actions on others. It’s a state of mind preferred by those who consider themselves too special to be bothered by life’s mundane rules. You increase the probability of harming another greatly by combining this with indifference to others needs.
Mundane example is a person running the light as it flips to red. My need is so important I risk harm to another by pushing through. When I combine that with total disregard for the needs of others at that moment, or with the greed of feeling entitled to choose my own way anyway anytime, then the probability of a destructive outcome increases.
Anyway, this is my little apparatus for self-checks. Take a breath, slow down, deal w my own sense of entitlement, recognize that others may be just as pressed for time or money. Breathe out a sense of knowing I’m part of the bigger picture.
It also helps me to diagnose the anti-maskers, trumpeteers, evangelicals, and even the mob-boss himself. He is not only indifferent to others needs, he greedily and speedily denies his own true needs.
"Anyway, this is my little apparatus for self-checks. Take a breath, slow down, deal w my own sense of entitlement, recognize that others may be just as pressed for time or money. Breathe out a sense of knowing I’m part of the bigger picture."
That’s what you get when you let sociopaths get to the top of industries and government. Indifference. Disregard. Callousness. Constipated economics where it doesn’t trickle down, but instead, the overflow backs up.
And pass laws that allow the estate tax to disappear so the ill gotten gains stay in the family. Weath without work is one of the 7 deadly. Compare Mary Trump to her entitled cousins. Abigail Disney to Paris Hilton.
Not sure some of us overlook that. I’ve been furious, incredulous, and despairing about the degree of apathy that abounds in the White House major players and supporting cast.
I listened to a few environmentalists etc. yesterday on NPR about what that seemingly benign wall has done to farmers, to wildlife, to that whole area in a very destructive way.
Not only that but it has done absolutely nothing, zero, to stop the “problem” for which it was erected.It’s going to be hard for Biden to just stop it because of what’s involved. Trump is a disgrace to the planet.
I want my blood pressure to go down a bit. I don’t think it will until we fully get the virus eradicated and escort Fake 45 to a final destination...prison.
I saw Clyburn’s 12 page letter outlining the atrocities committed by that God-awful professor who knows nothing. Let’s not forget Dr. Atlas’s claims either. They knew. They KNEW exactly what they were doing! I don’t know if I am paranoid but in my heart, I feel they are all Russian operatives. They have successfully carried out Putin’s plan to disintegrate America. Look, he caused Brexit and poisoning of those who dare his rule. I put nothing past him. Nothing!
Murderers, that is what they are and all should be prosecuted swiftly.
I must be paranoid in my heart too. How can one person attract such an enormous group of corrupt others? Is there a silent whistle only criminals hear?
We were talking once about phone scams and I was disgusted that people would fleece the elderly, and a friend of mine said to me that I had to remember that for all of us who operated above the line, trying to be moral and make an honest living, there were just as many who operated below it, in a shadow economy, trying to live by cheating and lying. That always stuck with me. I don't necessarily believe it entirely, but it did sort of wake me up to the idea that maybe bad people weren't just a few misguided outliers.
I suspect the herd immunity approach meets the definition of “democide”—the killing of members of a country's civilian population as a result of its government's policy, including by direct action, indifference, and neglect. Simply diabolical!
Hoping swift litigation for crimes against humanity follows.
Yeah, Biden can "look forward" all he wants, and say that we don't prosecute our political opponents. These people aren't "opponents." They're the Damn Enemy.
Yes. It’s what makes living in Florida with mini T**** DeathSantis so hard to bear. People are almost encouraged to “get out there” and get infected. It enrages me, and it breaks my heart.
Actually it was the a couple of their most important Prosecutors but who were they "terrorizing" ? Terrorism and terrorist organizations are not event part of their UN remit. Pompeo/Trump put them on State Dept's Foreign Asset Control List and the no-US Visa Entry List for daring to question some activities of US soldiers around the globe. I'm not sure that this particularly frightened nor obstructed Bensouda and Mochochoko.
Heather Cox Richardson--among the truths that are self-evident (to me)--
Your literate and lucid well considered attempt to share your observations and assessments day by day on what continues to roll out as part of our country's history has the Common Sense ring of a Tom Paine. Welcome to history yourself, Ms. Richardson.
Thank you, Gregg. But I think maybe this works because I'm just a regular person. Well educated, for sure, but I think this is really about a spontaneous movement, not about me. Honestly.
On the huge security hack. Upgrades to third party commercial software is an excellent platform for hackers to insert malware. Upgrades are necessary but are also a vulnerability that are often not thoroughly checked well. For those who would like to know more about security digital democracy especially around voting systems which is very informative without being immersed in techno speak, I highly recommend the free online course "Securing Digital Democracy" offered by the University of Michigan. https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy It also gives one an interesting history of voting and why characteristics like confidentiality and auditing are important and how they are achieved.
Thanks so much for finding and sharing the video. One of the few (only?) benefits of the pandemic has been how the entertainment industry and performing artists of all genres have figured out ways to share their talents with those of us at home.
The NYTimes David Leonhardt explains: "51 is greater than 1
"Over the spring and summer, Mitch McConnell repeatedly declared that he had a litmus test for any new coronavirus stimulus bill: It had to protect businesses from lawsuits from workers or customers who contracted the virus.
'We have a red line on liability,' he said at one point. 'I won’t put a bill on the floor that doesn’t have liability protection in it,' he said at another. 'No bill will pass the Senate without liability protection for everyone related to the coronavirus,' he added.
"But McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, has since erased that red line. Congressional leaders and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, are nearing agreement on a $900 billion bill that doesn’t include liability protection.
"So why did McConnell, arguably the savviest politician in Washington, fold?
"The answer offers an important reminder of how the Senate really works and how it could become less dysfunctional in the near future than it has been lately.
"When people talk about the Senate, they often imagine that McConnell, as the majority leader, is all-powerful and can prevent any bill he doesn’t like from coming up for a vote. That’s not the case. Any senator can propose that a bill receive a vote. If at least 50 other senators want it to receive one, it will.
"In recent decades, though, senators have voluntarily surrendered this power to their party’s leader, giving him (and, no, the Senate has never had a female majority or minority leader) a veto over what comes to the floor. The practice helps keep parties unified.
"But it comes with a major downside. It makes bipartisan compromise harder to achieve. Coalitions that could pass a bill — but that don’t include the majority leader — don’t get the chance to form. “By stopping the legislative process before it starts,” James Wallner, a former Republican Senate staff member, has told me, “it makes compromise harder.”
"On the latest round of stimulus, a bipartisan group of senators changed the dynamic by making clear that they strongly favored additional aid. They did not publicly threaten to go around McConnell, but they didn’t have to. He can count to 51, and he was also worried that the two Republican candidates in next month’s Georgia Senate runoffs were “getting hammered” over the lack of a deal.
"(McConnell did win a big concession as part of abandoning his red line: The proposed deal does not contain aid to state and local governments, even though the bipartisan group had included it in their earlier proposal and despite many economists favoring such aid.)
"It’s possible this bipartisan deal will end up being a one-time event. But it doesn’t have to be. Senators have it within their power to find other areas of compromise next year, during Joe Biden’s presidency — even if McConnell does not favor those deals.
'In politics victory begets victory,' Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic former House member and Chicago mayor, told me yesterday. 'The center-out governing coalition has a win under their belt.' It is a 'big opportunity for Biden,' Emanuel said.
"Perhaps most intriguing, senators have the power to craft compromises regardless of which party wins the Georgia runoffs and controls the Senate."
Ah but, by a "tradition" of the Senate, the Majority leader can simply not bring bills to the floor. So McConnell does have that power until it is taken away from him.
It is a tradition enabled by Recognition controlled by the Vice President as the head of the Senate. It will be interesting to see if Vice President Harris will decide to change the tradition!
“Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has cut short an overseas trip to come home and deal with the crisis.”
Is that a good idea, having a Trump appointee deal with any problem, let alone a massive cyber invasion? Will he be dealing with the problem, or the political fallout from the problem?
Where? to Paris. Doing what? Ostensibly, to represent US at 60th anniversary of OECD. With whom? His wife, Lo-Mari. Basically, a lame-duck trip, which will double as "a holiday tour of the romantic Mediterranean and European capitals, including seeking a private tour of the Louvre despite it being closed because of coronavirus restrictions," U.S. government employees abroad will have to shepherd the couple on their foreign travels, though, one overseas diplomat tells Axios.
What is the antithesis of defund, maxi-fund? May the Biden administration and Congress maxi-fund the FBI, DOJ, and any other agencies having jurisdiction over these Trump administration abusers at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. While the top tier is likely to be exempted via presidential pardon, there will remain plenty of abusers who probably perceived their conduct as normal and acceptable—plenty to keep an army of investigators and prosecutors busy for a long time.
Superspreading the virus. Avoiding responsibility for this unbelievable hack. How many other admins are off on a transmission junket instead of helping the transition? I bet there is lots of paper shredding going on back home they didn’t want traced back to them. “I’m only the acting-acting. I know nothing.”
Your essay seems to suggest that basic honesty is back in season now that Biden is in. I hope you are right, but it's not that simple. If we hope to have a new era in which politicians are routinely held to a standard of truth, the euphemisms have to disappear too, among Republicans, Democrats and even journalists.
We have learned, I hope, that lying has real-world consequences. A public accustomed to being lied to will eventually become destructive, not just to truth, but in other harmful ways.
Canadian friends have been telling me for years that Canadian wingers are dumber and crazier than American wingers. Otherwise-unemployable acadamaniac "Dr." Alexander proves my friends were giving their scumbags the benefit of the doubt on those points.
No wonder Humpty Drumpty loved that crap - it meant he could continue to be the lazy moron he's always been.
And so far as getting Putin's Bitch to do anything about Vlad's declaration of war.... this is what he was installed to do.
The Russians have been at war with us for the past 10 years. Time to smack them.
1. When are they going to get rid of that Rusky problem problem permanently? It’s only going to get worse!!
2. Chris Christie as President?? After his morbidity obese self backed all of Trump’s stupidity, not the least of it his pandemic maskless non-plan? Christie who got covid & used Trump privilege to get expensively healed of Covid & Likely on taxpayers dime?!
He can suck giant popsicles through his nostrils.
3. No kidding trickle-down economics doesn’t work.
I’m White & college-educated.I grew up with Middle Class privileges (a stay-at-home mom, two cars, a father with a white collar job, & a pet).
But since I graduated college, I live in increasingly tiny apartments which cost more than half my monthly income and where I now feel fortunate it has a toilet that I don’t need to share with a stranger and it has a tiny range. I’m one lost week’s pay away from disaster.
I can’t afford to pay into 401K and my only retirement plan is to die before my employers push me out for being too old to work to their desired capacity.
I haven’t had a raise, not even a cost of living increase in almost a decade, yet costs of rent, utilities, food, cars, gas, etc have all gone up significantly. Even my employers product still makes profit because they continually raise the cost.
The upper managers always have nice new cars and get bonuses.
(Please don’t say get a 2nd or different job. I worked 2 jobs for years until my health started to fail and I tried several times over the years to change industries, but didn’t find one when the economy wasn’t in crises and which didn’t start with same or higher salary and was terrified of having to wait 4-6 months to accrue enough time for health benefits to kick in. )
I still feel privileged because it is so much worse for Blacks & Latinx.
It just doesn’t have to be this way. Why are the majority of citizens paying for military, government, & infrastructure and not the wealthy and big corporations?
The bottom 60% on the income scale has suffered by far the most from the greed and corruption of the top 1%. Those of us who have fought to gain advanced degrees, fought to keep our jobs, fought to help and train the following generations are losing every day. EVERYONE--including Reagan and Gingrich--knew from the beginning that "trickle down" was a scam. They wanted the scam because they decided that the only way to enrich themselves was to train their under-educated (white) followers that the wealth at the top was more important than the pennies they distributed at the bottom. And then they could call anyone who objected by the dreaded S word to further demonize humane economic policy.
Yup.
Bingo
Right there with you Linda. These days, I think about community living such as I have read about in Europe where, in one case, a group of women created independent living situations in a community space. I like the idea of independence within the greater circle of interdependence. Can be all ages, married, single, etc., with the intention of community, however that be defined.
The ‘trickle-down’ theory: the principle that the poor, who must subsist on table scraps dropped by the rich, can best be served by giving the rich bigger meals.
— William Blum
I used to read Bill Blum until I found the only empire he was opposed to was the American one. He praised Russia/USSR and Stalin and China too. I am opposed to ALL empires.
I had never heard this. It's GREAT.
Perfect. Best & most accurate description I’ve ever read. I’m going to share that quote everywhere.
Companies like IBM started increasing the differences between "Director-Level" staff and those below in 1990.....when they were hitting the wall and had to hire a cost cutter to run the show. That meant little or no raise for those not in that elite and big raises, paygroup improvements, pension increases, stock-options and major bonuses for those within the ruling group. Result....loss of purchase power by the former and bonanza for the latter.
It’s so stupid too. We’re a big part of the economy. If the 60% can’t afford to purchase things other than mainly necessities, they’re crippling themselves.
They’ve farmed out so many of our jobs to foreign countries to keep up the profit, but now we’ve declined again and further.
The pandemic economy proved how precarious our economy is by baring all of our weaknesses.
This was the big discovery of the Great Crash in 1929. No one had any money to restart the economy.
That is horrifying to me.
We’ve experienced this before and the people who are traditionally in power know this and scream ‘Socialism’ when smart people want to protect ALL of us from repeats.
I commented earlier that Americans seriously need better education which includes a detailed Civics program and Economics. I can only assume it’s by design that such information is only glossed over when I can now see it is literally Life & Death to understand how our government works and how to make changes.
I’m grateful beyond words Dr Richardson for all that you’ve taught me through your Letters From An American posts.
God bless you and send good things your way.
I feel your pain. There are so many of us who would dearly love to stop being hand to mouth.
In 1998 Raytheon ran into some problems because of mistakes made by upper management. Therefore, only upper management got raises that year. The CEO's raise was equivalent to a software engineer's yearly salary.
Wow.
OMG...
I posted this elsewhere, but I thought you might be interested (even if it has been several days).
XKCD graphic, “Money: A chart of (almost) all of it, where it is and what it can do.” See the worker/CEO compensation comparison between 1965 and 2007 (reported in 2011 dollars). (Zoom to the lower right corner of the green DOLLARS section.)
https://xkcd.com/980/huge/
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money.png
So many knowledgeable people here in this group. Its an education.
I’m so sorry to hear of your struggles, Lisa. A college degree should carry with it the promise of a better life along with an increased income. My gifted granddaughter has been applying to colleges, and I now fear for her future as your story is, unfortunately, an often common one. I hope that better days are ahead for you..
Good luck to your granddaughter!
Yes Lisa, I hope your difficult circumstances ease up and get a whole lot better soon.
I’m so sorry you are struggling like so many!
Thanks!
I hope that policies the Democrats will restore (especially if they win two Senate seats in Georgia) will help you. What galls me is that milliions of Americans in the same boat as you continue to vote for Republicans and even supported Trump. Ignorance on the part of voters has been the trump card for the G.O.P. since Reconstruction. This is a flaw in American democracy which the Founding Fathers recognized and upon which Andrew Jackson capitalized.
True. We seriously need to educate people about civics and economics. Our ignorance is Republicans bliss.
With Trump being the most heinous Trump Card of all.
Right there with you, except living with parents due to no husband.
A recent study looked at the average age at which men left Mamma's place in Italy.....38yrs old. It's not just the cooking etc but the inability to afford an appartment in major cities without at least 2 salaries...if not 3 or 4! Average purchase price per Sq Ft in Paris approx $1200...minimum monthly wage approx $1450. The mass of workers cannot afford much if any space anywhere near their work and have to spend hours travelling to work. The average annual Income in Paris is actually $65,000 because of the preponderance of outlyers which average $300,000......they have a little less of a problem and tend to form a rich ghetto driving the non-elite into the furthest suburbs.
I’m sorry you’re in a similar position. I kind of wish I had the option to live with my parents, at least for a couple years to get ahead of bills.
*same or lower salary
Lisa, I started to laugh at the image of Chris Christie with a pair of popsicles up his nose....then I read on and got thoroughly depressed. You wrote "It...doesn't have to be this way", but it always has been this way. There have always been the Kelly Loefflers, who I sincerely hope will soon lose her "job", and there have always been the homeless. The difference now is that the gap has become greater and the people at the "top" are not getting 50 times the income of those at the bottom, but 500 times.
Can anybody justify the chairman of a company making a bad decision which puts 1,000 employees out of work with 4 weeks' pay; then he gets fired for this decision and gets $20 million in bonuses?
Sorry about the depressing parts!!
I really intended for just snark, but my anger over middle class decline has really reached its peak these past four years. I thought Obama would have made better inroads, but I’ve learned a lot since Trump took office and see the games and roadblocks.
Yes, it’s always been this way. It’s because of Survival of the Whitest ”gene”. It kicks in to ensure its survival, at any cost, whenever it feels threatened.
Only time, persistence, education, strength, integrity & fairness (after a fashion) can change that.
And you’re right, there’s no justification (moral or ethical, that is).
I honestly feel for you & everyone else in this "boat". My daughter is right there with you. I worry about her & help her when she lets me, but one paycheck away - oh yeah. Hopefully when she gets her taxes back (!) next year - she will make arrangements to move back up here in NY - where, if nothing else, she & my granddaughter will be close enough to (hopefully) be able to see them. It will be a year Chrismas since I have. I'm so lucky my son is close by - thank god. I'd be in a different "boat" if he wasnt. So believe me I feel you!
Best of luck to you both!
I appreciated the "suck giant popsicles through his nostrils" --- Heather's flock can be really rough...and laughed at that moment. I quickly sobered up by your description of our reality and our continued colonial capitalism which really has swung way too far on the pendulum. Time for a change.
Thanks for appreciating my snark and sharing my concerns over the state of our economy.
It has just occurred to me that we as a society really don’t discuss our economic situations. While understand most people are loathe to share such private information, this has really helped cover up a robbery by our own government.
Same thing about not discussing salaries. It covers up a lot of sneakiness.
Lisa, I shall refrain from replying, not because I agree or disagree with you, but any discussion of United States history (which I have both studied and taught) in relation to "survival of the whitest" and treatment of the non-whites would take up volumes.
Obama was a disaster as President, unfortunately, because the cards were all stacked against him by the intransigent Republicans, just as HCR has often said. He also suffered from the Carter Syndrome; a micro-manager is not a good decision maker.
Well said
Amen, to this, Lisa. I wrote that graf not because the information was news to anyone paying any attention, but because the fact that Bloomberg was running the story seemed to me a big deal.
That's truly awful, what you are going through. Clearly the system that grinds people down into poverty has to change! We must find a way to put that message across. Biden has to listen to the message and act to change the way things work. The wealthy people who are holding back change have to understand that it can't go on this way.
If there’s ever the opportunity, I’d love to spend an evening hanging out and having a drink with any of you. These comments are where my hope comes from.
Wouldn’t at least a Zoom call of HCR Readers be great? BYOB.
That sounds like a great idea! If there really are a million of us, we might break Zoom.🙃
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
I imagine, before someone wrote about just getting a link from here to a zoom session, that those who want to connect can just send heather sherd@gmail.com their emails and we can have group emails, private emails or just links to zoom chat sessions. I will send you my email, Robin.
Karen, if you know how to set up a zoom and post the link here, we can try it out and see how that works.
I think reaching out to heathersherd@gmail.com first is critical. We have too many trolls here (you know some of them by name) and I do not think we want to have them on our Zoom chat.
Maybe schedule a meet after Georgia election is settled? Or Congress approves Electoral College votes. Much more fun to zoom and be happy than to zoom and weep.
That is a perfect time for a group celebration or group therapy.
Thank you, Heather. I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
Robin, I sent an email to that address and it came back “undeliverable.” I will double check that I sent it to the correct address. Meanwhile, I received an anonymous invitation to accept a document from someone in my address book. Do you know anything about that?
I don't know anything about the document from someone in your address book. I would not open it without sending them a second email asking about it first. Regarding my email, try it again. heathersherd@gmail.com. Other people seem to be getting through.
After I set up the email, Rev Judith suggested I contact Heather directly through her FB page. So I sent her a message, but have not heard anything back yet. If she has been doing all those videos, she obviously has more tech savvy than I do.
Don't worry, zoom, Be happy.
I think almost all of us would be "in" on this.
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
Tell me when !!!
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
I think that's a great idea. I get so much from reading the comments here, it would be wonderful to actually talk with some of you. I haven't used Zoom yet, but I would eagerly learn it.
I’m so glad I’m not the only low-to-no tech person here...first step is downloading zoom onto your computer or device. Then I guess we need to figure out the email thing. (How to connect to each other).
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
I can think of 2 possibilities:
1. If someone is willing and able to set up a gmail account for this purpose, then he or she could post it here on Heather’s Substack. Also, any post can be deleted by the poster.
2. There is the Facebook UNOFFICIAL Heather Cox Richardson Resource and Discussion Room (with 30,689 members!) that might be a resource for organizing get together groups at least virtually.
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
Wonderful! Thank you, Robin! Could you repeat this email address as a Reply to the bottom of others’ subthreads here to help spread the word? At least to Rev.Judith who said she’s a Zoom pro and of course, Heather herself who replied 7 hours ago that she might be able to do it from her end! (I’m not a Zoom pro and am off to work.)
👍
Ellie, I think I did as you asked, posting it as a reply to several of the comments today though I am not sure how to connect to Heather directly.
I can only assume that one’s reply here gets sent to that person’s email. Besides private message on Heather’s Facebook, you could reply to Heather’s reply to Pam Peterson in this thread.
One of the few things I miss after deleting y FB account is Heather’s FB Page and some Groups.
I'd be there for sure, and I haven't used Zoom yet.
Pan Peterson — Zoom is cool. (ditto FaceTime and a similar app available through Google). I do Zoom frequently and am grateful for a technology that lets me “visit” with family abd friends in real time. Try it — you might like it.
I have had a regularly scheduled meeting with some of my high school friends (from 50 years ago!) every two weeks. We all share the same political view and one of them turned me on to HCR. We call it the “blue team” and these calls have also kept me sane.
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
Lucky you! How great.
Haven't used Zoom either. But will sign on to "Zoom for Dummies" so I can join everybody!
It is very easy. Just download it and you can send email "invites" to people. Then you admit them when they respond to the link in their email. Easier first to have someone invite you so you see how it works.
okay, thanks!
I've done FB chat once or twice And, I know Zoom will be in my future, but I try to stay away from as much cyber stuff as possible. I'll stop short of calling myself a luddite.
hash-tag me, too!
Luddites actually firstly broke the machines in 1810 in a Leicester stocking factory....cotton perhaps coming from Southern Plantations as well as silk and wool. An early opponent of the original English origins of Plantation ideology in defense of workers rights, perhaps?
I just created heathersherd@gmail.com. not sure what the next step is.
Perhaps verify with HRC herself to determine her perspective on whether it’s advisable to form an “offshoot” group. There may be concerns about monitoring, etc.
How does one do that? I Just created this as a way to collect emails for those interested in Zooming. I don't knowhow to reach Heather directly, and this seemed like something that might be helpful.
I’m a newbie too but it’s easy once you get the hang of it ;) sweet pic of your pooch :)
Belly Yo'self up to the Bar. With zoom you don't have to bring anything.
I'm in too.
Bring your own bitch! 😂😂😂🌲🌲
To zoom people, we'd have to share emails. Is there a way to Private message here, so we aren't posting our emails on this page?
Not that I know of. Maybe heather could give us a clue how to get together.
I think I can do it from my end, but it just can't be too big or no one gets to talk, really. The good thing about zoom is that there is a sort of... writing space-- the "chat"-- so people can connect even when others are talking.
The possibility of a Zoom meeting of Heathers groupies would be great, but utter chaos I fear. There are too many of us who would love to have a chance to "meet" each other.
Hi Heather,
I’m happy to report that Heather’s Herd has actually become a group! Our mission is to provide peer support, share information, and channel our energy to effective organizations in support of democracy—action! Our current focus is voting rights. We Zoom every other Saturday and have an email site with a beautiful banner:
heathersherd@groups.io
Tonight I fortuitously stumbled upon these posts in the course of googling a prospective member. It’s also interesting timing that Katya became a member today. I asked her to let you know of our existence.
Rana and Sayeed from the Unofficial HCR FB are members, and we will coordinate our groups down the road.
We are hoping to host a Zoom max 100 person meet and greet open to HCR Substackers.
Our Admin group (of 4) can be contacted at the same email Robin created on 12/17/2020:
heathersherd@gmail.com
Thank you for your ongoing inspiration!
Ellie Kona
A private zoom meeting can be set up that requires a password to attend. The password and link could be posted here for people to log in - we wouldn’t need to post emails.
I’ve taken classes that way.
It's going to be fun with 2-3000 faces on the screen all talking at once!
Share social media addresses. Then Direct/Private Message each other.
Maybe when it is safe to travel and gather in large groups again we could have a gathering of some sort. It would be nice to do it somewhere in Maine... 😉
We have a farm a couple of miles from HCR’s place in Maine. Be happy to host a dinner in our orchard!
Did you get much snow? Here in NY theres between 2 & 3 feet right now - lucky its light & fluffy but really after a certain point - no place to put it! My son will be over to plow me out but hes waiting for the Town to plow the roads - Its been a long long time since we had this much snow.
Yes.. are you near Buffalo? We in N Vt got 3 “ . Maddening
No - South & East of Buffalo.
Wow, that’s a LOT! Are you in the lake-effect western NY area or in the mountains? In Waldoboro (Maine) the proximity to yhe ocean suppresses huge snows (for the most part), so only half a foot or so today. 🤗
Someone over here said 14", but Buddy thought that was high. I went for a long walk on the unplowed roads and it was a big mistake. They were hideously slippery. A snowplow was in the ditch, which can't be a good sign! :)
I saw on the news that Endicott NY had 40" & thats about 30 minutes away from me so went out with a measuring tape!!! & I was low - its about 38-40" here as close as I can tell (hard with a tape) - I'm in Southern NY close to the NY-PA border.
There used to be a wonderful essayist at USA Today, I think, who wrote essays about upstate New York, especially in the snow. We were just talking about him today.
Jealous
Not much here in Vt
I’m from L.I. NY. We only got 6-8 inches of snow, but it was heavy, ice crusted snow. I’m living on Aleve since yesterday:)
from shoveling?? I'm using X Tylenol myself! Lots of shoveling when theres about 3 ft of snow. Even after I got plowed out.
East Providence RI I got about 6” I think? Still snowing.
That was such a nightmare. It just wouldn't stop coming down and it never melted. My daughter and I had to shovel the roof almost every day.
You had to shovel your roof?!! The very idea blows me away!
Oooh! That sound nice. Maybe in the fall. By then, we might all have access to vaccines.
From your mouth to Goddess’ ear
Such a lovely idea
Awesome!
Not far from Vermont - how much snow there?
I’m in. I think we all should get together and form a coalition. I’ve been saying this.
We could form a Political Action Committe with the emphasis on Action rather than money.
Great idea!
I would love that!
I would love to learn how to act. My wife intimates I am incapable of it.
There are good comments regarding this, so I wasn’t really sure where to jump in. If I repeat what others have said elsewhere, sorry… If it’s already done, thanks…
I would like access to a curated collection of timely, forceful, succinct, fact-checked messages tailored for various media (from letters to posts) and audiences (from pols to misguided friends to the not-so-friendly). Keep this conversation alive. That's all...
I've been thinking along the same lines.
Agree...had the same thought...why cant we grab the anti-bully pulpit? Start a new news outlet to counter Qanon...
This would be wonderful...But I hope that more would join us who will let go of the blind loyalty to tRump and his sycophants. Our communities are so divided...I live in a small town in Vermont (one traffic light) and there is a building with one of those horrifying thin blue line flags on the front porch, and a rainbow flag hanging out the 2nd floor window (different tenants)....I wonder how long this will go on. I hope that tRump goes silent somehow tangled up in lawsuits and the resistance to hi occupation of Mar-a-bozo as his residence.
I am in VT, too! Which little town?
Where are you, Penelope?
Putney! 20” of snow!
I am about 45 minutes south of you! We have about 2 feet, also!
I envy you “blue” staters... except for the snow.
Richmond...
Really? My best friend and her husband live in Richmond! I’m in north western MA just below the VT line.
Small world...ask them about the flags hanging on on building in center of town...maybe they will send you a pic! Perhaps you are close to Mass MOCA? On my list of places to visit...
I will ask them about them. I think I might even know which building. No, I am not that far west in western MA. Closer to Brattleboro, VT.
I am in!
I'm in!!
Okay-- does anyone here have time to administrate a new gmail account and we can all sign up there? I just moved and am too discombobulated right now.
Unfortunately I do not. I hope someone is up to it - I would love to participate as much as I am able.
Me too
What does it entail? I am technologically-challenged.
Ditto!
That goes for me too. Absence of flights and various "bug" issues might effectively get in the way of either big gettogethers and international affaires...but zoom or local gettogethers would be great for a start. For Zoom we are going to be faced with the time-zone problem though. Paris is GMT+1. I think we might just about span the globe. I'm in for any other suggestions.
How about tea w honey? 😂
They needed a study to figure out trickle down economics doesn’t work? Pfft! The disappearance of the middle class, and my diminished checking account, was the obvious indicator. But I guess some people only see it if it’s been studied.
Today 43 people were sent home from my school for contact tracing from positive Covid cases. Teachers and students alike. I tell my students treat me like I have cooties, and keep your distance! When the opening of schools was debated over the summer, some parents said the percentage of people that will die is so small it’s ridiculous to make everyone stay home. The superintendent was shocked! Me too! No doubt the insane push for herd immunity swayed their opinions. One little girl today said I can’t get the vaccine because I’m allergic to penicillin. How do you reassure a child that has blatantly been put at risk because of politics! I said that’s why I will get the vaccine! To help protect you!
Thank you Heather! I appreciate being more informed!
The Study by Hope and Limberg merely confirmed the results of a previous paper published by Thomas Picketty in 2014 by the American Economics. It shows clearly that the mega-rich and suppleant recipients of tax cuts kept the benefits to themselves and even negotiated salary increases (CEOs of major Cos). The result was major and continuous increase in inequality resulting from investment and spending decisions that only generated financial and not material flows of economic gain.....no jobs!no trickle down.! just more wealth!
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.6.1.230
Why would the wealthy do anything else? Tax cuts reward them for what they are doing. Raise taxes and force the companies to invest if they want to lower their tax bill
Historically (19thC) they created new manufacturing as there was opportunity, a underdeveloped financial market and very limited "globalization" mostly focussed on developing export markets in exchange for prime ressources. Since globalization and a bonfire of national controls over capital flows has developed a "market" for "legal" tax avoidance schemes that has freed the elite from the "obligation" to share their wealth with the people that (at least) co-produced it.
Oh. Damn.
Piketty is brilliant! His ‘Capitalism in the 21st Century’ reviews trends going back 200 years! For one who never studied economics, it’s weighty, but even I, avec détermination, can wade through it. He, along with Paul Klugman, is my go-to economist; when he speaks, I listen.
I would have a distinct preference for Klugman. Since the Capital book, Picketty, who runs a private research/teaching center here in Paris, has had a slight problem of exponential growth of self esteem!
Ha! Not surprised; no one is immune to the head-swelling effect of acclaim. He’s young, still. He’ll undoubtedly gain wisdom and perspective in time. Economics, so I’ve heard, is an imperfect and subjective science, and economists grow and change their perspective with time, like most of us, non? 😊
And tend to move towards less utopian horizons...wisdom indeed!
the Netflix documentary “Requiem for the American Dream” really digs into this issue.
I actually just looked and found it on Amazon prime video. Interviews with Noam Chomsky, another brilliant thinker. Thank you for the reference.
How could I forget the Noam Chomsky part!
Also on YouTube
It's also on Kanopy. FWIW.
Thank you for mentioning this. I watched it recently and was strongly moved. I'll watch it again today.
Picketty is a genius. Truly brilliant work.
There has been significant criticism of some of his data, his measures of inequality and his statistical definitions especially in the work done for the 21st C Capital book. They don't necessarily invalidate his general conclusions but they reinforce the impression of political bias in his work.
Every economist has political bias. Do you think Arthur Laffer wasn't biased toward conservative capitalism?
Not to mention the whole Chicago school of economic thought. Laffer has been considered something of a "Laffing stock" (with my apologies for the play on words) for his simplistic curve and considerably discounted.
At the end of the day you look at them all and form your own idea of how the economy works. What is certain is that has worked very much against the interests of the people . It is time that the dominance of politics over economics be re-established to bring the wealth back to the people who really produce it rather than to those that "own" it.
Indeed all economists (and other social theorists) choose data and measures that back their desired conclusions. But in the case of supply-side approaches, we have 50 years of accumulated information about outcomes about tax policies, regulatory changes, income distributions and their knock-on effects, etc. It is inevitable that there are different uses of these measures and different conclusions drawn from them. But some track closer to the masses of data than others.
For a simple presentation of the Piketty approach, Saez and Zucman published a slideshow that summarizes their book "The Triumph of Injustice":
https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/SZ2019Slides.pdf
I agree with Stuart that Krugman's analyses and suggestions for improvement are in many respects closer to well-confirmed data. If you want to go further into the weeds on this, here is a CUNY panel discussion which includes all of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIv0xTPWZOo
But as welcome as these contentions and the new UK study are, none of them doubt that trickle-down was a successful spin of a set of policies disastrous for the bulk of the people.
Thank you for these videos.
It doesn't work in part because the politicians leave the largesse recipients with freedom of choice about what they do with their ill-gained and fortuitous wealth increase and leave them far too many tax-credit havens which are totally unproductive.
Thank you for this link, Stuart.
Denise Huddle, I didn't need a study to tell me supply economics did not work either. I am sorry about your school. I hope things get better for you soon.
Actually, anyone paying attention knew it was a lie from the start. If enriching the rich benefitted everyone and make the economy stronger, the market would not have crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression would not have happened. Plus, the whole meaning of great wealth is that the wealthy have enough money to spend whatever they want. Giving them more isn't going to change that.
I agree
I feel for you. Being a teacher in these times is so difficult. I wish you well.
Thanks! It’s a great job! But it’s a great time to be retired too!
Much as I liked working, I have said more than once I’m glad I’m retired in this pandemic. More time to worry, though.
I wish I was retired. I have been very grateful to have found another position with a different company that has allowed me to work from home after being furloughed without pay due to COVID back in March/April. However, just had a mandatory end of year all-staff meeting in which we were “encouraged” (strongly) to get the vaccine so we could return to business as usual. I am disheartened by this and worried - especially after reading that there has been at least one severe allergic reaction to the vaccine. I have had an allergic reaction to a different vaccine and worry that it could happen again. So now my ‘safe haven’ of a job doesn’t feel so safe anymore.
Here is my earlier commentbon allergies and tge COVID-19 vaccine. You should not be rushed to get it until we know more, and possibly have a safer vaccine from a different company: "Folks with allergies can still get the COVID vaccine, it just must be done in a very controlled environment with epi-pen and IVs and airway support at the ready. Currently we can effectively treat allergic reactions, but we can't effectively treat COVID-19 (unless of course your name is Trump or Dr. Ben Carson or Giuliani or...). There may also be a difference in allergy risk with the different vaccines produced by different companies. Since your student will be low on the vaccine priority list, by the time it is available to her, there may be a safer option."
Oh, dear God. Now I am really worried. I will just have to cross that bridge when it comes, I guess.
Sometimes the news is full of commotion that makes no logical sense. Given that the vaccine is going to be scarce at first anyway, prioritize to whom it is offered and encourage anyone more at direct risk from vaccine reactions than covid to wait. Let anyone worried about it for any reason wait. Once everyone who actually wants the vaccine has it, which is maybe half the population, there will be more evidence of effects and there will have been time for a second round with improvements to have come available. Then, bring out the advertising campaigns.
Please be careful, Denise. We want you with us for a long, long time.
Yes, we do — upcoming events such as the “Heather’s Herd” zoom gathering, and the “HCR Honors Dinner,” come to mind. 😎
💙
Thanks! Looking forward to so many things to be careful for. The future looks interesting and hopeful.
Folks with allergies can still get the COVID vaccine, it just must be done in a very controlled environment with epi-pen and IVs and airway support at the ready. Currently we can effectively treat allergic reactions, but we can't effectively treat COVID-19 (unless of course your name is Trump or Dr. Ben Carson or Giuliani or...). There may also be a difference in allergy risk with the different vaccines produced by different companies. Since your student will be low on the vaccine priority list, by the time it is available to her, there may be a safer option.
Here's my take on what Mitch McConnell is doing: he sees that if the Democrats win in Georgia, his power will be sharply curtailed, and he wants to hang on to that no matter what it takes. He doesn't care about people who are hungry, or whose water or electricity are being cut off, or who are being evicted, with nowhere to go. He doesn't care that there are children who are being affected by all this, or what is happening to them (see hungry, no water, no electricity, etc., above). He is only interested in the power. So, quick, let's pass a bill to make the Republicans in GA look good so maybe they win and I can remain all-powerful! He is as transparent as new glass...and more slimy in his way than Trump. His brand of politics needs to be eradicated. A pox on him.
I believe it was pointed out here a few weeks ago that part of his long game is to force as many states and cities as possible into bankruptcy, where their spending power will be handed over to (mostly Republican-appointed) federal judges who are likely to curtail most social welfare spending, hence his obdurate opposition to aid for cities and states.
Mitch McConnell doesn't do ANYTHING that doesn't benefit him and his. I find it hard to believe that the remainder of "good" Senators could not have stopped him at some point. He has a hold on them just like Trump does on his band of thieves. What is it that makes perfectly rational people follow or kowtow to these men? I think we better figure that out and soon or IMO we are lost as a democracy.
Yes, WHAT? That's got me bamboozled.
You are absolutely right that McConnell is, and has always been, driven by gaining and retaining political power, and that the Republican disdain for the common good long precedes the current pandemic-driven crisis. It is also, I think, worth noting that even in his calculations that some kind of relief bill might help the GA Repo candidates that the "compromises" he has apparently been offering to Dem Senators are appallingly inadequate to the needs on the ground. He is negotiating down from a position of strength, and it is the Dems who have had to pare down goal after goal. And he will get his "look at what we've done" bill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/530594-mcconnell-getting-much-of-what-he-wants-in-emerging-relief-deal
As of a couple of days ago, Jon Ossoff was 2 points behind in the polls. McConnell is flooding the state with millions of dollars. If you can do something (donate, call, text, postcards) or do more than you're already doing to support Ossoff and Warnock, now's the time.
I second that!
Thank you, Heather, You just explained to me why Majority Leader McConnell decided to go ahead with a COVID relief bill and what would seem a break with President Trump by acknowledging Biden and Harris as President and Vice President elect. It's all about McConnell staying in power in the Senate when the two Republican Senatorial candidates are being trounced in Georgia because the Senate has not passed such a bill! Simple. Staying in power is worth angering DT a bit. It has nothing to do with him acknowledging how badly it is needed across the country. Maybe DT should look for election fraud in Kentucky since McConnell is very much under Putin and the Russian oligarchs thumb.
It took 8 damn months for McConnell to decide US Americans need more help?
No, He decided his personal power was in jeopardy if he didn't pass the relief bill so the two Republicans would win the Georgia run-off Senate election. For the Grim Reaper it had nothing to do with Americans needing help.
Precisely. I guess I wasn't snarky enough.
I added the snark for you! Thank you!
This.
Whatever works at this point until Biden is in. Thank you god!!!
Yup
Only Georgian Trumpian Senatorial candidates apparently need help!
And they already helped themselves in the stock market when they first heard about the virus and its potential. People who need more and more money no matter how much they have must be very empty inside and that void won't be filled with having the most toys.
They are nonetheless ever hopeful that just one more will do the trick!
There are 10 counties in KY where a "majority" of the registered Democrats "split their ticket" to vote for McConnell after voting for Biden.
What surprises me is how little McConnell has done for the people of Kentucky who elected him. Kentucky ranks 40th among the states, "Fiscal Stability" 45th, "Education" 38th, "Health Care" 44th. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky
UGH!
So is this a fault of their abysmal public education system or what? I do not understand.
Power for powerless people
WHAT!!!! Dems in name only!
DINOs should get together with the RINOs......do you think that they could breed?
Making "liberservatives".
Lol...but i'm not sure that they would "serv" anybody but themselves. How about "Dingos" as they have dropped the "Pee" from GOP? Or just plain "hippos" as they lost their horn (poached for the Chinese aphrodisiac market) and are practically immobile on land!
Maybe they would produce a DRAINO and the swamp would finally be drained.
Oh thank you all for these laughs.
Hurts my brain.
How very odd
This take from Katie Porter: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-stimulus-bill-held-hostage-mcconnell-over-corporate-get-out-ncna1251176
Katie Porter is the bomb. She’s smart, articulate, honest and to the point.
That white board must haunt the nightmares of a number of people! :)
I agree, she's great!
Rep. Porter's emphasis on the need for campaign finance reform as a starting point, noting that no European country would allow such corruption (my word, not hers), is a very important understanding. Without campaign finance reform, the decline in the quality of elected officials and legislation will continue. To me, campaign finance reform is the essential starting point for a return to meaningful representation of, by, and for the people.
With McConnell I think you always have to assume it's just about power. Jane Mayer had an amazing bio of him in the New Yorker last summer.
Kentucky has one of the highest death rates from COVID in the USA. Hmmmmm.
One phrase from Paul Alexander‘s rantings sums up the entire philosophy of the Trump Administration — “who cares.” From the lives of ordinary people to the environment to the very principles of democracy, they just don’t care how much damage they cause and how many lives are lost.
I was so outraged by those emails. Can you imagine the sheer hubris of casually saying that it was fine to kill people because you, and you alone, over all the rest of the world, knew that that was the right course of action? I'm getting mad all over again.
“The Overlooked Hallmark of the Trump Administration—and Other Autocracies” is Indifference. By Masha Gessen:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-overlooked-hallmark-of-the-trump-administration-and-other-autocracies
Ding ding ding. You said the magic word: indifference.
My axis of evil — remember that bushism — is:
Greed. Speed. Indifference to Need.
It makes for an interesting Venn Diagram defining the crossover characteristics.
Speed refers to moving too fast to think, especially in regards to one’s actions on others. It’s a state of mind preferred by those who consider themselves too special to be bothered by life’s mundane rules. You increase the probability of harming another greatly by combining this with indifference to others needs.
Mundane example is a person running the light as it flips to red. My need is so important I risk harm to another by pushing through. When I combine that with total disregard for the needs of others at that moment, or with the greed of feeling entitled to choose my own way anyway anytime, then the probability of a destructive outcome increases.
Anyway, this is my little apparatus for self-checks. Take a breath, slow down, deal w my own sense of entitlement, recognize that others may be just as pressed for time or money. Breathe out a sense of knowing I’m part of the bigger picture.
It also helps me to diagnose the anti-maskers, trumpeteers, evangelicals, and even the mob-boss himself. He is not only indifferent to others needs, he greedily and speedily denies his own true needs.
"Anyway, this is my little apparatus for self-checks. Take a breath, slow down, deal w my own sense of entitlement, recognize that others may be just as pressed for time or money. Breathe out a sense of knowing I’m part of the bigger picture."
Thank you for describing that technique.
That’s what you get when you let sociopaths get to the top of industries and government. Indifference. Disregard. Callousness. Constipated economics where it doesn’t trickle down, but instead, the overflow backs up.
And pass laws that allow the estate tax to disappear so the ill gotten gains stay in the family. Weath without work is one of the 7 deadly. Compare Mary Trump to her entitled cousins. Abigail Disney to Paris Hilton.
Gessen's book "Surviving Autocracy" is terrific, too.
Not sure some of us overlook that. I’ve been furious, incredulous, and despairing about the degree of apathy that abounds in the White House major players and supporting cast.
Excellent read.
I listened to a few environmentalists etc. yesterday on NPR about what that seemingly benign wall has done to farmers, to wildlife, to that whole area in a very destructive way.
Not only that but it has done absolutely nothing, zero, to stop the “problem” for which it was erected.It’s going to be hard for Biden to just stop it because of what’s involved. Trump is a disgrace to the planet.
Hey-- Has Mexico paid a penny, yet? ¿México ya ha pagado un centavo? If not, just stop it. ;-)
They care about themselves. End of story.
I want my blood pressure to go down a bit. I don’t think it will until we fully get the virus eradicated and escort Fake 45 to a final destination...prison.
I saw Clyburn’s 12 page letter outlining the atrocities committed by that God-awful professor who knows nothing. Let’s not forget Dr. Atlas’s claims either. They knew. They KNEW exactly what they were doing! I don’t know if I am paranoid but in my heart, I feel they are all Russian operatives. They have successfully carried out Putin’s plan to disintegrate America. Look, he caused Brexit and poisoning of those who dare his rule. I put nothing past him. Nothing!
Murderers, that is what they are and all should be prosecuted swiftly.
Scott Atlas (should loose his medical license!), the designer of US herd immunity plan 😡
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-coronavirus-scott-atlas-herd-immunity/2020/08/30/925e68fe-e93b-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html
I must be paranoid in my heart too. How can one person attract such an enormous group of corrupt others? Is there a silent whistle only criminals hear?
We were talking once about phone scams and I was disgusted that people would fleece the elderly, and a friend of mine said to me that I had to remember that for all of us who operated above the line, trying to be moral and make an honest living, there were just as many who operated below it, in a shadow economy, trying to live by cheating and lying. That always stuck with me. I don't necessarily believe it entirely, but it did sort of wake me up to the idea that maybe bad people weren't just a few misguided outliers.
Oh God, I hope this isn’t right ...
I suspect the herd immunity approach meets the definition of “democide”—the killing of members of a country's civilian population as a result of its government's policy, including by direct action, indifference, and neglect. Simply diabolical!
Hoping swift litigation for crimes against humanity follows.
Yeah, Biden can "look forward" all he wants, and say that we don't prosecute our political opponents. These people aren't "opponents." They're the Damn Enemy.
Damn. No people should have the word “democide” in their vernacular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
Yet here it is: "...mass deaths due to governmental acts of criminal omission and neglect..."
It would be doubly unfortunate if all responsible were not prosecuted and convicted.
That really hit something so very sad deep inside of me.
Yes. It’s what makes living in Florida with mini T**** DeathSantis so hard to bear. People are almost encouraged to “get out there” and get infected. It enrages me, and it breaks my heart.
What is their goal? Yo reduce their tax base? Ranting Ron is certifiable
Oh.
Unfortunately the US doesn't recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC precisely because they are afraid of it being used against them.
And I believe we put the chief justice on our terror list recently.
Actually it was the a couple of their most important Prosecutors but who were they "terrorizing" ? Terrorism and terrorist organizations are not event part of their UN remit. Pompeo/Trump put them on State Dept's Foreign Asset Control List and the no-US Visa Entry List for daring to question some activities of US soldiers around the globe. I'm not sure that this particularly frightened nor obstructed Bensouda and Mochochoko.
Absolutely.
Heather Cox Richardson--among the truths that are self-evident (to me)--
Your literate and lucid well considered attempt to share your observations and assessments day by day on what continues to roll out as part of our country's history has the Common Sense ring of a Tom Paine. Welcome to history yourself, Ms. Richardson.
That’s Dr. Richardson.
Lol!!!! Brilliant!!!!
Am I really only allowed one like for this?
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Indeed. Well said, Gregg
Thank you, Gregg. But I think maybe this works because I'm just a regular person. Well educated, for sure, but I think this is really about a spontaneous movement, not about me. Honestly.
Yeah, well, you’re in the movement, sister! And you deserve the respect, btw.
So true.
On the huge security hack. Upgrades to third party commercial software is an excellent platform for hackers to insert malware. Upgrades are necessary but are also a vulnerability that are often not thoroughly checked well. For those who would like to know more about security digital democracy especially around voting systems which is very informative without being immersed in techno speak, I highly recommend the free online course "Securing Digital Democracy" offered by the University of Michigan. https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy It also gives one an interesting history of voting and why characteristics like confidentiality and auditing are important and how they are achieved.
Thank you for this.
Good to know! Thank you!
Thank you!
Go Blue!
Thank you!
Way cool. Thank you!
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! January 5, 2021: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/georgia-on-my-mind-broadway-runoff-elections-1103450/?fbclid=IwAR3oLmpZrBKRtfQ6OKYo4KSmFT-Igw5D0qchMtjvK8WSIrmALdKifLjewHs
January 6, 2021: Joint Session of Congress to Count Electoral Votes and Declare Election
January 20, 2021: Inauguration of Joe Biden/Kamala Harris
Shout out to all the commenters of Letters from an American. It informs me every day.
Thanks so much for finding and sharing the video. One of the few (only?) benefits of the pandemic has been how the entertainment industry and performing artists of all genres have figured out ways to share their talents with those of us at home.
Mimi, I am grateful for your appreciation. These times have been very dark but IMHO we humans need relief valves like this to keep us going!
Indeed we do.
Mim
Sorry for typo, Mim. I was multi-tasking while typing!
No worries. We all make tpos.
💜💙💜💙
News flash: Trump is a traitor and a scumbag.
In other breaking news, water is still wet and sun continues to rise in the east.
Ha ha! I was thinking the same thing. None of this is surprising. What gets me is how could we have let it go on for four years?
The NYTimes David Leonhardt explains: "51 is greater than 1
"Over the spring and summer, Mitch McConnell repeatedly declared that he had a litmus test for any new coronavirus stimulus bill: It had to protect businesses from lawsuits from workers or customers who contracted the virus.
'We have a red line on liability,' he said at one point. 'I won’t put a bill on the floor that doesn’t have liability protection in it,' he said at another. 'No bill will pass the Senate without liability protection for everyone related to the coronavirus,' he added.
"But McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, has since erased that red line. Congressional leaders and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, are nearing agreement on a $900 billion bill that doesn’t include liability protection.
"So why did McConnell, arguably the savviest politician in Washington, fold?
"The answer offers an important reminder of how the Senate really works and how it could become less dysfunctional in the near future than it has been lately.
"When people talk about the Senate, they often imagine that McConnell, as the majority leader, is all-powerful and can prevent any bill he doesn’t like from coming up for a vote. That’s not the case. Any senator can propose that a bill receive a vote. If at least 50 other senators want it to receive one, it will.
"In recent decades, though, senators have voluntarily surrendered this power to their party’s leader, giving him (and, no, the Senate has never had a female majority or minority leader) a veto over what comes to the floor. The practice helps keep parties unified.
"But it comes with a major downside. It makes bipartisan compromise harder to achieve. Coalitions that could pass a bill — but that don’t include the majority leader — don’t get the chance to form. “By stopping the legislative process before it starts,” James Wallner, a former Republican Senate staff member, has told me, “it makes compromise harder.”
"On the latest round of stimulus, a bipartisan group of senators changed the dynamic by making clear that they strongly favored additional aid. They did not publicly threaten to go around McConnell, but they didn’t have to. He can count to 51, and he was also worried that the two Republican candidates in next month’s Georgia Senate runoffs were “getting hammered” over the lack of a deal.
"(McConnell did win a big concession as part of abandoning his red line: The proposed deal does not contain aid to state and local governments, even though the bipartisan group had included it in their earlier proposal and despite many economists favoring such aid.)
"It’s possible this bipartisan deal will end up being a one-time event. But it doesn’t have to be. Senators have it within their power to find other areas of compromise next year, during Joe Biden’s presidency — even if McConnell does not favor those deals.
'In politics victory begets victory,' Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic former House member and Chicago mayor, told me yesterday. 'The center-out governing coalition has a win under their belt.' It is a 'big opportunity for Biden,' Emanuel said.
"Perhaps most intriguing, senators have the power to craft compromises regardless of which party wins the Georgia runoffs and controls the Senate."
Especially if it is Kamala Harris who controls the recognition issue.
Really encouraging ❤️🤍💙
Thanks for this. I missed it. Spot on.
Thank you for this. It’s encouraging.
Ah but, by a "tradition" of the Senate, the Majority leader can simply not bring bills to the floor. So McConnell does have that power until it is taken away from him.
It is a tradition enabled by Recognition controlled by the Vice President as the head of the Senate. It will be interesting to see if Vice President Harris will decide to change the tradition!
Indeed. But there are pitfalls in that. Maybe, but don't hold your breath.
“Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has cut short an overseas trip to come home and deal with the crisis.”
Is that a good idea, having a Trump appointee deal with any problem, let alone a massive cyber invasion? Will he be dealing with the problem, or the political fallout from the problem?
And overseas where? Doing what? With whom?
Where? to Paris. Doing what? Ostensibly, to represent US at 60th anniversary of OECD. With whom? His wife, Lo-Mari. Basically, a lame-duck trip, which will double as "a holiday tour of the romantic Mediterranean and European capitals, including seeking a private tour of the Louvre despite it being closed because of coronavirus restrictions," U.S. government employees abroad will have to shepherd the couple on their foreign travels, though, one overseas diplomat tells Axios.
What is the antithesis of defund, maxi-fund? May the Biden administration and Congress maxi-fund the FBI, DOJ, and any other agencies having jurisdiction over these Trump administration abusers at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. While the top tier is likely to be exempted via presidential pardon, there will remain plenty of abusers who probably perceived their conduct as normal and acceptable—plenty to keep an army of investigators and prosecutors busy for a long time.
They owe Americans all the money they have wasted during their coup.
only getting the small fry will further increase the credibility gap for all politicians.
Yep.
Well the French press just announced that Macron has tested positive so maybe he infected the ass-wipe.
Or one of the local infected psychophants as I doubt he got to King Macron
Isn't he 'immune' since he had it last summer? Caught virus on vacation, daughter had it first ...
Wow.
He and his wife are getting a private tour of the Louvre. Yes, really.
And he tore himself away to deal with a problem at home. The sacrifices our public servants make in service to the nation! Makes ya proud!
LOL, I think...
O.M.G.
................ I can’t even..........😑
Superspreading the virus. Avoiding responsibility for this unbelievable hack. How many other admins are off on a transmission junket instead of helping the transition? I bet there is lots of paper shredding going on back home they didn’t want traced back to them. “I’m only the acting-acting. I know nothing.”
Note to self: buy stock in paper shredding machine companies
😁
News reports: Vacationing with his wife in the more exotic spots such as the Mediterranean.
He was on his privileged vacation when the most of the world is on lock-down.
Your essay seems to suggest that basic honesty is back in season now that Biden is in. I hope you are right, but it's not that simple. If we hope to have a new era in which politicians are routinely held to a standard of truth, the euphemisms have to disappear too, among Republicans, Democrats and even journalists.
We have learned, I hope, that lying has real-world consequences. A public accustomed to being lied to will eventually become destructive, not just to truth, but in other harmful ways.
It took a year before the media even used the word LIE. And 70 million people don’t even care.
A year? They still seldom call a lie a lie. This is a huge problem.
And I REALLY hope they do not continue to hand on his every word henceforward.
Canadian friends have been telling me for years that Canadian wingers are dumber and crazier than American wingers. Otherwise-unemployable acadamaniac "Dr." Alexander proves my friends were giving their scumbags the benefit of the doubt on those points.
No wonder Humpty Drumpty loved that crap - it meant he could continue to be the lazy moron he's always been.
And so far as getting Putin's Bitch to do anything about Vlad's declaration of war.... this is what he was installed to do.
The Russians have been at war with us for the past 10 years. Time to smack them.
“Canadian friends have been telling me for years that Canadian wingers are dumber and crazier than American wingers. ”
Yikes!!! A scary thought!!