Now, everything has to happen in a hurry. Don’t know if it can happen that fast. I hope the whole truth is set free, exposing all congressional and executive office traitors!
In the words of the great Leonard Cohen, “Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
I weep when I think about this wise and broken man, the great poet of an era. Here in these few lines is the lesson we liberal Americans never quite seem to. learn and so opportunities slip by We need to stop pondering and take a risk
So it shall...The JD is doing its job as are various State AGs. Thank you to the members of the January 6 Committee and to all who truthfully testified before it; well done! trump and his gang of coup plotters and self dealing delusionists are headed towards further ignominy, prosecution and likely conviction by juries of average Americans who deeply abhor their criminal assaults on our country. The Republican Party will be in its own self created wilderness for a long time to come as it struggles to find a more reasonable footing broadly acceptable to the American people. And the Dems will keep doing their jobs implementing initiatives that the American people need and want as long as they keep this as their priority.
Well said, except it might be wishful thinking. I believe that the Republican Party deserves to die badly. That party and the base that supports them brought us Trump in the first place, and then worse supported him to the hilt regardless of his crimes. They willingly brought a cancer to this country that has cost lives as well as livelihoods. For that they deserve the "death penalty" which is to cease to be a political entity. A new party needs to emerge that is more in keeping with the realities of this world, more compassionate, and not in bed with the richest among us.
There was much progress last week & more to come in the following winter days & week. HCR 's work &`this community are .... I am thinking of Tom Paine right now: common sense. Please help me fill in the right word to finish my 2nd sentence.
I think we should keep our eyes on Jack Smith. Regardless of what the House Committee refers or recommends, this is the guy who will put 45 in the slammer. Unless Fanni Willis gets there first.
For right now, the thing I am excited about is those tax returns. I hope the House releases them for all citizens to see. But if they don't before the clock runs out, the Senate has the power and the right to request them from the House. The big story in January will be Russian money flowing into the Trump Organization.
Russian money has always been the real issue in my estimation. The reporting early on suggested the complicity but then it stopped. Time for the switchman to reroute the train
Remember 'way back when it was revealed that the NRA was laundering rubles for Republicans? i would really love to know whom in Congress is being paid by Putin....
The NRA suffered some blowback and then it was revealed that Wayne LaPieere was using NRA. Funds for extreme personnal expenses that po’d a number of members
This is a sincere question: Has anyone seen Jack Smith or heard him speak since he was appointed special counsel? I keep wondering why no press conference, no interview, nothing to introduce him live to the American people. I don't expect him to reveal his tactics or his findings prematurely, but if he's working for us, should we not meet him? Perhaps I've missed it. If anyone could provide a link I'd be grateful. Many thanks to all of you for this your thoughtful and informed remarks every day. I am also grateful that I will get a gracious reply (rather than snark) to my sincere question 🙏
His job is to convict tRump. A.G. Garland chose him. His reputation and accomplishments are legend. I look forward to meeting him when he delivers the final gaveled verdict: Guilty as Charged.
Yes, my understanding is he has been living in the Netherlands since 2018, working as the lead prosecutor for war crimes in Kosovo at The Hague. He’s a triathlete but was involved in an accident with a scooter while cycling resulting in a leg fracture that required surgery. He’s subsequently been laid up at home and has been working as special counsel for the Trump investigations from home... I find this story a bit odd, though as he must be at least a month out from his injury at this point and he could almost certainly be transported back to the States if it was really needed. I wonder if remaining in the Netherlands is not a security precaution given the violence prone environment we currently live in, but this is total speculation on my part.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question. I have read several accounts of his life and credentials, and I, like you, look forward to his work /success bringing the truth to light and justice to bear on that truth. Still, no matter where he is on earth, I'm curious (and hopelessly naive) about why we haven't met him, digitally at least. Thank you for entertaining my curiosity. Let me know if you find footage of him speaking about his assignment.
As I understand it, Mr Smith is or has been laid up in Europe where he was working, with a lower extremity injury. He has been brought up to speed on everything though, as one can tell from the grand jury subpoenas that have been going out to people. Am not sure when he’ll get stateside though.
I am not optimistic that the tax returns are going to show much except low taxes. His base will just say that he followed tax code and it’s the tax code at fault, not him. As for Russian money, do we really think that will be easily, or if ever, identified? If I recall reading, the tax returns are thousands of pages long.
The devil is the details. And I am sure his personal returns entwine with the organizations. I am curious about the Russians who bought Trump condos in Florida
The DOJ table is set for this dis-trumpian feast, chefs and waiters at their stations! AG Garland and his team have methodically and thoroughly prepared over nearly 2 years for this precise dynamic moment when whatever will be "served" is ready. Ya, TFFG'S goose is cooked.
history won't remember most of them except as a name on a list. After listening to Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast I realized that I did not know about any of those communist sympathizers except maybe Charles Lindberg.
Even now, Maddow’s brilliant, head exploding podcast exposé detailing a widespread 1940s plot to overthrow the US government by American Nazi sympathizers has not gained the attention it deserves. I have been expecting Dr Richardson to comment on this insurrection in our history, and wonder why she hasn’t, since we are now witnessing history repeating itself rather exactly, and the plotters once again getting away with it.
No, it is definitely available. I just listened to it today for the third time on Apple Podcasts. But for some reason, I must always search for it under Ultra, Maddow. Another bone chilling historical lesson, foreshadowing today's nasty nest of varmints.
tRump and his plotters are NOT getting away with it. A.G. Garland will not have a courtroom in chaos like in the 1940's, prosecuting with only thin evidence. Today's "silver shirts" have been systematically arrested, flipped and tried. With the final puzzle piece (Congressional J6 Committee findings) in place next week, and the "closer"Judge Jack Smith brought up to speed, Justice Shall Be Served.
Bone-chilling is exactly right. And appalling. While I can never say "that can't happen nowadays" (we had a nearly successful insurrection J6), I have full faith in all 3 arms of government at this point in history. Biden, Garland and the J6 Committee did it right.
Looks like one of Dr Richardson's colleagues is already on the case; Charles Gallagher, also a history professor at Boston College, published "Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front" in 2021:
His faculty page indicates he has been writing on American anti-semitism, especially in the Jesuit and Catholic sectors of the Christian right, for some time.
He does not seem to have a strong online presence, though; thus far he has mostly addressed an academic audience.
I am glad Maddow is giving this historical moment more publicity now. The story is so uncannily familiar that I find it difficult to listen to the podcast. I am reading the transcripts so I do not have to listen to far right Christofascists from 1940; I have had more than enough of them in the last 50-60 years, getting louder every day.
The current right wing extremists even say they're part of America First which is the same flag flown by Lindbergh and the antisemites of the 40s. White supremacists have been in out country since the beginning.
In the podcast it was noted by U of Huston Chair of History, a Professor Nancy Vecchion ( sp? I could not find any listing of her name in the university's online listings) that even today historians might prove to be vaguely informed about this period of history for some reason.
Try Vecchione. I think that's the correct spelling of that name. I don't think there's a U of Huston, thoiugh. Maybe you mean Houston. Or University of Texas, Houston.
I've done some googling with Vecchione (that spelling), and come up with nothing at a university. Maybe it's a different spelling. There are Nancy Vecchiones, but someone with that name as a chairman at a university would probably come up in the first five or six listings. Nothing does.
Evelyn, Even with 45’a ridiculous Christmas “gift” to his supporters, it is hard to fathom what the hell these spineless idiots are afraid of! It’s laughable, as long as they indict his rancid ass....
Have you read the Talking Points Memo story about Mark Meadows' emails. Several of the congressmen (most of whom are nowhere close to household names) Meadows corresponded with seem to have been totally besotted with TFG. I don't believe there's any way TFG could have had negative intel on all of them. For years people have been swearing that Putin and/or Trump must have kompromat on Lindsey Graham and perhaps others. It IS tempting to believe that all these people are being blackmailed -- but IMO it's time to consider the serious possibility that no one is threatening these elected officials with blackmail; they really are as craven, stupid, gutless, and/or gullible as they act.
" they really are as craven, stupid, gutless, and/or gullible as they act."
Susanna, thank you. I believe, strongly, that you are exactly correct.
Republicans have built a false set of propaganda that they tell themselves and each other (and Fox News tells the Nation) that "blacks are coming to get your stuff" (my own son's Scout Master said this at a Scout meeting one time, ending our scouting experience instantly, no lie).
Republicans also use communism as word to throw at anything they disagree with. Somebody wants to set up a shelter for the poor? Communism. Somebody wants to add a section to the library with the 1619 Book Project as a display item, "Communism".
Basically, Communism has had no meaning in the Republican Party and, honestly, in America, since we invaded Korea with that false flag "Communism".
Anytime America needs an excuse to do something illegal? Use Communism and GO.
Communism is the word Republicans and, honestly, America uses to get support from ignorant Americans to do whatever illegal stuff is under consideration.
The irony is that the countries that lean more socialist than the US, (yes, we are to some extent already socialist) score higher on all measures of human well-being than the US. So it's maddening that often those with so little will vote against their own interests because of the lies spread by Republicans. Republicanism seems now to be about cruelty and lacking compassion, for the sake of the enrichment of some.
Thank you for this. It’s crazy making that people use the concept of socialism to suit their needs. Bring on socialism (Medicare for instance). More crazy making? The willful ignorance of those who don’t look up the definitions and educate themselves. Grrr
That use of the communism/socialism label to stifle powerful ideas and worthy programs goes back way before the Korean War. Think about the Palmer Raids and the persecution of immigrants from Europe after WWI: Big Money was freaked out by the Russian Revolution and afraid it could happen here. HCR sometimes writes about how it worked in the late 19th century.
"Communism" and "socialism" DO have a meaning for today's Republicans. Or maybe the better word is "purpose." They're used to stifle anything that might undercut or discredit unregulated capitalism: labor organizing, civil rights activism, accurate teaching of U.S. history, any regulations that limit the power of Big Money to do what it wants . . . They promote individualism over the common good because they know as well as we do that "united we stand, divided we fall" -- and they want us to fall so that they can stand without being challenged.
Susanna, I was born in the 50s. I’ve watched this happen my entire life. Until just a few years ago, the very mention of Russia brought out the screaming banshees, as it were. Now, Russia’s not so bad? How the hell did THAT happen?
You’re correct that Socialism has become the catch-all smear, perhaps so the donor class doesn’t offend their own donors with too much specificity.
Often when a person repeats a lie enough, he/she will come to believe it. There's the sunk cost fallacy as well, that once you invest enough in some idea or position, you don't want all that investment to come to nothing, so you just keep on repeating it. And when you're surrounded by people who also chant the same refrain, how can you be wrong?
They also use "socialism" in the same way. I tell 'em the Scandinavian countries, which most of them think are socialist, have a higher rate of new business formation than we do. And that part of that is due to their superior social safety net, which makes people less afraid to start businesses.
A Princeton historian told me that 1619 book is very inaccurate. I think it was a big mistake of the NYT to back it, and that it's a huge mistake for us to promote it in any way.
And the major force keeping Blacks down has been an oversupply of cheap labor, due to mass immigration. (An oversupply of any resource devalues that resource--econ 101.)
In 1980, the vast majority of meat packers were Black, and they were earning a good middle class wage, having organized their labor since the 1920s.
By that decade's end, the majority of meat packers were immigrants, earning barely over minimum wage, working under atrocious conditions where amputations were common. See: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth ($13 on Amazon).
The book is solid. The Author covered all the relevant academic economic research (296 footnotes), as well as statements of Black leaders beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to mass immigration, and covered Black periodicals, and US commissions on immigration reform. Yet it's highly readable, as the author spent 3 decades as an environmental journalist.
The book gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs Americans won't do. He visited the eastern shore of Maryland, where he spoke with Blacks recently laid off from poultry plants. They told him that they couldn't work at their old employers because the wages they were now paying immigrant workers were so low that they'd have to live many to a house or in their cars.
Well, it's definitely worth paying attention to the rewards & incentives/disincentives structure, and some people do go into politics for less than noble reasons, or their reasons become less than noble over time. But keep in mind that politics is a collective enterprise. Social skills, including the ability to work with others, especially over time, matter. This is one reason Trump, the arch-narcissist, was so bad at the nitty-gritty of politics. He was tremendously effective on the podium in front of a huge crowd, but not so good at actually getting things done.
But politics sure isn't unique for its potential to attract psychopaths, sociopaths, and (to put it politely) people with "issues." Entertainment has to be right up there, and how about Wall Street? Finance and the upper levels of corporations reward the ability to treat people like widgets or to ignore the human element completely. And it pays a helluva lot better than politics -- although plenty of politicians seem to do pretty well with their side hustles, ranging from speaking fees to book contracts to (of course) coziness with Wall Street.
Yes, and I bet many of the sociopaths go into politics because they can't "win" in the private side of the isle. I agree, that sociopaths exist in any enterprise where the reward is great, but also in areas where the issue isn't financial reward, but rewarding in other ways. Those who exploit others no matter the environment, are acting on sociopathic tendencies. It means they've either shut off their empathy, or didn't have that ability in the first place. Our culture is really good at producing sociopaths and opportunities for people to become sociopathic. I would say that the Republican Party's platform, such as it is, rests on sociopathic trends - ie. it's okay that what I do hurts others, as long as I get ahead.
Oh yes. I would call them sociopaths, since some of them seem to be able to connive and consider how they can best be served regardless of the consequences to others.
Graham lost his compass when John McCain, his mentor, died. Plenty of people get their meaning from devotion to an individual or an organization, and when that individual or organization disappears from their lives, they're lost. Keep in mind, too, that most of the GOP did that same 180, from criticizing Trump to falling in line behind him, so Graham just had to go with the flow. This is very easy for someone who's lost his compass to do.
I think the kompromat story sticks to Graham because quite a few people are sure he's gay and he's being blackmailed because of it. He may be gay, or bisexual, or whatever -- I don't know. But that's not necessary to explain Lindsey Graham's public behavior. I also suspect that if there were substance to the blackmail story, some of it would have leaked out by now.
I would like for those thus compromised and supporting an overthrow of a legitimate election be expelled from Congress and barred from serving in public office again. Still so very hard for me to wrap my head around the concept “what were they thinking?!”. Feel like I live on a totally different planet.
IMO the problem with calling it that is that this "fascist spirit" long predates fascism, and that putting it in a "fascist" box makes it harder to see the connections with other forms of authoritarianism, including but certainly not limited to religion.
Bingo! The DNC wasn’t the only Russian hack job done in 2015. The RNC got hacked into as well. And don’t forget the outright Russian sympathizer, Dana Rhoarbacher, who thankfully got voted out of office.
I always find the notion of Trump having intel, much less using it to control people, rather laughable. He's not a strategic thinker; he's too self-absorbed to think of how he can use others for anything except, of course, making money.
David Rothkopf's new book, _American Resistance,_ does an excellent job of showing how much effort went into keeping Trump from acting on his ignorant, usually malevolent impulses. You're right, he's not a strategic thinker, and he's surely self-absorbed, but as president ideas would take root in his head and he'd immediately try to act on them. These ideas generally came from the likes of Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Mike Flynn, not to mention Twitter. Oh yeah, and Vladimir Putin.
He thought nukes were appropriate solutions to on-the-ground problems too, and (surprise surprise) he had no idea of what nukes could do, so (like Juanita Smith) I have no trouble believing that he put something he'd heard together with something else he'd heard and came up with nuking hurricanes.
Imagine how bad it would be if Trump were smart and strategic!
I read this article during the 2016 campaign and saw this behavior playing out daily after he became president.
Before the boardroom scene was shot, the producers would offer their observations about who did well in the challenges and deserved to stay, and who didn't and should leave. Invariably, Trump would ignore factual information and instead go with his gut. The editors then had to arrange the footage to make that decision look logical!
Conventional wisdom is that DeSantis has the smarts and strategic sense that Trump doesn't, but I'm not convinced. He doesn't seem to have the charisma either -- although I have to admit, I don't find Trump remotely charismatic either.
Who needs 'negative intelligence' when the propagandists can make up lies and watch them be 'vetted' in the right wing Conspiracy Theory QAnon echo chamber?
The lies are “Goebbelesque.” I keep thinking who would believe that tripe. Easy answer, Dem haters, misogynists, greedy bastards, many we know and love…
Also, right wing Conspiracy Theory QAnons are angry people left behind by income inequality (driven by GOP policies that began with Reagan). Sort of like 'there are no atheists (fact believers) in a fox hole (economic hole) during combat (extreme economic inequality)'.
I'm not sure that's true. From everything I've read about him (which is way too much) he's a mob-boss-wanna-be. Yes he turns on everyone who doesn't display absolute loyalty but he doesn't have henchmen and no one dies. Also even banishment from his good graces is not permanent if the person "repents," like Steve Bannon seems to have done.
Okay, mob light. Stormy Daniels is a perfect example of his transactional world view. His henchmen, Cohen included, have been laughable but somewhat effective, except for Rudy, who’s life has been destroyed by him. Since he doesn’t trust anybody he’s relied on himself to do a lot of the strong arming too: as “John Barron”, and as “ President Trump”.
If they are in bright red wing nut districts, they are afraid of his supporters. As for the rest of them, who knows. Death star is now a big joke and how anyone with one functioning brain cell can still support him is beyond me.
I am afraid of Trump's supporters. I hate to say it but it is true. The guy that lives across from me is as weird and odd as it gets. And, the mailman "accidentally" put a gun magazine in my mail box that was meant for his mailbox (mailman is black and I think he was warning me (I have a minority last name, but, light skin).
All kinds of weird stuff in that magazine with some huge pistol on the front cover.
Trump supporters have no boundaries. If Trump tells them to start killing people they don't agree with, they will do that.
So much of this threatening nuttiness seems to stem from their reaction to their loss of status as the kings of the heap, although probably a pretty small one. And, not a one of them appears to have any insight or ability to self-reflect. To them it's all about blaming somebody else for their fear and misery ('those people"). That can add up to deciding to mow down a group of people for sure. The gun of course being an obvious symbol of their masculinity, such as it is. Such a waste of their one chance at this life. Sad, pathetic and frightening.
So it does seem to be about the fear of losing status. Since most of them are white males, it may also be about losing not only white male privilege, but it could also be some frustration at not finding women to be as submissive as they want. The yearning for the past seems to be an overall motivator and unfortunately part of the backlash after Barack Obama's election. Backlashes are usually part of the pattern when progress is made.
I am also afraid of them because they are well armed and totally without constraints. I am sorry that this happened to you. I try to put such things out of my mind. Our neighbor across the street is a wing nut R and believes that the government will take his guns away. He despises us because we are liberal and we have also had many incidents with him because of his noise. The last time we called the county about the noise, they sent a deputy with the compliance officer (standard procedure for the third visit). The deputy told us that he takes things to the edge, but no further and we were instructed to stay away from him and I am sure that was about not having some kind of incident beyond words. Several houses here used to get together once a month for have a neighbor dinner. The last time we had one, he had a pistol on the end table of the living room which I am sure was for us. He was also not speaking to us. At the same dinner, one of our other R neighbors, who btw, has plenty of money, decided to go on a PERS rant since we are both public employees. The host neighbor is too, but somehow this was directed at me. After that he declined to come to any more dinners and we did also because of the PERS rant. Now he won't attend anything where he knows we will be present including our neighbors' 50th anniversary celebration. His wife, a progressive D, was there. Since then we have gone over a couple times about the noise with words, but no guns from him. Our other neighbor said he makes guns. He is a metal working whiz, so he probably does. I am sure the rest of our neighborhood is also bristling with guns and we have seen the stars and bars down the street. We also have Proud Boy visits to Salem and Keizer and the police do not do anything and the suspicion among many is that many of them agree. But I also think that pols want the votes from people because the party of death and treason has nothing to offer ordinary people. I have to wonder what will happen when death star is indicted as it looks like he is going to be.
Death threats seem to go along with public office even long before the current situation. A local city council member told me years ago that she had received death threats. I think now they seem much more likely to happen.
Wow. What a very unfriendly neighborhood. It makes it hard to feel safe in your own house. And this is what tf'g created in the whole country. People being afraid, and others having gotten permission to be overtly threatening. There's almost nothing more frightening than a zealot and/or an armed angry child masquerading as an adult. So sorry that this is your experience.
Actually most of our immediate neighbors are friendly good people. And even the PERS rant person, now moved away, was OK in most situations. I feel pretty safe unless we have some kind of crazy conflict over death star's indictment or the dog whistles that seem to come out of R mouths. And I know that is quite possible. One just hopes.
What state do you live in? One of the many good things is living on the hilly countryside where houses are not too close. Also being an antisocial revluse helps😊
Salem, Oregon, in Marion County, but still urban. We are introverts, but can't do anything about the guy across the street whose shop faces our backyard and acts as a megaphone.
It’s evident what they are “afraid” of, although I am not sure that’s the word I choose to use. There’s many traitors in positions of power, at the very least, holding seats in Congress or appointments by the former administration. To have the house of cards fall means a lot of gnashing of teeth, scurrying, backbiting, feigned ignorance, and Plan B’s of escape being hauled out and dusted off.
This will be far more than the downfall of a single man.
Reading this, my thought was that Republicans are willing to quietly step back and let Democrats clean up on “stable 3” (thinking of a horse barn & pucky dropped by the “stable genius”), and thus they quietly benefit from Dems efforts. Not unlike the history of Dems “righting the ship” economically and legislatively to benefit all Americans after a Republican admin….would link to documentation if it was at my fingertips…sorry for being too lazy to dig & post, but I am at the end of a loooonnngggg day—sorry!
I’ve noticed that pattern too, Barbara. Here’s one article from the NYT that highlights how the “American economy has performed much better under Democratic administrations than Republican ones, over both the last few decades and the last century.”
Then this page from Presidential Data.org shows that “Republican presidents' [budget] deficits are 54% larger than Democrats' and 65% higher as a percent of GDP.” In fact, 10 of the last 11 recessions have been under Republican presidents. The graphs substantiate that Republican administrations run our nation’s economy in the red (ironic that this is the color that represents their party?). The subtitle of the page (my emphasis): DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS MANAGE THE ECONOMY BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS
Why...oh why...oh why is this an Opinion piece? I want someone to explain this to me. Why isnt it Analysis? Or, Investigative Reporting? Easily dismissed as opinion and data are cherrypicked. <sigh>
I trust certain NY Times and WaPo writers. Good stuff that's based on data and facts, yet end up as opinion.
It has been so in this century. From csd on Twitter a long while back “They piss themselves every presidency, while we “tax and spend” libs have to buy new sheets.” A pattern that should be noticed by our “free press.”
Silence means complicity, and in this case it means that tf'g can continue to infect our political process, as these spineless people remain like monkeys with their hands over their mouths.
We are witnessing some of the most bizarre and consequential moments in our nation’s history. Thank you, Heather, for giving us the background and steady analysis necessary to navigate this time without drowning in its sea of chaos.
It appears that only a true historian such as Professor HCR could sift through all this noise and sort out the facts so we could start to see a clear but truly bizarre chapter in our not so distant past come into focus. Real events can be more unbelievable than the best written mystery novel.
I know, right?! If this were pitched as a TV series, it would be turned down as unbelievable & far-fetched. Zombies & walking dead, OK…..Trumpies, not so much…..
Thanks you for this interesting letter. I worked with someone whose parents were disappeared by the Maoists for being academics and class traitors or something during the Cultural Revolution. My co- worker broke big rocks into little rocks with a sledge hammer for road construction for most of her teenage years before being released with no explanation. She eventually made her way to the US, where she studied English and Biochemistry at the same time. So, when I think of “Communism” I think of brilliant lives destroyed by an autocrat stifling individuality and destroying excellence in the search for more and more power and control.
I do not think of landowners refusing to pay taxes for building roads because it might be for the common good. I expect most Americans have lost track of how the term has been corrupted by our peculiar American history. Your explanation should be put in text books!
Lofty and noble ideals can be corrupted by greed and need for power. To me, the basic idea of “the commons” for and from which we all benefit mutually is, at face value, a good thing. That’s why, even tho’ retired and on a fixed income, I vote to approve modest local taxes that benefit my whole community (eg; I don’t have children, but I fervently support funding our local schools)….I want to pay my fair share, knowing it’s not just about me and what I need/want. The danger, to me, is those who wish to power-grab or do not wish to pay their fair share to contribute to the common good.
I also feel that, in my own life, those times and those areas I lived where community mattered, were much better places to live than where I currently live (in a suburb where folks sort of "every man for himself" kind of living).
I grew up in rural East Texas where there were Community Libraries, Community Churches, Public Schools and zero Private schools AND a farm co-op where folks gathered at 5:30 am for coffee before getting to work.
Nobody up here in NY believes me when I say, those folks that I grew up with in rural East Texas were the most kind, most considerate, nicest people of my life long walk.
I strongly believe that the ties to the community provided by the school, the library, the churches and the Farm Co-Op, really made that difference. Don't get me wrong, there was still politics, there were still folks who you had to watch out for, but, the overall feel was, well, kind.
Note, church brings community together for something other than "God", if, for example, you, like me wonder about existence of such an entity.
And don’t forget the Grange movement that united so many farmers. There must be thousands of abandoned or repurposed Grange halls across the country. No one called it socialism. Does it even still exist?
My state senator met his wife at our local Grange Hall dance, the one that was torn down shortly after I moved here in 1987. I LOVE to dance, and started hosting teen dances at the elementary school when my own teenagers were at that "get into trouble" age. Should be a Grange hall community center next to every elementary school! Maybe then democracy couldn't be hijacked.
Our rural area has repurposed “abandoned” (I use that word loosely) Grange Halls into community centers….often providing the many of the same services as when “the Grange” was in full swing. Sometimes the transition was bumpy even tho’ the original mission was no longer in effect, the ‘rights’ to the property would be contested. My little town of 1200 folks has a Grange Hall that serves the community in many ways….ditto in other surrounding larger (but still small) communities as well.
I think about this often since we now have backyard jungle gyms, home theaters and gaming systems, distancing from religious intolerance, little time to volunteer when two incomes are now necessary. And now our schools are under attack.
Exactly! I grew up in a small railroading town in far northern CA (way north of SF!), conservative and in a rural county. The fraternal societies and yes, women’s auxiliaries! Were a focal point of community, as were the 2 largest churches in the day, the Methodist and Catholic. I count myself as very lucky to have had that kind of upbringing, and I think I have been trying to re-create that feeling for the better part of my 74 years. Thank you for the reminder of all that is good in people can be found in the strangest places!
Yes, it’s funny that folks think San Francisco is northern CA! I tell them to drive up hwy 101 for 5-6 more hours and THEN you are really in northern CA (or inland on Interstate 5).
One of the most irritating things for me in our public discourse is the willfully ignorant use of words. People toss terms around without a clue as to their true meaning. And then there is the perversion and the use of classic terms as a pejorative. Communism is a repellent idea to me. But it could be a legitimate and functional form of society if it incorporated democracy. But it never has. Totalitarian leaders have corrupted it. Capitalism is a wonderful concept - but only if it is regulated so as to protect workers and the environment.
And then there is the bogey man of "socialism". Which 99% of Americans can't even define despite the fact they are living in a society that practices it. When a community pulls together through taxation to provide services to the public, that is socialism. It's just a question of what services we want to include. Fire protection, police, water, electricity, education - all are delivered by a socialistic structure so they are available to all. Sounds friendly to me. So what if we include health care instead of letting oligarchs profiteer off of preventable illness? Now I am sounding like a "communist" to some folks.
And last but not least, the word perversions I hate the most are the destruction of the classic definitions of "liberal" and "conservative". Despite the negative baggage that has been assigned to these words I am still proud to declare myself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I see no conflict in that.
To "conserve" money and natural resources is smart. To be a liberal with an open mind ready to listen to new ideas is healthy. To eliminate waste and provide for all is just sensible. I am taking my words back. They have been on loan to idiots for too long.
Bill, As one who believes no intelligent, reasoned discussion can proceed if the participants don’t share a basic understanding of the terms at hand: what they are and what they’re not, I applaud your overall thesis along with you tacking the challenge of defining several complex terms.
Were I to focus on one example, it would be your reference to socialism as “a community pull[ing] together through taxation…”. To the contrary, I would note I had understood socialism to refer to the collective or state control and ownership of the means of production, wherein there is no private ownership. I would add, that in past postings, I had differentiated socialism from democratic socialism, wherein the latter, in my view, advocates for a modicum of social and economic justice through a democratic state that seeks an increasingly more equitable distribution of its resources.
My point, as I intimated from the outset, is that establishing an understanding of the nature of terminology including the factors involved, generally speaking, is a complex and, as you noted, necessary endeavor.
Thank you (again :). Good points. But I think the Nordic version of socialism is a model to be emulated. The state allows for a vibrant private sector including the production of world class products. But people's basic needs of education and health-care are provided - almost as a human right. They are fine with high taxes to fund these items because they will never be bankrupted by an illness and their kids are educated on a level playing field. Sounds to me like a truly sensible and just civilization.
As a side note, they are not enamored of celebrities displaying conspicuous consumption. Being "normal" and modest is a goal.
Bill, If there is a dispute between us, it doesn’t concern values but terminology. I would note Bernie Sanders, whom I and countless others view as the leader of the democratic socialist movement in the U.S., persistently invokes the Nordic region as most representative of a democratic state with a human face that cares for its people.
To be clear, I am passionate about distinguishing between socialism and democratic socialism because I am unaware of any experiment in the denotative meaning of socialism that hasn’t devolved into authoritarianism.
The distinction between socialism and communism seems blurred in history. Your definition of socialism is another expert's definition of communism:
"Socialism: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
1: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
2: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
Socialism vs. Social Democracy: Usage Guide
In the many years since socialism entered English around 1830, it has acquired several different meanings. It refers to a system of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control, but the conception of that control has varied, and the term has been interpreted in widely diverging ways, ranging from statist to libertarian, from Marxist to liberal. In the modern era, "pure" socialism has been seen only rarely and usually briefly in a few Communist regimes. Far more common are systems of social democracy, now often referred to as democratic socialism, in which extensive state regulation, with limited state ownership, has been employed by democratically elected governments (as in Sweden and Denmark) in the belief that it produces a fair distribution of income without impairing economic growth."
Thanks for your reference to the scholastic definitions. I'm also an RN and believe societies have a moral obligation to care for those who can't care for themselves. Dependent children. Frail elderly. Medically impaired. Yes, those who are drug/ alcohol addicted and live on the streets are medically impaired. We are not a society who puts grandmas on an ice floe when they've outlived their usefulness. If paying taxes to care for people makes me a Socialist or Social Democrat, feel free to paint me with that brush.
We nurses have seen people from all walks of life and don't judge. We recognize and honor the value in every human life.
I even have compassion for the ex-president. He was raised by a sadistic, criminal father and a cold, self-absorbed mother; sheltered from consequences by money. He defends his sense of unworthiness with a cloak of victimization. He's driven by revenge against those who don't shore up his fragile ego; he's sadistic to others to teach his (dead) father a lesson. I pity him, but much like hiking in snake country, want to stay as far away from him as possible. I recognize the good he might have done, had he been raised by loving, engaged parents.
MaryPat, Admittedly, I am far more confident in distinguishing socialism from democratic socialism. As for communism, contrary to socialism, I had understood it as the overthrow of a government by an autocratic insurgence that seized total control and ownership, a more extreme form of socialism, one might say. As a final point, I would note I located a definition of socialism that included individual ownership of property.
I suppose the lesson is to define our understanding of terminology when we speak or write about said terms.
Please help me to grasp the relevance of socialism when referring to American government. G. Morris was very clear why and for what the Constitution was established. More perfect Union, Establish Justice, Ensure Domestic Tranquility, Provide for the National Defense, Promote General Welfare, Secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. I don't see socialism or any ideology contributing to these top level requirements.
I wish there were laws that required all laws to be traceable to these 6 top level requirements. Anything else should be deemed out-of-scope and contributing to requirement creep.
Aaron, You write, “G. Morris was very clear why and for what the Constitution was established.” Note that Morris’s statement doesn’t include “for whom.” To be clear, the Constitution, despite it being an unprecedented, aspirational instrument, was written exclusively for the then-electorate—white male property owners. Hence, a reason for subsequent amendments to expand the definition of citizen, let alone their ensuing needs.
Today, for example, 60 million citizens are living precariously from paycheck to paycheck and millions are working for starvation wages. In many cases the family income is only sustained by more people working longer hours, and still they’re weighted down by mortgage debt, credit card debt, and the like.
As a final point, I would note, contrary to socialism, which I don’t advocate, my postings call for democratic socialism, wherein a modicum of social and economic justice for increasingly large numbers of people are provided for via a more equitable distribution of our nation’s wealth.
You are on the right track but the founders recognized that We the People are to whom the constitution was to apply. Personhood in bioethics has specific characteristics. Foremost is foresight and good judgement. Race, gender and status are circumstances, not foresight . Unfortunately, the majority lack the foresight to save above the Micawber Threshold. Our public schools need to do a much better job if democracy and liberty are to prevail.
Aaron, While I wholeheartedly concur with your perspective on public schools, I find your claim that “the majority lack the foresight to save above the Micawber Threshold” only partially true.
In my view, when one looks at society and tries to determine what it is that keeps people down—what holds them back from realizing their potential—often one finds institutionally oppressive forces that are largely beyond their individual control. Class, racial, and gender domination are among such forces that hold people down.
I would note that I don’t believe people, by and large, choose to live precariously; instead, they frequently are limited and confined by the opportunities afforded or denied them by a social and economic system governed by the need to produce a profit for those who own and control often at the expense of fulfilling collective needs.
Since the Constitution was written we have required all manner of laws to adjust to changing times. And the Framers fully expected the Constitution to be revisited regularly as the world evolved.
None of which has anything to do with how we provide services to the public. My pitch is if we expect to provide fire and police services, potable water, electricity and education, why not throw in health care? The Constitution is an essential document. But it is a foundation - not an answer for all the complexities of life hundreds of years later.
Socialism for basic services, True Democracy for governance and Regulated Free Enterprise make a perfect combination for a wonderful society!
Thanks for the reply. As a retired Systems Engineer I view government a little different from most. What is this system of government supposed to do? What are the requirements? Promote the general welfare is not to guarantee we all live long and healthy lives or grow the GDP, or build a global thermal control system to assure human advancement on this plant for the next millennia. Although, these are all worthy efforts I think our primary calling as Americans is to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves (we the people) and our posterity (those we have and will duplicaste).
Let's talk about who we mean by We the People because personhood is fundamentally the characteristic of foresight - the ability to extract useful energy from the driving force of the universe ENTROPY. There in lies the future of all living things.
1. Humans have prospered because they have enjoyed the benefits of society. This guy fishes, that guy hunts, someone else farms, another builds the huts, etc. Someone organizes that. Sometimes we just fall into a natural division of labor. Which is nice. But usually the "society" needs structuring. Isn't that what we call that government? Isn't the government us?
There is no doubt that a government can get bureaucratic, corrupted and wasteful. But I think it beats anarchy. And we can vote out the creeps. We can't vote out the oligarchs.
2. If we simply rely on "entropy" as a source of progress, isn't that a little vague? And what do we define as the "driving force of the Universe"? Other than the fact that we are headed ultimately into a black hole, right now I think it might be the lust for power and wealth at the expense of others, no?
Meredith, In my view, our “peculiar” American history has been compounded by Republicans who deliberately conflate communism / socialism—the public ownership and control of the means of production as opposed to private ownership—with liberalism that advocates for a modicum of social and economic justice for large numbers of people today who feel oppressed and marginalized by raw, brute capitalism, admittedly not very good at distribution unless wedded to social democratic institutions that contain its excesses and moderate its self-serving impulses.
Fair or not, politics largely is perception, and though Republicans today, by and large, have no ideas other than ones arising from greed and self-interest, their strategy of conflating communism / socialism with the restraining box which levels the effects of capitalism, far too often, wins them elections.
Jeri, Regrettably, those who own and control, by and large, have a vested interest in limiting and confining the opportunities afforded or denied to those who do not.
"epublicans who deliberately conflate communism / socialism—the public ownership and control of the means of production as opposed to private ownership—with liberalism"
To (mis)quote an anon, "when you (they) yell Socialism but you don't know what that means so you (they) call it Communism but you/they don't know what that means either."
Ed, I imagine many of us on this platform can differentiate between the two. I would note the only context in which the two are collapsed is in reference to Republicans, who use the two interchangeably.
I agree that Conservatives have been using that epithet successfully for over a century. One reason is that it feeds into the American ethos of "anyone can make it if they work hard enough". Another resson is that many on the left, wanting to protect marginalized communities and the environment, demand that some industries be nationalized so they can be forced to act in a way they perceive is needed for the public good. I'm specifically thinking of the oil and gas, automotive, banking, and social media industries. That push to take over the means of production IS classic communism.
So, just like I've written off my old party because of its racism, selfishness, and spineless support for TF'nG, I can see Conservatives who've grown up with Reaganism as the only truth write off all Democrats because the party includes those who are openly hostile to select private industries.
Now you may think I am making a false moral equivalence between MAGA movement and the extreme Green movement. I'm not at the present time. However I can see a Venezuela-like future if the ultra-Greens get their way and an Iran-like future if MAGA extremists get theirs.
Jerry, I write mainly to contend, expounding upon the 4 examples you reference, that I see no evidence of “a Venezuela-like future” hereafter for the U.S.
1) Automotive industry: Nationalization was to be temporary. In 2009, Obama said, “We are acting as reluctant shareholders because that is the only way to help GM succeed.”
2) Banking: After the collapse of the financial system in 2008, only bad assets were to be managed under conservatorship, a model both looser and more temporary than nationalization.
3) Social Media: As with broadcast, I understand that both private and national platforms are under discussion. The justification here is to preclude profit-driven desire from excluding public service content.
4) Oil and gas: I understand discussions are underway for the Fed to acquire controlling ownership of at least the 3 dominant U.S. oil and gas companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. I dare say I applaud the justification, which is to build the clean energy infrastructure.
The examples of automotive and banking were targeted and limited. The example of social media is a thorny issue pitting free speech against the need for truth. The example of taking controlling interest in the largest oil and gas companies goes too far, and risks hundreds of thousands of lives outside the US because energy supply disruptions cause disruptions of food supplies, manufacturing, heating, cooling, etc. Of you think that US technocrats can to better than Russia, China, and Venezuela, then you're assuming that somehow Americans are smarter than everyone else before them.
I posit that we should improve/tighten regulation of hydrocarbon production and keep increasing investments on renewable energy sources. Within those guiderails, the US can move forward relatively fast towards a rationally optimal energy mix.
Jerry, To be clear, I had written to refute your vision of “a Venezuela-like future if the ultra-Greens get their way.” I further would note, against my better judgment given we are a divided nation, I had accepted your false premise that “the extreme Green movement” ever would get its way.
In light of the foregoing, expounding upon your 4 examples as I did, seems neither “targeted and limited” nor “thorny.”
That said, I grant that my mention of discussions underway for Federal government to acquire controlling interest of at least the 3 dominant U.S. oil and gas companies, admittedly, is severe. Still, considering at issue is humanity’s badly damaged relationship with its earthly home and the urgency of repairing it before more lasting and tragic harm is done, a fundamental restructuring, in my view, is needed to arrest the global disease of environmental degradation. I also think we should consider that efforts to curb consumption of energy and other resources could save money in most cases.
Barbara, I share your alarm about environmental degradation, accelerated global warming, and would add destruction of ancestral lands of marginalized independence peoples. Our desired means of achieving specific ends are simply very different.
With the introduction of a bill that would bar tRump from ever holding public office again, the Republicans have their last best chance to shake loose from his “power”, which seems to be rapidly waning. They had two previous chances with the impeachments, but they were too cowardly to do the right thing. Now, with the prospect of tRump tearing the party apart in ‘24 if he doesn’t get the nomination, or of losing the election again if he IS nominated, it seems to me that they should take this off ramp. It will be interesting to watch this play out.
May you live in interesting times is a Chinese curse. Let’s hope the right people are cursed and quickly. It’s pretty obvious that the legislators still denying the Jan 6 attack were part of the planning of it. 😱👋🏼
So starting with the time following the Civil War, America decided that seditionists could remain around and actually serve in government. Listening to ULTRA and how we left those traitors off in the 1930s and 40s, then let Nixon slide into office as he undermined the peace talks with Viet Nam, then Reagan preventing the hostages release, then Iran Contra and HW Bush covering up his involvement, then Clinton remaining in office following his lying under oath, GW Bush and his taking us to war in Iraq and then giving away tax dollars to private companies to rebuild his mistake in Iraq and Afghanistan, then this last administration.
The libertarians of the Koch network have worked to abolish much of the government policies and regulations that would hold people that break these laws and regulation accountable.
HCR does us all a great favor in this daily documentation. I thank her for it.
Remind me again how Clinton's sex life turned into an impeachible offense? As opposed to starting and maintaining unjust illegal wars where eventually millions died, etc?
I look forward to the January 6th Committee going out with a blaze of glory (gory), with some last minute surprises and, perhaps, suggestions for indictments. Liz Cheney is clearly riding this horse furiously to the finish line.
Also, after such an effort to get Trump’s taxes, there should be a way for Pelosi to reveal them before the Republican House majority takes office. Republicans, including Senate Wantabe McConnell, would relish release of Trump’s taxes that would further puncture his boasts of being the schlemiel of the ART OF THE DEAL.
Tom If it looks like a f++k, waddles like a f++k, and babbles like a f++k, it seems likely that Trump is a f++k. Also, a putz and, perhaps, a schlemiel.
Mike You raise a fascinating point about Trump and the IRS. Back in 2010 there was a Trump-IRS ‘dispute’ related to his owing at least $100 million more—now over $200 million with interest. It seemed a big issue in 2015-2016. And now a nothingburger?
Clearly Trump has finagled his taxes. These machinations were exposed in the verdicts against The Trump Organization. So why hasn’t there been definitive action by the IRS against Trump and The Trump Organization? I could guess, while he was prez, but in 2022?
Mike I recall that the IRS came after president and ex-president Nixon.One aspect related to his minuscule tax payment in 1970 & 1971. I believe that he had taken a massive tax credit for land he had donated.
A bigger issue was major government expenditures to upgrade his San Clemente property. I believe, as ex-president, he paid heavily for that. Perhaps $100,000s for Tricky Dick,$100,000,000s for Bone Spur Donald.
Being on the Nixon White House Enemies List, my only ‘Nixon-I.R.S.’ association was the threat that we would be severely audited. I gather that the IRS commissioner didn’t go along with this White House threat. I believe that I was earning less than $20,000 those days, so the IRS wasn’t otherwise interested in me.
Ed Not Phew that IRS has found no issues with Trump’s taxes over many years—-POO! Of course the IRS commissioner during Trump’s presidency didn’t have a free hand, but back in 2010 and in the non-Trump years?
Good question! Maybe the entity that issues the subpoena must decide issue of publication? That sort of makes sense, otherwise committee loses control of its own documents?
Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for sharing Michael Moore's post. It is priceless. Dems should post 'wanted' posters on billboards across the districts where these traitors are (presumably) going to be serving, reminding their constituents which way the wind blew as regards to their defending their country. Traitors all!
Thanks for sharing the Michael Moore commentary. The pictures of the traitors should be on a full page ad in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
"To the best of my knowledge, no broadcaster on any network, no “paper of record,” no one in Congress has stood and read into the record the names of those who intend to come to D.C. in 11 days and take an oath of office they have already egregiously violated.
"Who in this next week will take the 12-and-a-half minutes necessary to look into the camera and read the names of the traitors who on January 6th voted to cement the demands of those who stormed the Capitol earlier that day — their demand that Congress not certify Joe Biden as the duly elected President and to keep Trump in the Oval Office as essentially our Dictator?"
During the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the R-controlled House, Dems each show posters of a few of these louts after their turn reading - oh, yeah, presuming they're allowed a turn?
I wasn’t aware till looking at this poster that GREG PENCE is one of these traitors! And he was led to safety by the Secret Service during the too-close call for his brother’s life. You can’t make this stuff up. Get them all out of our government.
Finally, finally. My guess is, though, that we will never enjoy an “I told you so” moment. Not that it would feel good. The cost! So many lives lost to Covid. Our country ripped apart by this political divide. Environmental regulations slashed. Dark money flowing. The rich getting richer and meaner and weirder. Poor getting poorer. Racists, mysogenists, homophobes and antisemites so emboldened. All brought to us by Reagan, the Tea Party, Putin, McConnell, Barr, Trump and all their greedy, fearful, uninspired lemming followers. There is a sickness in the world that I sometimes sadly wish could be eradicated by a night like the one in The Ten Commandments, when a smoky Black Death was visited upon the evil and left the good alone. I do know we all have good and evil in us and that this is not a healthy wish. Nor American. I’m just tired of small, mean hearts.
We likely have to endure some small, mean hearts among us. That is just the imperfection of human nature. What we don't have to do is to allow our majority to return the insurrectionists to be seated to govern us. We have even more reason to march to protest against this than we ever had to march in protest of Trump's election.
I do know that we are all capable of good and bad, but the evil I see today has metastasized from when I grew up. History tells us that we have to relearn lesions and keep beating down the harbingers of evil that remain like rogue cancer cells.
When “we” grew up, the evil was institutionalized. It was written into laws that affected Real Estate and Voting. We bought into believing we were living in a fair and just society. We were unaware of the Institutional Racism that ruled our social, economic and educational lives. The shame and guilt I feel allows me to work hard at my own re-education. I was brain washed by the evils back then.
I am so grateful for H C R’s role in this re-education.
...... didn’t know this......
“women began to vote independently of their husbands after 1980, the American fear of communism expanded to justify the belief that elections won by candidates popular with women and minorities are illegitimate.”
Big day, this Monday! I just saw the documentary, “Pelosi In The House” on HBO Max. The 14th Amendment is clearly applicable to 45. These are exciting times for Justice in America!🇺🇸
Thanks for teaching us how we got here Professor! ♥️
I look forward to the book about our much heralded RULE OF LAW, detailing why Trump and the others responsible for the attempted insurrection and additional treasonous acts were not charged with any crimes two years after the attack on our Capitol as well as for stealing and withholding top secret government files by the former president.
As for "the rule of law", do not take your eyes off the Supreme Court where the "independent state legislature" theory is being argued, a theory that says that a state legislature itself can determine who won an election even if it is otherwise certified by a state official or determined by a state court. If this theory is embraced, then many of the efforts to get the results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan overturned are fair play within the rules of the political game. It's a get out of jail free card. Not surprisingly Trump lawyer and memo writer and putative insurrectionist John Eastman has filed an amicus brief in support. The theory is unlikely to be accepted by the court but court observers expect at least three justices to support it. Are courts really going to convict for insurrection and bar people from office forever because they relied on a legal theory that THREE SUPREMES also embrace? I think not (I am assuming that many of Trump's aides and advisors will find ways to distance themselves from the violence at the Capitol which was clearly illegal.)
This case (Moore v. Harper) has been cited as a danger to the 2024 election but at our peril we ignored it as a clever attempt to exonerate many of the malefactors of the past one.
Per Michael Moore: "Five days after the January 6th insurrection, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and 47 co-sponsors in the House presented a bill that invoked the 14th Amendment calling for the removal of the 147 Congress members who voted to overturn the 2020 election on the night of January 6th. Nothing came of it."
Cori Bush is one heck of a woman and I remember her bringing this up. Too bad it has taken two years to bring J6’s findings to closure and to hire the seemingly unbendable Jack Smith to the platform.
Like many here, I came of age during the height of the Cold War. The tenets of communism were drilled into me. To graduate from high school in Florida, I had to pass a class called Americanism vs. Communism.
It's all part of the misuse of words as a weapon, a key tactic of authoritarians.
Thank you for bringing up Americanism vs Communism! I too am a Floridian, graduated in 1975 from Coral Gables High, and that course was the bane of my friend group’s existence. The consensus was that you could either take it from the idiot teacher who gleefully believed in the course material and laugh uproariously behind her back, or find another instructor. I lucked out and got the campus psychology teacher who approached the course with its state required 1950s anti-commie movies as history, and threw in objective history of the Russian revolution on the side. I actually enjoyed the class and learned something despite the horrible propaganda movies, which the teacher did not stop our class from laughing at.
I graduated from Winter Park High in 1968. The course was a joke. It was taught by one of the sports coaches in the auditorium. As the monotone-induced boredom grew, kids would use makeup mirrors to flash reflections on the stage and podium. Others would roll pennies down the long concrete aisles.
I take a university class on “Fascism, Racism and Antisemitism” for adults over 65. I love being back on the campus with younger students too, especially the same school I attended for my degrees. It was on Zoom today. I shared this Thom Hartmann newsletter, because it explains how Reagan changed our government and how it’s affecting us now. Worth reading.
“It’s like old Confederate statues, though, the shine on Saint Ronny seems to have turned rather green.
Cuts right down to the chase, Irenie. Reaganomics was absolutely the beginning of homelessness and the demise of the nuclear family. The greed was unsurmountable all with stating “get the government out of my pockets”. I truly have not an ounce of respect for Republicans. Not. One. Ounce.
The changes made with Reagan were criminal. And deliberately hurt the middle and lower income people, education, mental health, transportation. Everything changed. For the worst. And we live it now. Republicans. I remember his first election in California. Governor. I was really young, in fact I don’t think I could vote yet. Not 21. I couldn’t understand then how a movie star could be governor. I learned.
Well I was already here when he was governor and then president. Was not a pretty sight. The fact that people called him the “greatest orator ever” was nauseating.
When I was very young, there was another actor elected to Congress. Can’t think of his name off hand but he did not cause repercussions that Ronald did.
Thanks Beth for this link. So Interesting how many actors and performers have served in government positions. I wonder when they know what they’re doing or they are acting. And the Writers of some books. I’ve read about the author of “Little House on the Prairie” books, Laura Ingalls Wilder and daughter Rose.
Gilbert, a Democrat, was the opposite of the author of her beloved books and character, who was ultra conservative. “During the writing of each new book, as the series expanded in answer to the fans’ clamors for more, the Little House books became anti-New Deal political parables. They helped lay the groundwork for the modern libertarian strain of modern conservatism—and to an extent few people realize, they helped fund its rise.”
Though the Ingalls Wilder series is (was? I retired in 2018) a staple of elementary school literature, I did not "teach" it because I thought it cheesy. I had copies I'd purchased at a thrift store in my classroom library and the books just sat on the shelf. But when I found out more about the author, I'm glad I just let it be. Thanks for the link!
I knew Laura Ingalls Wilder was a conservative but never made the connection between she and Ayn Rand. The fact that her daughter was a strong Libertarian and the Koch brothers had been also, just gives me a sour taste in my mouth. Thanks for that link.
It is hard to comprehend just how small and frightened Trump and his supporters are, terrified that all their claims of privilege and innate superiority based on birth and (lack of) melanin will be revealed as meaningless and stripped from them. The real reason they hate critical theory (wokeness) is that it examines and deconstructs claims of privilege and authority, and frequently reveals them to be based either on the blessing of some (nonexistent) god, or on the pure exertion or threat of superior force (I am stronger than the other and therefore can enforce my will upon him/her). The only true claim to political authority is one based on the consent of an informed public. I don't believe there is any legitimate claim to privilege.
I fear that a truly well informed public is either getting smaller or just more apathetic to the whole process. This is one of the main reasons that all these lawbreakers must be held accountable. Apathy cannot be allowed a larger toehold than it already has. It’s a society killer.
Now, everything has to happen in a hurry. Don’t know if it can happen that fast. I hope the whole truth is set free, exposing all congressional and executive office traitors!
I’m with you; the Truth is the Light, Let it Shine!
In the words of the great Leonard Cohen, “Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
I weep when I think about this wise and broken man, the great poet of an era. Here in these few lines is the lesson we liberal Americans never quite seem to. learn and so opportunities slip by We need to stop pondering and take a risk
Hallelujah!
And the message there is the same--always Cohen's--It might be cold and broken but there will always be a hallelujah.
Dean, I could not agree more. He was brilliant, wise.
And Canadian.
I love that! Thank you for posting SAT12.
Aaaahhhh.....thank you for the reminder, SAT12.
such poetic wisdom.
Whatever next week may bring us, you take care of yourself and get a good rest and heal yourself.
Democracy is at risk not only in the US !
So it shall...The JD is doing its job as are various State AGs. Thank you to the members of the January 6 Committee and to all who truthfully testified before it; well done! trump and his gang of coup plotters and self dealing delusionists are headed towards further ignominy, prosecution and likely conviction by juries of average Americans who deeply abhor their criminal assaults on our country. The Republican Party will be in its own self created wilderness for a long time to come as it struggles to find a more reasonable footing broadly acceptable to the American people. And the Dems will keep doing their jobs implementing initiatives that the American people need and want as long as they keep this as their priority.
Well said, except it might be wishful thinking. I believe that the Republican Party deserves to die badly. That party and the base that supports them brought us Trump in the first place, and then worse supported him to the hilt regardless of his crimes. They willingly brought a cancer to this country that has cost lives as well as livelihoods. For that they deserve the "death penalty" which is to cease to be a political entity. A new party needs to emerge that is more in keeping with the realities of this world, more compassionate, and not in bed with the richest among us.
100%
There was much progress last week & more to come in the following winter days & week. HCR 's work &`this community are .... I am thinking of Tom Paine right now: common sense. Please help me fill in the right word to finish my 2nd sentence.
….the way forward. It’s called democracy.
Unita, Bryan.
🗽
Unita ! 🗽
I think we should keep our eyes on Jack Smith. Regardless of what the House Committee refers or recommends, this is the guy who will put 45 in the slammer. Unless Fanni Willis gets there first.
For right now, the thing I am excited about is those tax returns. I hope the House releases them for all citizens to see. But if they don't before the clock runs out, the Senate has the power and the right to request them from the House. The big story in January will be Russian money flowing into the Trump Organization.
Russian money has always been the real issue in my estimation. The reporting early on suggested the complicity but then it stopped. Time for the switchman to reroute the train
Remember 'way back when it was revealed that the NRA was laundering rubles for Republicans? i would really love to know whom in Congress is being paid by Putin....
The NRA suffered some blowback and then it was revealed that Wayne LaPieere was using NRA. Funds for extreme personnal expenses that po’d a number of members
Truly, if TFG's end is pushed by a black female prosecutor - Perfect!!!
This is a sincere question: Has anyone seen Jack Smith or heard him speak since he was appointed special counsel? I keep wondering why no press conference, no interview, nothing to introduce him live to the American people. I don't expect him to reveal his tactics or his findings prematurely, but if he's working for us, should we not meet him? Perhaps I've missed it. If anyone could provide a link I'd be grateful. Many thanks to all of you for this your thoughtful and informed remarks every day. I am also grateful that I will get a gracious reply (rather than snark) to my sincere question 🙏
His job is to convict tRump. A.G. Garland chose him. His reputation and accomplishments are legend. I look forward to meeting him when he delivers the final gaveled verdict: Guilty as Charged.
I don't think it's appropriate of him to expose himself to the news media. Mueller avoided reporters and public exposure as well.
Yes, my understanding is he has been living in the Netherlands since 2018, working as the lead prosecutor for war crimes in Kosovo at The Hague. He’s a triathlete but was involved in an accident with a scooter while cycling resulting in a leg fracture that required surgery. He’s subsequently been laid up at home and has been working as special counsel for the Trump investigations from home... I find this story a bit odd, though as he must be at least a month out from his injury at this point and he could almost certainly be transported back to the States if it was really needed. I wonder if remaining in the Netherlands is not a security precaution given the violence prone environment we currently live in, but this is total speculation on my part.
Thanks for the insights Doug. I wondered the same thing re: his safety.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question. I have read several accounts of his life and credentials, and I, like you, look forward to his work /success bringing the truth to light and justice to bear on that truth. Still, no matter where he is on earth, I'm curious (and hopelessly naive) about why we haven't met him, digitally at least. Thank you for entertaining my curiosity. Let me know if you find footage of him speaking about his assignment.
As I understand it, Mr Smith is or has been laid up in Europe where he was working, with a lower extremity injury. He has been brought up to speed on everything though, as one can tell from the grand jury subpoenas that have been going out to people. Am not sure when he’ll get stateside though.
Yes, bicycle accident, ankle injury, I think. Maybe being out of the country is a blessing right now.
So true. Working from home these days can be a blessing.
YES.
I am not optimistic that the tax returns are going to show much except low taxes. His base will just say that he followed tax code and it’s the tax code at fault, not him. As for Russian money, do we really think that will be easily, or if ever, identified? If I recall reading, the tax returns are thousands of pages long.
The devil is the details. And I am sure his personal returns entwine with the organizations. I am curious about the Russians who bought Trump condos in Florida
Agree 1000%, Bill.
(by the way….really appreciated and hold respect for your post on teachers this past week).
Salud!
🗽
YES!!
Can the House refuse the Senate?
Madame Speaker is still in the House.
The DOJ table is set for this dis-trumpian feast, chefs and waiters at their stations! AG Garland and his team have methodically and thoroughly prepared over nearly 2 years for this precise dynamic moment when whatever will be "served" is ready. Ya, TFFG'S goose is cooked.
With crispy skin.
Salud, MaryPat.
🗽
I think perhaps the Senate can keep things going if time runs out on the House. No?
Good save!
Yes, lots of them want him gone yet don’t have the necessary spine to speak up. Cowards.
History will remember them as cowards.
history won't remember most of them except as a name on a list. After listening to Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast I realized that I did not know about any of those communist sympathizers except maybe Charles Lindberg.
Even now, Maddow’s brilliant, head exploding podcast exposé detailing a widespread 1940s plot to overthrow the US government by American Nazi sympathizers has not gained the attention it deserves. I have been expecting Dr Richardson to comment on this insurrection in our history, and wonder why she hasn’t, since we are now witnessing history repeating itself rather exactly, and the plotters once again getting away with it.
The rights to that Podcast, Ultra has been purchased by Steven Spielberg. It’s headed to Hollywood.
Wow.
FANTASTIC. I hope the journey is SHORT (but excellent) in the making and LONG in the playing. Hope he enlists Ken Burns in the process.
Rachel is also putting it into book form
Excellent
So, the podcast is unavailable for listening? Darn it!
No, it is definitely available. I just listened to it today for the third time on Apple Podcasts. But for some reason, I must always search for it under Ultra, Maddow. Another bone chilling historical lesson, foreshadowing today's nasty nest of varmints.
tRump and his plotters are NOT getting away with it. A.G. Garland will not have a courtroom in chaos like in the 1940's, prosecuting with only thin evidence. Today's "silver shirts" have been systematically arrested, flipped and tried. With the final puzzle piece (Congressional J6 Committee findings) in place next week, and the "closer"Judge Jack Smith brought up to speed, Justice Shall Be Served.
I hope. That 1944 trial was bone-chilling. Amazing that it was happening as our sons, brothers and fathers were fighting Nazis in Europe.
Bone-chilling is exactly right. And appalling. While I can never say "that can't happen nowadays" (we had a nearly successful insurrection J6), I have full faith in all 3 arms of government at this point in history. Biden, Garland and the J6 Committee did it right.
And to think of the massive reach of complicity in the government and public organizations. Sounds familiar, eh?
This is for you, MaryPat
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/best-butts-at-the-met
Fresh Air's Terry Gross just did an interview with RM.
https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2022/12/15/1142786655/fresh-air-for-dec-15-2022-rachel-maddow?showDate=2022-12-15
Looks like one of Dr Richardson's colleagues is already on the case; Charles Gallagher, also a history professor at Boston College, published "Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front" in 2021:
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983717
His faculty page indicates he has been writing on American anti-semitism, especially in the Jesuit and Catholic sectors of the Christian right, for some time.
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/history/people/faculty-directory/charles-gallagher-sj.html
He does not seem to have a strong online presence, though; thus far he has mostly addressed an academic audience.
I am glad Maddow is giving this historical moment more publicity now. The story is so uncannily familiar that I find it difficult to listen to the podcast. I am reading the transcripts so I do not have to listen to far right Christofascists from 1940; I have had more than enough of them in the last 50-60 years, getting louder every day.
The current right wing extremists even say they're part of America First which is the same flag flown by Lindbergh and the antisemites of the 40s. White supremacists have been in out country since the beginning.
The podcast is going to become a book and Steven Spielburg has just bought the option to make it into a movie!!
Me too!
I think he was a Nazi sympathizer.
Listen to the Ultra podcasts. Stunning stuff.
you are right
Lindbergh was definitely a Nazi sympathizer, and not, to my knowledge, a communist sympathizer.
Rachel's ULTRA podcast is gut wrenching...so much unknown history...
In the podcast it was noted by U of Huston Chair of History, a Professor Nancy Vecchion ( sp? I could not find any listing of her name in the university's online listings) that even today historians might prove to be vaguely informed about this period of history for some reason.
Try Vecchione. I think that's the correct spelling of that name. I don't think there's a U of Huston, thoiugh. Maybe you mean Houston. Or University of Texas, Houston.
Thank you. Not familiar with the TX system. Took quick note of her name. Will check.
I've done some googling with Vecchione (that spelling), and come up with nothing at a university. Maybe it's a different spelling. There are Nancy Vecchiones, but someone with that name as a chairman at a university would probably come up in the first five or six listings. Nothing does.
I'm not super familiar with the Texas system, but I simply inferred that there might be a branch at Houston.
Evelyn, Even with 45’a ridiculous Christmas “gift” to his supporters, it is hard to fathom what the hell these spineless idiots are afraid of! It’s laughable, as long as they indict his rancid ass....
I’ve often wondered if TFG had negative intel on all of them. I wouldn’t put it past him.
Have you read the Talking Points Memo story about Mark Meadows' emails. Several of the congressmen (most of whom are nowhere close to household names) Meadows corresponded with seem to have been totally besotted with TFG. I don't believe there's any way TFG could have had negative intel on all of them. For years people have been swearing that Putin and/or Trump must have kompromat on Lindsey Graham and perhaps others. It IS tempting to believe that all these people are being blackmailed -- but IMO it's time to consider the serious possibility that no one is threatening these elected officials with blackmail; they really are as craven, stupid, gutless, and/or gullible as they act.
" they really are as craven, stupid, gutless, and/or gullible as they act."
Susanna, thank you. I believe, strongly, that you are exactly correct.
Republicans have built a false set of propaganda that they tell themselves and each other (and Fox News tells the Nation) that "blacks are coming to get your stuff" (my own son's Scout Master said this at a Scout meeting one time, ending our scouting experience instantly, no lie).
Republicans also use communism as word to throw at anything they disagree with. Somebody wants to set up a shelter for the poor? Communism. Somebody wants to add a section to the library with the 1619 Book Project as a display item, "Communism".
Basically, Communism has had no meaning in the Republican Party and, honestly, in America, since we invaded Korea with that false flag "Communism".
Anytime America needs an excuse to do something illegal? Use Communism and GO.
Communism is the word Republicans and, honestly, America uses to get support from ignorant Americans to do whatever illegal stuff is under consideration.
The irony is that the countries that lean more socialist than the US, (yes, we are to some extent already socialist) score higher on all measures of human well-being than the US. So it's maddening that often those with so little will vote against their own interests because of the lies spread by Republicans. Republicanism seems now to be about cruelty and lacking compassion, for the sake of the enrichment of some.
Thank you for this. It’s crazy making that people use the concept of socialism to suit their needs. Bring on socialism (Medicare for instance). More crazy making? The willful ignorance of those who don’t look up the definitions and educate themselves. Grrr
Messaging covers a multitude of sins to sway the low information voter?
That use of the communism/socialism label to stifle powerful ideas and worthy programs goes back way before the Korean War. Think about the Palmer Raids and the persecution of immigrants from Europe after WWI: Big Money was freaked out by the Russian Revolution and afraid it could happen here. HCR sometimes writes about how it worked in the late 19th century.
"Communism" and "socialism" DO have a meaning for today's Republicans. Or maybe the better word is "purpose." They're used to stifle anything that might undercut or discredit unregulated capitalism: labor organizing, civil rights activism, accurate teaching of U.S. history, any regulations that limit the power of Big Money to do what it wants . . . They promote individualism over the common good because they know as well as we do that "united we stand, divided we fall" -- and they want us to fall so that they can stand without being challenged.
Susanna, I was born in the 50s. I’ve watched this happen my entire life. Until just a few years ago, the very mention of Russia brought out the screaming banshees, as it were. Now, Russia’s not so bad? How the hell did THAT happen?
You’re correct that Socialism has become the catch-all smear, perhaps so the donor class doesn’t offend their own donors with too much specificity.
Often when a person repeats a lie enough, he/she will come to believe it. There's the sunk cost fallacy as well, that once you invest enough in some idea or position, you don't want all that investment to come to nothing, so you just keep on repeating it. And when you're surrounded by people who also chant the same refrain, how can you be wrong?
Goebbels proved that in the 1930s
And Viet Nam. It was the domino theory.
They also use "socialism" in the same way. I tell 'em the Scandinavian countries, which most of them think are socialist, have a higher rate of new business formation than we do. And that part of that is due to their superior social safety net, which makes people less afraid to start businesses.
A Princeton historian told me that 1619 book is very inaccurate. I think it was a big mistake of the NYT to back it, and that it's a huge mistake for us to promote it in any way.
And the major force keeping Blacks down has been an oversupply of cheap labor, due to mass immigration. (An oversupply of any resource devalues that resource--econ 101.)
In 1980, the vast majority of meat packers were Black, and they were earning a good middle class wage, having organized their labor since the 1920s.
By that decade's end, the majority of meat packers were immigrants, earning barely over minimum wage, working under atrocious conditions where amputations were common. See: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth ($13 on Amazon).
The book is solid. The Author covered all the relevant academic economic research (296 footnotes), as well as statements of Black leaders beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to mass immigration, and covered Black periodicals, and US commissions on immigration reform. Yet it's highly readable, as the author spent 3 decades as an environmental journalist.
The book gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs Americans won't do. He visited the eastern shore of Maryland, where he spoke with Blacks recently laid off from poultry plants. They told him that they couldn't work at their old employers because the wages they were now paying immigrant workers were so low that they'd have to live many to a house or in their cars.
they crave power and prestige more than anything. I believe politics is comprised of a fair amount of psychopaths
Well, it's definitely worth paying attention to the rewards & incentives/disincentives structure, and some people do go into politics for less than noble reasons, or their reasons become less than noble over time. But keep in mind that politics is a collective enterprise. Social skills, including the ability to work with others, especially over time, matter. This is one reason Trump, the arch-narcissist, was so bad at the nitty-gritty of politics. He was tremendously effective on the podium in front of a huge crowd, but not so good at actually getting things done.
But politics sure isn't unique for its potential to attract psychopaths, sociopaths, and (to put it politely) people with "issues." Entertainment has to be right up there, and how about Wall Street? Finance and the upper levels of corporations reward the ability to treat people like widgets or to ignore the human element completely. And it pays a helluva lot better than politics -- although plenty of politicians seem to do pretty well with their side hustles, ranging from speaking fees to book contracts to (of course) coziness with Wall Street.
Yes, and I bet many of the sociopaths go into politics because they can't "win" in the private side of the isle. I agree, that sociopaths exist in any enterprise where the reward is great, but also in areas where the issue isn't financial reward, but rewarding in other ways. Those who exploit others no matter the environment, are acting on sociopathic tendencies. It means they've either shut off their empathy, or didn't have that ability in the first place. Our culture is really good at producing sociopaths and opportunities for people to become sociopathic. I would say that the Republican Party's platform, such as it is, rests on sociopathic trends - ie. it's okay that what I do hurts others, as long as I get ahead.
Oh yes. I would call them sociopaths, since some of them seem to be able to connive and consider how they can best be served regardless of the consequences to others.
they really are as craven, stupid, gutless, and/or gullible as they act. 👍👍👍
I agree, but with Graham, he did such a 180, going for hating Trump to kissing his ring.
Graham lost his compass when John McCain, his mentor, died. Plenty of people get their meaning from devotion to an individual or an organization, and when that individual or organization disappears from their lives, they're lost. Keep in mind, too, that most of the GOP did that same 180, from criticizing Trump to falling in line behind him, so Graham just had to go with the flow. This is very easy for someone who's lost his compass to do.
I think the kompromat story sticks to Graham because quite a few people are sure he's gay and he's being blackmailed because of it. He may be gay, or bisexual, or whatever -- I don't know. But that's not necessary to explain Lindsey Graham's public behavior. I also suspect that if there were substance to the blackmail story, some of it would have leaked out by now.
He saw which way the wind was blowing and wanted to protect his position, salary and benefits. Another craven example.
I haven’t. Both are considerations for me.
I would like for those thus compromised and supporting an overthrow of a legitimate election be expelled from Congress and barred from serving in public office again. Still so very hard for me to wrap my head around the concept “what were they thinking?!”. Feel like I live on a totally different planet.
Both.
Or a legitimate legacy of the fascist spirit running amok not only in our country still, but across the globe?
IMO the problem with calling it that is that this "fascist spirit" long predates fascism, and that putting it in a "fascist" box makes it harder to see the connections with other forms of authoritarianism, including but certainly not limited to religion.
Do you have a link Susanna ?
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/mark-meadows-exchanged-texts-with-34-members-of-congress-about-plans-to-overturn-the-2020-election
Cary,
Great post, thank you.
100% of these white men got off Scott Free.
Nobody was arrested.
Nobody has been charged with a crime.
All of them are still in our Congress getting ready to attempt a coup again the next chance they get.
Believe it.
Bingo! The DNC wasn’t the only Russian hack job done in 2015. The RNC got hacked into as well. And don’t forget the outright Russian sympathizer, Dana Rhoarbacher, who thankfully got voted out of office.
Ugh, Dana R!!! I live in OC.
😢😢. So glad he’s gone along with Devin Nunes! But there are soooo many more to go. The 14th Amendment is an unanswered prayer maybe?
And his sycophant, Scott Baugh, tried to unseat Katie Porter.
I watched that race. It was too damned close for comfort. Next time she may not be so fortunate. Her district really needs some good, BLUE work.
I always find the notion of Trump having intel, much less using it to control people, rather laughable. He's not a strategic thinker; he's too self-absorbed to think of how he can use others for anything except, of course, making money.
David Rothkopf's new book, _American Resistance,_ does an excellent job of showing how much effort went into keeping Trump from acting on his ignorant, usually malevolent impulses. You're right, he's not a strategic thinker, and he's surely self-absorbed, but as president ideas would take root in his head and he'd immediately try to act on them. These ideas generally came from the likes of Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Mike Flynn, not to mention Twitter. Oh yeah, and Vladimir Putin.
Wonder where he heard that nuking a hurricane was a good idea.
Oh, well since he's a self-appointed "nuclear expert" because one of his uncles was a nuclear scientist at MIT, he may have thought this up himself.
He thought nukes were appropriate solutions to on-the-ground problems too, and (surprise surprise) he had no idea of what nukes could do, so (like Juanita Smith) I have no trouble believing that he put something he'd heard together with something else he'd heard and came up with nuking hurricanes.
From the same scientist who may have given him the idea that chlorinating the respiratory tract might be useful against COVID???
Imagine how bad it would be if Trump were smart and strategic!
I read this article during the 2016 campaign and saw this behavior playing out daily after he became president.
Before the boardroom scene was shot, the producers would offer their observations about who did well in the challenges and deserved to stay, and who didn't and should leave. Invariably, Trump would ignore factual information and instead go with his gut. The editors then had to arrange the footage to make that decision look logical!
https://cinemontage.org/editing-trump-reality-tv-star-who-would-be-president/
Conventional wisdom is that DeSantis has the smarts and strategic sense that Trump doesn't, but I'm not convinced. He doesn't seem to have the charisma either -- although I have to admit, I don't find Trump remotely charismatic either.
OMG...the making of the Emperor with No Clothes. Even worse than a New Yorker article I vaguely recall from around that same period.
Who needs 'negative intelligence' when the propagandists can make up lies and watch them be 'vetted' in the right wing Conspiracy Theory QAnon echo chamber?
The lies are “Goebbelesque.” I keep thinking who would believe that tripe. Easy answer, Dem haters, misogynists, greedy bastards, many we know and love…
Also, right wing Conspiracy Theory QAnons are angry people left behind by income inequality (driven by GOP policies that began with Reagan). Sort of like 'there are no atheists (fact believers) in a fox hole (economic hole) during combat (extreme economic inequality)'.
Except that he’s run his business the way a mob boss would. Intel is transactional and pretty simple- like him.
I'm not sure that's true. From everything I've read about him (which is way too much) he's a mob-boss-wanna-be. Yes he turns on everyone who doesn't display absolute loyalty but he doesn't have henchmen and no one dies. Also even banishment from his good graces is not permanent if the person "repents," like Steve Bannon seems to have done.
Okay, mob light. Stormy Daniels is a perfect example of his transactional world view. His henchmen, Cohen included, have been laughable but somewhat effective, except for Rudy, who’s life has been destroyed by him. Since he doesn’t trust anybody he’s relied on himself to do a lot of the strong arming too: as “John Barron”, and as “ President Trump”.
Like Kevin McCarthy and so many others did soon after Jan 6
He can just make it up like everything else he says!
True. But I think journalists would expose facts from alternative facts.
If they are in bright red wing nut districts, they are afraid of his supporters. As for the rest of them, who knows. Death star is now a big joke and how anyone with one functioning brain cell can still support him is beyond me.
Michele,
I am afraid of Trump's supporters. I hate to say it but it is true. The guy that lives across from me is as weird and odd as it gets. And, the mailman "accidentally" put a gun magazine in my mail box that was meant for his mailbox (mailman is black and I think he was warning me (I have a minority last name, but, light skin).
All kinds of weird stuff in that magazine with some huge pistol on the front cover.
Trump supporters have no boundaries. If Trump tells them to start killing people they don't agree with, they will do that.
So much of this threatening nuttiness seems to stem from their reaction to their loss of status as the kings of the heap, although probably a pretty small one. And, not a one of them appears to have any insight or ability to self-reflect. To them it's all about blaming somebody else for their fear and misery ('those people"). That can add up to deciding to mow down a group of people for sure. The gun of course being an obvious symbol of their masculinity, such as it is. Such a waste of their one chance at this life. Sad, pathetic and frightening.
Actual demographics of 716 of the insurrectionists -- They are not who many people say they are. I was surprised.
Since this writing, a couple hundred more have been arrested.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/06/trump-capitol-insurrection-january-6-insurrectionists-great-replacement-white-nationalism/
So it does seem to be about the fear of losing status. Since most of them are white males, it may also be about losing not only white male privilege, but it could also be some frustration at not finding women to be as submissive as they want. The yearning for the past seems to be an overall motivator and unfortunately part of the backlash after Barack Obama's election. Backlashes are usually part of the pattern when progress is made.
They have already started killing people….I saw 45’s supporters in upstate New York during the pandemic. They WERE scary….
I just read that 3% of the population owns 50% of the guns.
An irony when you consider that the top 1% of the country owns over 50% of the wealth.
😳
I am also afraid of them because they are well armed and totally without constraints. I am sorry that this happened to you. I try to put such things out of my mind. Our neighbor across the street is a wing nut R and believes that the government will take his guns away. He despises us because we are liberal and we have also had many incidents with him because of his noise. The last time we called the county about the noise, they sent a deputy with the compliance officer (standard procedure for the third visit). The deputy told us that he takes things to the edge, but no further and we were instructed to stay away from him and I am sure that was about not having some kind of incident beyond words. Several houses here used to get together once a month for have a neighbor dinner. The last time we had one, he had a pistol on the end table of the living room which I am sure was for us. He was also not speaking to us. At the same dinner, one of our other R neighbors, who btw, has plenty of money, decided to go on a PERS rant since we are both public employees. The host neighbor is too, but somehow this was directed at me. After that he declined to come to any more dinners and we did also because of the PERS rant. Now he won't attend anything where he knows we will be present including our neighbors' 50th anniversary celebration. His wife, a progressive D, was there. Since then we have gone over a couple times about the noise with words, but no guns from him. Our other neighbor said he makes guns. He is a metal working whiz, so he probably does. I am sure the rest of our neighborhood is also bristling with guns and we have seen the stars and bars down the street. We also have Proud Boy visits to Salem and Keizer and the police do not do anything and the suspicion among many is that many of them agree. But I also think that pols want the votes from people because the party of death and treason has nothing to offer ordinary people. I have to wonder what will happen when death star is indicted as it looks like he is going to be.
Death threats seem to go along with public office even long before the current situation. A local city council member told me years ago that she had received death threats. I think now they seem much more likely to happen.
Wow. What a very unfriendly neighborhood. It makes it hard to feel safe in your own house. And this is what tf'g created in the whole country. People being afraid, and others having gotten permission to be overtly threatening. There's almost nothing more frightening than a zealot and/or an armed angry child masquerading as an adult. So sorry that this is your experience.
Actually most of our immediate neighbors are friendly good people. And even the PERS rant person, now moved away, was OK in most situations. I feel pretty safe unless we have some kind of crazy conflict over death star's indictment or the dog whistles that seem to come out of R mouths. And I know that is quite possible. One just hopes.
What state do you live in? One of the many good things is living on the hilly countryside where houses are not too close. Also being an antisocial revluse helps😊
Salem, Oregon, in Marion County, but still urban. We are introverts, but can't do anything about the guy across the street whose shop faces our backyard and acts as a megaphone.
Trump—the Jim Jones of this century so far
Oh good I thought you were talking about. High capacity magazine for your neighbors AR. 💥💥
It’s evident what they are “afraid” of, although I am not sure that’s the word I choose to use. There’s many traitors in positions of power, at the very least, holding seats in Congress or appointments by the former administration. To have the house of cards fall means a lot of gnashing of teeth, scurrying, backbiting, feigned ignorance, and Plan B’s of escape being hauled out and dusted off.
This will be far more than the downfall of a single man.
Salud, Elizabeth.
🗽
a way to launder dark money donations he will not have to claim as campaign donations?
Reading this, my thought was that Republicans are willing to quietly step back and let Democrats clean up on “stable 3” (thinking of a horse barn & pucky dropped by the “stable genius”), and thus they quietly benefit from Dems efforts. Not unlike the history of Dems “righting the ship” economically and legislatively to benefit all Americans after a Republican admin….would link to documentation if it was at my fingertips…sorry for being too lazy to dig & post, but I am at the end of a loooonnngggg day—sorry!
I’ve noticed that pattern too, Barbara. Here’s one article from the NYT that highlights how the “American economy has performed much better under Democratic administrations than Republican ones, over both the last few decades and the last century.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/opinion/sunday/democrats-economy.amp.html
Then this page from Presidential Data.org shows that “Republican presidents' [budget] deficits are 54% larger than Democrats' and 65% higher as a percent of GDP.” In fact, 10 of the last 11 recessions have been under Republican presidents. The graphs substantiate that Republican administrations run our nation’s economy in the red (ironic that this is the color that represents their party?). The subtitle of the page (my emphasis): DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS MANAGE THE ECONOMY BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS
http://presidentialdata.org/
Hope you can get some R&R this weekend, Barbara.
Rose,
I subscribe to the Times and somehow missed that article. Many, many thanks for posting.
Already sent to all my diminishing Republican friends.
My pleasure, Mike. Don’t know why this type information is not more widely disseminated by the media—or by Democrats at the least.
Same
"diminishing"
Why...oh why...oh why is this an Opinion piece? I want someone to explain this to me. Why isnt it Analysis? Or, Investigative Reporting? Easily dismissed as opinion and data are cherrypicked. <sigh>
I trust certain NY Times and WaPo writers. Good stuff that's based on data and facts, yet end up as opinion.
Rose, I knew someone here would come to the rescue and post the needed info…thanks for picking up the ball I dropped!!!!! ;-D
I’m now retired, but I still remember those looooong Friday workdays. Plus I remembered reading that article so it was easy. 🤗
It has been so in this century. From csd on Twitter a long while back “They piss themselves every presidency, while we “tax and spend” libs have to buy new sheets.” A pattern that should be noticed by our “free press.”
Cowards, absolutely, and traitors to our nation for not standing up for we, the people.
I'm not sure "spine" is the right body part to describe their cowardice.
LOL, I thought I might be spanked by Substack if I used other words.
Silence means complicity, and in this case it means that tf'g can continue to infect our political process, as these spineless people remain like monkeys with their hands over their mouths.
My thoughts exactly. "Leaders" lost in the quagmire of politics as opposed to doing the right thing. Sad.
We are witnessing some of the most bizarre and consequential moments in our nation’s history. Thank you, Heather, for giving us the background and steady analysis necessary to navigate this time without drowning in its sea of chaos.
It appears that only a true historian such as Professor HCR could sift through all this noise and sort out the facts so we could start to see a clear but truly bizarre chapter in our not so distant past come into focus. Real events can be more unbelievable than the best written mystery novel.
I know, right?! If this were pitched as a TV series, it would be turned down as unbelievable & far-fetched. Zombies & walking dead, OK…..Trumpies, not so much…..
Even twilight zone couldn’t match current events. Oh wait, seems like I remember something…
My favorite was "To Serve Man" :)
Thanks you for this interesting letter. I worked with someone whose parents were disappeared by the Maoists for being academics and class traitors or something during the Cultural Revolution. My co- worker broke big rocks into little rocks with a sledge hammer for road construction for most of her teenage years before being released with no explanation. She eventually made her way to the US, where she studied English and Biochemistry at the same time. So, when I think of “Communism” I think of brilliant lives destroyed by an autocrat stifling individuality and destroying excellence in the search for more and more power and control.
I do not think of landowners refusing to pay taxes for building roads because it might be for the common good. I expect most Americans have lost track of how the term has been corrupted by our peculiar American history. Your explanation should be put in text books!
Lofty and noble ideals can be corrupted by greed and need for power. To me, the basic idea of “the commons” for and from which we all benefit mutually is, at face value, a good thing. That’s why, even tho’ retired and on a fixed income, I vote to approve modest local taxes that benefit my whole community (eg; I don’t have children, but I fervently support funding our local schools)….I want to pay my fair share, knowing it’s not just about me and what I need/want. The danger, to me, is those who wish to power-grab or do not wish to pay their fair share to contribute to the common good.
Barbara,
I also feel that, in my own life, those times and those areas I lived where community mattered, were much better places to live than where I currently live (in a suburb where folks sort of "every man for himself" kind of living).
I grew up in rural East Texas where there were Community Libraries, Community Churches, Public Schools and zero Private schools AND a farm co-op where folks gathered at 5:30 am for coffee before getting to work.
Nobody up here in NY believes me when I say, those folks that I grew up with in rural East Texas were the most kind, most considerate, nicest people of my life long walk.
I strongly believe that the ties to the community provided by the school, the library, the churches and the Farm Co-Op, really made that difference. Don't get me wrong, there was still politics, there were still folks who you had to watch out for, but, the overall feel was, well, kind.
Note, church brings community together for something other than "God", if, for example, you, like me wonder about existence of such an entity.
Bake sales are pretty awesome for example.
:-)
And don’t forget the Grange movement that united so many farmers. There must be thousands of abandoned or repurposed Grange halls across the country. No one called it socialism. Does it even still exist?
My state senator met his wife at our local Grange Hall dance, the one that was torn down shortly after I moved here in 1987. I LOVE to dance, and started hosting teen dances at the elementary school when my own teenagers were at that "get into trouble" age. Should be a Grange hall community center next to every elementary school! Maybe then democracy couldn't be hijacked.
Our rural area has repurposed “abandoned” (I use that word loosely) Grange Halls into community centers….often providing the many of the same services as when “the Grange” was in full swing. Sometimes the transition was bumpy even tho’ the original mission was no longer in effect, the ‘rights’ to the property would be contested. My little town of 1200 folks has a Grange Hall that serves the community in many ways….ditto in other surrounding larger (but still small) communities as well.
Wonderful!!
The results if not the means.
I think about this often since we now have backyard jungle gyms, home theaters and gaming systems, distancing from religious intolerance, little time to volunteer when two incomes are now necessary. And now our schools are under attack.
Exactly! I grew up in a small railroading town in far northern CA (way north of SF!), conservative and in a rural county. The fraternal societies and yes, women’s auxiliaries! Were a focal point of community, as were the 2 largest churches in the day, the Methodist and Catholic. I count myself as very lucky to have had that kind of upbringing, and I think I have been trying to re-create that feeling for the better part of my 74 years. Thank you for the reminder of all that is good in people can be found in the strangest places!
Yes, it’s funny that folks think San Francisco is northern CA! I tell them to drive up hwy 101 for 5-6 more hours and THEN you are really in northern CA (or inland on Interstate 5).
And yes, bakes sales!! Ha ha....my love of all things sugary..
Happy holidays to you,
Mike S, ye of good faith.
(In most schools these days, home baked goods are not even allowed as treats in classrooms…. source not trusted so to speak.)
When our Democracy starts flourishing widely again,I trust a return to community values that encourage a bake sale at a local event.
Salud!
🗽
Yum!!
I'm with you on this 100%.
The corruption of terms is really infuriating.
One of the most irritating things for me in our public discourse is the willfully ignorant use of words. People toss terms around without a clue as to their true meaning. And then there is the perversion and the use of classic terms as a pejorative. Communism is a repellent idea to me. But it could be a legitimate and functional form of society if it incorporated democracy. But it never has. Totalitarian leaders have corrupted it. Capitalism is a wonderful concept - but only if it is regulated so as to protect workers and the environment.
And then there is the bogey man of "socialism". Which 99% of Americans can't even define despite the fact they are living in a society that practices it. When a community pulls together through taxation to provide services to the public, that is socialism. It's just a question of what services we want to include. Fire protection, police, water, electricity, education - all are delivered by a socialistic structure so they are available to all. Sounds friendly to me. So what if we include health care instead of letting oligarchs profiteer off of preventable illness? Now I am sounding like a "communist" to some folks.
And last but not least, the word perversions I hate the most are the destruction of the classic definitions of "liberal" and "conservative". Despite the negative baggage that has been assigned to these words I am still proud to declare myself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I see no conflict in that.
To "conserve" money and natural resources is smart. To be a liberal with an open mind ready to listen to new ideas is healthy. To eliminate waste and provide for all is just sensible. I am taking my words back. They have been on loan to idiots for too long.
By definition, The Founding Fathers AND Jesus Christ were liberals
Tell that to the MAGAS and wait for “headexplodey”
I wonder if Jesus was considered “woke” in his time.
Certainly the Pharisees would believe that
Bill, As one who believes no intelligent, reasoned discussion can proceed if the participants don’t share a basic understanding of the terms at hand: what they are and what they’re not, I applaud your overall thesis along with you tacking the challenge of defining several complex terms.
Were I to focus on one example, it would be your reference to socialism as “a community pull[ing] together through taxation…”. To the contrary, I would note I had understood socialism to refer to the collective or state control and ownership of the means of production, wherein there is no private ownership. I would add, that in past postings, I had differentiated socialism from democratic socialism, wherein the latter, in my view, advocates for a modicum of social and economic justice through a democratic state that seeks an increasingly more equitable distribution of its resources.
My point, as I intimated from the outset, is that establishing an understanding of the nature of terminology including the factors involved, generally speaking, is a complex and, as you noted, necessary endeavor.
Thank you (again :). Good points. But I think the Nordic version of socialism is a model to be emulated. The state allows for a vibrant private sector including the production of world class products. But people's basic needs of education and health-care are provided - almost as a human right. They are fine with high taxes to fund these items because they will never be bankrupted by an illness and their kids are educated on a level playing field. Sounds to me like a truly sensible and just civilization.
As a side note, they are not enamored of celebrities displaying conspicuous consumption. Being "normal" and modest is a goal.
Bill, If there is a dispute between us, it doesn’t concern values but terminology. I would note Bernie Sanders, whom I and countless others view as the leader of the democratic socialist movement in the U.S., persistently invokes the Nordic region as most representative of a democratic state with a human face that cares for its people.
To be clear, I am passionate about distinguishing between socialism and democratic socialism because I am unaware of any experiment in the denotative meaning of socialism that hasn’t devolved into authoritarianism.
Sold! I now define myself as a Democratic Socialist :)
The distinction between socialism and communism seems blurred in history. Your definition of socialism is another expert's definition of communism:
"Socialism: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
1: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
2: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
Socialism vs. Social Democracy: Usage Guide
In the many years since socialism entered English around 1830, it has acquired several different meanings. It refers to a system of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control, but the conception of that control has varied, and the term has been interpreted in widely diverging ways, ranging from statist to libertarian, from Marxist to liberal. In the modern era, "pure" socialism has been seen only rarely and usually briefly in a few Communist regimes. Far more common are systems of social democracy, now often referred to as democratic socialism, in which extensive state regulation, with limited state ownership, has been employed by democratically elected governments (as in Sweden and Denmark) in the belief that it produces a fair distribution of income without impairing economic growth."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
MaryPat
Thanks for your reference to the scholastic definitions. I'm also an RN and believe societies have a moral obligation to care for those who can't care for themselves. Dependent children. Frail elderly. Medically impaired. Yes, those who are drug/ alcohol addicted and live on the streets are medically impaired. We are not a society who puts grandmas on an ice floe when they've outlived their usefulness. If paying taxes to care for people makes me a Socialist or Social Democrat, feel free to paint me with that brush.
We nurses have seen people from all walks of life and don't judge. We recognize and honor the value in every human life.
I even have compassion for the ex-president. He was raised by a sadistic, criminal father and a cold, self-absorbed mother; sheltered from consequences by money. He defends his sense of unworthiness with a cloak of victimization. He's driven by revenge against those who don't shore up his fragile ego; he's sadistic to others to teach his (dead) father a lesson. I pity him, but much like hiking in snake country, want to stay as far away from him as possible. I recognize the good he might have done, had he been raised by loving, engaged parents.
"We nurses have seen people from all walks of life and don't judge. We recognize and honor the value in every human life."
Yes.
MaryPat, Admittedly, I am far more confident in distinguishing socialism from democratic socialism. As for communism, contrary to socialism, I had understood it as the overthrow of a government by an autocratic insurgence that seized total control and ownership, a more extreme form of socialism, one might say. As a final point, I would note I located a definition of socialism that included individual ownership of property.
I suppose the lesson is to define our understanding of terminology when we speak or write about said terms.
Yes. Thanks.
Please help me to grasp the relevance of socialism when referring to American government. G. Morris was very clear why and for what the Constitution was established. More perfect Union, Establish Justice, Ensure Domestic Tranquility, Provide for the National Defense, Promote General Welfare, Secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. I don't see socialism or any ideology contributing to these top level requirements.
I wish there were laws that required all laws to be traceable to these 6 top level requirements. Anything else should be deemed out-of-scope and contributing to requirement creep.
Aaron, You write, “G. Morris was very clear why and for what the Constitution was established.” Note that Morris’s statement doesn’t include “for whom.” To be clear, the Constitution, despite it being an unprecedented, aspirational instrument, was written exclusively for the then-electorate—white male property owners. Hence, a reason for subsequent amendments to expand the definition of citizen, let alone their ensuing needs.
Today, for example, 60 million citizens are living precariously from paycheck to paycheck and millions are working for starvation wages. In many cases the family income is only sustained by more people working longer hours, and still they’re weighted down by mortgage debt, credit card debt, and the like.
As a final point, I would note, contrary to socialism, which I don’t advocate, my postings call for democratic socialism, wherein a modicum of social and economic justice for increasingly large numbers of people are provided for via a more equitable distribution of our nation’s wealth.
You are on the right track but the founders recognized that We the People are to whom the constitution was to apply. Personhood in bioethics has specific characteristics. Foremost is foresight and good judgement. Race, gender and status are circumstances, not foresight . Unfortunately, the majority lack the foresight to save above the Micawber Threshold. Our public schools need to do a much better job if democracy and liberty are to prevail.
Aaron, While I wholeheartedly concur with your perspective on public schools, I find your claim that “the majority lack the foresight to save above the Micawber Threshold” only partially true.
In my view, when one looks at society and tries to determine what it is that keeps people down—what holds them back from realizing their potential—often one finds institutionally oppressive forces that are largely beyond their individual control. Class, racial, and gender domination are among such forces that hold people down.
I would note that I don’t believe people, by and large, choose to live precariously; instead, they frequently are limited and confined by the opportunities afforded or denied them by a social and economic system governed by the need to produce a profit for those who own and control often at the expense of fulfilling collective needs.
Since the Constitution was written we have required all manner of laws to adjust to changing times. And the Framers fully expected the Constitution to be revisited regularly as the world evolved.
None of which has anything to do with how we provide services to the public. My pitch is if we expect to provide fire and police services, potable water, electricity and education, why not throw in health care? The Constitution is an essential document. But it is a foundation - not an answer for all the complexities of life hundreds of years later.
Socialism for basic services, True Democracy for governance and Regulated Free Enterprise make a perfect combination for a wonderful society!
Thanks for the reply. As a retired Systems Engineer I view government a little different from most. What is this system of government supposed to do? What are the requirements? Promote the general welfare is not to guarantee we all live long and healthy lives or grow the GDP, or build a global thermal control system to assure human advancement on this plant for the next millennia. Although, these are all worthy efforts I think our primary calling as Americans is to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves (we the people) and our posterity (those we have and will duplicaste).
Let's talk about who we mean by We the People because personhood is fundamentally the characteristic of foresight - the ability to extract useful energy from the driving force of the universe ENTROPY. There in lies the future of all living things.
Interesting. I have two questions for you:
1. Humans have prospered because they have enjoyed the benefits of society. This guy fishes, that guy hunts, someone else farms, another builds the huts, etc. Someone organizes that. Sometimes we just fall into a natural division of labor. Which is nice. But usually the "society" needs structuring. Isn't that what we call that government? Isn't the government us?
There is no doubt that a government can get bureaucratic, corrupted and wasteful. But I think it beats anarchy. And we can vote out the creeps. We can't vote out the oligarchs.
2. If we simply rely on "entropy" as a source of progress, isn't that a little vague? And what do we define as the "driving force of the Universe"? Other than the fact that we are headed ultimately into a black hole, right now I think it might be the lust for power and wealth at the expense of others, no?
Bill Alstrom for President!!
I love me some Bill Alstrom. Did you see his essay on teachers this past week, MaryPat?
🗽
Bill, thanks for your thoughts….spot on.
Meredith, In my view, our “peculiar” American history has been compounded by Republicans who deliberately conflate communism / socialism—the public ownership and control of the means of production as opposed to private ownership—with liberalism that advocates for a modicum of social and economic justice for large numbers of people today who feel oppressed and marginalized by raw, brute capitalism, admittedly not very good at distribution unless wedded to social democratic institutions that contain its excesses and moderate its self-serving impulses.
Fair or not, politics largely is perception, and though Republicans today, by and large, have no ideas other than ones arising from greed and self-interest, their strategy of conflating communism / socialism with the restraining box which levels the effects of capitalism, far too often, wins them elections.
HST knew them “Socialism is the epithet they have hurled at every advance People have made in the last 20 years.” Make that a hundred these days.
Jeri, Regrettably, those who own and control, by and large, have a vested interest in limiting and confining the opportunities afforded or denied to those who do not.
"epublicans who deliberately conflate communism / socialism—the public ownership and control of the means of production as opposed to private ownership—with liberalism"
Exactly correct and well written.
To (mis)quote an anon, "when you (they) yell Socialism but you don't know what that means so you (they) call it Communism but you/they don't know what that means either."
Ed, I imagine many of us on this platform can differentiate between the two. I would note the only context in which the two are collapsed is in reference to Republicans, who use the two interchangeably.
agreed, no implication re readers here
Pesky definitions, damn them all anyway
Mike, I deeply appreciate your affirming reply. Thank you for your kind words.
I agree that Conservatives have been using that epithet successfully for over a century. One reason is that it feeds into the American ethos of "anyone can make it if they work hard enough". Another resson is that many on the left, wanting to protect marginalized communities and the environment, demand that some industries be nationalized so they can be forced to act in a way they perceive is needed for the public good. I'm specifically thinking of the oil and gas, automotive, banking, and social media industries. That push to take over the means of production IS classic communism.
So, just like I've written off my old party because of its racism, selfishness, and spineless support for TF'nG, I can see Conservatives who've grown up with Reaganism as the only truth write off all Democrats because the party includes those who are openly hostile to select private industries.
Now you may think I am making a false moral equivalence between MAGA movement and the extreme Green movement. I'm not at the present time. However I can see a Venezuela-like future if the ultra-Greens get their way and an Iran-like future if MAGA extremists get theirs.
Jerry, I write mainly to contend, expounding upon the 4 examples you reference, that I see no evidence of “a Venezuela-like future” hereafter for the U.S.
1) Automotive industry: Nationalization was to be temporary. In 2009, Obama said, “We are acting as reluctant shareholders because that is the only way to help GM succeed.”
2) Banking: After the collapse of the financial system in 2008, only bad assets were to be managed under conservatorship, a model both looser and more temporary than nationalization.
3) Social Media: As with broadcast, I understand that both private and national platforms are under discussion. The justification here is to preclude profit-driven desire from excluding public service content.
4) Oil and gas: I understand discussions are underway for the Fed to acquire controlling ownership of at least the 3 dominant U.S. oil and gas companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. I dare say I applaud the justification, which is to build the clean energy infrastructure.
The examples of automotive and banking were targeted and limited. The example of social media is a thorny issue pitting free speech against the need for truth. The example of taking controlling interest in the largest oil and gas companies goes too far, and risks hundreds of thousands of lives outside the US because energy supply disruptions cause disruptions of food supplies, manufacturing, heating, cooling, etc. Of you think that US technocrats can to better than Russia, China, and Venezuela, then you're assuming that somehow Americans are smarter than everyone else before them.
I posit that we should improve/tighten regulation of hydrocarbon production and keep increasing investments on renewable energy sources. Within those guiderails, the US can move forward relatively fast towards a rationally optimal energy mix.
Jerry, To be clear, I had written to refute your vision of “a Venezuela-like future if the ultra-Greens get their way.” I further would note, against my better judgment given we are a divided nation, I had accepted your false premise that “the extreme Green movement” ever would get its way.
In light of the foregoing, expounding upon your 4 examples as I did, seems neither “targeted and limited” nor “thorny.”
That said, I grant that my mention of discussions underway for Federal government to acquire controlling interest of at least the 3 dominant U.S. oil and gas companies, admittedly, is severe. Still, considering at issue is humanity’s badly damaged relationship with its earthly home and the urgency of repairing it before more lasting and tragic harm is done, a fundamental restructuring, in my view, is needed to arrest the global disease of environmental degradation. I also think we should consider that efforts to curb consumption of energy and other resources could save money in most cases.
Barbara, I share your alarm about environmental degradation, accelerated global warming, and would add destruction of ancestral lands of marginalized independence peoples. Our desired means of achieving specific ends are simply very different.
With the introduction of a bill that would bar tRump from ever holding public office again, the Republicans have their last best chance to shake loose from his “power”, which seems to be rapidly waning. They had two previous chances with the impeachments, but they were too cowardly to do the right thing. Now, with the prospect of tRump tearing the party apart in ‘24 if he doesn’t get the nomination, or of losing the election again if he IS nominated, it seems to me that they should take this off ramp. It will be interesting to watch this play out.
May you live in interesting times is a Chinese curse. Let’s hope the right people are cursed and quickly. It’s pretty obvious that the legislators still denying the Jan 6 attack were part of the planning of it. 😱👋🏼
Yes. Exactly.
Hahaha
So starting with the time following the Civil War, America decided that seditionists could remain around and actually serve in government. Listening to ULTRA and how we left those traitors off in the 1930s and 40s, then let Nixon slide into office as he undermined the peace talks with Viet Nam, then Reagan preventing the hostages release, then Iran Contra and HW Bush covering up his involvement, then Clinton remaining in office following his lying under oath, GW Bush and his taking us to war in Iraq and then giving away tax dollars to private companies to rebuild his mistake in Iraq and Afghanistan, then this last administration.
The libertarians of the Koch network have worked to abolish much of the government policies and regulations that would hold people that break these laws and regulation accountable.
HCR does us all a great favor in this daily documentation. I thank her for it.
We do have a long established history of letting them “off the hook” don’t we?
Remind me again how Clinton's sex life turned into an impeachible offense? As opposed to starting and maintaining unjust illegal wars where eventually millions died, etc?
not his sex life, the under oath lie.
That depends on what the meaning of "is" is! ;-)
In other words, at a high level, those who have historically not been held to account upon committing a crime?
White Men. Although, not all white men are criminals, thank goodness.
An excellent recap of the missteps of our leaders and how power, money and a lack of justice for the privileged persists.
I’m holding my breath to see whether this pattern persists with trump and his cronies, or should I say his conspirators!
I look forward to the January 6th Committee going out with a blaze of glory (gory), with some last minute surprises and, perhaps, suggestions for indictments. Liz Cheney is clearly riding this horse furiously to the finish line.
Also, after such an effort to get Trump’s taxes, there should be a way for Pelosi to reveal them before the Republican House majority takes office. Republicans, including Senate Wantabe McConnell, would relish release of Trump’s taxes that would further puncture his boasts of being the schlemiel of the ART OF THE DEAL.
I don't know that I would label Trump a schlemiel, but he is definitely a putz.
and, I gather, a small one.
"A mushroom" according to eyewitness Stormy Daniels.
Ugly knowledge. But, yes.
Very ugly
Eye bleach....
😂
Tom If it looks like a f++k, waddles like a f++k, and babbles like a f++k, it seems likely that Trump is a f++k. Also, a putz and, perhaps, a schlemiel.
Keith…😂😂😂😂🤣🤣
Wish my father were alive to hear you all.
🤣
Keith,
Trump's taxes must not have any illegal activity in them correct?
OR he would be in jail now from IRS prosecution.
All they will show is that the tax laws heavily favor rich, fat, white men who are willing to shaft everyone around them to keep their money.
His taxes will also show that Congress has passed laws heavily favoring rich, fat white men.
Correct?
Mike You raise a fascinating point about Trump and the IRS. Back in 2010 there was a Trump-IRS ‘dispute’ related to his owing at least $100 million more—now over $200 million with interest. It seemed a big issue in 2015-2016. And now a nothingburger?
Clearly Trump has finagled his taxes. These machinations were exposed in the verdicts against The Trump Organization. So why hasn’t there been definitive action by the IRS against Trump and The Trump Organization? I could guess, while he was prez, but in 2022?
Mike I recall that the IRS came after president and ex-president Nixon.One aspect related to his minuscule tax payment in 1970 & 1971. I believe that he had taken a massive tax credit for land he had donated.
A bigger issue was major government expenditures to upgrade his San Clemente property. I believe, as ex-president, he paid heavily for that. Perhaps $100,000s for Tricky Dick,$100,000,000s for Bone Spur Donald.
Being on the Nixon White House Enemies List, my only ‘Nixon-I.R.S.’ association was the threat that we would be severely audited. I gather that the IRS commissioner didn’t go along with this White House threat. I believe that I was earning less than $20,000 those days, so the IRS wasn’t otherwise interested in me.
I'll be looking for Russian money.
Bill At least it won’t be Bitcoin. Even Trump is not that stupid to get into such a scam, when he has so many of his own.
Wow. The IRS repeatedly found no issues year after year? Phew!
Ed Not Phew that IRS has found no issues with Trump’s taxes over many years—-POO! Of course the IRS commissioner during Trump’s presidency didn’t have a free hand, but back in 2010 and in the non-Trump years?
The Senate Finance Committee likely already has gotten their copies from the House.
Good question! Maybe the entity that issues the subpoena must decide issue of publication? That sort of makes sense, otherwise committee loses control of its own documents?
Here is Michael Moore’s take on the traitors and how to get them out! Please read and share widely!
Thanks to both Heather and MIchael for the light they shine in dark places....
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelmoore/p/14th-amendment-plainly-states?r=4tv99&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for sharing Michael Moore's post. It is priceless. Dems should post 'wanted' posters on billboards across the districts where these traitors are (presumably) going to be serving, reminding their constituents which way the wind blew as regards to their defending their country. Traitors all!
Thanks for sharing the Michael Moore commentary. The pictures of the traitors should be on a full page ad in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Never the WSJ , Rupert dictates
2 Black. 12 White Women. 109 White Men.
From Moore's post:
"To the best of my knowledge, no broadcaster on any network, no “paper of record,” no one in Congress has stood and read into the record the names of those who intend to come to D.C. in 11 days and take an oath of office they have already egregiously violated.
"Who in this next week will take the 12-and-a-half minutes necessary to look into the camera and read the names of the traitors who on January 6th voted to cement the demands of those who stormed the Capitol earlier that day — their demand that Congress not certify Joe Biden as the duly elected President and to keep Trump in the Oval Office as essentially our Dictator?"
During the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the R-controlled House, Dems each show posters of a few of these louts after their turn reading - oh, yeah, presuming they're allowed a turn?
Indeed, a brilliant posting.
Elisabeth,
Many thanks for this post. It is amazing.
Mike
I wasn’t aware till looking at this poster that GREG PENCE is one of these traitors! And he was led to safety by the Secret Service during the too-close call for his brother’s life. You can’t make this stuff up. Get them all out of our government.
Finally, finally. My guess is, though, that we will never enjoy an “I told you so” moment. Not that it would feel good. The cost! So many lives lost to Covid. Our country ripped apart by this political divide. Environmental regulations slashed. Dark money flowing. The rich getting richer and meaner and weirder. Poor getting poorer. Racists, mysogenists, homophobes and antisemites so emboldened. All brought to us by Reagan, the Tea Party, Putin, McConnell, Barr, Trump and all their greedy, fearful, uninspired lemming followers. There is a sickness in the world that I sometimes sadly wish could be eradicated by a night like the one in The Ten Commandments, when a smoky Black Death was visited upon the evil and left the good alone. I do know we all have good and evil in us and that this is not a healthy wish. Nor American. I’m just tired of small, mean hearts.
We likely have to endure some small, mean hearts among us. That is just the imperfection of human nature. What we don't have to do is to allow our majority to return the insurrectionists to be seated to govern us. We have even more reason to march to protest against this than we ever had to march in protest of Trump's election.
Truer than true
I do know that we are all capable of good and bad, but the evil I see today has metastasized from when I grew up. History tells us that we have to relearn lesions and keep beating down the harbingers of evil that remain like rogue cancer cells.
We have lessons full of lesions :)
When “we” grew up, the evil was institutionalized. It was written into laws that affected Real Estate and Voting. We bought into believing we were living in a fair and just society. We were unaware of the Institutional Racism that ruled our social, economic and educational lives. The shame and guilt I feel allows me to work hard at my own re-education. I was brain washed by the evils back then.
I am so grateful for H C R’s role in this re-education.
...... didn’t know this......
“women began to vote independently of their husbands after 1980, the American fear of communism expanded to justify the belief that elections won by candidates popular with women and minorities are illegitimate.”
-->> "I’m just tired of small, mean hearts." <<-- 😥
Big day, this Monday! I just saw the documentary, “Pelosi In The House” on HBO Max. The 14th Amendment is clearly applicable to 45. These are exciting times for Justice in America!🇺🇸
Thanks for teaching us how we got here Professor! ♥️
I look forward to the book about our much heralded RULE OF LAW, detailing why Trump and the others responsible for the attempted insurrection and additional treasonous acts were not charged with any crimes two years after the attack on our Capitol as well as for stealing and withholding top secret government files by the former president.
As for "the rule of law", do not take your eyes off the Supreme Court where the "independent state legislature" theory is being argued, a theory that says that a state legislature itself can determine who won an election even if it is otherwise certified by a state official or determined by a state court. If this theory is embraced, then many of the efforts to get the results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan overturned are fair play within the rules of the political game. It's a get out of jail free card. Not surprisingly Trump lawyer and memo writer and putative insurrectionist John Eastman has filed an amicus brief in support. The theory is unlikely to be accepted by the court but court observers expect at least three justices to support it. Are courts really going to convict for insurrection and bar people from office forever because they relied on a legal theory that THREE SUPREMES also embrace? I think not (I am assuming that many of Trump's aides and advisors will find ways to distance themselves from the violence at the Capitol which was clearly illegal.)
This case (Moore v. Harper) has been cited as a danger to the 2024 election but at our peril we ignored it as a clever attempt to exonerate many of the malefactors of the past one.
YES!
Bad things happening to Trump = Good Things for America.
Per Michael Moore: "Five days after the January 6th insurrection, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and 47 co-sponsors in the House presented a bill that invoked the 14th Amendment calling for the removal of the 147 Congress members who voted to overturn the 2020 election on the night of January 6th. Nothing came of it."
Cori Bush is one heck of a woman and I remember her bringing this up. Too bad it has taken two years to bring J6’s findings to closure and to hire the seemingly unbendable Jack Smith to the platform.
Every time Republicans throw around the word communism as a pejorative for Democrats, I want to scream. Can they be this incredibly stupid? Or lame?
As much as they want to twist the meaning and apply it to liberals, they might want to take a peak at the definition https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communism
Like many here, I came of age during the height of the Cold War. The tenets of communism were drilled into me. To graduate from high school in Florida, I had to pass a class called Americanism vs. Communism.
It's all part of the misuse of words as a weapon, a key tactic of authoritarians.
Thank you for bringing up Americanism vs Communism! I too am a Floridian, graduated in 1975 from Coral Gables High, and that course was the bane of my friend group’s existence. The consensus was that you could either take it from the idiot teacher who gleefully believed in the course material and laugh uproariously behind her back, or find another instructor. I lucked out and got the campus psychology teacher who approached the course with its state required 1950s anti-commie movies as history, and threw in objective history of the Russian revolution on the side. I actually enjoyed the class and learned something despite the horrible propaganda movies, which the teacher did not stop our class from laughing at.
I graduated from Winter Park High in 1968. The course was a joke. It was taught by one of the sports coaches in the auditorium. As the monotone-induced boredom grew, kids would use makeup mirrors to flash reflections on the stage and podium. Others would roll pennies down the long concrete aisles.
Goebbels favorite, also Repub wordsmith, Frank Luntz
Yes I agree with you, Janet. The Repubs know exactly what they are doing. They throw “socialism” around too, like it’s a bad thing.
"They throw socialism around like it is a bad thing"
UNLESS it comes time to fund the Military Contractors, who are wholly owned subsidiaries of the US Government and actually are Socialistic entities.
So, we have a huge double standard.
USSR - they know what the third S stands for! Bad thing!
FDR forgotten now? Nothing to fear but fear itself?
I take a university class on “Fascism, Racism and Antisemitism” for adults over 65. I love being back on the campus with younger students too, especially the same school I attended for my degrees. It was on Zoom today. I shared this Thom Hartmann newsletter, because it explains how Reagan changed our government and how it’s affecting us now. Worth reading.
“It’s like old Confederate statues, though, the shine on Saint Ronny seems to have turned rather green.
Thus, it now looks like the grift Republicans inflicted on America for the past two generations, hitting its stride when Reagan told us how terrible government is and how wonderful tax cuts for billionaires are, is coming to an end.” https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2021/03/does-american-rescue-plan-signal-end-reagan-revolution
Cuts right down to the chase, Irenie. Reaganomics was absolutely the beginning of homelessness and the demise of the nuclear family. The greed was unsurmountable all with stating “get the government out of my pockets”. I truly have not an ounce of respect for Republicans. Not. One. Ounce.
The changes made with Reagan were criminal. And deliberately hurt the middle and lower income people, education, mental health, transportation. Everything changed. For the worst. And we live it now. Republicans. I remember his first election in California. Governor. I was really young, in fact I don’t think I could vote yet. Not 21. I couldn’t understand then how a movie star could be governor. I learned.
Well I was already here when he was governor and then president. Was not a pretty sight. The fact that people called him the “greatest orator ever” was nauseating.
When I was very young, there was another actor elected to Congress. Can’t think of his name off hand but he did not cause repercussions that Ronald did.
Oooohhhh! A fun 🐇🕳 https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/famous-actors-turned-politicians-9644/ Don't know if she's the one you're thinking of, but Helen Gahagan Douglas is quite interesting 🤗
Yes, I vaguely remember her but it was George Murphy I was referring too. Thanks for the link though. Really interesting.
Thanks Beth for this link. So Interesting how many actors and performers have served in government positions. I wonder when they know what they’re doing or they are acting. And the Writers of some books. I’ve read about the author of “Little House on the Prairie” books, Laura Ingalls Wilder and daughter Rose.
Gilbert, a Democrat, was the opposite of the author of her beloved books and character, who was ultra conservative. “During the writing of each new book, as the series expanded in answer to the fans’ clamors for more, the Little House books became anti-New Deal political parables. They helped lay the groundwork for the modern libertarian strain of modern conservatism—and to an extent few people realize, they helped fund its rise.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/little-house-on-the-prairie-conservatism-214237/
Though the Ingalls Wilder series is (was? I retired in 2018) a staple of elementary school literature, I did not "teach" it because I thought it cheesy. I had copies I'd purchased at a thrift store in my classroom library and the books just sat on the shelf. But when I found out more about the author, I'm glad I just let it be. Thanks for the link!
I knew Laura Ingalls Wilder was a conservative but never made the connection between she and Ayn Rand. The fact that her daughter was a strong Libertarian and the Koch brothers had been also, just gives me a sour taste in my mouth. Thanks for that link.
George Murphy?
BINGO! Thanks, Kathleen!
Can I dream, so much damage done
It is hard to comprehend just how small and frightened Trump and his supporters are, terrified that all their claims of privilege and innate superiority based on birth and (lack of) melanin will be revealed as meaningless and stripped from them. The real reason they hate critical theory (wokeness) is that it examines and deconstructs claims of privilege and authority, and frequently reveals them to be based either on the blessing of some (nonexistent) god, or on the pure exertion or threat of superior force (I am stronger than the other and therefore can enforce my will upon him/her). The only true claim to political authority is one based on the consent of an informed public. I don't believe there is any legitimate claim to privilege.
I fear that a truly well informed public is either getting smaller or just more apathetic to the whole process. This is one of the main reasons that all these lawbreakers must be held accountable. Apathy cannot be allowed a larger toehold than it already has. It’s a society killer.