''...it seems increasingly clear that the wealthy leaders who backed Trump’s reelection are not terribly concerned about his threats: they seem to see him as a figurehead rather than a policy leader. They are counting on him to deliver more tax cuts and deregulation but apparently are dismissing his campaign vows to raise tariffs and deport immigrants as mere rhetoric...''
BIG mistake, one made in 1933 Germany. We are sailing on a ship of fools..
That has been obvious all along. Apparently the titans of industry in the USA are all without a moral compass, that means that they have nothing to guide them but greed. Destroying the USA in which they have children and grandchildren is not a problem for them. And, yes, they do not know enough about history to apply it to their own situations.
I often wonder if they look at their children and weigh clean air and water for them against profits for themselves. Profits clearly win the debate to their great shame.
Not only that, New York is considering a special hotline for CEO’s. My husband remarked this will be the new 911 answering line; “911, what is your net worth.” Now we want to give special treatment and response in an emergency.
James, I get your point, but it's not really the guns. It's the money that supporting guns brings them. So, as said earlier it's just the blatant GREED!!! How Congress and big busness can sacrifice so many lives,especially our childen, is unconscionable to me.
The problem with money is that it isolates people from reality so they no longer experience environmental conditions, labor issues, financial issues or even political issues. They think money can solve anything.
Yes and no. I am in Chicago after being in Germany. Even though we have an expensive filter on our water, it tastes terrible to me. It is like drinking chlorine. In Germany I drink water straight out of the tap because they protect their water better. It tastes good in my city there. It is awful here. I am now reduced to drinking bottled mineral water imported from Germany. However, whatever I do, I cannot obtain clean air in the city with the third worst particle pollution in the US.
Yes, so however each and everyone of us can afford to support these environmental organizations that are fighting like crazy to protect the earth and stop deregulation, please do. They are fighting tirelessly for the stewardship of this one blue dot and those that do not have a human voice.
tRump will make America great again, by deregulating so we all can have bad water and air, just like you have now and what we had back in the 50s and 60s.
Linda, I am in a Chgo suburb having spent my entire life in the area. To me, the water is good, but perhaps because it's what I have had my entire life.
If you are unfamiliar, do look into the story of the polluted water in early Chicago and how they reversed the course of the river (there is entire books written on it) and the "deep tunnel" project http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/367.html
I recall the late 60s when a big storm would result in our basement full of sewage. No joke. It was disgusting. It was my folks first home and they were unprepared for having their brand new rec room furniture floating in 3 feet of .....muck. There was a big storage closet, it held their Christmas tree and years of delicate glass ornaments. All gone. My sister was a Beatlemaniac and had several scrapbooks, and original Beatle paraphernalia in their boxes. All destroyed. (to this day she laments, as she kept it all in pristine condition and would surely have monetary value now).
We kids were soon trained that if a big storm came, we ran to the basement and watched the drain. If it started bubbling up (it could actually shoot up a few feet when it was under a lot of pressure!) we were trained to call up to my parents and help them frantically put the new lightweight furniture up on the built in dry bar, and to call the next door neighbors "IT'S COMING UP!!"
Some lead pipes remain in the Chgo metro area, and if I recall correctly, the infrastructure is quite old and in danger of failing.
True, unfortunately. But challenging them publicly, with cameras on, to drink the polluted water, to smell the fetid air, could get the media's attention. It takes a lot these days to distract the media from whatever is falling out of Trump's mouth.
And give major tax incentives to do the right things for sustaining the environment. Consumers also have huge say with boycotting. Remember banning tuna. Consumers now are demanding recycled packaging and slow fast materials and vegan leathers, and they are telling their favorite companies they are leaving them unless they change, and they are putting their feelings on social media. Companies are truly responding.
Can you image if Trump turned around to the huge oil companies like Exxon and gave them huge tax incentives to move into solar energy production and renewables. We could become world leaders in the industry, create insane amount of jobs, create lots of profits for share holders and actually be helping the planet. This isn’t brain surgery. Obama had the chance and he didn’t do it. That’s why I have always given him a D for that and everything else he did to hurt the planet. Still a democrat though and always will be.
I believe Biden has done a lot in this area, and I wish that there could be protection for what he did, investing in infrastructure, cleaning up and replacing our water pipes, investing in clean energy. Now we have an orange Quixote tilting at windmills on our horizon.
Predicting the outcome of what takes place in the Pornhub dining room is absolute folly. But, in the Physics classroom we know that for every action there is a re-action. Consequences of alll kinds are certainly unpredictable with this guy.
Agree Linda. My nickname for The Whitehouse is PornHub. I think they're setting up an exclusive "Only-Fans" account. They're working the 'shallows' at the moment with Faux Noose. Money to be made.., favors to be granted.
I like to make good trouble. I have been thinking that people in Blue States should only pay their state taxes and not the federal taxes, those should be put in an escrow account for their state to use. We know that Blue States contribute more in the Federal aggregate then they get back in return, so why don't Blue States just keep their money and provide themselves with federal services collectively. Let Trump run the country with just Red State investments, unless Mr. Musk wants to make up the difference. Since Trump is planning on defunding the IRS, I don't know how he is going to be collecting these taxes either. He won't have the personnel to do this. He is thinking by thinning it out he will not go after his wealthy friends who avoid paying taxes they owe, but really, there are a lot more of us. In fact, if everyone refused to pay taxes who would they go after? And, we can insist that our jobs not withhold or we quit them. We can give Trump a taste of the medicine he wants to dole out to us. How is he going to pay for his militia or his military if he has no funds. Will Mr. Musk pay the military payroll? If he does then the military will be his military.
Well, Harv.., they sure think they're on a roll..., just wait'll they have a blowout. Remember the olden days when tires 'blew out'? 1929 was a pretty good blow-out. So was the home-mortgage correction.
There is an historic transfer of wealth to the wealthy. This is increasing the stress on lower income people who are now over 50% of our population. This weakens our country in many ways. Who thinks this is good? Vladimir Putin. He is using the massive greed for his objective which is to weaken the US. Trump is his agent. The Republican Party is carrying out Putin's game plan to perfection. What can you say about a slate of department heads who are not only unqualified but want to close those agencies? This is intentional destruction of the government. Putin's design.
We winter near an old missile silo that is now open to the public. The tour tells you that the crew had two weeks worth of food, water and air if they had to shoot their missile. At the end of that two weeks they would have to climb out of the ground to face whatever world was above.
And every living thing on this planet. Every eco system is literally keeping us alive. Let’s start with the atmosphere. Fresh, clean water? Unpolluted oceans. Children and grandchildren of these wealth corporations will stay in their bubble of wealth protection till the end.
In their world, they are sure that they will be able to buy clean air and water for their own kids and grandkids. They can afford to have a private island or some place far-enough removed from big cities that the air and water are at least better. They believe the things that threaten people like you and me will *never* threaten them as long as they continue to wring money from us to provide a clean world for them.
Some day we will collectively understand that companies exist for profits. To make money. As much money as possible. No matter what it takes, profits are the priority. And Americans worship this idea. We haven't learned a thing about human nature.
Companies aren't created to be benevolent. They aren't designed to benefit employees. Their mandate is not to protect the environment. They don't exist for the purpose of paying taxes. They exist for ROI. Return on investment. They are obligated by design to create a cash flow to their owners.
Could be a family like the Waltons that have over $400 billion and their employees are on Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
Could be a chicken processing facility that is the major employer in town who uses immigrant children to flush the blood and guts off the butchery floors.
Someday...maybe.... the Democratic Party will stand with the people who can barely make it paycheck to paycheck. The people who accept corporate abuse because nobody has their backs.
Bill yesterday my Democrats Abroad book club was discussing US Health care as something we could be explaining to people Stateside because we are all living in countries where costs are much lower for insurance and coverage is more extensive. One of our members who showed up for the talk lives in France and used to work at Harvard Medical School. He says every time the Democrats come up with a health care plan that would cover everyone the Republicans cry socialism. We have to take that away from them. The ability to do that. It might mean teaching what socialism is. Ads on that. Who could take that on.
I had a not very serious plan at some point to just show up at Trump rallies with a sign that said "I live in a socialist country - ask me about Universal Healthcare". That's ridiculous of course, but I do think that it would need real conversations with real people.
I also thought about doing a social media post where I talk about this great plan - not cheap but incredible coverage, no surprise bills ever, hardly any copays, everyone I know is on it. And then the reveal is that the company is called Single Payer Universal Health Care, and the plan is called Taxes. :-)
But Linda, then we’ll need a new word to describe socially responsible government to distinguish them from countries which own the means of manufacture and commerce which we used to call communist governments. Health care, education, the military and prison systems must remain the province of federal and state governments. We must either teach what socialism is or reduce people’s fear of what a more socially responsible government looks like.
This is what my friend Irving told me in college as a way to identify the different forms of economic structures. A socialist had 2 cows, the government came and took one so the farmer could have milk, and the other would be used to help those who did not have cows get milk. A communist had 2 cows. The government came and took both cows and said, we will give you milk. A fascist had 2 cows, and the government came and took both cows and shot the farmer dead. A capitalist had 2 cows and he took one to market and sold it and bought a bull. The government was not involved, except at tax time I presume. So Socialism is you give one cow and keep one cow.
I understand the underlying sentiment (as a PR move) but “everyone who works full time” leaves out retirees and disabled folks, many of them veterans. Let’s leave it at “everyone.”
We decided in our group to pick 3 topics. It could be food, shelter, health care. However, I am looking at a 1-2 word hook that can get everyone recognizing that something is a problem. We saw that Trump picked 2-3 topics. I can tell you what they are
1) the price of groceries, ie eggs,
2) the border and safety from illegal immigrants
3) dems care more about trans people getting care, than regular folks having enough food, so it conflates into theme 1 groceries.
Instead of saying that US health care needs to be socialist, I was saying US health care as it is stinks like rotten eggs. Thus we tie into the groceries too. I decided to go with rotten eggs as my theme for policies are bad. They are rotten eggs, thus they stink. https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/us-health-care-is-like-rotten-eggs?r=f0qfn
So, my idea is to follow the rotten eggs theme. I am trying this out, but I realize Americans don't like being told things are bad. We are working on developing a chart that highlights differences across countries. I read that of 10 wealthy countries the US health care is the worst.
I had suggested that to the YouTube channel "Beau of the Fifth Column" or his companion channel "The Roads with Beau" about a year ago. have seen socialism, Marxism, whatever-ism thrown around by people who clearly don't know what each one is!
"Beau" (aka Justin King) stepped down from being the face of the channel, and they have expanded their content. There are some great videos that explain various aspects like the economy. I hope they will do something of explaining political nature, as they do get viewers from "the other side."
My Democrats Abroad book club/reading group is going to read discussions of these different types of economic systems for our next discussion. We will try to distill it into sound bytes for those who do not understand it. That is why I like my cow description above, because it uses a metaphor everyone can understand.
There is no party that represents the interests of workers in this country. The Democrats are nominally expected to, but there's scant evidence of their ability. As it stands now, even if they did suddenly realize their mandate to support and protect the common man, à la FDR, they are hopelessly outmatched by the Republicans' dedication and viciousness when it comes to a fight.
At this point in my life, having watched Republicans beat Democrats over and over and over, from stealing presidential elections to running circles around them on messaging battles, I have lost faith in Democrats as an effective political entity to represent my concerns. This leaves me in an unfortunate place because I don't know where to turn, and the oligarchs are sharpening their knives as I write.
Take another look at the accomplishments of President Biden. I'm no spring chicken, and he's the best President of my lifetime in terms of getting big things done for workers. Foreign industries are building plants here, there are more jobs than people, and the climate is the focus. He even walked the UAW picket line! The downside is the almost total lack of communicating these things to the rest of us.
My wish: NO political parties. Only people running for office. Choose them on experience, what they stand for, their moral compass. That’s what I hope for someday, probably not in my lifetime
No political parties, aka factions, was the wish of the Founders. But it never happened. Factions formed immediately and once the power of winner-takes-all voting took hold, parties ran the political machine. They have to. No individual can do the fundraising or the messaging or the GOTV efforts alone. You need many people working together just to get off the ground, especially when the electorate is large.
Bill, I agree with everything you said, with the addition of the lazy Democrats that couldn't get out and VOTE!!! This is the most important rights we currently have in this great nation and they likly gave it away. What a sad statement of their commitment to ALL of our FREEDOM!!
Corporations at first were designed for very specific purposes and lived a mandated life. Now they've become these monsters that live forever and have more rights than the people of the country.
The titans of industry have always been and always will be greedy bastards. Henry Ford? JP Morgan? Cornelius Vanderbilt? Andrew Carnegie? They might have then used philanthropy to give a pittance to the rest of us, but it sure didn't make a dent in their own wealth and power. I love the Frick Collection--it is one of my absolute favorite museums in the world--but it doesn't outweigh the damage Henry Clay Frick did in the Guano Wars and working with Morgan and others. Money corrupts. This is why every CEO of every insurance company is freaking out right now: the charge that the murderer of UHC's CEO committed an act of terrorism because his actions were designed to intimidate and threaten is accurate, but the targets of intimidation and threat have never before experienced the lack of insulation from normal people's experience (such as the typical 8 year old going to school who has to navigate the possibility that s/he could be killed by some crazy-ass person with a gun at any time). And now they are scared because they are vulnerable. The rage at the system is erupting. The question is where the tidal wave is going to land.
That is an interesting concept, Linda. I think that if there were a way for them to see what constant denial of emergency back surgery for a friend of mine is doing to him, they might just get a glimmer of why that CEO got shot. (Synopsis: hard working man, hunter/fisherman, country living, has one of "those" trucks (but uses it in the manner(s) for which it was intended; married and adopted his second wife's two kids. Degenerative spine disease, constant pain, he's been fighting for emergency surgery for 5 months. Keeps getting denied.)
So fucking wrong and so much the norm for insurance companies. They don't make money by saying "Yes". And in addition, they have our money, paid in premiums, to play with and invest in high-dividend, socially destructive companies that are hastening global heating.
AH--I am so sorry for your friend. And this is why the outpouring of derision occurred. I can't even describe the process, when I was on a university health policy, of navigating my cancer care back in the 90s. There is a reason why the for-profit insurance companies hate Medicare and lie about their Medicare Advantage programs being "cost effective" (they are--for the insurance companies).
Ally, and if the ACA is repealed, so are the prohibitions against penalizing pre-existing conditions. Many years ago my employer contracted with a new insurance company to save costs. I suspect they did save costs: by redlining every part of my body which had ever had a health issue. For example, I had had a normal urinary tract infection, cured in days with a cheap antibiotic. And thus insurance redlined my entire urinary system. If anything happened to my kidneys… no coverage. And this list of exclusions in my coverage went on. That will come back if they abolish the ACA. I guarantee it.
The fox is in control of so many henhouses together with the crooked "providers(?)" bilking the ACA system. Eliminating 'them(s)' comes to mind... "eliminating" being the operative word here. ...did I hear a 'click'..?
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I worked in a sales office for small group insurance 3-30 people. Some policies were very expensive to write or couldn’t be written. Heart conditions by one employee could throw the whole group out of consideration.
The worst determining factor was if you had an HIV test for AIDS you couldn’t get coverage. At the same time those insurance companies were requiring the test to write life insurance policies. It didn’t matter if your test was negative, they considered you high risk for having the test. There was no winning.
At the same time HMO’s were created to tell doctors how to treat patients.
I left health insurance shortly after and became a computer programmer.
Now there's a combination of words you rarely see in the same paragraph; "titans of industry" and "moral compass". Never has there been such a more obvious dichotomy.
Rules provide boundaries for responsible, civil behavior. At least the civically useful ones do. We start with things like "don't pull the cat's tail" as much for our own protections as the cat's. We are taught to share, to be courteous, even empathetic. I lot of that gets dropped when we enter the so called "real world" and are largely responsible for our own survival. dropped too far and we have a crime scene. We enforce some boundaries with official use of force, but a "free society" as opposed to a "police state" requires a robust pool of shared individual reciprocity and self-disipline; "decency"*. Where "decency" is absent, force (often the "Dark Side") takes over.
It seems to me that for some times we have been allowing commercial media to define our culture, and yet government of, by and for people is DIY; both as a right and a duty.
Greed is destroying this country - the environment, air and water, the health of us citizens - and has been since the beginning. We just had a respite for a few decades.
One of my reasons for moving to Germany is that I have asthma, and I do breathe cleaner air in my city in Germany. While I live near a bus stop corner, the city is increasingly running electric buses. They are not only not filling the air with pollution but quieter too.
Also, my walls are made of loam, which is an ancient wall building technique using a clay based material with straw mixed in that is recently back in vogue in Germany. Loam provides noise and temperature insulation and absorbs toxins, so it is a great material for the environmentally conscious, and people with asthma.
Linda , my grandson’s partner in Prague is part of that kind of building company. She explained to me how she puts on the interior wall coating. I had never heard of it but it sounds like a real “movement”!
In the USA getting permission from the local planning authority is usually the problem. There are lots of new/old building systems that are not covered by current codes.
Well said. The wealthy people are not Americans, but glotybal parasites. They have no loylaty to any country or community. They are making America work for their wealth at the expenses of those citizens who depend on the integrity of citizenship.
I will say that most of my American friends in Germany have less money than my friends in the USA, who say they cannot afford to live elsewhere. They are willing to live on less, but then have a better safety net from catastrophic costs with good insurance coverage. So, saying one cannot afford to live elsewhere is a bunch of hooey. It is cheaper to live in many, many other countries, but might require some initial investment to get to the other country. Still it is not like walking from South America to the USA barefoot as some people have done. So, I would recommend that Americans at least consider not being just citizens of the US, but citizens of the world, and try living elsewhere.
I suppose it's a mater of how narrowly one defines capitalism, but it seems that capitalism works for us, or at any rate, free enterprise works for us, not as a reliable answer for every human need, but as practical means of exchanging our skills and labor when, conducted under equitable rules, what Theodore Roosevelt canned a "Square Deal"; equitable exchange. There are businesses that I have or had genuine affection for, and genuinely mourned when they passed. There are employers and customers I counted as good friends. That's when decency isn't kicked to the curb by a sociopathic focus on ruthless profit. Even the Bible weighs in on that. Look at the British East India Company in India, American Slavery, or our "Gilded Age", or for that matter many current events, to see how sociopathic that can be.
The odd thing about sports, there is usually general outrage when a player or team has been shown to be cheating. In business or politics, where the consequences most matter, the fans seem far more ready to close ranks to sheild the offenders.
Linda, excellent post. When I posted Heather's letter this am, I referred to them as the greeds. All they look at is their bank accounts while sneering at the rest of us, thinking their money will save them from what's coming in terms of climate change. A lot of the wealthy here in the 1930s thought Hitler was fine. They are all hypocrites and parasites. Also they are behaving just as the elites have behaved throughout history in terms of the vast difference between them and the peasants.
I can't help but think that they don't see the bigger picture. If the country falls apart their businesses will fall apart too. They may still have their precious $$, but they will have lost their ability to gain more and their purpose and importance will be gone.
I do believe we're dealing with a different personality and a different style. Hitler had clear plans for Germany, the world and himself. Trump doesn't have those. He just wants to be the boss, the big guy. So he'll do whatever he thinks he has to do to stay in power. Whatever the guy next to him that he likes the most that week (Tucker, Elon, whoever) tells him he should do, that's what he'll do. And he'll change his mind, often. That's what has worked for him in the past, so why not continue doing it.
Anna Maria, I think you’re right, but I do worry about some of the people around Trump whose minds might be more organized and less distractible than his and might have grander ambitions than merely being The Boss. For example, the obese, unkempt Steve Bannon, the dead-eyed, dour Stephen Miller, and the determined extremists who created Project 2025. I wonder if they are capable of creating a more durable fascist state which is more resistant to our attempts to stop it. We shouldn’t think that preserving American democracy will be easy.
Oh I think you are absolutely right. The minds behind Project 2025 certainly do have a plan, and it's really not that different from Hitler's. If they manage to position themselves in a way that Trump will lend them his ear, they could very well succeed.
I'm not sure you could say that DonOLD changing his mind actually worked but what did work is it creates chaos and doubt and keeps the MSM reporting on items that don't amount to shit AND that DonOLD has no power over anyway.
Well, MSM is now referred to as Legacy or Corporate Media, because the mainstream is not following them any more.
Anyway, the chaos is not the way to run a country or to have allies. Of course, it will attract other chaos agents to him, like Musk and Ramaswamy. They have plans with our tax money, but then again, they plan to decimate the department. If they have too few people working there, we can probably get away without paying taxes either. Then, whose money will they be saving as they try to pay for the military budget, the only one they care about.
I have read and discussed it in a Democrats Abroad book club. I see it as accomplishing 2 things. 1) Turning the US into a third world nation. 2) Turning the US into a Christian Nationalist theocracy. Here is Andra Watkins who has also read Project 2025 and is an expert on Christian Nationalists Defining them.
I know all about that, and it's truly terrifying. If they manage to position themselves smartly, which I believe they will, they have a good chance of succeeding in their plans.
We've got the "power behind the throne" salivating to get Project 2025 implemented. tfg has NO CLUE how unimportant he really is here. Neither do all the idiots that supported him and will see what Project 2025 means for them, even as they sit in their white, Christian male dominated, cisgendered, heteronormative little world, that no SS and Medicare means them too.
And even when they inevitably start to feel the consequences, they will manage to blame it on socialists or democrats or the deep state or whatever enemy is dangled in front of them. They have invested too much (physically and psychologically) to ever admit that they were wrong.
Anna, I liked your comment, but I don't agree with it entirely. Donald changes his mind a lot, but it hasn't necessarily worked for him in the past. He has numerous bankruptcies to his "credit."
He changes his mind a lot because he is learning disabled, as his family knows. Because he is so weak-minded, he is easily influenced by three groups of people: people who flatter him, people who actually have more money than he has and people who have a large audience.
What HAS worked for him in the past is his ability to manipulate and control the media. As a young man backed by his daddy's wealth, he practiced his reptilian manipulation skills on NYC-based media, then brought those skills to national corporate media just prior to descending on his golden escalator.
I do agree that he has no plan. Unless you consider boosting his wealth and avoiding prison a plan.
I meant it has worked for him politically, at least as far as it's important for him, which is his belief that a lot of people think he's great and smart and rich and powerful and thus will vote for him and/or give him money. I don't even think he has manipulated the media, more like the media made use of him and then couldn't calculate the consequences, as when they deliberately gave him the image of a sucessful billionaire for The Apprentice. Now this image is stuck with a majority of Americans, even Democrats.
Hitler wanted revenge on people. How did he handle his list? While throwing a tea party at his place for members of his administration and their families he sent out a hit squad which was going out and finding and killing all 400 people on his hit list. Now Trump has already been given permission to kill people as president from this SCOTUS, so there is nothing really to prevent him from doing having a hit squad kill his "enemies" either. Hitler set up his administration and because he suffered from depression his quack doctor prescribed him toxins to treat his depression and he would not be showing up in public during these bouts. His people would carry out his orders, but they got them from him and did not dare cross him even if he was not around. So, the question is will Trump be running the country, or will the Heritage Foundation, drafters of the Project 2025 plans. Will the Tech Bros weigh in as well, and continue to grease Trump's palms while he in turn greases theirs with funding from our taxes.
The answer is: Whoever they decide to spearhead Project 2025 will be running everything. I don't think the Tech Bros have any other master than money, nor do they have any concept of a soul.
Agreed Anna. Trump's similarities to Hitler. Lies and racism and a disenfranchised population who wants a better life. Differences, Hitler had a plan, Trump doesn't. The US population that voted for Trump wants to tear it all down. The Germans who voted for Hitler wanted to build better and stronger. Both had followers who would do anything for their perceived god-like leader.
But here's where we might see a big difference. Hitler became beloved to the German people when he was successful in taking Poland....it gave them national pride and resolve their grievance that Poland was carved out of Germany. Trump may not have that kind of win.
IMO that’s what makes him more dangerous. He’s just a fly by the seat of his pants guy who got lucky or finagled another term and has absolutely no clue how to govern. Elon having his ear is a huge threat. They are only guided by greed.
Worse than greed: blind ideology (as is the case with the minds behind Project 2025) and/or ego (as is the case with Musk). Greed recognizes the need for other people to exist, so they can work and spend money and be consumers. Ideology and ego doesn't need other people.
I love reading Substack thank you 🫶 -having started with LFAA - great stuff here. Us little people down at the bottom rungs have only our vote -big picture input. We scrap down in the barnyards but lately show fair common sense coming in statistically a lot closer than the professed ‘mandate’ , but lately is key. The ‘plan’ has been in progress since it was speculated on, I left , went back-to-the -land in late 60’s proof rising above the fray has stood out one revolution after another near consistently. No profound enlightenment mind you, but healthy living. (It ain’t been easy) A niche though. Germany survived but a lot of people didn’t, and continuing…lot of people haven’t , and…a lot of people won’t.
It won’t be the barnyard’s fault by ANY stretch of ‘the majority’ exception noted ‘lack of their vote’…because it’s who is pulling the wagon/calling the shots ( or not)/the elected /and the rich …who are. They simply have the power.
‘I didn’t vote for him’ can be the common cry of this period too.
I do not believe these are empty Trump campaign threats. Crypto Currency is through the roof. Congress who oppose him are hit with campaign smears. Those that support him are untouchable. . Rudy’s defamation lawsuit will go away. There is a bleak future for democracy. Where are our democrats? Where is our fight on social media
I am supporting Ben Wikler to be DNC Chair. He is a fighter. He has done a masterful job in Wisconsin. And I believe he would bring the fight - the outrage - to the forefront on the national level.
I am too. Bob Reich has circulated a petition from Inequality Media, as have several other organizations, and leaders of the grassroots movements that were so much more successful in getting out the vote for state and local Democrats than the DNC was in promoting Harris are circulating a letter supporting Wikler for signatures from fellow leaders and Democratic officials.
I have a list of lies. It is not only D that should be outraged. There are true R that are also outraged. It is a time for anyone from any party or not to be outraged . We the people should be outraged @ the bloodless take over by greedy people grabbing for power & F**ck the rest of us.
Sandra, social media was a large part of getting him reelected -- that's how most folks get their news (not me, though.) When companies such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. operate with nary and editorial filter they become propagators of propaganda, lies and other distortions of Truth.
And I have lost faith in the ability of anybody -- including Democrats which I have been since I became eligible to vote in the 1970s -- to counter the influence of both foreign and domestic actors who used social media and money (looking at you, Elon) to influence the lazy masses.
I hardly read LFAA anymore, sad to say. I feel as though we are all adrift in separate lifeboats, shouting for help in a limitless ocean.
I know that we've got a two-party system so well entrenched; I do wonder if there's any momentum for an expansion. Currently, the Democrats are the party of "everyone welcome, lets all get along" and the Republicans are "here we are, our way or the highway", the latter has led to the demonstration of the lack of a spine from anyone with an "R" after their name (looking at you, Joni Ernst).
Thanks, Ally -- I too miss these conversations with you and some of the other regulars.
I don't know what the answer is to these problems. Clearly the Dems were blinded by promise and promises (and then blindsided) in November. And I think many Republicans were duped, one way or the other (prior vows to bring down grocery prices and to deport masses of immigrants stand out, among others;) most haven't realized it yet, but I suspect they soon will.
I'm disgusted with where we are and how we got here, and still trying to find my way toward some light. And I know I'm not alone in my feelings. I just haven't settled on how I'm going to adopt a resistant attitude toward what lies ahead. I certainly won't "obey in advance", to quote Timothy Snyder. But for now at least I see few if any meaningful actions one can take to resist MAGA except to be aware of what is happening. And this is despite all the substack writers and others who implore engagement and putting up a good fight (without offering concrete ideas that I've seen beyond contacting our senators and Reps -- and NH's congressional delegation of 4 are all Dems anyway.)
Ally, I hope you have a peaceful and happy holiday season. May we all find even more reasons to smile every day (and I am grateful that I have plenty.)
Thank you for this reply. I, too, will not obey in advance, and am searching for organized and meaningful opposition to what is an untenable situation.
The Dems have a new younger generation starting to take over. Ruby & Shaye are busy collecting their damage award in Rudy's bankruptcy including court orders directing Rudy to turn over his Mercedes once owned by Lauren Bacall & not keep the car's registration. Crash & burned.
The fight on social media is right here & on many other Platforms. The ticking clock, tick-tock, is getting ready to strike 'That's All Folks' for Tik-Tok.
On the fate of democracy as it approaches year 250 -- there are many tasks to revitalize our Republic "if we can keep it" as Ben Franklin warned.
Bryan, I was quite interested to see that Trump is considering Jared Moskovitz for the FEMA position in his cabinet!! Those commenting on Yahoo seem to think it is a ploy to get him OUT of his FL seat and let DeSantis appoint a Republican, and then Trump FIRES Moskovitz after the first national disaster and blaming the Democrat for less than ideal results.
I wondered about that. Moskovitz is effective in the House and really annoys Comer. Isn’t FEMA set to be eliminated by Project 2025 and disaster relief sent back to the states?
Sandra, I hope that when you ask where are our democrats,you refer to the leadership because the democrats like us are all on social media as you did and I'm doing now. But we need a leadership apt for this historical moment, able no to be by the book all the time and and not to be the appeaser at every step and most definitely we need a great communicator with a big megaphone!!!
Just as the Republican Party no longer exists, "mainstream media" no longer exists. That media, now known as "corporate media," as it is all owned by oligarchs who have a vested interest in the reduced tax liabilities and employer regulations offered by the Trump Government Corporation.*
You will find corporate media and Trump-owned politicians on their knees, shoulder-to-shoulder, suckling on an orange mushroom.
*I found it unnerving that Elon Musk recently filed documents in Texas creating a new corporation called The United States of America, Inc. This filing was not for nothing.
If you read "Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power" by Timothy Ryback, the number of parallels with 1933 are chilling. I may be grasping at straws here, but I take some consolation from the fact that, while Hitler was ideologically driven and had a tireless work ethic, Herr Drumpf has no ideology and is unfathomably lazy. The only thing relentless about him is his narcissism and need for attention. Unlike Hitler, he has zero interest in actually governing, and prefers to play golf and watch himself on TV. That may shield the country from the risk of the more noxious elements of his campaign rhetoric becoming policy, and law.
"They are counting on him to deliver more tax cuts and deregulation..." - Also, I believe many of them are counting on him (and his cabal, especially) to be sympathetic to them when it comes to awarding Federal Contracts (especially the ones that are difficult if not impossible to move away from once "implemented.") I believe there will be much less competition for these (Mega/MAGA) awards compared to previous administrations. All in the name of "national security", "border protection", etc.
Those CEO’s are not taking into account that Trump has wicked minions; he is not smart enough by himself to think of all the wicked things his regime plans to do. Think Stephen Miller and snatching babies away from mother. Just wait till the leopards start eating their faces.
It depends on Trump having his own vision for the future of America. If not, then Project25 policies will kick in. Wealthy people do not have any vision, as they are separated from any geographical community.
So tax cuts and deregulation v. tariffs are a sure sign of fascism? Or wealthy donors flocking about a President Elect pre-inauguration are a sure sign? If so, what would raising and spending $1.2 Billion in 107 days from dark money sources reflect as a sure sign? Also 1933 Germany?
Could be one of the greatest ironies of my life. The man who gave us a bought and paid for ultra Extreme Court is now standing for the defense of democracy and the scientific sanity of vaccines? Will wonders never cease?
How many times did I wish Mitch would do the final freeze up. Now I find myself applauding him. OY.
I not about to applaud McConnell! I can hope he can hold the line on some critical issues like protecting vaccines. But that is the bare minimum that he must do. McConnell is corrupt, dangerous and a criminal in his own right. Even if he has a "come to Jesus" moment, it is too little to late.
We are screwed, Mitch has been on board with the basic plan. Not only is the plan a disaster, so is the monster and his haters, especially the religious haters.
We cannot depend on Mitch McConnell to protect democracy. Yes, he loves his personal power, and will defend it, but he could have saved us from this by pushing for conviction at Trump’s second impeachment and did not. He is quintessential Machiavellian.
Not to mention that he has broken the Supreme Court and now my daughter and daughter-in-law (to be) have their lives in increased danger if they become pregnant. Not to mention that he could drop dead at any moment, because he is obviously getting frail.
The Dems backed off during the impeachment. They brought the movie out but when it came time to bring evidence to the floor they agreed not to interview key members of Congress that spoke to a trump on Jan 6. Instead we have had a 4 year investigation that will probably disappears also
I was having similar thoughts of McConnell. He has had so many opportunities to steer decisions in a reasonable direction and has always deferred to Trump. I'm not holding my breath that he will buck Trump.
The only people who can moderate any of this are the GOP senators. It's all on their heads. Unfortunately all the rest of us will reap what they sowed.
How much power will McConnell wield once he steps down from Senate Leadership? Are there enough Senators who will follow his lead out of principle where they once followed him out of fear, or will party loyalty once again reign unfettered? Is McConnell seen as an old warrior out to pasture and will support shift to the ruthless young unprincipled MAGAts?
I don't see much to cheer me up in McConnell's belated and insufficient attempt to develop a spine and find his principles. And not acknowledging that Citizens United is the goose that laid the golden egg allowing wealth such great influence in our elections means that McConnell is only tinkering around the edges. He has been a liar and manipulator and continues to be so.
In the minuscule possibility that he has realized the damage he has done to our laws, our Supreme Court, and the legislative process itself and wants to make amends, it is too little, too late. If he believed the a second Trump presidency will be harmful, he should have spoken out long before this.
I hope that he lives a long life, so that he can see the results of his cowardice and self interest on this nation he professes to love.
I blame the uninformed voters of Kentucky. They had the opportunity to replace Glitch with an immensely qualified candidate a couple years ago, but wouldn't do it, because that candidate was (GASP!!) a woman. THEY are as much to blame here as he is.
Daniel I agreed with you but 2 years ago McConnell had done all the damage already and apparently, note I said apparently, Mitch reached his bottom and started panicking when, no surprise here, noticed that maga is bottomless .
Right, but it was 4 yrs ago when Amy McGrath ran against Glitch. Everything we want and need in a Senator; highly educated, military veteran, deeply on the side of democracy, and not indentured to any oligarchs. And yet, Kentucky voters...... Just like S Carolina voters, in the same election, and just like Texas voters this past November. Or Ohio voters, since the '90s. WTF is happening??
I confess to conspiracy theories. For one thing, the wealth that is undermining our democracy is obscene, up to and including SCOTUS. The manipulation by media, especially social media, is blatant and has attracted young voters. LBNL—and this is the conspiracy part—the international thuggery of oligarchs, including Putin, is almighty powerful, and they are worse than Midas in their pursuit of riches.
Your conspiracy theory is, in my humble opinion, correct, and goes back many years. The undermining of our public education system is huge, as is the corruption that has undermined our democracy ever since Ronnie Ray-gun. That was the beginning of the compromise of our judicial system, which then led to dismissal of anti-trust laws, which led to the abandonment of the Fairness Doctrine, which led to consolidation of media outlets, and then the cherry on top, Citizens United. And all the while, our collective laziness allowed these conspiracies to metastasize. We've got some work to do!
I won’t live so long, they can revel in their success as the ship sinks. And Joe, etc watch as their work is undone. I wish I could see a silver lining, but republicans fighting over spoils isn’t it.
By refusing to give Merrick Garland a hearing, and then rushing through Amy Coney Barrett, thereby stealing 2 seats, that should not have gone to the GOP right wing judges.
As Biden covered the evidence of Clarence Thomas’s. Preventing the testimony of 8 women who worked with Thomas and offered corroboration of Anita Hill.
In the meantime, Barack Obama placed two Supremes on the court a few years later Joe Biden replaced one supreme on the court who by the way didn't even know if she was a woman or not and Trump replaced three so it's equal so to speak in number of justices placed by the most recent presidents.
When there are vacancies on the Supreme Court, the president then in office appoints a new one, period, end of report.
When Justice Scalia died in February 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland. Mitch McConnell claimed that it was "too close to the next election" to consider a new justice. It was actually 269 days but that didn't stop Mitch from blocking hearings or a vote.
When RBG died on September 18, 2020, early voting was already underway! Before she'd even been buried, McConnell teed up Leo Leonard's next-in-line, Amy Coney Barrett, and got her confirmed 39 days later.
The cherry on that cupcake is that McConnell admitted that he would have held Scalia's seat open for FOUR years if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election.
I agree with everything you said. That’s exactly what happened
I didn’t agree with what McConnell did. What I find intriguing is that many people here either live in the past, or try to take a stab at the future. Certainly, the past can be prologue. However, in my opinion, we all would be better suited to live in the present. Wait for things to happen, and then judge them based on how they happened.
I’m not familiar with the laws that Applied to what happened in this particular case, but apparently what McConnell did was legal, although perhaps immoral, as it happened as it did.
The Democrats usually do a very good job of fighting back as needed. If McConnell had no right to do this, I’m certain the democrats wouldn’t have let it happen.
Politics is one of the ugliest games on the planet.
As a side note, take it for what it’s worth, Barack Obama appointed two justices, and Biden appointed one and Trump appointed three which equaled out The political landscape as it existed before the last three presidents were in office.
If you would like to discuss more recent rulings of the court, I’d be more than happy to engage in that conversation.
By the way, I didn't like the way Mitch McConnell played it either and in the end it ended up biting Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party because Merrick Garland took out his revenge so to speak as the attorney general
Oh, and by the way, if and when the connection/communication comes out between Alvin Bragg and the White House/doj , it’s gonna be pretty funny how that case went putting a known convicted perjury felon and a porn star as your star witnesses. That’s gonna make a good movie.
Look below. It’s been called lawfare but it only Independents and right wingers were told about it because your media lied about it and lost half its audience in the process.
Well, there were a number of cases brought about against Trump that were never brought out before against any president except Trump.
There is General Flynn. There is Roger Stone. There is Steve Bannon. There is Rudy Giuliani. So you tell me. And what’s really gonna be funny is the litany of pardons that Jo is going to have to do to reach all the way down to his nieces and nephews and anybody even close to touching what Hunter was involved in. Not to mention the January 6 committee probably some of the 51 experts that said that Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Probably schiff and Hillary for three years of the Russia hoax. I’m sure if you give me a minute I could pick up a few more
But I really enjoyed all the clemency this past week. Even a lot of liberals are pissed at that list.
I am trying to keep my responses short and poignant, However, the breath and scope of the points being made here, make it a little bit difficult. But I just want you to know I am trying
Not wishing to be picky, and grateful for your reply - but I think you'll find you have been playing Hippomenes. Unless you were talking about Konstantinos Meleager who plays for Atalanta B.C. in Italy? (By the way - how's the foot?)
I should never write about Greek myths before morning coffee. Christ, Meleager and Atalanta . . . what was I thinking. What next . . . Achilles abducting Helen? Aegistheus killing Penelope's suitors? Eeegad!
you know you keep referring to me as a bot when you know I’m not
You asked me an honest question, I gave you an honest answer, and you twisted my response to fit your narrative
Sometime later today, I’m going to post a poem here I wrote for my son some 50 years ago. Let’s see if you still have the same misguided feeling about me
Just offering some balance. I don't think I said anything that was either offensive or mind-boggling. To me the most important thing I said if you'll read my entire segment on the army Navy game all the way to the bottom it was very all inspiring to hear what each team had to say. I'm sure you have no interest in reading something from a extreme right wing point of view which would not be from me, but it will demonstrate what I mean by balance and I think help to illustrate the way people except and translate information.
Kim reading is fundamental as I mentioned many times I’m voice texting but I caught it when I went back and if you look just below this you’ll see the correction. Sorry
C'mon. Lol. It wasn't all that bad lol and I hope you got the message regarding the army Navy game and the answers at the end I do believe at the end that we're on the same team and if the policies work for people that we need to support them and if they don't work, we need to make our voice is heard
McConnell no longer has the power he once had, and when he held power, that ‘’fierce use’’ was directed at thwarting the legitimate authority of a sitting Democratic President and following that, supporting a tyrant.
My greatest concern is that those Democrats in Congress who might defend us from fascism are too weak (no backbone) to fight as if their lives depended on it (probably because their lives are not at risk... most of them at least)... and the mainstream news industry that's supposed to help democracy survive has turned out to be just as weak (if not more so) than the Democrats. AOC should be in a leadership position, but Pelosi is being her usual "mob boss" self and holding her back. Kamala should be prosecuting Trump (in the "court of public opinion") ahead of his inauguration, but she probably thinks being so outside the box aggressive will hurt her chances in 2028. So, where does that leave us? Precisely where Sarah Kendzior (best selling author of "Hiding In Plain Sight" and "They Knew" says we are... desperately in need to give up "hero will save us" thinking and understand that the ONLY people who will save us is us!
Or as Walt Kelly's Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Let us not inadvertently, through lack of courage, undermine our ability to succeed.
What we are starting to See is the loss of our 1st Amendment Rights... The 1st Amendment guarantees among other things Freedom of Religion, and Speech... This has been construed to include Freedom-Of-The-Press... The ABC Settlement, and the Lawsuit against to Des Moines Register are attacks on the 1st Amendment... Tyrants always attack the Media First, they want to Control the Public Sphere... DJT was a terrible Corporate CEO, but a great Promoter for Himself... By sowing Chaos, DJT controls the Narrative.... DJT wants to be a Tyrant of all that he Surveys, DJT will be more Dangerous this time...
Big Orange is merely following the example set by Viktor Orban of Hungary, he of the Illiberal democracy. Orban has essentially shut down the press in Hungary through threats and intimidation.
DJT is also following the examples set by Hitler, Mussolini, and the Soviets... Didn't Ivana say that DJT kept a copy of Hitler's Speeches on the Bedside Night-Stand?....
And he is still a president/prime minister (?) and will keep being one for years to come. Just picture that in our country, the Bastion of Democracy. 🤢
Maybe I have a weird sense of humor but the ABC agreement to pay $15 million to a Trump Presidential Library made me laugh. The idea that the illiterate and secretive trump will ever have a library struck me as the ultimate joke by ABC.
Sarah Kendzior is a great writer, who has sadly been spot on about where America is going for the last decade or so. More people should read her words, especially those in power.
If Harris feels being ‘silent’ will help her in 2028, Kamala has forfeited any loyalty from me. After canvassing for her, after volunteering endless support vehicles - Harris goes silent after Nov. 7th - she will not be trusted in my eyes.
As Heather has pointed out, Trump does an everything he can to be the center of attention. He focuses on the good, the bad, and the ugly as toys he plays around with. He isn’t smart nor demented but he is a clever actor. He knows what stirs people up. He knows he will be grifting again and is thrilled to be in that position. It is embarrassing and pathetic to watch these billionaires travel to his residence to pledge their life to him. In a few days, Amazon workers will go on strike as Bezos has done his best to ignore his peasants. Let’s see if they are successful. I would love to see him suffer a loss of revenue but I doubt that would happen.
Folks, we have a long road ahead of us. We are very lucky we have Heather and others who inform us of the inner workings of what is going on, how history repeats itself, and what we might expect. None of it will be pretty but sticking together is how we get through.
I had sort of come to the same conclusion…trump does not know anything more than he knew the last time around….he only speaks to hear the sound of his voice. So we have to pay attention to what others try to do, never mind what is said. We know it will be difficult but we are not alone and we will work together: we must rise to the occasion! ❤️
Our guardrails have fallen and there aren’t many left. Joe still believes in a system that has had the underpinnings ripped out. I wish Dems had kept Kamala front and center and called out every lie. Even if it was to a few loyal souls. Like HCR with her whisper that echoes…
By not keeping Kamala front and center calling out every lie, mostly that trump won by landslide and has a mandate, democrat leadership showed again it's weakness and lack of survival instinct.
I’d like to believe what you said…rather than my own conviction that voters of both parties still prefer a white man. Any white man. Twenty years ago I asked a judge from Sarajevo if he thought the US would ever elect a woman president. He looked at me sadly and kindly and said “no. It won’t happen in America.”
Not sure how you refer to the leaders of industry as such however, the United States needs an economic engine to survive and you're talking about those very people who make it happen.
By the way, it was OK for those "" grifter to loan Kamala Harris $2 billion to lose. Where do you think that money came from?
Such a hypocrite that Mitch is. But the Dems aren’t much better. Choosing a dying, 74 year-old man over AOC for a committee chairmanship shows that it’s business as usual in the “good ole boys” club.
I'm so angry and disgusted with the "old guard" that I am considering unregistering as a Dem. I probably won't, but I am thinking about it for the first time in my life.
Fortunately, ME is a state where Independents can choose one or the other primary ballots. Susan Collins urged Independents and Republicans to vote for Nikki Haley in the 2024 ME primary. If you live in a state that restricts your primary voting, you urge your state representatives to change it.
Sorry, as much as I continue to be thrilled by AOC's presence in Congress, it's still runs a fairly traditional seniority system. AOC is only in the her third term, which is REALLY early for any one to get a committee leadership role in Congress. Connolly is a ·liberal Democrat who has served 8 terms in Congress. The vote was approximately 130-80 which was impressive for AOC but still quite a ways from winning. She will get her chances on the future and I expect she will be great but also virtually no one gets a committee leadership position after 3 terms in Congress. That's pretty much unheard of.
Sorry, that's just silly. AOC isn't ready to take a leadership role in Congress. She's both too young and too inexperienced. And she is WAY too progressive to lead the party, especially at this point after the beating we took in the last election. I repeat, I personally am a huge left wing Socialist, I love AOC and most of the progressive coalition of Democrats but I also want to win and it is pretty clear we aren't ready for a serious move to left wing politics in this country.
AOC will get her chance in the 2030s after she turns 40+ years old. Right now we need experienced Democrats who know how to navigate the Congressional waters from lots of experience, like Jamie Raskin and Hakeem Jeffries in the House.
I would respectfully disagree. Admittedly, my view has been cynically formulated over decades of disappointment. They believe in the rigged system. It allows them to expand their wealth. They don’t have ANY concept of real life for real Americans. They don’t listen to us. They do not care what we need or want. They’re the only other party in town, leaving their constituents voiceless. Witness Pelosi refusing to bring Medicare for All to the floor when she was speaker. For which she was recognized by the AMA. Yes. I. Am. Angry.
I just find this so funny as this site was the group that supported Joe Biden because of his "wisdom" when I was arguing that he was clearly too old to run again.
Adele, it doesn't matter if this representative is 74, 79 or 30. It's, mostly in this times, what fighting spirit they have and how willing they are to not to play by the book when necessary.
I hope every one of the dumbassed motherfucking scum who voted for him - from the ignoramus white working class steelworkers in PA who will lose their jobs because he wants to kill the Nippon Steel deal to save US Steel, to the idiot farmers who will lose their farms without immigrant labor - get everything that's coming to them. "Good and hard," as H.L. Mencken put it.
Unfortunately, those of us who didn’t vote for him are going to wind up being collateral damage via higher pricing for produce, lack of cleaners in hotel, lack of BOH in restaurants, slowdown in construction, meatpacking, etc.
Most of our family members are stocking up on non-perishable items now.
My daughter is building a house and she just purchased the appliances, ceiling fans and fixtures even though they won't be needed for a few months.
The same thing happened with Covid-19 with paper products, but for a different reason. People forget how many items in the grocery stores were unavailable for weeks or even months at a time.
We're stocking up on non perishables, too. Planting a vegetable garden in spring, even though I'm a disabled senior with a bad back. Eating's more important.
It makes you wonder doesn’t it Tom, just how many union members voted for the insipid orange turd and not Kamala, after the administration that she was part of was the most pro-labor of our lifetimes. How many UAW members in MI voted for the IOT after Joe Biden walked a picket line supporting them, to my knowledge the first time a president has done that. Just look at the nominees for cabinet positions, if you wanted to destroy everything that we hold dear you would not be able to pick a better group to do that. The maggot base that the repugnantkins value so highly is functionally clueless, which is why they are enamored with that POS.
The other faction that really is going to get it where it hurts are the intelligent people who willingly placed themselves in a news bubble where they bought all the lies, disinformation, and other garbage put out by Faux, OAN, America First, etc.
I have to say I am (at least a little bit) looking forward to all my retired cop cohort whining about their loss of Social Security and Medicare, the price of gas and eggs, and the losses as yet to be determined of "their" rights as Project 2025 is enacted, and that tfg's "disavowal" of it was as much a lie as anything else that spewed out of his mouth.
Maybe Heather's correct in weighing the degrees of Republican infighting.
One thing remains true, however -- the role of U.S. billionaires. Another thing that's true of them is that they like criminality. It can be useful – and deniable, as we ever see in our chief convicted criminal and jury-adjudicated, fat, orange rapist.
A Yale professor, Daniel Markovits, has a new book out, “The Meritocracy Trap,” which shows how belief in superiority unites most all U.S. billionaires with the country’s now-dying though superficially elite schools.
We measure superiority by counting, property owned, assets in the bank, points on standardized tests.
Valuing excellence, like democracy, needs no one at the top. In a democracy or in quality schools, everybody can be respected, for varieties of qualities. All cherish getting skilled in seeing excellence in others – quite opposite the convicted criminal and fat, orange rapist who only aims at taking to court, and imprisoning any and all who do not fawn for his superiority.
I'm not sure you saw it but a gentleman by the name Stephanopoulos was suit for $15 million for referring to Trump as a racist. I doubt very much if you wanna make that same mistake in public. Just my opinion.
Trump is both a rapist and a racist. He is also a SNOWFLAKE THAT DEVOLVES TO WHAT HE KNOWS BEST… he is sly as a fox … Release the hounds,.. oh wait, they lack the COJONES of AOC!
Well, since it’s a pretty public forum, I hope doesn’t Trump get a hold of it like he got a hold of Stephanopoulos for defamation. It only cost ABC 15. Oh I’m sorry 16 million. And he’s got two or three more going on right now.
And I gotta give it to you as people will see this a lot. AOC’S got COJONES but not a lot Going on about 2 1/2 -3feet above that. . In fact, you better start packing for Mars as we only have about another 4 1/2 years to live on this planet according to AOC.
Ok. So at the time that Trump was found to have forced his finger(s) into a woman’s vagina against her will, it was not classified as rape under New York law. Had the incident happened more recently the law changed and now it is considered rape under New York law.
Found to have… how many years after it actually happened? This woman was as credible as Michael Cohen, in my opinion. And if given the trial in a different jurisdiction, then the verdict would’ve been very different.
How will any of this make life in America better? It won’t. In fact, life will be worse for most of us. For some much worse. It adds up to profit over people.
“When the people can be left uncertain by the constant manufacture of crisis, their emotions and behavior can be managed and directed.” -Solkov, former political technologist to Putin.
Manipulation is not leadership, it’s demagoguery. No one is better for it. The country is weaker, vulnerable. It doesn’t add value. It can’t solve problems, it creates more. I fear a cascade of events coming that could spiral out of control and quickly.
Manipulation serves the purposes of powerful people who live to gain as mush property and power over others as they possibly can. How many human lives have been ruined or ended in service of such insatiable egos?
It's funny while people on the left feel that he is manufacturing crises . Those on the right see him as doing exactly what he promised to do and nothing less so to them It's no surprise at all
No. Not sure. He is definitely manufacturing crisis by the possible policy threat. It’s a mix of Roy Cohn, Russian political technology, create a false reality, and Chaos Theory. He honed it over a career as wannabe real estate player committing fraud after fraud with investors and banks, got bailed out by Russian investors ( Putin and his oligarchs), then got taught how to really perform the schtick in front of tv cameras. The outrageousness of the threat keeps people and the media tuned in. But it’s always about the “next” crisis. Since the ratings have never been better, keep rolling the cameras. Everyone is making hay at the dwindling middle class’s expense.
Also, you might've missed it but 68% of the country thought Biden was heading in the wrong direction and I'm gonna tell you that most of that was the middle class.
As evidenced by the election results which are 49 of the 50 states became REDDER than before the election
RS, don’t forget or discount Putin’s $10 million disinformation campaign, coupled with the sycophantic right wing media echo chamber burning through the flammable tinder that is the underbrush of social media supercharged by algorithms that push controversy to the front if the line.
Do you like I suggested listen to the feedback by the players at the army Navy game? I'll repeat this in case you haven't heard it. A player from each team was asked about their thoughts of the upcoming game and they both said we wanna fight like hell and win the game. But their next comment voluntarily delivered was but after the game, we're all on one team we support America and defend America. I hope you got the symbolism there.
The thought of having to rely on McConnell to keep our government on track is not particularly comforting.
It sounds as if different factions with different desires, all based on greed, with no thought at all for the public good, are starting to solidify. To what extent they cancel each other out seems as if it will be a major question in the months ahead.
The policy is for sale. Bring money and adulation and the new President is yours to influence. They are providing these things and we aren’t. The Democrats are outnumbered in Congress so the old man can have his day. AOC would not be making waves just disturbing the waters. We can replace the entire House every 2 years but won’t bother to do it. If we want a better world we need to make it instead of complaining.
I don’t believe we will give up. Together we are strong. We need to be watchful and strategic. Some Republicans and some wealthy business people stand against elements of his plans as Heather notes. All is not lost. Be ready. Pay attention to those who can see the truth and understand our power.
And where appropriate, speak as one voice. Bottom line solidarity and reciprocation makes liberty, diversity, and justice possible. Liberty and justice for all requires maintenance and recognition by the preponderance of a whole society, else all too human crude and ultimately violent self-centeredness tear it apart.
Susan Collins pretends to be Independent of McConnell by voting against many judicial nominees, but it is obvious she has a deal with McConnell that she will only vote against picks where McConnell already has the votes. e.g. Amy Comey-Barrett. She didn't really want to vote for Kavanaugh but her's was the deciding vote.
Sure would like the list of the “more than a hundred industrial trade groups that signed a 21-page letter to Trump complaining that “regulations are strangling our economy, “” so we can strangle their businesses with a boycott.
Of course Mitchell could have prevented all this by supporting impeachment when he had the chance.
- Pulled Quote -
''...it seems increasingly clear that the wealthy leaders who backed Trump’s reelection are not terribly concerned about his threats: they seem to see him as a figurehead rather than a policy leader. They are counting on him to deliver more tax cuts and deregulation but apparently are dismissing his campaign vows to raise tariffs and deport immigrants as mere rhetoric...''
BIG mistake, one made in 1933 Germany. We are sailing on a ship of fools..
That has been obvious all along. Apparently the titans of industry in the USA are all without a moral compass, that means that they have nothing to guide them but greed. Destroying the USA in which they have children and grandchildren is not a problem for them. And, yes, they do not know enough about history to apply it to their own situations.
I often wonder if they look at their children and weigh clean air and water for them against profits for themselves. Profits clearly win the debate to their great shame.
Well they obviously care more about guns than children’s lives.
As long as the guns are not directed at them. The murderer of the CEO is being charged as a terrorist.
Not only that, New York is considering a special hotline for CEO’s. My husband remarked this will be the new 911 answering line; “911, what is your net worth.” Now we want to give special treatment and response in an emergency.
James, I get your point, but it's not really the guns. It's the money that supporting guns brings them. So, as said earlier it's just the blatant GREED!!! How Congress and big busness can sacrifice so many lives,especially our childen, is unconscionable to me.
Greed indeed yet also conscious disregard for the injurious effect on others.
Dah - of course!
The problem with money is that it isolates people from reality so they no longer experience environmental conditions, labor issues, financial issues or even political issues. They think money can solve anything.
... Welp, works for them.
Truth!
The extremely wealthy will be able to obtain clean air and water long after the masses cannot.
Yes and no. I am in Chicago after being in Germany. Even though we have an expensive filter on our water, it tastes terrible to me. It is like drinking chlorine. In Germany I drink water straight out of the tap because they protect their water better. It tastes good in my city there. It is awful here. I am now reduced to drinking bottled mineral water imported from Germany. However, whatever I do, I cannot obtain clean air in the city with the third worst particle pollution in the US.
Yes, so however each and everyone of us can afford to support these environmental organizations that are fighting like crazy to protect the earth and stop deregulation, please do. They are fighting tirelessly for the stewardship of this one blue dot and those that do not have a human voice.
tRump will make America great again, by deregulating so we all can have bad water and air, just like you have now and what we had back in the 50s and 60s.
That is a sad comment, Linda. In so many ways...
Linda, I am in a Chgo suburb having spent my entire life in the area. To me, the water is good, but perhaps because it's what I have had my entire life.
If you are unfamiliar, do look into the story of the polluted water in early Chicago and how they reversed the course of the river (there is entire books written on it) and the "deep tunnel" project http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/367.html
I recall the late 60s when a big storm would result in our basement full of sewage. No joke. It was disgusting. It was my folks first home and they were unprepared for having their brand new rec room furniture floating in 3 feet of .....muck. There was a big storage closet, it held their Christmas tree and years of delicate glass ornaments. All gone. My sister was a Beatlemaniac and had several scrapbooks, and original Beatle paraphernalia in their boxes. All destroyed. (to this day she laments, as she kept it all in pristine condition and would surely have monetary value now).
We kids were soon trained that if a big storm came, we ran to the basement and watched the drain. If it started bubbling up (it could actually shoot up a few feet when it was under a lot of pressure!) we were trained to call up to my parents and help them frantically put the new lightweight furniture up on the built in dry bar, and to call the next door neighbors "IT'S COMING UP!!"
Some lead pipes remain in the Chgo metro area, and if I recall correctly, the infrastructure is quite old and in danger of failing.
Well it sounds we should move to Germany?
True, unfortunately. But challenging them publicly, with cameras on, to drink the polluted water, to smell the fetid air, could get the media's attention. It takes a lot these days to distract the media from whatever is falling out of Trump's mouth.
Exactly!
We’ve been there, They don’t care…
Amen!
Simple solution: Require executives of and major investors in companies that pollute to live downwind and down river from their companies’ plants.
And give major tax incentives to do the right things for sustaining the environment. Consumers also have huge say with boycotting. Remember banning tuna. Consumers now are demanding recycled packaging and slow fast materials and vegan leathers, and they are telling their favorite companies they are leaving them unless they change, and they are putting their feelings on social media. Companies are truly responding.
Can you image if Trump turned around to the huge oil companies like Exxon and gave them huge tax incentives to move into solar energy production and renewables. We could become world leaders in the industry, create insane amount of jobs, create lots of profits for share holders and actually be helping the planet. This isn’t brain surgery. Obama had the chance and he didn’t do it. That’s why I have always given him a D for that and everything else he did to hurt the planet. Still a democrat though and always will be.
I believe Biden has done a lot in this area, and I wish that there could be protection for what he did, investing in infrastructure, cleaning up and replacing our water pipes, investing in clean energy. Now we have an orange Quixote tilting at windmills on our horizon.
Predicting the outcome of what takes place in the Pornhub dining room is absolute folly. But, in the Physics classroom we know that for every action there is a re-action. Consequences of alll kinds are certainly unpredictable with this guy.
Jon.., they've moved their "plants" to India or Indonesia, or Kenya.
MadRussian12A I'm with Jon. They can move with their families to India, Indonesia, Kenya. There they can pay for their own security protection.
Yes. This my claim that they are without a moral compass. I am sure they lie to themselves and embrace an its not really so bad attitude.
Agree Linda. My nickname for The Whitehouse is PornHub. I think they're setting up an exclusive "Only-Fans" account. They're working the 'shallows' at the moment with Faux Noose. Money to be made.., favors to be granted.
They are setting up to be a monarchy.
They think their wealth will protect their legacy. As for the rest of the people F them who cares. As long as they can make more money. Dah
I like to make good trouble. I have been thinking that people in Blue States should only pay their state taxes and not the federal taxes, those should be put in an escrow account for their state to use. We know that Blue States contribute more in the Federal aggregate then they get back in return, so why don't Blue States just keep their money and provide themselves with federal services collectively. Let Trump run the country with just Red State investments, unless Mr. Musk wants to make up the difference. Since Trump is planning on defunding the IRS, I don't know how he is going to be collecting these taxes either. He won't have the personnel to do this. He is thinking by thinning it out he will not go after his wealthy friends who avoid paying taxes they owe, but really, there are a lot more of us. In fact, if everyone refused to pay taxes who would they go after? And, we can insist that our jobs not withhold or we quit them. We can give Trump a taste of the medicine he wants to dole out to us. How is he going to pay for his militia or his military if he has no funds. Will Mr. Musk pay the military payroll? If he does then the military will be his military.
Well, Harv.., they sure think they're on a roll..., just wait'll they have a blowout. Remember the olden days when tires 'blew out'? 1929 was a pretty good blow-out. So was the home-mortgage correction.
So TRUE
There is an historic transfer of wealth to the wealthy. This is increasing the stress on lower income people who are now over 50% of our population. This weakens our country in many ways. Who thinks this is good? Vladimir Putin. He is using the massive greed for his objective which is to weaken the US. Trump is his agent. The Republican Party is carrying out Putin's game plan to perfection. What can you say about a slate of department heads who are not only unqualified but want to close those agencies? This is intentional destruction of the government. Putin's design.
Nah, they will live in underground silos and compounds where they think they will survive while the rest of us die.
We winter near an old missile silo that is now open to the public. The tour tells you that the crew had two weeks worth of food, water and air if they had to shoot their missile. At the end of that two weeks they would have to climb out of the ground to face whatever world was above.
And every living thing on this planet. Every eco system is literally keeping us alive. Let’s start with the atmosphere. Fresh, clean water? Unpolluted oceans. Children and grandchildren of these wealth corporations will stay in their bubble of wealth protection till the end.
Yes.., Clean water and 'fracking' are not compatible.. such an insane industry.Like "Love Canal" (remember that) just give it time.
In their world, they are sure that they will be able to buy clean air and water for their own kids and grandkids. They can afford to have a private island or some place far-enough removed from big cities that the air and water are at least better. They believe the things that threaten people like you and me will *never* threaten them as long as they continue to wring money from us to provide a clean world for them.
They only see green not children or skin!
Some day we will collectively understand that companies exist for profits. To make money. As much money as possible. No matter what it takes, profits are the priority. And Americans worship this idea. We haven't learned a thing about human nature.
Companies aren't created to be benevolent. They aren't designed to benefit employees. Their mandate is not to protect the environment. They don't exist for the purpose of paying taxes. They exist for ROI. Return on investment. They are obligated by design to create a cash flow to their owners.
Could be a family like the Waltons that have over $400 billion and their employees are on Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
https://jacobin.com/2024/05/walmart-living-wage-medicaid-snap
Could be a chicken processing facility that is the major employer in town who uses immigrant children to flush the blood and guts off the butchery floors.
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20231204
Could be a Tesla factory where racism and sexual abuse are common.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/tesla-racism-sexual-harassment/
Hmmm. Maybe we need a LOT MORE regulation. And here is a novel idea. ENFORCEMENT of the regulations on the books right now.
But wait. Oh no. That sounds like "government overreach!" ... like socialism! Like communism! Radical Lefty Lunacy.
Someday maybe, the Democratic Party will develop some courage and ask workers across the country to be "Norma Rae".
https://youtu.be/YvqpyDWvDyE
Someday...maybe.... the Democratic Party will stand with the people who can barely make it paycheck to paycheck. The people who accept corporate abuse because nobody has their backs.
Bill yesterday my Democrats Abroad book club was discussing US Health care as something we could be explaining to people Stateside because we are all living in countries where costs are much lower for insurance and coverage is more extensive. One of our members who showed up for the talk lives in France and used to work at Harvard Medical School. He says every time the Democrats come up with a health care plan that would cover everyone the Republicans cry socialism. We have to take that away from them. The ability to do that. It might mean teaching what socialism is. Ads on that. Who could take that on.
I had a not very serious plan at some point to just show up at Trump rallies with a sign that said "I live in a socialist country - ask me about Universal Healthcare". That's ridiculous of course, but I do think that it would need real conversations with real people.
I also thought about doing a social media post where I talk about this great plan - not cheap but incredible coverage, no surprise bills ever, hardly any copays, everyone I know is on it. And then the reveal is that the company is called Single Payer Universal Health Care, and the plan is called Taxes. :-)
But Linda, then we’ll need a new word to describe socially responsible government to distinguish them from countries which own the means of manufacture and commerce which we used to call communist governments. Health care, education, the military and prison systems must remain the province of federal and state governments. We must either teach what socialism is or reduce people’s fear of what a more socially responsible government looks like.
This is what my friend Irving told me in college as a way to identify the different forms of economic structures. A socialist had 2 cows, the government came and took one so the farmer could have milk, and the other would be used to help those who did not have cows get milk. A communist had 2 cows. The government came and took both cows and said, we will give you milk. A fascist had 2 cows, and the government came and took both cows and shot the farmer dead. A capitalist had 2 cows and he took one to market and sold it and bought a bull. The government was not involved, except at tax time I presume. So Socialism is you give one cow and keep one cow.
Maybe we need an ad campaign that says that socialism when applied to the human rights of healthcare is good.
May we need an ad campaign that says everyone who works full time deserves housing, clean water, adequate food, Healthcare, education and ....
I understand the underlying sentiment (as a PR move) but “everyone who works full time” leaves out retirees and disabled folks, many of them veterans. Let’s leave it at “everyone.”
We decided in our group to pick 3 topics. It could be food, shelter, health care. However, I am looking at a 1-2 word hook that can get everyone recognizing that something is a problem. We saw that Trump picked 2-3 topics. I can tell you what they are
1) the price of groceries, ie eggs,
2) the border and safety from illegal immigrants
3) dems care more about trans people getting care, than regular folks having enough food, so it conflates into theme 1 groceries.
Instead of saying that US health care needs to be socialist, I was saying US health care as it is stinks like rotten eggs. Thus we tie into the groceries too. I decided to go with rotten eggs as my theme for policies are bad. They are rotten eggs, thus they stink. https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/us-health-care-is-like-rotten-eggs?r=f0qfn
So, my idea is to follow the rotten eggs theme. I am trying this out, but I realize Americans don't like being told things are bad. We are working on developing a chart that highlights differences across countries. I read that of 10 wealthy countries the US health care is the worst.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/sep/mirror-mirror-2024
I am working on messaging, and my Substack is my experimental ground.
I had suggested that to the YouTube channel "Beau of the Fifth Column" or his companion channel "The Roads with Beau" about a year ago. have seen socialism, Marxism, whatever-ism thrown around by people who clearly don't know what each one is!
"Beau" (aka Justin King) stepped down from being the face of the channel, and they have expanded their content. There are some great videos that explain various aspects like the economy. I hope they will do something of explaining political nature, as they do get viewers from "the other side."
My Democrats Abroad book club/reading group is going to read discussions of these different types of economic systems for our next discussion. We will try to distill it into sound bytes for those who do not understand it. That is why I like my cow description above, because it uses a metaphor everyone can understand.
Great idea
There is no party that represents the interests of workers in this country. The Democrats are nominally expected to, but there's scant evidence of their ability. As it stands now, even if they did suddenly realize their mandate to support and protect the common man, à la FDR, they are hopelessly outmatched by the Republicans' dedication and viciousness when it comes to a fight.
At this point in my life, having watched Republicans beat Democrats over and over and over, from stealing presidential elections to running circles around them on messaging battles, I have lost faith in Democrats as an effective political entity to represent my concerns. This leaves me in an unfortunate place because I don't know where to turn, and the oligarchs are sharpening their knives as I write.
Take another look at the accomplishments of President Biden. I'm no spring chicken, and he's the best President of my lifetime in terms of getting big things done for workers. Foreign industries are building plants here, there are more jobs than people, and the climate is the focus. He even walked the UAW picket line! The downside is the almost total lack of communicating these things to the rest of us.
My wish: NO political parties. Only people running for office. Choose them on experience, what they stand for, their moral compass. That’s what I hope for someday, probably not in my lifetime
No political parties, aka factions, was the wish of the Founders. But it never happened. Factions formed immediately and once the power of winner-takes-all voting took hold, parties ran the political machine. They have to. No individual can do the fundraising or the messaging or the GOTV efforts alone. You need many people working together just to get off the ground, especially when the electorate is large.
So well written. Thank you for the documentation.
Bill, I agree with everything you said, with the addition of the lazy Democrats that couldn't get out and VOTE!!! This is the most important rights we currently have in this great nation and they likly gave it away. What a sad statement of their commitment to ALL of our FREEDOM!!
That's hilarious - dems actually standing up for the working poor - you have a good imagination, maybe you should write fiction /s
Not enough, but far more than Republicans.
Corporations at first were designed for very specific purposes and lived a mandated life. Now they've become these monsters that live forever and have more rights than the people of the country.
And fewer responsibilities. It's a license to be a crap citizen.
Capitalism has no inherent morality. None.
That's why they should on;y be run within guardrails.
Loved Everett Dirksen, every other Republican has been way worse than the worse Dem. Well maybe a Manchin or Sinema, who were not Dems at all.
Also, thanks Bill I just subscribed to The Nation. I like.
So beautifully said. It is regulation and even more enforcement and support for that enforcement- the courts. It’s all so sad.
The titans of industry have always been and always will be greedy bastards. Henry Ford? JP Morgan? Cornelius Vanderbilt? Andrew Carnegie? They might have then used philanthropy to give a pittance to the rest of us, but it sure didn't make a dent in their own wealth and power. I love the Frick Collection--it is one of my absolute favorite museums in the world--but it doesn't outweigh the damage Henry Clay Frick did in the Guano Wars and working with Morgan and others. Money corrupts. This is why every CEO of every insurance company is freaking out right now: the charge that the murderer of UHC's CEO committed an act of terrorism because his actions were designed to intimidate and threaten is accurate, but the targets of intimidation and threat have never before experienced the lack of insulation from normal people's experience (such as the typical 8 year old going to school who has to navigate the possibility that s/he could be killed by some crazy-ass person with a gun at any time). And now they are scared because they are vulnerable. The rage at the system is erupting. The question is where the tidal wave is going to land.
That is an interesting concept, Linda. I think that if there were a way for them to see what constant denial of emergency back surgery for a friend of mine is doing to him, they might just get a glimmer of why that CEO got shot. (Synopsis: hard working man, hunter/fisherman, country living, has one of "those" trucks (but uses it in the manner(s) for which it was intended; married and adopted his second wife's two kids. Degenerative spine disease, constant pain, he's been fighting for emergency surgery for 5 months. Keeps getting denied.)
Heartbreaking. And so fucking WRONG.
So fucking wrong and so much the norm for insurance companies. They don't make money by saying "Yes". And in addition, they have our money, paid in premiums, to play with and invest in high-dividend, socially destructive companies that are hastening global heating.
AH--I am so sorry for your friend. And this is why the outpouring of derision occurred. I can't even describe the process, when I was on a university health policy, of navigating my cancer care back in the 90s. There is a reason why the for-profit insurance companies hate Medicare and lie about their Medicare Advantage programs being "cost effective" (they are--for the insurance companies).
Ally, and if the ACA is repealed, so are the prohibitions against penalizing pre-existing conditions. Many years ago my employer contracted with a new insurance company to save costs. I suspect they did save costs: by redlining every part of my body which had ever had a health issue. For example, I had had a normal urinary tract infection, cured in days with a cheap antibiotic. And thus insurance redlined my entire urinary system. If anything happened to my kidneys… no coverage. And this list of exclusions in my coverage went on. That will come back if they abolish the ACA. I guarantee it.
The fox is in control of so many henhouses together with the crooked "providers(?)" bilking the ACA system. Eliminating 'them(s)' comes to mind... "eliminating" being the operative word here. ...did I hear a 'click'..?
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I worked in a sales office for small group insurance 3-30 people. Some policies were very expensive to write or couldn’t be written. Heart conditions by one employee could throw the whole group out of consideration.
The worst determining factor was if you had an HIV test for AIDS you couldn’t get coverage. At the same time those insurance companies were requiring the test to write life insurance policies. It didn’t matter if your test was negative, they considered you high risk for having the test. There was no winning.
At the same time HMO’s were created to tell doctors how to treat patients.
I left health insurance shortly after and became a computer programmer.
100%, Marge. For me, it is cancer. Breast cancer 18 years ago.
How absolutely evil, bottom lines ruin everything. Medicare for all
Now they are aware, not a bad thing.
Now there's a combination of words you rarely see in the same paragraph; "titans of industry" and "moral compass". Never has there been such a more obvious dichotomy.
Rules provide boundaries for responsible, civil behavior. At least the civically useful ones do. We start with things like "don't pull the cat's tail" as much for our own protections as the cat's. We are taught to share, to be courteous, even empathetic. I lot of that gets dropped when we enter the so called "real world" and are largely responsible for our own survival. dropped too far and we have a crime scene. We enforce some boundaries with official use of force, but a "free society" as opposed to a "police state" requires a robust pool of shared individual reciprocity and self-disipline; "decency"*. Where "decency" is absent, force (often the "Dark Side") takes over.
It seems to me that for some times we have been allowing commercial media to define our culture, and yet government of, by and for people is DIY; both as a right and a duty.
* cf. Sen. Joe McCarthy.
Their moral compass is money. 'nuff said.
In other words their moral compass sans moral add money is a money compass.
Like sharks to blood in the water.
Nuff said, exactly
Greed is destroying this country - the environment, air and water, the health of us citizens - and has been since the beginning. We just had a respite for a few decades.
One of my reasons for moving to Germany is that I have asthma, and I do breathe cleaner air in my city in Germany. While I live near a bus stop corner, the city is increasingly running electric buses. They are not only not filling the air with pollution but quieter too.
Also, my walls are made of loam, which is an ancient wall building technique using a clay based material with straw mixed in that is recently back in vogue in Germany. Loam provides noise and temperature insulation and absorbs toxins, so it is a great material for the environmentally conscious, and people with asthma.
Seems to me that the Germans are a lot smarter than’merikkkans…
Linda , my grandson’s partner in Prague is part of that kind of building company. She explained to me how she puts on the interior wall coating. I had never heard of it but it sounds like a real “movement”!
Linda, your wall materials are very interesting. Do you have any info on their cost versus Sheetrock and wood? Are new homes being built that way?
In the USA getting permission from the local planning authority is usually the problem. There are lots of new/old building systems that are not covered by current codes.
Adobe, Hay bale, old tires...
Wow, hope the right doesn’t screw that up
Which German city did you move to, if you don’t mind sharing?
On women forced to carry babies they do not want .. on young mothers w more mouths to feed than she can buy good for
And where are the men, well, many of them
Well said. The wealthy people are not Americans, but glotybal parasites. They have no loylaty to any country or community. They are making America work for their wealth at the expenses of those citizens who depend on the integrity of citizenship.
I will say that most of my American friends in Germany have less money than my friends in the USA, who say they cannot afford to live elsewhere. They are willing to live on less, but then have a better safety net from catastrophic costs with good insurance coverage. So, saying one cannot afford to live elsewhere is a bunch of hooey. It is cheaper to live in many, many other countries, but might require some initial investment to get to the other country. Still it is not like walking from South America to the USA barefoot as some people have done. So, I would recommend that Americans at least consider not being just citizens of the US, but citizens of the world, and try living elsewhere.
If I were younger, in a NY minute.
Capitalism is a footbal league without rules and refs.
The rules are made by the dominant team, and the refs pay them obeyance as they control the refs.
I suppose it's a mater of how narrowly one defines capitalism, but it seems that capitalism works for us, or at any rate, free enterprise works for us, not as a reliable answer for every human need, but as practical means of exchanging our skills and labor when, conducted under equitable rules, what Theodore Roosevelt canned a "Square Deal"; equitable exchange. There are businesses that I have or had genuine affection for, and genuinely mourned when they passed. There are employers and customers I counted as good friends. That's when decency isn't kicked to the curb by a sociopathic focus on ruthless profit. Even the Bible weighs in on that. Look at the British East India Company in India, American Slavery, or our "Gilded Age", or for that matter many current events, to see how sociopathic that can be.
The odd thing about sports, there is usually general outrage when a player or team has been shown to be cheating. In business or politics, where the consequences most matter, the fans seem far more ready to close ranks to sheild the offenders.
Linda, excellent post. When I posted Heather's letter this am, I referred to them as the greeds. All they look at is their bank accounts while sneering at the rest of us, thinking their money will save them from what's coming in terms of climate change. A lot of the wealthy here in the 1930s thought Hitler was fine. They are all hypocrites and parasites. Also they are behaving just as the elites have behaved throughout history in terms of the vast difference between them and the peasants.
I can't help but think that they don't see the bigger picture. If the country falls apart their businesses will fall apart too. They may still have their precious $$, but they will have lost their ability to gain more and their purpose and importance will be gone.
Climate catastrophe won’t other their descendants either, because the select few can live on Mars with Elon’s descendants.
I do believe we're dealing with a different personality and a different style. Hitler had clear plans for Germany, the world and himself. Trump doesn't have those. He just wants to be the boss, the big guy. So he'll do whatever he thinks he has to do to stay in power. Whatever the guy next to him that he likes the most that week (Tucker, Elon, whoever) tells him he should do, that's what he'll do. And he'll change his mind, often. That's what has worked for him in the past, so why not continue doing it.
Anna Maria, I think you’re right, but I do worry about some of the people around Trump whose minds might be more organized and less distractible than his and might have grander ambitions than merely being The Boss. For example, the obese, unkempt Steve Bannon, the dead-eyed, dour Stephen Miller, and the determined extremists who created Project 2025. I wonder if they are capable of creating a more durable fascist state which is more resistant to our attempts to stop it. We shouldn’t think that preserving American democracy will be easy.
Oh I think you are absolutely right. The minds behind Project 2025 certainly do have a plan, and it's really not that different from Hitler's. If they manage to position themselves in a way that Trump will lend them his ear, they could very well succeed.
All it takes with Trump is money.
Alan, you are 100% accurate here.
I do not think the MAGA world will ever wake up to the threat that is posed here by Project 2025.
I'm not sure you could say that DonOLD changing his mind actually worked but what did work is it creates chaos and doubt and keeps the MSM reporting on items that don't amount to shit AND that DonOLD has no power over anyway.
Well, MSM is now referred to as Legacy or Corporate Media, because the mainstream is not following them any more.
Anyway, the chaos is not the way to run a country or to have allies. Of course, it will attract other chaos agents to him, like Musk and Ramaswamy. They have plans with our tax money, but then again, they plan to decimate the department. If they have too few people working there, we can probably get away without paying taxes either. Then, whose money will they be saving as they try to pay for the military budget, the only one they care about.
Those at his side are more damaging than ever.
The Heritage folks have taken care of that. Project 2025, check it out
I have read and discussed it in a Democrats Abroad book club. I see it as accomplishing 2 things. 1) Turning the US into a third world nation. 2) Turning the US into a Christian Nationalist theocracy. Here is Andra Watkins who has also read Project 2025 and is an expert on Christian Nationalists Defining them.
https://open.substack.com/pub/andrawatkins/p/what-is-a-christian-nationalist?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Terrifying is the word, and yet so many are ecstatic. Boggles my mind
Terrifying but with ecstatic followers. That describes many Trump supporters, and those of Jim Jones of the Jonestown cult massacre crowd.
So many are drinking Trump’s toxic KoolAid.
I know all about that, and it's truly terrifying. If they manage to position themselves smartly, which I believe they will, they have a good chance of succeeding in their plans.
Yes, it seems they will
We've got the "power behind the throne" salivating to get Project 2025 implemented. tfg has NO CLUE how unimportant he really is here. Neither do all the idiots that supported him and will see what Project 2025 means for them, even as they sit in their white, Christian male dominated, cisgendered, heteronormative little world, that no SS and Medicare means them too.
And even when they inevitably start to feel the consequences, they will manage to blame it on socialists or democrats or the deep state or whatever enemy is dangled in front of them. They have invested too much (physically and psychologically) to ever admit that they were wrong.
God, I hope, a gay friend loves the FAFO comments he sees. Still no humor for me…
Anna, I liked your comment, but I don't agree with it entirely. Donald changes his mind a lot, but it hasn't necessarily worked for him in the past. He has numerous bankruptcies to his "credit."
He changes his mind a lot because he is learning disabled, as his family knows. Because he is so weak-minded, he is easily influenced by three groups of people: people who flatter him, people who actually have more money than he has and people who have a large audience.
What HAS worked for him in the past is his ability to manipulate and control the media. As a young man backed by his daddy's wealth, he practiced his reptilian manipulation skills on NYC-based media, then brought those skills to national corporate media just prior to descending on his golden escalator.
I do agree that he has no plan. Unless you consider boosting his wealth and avoiding prison a plan.
I meant it has worked for him politically, at least as far as it's important for him, which is his belief that a lot of people think he's great and smart and rich and powerful and thus will vote for him and/or give him money. I don't even think he has manipulated the media, more like the media made use of him and then couldn't calculate the consequences, as when they deliberately gave him the image of a sucessful billionaire for The Apprentice. Now this image is stuck with a majority of Americans, even Democrats.
Hitler wanted revenge on people. How did he handle his list? While throwing a tea party at his place for members of his administration and their families he sent out a hit squad which was going out and finding and killing all 400 people on his hit list. Now Trump has already been given permission to kill people as president from this SCOTUS, so there is nothing really to prevent him from doing having a hit squad kill his "enemies" either. Hitler set up his administration and because he suffered from depression his quack doctor prescribed him toxins to treat his depression and he would not be showing up in public during these bouts. His people would carry out his orders, but they got them from him and did not dare cross him even if he was not around. So, the question is will Trump be running the country, or will the Heritage Foundation, drafters of the Project 2025 plans. Will the Tech Bros weigh in as well, and continue to grease Trump's palms while he in turn greases theirs with funding from our taxes.
The answer is: Whoever they decide to spearhead Project 2025 will be running everything. I don't think the Tech Bros have any other master than money, nor do they have any concept of a soul.
Back room negotiations to divide up the country
Add Vlad to the mix, he knows the playbook very well
Can't wait for the Big Orange Booby to fall out with Little LemonElla. . .
Hard to believe it might work to our advantage, but you could be correct.
Agreed Anna. Trump's similarities to Hitler. Lies and racism and a disenfranchised population who wants a better life. Differences, Hitler had a plan, Trump doesn't. The US population that voted for Trump wants to tear it all down. The Germans who voted for Hitler wanted to build better and stronger. Both had followers who would do anything for their perceived god-like leader.
But here's where we might see a big difference. Hitler became beloved to the German people when he was successful in taking Poland....it gave them national pride and resolve their grievance that Poland was carved out of Germany. Trump may not have that kind of win.
IMO that’s what makes him more dangerous. He’s just a fly by the seat of his pants guy who got lucky or finagled another term and has absolutely no clue how to govern. Elon having his ear is a huge threat. They are only guided by greed.
Worse than greed: blind ideology (as is the case with the minds behind Project 2025) and/or ego (as is the case with Musk). Greed recognizes the need for other people to exist, so they can work and spend money and be consumers. Ideology and ego doesn't need other people.
I love reading Substack thank you 🫶 -having started with LFAA - great stuff here. Us little people down at the bottom rungs have only our vote -big picture input. We scrap down in the barnyards but lately show fair common sense coming in statistically a lot closer than the professed ‘mandate’ , but lately is key. The ‘plan’ has been in progress since it was speculated on, I left , went back-to-the -land in late 60’s proof rising above the fray has stood out one revolution after another near consistently. No profound enlightenment mind you, but healthy living. (It ain’t been easy) A niche though. Germany survived but a lot of people didn’t, and continuing…lot of people haven’t , and…a lot of people won’t.
It won’t be the barnyard’s fault by ANY stretch of ‘the majority’ exception noted ‘lack of their vote’…because it’s who is pulling the wagon/calling the shots ( or not)/the elected /and the rich …who are. They simply have the power.
‘I didn’t vote for him’ can be the common cry of this period too.
Is another revolution in the making?
Thanks ..for all who do 🫶
I do not believe these are empty Trump campaign threats. Crypto Currency is through the roof. Congress who oppose him are hit with campaign smears. Those that support him are untouchable. . Rudy’s defamation lawsuit will go away. There is a bleak future for democracy. Where are our democrats? Where is our fight on social media
Sandra - I so agree - where are our Democrats - where is the outrage - where is the listing of the lies?
I am supporting Ben Wikler to be DNC Chair. He is a fighter. He has done a masterful job in Wisconsin. And I believe he would bring the fight - the outrage - to the forefront on the national level.
I am too. Bob Reich has circulated a petition from Inequality Media, as have several other organizations, and leaders of the grassroots movements that were so much more successful in getting out the vote for state and local Democrats than the DNC was in promoting Harris are circulating a letter supporting Wikler for signatures from fellow leaders and Democratic officials.
Me too. I'm with Ben.
I have a list of lies. It is not only D that should be outraged. There are true R that are also outraged. It is a time for anyone from any party or not to be outraged . We the people should be outraged @ the bloodless take over by greedy people grabbing for power & F**ck the rest of us.
Repubs have had plenty of time to react to the “takeover” of their party. Although many of them liked it while W was pretending to be a human.
Sandra, social media was a large part of getting him reelected -- that's how most folks get their news (not me, though.) When companies such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. operate with nary and editorial filter they become propagators of propaganda, lies and other distortions of Truth.
And I have lost faith in the ability of anybody -- including Democrats which I have been since I became eligible to vote in the 1970s -- to counter the influence of both foreign and domestic actors who used social media and money (looking at you, Elon) to influence the lazy masses.
I hardly read LFAA anymore, sad to say. I feel as though we are all adrift in separate lifeboats, shouting for help in a limitless ocean.
Doug, I've missed your commentary.
I know that we've got a two-party system so well entrenched; I do wonder if there's any momentum for an expansion. Currently, the Democrats are the party of "everyone welcome, lets all get along" and the Republicans are "here we are, our way or the highway", the latter has led to the demonstration of the lack of a spine from anyone with an "R" after their name (looking at you, Joni Ernst).
Thanks, Ally -- I too miss these conversations with you and some of the other regulars.
I don't know what the answer is to these problems. Clearly the Dems were blinded by promise and promises (and then blindsided) in November. And I think many Republicans were duped, one way or the other (prior vows to bring down grocery prices and to deport masses of immigrants stand out, among others;) most haven't realized it yet, but I suspect they soon will.
I'm disgusted with where we are and how we got here, and still trying to find my way toward some light. And I know I'm not alone in my feelings. I just haven't settled on how I'm going to adopt a resistant attitude toward what lies ahead. I certainly won't "obey in advance", to quote Timothy Snyder. But for now at least I see few if any meaningful actions one can take to resist MAGA except to be aware of what is happening. And this is despite all the substack writers and others who implore engagement and putting up a good fight (without offering concrete ideas that I've seen beyond contacting our senators and Reps -- and NH's congressional delegation of 4 are all Dems anyway.)
Ally, I hope you have a peaceful and happy holiday season. May we all find even more reasons to smile every day (and I am grateful that I have plenty.)
Cheers!
Thank you for this reply. I, too, will not obey in advance, and am searching for organized and meaningful opposition to what is an untenable situation.
May your holidays be bright as well.
The Dems have a new younger generation starting to take over. Ruby & Shaye are busy collecting their damage award in Rudy's bankruptcy including court orders directing Rudy to turn over his Mercedes once owned by Lauren Bacall & not keep the car's registration. Crash & burned.
The fight on social media is right here & on many other Platforms. The ticking clock, tick-tock, is getting ready to strike 'That's All Folks' for Tik-Tok.
On the fate of democracy as it approaches year 250 -- there are many tasks to revitalize our Republic "if we can keep it" as Ben Franklin warned.
Be Safe All.
Bryan, I was quite interested to see that Trump is considering Jared Moskovitz for the FEMA position in his cabinet!! Those commenting on Yahoo seem to think it is a ploy to get him OUT of his FL seat and let DeSantis appoint a Republican, and then Trump FIRES Moskovitz after the first national disaster and blaming the Democrat for less than ideal results.
I wondered about that. Moskovitz is effective in the House and really annoys Comer. Isn’t FEMA set to be eliminated by Project 2025 and disaster relief sent back to the states?
Think you are correct Sharon.
You're right! I forgot about that!
I will have to check out Jared Moskovitz for FEMA if that ... dare I say it ... Federal Agency ... survives.
Thank you, Counselor. I, for one, am anxious to get rid of "Republican Light" which is what we've had since B. Clinton.
Officer I swear I only had 1 bottle of Republican Lite ... I swear & I've got a Gen Z witness MAXWELL FROST ... I swear ... honest ... please🙏
Indeed, where is our leadership? Every day upon waking I check my phone for a miracle: either an obituary, or Dem leadership fighting back.
Sandra, I hope that when you ask where are our democrats,you refer to the leadership because the democrats like us are all on social media as you did and I'm doing now. But we need a leadership apt for this historical moment, able no to be by the book all the time and and not to be the appeaser at every step and most definitely we need a great communicator with a big megaphone!!!
Our Democratic leadership is stuck in the 70's. Or 80's.
Ron Filipowski wrote a good article highlighting your concerns.
https://www.meidasplus.com/p/the-one-big-reason-why-dems-are-losing
Where is the mainstream media?
Just as the Republican Party no longer exists, "mainstream media" no longer exists. That media, now known as "corporate media," as it is all owned by oligarchs who have a vested interest in the reduced tax liabilities and employer regulations offered by the Trump Government Corporation.*
You will find corporate media and Trump-owned politicians on their knees, shoulder-to-shoulder, suckling on an orange mushroom.
*I found it unnerving that Elon Musk recently filed documents in Texas creating a new corporation called The United States of America, Inc. This filing was not for nothing.
https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/elon-musk-registers-two-america-themed-entities-in-texas
Well stated, describes us exactly.
If you read "Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power" by Timothy Ryback, the number of parallels with 1933 are chilling. I may be grasping at straws here, but I take some consolation from the fact that, while Hitler was ideologically driven and had a tireless work ethic, Herr Drumpf has no ideology and is unfathomably lazy. The only thing relentless about him is his narcissism and need for attention. Unlike Hitler, he has zero interest in actually governing, and prefers to play golf and watch himself on TV. That may shield the country from the risk of the more noxious elements of his campaign rhetoric becoming policy, and law.
No shield. There is power behind the person behind the Resolute desk; it'll get done.
You couldn’t be more right this time around
"They are counting on him to deliver more tax cuts and deregulation..." - Also, I believe many of them are counting on him (and his cabal, especially) to be sympathetic to them when it comes to awarding Federal Contracts (especially the ones that are difficult if not impossible to move away from once "implemented.") I believe there will be much less competition for these (Mega/MAGA) awards compared to previous administrations. All in the name of "national security", "border protection", etc.
Those CEO’s are not taking into account that Trump has wicked minions; he is not smart enough by himself to think of all the wicked things his regime plans to do. Think Stephen Miller and snatching babies away from mother. Just wait till the leopards start eating their faces.
That made me laugh, too. Well, not really "laugh" - more of a snort of disbelief.
Huge mistake, Michael.
…in a sea of idiots
It depends on Trump having his own vision for the future of America. If not, then Project25 policies will kick in. Wealthy people do not have any vision, as they are separated from any geographical community.
So tax cuts and deregulation v. tariffs are a sure sign of fascism? Or wealthy donors flocking about a President Elect pre-inauguration are a sure sign? If so, what would raising and spending $1.2 Billion in 107 days from dark money sources reflect as a sure sign? Also 1933 Germany?
... and we are in the steerage.
And, unfortunately, we're all going to hell with them.
Figurehead = “puppet”
Hope we don't end up like Germany on our way to regain normality.
It is Ironic that those that did not Vote for DJT, have to rely on Moscow Mitch, aka Mr. No, to help safeguard our Freedoms....
It's not just ironic JD, it's unbelievable that the sanity of this country depends upon the person that was a mayor contributor to this coming chaos.
Exactly.
Could be one of the greatest ironies of my life. The man who gave us a bought and paid for ultra Extreme Court is now standing for the defense of democracy and the scientific sanity of vaccines? Will wonders never cease?
How many times did I wish Mitch would do the final freeze up. Now I find myself applauding him. OY.
I not about to applaud McConnell! I can hope he can hold the line on some critical issues like protecting vaccines. But that is the bare minimum that he must do. McConnell is corrupt, dangerous and a criminal in his own right. Even if he has a "come to Jesus" moment, it is too little to late.
We are screwed, Mitch has been on board with the basic plan. Not only is the plan a disaster, so is the monster and his haters, especially the religious haters.
I agree. Mitch seems to be in worse health than Donald. Not looking good.
Cameron, no relation with Micht right?😀
Not only ironic but ridiculous and pathetic.
Every time I hear the Felon's voice, I think of Mitch. All your doing Mitchell.
Suzanne Crowell, and of course we have McConnell to thank for the current SCOTUS majority.
We cannot depend on Mitch McConnell to protect democracy. Yes, he loves his personal power, and will defend it, but he could have saved us from this by pushing for conviction at Trump’s second impeachment and did not. He is quintessential Machiavellian.
Not to mention that he has broken the Supreme Court and now my daughter and daughter-in-law (to be) have their lives in increased danger if they become pregnant. Not to mention that he could drop dead at any moment, because he is obviously getting frail.
I so despise him.
The Dems backed off during the impeachment. They brought the movie out but when it came time to bring evidence to the floor they agreed not to interview key members of Congress that spoke to a trump on Jan 6. Instead we have had a 4 year investigation that will probably disappears also
The impact of McConnell's SC packing and not convicting and removing him from our lives and now he is going to be a hero? Give me a break!!!
I was having similar thoughts of McConnell. He has had so many opportunities to steer decisions in a reasonable direction and has always deferred to Trump. I'm not holding my breath that he will buck Trump.
Yes, I find it distasteful to be asked to admire seemingly supportive moves by a person who so cravenly sold out the American people.
It’s like ignoring the 10 million who died under Stalin because hey, he made such great borscht.
To which I would add, it would be a huge mistake to expect or even hope that Moscow Mitch would be less nefarious.
Still waiting to hear from Biden re the nature and extent of Russian involvement in our demise.
Yes indeed. And I will never forgive him for that.
Hear, hear!
The only people who can moderate any of this are the GOP senators. It's all on their heads. Unfortunately all the rest of us will reap what they sowed.
My thought exactly. His choice to vote no on impeachment made this nightmare possible.
You wrote “Of course Mitchell could have prevented all this by supporting impeachment when he had the chance.”
Don’t be silly. Thus is Mitch “the human windsock” we’re talking about.
How much power will McConnell wield once he steps down from Senate Leadership? Are there enough Senators who will follow his lead out of principle where they once followed him out of fear, or will party loyalty once again reign unfettered? Is McConnell seen as an old warrior out to pasture and will support shift to the ruthless young unprincipled MAGAts?
I don't see much to cheer me up in McConnell's belated and insufficient attempt to develop a spine and find his principles. And not acknowledging that Citizens United is the goose that laid the golden egg allowing wealth such great influence in our elections means that McConnell is only tinkering around the edges. He has been a liar and manipulator and continues to be so.
In the minuscule possibility that he has realized the damage he has done to our laws, our Supreme Court, and the legislative process itself and wants to make amends, it is too little, too late. If he believed the a second Trump presidency will be harmful, he should have spoken out long before this.
I hope that he lives a long life, so that he can see the results of his cowardice and self interest on this nation he professes to love.
I blame the uninformed voters of Kentucky. They had the opportunity to replace Glitch with an immensely qualified candidate a couple years ago, but wouldn't do it, because that candidate was (GASP!!) a woman. THEY are as much to blame here as he is.
Daniel I agreed with you but 2 years ago McConnell had done all the damage already and apparently, note I said apparently, Mitch reached his bottom and started panicking when, no surprise here, noticed that maga is bottomless .
Right, but it was 4 yrs ago when Amy McGrath ran against Glitch. Everything we want and need in a Senator; highly educated, military veteran, deeply on the side of democracy, and not indentured to any oligarchs. And yet, Kentucky voters...... Just like S Carolina voters, in the same election, and just like Texas voters this past November. Or Ohio voters, since the '90s. WTF is happening??
I confess to conspiracy theories. For one thing, the wealth that is undermining our democracy is obscene, up to and including SCOTUS. The manipulation by media, especially social media, is blatant and has attracted young voters. LBNL—and this is the conspiracy part—the international thuggery of oligarchs, including Putin, is almighty powerful, and they are worse than Midas in their pursuit of riches.
Your conspiracy theory is, in my humble opinion, correct, and goes back many years. The undermining of our public education system is huge, as is the corruption that has undermined our democracy ever since Ronnie Ray-gun. That was the beginning of the compromise of our judicial system, which then led to dismissal of anti-trust laws, which led to the abandonment of the Fairness Doctrine, which led to consolidation of media outlets, and then the cherry on top, Citizens United. And all the while, our collective laziness allowed these conspiracies to metastasize. We've got some work to do!
Money? Misogyny? Social media?
All of the above
I won’t live so long, they can revel in their success as the ship sinks. And Joe, etc watch as their work is undone. I wish I could see a silver lining, but republicans fighting over spoils isn’t it.
Mitch’s wife was in Trumps former cabinet. I am not expecting any regrets from Mitch.
" Defending the Senate as an institution" is pretty rich, coming from the guy who broke it, and also broke SCOTUS.
Not alone, but he majorly, even gleefully, helped set this monster loose; and now complains of loose monsters.
The arsonist come back to fight the fire.
It's true, he come back but too late...😩
He did it with intention and malace.
Karen you can summarize just by saying that this guy broke this whole nation.
How exactly did he break Scotus?
By refusing to give Merrick Garland a hearing, and then rushing through Amy Coney Barrett, thereby stealing 2 seats, that should not have gone to the GOP right wing judges.
And covering up the evidence of Kavanaugh's sexual abuse
As Biden covered the evidence of Clarence Thomas’s. Preventing the testimony of 8 women who worked with Thomas and offered corroboration of Anita Hill.
Chris Wray did that, and look at the thanks he got.
Oh right, he broke into Donny's house.
Let’s hope you nor any member of your family ever gets “Kavanaughed”.
Especially decades later.
In the meantime, Barack Obama placed two Supremes on the court a few years later Joe Biden replaced one supreme on the court who by the way didn't even know if she was a woman or not and Trump replaced three so it's equal so to speak in number of justices placed by the most recent presidents.
When there are vacancies on the Supreme Court, the president then in office appoints a new one, period, end of report.
When Justice Scalia died in February 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland. Mitch McConnell claimed that it was "too close to the next election" to consider a new justice. It was actually 269 days but that didn't stop Mitch from blocking hearings or a vote.
When RBG died on September 18, 2020, early voting was already underway! Before she'd even been buried, McConnell teed up Leo Leonard's next-in-line, Amy Coney Barrett, and got her confirmed 39 days later.
The cherry on that cupcake is that McConnell admitted that he would have held Scalia's seat open for FOUR years if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election.
I agree with everything you said. That’s exactly what happened
I didn’t agree with what McConnell did. What I find intriguing is that many people here either live in the past, or try to take a stab at the future. Certainly, the past can be prologue. However, in my opinion, we all would be better suited to live in the present. Wait for things to happen, and then judge them based on how they happened.
I’m not familiar with the laws that Applied to what happened in this particular case, but apparently what McConnell did was legal, although perhaps immoral, as it happened as it did.
The Democrats usually do a very good job of fighting back as needed. If McConnell had no right to do this, I’m certain the democrats wouldn’t have let it happen.
Politics is one of the ugliest games on the planet.
As a side note, take it for what it’s worth, Barack Obama appointed two justices, and Biden appointed one and Trump appointed three which equaled out The political landscape as it existed before the last three presidents were in office.
If you would like to discuss more recent rulings of the court, I’d be more than happy to engage in that conversation.
please go away.
Go troll somewhere else. Last time I'm telling you. Ignoring you from here on
Jen don’t be compelled to answer or read my posts. I’m just responding to what I read here by providing my perspective
By the way, I didn't like the way Mitch McConnell played it either and in the end it ended up biting Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party because Merrick Garland took out his revenge so to speak as the attorney general
I must have missed the Garland revenge part.
Ricks a bot. His AI generated screeds are there only to block the HCR page. which is unpopular with the RW because she tells the truth.
Oh, and by the way, if and when the connection/communication comes out between Alvin Bragg and the White House/doj , it’s gonna be pretty funny how that case went putting a known convicted perjury felon and a porn star as your star witnesses. That’s gonna make a good movie.
Look below. It’s been called lawfare but it only Independents and right wingers were told about it because your media lied about it and lost half its audience in the process.
Did he though?
Well, there were a number of cases brought about against Trump that were never brought out before against any president except Trump.
There is General Flynn. There is Roger Stone. There is Steve Bannon. There is Rudy Giuliani. So you tell me. And what’s really gonna be funny is the litany of pardons that Jo is going to have to do to reach all the way down to his nieces and nephews and anybody even close to touching what Hunter was involved in. Not to mention the January 6 committee probably some of the 51 experts that said that Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Probably schiff and Hillary for three years of the Russia hoax. I’m sure if you give me a minute I could pick up a few more
But I really enjoyed all the clemency this past week. Even a lot of liberals are pissed at that list.
No he didn’t.
Well well well, look what the cat dragged in . . . .
Ricks a bot. His AI generated screeds are there only to block the HCR page. which is unpopular with the RW because she tells the truth.
I know, and I usually ignore him. Just felt like playing Meleager today, throwing some apples for Atalanta to chase . . .
I am trying to keep my responses short and poignant, However, the breath and scope of the points being made here, make it a little bit difficult. But I just want you to know I am trying
Oh they're poignant . . . just not in the way you intended the word Boris.
Not wishing to be picky, and grateful for your reply - but I think you'll find you have been playing Hippomenes. Unless you were talking about Konstantinos Meleager who plays for Atalanta B.C. in Italy? (By the way - how's the foot?)
I should never write about Greek myths before morning coffee. Christ, Meleager and Atalanta . . . what was I thinking. What next . . . Achilles abducting Helen? Aegistheus killing Penelope's suitors? Eeegad!
Now go read the poem I sent to Bill Katz that I wrote 38 years ago tell me there were bots around 38 years ago OK ? Denial only lasts so long.
you know you keep referring to me as a bot when you know I’m not
You asked me an honest question, I gave you an honest answer, and you twisted my response to fit your narrative
Sometime later today, I’m going to post a poem here I wrote for my son some 50 years ago. Let’s see if you still have the same misguided feeling about me
Yeah, I was delightedly reading comments till I came across him, and there is a new group that has to respond to him. Sigh.
Just offering some balance. I don't think I said anything that was either offensive or mind-boggling. To me the most important thing I said if you'll read my entire segment on the army Navy game all the way to the bottom it was very all inspiring to hear what each team had to say. I'm sure you have no interest in reading something from a extreme right wing point of view which would not be from me, but it will demonstrate what I mean by balance and I think help to illustrate the way people except and translate information.
Still not using the correct spelling for accept. It’s not except.
Kim reading is fundamental as I mentioned many times I’m voice texting but I caught it when I went back and if you look just below this you’ll see the correction. Sorry
Accept
Oh look, the cat spit up a fur ball on the rug . . .
C'mon. Lol. It wasn't all that bad lol and I hope you got the message regarding the army Navy game and the answers at the end I do believe at the end that we're on the same team and if the policies work for people that we need to support them and if they don't work, we need to make our voice is heard
McConnell no longer has the power he once had, and when he held power, that ‘’fierce use’’ was directed at thwarting the legitimate authority of a sitting Democratic President and following that, supporting a tyrant.
Right, after all he said " let's make Obama a one term president "
My greatest concern is that those Democrats in Congress who might defend us from fascism are too weak (no backbone) to fight as if their lives depended on it (probably because their lives are not at risk... most of them at least)... and the mainstream news industry that's supposed to help democracy survive has turned out to be just as weak (if not more so) than the Democrats. AOC should be in a leadership position, but Pelosi is being her usual "mob boss" self and holding her back. Kamala should be prosecuting Trump (in the "court of public opinion") ahead of his inauguration, but she probably thinks being so outside the box aggressive will hurt her chances in 2028. So, where does that leave us? Precisely where Sarah Kendzior (best selling author of "Hiding In Plain Sight" and "They Knew" says we are... desperately in need to give up "hero will save us" thinking and understand that the ONLY people who will save us is us!
Or as Walt Kelly's Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Let us not inadvertently, through lack of courage, undermine our ability to succeed.
Pogo was correct in 1970 and still correct nearly 55 years later!
I used to post that cartoon regularly before FB and T banned me. Also the one about history repeating. And here we go again.
Betsy, that's exactly what we been doing......
What we are starting to See is the loss of our 1st Amendment Rights... The 1st Amendment guarantees among other things Freedom of Religion, and Speech... This has been construed to include Freedom-Of-The-Press... The ABC Settlement, and the Lawsuit against to Des Moines Register are attacks on the 1st Amendment... Tyrants always attack the Media First, they want to Control the Public Sphere... DJT was a terrible Corporate CEO, but a great Promoter for Himself... By sowing Chaos, DJT controls the Narrative.... DJT wants to be a Tyrant of all that he Surveys, DJT will be more Dangerous this time...
Big Orange is merely following the example set by Viktor Orban of Hungary, he of the Illiberal democracy. Orban has essentially shut down the press in Hungary through threats and intimidation.
DJT is also following the examples set by Hitler, Mussolini, and the Soviets... Didn't Ivana say that DJT kept a copy of Hitler's Speeches on the Bedside Night-Stand?....
Yep, and Karl Rove started using the section on “Hitler, the liar” back in 1994 in Texas when he flim flammed the Texans on W.
And he is still a president/prime minister (?) and will keep being one for years to come. Just picture that in our country, the Bastion of Democracy. 🤢
Let's hope the Des Moines defends itself instead of giving up like ABC. The price ABC is going to pay is much, much higher than 15 millions.
Maybe I have a weird sense of humor but the ABC agreement to pay $15 million to a Trump Presidential Library made me laugh. The idea that the illiterate and secretive trump will ever have a library struck me as the ultimate joke by ABC.
He will indeed, got more money than our government at his disposal. We all will be paying taxes to muskrat
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley looks to be ready for the fight of his life. MY Senator!!
Mine too, jon.
Sarah Kendzior is a great writer, who has sadly been spot on about where America is going for the last decade or so. More people should read her words, especially those in power.
They would never, power tells, not listens. Big mouths, no ears
If Harris feels being ‘silent’ will help her in 2028, Kamala has forfeited any loyalty from me. After canvassing for her, after volunteering endless support vehicles - Harris goes silent after Nov. 7th - she will not be trusted in my eyes.
Turns out, Harris is a real politician … no longer a prosecutor at heart. Her mother must be spinning in her grave.😢💔
that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Where's our megaphone 📣!!!!
As Heather has pointed out, Trump does an everything he can to be the center of attention. He focuses on the good, the bad, and the ugly as toys he plays around with. He isn’t smart nor demented but he is a clever actor. He knows what stirs people up. He knows he will be grifting again and is thrilled to be in that position. It is embarrassing and pathetic to watch these billionaires travel to his residence to pledge their life to him. In a few days, Amazon workers will go on strike as Bezos has done his best to ignore his peasants. Let’s see if they are successful. I would love to see him suffer a loss of revenue but I doubt that would happen.
Folks, we have a long road ahead of us. We are very lucky we have Heather and others who inform us of the inner workings of what is going on, how history repeats itself, and what we might expect. None of it will be pretty but sticking together is how we get through.
I had sort of come to the same conclusion…trump does not know anything more than he knew the last time around….he only speaks to hear the sound of his voice. So we have to pay attention to what others try to do, never mind what is said. We know it will be difficult but we are not alone and we will work together: we must rise to the occasion! ❤️
During his first presidency i always said the one to watch was Steve Bannon. Now ,I'm sorry to say, there are too many to name....
😢😢😢
The name-dropping makes my flesh creep.
Our guardrails have fallen and there aren’t many left. Joe still believes in a system that has had the underpinnings ripped out. I wish Dems had kept Kamala front and center and called out every lie. Even if it was to a few loyal souls. Like HCR with her whisper that echoes…
By not keeping Kamala front and center calling out every lie, mostly that trump won by landslide and has a mandate, democrat leadership showed again it's weakness and lack of survival instinct.
I’d like to believe what you said…rather than my own conviction that voters of both parties still prefer a white man. Any white man. Twenty years ago I asked a judge from Sarajevo if he thought the US would ever elect a woman president. He looked at me sadly and kindly and said “no. It won’t happen in America.”
Black and female, how stupid are we. America committing suicide
No argument here pm
I'm going to print that out and stick it on my desk.
sticking with you and the Professor
❤️❤️
The bitter truth
Not sure how you refer to the leaders of industry as such however, the United States needs an economic engine to survive and you're talking about those very people who make it happen.
By the way, it was OK for those "" grifter to loan Kamala Harris $2 billion to lose. Where do you think that money came from?
I beg to differ. CFDT is demented.
Love your post. But trump does have dementia.
Maybe, maybe not. He’s just a mean sonofabitch devoid of any feelings.
Such a hypocrite that Mitch is. But the Dems aren’t much better. Choosing a dying, 74 year-old man over AOC for a committee chairmanship shows that it’s business as usual in the “good ole boys” club.
I'm so angry and disgusted with the "old guard" that I am considering unregistering as a Dem. I probably won't, but I am thinking about it for the first time in my life.
You csn do whatever you think is good right now, wherever you are; you don’t hsve to change your party affiliation.
Fortunately, ME is a state where Independents can choose one or the other primary ballots. Susan Collins urged Independents and Republicans to vote for Nikki Haley in the 2024 ME primary. If you live in a state that restricts your primary voting, you urge your state representatives to change it.
I did - feel free to join n give em a message…
Not the time
Sorry, as much as I continue to be thrilled by AOC's presence in Congress, it's still runs a fairly traditional seniority system. AOC is only in the her third term, which is REALLY early for any one to get a committee leadership role in Congress. Connolly is a ·liberal Democrat who has served 8 terms in Congress. The vote was approximately 130-80 which was impressive for AOC but still quite a ways from winning. She will get her chances on the future and I expect she will be great but also virtually no one gets a committee leadership position after 3 terms in Congress. That's pretty much unheard of.
Democracy needs AOC to have increased influence now.
Sorry, that's just silly. AOC isn't ready to take a leadership role in Congress. She's both too young and too inexperienced. And she is WAY too progressive to lead the party, especially at this point after the beating we took in the last election. I repeat, I personally am a huge left wing Socialist, I love AOC and most of the progressive coalition of Democrats but I also want to win and it is pretty clear we aren't ready for a serious move to left wing politics in this country.
AOC will get her chance in the 2030s after she turns 40+ years old. Right now we need experienced Democrats who know how to navigate the Congressional waters from lots of experience, like Jamie Raskin and Hakeem Jeffries in the House.
Stupid, wait til somebody is ancient. duh
For me, it’s the last disappointment I am willing to accept from the party I have supported my entire life.
They still believed in the system which has been rigged.
I would respectfully disagree. Admittedly, my view has been cynically formulated over decades of disappointment. They believe in the rigged system. It allows them to expand their wealth. They don’t have ANY concept of real life for real Americans. They don’t listen to us. They do not care what we need or want. They’re the only other party in town, leaving their constituents voiceless. Witness Pelosi refusing to bring Medicare for All to the floor when she was speaker. For which she was recognized by the AMA. Yes. I. Am. Angry.
Wonder what her reason was for that…. Didn’t know she did that, I have missed a few hard lessons over the years.
She is invested in the current system and insurance, of course.
So sad that the Independents are so powerless and the Greens are so crazy
I just find this so funny as this site was the group that supported Joe Biden because of his "wisdom" when I was arguing that he was clearly too old to run again.
At least be consistent!
Absolutely JD!!!! They need to open their eyes and vote for realistic leadership before is too late.
Tad too late I fear
He is 74, nor79, but we understand your point.
Adele, it doesn't matter if this representative is 74, 79 or 30. It's, mostly in this times, what fighting spirit they have and how willing they are to not to play by the book when necessary.
Typo, sorry
Herb, we all will pay for that...
I suggest to you if they would've offered somebody other than AOC they would've kicked Mitch to the to the curb
Wrong party, wrong leadership position, wrong house of Congress.
Troll harder.
And YET, the basic facts remain the same.
🙄
I hope every one of the dumbassed motherfucking scum who voted for him - from the ignoramus white working class steelworkers in PA who will lose their jobs because he wants to kill the Nippon Steel deal to save US Steel, to the idiot farmers who will lose their farms without immigrant labor - get everything that's coming to them. "Good and hard," as H.L. Mencken put it.
Unfortunately, those of us who didn’t vote for him are going to wind up being collateral damage via higher pricing for produce, lack of cleaners in hotel, lack of BOH in restaurants, slowdown in construction, meatpacking, etc.
Most of our family members are stocking up on non-perishable items now.
My daughter is building a house and she just purchased the appliances, ceiling fans and fixtures even though they won't be needed for a few months.
The same thing happened with Covid-19 with paper products, but for a different reason. People forget how many items in the grocery stores were unavailable for weeks or even months at a time.
People will remember, too late
We're stocking up on non perishables, too. Planting a vegetable garden in spring, even though I'm a disabled senior with a bad back. Eating's more important.
As the New Yorker cartoon said - two intellectuals having an argument:
"Those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it!"
"Yes, and those of us who do understand are condemned to repeat it with them."
It makes you wonder doesn’t it Tom, just how many union members voted for the insipid orange turd and not Kamala, after the administration that she was part of was the most pro-labor of our lifetimes. How many UAW members in MI voted for the IOT after Joe Biden walked a picket line supporting them, to my knowledge the first time a president has done that. Just look at the nominees for cabinet positions, if you wanted to destroy everything that we hold dear you would not be able to pick a better group to do that. The maggot base that the repugnantkins value so highly is functionally clueless, which is why they are enamored with that POS.
The other faction that really is going to get it where it hurts are the intelligent people who willingly placed themselves in a news bubble where they bought all the lies, disinformation, and other garbage put out by Faux, OAN, America First, etc.
I have to say I am (at least a little bit) looking forward to all my retired cop cohort whining about their loss of Social Security and Medicare, the price of gas and eggs, and the losses as yet to be determined of "their" rights as Project 2025 is enacted, and that tfg's "disavowal" of it was as much a lie as anything else that spewed out of his mouth.
This is obvious but not everyone has realized this yet…
Nor will they.....
As long as they remain ignorant and the information they receive is filtered by cowards like ABC and colleagues they would never realize.
As far as I'm concerned, the millions who DID NOT VOTE are just as guilty for putting the rest of us in this nasty mess.
Exactly so, Kathleen.
TC, I agree 100%. Good and hard, and I'll laugh and extend both middle fingers at them as they ask to board my life raft.
Maybe Heather's correct in weighing the degrees of Republican infighting.
One thing remains true, however -- the role of U.S. billionaires. Another thing that's true of them is that they like criminality. It can be useful – and deniable, as we ever see in our chief convicted criminal and jury-adjudicated, fat, orange rapist.
A Yale professor, Daniel Markovits, has a new book out, “The Meritocracy Trap,” which shows how belief in superiority unites most all U.S. billionaires with the country’s now-dying though superficially elite schools.
We measure superiority by counting, property owned, assets in the bank, points on standardized tests.
Valuing excellence, like democracy, needs no one at the top. In a democracy or in quality schools, everybody can be respected, for varieties of qualities. All cherish getting skilled in seeing excellence in others – quite opposite the convicted criminal and fat, orange rapist who only aims at taking to court, and imprisoning any and all who do not fawn for his superiority.
I'm not sure you saw it but a gentleman by the name Stephanopoulos was suit for $15 million for referring to Trump as a racist. I doubt very much if you wanna make that same mistake in public. Just my opinion.
Sorry. Rapist not racist. Voice texting and didn't catch it.
Trump is both a rapist and a racist. He is also a SNOWFLAKE THAT DEVOLVES TO WHAT HE KNOWS BEST… he is sly as a fox … Release the hounds,.. oh wait, they lack the COJONES of AOC!
Well, since it’s a pretty public forum, I hope doesn’t Trump get a hold of it like he got a hold of Stephanopoulos for defamation. It only cost ABC 15. Oh I’m sorry 16 million. And he’s got two or three more going on right now.
And I gotta give it to you as people will see this a lot. AOC’S got COJONES but not a lot Going on about 2 1/2 -3feet above that. . In fact, you better start packing for Mars as we only have about another 4 1/2 years to live on this planet according to AOC.
Ok. So at the time that Trump was found to have forced his finger(s) into a woman’s vagina against her will, it was not classified as rape under New York law. Had the incident happened more recently the law changed and now it is considered rape under New York law.
Found to have… how many years after it actually happened? This woman was as credible as Michael Cohen, in my opinion. And if given the trial in a different jurisdiction, then the verdict would’ve been very different.
Trump is both a racist and rapist.
How will any of this make life in America better? It won’t. In fact, life will be worse for most of us. For some much worse. It adds up to profit over people.
It adds up to profit over people.
AKA "Reaganomics".
Nothing new there Michael ,that's why stupid people shouldn't vote.
“The uncertainty he creates is key to his power, Marshall notes. It keeps everyone off balance and focused on him in anticipation of trouble to come.”
“When the people can be left uncertain by the constant manufacture of crisis, their emotions and behavior can be managed and directed.” -Solkov, former political technologist to Putin.
Manipulation is not leadership, it’s demagoguery. No one is better for it. The country is weaker, vulnerable. It doesn’t add value. It can’t solve problems, it creates more. I fear a cascade of events coming that could spiral out of control and quickly.
Manipulation serves the purposes of powerful people who live to gain as mush property and power over others as they possibly can. How many human lives have been ruined or ended in service of such insatiable egos?
It's funny while people on the left feel that he is manufacturing crises . Those on the right see him as doing exactly what he promised to do and nothing less so to them It's no surprise at all
No. Not sure. He is definitely manufacturing crisis by the possible policy threat. It’s a mix of Roy Cohn, Russian political technology, create a false reality, and Chaos Theory. He honed it over a career as wannabe real estate player committing fraud after fraud with investors and banks, got bailed out by Russian investors ( Putin and his oligarchs), then got taught how to really perform the schtick in front of tv cameras. The outrageousness of the threat keeps people and the media tuned in. But it’s always about the “next” crisis. Since the ratings have never been better, keep rolling the cameras. Everyone is making hay at the dwindling middle class’s expense.
Also, you might've missed it but 68% of the country thought Biden was heading in the wrong direction and I'm gonna tell you that most of that was the middle class.
As evidenced by the election results which are 49 of the 50 states became REDDER than before the election
RS, don’t forget or discount Putin’s $10 million disinformation campaign, coupled with the sycophantic right wing media echo chamber burning through the flammable tinder that is the underbrush of social media supercharged by algorithms that push controversy to the front if the line.
You know it's probably illegal to proselytize Aesop's fables
Just sayin
The only crisis that's happening is in liberals minds
As I said earlier, it's no surprise to the people. He promised to do things and that's exactly what he's going to try to do.
He's shaken up Washington and it's about time let's see if we can get rid of some of the bloat and maybe get our financials in order
Right…so don’t panic. Keep your cool…I don’t mean you, I mean we must all keep our cool so we can figure out what to do.
Do you like I suggested listen to the feedback by the players at the army Navy game? I'll repeat this in case you haven't heard it. A player from each team was asked about their thoughts of the upcoming game and they both said we wanna fight like hell and win the game. But their next comment voluntarily delivered was but after the game, we're all on one team we support America and defend America. I hope you got the symbolism there.
RS, Trump and his in-crowd certainly didn’t get the symbolism. Indeed, they explicitly reject that approach.
To the contrary, Trump is promising RETRIBUTION!!!
Trump’s choice to be FBI Director has assembled a long enemies hit list.
“We’ve Seen Kash Patel’s Enemies List. It’s Terrifying.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/trump-fbi-pick-kash-patel-enemies-list.html
The thought of having to rely on McConnell to keep our government on track is not particularly comforting.
It sounds as if different factions with different desires, all based on greed, with no thought at all for the public good, are starting to solidify. To what extent they cancel each other out seems as if it will be a major question in the months ahead.
The policy is for sale. Bring money and adulation and the new President is yours to influence. They are providing these things and we aren’t. The Democrats are outnumbered in Congress so the old man can have his day. AOC would not be making waves just disturbing the waters. We can replace the entire House every 2 years but won’t bother to do it. If we want a better world we need to make it instead of complaining.
McConnell had his chance and he blew it, big time.
I don’t believe we will give up. Together we are strong. We need to be watchful and strategic. Some Republicans and some wealthy business people stand against elements of his plans as Heather notes. All is not lost. Be ready. Pay attention to those who can see the truth and understand our power.
Exactly! Thank you.
And where appropriate, speak as one voice. Bottom line solidarity and reciprocation makes liberty, diversity, and justice possible. Liberty and justice for all requires maintenance and recognition by the preponderance of a whole society, else all too human crude and ultimately violent self-centeredness tear it apart.
McConnell is a typical Republican - cares about something only when it personally affects him or is personally meaningful to him.
Susan Collins pretends to be Independent of McConnell by voting against many judicial nominees, but it is obvious she has a deal with McConnell that she will only vote against picks where McConnell already has the votes. e.g. Amy Comey-Barrett. She didn't really want to vote for Kavanaugh but her's was the deciding vote.
To paraphrase Vonnegut:
Republicans and Democrats are just clubs people belong to. The real powers are Winners and Losers.
This will be a bad as it looks. These oligarchs will get what they want. The rest of us are Losers.
I miss Vonnegut!! His books are comfort food for my soul.
Me too 😁
Sure would like the list of the “more than a hundred industrial trade groups that signed a 21-page letter to Trump complaining that “regulations are strangling our economy, “” so we can strangle their businesses with a boycott.
Me too, would happily strangle any