Punishment for being up late is learning more about the dysfunctional system of making laws and how money gets first priority. Elon Muskrat is a major threat to America and Ukraine
Punishment for being up late is learning more about the dysfunctional system of making laws and how money gets first priority. Elon Muskrat is a major threat to America and Ukraine
As is plutocracy period. We should never have let it get this far, and allowing it free reign would mean the end of democracy in this society, with knock-on trauma around the globe.
Well said JL. Too late for lamentations, all we can do us to limit the damage they will unleash to be in a better position to replace MAGA, for MADA (Make America Decent Again)
And somehow present a contrasting vision to a world dominated by ugly narcissism. It's strange that so many fall under it's spell, yet hardly unprecedented. We are social beings by nature, and the way out of hell is to look out for one another.
That's hardly a new idea either; yet the "decent" way takes work that is both external and internal. The alternative gets things moving a whole lot faster, but like jumping off a cliff, it gets ugly fast when reality strikes. Wisdom might be about what, in the end, most matters.
The farmers will be the first to see the disaster when TrumpтАЩs tariffs make it impossible for them to sell their farm products internationally, and when their work forces get deported.
Uh OK. I will wait and see. I agree whole heartedly that there will be a whole lotta things to be fed up over by then. But that is where my agreeing ends. You seem to have more confidence in the American people than I do.
And how will Trump voters develop a second thought to do the тАЬright thingтАЭ. With musk posting 150 times, how many is Harris posting? She and the Dems should be slamming this?
My take is that we should see who becomes DNC chair. I'm for Ben Wickler. But whenever that is decided, perhaps we should flood that office with our rage and suggestions for a new Democratic platform that appeals to the 90 million people who were eligible to vote who DIDN'T.
Please consider forgetting about "Trump voters". They are lost in a wilderness of ignorance, hate and ingrained bigotry. Let 'em go.
If we had harvested 10 percent of those NON voters in the right states, we wouldn't be having this chat. And IMO, we can get them to the decent side of politics with an appeal for ECONOMIC JUSTICE and hope for a better life. They don't believe in ANY party now. If we can offer them some financial relief, we will get their votes.
We have to be lauder, less polite, not always by the book, never the appeaser, not too nice, even if is not in our nature. Take it as a temporary sacrifice...тШ║я╕П
We need a lot more than Harris posting. Every Dem Senator and Representative should be speaking up. Taking to their local media, getting on YouTube, posting on BlueSky. It's unbelievable how quiet so many of them are, including my Senators, Cantwell and Patty Murray. They NEVER have a peep to say other than stiff little missives on their websites. It's inexplicable and maddening.
Kamala Harris is toast. If she had been genuinely ready for the presidency, she would have taken Biden out of office through the 25th Amendment months ago and gone to war with Trump, cast off her hard left wing as getting in the way, and won. Instead, she took the "brat" route and now we have Trump.
Im worried about that too Richard. I didn't have a crystal ball but, based on what we saw coming from Congress this last few days I hope legislators would cool down MAGA worse impulses. ЁЯдЮ
Once the "everyday" trumper citizens come to the realization of how this is going to personally affect them, I believe they WILL do the right thing in 2 years. Let's certainly hope so. In the meantime, I'm waiting for the dogfight of two very rich, very greedy, very narcistic personalities to happen. I hope they eat each other alive!
If we're thinking this way, so are the Trump team, and they will develop a plan to make sure the people who are still loyal are the ones who get a chance to speak. We can't wait for the next election to fix things, we have to start now to make sure they don't get so bad as to be beyond fixing before 2026.
Maybe some of the shrewder billionaires will be less scattered, but Trump is playing King of the Playpen. Chaos will ensue, if he gets his way, and that seems unlikely to be popular. You might con your way into the cockpit with a captain's uniform, but at some point it's obvious that you can't fly the plane.
JL, тАЬjumping off a cliffтАЭ reminded me of some snarky jokes said by climbers that were part of my life years ago: тАЬitтАЩs not the fall that gets you, itтАЩs the landingтАЭтАж.otherwise known as тАЬdeceleration traumaтАЭ. HavenтАЩt thought of that in yearsтАжmorbid sense of humor in that group!
or ".... it's the sudden stop", as a friend of mine in primary school told me. "deceleration" is a good word, but we probably didn't know it at the time.
Democrats in Congress keep fighting for things that benefit 90% of the people (or more) who voted for Trump and GOP senators and Congress men and women were voted into office by their "constituencies." It's time Democrats and main stream media start learning how to hold them accountable for the way they vote. This is a tough fight, because one side continues to play by the rules and respect the norms of engagement, while the other does not. One side speaks the truth or tones down the truth in the name of "both side-ism" while the other is Fox News (and a host of other liars and cheaters). Hold them accountable for their votes. Hold them accountable in public during the upcoming hearings of the ridiculous appointments (Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel, Kennedy Jr, the list goes on). HCR and a few others can not be the only one holding them accountable for the way they vote and the way they've turned this country into a stinking mess.
J L, well said. I wish I could rid myself of my cynicism about humankind. What matters, and has always mattered, to those at the top is staying there and extracting as much labor and wealth from the rest of us as possible. Now that we have a climate crisis along with all the other problems, they are convinced their money will save them. It won't, but we will probably all die while they are trying to save their selfish selves.
All the behavior that is sweet and honorable, and all that cruel and selfish is in the mix of human behaviors. Collectively we have at least a measure of choice for which we call forward.
It is encouraging that Republicans continue to battle each other and still cower at the thought that Elon, with one check, could scuttle their future in the House after 2026.
Wouldn't it be nice if a handful of Republican Congresscritters decided to become Democrats or Independents and caucus with the Dems?
I propose to change Citizens United for Billionaires United. Maybe McConnell would agree.ЁЯдФ.......it's a little adjustment to reflect the reality. I wrote this before my first AM coffee, sorry, ill try again later.
What Musk is doing and what "Citizens United" represents is poisonous, jaw-dropping corruption of the better angels of our political system. Massive and organized resistance should have greeted both in my opinion, to massive and organized corruption; but society seems to have let both pass with a grumble.
I keep waiting for a new party to emerge--quite possible if Liz and Adam Kinsinger got some of the "old school" Republicans on board. But IMHO they need to do it NOW, not later.
No! It is not about Trump! Or Musk! It is about the Dems inability to take their message to the people. Look at the post here. We are obsessed with Trump while the path to success is promoting those like McGovern. Musk had 150 social media posts in one day. Every dem in the country should take to social media and post the facts. It got to far? So what are we going to do to stop it from going further?
Yah. Why didn't the Dems buy up all the media and stuff it full of their slant ??? Actually the media owners have shot themselves in the foot long term, putting themselves out if business with bad journalism practices. I can't decide if it more satisfying to see them go down drowning in their own excrement or wish theyd descintegrate immediately.
Unfortunately, I underestimated th number of TrumpтАЩs talents. The one I knew he possessed was to bring out the worst in everybody (including me). He clearly has another one. He can convince his followers to believe him in preference to their eyes and ears, and certainly in preference to Democrats who lie all the time.
Agree 1000%. We have the worst PR on the planet. If Madison Ave. can get you to buy practically anything, why can't we sell our policies, which are truly helping the American public, any better? And the right wing always manages to make it sound we are the devil incarnate. Free school lunch - horrible! Infrastructure act and jobs - it will kill democracy! Improved healthcare - it will kill you! We NEVER get it right. We blather on in wonkspeak, or just assume they will appreciate the outcomes, and here we sit, on the losing end, once again, while they unravel all the good Biden just did.
Kathleen, you mentioned Madison Avenue, but didn't mention what Madison Avenue knows about the U.S. consumer and how it exploits that knowledge. This secret is apparently unknown to Dems' operatives and voters.
Allow me to share it now: Contrary to popular opinion, U.S. consumers do not think; they FEEL. Buying decisions are not based on logic, or even on finance. They are based on EMOTION. The overwhelming majority of U.S. consumers buy goods and services based on how they expect to feel after the purchase. The same is true of U.S. voters.
Regardless of which school of thought they camp in, U.S. economists recently have been confounded by the current phenomenon in which the U.S. economy is the healthiest it's been in decades, yet consumers universally tell pollsters they believe the economy is the worst it's ever been. Consumers are spending more than ever, but believe the economy is in the tank. The Republican propaganda machine has a lot to do with that.
Unfortunately, the message from the Democratic Party has been an offer of better financial security for everyone, which certainly seems to be the most appealing message of any. The offer was rejected by millions of voters, both D and R.
Meanwhile, Trump and his mouthpieces have been hammering away at how bad things are. Crime is up (it's not), the economy is terrible (it's not), immigrants are criminals (they're not) and so on. Without offering any policy proposals, Trump promised to "fix" all these problems and make voters feel better about America. They bought it.
Democrats will not win the hearts and minds of U.S. voters with facts and policies. They will win with feelings. That is the challenge.
Maybe Harris won! Demand Biden use his executive order to do a hand recount in the swing states where the data is HIGHLY SUSPECT.
This is an excellent video summary of the Smart Elections data findings (smart elections.us) for those that may be having difficulty wrapping their head around it:
Sandra: I think there are two separate groups of social media people. Those who accept the message hook line and sinker, and those who have a functioning brain. I think that the people who did not vote are more in the first category and either did not vote or voted for the moron. So the Dems message has to be not only on social media, but in one to one contact on the ground.
Sandra, I loved your comment. I've been asking for months for our leadership to drop the nice guy stance and not go by the book all the time, not to be the appeaser in the room and as I wrote a couple of hours earlier, even if is not in our nature. Take as a temporary sacrifice. ЁЯШЙ
I am a confirmed atheist, however: this has always resonated with me---"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Sometimes, we are unable to see into the future well enough to predict outcomes. All we can do is what we think is the right thing.
Not too late. Promote politicians like McGovern. Break down this info in ways everyone understands. Post this info. Find ways to talk about those in congress with the right ideas. We need to stop burying the lead with Trumps uglyness. Promote those like McGovern that are doing the work.
The media played a huge part in this. They did a horrible job of covering Biden and the good he did during his entire presidency and the coverage of the election was worse. Not sure how we change this since they are mostly republican owned. They pushed the lies told by republicans over any truth. Disgusting is my only conclusion. I havenтАЩt watched or read any news since the election, fтАФk them.
Judy, I agree with your comment, but offer one little tweak. The major news outlets are all owned by billionaires. As such, they are prostitutes for the almighty dollar and not loyal to any political party. If Democrats started offering tax cuts for the wealthy and promises to eliminate regulations, Corporate Media would switch sides so fast, news audiences would have severe cases of whiplash.
Judy Croft Barkume -- Three Cheers to you! The press has ignored President Biden from the beginning! And that has been P***ing me off for the same length of time! Before your comment, I never connected the dots to the owners of the press. Naivety on my part.
Prior to the "Reagan Revolution", media ownership was regulated to avoid domination of any owner in any particular market, and commercial ownership in general was regulated by anti-trust.
I don't think very many Americans are aware of the number of once leading American companies have vanished into shadowy supermassive corporate black holes. Ostensibly competing brands are often products of the same company, and genuine competition is fading. Many billionaires care for nothing and no one beyond achieving total domination and absolute power. Look at the Musk and his ilk in the "GOP". It's our species most tragic flaw, it it just might kill us all.
Talk in bullet points and sound bites that the average person gets and say it over and over again. The script must be consistent, like the Republicans. People get confused when the message deviates. They like repetition and clarity. And go buy some newspapers and radio stations.
Hopefully, whoever wins the big Megamillions jackpot on Christmas Eve will give us ALL a gift by using their winnings to buy a radio station or two.....if not a few Congresspeople. I'm sure some of them can't be too expensive.
That's how propaganda and deceptive advertising works. Repetition has it's uses in beneficial learning, but it's also a tool of scoundrels, as Goebbels articulated. However it's not clarity, as in clarity of vision, or understanding has no part in it. Clarity is scientific discovery or "government of the people, by the people, for the people", seeing what is real in a fruitful way. E=MC squared, easy to state, laborious to unpack.
Deceivers and fools offer simplistic answers. overly easy but useless or foolhardy. Just get rid of immigrants. Just get rid of government, etc.
"Give up on mainstream media. ItтАЩs a lost cause."
Please notice HCR cites mainstream media. There are still fine investigative reporters working at such as the NYTimes and even the Bezos compromised Washington Post. Read and write Letters to the Editor.
I have read some excellent MSM investigative reporting in recent yesrs, but it seems less common since the "Reagan Revolution" and "in-bedded journalism". Reporters did not pussyfoot around Nixon the way they do with Trump. Of course the rules have been changed since then, and not in a good way.
We need a "paper of record" that is not just a plaything of plutocratic ideologues. Seems to me we tread this road before in the era of US "Robber Barons", even if that was only a warm up.
What stumps me is that there is no attempt at burying the ugliness. Instead the blatant conflicts of interest are paraded in broad daylight. This is what you get when the most powerful man in the world partners with richest man in the world. My friend asked whereтАЩs God? I told her that God has nothing to do with this. He gave man free will and they chose this messтАж.
I think most people know what our "better angels" are about, but what do we really want? There is not much space in the onslaught of the commercial blast to think about those sort of questions.
"if it bleeds it ledes" is a formula for "eyeballs", yet wise governance of, by and for the people absolutely requires an informed electorate. How could it not? We are kept abreast of the most aberrant but not of what is being done and what it takes to keep our society reasonably safe, functioning and free. If we were attending to that, would the country ever elect a wrecking crew? Would a con man be celebrated for saying "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
When people are bleeding, who comes the stop the blood? Who identifies and rectifies hazards? Who does the adult things, day in day out? Whose due diligence really keeps things fixed, not necessarily with drama but with chop wood, carry water?
That many not be so exciting as a food fight (or a war) but it's the adult thing that makes for a safe space to raise children, and a reasonably kind and fruitful space for all. We never left Eden; we became adults; and by protecting what is child-like and rejecting what is child-ish, it's our opportunity and duty to make the best of our hours in our dangerous yet paradisaical planetary home.
Use your energy to flood your representatives, both congress and senate, federal and state. When they see what their voters are interested in and are the reason they are there and more important, want to get there again they will fight for what is right and against this MAGA madness. Do that for just 5 minutes every day and our voices will be heard. We cannot change the past but we can defend for the, our, future. We will not go back.
Some bees, when a killer hornet gets into the hive, surround it and roast it with their body heat. We need to keep the spotlight on the marauding of such as Charles Koch, Elon Musk et al. We need to keep the spotlight on DOGE and the House committee Johnson set up to officially implement the schemes of players without government portfolios. DOGE should be walled off from effective influence on legislation.
The CR PR defeat for MuskTrump may inspire Republicans to use their power for the United States, instead of for MuskTrump. We cannot let the MuskTrumpGOP regime MO become business as usual - to tank bipartisan legislation, strip out negotiated Democratic items, add dangerous MuskTrump items, and then celebrate legislation which strips out the absurdly dangerous without restoring the absolutely necessary (such as restrictions on trade with China.) MuskTrump may chafe at the PR debacle, but will still profiteer on conflicts of interest. In the last Trump term China granted Ivanka Trump trademarks for made in China made voting machines. Of course Trump's Bibles are made in China. Now Musk. That's the least of it.
After WW2 Congress called Fred Trump to testify regarding government waste and fraud. Because of loopholes in government oversight legislation, Trump had been able to profiteer on wartime government contracts. How he did it was supposed to show which/how laws had to be changed.
Robber barons and war profiteers - unmitigated greed as unregulated capitalism -are no good for America. We have disproved - over and again - all the right wing assertions about money. We need to undo all the GOP tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, return to a system of progressive taxation, and reform the tax code line by line to close the loopholes. People will still get rich, corporations will still make profits. But not wealthy enough to produce Kochs, Musks, et al.
Deregulation is not good for America. Citizens United et al are bad for America. That has been proven definitively. We need to restore/reform campaign finance regulations.
Behind the grievous insults of Christian Nationalism bigotry to individual persons and group, are the injuries of regressive taxation and deregulation to the nation itself.
"The trademarks also cover items including nursing homes, sausage casing, and voting machines. IvankaтАЩs business applied for these trademarks in 2016."
"After World War II, in 1954, Trump was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee for profiteering from public contracts, including overstating his Beach Haven building charges by $3.7 million. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in 1954, William F. McKenna, appointed to investigate тАЬscandalsтАЭ within the FHA, cited Fred C. Trump and his partner William Tomasello as examples of how profits were made by builders using the FHA]409 program.
Lin, The only piece I would add to your highly astute observations/ analysis entails the necessity of the opposition repeatedly calling out the putrid underpinnings of every radical far right proposal and amplifying, in alignment with IndivisibleтАЩs 2025-2026 charge, precisely what they (the opposition) would do differently. I would note IndivisibleтАЩs immediate mission, currently underway by over 3000+ local chapters, is to maintain some amount of democracy until 2026 and achieve significant victories in the midtermsтАФbreaking TrumpтАЩs hold on Congress and state legislatures prior to our entering the 2028 election cycle.
Rickey, Thank you for posting a link to Marc EliasтАЩs Democracy Docket. As a fellow subscriber, presumably like you, I find EliasтАЩs newsletters immeasurably critical both for their empirical evidence demonstrating their acumen for protecting the rule of law and also for their counsel on how everyday people can contribute, aside from donations, to Democracy DocketтАЩs overall mission persistently to ensure the powers rooted in the structures of government established by our Founders remain sufficiently balanced to protect the country against the excesses of any one branch.
I would only add that I think we should abandon taxation on income altogether. Income taxes, even at their most progressive, can be played by the super-wealthy with their army of lawyers and accountants to shield them from most of it. Instead, we should be taxing wealth. It's too complicated to explain in a comment in this forum, but it is extremely easy to implement and avoids all the loophole dodges that enabled Musk et. al to accumulate such obscene wealth - and now power.
"... we should abandon taxation on income altogether . . . Instead, we should be taxing wealth. It's too complicated to explain in a comment in this forum, but it is extremely easy to implement."
I am leery of any assertion which claims something "is too complicated to explain in a comment in this forum, but it is extremely easy to implement." This forum helps us learn from each other. By participants 'doing their homework' and sharing.
Overall, although a wealth tax - on net worth - can mitigate extreme disparities in wealth, where tried as a government's primary generator of revenue, it has proven unwieldy to administer and ineffective in raising revenue. All but a few countries have abandoned it. Instead many progressives, such as senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have proposed a wealth tax in addition to the income tax. I'm with them.
Wealth tax
"A wealth tax, also called capital tax or equity tax, is imposed on the wealth possessed by individuals. The tax usually applies to a personтАЩs net worth, which is assets minus liabilities. These assets include (but are not limited to) cash, bank deposits, shares, fixed assets, personal cars, real property, pension plans, money funds, owner-occupied housing, and trusts."
During the 2020 election, the immense and increasing disparity in wealth in the United States prompted politicians such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to propose a wealth tax, in addition to the income tax."
"Under the current system, people can accumulate billions in wealth and avoid paying income taxes on their gains...
This column first describes the existing system for taxing capital gains, then explains how three different proposals would reform it. All three alternative systemsтАФconstructive realization, carryover basis, and mark-to-market taxation (a targeted version of which is known as the Billionaires Income Tax)тАФwould increase federal revenues in a highly progressive manner."
"There is every reason why, when next our system of taxation is revised, the National Government should impose a graduated inheritance tax, and, if possible, a graduated income tax."
"Before 1913, federal government revenues came mainly from taxes on goodsтАФtariffs on imported products and excise taxes on items like whiskey. The burden of these taxes fell heavily on working Americans, who spent a much higher percentage of their income on goods than rich people did."
"Tackling income and wealth inequality is at the top of the policy agenda in many countries. This note discusses three approaches of wealth taxation, based on (1) returns with a capital income tax, (2) stocks with a wealth tax, and (3) transfers of wealth through an inheritance (or estate) tax. "
WeтАЩve all been paying taxes for muskrat. As a recent Widow , mine went sky high. We ALL are paying for the legal thieves. When Woody Guthrie said that some can rob you with a Six-gun, he spoke for us all.
TD bach, I respectfully disagree with your idea that income should not be taxed. However, I agree that the wealthy among us can afford to game the current taxation system, which puts them at an unfair advantage over the vast majority.
In my opinion, a flat tax with no deductions is the fairest tax. If everyone who earns an income in the U.S. paid a flat percentage, every citizen would "have skin in the game," from the poorest to the richest.
Critics claim that a flat tax is regressive, but I think their opinions are based on faulty assumptions, specifically that there would always be some allowances and deductions. I posit that all deductions are based in social engineering ... legislators trying to encourage (or force) citizens to behave in a certain way.
The truth is, if every taxpayer paid their fair share, without benefit of loopholes, the effective tax rate would be dramatically reduced, such that everyone could afford to pay what they owe. And no one would need to pay tax preparers to file their tax returns.
$100 is effectively a bigger bite of their spending/saving power, than $1000 is for the spending/saving power of the person with $10,000.
Now compare the impact of a flat tax on a person with the USA median income of $37,585 compared with the median income of the USA
top 1% of which is estimated to be around $788,000 per year. (And that is just income not accumulated and inherited wealth available to the 1%. Which has not been taxed equitably.)
The flat tax rate may be equal but the effective impact is not equitable.
The job of government is to take care of the general welfare and justice as fairness requires leveling the playing field. Which benefits all of us overall.
"We need to keep the spotlight on the marauding of such as Charles Koch, Elon Musk et al."
I should've made clear that our spotlight should be primarily on the predations rather than on the persons.
The essays below are examples of spotlighting the *operations* by which such as Charles Koch, Leonard Leo, and the Roberts Court act to restrict our constitutional rights and degrade our democratic republic.
Volunteer for your local Democratic committee to create a Rapid Response team. You do the homework of spotlighting action points and providing supporting documentation. They create a webpage on their site and share with members.
Yes, Lin! It infuriates me that already Musk has been able to influence legislation so that his economic interests are favored. Jim Mc Govern is my Rep. and I am so pleased that he highlighted this blatant corruption in his comments. I intend to write to him today to thank him for pointing out how eliminating the outbound investment provision hurts Americans and benefits Musk.
You write of surrounding killer hornets to kill them with heat. IтАЩm asking everyone who can, please write to your local Rep. and Senators demanding that they pass this bipartisan bill in the next Congress. Particularly, those of you in Texas and Pennsylvania, let Senator Cornyn and Senators Fetterman and McCormick know you want this measure passed. Keep the heat on McCormick and call him out for abandoning American workers in favor of Musk. Keep the spotlight on what it means to have lost Senator Casey, a co-writer, along with Cornyn, of the bill.
ThankYou for Jim McGovern, he is one of my CSpan heroes.
Along with Richard Neal, Sheldon Whitehouse, Benny Thompson, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson, Patty Murray, Chris VanHollen - really most of The Progressive Caucus. We Democrats have a deep bench and we need better messaging to let people know.
Yes, in my email to him, I thanked for highlighting MuskтАЩs corrupt influence, asked him to continue to highlight this, and told him how happy I am that heтАЩs my rep. We love him here!
When I lived in DC I had no voting representation in Congress, so I got in the habit of 'adopting' my CSpan heroes and phoning Thanks. They all need to know what we approve of.
Who would like to organize individual roasting pages for the worst ten autocratic creeps influencing our efforts at democratic government and when they are roasted to dropping out point, replace them with others from the list with next worst ones.
susan, I have no skills to do so, but in my dreams, I'd like to see a youtube channel that fact checks (like Snopes) but did it in such a way as to be catchy and easy to go viral. I had heard the false rumor that the new budget was going to increase the salaries of Congress by 40%, which is NOT TRUE. I didn't know where that misinformation started, but in this clip (which I posted elsewhere) Bernie tells us it was MUSK.
I'd love to see bold graphics and a video of less than say, 30 seconds--imagine this:
Bold yellow type "CONGRESS GETTING A 40% RAISE" and suddenly, the red circle with a line slashes through it with a LOUD AUDIBLE "FALSE" proclamation. Okay, now we need some sort of a cute, fuzzy mascot saying "but but but...who said that?" (cute, fuzzy mascots go viral easily, we need one, be it a real animal, a puppet, or a graphic)
And then up pops the ugliest photo of MUSK available and the voiceover says "HE DID IT" with audible tongue razzing and boos in the background. and horns appear on his head. Up pops the tweet he put up, quickly followed by the image of a gavel smacking the imagine into a crumbled heap with an audible "LIE!!" and a pop up of the graphic of the word "LIE!"(Like whack a mole, perhaps)
It could also apply to any TRUE things that are done, for instance, a graphic saying Biden created whatever number of jobs. Up pops a photo of Biden and the audible says "TRUE!" (up could pop a photo of Biden with a halo. Add the sweet sound of a "ping!")
Our mascot says "but but but.. what jobs? and where?" Now photos of showing folks in hard hats working on construction sights (with label on each saying where and what state) with audible "TA DAs!" and Joe Biden created jobs with the Infrastructure Act.
I totally agree with the sources that lin+ below posts, but this TIKTOK generation is NOT going to look them up, NOT going to read, etc. There was complaint that the Dems were "elitist" (and perhaps others here have noticed that Brian Tyler Cohen has dropped the suits in his videos? ) Our short-attention voter populace seem to need bells and whistles directly delivered to them.
Remember the couch "humping" and "weird" went viral very quickly. Anyone with the skills or connections to create this type of social media channel, be my guest.
"We need to undo all the GOP tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, return to a system of progressive taxation, and reform the tax code line by line to close the loopholes. People will still get rich, corporations will still make profits. But not wealthy enough to produce Kochs, Musks, et al. Deregulation is not good for America. Citizens United et al are bad for America. That has been proven definitively. We need to restore/reform campaign finance regulations. "
And to do that we need to focus on restoring both the right and the power of the individual and collective vote. Restore standards of professional political conduct ( we can catch hell if we lie to the government so why should employees of the government face no consequences for deliberately and provably lying to us? Remember Nixon and "the cover-up?).
It seemed to me that the very things that we need to do, and needed to do, to stop the rise of tyranny are now labeled "Extreme Left" by the press and the DNC. What if that's true? What is now been successfully pushed off the table is not the philosophy of Marx and Lenin but of Lincoln and the Roosevelt's; two of whom were old school Republicans back in the day. What if any faithful reading of what is said to be the recorded words of Jesus was closer to Lincolns positions than that of the Confederacy? What if freedom of religion, like genuine freedom itself, is the space to be one's self, without trampling the foundational rights of others, and what if history can show that that conflating church and free state results in dangerous corruption of both?
What of what we are told to treat as poison is in fact the only cure?
Yes, except for conflating the mainstream press and the DNC equally condemning as Extreme Left and pushing off the table positions which Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt might share. It is more complicated than that.
And of course, reactionary forces - racist confederates and robber barons -condemned Lincoln and TR. Much as Republicans serving bigots and kleptocrats are condemning moderate Democrats and moderate Democratic positions as Extreme Left.
Lin, I tried to connect with you on Substack and you are a person of mystery. Or IтАЩm a dimwit who doesnтАЩt know how to connect on Substack. ThatтАЩs possible. IтАЩm so intrigued with your writing and knowledge base. Thanks for your excellent and useful тАЬweighing in.тАЭ
This plutocracy that weтАЩre seeing has been coming on for decades. ItтАЩs in its late stages now I think.. Perhaps weтАЩre in the тАЬ picking the remaining meat from the bones тАЬ phase..
Vultures, as scavengers, fill an important ecological niche. I wouldn't insult the rest of the animal kingdom identifying them with Trump or Musk. I think only humans have produced such abhorrent examples.
But, I'd say, we need an updated Pinky and the Brain. (The original were GW Bush and Dick Cheney.)
True, we shouldn't have let it get this far. The reason it has is ignorance on our part - we didn't know how to fight the fight. We need to identify the culprits as to why the vast majority of Americans are stressed financially, i.e., Republican politicians doing the biddings of oligarchs like Musk who fund their campaigns, launch and prosecute a scorched-earth war against them, voting them out of power. We need to rile up their anger and hate.
Too late now. Ordinary Americans are going to have to suffer terribly before we understand why we were wrong to sit on our asses for decades and let our government become increasingly corrupt from unlimited corporate money, gifts & favors and then kill democracy by electing Musk.
I totally agree, Democrats must be bolder, stronger in speaking out that has everything to do with the Musk monster. IsnтАЩt breaking the laws that no citizens shall make any plans with our enemies??? Decisions?
WE didn't allow the orange blight and the current corruption in ourto happen. I voted for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton WON the popular vote. An unbelievable amount of money and misinformation resulted in the stranglehold of the Republicans in government. And don't forget, gerrymandering and a governing body that is much too small for the size and population of this country. 535 Senators and Congress People and nine SCOTUS is way too few for a country of 330 million. No wonder the billionaires are so successful at buying our leaders and corporate media.
Muskolini is indeed a fascist and a Putin fan boy. His calling for chancellor Olaf Scholz to step down, calling him тАЬan incompetent foolтАЭ is parroting Putin-speech. Also here, not a word of compassion for the victims of the terrorist attack on the Weihnachtsmarkt in Magdeburg. Muskolini doesnтАЩt give a sh*t about people, we can all die in hell for what he cares. He cares only about his own legend, and he will destroy everything for it: democracy, the people, and even the Earth and every living being on it.
You're absolutely right: they are twin evil. And don't forget that Musk isn't a genius nor a brilliant business man. He's not a genius, he takes credit for the ideas his employees created. He's not a brilliant business man, he's just ruthless.
"Let them eat cake" (if they don't have bread...) Marie said.
In a perverse but powerful way, Musk may lead us to the new "economic populist" movement the Dems need to embrace. I will be pounding the keys on this until my fingers bleed (or develop serious callouses).
We don't need the reaction Marie-Antoinette received...but Musk and Co. COULD spark a revolution by being so selfishly revolting.
We could help by continuously speaking about the excesses of the few who hold too much money while appealing to those whose plights are the stuff of past insurrections - ours needs to be peaceful forceful angry indignation.
Why does Mark Zuckerberg have two mega yachts - large enough for helicopter hangars - while working families have to choose between rent, food and medicine? Why do Walmart employees use food stamps and Medicaid when the Waltons have over $400 billion? Why are Amazon workers needing to strike when Bezos has soooo much money?
This sort of campaign is easy to create and would appeal to many who really don't care about political parties or social justice or international problems. Americans are struggling. We can offer help. Economic reform can be the center pole in a big tent that includes all sorts of people. Then and only then can we win and resume our efforts at intelligent climate policy and social justice.
We have so much political ammunition still locked up in the armory. Time to use it.
Yeah, Bill, I never understood excess wealth and the need need need to get more more moreтАж.like the dragonтАЩs lair overflowing with gold/treasure. For what? I donтАЩt find it thrilling at allтАж.that said, IтАЩd truly appreciate having тАЬenoughтАЭ and for all to have тАЬenoughтАЭтАж.maybe then I could finally finish fixing my fixer-upper home! I NEVER mind paying my fair share of taxes and have consistently voted for measures to help, for example, my local volunteer Fire Dept (a wee town of 1200) or for school improvementтАж.things that benefit тАЬthe commonsтАЭ. Though it does chap my azz that I pay a higher % of taxes on my SS/pension than do the Richie-riches on their income!
Bill Alstrom -- And let us not forget that Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame single handedly destroyed the small independent bookstore business. And then Covid-19 hit, and Amazon was all many/most of us had, including for "stuff." What an incredibly mixed story, eh?
Well said, Bill, but these conditions existed pre-election and Americans voted against trans and immigrants instead of for their own wellbeing. Turning the tide of those voterтАЩs concentration could be MuskтАЩs gift?
Btw, in my long career in the hospital lab, I have personally handled the poop (and urine, vomitus, spinal fluid, ascites fluid, synovial fluid, semen, etc) of thousands of people. I can clearly envision lots of "spices" to add to such a pie. C. Dif, Salmonella, cholera?
LetтАЩs not forget about sociopathy and how children of wealthy seemed trained to perceive ordinary humans as cockroaches or animals to toss into fighting rings for their amusement - Bread & Circuses. WeтАЩre literally turning America into a Hunger Games.
I agree about the turning America into the "Hunger Games!" I watched it recently and can't help but fear that poor people like myself will have it worse. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Musk and his orange partner build a coliseum and throw people into it to fight!
The likelihood of severe backlash depends on public perception, media coverage, and the specific actions Musk continues to take. Given his high profile, even small missteps often spark significant backlash. BUT, his strong fanbase on X and apparent business successes might cushion the impact unless his behavior causes widespread harm or legal consequences.
Allen, While I donтАЩt dispute the validity of your thesis, admittedly, I am somewhat heartened by the staggering fractiousness within the Republican Party these last few days over funding the government. Though my perspective is mere speculation, observing that not all Republicans were willing entirely to go along with the Musk/Trump renegotiation, I sense, despite principles they hold that vehemently oppose ours, that some Republicans, like us, seemingly hold to the principle that the U.S. should exist as a sovereign country, a struggle we would lose if we let Musk and others like him take over.
Barbara Jo, I love the phrase; тАЬstaggering fractiousnessтАЭ! Yes, and yes again.
I literally laughed out loud when I read that Rand Paul, true to form, opposed TrumpтАЩs demand to eliminate the debt ceiling. Serious pain in the ass that he is, this time he actually helped. Sort of, at least.
Turns out ambitious Republicans can be a bitch to manipulate. (Yes, I recognize that Paul is Libertarian. But Thune isnтАЩt. Lol.)
Also want to give a huge shout out to my US Representative, Angie Craig (D-MN) who was recently elected the ranking minority member on the House Agriculture Committee. Craig helped negotiate the $10B aid to farmers provision in the CR. Whoop!
@Swbv, Because the motives among those in the GOP who seemingly тАЬhave a spineтАЭ are likely not monolithic, I might hold off on the gratuitous letter writing. As I wrote to another reader on this site, I would suggest that the opposition persistently amplify the putrid underpinnings of far-right extremist policy and declare what it (the opposition) would do differently. Along with connecting to the swath of the electorate that increasingly has felt (understandably so) abandoned by the Democratic Party, the opposition feasibly would succeed in maintaining some amount of democracy until 2026 and achieving significant victories in the midtermsтАФbreaking TrumpтАЩs hold on Congress and state legislatures prior to our entering the 2028 election cycle.
A Dem majority in 2026 would be a blessing. Actually, it would be a blessing for both the right and the left. As it is right now, our nation's governance will be directed towards making laws, regulations, and foreign relations that best suit Mr. Musk. He's got a GOP tailwind ready to do his bidding, led by Mr. Johnson and facilitated by our Supreme Court
@Swbv, I agree. Hence the necessity, at every turn, for the opposition to drive home the freedoms, right, and safeguards that are in peril and show what they would do differently.
Gregg, Considering the tight margins up and down the ballot, I remain cautiously hopeful that enough, who for much of their political lives had understood the need for constant checks and balances against the excesses of any one branch, will be called again to safeguard the Republic.
Elon Musk is a major threat to Germany and England as well, and he has been cozying up to illiberal leaders across the planet, in France, Italy, Argentina. We should be throwing our energies into separating him from his businesses and his money. This should be done together with allies.
A The Bulwark Podcast pointed out that Trump is probably afraid of what Musk could do to bring him down, by using his money and X platform to campaign against Trump if Trump does not do what he wants.
HeтАЩs a threat to Europe, given that he is supporting the neo-Nazi party AfD. The last time the Nazis were in power they occupied the whole of Europe apart from the UK, Sweden and Switzerland, hammered Britain with bombs and killed tens of millions of Europeans.
As for Musk - the Apartheid regime of South Africa was directly inspired by the Nazis, so itтАЩs not surprising heтАЩs keen.
Allen, agreed although I would extend this idea to his being a threat to the entire world. He is meddling in Europe, supporting fascists. He only cares about money and the ability to trample everyone in his path.
Punishment for being up late is learning more about the dysfunctional system of making laws and how money gets first priority. Elon Muskrat is a major threat to America and Ukraine
As is plutocracy period. We should never have let it get this far, and allowing it free reign would mean the end of democracy in this society, with knock-on trauma around the globe.
Well said JL. Too late for lamentations, all we can do us to limit the damage they will unleash to be in a better position to replace MAGA, for MADA (Make America Decent Again)
And somehow present a contrasting vision to a world dominated by ugly narcissism. It's strange that so many fall under it's spell, yet hardly unprecedented. We are social beings by nature, and the way out of hell is to look out for one another.
That's hardly a new idea either; yet the "decent" way takes work that is both external and internal. The alternative gets things moving a whole lot faster, but like jumping off a cliff, it gets ugly fast when reality strikes. Wisdom might be about what, in the end, most matters.
Let's see what happens in the midterm election. Hopefully, at least part of the trump's voters will have a second thought and do the right thing ЁЯШЙ
Oh, by the midterms, Americans will be mind-blowingly fed up, just wait and see. Hell, we're fed up right now.
The farmers will be the first to see the disaster when TrumpтАЩs tariffs make it impossible for them to sell their farm products internationally, and when their work forces get deported.
Uh OK. I will wait and see. I agree whole heartedly that there will be a whole lotta things to be fed up over by then. But that is where my agreeing ends. You seem to have more confidence in the American people than I do.
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Some of us are fed up to the max, others Google тАЬwhatтАЩs a tariff,тАЭ And others bow down to
Obvious evilтАж. A coalition maybe
And how will Trump voters develop a second thought to do the тАЬright thingтАЭ. With musk posting 150 times, how many is Harris posting? She and the Dems should be slamming this?
I feel the same frustration. But Harris making a lot of noise right now will only make her sound like a sore loser. She has a bright future.
But I think we could forgive her if she would like to lick her wounds after a hard fought fight.
There is a fascinating Video by "Belle of the Ranch" that examines how Democrats are handling the current time we are in.
https://youtu.be/2N8cb5Oq_d8?list=UU0YvoAYGgdOfySQSLcxtu1w
My take is that we should see who becomes DNC chair. I'm for Ben Wickler. But whenever that is decided, perhaps we should flood that office with our rage and suggestions for a new Democratic platform that appeals to the 90 million people who were eligible to vote who DIDN'T.
Please consider forgetting about "Trump voters". They are lost in a wilderness of ignorance, hate and ingrained bigotry. Let 'em go.
If we had harvested 10 percent of those NON voters in the right states, we wouldn't be having this chat. And IMO, we can get them to the decent side of politics with an appeal for ECONOMIC JUSTICE and hope for a better life. They don't believe in ANY party now. If we can offer them some financial relief, we will get their votes.
We have to be lauder, less polite, not always by the book, never the appeaser, not too nice, even if is not in our nature. Take it as a temporary sacrifice...тШ║я╕П
revoke e
lon's citizenship
We need a lot more than Harris posting. Every Dem Senator and Representative should be speaking up. Taking to their local media, getting on YouTube, posting on BlueSky. It's unbelievable how quiet so many of them are, including my Senators, Cantwell and Patty Murray. They NEVER have a peep to say other than stiff little missives on their websites. It's inexplicable and maddening.
Kamala Harris is toast. If she had been genuinely ready for the presidency, she would have taken Biden out of office through the 25th Amendment months ago and gone to war with Trump, cast off her hard left wing as getting in the way, and won. Instead, she took the "brat" route and now we have Trump.
Democratic Party needs new warriors.
Sandra, actually to have a second thought you have to have a first first.ЁЯШЙ
I'll be happy if they have a first one before the next election. I know it's to much to ask but who knows, maybe ЁЯдФ
By midterms, Donald might have eliminated voting, Congress, anyone not loyal to him . Procrastination got us where we are now .
Only if we and our leaders let him.
tramp may also be so alzheimered that he can't be president.
Midterms? I'm worried about the next 3, 4, 5, 6 months.
Im worried about that too Richard. I didn't have a crystal ball but, based on what we saw coming from Congress this last few days I hope legislators would cool down MAGA worse impulses. ЁЯдЮ
Once the "everyday" trumper citizens come to the realization of how this is going to personally affect them, I believe they WILL do the right thing in 2 years. Let's certainly hope so. In the meantime, I'm waiting for the dogfight of two very rich, very greedy, very narcistic personalities to happen. I hope they eat each other alive!
If we're thinking this way, so are the Trump team, and they will develop a plan to make sure the people who are still loyal are the ones who get a chance to speak. We can't wait for the next election to fix things, we have to start now to make sure they don't get so bad as to be beyond fixing before 2026.
Maybe some of the shrewder billionaires will be less scattered, but Trump is playing King of the Playpen. Chaos will ensue, if he gets his way, and that seems unlikely to be popular. You might con your way into the cockpit with a captain's uniform, but at some point it's obvious that you can't fly the plane.
Trump voters have a second thought? They don't even think a first thought...
ЁЯзР hummmm.
JL, тАЬjumping off a cliffтАЭ reminded me of some snarky jokes said by climbers that were part of my life years ago: тАЬitтАЩs not the fall that gets you, itтАЩs the landingтАЭтАж.otherwise known as тАЬdeceleration traumaтАЭ. HavenтАЩt thought of that in yearsтАжmorbid sense of humor in that group!
or ".... it's the sudden stop", as a friend of mine in primary school told me. "deceleration" is a good word, but we probably didn't know it at the time.
True, a fraction of a second before landing, everything looked so perfect ЁЯСМ
We have the choice (except for with serious mental illness) to live delusionaly, but physics is not amused.
Democrats in Congress keep fighting for things that benefit 90% of the people (or more) who voted for Trump and GOP senators and Congress men and women were voted into office by their "constituencies." It's time Democrats and main stream media start learning how to hold them accountable for the way they vote. This is a tough fight, because one side continues to play by the rules and respect the norms of engagement, while the other does not. One side speaks the truth or tones down the truth in the name of "both side-ism" while the other is Fox News (and a host of other liars and cheaters). Hold them accountable for their votes. Hold them accountable in public during the upcoming hearings of the ridiculous appointments (Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel, Kennedy Jr, the list goes on). HCR and a few others can not be the only one holding them accountable for the way they vote and the way they've turned this country into a stinking mess.
Exactly well said
J L, well said. I wish I could rid myself of my cynicism about humankind. What matters, and has always mattered, to those at the top is staying there and extracting as much labor and wealth from the rest of us as possible. Now that we have a climate crisis along with all the other problems, they are convinced their money will save them. It won't, but we will probably all die while they are trying to save their selfish selves.
All the behavior that is sweet and honorable, and all that cruel and selfish is in the mix of human behaviors. Collectively we have at least a measure of choice for which we call forward.
I hope we go for sweet and honorable.
It is encouraging that Republicans continue to battle each other and still cower at the thought that Elon, with one check, could scuttle their future in the House after 2026.
Wouldn't it be nice if a handful of Republican Congresscritters decided to become Democrats or Independents and caucus with the Dems?
The poison of Citizens United is still coursing through the veins of our democracy. And Thomas continues his pandering to the highest bidder.
I propose to change Citizens United for Billionaires United. Maybe McConnell would agree.ЁЯдФ.......it's a little adjustment to reflect the reality. I wrote this before my first AM coffee, sorry, ill try again later.
The "Governance by Billionaires" Decision.
What Musk is doing and what "Citizens United" represents is poisonous, jaw-dropping corruption of the better angels of our political system. Massive and organized resistance should have greeted both in my opinion, to massive and organized corruption; but society seems to have let both pass with a grumble.
J L just wait for the breaking point. It will come.
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I keep waiting for a new party to emerge--quite possible if Liz and Adam Kinsinger got some of the "old school" Republicans on board. But IMHO they need to do it NOW, not later.
If that happens it's going to split people like us and decency is going to keep losing.
No! It is not about Trump! Or Musk! It is about the Dems inability to take their message to the people. Look at the post here. We are obsessed with Trump while the path to success is promoting those like McGovern. Musk had 150 social media posts in one day. Every dem in the country should take to social media and post the facts. It got to far? So what are we going to do to stop it from going further?
Yah. Why didn't the Dems buy up all the media and stuff it full of their slant ??? Actually the media owners have shot themselves in the foot long term, putting themselves out if business with bad journalism practices. I can't decide if it more satisfying to see them go down drowning in their own excrement or wish theyd descintegrate immediately.
Unfortunately, I underestimated th number of TrumpтАЩs talents. The one I knew he possessed was to bring out the worst in everybody (including me). He clearly has another one. He can convince his followers to believe him in preference to their eyes and ears, and certainly in preference to Democrats who lie all the time.
Agree 1000%. We have the worst PR on the planet. If Madison Ave. can get you to buy practically anything, why can't we sell our policies, which are truly helping the American public, any better? And the right wing always manages to make it sound we are the devil incarnate. Free school lunch - horrible! Infrastructure act and jobs - it will kill democracy! Improved healthcare - it will kill you! We NEVER get it right. We blather on in wonkspeak, or just assume they will appreciate the outcomes, and here we sit, on the losing end, once again, while they unravel all the good Biden just did.
Kathleen, you mentioned Madison Avenue, but didn't mention what Madison Avenue knows about the U.S. consumer and how it exploits that knowledge. This secret is apparently unknown to Dems' operatives and voters.
Allow me to share it now: Contrary to popular opinion, U.S. consumers do not think; they FEEL. Buying decisions are not based on logic, or even on finance. They are based on EMOTION. The overwhelming majority of U.S. consumers buy goods and services based on how they expect to feel after the purchase. The same is true of U.S. voters.
Regardless of which school of thought they camp in, U.S. economists recently have been confounded by the current phenomenon in which the U.S. economy is the healthiest it's been in decades, yet consumers universally tell pollsters they believe the economy is the worst it's ever been. Consumers are spending more than ever, but believe the economy is in the tank. The Republican propaganda machine has a lot to do with that.
Unfortunately, the message from the Democratic Party has been an offer of better financial security for everyone, which certainly seems to be the most appealing message of any. The offer was rejected by millions of voters, both D and R.
Meanwhile, Trump and his mouthpieces have been hammering away at how bad things are. Crime is up (it's not), the economy is terrible (it's not), immigrants are criminals (they're not) and so on. Without offering any policy proposals, Trump promised to "fix" all these problems and make voters feel better about America. They bought it.
Democrats will not win the hearts and minds of U.S. voters with facts and policies. They will win with feelings. That is the challenge.
I think, Kathleen, most Dems assumed folks can think for themselvesтАж.oopsie!!!!
Sleight of hand, sleight of mind, Pilgrim!
Maybe Harris won! Demand Biden use his executive order to do a hand recount in the swing states where the data is HIGHLY SUSPECT.
This is an excellent video summary of the Smart Elections data findings (smart elections.us) for those that may be having difficulty wrapping their head around it:
Watch on your computer with the volume on.
https://youtu.be/fF22jp2VBJg?
Sandra: I think there are two separate groups of social media people. Those who accept the message hook line and sinker, and those who have a functioning brain. I think that the people who did not vote are more in the first category and either did not vote or voted for the moron. So the Dems message has to be not only on social media, but in one to one contact on the ground.
Sandra, I loved your comment. I've been asking for months for our leadership to drop the nice guy stance and not go by the book all the time, not to be the appeaser in the room and as I wrote a couple of hours earlier, even if is not in our nature. Take as a temporary sacrifice. ЁЯШЙ
I am a confirmed atheist, however: this has always resonated with me---"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Sometimes, we are unable to see into the future well enough to predict outcomes. All we can do is what we think is the right thing.
Couldn't agreed more Linda. By the way, I have a feeling that we agreed on many things but I can confirm that we are both atheists ЁЯШБ
Will have a tee made with that, we desperately need decent again
Ricardo, I'm going with Timothy Snyder: "The Map Regime", also mumpers, mumpets etc.
Mayor Duggan (Detroit) while a Democrat, is running as an independent for Governor of Michigan so there can be a neutral meeting of minds.
Not too late. Promote politicians like McGovern. Break down this info in ways everyone understands. Post this info. Find ways to talk about those in congress with the right ideas. We need to stop burying the lead with Trumps uglyness. Promote those like McGovern that are doing the work.
The media played a huge part in this. They did a horrible job of covering Biden and the good he did during his entire presidency and the coverage of the election was worse. Not sure how we change this since they are mostly republican owned. They pushed the lies told by republicans over any truth. Disgusting is my only conclusion. I havenтАЩt watched or read any news since the election, fтАФk them.
Judy, I agree with your comment, but offer one little tweak. The major news outlets are all owned by billionaires. As such, they are prostitutes for the almighty dollar and not loyal to any political party. If Democrats started offering tax cuts for the wealthy and promises to eliminate regulations, Corporate Media would switch sides so fast, news audiences would have severe cases of whiplash.
Judy Croft Barkume -- Three Cheers to you! The press has ignored President Biden from the beginning! And that has been P***ing me off for the same length of time! Before your comment, I never connected the dots to the owners of the press. Naivety on my part.
Prior to the "Reagan Revolution", media ownership was regulated to avoid domination of any owner in any particular market, and commercial ownership in general was regulated by anti-trust.
I don't think very many Americans are aware of the number of once leading American companies have vanished into shadowy supermassive corporate black holes. Ostensibly competing brands are often products of the same company, and genuine competition is fading. Many billionaires care for nothing and no one beyond achieving total domination and absolute power. Look at the Musk and his ilk in the "GOP". It's our species most tragic flaw, it it just might kill us all.
Give up on mainstream media. ItтАЩs a lost cause.
Talk in bullet points and sound bites that the average person gets and say it over and over again. The script must be consistent, like the Republicans. People get confused when the message deviates. They like repetition and clarity. And go buy some newspapers and radio stations.
Hopefully, whoever wins the big Megamillions jackpot on Christmas Eve will give us ALL a gift by using their winnings to buy a radio station or two.....if not a few Congresspeople. I'm sure some of them can't be too expensive.
That's how propaganda and deceptive advertising works. Repetition has it's uses in beneficial learning, but it's also a tool of scoundrels, as Goebbels articulated. However it's not clarity, as in clarity of vision, or understanding has no part in it. Clarity is scientific discovery or "government of the people, by the people, for the people", seeing what is real in a fruitful way. E=MC squared, easy to state, laborious to unpack.
Deceivers and fools offer simplistic answers. overly easy but useless or foolhardy. Just get rid of immigrants. Just get rid of government, etc.
"Give up on mainstream media. ItтАЩs a lost cause."
Please notice HCR cites mainstream media. There are still fine investigative reporters working at such as the NYTimes and even the Bezos compromised Washington Post. Read and write Letters to the Editor.
I have read some excellent MSM investigative reporting in recent yesrs, but it seems less common since the "Reagan Revolution" and "in-bedded journalism". Reporters did not pussyfoot around Nixon the way they do with Trump. Of course the rules have been changed since then, and not in a good way.
We need a "paper of record" that is not just a plaything of plutocratic ideologues. Seems to me we tread this road before in the era of US "Robber Barons", even if that was only a warm up.
What stumps me is that there is no attempt at burying the ugliness. Instead the blatant conflicts of interest are paraded in broad daylight. This is what you get when the most powerful man in the world partners with richest man in the world. My friend asked whereтАЩs God? I told her that God has nothing to do with this. He gave man free will and they chose this messтАж.
GodтАЩs worst boo-boo
I think most people know what our "better angels" are about, but what do we really want? There is not much space in the onslaught of the commercial blast to think about those sort of questions.
"if it bleeds it ledes" is a formula for "eyeballs", yet wise governance of, by and for the people absolutely requires an informed electorate. How could it not? We are kept abreast of the most aberrant but not of what is being done and what it takes to keep our society reasonably safe, functioning and free. If we were attending to that, would the country ever elect a wrecking crew? Would a con man be celebrated for saying "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
When people are bleeding, who comes the stop the blood? Who identifies and rectifies hazards? Who does the adult things, day in day out? Whose due diligence really keeps things fixed, not necessarily with drama but with chop wood, carry water?
That many not be so exciting as a food fight (or a war) but it's the adult thing that makes for a safe space to raise children, and a reasonably kind and fruitful space for all. We never left Eden; we became adults; and by protecting what is child-like and rejecting what is child-ish, it's our opportunity and duty to make the best of our hours in our dangerous yet paradisaical planetary home.
Use your energy to flood your representatives, both congress and senate, federal and state. When they see what their voters are interested in and are the reason they are there and more important, want to get there again they will fight for what is right and against this MAGA madness. Do that for just 5 minutes every day and our voices will be heard. We cannot change the past but we can defend for the, our, future. We will not go back.
Some bees, when a killer hornet gets into the hive, surround it and roast it with their body heat. We need to keep the spotlight on the marauding of such as Charles Koch, Elon Musk et al. We need to keep the spotlight on DOGE and the House committee Johnson set up to officially implement the schemes of players without government portfolios. DOGE should be walled off from effective influence on legislation.
The CR PR defeat for MuskTrump may inspire Republicans to use their power for the United States, instead of for MuskTrump. We cannot let the MuskTrumpGOP regime MO become business as usual - to tank bipartisan legislation, strip out negotiated Democratic items, add dangerous MuskTrump items, and then celebrate legislation which strips out the absurdly dangerous without restoring the absolutely necessary (such as restrictions on trade with China.) MuskTrump may chafe at the PR debacle, but will still profiteer on conflicts of interest. In the last Trump term China granted Ivanka Trump trademarks for made in China made voting machines. Of course Trump's Bibles are made in China. Now Musk. That's the least of it.
After WW2 Congress called Fred Trump to testify regarding government waste and fraud. Because of loopholes in government oversight legislation, Trump had been able to profiteer on wartime government contracts. How he did it was supposed to show which/how laws had to be changed.
Robber barons and war profiteers - unmitigated greed as unregulated capitalism -are no good for America. We have disproved - over and again - all the right wing assertions about money. We need to undo all the GOP tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, return to a system of progressive taxation, and reform the tax code line by line to close the loopholes. People will still get rich, corporations will still make profits. But not wealthy enough to produce Kochs, Musks, et al.
Deregulation is not good for America. Citizens United et al are bad for America. That has been proven definitively. We need to restore/reform campaign finance regulations.
Behind the grievous insults of Christian Nationalism bigotry to individual persons and group, are the injuries of regressive taxation and deregulation to the nation itself.
"The trademarks also cover items including nursing homes, sausage casing, and voting machines. IvankaтАЩs business applied for these trademarks in 2016."
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/ivanka-trump-trademarks/
"AP traces the printing of TrumpтАЩs тАШGod Bless AmericaтАЩ Bibles to the country he accuses of stealing American jobs: China"
https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/second-winner/2024/ap-traces-the-printing-of-trumps-god-bless-america-bibles-to-the-country-he-accuses-of-stealing-american-jobs-china/
"After World War II, in 1954, Trump was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee for profiteering from public contracts, including overstating his Beach Haven building charges by $3.7 million. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in 1954, William F. McKenna, appointed to investigate тАЬscandalsтАЭ within the FHA, cited Fred C. Trump and his partner William Tomasello as examples of how profits were made by builders using the FHA]409 program.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/9/1891371/-What-did-you-do-in-WWII-Daddy-Answer-Screw-patriotism-it-about-War-Profiteer
https://www.scribd.com/document/336565709/Fred-C-Trump-1954-Senate-Banking-Committee-Interview-Transcript
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14719972-600-hive-from-hell-roasts-hunting-hornets/
Lin, The only piece I would add to your highly astute observations/ analysis entails the necessity of the opposition repeatedly calling out the putrid underpinnings of every radical far right proposal and amplifying, in alignment with IndivisibleтАЩs 2025-2026 charge, precisely what they (the opposition) would do differently. I would note IndivisibleтАЩs immediate mission, currently underway by over 3000+ local chapters, is to maintain some amount of democracy until 2026 and achieve significant victories in the midtermsтАФbreaking TrumpтАЩs hold on Congress and state legislatures prior to our entering the 2028 election cycle.
and this: https://www.democracydocket.com/
Rickey, Thank you for posting a link to Marc EliasтАЩs Democracy Docket. As a fellow subscriber, presumably like you, I find EliasтАЩs newsletters immeasurably critical both for their empirical evidence demonstrating their acumen for protecting the rule of law and also for their counsel on how everyday people can contribute, aside from donations, to Democracy DocketтАЩs overall mission persistently to ensure the powers rooted in the structures of government established by our Founders remain sufficiently balanced to protect the country against the excesses of any one branch.
Yes!!
I would only add that I think we should abandon taxation on income altogether. Income taxes, even at their most progressive, can be played by the super-wealthy with their army of lawyers and accountants to shield them from most of it. Instead, we should be taxing wealth. It's too complicated to explain in a comment in this forum, but it is extremely easy to implement and avoids all the loophole dodges that enabled Musk et. al to accumulate such obscene wealth - and now power.
"... we should abandon taxation on income altogether . . . Instead, we should be taxing wealth. It's too complicated to explain in a comment in this forum, but it is extremely easy to implement."
I am leery of any assertion which claims something "is too complicated to explain in a comment in this forum, but it is extremely easy to implement." This forum helps us learn from each other. By participants 'doing their homework' and sharing.
Overall, although a wealth tax - on net worth - can mitigate extreme disparities in wealth, where tried as a government's primary generator of revenue, it has proven unwieldy to administer and ineffective in raising revenue. All but a few countries have abandoned it. Instead many progressives, such as senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have proposed a wealth tax in addition to the income tax. I'm with them.
Wealth tax
"A wealth tax, also called capital tax or equity tax, is imposed on the wealth possessed by individuals. The tax usually applies to a personтАЩs net worth, which is assets minus liabilities. These assets include (but are not limited to) cash, bank deposits, shares, fixed assets, personal cars, real property, pension plans, money funds, owner-occupied housing, and trusts."
During the 2020 election, the immense and increasing disparity in wealth in the United States prompted politicians such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to propose a wealth tax, in addition to the income tax."
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wealth-tax.asp
"Under the current system, people can accumulate billions in wealth and avoid paying income taxes on their gains...
This column first describes the existing system for taxing capital gains, then explains how three different proposals would reform it. All three alternative systemsтАФconstructive realization, carryover basis, and mark-to-market taxation (a targeted version of which is known as the Billionaires Income Tax)тАФwould increase federal revenues in a highly progressive manner."
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/3-alternatives-taxing-capital-gains-wealthy/
Taxation
"There is every reason why, when next our system of taxation is revised, the National Government should impose a graduated inheritance tax, and, if possible, a graduated income tax."
- Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, 1906
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States
"Before 1913, federal government revenues came mainly from taxes on goodsтАФtariffs on imported products and excise taxes on items like whiskey. The burden of these taxes fell heavily on working Americans, who spent a much higher percentage of their income on goods than rich people did."
https://teachdemocracy.org//bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-11-3-b-the-income-tax-amendment-most-thought-it-was-a-great-idea-in-1913.html
"Tackling income and wealth inequality is at the top of the policy agenda in many countries. This note discusses three approaches of wealth taxation, based on (1) returns with a capital income tax, (2) stocks with a wealth tax, and (3) transfers of wealth through an inheritance (or estate) tax. "
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/imf-how-to-notes/Issues/2024/03/08/How-to-Tax-Wealth-544948
An тАЬafter the robberyтАЭ tax. I like that
WeтАЩve all been paying taxes for muskrat. As a recent Widow , mine went sky high. We ALL are paying for the legal thieves. When Woody Guthrie said that some can rob you with a Six-gun, he spoke for us all.
TD bach, I respectfully disagree with your idea that income should not be taxed. However, I agree that the wealthy among us can afford to game the current taxation system, which puts them at an unfair advantage over the vast majority.
In my opinion, a flat tax with no deductions is the fairest tax. If everyone who earns an income in the U.S. paid a flat percentage, every citizen would "have skin in the game," from the poorest to the richest.
Critics claim that a flat tax is regressive, but I think their opinions are based on faulty assumptions, specifically that there would always be some allowances and deductions. I posit that all deductions are based in social engineering ... legislators trying to encourage (or force) citizens to behave in a certain way.
The truth is, if every taxpayer paid their fair share, without benefit of loopholes, the effective tax rate would be dramatically reduced, such that everyone could afford to pay what they owe. And no one would need to pay tax preparers to file their tax returns.
Crikey. Flat Tax, Flat Earth.
Equal is not Equitable.
Let's say:
I have $1,000. 10% = $100
I have $,10,000. 10% = $1000
For the person with $1,000,
$100 is effectively a bigger bite of their spending/saving power, than $1000 is for the spending/saving power of the person with $10,000.
Now compare the impact of a flat tax on a person with the USA median income of $37,585 compared with the median income of the USA
top 1% of which is estimated to be around $788,000 per year. (And that is just income not accumulated and inherited wealth available to the 1%. Which has not been taxed equitably.)
The flat tax rate may be equal but the effective impact is not equitable.
The job of government is to take care of the general welfare and justice as fairness requires leveling the playing field. Which benefits all of us overall.
Oh my, the optic of bees swarming trump and musk, one cannot un-see that, Lin! I confess a bit of schadenfreude at the idea тАж For anyone whoтАЩd like to see the actual visual, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bizarre-bee-havior-in-the-battle-against-the-giant-hornet-129395782/
"We need to keep the spotlight on the marauding of such as Charles Koch, Elon Musk et al."
I should've made clear that our spotlight should be primarily on the predations rather than on the persons.
The essays below are examples of spotlighting the *operations* by which such as Charles Koch, Leonard Leo, and the Roberts Court act to restrict our constitutional rights and degrade our democratic republic.
https://progressive.org/magazine/billionaire-kingmaker-still-dividing-the-nation-maclean-graves/
https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-teneo-videos-documents
https://journals.law.harvard.edu/lpr/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2015/04/9-1_Whitehouse.pdf
Needs a larger audience to spotlight this information
Volunteer for your local Democratic committee to create a Rapid Response team. You do the homework of spotlighting action points and providing supporting documentation. They create a webpage on their site and share with members.
Yes, Lin! It infuriates me that already Musk has been able to influence legislation so that his economic interests are favored. Jim Mc Govern is my Rep. and I am so pleased that he highlighted this blatant corruption in his comments. I intend to write to him today to thank him for pointing out how eliminating the outbound investment provision hurts Americans and benefits Musk.
You write of surrounding killer hornets to kill them with heat. IтАЩm asking everyone who can, please write to your local Rep. and Senators demanding that they pass this bipartisan bill in the next Congress. Particularly, those of you in Texas and Pennsylvania, let Senator Cornyn and Senators Fetterman and McCormick know you want this measure passed. Keep the heat on McCormick and call him out for abandoning American workers in favor of Musk. Keep the spotlight on what it means to have lost Senator Casey, a co-writer, along with Cornyn, of the bill.
ThankYou for Jim McGovern, he is one of my CSpan heroes.
Along with Richard Neal, Sheldon Whitehouse, Benny Thompson, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson, Patty Murray, Chris VanHollen - really most of The Progressive Caucus. We Democrats have a deep bench and we need better messaging to let people know.
https://progressives.house.gov/caucus-members
Yes, in my email to him, I thanked for highlighting MuskтАЩs corrupt influence, asked him to continue to highlight this, and told him how happy I am that heтАЩs my rep. We love him here!
Yes. I phone my thanks also.
When I lived in DC I had no voting representation in Congress, so I got in the habit of 'adopting' my CSpan heroes and phoning Thanks. They all need to know what we approve of.
Wow- thank you Lin!
Who would like to organize individual roasting pages for the worst ten autocratic creeps influencing our efforts at democratic government and when they are roasted to dropping out point, replace them with others from the list with next worst ones.
susan, I have no skills to do so, but in my dreams, I'd like to see a youtube channel that fact checks (like Snopes) but did it in such a way as to be catchy and easy to go viral. I had heard the false rumor that the new budget was going to increase the salaries of Congress by 40%, which is NOT TRUE. I didn't know where that misinformation started, but in this clip (which I posted elsewhere) Bernie tells us it was MUSK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79KDKWEOJ1s&t=22s
I'd love to see bold graphics and a video of less than say, 30 seconds--imagine this:
Bold yellow type "CONGRESS GETTING A 40% RAISE" and suddenly, the red circle with a line slashes through it with a LOUD AUDIBLE "FALSE" proclamation. Okay, now we need some sort of a cute, fuzzy mascot saying "but but but...who said that?" (cute, fuzzy mascots go viral easily, we need one, be it a real animal, a puppet, or a graphic)
And then up pops the ugliest photo of MUSK available and the voiceover says "HE DID IT" with audible tongue razzing and boos in the background. and horns appear on his head. Up pops the tweet he put up, quickly followed by the image of a gavel smacking the imagine into a crumbled heap with an audible "LIE!!" and a pop up of the graphic of the word "LIE!"(Like whack a mole, perhaps)
It could also apply to any TRUE things that are done, for instance, a graphic saying Biden created whatever number of jobs. Up pops a photo of Biden and the audible says "TRUE!" (up could pop a photo of Biden with a halo. Add the sweet sound of a "ping!")
Our mascot says "but but but.. what jobs? and where?" Now photos of showing folks in hard hats working on construction sights (with label on each saying where and what state) with audible "TA DAs!" and Joe Biden created jobs with the Infrastructure Act.
I totally agree with the sources that lin+ below posts, but this TIKTOK generation is NOT going to look them up, NOT going to read, etc. There was complaint that the Dems were "elitist" (and perhaps others here have noticed that Brian Tyler Cohen has dropped the suits in his videos? ) Our short-attention voter populace seem to need bells and whistles directly delivered to them.
Remember the couch "humping" and "weird" went viral very quickly. Anyone with the skills or connections to create this type of social media channel, be my guest.
No need to reinvent the wheel.
Share and support, for instance:
https://www.propublica.org/
https://truenorthresearch.org/
https://joycevance.substack.com/
https://accountable.us/
"We need to undo all the GOP tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, return to a system of progressive taxation, and reform the tax code line by line to close the loopholes. People will still get rich, corporations will still make profits. But not wealthy enough to produce Kochs, Musks, et al. Deregulation is not good for America. Citizens United et al are bad for America. That has been proven definitively. We need to restore/reform campaign finance regulations. "
And to do that we need to focus on restoring both the right and the power of the individual and collective vote. Restore standards of professional political conduct ( we can catch hell if we lie to the government so why should employees of the government face no consequences for deliberately and provably lying to us? Remember Nixon and "the cover-up?).
It seemed to me that the very things that we need to do, and needed to do, to stop the rise of tyranny are now labeled "Extreme Left" by the press and the DNC. What if that's true? What is now been successfully pushed off the table is not the philosophy of Marx and Lenin but of Lincoln and the Roosevelt's; two of whom were old school Republicans back in the day. What if any faithful reading of what is said to be the recorded words of Jesus was closer to Lincolns positions than that of the Confederacy? What if freedom of religion, like genuine freedom itself, is the space to be one's self, without trampling the foundational rights of others, and what if history can show that that conflating church and free state results in dangerous corruption of both?
What of what we are told to treat as poison is in fact the only cure?
Yes, except for conflating the mainstream press and the DNC equally condemning as Extreme Left and pushing off the table positions which Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt might share. It is more complicated than that.
And of course, reactionary forces - racist confederates and robber barons -condemned Lincoln and TR. Much as Republicans serving bigots and kleptocrats are condemning moderate Democrats and moderate Democratic positions as Extreme Left.
Excellent letter regarding MuskтАЩs sabotaging of outbound investment provision in CR. Please spread far and wide!
https://delauro.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/delauro-letter-congressional-leadership-musk-chaos-government-funding?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Lin, I tried to connect with you on Substack and you are a person of mystery. Or IтАЩm a dimwit who doesnтАЩt know how to connect on Substack. ThatтАЩs possible. IтАЩm so intrigued with your writing and knowledge base. Thanks for your excellent and useful тАЬweighing in.тАЭ
This plutocracy that weтАЩre seeing has been coming on for decades. ItтАЩs in its late stages now I think.. Perhaps weтАЩre in the тАЬ picking the remaining meat from the bones тАЬ phase..
Chump is the master vulture, now aided by one with a few more brain cells
Vultures, as scavengers, fill an important ecological niche. I wouldn't insult the rest of the animal kingdom identifying them with Trump or Musk. I think only humans have produced such abhorrent examples.
But, I'd say, we need an updated Pinky and the Brain. (The original were GW Bush and Dick Cheney.)
Pinky and The Brain Intro Song
https://youtu.be/GBkT19uH2RQ?si=35OIlPVYaFuFltZu
You are so right, scavengers do have an important role. Chump AND muskrat have have no value to anyone, except the like-minded greedy bastards
True, we shouldn't have let it get this far. The reason it has is ignorance on our part - we didn't know how to fight the fight. We need to identify the culprits as to why the vast majority of Americans are stressed financially, i.e., Republican politicians doing the biddings of oligarchs like Musk who fund their campaigns, launch and prosecute a scorched-earth war against them, voting them out of power. We need to rile up their anger and hate.
Too late now. Ordinary Americans are going to have to suffer terribly before we understand why we were wrong to sit on our asses for decades and let our government become increasingly corrupt from unlimited corporate money, gifts & favors and then kill democracy by electing Musk.
I don't think it's too late, but democracy is in critical condition, and in need of life support from enough of us. It won't be easy.
Every country thinks that "it can't happen here" until it does.
I totally agree, Democrats must be bolder, stronger in speaking out that has everything to do with the Musk monster. IsnтАЩt breaking the laws that no citizens shall make any plans with our enemies??? Decisions?
WE didn't allow the orange blight and the current corruption in ourto happen. I voted for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton WON the popular vote. An unbelievable amount of money and misinformation resulted in the stranglehold of the Republicans in government. And don't forget, gerrymandering and a governing body that is much too small for the size and population of this country. 535 Senators and Congress People and nine SCOTUS is way too few for a country of 330 million. No wonder the billionaires are so successful at buying our leaders and corporate media.
тАЬWeтАЭ did not let it get this far. The other half of the electorate did.
And those who vote for Jill Stein. Actually all who did not vote for Hillary or Kamala.
J.L., more like pukocracy than plutocracy.
Maybe the people who voted for this are waking up to what was really going to happen under the Orange Zit & Musketeer's reign! Shame shame!
Some I would think. It's had to let go of a pleasing delusion, like a love affair going sour.
-Pulled Quote -
''MuskтАФwho doesnтАЩt answer to any constituentsтАФseemed untroubled at the idea of hurting ordinary Americans.''
Fascists are like that...
Muskolini is indeed a fascist and a Putin fan boy. His calling for chancellor Olaf Scholz to step down, calling him тАЬan incompetent foolтАЭ is parroting Putin-speech. Also here, not a word of compassion for the victims of the terrorist attack on the Weihnachtsmarkt in Magdeburg. Muskolini doesnтАЩt give a sh*t about people, we can all die in hell for what he cares. He cares only about his own legend, and he will destroy everything for it: democracy, the people, and even the Earth and every living being on it.
You know him well, while most Americans still see him as the brilliant business man, sort of like a twin chump. They are twin evil.
You're absolutely right: they are twin evil. And don't forget that Musk isn't a genius nor a brilliant business man. He's not a genius, he takes credit for the ideas his employees created. He's not a brilliant business man, he's just ruthless.
Ruthless and without a crumb of humanityтАж.
Exactly.
Al Capone had a popular following as well, I understand.
I feel abashed to join Trumpsters in name calling, but Muskolini so hits the nail on the head.
The Mussolini seed to be something of a clown, as well as a vicious tyrant.
So long as he is the last man standing. Then he will own IT ALL!
And he will probably go "mua ha ha ha!" like the cartoon villain he has become.
Michael, Musk is having his very own тАЬlet them eat cakeтАЭ vibe going on. His whole self-satisfied smugness is so off-putting. Ick.
"Let them eat cake" (if they don't have bread...) Marie said.
In a perverse but powerful way, Musk may lead us to the new "economic populist" movement the Dems need to embrace. I will be pounding the keys on this until my fingers bleed (or develop serious callouses).
We don't need the reaction Marie-Antoinette received...but Musk and Co. COULD spark a revolution by being so selfishly revolting.
We could help by continuously speaking about the excesses of the few who hold too much money while appealing to those whose plights are the stuff of past insurrections - ours needs to be peaceful forceful angry indignation.
Why does Mark Zuckerberg have two mega yachts - large enough for helicopter hangars - while working families have to choose between rent, food and medicine? Why do Walmart employees use food stamps and Medicaid when the Waltons have over $400 billion? Why are Amazon workers needing to strike when Bezos has soooo much money?
This sort of campaign is easy to create and would appeal to many who really don't care about political parties or social justice or international problems. Americans are struggling. We can offer help. Economic reform can be the center pole in a big tent that includes all sorts of people. Then and only then can we win and resume our efforts at intelligent climate policy and social justice.
We have so much political ammunition still locked up in the armory. Time to use it.
Yeah, Bill, I never understood excess wealth and the need need need to get more more moreтАж.like the dragonтАЩs lair overflowing with gold/treasure. For what? I donтАЩt find it thrilling at allтАж.that said, IтАЩd truly appreciate having тАЬenoughтАЭ and for all to have тАЬenoughтАЭтАж.maybe then I could finally finish fixing my fixer-upper home! I NEVER mind paying my fair share of taxes and have consistently voted for measures to help, for example, my local volunteer Fire Dept (a wee town of 1200) or for school improvementтАж.things that benefit тАЬthe commonsтАЭ. Though it does chap my azz that I pay a higher % of taxes on my SS/pension than do the Richie-riches on their income!
Bill Alstrom -- And let us not forget that Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame single handedly destroyed the small independent bookstore business. And then Covid-19 hit, and Amazon was all many/most of us had, including for "stuff." What an incredibly mixed story, eh?
Well said, Bill, but these conditions existed pre-election and Americans voted against trans and immigrants instead of for their own wellbeing. Turning the tide of those voterтАЩs concentration could be MuskтАЩs gift?
I think the people voted for Harris but with Putin and MuskтАЩs help the election was hacked.
This is an excellent video summary of the SMART Elections data findings, for those that may be having difficulty wrapping their head around it:
Watch on your computer with the volume on.
https://youtu.be/fF22jp2VBJg?
We need to remind everyone how our country does best when the middle class is strong. Robert Reich has written a book on тАЬThe Common GoodтАЭ and many excellent Substack articles. https://www.amazon.com/Common-Good-Robert-B-Reich/dp/052552049X
But of course as TrumpтАЩs Wharton professor said about him, тАШHe was the dumbest student I ever had.тАЩ (So Trump wouldnтАЩt know).
Thanks for posting this rec!
We know the answer. Greedy bastards with the megaphone
Wonder if musk prefers pies to cake, thinking about the chocolate pie scene in that wonderful movie, тАЬThe Help!тАЭ
ЁЯдг and, at the same time ЁЯдо!
Me, too!
Btw, in my long career in the hospital lab, I have personally handled the poop (and urine, vomitus, spinal fluid, ascites fluid, synovial fluid, semen, etc) of thousands of people. I can clearly envision lots of "spices" to add to such a pie. C. Dif, Salmonella, cholera?
ЁЯдгЁЯдоonce again!!!!
He may sorely regret his path soon.
ЁЯдСЁЯдоЁЯдв
Good point, Barbara. And how did that work out for Marie Antoinette?
LetтАЩs not forget about sociopathy and how children of wealthy seemed trained to perceive ordinary humans as cockroaches or animals to toss into fighting rings for their amusement - Bread & Circuses. WeтАЩre literally turning America into a Hunger Games.
I agree about the turning America into the "Hunger Games!" I watched it recently and can't help but fear that poor people like myself will have it worse. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Musk and his orange partner build a coliseum and throw people into it to fight!
NOTE:
The likelihood of severe backlash depends on public perception, media coverage, and the specific actions Musk continues to take. Given his high profile, even small missteps often spark significant backlash. BUT, his strong fanbase on X and apparent business successes might cushion the impact unless his behavior causes widespread harm or legal consequences.
Allen, While I donтАЩt dispute the validity of your thesis, admittedly, I am somewhat heartened by the staggering fractiousness within the Republican Party these last few days over funding the government. Though my perspective is mere speculation, observing that not all Republicans were willing entirely to go along with the Musk/Trump renegotiation, I sense, despite principles they hold that vehemently oppose ours, that some Republicans, like us, seemingly hold to the principle that the U.S. should exist as a sovereign country, a struggle we would lose if we let Musk and others like him take over.
Barbara Jo, I love the phrase; тАЬstaggering fractiousnessтАЭ! Yes, and yes again.
I literally laughed out loud when I read that Rand Paul, true to form, opposed TrumpтАЩs demand to eliminate the debt ceiling. Serious pain in the ass that he is, this time he actually helped. Sort of, at least.
Turns out ambitious Republicans can be a bitch to manipulate. (Yes, I recognize that Paul is Libertarian. But Thune isnтАЩt. Lol.)
Also want to give a huge shout out to my US Representative, Angie Craig (D-MN) who was recently elected the ranking minority member on the House Agriculture Committee. Craig helped negotiate the $10B aid to farmers provision in the CR. Whoop!
To be honest, I can't tell the difference between Libertarians and MAGA anymore. Two peas in a poisonous pod.
And we should, amidst our letter writing, be sure to include notes of "Thanks" to those in the GOP who still seem to have a spine
@Swbv, Because the motives among those in the GOP who seemingly тАЬhave a spineтАЭ are likely not monolithic, I might hold off on the gratuitous letter writing. As I wrote to another reader on this site, I would suggest that the opposition persistently amplify the putrid underpinnings of far-right extremist policy and declare what it (the opposition) would do differently. Along with connecting to the swath of the electorate that increasingly has felt (understandably so) abandoned by the Democratic Party, the opposition feasibly would succeed in maintaining some amount of democracy until 2026 and achieving significant victories in the midtermsтАФbreaking TrumpтАЩs hold on Congress and state legislatures prior to our entering the 2028 election cycle.
A Dem majority in 2026 would be a blessing. Actually, it would be a blessing for both the right and the left. As it is right now, our nation's governance will be directed towards making laws, regulations, and foreign relations that best suit Mr. Musk. He's got a GOP tailwind ready to do his bidding, led by Mr. Johnson and facilitated by our Supreme Court
@Swbv, I agree. Hence the necessity, at every turn, for the opposition to drive home the freedoms, right, and safeguards that are in peril and show what they would do differently.
Good point!
As long as they keep eating their own, there is hope.
Gregg, Considering the tight margins up and down the ballot, I remain cautiously hopeful that enough, who for much of their political lives had understood the need for constant checks and balances against the excesses of any one branch, will be called again to safeguard the Republic.
LMAO Allen, never thought about like that. Sort of Shakespearean?
"To know, or not to know: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous MAGA dysfunction,
Or to take sleep against a sea of troubles,
And by sleep end them? To worry: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand MAGAA dysfunctional shocks..."
Should have gone to bed earlier!
Elon Musk is a major threat to Germany and England as well, and he has been cozying up to illiberal leaders across the planet, in France, Italy, Argentina. We should be throwing our energies into separating him from his businesses and his money. This should be done together with allies.
A The Bulwark Podcast pointed out that Trump is probably afraid of what Musk could do to bring him down, by using his money and X platform to campaign against Trump if Trump does not do what he wants.
HeтАЩs a threat to Europe, given that he is supporting the neo-Nazi party AfD. The last time the Nazis were in power they occupied the whole of Europe apart from the UK, Sweden and Switzerland, hammered Britain with bombs and killed tens of millions of Europeans.
As for Musk - the Apartheid regime of South Africa was directly inspired by the Nazis, so itтАЩs not surprising heтАЩs keen.
I call him Evil Elon. I wouldn't want to insult a muskrat, Allen! :) I remember you Allen and hope you and your wife are doing well.
We are doing OK. thanks. Tanya carries the burdon of Ukraine on her heart every day and I worry about her
And Germany and the UK and, and, and....
HeтАЩs very dangerous to Europe. He is trying to get the German neo-Nazi AfD elected with a majority. Like that never goes wrong.
And unlike in the US, Musk has no European citizenship and no rights here.
I hope both the EU and Germany will counter with a resounding NO -NON- NEIN.
Allen, agreed although I would extend this idea to his being a threat to the entire world. He is meddling in Europe, supporting fascists. He only cares about money and the ability to trample everyone in his path.
This is a worthy watch from Sen Bernie Sanders. For those who use social media, I highly suggest adding to your account!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79KDKWEOJ1s&t=22s
Great analysis. Spot on.
A traitor who is a lot less smart than he thinks he is. The worst bullies are often those who have been bullied.
Allen, your voice has the authenticity of experience! Wishing you and the family a safe and peaceful season. Glad to see you here!
Thank you. Someday, Good Lord willing and thecreek dont rise, we will go home.
lol ~
Threat to the Universe!
What do you propose we do to stop him
Legally, I do not know
I agree he is a major threat but apologies please to Muskrats...too late.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat