On December 26, 1991, the New York Times ran a banner headline: “Gorbachev, Last Soviet Leader, Resigns; U.S. Recognizes Republics’ Independence.” On December 25, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, marking the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, often referred to as the Soviet Union or USSR.
The hubris of the US after the fall of the Soviet Union is an example of the complete lack of foresight and wisdom of the GOP in contrast to the democrats post WWll help in rebuilding Japan and Germany making Allie’s who were once enemies.
Is it really just lack of foresight, or are some of the major backers of current right wing "Republican" ideology part and parcel of the problems The Corporate Transparency Act and like regulation is aimed to curtail? Seems like the coziness of big money and tyrants goes back a bit, along with the sorts of shenanigans seen in Pandora, Paradise and Panama Papers.
Was I dumbfounded - tremendously surprised and curious - as to why and how so many people involved with trump and his MAGA movement (basically now confirmed as a cult) seemed be so closely tied and/or connected in some way - like trips to - Russia! But then all one has to do is to realize the connections (involvement) of Russians in American men’s, gentlemen [strip] clubs and luxury (high valued) real estate properties - not just here ... but in other countries around the globe like England (London), France (Paris) and other choice places in our world!
Christo-Fascism is not wholly-owned by American evangelicals. The "exercise of Faith" demonstrated by the Patriarchs is tied closely to Putin and the Kremlin. There is no "Jesus" in Russian Theocratic Orthodoxy anymore than there is in America's evangelicalism. Neither is truly a praxis of Christian Doctrine, but an instrument of political heresy, manipulation and deception. Do we believe that Mike Johnson is really an accident? We have been set on a perilous, a VERY perilous, path.
Thank you for this. I note the caption under the photo of Mike Pence: "World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians." Persecuted Christians is a satanically driven myth. It is as outrageously foolish as "the WAR on Christmas". If ever there were a war on Christmas, that "war" was initiated by the mercantilists and the retailers. Christmas for years (decades) has been a moneyed gift to the well-to-do. Pence is the LAST person to be standing up as a "savior" of Christ and the Faith. His, like so many others, is bargain-basement Christianity. He has long been rumored as a closet queer. I often have wondered about those Orthodox Patriarchs and what THEY might be doing in the wine closet. (And not with the wine.) Lincoln Graham is a theocratic fascist. His "faith" has little to do with Jesus and much more to do with power and influence. "Beware the wolves".
It is a deliberate strategy of the Kremlin to restore the and fund the Russian Orthodox church.
This helps Putin maintain higher approval ratings. Restoring the ROC gives him an aura of moral authority to a misinformed electorate ( the church leaders are paid off this way too), so they give him their support but do not disclose their payoffs to their congregations.
Church leaders abroad, especially American evangelicals are courted and invited to Russia to be swooned and swayed by the ROC's Islamophobia, homophobia, immigrant phobia. Fear of other "non believers" and proof of a decadent "West" that is destroying "the blood of our country", sound familiar?
The Kremlin also pays for and invites far right White Supremist leaders like David Duke and Richard Spencer ( organizer of Charlottesville Unite the Right March that killed Heather Hyer). BTW, Richard Spencer ended up meeting his ex wife at one of these Russia organized Evangelical/White Supremist Kumbaya gatherings in Moscow. He married Alexander Dugan's Translator. Dugan is a Christian Fascist Philosopher and close political adviser to Putin. Now go figure? The NRA is also a big Kremlin benefactor. Not because Gun Rights are available in Russia, but because excess guns always destabilize a society. These are the old style "active measures" deployed by the Russian's to poison the well of decency that erode democracy. And we haven't even discussed Russian Social Media Influence Campaigns yet.
Concentration of power tends to corrupt, and that can me seen in all manner of organizations. Corporations, academia, churches, unions, any organization in which one has the power to increase the organization's power and one's own personal power at the peril of it's public mission and/or responsibilities. The current "Republican" Party is as illustrative of this as it gets. And here I'm talking about organizations with a legitimate role in the functions of a free and just society. Organized Crime (what the "GOP" has become) is that from the inception.
"Government is the problem" is nonsense, like saying "people are the problem". Well, yes, but... Corruption is the problem. Malignant narcissism is the problem. We need to upgrade our collective thinking to avert or soften multiple emerging disasters.
I know a brilliant Serbo-American who is in thrall to all of this. It’s fascinating and terrible to see Christianity “taken over” for greed and hatred. The Pharisees could win and will if they destroy the planet. Climate change denial is part of the “program.” Will Liz Cheney speak to that? And Jill Stein, at dinner with Putin and Flynn, now running for president again. Green Party with Putin? The only green with Putin (as with Trump) is Navalny in upper Siberia with whatever is left of evergreens in that part of the world.
Good summary of what I've read over the past two years on this subject. Quite the coupling.
What is dangerous is the infusion (not just intrusion as in the past, but infusion) of foreign powers' interests deep into our 'faith' and the determination of these folks to ignore the separation of church and state. Toss in the use of social media to propagate deeply antisemitic and anti-woman (if you think our Republicans are a bit mad for anti-abortion, Russia is ten times worse thanks to their church) sentiments, and we've got a real problem on our hands.
Long ago in high school I read Sinclair Lewis' "Elmer Gantry" and I keep thinking about it plus the fictionalized account of Huey Long: "All the King's Men" (a book and a movie). Our history is riddled with movements like what we see today in the Evangelist mega-churches, led by scam artists and corrupt politicians who are skilled performers, but who end up fooling themselves along with their vast audiences, drinking their own Kool-Aid. Highly recommend both books to remind yourself this circus we are watching is nothing new.
The difference is the spinning and acrobatic shows are spreading so much faster than ever before and it is getting rather difficult to tell whether and when Putin is wagging these dogs' tails. But I am positive that the latest fake outrage about the border by Republicans was all about blocking helping Ukraine, as it benefits solely one man: Putin.
How about checking out the chemical, fossil fuel and mining companies and links between regime change, corruption and attacks on democracy .
Look at the MPS and Atlas network foundation. There are very obvious links between certain polluting corporate interests and funding of deceptively inclusive green waahing .
What country benefits the most from Climate Change/Global Warming/Greenhouse effect?
Without Artic Ice, the Northwest passage is real and year round. Controlling it is power. Imagine the US not having the West Coast? Imagine France or England or any of the historical European countries with 90% less access to ocean ports as they developed? This is why Russia has always played a back seat to European and world affairs. Russia has never had a strong Navy. It has always been vulnerable to shifts in global power throughout the centuries because it lacks access to enough ports and Oceans. Some may argue that it doesn't matter, but it does. A permanently thawed Arctic Ocean gives Russia shorter trade routes to export and ship cheaply its gas, oil, minerals around the world. More ports, more ocean, more access to export equals more $, thus more power for Putin and his kleptocratic hydrocarbon oligarchs global network. Putin has laid the ground work with the GOP and every Conservative Party in every democracy around the globe, from payoffs, dark campaign funding ( GOP through the NRA, Loans to Frances' LaPen's party, vacations with Italy's Berlusconi, making former world leaders his lobbyist like Gerhard Shroeder, a board seat on Rosneft, to licensing deals and real estate to TFG, etc etc. The West needs to completely decouple from Russia's influence for democracies to survive and thrive.
Yes , yes, yes . I think this is exactly how Putin and local people interested in Oil Gas adn Mining. None understand or care about the Nine Planetary Boundaries and how this thaw will affect sea levels nor has a majority of top decision makers. Scary, scary, scary .
Russia has built a fleet of nuclear powered Ice Breaking ships. Next up, nuclear powered ships that can follow the ice breakers to power up mines, ports, entire towns to mine etc all along their artic coasts.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Is anyone else in this group getting The Barents Observer? It appeared in my email so I keep on reading about Russia in the Arctic, Russians fleeing over the border, etc.
No I am scared enough. I live in St.John's, Nl . My colleagues Pakistani husband who is a professor of mechanical engineering is mad keen that Canada races to exploit the arctic before Russia. Lots of people here think like this. I wonder also how much the fact that Svetkana kraskova is Ukrainian and a senior scientist at the IPCC. might have played into Putin's decision to invade Ukraine Check her out. I think Putin is very keen on world domination and has played brilliantly into many peoples valid terror of communism and the Gulags to push people to the far right. Fear of the gulags drives all kinds of people fleeing brutal authoritarian regimes to vote for parties that seek to privatize everything . I am reading there was dreadful criminality and violence as the USSR collapsed. Violence against women is massive in Russia and Putin has changed the law to literally allow killers off if they murder a family member. Oh my. Fear ruins our ability to problem solve. ..... I think there is a massive need to communicate with Russians outside those in the Kremlin and to support Russians brave enough and mad enough to stand up to Putin and his thugs.
Not sure Putin gives a damn about regular people in large cities like we do in the west. That is our economy, not his. Who knows for sure. He cares about $ and power. Russia's northern unfrozen Arctic Coast is all he needs to export Russia's vast mineral resources as cheaply as possible which is by sea not by land and a swampy tundra highway is impossible. Keeping Russia contained with Ice is good for global democracy.
What about the Atlas Networks network connects to attacks on democracy? A lot of their programs lobby for lower taxes and less regulation to enhance shareholder value but how is that a bad thing?
Unless you can't save and invest or can't get used to asset poverty and welfare level retirement I don't see a problem. Not everyone that earns income from personal assets is corrupt. I think the majority would be proud to be a capitalist. We continue to be colonized by thousands of immigrants every day with that intention.
The economists who support this program work at top universities. None suggest getting rid of capitalism. At least not that I am aware of. I am unsure what you mean by being colonized by?
Lots of people flee corruption and chaos. This is exactly why it is so important to stop corruption.
I am in favour of capitalism. I am not in favour of corruption, money laundering and posting record profits and price gauging consumers. Exon Mobile has cheated and lied for decades and funds the Atlas Network Foundation . Looking at their website they look wonderful. They are very sneaky.
Thank you JL. There has been some significant US foresight going back to 1948 with our post WWII relations with Northern European nations. I will cite the "close 75 year security partner "DENMARK & the growing security agreements in 2023 going into 2024 with SWEDEN & FINLAND. Turkey has dropped its opposition to SWEDEN joining NATO
As previously posted on LFAA just after 12/21/23, US Secretary of State (SOS) Antony J. Blinken met with the Danish Minister LARS RASMUSSEN in the Treaty Room on 12/21 & signed a "DCA", a Defense Cooperation Agreement with DENMARK. Intelligence operations with the Danes have & will remain important.
Putin's quite active war with Ukraine has cemented active military & security operations with the BALTIC states. Relations with POLAND have improved dramatically but, I await Anne Applebaum's reports in the coming New Year. Anne is living in Poland & is easy to Link up to on anything Euro.
Thank you Professor R for the historical context to deal with all the urgent matters.
I am slightly confused as to passing this act (Transparency) originally not in the Senate , but when? to in fact ‘take place shortly in 2024...’ and this Blinken revelation...seems WE can’t possibly know the undercurrents ( good /bad, apparently 🥹) and me thinks more behind the scenes is the forever tug of war ...I’m relying on the progressive though not alt left ..to do the real correct(ion) and have to trust that. 💙☮️
Patricia, I get daily official digital feeds from the US State Dept. Sometimes 6 in 1 day.
The emails are carefully worded. These are not sensitive in anyway bu,t just not the relevant info that major Platforms chose to pass on to viewers/Readers/and/or actors.
How considerate Bryan, thank you, I would be very interested to read the contents . Do you see/understand more from these messages sent?
For me there’s a lot of trust, part extracting the principle, and volumes of history to absorb their juggle -filtering for important directives...I can’t imagine the input needed from trusted advisors for daily decisions playing the hand dealt. I’d dare say 85% (?)of the population has little clue!
Pardon my jumping to conclusions but War can be interpreted as brutal manipulation to own more real estate? The Democrats build back up the ‘conquered ‘ to realize their own potential whereas the oligarchs /Republican set about framing us and constructing their ‘owned gain’ or is that game.....? ...no FOR THE PEOPLE intent there folks 🙄🤦♀️!
J L Graham, your comment brings to my mind the timing of the defunding of the government that will be caused by the gop House not passing another CR or new budget. You cannot pay for enforcement of a new Corporate Transparency Act policy with no funding. This adds an angle to their timeline I never knew to consider before.
Yes! You found it. I was wondering what current activities by the Magas would be in preparation for this, and you identified it. Also could be part of the reason they were holding those high official positions hostage. Some sort of bargaining chip. I'd dare say we are already in the somewhat early stages World War III. It's mostly transaction-based (as opposed to physical) conflict at this point, though obviously not exclusively.
Politics is a game for those who regard other people as prey. Not that the best of politics lacks a coherent and well thought out strategy, but it seems to me a some point "the love of money" and other forms of social power becomes an end in itself, for which any other consideration is sacrificed. For the thrill of being the last person standing, and the owner of the whole, entire world in a fortress of steel, concrete and costly decor.
Exactly, J L. The very same interests involved in the support of Hitler in this country in the 1930s, as documented by Rachel Maddow so clearly. Many of those very same Republicans actively fomenting a coup to bring Fascism to the US and indicted and brought to trial. Instead of me blathering on about it, you and many others can read her Prequel and listen to the eight Ultra podcasts.
That movement away from hubris was not immediate in 1945. America's initial temptation was to punish the losers forever, de-industrializing Germany and Japan.
Hubris that followed the utterly foreseeable yet unforeseen collapse of the Soviet empire was as immense as it was idiotic and we may be paying the price for this a long time into the future.
At the time of the final implosion, I noted:
"Crass materialism has triumphed over dialectical materialism. But it won't last 70 years, maybe not much more than 7."
It took rather longer till the Subprime crash in 2007-2008...
I saw and still see the two opponents as far more Tweedledum & Tweedledee than either cared to admit. The West promptly draped itself in the propaganda cloak of Comintern... turned inside out. Daily garbage pronouncements about the superiority of Holy Market and Free Enterprise, reading just like those paeans to The Coming Triumph of Socialism, the theological presentation of History.
There's a Spanish proverb:
"The vanquished are vanquished; the victor is lost."
What a bleak view. We actually didn’t exercise a vanquished strategy over the losers, but actually helped rebuild the world. Then after the Soviet Union collapsed we traded with the Soviet Union in the hope it might normalize and stabilize relations. So it didn’t work. We tried.
Bleak view, Paul, that fits the bleak developments of the past three decades and more; as against a misty, not to say fogbound memory of what actually happened.
Some of those you refer to as "we" did actually try to help; but, just as we -- yes, we here, we now -- are already seeing and shall probably be seeing for quite some time to come, it is hard to find one's way out from a system founded on delusions and the merest of appearances, and even harder to escape a world built from lies. Soviet lies and Rupert Murdoch's may be different, but lies are lies. And all lies induce chaos and confusion, only advantageous to criminals, who plant and spread them.
From chaos and confusion come eventual downfall.
*
Outlook bleak for those who don't wake up, wash drug-induced dreams from their minds and wash their eyes clean.
Is that not what HCR and we readers of Letters from an American are trying to do?
A two-parter. Heather and those of her subscribers who take concrete action -at least voting, hopefully more - are frantically signaling to the rest of America that the patient is critically wounded and death will be imminent.
I have noticed (and felt generally grateful for) that Heather is taking a very one-sided pro-Biden view of America in the last year or so of her articles. Being a careful and honest historian, she does not tamper with the truth in the slightest. But her points of emphasis are clear. And her thesis is ringing siren-like.
For some time now Heather has been pointing out the successes of Biden’s Presidency. There have been frequent articles on the power of Biden’s casting aside the trickle-down theory of economic growth and its success in leveling the playing field. As well she has emphasized his signature legislative accomplishments and consistently noble foreign policy ventures.
In this series of newsletters we are not hearing much on the momentum Trump is gaining through his lawyers’ success in slowing the legal system to a crawl. We are not being warned of the potential for an election in which Trump has not been fully tried and hopefully convicted on even one count. Although she is undoubtedly aware of the psychological potency of this strategy, Heather is not supercharging the atmosphere with comment on how, as time passes, Americans care less and less about seeing justice done and in their inertia and exhaustion (see NYT article - Tuesday this week I think) are paving the way for a Trump victory.
Nor has Heather pointed the finger in any meaningful way at the second-tier villain of this tragedy, the astonishingly feckless head of the DOJ Merrick Garland who inexplicably let 18 months go by and the momentum to bring the monster to justice fade possibly irrevocably, before hiring Jack Smith.
I deeply appreciate Heather’s spiritual quest to always propagate the truths of this Administration and thus prop it up so we are not overwhelmed by the daily storms of scorn and criticism. Again, she is unique in how honestly and without sensation she does this.
And yet I feel a bit uneasy. The sheer accumulation of articles which beg us to see how Biden has turned the country around is beginning to arouse in me a sensation that Letters to an American is becoming one-sided, in its own brilliant, earnest way. The other side is having successes too. Trump has been canny in his choice of lawyers. The obstruction of justice has been successful to my deep disappointment. Trump’s tone has been again uncannily matched to what his followers need, but he is also wooing new voters in what for him at least is a traditionally political, non-hysterical way. The polls at the moment are unequivocal that Biden has a steep uphill climb to win the Presidency. Polls this far out are veritable smorgasbords of useless empty calories, but they have a nasty habit of creating their own truths, which in turn grow if the actual news cycle is at all slow.
In short, I am beginning to feel infantilized. We are not getting a balanced picture of the deeper truths of the current scene. We are not getting the temperature of the nation.
We need galvanizing through being made fully aware of current unpalatable realities that threaten to coalesce and ignite further. We need to meet the enemy - in a calculated, realistic appraisal. We must hear once or twice a month how truly endangered the American ideal is. We need to hear about the Republicans in detail, not just when they are committing hara-kiri as in the comical but sad quest for a speaker. We need to know what they are doing that is working to further this appalling threat, so that we are better able to fight it.
And yet, as I examine this concern over and over, I cannot honestly say that I’m sure this is Heather’s job. She buoys our spirits. We trust her implicitly, because she wins that trust everyday with her commentary and extensive footnoting. Is this the forum to point out that the sky is beginning to crack and may soon be falling? I simply cannot answer this question with any sense of clarity. And so, I am restlessly anxious.
Ten years from now, Heather’s columns will no doubt appear in a book and from then on be a Valhalla for historians. She will be acknowledged as being true to her mission. But will she gently be chided for a mission that is too limited? I don’t know.
I believe that when the calendar turns to 2024 we will see the beginnings of the real battle for America’s soul. The stakes are incredibly high. - the chips are all in. Obviously we have primary season ahead of us and then conventions and then the run up to the myriad of elections in November. The temperature always rises slowly but steadily during a Presidential year. But this year is different. The forces of irrationality are loose upon the land. The stakes are of the “all or nothing” ilk. There will be violence - how much is hard to say. There will be cheating and it may not be limited to one side. As for Election Day, I’m not sure it will even be held successfully. November 2020 will ok like a child’s three-legged race. Election Day may dissolve into chaos never witnessed in America.
I will read you every day, Heather. Your calm reporting (and unearthing) of realities that a lot of media find too boring to report, or qualify until they’ve crippled it, is welcome. The connections you draw or peerless.
But I would love you to be the voice of reason as to how great this challenge is. I would accept it unequivocally because my trust in you is implicit. But we need an accounting of our losses, our mistakes, the pitfalls in our path. You may not feel it your calling, but I for one beg you for it.
I was going to be short with the above point and then talk about America’s role after the Second World War and then after the fall of the USSR. But I have worn out my welcome by being too garrulous and so you will be blessed with a “one-parter” only today.
The situation's more desperate with every passing day, yet distractions and diversions hold the people's attention.
Why no clamor, why no noisy pots-and-pans demos outside media corporation offices demanding real info and nothing but real info? And the heads of those who publish daily lies and statistical lies...
We need HCR to get US to the polls. I need HCR to keep me writing GOTV postcards. At 89, I hear all the bad news, but reported by lawyers, ex-federal prosecutors, Luttig, Tribe, etc. Everyone is worried, but all seem to believe that the possibility of defeating Trump and having a substantive aftermath is doable if Biden is re-elected. The age “thing” may have come from Russia and may be ignored as propaganda. The “crew” is doing well. And if Americans can get over gas and egg prices long enough to think about their relationship to climate change, there is indeed hope. r
Paul and Paul, that’s an oversimplification of a complexity of decades long developments that brought the biggest war in Europe since WW2 and that almost destroyed the European Union, and threatens our democracy at home.
It’s a paragraph Ted, not a book. Peter is a fanciful writer and paints a bleak world full of confusion, lies, downfall, drug induced dreams. If I’ve learned anything from Heather it’s that our history is full of trying times. It just doesn’t feel that bleak to me. Challenging but not bleak.
Born one month into the second world war in an island under attack. Bombs, rockets. Not being in Germany, in Poland, in Russia, in Italy, little by comparison with what people suffered in continental Europe. But quite enough for a child.
I've spent a lifetime sitting, fence-sitting close to the political arena, taking it in.
Especially since the mid-1980s, I have seen too much.
And looking back, I see that I have often developed and shown the foresight that comes of alertness and long attentiveness.
A German friend recounted his stay in Communist East Germany in 1986. When he'd finished telling I said if the Germans can't make this system work, the Russians certainly can't and concluded that the Soviet empire must die like a very old man, worn out but all organs still just functioning, as soon as one failed.
We then forgot that until it happened.
In the mid-90's I made a loud public remark in the political environment where I worked, declaring that democracy might not last longer than another generation. Fanciful? Surely, looking at the world at that time. I was labeled "a philosopher" and it was not meant as a compliment. Now? We have only to consider the worldwide movement against representative government, the dictators and would-be dictators everywhere -- even in the United States of America.
In late August 2001, I remarked that our world was sleepwalking on the edge of the abyss. Fanciful? Sure. The friend to whom I made the remark was politically very savvy, far more than most people, but her response was that I was "exaggerating, as usual".
Ditto on September 10th, when I wrote to the same friend that "our democracies are like a dog asleep in the middle of the highway. One doubts our survival mechanisms".
We saw what happened on the next day.
We also saw the unbelievable mess the then administration made of the situation and the damage they -- yes, they -- inflicted on the whole world, in particular the Middle East. It should have been obvious that the attack on New York was designed as a trigger mechanism, designed to set off a chain reaction bomb. It was not. The Bush Administration must, with the invasion of Iraq, have gone beyond the wildest hopes and dreams of Al-Qaida.
If even that direct assault on America could not awaken Americans to reality, what could? And now, on October 7th, an infernal machine from which there was and is no escaping, setting off multiple chain reactions and, by the horrible look of things, succeeding in doing what it was intended to.
Such deep cynicism is very hard to contemplate.
I refuse discouragement, yet, the past decades have been discouraging to one who came of age at a time of high hopes, and the current situation could not be more challenging. The challenge is indeed without precedent.
I may be uncomfortably sensitive to the situation -- and that to a degree that is unhealthy for me and those close to me. One must needs stay calm; but complacency is out of the question. Given the vast material power of America and the ambitions of nuclear-armed States, the dangers we now face are greater even than those that confronted the world on September 1st 1939 or December 7th 1941.
*
Prove me wrong. Reassure me if you can. I'd rather be mistaken.
Noted. Bleak to me, I guess would be to lose the war in Ukraine, lose democracy in the US 2024 elections from an apathetic misinformed not voting majority, and then EU falls apart. Russian and Oil exporting countries expand. The Arctic ceases to freeze and the northwest passage is secured/controlled by Putin and his Oligarchs. Corruption rules. What then?
Paul, I've posted further down this thread a word about the Morgenthau Plan for Germany -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan -- explaining that the brilliant Marshall Plan was adopted only in March 1948, superseding this plan to, in the words of Goebbels, "make Germany into a giant potato patch".
Readers really should read information about the Morgenthau Plan and how it played into the hands of Dr Goebbels and his formidable propaganda machine when it came to fighting the last battles of the war. "Worth thirty divisions to the Germans"...
I’m sorry I don’t share some of what you expressed about post WWII. We learned from the previous war to not punish but assist and that worked beautifully. As to the rest of your mini diatribe, I simply don’t understand what you are expressing. You might want to simply your thoughts, well… in my opinion.
Bill, the Marshall Plan did not follow Allied victory immediately. Initial intentions were contained in the Morgenthau Plan, which it superseded. And, if you and Christopher L Groesbeck consult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan, you will see America's original plans for Germany.
I understand that Churchill did much to persuade the US to drop this approach, but I am simply speaking from memory here.
As for simplifying my thoughts, they are a good deal simpler than the complexities of the situation, but those are such that further simplification might be over-simplification. Let's leave that to the likes of tfg.
Welllllll, let's not forget who was president for, basically, the first decade of that period--and that foreign policy is first and foremost the domain of the executive branch. If we're gonna color ourselves "arrogant," and with "lack of foresight," it is not wholly a GOP thing, not at all.
I am more than OK saying that the modern decline and corruption of America is bipartisan.
Because it is and was.
Having said that, Trump is a new level of corruption not before seen. Trump laundered money for the Russians and his son even openly bragged that one of the big golf courses Trump purchased in Scotland was bought with laundered Russian money and his comment was actually published in a newspaper.
Of course, we all know why there were no arrests and no jail time for admitting in public to money laundering. So, I won't add that obvious bit of information here again.
Re-electing Trump is == re-electing a patsy of the Russian Oligarchy.
Not just the Russians. Read Bill Browder's book. The Western money that poured into the former USSR became a breeding ground for a worldlevel cabal. Those that worshipped Milton Friedmans philosophy are willing to allow the world to burn as they have built their doomsday bunkers in far away places. They avoid all the security of airports and shipping terminals with their private planes and yachts. They have walled themselves away from "those people", which is the rest of is.
I really am not sure why he became famous. I guess one liners are a path to being famous.
"The only responsibility of a corporation is to its shareholder".
Anyone living near a garbage dump, a mining operation, a chemical plant, a busy highway, or anyone able to think their way out of wet paper sack on hot summer day can see that Milton Friedman's statement that made him famous is wrong.
Maybe being wrong is the easy path to fame??
Being right is WAY more work, research, effort and time.
Maybe I should come up with a few dumb one-liners and see how it works out for me.
Generally, Mike S, being wrong is easier because it usually involves being simplistic, avoiding the hard choices embraced by devotion to the complexity of reality as far as one can see it. One suspects Milton Friedman became so famous not because of his accuracy but because of his simplicity to those who chose the most self-serving concepts available. Simple Self-Serving Statements gain long legs!
In my childhood, kids sometimes called each other selfish. They got from parents, religion, the culture, that selfish was not the way to be. Today’s parents are more likely to teach their kids how to get an advantage over other kids. Self-serving is the new morality.
I’d argue that Friedman was wrong on almost everything, particularly his cheerleading for trickle-on economics. But he’s correct about corporations being responsible only to their shareholders.
What he and others leave out is that We the People are the ultimate shareholders of America, and should use the power of government to make corporate shareholders play by the rules WE demand.
So corporations are beholden only to their shareholders, yes. But they’re all beholden to us, the people of America.
Shane, I’d argue that the position from the right is that capitalism is inherently more moral than socialism, allowing capitalists to have it both ways. Meaning, they get to claim moral superiority while actually dodging moral responsibility through the actions of their corporations. It’s sort of a system of moral currency laundering.
Everyone interested in what Russia is all about must read "Red Notice" by Bill Browder. It's simple. Putin is the godfather of a Russian mafia.
There was a hint of democracy in Russia as the USSR collapsed. But the Russian people succumbed to the attraction of a strong man instead. It's the same primitive vicious psychology that makes Trump so attractive to so many.
It baffles me that the US and the EU haven't established a powerful publicity campaign to inform the Russians of Putin and his oligarch's theft of the national treasure. They eat caviar on their yachts and in their dachas and the average Russian suffers. With enough info about this and the number of young Russians lost to a stupid war, Putin could be toppled just like Nicholas Romanov.
Not time to go into this, but I can assure you that you are greatly oversimplifying both recent Russian history and the current situation.
One current problem is that, for Putin, now that he has invested the country's all in war, he will never be able to leave off making war. If he were to do that, return of soldiers from the front would have the same effects as it had in 1917, when disgruntled soldiers did so much to overthrow the Tsar and his regime.
Stalin understood this kind of danger to himself, and took such actions as purging the entire Leningrad leadership for having successfully withstood the 900-day blockade... without his help or direct instructions. Worse still, from the dictator's point of view, Leningrad no longer feared anything, not even Stalin. They'd seen and survived the worst ordeal possible.
The Bush I administration actively allowed Russia to devolve into a state run by organized crime. If I recall correctly, Boris Yeltsin sought help from the US for guidance in setting up a democracy and was turned down. If I’m wrong about that I’d appreciate comments from anyone who knows better.
Interesting. What if Yeltsin had solicited help from several successful democracies - an advisory group, if you will. But Boris was too drunk to imagine such a thing. And there were already gangsters after him. He sought Putins protection and got it. Putin got the country in return. Democracy never had a shot. The Russians love a strong man.
Americans at least had the influence of centuries long development of shrinking the influence of a monarch and slowly gaining a government run by the people. We're still working on it, eh?
As others have mentioned above it really had a lot to do with Milton Friedman and his Chicago School of Economics. Friedman's ideology & insistence on how to implement the "free market" in these newly formed republics from the previous Communist regime's orbit and economic conditions was to completely remake the economy is these places. Which caused great suffering and chaos as Naomi Klein describes in much detail in 'The Shock Doctrine- the Rise of Disaster Capitalism'.
Yeltsin and his team of economists were to trying to establish some Chicago School economic program which was really some idealistic capitalist fantasy than a truly democratic republic. There were several shocks within these few first years of Yeltsin's rise to power and leadership.
First, the Soviet Union was the only country many Russians had ever known or been born into and a very powerful shock to their psyche.
The second shock was this drastic economic shock therapy program, including immediate privatization of Russia's nearly 225,000 state-owned companies. A third of the population fell below the poverty line. Millions of middle-class Russians had lost their life savings when the currency lost its value, drastic cuts in state funding for the jobs of millions of workers that didn't get paid was too much to take.
Up till then Yeltsin had been able to promote economic reform and democratic reform as the desired approach to the 'new' Russia. He became more dictatorial, thinking of him less as the president and more like a monarch. Russia's brief democracy was destroyed little by little. Eventually the oligarchs, mafia and old Communist party members would just retake the brutalized economy on their own terms like some allegorical bleak Russian winter...
Adding: Mitt Romney warned who the enemy was and is. He was laughed out of the party. Mitt didn’t need a Russian infusion into his campaign coffers. Mitt already had all the cash he needed for his Senate seat. We are now at a point of oligarchy infused foreign Funded GOP doesn’t need regular American donors. They only need the votes ( for now), and they achieve that through demagoguery rhetoric. If they win 2024, it’s a new ball game with no rules, no election laws. Elections become ceremonial, like in Russia. And was attempted in Ukraine till Yankovich fled to Moscow.
And are we the people strong enough to fight for Democracy? We should be saying/doing/warning, more loudly. Here I sit, though, 83 and where do I get started? Hold a press conference? But it would help if there were a planned group that would have a million press conferences all at the same time/day.
I don’t think it is about political bipartisanship as much as it is a sorting out of diverse cultures that are and always have been present in our countries history. Republicans grabbed the disaffected southern Dixiecrats, created the opportunity to draw in christian societies into politics around abortion in the 70s and made their false claim that they owned the moral high ground in the 80’s. No one can dispute that the repugs were much better than the Dems at identifying causes which attracted various segments of our society. The dems kind of lost their way and the 20th century New Deal progressivism got thrown under the bus in the 80s and 90s.
Are you talking about 1992 onward with Bill Clinton? I was busy in college and grad school during 1992-2002, and was still forming my political beliefs.
I recall Clinton suddenly getting a tear in his eye when marching in a funeral march and pointed out by an aid that the cameras were on him. That is what the press was pushing in circa 1992. I also recall Clinton working tirelessly on an accord between Israel and Palestine and despite the effort, failing and coming away exasperated. The latter I think defines the Best of Bill Clinton.
I don't know if you are blaming the Dems for the Yeltsin era, basically giving way to Putin. I don't think either party in the US should claim credit or blame for the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent rise of Russia under Putin.
Sorry if my comment is totally off base. That is entirely possible as these are just comments and there is just a lot of reading between the lines as a consequence.
People give Reagan credit for the demise of the USSR, but it was a decades long process that wore communism down, culminating in the actions of Gorbachev.
YES Matt, the complexity of reality affects both sides of any conflict. Truly accurate statements tend to be more boring and harder to grasp or write on a banner or bumper sticker or even a billboard. There are far more nuances than many (most?) people have time or energy to contemplate. Give us a good slogan any day!
...makes me aware why I usually seek out the longer comments to HCR's posts (e.g.- Peter Burnett, Matt Fulkerson, George Polisner, S B Lewis, Linda Weide, Barbara Jo Krieger, Robert McTague, Fay Reid, etc) because they seem more likely to encompass more of the complexities of any given stance or add new information.
I think the Press was wallowing in the Lewinsky mess instead of distributing the news. Tabloid Journalism was just getting started and Fox took over from there. A lot of blame to spread around.
I am aware - now - how little attention I paid to any form of politics or the real issues of governing for far too long. Becoming a single mother & having to earn a living sort of requires focusing on providing for family! There tends to be quite an abrupt learning curve involved after a divorce. Life did get better.
That doesnt excuse me - but I wasnt alone in that respect.
It’s the Senate, not the President that writes and approves our treaties with foreign governments. However, both parties are complicit in their assertions that capitalism was/is a guarantee of democracy. Just another reminder that the role of government is to protect the rule of law, provide institutional oversite/regulate. The other is free, fair, and transparent elections.
“ Nothing was more to be desired than that every practical obstacle should be opposed to Cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might have been expected to make their approaches from more than one "querter", but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant (DJT) in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature (Mr. Orange) of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?” -Alexander Hamilton 1788
It occurred to me re reading F # 68, that not only have the obstacles to cabal and corruption have been removed by the court and by the laws passed, and that has given way to encouraging corruption and cabal from every corner and quarter. The former chief magistrate, his orangeness a creature saved by Putin’s $ and raised because of a lame reality TV show. The most important election in history is the next one.
Civilizations rise, and civilizations fall. It's one of the arrhythmic heartbeats of human time. The US has passed its second centennial. On the long historical record, it's done pretty well, particularly for a democracy. Two decades ago, during the Bush/Cheney misrule, I predicted we would not see a third centennial as a functioning national democracy. I won't be alive in 2076 to see if I was right.
One of the things playing out now also started in 1980, along with the entire Reagan misrule, namely the doctrine of "originalism" in the courts. We now have a case -- the DC insurrection trial of a former president, Whiny Don -- in which the lawyers for the defense are arguing for absolute, lifelong Presidential immunity for crimes. It's not surprising that this would be fielded as a defense, since the defense has pretty much nothing else. What is surprising is that a) this hasn't already been thrown out as absurd, and b) there is no confidence on either side which way the Supreme Court might rule.
The Court has become arbitrary. That's never a good sign.
What an important thread has HCR laid out for us. No strategies in the present are simple or new. They have origins and core goals going all the way back, in this case, to the battle for the New Deal, which took a war to be effected and remained under attack these many decades. Where do evil, avarice, and greed originate if the great American experiment was the antidote to regencies and empires and autocracies? What forces must be in place to protect the ideals or aspirational foundations of an American government in service to esposed goals and the interests of the plurality of its people? What standing force must be in place when the greater threat is not the arms and soldiers of foreign powers or ideologies, but the extremism of a battle between ideologies we now (and will) fight against? When does desireable tension become unsustainable?
Yes. And it strikes me that we and our allies will need to rebuild the Gaza, Palestinian and Israeli lands once the current horrible war comes to a close.
Thank you Heather. Certainly Reagan took undue credit for the Berlin wall. The former Soviet Union became entangled in too many conflicts and proxy wars, which drained its economy. For example, their own Afghanistan adventure (which preceded our own).
The conservatives fought against FDR and the New Deal during its implementation. And perhaps in some narrow cases, due to the thought of individualism over collectivism. Nevertheless, the funding of the GOP machine is directed, not as a political donation to cause gun rights to proliferate everywhere while eliminating Women's rights (and other important hard-earned rights). The funding is an investment with a return on investment being far more attractive than any yield offered by the stock or bond market. And it is all about the concentration of wealth, and thus power.
The obscenely wealthy don't care whether an impoverished 15 year old has to flee her home state to gain access to healthcare. They don't care if someone is shooting up a public school or mall -they won't be spending time in either. They merely care that there will not be a wealth tax. They care that they can amass generational wealth and pass it along to their heir(s) -unimpeded by estate taxes. They don't want anyone to touch offshore tax havens and loopholes -allowing them to pile wealth on top of wealth -while shifting the burden of debt to the working class in terms of higher income and sales taxes, or to the impoverished -through the elimination of vital social programs.
The USSR was simply a useful boogeyman, the monster under the bed. The real enemy is the public, little profit-centers who should just obediently mass-consume and stay out of topics like equity, justice, and democracy.
If Americans could stop falling into the trap set by people like Grover Norquist, Paul Weyrich, Newt Gingrich, and others, could stop allowing themselves to be intentionally divided by Rupert Murdoch, they could collaborate across declared political ideologies, transcend different religions, and bring responsible gun owners together with those working to prevent gun violence -and put America back on track toward the beacon of democracy it has the potential to be. If we continue on the road we are on it will simply be a footnote in history books of the future as a nice try and failed experiment. Of course, no worries that real history might actually be taught someday.
The USSR was genuinely creepy and dangerous. Russian government continues to be corrupt and dangerous. The "Republican Party" has become corrupt and dangerous. Absolute, unaccountable, concentrated power corrupts absolutely, regardless of branding.
Very true. While not diminishing the threat of any entity amassing significant military capability, my main point is that regardless of the Soviet Union or other adversaries, the obscenely wealthy may have 'pet peeve' social issues, their real focus is concentrating more wealth and power. The last thing someone like Musk, Robert Mercer, or others want (aside from fair taxation), is a mathematics teacher in Kansas having the same political power as their own.
Do a search on what the Powell memo did, and you'll find:
"In 1971, there were only 176 companies in Washington DC. A decade later, in 1980, there are 2,445 companies, 9,000 lobbyists and 60,000 trade association employees."
John Hancock hired John Adams to help him throw off the yoke of British taxes on his illegal rum running into Boston harbor to keep the Irish wards drunk and unaware of their exploitation.
Then, John Hancock helped write, well, everything else. But, Hancock never paid any tax on his business.
So, a big YES.
Now, Adams and Hancock were not corrupt per se. They both were just interested in money.
Mike, I once had an accounting assignment to identify the company that qualified for an income tax exemption passed in the Nixon era. Lobbyists for H. Ross Perot (and others) were very active in supplying tax code amendments to Congress Critters.
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” - Lincoln
Nuclear armed, yes, but for a long time the Soviet Union's "Parade Ground Socialism" was pathetic. Yet Brezhnev's Stagnation was infinitely better for citizens than Putin's Nazi-style war state in which war can't slow down or be stopped because everything will become unstable, then collapse...
Brezhnev was successful transforming Lenin’s/Marx’s worldwide worker revolution into the politics of eternity ( nothing can change so dont attempt otherwise its gulag or death). Violence abroad on the Warsaw Pact countries when/if the lean west or democratic. This kept Russia Authoritarian kleptocracy insulated. Today, with internet and proximity to Russian borders, Ukrainian democracy is viewed as an existential threat to Putin’s politics of eternity. I don’t think one over the other was/is better. Winning war in Ukraine should tell us everything we need to know.
I said better, Ted (i.e. tolerable) for those who had to live under the stupid system.
Stalin, not Brezhnev, transformed the system into the monumental monstrosity you describe. Had Trotsky, the dangerous revolutionary, tracked down and killed.
Successors to Khruschev, with his still dangerous adventures, championed mediocrity, conformism and the don't-rock-the-boat status quo, rather than terror. Psychiatric hospitals rather than the bullet in the neck. Brezhnev is said to have been furious with the KGB for inducing him to invade Afghanistan on false pretenses.
Kleptocracy is one word not to apply to this system. Even with its privileged class, no one but the occasional crook grabbed anything to match Stalin's butcher Yagoda (portrait prominent at Navalny's first "trial", to show who has licence to rob, and kill). His last killer, the monstrous Beria, was more into the rape and murder of women.
As for the so called "politics of eternity", haven't we seen, don't we see examples of this all over the place? In banana republics and wherever uniformed bandits have grabbed a country... What else, after all, is America's GOP kleptocracy? Total indifference to anything and everything except having and holding it all. "Conservatism" seen as conserving "what's good for us". Worse than indifference, hatred for any claimants to more than the contents of their trash cans.
The term "politics of eternity" has only one possible use. It reminds us of how stupid human beings are blind to the reality of change and decay, including their own.
Paul Manafort taught them the southern strategy. The Russians taught Paul about post truth, use of political technicians, how to corrupt via massive inputs of $ ( money laundering/blind llc real estate deals, licensing deals, and consulting fees), strongman tactics, and the politics of eternity.
Thank you for expressing my same opinions with more clarity.
I am praying and voting.....for President Joe Biden and for his super amazing team to continue to expand freedom, peace and mutual respect throughout this country and throughout the world. Goodness and peace are not "soft" concepts. They are won and maintained with great effort and sacrifice and wisdom.
Powerfully and eloquently stated Emily. A President is a President by the team he or she selects. We've seen the prior administration provide an example of what an inherently corrupt criminal cabinet could accomplish. And now we are seeing true leadership. And while I don't think any voter could be delighted by every policy implemented, or reaction to any domestic or foreign situation, the Biden-Harris Administration has performed well.
My issue of concern with the Biden administration is not taking a firm hand with Netanyahu. While Israel has a right to exist in peace and security, and certainly act to address Hamas as a terrorist organization, Netanyahu is using U.S. weaponry to cause indiscriminate death and suffering to the Palestinian people. And Netanyahu is creating more risk for, and hatred of, Jewish people in Israel and around the world. And this is precisely what he intends to do. Because "no one can protect you like a far-right strongman". It is a self-perpetuating lie.
If Biden loses in ‘24, it will be because of Gaza. It was going to be tight anyway, a fight between red voters pissed at the economy, and blue voters pissed at Dobbs, with those at the margins on both issues deciding it. Muslim support for Biden has dropped to 18%. Can you say Michigan? Some serious cleanup needed on Aisle 9.
Tom, if Biden wins, it will be because of the overturning of Roe V Wade. Seems people are discounting that fact as if we have moved on. Maybe the men have, but my women friends tell me different.
Spot on, David. Look to every election result since the death of Roe V Wade. Particularly, the statewide races in WI (state supreme court), KY (Dem Gov. Brashear's re-election) and the VA state legislature ...
People understand the assault on reproductive freedom IS the assault on every aspect of Democracy. Lady Liberty will again be victorious in 2024.
A word of caution. Presidential elections are unique. There is no electoral college in state/local races; the popular vote is not the determining factor, as we have seen repeatedly.
I do share your concern. Nevertheless, I resigned from Oracle when the criminal Trump said he intended to start a Muslim database and Oracle's then co-CEO, Safra Catz stated "we're (at Oracle -a major database and cloud company) are here for you."
Perhaps many people will self-disenfranchise, however, when choosing between someone quoting Hitler and wanting to establish "camps" and someone that at least respects civil rights, perhaps there are political calculations being made. And of course there is also the economic incentives that AIPAC puts on the table to drive political behavior. I'm not justifying it, it all makes me sick -all clear manifestations of a flawed and broken political system.
The more I look at the images and accounts coming from Gaza, the more inclined I am to think the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was correct in his denunciation of America back in the day.
Tom-Black people in America know tyranny (cruel and repressive rule) all too well. Imagine not being able to access housing, employment, food, education, health care etc. just because of your skin color. Not to mention the fact that you could randomly be jailed or killed because of skin color. Then there are the massacres of whole communities....
Reverend Wright spoke truth that most Americans don't want to face. Now Israel is emulating the U.S. times ten. Will we ever learn from the suffering imposed on human beings. Nothing good comes from hate, lies and hubris!
Mike, what would you expect a Yellen article to say? That is administration propaganda. Propaganda, mind you, can be true. It can also be an incomplete snapshot to buttress a questionable or false narrative. I don’t care what Yellen says or what Fox says, I care about what is, and I know several things about the nature of ‘prosperity’ in America, including the fact that many millions of Americans are not feeling a single thing Biden has done that are sufficient to overcome their anxiety from a grocery bill that is way higher than under Trump, skyrocketing rents and drug prices, and a rise in homelessness. Until Biden ‘messaging’ can address that anxiety in a meaningful way, all the articles from administration officials and economic elites and numbers crunchers on how the economy is peachy amount to a bucket of spit to those who live in fear of the unexpected $500 bill every day of their lives.
Interesting thought, Tom. I don’t see any possible “right” answer for US response in Gaza. There is one, but I suspect that there is no middle ground for that answer to have a snowball’s chance in hell of success.
Nearly on the mark here George. Ultimately though, the seductive allure of a crony, crooked branded capitalism, headed up by "Russkiavelli" little prince Putin is taking them down a dark road, that I hope we will find common cause to overcome and avoid without too much blood shed. The world's oligarchs along with ours will not be easy to subdue.
I think people are far more united than they realize. And unfortunately, it does not translate into legislation and policy when the GOP roadshow and editorials create fear by talking about job-killing taxes and start labeling the obscenely wealthy as "job creators". For example, the incompetent narcissist Elon Musk is perfectly happy losing $20 billion of wealth as he destroys Twitter, however watch him react to a 1% wealth tax and there will be war cries of socialism and the 'nanny' state.
George, I think you fall into the trap Heather does when you blame the lack of translation into legislation on the GOP roadshow and editorials. Both parties, I would argue, are equally to blame, but for different reasons. Yes, there is the mendacious class warfare, in every facet, by the GOP. But the Dems have been complicit in the corporate donor fealty and the neoliberal wrecking of our economy and culture. I know you have acknowledged this at times, but to me, it needs to always be pointed out as a caveat whenever GOP malfeasance is mentioned. Blaming the GOP for our woes comes across as tribal, and that messaging is counterproductive to bringing about the people’s unification we both desire; the necessary coalition to counter the influence of monied interests.
For some. Millions lost jobs, homes, and wealth in ‘08, and are still hanging on by a thread, or homeless. Your blanket statement is a slap in the face to them.
Excellent post, George as it explains what the super wealthy are doing and that they truly believe their money will save them....particularly from climate change. When I look at the consumerism around the holidays for examples and mega sports events, I am reminded of bread and circuses. Add to this, Fox and the constant negative yapping about Ds and social issues, and you have the lemmings rushing to the edge of the cliff.
Thankfully, there are some normal, hardworking people I've had the pleasure of working with and/or meeting. Senator Jeff Merkley stands out. State Rep. David Gomberg is another. Dedicated to representing all of the constituents -not just those who are party-aligned.
To your point -it requires such a massive amount of money to run, and so much of the job is to raise more money. The flow of money has broken the system, and thus far, people have not had the political will to fix it. Election cycle to election cycle it's just "Mitch McConnell just sneezed!!! Sign our petition and send money!!!!" or "Tell the Supreme Court ..." -instead of truly addressing the root causes of corruption and strengthening democracy. I'm not sure how any normal person can function within the system for long.
I agree! I think Bernie Sanders would have better addressed our problems than Hillary. I did still vote for her, but wasn’t my first choice, and of course I went into a severe depression when she lost. I can’t imagine the level of depression if Biden loses in 2024.
Unfortunately there aren’t enough Sanders or Merkeleys to override the Repubs & the Joe Manchin types in the Dem party - before we even mention special interests like Israel…
I was in a unique position in 2016. I was chair of the Lincoln County Democratic Central Committee, and was an elected Oregon state delegate for Bernie Sanders. While Senator Sanders was my choice of candidate (especially after Hillary gave Henry Kissinger a hug), as soon as Secretary Clinton was the official nominee, I quickly made sure we were united in our support of her candidacy (in spite of the delay of the Sanders campaign to graciously declare their support). I was at an election night gathering, watching the NY Times dial shift from probable Clinton to probable Trump, to Trump. I was physically sick. Many know of my story, publicly resigning from Oracle after then Oracle’s co-CEO Safra Catz joined the Trump transition team. My departure from Oracle was covered by The Guardian and the NY Times.
Nevertheless, I hold hope that a small group of oligarchs tire of the erosion of their wealth and subsequently Putin has an 'accidental' fall from a window like many of his political opponents.
The USSR invasion of Afghanistan proved to be a debacle - and, as you said, helped to end the USSR. But the losses of soldiers and the financial strain of that boondoggle pales in comparison to Putin's failures in Ukraine. I really believe that Ukraine has done more damage in the long run to Putin than he has done to Ukraine.
Here is a good read about the Russian economy and the effects of the war. Putin is on thin ice with his oligarchs and crooks.
With continuing support from the US and the EU, Putin will be toppled by his own people. Oligarchs will tire of being international pariahs and losing so much money....
And mothers will rebel - how many sons will vanish before they lose their love of Putin?
Hear, hear!!!! Usually if you want to read the REAL history, you have to read works of fiction. I am fond of Kenneth Roberts for providing the truth about the Revolutionary War for example.
I was an adult during the collapse of the Soviet Union, I'll never forget watching Gorbachev resign on TV LIVE in my college "Current Affairs" history class. And I've been a strong activist for democracy and peace lifelong, but I still need your wisdom to put all the pieces of the last few decades together into a clear, cohesive image for me, Heather. Thank you!
Yes, I lived in Minneapolis at the time. It was exciting to see his motorcade drive through residential areas and even stop at a drug store to talk to people. We were all so hopeful then.
Thank you, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, for stringing all these events together in such a logical sequence and naming the problem so accurately. It was so spaced out in time I couldn't connect the dots: now you have and brought the picture into focus. Best Christmas present ever!/
Life can really only be understood looking backward, as in 20/20 hindsight. Looking back we can all the variables in play that were less visible in real time. Ex. I knew the Reagan administration was bad and corrupt, but looking back with the help of HCR, I come to understand how truly dangerous Reagan and his henchmen were.
Exactly, I recognized evil at the time but it’s hard when friends and family are agog over Reagan, W, and all the down position idiots. When I was totally disgusted with the junk bond fiasco, my R friend just shrugged it off. She has shrugged off or Fox-explained every egregious Repub action or position since. And she is no dummy, unless emotional
I don't often relate the fall of the soviet union back then to what can be seen as the US becoming the "Caman Islands" to the rising oligarchy of the failed Soviet state acting as the Russian equivalent of our very own carpetbaggery taking advantage of the defeated south after our civil war. The seeds of greed are planted deep in the soils of avarice and myopic self interest so often tilled by the wealthy and promulgated today largely by the failed republican juggernaut. Dr. Richardson, has once again offered an echo from history that resonates so deeply today. And, on Boxing day...a day where the rich among us share their wealth with us working folks...all the better, and may your gifts continue to illuminate.
I'm a big fan of "free enterprise" along with a robust public sector, believing that a "free market" is a subset function of a free society in which there is so far as possible, diverse opportunities for a diverse array of publicly responsible behaviors. Obviously there are individually irresponsible behaviors, "bullying", such as rape of theft, but also bullying by groups of people. Racial discrimination is bullying; potentially by a tyranny of the majority. Corporate monopolies and cartels are bullying. If there is truly to be government of, by and for the people, it is just good sense to prohibit bullies. "Freedom" for some to exploit others is properly called "tyranny". What FDR's policies were and what the Soviet Union was is like comparing apples to chain saws; not much in common.. Even Eisenhower, while very wary of too much centralization of governmental power, was dismissive of the American hard right.
In a nutshell, as are many of the concepts that modern "Republicans" loudly label "freedom". Freedom as a social concept is necessarily universal or it's not actually freedom. Societal liberty, and even impunity for some, but not for others, is fraudulent to the extent of the difference. Lincoln got that. By virtue of wealth and political advantage, Europe's titled nobility thought of themselves as a master race; a superior breed of human. Our founding philosophies rejected that predatory conceit, yet maintained Tyrannosaurus-in-the-room sized blind spots. Reptilian screeches and concerted protest was penetrating the obfuscating Musak in the mid 20th Century sufficiently that big money organized a massive propaganda blitz that continues to this day; with close to half the nation believing that up is down and "Ignorance is Strength".
What a great and informative report. The corrupt money nexus has been driving many of the bad actors we see every day in the news. Accountability (along with the end of the Citizens United decision, which powers it all) will greatly enhance our democracy—if we muster the will to enforce adherence. It will be a long haul, though.
Sadly, Rick Scott and Matt Goetz's father were both convicted of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid raking in hundreds of millions between them. And then they used a fraction of their ill-begotten gains to buy a Senate seat and a Congressional seat.
And the records of the settlement with the government are sealed so we will never know the extent of their corruption. TFFG has done the same thing with his sexual predation forcing his victims to sign non-disclosures.
Unfortunately, there are holes in the Corporate Transparency Act.
"... it doesn’t solve all of our money-laundering problems. One big exemption in this is that while it applies to corporations, limited liability companies, it does not apply to trusts or partnerships.
Partnerships are generally considered lower risk, but trusts are a major issue, particularly because the vast majority of trusts in the United States don’t actually register with their legal contracts.
So you will still be able to set up a trust that could potentially be abused for money laundering after this."
“But there are at least signs that the financial free-for-all might be changing. The three years are up, and the Corporate Transparency Act will take effect on January 1, 2024.”
May this be the first of many, many good things to happen in the coming year. May it culminate in the triumph of democracy in November. Here’s to Biden/Harris re-election and substantial democratic majorities in both houses of Congress as well as blue victories in every state, county, and city/town.
2024, we are expecting a lot from you! Let’s make it so!
Tonight Letters from an American... elevates. Or descends... to an entirely different AND FAR MORE COMPLEX level.. focusing on The Big Game and The Big Lie... and Big Wall Street, and the Big Boys that play with real estate... and launder whole nations... as V. Putin jailing Navalny in hiding having nearly killed him once, becomes the world’s most wealthy, hides it all... with help from his friends, and they are everywhere... and Trump the Liar in Chief emerges from Trump the Restricted of Queens... racism and antisemitism running both... as Old George Orwell found a new home in the oligarchs of everywhere... with the British tax approach by Buckingham Palace emulated by the best of Wall Street, Manhattan, and the Islands in the Caribbean.. they are rolling in it, to hell with The Constitution... laws are for other people, we play with OPM, other people’s money, in MOSCOW, LONDON, FRANKFORT, NEW YORK, CHICAGO, CHINA, INDIA, CAIRO, TEHERAN, TURKEY, even the UN... it was always about money, and nothing else... but this is not Heather’s Ball Park.. try Michael LEWIS, he flirts with the truth and avoids the fire... he’s a writer, and access matters most.
Our Civil War of Lincoln has become The Civil War of Fascism Running Wild... like a centipede, with warm and cold feet everywhere, with the son of a drunk from California, having risen from nothing in Hollywood, married to his first, a drunk, to the son of nothing from Queens, having Risen from TV and a con-show and paid hookers... both gaming our political system for their own ends... his family addicted to prejudice, to alcohol in one, women in another, in a structured manner that belies their values, for they have none.. and their Golden Rule is simple: Them With the Gold Rules... and Putin, their buddy, having mastered the alcoholic Yeltsin, Reagan having mastered his alcoholic father and first wife... W, having mastered booze and not much else, Nixon having mastered Cook County, with help from Mayor Richard J. Daley, having crushed Helen Gahagan Douglas, and a few others, ... it’s a long, long trail, Heather... and the centipede will lead to the conscience of all, start with the Vatican, find your way with John Coleman of Adler, Coleman, and the chemical man, they stood with the Holy Father at Yankee Stadium, all counting their swag...
We have moved from the Busted Reformation, the critical amendments, to the 14th, and current events, but follow the money, Heather, chase to the ISLANDS, Switzerland, the Federal Reserve, three islands off in the Chanel, the first thing he did with help from Moscow Mitch was dowse the IRS... and open Reagan’s back door to crush David Stockman... so now they can blame Build from the Bottom UP, FROM THE MIDDLE OUT... and blame Democrats for the deficit The Donald gave us, forgetting Bill Clinton’s deficit reversal, Obama’s equitable of health care, the biggest lie of them all... strangling hospitals, your physician, campuses and corporations, it’s the biggest lie of them all, and it will kill us if warming and Blow Out does not kill us first...
Heather, here’s to you, go for the gusto, chase down Syntex in Mexico and The Pill, and see what they do with abortion, pedophiles on campus, the church, yours, your favorite gynecologist, Lansing Michigan, now governed by the voters, in total chaos... and the White House, ENOUGH skims, but it’s fun and games...
Boris Yeltsin led straight to Putin... Gorbachev was happily married, their first in that job, and his wife sent the signal, and Berlin came down... frightening the money whores everywhere.. for theirs is a cartel... a silent cartel... where sworn enemies play in the same sand box, and children starve and burn to death in warming, and it’s drill, baby, drill, I am a dictator on the first day, 70 million strong, as the Democrats blink, and the GOP flexes, fascism rides again, Harvard, MIT, UPenn... and yes, Brandeis, all play that three keyboard hand organ, and the money monkey chained to the organ grinder, dressed to kill, passes the cup, and the cup runneth over... antisemitism is alive and well most everywhere... campus after campus, GAZA be damned, we can use Hamas for the Big Lie, and pretend we aren’t what we are...
Putin played the grifters and could not sell his soul, he never had one... Gorbachev died broken hearted, for he broke out, and his wife was honest... and he was not able to unscramble the Soviet Egg, they just recoiled and reboiled till it was hard, then moved to real estate and bought in to Trumpville... in plain view, their first stop was Saudi Arabia, as the moved the show to Jerusalem and rolled into the West Bank, to the cheers of Hamas.. Hezbollah, Iran, Russia... it’s all about show and tell, cash and carry, and soon we will view the Trump White House coming into view again... and that may be the ball game...
Follow the Money, Heather, the GOP sold out with American First, Newt was no damn good... Reagan was awol, the son of a drunk, owned by the Blow Out crowd...
When they killed Abraham Lincoln, they set the pattern.. may Liz Cheney set them right, she’s got guts, understands Wyoming, the GOP, her daddy’s team, all of them...
And I think she’s honest... she learned the hard way, watching from inside the Big Tent... Can she save us, them, herself...?
Leonid collected cars, and we fed him...the next guy got leukemia, and he liked soccer... Putin likes money and power, and Navalny has his number...
He’s our only chance in Moscow... that path started in Kiev and Ukraine... long, long ago... the Jews from there leed to Antony Blinken, and back o the SHERRY NETHERLANDS, from a poet....
Bibi has to go, but we cannot allow Hamas to survive... or Israel will be crushed again, and again... the Palestinian knows this, the West Bank is corrupt, crippled, and complicit... follow the money...
Albert Camus smelled all this in his way, and he was hip to the mess... Dreyfus got it... but the money trail is complex... and power flows through pipeline with the oil, and on its own...
Slavery was power.... but we have not ended slavery... we’ve just changed the label, frightening whites, those that read at a 5th grade level, moving their lips...
The American South, South Carolina’s women, elected Joe Biden.. but his support of Bibi may cost us all... Putin understands Gaza, and Zionism may be a dead end street for which we are all committed, yet intolerance must abate... and UJA must find a way to tolerance... and slam Iran...
The Iranians had found their way in 1953... but IKE and Dulles blinked, seeing RED, and they knocked off an elected leader.. nothing like bi Polar Republicans, claiming hatred of communists... favoring capitalist socialists, BIG LIE types, that hide theirs off shore...
Sandy, many excellent points within your letter...did you read Hunter S Thompson in your earlier years? Same style: a flowing gusher of truths overwhelming the reader.
JP, Fear and Loathing as a writing style, reading and testing one’s self against the shaded references to actors we might know, believe we should know, but come up lacking in the game of “can you keep up with my stream of conscience?”
Its like a crossword puzzle in terms of the short term endorphin rush infused upon solving one slot, only to realize that there are 50 more you can’t possibly unravel
“Dr Gonzo!...my pills, my tequila, my Red Cadillac Convertible, NOW!!!! Corners at 50 mph. They can’t catch me....or can they?”
HST, the master (and his Protege, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”, Warren)
I was in the U.S. Navy from early 1987 until the end of the Gulf War in 1991. As the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR's economy had been declining for years it was quite boring at the naval facility where I was stationed because the Soviets couldn't really afford to deploy much of the fleet anymore, and their ships, equipment, supplies were not in the best shape either. Also, the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion and ensuing disaster, that had been censored in typical Soviet fashion, was probably even more financially devastating than we'll ever really know. As it could have been even more fatal to more of Europe and nearly every Soviet republic too, they used up a lot of resources and equipment as well as actual people that were sacrificed or died early deaths due to the radiation. And it happened in Ukraine, which we know is getting hammered again by this same kind of Soviet style steamrolling and lack of concern for the people of Ukraine.
As Bush, Sr. came into office, these earthshaking events, like a newly unified Germany and newly formed breakaway republics, it seemed like there could actually be something like peace on Earth. But soon Bush sent troops and armored divisions into Panama to go bring Manuel Noriega into custody for drug dealing or some elicit activities and laundering although it didn't seem to deter anything as it's still a haven for money laundering and financial hoarding. The Gulf War started near the end of Bush Sr. term and I was getting out of the Navy soon but it was really a full scale war at the time and testing of weapons systems and troop readiness.
Thank you Heather, as always, for such a great account of this time in history and how it ties into our current dilemmas. I will just state the obvious when I say that one thing that the Republicans will never take money from is the Defense budget. The Pentagon budget will never pass an audit and it continues to have tens of billions of dollars added to it every year. Eventually it will get to be a trillion dollars for ONE YEAR! What do we get for that money? It doesn't go to the troops I'll tell you that much. It's the defense contractors, war profiteers, even our own versions of oligarchs are making a killing quite literally! Because there are little kids and mothers, grandparents, babies in Gaza and Ukraine being blown to bits, crushed under rubble, maimed and traumatized by the bombs, missiles, armaments, ammunition that are being supplied by this faction of our economy.
"the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion and ensuing disaster...was probably even more financially devastating than we'll ever really know."
Gorbachev in 2006 wrote "The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the main cause of the Soviet Union’s collapse five years later."
How I remember Grover, Newt, Tom Delay, Steve Stockman, and a host of other cretins who turned a golden opportunity into a greed fest that continues to this day. Clinton provided a great distraction so that the country was focused on Paula Jones, etc. instead of opportunities to follow the Cold War with real international cooperation. Republicans nearly broke their arms padding themselves on the back for their righteousness (compared with BC). A joke if there ever was one.
There were plenty of other hot wars (Uganda, Sarajevo, etc). But Gorbachev was right. America was arrogant and self-confident. I’ll add greedy, stupid, and deliberately ignorant,
The greedy bastards have one hell of a head start. Can we pick up steam before the rich cretins elect another mob boss?
BILL BROWDER jumped into Russia to make a fortune. He did and then putin took it. Made Bill a wanted man. Killed his lawyer. Red Notice basically explains how the West has financed putin. There is no difference in Putin and the old USSR philosophically (domination) except putin has a lot of western money to back him up.
Indeed. This mess triggers us. All of us. Deeply. Putin provokes - provokes our home grown GOP US racists, our very own US slave state racism, our intemperate intolerant streak, the gutless aspect of our RED state fascists, it started with slavery and racist Civil War Confederates, our so-called Southern Aristocracy, our most insecure, most indolent, he moved on Boris Yeltsin the same way, rose from KGB creep in East Berlin to the Kremlin on Russian racism... playing Yeltsin’s alcoholism, and, eventually, the Tower of Babel gets a play, Putin will play in between the Gods of Istanbul and Rome, pretending he’s a man of God, he’s long stubborned the Greek Orthodox community of Russia, The Book of Job must be Putin’s current favorite reading, he will play all ends against, with weak humanity asked to decide, our polls will be his goal - and Donald John Trump his target... 🎯 our courts will be in focus, SCOTUS scum exposed for all to study, Justice Clarence Thomas and Ginny in their own court... Disney will do the cartoon in drag, America 🇺🇸 is on trial. It’s the land of mixed metaphors, Don’t Look Up is real. See the movie. And duck v
... And there my friends are some of the secrets we're finally able to learn; patience has been a difficult skill to hone. I love cleansing sunlight on all things finance; we need more, but it will be fought tooth and nail.
The hubris of the US after the fall of the Soviet Union is an example of the complete lack of foresight and wisdom of the GOP in contrast to the democrats post WWll help in rebuilding Japan and Germany making Allie’s who were once enemies.
Thanks Heather!
Is it really just lack of foresight, or are some of the major backers of current right wing "Republican" ideology part and parcel of the problems The Corporate Transparency Act and like regulation is aimed to curtail? Seems like the coziness of big money and tyrants goes back a bit, along with the sorts of shenanigans seen in Pandora, Paradise and Panama Papers.
Was I dumbfounded - tremendously surprised and curious - as to why and how so many people involved with trump and his MAGA movement (basically now confirmed as a cult) seemed be so closely tied and/or connected in some way - like trips to - Russia! But then all one has to do is to realize the connections (involvement) of Russians in American men’s, gentlemen [strip] clubs and luxury (high valued) real estate properties - not just here ... but in other countries around the globe like England (London), France (Paris) and other choice places in our world!
I was surprised to read about how closely allied our evangelical churches have become to Russian Orthodox Church over the years...it is no accident.
Christo-Fascism is not wholly-owned by American evangelicals. The "exercise of Faith" demonstrated by the Patriarchs is tied closely to Putin and the Kremlin. There is no "Jesus" in Russian Theocratic Orthodoxy anymore than there is in America's evangelicalism. Neither is truly a praxis of Christian Doctrine, but an instrument of political heresy, manipulation and deception. Do we believe that Mike Johnson is really an accident? We have been set on a perilous, a VERY perilous, path.
Here's one article on the topic from way back in 2018--long history since Billy Graham of cooperation between the two:
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/unexpected-relationship-between-us-evangelicals-and-russian-orthodox
Thank you for this. I note the caption under the photo of Mike Pence: "World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians." Persecuted Christians is a satanically driven myth. It is as outrageously foolish as "the WAR on Christmas". If ever there were a war on Christmas, that "war" was initiated by the mercantilists and the retailers. Christmas for years (decades) has been a moneyed gift to the well-to-do. Pence is the LAST person to be standing up as a "savior" of Christ and the Faith. His, like so many others, is bargain-basement Christianity. He has long been rumored as a closet queer. I often have wondered about those Orthodox Patriarchs and what THEY might be doing in the wine closet. (And not with the wine.) Lincoln Graham is a theocratic fascist. His "faith" has little to do with Jesus and much more to do with power and influence. "Beware the wolves".
Thanks for this very interesting article. I’ve been wondering about a lot of this for some time.
It is a deliberate strategy of the Kremlin to restore the and fund the Russian Orthodox church.
This helps Putin maintain higher approval ratings. Restoring the ROC gives him an aura of moral authority to a misinformed electorate ( the church leaders are paid off this way too), so they give him their support but do not disclose their payoffs to their congregations.
Church leaders abroad, especially American evangelicals are courted and invited to Russia to be swooned and swayed by the ROC's Islamophobia, homophobia, immigrant phobia. Fear of other "non believers" and proof of a decadent "West" that is destroying "the blood of our country", sound familiar?
The Kremlin also pays for and invites far right White Supremist leaders like David Duke and Richard Spencer ( organizer of Charlottesville Unite the Right March that killed Heather Hyer). BTW, Richard Spencer ended up meeting his ex wife at one of these Russia organized Evangelical/White Supremist Kumbaya gatherings in Moscow. He married Alexander Dugan's Translator. Dugan is a Christian Fascist Philosopher and close political adviser to Putin. Now go figure? The NRA is also a big Kremlin benefactor. Not because Gun Rights are available in Russia, but because excess guns always destabilize a society. These are the old style "active measures" deployed by the Russian's to poison the well of decency that erode democracy. And we haven't even discussed Russian Social Media Influence Campaigns yet.
Concentration of power tends to corrupt, and that can me seen in all manner of organizations. Corporations, academia, churches, unions, any organization in which one has the power to increase the organization's power and one's own personal power at the peril of it's public mission and/or responsibilities. The current "Republican" Party is as illustrative of this as it gets. And here I'm talking about organizations with a legitimate role in the functions of a free and just society. Organized Crime (what the "GOP" has become) is that from the inception.
"Government is the problem" is nonsense, like saying "people are the problem". Well, yes, but... Corruption is the problem. Malignant narcissism is the problem. We need to upgrade our collective thinking to avert or soften multiple emerging disasters.
I know a brilliant Serbo-American who is in thrall to all of this. It’s fascinating and terrible to see Christianity “taken over” for greed and hatred. The Pharisees could win and will if they destroy the planet. Climate change denial is part of the “program.” Will Liz Cheney speak to that? And Jill Stein, at dinner with Putin and Flynn, now running for president again. Green Party with Putin? The only green with Putin (as with Trump) is Navalny in upper Siberia with whatever is left of evergreens in that part of the world.
Liz is Wyoming. Sinclair oil and gas.
Good summary of what I've read over the past two years on this subject. Quite the coupling.
What is dangerous is the infusion (not just intrusion as in the past, but infusion) of foreign powers' interests deep into our 'faith' and the determination of these folks to ignore the separation of church and state. Toss in the use of social media to propagate deeply antisemitic and anti-woman (if you think our Republicans are a bit mad for anti-abortion, Russia is ten times worse thanks to their church) sentiments, and we've got a real problem on our hands.
Long ago in high school I read Sinclair Lewis' "Elmer Gantry" and I keep thinking about it plus the fictionalized account of Huey Long: "All the King's Men" (a book and a movie). Our history is riddled with movements like what we see today in the Evangelist mega-churches, led by scam artists and corrupt politicians who are skilled performers, but who end up fooling themselves along with their vast audiences, drinking their own Kool-Aid. Highly recommend both books to remind yourself this circus we are watching is nothing new.
The difference is the spinning and acrobatic shows are spreading so much faster than ever before and it is getting rather difficult to tell whether and when Putin is wagging these dogs' tails. But I am positive that the latest fake outrage about the border by Republicans was all about blocking helping Ukraine, as it benefits solely one man: Putin.
WOW, .... really, hadn’t heard about that before ... But I shouldn't be surprised!!
I'm thinking we, as a country, need to emphasize finance in education, strongly. This got right by us ill-informed on such matters.
A course called "Follow the Money".
😬🤔🫨 interesting puzzle fit...hmmmmm
That’s really interesting. It makes sense and it is also especially creepy.🙏
How about checking out the chemical, fossil fuel and mining companies and links between regime change, corruption and attacks on democracy .
Look at the MPS and Atlas network foundation. There are very obvious links between certain polluting corporate interests and funding of deceptively inclusive green waahing .
What country benefits the most from Climate Change/Global Warming/Greenhouse effect?
Without Artic Ice, the Northwest passage is real and year round. Controlling it is power. Imagine the US not having the West Coast? Imagine France or England or any of the historical European countries with 90% less access to ocean ports as they developed? This is why Russia has always played a back seat to European and world affairs. Russia has never had a strong Navy. It has always been vulnerable to shifts in global power throughout the centuries because it lacks access to enough ports and Oceans. Some may argue that it doesn't matter, but it does. A permanently thawed Arctic Ocean gives Russia shorter trade routes to export and ship cheaply its gas, oil, minerals around the world. More ports, more ocean, more access to export equals more $, thus more power for Putin and his kleptocratic hydrocarbon oligarchs global network. Putin has laid the ground work with the GOP and every Conservative Party in every democracy around the globe, from payoffs, dark campaign funding ( GOP through the NRA, Loans to Frances' LaPen's party, vacations with Italy's Berlusconi, making former world leaders his lobbyist like Gerhard Shroeder, a board seat on Rosneft, to licensing deals and real estate to TFG, etc etc. The West needs to completely decouple from Russia's influence for democracies to survive and thrive.
Yes , yes, yes . I think this is exactly how Putin and local people interested in Oil Gas adn Mining. None understand or care about the Nine Planetary Boundaries and how this thaw will affect sea levels nor has a majority of top decision makers. Scary, scary, scary .
Russia has built a fleet of nuclear powered Ice Breaking ships. Next up, nuclear powered ships that can follow the ice breakers to power up mines, ports, entire towns to mine etc all along their artic coasts.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Is anyone else in this group getting The Barents Observer? It appeared in my email so I keep on reading about Russia in the Arctic, Russians fleeing over the border, etc.
No I am scared enough. I live in St.John's, Nl . My colleagues Pakistani husband who is a professor of mechanical engineering is mad keen that Canada races to exploit the arctic before Russia. Lots of people here think like this. I wonder also how much the fact that Svetkana kraskova is Ukrainian and a senior scientist at the IPCC. might have played into Putin's decision to invade Ukraine Check her out. I think Putin is very keen on world domination and has played brilliantly into many peoples valid terror of communism and the Gulags to push people to the far right. Fear of the gulags drives all kinds of people fleeing brutal authoritarian regimes to vote for parties that seek to privatize everything . I am reading there was dreadful criminality and violence as the USSR collapsed. Violence against women is massive in Russia and Putin has changed the law to literally allow killers off if they murder a family member. Oh my. Fear ruins our ability to problem solve. ..... I think there is a massive need to communicate with Russians outside those in the Kremlin and to support Russians brave enough and mad enough to stand up to Putin and his thugs.
Next some super rich creepster will try to buy Greenland.
"Without Artic Ice, the Northwest passage is real and year round."
Minus Saint Petersburg, Murmansk, Archangelsk (alongside most of the world's other port cities) once sea levels have risen...
Not sure Putin gives a damn about regular people in large cities like we do in the west. That is our economy, not his. Who knows for sure. He cares about $ and power. Russia's northern unfrozen Arctic Coast is all he needs to export Russia's vast mineral resources as cheaply as possible which is by sea not by land and a swampy tundra highway is impossible. Keeping Russia contained with Ice is good for global democracy.
Agreed, Ted, and the sooner the better.
What about the Atlas Networks network connects to attacks on democracy? A lot of their programs lobby for lower taxes and less regulation to enhance shareholder value but how is that a bad thing?
Unless you can't save and invest or can't get used to asset poverty and welfare level retirement I don't see a problem. Not everyone that earns income from personal assets is corrupt. I think the majority would be proud to be a capitalist. We continue to be colonized by thousands of immigrants every day with that intention.
I very much support capitalism.
I do not support criminality, corruption and pollution. I do not support tax evasion by an excessively greedy elite.
It is possible to have capitalism, fair taxation, avoid corruption and pollution.
To understand more on these issues check out these resources.
https://inequality.org/facts/taxes-inequality-in-united-states/
Transparency International works on fighting corruption.
https://www.transparency.org/en/news/international-youth-day-15-ways-young-people-can-fight-corruption
The economists who support this program work at top universities. None suggest getting rid of capitalism. At least not that I am aware of. I am unsure what you mean by being colonized by?
Lots of people flee corruption and chaos. This is exactly why it is so important to stop corruption.
https://earth4all.life/
I am in favour of capitalism. I am not in favour of corruption, money laundering and posting record profits and price gauging consumers. Exon Mobile has cheated and lied for decades and funds the Atlas Network Foundation . Looking at their website they look wonderful. They are very sneaky.
https://youtu.be/PpyIZ4DGIK8?si=0AZmhpQ0bO-tSfXP
Here's a Klaas lecture I like
Thanks for the links. I'll check them out. In the mean time try this talk and book.
https://youtu.be/W_Oab42VZRE?si=OhLlaSKneLgKyQ9T
https://www.amazon.com/Corruptible-Who-Gets-Power-Changes/dp/1982154098
This is the best talk I've found yet on corruption and how to fix it. Bottom line is that we can't just depend on democracy to fix it.
Thank you JL. There has been some significant US foresight going back to 1948 with our post WWII relations with Northern European nations. I will cite the "close 75 year security partner "DENMARK & the growing security agreements in 2023 going into 2024 with SWEDEN & FINLAND. Turkey has dropped its opposition to SWEDEN joining NATO
As previously posted on LFAA just after 12/21/23, US Secretary of State (SOS) Antony J. Blinken met with the Danish Minister LARS RASMUSSEN in the Treaty Room on 12/21 & signed a "DCA", a Defense Cooperation Agreement with DENMARK. Intelligence operations with the Danes have & will remain important.
Putin's quite active war with Ukraine has cemented active military & security operations with the BALTIC states. Relations with POLAND have improved dramatically but, I await Anne Applebaum's reports in the coming New Year. Anne is living in Poland & is easy to Link up to on anything Euro.
Thank you Professor R for the historical context to deal with all the urgent matters.
I am slightly confused as to passing this act (Transparency) originally not in the Senate , but when? to in fact ‘take place shortly in 2024...’ and this Blinken revelation...seems WE can’t possibly know the undercurrents ( good /bad, apparently 🥹) and me thinks more behind the scenes is the forever tug of war ...I’m relying on the progressive though not alt left ..to do the real correct(ion) and have to trust that. 💙☮️
Patricia, I get daily official digital feeds from the US State Dept. Sometimes 6 in 1 day.
The emails are carefully worded. These are not sensitive in anyway bu,t just not the relevant info that major Platforms chose to pass on to viewers/Readers/and/or actors.
Easy to sign up & modify to your interests. : )
How considerate Bryan, thank you, I would be very interested to read the contents . Do you see/understand more from these messages sent?
For me there’s a lot of trust, part extracting the principle, and volumes of history to absorb their juggle -filtering for important directives...I can’t imagine the input needed from trusted advisors for daily decisions playing the hand dealt. I’d dare say 85% (?)of the population has little clue!
Please advise me of next step , help you somehow?
Yes. I do as I have long read Euro sources which is much easier now in the digital age.
FYI at 12.36 pm today, I got notice from the Dept of State of $250 million shipment to Ukraine in arms & other resources before the end of 2023.
The Detp of State email said this transfer was a previously authorized "drawdown". 🇺🇲
Pardon my jumping to conclusions but War can be interpreted as brutal manipulation to own more real estate? The Democrats build back up the ‘conquered ‘ to realize their own potential whereas the oligarchs /Republican set about framing us and constructing their ‘owned gain’ or is that game.....? ...no FOR THE PEOPLE intent there folks 🙄🤦♀️!
I am redacting ‘ Republicans’ replacing with ‘COMPLICIT’ as I know , truly , many fine people still there...we indeed have much to accomplish.
J L Graham, your comment brings to my mind the timing of the defunding of the government that will be caused by the gop House not passing another CR or new budget. You cannot pay for enforcement of a new Corporate Transparency Act policy with no funding. This adds an angle to their timeline I never knew to consider before.
Yes! You found it. I was wondering what current activities by the Magas would be in preparation for this, and you identified it. Also could be part of the reason they were holding those high official positions hostage. Some sort of bargaining chip. I'd dare say we are already in the somewhat early stages World War III. It's mostly transaction-based (as opposed to physical) conflict at this point, though obviously not exclusively.
Politics is indeed a game for those who consider chess too easy and boring.
Politics is a game for those who regard other people as prey. Not that the best of politics lacks a coherent and well thought out strategy, but it seems to me a some point "the love of money" and other forms of social power becomes an end in itself, for which any other consideration is sacrificed. For the thrill of being the last person standing, and the owner of the whole, entire world in a fortress of steel, concrete and costly decor.
Yes, exactly JL.
Exactly, J L. The very same interests involved in the support of Hitler in this country in the 1930s, as documented by Rachel Maddow so clearly. Many of those very same Republicans actively fomenting a coup to bring Fascism to the US and indicted and brought to trial. Instead of me blathering on about it, you and many others can read her Prequel and listen to the eight Ultra podcasts.
That movement away from hubris was not immediate in 1945. America's initial temptation was to punish the losers forever, de-industrializing Germany and Japan.
Hubris that followed the utterly foreseeable yet unforeseen collapse of the Soviet empire was as immense as it was idiotic and we may be paying the price for this a long time into the future.
At the time of the final implosion, I noted:
"Crass materialism has triumphed over dialectical materialism. But it won't last 70 years, maybe not much more than 7."
It took rather longer till the Subprime crash in 2007-2008...
I saw and still see the two opponents as far more Tweedledum & Tweedledee than either cared to admit. The West promptly draped itself in the propaganda cloak of Comintern... turned inside out. Daily garbage pronouncements about the superiority of Holy Market and Free Enterprise, reading just like those paeans to The Coming Triumph of Socialism, the theological presentation of History.
There's a Spanish proverb:
"The vanquished are vanquished; the victor is lost."
What a bleak view. We actually didn’t exercise a vanquished strategy over the losers, but actually helped rebuild the world. Then after the Soviet Union collapsed we traded with the Soviet Union in the hope it might normalize and stabilize relations. So it didn’t work. We tried.
Bleak view, Paul, that fits the bleak developments of the past three decades and more; as against a misty, not to say fogbound memory of what actually happened.
Some of those you refer to as "we" did actually try to help; but, just as we -- yes, we here, we now -- are already seeing and shall probably be seeing for quite some time to come, it is hard to find one's way out from a system founded on delusions and the merest of appearances, and even harder to escape a world built from lies. Soviet lies and Rupert Murdoch's may be different, but lies are lies. And all lies induce chaos and confusion, only advantageous to criminals, who plant and spread them.
From chaos and confusion come eventual downfall.
*
Outlook bleak for those who don't wake up, wash drug-induced dreams from their minds and wash their eyes clean.
Is that not what HCR and we readers of Letters from an American are trying to do?
A two-parter. Heather and those of her subscribers who take concrete action -at least voting, hopefully more - are frantically signaling to the rest of America that the patient is critically wounded and death will be imminent.
I have noticed (and felt generally grateful for) that Heather is taking a very one-sided pro-Biden view of America in the last year or so of her articles. Being a careful and honest historian, she does not tamper with the truth in the slightest. But her points of emphasis are clear. And her thesis is ringing siren-like.
For some time now Heather has been pointing out the successes of Biden’s Presidency. There have been frequent articles on the power of Biden’s casting aside the trickle-down theory of economic growth and its success in leveling the playing field. As well she has emphasized his signature legislative accomplishments and consistently noble foreign policy ventures.
In this series of newsletters we are not hearing much on the momentum Trump is gaining through his lawyers’ success in slowing the legal system to a crawl. We are not being warned of the potential for an election in which Trump has not been fully tried and hopefully convicted on even one count. Although she is undoubtedly aware of the psychological potency of this strategy, Heather is not supercharging the atmosphere with comment on how, as time passes, Americans care less and less about seeing justice done and in their inertia and exhaustion (see NYT article - Tuesday this week I think) are paving the way for a Trump victory.
Nor has Heather pointed the finger in any meaningful way at the second-tier villain of this tragedy, the astonishingly feckless head of the DOJ Merrick Garland who inexplicably let 18 months go by and the momentum to bring the monster to justice fade possibly irrevocably, before hiring Jack Smith.
I deeply appreciate Heather’s spiritual quest to always propagate the truths of this Administration and thus prop it up so we are not overwhelmed by the daily storms of scorn and criticism. Again, she is unique in how honestly and without sensation she does this.
And yet I feel a bit uneasy. The sheer accumulation of articles which beg us to see how Biden has turned the country around is beginning to arouse in me a sensation that Letters to an American is becoming one-sided, in its own brilliant, earnest way. The other side is having successes too. Trump has been canny in his choice of lawyers. The obstruction of justice has been successful to my deep disappointment. Trump’s tone has been again uncannily matched to what his followers need, but he is also wooing new voters in what for him at least is a traditionally political, non-hysterical way. The polls at the moment are unequivocal that Biden has a steep uphill climb to win the Presidency. Polls this far out are veritable smorgasbords of useless empty calories, but they have a nasty habit of creating their own truths, which in turn grow if the actual news cycle is at all slow.
In short, I am beginning to feel infantilized. We are not getting a balanced picture of the deeper truths of the current scene. We are not getting the temperature of the nation.
We need galvanizing through being made fully aware of current unpalatable realities that threaten to coalesce and ignite further. We need to meet the enemy - in a calculated, realistic appraisal. We must hear once or twice a month how truly endangered the American ideal is. We need to hear about the Republicans in detail, not just when they are committing hara-kiri as in the comical but sad quest for a speaker. We need to know what they are doing that is working to further this appalling threat, so that we are better able to fight it.
And yet, as I examine this concern over and over, I cannot honestly say that I’m sure this is Heather’s job. She buoys our spirits. We trust her implicitly, because she wins that trust everyday with her commentary and extensive footnoting. Is this the forum to point out that the sky is beginning to crack and may soon be falling? I simply cannot answer this question with any sense of clarity. And so, I am restlessly anxious.
Ten years from now, Heather’s columns will no doubt appear in a book and from then on be a Valhalla for historians. She will be acknowledged as being true to her mission. But will she gently be chided for a mission that is too limited? I don’t know.
I believe that when the calendar turns to 2024 we will see the beginnings of the real battle for America’s soul. The stakes are incredibly high. - the chips are all in. Obviously we have primary season ahead of us and then conventions and then the run up to the myriad of elections in November. The temperature always rises slowly but steadily during a Presidential year. But this year is different. The forces of irrationality are loose upon the land. The stakes are of the “all or nothing” ilk. There will be violence - how much is hard to say. There will be cheating and it may not be limited to one side. As for Election Day, I’m not sure it will even be held successfully. November 2020 will ok like a child’s three-legged race. Election Day may dissolve into chaos never witnessed in America.
I will read you every day, Heather. Your calm reporting (and unearthing) of realities that a lot of media find too boring to report, or qualify until they’ve crippled it, is welcome. The connections you draw or peerless.
But I would love you to be the voice of reason as to how great this challenge is. I would accept it unequivocally because my trust in you is implicit. But we need an accounting of our losses, our mistakes, the pitfalls in our path. You may not feel it your calling, but I for one beg you for it.
I was going to be short with the above point and then talk about America’s role after the Second World War and then after the fall of the USSR. But I have worn out my welcome by being too garrulous and so you will be blessed with a “one-parter” only today.
Not garrulous, eloquent.
Readers, cut this out, read and reread it. Share.
The situation's more desperate with every passing day, yet distractions and diversions hold the people's attention.
Why no clamor, why no noisy pots-and-pans demos outside media corporation offices demanding real info and nothing but real info? And the heads of those who publish daily lies and statistical lies...
We need HCR to get US to the polls. I need HCR to keep me writing GOTV postcards. At 89, I hear all the bad news, but reported by lawyers, ex-federal prosecutors, Luttig, Tribe, etc. Everyone is worried, but all seem to believe that the possibility of defeating Trump and having a substantive aftermath is doable if Biden is re-elected. The age “thing” may have come from Russia and may be ignored as propaganda. The “crew” is doing well. And if Americans can get over gas and egg prices long enough to think about their relationship to climate change, there is indeed hope. r
Eric O’Donnell- yes!
Paul and Paul, that’s an oversimplification of a complexity of decades long developments that brought the biggest war in Europe since WW2 and that almost destroyed the European Union, and threatens our democracy at home.
It’s a paragraph Ted, not a book. Peter is a fanciful writer and paints a bleak world full of confusion, lies, downfall, drug induced dreams. If I’ve learned anything from Heather it’s that our history is full of trying times. It just doesn’t feel that bleak to me. Challenging but not bleak.
Fanciful?
Born one month into the second world war in an island under attack. Bombs, rockets. Not being in Germany, in Poland, in Russia, in Italy, little by comparison with what people suffered in continental Europe. But quite enough for a child.
I've spent a lifetime sitting, fence-sitting close to the political arena, taking it in.
Especially since the mid-1980s, I have seen too much.
And looking back, I see that I have often developed and shown the foresight that comes of alertness and long attentiveness.
A German friend recounted his stay in Communist East Germany in 1986. When he'd finished telling I said if the Germans can't make this system work, the Russians certainly can't and concluded that the Soviet empire must die like a very old man, worn out but all organs still just functioning, as soon as one failed.
We then forgot that until it happened.
In the mid-90's I made a loud public remark in the political environment where I worked, declaring that democracy might not last longer than another generation. Fanciful? Surely, looking at the world at that time. I was labeled "a philosopher" and it was not meant as a compliment. Now? We have only to consider the worldwide movement against representative government, the dictators and would-be dictators everywhere -- even in the United States of America.
In late August 2001, I remarked that our world was sleepwalking on the edge of the abyss. Fanciful? Sure. The friend to whom I made the remark was politically very savvy, far more than most people, but her response was that I was "exaggerating, as usual".
Ditto on September 10th, when I wrote to the same friend that "our democracies are like a dog asleep in the middle of the highway. One doubts our survival mechanisms".
We saw what happened on the next day.
We also saw the unbelievable mess the then administration made of the situation and the damage they -- yes, they -- inflicted on the whole world, in particular the Middle East. It should have been obvious that the attack on New York was designed as a trigger mechanism, designed to set off a chain reaction bomb. It was not. The Bush Administration must, with the invasion of Iraq, have gone beyond the wildest hopes and dreams of Al-Qaida.
If even that direct assault on America could not awaken Americans to reality, what could? And now, on October 7th, an infernal machine from which there was and is no escaping, setting off multiple chain reactions and, by the horrible look of things, succeeding in doing what it was intended to.
Such deep cynicism is very hard to contemplate.
I refuse discouragement, yet, the past decades have been discouraging to one who came of age at a time of high hopes, and the current situation could not be more challenging. The challenge is indeed without precedent.
I may be uncomfortably sensitive to the situation -- and that to a degree that is unhealthy for me and those close to me. One must needs stay calm; but complacency is out of the question. Given the vast material power of America and the ambitions of nuclear-armed States, the dangers we now face are greater even than those that confronted the world on September 1st 1939 or December 7th 1941.
*
Prove me wrong. Reassure me if you can. I'd rather be mistaken.
Noted. Bleak to me, I guess would be to lose the war in Ukraine, lose democracy in the US 2024 elections from an apathetic misinformed not voting majority, and then EU falls apart. Russian and Oil exporting countries expand. The Arctic ceases to freeze and the northwest passage is secured/controlled by Putin and his Oligarchs. Corruption rules. What then?
Paul, I've posted further down this thread a word about the Morgenthau Plan for Germany -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan -- explaining that the brilliant Marshall Plan was adopted only in March 1948, superseding this plan to, in the words of Goebbels, "make Germany into a giant potato patch".
Readers really should read information about the Morgenthau Plan and how it played into the hands of Dr Goebbels and his formidable propaganda machine when it came to fighting the last battles of the war. "Worth thirty divisions to the Germans"...
I’m sorry I don’t share some of what you expressed about post WWII. We learned from the previous war to not punish but assist and that worked beautifully. As to the rest of your mini diatribe, I simply don’t understand what you are expressing. You might want to simply your thoughts, well… in my opinion.
Bill, the Marshall Plan did not follow Allied victory immediately. Initial intentions were contained in the Morgenthau Plan, which it superseded. And, if you and Christopher L Groesbeck consult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan, you will see America's original plans for Germany.
I understand that Churchill did much to persuade the US to drop this approach, but I am simply speaking from memory here.
As for simplifying my thoughts, they are a good deal simpler than the complexities of the situation, but those are such that further simplification might be over-simplification. Let's leave that to the likes of tfg.
Da Cordo
Welllllll, let's not forget who was president for, basically, the first decade of that period--and that foreign policy is first and foremost the domain of the executive branch. If we're gonna color ourselves "arrogant," and with "lack of foresight," it is not wholly a GOP thing, not at all.
Robert, excellent point.
Harry S. Truman. 1945-1953. A Democrat.
I am more than OK saying that the modern decline and corruption of America is bipartisan.
Because it is and was.
Having said that, Trump is a new level of corruption not before seen. Trump laundered money for the Russians and his son even openly bragged that one of the big golf courses Trump purchased in Scotland was bought with laundered Russian money and his comment was actually published in a newspaper.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/07/as-trump-visits-his-scottish-golf-course-a-mystery-remains/
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/eric-trump-russia-investment-golf-course
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/court-says-fight-probe-trumps-scottish-golf-courses-can-go-ahead-2021-08-11/
Of course, we all know why there were no arrests and no jail time for admitting in public to money laundering. So, I won't add that obvious bit of information here again.
Re-electing Trump is == re-electing a patsy of the Russian Oligarchy.
Not just the Russians. Read Bill Browder's book. The Western money that poured into the former USSR became a breeding ground for a worldlevel cabal. Those that worshipped Milton Friedmans philosophy are willing to allow the world to burn as they have built their doomsday bunkers in far away places. They avoid all the security of airports and shipping terminals with their private planes and yachts. They have walled themselves away from "those people", which is the rest of is.
Milton Friedman was wrong.
I really am not sure why he became famous. I guess one liners are a path to being famous.
"The only responsibility of a corporation is to its shareholder".
Anyone living near a garbage dump, a mining operation, a chemical plant, a busy highway, or anyone able to think their way out of wet paper sack on hot summer day can see that Milton Friedman's statement that made him famous is wrong.
Maybe being wrong is the easy path to fame??
Being right is WAY more work, research, effort and time.
Maybe I should come up with a few dumb one-liners and see how it works out for me.
Generally, Mike S, being wrong is easier because it usually involves being simplistic, avoiding the hard choices embraced by devotion to the complexity of reality as far as one can see it. One suspects Milton Friedman became so famous not because of his accuracy but because of his simplicity to those who chose the most self-serving concepts available. Simple Self-Serving Statements gain long legs!
In my childhood, kids sometimes called each other selfish. They got from parents, religion, the culture, that selfish was not the way to be. Today’s parents are more likely to teach their kids how to get an advantage over other kids. Self-serving is the new morality.
He gave the well connected cover for their selfish nefarious strategies.
I’d argue that Friedman was wrong on almost everything, particularly his cheerleading for trickle-on economics. But he’s correct about corporations being responsible only to their shareholders.
What he and others leave out is that We the People are the ultimate shareholders of America, and should use the power of government to make corporate shareholders play by the rules WE demand.
So corporations are beholden only to their shareholders, yes. But they’re all beholden to us, the people of America.
Shane, I’d argue that the position from the right is that capitalism is inherently more moral than socialism, allowing capitalists to have it both ways. Meaning, they get to claim moral superiority while actually dodging moral responsibility through the actions of their corporations. It’s sort of a system of moral currency laundering.
And, if any of us have our retirement money in mutual funds and/or stocks, our shareholder status is even closer. The shareholder is us.
I can remember when we were “customers” and corporations needed us to buy their goods, back before planned-obsolesce days.
Yes, Rickey!
Everyone interested in what Russia is all about must read "Red Notice" by Bill Browder. It's simple. Putin is the godfather of a Russian mafia.
There was a hint of democracy in Russia as the USSR collapsed. But the Russian people succumbed to the attraction of a strong man instead. It's the same primitive vicious psychology that makes Trump so attractive to so many.
It baffles me that the US and the EU haven't established a powerful publicity campaign to inform the Russians of Putin and his oligarch's theft of the national treasure. They eat caviar on their yachts and in their dachas and the average Russian suffers. With enough info about this and the number of young Russians lost to a stupid war, Putin could be toppled just like Nicholas Romanov.
Not time to go into this, but I can assure you that you are greatly oversimplifying both recent Russian history and the current situation.
One current problem is that, for Putin, now that he has invested the country's all in war, he will never be able to leave off making war. If he were to do that, return of soldiers from the front would have the same effects as it had in 1917, when disgruntled soldiers did so much to overthrow the Tsar and his regime.
Stalin understood this kind of danger to himself, and took such actions as purging the entire Leningrad leadership for having successfully withstood the 900-day blockade... without his help or direct instructions. Worse still, from the dictator's point of view, Leningrad no longer feared anything, not even Stalin. They'd seen and survived the worst ordeal possible.
The Bush I administration actively allowed Russia to devolve into a state run by organized crime. If I recall correctly, Boris Yeltsin sought help from the US for guidance in setting up a democracy and was turned down. If I’m wrong about that I’d appreciate comments from anyone who knows better.
Interesting. What if Yeltsin had solicited help from several successful democracies - an advisory group, if you will. But Boris was too drunk to imagine such a thing. And there were already gangsters after him. He sought Putins protection and got it. Putin got the country in return. Democracy never had a shot. The Russians love a strong man.
Americans at least had the influence of centuries long development of shrinking the influence of a monarch and slowly gaining a government run by the people. We're still working on it, eh?
As others have mentioned above it really had a lot to do with Milton Friedman and his Chicago School of Economics. Friedman's ideology & insistence on how to implement the "free market" in these newly formed republics from the previous Communist regime's orbit and economic conditions was to completely remake the economy is these places. Which caused great suffering and chaos as Naomi Klein describes in much detail in 'The Shock Doctrine- the Rise of Disaster Capitalism'.
Yeltsin and his team of economists were to trying to establish some Chicago School economic program which was really some idealistic capitalist fantasy than a truly democratic republic. There were several shocks within these few first years of Yeltsin's rise to power and leadership.
First, the Soviet Union was the only country many Russians had ever known or been born into and a very powerful shock to their psyche.
The second shock was this drastic economic shock therapy program, including immediate privatization of Russia's nearly 225,000 state-owned companies. A third of the population fell below the poverty line. Millions of middle-class Russians had lost their life savings when the currency lost its value, drastic cuts in state funding for the jobs of millions of workers that didn't get paid was too much to take.
Up till then Yeltsin had been able to promote economic reform and democratic reform as the desired approach to the 'new' Russia. He became more dictatorial, thinking of him less as the president and more like a monarch. Russia's brief democracy was destroyed little by little. Eventually the oligarchs, mafia and old Communist party members would just retake the brutalized economy on their own terms like some allegorical bleak Russian winter...
Mike, Milton Friedman was a nightmare! Look at what his influence did in Chile in the 1970’s.
Adding: Mitt Romney warned who the enemy was and is. He was laughed out of the party. Mitt didn’t need a Russian infusion into his campaign coffers. Mitt already had all the cash he needed for his Senate seat. We are now at a point of oligarchy infused foreign Funded GOP doesn’t need regular American donors. They only need the votes ( for now), and they achieve that through demagoguery rhetoric. If they win 2024, it’s a new ball game with no rules, no election laws. Elections become ceremonial, like in Russia. And was attempted in Ukraine till Yankovich fled to Moscow.
And are we the people strong enough to fight for Democracy? We should be saying/doing/warning, more loudly. Here I sit, though, 83 and where do I get started? Hold a press conference? But it would help if there were a planned group that would have a million press conferences all at the same time/day.
Red Wine and Blue is an organization you might like.
Welcome to the "Herd" Elaine!
I don’t think it is about political bipartisanship as much as it is a sorting out of diverse cultures that are and always have been present in our countries history. Republicans grabbed the disaffected southern Dixiecrats, created the opportunity to draw in christian societies into politics around abortion in the 70s and made their false claim that they owned the moral high ground in the 80’s. No one can dispute that the repugs were much better than the Dems at identifying causes which attracted various segments of our society. The dems kind of lost their way and the 20th century New Deal progressivism got thrown under the bus in the 80s and 90s.
Are you talking about 1992 onward with Bill Clinton? I was busy in college and grad school during 1992-2002, and was still forming my political beliefs.
I recall Clinton suddenly getting a tear in his eye when marching in a funeral march and pointed out by an aid that the cameras were on him. That is what the press was pushing in circa 1992. I also recall Clinton working tirelessly on an accord between Israel and Palestine and despite the effort, failing and coming away exasperated. The latter I think defines the Best of Bill Clinton.
I don't know if you are blaming the Dems for the Yeltsin era, basically giving way to Putin. I don't think either party in the US should claim credit or blame for the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent rise of Russia under Putin.
Sorry if my comment is totally off base. That is entirely possible as these are just comments and there is just a lot of reading between the lines as a consequence.
Matt,
People give Reagan credit for the demise of the USSR, but it was a decades long process that wore communism down, culminating in the actions of Gorbachev.
It is Gorbachaev who deserves all of the credit.
100.0%
Mike;
Yes but it was Reagan who jumped on the soapbox and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
And that was performative nonsense.
YES Matt, the complexity of reality affects both sides of any conflict. Truly accurate statements tend to be more boring and harder to grasp or write on a banner or bumper sticker or even a billboard. There are far more nuances than many (most?) people have time or energy to contemplate. Give us a good slogan any day!
...makes me aware why I usually seek out the longer comments to HCR's posts (e.g.- Peter Burnett, Matt Fulkerson, George Polisner, S B Lewis, Linda Weide, Barbara Jo Krieger, Robert McTague, Fay Reid, etc) because they seem more likely to encompass more of the complexities of any given stance or add new information.
I think the Press was wallowing in the Lewinsky mess instead of distributing the news. Tabloid Journalism was just getting started and Fox took over from there. A lot of blame to spread around.
And... nothing has really changed, has it?
I am aware - now - how little attention I paid to any form of politics or the real issues of governing for far too long. Becoming a single mother & having to earn a living sort of requires focusing on providing for family! There tends to be quite an abrupt learning curve involved after a divorce. Life did get better.
That doesnt excuse me - but I wasnt alone in that respect.
It’s the Senate, not the President that writes and approves our treaties with foreign governments. However, both parties are complicit in their assertions that capitalism was/is a guarantee of democracy. Just another reminder that the role of government is to protect the rule of law, provide institutional oversite/regulate. The other is free, fair, and transparent elections.
“ Nothing was more to be desired than that every practical obstacle should be opposed to Cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might have been expected to make their approaches from more than one "querter", but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant (DJT) in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature (Mr. Orange) of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?” -Alexander Hamilton 1788
From The Road to Unfreedom, Dr. Tim Snyder
Federalist #68 link
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp
It occurred to me re reading F # 68, that not only have the obstacles to cabal and corruption have been removed by the court and by the laws passed, and that has given way to encouraging corruption and cabal from every corner and quarter. The former chief magistrate, his orangeness a creature saved by Putin’s $ and raised because of a lame reality TV show. The most important election in history is the next one.
Civilizations rise, and civilizations fall. It's one of the arrhythmic heartbeats of human time. The US has passed its second centennial. On the long historical record, it's done pretty well, particularly for a democracy. Two decades ago, during the Bush/Cheney misrule, I predicted we would not see a third centennial as a functioning national democracy. I won't be alive in 2076 to see if I was right.
One of the things playing out now also started in 1980, along with the entire Reagan misrule, namely the doctrine of "originalism" in the courts. We now have a case -- the DC insurrection trial of a former president, Whiny Don -- in which the lawyers for the defense are arguing for absolute, lifelong Presidential immunity for crimes. It's not surprising that this would be fielded as a defense, since the defense has pretty much nothing else. What is surprising is that a) this hasn't already been thrown out as absurd, and b) there is no confidence on either side which way the Supreme Court might rule.
The Court has become arbitrary. That's never a good sign.
What an important thread has HCR laid out for us. No strategies in the present are simple or new. They have origins and core goals going all the way back, in this case, to the battle for the New Deal, which took a war to be effected and remained under attack these many decades. Where do evil, avarice, and greed originate if the great American experiment was the antidote to regencies and empires and autocracies? What forces must be in place to protect the ideals or aspirational foundations of an American government in service to esposed goals and the interests of the plurality of its people? What standing force must be in place when the greater threat is not the arms and soldiers of foreign powers or ideologies, but the extremism of a battle between ideologies we now (and will) fight against? When does desireable tension become unsustainable?
Yes. And it strikes me that we and our allies will need to rebuild the Gaza, Palestinian and Israeli lands once the current horrible war comes to a close.
And Vietnam!
Thank you Heather. Certainly Reagan took undue credit for the Berlin wall. The former Soviet Union became entangled in too many conflicts and proxy wars, which drained its economy. For example, their own Afghanistan adventure (which preceded our own).
The conservatives fought against FDR and the New Deal during its implementation. And perhaps in some narrow cases, due to the thought of individualism over collectivism. Nevertheless, the funding of the GOP machine is directed, not as a political donation to cause gun rights to proliferate everywhere while eliminating Women's rights (and other important hard-earned rights). The funding is an investment with a return on investment being far more attractive than any yield offered by the stock or bond market. And it is all about the concentration of wealth, and thus power.
The obscenely wealthy don't care whether an impoverished 15 year old has to flee her home state to gain access to healthcare. They don't care if someone is shooting up a public school or mall -they won't be spending time in either. They merely care that there will not be a wealth tax. They care that they can amass generational wealth and pass it along to their heir(s) -unimpeded by estate taxes. They don't want anyone to touch offshore tax havens and loopholes -allowing them to pile wealth on top of wealth -while shifting the burden of debt to the working class in terms of higher income and sales taxes, or to the impoverished -through the elimination of vital social programs.
The USSR was simply a useful boogeyman, the monster under the bed. The real enemy is the public, little profit-centers who should just obediently mass-consume and stay out of topics like equity, justice, and democracy.
If Americans could stop falling into the trap set by people like Grover Norquist, Paul Weyrich, Newt Gingrich, and others, could stop allowing themselves to be intentionally divided by Rupert Murdoch, they could collaborate across declared political ideologies, transcend different religions, and bring responsible gun owners together with those working to prevent gun violence -and put America back on track toward the beacon of democracy it has the potential to be. If we continue on the road we are on it will simply be a footnote in history books of the future as a nice try and failed experiment. Of course, no worries that real history might actually be taught someday.
The USSR was genuinely creepy and dangerous. Russian government continues to be corrupt and dangerous. The "Republican Party" has become corrupt and dangerous. Absolute, unaccountable, concentrated power corrupts absolutely, regardless of branding.
Very true. While not diminishing the threat of any entity amassing significant military capability, my main point is that regardless of the Soviet Union or other adversaries, the obscenely wealthy may have 'pet peeve' social issues, their real focus is concentrating more wealth and power. The last thing someone like Musk, Robert Mercer, or others want (aside from fair taxation), is a mathematics teacher in Kansas having the same political power as their own.
I was told "One able lobbyist in Washington is worth ten thousand voters".
More than that Peter.
The lobbyists are now writing the bills and providing them to "our representatives" to pass.
But... didn't they always do that, Mike?
Sometimes a subtle amendment's more than enough.
No, Peter, "they" didn't "always do that."
Do a search on what the Powell memo did, and you'll find:
"In 1971, there were only 176 companies in Washington DC. A decade later, in 1980, there are 2,445 companies, 9,000 lobbyists and 60,000 trade association employees."
Peter, now that you ask. Yes.
John Hancock hired John Adams to help him throw off the yoke of British taxes on his illegal rum running into Boston harbor to keep the Irish wards drunk and unaware of their exploitation.
Then, John Hancock helped write, well, everything else. But, Hancock never paid any tax on his business.
So, a big YES.
Now, Adams and Hancock were not corrupt per se. They both were just interested in money.
Mike, I once had an accounting assignment to identify the company that qualified for an income tax exemption passed in the Nixon era. Lobbyists for H. Ross Perot (and others) were very active in supplying tax code amendments to Congress Critters.
Yes. It really is too bad that the folks who benefit the most from our system desire to support that system the least.
Indeed. And I'd add the lobbyist is merely casting the shadow from the pile of pooled dark money they represent.
The conservative leadership now seeks power.pure and simple.
And they have it. The compromised "supreme" court gives them everything they want.
Except us, if we can somehow muster solidarity.
“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” - Lincoln
We seem to be failing at mustering public sentiment. The next few months are crucial.
Forever power.
Souls cut price on isle 3.
Nuclear armed, yes, but for a long time the Soviet Union's "Parade Ground Socialism" was pathetic. Yet Brezhnev's Stagnation was infinitely better for citizens than Putin's Nazi-style war state in which war can't slow down or be stopped because everything will become unstable, then collapse...
Brezhnev was successful transforming Lenin’s/Marx’s worldwide worker revolution into the politics of eternity ( nothing can change so dont attempt otherwise its gulag or death). Violence abroad on the Warsaw Pact countries when/if the lean west or democratic. This kept Russia Authoritarian kleptocracy insulated. Today, with internet and proximity to Russian borders, Ukrainian democracy is viewed as an existential threat to Putin’s politics of eternity. I don’t think one over the other was/is better. Winning war in Ukraine should tell us everything we need to know.
I said better, Ted (i.e. tolerable) for those who had to live under the stupid system.
Stalin, not Brezhnev, transformed the system into the monumental monstrosity you describe. Had Trotsky, the dangerous revolutionary, tracked down and killed.
Successors to Khruschev, with his still dangerous adventures, championed mediocrity, conformism and the don't-rock-the-boat status quo, rather than terror. Psychiatric hospitals rather than the bullet in the neck. Brezhnev is said to have been furious with the KGB for inducing him to invade Afghanistan on false pretenses.
Kleptocracy is one word not to apply to this system. Even with its privileged class, no one but the occasional crook grabbed anything to match Stalin's butcher Yagoda (portrait prominent at Navalny's first "trial", to show who has licence to rob, and kill). His last killer, the monstrous Beria, was more into the rape and murder of women.
As for the so called "politics of eternity", haven't we seen, don't we see examples of this all over the place? In banana republics and wherever uniformed bandits have grabbed a country... What else, after all, is America's GOP kleptocracy? Total indifference to anything and everything except having and holding it all. "Conservatism" seen as conserving "what's good for us". Worse than indifference, hatred for any claimants to more than the contents of their trash cans.
The term "politics of eternity" has only one possible use. It reminds us of how stupid human beings are blind to the reality of change and decay, including their own.
Yep.
Paul Manafort taught them the southern strategy. The Russians taught Paul about post truth, use of political technicians, how to corrupt via massive inputs of $ ( money laundering/blind llc real estate deals, licensing deals, and consulting fees), strongman tactics, and the politics of eternity.
And the "supremes" gave them Citizens United.
George Polisner,
Thank you for expressing my same opinions with more clarity.
I am praying and voting.....for President Joe Biden and for his super amazing team to continue to expand freedom, peace and mutual respect throughout this country and throughout the world. Goodness and peace are not "soft" concepts. They are won and maintained with great effort and sacrifice and wisdom.
Powerfully and eloquently stated Emily. A President is a President by the team he or she selects. We've seen the prior administration provide an example of what an inherently corrupt criminal cabinet could accomplish. And now we are seeing true leadership. And while I don't think any voter could be delighted by every policy implemented, or reaction to any domestic or foreign situation, the Biden-Harris Administration has performed well.
My issue of concern with the Biden administration is not taking a firm hand with Netanyahu. While Israel has a right to exist in peace and security, and certainly act to address Hamas as a terrorist organization, Netanyahu is using U.S. weaponry to cause indiscriminate death and suffering to the Palestinian people. And Netanyahu is creating more risk for, and hatred of, Jewish people in Israel and around the world. And this is precisely what he intends to do. Because "no one can protect you like a far-right strongman". It is a self-perpetuating lie.
If Biden loses in ‘24, it will be because of Gaza. It was going to be tight anyway, a fight between red voters pissed at the economy, and blue voters pissed at Dobbs, with those at the margins on both issues deciding it. Muslim support for Biden has dropped to 18%. Can you say Michigan? Some serious cleanup needed on Aisle 9.
Tom, if Biden wins, it will be because of the overturning of Roe V Wade. Seems people are discounting that fact as if we have moved on. Maybe the men have, but my women friends tell me different.
Spot on, David. Look to every election result since the death of Roe V Wade. Particularly, the statewide races in WI (state supreme court), KY (Dem Gov. Brashear's re-election) and the VA state legislature ...
People understand the assault on reproductive freedom IS the assault on every aspect of Democracy. Lady Liberty will again be victorious in 2024.
A word of caution. Presidential elections are unique. There is no electoral college in state/local races; the popular vote is not the determining factor, as we have seen repeatedly.
I do share your concern. Nevertheless, I resigned from Oracle when the criminal Trump said he intended to start a Muslim database and Oracle's then co-CEO, Safra Catz stated "we're (at Oracle -a major database and cloud company) are here for you."
Perhaps many people will self-disenfranchise, however, when choosing between someone quoting Hitler and wanting to establish "camps" and someone that at least respects civil rights, perhaps there are political calculations being made. And of course there is also the economic incentives that AIPAC puts on the table to drive political behavior. I'm not justifying it, it all makes me sick -all clear manifestations of a flawed and broken political system.
I’m sick as well. The rot is extensive.
The more I look at the images and accounts coming from Gaza, the more inclined I am to think the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was correct in his denunciation of America back in the day.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-refugee-camps
Tom-Black people in America know tyranny (cruel and repressive rule) all too well. Imagine not being able to access housing, employment, food, education, health care etc. just because of your skin color. Not to mention the fact that you could randomly be jailed or killed because of skin color. Then there are the massacres of whole communities....
Reverend Wright spoke truth that most Americans don't want to face. Now Israel is emulating the U.S. times ten. Will we ever learn from the suffering imposed on human beings. Nothing good comes from hate, lies and hubris!
For once we argue.
Tom, See Janet Yellen’s WSJ article on how successful the Biden admin has been bringing prosperity to America.
All that bad stuff on Fox News about Biden is Russia funded propaganda.
Mike, what would you expect a Yellen article to say? That is administration propaganda. Propaganda, mind you, can be true. It can also be an incomplete snapshot to buttress a questionable or false narrative. I don’t care what Yellen says or what Fox says, I care about what is, and I know several things about the nature of ‘prosperity’ in America, including the fact that many millions of Americans are not feeling a single thing Biden has done that are sufficient to overcome their anxiety from a grocery bill that is way higher than under Trump, skyrocketing rents and drug prices, and a rise in homelessness. Until Biden ‘messaging’ can address that anxiety in a meaningful way, all the articles from administration officials and economic elites and numbers crunchers on how the economy is peachy amount to a bucket of spit to those who live in fear of the unexpected $500 bill every day of their lives.
Interesting thought, Tom. I don’t see any possible “right” answer for US response in Gaza. There is one, but I suspect that there is no middle ground for that answer to have a snowball’s chance in hell of success.
George, YES, "A President is a President by the team he or she selects" ...and LISTENS to! ...as with Lincoln's "Team of Rivals."
Nearly on the mark here George. Ultimately though, the seductive allure of a crony, crooked branded capitalism, headed up by "Russkiavelli" little prince Putin is taking them down a dark road, that I hope we will find common cause to overcome and avoid without too much blood shed. The world's oligarchs along with ours will not be easy to subdue.
Interestingly, large majorities of both Dems and Reps favour reducing wealth influence according to a Pew poll . Isn't translating into legislation i gather ... https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/money-power-and-the-influence-of-ordinary-people-in-american-politics/
I think people are far more united than they realize. And unfortunately, it does not translate into legislation and policy when the GOP roadshow and editorials create fear by talking about job-killing taxes and start labeling the obscenely wealthy as "job creators". For example, the incompetent narcissist Elon Musk is perfectly happy losing $20 billion of wealth as he destroys Twitter, however watch him react to a 1% wealth tax and there will be war cries of socialism and the 'nanny' state.
George, I think you fall into the trap Heather does when you blame the lack of translation into legislation on the GOP roadshow and editorials. Both parties, I would argue, are equally to blame, but for different reasons. Yes, there is the mendacious class warfare, in every facet, by the GOP. But the Dems have been complicit in the corporate donor fealty and the neoliberal wrecking of our economy and culture. I know you have acknowledged this at times, but to me, it needs to always be pointed out as a caveat whenever GOP malfeasance is mentioned. Blaming the GOP for our woes comes across as tribal, and that messaging is counterproductive to bringing about the people’s unification we both desire; the necessary coalition to counter the influence of monied interests.
Our economy is in the best shape since before Reagan wrecked it.
For some. Millions lost jobs, homes, and wealth in ‘08, and are still hanging on by a thread, or homeless. Your blanket statement is a slap in the face to them.
Excellent post, George as it explains what the super wealthy are doing and that they truly believe their money will save them....particularly from climate change. When I look at the consumerism around the holidays for examples and mega sports events, I am reminded of bread and circuses. Add to this, Fox and the constant negative yapping about Ds and social issues, and you have the lemmings rushing to the edge of the cliff.
Bread and circuses indeed!
U.S. voters don’t often get good choices for elected officials. Many “normal” people don’t even want to run for office.
Thankfully, there are some normal, hardworking people I've had the pleasure of working with and/or meeting. Senator Jeff Merkley stands out. State Rep. David Gomberg is another. Dedicated to representing all of the constituents -not just those who are party-aligned.
To your point -it requires such a massive amount of money to run, and so much of the job is to raise more money. The flow of money has broken the system, and thus far, people have not had the political will to fix it. Election cycle to election cycle it's just "Mitch McConnell just sneezed!!! Sign our petition and send money!!!!" or "Tell the Supreme Court ..." -instead of truly addressing the root causes of corruption and strengthening democracy. I'm not sure how any normal person can function within the system for long.
Thanks for the shout out for one of my senators!
I agree! I think Bernie Sanders would have better addressed our problems than Hillary. I did still vote for her, but wasn’t my first choice, and of course I went into a severe depression when she lost. I can’t imagine the level of depression if Biden loses in 2024.
Unfortunately there aren’t enough Sanders or Merkeleys to override the Repubs & the Joe Manchin types in the Dem party - before we even mention special interests like Israel…
I was in a unique position in 2016. I was chair of the Lincoln County Democratic Central Committee, and was an elected Oregon state delegate for Bernie Sanders. While Senator Sanders was my choice of candidate (especially after Hillary gave Henry Kissinger a hug), as soon as Secretary Clinton was the official nominee, I quickly made sure we were united in our support of her candidacy (in spite of the delay of the Sanders campaign to graciously declare their support). I was at an election night gathering, watching the NY Times dial shift from probable Clinton to probable Trump, to Trump. I was physically sick. Many know of my story, publicly resigning from Oracle after then Oracle’s co-CEO Safra Catz joined the Trump transition team. My departure from Oracle was covered by The Guardian and the NY Times.
That was a TERRIBLE time for all Democrats. I couldn’t believe (still can’t) that ANYONE could vote for that criminal.
Good for you for quitting publicly.
I hope you’re doing even better now than with Oracle.
George, out of curiosity, what has been the financial impact of the Ukraine war on Russia, versus, Afghanistan, which helped implode the USSR?
Research indicates a mixed bag. https://www.forbes.com/sites/globalcitizen/2023/12/22/russian-sanctions-offer-hope-to-ukraine-in-2024-despite-aid-setback/
Nevertheless, I hold hope that a small group of oligarchs tire of the erosion of their wealth and subsequently Putin has an 'accidental' fall from a window like many of his political opponents.
thanks George.
The USSR invasion of Afghanistan proved to be a debacle - and, as you said, helped to end the USSR. But the losses of soldiers and the financial strain of that boondoggle pales in comparison to Putin's failures in Ukraine. I really believe that Ukraine has done more damage in the long run to Putin than he has done to Ukraine.
Here is a good read about the Russian economy and the effects of the war. Putin is on thin ice with his oligarchs and crooks.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/russian-war-economy-is-overheating-powder-keg-2023-10-25/
With continuing support from the US and the EU, Putin will be toppled by his own people. Oligarchs will tire of being international pariahs and losing so much money....
And mothers will rebel - how many sons will vanish before they lose their love of Putin?
You hit it when you said conservatives.
Hear, hear!!!! Usually if you want to read the REAL history, you have to read works of fiction. I am fond of Kenneth Roberts for providing the truth about the Revolutionary War for example.
I was an adult during the collapse of the Soviet Union, I'll never forget watching Gorbachev resign on TV LIVE in my college "Current Affairs" history class. And I've been a strong activist for democracy and peace lifelong, but I still need your wisdom to put all the pieces of the last few decades together into a clear, cohesive image for me, Heather. Thank you!
Gorbachev visited Minnesota in 1990:
https://www.twincities.com/2022/08/30/gorbachevs-1990-visit-to-minnesota-was-a-big-deal-here-are-some-highlights-and-memories/
Rereading that article! I do recall Gorbachev having more interactions with Minnesota in following years.
The weather was the same as in Russia.
Not this year.
Yes, I lived in Minneapolis at the time. It was exciting to see his motorcade drive through residential areas and even stop at a drug store to talk to people. We were all so hopeful then.
I remember that hope! It was intoxicating. Ah, youth.....but I DO think hope can return, if we feed it with action.
Thank you, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, for stringing all these events together in such a logical sequence and naming the problem so accurately. It was so spaced out in time I couldn't connect the dots: now you have and brought the picture into focus. Best Christmas present ever!/
She did indeed. Living through it, events get tangled, skewed, and whipsawed. But my memory and her presentation gee and haw.
Life can really only be understood looking backward, as in 20/20 hindsight. Looking back we can all the variables in play that were less visible in real time. Ex. I knew the Reagan administration was bad and corrupt, but looking back with the help of HCR, I come to understand how truly dangerous Reagan and his henchmen were.
Exactly, I recognized evil at the time but it’s hard when friends and family are agog over Reagan, W, and all the down position idiots. When I was totally disgusted with the junk bond fiasco, my R friend just shrugged it off. She has shrugged off or Fox-explained every egregious Repub action or position since. And she is no dummy, unless emotional
Ignorance counts.
I have friends and family like your R friend. They have never met a conspiracy theory they didn't like.
It's especially distressing when you know them not to be ignorant or stupid. But cult members seem to come in all stripes.
I don't often relate the fall of the soviet union back then to what can be seen as the US becoming the "Caman Islands" to the rising oligarchy of the failed Soviet state acting as the Russian equivalent of our very own carpetbaggery taking advantage of the defeated south after our civil war. The seeds of greed are planted deep in the soils of avarice and myopic self interest so often tilled by the wealthy and promulgated today largely by the failed republican juggernaut. Dr. Richardson, has once again offered an echo from history that resonates so deeply today. And, on Boxing day...a day where the rich among us share their wealth with us working folks...all the better, and may your gifts continue to illuminate.
I'm a big fan of "free enterprise" along with a robust public sector, believing that a "free market" is a subset function of a free society in which there is so far as possible, diverse opportunities for a diverse array of publicly responsible behaviors. Obviously there are individually irresponsible behaviors, "bullying", such as rape of theft, but also bullying by groups of people. Racial discrimination is bullying; potentially by a tyranny of the majority. Corporate monopolies and cartels are bullying. If there is truly to be government of, by and for the people, it is just good sense to prohibit bullies. "Freedom" for some to exploit others is properly called "tyranny". What FDR's policies were and what the Soviet Union was is like comparing apples to chain saws; not much in common.. Even Eisenhower, while very wary of too much centralization of governmental power, was dismissive of the American hard right.
Free markets without regulation are not free. They are predatory.
In a nutshell, as are many of the concepts that modern "Republicans" loudly label "freedom". Freedom as a social concept is necessarily universal or it's not actually freedom. Societal liberty, and even impunity for some, but not for others, is fraudulent to the extent of the difference. Lincoln got that. By virtue of wealth and political advantage, Europe's titled nobility thought of themselves as a master race; a superior breed of human. Our founding philosophies rejected that predatory conceit, yet maintained Tyrannosaurus-in-the-room sized blind spots. Reptilian screeches and concerted protest was penetrating the obfuscating Musak in the mid 20th Century sufficiently that big money organized a massive propaganda blitz that continues to this day; with close to half the nation believing that up is down and "Ignorance is Strength".
Well said JL.
This is a historian with a laser mind.
Only here could I ever possibly have found the history of modern money laundering.
Thank you very much Dr. Richardson. This is a blockbuster article.
What a great and informative report. The corrupt money nexus has been driving many of the bad actors we see every day in the news. Accountability (along with the end of the Citizens United decision, which powers it all) will greatly enhance our democracy—if we muster the will to enforce adherence. It will be a long haul, though.
Sadly, Rick Scott and Matt Goetz's father were both convicted of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid raking in hundreds of millions between them. And then they used a fraction of their ill-begotten gains to buy a Senate seat and a Congressional seat.
And the records of the settlement with the government are sealed so we will never know the extent of their corruption. TFFG has done the same thing with his sexual predation forcing his victims to sign non-disclosures.
Republicans are deplorable.
Unfortunately, there are holes in the Corporate Transparency Act.
"... it doesn’t solve all of our money-laundering problems. One big exemption in this is that while it applies to corporations, limited liability companies, it does not apply to trusts or partnerships.
Partnerships are generally considered lower risk, but trusts are a major issue, particularly because the vast majority of trusts in the United States don’t actually register with their legal contracts.
So you will still be able to set up a trust that could potentially be abused for money laundering after this."
https://www.vox.com/22188223/congress-anti-money-laundering-anonymous-shell-companies-ban-defense-bill
“But there are at least signs that the financial free-for-all might be changing. The three years are up, and the Corporate Transparency Act will take effect on January 1, 2024.”
May this be the first of many, many good things to happen in the coming year. May it culminate in the triumph of democracy in November. Here’s to Biden/Harris re-election and substantial democratic majorities in both houses of Congress as well as blue victories in every state, county, and city/town.
2024, we are expecting a lot from you! Let’s make it so!
Maybe. What are the penalties listed in the Act? How will it be enforced, and by whom?
Devil. Always in the details.
Tonight Letters from an American... elevates. Or descends... to an entirely different AND FAR MORE COMPLEX level.. focusing on The Big Game and The Big Lie... and Big Wall Street, and the Big Boys that play with real estate... and launder whole nations... as V. Putin jailing Navalny in hiding having nearly killed him once, becomes the world’s most wealthy, hides it all... with help from his friends, and they are everywhere... and Trump the Liar in Chief emerges from Trump the Restricted of Queens... racism and antisemitism running both... as Old George Orwell found a new home in the oligarchs of everywhere... with the British tax approach by Buckingham Palace emulated by the best of Wall Street, Manhattan, and the Islands in the Caribbean.. they are rolling in it, to hell with The Constitution... laws are for other people, we play with OPM, other people’s money, in MOSCOW, LONDON, FRANKFORT, NEW YORK, CHICAGO, CHINA, INDIA, CAIRO, TEHERAN, TURKEY, even the UN... it was always about money, and nothing else... but this is not Heather’s Ball Park.. try Michael LEWIS, he flirts with the truth and avoids the fire... he’s a writer, and access matters most.
Our Civil War of Lincoln has become The Civil War of Fascism Running Wild... like a centipede, with warm and cold feet everywhere, with the son of a drunk from California, having risen from nothing in Hollywood, married to his first, a drunk, to the son of nothing from Queens, having Risen from TV and a con-show and paid hookers... both gaming our political system for their own ends... his family addicted to prejudice, to alcohol in one, women in another, in a structured manner that belies their values, for they have none.. and their Golden Rule is simple: Them With the Gold Rules... and Putin, their buddy, having mastered the alcoholic Yeltsin, Reagan having mastered his alcoholic father and first wife... W, having mastered booze and not much else, Nixon having mastered Cook County, with help from Mayor Richard J. Daley, having crushed Helen Gahagan Douglas, and a few others, ... it’s a long, long trail, Heather... and the centipede will lead to the conscience of all, start with the Vatican, find your way with John Coleman of Adler, Coleman, and the chemical man, they stood with the Holy Father at Yankee Stadium, all counting their swag...
We have moved from the Busted Reformation, the critical amendments, to the 14th, and current events, but follow the money, Heather, chase to the ISLANDS, Switzerland, the Federal Reserve, three islands off in the Chanel, the first thing he did with help from Moscow Mitch was dowse the IRS... and open Reagan’s back door to crush David Stockman... so now they can blame Build from the Bottom UP, FROM THE MIDDLE OUT... and blame Democrats for the deficit The Donald gave us, forgetting Bill Clinton’s deficit reversal, Obama’s equitable of health care, the biggest lie of them all... strangling hospitals, your physician, campuses and corporations, it’s the biggest lie of them all, and it will kill us if warming and Blow Out does not kill us first...
Heather, here’s to you, go for the gusto, chase down Syntex in Mexico and The Pill, and see what they do with abortion, pedophiles on campus, the church, yours, your favorite gynecologist, Lansing Michigan, now governed by the voters, in total chaos... and the White House, ENOUGH skims, but it’s fun and games...
Boris Yeltsin led straight to Putin... Gorbachev was happily married, their first in that job, and his wife sent the signal, and Berlin came down... frightening the money whores everywhere.. for theirs is a cartel... a silent cartel... where sworn enemies play in the same sand box, and children starve and burn to death in warming, and it’s drill, baby, drill, I am a dictator on the first day, 70 million strong, as the Democrats blink, and the GOP flexes, fascism rides again, Harvard, MIT, UPenn... and yes, Brandeis, all play that three keyboard hand organ, and the money monkey chained to the organ grinder, dressed to kill, passes the cup, and the cup runneth over... antisemitism is alive and well most everywhere... campus after campus, GAZA be damned, we can use Hamas for the Big Lie, and pretend we aren’t what we are...
Putin played the grifters and could not sell his soul, he never had one... Gorbachev died broken hearted, for he broke out, and his wife was honest... and he was not able to unscramble the Soviet Egg, they just recoiled and reboiled till it was hard, then moved to real estate and bought in to Trumpville... in plain view, their first stop was Saudi Arabia, as the moved the show to Jerusalem and rolled into the West Bank, to the cheers of Hamas.. Hezbollah, Iran, Russia... it’s all about show and tell, cash and carry, and soon we will view the Trump White House coming into view again... and that may be the ball game...
Follow the Money, Heather, the GOP sold out with American First, Newt was no damn good... Reagan was awol, the son of a drunk, owned by the Blow Out crowd...
When they killed Abraham Lincoln, they set the pattern.. may Liz Cheney set them right, she’s got guts, understands Wyoming, the GOP, her daddy’s team, all of them...
And I think she’s honest... she learned the hard way, watching from inside the Big Tent... Can she save us, them, herself...?
Leonid collected cars, and we fed him...the next guy got leukemia, and he liked soccer... Putin likes money and power, and Navalny has his number...
He’s our only chance in Moscow... that path started in Kiev and Ukraine... long, long ago... the Jews from there leed to Antony Blinken, and back o the SHERRY NETHERLANDS, from a poet....
Bibi has to go, but we cannot allow Hamas to survive... or Israel will be crushed again, and again... the Palestinian knows this, the West Bank is corrupt, crippled, and complicit... follow the money...
Albert Camus smelled all this in his way, and he was hip to the mess... Dreyfus got it... but the money trail is complex... and power flows through pipeline with the oil, and on its own...
Slavery was power.... but we have not ended slavery... we’ve just changed the label, frightening whites, those that read at a 5th grade level, moving their lips...
The American South, South Carolina’s women, elected Joe Biden.. but his support of Bibi may cost us all... Putin understands Gaza, and Zionism may be a dead end street for which we are all committed, yet intolerance must abate... and UJA must find a way to tolerance... and slam Iran...
The Iranians had found their way in 1953... but IKE and Dulles blinked, seeing RED, and they knocked off an elected leader.. nothing like bi Polar Republicans, claiming hatred of communists... favoring capitalist socialists, BIG LIE types, that hide theirs off shore...
This one will be complex...
Incredibly so...
My brain is spinning, but my memory shares some of yours. Can’t argue, will keep computing…
A bit stream of consciousness but erudite nonetheless. Well done.
You hit so many things in this....
Wow. Going back to read again. Several times.
Sandy, many excellent points within your letter...did you read Hunter S Thompson in your earlier years? Same style: a flowing gusher of truths overwhelming the reader.
JP, Fear and Loathing as a writing style, reading and testing one’s self against the shaded references to actors we might know, believe we should know, but come up lacking in the game of “can you keep up with my stream of conscience?”
Its like a crossword puzzle in terms of the short term endorphin rush infused upon solving one slot, only to realize that there are 50 more you can’t possibly unravel
“Dr Gonzo!...my pills, my tequila, my Red Cadillac Convertible, NOW!!!! Corners at 50 mph. They can’t catch me....or can they?”
HST, the master (and his Protege, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”, Warren)
I was in the U.S. Navy from early 1987 until the end of the Gulf War in 1991. As the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR's economy had been declining for years it was quite boring at the naval facility where I was stationed because the Soviets couldn't really afford to deploy much of the fleet anymore, and their ships, equipment, supplies were not in the best shape either. Also, the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion and ensuing disaster, that had been censored in typical Soviet fashion, was probably even more financially devastating than we'll ever really know. As it could have been even more fatal to more of Europe and nearly every Soviet republic too, they used up a lot of resources and equipment as well as actual people that were sacrificed or died early deaths due to the radiation. And it happened in Ukraine, which we know is getting hammered again by this same kind of Soviet style steamrolling and lack of concern for the people of Ukraine.
As Bush, Sr. came into office, these earthshaking events, like a newly unified Germany and newly formed breakaway republics, it seemed like there could actually be something like peace on Earth. But soon Bush sent troops and armored divisions into Panama to go bring Manuel Noriega into custody for drug dealing or some elicit activities and laundering although it didn't seem to deter anything as it's still a haven for money laundering and financial hoarding. The Gulf War started near the end of Bush Sr. term and I was getting out of the Navy soon but it was really a full scale war at the time and testing of weapons systems and troop readiness.
Thank you Heather, as always, for such a great account of this time in history and how it ties into our current dilemmas. I will just state the obvious when I say that one thing that the Republicans will never take money from is the Defense budget. The Pentagon budget will never pass an audit and it continues to have tens of billions of dollars added to it every year. Eventually it will get to be a trillion dollars for ONE YEAR! What do we get for that money? It doesn't go to the troops I'll tell you that much. It's the defense contractors, war profiteers, even our own versions of oligarchs are making a killing quite literally! Because there are little kids and mothers, grandparents, babies in Gaza and Ukraine being blown to bits, crushed under rubble, maimed and traumatized by the bombs, missiles, armaments, ammunition that are being supplied by this faction of our economy.
"the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion and ensuing disaster...was probably even more financially devastating than we'll ever really know."
Gorbachev in 2006 wrote "The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the main cause of the Soviet Union’s collapse five years later."
Thank you, horhai!
Sadly.
A masterful perspective.
I had often wondered how the President of the USA falls in love with someone like Putin.
And today you have explained it. Thank you.
A president who cheated his way into office and a Republican Party that is no longer loyal to the country
So, GOP really stands for Greedy Oligarchy Party? Makes perfect sense.
Letters From An American (and the Notes) really need to be preserved for history and assembled in a way that they can be used for education.
How I remember Grover, Newt, Tom Delay, Steve Stockman, and a host of other cretins who turned a golden opportunity into a greed fest that continues to this day. Clinton provided a great distraction so that the country was focused on Paula Jones, etc. instead of opportunities to follow the Cold War with real international cooperation. Republicans nearly broke their arms padding themselves on the back for their righteousness (compared with BC). A joke if there ever was one.
There were plenty of other hot wars (Uganda, Sarajevo, etc). But Gorbachev was right. America was arrogant and self-confident. I’ll add greedy, stupid, and deliberately ignorant,
The greedy bastards have one hell of a head start. Can we pick up steam before the rich cretins elect another mob boss?
BILL BROWDER jumped into Russia to make a fortune. He did and then putin took it. Made Bill a wanted man. Killed his lawyer. Red Notice basically explains how the West has financed putin. There is no difference in Putin and the old USSR philosophically (domination) except putin has a lot of western money to back him up.
Indeed. This mess triggers us. All of us. Deeply. Putin provokes - provokes our home grown GOP US racists, our very own US slave state racism, our intemperate intolerant streak, the gutless aspect of our RED state fascists, it started with slavery and racist Civil War Confederates, our so-called Southern Aristocracy, our most insecure, most indolent, he moved on Boris Yeltsin the same way, rose from KGB creep in East Berlin to the Kremlin on Russian racism... playing Yeltsin’s alcoholism, and, eventually, the Tower of Babel gets a play, Putin will play in between the Gods of Istanbul and Rome, pretending he’s a man of God, he’s long stubborned the Greek Orthodox community of Russia, The Book of Job must be Putin’s current favorite reading, he will play all ends against, with weak humanity asked to decide, our polls will be his goal - and Donald John Trump his target... 🎯 our courts will be in focus, SCOTUS scum exposed for all to study, Justice Clarence Thomas and Ginny in their own court... Disney will do the cartoon in drag, America 🇺🇸 is on trial. It’s the land of mixed metaphors, Don’t Look Up is real. See the movie. And duck v
Big difference, also having our repubs backing him helps too. In fact, it’s his coup de grace it seems
... And there my friends are some of the secrets we're finally able to learn; patience has been a difficult skill to hone. I love cleansing sunlight on all things finance; we need more, but it will be fought tooth and nail.