Let’s coin a new phrase: “junk Politics.” Like junk food and junk bonds. Cheap and addictive. Engineered to taste good but offering no nutrition. Junk Politics stimulates addictive receptors in the brain - particularly the reptilian brain - that drown out higher powers of thought and reasoning. Purveyors of Junk Politics stir up emotions that offer a kind of emotional gratification while dooming their consumers to ultimate enslavement as their health deteriorates and they become unable to distinguish what’s good for them from what they are addicted to. We stood up against the tobacco companies and held them accountable. Can we defeat Junk Politics? Part of defeating an evil is by naming it for what it is. Democrats need catchy phrases like “fake news.” Why not “Junk Politics!”
Excellent. Thanks for this. I will borrow your phrase junk politics.
I don't own a television and the radio is broken in my car. Whenever I get around these 2 mediums I am stunned by the mind numbing noise, the invasive barrage of commercials and the contorted faces of so many commentators who are talking too loudly. Junk politics and rampant consumerism reign over our airwaves. The reporters are definitely pushing junk politics.
Lest I live in a bubble one of the places I check in is the Washington Post articles. This is there where I see the right wing trolls. They keep repeating the FOX mantras. And the Post keeps repeating the anti-Biden, false narratives, hyperbole headlines junk politics every day.
I'll scan the news headlines of FOX. Whew! They are truly another Universe.
I believe folks have been seduced into thinking CNN, NBC, New York Times etc. were giving us the big picture. Plus most of the people I work with could care less about what is happening to Democracy right now anyway.
I so agree about the shouting heads! I refer to them as used car salesmen (a really old stereotype). Why would you buy anything from someone who is talking fast & shouting?
And for positive phrasing how about a Democratic mantra- “Invest in America” to counter the “socialist” frame and recall the “we are in this together” FDR era?
Hi Barbara, My post wasn't so much about the news and the many excellent commentators. It was about the politicians on the right who are selling disinformation, lies, and authoritariansim. Junk. Toxic, dangerous junk!
Yes, Fox, et al are certainly junk media. Or maybe more like "toxic media." And for sure many excellent, ethical responsible journalists and writers out there are doing the best they can. We Dems need to take the "catch phrase" offensive and "Junk Politics" has a ring to it. Let's use this and any other simple phrases we can come up with to counter Trump's undeniable genius for coining simple minded but compelling language.
Unfortunately the slanted articles are not always labeled as opinion and are not in the opinion section. WaPo often has their headline piece as a hyperbolic headline against Biden.
An excellent phrase! I'll use it. We Democrats definitely need catchy, vivid phrases and themes. The voters we need to deprogram don't respond to big words, data, and reasoned treatises.
Repugs have been weaponizing words since “the great communicator” linked “liberal” with negativity. They repeat and repeat until their message becomes cliché and no one questions what is meant. Democrats need to use humor and semiotics to put a wrench in this process and force people to consider their contradictions. It’s not just labeling. It has become known as “weaponized flak”. It is the basis of the Mercer’s Cambridge Analytica/aka Emeradata—targeting susceptible groups with a propagandized message.
This is not “ junk”. We are fighting for our future and that of our grandchildren. We are in a civil war. I think we oughtto avoid any kind of dismissive language that implies this is not deadly serious
The GQP will have no platform, no ideas, no agenda for the 2022 elections according to Mitch “no progress” McConnell; but rather will leave all “what we stand for” planks to the authority of one man, whoever gets the GQP nomination in 2024
Doesn’t that kinda describe how dictatorships work?
That has been my thought. Once abortion is illegal will all the people who only voted GOP because of the sanctity of life turn to the Democrats to save their children from gun violence and school shootings?
I doubt it. At least, not at first. They have been led by their noses by the lies from their leaders and from right-wing media going on 5 years now. The Special Jan. 6th Committee and the DOJ must get the work done to prove these arrogant neo-Nazis are as corrupt as we know they are. Sentencing and imprisoning them all sends a very strong message. We do have to be prepared for the aftermath and unfortunately, parents like the Chumbleys may come out of woodwork as they are now anyway at school board meetings. Worse would be another insurrection but at least, the military and the WH will be aligned.
Also, since when have Rethuglicans provided a legislative agenda or platform other than cutting taxes and peddling hatred, fear and racism? That's been the case since the 90's but has become more apparent since a Black Guy had the temerity to do Presidenting.
I feel like the GOP is already at the place where they only listen to one man and do as they’re told. There’s not an original thought among them. There are many we don’t hear from but they’re still the worker bees and still strictly follow orders.
What a magnificent tying together of history and actualities! This is an excellent iteration of the basic premises of democracy, socialism, and communism. Rep. Greene is deranged in her understanding, and Gov. Desantis has crossed a line. Thank you for sharing the clarity of a sound mind and your profound understanding of the historical forces that have shaped and continue to inform our hope.
If Governor DeSantis doesn't scare you, nothing will. Are we really going to pay for a private militia???? (I have the dubious fortune to live in Florida, working in the news industry for more than 30 years.) He is trying to separate the state from federal oversight e.g. last month in special session the legislature approved creating a state-run Occupational Safety & Health Administration (which would need federal approval). To date our Republican-controlled legislature has rubber-stamped everything he has done to impede protections against Covid-19 infection, legislate criminal penalties for peaceful protest, distribute vaccines on the basis of PAC contributions, etc. Is there a point at which my Republican neighbors and legislators will say "Enough already?" Even well-informed citizens are becoming frightened.
Morning fab Daria….lot of work already into campaigns for Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist. And senatorial challenge that Val Demings presents against Rubio.
More and more “unsettling”. I keep repeating…Scary, but do not be afraid. To preserve democracy, we must use democracy.
Morning dear Christine. It's lovely to see you as I sit in the car with my cat in an HEB store in Monterrey, MX while my husband picks up some cat food for Isaac the Cat (who is enjoying his road trip, I might add).😽
Among the dozen, I had a Siamese who found me when she took refuge in a school where I was participating in an exercise class. It was evening and no one would take her. I have loved all my cat family members, but that Siamese, she was really special. Siamese are known for their voices and I must admit, I love conversing with my cats.
While I could not speak cat, I once had a cat who had quite a vocabulary. The family was able to identify between 10-15 different meow intonations so we knew exactly what he was saying or what he wanted. (He had one particular meow for wanting to share a cheese stick!) It was uncanny. I have not had another one like that.
I have been reading your comments faithfully for over a year now, daria. Another cat lover, it warms my heart to read this. (I often enjoy the tiny personal tidbits my favorite commenters post) I have had the pleasure of being allowed to live in "my" home with a dozen cats......no, not all at once, over the span of 40 years. I now serve 4 demanding middle aged felines, I have yet to find any who enjoy car rides.
Miselle, thank you for your kind words. This is Isaac's 2nd pan American venture by car. He has a nice expandable soft crate which allows him movement While in the car. He particularly likes
We moved 6 cats from San Diego to Manchester, NH in a 7-day drive across the country. The first day they were quite until about hour 10 of the drive then meowing started. Each day after it started earlier. We would take them out of their crates one at a time and hold them and let them over around a little. There were always litter box stop though non would go. Each hotel room was cat proofed before we took them in including stuffing pillows in spaces so they couldn’t get under beds. By day 7 they were all screeching as soon as we got in the car. When we got to our final hotel 3 hours later one escaped into the hallway and ran down the halls like a wild thing set free. It was an experience I will never forget. Some of those cats lived on to move to Hawaii, Texas and back to California. They were big travelers.
Won't happen. He has painted the picture of the perfect boogie man, runs an emotional campaign, and ascribes all 'your problems' to the other. No thinking is required, just channel the anger. Easy, peasy nothing is faster than stupid. https://media.awakeningtowholeness.net/stupidproof-your-future/
“No worldview explains everything, so humans prioritize the things that need explaining most urgently. God was the most urgent issue in an age of faith. Science and technology are the most urgent things in an age of materialism. When something new becomes more urgent, worldviews change.
We are caught at the cusp of a change in worldview. The reset is emerging.”
It’s been commented earlier threads that the “most important” thing to people now, people of the “Social Information Age” is social identity. Professing your tribe affiliation takes precedence over whether your tribe is right or wrong. Social death is more critical than one’s physical death.
I think this fact about “social identity” has devolved the worldview's of many.
This is a fascinating thesis, Ted. Social media seeding a new era of tribalism, with -as you say - social media death being seen as psychologically equal to physical death, ie non-existence, the death of the ego. No wonder the lunatic right wing has such an exaggerated fixation on "cancel culture." "My tribe right or wrong" has replaced the conservative slogans of the Vietnam War era: "My country right or wrong" and "America, love it or leave it!" Evidently, from the 60's through the 90's, it was conservatives, most accustomed to identifying our country as their tribe and patriotism as the absolute membership requirement, who felt most increasingly disconnected and lost and deprived of their traditional ego-supporting identities and affiliations. They felt like it was "their" country/tribe and they thought _they_used to both control it and run it by _their_ norms and values. So all the positive social changes of the last 50 years feel to them like the rest of us "stole" their tribe. I think that's why Trump's fraudulent slogan "Stop the Steal" resonates so deeply with white conservatives. It's not just, or even mostly, the election that feels "stolen" to them. It's everything--their country, their tribe, their ability to fuse their identity with a country that looked like them--white, "Christian", socially conservative, patriarchal--and was run by their rules to benefit them and subordinate all others, keep them "in their place." No wonder "Stop the Steal!" lit them all on fire! Of course, Dumpster has no idea why it succeeds so brilliantly. But wow. If this thesis is accurate, where do qe liverals start, trying to create messaging and the believable, accessible _reality_ to go with it, to convince the less rabid of the MAGA crowd that they can have a place of pride and safety and security IN the new multicultural America where women, blacks, Jews, Muslims, and gays are all welcome members of the new tribe, deserving of the same rights and privileges as white, Christian, hetero men? ( Sorry I wrote such a long post. )
Sammy, I have said previously, this will be the fatal flaw of the Democrats. We watched 4 years of Trump and did little to nothing to preen candidates for 2024. We had all of this time to be proactive, yet we are reactive to what will be a cataclysmic disaster in 2024.
Linda, Florida Dems have had trouble fielding exciting candidates for quite awhile, although DeSantis' opponent in 2018 almost made it: Popular vote DeSantis 4,076,186 and Gillum 4,043,723. The party just isn't showing up. I'm hopeful that the Dem candidate for the Senate (Val Demings) will beat out Marco Rubio.
Sammy, I still have my Gillum sign in our garage. (Got hell in my Trumie neighborhood for it!!) Too bad he has had personal troubles and is discredited--he had promise.
I am backing Demings and hope against hope she can pull it off but South Florida may be a big factor. I guess Gwen Graham will never run again!! Charlie Crist is a waffler and Nicki Fried has little chance, I believe, to get traction. She is trying to be "the anti-Ron voice" in the State but her voice gets lost. We are in the hands of a "smarter" Trump.
Wonder what Ron will do in our next major hurricane when he will also need Federal money....he was all smiles with Biden the last time we needed Federal help here in FL. His extreme anti- vaxx efforts could do him in.
What will motivate the DGA? A wholesale attack by his private militia on Black people in a Democratic leaning town? It shouldn't come to that, but I wouldn't put it past him to do it!
Candidates have to feel supported to choose to run against a nasty frightening machine like DeSantis. Where are the people who will support a candidate? Busy attacking their own and whining because those willing to step up are not good enough
I think you just connected the dots with Rons paramilitary announcement. He is using it as both a dog whistle to summon his own Jan 6th ‘ers should he lose. And he will use this force to threaten and punish all opponents should he win.
Imagine 200 heavily armed deputized thugs showing up at the county elections board to “assist” in the counting of ballots, at school board meetings about “curriculum”, or at the Public Health Department to “secure” your right to spread disease. The threat of Intimidation to obstruct takes things to a new level of low.
Then the DGA better quit whining about their meager resources. What hogwash. And excuse me about the candidate pool. Both Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist are seasoned politicians.
What does it take to have an inspirational candidate pool? Why don’t they find that person and promote them heavily. Create messages that will appeal to the voters.
Good candidate…young and has a proven track record. She’s got to be forceful and forthright when it comes to dealing with DeSantis. Ron is loud without using a bullhorn and all he lacks is a Hitler salute.
I’ve already talked with some serious political strategists this morning who work mainly at local and state election levels. Consensus is that DeSantis has made a serious mistake with his militia announcement.
DeathSantis wants to be a Putin and looks like he wants to kill off as many people as he can via COVID (as a means of not taking responsibility for the deaths). What will help him to do that is that over 30% of Floridians are over 60 and we already know that being elderly is a risk factor for COVID death.
I wrote my state representatives this morning, asking what POSSIBLE reason desantis put forth when he floated the idea he needed his private gestapo. desantis wants millions of tax dollars for his own private militia? Say WHAT? And please, tell him NO.
The Republican Party has had no official policies for years. For the first time in my memory
The ‘Republican Party’ (which was the Trump party by time time of the 2020 nominating convention,) ‘chose’ not to include a policy platform in its formal proceedings. Instead, they acquiesced to Trump’s ‘policy by tweets.’ Nothing on our traditional alliances including NATO, nothing on our traditional alliances, including NATO, nothing on the Middle East, including the 6-nation nuclear agreement with Iran, nothing on economic, social, and infrastructure. NOTHING!
This remains the ‘Republican’ non-policy today and through the 2024 ‘Republican’ presidential convention. They haven’t a clue what they stand for as they await for Trumpimania to play out. Instead, they are intent on fear mongering and opposition to whatever the Democrats do. While President Biden and his professional team iare building an impressive portfolio of success domestically and globally, the ‘Republicans’ are a party of NYET. I believe that this makes them vulnerable in the 2022 elections and during their subsequent ‘stand for nothing’ mishmash.
When Eastman, Clark, and others plead the Fifth Amendment before a congressional committee, they exercise their constitutional right not to engage in self-incrimination. However, if they are granted partial or total immunity, they can then be obliged to testify fully or face criminal charges. Back during Watergate, when Jim McCord, John Dean, and Jed McGruder sought a deal with the prosecutors, the White House wall of take-no-prisoners resistance swiftly crumbled. In the grand jury investigations in New York, there is a possibility of the same occurring. I would not be surprised to see a save-my-own-skin decision by one or more of the Trumpites subpoenaed by congressional committees.
My apologies for repeating a clause in my commentary. Especially when a person writes with ‘hot blood,’ he/she should seek a more dispassionate individual to proofread the rough draft. Oh well, once again READY, FIRE, AIM.
Every time they ask those of us who have blogs here what we need, I always send that message, just like that, but they never seem to hear the screaming. :-)
You don’t have to apologize to me, I saw one minor typo (iare), it happens to me often, and I don’t write nearly as well as you do, I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Being impassioned is what our group is all about, if we weren’t, we wouldn’t take the time to express ourselves 👍🙏😎
Absolutely, we all make mistakes. I wish there was an edit function. One time I had so many errors I copied the comment, deleted it, edited the text on my phone, and reposted it!
"the ‘Republicans’ are a party of NYET. I believe that this makes them vulnerable in the 2022 elections and during their subsequent ‘stand for nothing’ mishmash"
Yeah, but . . . the metamorphosis from McConnell's party of no to Trump's party of nihilism doesn't seem to have hurt the GOP. Their message resonates and their voter suppression is almost insurmountable.
These points about socialism and communism cannot be made often enough, so thank you for this. FL Gov. DeSantis gets scarier by the day. He has no compassion for the unemployed; shows no concern for seniors, students, school employees or the public at large in implementing his disastrous Covid policies, and now wants to create his own private paramilitary group accountable only to him. He is seemingly a classic example of the rising autocratic ideology that is becoming much to prevalent and, in some cases, too powerful.
Some golfing friends and I (from the Boston area) are in Naples, FL for a couple of weeks and yes the weather is beautiful but the overlay of the dumbfounding politics is disturbing ..... some of that is not new. Pick up trucks with trump flags (and of course guns in the back window rack) are common and a scary lot. While on the golf course, we speak with impunity however, this is an open carry state and we avoid any political chat while out and about. That's how creepy it is. We are also among the very few who wear masks in a grocery store; a dead give away we're not from Florida!!
Former New England-uh :) but now in Florida many years….sigh. We are NOT an Open Carry state however it is legal to “open carry” if you’re hunting or fishing.
In my county on the opposite coast there was a guy ( calls himself the “Armed Fisherman”)who paraded up and down the causeway with his AR 15, Glock and fishing pole.I believe he does this all over the state.
Thanks for the correction regarding the FL statute on open carry. I was told by someone and I didn't verify the facts (which I usually do). Unfortunately, regulations rarely prevent people with intent from doing whatever they want. After-the-fact is too late with guns.
And, with the guy who walks around with a gun and fishing pole . . . yeesh! I always enjoy visiting FL but couldn't live here :) I thought with more "New England-uh" boomers moving south that perhaps the more progressive politics would follow . . . . Hang in there!
I’d like to see the day when all these Republican mini dictators (DeSantis, Abbott, Noem etc) begin to turn on each other in their blind ambition for power. Will they come together and back their ‘cause’ or will the eviscerate one another.
He has, in residence, a “general” in name only to head his paramilitary mish mash and plenty of trump train big wheel pickup trucks as tanks. Flynn and his proud boys (emphasize word boys) will be only too glad to be back in the military mix.
DeSantis ... and his minions ... get scarier by the day. A Dem win for Governor there in 2022 is an uphill battle. More of a mountain than a hill. We can only hope women will be pissed enough about the inevitable outcome of Roe to come out in huge numbers to vote. There is a very short window between the Dem primary and General election, making coalition building from the three campaigns another hurdle to victory.
Wait! You’re apologizing for a missing “O”!! And a lower case one at that!!!! I think we––that’s me included––are far too nit picky about our writing…along with suffering under the dictates of auto-correct!!! Most of us read right through these tiny typos and have no trouble understanding. We’ve got more than enough to be uptight about to worry about being perfectly proof-read.
These things are too important to grammar geeks. My level of "geek" was influenced by my two parents, who never permitted either slang or bad grammar in speech or writing.
As an FTO (Field Training Officer; one who teaches people how to become cops) I was always given the "difficult cases" when recruits did not express themselves well in writing. I learned from my FTO that my job as a cop was to take the incident that was being reported, and make sure that the "story" the victims' had was told in a way that accurately reflected what happened, establish the elements of the crime, and insure that the person reading the report from the sergeant who would approve it to the DA that would file charges could understand exactly what had happened.
Two vignettes: One recruit (a lateral hire whose penmanship was awful and used a style of reporting from his old agency that did not mesh with the department's "style") had passed field training, was out making decisions and working, but his reports were "not up to standard". I was tasked with being his "grammar coach". I immediately went out and bought three books on grammar so I could make some semblance of really "teaching grammar". We had this meeting, the "memo of instruction/correction" was read and initialed, and the Sergeant and Lieutenant left the room. The first thing I said was "you are fine. Your writing has a different cant, and they don't like it. I have your first assignment, which won't be documented, but it will show you how serious this situation is. He was ready to take notes. I gave him the memo and said "find the 11 grammatical, spelling or syntax errors in this 3/4 page memo. He found 13. The other was a guy who spent 12 years in the Marine Corps and had been with the department for just under 10 years in the corrections division. He was really struggling with his report writing; he could tell me the report he wanted to write, but couldn't write the report he wanted to write. He, like me, is dyslexic. I told him the tricks I had used, and asked him how he got around that in the Marines. He had a system that worked, and we devised something that fit for us (3 or 4 ways to say how a burglary occurred, or what elements of a crime were present.) He is now the patrol Lieutenant.
I like this story! Report writing, or any writing, is sometimes the hardest part of the job, especially in an age of quick emails or tweets. Part of my job was teaching social workers how to write court reports and to expand on the “just the facts” in order to give a complete picture of the family. The work was done, decisions were made, but putting it on paper just didn’t come easily to some.
Ha! You are absolutely right. As a bit of a “grammar geek,” yet a very imperfect one, I have to admit that I may be more self conscious responding to something HCR has written than to someone else. At least I didn’t mention the one comma that should have been a semicolon or the omitted word toward the end that would have made it flow better. Okay, so just maybe I’m more than a bit of a grammar geek. Thanks. You made me smile despite our political conundrum.
I grew up in the 50s, etc. loved Ike and thought most republicans were honorable brokers. However it appears that Ike was an anomaly. He certainly would piss on republicans today if he wasn’t stunned speechless that they are the same as the fascists that he fought in WW2. They may have pretended to sign on to parts of the FDR program, but there is plenty of evidence that that too was an anomaly. The Coup of 1933 (See Gen. Smedley Butler); FDR “We must be especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.” FDR: “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in it’s essence is racism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” HST: Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home-but not for housing. They are strong for labor-but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights. The favor minimum wage-the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all-but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine-for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing-but only when the private power companies get their own rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing-so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people. And they admire the government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it. Henry Wallace in 1944: American fascists claim to be super patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.” A. Stevenson: “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my republican friends…that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. I rest my case!
BTW, Majorie three names is really Marjorie Joe McCarthy. As has already been established, she has absolutely no shame.
"Henry Wallace in 1944: American fascists claim to be super patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”
“We must be especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
I guess that group was not so small after all.
And now, those men have found two or three key words and use them to scare people who were pushed into poverty by the very approaches that Republicans still routinely champion.
And I’m going to add here…. If Repubs were not so worried about losing the popular vote once again, they would not be so agitated in their voting restrictions and gerrymandering.
I would like to see criticism about the Democrats less on this forum and a groundswell of support for our less than perfect but always a works in progress Democracy rising to counter not specifically Republicans, but the attempt to replace it with autocracy.
Christine I’m inclined to believe that the GOP gave up on the popular vote when they fell in behind their dictator 5 or 6 years ago. That being why all that’s left for them is voter suppression and autocracy
Many thanks for this incredible post. I will use many parts of this in my writings and comments when I do my weekly excursion into the void at Fox Propaganda stations. Probably time for me to create a pseudonym for protection when I do this Stealth Angel work in that land of vociferous and vacant truth.
Jeri--Thanks for this thought-provoking collection. I would only add that Truman's whole speech is worth reading and pondering for its echoes. It was given in the 1948 campaign, which he was supposed to lose, amidst right-wing howls about economic disasters and creeping socialism at home. We could use a bunch of "Give 'em Hell" candidates today.
What are we going to do about gun violence in this country? WE WE WE, the people, what are we going to do about guns sales in this country? So what if a president cried about it? So what about the grieving families of the victims and the shooters? So what if I could fill this comment with information about suicides by guns -- shootings in the streets -- in the schools -- through the windows of homes... and fill another 100,000 comments with news and statistics about gun violence in the USA? What if elected representatives won't do anything about this? What about our children scared to death because they know that they could be shot dead at anytime?
Terrorism is a fitting charge in this Michigan case. Over 50 Michigan schools closed because the kids are scared. The killer’s parents on the lamb, because they are guilty of aiding, abetting, and indifferent to the murders. And all for what? So a minority can live out their end of days apocalyptic fantasies by stockpiling guns and ammo, buying Even more guns for their kids of questionable sanity? How much more do we need to know? how much can we endure? How many more parents need to suffer? It’s not just the “infrastructure” that is crumbling in this country.
unreal, these two imbeciles, warned of the actions of their child, refusing to remove him from the school...who the hell are these people? They bought him the gun.
… and his Mother bragged about buying it for him as an early Christmas gift. That’s who we are now, where we are as a country. The only nation to normalize child on child murder by gun violence.
Read The People of the Lie, but M. Scott Peck. He relates a tale of a young man who committed suicide with a gun. When victim's little brother's birthday came around, the parents gave him a gun. The same gun. They were relieved of their responsibilities by state action -- as I recall before any tragedy ensued -- but when questioned why they had done this, the father said, "It was a perfectly good gun."
I'm "quoting from memory," and it's been years since I read the book, so forgive me any inaccuracies in the details. I think I got the gist of it right.
The point being, there are some truly evil people out there. And the worst of them don't seem to realize how evil they are.
I have investigated a fairly substantial number of suicides by firearm. Universally (I cannot recall, off hand, a single incident in exception) the family wanted NOTHING TO DO with the firearm EVER AGAIN.
There is something deeply wrong with those parents.
I have an acquaintance whose 18 y/o child chose suicide by his handgun. I know his reasons for having one, he was an independent tradesman who often worked in crime ridden areas and feared for his tools and his life when in these areas. He was/continues to be a very broken man.
Careful, you might get hit with a class-action suit by Imbeciles Disunified. I think the description that’s more fitting is “criminal”. They bought their 15-year-old son, not just any old firearm…they purchased a HANDGUN for their little darlin’! “Nothing says Love like a pistol in your Christmas stocking”. I understand they’re out of the running for “Parents of the Year”!
Some interesting tidbits from other threads yesterday. One was a discussion of the Kip Kinkle case here in Oregon where his parents, particularly his father, could not accept he was mentally ill. So they stopped his meds and therapy and even more stupid, bought him a gun. He repaid them by killing them and went off to his school in Springfield to shoot a few others. I remember exactly where we were when we heard this news. Everyone was glad that the parents are being charged and one person with inside knowledge suggested victims in this case should have sued the parents' estate.
Then from a current teacher here in Oregon. He was livid about the school authorities because here in Oregon the school is custodial and can search a backpack. He also said the school authorities should be fired immediately.
I would say that the whole of societal structure is crumbling. So many places we would not go, even without COVID, because people are rude and so many of them are in your face. They do this because they know that most of it is without real consequence, but little by little it erodes.
The saddest thing for me, over a long life, is watching so many awesome people work to build and make a better world, and then watching the destroyers some along and, in a flash, as Bannon said, destroy the administrative state. Even worse, they are cheered by the “bystanders” and wannabe destroyers.
I agree. It only took four years of death star donny and all his minions and their eroding corruption to do it completely. I also blame St RayGun for getting some of this underway.
Has been in the works for decades, another quote if I may. From the St Louis Post Dispatch, Mar 17, 1985. “‘conservative Revolution’ Will Alter All Policies…”. Lewis Lehrman headed the Citizens for America, a grassroots conservative movement, and lobbying mouth-piece for Reagan. “We are at the very beginning of this conservative revolution… we’re not even in the middle of it… Our economic, our social, our international policies are going to be altered in every significant aspect. The President hasn’t even begun the program of constitutional reform and the change in social policy.” But the dye was cast. I googled Lehrman, he was still alive. I wonder if this “GOP” was what he had in mind…
It has taken longer, but it is devastating to those of us who have given so much to try to make this a better world by working with children, families and communities. I could have been self-absorbed and focused on making money, go live in a house on the beach and f the world. But, I would not do anything differently. Thank goodness the majority of people are caring and loving...and hopefully not brainwashed...because we have a lot of work to do, still. And we have some blueprints established but we need to create some better ones for these new times.
When there was no white hot raging howl across the nation that shook the foundation of Washington with demands for change when children were slaughtered at Sandy Hook, I lost faith in Americans. Yesterday I read a post regarding the death of Tate Myer that ¨At least his parents know he was a good kid.¨ Enraged, I replied, ¨Shame on you.¨ Her rebuttal was, ¨Fuck you.¨ The disconnect in all areas of Americans grows daily. The ignorance seems to grow daily. More and more, I believe that the best solution is to allow the red states to go their own way. Let them have guns. Let them die from diseases. Let them be ruled by tyrants. Just keep them out of my life
I saw a meme yesterday that absolutely illustrated that. Two kids, hiding under desks in a classroom, while an armed person was outside the door. Kid #1 says to kid #2 "My parents think wearing a mask will stifle me."
This is why I say this will come to war. These people will not lie down behind their walls and die. They will come out to kill, conquer, and -- yes -- enslave.
They finally see a win after decades of having to hide their evil. Emboldened and gaining power every day. Wish I could see something that would reverse this.
That said, I've been self-censoring my comments quite a bit as unhelpful, and this one slipped through. Probably had to do with getting my COVID booster. I've noticed that one of the first things to go when I start feeling that immune-response "under-the-weather" feeling is that I get grumpy.
No reason to apologize. I just didn't understand your comment, and I usually appreciate your positions and the way you express yourself. I hope you feeling in-the-weather now and that it is pleasant. Salud!
I am a strongly visual and intuitive person. I always trust my intuition to take me someplace interesting: I do NOT trust it to always be right.
At the risk of oversharing, I'll give an example from just this last week: I had a long discussion with a fellow software developer regarding a thing I won't describe in detail, but it is quite complex. As we were discussing it, I was visualizing the problem, and I "saw" a conflict. He did not see it: he is a very verbal/sequential person, and we were writing the specification, so the words weren't complete. It took me a full day to come up with a proper visualization, render it, and share it, and then I had to explain it in words, and FINALLY, he understood what the problem was. We could then resolve it.
Just a short time after that, I intuited an extremely elegant way to solve a different part of the problem, and after several hours of wrestling with it, I gave up and called it a day.
Then I laughed as I poured myself a glass of wine, because I suddenly remembered an abstract algebra course I had taken more than forty years ago, and something called the Axiom of Choice, and the difference between distance metrics and ordering, and (of course) I saw a visual image: a circle representing all the complex numbers of a fixed absolute magnitude, and its relationship to the Gödel Incompleteness Theorem, all of which came together to say that the solution I'd spent a day on was either intractable, or its full solution was Nobel Prize level work. Which is WAY outside the scope of the damn problem I needed to solve, and it was time to enjoy the wine and start over the next day with duct tape and baling-wire solutions.
This is just how my brain works. And this is the most self-disclosure about that process I've ever made in my life.
When I say I "see" something coming -- something in the future -- I'm referring to intuition and visualization, of course. I don't know how to rigorously verify it, the way I do with software, other than waiting to see what actually happens (or doesn't).
The US is not currently engaged in open civic warfare, so I cannot (of course) literally "see" that happening: it ISN'T happening. What I do "see" is an alignment of ... forces? trajectories? trends? attitudes? My intuition, and my limited knowledge of economics, history, human behavior, and what we have been discussing on this site for however many months, is telling me that open conflict is coming.
I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I can certainly say that I wish I didn't see/intuit what I see.
Not yet, but expect to be better by tomorrow, based on past experience. Though as stock-market salesmen always say, "Past performance is no guarantee of future performance."
I was responding to Gailee, who was suggesting that the Red states should "go their own way" and rot. I.e., Balkanization along state lines. Some would fail, as states, and in failing, would come to the point of raiding other better-off-states to improve their own lot. War.
My saying anything doesn't make it happen. I'm just observing.
Nothing. We can and will do nothing because the people running the gun industry have a supernatural choke hold on the American people. Many of our legislators don't give a damn and those who do aren't able to muster enough bipartisan support to change the 2nd amendment and curtail the overreach of gun and ammo manufacturers and lobbyists.
I'd like to say that people will rise up the way they did with drunk driving – think MADD. But wouldn't you agree that the unfortunate number of deadly mass shooting events in the US is not seen in any other sane, developed country? Our stance on guns more resemble that of a developing nation run primarily by thugs and warlords. And wouldn't you say that our country, born and bred of violence and with a passion for gunning down the other, has driven the narrative for centuries? Think of the cowboys and Indians; slave owners against slaves;Street gangs; the make my day middle aged father of 4? Do you really think the gun owning public wants that kind of power to be taken from them?
All of our tears and pleas fall on deaf ears. All of the broken hearts mean nothing to those who control the narrative. Our dead beloved are of no consequence to an industry that revels in death.
Wow, Daria! A rather depressing post, and unfortunately quite true. The parents of Ethan Crumbly bought him a semi-automatic revolver! What did they think he would do with it? I'm glad they are being prosecuted. These school shootings begin at home.
There is an equivalent to MADD and they have done some amazing work. They are up against 70 some million uzi toting wannabe fascists. They need all the help folks are willing to give. https://momsdemandaction.org/about/
This shooting struck too close to home. My next door neighbor's 3 kids graduated from Oxford High School. This was totally preventable with the information we now know the school had. After his drawing of the gun (a cry for help?), and before he became "The Shooter", Ethan Crumbley should have been immediately referred to a Community Health ACT Team, with a home visit made by police, and parents evaluated for fitness by Protective Services.
MaryPat, I will be with you in the following days. Please stop by whenever you like. Tomorrow, I will simply spend a quiet hour open to whatever enters my mind. Rest well.
I have missed you greatly as we go through this violence, social disruption and disorder. I wish we were in our church or shelter or assembly of love together. Peace MaryPat, may we find it
The pain this causes is at the core. We have to keep looking for approaches. Using the example of the parents of the young Michigan shooter; what can happen by working harder with schools and with police departments? What about portraying the shooters, not only the mass killers but the ones on streets and in homes -- who are they, what's the profile; people with the type of problems you don't want to act on or want to be one of them. We need campaigns crafted by Hollywood's and Ad business's best. Spots all over the place, including social media. Dramatic stuff not boring 'do-gooder' gun control lectures. Dramatic stuff that shoots straighter than a gun.
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
- Karl Marx: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
We could say: the American revolution is our history; the Civil War is our tragedy: and the ReaganTrump sedition is our farce - but truly the Republican regnum is tragedy all the way.
As with Walter Benjamin's comment on the angel of history: Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.
The Republican party of god, guns, and greed is instituting a dystopia of apocalyptic irrationality, unregulated violence, and unconscionable greed, which threatens our democratic nation, our most vulnerable neighbors, and our fragile planet.
Sometimes I must recall that despair is another form of voter suppression which only serves the GOP - its plutocrat paymasters and populist puppets. And there is too much work to be done.
He already has his proud boys. Plenty waiting to apply for his militia. I can only imagine what their path will be. I can almost guarantee that retired disgraced gen Flynn will be their leader. Since he resides here now. This plan has been in place for awhile. It’s only since the former lost that their presence has been visible as “bodyguards” and the proliferation of menacing trump train trucks.
'I Was the Governor of Montana. My Fellow Democrats, You Need to Get Out of the City More.'
Excerpts follow from Steve Bullock's Opinion in today's New York Times. He has important advice for the Democratic Party, will it listen?
'The warning signs were already there in 2020 when Democrats fell short in congressional and state races despite electing Joe Biden president. I know because I was on the ballot for U.S. Senate and lost. In the last decade and a half, we’ve seen Senate seats flip red in Arkansas, Indiana, North Dakota, and more. Democrats have lost more than 900 state legislative seats around the country since 2008. And in this year’s governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, we saw the Democratic vote in rural areas plummet, costing the party one seat and nearly losing us the other. It was even worse for Democrats down ballot, as Democrats lost state legislative, county, and municipal seats.'
'The core problem is a familiar one — Democrats are out of touch with the needs of the ordinary voter. In 2021, voters watched Congress debate for months the cost of an infrastructure bill while holding a social spending bill hostage. Both measures contain policies that address the challenges Americans across the country face. Yet to anyone outside the Beltway, the infighting and procedural brinkmanship haven’t done a lick to meet their needs at a moment of health challenges, inflation and economic struggles. You had Democrats fighting Democrats, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, and desperately needed progress was delayed. It’s no wonder rural voters think Democrats are not focused on helping them.'
'It’s never easy for Democrats to get elected in Montana, because Democrats here are running against not only the opponent on the ballot, but also against conservative media’s (and at times our own) typecast of the national Democratic brand: coastal, overly educated, elitist, judgmental, socialist — a bundle of identity groups and interests lacking any shared principles. The problem isn’t the candidates we nominate. It’s the perception of the party we belong to.'
'To overcome these obstacles, Democrats need to show up, listen, and respect voters in rural America by finding common ground instead of talking down to them. Eliminating student loans isn’t a top-of-mind matter for the two-thirds of Americans lacking a college degree. Being told that climate change is the most critical issue our nation faces rings hollow if you’re struggling to make it to the end of the month. And the most insulting thing is being told what your self-interest should be.'
That is one reason why the Republican policy of no policy is working. Fewer people are offended by nothing. The issues facing rural and poor Americans need to be sussed out and addressed by Democrats - mainly at the local and state levels but at the national level too. This has been the case for years. The key is respectful listening. Sharrod Brown is actually pretty good at this.
I love Sharrod Brown. I don’t know much about Bullock but I’m not impressed. Part of the leadership role is to help people to get where they want and need to be to succeed. Jayapal worked her ass off trying to get us all the good things we need to make our lives work for us. The GOP wants to label those things communism. If Bullock wants to help Dems why isn’t he doing more to explain that to the rural red people that look up to him instead of blaming leadership for trying to get more water out of the rocks of Manchin and Sinema??? I see Bullock as just more of what’s wrong rather than any help at all. And I’m angry that people who claim to want a democracy can’t support the people doing their very best to save it right now. So many people whining about Dems for this or that when we should be celebrating all the good stuff they’re bringing and holding them up.
'I don't know much about Bullock but I'm not impressed.' Following the logic of comment, if you don't know much about him, why do you fault him? You don't know what he has and is doing or what his record was in Montana. Did you try to find out? What about the fault he finds with the Democratic Party, including its absence in rural America and its record of loses there?
All I know about him is what I read in the piece you linked, and I’m not impressed either. In his piece, he starts by criticizing Dems for being out of touch with the rural voter and for the time it took to negotiate the infrastructure bill. He says Dems are out of touch with what the rural voter needs. In the middle he talks a lot about how good he himself is at explaining policy to his rural state (although he lost his own election). Then, he ends his piece by praising Dems for passing a bill that answers critical needs of the rural populace. There isn’t much consistency in this piece, and he sounds like he doesn’t understand how legislation gets negotiated. I do think there are some nuggets of good ideas in there, though. So, I’m not impressed either. I do like Sherrod Brown; he’s my senator.
Thanks Kathy for your criticism of Bullock's Opinion and glad you found some 'nuggets' in it. I've posted several links to good articles about the Democratic Party's failure in rural America. If you scroll down a little, you see them.
I hear you, Fern. What do you think of the notion that it’s not Democratic policies that fail rural America, but rather a combination of an inability to explain those policies and relentless Fox News lying? Jeri Chilcut (sp?) made an excellent post below with some truly pithy one liners that express my ideas way better than I ever could. It seems to me that it’s a messaging problem, not a policy problem. I’m interested in what you think?
Christy, There is a lot of fault to find with the Democratic Party. Its lack of support for the working class as the Reagan and the Republican Party were doing all that could to destroy the Unions... there are books about the war on labor, the anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-regulations movements. I didn't think that you answered the questions. I respect your different POV. Isn't it worthwhile to raise questions with one another? The point is not to stifle one another but flesh out what we know and expand our understanding. One of our differences, Christy, is that I think that the Democratic Party needs to listen to Bullock and others who can help it get where it needs to go.
'Aside from the presidency, the 2020 election results were deeply disappointing for Democrats. While the blows were geographically dispersed from Maine to Montana, many shared a common feature: underperforming in rural areas. This failure obviously limits Democrats’ ability to pursue their agenda, but more importantly, it’s also a problem for the health of the American political system because the increasing urban-rural divide is a prime source of polarization.'(niskanen center) See link below.
Born, raised and always lived in rural red America. I hear why my neighbors voted for Susan Collins regularly. I have a front row seat. I have multiple care taking roles & activist activities, but I take a little time to relax reading HCR. (Sometimes too much time) One thing that frustrates the rural red is the challenge of matching the highly educated in debate skills. So voices and opinions are squashed and frustration and anger ensues. Fox is on 24/7. From my POV highly educated, well spoken, city dwelling libs should stop blaming democratic leadership. I see people doing their best and working their asses off in the trenches, never getting the credit. So, just like our current healthcare system, who wants that job anymore? Yup, we eat our own. MSM and pundits are the worst.
Jobs. Schools. Roads. Wi-Fi. These are now secondary. Democracy isn’t even a top 10 on their list.
Primary concern now is social group identity. Tribe affiliation and nothing else. Thinking about the tribal worldview has me at a creative thinking wall.
For the first time since Bill Clinton said it, “it’s the economy stupid”, won’t be enough in the next election. Worldviews are that powerful.
Ted, I’ve missed you. It’s good to see you here again. There was an earlier discussion about the definition of “tribe”. I did not chime in at the time, but felt good points were raised. “A social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.”
It’s taken on such a negative connotation of late when perhaps it’s originally meant to describe simply a larger family group or community in particularly among indigenous peoples.
Ted, I’m not trying to speak for indigenous peoples, but just trying to throw up some caution about how the repetitive use of a word over time can come to change it’s meaning and creating an awareness around that
'The core problem is a familiar one — Democrats are out of touch with the needs of the ordinary voter.’
This is rubbish and both you and Bullock, go on to say BBB is what voters want, making this sentence rhetoric.
‘In 2021, voters watched Congress debate for months the cost of an infrastructure bill while holding a social spending bill hostage. Both measures contain policies that address the challenges Americans across the country face. Yet to anyone outside the Beltway, the infighting and procedural brinkmanship haven’t done a lick to meet their needs at a moment of health challenges, inflation and economic struggles. You had Democrats fighting Democrats, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, and desperately needed progress was delayed. It’s no wonder rural voters think Democrats are not focused on helping them.'
This is what a true democracy actually looks like when parties are divided they work to find common ground and we should be celebrating this work. Bullock is BS on this and again I say it is rhetoric to lift himself up as better than. Why can’t he be a leader and educate constituents on how democracy is supposed to work because obviously most of us missed civics class as well as US History.
Christy, exactly! Bullock lost his election. His advice here is empty pabulum. Democrats have delivered far more for red-state voters, going back to Obama, than Republicans have. The real problem is that red-state voters don’t know that. Bullock would probably say that Dems aren’t getting their message to these voters, but that’s not Dems’ fault (nor can they fix it). It’s a voter’s responsibility to be well-informed and engaged. That Republican voters are misinformed, and unreachable, is a result of the evil genius of Roger Ailes. He built Fox News as a right-wing propaganda machine (which he freely admitted many times) to craft and control the information that his audience receives. Tucker Carlson (and his brethren) tell red-state voters what to believe and what to think. And red-state voters drink it up. If I had a chance to ask Bullock one question, it would be “how do you get around Tucker Carlson?” I doubt he’d have a plausible answer.
Right and instead of painting doom and gloom why isn’t he trying to get what support he does have excited about what Dems are doing to ensure they get to the polls this Fall. Hard to believe people like this don’t have ulterior motives
In Minnesota didn't Hubert Humphry run under the label of the Farmer-Labor Party, rather than call himself a Democrat? Minnesota Democrats recognized the need for that kind of packaging.
“two-thirds of Americans lacking a college degree.”
This is both the problem and the window of opportunity for new communication strategies. Think of a PHD engineer speaking to a concrete foreman about how to pour a foundation. The differences in education level create more dissonance.
Someplace on here earlier today I pointed out that the focus on issues the Dems are pushing just drives the Party further away from the middle class. That engineer knows what he is talking about, but the foreman is just interested in results he can see. But their stopping to discuss how to pour concrete doesn't get the structure built! The real task is to defeat Republicans, in any elective office, who don't want the structure built in the first place.
Of course. But once both the engineer and the foreman agree on the correct way to pour concrete, stopping to discuss it further just delays the project.
Agreed and as I said elsewhere, who ends up being angry ad frustrated in that situation. Knowledge and the ability to communicate well are empowering. The lack of those two things is VERY disempowering and very often flaunted by those that hold that power
Bullock criticizes Democrats for being “overly educated”. I’ll let that sink in for a second. Apparently red state voters prefer anti-vaxxers, conspiracy mongers and Qanon quacks to candidates with college degrees and an understanding of science, economics and history. Reading between the lines, Bullock’s saying, “Come on Dems, you gotta dumb it down”. There are plenty of examples of Republican pols with Ivy League pedigrees (Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton) who can bring the stupid to win votes. Democrats’ problem seems to be that they assume rural voters are intelligent and well-informed. Oh well.
JR, I didn't read the Bullock criticized Democrats for being 'over educated' but stated that it was a label given to Ds by the Republican Party. He centered the Opinion on the 'economy stupid'. The Party's need to be in rural areas and to listen to the people. I couldn't find the quote you used “Come on Dems, you gotta dumb it down”, which you attributed to him. Were we reading different Opinion pieces?
When you say Democrats, I hope you are speaking of voters and not just leadership/politicians. I am close to many people in rural red America who don’t have a college education but are very gifted in intelligence. So many highly educated are perceived to look down their noses at the non-college educated who may lack specific book learning or communication strategies, but have special intelligence that comes from their life experiences.
Not only do they have special intelligence but schools in red states have historically had high graduation rates and excellent higher learning institutions. Perception needs to be changed by Democrats showing up and listening.
Fern, We’re reading the same piece (I had read it yesterday in the NYT). Bullock is critiquing Democrats based on perceptions created by Republicans and right-wing media. You can’t win the argument by shouting back, “I’m not a communist”. Democrats can’t, and shouldn’t, base their platform or their campaigns on the false perceptions that Republicans fabricate. If we do, we’ll be chasing our tails forever. Bullock lost his election, my guess is he tried all of the things he says Dems should do. They didn’t work. The problem is that reason and dialogue and policies won’t reach red state voters. Republicans have screwed over their base for a couple of decades now, waving guns and bibles with one hand whilst stabbing them in the back with the other, all to benefit their wealthy patrons. Democrats have been delivering real policies and benefits to those same red-state voters. Biden was elected because he’s a “lunch pail” regular Joe politician that understands white, working class voters. All Biden has done in his first year is pass Covid relief with enhanced unemployment and family support, pass an infrastructure bill that delivers hundreds of billions $$ in needed public investment to red-state voters, and craft the BBB bill that will also primarily benefit working class and middle class voters. Those are real, significant benefits for red-state voters, and the fact that Republicans opposed all three, should convince the whiny “neglected” red-state voters that Democrats are the party working for them. If red-state voters were voting their interests, they'd be voting for Dems in a landslide. Fact is, red-state voters don’t know what’s good for them. They’re so easily distracted by conspiracy mongers and frauds who shout about Qanon and “socialism” and guns and Jesus. There is nothing Dems can do to make red-state voters smarter or better informed. It’s a lost cause.
We have come away with very different readings of Bulloch's Opinion. Did you find any of the direct quotes in his Opinion that you appeared to attribute to him? There are several good and recent articles about the Democratic Party's failure to attract rural voters, which has only gotten worse. I posted a few links for the articles to Christy. I don't blame the voters for these problems. You and I seem far apart in our opinions about the Democratic Party and my time is short now, so, perhaps, we'll have a richer exchange about this another time. Salud!
Fern, I am not disagreeing with Bullock’s point that Dems are not attracting red-state voters. Of course they’re not. I’m disagreeing with the implication that this is Democrats’ fault, and that they can do something about it. Red-state voters are, by and large, unreachable. Shut off in a right-wing media silo, fed misinformation, paying fealty to a political party that is ruining their lives. Take just one example - Covid health policies. There is overwhelming evidence that failing to wear masks and not getting vaccinated lead to severe sickness and death. The current surge in hospitalizations and deaths are overwhelmingly a red state (red county, really) problem. Biden and his administration have done everything that Bullock suggests to reach red-state voters and get them to do sensible things to save their own lives. They refuse. Why? Because they choose to listen to Tucker Carlson and Ron DeSantis and Margery Taylor Greene and Ted Cruz. Red-state voters are getting sick and dying. That is their own damn fault. They’re dying because of whom they’ve chosen to trust and to listen to. Dems can’t do a thing about it, but at least they’re trying.
What a Letter today!!! McConnell stating that the Republiqan Party has no platform but for what their eventual "leader" will tell them they will have is one thing. Their platform is indeed that of culture wars. Tim Ryan calling out the Republiqans by saying "“What you’re seeing here before the United States Congress is two clear, different visions of America and where we want to go and what we want to do"". Then the historical context, from Reconstruction to where Reagan and Gingrich took us. Then the exercise of 5th Amendment Privilege by those who realized that there could be some criminal culpability for their actions leading up to 6 January and what that might mean. The scary thing is what the Floriduh governor wants to do; have is own militia that is loyal to him. I do believe that this may be a harbinger of things to come.
Thanks, as always, to the LFAA community for the other conversations this morning.
Back when you could comment on Yahoo.com news, I would sometimes post something that was totally apolitical. I would say something along the line of: there is no perfect candidate. Before voting, go to the OFFICIAL website of the candidates, read their platforms, and decide what issues are the most critical to you and find the candidate who best fits your desires in a candidate. Ignore the junk mail that floods your mailbox, ignore anything you read on social media. I'd say NOTHING about a particular candidate or party. Just this advice for voting.
It was amazing the NASTY replies I'd get!! And you could look at each commenter's prior post history. I swear I'm telling the truth--I did this dozens of times and every.single.time it was a GQP or tfg cultist. Every time.
I had someone on a tweet from my county supervisor yesterday tell me to “calm down” when I asked for facts instead of hateful rhetoric. There’s a plan to raise taxes on how many miles you drive. It hasn’t been voted on and I’ve asked 3 previous times in emails and tweets if the public will get to vote on this proposal. Silence from the supervisor but he responded in agreement to a hateful comment with no validity. I said he wasn’t representing me by not providing facts or answering questions. He finally answered and said yes we would get to vote in 2022. He’s been selling this as something that was already set in stone and would be implemented.
The same person telling me to calm down proceeded to tell me how hard it was for him to be a lonely Republican amongst Democrats and we should want a balance of sides. I replied that I’m not going to vote for him for a balance and it didn’t matter what his political party was, it’s his job to provide facts and represent his entire district. I would call out any party for misinformation. He’s an alarmist and fear mongerer.
This person is new in the comments section in the last week or so and I think he works for the supervisor.
When I look at comments in various articles it is true that 99.9% of the right wing comments are angry, devoid of fact, childish repeating FOX propaganda.
The left wing will be 50-50. There still many many people who do not deal in facts but only want to fight the bi-partisan battle over and over. The meager rest will talk facts and information backed by citations.
“ Clark tried to involve the Justice Department itself in overruling the results of the 2020 election. Today he announced that he has a medical condition that will not allow him to testify before the January 6th committee tomorrow as planned.”
Jeffery Clark has a “medical condition”, it’s nots so rare, a common side effect from exposure to demagoguery. He’s Suffering from both an acute cranial/rectal inversion, compounded by a self inflicted testicularectomy, the syndrome presents first as a total loss of moral courage, and progresses to uncontrolled dishonesty, and ends with district orange or striped suits behind bars.
"Socialism is a system of government in which the means of production are owned by the government and, through the government—theoretically—by the people. Communism is the final stage of that form of social organization. It abolishes private ownership of land, farms, and factories, giving control of all those things to the state, which, in turn, provides everyone with jobs, housing, education, and medical care."
How pathetic that people who are so-called leaders of these United States -- in the guise of senators and representatives belonging to the party of the Grand Old Phonies -- don't have a clue about the definitions of the terms communism and socialism! They bandy these ideological labels around like swear words, hoping they will stick to the Democrats like stigmas of dishonor. They have no clue how uneducated they sound!
I believe the term for this ignorance is called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. MTG, Gosar, and Boebert are classic examples of people whose cognitive ability is too low for them to even comprehend their own stupidity.
"... the truth is that the Dunning-Kruger effect affects everyone, including you. No one can claim expertise in every domain. You might be an expert in a number of areas and still have significant knowledge gaps in other areas.
Moreover, the Dunning-Kruger effect isn’t a sign of low intelligence. Smart people also experience this phenomenon."
"As Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
"Low performers are unable to recognize the skill and competence levels of other people, which is part of the reason why they consistently view themselves as better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than others."
"As Dunning has suggested, the very trouble with ignorance is that it can feel just like expertise."
"The reality is that everyone is susceptible to this phenomenon, and in fact, most of us probably experience it with surprising regularity."
"The Dunning-Kruger effect is not synonymous with low IQ. As awareness of the term has increased, its misapplication as a synonym for "stupid" has also grown. It is, after all, easy to judge others and believe that such things simply do not apply to you."
"While it may be easier to recognize the phenomenon in others, it is important to remember that it is something that impacts everyone. By understanding the underlying causes that contribute to this psychological bias, you might be better able to spot these tendencies in yourself and find ways to overcome them."
"... the effect isn't spotted only among incompetent individuals; most people have weak points where the bias can take hold. It also applies to people with a seemingly solid knowledge base: Individuals rating as high as the 80th percentile for a skill have still been found to overestimate their ability to some degree.
This tendency may occur because gaining a small amount of knowledge in an area about which one was previously ignorant can make people feel as though they’re suddenly virtual experts. Only after continuing to explore a topic do they realize how extensive it is and how much they still have to master."
"The Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that when we don’t know something, we aren’t aware of our own lack of knowledge. In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know."
Not at all Ellen, I never heard of it before you mentioned it. That is why I took the time to drum up some commentary to see if my own response had any legitimacy. There is much more to add that I did not quote here - I don't have time to run it down. And frankly, I am not a big fan of those folks you have profiled in this context. I feel their lack of depth perception and conscience is disturbing and dangerous, and doubtless, they qualify for this diagnosis. Seriously. However, I would not frame their mentality as "stupid" any more than I would consider some highly educated people to be anything other than full of their own well heeled intellectuality, blind to their own deficit of honest intelligence - a quality I would recognize as open minded curiosity and a non-judgmental willingness to learn.
... they already exist - only paid for out of pocket by the feckless leaders - the difference here would be paid for by the government ... how? Tax Dem-rats - what else?!
When you've rinsed your mouth out, remember THIS GUY WANTS TO BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT! It's a steep uphill climb through heavily gerrymandering districts to get a Dem elected governor of Florida. And when the dust settles on the primary, a short runway to the general election. If there was ever a need for Dems to rally around an out of state election, this is it.
We are keeping tabs on Florida and will donate to whomever takes this monster on in the general. When I think of DeSantis as president, vomit doesn't even come close to how he would be.
Let’s coin a new phrase: “junk Politics.” Like junk food and junk bonds. Cheap and addictive. Engineered to taste good but offering no nutrition. Junk Politics stimulates addictive receptors in the brain - particularly the reptilian brain - that drown out higher powers of thought and reasoning. Purveyors of Junk Politics stir up emotions that offer a kind of emotional gratification while dooming their consumers to ultimate enslavement as their health deteriorates and they become unable to distinguish what’s good for them from what they are addicted to. We stood up against the tobacco companies and held them accountable. Can we defeat Junk Politics? Part of defeating an evil is by naming it for what it is. Democrats need catchy phrases like “fake news.” Why not “Junk Politics!”
Excellent. Thanks for this. I will borrow your phrase junk politics.
I don't own a television and the radio is broken in my car. Whenever I get around these 2 mediums I am stunned by the mind numbing noise, the invasive barrage of commercials and the contorted faces of so many commentators who are talking too loudly. Junk politics and rampant consumerism reign over our airwaves. The reporters are definitely pushing junk politics.
Lest I live in a bubble one of the places I check in is the Washington Post articles. This is there where I see the right wing trolls. They keep repeating the FOX mantras. And the Post keeps repeating the anti-Biden, false narratives, hyperbole headlines junk politics every day.
I'll scan the news headlines of FOX. Whew! They are truly another Universe.
I believe folks have been seduced into thinking CNN, NBC, New York Times etc. were giving us the big picture. Plus most of the people I work with could care less about what is happening to Democracy right now anyway.
I so agree about the shouting heads! I refer to them as used car salesmen (a really old stereotype). Why would you buy anything from someone who is talking fast & shouting?
Because in your youngest years that’s all you knew and it remains what feels safest to you now when the world around you is coming apart at the seams
And for positive phrasing how about a Democratic mantra- “Invest in America” to counter the “socialist” frame and recall the “we are in this together” FDR era?
Yes even better!
I’d rather be a democrat-socialist than a wack-a-doodle Fascist Trumpanzee.
Trumpanzee — nice!
Here is an excellent article from Dana Millbank:
"Opinion: The media treats Biden as badly as — or worse than — Trump. Here’s proof."
Washington Post, Dana Millbank. I give up on links.
Also to be fair. Millbank and Rubin and in the Washington Post are not junk reporters.
Hi Barbara, My post wasn't so much about the news and the many excellent commentators. It was about the politicians on the right who are selling disinformation, lies, and authoritariansim. Junk. Toxic, dangerous junk!
Understood. My point is that the media is perpetuating the rhetoric and lies of the politicians. So junk politics=junk media.
And I believe there are many many excellent and ethical journalists today. The problem is they are being drowned out.
I agree. Milbank, Rubin, and Sargent are excellent and provide context in their opinion columns that the supposed "reporters" refuse to do.
Yes, Fox, et al are certainly junk media. Or maybe more like "toxic media." And for sure many excellent, ethical responsible journalists and writers out there are doing the best they can. We Dems need to take the "catch phrase" offensive and "Junk Politics" has a ring to it. Let's use this and any other simple phrases we can come up with to counter Trump's undeniable genius for coining simple minded but compelling language.
Ok then. Let's use toxic media and junk politics. What do you think? You have created the brand name for a movement Ned.
Not reporters at all — opinion writers. Period.
Unfortunately the slanted articles are not always labeled as opinion and are not in the opinion section. WaPo often has their headline piece as a hyperbolic headline against Biden.
Hmmm. Fair point.
An excellent phrase! I'll use it. We Democrats definitely need catchy, vivid phrases and themes. The voters we need to deprogram don't respond to big words, data, and reasoned treatises.
Amen, Elizabeth!
Genius! Labeling has become so popular in politics and people don’t seem to want to be fully informed so “junk politics” a great phrase let’s use it!
Repugs have been weaponizing words since “the great communicator” linked “liberal” with negativity. They repeat and repeat until their message becomes cliché and no one questions what is meant. Democrats need to use humor and semiotics to put a wrench in this process and force people to consider their contradictions. It’s not just labeling. It has become known as “weaponized flak”. It is the basis of the Mercer’s Cambridge Analytica/aka Emeradata—targeting susceptible groups with a propagandized message.
EXCELLENT POST!! I will use this term. Thank you!
GOP: Bringing you Junk Politics for 40 years
This is not “ junk”. We are fighting for our future and that of our grandchildren. We are in a civil war. I think we oughtto avoid any kind of dismissive language that implies this is not deadly serious
What Cigarette Do You Smoke Doctor?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUZI0vE0FM
The GQP will have no platform, no ideas, no agenda for the 2022 elections according to Mitch “no progress” McConnell; but rather will leave all “what we stand for” planks to the authority of one man, whoever gets the GQP nomination in 2024
Doesn’t that kinda describe how dictatorships work?
And once Roe is gutted, as it presumably will be, how will the repubs recruit?
Their plan is authoritarian rule. There is no need for recruitment. There will be force by fear.
That has been my thought. Once abortion is illegal will all the people who only voted GOP because of the sanctity of life turn to the Democrats to save their children from gun violence and school shootings?
I doubt it. At least, not at first. They have been led by their noses by the lies from their leaders and from right-wing media going on 5 years now. The Special Jan. 6th Committee and the DOJ must get the work done to prove these arrogant neo-Nazis are as corrupt as we know they are. Sentencing and imprisoning them all sends a very strong message. We do have to be prepared for the aftermath and unfortunately, parents like the Chumbleys may come out of woodwork as they are now anyway at school board meetings. Worse would be another insurrection but at least, the military and the WH will be aligned.
Pretty much does describe a dictatorship...
Also, since when have Rethuglicans provided a legislative agenda or platform other than cutting taxes and peddling hatred, fear and racism? That's been the case since the 90's but has become more apparent since a Black Guy had the temerity to do Presidenting.
We now know for sure that the ‘24 platform will be what (or a facsimile thereof) DJT says it is.
I feel like the GOP is already at the place where they only listen to one man and do as they’re told. There’s not an original thought among them. There are many we don’t hear from but they’re still the worker bees and still strictly follow orders.
That plus restricting voting rights and overthrowing the elections if they don't win which eventually becomes controlling elections outright.
What a magnificent tying together of history and actualities! This is an excellent iteration of the basic premises of democracy, socialism, and communism. Rep. Greene is deranged in her understanding, and Gov. Desantis has crossed a line. Thank you for sharing the clarity of a sound mind and your profound understanding of the historical forces that have shaped and continue to inform our hope.
If Governor DeSantis doesn't scare you, nothing will. Are we really going to pay for a private militia???? (I have the dubious fortune to live in Florida, working in the news industry for more than 30 years.) He is trying to separate the state from federal oversight e.g. last month in special session the legislature approved creating a state-run Occupational Safety & Health Administration (which would need federal approval). To date our Republican-controlled legislature has rubber-stamped everything he has done to impede protections against Covid-19 infection, legislate criminal penalties for peaceful protest, distribute vaccines on the basis of PAC contributions, etc. Is there a point at which my Republican neighbors and legislators will say "Enough already?" Even well-informed citizens are becoming frightened.
I hope the well informed, frightened citizenry of Florida are unsettled enough to vote DeSantis out when the time comes
Morning fab Daria….lot of work already into campaigns for Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist. And senatorial challenge that Val Demings presents against Rubio.
More and more “unsettling”. I keep repeating…Scary, but do not be afraid. To preserve democracy, we must use democracy.
Morning dear Christine. It's lovely to see you as I sit in the car with my cat in an HEB store in Monterrey, MX while my husband picks up some cat food for Isaac the Cat (who is enjoying his road trip, I might add).😽
😻 my resident Siamese, Lola, woke me up this morning. I swear, I might make an audio using her voice. Would scare away an pesky autocrat.
Among the dozen, I had a Siamese who found me when she took refuge in a school where I was participating in an exercise class. It was evening and no one would take her. I have loved all my cat family members, but that Siamese, she was really special. Siamese are known for their voices and I must admit, I love conversing with my cats.
While I could not speak cat, I once had a cat who had quite a vocabulary. The family was able to identify between 10-15 different meow intonations so we knew exactly what he was saying or what he wanted. (He had one particular meow for wanting to share a cheese stick!) It was uncanny. I have not had another one like that.
Sounds like you responded well to his training.
Dogs have masters, Cats have staff!
😄😄
I have been reading your comments faithfully for over a year now, daria. Another cat lover, it warms my heart to read this. (I often enjoy the tiny personal tidbits my favorite commenters post) I have had the pleasure of being allowed to live in "my" home with a dozen cats......no, not all at once, over the span of 40 years. I now serve 4 demanding middle aged felines, I have yet to find any who enjoy car rides.
Miselle, thank you for your kind words. This is Isaac's 2nd pan American venture by car. He has a nice expandable soft crate which allows him movement While in the car. He particularly likes
hotels with balconies.
We moved 6 cats from San Diego to Manchester, NH in a 7-day drive across the country. The first day they were quite until about hour 10 of the drive then meowing started. Each day after it started earlier. We would take them out of their crates one at a time and hold them and let them over around a little. There were always litter box stop though non would go. Each hotel room was cat proofed before we took them in including stuffing pillows in spaces so they couldn’t get under beds. By day 7 they were all screeching as soon as we got in the car. When we got to our final hotel 3 hours later one escaped into the hallway and ran down the halls like a wild thing set free. It was an experience I will never forget. Some of those cats lived on to move to Hawaii, Texas and back to California. They were big travelers.
Won't happen. He has painted the picture of the perfect boogie man, runs an emotional campaign, and ascribes all 'your problems' to the other. No thinking is required, just channel the anger. Easy, peasy nothing is faster than stupid. https://media.awakeningtowholeness.net/stupidproof-your-future/
Wow Charlie!
“No worldview explains everything, so humans prioritize the things that need explaining most urgently. God was the most urgent issue in an age of faith. Science and technology are the most urgent things in an age of materialism. When something new becomes more urgent, worldviews change.
We are caught at the cusp of a change in worldview. The reset is emerging.”
It’s been commented earlier threads that the “most important” thing to people now, people of the “Social Information Age” is social identity. Professing your tribe affiliation takes precedence over whether your tribe is right or wrong. Social death is more critical than one’s physical death.
I think this fact about “social identity” has devolved the worldview's of many.
If I may. Pre-pubescent ego formation reaction. May explain why so many public officials behave as they were 12 years old.
Staying in Comfort vs challenge acceptance. One is leadership, one is not.
This is a fascinating thesis, Ted. Social media seeding a new era of tribalism, with -as you say - social media death being seen as psychologically equal to physical death, ie non-existence, the death of the ego. No wonder the lunatic right wing has such an exaggerated fixation on "cancel culture." "My tribe right or wrong" has replaced the conservative slogans of the Vietnam War era: "My country right or wrong" and "America, love it or leave it!" Evidently, from the 60's through the 90's, it was conservatives, most accustomed to identifying our country as their tribe and patriotism as the absolute membership requirement, who felt most increasingly disconnected and lost and deprived of their traditional ego-supporting identities and affiliations. They felt like it was "their" country/tribe and they thought _they_used to both control it and run it by _their_ norms and values. So all the positive social changes of the last 50 years feel to them like the rest of us "stole" their tribe. I think that's why Trump's fraudulent slogan "Stop the Steal" resonates so deeply with white conservatives. It's not just, or even mostly, the election that feels "stolen" to them. It's everything--their country, their tribe, their ability to fuse their identity with a country that looked like them--white, "Christian", socially conservative, patriarchal--and was run by their rules to benefit them and subordinate all others, keep them "in their place." No wonder "Stop the Steal!" lit them all on fire! Of course, Dumpster has no idea why it succeeds so brilliantly. But wow. If this thesis is accurate, where do qe liverals start, trying to create messaging and the believable, accessible _reality_ to go with it, to convince the less rabid of the MAGA crowd that they can have a place of pride and safety and security IN the new multicultural America where women, blacks, Jews, Muslims, and gays are all welcome members of the new tribe, deserving of the same rights and privileges as white, Christian, hetero men? ( Sorry I wrote such a long post. )
typo should be "we liberals"... fat fingers on tiny phone keyboard
I know Charlie. I was just trying to inject a speck of hope into a ghastly situation. 🙁
Keep injecting Daria. We need it.
🙏
Thank you
Daria, Sad to say, he is up for re-election in 2022, and the candidate pool running against him is so, what can I say, "uninspirational," that the Democratic Governors Association will probably not put any money in the Florida gubernatorial race. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/11/04/no-million-dollar-checks-democratic-governors-may-sit-out-florida-1392319.
Sammy, I have said previously, this will be the fatal flaw of the Democrats. We watched 4 years of Trump and did little to nothing to preen candidates for 2024. We had all of this time to be proactive, yet we are reactive to what will be a cataclysmic disaster in 2024.
Linda, Florida Dems have had trouble fielding exciting candidates for quite awhile, although DeSantis' opponent in 2018 almost made it: Popular vote DeSantis 4,076,186 and Gillum 4,043,723. The party just isn't showing up. I'm hopeful that the Dem candidate for the Senate (Val Demings) will beat out Marco Rubio.
Sammy, I still have my Gillum sign in our garage. (Got hell in my Trumie neighborhood for it!!) Too bad he has had personal troubles and is discredited--he had promise.
I am backing Demings and hope against hope she can pull it off but South Florida may be a big factor. I guess Gwen Graham will never run again!! Charlie Crist is a waffler and Nicki Fried has little chance, I believe, to get traction. She is trying to be "the anti-Ron voice" in the State but her voice gets lost. We are in the hands of a "smarter" Trump.
Wonder what Ron will do in our next major hurricane when he will also need Federal money....he was all smiles with Biden the last time we needed Federal help here in FL. His extreme anti- vaxx efforts could do him in.
Yes, Florida has had a Democrat problem for quite some time. Unfortunately, that malaise isn't just that State.
You are spot on.
What will motivate the DGA? A wholesale attack by his private militia on Black people in a Democratic leaning town? It shouldn't come to that, but I wouldn't put it past him to do it!
Candidates have to feel supported to choose to run against a nasty frightening machine like DeSantis. Where are the people who will support a candidate? Busy attacking their own and whining because those willing to step up are not good enough
I think you just connected the dots with Rons paramilitary announcement. He is using it as both a dog whistle to summon his own Jan 6th ‘ers should he lose. And he will use this force to threaten and punish all opponents should he win.
This is some scary stuff.
Imagine 200 heavily armed deputized thugs showing up at the county elections board to “assist” in the counting of ballots, at school board meetings about “curriculum”, or at the Public Health Department to “secure” your right to spread disease. The threat of Intimidation to obstruct takes things to a new level of low.
Then the DGA better quit whining about their meager resources. What hogwash. And excuse me about the candidate pool. Both Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist are seasoned politicians.
What does it take to have an inspirational candidate pool? Why don’t they find that person and promote them heavily. Create messages that will appeal to the voters.
Nikki Fried has a future. Ron does not.
https://www.fdacs.gov/About-Us/Meet-Commissioner-Fried
Good candidate…young and has a proven track record. She’s got to be forceful and forthright when it comes to dealing with DeSantis. Ron is loud without using a bullhorn and all he lacks is a Hitler salute.
God bless Nikki Fried and keep her safe. We need her to win Florida.
By and large, they are too dumb. And the Democrats' expertise is in forming circular firing squads.
Agree
"Is there a point at which my Republican neighbors and legislators will say "Enough already?""
Umm. No. There is not.
More. They ALWAYS want more.
Greed is a disease
To be found under addiction most likely in the DSM
I’ve already talked with some serious political strategists this morning who work mainly at local and state election levels. Consensus is that DeSantis has made a serious mistake with his militia announcement.
One can only hope.
Hammer him. He’s gone full fascist.
Boy, I hope you’re right about that!
DeathSantis wants to be a Putin and looks like he wants to kill off as many people as he can via COVID (as a means of not taking responsibility for the deaths). What will help him to do that is that over 30% of Floridians are over 60 and we already know that being elderly is a risk factor for COVID death.
Maybe his "plan"to kill off as many people as possible will backfire when 99% of those dead are voting rethuglicans.
Their plan is keep the crisis going. Then disqualify the mail in ballots.
Well, maybe were are at the point of observing the self limiting nature of the Republican approach.
Vote Republican, then, vanish from the planet.
:-)
I wrote my state representatives this morning, asking what POSSIBLE reason desantis put forth when he floated the idea he needed his private gestapo. desantis wants millions of tax dollars for his own private militia? Say WHAT? And please, tell him NO.
I'm curious to know how Florida went from a "red" Covid state to a decline of cases while advocating no vaccines or masks. Do you know?
My theory? False reporting of numbers.
Mine as well.
Yes, Ron supports nasty fairy-tales so he doesn’t allow the big numbers to be broadcasted. Blind and deaf Floridians simply are not “in the know”.
It probably helps that it’s fall. In Florida that means you can turn off the AC and open the windows, and it’s pleasant weather to socialize outside.
The Republican Party has had no official policies for years. For the first time in my memory
The ‘Republican Party’ (which was the Trump party by time time of the 2020 nominating convention,) ‘chose’ not to include a policy platform in its formal proceedings. Instead, they acquiesced to Trump’s ‘policy by tweets.’ Nothing on our traditional alliances including NATO, nothing on our traditional alliances, including NATO, nothing on the Middle East, including the 6-nation nuclear agreement with Iran, nothing on economic, social, and infrastructure. NOTHING!
This remains the ‘Republican’ non-policy today and through the 2024 ‘Republican’ presidential convention. They haven’t a clue what they stand for as they await for Trumpimania to play out. Instead, they are intent on fear mongering and opposition to whatever the Democrats do. While President Biden and his professional team iare building an impressive portfolio of success domestically and globally, the ‘Republicans’ are a party of NYET. I believe that this makes them vulnerable in the 2022 elections and during their subsequent ‘stand for nothing’ mishmash.
When Eastman, Clark, and others plead the Fifth Amendment before a congressional committee, they exercise their constitutional right not to engage in self-incrimination. However, if they are granted partial or total immunity, they can then be obliged to testify fully or face criminal charges. Back during Watergate, when Jim McCord, John Dean, and Jed McGruder sought a deal with the prosecutors, the White House wall of take-no-prisoners resistance swiftly crumbled. In the grand jury investigations in New York, there is a possibility of the same occurring. I would not be surprised to see a save-my-own-skin decision by one or more of the Trumpites subpoenaed by congressional committees.
My apologies for repeating a clause in my commentary. Especially when a person writes with ‘hot blood,’ he/she should seek a more dispassionate individual to proofread the rough draft. Oh well, once again READY, FIRE, AIM.
SUBSTACK NEEDS AN EDIT FUNCTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND A BOOKMARK / SEARCH FUNCTION!!!!!!!
I like your subtlety, TC.
Every time they ask those of us who have blogs here what we need, I always send that message, just like that, but they never seem to hear the screaming. :-)
Medicare may pay for hearing aids.
I actually Laughed Out Loud
I'm waiting for that miracle
You don’t have to apologize to me, I saw one minor typo (iare), it happens to me often, and I don’t write nearly as well as you do, I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Being impassioned is what our group is all about, if we weren’t, we wouldn’t take the time to express ourselves 👍🙏😎
Absolutely, we all make mistakes. I wish there was an edit function. One time I had so many errors I copied the comment, deleted it, edited the text on my phone, and reposted it!
"the ‘Republicans’ are a party of NYET. I believe that this makes them vulnerable in the 2022 elections and during their subsequent ‘stand for nothing’ mishmash"
Yeah, but . . . the metamorphosis from McConnell's party of no to Trump's party of nihilism doesn't seem to have hurt the GOP. Their message resonates and their voter suppression is almost insurmountable.
It’s ALMOST funny that Moscow Mitch now has to eat the Schitt that chump spews non stop. The downside to creating a monster…
Nothing but chaos and corruption.
And they say it out loud, and Rupert’s herd of sheep BAA
These points about socialism and communism cannot be made often enough, so thank you for this. FL Gov. DeSantis gets scarier by the day. He has no compassion for the unemployed; shows no concern for seniors, students, school employees or the public at large in implementing his disastrous Covid policies, and now wants to create his own private paramilitary group accountable only to him. He is seemingly a classic example of the rising autocratic ideology that is becoming much to prevalent and, in some cases, too powerful.
Some golfing friends and I (from the Boston area) are in Naples, FL for a couple of weeks and yes the weather is beautiful but the overlay of the dumbfounding politics is disturbing ..... some of that is not new. Pick up trucks with trump flags (and of course guns in the back window rack) are common and a scary lot. While on the golf course, we speak with impunity however, this is an open carry state and we avoid any political chat while out and about. That's how creepy it is. We are also among the very few who wear masks in a grocery store; a dead give away we're not from Florida!!
Watch On Becoming a God in Central Florida on Netflix.
Cannot find it on Netflix...
We are in Spain. It may not be offered in your area of U.S. but many there are watching it.
Soon to be us all, I fear
Hi, Janet,
Former New England-uh :) but now in Florida many years….sigh. We are NOT an Open Carry state however it is legal to “open carry” if you’re hunting or fishing.
In my county on the opposite coast there was a guy ( calls himself the “Armed Fisherman”)who paraded up and down the causeway with his AR 15, Glock and fishing pole.I believe he does this all over the state.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0790/Sections/0790.053.html
Thanks for the correction regarding the FL statute on open carry. I was told by someone and I didn't verify the facts (which I usually do). Unfortunately, regulations rarely prevent people with intent from doing whatever they want. After-the-fact is too late with guns.
And, with the guy who walks around with a gun and fishing pole . . . yeesh! I always enjoy visiting FL but couldn't live here :) I thought with more "New England-uh" boomers moving south that perhaps the more progressive politics would follow . . . . Hang in there!
I’d like to see the day when all these Republican mini dictators (DeSantis, Abbott, Noem etc) begin to turn on each other in their blind ambition for power. Will they come together and back their ‘cause’ or will the eviscerate one another.
He has, in residence, a “general” in name only to head his paramilitary mish mash and plenty of trump train big wheel pickup trucks as tanks. Flynn and his proud boys (emphasize word boys) will be only too glad to be back in the military mix.
Delusions of grandeur.
DeSantis ... and his minions ... get scarier by the day. A Dem win for Governor there in 2022 is an uphill battle. More of a mountain than a hill. We can only hope women will be pissed enough about the inevitable outcome of Roe to come out in huge numbers to vote. There is a very short window between the Dem primary and General election, making coalition building from the three campaigns another hurdle to victory.
As scary as Gov. Abbott, they have drunk the kool aide and think they will take chump’s place as head MAGAt. Boy, will he turn on them
I bet he thinks he’s going to bring his army with him to the White House.
Oops — we just got rid of a guy with worse delusions than that.
Basically, insanity.
Sorry, should be “much too prevalent.”
Wait! You’re apologizing for a missing “O”!! And a lower case one at that!!!! I think we––that’s me included––are far too nit picky about our writing…along with suffering under the dictates of auto-correct!!! Most of us read right through these tiny typos and have no trouble understanding. We’ve got more than enough to be uptight about to worry about being perfectly proof-read.
These things are too important to grammar geeks. My level of "geek" was influenced by my two parents, who never permitted either slang or bad grammar in speech or writing.
As an FTO (Field Training Officer; one who teaches people how to become cops) I was always given the "difficult cases" when recruits did not express themselves well in writing. I learned from my FTO that my job as a cop was to take the incident that was being reported, and make sure that the "story" the victims' had was told in a way that accurately reflected what happened, establish the elements of the crime, and insure that the person reading the report from the sergeant who would approve it to the DA that would file charges could understand exactly what had happened.
Two vignettes: One recruit (a lateral hire whose penmanship was awful and used a style of reporting from his old agency that did not mesh with the department's "style") had passed field training, was out making decisions and working, but his reports were "not up to standard". I was tasked with being his "grammar coach". I immediately went out and bought three books on grammar so I could make some semblance of really "teaching grammar". We had this meeting, the "memo of instruction/correction" was read and initialed, and the Sergeant and Lieutenant left the room. The first thing I said was "you are fine. Your writing has a different cant, and they don't like it. I have your first assignment, which won't be documented, but it will show you how serious this situation is. He was ready to take notes. I gave him the memo and said "find the 11 grammatical, spelling or syntax errors in this 3/4 page memo. He found 13. The other was a guy who spent 12 years in the Marine Corps and had been with the department for just under 10 years in the corrections division. He was really struggling with his report writing; he could tell me the report he wanted to write, but couldn't write the report he wanted to write. He, like me, is dyslexic. I told him the tricks I had used, and asked him how he got around that in the Marines. He had a system that worked, and we devised something that fit for us (3 or 4 ways to say how a burglary occurred, or what elements of a crime were present.) He is now the patrol Lieutenant.
What a super trainer you were: you worked with what they had.
Thank you.
I like this story! Report writing, or any writing, is sometimes the hardest part of the job, especially in an age of quick emails or tweets. Part of my job was teaching social workers how to write court reports and to expand on the “just the facts” in order to give a complete picture of the family. The work was done, decisions were made, but putting it on paper just didn’t come easily to some.
Ha! You are absolutely right. As a bit of a “grammar geek,” yet a very imperfect one, I have to admit that I may be more self conscious responding to something HCR has written than to someone else. At least I didn’t mention the one comma that should have been a semicolon or the omitted word toward the end that would have made it flow better. Okay, so just maybe I’m more than a bit of a grammar geek. Thanks. You made me smile despite our political conundrum.
So that’s where we’re supposed to use the word too, I’m constantly trying to figure that out, thanks for the heads up.👍
Could Jeffrey Clark's medical condition be Fear?
Judith, the official medical diagnostic term is “weasel sweat.”
I was thinking it was lack of a spine.
Might be missing a conscience.
That definitely seems to be one of his “conditions,” Bill!
Hope you’re doing well!
Does he have a note from his doctor?
Exactly what crossed my mind.
I grew up in the 50s, etc. loved Ike and thought most republicans were honorable brokers. However it appears that Ike was an anomaly. He certainly would piss on republicans today if he wasn’t stunned speechless that they are the same as the fascists that he fought in WW2. They may have pretended to sign on to parts of the FDR program, but there is plenty of evidence that that too was an anomaly. The Coup of 1933 (See Gen. Smedley Butler); FDR “We must be especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.” FDR: “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in it’s essence is racism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” HST: Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home-but not for housing. They are strong for labor-but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights. The favor minimum wage-the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all-but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine-for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing-but only when the private power companies get their own rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing-so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people. And they admire the government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it. Henry Wallace in 1944: American fascists claim to be super patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.” A. Stevenson: “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my republican friends…that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. I rest my case!
BTW, Majorie three names is really Marjorie Joe McCarthy. As has already been established, she has absolutely no shame.
"Henry Wallace in 1944: American fascists claim to be super patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”
Great quote. I keep coming back to this post.
“We must be especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
I guess that group was not so small after all.
And now, those men have found two or three key words and use them to scare people who were pushed into poverty by the very approaches that Republicans still routinely champion.
Spot on, Jeri.
And I’m going to add here…. If Repubs were not so worried about losing the popular vote once again, they would not be so agitated in their voting restrictions and gerrymandering.
I would like to see criticism about the Democrats less on this forum and a groundswell of support for our less than perfect but always a works in progress Democracy rising to counter not specifically Republicans, but the attempt to replace it with autocracy.
Hear, hear, Christine!
Christine I’m inclined to believe that the GOP gave up on the popular vote when they fell in behind their dictator 5 or 6 years ago. That being why all that’s left for them is voter suppression and autocracy
Oops, racism in FDR’s second quote should read fascism. Lordy, what else, it’s early in Texas
Many thanks for this incredible post. I will use many parts of this in my writings and comments when I do my weekly excursion into the void at Fox Propaganda stations. Probably time for me to create a pseudonym for protection when I do this Stealth Angel work in that land of vociferous and vacant truth.
Jeri--Thanks for this thought-provoking collection. I would only add that Truman's whole speech is worth reading and pondering for its echoes. It was given in the 1948 campaign, which he was supposed to lose, amidst right-wing howls about economic disasters and creeping socialism at home. We could use a bunch of "Give 'em Hell" candidates today.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180820043807/https:/www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws?pid=13046
Thank you! I want to share this (without your name, of course) with my FB friends!
Me, too. Would you like to be credited Jeri?
Jeri, excellent comment! I need to read it again. Thank you.
Yup.
What are we going to do about gun violence in this country? WE WE WE, the people, what are we going to do about guns sales in this country? So what if a president cried about it? So what about the grieving families of the victims and the shooters? So what if I could fill this comment with information about suicides by guns -- shootings in the streets -- in the schools -- through the windows of homes... and fill another 100,000 comments with news and statistics about gun violence in the USA? What if elected representatives won't do anything about this? What about our children scared to death because they know that they could be shot dead at anytime?
Terrorism is a fitting charge in this Michigan case. Over 50 Michigan schools closed because the kids are scared. The killer’s parents on the lamb, because they are guilty of aiding, abetting, and indifferent to the murders. And all for what? So a minority can live out their end of days apocalyptic fantasies by stockpiling guns and ammo, buying Even more guns for their kids of questionable sanity? How much more do we need to know? how much can we endure? How many more parents need to suffer? It’s not just the “infrastructure” that is crumbling in this country.
unreal, these two imbeciles, warned of the actions of their child, refusing to remove him from the school...who the hell are these people? They bought him the gun.
… and his Mother bragged about buying it for him as an early Christmas gift. That’s who we are now, where we are as a country. The only nation to normalize child on child murder by gun violence.
It is not normal!!.......shout it out.
It actually is normal. It is an American phenom.
How often do these cases come back to a dysfunctional family of origin?
Look at who they vote for: https://mobile.twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1467197523127422979
with the gun purchased by the parents...
Read The People of the Lie, but M. Scott Peck. He relates a tale of a young man who committed suicide with a gun. When victim's little brother's birthday came around, the parents gave him a gun. The same gun. They were relieved of their responsibilities by state action -- as I recall before any tragedy ensued -- but when questioned why they had done this, the father said, "It was a perfectly good gun."
I'm "quoting from memory," and it's been years since I read the book, so forgive me any inaccuracies in the details. I think I got the gist of it right.
The point being, there are some truly evil people out there. And the worst of them don't seem to realize how evil they are.
I have investigated a fairly substantial number of suicides by firearm. Universally (I cannot recall, off hand, a single incident in exception) the family wanted NOTHING TO DO with the firearm EVER AGAIN.
There is something deeply wrong with those parents.
Good morning, Ally!
Like many I’m sure, I am anxious to hear your thoughts on solutions to/lessening gun violence.
I have an acquaintance whose 18 y/o child chose suicide by his handgun. I know his reasons for having one, he was an independent tradesman who often worked in crime ridden areas and feared for his tools and his life when in these areas. He was/continues to be a very broken man.
Great book! Great author! ❤️
Careful, you might get hit with a class-action suit by Imbeciles Disunified. I think the description that’s more fitting is “criminal”. They bought their 15-year-old son, not just any old firearm…they purchased a HANDGUN for their little darlin’! “Nothing says Love like a pistol in your Christmas stocking”. I understand they’re out of the running for “Parents of the Year”!
They will be republican heroes soon enough…
🥲🥲
His parents. It’s a really ugly story.
Some interesting tidbits from other threads yesterday. One was a discussion of the Kip Kinkle case here in Oregon where his parents, particularly his father, could not accept he was mentally ill. So they stopped his meds and therapy and even more stupid, bought him a gun. He repaid them by killing them and went off to his school in Springfield to shoot a few others. I remember exactly where we were when we heard this news. Everyone was glad that the parents are being charged and one person with inside knowledge suggested victims in this case should have sued the parents' estate.
Then from a current teacher here in Oregon. He was livid about the school authorities because here in Oregon the school is custodial and can search a backpack. He also said the school authorities should be fired immediately.
I would say that the whole of societal structure is crumbling. So many places we would not go, even without COVID, because people are rude and so many of them are in your face. They do this because they know that most of it is without real consequence, but little by little it erodes.
The saddest thing for me, over a long life, is watching so many awesome people work to build and make a better world, and then watching the destroyers some along and, in a flash, as Bannon said, destroy the administrative state. Even worse, they are cheered by the “bystanders” and wannabe destroyers.
I agree. It only took four years of death star donny and all his minions and their eroding corruption to do it completely. I also blame St RayGun for getting some of this underway.
Has been in the works for decades, another quote if I may. From the St Louis Post Dispatch, Mar 17, 1985. “‘conservative Revolution’ Will Alter All Policies…”. Lewis Lehrman headed the Citizens for America, a grassroots conservative movement, and lobbying mouth-piece for Reagan. “We are at the very beginning of this conservative revolution… we’re not even in the middle of it… Our economic, our social, our international policies are going to be altered in every significant aspect. The President hasn’t even begun the program of constitutional reform and the change in social policy.” But the dye was cast. I googled Lehrman, he was still alive. I wonder if this “GOP” was what he had in mind…
It has taken longer, but it is devastating to those of us who have given so much to try to make this a better world by working with children, families and communities. I could have been self-absorbed and focused on making money, go live in a house on the beach and f the world. But, I would not do anything differently. Thank goodness the majority of people are caring and loving...and hopefully not brainwashed...because we have a lot of work to do, still. And we have some blueprints established but we need to create some better ones for these new times.
Last sentence so true
When there was no white hot raging howl across the nation that shook the foundation of Washington with demands for change when children were slaughtered at Sandy Hook, I lost faith in Americans. Yesterday I read a post regarding the death of Tate Myer that ¨At least his parents know he was a good kid.¨ Enraged, I replied, ¨Shame on you.¨ Her rebuttal was, ¨Fuck you.¨ The disconnect in all areas of Americans grows daily. The ignorance seems to grow daily. More and more, I believe that the best solution is to allow the red states to go their own way. Let them have guns. Let them die from diseases. Let them be ruled by tyrants. Just keep them out of my life
Gailee, Let's mourn together and not be broken.
I saw a meme yesterday that absolutely illustrated that. Two kids, hiding under desks in a classroom, while an armed person was outside the door. Kid #1 says to kid #2 "My parents think wearing a mask will stifle me."
And this one: https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AARqEPL.img?h=749&w=1123&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=f&l=f
Reminded me of the air-aid drills in elementary school with a difference. Thanks, Ron.
That's a beaut that tells the truth.
This is why I say this will come to war. These people will not lie down behind their walls and die. They will come out to kill, conquer, and -- yes -- enslave.
They finally see a win after decades of having to hide their evil. Emboldened and gaining power every day. Wish I could see something that would reverse this.
You saying it, Joseph, won't make 'war' happen. What you say about the 'people' may not be true even if you think so.
That said, I've been self-censoring my comments quite a bit as unhelpful, and this one slipped through. Probably had to do with getting my COVID booster. I've noticed that one of the first things to go when I start feeling that immune-response "under-the-weather" feeling is that I get grumpy.
I apologize.
No reason to apologize. I just didn't understand your comment, and I usually appreciate your positions and the way you express yourself. I hope you feeling in-the-weather now and that it is pleasant. Salud!
I am a strongly visual and intuitive person. I always trust my intuition to take me someplace interesting: I do NOT trust it to always be right.
At the risk of oversharing, I'll give an example from just this last week: I had a long discussion with a fellow software developer regarding a thing I won't describe in detail, but it is quite complex. As we were discussing it, I was visualizing the problem, and I "saw" a conflict. He did not see it: he is a very verbal/sequential person, and we were writing the specification, so the words weren't complete. It took me a full day to come up with a proper visualization, render it, and share it, and then I had to explain it in words, and FINALLY, he understood what the problem was. We could then resolve it.
Just a short time after that, I intuited an extremely elegant way to solve a different part of the problem, and after several hours of wrestling with it, I gave up and called it a day.
Then I laughed as I poured myself a glass of wine, because I suddenly remembered an abstract algebra course I had taken more than forty years ago, and something called the Axiom of Choice, and the difference between distance metrics and ordering, and (of course) I saw a visual image: a circle representing all the complex numbers of a fixed absolute magnitude, and its relationship to the Gödel Incompleteness Theorem, all of which came together to say that the solution I'd spent a day on was either intractable, or its full solution was Nobel Prize level work. Which is WAY outside the scope of the damn problem I needed to solve, and it was time to enjoy the wine and start over the next day with duct tape and baling-wire solutions.
This is just how my brain works. And this is the most self-disclosure about that process I've ever made in my life.
When I say I "see" something coming -- something in the future -- I'm referring to intuition and visualization, of course. I don't know how to rigorously verify it, the way I do with software, other than waiting to see what actually happens (or doesn't).
The US is not currently engaged in open civic warfare, so I cannot (of course) literally "see" that happening: it ISN'T happening. What I do "see" is an alignment of ... forces? trajectories? trends? attitudes? My intuition, and my limited knowledge of economics, history, human behavior, and what we have been discussing on this site for however many months, is telling me that open conflict is coming.
I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I can certainly say that I wish I didn't see/intuit what I see.
Does that explain what I meant?
Not yet, but expect to be better by tomorrow, based on past experience. Though as stock-market salesmen always say, "Past performance is no guarantee of future performance."
I was responding to Gailee, who was suggesting that the Red states should "go their own way" and rot. I.e., Balkanization along state lines. Some would fail, as states, and in failing, would come to the point of raiding other better-off-states to improve their own lot. War.
My saying anything doesn't make it happen. I'm just observing.
Joseph, What are you literally observing? Might what you wrote be an imagining or a fantasy?
Nothing. We can and will do nothing because the people running the gun industry have a supernatural choke hold on the American people. Many of our legislators don't give a damn and those who do aren't able to muster enough bipartisan support to change the 2nd amendment and curtail the overreach of gun and ammo manufacturers and lobbyists.
I'd like to say that people will rise up the way they did with drunk driving – think MADD. But wouldn't you agree that the unfortunate number of deadly mass shooting events in the US is not seen in any other sane, developed country? Our stance on guns more resemble that of a developing nation run primarily by thugs and warlords. And wouldn't you say that our country, born and bred of violence and with a passion for gunning down the other, has driven the narrative for centuries? Think of the cowboys and Indians; slave owners against slaves;Street gangs; the make my day middle aged father of 4? Do you really think the gun owning public wants that kind of power to be taken from them?
All of our tears and pleas fall on deaf ears. All of the broken hearts mean nothing to those who control the narrative. Our dead beloved are of no consequence to an industry that revels in death.
Wow, Daria! A rather depressing post, and unfortunately quite true. The parents of Ethan Crumbly bought him a semi-automatic revolver! What did they think he would do with it? I'm glad they are being prosecuted. These school shootings begin at home.
Pam, you're right. These school shootings begin at home. The parents are 100% responsible.
There is an equivalent to MADD and they have done some amazing work. They are up against 70 some million uzi toting wannabe fascists. They need all the help folks are willing to give. https://momsdemandaction.org/about/
I agree 100%, Daria! And don't forget their crutch ... the irrelevant 2nd amendment.
Yes. The beloved 2nd amendment. It is a gateway to hell of our own making.
This shooting struck too close to home. My next door neighbor's 3 kids graduated from Oxford High School. This was totally preventable with the information we now know the school had. After his drawing of the gun (a cry for help?), and before he became "The Shooter", Ethan Crumbley should have been immediately referred to a Community Health ACT Team, with a home visit made by police, and parents evaluated for fitness by Protective Services.
And, guns should have been removed from that house!
MaryPat, I will be with you in the following days. Please stop by whenever you like. Tomorrow, I will simply spend a quiet hour open to whatever enters my mind. Rest well.
Thank You, Fern.
I have missed you greatly as we go through this violence, social disruption and disorder. I wish we were in our church or shelter or assembly of love together. Peace MaryPat, may we find it
💞 Fern! Thank You. So painful. We need hallowed ground and a strong steeple. Hugs!
Amen, MaryPat. We are together and will persist. It is good that we found each other tonight. So fortunate.
yes. you could do that. someone would want to and might actually shoot you for making them think. Or they might get around to shooting me.
Evil comes from a failure to think. ... That is the banality of evil.
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
Truly, Mike, it is where we are.
Good morning, dear Fern!
My heart breaks again and again over the gun violence swallowing us.
We can’t combat it with violence, yet peace has no play in lessening it either. Laws? The lawless won’t follow though. 😩
The pain this causes is at the core. We have to keep looking for approaches. Using the example of the parents of the young Michigan shooter; what can happen by working harder with schools and with police departments? What about portraying the shooters, not only the mass killers but the ones on streets and in homes -- who are they, what's the profile; people with the type of problems you don't want to act on or want to be one of them. We need campaigns crafted by Hollywood's and Ad business's best. Spots all over the place, including social media. Dramatic stuff not boring 'do-gooder' gun control lectures. Dramatic stuff that shoots straighter than a gun.
Saw a thread where a well armed person who called himself progressive said for him it was about "social safety" which sounded like so much BS to me.
A thousand hearts to you, Dear Fern. The fixes are so freaking transparent. We of the weakling central government...
We're here to be together, Kim, and work and work to make it better.
And every day, in every way, in my small way, working to make it better. And I know you are as well, Dear Fern!
What an honor, Fern, to work together with you. Your work made much healing possible. You are a shero! And your late husband, truly a hero! Gratitude!
Enough mush, but I like 'shero'. Good wordsmith you are, Kim!
Yall deserve all the mush one could ever write. Ever in thankful gratitude, sincerely.
One suggestion for what "to do about gun violence in this country"
https://www.facebook.com/IAmPoliticsGirl/videos/1092375454850800/
I love her.
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
- Karl Marx: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
We could say: the American revolution is our history; the Civil War is our tragedy: and the ReaganTrump sedition is our farce - but truly the Republican regnum is tragedy all the way.
As with Walter Benjamin's comment on the angel of history: Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.
The Republican party of god, guns, and greed is instituting a dystopia of apocalyptic irrationality, unregulated violence, and unconscionable greed, which threatens our democratic nation, our most vulnerable neighbors, and our fragile planet.
Sometimes I must recall that despair is another form of voter suppression which only serves the GOP - its plutocrat paymasters and populist puppets. And there is too much work to be done.
well written, my fellow herd-person!
Florida State Militia? DeSantis wants his own Proud Boys?
He already has his proud boys. Plenty waiting to apply for his militia. I can only imagine what their path will be. I can almost guarantee that retired disgraced gen Flynn will be their leader. Since he resides here now. This plan has been in place for awhile. It’s only since the former lost that their presence has been visible as “bodyguards” and the proliferation of menacing trump train trucks.
Fitting for Flynn, a true swamp creature, to move to one.
Proud Boys, Brown Shirts...
Thought I said “oath” and not “path”. Same thing.
I would never want to live there. SO sorry that you are in this place.
Brown shirts.
'I Was the Governor of Montana. My Fellow Democrats, You Need to Get Out of the City More.'
Excerpts follow from Steve Bullock's Opinion in today's New York Times. He has important advice for the Democratic Party, will it listen?
'The warning signs were already there in 2020 when Democrats fell short in congressional and state races despite electing Joe Biden president. I know because I was on the ballot for U.S. Senate and lost. In the last decade and a half, we’ve seen Senate seats flip red in Arkansas, Indiana, North Dakota, and more. Democrats have lost more than 900 state legislative seats around the country since 2008. And in this year’s governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, we saw the Democratic vote in rural areas plummet, costing the party one seat and nearly losing us the other. It was even worse for Democrats down ballot, as Democrats lost state legislative, county, and municipal seats.'
'The core problem is a familiar one — Democrats are out of touch with the needs of the ordinary voter. In 2021, voters watched Congress debate for months the cost of an infrastructure bill while holding a social spending bill hostage. Both measures contain policies that address the challenges Americans across the country face. Yet to anyone outside the Beltway, the infighting and procedural brinkmanship haven’t done a lick to meet their needs at a moment of health challenges, inflation and economic struggles. You had Democrats fighting Democrats, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, and desperately needed progress was delayed. It’s no wonder rural voters think Democrats are not focused on helping them.'
'It’s never easy for Democrats to get elected in Montana, because Democrats here are running against not only the opponent on the ballot, but also against conservative media’s (and at times our own) typecast of the national Democratic brand: coastal, overly educated, elitist, judgmental, socialist — a bundle of identity groups and interests lacking any shared principles. The problem isn’t the candidates we nominate. It’s the perception of the party we belong to.'
'To overcome these obstacles, Democrats need to show up, listen, and respect voters in rural America by finding common ground instead of talking down to them. Eliminating student loans isn’t a top-of-mind matter for the two-thirds of Americans lacking a college degree. Being told that climate change is the most critical issue our nation faces rings hollow if you’re struggling to make it to the end of the month. And the most insulting thing is being told what your self-interest should be.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/opinion/democrats-rural-america-midterms.html
That is one reason why the Republican policy of no policy is working. Fewer people are offended by nothing. The issues facing rural and poor Americans need to be sussed out and addressed by Democrats - mainly at the local and state levels but at the national level too. This has been the case for years. The key is respectful listening. Sharrod Brown is actually pretty good at this.
I love Sharrod Brown. I don’t know much about Bullock but I’m not impressed. Part of the leadership role is to help people to get where they want and need to be to succeed. Jayapal worked her ass off trying to get us all the good things we need to make our lives work for us. The GOP wants to label those things communism. If Bullock wants to help Dems why isn’t he doing more to explain that to the rural red people that look up to him instead of blaming leadership for trying to get more water out of the rocks of Manchin and Sinema??? I see Bullock as just more of what’s wrong rather than any help at all. And I’m angry that people who claim to want a democracy can’t support the people doing their very best to save it right now. So many people whining about Dems for this or that when we should be celebrating all the good stuff they’re bringing and holding them up.
'I don't know much about Bullock but I'm not impressed.' Following the logic of comment, if you don't know much about him, why do you fault him? You don't know what he has and is doing or what his record was in Montana. Did you try to find out? What about the fault he finds with the Democratic Party, including its absence in rural America and its record of loses there?
All I know about him is what I read in the piece you linked, and I’m not impressed either. In his piece, he starts by criticizing Dems for being out of touch with the rural voter and for the time it took to negotiate the infrastructure bill. He says Dems are out of touch with what the rural voter needs. In the middle he talks a lot about how good he himself is at explaining policy to his rural state (although he lost his own election). Then, he ends his piece by praising Dems for passing a bill that answers critical needs of the rural populace. There isn’t much consistency in this piece, and he sounds like he doesn’t understand how legislation gets negotiated. I do think there are some nuggets of good ideas in there, though. So, I’m not impressed either. I do like Sherrod Brown; he’s my senator.
Thanks Kathy for your criticism of Bullock's Opinion and glad you found some 'nuggets' in it. I've posted several links to good articles about the Democratic Party's failure in rural America. If you scroll down a little, you see them.
I hear you, Fern. What do you think of the notion that it’s not Democratic policies that fail rural America, but rather a combination of an inability to explain those policies and relentless Fox News lying? Jeri Chilcut (sp?) made an excellent post below with some truly pithy one liners that express my ideas way better than I ever could. It seems to me that it’s a messaging problem, not a policy problem. I’m interested in what you think?
Fern, I believe I already answered those questions. It’s OK for someone to express a different POV. I still respect what you bring.
Christy, There is a lot of fault to find with the Democratic Party. Its lack of support for the working class as the Reagan and the Republican Party were doing all that could to destroy the Unions... there are books about the war on labor, the anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-regulations movements. I didn't think that you answered the questions. I respect your different POV. Isn't it worthwhile to raise questions with one another? The point is not to stifle one another but flesh out what we know and expand our understanding. One of our differences, Christy, is that I think that the Democratic Party needs to listen to Bullock and others who can help it get where it needs to go.
'Aside from the presidency, the 2020 election results were deeply disappointing for Democrats. While the blows were geographically dispersed from Maine to Montana, many shared a common feature: underperforming in rural areas. This failure obviously limits Democrats’ ability to pursue their agenda, but more importantly, it’s also a problem for the health of the American political system because the increasing urban-rural divide is a prime source of polarization.'(niskanen center) See link below.
https://www.niskanencenter.org/gone-country-why-democrats-need-to-play-in-rural-america-and-how-they-can-do-it-again/
The following links detail the Democratic Party's failures to attract rural voters. They are solid articles worthwhile to read.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/06/rural-dems-trouble-519782
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sundaytake-democrats-losing-rural/2021/11/06/3f316194-3f0d-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html
Born, raised and always lived in rural red America. I hear why my neighbors voted for Susan Collins regularly. I have a front row seat. I have multiple care taking roles & activist activities, but I take a little time to relax reading HCR. (Sometimes too much time) One thing that frustrates the rural red is the challenge of matching the highly educated in debate skills. So voices and opinions are squashed and frustration and anger ensues. Fox is on 24/7. From my POV highly educated, well spoken, city dwelling libs should stop blaming democratic leadership. I see people doing their best and working their asses off in the trenches, never getting the credit. So, just like our current healthcare system, who wants that job anymore? Yup, we eat our own. MSM and pundits are the worst.
We saw Bullock on the presidential debate stage.
Jobs. Schools. Roads. Wi-Fi. These are now secondary. Democracy isn’t even a top 10 on their list.
Primary concern now is social group identity. Tribe affiliation and nothing else. Thinking about the tribal worldview has me at a creative thinking wall.
For the first time since Bill Clinton said it, “it’s the economy stupid”, won’t be enough in the next election. Worldviews are that powerful.
Ted, I’ve missed you. It’s good to see you here again. There was an earlier discussion about the definition of “tribe”. I did not chime in at the time, but felt good points were raised. “A social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.”
It’s taken on such a negative connotation of late when perhaps it’s originally meant to describe simply a larger family group or community in particularly among indigenous peoples.
🙏 Christy.
Does using the word “tribal” to describe social divisions and worldviews offend the indigenous community?
Ted, I’m not trying to speak for indigenous peoples, but just trying to throw up some caution about how the repetitive use of a word over time can come to change it’s meaning and creating an awareness around that
🙏. “Polarized” mo better.
'The core problem is a familiar one — Democrats are out of touch with the needs of the ordinary voter.’
This is rubbish and both you and Bullock, go on to say BBB is what voters want, making this sentence rhetoric.
‘In 2021, voters watched Congress debate for months the cost of an infrastructure bill while holding a social spending bill hostage. Both measures contain policies that address the challenges Americans across the country face. Yet to anyone outside the Beltway, the infighting and procedural brinkmanship haven’t done a lick to meet their needs at a moment of health challenges, inflation and economic struggles. You had Democrats fighting Democrats, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, and desperately needed progress was delayed. It’s no wonder rural voters think Democrats are not focused on helping them.'
This is what a true democracy actually looks like when parties are divided they work to find common ground and we should be celebrating this work. Bullock is BS on this and again I say it is rhetoric to lift himself up as better than. Why can’t he be a leader and educate constituents on how democracy is supposed to work because obviously most of us missed civics class as well as US History.
Christy, exactly! Bullock lost his election. His advice here is empty pabulum. Democrats have delivered far more for red-state voters, going back to Obama, than Republicans have. The real problem is that red-state voters don’t know that. Bullock would probably say that Dems aren’t getting their message to these voters, but that’s not Dems’ fault (nor can they fix it). It’s a voter’s responsibility to be well-informed and engaged. That Republican voters are misinformed, and unreachable, is a result of the evil genius of Roger Ailes. He built Fox News as a right-wing propaganda machine (which he freely admitted many times) to craft and control the information that his audience receives. Tucker Carlson (and his brethren) tell red-state voters what to believe and what to think. And red-state voters drink it up. If I had a chance to ask Bullock one question, it would be “how do you get around Tucker Carlson?” I doubt he’d have a plausible answer.
Right and instead of painting doom and gloom why isn’t he trying to get what support he does have excited about what Dems are doing to ensure they get to the polls this Fall. Hard to believe people like this don’t have ulterior motives
In Minnesota didn't Hubert Humphry run under the label of the Farmer-Labor Party, rather than call himself a Democrat? Minnesota Democrats recognized the need for that kind of packaging.
“two-thirds of Americans lacking a college degree.”
This is both the problem and the window of opportunity for new communication strategies. Think of a PHD engineer speaking to a concrete foreman about how to pour a foundation. The differences in education level create more dissonance.
Someplace on here earlier today I pointed out that the focus on issues the Dems are pushing just drives the Party further away from the middle class. That engineer knows what he is talking about, but the foreman is just interested in results he can see. But their stopping to discuss how to pour concrete doesn't get the structure built! The real task is to defeat Republicans, in any elective office, who don't want the structure built in the first place.
(cf. BBB)
Their stopping to discuss how to pour concrete might keep the structure from falling over in a few years.
Of course. But once both the engineer and the foreman agree on the correct way to pour concrete, stopping to discuss it further just delays the project.
Agreed and as I said elsewhere, who ends up being angry ad frustrated in that situation. Knowledge and the ability to communicate well are empowering. The lack of those two things is VERY disempowering and very often flaunted by those that hold that power
Bullock criticizes Democrats for being “overly educated”. I’ll let that sink in for a second. Apparently red state voters prefer anti-vaxxers, conspiracy mongers and Qanon quacks to candidates with college degrees and an understanding of science, economics and history. Reading between the lines, Bullock’s saying, “Come on Dems, you gotta dumb it down”. There are plenty of examples of Republican pols with Ivy League pedigrees (Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton) who can bring the stupid to win votes. Democrats’ problem seems to be that they assume rural voters are intelligent and well-informed. Oh well.
JR, I didn't read the Bullock criticized Democrats for being 'over educated' but stated that it was a label given to Ds by the Republican Party. He centered the Opinion on the 'economy stupid'. The Party's need to be in rural areas and to listen to the people. I couldn't find the quote you used “Come on Dems, you gotta dumb it down”, which you attributed to him. Were we reading different Opinion pieces?
Yes, Democrats need to show up in rural areas and LISTEN to the folks there.
When you say Democrats, I hope you are speaking of voters and not just leadership/politicians. I am close to many people in rural red America who don’t have a college education but are very gifted in intelligence. So many highly educated are perceived to look down their noses at the non-college educated who may lack specific book learning or communication strategies, but have special intelligence that comes from their life experiences.
Not only do they have special intelligence but schools in red states have historically had high graduation rates and excellent higher learning institutions. Perception needs to be changed by Democrats showing up and listening.
Clarification: Montana and North Dakota
I would just throw some caution towards representing that as intelligence rather than privilege
Fern, We’re reading the same piece (I had read it yesterday in the NYT). Bullock is critiquing Democrats based on perceptions created by Republicans and right-wing media. You can’t win the argument by shouting back, “I’m not a communist”. Democrats can’t, and shouldn’t, base their platform or their campaigns on the false perceptions that Republicans fabricate. If we do, we’ll be chasing our tails forever. Bullock lost his election, my guess is he tried all of the things he says Dems should do. They didn’t work. The problem is that reason and dialogue and policies won’t reach red state voters. Republicans have screwed over their base for a couple of decades now, waving guns and bibles with one hand whilst stabbing them in the back with the other, all to benefit their wealthy patrons. Democrats have been delivering real policies and benefits to those same red-state voters. Biden was elected because he’s a “lunch pail” regular Joe politician that understands white, working class voters. All Biden has done in his first year is pass Covid relief with enhanced unemployment and family support, pass an infrastructure bill that delivers hundreds of billions $$ in needed public investment to red-state voters, and craft the BBB bill that will also primarily benefit working class and middle class voters. Those are real, significant benefits for red-state voters, and the fact that Republicans opposed all three, should convince the whiny “neglected” red-state voters that Democrats are the party working for them. If red-state voters were voting their interests, they'd be voting for Dems in a landslide. Fact is, red-state voters don’t know what’s good for them. They’re so easily distracted by conspiracy mongers and frauds who shout about Qanon and “socialism” and guns and Jesus. There is nothing Dems can do to make red-state voters smarter or better informed. It’s a lost cause.
We have come away with very different readings of Bulloch's Opinion. Did you find any of the direct quotes in his Opinion that you appeared to attribute to him? There are several good and recent articles about the Democratic Party's failure to attract rural voters, which has only gotten worse. I posted a few links for the articles to Christy. I don't blame the voters for these problems. You and I seem far apart in our opinions about the Democratic Party and my time is short now, so, perhaps, we'll have a richer exchange about this another time. Salud!
Fern, I am not disagreeing with Bullock’s point that Dems are not attracting red-state voters. Of course they’re not. I’m disagreeing with the implication that this is Democrats’ fault, and that they can do something about it. Red-state voters are, by and large, unreachable. Shut off in a right-wing media silo, fed misinformation, paying fealty to a political party that is ruining their lives. Take just one example - Covid health policies. There is overwhelming evidence that failing to wear masks and not getting vaccinated lead to severe sickness and death. The current surge in hospitalizations and deaths are overwhelmingly a red state (red county, really) problem. Biden and his administration have done everything that Bullock suggests to reach red-state voters and get them to do sensible things to save their own lives. They refuse. Why? Because they choose to listen to Tucker Carlson and Ron DeSantis and Margery Taylor Greene and Ted Cruz. Red-state voters are getting sick and dying. That is their own damn fault. They’re dying because of whom they’ve chosen to trust and to listen to. Dems can’t do a thing about it, but at least they’re trying.
What a Letter today!!! McConnell stating that the Republiqan Party has no platform but for what their eventual "leader" will tell them they will have is one thing. Their platform is indeed that of culture wars. Tim Ryan calling out the Republiqans by saying "“What you’re seeing here before the United States Congress is two clear, different visions of America and where we want to go and what we want to do"". Then the historical context, from Reconstruction to where Reagan and Gingrich took us. Then the exercise of 5th Amendment Privilege by those who realized that there could be some criminal culpability for their actions leading up to 6 January and what that might mean. The scary thing is what the Floriduh governor wants to do; have is own militia that is loyal to him. I do believe that this may be a harbinger of things to come.
Thanks, as always, to the LFAA community for the other conversations this morning.
Back when you could comment on Yahoo.com news, I would sometimes post something that was totally apolitical. I would say something along the line of: there is no perfect candidate. Before voting, go to the OFFICIAL website of the candidates, read their platforms, and decide what issues are the most critical to you and find the candidate who best fits your desires in a candidate. Ignore the junk mail that floods your mailbox, ignore anything you read on social media. I'd say NOTHING about a particular candidate or party. Just this advice for voting.
It was amazing the NASTY replies I'd get!! And you could look at each commenter's prior post history. I swear I'm telling the truth--I did this dozens of times and every.single.time it was a GQP or tfg cultist. Every time.
I had someone on a tweet from my county supervisor yesterday tell me to “calm down” when I asked for facts instead of hateful rhetoric. There’s a plan to raise taxes on how many miles you drive. It hasn’t been voted on and I’ve asked 3 previous times in emails and tweets if the public will get to vote on this proposal. Silence from the supervisor but he responded in agreement to a hateful comment with no validity. I said he wasn’t representing me by not providing facts or answering questions. He finally answered and said yes we would get to vote in 2022. He’s been selling this as something that was already set in stone and would be implemented.
The same person telling me to calm down proceeded to tell me how hard it was for him to be a lonely Republican amongst Democrats and we should want a balance of sides. I replied that I’m not going to vote for him for a balance and it didn’t matter what his political party was, it’s his job to provide facts and represent his entire district. I would call out any party for misinformation. He’s an alarmist and fear mongerer.
This person is new in the comments section in the last week or so and I think he works for the supervisor.
When I look at comments in various articles it is true that 99.9% of the right wing comments are angry, devoid of fact, childish repeating FOX propaganda.
The left wing will be 50-50. There still many many people who do not deal in facts but only want to fight the bi-partisan battle over and over. The meager rest will talk facts and information backed by citations.
The whole mess is disheartening.
I suspect more than a few are being paid to comment. https://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/tech-gaming/almost-all-of-facebooks-top-christian-pages-are-run-by-foreign-troll-farms/
I suspected most comments on these sites were trolls, but how brilliant (and dangerous) that most of the sites are OWNED by trolls.
We are headed down the wrong path. When do the migrations of thinking people start away from stupid? Oh, around 2025 I suspect.
“ Clark tried to involve the Justice Department itself in overruling the results of the 2020 election. Today he announced that he has a medical condition that will not allow him to testify before the January 6th committee tomorrow as planned.”
Jeffery Clark has a “medical condition”, it’s nots so rare, a common side effect from exposure to demagoguery. He’s Suffering from both an acute cranial/rectal inversion, compounded by a self inflicted testicularectomy, the syndrome presents first as a total loss of moral courage, and progresses to uncontrolled dishonesty, and ends with district orange or striped suits behind bars.
HA! Gosh, I like your thinking!
Ted learn that in shop.
I’m really looking toward to this guy squirming himself to prison.
Ted, you made me laugh out loud and made my Saturday.
Ted, you have outdone yourself this AM. I'm still laughing.
You can only hope!
OMG. ❤️
Well said, good sir.
Oh, I was just sinking into despair from all this gun stuff...thank you for your eloquent shift to lift me back up!
"Socialism is a system of government in which the means of production are owned by the government and, through the government—theoretically—by the people. Communism is the final stage of that form of social organization. It abolishes private ownership of land, farms, and factories, giving control of all those things to the state, which, in turn, provides everyone with jobs, housing, education, and medical care."
How pathetic that people who are so-called leaders of these United States -- in the guise of senators and representatives belonging to the party of the Grand Old Phonies -- don't have a clue about the definitions of the terms communism and socialism! They bandy these ideological labels around like swear words, hoping they will stick to the Democrats like stigmas of dishonor. They have no clue how uneducated they sound!
... who needs facts when we got guns ...?
Such a tragic thought!💔💔💔
I believe the term for this ignorance is called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. MTG, Gosar, and Boebert are classic examples of people whose cognitive ability is too low for them to even comprehend their own stupidity.
"... the truth is that the Dunning-Kruger effect affects everyone, including you. No one can claim expertise in every domain. You might be an expert in a number of areas and still have significant knowledge gaps in other areas.
Moreover, the Dunning-Kruger effect isn’t a sign of low intelligence. Smart people also experience this phenomenon."
https://www.healthline.com/health/dunning-kruger-effect#recognition
_______
"As Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
"Low performers are unable to recognize the skill and competence levels of other people, which is part of the reason why they consistently view themselves as better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than others."
"As Dunning has suggested, the very trouble with ignorance is that it can feel just like expertise."
"The reality is that everyone is susceptible to this phenomenon, and in fact, most of us probably experience it with surprising regularity."
"The Dunning-Kruger effect is not synonymous with low IQ. As awareness of the term has increased, its misapplication as a synonym for "stupid" has also grown. It is, after all, easy to judge others and believe that such things simply do not apply to you."
"While it may be easier to recognize the phenomenon in others, it is important to remember that it is something that impacts everyone. By understanding the underlying causes that contribute to this psychological bias, you might be better able to spot these tendencies in yourself and find ways to overcome them."
https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740
_______
"... the effect isn't spotted only among incompetent individuals; most people have weak points where the bias can take hold. It also applies to people with a seemingly solid knowledge base: Individuals rating as high as the 80th percentile for a skill have still been found to overestimate their ability to some degree.
This tendency may occur because gaining a small amount of knowledge in an area about which one was previously ignorant can make people feel as though they’re suddenly virtual experts. Only after continuing to explore a topic do they realize how extensive it is and how much they still have to master."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dunning-kruger-effect
_______
"The Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that when we don’t know something, we aren’t aware of our own lack of knowledge. In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know."
https://www.healthline.com/health/dunning-kruger-effect#about
... 'nuff said ...?
Clearly you are much more informed on this subject than I am.
Not at all Ellen, I never heard of it before you mentioned it. That is why I took the time to drum up some commentary to see if my own response had any legitimacy. There is much more to add that I did not quote here - I don't have time to run it down. And frankly, I am not a big fan of those folks you have profiled in this context. I feel their lack of depth perception and conscience is disturbing and dangerous, and doubtless, they qualify for this diagnosis. Seriously. However, I would not frame their mentality as "stupid" any more than I would consider some highly educated people to be anything other than full of their own well heeled intellectuality, blind to their own deficit of honest intelligence - a quality I would recognize as open minded curiosity and a non-judgmental willingness to learn.
What I find interesting here is the DeSantis note. All we need is governors like him with personal military forces. I want to vomit.
This is the scariest thing in today’s letter.
Yes, it is. All we need is these far right radicals with their personal military forces.
... they already exist - only paid for out of pocket by the feckless leaders - the difference here would be paid for by the government ... how? Tax Dem-rats - what else?!
Praetorian guard comes to mind.
That's exactly what I thought. The Praetorian Guard also chose emperors. So many of them did not die a natural death.
When you've rinsed your mouth out, remember THIS GUY WANTS TO BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT! It's a steep uphill climb through heavily gerrymandering districts to get a Dem elected governor of Florida. And when the dust settles on the primary, a short runway to the general election. If there was ever a need for Dems to rally around an out of state election, this is it.
We are keeping tabs on Florida and will donate to whomever takes this monster on in the general. When I think of DeSantis as president, vomit doesn't even come close to how he would be.