I knew this one would not get a lot of likes because (A) people who love HRC might be offended, and (B) it’s not really funny. However, it is highly revealing of the NYT. They are unabashedly and wildly pro-Hillary, without actually saying it. They prefer to present the false front that they are an unbiased news source, but when it comes to HRC, they are anything but unbiased. It’s their little secret.
One of our local far left activists posted the NPR poll on Biden. I answered her (again) about selling the good things the administration is doing including any number of progressive policies instead of constantly trying to divide the party.
I also just read a next door post about Christmas movies in a New York Post article and the Daily Blast. It looks like another stirring of the pot to get at "woke" folks and "cancel culture" I don't care if people watch It's a Wonderful Life and other Christmas movies, many of which are very old. I suggested that people watch whatever movies they like and enjoy the holidays with family and friends, while tuning out the noise from the media.
Add CNN and most of the mainstream press. Happened to see the WSJ this morning, and the front page was totally covered with economic good news. While they didn't go so far as to give Biden credit, nor did they blame TFG for his abysmal performance, at least they didn't relegate this to the back page.
Economy & Infrastructure are good, but if we lose the next 2 federal elections which the Repugnant Party is successfully working toward, it is moot.
I got so upset I WROTE A LETTER! Haven’t done that in decades since the computer age.
President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
December 7, 2021
President Biden,
I write this letter to express my grave concern about voter suppression that the governors & legislators in Repugnant Party controlled states have implemented. I understand that the Supreme Court in its narrow, legalese view in 2013, rescinding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not consider the democracy-ending ramifications when it removed the federal oversight from these backward Southern states that had historically suppressed black voters.
However, we need the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to restore some of that oversight. So far, 19 Repugnant-dominated states and not just the historically racist Southern ones, have passed laws suppressing votes and gerrymandering districts with some having gone so far as to shut down polling sites in select neighborhoods causing long waits for voters. Also some have changed the authority of vote counting to Repugnant partisan controlled officials, which clearly should not be legal, but there are no federal controls to stop them.
If these voter suppression changes are not overridden by federal voting rights laws, it guarantees the authoritarian control by the Repugnant Party as soon as next year. The Repugnant Party has already proven itself a threat to democracy by its insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021. As they did in 2020, they still have no platform for legislative action, feeling confident that they can remain in office thru voter suppression and having partisans officially counting those votes. That was the focus of their coup attempt where the Vice President was pressured to disregard the actual votes and declare the treasonous former president remain in office.
I am actually writing this letter on paper because it may have more weight than some electronic conveyance, altho in the 1980s having often written to governors, legislators and presidents in this medium as a dissenting voice didn’t seem to do much good. While the infrastructure and economic laws that have been the focus of Congress are good, I am disappointed ... No, actually frightened that Voting Rights has not been the main focus these past months. The election is eleven months away. We need to end the filibuster and other political games and push this legislation as if our very Democracy depended on it, because I am afraid it does.
I have worked in the Senate and these long letters received only a glance. There are thousands of them. It is better to make your point in a short concise way. If not, your letters won't be read. They will be filed in a subject/matter file. The letter should also include a subject heading: "Voting Rights Passage". They will be counted and filed as "Pro" or "Con". The numbers will be reported to an assistant who may or may not report the numbers to the President. If so, Pro 127,120 / Con 52.
Of the many comments posted today, this is the most valuable. Keep letters brief and include a "subject heading." Save your cleverness for commenting on here to reassure the already convinced that they are not alone.
Actually, my letters like this one are often a Journal Entry for my catharsis. I don't really expect too much consideration or even that Joe will see it. I wrote letters long and short to Reagan & Clinton (& to Reps & Sens) I even opened them "Dear Assistant" after I got a response thanking me for supporting a side I was against. I understand the assembly line process of celebs. (Except for Ed Asner who sent me a lovely personal response to our common political complaint). So, if they read it, good. If they don't it's still in their court and I've got a copy.
BTW, I kept copies of all those letters and responses in the '80s & '90s. I'm an archivist (or hoarder) and there were a lot of binders that are now kept at FIU Special Collections Library. You live long enuf and you stuff becomes history.
There are actually letters that are given to the President that are picked out for their brevity and persuasiveness, which is not your interest. You want catharist. This is an excellent means of accomplishing that.
Thanks, Rob ! I’m inspired. I’m also in Florida and received this today from my “ adopted “ FL Rep, Anna Eskamani ,in an adjoining county. Couldn’t link as it’s a newsletter.
❤️ this peaceful protest…and now to writing that snail mail letter to Biden et al.
Hello Kathy,
If you have been following election news in Florida over the last few years, then you probably know that Governor Ron DeSantis HATES when people vote by mail.
Republican lawmakers changed the laws so that a Floridian's request for Vote-by-Mail ballots expire after every statewide general election, instead of lasting for four years. Then, they restricted the hours that we can use drop boxes and imposed $25,000 fines on elections officials that violate the new law.
That's why I see requesting a Vote-by-Mail ballot as an act of protest. That’s why I just requested my Vote-by-Mail ballot on People Power for Florida’s new online Vote-By-Mail request tool.
I still plan on voting in person next year -- I always do. Requesting a Vote-by-Mail ballot doesn’t mean you can’t vote in person; it just gives you flexibility next year to either vote by mail or in person.
PS. Do you like memes AND want to help your friends request Vote-by-Mail ballots too? Check out these sample messages and a few of my favorite voting memes, and please consider sharing our online Vote-by-Mail tool on your social media! Please remember to tag #PeoplePowerFL so we can share!
You and I got it ... but how many are still focusing on the trees while the forest burns down? Voting rights legislation and locking in enough votes (women and persons of color) to maintain Congressional majorities, for what they are worth, are what is important.
Good for you Rob - I for one am not sure what to think. Democrats in office must see the same threat to their existence as you and I do (and HCR of course). And we have our share of savvy politicians. So I would like to think there is a course of action in development. They are perhaps waiting for the right time to spring it. Biden is pretty good at pulling a rabbit out of his hat. On the other hand, the situation spelled out by the news media - the issues with our Dems in name only (Sinema & Manchin), the filibuster, the unwillingness of all Republicans to right what is clearly wrong with new voting restrictions, etc, is real, and there is no magic cure to be had if the votes aren't there. In which case we are screwed for sure. Doubly frustrating is the fact that nobody is outright denied the vote, even with the new restrictions. I, for one, were I to encounter restrictions on my vote, would bend over backwards to vote anyway. Others can do the same. So in theory the Republicans in 2022 could be handed a large defeat. But in reality that isn't how it goes. More will stay home. I wish all the disaffected liberal voters would realize that 2020, as exhilarating as it was, was just a stepping stone. Just a thin hand hold on the side of a cliff. 2022 needs to be and election that can put us over the top so we don't need Manchin. And so we can avert an oncoming train wreck.
Janjamm is right--these long letters received only a glance. There are thousands of them. It is better to make your point in a short concise way. If not, your letters won't be read. They will be filed in a subject/matter file. The letter should also include a subject heading: "Voting Rights Passage". They will be counted and filed as "Pro" or "Con". The numbers will be reported to an assistant who may or may not report the numbers to the President. If so, Pro 127,120 / Con 52.
As long as reality and the news are not running on a parallel track, the GOP's control of the media is going to plan. You can't keep blaming FOX Entertainment or even the tainted CNN for misinformation when other media outlets whisper Biden's accomplishments.
If you control the media, you control perception. It's that simple.
I noticed yesterday several media outlets with similar headlines bashing Jen Psaki regarding that she was wrong in her statements regarding the availability of at home COVID tests. I watched the video and it was polar opposite of truth. As Psaki's popularity has risen, the level of misrepresentation of her statements have risen as well. I'm sure she will depart her post prior to her projected time frame. I don't blame her, I wouldn't work for this Government either.
Someone needs to shout Biden's accomplishments. This country is hard of hearing.
I hope Jen Psaki sticks it out - she is super smart and capable of fielding the b.s. and graciously throwing it back in the face of those who think they can divert and derail truth and progress with inane, empty assertions ... please, Ms. Psaki, stay with the job, as thankless and tedious as it is - we the people need you, and more professionals of your caliber to turn the tide on these game playing grifters.
I have rarely watched press conferences, but I find myself watching some of them now. I love how she manages to be polite, but shuts down the nonsense.
Kathleen, I completely agree. I just checked my news feed and several news outlets are suggesting that she was endorsing letting school children stay outside in the freezing cold because she said her 3 year old goes outside, properly dressed, to eat a snack at school. FOX headline tomorrow will no doubt say that The White House wants all school children to be "Psaki-icicles". Crap, I shouldn't give them any ideas .
Yes. This is it. Right wing media always bashes the democrats. But if main stream media also bashes and nit picks then nobody will appreciate what is being done for them.
I think part of it is that MSM is afraid of being called “partisan” if they it gives democrats and credit. I have never understood why the MSM is afraid of its perception on the right and not it’s perception on the left.
The MSM should be bashing right wing media constantly, because the latter is now basically disinformation
I think bashing right wing anything just feeds the contentious polarity - maybe better to keep focussed on reporting truth - putting it out there in contrast to the lies, without targeting right or left contingencies - exacerbating opposition - compelling further deception, diversion and distraction from relevant concerns ....
I see the same thing. Small example is that even so called left leaning speak all day long, at every stop The President or his team make to speak about the current times and actions, of then TOUTING or SELLING the Build Back Better plan. Never about explaining it, or welcoming appearances with him of those who have opposed him. It is insidious, and effective at promoting R message lines.
The meat of the matter with regard to the Court of Appeals decision, Trump v Thompson, begins on page 35, Section A. Since this document is a PDF I cannot paste a live link so just copy and paste the link in your browser to download PDF. It makes for an interesting read. The King of Mar a Lago is, no doubt, furious.
12-9-21-dc-circuit-opinion-trump-v-thompson.pdf
Thanks Heather for another excellent recap. Have a good night's rest y'all.
“Trump has not identified any specific countervailing need for confidentiality tied to the documents at issue, beyond their being presidential communications. Neither has he presented arguments that grapple with the substance of President Biden’s and Congress’s weighty judgments. Nor has he made even a preliminary showing that the content of any particular document lacks relevance to the Committee’s investigation. He offers instead only a grab-bag of objections that simply assert without elaboration his superior assessment of Executive Branch interests, insists that Congress and the Committee have no legitimate legislative interest in an attack on the Capitol, and impugns the motives of President Biden and the House. That falls far short of meeting his burden and makes it impossible for this court to find any likelihood of success."
Translation - your superior intellect just isn’t…..
Yes, Joyce Vance mentioned on Nicole Wallace that issue of Congress having the rights to these papers etc. as they are vital to an important investigation. She also suggested that this ruling leaves Mark Meadows very little room with his suit. I'm sure this ruling has a lot of folks wondering if it's time to jump the tRump sinking ship.
Wow. So former President Trump provided no substantive reasons that are necessary to obtain an injunction. It's as if tfg's lawyers were lead on an embarrassing folly. I loved this: "Former President Trump argues that the large number of potentially responsive records, combined with the limited amount of time he has to review the records for privileged materials, imposes a significant burden on him personally." Aww. The Court reminds him that this task is done by the Archivist. Thanks, Daria, for this document!
And nobody but Chris Hayes noted today that EVERY Republican legislature has disregarded any independent redistricting commission's proposals and took back redistricting to their overwhelming advantage - enough to almost guarantee their takeover of the House - while the Dummycraps are allowing the independent commissions in five western states to throw 10-15 seats to Republicans, making it even easier for the GOP to take control next year. WHAT IN HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Too much Chardonnay being swilled? Too much cucumber sandwich chomping? Too many Volvos being driven? An overabundance of sensible shoes?
I HATE being a member of the Third Republic 1940 Surrender Monkey Party.
Now, now TC, don't paint the surrender monkeys with TOO broad a brush. And what's wrong with sensible shoes? You want us to wear those cockroach stickers that were all the rage a few years back? You're right, of course, about the DEMs refusal to get down and dirty. If the GOP gerrymanders, so should we, while supporting laws that outlaw gerrymandering. That's coherent.
Gerrymandering is done by whichever party is in power. You only have to look at the Congressional Districts around Maryland Democrat controlled Baltimore Districts 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th to understand. There are enough Democrats to overturn any veto by Republican Governor Hogan.
In my view, even were they “constant headline news,” the economic figures HCR cites, at best, would be seen as a promising signal about the kind of economy we could have if and when the pandemic were brought under control and inflation were to subside. Realistically speaking, I don’t imagine ordinary Americans are nearly so affected by figures, however positive, as they are by their day-to-day lived experience.
As for the seeming ease by which a Senate carve-out was negotiated to pass the debt-ceiling provision while no such carve-out can get sufficient support to pass voter protection legislation, the explanation is dismal. Republicans, who feared Dems, if given no other choice, conceivably could agree to a carve-out to avoid defaulting on the national, thus establishing precedent, instead joined Dems in this one-time carve-out, wherein Dems, acting alone, could raise the debt-ceiling. Republicans expect, because they won’t be seen as raising the debt, to be poised in 22 to accuse Democrats of fiscal recklessness. Even worse, make no mistake. The perpetuation of false grievances that the 2020 election was stolen will succeed unimpeded if Senate Democrats don’t change the Senate filibuster rules.
Though posted by me a few days ago, it bears repeating that Attorney General Garland, this past week, concluded a press conference about suing Texas for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act with a plea to Congress to pass new federal voting rights legislation, making clear that DOJ will do whatever it can (translation: go to court to protect voting rights) but wants Congress to do what only it can (pass legislation that also protects election integrity and thus democracy itself). Could such a directive from Garland, who frets more than most over separation of powers, afford a more ample permission structure for Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, plus any other Democrats who have concerns about the filibuster to set aside whatever convictions they might have expressed about a filibuster carve-out, assured, that unless Congress acts, in 4 or 5 years from now, we’re not going to recognize the country.
We have serious blind spots in our national and personal perceptions of how well we are doing. Media surely plays a part. But I recall having higher gasoline prices than we have today, some years ago which means they were really even much higher then. If I gauge all gas prices, our cost of living and economy by the $0.25/gallon we paid when I first started driving in the 1960s, then I would say our economy has been going downhill ever since. Americans seem to be living everyday more and more in a state of delusion.
My history and current events reading fequently reminds me that Germany and Japan reconciled with their periods of national Nazi and Imperial crimes against humanity as well as against their own people. The US has never acknowledged, reconciled nor recovered from our historical crimes. As a result, Germany and Japan moved on without forgetting, while the US wallows in repeating, making excuses for, trying to ignore or claiming they never occurred with our many crimes against humanity. This moral and economic burden is far greater than our present and future national debt due to government spending. In fact all the numbers will eventually smother us if we don't come to terms with what we did, what we owe and what we must spend to restore our nation to sustainability.
We have never faced up to our ugly past. The traitorous leaders of the Confederacy were never held accountable and punished. If the people like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and leaders of the Confederate government had gone to jail that might had made some difference. The most egregious crimes against the nation don’t get punished. No wonder the R’s think they can act with impunity. As Faulkner said, “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.”
Heck, “our ugly past” is still happening. We’ve got a long way to go. At least it it is more and more visible and the knowledge of it increasingly talked about. How foolish to attempt to sweep our ugliness under the rug. How long can that last until the entire house reeks.
Are you saying our historical crimes are the ones against enslaved people? I also remember gas for 25 cents a gallon .. And it seems it was over 4 dollars within the last decade somewhere.
Our country was settled by the near genocide of the Indigenous population, and made rich on the foundation of enslaved labor. We have a lot to acknowledge and reconcile before we can recover and move forward. The US is mired in its refusal to acknowledge what we did to others to become who we are today.
Decades ago, when I lived in New Orleans where tourists marveled at the beautiful antebellum mansions in the Garden District, astute tour guides would sometimes point out that they were built by slaves. This was back when the Times Picayune rental classifieds still referred to 1-room studios as "slave quarter" apartments.
Visiting New Orleans many years ago, pre-Katrina, I was actually shocked to learn the French Market, a major tourist attraction, and very pleasant indeed, was in fact the old slave market. I had never personally confronted our country's history of racist enslavement up to that point. It honestly caused me some cognitive dissonance, seeing people enjoying their lovely meals, as I myself had done, in the same space where people were once put on blocks in chains, and sold. It was eye opening for me, and changed the way I look at both our history and our present ever since.
What is the argument you are making here. Your segue from enslavement to gas prices seems like a non sequitur.
There is an element of economic injustice built into capitalism and exacerbated by unregulated capitalism, but that exploitation is not equivalent to enslavement.
I remember pizza and subway tokens at 15 cents. But I don't equate inflation, or even stagnant wages, with enslavement legitimized by the Constitution - and the resulting entrenched structural racism.
Today's news along with politicians and citizens constantly diminish the gains and benefits of particular government policies and programs, addressing the economy to vaccinations, saying that inflation is eating all the gains or implying vaccinations are unsafe. They use data and price changes out of context such as gas prices exceeding recent lowest prices, or a few sick vaccinated people, leaving out the higher previous gas prices or the millions sick or dead unvaccinated. And the trillions in healthcare costs and losses by affected businesses and citizens waiting out a pandemic prolonged by the unvaccinated. The unvaccinated are both Americans by choice and our failure to distribute vaccines internationally where they are needed. And our failure to manage pharmaceutical companies, as we provide significant public funding, to maximize healthcare in exchange for reasonable compensation for expense and profit.
"Surveys about inflation also illustrate the point that when you talk to consumers, the questions they answer may not be the ones you thought you were asking. It’s a longstanding observation — almost a running joke — that the “expected inflation” number from the Michigan Surveys is, in practice, basically the price of gasoline."
David, Though I don’t doubt for a moment that the U.S. has much to atone for relative to crimes against humanity both at home and abroad, borrowing from lin’s posting (currently below), your segue from “gas prices” to atoning for “our historical crimes” seems like a non-sequitur. To be clear, my posting questioned the affect of economic figures, however positive, on the stress and anxiety that have taken a brutal emotional toll, for example on the 15-18% of Americans who were above the poverty line pre-COVID who dropped below the poverty line in March of 2020, who might have just lost their jobs and their homes and who might still be struggling to feed their families. Were the Administration, with the passage of BBB, able to speak about the expansion of the child tax credit, of Medicaid, of Medicare, and of ACA subsidies plus investments in childcare, in universal Pre-K, in housing, in home and community based care… I imagine everyday Americans more likely would experience a felt sense of a government that, indeed, can deliver.
I do agree that the reason those 14 Senate Republicans joined Democrats to allow a straight up vote to raise the debt ceiling is so the Democrats will not feel cornered and do away with the filibuster (being able to paint Democrats as fiscally reckless is just a bonus). Those 14 were likely directed to vote that way by their leader McConnel, who does not want to be seen as "losing" another debt ceiling fight, and desperately wants to keep his chief source of leverage, the filibuster.
Why the Democratic leadership is so reticent to scrap ,or even alter, the filibuster is not clear to me. Usually this means they know something I don't.
Kathy, As of this writing, neither Manchin nor Sinema has committed, without support from Republicans, to pass voter protection legislation, while, as you know, GOP controlled State Legislatures unilaterally pass bill after bill that restricts voting and nullifies votes. More disturbing is that Manchin has not yet agreed to a filibuster carve-out to advance legislation he helped draft—the Freedom to Vote Act, wherein Democratic Senate colleagues agreed to remove measures from the For the People Act (H.R.1/S.1) to which Manchin, in particular, was opposed. In my view, if the media were to replay a sound bite again and again, I would want it to be A.G. Garland’s plea to Congress to pass new federal voting rights legislation, wherein he made clear that DOJ will do whatever it can (translation: go to court to protect voting rights) but that Congress must do what only it can do (pass legislation that also protects election integrity and thus democracy itself). I will continue to contend that there is no message more urgent nor one that provides a more ample permission structure for Manchin and Sinema to set aside concerns about a filibuster carve-out than pleas from Garland, who frets more than most about Separation of Powers.
Steve, Your reasoning as to why McConnell corralled 14 Republicans to join Democrats in this one-time carve-out, wherein Democrats, acting alone, would raise the debt ceiling, is spot-on. Still, because McConnell settled on this one-time carve-out only after his efforts failed to get Dems to use reconciliation to avoid defaulting on the national debt, I maintain that the impetus not to be seen as raising the debt was also a critical factor.
Regarding the filibuster, I, first, would note that increasingly more Democrats favor either abolishing the filibuster outright or, at the very least, reforming it. That said, as for Democratic leadership’s seeming reticence “to scrap, or even alter, the filibuster,” I will limit my reply to a handful of points.
To start, I would note that one need look no further than the Constitution to confirm its drafters intended that legislation in both Houses would be subject to the will of the majority. We know this because these drafters took special care to note the few reasons for requesting more than a simple majority: 1) Overruling a Presidential veto, 2) Convicting an impeached officer, 3) Ratifying a treaty, and 4) Amending the Constitution.
Contrary to some currently in leadership, our Founders did not view fluctuations in Party control as justifications to jockey with the will of the majority. Here I also would note that the filibuster, initially, was created in the 1840s as a procedure for ending Senate debate since no such stipulation had been written into the Constitution.
As for reticence even to altering the filibuster, I don’t have an answer as to why, absent sufficient support to abolishing it, Senators wouldn’t sign on to one of several proposals that would provide an opening for the Senate to reclaim its rightful stature as the more deliberative legislative branch. The proposal I’ve posted in the past would involve replacing the 60-vote threshold required to end debate with a 41-vote threshold to continue debate, thus shifting the burden from the majority to the minority, 41 of whom would have to be present, speaking nonstop solely about the issue at hand, to sustain a filibuster. I can’t imagine any Senator (we only need support from 50 to enact a rule change) who could mount a credible opposition in defiance of this reform.
If you are interested in my thoughts regarding the one measure I haven’t addressed—the filibuster carve-out—see my reply below to Kathy Clark. Meantime, I hope you find my reply to your posting of value. B
I’m writing to every major news outlet tomorrow to complain about their refusal to cover the Biden boom.
In fact, Axios had an article a few days ago (Republicans worry that Roe win could backfire) that concluded voters were more likely to worry about “pocketbook” issues than let a SCOTUS decision on abortion influence their vote.
"Democratic strategist James Carville appeared on Brian Williams’ final episode of The 11th Hour and did his best to make it a memorable one. Donning an LSU Santa hat, the Ragin’ Cajun railed against several fringe House Republicans in colorful fashion.
“Matt Gaetz will probably be in a penitentiary by the time the election comes around,” he said, citing the ongoing federal investigation into whether Gaetz had sex with a minor and trafficked her across state lines. “There’s a good chance he will be.”
Carville explained that Democrats should attack the GOP by highlighting the party’s more extreme elements in Congress.
“They gotta hit hard,” he said. “Any time that Jim Jordan opens his mouth, they should go into the well of the House and read all of the Ohio state athletes that said he knew that they were being molested by the wrestling coach.
When Lauren Boebert opens her mouth, somebody should go to the well and read a story out of the New York Post – which is owned by Rupert Murdoch – by a journalist who’s named Jonathan Levine talking about how Lauren Boebert and her husband met and read that into the congressional record. We’ve got to stop this and call these people out for who they are. We gotta stop this namby-pamby, somebody-take-committees-away, and just call these people out for who they are.
He later added, “Paul Gosar’s got five siblings that all tell people to vote against him. Read what [his] siblings say into the congressional record. Look, Brian, I have an equivalent of a Ph.D in White trash-ology, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert – they can hold their best. They could be the subject of a dissertation.”
Meanwhile Gaetz and Bannon are saying this:
Rep. Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon mused about the chance of a 2024 presidential win by Donald Trump. Gaetz said an "army of patriots" should get ready now to "fight" for the US.
Bannon said "shock troops" divided into teams could take over some 4,000 government positions. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon mused about the chance of a 2024 presidential win by Donald Trump. Gaetz said an "army of patriots" should get ready now to "fight" for the US.
Bannon said "shock troops" divided into teams could take over some 4,000 government positions.
I often disagree w/ Carville but in this case he's spot-on. Disengaged voters simply don't understand how far the GOP has tilted into full-on fascism. We can outline the threats to safety, peace and home in simple terms that simple people understand and pair them with scary visuals to make the point.
Carville ain't no "Ragin' Cajun." He's a "Tiger" from LSU. The "Ragin' Cajuns" are from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a separate part of that State's university system from LSU. But regardless, Jim is right in focusing on attacking Republicans, the extremist "Party of No."
Brian asked why the Democrats weren't hitting back hard. Carville didn't answer. I am stunned by Bannon's shock troop incitement statements and he is going around free to say out loud these statements? And Gaetz is sitting in our House of Representatives?!
As Barton Gellman makes clear. It doesn't matter how successfully Biden steers the ship. There are millions of people who live in an alternate universe. They don't read, or listen to, or watch the same things we do. And "we"? We are the lazy left. I suggest we speak up more via comments, email and phone calls to our leaders and to the media.
Hopefully there are enough persuadable independents who can be convinced that we are on the right path. That might work if facts still matter. Do they?
Bill, before reading LFAA and ESPECIALLY the comment section, I had never called, emailed or written to any politician in all of my 65 years. The people here (esp Ellie Kona and Fern) spurned me on. I have emailed the Turtle many times (the only credit I give him is that you could send them to him, most others only take them from their own constituents) I have called offices and to my chagrin chewed out their aides. I have written letters--after the Texas abortion debacle, someone here posted a list of the CEOs of the top companies HQ'd in Texas, I wrote about a dozen letters then. I am more of a introvert, it takes a lot to get me riled up enough to confront at all and I'd never confront in public (indeed, I left a store yesterday rather than confront the rather geeky 70ish appearing man wearing a Let's Go Brandon! shift---really, what a STUPID sophomoric trend).
I have gotten a few friends on board who will occasionally email or call, I wouldn't quite identify them as 100% independent but they are moderate liberals leaning independent.
It takes but a moment to fire off an email or make a call when one of those who post here put up a phone number or email. to support a cause. I encourage all to do so when appropriate.
I also, thanks to Ellie, signed on to send postcards, that is right up my alley. Sent some to Virginia last election. I have also signed up with another site to send letters. I have stamps and time and I am just waiting for the next campaign to begin.
"Alternate Universe" indeed. What stuns me is that some of their memes and talking points say exactly what I believe, only with another target in mind.
I am somewhat encouraged that Barton Gellman’s information is getting out past the Atlantic magazine. He was interviewed on PBS News Hour last night and for the past two nights by Terri Gross on Fresh Air on NPR.
Nice bundle today. Booming economy (that National media is ignoring). A filibuster carve out that lets Republiqans have their cake (avoiding a default) and eat it too (failing to raise the debt ceiling). The DC Circuit deciding that subpoenaed documents need to be released, and giving 14 days for a SCOTUS appeal. Good things are happening. The elephant in the room here is the absence of Voting Rights and the two bills addressing them. Without protection of voting rights for all, none of this will matter.
I have, perhaps, an out-of-date professional financial background. My cloudy crystal ball, even with new virus strains, forecasts a solid economy by mid-late 2022, with upward employment. I have made a bet with members of my investors club that inflation will fall to 2% or lower in November, 2022. P. S. As professor (age 58-to-80) I taught ECONOMICS FROM FEUDALISM TO THE PRESENT. (It’s much easier to analyze the past than predict the future.)
So sorry not to have been a student of yours when you taught the economy in feudal times. Aren't there still some aspects of feudal economies in countries around the world? What about in the USA?
Fern I find it futile to probe feudalism these days, as we had slithered back to the Dark Ages in various ways. No king or pope was ever as rich as some of today’s tech moguls, and the peasants of yesteryear often had more security than the working poor today. Back then the land barons offered life-long employment and protection to their serfs. Today many corporations treat employees as disposable widgets. Back then folks died young. Now we have the ‘problem’ of folks living too long, threatening to bankrupt Medicare and Social Security. Something can be said for an ancient Indian custom of serving grand pa a sumptuous meal before guiding him alone into the forest to expire with a full belly. Personally I now look askance at family-planned sumptuous meals and am thankful that I’m still around after Thanksgiving dinner. My next gastronomic ‘hurdle’ is Christmas dinner. I hope to be unforested for the new year.
A Holiday hug for the wily Professor. Naturally, you keep teaching us. Many folks did better under feudalism than we do under capitalism. I started to mouth-off but will stop at the top of the iceberg. Naturally, it is going to melt any second, thanks to...
"Biden Boom" ... has a nice ring to it. Let's hope it resounds because the guy is kickin' butt as is Liz Cheney and the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. Truth will win out, ballots crossed, in this fraught, contentious time. Thanks for the upbeat post Heather.
The country won’t know until Rupert tells it. sad to say. Dems don’t scream from the rooftops like Fox. Sure wish Gore had kept his plan to form his own network, or did I dream that. Also wish Dems hadn’t dissed Bloomberg, he has the means to scream…
Rupert is at the root of much of our current distinction. His bully pulpit surpasses the President’s. As I travel around the country in my camper I notice Faux Networks and News are always available in rural areas, while other major networks are not. They seem to have a much stronger broadcast signal than others.
And they stream in waiting rooms around the country. I always request they change the station to something neutral like the food network.
Jeri, the Democrats only liked Bloomberg when he had his checkbook out. He could have made a big difference in the transfer of information . Too bad they just used him for his money, then pissed in his cereal when they foolishly thought they didn't need him.
Journalists bring us the facts. Not Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and other media celebrities but the journalists who write the stories from which HRC draws information and links for us in Notes after the Letter. Democracy cannot survive without journalists, the Free Press. Trump told Americans how much we need these reporters, “truly the enemy of the people,”.
Americans know what they are paying for food, gas, utilities, rent, repairs....etc.
'Inflation surged 6.8% in November, even more than expected, to fastest rate since 1982
'Excluding food and energy, the CPI(consumer price index) increased 4.9%, in line with expectations.
Surging prices for food, energy and shelter accounted for much of the gains.
Inflation accelerated'
'Excluding food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 0.5% for the month and 4.9% from a year ago, which itself was the sharpest pickup since mid-1991.'
'Price increases came from familiar culprits.'
'Energy prices have risen 33.3% since November 2020, including a 3.5% surge in November. Gasoline alone is up 58.1%.'
'Food prices have jumped 6.1% over the year, while used car and truck prices, a major contributor to the inflation burst, are up 31.4%, following a 2.5% increase last month.'
'The Labor Department said the increases for the food and energy components were the fastest 12-month gains in at least 13 years.'
'Shelter costs, which comprise about one-third of the CPI, increased 3.8% on the year, the highest since 2007 as the housing crisis accelerated.'
'The Federal Reserve is watching the data closely ahead of its two-day meeting next week.
Central bank officials have indicated that will begin slowing the help they’re providing in an effort to tamp down inflation.' (cnbc) Link below.
My comment might be better placed slightly above, but I “liked” the rigor of Fern’s comment, so decided to post here.
First point: I think this forum holds journalists to an absurdly high standard, especially since there is no governmentally funded journalistic organization (CBC in Canada, BBC in the UK) with a mandate that makes it hard to interfere with their product.
MSM is entirely corporate with the exception of PBS. Corporations can be expected to want a return on their money. So therefore all journalism will be more or less slanted - to the left or to the right depending on the corporation.
Throw in the “human factor”. It is huge, as it is in every walk of life, including whatever you and I worked in. News flash: people make mistakes. Egregious ones at times. They form cliques and want to be part of the “in” group. They are ambitious and that can drive bad judgment. They deal constantly with the cares of their own life and that can sometimes intrude on their work performance. They have professional rivalries.
Given all this, I think that American journalism is in a golden period. It has had to fight off, in the cases of newspapers, its possible demise in the age of computers. The best can now claim along with Mark Twain, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
The rise of serious alternative journalism (Daily Beast, BuzzFeed, Mother Jones) has driven the standards of MSM up.
I watch CNN, The Rachel Maddow Show, and CBC. I read the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, and the Washington Post daily, as well as the Atlantic, New Yorker, and other what used to be called “periodicals”.
I see the same mistakes, perverse headlines, and false equivalencies that you do. But I don’t take a “throw the baby out with the bath water” stand. I get piqued by some of what I read/see but am informed and sometimes enthralled by what I read - Barton Gellman’s latest article in the Atlantic was a masterpiece, for example.
The Mueller Report, which came out about three centuries ago it seems, landed with a thump, followed by a yawn. (I’m leaving Bill Barr’s machinations out here.) The reason for the yawn was that 90% of what it contained *was already in the public domain*. Dogged reporters had ferreted out every major story. Much as I would have liked a “smoking gun” that swiftly nailed Trump’s sorry ass to the wall, in retrospect my disappointment dimmed. And my respect for the work of (largely) American journalists soared.
Put simply: we live in a golden age of information. (And a shit age of mis(dis)information).
I refuse to get exercised by errors and seeming bias in MSM. Errors should not be the big story in how we evaluate them.
If you want to know what’s happening, you can easily find out. If you want trenchant analysis to help shape your personal position on an issue, it’s there for the taking. When you absorb enough of it, then you can spot journalistic malpractice and work your way around it.
I worked 45 plus years in education and saw first hand human frailty too often. People in institutions screw up - sometimes horribly. And yet I am incredibly proud of my profession. The good outweighs the bad by streets.
You’re in a grave way in the United States now. But your journalists are doing their level best to give democracy a fighting chance.
And beyond all that, if our standards tend to a desire for the superhuman, there is one Professor Heather Richardson Cox.
On Dec. 3, Dana Milbank had a piece in the Washington Post pointing out that journalists' efforts to be evenhanded often betrayed their own beliefs and gave support to the dishonest liars among us.
His research has been challenged by Nate Silver, whose bailiwick lies in that field. I have no opinion of worth to give to that dispute, but again I think it a refreshing example of vigorous intellectual debate.
Evenhandedness is an extremely challenging concept, as slippery as a bar of wet soap. I have noticed over the past ten years a much more nuanced understanding of what it means to be evenhanded.
Thus there can be arguments in perfectly good faith by people of character as to whether MSM’s handling of a particular situation is evenhanded.
The egregious offenders who obtrude upon our consciousness (Fox eg) are called out. It does no good. They are both purposeful and shameless.
Media literacy should be a foundational part of every child’s education. When I left teaching in 2017, lip service was paid to it (maybe 2-3 weeks in a single English course in but one of a student’s years in high school. Much, much more instruction (at least in Canada) should be devoted to it. And professional development time should be mandated so that teachers learn it rigorously, as well as being trained to filter out their own biases as best they can.
Bashing journalists isn't hard to do. Trump did it constantly. Propaganda pays. We need more journalists in the USA, particularly, local news.
DON'T BASH JOURNALISTS FOLKS. BUILD BACK LOCAL JOURNALISM. DON'T LEAVE IT TO FACEBOOK/SOCIAL MEDIA AND FOX NEWS TO POLLUTE THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE
Please read the following:
'Rebuilding Local News'
'How government can help revitalize local journalism while preserving editorial independence
Local news coverage is collapsing. Even before COVID-19, the number of reporters had declined 60 percent since 2000, a job decline similar in scale to the coal industry. Some 1,800 communities now have no local news outlet, and thousands more have “ghost newspapers” barely providing local news coverage. Since COVID-19, the situation has worsened: some 36,000 newspaper employees have been laid off, furloughed, or had their pay cut.'
'This is not a partisan issue. The decline of local news is associated with higher polarization, decreased voter turnout, less cross-party voting, increased corruption and more government waste. The decline of local reporting means residents are less well informed about schools, government effectiveness, economic development, criminal justice, health care, the environment, crime, religion, issues facing small businesses and the basic elements of community life. A well-informed citizenry is essential to solving local problems. Local news knits together communities.'
'One of the few industries mentioned in the Bill of Rights, the free press, is fading away on the local level. Yes, philanthropy must continue to help local media, and media organizations must evolve and innovate their business models. But the scale of the crisis is overwhelming. From 2008 to 2018, US newspaper revenue decreased by more than $23 billion.'
'Many journalists are skeptical about government assistance for news—for good reason. Poorly designed government policies would undermine editorial independence and threaten the free press. But given the scale of this crisis—and the consequence for our communities and democracy—our coalition has concluded that government must play a role. We further believe that it is most certainly possible to create public policies that both help local news publishers and preserve editorial independence—if they follow a few principles. These policies should:'
'Be content-neutral, nonpartisan, and ensure editorial independence.
Be future-friendly, potentially helping both existing local players and innovators.
Be platform-neutral.
Help local news organizations develop sustainable models.
Especially help locally-grounded, diverse or nonprofit media.
Result in communities having more local reporters.' (Rebuild Local News) See link below.
In the coming days, I will provide more links indicating the importance of the Free Press and how you can KEEP THE TRUTH AND THE FACTS ALIVE in the USA. In the meantime, Please CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
My opinion? News organizations seem to be sticking with the old and thread-worn and evermore damaging both-sides news-gathering and -disseminating formula to keep as many paying subscribers as they possibly can. The businesses need to generate way more revenue. Paying people to collect, analyze, distill, corroborate, deliver, and follow up on the human condition AND politics is expensive. Journalism as it's been practiced is a failing business model.
Too bad a growing, thriving, healthy American democracy depends on it.
So far, it looks as though Biden is a real comeback kid! I like his quiet doggedness. You'd think the press would give him a break with his outright support for journalists.
A plethora of positive tidbits nonetheless, Heather, thank you.
Trump's Treason: But the treason hides in plain sight. It was sedition by omission, or intentional dereliction of duty, by Trump and a handful of loyalists embedded inside the Pentagon and White House.
Exhibit 1: That day, one dozen powerful politicians from both parties and public officials placed frantic “911” calls during the attack to persons in high office at both the Pentagon and the White House. They pleaded for National Guard assistance as the small force of Capitol guards was being overtaken by thousands of armed and crazed thugs. A gallows was erected for the world’s cameras to underscore their intent. All this was televised in real-time.
Exhibit 2: The Pentagon and President sat on their hands for four hours before sending in the National Guard. By comparison, on September 11, 2000, it took the Pentagon just five minutes after the first terrorist attack hit the World Trade Center to evacuate the President and his cabinet to safety, to scramble thousands of jets, and shut down America’s airspace.
The End Game: Dangerous goons would be invited to Washington D.C., stoked by Trump in a speech, sent to the Capitol to “remove” Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi from the Presidential line of succession, and, finally, invoke The Insurrection Act of 1807. This law allows a President to unilaterally send in troops across the country in certain limited circumstances involved in the defense of constitutional rights. Trump intended to extend his tenure indefinitely by starting, then quelling, his own insurrection. https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/trumps-treason
I find this mornings letter to be extremely encouraging despite the media getting it wrong. I turned off NPR because of this kind of negative talk. Looks like I need to write to them.
I cannot abide NPR anymore. It's not just the unrelenting negativity, but the deliberate and tortured attempts at "both sides" reporting that is completely undeserved and basically, misinformation. Shame on them.
If Biden walked on water across the Potomac, the WaPo headline next day would read,
"Potomac stroll raises doubts about Biden's swimming ability"
NYT: "Biden's swim failure is hurting his presidency"
NYT opinion piece: “Hillary would probably have done a better job, let’s look at her record of walking on water.”
I knew this one would not get a lot of likes because (A) people who love HRC might be offended, and (B) it’s not really funny. However, it is highly revealing of the NYT. They are unabashedly and wildly pro-Hillary, without actually saying it. They prefer to present the false front that they are an unbiased news source, but when it comes to HRC, they are anything but unbiased. It’s their little secret.
Not just WaPo, even the NYTimes and NPR.
One of our local far left activists posted the NPR poll on Biden. I answered her (again) about selling the good things the administration is doing including any number of progressive policies instead of constantly trying to divide the party.
I also just read a next door post about Christmas movies in a New York Post article and the Daily Blast. It looks like another stirring of the pot to get at "woke" folks and "cancel culture" I don't care if people watch It's a Wonderful Life and other Christmas movies, many of which are very old. I suggested that people watch whatever movies they like and enjoy the holidays with family and friends, while tuning out the noise from the media.
Add CNN and most of the mainstream press. Happened to see the WSJ this morning, and the front page was totally covered with economic good news. While they didn't go so far as to give Biden credit, nor did they blame TFG for his abysmal performance, at least they didn't relegate this to the back page.
Raw Story: “Trump apoplectic about Biden’s walk, insists he did it too, but complains no news coverage.”
Brilliant. Roland, you've missed your calling as a political satirist.
Best yet
Thank you Joan!
😀😃😆😅😂🤣🥲😰🤮
Peter Doocy: “Biden walking on a river is un-American and un-Christian. Who does that??”
Jen Psaki: “Have you even read the Bible?”
OMG! Even better! Hahahaha.....
Only witches, time for a dunking , pressing, or the stake . . .
LOL
Wall Street Journal: "Biden bungles Potomac swim"
You guys!
NPR: "Biden's walk: US inflation red-hot"
Politico: "Dems in disarray over Biden's walk"
🤣😂😆
😂😂😂
Fox News’s headline: “Biden tries to copycat Jesus, but he gives up way too quickly. Is Biden getting old and tired?”
😀😃😄😆😅😂🤣
The Atlantic: Water stunt won’t stop slide into authoritarianism
New Yorker: Walking on water, then and now - how it affects Biden’s presidency
Pinterest: DYI walk on water
😆😂😆 i’m still laughing over the Atlantic
Jim you are funny 😆
Jim, that is hilarious!
This one might be the best Joan. It could be WSJ, Fox, Sacramento Bee, US News and World Report, The Hill, Newsweek, . . .
Joan posted something like . . .
NPR: “Inflation is sky high”
. . . the implication being that the story of Biden’s walk is completely ignored and overlooked
Exactly. Plus other news is presented in an artificially negative light.
IT’S ABOUT TIME WE PROTECT VOTING RIGHTS
Economy & Infrastructure are good, but if we lose the next 2 federal elections which the Repugnant Party is successfully working toward, it is moot.
I got so upset I WROTE A LETTER! Haven’t done that in decades since the computer age.
President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
December 7, 2021
President Biden,
I write this letter to express my grave concern about voter suppression that the governors & legislators in Repugnant Party controlled states have implemented. I understand that the Supreme Court in its narrow, legalese view in 2013, rescinding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not consider the democracy-ending ramifications when it removed the federal oversight from these backward Southern states that had historically suppressed black voters.
However, we need the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to restore some of that oversight. So far, 19 Repugnant-dominated states and not just the historically racist Southern ones, have passed laws suppressing votes and gerrymandering districts with some having gone so far as to shut down polling sites in select neighborhoods causing long waits for voters. Also some have changed the authority of vote counting to Repugnant partisan controlled officials, which clearly should not be legal, but there are no federal controls to stop them.
If these voter suppression changes are not overridden by federal voting rights laws, it guarantees the authoritarian control by the Repugnant Party as soon as next year. The Repugnant Party has already proven itself a threat to democracy by its insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021. As they did in 2020, they still have no platform for legislative action, feeling confident that they can remain in office thru voter suppression and having partisans officially counting those votes. That was the focus of their coup attempt where the Vice President was pressured to disregard the actual votes and declare the treasonous former president remain in office.
I am actually writing this letter on paper because it may have more weight than some electronic conveyance, altho in the 1980s having often written to governors, legislators and presidents in this medium as a dissenting voice didn’t seem to do much good. While the infrastructure and economic laws that have been the focus of Congress are good, I am disappointed ... No, actually frightened that Voting Rights has not been the main focus these past months. The election is eleven months away. We need to end the filibuster and other political games and push this legislation as if our very Democracy depended on it, because I am afraid it does.
Sincerely,
Rob Boyte
Miami Beach, FL
CC: Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Sen. Chuck Schumer
I have worked in the Senate and these long letters received only a glance. There are thousands of them. It is better to make your point in a short concise way. If not, your letters won't be read. They will be filed in a subject/matter file. The letter should also include a subject heading: "Voting Rights Passage". They will be counted and filed as "Pro" or "Con". The numbers will be reported to an assistant who may or may not report the numbers to the President. If so, Pro 127,120 / Con 52.
Of the many comments posted today, this is the most valuable. Keep letters brief and include a "subject heading." Save your cleverness for commenting on here to reassure the already convinced that they are not alone.
Actually, my letters like this one are often a Journal Entry for my catharsis. I don't really expect too much consideration or even that Joe will see it. I wrote letters long and short to Reagan & Clinton (& to Reps & Sens) I even opened them "Dear Assistant" after I got a response thanking me for supporting a side I was against. I understand the assembly line process of celebs. (Except for Ed Asner who sent me a lovely personal response to our common political complaint). So, if they read it, good. If they don't it's still in their court and I've got a copy.
BTW, I kept copies of all those letters and responses in the '80s & '90s. I'm an archivist (or hoarder) and there were a lot of binders that are now kept at FIU Special Collections Library. You live long enuf and you stuff becomes history.
There are actually letters that are given to the President that are picked out for their brevity and persuasiveness, which is not your interest. You want catharist. This is an excellent means of accomplishing that.
Agreed, Janjamm !
Yes, thank you for that reminder.
Thanks, Rob ! I’m inspired. I’m also in Florida and received this today from my “ adopted “ FL Rep, Anna Eskamani ,in an adjoining county. Couldn’t link as it’s a newsletter.
❤️ this peaceful protest…and now to writing that snail mail letter to Biden et al.
Hello Kathy,
If you have been following election news in Florida over the last few years, then you probably know that Governor Ron DeSantis HATES when people vote by mail.
Republican lawmakers changed the laws so that a Floridian's request for Vote-by-Mail ballots expire after every statewide general election, instead of lasting for four years. Then, they restricted the hours that we can use drop boxes and imposed $25,000 fines on elections officials that violate the new law.
That's why I see requesting a Vote-by-Mail ballot as an act of protest. That’s why I just requested my Vote-by-Mail ballot on People Power for Florida’s new online Vote-By-Mail request tool.
I still plan on voting in person next year -- I always do. Requesting a Vote-by-Mail ballot doesn’t mean you can’t vote in person; it just gives you flexibility next year to either vote by mail or in person.
Please make sure your voter registration is up to date and request a Vote-by-Mail ballot here: www.PeoplePowerforFlorida.com/vote
Onward together,
Representative Anna V. Eskamani
PS. Do you like memes AND want to help your friends request Vote-by-Mail ballots too? Check out these sample messages and a few of my favorite voting memes, and please consider sharing our online Vote-by-Mail tool on your social media! Please remember to tag #PeoplePowerFL so we can share!
The more of these that go out, on all media, to all levels, the better. Thank you!
Thank you, Rob Boyte 🎯🎯🎯
You and I got it ... but how many are still focusing on the trees while the forest burns down? Voting rights legislation and locking in enough votes (women and persons of color) to maintain Congressional majorities, for what they are worth, are what is important.
Good for you Rob - I for one am not sure what to think. Democrats in office must see the same threat to their existence as you and I do (and HCR of course). And we have our share of savvy politicians. So I would like to think there is a course of action in development. They are perhaps waiting for the right time to spring it. Biden is pretty good at pulling a rabbit out of his hat. On the other hand, the situation spelled out by the news media - the issues with our Dems in name only (Sinema & Manchin), the filibuster, the unwillingness of all Republicans to right what is clearly wrong with new voting restrictions, etc, is real, and there is no magic cure to be had if the votes aren't there. In which case we are screwed for sure. Doubly frustrating is the fact that nobody is outright denied the vote, even with the new restrictions. I, for one, were I to encounter restrictions on my vote, would bend over backwards to vote anyway. Others can do the same. So in theory the Republicans in 2022 could be handed a large defeat. But in reality that isn't how it goes. More will stay home. I wish all the disaffected liberal voters would realize that 2020, as exhilarating as it was, was just a stepping stone. Just a thin hand hold on the side of a cliff. 2022 needs to be and election that can put us over the top so we don't need Manchin. And so we can avert an oncoming train wreck.
I'd add in the increase in gerrymandering in Republican states since the new census results. Some states have really diluted the Democratic voters.
👍👍👍👍👍👍
I loved your letter except for the misspelling of Republican😎
"Republican?" The only good Republican is a Dead Republican.
Of course I refer to Dwight Eisenhower, the last decent Republican president in my lifetime.
Excellent. I will borrow (plagiarize) part of your excellent letter and send to my Democratic Senators and Biden. Thank you
Feel free to take anything worth taking. (Read close and you may notice rearranged words plagiarized from HCR's letters.)
Janjamm is right--these long letters received only a glance. There are thousands of them. It is better to make your point in a short concise way. If not, your letters won't be read. They will be filed in a subject/matter file. The letter should also include a subject heading: "Voting Rights Passage". They will be counted and filed as "Pro" or "Con". The numbers will be reported to an assistant who may or may not report the numbers to the President. If so, Pro 127,120 / Con 52.
I'm going to use part of it. In today's world anything longer than a tweet or bumper sticker is ignored.
Thank you Heather.
As long as reality and the news are not running on a parallel track, the GOP's control of the media is going to plan. You can't keep blaming FOX Entertainment or even the tainted CNN for misinformation when other media outlets whisper Biden's accomplishments.
If you control the media, you control perception. It's that simple.
I noticed yesterday several media outlets with similar headlines bashing Jen Psaki regarding that she was wrong in her statements regarding the availability of at home COVID tests. I watched the video and it was polar opposite of truth. As Psaki's popularity has risen, the level of misrepresentation of her statements have risen as well. I'm sure she will depart her post prior to her projected time frame. I don't blame her, I wouldn't work for this Government either.
Someone needs to shout Biden's accomplishments. This country is hard of hearing.
Be safe. Be well.
I hope Jen Psaki sticks it out - she is super smart and capable of fielding the b.s. and graciously throwing it back in the face of those who think they can divert and derail truth and progress with inane, empty assertions ... please, Ms. Psaki, stay with the job, as thankless and tedious as it is - we the people need you, and more professionals of your caliber to turn the tide on these game playing grifters.
I have rarely watched press conferences, but I find myself watching some of them now. I love how she manages to be polite, but shuts down the nonsense.
I set reminders to see her. Strength. Knowledge. Wit. Trifecta!
Don't forget the head tilt that makes everyone in the room squirm 😆
Kathleen, I completely agree. I just checked my news feed and several news outlets are suggesting that she was endorsing letting school children stay outside in the freezing cold because she said her 3 year old goes outside, properly dressed, to eat a snack at school. FOX headline tomorrow will no doubt say that The White House wants all school children to be "Psaki-icicles". Crap, I shouldn't give them any ideas .
... off the rails ... Psakicles ...?!
Yes. This is it. Right wing media always bashes the democrats. But if main stream media also bashes and nit picks then nobody will appreciate what is being done for them.
I think part of it is that MSM is afraid of being called “partisan” if they it gives democrats and credit. I have never understood why the MSM is afraid of its perception on the right and not it’s perception on the left.
The MSM should be bashing right wing media constantly, because the latter is now basically disinformation
Try Raw Story. That’s how MSM should be bashing the cretins still advocating for Confederate America and slavery of women and non-whites.
Yes. Raw story is good. There are others as well. My issue is that these sites are cumulatively not affecting the main narratives
I think bashing right wing anything just feeds the contentious polarity - maybe better to keep focussed on reporting truth - putting it out there in contrast to the lies, without targeting right or left contingencies - exacerbating opposition - compelling further deception, diversion and distraction from relevant concerns ....
I see the same thing. Small example is that even so called left leaning speak all day long, at every stop The President or his team make to speak about the current times and actions, of then TOUTING or SELLING the Build Back Better plan. Never about explaining it, or welcoming appearances with him of those who have opposed him. It is insidious, and effective at promoting R message lines.
The meat of the matter with regard to the Court of Appeals decision, Trump v Thompson, begins on page 35, Section A. Since this document is a PDF I cannot paste a live link so just copy and paste the link in your browser to download PDF. It makes for an interesting read. The King of Mar a Lago is, no doubt, furious.
12-9-21-dc-circuit-opinion-trump-v-thompson.pdf
Thanks Heather for another excellent recap. Have a good night's rest y'all.
“Trump has not identified any specific countervailing need for confidentiality tied to the documents at issue, beyond their being presidential communications. Neither has he presented arguments that grapple with the substance of President Biden’s and Congress’s weighty judgments. Nor has he made even a preliminary showing that the content of any particular document lacks relevance to the Committee’s investigation. He offers instead only a grab-bag of objections that simply assert without elaboration his superior assessment of Executive Branch interests, insists that Congress and the Committee have no legitimate legislative interest in an attack on the Capitol, and impugns the motives of President Biden and the House. That falls far short of meeting his burden and makes it impossible for this court to find any likelihood of success."
Translation - your superior intellect just isn’t…..
“Stable genius” he ain’t
Love the translation.
Thank You.
Thanks Daria & the Appellate Opinion (3-0] was rendered quickly. The issue of the Jan 6 Committee legitimacy is now settled law in the DC Circuit.
I'm impressed by how quickly the court decided this
My guess is they could have ruled that day but needed to appear "objective."
Mine too.
Yes & hopefully any appeal to SCOTUS will be summarily rejected on the "Shadow Docket".
Yes, Joyce Vance mentioned on Nicole Wallace that issue of Congress having the rights to these papers etc. as they are vital to an important investigation. She also suggested that this ruling leaves Mark Meadows very little room with his suit. I'm sure this ruling has a lot of folks wondering if it's time to jump the tRump sinking ship.
“.. this ruling has a lot of folks wondering if it's time to jump the tRump sinking ship.”
OH SO MANY ways I could respond to that - where to begin🤔
Excellent find Daria!
Sometimes insomnia pays off.
😉
Wow. So former President Trump provided no substantive reasons that are necessary to obtain an injunction. It's as if tfg's lawyers were lead on an embarrassing folly. I loved this: "Former President Trump argues that the large number of potentially responsive records, combined with the limited amount of time he has to review the records for privileged materials, imposes a significant burden on him personally." Aww. The Court reminds him that this task is done by the Archivist. Thanks, Daria, for this document!
😉
OMG! Thanks, Daria. Yes, the King’s head must be exploding !! Such a worthwhile read. I have hope :)
What a visual! Thanks for the chuckle, Kathy! Hope: me too
The decision is also available as a live link on WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/donald-trump-v-bennie-thompson-21-5254-opinion/525d72d9-991a-410f-9939-3e31fae683c2/
And also at https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21151604/12-9-21-dc-circuit-opinion-trump-v-thompson.pdf
Apologies. I wasn't at the top of my game at 2 am.
We forgive you 😘
Thanks 😘
Meaty indeed.
That is a fascinating read. Thanks for the link!
And nobody but Chris Hayes noted today that EVERY Republican legislature has disregarded any independent redistricting commission's proposals and took back redistricting to their overwhelming advantage - enough to almost guarantee their takeover of the House - while the Dummycraps are allowing the independent commissions in five western states to throw 10-15 seats to Republicans, making it even easier for the GOP to take control next year. WHAT IN HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Too much Chardonnay being swilled? Too much cucumber sandwich chomping? Too many Volvos being driven? An overabundance of sensible shoes?
I HATE being a member of the Third Republic 1940 Surrender Monkey Party.
Made my blood run cold. And Dems keep their “go high” strategy as they (we) circle the drain.
Now, now TC, don't paint the surrender monkeys with TOO broad a brush. And what's wrong with sensible shoes? You want us to wear those cockroach stickers that were all the rage a few years back? You're right, of course, about the DEMs refusal to get down and dirty. If the GOP gerrymanders, so should we, while supporting laws that outlaw gerrymandering. That's coherent.
Gerrymandering: the single most definitive weapon against democracy in this country.
Gerrymandering is done by whichever party is in power. You only have to look at the Congressional Districts around Maryland Democrat controlled Baltimore Districts 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th to understand. There are enough Democrats to overturn any veto by Republican Governor Hogan.
Given that Hogan talks politically like he just blew in from Mars, that's probably a good thing.
TC, great comment, but please expand upon your etymology of your term "Third Republic 1940 Surrender Monkey Party." Thanks.
In my view, even were they “constant headline news,” the economic figures HCR cites, at best, would be seen as a promising signal about the kind of economy we could have if and when the pandemic were brought under control and inflation were to subside. Realistically speaking, I don’t imagine ordinary Americans are nearly so affected by figures, however positive, as they are by their day-to-day lived experience.
As for the seeming ease by which a Senate carve-out was negotiated to pass the debt-ceiling provision while no such carve-out can get sufficient support to pass voter protection legislation, the explanation is dismal. Republicans, who feared Dems, if given no other choice, conceivably could agree to a carve-out to avoid defaulting on the national, thus establishing precedent, instead joined Dems in this one-time carve-out, wherein Dems, acting alone, could raise the debt-ceiling. Republicans expect, because they won’t be seen as raising the debt, to be poised in 22 to accuse Democrats of fiscal recklessness. Even worse, make no mistake. The perpetuation of false grievances that the 2020 election was stolen will succeed unimpeded if Senate Democrats don’t change the Senate filibuster rules.
Though posted by me a few days ago, it bears repeating that Attorney General Garland, this past week, concluded a press conference about suing Texas for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act with a plea to Congress to pass new federal voting rights legislation, making clear that DOJ will do whatever it can (translation: go to court to protect voting rights) but wants Congress to do what only it can (pass legislation that also protects election integrity and thus democracy itself). Could such a directive from Garland, who frets more than most over separation of powers, afford a more ample permission structure for Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, plus any other Democrats who have concerns about the filibuster to set aside whatever convictions they might have expressed about a filibuster carve-out, assured, that unless Congress acts, in 4 or 5 years from now, we’re not going to recognize the country.
We have serious blind spots in our national and personal perceptions of how well we are doing. Media surely plays a part. But I recall having higher gasoline prices than we have today, some years ago which means they were really even much higher then. If I gauge all gas prices, our cost of living and economy by the $0.25/gallon we paid when I first started driving in the 1960s, then I would say our economy has been going downhill ever since. Americans seem to be living everyday more and more in a state of delusion.
My history and current events reading fequently reminds me that Germany and Japan reconciled with their periods of national Nazi and Imperial crimes against humanity as well as against their own people. The US has never acknowledged, reconciled nor recovered from our historical crimes. As a result, Germany and Japan moved on without forgetting, while the US wallows in repeating, making excuses for, trying to ignore or claiming they never occurred with our many crimes against humanity. This moral and economic burden is far greater than our present and future national debt due to government spending. In fact all the numbers will eventually smother us if we don't come to terms with what we did, what we owe and what we must spend to restore our nation to sustainability.
We have never faced up to our ugly past. The traitorous leaders of the Confederacy were never held accountable and punished. If the people like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and leaders of the Confederate government had gone to jail that might had made some difference. The most egregious crimes against the nation don’t get punished. No wonder the R’s think they can act with impunity. As Faulkner said, “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.”
Heck, “our ugly past” is still happening. We’ve got a long way to go. At least it it is more and more visible and the knowledge of it increasingly talked about. How foolish to attempt to sweep our ugliness under the rug. How long can that last until the entire house reeks.
Are you saying our historical crimes are the ones against enslaved people? I also remember gas for 25 cents a gallon .. And it seems it was over 4 dollars within the last decade somewhere.
Our country was settled by the near genocide of the Indigenous population, and made rich on the foundation of enslaved labor. We have a lot to acknowledge and reconcile before we can recover and move forward. The US is mired in its refusal to acknowledge what we did to others to become who we are today.
Decades ago, when I lived in New Orleans where tourists marveled at the beautiful antebellum mansions in the Garden District, astute tour guides would sometimes point out that they were built by slaves. This was back when the Times Picayune rental classifieds still referred to 1-room studios as "slave quarter" apartments.
Visiting New Orleans many years ago, pre-Katrina, I was actually shocked to learn the French Market, a major tourist attraction, and very pleasant indeed, was in fact the old slave market. I had never personally confronted our country's history of racist enslavement up to that point. It honestly caused me some cognitive dissonance, seeing people enjoying their lovely meals, as I myself had done, in the same space where people were once put on blocks in chains, and sold. It was eye opening for me, and changed the way I look at both our history and our present ever since.
What is the argument you are making here. Your segue from enslavement to gas prices seems like a non sequitur.
There is an element of economic injustice built into capitalism and exacerbated by unregulated capitalism, but that exploitation is not equivalent to enslavement.
I remember pizza and subway tokens at 15 cents. But I don't equate inflation, or even stagnant wages, with enslavement legitimized by the Constitution - and the resulting entrenched structural racism.
Today's news along with politicians and citizens constantly diminish the gains and benefits of particular government policies and programs, addressing the economy to vaccinations, saying that inflation is eating all the gains or implying vaccinations are unsafe. They use data and price changes out of context such as gas prices exceeding recent lowest prices, or a few sick vaccinated people, leaving out the higher previous gas prices or the millions sick or dead unvaccinated. And the trillions in healthcare costs and losses by affected businesses and citizens waiting out a pandemic prolonged by the unvaccinated. The unvaccinated are both Americans by choice and our failure to distribute vaccines internationally where they are needed. And our failure to manage pharmaceutical companies, as we provide significant public funding, to maximize healthcare in exchange for reasonable compensation for expense and profit.
"Surveys about inflation also illustrate the point that when you talk to consumers, the questions they answer may not be the ones you thought you were asking. It’s a longstanding observation — almost a running joke — that the “expected inflation” number from the Michigan Surveys is, in practice, basically the price of gasoline."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/opinion/economy-inflation-spending-jobs.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSlUbCibSRdkhrxqAwvXEx7o7g267LS6bTT9ezuMTRpOY9kHBZKxsItk01S_dRMNENPVnYs1O-dJlHh4nTRi08NzDkY4ZIi4xpMW9Aj8_j5iVAvU2oDK1KzTndbk6zuDusVeKbDa9XaCM03MmcAd1sNAyIwHRrH8LwazEEuF00sAvnqtyQ8AnGkpTIXWCrPLqCB1hON6Zbhi66gM-WO9RWzm7jsfLovtbM10UUQSaOSs5tWUs69pcOMcUP7L_KnMjesn-h7YQCg94PYWpP_6SHYympamJ66ef33U&smid=url-share&fbclid=IwAR1IDfv-LPzIPekcwmRI7K5XzNuSZsEZ4mueQloJVrzPuf14E8sPnrS0hjc
David, Though I don’t doubt for a moment that the U.S. has much to atone for relative to crimes against humanity both at home and abroad, borrowing from lin’s posting (currently below), your segue from “gas prices” to atoning for “our historical crimes” seems like a non-sequitur. To be clear, my posting questioned the affect of economic figures, however positive, on the stress and anxiety that have taken a brutal emotional toll, for example on the 15-18% of Americans who were above the poverty line pre-COVID who dropped below the poverty line in March of 2020, who might have just lost their jobs and their homes and who might still be struggling to feed their families. Were the Administration, with the passage of BBB, able to speak about the expansion of the child tax credit, of Medicaid, of Medicare, and of ACA subsidies plus investments in childcare, in universal Pre-K, in housing, in home and community based care… I imagine everyday Americans more likely would experience a felt sense of a government that, indeed, can deliver.
I do agree that the reason those 14 Senate Republicans joined Democrats to allow a straight up vote to raise the debt ceiling is so the Democrats will not feel cornered and do away with the filibuster (being able to paint Democrats as fiscally reckless is just a bonus). Those 14 were likely directed to vote that way by their leader McConnel, who does not want to be seen as "losing" another debt ceiling fight, and desperately wants to keep his chief source of leverage, the filibuster.
Why the Democratic leadership is so reticent to scrap ,or even alter, the filibuster is not clear to me. Usually this means they know something I don't.
Manchin and Sinema are opposed to scrapping tge filibuster, so currently not enough votes to pass. Hence new move to change some Senate rules.
Do you think they might be open to a carve out for voting rights?
Kathy, As of this writing, neither Manchin nor Sinema has committed, without support from Republicans, to pass voter protection legislation, while, as you know, GOP controlled State Legislatures unilaterally pass bill after bill that restricts voting and nullifies votes. More disturbing is that Manchin has not yet agreed to a filibuster carve-out to advance legislation he helped draft—the Freedom to Vote Act, wherein Democratic Senate colleagues agreed to remove measures from the For the People Act (H.R.1/S.1) to which Manchin, in particular, was opposed. In my view, if the media were to replay a sound bite again and again, I would want it to be A.G. Garland’s plea to Congress to pass new federal voting rights legislation, wherein he made clear that DOJ will do whatever it can (translation: go to court to protect voting rights) but that Congress must do what only it can do (pass legislation that also protects election integrity and thus democracy itself). I will continue to contend that there is no message more urgent nor one that provides a more ample permission structure for Manchin and Sinema to set aside concerns about a filibuster carve-out than pleas from Garland, who frets more than most about Separation of Powers.
Hope so!
Steve, Your reasoning as to why McConnell corralled 14 Republicans to join Democrats in this one-time carve-out, wherein Democrats, acting alone, would raise the debt ceiling, is spot-on. Still, because McConnell settled on this one-time carve-out only after his efforts failed to get Dems to use reconciliation to avoid defaulting on the national debt, I maintain that the impetus not to be seen as raising the debt was also a critical factor.
Regarding the filibuster, I, first, would note that increasingly more Democrats favor either abolishing the filibuster outright or, at the very least, reforming it. That said, as for Democratic leadership’s seeming reticence “to scrap, or even alter, the filibuster,” I will limit my reply to a handful of points.
To start, I would note that one need look no further than the Constitution to confirm its drafters intended that legislation in both Houses would be subject to the will of the majority. We know this because these drafters took special care to note the few reasons for requesting more than a simple majority: 1) Overruling a Presidential veto, 2) Convicting an impeached officer, 3) Ratifying a treaty, and 4) Amending the Constitution.
Contrary to some currently in leadership, our Founders did not view fluctuations in Party control as justifications to jockey with the will of the majority. Here I also would note that the filibuster, initially, was created in the 1840s as a procedure for ending Senate debate since no such stipulation had been written into the Constitution.
As for reticence even to altering the filibuster, I don’t have an answer as to why, absent sufficient support to abolishing it, Senators wouldn’t sign on to one of several proposals that would provide an opening for the Senate to reclaim its rightful stature as the more deliberative legislative branch. The proposal I’ve posted in the past would involve replacing the 60-vote threshold required to end debate with a 41-vote threshold to continue debate, thus shifting the burden from the majority to the minority, 41 of whom would have to be present, speaking nonstop solely about the issue at hand, to sustain a filibuster. I can’t imagine any Senator (we only need support from 50 to enact a rule change) who could mount a credible opposition in defiance of this reform.
If you are interested in my thoughts regarding the one measure I haven’t addressed—the filibuster carve-out—see my reply below to Kathy Clark. Meantime, I hope you find my reply to your posting of value. B
I’m writing to every major news outlet tomorrow to complain about their refusal to cover the Biden boom.
In fact, Axios had an article a few days ago (Republicans worry that Roe win could backfire) that concluded voters were more likely to worry about “pocketbook” issues than let a SCOTUS decision on abortion influence their vote.
Infuriating.
Another headline right now on WP: “Republicans help clear way for Senate vote on deal over debt ceiling.”
For pity’s sake!
Did you hear me screaming….
LOL!
Hahaha!
Is it possible that the negative coverage of Biden is an attempt by editors to preserve their “unbiased” ranking on those charts of media bias?
So many negative articles had to be written about TFG...If they talk about the truth now, the algorithms will calculate they are “strongly left”
Algorithms will kill us. They distort while the pretense is that they even the playing field, I.e. the “community standards”
MANY let a position on abortion influence everything else…. It’s called I don’t have to consider anything but NO, no critical thinking skills needed
So much editorial opinion, so little reporting. (I resisted the urge to type exclamation mark.)
James Carville's wisdom on messaging.
"Democratic strategist James Carville appeared on Brian Williams’ final episode of The 11th Hour and did his best to make it a memorable one. Donning an LSU Santa hat, the Ragin’ Cajun railed against several fringe House Republicans in colorful fashion.
“Matt Gaetz will probably be in a penitentiary by the time the election comes around,” he said, citing the ongoing federal investigation into whether Gaetz had sex with a minor and trafficked her across state lines. “There’s a good chance he will be.”
Carville explained that Democrats should attack the GOP by highlighting the party’s more extreme elements in Congress.
“They gotta hit hard,” he said. “Any time that Jim Jordan opens his mouth, they should go into the well of the House and read all of the Ohio state athletes that said he knew that they were being molested by the wrestling coach.
When Lauren Boebert opens her mouth, somebody should go to the well and read a story out of the New York Post – which is owned by Rupert Murdoch – by a journalist who’s named Jonathan Levine talking about how Lauren Boebert and her husband met and read that into the congressional record. We’ve got to stop this and call these people out for who they are. We gotta stop this namby-pamby, somebody-take-committees-away, and just call these people out for who they are.
He later added, “Paul Gosar’s got five siblings that all tell people to vote against him. Read what [his] siblings say into the congressional record. Look, Brian, I have an equivalent of a Ph.D in White trash-ology, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert – they can hold their best. They could be the subject of a dissertation.”
Meanwhile Gaetz and Bannon are saying this:
Rep. Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon mused about the chance of a 2024 presidential win by Donald Trump. Gaetz said an "army of patriots" should get ready now to "fight" for the US.
Bannon said "shock troops" divided into teams could take over some 4,000 government positions. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon mused about the chance of a 2024 presidential win by Donald Trump. Gaetz said an "army of patriots" should get ready now to "fight" for the US.
Bannon said "shock troops" divided into teams could take over some 4,000 government positions.
I often disagree w/ Carville but in this case he's spot-on. Disengaged voters simply don't understand how far the GOP has tilted into full-on fascism. We can outline the threats to safety, peace and home in simple terms that simple people understand and pair them with scary visuals to make the point.
Carville ain't no "Ragin' Cajun." He's a "Tiger" from LSU. The "Ragin' Cajuns" are from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a separate part of that State's university system from LSU. But regardless, Jim is right in focusing on attacking Republicans, the extremist "Party of No."
What did Brian say?
Brian asked why the Democrats weren't hitting back hard. Carville didn't answer. I am stunned by Bannon's shock troop incitement statements and he is going around free to say out loud these statements? And Gaetz is sitting in our House of Representatives?!
As Barton Gellman makes clear. It doesn't matter how successfully Biden steers the ship. There are millions of people who live in an alternate universe. They don't read, or listen to, or watch the same things we do. And "we"? We are the lazy left. I suggest we speak up more via comments, email and phone calls to our leaders and to the media.
Hopefully there are enough persuadable independents who can be convinced that we are on the right path. That might work if facts still matter. Do they?
Bill, before reading LFAA and ESPECIALLY the comment section, I had never called, emailed or written to any politician in all of my 65 years. The people here (esp Ellie Kona and Fern) spurned me on. I have emailed the Turtle many times (the only credit I give him is that you could send them to him, most others only take them from their own constituents) I have called offices and to my chagrin chewed out their aides. I have written letters--after the Texas abortion debacle, someone here posted a list of the CEOs of the top companies HQ'd in Texas, I wrote about a dozen letters then. I am more of a introvert, it takes a lot to get me riled up enough to confront at all and I'd never confront in public (indeed, I left a store yesterday rather than confront the rather geeky 70ish appearing man wearing a Let's Go Brandon! shift---really, what a STUPID sophomoric trend).
I have gotten a few friends on board who will occasionally email or call, I wouldn't quite identify them as 100% independent but they are moderate liberals leaning independent.
It takes but a moment to fire off an email or make a call when one of those who post here put up a phone number or email. to support a cause. I encourage all to do so when appropriate.
I also, thanks to Ellie, signed on to send postcards, that is right up my alley. Sent some to Virginia last election. I have also signed up with another site to send letters. I have stamps and time and I am just waiting for the next campaign to begin.
Yes, Yes, Yes, MISELLE. You are a citizen of this country in the best sense. Yes, Yes, Yes!
THANK YOU, Miselle! I'm glad you're fired about and DOING SOMETHING about it!
"Alternate Universe" indeed. What stuns me is that some of their memes and talking points say exactly what I believe, only with another target in mind.
The one that really riles me is "My body, my rights" referring to masking. But double standard when it comes to women's bodies.
Exactly! Such hypocrisy.
The degree of projection is astonishing. And I believe it’s deliberate gaslighting.
I am somewhat encouraged that Barton Gellman’s information is getting out past the Atlantic magazine. He was interviewed on PBS News Hour last night and for the past two nights by Terri Gross on Fresh Air on NPR.
Yes.
Nice bundle today. Booming economy (that National media is ignoring). A filibuster carve out that lets Republiqans have their cake (avoiding a default) and eat it too (failing to raise the debt ceiling). The DC Circuit deciding that subpoenaed documents need to be released, and giving 14 days for a SCOTUS appeal. Good things are happening. The elephant in the room here is the absence of Voting Rights and the two bills addressing them. Without protection of voting rights for all, none of this will matter.
It will happen.
That would be very nice.
I have, perhaps, an out-of-date professional financial background. My cloudy crystal ball, even with new virus strains, forecasts a solid economy by mid-late 2022, with upward employment. I have made a bet with members of my investors club that inflation will fall to 2% or lower in November, 2022. P. S. As professor (age 58-to-80) I taught ECONOMICS FROM FEUDALISM TO THE PRESENT. (It’s much easier to analyze the past than predict the future.)
So sorry not to have been a student of yours when you taught the economy in feudal times. Aren't there still some aspects of feudal economies in countries around the world? What about in the USA?
Fern I find it futile to probe feudalism these days, as we had slithered back to the Dark Ages in various ways. No king or pope was ever as rich as some of today’s tech moguls, and the peasants of yesteryear often had more security than the working poor today. Back then the land barons offered life-long employment and protection to their serfs. Today many corporations treat employees as disposable widgets. Back then folks died young. Now we have the ‘problem’ of folks living too long, threatening to bankrupt Medicare and Social Security. Something can be said for an ancient Indian custom of serving grand pa a sumptuous meal before guiding him alone into the forest to expire with a full belly. Personally I now look askance at family-planned sumptuous meals and am thankful that I’m still around after Thanksgiving dinner. My next gastronomic ‘hurdle’ is Christmas dinner. I hope to be unforested for the new year.
May you be "unforested" for years to come!
Keith, I retracting 'wily' for riveting. You are one riveting fellow whatever you're up to.
A Holiday hug for the wily Professor. Naturally, you keep teaching us. Many folks did better under feudalism than we do under capitalism. I started to mouth-off but will stop at the top of the iceberg. Naturally, it is going to melt any second, thanks to...
"Biden Boom" ... has a nice ring to it. Let's hope it resounds because the guy is kickin' butt as is Liz Cheney and the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. Truth will win out, ballots crossed, in this fraught, contentious time. Thanks for the upbeat post Heather.
The country won’t know until Rupert tells it. sad to say. Dems don’t scream from the rooftops like Fox. Sure wish Gore had kept his plan to form his own network, or did I dream that. Also wish Dems hadn’t dissed Bloomberg, he has the means to scream…
Rupert is at the root of much of our current distinction. His bully pulpit surpasses the President’s. As I travel around the country in my camper I notice Faux Networks and News are always available in rural areas, while other major networks are not. They seem to have a much stronger broadcast signal than others.
And they stream in waiting rooms around the country. I always request they change the station to something neutral like the food network.
Visiting Nashville in the past ten years I observed their PBS channel fixated on antiques, etc., during the dinner hour when Fox News was on.
Disfunction not distinction.
Jeri, the Democrats only liked Bloomberg when he had his checkbook out. He could have made a big difference in the transfer of information . Too bad they just used him for his money, then pissed in his cereal when they foolishly thought they didn't need him.
I can't find any reference to the Democrats rejecting Bloomberg and only being after his money. Do you have a citation?
Why is the booming economy not front page news? Easy.
MSM journalists and their corporate bosses have decided that they need to be evenhanded with bullies, so are vigorously punching themselves.
Journalists bring us the facts. Not Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and other media celebrities but the journalists who write the stories from which HRC draws information and links for us in Notes after the Letter. Democracy cannot survive without journalists, the Free Press. Trump told Americans how much we need these reporters, “truly the enemy of the people,”.
Americans know what they are paying for food, gas, utilities, rent, repairs....etc.
'Inflation surged 6.8% in November, even more than expected, to fastest rate since 1982
'Excluding food and energy, the CPI(consumer price index) increased 4.9%, in line with expectations.
Surging prices for food, energy and shelter accounted for much of the gains.
Inflation accelerated'
'Excluding food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 0.5% for the month and 4.9% from a year ago, which itself was the sharpest pickup since mid-1991.'
'Price increases came from familiar culprits.'
'Energy prices have risen 33.3% since November 2020, including a 3.5% surge in November. Gasoline alone is up 58.1%.'
'Food prices have jumped 6.1% over the year, while used car and truck prices, a major contributor to the inflation burst, are up 31.4%, following a 2.5% increase last month.'
'The Labor Department said the increases for the food and energy components were the fastest 12-month gains in at least 13 years.'
'Shelter costs, which comprise about one-third of the CPI, increased 3.8% on the year, the highest since 2007 as the housing crisis accelerated.'
'The Federal Reserve is watching the data closely ahead of its two-day meeting next week.
Central bank officials have indicated that will begin slowing the help they’re providing in an effort to tamp down inflation.' (cnbc) Link below.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/10/consumer-price-index-november-2021.html
My comment might be better placed slightly above, but I “liked” the rigor of Fern’s comment, so decided to post here.
First point: I think this forum holds journalists to an absurdly high standard, especially since there is no governmentally funded journalistic organization (CBC in Canada, BBC in the UK) with a mandate that makes it hard to interfere with their product.
MSM is entirely corporate with the exception of PBS. Corporations can be expected to want a return on their money. So therefore all journalism will be more or less slanted - to the left or to the right depending on the corporation.
Throw in the “human factor”. It is huge, as it is in every walk of life, including whatever you and I worked in. News flash: people make mistakes. Egregious ones at times. They form cliques and want to be part of the “in” group. They are ambitious and that can drive bad judgment. They deal constantly with the cares of their own life and that can sometimes intrude on their work performance. They have professional rivalries.
Given all this, I think that American journalism is in a golden period. It has had to fight off, in the cases of newspapers, its possible demise in the age of computers. The best can now claim along with Mark Twain, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
The rise of serious alternative journalism (Daily Beast, BuzzFeed, Mother Jones) has driven the standards of MSM up.
I watch CNN, The Rachel Maddow Show, and CBC. I read the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, and the Washington Post daily, as well as the Atlantic, New Yorker, and other what used to be called “periodicals”.
I see the same mistakes, perverse headlines, and false equivalencies that you do. But I don’t take a “throw the baby out with the bath water” stand. I get piqued by some of what I read/see but am informed and sometimes enthralled by what I read - Barton Gellman’s latest article in the Atlantic was a masterpiece, for example.
The Mueller Report, which came out about three centuries ago it seems, landed with a thump, followed by a yawn. (I’m leaving Bill Barr’s machinations out here.) The reason for the yawn was that 90% of what it contained *was already in the public domain*. Dogged reporters had ferreted out every major story. Much as I would have liked a “smoking gun” that swiftly nailed Trump’s sorry ass to the wall, in retrospect my disappointment dimmed. And my respect for the work of (largely) American journalists soared.
Put simply: we live in a golden age of information. (And a shit age of mis(dis)information).
I refuse to get exercised by errors and seeming bias in MSM. Errors should not be the big story in how we evaluate them.
If you want to know what’s happening, you can easily find out. If you want trenchant analysis to help shape your personal position on an issue, it’s there for the taking. When you absorb enough of it, then you can spot journalistic malpractice and work your way around it.
I worked 45 plus years in education and saw first hand human frailty too often. People in institutions screw up - sometimes horribly. And yet I am incredibly proud of my profession. The good outweighs the bad by streets.
You’re in a grave way in the United States now. But your journalists are doing their level best to give democracy a fighting chance.
And beyond all that, if our standards tend to a desire for the superhuman, there is one Professor Heather Richardson Cox.
On Dec. 3, Dana Milbank had a piece in the Washington Post pointing out that journalists' efforts to be evenhanded often betrayed their own beliefs and gave support to the dishonest liars among us.
His research has been challenged by Nate Silver, whose bailiwick lies in that field. I have no opinion of worth to give to that dispute, but again I think it a refreshing example of vigorous intellectual debate.
Evenhandedness is an extremely challenging concept, as slippery as a bar of wet soap. I have noticed over the past ten years a much more nuanced understanding of what it means to be evenhanded.
Thus there can be arguments in perfectly good faith by people of character as to whether MSM’s handling of a particular situation is evenhanded.
The egregious offenders who obtrude upon our consciousness (Fox eg) are called out. It does no good. They are both purposeful and shameless.
Media literacy should be a foundational part of every child’s education. When I left teaching in 2017, lip service was paid to it (maybe 2-3 weeks in a single English course in but one of a student’s years in high school. Much, much more instruction (at least in Canada) should be devoted to it. And professional development time should be mandated so that teachers learn it rigorously, as well as being trained to filter out their own biases as best they can.
Bashing journalists isn't hard to do. Trump did it constantly. Propaganda pays. We need more journalists in the USA, particularly, local news.
DON'T BASH JOURNALISTS FOLKS. BUILD BACK LOCAL JOURNALISM. DON'T LEAVE IT TO FACEBOOK/SOCIAL MEDIA AND FOX NEWS TO POLLUTE THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE
Please read the following:
'Rebuilding Local News'
'How government can help revitalize local journalism while preserving editorial independence
Local news coverage is collapsing. Even before COVID-19, the number of reporters had declined 60 percent since 2000, a job decline similar in scale to the coal industry. Some 1,800 communities now have no local news outlet, and thousands more have “ghost newspapers” barely providing local news coverage. Since COVID-19, the situation has worsened: some 36,000 newspaper employees have been laid off, furloughed, or had their pay cut.'
'This is not a partisan issue. The decline of local news is associated with higher polarization, decreased voter turnout, less cross-party voting, increased corruption and more government waste. The decline of local reporting means residents are less well informed about schools, government effectiveness, economic development, criminal justice, health care, the environment, crime, religion, issues facing small businesses and the basic elements of community life. A well-informed citizenry is essential to solving local problems. Local news knits together communities.'
'One of the few industries mentioned in the Bill of Rights, the free press, is fading away on the local level. Yes, philanthropy must continue to help local media, and media organizations must evolve and innovate their business models. But the scale of the crisis is overwhelming. From 2008 to 2018, US newspaper revenue decreased by more than $23 billion.'
'Many journalists are skeptical about government assistance for news—for good reason. Poorly designed government policies would undermine editorial independence and threaten the free press. But given the scale of this crisis—and the consequence for our communities and democracy—our coalition has concluded that government must play a role. We further believe that it is most certainly possible to create public policies that both help local news publishers and preserve editorial independence—if they follow a few principles. These policies should:'
'Be content-neutral, nonpartisan, and ensure editorial independence.
Be future-friendly, potentially helping both existing local players and innovators.
Be platform-neutral.
Help local news organizations develop sustainable models.
Especially help locally-grounded, diverse or nonprofit media.
Result in communities having more local reporters.' (Rebuild Local News) See link below.
https://www.rebuildlocalnews.org/our-plan
In the coming days, I will provide more links indicating the importance of the Free Press and how you can KEEP THE TRUTH AND THE FACTS ALIVE in the USA. In the meantime, Please CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/press-freedom-media-law-groups.php
https://www.rcfp.org/getinvolved/
https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/why-is-freedom-of-the-press-important-in-a-democracy/
https://www.democracyandme.org/the-importance-of-freedom-of-the-press-in-a-democracy/
https://www.rcfp.org/getinvolved/
Very clever, Jim Ryan, Mr. Dystopia.
My opinion? News organizations seem to be sticking with the old and thread-worn and evermore damaging both-sides news-gathering and -disseminating formula to keep as many paying subscribers as they possibly can. The businesses need to generate way more revenue. Paying people to collect, analyze, distill, corroborate, deliver, and follow up on the human condition AND politics is expensive. Journalism as it's been practiced is a failing business model.
Too bad a growing, thriving, healthy American democracy depends on it.
😀😃😄😆😅😂🤣
So far, it looks as though Biden is a real comeback kid! I like his quiet doggedness. You'd think the press would give him a break with his outright support for journalists.
A plethora of positive tidbits nonetheless, Heather, thank you.
Trump's Treason: But the treason hides in plain sight. It was sedition by omission, or intentional dereliction of duty, by Trump and a handful of loyalists embedded inside the Pentagon and White House.
Exhibit 1: That day, one dozen powerful politicians from both parties and public officials placed frantic “911” calls during the attack to persons in high office at both the Pentagon and the White House. They pleaded for National Guard assistance as the small force of Capitol guards was being overtaken by thousands of armed and crazed thugs. A gallows was erected for the world’s cameras to underscore their intent. All this was televised in real-time.
Exhibit 2: The Pentagon and President sat on their hands for four hours before sending in the National Guard. By comparison, on September 11, 2000, it took the Pentagon just five minutes after the first terrorist attack hit the World Trade Center to evacuate the President and his cabinet to safety, to scramble thousands of jets, and shut down America’s airspace.
The End Game: Dangerous goons would be invited to Washington D.C., stoked by Trump in a speech, sent to the Capitol to “remove” Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi from the Presidential line of succession, and, finally, invoke The Insurrection Act of 1807. This law allows a President to unilaterally send in troops across the country in certain limited circumstances involved in the defense of constitutional rights. Trump intended to extend his tenure indefinitely by starting, then quelling, his own insurrection. https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/trumps-treason
I find this mornings letter to be extremely encouraging despite the media getting it wrong. I turned off NPR because of this kind of negative talk. Looks like I need to write to them.
Thank you each and every day Dr Richardson.
I cannot abide NPR anymore. It's not just the unrelenting negativity, but the deliberate and tortured attempts at "both sides" reporting that is completely undeserved and basically, misinformation. Shame on them.