A key story that got missed yesterday was that the Senate voted 64–19 to allow a bill that includes $95.34 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to advance a step forward.
I saw Trump’s comments on Russia and NATO, which historian Michael Beschloss thought were so important that he shared them on social media.
The 2024 election is (in the words of R. Buckminster Fuller) “mankind’s final exam”. How we answer the question Do we want self-government or dictatorship? will determine if we survive as a creative, innovation driven culture or sink back into one driven by fear and isolation.
We must all find ways to champion the benefits of democracy… so voters understand the opportunities it gives us to “boldly go where humanity has never gone before” … opportunities that will be lost forever if Trump wins!
There's a whole generation that seems oblivious to the fact democracy is under assault. Painting with a broad brush here, but they seem consumed with the social aspects of TikTok, X, and Facebook to the exclusion of everything else. They base their voting choices on current complaints - like prices for groceries and gas. Nothing more.
News they've missed: Stock market is up, unemployment is at a record low. What's important is the number of 'likes' on their posts and the fact that snack food is expensive.
I respectfully disagree Cheryl. My daughter is a millennial and she and her friends are very concerned about the environment and climate change. They understand that the freakish 100 year, 500 year and thousand year storms we have been having are a result of climate change.
And the Gen-X/Gen/Zers seem to be even more in tune.
Time will tell, but the MSM gives us a very skewed picture of what Americans are thinking.
In Iowa 14% of Republicans turned out to vote in the Caucuses and yet the MSM portrayed it as a landslide for TFFG and they are still talking about TFFGs great wins in the primaries. They interview only the far-right brain dead MAGANAZIs who are all-in on TFFG but can't give you a single reason why.
I don't remember a single interview after a Biden/Harris rally or speech where they interview people who fully support Biden and what he has done. Instead, virtually every story talks about his age and not about the economy or his accomplishments.
Gary, Know Thine Enemy is an important concept. We know that Putin and his puppet Trump are included, but its time to focus on the real enemy here, The News Media that sacrifices Democracy on the alter of profit; feeding America only the information that creates the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us, while ignoring the cost of those decisions in our immediate lives
“The News Media that sacrifices Democracy on the alter of profit; feeding America only the information that creates the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us, while ignoring the cost of those decisions in our immediate lives.”
Hi Kathy, while I too am frustrated, if we decide we cannot trust "the media," what institution do you suggest take its place in informing us about what is going on? I watch the media and I feel pretty informed. If we can be specific about which story or source, critique that story or source I think we will be better off than condemning all media.
Hi Lynn, I highlighted Dave’s comment and I stand by it because I believe that sadly, for various reasons, there are people who simply read headlines. To not actually thoughtfully read the articles that go in depth re: that attention grabbing headline- could/does create the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us. It’s a dangerous game, but it’s not- it’s our lives.
and some newspapers like the NYTimes run the following front page message, "Views Are Split On Candidates Of Similar Age, Biden Is Hurt by Flubs More Than Trump Is." Talk about camoflauging insane opinion for the news.
But, no matter how we feel about it, that headline reflects the polls at this time.
Campaign professionals will tell you that the only use for polling this far out is to inform campaign staff where they need to address problems or play on strengths. To use horserace or issues polling to predict outcomes this early is impossible.
I try to not get discouraged about polls, and trust smart campaign staff to know how to address issues.
And polling reflects the impact of sloppy headlines and journalism in general in addition to all the social media chaos. How to break that circle with truth and reason is a challenge! HCR does her best to do that along with many others in this Substack community. I am grateful for that. Yes, polling isn't the best indicator this far out. But
it can be frustrating because it becomes part of the dark noise! And I still have "nightmares" about the Comey headlines just before election day, 2016.
Or do the polls reflect the MSM headlines. Perhaps the readership glances or skims the headlines and content thus leaving with an abridged version of the facts.
So far I'm not very impressed by whoever is handling Biden's campaign. Too many missteps and unforced errors which the MSM jumps all over; I keep wondering if he had counsel with him when Hur took his statement. I think he needs to be guarded against making off-the-cuff remarks, though his "over the top" remark about the war in southern Gaza was spot on.
If you have not already, check out Meidas Touch Network (on YouTube and they also have a website). On the young side, with over 2 million subscribers and growing, they are "unapologetically pro-democracy." They have a number of different shows and definitely report regularly on the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administartion. They keep us informed daily of what the maga anti-democracy, pro-fascist/authoritarian cult is doing to weaken/kill our democatic constitutional republic. And they were one of if not the first to publicize widely Simon Rosenberg's data pre- the 2022 election, data which went (correctly) contrary to the pro-maga polls.
Yes!!!! What YOU said. Would you please write this exact same thing: "...it's time to focus on the real enemy here, THE NEWS MEDIA that sacrifices Democracyon the alter of profit....creating the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us..ignoring the cost of those decisions in our immediate lives?
Hi Crystal, If we decide we cannot trust "the media," what institution do you suggest take its place in informing us about what is going on? I watch the media and I feel pretty informed. If we can be specific about which story or source, critique that story or source I think we will be better off than condemning all media.
Check out the Meidas Touch Network (Youtube, and they have a website). Unapologetically pro-democacy, and often critical of framing of reports in MSM. Recently passed the 2 million subscribers mark, and are heading to 3 million. They have a number of regular shows, podcasts, contributors. And they do 'shorts' through the day called "hot takes" on breaking stories. Highly recommend.
One step back, it's the Corporate Conglomerates that own the news media. All the media, not just the Fox. And Fox's new RW competitors, also financed by the Oiligarchs and War Machine et al.
It's also all the more subtle gatekeeping going on, since 2015, feeding more DT and less HC by factors of 10 to a 100. And STILL doing so now. the Big D knows how to suck the oxygen out of every minute of the 24 hour cycle. Hate is more clickable.
ie yesterday ALL Jumping on the Special Counsel's delberate, unprecented, Nasty attack on Biden's mental acuity. With James Carville on CNN chiming in that "not taking an offer of time during the Super Bowl" is a sure sign his "handlers" are afraid. The man has done the best things for country since FDR!
Until someone convinced Hamas to light the match and watch Bibi burn us down.
Even NPR and MSNBC and other "left wing" giants get sucked into the vortex. All chasing after disappearing eyeballs and ad revenue.
I'm so thankful for places like substack and the ever rarer ad-independents like Pacifica Radio and Mother Jones and science non-profits like Food and Water Watch and Green Peace and Union of Concerned Scientists and Planned Parenthood who have now stepped into the breach.
Every $3 or $5 a month is a Lifesaver to these precious resources.
Don't they realize that he makes very bad decisions. he doesn't look ahead to the consequences. A one of the world meetings, he skipped out of the one about climate. Obviously, he cared nothing about that. He claimed that China called-no record of it.
Just like the video of an interview where he said that Iran called (?who) and said we have to bomb you to make us look good., but we won't hit anything. Trump agreed. Meanwhile a military base was bombed and there were many soldiers injured with headaches (concussions to a REAL doctor) A few weeks ago there was a mass rally commemorating this general.Hmmm
Shades of 2016 when it was all trump all the time; when, for the most telling example, a mid-August issue of the NYT had not one article about Hillary above the fold and the only time her name appeared on that front page was in a subtitle (negatve) in a trump article. Cable TV covered every single rally and in fact showed countdown hours under his podiums in advance. For Biden last week, 5 abovethefold articles all addressed the appalling negative quotes from Hellacious Hur's sickening 300-page "report." We know it. We see it. We say it all the time. So, how, how can we change it.
and don't forget the legal fights that democracydocket.com is winning in states like Alabama, Georgia, S Carolina to AZ, TX and NY to develop fair maps.
I really wish we would stop calling these fools maga. They are not trying to make America great. They are trying to dismantle my country and cause great harm and death to many.
Not true if it rumor or not, but Tucker Carlson is in Russia (surprise) I think in search or an interview view with Putin who hasn't given an interview in years.
No kidding, Marj..! This soap opera hasn't been any fun to watch. Such a preposterous statement "MAGA"! The acronym "WTF" needs to always accompany that (MAGA). So stupid. Need I even say this: America has never been 'greater'. America has been an amazing 'work in progress', greater by the day. Hate to say this, but #45 has been part of our progress. Why? Because we have dealt with that ignorant son-of-a-bidch and his tag-team of bagboys and girls to the point we are about sick of it. Right now, we just need to VOTE FOR JOE.
I agree but sadly and shockingly these folks, especially the Christian Nationalists and those that buy their message are 100% convinced that only le pustule orange and they can save the USA. God is on their side.
It should be MADA: Make America Dead Again. They'd love to bring us back to the dead era before the Civil War, where women knew their place, black folks knew the whip and chains, where men were the "unquestioned head of the family" and Jesus ran the government.
I have been writing letters to several newspapers, including the NYT and my local Boston Globe, complaining about the lack of coverage about what Biden is doing besides getting old. Also, that the biggest difference between the way the two men speak is that Biden softly and slowly talks about what is going on and what he is trying to do, while Trump lies about almost everything and then babbles on about who he will attack and how he will ignore the Constitution. That difference needs to be clearly explained.
Exactly, and thank you for writing the letters. But you are not “in the way” 😂 Some of us (🙋♀️) are pretty old on here, but we’re not the ones in the way, we are the ones in the right! I hope your letters help!
Exactly, and you’re not in the way! 😂 we (well, me, for sure) are all old on here, but we are not the ones in the way. We’re are in the right! I hope your letters help!
Agree. The MSM is an abomination. This whole dustup about the Hur report is their attempt to manufacture a horse race for this year's election. Same with the constant stories about trump supporters (zero stories about Biden supporters), why the latest Biden success could be a problem for him, etc. It's all about clicks and revenue. Fortunately, I believe people -- more and more -- are seeing through the MSM crap.
It's possible that Biden is really up by 5 or more points in every swing state but the pollsters have no good way of polling many of the age groups. I would love to see Biden take 49 states again. If that happens will it be the death of the Trumpuglican party once and for all?
I believe it's about Way more than clicks and short term $ in many cases. It's orchestrated by the gatekeepers (who are they at this point? How is the news even structured any more, if it is?) to keep the Dems out of office.
Because the Powers That Be may actually be threatened right now by the demographics and enlightenment (ie wokeness) re their continued destruction of free society and the Life on Earth.
In a way I think we are in a bizarre, fragmented, gaming style revolution that is being fought in the cyber world, where our children live. We can't see the new Axis, but we see the evil it is creating as it expertly targets the minds of the most fearful - the old guard WASPs of all ranks and nationalities. From Appalachia to NH and Berlin to Budapest.
White Anglo Saxon Protestant + Male. It used to denote the East Coast Entitled. The Rich. The real powerful families. And they are still stirring the nest.
I hope you’re right. I have a niece in her 20s who said at Thanksgiving that she wasn’t planning to vote because “nothing has changed under Biden.” I almost spit out my food. Oh, and she’s gay! Well at least she gave us an opening to reset her thinking (and help her recognize the threat to her peaceful way of life).
So, yes we’re worried about this generation not coming through as they did last time. I hope we’re wrong.
i was in your niece's current age bracket when the 2000 election rolled around, had developed a "pox on both your houses" attitude, and voted for Nader (whose VP choice had spoken at my alma mater). i don't really regret my vote, but boy did that not work out great ...
also, no family gathering in those days would have been equipped to give me a course-correction; these days, i have a step-cousin who managed to process Don DeLillo and Dennis Miller (and his wife's wealthy family) into rationalizing voting for Mein Drumpf...
Our adult children and grandchildren most definitely are concerned about more than “Tik Tok”, the price of gas and snacks, and the number of likes on their FB feeds. They won’t call The Orange one by name, and will vote BLUE. They agree with their elderly parents that Joe Biden is the best president since FDR, no matter whether he makes mistakes when he speaks occasionally or not. Those of us in our 80s understand!
We are in the age of click bait, more ads than news, and focusing on the bad rather than the good....notice that the good stories are at the end of the newscast. Then there is the constant polling which tells us very little and like the Iowa caucuses, no in depth analysis. Now the 300 plus pages from Hur, a Trumper, and all we heard is his comments about Biden's age. Five hours of questioning the day after the Hamas attack. And I bet they took advantage of the fact that he is a stutterer. I think we didn't even watch the national news that day and we always mute anything death star if we are watching. Also I agree about many young people being aware of the problems that they are facing and which will only become more difficult as they become adults.
Bad news sells. And, it's so easy to bully people who are relatively polite or more-softly spoken, or less-in-your-face. I think that aligns with what you have noticed. The 'women for numb-nuts' is always an interview I watch with incredularity (yeah, I mis-spelled it, but you're with me). The bullies in the PP* (R) can't wait for an interview.
Or a number or name I dont recognize. Now the scammers can use almost any number - just pays not to answer - if its important (or sometimes not) people will leave a message.
And who gives more than once to any organization. I gave a small donation to the ACLU and they gave out my phone number like it was candy on Halloween. The breast cancer PAC called me several times a day until I finally got nasty enough they agreed to take me off their call list. I don't believe in PACS and have never given to one nor will I ever.
I agree, Gary. My kids are 34 and 30, have voted in every election since they turned 18, and are very focused on the environment, social justice and public health. I am not worried about the younger generations doing the right thing.
It stands for (as I have read several places) an old time jail abbreviation when someone was arrested for the crime: for unlawful carnal knowledge; in the instance that it is used within tffg it is an adjective.
For those interested, that particular word, in all its declinations, can be used as a noun, a pronoun, a verb, an adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection, and as an auxiliary verb.
I had come up with this when I had a co-worker who utilized that word in all parts of his speech. Then, I found this link (scroll down a bit to find the list):
I have read that it's even older than that. Possibly an ancient word whose original meaning was "to plant". It's been in use for a LONG time. (And it's my favorite swear word, because of it's amazing versatility! :D )
Well THATS different! Had no idea - just opens up all kinds of areas doesnt it? And I remember hearing someone with that kind of "utilization"! At the time thought they were lacking in vocabulary - but at this point - I find the word works in so many many many ways!
Wikipedia notes the false/folk etymologies; i was crushed to find that while putting together "The F Word", Jesse Sheidlower ruled out including two of my favorite usages (because they weren't that widespread, and relaxing that rule would've made the book much much more cumbersome, i guess) ...
Be careful. Assigning whole groups to obliviousness is a recipe for despair. There are not 'whole generations' oblivious to the troubles we are now facing. The majority of those I work with in different generations are aware of what's happening and are worried enough to vote about it. In my generation (Boomer), about 35 - 40% support DT, in Gen Z, that drops to about 10%.
I’m with you (as a progressive boomer). My old “Republican” friends will never vote for Trump and my 3 daughters (the youngest being a Millennial airline pilot) are all paying attention and actively engaged.
I have one niece who is a Millennial airline pilot, another who is a banking officer, and a third who works interpreting MRI imaging in a research venue studying depression and alternative treatments (this is my niece who is engaged to a Dreamer). All three are actively engaged politically.
There’s hope out there, if you know where to look. As the dad of 3 successful young women I tend to turn off the blabber from old, white, males. I’m much happier now. Just sayin’.
Yes. We are in a heap of trouble. Our values and morality are long threatened. Education and journalism are threatened, both essential to the good life. Entertainment softens the soul, wrote Aristotle to his son Nicodemus in his important study of personal morality and the ends of human life. Nicomachean Ethics is among the first to read in political philosophy and politics in a liberal arts education focused on western civilization. TV and so-called social media mislead millions. So-called white supremacy is little more than fascism, a social cancer that surfaced in WW II in Mussolini’s Italy and became German Nazi propaganda.
Is our Republican Party not fascist? Is not Putin a fascist dictator thirsting to control Western Europe? Has WW III begun in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Israel, and across the middle east? Is the United Nations able? Will NATO survive the insanity of MAGA, GOP propaganda and today’s fascism?
Are we being tested by authoritarian dictators all over the world? Will democracy survive The Big Lie of TFG former president Trump? Does America have what it takes? What did Covid-19 reveal?
We are experiencing an apocalypse focused in the introduction of Palladium Magazine issue 11, published after a visit by four well educated college graduates.
Yale’s inspired leader Robert Maynard Hutchins became chancellor of The University of Chicago when in his 20s. He abolished Big Ten football and blew out the Rockefeller baptist influence leading to a financial crisis in 1950 that was solved by donors working with a different chancellor. The University of Chicago is doing well. About 6% seeking admission succeed.
The University of Chicago where fun goes to die, decorates a campus sweatshirt.
Four of our ten grandchildren have sought The Midway, so far. Amherst College attracted two, Dartmouth College one.
Our youngest want an education that matters. Entertainment is not their objective.
In what’s coming, education, fresh water and good safe food will matter. Facebook will not.
It seems that local control of the k-12 education systems gives us a skewed picture of what is going on in our schools. Our local K-8 school was closed exactly one day because of Covid-19. And they offered remote hook-ups to every classroom but most of the kids attended class. If a kid got Covid they had to stay out of school for 10 school days, but they could attend remotely.
And it was the same in many other schools in our county. Are the kids behind their peers scholastically from 10 or 20 years ago. No idea. But I trust our school board, the principal and the teachers have done all they could to keep the pandemic from disrupting education. And when a couple of far-right moms tried to get on the school board to change the curriculum and ban books, they only received a few votes each.
Are there lots of school systems that are doing a bad job? The MSM tells us there are. But there are also lots of school systems that are getting it right.
What do you think will happen to politics in KS, OK, CO, NE, MO and IA when the last of the Koch's is dead? Not to be too mean spirited, but it can't happen soon enough.
And the media, our vanishing free countryside country wide weak weekly newspapers begging us for gift money, peddling classified ads, without a reporter to tell us what’s happening… because a reporter requires a paycheck…
Yes, Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, we are in 20 kinds of trouble… and white on white Heather Cox Richardson of holy Boston College cannot report on Black pain, and does not seem to be able to report on fascism, prejudice, the banality of evil, psychotic MAGA fascists… but the SUBSTACK MIRROR reflects reflexively the Greek Chorus pay to play narcissism that drives the entertainment model SUBSTACK on zoom doom, we are gazing into the fetid waters of our own effluent, every night, and HCR’s nightly nightmare rolls on in dead earnest destroying MSM’s weakest, bottom up, soon top down. Never on Sunday no more.
You know damn well she writes about black pain all the time. Apply your genius to do some fucking good instead of continually trying to rip it apart. 😡
Find it. Fund it, It isn’t there, nor will you easily find it in WSJ or NYT …. try The Atlantic, it’s hidden there, alongside our “volunteer” military slaving away to keep us free, paid to play, emerging from poverty, and no longer drafted, the wealthy skip, Black poor serve and die, as we endure a daily mass murder at home, suicide by cop, white males mostly, boys that want to die.
Thanatos rules,
SCOTUS fools,
Our president needs gracefully to retire,
TFG needs to go up the river to live among his enemy,
And the criminal justice system might work,
Meanwhile, our nicest are not white..
The Filipino is the kindest, our Blacks are 2nd,
White supremacists on snotty white campuses are last… and they know it.
www.lewisfamilyfarm.com has over a dozen wells, one artesian, the others deep water and the farm is drought and flood proof with 44 WASCOB drains set to prevent runoff.. The Adirondacks west of us send water to Lake Champlain east of us, and it wicks upward as it moves east down deep; into the clay subsoil. 1.5 million feet of 4” tile set at 3-4 feet depth, 20 feet apart in parallel, oblige the grasses to root in the clay.. so July drought does not affect our 1,100 acres of grazing beef and sheep. With 200,000 feet of fencing, fencing in and fencing out, MIG works well to protect the soil and grasses, carbon is deeply embedded in the grasses, feeding the livestock... there’s not a speck of man made detritus on 1,100 acres, the livestock are healthy, predators do not venture, they breed nearby and elsewhere, the bird life is spectacular. One day soon we will find a buyer… for at 85 and 88, it is time… we’ve taken years to create the model… with failing farms surrounding, our successor will be able to grow easily, feed Montreal, Boston, New York and Philadelphia.. and justify dry aging with field killing, a rail truck, and a dedicated slaughter.
My concern is that they’ll all move to Michigan, start a bidding war for property, drive property tax sky high, force out the middle class rabble and make life miserable with HOA like rules that citify our rural existence after decades of scorning us hicks
We’ve created generations that don’t know of civil unrest, true economic hardships such as gas shortages. They’re benefiting from great technological advances. The holocaust, the USSR are history lessons at best. While each generation is charged with leaving the world better than we found it, we may be victims of leaving it too much better.
Tucker Carlson was referred to as “the useful idiot”, but the truly useful idiot is trump. Putin played him like a fiddle. Trump is a habitual liar but we must heed the advice of Dr. Richardson, Joyce Vance, Steve Schmidt and others who warn that what trump will do if reelected is the truth. Take him at his word.
Instead of worrying about “entire generations that seem oblivious” which is simply not true you should maybe focus on the dangers of Boomers who make up the majority of MAGAts and trolls like that John Schmeeckle. My Millennial and Gen Z children know very well the importance of keeping TFFG as far away from the Presidency as possible. TikTok and other social media platforms are where they get the majority of their information so it’s up to us to ensure the message is getting through. The younger generations should be getting more of our attention not being insulted by the very generations that raised them. Instead of putting them down raise them up and do your duty as an elder to pass the baton to them. I share HCR’s letters all the time on social media. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Fortunately boomers are leaving the planet in droves. (I am also a boomer, and hopefully my exit won't be for a while) but the white hairs, many of whom are just scared, aren't going to be around for the long haul. The younger generations will win out in the end.
I have a sister that I would put in this camp whose excuse was that she "wasn't into politics." Like her ignorance made it okay for her to vote for a sexually violent malevolent dictator despite being Catholic because he "is pro-life". The deeper story is that they are very wealthy and love being rich. We had an honest discussion the last time we were together about abortion (I am a physician) as a medical procedure and situations I've seen where abortion was a terrible choice but also the best choice. At the end of a one hour conversation about Biden's accomplishments and his faith and the horror show that could be coming in 2024 if we decide to become "Dumbtrumpistan", she pledged to me she would never vote for the Cheeto again. As painful as it is to approach people one on one, I think the only thing that will free them from the cult is love and careful conversation.
My sister too. It took her about 3 years for her to say she was sorry she voted for him. I could tell she voted the way her partner voted. She only repeated the taking heads on faux news.
Those 3 years I sent her HCR articles etc and would quietly mention things here and there. I fought back harder on certain things. It took time and patience.
I got her to write some postcards. I think she ejoyed it. We still disagree on some things. This is okay.
Yes Maria, at least with thoughtful listening and understanding of what it's like in their shoes! One-on-one is the way to go. It takes more than money. It takes caring and listening.
No, Craig, we won't see the end of ultra-rich supporters behind tRump anytime soon anytime soon because THEY are the weight of the pendulum which swings back and forth between the successes of the progressives like the Teddy Roosevelts and FDRs and Eisenhowers and LBJs vs those with the money behind "trickle-down" fantasy propaganda who gave us Citizens United and current SCOTUS and the grand plan for 2025. We need to VOTE all the way down the line for those NOT supported by big money. We need to vote AGAINST the idea that money equals free speech and FOR a future which focuses on saving what we have left of a viable planet! We need to vote AGAINST preservation of the capitalists until they align themselves with the people and the planet!
Yup, lin, that certainly clarifies and simplifies the choice, because that is exactly what it boils down to! There may, in fact be millions who want a clerical fascist state, but they are NOT the majority!
Some young people may be oblivious to the threat, as both young and old people have been in every generation, but it is MY generation(70 year old Baby Boomer)and the one just below me that are actively members of a cult that will destroy not only democracy, but the stable world we have enjoyed. I am convinced Trump is and has been bought and paid for by Putin—-see his NATO comments as the latest example. We are too shallow and too brainwashed to see this is not an R vs. D matchup. It is a sanity vs. chaos choice. There are so many well meaning Christians like me who have over 40-50 years been told that R’s are the only “moral”(abortion, etc.)choice.Trump, moral choice, right……………. I am truly nervous even with a lunatic in the ballot.
It will NOT be the shallowness of the young that kill the USA, it will be the decadence and willful ignorance of the old.
I'm with you, Rick. My generation (65 and a "Jones Generation" subset) are making up the greatest number of the MAGAt cult.
If you've not heard of the Jones Generation, here's a Wikipedia link. For reference, I am an oldest child born of old parents in 1958. I learned of this term from a friend who was born in 1964, also an oldest child. He and I have many of the same generational characteristics.
Even though I'm a leading edge Boomer (born 1950), my kids are ensconced firmly in gen X. But I have many dear friends who are about 9 years younger than I am, who fit into Generation Jones. Made for very interesting reading! :)
I'm sorry Maggie, but I have missed what the heck "tfg or tffg" stands for. I'm a bit embarrassed, having tried to decode it for the past two years at least. I realize it is so obvious to y'all but not to me. That's about the only one I can't decode. I feel so stupid not being able to decode it. Help me.
Not obvious at all - someone on here explained it a while ago - tfg is the former guy - tffg is the f*** former guy! The abbreviation just avoids anyone's dislike of "naughty" titles, I guess.
There are so many abbreviations that I have NO clue as to what they mean - so no need to be embarrassed!
Cheryl....I believe that nothing is that simple and that today's younger generation is facing problems our generation ignored and did nothing to stop.
I have two daughters. One is 42 and the other 37. They are deeply concerned about the direction our country is going on all fronts. They are horrified by losing their lifelong rights to bodily autonomy and suddenly becoming second class citizens. And they would like something to change. Likewise they are overwhelmed with today's challenges of raising children and the horrific cost of doing so. Home owners and health Insurance comes with $4,000-$10,000 deductibles (paying as much as $500-600 a month for health insurance). Summer daycare costs $250 per week per child. Insurance and property taxes are more than their monthly mortgage payments. Auto insurance is just another, hard to justify expense when you go years (thank goodness) without ever making a claim and the costs just keep going up every year. This results in paycheck to paycheck living that makes an increase in groceries and gas impossible. And who cares about the stock market or unemployment when you have a job that pays above average and you still are struggling.
Contrast that to my experience in raising them. All of the above were affordable and insurance was a nuisance expense (health insurance was a fully covered benefit and deductible was $200 a year for a family of four).
I don't think that today's younger generation are frivolous or uncaring. I think they are so overwhelmed by trying to have at least what they grew up with....it leaves them feeling demoralized and powerless.
And they understand that voter suppression and manipulation(wording referendums in confusing language, access to voting has been reduced, doubt placed on our election process) is real and they question if their vote (though they do it anyway) actually will make a difference considering the clown show we are watching with Congress and the Supreme Court and efforts to throw out votes.
We need to fix the problems we ignored and do our best to shepherd younger generations along.
Cheryl, oblivious is a most apt description for what pervades all generations of those aspiring to live the American Dream. Even smart, educated people of all ages don’t want to talk about the trouble we’re in. It seems it would ruin the bubble they live in in the present. So, so scary!
Sad but true, if chump’s declaration doesn’t scare people, then the numb dumb are beyond hope. Needless to say, Tik Tom, X, and FB won’t spread the word. Nor will Rupert and clones. Will our MSM wake up? Invitation for Russia to do whatever in the hell it wants? Maybe chump wants NATO to support Putnik. Probably would get Repub votes….
I know that to be true, but I have been to Europe with a friend who knows well where it is and what is at stake. She was a chumpette in 2016, not sure about now. There is a subgroup who are not stupid or religious nuts. Just on the side of elites. They will kick the "lessers" to the curb if given the chance.
Odd, which country in the world has the most military bases spread over the world? List of USA Wars
Vietnam War United States and South Vietnam vs. North Vietnam
1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion United States vs. Cuba
1983 Grenada United States intervention
1989 U.S. Invasion of Panama United States vs. Panama
1990–1991 Persian Gulf War United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq
1995–1996 Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina United States as part of NATO acted as peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia
2001–2021 Invasion of Afghanistan United States and Coalition Forces vs. the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to fight terrorism
2003–2011 Invasion of Iraq United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq
2004–present War in Northwest Pakistan United States vs. Pakistan, mainly drone attacks
2007–present Somalia and Northeastern Kenya United States and Coalition forces vs. al-Shabaab militants
2009–2016 Operation Ocean Shield (Indian Ocean) NATO allies vs. Somali pirates
2011 Intervention in Libya U.S. and NATO allies vs. Libya
2011–2017 Lord's Resistance Army U.S. and allies against the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda
2014–2017 U.S.-led Intervention in Iraq U.S. and coalition forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
2014–present U.S.-led intervention in Syria U.S. and coalition forces against al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Syria
2015–present Yemeni Civil War Saudi-led coalition and U.S., France, and Kingdom against the Houthi rebels, Supreme Political Council in Yemen, and allies
2015–present U.S. intervention in Libya U.S. and Libya against ISIS
One of my co-workers's son was a long time Navy Seal. My co-worker (John) had to wait to hear from his son instead of being able to call him, sometimes for weeks when he was training for or on a mission.
John followed the press closely looking for clues of where his son might be or had been. Sometimes he would share the news stories when it specifically mentioned seal teams. A lot of those stories didn't include the conflicts you mention above. In fact, many of them are in places you would never guess we were involved.
I was on a flight one time and sat next to a former special forces sniper. He told me about going into Pakistan several weeks before the US declared that we were going in. His job was to set up targets around the caves where they thought Bin Laden was hiding. We had no authorization to be there from the UN, to Pakistani government to the US Congress. But we bombed the hell out of those caves regardless. He also mentioned that they trained in the jungles of Columbia targeting drug cartels there. Fascinating conversation but scary as well.
Thank you for turning back a cover to see something hidden from our view. What surprises are held behind the propaganda, the domestic propaganda that aims at keeping us unaware and ignorant? Most interesting too is the YouTube video “Glenn Greenwald Breaks Down the Tucker-Putin Interview.” Interesting because it also gives us a credible pre-history of the Ukraine war that most Americans do not know about except those like Jeffrey Sachs, Chomsky, and Mearsheimer, professorial types with an investment in truth and their own intellectual integrity.
Nope. I did as you asked and got through very little before I was risking coffee through my nose, having listened to the interview previously. What a rewriting of Ukrainian history, as well as a fall back on the Russian NATO propaganda. Should you want to know the history of Ukraine, I’d suggest the book Ruska. If you want an excellent video series I’d suggest Timothy Snydor’s lecture series. Greenwald displays his ignorance for all to see.
I've said this before - but the Dems need to get on the ball - these little "blurbs" of tffg really should be billboards! Seriously how is no one thinking about this? Because they are Democrats? Lots of organizations use billboards - it works - rather than using tv ads that are playing to the choir - putting his mindless rants right up there where people can see them regardless of their politics. Its pretty obvious that these mouth-breathers that go to the rallies dont comprehend his words only their masters voice!
If only I could repeat this to the heavens. Chump is on a billboard close to me. If his image is there, it should have BULLY stampled across it. The emails i get, begging for just five dollars, really piss me off. Don't spend your five bucks on me. I'm a sure Dem vote. You waste lots more than five bucks on irritating the crap out of me.
I was thinking more of a little image of him and his "blurbs" written in large letters! I get the begging emails too - but just dont respond. I'm also a sure thing Democratically speaking! Irritation? oh yes-absolutely.
Cheryl, what they haven't missed: crushing college debt. The first generations in many that is not better off financially than their parents were. The risks of being murdered at school. The disintegration of family wage jobs due to outsourcing manufacturing overseas. The fall of rights they had assumed were "settled law".
I don't think they've missed that unemployment is at a record low; many of them are holding two or more part-time jobs, since to hire full time still means benefits must be paid, and it is cheaper to run people on the hourly or gig based economy. Stock market gains mean nothing if you have to decide between rent and a car payment.
I've told this story here before, but several years ago, I was checking out at a small grocery store in Blue Hill, ME. The clerk had checked me out several times and I knew she had recently graduated from high school and was the class valedictorian.
I asked her if she was getting ready to head off to college and her reply was "Mine is the first generation that has been priced out of the college market."
While this may not be true for many kids, it was for her and way too many other bright kids. They say, "when there's a will there's a way." Well, in many cases that's just BS.
Correct Cheryl. But those medians can also be leveraged to info and the old Soviets know this. Elon knows this. Let's hope that the youngsters in the Biden camp do too.
I agree with Gary about the younger generations of voters. There is a great deal of interest in climate, women’s rights, the affordability crisis (when you think about it, the major economic hits—the pandemic, the real estate-driven Great Recession, and the economic fallout of 9-11—have been a stream of disaster for them), LGBTQ rights, etc. But these generations are not stupid or unaware.
And I have never seen any group of younger voters motivated to vote a certain way by a phalanx of grumpy oldster’s belittling and doubting them. They are motivated differently than we are. They entertain themselves differently than we do. They have different priorities at times.
C’mon folks, at a younger age, you differed with older generations in style and thought just as much. “Don’t trust anyone over 30!” Sound familiar?
Might be because citizen trump is facing so many indictments (maybe brought on by Putin) that the news is consumed by what is making headlines and the Putin connection is not.
Steve, Thank you for your urgent comment. I write simply to expand a bit by noting, whatever one’s seeming most pressing concern—reproductive rights, a living wage, universal healthcare, affordable housing, public education funding, environmental justice, policing and criminal justice reform, workers’ rights, an end to militarization and the war economy…—“champion[ing] the benefits of democracy” had better be a close second. Because, as you have intimated, without preserving our constitutional republic, progress of any kind is far less likely.
I would note a group of us, sensing grassroots organizing has remained largely invisible to the public-at-large, has started laying the groundwork for building a nationwide pro-democracy movement rooted both in mutual respect and social accountability and in its fidelity to the rule of law and the Constitution. Currently, we are in the process of revising documents we plan to present to particular courageous, moral political figures, with a history of building social movements, to help bring recognition to our project. I will keep this forum apprised of our progress.
Good morning, Barbara. What you wrote gives me hope. It also reminds me that I posted (I think on BlueSky) my desire to see pro-democracy demonstrations be organized … demonstrations that will be large and frequent enough to get national news attention. I’m old enough to remember the March on Washington in which Dr King gave his “I have a dream” speech. I no longer think Joe Biden and his campaign can win this election alone. I think people like us must become a VERY visible force that changes the narrative in the national news reporting regarding what issues matter most!
Steve, Once our work has passed muster and we can deploy it to leaders who can help bring recognition to our project, I will be in touch. That’s a promise. Barbara
Please consider me also. I am ready to protest visibly and I believe MSM will have to cover protests of any size. Germany is doing it now.. Are you taking/making a plan from the Civil Rights protests and Black Lives Matter protests?
Kathy, While our proposal includes a March, I would note it’s part of a broader project. As for the March, we have tentatively titled the action “Rise Up For Democracy Before It’s Too Late” and envision the main event taking place in Washington D.C. on the morning of July 4th from 9:00 to 12:00 E.T. Additionally, we foresee other marches across the country, likely embedded in existing parades and holiday events.
The March would be a call to action: uniting, inspiring, and energizing people, who know we are under threat, to commit to participating in saving our democracy and also, hopefully, waking up those asleep to the necessity and urgency.
I would note I’m thrilled my post has generated interest and promise to be back in touch once we reach the stage of sending out the proposal.
I’m replying, not just to Steve Brandt, but to Ms. Krueger, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Abbott. I’m actually a bit (but *just* a bit) too old to be a Boomer - 😉, but I do worry about our kids. I have a granddaughter who is 14, and way more into social media than I would like. But then, at her age, I came home from school one day to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I “grew up” in a hurry that day. Anyone remember “Dr. Strangelove”? My granddaughter becomes quite annoyed if a conversation turns to politics; I’m trying to figure out how to interest her, or at least make her realize that it is in her interest, to be informed about what I’ll call “public affairs”. I absolutely agree on the tactics the Democrats need to start using - I wonder if they think their positions will seep, like osmosis, into the electorate? I live in the western part of Washington - we now have a billionaire trying to undo a great deal of legislation through our initiative process. I *really*don’t want a billionaire determining our state government policies. But I also see what I can only think is a kind of arrogance about liberal politics. One recent example was information about North Carolina: the thriving furniture building industry has been hollowed out by cheap Chinese imports - the article that I read reported that the unemployment rate in that part of the state is twice the national average. The Democrats would be wise to point out that this administration is looking to those areas as needing help and opportunities.
Thank you for trying to get your granddaughter interested in the world of "pubic affairs". I'm 69... remember the Cuban Missile Crisis (did a report about it for my history class in high school some years later). So sorry to hear about the furniture industry in North Carolina... as well as what that billionaire is doing in your state. Also... I remember Dr. Strangelove very well. Also remember "The Day After" broadcast on TV in, I think, 1983. What can get young people interested in civics? I'm not sure. But I do know that Taylor Swift believes it's important for everyone to be registered to vote!
I have been wanting to hear of a large, visible movement of this type for months now. There are so many more people who support democracy and a functioning government responsive to the wants and needs of the majority than the current loud anti-government crazies out there. The examples of Israel pre October 7 and Germany now are inspiring. It has to be multi-state and recurring (not just one day). I’m all for it.
'Trump says he’d let Russia do ‘whatever the hell they want’ to NATO countries that don’t pay enough' (NBC Universal) by RUDY CHINCHILLA AND MAX BURMAN
February 11, 2024 at 8:19 AM
'Former President Donald Trump said Saturday he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” if it attacked a NATO country that didn’t pay enough for defense.'
'Speaking to supporters at a rally in South Carolina, Trump recounted an exchange from his time in office with the leader of a “big country” who asked whether they would be protected if Russia attacked.'
'Trump said he told the leader that the U.S. government would not protect the bloc if they didn’t pay their fair share in defense spending.'
“I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recalled. “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills,” 'he added.'
'The comments will do little to ease concerns in Europe about U.S. dependability, with military aid that Ukraine desperately needs held up in Congress and the front-runner for the GOP nomination reiterating his long-standing skepticism of America’s historical commitments to its allies.'
'It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin pushes on with his war in Ukraine, and after some North Atlantic Treaty Organization members have expressed concerns that Russia might look to invade other nations next.'
'The alliance was formed in 1949 to provide collective defense against the Soviet Union. A hallmark of the agreement is Article 5, which states that an attack on one ally would be considered an attack on all.'
'Trump has long groused about NATO and sparred with heads of member states, reportedly threatening to pull the United States out of the bloc over demands that member nations hit the target of spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.'
'Since coming into office, President Joe Biden has sought to reassure NATO of the U.S. commitment to the alliance, a stark contrast to his Republican predecessor.'
'Last month, Biden signed an $886 billion defense bill that bars a president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO, which could thwart Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to “fundamentally” re-evaluate “NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.”
'The White House said Trump’s latest comments were' “appalling and unhinged.”
“Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged — and it endangers American national security, global stability and our economy at home,” 'spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement Saturday night.'
“Rather than calling for wars and promoting deranged chaos, President Biden will continue to bolster American leadership and stand up for our national security interests — not against them,” 'he said.'
'A report released last year showed only 11 of the then-30 member nations were spending 2% of their GDP or more on defense. But the figure is a target not a requirement, and many NATO members have stepped up their military spending in the wake of Russia’s Ukraine invasion.'
'Finland was granted NATO membership status last year, and Sweden is in the process of joining. Denmark’s defense minister warned Friday that a new threat assessment based on new intelligence indicates that Russia could attack a NATO country within three to five years.' (NBC, Universal) See link below for complete article.
No one mentions that there were less than 3000 people at the rally. I wrote a letter to the NYT suggesting they include that information in their article. Crickets. Detailing how many “supporters” attend Trump’s campaign stops would reveal that the numbers keep getting smaller. This contradicts that aura of inevitability. Write letters to your rag if choice! Accurate information is the best antidote to weird social engineering experiments…
HCR regurgitates tired, hypocritical propaganda about the "rules-based international order" as well as the absurd lie that Russia is deliberately targeting the civilian population of Ukraine. In international relations, breaking and strangling the economies of darker-skinned countries, the hypocritical States is far worse than Russia in its ongoing criminal behavior through the decades.
Ukraine rekindled the war in 2022 by attacking the breakaway Donbass republics after Russia signed mutual defense treaties with them. In doing so, Ukraine tore up the battered Minsk Agreements. HCR resolutely ignores that.
John Schmeekle, were you brought up to walk into someone's home and put them down in front of friends and supporters, or is that something you took on as 'acceptable behavior' elsewhere?
Schmeeckle is entitled to his opinion. It is one that is resoundingly opposed here but our democracy allows for differing opinions. I completely reject his views and his attacks on Dr. Richardson is unwarranted.
It is up to us to engage in conversation with Schmeeckle and refute his statements. Unfortunately true trumpers are not interested in discussion, when you try they resort to insults and threats. There is no point in engaging with them. However if someone with a different view wants to talk, we should join in.
He’s a troll, he’s trolling and he got what he came for. Recognize what he’s doing. If you want to say he’s entitled to his opinion, fine but it’s the 1st amendment,not democracy that gives him the right to pick an argumentative fight with those of us who admire HCR and her commentaries.
Maybe he’s a troll. However the way many people are responding helps substantiate his statement. Without democracy there is no 1st Amendment, trump plans to cancel parts of the Constitution. I am one of her admirers. I rejected his personal attacks on her.
Okay. No argument here, just a warning to us all on this blog who encounter this sort behavior which has been rare in my experience. It serves his purpose (if, in fact it is a “he”) for folks to engage with him. He get a sense of control and satisfaction doing this.
I doubt I’d change many minds. In my experience, people who have a deep emotional or intellectual investment in seeing the world one way are unlikely to change their minds by seeing or hearing someone who challenges that investment.
The people who need to be reached are those who remain reachable — whose minds are still open to evidence and argument.
Robert Reich is correct. That’s why I try and when I hit a brick wall, as I did with the Lewiston shooting, I give a brief reply in kind and then end the conversation.
I completely agree. I attempted to have a discussion with some people on Facebook about gun control right after Lewiston, Maine. I was resoundingly attacked. Most days I respond in kind. I feel if someone wants to come in to a place where they know their views are rejected, they deserve to be heard. Maybe it’s because of how I am treated when I go into one of their places.
Mike Yochim, I am routinely falsely accused of being a Trump supporter by people who know better. I am not, and never have been a Trump supporter. Like my father before me, I am an old-school anti-war FDR Democrat.
I am inclined to strongly disagree, and I've shared my condemnation of Biden's Vampire Liberalism around here. Biden is making almost no effort to rebuild America's industrial base, which we can't do unless we undo Clinton's sell-out of the Democratic Party and abandon "free trade" and the WTO.
FDR was staunchly anti-imperialist, and Biden throughout his career has been a minion of the neo-imperialist Establishment that has used American control over the International Monetary Fund to strangle the economies of the darker-skinned countries.
I live near a TVA dam. Biden has no such comparable infrastructure project, such as a high-speed rail network. Where is Biden's vision for that? They have the right idea in California (where I lived for 20 years).
FDR went for the development of nuclear fission. Why can't Biden and today's Democrats go for nuclear fusion? Think of all the things we could do with abundant cheap electricity:
Even a one time derogatory remark is not okay. This place needs a strapping, mean faced security guard who will tap the offending party on the shoulder and say, ‘Sir, I’m gonna have to ask ya to leave.’
What I see happening is that folks engage negatively and soon this discussion is filled with attacks from and to. Do we really want to waste this page in that way? Ignore this person who trolls.
Christy, thanks for his link; what i got out of it was it’s not really about free speech or a different POV!
“And it makes so much sense that dark personalities with high levels of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism (known as “the dark tetrad”) in real life are the darkest of dark trolls online as well, because darkness hunts everywhere….motives behind wasting so much time trolling. To them, it is not wasting time at all. It is their nature, and being mostly anonymous online, and thus mostly unaccountable, just makes it so much easier for them to spread their disordered darkness online and off.”
Might as well change the subject. I wish we would all work for peace and cooperation among all global political entities, large and small, down to every single individual human person. If we are not all engaged in that enterprise, it would be interesting to delve into one or two big reasons why we are not fully occupied with the future of the planet and all of the various lifeforms which dwell hereupon.
Everyone who finds themselves engaged in pointless disputation should try, subtly or not, to swerve the conversation back on track toward a long-term vision of the future of life on this planet, for all creatures, allegedly sentient or otherwise.
It would also help to try to display some semblance of a sense of humor, despite the obvious difficulties of injecting humor into a discussion of deliberate slaughter, for example. A touch of humor would help a lot in certain situations, perhaps most situations.
Perhaps all criticism should be aimed at attempting to offer a more uplifting approach to solving the topic under discussion.
You avoid the question of what to do with the bad actors who seek the exact opposite of what you hope for. Only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole barrel. It takes a village to raise a child, but only one vicious nut with a gun to kill the children. Only one pirate corporation disposing of toxic waste by pumping it into a well to contaminate the ground water for miles and miles around. Or lying about their vehicles’ actual emissions levels to provide the tipping point for run-away global warming. When we look away from the bad actors and excuse their bad behavior, we fool ourselves that we are doing the right thing, for fun or profit. Criminals do not make good leaders. The way to stop Putin from wrecking Ukraine is to stop Putin from making these bad decisions, not expect Ukraine to roll over. If Ukraine gave up, where would Putin turn his greedy eyes and murderous heart to next? The way to stop the destruction of Palestine is to capture and put every Hamas fighter in jail.The Palestinians should be doing that, not the Israelis. The Israelis should remove their own criminal leader and elect someone capable of acting for the greater good, rather than narrow self-interest. Ugh. Changing the subject aids and abets the criminal enterprises, doesn’t it? As Putin gets older and more lost in his fantasies of empire, the world is less and less safe. The Russians, a proud and educated people with a long history of fighting tyrants, need to figure out why they got sucked into Putin’s delusions of grandeur. Tolerating criminals in our midst is a symptom of a lack of personal integrity. Remember that old, old saying,”Better a lean wolf, than a fat dog.” Being a fat dog only works as long as whoever holds the chain keeps feeding the dog. Putin is not a lean wolf, he’s the guy that puts the chain around the Russian people’s neck and sends them off to kill their cousins and steal this grain fields. Hamas is not a lean wolf, it treats the people of Palestine as human shields. Netanyahu thinks laying waste to Palestine is a good way to stay out of jail, but the people who have Hamas on a leash are far away and untouched by the path of destruction. Why do the Israeli’s put up with that? Donald Trump is not a lean wolf. Political entities are one thing, but criminal behavior always comes down to personal integrity on the part of individuals.
You wrote "You avoid the question of what to do with the bad actors who seek the exact opposite of what you hope for..."
I think one of the shortcomings of Substack's interface design is that the threads and comments are difficult to follow, or to connect in the proper order. In the instant case, my comment was posted soon after John Schmeekle's post. In fact, it appeared immediately after John's post. At this moment my response to John's post is physically distant, and without any reference in my post to his, you would probably find it challenging to relate what I wrote to what John wrote. John reminds me of some of my "Old School" friends growing up in the '50s and '60s and into the '70s. In the Old School, we could argue strenuously all day long, yet remain friends at the end of the day, and long into the future. I intend to suggest to John that criticizing Dr Richardson, apart from being impolitic and impolite, is a form of logical fallacy, an "ad hominem" argument against the person, instead of against the logic. What I wrote in response to John's post was intended to convey the idea that he was missing the point. My comment did not address his point, which was the point I was hoping to make. I'll try to be more explicit in the future.
To address your point, in Notes on Useful Beauty, I think I am not naive. In 1967 I was in my third semester of college in the University of Wisconsin system, facing the draft, and facing being sent to Vietnam if I did not stay in school. One morning in October '67 I had an epiphany: I realized, as though for the first time, that I was not required to stay in school. So I dropped out. Less than three months later I enlisted in the Army Security Agency for four years, at the height of the war. I spent a year in a Defense Department language school studying the "Hanoi dialect" of the Vietnamese language. I spent a year of my life in Vietnam. I landed in Vietnam a few weeks after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. When I was 27 I went back to the UW system, majored in philosophy, and graduated with a BA on or about my 30trh birthday. In 1987 I decided I should learn a useful trade, so I enrolled in our local vocational-technical college and earned two Associate Degrees, in computers and electronics, going part time to school and working part time over the course of five years. I worked in a corporate environment as a computer technician for the next 15 or so years.
My life story doesn't establish that I am not naive, of course. As far as I'm concerned, as far as I can tell, I am not naive. I think it is probably impossible for someone to live through a war, and then live three quarters of a century, yet still be naive about how the world works.
I wrote this earlier, and thought I'd lost it. Then I found it again. like a miracle. Instead of deleting this rendition, I'll send it along, for whatever it might be worth, if anything at all.
When I was a child my grade school class went to see a movie together: The Magnificent Seven, made in 1960, directed by John Sturges. It was an American remake of "The Seven Samurai", made in Japan by Akira Kurosawa. In both movies, peaceful peasant farmers are set upon and terrorized by a gang of bandits. The peaceful villagers are not prepared to defend themselves, so they persuade experienced fighters to defend them. Lots of fighting, people die.
Fast forward to the present day. Part of the population wishes fervently to live an ordered, peaceful, civilized life. But we have living amongst us bullies, thugs, psychopaths, and monsters of various types. We all know this is true. We all know that there are many and varied reasons why some people do not live by the golden rule. Someone would be seen as a naive Pollyanna (Pollyanna was depicted in a movie about a girl who was excessively cheerful and optimistic, no matter what happened). We are not naive. We know there are many root causes for the ills we see around us in our society in the US, and in other societies around the world. Millions of people living in poverty in the US, the richest nation in the world, is one example. There is a long list of social ills, many of which are directly related to our economic system, and its notable lack of a conscience.
And we all are familiar with the problems in Palestine and Israel, and with the problems in Ukraine and Russia, and the problems in northwestern China repressing the Uyghurs., and many other troubled areas around the world. Authoritarianism appears to be on the rise around the world. But instead of talking about specific examples of strife among various groups of people, I think we should talk about how to end strife all over the world.
Sometimes, in a forum like this, we may completely misconstrue what other people are saying. It's no wonder that people are fighting with each other all over the world, and have been for a very long time. I think that if we Americans could reform our own nation, then we could act as a beacon for the rest of the world, shining our light on what is possible. But we won't be much of a beacon while we are still tripping over our own feet, with massive greed, and massive poverty, and retail healthcare and medicine, depleting our soil and water, dumping carbon into the atmosphere, maldistribution of wealth, and all the rest.
My purpose in writing this was two-fold. My flippant diatribe, which you criticized, was in response to John Schmeekle's comment, which was an "ad hominem" slight against our Professor of History, instead of a statement of principle or an observation on the scene before us these days. My comment was initially immediately adjacent to John's comment, but because of the way Substack parses comments in time and space, my comment got separated from John's, and my comment contained no specific referent to John's post. So you can be forgiven for giving me what we referred to in the Army as "a ration of sh!t".
These days, instead of trying to discuss specific hot spots around the world, I find that I want to try to see the view from the edge of space. From that vantage point, the various wars and trouble spots all begin to look the same. We -- all of us around the world -- should be trying to work together to prepare our world for a long-term future. We are not doing that now, but we can begin to do that, and the sooner, the better. Our current approach to economy is not working for us, it is working against long-term sustainability. While some people are getting absurdly wealthy, our planet is becoming impoverished. And here we are in Wisconsin in the middle of February but we have no snow on the ground and the daytime temperatures have been in the 40s for an extended period. To say it is an unusually mild winter is an understatement. Over the past quarter of a century living in this neighborhood near the western shore of Lake Michigan, most years we've had snow piled three feet deep between the sidewalk and the street throughout the winter, sometimes into April.
I hope you and your husband enjoy each other's company for many many years into the future together.
All the political turmoil generated by self-interested, short-sighted criminals around the world are incorrect responses to the elephant in the room, Dave. In South and Central America , social disruption driven by crop failures pushes more and more people north toward the US, with predictable political turmoil as a result. In Africa, drought forces the semi-nomadic Arab herders, seeking grass for their livestock, further and further south into the settle agricultural areas inhabited by other ethnic groups, and suddenly Boko Haram happens. Putin’s attempt to gain control of Ukraine’s grain fields stems from a derp understanding that if the Russian people get hungry, that may wake them up and cause them to seek a better,, or at least, different leader. In China Xi made an executive decision to remove millions of peasants from their land, which was becoming less productive, and turn them into urban worker bees. But the pandemic reduced demand for Chinese goods, the worker bees no longer made enough money to buy houses, and now the housing market collapse has resulted in the bankruptcy of building corporations, threatening the Chinese economy. I have seen no mention anywhere about what percentage of those displaced worker bees are making their way back to their ancestral villages, but I worry about what XI will do with all the peasants who used to be more or less self supporting on the land, and are now stuck in those horrible high rise enclaves, wondering what is going to happen next. Xi will try to get them to blame someone other than himself, but who? In India, Modi falls back on the old Hindu/Muslim divide, but traditional land inheritance laws leave people stuck on tiny properties that can no longer feed the owners. And there was the spectacle of the Climate summit hosted by wealthy oil interests, unable to agree on guidelines that would actually reduce emissions enough to have any chance of reducing rising temperatures enough to forestall the collapse of the North Atlantic current. And we see in Israel, the continuing tribal feud over a spot of land that has been going on for thousand of years. Where are those displaced people going to go this time? Our world is overpopulated with human beings for the coming drastic shifts in habitat suitability for humans. Where are the Palestinians going to go? I agree this is what we should be talking about.
Meredi, I appreciate your attention to detail, looking at human problems around the world. I think many people in the US, perhaps a large majority, would like US to become a good example for the rest of the world to follow. But we have a rather long way to go to become admirable in the way we do things.
We have water problems, and those problems will probably get worse before they get better. The years-long drought in the western US largely ended last winter, but last summer the areas of severe drought could be seen in the central US, even here in Wisconsin. And the Oglala Aquifer has been reduced faster than it can be replenished: some of the water they've been using for irrigation was deposited as the last glacial period ended thousands of years ago.
There are some interesting concepts around high-rise buildings as vertical farms. They would still need water, but maybe they could contain evaporation within the building. Currently, we export a significant portion of our water when we export food grown with irrigation. Having high-rise farms in urban areas would reduce transportation times to market.
Modern (since around 1950) dirt farming practices have bothered me for a long time. They use anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer, and chemical pesticides to enhance yields. Our instinct in our house is that we prefer our food to be grown in natural fertile soil. We are both long-time vegetarians, so our compost pile is mostly organic, and our small vegetable patch every year is almost entirely organic. Like many people, we rely on grocery stores and farmers' markets for most of our food. The current economics of growing food is fraught with the influence of money, which appears to lead to the reduction of health value in the food that many people consume.
We are interested in renewable energy, and we have a small (2.4 kW) photovoltaic array on our garage. Eventually we intend to expand our generation capability to the roof of the house, hoping to generate everything we consume. We hope to witness a change to all-renewable energy with "battery" backup storage, perhaps at utility scale, although I don't like or trust the big Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs). We recently read about a new idea in storage techniques, to be built here in Wisconsin as a pilot project. It entails a large building with a collapsible roof, which gets filled with carbon dioxide. There is an adjacent building, connected by a tube or tunnel, with a fan which turns a turbine to generate electricity. The gates are opened and the gas floods out of the first building into the second. The ways it's described makes it sound very efficient. We'll see.
We need to change a lot of things.
We believe in deficit spending by the federal government. We view it as an investment in the future. To the people who say we "borrow" too much, and the interest payments are too high, I advise investing in Treasury instruments. They pay interest. Then maybe the austerity-loving deficit hawks won't feel so anxious about those interest payments.
We have plenty to worry about. We think we would all be happier and healthier if we would talk about how to solve our problems. I'd like to get rid of nuclear weapons. We still have way more aircraft carrier strike groups than any other nation. We spend a lot of money on missiles that sit in their silos and grow old, only to be replaced after X years with newer and more sophisticated very expensive rockets and their payloads.
I enjoy speculative fiction. I'd like to find stories that address these problems we have mentioned, and offer thoughtful or innovative solutions. Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction stories contained all sorts of ideas that eventually came to fruition, such as orbiting communications satellites. We need to dream up solutions to the problems we see.
I don't want it to all fall apart -- especially if it's only because of a lack of imagination.
John, allow me to clarify. I spent many years working with the criminally insane in the criminal justice system. Putin’s delusions of grandeur, desiring to build his legacy as restoring Russia’s former glory, allows him to justify, in his own head, an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation, which has resulted so far, in close to 200,000 deaths and the destruction of infrastructure and resources that are not easily replaced. Putin is a pitiful character on his own, lost in his fantasies, but he causes chaos and destruction for his own internal goals, which are greedy (invading other countries) and murderous (throwing rival oligarchs out of windows, poisoning Navalny with plutonium, etc.) He is a danger to self and others, and the world deserves to be protected from his mad antics.
Marj, I'm "Old School", going back to the days before around 1975, when we could all be on different side, and argue strenuously, yet remain friends. I admit that some people are irredeemable these days, but I still feel an instinct to attempt to build bridges with some people who can communicate, even if they are unconventional. My main objection to the individual in question is his criticism of HCR, which is an "ad hominem" fallacy. Often, when that is pointed out, the errant interlocutor can be persuaded to stick to the subject at hand, say what he has to say, without dissing our dear Professor Richardson. If I were a Democratic strategist, I would look for ways to attract as many voters as possible to the cause of the preservation of two centuries-plus of democratic aspirations here in the USA.
Thanks for the link, Michael. I've been some form of vegetarian since early 1975. From '78 to '92 I was a careful vegan. Lapsed back to lacto-ovo-veg since '92. We have a small 2.4 kW PV array on our garage, which supplies about half of our power. We are planning to go "All Electric", all renewable electric power. We are careful about what we buy, always looking for "B" Corp companies, sustainable practices, etc.
Your approach approximates the old natural-law doctrine that maturely developed or "perfected" individual human nature is characterized by active concern for the well-being of our fellow humans.
p.s. I eat what vegans eat, which is challenging for a truck driver on the road a lot.
After I'd been in the war for about 8 months I arrived at the idea, spring of 1970, that if I survived I would stop killing things. It took me until January of 1975 to completely stop eating meat. My vegan period lasted from '78 to '92, and have been lacto-ovo-veg ever since. My wife is a great cook, also vegetarian. We both worked for a trucking company that hauls new diesel tractors from factory to dealers, so we understand a lot about the life of an over-the-road driver.
Thank you for the link. While this does address our over exploitation of the planet's resources, the main issue seems to be that there are too many of us. We just hit the 8 billion mark of humans on the planet. So many of us, especially in the "developed" west seem to think it's fine to have more than two children per family. And there are those who work to prevent people around the world from getting access to birth control. If women aren't free to choose how many children they'll have, they are essentially prisoners of their reproductive process and the men who continue to impregnate them. All of which can create conflict over resources, which are finite and of course feeds the military industrial complex which continues to stuff the pockets of the sociopaths that own it.
Resourceism is the belief or ideology that all of the Earth's resources are the common inheritance of all the world's people and should be shared equally for the benefit of all the Earth's inhabitants. Resourceism is the foundational belief of a resource-based economy.
Until we run out of oil reserves in the US, that ain't gonna happen. BUT, this is what is currently happening in countries like Norway, where the fossil fuels and minerals are state owned and the entire population shares in the profits.
Nice John. I like it. As the ocean level rises hopefully coastal dwellers (like myself) will set up more houseboat communities and we can have more hybrid vehicles -- hybrid meaning they are amphibious as well as run on land.
Probably, but we have to do what we can for future generations. Much of the damage is irreversible but we need to slow it down. Future generations may live underground to survive the catastrophic storms and farming will be done inside silos. Meat protein may not be available after the planet becomes too inhospitable.
The progress scientists all around the world are making with batteries, solar, wind and even run-of-the-river dams gives me hope -- not so much for our generation, but for the future.
The planet will still be here, but the ecosystems which sustained human civilization as we know it today, will change, and so will human civilization. I myself would like to keep hot running water and a stable pharmaceutical supply chain, since I am dependent on thyroid medication, but we shall see.
Hey I’m a truck driver, in a way. As an art dealer, I haul art in my van to distant conventions. Isn’t that a truck driver? I had a line running around in my head for a new song once heading home on I-81 in PA and I had to pull in to a truck stop to write it down. Write it down or lose it so I parked alongside 18 wheelers. Took a picture of it too. I had my song in a week. The line in 2019: “There are good people and bad ones wherever you go. Just seems like the bad ones are stealing the show.” Some of us use our minds when traveling long distance.
I used to listen to "Great Courses" lectures while driving in the middle of the night. I drove truck full time while paying my way through a Master's program in history, one class at a time. In December 2006, while driving down I-5 to San Diego, I stumbled across the definition of happiness as used in the Declaration of Independence:
And here is the song that I wrote from the line that ran around my head while driving back from Nashville (a good enough place to feel so inspiried) to CT. Called "Blue Daze" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYtTGIzb7OA
Unfortunately, John, that is behind a "password" wall that I can't get around. But, I think instead of happiness they should have said "contentment" or "happiness and contentment." Happiness seems fleeting and short term while contentment is a general feeling of safety and well-being.
John, I am aware that a version, admittedly presented differently, of the perspective you’ve briefly outlined is broadly held not only by everyday people both at home and abroad but also by noted and serious public intellectuals and political analysts. I also am cognizant of, I expect, the broader coalition, both domestic and global, that subscribes to the understanding HCR has promoted. In my view, if one seriously is committed to testing her or his views and deepening her or his understanding, the person would be pressing, as I repeatedly have done, to bring noted scholars together who represent both sides for open discussion and dialogue.
Frankly, I see no other means for seeking a more cooperative international order that views war as contrary to universally shared concerns that include world-wide economic and social justice, the health of our physical world, and the well-being of all of earth’s inhabitants.
Your post inspired me to think of a set of questions that a panel of opposing scholars could consider:
1. How relevant are Ukraine's border changes in 1921 to Russia's war aims, and what if any legitimacy can be found in "roll back the border" arguments?
2. How much foreign meddling was there in the Maiden Revolution, and was it sufficient to tarnish the legitimacy of the new government?
3. Did the Maiden Revolution vitiate the Budapest Memorandum? Potential precedent: President Washington decided that the French Revolution vitiated the treaty of alliance with France's "ancien regime."
4. Zelensky was elected President with a campaign platform that prominently included the pledge to make swift Peace in the Donbass, with the Steinmeier Formula in mind.
Zelensky reneged on that and built up to invade the breakaway Donbass republics. To what extent does this delegitimize Zelensky's presidency?
Substack Inc has once again breached its California contracts with Readers & Authors.
I have prepared an appropriate Exhibit & allegations for submission to Substack Inc's chosen Mediation forum which is JAMS SF as we all are aware. Reported.
I block the trolls all the time and couldn’t figure out why their 💩💩💩 still appears, so I looked it up. Apparently you have to “mute” them if you want to avoid the stench.
Deliberately targeting civilians goes back to WWI and German bombing raids on London, although it didn't really achieve substantial results until air bombardment grew into its maturity in WWII. Both sides did it with abandon, although the Allies were more successful at it because we built the big bombers capable of doing it really well, ending with the B-29, the firebombing of Japanese cities and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The rationale was then that civilian workers contribute to the war effort in factories, etc. The other rationale, of course, (and less openly admitted) was the creation of terror. It is virtually impossible to make modern war without killing civilians en masse. We proved that in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Russians are doing it now in the Ukraine. The Israelis are doing it in Gaza. And neither are alone in this modern age, so the word 'deliberate' is really just a distraction. When one makes modern war, everyone in the area dies.
Schmeekle, you loser, go peddle your Maga garbage at Breitbart or Fox or wherever jerks like you hang out, but not here. This forum is for intelligent people who are actually trying to have grown up conversations and figure important things out.
I don't know about Fox. I do know that Ukrainian missiles sometimes miss Russian missiles and come down anywhere, with civilian casualties, and then the Ukrainians pretend it was the Russians. The most famous example was when the Ukrainian anti-missile exploded in Poland, and Zelensky himself lied about it, but Poland and the United States and other countries contradicted him.
I think John Schmeekle has an agenda of his own and is not open to real discussion.
I will say that the rules-based order is in its infancy compared to the ages of human history in which conflict and conquest was the way. Of course it isn't perfect. We know that. We also know that democracy in the U.S. isn't perfect. But these attempts to bring more fairness and peace to the world can BE perfected. The forces that want to destroy democracy and a rules-based world order in their cradles before they can be perfected are those that want the return of rule by domination, fear and conquest. They want power and control for themselves, not a safe, just peaceful world. Protecting the steps that have been taken to quell the domination model is our current job. Everyone who wants justice and peace in the world should be on board with that.
I will suggest that the "rules-based order" is an Orwellian fig-leaf for neo-imperialist oppression.
The old handbook for a "rules-based international order," Vattel's "The Law of Nations," was "constantly in the hands of our Congress now sitting," according to Benjamin Franklin in 1775.
I don’t think, as an amateur historian with a said master’s degree, you have a good understanding of Russian history. I took a course taught by a former general in the Hungarian army that rebelled against the Soviets in 1956. Dr Dici was his name and he gave a firs person narrative. Russia went from and absolute monarchy to absolute dictatorship to a half hearted experiment with western democracy in the 1990s post break up of the Soviets. Yeltsin was a weak corrupt and drunken leader and he groomed an up and coming dictator Putin and the rest is history.
International norms and order is what is needed more so than ever. With regard to Israel, the US was so prostituted by Jewish lobby money that we gave anything Isreal wanted including ethnic cleansing just like the Nazis did to them in Europe. Humans have a rather nasty ability to avenge themselves in the most vial way. Hamas became the brilliant manipulators of public opinion when that sacrificed their own people by forcing Isreal to exterminate them. Please do not look for any better angels here. Both the Arabs and the Jews are demonic and I’m sorry to feel ashamed of my half Jewish blood.
The Donbas was majority Ukrainian before hostilities. Recall Putin stating he was not intent on invading but did anyway. How many people must die for territoriality? Russia is clearly the aggressor and Putin has had a recent history of aggression on very lame excuses. So glad NATO has been strengthened but concerned about what Trump will do.
What is truly absurd is taking a count after Russian supported rebels drove many Ukrainian out, kidnapped children, and caused many civilian deaths. Russia has had a history of not only persecuting Ukrainian but actually starving them to death. You're advocating for evil.
I think you're wrong, but if you have any sources to back up what you're saying, I'll be pleased to consider them.
Regarding the Holodomor, it wasn't Russia vs. Ukraine: Stalin wasn't even Russian, and the Russians in the Donbass starved like everyone else in Ukraine.
Perhaps you disagree with some of my basic points, like:
-Russia is NOT deliberately targeting civilians.
-The continuing invasive presence of the U.S. military in Syria makes a mockery of inanw blathet about a "rules-based order," as does our support of Israel’s continuing violation of those United Nations resolutions, as does our ongoing crime-against-humanity embargo against Venezuela.
Engaging with this troll is like clicking on the link sent in your email that says Norton virus protection has sent you a bill for services. Engagement is the purpose of the scam. DO NOT ENGAGE OR RESPOND TO TROLLING! EVER. That’s their goal. Also, just a cursory look into this character’s credentials and you will find that he’s absolutely insane.
"Do we want self-government or dictatorship?" That is the central question of this era. Thanks.
I have been a big fan of Bucky Fuller ever since I saw one of his geodesic domes being tested on top of Mt. Washington (Agiocochook) in NH, c.1970 (?).
ALWAYS remember: aspiring autocrats eventually tell you everything. As they get more desperate, they get more bizarre. The far right is actually freaking out that this coward is exposing ALL of their plans.
In President Biden we are fortunate to have seasoned leadership that is providing Americans with a strong economy that is reaching Middle America.
It should be expected that he would be the target of cruel pot shots by those who seek to undermine confidence in him as President.
Special Prosecutor Hur's inclusion of remarks regarding Biden's failure to recall the date of his son Beau's death, may speak to Hur's background prosecuting gang violence and similar cases. He likely is well aware of how the mind may deal with personal tragedy and trauma. While the memory of a personally tragic event is put on a shelf (so to speak) and allowed to gather dust, the individual moves forward with life.
It is common not to recall the details of a personally tragic or traumatic event. It has absolutely nothing to do with age.
I wonder if the house freedom caucus prefers a dictatorship as evidenced by their marching in lockstep to their leader’s commands. However, they might refer to the history of the more recent dictators such as Stalin and Hitler who were just as likely to turn on those who might appear less loyal or disagree with them.
HCR shows us that Biden has worked hard to build alliances worldwide. Russia has had far to great an influence in the US. I suspect there are financial arrangements between Putin and Trump. I recall that Trump sold a property to a Russian oligarch for 10s of millions more than value. Rachel Maddow covered it. Easy to plant so much in the MSM from remote digital locations.
However, Biden's support for the blatant Gaza genocide and Israel's apartheid of the Palestinians is his undoing. We have a long history of our government doing horrible things, but this puts an indelible stain on the US. $14 billion is being discussed for munitions that will directly result in death and destruction in Gaza. That is our tax dollars.
"To boldly go" is a painful split infinitive. Makes my hair stand on end. (Even though it's from a sacred text.)
More importantly: I think we should stop worshipping being "innovation driven". There are plenty of innovations that are questionable at best and others that are horrible at worst. Some have yet to be evaluated; others are both (AI being an example). This is a side issue to today's discussion, still important, in my (humble, of course) opinion.
It is horrifying that so many Americans support this kind of rhetoric. They will only truly understand the horror when they lose any/all benefits they have through SS and Medicare/Medicaid because that orange monster plans to alter them extremely. (He has said SS is a Ponzie scheme?!?!) He needs to be in jail.
Hopefully, TFFG's obesity and diet will catch up with him soon and he will stroke out or have a major colon explosion 💥💥💥 giving the world a chance to catch a breath.
The GOP has been saying SS is a ponzi scheme since Reagan. It's NOT Just Trump. He is just the latest, and in some ways his frightenly unfiltered speech and life are a Gift to Wake Us The Hell Up to what the "industrialists" have been doing for a century. Trying to kill democracy. Period. The cat is out of the bag.
thank you for injecting perspective; I'm sick of how many commenters have fallen for the schtick that Grifter Drumpf has ever had an original thought, let alone that he's the source of anything the MAGA bandwagon plugs into their dysfunctional dreams.
Evelyn, that says it all right there, doesn't it? Trump's financial and political ties to Russia are well-documented; perhaps this will be as revelatory but more unsettling to voters in November as his "Russia, are you listening?" beseech he made in 2016 in reference to Hilary's emails. (Turns out Russia was indeed listening, and hacked the DNC servers soon after.)
Will main stream media puck up this story and amplify it as much as they have of Richard Hur's highly inappropriate comments about Joe Biden while exonerated him in Biden's classified documents case? I haven't checked the early news reports yet, but this should be yet another red flag in a forest of red flags. (Maybe all the red fabric has gone to the production of red hats?) But, hey, let's talk instead about Biden's age.
This man betrays our country every chance he can. His only fealty is to Putin, not the US or our constitution that he took an oath to defend. The missing highly confidential documents he stole upon leaving office may well be in Putin's hands -- if that isn't "aiding and abetting" the enemy, I don't know what is. His Congressional supporters are equally disloyal shown by (among other things,) their failure to date to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.
Yet the Red Hats cult still believe he is the man to lead our country. Where he will lead us is clear, and that is a horrifying thought.
It is astonishing to me that so many people support trumpism. Even saying America needs a dictator!
And then there are the snowflakes in Congress…WTH happened to their spine? I’m gobsmacked by the silliness in Congress on the Republican side. They have the means to band together and make the nutballs irrelevant but they cower in the room they no longer deserve to occupy.
Evelyn, those ignorant, uneducated, fools that say America needs a dictator are really more stupid than i even imagined. Do they not realize that World War 2 was fought to keep us from even thinking about such a thing?? So many Americans lost their lives fighting to keep us free from authoritarian dictators. All of these stupid dumbasses need to be rounded up and thrown in prison for even saying such absurd nonsense. I am horrified that there are so many deranged people here in the United States. I just wish someone had the courage to put DJT's sorry ass away for the rest of his retched, sorry life.
I for one am not going to spend the last 10 or 15 years of my life under a Dictatorship. I have the financial means to leave the United States even though i am too old to move, but i will if that deranged mob boss criminal is elected Dictator. I am beyond sick and fed up with those barbarians in the Fascist GQP.
I have the financial means to leave, but Here I Stand.
As God is my witness, I WILL NOT be run out of my home by the likes of Gulty Donny or his thugs. We stomped the Nazis once. If we need to finish the job so be it.
My husband and I are right with you. The thought of waking up each day with Orange man in our people’s house frightens me every day. I an repulsed by our federal Rep and local state Rep who this week both came out in support of him. I think they are deranged cowards and I am also repulsed at the reality that they represent me. I fully disagree with both of these cowardly men and will work to see their backsides in November. We are both 75 and too old to have to live under a dictatorship.
Yeah, and after such a war, people always act so surprised: “ I can’t understand how this could have happened, I can’t understand how people can de so cruel to one another” - well, watch very closely then, because it’s happening now, in real-time.
I totally agree with you. I have watched many documentaries about World War 2 and the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler and one of those programs showed German families that were all in for Hitler standing in ruins in Berlin after their homes were bombed and destroyed and they asked themselves, '' Why oh why did i cheer so hard and support Adolf Hitler and look at what he has did to us.'' They were in tears and wondered what they were going to go with no where to go.
This same thing could happen here if the corrupt Orange monster takes leadership again.
I'd put it more strongly: the same thing WILL happen if the GOD (the Great Orange Dictator) reenters the White House. He already stated quite clearly that he is going to use the government to get rid of everyone he doesn't like (SS/Stasi), that there will be internment camps (Konzentrationslager), he has been going on and on about who is (allowed to be) a real American and who isn't - naturally, PoC and the LGBTQ+-community (minderwertige Rasse / Entarteten) and he believes he is the Great Saviour of the American people (Führerprinzip). He ticks off all of Hitler's boxes.
I’m also horrified that there are so many deranged Americans, but I think they are neither ignorant nor stupid. It’s worse than that. They know exactly what they’re doing. They vote for the party that promises to do everything it can to preserve systemic white advantages. They’ve been doing that since 1968, but until Trump they were cagey about their motivations. Now they are unabashed. They know they cannot continue to win in a democracy, so they prefer an autocracy with an autocrat who personifies the government they want.
John, what absolutely floors me are people in my cohort (retired cops over 60, ranging in age up to their early 70's) who are Veterans (some Vietnam, some Cold War, a few GWOT) who are absolutely on board with fpotus and what he is spouting. I am absolutely stunned.
I think they're being either leveraged by the threat of the release of unsavory info Putin has on them (what else would explain Lindsey Graham's sudden embrace of MAGA in 2016/17?) or they fear for their lives should they oppose trompy.
Yes! If you had told me in 1975 that in 2024 democracy would be on the ropes, serious politicians would be floating the idea of ending Social Security, that abortion would be illegal in much of the US, but buying semi-automatic rifles and shooting up schools and churches would be views as a right that needed to be protected, and a Presidential candidate would say,”If I am elected(or otherwise gain power, whatever) I will pull out of NATO and encourage Putin to attack Europe, I would have laughed and laughed. Who knew that 1976 would be the best year of anyone’s life?
Donald Trump is absolutely traitorous. He puts himself above the good of the country. He's running for office to try to stay out of prison. Who has ever before run for president for such a reason?
Most of Heather's letter speaks in great detail about the advances Pres. Biden has made along with other world leaders to create a future of international cooperation. Of course, it will take time for these new entities to become truly operational. It is truly a new world order he and others are building. Shouldn''t we be putting our awareness and attention on these positive developments rather than giving ourselves over to pessimism and negativity?
Why can’t the media double down on comments like this. Drill him with questions regarding just what he will support Putin to do?? Why??? Wtf is wrong with the media?? I want them asking him how many US Troops he will send to Russia to help them kill Ukrainian children, or invade Poland?? We need to know.
Sure he will lie but if you get him pissed off enough the truth will erupt from him. He can’t control his rage.
I’m also sick of the media! The Sunday shows have me SMH when they allow a guest to lie without push back. There are too few attempts to get them to really answer a question factually.
Must be why so many of us are here, along with other sources on Substack, and Beau of the 5th column, etc.
Remember. It’s OK to be scared.Trump and his band of MAGAts are scary. Kicks in our fight or flight to protect our physical health and wellness. What we are NOT is afraid. I will never be afraid of protecting democracy. That which is precious to us generates courage.
Lee, I share your view of Ron "Empty Suit" Johnson. We were extremely disappointed that Mandela Barnes was not elected to the Senate.
The late Senator from Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy, would be spinning in his grave like a metal lathe if he could see these American politicians cozying up to the ex(?) head of the KGB in Russia. In those old days such behavior was viewed as "un-American".
Ha, I didn't think of that angle. However, I would quibble about what the current Russian guy feels in his heart of hearts: he will never lose sight of his Soviet Union KGB days, and he only passes in polite society today because he is vyery subtle and very sophisticated and intelligent. The communist menace is not a hot topic these days, but it certainly was when I was a child growing up in Wisconsin. To this day I am still unable to read Karl Marx because of Senator Joe McCarthy and his ilk. You would think I could get over it, and I have tried, but "Tailgunner Joe" (he wasn't really) did a number on my mind.
Not so much during the French Revolution. If they aren’t careful, it can happen again. It was smart of them to have us peons fighting each other instead of attacking the real problem, but that’s only going to work for so long.
Interesting thought. True, the revolution overthrew the church and aristocracy with much of its landed wealth, but the aspiring middle classes took over and staunched aspirational socialists/levellers, violently, eg the sans culottes, and embedded the protection of property ie wealth in the new constitution. Napoleon's goal was to create a new inherited/wealth based aristocracy, with himself and family "cronies" very much at the head. The largest ever French armies fought under his banner, spreading "the revolution"... gotta think about that one, in my mind.
Still, I can’t imagine any of them wanting the inconvenience of living in hiding until they’re eventually found, while computer & AI people transfer all their money into someone else’s accounts. Who will serve them food, do their laundry, wipe their bums, and can be trusted not turn them in?
Please subscribe to Mother Jones, too! It's very inexpensive and they are continuing to employ some of the Best investigative journalists in America. We need to keep journalism alive with our Money. Alpha Bet search has truly sucked up ALL the ad dollars (way more than m.e.t.a) and traditional, fact based, long story journalism is Dying right when we need it most. How convenient for the Fa$cists!
Whatever the outcome of the vote, Trump cannot be allowed to take office under any circumstances. As has been often said, "the Consitution is not a suicide pact." We know what he did before; we know what he promises to do. Which was to try an destroy the constitutional democratic republic before, and to accomplish the job this time. The "rules" DO NOT INCLUDE a requirement that we nod our heads, hand over the keys to the White House and say "Have a nice day." He is not a legitimate contender for the office of president, because he wants to use it to destroy what he gives an oath - one that means nothing to him - to defend that constitutional republic he is set on destroying. Those two things cannot come together - it's Matter and Anti-Matter, and if they ever touch they will explode.
Yet another reason that we must hope that the Supreme Court's oral argument preview of the Anderson v. Trump case (the 14th Amendment, Section 3 disqualification case) does not reflect the final result, and that the Court affirms the Colorado Supreme Court, and the Constitution simultaneously.
Speaking of Gilead two things. 1) Season 6 of Handmaid's Tale coming soon and 2) it seems that Kasmyrick used biased scientific articles in his Mifepristone decision. The scientists said they had no conflict of interest and 7 of 8 of them did. SCOTUS should reverse on this information alone but we all know they won't.
If SCOTUS allows Colorado to remove TFFG what will prevent Texass or Florida from removing Biden? I feel like the problem is that SCOTUS does not even acknowledge what happened on J6. None of them will call what it is — an insurrection — and I feel like that’s the root of the problem with their justification of ruling against Colorado. It’s mind boggling to any reasonable person how they rule from case to case. States can control women but they can’t decide that an insurrectionist should not be eligible to run for president. Make it make sense.
Remember, the Robert's court has time and again allowed gerrymandering which is also a 14th amendment violation. They say it is up to the states to decide their maps. In WI and NC it is almost impossible for the Democrats to gain a majority in the legislature due to gerrymandering. If they can allow gerrymandering within each state, then they can allow states to with hold someone for causing an insurrection.
and now the states legislatures are just ignoring the rare cases where SCOTUS actually Has found a map so blatantly skewed that they send it back for a redraw. Alabama and at least one other is doing this right now, if I remember correctly. Of course, we have to remember that one reason the Dems lost so much in NY in 22 was that the Dem machine Also gerrymandered so ridiculously that it was called out and the redraw had them running against each other. DEMS need to do SO much better (she's been saying since 1972)
I fully agree that the Court's failure to even acknowledge the events of 01/06/21, much less articulate the nature of those events as an insurrection, is a problem. Even with the legal question of what constitutes an insurrection still swirling, at the very least they could have raised it.
I am not in any sense worried about the repercussions possibly emanating from rogue States such as Florida and Tejas. While the high Court has always "read the newspapers" (or social media modernly), it is obligated to rule without fear or favor. If it were to rule based upon any fear of the MAGA mobs, then it would render itself virtually useless. As Timothy Snyder accurately observes, if it were to issue a ruling reversing the Colorado Supremes based upon fear of retaliation, it would be a pitchfork ruling, i.e., jettisoning the rule of law for fear of the pitchforks.
Some of the greatest rulings in the Court's history were made in the direct line of mob like threats. Consider Brown v. Board of Education for one, and the Pentagon Papers case for another.
Then again, this Court is as far from its previous brethren as Pluto is from the Earth.
I suspect that they will find a procedural way to wiggle out of directly smacking down Colorado, such as the doctrine of ripeness, i.e., concluding that because the election has not yet occurred, the case is not "ripe" for review, as same could not occur until after the election, given the term "holds office" in the 14th amendment.
This would of course be a colossal cop out, but, there you go.
Finally, you make an excellent point when noting how readily this Court jumped to take away long held and relied upon fundamental rights, but cowers in the corner when faced with the Insurrectionist in chief.
Daniel and Tom, it looks to be a given that SCOTUS will reject CO's keeping Trump off the ballot; we just await to see on what grounds they do so. Possible grounds is the sentence clause in Art. 14, Sec 3 stating that an insurrectionist can't *hold office" (not actually run for office -- a foolish misreading, in the view of many.) If elected in November, than I think we can expect a challenge made to SCOTUS saying that Trump is indeed unfit to serve due to insurrection. Would the justices agree? I'd like to think a majority would, but the expected subsequent violent threats to them makes me doubtful that they would deny his presidency on a technicality, strong that it may be.
Joyce Vance occasionally offers a "Five Questions" interview (for paid subscribers) with various experts on the law and legal matters. The most recent, a day or two ago, was with Steve Vladek, who is an expert on our high court. His recent book's title is "The Shadow Docket". Just reading a brief synopsis is chilling.
The Supremes began a practice of issuing opinions on various matters, without signatures and without reasoning -- I believe that practice was initiated during tffg's term as president.
One begins to wonder if their "reasoning" is comprehensive, or if it is "cherry picked" to support their personal intent or opinion in favor of, or against, the case at hand. If you read their opinion in "Washington D.C. v. Heller", look for any mention of the phrase "...a well-regulated militia..." I think I read the whole thing, but I didn't see any mention of that clause in Justice Scalia's opinion. [Edit: on 19 Nov 2024. Here is a quote from Scalia's opinion: "The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home..." Even so, I would still like to find the part that explains how Justice Scalia divorced the "well-regulated militia" clause from the words that follow in the Second Amendment...] I'm not a legal scholar, so don't take my word for it. I am merely offering that case as a possible example of a Supreme Court opinion that does not lay out a comprehensive argument about the meaning and intent of part of the Constitution. It appears that this supreme court is determined to change as much as they can while they can get away with it politically.
The Gang of Six is parsing the difference between office and officer, literally changing the dictionary in order to pretend they’re not amending the Constitution by a vote of 6 to 3
David, I read the free version of Joyce Vance's substack whenever it comes out. Five Questions has a paywall, and while I fully support the right of any author to be paid, there is only so much I can subscribe to (for reasons of finance, time and mental health), and there is a *lot* of content that I like that I must pass up -- Vance's is right up there.
I've read a fair amount from Vladek, mainly via Lawrence Tribe's Twitter feed that I used to Google daily, until Musk limited access. I am also a non-lawyer, and am fascinated by legal minds.
I don't wonder. Reasoning went out the window in 2000. Now we must assume the bizarre majority of ineptitude and "God" will side with the Oiligarchy that gave them each their power and said, "don't worry." We know you can't handle it. We'll do the heavy lifting."
Don't forget about us here in ME. It was two Republicans and a Democrat that each filed to keep TFFG off the ballot in ME Our brave Secretary of State Shenna Bellows interpreted Maine law correctly when she pulled Trump off the ballot in ME. She is very brave and amazing. She is a graduate of Ellsworth High School and I've only heard good things about her from the people that know her around here. It then went to the Maine Supreme Court and they have the case on hold until the far-right members of SCOTUS make a decision on Colorado.
That’s what worries me. Him pretending legitimacy to the WH (cheating all the way) and Dems just rolling over and saying he is the elected leader. He will NEVER be my president, no matter the cheating and the money, and the god-like adoration of fools.
Yes, it will not be anything like the big one with formal lines and armies. If that comes to pass, we get to learn just how bad civil wars really are - when everywhere is a possible battleground. So while I say there are some thing worth fighting for, I hope we fight for them so hard between now and November that we do the right thing and win politically. We just have to work as hard as we can and ask ourselves every day if we can work harder. This really is the most important terrible year of our lives.
After reading about trump & MAGA republican attempts to sell US to Russia, this brought tears to my eyes, “Biden’s is a bold new approach to global affairs, based on national rights to self-determination and working finally to bring an end to colonialism.” Wouldn’t that be a sight to behold? Thank you, Professor!
It's an egalitarian approach. Self-determination. Help them do it themselves, not insist on doing it for them. Bold and new! It's taken over 200 years to stumble to within touching distance of the objective set out by Tom Paine.
Those with an entrenched stake in the old ways are threatened all to hell by just having those ideas articulated. They spent generatons claiming that their superiority was God's plan, and yet the justification for it was always so fragile that merely hearing ideas about freedom, equality, and rule of law shakes their foundations.
In other words, they're scared! And that makes them dangerous.
Sure, just like we did in Vietnam, Chile, Iraq, Libya,Yemen,Cuba and now Gaza and so many more. That's what he means by "national rights to self-determination" and "bringing an end to colonialism?" Hilarious, tragic bullshit. In power and money we trust.
Many of us have devoted much thought and effort to dream up a better future for US, and for the whole world.
I dreamed up a new (to me) aphorism a few days ago: "It's very difficult to see the future while the past is standing in the way."
I could tie up my mind thinking about the year of my life I spent as a soldier in a war half a century ago. I did learn some important lessons during that period, but I tried to incorporate those lessons into my general approach to life, and I've moved on, trying to learn lessons from everything I've had to cope with and struggle with.
I try to envision a long-term future. I wish everyone would try to envision a better world for US in the future. I'd much rather talk about the future, rather than the past.
I have always thought about how things could be better and used to think maybe they would be. But now I do think so. Greed affects everything: plastic pollution, species extinction, habitat loss, global warming, poverty, homelessness, wealth inequality, human beings and animals bombed to death, voting rights limited, mass shootings, exploitation of workers, poor healthcare, cruel factory farming and animal testing...
I'm in sync with you, Lisa, I see it much the same way as you. I've been at it a long time. I was in the war in 1969-70. It took me a long time to reconcile my various conflicting opinions. But I think I have made steady progress. For example, I like the idea of re-tooling our economy toward repairing the damage we humans have inflicted on Nature and the Earth over the past four-or-so centuries. I like to say that we do things for love, and we do things for money -- devoting our economy to healing ourselves and our natural environment would serve both purposes, love and money. We seldom hear much discussion about the long-term future of Earth and its inhabitants, but I can easily imagine a time in the near future when we will begin to recognize the Rights of Nature, and we will begin to agree that we have a moral responsibility to future denizens of Earth, to begin to understand that the actions we take in our lifetimes will have long-term consequences for the people who live here long after we, the living, are gone from this world.
Wow so optimistic! Things have just gotten worse in every way starting in the 80s. Even if lots of people care, these huge corporations and lobbyists control everything and they have no conscience or compassion. Citizens United treats them as people when all they care about is their bottom line. I saw a mock-up of the Vietnam Memorial years ago in Santa Cruz and it just choked me up. The stupidity, heartlessness, cost and cruelty of war tells me that humans are incapable of making and preserving the near-paradise that is/was our planet. Democrats care more about the environment and voting rights, but both parties have engaged in brutal senseless attacks on foreign countries that have cost millions of lives and destroyed valuable structures and art. I was staggered by the Iraq invasion and did what I could to protest. I also protested Vietnam. If I try to see things simply, without the layers of propaganda, but just the effect on human and nonhuman lives, that's usually where I find the truth.
Well, again, I think we are walking along the same road. I don't think of my attitude as "optimistic". When I returned home after my time in the war, and later after I was discharged from the Army, I was what some people referred to as "emotionally numb". I worked steadily for years to begin to feel human again. That story is a long story, for another time, perhaps. I majored in philosophy in college, started over as a sophomore after the war. I have always tried to learn from my experiences in life. I try to be neither optimistic, nor pessimistic. I try to be neither a realist, nor a materialist, nor any sort of "stuck where I am". I don't want to feel defeated by the enormity of the task with which we humans are confronted. I have always loved science fiction, and speculative fiction, as they give me various ways to keep hope alive, and very often I see real world possibilities in what people write about our near-future world of possibilities. I try to keep the immortal words of "Space Quest" in mind: "Never give up! Never surrender!" (That was a comedy, but apropos.) I love to recall The Movement, in the late '60s and early '70s, which was a term applied to all of the "Rights" movements at the time. I like to imagine a new cultural movement, replete with posters and concerts and books and articles and musicals and movies, and the object will be to retool the economy to provide everyone with "nice things" while at the same time not over-consuming the Earth. Could happen. I won't give up hope.
I'm committed to voting Blue to save our democracy and our environment, among other reasons. Third party candidates need to work their way up gaining support by winning lesser elections, not jumping into running for prez and getting people to waste their votes.
Try Boorstin's The Creators, long but readable, i think he devotes a whole chapter or more to your aphorism. Youll find the sentinment goes a ways, Bacon's New Organum for example. My thought is the sentiment cuts both ways. I do agree it's better to aspire for a better future.
I do read Caitlin's blog and will check that one out. She has a lot of commenters refusing to vote or planning to vote third party and who sing the praises of our favorite dictators just because they see the wrongs of our leaders. But it's juvenile to think that if we do wrong, then must be doing good. It can be hard to tell the far left from the far right and the bots from the genuine posts.
I despise labels. I only care about truth, and justice. If truth comes from a bot, or a despicable character like a Trump or Rush Limbaugh, so be it. But then, if words and/or intentions don’t dovetail with actions in pursuit of justice, truths spoken are meaningless.
I have yet to see anyone describe Putin’s invasion of Russia as ‘doing good’. I have seen countless numbers of commenters attacking anyone who points out the reasons Putin decided to invade, as well as comments critical of U.S. involvement in Ukraine, and accusing them of being Putin apologists or bots.
I would take all comments sections with a grain of salt, Caitlin’s included, as well as this one. I’ve been voting third party since 1988, so Caitlin has nothing to do with my anti-duopoly vote. It’s not at all hard for me to tell the difference between the far left and far right. The far right hates liberal elites and government because it isn’t authoritarian enough, from a racist and patriarchal perspective. The far left hates both because both stand in the way of the transformation from oppressive capitalism towards a more egalitarian socialist society.
Perfect joke. But I don't think the US is better at it. I guess we used to think we were getting most of the truth, unlike countries with heavy censorship. I saw a documentary about a family escaping North Korea and the grandmother especially was shocked that the US wasn't the hellhole she'd been taught it was and that the people weren't monsters out to kill her. She was of course shocked by the wealth of our society, at least for some. The US relies on ignorance, compromised journalism and the shiny objects of distraction. The censorship and threats re: Israel and Gaza,as well as the heavy layers of propaganda have been so revealing and sad.
I was astonished that, 24 hours ago, there was absolutely no mention of the bilateral Senate financing bill for Ukraine, Israel, & Taiwan on the webpage of the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, or The Guardian.
Does this mean that editors consider Special Prosecutor Hur’s hit job on President Biden and the prospect that Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Super Bowl are ‘top news’ while massive military and financial aid for Ukraine, Israel, & Taiwan [that has been in limbo since October]doesn’t merit a mention?
Editors should read Heather to find out what is important in daily news!
As you are likely aware Keith anyone can get up to minute Emails from the Senate or House floors. The quality of your posts remains very high. Thank you Keith.
Bryan I had imagined that newspaper editors might follow congressional up-to-the-minute e-mails and, rather than Heather, be the first to report significant congressional news.
I’m also not interested in getting up-to-the-minute e-mails on Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl, whenever it’s being played. I went to the National Football championship in the snow in 1947 where the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Cardinals (then in Chicago?) 7-0. The star Eagles player, playing offense and defense, received $5,000 for the season. Now I see that a ticket to the game can cost $10,000 and much more.
I grew up in SoCal and still remember when the Gods ... er ... the Brooklyn Bums came to town. I did go to a couple LA Rams games as a Kid. Elroy Hirsch was my mentor for directly over the head catches as you lose a yard going down field if you must turn your shoulder to the right to catch the pass. Norm Van Brocklin was the classic arrogant & very talented QB.
Bryan I actually listened to part of a Taylor Swift song a few weeks ago. Found that I much preferred Ella, Judy, Joan Baez, and Lena Horne. My wife and I plan to watch a British mystery [without ads] during the Super Ball.
Guess I’ll have to look at the regular media for results, since Heather doesn’t cover extraneous news.
Not just appreciating you Professor but appreciating you more after every letter you write to shine a light on the wisdom and fearlessness of our “old President”. I’ve tried in a very small way to live by which I believe President Joseph Biden is a stellar example - “There is no shortcut to experience”! And that experience has been his life of dedication to our Democracy.
It has always irked me that Trump essentially collaborated with the enemy (Russia) to benefit his campaign and essentially got away with it. That there may be other hidden relationships/obligations/corruption of Trump by Putin is always a significant possibility but unproven to date. So it gives me great solace that Alvin Bragg's NYC case is 'not about hush money to a porn star' but about illegal campaign donations and related business records violations. So Trump gets away with shaking down Zelensky to aid his campaign (Special thanks to Bill Barr), gets away with russian collusion to aid his campaign (Again, let's hear it for Bill Barr!) BUT that Trump will lose his criminal virginity on campaign related violations in New York just seems apropos. :-))
Our Heather has now presented a most cogent view of the either/or crisis the world faces.
On one hand are governments, collective security groups, and regional others based on the rule of law.
On the other hand are thugs. Putin. Trump. Then a cavalcade of more, all hiding, lurking within governments while they eat away at the rule of law in those governments. Netanyahu trying to kill independent judiciary. Orban and Modi pushing vitriolic nationalisms. Saudi royals sponsoring freelance murders. Erdogan paying off his shoddy construction peers. Ayatollahs funding Shia terror campaigns.
Who most supports, engages the rule of law for international consort? I'm afraid to say it's the people of commerce: bankers, international shippers, corporate interests. And the trouble with them is that, in addition to apparently following the rules of law, many also grow the subterranean chambers of dark money. Think Clarence as poster boy for this on the Supreme Court.
These whom we rely on most all come from our schools or business and schools of law.
Absent from any significant role are schools which could lift humanities to more central position. If they did that, we'd have elites in touch with peoples, nature, and regions with much more individual nuance everywhere.
But our humanities got pushed back, set aside, marginalized in all schools thanks to the predators in the "civilized" organizing for their dark money niches following the Powell memo of 1971.
So now we sit back, and watch the obvious thugs (Putin, Trump, bin Salman, Modi, Erdogan, Netanyahu) mainly only in competition with the so-called civilized who sadly, pathetically depend upon no institutions of any humanities, but our schools of biz ed, judiciaries being eaten from within by such as Clarence and his ilk.
I'll come back to you, Phil Balla, for all you say about the forms taken by social and economic entropy is pointing in absolutely the right direction: education that trains and enhances our ability to think freely for ourselves instead of having minds formated for slavery is essential.
Yet it never is, never can be enough, just as organized religion -- more obligatory creeds, more inculcated formating to make good slaves of us, more "rules-based order" -- has always been a help... Like balustrades and Band-Aid. Like New Orleans' levees to keep out the sea, it feeds illusions of security. Likewise rationalism undermines the great but limited power of precious reason, while scientism, even among able scientists, is at best a drug to boost failing self-confidence and keep us moving ahead one foot in front of the other... where?
All this reminds me of Vienna in 1914. An overripe fruit. Like Mozart's literally sublime music, in today's Vienna Gustav Klimt's imagery serves cheap chocolate-box commercialism.
Yet, when you see the real thing, Klimt's paintings, besides the elegance, the sensuality, the beauty, the glitter... the abyss.
Death isn't depicted, as in Pieter Brueghel's Triumph, but it is so present in the margins, next to some lady's gorgeous apparel that you can almost touch it...
*
I'm no nihilist and, without question, every one of us must refuse discouragement.
But ultimately, it is ourselves we must face. What we are. What we are not.
*
This will wash over most heads now, yet it is on our inner resources that we shall have to draw in the days to come.
Hitler's strong, brave young soldiers died like flies in Soviet P.o.W. camps after Stalingrad. It was not the cold, the starvation rations, it was not dysentery, wounds or typhus. Defeat had knocked the propaganda stuffing out of their souls.
Yes, Peter, we face complications owing to the packages so temptingly available.
Nice what you say about "propaganda stuffing." Long time ago, I trusted experts -- this, the time of the Viet war. I thought then that our experts had perspectives beyond what the rest of us had. I was willing to defer to the elites. "The Best and the Brightest," as David Halberstam put it, fell for their own "propaganda stuffing."
I became a Viet translator. And in the process of that I saw how the south Viet elites raised by the French felt entitled to U.S. propping up of their relatively cozy, privileged lives. These denizens of Saigon mostly held all fellow Viets beneath them -- were disgusted by Viets in the boonies. But the North Viet foot soldiers had no such contempt. They aligned with local hearts and minds. We, with all our materiel advantages, could not.
Again, thanks for what you say of all the packages available to us.
And thank you for confirming what I'd already been enabled to understand in the Sixties, even before America had stepped into the swamp, namely that fighting to save the South Vietnamese regime was like trying to shore up a dead tree.
It was worse than that. The tree we were trying to shore up was French colonial Vietnam. The tree we were trying to destroy was the Vietnamese people who fought the French and their colonialist collaborators for decades and defeated them in 1954.
I, too, was a Viet translator -- or, more precisely, my Army MOS were 04B2LVN and 98G2LVN -- "Translator Interpreter" and "Voice Intercept Operator". The latter was my actual job. I spent 49 weeks at the Defense Language Institute West Coast Branch at the Presidio of Monterey CA. I landed in Viet Nam a few weeks after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, summer of 1969. I was attached to the First Cavalry Division. Listening to North Vietnamese regular soldiers, in particular, passing traffic via shortwave radio was somewhat bizarre because I didn't hate them. I had the impression that all of us who were soldiers on both sides would have been friends, if not for the war. I still believe that most people do not want to go to war -- it's the governments who decide to go to war, and the rest of us get dragged into their agendas.
After my year-long, intensive study of Vietnamese, of the twelve classes (all mixed officer and enlisted, half with guys who'd done a year already in Nam), we had our end-of-year test. I tested first from among everybody. The army sent them all to Nam. Me, to Germany.
I'd already gotten my jungle shots and jungle fatigues when my diversion orders came down. (Had also just finished reading Graham Green's "The Quiet American.") I felt a bit guilty for all the money taxpayers had spent, all the personnel involved, to make me totally fluent as Viet translaltor-interpreter, so I approached a very old master sergeant, and his 2nd louie, at the tarmac, and volunteered -- I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the army has made a mistake.
The sarge looked at the louie, then at me. "Son, let me see your orders." Looks. "Son, is your name . . .? Is your social security . . .?" Nod. "Son. You're going to Germany. THE - ARMY - DOESN'T - MAKE - MISTAKES."
Phil, your story "rings true". I know how the Army works.
I dropped out of college (local 2-year campus in the University of Wisconsin system) early in my 3rd semester (October, 1967), and began talking to the local Army recruiter. (This is a short version of a very long story.) To get into the Army Security Agency I enlisted for four years. My idea was that I would learn Russian or Chinese, and after the Army I would join the Diplomatic Service. At the end of Basic Training an NCO sitting at a table had a big smile on his face, and said "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you get your request to go to language school. The bad news is that you will be learning Vietnamese." By that time I already knew the Army well enough that I was not surprised, nor was I particularly bothered by it. I spent about two months riding along with a Huey-based radio direction-finding operation, and about two more months on a mountain top Landing Zone, which was a good spot for signals intel. Most of the rest of the time was spent on Fire Support Bases, with the guys in the artillery with the howitzers. I arrived in Cambodia in early May, a few days after the Cav established their forward firebases. I contributed some stories and photographs for a book about the Army Security Agency in Viet Nam and Cambodia, titled "Unlikely Warriors" by Blackburn and Long. After a little more than half a century, if I'm still having nightmares, at least I'm not remembering them when I wake up. Trouble is, I mostly don't remember the good dreams either. I suppose that may be normal for someone in the middle of their 76th year.
The US leaders continue to be major thugs. Supporting the weapons industry by obliterating anyone who doesn't follow OUR rules. We need look no farther than the mirror.
Thanks Heather, this becomes clearer and clearer everyday. I am now convinced that Merrick Garland should resign. The Hur report was unforgivable and given the incredible work Biden has done repairing the damage the previous traitor wrought on both the US and the world which you have so clearly articulated, Merrick Garland allowed a systematic destruction of Biden which he should have dismissed out of hand and continues to obscure the real accomplishments of the democratic administration. I am so frustrated by this continual incompetence that threats our democracy.
Christopher Special Prosecutor Hur has excellent legal credentials. He served in the Trump administration. His extraordinarily unprofessional ‘report’ on Biden’s minor classified documents issue [for which he was exonerated] was Hur’s Trump ass kissing resume for a top position in a second Trump presidency.
I think the Hur report (I wish the spell checker would quit changing his name) was perfect. It will be talked about for a week or two on Fox and other MAGANAZI media outlets but their audience is going to vote for TFFG regardless of what happens between now and November, unless he dies or gets locked away.
But, now those that complain about the DOJ unfairly targets TFFG have a counter argument that they don't.
Is Merrick Garland a great attorney general? I haven't a clue about what they have accomplished other than what the MSM tells us.
But I do know the Sessions and Barr worked for TFFG and did his bidding time and again.
They even lied for him and defended TFFGs mishandling of many important legal issues.
I suspect (and this is only conjecture, opinion, and speculation) that there are a couple of things: Garland is bending over backwards to avoid being anything like his predecessor(s) during the previous administration. Garland SHOULD be on the SCOTUS; his personality, experience, and disposition are perfect for the measured, thoughtful consideration of legal issues required on SCOTUS. He should NOT be an Attorney General; he has no prosecutorial "fire" which any good prosecutor has as part and parcel of their personal make-up, and is frequently at odds with what is required of a good judge.
Ally, I like your "take" on AG Garland. I've been looking at it much the same way. Garland's temperament is more suited to being a Justice, rather than seeking and enforcing justice. It's also possible that things that need to get done at the AG's office are in fact getting done -- even if the general public cannot see into how that department works. It's difficult for us to know.
I so wish people could restrain themselves from taking the bait. It is hard, because sometimes in the comments chain there are good comments, but I just can't go there. I now just scroll through the entire chain.
We could use a little help from Substack. Making it possible to block specific commenters would help. Expanding reply streams only on request would also help. Both, preferably, but either by itself would be a great improvement.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, dear shepherd of the sheep. I have taken a break today, later writing GOTV postcards to AZ with background of favorite basketball games, so up late, shocked into another dedication to do all I can to protect US as I did as a small child knitting my first (not very) square for a soldier’s afghan. My question since yesterday is whether SCOTUS is aware of the number of traitors in Congress who outnumber those in the Senate, I believe. The next days and months will be nail biters. Approaching my 90th birthday, I hope we will see Jack Smith’s trial before it.
How good to know the president’s plan for a world without war. May you keep us apprised of how he works at it. Perhaps angry young people would be better democrats if they knew.
I’m in the middle of reading a short graphic non-fiction work by Nora Krug. Two diaries. One by a Ukrainian woman, (a reporter), the other by a Russian man (an artist). Both hate the war. It’s giving me a great picture of what it’s like for ordinary people. One of the Russian’s diary entries is as follows: “It’s impossible to breathe freely here. You live with the fear that they might come for you. I really don’t want my kids to grow up in this atmosphere. I was a teenager in the 90s, after the Soviet Union collapsed. That’s when I fell in love with freedom.”
This is why Ukrainians don’t want to live under Russian rule.
Thank you for this reference. It’s important to know the title and where to buy the book. It should be sent to Republicans in Congress. Maybe some would understand the line you quoted. Maybe staff, family would read and understand as congressmen are too busy. Of course Big Pharma, Big Ag, etc., don’t want US to get the message as they want to keep US overweight and afraid.
The idiots here need a taste. Saw something on my crossword this morning that I have wondered about for a while. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon's razor. A new one, but useful when I've tried to sort out the magats, religious nuts, and just ignorant.
I noticed a Trump supporter about 8 years ago wearing a tee that read “I’d rather live with Russians than liberals. Amazing how his wish may now be coming true.
I saw Trump’s comments on Russia and NATO, which historian Michael Beschloss thought were so important that he shared them on social media.
The 2024 election is (in the words of R. Buckminster Fuller) “mankind’s final exam”. How we answer the question Do we want self-government or dictatorship? will determine if we survive as a creative, innovation driven culture or sink back into one driven by fear and isolation.
We must all find ways to champion the benefits of democracy… so voters understand the opportunities it gives us to “boldly go where humanity has never gone before” … opportunities that will be lost forever if Trump wins!
There's a whole generation that seems oblivious to the fact democracy is under assault. Painting with a broad brush here, but they seem consumed with the social aspects of TikTok, X, and Facebook to the exclusion of everything else. They base their voting choices on current complaints - like prices for groceries and gas. Nothing more.
News they've missed: Stock market is up, unemployment is at a record low. What's important is the number of 'likes' on their posts and the fact that snack food is expensive.
We are in a world of trouble here.
I respectfully disagree Cheryl. My daughter is a millennial and she and her friends are very concerned about the environment and climate change. They understand that the freakish 100 year, 500 year and thousand year storms we have been having are a result of climate change.
And the Gen-X/Gen/Zers seem to be even more in tune.
Time will tell, but the MSM gives us a very skewed picture of what Americans are thinking.
In Iowa 14% of Republicans turned out to vote in the Caucuses and yet the MSM portrayed it as a landslide for TFFG and they are still talking about TFFGs great wins in the primaries. They interview only the far-right brain dead MAGANAZIs who are all-in on TFFG but can't give you a single reason why.
I don't remember a single interview after a Biden/Harris rally or speech where they interview people who fully support Biden and what he has done. Instead, virtually every story talks about his age and not about the economy or his accomplishments.
Gary, Know Thine Enemy is an important concept. We know that Putin and his puppet Trump are included, but its time to focus on the real enemy here, The News Media that sacrifices Democracy on the alter of profit; feeding America only the information that creates the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us, while ignoring the cost of those decisions in our immediate lives
“The News Media that sacrifices Democracy on the alter of profit; feeding America only the information that creates the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us, while ignoring the cost of those decisions in our immediate lives.”
This!!👆
Hi Kathy, while I too am frustrated, if we decide we cannot trust "the media," what institution do you suggest take its place in informing us about what is going on? I watch the media and I feel pretty informed. If we can be specific about which story or source, critique that story or source I think we will be better off than condemning all media.
I agree with you. Pick media sources that try to deal honestly with issues and you can inform yourself well.
And nobody ever won an argument or an election by railing against the quality of the media.
Hi Lynn, I highlighted Dave’s comment and I stand by it because I believe that sadly, for various reasons, there are people who simply read headlines. To not actually thoughtfully read the articles that go in depth re: that attention grabbing headline- could/does create the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us. It’s a dangerous game, but it’s not- it’s our lives.
and some newspapers like the NYTimes run the following front page message, "Views Are Split On Candidates Of Similar Age, Biden Is Hurt by Flubs More Than Trump Is." Talk about camoflauging insane opinion for the news.
But, no matter how we feel about it, that headline reflects the polls at this time.
Campaign professionals will tell you that the only use for polling this far out is to inform campaign staff where they need to address problems or play on strengths. To use horserace or issues polling to predict outcomes this early is impossible.
I try to not get discouraged about polls, and trust smart campaign staff to know how to address issues.
And polling reflects the impact of sloppy headlines and journalism in general in addition to all the social media chaos. How to break that circle with truth and reason is a challenge! HCR does her best to do that along with many others in this Substack community. I am grateful for that. Yes, polling isn't the best indicator this far out. But
it can be frustrating because it becomes part of the dark noise! And I still have "nightmares" about the Comey headlines just before election day, 2016.
Or do the polls reflect the MSM headlines. Perhaps the readership glances or skims the headlines and content thus leaving with an abridged version of the facts.
So far I'm not very impressed by whoever is handling Biden's campaign. Too many missteps and unforced errors which the MSM jumps all over; I keep wondering if he had counsel with him when Hur took his statement. I think he needs to be guarded against making off-the-cuff remarks, though his "over the top" remark about the war in southern Gaza was spot on.
If you have not already, check out Meidas Touch Network (on YouTube and they also have a website). On the young side, with over 2 million subscribers and growing, they are "unapologetically pro-democracy." They have a number of different shows and definitely report regularly on the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administartion. They keep us informed daily of what the maga anti-democracy, pro-fascist/authoritarian cult is doing to weaken/kill our democatic constitutional republic. And they were one of if not the first to publicize widely Simon Rosenberg's data pre- the 2022 election, data which went (correctly) contrary to the pro-maga polls.
Dave,
Yes!!!! What YOU said. Would you please write this exact same thing: "...it's time to focus on the real enemy here, THE NEWS MEDIA that sacrifices Democracyon the alter of profit....creating the illusion that Trump will make good decisions for us..ignoring the cost of those decisions in our immediate lives?
Crystal
Correction: Would you write to the NYT and WAPO using those same words?
They have no interest in my opinion vs their profit model. You are free to use my words if you care to
Hi Crystal, If we decide we cannot trust "the media," what institution do you suggest take its place in informing us about what is going on? I watch the media and I feel pretty informed. If we can be specific about which story or source, critique that story or source I think we will be better off than condemning all media.
Check out the Meidas Touch Network (Youtube, and they have a website). Unapologetically pro-democacy, and often critical of framing of reports in MSM. Recently passed the 2 million subscribers mark, and are heading to 3 million. They have a number of regular shows, podcasts, contributors. And they do 'shorts' through the day called "hot takes" on breaking stories. Highly recommend.
One step back, it's the Corporate Conglomerates that own the news media. All the media, not just the Fox. And Fox's new RW competitors, also financed by the Oiligarchs and War Machine et al.
It's also all the more subtle gatekeeping going on, since 2015, feeding more DT and less HC by factors of 10 to a 100. And STILL doing so now. the Big D knows how to suck the oxygen out of every minute of the 24 hour cycle. Hate is more clickable.
ie yesterday ALL Jumping on the Special Counsel's delberate, unprecented, Nasty attack on Biden's mental acuity. With James Carville on CNN chiming in that "not taking an offer of time during the Super Bowl" is a sure sign his "handlers" are afraid. The man has done the best things for country since FDR!
Until someone convinced Hamas to light the match and watch Bibi burn us down.
Even NPR and MSNBC and other "left wing" giants get sucked into the vortex. All chasing after disappearing eyeballs and ad revenue.
I'm so thankful for places like substack and the ever rarer ad-independents like Pacifica Radio and Mother Jones and science non-profits like Food and Water Watch and Green Peace and Union of Concerned Scientists and Planned Parenthood who have now stepped into the breach.
Every $3 or $5 a month is a Lifesaver to these precious resources.
Well said, sir.
Not profit, Dave, so much as sensationalism.
The money -- streams of it to the dark money billionaire classes -- just so happen to follow their vulgarity.
Don't they realize that he makes very bad decisions. he doesn't look ahead to the consequences. A one of the world meetings, he skipped out of the one about climate. Obviously, he cared nothing about that. He claimed that China called-no record of it.
Just like the video of an interview where he said that Iran called (?who) and said we have to bomb you to make us look good., but we won't hit anything. Trump agreed. Meanwhile a military base was bombed and there were many soldiers injured with headaches (concussions to a REAL doctor) A few weeks ago there was a mass rally commemorating this general.Hmmm
Ditto. Being in Iowa, I said the same thing about the caucuses. You are right, too much time given to the cult members.
Right Rickey and next door, we have to suffer the ads from the moron of IA04.
Shades of 2016 when it was all trump all the time; when, for the most telling example, a mid-August issue of the NYT had not one article about Hillary above the fold and the only time her name appeared on that front page was in a subtitle (negatve) in a trump article. Cable TV covered every single rally and in fact showed countdown hours under his podiums in advance. For Biden last week, 5 abovethefold articles all addressed the appalling negative quotes from Hellacious Hur's sickening 300-page "report." We know it. We see it. We say it all the time. So, how, how can we change it.
TO change the world is to change YOUR point of view.
Let's view the RISE of liberalism in the US:
* 65% is NOT aligned with conservatism, Fox, trump. A sizable majority
* The Fox crowd is only 35% of the US population. But a sizable minority.
* Since 2020, AZ and GA have Dem Senators (Sinema included)
The MSM meida claimed 2022 election would be about economics . NO!
The vote was about DEMOCRACY as Dems won an historic off-year results.
WITH a poor but improving economy.
* Dems won governorships in AZ, PA, MI, WI.
* In 2023, we won again as the governor was reelected in ... KY !!
* CA, KY, MI, MT, VT won pro-choice referendums.
In recent years, several states have gone solidly Democratic: OR, WA, CO, NM. We can remember when EACH of these had Republican Senators and Govs.
These results show that ONLY the deep south and plains states can be counted as solidly conservative.
* https://www.hopiumchronicles.com
Follow this site for yor worldview as to on-the-ground reality of our situation ...
Change your view ... to change your world.
and don't forget the legal fights that democracydocket.com is winning in states like Alabama, Georgia, S Carolina to AZ, TX and NY to develop fair maps.
And red Ohio solidly trounced the attempt to put the abortion ban in the Ohio Constitution.
Dont know the accuracy of this post but MT has a Maga governor
MT replaced a Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, w a Republican.
Bullock was promising but inconsequential prez contender in 2020
I really wish we would stop calling these fools maga. They are not trying to make America great. They are trying to dismantle my country and cause great harm and death to many.
They are traitors, plain and simple.
MAKING PUTIN GREAT AGAIN = MPGA: the !new name of the Republican Party. Which accurately describes what they are doing!!!
Not true if it rumor or not, but Tucker Carlson is in Russia (surprise) I think in search or an interview view with Putin who hasn't given an interview in years.
Linda Preston, that is jusy plain silly.
Agreed.
Exactly!!!!
I view them as MAGAt. Fly larvae.
(Let's please be careful about calling people vermin)
Or, Becky, calling them "deplorables."
No kidding, Marj..! This soap opera hasn't been any fun to watch. Such a preposterous statement "MAGA"! The acronym "WTF" needs to always accompany that (MAGA). So stupid. Need I even say this: America has never been 'greater'. America has been an amazing 'work in progress', greater by the day. Hate to say this, but #45 has been part of our progress. Why? Because we have dealt with that ignorant son-of-a-bidch and his tag-team of bagboys and girls to the point we are about sick of it. Right now, we just need to VOTE FOR JOE.
soon we can complain about how long "GQPMPGAWTFBBQ" is getting, like they mean-spiritedly complain about "LGBTQIA+"...
I agree but sadly and shockingly these folks, especially the Christian Nationalists and those that buy their message are 100% convinced that only le pustule orange and they can save the USA. God is on their side.
Could we have one “Christian nationalist “ who follows the words of Jesus🙏🏻
better yet, one global organization that can agree on just what he did or didn't ever say?
It should be MADA: Make America Dead Again. They'd love to bring us back to the dead era before the Civil War, where women knew their place, black folks knew the whip and chains, where men were the "unquestioned head of the family" and Jesus ran the government.
Or just "MAAA". Make America Assholes Again. Everyone could "maaaa" like sheep. :D
How about MAWA instead?
I have been writing letters to several newspapers, including the NYT and my local Boston Globe, complaining about the lack of coverage about what Biden is doing besides getting old. Also, that the biggest difference between the way the two men speak is that Biden softly and slowly talks about what is going on and what he is trying to do, while Trump lies about almost everything and then babbles on about who he will attack and how he will ignore the Constitution. That difference needs to be clearly explained.
Exactly, and thank you for writing the letters. But you are not “in the way” 😂 Some of us (🙋♀️) are pretty old on here, but we’re not the ones in the way, we are the ones in the right! I hope your letters help!
Exactly, and you’re not in the way! 😂 we (well, me, for sure) are all old on here, but we are not the ones in the way. We’re are in the right! I hope your letters help!
I agree Gary. The youth vote is not to be feared. The MSM is an abomination. Let’s not be fooled. Let us do our work.
Agree. The MSM is an abomination. This whole dustup about the Hur report is their attempt to manufacture a horse race for this year's election. Same with the constant stories about trump supporters (zero stories about Biden supporters), why the latest Biden success could be a problem for him, etc. It's all about clicks and revenue. Fortunately, I believe people -- more and more -- are seeing through the MSM crap.
It's possible that Biden is really up by 5 or more points in every swing state but the pollsters have no good way of polling many of the age groups. I would love to see Biden take 49 states again. If that happens will it be the death of the Trumpuglican party once and for all?
I believe it's about Way more than clicks and short term $ in many cases. It's orchestrated by the gatekeepers (who are they at this point? How is the news even structured any more, if it is?) to keep the Dems out of office.
Because the Powers That Be may actually be threatened right now by the demographics and enlightenment (ie wokeness) re their continued destruction of free society and the Life on Earth.
In a way I think we are in a bizarre, fragmented, gaming style revolution that is being fought in the cyber world, where our children live. We can't see the new Axis, but we see the evil it is creating as it expertly targets the minds of the most fearful - the old guard WASPs of all ranks and nationalities. From Appalachia to NH and Berlin to Budapest.
White Anglo Saxon Protestant + Male. It used to denote the East Coast Entitled. The Rich. The real powerful families. And they are still stirring the nest.
I hope you’re right. I have a niece in her 20s who said at Thanksgiving that she wasn’t planning to vote because “nothing has changed under Biden.” I almost spit out my food. Oh, and she’s gay! Well at least she gave us an opening to reset her thinking (and help her recognize the threat to her peaceful way of life).
So, yes we’re worried about this generation not coming through as they did last time. I hope we’re wrong.
Thank goodness for family gatherings ❤️
You made me LOL. Thank you I guess I do read these comments in the pursuit of happiness.
Gift that 'girl' a one way ticket to Syria. Or Hungary. Yeah.., make that Hungary. Lemme know if you need some money. Whewww!!Geezzzusss H Creist!.
i was in your niece's current age bracket when the 2000 election rolled around, had developed a "pox on both your houses" attitude, and voted for Nader (whose VP choice had spoken at my alma mater). i don't really regret my vote, but boy did that not work out great ...
also, no family gathering in those days would have been equipped to give me a course-correction; these days, i have a step-cousin who managed to process Don DeLillo and Dennis Miller (and his wife's wealthy family) into rationalizing voting for Mein Drumpf...
Add them to the list of useful idiots.
Our adult children and grandchildren most definitely are concerned about more than “Tik Tok”, the price of gas and snacks, and the number of likes on their FB feeds. They won’t call The Orange one by name, and will vote BLUE. They agree with their elderly parents that Joe Biden is the best president since FDR, no matter whether he makes mistakes when he speaks occasionally or not. Those of us in our 80s understand!
I can empathize with Cheryl’s feelings somewhat. My concern is that for many…the source of news/current events is social media platforms.
We are in the age of click bait, more ads than news, and focusing on the bad rather than the good....notice that the good stories are at the end of the newscast. Then there is the constant polling which tells us very little and like the Iowa caucuses, no in depth analysis. Now the 300 plus pages from Hur, a Trumper, and all we heard is his comments about Biden's age. Five hours of questioning the day after the Hamas attack. And I bet they took advantage of the fact that he is a stutterer. I think we didn't even watch the national news that day and we always mute anything death star if we are watching. Also I agree about many young people being aware of the problems that they are facing and which will only become more difficult as they become adults.
Bad news sells. And, it's so easy to bully people who are relatively polite or more-softly spoken, or less-in-your-face. I think that aligns with what you have noticed. The 'women for numb-nuts' is always an interview I watch with incredularity (yeah, I mis-spelled it, but you're with me). The bullies in the PP* (R) can't wait for an interview.
*PP = Putin Party(R)
I agree. Polls are useless as far as I am concerned. I have been voting for years and have never once been polled.
Who answers an "unknown" phone #?
Or a number or name I dont recognize. Now the scammers can use almost any number - just pays not to answer - if its important (or sometimes not) people will leave a message.
And who gives more than once to any organization. I gave a small donation to the ACLU and they gave out my phone number like it was candy on Halloween. The breast cancer PAC called me several times a day until I finally got nasty enough they agreed to take me off their call list. I don't believe in PACS and have never given to one nor will I ever.
Bingo!!! 🤩🤩👏🏼👏🏼
I agree, Gary. My kids are 34 and 30, have voted in every election since they turned 18, and are very focused on the environment, social justice and public health. I am not worried about the younger generations doing the right thing.
What is the second "F" ?
A wholly appropriate adjective that many people would prefer not to see spelled out
It stands for (as I have read several places) an old time jail abbreviation when someone was arrested for the crime: for unlawful carnal knowledge; in the instance that it is used within tffg it is an adjective.
For those interested, that particular word, in all its declinations, can be used as a noun, a pronoun, a verb, an adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection, and as an auxiliary verb.
I had come up with this when I had a co-worker who utilized that word in all parts of his speech. Then, I found this link (scroll down a bit to find the list):
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/155664/how-many-different-parts-of-speech-can-the-f-word-be-used-as
I have read that it's even older than that. Possibly an ancient word whose original meaning was "to plant". It's been in use for a LONG time. (And it's my favorite swear word, because of it's amazing versatility! :D )
Well THATS different! Had no idea - just opens up all kinds of areas doesnt it? And I remember hearing someone with that kind of "utilization"! At the time thought they were lacking in vocabulary - but at this point - I find the word works in so many many many ways!
Since about late 2015, I'd say - right?
Wikipedia notes the false/folk etymologies; i was crushed to find that while putting together "The F Word", Jesse Sheidlower ruled out including two of my favorite usages (because they weren't that widespread, and relaxing that rule would've made the book much much more cumbersome, i guess) ...
Be careful. Assigning whole groups to obliviousness is a recipe for despair. There are not 'whole generations' oblivious to the troubles we are now facing. The majority of those I work with in different generations are aware of what's happening and are worried enough to vote about it. In my generation (Boomer), about 35 - 40% support DT, in Gen Z, that drops to about 10%.
I’m with you (as a progressive boomer). My old “Republican” friends will never vote for Trump and my 3 daughters (the youngest being a Millennial airline pilot) are all paying attention and actively engaged.
I have one niece who is a Millennial airline pilot, another who is a banking officer, and a third who works interpreting MRI imaging in a research venue studying depression and alternative treatments (this is my niece who is engaged to a Dreamer). All three are actively engaged politically.
There’s hope out there, if you know where to look. As the dad of 3 successful young women I tend to turn off the blabber from old, white, males. I’m much happier now. Just sayin’.
Yes. We are in a heap of trouble. Our values and morality are long threatened. Education and journalism are threatened, both essential to the good life. Entertainment softens the soul, wrote Aristotle to his son Nicodemus in his important study of personal morality and the ends of human life. Nicomachean Ethics is among the first to read in political philosophy and politics in a liberal arts education focused on western civilization. TV and so-called social media mislead millions. So-called white supremacy is little more than fascism, a social cancer that surfaced in WW II in Mussolini’s Italy and became German Nazi propaganda.
Is our Republican Party not fascist? Is not Putin a fascist dictator thirsting to control Western Europe? Has WW III begun in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Israel, and across the middle east? Is the United Nations able? Will NATO survive the insanity of MAGA, GOP propaganda and today’s fascism?
Are we being tested by authoritarian dictators all over the world? Will democracy survive The Big Lie of TFG former president Trump? Does America have what it takes? What did Covid-19 reveal?
We are experiencing an apocalypse focused in the introduction of Palladium Magazine issue 11, published after a visit by four well educated college graduates.
Yale’s inspired leader Robert Maynard Hutchins became chancellor of The University of Chicago when in his 20s. He abolished Big Ten football and blew out the Rockefeller baptist influence leading to a financial crisis in 1950 that was solved by donors working with a different chancellor. The University of Chicago is doing well. About 6% seeking admission succeed.
The University of Chicago where fun goes to die, decorates a campus sweatshirt.
Four of our ten grandchildren have sought The Midway, so far. Amherst College attracted two, Dartmouth College one.
Our youngest want an education that matters. Entertainment is not their objective.
In what’s coming, education, fresh water and good safe food will matter. Facebook will not.
It seems that local control of the k-12 education systems gives us a skewed picture of what is going on in our schools. Our local K-8 school was closed exactly one day because of Covid-19. And they offered remote hook-ups to every classroom but most of the kids attended class. If a kid got Covid they had to stay out of school for 10 school days, but they could attend remotely.
And it was the same in many other schools in our county. Are the kids behind their peers scholastically from 10 or 20 years ago. No idea. But I trust our school board, the principal and the teachers have done all they could to keep the pandemic from disrupting education. And when a couple of far-right moms tried to get on the school board to change the curriculum and ban books, they only received a few votes each.
Are there lots of school systems that are doing a bad job? The MSM tells us there are. But there are also lots of school systems that are getting it right.
there is much, much more good out there than bad in the schools.
Douglas county Colorado has been and is again a big target for the Kochtupus. We defeated them (again) last year but they're not done.
What do you think will happen to politics in KS, OK, CO, NE, MO and IA when the last of the Koch's is dead? Not to be too mean spirited, but it can't happen soon enough.
Karen is correct - they never give up until they get what they want and then that is not enough.
That's probably the worst thing about the Right Dominionist f**kheads: they are relentless.
And the media, our vanishing free countryside country wide weak weekly newspapers begging us for gift money, peddling classified ads, without a reporter to tell us what’s happening… because a reporter requires a paycheck…
Yes, Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, we are in 20 kinds of trouble… and white on white Heather Cox Richardson of holy Boston College cannot report on Black pain, and does not seem to be able to report on fascism, prejudice, the banality of evil, psychotic MAGA fascists… but the SUBSTACK MIRROR reflects reflexively the Greek Chorus pay to play narcissism that drives the entertainment model SUBSTACK on zoom doom, we are gazing into the fetid waters of our own effluent, every night, and HCR’s nightly nightmare rolls on in dead earnest destroying MSM’s weakest, bottom up, soon top down. Never on Sunday no more.
HCR is not a reporter. The doctor is a historian.
Please do not feed the troll.
You know damn well she writes about black pain all the time. Apply your genius to do some fucking good instead of continually trying to rip it apart. 😡
Find it. Fund it, It isn’t there, nor will you easily find it in WSJ or NYT …. try The Atlantic, it’s hidden there, alongside our “volunteer” military slaving away to keep us free, paid to play, emerging from poverty, and no longer drafted, the wealthy skip, Black poor serve and die, as we endure a daily mass murder at home, suicide by cop, white males mostly, boys that want to die.
Thanatos rules,
SCOTUS fools,
Our president needs gracefully to retire,
TFG needs to go up the river to live among his enemy,
And the criminal justice system might work,
Meanwhile, our nicest are not white..
The Filipino is the kindest, our Blacks are 2nd,
White supremacists on snotty white campuses are last… and they know it.
Our President has a black woman standing with him, ready to go and fully prepared. The ageism directed at Biden is nothing if not a cover for racism
Please do not feed the troll.
He’s not a troll! Far from it!
seems more like unhinged and misdirected ranting than trolling.
Snyder has an updated version of "On Tyranny".
And that 2nd edition is like a volume 2. Worthwhile read.
Kids love it.
It's "On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition): Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine."
Report the trolls.
Done.
Yes here you are reading Heather and even paying to comment. Seems a little more than hypocritical to complain about it.
Sandy, Fresh Water. The Great Lakes will become crucial as the hordes will descend as their water dries up
www.lewisfamilyfarm.com has over a dozen wells, one artesian, the others deep water and the farm is drought and flood proof with 44 WASCOB drains set to prevent runoff.. The Adirondacks west of us send water to Lake Champlain east of us, and it wicks upward as it moves east down deep; into the clay subsoil. 1.5 million feet of 4” tile set at 3-4 feet depth, 20 feet apart in parallel, oblige the grasses to root in the clay.. so July drought does not affect our 1,100 acres of grazing beef and sheep. With 200,000 feet of fencing, fencing in and fencing out, MIG works well to protect the soil and grasses, carbon is deeply embedded in the grasses, feeding the livestock... there’s not a speck of man made detritus on 1,100 acres, the livestock are healthy, predators do not venture, they breed nearby and elsewhere, the bird life is spectacular. One day soon we will find a buyer… for at 85 and 88, it is time… we’ve taken years to create the model… with failing farms surrounding, our successor will be able to grow easily, feed Montreal, Boston, New York and Philadelphia.. and justify dry aging with field killing, a rail truck, and a dedicated slaughter.
Sorry to wish the whites who have shifted to AZ, Phoenix, back to the midwest but I do.
My concern is that they’ll all move to Michigan, start a bidding war for property, drive property tax sky high, force out the middle class rabble and make life miserable with HOA like rules that citify our rural existence after decades of scorning us hicks
Love you Sandy Lewis!
"You don't know what you got 'til it's gone.''
Let's hope not..
What I was going to say, but you beat me to it?
Michael, Paradise in a parking lot
We’ve created generations that don’t know of civil unrest, true economic hardships such as gas shortages. They’re benefiting from great technological advances. The holocaust, the USSR are history lessons at best. While each generation is charged with leaving the world better than we found it, we may be victims of leaving it too much better.
Tucker Carlson was referred to as “the useful idiot”, but the truly useful idiot is trump. Putin played him like a fiddle. Trump is a habitual liar but we must heed the advice of Dr. Richardson, Joyce Vance, Steve Schmidt and others who warn that what trump will do if reelected is the truth. Take him at his word.
Don't forget all the antivaxxers who can't remember communicable diseases with no treatments.
Instead of worrying about “entire generations that seem oblivious” which is simply not true you should maybe focus on the dangers of Boomers who make up the majority of MAGAts and trolls like that John Schmeeckle. My Millennial and Gen Z children know very well the importance of keeping TFFG as far away from the Presidency as possible. TikTok and other social media platforms are where they get the majority of their information so it’s up to us to ensure the message is getting through. The younger generations should be getting more of our attention not being insulted by the very generations that raised them. Instead of putting them down raise them up and do your duty as an elder to pass the baton to them. I share HCR’s letters all the time on social media. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Well said! It is not helpful to paint with a broad brush.
Fortunately boomers are leaving the planet in droves. (I am also a boomer, and hopefully my exit won't be for a while) but the white hairs, many of whom are just scared, aren't going to be around for the long haul. The younger generations will win out in the end.
Wouldn’t you think that ultra-rich Trump supporters could see beyond becoming richer and “freer from restrictions”?
I have a sister that I would put in this camp whose excuse was that she "wasn't into politics." Like her ignorance made it okay for her to vote for a sexually violent malevolent dictator despite being Catholic because he "is pro-life". The deeper story is that they are very wealthy and love being rich. We had an honest discussion the last time we were together about abortion (I am a physician) as a medical procedure and situations I've seen where abortion was a terrible choice but also the best choice. At the end of a one hour conversation about Biden's accomplishments and his faith and the horror show that could be coming in 2024 if we decide to become "Dumbtrumpistan", she pledged to me she would never vote for the Cheeto again. As painful as it is to approach people one on one, I think the only thing that will free them from the cult is love and careful conversation.
My sister too. It took her about 3 years for her to say she was sorry she voted for him. I could tell she voted the way her partner voted. She only repeated the taking heads on faux news.
Those 3 years I sent her HCR articles etc and would quietly mention things here and there. I fought back harder on certain things. It took time and patience.
I got her to write some postcards. I think she ejoyed it. We still disagree on some things. This is okay.
Yes Maria, at least with thoughtful listening and understanding of what it's like in their shoes! One-on-one is the way to go. It takes more than money. It takes caring and listening.
When their driving philosophy is "He/she who dies with the most money wins?"
The eight balls says "No."
No, Craig, we won't see the end of ultra-rich supporters behind tRump anytime soon anytime soon because THEY are the weight of the pendulum which swings back and forth between the successes of the progressives like the Teddy Roosevelts and FDRs and Eisenhowers and LBJs vs those with the money behind "trickle-down" fantasy propaganda who gave us Citizens United and current SCOTUS and the grand plan for 2025. We need to VOTE all the way down the line for those NOT supported by big money. We need to vote AGAINST the idea that money equals free speech and FOR a future which focuses on saving what we have left of a viable planet! We need to vote AGAINST preservation of the capitalists until they align themselves with the people and the planet!
Well that's a long list. Of boilerplate ... what exactly? Nothing in there about the actual choice. And ethical decision.
Vote Biden.
Or elect Trump. And as a bonus, get the clerical fascist state millions actually want
Yup, lin, that certainly clarifies and simplifies the choice, because that is exactly what it boils down to! There may, in fact be millions who want a clerical fascist state, but they are NOT the majority!
Some young people may be oblivious to the threat, as both young and old people have been in every generation, but it is MY generation(70 year old Baby Boomer)and the one just below me that are actively members of a cult that will destroy not only democracy, but the stable world we have enjoyed. I am convinced Trump is and has been bought and paid for by Putin—-see his NATO comments as the latest example. We are too shallow and too brainwashed to see this is not an R vs. D matchup. It is a sanity vs. chaos choice. There are so many well meaning Christians like me who have over 40-50 years been told that R’s are the only “moral”(abortion, etc.)choice.Trump, moral choice, right……………. I am truly nervous even with a lunatic in the ballot.
It will NOT be the shallowness of the young that kill the USA, it will be the decadence and willful ignorance of the old.
I'm with you, Rick. My generation (65 and a "Jones Generation" subset) are making up the greatest number of the MAGAt cult.
If you've not heard of the Jones Generation, here's a Wikipedia link. For reference, I am an oldest child born of old parents in 1958. I learned of this term from a friend who was born in 1964, also an oldest child. He and I have many of the same generational characteristics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones#
Even though I'm a leading edge Boomer (born 1950), my kids are ensconced firmly in gen X. But I have many dear friends who are about 9 years younger than I am, who fit into Generation Jones. Made for very interesting reading! :)
Interesting. TY.
So ok - my kids are "generation jones"! Fortunately, their feelings about tffg are the same as mine!
I'm sorry Maggie, but I have missed what the heck "tfg or tffg" stands for. I'm a bit embarrassed, having tried to decode it for the past two years at least. I realize it is so obvious to y'all but not to me. That's about the only one I can't decode. I feel so stupid not being able to decode it. Help me.
Not obvious at all - someone on here explained it a while ago - tfg is the former guy - tffg is the f*** former guy! The abbreviation just avoids anyone's dislike of "naughty" titles, I guess.
There are so many abbreviations that I have NO clue as to what they mean - so no need to be embarrassed!
Cheryl....I believe that nothing is that simple and that today's younger generation is facing problems our generation ignored and did nothing to stop.
I have two daughters. One is 42 and the other 37. They are deeply concerned about the direction our country is going on all fronts. They are horrified by losing their lifelong rights to bodily autonomy and suddenly becoming second class citizens. And they would like something to change. Likewise they are overwhelmed with today's challenges of raising children and the horrific cost of doing so. Home owners and health Insurance comes with $4,000-$10,000 deductibles (paying as much as $500-600 a month for health insurance). Summer daycare costs $250 per week per child. Insurance and property taxes are more than their monthly mortgage payments. Auto insurance is just another, hard to justify expense when you go years (thank goodness) without ever making a claim and the costs just keep going up every year. This results in paycheck to paycheck living that makes an increase in groceries and gas impossible. And who cares about the stock market or unemployment when you have a job that pays above average and you still are struggling.
Contrast that to my experience in raising them. All of the above were affordable and insurance was a nuisance expense (health insurance was a fully covered benefit and deductible was $200 a year for a family of four).
I don't think that today's younger generation are frivolous or uncaring. I think they are so overwhelmed by trying to have at least what they grew up with....it leaves them feeling demoralized and powerless.
And they understand that voter suppression and manipulation(wording referendums in confusing language, access to voting has been reduced, doubt placed on our election process) is real and they question if their vote (though they do it anyway) actually will make a difference considering the clown show we are watching with Congress and the Supreme Court and efforts to throw out votes.
We need to fix the problems we ignored and do our best to shepherd younger generations along.
Cheryl, oblivious is a most apt description for what pervades all generations of those aspiring to live the American Dream. Even smart, educated people of all ages don’t want to talk about the trouble we’re in. It seems it would ruin the bubble they live in in the present. So, so scary!
Sad but true, if chump’s declaration doesn’t scare people, then the numb dumb are beyond hope. Needless to say, Tik Tom, X, and FB won’t spread the word. Nor will Rupert and clones. Will our MSM wake up? Invitation for Russia to do whatever in the hell it wants? Maybe chump wants NATO to support Putnik. Probably would get Repub votes….
Most of MAGA couldn't even find Europe on a map.
I know that to be true, but I have been to Europe with a friend who knows well where it is and what is at stake. She was a chumpette in 2016, not sure about now. There is a subgroup who are not stupid or religious nuts. Just on the side of elites. They will kick the "lessers" to the curb if given the chance.
Just like there demagogue TFFG.
Odd, which country in the world has the most military bases spread over the world? List of USA Wars
Vietnam War United States and South Vietnam vs. North Vietnam
1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion United States vs. Cuba
1983 Grenada United States intervention
1989 U.S. Invasion of Panama United States vs. Panama
1990–1991 Persian Gulf War United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq
1995–1996 Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina United States as part of NATO acted as peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia
2001–2021 Invasion of Afghanistan United States and Coalition Forces vs. the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to fight terrorism
2003–2011 Invasion of Iraq United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq
2004–present War in Northwest Pakistan United States vs. Pakistan, mainly drone attacks
2007–present Somalia and Northeastern Kenya United States and Coalition forces vs. al-Shabaab militants
2009–2016 Operation Ocean Shield (Indian Ocean) NATO allies vs. Somali pirates
2011 Intervention in Libya U.S. and NATO allies vs. Libya
2011–2017 Lord's Resistance Army U.S. and allies against the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda
2014–2017 U.S.-led Intervention in Iraq U.S. and coalition forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
2014–present U.S.-led intervention in Syria U.S. and coalition forces against al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Syria
2015–present Yemeni Civil War Saudi-led coalition and U.S., France, and Kingdom against the Houthi rebels, Supreme Political Council in Yemen, and allies
2015–present U.S. intervention in Libya U.S. and Libya against ISIS
View Article Sources (thoughtco.com)
One of my co-workers's son was a long time Navy Seal. My co-worker (John) had to wait to hear from his son instead of being able to call him, sometimes for weeks when he was training for or on a mission.
John followed the press closely looking for clues of where his son might be or had been. Sometimes he would share the news stories when it specifically mentioned seal teams. A lot of those stories didn't include the conflicts you mention above. In fact, many of them are in places you would never guess we were involved.
I was on a flight one time and sat next to a former special forces sniper. He told me about going into Pakistan several weeks before the US declared that we were going in. His job was to set up targets around the caves where they thought Bin Laden was hiding. We had no authorization to be there from the UN, to Pakistani government to the US Congress. But we bombed the hell out of those caves regardless. He also mentioned that they trained in the jungles of Columbia targeting drug cartels there. Fascinating conversation but scary as well.
Thank you for turning back a cover to see something hidden from our view. What surprises are held behind the propaganda, the domestic propaganda that aims at keeping us unaware and ignorant? Most interesting too is the YouTube video “Glenn Greenwald Breaks Down the Tucker-Putin Interview.” Interesting because it also gives us a credible pre-history of the Ukraine war that most Americans do not know about except those like Jeffrey Sachs, Chomsky, and Mearsheimer, professorial types with an investment in truth and their own intellectual integrity.
Nope. I did as you asked and got through very little before I was risking coffee through my nose, having listened to the interview previously. What a rewriting of Ukrainian history, as well as a fall back on the Russian NATO propaganda. Should you want to know the history of Ukraine, I’d suggest the book Ruska. If you want an excellent video series I’d suggest Timothy Snydor’s lecture series. Greenwald displays his ignorance for all to see.
Now do the history of the US. The indigenous people are apparently owed their land back.
numb dumb! Nailed it!
seems to fit
Like a custom made glove.
I've said this before - but the Dems need to get on the ball - these little "blurbs" of tffg really should be billboards! Seriously how is no one thinking about this? Because they are Democrats? Lots of organizations use billboards - it works - rather than using tv ads that are playing to the choir - putting his mindless rants right up there where people can see them regardless of their politics. Its pretty obvious that these mouth-breathers that go to the rallies dont comprehend his words only their masters voice!
If only I could repeat this to the heavens. Chump is on a billboard close to me. If his image is there, it should have BULLY stampled across it. The emails i get, begging for just five dollars, really piss me off. Don't spend your five bucks on me. I'm a sure Dem vote. You waste lots more than five bucks on irritating the crap out of me.
I was thinking more of a little image of him and his "blurbs" written in large letters! I get the begging emails too - but just dont respond. I'm also a sure thing Democratically speaking! Irritation? oh yes-absolutely.
Cheryl, what they haven't missed: crushing college debt. The first generations in many that is not better off financially than their parents were. The risks of being murdered at school. The disintegration of family wage jobs due to outsourcing manufacturing overseas. The fall of rights they had assumed were "settled law".
I don't think they've missed that unemployment is at a record low; many of them are holding two or more part-time jobs, since to hire full time still means benefits must be paid, and it is cheaper to run people on the hourly or gig based economy. Stock market gains mean nothing if you have to decide between rent and a car payment.
I've told this story here before, but several years ago, I was checking out at a small grocery store in Blue Hill, ME. The clerk had checked me out several times and I knew she had recently graduated from high school and was the class valedictorian.
I asked her if she was getting ready to head off to college and her reply was "Mine is the first generation that has been priced out of the college market."
While this may not be true for many kids, it was for her and way too many other bright kids. They say, "when there's a will there's a way." Well, in many cases that's just BS.
Correct Cheryl. But those medians can also be leveraged to info and the old Soviets know this. Elon knows this. Let's hope that the youngsters in the Biden camp do too.
"Amusing Ourselves to Death"--Neil Postman, 1985. This trend started decades ago and has become dangerously toxic.
Bread & circuses.
I agree with Gary about the younger generations of voters. There is a great deal of interest in climate, women’s rights, the affordability crisis (when you think about it, the major economic hits—the pandemic, the real estate-driven Great Recession, and the economic fallout of 9-11—have been a stream of disaster for them), LGBTQ rights, etc. But these generations are not stupid or unaware.
And I have never seen any group of younger voters motivated to vote a certain way by a phalanx of grumpy oldster’s belittling and doubting them. They are motivated differently than we are. They entertain themselves differently than we do. They have different priorities at times.
C’mon folks, at a younger age, you differed with older generations in style and thought just as much. “Don’t trust anyone over 30!” Sound familiar?
Everyone needs to see what freedoms they would loose if we became Russia…why isn’t everyone gasping at Trumps connections with Putin?
Might be because citizen trump is facing so many indictments (maybe brought on by Putin) that the news is consumed by what is making headlines and the Putin connection is not.
Dangerous
Steve, Thank you for your urgent comment. I write simply to expand a bit by noting, whatever one’s seeming most pressing concern—reproductive rights, a living wage, universal healthcare, affordable housing, public education funding, environmental justice, policing and criminal justice reform, workers’ rights, an end to militarization and the war economy…—“champion[ing] the benefits of democracy” had better be a close second. Because, as you have intimated, without preserving our constitutional republic, progress of any kind is far less likely.
I would note a group of us, sensing grassroots organizing has remained largely invisible to the public-at-large, has started laying the groundwork for building a nationwide pro-democracy movement rooted both in mutual respect and social accountability and in its fidelity to the rule of law and the Constitution. Currently, we are in the process of revising documents we plan to present to particular courageous, moral political figures, with a history of building social movements, to help bring recognition to our project. I will keep this forum apprised of our progress.
Good morning, Barbara. What you wrote gives me hope. It also reminds me that I posted (I think on BlueSky) my desire to see pro-democracy demonstrations be organized … demonstrations that will be large and frequent enough to get national news attention. I’m old enough to remember the March on Washington in which Dr King gave his “I have a dream” speech. I no longer think Joe Biden and his campaign can win this election alone. I think people like us must become a VERY visible force that changes the narrative in the national news reporting regarding what issues matter most!
Please … let’s talk.
Steve, Once our work has passed muster and we can deploy it to leaders who can help bring recognition to our project, I will be in touch. That’s a promise. Barbara
Please consider me also. I am ready to protest visibly and I believe MSM will have to cover protests of any size. Germany is doing it now.. Are you taking/making a plan from the Civil Rights protests and Black Lives Matter protests?
Kathy, While our proposal includes a March, I would note it’s part of a broader project. As for the March, we have tentatively titled the action “Rise Up For Democracy Before It’s Too Late” and envision the main event taking place in Washington D.C. on the morning of July 4th from 9:00 to 12:00 E.T. Additionally, we foresee other marches across the country, likely embedded in existing parades and holiday events.
The March would be a call to action: uniting, inspiring, and energizing people, who know we are under threat, to commit to participating in saving our democracy and also, hopefully, waking up those asleep to the necessity and urgency.
I would note I’m thrilled my post has generated interest and promise to be back in touch once we reach the stage of sending out the proposal.
Thanks, Barbara. I look forward to hearing from you about this when you’re work has reached the appropriate next step.
I’m replying, not just to Steve Brandt, but to Ms. Krueger, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Abbott. I’m actually a bit (but *just* a bit) too old to be a Boomer - 😉, but I do worry about our kids. I have a granddaughter who is 14, and way more into social media than I would like. But then, at her age, I came home from school one day to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I “grew up” in a hurry that day. Anyone remember “Dr. Strangelove”? My granddaughter becomes quite annoyed if a conversation turns to politics; I’m trying to figure out how to interest her, or at least make her realize that it is in her interest, to be informed about what I’ll call “public affairs”. I absolutely agree on the tactics the Democrats need to start using - I wonder if they think their positions will seep, like osmosis, into the electorate? I live in the western part of Washington - we now have a billionaire trying to undo a great deal of legislation through our initiative process. I *really*don’t want a billionaire determining our state government policies. But I also see what I can only think is a kind of arrogance about liberal politics. One recent example was information about North Carolina: the thriving furniture building industry has been hollowed out by cheap Chinese imports - the article that I read reported that the unemployment rate in that part of the state is twice the national average. The Democrats would be wise to point out that this administration is looking to those areas as needing help and opportunities.
Thank you for trying to get your granddaughter interested in the world of "pubic affairs". I'm 69... remember the Cuban Missile Crisis (did a report about it for my history class in high school some years later). So sorry to hear about the furniture industry in North Carolina... as well as what that billionaire is doing in your state. Also... I remember Dr. Strangelove very well. Also remember "The Day After" broadcast on TV in, I think, 1983. What can get young people interested in civics? I'm not sure. But I do know that Taylor Swift believes it's important for everyone to be registered to vote!
I have been wanting to hear of a large, visible movement of this type for months now. There are so many more people who support democracy and a functioning government responsive to the wants and needs of the majority than the current loud anti-government crazies out there. The examples of Israel pre October 7 and Germany now are inspiring. It has to be multi-state and recurring (not just one day). I’m all for it.
'Trump says he’d let Russia do ‘whatever the hell they want’ to NATO countries that don’t pay enough' (NBC Universal) by RUDY CHINCHILLA AND MAX BURMAN
February 11, 2024 at 8:19 AM
'Former President Donald Trump said Saturday he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” if it attacked a NATO country that didn’t pay enough for defense.'
'Speaking to supporters at a rally in South Carolina, Trump recounted an exchange from his time in office with the leader of a “big country” who asked whether they would be protected if Russia attacked.'
'Trump said he told the leader that the U.S. government would not protect the bloc if they didn’t pay their fair share in defense spending.'
“I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recalled. “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills,” 'he added.'
'The comments will do little to ease concerns in Europe about U.S. dependability, with military aid that Ukraine desperately needs held up in Congress and the front-runner for the GOP nomination reiterating his long-standing skepticism of America’s historical commitments to its allies.'
'It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin pushes on with his war in Ukraine, and after some North Atlantic Treaty Organization members have expressed concerns that Russia might look to invade other nations next.'
'The alliance was formed in 1949 to provide collective defense against the Soviet Union. A hallmark of the agreement is Article 5, which states that an attack on one ally would be considered an attack on all.'
'Trump has long groused about NATO and sparred with heads of member states, reportedly threatening to pull the United States out of the bloc over demands that member nations hit the target of spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.'
'Since coming into office, President Joe Biden has sought to reassure NATO of the U.S. commitment to the alliance, a stark contrast to his Republican predecessor.'
'Last month, Biden signed an $886 billion defense bill that bars a president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO, which could thwart Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to “fundamentally” re-evaluate “NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.”
'The White House said Trump’s latest comments were' “appalling and unhinged.”
“Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged — and it endangers American national security, global stability and our economy at home,” 'spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement Saturday night.'
“Rather than calling for wars and promoting deranged chaos, President Biden will continue to bolster American leadership and stand up for our national security interests — not against them,” 'he said.'
'A report released last year showed only 11 of the then-30 member nations were spending 2% of their GDP or more on defense. But the figure is a target not a requirement, and many NATO members have stepped up their military spending in the wake of Russia’s Ukraine invasion.'
'Finland was granted NATO membership status last year, and Sweden is in the process of joining. Denmark’s defense minister warned Friday that a new threat assessment based on new intelligence indicates that Russia could attack a NATO country within three to five years.' (NBC, Universal) See link below for complete article.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-says-russia-whatever-hell-want-nato-countries-dont-pay-enough-rcna138256
Meanwhile, Trump never pays his own bills.
That was exactly my thoughts....
No one mentions that there were less than 3000 people at the rally. I wrote a letter to the NYT suggesting they include that information in their article. Crickets. Detailing how many “supporters” attend Trump’s campaign stops would reveal that the numbers keep getting smaller. This contradicts that aura of inevitability. Write letters to your rag if choice! Accurate information is the best antidote to weird social engineering experiments…
HCR regurgitates tired, hypocritical propaganda about the "rules-based international order" as well as the absurd lie that Russia is deliberately targeting the civilian population of Ukraine. In international relations, breaking and strangling the economies of darker-skinned countries, the hypocritical States is far worse than Russia in its ongoing criminal behavior through the decades.
Ukraine rekindled the war in 2022 by attacking the breakaway Donbass republics after Russia signed mutual defense treaties with them. In doing so, Ukraine tore up the battered Minsk Agreements. HCR resolutely ignores that.
John Schmeekle, were you brought up to walk into someone's home and put them down in front of friends and supporters, or is that something you took on as 'acceptable behavior' elsewhere?
Schmeeckle is entitled to his opinion. It is one that is resoundingly opposed here but our democracy allows for differing opinions. I completely reject his views and his attacks on Dr. Richardson is unwarranted.
It is up to us to engage in conversation with Schmeeckle and refute his statements. Unfortunately true trumpers are not interested in discussion, when you try they resort to insults and threats. There is no point in engaging with them. However if someone with a different view wants to talk, we should join in.
He’s a troll, he’s trolling and he got what he came for. Recognize what he’s doing. If you want to say he’s entitled to his opinion, fine but it’s the 1st amendment,not democracy that gives him the right to pick an argumentative fight with those of us who admire HCR and her commentaries.
Join the No Oxygen Brigade
I'm not even sure he is a real person...he may just be a Russian bot.
Wow, I am Colette too, I seldom see someone with our names.
Maybe he’s a troll. However the way many people are responding helps substantiate his statement. Without democracy there is no 1st Amendment, trump plans to cancel parts of the Constitution. I am one of her admirers. I rejected his personal attacks on her.
Okay. No argument here, just a warning to us all on this blog who encounter this sort behavior which has been rare in my experience. It serves his purpose (if, in fact it is a “he”) for folks to engage with him. He get a sense of control and satisfaction doing this.
Mike Yochim - "Schmeeckle is entitled to his opinion. ... It is up to us to engage in conversation with Schmeeckle and refute his statements."
"𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝐼 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑦 (𝑖𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦) 𝑏𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑠. '𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑟?' 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑠𝑘. '𝑊𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑?'” --Robert Reich
I doubt I’d change many minds. In my experience, people who have a deep emotional or intellectual investment in seeing the world one way are unlikely to change their minds by seeing or hearing someone who challenges that investment.
The people who need to be reached are those who remain reachable — whose minds are still open to evidence and argument.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-i-preach-to-the-choir
Robert Reich is correct. That’s why I try and when I hit a brick wall, as I did with the Lewiston shooting, I give a brief reply in kind and then end the conversation.
Ignore him. Refuting him only feeds his desire
I hear ya. He hasn’t responded to my comments, so I won’t be spending any more time on him.
Any time you spend refuting him is time you could have spent productively, like making toast
Tip of the hat to you Mike Yochim, I know you’re right, but these guys make it so hard, not to be nasty. There’s so much at stake.
I completely agree. I attempted to have a discussion with some people on Facebook about gun control right after Lewiston, Maine. I was resoundingly attacked. Most days I respond in kind. I feel if someone wants to come in to a place where they know their views are rejected, they deserve to be heard. Maybe it’s because of how I am treated when I go into one of their places.
I hear what you’re saying Mike, and usually do desist. But that one felt good! I think a moderator or some group rules would help keep things nice 🙂
Mike Yochim, I am routinely falsely accused of being a Trump supporter by people who know better. I am not, and never have been a Trump supporter. Like my father before me, I am an old-school anti-war FDR Democrat.
And at times President Biden is compared to FDR and trying to pick up where he left off.
I am inclined to strongly disagree, and I've shared my condemnation of Biden's Vampire Liberalism around here. Biden is making almost no effort to rebuild America's industrial base, which we can't do unless we undo Clinton's sell-out of the Democratic Party and abandon "free trade" and the WTO.
FDR was staunchly anti-imperialist, and Biden throughout his career has been a minion of the neo-imperialist Establishment that has used American control over the International Monetary Fund to strangle the economies of the darker-skinned countries.
I live near a TVA dam. Biden has no such comparable infrastructure project, such as a high-speed rail network. Where is Biden's vision for that? They have the right idea in California (where I lived for 20 years).
FDR went for the development of nuclear fission. Why can't Biden and today's Democrats go for nuclear fusion? Think of all the things we could do with abundant cheap electricity:
https://earthwarning.org/index.php/what-should-we-do/
John is allow to make his proclamation once. Then he becomes a nuisance.
Even a one time derogatory remark is not okay. This place needs a strapping, mean faced security guard who will tap the offending party on the shoulder and say, ‘Sir, I’m gonna have to ask ya to leave.’
Spoken like a true fascist.
Heil Schmeekle. I understand you want to portray yourself as a intellectual but you are not.
It’s called maintaining ‘acceptable codes of conduct’ which serves to keep a group's members psychologically safe.
You can block people here FYI.
He trolls this site to inject his poison just like all the other paid Russian cybertrolls
It's just sad. But the world is filled with all kinds of people. We can choose to engage or not. I choose not.
What I see happening is that folks engage negatively and soon this discussion is filled with attacks from and to. Do we really want to waste this page in that way? Ignore this person who trolls.
https://samray.substack.com/p/the-shared-narcissism-of-trolls-and
Christy, thanks for his link; what i got out of it was it’s not really about free speech or a different POV!
“And it makes so much sense that dark personalities with high levels of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism (known as “the dark tetrad”) in real life are the darkest of dark trolls online as well, because darkness hunts everywhere….motives behind wasting so much time trolling. To them, it is not wasting time at all. It is their nature, and being mostly anonymous online, and thus mostly unaccountable, just makes it so much easier for them to spread their disordered darkness online and off.”
Kazz McKnight, your question contains an embedded false assumption, giving the appearance of dishonesty.
p.s. You misspelled my name. Around here, some people do that deliberately as a show of disrespect.
Do you prefer blatant disrespect John?
He gets what he deserves.
He comes here with blatant disrespect so why should he get anything else?
Don't like it, cry to your orange liar.
Please do not feed the troll.
What a thing to say.
Yeah , not nice, you’re right..
Please do not feed the troll.
Might as well change the subject. I wish we would all work for peace and cooperation among all global political entities, large and small, down to every single individual human person. If we are not all engaged in that enterprise, it would be interesting to delve into one or two big reasons why we are not fully occupied with the future of the planet and all of the various lifeforms which dwell hereupon.
Everyone who finds themselves engaged in pointless disputation should try, subtly or not, to swerve the conversation back on track toward a long-term vision of the future of life on this planet, for all creatures, allegedly sentient or otherwise.
It would also help to try to display some semblance of a sense of humor, despite the obvious difficulties of injecting humor into a discussion of deliberate slaughter, for example. A touch of humor would help a lot in certain situations, perhaps most situations.
Perhaps all criticism should be aimed at attempting to offer a more uplifting approach to solving the topic under discussion.
You avoid the question of what to do with the bad actors who seek the exact opposite of what you hope for. Only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole barrel. It takes a village to raise a child, but only one vicious nut with a gun to kill the children. Only one pirate corporation disposing of toxic waste by pumping it into a well to contaminate the ground water for miles and miles around. Or lying about their vehicles’ actual emissions levels to provide the tipping point for run-away global warming. When we look away from the bad actors and excuse their bad behavior, we fool ourselves that we are doing the right thing, for fun or profit. Criminals do not make good leaders. The way to stop Putin from wrecking Ukraine is to stop Putin from making these bad decisions, not expect Ukraine to roll over. If Ukraine gave up, where would Putin turn his greedy eyes and murderous heart to next? The way to stop the destruction of Palestine is to capture and put every Hamas fighter in jail.The Palestinians should be doing that, not the Israelis. The Israelis should remove their own criminal leader and elect someone capable of acting for the greater good, rather than narrow self-interest. Ugh. Changing the subject aids and abets the criminal enterprises, doesn’t it? As Putin gets older and more lost in his fantasies of empire, the world is less and less safe. The Russians, a proud and educated people with a long history of fighting tyrants, need to figure out why they got sucked into Putin’s delusions of grandeur. Tolerating criminals in our midst is a symptom of a lack of personal integrity. Remember that old, old saying,”Better a lean wolf, than a fat dog.” Being a fat dog only works as long as whoever holds the chain keeps feeding the dog. Putin is not a lean wolf, he’s the guy that puts the chain around the Russian people’s neck and sends them off to kill their cousins and steal this grain fields. Hamas is not a lean wolf, it treats the people of Palestine as human shields. Netanyahu thinks laying waste to Palestine is a good way to stay out of jail, but the people who have Hamas on a leash are far away and untouched by the path of destruction. Why do the Israeli’s put up with that? Donald Trump is not a lean wolf. Political entities are one thing, but criminal behavior always comes down to personal integrity on the part of individuals.
You wrote "You avoid the question of what to do with the bad actors who seek the exact opposite of what you hope for..."
I think one of the shortcomings of Substack's interface design is that the threads and comments are difficult to follow, or to connect in the proper order. In the instant case, my comment was posted soon after John Schmeekle's post. In fact, it appeared immediately after John's post. At this moment my response to John's post is physically distant, and without any reference in my post to his, you would probably find it challenging to relate what I wrote to what John wrote. John reminds me of some of my "Old School" friends growing up in the '50s and '60s and into the '70s. In the Old School, we could argue strenuously all day long, yet remain friends at the end of the day, and long into the future. I intend to suggest to John that criticizing Dr Richardson, apart from being impolitic and impolite, is a form of logical fallacy, an "ad hominem" argument against the person, instead of against the logic. What I wrote in response to John's post was intended to convey the idea that he was missing the point. My comment did not address his point, which was the point I was hoping to make. I'll try to be more explicit in the future.
To address your point, in Notes on Useful Beauty, I think I am not naive. In 1967 I was in my third semester of college in the University of Wisconsin system, facing the draft, and facing being sent to Vietnam if I did not stay in school. One morning in October '67 I had an epiphany: I realized, as though for the first time, that I was not required to stay in school. So I dropped out. Less than three months later I enlisted in the Army Security Agency for four years, at the height of the war. I spent a year in a Defense Department language school studying the "Hanoi dialect" of the Vietnamese language. I spent a year of my life in Vietnam. I landed in Vietnam a few weeks after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. When I was 27 I went back to the UW system, majored in philosophy, and graduated with a BA on or about my 30trh birthday. In 1987 I decided I should learn a useful trade, so I enrolled in our local vocational-technical college and earned two Associate Degrees, in computers and electronics, going part time to school and working part time over the course of five years. I worked in a corporate environment as a computer technician for the next 15 or so years.
My life story doesn't establish that I am not naive, of course. As far as I'm concerned, as far as I can tell, I am not naive. I think it is probably impossible for someone to live through a war, and then live three quarters of a century, yet still be naive about how the world works.
I wrote this earlier, and thought I'd lost it. Then I found it again. like a miracle. Instead of deleting this rendition, I'll send it along, for whatever it might be worth, if anything at all.
When I was a child my grade school class went to see a movie together: The Magnificent Seven, made in 1960, directed by John Sturges. It was an American remake of "The Seven Samurai", made in Japan by Akira Kurosawa. In both movies, peaceful peasant farmers are set upon and terrorized by a gang of bandits. The peaceful villagers are not prepared to defend themselves, so they persuade experienced fighters to defend them. Lots of fighting, people die.
Fast forward to the present day. Part of the population wishes fervently to live an ordered, peaceful, civilized life. But we have living amongst us bullies, thugs, psychopaths, and monsters of various types. We all know this is true. We all know that there are many and varied reasons why some people do not live by the golden rule. Someone would be seen as a naive Pollyanna (Pollyanna was depicted in a movie about a girl who was excessively cheerful and optimistic, no matter what happened). We are not naive. We know there are many root causes for the ills we see around us in our society in the US, and in other societies around the world. Millions of people living in poverty in the US, the richest nation in the world, is one example. There is a long list of social ills, many of which are directly related to our economic system, and its notable lack of a conscience.
And we all are familiar with the problems in Palestine and Israel, and with the problems in Ukraine and Russia, and the problems in northwestern China repressing the Uyghurs., and many other troubled areas around the world. Authoritarianism appears to be on the rise around the world. But instead of talking about specific examples of strife among various groups of people, I think we should talk about how to end strife all over the world.
Sometimes, in a forum like this, we may completely misconstrue what other people are saying. It's no wonder that people are fighting with each other all over the world, and have been for a very long time. I think that if we Americans could reform our own nation, then we could act as a beacon for the rest of the world, shining our light on what is possible. But we won't be much of a beacon while we are still tripping over our own feet, with massive greed, and massive poverty, and retail healthcare and medicine, depleting our soil and water, dumping carbon into the atmosphere, maldistribution of wealth, and all the rest.
My purpose in writing this was two-fold. My flippant diatribe, which you criticized, was in response to John Schmeekle's comment, which was an "ad hominem" slight against our Professor of History, instead of a statement of principle or an observation on the scene before us these days. My comment was initially immediately adjacent to John's comment, but because of the way Substack parses comments in time and space, my comment got separated from John's, and my comment contained no specific referent to John's post. So you can be forgiven for giving me what we referred to in the Army as "a ration of sh!t".
These days, instead of trying to discuss specific hot spots around the world, I find that I want to try to see the view from the edge of space. From that vantage point, the various wars and trouble spots all begin to look the same. We -- all of us around the world -- should be trying to work together to prepare our world for a long-term future. We are not doing that now, but we can begin to do that, and the sooner, the better. Our current approach to economy is not working for us, it is working against long-term sustainability. While some people are getting absurdly wealthy, our planet is becoming impoverished. And here we are in Wisconsin in the middle of February but we have no snow on the ground and the daytime temperatures have been in the 40s for an extended period. To say it is an unusually mild winter is an understatement. Over the past quarter of a century living in this neighborhood near the western shore of Lake Michigan, most years we've had snow piled three feet deep between the sidewalk and the street throughout the winter, sometimes into April.
I hope you and your husband enjoy each other's company for many many years into the future together.
All the political turmoil generated by self-interested, short-sighted criminals around the world are incorrect responses to the elephant in the room, Dave. In South and Central America , social disruption driven by crop failures pushes more and more people north toward the US, with predictable political turmoil as a result. In Africa, drought forces the semi-nomadic Arab herders, seeking grass for their livestock, further and further south into the settle agricultural areas inhabited by other ethnic groups, and suddenly Boko Haram happens. Putin’s attempt to gain control of Ukraine’s grain fields stems from a derp understanding that if the Russian people get hungry, that may wake them up and cause them to seek a better,, or at least, different leader. In China Xi made an executive decision to remove millions of peasants from their land, which was becoming less productive, and turn them into urban worker bees. But the pandemic reduced demand for Chinese goods, the worker bees no longer made enough money to buy houses, and now the housing market collapse has resulted in the bankruptcy of building corporations, threatening the Chinese economy. I have seen no mention anywhere about what percentage of those displaced worker bees are making their way back to their ancestral villages, but I worry about what XI will do with all the peasants who used to be more or less self supporting on the land, and are now stuck in those horrible high rise enclaves, wondering what is going to happen next. Xi will try to get them to blame someone other than himself, but who? In India, Modi falls back on the old Hindu/Muslim divide, but traditional land inheritance laws leave people stuck on tiny properties that can no longer feed the owners. And there was the spectacle of the Climate summit hosted by wealthy oil interests, unable to agree on guidelines that would actually reduce emissions enough to have any chance of reducing rising temperatures enough to forestall the collapse of the North Atlantic current. And we see in Israel, the continuing tribal feud over a spot of land that has been going on for thousand of years. Where are those displaced people going to go this time? Our world is overpopulated with human beings for the coming drastic shifts in habitat suitability for humans. Where are the Palestinians going to go? I agree this is what we should be talking about.
Meredi, I appreciate your attention to detail, looking at human problems around the world. I think many people in the US, perhaps a large majority, would like US to become a good example for the rest of the world to follow. But we have a rather long way to go to become admirable in the way we do things.
We have water problems, and those problems will probably get worse before they get better. The years-long drought in the western US largely ended last winter, but last summer the areas of severe drought could be seen in the central US, even here in Wisconsin. And the Oglala Aquifer has been reduced faster than it can be replenished: some of the water they've been using for irrigation was deposited as the last glacial period ended thousands of years ago.
There are some interesting concepts around high-rise buildings as vertical farms. They would still need water, but maybe they could contain evaporation within the building. Currently, we export a significant portion of our water when we export food grown with irrigation. Having high-rise farms in urban areas would reduce transportation times to market.
Modern (since around 1950) dirt farming practices have bothered me for a long time. They use anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer, and chemical pesticides to enhance yields. Our instinct in our house is that we prefer our food to be grown in natural fertile soil. We are both long-time vegetarians, so our compost pile is mostly organic, and our small vegetable patch every year is almost entirely organic. Like many people, we rely on grocery stores and farmers' markets for most of our food. The current economics of growing food is fraught with the influence of money, which appears to lead to the reduction of health value in the food that many people consume.
We are interested in renewable energy, and we have a small (2.4 kW) photovoltaic array on our garage. Eventually we intend to expand our generation capability to the roof of the house, hoping to generate everything we consume. We hope to witness a change to all-renewable energy with "battery" backup storage, perhaps at utility scale, although I don't like or trust the big Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs). We recently read about a new idea in storage techniques, to be built here in Wisconsin as a pilot project. It entails a large building with a collapsible roof, which gets filled with carbon dioxide. There is an adjacent building, connected by a tube or tunnel, with a fan which turns a turbine to generate electricity. The gates are opened and the gas floods out of the first building into the second. The ways it's described makes it sound very efficient. We'll see.
We need to change a lot of things.
We believe in deficit spending by the federal government. We view it as an investment in the future. To the people who say we "borrow" too much, and the interest payments are too high, I advise investing in Treasury instruments. They pay interest. Then maybe the austerity-loving deficit hawks won't feel so anxious about those interest payments.
We have plenty to worry about. We think we would all be happier and healthier if we would talk about how to solve our problems. I'd like to get rid of nuclear weapons. We still have way more aircraft carrier strike groups than any other nation. We spend a lot of money on missiles that sit in their silos and grow old, only to be replaced after X years with newer and more sophisticated very expensive rockets and their payloads.
I enjoy speculative fiction. I'd like to find stories that address these problems we have mentioned, and offer thoughtful or innovative solutions. Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction stories contained all sorts of ideas that eventually came to fruition, such as orbiting communications satellites. We need to dream up solutions to the problems we see.
I don't want it to all fall apart -- especially if it's only because of a lack of imagination.
You speak hatefully of Putin's greedy eyes and murderous heart and delusions of grandeur.
John, allow me to clarify. I spent many years working with the criminally insane in the criminal justice system. Putin’s delusions of grandeur, desiring to build his legacy as restoring Russia’s former glory, allows him to justify, in his own head, an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation, which has resulted so far, in close to 200,000 deaths and the destruction of infrastructure and resources that are not easily replaced. Putin is a pitiful character on his own, lost in his fantasies, but he causes chaos and destruction for his own internal goals, which are greedy (invading other countries) and murderous (throwing rival oligarchs out of windows, poisoning Navalny with plutonium, etc.) He is a danger to self and others, and the world deserves to be protected from his mad antics.
Notes on Useful Beauty,
I hope you are not a deluded kool-aid addict.
Thank you David. I was just leaving this thread to find more news elsewhere.
We have a rare opportunity here to come up with constructive answers to some tough questions.
It is silly to waste time commenting with trolls.
Marj, I'm "Old School", going back to the days before around 1975, when we could all be on different side, and argue strenuously, yet remain friends. I admit that some people are irredeemable these days, but I still feel an instinct to attempt to build bridges with some people who can communicate, even if they are unconventional. My main objection to the individual in question is his criticism of HCR, which is an "ad hominem" fallacy. Often, when that is pointed out, the errant interlocutor can be persuaded to stick to the subject at hand, say what he has to say, without dissing our dear Professor Richardson. If I were a Democratic strategist, I would look for ways to attract as many voters as possible to the cause of the preservation of two centuries-plus of democratic aspirations here in the USA.
My long-term vision for the future of life on this planet:
https://earthwarning.org/index.php/what-should-we-do/
Here's mine: www.resourceism.com
Thanks for the link, Michael. I've been some form of vegetarian since early 1975. From '78 to '92 I was a careful vegan. Lapsed back to lacto-ovo-veg since '92. We have a small 2.4 kW PV array on our garage, which supplies about half of our power. We are planning to go "All Electric", all renewable electric power. We are careful about what we buy, always looking for "B" Corp companies, sustainable practices, etc.
A couple thoughts:
Money is the creation of government.
Your approach approximates the old natural-law doctrine that maturely developed or "perfected" individual human nature is characterized by active concern for the well-being of our fellow humans.
p.s. I eat what vegans eat, which is challenging for a truck driver on the road a lot.
After I'd been in the war for about 8 months I arrived at the idea, spring of 1970, that if I survived I would stop killing things. It took me until January of 1975 to completely stop eating meat. My vegan period lasted from '78 to '92, and have been lacto-ovo-veg ever since. My wife is a great cook, also vegetarian. We both worked for a trucking company that hauls new diesel tractors from factory to dealers, so we understand a lot about the life of an over-the-road driver.
I was a long haul trucker in the late eighties/nineties. I stopped at McDonalds and stocked up on salads. The offerings at truck stops were miserable.
Thank you for the link. While this does address our over exploitation of the planet's resources, the main issue seems to be that there are too many of us. We just hit the 8 billion mark of humans on the planet. So many of us, especially in the "developed" west seem to think it's fine to have more than two children per family. And there are those who work to prevent people around the world from getting access to birth control. If women aren't free to choose how many children they'll have, they are essentially prisoners of their reproductive process and the men who continue to impregnate them. All of which can create conflict over resources, which are finite and of course feeds the military industrial complex which continues to stuff the pockets of the sociopaths that own it.
I will suggest that our single greatest natural resource is the creative power of the human mind.
p.s. The number of new infants globally has already peaked:
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/11/world-population-estimated-eight-billion.html#:~:text=The%20world%20population%20is%20projected,call%20this%20phenomenon%20population%20momentum.
Resourceism is the belief or ideology that all of the Earth's resources are the common inheritance of all the world's people and should be shared equally for the benefit of all the Earth's inhabitants. Resourceism is the foundational belief of a resource-based economy.
Until we run out of oil reserves in the US, that ain't gonna happen. BUT, this is what is currently happening in countries like Norway, where the fossil fuels and minerals are state owned and the entire population shares in the profits.
Thanks for the link, John. I see a lot to like on your site. We probably could find common ground.
Nice John. I like it. As the ocean level rises hopefully coastal dwellers (like myself) will set up more houseboat communities and we can have more hybrid vehicles -- hybrid meaning they are amphibious as well as run on land.
I am preparing for a full moon astronomically high tide nor'easter with significant flooding forecasted for Monday/Tuesday.
These were called 100 year storms in the past. I have lived here 29 years and never seen anything like this current weather pattern.
If I get out of this event with a home I will begin in earnest to sell it.
I might like to buy it.
It’s too late for the planet, if you believe the climate scientists.
Probably, but we have to do what we can for future generations. Much of the damage is irreversible but we need to slow it down. Future generations may live underground to survive the catastrophic storms and farming will be done inside silos. Meat protein may not be available after the planet becomes too inhospitable.
The progress scientists all around the world are making with batteries, solar, wind and even run-of-the-river dams gives me hope -- not so much for our generation, but for the future.
The planet will still be here, but the ecosystems which sustained human civilization as we know it today, will change, and so will human civilization. I myself would like to keep hot running water and a stable pharmaceutical supply chain, since I am dependent on thyroid medication, but we shall see.
You must be getting a cheque from Putin John.. Does he pay monthly or weekly for you to spread his bullshit around?
My only source of income is my weekly paycheck as a truck driver. I have very little, and have not tried to accumulate material possessions.
I am free to say what I think, and to change my views if there is solidly-reasoned opposition to my assessments.
You have nothing to say regarding the assessment I shared. The "Putin" smear is tired McCarthyist bigotry.
Hey I’m a truck driver, in a way. As an art dealer, I haul art in my van to distant conventions. Isn’t that a truck driver? I had a line running around in my head for a new song once heading home on I-81 in PA and I had to pull in to a truck stop to write it down. Write it down or lose it so I parked alongside 18 wheelers. Took a picture of it too. I had my song in a week. The line in 2019: “There are good people and bad ones wherever you go. Just seems like the bad ones are stealing the show.” Some of us use our minds when traveling long distance.
I used to listen to "Great Courses" lectures while driving in the middle of the night. I drove truck full time while paying my way through a Master's program in history, one class at a time. In December 2006, while driving down I-5 to San Diego, I stumbled across the definition of happiness as used in the Declaration of Independence:
https://www.academia.edu/29164747/The_Declaration_of_Independence_without_Locke_A_Rebuttal_of_Michael_Zuckerts_Natural_Rights_Republic_
And here is the song that I wrote from the line that ran around my head while driving back from Nashville (a good enough place to feel so inspiried) to CT. Called "Blue Daze" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYtTGIzb7OA
Unfortunately, John, that is behind a "password" wall that I can't get around. But, I think instead of happiness they should have said "contentment" or "happiness and contentment." Happiness seems fleeting and short term while contentment is a general feeling of safety and well-being.
I’m a truck driver too.. No .. ideas like yours are too absurd to even try to understand.. see you on the road..
John Sméagol always does that: comes in insulting, and when met with resistance, starts whining that he has so little income.
The only trucking and hauling John does is Putins water.. he as much a truck driver as I am an astronaut.
John, I am aware that a version, admittedly presented differently, of the perspective you’ve briefly outlined is broadly held not only by everyday people both at home and abroad but also by noted and serious public intellectuals and political analysts. I also am cognizant of, I expect, the broader coalition, both domestic and global, that subscribes to the understanding HCR has promoted. In my view, if one seriously is committed to testing her or his views and deepening her or his understanding, the person would be pressing, as I repeatedly have done, to bring noted scholars together who represent both sides for open discussion and dialogue.
Frankly, I see no other means for seeking a more cooperative international order that views war as contrary to universally shared concerns that include world-wide economic and social justice, the health of our physical world, and the well-being of all of earth’s inhabitants.
Barbara Jo Krieger,
Your post inspired me to think of a set of questions that a panel of opposing scholars could consider:
1. How relevant are Ukraine's border changes in 1921 to Russia's war aims, and what if any legitimacy can be found in "roll back the border" arguments?
2. How much foreign meddling was there in the Maiden Revolution, and was it sufficient to tarnish the legitimacy of the new government?
3. Did the Maiden Revolution vitiate the Budapest Memorandum? Potential precedent: President Washington decided that the French Revolution vitiated the treaty of alliance with France's "ancien regime."
4. Zelensky was elected President with a campaign platform that prominently included the pledge to make swift Peace in the Donbass, with the Steinmeier Formula in mind.
Zelensky reneged on that and built up to invade the breakaway Donbass republics. To what extent does this delegitimize Zelensky's presidency?
John, I would propose the questions be drafted by an impartial moderator.
Perhaps opposing side could submit lists of proposed questions to the moderator.
With my list of questions, I tried to phrase things neutrally.
John, My pressing requests for programming that entail an exchange among opposing views never have touched on format nor would they.
Substack Inc has once again breached its California contracts with Readers & Authors.
I have prepared an appropriate Exhibit & allegations for submission to Substack Inc's chosen Mediation forum which is JAMS SF as we all are aware. Reported.
I have repeatedly asked the monitors for a "block" button like on the WAPO comment site. No response as of yet.
Maybe their programmers aren't up to the task. Who knows?
I block the trolls all the time and couldn’t figure out why their 💩💩💩 still appears, so I looked it up. Apparently you have to “mute” them if you want to avoid the stench.
So hateful.
If you block someone, they can't read your own substack or notes.
Deliberately targeting civilians goes back to WWI and German bombing raids on London, although it didn't really achieve substantial results until air bombardment grew into its maturity in WWII. Both sides did it with abandon, although the Allies were more successful at it because we built the big bombers capable of doing it really well, ending with the B-29, the firebombing of Japanese cities and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The rationale was then that civilian workers contribute to the war effort in factories, etc. The other rationale, of course, (and less openly admitted) was the creation of terror. It is virtually impossible to make modern war without killing civilians en masse. We proved that in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Russians are doing it now in the Ukraine. The Israelis are doing it in Gaza. And neither are alone in this modern age, so the word 'deliberate' is really just a distraction. When one makes modern war, everyone in the area dies.
Schmeekle, you loser, go peddle your Maga garbage at Breitbart or Fox or wherever jerks like you hang out, but not here. This forum is for intelligent people who are actually trying to have grown up conversations and figure important things out.
Professor S, you appear to be suffering from Academic Superiority Syndrome.
I am not and have never been a Trump supporter.
John, doesn’t Fox show Putin’s bombing of residential buildings and schools?
He’s a troll. Logic bounces off like rubber.
I don't know about Fox. I do know that Ukrainian missiles sometimes miss Russian missiles and come down anywhere, with civilian casualties, and then the Ukrainians pretend it was the Russians. The most famous example was when the Ukrainian anti-missile exploded in Poland, and Zelensky himself lied about it, but Poland and the United States and other countries contradicted him.
I think John Schmeekle has an agenda of his own and is not open to real discussion.
I will say that the rules-based order is in its infancy compared to the ages of human history in which conflict and conquest was the way. Of course it isn't perfect. We know that. We also know that democracy in the U.S. isn't perfect. But these attempts to bring more fairness and peace to the world can BE perfected. The forces that want to destroy democracy and a rules-based world order in their cradles before they can be perfected are those that want the return of rule by domination, fear and conquest. They want power and control for themselves, not a safe, just peaceful world. Protecting the steps that have been taken to quell the domination model is our current job. Everyone who wants justice and peace in the world should be on board with that.
I will suggest that the "rules-based order" is an Orwellian fig-leaf for neo-imperialist oppression.
The old handbook for a "rules-based international order," Vattel's "The Law of Nations," was "constantly in the hands of our Congress now sitting," according to Benjamin Franklin in 1775.
I'm going to block Schmeekle. His comments are a distraction.
🙄
I don’t think, as an amateur historian with a said master’s degree, you have a good understanding of Russian history. I took a course taught by a former general in the Hungarian army that rebelled against the Soviets in 1956. Dr Dici was his name and he gave a firs person narrative. Russia went from and absolute monarchy to absolute dictatorship to a half hearted experiment with western democracy in the 1990s post break up of the Soviets. Yeltsin was a weak corrupt and drunken leader and he groomed an up and coming dictator Putin and the rest is history.
International norms and order is what is needed more so than ever. With regard to Israel, the US was so prostituted by Jewish lobby money that we gave anything Isreal wanted including ethnic cleansing just like the Nazis did to them in Europe. Humans have a rather nasty ability to avenge themselves in the most vial way. Hamas became the brilliant manipulators of public opinion when that sacrificed their own people by forcing Isreal to exterminate them. Please do not look for any better angels here. Both the Arabs and the Jews are demonic and I’m sorry to feel ashamed of my half Jewish blood.
The Donbas was majority Ukrainian before hostilities. Recall Putin stating he was not intent on invading but did anyway. How many people must die for territoriality? Russia is clearly the aggressor and Putin has had a recent history of aggression on very lame excuses. So glad NATO has been strengthened but concerned about what Trump will do.
What an absurd thing to say. The Donbass was not only majority Russian speaking, but also ethnic Russian, and still is.
What is truly absurd is taking a count after Russian supported rebels drove many Ukrainian out, kidnapped children, and caused many civilian deaths. Russia has had a history of not only persecuting Ukrainian but actually starving them to death. You're advocating for evil.
Phil Weisberg,
I think you're wrong, but if you have any sources to back up what you're saying, I'll be pleased to consider them.
Regarding the Holodomor, it wasn't Russia vs. Ukraine: Stalin wasn't even Russian, and the Russians in the Donbass starved like everyone else in Ukraine.
Hahahahahaha.
Silky man doesn't understand that we laugh at liars and fools.
I guess the saying is true that drumpf humpers have no morals or shame.
And neither does Beth Cobb.
oh come on.
Perhaps you disagree with some of my basic points, like:
-Russia is NOT deliberately targeting civilians.
-The continuing invasive presence of the U.S. military in Syria makes a mockery of inanw blathet about a "rules-based order," as does our support of Israel’s continuing violation of those United Nations resolutions, as does our ongoing crime-against-humanity embargo against Venezuela.
Do you disagree?
Engaging with this troll is like clicking on the link sent in your email that says Norton virus protection has sent you a bill for services. Engagement is the purpose of the scam. DO NOT ENGAGE OR RESPOND TO TROLLING! EVER. That’s their goal. Also, just a cursory look into this character’s credentials and you will find that he’s absolutely insane.
Coming from you...
And no mention today of the genocide ongoing in Gaza, funded by all of us?
Egypt just imagined suspending their peace treaty with Israel.
"Do we want self-government or dictatorship?" That is the central question of this era. Thanks.
I have been a big fan of Bucky Fuller ever since I saw one of his geodesic domes being tested on top of Mt. Washington (Agiocochook) in NH, c.1970 (?).
unfortunately, folks who swallow &/or relish inhumane interpretations of their Favorite Book are already primed to kowtow to brutes and demagogues.
ALWAYS remember: aspiring autocrats eventually tell you everything. As they get more desperate, they get more bizarre. The far right is actually freaking out that this coward is exposing ALL of their plans.
In President Biden we are fortunate to have seasoned leadership that is providing Americans with a strong economy that is reaching Middle America.
It should be expected that he would be the target of cruel pot shots by those who seek to undermine confidence in him as President.
Special Prosecutor Hur's inclusion of remarks regarding Biden's failure to recall the date of his son Beau's death, may speak to Hur's background prosecuting gang violence and similar cases. He likely is well aware of how the mind may deal with personal tragedy and trauma. While the memory of a personally tragic event is put on a shelf (so to speak) and allowed to gather dust, the individual moves forward with life.
It is common not to recall the details of a personally tragic or traumatic event. It has absolutely nothing to do with age.
I wonder if the house freedom caucus prefers a dictatorship as evidenced by their marching in lockstep to their leader’s commands. However, they might refer to the history of the more recent dictators such as Stalin and Hitler who were just as likely to turn on those who might appear less loyal or disagree with them.
Gotta’ love Fuller’s creation of the Bucky ball!
He understood the design language of Mother Nature (triangles not squares, for example) very well.
HCR shows us that Biden has worked hard to build alliances worldwide. Russia has had far to great an influence in the US. I suspect there are financial arrangements between Putin and Trump. I recall that Trump sold a property to a Russian oligarch for 10s of millions more than value. Rachel Maddow covered it. Easy to plant so much in the MSM from remote digital locations.
However, Biden's support for the blatant Gaza genocide and Israel's apartheid of the Palestinians is his undoing. We have a long history of our government doing horrible things, but this puts an indelible stain on the US. $14 billion is being discussed for munitions that will directly result in death and destruction in Gaza. That is our tax dollars.
"To boldly go" is a painful split infinitive. Makes my hair stand on end. (Even though it's from a sacred text.)
More importantly: I think we should stop worshipping being "innovation driven". There are plenty of innovations that are questionable at best and others that are horrible at worst. Some have yet to be evaluated; others are both (AI being an example). This is a side issue to today's discussion, still important, in my (humble, of course) opinion.
Tying it all up here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-10-2024?r=44kjm&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
“In fact,” he said, “I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want.”
Scary even to think about.
It is horrifying that so many Americans support this kind of rhetoric. They will only truly understand the horror when they lose any/all benefits they have through SS and Medicare/Medicaid because that orange monster plans to alter them extremely. (He has said SS is a Ponzie scheme?!?!) He needs to be in jail.
Hopefully, TFFG's obesity and diet will catch up with him soon and he will stroke out or have a major colon explosion 💥💥💥 giving the world a chance to catch a breath.
Or choke on ego
Horrorifying news is exactly what this letter brings tonight.
The GOP has been saying SS is a ponzi scheme since Reagan. It's NOT Just Trump. He is just the latest, and in some ways his frightenly unfiltered speech and life are a Gift to Wake Us The Hell Up to what the "industrialists" have been doing for a century. Trying to kill democracy. Period. The cat is out of the bag.
thank you for injecting perspective; I'm sick of how many commenters have fallen for the schtick that Grifter Drumpf has ever had an original thought, let alone that he's the source of anything the MAGA bandwagon plugs into their dysfunctional dreams.
Evelyn, that says it all right there, doesn't it? Trump's financial and political ties to Russia are well-documented; perhaps this will be as revelatory but more unsettling to voters in November as his "Russia, are you listening?" beseech he made in 2016 in reference to Hilary's emails. (Turns out Russia was indeed listening, and hacked the DNC servers soon after.)
Will main stream media puck up this story and amplify it as much as they have of Richard Hur's highly inappropriate comments about Joe Biden while exonerated him in Biden's classified documents case? I haven't checked the early news reports yet, but this should be yet another red flag in a forest of red flags. (Maybe all the red fabric has gone to the production of red hats?) But, hey, let's talk instead about Biden's age.
This man betrays our country every chance he can. His only fealty is to Putin, not the US or our constitution that he took an oath to defend. The missing highly confidential documents he stole upon leaving office may well be in Putin's hands -- if that isn't "aiding and abetting" the enemy, I don't know what is. His Congressional supporters are equally disloyal shown by (among other things,) their failure to date to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.
Yet the Red Hats cult still believe he is the man to lead our country. Where he will lead us is clear, and that is a horrifying thought.
It is astonishing to me that so many people support trumpism. Even saying America needs a dictator!
And then there are the snowflakes in Congress…WTH happened to their spine? I’m gobsmacked by the silliness in Congress on the Republican side. They have the means to band together and make the nutballs irrelevant but they cower in the room they no longer deserve to occupy.
Evelyn, those ignorant, uneducated, fools that say America needs a dictator are really more stupid than i even imagined. Do they not realize that World War 2 was fought to keep us from even thinking about such a thing?? So many Americans lost their lives fighting to keep us free from authoritarian dictators. All of these stupid dumbasses need to be rounded up and thrown in prison for even saying such absurd nonsense. I am horrified that there are so many deranged people here in the United States. I just wish someone had the courage to put DJT's sorry ass away for the rest of his retched, sorry life.
I for one am not going to spend the last 10 or 15 years of my life under a Dictatorship. I have the financial means to leave the United States even though i am too old to move, but i will if that deranged mob boss criminal is elected Dictator. I am beyond sick and fed up with those barbarians in the Fascist GQP.
I have the financial means to leave, but Here I Stand.
As God is my witness, I WILL NOT be run out of my home by the likes of Gulty Donny or his thugs. We stomped the Nazis once. If we need to finish the job so be it.
< https://external-preview.redd.it/YkctEVumD7xLjnzL0VM-dGgccfwjPzhoONRQX9H2ZXQ.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=4b06ecb38dc22e9d38a1194380360b55ae879cbd >
There will be an army of grandfathers who will not allow the Orange Skidmark to ever occupy the Oval Office again. No. Matter. What.
My husband and I are right with you. The thought of waking up each day with Orange man in our people’s house frightens me every day. I an repulsed by our federal Rep and local state Rep who this week both came out in support of him. I think they are deranged cowards and I am also repulsed at the reality that they represent me. I fully disagree with both of these cowardly men and will work to see their backsides in November. We are both 75 and too old to have to live under a dictatorship.
Yeah, and after such a war, people always act so surprised: “ I can’t understand how this could have happened, I can’t understand how people can de so cruel to one another” - well, watch very closely then, because it’s happening now, in real-time.
I totally agree with you. I have watched many documentaries about World War 2 and the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler and one of those programs showed German families that were all in for Hitler standing in ruins in Berlin after their homes were bombed and destroyed and they asked themselves, '' Why oh why did i cheer so hard and support Adolf Hitler and look at what he has did to us.'' They were in tears and wondered what they were going to go with no where to go.
This same thing could happen here if the corrupt Orange monster takes leadership again.
I'd put it more strongly: the same thing WILL happen if the GOD (the Great Orange Dictator) reenters the White House. He already stated quite clearly that he is going to use the government to get rid of everyone he doesn't like (SS/Stasi), that there will be internment camps (Konzentrationslager), he has been going on and on about who is (allowed to be) a real American and who isn't - naturally, PoC and the LGBTQ+-community (minderwertige Rasse / Entarteten) and he believes he is the Great Saviour of the American people (Führerprinzip). He ticks off all of Hitler's boxes.
I’m also horrified that there are so many deranged Americans, but I think they are neither ignorant nor stupid. It’s worse than that. They know exactly what they’re doing. They vote for the party that promises to do everything it can to preserve systemic white advantages. They’ve been doing that since 1968, but until Trump they were cagey about their motivations. Now they are unabashed. They know they cannot continue to win in a democracy, so they prefer an autocracy with an autocrat who personifies the government they want.
John, what absolutely floors me are people in my cohort (retired cops over 60, ranging in age up to their early 70's) who are Veterans (some Vietnam, some Cold War, a few GWOT) who are absolutely on board with fpotus and what he is spouting. I am absolutely stunned.
I think they're being either leveraged by the threat of the release of unsavory info Putin has on them (what else would explain Lindsey Graham's sudden embrace of MAGA in 2016/17?) or they fear for their lives should they oppose trompy.
Yep. All I can figure is that they're on Putin's payroll, too.
Follow the money. The Republicans have quite literally sold us out, all while waving their flags.
And bibles.
Yeah. And they don't see the irony of either, sadly.
Their spine? Their wallets are being stuffed with cash to reward their antics.
And they don't even appreciate the security guards and DC police who literally saved their lives on January 6!!!
So frightening Unbelievable even this immoral un American so called former prez even said this
Hard to fathom, (for a woman in her 70s)! This is where we are….I hope it’s not where we end up. We have work to do! And some good trouble.
Evelyn Even harder to fathom for this 90 year old for whom FDR was my president for 12 years.
How repubs have squandered FDR’s legacy
They've been working on it since the 40's, but really moved once they got Reagan I to office!
Hope it's like the dog that caught the car, but some seem to know how to dismantle one.
Trump tells the truth: could he make it any clearer for Putin to pull out all stops to get Trump reelected? The nightmare continues.
Ok, in this case he IS being truthful.
Yes! If you had told me in 1975 that in 2024 democracy would be on the ropes, serious politicians would be floating the idea of ending Social Security, that abortion would be illegal in much of the US, but buying semi-automatic rifles and shooting up schools and churches would be views as a right that needed to be protected, and a Presidential candidate would say,”If I am elected(or otherwise gain power, whatever) I will pull out of NATO and encourage Putin to attack Europe, I would have laughed and laughed. Who knew that 1976 would be the best year of anyone’s life?
Donald Trump is absolutely traitorous. He puts himself above the good of the country. He's running for office to try to stay out of prison. Who has ever before run for president for such a reason?
It might take a conviction to turn the true believers into non-followers.
Trump, MAGA Republicans and even the High Court say and do whatever the hell they like because so far, none of them have been held accountable.
Most of Heather's letter speaks in great detail about the advances Pres. Biden has made along with other world leaders to create a future of international cooperation. Of course, it will take time for these new entities to become truly operational. It is truly a new world order he and others are building. Shouldn''t we be putting our awareness and attention on these positive developments rather than giving ourselves over to pessimism and negativity?
Both. It’s not binary. Build a better order under Biden AND defeat MAGA!
I agree. We can focus on the first paragraph too. It seems some are fighting back.
Why can’t the media double down on comments like this. Drill him with questions regarding just what he will support Putin to do?? Why??? Wtf is wrong with the media?? I want them asking him how many US Troops he will send to Russia to help them kill Ukrainian children, or invade Poland?? We need to know.
Sure he will lie but if you get him pissed off enough the truth will erupt from him. He can’t control his rage.
I’m also sick of the media! The Sunday shows have me SMH when they allow a guest to lie without push back. There are too few attempts to get them to really answer a question factually.
Must be why so many of us are here, along with other sources on Substack, and Beau of the 5th column, etc.
I agree the both sides BS is just that! 💩💩💩
Just giving them a megaphone to spew lies is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. Fascism 101.
Remember. It’s OK to be scared.Trump and his band of MAGAts are scary. Kicks in our fight or flight to protect our physical health and wellness. What we are NOT is afraid. I will never be afraid of protecting democracy. That which is precious to us generates courage.
Salud, evelyn and friends.
🗽💜
Agree
Trump is mentally inferior, angry & impotent. He has had ample opportunity to do better. His father must have despised him...bigly.
I thought surely I misread that statement by tfg. Sheesh.
. . . and added, "You have to pay your bills" ...(except if you are Trump)
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-10-2024?r=44kjm&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I’ll never forget Ron Johnson along with other Republican congressmen going to Moscow on the 4th ofJuly almost as if they were summoned
Lee, I share your view of Ron "Empty Suit" Johnson. We were extremely disappointed that Mandela Barnes was not elected to the Senate.
The late Senator from Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy, would be spinning in his grave like a metal lathe if he could see these American politicians cozying up to the ex(?) head of the KGB in Russia. In those old days such behavior was viewed as "un-American".
McCarthy was anti-communism. Putin’s kleptocracy would probably be right up his alley 🙃
Ha, I didn't think of that angle. However, I would quibble about what the current Russian guy feels in his heart of hearts: he will never lose sight of his Soviet Union KGB days, and he only passes in polite society today because he is vyery subtle and very sophisticated and intelligent. The communist menace is not a hot topic these days, but it certainly was when I was a child growing up in Wisconsin. To this day I am still unable to read Karl Marx because of Senator Joe McCarthy and his ilk. You would think I could get over it, and I have tried, but "Tailgunner Joe" (he wasn't really) did a number on my mind.
Including my rep from Ft Worth Texas. The “esteemed” Kay Granger. As evil as they come, while picking the pockets of local taxpayers
That is a huge concern and the media does to care.
Mine included. When asked why, there is deafening silence.
Trump is not the only rich person in America or in Europe with power who has ties to Russia. Look deeper. It’s the Oligarchy Club.
It is no wonder that mainstream media is dissing President Biden and so forgiving of Trump’s sins.
I’ve just started reading this fantastic investigative series through Mother Jones called American Oligarchy.
Give it a look.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/american-oligarchy/
Thanks. I'd already started out on this excellent documentation.
Combine tribalism with extreme inequality and you have the makings of hell on earth.
Wealth rules, to put it tersely, its not that complicated
Not so much during the French Revolution. If they aren’t careful, it can happen again. It was smart of them to have us peons fighting each other instead of attacking the real problem, but that’s only going to work for so long.
Interesting thought. True, the revolution overthrew the church and aristocracy with much of its landed wealth, but the aspiring middle classes took over and staunched aspirational socialists/levellers, violently, eg the sans culottes, and embedded the protection of property ie wealth in the new constitution. Napoleon's goal was to create a new inherited/wealth based aristocracy, with himself and family "cronies" very much at the head. The largest ever French armies fought under his banner, spreading "the revolution"... gotta think about that one, in my mind.
Still, I can’t imagine any of them wanting the inconvenience of living in hiding until they’re eventually found, while computer & AI people transfer all their money into someone else’s accounts. Who will serve them food, do their laundry, wipe their bums, and can be trusted not turn them in?
Very, very interesting. Thank you for the link.
Thanks. I like MJ.
I am slowly reading that also.
Now this is a valuable comment. Thank you for the link!
Thanks for that reference - a lot of reading ahead of me! It's bloody depressing..
ROC=Rich Oligarchy Club?
Please subscribe to Mother Jones, too! It's very inexpensive and they are continuing to employ some of the Best investigative journalists in America. We need to keep journalism alive with our Money. Alpha Bet search has truly sucked up ALL the ad dollars (way more than m.e.t.a) and traditional, fact based, long story journalism is Dying right when we need it most. How convenient for the Fa$cists!
Looks like I've got my Sunday read. Thanks for the link.
Thank you for that link! Now I need some time for serious reading!
or to the fascist of the Third Reich
Whatever the outcome of the vote, Trump cannot be allowed to take office under any circumstances. As has been often said, "the Consitution is not a suicide pact." We know what he did before; we know what he promises to do. Which was to try an destroy the constitutional democratic republic before, and to accomplish the job this time. The "rules" DO NOT INCLUDE a requirement that we nod our heads, hand over the keys to the White House and say "Have a nice day." He is not a legitimate contender for the office of president, because he wants to use it to destroy what he gives an oath - one that means nothing to him - to defend that constitutional republic he is set on destroying. Those two things cannot come together - it's Matter and Anti-Matter, and if they ever touch they will explode.
Yet another reason that we must hope that the Supreme Court's oral argument preview of the Anderson v. Trump case (the 14th Amendment, Section 3 disqualification case) does not reflect the final result, and that the Court affirms the Colorado Supreme Court, and the Constitution simultaneously.
We can't plan on the Unsupreme Court being anything but useless.
But well-rewarded in their choices.
They now an arm of the Putin/Trump/Leo compact to create New Gilead
Speaking of Gilead two things. 1) Season 6 of Handmaid's Tale coming soon and 2) it seems that Kasmyrick used biased scientific articles in his Mifepristone decision. The scientists said they had no conflict of interest and 7 of 8 of them did. SCOTUS should reverse on this information alone but we all know they won't.
If SCOTUS allows Colorado to remove TFFG what will prevent Texass or Florida from removing Biden? I feel like the problem is that SCOTUS does not even acknowledge what happened on J6. None of them will call what it is — an insurrection — and I feel like that’s the root of the problem with their justification of ruling against Colorado. It’s mind boggling to any reasonable person how they rule from case to case. States can control women but they can’t decide that an insurrectionist should not be eligible to run for president. Make it make sense.
Grounds for removal and standing of the filers.
Remember, the Robert's court has time and again allowed gerrymandering which is also a 14th amendment violation. They say it is up to the states to decide their maps. In WI and NC it is almost impossible for the Democrats to gain a majority in the legislature due to gerrymandering. If they can allow gerrymandering within each state, then they can allow states to with hold someone for causing an insurrection.
and now the states legislatures are just ignoring the rare cases where SCOTUS actually Has found a map so blatantly skewed that they send it back for a redraw. Alabama and at least one other is doing this right now, if I remember correctly. Of course, we have to remember that one reason the Dems lost so much in NY in 22 was that the Dem machine Also gerrymandered so ridiculously that it was called out and the redraw had them running against each other. DEMS need to do SO much better (she's been saying since 1972)
Donna,
Thanks for your reply to my little post.
I fully agree that the Court's failure to even acknowledge the events of 01/06/21, much less articulate the nature of those events as an insurrection, is a problem. Even with the legal question of what constitutes an insurrection still swirling, at the very least they could have raised it.
I am not in any sense worried about the repercussions possibly emanating from rogue States such as Florida and Tejas. While the high Court has always "read the newspapers" (or social media modernly), it is obligated to rule without fear or favor. If it were to rule based upon any fear of the MAGA mobs, then it would render itself virtually useless. As Timothy Snyder accurately observes, if it were to issue a ruling reversing the Colorado Supremes based upon fear of retaliation, it would be a pitchfork ruling, i.e., jettisoning the rule of law for fear of the pitchforks.
Some of the greatest rulings in the Court's history were made in the direct line of mob like threats. Consider Brown v. Board of Education for one, and the Pentagon Papers case for another.
Then again, this Court is as far from its previous brethren as Pluto is from the Earth.
I suspect that they will find a procedural way to wiggle out of directly smacking down Colorado, such as the doctrine of ripeness, i.e., concluding that because the election has not yet occurred, the case is not "ripe" for review, as same could not occur until after the election, given the term "holds office" in the 14th amendment.
This would of course be a colossal cop out, but, there you go.
Finally, you make an excellent point when noting how readily this Court jumped to take away long held and relied upon fundamental rights, but cowers in the corner when faced with the Insurrectionist in chief.
Daniel and Tom, it looks to be a given that SCOTUS will reject CO's keeping Trump off the ballot; we just await to see on what grounds they do so. Possible grounds is the sentence clause in Art. 14, Sec 3 stating that an insurrectionist can't *hold office" (not actually run for office -- a foolish misreading, in the view of many.) If elected in November, than I think we can expect a challenge made to SCOTUS saying that Trump is indeed unfit to serve due to insurrection. Would the justices agree? I'd like to think a majority would, but the expected subsequent violent threats to them makes me doubtful that they would deny his presidency on a technicality, strong that it may be.
Joyce Vance occasionally offers a "Five Questions" interview (for paid subscribers) with various experts on the law and legal matters. The most recent, a day or two ago, was with Steve Vladek, who is an expert on our high court. His recent book's title is "The Shadow Docket". Just reading a brief synopsis is chilling.
The Supremes began a practice of issuing opinions on various matters, without signatures and without reasoning -- I believe that practice was initiated during tffg's term as president.
One begins to wonder if their "reasoning" is comprehensive, or if it is "cherry picked" to support their personal intent or opinion in favor of, or against, the case at hand. If you read their opinion in "Washington D.C. v. Heller", look for any mention of the phrase "...a well-regulated militia..." I think I read the whole thing, but I didn't see any mention of that clause in Justice Scalia's opinion. [Edit: on 19 Nov 2024. Here is a quote from Scalia's opinion: "The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home..." Even so, I would still like to find the part that explains how Justice Scalia divorced the "well-regulated militia" clause from the words that follow in the Second Amendment...] I'm not a legal scholar, so don't take my word for it. I am merely offering that case as a possible example of a Supreme Court opinion that does not lay out a comprehensive argument about the meaning and intent of part of the Constitution. It appears that this supreme court is determined to change as much as they can while they can get away with it politically.
The Gang of Six is parsing the difference between office and officer, literally changing the dictionary in order to pretend they’re not amending the Constitution by a vote of 6 to 3
David, I read the free version of Joyce Vance's substack whenever it comes out. Five Questions has a paywall, and while I fully support the right of any author to be paid, there is only so much I can subscribe to (for reasons of finance, time and mental health), and there is a *lot* of content that I like that I must pass up -- Vance's is right up there.
I've read a fair amount from Vladek, mainly via Lawrence Tribe's Twitter feed that I used to Google daily, until Musk limited access. I am also a non-lawyer, and am fascinated by legal minds.
But thank you for your comment.
Yes, that was a rather disconcerting interview - especially following the link to
Vladek's article on the shadow docket.
I don't wonder. Reasoning went out the window in 2000. Now we must assume the bizarre majority of ineptitude and "God" will side with the Oiligarchy that gave them each their power and said, "don't worry." We know you can't handle it. We'll do the heavy lifting."
Here is a free, Basic piece on the Shadow Docket and how it's been abused starting in the - you guessed it - 1980's.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/supreme-court-shadow-docket
what do the The Fantasy Football Guys have to do with anything? /s
Don't forget about us here in ME. It was two Republicans and a Democrat that each filed to keep TFFG off the ballot in ME Our brave Secretary of State Shenna Bellows interpreted Maine law correctly when she pulled Trump off the ballot in ME. She is very brave and amazing. She is a graduate of Ellsworth High School and I've only heard good things about her from the people that know her around here. It then went to the Maine Supreme Court and they have the case on hold until the far-right members of SCOTUS make a decision on Colorado.
That’s what worries me. Him pretending legitimacy to the WH (cheating all the way) and Dems just rolling over and saying he is the elected leader. He will NEVER be my president, no matter the cheating and the money, and the god-like adoration of fools.
We have to believe that there are more of US than THEM… and get all of US to vote!!!!
Not where I live, preached from the pulpits. Beyond disgusting to hear the blather. My UU church keeps me sane
Thank you, TCinLA. That was a great comment. I agree 1000%.
Yet he will certainly run for office and stands the possibility of being elected via the electoral college.
If the predictions of a second civil war are going to come to pass, I'm fine with the issue being keeping these maggots out of the White House.
I find it hard to imagine the ways and means a "second civil war" might come to pass. Civil unrest, violence certainly possible.
Yes, it will not be anything like the big one with formal lines and armies. If that comes to pass, we get to learn just how bad civil wars really are - when everywhere is a possible battleground. So while I say there are some thing worth fighting for, I hope we fight for them so hard between now and November that we do the right thing and win politically. We just have to work as hard as we can and ask ourselves every day if we can work harder. This really is the most important terrible year of our lives.
ballot box victory is the name of the game. Take whatever fallout as it comes. I'm hoping GOP implodes and MAGA, whatever!
“In fact,” he said, “I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want.”
Trump's foreign policy in a nutshell
"The hell" literally.
After reading about trump & MAGA republican attempts to sell US to Russia, this brought tears to my eyes, “Biden’s is a bold new approach to global affairs, based on national rights to self-determination and working finally to bring an end to colonialism.” Wouldn’t that be a sight to behold? Thank you, Professor!
It's an egalitarian approach. Self-determination. Help them do it themselves, not insist on doing it for them. Bold and new! It's taken over 200 years to stumble to within touching distance of the objective set out by Tom Paine.
Those with an entrenched stake in the old ways are threatened all to hell by just having those ideas articulated. They spent generatons claiming that their superiority was God's plan, and yet the justification for it was always so fragile that merely hearing ideas about freedom, equality, and rule of law shakes their foundations.
In other words, they're scared! And that makes them dangerous.
Yes. It's heavy.
Parenting 101, which I failed to some extent.
Anne-Louise, see my comment below (numbering somewhere in the 260's) about Puerto Rico.
OK - I'll keep an eye open for it.
Sure, just like we did in Vietnam, Chile, Iraq, Libya,Yemen,Cuba and now Gaza and so many more. That's what he means by "national rights to self-determination" and "bringing an end to colonialism?" Hilarious, tragic bullshit. In power and money we trust.
Many of us have devoted much thought and effort to dream up a better future for US, and for the whole world.
I dreamed up a new (to me) aphorism a few days ago: "It's very difficult to see the future while the past is standing in the way."
I could tie up my mind thinking about the year of my life I spent as a soldier in a war half a century ago. I did learn some important lessons during that period, but I tried to incorporate those lessons into my general approach to life, and I've moved on, trying to learn lessons from everything I've had to cope with and struggle with.
I try to envision a long-term future. I wish everyone would try to envision a better world for US in the future. I'd much rather talk about the future, rather than the past.
I have always thought about how things could be better and used to think maybe they would be. But now I do think so. Greed affects everything: plastic pollution, species extinction, habitat loss, global warming, poverty, homelessness, wealth inequality, human beings and animals bombed to death, voting rights limited, mass shootings, exploitation of workers, poor healthcare, cruel factory farming and animal testing...
I'm in sync with you, Lisa, I see it much the same way as you. I've been at it a long time. I was in the war in 1969-70. It took me a long time to reconcile my various conflicting opinions. But I think I have made steady progress. For example, I like the idea of re-tooling our economy toward repairing the damage we humans have inflicted on Nature and the Earth over the past four-or-so centuries. I like to say that we do things for love, and we do things for money -- devoting our economy to healing ourselves and our natural environment would serve both purposes, love and money. We seldom hear much discussion about the long-term future of Earth and its inhabitants, but I can easily imagine a time in the near future when we will begin to recognize the Rights of Nature, and we will begin to agree that we have a moral responsibility to future denizens of Earth, to begin to understand that the actions we take in our lifetimes will have long-term consequences for the people who live here long after we, the living, are gone from this world.
Wow so optimistic! Things have just gotten worse in every way starting in the 80s. Even if lots of people care, these huge corporations and lobbyists control everything and they have no conscience or compassion. Citizens United treats them as people when all they care about is their bottom line. I saw a mock-up of the Vietnam Memorial years ago in Santa Cruz and it just choked me up. The stupidity, heartlessness, cost and cruelty of war tells me that humans are incapable of making and preserving the near-paradise that is/was our planet. Democrats care more about the environment and voting rights, but both parties have engaged in brutal senseless attacks on foreign countries that have cost millions of lives and destroyed valuable structures and art. I was staggered by the Iraq invasion and did what I could to protest. I also protested Vietnam. If I try to see things simply, without the layers of propaganda, but just the effect on human and nonhuman lives, that's usually where I find the truth.
Well, again, I think we are walking along the same road. I don't think of my attitude as "optimistic". When I returned home after my time in the war, and later after I was discharged from the Army, I was what some people referred to as "emotionally numb". I worked steadily for years to begin to feel human again. That story is a long story, for another time, perhaps. I majored in philosophy in college, started over as a sophomore after the war. I have always tried to learn from my experiences in life. I try to be neither optimistic, nor pessimistic. I try to be neither a realist, nor a materialist, nor any sort of "stuck where I am". I don't want to feel defeated by the enormity of the task with which we humans are confronted. I have always loved science fiction, and speculative fiction, as they give me various ways to keep hope alive, and very often I see real world possibilities in what people write about our near-future world of possibilities. I try to keep the immortal words of "Space Quest" in mind: "Never give up! Never surrender!" (That was a comedy, but apropos.) I love to recall The Movement, in the late '60s and early '70s, which was a term applied to all of the "Rights" movements at the time. I like to imagine a new cultural movement, replete with posters and concerts and books and articles and musicals and movies, and the object will be to retool the economy to provide everyone with "nice things" while at the same time not over-consuming the Earth. Could happen. I won't give up hope.
Some of the young are awake
Agree with your concerns. Also know that chump is the solution to NOTHING.
I'm committed to voting Blue to save our democracy and our environment, among other reasons. Third party candidates need to work their way up gaining support by winning lesser elections, not jumping into running for prez and getting people to waste their votes.
*don't think so
I knew that was what you intended
Try Boorstin's The Creators, long but readable, i think he devotes a whole chapter or more to your aphorism. Youll find the sentinment goes a ways, Bacon's New Organum for example. My thought is the sentiment cuts both ways. I do agree it's better to aspire for a better future.
Nobody does propaganda better than we do. Heather is just as susceptible as most of us are.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-the-war-of-propaganda-it-is-very
“There’s an old joke that goes like this:
A Soviet and an American are on an airplane seated next to each other.
“Why are you flying to the US?” asks the American.
“To study American propaganda,” replies the Soviet.
“What American propaganda?” asks the American.
“Exactly,” the Soviet replies.“
I do read Caitlin's blog and will check that one out. She has a lot of commenters refusing to vote or planning to vote third party and who sing the praises of our favorite dictators just because they see the wrongs of our leaders. But it's juvenile to think that if we do wrong, then must be doing good. It can be hard to tell the far left from the far right and the bots from the genuine posts.
And they say Trump/GOP dangers are propaganda too.
I despise labels. I only care about truth, and justice. If truth comes from a bot, or a despicable character like a Trump or Rush Limbaugh, so be it. But then, if words and/or intentions don’t dovetail with actions in pursuit of justice, truths spoken are meaningless.
I have yet to see anyone describe Putin’s invasion of Russia as ‘doing good’. I have seen countless numbers of commenters attacking anyone who points out the reasons Putin decided to invade, as well as comments critical of U.S. involvement in Ukraine, and accusing them of being Putin apologists or bots.
I would take all comments sections with a grain of salt, Caitlin’s included, as well as this one. I’ve been voting third party since 1988, so Caitlin has nothing to do with my anti-duopoly vote. It’s not at all hard for me to tell the difference between the far left and far right. The far right hates liberal elites and government because it isn’t authoritarian enough, from a racist and patriarchal perspective. The far left hates both because both stand in the way of the transformation from oppressive capitalism towards a more egalitarian socialist society.
And said the criticisms of the dictators of North Korea, Russia and China were all just US propaganda.
Someone said the Tibetans were better off since the Chinese took over.
Perfect joke. But I don't think the US is better at it. I guess we used to think we were getting most of the truth, unlike countries with heavy censorship. I saw a documentary about a family escaping North Korea and the grandmother especially was shocked that the US wasn't the hellhole she'd been taught it was and that the people weren't monsters out to kill her. She was of course shocked by the wealth of our society, at least for some. The US relies on ignorance, compromised journalism and the shiny objects of distraction. The censorship and threats re: Israel and Gaza,as well as the heavy layers of propaganda have been so revealing and sad.
I was astonished that, 24 hours ago, there was absolutely no mention of the bilateral Senate financing bill for Ukraine, Israel, & Taiwan on the webpage of the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, or The Guardian.
Does this mean that editors consider Special Prosecutor Hur’s hit job on President Biden and the prospect that Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Super Bowl are ‘top news’ while massive military and financial aid for Ukraine, Israel, & Taiwan [that has been in limbo since October]doesn’t merit a mention?
Editors should read Heather to find out what is important in daily news!
As you are likely aware Keith anyone can get up to minute Emails from the Senate or House floors. The quality of your posts remains very high. Thank you Keith.
Bryan I had imagined that newspaper editors might follow congressional up-to-the-minute e-mails and, rather than Heather, be the first to report significant congressional news.
I’m also not interested in getting up-to-the-minute e-mails on Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl, whenever it’s being played. I went to the National Football championship in the snow in 1947 where the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Cardinals (then in Chicago?) 7-0. The star Eagles player, playing offense and defense, received $5,000 for the season. Now I see that a ticket to the game can cost $10,000 and much more.
I grew up in SoCal and still remember when the Gods ... er ... the Brooklyn Bums came to town. I did go to a couple LA Rams games as a Kid. Elroy Hirsch was my mentor for directly over the head catches as you lose a yard going down field if you must turn your shoulder to the right to catch the pass. Norm Van Brocklin was the classic arrogant & very talented QB.
Taylor-not-so-Swift. : )
Bryan I actually listened to part of a Taylor Swift song a few weeks ago. Found that I much preferred Ella, Judy, Joan Baez, and Lena Horne. My wife and I plan to watch a British mystery [without ads] during the Super Ball.
Guess I’ll have to look at the regular media for results, since Heather doesn’t cover extraneous news.
We are very into British Mysteries as the Brits seem to have an endless supply of stage trained character actors. They will "sort it out".
Your posts often send me searching for something worthwhile. I found email alerts on congress.gov 🤗
The are the ones Beth. : )
N9 more emails, thank you.
I get that Ms. potent influencer. I reshuffle for protein not quantity. : )
Not just appreciating you Professor but appreciating you more after every letter you write to shine a light on the wisdom and fearlessness of our “old President”. I’ve tried in a very small way to live by which I believe President Joseph Biden is a stellar example - “There is no shortcut to experience”! And that experience has been his life of dedication to our Democracy.
It has always irked me that Trump essentially collaborated with the enemy (Russia) to benefit his campaign and essentially got away with it. That there may be other hidden relationships/obligations/corruption of Trump by Putin is always a significant possibility but unproven to date. So it gives me great solace that Alvin Bragg's NYC case is 'not about hush money to a porn star' but about illegal campaign donations and related business records violations. So Trump gets away with shaking down Zelensky to aid his campaign (Special thanks to Bill Barr), gets away with russian collusion to aid his campaign (Again, let's hear it for Bill Barr!) BUT that Trump will lose his criminal virginity on campaign related violations in New York just seems apropos. :-))
My anger is in 100% agreement with you, 100P! I call Billy Boy, Barr Nun since he is an obvious member of Opus Dei.
Our Heather has now presented a most cogent view of the either/or crisis the world faces.
On one hand are governments, collective security groups, and regional others based on the rule of law.
On the other hand are thugs. Putin. Trump. Then a cavalcade of more, all hiding, lurking within governments while they eat away at the rule of law in those governments. Netanyahu trying to kill independent judiciary. Orban and Modi pushing vitriolic nationalisms. Saudi royals sponsoring freelance murders. Erdogan paying off his shoddy construction peers. Ayatollahs funding Shia terror campaigns.
Who most supports, engages the rule of law for international consort? I'm afraid to say it's the people of commerce: bankers, international shippers, corporate interests. And the trouble with them is that, in addition to apparently following the rules of law, many also grow the subterranean chambers of dark money. Think Clarence as poster boy for this on the Supreme Court.
These whom we rely on most all come from our schools or business and schools of law.
Absent from any significant role are schools which could lift humanities to more central position. If they did that, we'd have elites in touch with peoples, nature, and regions with much more individual nuance everywhere.
But our humanities got pushed back, set aside, marginalized in all schools thanks to the predators in the "civilized" organizing for their dark money niches following the Powell memo of 1971.
So now we sit back, and watch the obvious thugs (Putin, Trump, bin Salman, Modi, Erdogan, Netanyahu) mainly only in competition with the so-called civilized who sadly, pathetically depend upon no institutions of any humanities, but our schools of biz ed, judiciaries being eaten from within by such as Clarence and his ilk.
I'll come back to you, Phil Balla, for all you say about the forms taken by social and economic entropy is pointing in absolutely the right direction: education that trains and enhances our ability to think freely for ourselves instead of having minds formated for slavery is essential.
Yet it never is, never can be enough, just as organized religion -- more obligatory creeds, more inculcated formating to make good slaves of us, more "rules-based order" -- has always been a help... Like balustrades and Band-Aid. Like New Orleans' levees to keep out the sea, it feeds illusions of security. Likewise rationalism undermines the great but limited power of precious reason, while scientism, even among able scientists, is at best a drug to boost failing self-confidence and keep us moving ahead one foot in front of the other... where?
All this reminds me of Vienna in 1914. An overripe fruit. Like Mozart's literally sublime music, in today's Vienna Gustav Klimt's imagery serves cheap chocolate-box commercialism.
Yet, when you see the real thing, Klimt's paintings, besides the elegance, the sensuality, the beauty, the glitter... the abyss.
Death isn't depicted, as in Pieter Brueghel's Triumph, but it is so present in the margins, next to some lady's gorgeous apparel that you can almost touch it...
*
I'm no nihilist and, without question, every one of us must refuse discouragement.
But ultimately, it is ourselves we must face. What we are. What we are not.
*
This will wash over most heads now, yet it is on our inner resources that we shall have to draw in the days to come.
Hitler's strong, brave young soldiers died like flies in Soviet P.o.W. camps after Stalingrad. It was not the cold, the starvation rations, it was not dysentery, wounds or typhus. Defeat had knocked the propaganda stuffing out of their souls.
Many older men survived...
Yes, Peter, we face complications owing to the packages so temptingly available.
Nice what you say about "propaganda stuffing." Long time ago, I trusted experts -- this, the time of the Viet war. I thought then that our experts had perspectives beyond what the rest of us had. I was willing to defer to the elites. "The Best and the Brightest," as David Halberstam put it, fell for their own "propaganda stuffing."
I became a Viet translator. And in the process of that I saw how the south Viet elites raised by the French felt entitled to U.S. propping up of their relatively cozy, privileged lives. These denizens of Saigon mostly held all fellow Viets beneath them -- were disgusted by Viets in the boonies. But the North Viet foot soldiers had no such contempt. They aligned with local hearts and minds. We, with all our materiel advantages, could not.
Again, thanks for what you say of all the packages available to us.
And thank you for confirming what I'd already been enabled to understand in the Sixties, even before America had stepped into the swamp, namely that fighting to save the South Vietnamese regime was like trying to shore up a dead tree.
It was worse than that. The tree we were trying to shore up was French colonial Vietnam. The tree we were trying to destroy was the Vietnamese people who fought the French and their colonialist collaborators for decades and defeated them in 1954.
Phil,
I, too, was a Viet translator -- or, more precisely, my Army MOS were 04B2LVN and 98G2LVN -- "Translator Interpreter" and "Voice Intercept Operator". The latter was my actual job. I spent 49 weeks at the Defense Language Institute West Coast Branch at the Presidio of Monterey CA. I landed in Viet Nam a few weeks after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, summer of 1969. I was attached to the First Cavalry Division. Listening to North Vietnamese regular soldiers, in particular, passing traffic via shortwave radio was somewhat bizarre because I didn't hate them. I had the impression that all of us who were soldiers on both sides would have been friends, if not for the war. I still believe that most people do not want to go to war -- it's the governments who decide to go to war, and the rest of us get dragged into their agendas.
Good to hear from you, David.
After my year-long, intensive study of Vietnamese, of the twelve classes (all mixed officer and enlisted, half with guys who'd done a year already in Nam), we had our end-of-year test. I tested first from among everybody. The army sent them all to Nam. Me, to Germany.
I'd already gotten my jungle shots and jungle fatigues when my diversion orders came down. (Had also just finished reading Graham Green's "The Quiet American.") I felt a bit guilty for all the money taxpayers had spent, all the personnel involved, to make me totally fluent as Viet translaltor-interpreter, so I approached a very old master sergeant, and his 2nd louie, at the tarmac, and volunteered -- I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the army has made a mistake.
The sarge looked at the louie, then at me. "Son, let me see your orders." Looks. "Son, is your name . . .? Is your social security . . .?" Nod. "Son. You're going to Germany. THE - ARMY - DOESN'T - MAKE - MISTAKES."
Phil, your story "rings true". I know how the Army works.
I dropped out of college (local 2-year campus in the University of Wisconsin system) early in my 3rd semester (October, 1967), and began talking to the local Army recruiter. (This is a short version of a very long story.) To get into the Army Security Agency I enlisted for four years. My idea was that I would learn Russian or Chinese, and after the Army I would join the Diplomatic Service. At the end of Basic Training an NCO sitting at a table had a big smile on his face, and said "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you get your request to go to language school. The bad news is that you will be learning Vietnamese." By that time I already knew the Army well enough that I was not surprised, nor was I particularly bothered by it. I spent about two months riding along with a Huey-based radio direction-finding operation, and about two more months on a mountain top Landing Zone, which was a good spot for signals intel. Most of the rest of the time was spent on Fire Support Bases, with the guys in the artillery with the howitzers. I arrived in Cambodia in early May, a few days after the Cav established their forward firebases. I contributed some stories and photographs for a book about the Army Security Agency in Viet Nam and Cambodia, titled "Unlikely Warriors" by Blackburn and Long. After a little more than half a century, if I'm still having nightmares, at least I'm not remembering them when I wake up. Trouble is, I mostly don't remember the good dreams either. I suppose that may be normal for someone in the middle of their 76th year.
f.u.b.a.r., David.
Thanks for the new details of a very old story.
yours, P., born Jan. 4, 1947
On propaganda. Nobody does propaganda better than we do. Heather is just as susceptible as most of us are.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-the-war-of-propaganda-it-is-very
“There’s an old joke that goes like this:
A Soviet and an American are on an airplane seated next to each other.
“Why are you flying to the US?” asks the American.
“To study American propaganda,” replies the Soviet.
“What American propaganda?” asks the American.
“Exactly,” the Soviet replies.“
The US leaders continue to be major thugs. Supporting the weapons industry by obliterating anyone who doesn't follow OUR rules. We need look no farther than the mirror.
Yes, the rule based ordered may be about bridled nationalisms but its certainly based on economic sinews. Mixed blessings indeed, in so many ways.
Thanks Heather, this becomes clearer and clearer everyday. I am now convinced that Merrick Garland should resign. The Hur report was unforgivable and given the incredible work Biden has done repairing the damage the previous traitor wrought on both the US and the world which you have so clearly articulated, Merrick Garland allowed a systematic destruction of Biden which he should have dismissed out of hand and continues to obscure the real accomplishments of the democratic administration. I am so frustrated by this continual incompetence that threats our democracy.
Christopher Special Prosecutor Hur has excellent legal credentials. He served in the Trump administration. His extraordinarily unprofessional ‘report’ on Biden’s minor classified documents issue [for which he was exonerated] was Hur’s Trump ass kissing resume for a top position in a second Trump presidency.
Ben Hur he is not!
A Trump w-hur.
Well played!
I think the Hur report (I wish the spell checker would quit changing his name) was perfect. It will be talked about for a week or two on Fox and other MAGANAZI media outlets but their audience is going to vote for TFFG regardless of what happens between now and November, unless he dies or gets locked away.
But, now those that complain about the DOJ unfairly targets TFFG have a counter argument that they don't.
Is Merrick Garland a great attorney general? I haven't a clue about what they have accomplished other than what the MSM tells us.
But I do know the Sessions and Barr worked for TFFG and did his bidding time and again.
They even lied for him and defended TFFGs mishandling of many important legal issues.
I suspect (and this is only conjecture, opinion, and speculation) that there are a couple of things: Garland is bending over backwards to avoid being anything like his predecessor(s) during the previous administration. Garland SHOULD be on the SCOTUS; his personality, experience, and disposition are perfect for the measured, thoughtful consideration of legal issues required on SCOTUS. He should NOT be an Attorney General; he has no prosecutorial "fire" which any good prosecutor has as part and parcel of their personal make-up, and is frequently at odds with what is required of a good judge.
Ally, I like your "take" on AG Garland. I've been looking at it much the same way. Garland's temperament is more suited to being a Justice, rather than seeking and enforcing justice. It's also possible that things that need to get done at the AG's office are in fact getting done -- even if the general public cannot see into how that department works. It's difficult for us to know.
Indeed it is!
The arrival of maliscious trolls on Heather’s site is not surprising because of her effective truth telling. No worries. We carry on.
Join the No Oxygen Brigade. Ignore them. Do not respond
I’m trying Dave!
I so wish people could restrain themselves from taking the bait. It is hard, because sometimes in the comments chain there are good comments, but I just can't go there. I now just scroll through the entire chain.
Me too, but sometimes I loose track along the way. It’s hard to trace those lines to figure out what responds to what.
Yup. In the past 2 hours (0900 PST right now) there have been a ton of those type of comments from Readers I don't recognize.
We could use a little help from Substack. Making it possible to block specific commenters would help. Expanding reply streams only on request would also help. Both, preferably, but either by itself would be a great improvement.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, dear shepherd of the sheep. I have taken a break today, later writing GOTV postcards to AZ with background of favorite basketball games, so up late, shocked into another dedication to do all I can to protect US as I did as a small child knitting my first (not very) square for a soldier’s afghan. My question since yesterday is whether SCOTUS is aware of the number of traitors in Congress who outnumber those in the Senate, I believe. The next days and months will be nail biters. Approaching my 90th birthday, I hope we will see Jack Smith’s trial before it.
How good to know the president’s plan for a world without war. May you keep us apprised of how he works at it. Perhaps angry young people would be better democrats if they knew.
Thank you again.
I don't think that a majority of SCROTUS views those members of congress as traitors...
I’m in the middle of reading a short graphic non-fiction work by Nora Krug. Two diaries. One by a Ukrainian woman, (a reporter), the other by a Russian man (an artist). Both hate the war. It’s giving me a great picture of what it’s like for ordinary people. One of the Russian’s diary entries is as follows: “It’s impossible to breathe freely here. You live with the fear that they might come for you. I really don’t want my kids to grow up in this atmosphere. I was a teenager in the 90s, after the Soviet Union collapsed. That’s when I fell in love with freedom.”
This is why Ukrainians don’t want to live under Russian rule.
Thank you for this reference. It’s important to know the title and where to buy the book. It should be sent to Republicans in Congress. Maybe some would understand the line you quoted. Maybe staff, family would read and understand as congressmen are too busy. Of course Big Pharma, Big Ag, etc., don’t want US to get the message as they want to keep US overweight and afraid.
The idiots here need a taste. Saw something on my crossword this morning that I have wondered about for a while. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon's razor. A new one, but useful when I've tried to sort out the magats, religious nuts, and just ignorant.
I noticed a Trump supporter about 8 years ago wearing a tee that read “I’d rather live with Russians than liberals. Amazing how his wish may now be coming true.
Now that is just plain ignorance!!
Ignorance is a perfect description of all of those MAGAT A-holes.
Metastasized
Mike , I wish for his wish to come true as he moves to Moscow
Maybe we can trade him, Carlson and a few other dirtbags for hostages.
50 or 60 miles outside of of M would really be appropriate.
In the Conscription Zone
So why doesn't he/she go there? I'm sure they'd allow him/her to enlist to fight the Ukrainians.
I remember those shirts....