And then there was President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address. This is the annual event in our politics that gets the most viewers. Last year, 38.2 million people watched it on television and streaming services. What viewers saw tonight was a president repeatedly offering to work across the aisle as he outlined a moderate plan for the nation with a wide range of popular programs. He sounded calm, reasonable, and upbeat, while Republicans refused to clap for his successes—800,000 new manufacturing jobs, 20,000 new infrastructure projects, lower drug prices—or his call to strengthen the middle class.
The photo of that one woman, her mouth stretched open in a howl of hate; it brought to mind the faces we saw so long ago gathered behind Black schoolchildren as they headed toward newly desegregated classrooms. It was shocking then, seeing those neatly dressed but anonymous hurling pure howling hatred to innocent kids. It’s different but no less shocking seeing that very expression from elected officials directed at our President of the United States. It’s insane. And it’s forever frozen in time, that moment of unhinged lunacy. Shame, shame, shame.
What shook me up forever about the documentary evidence of that moment was not the famous photo of the poised Black child walking past the yelling fellow classmates. What shook me up was a brief clip of video from I believe that same scene of one of the female students covering her eyes and sobbing at the horror of having that child on her school grounds. It was pure hysterics, yes, but so genuine, so anguished, as if her house was being burned in front of her by bandits.
Maybe I saw it on that Oprah episode where the now-older white students repented. But it stuck with me forever. Hate comes from ignorance. But those tears? What level of twisted indoctrination must you be seeped in from birth to see a fellow child with darker skin as some horrible creature whose precense being forced upon you ruins everything you hold dear?
Chilling beyond measure. Those folks on Oprah may have seen the light, but others in classrooms and lunch counters across the country never did. And it wasn't that long ago. They are still alive. And voting.
The party of hate is also the party of disrespect. The behavior of the GOP last night is hard to accept. It was as if all decorum had been declared unworthy of Congress in hosting the president.
If they believe for a second that they're winning over new voters, they're in for a rude awakening come 2024.
I think it’s wonderful the face of the Republican Party is MTG ugly hate screaming, and not the same looking Kevin McCarthy. The difference and disunity of Republicans on full display.
I have a (white male) friend who was born and raised in Louisiana. He was taught from birth that black people were inferior, had to use separate drinking fountains, restrooms, etc. Now he’s 80 and realized long ago that what he had been taught as a child is completely false, but even so, he told me that the emotional vestiges remain and he sometimes reacts unthinkingly which shocks him.
What in hell do these haters think they look like. Do they think they look stern and resolute?
They look like very bad losers. And much worse.
The contrast , of an affable, positive leader and their middle school meanness was palpable.
Joe Biden attempted to include them in his successful endeavors.
They refused it , with real nastiness.
MT Greene is a throwback to every playground bully who needed to assert their dominance over the reasonable kids with that twisted up hate that wants to intimidate.
You don’t have to ask which sixth grader would shake down the first graders for their lunch money.
And as an extra touch tell them she’d come back to finish it
them off if they told anyone.
The vitriol in this group of republicans reverberates in the mass shootings and the attacks on the Speakers husband .
The murders by school aged kids of their peers.
The White Supremecists
heckling immigrants ,
Loading them on the busses at the border .
Lying to them about where they’re going and whats in store for them.
What was an unthinkable gaffe when it first happened in real time during the SOTU by the first Black POTUS (from a Southerner to boot) has now devolved into expected displays of vicious vulgarity from people with NO decorum, diplomatic skills, empathy or honor. Never forget MTG threatened members of Congress years before she was elected, and harassed survivor-victims of a mass school shooting who were kids. The visuals are right in line with those adults attacking (Black) kids during school desegregation in the 1950-1960s. And now she is the face of the GQP - and it is grotesquely ugly.
The predictable R response is exactly why we didn't watch. They were like yes, bullies and middle schoolers, or the student section at a ballgame. So crass, so lacking in any reasonable behavior, so lacking in basic human goodness. And yes, Sarah, you belong to the crazy party, who constantly demonstrate that they are the party of death.
R response was an all time low. Absolutely nothing concrete proposed. Especially lacking was anything about how the R will improve or manage the economy.
The Republicans have no policies. They're only against anything a Democrat proposes. That's their policy. Trump only wanted to overturn everything Obama did like he was obsessed. They're the party of negativity and hate. Their poster girl shows what they stand for...discord bullying hatred. And she looked like Cruella DeVille.
Don't worry! They have a plan. It's guns! As they crash and burn the economy and leave people at each other's throats, at least everyone gets their guns. Sadly, if we get there, they will find that it is not those with the most guns that win, nor those with the biggest guns. It will be those that work together who survive and keep their genes in the mix of humanity. Time and again, nature has favored collectivism and this goes square in the face of this ridiculous version of the American Dream, where you hunker alone in your castle, hugging your gun and repelling all comers.
What scared me was SHS' recounting of her Mother's cancer. I couldn't discern whether she thought the medical care her Mom received was competent or not, or whether the system was better or worse than it is now. Rather, the implication was that the docs had written off any chance of a decent recovery/outcome, but her Mom achieved a great outcome because of her faith. Thus, this preamble to her broader message--Democrats are, and will continue, ruining the country; but--we Republicans will fix everything if y'all just have enough faith. Onward Christian soldiers.
The daughter of a pastor, her vision for the nation seems to be some form of oligarchic theocracy.
Fantastic review here by HCR, and dealing with this stuff afterwards is easier. You can go to the Whitehouse page on YouTube (I watched it live last night) and watch Joe's Address without any distractions. You could hear vague boos and see the way Joe handled it. No need to listen to the pathetic post speech response or even commentators before and after the address. I did watch a CNN clip on YouTube this morning of Jake Tapper's interview of Nancy Pelosi after the address and they showed video the horrible reactions of MTG and others so I was able to understand the comments here.
Yes--cruelty is the point. Some of these people have been conditioned this way. Some of their ancestors may have been among those in the crowd who have perpetrated mob violence on African Americans for centuries. Did you notice that they didn't even stand up for the idea of banning assault weapons? Who do they want to "assault?" I'm holding out hope that Americans will rise up and let these folks no that as former House Representative Elijah Cummings repeatedly said, "we're better than this".
Oregon Rs have vowed to resist gun control attempts and holding down rents. As they are the party of death, they love to see bodies all over the place in mass shootings and lots of people on the street in tent cities. In terms of the latter, they should stop belly aching about the homeless, the crime, the trash, the drugs, etc.
Yes, Mr. Cummings was so right. Perhaps say family or brethren though instead of ancestors. When it comes to (historical) ancestors you can pick and choose what you want to believe but you don't have to be indoctrinated by them.
Hey!!! Patricia. Wait a minute (errr.., ahhh sorry, i seem to have lost my notes).. we're all "under god" here, per the 'ike' decree of 1954... yup.., "Christians" all..., aren't we? So, what's the problem , people? I mean.., if the earth is only 5000 years old.., WHAT IS THE PROBLEM, PEOPLE? Huh. (sorry, i seem to have lost my mind, not my notes).
No, we're not all Christians. We are not all religious. None of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians. But they understood Christianity and they were all philosophers. It's not necessary to be Christian to be a good citizen. All you have to do is be civil, ie, be responsible for the consequences of your actions.
I'm sorry Susan, that my comments are often mis-read. One of my points being that in 1954 the Pledge of Allegiance was altered by the (religious-right?) insertion of "under God" in front of "indivisible". Most people I speak with weren't born in 54' and aren't aware of that. So, I find the banner to be more than hypocritical, if not insulting. Certainly, for the reason(s) you mention. And, the real strength of the Pledge, i.e, that we would be "indivisible" as a Nation, was now conditional, in that only those "under God" need apply. Then, to be embellished by the term "we're a Christian nation", for which a definition isn't that clear. Where'd that originate from, any way?
One of the most moral people I know is an atheist. Instilling fear of breaking the rules is not morality; it is indoctrination at the very least. It certainly doesn't come from the heart, which is where true morality comes from.
Are you sure that "none of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians"? I know that quite a few of them were "deists" (they believed in a god but weren't formally affiliated with any religion or denomination), but this seems a stretch, so if you've got some sources on it, I'm interested.
What is sad to me is that human beings of so many different cultures have recognized in some way The Source of all the intangibles that we can't buy in the store (love, peace, joy, etc.) no matter what they call "it," God/Allah/Yahweh/Spirit/Great Spirit, etc. But because this recognition has been co-opted in so many cultures by patriarchal, religious power grabbing, (think for example, Theodosius in 380 CE {EDIT} Rome) we can't publicly acknowledge or call on that powerful Source in any official, non-religious dialogue about human issues w/o offending someone.
What would it be like if we could proclaim something like, "I pledge allegiance to the flag.....one nation, blessed by non-physical Source, indivisible....." So I just realized that wouldn't work because not everyone believes in non-physical source. I guess we have to leave it out, and those of us who do believe can bring it up as we see fit...w/o insisting that anyone else agree with us. So I will do so when I feel called to, when it feels right, like now! Blessings,
As a person who was bullied severely throughout K-12, I remember NO ONE CAME TO MY AID. I tried to get help several times. I could eidently NOT be protected against any bullying. In a similar vein, no one in the Republican Party is speaking out against political violence. nor did anyone in the Mainstream Media speak out against his incessant bullying during P-45's awful presidency. I am sorry, folks, but my belief is this: THERE IS NO COURAGE TO STAND UP AGAINST BULLYING. It's not suddenly going to spring up after all these years of Trumpian bullying.
I would like to say Wendy that bullying has a cure. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my old method of mangle the bastards until they cry uncle. Boy was I stupid, I always asked my dentist which vacation he was gonna take this time. Lo and behold I married a Special Ed teacher. Everybody in the school system dumps their problems on those poor souls. Most teachers are not behavior specialists. They cut and run just like the speaker of the shack. I tried my wife’s method and holy buckets I watched the makeover of a brutal 8th grade girl into charming young writer. Respect underlay the transition. She was failing English. She was too smart to be failing English. Oh, incidentally I was the wrestling coach as well. My wife with her masters in counseling forbade me from dragging evil youngsters out onto the mats and taught me how to get and give respect as a way of generating a working classroom environment. As soon as the young student realized that I valued her input the quality of her work took off. Other students realized she had more to offer. The bullying stopped cold. So many recalcitrant bully’s fell under this spell I realized that citizenship in the classroom must come first. I just wish that we could establish citizenship in the congress.
I was in education for several years and I did not allow bullying in my classroom or the library. I insisted they be civil to each other and to me. I worked a lot with the special ed department and those students knew they were safe with me. I did hear some horror stories aided and abetted by a teacher and committed by the big men on campus. I doubt that all this would work now because behavior has gotten so much worse at all levels of society.
I am the same age as your white male friend, born and raised in LA. I was born and raised in Massachusetts. When I was 9 yo, my family made a trip to TX to spend the summer with a relative. On the way back we “trained” from TX through LA to DC then on home. On that trip, I distinctly remember two things: 1) while on a local bus in NO, I was first on board, with my parents behind me. I looked for seats and saw some in the back, so headed there. My father stopped me, saying we would sit in the front. Never mentioned why. But I soon figured it out as I rode on that bus. 2) at the train station, as we waited to board, I notice two drinking fountains, side by side. Signs explained why; you all know what they said. I have never, ever forgotten that.
I was 9. My parents never gave any explanation or background to these random events. They were fairly conservative and my father often spoke negatively about race; my mother insisted that people could and should “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
Here is an excerpt from an essay I wrote of this very subject. American Apartheid is not ancient history, but a part of my lifetime.
THE WHITE SIDE OF RACISM
Rob Boyte - June 19, 2010
These are the collected anecdotes of a white guy who grew up in racist America. While I never actually participated in any of the civil rights struggles of the1950s and '60s I was there, observing and living the day-to-day life in a racially divided nation.
Altho I was primarily raised in St. Louis and the 'burbs, I had exposure to the Deep South. My dad was from Mississippi and each summer we would take the City of New Orleans train down to visit my grandparents in rural Lincoln County outside of Brookhaven.
As a child I remember my grandmother getting help with the housework from a "nigra" woman, and paid her a paltry amount of money and used clothing. One summer my aunt was moving to Brookhaven and a huge semi moving van drove up to my grandmother's place. We were putting my aunt's stuff in a little house out back of the main house. Now in the rural South the midday dinner is the important meal of the day and Southern hospitality meant anyone visiting shared this big meal. So the white truck driver sat at our table in the kitchen, while my aunt fixed plates for his two black helpers who ate on the porch. It was the system and everyone seemed satisfied with it - but it did not go unnoticed as strange.
In 1958 our family drove down U.S. Hwy 51 to Brookhaven. That is when I saw the segregation in the Deep South. Every gas station had "White" and "Colored" rest rooms. Restaurants had a "White" and "Colored" side and separate was not often equal, sometimes being just a serving window. Strangely, the food for the white side was prepared by black people in the kitchen who could not eat it in that side of the restaurant.
When I was a teenager I remember the "White" and "Colored" drinking fountains, side-by-side, at the J.C. Penney store in downtown Brookhaven. The water came from the same pipe. I don't know why, but I drank from the "Colored" fountain - probably just teen rebellion more than any protest. Having two fountains was stupid, just as so many other stupid things of which I was becoming aware, so I defied it. Luckily I wasn't taken out and beaten for doing it as a black person would have been. If anyone saw me, they likely shrugged it off as a stupid Yankee boy who didn't know better.
Dirty White Secrets
I remember in my late teens reading a book by Carl Rowan (could've been Go South to Sorrow - 1957) in which he mentioned Lamar Smith a black activist who was organizing voters and who was murdered in Brookhaven in August 1955. Wow, sleepy little Brookhaven made national news! I wrote to my grandmother and asked her if she knew about it and her reply told me a lot about racism in the South; "We don't talk much about that here."
I graduated in 1963 and went into the Air Force, where I lived, slept, showered and ate with black guys. The armed forces had been integrated since 1948 and it was not a problem for us from the integrated states, but probably a new experience for guys from the Deep South.
Once, while travelling by Greyhound in uniform I was asked by an elderly white woman to sit in the empty seat next to her. She was concerned that a black person, perhaps like the black army private I saw in the adjoining seat would sit next to her. I declined and sat with the soldier. My philosophy at that time was the only colors that mattered were the blue or green of our brotherhood. I remember going thru New Orleans by train in 1964 and purposely using the "Colored" rest rooms in Union Station. Again, probably getting a pass from both black and white because I was in uniform (and I wasn't a black guy using the "White" facilities.)
Thanks for sharing this. Your “little “ rebellions - using the colored restroom and drinking fountain - were, as you strongly state, probably ignored because you are white; a Black man behaving the same way would pay, for sure.
And I forgot to add that when I was the same age as the trip - about 9 yo - we also, had a man come to clean our apartment. A Black man; polite and quiet, “Jackson” - his last name only, I always wondered if he HAD a first name. My only sibling was a sister 6 years older than me; her outgrown clothes were given to Jackson for his daughter of the same age. I have thought this was a good gesture, I think I remember it because I was surprised, given my parents’ overall opinions. (See my first post.)
Rob-Thanks so much for sharing your observations and experiences with racism. I too have a lifetime of experiences that force you to question what it means to be human. While Florida and other states are busy trying to hide the truth, our experiences don't lie. I think some of our young people (including those with white skin) are seeing the light about racism too. Many of them marched for Black Lives Matter. This is what scares white supremacists who are trying to hold on to the privilege and systems they established for themselves. I appreciate storytelling. You've made racism plain in ways that no scholarly thesis could ever do.
My dad, born 1918, was raised in a Massachusetts town that forbade property sales to Jews but oddly had a few Black families. He graduated from college in Spring of 1942 and went immediately into the Army, assigned to the USAAF. On his first trip South, he was shocked and disgusted by the appearance of segregated facilities being used by uniformed Black soldiers. As commander of a wholly Black supply unit, he said it shocked him again to realize that he, as holder of a BS in AdSci, was automatically an officer while his first sergeant had a PhD in the same subject from Morehouse. He would never tolerate racist statements or behavior and strongly supported civil rights, even as he held old social prejudices about "rhythm" and such.
Too often we think of racism as something that happened in the South because prior to the 1900s 90% of all African Americans lived there. So how and why do so many Northern people harbor some of the same racist ideas that Southern people espouse. The answer is that racism is a feature of American life-it's not just in the South! Racism is a pandemic.
“By 1980 I met Brenda, a black co-worker at a boys' home outside of New Orleans and we became lovers and long term companions, eventually marrying. Her family accepted me (there was history of whites in her family) but my mom (in St. Louis) reacted badly when I sent her a picture of Brenda. She sent it back with a scathing letter asking, "What makes you think I want a picture of your black woman." Wow! I didn't communicate with mom for a couple of years after that. She finally came around and apologized to Brenda and visited us in Florida.”
Echoing your thoughts: scene is a small pizza joint in a small town in Western Connecticut mid 1950s. Three couples enter in the afternoon one of whom is Black (I'm there hanging out with a few locals): "Sorry, we are closed and we will not serve you.") Sure opened my eyes. At that time I was a 15 yo from NYC area who worked after school in a business staffed mainly by Black people, and we all worked, ate, joked around together in what to my youthful eyes seemed to be harmony. As to the actual state of the union, I was clueless!
Anne, I saw my first racist incident in Chicago when I was about 7. I was appalled by what I saw and I have never forgotten it. It was the start of my awareness of it and ever since I have spoken out against it.
“Overt racism also existed in St. Louis County. In 1955 a black family moved into our 'burb and their house burned down. I remember my mother being upset about it because everyone seemed to know it was arson but no one would take a stance and make an issue of it.”
Missouri was the same as the backward south, tho integrated most of my life from the late 40s. My wife who was born in New Orleans, spent much of her early life in Chicago and said that northern city was not exempt from racism either.
No, it wasn't and isn't. The episode I was describing was a black family moving into a white neighborhood and then rocks through their windows and more police than I was ever seen. I wanted to know what was going on and the above is the explanation I got. I thought it was awful. Many years later, in a sociology class, I looked at census data from Elkhart County and that time, early 60s, black people were only in one place in Elkhart County, south of railroad tracks in Elkhart. They were not allowed to stay overnight in the county seat, Goshen, which prided itself on its "Christianity", so Marion Anderson who came to sing at Goshen College, had to stay in Elkhart overnight.
Your heartfelt story points to the lunacy of racism. White supremacy is one of the biggest lies ever told and enacted. You're not alone in having parents who were "conservative". The Republicans today who claim to be conservative are trying to maintain the status quo because it serves their personal interests. Who wants to give up privilege and wealth? They're not really concerned about whether America can ever live up to its stated ideals.
I love the idea of America as a nation where everyone has "inalienable rights", and "liberty and justice for all" in the pursuit of happiness. I pray that we can demonstrate to the world that people can live together in peace no matter the color of our skin, the texture of our hair or the worldviews we might hold. We have to let go of skin color as a dividing line and be about learning how to "live and let live". Dispelling the myth of race can help us to make progress-America's past when it comes to racism is not worth "conserving"!
Social media namely fb allows so much nastiness & yet seems to pick & choose minute details to censor. Is there another platform where Heather gives her talks? Other than her talks I would totally go off fb.
Early on she explained why she deliberately chose FB to do her talks on: to reach a wider audience in a venue that was open to all. FB has some issues, but I think she did the right thing, even when trolls make it a challenge. I have seen people come on out of curiosity, and then stay, eager to learn beyond what they were taught in high school or even college. Some eventually come to the Letters on substack. The communities are different in many ways, but I meet interesting people in both places, and (trolls aside) enjoy the conversations on FB.
For the live video talks, I go full screen and eliminate the comment scroll to make watching and listening easier, and to avoid a lot of chatter.
As for the nastiness on FB, I simply limit my feed to friends & relatives, and a few interest groups that maintain decorum. A long time ago I figured out that I don't have to accept unacceptable behavior, even from people I know.
Ugly goes all the way to the bone. No matter how we dress up or donate or vote, our childhood teachings creep out. I hope that when this happens these thoughts serve as a reminder of how fragile the wings on the angels within us are. 😥
I was 15 soon to be 16 when I arrived by train in Atlanta, GA from Terre Haute, IN with my cousin that had moved to South Carolina when she was in grade school with her parents. My uncle had relocated from Dana, IN to work at the Savannah River Plant in Augusta, GA. I had my first experience of the separtate drinking fountains and restrooms. When we traveled to Augusta we were separated into the so called "white car" to continue our journey. Those were my first experiences of segregation and I thought it only applied to the "South". I was in my 70's before I found out that it was happening in my own hometown.
“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made, or people whose skin is a different shade-You’ve got to be carefully taught”. 😢
Spend a serious amount of time in the Deep South…still very much alive and growing! There are several just as hateful but don’t scream loudly. Those should frighten us more!
Thank you for describing some of the emotions involved with way that white supremacy is woven into the fabric of American society. The poise and tears of the children say a lot about our ongoing battle with racism. I'm often dismayed by too many Americans who think that racism affects only people with darker skin-especially descendants of enslaved Black people. The truth is all Americans are harmed by white supremacy.
In a speech entitled, The Ethical Demands of Integration, delivered on December 27, 1962 at a church conference in Nashville Tennessee, Martin Luther King, Jr. made an insightful prediction about America. He perceived that,
“the problem of race remains America’s greatest moral dilemma. When one considers the impact it has upon the nation, its resolution might well determine our destiny. History has thrust upon our generation an indescribably important task-to complete a process of democratization which our nation has too long developed too slowly, but which is our most powerful weapon for world respect and emulation. How we deal with this crucial situation will determine our moral health as individuals, our cultural health as a region, our political health as a nation, and our prestige as a leader of the free world. The shape of the world today does not afford us the luxury of an anemic democracy. The price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro is the price of its own destruction. The hour is late; the clock of destiny is ticking; we must act now before it is too late”.
King compared the possible destruction of America to the destruction of Rome saying that the parallels are too great to ignore. The History.com website confirms King’s comparison by spelling out the reasons Rome fell as a society. These reasons included military losses, inequality, labor shortages, competition for resources, infrastructures in disrepair, government overspending, political corruption, oppression of selected people, loss of traditional values and people who glorified government.
Sounds like our survival as a nation may indeed be in peril because these are the issues that America faces today. We’re definitely on the road to destruction unless we wake up to the reality that institutional racism is a corrosive force. I pray that "we the people" can make a u-turn and head toward liberty for all. We all must stay “woke” and act!
You wrote, "The truth is all Americans are harmed by white supremacy."
Have you read "The Sum of Us" by Heather McGhee? She describes this is detail giving many concrete examples. It is an excellent book, I could hardly put it down.
Racism is learned. I am thankful more than I can express that I grew up with diversity. I only see different cultures that one can learn from. People are people, good and bad.
I've always believed that fear, not hate, was the opposite of love. And fear is often rooted in ignorance. Once informed, exposed and familiar with "the other", few of us fail to love.
The sad thing is that there are people who define themselves by their hate, and actively resist questioning that hate. Information doesn't work. It seems to me that change for these people comes about mainly as a result of some event that breaks down that sense of themselves defined by hate.
How ironic is it that Sarah H. Sanders referenced the Little Rock Nine in her speech? It's ultra galling given that she's using DeSantis' Christofascist handbook to ban CRT and and censor certain books.
there's only one State of the Union speech. I watched the video feed on NPR. When it was finished and they moved on to Ms Huckabee, I turned it off. This was the President's day, fulfilling his constitutional duty. I haven't heard anything about rebuttals in the constitution.
I did exactly the same thing, Nathan, as did my friend with whom I was texting during Biden's inspiring speech. We didn't want to end our evening listening to Ms. Huckabee's vitriol. Good point about rebuttals!
Since I didn't watch/listen to Sanders, I don't know what she said about the Little Rock Nine. I was all of 13 at the time so unaware although I became much more aware though still somewhat oblivious at the age of 15 when my own high school in Norfolk VA was closed for the Fall semester, my sophomore year, as part of Virginia's "Massive Resistance" to desegregation took place.
I've read about it since, only 3 jurisdictions in Virginia closed their high schools against integration, not the entire state. My sister and I were among the lucky white kids who didn't lose that semester in Fall, 1958, because our parents could afford to pay teachers who took on classes in various other venues, in our case in various church meeting rooms. Again, it was years later that I learned that a much larger number of students did lose that semester because their families couldn't afford to pay for the alternative classes. Oddly, city school buses were running to take us to the church where our classes took place. I wonder if the parents had to pay for those as well? When classes resumed at my high school, there was exactly one young black girl attending; I don't recall any efforts to block her entry. In the one class we shared, she was - as you might imagine - very quiet and low key.
I'm glad there was a positive outcome for you but furious that so many parents and school administrators were willing to jeopardize their children's future to make a racist political point. A lot of places developed private academies to try to get around the desegregation mandate. They weren't elite in the sense of being only open to the rich but they were exclusively white.
The schoolyard bully is the potential sociopath in the bud. The ones that that don't outgrow it seem to me to be responsible for most of humanity's preventable suffering. And bullying is not necessarily physical abuse. It's any predatory abuse of others.
I actually passed by my local elementary the other day, and there was this one kid absolutely losing it over something on the playground. Devoid of context, I heard him holler "You want me to break your glasses and buy you new ones!?!? Cause I can DO THAT!"
It was actually a pretty decent offer, and the funniest thing I may have ever heard.
Don't worry, the teacher barely mumbled "that's enough, Daniel" while not moving or looking up from his phone, so I'm sure lessons were learned.
Seriously though, the other kids were already pretending to be ponies on the other side of the jungle gym. Crazy how much faster kids can spot who is full of hot air than the adults can. I wonder when we lose that ability....
I saw a jnd (just noticeable difference) around tenth grade. (Had worked at elem, jr high, and high school and knew many of the kids through graduation.). I was shocked at how kids who knew the flaws of their parents grew to emulate them. Who was it who said, children may not listen to their parents but they have never failed to imitate them. I know one who did, but it took a while…
Those who inflict serious abuse as adults are, from what I have read, very likely to have been abused themselves. That said, some adults I know had nasty, seriously abusive childhoods and broke the pattern, though it leaves it's mark. I was just minutes ago reading Mary Oliver to my wife. Ms. Oliver, by her own reporting, grew up in a toxic home and found comfort in the wild. Surely there are things we could do as a society to disrupt the cycle of violence for more of these kids.
Ah, 10th grade. When people start to be told they need to "mature." Makes sense.
Yes, "breaking the cycle" seems to be one of the hardest things someone can do. I knew at least three friends from high school years who managed to break out from abusive and/or restrictive families, even when their siblings did not. In each case the friend in question was a female of a sweeter temperment, who I suppose the folks in question assumed would be the easiest to keep down, only to find she had the strongest intellect and spirit of them all. Very instructive, really.
Now add to that the HYPOCRISY of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the 40 year old Governor of Arkansas, claiming Little Rock Central High School (her alma mater) is the example of how "there's no racism" while she boasts about "outlawing CRT." For her to focus on FREEDOM truly exemplifies how white privilege means they choose to put on blinders to the lived experience of millions of Americans. Whitewashing or even erasing history is NOT the way to "fix" centuries of injustices. And the five-time draft dodger she held up as her ideal is the one ready to unleash both the military and domestic terrorists on the American people.
Yes, but there are 74 million American voters who want Republicans to project that angry, deranged face. They proudly proclaim that cruelty is the point.
And mention of the other woman on display who, going forward, buys hook, line, and sinker into the patriarchal bargain.
Prof Richardson’s last barnburner paragraph….regarding the “normal vs. crazy” remark.
“She (Sarah Huckabee Sanders) is probably not the only one who is thinking along those lines after tonight’s events, but many are likely drawing a different conclusion than she intended.”
That woman will regret her words for the rest of her political career. Worst imaginable timing in a speech. She handily conceded the night to President Biden.
Yes, it was ugly and hateful - and yet part of me was relieved. That one of those lunatics wasn't packing a gun last night; that President Biden reacted with sanity and humor and at one point, turned their rants into a negotiation over social security and medicare; that McCarthy got what he bargained for - a gavel - that he wouldn't dare use to bring his side to order.
And our taxes are providing such baboons with cushy salaries, lifetime benefits, prestigious workplaces, even as they push to scuttle social safety nets, gun safety, health care, pharmaceutical protections, education, etc. Stunning. Forgive my rant.
Other than the prestigious workplaces (which so many of them don't seem to give a shirt about), it's a myth that members of Congress get cushy benefits. Their salaries are fixed at $174,000 per year. That seems reasonable, unless you are paying for two households. The lifetime benefits are modest by corporate standards. For those who serve fewer than 5 years, there are no long-term benefits. Those elected before 1987 get ~$71K, after 1987 the pension is ~$41K. Nice, yes, but not lavish. Retirement health insurance benefits are likewise equivalent to many corporations or other public institutions like universities.
For my entire life these ‘People’ have been there…as a young man in the 60’s and 70’s with long hair I was called, yelled at, every name you can imagine…while standing in the B of A to cash a first paycheck, a guy behind me was muttering things, then pretended to try to find my bra strap, and, when I didn’t respond, he hit me on the side of my head. In line in a bank, in San Jose. One man did ask him to calm down. I cashed my check…
They have been there and are still there. And obviously there has been and is much worse!! While my experience gave me empathy, the vitriol of that woman, howling at the President says it all. She would be the first in line with the pitchforks!
And they had company in the 80’s with RR, people they knew who thought like them, the myth of the welfare Mom!
So what is different? We are captured, distilled that hate, fear and stupidity and created a ‘Money stream’ to feed their world view…Faux, Sin-Clair, monetized their fear, and they are addicted to the feed. FB, Google have done little, and they are not the worst! Rush, Jones, the list goes on. It’s time to stop the money!
She cooked her own goose last night. In front of millions. She may know no shame, but her howling ugly face of "unhinged lunacy" will be a reminder of what an utterly shameless fool looks like.
Unfortunately, there are many who will see her as "brave" enough to do what they wish they could. They do not listen to content; they are disillusioned with politics, and only see a white man in a suit telling them "it's all good." That's not what he said, but that doesn't matter to them--he sits in the seat of authority, and therefore is a symbol of their own despair. They cannot stand to look themselves in a mirror, so they look at her instead.
Sandwiched between Biden's vigor and her lunacy, McCarthy lost--big time--as he prissily mouthed "Shush" while she ranted. It shows how weak he is--he sold his soul to her and her ilk to get the gavel, and now he is afraid to use it.
Interesting comment by HCR that Biden agreed to McCarthy's request to compliment bipartisan leadership, while she totally ignored him. That speaks volumes about who is really interested in governance...and maybe to whom McCarthy should turn if he is to have any hope of effectiveness. He wouldn't reach across the aisle to get elected, but if--IF--he has any sense, he might consider reaching across the aisle to legislate.
I totally agree. MTG and the likes bother me in the sense that they have no listening skills. They spout out whatever without reading and knowing the facts. They will not listen to the facts. And with Huckabees opening statement I shut off the tv. They, the republicans could believe trump but… Maybe it is because the TRUTH hurts them.
Yo, MaryOMary... hohoho, That's what I'd call a $178,000 dollar 'hot air' duct. The shape of it kinda reminds me of the $55 toilet seat with the built-in water-spray feature I saw in a dumpster. Thanks for not mentioning any (her) name.
This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
I noticed that too. McCarthy looking ‘bored’ but snapping awake to so much of what President Biden was saying! Fun to watch ... on my cell in Ca the whole speech and his long celebratory exit was on camera for us to celebrate with him!
I was not sure he was bored, be he sure looked like he was suffering, perhaps listening to the subtle and compelling bite of Biden's rhetoric and thinking:
He definitely was not bored, JL, though he sure tried to look like he was. What was hilarious was to watch him catch himself sitting up straight, wide eyed and listening attentively at times, then force himself back into his "bored" act. The guy just ain't that bright.
He was dejected. He could see and hear what was happening. His party was being played for the fools they are. The hecklers were on national television. The President didn't take the bait, rather he turned their bad behavior back on themselves, securing an assent to preserving Social Security and Medicare from budget cuts. I think McCarthy knows he has nothing to bring to a negotiating table come budget time. He is facing no confidence votes from the hecklers and that's enough to depress anyone.
When Biden called on the audience to "stand up for Medicare and SS", repeated, I think, most members of Congress stood up, even the majority of the shamed Republicans, knowing that their constituents were watching. The cameras panned the audience and showed those who were not standing, a telling moment that should be used in future campaign advertising and current media commentary. We know who you are. Your actions or inactions speak for you and are loud and incriminating. Seniors and seniors-to-be and family members of seniors, be alert.
Yes, and McCarthy had asked Biden to not use the term "extremist MAGA" in the SOTU and probably other requests. He may have promised to keep his party in line during the speech. And then Biden keeps his promise and McCarthy clearly has no control over his party.
Laurie.....nothing is safe in regards to the Republican Party. They did not agree to not raising the age to receive Social Security or changes to Medicare. The number of sane Republicans is diminishing.
I agree. I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them. I said this before. There are no good Congressional Rs. After all that has happened with them, Trump and January 6th etc ,any conscientious and honest R would have retired or switched parties to Independent.
Yes, but their VOTERS saw them agree to protect Social Security and Medicare. And most of the Republicants have already been informed by their donors that it's political suicide.
I posted this one recently before, but about a year ago Romney, seeming as close to "sane" as they have right now propose shafting the young on SS;
"In comments to the Senate budget committee on Wednesday, the Republican senator from Utah said that the spiraling costs of retirement programs had to be tackled to bring national debt under control. Romney raised the politically controversial idea of cutting benefits, but only for younger generations before they reach retirement age." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/mitt-romney-cut-back-retirement-benefits-younger-americans
Also this clueless, contextless gem a few years ago:
"I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government."
For a Republican, the whole universe is a validation of Reaganomics, no matter how cognitively dissonant. It seemed to me that Cheney and Kinzinger were the sanest Republcians left, and they were publicly drummed out of the party.
BTW, speaking of cognitive dissonance, there is an absurd, painful irony to hear Romney admiring Chinese trains when Republicans fought all out war to sabotage fast, usable trains in the USA. I have never been to China, but I have spent about seven weeks in Japan (and my daughter lived there for a year). Shinkansen. and all of the trunk train system in Japan is fast, clean, extensive, and timely. Rural commuter trains are more USA-ish, but work well. They made travel, even to off-the-beaten-path places pleasant and easy. The "bullet train" is pricey, but so is air travel. (Peach Airlines is crazy cheap but packed like a sardine can). I also rode a very cool fast train in Sweden. Because we booked it too late, we "had" to ride in the pet car, where nearly everyone had some kind of animal. It was a bonus.
If we truly are "The richest country in the world" why are so much of our societal facilities second or third class? It's not Amtrak's fault, by trips on it in last 20 years were just horror stories. I get the impression that some routes are OK, and others just plain broken.
In this wonderful "Christian " nation , it seems the only thing we really care about is the profit and abandoning our female population and many people of color and migrants who are fleeing persecution and poverty.
We have never needed someone more than President Joe Biden, his wisdom. experience and goodness. Our country needs to make more like Joe and others who have good character and truly love freedom. "Building Back Better" is such a great slogan. We need to examine that on a personal level as well!!! each of us!
As long as we allow drugs of any type to fill the emptiness of our souls we are running toward an even deeper path of self destruction,. Power and money will never create peace within.
Our houses of worship are shrinking. The huge churches built around "we've got the greatest paster", we do so much for the world and for our neighborhood or city.....look at what "we" built.....well, as happens in the real world.....the THINGS are crumbling. ....
But there is "HOPE" ....... Emily Dickenson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweeter -in the Gale- is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet never in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
There is "HOPE" itself, working within us to produce good as we are directed. How will we answer...it is not a demand.
I find religion complicated, and a broad category for many different things. I think that there is an immense difference between those encouraging each other to explore "How can I be a better person?" "We're better that you" is a cult talking. I am aware that my some of many of my posts here smack of that, and I know from some personal experiences that people can be consumed by ideology yet have another side to them, as perhaps we all do. I certainly do; the point made by Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. But I don't force my will on others, at least not (I hope) in a bullying way. I support arresting and prosecuting people who significantly harm others, but I also know it will take more than that to get a handle on our humanity-wide epidemic of malignant narcissism. Ironically, that seems to me to be the a dominant theme in what Jesus (and other faiths) were talking about, but the focus of the leadership and membership of organizations too often has a tendency to primarily serve their own positions.
JL Graham, thank you for your comment. It is much easier for me to critize than to push forward in the power of Christ's love. I believe, His life on earth was filled with love, pain, sorrow and joy, and as Emily Dickenson expressed so well.....Hope.
Biden won last night with forceful statements and big grins at the hecklers whom he shot down very adroitly. He knows how to act, and he deserves "happy warrior" status. And I have never before seen such a sequence as the one that wound up "Stand up for seniors". It should go into the Smithsonian! (Did not watch Sanders, but I know which side she's on.)
I have been waiting 40+ years for Democrats to say in no uncertain terms that Reaganomics is a transparent swindle. That the "Reaganomic" policies that have hung over US politics for decades, patently reversed economic justice in America, not furthered it. I had hoped Obama would focus on that, but he really didn't. Biden has.
I wouldn't trust Republicans no matter how much they clap. We can't relax about SS and Medicare, just because they got caught up in the moment. If they feel tricked by Biden, they'll double down.
They will attack Biden and "the general welfare" no matter what. They always do, and are doing so. They can't let a good word be said about anything apart from their own ideology. Biden boxed them into a corner though. They will go on trying every trick in the book to tear down democracy and deliver the spoils to their wealthy patrons, but now they are on record angrily defending Social Security, a made for TV and perfectly honest "gotcha" moment if they stray.
I think there are a TON of recorded "Gotcha" issues for in-your-face comparisons of what the say and what they do. Their lies have proved very destructive, and should never have been tolerated as much as they have been. The J6th Committer seemed to me the first landed sucker punch to the major corpus of the evil lies. Now an upper cut by Biden.
Dispatches from the land of the youth! I talked with my little brother recently about this "disconnect" our Professor adressed yesterday between accomplishment and awareness. For background, bro is 22 and voted in 2020&22. I would like to think he would have even if we didn't live together, but *when you live with me you ARE voting.** He thinks Biden is "such a creaky old grandpa, like the rest of them, at least Kamala gives us someone nice to look at on TV," (I reminded him our Dad is basically the same age) but voted for him and the Democrats both times because "I pretty much agree", and the Republicans "are like Christian terrorists who are giving us a bad moment."
He is also much more of a people person than me, to put it mildly, with a diverse group of friends. Talking to him it became clear that his friends are split in two groups that represent this age bracket: the ones who follow what is going on, and the ones who don't.
The ones who follow track with what you would expect based on the near-record youth midterm turnout and those snazzy Harvard surveys: they're increasingly impassioned and see political participation as necessary because we are in a war over basic values and whether they get a future. They liked Bernie (oy!) and are more likely to post political stuff on TikTok than talk about it in person (eh?).
The ones who don't follow see how stressful and scary everything is, but are overwhelmed by it and find the ins-and-outs of news/politics obscure and at a remove, so they just check out. This is little bro's camp, unfortunately. He's pretty tenderhearted, doesn't like the news, and can successfully go about his day without reading the news, therefore - despite being online all the damn time - apparently he... knows... nothing. So obviously he thinks I'm a wee bit of a shill for being so gung ho about the current administration, and thinks that not much at all has been accomplished. He got defensive and asked me to name one thing - just one really big thing, not a little thing like the tinkering with Medicare stuff that makes old people happy, because they are the ones that always get catered to - but one really actually big thing that has actually gotten done that should prove he should have hope that Biden & co. didn't just string us along. If a real change is happening, you shouldn't have to be a news junkie to notice, right? It should hit you where you live and get everyone talking, right? So just name one thing!
He said this like people do when they have the expectation you won't find the one thing.
So obviously I said the first and biggest major climate bill in human history. Mood in the room changed on a dime right there. Obviously that's impressive. Bro typed it in on his phone. Bro was impressed. More importantly, bro was relieved. He wanted to be wrong. SOMEthing CAN happen! A big thing! A thing they said they were going to do and actually did!
Bro had literally not heard about this thing for almost half a year.
Anyway, I started going on about CHIPS and the 11 million jobs and how guaranteed HE wouldn't have a job right now if it wasn't for the Rescue Plan, because do you really think a recent graduate - a MUSIC major - could pick up a job in two seconds flat - in EVENTS AND CATERING, no less - if we didn't have those damn shots getting to people so fast last spring, but I got tuned out for being "too intense" and listing more than the challenged one thing.
Write him off as intellectually lazy or willfully ignorant or unpatriotic or not community minded at your peril. This is a straight-A student who was an Emerald Star State Ambassador for 4H (look it up), a guy who did color guard in middle school, volunteered unprompted for Kids Against Hunger, and was known by name at the local veterans center.
This is not a Dem Comms problem. The other side has a vicious propaganda network assisted by a centrist mainstream media intent on elevating hot "perspectives" over unsexy substance. We have US. WE are the communications network. Voting and political participation are habits. Everyone begins a habit at a different time and with a different motivation. I undetstand the frustration with not-yet-voters or unreliable voters among WE, THE CURRENTLY INFORMED. If you have not noticed the stakes by now, how will you ever? But voting is a habit, and the final key push a person gets to start a healthy habit comes differently for everyone. A lot of people can feel the stakes, but don't know if participating is worth it, or always worth it, and you will not keep them with you at this stage with further yelling about apocalypse avoidance. You win them over by giving them what we all WANT to see: positive results.
For the next 21 months, I beg of you: make yourself a propaganda machine spreading positive accomplishments for our big- and small-D democrats. The people we need to stay in our camp at this inflection point for democracy did not watch tonight. The person they will listen to, if they know you, is you.
You make good points, Will. It sounds like your brother has potential. He just needs help connecting the dots. I guess that's where you come in! But I do wonder what "positive results" look like to him and others of his generation. For me, a member of the senior generation, to live independently is huge. To see others not as fortunate get much-needed support is a positive I like to see.
Generationally, the values appear to me to be the same, and much as you state. If there is a difference, the general gist is that there is an overwhelming sentiment that the balance of power in society and the economy especially is so beyond in need of change that the cautious, incremental actions of recent decades are no longer viable but actively insulting in the face of it. There need to be large, straightforward programs that transform certain sectors to make life less of a struggle for working and marginalized people, when it is so obvious that we have the resources nationally to do so.
Student debt relief is a good example of this. Biden forgiving that $20k tells everyone who did the "right thing" by going to college: "Look, you got ripped off. You should never have been charged this much for something you needed to get ahead. Here is your money back. You can get a car now. That's huge, right? Make it an electric one. Go live your life and put that degree to good use." If that program is allowed to stand, countless people's lives will get boosted.
The change we need looks like universal child- and eldercare, paid family leave, the child tax credit, and tuition free community college, all paid for by corporate windfall and billionaire's taxes. It looks like a climate corp installing a charging station on every corner.
In short, it looks like the Build Back Better Act. It doesn't look like infrastructure. But when you put infrastructure together with CHIPS and Climate, now you're talking. But this stuff isn't as DIRECT an effect on any given individual's quality of life, so it will take those efforts coming to fruition - and our pointing them out when they do come - to give people who are looking for a sign that leaders understand the magnitude of what is necessary - and are willing to follow through - the assurance that they are justified in putting their faith in those leaders to, as Biden said, "finish the job."
The actions Biden is taking will take some time to make a dent…that’s why we seem never to invest in the long term but go for the immediate win and kick the stuff like infrastructure improvements down the road. This is hard for a 22 y/o to grasp. It’s also difficult at that age when someone else has been making all your decisions to realize the future is up to you. Keep up the good work, Will—you are a great age to be believed by the 20 somethings.
I was a first-time elections worker here in AZ (the famous Maricopa County!) and was very heartened by the numbers and enthusiasm of first time voters, in their 20’s and 30’s; mostly women concerned about healthcare/abortion, but nonetheless they were there.
Kudos. Also consider two generations of Americans have witnessed a disfunctional political system culminating in Jan 6 attack on the Capitol! They have lived through the buying of legislative votes and SCOTUS seats by mega billionaires funding cut out groups with Dark money! Yes they vote but does it matter! Can’t get sane gun regulation laws passed because dark money controls the votes, likewise effective environmental policies!
According to Koch, Dark money (or not so dark), is going to be heavy into the next election but not supporting Trump. Supporting other Republicans especially at the local levels.
Preparing for the future. People elected at local level now will be decision-makers in future and have influence on elections. So Rs looking to pad local boards, commissions, offices with people as stepping points up. Dems in some areas doing this too. Need to really focus on this more than we did in 2022, when we let national offices and sloppy news reporting distract us from what's right in front of us.
Hey, again, Will. Your bro may be interested in this latest email I received from Earthjustice. Since Biden has been in office, I have been receiving emails like this from several climate organizations who I support. Unfortunately, I haven't kept any of them...just read about the progress that has been made, and smiled.
"Dear Lynell,
Two years after the Trump administration opened the door to large-scale logging in the Tongass National Forest, the Biden administration closed it by restoring the Roadless Rule and protecting “the lungs of the country.”
The Tongass is the ancestral homeland of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. The 17-million-acre temperate rainforest draws visitors from around the globe and provides habitat for an abundance of wildlife including grizzly bears, bald eagles, and wolves. It also serves as the country’s largest forest carbon sink, with countless mature and old growth trees, making its protection critical for U.S. efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to set a global example.
This special place is safe from industrial logging because of Tribal leaders, recreational small-business owners, commercial fishing operators, and supporters like you — who sent hundreds of thousands of letters over the last few years. You made this issue a priority and gave the Biden administration no choice but to restore protections for the Tongass.
Today, let’s celebrate the fact that the trees of the Tongass will remain standing, as well as the benefits everyone can enjoy thanks to the wildlife habitat, rich cultural practices, and climate stability this cherished forest supports. Tomorrow, we’ll redouble our efforts to secure stronger protections for other forests throughout the country and remain prepared to defend the Tongass from future attacks."
Will, if your little brother is 20 and still listening to your advice, I'm guessing you're one of the youngest people who reads LFAA. Congratulations! Yet another great comment.
Less lost faith, and more never developed faith to begin with. A lot of sleepwalking happening, because people don't see themselves as the "kind of person" who is involved.
We have to keep getting through that voting isn't a loud declaration of allegiance, rather it is like brushing your teeth. You just do it. Over and over. Whether your teeth look white or not. And eventually you get what you want: healthier teeth.
Now I am going to get upset every time I brush my teeth :) Good analogy.
I would make voting mandatory. Here is an article that discusses the pros and cons of such in Australia - a country that gets some things very wrong but often is really practical. Like their mandatory retirement system.
Where I've lived, the people who'd be most helped by a paid national holiday for voting are the ones who'd be most expected to work a full shift that day anyway. What about a law that creates a two-week National Voting Period? The usual Tuesday would still be Voting Day, but states would choose at least one of the following implementations:
(a) Voting Weekend, with polls open on at least three days from Friday to Tuesday inclusive, with evening hours on at least one day in addition to Tuesday; a state can choose to open neighborhood polling places only on Tuesday, but if only voting centers are open on the other days, any rules against providing transportation to non-relatives must be relaxed or suspended.
(b) Early voting for the two weeks leading up to Voting Day, with at least two of the four weekend days and at least two evenings included; if (as is usual) early voting is restricted to the county elections office or regional voting centers, any rules limiting transportation must be relaxed or suspended.
(c) Voting by mail, preferably with permanent status. Where excuses are required, the range of excuses accepted will not be limited to physical incapacity or physical absence, but will also include work or school scheduling (do I know people who feel lucky when their one-way commute home is only 90 minutes? Why, yes.) or care of a disabled child or parent. Requiring that the issue be corroborated by a supervisor or school admin or a health care provider seems silly to me, but the signature might pacify the control freaks enough for them to be less unreasonable about this.
My mother (a WWII war bride) often talked about mandatory voting and MUCH shorter election times which I definitely favor. What a waste of time and money to have candidates spend months if not years campaigning!
I think what they are wanting from us is way more than “Get Out The Vote!” They want something they have never experienced: Civil. Good. Governance.
All my politically-aware life (and I started young), was packaged to me as “A Consumer” - NOT a citizen. The young (and truly everyone now) are eyeballs to be engaged unceasingly. Again NOT citizens. The disengaged population, I feel, are longing for good governance, pissed at being duped into thinking that voting for the political circus players will change anything, because they hear -very clearly, and quickly,- another political circus player disputing that claim. They just want the damn system to work! And the Young? They want a chance to be young with a future ahead of them that is not apocalyptic.
'All my politically-aware life (and I started young), was packaged to me as “A Consumer” - NOT a citizen.' That right there, MLR. Many of us oldsters got that very same package.
Yes. People my age (the early boomers, born in WW2) were constantly told that it was up to us to fix the things earlier generations messed up. Huge expectations. Plus the Cold War, and the silly under-the-desk game. We all knew the truth. It made a lot of us cynical. It made just as many of us question what the hell was going on. So some of us were front-runners in escapism, and some of us were front-runners in civil rights and other social movements. I get sick of hearing that we "caused" this or that"- things that happened before we were born or when we were little kids. What impresses me most about now are all the young people of all kinds of backgrounds who turn to us to learn about those movements, and who are carrying on from where a lot of what we were trying to do got shut down (Reagan era). I am actually hopeful for the future because of that. Yeah, a lot of right now is pretty sucky, but I think a lot of it is because the toxins are starting to seep out where they can't be hidden. Now we can address them directly, and I pray it takes. We are all in this together, and we are starting to understand that "all of us" means just that. Part of it means that we have to stop our own building of barriers, so that people will be willing to reach across with us.
Sadly, I think there are a lot of older people who are apathetic and don't vote or engage in things that really affect their lives and the future of the next generations. Anything that can be done to engage more Democrats and people who want to protect our democracy would be great.
Then again, there are lots of us older people who DO vote, and engage in activities supporting organizations that educate and encourage youth/those in need/protecting natural resources, etc. Those of us in our late 60's thought we had won the battle on a couple fronts, only to have to fight the battles all over again. Retirement gives us more time to be involved.
Hey Will, how about inviting a few of your young friends to join this forum? You guys could add something refreshing; it would be good for us old "fuddy duddies" and you "whippersnappers" as well :-)
Thank you for sharing your experience with your brother. I have daughters that ask my wife and I what is happening in the world and how it is going to effect their future and their children future. Much of their lives is wrapped up in family and responsibilities of providing for them. They are not totally ignorant to what is happening in the world, just too busy to delve deeply into the daily news. One is a middle school teacher with three children and the other two took over our small sales office business. Both of our daughters running this business have children. One has three boys ranging from 3 to 12 and the other is single with 4 children. They are extremely busy with their families, children, business and relationships. We are so glad they come to us for a more depth of information on what is happening in our world. We honestly try to give them an open unbiased look at what we know. It's to carry this unbiased perspective when there is so much negativity coming from the GOP.
Wow! Right on, Will. Dispel the notion that this is a DemsComm problem and reinforce that it is an inherent and deeply rooted problem within the media: a massive right-wing communication network incessently pounding the message of chaos, destruction, fear, racism, and hate while a centrist media incessantly UNDERMINES the accomplishments by pounding a message of recession, weakness, ageism, tfg tfg tfg, RATHER than the successes that are so compelling. The news this AM, while heralding the joys of last night's address by Biden ask "Why the disconnect? What will the White House do? What can the WH do? Uhhhh, come on MSM folks, take some responsibility here for how you over and over undermine and dismiss Biden and his admin's accomplishments or briefly refer to them and then analyze and discuss to death tfg, the repugs, DeSatan, et alia. I hark back to August of 2016 when I knew in my bones tfg would win. Hillary rarely got coverage. Tfg's every rally covered, every sick phrase repeatedly reported. I believe it was August 14, 2016 when EVERY article above the fold in the NYT was headlined with Tfg name. ONE of those multiple articles had Hillary's name in a tag line under the headline. So, it is an uphill battle. Will is correct. We have got to be out there beating the drum. Thanks Will. Must be fun having your brilliant and responsive younger bro such a close part of your life!
Hell Maryanne - you had the same deja vu moment that I had. The media - even the independent leaners, were cowed into submission by the hard right wings "terribly biased left wing media" propaganda machine messaging(obviously, very effective). Trumps campaigns effectively got free campaign advertising, by thrashing (falsely) the media ! They are still submissive to the carnival barkers !
Thank you Will! I was talking with a friend yesterday about the young voters who I believe will build a solid constituency against the MAGA EXTREMISTS. They are much more aware of the state of our world than I was at 18...climate change, clean drinking water, gun violence, white supremacy, rolling back women’s rights are all staring them in the face and they WILL NOT CHOOSE THAT FOR THEIR FUTURE! Making certain the young who are pretending not to care or not to see what’s happening is our job. I was so proud of President Biden last night. Do I wish we had a younger candidate for 2024? Yes, I do. However, Biden is getting the job done whenever possible and his accomplishments need to be recognized. It astonished me when I hear that 62% of Americans think he’s accomplished nothing in the last 2 years. I don’t believe that number can be accurate. That many Americans can’t be that ill informed. Can they?
I also question that "statistic". I have seen nothing that explains adequately how the poll was conducted, how the sample was selected, how the questions were framed. And I no longer trust the WaPo to be even-handed. I have been stunned by some of the reporting getting facts seriously wrong and then basing their news on that wrong information. Happening repeatedly now. Misleading headlines, Editorial looks to be messing around with the news pages. So until there's a better sense of what that poll was actually measuring and in what context, I will question its value, especially just before the State of the Union speech.
Agree completely. I found it helps to ask what their greatest concerns are and then address those. Otherwise it can be overwhelming to someone who’s been out of the loop. I do some quick research to confirm my facts, and show them the work that’s being done and what barriers remain. I can usually deconstruct Republican talking points to present another viewpoint. I grew up in a Republican household, so I’ve been practicing this my entire life.
I agree up to a point. I have probably 14 people in my network.
But, the sum of us? Can we really compete with Fox News where they have expert liars and propagandists on hire working all day to share BS with their millions of viewers?
No Mike, we can't compete with Fox Lies. I don't think the people who are devoted to watching such nonsense are the folks that we could ever reach.
It's the people who are not politically involved who we might reach. What is happening on the GQP side is truly frightening. Perhaps if each of us can just get 2 or 3 non-voters to wake up and participate...we can hold this place together.
Look at what the emphasis on person to person communication managed to do during the mid-terms. It works. One person's network overlaps with other people's networks. Nobody has to have a huge following if we are persistant, respectful, and consistent in our messaging. WE are where democracy lives. Elections are a means, but it takes us as individuals simply reaching out as we can to make them feel relevant.
You make a great point Annie; armed with facts in evidence we do make the biggest difference. The right attitude is essential too. No one could 'make me' change my mind, but on reflection of facts in evidence, I could change my own mind. Folks will pretty naturally get defensive - I get that.
I said this earlier on TCinLA’s Substack but it’s what struck me during his speech. He hit it out of the park! I don’t think the Republicans even saw the ball flying until it was over the fence. Nice job Mr. President!
It was political "fine art" if I've ever seen it. They thought they had him surrounded...they could taste the blood...the wolves were howling...and he just dropped the net on them. And had witness to it...and recorded it for posterity. Brilliant.
Thank you President Biden for being normal and for showing empathy for working Americans. The peanut gallery on the other hand, showed ample reason to vote them out.
Biden’s address was as good as it gets. He was controlled yet forceful. He handled the heckling without letting it get in the way of his presentation. The GQP has nothing to fact-check when Biden touted his successes, which have been plenty. The economy speaks for itself but what he said about supporting people who do not have college degrees had to hit home for many people. America suffered greatly when we sent product plans overseas so the corporations could hire cheap labor, while they made millions. These CEOs knew that they would never get their items made by Americans for the wages they wanted to pay. We have a president who is passionate and compassionate about getting the engines restarted in our country and paying people decent wages. Level the playing field, that’s what we all want. Biden made Qevin look like the fool he is and boy, was that a pleasure to watch! Loved watching Mitt Romney give Santos hell!
Yes, Marlene, yes: “Biden’s address was as good as it gets. He was controlled yet forceful. He handled the heckling without letting it get in the way of his presentation.” Our President is truly Presidential. Party Time. The Democratic Party.
Thanks, Rose. I didn't know about the Romney/Santos dust-up. I only heard that Joe just walked by Santos who had got himself positioned on the aisle to be able to shake his hand?
From that article, I gathered that that is what irked Romney: that the “embarrassment” (as he called Santos) placed himself in the middle of the aisle so he could shake hands with everyone.
The NY electorate needs to get busy. They could have a recall election in 30 days if desired. Then, a special election to seat a different representative in another 30 days. They could have effective representation by April, regardless of which party wins. Noone is going to heckle Santos out of Washington DC. He's already demonstrated that has no scruples. Why would he yield to popular opinion?
Actually, no, they cannot. NY does not have a recall provision in their election law. Attempts are being made to get something on the books, but as of right now the only way to remove an elected politician is if they are found guilty of a crime. So first the charge, then the pre-trial stuff, then setting the court date, then the trial, etc. Why so many Rs are urging Santos to resign. They want him out NOW, but he's got the cards so far, and, as the Romney incident demonstrated, Santos is so nervy and full of himself that he is willing to play those cards in the open.
And recall is a state function affecting only state offices: a member of Congress is a federal officer and there's no provision for recall at the federal level. So unless Santos resigns or is expelled by the House, those voters are stuck with him.
Well, that one is still up in the air. Constitution hands elections over to states. Most states recall provisions do only apply to state and local offices, but there are a few whose laws include federal reps as well. For the most part, those have not done well in courts, but for technical reasons, so the question is still open in those states. One state has a recall statute that clearly includes "Congressional representatives" under the premise that they are locally elected. Premise is sound but it hasn't been tested yet. I can't remember which state, and need to head to bed now.
Gotta love the tactic of bullies immediately resorting to yelling about accomplishments you will NEVER have. Makes one think about all the people who must have NEVER loved them.
Now that I think about it, I will probably never be President either. Or Pope. Guess it's time to go crawl back into the cave.
I knew the husband had filed for the divorce, but didn’t know anything else. Rabbit hole hunting I went and a fast search turned several articles citing reports that “the neophyte politician had repeatedly cheated with other men, including polyamorous tantric sex guru Craig Ivey and the manager of the local gym she frequented.” Sounds like she has some problems, indeed.
Spoken by a man who, while at Bain Capital, destroyed hundreds of thousands of middle American manufacturing jobs by buying up small manufacturers and breaking them up, laying off workers and re-selling the parts overseas.
Yep. I guess if I had to choose, I would pick Santos over Romney.
Santos is harmless (so far). But, Romney is a deadly enemy of America.
Yup Marlene the ovens hot. Time to put the pizza in. Been a long winter. Seems like years. Your infusive joy is a pleasure to see. I’m calling it Happy SOTU to YOUTU.
Thank you Heather, for your incredible analysis and presentation of the most important points. Rousing oratory, I loved every moment. I did not listen to Hucksterbee. She is a windbag if ever there was one. I found Murderess Treasonous Gangrene really beyond the pale. Like a disgusting high school senior on a trip before graduation. (I shepherded many during my long career. And she would have been sent home for such vile behavior...) Unhinged she appeared. And, that white coat....! We are all waiting for Garland and Smith to kick in.
The president seemed to relish the back-and-forth with the hecklers. Not wanting to be snarky, but I did laugh with pleasure at his deft responses and the way the Medicare/Social Security exchange went. We’ll see how the next couple of years go…
He definitely "got his Irish up"! and his 5 decades of sparring verbally with colleagues showed. An excellent demonstration of getting a point across with humor (which may have escaped a few of the MAGA crowd), without doing any harm to anyone. A truly decent human.
in 1972 I went to South Carolina to Pawleys Island Camp Baskerville South Carolina to be with my Tennis mate who had been in Peace Corps in Africa and after taught English to Veitnamese in Saigon. I Loved all we did but realized we need strong black men and woman to be involved and this did occur, Because
We know that we all have the same blood, the same DNA,and only xenophobia keeps us apart. L, Linda
"The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she said. “The choice is between normal or crazy."
For once, a right-wing Republican speaks the truth.
Imagine if in schools, the bullies and the ill-behaved students were allowed to run rampant and treat their teachers in the same way as these so-called adults in Congress treat their President. Why isn't there a procedure to sanction outrageous behavior in the chambers?
My Mom used to spray us two boys gently but repetitively with a spritzer to put the roughousing to a stop.
This pretty much only worked because she knew I was a neurotic wimp who didn't like water, but I feel like we are running out of more highfalutin' options here...
I try not to judge people by their appearance, but I couldn’t help but notice that Boebert and MTG’s hairdos were perfectly coiffed. Spritzing would have ruined that façade. (Your mother should have been there, Will!)
I also wonder what people think of MTG’s fox fur-collared cream coat. It seemed so out of place—certainly, not what a professional might choose to wear while working.
Funnily enough, Mom was a pretty well-paid makeup artist for Ralph Lauren and Saks 5th Ave, before getting her summa cum laude degree in cognitive developmental psychology from UC Berkeley. She would say all of them were wearing too much makeup, and you need to work with the natural tones and bone structure you are given, rather than against it.
Having never worn makeup a day in my life, I have no suggestions. But I've heard it enough times...
Usually MTG looks like she doesn't own a brush or comb. Maybe the cream coat was a subtle (?) reference to the Chinese balloon; she was carrying a white balloon around earlier in the day and, of course, got media attention for it.
MTG claims that she is making far less money on her Representative’s salary than whatever she was doing before. Maybe wearing fur is her attempt to demonstrate she knows how to look expensive?
Actually, when I look at that collar, I think acrylic. Maybe a reflection of my own economic status. I own a parka with fake coyote ruff that looks like the real thing. (Indigenous people in very cold climates often use coyote fur on hoods because it filters out the moisture that can build up as ice: the bits of ice just fall off the fine outer hairs instead of building up in clods.)
Yes, the coiffed hairdos, the yellow dress, the white fur coat. These ladies are dressed for the red carpet. They may believe they are movie stars now because of all the attention they receive.
The vision I get from your Mom's cure, was a higher tech, motion / volume activated device hose-end sprayer, like used to disperse wildlife (deer, etc) from munching on one's prized flowers and shrubbery. Where's the DNC 'meme writing' squad when they're needed ? I wanna' see social media flooded with the material Uncle Joe provoked from the fool's wing. For instance, I visualized a meme in my head of MTG's face replaced with a "Scream" halloween mask. Also, in my head, whenever MTG would cup both hands around her already, megaphone mouth, I saw a donkey braying, with Uncle Joe retorting - in the voice of 'Shrek',,,, "Sit Down Dunkey" ! I was losing it laughing at my own visuals !
... Or, how about this: a meme illustration of a Time magazine cover portraying the new dominant force and 'face' of the GQP wing showing MTG in her outfit with a donkey head braying in the most embarassing fashion ! edit in - ..And by name, call out her voting district incessantly for their contribution to congress - small 'c' and all.
I should filter myself a bit... I 'know' that the gqp faithful gather data here. Absent original thought and principle, they 'borrow' ideas to capitalize upon by turning it around in colorful ways, from sites such as this.
The procedure is called voting. Sadly, enough people are willing to vote FOR them to assure that this kind of behavior will continue to happen. It's the voters who need to develop some maturity and discipline. These yahoos represent the people who voted them in. Maybe the solution is a two part primary; first, vote against the candidate you least want to represent you; then, choose amongst the remainder in the second phase of the primary.
It's called 'picking your voters' by gerrymandering voting districts into 'reliable' sectors; grouping them by data driven reliable, automatic 'r' voters, who would elect Godzilla (and prove it by doing so, repeatedly) Nathan. The whole electorate is and has been really po'ed for a very long time; that's a data driven 'fact' that the gqp has capitalized on, and the dnc cannot muster the honesty to address with facts, hard data, and humility.
There is nothing that the President said that deserves the kind of heckling and disrespect shown by the GOP overall. It is their first amendment right to act like assholes!
His address was so much better than last year’s, uplifting even. I’m glad I watched. I loved his back and forth with the Republicans on Social Security and how they ended having to stand up and applaud for leaving it intact, even expanding it. 😂
The best retort of the night that I read was courtesy of a very nice and witty lady by the name of Lynn Geri over at the Steady Substack of Dan Rather. She wrote -
Lynn Geri
"It was a good speech delivered well, by a good man. I think he managed the right tone, played all the songs I care about. I didn't even mind the fish he threw to the seals who are learning to perform... didn't smell up the room too much. A fish now and then may train most of the animals." (lol ! )
I was so pleased with Biden this evening, he was brilliant! Thank you, Heather, for reporting on that important hour so eloquently. I could hardly bear to look at the sleepy, eye-rolling Speaker. Was he ashamed of his cohorts' behavior? I was. I am sure the world was watching and is ever-increasingly wondering "what has happened to America"?
I couldn't watch Sarah H-S either. Perhaps I should have but I knew her words would not be relevant, so why bother?
I have a 0% desire to ever be on Twitter, but now that I know just how casually Gailee can and does invalidate her enemies' existence with a simple scroll, that number just got even lower.
After cheering and toasting Biden at his best 😎 and rolling the Rs, my husband and I couldn't watch the gov of AR. But we found a news channel from Japan, interesting and worth-while perspective.
Sad thing is, the people she is speaking to are all nodding in total agreement.
To them, the Biden/Dem proposals - stuff so commonsense it is already done and settled in other developed democracies - ARE crazy. Absolute lunacy. Tax rich companies? A social safety net that benefits all? Helping other countries in order to help yourself? Public safety without "incidental" brutality? Gay kids being accepted for who they are? This has never been done, totally in opposition to what they have been trained to accept, and will shake the very foundations of what the world around them will look like.
Well done, HCR! You managed to convey the substance and style of the speech, and the lack of substance and style by the MAGA maniacs. BTW, I include Sarah Huckabee Sanders in that group.
President Biden's performance this past evening was an absolute marvel to watch. His topics were predictable, and he stayed away from the divisiveness that gets younger and more hotheaded Democrats into trouble over social equity issues over their perceived rights to self actualization, at whatever the cost to everyone else.
That said, watching the president handle the Republican brat pack in the audience by getting them to deny what they have been surreptitiously advocating for all along was worth the price of admission. Those video clips are going to be part of the Democrats' central campaign strategy for the next 21 months. The president baited them, and the Republicans willingly fell into his trap. All the while, he maintained decorum and kept his Irish temper in check; but hitting the Republicans on an emotional level with his accusation that they were plotting to eviscerate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and then allowing the world to see their angry denials and insults when they knew his allegations were true, served to prove his larger point: these people have no business being in Congress where the affairs of state are handled. They're temperamentally unsuited to the job, and their ideology is anathema to what the majority of American voters deem to be necessary for a member of Congress to do their job effectively. Today's Republican Party cannot argue issues on their merits; instead, they continue to practice the politics of destruction and denigration.
In his own way, Joe Biden is better equipped to be President of the United States than any of his predecessors since Harry Truman in 1947. In the 1946 midterm elections, control of Congress went to the Republicans after the Democrats had controlled Congress for the previous 20 years. He was faced with having to negotiate with a hostile House of Representatives, many of whom wanted the Roosevelt New Deal to be eviscerated, and pretend that it never happened. President Truman was a fighter, and the three-term member of the Senate before he became Franklin Roosevelt's vice presidential running mate in 1944. He knew the Senate, and he knew how Congress worked; and building on that experience, and his prior experience as a County Judge in Kansas City, Missouri, before entering national politics, Truman who had a deal with people and get things done. During World War II, Truman headed up an influential Senate committee investigating graft, corruption, and inefficiency in the procurement of arms and matériel for the war effort. He became nationally known. He hadn't sought the vice presidential nomination, who most people thought would be going to Henry Wallace, the then-Vice President. But Franklin Roosevelt had other plans, and he let it be known to a select number of senators and members of Congress that he wanted Truman to be his running mate, but without making any sort of public announcement about it. (The reasons for that I'll address at another time; but the point is that Harry Truman gained President Roosevelt's confidence that he would be up to the task of becoming president if he, Roosevelt, became disabled or died.) There is little doubt that President Roosevelt, desperately ill at the time he was running for his fourth term in office, knew that he had little time left, and he wanted the government to be placed into the hands of someone whose judgment he trusted.
Joe Biden is a man very much like Harry Truman. They come from different eras, different social and economic backgrounds, but each had implicit faith in the American people and in American democracy. Like the president today, people greatly underestimated Harry Truman, who was constantly denigrated by other men who thought themselves better equipped to be president than he who actually got the job. At the time of his death in 1972, Harry Truman was one of the most respected men who had served in American government. Historians judged him at the time of his death as among the great or near-great presidents we have had. It was not his ability that was questioned when he entered the presidency; rather, the man whom he replaced was the only man in American history who was elected to the presidency in four consecutive elections, and the man who'd seen his country survive the deepest economic downturn of our history followed by our participation in a worldwide war in which America had played a principal role in bringing victory to the Allied side. Beside this rockstar, Harry Truman was a simple man, with simple tastes, who saw his duty, and worked his heart out to get the job done right. It was Harry Truman, Southern born and raised, who desegregated America's Armed Forces after World War II; and it was HarryTruman who was challenged over his commitment to civil rights for black Americans by the breakaway Dixicrat Party led by Strom Thurmond in the 1948 Presidential Election. Harry Truman won that election, to the professional pundits' great astonishment. After his presidency, Truman went back to his family home in Independence, Missouri, and lived the life of a retired public servant.
Joe Biden is very much in the same mold as Harry Truman. Before becoming vice president in 2008, Biden served as a senator from Delaware, first elected in 1972, at age 29, the year before he became constitutionally eligible to take his seat in the Senate. But, like Harry Truman, he came from working people. Truman had been a farmer before World War I, and artillery captain who'd gone overseas during the war, a businessman whose haberdashery business went bust in the recession that followed the end of World War I, returning to farming, until he went into local Kansas City politics as a county executive. Biden's boyhood was also working class, and his father struggle to make ends meet, finding it necessary to move from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, in pursuit of job opportunity. Being part of a working family that needed to relocate in order to find a job that would put food on the table is something that haunts people. It makes people feel insecure about their futures, much the same way that Harry Truman must have felt after his clothing business failed, and he had to return to farming in order to make ends meet. When Harry Truman met his future wife Bess, her mother heartily disapproved of the young man her daughter had chosen to marry, claiming that he would never amount to much. During their married life in Independence, Harry and Bess lived in her mother's house. When, as a United States Senator, Truman had to be in Washington, he lived in a rental apartment, modest by any standard. I don't recall ever reading that Truman ever went out and purchased property in his own name where he, his wife, and daughter, Margaret, would live. In other words, apart from his government jobs, Harry Truman lived much like everybody else who had to work for a living. Joe Biden has done better in his life financially than Harry Truman could ever have done, given the resources that were available to him at the time he was building his career as a local politician in Kansas City, and later as Senator. Truman was always a man of the people, even if his economic situation did improve somewhat during the years that he was a senator. Even then, Truman knew that if he lost a senatorial election, his economic prospects would be bleak. He would not be sitting on any corporate boards, he would not have a large portfolio of stocks and securities. He would've been poor.
Yesterday evening's speech showed us the kind of man Joe Biden is. At the core of his being, Biden is the kind of workingman his father was throughout his life. Owning a large house in Wilmington, and a vacation home in Rehoboth, doesn't tell us the kind of man he is. We see the kind of man Joe Biden is by what he cares about; and above all, consistently, and without deviation, this is a man who cares deeply about all of us, even those who didn't vote for him. The odd thing is, at 80 years of age, he is temperamentally the best kind of person to be president of the United States of America that anyone could hope to find anywhere in our 236 year history as a nation. I think he is a few months younger than I am, and yet I am astonished at his vigor, and his ability to stay in the moment. Whether or not he decides to run for a second term is yet to be seen; but he certainly sets an exceptionally high standard for anyone who wishes to be considered to be presidential material. Obviously, the former president was not presidential material and we will be paying the price for that for decades to come. It is long past time that the American people put their adult hats on and see who is actually able to do the job of being president. From what I have seen of the Republican Party, there is nobody who meets that standard. Both the Clintons and the Bushes, father and son, were deeply flawed individuals who set low standards for others to follow them into that office. The Obama presidency held great promise, but he was too inexperienced to really get the job done properly. And, for reasons I cannot fathom, Joe Biden became president at just the right time that the country needed a man just like him. Who would've thunk it!
I so appreciate this history and characterization of men who saw the presidency as a chance to serve our country. Joe Biden's election possibilities turned on a dime when Black voters in South Carolina saw that an experienced man who spent 4 years with Obama and a lifetime with men like Senator Storm Thurmond would "know us".
Biden's experience, wisdom and humanity is serving us well. There's a spiritual dimension to life that reveals itself in mysterious ways!
Thank you Arthur, for a beautifully written history. “It is long past time that the American people put their adult hats on and see who is actually able to do the job of being president”.,
Well said! And thanks for the Truman bio and drawing the parallels to Biden’s life. Right man, right time, right job…..would vote for him again in a nanosecond.
Excellent analysis 👏 Thanks for the Truman bio information 👍 I think the big guy upstairs is looking out for America 🇺🇸 more than we'll ever know 👍 which is why President Biden is a blessing having worked all his life for America 🇺🇸 😀
The photo of that one woman, her mouth stretched open in a howl of hate; it brought to mind the faces we saw so long ago gathered behind Black schoolchildren as they headed toward newly desegregated classrooms. It was shocking then, seeing those neatly dressed but anonymous hurling pure howling hatred to innocent kids. It’s different but no less shocking seeing that very expression from elected officials directed at our President of the United States. It’s insane. And it’s forever frozen in time, that moment of unhinged lunacy. Shame, shame, shame.
What shook me up forever about the documentary evidence of that moment was not the famous photo of the poised Black child walking past the yelling fellow classmates. What shook me up was a brief clip of video from I believe that same scene of one of the female students covering her eyes and sobbing at the horror of having that child on her school grounds. It was pure hysterics, yes, but so genuine, so anguished, as if her house was being burned in front of her by bandits.
Maybe I saw it on that Oprah episode where the now-older white students repented. But it stuck with me forever. Hate comes from ignorance. But those tears? What level of twisted indoctrination must you be seeped in from birth to see a fellow child with darker skin as some horrible creature whose precense being forced upon you ruins everything you hold dear?
Chilling beyond measure. Those folks on Oprah may have seen the light, but others in classrooms and lunch counters across the country never did. And it wasn't that long ago. They are still alive. And voting.
Hate is still taught in the homes of America. If Ron DeSanctimonious has his way, it will be taught in the schools as well.
Jeri,
did you mean Ron DeSatanist?
:-)
Oh Jesus! There's more than one?!
Trump preaches hatred at every rally. When several racists gather, it reduces their consciousness of their evil behaviors.
True of every gang. Even police officers who should damn well know better.
Totally agree
The party of hate is also the party of disrespect. The behavior of the GOP last night is hard to accept. It was as if all decorum had been declared unworthy of Congress in hosting the president.
If they believe for a second that they're winning over new voters, they're in for a rude awakening come 2024.
I think it’s wonderful the face of the Republican Party is MTG ugly hate screaming, and not the same looking Kevin McCarthy. The difference and disunity of Republicans on full display.
I have a (white male) friend who was born and raised in Louisiana. He was taught from birth that black people were inferior, had to use separate drinking fountains, restrooms, etc. Now he’s 80 and realized long ago that what he had been taught as a child is completely false, but even so, he told me that the emotional vestiges remain and he sometimes reacts unthinkingly which shocks him.
What in hell do these haters think they look like. Do they think they look stern and resolute?
They look like very bad losers. And much worse.
The contrast , of an affable, positive leader and their middle school meanness was palpable.
Joe Biden attempted to include them in his successful endeavors.
They refused it , with real nastiness.
MT Greene is a throwback to every playground bully who needed to assert their dominance over the reasonable kids with that twisted up hate that wants to intimidate.
You don’t have to ask which sixth grader would shake down the first graders for their lunch money.
And as an extra touch tell them she’d come back to finish it
them off if they told anyone.
The vitriol in this group of republicans reverberates in the mass shootings and the attacks on the Speakers husband .
The murders by school aged kids of their peers.
The White Supremecists
heckling immigrants ,
Loading them on the busses at the border .
Lying to them about where they’re going and whats in store for them.
The cruelty is the point.
What was an unthinkable gaffe when it first happened in real time during the SOTU by the first Black POTUS (from a Southerner to boot) has now devolved into expected displays of vicious vulgarity from people with NO decorum, diplomatic skills, empathy or honor. Never forget MTG threatened members of Congress years before she was elected, and harassed survivor-victims of a mass school shooting who were kids. The visuals are right in line with those adults attacking (Black) kids during school desegregation in the 1950-1960s. And now she is the face of the GQP - and it is grotesquely ugly.
The predictable R response is exactly why we didn't watch. They were like yes, bullies and middle schoolers, or the student section at a ballgame. So crass, so lacking in any reasonable behavior, so lacking in basic human goodness. And yes, Sarah, you belong to the crazy party, who constantly demonstrate that they are the party of death.
R response was an all time low. Absolutely nothing concrete proposed. Especially lacking was anything about how the R will improve or manage the economy.
Well, they are now always at an all time low. They have nothing for ordinary people.
The Republicans have no policies. They're only against anything a Democrat proposes. That's their policy. Trump only wanted to overturn everything Obama did like he was obsessed. They're the party of negativity and hate. Their poster girl shows what they stand for...discord bullying hatred. And she looked like Cruella DeVille.
Don't worry! They have a plan. It's guns! As they crash and burn the economy and leave people at each other's throats, at least everyone gets their guns. Sadly, if we get there, they will find that it is not those with the most guns that win, nor those with the biggest guns. It will be those that work together who survive and keep their genes in the mix of humanity. Time and again, nature has favored collectivism and this goes square in the face of this ridiculous version of the American Dream, where you hunker alone in your castle, hugging your gun and repelling all comers.
What scared me was SHS' recounting of her Mother's cancer. I couldn't discern whether she thought the medical care her Mom received was competent or not, or whether the system was better or worse than it is now. Rather, the implication was that the docs had written off any chance of a decent recovery/outcome, but her Mom achieved a great outcome because of her faith. Thus, this preamble to her broader message--Democrats are, and will continue, ruining the country; but--we Republicans will fix everything if y'all just have enough faith. Onward Christian soldiers.
The daughter of a pastor, her vision for the nation seems to be some form of oligarchic theocracy.
Fantastic review here by HCR, and dealing with this stuff afterwards is easier. You can go to the Whitehouse page on YouTube (I watched it live last night) and watch Joe's Address without any distractions. You could hear vague boos and see the way Joe handled it. No need to listen to the pathetic post speech response or even commentators before and after the address. I did watch a CNN clip on YouTube this morning of Jake Tapper's interview of Nancy Pelosi after the address and they showed video the horrible reactions of MTG and others so I was able to understand the comments here.
Good to know. I am off for a two hour massage where I will forget about all the Sturm and Drang.
Patricia-
Yes--cruelty is the point. Some of these people have been conditioned this way. Some of their ancestors may have been among those in the crowd who have perpetrated mob violence on African Americans for centuries. Did you notice that they didn't even stand up for the idea of banning assault weapons? Who do they want to "assault?" I'm holding out hope that Americans will rise up and let these folks no that as former House Representative Elijah Cummings repeatedly said, "we're better than this".
Oregon Rs have vowed to resist gun control attempts and holding down rents. As they are the party of death, they love to see bodies all over the place in mass shootings and lots of people on the street in tent cities. In terms of the latter, they should stop belly aching about the homeless, the crime, the trash, the drugs, etc.
Never forget Oregon openly avowed their new state was/would be a haven for white men (today called white suprematists).
Yes, Mr. Cummings was so right. Perhaps say family or brethren though instead of ancestors. When it comes to (historical) ancestors you can pick and choose what you want to believe but you don't have to be indoctrinated by them.
once you're old enough to consider that possibility
Hey!!! Patricia. Wait a minute (errr.., ahhh sorry, i seem to have lost my notes).. we're all "under god" here, per the 'ike' decree of 1954... yup.., "Christians" all..., aren't we? So, what's the problem , people? I mean.., if the earth is only 5000 years old.., WHAT IS THE PROBLEM, PEOPLE? Huh. (sorry, i seem to have lost my mind, not my notes).
No, we're not all Christians. We are not all religious. None of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians. But they understood Christianity and they were all philosophers. It's not necessary to be Christian to be a good citizen. All you have to do is be civil, ie, be responsible for the consequences of your actions.
I'm sorry Susan, that my comments are often mis-read. One of my points being that in 1954 the Pledge of Allegiance was altered by the (religious-right?) insertion of "under God" in front of "indivisible". Most people I speak with weren't born in 54' and aren't aware of that. So, I find the banner to be more than hypocritical, if not insulting. Certainly, for the reason(s) you mention. And, the real strength of the Pledge, i.e, that we would be "indivisible" as a Nation, was now conditional, in that only those "under God" need apply. Then, to be embellished by the term "we're a Christian nation", for which a definition isn't that clear. Where'd that originate from, any way?
One of the most moral people I know is an atheist. Instilling fear of breaking the rules is not morality; it is indoctrination at the very least. It certainly doesn't come from the heart, which is where true morality comes from.
While I'm not sure that the signers were not Christians, your point is well taken. It shouldn't matter.
It's a bit ironic that we're debating whether the Founders were Christians on an American historian's Substack.
Are you sure that "none of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians"? I know that quite a few of them were "deists" (they believed in a god but weren't formally affiliated with any religion or denomination), but this seems a stretch, so if you've got some sources on it, I'm interested.
Your last sentence says it all and it the antithesis of the behavior of the party of death.
10:26
GOILTE C
A religious person will do what he is told... no matter what is right... Whereas a spiritual person will do what is right... no matter what he is told
@popistillrise
What is sad to me is that human beings of so many different cultures have recognized in some way The Source of all the intangibles that we can't buy in the store (love, peace, joy, etc.) no matter what they call "it," God/Allah/Yahweh/Spirit/Great Spirit, etc. But because this recognition has been co-opted in so many cultures by patriarchal, religious power grabbing, (think for example, Theodosius in 380 CE {EDIT} Rome) we can't publicly acknowledge or call on that powerful Source in any official, non-religious dialogue about human issues w/o offending someone.
What would it be like if we could proclaim something like, "I pledge allegiance to the flag.....one nation, blessed by non-physical Source, indivisible....." So I just realized that wouldn't work because not everyone believes in non-physical source. I guess we have to leave it out, and those of us who do believe can bring it up as we see fit...w/o insisting that anyone else agree with us. So I will do so when I feel called to, when it feels right, like now! Blessings,
Hi Terry,
380.....BC?......for Theodosius?
Patricia For me they look like Edward Munch’s THE SCREAM—melancholy and frightening.
A good image to mention. Thanks, Keith.
I like the poetry of your writing and it has power and reason and purpose within.
Good stuff!
Thank you so much.
I am supposed to write a Substack myself . Ive been putting it off as im not a trained writer. We’ll see . I appreciate your kind remarks.
Your words should haunt that gathering of dark hatred and resonant fear mongers like an echo following them forever. Patrick Lane.
All excellent points. Why can't people in general see them?
As a person who was bullied severely throughout K-12, I remember NO ONE CAME TO MY AID. I tried to get help several times. I could eidently NOT be protected against any bullying. In a similar vein, no one in the Republican Party is speaking out against political violence. nor did anyone in the Mainstream Media speak out against his incessant bullying during P-45's awful presidency. I am sorry, folks, but my belief is this: THERE IS NO COURAGE TO STAND UP AGAINST BULLYING. It's not suddenly going to spring up after all these years of Trumpian bullying.
I would like to say Wendy that bullying has a cure. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my old method of mangle the bastards until they cry uncle. Boy was I stupid, I always asked my dentist which vacation he was gonna take this time. Lo and behold I married a Special Ed teacher. Everybody in the school system dumps their problems on those poor souls. Most teachers are not behavior specialists. They cut and run just like the speaker of the shack. I tried my wife’s method and holy buckets I watched the makeover of a brutal 8th grade girl into charming young writer. Respect underlay the transition. She was failing English. She was too smart to be failing English. Oh, incidentally I was the wrestling coach as well. My wife with her masters in counseling forbade me from dragging evil youngsters out onto the mats and taught me how to get and give respect as a way of generating a working classroom environment. As soon as the young student realized that I valued her input the quality of her work took off. Other students realized she had more to offer. The bullying stopped cold. So many recalcitrant bully’s fell under this spell I realized that citizenship in the classroom must come first. I just wish that we could establish citizenship in the congress.
I was in education for several years and I did not allow bullying in my classroom or the library. I insisted they be civil to each other and to me. I worked a lot with the special ed department and those students knew they were safe with me. I did hear some horror stories aided and abetted by a teacher and committed by the big men on campus. I doubt that all this would work now because behavior has gotten so much worse at all levels of society.
I am the same age as your white male friend, born and raised in LA. I was born and raised in Massachusetts. When I was 9 yo, my family made a trip to TX to spend the summer with a relative. On the way back we “trained” from TX through LA to DC then on home. On that trip, I distinctly remember two things: 1) while on a local bus in NO, I was first on board, with my parents behind me. I looked for seats and saw some in the back, so headed there. My father stopped me, saying we would sit in the front. Never mentioned why. But I soon figured it out as I rode on that bus. 2) at the train station, as we waited to board, I notice two drinking fountains, side by side. Signs explained why; you all know what they said. I have never, ever forgotten that.
I was 9. My parents never gave any explanation or background to these random events. They were fairly conservative and my father often spoke negatively about race; my mother insisted that people could and should “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
Our country has a lot to be ashamed of.
Here is an excerpt from an essay I wrote of this very subject. American Apartheid is not ancient history, but a part of my lifetime.
THE WHITE SIDE OF RACISM
Rob Boyte - June 19, 2010
These are the collected anecdotes of a white guy who grew up in racist America. While I never actually participated in any of the civil rights struggles of the1950s and '60s I was there, observing and living the day-to-day life in a racially divided nation.
Altho I was primarily raised in St. Louis and the 'burbs, I had exposure to the Deep South. My dad was from Mississippi and each summer we would take the City of New Orleans train down to visit my grandparents in rural Lincoln County outside of Brookhaven.
As a child I remember my grandmother getting help with the housework from a "nigra" woman, and paid her a paltry amount of money and used clothing. One summer my aunt was moving to Brookhaven and a huge semi moving van drove up to my grandmother's place. We were putting my aunt's stuff in a little house out back of the main house. Now in the rural South the midday dinner is the important meal of the day and Southern hospitality meant anyone visiting shared this big meal. So the white truck driver sat at our table in the kitchen, while my aunt fixed plates for his two black helpers who ate on the porch. It was the system and everyone seemed satisfied with it - but it did not go unnoticed as strange.
In 1958 our family drove down U.S. Hwy 51 to Brookhaven. That is when I saw the segregation in the Deep South. Every gas station had "White" and "Colored" rest rooms. Restaurants had a "White" and "Colored" side and separate was not often equal, sometimes being just a serving window. Strangely, the food for the white side was prepared by black people in the kitchen who could not eat it in that side of the restaurant.
When I was a teenager I remember the "White" and "Colored" drinking fountains, side-by-side, at the J.C. Penney store in downtown Brookhaven. The water came from the same pipe. I don't know why, but I drank from the "Colored" fountain - probably just teen rebellion more than any protest. Having two fountains was stupid, just as so many other stupid things of which I was becoming aware, so I defied it. Luckily I wasn't taken out and beaten for doing it as a black person would have been. If anyone saw me, they likely shrugged it off as a stupid Yankee boy who didn't know better.
Dirty White Secrets
I remember in my late teens reading a book by Carl Rowan (could've been Go South to Sorrow - 1957) in which he mentioned Lamar Smith a black activist who was organizing voters and who was murdered in Brookhaven in August 1955. Wow, sleepy little Brookhaven made national news! I wrote to my grandmother and asked her if she knew about it and her reply told me a lot about racism in the South; "We don't talk much about that here."
I graduated in 1963 and went into the Air Force, where I lived, slept, showered and ate with black guys. The armed forces had been integrated since 1948 and it was not a problem for us from the integrated states, but probably a new experience for guys from the Deep South.
Once, while travelling by Greyhound in uniform I was asked by an elderly white woman to sit in the empty seat next to her. She was concerned that a black person, perhaps like the black army private I saw in the adjoining seat would sit next to her. I declined and sat with the soldier. My philosophy at that time was the only colors that mattered were the blue or green of our brotherhood. I remember going thru New Orleans by train in 1964 and purposely using the "Colored" rest rooms in Union Station. Again, probably getting a pass from both black and white because I was in uniform (and I wasn't a black guy using the "White" facilities.)
Thanks for sharing this. Your “little “ rebellions - using the colored restroom and drinking fountain - were, as you strongly state, probably ignored because you are white; a Black man behaving the same way would pay, for sure.
And I forgot to add that when I was the same age as the trip - about 9 yo - we also, had a man come to clean our apartment. A Black man; polite and quiet, “Jackson” - his last name only, I always wondered if he HAD a first name. My only sibling was a sister 6 years older than me; her outgrown clothes were given to Jackson for his daughter of the same age. I have thought this was a good gesture, I think I remember it because I was surprised, given my parents’ overall opinions. (See my first post.)
Rob-Thanks so much for sharing your observations and experiences with racism. I too have a lifetime of experiences that force you to question what it means to be human. While Florida and other states are busy trying to hide the truth, our experiences don't lie. I think some of our young people (including those with white skin) are seeing the light about racism too. Many of them marched for Black Lives Matter. This is what scares white supremacists who are trying to hold on to the privilege and systems they established for themselves. I appreciate storytelling. You've made racism plain in ways that no scholarly thesis could ever do.
Thank you, Rob! You are one of the good guys! Hugs
My dad, born 1918, was raised in a Massachusetts town that forbade property sales to Jews but oddly had a few Black families. He graduated from college in Spring of 1942 and went immediately into the Army, assigned to the USAAF. On his first trip South, he was shocked and disgusted by the appearance of segregated facilities being used by uniformed Black soldiers. As commander of a wholly Black supply unit, he said it shocked him again to realize that he, as holder of a BS in AdSci, was automatically an officer while his first sergeant had a PhD in the same subject from Morehouse. He would never tolerate racist statements or behavior and strongly supported civil rights, even as he held old social prejudices about "rhythm" and such.
Too often we think of racism as something that happened in the South because prior to the 1900s 90% of all African Americans lived there. So how and why do so many Northern people harbor some of the same racist ideas that Southern people espouse. The answer is that racism is a feature of American life-it's not just in the South! Racism is a pandemic.
I SHOULD HAVE PUT IN THE WHOLE ESSAY :)
Another Excerpt:
“By 1980 I met Brenda, a black co-worker at a boys' home outside of New Orleans and we became lovers and long term companions, eventually marrying. Her family accepted me (there was history of whites in her family) but my mom (in St. Louis) reacted badly when I sent her a picture of Brenda. She sent it back with a scathing letter asking, "What makes you think I want a picture of your black woman." Wow! I didn't communicate with mom for a couple of years after that. She finally came around and apologized to Brenda and visited us in Florida.”
Echoing your thoughts: scene is a small pizza joint in a small town in Western Connecticut mid 1950s. Three couples enter in the afternoon one of whom is Black (I'm there hanging out with a few locals): "Sorry, we are closed and we will not serve you.") Sure opened my eyes. At that time I was a 15 yo from NYC area who worked after school in a business staffed mainly by Black people, and we all worked, ate, joked around together in what to my youthful eyes seemed to be harmony. As to the actual state of the union, I was clueless!
Anne, I saw my first racist incident in Chicago when I was about 7. I was appalled by what I saw and I have never forgotten it. It was the start of my awareness of it and ever since I have spoken out against it.
Another excerpt from my essay:
“Overt racism also existed in St. Louis County. In 1955 a black family moved into our 'burb and their house burned down. I remember my mother being upset about it because everyone seemed to know it was arson but no one would take a stance and make an issue of it.”
Missouri was the same as the backward south, tho integrated most of my life from the late 40s. My wife who was born in New Orleans, spent much of her early life in Chicago and said that northern city was not exempt from racism either.
No, it wasn't and isn't. The episode I was describing was a black family moving into a white neighborhood and then rocks through their windows and more police than I was ever seen. I wanted to know what was going on and the above is the explanation I got. I thought it was awful. Many years later, in a sociology class, I looked at census data from Elkhart County and that time, early 60s, black people were only in one place in Elkhart County, south of railroad tracks in Elkhart. They were not allowed to stay overnight in the county seat, Goshen, which prided itself on its "Christianity", so Marion Anderson who came to sing at Goshen College, had to stay in Elkhart overnight.
Anne-
Your heartfelt story points to the lunacy of racism. White supremacy is one of the biggest lies ever told and enacted. You're not alone in having parents who were "conservative". The Republicans today who claim to be conservative are trying to maintain the status quo because it serves their personal interests. Who wants to give up privilege and wealth? They're not really concerned about whether America can ever live up to its stated ideals.
I love the idea of America as a nation where everyone has "inalienable rights", and "liberty and justice for all" in the pursuit of happiness. I pray that we can demonstrate to the world that people can live together in peace no matter the color of our skin, the texture of our hair or the worldviews we might hold. We have to let go of skin color as a dividing line and be about learning how to "live and let live". Dispelling the myth of race can help us to make progress-America's past when it comes to racism is not worth "conserving"!
Prejudice does indeed starts at home, but people can change.
As the Rodgers&Hammerstein song from South Pacific lyric says, “You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
Youve Got To Be Carefully Taught lyrics
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
Hence, Sarah Huckabee Sanders's remarks....
Watch ""You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" - SOUTH PACIFIC (1958)" on YouTube
https://youtu.be/VPf6ITsjsgk
Mostly by escaping from the home and environment that reinforces the prejudices. Today some folks turn in to social media that amplifies the biases.
Social media namely fb allows so much nastiness & yet seems to pick & choose minute details to censor. Is there another platform where Heather gives her talks? Other than her talks I would totally go off fb.
Kill FB now.
Early on she explained why she deliberately chose FB to do her talks on: to reach a wider audience in a venue that was open to all. FB has some issues, but I think she did the right thing, even when trolls make it a challenge. I have seen people come on out of curiosity, and then stay, eager to learn beyond what they were taught in high school or even college. Some eventually come to the Letters on substack. The communities are different in many ways, but I meet interesting people in both places, and (trolls aside) enjoy the conversations on FB.
For the live video talks, I go full screen and eliminate the comment scroll to make watching and listening easier, and to avoid a lot of chatter.
As for the nastiness on FB, I simply limit my feed to friends & relatives, and a few interest groups that maintain decorum. A long time ago I figured out that I don't have to accept unacceptable behavior, even from people I know.
I think that she used to post them on YouTube.
Been there
Me as well. It's frightening.
Ugly goes all the way to the bone. No matter how we dress up or donate or vote, our childhood teachings creep out. I hope that when this happens these thoughts serve as a reminder of how fragile the wings on the angels within us are. 😥
I was 15 soon to be 16 when I arrived by train in Atlanta, GA from Terre Haute, IN with my cousin that had moved to South Carolina when she was in grade school with her parents. My uncle had relocated from Dana, IN to work at the Savannah River Plant in Augusta, GA. I had my first experience of the separtate drinking fountains and restrooms. When we traveled to Augusta we were separated into the so called "white car" to continue our journey. Those were my first experiences of segregation and I thought it only applied to the "South". I was in my 70's before I found out that it was happening in my own hometown.
This stuff is so deeply engrained in some cultures, hopefully we as a society can shake it off.
Thank you so much!
“Hate comes from ignorance.” Thank you. Four words. Says it all.
While hate does indeed come from ignorance, the root of hate is fear.
“You have to be carefully taught” as sung in “South Pacific” movie version.
“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made, or people whose skin is a different shade-You’ve got to be carefully taught”. 😢
Spend a serious amount of time in the Deep South…still very much alive and growing! There are several just as hateful but don’t scream loudly. Those should frighten us more!
Yes, there's a lot of hate and ignorance in the South, still. BUT, have you been to Idaho? East Oregon? California????
Will
Thank you for describing some of the emotions involved with way that white supremacy is woven into the fabric of American society. The poise and tears of the children say a lot about our ongoing battle with racism. I'm often dismayed by too many Americans who think that racism affects only people with darker skin-especially descendants of enslaved Black people. The truth is all Americans are harmed by white supremacy.
In a speech entitled, The Ethical Demands of Integration, delivered on December 27, 1962 at a church conference in Nashville Tennessee, Martin Luther King, Jr. made an insightful prediction about America. He perceived that,
“the problem of race remains America’s greatest moral dilemma. When one considers the impact it has upon the nation, its resolution might well determine our destiny. History has thrust upon our generation an indescribably important task-to complete a process of democratization which our nation has too long developed too slowly, but which is our most powerful weapon for world respect and emulation. How we deal with this crucial situation will determine our moral health as individuals, our cultural health as a region, our political health as a nation, and our prestige as a leader of the free world. The shape of the world today does not afford us the luxury of an anemic democracy. The price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro is the price of its own destruction. The hour is late; the clock of destiny is ticking; we must act now before it is too late”.
King compared the possible destruction of America to the destruction of Rome saying that the parallels are too great to ignore. The History.com website confirms King’s comparison by spelling out the reasons Rome fell as a society. These reasons included military losses, inequality, labor shortages, competition for resources, infrastructures in disrepair, government overspending, political corruption, oppression of selected people, loss of traditional values and people who glorified government.
Sounds like our survival as a nation may indeed be in peril because these are the issues that America faces today. We’re definitely on the road to destruction unless we wake up to the reality that institutional racism is a corrosive force. I pray that "we the people" can make a u-turn and head toward liberty for all. We all must stay “woke” and act!
You wrote, "The truth is all Americans are harmed by white supremacy."
Have you read "The Sum of Us" by Heather McGhee? She describes this is detail giving many concrete examples. It is an excellent book, I could hardly put it down.
Racism is learned. I am thankful more than I can express that I grew up with diversity. I only see different cultures that one can learn from. People are people, good and bad.
"...hate comes from ignorance..."
I've always believed that fear, not hate, was the opposite of love. And fear is often rooted in ignorance. Once informed, exposed and familiar with "the other", few of us fail to love.
The sad thing is that there are people who define themselves by their hate, and actively resist questioning that hate. Information doesn't work. It seems to me that change for these people comes about mainly as a result of some event that breaks down that sense of themselves defined by hate.
Hearts of The Darkness
And breeding........
How ironic is it that Sarah H. Sanders referenced the Little Rock Nine in her speech? It's ultra galling given that she's using DeSantis' Christofascist handbook to ban CRT and and censor certain books.
I mean, she didn't really ban CRT. She couldn't. It is never taught in schools to begin with.
It's like if said I spent my Saturday making sure there were no octopii in my bathroom.
LOL! Just the laugh I needed this morning.
I couldn’t help reflecting that she received her Cancer treatment because she has health insurance, and recovered because of that, not her resilience
And the night, looking for elephants in bars.
The were all in the House last night.
Looking for octopi in the bathtub, I love it!
there's only one State of the Union speech. I watched the video feed on NPR. When it was finished and they moved on to Ms Huckabee, I turned it off. This was the President's day, fulfilling his constitutional duty. I haven't heard anything about rebuttals in the constitution.
I did exactly the same thing, Nathan, as did my friend with whom I was texting during Biden's inspiring speech. We didn't want to end our evening listening to Ms. Huckabee's vitriol. Good point about rebuttals!
Ms Huckabee is a prime example of generational prejudice.
Her schmarminess was like acid reflux
Remember when the little restaurant refused to serve her?
She’s the poster child for nepo babies.
I hope Sarah is fact checked. She did a lot of personal attacks.
They did fact check the president . He was not charged w any lies.
I did the same. I’m boycotting mis/disinformation.
Me too.
We didn't watch the rebuttal either, we knew it would be filled with twisted lies so why bother. We wanted to end on a high.
I also did not care to watch Sarahs twisted take on the proceedings . She never entertained / expressed an original thought.
You didn't miss anything. It was mostly about her. And lies.
Thank you.
Since I didn't watch/listen to Sanders, I don't know what she said about the Little Rock Nine. I was all of 13 at the time so unaware although I became much more aware though still somewhat oblivious at the age of 15 when my own high school in Norfolk VA was closed for the Fall semester, my sophomore year, as part of Virginia's "Massive Resistance" to desegregation took place.
I've read about it since, only 3 jurisdictions in Virginia closed their high schools against integration, not the entire state. My sister and I were among the lucky white kids who didn't lose that semester in Fall, 1958, because our parents could afford to pay teachers who took on classes in various other venues, in our case in various church meeting rooms. Again, it was years later that I learned that a much larger number of students did lose that semester because their families couldn't afford to pay for the alternative classes. Oddly, city school buses were running to take us to the church where our classes took place. I wonder if the parents had to pay for those as well? When classes resumed at my high school, there was exactly one young black girl attending; I don't recall any efforts to block her entry. In the one class we shared, she was - as you might imagine - very quiet and low key.
https://virginiahistory.org/learn/historical-book/chapter/massive-resistance
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/little-rock-nine
I'm glad there was a positive outcome for you but furious that so many parents and school administrators were willing to jeopardize their children's future to make a racist political point. A lot of places developed private academies to try to get around the desegregation mandate. They weren't elite in the sense of being only open to the rich but they were exclusively white.
Great observation. It's pure schoolyard bully stuff. I'll act outraged...be loud...play the victim...all the while being the fool.
The schoolyard bully is the potential sociopath in the bud. The ones that that don't outgrow it seem to me to be responsible for most of humanity's preventable suffering. And bullying is not necessarily physical abuse. It's any predatory abuse of others.
And like the school bully, the answer is to address it EARLY.
I actually passed by my local elementary the other day, and there was this one kid absolutely losing it over something on the playground. Devoid of context, I heard him holler "You want me to break your glasses and buy you new ones!?!? Cause I can DO THAT!"
It was actually a pretty decent offer, and the funniest thing I may have ever heard.
Well, assuming he wasn't going to break them while they were still on someone's face.
Don't worry, the teacher barely mumbled "that's enough, Daniel" while not moving or looking up from his phone, so I'm sure lessons were learned.
Seriously though, the other kids were already pretending to be ponies on the other side of the jungle gym. Crazy how much faster kids can spot who is full of hot air than the adults can. I wonder when we lose that ability....
I saw a jnd (just noticeable difference) around tenth grade. (Had worked at elem, jr high, and high school and knew many of the kids through graduation.). I was shocked at how kids who knew the flaws of their parents grew to emulate them. Who was it who said, children may not listen to their parents but they have never failed to imitate them. I know one who did, but it took a while…
Those who inflict serious abuse as adults are, from what I have read, very likely to have been abused themselves. That said, some adults I know had nasty, seriously abusive childhoods and broke the pattern, though it leaves it's mark. I was just minutes ago reading Mary Oliver to my wife. Ms. Oliver, by her own reporting, grew up in a toxic home and found comfort in the wild. Surely there are things we could do as a society to disrupt the cycle of violence for more of these kids.
Ah, 10th grade. When people start to be told they need to "mature." Makes sense.
Yes, "breaking the cycle" seems to be one of the hardest things someone can do. I knew at least three friends from high school years who managed to break out from abusive and/or restrictive families, even when their siblings did not. In each case the friend in question was a female of a sweeter temperment, who I suppose the folks in question assumed would be the easiest to keep down, only to find she had the strongest intellect and spirit of them all. Very instructive, really.
Jeri Chilcutt, “𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.” ― James Baldwin
Now tell the story from the point of view of the child being threatened, please. We need the whole picture.
Ooh, you've created a vision with your words.
Now add to that the HYPOCRISY of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the 40 year old Governor of Arkansas, claiming Little Rock Central High School (her alma mater) is the example of how "there's no racism" while she boasts about "outlawing CRT." For her to focus on FREEDOM truly exemplifies how white privilege means they choose to put on blinders to the lived experience of millions of Americans. Whitewashing or even erasing history is NOT the way to "fix" centuries of injustices. And the five-time draft dodger she held up as her ideal is the one ready to unleash both the military and domestic terrorists on the American people.
Right on Beverly. The nut doesn't fall far from the tree.
"Nut" is EXACTLY the right word!
Same people; different generation. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We humans have taken reinventing the wheel to a fine art.
Mary,
You mean this picture of MJT last night? (virus free google photo link I culled from last night's video).
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tPLb7dqkBSAqu7wr8
Not to be unkind (or "snarky" as Dr. Richardson might say), but, it does look like some mutant, angry, deranged, poorly evolved baboon gone rogue.
Baboon libelzzzzzzzzz! 🤪
Dressed to kill, in virginal white with fluffy fake fur trimmings, so flattering to a prematurely leathery face.
Yes, but there are 74 million American voters who want Republicans to project that angry, deranged face. They proudly proclaim that cruelty is the point.
And mention of the other woman on display who, going forward, buys hook, line, and sinker into the patriarchal bargain.
Prof Richardson’s last barnburner paragraph….regarding the “normal vs. crazy” remark.
“She (Sarah Huckabee Sanders) is probably not the only one who is thinking along those lines after tonight’s events, but many are likely drawing a different conclusion than she intended.”
That woman will regret her words for the rest of her political career. Worst imaginable timing in a speech. She handily conceded the night to President Biden.
Salud, MaryOMary.
🗽
Yes, it was ugly and hateful - and yet part of me was relieved. That one of those lunatics wasn't packing a gun last night; that President Biden reacted with sanity and humor and at one point, turned their rants into a negotiation over social security and medicare; that McCarthy got what he bargained for - a gavel - that he wouldn't dare use to bring his side to order.
And our taxes are providing such baboons with cushy salaries, lifetime benefits, prestigious workplaces, even as they push to scuttle social safety nets, gun safety, health care, pharmaceutical protections, education, etc. Stunning. Forgive my rant.
Nothing to forgive-That's a pretty accurate description of what they want to do.
Except that baboons might be better behaved. Don't insult baboons.
Yes. They are banking on us not knowing history.
Other than the prestigious workplaces (which so many of them don't seem to give a shirt about), it's a myth that members of Congress get cushy benefits. Their salaries are fixed at $174,000 per year. That seems reasonable, unless you are paying for two households. The lifetime benefits are modest by corporate standards. For those who serve fewer than 5 years, there are no long-term benefits. Those elected before 1987 get ~$71K, after 1987 the pension is ~$41K. Nice, yes, but not lavish. Retirement health insurance benefits are likewise equivalent to many corporations or other public institutions like universities.
Yes. But, unfortunately, those employees are difficult to fire if they don't actually DO their jobs.
True. But that's also true of a lot of jobs covered by contracts or union agreements.
Mary Omar y, the perfect parallel.
For my entire life these ‘People’ have been there…as a young man in the 60’s and 70’s with long hair I was called, yelled at, every name you can imagine…while standing in the B of A to cash a first paycheck, a guy behind me was muttering things, then pretended to try to find my bra strap, and, when I didn’t respond, he hit me on the side of my head. In line in a bank, in San Jose. One man did ask him to calm down. I cashed my check…
They have been there and are still there. And obviously there has been and is much worse!! While my experience gave me empathy, the vitriol of that woman, howling at the President says it all. She would be the first in line with the pitchforks!
And they had company in the 80’s with RR, people they knew who thought like them, the myth of the welfare Mom!
So what is different? We are captured, distilled that hate, fear and stupidity and created a ‘Money stream’ to feed their world view…Faux, Sin-Clair, monetized their fear, and they are addicted to the feed. FB, Google have done little, and they are not the worst! Rush, Jones, the list goes on. It’s time to stop the money!
She cooked her own goose last night. In front of millions. She may know no shame, but her howling ugly face of "unhinged lunacy" will be a reminder of what an utterly shameless fool looks like.
Unfortunately, there are many who will see her as "brave" enough to do what they wish they could. They do not listen to content; they are disillusioned with politics, and only see a white man in a suit telling them "it's all good." That's not what he said, but that doesn't matter to them--he sits in the seat of authority, and therefore is a symbol of their own despair. They cannot stand to look themselves in a mirror, so they look at her instead.
Sandwiched between Biden's vigor and her lunacy, McCarthy lost--big time--as he prissily mouthed "Shush" while she ranted. It shows how weak he is--he sold his soul to her and her ilk to get the gavel, and now he is afraid to use it.
Interesting comment by HCR that Biden agreed to McCarthy's request to compliment bipartisan leadership, while she totally ignored him. That speaks volumes about who is really interested in governance...and maybe to whom McCarthy should turn if he is to have any hope of effectiveness. He wouldn't reach across the aisle to get elected, but if--IF--he has any sense, he might consider reaching across the aisle to legislate.
I haven’t looked for the photos yet, but whee-doggies, I’m gonna find the most virulent and pin it to my wall
“This is YOUR public image, Mr Speaker. This is your team”
I totally agree. MTG and the likes bother me in the sense that they have no listening skills. They spout out whatever without reading and knowing the facts. They will not listen to the facts. And with Huckabees opening statement I shut off the tv. They, the republicans could believe trump but… Maybe it is because the TRUTH hurts them.
Some appropriate captions
https://twitter.com/washprobs/status/1623152619572150273?s=46&t=LBkStqh-wxKkuIP3ANY9tw
“What Congressional Aide sat me next to this Banshee??!! Who do I have to pay for seat upgrade?”
Yo, MaryOMary... hohoho, That's what I'd call a $178,000 dollar 'hot air' duct. The shape of it kinda reminds me of the $55 toilet seat with the built-in water-spray feature I saw in a dumpster. Thanks for not mentioning any (her) name.
This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
I noticed that too. McCarthy looking ‘bored’ but snapping awake to so much of what President Biden was saying! Fun to watch ... on my cell in Ca the whole speech and his long celebratory exit was on camera for us to celebrate with him!
I was not sure he was bored, be he sure looked like he was suffering, perhaps listening to the subtle and compelling bite of Biden's rhetoric and thinking:
"Oh $#*% , Oh $#*% , Oh $#*%"
He definitely was not bored, JL, though he sure tried to look like he was. What was hilarious was to watch him catch himself sitting up straight, wide eyed and listening attentively at times, then force himself back into his "bored" act. The guy just ain't that bright.
He was dejected. He could see and hear what was happening. His party was being played for the fools they are. The hecklers were on national television. The President didn't take the bait, rather he turned their bad behavior back on themselves, securing an assent to preserving Social Security and Medicare from budget cuts. I think McCarthy knows he has nothing to bring to a negotiating table come budget time. He is facing no confidence votes from the hecklers and that's enough to depress anyone.
When Biden called on the audience to "stand up for Medicare and SS", repeated, I think, most members of Congress stood up, even the majority of the shamed Republicans, knowing that their constituents were watching. The cameras panned the audience and showed those who were not standing, a telling moment that should be used in future campaign advertising and current media commentary. We know who you are. Your actions or inactions speak for you and are loud and incriminating. Seniors and seniors-to-be and family members of seniors, be alert.
He was monitoring the upstanding behavior of his army.
Yes, and McCarthy had asked Biden to not use the term "extremist MAGA" in the SOTU and probably other requests. He may have promised to keep his party in line during the speech. And then Biden keeps his promise and McCarthy clearly has no control over his party.
Many of the monsters Plutocracy created are out of control, from MTG to global heating.
LeMoine, “Dimmer than a small appliance bulb”, right?
Not the sharpest marble in the bag, Dave :-)
DEFINITIY! ....He is NOT VERY " Swuft !"
He knows where the cameras are. He wanted to look appalled but ended up looking bored. He also knew the cameras were on MTG and he didn't like it.
I thought he was daydreaming about being behind the podium as President McCarthy.
Laurie.....nothing is safe in regards to the Republican Party. They did not agree to not raising the age to receive Social Security or changes to Medicare. The number of sane Republicans is diminishing.
I agree. I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them. I said this before. There are no good Congressional Rs. After all that has happened with them, Trump and January 6th etc ,any conscientious and honest R would have retired or switched parties to Independent.
Yes, but their VOTERS saw them agree to protect Social Security and Medicare. And most of the Republicants have already been informed by their donors that it's political suicide.
Some of the cult may have seen them, but few will remember!
Yes THEIR VOTERS saw them agree to protect SS & Medicare. Priceless!
I posted this one recently before, but about a year ago Romney, seeming as close to "sane" as they have right now propose shafting the young on SS;
"In comments to the Senate budget committee on Wednesday, the Republican senator from Utah said that the spiraling costs of retirement programs had to be tackled to bring national debt under control. Romney raised the politically controversial idea of cutting benefits, but only for younger generations before they reach retirement age." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/mitt-romney-cut-back-retirement-benefits-younger-americans
Also this clueless, contextless gem a few years ago:
"I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government."
For a Republican, the whole universe is a validation of Reaganomics, no matter how cognitively dissonant. It seemed to me that Cheney and Kinzinger were the sanest Republcians left, and they were publicly drummed out of the party.
BTW, speaking of cognitive dissonance, there is an absurd, painful irony to hear Romney admiring Chinese trains when Republicans fought all out war to sabotage fast, usable trains in the USA. I have never been to China, but I have spent about seven weeks in Japan (and my daughter lived there for a year). Shinkansen. and all of the trunk train system in Japan is fast, clean, extensive, and timely. Rural commuter trains are more USA-ish, but work well. They made travel, even to off-the-beaten-path places pleasant and easy. The "bullet train" is pricey, but so is air travel. (Peach Airlines is crazy cheap but packed like a sardine can). I also rode a very cool fast train in Sweden. Because we booked it too late, we "had" to ride in the pet car, where nearly everyone had some kind of animal. It was a bonus.
If we truly are "The richest country in the world" why are so much of our societal facilities second or third class? It's not Amtrak's fault, by trips on it in last 20 years were just horror stories. I get the impression that some routes are OK, and others just plain broken.
In this wonderful "Christian " nation , it seems the only thing we really care about is the profit and abandoning our female population and many people of color and migrants who are fleeing persecution and poverty.
We have never needed someone more than President Joe Biden, his wisdom. experience and goodness. Our country needs to make more like Joe and others who have good character and truly love freedom. "Building Back Better" is such a great slogan. We need to examine that on a personal level as well!!! each of us!
As long as we allow drugs of any type to fill the emptiness of our souls we are running toward an even deeper path of self destruction,. Power and money will never create peace within.
Our houses of worship are shrinking. The huge churches built around "we've got the greatest paster", we do so much for the world and for our neighborhood or city.....look at what "we" built.....well, as happens in the real world.....the THINGS are crumbling. ....
But there is "HOPE" ....... Emily Dickenson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweeter -in the Gale- is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet never in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
There is "HOPE" itself, working within us to produce good as we are directed. How will we answer...it is not a demand.
I find religion complicated, and a broad category for many different things. I think that there is an immense difference between those encouraging each other to explore "How can I be a better person?" "We're better that you" is a cult talking. I am aware that my some of many of my posts here smack of that, and I know from some personal experiences that people can be consumed by ideology yet have another side to them, as perhaps we all do. I certainly do; the point made by Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. But I don't force my will on others, at least not (I hope) in a bullying way. I support arresting and prosecuting people who significantly harm others, but I also know it will take more than that to get a handle on our humanity-wide epidemic of malignant narcissism. Ironically, that seems to me to be the a dominant theme in what Jesus (and other faiths) were talking about, but the focus of the leadership and membership of organizations too often has a tendency to primarily serve their own positions.
JL Graham, thank you for your comment. It is much easier for me to critize than to push forward in the power of Christ's love. I believe, His life on earth was filled with love, pain, sorrow and joy, and as Emily Dickenson expressed so well.....Hope.
There's that.
Biden won last night with forceful statements and big grins at the hecklers whom he shot down very adroitly. He knows how to act, and he deserves "happy warrior" status. And I have never before seen such a sequence as the one that wound up "Stand up for seniors". It should go into the Smithsonian! (Did not watch Sanders, but I know which side she's on.)
I have been waiting 40+ years for Democrats to say in no uncertain terms that Reaganomics is a transparent swindle. That the "Reaganomic" policies that have hung over US politics for decades, patently reversed economic justice in America, not furthered it. I had hoped Obama would focus on that, but he really didn't. Biden has.
Joni Mitchell….Both Sides Now
https://youtu.be/7cBf0olE9Yc
I think of this song as I gaze at our current representative Congress.
I think President Biden cleared some clouds last night. An indisputable, respectful salute to Democracy.
Salud, Laurie
🗽🌤️
I wouldn't trust Republicans no matter how much they clap. We can't relax about SS and Medicare, just because they got caught up in the moment. If they feel tricked by Biden, they'll double down.
They will attack Biden and "the general welfare" no matter what. They always do, and are doing so. They can't let a good word be said about anything apart from their own ideology. Biden boxed them into a corner though. They will go on trying every trick in the book to tear down democracy and deliver the spoils to their wealthy patrons, but now they are on record angrily defending Social Security, a made for TV and perfectly honest "gotcha" moment if they stray.
I think there are a TON of recorded "Gotcha" issues for in-your-face comparisons of what the say and what they do. Their lies have proved very destructive, and should never have been tolerated as much as they have been. The J6th Committer seemed to me the first landed sucker punch to the major corpus of the evil lies. Now an upper cut by Biden.
Home Run all the way!! Bravo!!
Dispatches from the land of the youth! I talked with my little brother recently about this "disconnect" our Professor adressed yesterday between accomplishment and awareness. For background, bro is 22 and voted in 2020&22. I would like to think he would have even if we didn't live together, but *when you live with me you ARE voting.** He thinks Biden is "such a creaky old grandpa, like the rest of them, at least Kamala gives us someone nice to look at on TV," (I reminded him our Dad is basically the same age) but voted for him and the Democrats both times because "I pretty much agree", and the Republicans "are like Christian terrorists who are giving us a bad moment."
He is also much more of a people person than me, to put it mildly, with a diverse group of friends. Talking to him it became clear that his friends are split in two groups that represent this age bracket: the ones who follow what is going on, and the ones who don't.
The ones who follow track with what you would expect based on the near-record youth midterm turnout and those snazzy Harvard surveys: they're increasingly impassioned and see political participation as necessary because we are in a war over basic values and whether they get a future. They liked Bernie (oy!) and are more likely to post political stuff on TikTok than talk about it in person (eh?).
The ones who don't follow see how stressful and scary everything is, but are overwhelmed by it and find the ins-and-outs of news/politics obscure and at a remove, so they just check out. This is little bro's camp, unfortunately. He's pretty tenderhearted, doesn't like the news, and can successfully go about his day without reading the news, therefore - despite being online all the damn time - apparently he... knows... nothing. So obviously he thinks I'm a wee bit of a shill for being so gung ho about the current administration, and thinks that not much at all has been accomplished. He got defensive and asked me to name one thing - just one really big thing, not a little thing like the tinkering with Medicare stuff that makes old people happy, because they are the ones that always get catered to - but one really actually big thing that has actually gotten done that should prove he should have hope that Biden & co. didn't just string us along. If a real change is happening, you shouldn't have to be a news junkie to notice, right? It should hit you where you live and get everyone talking, right? So just name one thing!
He said this like people do when they have the expectation you won't find the one thing.
So obviously I said the first and biggest major climate bill in human history. Mood in the room changed on a dime right there. Obviously that's impressive. Bro typed it in on his phone. Bro was impressed. More importantly, bro was relieved. He wanted to be wrong. SOMEthing CAN happen! A big thing! A thing they said they were going to do and actually did!
Bro had literally not heard about this thing for almost half a year.
Anyway, I started going on about CHIPS and the 11 million jobs and how guaranteed HE wouldn't have a job right now if it wasn't for the Rescue Plan, because do you really think a recent graduate - a MUSIC major - could pick up a job in two seconds flat - in EVENTS AND CATERING, no less - if we didn't have those damn shots getting to people so fast last spring, but I got tuned out for being "too intense" and listing more than the challenged one thing.
Write him off as intellectually lazy or willfully ignorant or unpatriotic or not community minded at your peril. This is a straight-A student who was an Emerald Star State Ambassador for 4H (look it up), a guy who did color guard in middle school, volunteered unprompted for Kids Against Hunger, and was known by name at the local veterans center.
This is not a Dem Comms problem. The other side has a vicious propaganda network assisted by a centrist mainstream media intent on elevating hot "perspectives" over unsexy substance. We have US. WE are the communications network. Voting and political participation are habits. Everyone begins a habit at a different time and with a different motivation. I undetstand the frustration with not-yet-voters or unreliable voters among WE, THE CURRENTLY INFORMED. If you have not noticed the stakes by now, how will you ever? But voting is a habit, and the final key push a person gets to start a healthy habit comes differently for everyone. A lot of people can feel the stakes, but don't know if participating is worth it, or always worth it, and you will not keep them with you at this stage with further yelling about apocalypse avoidance. You win them over by giving them what we all WANT to see: positive results.
For the next 21 months, I beg of you: make yourself a propaganda machine spreading positive accomplishments for our big- and small-D democrats. The people we need to stay in our camp at this inflection point for democracy did not watch tonight. The person they will listen to, if they know you, is you.
Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Exactamente! We need to become individual propaganda machine. Everywhere.
You make good points, Will. It sounds like your brother has potential. He just needs help connecting the dots. I guess that's where you come in! But I do wonder what "positive results" look like to him and others of his generation. For me, a member of the senior generation, to live independently is huge. To see others not as fortunate get much-needed support is a positive I like to see.
Generationally, the values appear to me to be the same, and much as you state. If there is a difference, the general gist is that there is an overwhelming sentiment that the balance of power in society and the economy especially is so beyond in need of change that the cautious, incremental actions of recent decades are no longer viable but actively insulting in the face of it. There need to be large, straightforward programs that transform certain sectors to make life less of a struggle for working and marginalized people, when it is so obvious that we have the resources nationally to do so.
Student debt relief is a good example of this. Biden forgiving that $20k tells everyone who did the "right thing" by going to college: "Look, you got ripped off. You should never have been charged this much for something you needed to get ahead. Here is your money back. You can get a car now. That's huge, right? Make it an electric one. Go live your life and put that degree to good use." If that program is allowed to stand, countless people's lives will get boosted.
The change we need looks like universal child- and eldercare, paid family leave, the child tax credit, and tuition free community college, all paid for by corporate windfall and billionaire's taxes. It looks like a climate corp installing a charging station on every corner.
In short, it looks like the Build Back Better Act. It doesn't look like infrastructure. But when you put infrastructure together with CHIPS and Climate, now you're talking. But this stuff isn't as DIRECT an effect on any given individual's quality of life, so it will take those efforts coming to fruition - and our pointing them out when they do come - to give people who are looking for a sign that leaders understand the magnitude of what is necessary - and are willing to follow through - the assurance that they are justified in putting their faith in those leaders to, as Biden said, "finish the job."
Will, I appreciate your contributions to this tread. So insightful, clear, and calm. One small request: Move to Florida and run for office.
Thanks, Shawn.
Feed Bolsanaro to the gators for me and find a way to lower the humidity and I might think about it.
The actions Biden is taking will take some time to make a dent…that’s why we seem never to invest in the long term but go for the immediate win and kick the stuff like infrastructure improvements down the road. This is hard for a 22 y/o to grasp. It’s also difficult at that age when someone else has been making all your decisions to realize the future is up to you. Keep up the good work, Will—you are a great age to be believed by the 20 somethings.
I was a first-time elections worker here in AZ (the famous Maricopa County!) and was very heartened by the numbers and enthusiasm of first time voters, in their 20’s and 30’s; mostly women concerned about healthcare/abortion, but nonetheless they were there.
I hope they continue to vote in EVERY election!
Kudos. Also consider two generations of Americans have witnessed a disfunctional political system culminating in Jan 6 attack on the Capitol! They have lived through the buying of legislative votes and SCOTUS seats by mega billionaires funding cut out groups with Dark money! Yes they vote but does it matter! Can’t get sane gun regulation laws passed because dark money controls the votes, likewise effective environmental policies!
According to Koch, Dark money (or not so dark), is going to be heavy into the next election but not supporting Trump. Supporting other Republicans especially at the local levels.
Merely a feint?
Preparing for the future. People elected at local level now will be decision-makers in future and have influence on elections. So Rs looking to pad local boards, commissions, offices with people as stepping points up. Dems in some areas doing this too. Need to really focus on this more than we did in 2022, when we let national offices and sloppy news reporting distract us from what's right in front of us.
Hey, again, Will. Your bro may be interested in this latest email I received from Earthjustice. Since Biden has been in office, I have been receiving emails like this from several climate organizations who I support. Unfortunately, I haven't kept any of them...just read about the progress that has been made, and smiled.
"Dear Lynell,
Two years after the Trump administration opened the door to large-scale logging in the Tongass National Forest, the Biden administration closed it by restoring the Roadless Rule and protecting “the lungs of the country.”
The Tongass is the ancestral homeland of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. The 17-million-acre temperate rainforest draws visitors from around the globe and provides habitat for an abundance of wildlife including grizzly bears, bald eagles, and wolves. It also serves as the country’s largest forest carbon sink, with countless mature and old growth trees, making its protection critical for U.S. efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to set a global example.
This special place is safe from industrial logging because of Tribal leaders, recreational small-business owners, commercial fishing operators, and supporters like you — who sent hundreds of thousands of letters over the last few years. You made this issue a priority and gave the Biden administration no choice but to restore protections for the Tongass.
Today, let’s celebrate the fact that the trees of the Tongass will remain standing, as well as the benefits everyone can enjoy thanks to the wildlife habitat, rich cultural practices, and climate stability this cherished forest supports. Tomorrow, we’ll redouble our efforts to secure stronger protections for other forests throughout the country and remain prepared to defend the Tongass from future attacks."
Will, if your little brother is 20 and still listening to your advice, I'm guessing you're one of the youngest people who reads LFAA. Congratulations! Yet another great comment.
Thank you Will. Any reminder of how to engage other people who have lost faith in democracy is welcome.
Less lost faith, and more never developed faith to begin with. A lot of sleepwalking happening, because people don't see themselves as the "kind of person" who is involved.
We have to keep getting through that voting isn't a loud declaration of allegiance, rather it is like brushing your teeth. You just do it. Over and over. Whether your teeth look white or not. And eventually you get what you want: healthier teeth.
Now I am going to get upset every time I brush my teeth :) Good analogy.
I would make voting mandatory. Here is an article that discusses the pros and cons of such in Australia - a country that gets some things very wrong but often is really practical. Like their mandatory retirement system.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23810381
I would make voting day a National Holiday so most people could vote.
Where I've lived, the people who'd be most helped by a paid national holiday for voting are the ones who'd be most expected to work a full shift that day anyway. What about a law that creates a two-week National Voting Period? The usual Tuesday would still be Voting Day, but states would choose at least one of the following implementations:
(a) Voting Weekend, with polls open on at least three days from Friday to Tuesday inclusive, with evening hours on at least one day in addition to Tuesday; a state can choose to open neighborhood polling places only on Tuesday, but if only voting centers are open on the other days, any rules against providing transportation to non-relatives must be relaxed or suspended.
(b) Early voting for the two weeks leading up to Voting Day, with at least two of the four weekend days and at least two evenings included; if (as is usual) early voting is restricted to the county elections office or regional voting centers, any rules limiting transportation must be relaxed or suspended.
(c) Voting by mail, preferably with permanent status. Where excuses are required, the range of excuses accepted will not be limited to physical incapacity or physical absence, but will also include work or school scheduling (do I know people who feel lucky when their one-way commute home is only 90 minutes? Why, yes.) or care of a disabled child or parent. Requiring that the issue be corroborated by a supervisor or school admin or a health care provider seems silly to me, but the signature might pacify the control freaks enough for them to be less unreasonable about this.
My mother (a WWII war bride) often talked about mandatory voting and MUCH shorter election times which I definitely favor. What a waste of time and money to have candidates spend months if not years campaigning!
I think what they are wanting from us is way more than “Get Out The Vote!” They want something they have never experienced: Civil. Good. Governance.
All my politically-aware life (and I started young), was packaged to me as “A Consumer” - NOT a citizen. The young (and truly everyone now) are eyeballs to be engaged unceasingly. Again NOT citizens. The disengaged population, I feel, are longing for good governance, pissed at being duped into thinking that voting for the political circus players will change anything, because they hear -very clearly, and quickly,- another political circus player disputing that claim. They just want the damn system to work! And the Young? They want a chance to be young with a future ahead of them that is not apocalyptic.
'All my politically-aware life (and I started young), was packaged to me as “A Consumer” - NOT a citizen.' That right there, MLR. Many of us oldsters got that very same package.
Yes. People my age (the early boomers, born in WW2) were constantly told that it was up to us to fix the things earlier generations messed up. Huge expectations. Plus the Cold War, and the silly under-the-desk game. We all knew the truth. It made a lot of us cynical. It made just as many of us question what the hell was going on. So some of us were front-runners in escapism, and some of us were front-runners in civil rights and other social movements. I get sick of hearing that we "caused" this or that"- things that happened before we were born or when we were little kids. What impresses me most about now are all the young people of all kinds of backgrounds who turn to us to learn about those movements, and who are carrying on from where a lot of what we were trying to do got shut down (Reagan era). I am actually hopeful for the future because of that. Yeah, a lot of right now is pretty sucky, but I think a lot of it is because the toxins are starting to seep out where they can't be hidden. Now we can address them directly, and I pray it takes. We are all in this together, and we are starting to understand that "all of us" means just that. Part of it means that we have to stop our own building of barriers, so that people will be willing to reach across with us.
Yes Annie
Well said, Annie!
Great point!
Sadly, I think there are a lot of older people who are apathetic and don't vote or engage in things that really affect their lives and the future of the next generations. Anything that can be done to engage more Democrats and people who want to protect our democracy would be great.
Then again, there are lots of us older people who DO vote, and engage in activities supporting organizations that educate and encourage youth/those in need/protecting natural resources, etc. Those of us in our late 60's thought we had won the battle on a couple fronts, only to have to fight the battles all over again. Retirement gives us more time to be involved.
Hey Will, how about inviting a few of your young friends to join this forum? You guys could add something refreshing; it would be good for us old "fuddy duddies" and you "whippersnappers" as well :-)
Will, a link fyi if you've not read it. Spot on stuff from Judd, another worthy warrior. See > https://popular.info/p/how-koch-manipulates-the-media
Judd Legum is a trusty model of a decent citizen.
And yeah, the Kochs are monstrous. As the kids say now: wbk (We Been Knew).
Thank you for sharing your experience with your brother. I have daughters that ask my wife and I what is happening in the world and how it is going to effect their future and their children future. Much of their lives is wrapped up in family and responsibilities of providing for them. They are not totally ignorant to what is happening in the world, just too busy to delve deeply into the daily news. One is a middle school teacher with three children and the other two took over our small sales office business. Both of our daughters running this business have children. One has three boys ranging from 3 to 12 and the other is single with 4 children. They are extremely busy with their families, children, business and relationships. We are so glad they come to us for a more depth of information on what is happening in our world. We honestly try to give them an open unbiased look at what we know. It's to carry this unbiased perspective when there is so much negativity coming from the GOP.
This is where parents can help.
Will! Wow. You are at the nexus of our challenge. And you are eloquent.
Wow! Right on, Will. Dispel the notion that this is a DemsComm problem and reinforce that it is an inherent and deeply rooted problem within the media: a massive right-wing communication network incessently pounding the message of chaos, destruction, fear, racism, and hate while a centrist media incessantly UNDERMINES the accomplishments by pounding a message of recession, weakness, ageism, tfg tfg tfg, RATHER than the successes that are so compelling. The news this AM, while heralding the joys of last night's address by Biden ask "Why the disconnect? What will the White House do? What can the WH do? Uhhhh, come on MSM folks, take some responsibility here for how you over and over undermine and dismiss Biden and his admin's accomplishments or briefly refer to them and then analyze and discuss to death tfg, the repugs, DeSatan, et alia. I hark back to August of 2016 when I knew in my bones tfg would win. Hillary rarely got coverage. Tfg's every rally covered, every sick phrase repeatedly reported. I believe it was August 14, 2016 when EVERY article above the fold in the NYT was headlined with Tfg name. ONE of those multiple articles had Hillary's name in a tag line under the headline. So, it is an uphill battle. Will is correct. We have got to be out there beating the drum. Thanks Will. Must be fun having your brilliant and responsive younger bro such a close part of your life!
Hell Maryanne - you had the same deja vu moment that I had. The media - even the independent leaners, were cowed into submission by the hard right wings "terribly biased left wing media" propaganda machine messaging(obviously, very effective). Trumps campaigns effectively got free campaign advertising, by thrashing (falsely) the media ! They are still submissive to the carnival barkers !
E-yup! Will it ever end...
Well said, Maryanne.
Thank you Will.
I gotta know the unimportant stuff. What is your brother's musical specialty?
I am on board as a positive propaganda machine.
I'd like to know his musical specialty, too, Ally!
Thank you Will! I was talking with a friend yesterday about the young voters who I believe will build a solid constituency against the MAGA EXTREMISTS. They are much more aware of the state of our world than I was at 18...climate change, clean drinking water, gun violence, white supremacy, rolling back women’s rights are all staring them in the face and they WILL NOT CHOOSE THAT FOR THEIR FUTURE! Making certain the young who are pretending not to care or not to see what’s happening is our job. I was so proud of President Biden last night. Do I wish we had a younger candidate for 2024? Yes, I do. However, Biden is getting the job done whenever possible and his accomplishments need to be recognized. It astonished me when I hear that 62% of Americans think he’s accomplished nothing in the last 2 years. I don’t believe that number can be accurate. That many Americans can’t be that ill informed. Can they?
I also question that "statistic". I have seen nothing that explains adequately how the poll was conducted, how the sample was selected, how the questions were framed. And I no longer trust the WaPo to be even-handed. I have been stunned by some of the reporting getting facts seriously wrong and then basing their news on that wrong information. Happening repeatedly now. Misleading headlines, Editorial looks to be messing around with the news pages. So until there's a better sense of what that poll was actually measuring and in what context, I will question its value, especially just before the State of the Union speech.
Agree completely. I found it helps to ask what their greatest concerns are and then address those. Otherwise it can be overwhelming to someone who’s been out of the loop. I do some quick research to confirm my facts, and show them the work that’s being done and what barriers remain. I can usually deconstruct Republican talking points to present another viewpoint. I grew up in a Republican household, so I’ve been practicing this my entire life.
My favorite way of approaching things is simply saying, "Well, here is another way of looking at that.... "
Will,
"We have US. WE are the communications network. "
I agree up to a point. I have probably 14 people in my network.
But, the sum of us? Can we really compete with Fox News where they have expert liars and propagandists on hire working all day to share BS with their millions of viewers?
I have my doubts.
No Mike, we can't compete with Fox Lies. I don't think the people who are devoted to watching such nonsense are the folks that we could ever reach.
It's the people who are not politically involved who we might reach. What is happening on the GQP side is truly frightening. Perhaps if each of us can just get 2 or 3 non-voters to wake up and participate...we can hold this place together.
I too have my doubts. But try we must.
Bill,
I agree. We have to try and thanks.
Look at what the emphasis on person to person communication managed to do during the mid-terms. It works. One person's network overlaps with other people's networks. Nobody has to have a huge following if we are persistant, respectful, and consistent in our messaging. WE are where democracy lives. Elections are a means, but it takes us as individuals simply reaching out as we can to make them feel relevant.
You make a great point Annie; armed with facts in evidence we do make the biggest difference. The right attitude is essential too. No one could 'make me' change my mind, but on reflection of facts in evidence, I could change my own mind. Folks will pretty naturally get defensive - I get that.
: ( I get that Mike; that doubt.
Yes you can! Please do!
Your thoughtful well written comment has given me as much or even more Hope than anything I read or seen recently. Thank you 🙏
I said this earlier on TCinLA’s Substack but it’s what struck me during his speech. He hit it out of the park! I don’t think the Republicans even saw the ball flying until it was over the fence. Nice job Mr. President!
It was political "fine art" if I've ever seen it. They thought they had him surrounded...they could taste the blood...the wolves were howling...and he just dropped the net on them. And had witness to it...and recorded it for posterity. Brilliant.
One commentator quipped, "Now look at the flexing of learned 'political muscle' ..."
Thank you President Biden for being normal and for showing empathy for working Americans. The peanut gallery on the other hand, showed ample reason to vote them out.
Biden’s address was as good as it gets. He was controlled yet forceful. He handled the heckling without letting it get in the way of his presentation. The GQP has nothing to fact-check when Biden touted his successes, which have been plenty. The economy speaks for itself but what he said about supporting people who do not have college degrees had to hit home for many people. America suffered greatly when we sent product plans overseas so the corporations could hire cheap labor, while they made millions. These CEOs knew that they would never get their items made by Americans for the wages they wanted to pay. We have a president who is passionate and compassionate about getting the engines restarted in our country and paying people decent wages. Level the playing field, that’s what we all want. Biden made Qevin look like the fool he is and boy, was that a pleasure to watch! Loved watching Mitt Romney give Santos hell!
As the song goes, “Let’s get this party started”!
Yes, Marlene, yes: “Biden’s address was as good as it gets. He was controlled yet forceful. He handled the heckling without letting it get in the way of his presentation.” Our President is truly Presidential. Party Time. The Democratic Party.
He USED the heckling to save Social Security and Medicare! THAT is LEADERSHIP!!
From ABC27:
Romney to reporter: “I don’t know the exact words I said. [Santos] shouldn’t have been there. Look, he’s a sick puppy. He shouldn’t have been there.”
Santos’s Twitter response to Romney: “Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!”
He IS a sick puppy!
https://www.abc27.com/hill-politics/romney-on-santos-hes-a-sick-puppy-he-shouldnt-have-been-there/amp/
Thanks, Rose. I didn't know about the Romney/Santos dust-up. I only heard that Joe just walked by Santos who had got himself positioned on the aisle to be able to shake his hand?
You’re welcome, Lynell!
From that article, I gathered that that is what irked Romney: that the “embarrassment” (as he called Santos) placed himself in the middle of the aisle so he could shake hands with everyone.
The NY electorate needs to get busy. They could have a recall election in 30 days if desired. Then, a special election to seat a different representative in another 30 days. They could have effective representation by April, regardless of which party wins. Noone is going to heckle Santos out of Washington DC. He's already demonstrated that has no scruples. Why would he yield to popular opinion?
Getting attention IS the point. Doesn’t matter if it’s negative. He’s the TikTok generation, remember.
Actually, no, they cannot. NY does not have a recall provision in their election law. Attempts are being made to get something on the books, but as of right now the only way to remove an elected politician is if they are found guilty of a crime. So first the charge, then the pre-trial stuff, then setting the court date, then the trial, etc. Why so many Rs are urging Santos to resign. They want him out NOW, but he's got the cards so far, and, as the Romney incident demonstrated, Santos is so nervy and full of himself that he is willing to play those cards in the open.
And recall is a state function affecting only state offices: a member of Congress is a federal officer and there's no provision for recall at the federal level. So unless Santos resigns or is expelled by the House, those voters are stuck with him.
Well, that one is still up in the air. Constitution hands elections over to states. Most states recall provisions do only apply to state and local offices, but there are a few whose laws include federal reps as well. For the most part, those have not done well in courts, but for technical reasons, so the question is still open in those states. One state has a recall statute that clearly includes "Congressional representatives" under the premise that they are locally elected. Premise is sound but it hasn't been tested yet. I can't remember which state, and need to head to bed now.
Interesting! Yet another rabbit hole yawns invitingly before me.
Gotta love the tactic of bullies immediately resorting to yelling about accomplishments you will NEVER have. Makes one think about all the people who must have NEVER loved them.
Now that I think about it, I will probably never be President either. Or Pope. Guess it's time to go crawl back into the cave.
It is especially ironic coming from Santos, who as much as he’s likely to “embellish” his resumé, HE will never be a U.S. President!
But Rose, he doesn't need to be. He's already been so many other things. And other people, apparently.
LOL!
And as far as we know, he could be Andrew Jackson reincarnated!
And, we can only hope, he will not be in the House for a full term as more of his deceit--and likely campaign finance violations--comes to light.
Perhaps on his resume he has already been president. Like Trump’s fake Time mag cover.
"He will never be a US President!".
Santos lies less than Donald Trump, so, "weeel see what happens" as Trump the liar would say.
MGT was an obvious problem child. Would lovecto hear her ex’s version of their relationship. I know…I have gone down that rabbit-hole. 🙃
I knew the husband had filed for the divorce, but didn’t know anything else. Rabbit hole hunting I went and a fast search turned several articles citing reports that “the neophyte politician had repeatedly cheated with other men, including polyamorous tantric sex guru Craig Ivey and the manager of the local gym she frequented.” Sounds like she has some problems, indeed.
https://torontosun.com/news/world/marjorie-taylor-greene-officially-divorced-after-cheating-allegations/wcm/7e28bc6b-0c9a-4590-87b0-f33cc39e1396/amp/
O.M.G. MGT has 3 children?? Somebody call CPS!
lol...
"he’s a sick puppy."
Spoken by a man who, while at Bain Capital, destroyed hundreds of thousands of middle American manufacturing jobs by buying up small manufacturers and breaking them up, laying off workers and re-selling the parts overseas.
Yep. I guess if I had to choose, I would pick Santos over Romney.
Santos is harmless (so far). But, Romney is a deadly enemy of America.
I guess one could say about Romney's comment: It takes one to know one.
Definitely, Lynell!
Sad truth Mike. Thanks for poking that deserved 'tire'.
Good points, Mike!
“Qevin” ....perfect. LOL!
Yup Marlene the ovens hot. Time to put the pizza in. Been a long winter. Seems like years. Your infusive joy is a pleasure to see. I’m calling it Happy SOTU to YOUTU.
Thank you Heather, for your incredible analysis and presentation of the most important points. Rousing oratory, I loved every moment. I did not listen to Hucksterbee. She is a windbag if ever there was one. I found Murderess Treasonous Gangrene really beyond the pale. Like a disgusting high school senior on a trip before graduation. (I shepherded many during my long career. And she would have been sent home for such vile behavior...) Unhinged she appeared. And, that white coat....! We are all waiting for Garland and Smith to kick in.
The president seemed to relish the back-and-forth with the hecklers. Not wanting to be snarky, but I did laugh with pleasure at his deft responses and the way the Medicare/Social Security exchange went. We’ll see how the next couple of years go…
He's Irish. The fact we love drinking and fighting is no secret.
And I heard he doesn't drink.
He may not but he used to box in his younger years, I believe.
He definitely "got his Irish up"! and his 5 decades of sparring verbally with colleagues showed. An excellent demonstration of getting a point across with humor (which may have escaped a few of the MAGA crowd), without doing any harm to anyone. A truly decent human.
Will, I'm Irish as well. You know as the day is long that passive aggressive is second nature to us.
Likely trait that is passed in the womb. 😉🍀
"And then, when he began to talk about future areas of potential cooperation, Republicans went feral."
You captured the sentiment of those MAGAs purr-fectly, Heather!
FERAL
in 1972 I went to South Carolina to Pawleys Island Camp Baskerville South Carolina to be with my Tennis mate who had been in Peace Corps in Africa and after taught English to Veitnamese in Saigon. I Loved all we did but realized we need strong black men and woman to be involved and this did occur, Because
We know that we all have the same blood, the same DNA,and only xenophobia keeps us apart. L, Linda
WTF?
Dark Brandon nailed it!
"The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she said. “The choice is between normal or crazy."
For once, a right-wing Republican speaks the truth.
Imagine if in schools, the bullies and the ill-behaved students were allowed to run rampant and treat their teachers in the same way as these so-called adults in Congress treat their President. Why isn't there a procedure to sanction outrageous behavior in the chambers?
My Mom used to spray us two boys gently but repetitively with a spritzer to put the roughousing to a stop.
This pretty much only worked because she knew I was a neurotic wimp who didn't like water, but I feel like we are running out of more highfalutin' options here...
I try not to judge people by their appearance, but I couldn’t help but notice that Boebert and MTG’s hairdos were perfectly coiffed. Spritzing would have ruined that façade. (Your mother should have been there, Will!)
I also wonder what people think of MTG’s fox fur-collared cream coat. It seemed so out of place—certainly, not what a professional might choose to wear while working.
Funnily enough, Mom was a pretty well-paid makeup artist for Ralph Lauren and Saks 5th Ave, before getting her summa cum laude degree in cognitive developmental psychology from UC Berkeley. She would say all of them were wearing too much makeup, and you need to work with the natural tones and bone structure you are given, rather than against it.
Having never worn makeup a day in my life, I have no suggestions. But I've heard it enough times...
MTG would have been wiser to wear a new shiny bridle to the event.
😂😂😂
Your mother understood. For a long time, I was involved in the sale of cosmetics (and lots of other products). She sounds brilliant.
Usually MTG looks like she doesn't own a brush or comb. Maybe the cream coat was a subtle (?) reference to the Chinese balloon; she was carrying a white balloon around earlier in the day and, of course, got media attention for it.
MTG claims that she is making far less money on her Representative’s salary than whatever she was doing before. Maybe wearing fur is her attempt to demonstrate she knows how to look expensive?
I just looked at the pic of her again--the coat's collar really does look balloon-like, lol.
Actually, when I look at that collar, I think acrylic. Maybe a reflection of my own economic status. I own a parka with fake coyote ruff that looks like the real thing. (Indigenous people in very cold climates often use coyote fur on hoods because it filters out the moisture that can build up as ice: the bits of ice just fall off the fine outer hairs instead of building up in clods.)
That had been my immediate thought.
Depends on what street corner 🤔 the howler monkey 🐒 is working?
Yes, the coiffed hairdos, the yellow dress, the white fur coat. These ladies are dressed for the red carpet. They may believe they are movie stars now because of all the attention they receive.
Works on puppies, too. 🙂
And kitties, too!
The vision I get from your Mom's cure, was a higher tech, motion / volume activated device hose-end sprayer, like used to disperse wildlife (deer, etc) from munching on one's prized flowers and shrubbery. Where's the DNC 'meme writing' squad when they're needed ? I wanna' see social media flooded with the material Uncle Joe provoked from the fool's wing. For instance, I visualized a meme in my head of MTG's face replaced with a "Scream" halloween mask. Also, in my head, whenever MTG would cup both hands around her already, megaphone mouth, I saw a donkey braying, with Uncle Joe retorting - in the voice of 'Shrek',,,, "Sit Down Dunkey" ! I was losing it laughing at my own visuals !
According to Huffington Post, MTG became the evening’s leading meme:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/republican-congresswoman-becomes-meme-at-state-of-the-union_uk_63e36c07e4b0c2b49ae6ba35/
... Or, how about this: a meme illustration of a Time magazine cover portraying the new dominant force and 'face' of the GQP wing showing MTG in her outfit with a donkey head braying in the most embarassing fashion ! edit in - ..And by name, call out her voting district incessantly for their contribution to congress - small 'c' and all.
I should filter myself a bit... I 'know' that the gqp faithful gather data here. Absent original thought and principle, they 'borrow' ideas to capitalize upon by turning it around in colorful ways, from sites such as this.
The procedure is called voting. Sadly, enough people are willing to vote FOR them to assure that this kind of behavior will continue to happen. It's the voters who need to develop some maturity and discipline. These yahoos represent the people who voted them in. Maybe the solution is a two part primary; first, vote against the candidate you least want to represent you; then, choose amongst the remainder in the second phase of the primary.
It's called 'picking your voters' by gerrymandering voting districts into 'reliable' sectors; grouping them by data driven reliable, automatic 'r' voters, who would elect Godzilla (and prove it by doing so, repeatedly) Nathan. The whole electorate is and has been really po'ed for a very long time; that's a data driven 'fact' that the gqp has capitalized on, and the dnc cannot muster the honesty to address with facts, hard data, and humility.
There is nothing that the President said that deserves the kind of heckling and disrespect shown by the GOP overall. It is their first amendment right to act like assholes!
I dream, there is no excuse
His address was so much better than last year’s, uplifting even. I’m glad I watched. I loved his back and forth with the Republicans on Social Security and how they ended having to stand up and applaud for leaving it intact, even expanding it. 😂
The best retort of the night that I read was courtesy of a very nice and witty lady by the name of Lynn Geri over at the Steady Substack of Dan Rather. She wrote -
Lynn Geri
"It was a good speech delivered well, by a good man. I think he managed the right tone, played all the songs I care about. I didn't even mind the fish he threw to the seals who are learning to perform... didn't smell up the room too much. A fish now and then may train most of the animals." (lol ! )
I was so pleased with Biden this evening, he was brilliant! Thank you, Heather, for reporting on that important hour so eloquently. I could hardly bear to look at the sleepy, eye-rolling Speaker. Was he ashamed of his cohorts' behavior? I was. I am sure the world was watching and is ever-increasingly wondering "what has happened to America"?
I couldn't watch Sarah H-S either. Perhaps I should have but I knew her words would not be relevant, so why bother?
ditto. and i scroll by her on twitter
[puts on scarf after sensing chill in the air]
I have a 0% desire to ever be on Twitter, but now that I know just how casually Gailee can and does invalidate her enemies' existence with a simple scroll, that number just got even lower.
I enjoy your sense of humor, Will!
Sarah Huckster was a paid lier fir the FatMan. Why would anyone sane or slightly intelligent listen to her today.
After cheering and toasting Biden at his best 😎 and rolling the Rs, my husband and I couldn't watch the gov of AR. But we found a news channel from Japan, interesting and worth-while perspective.
"...drawing a different conclusion than she intended." ...by something like 180°
Sad thing is, the people she is speaking to are all nodding in total agreement.
To them, the Biden/Dem proposals - stuff so commonsense it is already done and settled in other developed democracies - ARE crazy. Absolute lunacy. Tax rich companies? A social safety net that benefits all? Helping other countries in order to help yourself? Public safety without "incidental" brutality? Gay kids being accepted for who they are? This has never been done, totally in opposition to what they have been trained to accept, and will shake the very foundations of what the world around them will look like.
I mean, it really will. So, yeah, madness!
Well done, HCR! You managed to convey the substance and style of the speech, and the lack of substance and style by the MAGA maniacs. BTW, I include Sarah Huckabee Sanders in that group.
President Biden's performance this past evening was an absolute marvel to watch. His topics were predictable, and he stayed away from the divisiveness that gets younger and more hotheaded Democrats into trouble over social equity issues over their perceived rights to self actualization, at whatever the cost to everyone else.
That said, watching the president handle the Republican brat pack in the audience by getting them to deny what they have been surreptitiously advocating for all along was worth the price of admission. Those video clips are going to be part of the Democrats' central campaign strategy for the next 21 months. The president baited them, and the Republicans willingly fell into his trap. All the while, he maintained decorum and kept his Irish temper in check; but hitting the Republicans on an emotional level with his accusation that they were plotting to eviscerate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and then allowing the world to see their angry denials and insults when they knew his allegations were true, served to prove his larger point: these people have no business being in Congress where the affairs of state are handled. They're temperamentally unsuited to the job, and their ideology is anathema to what the majority of American voters deem to be necessary for a member of Congress to do their job effectively. Today's Republican Party cannot argue issues on their merits; instead, they continue to practice the politics of destruction and denigration.
In his own way, Joe Biden is better equipped to be President of the United States than any of his predecessors since Harry Truman in 1947. In the 1946 midterm elections, control of Congress went to the Republicans after the Democrats had controlled Congress for the previous 20 years. He was faced with having to negotiate with a hostile House of Representatives, many of whom wanted the Roosevelt New Deal to be eviscerated, and pretend that it never happened. President Truman was a fighter, and the three-term member of the Senate before he became Franklin Roosevelt's vice presidential running mate in 1944. He knew the Senate, and he knew how Congress worked; and building on that experience, and his prior experience as a County Judge in Kansas City, Missouri, before entering national politics, Truman who had a deal with people and get things done. During World War II, Truman headed up an influential Senate committee investigating graft, corruption, and inefficiency in the procurement of arms and matériel for the war effort. He became nationally known. He hadn't sought the vice presidential nomination, who most people thought would be going to Henry Wallace, the then-Vice President. But Franklin Roosevelt had other plans, and he let it be known to a select number of senators and members of Congress that he wanted Truman to be his running mate, but without making any sort of public announcement about it. (The reasons for that I'll address at another time; but the point is that Harry Truman gained President Roosevelt's confidence that he would be up to the task of becoming president if he, Roosevelt, became disabled or died.) There is little doubt that President Roosevelt, desperately ill at the time he was running for his fourth term in office, knew that he had little time left, and he wanted the government to be placed into the hands of someone whose judgment he trusted.
Joe Biden is a man very much like Harry Truman. They come from different eras, different social and economic backgrounds, but each had implicit faith in the American people and in American democracy. Like the president today, people greatly underestimated Harry Truman, who was constantly denigrated by other men who thought themselves better equipped to be president than he who actually got the job. At the time of his death in 1972, Harry Truman was one of the most respected men who had served in American government. Historians judged him at the time of his death as among the great or near-great presidents we have had. It was not his ability that was questioned when he entered the presidency; rather, the man whom he replaced was the only man in American history who was elected to the presidency in four consecutive elections, and the man who'd seen his country survive the deepest economic downturn of our history followed by our participation in a worldwide war in which America had played a principal role in bringing victory to the Allied side. Beside this rockstar, Harry Truman was a simple man, with simple tastes, who saw his duty, and worked his heart out to get the job done right. It was Harry Truman, Southern born and raised, who desegregated America's Armed Forces after World War II; and it was HarryTruman who was challenged over his commitment to civil rights for black Americans by the breakaway Dixicrat Party led by Strom Thurmond in the 1948 Presidential Election. Harry Truman won that election, to the professional pundits' great astonishment. After his presidency, Truman went back to his family home in Independence, Missouri, and lived the life of a retired public servant.
Joe Biden is very much in the same mold as Harry Truman. Before becoming vice president in 2008, Biden served as a senator from Delaware, first elected in 1972, at age 29, the year before he became constitutionally eligible to take his seat in the Senate. But, like Harry Truman, he came from working people. Truman had been a farmer before World War I, and artillery captain who'd gone overseas during the war, a businessman whose haberdashery business went bust in the recession that followed the end of World War I, returning to farming, until he went into local Kansas City politics as a county executive. Biden's boyhood was also working class, and his father struggle to make ends meet, finding it necessary to move from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, in pursuit of job opportunity. Being part of a working family that needed to relocate in order to find a job that would put food on the table is something that haunts people. It makes people feel insecure about their futures, much the same way that Harry Truman must have felt after his clothing business failed, and he had to return to farming in order to make ends meet. When Harry Truman met his future wife Bess, her mother heartily disapproved of the young man her daughter had chosen to marry, claiming that he would never amount to much. During their married life in Independence, Harry and Bess lived in her mother's house. When, as a United States Senator, Truman had to be in Washington, he lived in a rental apartment, modest by any standard. I don't recall ever reading that Truman ever went out and purchased property in his own name where he, his wife, and daughter, Margaret, would live. In other words, apart from his government jobs, Harry Truman lived much like everybody else who had to work for a living. Joe Biden has done better in his life financially than Harry Truman could ever have done, given the resources that were available to him at the time he was building his career as a local politician in Kansas City, and later as Senator. Truman was always a man of the people, even if his economic situation did improve somewhat during the years that he was a senator. Even then, Truman knew that if he lost a senatorial election, his economic prospects would be bleak. He would not be sitting on any corporate boards, he would not have a large portfolio of stocks and securities. He would've been poor.
Yesterday evening's speech showed us the kind of man Joe Biden is. At the core of his being, Biden is the kind of workingman his father was throughout his life. Owning a large house in Wilmington, and a vacation home in Rehoboth, doesn't tell us the kind of man he is. We see the kind of man Joe Biden is by what he cares about; and above all, consistently, and without deviation, this is a man who cares deeply about all of us, even those who didn't vote for him. The odd thing is, at 80 years of age, he is temperamentally the best kind of person to be president of the United States of America that anyone could hope to find anywhere in our 236 year history as a nation. I think he is a few months younger than I am, and yet I am astonished at his vigor, and his ability to stay in the moment. Whether or not he decides to run for a second term is yet to be seen; but he certainly sets an exceptionally high standard for anyone who wishes to be considered to be presidential material. Obviously, the former president was not presidential material and we will be paying the price for that for decades to come. It is long past time that the American people put their adult hats on and see who is actually able to do the job of being president. From what I have seen of the Republican Party, there is nobody who meets that standard. Both the Clintons and the Bushes, father and son, were deeply flawed individuals who set low standards for others to follow them into that office. The Obama presidency held great promise, but he was too inexperienced to really get the job done properly. And, for reasons I cannot fathom, Joe Biden became president at just the right time that the country needed a man just like him. Who would've thunk it!
I so appreciate this history and characterization of men who saw the presidency as a chance to serve our country. Joe Biden's election possibilities turned on a dime when Black voters in South Carolina saw that an experienced man who spent 4 years with Obama and a lifetime with men like Senator Storm Thurmond would "know us".
Biden's experience, wisdom and humanity is serving us well. There's a spiritual dimension to life that reveals itself in mysterious ways!
Thank you Arthur, for a beautifully written history. “It is long past time that the American people put their adult hats on and see who is actually able to do the job of being president”.,
Well said! And thanks for the Truman bio and drawing the parallels to Biden’s life. Right man, right time, right job…..would vote for him again in a nanosecond.
Excellent analysis 👏 Thanks for the Truman bio information 👍 I think the big guy upstairs is looking out for America 🇺🇸 more than we'll ever know 👍 which is why President Biden is a blessing having worked all his life for America 🇺🇸 😀
Thanks. Wonderful tribute to my first president and my parents reminded me growing up about his qualities.
Bravo, Arthur!
👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋