The NY Times story about Republicans who were aware of George Santos’ “embellishments” of his resumé prior to the election, and did nothing, reminds me of years-ago stories of Catholic hierarchy hiding, and thus abetting, pedophile priests.
Both make themselves equally guilty co-conspirators.
Ralph, the fact that Stinky Kev has proclaimed that he is going to seat Santos on some important House committees rather than hold him accountable is all anyone needs to know about this Congress.
Apparently Kevin views seating Santos on some “not the important committees” as part of making him harder to eject, and assuring Santos that Kevin views him as a member in “good? screw “good”! I’ll take anybody!” standing, in Kevin’s razor thin majority. Kevin is already hanging onto his speakership by his fingernails. All any member of the freedom caucus has to do to get him to jump is to whisper in his ear that if he doesn’t fight for their latest lunatic proposal, like axing critical citizen aid programs to pay the debt, they’ll axe him instead. How soon will Kevin realize that if you sell your soul to make your dream come true, you get not your dream but a nightmare?
Keystone Kev has never had any integrity or courage....just an ordinary power grubber. Shall we set up odds on how long he will be Speaker before one of the nut cases decides he shouldn't be. If this weren't so serious for the country and a wasteful two years of tax money, I would be investing in popcorn.
To think that we have representatives in Congress who have no integrity, and seem to not care that their lack of integrity is on full display. These people do not have any mirrors in their lives for they could not look at themselves with a clear conscience. (Maybe they are all sociopaths.)
They know quite clearly that they are doing the devil’s work —-but they don’t give a damn. They have no conscience—-just as Andrew Carnegie had no compassion for the workers in his Pittsburgh steel mills. When he was showing the mill to friends one winter night they saw workers flinging off coats and more to shovel coal/coke into furnaces. When they expressed concern about the injury to workers, Carnegie said (in essence): “No problem there are plenty more men where those men came from.” Same for today’s capitalist PIGS. Some things never change.
Been from Georgia, my view on that situation is that the Dems turned out in force. Walker still got millions of votes and it was a narrow win, so I don’t see many Republicans being on board with the truth. And I saw way too many Herschel signs and way too many yards. Especially outside the Atlanta area.
The signage ratio countryside to city for Trump and Biden was the same way. Biden in cities; Trump in countryside, even affluent areas. And the Trump signs remain in many cases. True Believers in the CULT.
We live in Kentucky. now. Saw the CNN story on YouTube. Replayed that clip 5 times trying to decide if it was his cousin. (Rodney wasn't credited). My husband got confirmation at his family reunion in Wrightsville a week later. <on brother>
Difference may be Walker story was too well known. He was a UGA football star, and NFL player. People knew pieces to his story to see it didn't add up.
I read that with interprets and it shows how awful and irresponsible the party of death has become. In answer to the post below, they are all sociopaths interested only in money and power for themselves and to hell with what the majority of the people want.
Yes and for all the finger pointing that has gone on, seems no one is pointing at the GOP in NY for not vetting their candidate. The GOP has abdicated any and all responsibility for their candidates and just "let the voters decide."
I agree. I don't know how corrupt it was really early on, but it didn't take long once there were a hierarchy for things to go south. I am reading right now about Helena Augusta who was the mother of Constantine, who was not a very nice guy, but not different from the rest of the power seekers at that time. He was very interested in eliminating his rivals including his eldest son, and showing his dynasty as powerful. How he fared in bios depending on whether the writer was a pagan or a Christian bishop.
I love it, the papal swamp. I call certain aspects of Catholic schools the Catholic Athletic Empire. I mentioned the priest problem to a friend of mine who was a life long devote Catholic when something hit the headlines in the 90s. She said oh they do without blinking an eye. Haven't seen the film. My fav book on Catholic doctrine with regard to sex is Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. I am always amused by Augustine and Francis, who had their fun before they became "saintly." When I was in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, I taught in a Catholic boys' school run by Irish priests and knew the nuns who ran the girls' school, located, of course, at the other end of town, well. They were fine and I have good memories of them. We were married in the Catholic church in Freetown by our principals, by special permission of the Bishop of Freetown, also Irish, as we were not Catholic.
I was also forced to attend 12 years of Catholic school. It takes a life time to recover, if it’s even possible.
I went to school at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, the North Hollywood parish that Cardinal Roger Mahony calls home. He went to school there, launched his rise to cardinal there, and retired to live there. Personally accused of child molestation and rape. Currently awaiting trial for the lates accusation. Responsible for protecting and covering up the crimes of hundreds if not thousands of priests and Archdiocese employees. Leader of the gay mafia in the clergy. Still a “priest in good standing” and complete control of the Archdiocese, the St. John’s Seminary, and the clergy in Los Angeles. Mahony lives in luxury in a $1.7million house in one of the richest areas of Los Angeles, Toluca Lake.
It won't. And now we have a Supreme Court with too many Catholic conservatives on it. I spent my educational career after Sierra Leone in a town east of Salem that is mostly Catholic as well as a number of fundamentalist types. They actually remarked on Catholics and Christian and I had to explain to them how in some ways that made no sense. There is also a Catholic elementary and high school in this small town. Lots of problems created by that, one being that our kids somehow thought that they were morally inferior. Also we were a convenient destination for what we called "Regis rejects".
Just finished Helena Augusta and how Constantine used Christianity to further his dynastic designs and he is also responsible for starting what the author refers to as the Nicene Church. Actually it's a wonder it survived given all the in and outs of this period. Now I am wondering what would have happened had Constantine not converted to Christianity.
Also interacted with a person on the now defunct Maddow blog who I know was molested in a Catholic Native American school. He, understandably, was very angry.
Once again can't give you a heart, but I certainly agree. The damage down to the powerless by the powerful is beyond our ability to comprehend it. Educators often see lives ruined by this type of behavior.
Gaetz, Santos and Bannon. Why on earth would anyone think any of them have the slightest bit of credibility, much less willingly listen to them? The very idea is distasteful. If ever there were an “unholy alliance” that is one.
Leading in the near term prospects for the MAGA party seems to be a predictably ugly government shut down. Here's hoping Ms. Yellen's warnings do not fall on both def and dumb ears... though this may be asking too much of the thrill seekers in charge. Their new love affair with the latest liar in training shows that there is, indeed, no end to the lenghts they will go to add another discredited vote to an action of Congress. Ending with a smooth rundown of the latest escapades of the Liar In Chief, we have a dandy encapsulation of what's in store for us over the next few weeks and months.. Thanks again to the good Dr. for keeping us informed and focused.
Professor Richardson highlighted Ms. Yellen's statement that despite officially running out of fiscal leeway by only next Thursday, the Treasury could keep the federal government solvent until June. This seems to me to be pointed at the Republican House, which in five months might run out of politically expedient games to play with our finances before the country must succumb to the effects of default.
Santos is probably a net gain for Republicans. While the media focuses on this absurd character, McCarthy and the fascists that put him in power continue to flood the zone with lies that confuse inattentive Americans and cause unfounded distrust in Government.
I can not waste any energy on Santos when Donald Trump is the Big Kahuna! While the two men may be kith and kin when it comes to lying Donald Trump is in a much better place to do much more damage. When Santos amasses as much power as Trump has then I will give him more of my mental energy. I was listening to NPR I believe it was on Thursday and the person being interviewed said that the Republicans really want to defund the IRS. So, they are trotting out the lie that the IRS is going to be going after the little guy, when really the promise is that they are not going after anyone making less than $400,000. That does not sound like the little guy to me. Then the person told us that if they can have enough staff to go over the tax returns of the super wealthy they expect to be able to collect an additional 7 trillion dollars in the next decade, almost a trillion dollars a year. Given that Professor Richardson has just said that our debt is 31 trillion dollars, that would go a long way to paying that off. It might even drive off some of these evil doers like Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch to gain residency and citizenship in places where they can shelter their money better. We will be better off for it. I believe Illinois is better off for Ken Griffin having moved back to Florida although he did not go before he sabotaged progressive taxes in our state and he is still funding nefarious causes here. However, I believe he wants to be closer to his buddy DeSantis so he can be up close and personal in funding his campaign for presidency. Ken is no longer on the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago, and has negative things to say about their private school which his children attended. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11414107/Billionaire-Ken-Griffin-slams-Chicago-schools-indoctrinating-kids-crushing-woke-ideology.html
That being said, I am hoping that someone reintroduces the progressive tax in Illinois again. All of the places that have the best standard of living have progressive tax. Vienna does! Hungary does not! Hungary lost out when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up!
Your comment is excellent but the final paragraph is cart-before-horse. Especially the last sentence.
For obvious reasons, given whom they serve, right-wing politicians have always hated progressive taxes on income and capital gains and favored indirect taxation, especially when hidden in prices. This spreads and conceals the tax burden, which weighs most heavily on the poor, especially through expenditure on necessary items like food, rentals, transport, heating, etc. The antisocial effects are important, it's like denying a machine adequate lubrication while making greater demands on it.
As for your last sentence, the Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't just break up, it was broken up by two iniquitous treaties forced on the losers of WW1. The crushing economic humiliation visited on ordinary Germans by the Versailles Treaty fed resentment and revanchism, leading directly to the Nazi regime and an even more terrible world war. The effects of the Trianon Treaty on Hungary and Hungarians are with us to this day. Orban's fascistic kleptocracy is a direct consequence.
America needs to learn the lesson that it is both foolish and dangerous to kick a rival when he's down and to bully, exploit and humiliate weaker nations... Russia has imitated this irresponsible behavior...
Peter, there is more than one crucial lesson that America needs to learn. Has the country's economic system, including our tax policies worked against the workers?
_‘For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades’
'After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today. (PEWResearchCenter)
_ ‘More workers find their wages falling even further behind inflation’
October 04, 2022
'‘A rising real wage allows workers to improve their standard of living. However, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that “… vast numbers of Americans find their cost of living is rising faster than the income they’re bringing home.”
_ How prevalent is this situation and how much is the shortfall? We find that a majority of employed workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages have failed to keep up with inflation in the past year. For these workers, the median decline in real wages is a little more than 8.5 percent. Taken together, these outcomes appear to be the most severe faced by employed workers over the past 25 years.’ (DallasFed)
'...the United States, which has more billionaires than any other country, the top 1% of earners take 20% of income and the bottom 50% of earners take 10%. The less inequality/greater equality in Europe is attributed to the fact that Europe has not let its market economy become a market society, where market forces control other areas of society such as education, health, and wages. Examples of this are social healthcare systems and more favorable labor markets. (worldpopulationreview)
Fern, I love it when you teach us about economics. In 1980, making $3.65/hr, working 20 - 30 hours a week, I was able to afford a studio apartment (a slummy place, but it was home), pay college tuition, and send $ to my parents regularly after my dad was unable to work for a few months after a heart attack. I doubt my son could do that now making roughly 5 times that hourly wage. Now I have a better idea why. Thanks.
Americans also carry the burden of the most expensive (and middlingly effective) healthcare system in the world. So far, racism, and other "culture war" issues have kept us from recognizing all this inequity for average workers.
I got into this argument a couple years ago regarding college tuition, the huge burden that student loans become, and the "work to pay as you go" with a bunch of my (relative) contemporaries. I'm the same, Steve; worked 20-35 hours a week (depending on travel for athletics/music), paid for lodging and food (helped by working in a grocery store), and left college with about 2500 in NDSL debt (2% interest rate and able to request a "pause" in payments when I was between jobs. My wages were $3.50 and my tuition was $300 a term. My nephew worked for roughly $10 per hour and his tuition was $18,000 AT THE SAME COLLEGE.
My first year in college, at IIT, if I recall correctly my tuition was $1600 A YEAR. That way way more than my friends who were attending public colleges. Thankfully, I was a state scholar and received some scholarships.
Rather than the country investing in its future, what you have is those who've come out on top (maybe by virtue of hard work...) investing in privilege for their offspring. Meanwhile, students from less fortunate but often highly respectable backgrounds, however gifted, serve what can amount to almost lifelong indentures.
This treadmill has the advantage of keeping them too busy to spin out any ideas that may come to them, thus guaranteeing conformism and preventing contagion by wokery.
Yes Fern, this catastrophic economic system, this caricaturally unbalanced, disconnected form of capitalism, has failed and, like gigantic glaciers collapsing in Greenland and Antarctica, the signs foretell its impending worldwide collapse.
1. Capitalism overpowers any and all forms of socio-political life. 2. Capitalism can be overpopulated. But my thinking is that the more workers earn, the more will be spent (therefore exposed to capitalism ) or saved for future needs (therefore exposed to capitalism) so the capitalist need for low wages must reflect the market requirement for healthy quarterly reports plus plain old American greed. The MIddle Class has eroded in part because wages haven't kept up with costs, unions represent a lower percentage of the workforce- wait, wasn't union negotiation responsible for sick time, paid holidays, employer provided health care, etc.? And while I'm at it, and correct me if I am mistaken, but auto manufacturers moved to right-to-work state to escape those burdensome costs, but are non-union-assembled vehicles priced the same as union-assembled ones? Cui bono?
Right on, Ed. In a reply to Fern I noted, among other things, that the “gospel” of economic thought no longer includes concern for workers and good wages. The guiding principle is “shareholder value” hence large profits being used to buy back stock, increase dividends (to enrich the rich, ) rather than to increase social good by increasing wages. Until we have a revolution in business “ethics” and economic “gospel” we will continue in this increasingly distressed social condition. Let’s face it, some inner cities today (and rural regions as well) are like third-world countries in that they have high poverty rates, food deserts, wretched public services, etc etc. Sad for a country so responsible for many revolutions in living in society
Far, far worse than sad, suicidally stupid, sawing off the branch on which we are all sitting... and so blinded by greed that they're not even doing it by mistake but quite deliberately...
Thanks Grover, I completely agree, and my issue with economists is that they go to the same schools, read the same texts, same profs, have vastly different "theories" but do not test them. We test them unfortunately. Powell raises interest rates, home buyers are squeezed out, consumer loan and credit card interest jumps, putting a lot of families under water financially, what I could purchase for $500 now costs $625, some pre-owned vehicles cost more than new ones, and so on. Inflation isn't necessarily the sole result of interest rates. Getting MIdwest grains down the Mississippi River to market when there is not enough water to float the barges is not an interest rate problem. I'll stop here.
Depriving average people of discretionary spending eventually lowers their ability to avail themselves of goods and services which is the lifeblood of an economy
Thanks Fern. The quotes tell it all. Once companies put their income at least partially in positive service to all by paying decent wages on which one could live, and often support a family of four (in the best situations) Now, the economic ideology and “true gospel”is that the main function of companies is to create value for shareholders which means reduce wages, increase “efficiency” (track workers), outsource, etc. to increase profits (to benefit wealthy shareholders) while not giving a damn about workers. Sad, sad, sad. How distorted our so-called business ethics have become!!!
Yes. I really cringe when I hear the phrase "it's just business" to justify some of the most egregious decisions people in business can make. As if that makes it all better. The reality is that one can keep a business functioning well without exploiting workers or customers. It might mean you won't get filthy rich, but it can mean you and your employees can live decent lives.
Thanks Fern. Can you explain HCR's statement: New numbers yesterday show that falling gas prices and airfares meant falling inflation rates last month. Overall, inflation is slowing down significantly, although rising wages are among the factors still driving greater costs. I thought rising wages was a good thing.
May I try? It is a good thing to have rising wages. But they "rise" only when other factors remain stable. Note that the necessities are still high; food, tuition, housing---especially rentals, and health insurance. So, the workers are not really getting ahead. The greed machine stays a few steps in front by raising prices. Heaven forbid they should allow the average worker to cut into their margins.
Don't get me started about homelessness, either. Our cities have increasing numbers of the unhoused who are blamed for their predicament. Of course, addictions and mental illness are factors---once there were accessible shelters for them. But, now, anyone earning a minimum wage, even with a recent increase, cannot afford housing. 2/5 of Americans are unable to afford rents and mortgages. 2/5!! Add another fifth for elderly and ill who have subsidized rents and we are left with only 2/5 of our population who can afford housing at all. That is just not right, yet collectively, we blame a slight raise in wages or we believe ill fortune is caused by those who suffer from it.
Gigi, By nature, I am shy to speak for another. In general, I would say given the profit motive, companies charge more for their producta as a practice (whether or not there is inflation). Paying higher wages effects their bottom line, so they raise prices, which in turn raises inflation. That is my surmise, and I am not speaking for HCR. I hope other subscribers will respond to your question and correct me as warranted.
Not speaking for HCR or a trained economist either, but if wages are up and goods are in short supply, prices could rise. Eggs are expensive now, not because of wages but because millions of layers are being killed due to avian flu. I would think there are many reasons why wages and costs are not directly correlated, esp. on a dollar for dollar basis. The stress test generated by C-19 is far from over. Think shipping costs, think diesel prices, think rsv/flu/C19 impacts on hospital and pharma.
Good idea, Bryan. I cannot promise every Saturday. Why don't you consider beginning on Saturdays with open membership depending of participants' schedules.
America did learn the lesson with the Marshall Plan but hasn't been so good at following lessons from history since in far too many instances as the present government works to mend bridges.
My mother, who lived through WWII and the hunger winter in the Netherlands, remembered how empty all the stores were, seemingly one day and the next were full again, all due to the Marshal Plan. How grateful the people were for that important decision may have helped cement the relationship between those European countries and the US. (She remembered that it was the Canadians who marched as liberators through Amsterdam).
A good friend's parents endured the war there, too. They suffered through the terrible lack of food. Her mother was stopped and questioned by Nazis who suspected her of being Jewish. Luckily she was able to prove otherwise.
Yes it was truly a dark time, leaving lasting scars on all who endured it, with some of them living with survivor guilt the rest of their lives. That anyone thinks it's a good idea to go to war is just madness.
I feel that European countries that benefitted from the Marshall plan which are now well off are not willing to share this same largess with other war torn countries. It makes me wish that they were reminded of how things were. A friend of my mom's was telling me how grateful they were to get chocolate out of the sky from the Americans in Berlin after the war. It is the kind of memory that helps one not ever forget to not take things too for granted. That is something the younger people do not have. Therefore there is resentment. See all of this anti-immigrant hate. I feel so angry at anti African sentiment when these countries all made their wealth off of exploiting the continent, including our country, and now do not want to pay the piper. I am just touching the surface of that situation by bringing this up. How about restitution?
Peter, Good point you make about Hungary. They certainly suffer from having been broken up in that treaty, although I guess other minority groups benefitted. I don't feel that Austria feels it as much. My aunt in Germany used to date a man who was ethnic Hungarian from Romania. I always thought it was strange to have been born and raised in country but to have a different ethnic identity. When I was older I realized that not everyone thinks about nationality the way we do. When our Billionaire governor Pritker took on Ken Griffin and other Illinois Billionaires and super wealthy that he gathered with him when Pritzker tried to introduce a progressive tax system which he called a "fair tax." My husband was bothered by Pritzker calling it this, because he felt that renaming it this was not tying it to what it is called elsewhere, Progressive tax. I felt that most Americans don't know what it is by any name and there needed to be more education than renaming it. After all what does "fair" mean. I was taught in a special ed class it does not mean that everyone gets the same as most interpret it to mean but that everyone gets their needs met. The tax system he wanted to introduce was one where people's percentage was based on income, so a graduated tax system. We needed to not only do a lot of education around how it works with basic math explaining how much people of different incomes would pay, but also to talk about places where it exists and how it has benefitted the people. I was looking at places where there was a progressive tax system, and I know Austria, which has Vienna, the city with which is listed number 1 for standard of living several years in a row has a progressive tax system. So does Finland and Helsinki has been in the number 1 place as well. In fact, all of the cities who have been in the number 1 place in at least the past ten years are in countries that have progressive taxation. I had thought it would be good to point this out. Hungary is a country that does not have progressive taxation, and I was comparing it to Austria because it is a country that is currently the darling of the Republican crowd. You are right. They certainly got the short end of the stick.
I did say at the outset that I found your comment excellent, and I mean it. That’s why I was disappointed by the closing paragraph, because what it stated may have been true, yet it lacked a dimension in relation to the general point you were making. So I couldn’t help feeling that your general observation correlating higher living standards with a progressive (or graduated) tax system needed a bit more context, which can be provided by showing up the defects of the alternatives, indirect taxation or a flat-rate per capita tax like the so-called poll tax, resistance to which was the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher’s long spell as Britain’s Prime Minister. (Incidentally, there was a reduction for poor people in this so-called Community Charge…)
But I’d never have commented, had it not been for the final sentence, which seemed so dismissive and unfair on the poor Hungarians. Like Germans, the Austrian population suffered horribly from the financial ruin of their country at the end of the First World War and felt the same resentments. Loss of territory occupied by German-speaking Austrians consisted mainly of South Tyrol and the empire’s principal port, Trieste, gained by Italy. A band of Hungarian territory was added to Austria… Hungary, however, lost 72% of its land and 3.3 million people of Hungarian ethnicity.
After the Second World War, the Red Army occupied a large part of Austria and, like Berlin, Vienna was divided into sectors by the occupying powers. In exchange for neutrality, Austria was freed from Stalin’s grasp, while truncated Hungary became part of the Soviet empire. So it is hardly surprising that, some time after the collapse of that empire, Orban, being ambitious, greedy and intelligent, should have been able to use nationalist resentments to outflank and incorporate fascists and forge a highly profitable personal autocracy. He is to the EU what Ceausescu was to the Soviet Empire… So it is hardly surprising that Hungary should have the kind of tax regime favored by oligarchies.
More recently, right-wing populists did come quite close to gaining ascendancy in Austria but were ruined by financial scandals. I wonder if said scandals would have caused a ripple in America. In Russia, any whistleblower would, of course, have disappeared long since into the country’s brutal prison system…
I apologise for going on so long and adding so much peripheral information, but can't this kind of background material be useful to HCR's readers. Such is America's weight in the world that it's as well that more Americans' should know more about what takes place, not just across the county line but overseas... Especially when the monkey house contingent in Congress see Hungary as a model for America.
Hi Peter, I love that you are deepening the discussion. Both my daughter and I have very close Austrian friends. My daughter's friend has a family house in Burgenland, which was formerly part of Hungary, so she has been with them there. Her friend at 17 was already able to vote in the presidential election, which one can do at 16 in Austria. While her friend was here in Chicago on exchange they had studied the USA versus the German election system and her friend found that very interesting. Then my daughter learned from her friend something of the Austrian electoral parties. I regularly watch German news and often watch Vienna news as well. Once watching the Vienna news I saw that a couple that lived in Burgenland bought a retirement home in Hungary although they did not speak Hungarian, because the land was cheap and they wanted to have horses. They go to Austria for their dental and doctor's appointments since these are not large driving distances. While they claim to have friendly relationships with their neighbors, and the news report made it look like that, I was wondering whether there would be resentment on the part of their Hungarian neighbors too. The area was quite rural and rural areas are not always so welcoming of people from other areas. Given the poverty of the Austrians and the Germans after WWII they are doing really well right now. I agree that we should know what is going on in other parts of the world. It surprises me that the Republican party even embraced Hungary and went there to hold their conference. That would not have happened in the past. However, I also know that the White Supremacy movement is transcontinental so that does not surprise me now. They are networking together and learning from each other in illicit ways. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/11/29/us-american-white-supremacist-facing-criminal-charges-located-in-bulgaria/
apology totally rejected. Please continue to provide such clearly articulated history as frequently as possible to assist those of us who have totally ?failed to grasp? lost opportunities? lack sufficient ? etc wound up at this time and place with frustrating lack of understanding of how and and why we are where we are and how/where to proceed. .I vote for a separate but regular gathering for any of us who wd like to ameliorate the comprehension deficit. It is the global dynamics my mind seems to crave.
So here is, in my thinking, why Santos is important. By the time the smalltime grifter gets to be the mega-grifter, like Drumpf, it is too late. The kleptocrats almost never are punished and by the time the wheels of justice roll around, their power is so huge that they can marshal enormous resources to resist any loss of power--and they can keep on grifting till the cows come home. Bernie Madoff was an exception and the only reason why he got found out (after stealing billions) was because his Ponzi scheme collapsed in the economic downturn of 2008--much as Enron had done a decade before--and he had too many knee-breakers he was beholden to to stay afloat. Political change--as the Rethuglicans figured out in the 1980s and have been adopting as their playbook ever since--starts locally. Grassroots organizations and the slow and steady either accumulation of--in the case of the Ghastly Oligarchs--creeping autocracy is the way we wind up with a PoS like Drumpf. Stopping the grift at the source--on the local level and with all deliberate speed--prevents a Santos from becoming a Drumpf. I'm from the NYC metro, although I have not lived there for a while. I was, however, living there in the 1970s and 1980s when Drumpf began really pushing his weight around and using Daddy's influence to cook the books. And he had compliant and complicit city council people in his pocket in doing so. Everyone thought him a buffoon who would eventually fizzle out. So they did nothing. And here we are. We need to stop Santos NOW.
Time to get rid of roaches is when you see the first one, not when your neighbor starts complaining about the roach infestation that seems to be coming from your apartment. Just saying. What harm could one seemingly rich buffoon possibly do to the neighborhood? Not like he was a pedophile.
"I can not waste any energy on Santos when Donald Trump is the Big Kahuna! "
Agree. Stantos is just following the Pied Piper. And? Why not. It has worked out spectacularly for Trump. He can raise $4.5 million in a single day with superman trading cards.
My bro, who has not always been crazy, blathered to me that the IRS wants to come after people like him. Biggest joke ever. He is on disability and has not a pot to pee in. He is not stupid, but the “community” around there is. Of course, I went berserk, so he has backed off somewhat. He is not a Foxer, to my knowledge, but has long-standing friends from the fire dept. instead of standing up for truth, he blathers their crap. But not to me anymore.
There is some truth that the IRS picks a lot of low hanging fruit because the big time cheaters are all lawyered up. Democrats want to help them catch more Leona Helmsleys. The firefighters can worry when their yearly pay exceeds $400,000.
I am just saying what the person reporting on NPR was telling us. They apparently do not have the money to do complex audits, so that might mean they can only audit simple taxes, or go after people who do not file at all. Also, she said they do not even have people to answer the phones. So, this is something they hoped to rectify with increased staffing. I want them to have the staffing to go after the Donald Trumps not the people like her brother. The Republicans are there to make sure that the opposite happens.
It has been strange to me that a few formerly amiable, educated people I know have gone with Trump, hook, line a sinker. One lady I quite liked has become quite belligerent. GOP is the other pandemic.
Today’s Letter included good news ‘… that between 2012 and 2019 the rates of cervical cancer dropped an astonishing 65% among women in their early 20s.'
MUCH MORE ATTENTION NEEDS TO BE GIVEN TO HEALTH OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death among adults ages 18-45, claiming more young lives than COVID-19, car accidents or suicide. BY ARTHUR TONY BLAIN, family physician and an assistant professor in UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine, as well as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
'My son came home from high school this month and told me his 19-year-old friend just died of a fentanyl overdose. “Two weeks ago, we were just talking about all the cool cars he wanted to buy when he graduated and got a job,” he said.'
'According to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram, fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered. Last summer, the DEA warned of brightly colored fentanyl used to target young Americans. Dubbed “rainbow fentanyl” — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes — it is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults, said Milgram. Rainbow fentanyl looks like candy to lure children, often at “skittle parties” where kids drop pills into a bowl and each child grabs a pill and ingests it. Fentanyl is also present in counterfeit forms of prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax and Adderall.'
'The Drug Enforcement Administration reported that most of the fentanyl seized by federal authorities from 2014 to 2019 was from China. In 2022, the DEA stated that most of the 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl seized was mass produced by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels, in secret factories in Mexico utilizing precursor chemicals from China.'
'Synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, kills more than 170 Americans every day or one death every 8.5 minutes. Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, can kill you. Carfentanil, while less common than fentanyl, is even more dangerous but is also found in drug overdoses. It is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and is used by veterinarians to tranquilize elephants and other very large animals. It is not meant for human consumption, but is also being found in some communities in addition to illicit fentanyl.'
'Parents, family members, teachers and everyone in the community should be aware of the signs of fentanyl overdose. Small “pinpoint pupils,” falling asleep or losing consciousness, slow or stopped breathing, choking or gurgling sounds, limp body, cold and/or clammy skin, and discolored skin (especially lips and nails) can all be signs of an overdose.'
'Fentanyl deaths can be prevented by immediately giving someone in distress naloxone, a life-saving medication that reverses an opioid related drug overdose, including fentanyl. Naloxone comes as a nasal spray and can be either prescribed by a doctor or given by a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription in California and many other states. Fentanyl test strips can help identify if fentanyl is present in fake prescriptions or other drugs.'
'Fentanyl is killing Americans and especially our children in record numbers. Stopping the fentanyl flow from Mexico is crucial to saving thousands of lives. Strengthening border enforcement, passing stronger laws prosecuting drug smugglers and dealers to disincentivize fentanyl distribution, requiring U.S. Customs and Border Protection to review and update manuals and policies to detect smuggling of drugs, forcing China to stop production and export of illegal chemicals to Mexico, and compelling China to cooperate with the U.S. in money laundering investigations, criminal prosecution and legal assistance in ongoing cases, are all part of a multipronged approach to solving this issue'. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The reason fentanyl has become such a problem is that it is cheaper than heroin, so dealers began to cut heroin with it (they used to use baby laxative). That is why so many heroin users overdose. A question often lost in this narrative is the vastly more complex question of why we abuse substances in the first place. That is the only real way out of this epidemic. Another issue not spoken about is that for all the horrors of the opioid epidemic, it remains dwarfed by our people's problem with alcohol, which affects roughly 10X the number of people that opioids do.
Agreed, alcohol is a much bigger problem. It killed my husband. Watching a gifted, intelligent person slowly decline from abusing alcohol is like watching a slow moving train wreck.
Excellent post, hard to address all the truths expressed here. I choose to discuss this one today. China does bring the precursors to Mexico, to trade for coal (fueling climate change of course).In Mexico the cartels have taken over the avocado business and the lemon harvestalso. Anything they see a profit in they jump on immediately. I have a friend who now lives in Morelos, who owned a thriving avocado farm. First they charged him a tax on every box he produced. Then they decided to cut out the middleman, and just took his farm, house, cars, and trucks. He came to Morelos with nothing. He now sells orchids (which was his hobby before)
This is scary. If the cartels are responsible for fentanyl and now have taken over avocados and lemons, are we safe from accidental exposure to fentanyl when we make a SALAD now?
Nope! I am sure they keep everything separate BUT… if you are buying lemons and avocados from Mexico, you better believe they are using every pesticide etc We are lucky enough to be able to grow our own lemons and avocados When we don’t have any for some reason, we buy them locally
Just saw a documentary on this exact subject it’s eye opening I wish I remember what the name of it was. I guess I can google it. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING I couldn’t believe what I was watching very scary
I worry about that too. So, I wash EVERYTHING with soap before I eat it. Our best local store is HEB and a good number of their products and much of their produce come from Mexico.
And of course, it follows that right-wing media seizes on the fentanyl scourge to blame its coming through our southern border primarily on these hordes of illegal immigrants they maintain are carrying it with them. It has been shown again and again that the main entry points of illegal fentanyl entering this country are the primary border crossings via mainline freight and shipping traffic, and smugglers utilizing automobile and truck routes. It stands to reason that traffickers are going to want the larger amounts they're smuggling through to be mobile as that is the quickest way it gets to transit points around the country. It's hardly going to come in via a poor immigrant family who have virtually nothing, save their children and the clothes on their backs. I would like to see statistics, if there are any, of immigrants on foot who've been caught bringing in fentanyl. That's not who to target, but the Right loves to use that as their determinant when it comes to keeping these brown people out of our country.
Agreed Bruce. I has long been my supposition that most of the fentanyl abused in the US arrived here legally, via the ports of Boston, NYC, Mobil, Long Beach, and Seattle. Mostly shipped from Shanghai or Rotterdam.
Right! I can´t imagine the drug cartels using such an insecure and inefficient way of smuggling. Let´s be honest...there are corrupt people on both sides of the border. And the net flow of Mexicans is back home from the USA. Most of the immigrants are now coming from other countries.
Women’s health issues, costs of drugs, the opioid crisis-the things Republicans refuse to address because it might hit their big Pharma donors in the pocket. The GOP undermine our economy by their incredible thirst for more-gouging on gas, food, etc-with skyrocketing profits and a refusal by the GOP to allow windfall profits taxes-I wish the rank and file MAGA adherents actually knew the truth or cared to learn it.
Charlie Sykes interviewed Adam Kinzinger on The Bulwark this week on detoxing from Congress. It was very interesting, especially how pressure is levied on repubs (and probably dems too) by the party to vote a preferred way.
I think cared to learn it is the operative word here The information is there BUT do they actually read anything or look at anything that contradicts their beliefs??
"Parents, family members, teachers and everyone in the community should be aware of the signs of fentanyl overdose. Small “pinpoint pupils,” falling asleep or losing consciousness, slow or stopped breathing, choking or gurgling sounds, limp body, cold and/or clammy skin, and discolored skin (especially lips and nails) can all be signs of an overdose.'
'Fentanyl deaths can be prevented by immediately giving someone in distress naloxone..."
That's wonderful news about the plummeting rate of cervical cancer in young women. But there is bad news on cervical cancer for older women. From Deborah Copaken's (author of Ladyparts) substack:
"If I, a woman who writes about women’s health, was unaware that I still needed to get Pap smears after a hysterectomy, then the conclusions of this new study out of California—that women over 65 are getting and dying from cervical cancer at an alarming and much higher rate than younger women, and that “efforts should be made to better understand how the current screening paradigm is failing women of 65 years and older”—should come as no surprise. But it should also ring all of our alarm bells."
As a Women's Health provider, I think there is a lack of context here. Cervical cancer is almost always caused by HPV. The same is true for penile cancer. If a woman over 65 has been in a mutually monogamous relationship for more than 10 years and has had annual Pap and/or HPV screening all during that time the probability that she will develop cervical cancer is almost nil. If her life circumstances change in such a way that she could be exposed to HPV either by a new partner or by the infidelity of her current partner then she should resume screening. There has also been a large increase in all types of STDs among single adults over 65 tied to the lack of condom use. People tend to forget that condoms are not just useful to prevent pregnancy, they also reduce transmission of STDs. Karen, APRN/CNM (now retired)
I don't blame you. And don't even feel obliged to read it, although I'd be happy to hear if you read it and like it. I did have a very interesting time putting it together.
Deborah Copaken has done a lot to illuminate areas where the medical profession is doing a lousy job by women--and by her in particular, as she's had well more than her share of problems with what she calls her lady parts.
Janet, if you had a ten year or longer history of negative screens before age 55 then the 3-5 year interval is sensible as long as you continue to be in the same mutually monogamous relationship. Once you are 65 you might choose to discontinue screening as long as your relationship stays the same. Unfortunately, some providers do not fully explain the reasoning behind screening test intervals. Karen
Thanks for this post, Fern. Interesting that China is enabling this devastating drug threat from Mexico. It reminds me of when Germany financed Mexico to engage the U.S. in war in 1915, to divert our attention, and our munitions from supporting European allies in their war against Germany. By 1916 we had 75% of our troops engaged in a series of pointless provocations in Mexico. Next on Mexico's dance card was Japan, warming up to their war against us in 1941.
Fentanyl is horrendous, but it is indeed getting a great deal of attention and there are huge efforts going on to deal with it. It may well be that none of the efforts are adequate, but they are definitely happening.
TFG claims, under oath, regarding the sexual assault of E Jean Carroll, that "she loved it". In order to make that claim, he would have admit that it occurred, have to have been there and participated in it, no? How else could he claim knowledge of her reaction to the assault?
He also claims that he "doesn't know her"...which, if he also claims that "she loved it" would definitely have to invalidate the part about not knowing who she is. Yeah, clearly logic has no place in the orange bloviator's teeny, tiny toolbox.
A trillion dollar platinum coin, high interest bonds, or the president simply taking steps to preserve the publicdebt of theUnited States under the 14th Amendment's requirement that "the public debt shall not be questioned."
Love your 'futhermucking', I'll recycle that. But threatening violence is a MAGA thing. How about 'line them up and have a drag queen slap them all across their face with her boa while a CRT lecture plays in the background'?
TC. It has been suggested that a number of the worst of the GOP loonies in the House were active participants in the attempted coup on Jan 6, 2020. I suppose the DOJ is looking into this. I am not aware there is immunity from prosecution for our elected representatives (the President is a special case). Can they vote from a prison cell?
Must admit, I’ve wished for a baseball bat for several decades, would have started with Rupert. Kept waiting for courts, congress, blah, blah…. Will die before any justice comes around, I fear.
Well, Jeri, maybe not. At least I hope not. If we can just keep the faith a little longer, we might get over the hump, as Dr. King said much more eloquently 55 years ago.
I agree. We do not want to become a nation of like-minded monsters who advocate the very behavior we despise. And despise their behavior, I do. It often feels like I despise them. And perhaps I do. But the use intellect, finesse, coalition building, demanding that the media tell the truth, tactfully informing our less informed acquaintances are the kind of tactics we really want to use, don't we? I felt the visceral urge to hit when I heard the baseball-bat scenario, but my better angels cringed and I knew it was the wrong thing. I really appreciate this community so much, and I am learning every single day. So I don't mean to lecture. I just suspect a lot of you are like me. We want a better society, not one created by the demons that guide the MAGAts and their ilk. Let's avoid devolving into war if we can.
What is going on this morning on this board? Name calling and violence seem to be the theme. Trump started the name calling and made-up words meant to harm. I am sad this practice stuck.
Everyone, I’m pretty sure TC in LA was being hyperbolic. We all have revenge fantasies; we just don’t carry them out. We indulge them and then get back to the on-the-ground work.
As a matter a fact we all don't have fantasies of physical violence against another human being. We have been tossed about and verbally abused by trump's name calling, violence and "hyberbole" for years. His followers in Congress have followed suit. His followers in the media and social media have engaged in such talk.
I suspect that the use of hyperbole is in play here. Language is/can be a visceral release of frustration and/or a means of emphasizing the horrors of any given situation, ie James Fell’s Sweary History lessons
A lot of pent up energy gets released, in ways many of us silently smirk at, but outwardly refrain from; yet energy released in any event
But then again, I’m not offended by “words” per se, so this is just my opinion and not an admonition
Bless all of you superhumans who have never had a violent thought or fantasy against those who are spending their energy destroying the USA. You must be a far better person than I am. 🙁
This really is unnecessary Hale. Let's choose to lower the temperature a bit today.
Some of it is how I was raised. My Dad abhorred violence.
The rest has been daily choice/personal mandate. It becomes more and more the first response instead of anger etc. And unfortunately, I've had abundant opportunity to choose not to hate the abusive people who have come along in my life.
When the trump evil rolled into our lives and the covid deaths began and the nightmare had reduced us to living isolated in deep fear I really had to sit down and make a strong decision to not hate him and his cohorts. It would have felt justified and delicious to hate. It would have kept me company in my covid isolation time. I was afraid if I did, I would eventually become like them, violent in all sorts of ways because I was certain I possessed the capacity to be a real mean person.
To sum up here. I am definitely not superhuman nor judging of folks that espouse hate and violence in response to the Republican nightmare that is in our lives. I very much understand where they are coming from. I'll not copy them or stay silent though.
Then we end up in agreement. I'm glad. The trick is to not express those thoughts. TC's comment was violent. It has spawned other violent comments and also spurred divisive talking among commenters. This provides a perfect example of how violent rhetoric negatively impacts.
If you catch the Gym Jordan interview on (CBS? with Major somebody) that I saw yesterday, be warned - you may feel tempted to take a sledgehammer to whatever device you watched it on.
Maybe but with all the REPUBLICAN'TS blatant and unpunished lawbreaking, I think I'm leaning more toward the baseball bat crowd if only to get their attention.
Look weak? Naw Ralph, sometimes, in these forums it's allowable to express ones thoughts, albeit delicately, as TC has done so well. However, knowing there are persons like yourself who would exercise restraint in expressing your feelings in public or private, in that explicit a manner, for the reason you cite, is okay. Life in a civil society is being subrogated by the plethora of twits that deserve to be on the business end of that ball-bat.
Threatening physical violence and even imagining assaulting another living being (notice I didn't say "human" in reference to the ReThuglicans) is never justified, no matter how execrable or deplorable they may be. Don't become the monster that you seek to destroy.
TC, you are so articulate 98% of the time, as well as being verbally creative, that sometimes I wonder in these few instances whether you have been hacked... but "futhermucking" looks like a word you would've created. 👍
Whoa! Violence is never the answer, TC, especially during the period when we're celebrating the birth of the Rev. MLK Jr.
When I was in third grade, I had to write a 'theme' on my hero. I wrote about MLK Jr. and did a lot of research for an 8yo. My male classmates wrote about Mickey Mantle or Joe Namath (I had no idea what my female classmates wrote about, TBH.)
Three months later, MLK Jr. was assassinated.
It was one event of many leading up to my decision to become an atheist and a political activist, from agonizing over the deaths from starvation of children in Biafra (Nigeria) to hearing the ugly words of cops who joyfully busted heads at the '68 Dem convention in Chicago contrasted with the earnest speeches of the protesters and draft-card burners. I swore to my 8yo self that I would burn my draft-card 10 years later.
I eagerly marched in the first Earth Day parade in NYC as a 10yo, and still have the epsilon pin a long-haired, tie-dye wearing activist gave me.
Agree Mike. Thanks for posting this. What is equally disheartening are some of the follow up comments which are also disrespectful and advocating violence.
When I saw it forming (which I have a couple of times over the past year) I've contemplated moving on, then thought that first I'd try reporting. The result was that the offenders disappeared but the rest of us remained. TC's outbursts are occasionally rough, but not insidious, and not sophomoric, unlike some I could name (currently disappeared).
I'm sure it's not, Barbara. You know those three little dots after "Collapse"? One of them is "Report comment". When you click on it, you're asked why you're reporting the comment. In case of real need, it works, swiftly and silently.
I guess I must have missed something TC or else you removed it but I do understand what you are going through and know you to be a little crass at times so all is forgiven on my part. Hang in there.
Don’t let dislike or hate be expressed with physical violence. The teen age type bashing of enemies faces is cathartic but uses energy to no tangible result.
We don’t have the time or energy for such indulgence.
Instead I am exploring my own sense of the Republican Failure and seek issues I can develop to question and undercut the reign of the right.
I ponder that through the lens of history, exploring Locke, Mills and the fervent dream of equality, free of corruption, by the nations founders is a key to unlock this disastrous Oligarchy of the Republican Party.
I see, TC. That way..., err ahh, the way You described it.., their 'deadness' would be due to...if I may say: "Natural Cause"... no? Or, perhaps it could be deemed "an act of kindness" soon to be forgotten. Yes. Thank you TC..., thank you again! If you want you can use mine.., it's a Louie Ville Slugger, had it since I was 8. hahahaahaa lock-n-load!
Shout out to Dr. Cox-Richardson for mentioning the HPV (Human Papillomavirus), which is not only the leading cause of cervical cancer, but causes the majority of vaginal, penile, and rectal cancers, and a large percentage of oral cancers as well. All together, the HPV vaccine can prevent about 8% of all cancer cases in the US, and virtually eliminate cervical and penile cancers. Pretty good for 2 little shots - available at no cost to anyone under 19, or is on medicaid, and is fully covered by most health insurance plans! Still, for some reason, the anti-vaxers hate it.
I keep asking myself, "Are the Republicans crazy?" I guess we will know in a few days. If they are crazy enough to stop Social Security Payments or stop funding the border patrols, it will definitely madden their base. I suppose that they think that Fox News Network and people like Bannon can spin even this move in their favor. I'm not so sure that is the case. These two items are going to directly hit their base. Isn't it wide open borders that they have been trying to own the libs with for over two years? Didn't only about 40% of us seniors vote for Biden? That is going to really be a suicidal thing to do, politically!
Stupid is as stupid does. Go Blue in 2024!
I am sure at least the seniors are going to make them pay!
Republicans are definitely serious about stopping all Social Services and Social payments so that their rich donors never have pay taxes.
It is BECAUSE of Republicans that the deficit exists. IF Reagan had maintained the same tax profile as Carter and all Presidents before since WW II, and, had not increased defense spending we WOULD have a balanced budget now.
Oh, I do realize that they are. I never doubted it for a second.
I took it upon myself to become a bit of a social media influencer in 2022 for the upcoming election. I don't know how many times I tried to tell people that if they voted Republican, they would endanger their Social Security checks. Oh No the MAGA crowd assured me, I was wrong! They would never do that to their constituents! They wouldn't dare! Don't worry, I was told, over and over again.
That is why I say, "If the Republicans do indeed stop the flow of checks to seniors for more than one month, these MAGA Republicans constituents are going to crash and burn their own politicians! It will be a death by suicide for Republican House Members! Crazy and Suicidal. I am surprised they haven't done internal polling on this stance. I sure did this past summer.
As soon as the Republicans cut Social Security and other $upports the MAGA folks depend on, the Republicans (and Kochs of the country) will convince them that it is the Democrats fault. And The Blacks. And The...
Because Biden didn’t do what was/ is necessary to lower the National debt they had to step in and take action.
The premises behind any and/ or all of their spin/ propaganda is to accuse their opponents of doing the very thing they are guilty of doing. It’s called “projection” in psychology. They do it quite well and convincingly. It’s unfortunate their base has bought in and can’t see the forest for the trees.
What I continue to not understand is why corporate America would support legislators who want SS cuts. If our seniors and others who rely on this (and so much else of what is on the chopping block) have no money then they will spend no money. So a decrease in purchasing goods and services from these companies directly, and so on down the line. Or up the ladder. Family $$ that could have helped pay for higher education may have to go to parents. Many more parents will live with their adult kids, so landlords will lose income. Would the impact on corporate revenue be so small as to not impact these companies if SS $$ don’t enter the economic web?
I have no idea what else will be a consequence. Welfare? Will welfare exist? Tent cities? Or are they just hoping people will starve to death while living on the street or decide to remove themselves from their situation, if you get my drift.
Obviously the republicans could not give one sh!+ about people, but that companies donate to people who will do this, well we know their ethics, but what about their bottom line?
Long view Economics is too much calculus for most people, even “business men”. Ask Mike S about the Corporate Mentality of next quarter’s profit report. Its all about immediacy
As a response to: “I wonder how the budgets of red states will fare without the infusion of federal $$$.”
This is too funny not to pass on. It’s a few years old but still as apropos as the day it was written.
—————-
Red States Want to Secede? Go Ahead. Make Our Day.
(A poll from Public Policy Polling reports that 25 percent of Republicans would like their state to secede from the Union. Nearly 1 million Americans have signed petitions calling for secession including over 100,000 in Texas and over 50,000 in Georgia. So, cribbing from a viral email that's been making its way around the internet in the spirit of fair use and adding my own evil satiric thoughts, here's a response.)
So some of you patriotic Americans in Red States are so mad that a Kenyan, Muslim, socialist black man got elected President of the USA for a second time that you want to demonstrate your patriotism by seceding from the United States of American? Go ahead. Make our day.
But be careful what you wish for. Here's how it could go down, and it might not be so pretty for you after all is said and done.
We would get the West Coast, all of the Northeast and the upper Midwest.
You would get Texas, Oklahoma and all the former slave states.
We would keep Hawaii too, the foreign country with warm water and beautiful beaches where Barack Hussein Obama was born without a birth certificate.
You can have Alaska and stare at Russia from your front porches.
To be fair, we may have to split up some states.
You get North Florida. We get South Florida. After all, what would you want with all those gay people in South Beach and old Jews in Miami?
We get North Virginia. You get South Virginia. To be fair, we'll let you keep the University of Virginia. Go Cavaliers! Plus you need at least one place to educate some leaders who believe in science.
But Austin, Atlanta and New Orleans get to be their own Blue city/states, sort of like West Berlin before the Wall came down. We'll even pay to move the capital of Texas from Austin to W's hometown of Midland, where as one native recently put it, "There used to be one Democrat in town, but I think she died".
We might even merge with Canada. That way we get single-payer healthcare, solvent banks, the Royal Canadian Mounties, and Ryan Gosling (eat your hearts our Red-nation women).
To sum up briefly:
We get Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z and Beyonce. You get Ted Nugent and Meatloaf.
Plus Willie Nelson gets to park his bus anywhere he likes in the Blue America.
We get Elizabeth Warren. You get Todd Aiken. (Hey, we'll even keep Chris Christie. He's too large to move, anyway.)
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get the New York Philharmonic. You get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
We get Oprah. You get Paula Deen.
And Blue America will have an easy repatriation policy for the ancestors of slaves still stuck in the former Confederate states, as well as a path to citizenship for undocumented workers and their children from both Red and Blue America who have worked hard/studied hard and put down roots. We'll even have a 21st century version of "40 acres and a mule" with education, job training and work at a fair wage for those who need it. (But here's a warning: good luck getting your crops picked, your kids asses wiped, and your pools cleaned without a bunch of low-paid undocumented workers.)
Any Red-nation NBA team that wants to gets to move to a Blue state city without its own team. Hey, how about them World Champion Pittsburgh Thunder?
And the New York Jets will send you back Tim Tebow for a player to be named later.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get backwoods crystal meth labs.
We get Intel, Microsoft and Apple. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to pay your fair share for once.
Speaking of all those federal taxes you love to hate. Most of it comes from us and goes to you. So stop talking nonsense about how "It's our money, not the government's money". Of the 19 states that send more money to Washington than they get back in benefits, 14 are Blue. And of 31 states that get more money back from the Feds than they pay in taxes, 23 are Red. It's not your money. It's our f**cking money. So from here on out, you can pay for your own damn roads and bridges.
Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate? It's Taxachusetts, the first state to recognize gay marriage. Think that's some aberration? How about this? 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are in the Blue states. And where are the highest divorce rates? 10 of the top 10 are Red.
But gay people getting married is going to ruin the family for you? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own.
So we get a bunch of happy families, straight and gay. You get a bunch of single moms and deadbeat dads.
With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve Texas wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92 percent of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, and Bob Jones University.
So, as we said at the start. You want to secede? Go ahead. Make our Day. But be careful what you wish for. You might not be so happy if you actually got it. If you ask nicely, we might even take you back.
Yes, I had already read that article. It fed my own understanding of just who was still left in the Republican Party. My conclusion is that it is only the crazies and alt-right with a healthy sprinkling of Greedy ultra rich to fund them! Oh, I forgot the Christian Nationalists, but I think the more moderate fringe of this particular variety of Republican ,they will loose if they do indeed crash the economy.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Republican wet dream is to stop Social Security and border control during a Democratic President’s term. That way they can respond to outrage with outrage: look what this Democrat President did to you. Sadly, their base will believe them and the divisiveness and violence will continue.
The Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing exactly what most of us thought they would do, giving the MAGA maggots bread and circuses to entertain them and accomplishing NOTHING of value to the Country at large. What else could we or anyone with a modicum of intelligence expect? They told us. They want to "bring down the government" because destroying the government is the only way to achieve their goals, a lifetime dictatorship, preferably with a crowd pleasing, intellectually challenged puppet (trump so exactly fit their bill) a single party, allowing no opposition, (you jail, poison, drop your opposition from tall buildings, or 'accidentally' shoot them during an 'attempted escape') McCarthy already announced he will not allow changes in the debt ceiling without massive cuts to all safety nets for ordinary citizens. After all if a few million of us die of disease or starvation, so long as their super wealthy donors and the maggots survive what difference does it make. It's going to be interesting to see how the 1% react when their consumers can no longer buy their products, initially because they lack the funds, and soon after because they are dying. The 14th amendment, like the Constitution as a whole has never mattered to these traitorous politicians. They refuse to enforce those articles and amendments which cannot be misinterpreted, and misinterpret the rest.
It would be interesting to survey how many close relatives of these self-centered “legislators” rely on Social Security, Medicare, and the like. Can’t you just hear them trying to explain to Grandma or Uncle Whoever why they think this is a good idea?
Not to mention MAGA types. Let's see what they say if the SS checks stop and Medicare won't pay their medical bills. Of course they're so ill-informed, they'll blame the Deep State and some conspiracy.
I see a bad situation on the horizon. McCarthy realizes he has to raise the debt ceiling by brokering some kind of deal that also does not hit programs like Social Security and Medicare because seniors would revolt. Matt Gaetz or another member of the Chaos Caucus calls for a vote to vacate the Speakership. The House cannot function until a new Speaker is elected. The US defaults.
The Republicans are already touting a plan that would allow interest payments on the debt to be paid technically avoiding default but would suspend all other "non-essential" payments like funding the FDA and FAA and Medicare and Medicaid and ....
So absurd and hypocritical that the Republicans won't acknowledge that 40% of the debt was incurred during just the 4 years of Trump's presidency with their great giveaway tax cut to the wealthy and corporations.
But I still do not understand why the debt ceiling was not raised in Deember when Democrats still had control of both the House and Senate...Does anyone know why?
When you say that 40% of the debt was incurred in the four years of the Trump administration, you are misapprehending the case. According to HCR's post, the debt, now about $31T, _grew_ by 40% under the former guy.
A little math tells us that if the debt is now $31T and it grew by 40%, it must've been about $22.14T before the former guy started soiling the presidential bedsheets
(x+.4x=31 --> 1.4x=31 --> x=31/1.4=22.14).
Thus the former guy added about $8.86T to the current debt (31-22.14=8.86). That's a very great deal of money and is a very bad thing to have done, especially since tax cuts for the rich drove much or most of that, but it's altogether different from having incurred 40% of the debt, which would be $12.4T (31*.4=12.4), a difference of roughly $3.54 trillion.
To update Everett Dirksen's famous line, "A trillion here, a trillion there... pretty soon it adds up to real money." (Anyone here old enough to remember Dirksen?)
There’s always been the same old Republican playbook. Cut taxes, funnel money to crony projects, run up the debt when they control the Presidency. Leave the mess (and blame it on) the next Democratic Administration and scream about the need to cut the tattered social safety net just a little more. And since voters don’t understand this history, we are all damned to repeat it.
Where are you reading that 40 percent of the current national debt was incurred by Trump? Can you cite the source? I’m not a supporter of pushing the country into default, but I don’t think we can tax collect our way out of it either. Here is some debt information. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/us-debt-by-president-by-dollar-and-percent-3306296
Donald Trump, as we have repeatedly seen, is his own worst enemy. That said, all of us are treating Trump as some sort of rogue royalty. We are wont to treat Trump as some sort of rakish, bad boy pirate prince, part of which we envy for his brashness and middle finger-salute to propriety. The fact that Trump appeals to our worst instincts, where his antics are apt to provoke chuckles rather than outrage, I think has a lot to do with a society that is free to speak its mind, even if most people are deprived of material prosperity. That is an attitude of decadence that one associates with not only the unfair distribution of the world's goods and wealth itself, but the utter hypocrisy and corruption of language that Trump and his followers used to justify their insatiable appetite for wealth, and above all power. The real problem is that Washington DC is too far removed from the people government is supposed to serve. We don't know those people; and more importantly, they don't know us, nor did they want to.
We, as a people, cannot learn from our history, because that history itself is appropriated for self-glorifying popular entertainment and our desperate search for any narrative that makes us feel better about ourselves, no matter what the truth of the matter is. As the saying goes, when the myth is confronted by the truth, print the myth. Right now were faced with a Republican Party that is in thrall with a dystopian myth about what our country is all about. They revel in this myth because in it, they are both the heroes, and the victims of the system of government that they do not understand; that system of government is beyond their ability to comprehend; but mostly, they don't care about. It's not *real* in the sense that they see no connection between that government and their own lives, even if they do recognize some of the pieces. In some sense, we've always been like this. From the time the first colonies were settled, whether was the Carolinas, Virginia, or Western New England, those who could not make life work for them tended to move west toward the frontier, where they didn't have to deal with a lot of other people who wore frock coats and fancy hats. These were people who didn't fit in. Ultimately, they found a hero in Andrew Jackson, our first populist president who scandalized Washington society, and turn the world they knew upside down. These were the people with a chip on their shoulder who disdained the highfalutin manners of society and its members who look down upon clerks, shopkeepers, tradesmen, and those who had to work for a living. Those who couldn't find a worthwhile job were often just the people who launch themselves into political careers. Abraham Lincoln was a land surveyor before he became a lawyer and a politician. And he was one of many ambitious men who wanted to make their mark in the world, but had no capital, and no taste for running a business or farming the land. Many of these men ran for public office, and especially legislative office, because it gave them the opportunity to rewrite the rules in their own favor. For every one of those who saw himself as bound for life in public service, there were many more who saw politics as the springboard to something better than they had before. And Donald Trump is the apotheosis of that mindset
E. Jean Carroll is suing Donald Trump for sexual assault that occurred three decades ago. Trumps defense, if you can call it that, is to act as if he's being accused of bad taste in the type of woman that he wanted to get it on with, rather than the brutal display of physical power that Trump inflicted on Carroll those many years ago, simply because Trump was sure he could get away with it. And that he did, at least until now. As I understand it, Carroll kept the clothing she was wearing at the time without ever having it cleansed of Trump's spoor, his DNA, and that DNA is now part of the body of evidence Carroll's attorneys will now be using to prove their case against the former president. It that is a clear parallel to what happened to another president, Bill Clinton, in his illicit relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At least in President Clinton's case, hitting on Lewinsky was apparently matched by her enthusiastic consent and participation. That didn't make it right, but it does make it understandable. Does Trump care that he degraded Jean Carroll and left her in a state of humiliation for going on 30 years? Obviously not. Does it bother him that a court will order him to pay significant damages to his victim? Again, nope. Does Trump think that his reputation will suffer in any way as a consequence? Again, extremely doubtful. In Trump's mind, Jean Carroll is not even a real person; in his mind she entered his life for the purpose of servicing him, and the only feeling that Trump is willing to recognize in himself is his anger that Jean Carroll did not keep quiet about it. By way of comparison, Trump and Elon Musk are fraternal twins; they share the same outlook on life, especially their presumed right to do whatever they want, regardless of the cost to anyone else. The Trump Republican Party is a swarm of Trump-like swamp creatures, self replicating look-alikes like a head of broccoli one buys that the produce section of the local supermarket. When you look at all of the component parts of the Trump party, they all look like Donald Trump in miniature. All of them are grifters; all of them are dishonest; all of them lust after personal power; and none of them gives a damn about anyone but themselves. The fuel that drives them is resentment, the same as it was when the Scots Irish moved across the appellation Mountains in 1763. The party's latest acolyte and grifter, George Santos, looks like everyone else in the Republican Party, and of course, Donald Trump. I could see Santos doing to someone like Jean Carroll the same thing that Trump did; all he lacks is the opportunity and the public personality that Trump molded into his calling card. They're all irredeemable narcissists, self entitled, and with a huge appetite for power, and a mean streak that poisons everything around them.
We live in a world with almost two equal halves, "reality" and the "unreal". A number of streaming video series have come out recently using this as a theme. They don't turn out well. They leave you, the viewer, empty, disoriented and depressed.
And yet Americans living in the current "unreality" zone seem to be happy, energized and ready to kill and destroy while claiming and thinking they are peaceful and loving. Which is why they are so willing to jump onto the DeSantis anti "woke" band wagon. They don't want to be awake to reality, to facts, to their history. Within my own extended family, the members who buy into this have no memory of preceding generations nor interest in future generations. They don't want to talk about anything but their most trivial activities. And if you push, they gush a torrent of resentment that "immigrants pouring across the border are changing our nation forever" and "our government is doing this to us".
They see no connection between their grandchildren, their grandchildren's future and deteriorating conditions that could be managed if we put our minds to it, like climate change. They also see no relationship between the trauma of their politics of inaction and vitriol and the falling birth rate of our traumatized youth. And how about the relationship of this anguish with our drug epidemic?
It seems like "minds" are a thing of the past. AI and eternal sleep to turn off our minds are the future. We are becoming rats in a maize and on caged exercise wheels.
I think that we do indeed have two halves. Sadly, I also think that the side that is all for MAGAts and their destruction of the government believes with all their hateful hearts that theirs is the "reality" and ours is the "unreal".
I have this theory that one cause of the dumbing down of the American mind is pervasive and continuing stress overload. When faced with a “crisis” that is important, continues for more than thirty days, and the person feels little or no ability to resolve it, the brain is changed. The amygdala becomes overactive and causes fear and anger (flight and/or fight) to override the prefrontal cortex. People lose executive function--memory, the ability to make or follow plans, the capacity to change direction when circumstances arise, and the ability to control their emotions. Sound familiar?
Lynell - I’m a privacy nut and have a request. When you post a link, can you edit it to delete the text from the last “/“? Starting with the question mark, all of that text is for tracking. Thanks!
Heather and Joanne are so fun to listen to on Now and Then. I've been tuned in to their podcasts for a while now, and also enjoy when they have guests on some of the episodes. The time flies by and what do you know, I've learned something too. 😄
Natalie, last night I listened to their last one of 2022 with their guest Carol Anderson, such a fantastic trio! I learned about Julian Bond’s first state election back in the 60’s and the voter suppression and SCOTUS case coming from that. I’m just sorry I didn’t know about it earlier😞
The great thing is that most of the content is timeless, so I've gone back to older posts to listen to them again, after we end up cycling back around to the theme in our current hamster-wheel of issues. My regret is that I got out of the habit of watching Heather's weekly FB live content on her page. I haven't been on FB nearly as much since mid-2022, although there was some content that I really enjoyed - social media fatigue.
Hey, Natalie. When I first tuned in to Heather's FB chats I was more interested in her Politics Tuesday chats. Now, I'm more interested in her History Chats on Thursdays. As you say, timeless!
As usual, the Republicans keep showing the American public that their understanding and grip on reality is nonexistent.
1. This time one of the ways is by cutting border control money, wouldn't that make the borders more open. I thought they were against open borders.
2. How could DJT say "he'd never met Jean Carroll" and "she loved it" in the same sentence. ABOVE THE LAW again.
3. Speaking of BLATANTLY above the law, why is Santos still in Congress.
4. Between the shenanigans of SCOTUS, DJT, Santos, DeSantis, etc, etc , etc; I wonder if the law is in force any longer or that there are any limitations eg DJT just got "fined the maximum and will make it hard for him to get loans from banks". He won't pay the fine and with all the classified documents he had (and still has), he isn't getting money from banks anyway.
As a therapist who worked with incarcerated rapists, there are rapists who enjoy causing pain, and have some understanding of what the victim is feeling. Many more rapists have so little empathy for others, that they will say things like, “It felt good to me, of course she had a good time!”
The follow up to that horrid home visit (feces everywhere, too - I threw out everything I wore that day including my shoes) was that I, of course, immediately reported it to Protective Services ("But it's 4 pm and tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Can't this wait until Monday?) and the following week to 3 other agencies. One member of our early childhood coordinating council suggested I also contact a state maternal child health advocacy organization. The legislature (Democrats anyway) was doing a special study on child abuse and foster care. I was asked to testify at a hearing about this case and others that I had experienced since the state had stopped the revenue sharing with counties that had historically funded local public health departments. Before the hearing, I met with my state senator, an influential Republican (back when they were decent small businessmen and farmers). I told him about this family that lived only a mile away from his farm, on the same road. He said, "But we have district health nurses who make a home visit to every newborn. How did this family get missed?" I told him that they ALL get missed now due to his funding cuts. Within the week, our proposed state Maternal and Infant Support program bill was passed and fully funded. I later served on the county Health and Human Services Board, with more good Republicans, and headed up our Children's Campaign, educating candidates in every election cycle about why these services are so important. Unfortunately, the tRumps of the world would have refused our services. He is one very damaged man.
I must say you have more fortitude than I; I never wanted to work detectives because it was all "p's and v's", mostly adults to kids. I had a good friend (excellent patrol cop) who spent about 10 years in detectives. She said "I knew it was time to rotate out when I prayed for a homicide so I didn't have to talk to little kids about what their perp did."
Thanks Ally, and your work was so important too. I don't know how your partner, or any cop, works as a detective for ten years when kids are the v's. Most of my home visits were with healthy babies and eager (if poor or limited) parents. And I eventually went into teaching nursing and then set up my own patient advocacy practice. One of the most important things I learned about political advocacy from those public health clients was how important it is to tell their stories. We need to elect public officials who will listen though.
These truths make me sick to my stomach. Thank you for doing that difficult work. I focused much of my career on maternal and child health & welfare, hoping to prevent monsters like that. But when a 5 year old boy looks at you and says, "You must see my sisters' bedroom" and he leads you down the hall to a locked door, and you make Mama open it, and find the two of them, lying on urine soaked mattresses, and when I ask Mama "Why" she says her husband comes home drunk every night and rapes her at 2 a.m. so she's too tired to clean for her kids - well the damage is already done.
Concerning rapidly developing facts about Santos, see 18 USC section 1546. & note that the "Fraud & misuse of visas,, permits & other documents" risks imprisonment in the range of 5 to 20 years depending upon admissible facts. See also, 18 USC 1546(b)(1), (2), & (3). The risk is the same whether the Perp commits fraud in Miami or Queens NY.
The NY Times story about Republicans who were aware of George Santos’ “embellishments” of his resumé prior to the election, and did nothing, reminds me of years-ago stories of Catholic hierarchy hiding, and thus abetting, pedophile priests.
Both make themselves equally guilty co-conspirators.
Ralph, the fact that Stinky Kev has proclaimed that he is going to seat Santos on some important House committees rather than hold him accountable is all anyone needs to know about this Congress.
Apparently Kevin views seating Santos on some “not the important committees” as part of making him harder to eject, and assuring Santos that Kevin views him as a member in “good? screw “good”! I’ll take anybody!” standing, in Kevin’s razor thin majority. Kevin is already hanging onto his speakership by his fingernails. All any member of the freedom caucus has to do to get him to jump is to whisper in his ear that if he doesn’t fight for their latest lunatic proposal, like axing critical citizen aid programs to pay the debt, they’ll axe him instead. How soon will Kevin realize that if you sell your soul to make your dream come true, you get not your dream but a nightmare?
Keystone Kev has never had any integrity or courage....just an ordinary power grubber. Shall we set up odds on how long he will be Speaker before one of the nut cases decides he shouldn't be. If this weren't so serious for the country and a wasteful two years of tax money, I would be investing in popcorn.
Linda, in fairness, Qven did say “not the important” House committees. 🙄
Shouldn’t be sitting on any committees!
Should have not been seated!
Should never have been sworn in
Thanks for the clarification. I just read that he was seating him.
To think that we have representatives in Congress who have no integrity, and seem to not care that their lack of integrity is on full display. These people do not have any mirrors in their lives for they could not look at themselves with a clear conscience. (Maybe they are all sociopaths.)
No need for "Maybe" in your closing sentence.
I am shocked! (GOP) Congressmen without integrity? I am shocked beyond belief! 😳
Hey Phizer? SocioVac?
Quick
Please
They know quite clearly that they are doing the devil’s work —-but they don’t give a damn. They have no conscience—-just as Andrew Carnegie had no compassion for the workers in his Pittsburgh steel mills. When he was showing the mill to friends one winter night they saw workers flinging off coats and more to shovel coal/coke into furnaces. When they expressed concern about the injury to workers, Carnegie said (in essence): “No problem there are plenty more men where those men came from.” Same for today’s capitalist PIGS. Some things never change.
😢
It's the "ends justify the means" party, so no conflict to integrity.
So true! They are in it for fame and to pad their pockets!
Silence is complicity.
Herschel Walker vs. truth - truth prevailed. What can we learn from that?
Unfortunately learned that Walker was still rabidly supported by almost enough voters to get him elected
Truth as a currency has been devalued by 48%
Republicans elected in Trump in 2016 -- facts and truth died then for Republicans
When Republicans reelected George W. Bush, that's when voter intelligence died.
Truth, but Rove got a head start in Texas in 1994
Truth prevails, in the end, always, because it is, well true. Sometimes it takes a long time (viz. Galelei, Galileo), but truth always wins.
Galileo only took 359 years before the Catholic Church admitted Galileo was right.
Not sure this nation will last half that long....
Been from Georgia, my view on that situation is that the Dems turned out in force. Walker still got millions of votes and it was a narrow win, so I don’t see many Republicans being on board with the truth. And I saw way too many Herschel signs and way too many yards. Especially outside the Atlanta area.
The signage ratio countryside to city for Trump and Biden was the same way. Biden in cities; Trump in countryside, even affluent areas. And the Trump signs remain in many cases. True Believers in the CULT.
Outside of Atlanta- pretty hopeless. But the message pieced the veil.
BTW about Georgia
My late in law's family still lives Walker's hometown - Wrightsville. Cousin Rodney told CNN that
Walker -'a local boy who done good' (say it with a Southern accent for full appreciation).
Oh Lordy! I can hear the southern accent in my head! LOL!
We live in Kentucky. now. Saw the CNN story on YouTube. Replayed that clip 5 times trying to decide if it was his cousin. (Rodney wasn't credited). My husband got confirmation at his family reunion in Wrightsville a week later. <on brother>
Difference may be Walker story was too well known. He was a UGA football star, and NFL player. People knew pieces to his story to see it didn't add up.
Barely!
The only reason they're staying mute is because they Need him to have a majority. It's really is that simple!
I read that with interprets and it shows how awful and irresponsible the party of death has become. In answer to the post below, they are all sociopaths interested only in money and power for themselves and to hell with what the majority of the people want.
Yes and for all the finger pointing that has gone on, seems no one is pointing at the GOP in NY for not vetting their candidate. The GOP has abdicated any and all responsibility for their candidates and just "let the voters decide."
This reeks of the libertarian platform. REEKS
I agree. I don't know how corrupt it was really early on, but it didn't take long once there were a hierarchy for things to go south. I am reading right now about Helena Augusta who was the mother of Constantine, who was not a very nice guy, but not different from the rest of the power seekers at that time. He was very interested in eliminating his rivals including his eldest son, and showing his dynasty as powerful. How he fared in bios depending on whether the writer was a pagan or a Christian bishop.
I love it, the papal swamp. I call certain aspects of Catholic schools the Catholic Athletic Empire. I mentioned the priest problem to a friend of mine who was a life long devote Catholic when something hit the headlines in the 90s. She said oh they do without blinking an eye. Haven't seen the film. My fav book on Catholic doctrine with regard to sex is Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. I am always amused by Augustine and Francis, who had their fun before they became "saintly." When I was in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, I taught in a Catholic boys' school run by Irish priests and knew the nuns who ran the girls' school, located, of course, at the other end of town, well. They were fine and I have good memories of them. We were married in the Catholic church in Freetown by our principals, by special permission of the Bishop of Freetown, also Irish, as we were not Catholic.
I believe you 200%
I was also forced to attend 12 years of Catholic school. It takes a life time to recover, if it’s even possible.
I went to school at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, the North Hollywood parish that Cardinal Roger Mahony calls home. He went to school there, launched his rise to cardinal there, and retired to live there. Personally accused of child molestation and rape. Currently awaiting trial for the lates accusation. Responsible for protecting and covering up the crimes of hundreds if not thousands of priests and Archdiocese employees. Leader of the gay mafia in the clergy. Still a “priest in good standing” and complete control of the Archdiocese, the St. John’s Seminary, and the clergy in Los Angeles. Mahony lives in luxury in a $1.7million house in one of the richest areas of Los Angeles, Toluca Lake.
I can't like this, but the Cardinal should be in jail, not in an expensive house.
It won't. And now we have a Supreme Court with too many Catholic conservatives on it. I spent my educational career after Sierra Leone in a town east of Salem that is mostly Catholic as well as a number of fundamentalist types. They actually remarked on Catholics and Christian and I had to explain to them how in some ways that made no sense. There is also a Catholic elementary and high school in this small town. Lots of problems created by that, one being that our kids somehow thought that they were morally inferior. Also we were a convenient destination for what we called "Regis rejects".
Just finished Helena Augusta and how Constantine used Christianity to further his dynastic designs and he is also responsible for starting what the author refers to as the Nicene Church. Actually it's a wonder it survived given all the in and outs of this period. Now I am wondering what would have happened had Constantine not converted to Christianity.
Also interacted with a person on the now defunct Maddow blog who I know was molested in a Catholic Native American school. He, understandably, was very angry.
Once again can't give you a heart, but I certainly agree. The damage down to the powerless by the powerful is beyond our ability to comprehend it. Educators often see lives ruined by this type of behavior.
Gaetz, Santos and Bannon. Why on earth would anyone think any of them have the slightest bit of credibility, much less willingly listen to them? The very idea is distasteful. If ever there were an “unholy alliance” that is one.
Leading in the near term prospects for the MAGA party seems to be a predictably ugly government shut down. Here's hoping Ms. Yellen's warnings do not fall on both def and dumb ears... though this may be asking too much of the thrill seekers in charge. Their new love affair with the latest liar in training shows that there is, indeed, no end to the lenghts they will go to add another discredited vote to an action of Congress. Ending with a smooth rundown of the latest escapades of the Liar In Chief, we have a dandy encapsulation of what's in store for us over the next few weeks and months.. Thanks again to the good Dr. for keeping us informed and focused.
Professor Richardson highlighted Ms. Yellen's statement that despite officially running out of fiscal leeway by only next Thursday, the Treasury could keep the federal government solvent until June. This seems to me to be pointed at the Republican House, which in five months might run out of politically expedient games to play with our finances before the country must succumb to the effects of default.
Santos in a new GOP prophet. He proved he can dissemble with the worst of them.
Santos is probably a net gain for Republicans. While the media focuses on this absurd character, McCarthy and the fascists that put him in power continue to flood the zone with lies that confuse inattentive Americans and cause unfounded distrust in Government.
Seriously why give them air?
Why isn’t Bannon in prison I thought he got convicted of refusing to show up for a subpoena?????
I can not waste any energy on Santos when Donald Trump is the Big Kahuna! While the two men may be kith and kin when it comes to lying Donald Trump is in a much better place to do much more damage. When Santos amasses as much power as Trump has then I will give him more of my mental energy. I was listening to NPR I believe it was on Thursday and the person being interviewed said that the Republicans really want to defund the IRS. So, they are trotting out the lie that the IRS is going to be going after the little guy, when really the promise is that they are not going after anyone making less than $400,000. That does not sound like the little guy to me. Then the person told us that if they can have enough staff to go over the tax returns of the super wealthy they expect to be able to collect an additional 7 trillion dollars in the next decade, almost a trillion dollars a year. Given that Professor Richardson has just said that our debt is 31 trillion dollars, that would go a long way to paying that off. It might even drive off some of these evil doers like Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch to gain residency and citizenship in places where they can shelter their money better. We will be better off for it. I believe Illinois is better off for Ken Griffin having moved back to Florida although he did not go before he sabotaged progressive taxes in our state and he is still funding nefarious causes here. However, I believe he wants to be closer to his buddy DeSantis so he can be up close and personal in funding his campaign for presidency. Ken is no longer on the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago, and has negative things to say about their private school which his children attended. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11414107/Billionaire-Ken-Griffin-slams-Chicago-schools-indoctrinating-kids-crushing-woke-ideology.html
That being said, I am hoping that someone reintroduces the progressive tax in Illinois again. All of the places that have the best standard of living have progressive tax. Vienna does! Hungary does not! Hungary lost out when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up!
Your comment is excellent but the final paragraph is cart-before-horse. Especially the last sentence.
For obvious reasons, given whom they serve, right-wing politicians have always hated progressive taxes on income and capital gains and favored indirect taxation, especially when hidden in prices. This spreads and conceals the tax burden, which weighs most heavily on the poor, especially through expenditure on necessary items like food, rentals, transport, heating, etc. The antisocial effects are important, it's like denying a machine adequate lubrication while making greater demands on it.
As for your last sentence, the Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't just break up, it was broken up by two iniquitous treaties forced on the losers of WW1. The crushing economic humiliation visited on ordinary Germans by the Versailles Treaty fed resentment and revanchism, leading directly to the Nazi regime and an even more terrible world war. The effects of the Trianon Treaty on Hungary and Hungarians are with us to this day. Orban's fascistic kleptocracy is a direct consequence.
America needs to learn the lesson that it is both foolish and dangerous to kick a rival when he's down and to bully, exploit and humiliate weaker nations... Russia has imitated this irresponsible behavior...
Peter, there is more than one crucial lesson that America needs to learn. Has the country's economic system, including our tax policies worked against the workers?
_‘For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades’
'After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today. (PEWResearchCenter)
_ ‘More workers find their wages falling even further behind inflation’
October 04, 2022
'‘A rising real wage allows workers to improve their standard of living. However, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that “… vast numbers of Americans find their cost of living is rising faster than the income they’re bringing home.”
_ How prevalent is this situation and how much is the shortfall? We find that a majority of employed workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages have failed to keep up with inflation in the past year. For these workers, the median decline in real wages is a little more than 8.5 percent. Taken together, these outcomes appear to be the most severe faced by employed workers over the past 25 years.’ (DallasFed)
'...the United States, which has more billionaires than any other country, the top 1% of earners take 20% of income and the bottom 50% of earners take 10%. The less inequality/greater equality in Europe is attributed to the fact that Europe has not let its market economy become a market society, where market forces control other areas of society such as education, health, and wages. Examples of this are social healthcare systems and more favorable labor markets. (worldpopulationreview)
Fern, I love it when you teach us about economics. In 1980, making $3.65/hr, working 20 - 30 hours a week, I was able to afford a studio apartment (a slummy place, but it was home), pay college tuition, and send $ to my parents regularly after my dad was unable to work for a few months after a heart attack. I doubt my son could do that now making roughly 5 times that hourly wage. Now I have a better idea why. Thanks.
Americans also carry the burden of the most expensive (and middlingly effective) healthcare system in the world. So far, racism, and other "culture war" issues have kept us from recognizing all this inequity for average workers.
I got into this argument a couple years ago regarding college tuition, the huge burden that student loans become, and the "work to pay as you go" with a bunch of my (relative) contemporaries. I'm the same, Steve; worked 20-35 hours a week (depending on travel for athletics/music), paid for lodging and food (helped by working in a grocery store), and left college with about 2500 in NDSL debt (2% interest rate and able to request a "pause" in payments when I was between jobs. My wages were $3.50 and my tuition was $300 a term. My nephew worked for roughly $10 per hour and his tuition was $18,000 AT THE SAME COLLEGE.
My first year in college, at IIT, if I recall correctly my tuition was $1600 A YEAR. That way way more than my friends who were attending public colleges. Thankfully, I was a state scholar and received some scholarships.
My job on campus paid $1.60/hr.
Honestly, I don't know how my friends with college-aged children can afford to send them to school... especially private colleges and universities.
Rather than the country investing in its future, what you have is those who've come out on top (maybe by virtue of hard work...) investing in privilege for their offspring. Meanwhile, students from less fortunate but often highly respectable backgrounds, however gifted, serve what can amount to almost lifelong indentures.
This treadmill has the advantage of keeping them too busy to spin out any ideas that may come to them, thus guaranteeing conformism and preventing contagion by wokery.
Yes Fern, this catastrophic economic system, this caricaturally unbalanced, disconnected form of capitalism, has failed and, like gigantic glaciers collapsing in Greenland and Antarctica, the signs foretell its impending worldwide collapse.
1. Capitalism overpowers any and all forms of socio-political life. 2. Capitalism can be overpopulated. But my thinking is that the more workers earn, the more will be spent (therefore exposed to capitalism ) or saved for future needs (therefore exposed to capitalism) so the capitalist need for low wages must reflect the market requirement for healthy quarterly reports plus plain old American greed. The MIddle Class has eroded in part because wages haven't kept up with costs, unions represent a lower percentage of the workforce- wait, wasn't union negotiation responsible for sick time, paid holidays, employer provided health care, etc.? And while I'm at it, and correct me if I am mistaken, but auto manufacturers moved to right-to-work state to escape those burdensome costs, but are non-union-assembled vehicles priced the same as union-assembled ones? Cui bono?
Right on, Ed. In a reply to Fern I noted, among other things, that the “gospel” of economic thought no longer includes concern for workers and good wages. The guiding principle is “shareholder value” hence large profits being used to buy back stock, increase dividends (to enrich the rich, ) rather than to increase social good by increasing wages. Until we have a revolution in business “ethics” and economic “gospel” we will continue in this increasingly distressed social condition. Let’s face it, some inner cities today (and rural regions as well) are like third-world countries in that they have high poverty rates, food deserts, wretched public services, etc etc. Sad for a country so responsible for many revolutions in living in society
Far, far worse than sad, suicidally stupid, sawing off the branch on which we are all sitting... and so blinded by greed that they're not even doing it by mistake but quite deliberately...
Years ago, I noted in my diary:
Greed makes men stupid.
Greed rules the world.
So, why be surprised that we are ruled by idiots?
Thanks Grover, I completely agree, and my issue with economists is that they go to the same schools, read the same texts, same profs, have vastly different "theories" but do not test them. We test them unfortunately. Powell raises interest rates, home buyers are squeezed out, consumer loan and credit card interest jumps, putting a lot of families under water financially, what I could purchase for $500 now costs $625, some pre-owned vehicles cost more than new ones, and so on. Inflation isn't necessarily the sole result of interest rates. Getting MIdwest grains down the Mississippi River to market when there is not enough water to float the barges is not an interest rate problem. I'll stop here.
😣
Capitalism, especially unregulated capitalism = exploitation.
Capitalism, like football, must have rules and refs.
Thank You Fern! I get it now.
Wish I could convince my capitalist brothers. These sources will be a good start. Thanks
“Capitalist in Name Only”
Depriving average people of discretionary spending eventually lowers their ability to avail themselves of goods and services which is the lifeblood of an economy
Yes, commonly known as "Socialism for the rich"...
Exactly.
Thanks Fern. The quotes tell it all. Once companies put their income at least partially in positive service to all by paying decent wages on which one could live, and often support a family of four (in the best situations) Now, the economic ideology and “true gospel”is that the main function of companies is to create value for shareholders which means reduce wages, increase “efficiency” (track workers), outsource, etc. to increase profits (to benefit wealthy shareholders) while not giving a damn about workers. Sad, sad, sad. How distorted our so-called business ethics have become!!!
Yes. I really cringe when I hear the phrase "it's just business" to justify some of the most egregious decisions people in business can make. As if that makes it all better. The reality is that one can keep a business functioning well without exploiting workers or customers. It might mean you won't get filthy rich, but it can mean you and your employees can live decent lives.
Good to see you and to be together, Grover Zinn.
Same to you Fern. What a community we have here. Something very special and precious. Peace.
Peace, Grover.
Thanks Grover. That, sadly, perfectly sums it up.
Thanks Fern. Can you explain HCR's statement: New numbers yesterday show that falling gas prices and airfares meant falling inflation rates last month. Overall, inflation is slowing down significantly, although rising wages are among the factors still driving greater costs. I thought rising wages was a good thing.
May I try? It is a good thing to have rising wages. But they "rise" only when other factors remain stable. Note that the necessities are still high; food, tuition, housing---especially rentals, and health insurance. So, the workers are not really getting ahead. The greed machine stays a few steps in front by raising prices. Heaven forbid they should allow the average worker to cut into their margins.
Don't get me started about homelessness, either. Our cities have increasing numbers of the unhoused who are blamed for their predicament. Of course, addictions and mental illness are factors---once there were accessible shelters for them. But, now, anyone earning a minimum wage, even with a recent increase, cannot afford housing. 2/5 of Americans are unable to afford rents and mortgages. 2/5!! Add another fifth for elderly and ill who have subsidized rents and we are left with only 2/5 of our population who can afford housing at all. That is just not right, yet collectively, we blame a slight raise in wages or we believe ill fortune is caused by those who suffer from it.
Excellent clarification of the effects of the despicable greed machine Hope. It's like "inflation" is the capitalists' baseball bat, workers the ball.
Gigi, By nature, I am shy to speak for another. In general, I would say given the profit motive, companies charge more for their producta as a practice (whether or not there is inflation). Paying higher wages effects their bottom line, so they raise prices, which in turn raises inflation. That is my surmise, and I am not speaking for HCR. I hope other subscribers will respond to your question and correct me as warranted.
Not speaking for HCR or a trained economist either, but if wages are up and goods are in short supply, prices could rise. Eggs are expensive now, not because of wages but because millions of layers are being killed due to avian flu. I would think there are many reasons why wages and costs are not directly correlated, esp. on a dollar for dollar basis. The stress test generated by C-19 is far from over. Think shipping costs, think diesel prices, think rsv/flu/C19 impacts on hospital and pharma.
Good point, Fern. Thanks.
More Peter, FERN, Steve, MaryPat, Dave, Jeff et al discussions on Macro &`Micro Economics please. Regular SATURDAY morning group?
FERN should have their own blog post, IMO. Titled The Impending Fall of Capitalism
Good idea, Bryan. I cannot promise every Saturday. Why don't you consider beginning on Saturdays with open membership depending of participants' schedules.
Learning about mini conclaves ... some regularity over spontaneously gathering. All OK on with the latter-- good to see macroeconomics anytime.
America did learn the lesson with the Marshall Plan but hasn't been so good at following lessons from history since in far too many instances as the present government works to mend bridges.
My mother, who lived through WWII and the hunger winter in the Netherlands, remembered how empty all the stores were, seemingly one day and the next were full again, all due to the Marshal Plan. How grateful the people were for that important decision may have helped cement the relationship between those European countries and the US. (She remembered that it was the Canadians who marched as liberators through Amsterdam).
A good friend's parents endured the war there, too. They suffered through the terrible lack of food. Her mother was stopped and questioned by Nazis who suspected her of being Jewish. Luckily she was able to prove otherwise.
Yes it was truly a dark time, leaving lasting scars on all who endured it, with some of them living with survivor guilt the rest of their lives. That anyone thinks it's a good idea to go to war is just madness.
I feel that European countries that benefitted from the Marshall plan which are now well off are not willing to share this same largess with other war torn countries. It makes me wish that they were reminded of how things were. A friend of my mom's was telling me how grateful they were to get chocolate out of the sky from the Americans in Berlin after the war. It is the kind of memory that helps one not ever forget to not take things too for granted. That is something the younger people do not have. Therefore there is resentment. See all of this anti-immigrant hate. I feel so angry at anti African sentiment when these countries all made their wealth off of exploiting the continent, including our country, and now do not want to pay the piper. I am just touching the surface of that situation by bringing this up. How about restitution?
Before chump, I was convinced that Dems should have initiated a Marshall Plan for America. What a difference from the chump nuts.
Peter, Good point you make about Hungary. They certainly suffer from having been broken up in that treaty, although I guess other minority groups benefitted. I don't feel that Austria feels it as much. My aunt in Germany used to date a man who was ethnic Hungarian from Romania. I always thought it was strange to have been born and raised in country but to have a different ethnic identity. When I was older I realized that not everyone thinks about nationality the way we do. When our Billionaire governor Pritker took on Ken Griffin and other Illinois Billionaires and super wealthy that he gathered with him when Pritzker tried to introduce a progressive tax system which he called a "fair tax." My husband was bothered by Pritzker calling it this, because he felt that renaming it this was not tying it to what it is called elsewhere, Progressive tax. I felt that most Americans don't know what it is by any name and there needed to be more education than renaming it. After all what does "fair" mean. I was taught in a special ed class it does not mean that everyone gets the same as most interpret it to mean but that everyone gets their needs met. The tax system he wanted to introduce was one where people's percentage was based on income, so a graduated tax system. We needed to not only do a lot of education around how it works with basic math explaining how much people of different incomes would pay, but also to talk about places where it exists and how it has benefitted the people. I was looking at places where there was a progressive tax system, and I know Austria, which has Vienna, the city with which is listed number 1 for standard of living several years in a row has a progressive tax system. So does Finland and Helsinki has been in the number 1 place as well. In fact, all of the cities who have been in the number 1 place in at least the past ten years are in countries that have progressive taxation. I had thought it would be good to point this out. Hungary is a country that does not have progressive taxation, and I was comparing it to Austria because it is a country that is currently the darling of the Republican crowd. You are right. They certainly got the short end of the stick.
Thank you, Linda.
I did say at the outset that I found your comment excellent, and I mean it. That’s why I was disappointed by the closing paragraph, because what it stated may have been true, yet it lacked a dimension in relation to the general point you were making. So I couldn’t help feeling that your general observation correlating higher living standards with a progressive (or graduated) tax system needed a bit more context, which can be provided by showing up the defects of the alternatives, indirect taxation or a flat-rate per capita tax like the so-called poll tax, resistance to which was the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher’s long spell as Britain’s Prime Minister. (Incidentally, there was a reduction for poor people in this so-called Community Charge…)
But I’d never have commented, had it not been for the final sentence, which seemed so dismissive and unfair on the poor Hungarians. Like Germans, the Austrian population suffered horribly from the financial ruin of their country at the end of the First World War and felt the same resentments. Loss of territory occupied by German-speaking Austrians consisted mainly of South Tyrol and the empire’s principal port, Trieste, gained by Italy. A band of Hungarian territory was added to Austria… Hungary, however, lost 72% of its land and 3.3 million people of Hungarian ethnicity.
After the Second World War, the Red Army occupied a large part of Austria and, like Berlin, Vienna was divided into sectors by the occupying powers. In exchange for neutrality, Austria was freed from Stalin’s grasp, while truncated Hungary became part of the Soviet empire. So it is hardly surprising that, some time after the collapse of that empire, Orban, being ambitious, greedy and intelligent, should have been able to use nationalist resentments to outflank and incorporate fascists and forge a highly profitable personal autocracy. He is to the EU what Ceausescu was to the Soviet Empire… So it is hardly surprising that Hungary should have the kind of tax regime favored by oligarchies.
More recently, right-wing populists did come quite close to gaining ascendancy in Austria but were ruined by financial scandals. I wonder if said scandals would have caused a ripple in America. In Russia, any whistleblower would, of course, have disappeared long since into the country’s brutal prison system…
I apologise for going on so long and adding so much peripheral information, but can't this kind of background material be useful to HCR's readers. Such is America's weight in the world that it's as well that more Americans' should know more about what takes place, not just across the county line but overseas... Especially when the monkey house contingent in Congress see Hungary as a model for America.
Hi Peter, I love that you are deepening the discussion. Both my daughter and I have very close Austrian friends. My daughter's friend has a family house in Burgenland, which was formerly part of Hungary, so she has been with them there. Her friend at 17 was already able to vote in the presidential election, which one can do at 16 in Austria. While her friend was here in Chicago on exchange they had studied the USA versus the German election system and her friend found that very interesting. Then my daughter learned from her friend something of the Austrian electoral parties. I regularly watch German news and often watch Vienna news as well. Once watching the Vienna news I saw that a couple that lived in Burgenland bought a retirement home in Hungary although they did not speak Hungarian, because the land was cheap and they wanted to have horses. They go to Austria for their dental and doctor's appointments since these are not large driving distances. While they claim to have friendly relationships with their neighbors, and the news report made it look like that, I was wondering whether there would be resentment on the part of their Hungarian neighbors too. The area was quite rural and rural areas are not always so welcoming of people from other areas. Given the poverty of the Austrians and the Germans after WWII they are doing really well right now. I agree that we should know what is going on in other parts of the world. It surprises me that the Republican party even embraced Hungary and went there to hold their conference. That would not have happened in the past. However, I also know that the White Supremacy movement is transcontinental so that does not surprise me now. They are networking together and learning from each other in illicit ways. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/11/29/us-american-white-supremacist-facing-criminal-charges-located-in-bulgaria/
apology totally rejected. Please continue to provide such clearly articulated history as frequently as possible to assist those of us who have totally ?failed to grasp? lost opportunities? lack sufficient ? etc wound up at this time and place with frustrating lack of understanding of how and and why we are where we are and how/where to proceed. .I vote for a separate but regular gathering for any of us who wd like to ameliorate the comprehension deficit. It is the global dynamics my mind seems to crave.
Impressive post.Thank you.
So here is, in my thinking, why Santos is important. By the time the smalltime grifter gets to be the mega-grifter, like Drumpf, it is too late. The kleptocrats almost never are punished and by the time the wheels of justice roll around, their power is so huge that they can marshal enormous resources to resist any loss of power--and they can keep on grifting till the cows come home. Bernie Madoff was an exception and the only reason why he got found out (after stealing billions) was because his Ponzi scheme collapsed in the economic downturn of 2008--much as Enron had done a decade before--and he had too many knee-breakers he was beholden to to stay afloat. Political change--as the Rethuglicans figured out in the 1980s and have been adopting as their playbook ever since--starts locally. Grassroots organizations and the slow and steady either accumulation of--in the case of the Ghastly Oligarchs--creeping autocracy is the way we wind up with a PoS like Drumpf. Stopping the grift at the source--on the local level and with all deliberate speed--prevents a Santos from becoming a Drumpf. I'm from the NYC metro, although I have not lived there for a while. I was, however, living there in the 1970s and 1980s when Drumpf began really pushing his weight around and using Daddy's influence to cook the books. And he had compliant and complicit city council people in his pocket in doing so. Everyone thought him a buffoon who would eventually fizzle out. So they did nothing. And here we are. We need to stop Santos NOW.
Time to get rid of roaches is when you see the first one, not when your neighbor starts complaining about the roach infestation that seems to be coming from your apartment. Just saying. What harm could one seemingly rich buffoon possibly do to the neighborhood? Not like he was a pedophile.
"I can not waste any energy on Santos when Donald Trump is the Big Kahuna! "
Agree. Stantos is just following the Pied Piper. And? Why not. It has worked out spectacularly for Trump. He can raise $4.5 million in a single day with superman trading cards.
Santos is working toward his own cards.
"Santos is working toward his own cards."
No doubt. Santos' trading cards could be framed as "The Joker."
"anyone making less than $400,000. That does not sound like the little guy to me."
It does to Elon and Trump.
Everyone else is the little guy to them which is why they should find a more tax friendly nation to live.
My bro, who has not always been crazy, blathered to me that the IRS wants to come after people like him. Biggest joke ever. He is on disability and has not a pot to pee in. He is not stupid, but the “community” around there is. Of course, I went berserk, so he has backed off somewhat. He is not a Foxer, to my knowledge, but has long-standing friends from the fire dept. instead of standing up for truth, he blathers their crap. But not to me anymore.
It is really doubtful that they have the money to do that.
There is some truth that the IRS picks a lot of low hanging fruit because the big time cheaters are all lawyered up. Democrats want to help them catch more Leona Helmsleys. The firefighters can worry when their yearly pay exceeds $400,000.
I am just saying what the person reporting on NPR was telling us. They apparently do not have the money to do complex audits, so that might mean they can only audit simple taxes, or go after people who do not file at all. Also, she said they do not even have people to answer the phones. So, this is something they hoped to rectify with increased staffing. I want them to have the staffing to go after the Donald Trumps not the people like her brother. The Republicans are there to make sure that the opposite happens.
It has been strange to me that a few formerly amiable, educated people I know have gone with Trump, hook, line a sinker. One lady I quite liked has become quite belligerent. GOP is the other pandemic.
Today’s Letter included good news ‘… that between 2012 and 2019 the rates of cervical cancer dropped an astonishing 65% among women in their early 20s.'
MUCH MORE ATTENTION NEEDS TO BE GIVEN TO HEALTH OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death among adults ages 18-45, claiming more young lives than COVID-19, car accidents or suicide. BY ARTHUR TONY BLAIN, family physician and an assistant professor in UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine, as well as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
'My son came home from high school this month and told me his 19-year-old friend just died of a fentanyl overdose. “Two weeks ago, we were just talking about all the cool cars he wanted to buy when he graduated and got a job,” he said.'
'According to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram, fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered. Last summer, the DEA warned of brightly colored fentanyl used to target young Americans. Dubbed “rainbow fentanyl” — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes — it is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults, said Milgram. Rainbow fentanyl looks like candy to lure children, often at “skittle parties” where kids drop pills into a bowl and each child grabs a pill and ingests it. Fentanyl is also present in counterfeit forms of prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax and Adderall.'
'The Drug Enforcement Administration reported that most of the fentanyl seized by federal authorities from 2014 to 2019 was from China. In 2022, the DEA stated that most of the 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl seized was mass produced by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels, in secret factories in Mexico utilizing precursor chemicals from China.'
'Synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, kills more than 170 Americans every day or one death every 8.5 minutes. Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, can kill you. Carfentanil, while less common than fentanyl, is even more dangerous but is also found in drug overdoses. It is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and is used by veterinarians to tranquilize elephants and other very large animals. It is not meant for human consumption, but is also being found in some communities in addition to illicit fentanyl.'
'Parents, family members, teachers and everyone in the community should be aware of the signs of fentanyl overdose. Small “pinpoint pupils,” falling asleep or losing consciousness, slow or stopped breathing, choking or gurgling sounds, limp body, cold and/or clammy skin, and discolored skin (especially lips and nails) can all be signs of an overdose.'
'Fentanyl deaths can be prevented by immediately giving someone in distress naloxone, a life-saving medication that reverses an opioid related drug overdose, including fentanyl. Naloxone comes as a nasal spray and can be either prescribed by a doctor or given by a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription in California and many other states. Fentanyl test strips can help identify if fentanyl is present in fake prescriptions or other drugs.'
'Fentanyl is killing Americans and especially our children in record numbers. Stopping the fentanyl flow from Mexico is crucial to saving thousands of lives. Strengthening border enforcement, passing stronger laws prosecuting drug smugglers and dealers to disincentivize fentanyl distribution, requiring U.S. Customs and Border Protection to review and update manuals and policies to detect smuggling of drugs, forcing China to stop production and export of illegal chemicals to Mexico, and compelling China to cooperate with the U.S. in money laundering investigations, criminal prosecution and legal assistance in ongoing cases, are all part of a multipronged approach to solving this issue'. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The reason fentanyl has become such a problem is that it is cheaper than heroin, so dealers began to cut heroin with it (they used to use baby laxative). That is why so many heroin users overdose. A question often lost in this narrative is the vastly more complex question of why we abuse substances in the first place. That is the only real way out of this epidemic. Another issue not spoken about is that for all the horrors of the opioid epidemic, it remains dwarfed by our people's problem with alcohol, which affects roughly 10X the number of people that opioids do.
Agreed, alcohol is a much bigger problem. It killed my husband. Watching a gifted, intelligent person slowly decline from abusing alcohol is like watching a slow moving train wreck.
My heart goes out to you. I watched my mom and both her siblings slowly self-destruct due to alcohol misuse.
Hand to heart, Steve.
My heart goes out to you as well.
😔
Excellent breakdown, Steve. These subjects warrant more exchanges, knowledge, light, organization, lobbying and action.
But killing them slowly...
Excellent post, hard to address all the truths expressed here. I choose to discuss this one today. China does bring the precursors to Mexico, to trade for coal (fueling climate change of course).In Mexico the cartels have taken over the avocado business and the lemon harvestalso. Anything they see a profit in they jump on immediately. I have a friend who now lives in Morelos, who owned a thriving avocado farm. First they charged him a tax on every box he produced. Then they decided to cut out the middleman, and just took his farm, house, cars, and trucks. He came to Morelos with nothing. He now sells orchids (which was his hobby before)
Good grief!
Holy hell, apparently with no law enforcement pushback???
They are the law here unfortunately They are completely connected to the government
I found it;
https://youtu.be/XPrUCcHd3mo
Exactly! Our friend choose to leave instead But some people have no choice He was able to start over.. but they have no where to go
❗️ ❗️ ❗️
https://youtu.be/XPrUCcHd3mo
This is scary. If the cartels are responsible for fentanyl and now have taken over avocados and lemons, are we safe from accidental exposure to fentanyl when we make a SALAD now?
Nope! I am sure they keep everything separate BUT… if you are buying lemons and avocados from Mexico, you better believe they are using every pesticide etc We are lucky enough to be able to grow our own lemons and avocados When we don’t have any for some reason, we buy them locally
I
Just saw a documentary on this exact subject it’s eye opening I wish I remember what the name of it was. I guess I can google it. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING I couldn’t believe what I was watching very scary
Here it is it’s on YouTube https://youtu.be/XPrUCcHd3mo
I worry about that too. So, I wash EVERYTHING with soap before I eat it. Our best local store is HEB and a good number of their products and much of their produce come from Mexico.
It killed my brother”s teenage son after going to a party. Just put him to sleep. So heartbreaking and such a fear for parents with teens.
😣
I'm so sorry.
And of course, it follows that right-wing media seizes on the fentanyl scourge to blame its coming through our southern border primarily on these hordes of illegal immigrants they maintain are carrying it with them. It has been shown again and again that the main entry points of illegal fentanyl entering this country are the primary border crossings via mainline freight and shipping traffic, and smugglers utilizing automobile and truck routes. It stands to reason that traffickers are going to want the larger amounts they're smuggling through to be mobile as that is the quickest way it gets to transit points around the country. It's hardly going to come in via a poor immigrant family who have virtually nothing, save their children and the clothes on their backs. I would like to see statistics, if there are any, of immigrants on foot who've been caught bringing in fentanyl. That's not who to target, but the Right loves to use that as their determinant when it comes to keeping these brown people out of our country.
Agreed Bruce. I has long been my supposition that most of the fentanyl abused in the US arrived here legally, via the ports of Boston, NYC, Mobil, Long Beach, and Seattle. Mostly shipped from Shanghai or Rotterdam.
Oh!
I agree
Right! I can´t imagine the drug cartels using such an insecure and inefficient way of smuggling. Let´s be honest...there are corrupt people on both sides of the border. And the net flow of Mexicans is back home from the USA. Most of the immigrants are now coming from other countries.
😣
Women’s health issues, costs of drugs, the opioid crisis-the things Republicans refuse to address because it might hit their big Pharma donors in the pocket. The GOP undermine our economy by their incredible thirst for more-gouging on gas, food, etc-with skyrocketing profits and a refusal by the GOP to allow windfall profits taxes-I wish the rank and file MAGA adherents actually knew the truth or cared to learn it.
Charlie Sykes interviewed Adam Kinzinger on The Bulwark this week on detoxing from Congress. It was very interesting, especially how pressure is levied on repubs (and probably dems too) by the party to vote a preferred way.
I think cared to learn it is the operative word here The information is there BUT do they actually read anything or look at anything that contradicts their beliefs??
Thank You Fern"
"Parents, family members, teachers and everyone in the community should be aware of the signs of fentanyl overdose. Small “pinpoint pupils,” falling asleep or losing consciousness, slow or stopped breathing, choking or gurgling sounds, limp body, cold and/or clammy skin, and discolored skin (especially lips and nails) can all be signs of an overdose.'
'Fentanyl deaths can be prevented by immediately giving someone in distress naloxone..."
That's wonderful news about the plummeting rate of cervical cancer in young women. But there is bad news on cervical cancer for older women. From Deborah Copaken's (author of Ladyparts) substack:
"If I, a woman who writes about women’s health, was unaware that I still needed to get Pap smears after a hysterectomy, then the conclusions of this new study out of California—that women over 65 are getting and dying from cervical cancer at an alarming and much higher rate than younger women, and that “efforts should be made to better understand how the current screening paradigm is failing women of 65 years and older”—should come as no surprise. But it should also ring all of our alarm bells."
https://deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/alarming-number-of-cervical-cancer
There is in general a lot of neglect of women's problems by the medical research establishment, as Copaken describes in her book, which I recommend.
Advanced prostate cancer is way up, too, especially in Black men. We are not doing a great job with getting screening and care to Americans.
Could the number of men getting testosterone injections have anything to do with it?
As a Women's Health provider, I think there is a lack of context here. Cervical cancer is almost always caused by HPV. The same is true for penile cancer. If a woman over 65 has been in a mutually monogamous relationship for more than 10 years and has had annual Pap and/or HPV screening all during that time the probability that she will develop cervical cancer is almost nil. If her life circumstances change in such a way that she could be exposed to HPV either by a new partner or by the infidelity of her current partner then she should resume screening. There has also been a large increase in all types of STDs among single adults over 65 tied to the lack of condom use. People tend to forget that condoms are not just useful to prevent pregnancy, they also reduce transmission of STDs. Karen, APRN/CNM (now retired)
https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/07/27/single-guy-female-condom
I don't blame you. And don't even feel obliged to read it, although I'd be happy to hear if you read it and like it. I did have a very interesting time putting it together.
Deborah Copaken has done a lot to illuminate areas where the medical profession is doing a lousy job by women--and by her in particular, as she's had well more than her share of problems with what she calls her lady parts.
Janet, if you had a ten year or longer history of negative screens before age 55 then the 3-5 year interval is sensible as long as you continue to be in the same mutually monogamous relationship. Once you are 65 you might choose to discontinue screening as long as your relationship stays the same. Unfortunately, some providers do not fully explain the reasoning behind screening test intervals. Karen
Thanks for this post, Fern. Interesting that China is enabling this devastating drug threat from Mexico. It reminds me of when Germany financed Mexico to engage the U.S. in war in 1915, to divert our attention, and our munitions from supporting European allies in their war against Germany. By 1916 we had 75% of our troops engaged in a series of pointless provocations in Mexico. Next on Mexico's dance card was Japan, warming up to their war against us in 1941.
Lordy, thought I knew history, especially this century. This letter and comments say “not so much.”
Fentanyl is horrendous, but it is indeed getting a great deal of attention and there are huge efforts going on to deal with it. It may well be that none of the efforts are adequate, but they are definitely happening.
TFG claims, under oath, regarding the sexual assault of E Jean Carroll, that "she loved it". In order to make that claim, he would have admit that it occurred, have to have been there and participated in it, no? How else could he claim knowledge of her reaction to the assault?
He also claims that he "doesn't know her"...which, if he also claims that "she loved it" would definitely have to invalidate the part about not knowing who she is. Yeah, clearly logic has no place in the orange bloviator's teeny, tiny toolbox.
Cognitively impaired. But still dangerous and surrounded by dangerous advisors. Does anyone believe he writes his own Truth Social posts? 🤣
Pretty sure tfg doesn’t know any of his call girls
We don’t know her private circumstance. Maybe she’s bad as he is
Remember the comment her jacket at the border?
She’s an opportunist working her own game imo
Well, we've had occasion to notice in the past that at times the thread of logic eludes his unpractised fingers.
I believe “his unpracticed brain” is more accurate.
Well...one leads to the other. No?
He can claim that because his audience is stupid and void of any knowledge that logic is a thing
Good point!
A trillion dollar platinum coin, high interest bonds, or the president simply taking steps to preserve the publicdebt of theUnited States under the 14th Amendment's requirement that "the public debt shall not be questioned."
TC,
Love your 'futhermucking', I'll recycle that. But threatening violence is a MAGA thing. How about 'line them up and have a drag queen slap them all across their face with her boa while a CRT lecture plays in the background'?
Oh please! With Randy Rainbow as MC! Gurl…
Really!? This isn't funny.
But neither are threats of violence.
We CAN NOT sink to their level. We can’t let their ugly behavior change us. If we do, they win.
Jen as a pacifist I respectfully have to ask this question.
If a bad guy was harming a child, possibly our children would you attempt to protect child with a baseball bat or a boa?
No! It certainly is NOT funny. The childishness is impossible to take seriously. But, it is so distracting.
LMAO... That's what happens when you dine too often at Fuddpuckers. Gotta love their Pucking-Pancakes & real maple syrup. I do.
TC. It has been suggested that a number of the worst of the GOP loonies in the House were active participants in the attempted coup on Jan 6, 2020. I suppose the DOJ is looking into this. I am not aware there is immunity from prosecution for our elected representatives (the President is a special case). Can they vote from a prison cell?
No need to muss up your baseball bat.
Must admit, I’ve wished for a baseball bat for several decades, would have started with Rupert. Kept waiting for courts, congress, blah, blah…. Will die before any justice comes around, I fear.
Well, Jeri, maybe not. At least I hope not. If we can just keep the faith a little longer, we might get over the hump, as Dr. King said much more eloquently 55 years ago.
I'd settle for firm ejection, and where warranted, indictment and conviction.
Please!
Such language does not make your message more powerful; it makes you look weak .
Not so fast, Ralph. Democrats have been bringing pillows to these knife fights for too long.  Revolutions are not for the timid.
I agree with Ralph. The Democrats have prevailed in 2018, 2020 and 2022. This is the only kind of revolution that sticks.
Never sink to someone else's level. Otherwise, you become like them.
I agree. We do not want to become a nation of like-minded monsters who advocate the very behavior we despise. And despise their behavior, I do. It often feels like I despise them. And perhaps I do. But the use intellect, finesse, coalition building, demanding that the media tell the truth, tactfully informing our less informed acquaintances are the kind of tactics we really want to use, don't we? I felt the visceral urge to hit when I heard the baseball-bat scenario, but my better angels cringed and I knew it was the wrong thing. I really appreciate this community so much, and I am learning every single day. So I don't mean to lecture. I just suspect a lot of you are like me. We want a better society, not one created by the demons that guide the MAGAts and their ilk. Let's avoid devolving into war if we can.
I didn't feel the visceral urge to hit. I immediately felt repulsion. And to see others take up his intent and new curse word is disheartening.
However. Thank you for your wise words.
“Democrats have been bringing pillows to these knife fights for too long.”
I repeat; crude words do not make the message more powerful. It merely makes the user of such language look weak and stupid.
What is going on this morning on this board? Name calling and violence seem to be the theme. Trump started the name calling and made-up words meant to harm. I am sad this practice stuck.
Everyone, I’m pretty sure TC in LA was being hyperbolic. We all have revenge fantasies; we just don’t carry them out. We indulge them and then get back to the on-the-ground work.
As a matter a fact we all don't have fantasies of physical violence against another human being. We have been tossed about and verbally abused by trump's name calling, violence and "hyberbole" for years. His followers in Congress have followed suit. His followers in the media and social media have engaged in such talk.
And now it being called "hyberbole"?
I do not read this column as predominantly name calling and violent themes. Just a few words within a strong message.
I suspect that the use of hyperbole is in play here. Language is/can be a visceral release of frustration and/or a means of emphasizing the horrors of any given situation, ie James Fell’s Sweary History lessons
A lot of pent up energy gets released, in ways many of us silently smirk at, but outwardly refrain from; yet energy released in any event
But then again, I’m not offended by “words” per se, so this is just my opinion and not an admonition
It's too much to vent in such a way in a public forum. There are lots of ways someone can vent besides advocating for violence.
We have been “going high” and losing for decades. Keep doing the same old thing and see what you get…
Bless all of you superhumans who have never had a violent thought or fantasy against those who are spending their energy destroying the USA. You must be a far better person than I am. 🙁
This really is unnecessary Hale. Let's choose to lower the temperature a bit today.
Some of it is how I was raised. My Dad abhorred violence.
The rest has been daily choice/personal mandate. It becomes more and more the first response instead of anger etc. And unfortunately, I've had abundant opportunity to choose not to hate the abusive people who have come along in my life.
When the trump evil rolled into our lives and the covid deaths began and the nightmare had reduced us to living isolated in deep fear I really had to sit down and make a strong decision to not hate him and his cohorts. It would have felt justified and delicious to hate. It would have kept me company in my covid isolation time. I was afraid if I did, I would eventually become like them, violent in all sorts of ways because I was certain I possessed the capacity to be a real mean person.
To sum up here. I am definitely not superhuman nor judging of folks that espouse hate and violence in response to the Republican nightmare that is in our lives. I very much understand where they are coming from. I'll not copy them or stay silent though.
I hope this helps.
I abhor violence also. I am just saying that is hard or impossible not to think it. Peace.
Then we end up in agreement. I'm glad. The trick is to not express those thoughts. TC's comment was violent. It has spawned other violent comments and also spurred divisive talking among commenters. This provides a perfect example of how violent rhetoric negatively impacts.
Shanti.
If you catch the Gym Jordan interview on (CBS? with Major somebody) that I saw yesterday, be warned - you may feel tempted to take a sledgehammer to whatever device you watched it on.
Yes, but we're not in a battle zone here. No pillows no knives.
Maybe but with all the REPUBLICAN'TS blatant and unpunished lawbreaking, I think I'm leaning more toward the baseball bat crowd if only to get their attention.
Look weak? Naw Ralph, sometimes, in these forums it's allowable to express ones thoughts, albeit delicately, as TC has done so well. However, knowing there are persons like yourself who would exercise restraint in expressing your feelings in public or private, in that explicit a manner, for the reason you cite, is okay. Life in a civil society is being subrogated by the plethora of twits that deserve to be on the business end of that ball-bat.
Threatening physical violence and even imagining assaulting another living being (notice I didn't say "human" in reference to the ReThuglicans) is never justified, no matter how execrable or deplorable they may be. Don't become the monster that you seek to destroy.
TC, you are so articulate 98% of the time, as well as being verbally creative, that sometimes I wonder in these few instances whether you have been hacked... but "futhermucking" looks like a word you would've created. 👍
Whoa! Violence is never the answer, TC, especially during the period when we're celebrating the birth of the Rev. MLK Jr.
When I was in third grade, I had to write a 'theme' on my hero. I wrote about MLK Jr. and did a lot of research for an 8yo. My male classmates wrote about Mickey Mantle or Joe Namath (I had no idea what my female classmates wrote about, TBH.)
Three months later, MLK Jr. was assassinated.
It was one event of many leading up to my decision to become an atheist and a political activist, from agonizing over the deaths from starvation of children in Biafra (Nigeria) to hearing the ugly words of cops who joyfully busted heads at the '68 Dem convention in Chicago contrasted with the earnest speeches of the protesters and draft-card burners. I swore to my 8yo self that I would burn my draft-card 10 years later.
I eagerly marched in the first Earth Day parade in NYC as a 10yo, and still have the epsilon pin a long-haired, tie-dye wearing activist gave me.
Stop it!
Yes, TC does seem to be a bottom feeder at least where language usage is relevant.
But, definitely he will not stop. I have politely noted that his language use detracts when he does actually have something readable to say.
Too bad. The board is otherwise professional and respectful.
Agree Mike. Thanks for posting this. What is equally disheartening are some of the follow up comments which are also disrespectful and advocating violence.
I hope this isn't the future of this board.
Barbara, I completely agree. 99% of the time it is TC that starts the violent theme.
I've been in this group since pretty much the beginning. I am seeing a slant towards this sophomoric behavior more and more.
When I start to see it forming, I know it's time to click out and move on to something else.
I doubt Heather would be pleased.
When I saw it forming (which I have a couple of times over the past year) I've contemplated moving on, then thought that first I'd try reporting. The result was that the offenders disappeared but the rest of us remained. TC's outbursts are occasionally rough, but not insidious, and not sophomoric, unlike some I could name (currently disappeared).
Anne-Louise it's disappointing at best. There really is such a good bunch of us here.
My reference to sophomoric was to those that jump on the band wagon.
I'm sure it's not, Barbara. You know those three little dots after "Collapse"? One of them is "Report comment". When you click on it, you're asked why you're reporting the comment. In case of real need, it works, swiftly and silently.
I get the anger and frustration. Let's not get into violence. That's what the futhrmucking traitors want.
We need to remove them from power and cut off their ability to do harm. The hard part, of course, is how.
I guess I must have missed something TC or else you removed it but I do understand what you are going through and know you to be a little crass at times so all is forgiven on my part. Hang in there.
I deleted the stuff I should have thought twice about last night. "Engage brain before hitting 'send'"
It takes a big person to do that TC. You have my admiration and respect.
Let's just say TC was the catalyst for some enriching conversations on this board.
Futhermucking!
👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
How can we turn our rage into a national movement for a genaral strike, or some transformative action, against these traitors?!
It's called voting.
Don’t let dislike or hate be expressed with physical violence. The teen age type bashing of enemies faces is cathartic but uses energy to no tangible result.
We don’t have the time or energy for such indulgence.
Instead I am exploring my own sense of the Republican Failure and seek issues I can develop to question and undercut the reign of the right.
I ponder that through the lens of history, exploring Locke, Mills and the fervent dream of equality, free of corruption, by the nations founders is a key to unlock this disastrous Oligarchy of the Republican Party.
Concur, sir.
I see, TC. That way..., err ahh, the way You described it.., their 'deadness' would be due to...if I may say: "Natural Cause"... no? Or, perhaps it could be deemed "an act of kindness" soon to be forgotten. Yes. Thank you TC..., thank you again! If you want you can use mine.., it's a Louie Ville Slugger, had it since I was 8. hahahaahaa lock-n-load!
Shout out to Dr. Cox-Richardson for mentioning the HPV (Human Papillomavirus), which is not only the leading cause of cervical cancer, but causes the majority of vaginal, penile, and rectal cancers, and a large percentage of oral cancers as well. All together, the HPV vaccine can prevent about 8% of all cancer cases in the US, and virtually eliminate cervical and penile cancers. Pretty good for 2 little shots - available at no cost to anyone under 19, or is on medicaid, and is fully covered by most health insurance plans! Still, for some reason, the anti-vaxers hate it.
Always good data Steve, thank you once again.
Unfortunately, cervical cancer remains a big problem for women over 65. Go here:
https://deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/alarming-number-of-cervical-cancer
Thanks Steve!!
I keep asking myself, "Are the Republicans crazy?" I guess we will know in a few days. If they are crazy enough to stop Social Security Payments or stop funding the border patrols, it will definitely madden their base. I suppose that they think that Fox News Network and people like Bannon can spin even this move in their favor. I'm not so sure that is the case. These two items are going to directly hit their base. Isn't it wide open borders that they have been trying to own the libs with for over two years? Didn't only about 40% of us seniors vote for Biden? That is going to really be a suicidal thing to do, politically!
Stupid is as stupid does. Go Blue in 2024!
I am sure at least the seniors are going to make them pay!
Louise,
Republicans are definitely serious about stopping all Social Services and Social payments so that their rich donors never have pay taxes.
It is BECAUSE of Republicans that the deficit exists. IF Reagan had maintained the same tax profile as Carter and all Presidents before since WW II, and, had not increased defense spending we WOULD have a balanced budget now.
https://zfacts.com/national-debt/
Oh, I do realize that they are. I never doubted it for a second.
I took it upon myself to become a bit of a social media influencer in 2022 for the upcoming election. I don't know how many times I tried to tell people that if they voted Republican, they would endanger their Social Security checks. Oh No the MAGA crowd assured me, I was wrong! They would never do that to their constituents! They wouldn't dare! Don't worry, I was told, over and over again.
That is why I say, "If the Republicans do indeed stop the flow of checks to seniors for more than one month, these MAGA Republicans constituents are going to crash and burn their own politicians! It will be a death by suicide for Republican House Members! Crazy and Suicidal. I am surprised they haven't done internal polling on this stance. I sure did this past summer.
As soon as the Republicans cut Social Security and other $upports the MAGA folks depend on, the Republicans (and Kochs of the country) will convince them that it is the Democrats fault. And The Blacks. And The...
Interesting. I am trying to think how they could spin this and blame Joe Biden.
Their spin:
Because Biden didn’t do what was/ is necessary to lower the National debt they had to step in and take action.
The premises behind any and/ or all of their spin/ propaganda is to accuse their opponents of doing the very thing they are guilty of doing. It’s called “projection” in psychology. They do it quite well and convincingly. It’s unfortunate their base has bought in and can’t see the forest for the trees.
EXACTLY, like the current blame on the Dems for not outing the info on Santos prior to the election!!
Yes.
Without difficulty, I'd say, having heard Jim Jordan expressing his views on President Biden yesterday.
What I continue to not understand is why corporate America would support legislators who want SS cuts. If our seniors and others who rely on this (and so much else of what is on the chopping block) have no money then they will spend no money. So a decrease in purchasing goods and services from these companies directly, and so on down the line. Or up the ladder. Family $$ that could have helped pay for higher education may have to go to parents. Many more parents will live with their adult kids, so landlords will lose income. Would the impact on corporate revenue be so small as to not impact these companies if SS $$ don’t enter the economic web?
I have no idea what else will be a consequence. Welfare? Will welfare exist? Tent cities? Or are they just hoping people will starve to death while living on the street or decide to remove themselves from their situation, if you get my drift.
Obviously the republicans could not give one sh!+ about people, but that companies donate to people who will do this, well we know their ethics, but what about their bottom line?
Long view Economics is too much calculus for most people, even “business men”. Ask Mike S about the Corporate Mentality of next quarter’s profit report. Its all about immediacy
Your comments are point on
If you haven't heard of Nick Hanauer, look him up. Pitchfork Economics podcast.
https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/welcome-to-the-winning-middle-out-era/
Pass along to others and have them tell others...
Thank you, I’ll have a look
State’s Rights don’t you know. I wonder how the budgets of red states will fare without the infusion of federal $$$.
As a response to: “I wonder how the budgets of red states will fare without the infusion of federal $$$.”
This is too funny not to pass on. It’s a few years old but still as apropos as the day it was written.
—————-
Red States Want to Secede? Go Ahead. Make Our Day.
(A poll from Public Policy Polling reports that 25 percent of Republicans would like their state to secede from the Union. Nearly 1 million Americans have signed petitions calling for secession including over 100,000 in Texas and over 50,000 in Georgia. So, cribbing from a viral email that's been making its way around the internet in the spirit of fair use and adding my own evil satiric thoughts, here's a response.)
So some of you patriotic Americans in Red States are so mad that a Kenyan, Muslim, socialist black man got elected President of the USA for a second time that you want to demonstrate your patriotism by seceding from the United States of American? Go ahead. Make our day.
But be careful what you wish for. Here's how it could go down, and it might not be so pretty for you after all is said and done.
We would get the West Coast, all of the Northeast and the upper Midwest.
You would get Texas, Oklahoma and all the former slave states.
We would keep Hawaii too, the foreign country with warm water and beautiful beaches where Barack Hussein Obama was born without a birth certificate.
You can have Alaska and stare at Russia from your front porches.
To be fair, we may have to split up some states.
You get North Florida. We get South Florida. After all, what would you want with all those gay people in South Beach and old Jews in Miami?
We get North Virginia. You get South Virginia. To be fair, we'll let you keep the University of Virginia. Go Cavaliers! Plus you need at least one place to educate some leaders who believe in science.
But Austin, Atlanta and New Orleans get to be their own Blue city/states, sort of like West Berlin before the Wall came down. We'll even pay to move the capital of Texas from Austin to W's hometown of Midland, where as one native recently put it, "There used to be one Democrat in town, but I think she died".
We might even merge with Canada. That way we get single-payer healthcare, solvent banks, the Royal Canadian Mounties, and Ryan Gosling (eat your hearts our Red-nation women).
To sum up briefly:
We get Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z and Beyonce. You get Ted Nugent and Meatloaf.
Plus Willie Nelson gets to park his bus anywhere he likes in the Blue America.
We get Elizabeth Warren. You get Todd Aiken. (Hey, we'll even keep Chris Christie. He's too large to move, anyway.)
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get the New York Philharmonic. You get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
We get Oprah. You get Paula Deen.
And Blue America will have an easy repatriation policy for the ancestors of slaves still stuck in the former Confederate states, as well as a path to citizenship for undocumented workers and their children from both Red and Blue America who have worked hard/studied hard and put down roots. We'll even have a 21st century version of "40 acres and a mule" with education, job training and work at a fair wage for those who need it. (But here's a warning: good luck getting your crops picked, your kids asses wiped, and your pools cleaned without a bunch of low-paid undocumented workers.)
Any Red-nation NBA team that wants to gets to move to a Blue state city without its own team. Hey, how about them World Champion Pittsburgh Thunder?
And the New York Jets will send you back Tim Tebow for a player to be named later.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get backwoods crystal meth labs.
We get Intel, Microsoft and Apple. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to pay your fair share for once.
Speaking of all those federal taxes you love to hate. Most of it comes from us and goes to you. So stop talking nonsense about how "It's our money, not the government's money". Of the 19 states that send more money to Washington than they get back in benefits, 14 are Blue. And of 31 states that get more money back from the Feds than they pay in taxes, 23 are Red. It's not your money. It's our f**cking money. So from here on out, you can pay for your own damn roads and bridges.
Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate? It's Taxachusetts, the first state to recognize gay marriage. Think that's some aberration? How about this? 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are in the Blue states. And where are the highest divorce rates? 10 of the top 10 are Red.
But gay people getting married is going to ruin the family for you? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own.
So we get a bunch of happy families, straight and gay. You get a bunch of single moms and deadbeat dads.
With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve Texas wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92 percent of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, and Bob Jones University.
So, as we said at the start. You want to secede? Go ahead. Make our Day. But be careful what you wish for. You might not be so happy if you actually got it. If you ask nicely, we might even take you back.
This might have been around for a while, but it's the first time I've seen it. Thanks for sharing. I needed a good laugh!
They can’t think to breathe, so they’ll probably not notice
Louise 6 hr ago "I keep asking myself, 'Are the Republicans crazy?'"
Apparently, you are not alone.
𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴’𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴’𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴. 𝘕𝘰𝘸, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎.𝘖.𝘗. 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘰.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆’𝘀 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝘀. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗲 𝗚𝗼 𝗡𝗼𝘄?
[Gift Link]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/opinion/republican-party-future.html?unlocked_article_code=bKLQXxSqjc9ckCT5nCLgERoiQQdHj-XsuZVHnGn4cS8xU6NuCHYNre9SvnpuwJ3WsLkAAF17a4jR8jeASzKyh-rAUOFW2VoHusL7FVHp7UEqi-ZNRXY3cyg81banh3gruXhDK9MdW-FSb2Td86A8rwbrYl9LrMp-iokVZdqkDGPrd9S_2HdEQAv41hIfa7l5rxSoyoSIWz8qh6urTv-EG0n9HvkRuv4TfdHosd-1r5uP6lYai-W2kH3Gh8hZh9rYuh1AHSQpIIrHAMwCeXpJUugzbowg-FC_RYFymFMiIdtjb3HcwTXxCViK1ij3TKfJJOPRv_ThqOi2RhX_Xh-SMyM&smid=share-url
Yes, I had already read that article. It fed my own understanding of just who was still left in the Republican Party. My conclusion is that it is only the crazies and alt-right with a healthy sprinkling of Greedy ultra rich to fund them! Oh, I forgot the Christian Nationalists, but I think the more moderate fringe of this particular variety of Republican ,they will loose if they do indeed crash the economy.
Good discussion between the two, especially Brooks as he is good at seeing the changes and holds onto his own values.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Republican wet dream is to stop Social Security and border control during a Democratic President’s term. That way they can respond to outrage with outrage: look what this Democrat President did to you. Sadly, their base will believe them and the divisiveness and violence will continue.
The Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing exactly what most of us thought they would do, giving the MAGA maggots bread and circuses to entertain them and accomplishing NOTHING of value to the Country at large. What else could we or anyone with a modicum of intelligence expect? They told us. They want to "bring down the government" because destroying the government is the only way to achieve their goals, a lifetime dictatorship, preferably with a crowd pleasing, intellectually challenged puppet (trump so exactly fit their bill) a single party, allowing no opposition, (you jail, poison, drop your opposition from tall buildings, or 'accidentally' shoot them during an 'attempted escape') McCarthy already announced he will not allow changes in the debt ceiling without massive cuts to all safety nets for ordinary citizens. After all if a few million of us die of disease or starvation, so long as their super wealthy donors and the maggots survive what difference does it make. It's going to be interesting to see how the 1% react when their consumers can no longer buy their products, initially because they lack the funds, and soon after because they are dying. The 14th amendment, like the Constitution as a whole has never mattered to these traitorous politicians. They refuse to enforce those articles and amendments which cannot be misinterpreted, and misinterpret the rest.
It would be interesting to survey how many close relatives of these self-centered “legislators” rely on Social Security, Medicare, and the like. Can’t you just hear them trying to explain to Grandma or Uncle Whoever why they think this is a good idea?
Not to mention MAGA types. Let's see what they say if the SS checks stop and Medicare won't pay their medical bills. Of course they're so ill-informed, they'll blame the Deep State and some conspiracy.
Well said!
I see a bad situation on the horizon. McCarthy realizes he has to raise the debt ceiling by brokering some kind of deal that also does not hit programs like Social Security and Medicare because seniors would revolt. Matt Gaetz or another member of the Chaos Caucus calls for a vote to vacate the Speakership. The House cannot function until a new Speaker is elected. The US defaults.
The Republicans are already touting a plan that would allow interest payments on the debt to be paid technically avoiding default but would suspend all other "non-essential" payments like funding the FDA and FAA and Medicare and Medicaid and ....
So absurd and hypocritical that the Republicans won't acknowledge that 40% of the debt was incurred during just the 4 years of Trump's presidency with their great giveaway tax cut to the wealthy and corporations.
But I still do not understand why the debt ceiling was not raised in Deember when Democrats still had control of both the House and Senate...Does anyone know why?
When you say that 40% of the debt was incurred in the four years of the Trump administration, you are misapprehending the case. According to HCR's post, the debt, now about $31T, _grew_ by 40% under the former guy.
A little math tells us that if the debt is now $31T and it grew by 40%, it must've been about $22.14T before the former guy started soiling the presidential bedsheets
(x+.4x=31 --> 1.4x=31 --> x=31/1.4=22.14).
Thus the former guy added about $8.86T to the current debt (31-22.14=8.86). That's a very great deal of money and is a very bad thing to have done, especially since tax cuts for the rich drove much or most of that, but it's altogether different from having incurred 40% of the debt, which would be $12.4T (31*.4=12.4), a difference of roughly $3.54 trillion.
To update Everett Dirksen's famous line, "A trillion here, a trillion there... pretty soon it adds up to real money." (Anyone here old enough to remember Dirksen?)
Dirksen's famous line was, "A billion here, a billion there.... Just shows how right he was. -saw-
I stand corrected. Thanks!
My husband and I remember him well, especially that comment! He was a very memorable orator.
I assume Congressional salaries, pensions and health insurance to past and present legislators and staffing costs are 'non-essential'!?!?
Ha! As well as pensions for former presidents
There’s always been the same old Republican playbook. Cut taxes, funnel money to crony projects, run up the debt when they control the Presidency. Leave the mess (and blame it on) the next Democratic Administration and scream about the need to cut the tattered social safety net just a little more. And since voters don’t understand this history, we are all damned to repeat it.
Where are you reading that 40 percent of the current national debt was incurred by Trump? Can you cite the source? I’m not a supporter of pushing the country into default, but I don’t think we can tax collect our way out of it either. Here is some debt information. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/us-debt-by-president-by-dollar-and-percent-3306296
In this HCR letter:
"Right now the debt is above $31 trillion, and it has increased under both Republicans and Democrats (it grew by about 40% under Trump)."
Donald Trump, as we have repeatedly seen, is his own worst enemy. That said, all of us are treating Trump as some sort of rogue royalty. We are wont to treat Trump as some sort of rakish, bad boy pirate prince, part of which we envy for his brashness and middle finger-salute to propriety. The fact that Trump appeals to our worst instincts, where his antics are apt to provoke chuckles rather than outrage, I think has a lot to do with a society that is free to speak its mind, even if most people are deprived of material prosperity. That is an attitude of decadence that one associates with not only the unfair distribution of the world's goods and wealth itself, but the utter hypocrisy and corruption of language that Trump and his followers used to justify their insatiable appetite for wealth, and above all power. The real problem is that Washington DC is too far removed from the people government is supposed to serve. We don't know those people; and more importantly, they don't know us, nor did they want to.
We, as a people, cannot learn from our history, because that history itself is appropriated for self-glorifying popular entertainment and our desperate search for any narrative that makes us feel better about ourselves, no matter what the truth of the matter is. As the saying goes, when the myth is confronted by the truth, print the myth. Right now were faced with a Republican Party that is in thrall with a dystopian myth about what our country is all about. They revel in this myth because in it, they are both the heroes, and the victims of the system of government that they do not understand; that system of government is beyond their ability to comprehend; but mostly, they don't care about. It's not *real* in the sense that they see no connection between that government and their own lives, even if they do recognize some of the pieces. In some sense, we've always been like this. From the time the first colonies were settled, whether was the Carolinas, Virginia, or Western New England, those who could not make life work for them tended to move west toward the frontier, where they didn't have to deal with a lot of other people who wore frock coats and fancy hats. These were people who didn't fit in. Ultimately, they found a hero in Andrew Jackson, our first populist president who scandalized Washington society, and turn the world they knew upside down. These were the people with a chip on their shoulder who disdained the highfalutin manners of society and its members who look down upon clerks, shopkeepers, tradesmen, and those who had to work for a living. Those who couldn't find a worthwhile job were often just the people who launch themselves into political careers. Abraham Lincoln was a land surveyor before he became a lawyer and a politician. And he was one of many ambitious men who wanted to make their mark in the world, but had no capital, and no taste for running a business or farming the land. Many of these men ran for public office, and especially legislative office, because it gave them the opportunity to rewrite the rules in their own favor. For every one of those who saw himself as bound for life in public service, there were many more who saw politics as the springboard to something better than they had before. And Donald Trump is the apotheosis of that mindset
E. Jean Carroll is suing Donald Trump for sexual assault that occurred three decades ago. Trumps defense, if you can call it that, is to act as if he's being accused of bad taste in the type of woman that he wanted to get it on with, rather than the brutal display of physical power that Trump inflicted on Carroll those many years ago, simply because Trump was sure he could get away with it. And that he did, at least until now. As I understand it, Carroll kept the clothing she was wearing at the time without ever having it cleansed of Trump's spoor, his DNA, and that DNA is now part of the body of evidence Carroll's attorneys will now be using to prove their case against the former president. It that is a clear parallel to what happened to another president, Bill Clinton, in his illicit relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At least in President Clinton's case, hitting on Lewinsky was apparently matched by her enthusiastic consent and participation. That didn't make it right, but it does make it understandable. Does Trump care that he degraded Jean Carroll and left her in a state of humiliation for going on 30 years? Obviously not. Does it bother him that a court will order him to pay significant damages to his victim? Again, nope. Does Trump think that his reputation will suffer in any way as a consequence? Again, extremely doubtful. In Trump's mind, Jean Carroll is not even a real person; in his mind she entered his life for the purpose of servicing him, and the only feeling that Trump is willing to recognize in himself is his anger that Jean Carroll did not keep quiet about it. By way of comparison, Trump and Elon Musk are fraternal twins; they share the same outlook on life, especially their presumed right to do whatever they want, regardless of the cost to anyone else. The Trump Republican Party is a swarm of Trump-like swamp creatures, self replicating look-alikes like a head of broccoli one buys that the produce section of the local supermarket. When you look at all of the component parts of the Trump party, they all look like Donald Trump in miniature. All of them are grifters; all of them are dishonest; all of them lust after personal power; and none of them gives a damn about anyone but themselves. The fuel that drives them is resentment, the same as it was when the Scots Irish moved across the appellation Mountains in 1763. The party's latest acolyte and grifter, George Santos, looks like everyone else in the Republican Party, and of course, Donald Trump. I could see Santos doing to someone like Jean Carroll the same thing that Trump did; all he lacks is the opportunity and the public personality that Trump molded into his calling card. They're all irredeemable narcissists, self entitled, and with a huge appetite for power, and a mean streak that poisons everything around them.
Dr. Richardson, Thank you, once again for a stress relieving clear analysis of the daily news dump. You are so very helpful to my sanity.
We live in a world with almost two equal halves, "reality" and the "unreal". A number of streaming video series have come out recently using this as a theme. They don't turn out well. They leave you, the viewer, empty, disoriented and depressed.
And yet Americans living in the current "unreality" zone seem to be happy, energized and ready to kill and destroy while claiming and thinking they are peaceful and loving. Which is why they are so willing to jump onto the DeSantis anti "woke" band wagon. They don't want to be awake to reality, to facts, to their history. Within my own extended family, the members who buy into this have no memory of preceding generations nor interest in future generations. They don't want to talk about anything but their most trivial activities. And if you push, they gush a torrent of resentment that "immigrants pouring across the border are changing our nation forever" and "our government is doing this to us".
They see no connection between their grandchildren, their grandchildren's future and deteriorating conditions that could be managed if we put our minds to it, like climate change. They also see no relationship between the trauma of their politics of inaction and vitriol and the falling birth rate of our traumatized youth. And how about the relationship of this anguish with our drug epidemic?
It seems like "minds" are a thing of the past. AI and eternal sleep to turn off our minds are the future. We are becoming rats in a maize and on caged exercise wheels.
I think that we do indeed have two halves. Sadly, I also think that the side that is all for MAGAts and their destruction of the government believes with all their hateful hearts that theirs is the "reality" and ours is the "unreal".
I have this theory that one cause of the dumbing down of the American mind is pervasive and continuing stress overload. When faced with a “crisis” that is important, continues for more than thirty days, and the person feels little or no ability to resolve it, the brain is changed. The amygdala becomes overactive and causes fear and anger (flight and/or fight) to override the prefrontal cortex. People lose executive function--memory, the ability to make or follow plans, the capacity to change direction when circumstances arise, and the ability to control their emotions. Sound familiar?
Interesting.
Looking for some happy news? Check out Heather and Joanne on their latest Now and Then episode:
https://cafe.com/now-and-then/things-are-looking-up-a-new-years-show/?utm_source=CAFE&utm_campaign=d75385b0b4-20230113_CAFEBrief_Insiders&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_575ee841eb-d75385b0b4-166090352
Lynell - I’m a privacy nut and have a request. When you post a link, can you edit it to delete the text from the last “/“? Starting with the question mark, all of that text is for tracking. Thanks!
https://cafe.com/now-and-then/things-are-looking-up-a-new-years-show/?
I did this for Lynell in case subscribers want to go with this abbreviated link to Heather and Joan’s podcast.
Thank you GPE for that tip. Not many aware of it.
🗽
Thanks Christine! Very helpful to have an example! I don’t think I was awake enough to think it all the way through....
Thanks, GPE. I should have done that.
Thanks, Christine, for doing that!
Lynell,
I will do and thanks.
Thanks! Bookmarking that one.
Heather and Joanne are so fun to listen to on Now and Then. I've been tuned in to their podcasts for a while now, and also enjoy when they have guests on some of the episodes. The time flies by and what do you know, I've learned something too. 😄
Natalie, last night I listened to their last one of 2022 with their guest Carol Anderson, such a fantastic trio! I learned about Julian Bond’s first state election back in the 60’s and the voter suppression and SCOTUS case coming from that. I’m just sorry I didn’t know about it earlier😞
The great thing is that most of the content is timeless, so I've gone back to older posts to listen to them again, after we end up cycling back around to the theme in our current hamster-wheel of issues. My regret is that I got out of the habit of watching Heather's weekly FB live content on her page. I haven't been on FB nearly as much since mid-2022, although there was some content that I really enjoyed - social media fatigue.
Hey, Natalie. When I first tuned in to Heather's FB chats I was more interested in her Politics Tuesday chats. Now, I'm more interested in her History Chats on Thursdays. As you say, timeless!
Good morning and thanks, Lynell!
A belated "you're welcome," Sally!
Thank You for this.
You're welcome, Barbara!
Thanks Lynell!
As usual, the Republicans keep showing the American public that their understanding and grip on reality is nonexistent.
1. This time one of the ways is by cutting border control money, wouldn't that make the borders more open. I thought they were against open borders.
2. How could DJT say "he'd never met Jean Carroll" and "she loved it" in the same sentence. ABOVE THE LAW again.
3. Speaking of BLATANTLY above the law, why is Santos still in Congress.
4. Between the shenanigans of SCOTUS, DJT, Santos, DeSantis, etc, etc , etc; I wonder if the law is in force any longer or that there are any limitations eg DJT just got "fined the maximum and will make it hard for him to get loans from banks". He won't pay the fine and with all the classified documents he had (and still has), he isn't getting money from banks anyway.
A lot of rapists never introduce themselves to their victims.
As a therapist who worked with incarcerated rapists, there are rapists who enjoy causing pain, and have some understanding of what the victim is feeling. Many more rapists have so little empathy for others, that they will say things like, “It felt good to me, of course she had a good time!”
The follow up to that horrid home visit (feces everywhere, too - I threw out everything I wore that day including my shoes) was that I, of course, immediately reported it to Protective Services ("But it's 4 pm and tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Can't this wait until Monday?) and the following week to 3 other agencies. One member of our early childhood coordinating council suggested I also contact a state maternal child health advocacy organization. The legislature (Democrats anyway) was doing a special study on child abuse and foster care. I was asked to testify at a hearing about this case and others that I had experienced since the state had stopped the revenue sharing with counties that had historically funded local public health departments. Before the hearing, I met with my state senator, an influential Republican (back when they were decent small businessmen and farmers). I told him about this family that lived only a mile away from his farm, on the same road. He said, "But we have district health nurses who make a home visit to every newborn. How did this family get missed?" I told him that they ALL get missed now due to his funding cuts. Within the week, our proposed state Maternal and Infant Support program bill was passed and fully funded. I later served on the county Health and Human Services Board, with more good Republicans, and headed up our Children's Campaign, educating candidates in every election cycle about why these services are so important. Unfortunately, the tRumps of the world would have refused our services. He is one very damaged man.
Holy Moly! That is some work you were able to do.
I must say you have more fortitude than I; I never wanted to work detectives because it was all "p's and v's", mostly adults to kids. I had a good friend (excellent patrol cop) who spent about 10 years in detectives. She said "I knew it was time to rotate out when I prayed for a homicide so I didn't have to talk to little kids about what their perp did."
Your work made a difference.
Thanks Ally, and your work was so important too. I don't know how your partner, or any cop, works as a detective for ten years when kids are the v's. Most of my home visits were with healthy babies and eager (if poor or limited) parents. And I eventually went into teaching nursing and then set up my own patient advocacy practice. One of the most important things I learned about political advocacy from those public health clients was how important it is to tell their stories. We need to elect public officials who will listen though.
These truths make me sick to my stomach. Thank you for doing that difficult work. I focused much of my career on maternal and child health & welfare, hoping to prevent monsters like that. But when a 5 year old boy looks at you and says, "You must see my sisters' bedroom" and he leads you down the hall to a locked door, and you make Mama open it, and find the two of them, lying on urine soaked mattresses, and when I ask Mama "Why" she says her husband comes home drunk every night and rapes her at 2 a.m. so she's too tired to clean for her kids - well the damage is already done.
Re (4), I think we must trust the steady hand of Merrick Garland. One thing proves another, and the five proudest of the Proud Boys are now on trial.
YES!
Concerning rapidly developing facts about Santos, see 18 USC section 1546. & note that the "Fraud & misuse of visas,, permits & other documents" risks imprisonment in the range of 5 to 20 years depending upon admissible facts. See also, 18 USC 1546(b)(1), (2), & (3). The risk is the same whether the Perp commits fraud in Miami or Queens NY.