“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation,” he said, “enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling [or] disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit…. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the mo…
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation,” he said, “enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling [or] disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit…. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time.” - President Joe Biden
In my opinion, Joe Biden is one of the best, but one of the most underrated and undervalued presidents of the United States - especially as a human being. Thank you, Mr. President; thank you, Joe.
Thank you, Dutch Mike and thank you, Heather! I watched Joe Biden's speech and I was proud of him and proud of America. I don't look forward to what is coming next and yet we have this great community to stand with, and Heather at the helm. May we stand strong.
HISTORY WILL AGREE ! We’ve got to carry Joe’s torch in the coming four years. Passing it among each other so that Trump n his Billionaireboys don’t succeed in snuffing this most brilliant historical sign of our DEMOCRACY at Work & in Full Steam Ahead through every challenge and distraction they throw on our playing field! A mess of mixed metaphors! Gnite dear friends and collaborators!
Carol, being friends and ad hoc collaborators is necessary but that alone is unfortunately insufficient, as is just having a coordinated collaborative approach. Fortunately, being friends and ad hoc collaborators with a coordinated collaborative approach for when we need it is necessary and will be sufficient.
As one of my spiritual advisors, W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993), often asked, “By what means?” If anyone has a coordinated collaborative approach, I’m all ears. Otherwise, I have a suggestion. Subscribe to my newsletter. Here’s what it won’t cost you: I’m not charging a subscription fee. Here’s what it will cost you: the time it takes to read an essay that I’ll do my best to keep under 1,200 words (roughly a 5-minute read) each Tuesday, and of course I hope you will provide me with your feedback in your newsletter comments.
The spudering of an ole man who allowed an inept ole AG to not go after the most pernicious monster in American history. Had he pursued the insurrection charges, there would be no President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025. I don’t want to hear anymore of this half-senile ole fart. And besides, he didn’t commute the life sentence of our longest political prisoner, Leonard Peltier. He is aware of the injustice of this Nstive American activist.
Ah, Bill, there are times when you make a great deal of sense, but this is not one of them.
The primary fault does not lie with either Biden or Garland, but instead with one of our two ossified political parties which began its descent into authoritarianism with Goldwater, continued with Nixon, and has now given us Trump, all aided and abetted by a weaponized Electoral College, n American electorate, a good half of which has utterly failed in its primary duty, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, all in thrall to a man who has pulled off the greatest con job ever perpetrated on this nation, and finally a Supreme Court who gave him a virtually free pass on his road to rule.
Three times during their recent journey toward this present moment, that party had an excellent chance of altering their destructive trajectory - once in 2016 when they recognized the danger posed by Trump and yet allowed him the nomination in spite of his manifest unfitness for the presidency, again in 2021 when their leadership, having seen and publicly stated that Trump was responsible for the assault on the capital, failed to follow through during his second impeachment, and finally in 2024 when they slavishly pandered to his raging paranoia, faux victimhood, vengefulness, and a campaign largely based on fear, ignorance, prejudice, and plethora of lies, false promises, and increasing incoherence.
Neither Biden nor Garland pulled those levers for Trump, but rather half a nation who ignored the evidence right in front of their eyes, much of it put there by Trump himself and his myrmidons, made a hero out of a felon, and traded their responsibilities as citizens for the price of a dozen eggs and fear of all those hungry Haitians seeking ‘pet food’.
My only regret about President Biden's excellent speech is that this is the one he should have made years ago and could have repeated regularly. He has been too old school nice. Americans needed to hear this said with fire and anger. The middle class has been hollowed out. Instead of touting employment stat victories we should have been continuously harping on how we need to solve more problems in health care, child care, elder care, housing, retirement programs and food deserts.
It wasn't Biden's efforts at working across the aisle that created epic new programs - it was a slim majority in Congress during the first two years.
The "oligarchy", the unfair tax system, the flood of dark money into politics didn't just happen. It has been a fact of life for decades.
And the misinformation and disinformation campaign by the Morbidly Rich and Religiously Perverted should have been a major battle from day one.
The next sane administration will set up a Cabinet Level fact checking Communications Department that will clarify and tell the truth daily to the world.
For now, it will be up to the DNC and leaders like Senators Chris Murphy and Elizabeth Warren to offer up direct challenges to the avalanche of hogwash and bullshit flowing from Republicans. Blue State Governors will be the backbones of democracy.
That being said, Biden's legacy will be enhanced with the perspective of time. Just like Jimmy Carter, their qualities of character and empathy will be admired. They did more good for their nation in their one term presidencies than all the modern Republican presidents did combined - except for Ike who was the last Republican who was a president of all Americans.
Exactly. If there is one problem with Biden, it's this. He's trying to play a chess game, playing be the rules whilst his opponent is continually spitting and punching him in the face. That may be nice and honourable, but it simply doesn't work.
Dutch, the flip side is he would have been caricatured as "the old man yelling at the clouds" had he played the anger card. He promised a different Washington when he was inaugurated. I think that's about impossible these days for anyone to accomplish.
In Friday's news, the story is Biden regrets being all policy and no politics. Not taking more credit for accomplishments. Big yes. Zero PR. Politics gave him the chance to do policy.
We now know what happens when the truth is whispering a few times and the lies are thundering 24/7.
Let's not make that mistake again, please? If we need to put $$$$ into launching a news outlet, let's do it.
“Old school nice” (meaning good natured, compassionate kind, charitable) is not what a large chunk of Americans admire. Interview after interview with Trump voters proves that what they admire is the exact opposite: old school nasty (meaning, for example, unkind, spiteful, uncharitable). Perhaps we are entering the age of nastiness. Trump, psychologically projecting his own inner self as always, calls anyone he doesn’t like “nasty.”
Apparently, his voters have a lot of inner unrecognized nasty they project on people like Trump. Pretty soon nastiness will be acceptable, celebrated. It will be virtuous to be aggressive, unfriendly, uncharitable, spiteful, dishonest, brutal. Niceness will be for wimps. MAGA t-shirts emblazoned “Loud and proud MAGA Nasty” will be hot sellers.
Jennifer, MAGAs delight in being nasty, in your face people. It's their chance to get back at those people that they think wronged them in some way usually by being recognized as citizens who deserve rights and therefore sorta leveling the playing field although i would argue that is not actually the case in many instances.
You are absolutely right. Most of us here are still wondering "how in the world could you vote for such an asshole??" Well, BECAUSE he is an asshole. The Trumplodytes vote for the Convicted Orange Felon BECAUSE he is an asshole. That's the key. They vote for him because they wish to be just like him: a misogynistic, racist, reckless, narcissistic asshole with no regrets, no responsibility and no accountability. It's all about ME: just grab that pussy, grab that money, and f*ck everybody else.
Nastiness IS already being celebrated in America, by decorating the White House with this orange, blobby and sorry excuse for a man. My prediction is that he will post a video on Xitter of himself masturbating in the president's chair, and his cultist followers will absolutely love it.
Why are mostly only Republicans interviewed? Where are the interviews with Democratic voters? Why does it only matter what Republican voters want and admire? Maybe more would be okay with the "old school nice" and compassion, empathy, kindness, etc., if it was to become the norm again. And that will only happen if other voices are heard.
Biden sensibly has played the cool hand at appropriate moments. I’m not one to say exactly what’s most appropriate in tough global or national political situations. But the fool is the one who simply reacts.
Many feeling the burn of defeat in the last Presidential election, rush to ask why Democrats shouldn’t learn to act more like Republicans, take up their methods, weaponize the polity. Seize power by whatever means. True,these are just voices of desperation and venting is to be understood. We should understand that a successful response is not borne of imitation.
Strength rises from the principles that motivate us to care about democratic principles. These are our guiding star. Without that we are blind and we will lose heart and fail. We will become a replica of all that we formerly opposed. This is not only the lesson of history, but the lesson of our future.
I like Biden’s key phrase, everyone “gets a fair shot.” We may not yet have achieved that perfection, but it won’t be for lack of trying. And the actuality of it sure beats blathering about some shiny city upon a hill.
To be replaced by something catastrophically worse, from a party that breaks all the old rules and standards.
Wait until you see their lies and broken oaths turn out for the real losers and suckers that voted for them. Do they think they will come out of this ill gotten power grab any better than the rest of us.
They booted the pilots and are claiming they know how to fly the plane with incompetent and malicious pretenders.
What could possibly go wrong.
I imagine it like a bunch of professional wrestlers putting on "entertaining" performances that will cost the audiences more than they can ever imagine.
Voters don't take the Oath of Office. Their primary duty is to inform themselves well enough that they elect representatives, who when elected, will honor that oath. In that task, voters have failed dismally. I'm convinced that a majority of those who voted for FELON47 could not pass a 6th-grade civics test. Did voters realize that they were facing a binary choice: the rule of law or Trump? How are we ever going to be able to elect good public officials when a large portion of the electorate lack critical thinking skills and can't distinguish fantasy from reality? This is the biggest challenge our democracy faces, and will be made even tougher by the gusher of lies we can expect from the new administration, and their amplification by right-wing media and normalization/equivocation from mainstream corporate media.
I think that many of those who cast their ballots for the convict were absolutely convinced that he would "restore" them to their "rightful place" at the top of society, just like their ancestors (or wished for ancestors) of southern "aristocracy", that is to say antebellum slave holders. What I see are men (and their wives) who are terrified of "others", like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, immigrants, non-Christians, and educated people. Some others, although I suspect a smaller percentage, want their perception of what a strong businessman is (although the multi-bankruptcy guy doesn't look like that to me). Even more (and maybe this is the "refuse to vote" crowd) could not vote for a woman, much less a woman of color.
Ally, I think you have the exact reasons why MAGAs vote for someone like death star. Not only are they terrified, but also angry because someone who doesn't look like them has a chance and some rights. It is no longer enough to be white, a white male, straight, Christian, here for more than a generation, and yes, not very well educated.
Ally, don’t make it so complicated. We now know that social media was used on a youngish white male portion of the electorate that spends an in inordinate amount of time online on social media much on TiK Tok. Their minds have been corrupted and led to believe in you guessed it, the second coming. And so where were the massive wave of women disgusted with losing their rights?
Americans don't want to conscientiously work at being a good citizen. They want a "good" (meaning entertaining) fight or an even more entertaining show. That's why Republicans have adopted the WWE style of politics, combining the fight and the show into constructing a false "reality" that the racist, sexist, and uneducated voter was willing to vote for. It turns out that America has a lot of racist, sexist, and uneducated voters....and they include both Trump voters and people who didn't vote.
As usual, Ally, your observations elevate the stream of commentaries. The factors you mention are certainly at play. In addition, the "refuse to vote" crowd includes a substantial number of Americans who just don't care enough about the obligations of citizenship to bother.
I applaud the wording in your lead sentence: "those who cast their ballots." You highlight a key point I have come to embrace, first suggested by Eric Liu some time ago. It is this: All constitutionally qualified voters do vote in every election. I call the first group "active" voters; they cast a ballot and know then who received their vote. The second group I call "passive voters." They always vote for the winner of every election and only know who received their vote once the ballots are counted.
Our challenge, in part, is to accurately inform and motivate more of the passives to change to active. That process requires more words to describe than there is space for here.
I guess that's right. Just the awful slogan/acronym 'MAGA' is an anachronistic longing for this mythical golden age, which actually never existed. It's what fascists do. And of course "the other," as you point out, is responsible for the country's decline from this fantasy wonderland, as well as all the woes of the angry underachievers who consume such nonsense. As usual, there's a kernel of truth in tRump's lies, which makes them trickier to counter. Real wages have stagnated for decades. Housing is too expensive. It's become punishingly hard to make a decent living at smaller-scale farming. Flyover country is suffering. Of course IQ45 had no answers in his first term, and I doubt any attendee at a tRump rally could point to a single enacted policy that helped them. Quite the contrary. The first-term tariffs killed the market for U.S. soybeans as China stopped buying. It's never come back, but tRump helped make Brazil great again. Not to mention trying to take away his supporters' healthcare, nutritional assistance and all other social safety net benefits, while degrading the environment they live in. The final puzzle piece that doesn't fit is that so many tRump voters profess to be "Christians" yet support a godless, amoral monster who demonstrates his utter lack of humanity, decency and character with every utterance. Basic morality, right and wrong, just doesn't seem to be part of the equation for his voters. I guess the country's moral rot is as big a factor as the atavistic aspirations you point to.
Right on target. It was blatant racism and misogyny that held them from voting for Kamala. They would rather have a convicted felon, swindler and rapist as president than a woman of colour.
Yes, some of the blame does fall on the voters. I’ve read opinion after opinion dissecting what Democrats did wrong, but the buck stops with the voters. They either stay informed or not. They pay attention to what’s going on or not. They choose to mire themselves in misinformation or not. They choose to show up on Election Day or not.
If we have a catastrophic four years, the voters assume some of the blame for that.
While Katz had sufficient reason for his rant it was too one-sided. Quin gave a balanced sensible summary of our dilemma. It was so painful to listen to Biden's farewell address. Absent trump, Biden would have been recognized as a great president. But the nice, decent guy was opposed by a bully and manipulative liar extraordinare. So we dive into the great unknown called the future. God help us all (this from an atheist).
‘Real’ atheism, as opposed to the more strident version promulgated in a number of books is generally a pretty quiet state of being. We’re not trying to sell anybody on anything or shove our beliefs down someone else’s throat. We believe strongly in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, understanding that the fusion of church and state has generally been a disaster for those who don’t share whichever faith is fused with the state. We understand human spirituality and the impetus to faith in all its forms, and we accept its existence without prejudice. And we know that atheists can be as upright and moral as anyone else. Our sole real objection to people of faith is when they assume otherwise.
So, atheists hate their neighbors? Or neighbor haters are atheists? Ridiculous either way. You really should make an effort to get to know some atheists. It isn’t difficult, we aren’t hard to find, and I bet you’ll enjoy doing so.
I agree. I’m just upset. I harken to the idea that when you lose, you are a loser. Biden is a complicated history. He has been on the wrong side at times; pushing segregation ideology, allowing Clarance Thomas to be nominated his probably biggest mistake. I think Biden was not a great PR for himself. Yes he enacted wise legislation I won’t deny him this. But I think his initial inaction at the border doomed him and his VP. He simply didn’t want to follow Trump by enacting strong security and this ultimately cost him and his VP. And it’s not just another missed opportunity. This one is the big one. Fours years of massive rearranging the bureaucracy and turning it into an autocracy. This is a big loss and it remains at his feet. Ironically, it was a republican Senator that came close to removing unlimited monies from campaigns. John McCain did well but the Supreme Court nipped that. I have sometimes called the United States the illegitimate bastard child of England. We almost got it right but not quite. From the planters who towed the slave trade to the oligarchs of today, it never ceased. So with a few bright places in our history, namely saving western civilization during the mid 20th century, we now fully enter a deep and dark place in the world. My opinion. And to be fully can, I’ve never felt that this was my place to live. For a brief time in the 1970s, I lived in Europe and I felt refreshed. My mistake was to return.
You've swallowed the Republican version of Biden's administration, hook, line, and sinker. I hope you find a way to consider the nuanced complexities of the challenges you say he failed at. If not... your loss.
I’m not a partisan. You apparently are. I think for myself. And i have some difficulties if some Republican talking points and mine are the same. I place much fault with democratic wokism. As close as I am to ideology of the democratic, I think they are their own worse enemy.
Believe me, I’m upset too. Or more accurately deeply saddened.
“
I have sometimes called the United States the illegitimate bastard child of England. We almost got it right but not quite”
How could we get it right, that first time around. We’ve had over two centuries to improve on the original. Not that we haven’t made some horrendous stumbles along the way, the latest of which is Trump 2.0.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the resilience of our institutions. This comes most often from the right in an attempt to deflect the conversation away from what they know is a problem but are too deeply dug into Trump’s orbit to admit, even to themselves.
Having watched the relevant portion of Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing, I’m hardly sanguine about that resilience, particularly the one she’s about to head. We know the power Trump now holds over his current set of Cabinet appointees, even her record didn’t already make her inclinations clear.
In the end, we have to depend on continuing the fight in every way we can, and hope that before the midterms enough Trumpists will see enough of the harsh light his new term is likely to shine on his motives and actions to swing them into our column, even if it’s in opposition to him rather than a full compliance with us.
Bill, the thread from the planters to the oligarchs of today is a great observation. Since we are the land of "opportunity" the masses hold out that view that we all can become an oligarch.....
Bill, live wherever you like my man, as long as you're able to feed your face, repair your body til you croak, and have somebody to do the dishes for ya, have a nice day. You're just a number. I pity you being homeless.
Well said. I also need to point out our liberal leadership's failure to address the continuous assault of death by a thousand cuts approach the CONservatives have taken. While the liberals stopped focusing on legislation, the conservatives took the Lewis Powell Memo and went to work with the thousand cuts using a scalpel. Occasionally, they would try the hammer approach to distract their real intentions as was strategized in the book Democracy in Chains - Nancy MacLean. the Memo is the root of Project 2025.
As the CONservatives took small cuts at the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, reproductive rights, and the administrative agencies, the liberal leaders when they held majorities did little to counter these assaults. Their inaction has lead us to this point as they relied on the court system for defense. If you read the Memo, it targeted the court system as a long range plan to fill it with ideological picks that would come from law schools filled with like minded teachers. It has taken decades to get her, but here we are.
The liberals have got to realize that we are viewed as the enemy, not competitors and start acting as such.
Thank you, Rickey Woody, for bringing “Democracy in Chains” to our attention. I read it early on and learned about the Kochs, whose history should be known to all Americans. That they fund Hegseth’s former jobs with veterans’ groups is another reason he should not be Secretary of Defense. Russia and Nazi Germany are the source of their fortune and the remaining brother continues to aid Putin. Hegseth is the perfect “useful idiot” to join Trump. Watch for Trump Tower Moscow.
James, an excellent post, thank you. Biden is not responsible for the R party becoming the party of death. They chose that for power and money, aided and abetted by the Supreme Court and the Congress who could have done something. The Supreme Court gave him carte blanche to be lawless and the Congress aided and abetted him when the Senate should have voted to make the impeachment stick. Now we have a R Senate who will confirm most of the awful nominees for various posts. We will not be better or safer or healthier. At one point in my long life I thought we were making some progress, but now I will spend most, if not all, of my final days, watching the country circle the drain. I do hope for the younger people that I am wrong.
James, I hear what you are saying, and I agree with what you wrote. Nevertheless, Bill still has a point regarding the efficacy of going after Trump after Jan. 6th. I can't tell you how many times I've said to myself: "when the hell are they going to slam the door shut on this future felon?" The Jan. 6th committee had all the evidence; all their ducks were in a row, and Trump new it. It was Trump who controlled the dynamics of his fate in the courts, which clearly implies Garland's lethargy on this matter. My belief is that Garland got the DOJ job because of the travesty of McConnell's manipulations to deny him a SCOTUS position. Unfortunately, he didn't make the most of his good fortune. He did well in the Oklahoma bombing committed in April of 1995; somewhere along the way, he lost the killer instinct to convict one who would destroy more, over a period of time, than Timothy McVeigh could ever conjure. Although, in my high school youth of that time, I never supported Goldwater, I don't think one can blame much on him. After all, he laid out the facts in front of Nixon and either told him or forced him to resign. I also don't believe he would have let the Israelis slide on the attack on the USS Liberty in June of 1967 had he won the presidency over LBJ. That's just my opinion. The individual that I believe you may want to mention is Reagan. His governorship of California signaled in a far better trajectory for what we now have than Goldwater ever did.
The idea of 'reacting' to maga is a waste of energy. Biden did great things, but, dealing with dangerous forces like the present Republican party and Donald trump requires an effective use of the Department of Justice and I am safriad Garland was asleep at the wheel. Trump should be in jail, along with Mitch Mcconnell. Take the gloves off, Democrats and overcome what is the most serious attack on the American way of life since t he 'Civil War'.
Trump likely would be in jail or at least up for trial if he’d not run again, which is most likely the primary reason why he did so. But to assume that Garland was ‘asleep at the wheel’ is to underestimate the challenge involved in legally pursuing a man who is at the time running for the presidency. So much of this business is a new thing in our history that the process of indicting and bringing such a man to trial is unprecedented and can be hard to appreciate to those outside the process.
It is true that our legal system often appears to bend over backwards in what can seem like a deliberate attempt to protect the guilty equally as well as the innocent. But it is those same built in safeguards that prevent us from being the kind of nation Trump would like us to be, in which the politically powerful can pursue their opponents with utter impunity.
It is immensely frustrating to me that this man is now about to become president again. He is anathema to everything we ought to stand for. But as with the First Amendment, to attempt to alter or short-circuit it for one particular case, no matter how. justified it may seem, would be a very slippery slope from which there would be no full return.
Thank you. You phrased your response much more eloquently than I could have. I was prepared to respond with, "BS!" It is very easy to blame President Biden. His hands were full from day one. He had to prioritize many threats. I think he did the best he could which turned out to be pretty darned good. Put the blame on Republicans and their co-conspirators who plotted and schemed every chance they got. It is they who value their personal wealth and power over what is best for our country. Full stop.
If only Howard Dean's 50 state strategy would of been picked up by these democrats. But not?????????????? Dems are low keyed while they get walked all over by repugs.
Well yes except for the fact that he has NOT pardoned Peltier which is unforgivable. And his atrocious hypocrisy in supporting Israel with continuing millions (billions?) in aid which were used to commit genocide against Palestinians while simultaneously mouthing sympathy for Palestinian civilians whose lives have been systematically destroyed with American weapons. His minions like his press secretary have repeated egregious attacks on those who have protested this war and supported the rights of Palestinians not to be victims of unabashed war crimes and flagrant continued violations of international law. Yes Biden gave lip service to condemning Netanyahu’s murderous war but they were pretty hollow considering how complicit the U.S. has been in the prosecution of this war and Biden’s unwavering practical support of Israel.
Indeed I do give him high marks on the domestic front but that too is tempered by his attacks on the rights of students to free speech without retribution which has been rampant and his abject failure to follow through on his promise to be a one-term president undoubtedly contributing to Trump’s win. Both he and the entire DNC have been toothless mid-20th liberals completely inept at fighting this push toward oligarchy and yes, in my opinion, clear fascist threats. Rather than supporting the most progressive members of their party they sabotaged Bernie at every opportunity and have taken what they perceive to be the “safe road” of centralism and facilitating the GOP at every turn - Democrats voting to confirm Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett? Caving on immigration? Kamala - who I like but who reneged on her most liberal positions in an effort to appeal to voters - which as we saw failed epically? And their still appalling and indefensible refusal to allow a Palestinian to speak at the convention after shamelessly giving (and exploiting) the parents of a hostage and other pro-Israel speakers prime time?
Biden achieved important and admirable advances through many of his domestic policies and legislation and for that I am grateful. But in the end his and the DNC’s incompetence and unwillingness to take on Trump, MAGA and the far right with effective political strategies have left us where we are today. (And I’m not referring to the debate which was shaped more by idiot pundits than the reality). Credit where credit is due but he remains a deeply flawed president who was complicit in war crimes and unwilling to take the moral ground. The ongoing Israeli BS justifying bombing hospitals, schools, and every other civilian target under the pretense they were attacking Hamas also sits right in Biden’s lap (along with most of the Congress). Regrettably I think this greater legacy will overshadow his other accomplishments.
I do not know enough about the Peltier case to comment on it.
The Israeli/Palestinian/Gaza business would challenge Solomon. For every reason there is to support Netanyahu’s policies there is an equally valid reason not to. The shadow of the Holocaust hovers over all of us in ways impossible to calculate, almost in the same way as the shadow of slavery ad of our crusade against those who held the land before us continues to hover over us here in the US. The only real issue in three is that the killing of large numbers of those with whom we disagree has never solved anything with any kind of permanence, and until and if we ever learn that lesson these sorts of things will go on.
Our elemental problem is one which continues to bedevil us. It is our stubborn determination to separate ourselves into all sorts and kinds of groups based largely on artificial categories - racial, religious, political, financial, social; you name it, some mob somewhere has used it to distinguish itself from some other group. There is actually only one category of differentiation that is based on anything non-artificial - sex - and even there the differences are fluid.
So we create these boundaries, debate across them, glare across them, and all to often start killing each othe over them when in fact there is only us - Homo sapiens - the most ill-named mob on the planet.
As to the DNC’s incompetence in taking on MAGA, yes, most of their problem stemmed from not offering an alternative sufficient to sway voters away from Trump. And that is all they could have done. They are, after all, not the DOJ. But there have always been at least two very different visions of America held by Americans themselves. This has been true ever since Jefferson and Monroe formed the Democratic Republican faction to combat the Federalists during Washington’s presidency. The nature of the visions themselves have varied from time to time, but became solidified with the creation of formal political parties in the 1830’s. And so I return to a portion of my next above paragraph, because that’s what we’ve stuck ourselves with.
Except you seem to view these choices as immutable or impossible. I disagree with your comment and belief about Netanyahu and the Israeli state. There is simply no justification for what Israel has done in Gaza and is now doing in the West Bank which are just continuations of their decades-long disproportionate responses which violate international law. No one disputes the horror of the Oct 7 attack but it occurred in an historical context which the West, and especially the U.S. willfully choose to forget and deny. Israel’s decisions are not immutable or inevitable. They are conscious choices based on very specific political goals.
Thank you for this coherent statement of what I have been feeling and trying to say here in various ways. Blame it on Trump, one man. But this is not the lesson. The man cannot help who he is. He's been testing since his day one and gotten away with everything. He never gives up. The GOP betrayed the country and itself. And ultimately the electorate; half of us got us here, some ignorant, some selfish. This experiment is proving to be impossible, a failure. We cannot have a democracy with vultures. We have shown ignorance, selfishness and uncaring. It devolved to this. Trump is perversely showing us ourselves.
I wouldn’t count the old girl out just yet. She’s weathered at least one more powerful storm than Trump. I’m betting there’s going to come a moment when enough Trumpists realize that he really doesn’t give a damn about them to begin turning the tide.
As I’ve noted before, we’re really very new at this Republic business. I’m nearly 80, so I could have talked to a man who fought in the Civil War. And a man who fought in that war could have talked to a man who fought in the Revolution and was there at the Founding. We’re that close to it.
I’m not exactly a cockeyed optimist, but neither am I ready to give up on this experiment. None of us should be.
Thank you for your optimism. I find myself wavering. I need to read this steadfastness from you and some others lest I turn into my father who gave up entirely on people. Humanity! (Melville, Bartleby) (But my dad had his friends!) I am in your age group.
It is amazing that after the defeat of Trump in 2020 there was hope that this nastiness is turning around, come to a head. But it has deep roots we realize. Trump was steadfast and he gathered a storm around him. And as is said in these comments, people who are either with us or not, just tune out and shrug. They have their own lives in front of them... until this "thing" hits them.
It's so clear we need involvement of the people to have a democracy of the people. I tend to feel that many just want their freedoms, democracy, given to them as an inheritance. A present.
And then, as Biden says, and many others are also warning, we are evolving into (or are) an oligarchy... this time mega robber barons doing more great harm than philanthropic work it seems.
I am not ready to give up.But I am worried about how and when this turns around or if it takes hold for a long time.
By the way, as a 5 year old in the Bronx NY we went to the parades on the Grand Concourse on Memorial Day. My uncle was in the parade, a hero of sorts in WW2. But at the end of the parade, a goose bump promoting prideful display, came the oldest soldiers, a few Civil War soldiers who were variously pushed in wheelchairs. They came after the others, the soldiers from the ensuing wars (incl WW1, WW2). And we stood up and cheered, waving flags.
Still, the consideration that Biden should have pardoned Leonard Peltier remains. Count me as a Biden voter who was extremely disappointed by that omission, and his failure to ratify the ERA.
Don't worry, Bill Katz, you won't be hearing anymore from the "half-senile ole fart" as you call him. You will be hearing ad nauseam from the orange old fart lunatic and his despicable side-kicks. Joe Biden may not have done everything you wanted, but he accomplished a great deal in spite of Republican obstruction and constant lies. And as always, trump will falsely take credit for these accomplishments since they will come to fruition during his term. The Biden bashing needs to stop.
Every president has his pros and cons. To your above list I would add cutting off military aid to Israel, but that would probably have been blocked by the MAGA congress. The Dems should have gotten rid of DeJoy and acted on the voter roll "cleanup" and laws enacted by red states to cheat in the election. Joe did a great job on the economy and in supporting Ukraine. I would fault the rest of the DEM party for not getting much done (Ethics laws for supreme court justices?, statehood for P.R.? A 3 lies and your out law on Faux News, et al?
Withdrawal of military aid to Israel would have been blocked by a Democratic Congress, especially after it had come under attack from Lebanon, Iran and Yemen.
Yes you and Carl are correct. The Jewish lobby in this country is extremely effective. Purposely so in order to insure unmitigated support of Isreal. It’s a shame of our modern times that this country wasn’t able to really fire a peace settlement. They say you can’t force peace but when you are the sole supporter of a country, I think there is potential. Chairman Arafat was the biggest loser when he refused the peace offering. Granted the whole of the West Bank wasn’t mandated but it was very generous offering. So both sides are at fault but America must take the greatest blame.
Israel would have continued on its path with or without our support. And that path has to be its self preservation.
The greatest blame for the devastation of Gaza ought to be assigned to the monsters who started this war by slaughtering 1200 people and taking more as hostages. Hamas has been the aggressor here. Hamas is the Taliban/KKK/Nazis/ISIS....a Mafia.
And even in the face of certain defeat, Hamas did not surrender - sacrificing thousands of their own. HAMAS could have stopped the war at any time, but it did not. With the support of Hezbollah and Iran it continued to rain rockets on Israel.
Should the response of Israel to such an attack have been different? Sure. Is Netanyahu a cold blooded monster? Yes. But I have yet to hear what the proper strategy should have been to defeat Hamas without the destruction that occurred. I am listening...
And now we have a chance at peace. Why did Hamas finally agree to a cease fire? Because it lost the support of Iran and Hezbollah due to Israel's actions. I hate that it is true - but when faced with an enemy that is at its core is committed to your destruction (river to the sea!), you don't bring anything to the fight other than superior strength.
Blaming Joe Biden for a conflict created by, continued by and supported by the enemies of peace and democracy is ridiculous.
The destruction of Gaza has been beyond awful. But sometimes there are insane leaders who refuse to surrender in the face of all reasoning and efforts at peace. The Nazis. The Japanese generals. Throughout history, negotiations begin when one side actually realizes it can't win. Hamas knew that months ago.
The people of Gaza have experienced horror beyond anything that we can feel or imagine. But the people of Gaza elected Hamas and did not tell Hamas to stop attacking Israel. They allowed their terrorist leaders to continue. They could have surrendered. Instead they sheltered the murderers.
But of course, it's complicated, isn't it? In the West Bank, the orthodox Jews who are stealing Palestinian land and assassinating people who have lived there for generations are no better than Hamas and act like the Taliban.
What is the simplistic solution for that situation? My idealistic and unlikely response would be that we should have a United Nations with teeth - with troops that would enforce the international agreements that provided a safe haven in the West Bank. Here, Israel is allowing militant extremists to act as if they are their own government. That is a situation where America could draw a line in the sand and make a difference. The West Bank Jewish "settlements" are an affront to everyone. They are a direct threat to peace in the region.
Of course, if we have an American civil war, would we welcome the UN to sort us out? I think not.
Sadly, the Confederacy still lives in the DNA of many - ironically now in the party that originally brought it to its knees.
And so it goes. Joe did a lot more right than wrong. He will be viewed as a Saint real soon.
The Pro right wing extremist Israeli government lobby including AIPAC (founded by an Israeli government lobbyist) and CUFI (founded by American Christian evangelicals.) There fixed it for you. Your talk of a "Jewish lobby" is dubious, at best.
[Speaker Mike]Johnson and [CUFI founder pastor] Hagee appear to be run-of-the-mill Christian Zionists, fueled by fantasies of a cataclysmic war in the Middle East that brings about the Second Coming of Christ, wherein all Muslims—and Jews, for that matter—either convert or face eternal damnation. It would be easy to dismiss these evangelicals and their apocalyptic fervor, but that would be a mistake, as their conceptualizations of Judaism and Israel are shared by many who are not so overtly eschatological, nor even Christian. In recent days, narratives of Jewish and Israeli exceptionalism have proliferated, as conservatives frame Hamas’s October 7 massacre as a blow, more fundamentally, to the West. . .
The weaponizing of Judaism against Islam was long a trademark of televangelists like Pat Robertson, who once claimed the entire world shook from the struggle between Israelis worshiping the “one true God” and Arabs worshiping Allah. It’s now a trademark of those white Christians who are now working to justify Israel’s obliteration of Gaza.
My own feeling is that there will be no end to this struggle until both sides to the conflict stop talking about rights, biblical or ancestral, and start about interests. THEY have to want it. Until they do, there's very little others can do.
Bill, I agree that Leonard Peltier should have been finally freed. He has served his time and is now an ailing old man who should be free to end his days outside the "big house." But demeaning Biden does no good. Yes, he is old--something we all aspire to rather than the other option--but he did many many good--even great things during his administration.I regret that he felt the need to keep arming Israel so that they could pursue their long-time aim of genocide to the Palestinians. It will be many years and tons and tons of money that will be needed to help restore Gazan infrastructure but lives and allegiances may take even more time. And that is a tragedy that could have been avoided many many years ago--think 1948--when no thought was given to the hand-off of land without compensation or consideration. But Biden inherited a very broken system and I have to feel that he did the best he could with what he was given, and four years is hardly enough to correct all the sins of politics and the world.
Because he is a middle of the road Republican just driving the apple cart. He was supposed to show nonpartisanship and succeeded. Not to anyone’s advantage even his.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda....reading these comments all I see are "Monday morning quarterbacks" thinking they know more than the person in the middle of it all. None of us have any idea what the President is dealing with minute by minute and yet all I see at the moment are comments "all he had to do!". He wasn't perfect BUT damn...he was effective and got things done. Very sad and disappointed a lot of Americans do not see what they voted for and all of us will be paying the price.
Yes Kathy. Even more simply, I see it as in Trumps 1st term he inherited the momentum of Obama. Then, Trumps term.., lousy as it was, it created the momentum for Biden. Biden ran with it, and has created the momentum which Trump wilol ride on and of course take credit for. And if this coming term does nothing, it too will create a momentum for the next President. And, we will have a "next president". We're gonna need one to see us through this little mid-life crisis we seem to be having. Rock on.
I wouldn’t say bad things about President Biden who did lots of good things but his legacy will be the coming second term of T. He picked an ineffective AG for the task that was ahead of him as well as wanting to not punish repigs for some misguided notion of unity with traitors.
An insurrection charge against Trump would have been very risky to land, as the special prosecutor rightly calculated. He would have successfully brought a conviction against Trump but for the scandalous intervention by the Supremes on the issue of immunity and consequent delays. Once a special prosecutor was appointed it was then outside the bailiwick of either Biden or Garland.
You have good points. However the January 6th committee forced AG’s hands and he appointed Jack Smith. If they(AG and Biden admin) had moved faster and when trump was still reeling from the failed insurrection something may have stuck. We’ll never know. I am also probably wish casting.
Way back when Trump firsst started arriving on the tarmac in his TRUMP B757..., none of us thought it would happen. But, he became "stock" which got the attention of Big-Money, and they invested in him like some kind of IPO. It's paid off for them. We were blindsided.., sucked in as it were after his first miserable term in office. And, we were about to be "had" a second time.., we just couldn't fathom it at first. But he had plenty of investors, most of whom we don't even know exist. Those folks were'nt about to lose their money.., that's why he won. And, that(!!!) is why "we"lost. While we laughed at the RNC, joked about his dick-size, made fun of his sons, ogled his wifes naked photos, called him names..., THIS is where it got us. Big-Money talks and the god of BS walks 'freely' amongst us. What're we gonna do? Call Ghostbusters? Hollywood is burning. Welp.. folks, we still are a country of laws and courts with judges who are not only educated, but human. Thanks to technology we can see the changes taking place in our short lifetime. Let's work on this.
And yet that word 'weaponisation' rings around Republican circles. They still haven't forgiven the Democrats for Nixon, another miscreant who avoided jail. Perhaps it was the last vestiges of the aura of the office of the presidency, a phenomenon believed by Americans to be quite separate from the attributes and vices of any particular incumbent, that caused the hesitation. After all, the very idea of a former president being convicted and jailed was not one envisaged by the Founders or clearly provided for in the Constitution.
Bill, I hear you and your disappointment. But consider the incredible amount of good he has done. We have had NO President without faults. None.
I agree that Merrick Garland was the absolute wrong choice for this time. I think Joe should have fired him and appointed someone with guts. Maybe Glenn Kirschner?
However, Joe brought us out of Covid, certainly saved me from the serious prospect of homelessness!
Infrastructure is finally getting repaired and built. More people have had a chance to succeed than ever under the false trickledown theories.
NATO is stronger. Ukraine is still alive. We have the beginning of a possible end to the horrors of Israel/Gaza.
Biden has done more for the American worker than anyone since FDR. And let's not forget, FDR ignored lynching in the South and interned Japanese Americans during WWII.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the saying goes.
The ultimate blame should be on Trump and his billionaires, who engaged in a good deal of lying and deception. Biden, Congress, and the media could all have done a better job protecting our democracy, but it didn't happen. Since all the blame is out there, we must do what we can to keep the light burning. God help us.
Case in point right now— the cheating going on in North Carolina’s election by MAGats taking away the powers of a democratically elected DEMOCRATIC governor. Not a peep from media or the Democrats or the DOJ.
Wait....wait! There was a gathering protesting what is happening in NC. Read Marc Elias. As Biden said, "The free press is crumbling," so we know not to expect anything from them but substacks have arisen to change the information delivery method.
Thank you, MLMinET, for posting this. Jay Kuo's substack, the Status Kuo, is one of my favorites, This particular one explains in detail what obstacles Merrick Garland and Jack Smith were up against. I'm frankly getting tired of the blame game so many of us seem to be playing all the time. We must have all the facts before making such blatant judgments.
Adding my thanks for Kuo's writing that shows us just how far and wide the blame can be spread. It's an inside look at what we have been waiting to know about.
It’s free to just subscribe. My subscriptions are my main source of info and I generally subscribe for free until I see how serious they are about writing. (HCR is amazing and at the top of my paid list. ❤️😍)
Thank you MLM. I had not heard of Kuo before. He makes some excellent points that will become important to remember when tffdd (the first felon draft dodger) 🤮🤮 begins his new crime wave.
I agree that Garland was a big disappointment when he had an opportunity to stop the insurrectionists years ago. Also Biden's adoration of Bibi, allowing the destruction of Gaza and genocide of the Palestinians was inexcusable. But we must put this aside now as there are bigger problems coming!
Nope. When I saw a photo of “the hug” I knew Biden was swirling around the toilet. Bibi is Israel’s Trump, crooked and seeking election to avoid prison.
Oh… i’m warmed by the cockles of your heart. I particularly love being called such. Thank you. How did you know that? I would like to nominate you to be on my Board of Directors of “Seven Cats and Me Foundation.” Let me give you a like.
I agree, Bill. Leonard Peltier should have long ago been pardoned. That Biden sat on his hands for this issue is clearly a disgrace. However, I do want to state that Biden, I believe, has spoken clearly and concisely by far most of his time as president than people give him credit. Is he senile? He may be to a slight extent; frankly, I don't really know, and I don't see the evidence when he gets to a platform and speaks his mind. Since his disastrous performance in debate against Trump, he has been hammered about his "senility." With the exception of the infamous debate against Trump, I don't see any evidence that he is not compos mentis.
While flags remain at half-mast in honor of Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden will depart the White House for the last time on Monday after overseeing a peaceful transfer of power.. Presidents are not perfect human beings -- just like the rest of us, they have their flaws, their biases, their errors in judgment, with an outsized helping of ego and ambition. But in my opinion, these two men have represented the best of us. Their accomplishments in their single terms of office are unequal, and they weren't rewarded with a second term, but history will be kinder than the electorate was.
A number of historians say this is the 3rd period we are re-learning this lesson - the 1850's, the 1920's, and the 1980's on... & THIS time the guardrails failed.
Democracies are finished when wealth is highly consolidated, and information & attention can be bought and sold.
Where do you start? The American people have just voted for Techno- feudalism, and a few months before that your Supreme Court gave the president unlimited power.
We start where we are, on the ground, in our communities. Our Coalition for Safe Communities formed in 2017, passing resolutions at Town Meetings that we developed with our police chiefs emphasizing that their role was to protect all of us by building trust without regard to citizenship status. We elected a new sheriff who abrogated the 287(g) agreement the former sheriff had entered into with ICE. After a while, we went on hiatus since there was very little for us to do. Now we're back at work, making sure that our schools understand that, by state law, they must not allow ICE on their campuses, they must not supply any information about their students and their families. And we have resumed contact with our police chiefs, all of whom are on board with keeping all residents safe. Since we cannot currently control what happens nationally, we do what we can locally.
In bright-red Ottawa County, MI, this fall we voted out the far-right majority on the county commission--a group that took power in 2023 and fired competent appointees and installed incompetents, cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits, severely damaged the morale of professional county employees, tossed out the county slogan "Where You Belong" and replaced it with "Where Freedom Rings," and did other harm. Now that group has only 4 of the 11 commission seats; moderate Republicans are in charge, and the lone Democrat was elected vice-chair of the commission. People here worked really, really hard for this result. It isn't perfect but it's hopeful and way better. And the new terms are for 4 years instead of 2 (new state law).
In Freedom Maine a town of 700 is in the midst of a shake down by emboldened young (I'm 70) power abusers. There is a home daycare mom, a petty nerdowell and a paranoid former star from the Blair witch project. They are proposing an ordinance to limit the profit of solar arrays to only the town restricting land owners. We vote Tuesday and finally a Democratic resident sent a letter to the residents to vote no. An outgoing select member altered the town charter after the committee submitted it, and then dismissed the committee. It made the appeals board act like a militia and I stood up to the select board along with the entire appeals board. They removed me from the board. Any suggestions?
Well, not exactly, if it’s AZ, under thumb of bigger majority in state legislature than before! But progress is being made locally, albeit slowly and incrementally.
Maybe too slowly . In any case i don't consider AZ uncivilized part of the country despite the fact that you have a considerable number of very extreme right people there. 😃
We DO have our problems, for sure; I was hoping AZ would turn more “purple” but I’m afraid this election has emboldened the the cult. We DO have a courageous and smart Attorney General and a local newspaper that has a good array of editorial/opinion journalists, so I am hopeful on some fronts.
The very best to you and your community. Lucky all !!!! May you share more and help this intelligent quest to flow into the water streams of and into communities all over our country.
Betsy, are you in AZ by any chance? I wonder, because of your comment about electing a new sheriff. Yes, we all need to concentrate on what we can do locally, decisions made there have immediate impacts on our lives at this end.
Nope. I'm in MA. Sheriff is an elected position with a 6-year term. The next county over also got rid of a MAGA sheriff. I've heard that our sheriff was being pressured immediately after the election to start cooperating with ICE again. She knows that, for what it's worth, we've got her back, just as she has ours.
The votes were paid for by billionaires riding the trained-by- Hollywood Trump make-believe-millionaire trainer of “apprentices” for a tv show ten + years ago. And now continuing to ride the crest of the wave of televised ‘drama’ which he’s been coached to continue by the billionaire leaders of the Heritage Foundation, purveyors of an incoming tidal wave of radical religious pseudo Christianity
( ’ upon which our country was ‘founded’ … note the “dramatic effect” of these words/beliefs).
We’ve got Work To Do to educate, build networks, and utilize the LEGAL RIGHTS embedded in our Democracy to right our SHIP OF STATE.
And writing checks from your company to the porn star with whom you cheated on your wife AND mistress is now an official presidential act. “I did nothing wrong” is an official presidential lie we will be hearing a lot more and should always be publicized and carefully documented. 💩🤡🎃
We were fools to let the Federalist Society stack the Supreme Court! They spent decades while we paid little or no attention. Now we are paying the price
Yes , we were fools by not showing up during the midterm elections in 2022 to vote. We literally gave the power to the mega Republican party to control the house . That is where Trump found a loop hold to get control of his mega Republican party, manipulate the Supreme Court to give him immunity. Yes , we have ourselves to blame. There were alot of fools that didn't show up to vote in this election that didn't give a damn.
No, not unlimited power, just immunity from criminal prosecution for acts authorised as part of his official capacity - although that extension of presidential privilege was quite startling in itself especially coming from justices who claim to be 'originalists'.
Time will tell, and I anticipate unbridled exercise of unlimited power. He will rattle the cage and pull the chains that restrain him. Both are weakened by the threats Biden cites.
Not purely semantic. After all, Jack Smith was confidently able to state in his report that he would have secured a conviction of Trump had he been allowed to proceed in a more timely fashion by the courts.
It was not a free and fair election. The firstfelon draftdodger’s gerrymandering began 8 years ago and will be hard to undo but, as others have said, ACT LOCAL!!
Less than 50% of votes, with 30% of voting-eligible population as no shows- by my math he got 1/3rd. And many of those held their nose or were brainwashed by complicit un-American lie-machines, and Cambridge Analytica style micro targeting of American voters. Please.
may be best to give the attribution with that quote
"if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" - tfg Jan.6
But the truth is that IF half the nation fights with the other half, THAT's when we may not have a country anymore.
Abraham Lincoln, when he was 28 yo, said the following:
"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years."
"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
And people listened to a person who had already proven himself to be a serial liar. INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
The oligarchs are winning. The warning is welcomed, but was relevant before Reagan's term ended in 1989. The misinformation and disinformation campaigns funded and launched by the ultra wealthy has paid them enormous dividends at the expense of ordinary Americans: $36 trillion national debt, massive tax breaks for the wealthy, an electorate where many are unable to feel the water in the barrel getting hotter and hotter. Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" [2004] and Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." [2020] "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." G.W. Bush, White House Correspondents' Dinner, 3/31/2001. "We have a republic, if you can keep it." Benjamin Franklin. 9-17-1787. We're losing it.
Michael, This jumped out at me as I listened to his address as well. You beat me to the punch in response with this quote. Thank you.
I am still frustrated and angry with all those who hung their hat on Joe is too old and losing it. I don’t think his ratings would have been so low had this not been so continuously pressed. The debate should have been called off or postponed because of both his extensive trip he was coming home from and his not feeling well. Then we would have seen a different Joe on stage. He has been brilliant because of his yrs of service, picking a great administration and his commitment to do the right thing. No one is perfect, just look in the mirror to see that. America will be wishing for him to be back come 1/21/25.
Agreed. We tried vilifying Trump and the malleably compliant Republicans. Didn't work. Maybe try EDIFYing? What does Don want? It seems to be popularity. Look what happened when Joe Kennedy went from being a rumrunner to a legitimate politician. Remember Harry Truman? He was part of a corrupt Missouri state government. Both Roosevelts were part of the corrupt Tammany Hall government of early 1900s NY.
- Pulled Quote -
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation,” he said, “enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling [or] disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit…. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time.” - President Joe Biden
Let's get to work!
In my opinion, Joe Biden is one of the best, but one of the most underrated and undervalued presidents of the United States - especially as a human being. Thank you, Mr. President; thank you, Joe.
Thank you, Dutch Mike and thank you, Heather! I watched Joe Biden's speech and I was proud of him and proud of America. I don't look forward to what is coming next and yet we have this great community to stand with, and Heather at the helm. May we stand strong.
Dutch, the naysayers will disagree, but history will agree with you.
HISTORY WILL AGREE ! We’ve got to carry Joe’s torch in the coming four years. Passing it among each other so that Trump n his Billionaireboys don’t succeed in snuffing this most brilliant historical sign of our DEMOCRACY at Work & in Full Steam Ahead through every challenge and distraction they throw on our playing field! A mess of mixed metaphors! Gnite dear friends and collaborators!
Carol, being friends and ad hoc collaborators is necessary but that alone is unfortunately insufficient, as is just having a coordinated collaborative approach. Fortunately, being friends and ad hoc collaborators with a coordinated collaborative approach for when we need it is necessary and will be sufficient.
As one of my spiritual advisors, W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993), often asked, “By what means?” If anyone has a coordinated collaborative approach, I’m all ears. Otherwise, I have a suggestion. Subscribe to my newsletter. Here’s what it won’t cost you: I’m not charging a subscription fee. Here’s what it will cost you: the time it takes to read an essay that I’ll do my best to keep under 1,200 words (roughly a 5-minute read) each Tuesday, and of course I hope you will provide me with your feedback in your newsletter comments.
If that interests you, here’s a link to my first newsletter which I just published on Tuesday: https://substack.com/home/post/p-154848354
The spudering of an ole man who allowed an inept ole AG to not go after the most pernicious monster in American history. Had he pursued the insurrection charges, there would be no President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025. I don’t want to hear anymore of this half-senile ole fart. And besides, he didn’t commute the life sentence of our longest political prisoner, Leonard Peltier. He is aware of the injustice of this Nstive American activist.
Ah, Bill, there are times when you make a great deal of sense, but this is not one of them.
The primary fault does not lie with either Biden or Garland, but instead with one of our two ossified political parties which began its descent into authoritarianism with Goldwater, continued with Nixon, and has now given us Trump, all aided and abetted by a weaponized Electoral College, n American electorate, a good half of which has utterly failed in its primary duty, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, all in thrall to a man who has pulled off the greatest con job ever perpetrated on this nation, and finally a Supreme Court who gave him a virtually free pass on his road to rule.
Three times during their recent journey toward this present moment, that party had an excellent chance of altering their destructive trajectory - once in 2016 when they recognized the danger posed by Trump and yet allowed him the nomination in spite of his manifest unfitness for the presidency, again in 2021 when their leadership, having seen and publicly stated that Trump was responsible for the assault on the capital, failed to follow through during his second impeachment, and finally in 2024 when they slavishly pandered to his raging paranoia, faux victimhood, vengefulness, and a campaign largely based on fear, ignorance, prejudice, and plethora of lies, false promises, and increasing incoherence.
Neither Biden nor Garland pulled those levers for Trump, but rather half a nation who ignored the evidence right in front of their eyes, much of it put there by Trump himself and his myrmidons, made a hero out of a felon, and traded their responsibilities as citizens for the price of a dozen eggs and fear of all those hungry Haitians seeking ‘pet food’.
Well said, James.
My only regret about President Biden's excellent speech is that this is the one he should have made years ago and could have repeated regularly. He has been too old school nice. Americans needed to hear this said with fire and anger. The middle class has been hollowed out. Instead of touting employment stat victories we should have been continuously harping on how we need to solve more problems in health care, child care, elder care, housing, retirement programs and food deserts.
It wasn't Biden's efforts at working across the aisle that created epic new programs - it was a slim majority in Congress during the first two years.
The "oligarchy", the unfair tax system, the flood of dark money into politics didn't just happen. It has been a fact of life for decades.
And the misinformation and disinformation campaign by the Morbidly Rich and Religiously Perverted should have been a major battle from day one.
The next sane administration will set up a Cabinet Level fact checking Communications Department that will clarify and tell the truth daily to the world.
For now, it will be up to the DNC and leaders like Senators Chris Murphy and Elizabeth Warren to offer up direct challenges to the avalanche of hogwash and bullshit flowing from Republicans. Blue State Governors will be the backbones of democracy.
That being said, Biden's legacy will be enhanced with the perspective of time. Just like Jimmy Carter, their qualities of character and empathy will be admired. They did more good for their nation in their one term presidencies than all the modern Republican presidents did combined - except for Ike who was the last Republican who was a president of all Americans.
"He has been too old school nice. "
Exactly. If there is one problem with Biden, it's this. He's trying to play a chess game, playing be the rules whilst his opponent is continually spitting and punching him in the face. That may be nice and honourable, but it simply doesn't work.
He has 2 days to act.
Dutch, the flip side is he would have been caricatured as "the old man yelling at the clouds" had he played the anger card. He promised a different Washington when he was inaugurated. I think that's about impossible these days for anyone to accomplish.
In Friday's news, the story is Biden regrets being all policy and no politics. Not taking more credit for accomplishments. Big yes. Zero PR. Politics gave him the chance to do policy.
We now know what happens when the truth is whispering a few times and the lies are thundering 24/7.
Let's not make that mistake again, please? If we need to put $$$$ into launching a news outlet, let's do it.
“Old school nice” (meaning good natured, compassionate kind, charitable) is not what a large chunk of Americans admire. Interview after interview with Trump voters proves that what they admire is the exact opposite: old school nasty (meaning, for example, unkind, spiteful, uncharitable). Perhaps we are entering the age of nastiness. Trump, psychologically projecting his own inner self as always, calls anyone he doesn’t like “nasty.”
Apparently, his voters have a lot of inner unrecognized nasty they project on people like Trump. Pretty soon nastiness will be acceptable, celebrated. It will be virtuous to be aggressive, unfriendly, uncharitable, spiteful, dishonest, brutal. Niceness will be for wimps. MAGA t-shirts emblazoned “Loud and proud MAGA Nasty” will be hot sellers.
Jennifer, MAGAs delight in being nasty, in your face people. It's their chance to get back at those people that they think wronged them in some way usually by being recognized as citizens who deserve rights and therefore sorta leveling the playing field although i would argue that is not actually the case in many instances.
You are absolutely right. Most of us here are still wondering "how in the world could you vote for such an asshole??" Well, BECAUSE he is an asshole. The Trumplodytes vote for the Convicted Orange Felon BECAUSE he is an asshole. That's the key. They vote for him because they wish to be just like him: a misogynistic, racist, reckless, narcissistic asshole with no regrets, no responsibility and no accountability. It's all about ME: just grab that pussy, grab that money, and f*ck everybody else.
Nastiness IS already being celebrated in America, by decorating the White House with this orange, blobby and sorry excuse for a man. My prediction is that he will post a video on Xitter of himself masturbating in the president's chair, and his cultist followers will absolutely love it.
Why are mostly only Republicans interviewed? Where are the interviews with Democratic voters? Why does it only matter what Republican voters want and admire? Maybe more would be okay with the "old school nice" and compassion, empathy, kindness, etc., if it was to become the norm again. And that will only happen if other voices are heard.
Biden sensibly has played the cool hand at appropriate moments. I’m not one to say exactly what’s most appropriate in tough global or national political situations. But the fool is the one who simply reacts.
Many feeling the burn of defeat in the last Presidential election, rush to ask why Democrats shouldn’t learn to act more like Republicans, take up their methods, weaponize the polity. Seize power by whatever means. True,these are just voices of desperation and venting is to be understood. We should understand that a successful response is not borne of imitation.
Strength rises from the principles that motivate us to care about democratic principles. These are our guiding star. Without that we are blind and we will lose heart and fail. We will become a replica of all that we formerly opposed. This is not only the lesson of history, but the lesson of our future.
I like Biden’s key phrase, everyone “gets a fair shot.” We may not yet have achieved that perfection, but it won’t be for lack of trying. And the actuality of it sure beats blathering about some shiny city upon a hill.
I will forever be a wimp.
Unfair tax system, is this a joke? They controlled the WHite House, Congress and Senate the first two years and didn't do a goddamn thing about taxes.
His son was a tax cheat. He pardoned him.
What planet are you living on?
As for disinformation Zuckerberg called out Biden and his administration for demanding posts be censored THAT WERE TRUE.
If he didn't like big money in politics why did he give the medal of freedom to George Soros. The Democrats raised over a 1Billion dollars
twice what the Republicans had.
Good riddance
To be replaced by something catastrophically worse, from a party that breaks all the old rules and standards.
Wait until you see their lies and broken oaths turn out for the real losers and suckers that voted for them. Do they think they will come out of this ill gotten power grab any better than the rest of us.
They booted the pilots and are claiming they know how to fly the plane with incompetent and malicious pretenders.
What could possibly go wrong.
I imagine it like a bunch of professional wrestlers putting on "entertaining" performances that will cost the audiences more than they can ever imagine.
So, you’re an intellectual?
Thank you Bill, I hope to be around for the next sane administration.
My concern is Biden failed to stop winning by election denying. Once done, it might be impossible to eliminate. End of democracy
Voters don't take the Oath of Office. Their primary duty is to inform themselves well enough that they elect representatives, who when elected, will honor that oath. In that task, voters have failed dismally. I'm convinced that a majority of those who voted for FELON47 could not pass a 6th-grade civics test. Did voters realize that they were facing a binary choice: the rule of law or Trump? How are we ever going to be able to elect good public officials when a large portion of the electorate lack critical thinking skills and can't distinguish fantasy from reality? This is the biggest challenge our democracy faces, and will be made even tougher by the gusher of lies we can expect from the new administration, and their amplification by right-wing media and normalization/equivocation from mainstream corporate media.
I think that many of those who cast their ballots for the convict were absolutely convinced that he would "restore" them to their "rightful place" at the top of society, just like their ancestors (or wished for ancestors) of southern "aristocracy", that is to say antebellum slave holders. What I see are men (and their wives) who are terrified of "others", like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, immigrants, non-Christians, and educated people. Some others, although I suspect a smaller percentage, want their perception of what a strong businessman is (although the multi-bankruptcy guy doesn't look like that to me). Even more (and maybe this is the "refuse to vote" crowd) could not vote for a woman, much less a woman of color.
Hate Trumps logic. Hate Trumps economics. Hate Trumps justice.
That hate was exacerbated and extenuated by Russian psy ops. Not only do they admit it, they brag about it.
Joe has 2 days to act.
Ally, I think you have the exact reasons why MAGAs vote for someone like death star. Not only are they terrified, but also angry because someone who doesn't look like them has a chance and some rights. It is no longer enough to be white, a white male, straight, Christian, here for more than a generation, and yes, not very well educated.
Ally, don’t make it so complicated. We now know that social media was used on a youngish white male portion of the electorate that spends an in inordinate amount of time online on social media much on TiK Tok. Their minds have been corrupted and led to believe in you guessed it, the second coming. And so where were the massive wave of women disgusted with losing their rights?
Americans don't want to conscientiously work at being a good citizen. They want a "good" (meaning entertaining) fight or an even more entertaining show. That's why Republicans have adopted the WWE style of politics, combining the fight and the show into constructing a false "reality" that the racist, sexist, and uneducated voter was willing to vote for. It turns out that America has a lot of racist, sexist, and uneducated voters....and they include both Trump voters and people who didn't vote.
As usual, Ally, your observations elevate the stream of commentaries. The factors you mention are certainly at play. In addition, the "refuse to vote" crowd includes a substantial number of Americans who just don't care enough about the obligations of citizenship to bother.
I applaud the wording in your lead sentence: "those who cast their ballots." You highlight a key point I have come to embrace, first suggested by Eric Liu some time ago. It is this: All constitutionally qualified voters do vote in every election. I call the first group "active" voters; they cast a ballot and know then who received their vote. The second group I call "passive voters." They always vote for the winner of every election and only know who received their vote once the ballots are counted.
Our challenge, in part, is to accurately inform and motivate more of the passives to change to active. That process requires more words to describe than there is space for here.
I guess that's right. Just the awful slogan/acronym 'MAGA' is an anachronistic longing for this mythical golden age, which actually never existed. It's what fascists do. And of course "the other," as you point out, is responsible for the country's decline from this fantasy wonderland, as well as all the woes of the angry underachievers who consume such nonsense. As usual, there's a kernel of truth in tRump's lies, which makes them trickier to counter. Real wages have stagnated for decades. Housing is too expensive. It's become punishingly hard to make a decent living at smaller-scale farming. Flyover country is suffering. Of course IQ45 had no answers in his first term, and I doubt any attendee at a tRump rally could point to a single enacted policy that helped them. Quite the contrary. The first-term tariffs killed the market for U.S. soybeans as China stopped buying. It's never come back, but tRump helped make Brazil great again. Not to mention trying to take away his supporters' healthcare, nutritional assistance and all other social safety net benefits, while degrading the environment they live in. The final puzzle piece that doesn't fit is that so many tRump voters profess to be "Christians" yet support a godless, amoral monster who demonstrates his utter lack of humanity, decency and character with every utterance. Basic morality, right and wrong, just doesn't seem to be part of the equation for his voters. I guess the country's moral rot is as big a factor as the atavistic aspirations you point to.
Right on target. It was blatant racism and misogyny that held them from voting for Kamala. They would rather have a convicted felon, swindler and rapist as president than a woman of colour.
Ally, we are on the same page.
1000% correct, Ally.
Yeah, I agree, I think that's the simple truth. To quote a friend, "it's the misogyny, stupid."
Correction - rule of law or ruled by law which exempts certain folks.
Yes, some of the blame does fall on the voters. I’ve read opinion after opinion dissecting what Democrats did wrong, but the buck stops with the voters. They either stay informed or not. They pay attention to what’s going on or not. They choose to mire themselves in misinformation or not. They choose to show up on Election Day or not.
If we have a catastrophic four years, the voters assume some of the blame for that.
While Katz had sufficient reason for his rant it was too one-sided. Quin gave a balanced sensible summary of our dilemma. It was so painful to listen to Biden's farewell address. Absent trump, Biden would have been recognized as a great president. But the nice, decent guy was opposed by a bully and manipulative liar extraordinare. So we dive into the great unknown called the future. God help us all (this from an atheist).
If you love your neighbor you're not really an atheist.
‘Real’ atheism, as opposed to the more strident version promulgated in a number of books is generally a pretty quiet state of being. We’re not trying to sell anybody on anything or shove our beliefs down someone else’s throat. We believe strongly in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, understanding that the fusion of church and state has generally been a disaster for those who don’t share whichever faith is fused with the state. We understand human spirituality and the impetus to faith in all its forms, and we accept its existence without prejudice. And we know that atheists can be as upright and moral as anyone else. Our sole real objection to people of faith is when they assume otherwise.
So, atheists hate their neighbors? Or neighbor haters are atheists? Ridiculous either way. You really should make an effort to get to know some atheists. It isn’t difficult, we aren’t hard to find, and I bet you’ll enjoy doing so.
Respectfully, Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist
I agree. I’m just upset. I harken to the idea that when you lose, you are a loser. Biden is a complicated history. He has been on the wrong side at times; pushing segregation ideology, allowing Clarance Thomas to be nominated his probably biggest mistake. I think Biden was not a great PR for himself. Yes he enacted wise legislation I won’t deny him this. But I think his initial inaction at the border doomed him and his VP. He simply didn’t want to follow Trump by enacting strong security and this ultimately cost him and his VP. And it’s not just another missed opportunity. This one is the big one. Fours years of massive rearranging the bureaucracy and turning it into an autocracy. This is a big loss and it remains at his feet. Ironically, it was a republican Senator that came close to removing unlimited monies from campaigns. John McCain did well but the Supreme Court nipped that. I have sometimes called the United States the illegitimate bastard child of England. We almost got it right but not quite. From the planters who towed the slave trade to the oligarchs of today, it never ceased. So with a few bright places in our history, namely saving western civilization during the mid 20th century, we now fully enter a deep and dark place in the world. My opinion. And to be fully can, I’ve never felt that this was my place to live. For a brief time in the 1970s, I lived in Europe and I felt refreshed. My mistake was to return.
You've swallowed the Republican version of Biden's administration, hook, line, and sinker. I hope you find a way to consider the nuanced complexities of the challenges you say he failed at. If not... your loss.
I’m not a partisan. You apparently are. I think for myself. And i have some difficulties if some Republican talking points and mine are the same. I place much fault with democratic wokism. As close as I am to ideology of the democratic, I think they are their own worse enemy.
Believe me, I’m upset too. Or more accurately deeply saddened.
“
I have sometimes called the United States the illegitimate bastard child of England. We almost got it right but not quite”
How could we get it right, that first time around. We’ve had over two centuries to improve on the original. Not that we haven’t made some horrendous stumbles along the way, the latest of which is Trump 2.0.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the resilience of our institutions. This comes most often from the right in an attempt to deflect the conversation away from what they know is a problem but are too deeply dug into Trump’s orbit to admit, even to themselves.
Having watched the relevant portion of Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing, I’m hardly sanguine about that resilience, particularly the one she’s about to head. We know the power Trump now holds over his current set of Cabinet appointees, even her record didn’t already make her inclinations clear.
In the end, we have to depend on continuing the fight in every way we can, and hope that before the midterms enough Trumpists will see enough of the harsh light his new term is likely to shine on his motives and actions to swing them into our column, even if it’s in opposition to him rather than a full compliance with us.
Bill, the thread from the planters to the oligarchs of today is a great observation. Since we are the land of "opportunity" the masses hold out that view that we all can become an oligarch.....
Any reasonable analysis of Trump’s life and record makes it plain he would have felt right at home as a member of the Slavocracy.
Bill, live wherever you like my man, as long as you're able to feed your face, repair your body til you croak, and have somebody to do the dishes for ya, have a nice day. You're just a number. I pity you being homeless.
Far from it I’m doing quite well sorry to say.
Perhaps so, Bill
Well said. I also need to point out our liberal leadership's failure to address the continuous assault of death by a thousand cuts approach the CONservatives have taken. While the liberals stopped focusing on legislation, the conservatives took the Lewis Powell Memo and went to work with the thousand cuts using a scalpel. Occasionally, they would try the hammer approach to distract their real intentions as was strategized in the book Democracy in Chains - Nancy MacLean. the Memo is the root of Project 2025.
As the CONservatives took small cuts at the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, reproductive rights, and the administrative agencies, the liberal leaders when they held majorities did little to counter these assaults. Their inaction has lead us to this point as they relied on the court system for defense. If you read the Memo, it targeted the court system as a long range plan to fill it with ideological picks that would come from law schools filled with like minded teachers. It has taken decades to get her, but here we are.
The liberals have got to realize that we are viewed as the enemy, not competitors and start acting as such.
Thank you, Rickey Woody, for bringing “Democracy in Chains” to our attention. I read it early on and learned about the Kochs, whose history should be known to all Americans. That they fund Hegseth’s former jobs with veterans’ groups is another reason he should not be Secretary of Defense. Russia and Nazi Germany are the source of their fortune and the remaining brother continues to aid Putin. Hegseth is the perfect “useful idiot” to join Trump. Watch for Trump Tower Moscow.
James, an excellent post, thank you. Biden is not responsible for the R party becoming the party of death. They chose that for power and money, aided and abetted by the Supreme Court and the Congress who could have done something. The Supreme Court gave him carte blanche to be lawless and the Congress aided and abetted him when the Senate should have voted to make the impeachment stick. Now we have a R Senate who will confirm most of the awful nominees for various posts. We will not be better or safer or healthier. At one point in my long life I thought we were making some progress, but now I will spend most, if not all, of my final days, watching the country circle the drain. I do hope for the younger people that I am wrong.
James, I hear what you are saying, and I agree with what you wrote. Nevertheless, Bill still has a point regarding the efficacy of going after Trump after Jan. 6th. I can't tell you how many times I've said to myself: "when the hell are they going to slam the door shut on this future felon?" The Jan. 6th committee had all the evidence; all their ducks were in a row, and Trump new it. It was Trump who controlled the dynamics of his fate in the courts, which clearly implies Garland's lethargy on this matter. My belief is that Garland got the DOJ job because of the travesty of McConnell's manipulations to deny him a SCOTUS position. Unfortunately, he didn't make the most of his good fortune. He did well in the Oklahoma bombing committed in April of 1995; somewhere along the way, he lost the killer instinct to convict one who would destroy more, over a period of time, than Timothy McVeigh could ever conjure. Although, in my high school youth of that time, I never supported Goldwater, I don't think one can blame much on him. After all, he laid out the facts in front of Nixon and either told him or forced him to resign. I also don't believe he would have let the Israelis slide on the attack on the USS Liberty in June of 1967 had he won the presidency over LBJ. That's just my opinion. The individual that I believe you may want to mention is Reagan. His governorship of California signaled in a far better trajectory for what we now have than Goldwater ever did.
The idea of 'reacting' to maga is a waste of energy. Biden did great things, but, dealing with dangerous forces like the present Republican party and Donald trump requires an effective use of the Department of Justice and I am safriad Garland was asleep at the wheel. Trump should be in jail, along with Mitch Mcconnell. Take the gloves off, Democrats and overcome what is the most serious attack on the American way of life since t he 'Civil War'.
Trump likely would be in jail or at least up for trial if he’d not run again, which is most likely the primary reason why he did so. But to assume that Garland was ‘asleep at the wheel’ is to underestimate the challenge involved in legally pursuing a man who is at the time running for the presidency. So much of this business is a new thing in our history that the process of indicting and bringing such a man to trial is unprecedented and can be hard to appreciate to those outside the process.
It is true that our legal system often appears to bend over backwards in what can seem like a deliberate attempt to protect the guilty equally as well as the innocent. But it is those same built in safeguards that prevent us from being the kind of nation Trump would like us to be, in which the politically powerful can pursue their opponents with utter impunity.
It is immensely frustrating to me that this man is now about to become president again. He is anathema to everything we ought to stand for. But as with the First Amendment, to attempt to alter or short-circuit it for one particular case, no matter how. justified it may seem, would be a very slippery slope from which there would be no full return.
Trump had judges ready to bail him out at the highest court in the land. I don’t know how starting earlier would have changed the outcome.
Thank you. You phrased your response much more eloquently than I could have. I was prepared to respond with, "BS!" It is very easy to blame President Biden. His hands were full from day one. He had to prioritize many threats. I think he did the best he could which turned out to be pretty darned good. Put the blame on Republicans and their co-conspirators who plotted and schemed every chance they got. It is they who value their personal wealth and power over what is best for our country. Full stop.
If only Howard Dean's 50 state strategy would of been picked up by these democrats. But not?????????????? Dems are low keyed while they get walked all over by repugs.
Thank you, you're much kinder than I am.
Well yes except for the fact that he has NOT pardoned Peltier which is unforgivable. And his atrocious hypocrisy in supporting Israel with continuing millions (billions?) in aid which were used to commit genocide against Palestinians while simultaneously mouthing sympathy for Palestinian civilians whose lives have been systematically destroyed with American weapons. His minions like his press secretary have repeated egregious attacks on those who have protested this war and supported the rights of Palestinians not to be victims of unabashed war crimes and flagrant continued violations of international law. Yes Biden gave lip service to condemning Netanyahu’s murderous war but they were pretty hollow considering how complicit the U.S. has been in the prosecution of this war and Biden’s unwavering practical support of Israel.
Indeed I do give him high marks on the domestic front but that too is tempered by his attacks on the rights of students to free speech without retribution which has been rampant and his abject failure to follow through on his promise to be a one-term president undoubtedly contributing to Trump’s win. Both he and the entire DNC have been toothless mid-20th liberals completely inept at fighting this push toward oligarchy and yes, in my opinion, clear fascist threats. Rather than supporting the most progressive members of their party they sabotaged Bernie at every opportunity and have taken what they perceive to be the “safe road” of centralism and facilitating the GOP at every turn - Democrats voting to confirm Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett? Caving on immigration? Kamala - who I like but who reneged on her most liberal positions in an effort to appeal to voters - which as we saw failed epically? And their still appalling and indefensible refusal to allow a Palestinian to speak at the convention after shamelessly giving (and exploiting) the parents of a hostage and other pro-Israel speakers prime time?
Biden achieved important and admirable advances through many of his domestic policies and legislation and for that I am grateful. But in the end his and the DNC’s incompetence and unwillingness to take on Trump, MAGA and the far right with effective political strategies have left us where we are today. (And I’m not referring to the debate which was shaped more by idiot pundits than the reality). Credit where credit is due but he remains a deeply flawed president who was complicit in war crimes and unwilling to take the moral ground. The ongoing Israeli BS justifying bombing hospitals, schools, and every other civilian target under the pretense they were attacking Hamas also sits right in Biden’s lap (along with most of the Congress). Regrettably I think this greater legacy will overshadow his other accomplishments.
I do not know enough about the Peltier case to comment on it.
The Israeli/Palestinian/Gaza business would challenge Solomon. For every reason there is to support Netanyahu’s policies there is an equally valid reason not to. The shadow of the Holocaust hovers over all of us in ways impossible to calculate, almost in the same way as the shadow of slavery ad of our crusade against those who held the land before us continues to hover over us here in the US. The only real issue in three is that the killing of large numbers of those with whom we disagree has never solved anything with any kind of permanence, and until and if we ever learn that lesson these sorts of things will go on.
Our elemental problem is one which continues to bedevil us. It is our stubborn determination to separate ourselves into all sorts and kinds of groups based largely on artificial categories - racial, religious, political, financial, social; you name it, some mob somewhere has used it to distinguish itself from some other group. There is actually only one category of differentiation that is based on anything non-artificial - sex - and even there the differences are fluid.
So we create these boundaries, debate across them, glare across them, and all to often start killing each othe over them when in fact there is only us - Homo sapiens - the most ill-named mob on the planet.
As to the DNC’s incompetence in taking on MAGA, yes, most of their problem stemmed from not offering an alternative sufficient to sway voters away from Trump. And that is all they could have done. They are, after all, not the DOJ. But there have always been at least two very different visions of America held by Americans themselves. This has been true ever since Jefferson and Monroe formed the Democratic Republican faction to combat the Federalists during Washington’s presidency. The nature of the visions themselves have varied from time to time, but became solidified with the creation of formal political parties in the 1830’s. And so I return to a portion of my next above paragraph, because that’s what we’ve stuck ourselves with.
Except you seem to view these choices as immutable or impossible. I disagree with your comment and belief about Netanyahu and the Israeli state. There is simply no justification for what Israel has done in Gaza and is now doing in the West Bank which are just continuations of their decades-long disproportionate responses which violate international law. No one disputes the horror of the Oct 7 attack but it occurred in an historical context which the West, and especially the U.S. willfully choose to forget and deny. Israel’s decisions are not immutable or inevitable. They are conscious choices based on very specific political goals.
Thank you for this coherent statement of what I have been feeling and trying to say here in various ways. Blame it on Trump, one man. But this is not the lesson. The man cannot help who he is. He's been testing since his day one and gotten away with everything. He never gives up. The GOP betrayed the country and itself. And ultimately the electorate; half of us got us here, some ignorant, some selfish. This experiment is proving to be impossible, a failure. We cannot have a democracy with vultures. We have shown ignorance, selfishness and uncaring. It devolved to this. Trump is perversely showing us ourselves.
I wouldn’t count the old girl out just yet. She’s weathered at least one more powerful storm than Trump. I’m betting there’s going to come a moment when enough Trumpists realize that he really doesn’t give a damn about them to begin turning the tide.
As I’ve noted before, we’re really very new at this Republic business. I’m nearly 80, so I could have talked to a man who fought in the Civil War. And a man who fought in that war could have talked to a man who fought in the Revolution and was there at the Founding. We’re that close to it.
I’m not exactly a cockeyed optimist, but neither am I ready to give up on this experiment. None of us should be.
Thank you for your optimism. I find myself wavering. I need to read this steadfastness from you and some others lest I turn into my father who gave up entirely on people. Humanity! (Melville, Bartleby) (But my dad had his friends!) I am in your age group.
It is amazing that after the defeat of Trump in 2020 there was hope that this nastiness is turning around, come to a head. But it has deep roots we realize. Trump was steadfast and he gathered a storm around him. And as is said in these comments, people who are either with us or not, just tune out and shrug. They have their own lives in front of them... until this "thing" hits them.
It's so clear we need involvement of the people to have a democracy of the people. I tend to feel that many just want their freedoms, democracy, given to them as an inheritance. A present.
And then, as Biden says, and many others are also warning, we are evolving into (or are) an oligarchy... this time mega robber barons doing more great harm than philanthropic work it seems.
I am not ready to give up.But I am worried about how and when this turns around or if it takes hold for a long time.
By the way, as a 5 year old in the Bronx NY we went to the parades on the Grand Concourse on Memorial Day. My uncle was in the parade, a hero of sorts in WW2. But at the end of the parade, a goose bump promoting prideful display, came the oldest soldiers, a few Civil War soldiers who were variously pushed in wheelchairs. They came after the others, the soldiers from the ensuing wars (incl WW1, WW2). And we stood up and cheered, waving flags.
Still, the consideration that Biden should have pardoned Leonard Peltier remains. Count me as a Biden voter who was extremely disappointed by that omission, and his failure to ratify the ERA.
well said.
Thank you.
Don't worry, Bill Katz, you won't be hearing anymore from the "half-senile ole fart" as you call him. You will be hearing ad nauseam from the orange old fart lunatic and his despicable side-kicks. Joe Biden may not have done everything you wanted, but he accomplished a great deal in spite of Republican obstruction and constant lies. And as always, trump will falsely take credit for these accomplishments since they will come to fruition during his term. The Biden bashing needs to stop.
Yep! Did Lincoln get bashed?
Unfortunately, he did.
Every president has his pros and cons. To your above list I would add cutting off military aid to Israel, but that would probably have been blocked by the MAGA congress. The Dems should have gotten rid of DeJoy and acted on the voter roll "cleanup" and laws enacted by red states to cheat in the election. Joe did a great job on the economy and in supporting Ukraine. I would fault the rest of the DEM party for not getting much done (Ethics laws for supreme court justices?, statehood for P.R.? A 3 lies and your out law on Faux News, et al?
Withdrawal of military aid to Israel would have been blocked by a Democratic Congress, especially after it had come under attack from Lebanon, Iran and Yemen.
Yes you and Carl are correct. The Jewish lobby in this country is extremely effective. Purposely so in order to insure unmitigated support of Isreal. It’s a shame of our modern times that this country wasn’t able to really fire a peace settlement. They say you can’t force peace but when you are the sole supporter of a country, I think there is potential. Chairman Arafat was the biggest loser when he refused the peace offering. Granted the whole of the West Bank wasn’t mandated but it was very generous offering. So both sides are at fault but America must take the greatest blame.
Nah, Bill.
Israel would have continued on its path with or without our support. And that path has to be its self preservation.
The greatest blame for the devastation of Gaza ought to be assigned to the monsters who started this war by slaughtering 1200 people and taking more as hostages. Hamas has been the aggressor here. Hamas is the Taliban/KKK/Nazis/ISIS....a Mafia.
And even in the face of certain defeat, Hamas did not surrender - sacrificing thousands of their own. HAMAS could have stopped the war at any time, but it did not. With the support of Hezbollah and Iran it continued to rain rockets on Israel.
Should the response of Israel to such an attack have been different? Sure. Is Netanyahu a cold blooded monster? Yes. But I have yet to hear what the proper strategy should have been to defeat Hamas without the destruction that occurred. I am listening...
And now we have a chance at peace. Why did Hamas finally agree to a cease fire? Because it lost the support of Iran and Hezbollah due to Israel's actions. I hate that it is true - but when faced with an enemy that is at its core is committed to your destruction (river to the sea!), you don't bring anything to the fight other than superior strength.
Blaming Joe Biden for a conflict created by, continued by and supported by the enemies of peace and democracy is ridiculous.
The destruction of Gaza has been beyond awful. But sometimes there are insane leaders who refuse to surrender in the face of all reasoning and efforts at peace. The Nazis. The Japanese generals. Throughout history, negotiations begin when one side actually realizes it can't win. Hamas knew that months ago.
The people of Gaza have experienced horror beyond anything that we can feel or imagine. But the people of Gaza elected Hamas and did not tell Hamas to stop attacking Israel. They allowed their terrorist leaders to continue. They could have surrendered. Instead they sheltered the murderers.
But of course, it's complicated, isn't it? In the West Bank, the orthodox Jews who are stealing Palestinian land and assassinating people who have lived there for generations are no better than Hamas and act like the Taliban.
What is the simplistic solution for that situation? My idealistic and unlikely response would be that we should have a United Nations with teeth - with troops that would enforce the international agreements that provided a safe haven in the West Bank. Here, Israel is allowing militant extremists to act as if they are their own government. That is a situation where America could draw a line in the sand and make a difference. The West Bank Jewish "settlements" are an affront to everyone. They are a direct threat to peace in the region.
Of course, if we have an American civil war, would we welcome the UN to sort us out? I think not.
Sadly, the Confederacy still lives in the DNA of many - ironically now in the party that originally brought it to its knees.
And so it goes. Joe did a lot more right than wrong. He will be viewed as a Saint real soon.
"The Jewish lobby in this country..."
The Pro right wing extremist Israeli government lobby including AIPAC (founded by an Israeli government lobbyist) and CUFI (founded by American Christian evangelicals.) There fixed it for you. Your talk of a "Jewish lobby" is dubious, at best.
You don't have to be Jewish to ...
CUFI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christians_United_for_Israel
[Speaker Mike]Johnson and [CUFI founder pastor] Hagee appear to be run-of-the-mill Christian Zionists, fueled by fantasies of a cataclysmic war in the Middle East that brings about the Second Coming of Christ, wherein all Muslims—and Jews, for that matter—either convert or face eternal damnation. It would be easy to dismiss these evangelicals and their apocalyptic fervor, but that would be a mistake, as their conceptualizations of Judaism and Israel are shared by many who are not so overtly eschatological, nor even Christian. In recent days, narratives of Jewish and Israeli exceptionalism have proliferated, as conservatives frame Hamas’s October 7 massacre as a blow, more fundamentally, to the West. . .
The weaponizing of Judaism against Islam was long a trademark of televangelists like Pat Robertson, who once claimed the entire world shook from the struggle between Israelis worshiping the “one true God” and Arabs worshiping Allah. It’s now a trademark of those white Christians who are now working to justify Israel’s obliteration of Gaza.
https://newrepublic.com/article/176499/mike-johnson-israel-republican-rise-christian-zionism
My own feeling is that there will be no end to this struggle until both sides to the conflict stop talking about rights, biblical or ancestral, and start about interests. THEY have to want it. Until they do, there's very little others can do.
Bill, I agree that Leonard Peltier should have been finally freed. He has served his time and is now an ailing old man who should be free to end his days outside the "big house." But demeaning Biden does no good. Yes, he is old--something we all aspire to rather than the other option--but he did many many good--even great things during his administration.I regret that he felt the need to keep arming Israel so that they could pursue their long-time aim of genocide to the Palestinians. It will be many years and tons and tons of money that will be needed to help restore Gazan infrastructure but lives and allegiances may take even more time. And that is a tragedy that could have been avoided many many years ago--think 1948--when no thought was given to the hand-off of land without compensation or consideration. But Biden inherited a very broken system and I have to feel that he did the best he could with what he was given, and four years is hardly enough to correct all the sins of politics and the world.
TFG’s reelection should set blame firmly at the feet of Merrick Garland. He did not do his job.
Nor did McConnell.
Okay Deborah.., and why do you suppose Merrick Garland, did as he did?
Because he is a middle of the road Republican just driving the apple cart. He was supposed to show nonpartisanship and succeeded. Not to anyone’s advantage even his.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda....reading these comments all I see are "Monday morning quarterbacks" thinking they know more than the person in the middle of it all. None of us have any idea what the President is dealing with minute by minute and yet all I see at the moment are comments "all he had to do!". He wasn't perfect BUT damn...he was effective and got things done. Very sad and disappointed a lot of Americans do not see what they voted for and all of us will be paying the price.
I’m not Monday morning quarterbacking I’ve been saying and writing the same thing for at least 3 years. I not new with my critiques.
Yes Kathy. Even more simply, I see it as in Trumps 1st term he inherited the momentum of Obama. Then, Trumps term.., lousy as it was, it created the momentum for Biden. Biden ran with it, and has created the momentum which Trump wilol ride on and of course take credit for. And if this coming term does nothing, it too will create a momentum for the next President. And, we will have a "next president". We're gonna need one to see us through this little mid-life crisis we seem to be having. Rock on.
I wouldn’t say bad things about President Biden who did lots of good things but his legacy will be the coming second term of T. He picked an ineffective AG for the task that was ahead of him as well as wanting to not punish repigs for some misguided notion of unity with traitors.
An insurrection charge against Trump would have been very risky to land, as the special prosecutor rightly calculated. He would have successfully brought a conviction against Trump but for the scandalous intervention by the Supremes on the issue of immunity and consequent delays. Once a special prosecutor was appointed it was then outside the bailiwick of either Biden or Garland.
You have good points. However the January 6th committee forced AG’s hands and he appointed Jack Smith. If they(AG and Biden admin) had moved faster and when trump was still reeling from the failed insurrection something may have stuck. We’ll never know. I am also probably wish casting.
Way back when Trump firsst started arriving on the tarmac in his TRUMP B757..., none of us thought it would happen. But, he became "stock" which got the attention of Big-Money, and they invested in him like some kind of IPO. It's paid off for them. We were blindsided.., sucked in as it were after his first miserable term in office. And, we were about to be "had" a second time.., we just couldn't fathom it at first. But he had plenty of investors, most of whom we don't even know exist. Those folks were'nt about to lose their money.., that's why he won. And, that(!!!) is why "we"lost. While we laughed at the RNC, joked about his dick-size, made fun of his sons, ogled his wifes naked photos, called him names..., THIS is where it got us. Big-Money talks and the god of BS walks 'freely' amongst us. What're we gonna do? Call Ghostbusters? Hollywood is burning. Welp.. folks, we still are a country of laws and courts with judges who are not only educated, but human. Thanks to technology we can see the changes taking place in our short lifetime. Let's work on this.
And yet that word 'weaponisation' rings around Republican circles. They still haven't forgiven the Democrats for Nixon, another miscreant who avoided jail. Perhaps it was the last vestiges of the aura of the office of the presidency, a phenomenon believed by Americans to be quite separate from the attributes and vices of any particular incumbent, that caused the hesitation. After all, the very idea of a former president being convicted and jailed was not one envisaged by the Founders or clearly provided for in the Constitution.
Bill, I hear you and your disappointment. But consider the incredible amount of good he has done. We have had NO President without faults. None.
I agree that Merrick Garland was the absolute wrong choice for this time. I think Joe should have fired him and appointed someone with guts. Maybe Glenn Kirschner?
However, Joe brought us out of Covid, certainly saved me from the serious prospect of homelessness!
Infrastructure is finally getting repaired and built. More people have had a chance to succeed than ever under the false trickledown theories.
NATO is stronger. Ukraine is still alive. We have the beginning of a possible end to the horrors of Israel/Gaza.
Biden has done more for the American worker than anyone since FDR. And let's not forget, FDR ignored lynching in the South and interned Japanese Americans during WWII.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the saying goes.
The ultimate blame should be on Trump and his billionaires, who engaged in a good deal of lying and deception. Biden, Congress, and the media could all have done a better job protecting our democracy, but it didn't happen. Since all the blame is out there, we must do what we can to keep the light burning. God help us.
Case in point right now— the cheating going on in North Carolina’s election by MAGats taking away the powers of a democratically elected DEMOCRATIC governor. Not a peep from media or the Democrats or the DOJ.
Exactly. Still completely baffled at how this can so blatantly happen
Wait....wait! There was a gathering protesting what is happening in NC. Read Marc Elias. As Biden said, "The free press is crumbling," so we know not to expect anything from them but substacks have arisen to change the information delivery method.
Money certainly pilots election wins. Is it possible that these gazillionaires will control our elected officials here on out?
Yes.
https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/jack-smith-has-his-say?r=3hwn3&utm_medium=ios
Thank you, MLMinET, for posting this. Jay Kuo's substack, the Status Kuo, is one of my favorites, This particular one explains in detail what obstacles Merrick Garland and Jack Smith were up against. I'm frankly getting tired of the blame game so many of us seem to be playing all the time. We must have all the facts before making such blatant judgments.
I agree about Jay Kuo. I find his Substacks interesting and informative.
Adding my thanks for Kuo's writing that shows us just how far and wide the blame can be spread. It's an inside look at what we have been waiting to know about.
Thanks for the link! I can't quite swing all the Substack subscriptions that I want... I might have to forego something for this one, though.
It's not just the financial commitment, it's the time commitment to read them all as well!
It’s free to just subscribe. My subscriptions are my main source of info and I generally subscribe for free until I see how serious they are about writing. (HCR is amazing and at the top of my paid list. ❤️😍)
Thank you MLM. I had not heard of Kuo before. He makes some excellent points that will become important to remember when tffdd (the first felon draft dodger) 🤮🤮 begins his new crime wave.
I agree that Garland was a big disappointment when he had an opportunity to stop the insurrectionists years ago. Also Biden's adoration of Bibi, allowing the destruction of Gaza and genocide of the Palestinians was inexcusable. But we must put this aside now as there are bigger problems coming!
Misinformation: " Biden's adoration of Bibi".
Nope. When I saw a photo of “the hug” I knew Biden was swirling around the toilet. Bibi is Israel’s Trump, crooked and seeking election to avoid prison.
Bill Katz you are an A...Hole
Oh… i’m warmed by the cockles of your heart. I particularly love being called such. Thank you. How did you know that? I would like to nominate you to be on my Board of Directors of “Seven Cats and Me Foundation.” Let me give you a like.
I've long gotten really sick of your sad desperate for attention ego Bill. Wish I could mute you and not see your own elderly drivel any more.
I agree, Bill. Leonard Peltier should have long ago been pardoned. That Biden sat on his hands for this issue is clearly a disgrace. However, I do want to state that Biden, I believe, has spoken clearly and concisely by far most of his time as president than people give him credit. Is he senile? He may be to a slight extent; frankly, I don't really know, and I don't see the evidence when he gets to a platform and speaks his mind. Since his disastrous performance in debate against Trump, he has been hammered about his "senility." With the exception of the infamous debate against Trump, I don't see any evidence that he is not compos mentis.
I’ve said it before. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. And btw it’s “sputtering”…
:)
I agree ! He’s done many great things during his plague ridden time in office…
While flags remain at half-mast in honor of Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden will depart the White House for the last time on Monday after overseeing a peaceful transfer of power.. Presidents are not perfect human beings -- just like the rest of us, they have their flaws, their biases, their errors in judgment, with an outsized helping of ego and ambition. But in my opinion, these two men have represented the best of us. Their accomplishments in their single terms of office are unequal, and they weren't rewarded with a second term, but history will be kinder than the electorate was.
I sgree and claim President Carter is equally good. My question is why both good presidents were denied their second terms?
You're right. And my guess is: because the rich people don't like presidents who are there for the people.
God bless President Joe Biden
I was going to say that, but you already did. Thank you.
No problem ;)
Really? Four years of the left and America crapping all over middle America is over.
They gave the finger to the middle class and the middle class gave it back.
Everybody has one.
I felt that way until his administration and the United States participated in a mass genocide by Israel. I think that really hurt his legacy.
Gee, I couldn’a said it better. 😎
But I’d wrap it up by calling out what he can’t: democracy and billionaires can NOT coexist in the same realm of influence.
We learned that in the Gilded age. It’s just not taught anymore.
A number of historians say this is the 3rd period we are re-learning this lesson - the 1850's, the 1920's, and the 1980's on... & THIS time the guardrails failed.
Democracies are finished when wealth is highly consolidated, and information & attention can be bought and sold.
Where do you start? The American people have just voted for Techno- feudalism, and a few months before that your Supreme Court gave the president unlimited power.
We start where we are, on the ground, in our communities. Our Coalition for Safe Communities formed in 2017, passing resolutions at Town Meetings that we developed with our police chiefs emphasizing that their role was to protect all of us by building trust without regard to citizenship status. We elected a new sheriff who abrogated the 287(g) agreement the former sheriff had entered into with ICE. After a while, we went on hiatus since there was very little for us to do. Now we're back at work, making sure that our schools understand that, by state law, they must not allow ICE on their campuses, they must not supply any information about their students and their families. And we have resumed contact with our police chiefs, all of whom are on board with keeping all residents safe. Since we cannot currently control what happens nationally, we do what we can locally.
In bright-red Ottawa County, MI, this fall we voted out the far-right majority on the county commission--a group that took power in 2023 and fired competent appointees and installed incompetents, cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits, severely damaged the morale of professional county employees, tossed out the county slogan "Where You Belong" and replaced it with "Where Freedom Rings," and did other harm. Now that group has only 4 of the 11 commission seats; moderate Republicans are in charge, and the lone Democrat was elected vice-chair of the commission. People here worked really, really hard for this result. It isn't perfect but it's hopeful and way better. And the new terms are for 4 years instead of 2 (new state law).
In Freedom Maine a town of 700 is in the midst of a shake down by emboldened young (I'm 70) power abusers. There is a home daycare mom, a petty nerdowell and a paranoid former star from the Blair witch project. They are proposing an ordinance to limit the profit of solar arrays to only the town restricting land owners. We vote Tuesday and finally a Democratic resident sent a letter to the residents to vote no. An outgoing select member altered the town charter after the committee submitted it, and then dismissed the committee. It made the appeals board act like a militia and I stood up to the select board along with the entire appeals board. They removed me from the board. Any suggestions?
Recruit the local newspaper , the Bangor Daily News, and the
portland Herald to cover this story and trust your fellow citizens to make an informed decision. That's democracy.
Ouch!
Thank you Ann W. for this hopeful comment. We live in Berrien County, MI and it really gives us hope.
Betsy, you must be living in a civilized part of the country.
MA
Very decent 👍.😄
Fl here. 👎🤨
Well, not exactly, if it’s AZ, under thumb of bigger majority in state legislature than before! But progress is being made locally, albeit slowly and incrementally.
Key word in your reply Carol is "slowly" .
Maybe too slowly . In any case i don't consider AZ uncivilized part of the country despite the fact that you have a considerable number of very extreme right people there. 😃
We DO have our problems, for sure; I was hoping AZ would turn more “purple” but I’m afraid this election has emboldened the the cult. We DO have a courageous and smart Attorney General and a local newspaper that has a good array of editorial/opinion journalists, so I am hopeful on some fronts.
Most extreme are concentrated in Phoenix (transplants from colder regions) and the military.
The very best to you and your community. Lucky all !!!! May you share more and help this intelligent quest to flow into the water streams of and into communities all over our country.
Thank you Betsy!👏🏻🎶🥰
Betsy, are you in AZ by any chance? I wonder, because of your comment about electing a new sheriff. Yes, we all need to concentrate on what we can do locally, decisions made there have immediate impacts on our lives at this end.
Nope. I'm in MA. Sheriff is an elected position with a 6-year term. The next county over also got rid of a MAGA sheriff. I've heard that our sheriff was being pressured immediately after the election to start cooperating with ICE again. She knows that, for what it's worth, we've got her back, just as she has ours.
Sounds promising for you
EXactly what I was thinking...micro-politics! Thank you.
The votes were paid for by billionaires riding the trained-by- Hollywood Trump make-believe-millionaire trainer of “apprentices” for a tv show ten + years ago. And now continuing to ride the crest of the wave of televised ‘drama’ which he’s been coached to continue by the billionaire leaders of the Heritage Foundation, purveyors of an incoming tidal wave of radical religious pseudo Christianity
( ’ upon which our country was ‘founded’ … note the “dramatic effect” of these words/beliefs).
We’ve got Work To Do to educate, build networks, and utilize the LEGAL RIGHTS embedded in our Democracy to right our SHIP OF STATE.
And writing checks from your company to the porn star with whom you cheated on your wife AND mistress is now an official presidential act. “I did nothing wrong” is an official presidential lie we will be hearing a lot more and should always be publicized and carefully documented. 💩🤡🎃
They ain’t listening.. they get their information from Joe Fuckin Rogan, or that goddam facebook..
And Fox News.
A woman told me Newsmax is so much better 😖
We were fools to let the Federalist Society stack the Supreme Court! They spent decades while we paid little or no attention. Now we are paying the price
Yes , we were fools by not showing up during the midterm elections in 2022 to vote. We literally gave the power to the mega Republican party to control the house . That is where Trump found a loop hold to get control of his mega Republican party, manipulate the Supreme Court to give him immunity. Yes , we have ourselves to blame. There were alot of fools that didn't show up to vote in this election that didn't give a damn.
No, not unlimited power, just immunity from criminal prosecution for acts authorised as part of his official capacity - although that extension of presidential privilege was quite startling in itself especially coming from justices who claim to be 'originalists'.
“Just immunity…” Potato, Potahto
Are these semantic games you play?
Time will tell, and I anticipate unbridled exercise of unlimited power. He will rattle the cage and pull the chains that restrain him. Both are weakened by the threats Biden cites.
Not purely semantic. After all, Jack Smith was confidently able to state in his report that he would have secured a conviction of Trump had he been allowed to proceed in a more timely fashion by the courts.
It was not a free and fair election. The firstfelon draftdodger’s gerrymandering began 8 years ago and will be hard to undo but, as others have said, ACT LOCAL!!
Less than 50% of votes, with 30% of voting-eligible population as no shows- by my math he got 1/3rd. And many of those held their nose or were brainwashed by complicit un-American lie-machines, and Cambridge Analytica style micro targeting of American voters. Please.
If we don't fight like hell, we won't have a country.
may be best to give the attribution with that quote
"if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" - tfg Jan.6
But the truth is that IF half the nation fights with the other half, THAT's when we may not have a country anymore.
Abraham Lincoln, when he was 28 yo, said the following:
"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years."
"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
Pure projection.
And people listened to a person who had already proven himself to be a serial liar. INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
I thank President Biden first, then Professor for starting this news letter preparing for the dark periods of America.
I just felt compelled to post this quote on Facebook. Thanks
The oligarchs are winning. The warning is welcomed, but was relevant before Reagan's term ended in 1989. The misinformation and disinformation campaigns funded and launched by the ultra wealthy has paid them enormous dividends at the expense of ordinary Americans: $36 trillion national debt, massive tax breaks for the wealthy, an electorate where many are unable to feel the water in the barrel getting hotter and hotter. Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" [2004] and Heather Cox Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." [2020] "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." G.W. Bush, White House Correspondents' Dinner, 3/31/2001. "We have a republic, if you can keep it." Benjamin Franklin. 9-17-1787. We're losing it.
Michael, This jumped out at me as I listened to his address as well. You beat me to the punch in response with this quote. Thank you.
I am still frustrated and angry with all those who hung their hat on Joe is too old and losing it. I don’t think his ratings would have been so low had this not been so continuously pressed. The debate should have been called off or postponed because of both his extensive trip he was coming home from and his not feeling well. Then we would have seen a different Joe on stage. He has been brilliant because of his yrs of service, picking a great administration and his commitment to do the right thing. No one is perfect, just look in the mirror to see that. America will be wishing for him to be back come 1/21/25.
Agreed. We tried vilifying Trump and the malleably compliant Republicans. Didn't work. Maybe try EDIFYing? What does Don want? It seems to be popularity. Look what happened when Joe Kennedy went from being a rumrunner to a legitimate politician. Remember Harry Truman? He was part of a corrupt Missouri state government. Both Roosevelts were part of the corrupt Tammany Hall government of early 1900s NY.
You bet. Now is the time for us to save our Country from the robber barons!
Yes. Biden lied and pushed the disinformation on COVID, Hunter Biden Laptop, and Foreign Policy.
As Mark Zuckerberg admitted, (Biden administration) would call screaming and cursing for us to take down posts we knew were true)
This was an abuse of POWER. Thank you for pointing it out.
You are spreading disinformation. Your trolling is evident.
What is disinformation?
I’m assuming for you its anything that is true? Ask Mark Zuckerberg,
he outlined how the Biden Administration repeatly asked Facebook to take down posts that were true. The Hunter Laptop was disinformation was well
as the COVID lies about its origins and vaccine efficacy.
Coming from Nebraska I am always glad to see Kool Aid is still selling.
To paraphase Christopher Hitchens “that which is cited without evidence
can be dismissed without evidence”. Leftists never make an argument or present facts that just make narcissistic personal attacks.
Not a word I wrote was untrue. Deal with it. You lost.
You trolled 2 comments from my how. Big whoop for you.
You shouldn't feed a troll. Especially one who is prancing around showing everyone his erection; it brings bad luck.