Trump telling McConnell and his GOP senators what to do or not do reminds me of Reagan when he urged or told Iran not to negotiate with President Carter. So, the “GOP shenanigans” are not new! Power is more important than our democracy! 🤬
Not since since Eisenhower anyway. Not that Ike was a saint, but he cared about America and fought to save it. He had a sense of decency that Joe McCarthy lacked. Now McCarthy looks like the bush league compared to what the "Party of Lincoln" has become.
Unlike Trump, Ike felt he was president of all Americans and sincerely tried to do his best for all of them. Trump believed he was president of only the people who voted for him, that everyone who didn’t support him didn’t matter, and the press were “enemies of the people.” The last statement sounds dictatorial.
Proved by his statement 'anyone who donates to the campaign of his only 2024 Republican rival, Nikki Haley, "will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp." '
Sounds dictatorial, doesn't it? And it's another lie. He will gladly accept anyone who donates to Haley, along with their dollars, if she ends her campaign.
Ann, it sounds dictatorial because it is. Death star is full on fascist. I am glad that Romney spoke up. There really isn't any way for death star to get to him since he is not running again. Of course, he gets his minions to issue death threats to pols and their families and now have starting to swat certain people. I read a lot of history (reading about ancient Rome right now) and those who crave power will do anything to achieve it. I hope we don't end up with the bloodbaths that I have been reading about, but there are enough wing nuts to cause lots of problems. And then there is January 6th which was bad enough, but could have been even more bloody.
"So when I got in the cart with Eric," Dodson says, "as we were setting off, I said, 'Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.' And this is what he said. He said, 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' I said, 'Really?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.' Now that was [a little more than] three years ago, so it was pretty interesting."
Haley is already selling T-shirts on her website: "Barred. Permanently." and Make America Sane Again. I hope that's a sign she's going to start going for tffg's throat.
However, we shouldn't get flummoxed into seeing Governor "Slavery, what Slavery?!" as some sort of positive force, Alexandra. With the noted exception of her support for Ukraine and a general Cheney-esque view of foreign policy, her policies and positions are downright awful, and virtually aligned with Trump's. (to the extent he has any)
Those of us familiar with Trump and his various failed schemes over the years are only too well aware he can’t fix anything, but he can either cause it to fail or make it worse.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger got as close to "off with their heads" as the RNC could currently manage. Their banishment was a classic "Kangaroo Court".
And of course that’s precisely what the maga republicans in Congress have been up to for decades. That’s nothing new. By the way, has any Democrat ever queried a republican cohort asking how either they or their witless leader plans to make America great again? And if not why not? The disfunction of our Congress is why we as a country are where we are.
The border is how they are going to make it better. Wait. They just turned down a bill that would give the border crisis a start at a solution. trump failed at a wall which Mexico refused to pay for. Mexico is working (and paying) for immigration solutions.
This is true, although the real damage started with Reagan and his economic and tax policies that heavily favored the rich at the expense of everyone else. Trickle-down economics consists of the GQP politicians and the rich using the rest of us as a public urinal. The snow job they’ve accomplished with getting working-class white voters to sympathize with the rich is absolutely amazing.
Snow job indeed. The comments made after they voted in IA and NH were mind-boggling. It's like they think Trump has never told a lie and January 6th was a peaceful protest at the Capital.
I agree about the economic damage occurred under Reagan that allowed the rich to get richer. Paul Krugman does an excellent job of explaining in detail each of these actions in many of his columns. But he is just as baffled as the rest of us about the mind-set of the white working-class voters.
Biden and the Democrats have many great success stories to tell and some excellent speech writers to tell the stories. But will they be able to convince this huge group of white working-class people that Trump was a terrible President who surrounded himself with morons and sycophants?
HCR has hundreds of thousands of followers and an excellent communicator. Hopefully her following continues to grow.
I don't think Reagan was that smart just like tfg. He was a movie star and everyone knew his name and he was charming. I believe there are the owners of the Steve Bannons and Stephen Millers that are truly running the show and deciding who they can put in front of the people that can somehow get elected by hook or by crook. I believe Putin is one of the big players. Just like Hitler. Chances are there will always be people wanting our amazing country. My great grandfather thought is was good enough to relocate with his little boys....one of them being my grandfather from England.
Because they got very smart at tapping in to "fear of replacement," which apparently is a real thing among white working class folks. When emotions are riled up, the practical stuff seems less important.
At the same time, ordinary folks are still experiencing food, gas and housing costs that, while they are going down, are higher than four years ago. Maybe there are "good" emotions (Love of country, love of democracy?) that we can rile up to balance this.
Here's a really good "lay language" explanation of the disconnect.
Tony Gonzalez (Rep from Uvalde, TX area. I think that is his name) Look for an interview on Firing Line a few weeks ago. The good ones are hard to find, but they are out there, trying to get things done.
We actually have Senator Patrick O'Connor in MA that is a good man and does good work locally and across party lines.
In 2020 I vowed never to vote for a Republican again. On election day I held firm, until I got to the machine to feed my ballot into.
I felt bad withholding my vote for Patrick and found the person in charge to trade my filled in ballot for a new ballot so I could change my vote. It just seemed wrong to me to punish a good man. I don't know if I did the right thing, it felt better though.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there are so few Republicans today that have an ounce of integrity and aren't cruel misogynists and MAGANAZIs so we don't have to consider voting for a Republican.
I have the same thoughts about IQ but that doesn't explain the cruelty. Maybe there should also be a CQ - cruelty quotient. I think most of us have fantasized about revenge but would never act on it. I'm not sure how we would measure it but I would ran the thousands of participants in January 6th who injured over 140 officers as having high CQs.
Google "Whitehouse Putsch BBC" to discover that the "Republican" deference to (or Star Council of) the Uber-Wealthy began much before Nixon. They simply waited too long in 1933, and, again, picked the wrong man to lead their charge - a real Patriot.
Money has polluted politics from the get go. Lincoln spoke of "the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." In many respects I think American oligarchs become de facto royalty. Nixon was a creepy manipulator yet showed some vestiges of concern for the common good. Reagan detested Lincoln's egalitarian vision, and sold government by and for the rich.
Teddy Roosevelt resented his party's turns toward courting the wealthy.
That’s true because he’s a malignant narcissist and a sociopath. Trump thinks people are there to be used, he expects loyalty from them, but he’s never loyal to others, he relishes the adulation of his groupies, and the only thing he truly cares about are himself and his bank account. Trump can never see that he is the cause of his own problems, so he resorts to ridiculous conspiracy theories to explain what’s happening to him, and he lies constantly. The only thing I think he is truthful about is what he plans to do if he becomes president again. He will govern out of revenge, he will destroy the government and civil service system, he will disregard the Constitution, laws and statutes of the United States and will refuse to faithfully execute the laws as the president’s oath requires, and he will govern as a dictator and expect people to swear loyalty to himself personally and not to the Constitution. In addition, he plans to institute the Heritage Foundation’s Heritage 25 program, which is a plan created by a private right wing think tank and does not have the force of law.
I agree, and believe America would be much better off if everyone took 1-2 hours to learn (from Wikipedia?) about personality disorders, and then about the specific type Trump has - severe narcissistic personality disorder. He literally has a brain disorder that drives him toward doing all the cruel and extremely selfish things he does. Huge numbers of people in our jails have personality disorders, and therefore believe that it's because of everyone else that they are in trouble. Excepting any responsibility and moving towards contrition is beyond them.
But, IMO, the difference with Trump is that he:
1) was born into great wealth,
2) learned from his father, Roy Cohn and others how to most effectively con &/or run over people,
3) built up enormous anger for being mocked in NY for decades (see Doonesbury).
Unfortunately, America was also, on the Right, steadily building up more and more anger, and desire for revenge. After 30 years of Reaganomics, racial preferences, failed wars, and the Great Recession, many millions of GOP voters were no longer enamored with the party. They were ripe for the plucking by a wealthy, cruel conman and demagogue.
And here we are. Fortunately, Trump always wants to be in the limelight as a provocative badass. That means he's always trying to push things slightly further. And he's become cognitively impaired. So he's going to sound dangerousl crazy all this year, which will cost him dearly in November. 🙏🏽
Kathy, Eisenhower was also unafraid to tell Israel no, Suez 1956. I wonder how long Ike would have delayed dispatching troops from Ft. Hood to provide security to federal border officials. Abbott may be campaigning for the V.P. nomination. In any event he is totally out of line. We have four states along the border of Mexico. Four interpretations of foreign policy by four different governors. Oh, Canada is too frightening to contemplate. 12 states bordering Canada.
Greg Abbott may believe he is entitled to decide the state’s foreign policy, but he’s not. The Constitution assigns this task to the Federal government. I think Biden should seriously consider federalizing the Texas National Guard to remind Abbott who is in charge of foreign policy.
We're still paying for his overthrow of Arbenz -- legally the Prez of Guatemala. Wonder what's in the future with Ukraine. Also didn't he start the Viet-Nam war?
"... and fought to save it." From what -- socialism?
bc thinks was great for the war companies, and is great now.
Last I looked the "Vietnam war" was started by Vietnamese trying to throw their French colonial masters out. The foreign-policy skulduggery of the '50s has filled hundreds if not thousands of books. Look up John Foster Dulles, Ike's secretary of state, then check out his brother, Allen Dulles, director of the CIA. As to antics that we're still paying for, I'd nominate the overthrow of democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in August 1953. That was to support the shah. We know what happened to the shah's regime in 1979, and a brief look at today's headlines will remind you what that led to.
The body count of the Cuban Missile Crisis was 1. When LBJ announced in so many words at an executive committee meeting of the President’s cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Defense that he supported a military invasion of Cuba he signed the President’s death warrant. That happened. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam civil war happened.
However, the Tet Offensive really opened LBJ's eyes - or perhaps the cynic might say Walter Cronkite's reporting of it on Nightly News. LBJ began secret negotiations with Uncle Ho to end the US's involvement in the Vietnam Civil War.
However, the secret got out - probably via some of the Dulles Brothers' holdovers still working in State or CIA to one 'Tricky Dick' Nixon. The 1968 Primary Season was already in progress, and in 1968 "Vietnam" not "the Border" was the Hot Campaign Topic.
To prevent LBJ from helping America, Nixon successfully sabotaged LBJ's Peace entreaty by Lying to Vietnam that if they would wait for his Election and they would get a much better deal from him.
When he did not pursue Peace in Vietnam, let alone offer a better deal, you understand why Vietnam became hotter after Nixon was Inaugurated.
The level of Republican "patriotic" behavior is seemingly stuck below Zero.
I am old enough to remember reading articles warning against getting involved in Vietnam. We had already gotten into a mess in Korea that was a similar situation. Oh, we were just going to send in a few "advisors"...
And then suddenly we were sending a whole generation to die in Vietnam or die more slowly from the chemicals we used there.
We can also thank the Dulles brothers "domino theory" for today's "border crisis" that is really a refugee crisis created by the corruption that is the inheritance of CIA actions in Central America.
Amen! I'm old enough, more or less, to have read those articles but, at the age of 12 or 13, I was already obsessed with the Middle East and totally clueless about Southeast Asia. 1968 woke me up and when I started college in the fall of 1969 I got active. At that point I fell in with civil rights activists, Old Lefties, New Lefties, etc., and my real education began.
I think he just picked up where the French left off. This was the war on communism based on the Domino Theory..
We keep trying to solve people's regional problems when we can't even solve on own.
We had to fight communism because it threatened capitalism. Political leaders conflated capitalism with democracy and we're off to war. Democracy can exist just fine without capitalism, but the profit margins of US companies would be laid bare to the threat of local governments taking ownership of foreign private enterprises.
There's a good argument that Eisenhower was not a republican. As a military employee he was discouraged from participating in politics. I seem to remember reading somewhere that both parties asked him to run?
I was fortunate enough to spend my formative years with Eisenhower as my president. He was the last respectable republican president since. He also signed In to law the first civil rights law since reconstruction and warned the nation about the military industrial complex. How does one teach kids about government with the republican Cult, for at least the last four decades, desecrating and making a mockery of the rule of law and everything our Democracy stands for.
"Honor" ; Ike had 'honor'. The gop leadership would only have honor if it could be bought. *edit > Honor and just a few other things I'll offer later when I've time to spare. Too much on my plate just now.
His move killed many more American soldiers than necessary, it failed to work, and he wound up bombing Cambodia and Laos. In Cambodia, it helped to put the murderous Khmer Rouge into power in 1975, and over one million Cambodians were murdered or died.
There was no need for any American soldiers to be killed in Vietnam. The French colonial war in Vietnam ended in 1954. France lost. The US, because of the paranoid Domino “Theory” promoted by the evil Dulles brothers, decided to take up the cause of colonialist sympathizers in South Vietnam. Eisenhower should have known better and put a stop to it. Same for Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon (who, after much gnashing of teeth, eventually bit the bullet), but it would have been easy for Eisenhower to get out early, so he gets most of the blame for the US backing the wrong side in a stupid war at enormous human and moral cost, and quite a lot of treasure, too.
Johnson decided not to run for a second term because of Vietnam, and he was aware Nixon had written to the South Vietnamese government requesting that they refuse to participate in peace talks. It was a Logan Act violation, but Johnson decided not to do anything about it. A historian found evidence for this in the papers at Nixon’s library. Johnson was concerned about the right wing’s reaction to withdrawing from the Vietnam War, and for that reason he decided to stay the course. Nixon and Kissinger had no plan to stop the war, and around 28,000 Americans and even more North and South Vietnamese died until U.S. troops pulled out in 1973.
Correct. Johnson was in a political trap. Kennedy, too, but less so. Eisenhower has no excuse. Kissinger was a thoroughly evil man, and vastly overrated.
Our recent history would be so much different had all this been more widely broadcast and known. Broadcast and free press has failed us for a very long time, and only gotten worse. We have lots to fix and have had; if only we had honest reliable partners. Share your knowledge; the people must be partners.
True. The entire idea as news as infotainment started in the 1970s, and Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network,” the 1980s series “Max Headroom” and Don Henley’s 1982 song “Dirty Laundry” all lampooned the change toward sensationalism and news as entertainment over fact. I personally found it rather uninformative and incapable of providing serious, detailed news coverage, while the broadcast networks found themselves competing among one another for coverage. Trump hates CNN, but he should remember that he got elected because Jeff Zucker preferred to cover him because he drove ratings very high, and it was all free airtime he never had to pay for. Whether it was in the best interests of the country was quite another thing, and in my opinion it wasn’t. I don’t even watch network news any more as I find it less informative than detailed newspaper coverage. The problem is that with the rise of social media, advertisers have fled print media for online media, and newspapers are dying slowly.
To me, the broadcast and press outlets are failing to perform their civic duties as news as news outlets by ignoring Trump’s dementia and his severe personality disorders, which make him thoroughly unsuitable as a presidential candidate. They also tend to find an excessive amount of fault with Democrats coming for chastisement under the both sides principle under faux balance. The truth they should pronounce is this: Democrats have not given up on constitutional government. Republicans have given up on constitutional government and want to create America’s first dictatorship. They want to abandon 247 years of constitutional government to let an incompetent wannabe dictator impose his whims on the country, and it will be an even worse disaster than his first four years. He will substitute his whims for constitutional government and laws enacted by Congress, he will wreck the government and the civil service system, he would ally ourselves with the most undemocratic regimes on the planet. He will unconstitutionally use the law to reward his cronies and punish anyone who criticizes him or his policies, and he will substitute the Heritage Foundation’s policies under the Heritage 25 program, for those legally enacted by Congress and the Senate. Finally, he will make himself dictator for life.
I think you’re right that in recent years news organizations, even prestigious ones like (especially) the NYT have failed us, especially in coverage of Trump/right-wing shenanigans. However, during the Vietnam war, the news organizations did a reasonably good job. The fault lies with white American voters, who were rabid anti communists, totally ignorant of world affairs (still are, largely). They cheered when the National Guard murdered four peaceful protesters at Kent State. This was the quintessential reaction that characterizes the bulk of white American sentiment in the Vietnsm era. Eisenhower should have known better, but willful, white American ignorance made it possible.
Unfortunately, yes, although Nixon had resigned and Ford was president when the Khmer Rouge took power. Nixon and Kissinger engaged in many dubious activities while in office, including engineering the coup that overthrew Allende in Chile, as well as supporting military coups in Argentina and Uruguay. Many people were made to disappear for good. What I find particularly frightening are the Trump supporters who advocate throwing their political adversaries out of helicopters the way the Argentine military did.
Evil is persistent and continuous. In this country, previously, evil was supported by southern Democrats protecting slavery. But in the 1960's, those southern Democrats morphed into Republicans. It doesn't matter what label these wealthy kleptocrats use, they are still the rich doing everything they can to steal from the middle class and the poor by amassing as much power as possible. They are traitors! They are acting contrary to the good of this country in order to score political points. Greg Abbott's actions are not a political stunt. He is ENDANGERING the country. He should go to jail!
It can. Ford and Kissinger turned a blind eye to Indonesia invading East Timor (a former Portuguese colony) and Indonesia’s bloody conquest of the country. It took some years to get the Indonesians out of East Timor, and hundreds of thousands of people died.
If Cambodia and Laos had oil or other resources American corporations could steal, there would have been no Khmer Rouge. But like Zimbabwe and many other countries that lack natural resources,, we allow atrocities to occur for decades unchecked.
Henry Kissinger, in orchestrating the carpet bombing in Cambodia, is infamous for saying " kill anything that moves" His spirit lives on in Vladimir Putin and other war criminals. Bibbi Netanyahu is employing the same tactic in Gaza. They must be held accountable.
Once "THE Southern Strategy" was deployed the Republicans became the Party of Distruction". They are the equivalent of the toddler who destroys all their toys because they can't handle their emotions.
The Southern Strategy is responsible for every Republican victory since 1968. It’s their bread and butter. They know exactly what they’re doing and people who vote for them know exactly why they do so. They started with dog whistles but now use bullhorns, which are more effective.
Exactly. It’s been downhill all the way since postwar dreams (WWII: UN). I have a theory to test here: some GI’s came back, used the GI bill, went to college, university, got all kinds of degrees and many were those who have carried the country forward, made us more civilized. Then there were the ones who bought bulldozers and made fortunes which their only aim was to keep. It’s not hard work, but pure greed that is dividing and killing US.
I agree that greed is killing the US economy, but I doubt that returning GIs are involved much in the killing. My theory is that the population is divided because the primary motivator for most white voters (somewhere between 55% and 60%) is the preservation of systemic advantages for white Americans. The greedy SOBs who are ruining the US economy exploit that pervasive, endemic racism to win elections for Republicans, who then deliver greater and greater shares of US wealth to economy-destroying, greedy SOBs while also making sure to preserve or extend systemic white advatages so they can continue to exploit racism to win elections.
The bulldozer drivers are the uneducated to whom I refer. Civilization demands education. If you can make lots of money without a civilizing education, greed may make you just hang onto it, making sure you don’t share it with the “undeserving.”
Reoublicans have been engaging in behavior that actually endangers American lives simply to gain a perceived political advantage. Doesn't this seeems very close to actual treason?
The Republicans know they can't win without cheating and they are good at it. Does Mr. dirty tricks Roger Stone have a tattoo of FDR's face on his back? Is TGF not the protege of Roy Cohn?
The GOP itself has had some fine upstanding politicians like IKE, Romney, Rockefeller, and others. But when it started losing, it became the host for nefarious actors. Lee Atwater, Newt Gingrich, and Leonard Leo, among others. It was a slow game. Cable news and talk radio had to be allowed to develop - so goodbye FCC. They finally rammed through the Justices who would march to their tune. The Court they wanted enabled the billionaires and dark money to buy their politicians thanks to Citizens United. Over-turning Roe v Wade I think was far more calculated than philosophical. And so it is: Trump is their useful idiot.
Oddly, I have had two neighbors that were politicians -- Tom Osborne and Tom Harkin, one Republican and one Democrat. They were both men of integrity and well, really good neighbors. I voted for both.
It's not often we get to sit on a politician's front porch and see who they really are when they aren't your representative in Congress.
But the MAGANAZIs have hijacked what was the Republican Party about 25 years ago when Newt told his colleagues not to associate with their Democrat colleagues. RBG and Scalia hung out with each other and their families socially, even though they rarely agreed on many decisions.
Today's Republican politicians are Trump MAGANAZIs from top to bottom. They are totally afraid of incurring his wrath -- cowards one and all. Even the few like Romney and Collins that don't support him, rarely poke the bear.
I would have said that my neighbor politician, Steve Stivers (R, OH), was a man of integrity too. And then Trump came along. Instead of speaking out for what was right, he resigned his congressional seat and now heads the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Despite being a general in the National Guard, he’s a coward. He’s not as bad as the others who live in my community: Lt. Governor Husted, OH Secretary of State Larose, and the winner of the slime contest, Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s amazing, because I live in a fairly progressive suburb of Columbus.
I have so much contempt for “good” republicans like Stivers who could have spoken out against Trump’s excesses in the early days and reined him in - and didn’t. Whether the calculus was not to speak out of fear or out of electoral expediency doesn’t matter. They’re cowards, and bear a great deal of responsibility for the place we are today.
Frank LaRose is a lousy Secretary of State and broke his own rules about August elections in order to get his attempt to make it harder to pass voter initiatives on the ballot. In addition, he and the Republicans wanted us to vote No on Issues 1 & 2 in November. Thankfully all of his proposals lost, but the General Assembly is showing it doesn’t care at all what voters think with the attempt to deprive courts of the ability to adjudicate abortion cases. They also ignored three separate orders from the Supreme Court of Ohio before the November elections to redraw 3 improperly drawn Senate districts, and they kicked the can down the road and completely ignored the voter initiative requiring nonpartisan redistricting.
Yes! Having us vote with unconstitutional maps which still aren’t fixed was infuriating. The corruption and nepotism rends Ohio undemocratic. The fact that Dewine’s son is on the OH Supreme Court and doesn’t recuse in cases involving his father is ridiculous.
I agree with you, and I’m frustrated with it. The Ohio Democratic Party needs to seriously meet their Democratic colleagues from Wisconsin and Michigan to help develop a serious plan to overcome the stranglehold the Republicans have on the state. One thing they can do is to start identifying good candidates for state offices like attorney general, treasurer, and secretary of state, as well as good judicial candidates. Retired Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor voted three times with the majority to require three state Senate maps to be drawn. She is a Republican and the party was displeased at her decision. Of course, the Statehouse Republicans did nothing, and kicked the can down the road. The Republicans refused to do anything until it was too late to fulfill the voters’ initiative to require the Republicans redraw statehouse maps with a nonpartisan commission, and the Republicans still have districts that unfairly favor them. Retired Chief Justice O’Connor has been working to draft and get signatures for another initiative to require citizen redistricting like that used in California, ut so far AG Dave Yost has rejected her efforts. Yost was also the guy who claimed the story about a 10 year old being raped and impregnated by her mother’s boyfriend was fake until the man showed up for arraignment in Franklin County Court.
The General Assembly and Senate seem to have a greater commitment to their lobbyists than the people whom they ostensibly represent. Despite Frank LaRose’s best efforts to call an August election to add a proposal to make it harder to amend the Ohio Constitution (after passing a law to forbid August elections,) Ohio voters decisively defeated it. We also passed Issues 1 and 2 despite the Republicans’ best efforts to put the thumb on the scale. Now a group of General Assembly Republicans want to introduce a bill to strip Ohio courts of the ability to adjudicate abortion cases. The problem with this is that the Ohio Constitution does not allow them to do this.
I agree they bear a great deal of responsibility for the place we are in today.
With respect, we are supposed to walk a mile in their shoes before we judge others. I don't know if or how these people were threatened, do you? Would you risk a threat against a family member? Not sure I would.
I am banking on karma taking care of this. I just hope it won't be too late as I fear it will.
As Harry Reid famously observed, Susan Collins is there when you don’t need her, polishing her claim to bipartisanship without actually, you know, being willing to cross partisan lines when it matters.
These days, Newt is a Trump groupie, and I’m not surprised. Newt took a meat cleaver to Congress and eliminated many of the Congressional aides and research sources designed to provide neutral and disinterested advice on legislation, and he went after Clinton for lying under oath about an affair while Newt himself was involved with his Congressional aide, now his wife, Callista. He encouraged Republicans to think of Democrats not as colleagues with differing views, but as enemies who needed to be destroyed. He encouraged Republicans to use hostile language and insults toward Democrats and Republicans still do so and accuse Democrats of being “communists” or “socialists,” which shows that they don’t know the real meanings of these words. In the end, Newt had to resign over scandal over his memoir, which was the same tactic he used to oust the previous speaker, Jim Wright. Dennis Hastert replaced Newt until we eventually learned Hastert had sexually abused members of his high school wrestling team and one of his victims was blackmailing Hastert over it.
My Congressman at the time was Doug Bereuter (R-NE). He had the seniority to become Speaker but he had a couple of major Republican character flaws that prevented him from being speaker -- integrity and intelligence. He had a master degree from Harvard in urban planning and seemed represent us and all Americans--probably another Republican faux-pas.
I met with him once to discuss the conclusion of the Congressional committee on National Security to outlaw the sale of 128 bit encryption software in the US. Congress and the NSA were concerned because it took days to deencrypt 128 bit military messages as opposed to minutes for 64 bit messages. My point was that if the software is available, you can't prohibit people from buying it especially foreign governments. We agreed to disagree, but we did have a good give and take discussion.
Anyway, Hasert undermined him and became Speaker only to be exposed as a pedophile. Bereuter resigned Congress at the end of the term disgusted with what the Republican Party had become.
The Republicans don’t want people with intelligence or integrity in the MAGA GQP. They want robots who will do what they’re told. I know there have been people with both in the Republican Party like former representative Bereuter, but they are definitely not welcome now and Trump’s groupies would call them RINOs. The Republicans with any intelligence or integrity have left the party and become independents. The odd thing is that some of the senators with Ivy League educations; like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton; are among the worst in the Senate. Ted Cruz even has the peculiar distinction of being hated by his fellow Republicans.
Ah, yes. Newt had to resign because of his memoir, but not because the scumbag took divorce papers to his dying wife’s hospital bedside for her to sign. 🙄🤬
Thanks Gary. My family in a previous generation was chock full of politicians. The turn towards meanness and division has far surpassed policy differences. I don’t think “in the before times” any regarded their opponents as “the enemy”. The planned division by a few men has come to fruition.
Good men, both Toms. Harkin, I had the opportunity to present our National Association's Distinguished Service Award to for his work in support of disability rights and policies to support the full inclusion of people with disabilities. He was a champion and strong voice behind passage of the American With Disabilities Act. This was, of course, in a time where your word was your bond and bi-partisanship was the American way. Sure, we might have groused about what we didn't get codified, but respected the good that became settled law for America.
Thank you for reminding us of those opportunists in the past who used the Republican Party to gain power and a foothold with many.....in order to push THEIR agendas.
Politicians on both sides have used power and brainwashing and publicity to gain power.
We need a more engaged population who work to think for themselves.
We need leaders who study to form their opinions....who are knowledgeable enough through engagement with our citizenry as well as people, governments and power struggles going on all over this planet! Men or women who desire to be a part of leadership must be willing to acquire the experience to lead us...instead of using us to gain personal power. Many of the political candidates , it is heartrending to say....are empty.....filling themselves with someone elses ideas.....willing to be used for someone else's personal power/gain through them and through the position they are striving to win. So many of us are either "lazy" thinkers or would rather be a part of the group than learn to make intelligent, informed decisions on our own....or engage in informed debate.
We are self-destructing through our lack of knowledge and lack of character. This laziness is NOT going to strenghten us as a people or as a nation.
At this time in our history, I am very grateful for President Joe Biden and his team.
However on a painful topic that will not leave me.....Netanyahu needs to go. I cannot believe that all of the Israeli population agrees with the slaughter of Palestinians...or anyone.....as is being done in plain sight in Gaza. It is my personal speculation that Netanyahu set this up to do exactly what is happening in Gaza....and with the hostages....using our symphathies towards Israel....to participate in this slaughter of humanity. We have this blood on our hands!
Useful idiot is correct. I was just reading how Republican power attorneys are lining up ready to keep Agent Orange on the ballot. It's already over before it even starts. Moscow Mitch and his billionaires buddies own the court. They are Project 2025. We are so screwed. We have a corrupted Supreme Court.
I hope the 'power attorneys' are no brighter than his current attorneys. I have read any attorney with any self respect wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole.
The article is on the CNN news feed this morning reporting who the players are.
Side note. I contacted the NYT about their clickbait both sides bullshit reporting of Agent Orange and his cronies. They responded. They weren't very happy with me. They were very defensive. They posted to me about 10 articles to the contrary. I guess I got their attention.
And the Republicans act as if he is president, calling him "President Trump." There is only one president at a time. That the Republicans are now acting as if he is president and they are following his orders, they are creating a separate authority in the country that will exist regardless of the results of the election in November.
Exactly, and his biggest supporters in Congress treat President Biden as though he isn’t actually the president when he is. The Republicans in Congress think their job is to fall into line and follow Trump’s orders, so they carry out unethical stunts like trying to impeach President Biden despite the lack of evidence of wrongdoing, and they don’t want Hunter Biden to publicly testify so they can distort his testimony. I hope Jack Smith has been able to gather information to charge or at least subpoena members of Congress and the Senate who enabled Trump’s insurrection.
The Republican base is drinking Trump's poisonous Kool-aid because it is the only liquid available to them. The Republican base is being herded into one Trumpian corral. When will the Romney's, Flake's, Cheney's, Kinzinger's and so many others get back into the game? When will they tell Tump to take a hike or to F-off? It is not the time to be sitting on the sidelines, no matter how convenient that may be. With the possibility of a dictator grabbing the reins of power in November, this might be the last damn inning. Don't leave any of your time and energy on the field.
There is an EXCELLENT open letter to Nikki Haley in The Bulwark, written by Michael Wood in The Bulwark.
"This moment in American history calls for bold truth-telling, drawing lines in the sand, and cutting through the flood of BS coming from Donald Trump and his minions.
When, some distant day, you shuffle off this mortal coil, what will your grandchildren read in your obituary? . . . What did you do when a sitting president tried to steal an election, sent a mob to attack the people’s representatives in Congress, and pushed our country to the edge of a constitutional crisis—if not outright into one? A line from a future newspaper: “Haley then spent a year meekly using the passive voice and mumbling about deficit spending.”
Your life isn’t over and your obituary is not yet written. . . . Go to your home state and tell the truth. . . and say what you actually think: “He’s a moron. He’s a liar. He’s done grievous harm to our country. He dines with Nazis. He needs to be held accountable, both legally and politically. They’re not ‘hostages,’ they’re criminals. We don’t do dictators in America, even for a day.”
If she got up the nerve to do exactly this it would blow up the entire election. Even Biden would have to up his game big time. As the letter says, she'd never have to shrink down in front of her grandchildren and who knows, maybe some other Republicans would also find spine enough to echo her words. Nikki, go for it, push that lying swine into history.
Kathy, the 14th Amendment at Article 3 contains all the legal firepower the DOJ needs to remove over 100 members of the House & Senate that chose to support insurrection over the Constitution. Like tRUmp, and as Judge Luttig & Prof. Tribe (and Professors Baude & Stokes have written in the The University of Pennsylvania Law Review) the former President & any other “officer” engaging in insurrection against the US “unless two-thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty.”
I know it does, but I do not have much confidence that the courts would actually enforce this. I agree with Judge Luttig’s statements on the matter because his first loyalty is to the Constitution, as it should be. My concern is that the Republicans in Congress would never do this.
Is the DOJ the right department to initiate proceedings under that? The DOJ didn't come into existence until 1870; but I think that you're right, they are the agency to investigate violations of the constitution.
This is an important point, TC. Watch how quickly those other states start sending their national guard units to Texas, ostensibly to secure the border, but really to prevent federal border control from doing their jobs. Let's call this what it is: the insurrection continues and escalating. I live in one of those states. God help us all.
President Biden can end this in two minutes, the same wah JFK and LBJ did with the Failed Confederates called out their National Guard units to "stand in the schoolhouse door" 60 years ago: Federalize the guard and put them to work doing their actual job.
Yeah, but this article is from August and talks about how few soldiers were actually sent and how they do not qualify for the benefits they get if sent by the President instead of a Governor.
I read the article and it sounds like the guards under Biden who have been there for awhile get full pay and benefits and under the state have reduced benefits and lower pay. This is in the last two or three paragraphs.
I am appalled and disgusted at reports of Stefanik basically saying to declare Trump the nominee, right now. I hope this report is being overblown, I had hoped to see mention of it in today's letter. In the last week, I have lunched with two long time friends, both old school republicans. Foremost on their minds (both) is the "border crisis" and also that they despise Trump. I didn't push as to whether they would vote for him if he becomes the nominee.
He and his groupies are less a political group than cultists bent on helping Trump make himself dictator. Some of them are or have tried to join election boards to try to game votes, others cancel voter registrations without notice to affected voters. Trump is showing signs of both dementia and decompensation over fear of his impending criminal trials, and it shows at his rallies.
To be fair Joanna, he does control SCOTUS and half of Congress. Many of his actions, like putting DeJoy in charge of the USPS are still in force. The State Department is rebuilding but is a shell of what it was when Trump came to power.
And many of the red states bow down to their orange demagogue refusing to listen to the SCOTUS and the administration.
If you think Biden hasn't done a good job swimming upstream, just look at the amazing things he's been able to accomplish in spite of the MAGANAZIs and the white faux-Christian nationalists.
Think about exactly what rapist trump is telling McConnell and the GOP what not to do:
"Meanwhile, Ukraine is running out of ammunition."
First the GOP's stance is that they won't consider funding Ukraine (not standing up for Democracy) unless the border is addressed. Democrats finally agree to a conservative and imperfect border bill in order to send drastically needed fire power to Ukraine. And common citizen rapist trump orders the GOP goons not to pass it so that he can run on it? And they are listening to him?? This, out in the open, and they have no shame??? By bringing this out into the light, I believe this outrage will gain traction and will backfire into their ugly little heads....
Thank you Kathy! If the Defense Dept. wants to save money AND help stymie the genocide in Gaza, they can demand a complete cease-fire or stop funding the Israeli army....
-McConnell's comments on Ukraine, border deal 'flipped around' - report
After meeting yesterday with their leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans told Politico that earlier comments he had made expressing opposition at Donald Trump’s urging to a deal to arm Ukraine and Israel while enacting conservative immigration policies were misunderstood.
22m ago
09.09 EST
- Senate Republican leader walks back Trump-driven opposition to Ukraine and border deal
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Yesterday kicked off with the somewhat shocking news that Senate Republicans were, at Donald Trump’s behest, willing to walk away from a deal they had been negotiating with Democrats for months to implement some conservative immigration policies in exchange for approving new aid to Ukraine and Israel’s militaries. The reason, the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell told his lawmakers in a private meeting, was that Trump wanted to be able to attack Joe Biden over immigration on the campaign trail, and passing the deal would undermine that. The comments unsurprisingly sparked outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, and later on Thursday, McConnell seems to have walked them back.
- According to Politico, he again convened his party to tell them that he was still behind the deal. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen – the odds of enacting legislation in an election year dealing with one of the most divisive issues in American politics, immigration, were also going to be long, but the parties seem resolved to at least try. We’ll see what more is revealed about this kerfuffle over the course of the day. (Guardian, copied in full)
Power has been more important to Republicans than democracy since the 1880s. The Progressives of the early 20th century, and Eisenhower, were exceptions to the general trend.
And, McConnell could have finished us with having to deal with tfg! I wonder what tfg and Putin have on McConnell. In his last election we had an excellent candidate running against him....I was sure she would win and I was so disappoint when he was re-elected. From what I read he was getting even with those that had made fun of him and shunned him. He is evil like tfg!
And he won. I fear the same will happen with TFG. The cases against him argument been brought much sooner. Now there is likely not enough time to get a conviction before the election. I hope I’m wrong.
Perhaps it's important to acknowledge and answer the Republican constitutional argument that the Biden administration is already failing to enforce the law and the constitution, so (they say) a new border bill isn't going to do any good. Following is the text of Texas Governor Abbott's recent press release. What is the rebuttal?
January 24, 2024
The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States. The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.
Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters—one of which I delivered to him by hand—President Biden has ignored Texas’s demand that he perform his constitutional duties.
• President Biden has violated his oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress. Instead of prosecuting immigrants for the federal crime of illegal entry, President Biden has sent his lawyers into federal courts to sue Texas for taking action to secure the border.
• President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The effect is to illegally allow their en masse parole into the United States.
• By wasting taxpayer dollars to tear open Texas’s border security infrastructure, President Biden has enticed illegal immigrants away from the 28 legal entry points along this State’s southern border—bridges where nobody drowns—and into the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande.
Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United
States.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and
protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
Something I don't hear much about is the long-term damage this divisiveness is doing to America on the international stage. No longer is the commitment of a president and congress to be believed. Our pledge is not worth the ink used to write and for our leader (President) to offer it. It isn't even a bond, a fidelity for the full term of our President. We have no honor now. Any member of a backbiting gaggle of opposition cand and now cancels it without cause or consequence. So doing means we act in bad faith and shall not be worthy of favored nation status militarily or diplomatically or economically. The price we would have to pay were we to be attacked by our friends or fellow nations at the negotiating table for presumed honoring of any promise should be expected to escalate beginning with the next administration. Our vulnerability to successful attack by our avowed enemies should be expected to increase as well because of our recent betrayal, real or presumed, of our allies and opportunities alliance we are likely perpetuate should Trump regain the White House. That a candidate can not only attempt to, but actually require presently serving congress persons to accede to his demands to block and destroy that which we elected the current administration to achieve on our behalf is morally bankrupt as a premise and gravely unlawful under the constitution to which those presently serving and promised to honor. Rump Trump was not elected, regardless of his presumed belief in his assigned leadership. Absolutely insame.
Americans, no matter where we live, the color of our skin, or what our background—we all believe in the freedoms that have been so hard won: equality before the law, the opportunity to pursue our dreams, the ability to be heard and make our voices count at the ballot box, the expectation to earn a fair return for our work—so we aren’t forced to choose between food, medicine, rent or an education, and the fundamental right to decide if, when and how to start or grow a family, to love who we love, and simply, to be who we are...
But day by excruciating day, we are seeing how a tiny minority, of white, wealthy, well-connected billionaires and price-gouging corporations, is turning our democracy into a fascist kleptocracy; they use racism, sexism, nativism and anti-LGBTQ fear-mongering to distract and divide us, so they don’t have to pay what they owe, don’t have to stop polluting and don’t have to be accountable for their crimes against our families—paramount of which was Tr*mp’s Jan 6 attack on our country, made possible by his MAGA co-conspirators in the Executive Branch, Congress, state legislatures, the military, and even SCOTUS.
But together, the many can and will defeat the moneyed, because time and time again we have before. This battle for justice and the promise of America, is as Heather’s historical letters show—it’s not a sprint, nor a marathon; it is a relay, where each of us has our leg to run...and our success happens as much, in the passing and taking of the baton, as in the carrying.
This is an excellent way of putting it. The saying that “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is not limited simply to military activity. As citizens, we have to engage in a relay to preserve government of, for and by the people and to prevent government by kleptocracy and dictatorship.
Yes. What our military has come to to "protect" since WWII is not as much "defending our freedoms" as it is in manipulating governments for fiscal and other gains. We must take up the mantle of eternal vigilance, or we will see our freedoms erode as the monied establishment takes over.
Indeed -- and I'm often reminded that Lincoln's admonishment was not that we WERE destined or already committed to a govt of, for and by the people, but rather that it was up to us to ensure that such a govt should continue to exist:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us [...] that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, [...] shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
"It is not a sprint nor a marathon; it is a relay, where each of us has their leg to run...and our success happen as much in the passing of the baton as the carrying"
it is time for Ordinary folks to do Extraordinary things...
LOL! I'd prefer to say I'm 'singing' it vs preaching...as my hero Anat Shenker-Osorio says, the song we sing as the choir for progressive values (i.e., the activists) has to be catchy enough to be carried by the congregation (i.e., the base), so they sing it out in the world—carrying the message to the non-base, 'swing'/'persuadable' voters (i.e., non-ideological/non-partisan people who hear a statement and say 'that's a good point,' only to hear the opposite statement and also say 'that's a good point,' which is why our message has to be louder, more frequent AND better at landing than MAGA's).
Basically, if our words don't spread, they don't work...
'Why Wall Street is Surrendering to Trump' (The Bulwark)
by CARLIE SYKES
'One of the fondest bits of resistance fantasy has been the notion that the nation’s economic elites — the titans of Wall Street, the beautiful people of Davos, the economic masters of the universe— would, in our moment of peril, mount the barricades to defend democracy.'
'To which a reasonable person might have responded: Have you met these guys?'
'For about five minutes after January 6, it seemed that the business community had, in fact, found or fabricated a moral compass. “There are some members who, by their actions, will have forfeited the support of the US Chamber of Commerce. Period. Full stop,” the chamber’s vice-president, Neil Bradley, declared when the group announced a ban on contributions to representatives who had voted against certifying Joe Biden’s win.'
'There were full-page ads and ringing declarations. “This is not who we are as a people or a country,” insisted Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan.'
'Ah, but.'
'The chamber quietly dropped its ban on election deniers. The cash still flows. And last week in Davos, we found out how far Dimon had evolved on extraneous details like the peaceful transfer of power and attempted insurrections. Dimon now says that Donald Trump was right about lots of things and, like other moguls, is now okay with either Biden or Trump.'
“My company,” 'he said,' “will survive and thrive in both.”
'The only surprise here is that we are surprised. In a remarkable piece this week, The Financial Times’s Edward Luce reminded readers,' “The 1930s ought to have buried the idea that business is a bulwark against autocracy.”
'The Financial Times had only nice things to say about Benito Mussolini in a June 1933 supplement entitled “The Renaissance of Italy: Fascism’s gift of order and progress”. Trains were running on time, investment was humming and friction between capital and labour was a thing of the past. “The country has been remodelled, rather than remade, under the vigorous architecture of its illustrious prime minister, Signor Mussolini,” wrote the FT’s special correspondent. '
“Today’s America offers a reminder,” 'he notes.'
'Why is Wall Street so quickly making its peace with the twice-impeached, disgraced, indicted, authoritarian fraudster? Let’s divide the reasons into three buckets:'
Venality, rational self-interest, and fear.
'Let’s start with the obvious: Big business knows that Trump poses a threat to democratic norms and is a cancer on the national culture. But he’s good for the bottom-line, and that, after all, is the business of business. In their world, the trashing of constitutional norms is simply collateral damage.'
'So, as Matt Yglesias notes in his Slow Boring newsletter, it is not shocking that' “rich businessmen remember they're Republicans.” Even though they might have preferred a less fascisty option, “they’re now reconciled to riding with Trump, who they see as a non-optimal candidate, but a lock for the nomination and perfectly capable of beating Biden.”
“And beating Joe Biden really is the important part…”
'Forget the eyewash about the border or concerns about the tender feelings of the MAGA masses, he writes.' “What Jamie Dimon really wants is the return of business-friendly regulations that will make more money for him personally, for his shareholders, and for his friends.”
'None of this is particularly mysterious. Writes Luce:'
'[For] all his faults, Trump would be better for business than Biden. Trump cut the top tax rate and improved their bottom lines. He is promising to do the same again. Trump’s railing against corporatism is just red meat for the base. He would also boost the fossil fuel industry and commercial real estate. The assumption of business leaders that Trump will fulfil these promises is almost certainly right.'
'They are also unfazed by Trump’s threats of big tariffs and renewed trade wars, because' “less globalisation is a price worth paying for lower taxes. It seems that almost anything is.”
'Elites tell themselves other stories too: They want a seat at the table. They want to be in the room where it happens. They want access. And they know that if they fail to fall into line now, they risk being cast into outer darkness. Or worse.'
'So, they are afraid. But perhaps not afraid enough, telling themselves that Trump’s “bark is worse than his bite.” In their boundless self-regard many of them (like their counterparts from the last century) seem to think that they will be able to control him or limit his damage. In his first term, the guardrails held, they tell themselves, so how bad could it be?'
'But Trump is openly promising a regime of retribution; and this time around he will have far more weapons to wield. As Protect Democracy warned last week, “A second Trump administration will seek to pierce the independence of federal agencies to expand presidential control over their activities.” That includes the DOJ, FCC, FTC, SEC, IRS and all the vast net of regulatory powers that can be aimed at both individuals and corporations who fall out of favor.'
'As both Trump and Florida’s Ron DeSantis have signaled, there is a ravening appetite on the right for the use of government power to punish ideological dissenters in the private sector. As the Protect Democracy report noted', “Trump made several attempts, with varying degrees of success, to crack down on the media during his first term.”
'He ordered a government review of postal rates and urged his postmaster general to double shipping rates on Amazon, as a part of his campaign to pressure Washington Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos to provide him with more favorable news coverage.'
'As a 2016 candidate, Trump threatened to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner because CNN was “wildly anti-Trump” and, after he became president, the Department of Justice challenged the deal. The New Yorker reported that Trump ordered top aides to' “get this lawsuit filed…I’ve mentioned it fifty times. And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!”
'But the media is far from the only industry that Trump 2.0 could target. DeSantis famously went to war with Disney; and the Trumpian right seems spoiling for a fight with businesses that might take controversial positions on issues dear to the heart of the new MAGA elite.'
'What could Trump do? In an earlier report, the folks at Protect Democracy described some of the ways that the government could punish corporate expression:'
'Abuses of government power can take different forms, because government officials wield the power of the state in many ways. They employ rhetoric to influence a public debate, deploy administrative and agency power to gatekeep opportunities and launch investigations, and propose and pass laws that codify the rules of the game…'
'These include:'
'Rhetorical Threats: In response to a company’s (or company leader’s) disfavored speech or expression, a high-ranking government official may threaten that the government will take action to punish the company or make a statement directly intended to chill business expression. For example, in March 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted that she would work to “break up Big Tech,” in response to critical tweets from Amazon about the senator’s characterization of the company’s tax liability. That same year, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned businesses that they would face' “serious consequences” for speaking out against a new voting rights law in Georgia and urged corporate America to “stay out of politics.”
'Administrative Tools: A government official may propose using the executive branch’s administrative or investigative power in retaliation for viewpoints it opposes….'
'Legislative Power: A lawmaker may propose legislation or initiate an investigation directly targeting a company as a result of its expressed views. For example, in 2018 the Georgia legislature voted to strip out from a larger bill a proposed tax exemption on jet fuel, originally intended to benefit Delta Airlines, in retaliation for the company’s decision to eliminate a promotional discount for National Rifle Association members following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. '
'In a second Trump term, this would be mere child’s play. But, by then, there will be little that the business elite can do about it.'
When we organize, we win...like we did in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and throughout 2023. Since Dobbs, EVERY Democratic candidate has outperformed Biden's margin in 2020.
The media is not covering our Democratic wins, because they NEED the horserace to drive click-bait headlines, which force binary narratives that rely on false equivalences.
If Biden's victory is going to be another one based on a RECORD turnout, a RECORD margin, and RECORD absolute vote count against a 2X popular-vote losing, 2X impeached, 4X criminally-indicted, and now convicted rapist, racist and traitor who conspired with MAGA Repubs in state legislatures, in Congress and even on SCOTUS to overturn our election, what would be the point of media's endless 'mad poll disease' coverage (and again, not only are polls inherently flawed, but even if 100% accurate -- they don't vote)?
Now, to be clear, I am not saying we don't have to do the work to vote, and help get out the vote -- especially given how the Electoral College is rigged against voters, or how gerrymandering is rigged against voters, or how laws to suppress access to the ballot box are rigged against voters -- but it's not the sturm und drang, anxiety-inducing fugue state the media would have us believe it to be.
We did it in the past by defeating the Southern slaveholders, but we failed to complete our task of protecting the formerly enslaved people by halting Reconstruction. We also elected FDR in 1932 after Herbert Hoover wrongly thought conventional economic policies would fix the Depression, but Southern members of the Senate and Congress ensured Black citizens would not entirely benefit from FDR’s policies. World War II was a necessary war to fight, and essentially it was a massive public works project that pulled our economy out of depression. Any economic policies we enact to help ordinary people must include all citizens without discrimination.
I'm not going to go as far back as the 19th and 20th centuries.
Instead, I will point out that in 2023, we held the VA Senate and flipped the House of Delegates and as a result, Danica Roem was elected the country's first transgender State Senator and VA's Speaker of the House, Don Scott, is a black man—for the first time in its 400+ year history!
This win meant Virginia stayed the last state in the South without an abortion ban, but it also meant that all the hard-earned progress from Democratic wins in 2017 and 2019 wouldn’t get rolled back, including:
- Medicaid for 700,000 Virginians
- Ratification of the Equal Rights amendment
- Increases to VA's minimum wage
- Funding secured for teacher pay
- Passage of first ever Climate Action bill in the South
- Protections against discrimination for the LGBTQ community
- Gun safety laws, and soooo much more for the Commonwealth
But in 2023, we didn't only win in VA (again), we also won in CT, KY, NJ, OH and PA!
Up and down the ballot, Americans came together to vote their values and defend their freedoms; they chose between "vision and division"—electing democratic judges, governors, state legislators, mayors, and even school board members!
And it wasn't just November 4, 2023. For all of last year, democratic candidates in special elections in Congress and in ballot measures have won, again and again and again—at margins higher than both Biden's win in 2020, or the predicted partisan lean of those places.
I will take these and all the other ACTUAL democratic election wins in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023 over "mad poll" disease any day; and I hope you do, too.
My favorite quote remains this from Anand Giridharadas:
"We are living through a revolt against the future. The future will prevail."
Escape the media's perpetual doom loop of horse race politics (I saw so many headlines after 11/4/23 that started with why despite these wins, it's bad for Biden, the guy who won the most votes of any candidate ever, in the middle of a pandemic, and whose record of success is the best of any President in 60 years!) where their obsession with binary, conflict-driven narratives, which force false equivalences, hides the reality of a slow, but steadily growing blue wave that's been building since I began volunteering with Sister District Project in 2017.
I keep mulling over how a good many MAGA followers had family who fought and were possibly injured or died in WWI and/or WWII, for the freedoms you declaim here. It just doesn’t compute that they would abandon and disgrace their forebears sacrifices, and their country, to follow and encourage the total opposite of what America stands for. How warped their vision of America has become. I wonder what can encourage them snap out of it, stop being so irrationally fearful, and take pride in their country again?
I think the key isn't really to 'change' people's minds -- but rather, get the ones (who can) to see how the values you describe above, are not being support by their voting choices.
You inspired me to learn about the history of the term 'barnburner' -- thank you! And good company for my post to keep :)
h/t Wikipedia
The term barnburner was derived from a folktale about a Dutch farmer who burned down his own barn in order to get rid of a rat infestation. In this case it was applied to men who were thought to be willing to destroy all banks and corporations, in order to root out their abuses.
The Barnburners and Hunkers were the names of two opposing factions of the New York Democratic Party in the mid-19th century, in which the Barnburners were the radical faction, opposing expanding the public debt and the power of large state-established corporations. They also generally came to oppose the extension of slavery.
At the 1848 presidential election, the Barnburners left the Democratic Party, refusing to support presidential nominee Lewis Cass. They joined with other anti-slavery groups, predominantly the abolitionist Liberty Party and some anti-slavery Conscience Whigs from New England and the Midwest, to form the Free Soil Party. This group nominated former President Van Buren to run again for the presidency. Their vote divided Democratic strength. Zachary Taylor, the Whig nominee, was elected to office.
After the Compromise of 1850 temporarily neutralized the issue of slavery and undercut the party's no-compromise position, most Barnburners who had joined the Free Soil Party returned to the Democrats.
In 1854, some Barnburners helped to form the Republican Party.
Forget Laura Ingraham; she's a joke. But why does the Speaker of the House run things by Trump? Trump is an "ordinary" citizen at this point. The Speaker represents the people, no? So major decisions made by House Republicans are only based on the dictates of one man? There are a lot of Republican voters who don't support Trump, so why is Trump still making decisions for them? Unfortunately, not enough Republicans I guess.
The Speaker was ill-prepared for the job. He had little experience and really does not know how to lead or legislate. He does have a hidden ultra-conservative evangelical agenda and supported Trump’s insurrection.
Everyone knows Mike Johnson is a Dominionist and Christian Nationalist. He has provided information on his peculiar beliefs and lust for power. Kevin McCarthy wanted to be speaker so badly that he gave away most of his power to do so, and proved to less competent at the job than Nancy Pelosi was. It only took Matt Gaetz a few moments to oust McCarthy.
There is no leader of the 118th do-nothing Congress. The speaker is a toy the MAGAts throw out to those who used to be journalists to give the impression of a working Congress. The last Speaker of the House of Representatives was Nancy Peolosi, she knew how to run Congress. I hope we have a 119th Congress that returns as a legislative body instead of a ragged bunch of raving pre-teens,
I agree with your take on Hakeem Jeffries, he is doing a good job of holding the Democrats together, but we don't have enough votes to make a difference. This is one of the reasons I have suggested giving each Congressperson 1 vote for every 30,000 voters in their Congressional District. We'd still have 435 members of the House of Representatives but some would have more votes to cast than others - for example the one representative from Wyoming would have 19 votes, where as each of the 51 Representatives from California would have 25 votes.
Hmmm...no, the Senate needs to stay at equal representation for each state. The problem is the House was artificially stopped because it was getting too big. Giving representatives votes connected to the population restores the theory behind the House. Either that or go back to earlier numbers for each House seat and find a way to increase the size of the meeting room and numbers of offices.
Trump has too many of these sniveling members of Congress by the balls. You’ll never convince me that trump has dirt on most of these people. Where it’s coming from is anybody’s guess but the man knows too many shady people who would love to see him destroy us by using them to do it.
Putin. He’s the one with the dirt. Doled out to Trump on an as needed basis, ensuring Trump does his dirty work here. I believe Putin’s got all kinds of dirt on lots of people, especially GOP members of Congress, along with Trump’s people. And they all dance to Putin’s tune. I could be way off base with this idea. But maybe not.
Most definitely. Trump operates like a mob boss and he wouldn’t hesitate to gather dirt on anyone so that he could blackmail Republicans in Congress and the Senate to keep them in line.
It's rumor, as far as I know, but I've read that some GOP politicians stated they fear for their lives if they oppose Herr Trump. I wish some Deep Throat-type journalist would get to the bottom of the Mafia-like threads that flash in a ray of sun now and then.
Trump has them all frightened. They fear for their careers - their money and power. And in some cases, they fear for their lives.
Trump is operating a shadow government. Which wouldn't be happening if he had been arrested and jailed for insurrection in January of 2021. Or arrested and jailed more recently when top secret documents were found in his bathroom. If anyone else had done what he has done (on tape and admitted to!) that person would be serving a long sentence right now.
I can’t stand her. I have disliked her ever since the early 1980s, when she helped run the scandal sheet “The Dartmouth Review.” She worked with Dinesh D’Souza then and they dated briefly. Now Ingraham and D’Souza have completely lost their minds to the Trump cult. Ingraham goes on TV to bash everyone who doesn’t support Trump, while D’Souza makes phony “documentary” films about the 2020 election.
Mark Jackal Johnson is a House puppet and Truculent Trump (when he is not in court) is his puppeteer. I hear Turgid Trump muttering “No, no, a thousand times no,’ whether it’s a bipartisan amelioration of long-standing immigration policies, urgent aid for Ukraine, or simply funding government operations.
My response to Trump: “No, no, a thousand times no.”
Well written ..... my thoughts are who is behind Trump? He is such an "empty" person in so many ways YET....most in the Republican Party cannot make a move without his approval.
Citizens follow him like zombies!!!! Members of the Republican Party who should stand as informed ..... look to someone so devoid of moral character, or knowledge, regarding the needs of our states, populations or the populations of our "planet family"!!! for leadership. And today....a "criminal," the reality of who he is IS EVIDENT even to a blind person.... is a candidate for the office of President of the USA...land of the free and home of the brave for how long?????.....the trials continue.
I was a member of the Republican Party for years until I saw and heard his name first mentioned as a candidate for President....I left that "political party" immediately!!!!
Unfortunately, and the Trump groupies only watch their favorite media outlets and exchange social media messages within a closed group of misinformation. Their minds are hermetically sealed against hearing, reading, or learning any information that tells them Trump is not the hero they think he is, and that he has personality disorders like malignant narcissism and sociopathy. They also think he will turn only on the people that they and Trump hate, but the leopard will eat their faces also.
So true, Rupert started his propaganda campaign in early 80's and has rarely taken a break. Just regrouped and screwed another generation. And I've watched others, including our MSM follow his schitt shows.
This question assumes that the Speaker has integrity and is trying to do the right thing. Citizens United is the downfall of politics. It buys politicians who will do it's bidding. Mike Johnson is just doing it's bidding by deferring to T. They are funding or will be threatening Johnson's next bid for the House.
Give Texas a time out. Give it back to Mexico for a period of ten years and let them survive without the U.S. economic contribution. Or make them independent and see how that fits.
I’ve been suggesting for years that this should be a California ballot initiative: “Should Texas be given back to Mexico?” While probably most Californians have long forgotten Enron, most of us would still probably vote Texas off the continent. Even if Texas suddenly got all new progressive leadership, it’s still gonna take decades to earn the trust of the rest of us back. What a shameful history they’ve completely earned. And I was born a Texan....
Sorry to disagree...I have Mexican friends and family. They are much too good to have to deal with Trump...plus all their other struggles....they also have at their "borders of entry".
Trump is our "problem". We have made it possible for someone like him to become President of this beloved country.....Trump and those who put him in office to do their bidding are the ones responsible. I am sure they laugh at us everyday as they see us put such a person before the love of our country and the freedoms gained and preserved by the many who have given their life's blood, mind and body!
Texas is the location of many beautiful places, national and state parks and other areas that serve as homes to birds and other wildlife. I would hate to lose that. Otherwise, I'd say, let 'em secede.
Former Texan here. I suggest that if the voters cannot take back their state in the next election cycle, then Texas secede. We can get by without the oil, cotton, beef, hot air, and cruelty the state produces. I know that I am spitting into the wind here, but I am hopping mad about what passes for governance in the lone star state.
Why have the Texans not risen up against the governance in the state. It's a big state and they just seem to let so much go, with just a whimper. Glad you are no longer there.
It is ironic that Texas took over the Houston Independent School Board because local autonomy is bad, however, seeks to take over the border because local autonomy is good.
Today’s GOP, with criminal Trump at the helm, filled with corruption and incompetence is no longer even a pretend political party. They are a criminal organization. Even Mitch McConnell who improperly refused to yield to then President Obama in McConnell’s remaking of SCOTUS, is feckless at the hands of a private citizen who has 91 indictments and counting.
Trump doesn’t want a bipartisan border deal, so no deal? What if Polisner (and 80 million plus others) want immigration reform? Have we not been indicted enough to gather support from religious zealot Mike Johnson?
In terms of Ukraine, make no mistake. We WILL pay, one way or another. If not now in badly needed resupply, we will pay in the weakening of every alliance we join in the world. We will pay in the lack of trust in our ability to negotiate and perform as global partners in trade and defense. And we will pay when the criminal Putin decides to push beyond Ukraine.
Finally, the great economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that the GOP’s trickle down economics was wildly effective in doing precisely what it is intended to do: concentrate wealth to the already obscenely wealthy. If your goal is economic opportunity, growth, and fairness, then trickle down should simply be recognized as the fraudulent scheme that it is. The trouble is that explaining basic economics to someone who will drink bleach to combat covid, believes the Jan 6 domestic terrorists were just excited tourists, and that Trump is a great businessman, is like trying to explain Norway to a dog (tip of the hat to Mick Herron).
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. All three pillars have been assailed by the GOP for generations while they have continued to quietly concentrate wealth/power to the top.
History weighs heavy on us. Our Executive branch is strong. There are no sure things in a democracy. You make clear to me that we need to stand up for our laws to keep our fragile republic. Democracy requires our participation.
Very worried for Ukraine, they are valiantly defending their homeland while Republicans are holding vital aid hostage to satisfy the desires of a deluded & criminal candidate. Meanwhile, I also worry for the innocent Palestinians whose homes and families are being destroyed by frenzied attacks ordered by Natanyahu. It’s time the US, long a friend of Israel, to wash their hands of Natayahu. Israelis desperately need a new government. There needs to be a solution that provides a homeland for Palestinians.
Democracy does not assume we will all be ethical. It requires well meaning folks in government act for the people. When they don’t it is our responsibility to act- to vote them out of office, use the legal system to remove them from office or restrain their actions. Yes. The Republican Party is no longer the Grand Old Party.
Iran and Russia are allies. And through Iran, Russia instigated the attack on Israel and is supporting Hamas.
Netanyahu has also been supporting Hamas for years in an effort to divide and dominate Palestine.
Vladimir Putin is pouring gas on it to distract from his invasion of Europe.... using missiles provided by North Korea.
Iran also supports and funds the Houthis in Yemen who are firing missiles at the global shipping bottleneck in the Red Sea... and the South China Sea is kicking off. Looks like a World War to me.
and yes "children are dying by the thousands" but it could get a lot worse if you let Trump and Putin triumph.
Netanyahu originally endorsed the formation of Hamas to divide and conquer Palestinian politics. He has also quietly funded Hamas to keep the peace in Gaza, even though at least one government official opposed this. Unfortunately, Netanyahu’s support for Hamas has backfired on him, and if the government calls an election once the war is over, Netanyahu would lose.
I am not surprised at this. Netanyahu made a lot of Israelis angry when he attempted to strip the courts of jurisdiction to try him for corruption. It cost him his majority in the Knesset and many Israelis were protesting in the streets over this. The only thing that is keeping him safe from trial is his immunity in office as prime minister.
Netanyahu has shown himself disinclined to listen to President Biden and seems to favor the return of Trump to office. This is because President Biden favors a two-state solution, and Netanyahu does not. Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to openly favor the Republicans. Previous prime ministers in Israel at least tried to remain neutral and enjoy good relations with both parties. Many Israelis are disenchanted with the prime minister’s conduct of the Gaza war, and the families of Hamas’s hostages are angry that he hasn’t done anything to get the hostages freed. Some families came into the Knesset to protest the failure to get hostages out. Netanyahu is not going to get what he wants in Gaza because he will not be able to dislodge Hamas. In addition, chances are very good that the prime minister will lose the next election.
It is unfortunate that Isreal is being led by a a genocidal neo-fascist.
Despicable... however...
The issue in that area, debated by ALL the surrounding countries is whether Israel should exist.
Hamas and Hezbollah are funded and supplied by Iran.
The attrocity perpetrated by Hamas was designed to provoke this reaction and stop and put a definitive end to the peaceful diplomacy and the alliances in the middle eastern region that were Biden’s strategic policy - and they succeeded.
I'm sad to say I believe it will get worse. We in "the West" still haven't really grasped that the rest of the world is no longer prepared to play by our rules exclusively, nor have our politicians. I hope we're not running out of time making true changes - the rest of the world does not really care if the shipping bottleneck is closed for Europe, the majority support the Houthis. Sadly we don't seem to have very competent negotiators and diplomats either.
This rest of the world that you speak of? Iran, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, North Korea, China... Do you think the rest of the world care if they take over? The authoritarian axis?
Well I suppose so. If you cant beat em join 'em. yeah, we could add the USA to that list. The great orange leader, all hail.
Seriously though, and actually, it is serious, most of the world would be happier with "rule of law" I think
Actually Barbara I think that since the election in Poland, Viktor Orban is completely alone in Europe. An isolated dictator, his friends are Russia and Belarus.
I think we have to do quite a few things to prevent catastrophe:
- we have for too long just taken our Western interpretation of what's right and what's wrong as gospel, we have to start listening to other interpretations and negotiate with people, that we might consider "terrorists", because IDF and US Army may just as well be classified as "terrorists" is they spread terror over civilians wherever it may be in the world. Like it or not - the Houthis are in their parts of the world higher regarded than the US Army, and who could blame the population? You want to carpet bomb them all and expect they will love you for it?
- quite possibly China will surpass the US as world power in the not too distant future. If China and Russia are now making friends in Africa we have no one to blame but ourselves - the West did exclusively only exploit the global South since centuries, so no surprise that there is little love lost.
That's just for a start but unfortunately I can't see any significant changes in the West's behaviour and attitude and if we don't start soon having a good hard look in the mirror, I'm not very optimistic for the future.
China is in big trouble. As Kathy said, the demographics are horrible as the aging population can't be supported. Their stock market is at ONE HALF of its value in 2020. Huge building projects are stalling out. Apartments are empty. There are serious fault lines in China.
As hard as the Party has tried to isolate the people, the population is fully aware of the successes in the West and our freedom of speech. As the shadow banking system begins to crumble and the Chinese quality of life begins to sink - unrest will follow. It always does.
Since when does either the rule of law or rules-based order apply to the U.S.? What part of a coup applies to either?
Ukraine, with the ‘assistance’ of the U.S., crapped the bed in 2014, and it’s right wing authoritarians, as here in America, as is the case in Israel, ran amok.
Then US needs to stop the arms shipments and money going to them. That's the only thing that will make these cruel maniacs stop. Children in damaged hospitals with 3rd degree burns and no morphine. US is supporting this hell. I saw a video of it.
Since this app doesn't show the original comment, I can only assume it's what I said about Gaza, which was one example, among tens of thousands, of Israel's terrible cruelty. I would love to believe it wasn't true more than you can apparently open your heart and mind to.
I don't think the US disapproval - if existing - is really coming through loud and clear, which quite clearly is contrary to the opinions of the vast majority of the people on this planet. It's somewhat confusing to watch Western politicians digging their own graves with breathtaking speed.
Almost every day, the White House proclaims the need for a "two state solution". It's been a consistent message. There are two parties who adamantly oppose statehood for Palestinians. Netanyahu and his extremist coalition - and Hamas.
As long as the ultra religious radicals control Israel, nothing will be solved. As long as the people of Gaza allow their leaders to wallow in wealth and refuse to negotiate, nothing will be solved. It's a suicide mission driven by haters on both sides.
Blaming the US and its current president for a conflict that has been brewing and bubbling for decades and based on centuries of hate is unrealistic and unhelpful. Most American presidents have dreamed of having enough influence in the region to come up with a peace plan. All have failed. Why? Because the parties involved are not committed to peace. They seek vengeance, retribution - payback for centuries of wrongs.
The US is not nearly as powerful or influential as we think. We can't even control events in Texas - let alone the Middle East! We have let crazy twisted uber religious nutcases take over the House of Representatives and the SUPREME COURT.
There is little the US can do to help two peoples who are mutually committed to destruction.
The only hope I can see is if the women model Ireland - where women finally said; "Enough!"
This is not true. Israel seeks only to capture or eliminate the Hamas leaders. As soon as those who planned and executed the October 7th massacre and kidnappings return the hostages and turn themselves in the war will be over.
Unfortunately, the religious fanatics of Hamas prefer to martyr their own people rather than take responsibility for their acts.
Hamas will not seek peace. Hamas refuses discussions of Palestinian statehood. Hamas top leaders are billionaires while their people starve. Their own people - families - are used as human shields. Hamas consists of subhuman cowards whose only goal is vengeance and the extermination of Israel.
But Netanyahu will never capture or eliminate all of Hamas. If even 80% were killed, the other 20% would continue to recruit and train the youngsters who have witnessed their entire lives be destroyed along with their family and friends. The seeds have been planted for new generations of jihad - not the good kind. But the jihad of the sword.
I am in complete sympathy with the idea of eliminating Hamas. But it won't happen until Palestinians decide to seek a new path.
That's what I can't understand - surely Israel must be aware that they are currently recruiting the largest "terrorist" army the world has ever seen - or do they think the families of the 25,000 victims so far will say "Oh well, let's move on"? Surely not. So it comes to mind that Netanyahu is indeed planning genocide ala A.H. - die Endlösung.
Surely the US would at least be able to stop more military support?
I need to get this off my chest: Recently, too many readers of this newsletter (sadly, mostly male) are using the comment section to not only show off their supposed vast intellectual knowledge of world events, but also to insult other commenters.
Please people - do better. We can have good discussions here without insulting people's education or their IQ.
No, civilians are dying in Gaza because Hamas carried out a pogrom in Israel and Hamas has decided to martyr the people of Gaza rather than take responsibility for their genocidal acts that they will continue to commit if they are left in power. They hide in their tunnels under hospitals, schools, markets and individual homes and let the people of Gaza die in their place.
Netanyahu will be gone as soon as this war comes to an end.
That’s true too or partially true. Israel and Netanyahu and the soldiers of Netanyahu and the voters of Israel have been provoking Palestinians by not stopping the settlements. That’s no excuse for the barbarism of Hamas. Netanyahu is not Israel and the charges against him should be addressed now nit after the taking of more civilian lives. This war is embedding terrorism. We need to embed peace.
I also agree. Like Al Qaeda and ISIS, Hamas wants to destroy the state of Israel and to govern the Islamic world, but I doubt they can rule the Islamic world. They already have proven their ability to cause significant harm to Israel.
Why is Putin not in prison already? Why is Trump not in prison already? Why is Netanyahu not in rising already? Honest people who do not commit crimes don’t have to tolerate criminals as their leaders, do they?
Yeah. It would be like playing 'Whack-a-Mole'. Take one out, and another one is sure to pop up. In the Spiritual World, I have been taught that the Light always outshines the darkness. And that Love always triumphs over hate. The Truth will set you free. And Truth will win over lies. When I look at the state of the world today, I feel like I've been gaslighted into believing any of this.
I would venture to say that it all depends on what we focus on. There must be more human consciousness focusing on the darkness, hate, and lies for us to be manifesting the horror happening now. My main concern is how do we turn this around. One person at a time or groups of people meditating or praying for peace doesn't seem to be working! Any suggestions?
I agree Netanyahu will lose the next parliamentary election. What I do know, and where I think Israeli leadership failed is that Israeli soldiers found Hamas’s plans for an attack on Southern Israel that unfolded very much as the October 7 attack did. The soldiers did their duty by reporting the plans up to their superiors, but the IDF command, Israeli intelligence leaders, and the PM thought the plan was too far fetched to occur. Unfortunately, the attack on October 7 proved the leadership wrong. Families of hostages who are still alive understandably want their loved ones home safely, but nothing seems to be happening, despite their protests. I want to see the hostages returned safely too.
No, civilians are dying in Gaza because Hamas carried out a pogrom in Israel and Hamas has decided to martyr them rather than take responsibility for their genocidal acts that they will continue to commit if they are left in power.
Hamas leaders hide in tunnels built underneath hospitals, schools, marketplaces and individual homes and allow the men and women of Gaza to die in their place. They could have prevented most of the civilian deaths by returning the hostages and assuming the responsibility for their acts by giving themselves up.
Israel does not ever intentionally kill civilians.
Netayanu will be forced to resign as soon as this war is over.
I think you are worldwide in the minority with this opinion. My first question is - why did Hamas take hostages? Just out of the blue? I don't think so - we can hardly see this event in isolation of the previous history - Israel treats Palestinians horrible since decades. Palestinians weren't asked if they wanted to give their country when they were forced to by the British and the rest of the West last century.
My second question is - would the IDF act in the same way if it would try and hunt Hamas in Israel? I don't think so and that's all you need to know about the current actions of Israel towards the Palestinians. Absolutely nothing justifies the murder of thousands of children, using famine and denial of medical care against the civilian population, nothing!
Zionism is nothing but a big, terrible cancer on Judaism and I hope that the Israelis wake up to that fact - what they are doing is clearly cruel and downright evil.
And that's not antisemitism but absolutely antizionism.
Israël did not start this war and did not want it. The Jewish people have a right to a homeland and to defend themselves. The Palestinians too need a homeland.
Nothing justifies the barbaric pogrom (hopefully you know the meaning of this word) inflicted on Israeli farmers, many of them peace activists,
On October 7th.
Hamas wanted a strong Israeli reaction and knew that within 3 days after the massacre the ugly never far from present face of antisemitism would raise its ugly head and the the world would cry « death to Jews ».
I don’t think you understand the definition of Zionism as you are using it improperly, unfortunately as antisemites do.
I am Swiss and live in Europe. My view comes from the facts I read in French, Swiss and German newspapers. I do also read HCR everyday and read Thomas Friedman’s perspicacious articles in the NYT.
I feel very sad how easily the American left- which I was part of in the 60´s and early 70´s has taken such a stance that does not include the whole picture and the facts on the ground
Darling, I lived half my life in Germany (yup, I'm sure the hair stands up at the back of your neck) and speak and read English, German, French and Russian, so I think I'm not inferior regarding education and information.
The sad thing is that it seems at least very difficult for many people to look at things from another point of view - which seems to me is the case here, in particular if you're talking about a pogrom (are you sure YOU know the meaning of the word?) against "peaceful Israeli farmers" - I take it you mean the illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, generally regarded as another illegal land grab by Israel, who often enough mistreat their Palestinian neighbours in disgusting ways?
It's also so repulsive if any justified critic on Israel is instantly replied with the cry "anitsemitism!" - it just diminishes the horror of the Holocaust to nothing but a cheap media slogan.
No Madam I am talking about the farmers of the Kibutz who were largely peace activists and social activists in partner with Gazouis. They were savagely murdered, taped, burned to death in their homes. Yes it was a pogrom, straight out of the playbook of 1890’s Eastern Europe.
I think the problem is that PM Netanyahu, the senior command of the IDF, and the senior intelligence leaders were not paying attention like they should have been. Lower level intelligence gatherers had obtained a detailed plan on how Hamas planned to carry out the attack, but the people at the top considered it too far fetched for Hamas to carry out. The unfortunate thing was the attack was carried out almost exactly as Hamas described it in its plans.
Yes, I have also read that this is what happened. They were asleep on the job, especially since having a peaceful summer and many Palestinians crossing the border every day to work in Israel or get medical care. They let themselves be lured into believing that a détente was developing. It seems they relied too much on technology rather than on people for their security.
I read Le Temps, Le Monde, le NZZ not disinformation on social media. If you speak French and or German, I would be happy to share these facts with you. If you can’t admit the fact that Hamas is a fanatical religious mouvement that committed unjustifiable atrocities to innocent people on October 7th, you are unfortunately a cold-hearted human being. I am sick at heart to see all the unnecessary deaths in Gaza. As I said Hamas is responsible for every one of them and can return the hostages and stop the carnage any day.They prefer martyrdom of all of Gaza. It is a tragedy
Israel could return the land it stole from the Palestinians and stop the carnage anyday. It prefers a racist Zionism and genocide, and has committed unjustified atrocities throughout its brief history.
Checkmate.
As to your condescending approach regarding your multilingualism, I’m sure there are English language editions for each, and if not, you could use that propagandized brain of yours to translate. I eagerly await the receipt of said ‘facts’. If they are anything like the drivel emanating from the mind of Tom Friedman, you’re in for a rough ride.
I believe Netanyahu let that attack happen - he’s Israel’s Trump, putting his minions in positions of government that they knew little about. Also he’s another so-called leader who is doing whatever it takes to stay out of prison, like someone else we know all too well.
Really? While Israelis were always nothing but fair, helpful, friendly, supportive, non-violent and all around angel-like to their Palestinian neighbours, is that what you mean?
In some ways maybe Texas and Florida could just go off on their own. So tired of their stances and theatrics. We could manage without them don't think they could manage without us.
Yes Ukraine is running out of ammunition and those super brave Ukrainians who have fought those Russian invaders with every fiber of their being not only to get their country back from those invaders but to be a line of resistance protecting us ALL. Putin and the Russians are our enemies TOO! and Putin is very supportive of OUR major enemy Trump…..the sooner we all make THAT connection the better….and the sooner Ukraine gets its desperately needed ammunition AND WE RID OURSELVES OF Trump.
Joan, we have been supportive of scores of dictators and strongmen who butchered thousands of their people at our geopolitical request. Putin supports Trump because it weakens America, a weakened America weakens American attempts at global hegemony. There is nothing illogical about it.
We can’t get out of our own way, it seems. It would be interesting to see if we ended our competitive quest for hegemony backed by military domination, and instead adopted a multipolar collaborative approach. Our dealings with Russia, and the Palestinians, and China, would probably be much more rational.
You get the women’s vote, the youth vote, and every available ‘swing’ voter, the turned off reps that are more moderate, anyone and everyone who is NOT an aggrieved relatively uneducated Tea Party type. You are extremely clear about DOBBS, you use Taylor, you register new voters like Mad.
For anyone looking for a refreshing MSM show watch Lawrence O'Donell's 'The Last Word' on MSNBC. He has promised himself not to provide trump and maga a place to lie and he calls them out with impunity. It's so delightful to see him call it like it is blatantly. It's not opinion...he uses direct quotes and statements straight from the horses' or jackasses' mouths.
All of us keep up closely with the news. Is it just me who’s not seeing incisive reporting from the southern border to understand what’s really happening? How serious is the problem, and how bad is the propaganda?
And to repeat myself, why doesn’t the administration have all hands on deck to address the issue as Republicans inflame and exploit it?
Michael, HCR cited the Texas Tribune tonite by a reporter I recently cited on Paxton's stipulation to a Judgment in a Whistleblower Lawsuit against him. I get "The Brief" which is a morning Texas Tribune digital newsletter authored Allyson Walker.
Allyson reported on Thursday morning 1/ 25 that 1st Lady Dr Jill Biden has Invited 31 year old Texas healthcare escapee, KATE COX, to the State of the Union coming up soon at the Capitol.
The Texas Tribune has a searchable database but, I can tell you the immigration fight focuses on a fenced off Park on the Rio Grande which Abbott has blocked with barriers & state Trucks that's when Texas is not importing migrants from New Mexico & other border states to transport them across state lines to dump them literally on the streets in New York City , Martha's Vineyard & other Northern cities.
The Martha's Vineyard debacle generated a class action against Abbott & Gang. Massachusetts is moving to cap migrants, immigrants & asylum seekers due to inadequate shelter. 2023-24 has been a very cold & wet Winter in the Northeast.
The policy issues extend all the way back to origin countries. Los Estados Unidos has notorious labor abusing industries such as farming-harvesting, construction laborers cash-only please, kitchen help off the books por favor & generally a thriving US market for labor abuse going back many decades suckin-upworkers heading north into California along El Camino Real.
In law school I revised & updated a handbook with new case law on final judgments for the Immigration Legal Resource Center. Que lastima para las pobrecitas & pobrecitos.
Aha! The core of the problem. How many immigrants would head north into rotten weather if there were no jobs offered? The "shadow jobs" like cash only and the cleaning up of animal guts by kids in slaughter houses provides real money that doesn't exist in their home countries. Nations that are semi-mafia run failed states.
In other words, we are nationally hypocrites. We want our cheap fruits and veggies harvested by cheap labor. We want our cheap meat processed by cheap labor. But we don't want to SEE that labor. If we got to know them and learned to understand their lives, we couldn't use them as political footballs. We couldn't drum up hate for them. We couldn't lie about their taking jobs that no Americans need or want to do.
The parallel is our blaming cartels in Mexico and elsewhere for our drug problems. We make certain substances illegal that are in high demand by a decimated swath of Americans whose jobs were shipped overseas by the oligarchs. WE created the black market that feeds the demand WE created.
Economics are simple. Enterprises thrive when there is demand. And humans are very creative in meeting that demand. Drugs, cheap labor - all big profits for the puppeteers. And we blame a "lack of enforcement". Stupid is as...
We have a labor shortage in America. Based on a thriving economy and an aging population dynamic - young people not reproducing. There are many fine applicants knocking on the door who will work hard and pay taxes. Let's answer the damn door!
We have a drug problem and laws that don't work towards helping the addicted. The laws create the market. The laws create the mafia. Legalize drugs. Make them safely available in a carefully regulated way to all who need them. Offer help for recovery. Undercut the mafia and help the people who need it. The "war on drugs" is a war on people.
For many years, there has always been a demand for seasonal labor, and people from Mexico have come and gone to fulfill this demand. Previous deportations in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s wrongfully expelled native born American citizens. What is happening now is that people are fleeing violence that we helped to create in their own countries, and also climate change that prevents people from growing crops. People are more likely to bring their families because of the difficulties of being able to come and go.
Thank you Kathy for the historical context. Yes, fleeing violence is a major driver which includes Venezuela, El Salvador & other Central American populations.
Many of the migrant workers you may see in places like Michigan picking crops actually are citizens who live in the Rio Grande Valley at the very southern tip of Texas. They make yearly travels to places where work is available.
So, the point you’re making is...? Labor abuse is cause people to try to flee to America and Abbot is exploiting those fleeing by unannounced exportation to other states while also blocking others from crossing river in Shelby Park?
" ... blocking others from crossing the river" with barbed wire in a navigable waterway which SCOTUS has blocked 5-4. Abbottt has placed extra barbed wire around Shelby Park while babbling seditiously. These tactics are far from over which is why I encouraged others to check out HCR's source. Personally, I have joined Human Rights Watch.
Migration is not a one-way street; it is back & forth & cyclical based on numerous factors.
Bruce, I thought the class action was from Abbott’s flight of migrants into California? DeSantis flew the Martha’s Vineyard group, and I believe there are lawsuits stemming from this as well.
What DeSantis and Abbott didn’t realize was the summer people in Martha’s Vineyard they think supported this (I doubt this) had already left by the time they sent these people to Martha’s Vineyard, and it was the local people who stepped up and offered the migrants help.
They sleep with blinders and their pillows stuffed with cash. Growing balance sheets dancing in their heads. Fantasies of self-righteous grandeur. When they're safe & sound, no one else matters.
I’m not sure about bad upbringing. How can we know that? But I agree on the rest for sure. Our Country and people be damned…all for power, control, & greed. Shameless. I’m so sick of them.
Good to see how Sabine, Cloutier, evelyn (sic), and Kathy (1st 4 posting) all strongly back our Heather.
Ours is a community of like minds, largely -- shocked at people like Putin,, Netanyahu, as well as followers of hate and murder, such as Hamas and the MAGA cultists shrieking for more chaos.
Good to see, too, some adults in the U.S. Senate meanwhile trying to compromise and enact a program largely to solve, ameliorate many issues on that southern border.
But why do the chaos-spewers so thrive as they do on fantasies, sensationalism, refusal to work with adults?
Can it be because they all went to schools so void of humanities they now just hunger for fiction of the wildest, even most vulgar varieties, being totally unaware of how artists have made really good, apt fiction really to help guide, enlighten, provide perspectives to our young as well as the rest of us?
Good questions. First, it is nothing new. There have always been people who would rather hate than compromise. People who have been trained from birth to torment and ostracize "the other".
Folks who would rather blame out than look within for the causes of their suffering.
I do think "education" is key. But academia doesn't seem to be the total answer. Some of the most despicable politicians on the scene today have Harvard degrees.
I think the "education" we are looking for is in exposure to other people who are different but at their core are the same. When we get people out of their silos of hate and bigotry, we have a shot at their learning a new world view.
One idea is national service. Mandatory. Could be military, could be healthcare, could be working to bring broadband to remote towns...could be helping people obtain fresh water. When we work alongside "different" people, we could learn just how similar we all are. I think it's worth a try. And we could help get some stuff done, as well.
Bill, I agree with your idea of mandatory national service. Two years, and my thoughts are along the lines of military (if so inclined), Peace Corps, or a 21st century CCC to do public works projects. A stipulation that working in another part of the country should be strongly considered if not required.
Dystopian fiction, to let us know to where we are headed:
I know it sounds crazy, but under Trump we started no new wars. It was under his administration that the plan to wind down the Afghanistan war originated. Now we have two proxy wars, and the war in the Middle East threatening to expand, possibly drawing in Russia and China, who may help defend Iran.
In our own country, we are, according to Richard Wolff, watching our own empire crumble. Yes, the economy looks pretty good on paper. Though there are around 100,000 more homeless people than last year. What are we exporting besides weapons? Honest question, as I'd like to know.
So with Trump we lose our bodily autonomy, the wealthy get wealthier, we're best buddies with Russia, and the polluters get free reign. With Biden we still get greater wealth inequality, Russia remains our enemy, the oil companies get almost everything they want, and we get expanded wars. We already have a corporatocracy. But not fascism, yet.
I believe that the young see the future more clearly than us oldsters, who are hanging onto more "normal" times, starting with FDR. They see the pictures of the slaughtered Palestinians. You can blame Hamas all you want, but the visuals are still there, in their minds. If Biden neglects to call a cease fire and start negotiations, I fear that it's all over.
IMO, we did not have wars/conflict during the last administration because the U.S. under the former president aligned itself with the very countries who have historically been our enemies. Just my two cents.
Correction: countries who in the recent past have been our enemies, or maybe adversaries is a better word.
Russia was not our "enemy" in decades past. For instance, in the book, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth," Chris Hadfield describes his sojourn in Russia before being blasted to the International Space Station along with Russian cosmonauts. How would we do that with our "enemy"?
And our slapping around the Panda Bear in China, using Taiwan, our destroyers being sold to Australia--that's getting to be a bit of an anxiety-producing situation.
It used to be that the Republican party was the pro-war party. I think the Dems (of which I'm registered) have taken a page from their playbook. If there's a war, you don't change horses in midstream, and all that. But, I'm afraid this is a sign that we are at the end of our empire and it's now in decline, as this is exactly what happened to Rome.
Just as an aside, Chris Hadfield's book is a romp, and I highly recommend it. He describes what it's like in zero gravity, what it feels like to be smushed inside a space capsule hurtling through the atmosphere, and training to be an astronaut so it feels like you're actually there.
Marcia that period in relations was very short lived. I was in the USSR for study. Post WWII, aside from the days following “the fall”, Russia has always been an opponent.
The problem is that Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union, but he wants to do so without the economic resources to do so. Putin and the oligarchs who have aligned with him have stolen just about everything that isn’t nailed down, so the money isn’t there.
I wonder how much of Russia's being our opponent has to do with our own actions. NATO encroaching on the country, past the promised border of East Germany, as well as our messing in their own elections. We are top dog for now, but there's going to be blowback. Already is with the BRICS-plus coalition.
Something else to consider: check out the Thucydides Trap TED talk. A friend alerted me to this problem. There are a number of people who believe this country is in decline because of our bloated military presence all over the world. For most countries, this is not OK! That includes Russia and China. Israel thinks that she can take advantage of our military, but, according to Michael Hudson and others, we are the ones taking advantage of Israel, using her as an "aircraft carrier" to greater hegemony in the Middle East, the goal being control of the shipping straits for shipping oil and gas and other necessary products. So, if we weren't so aggressive, do you think our relationship with Russia might improv?
I cringe at the fact -- and I regret having to concede it as a fact -- that "With Biden we still get greater wealth inequality."
Might our many good Dems across the land speak up about this? Trump and his Republicans massively cut taxes for the rich and this added 8 trillion to the national debt. Our Heather today notes Biden and Harris "rejected 'supply side' economics and vowed to restore buying power to the demand side of the economy: ordinary Americans." She cites the good programs to help those hollowed out by America's massive fall to the rich, but the latter still rule.
The problem is the Republicans in the house will do nothing to roll back Trump’s tax cuts, and Democrats in the House and Senate have agreed to cut money from the proposed IRS budget. Increasing the IRS budget to get wealthy tax cheats and hiking taxes will pay for itself.
For there to be the change we seek we need majorities. That hasn’t happened… yet. I hope to see a tremendous backlash in the fall if Democrats can get their message out.
I think it’s improving. Campaign season is now coming into full swing. Republicans just had such an early announcement by Trump that it began early this electoral season.
Obama, in the 2008 disaster, bailed out the big banks, but not the one I was invested with (too small to not fail). I lost 40% of my savings, never to return.
I just want you to know that I'm not just a fed -up dem. I made between 4,000 and 6,000 phone calls to get people to walk their precincts to get out the dem vote (between 2006 and 2010), walked close to one hundred precincts, knocking and talking to people around the county. The last two elections I canvassed for Bernie (2016 and 2020). I learned a lot from people, including what motivates them to vote. As one man told me, "I had hope for change. I didn't get change, and lost hope." You can look at statistics--how great the economy is going, etc,--but it's what's going on in people's lives that matter. There are so many more poor people in this country, continuing to get worse. When we get majorities we don't do enough, so I'm tired of the Republicans getting blamed for it all. I know people who have left the dem party, becoming independent voters, because the dems aren't dem enough. As Ilhan Omar so beautifully stated, it's all about the Benjamins. You get super wealthy and the plebes become, well, not very important. I'm sorry to have to say this. Again, I've been a staunch dem my whole life, never missing an election, making phone calls for dems across this country, as well. It's sad to see this happening--to my party and to my country.
I share your frustration, but realize the only thing that matters is the vote count. It’s hard to start from ground zero when the mad don’t understand how government works, or that their gleeful vote for Harambe had consequences l
I wish Americans had the power "to call a cease fire". So far Bibi the Butcher has not shown any interest in what Biden has to say. We have called for restraint. Didn't happen.
Our administration has been calling for a two state solution for some time now. Bibi blows it off.
It is not that Mike Johnson has no spine or that he is joined at the hip with Trump. Johnson is wholly a creature of Charles Koch and Leonard Leo. Of movement conservatism and the religious right. And until their fully antidemocratic scheme of clerical fascism comes to full fruition, and elections do indeed become rigged as in Hungary and Russia, they still need votes. Which Trump can deliver.
From Ronald Reagan on, Republicans have used the protocols of government to destroy the institutions of government. The Koch Leo Supreme Court majority is the most fully realized example of this. The Trump Executive also. And now the Republican House. They are indifferent to the wreckage. Those who are ideologically wed to the fallacious notion that there is no difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party, are part of the wrecking crew.
lin, so true! Sadly, "Beau of the Fifth Column" had a video about this probably 6 months ago but I can't locate it. He had a question from a young person who said that the parties are the same, and he succinctly disputed that. Wish I could locate it.
I had never heard of him. A few videos I found reflect what you mention - critique of third party presidential voting, refutation of 'the two parties are the same', and support for reforming the Democratic party from within (as the TeaParty transformed the GOP.) But when I looked for information about who Beau of the Fifth Column is, I found little from sources I know, and what I did find was not encouraging. So ...
I have read the negative stuff, too, lin. He has said that he "wasn't a nice young man", but experiences educated him. I've been watching for several years now, and he appears quite genuine. I'm impressed that, other than a t-shirt or Two, he has not monetized his channels like many do.
Thanks lin. MAGAts that surround me all believe Citizens United should be overturned by legislation but they don’t see that only one side is attempting to roll it back. The sea change in Democratic policy approaches is ignored with only “they did it (take corporate $$$) too”, failing to understand the harm done by Manchin and Sinema.
ThankYou. For the past decade I've volunteered for Democratic candidates in Maine's CD2. I've listened to thousands of voters, on the phone and doorsteps. Many unenrolled or third party. The 'vote your conscience' crowd here twice split the vote handing the governorship to TeaParty Trump before Trump racist Paul LePage. Disastrously. Their Pied Piper was self funded (now convicted child pornographer) Elliot Cutler. But the driver was their mistaken notion that voting is an individual exercise in self expression rather than uniting to take power. I sometimes think I've heard every excuse for not voting or vote splitting - and then I hear another. In comparison, Republican voters are strategic and reality based . No pipe dreams or purity tests for them.
As someone once said, the Republicans believe government doesn’t work, and then when they get into power they proceed to prove it. It’s deliberate inaction and obstruction on the part of the Republicans.
There you go again, mucking up a brilliant post with a hyperbolic last line.
Allow me to edit. Those who can’t recognize the fact that both parties are bought and paid for by monied interests, and aggressively fight to remove that cancer from their party of choice, instead of buying into tribal winner-take-all electoral politics, are part of the wrecking crew.
This is their entire strategy in a nutshell. Johnson is incapable of leading the House without angering one faction or the other, and being threatened with the loss of his Speakership. Instead, he can only kill time and hope Guilty Donald gets re-elected and tells them all what to do. Bizarre as that sounds, I believe they'd follow his orders.
We have to retake the House and Senate along with keeping Joe Biden as President!
Trump telling McConnell and his GOP senators what to do or not do reminds me of Reagan when he urged or told Iran not to negotiate with President Carter. So, the “GOP shenanigans” are not new! Power is more important than our democracy! 🤬
Nixon did the same to Johnson over Viet Nam. Republicans are not, nor have they ever been, honest brokers.
Not since since Eisenhower anyway. Not that Ike was a saint, but he cared about America and fought to save it. He had a sense of decency that Joe McCarthy lacked. Now McCarthy looks like the bush league compared to what the "Party of Lincoln" has become.
Unlike Trump, Ike felt he was president of all Americans and sincerely tried to do his best for all of them. Trump believed he was president of only the people who voted for him, that everyone who didn’t support him didn’t matter, and the press were “enemies of the people.” The last statement sounds dictatorial.
"everyone who didn’t support him didn’t matter"
Proved by his statement 'anyone who donates to the campaign of his only 2024 Republican rival, Nikki Haley, "will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp." '
He is saying "Either it is me or the highway."
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/25/trump-nikki-haley-donors-threat
Sounds dictatorial, doesn't it? And it's another lie. He will gladly accept anyone who donates to Haley, along with their dollars, if she ends her campaign.
Yes. There are two things Donald Trump cares about, himself and his bank account.
Ann, it sounds dictatorial because it is. Death star is full on fascist. I am glad that Romney spoke up. There really isn't any way for death star to get to him since he is not running again. Of course, he gets his minions to issue death threats to pols and their families and now have starting to swat certain people. I read a lot of history (reading about ancient Rome right now) and those who crave power will do anything to achieve it. I hope we don't end up with the bloodbaths that I have been reading about, but there are enough wing nuts to cause lots of problems. And then there is January 6th which was bad enough, but could have been even more bloody.
Seems like Trump will accept anyone's dollars.
"So when I got in the cart with Eric," Dodson says, "as we were setting off, I said, 'Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.' And this is what he said. He said, 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' I said, 'Really?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.' Now that was [a little more than] three years ago, so it was pretty interesting."
<http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/05/05/james-dodson-donald-trump-golf>
And maybe her for vice president! He wanted Pence hung!
Haley is already selling T-shirts on her website: "Barred. Permanently." and Make America Sane Again. I hope that's a sign she's going to start going for tffg's throat.
I'd like one of those T shirts!
However, we shouldn't get flummoxed into seeing Governor "Slavery, what Slavery?!" as some sort of positive force, Alexandra. With the noted exception of her support for Ukraine and a general Cheney-esque view of foreign policy, her policies and positions are downright awful, and virtually aligned with Trump's. (to the extent he has any)
Or "I alone can fix it".
Those of us familiar with Trump and his various failed schemes over the years are only too well aware he can’t fix anything, but he can either cause it to fail or make it worse.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger got as close to "off with their heads" as the RNC could currently manage. Their banishment was a classic "Kangaroo Court".
And of course that’s precisely what the maga republicans in Congress have been up to for decades. That’s nothing new. By the way, has any Democrat ever queried a republican cohort asking how either they or their witless leader plans to make America great again? And if not why not? The disfunction of our Congress is why we as a country are where we are.
Robert🙏😳
The border is how they are going to make it better. Wait. They just turned down a bill that would give the border crisis a start at a solution. trump failed at a wall which Mexico refused to pay for. Mexico is working (and paying) for immigration solutions.
It seems to me Kathy, what has trickled down is that Republicans only represent the wealthiest of their constituents starting with Nixon perhaps??
Name me one Republican Congressman or Senator that represent the underprivileged or heck, even the middle class.
This is true, although the real damage started with Reagan and his economic and tax policies that heavily favored the rich at the expense of everyone else. Trickle-down economics consists of the GQP politicians and the rich using the rest of us as a public urinal. The snow job they’ve accomplished with getting working-class white voters to sympathize with the rich is absolutely amazing.
Snow job indeed. The comments made after they voted in IA and NH were mind-boggling. It's like they think Trump has never told a lie and January 6th was a peaceful protest at the Capital.
I agree about the economic damage occurred under Reagan that allowed the rich to get richer. Paul Krugman does an excellent job of explaining in detail each of these actions in many of his columns. But he is just as baffled as the rest of us about the mind-set of the white working-class voters.
Biden and the Democrats have many great success stories to tell and some excellent speech writers to tell the stories. But will they be able to convince this huge group of white working-class people that Trump was a terrible President who surrounded himself with morons and sycophants?
HCR has hundreds of thousands of followers and an excellent communicator. Hopefully her following continues to grow.
I don't think Reagan was that smart just like tfg. He was a movie star and everyone knew his name and he was charming. I believe there are the owners of the Steve Bannons and Stephen Millers that are truly running the show and deciding who they can put in front of the people that can somehow get elected by hook or by crook. I believe Putin is one of the big players. Just like Hitler. Chances are there will always be people wanting our amazing country. My great grandfather thought is was good enough to relocate with his little boys....one of them being my grandfather from England.
But not unprecedented. Tyranny could not be sustained without dupes.
Because they got very smart at tapping in to "fear of replacement," which apparently is a real thing among white working class folks. When emotions are riled up, the practical stuff seems less important.
At the same time, ordinary folks are still experiencing food, gas and housing costs that, while they are going down, are higher than four years ago. Maybe there are "good" emotions (Love of country, love of democracy?) that we can rile up to balance this.
Here's a really good "lay language" explanation of the disconnect.
https://apnews.com/article/economy-inflation-prices-jobs-income-recession-unemployment-e9e96643d8a1eb3ab2f57810219b8324
Tony Gonzalez (Rep from Uvalde, TX area. I think that is his name) Look for an interview on Firing Line a few weeks ago. The good ones are hard to find, but they are out there, trying to get things done.
We actually have Senator Patrick O'Connor in MA that is a good man and does good work locally and across party lines.
In 2020 I vowed never to vote for a Republican again. On election day I held firm, until I got to the machine to feed my ballot into.
I felt bad withholding my vote for Patrick and found the person in charge to trade my filled in ballot for a new ballot so I could change my vote. It just seemed wrong to me to punish a good man. I don't know if I did the right thing, it felt better though.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there are so few Republicans today that have an ounce of integrity and aren't cruel misogynists and MAGANAZIs so we don't have to consider voting for a Republican.
Alaska has Murkowski.
Isn't it amazing the low information voters can't see that? They just love the hateful language. I keep being reminded that the average IQ is 100.
I have the same thoughts about IQ but that doesn't explain the cruelty. Maybe there should also be a CQ - cruelty quotient. I think most of us have fantasized about revenge but would never act on it. I'm not sure how we would measure it but I would ran the thousands of participants in January 6th who injured over 140 officers as having high CQs.
Gary, it began long before Tricky.
Google "Whitehouse Putsch BBC" to discover that the "Republican" deference to (or Star Council of) the Uber-Wealthy began much before Nixon. They simply waited too long in 1933, and, again, picked the wrong man to lead their charge - a real Patriot.
Money has polluted politics from the get go. Lincoln spoke of "the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." In many respects I think American oligarchs become de facto royalty. Nixon was a creepy manipulator yet showed some vestiges of concern for the common good. Reagan detested Lincoln's egalitarian vision, and sold government by and for the rich.
Teddy Roosevelt resented his party's turns toward courting the wealthy.
Sorry, but I think anyone who isn’t him… doesn’t count.
That’s true because he’s a malignant narcissist and a sociopath. Trump thinks people are there to be used, he expects loyalty from them, but he’s never loyal to others, he relishes the adulation of his groupies, and the only thing he truly cares about are himself and his bank account. Trump can never see that he is the cause of his own problems, so he resorts to ridiculous conspiracy theories to explain what’s happening to him, and he lies constantly. The only thing I think he is truthful about is what he plans to do if he becomes president again. He will govern out of revenge, he will destroy the government and civil service system, he will disregard the Constitution, laws and statutes of the United States and will refuse to faithfully execute the laws as the president’s oath requires, and he will govern as a dictator and expect people to swear loyalty to himself personally and not to the Constitution. In addition, he plans to institute the Heritage Foundation’s Heritage 25 program, which is a plan created by a private right wing think tank and does not have the force of law.
I agree, and believe America would be much better off if everyone took 1-2 hours to learn (from Wikipedia?) about personality disorders, and then about the specific type Trump has - severe narcissistic personality disorder. He literally has a brain disorder that drives him toward doing all the cruel and extremely selfish things he does. Huge numbers of people in our jails have personality disorders, and therefore believe that it's because of everyone else that they are in trouble. Excepting any responsibility and moving towards contrition is beyond them.
But, IMO, the difference with Trump is that he:
1) was born into great wealth,
2) learned from his father, Roy Cohn and others how to most effectively con &/or run over people,
3) built up enormous anger for being mocked in NY for decades (see Doonesbury).
Unfortunately, America was also, on the Right, steadily building up more and more anger, and desire for revenge. After 30 years of Reaganomics, racial preferences, failed wars, and the Great Recession, many millions of GOP voters were no longer enamored with the party. They were ripe for the plucking by a wealthy, cruel conman and demagogue.
And here we are. Fortunately, Trump always wants to be in the limelight as a provocative badass. That means he's always trying to push things slightly further. And he's become cognitively impaired. So he's going to sound dangerousl crazy all this year, which will cost him dearly in November. 🙏🏽
And he really didn't care for anyone but himself and how he could be protected from losing his power!
Kathy, Eisenhower was also unafraid to tell Israel no, Suez 1956. I wonder how long Ike would have delayed dispatching troops from Ft. Hood to provide security to federal border officials. Abbott may be campaigning for the V.P. nomination. In any event he is totally out of line. We have four states along the border of Mexico. Four interpretations of foreign policy by four different governors. Oh, Canada is too frightening to contemplate. 12 states bordering Canada.
Greg Abbott may believe he is entitled to decide the state’s foreign policy, but he’s not. The Constitution assigns this task to the Federal government. I think Biden should seriously consider federalizing the Texas National Guard to remind Abbott who is in charge of foreign policy.
Because it is. An essential pillar of tyranny is the corrupt and violent enforcement of lies.
Yes, and not only do they "not matter," but they are vermin that need to be destroyed. I wonder who he thinks will pay any taxes if that happens.
We're still paying for his overthrow of Arbenz -- legally the Prez of Guatemala. Wonder what's in the future with Ukraine. Also didn't he start the Viet-Nam war?
"... and fought to save it." From what -- socialism?
bc thinks was great for the war companies, and is great now.
Last I looked the "Vietnam war" was started by Vietnamese trying to throw their French colonial masters out. The foreign-policy skulduggery of the '50s has filled hundreds if not thousands of books. Look up John Foster Dulles, Ike's secretary of state, then check out his brother, Allen Dulles, director of the CIA. As to antics that we're still paying for, I'd nominate the overthrow of democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in August 1953. That was to support the shah. We know what happened to the shah's regime in 1979, and a brief look at today's headlines will remind you what that led to.
The body count of the Cuban Missile Crisis was 1. When LBJ announced in so many words at an executive committee meeting of the President’s cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Defense that he supported a military invasion of Cuba he signed the President’s death warrant. That happened. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam civil war happened.
However, the Tet Offensive really opened LBJ's eyes - or perhaps the cynic might say Walter Cronkite's reporting of it on Nightly News. LBJ began secret negotiations with Uncle Ho to end the US's involvement in the Vietnam Civil War.
However, the secret got out - probably via some of the Dulles Brothers' holdovers still working in State or CIA to one 'Tricky Dick' Nixon. The 1968 Primary Season was already in progress, and in 1968 "Vietnam" not "the Border" was the Hot Campaign Topic.
To prevent LBJ from helping America, Nixon successfully sabotaged LBJ's Peace entreaty by Lying to Vietnam that if they would wait for his Election and they would get a much better deal from him.
When he did not pursue Peace in Vietnam, let alone offer a better deal, you understand why Vietnam became hotter after Nixon was Inaugurated.
The level of Republican "patriotic" behavior is seemingly stuck below Zero.
I am old enough to remember reading articles warning against getting involved in Vietnam. We had already gotten into a mess in Korea that was a similar situation. Oh, we were just going to send in a few "advisors"...
And then suddenly we were sending a whole generation to die in Vietnam or die more slowly from the chemicals we used there.
We can also thank the Dulles brothers "domino theory" for today's "border crisis" that is really a refugee crisis created by the corruption that is the inheritance of CIA actions in Central America.
Amen! I'm old enough, more or less, to have read those articles but, at the age of 12 or 13, I was already obsessed with the Middle East and totally clueless about Southeast Asia. 1968 woke me up and when I started college in the fall of 1969 I got active. At that point I fell in with civil rights activists, Old Lefties, New Lefties, etc., and my real education began.
I think he just picked up where the French left off. This was the war on communism based on the Domino Theory..
We keep trying to solve people's regional problems when we can't even solve on own.
We had to fight communism because it threatened capitalism. Political leaders conflated capitalism with democracy and we're off to war. Democracy can exist just fine without capitalism, but the profit margins of US companies would be laid bare to the threat of local governments taking ownership of foreign private enterprises.
There's a good argument that Eisenhower was not a republican. As a military employee he was discouraged from participating in politics. I seem to remember reading somewhere that both parties asked him to run?
Yes
Didn't McCarthy add new meaning to the word witch hunt?
I was fortunate enough to spend my formative years with Eisenhower as my president. He was the last respectable republican president since. He also signed In to law the first civil rights law since reconstruction and warned the nation about the military industrial complex. How does one teach kids about government with the republican Cult, for at least the last four decades, desecrating and making a mockery of the rule of law and everything our Democracy stands for.
Robert🙏
"Honor" ; Ike had 'honor'. The gop leadership would only have honor if it could be bought. *edit > Honor and just a few other things I'll offer later when I've time to spare. Too much on my plate just now.
His move killed many more American soldiers than necessary, it failed to work, and he wound up bombing Cambodia and Laos. In Cambodia, it helped to put the murderous Khmer Rouge into power in 1975, and over one million Cambodians were murdered or died.
There was no need for any American soldiers to be killed in Vietnam. The French colonial war in Vietnam ended in 1954. France lost. The US, because of the paranoid Domino “Theory” promoted by the evil Dulles brothers, decided to take up the cause of colonialist sympathizers in South Vietnam. Eisenhower should have known better and put a stop to it. Same for Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon (who, after much gnashing of teeth, eventually bit the bullet), but it would have been easy for Eisenhower to get out early, so he gets most of the blame for the US backing the wrong side in a stupid war at enormous human and moral cost, and quite a lot of treasure, too.
Johnson decided not to run for a second term because of Vietnam, and he was aware Nixon had written to the South Vietnamese government requesting that they refuse to participate in peace talks. It was a Logan Act violation, but Johnson decided not to do anything about it. A historian found evidence for this in the papers at Nixon’s library. Johnson was concerned about the right wing’s reaction to withdrawing from the Vietnam War, and for that reason he decided to stay the course. Nixon and Kissinger had no plan to stop the war, and around 28,000 Americans and even more North and South Vietnamese died until U.S. troops pulled out in 1973.
Correct. Johnson was in a political trap. Kennedy, too, but less so. Eisenhower has no excuse. Kissinger was a thoroughly evil man, and vastly overrated.
I agree. I didn’t cheer his death, but I was not sorry he was gone.
Our recent history would be so much different had all this been more widely broadcast and known. Broadcast and free press has failed us for a very long time, and only gotten worse. We have lots to fix and have had; if only we had honest reliable partners. Share your knowledge; the people must be partners.
True. The entire idea as news as infotainment started in the 1970s, and Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network,” the 1980s series “Max Headroom” and Don Henley’s 1982 song “Dirty Laundry” all lampooned the change toward sensationalism and news as entertainment over fact. I personally found it rather uninformative and incapable of providing serious, detailed news coverage, while the broadcast networks found themselves competing among one another for coverage. Trump hates CNN, but he should remember that he got elected because Jeff Zucker preferred to cover him because he drove ratings very high, and it was all free airtime he never had to pay for. Whether it was in the best interests of the country was quite another thing, and in my opinion it wasn’t. I don’t even watch network news any more as I find it less informative than detailed newspaper coverage. The problem is that with the rise of social media, advertisers have fled print media for online media, and newspapers are dying slowly.
To me, the broadcast and press outlets are failing to perform their civic duties as news as news outlets by ignoring Trump’s dementia and his severe personality disorders, which make him thoroughly unsuitable as a presidential candidate. They also tend to find an excessive amount of fault with Democrats coming for chastisement under the both sides principle under faux balance. The truth they should pronounce is this: Democrats have not given up on constitutional government. Republicans have given up on constitutional government and want to create America’s first dictatorship. They want to abandon 247 years of constitutional government to let an incompetent wannabe dictator impose his whims on the country, and it will be an even worse disaster than his first four years. He will substitute his whims for constitutional government and laws enacted by Congress, he will wreck the government and the civil service system, he would ally ourselves with the most undemocratic regimes on the planet. He will unconstitutionally use the law to reward his cronies and punish anyone who criticizes him or his policies, and he will substitute the Heritage Foundation’s policies under the Heritage 25 program, for those legally enacted by Congress and the Senate. Finally, he will make himself dictator for life.
I think you’re right that in recent years news organizations, even prestigious ones like (especially) the NYT have failed us, especially in coverage of Trump/right-wing shenanigans. However, during the Vietnam war, the news organizations did a reasonably good job. The fault lies with white American voters, who were rabid anti communists, totally ignorant of world affairs (still are, largely). They cheered when the National Guard murdered four peaceful protesters at Kent State. This was the quintessential reaction that characterizes the bulk of white American sentiment in the Vietnsm era. Eisenhower should have known better, but willful, white American ignorance made it possible.
Exactly Rex.
Another war criminal
Unfortunately, yes, although Nixon had resigned and Ford was president when the Khmer Rouge took power. Nixon and Kissinger engaged in many dubious activities while in office, including engineering the coup that overthrew Allende in Chile, as well as supporting military coups in Argentina and Uruguay. Many people were made to disappear for good. What I find particularly frightening are the Trump supporters who advocate throwing their political adversaries out of helicopters the way the Argentine military did.
Evil can last through different administrations.
Evil is persistent and continuous. In this country, previously, evil was supported by southern Democrats protecting slavery. But in the 1960's, those southern Democrats morphed into Republicans. It doesn't matter what label these wealthy kleptocrats use, they are still the rich doing everything they can to steal from the middle class and the poor by amassing as much power as possible. They are traitors! They are acting contrary to the good of this country in order to score political points. Greg Abbott's actions are not a political stunt. He is ENDANGERING the country. He should go to jail!
It can. Ford and Kissinger turned a blind eye to Indonesia invading East Timor (a former Portuguese colony) and Indonesia’s bloody conquest of the country. It took some years to get the Indonesians out of East Timor, and hundreds of thousands of people died.
Good point Jeri-
Bush the Senior continued may of Reagan's most heinous plots and even Clinton took a while to reverse many of them.
If Cambodia and Laos had oil or other resources American corporations could steal, there would have been no Khmer Rouge. But like Zimbabwe and many other countries that lack natural resources,, we allow atrocities to occur for decades unchecked.
So true.
No thanks to war criminal, Kissenger 😤
Henry Kissinger, in orchestrating the carpet bombing in Cambodia, is infamous for saying " kill anything that moves" His spirit lives on in Vladimir Putin and other war criminals. Bibbi Netanyahu is employing the same tactic in Gaza. They must be held accountable.
Once "THE Southern Strategy" was deployed the Republicans became the Party of Distruction". They are the equivalent of the toddler who destroys all their toys because they can't handle their emotions.
The Southern Strategy is responsible for every Republican victory since 1968. It’s their bread and butter. They know exactly what they’re doing and people who vote for them know exactly why they do so. They started with dog whistles but now use bullhorns, which are more effective.
Exactly. It’s been downhill all the way since postwar dreams (WWII: UN). I have a theory to test here: some GI’s came back, used the GI bill, went to college, university, got all kinds of degrees and many were those who have carried the country forward, made us more civilized. Then there were the ones who bought bulldozers and made fortunes which their only aim was to keep. It’s not hard work, but pure greed that is dividing and killing US.
I agree that greed is killing the US economy, but I doubt that returning GIs are involved much in the killing. My theory is that the population is divided because the primary motivator for most white voters (somewhere between 55% and 60%) is the preservation of systemic advantages for white Americans. The greedy SOBs who are ruining the US economy exploit that pervasive, endemic racism to win elections for Republicans, who then deliver greater and greater shares of US wealth to economy-destroying, greedy SOBs while also making sure to preserve or extend systemic white advatages so they can continue to exploit racism to win elections.
I take racism for granted. It’s our BIG divider.
The bulldozer drivers are the uneducated to whom I refer. Civilization demands education. If you can make lots of money without a civilizing education, greed may make you just hang onto it, making sure you don’t share it with the “undeserving.”
Yes, he did!
Reoublicans have been engaging in behavior that actually endangers American lives simply to gain a perceived political advantage. Doesn't this seeems very close to actual treason?
The Republicans know they can't win without cheating and they are good at it. Does Mr. dirty tricks Roger Stone have a tattoo of FDR's face on his back? Is TGF not the protege of Roy Cohn?
Why does this not come out in a big way.
I haven’t voted for a Republican since voting for Eisenhower for president. Never! And reading “Democracy Awakening” I remember why.
Nixon, Reagan, Trump= Republicans.
Partisan over patriotism
The GOP itself has had some fine upstanding politicians like IKE, Romney, Rockefeller, and others. But when it started losing, it became the host for nefarious actors. Lee Atwater, Newt Gingrich, and Leonard Leo, among others. It was a slow game. Cable news and talk radio had to be allowed to develop - so goodbye FCC. They finally rammed through the Justices who would march to their tune. The Court they wanted enabled the billionaires and dark money to buy their politicians thanks to Citizens United. Over-turning Roe v Wade I think was far more calculated than philosophical. And so it is: Trump is their useful idiot.
Oddly, I have had two neighbors that were politicians -- Tom Osborne and Tom Harkin, one Republican and one Democrat. They were both men of integrity and well, really good neighbors. I voted for both.
It's not often we get to sit on a politician's front porch and see who they really are when they aren't your representative in Congress.
But the MAGANAZIs have hijacked what was the Republican Party about 25 years ago when Newt told his colleagues not to associate with their Democrat colleagues. RBG and Scalia hung out with each other and their families socially, even though they rarely agreed on many decisions.
Today's Republican politicians are Trump MAGANAZIs from top to bottom. They are totally afraid of incurring his wrath -- cowards one and all. Even the few like Romney and Collins that don't support him, rarely poke the bear.
Disgusting boot lickers one and all.
I would have said that my neighbor politician, Steve Stivers (R, OH), was a man of integrity too. And then Trump came along. Instead of speaking out for what was right, he resigned his congressional seat and now heads the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Despite being a general in the National Guard, he’s a coward. He’s not as bad as the others who live in my community: Lt. Governor Husted, OH Secretary of State Larose, and the winner of the slime contest, Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s amazing, because I live in a fairly progressive suburb of Columbus.
I have so much contempt for “good” republicans like Stivers who could have spoken out against Trump’s excesses in the early days and reined him in - and didn’t. Whether the calculus was not to speak out of fear or out of electoral expediency doesn’t matter. They’re cowards, and bear a great deal of responsibility for the place we are today.
Frank LaRose is a lousy Secretary of State and broke his own rules about August elections in order to get his attempt to make it harder to pass voter initiatives on the ballot. In addition, he and the Republicans wanted us to vote No on Issues 1 & 2 in November. Thankfully all of his proposals lost, but the General Assembly is showing it doesn’t care at all what voters think with the attempt to deprive courts of the ability to adjudicate abortion cases. They also ignored three separate orders from the Supreme Court of Ohio before the November elections to redraw 3 improperly drawn Senate districts, and they kicked the can down the road and completely ignored the voter initiative requiring nonpartisan redistricting.
Yes! Having us vote with unconstitutional maps which still aren’t fixed was infuriating. The corruption and nepotism rends Ohio undemocratic. The fact that Dewine’s son is on the OH Supreme Court and doesn’t recuse in cases involving his father is ridiculous.
I agree with you, and I’m frustrated with it. The Ohio Democratic Party needs to seriously meet their Democratic colleagues from Wisconsin and Michigan to help develop a serious plan to overcome the stranglehold the Republicans have on the state. One thing they can do is to start identifying good candidates for state offices like attorney general, treasurer, and secretary of state, as well as good judicial candidates. Retired Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor voted three times with the majority to require three state Senate maps to be drawn. She is a Republican and the party was displeased at her decision. Of course, the Statehouse Republicans did nothing, and kicked the can down the road. The Republicans refused to do anything until it was too late to fulfill the voters’ initiative to require the Republicans redraw statehouse maps with a nonpartisan commission, and the Republicans still have districts that unfairly favor them. Retired Chief Justice O’Connor has been working to draft and get signatures for another initiative to require citizen redistricting like that used in California, ut so far AG Dave Yost has rejected her efforts. Yost was also the guy who claimed the story about a 10 year old being raped and impregnated by her mother’s boyfriend was fake until the man showed up for arraignment in Franklin County Court.
The General Assembly and Senate seem to have a greater commitment to their lobbyists than the people whom they ostensibly represent. Despite Frank LaRose’s best efforts to call an August election to add a proposal to make it harder to amend the Ohio Constitution (after passing a law to forbid August elections,) Ohio voters decisively defeated it. We also passed Issues 1 and 2 despite the Republicans’ best efforts to put the thumb on the scale. Now a group of General Assembly Republicans want to introduce a bill to strip Ohio courts of the ability to adjudicate abortion cases. The problem with this is that the Ohio Constitution does not allow them to do this.
I agree they bear a great deal of responsibility for the place we are in today.
With respect, we are supposed to walk a mile in their shoes before we judge others. I don't know if or how these people were threatened, do you? Would you risk a threat against a family member? Not sure I would.
I am banking on karma taking care of this. I just hope it won't be too late as I fear it will.
And between the two you cite at the end, Collins has the most to be ashamed of.
For sure Swbv. I cannot ever forgive her for being the deciding vote for Kavanaugh who lied to all of us about precedent and decided law.
Her 20 minute babble about her decision to support Kavanaugh was an embarrassment to herself and her constituents.
It was horrific. She sounded mealy mouthed and like a scaredy cat. Definitely not senatorial material.
She wanted Leo’s money. She got it. Beloved “lin” has been recounting this for years here.
As Harry Reid famously observed, Susan Collins is there when you don’t need her, polishing her claim to bipartisanship without actually, you know, being willing to cross partisan lines when it matters.
These days, Newt is a Trump groupie, and I’m not surprised. Newt took a meat cleaver to Congress and eliminated many of the Congressional aides and research sources designed to provide neutral and disinterested advice on legislation, and he went after Clinton for lying under oath about an affair while Newt himself was involved with his Congressional aide, now his wife, Callista. He encouraged Republicans to think of Democrats not as colleagues with differing views, but as enemies who needed to be destroyed. He encouraged Republicans to use hostile language and insults toward Democrats and Republicans still do so and accuse Democrats of being “communists” or “socialists,” which shows that they don’t know the real meanings of these words. In the end, Newt had to resign over scandal over his memoir, which was the same tactic he used to oust the previous speaker, Jim Wright. Dennis Hastert replaced Newt until we eventually learned Hastert had sexually abused members of his high school wrestling team and one of his victims was blackmailing Hastert over it.
My Congressman at the time was Doug Bereuter (R-NE). He had the seniority to become Speaker but he had a couple of major Republican character flaws that prevented him from being speaker -- integrity and intelligence. He had a master degree from Harvard in urban planning and seemed represent us and all Americans--probably another Republican faux-pas.
I met with him once to discuss the conclusion of the Congressional committee on National Security to outlaw the sale of 128 bit encryption software in the US. Congress and the NSA were concerned because it took days to deencrypt 128 bit military messages as opposed to minutes for 64 bit messages. My point was that if the software is available, you can't prohibit people from buying it especially foreign governments. We agreed to disagree, but we did have a good give and take discussion.
Anyway, Hasert undermined him and became Speaker only to be exposed as a pedophile. Bereuter resigned Congress at the end of the term disgusted with what the Republican Party had become.
The Republicans don’t want people with intelligence or integrity in the MAGA GQP. They want robots who will do what they’re told. I know there have been people with both in the Republican Party like former representative Bereuter, but they are definitely not welcome now and Trump’s groupies would call them RINOs. The Republicans with any intelligence or integrity have left the party and become independents. The odd thing is that some of the senators with Ivy League educations; like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton; are among the worst in the Senate. Ted Cruz even has the peculiar distinction of being hated by his fellow Republicans.
Ah, yes. Newt had to resign because of his memoir, but not because the scumbag took divorce papers to his dying wife’s hospital bedside for her to sign. 🙄🤬
Thanks Gary. My family in a previous generation was chock full of politicians. The turn towards meanness and division has far surpassed policy differences. I don’t think “in the before times” any regarded their opponents as “the enemy”. The planned division by a few men has come to fruition.
republicans need him because of the base he commands.
Hopefully, they won't vote.
Good men, both Toms. Harkin, I had the opportunity to present our National Association's Distinguished Service Award to for his work in support of disability rights and policies to support the full inclusion of people with disabilities. He was a champion and strong voice behind passage of the American With Disabilities Act. This was, of course, in a time where your word was your bond and bi-partisanship was the American way. Sure, we might have groused about what we didn't get codified, but respected the good that became settled law for America.
SWBV,
Thank you for reminding us of those opportunists in the past who used the Republican Party to gain power and a foothold with many.....in order to push THEIR agendas.
Politicians on both sides have used power and brainwashing and publicity to gain power.
We need a more engaged population who work to think for themselves.
We need leaders who study to form their opinions....who are knowledgeable enough through engagement with our citizenry as well as people, governments and power struggles going on all over this planet! Men or women who desire to be a part of leadership must be willing to acquire the experience to lead us...instead of using us to gain personal power. Many of the political candidates , it is heartrending to say....are empty.....filling themselves with someone elses ideas.....willing to be used for someone else's personal power/gain through them and through the position they are striving to win. So many of us are either "lazy" thinkers or would rather be a part of the group than learn to make intelligent, informed decisions on our own....or engage in informed debate.
We are self-destructing through our lack of knowledge and lack of character. This laziness is NOT going to strenghten us as a people or as a nation.
At this time in our history, I am very grateful for President Joe Biden and his team.
However on a painful topic that will not leave me.....Netanyahu needs to go. I cannot believe that all of the Israeli population agrees with the slaughter of Palestinians...or anyone.....as is being done in plain sight in Gaza. It is my personal speculation that Netanyahu set this up to do exactly what is happening in Gaza....and with the hostages....using our symphathies towards Israel....to participate in this slaughter of humanity. We have this blood on our hands!
It must stop! We are creating enemies!!!!
Useful idiot is correct. I was just reading how Republican power attorneys are lining up ready to keep Agent Orange on the ballot. It's already over before it even starts. Moscow Mitch and his billionaires buddies own the court. They are Project 2025. We are so screwed. We have a corrupted Supreme Court.
I hope the 'power attorneys' are no brighter than his current attorneys. I have read any attorney with any self respect wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole.
The article is on the CNN news feed this morning reporting who the players are.
Side note. I contacted the NYT about their clickbait both sides bullshit reporting of Agent Orange and his cronies. They responded. They weren't very happy with me. They were very defensive. They posted to me about 10 articles to the contrary. I guess I got their attention.
Trump is already behaving as if he's president.
And the Republicans act as if he is president, calling him "President Trump." There is only one president at a time. That the Republicans are now acting as if he is president and they are following his orders, they are creating a separate authority in the country that will exist regardless of the results of the election in November.
This is how civil wars begin.
Judge Kaplan wasn't having any "President Trump."
When Habba called Trump to the witness stand as "President Trump," Kaplan very sternly corrected her, "Donald John Trump."
Good for him - I hadn't seen that in any transcripts.
Thank you for noting that, Steve. It is important.
All trials must be televised.
Exactly, and his biggest supporters in Congress treat President Biden as though he isn’t actually the president when he is. The Republicans in Congress think their job is to fall into line and follow Trump’s orders, so they carry out unethical stunts like trying to impeach President Biden despite the lack of evidence of wrongdoing, and they don’t want Hunter Biden to publicly testify so they can distort his testimony. I hope Jack Smith has been able to gather information to charge or at least subpoena members of Congress and the Senate who enabled Trump’s insurrection.
The Republican base is drinking Trump's poisonous Kool-aid because it is the only liquid available to them. The Republican base is being herded into one Trumpian corral. When will the Romney's, Flake's, Cheney's, Kinzinger's and so many others get back into the game? When will they tell Tump to take a hike or to F-off? It is not the time to be sitting on the sidelines, no matter how convenient that may be. With the possibility of a dictator grabbing the reins of power in November, this might be the last damn inning. Don't leave any of your time and energy on the field.
There is an EXCELLENT open letter to Nikki Haley in The Bulwark, written by Michael Wood in The Bulwark.
"This moment in American history calls for bold truth-telling, drawing lines in the sand, and cutting through the flood of BS coming from Donald Trump and his minions.
When, some distant day, you shuffle off this mortal coil, what will your grandchildren read in your obituary? . . . What did you do when a sitting president tried to steal an election, sent a mob to attack the people’s representatives in Congress, and pushed our country to the edge of a constitutional crisis—if not outright into one? A line from a future newspaper: “Haley then spent a year meekly using the passive voice and mumbling about deficit spending.”
Your life isn’t over and your obituary is not yet written. . . . Go to your home state and tell the truth. . . and say what you actually think: “He’s a moron. He’s a liar. He’s done grievous harm to our country. He dines with Nazis. He needs to be held accountable, both legally and politically. They’re not ‘hostages,’ they’re criminals. We don’t do dictators in America, even for a day.”
Full article: https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/an-open-letter-to-nikki-haley?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
If she got up the nerve to do exactly this it would blow up the entire election. Even Biden would have to up his game big time. As the letter says, she'd never have to shrink down in front of her grandchildren and who knows, maybe some other Republicans would also find spine enough to echo her words. Nikki, go for it, push that lying swine into history.
Kathy, the 14th Amendment at Article 3 contains all the legal firepower the DOJ needs to remove over 100 members of the House & Senate that chose to support insurrection over the Constitution. Like tRUmp, and as Judge Luttig & Prof. Tribe (and Professors Baude & Stokes have written in the The University of Pennsylvania Law Review) the former President & any other “officer” engaging in insurrection against the US “unless two-thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty.”
I know it does, but I do not have much confidence that the courts would actually enforce this. I agree with Judge Luttig’s statements on the matter because his first loyalty is to the Constitution, as it should be. My concern is that the Republicans in Congress would never do this.
Is the DOJ the right department to initiate proceedings under that? The DOJ didn't come into existence until 1870; but I think that you're right, they are the agency to investigate violations of the constitution.
TCinLA, that's a very succinct way of describing the surreal parallel to the buildup to Civil War that's unfolding.
Republicans and their wealthy patrons have spent years trying to rekindle the Civil War. Summoning the devil in the devotion to power.
They have, I noticed it when Obama was elected. Should have noticed trend with W/Dickie
This is an important point, TC. Watch how quickly those other states start sending their national guard units to Texas, ostensibly to secure the border, but really to prevent federal border control from doing their jobs. Let's call this what it is: the insurrection continues and escalating. I live in one of those states. God help us all.
Kristi Noem of South Dakota actually did this, and one of her wealthy campaign contributors paid for it.
President Biden can end this in two minutes, the same wah JFK and LBJ did with the Failed Confederates called out their National Guard units to "stand in the schoolhouse door" 60 years ago: Federalize the guard and put them to work doing their actual job.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/08/01/more-republican-governors-deploy-national-guard-troops-texas-border.html
Yeah, but this article is from August and talks about how few soldiers were actually sent and how they do not qualify for the benefits they get if sent by the President instead of a Governor.
I read the article and it sounds like the guards under Biden who have been there for awhile get full pay and benefits and under the state have reduced benefits and lower pay. This is in the last two or three paragraphs.
Gulp.
I am appalled and disgusted at reports of Stefanik basically saying to declare Trump the nominee, right now. I hope this report is being overblown, I had hoped to see mention of it in today's letter. In the last week, I have lunched with two long time friends, both old school republicans. Foremost on their minds (both) is the "border crisis" and also that they despise Trump. I didn't push as to whether they would vote for him if he becomes the nominee.
Mitch referred to TFG as President Trump in his comments about the border deal. That says a lot!
I heard the fellow who reports for PBS calling Biden "Mr. Biden" as he reported the NH voting.
Or dictator.
Yes, more like it!
He and his groupies are less a political group than cultists bent on helping Trump make himself dictator. Some of them are or have tried to join election boards to try to game votes, others cancel voter registrations without notice to affected voters. Trump is showing signs of both dementia and decompensation over fear of his impending criminal trials, and it shows at his rallies.
To be fair Joanna, he does control SCOTUS and half of Congress. Many of his actions, like putting DeJoy in charge of the USPS are still in force. The State Department is rebuilding but is a shell of what it was when Trump came to power.
And many of the red states bow down to their orange demagogue refusing to listen to the SCOTUS and the administration.
If you think Biden hasn't done a good job swimming upstream, just look at the amazing things he's been able to accomplish in spite of the MAGANAZIs and the white faux-Christian nationalists.
Of course he is. It's to be expected. The problem is not his behavior nearly so much as it is the Senators'.
Don, I agree! Without their bowing down to his every inane and dangerous whim, he would be spitting in the wind.
To many Republicans he is the president and he has declared war.
Exactly so.
Or perhaps misbehaving, as he were emperor.
I think he sees himself as an absolute monarch, like an emperor (as in Rome) or a dictator.
Think about exactly what rapist trump is telling McConnell and the GOP what not to do:
"Meanwhile, Ukraine is running out of ammunition."
First the GOP's stance is that they won't consider funding Ukraine (not standing up for Democracy) unless the border is addressed. Democrats finally agree to a conservative and imperfect border bill in order to send drastically needed fire power to Ukraine. And common citizen rapist trump orders the GOP goons not to pass it so that he can run on it? And they are listening to him?? This, out in the open, and they have no shame??? By bringing this out into the light, I believe this outrage will gain traction and will backfire into their ugly little heads....
https://snyder.substack.com/p/safe-skies-for-ukraine?utm_campaign=email-post&r=5v4jv&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Thank you Kathy! If the Defense Dept. wants to save money AND help stymie the genocide in Gaza, they can demand a complete cease-fire or stop funding the Israeli army....
Just in from The Guardian 26 Jan 2024
09.30 EST
-McConnell's comments on Ukraine, border deal 'flipped around' - report
After meeting yesterday with their leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans told Politico that earlier comments he had made expressing opposition at Donald Trump’s urging to a deal to arm Ukraine and Israel while enacting conservative immigration policies were misunderstood.
22m ago
09.09 EST
- Senate Republican leader walks back Trump-driven opposition to Ukraine and border deal
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Yesterday kicked off with the somewhat shocking news that Senate Republicans were, at Donald Trump’s behest, willing to walk away from a deal they had been negotiating with Democrats for months to implement some conservative immigration policies in exchange for approving new aid to Ukraine and Israel’s militaries. The reason, the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell told his lawmakers in a private meeting, was that Trump wanted to be able to attack Joe Biden over immigration on the campaign trail, and passing the deal would undermine that. The comments unsurprisingly sparked outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, and later on Thursday, McConnell seems to have walked them back.
- According to Politico, he again convened his party to tell them that he was still behind the deal. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen – the odds of enacting legislation in an election year dealing with one of the most divisive issues in American politics, immigration, were also going to be long, but the parties seem resolved to at least try. We’ll see what more is revealed about this kerfuffle over the course of the day. (Guardian, copied in full)
Listen to the recording a call LBJ had with Everett Dirksen where he calls out his treason:
https://lbjtapes.org/conversation/treason
No it's not new. It's how republicans gain the presidency in modern times.
Power has been more important to Republicans than democracy since the 1880s. The Progressives of the early 20th century, and Eisenhower, were exceptions to the general trend.
And, McConnell could have finished us with having to deal with tfg! I wonder what tfg and Putin have on McConnell. In his last election we had an excellent candidate running against him....I was sure she would win and I was so disappoint when he was re-elected. From what I read he was getting even with those that had made fun of him and shunned him. He is evil like tfg!
And he won. I fear the same will happen with TFG. The cases against him argument been brought much sooner. Now there is likely not enough time to get a conviction before the election. I hope I’m wrong.
Perhaps it's important to acknowledge and answer the Republican constitutional argument that the Biden administration is already failing to enforce the law and the constitution, so (they say) a new border bill isn't going to do any good. Following is the text of Texas Governor Abbott's recent press release. What is the rebuttal?
January 24, 2024
The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States. The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.
Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters—one of which I delivered to him by hand—President Biden has ignored Texas’s demand that he perform his constitutional duties.
• President Biden has violated his oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress. Instead of prosecuting immigrants for the federal crime of illegal entry, President Biden has sent his lawyers into federal courts to sue Texas for taking action to secure the border.
• President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The effect is to illegally allow their en masse parole into the United States.
• By wasting taxpayer dollars to tear open Texas’s border security infrastructure, President Biden has enticed illegal immigrants away from the 28 legal entry points along this State’s southern border—bridges where nobody drowns—and into the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande.
Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United
States.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and
protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
Something I don't hear much about is the long-term damage this divisiveness is doing to America on the international stage. No longer is the commitment of a president and congress to be believed. Our pledge is not worth the ink used to write and for our leader (President) to offer it. It isn't even a bond, a fidelity for the full term of our President. We have no honor now. Any member of a backbiting gaggle of opposition cand and now cancels it without cause or consequence. So doing means we act in bad faith and shall not be worthy of favored nation status militarily or diplomatically or economically. The price we would have to pay were we to be attacked by our friends or fellow nations at the negotiating table for presumed honoring of any promise should be expected to escalate beginning with the next administration. Our vulnerability to successful attack by our avowed enemies should be expected to increase as well because of our recent betrayal, real or presumed, of our allies and opportunities alliance we are likely perpetuate should Trump regain the White House. That a candidate can not only attempt to, but actually require presently serving congress persons to accede to his demands to block and destroy that which we elected the current administration to achieve on our behalf is morally bankrupt as a premise and gravely unlawful under the constitution to which those presently serving and promised to honor. Rump Trump was not elected, regardless of his presumed belief in his assigned leadership. Absolutely insame.
I wondered if you were joking. i was thinking of Stuart Attewell, Diane Francis, Ellie Kona and others whose names I do t recall at the moment.
And more important than the lives of ordinary people
😤😖🤬
Same thing Nixon did!
Americans, no matter where we live, the color of our skin, or what our background—we all believe in the freedoms that have been so hard won: equality before the law, the opportunity to pursue our dreams, the ability to be heard and make our voices count at the ballot box, the expectation to earn a fair return for our work—so we aren’t forced to choose between food, medicine, rent or an education, and the fundamental right to decide if, when and how to start or grow a family, to love who we love, and simply, to be who we are...
But day by excruciating day, we are seeing how a tiny minority, of white, wealthy, well-connected billionaires and price-gouging corporations, is turning our democracy into a fascist kleptocracy; they use racism, sexism, nativism and anti-LGBTQ fear-mongering to distract and divide us, so they don’t have to pay what they owe, don’t have to stop polluting and don’t have to be accountable for their crimes against our families—paramount of which was Tr*mp’s Jan 6 attack on our country, made possible by his MAGA co-conspirators in the Executive Branch, Congress, state legislatures, the military, and even SCOTUS.
But together, the many can and will defeat the moneyed, because time and time again we have before. This battle for justice and the promise of America, is as Heather’s historical letters show—it’s not a sprint, nor a marathon; it is a relay, where each of us has our leg to run...and our success happens as much, in the passing and taking of the baton, as in the carrying.
This is an excellent way of putting it. The saying that “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is not limited simply to military activity. As citizens, we have to engage in a relay to preserve government of, for and by the people and to prevent government by kleptocracy and dictatorship.
Yes. What our military has come to to "protect" since WWII is not as much "defending our freedoms" as it is in manipulating governments for fiscal and other gains. We must take up the mantle of eternal vigilance, or we will see our freedoms erode as the monied establishment takes over.
Indeed -- and I'm often reminded that Lincoln's admonishment was not that we WERE destined or already committed to a govt of, for and by the people, but rather that it was up to us to ensure that such a govt should continue to exist:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us [...] that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, [...] shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Thank you, Natalie. This is indeed a relay.
indeed!
Great words from Natalie...
"It is not a sprint nor a marathon; it is a relay, where each of us has their leg to run...and our success happen as much in the passing of the baton as the carrying"
it is time for Ordinary folks to do Extraordinary things...
It is time, again, for ordinary folks to do extraordinary things :)
Worth noting, it doesn't even take that many of us...
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
Preach it, sister!
LOL! I'd prefer to say I'm 'singing' it vs preaching...as my hero Anat Shenker-Osorio says, the song we sing as the choir for progressive values (i.e., the activists) has to be catchy enough to be carried by the congregation (i.e., the base), so they sing it out in the world—carrying the message to the non-base, 'swing'/'persuadable' voters (i.e., non-ideological/non-partisan people who hear a statement and say 'that's a good point,' only to hear the opposite statement and also say 'that's a good point,' which is why our message has to be louder, more frequent AND better at landing than MAGA's).
Basically, if our words don't spread, they don't work...
https://youtu.be/xNLpoVY4LA8?feature=shared&t=10
I love that! And AOC is absolutely correct. Keep singing, Natalie and encourage all of us to join your choir!
'Why Wall Street is Surrendering to Trump' (The Bulwark)
by CARLIE SYKES
'One of the fondest bits of resistance fantasy has been the notion that the nation’s economic elites — the titans of Wall Street, the beautiful people of Davos, the economic masters of the universe— would, in our moment of peril, mount the barricades to defend democracy.'
'To which a reasonable person might have responded: Have you met these guys?'
'For about five minutes after January 6, it seemed that the business community had, in fact, found or fabricated a moral compass. “There are some members who, by their actions, will have forfeited the support of the US Chamber of Commerce. Period. Full stop,” the chamber’s vice-president, Neil Bradley, declared when the group announced a ban on contributions to representatives who had voted against certifying Joe Biden’s win.'
'There were full-page ads and ringing declarations. “This is not who we are as a people or a country,” insisted Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan.'
'Ah, but.'
'The chamber quietly dropped its ban on election deniers. The cash still flows. And last week in Davos, we found out how far Dimon had evolved on extraneous details like the peaceful transfer of power and attempted insurrections. Dimon now says that Donald Trump was right about lots of things and, like other moguls, is now okay with either Biden or Trump.'
“My company,” 'he said,' “will survive and thrive in both.”
'The only surprise here is that we are surprised. In a remarkable piece this week, The Financial Times’s Edward Luce reminded readers,' “The 1930s ought to have buried the idea that business is a bulwark against autocracy.”
'The Financial Times had only nice things to say about Benito Mussolini in a June 1933 supplement entitled “The Renaissance of Italy: Fascism’s gift of order and progress”. Trains were running on time, investment was humming and friction between capital and labour was a thing of the past. “The country has been remodelled, rather than remade, under the vigorous architecture of its illustrious prime minister, Signor Mussolini,” wrote the FT’s special correspondent. '
“Today’s America offers a reminder,” 'he notes.'
'Why is Wall Street so quickly making its peace with the twice-impeached, disgraced, indicted, authoritarian fraudster? Let’s divide the reasons into three buckets:'
Venality, rational self-interest, and fear.
'Let’s start with the obvious: Big business knows that Trump poses a threat to democratic norms and is a cancer on the national culture. But he’s good for the bottom-line, and that, after all, is the business of business. In their world, the trashing of constitutional norms is simply collateral damage.'
'So, as Matt Yglesias notes in his Slow Boring newsletter, it is not shocking that' “rich businessmen remember they're Republicans.” Even though they might have preferred a less fascisty option, “they’re now reconciled to riding with Trump, who they see as a non-optimal candidate, but a lock for the nomination and perfectly capable of beating Biden.”
“And beating Joe Biden really is the important part…”
'Forget the eyewash about the border or concerns about the tender feelings of the MAGA masses, he writes.' “What Jamie Dimon really wants is the return of business-friendly regulations that will make more money for him personally, for his shareholders, and for his friends.”
'None of this is particularly mysterious. Writes Luce:'
'[For] all his faults, Trump would be better for business than Biden. Trump cut the top tax rate and improved their bottom lines. He is promising to do the same again. Trump’s railing against corporatism is just red meat for the base. He would also boost the fossil fuel industry and commercial real estate. The assumption of business leaders that Trump will fulfil these promises is almost certainly right.'
'They are also unfazed by Trump’s threats of big tariffs and renewed trade wars, because' “less globalisation is a price worth paying for lower taxes. It seems that almost anything is.”
'Elites tell themselves other stories too: They want a seat at the table. They want to be in the room where it happens. They want access. And they know that if they fail to fall into line now, they risk being cast into outer darkness. Or worse.'
'So, they are afraid. But perhaps not afraid enough, telling themselves that Trump’s “bark is worse than his bite.” In their boundless self-regard many of them (like their counterparts from the last century) seem to think that they will be able to control him or limit his damage. In his first term, the guardrails held, they tell themselves, so how bad could it be?'
'But Trump is openly promising a regime of retribution; and this time around he will have far more weapons to wield. As Protect Democracy warned last week, “A second Trump administration will seek to pierce the independence of federal agencies to expand presidential control over their activities.” That includes the DOJ, FCC, FTC, SEC, IRS and all the vast net of regulatory powers that can be aimed at both individuals and corporations who fall out of favor.'
'As both Trump and Florida’s Ron DeSantis have signaled, there is a ravening appetite on the right for the use of government power to punish ideological dissenters in the private sector. As the Protect Democracy report noted', “Trump made several attempts, with varying degrees of success, to crack down on the media during his first term.”
'He ordered a government review of postal rates and urged his postmaster general to double shipping rates on Amazon, as a part of his campaign to pressure Washington Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos to provide him with more favorable news coverage.'
'As a 2016 candidate, Trump threatened to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner because CNN was “wildly anti-Trump” and, after he became president, the Department of Justice challenged the deal. The New Yorker reported that Trump ordered top aides to' “get this lawsuit filed…I’ve mentioned it fifty times. And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!”
'But the media is far from the only industry that Trump 2.0 could target. DeSantis famously went to war with Disney; and the Trumpian right seems spoiling for a fight with businesses that might take controversial positions on issues dear to the heart of the new MAGA elite.'
'What could Trump do? In an earlier report, the folks at Protect Democracy described some of the ways that the government could punish corporate expression:'
'Abuses of government power can take different forms, because government officials wield the power of the state in many ways. They employ rhetoric to influence a public debate, deploy administrative and agency power to gatekeep opportunities and launch investigations, and propose and pass laws that codify the rules of the game…'
'These include:'
'Rhetorical Threats: In response to a company’s (or company leader’s) disfavored speech or expression, a high-ranking government official may threaten that the government will take action to punish the company or make a statement directly intended to chill business expression. For example, in March 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted that she would work to “break up Big Tech,” in response to critical tweets from Amazon about the senator’s characterization of the company’s tax liability. That same year, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned businesses that they would face' “serious consequences” for speaking out against a new voting rights law in Georgia and urged corporate America to “stay out of politics.”
'Administrative Tools: A government official may propose using the executive branch’s administrative or investigative power in retaliation for viewpoints it opposes….'
'Legislative Power: A lawmaker may propose legislation or initiate an investigation directly targeting a company as a result of its expressed views. For example, in 2018 the Georgia legislature voted to strip out from a larger bill a proposed tax exemption on jet fuel, originally intended to benefit Delta Airlines, in retaliation for the company’s decision to eliminate a promotional discount for National Rifle Association members following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. '
'In a second Trump term, this would be mere child’s play. But, by then, there will be little that the business elite can do about it.'
'How do we know?'
'We’ve seen this play before.'
'Haven’t we?' (The Bulwark) Copied in full.
We have work to do!
The many, can and will (again) overcome the moneyed...
We hope
When we organize, we win...like we did in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and throughout 2023. Since Dobbs, EVERY Democratic candidate has outperformed Biden's margin in 2020.
The media is not covering our Democratic wins, because they NEED the horserace to drive click-bait headlines, which force binary narratives that rely on false equivalences.
If Biden's victory is going to be another one based on a RECORD turnout, a RECORD margin, and RECORD absolute vote count against a 2X popular-vote losing, 2X impeached, 4X criminally-indicted, and now convicted rapist, racist and traitor who conspired with MAGA Repubs in state legislatures, in Congress and even on SCOTUS to overturn our election, what would be the point of media's endless 'mad poll disease' coverage (and again, not only are polls inherently flawed, but even if 100% accurate -- they don't vote)?
Now, to be clear, I am not saying we don't have to do the work to vote, and help get out the vote -- especially given how the Electoral College is rigged against voters, or how gerrymandering is rigged against voters, or how laws to suppress access to the ballot box are rigged against voters -- but it's not the sturm und drang, anxiety-inducing fugue state the media would have us believe it to be.
Well said. Thank you.
Appreciate the feedback.
I could use some reminders of how we have defeated the monied. What worked?
We did it in the past by defeating the Southern slaveholders, but we failed to complete our task of protecting the formerly enslaved people by halting Reconstruction. We also elected FDR in 1932 after Herbert Hoover wrongly thought conventional economic policies would fix the Depression, but Southern members of the Senate and Congress ensured Black citizens would not entirely benefit from FDR’s policies. World War II was a necessary war to fight, and essentially it was a massive public works project that pulled our economy out of depression. Any economic policies we enact to help ordinary people must include all citizens without discrimination.
I'm not going to go as far back as the 19th and 20th centuries.
Instead, I will point out that in 2023, we held the VA Senate and flipped the House of Delegates and as a result, Danica Roem was elected the country's first transgender State Senator and VA's Speaker of the House, Don Scott, is a black man—for the first time in its 400+ year history!
This win meant Virginia stayed the last state in the South without an abortion ban, but it also meant that all the hard-earned progress from Democratic wins in 2017 and 2019 wouldn’t get rolled back, including:
- Medicaid for 700,000 Virginians
- Ratification of the Equal Rights amendment
- Increases to VA's minimum wage
- Funding secured for teacher pay
- Passage of first ever Climate Action bill in the South
- Protections against discrimination for the LGBTQ community
- Gun safety laws, and soooo much more for the Commonwealth
But in 2023, we didn't only win in VA (again), we also won in CT, KY, NJ, OH and PA!
Up and down the ballot, Americans came together to vote their values and defend their freedoms; they chose between "vision and division"—electing democratic judges, governors, state legislators, mayors, and even school board members!
And it wasn't just November 4, 2023. For all of last year, democratic candidates in special elections in Congress and in ballot measures have won, again and again and again—at margins higher than both Biden's win in 2020, or the predicted partisan lean of those places.
I will take these and all the other ACTUAL democratic election wins in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023 over "mad poll" disease any day; and I hope you do, too.
My favorite quote remains this from Anand Giridharadas:
"We are living through a revolt against the future. The future will prevail."
Escape the media's perpetual doom loop of horse race politics (I saw so many headlines after 11/4/23 that started with why despite these wins, it's bad for Biden, the guy who won the most votes of any candidate ever, in the middle of a pandemic, and whose record of success is the best of any President in 60 years!) where their obsession with binary, conflict-driven narratives, which force false equivalences, hides the reality of a slow, but steadily growing blue wave that's been building since I began volunteering with Sister District Project in 2017.
Thank you for such optimism.
I keep mulling over how a good many MAGA followers had family who fought and were possibly injured or died in WWI and/or WWII, for the freedoms you declaim here. It just doesn’t compute that they would abandon and disgrace their forebears sacrifices, and their country, to follow and encourage the total opposite of what America stands for. How warped their vision of America has become. I wonder what can encourage them snap out of it, stop being so irrationally fearful, and take pride in their country again?
Hi Anne,
I think the key isn't really to 'change' people's minds -- but rather, get the ones (who can) to see how the values you describe above, are not being support by their voting choices.
If you have time, this is a great read:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ay4wn/how-to-change-a-voters-mind-is-deep-canvassing
But, ultimately, this is the most profoundly logical explanation I can find:
https://framelab.substack.com/p/understanding-trump-again
Thanks for articulating so well where we are at this moment and what we need to do to cross the finish line.
When we vote, we win. And when we organize, we win even bigger!
Natalie, nice barnburner, keep it up!
You inspired me to learn about the history of the term 'barnburner' -- thank you! And good company for my post to keep :)
h/t Wikipedia
The term barnburner was derived from a folktale about a Dutch farmer who burned down his own barn in order to get rid of a rat infestation. In this case it was applied to men who were thought to be willing to destroy all banks and corporations, in order to root out their abuses.
The Barnburners and Hunkers were the names of two opposing factions of the New York Democratic Party in the mid-19th century, in which the Barnburners were the radical faction, opposing expanding the public debt and the power of large state-established corporations. They also generally came to oppose the extension of slavery.
At the 1848 presidential election, the Barnburners left the Democratic Party, refusing to support presidential nominee Lewis Cass. They joined with other anti-slavery groups, predominantly the abolitionist Liberty Party and some anti-slavery Conscience Whigs from New England and the Midwest, to form the Free Soil Party. This group nominated former President Van Buren to run again for the presidency. Their vote divided Democratic strength. Zachary Taylor, the Whig nominee, was elected to office.
After the Compromise of 1850 temporarily neutralized the issue of slavery and undercut the party's no-compromise position, most Barnburners who had joined the Free Soil Party returned to the Democrats.
In 1854, some Barnburners helped to form the Republican Party.
Wow, that's a story! Wiki i see :)
Forget Laura Ingraham; she's a joke. But why does the Speaker of the House run things by Trump? Trump is an "ordinary" citizen at this point. The Speaker represents the people, no? So major decisions made by House Republicans are only based on the dictates of one man? There are a lot of Republican voters who don't support Trump, so why is Trump still making decisions for them? Unfortunately, not enough Republicans I guess.
The Speaker was ill-prepared for the job. He had little experience and really does not know how to lead or legislate. He does have a hidden ultra-conservative evangelical agenda and supported Trump’s insurrection.
Not so hidden...
Everyone knows Mike Johnson is a Dominionist and Christian Nationalist. He has provided information on his peculiar beliefs and lust for power. Kevin McCarthy wanted to be speaker so badly that he gave away most of his power to do so, and proved to less competent at the job than Nancy Pelosi was. It only took Matt Gaetz a few moments to oust McCarthy.
Because Gaetz blames McCarthy for the ethics probe into his sex trafficking.
And I read yesterday that the Feds are investigating Gaetz now.
It was just on hold for awhile with Santos.It started a while ago and has been reopened.
There is no leader of the 118th do-nothing Congress. The speaker is a toy the MAGAts throw out to those who used to be journalists to give the impression of a working Congress. The last Speaker of the House of Representatives was Nancy Peolosi, she knew how to run Congress. I hope we have a 119th Congress that returns as a legislative body instead of a ragged bunch of raving pre-teens,
There are minority leaders... I think Jeffries has done a helluva job wrangling the clowns. I want to see him shine brightly in 2025.
I agree with your take on Hakeem Jeffries, he is doing a good job of holding the Democrats together, but we don't have enough votes to make a difference. This is one of the reasons I have suggested giving each Congressperson 1 vote for every 30,000 voters in their Congressional District. We'd still have 435 members of the House of Representatives but some would have more votes to cast than others - for example the one representative from Wyoming would have 19 votes, where as each of the 51 Representatives from California would have 25 votes.
Jeffries is very good as minority leader, and he’s far more competent than Mike Johnson.
Fay, I love this idea. Do the same for the Senate, and we might have some real progress.
Hmmm...no, the Senate needs to stay at equal representation for each state. The problem is the House was artificially stopped because it was getting too big. Giving representatives votes connected to the population restores the theory behind the House. Either that or go back to earlier numbers for each House seat and find a way to increase the size of the meeting room and numbers of offices.
I hadn't heard this idea before. It makes sense.
Nancy Pelosi was one helluva Speaker. She would have made a terrific president.
We have to get the House back. This is beyond disgusting. Johnson, trump, and company are doing immeasurable damage to the US and the world.
We need the Senate too! Don't forget the Senate! They
were for moving border & Ukraine to the house floor until they got their orders
from Trump too. DENY them
ANY seats in the Senate in
2024.
How about removing insurrectionists like Ron Johnson ASAP?
#mostdonothingcongress
Trump has too many of these sniveling members of Congress by the balls. You’ll never convince me that trump has dirt on most of these people. Where it’s coming from is anybody’s guess but the man knows too many shady people who would love to see him destroy us by using them to do it.
Putin. He’s the one with the dirt. Doled out to Trump on an as needed basis, ensuring Trump does his dirty work here. I believe Putin’s got all kinds of dirt on lots of people, especially GOP members of Congress, along with Trump’s people. And they all dance to Putin’s tune. I could be way off base with this idea. But maybe not.
I saw a meme the other day that said "A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin."
Tis
Putin - still using his KGB tool box.
....and Roger Stone (dirty tricks) and Steven Miller (racist advisor) - I suspect.
What an evil trio.
In a word, Kompromat.
Most definitely. Trump operates like a mob boss and he wouldn’t hesitate to gather dirt on anyone so that he could blackmail Republicans in Congress and the Senate to keep them in line.
Exactly...
It's rumor, as far as I know, but I've read that some GOP politicians stated they fear for their lives if they oppose Herr Trump. I wish some Deep Throat-type journalist would get to the bottom of the Mafia-like threads that flash in a ray of sun now and then.
Ask Lindsey Graham to come clean...
Agent Orange follows the Roy Cohen playbook to the tee.
I'm sure threats to primary Congress members and threats to their families is part of the puzzle.
Elise Stefanik, by the balls.... <giggles>
Why indeed?
Trump has them all frightened. They fear for their careers - their money and power. And in some cases, they fear for their lives.
Trump is operating a shadow government. Which wouldn't be happening if he had been arrested and jailed for insurrection in January of 2021. Or arrested and jailed more recently when top secret documents were found in his bathroom. If anyone else had done what he has done (on tape and admitted to!) that person would be serving a long sentence right now.
They still believe he is our president believe it or not.
That's why they all refer to him as "President Trump."
No, they know he isn't, but lying never stopped them.
Like they hate drumpf behind his back.
Just PAB's that have no morals.
Who knows what the MAGA believe? Is it possible they are lying? Yes.
I can’t stand her. I have disliked her ever since the early 1980s, when she helped run the scandal sheet “The Dartmouth Review.” She worked with Dinesh D’Souza then and they dated briefly. Now Ingraham and D’Souza have completely lost their minds to the Trump cult. Ingraham goes on TV to bash everyone who doesn’t support Trump, while D’Souza makes phony “documentary” films about the 2020 election.
Mark Jackal Johnson is a House puppet and Truculent Trump (when he is not in court) is his puppeteer. I hear Turgid Trump muttering “No, no, a thousand times no,’ whether it’s a bipartisan amelioration of long-standing immigration policies, urgent aid for Ukraine, or simply funding government operations.
My response to Trump: “No, no, a thousand times no.”
Scary
Mark,
Well written ..... my thoughts are who is behind Trump? He is such an "empty" person in so many ways YET....most in the Republican Party cannot make a move without his approval.
Citizens follow him like zombies!!!! Members of the Republican Party who should stand as informed ..... look to someone so devoid of moral character, or knowledge, regarding the needs of our states, populations or the populations of our "planet family"!!! for leadership. And today....a "criminal," the reality of who he is IS EVIDENT even to a blind person.... is a candidate for the office of President of the USA...land of the free and home of the brave for how long?????.....the trials continue.
I was a member of the Republican Party for years until I saw and heard his name first mentioned as a candidate for President....I left that "political party" immediately!!!!
Putin is behind trump.
Propaganda works.
Unfortunately, and the Trump groupies only watch their favorite media outlets and exchange social media messages within a closed group of misinformation. Their minds are hermetically sealed against hearing, reading, or learning any information that tells them Trump is not the hero they think he is, and that he has personality disorders like malignant narcissism and sociopathy. They also think he will turn only on the people that they and Trump hate, but the leopard will eat their faces also.
So true, Rupert started his propaganda campaign in early 80's and has rarely taken a break. Just regrouped and screwed another generation. And I've watched others, including our MSM follow his schitt shows.
This question assumes that the Speaker has integrity and is trying to do the right thing. Citizens United is the downfall of politics. It buys politicians who will do it's bidding. Mike Johnson is just doing it's bidding by deferring to T. They are funding or will be threatening Johnson's next bid for the House.
Because this "speaker " is nothing more than a gadfly for Trump. The man shows no leadership qualities. Probably never had them and never will.
Give Texas a time out. Give it back to Mexico for a period of ten years and let them survive without the U.S. economic contribution. Or make them independent and see how that fits.
I’ve been suggesting for years that this should be a California ballot initiative: “Should Texas be given back to Mexico?” While probably most Californians have long forgotten Enron, most of us would still probably vote Texas off the continent. Even if Texas suddenly got all new progressive leadership, it’s still gonna take decades to earn the trust of the rest of us back. What a shameful history they’ve completely earned. And I was born a Texan....
I have never forgotten about Enron!
Nor I, Texas teachers were screwed when retirement fund invested heavily in Enron.
John - RoChat-NorCal'
Sorry to disagree...I have Mexican friends and family. They are much too good to have to deal with Trump...plus all their other struggles....they also have at their "borders of entry".
Trump is our "problem". We have made it possible for someone like him to become President of this beloved country.....Trump and those who put him in office to do their bidding are the ones responsible. I am sure they laugh at us everyday as they see us put such a person before the love of our country and the freedoms gained and preserved by the many who have given their life's blood, mind and body!
Poe’s Law invoked....
See what happens when the first hurricane and tornado hits. Don’t come running to the socialist government for bailouts.
This native Texan says let Texas become independent, and then nuke them as the failed terrorist-supporting state it is.
Completely agree!
Texas is the location of many beautiful places, national and state parks and other areas that serve as homes to birds and other wildlife. I would hate to lose that. Otherwise, I'd say, let 'em secede.
And there are non-governmental good people there.
Former Texan here. I suggest that if the voters cannot take back their state in the next election cycle, then Texas secede. We can get by without the oil, cotton, beef, hot air, and cruelty the state produces. I know that I am spitting into the wind here, but I am hopping mad about what passes for governance in the lone star state.
Sky 7777,
Yes, Texas has "all the guns" but no character....except one for sure: Jasmine Crocket.
I admire Ms. Crockett. She gave it to the Republicans right between the eyes.
Why have the Texans not risen up against the governance in the state. It's a big state and they just seem to let so much go, with just a whimper. Glad you are no longer there.
Went broke trying, WTH, people. Not everyone can rise up and take pitchforks out in the streets like I see in you critical states doing every day. HA
Thank you Heather.
It is ironic that Texas took over the Houston Independent School Board because local autonomy is bad, however, seeks to take over the border because local autonomy is good.
Today’s GOP, with criminal Trump at the helm, filled with corruption and incompetence is no longer even a pretend political party. They are a criminal organization. Even Mitch McConnell who improperly refused to yield to then President Obama in McConnell’s remaking of SCOTUS, is feckless at the hands of a private citizen who has 91 indictments and counting.
Trump doesn’t want a bipartisan border deal, so no deal? What if Polisner (and 80 million plus others) want immigration reform? Have we not been indicted enough to gather support from religious zealot Mike Johnson?
In terms of Ukraine, make no mistake. We WILL pay, one way or another. If not now in badly needed resupply, we will pay in the weakening of every alliance we join in the world. We will pay in the lack of trust in our ability to negotiate and perform as global partners in trade and defense. And we will pay when the criminal Putin decides to push beyond Ukraine.
Finally, the great economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that the GOP’s trickle down economics was wildly effective in doing precisely what it is intended to do: concentrate wealth to the already obscenely wealthy. If your goal is economic opportunity, growth, and fairness, then trickle down should simply be recognized as the fraudulent scheme that it is. The trouble is that explaining basic economics to someone who will drink bleach to combat covid, believes the Jan 6 domestic terrorists were just excited tourists, and that Trump is a great businessman, is like trying to explain Norway to a dog (tip of the hat to Mick Herron).
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. All three pillars have been assailed by the GOP for generations while they have continued to quietly concentrate wealth/power to the top.
History weighs heavy on us. Our Executive branch is strong. There are no sure things in a democracy. You make clear to me that we need to stand up for our laws to keep our fragile republic. Democracy requires our participation.
Very worried for Ukraine, they are valiantly defending their homeland while Republicans are holding vital aid hostage to satisfy the desires of a deluded & criminal candidate. Meanwhile, I also worry for the innocent Palestinians whose homes and families are being destroyed by frenzied attacks ordered by Natanyahu. It’s time the US, long a friend of Israel, to wash their hands of Natayahu. Israelis desperately need a new government. There needs to be a solution that provides a homeland for Palestinians.
See Thomas Friedman’s article in yesterday’s NYTIMES :
Why Ukraine and Gaza are more important than you think
Gifted link.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/opinion/israel-gaza-war-ukraine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Qk0.2NTP.4q_Gn9AcIDPt&smid=url-share
Thank you for providing this link to this very thought provoking article.
Just to note, Mr. Friedman is not a fan of Mr. Netanyahu.
Thank you.
Thank you for suggesting this article. I just finished reading it. Extremely interesting!
Democracy implies participation. The shambles being actively created by the Republicans has nothing to do with democracy.
Democracy does not assume we will all be ethical. It requires well meaning folks in government act for the people. When they don’t it is our responsibility to act- to vote them out of office, use the legal system to remove them from office or restrain their actions. Yes. The Republican Party is no longer the Grand Old Party.
... and in Gaza children are still dying by the thousands thanks to US support of Israel's Netanyahu.
Netanyahu's declared approach is the same as Putin's: this war will not stop until we have exterminated them. This does not have US support.
Iran and Russia are allies. And through Iran, Russia instigated the attack on Israel and is supporting Hamas.
Netanyahu has also been supporting Hamas for years in an effort to divide and dominate Palestine.
Vladimir Putin is pouring gas on it to distract from his invasion of Europe.... using missiles provided by North Korea.
Iran also supports and funds the Houthis in Yemen who are firing missiles at the global shipping bottleneck in the Red Sea... and the South China Sea is kicking off. Looks like a World War to me.
and yes "children are dying by the thousands" but it could get a lot worse if you let Trump and Putin triumph.
Funding Ukraine is quite important.
Netanyahu originally endorsed the formation of Hamas to divide and conquer Palestinian politics. He has also quietly funded Hamas to keep the peace in Gaza, even though at least one government official opposed this. Unfortunately, Netanyahu’s support for Hamas has backfired on him, and if the government calls an election once the war is over, Netanyahu would lose.
Polls suggest that 75% of Israelis want him gone. The sooner the better.
It is astounding to me that Netanyahu AND Hamas both refuse to consider a two state solution. And now they both have lots of blood on their hands.
Time for people on both sides of this conflict to dump their leaders who wallow in wealth while their people suffer and die.
I am not surprised at this. Netanyahu made a lot of Israelis angry when he attempted to strip the courts of jurisdiction to try him for corruption. It cost him his majority in the Knesset and many Israelis were protesting in the streets over this. The only thing that is keeping him safe from trial is his immunity in office as prime minister.
I am watching "FAUDA" on Netflix.
So what do you think is Biden’s strategy with the situation in Israel?
Netanyahu has shown himself disinclined to listen to President Biden and seems to favor the return of Trump to office. This is because President Biden favors a two-state solution, and Netanyahu does not. Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to openly favor the Republicans. Previous prime ministers in Israel at least tried to remain neutral and enjoy good relations with both parties. Many Israelis are disenchanted with the prime minister’s conduct of the Gaza war, and the families of Hamas’s hostages are angry that he hasn’t done anything to get the hostages freed. Some families came into the Knesset to protest the failure to get hostages out. Netanyahu is not going to get what he wants in Gaza because he will not be able to dislodge Hamas. In addition, chances are very good that the prime minister will lose the next election.
It is unfortunate that Isreal is being led by a a genocidal neo-fascist.
Despicable... however...
The issue in that area, debated by ALL the surrounding countries is whether Israel should exist.
Hamas and Hezbollah are funded and supplied by Iran.
The attrocity perpetrated by Hamas was designed to provoke this reaction and stop and put a definitive end to the peaceful diplomacy and the alliances in the middle eastern region that were Biden’s strategic policy - and they succeeded.
What do you think, Anne?
I'm sad to say I believe it will get worse. We in "the West" still haven't really grasped that the rest of the world is no longer prepared to play by our rules exclusively, nor have our politicians. I hope we're not running out of time making true changes - the rest of the world does not really care if the shipping bottleneck is closed for Europe, the majority support the Houthis. Sadly we don't seem to have very competent negotiators and diplomats either.
Really Sabine? that's it? Nobody cares?
Who cares about Europe?
This rest of the world that you speak of? Iran, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, North Korea, China... Do you think the rest of the world care if they take over? The authoritarian axis?
Well I suppose so. If you cant beat em join 'em. yeah, we could add the USA to that list. The great orange leader, all hail.
Seriously though, and actually, it is serious, most of the world would be happier with "rule of law" I think
Especially my friends in Kyiv.
Christopher, I read this interesting piece about the EU recently…seems like things are slip-sliding-away just about everywhere: https://tomdispatch.com/trump-allies-plot-to-take-over-the-european-union/. And, damn, I hate how the powerbrokers dither and digress while people die.
Actually Barbara I think that since the election in Poland, Viktor Orban is completely alone in Europe. An isolated dictator, his friends are Russia and Belarus.
That article is a little sensationalist.
I think we have to do quite a few things to prevent catastrophe:
- we have for too long just taken our Western interpretation of what's right and what's wrong as gospel, we have to start listening to other interpretations and negotiate with people, that we might consider "terrorists", because IDF and US Army may just as well be classified as "terrorists" is they spread terror over civilians wherever it may be in the world. Like it or not - the Houthis are in their parts of the world higher regarded than the US Army, and who could blame the population? You want to carpet bomb them all and expect they will love you for it?
- quite possibly China will surpass the US as world power in the not too distant future. If China and Russia are now making friends in Africa we have no one to blame but ourselves - the West did exclusively only exploit the global South since centuries, so no surprise that there is little love lost.
That's just for a start but unfortunately I can't see any significant changes in the West's behaviour and attitude and if we don't start soon having a good hard look in the mirror, I'm not very optimistic for the future.
China is in big trouble. As Kathy said, the demographics are horrible as the aging population can't be supported. Their stock market is at ONE HALF of its value in 2020. Huge building projects are stalling out. Apartments are empty. There are serious fault lines in China.
As hard as the Party has tried to isolate the people, the population is fully aware of the successes in the West and our freedom of speech. As the shadow banking system begins to crumble and the Chinese quality of life begins to sink - unrest will follow. It always does.
China is facing a future demographic decline as its one child policy catches up with it.
Since when does either the rule of law or rules-based order apply to the U.S.? What part of a coup applies to either?
Ukraine, with the ‘assistance’ of the U.S., crapped the bed in 2014, and it’s right wing authoritarians, as here in America, as is the case in Israel, ran amok.
Crapped the bed?
There was zero assistance in 2014 from the US,, Tom, they were left as sitting ducks - Putin expected the same in 2022.
The bed was crapped well and properly with Obama's "red line" in Syria in 2012. - That's when all this started.
Yup.
Then US needs to stop the arms shipments and money going to them. That's the only thing that will make these cruel maniacs stop. Children in damaged hospitals with 3rd degree burns and no morphine. US is supporting this hell. I saw a video of it.
Stop with propaganda.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/26/icj-ruling-israel-western-backers
Since this app doesn't show the original comment, I can only assume it's what I said about Gaza, which was one example, among tens of thousands, of Israel's terrible cruelty. I would love to believe it wasn't true more than you can apparently open your heart and mind to.
I don't think the US disapproval - if existing - is really coming through loud and clear, which quite clearly is contrary to the opinions of the vast majority of the people on this planet. It's somewhat confusing to watch Western politicians digging their own graves with breathtaking speed.
Almost every day, the White House proclaims the need for a "two state solution". It's been a consistent message. There are two parties who adamantly oppose statehood for Palestinians. Netanyahu and his extremist coalition - and Hamas.
As long as the ultra religious radicals control Israel, nothing will be solved. As long as the people of Gaza allow their leaders to wallow in wealth and refuse to negotiate, nothing will be solved. It's a suicide mission driven by haters on both sides.
Blaming the US and its current president for a conflict that has been brewing and bubbling for decades and based on centuries of hate is unrealistic and unhelpful. Most American presidents have dreamed of having enough influence in the region to come up with a peace plan. All have failed. Why? Because the parties involved are not committed to peace. They seek vengeance, retribution - payback for centuries of wrongs.
The US is not nearly as powerful or influential as we think. We can't even control events in Texas - let alone the Middle East! We have let crazy twisted uber religious nutcases take over the House of Representatives and the SUPREME COURT.
There is little the US can do to help two peoples who are mutually committed to destruction.
The only hope I can see is if the women model Ireland - where women finally said; "Enough!"
We need the men with us too.
They will follow once they see the light.
Love this your last sentence.
Would you allow me to share it?
Thank you for this truly enlightening contribution
This is not true. Israel seeks only to capture or eliminate the Hamas leaders. As soon as those who planned and executed the October 7th massacre and kidnappings return the hostages and turn themselves in the war will be over.
Unfortunately, the religious fanatics of Hamas prefer to martyr their own people rather than take responsibility for their acts.
And that's the Truth.
Hamas will not seek peace. Hamas refuses discussions of Palestinian statehood. Hamas top leaders are billionaires while their people starve. Their own people - families - are used as human shields. Hamas consists of subhuman cowards whose only goal is vengeance and the extermination of Israel.
But Netanyahu will never capture or eliminate all of Hamas. If even 80% were killed, the other 20% would continue to recruit and train the youngsters who have witnessed their entire lives be destroyed along with their family and friends. The seeds have been planted for new generations of jihad - not the good kind. But the jihad of the sword.
I am in complete sympathy with the idea of eliminating Hamas. But it won't happen until Palestinians decide to seek a new path.
Hamas’s leadership lives safely in comfort and out of harm’s way in Qatar.
Don't you love it! No matter which ones, they always make sure to have their rear end out of harms way.
It’s no surprise to me. They’re quite willing to sacrifice others for their cause.
That's what I can't understand - surely Israel must be aware that they are currently recruiting the largest "terrorist" army the world has ever seen - or do they think the families of the 25,000 victims so far will say "Oh well, let's move on"? Surely not. So it comes to mind that Netanyahu is indeed planning genocide ala A.H. - die Endlösung.
Surely the US would at least be able to stop more military support?
I am in awe at the extent to which both Israeli and American propaganda has controlled your thinking.
If you think this is propaganda, I imagine you are being manipulated by false information.
Education. Get some.
How mainstream media, from the NYT/WaPo to cable news, manipulate your brain by the words they use to describe what they decide to cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_biSwyKSNOQ&t=1370s
I need to get this off my chest: Recently, too many readers of this newsletter (sadly, mostly male) are using the comment section to not only show off their supposed vast intellectual knowledge of world events, but also to insult other commenters.
Please people - do better. We can have good discussions here without insulting people's education or their IQ.
Sadly, I think you are wrong. Netanyahu has been waiting for this. He is no different than Trump just not as stupid to blurt out his intentions.
Oh, he’s blurted out his intentions as well, one just can’t look to mainstream media in the U.S. to find evidence of it.
Not only the US - the whole Western media is not really particularly interested to keep people informed in that aspect. Wonder why? 🙄
This is true.
US should have stopped funding Netanyahu’s attack on civilians in Gaza. It is revenge not self-defense.
No, civilians are dying in Gaza because Hamas carried out a pogrom in Israel and Hamas has decided to martyr the people of Gaza rather than take responsibility for their genocidal acts that they will continue to commit if they are left in power. They hide in their tunnels under hospitals, schools, markets and individual homes and let the people of Gaza die in their place.
Netanyahu will be gone as soon as this war comes to an end.
That’s true too or partially true. Israel and Netanyahu and the soldiers of Netanyahu and the voters of Israel have been provoking Palestinians by not stopping the settlements. That’s no excuse for the barbarism of Hamas. Netanyahu is not Israel and the charges against him should be addressed now nit after the taking of more civilian lives. This war is embedding terrorism. We need to embed peace.
I also agree. Like Al Qaeda and ISIS, Hamas wants to destroy the state of Israel and to govern the Islamic world, but I doubt they can rule the Islamic world. They already have proven their ability to cause significant harm to Israel.
I agrée
Well said and true.
Why is Putin not in prison already? Why is Trump not in prison already? Why is Netanyahu not in rising already? Honest people who do not commit crimes don’t have to tolerate criminals as their leaders, do they?
Yeah. It would be like playing 'Whack-a-Mole'. Take one out, and another one is sure to pop up. In the Spiritual World, I have been taught that the Light always outshines the darkness. And that Love always triumphs over hate. The Truth will set you free. And Truth will win over lies. When I look at the state of the world today, I feel like I've been gaslighted into believing any of this.
I would venture to say that it all depends on what we focus on. There must be more human consciousness focusing on the darkness, hate, and lies for us to be manifesting the horror happening now. My main concern is how do we turn this around. One person at a time or groups of people meditating or praying for peace doesn't seem to be working! Any suggestions?
I agree Netanyahu will lose the next parliamentary election. What I do know, and where I think Israeli leadership failed is that Israeli soldiers found Hamas’s plans for an attack on Southern Israel that unfolded very much as the October 7 attack did. The soldiers did their duty by reporting the plans up to their superiors, but the IDF command, Israeli intelligence leaders, and the PM thought the plan was too far fetched to occur. Unfortunately, the attack on October 7 proved the leadership wrong. Families of hostages who are still alive understandably want their loved ones home safely, but nothing seems to be happening, despite their protests. I want to see the hostages returned safely too.
And the hostages?
Israel already has its collateral damage excuse prepped.
No, civilians are dying in Gaza because Hamas carried out a pogrom in Israel and Hamas has decided to martyr them rather than take responsibility for their genocidal acts that they will continue to commit if they are left in power.
Hamas leaders hide in tunnels built underneath hospitals, schools, marketplaces and individual homes and allow the men and women of Gaza to die in their place. They could have prevented most of the civilian deaths by returning the hostages and assuming the responsibility for their acts by giving themselves up.
Israel does not ever intentionally kill civilians.
Netayanu will be forced to resign as soon as this war is over.
I think you are worldwide in the minority with this opinion. My first question is - why did Hamas take hostages? Just out of the blue? I don't think so - we can hardly see this event in isolation of the previous history - Israel treats Palestinians horrible since decades. Palestinians weren't asked if they wanted to give their country when they were forced to by the British and the rest of the West last century.
My second question is - would the IDF act in the same way if it would try and hunt Hamas in Israel? I don't think so and that's all you need to know about the current actions of Israel towards the Palestinians. Absolutely nothing justifies the murder of thousands of children, using famine and denial of medical care against the civilian population, nothing!
Zionism is nothing but a big, terrible cancer on Judaism and I hope that the Israelis wake up to that fact - what they are doing is clearly cruel and downright evil.
And that's not antisemitism but absolutely antizionism.
Israël did not start this war and did not want it. The Jewish people have a right to a homeland and to defend themselves. The Palestinians too need a homeland.
Nothing justifies the barbaric pogrom (hopefully you know the meaning of this word) inflicted on Israeli farmers, many of them peace activists,
On October 7th.
Hamas wanted a strong Israeli reaction and knew that within 3 days after the massacre the ugly never far from present face of antisemitism would raise its ugly head and the the world would cry « death to Jews ».
I don’t think you understand the definition of Zionism as you are using it improperly, unfortunately as antisemites do.
I am Swiss and live in Europe. My view comes from the facts I read in French, Swiss and German newspapers. I do also read HCR everyday and read Thomas Friedman’s perspicacious articles in the NYT.
I feel very sad how easily the American left- which I was part of in the 60´s and early 70´s has taken such a stance that does not include the whole picture and the facts on the ground
Darling, I lived half my life in Germany (yup, I'm sure the hair stands up at the back of your neck) and speak and read English, German, French and Russian, so I think I'm not inferior regarding education and information.
The sad thing is that it seems at least very difficult for many people to look at things from another point of view - which seems to me is the case here, in particular if you're talking about a pogrom (are you sure YOU know the meaning of the word?) against "peaceful Israeli farmers" - I take it you mean the illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, generally regarded as another illegal land grab by Israel, who often enough mistreat their Palestinian neighbours in disgusting ways?
It's also so repulsive if any justified critic on Israel is instantly replied with the cry "anitsemitism!" - it just diminishes the horror of the Holocaust to nothing but a cheap media slogan.
No Madam I am talking about the farmers of the Kibutz who were largely peace activists and social activists in partner with Gazouis. They were savagely murdered, taped, burned to death in their homes. Yes it was a pogrom, straight out of the playbook of 1890’s Eastern Europe.
raped
I think the problem is that PM Netanyahu, the senior command of the IDF, and the senior intelligence leaders were not paying attention like they should have been. Lower level intelligence gatherers had obtained a detailed plan on how Hamas planned to carry out the attack, but the people at the top considered it too far fetched for Hamas to carry out. The unfortunate thing was the attack was carried out almost exactly as Hamas described it in its plans.
Yes, I have also read that this is what happened. They were asleep on the job, especially since having a peaceful summer and many Palestinians crossing the border every day to work in Israel or get medical care. They let themselves be lured into believing that a détente was developing. It seems they relied too much on technology rather than on people for their security.
I feel sad you read Thomas Friedman; no wonder you think the way you do.
Anyone who thinks the current carnage in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas is one cold-hearted human being.
Read on - https://www.commondreams.org/news/kids-killed-in-gaza
I read Le Temps, Le Monde, le NZZ not disinformation on social media. If you speak French and or German, I would be happy to share these facts with you. If you can’t admit the fact that Hamas is a fanatical religious mouvement that committed unjustifiable atrocities to innocent people on October 7th, you are unfortunately a cold-hearted human being. I am sick at heart to see all the unnecessary deaths in Gaza. As I said Hamas is responsible for every one of them and can return the hostages and stop the carnage any day.They prefer martyrdom of all of Gaza. It is a tragedy
This is a bit like a domestic violent husband telling the wife he did just beat up "Look what you made me do!"
Israel could return the land it stole from the Palestinians and stop the carnage anyday. It prefers a racist Zionism and genocide, and has committed unjustified atrocities throughout its brief history.
Checkmate.
As to your condescending approach regarding your multilingualism, I’m sure there are English language editions for each, and if not, you could use that propagandized brain of yours to translate. I eagerly await the receipt of said ‘facts’. If they are anything like the drivel emanating from the mind of Tom Friedman, you’re in for a rough ride.
I believe Netanyahu let that attack happen - he’s Israel’s Trump, putting his minions in positions of government that they knew little about. Also he’s another so-called leader who is doing whatever it takes to stay out of prison, like someone else we know all too well.
PS Hamas took hostages because they know it would make Israelis crazy.
Really? While Israelis were always nothing but fair, helpful, friendly, supportive, non-violent and all around angel-like to their Palestinian neighbours, is that what you mean?
Not soon enough, he has destroyed any good will the world had for Israel after WW2
True
“Israel does not ever intentionally kill civilians.”
Hilarious!
In some ways maybe Texas and Florida could just go off on their own. So tired of their stances and theatrics. We could manage without them don't think they could manage without us.
Yes Ukraine is running out of ammunition and those super brave Ukrainians who have fought those Russian invaders with every fiber of their being not only to get their country back from those invaders but to be a line of resistance protecting us ALL. Putin and the Russians are our enemies TOO! and Putin is very supportive of OUR major enemy Trump…..the sooner we all make THAT connection the better….and the sooner Ukraine gets its desperately needed ammunition AND WE RID OURSELVES OF Trump.
The MAGA Camp love Putin and call Trump "our modern day King David!". Insanity.
Joan, we have been supportive of scores of dictators and strongmen who butchered thousands of their people at our geopolitical request. Putin supports Trump because it weakens America, a weakened America weakens American attempts at global hegemony. There is nothing illogical about it.
We can’t get out of our own way, it seems. It would be interesting to see if we ended our competitive quest for hegemony backed by military domination, and instead adopted a multipolar collaborative approach. Our dealings with Russia, and the Palestinians, and China, would probably be much more rational.
And how do we do that?
You get the women’s vote, the youth vote, and every available ‘swing’ voter, the turned off reps that are more moderate, anyone and everyone who is NOT an aggrieved relatively uneducated Tea Party type. You are extremely clear about DOBBS, you use Taylor, you register new voters like Mad.
For anyone looking for a refreshing MSM show watch Lawrence O'Donell's 'The Last Word' on MSNBC. He has promised himself not to provide trump and maga a place to lie and he calls them out with impunity. It's so delightful to see him call it like it is blatantly. It's not opinion...he uses direct quotes and statements straight from the horses' or jackasses' mouths.
Also a good program just ahead of him the Alex Wagner show is very current!
All of us keep up closely with the news. Is it just me who’s not seeing incisive reporting from the southern border to understand what’s really happening? How serious is the problem, and how bad is the propaganda?
And to repeat myself, why doesn’t the administration have all hands on deck to address the issue as Republicans inflame and exploit it?
Michael, HCR cited the Texas Tribune tonite by a reporter I recently cited on Paxton's stipulation to a Judgment in a Whistleblower Lawsuit against him. I get "The Brief" which is a morning Texas Tribune digital newsletter authored Allyson Walker.
Allyson reported on Thursday morning 1/ 25 that 1st Lady Dr Jill Biden has Invited 31 year old Texas healthcare escapee, KATE COX, to the State of the Union coming up soon at the Capitol.
The Texas Tribune has a searchable database but, I can tell you the immigration fight focuses on a fenced off Park on the Rio Grande which Abbott has blocked with barriers & state Trucks that's when Texas is not importing migrants from New Mexico & other border states to transport them across state lines to dump them literally on the streets in New York City , Martha's Vineyard & other Northern cities.
The Martha's Vineyard debacle generated a class action against Abbott & Gang. Massachusetts is moving to cap migrants, immigrants & asylum seekers due to inadequate shelter. 2023-24 has been a very cold & wet Winter in the Northeast.
The policy issues extend all the way back to origin countries. Los Estados Unidos has notorious labor abusing industries such as farming-harvesting, construction laborers cash-only please, kitchen help off the books por favor & generally a thriving US market for labor abuse going back many decades suckin-upworkers heading north into California along El Camino Real.
In law school I revised & updated a handbook with new case law on final judgments for the Immigration Legal Resource Center. Que lastima para las pobrecitas & pobrecitos.
Get the picture? No bueno amigo.
Aha! The core of the problem. How many immigrants would head north into rotten weather if there were no jobs offered? The "shadow jobs" like cash only and the cleaning up of animal guts by kids in slaughter houses provides real money that doesn't exist in their home countries. Nations that are semi-mafia run failed states.
In other words, we are nationally hypocrites. We want our cheap fruits and veggies harvested by cheap labor. We want our cheap meat processed by cheap labor. But we don't want to SEE that labor. If we got to know them and learned to understand their lives, we couldn't use them as political footballs. We couldn't drum up hate for them. We couldn't lie about their taking jobs that no Americans need or want to do.
The parallel is our blaming cartels in Mexico and elsewhere for our drug problems. We make certain substances illegal that are in high demand by a decimated swath of Americans whose jobs were shipped overseas by the oligarchs. WE created the black market that feeds the demand WE created.
Economics are simple. Enterprises thrive when there is demand. And humans are very creative in meeting that demand. Drugs, cheap labor - all big profits for the puppeteers. And we blame a "lack of enforcement". Stupid is as...
We have a labor shortage in America. Based on a thriving economy and an aging population dynamic - young people not reproducing. There are many fine applicants knocking on the door who will work hard and pay taxes. Let's answer the damn door!
We have a drug problem and laws that don't work towards helping the addicted. The laws create the market. The laws create the mafia. Legalize drugs. Make them safely available in a carefully regulated way to all who need them. Offer help for recovery. Undercut the mafia and help the people who need it. The "war on drugs" is a war on people.
The war on immigrants is stupid. We need them.
For many years, there has always been a demand for seasonal labor, and people from Mexico have come and gone to fulfill this demand. Previous deportations in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1950s wrongfully expelled native born American citizens. What is happening now is that people are fleeing violence that we helped to create in their own countries, and also climate change that prevents people from growing crops. People are more likely to bring their families because of the difficulties of being able to come and go.
Thank you Kathy for the historical context. Yes, fleeing violence is a major driver which includes Venezuela, El Salvador & other Central American populations.
Many of the migrant workers you may see in places like Michigan picking crops actually are citizens who live in the Rio Grande Valley at the very southern tip of Texas. They make yearly travels to places where work is available.
Spot on deeper dive Bill, thank you.
Golf clap.
Well ... a decent approach shot anyway.
🤣 You hit the pin.
So, the point you’re making is...? Labor abuse is cause people to try to flee to America and Abbot is exploiting those fleeing by unannounced exportation to other states while also blocking others from crossing river in Shelby Park?
" ... blocking others from crossing the river" with barbed wire in a navigable waterway which SCOTUS has blocked 5-4. Abbottt has placed extra barbed wire around Shelby Park while babbling seditiously. These tactics are far from over which is why I encouraged others to check out HCR's source. Personally, I have joined Human Rights Watch.
Migration is not a one-way street; it is back & forth & cyclical based on numerous factors.
Bruce, I thought the class action was from Abbott’s flight of migrants into California? DeSantis flew the Martha’s Vineyard group, and I believe there are lawsuits stemming from this as well.
Thank you Gail. I will review pending litigation in multiple states.
Per The Hill last June, " CA AG, ROB BONTA, working with Boxar County , TEXAS Sheriff, JAVIER SALAZAR (San Antonio) ... are investigating whether
[TX Operatives ] lured humans] on to flights under false pretenses." In short, deportation to Northern States.
What DeSantis and Abbott didn’t realize was the summer people in Martha’s Vineyard they think supported this (I doubt this) had already left by the time they sent these people to Martha’s Vineyard, and it was the local people who stepped up and offered the migrants help.
These Republicans. (Veryfew exceptions). How do they sleep?!! I’m so disgusted with them.
They sleep with blinders and their pillows stuffed with cash. Growing balance sheets dancing in their heads. Fantasies of self-righteous grandeur. When they're safe & sound, no one else matters.
‘I got mine…so now I can destroy the ladder!’ I hope their pillows give them the worst migraines ever!!
They are driven by greed. Power addiction. Lust. Bad people with bad upbringing. Hierarchy and patriarchy used to enable these drives.
I’m not sure about bad upbringing. How can we know that? But I agree on the rest for sure. Our Country and people be damned…all for power, control, & greed. Shameless. I’m so sick of them.
Good to see how Sabine, Cloutier, evelyn (sic), and Kathy (1st 4 posting) all strongly back our Heather.
Ours is a community of like minds, largely -- shocked at people like Putin,, Netanyahu, as well as followers of hate and murder, such as Hamas and the MAGA cultists shrieking for more chaos.
Good to see, too, some adults in the U.S. Senate meanwhile trying to compromise and enact a program largely to solve, ameliorate many issues on that southern border.
But why do the chaos-spewers so thrive as they do on fantasies, sensationalism, refusal to work with adults?
Can it be because they all went to schools so void of humanities they now just hunger for fiction of the wildest, even most vulgar varieties, being totally unaware of how artists have made really good, apt fiction really to help guide, enlighten, provide perspectives to our young as well as the rest of us?
Good questions. First, it is nothing new. There have always been people who would rather hate than compromise. People who have been trained from birth to torment and ostracize "the other".
Folks who would rather blame out than look within for the causes of their suffering.
I do think "education" is key. But academia doesn't seem to be the total answer. Some of the most despicable politicians on the scene today have Harvard degrees.
I think the "education" we are looking for is in exposure to other people who are different but at their core are the same. When we get people out of their silos of hate and bigotry, we have a shot at their learning a new world view.
One idea is national service. Mandatory. Could be military, could be healthcare, could be working to bring broadband to remote towns...could be helping people obtain fresh water. When we work alongside "different" people, we could learn just how similar we all are. I think it's worth a try. And we could help get some stuff done, as well.
Bill, I agree with your idea of mandatory national service. Two years, and my thoughts are along the lines of military (if so inclined), Peace Corps, or a 21st century CCC to do public works projects. A stipulation that working in another part of the country should be strongly considered if not required.
That stipulation would advance the goal!
"So void of humanities", yes. They've banned all the books.
Dystopian fiction, to let us know to where we are headed:
I know it sounds crazy, but under Trump we started no new wars. It was under his administration that the plan to wind down the Afghanistan war originated. Now we have two proxy wars, and the war in the Middle East threatening to expand, possibly drawing in Russia and China, who may help defend Iran.
In our own country, we are, according to Richard Wolff, watching our own empire crumble. Yes, the economy looks pretty good on paper. Though there are around 100,000 more homeless people than last year. What are we exporting besides weapons? Honest question, as I'd like to know.
So with Trump we lose our bodily autonomy, the wealthy get wealthier, we're best buddies with Russia, and the polluters get free reign. With Biden we still get greater wealth inequality, Russia remains our enemy, the oil companies get almost everything they want, and we get expanded wars. We already have a corporatocracy. But not fascism, yet.
I believe that the young see the future more clearly than us oldsters, who are hanging onto more "normal" times, starting with FDR. They see the pictures of the slaughtered Palestinians. You can blame Hamas all you want, but the visuals are still there, in their minds. If Biden neglects to call a cease fire and start negotiations, I fear that it's all over.
IMO, we did not have wars/conflict during the last administration because the U.S. under the former president aligned itself with the very countries who have historically been our enemies. Just my two cents.
Correction: countries who in the recent past have been our enemies, or maybe adversaries is a better word.
Putin has been our enemy for decades, he just wore a smile for a while. It turned to a smirk in Helsinki
Russia was not our "enemy" in decades past. For instance, in the book, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth," Chris Hadfield describes his sojourn in Russia before being blasted to the International Space Station along with Russian cosmonauts. How would we do that with our "enemy"?
And our slapping around the Panda Bear in China, using Taiwan, our destroyers being sold to Australia--that's getting to be a bit of an anxiety-producing situation.
It used to be that the Republican party was the pro-war party. I think the Dems (of which I'm registered) have taken a page from their playbook. If there's a war, you don't change horses in midstream, and all that. But, I'm afraid this is a sign that we are at the end of our empire and it's now in decline, as this is exactly what happened to Rome.
I appreciate your two cents.
Thanks, Marcia. I stand corrected especially about our history with the Soviet Union...World War II, et cetera.
Just as an aside, Chris Hadfield's book is a romp, and I highly recommend it. He describes what it's like in zero gravity, what it feels like to be smushed inside a space capsule hurtling through the atmosphere, and training to be an astronaut so it feels like you're actually there.
Marcia that period in relations was very short lived. I was in the USSR for study. Post WWII, aside from the days following “the fall”, Russia has always been an opponent.
Yes, and Putin wants Russia to return to those days by reuniting the USSR.
The problem is that Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union, but he wants to do so without the economic resources to do so. Putin and the oligarchs who have aligned with him have stolen just about everything that isn’t nailed down, so the money isn’t there.
I wonder how much of Russia's being our opponent has to do with our own actions. NATO encroaching on the country, past the promised border of East Germany, as well as our messing in their own elections. We are top dog for now, but there's going to be blowback. Already is with the BRICS-plus coalition.
Something else to consider: check out the Thucydides Trap TED talk. A friend alerted me to this problem. There are a number of people who believe this country is in decline because of our bloated military presence all over the world. For most countries, this is not OK! That includes Russia and China. Israel thinks that she can take advantage of our military, but, according to Michael Hudson and others, we are the ones taking advantage of Israel, using her as an "aircraft carrier" to greater hegemony in the Middle East, the goal being control of the shipping straits for shipping oil and gas and other necessary products. So, if we weren't so aggressive, do you think our relationship with Russia might improv?
No, I don’t.
Morning, Lynell. I think your assessment is interesting.
To be sure, it lacks adequate "vetting," but is my opinion nonetheless...morning, Ally!
Thank you, Marcia.
I cringe at the fact -- and I regret having to concede it as a fact -- that "With Biden we still get greater wealth inequality."
Might our many good Dems across the land speak up about this? Trump and his Republicans massively cut taxes for the rich and this added 8 trillion to the national debt. Our Heather today notes Biden and Harris "rejected 'supply side' economics and vowed to restore buying power to the demand side of the economy: ordinary Americans." She cites the good programs to help those hollowed out by America's massive fall to the rich, but the latter still rule.
The problem is the Republicans in the house will do nothing to roll back Trump’s tax cuts, and Democrats in the House and Senate have agreed to cut money from the proposed IRS budget. Increasing the IRS budget to get wealthy tax cheats and hiking taxes will pay for itself.
For there to be the change we seek we need majorities. That hasn’t happened… yet. I hope to see a tremendous backlash in the fall if Democrats can get their message out.
That is one of the issues with the DNC. Their messaging is terrible, and they don’t want to listen to suggestions on how to improve it.
I think it’s improving. Campaign season is now coming into full swing. Republicans just had such an early announcement by Trump that it began early this electoral season.
Obama, in the 2008 disaster, bailed out the big banks, but not the one I was invested with (too small to not fail). I lost 40% of my savings, never to return.
I just want you to know that I'm not just a fed -up dem. I made between 4,000 and 6,000 phone calls to get people to walk their precincts to get out the dem vote (between 2006 and 2010), walked close to one hundred precincts, knocking and talking to people around the county. The last two elections I canvassed for Bernie (2016 and 2020). I learned a lot from people, including what motivates them to vote. As one man told me, "I had hope for change. I didn't get change, and lost hope." You can look at statistics--how great the economy is going, etc,--but it's what's going on in people's lives that matter. There are so many more poor people in this country, continuing to get worse. When we get majorities we don't do enough, so I'm tired of the Republicans getting blamed for it all. I know people who have left the dem party, becoming independent voters, because the dems aren't dem enough. As Ilhan Omar so beautifully stated, it's all about the Benjamins. You get super wealthy and the plebes become, well, not very important. I'm sorry to have to say this. Again, I've been a staunch dem my whole life, never missing an election, making phone calls for dems across this country, as well. It's sad to see this happening--to my party and to my country.
Very special words of yours here, Marcia.
I'll remember your name.
I share your frustration, but realize the only thing that matters is the vote count. It’s hard to start from ground zero when the mad don’t understand how government works, or that their gleeful vote for Harambe had consequences l
I wish Americans had the power "to call a cease fire". So far Bibi the Butcher has not shown any interest in what Biden has to say. We have called for restraint. Didn't happen.
Our administration has been calling for a two state solution for some time now. Bibi blows it off.
And the GOP is running amuck...so freaking sad...😢
It's no surprise that Johnson asks for T****'s opinion - he has no spine. So representative of the entire GOP cult.
It is not that Mike Johnson has no spine or that he is joined at the hip with Trump. Johnson is wholly a creature of Charles Koch and Leonard Leo. Of movement conservatism and the religious right. And until their fully antidemocratic scheme of clerical fascism comes to full fruition, and elections do indeed become rigged as in Hungary and Russia, they still need votes. Which Trump can deliver.
From Ronald Reagan on, Republicans have used the protocols of government to destroy the institutions of government. The Koch Leo Supreme Court majority is the most fully realized example of this. The Trump Executive also. And now the Republican House. They are indifferent to the wreckage. Those who are ideologically wed to the fallacious notion that there is no difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party, are part of the wrecking crew.
That was well put.
lin, so true! Sadly, "Beau of the Fifth Column" had a video about this probably 6 months ago but I can't locate it. He had a question from a young person who said that the parties are the same, and he succinctly disputed that. Wish I could locate it.
I had never heard of him. A few videos I found reflect what you mention - critique of third party presidential voting, refutation of 'the two parties are the same', and support for reforming the Democratic party from within (as the TeaParty transformed the GOP.) But when I looked for information about who Beau of the Fifth Column is, I found little from sources I know, and what I did find was not encouraging. So ...
a bit complicated.
https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/a-case-study-in-redirection.pdf
https://networkcontagion.us/technology/
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-03-30/google-moonshot-redirect-far-right-online-extremism-anarchist
I have read the negative stuff, too, lin. He has said that he "wasn't a nice young man", but experiences educated him. I've been watching for several years now, and he appears quite genuine. I'm impressed that, other than a t-shirt or Two, he has not monetized his channels like many do.
I have viewed some of Beau’s work, he’s good, and he knows his facts.
Thanks lin. MAGAts that surround me all believe Citizens United should be overturned by legislation but they don’t see that only one side is attempting to roll it back. The sea change in Democratic policy approaches is ignored with only “they did it (take corporate $$$) too”, failing to understand the harm done by Manchin and Sinema.
Not just MAGAS.
You nailed it. And the last line is SO TRUE!
ThankYou. For the past decade I've volunteered for Democratic candidates in Maine's CD2. I've listened to thousands of voters, on the phone and doorsteps. Many unenrolled or third party. The 'vote your conscience' crowd here twice split the vote handing the governorship to TeaParty Trump before Trump racist Paul LePage. Disastrously. Their Pied Piper was self funded (now convicted child pornographer) Elliot Cutler. But the driver was their mistaken notion that voting is an individual exercise in self expression rather than uniting to take power. I sometimes think I've heard every excuse for not voting or vote splitting - and then I hear another. In comparison, Republican voters are strategic and reality based . No pipe dreams or purity tests for them.
I remember LePage. He destroyed the DirigoHealthcare plan that helped us continue our small business. Cutlers candidacy made me furious.
Absolutely!
As someone once said, the Republicans believe government doesn’t work, and then when they get into power they proceed to prove it. It’s deliberate inaction and obstruction on the part of the Republicans.
Exactly, lin.
There you go again, mucking up a brilliant post with a hyperbolic last line.
Allow me to edit. Those who can’t recognize the fact that both parties are bought and paid for by monied interests, and aggressively fight to remove that cancer from their party of choice, instead of buying into tribal winner-take-all electoral politics, are part of the wrecking crew.
'wnner-take-all electoral politics'
Winner take all.
Electoral politcs.
By definition.
This is their entire strategy in a nutshell. Johnson is incapable of leading the House without angering one faction or the other, and being threatened with the loss of his Speakership. Instead, he can only kill time and hope Guilty Donald gets re-elected and tells them all what to do. Bizarre as that sounds, I believe they'd follow his orders.
We have to retake the House and Senate along with keeping Joe Biden as President!
VOTE BLUE IN 2024!!