There are two big stories for the coming week: diplomatic conversations with Russia and the passage of voting rights legislation in America. The two are related. In the last several months, Russia has massed nearly 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine, and its president, Vladimir Putin, has threatened to invade the independent country again, as Russian troops did in 2014. Ukraine amended its constitution in 2019 to enable the country to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), through which Europe joined together to oppose first the USSR, and then the rising threat of Russia.
There is a downside to being old and having a good memory - and living through a time when America was the biggest bully on the world stage. The Reagan/Bush/Chaney years made me ashamed of what we had become. Then came the biggest bully of all. Now, Dickie is a champion of democracy. NO fictional version could come close to the insanity of reality. Chops to the Biden people trying to make sense of this jigsaw Challenge.
Ezra Klein has a must-read over at the Times, about getting involved, rather than engaging in "political hobbyism".
"Real political work... is the intentional, strategic accumulation of power in service of a defined end. It is action in service of change, not information in service of outrage."
It's not an implied criticism of anyone, just a little kick in the pants for me to get off the computer and back to the real work of organizing, and showing up on the local level.
There’s no way that Putin isn’t supporting the twice impeached former president and his minions; destabilizing our elections is the means. Ditto putting pressure on the racial divide and income inequality that exists in the US.
In the 11th hour of his term in office, outgoing President Trump handed out 144 pardons and sentence commutations in a chaotic flurry of activity. Trump successfully assembled his band of seditious operatives, including Manafort, Flynn, Stone, Bannon, to name a few, in exchange for their loyalty. How is this not being invested as a clear example of corruption and an abuse of executive power?
HCR indicated in the Letter today that two big stories this week, our diplomatic meetings with Russia and passage of voting rights legislation in America are related, and that's because both represent gigantic efforts on behalf of democracy. 'And our democracy remains unstable.' (Letter) Could that line underestimate how dangerously close the country is to the tipping point? Seeing access to the vote and the election systems of many states torn apart are appalling examples of a fragmented America, but even that doesn't provide a full picture.
While Omicron infests the nation, governors fight public health protocols and Americans cruise the streets, shops and restaurants without wearing facemasks and the schools open and close with little advance notice. 'Fueled by gun violence, cities across the US are breaking all-time homicide records this year' (CNN) and polls show that roughly two-thirds of Republicans still believe Trump’s big lie about Biden’s election.
'With the Build Back Better Act stalled in the Senate, the White House has recently shifted its focus to voting rights legislation. President Biden and Vice President Harris are expected to travel to Georgia later this week to promote the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.' (Washington Post) Do the Democrats appear to have made a rather late start with their national voting rights campaign ?
'Manchin delivers blow to Democrats as he signals opposition to changing Senate rules to advance voting bill' '... the pivotal Senate swing vote, made clear on Tuesday that he remains deeply skeptical of overhauling the chamber's rules on a simple majority basis to advance voting legislation, a clear sign that a frantic push by Democrats to win his support to change the filibuster and pass one of the party's core priorities is likely doomed.' (CNN)
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) lambasted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday for saying a vote on changing voting rights laws must be bipartisan.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Clyburn told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that's Manchin's suggestion of requiring bipartisan support for voting tights caused him "pain."
“I am, as you know, a Black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 15th Amendment was not a bipartisan vote. It was a single-party vote that gave Black people the right to vote," Clyburn told Baier.
"Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in," he added.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will push in the next two weeks. “What the Republicans are doing across the country is really a legislative continuation of what they did on January 6, which is to undermine our democracy, to undermine the integrity of our elections, to undermine the voting power, which is the essence of a democracy,” she said. There also appear to be several Democrats blocking the way as dissension trumps agreement.
As HCR writes, "And our democracy remains unstable," the time is now for each of us to do our part as citizens to push the Senate to support the cornerstone of democracy by passing voting rights legislation. It's time to make a big push this week ahead of the Senate vote by January 17 (MLK Day, as promised by Schumer) on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and/or Manchin's Freedom to Vote Act.
For the most effective ways for us to take an action through an organization, click any of these:
Very relevant and important; however, Gorbachev did not "step down"... he was ousted. It was a coup, and it was a coup that set the stage for the Russia that emerged. I believe Gorbachev would have been the best situated for joining Russia with the modern democratic world.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the US and our allies could turn Russia into a third-world nation without firing a shot. The question is whether we have the resolve. And we can protect democracy here at home, if we can muster the resolve. That’s not just a matter for Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, et als. We can all play a part. And we must.
diana from sf: the last German king (Kaiser) abdicated the throne in 1918. The Treaty of Versailles gave Germany a raw deal, laying blame only on Germany whereas all of the participants were, to greater or lesser degrees, responsible for the war. Colonial greed was at stake. So Germany was economically brutalized, leaving the nation impoverished. The ensuing misery and anger made fertile ground for Hitler, who gave the people target for their misery: the Jewish people along with other "undesirables" such as homosexuals, the Roma, mentally and physically compromised, socialists, etc. etc.
You are correct in regard to the similarity between Trump and Hitler, in that both were/are mentally unstable with delusions of grandeur. They both know/knew how to manipulate the anger of those who felt disenfranchised.
Having gotten to know a number of very interesting Ukrainians though a hobby I love in which the companies they have created are producing the things that are the "bleeding edge" of the hobby, I have discovered a whole lot of "model geeks" just like myself. There's a lot of very interesting things going on in that country - besides the stuff that involves me - and we really need to prevent that Stalinoid pig Vladimir Putin from going in and wrecking all of that.
Very sorry to repost. I will slow down tomorrow This is about contacting our Yound Democrat organization in every state.
Today I used this web site to contact both the College Democrats of North Carolina and North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats: https://ydnc.org/#contact
I wrote the following:
"I am so grateful for this context and sourced news--a daily blog about the history behind today's politics, Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, an American historian and professor of history at Boston College. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
I am sharing it with legislators (at every level), news outlets, and professors of political science and history in NC.
I would love for your organization to let your peers know about it.
Many Americans are being turned off by the repetitive bad news regarding America’s current events. Historical insights given daily by Dr. Richardson can be starters for engaging in a productive and hopeful discourse with those in your organizations…and yes, your friends and families.
Will you get the word out, please?"
And will you, on this blog, please help get the word out to Young Democrats in your state? We've got to mobilize. I'm over 80 and am finding ways that I can "work" from a place in my home; it is these young young people who will have the energy to make person-to person contacts in the 2022 election! Dr. Richardson's blog is a great tool.
May we now talk about all the irreparable damage Ronnie Ray-gun caused in his 8 years of alternating between sleeping 14 hours a day and trying to destroy the global economy? It isn't just the deregulation of the financial sector, which has made the USA one of the biggest loci for money laundering in the world. It's the deregulation of the insurance industry, making it possible for health insurance companies to be beholden to their investors instead of to the people who are dependent on insurance in order to pay for health care. It's the deliberate expansion of Nixon's Southern Strategy to ramp up all the bigotry and forms of oppression possible in order to turn what had been a reasonably legitimate and diverse political party into a bunch of white supremacist, misogynist Death Eaters. It's the destruction of public education (including higher education) by economic starvation that was perpetrated in order to wreck the relationship between the intellectual and scholarly community and the centers of government and to promote not only the celebration of ignorance and conformity that Ronnie and his ilk depended on, but also to demonize those for whom education, understanding, and critical thinking are watchwords. I could go on.
The ills we face today were invented by a "Republican" Party that decided that power was the only thing worth fighting for, after the disasters of the Nixon takedown tarred them with the brush of amorality and criminality. And they have pursued this goal relentlessly ever since. For most of my life I have watched this slow-moving avalanche happening while others looked the other way or twiddled their thumbs or engaged in ineffective handkerchief waving and woe-is-meism. The US has reaped what it sowed.
What could be added to the script of bizarre actions is the poisoning of then Ukrainian leader Alexandr Yuschenko almost certainly by Putin. And then the harassment and arrest of Yulia Tymeshenko leader of the opposition by the stooge put in power by Putin whom Manafort was working for. Gives a fairly clear idea of where the GOP under TFG would like to take America.
A lot of oligarch money laundering went through Manhatten and other US real eastate deals.
Any names come to mind? Perhaps someone, or a whole family, no legitimate banker would do business with?
It's on the tip of my tongue...
There is a downside to being old and having a good memory - and living through a time when America was the biggest bully on the world stage. The Reagan/Bush/Chaney years made me ashamed of what we had become. Then came the biggest bully of all. Now, Dickie is a champion of democracy. NO fictional version could come close to the insanity of reality. Chops to the Biden people trying to make sense of this jigsaw Challenge.
Ezra Klein has a must-read over at the Times, about getting involved, rather than engaging in "political hobbyism".
"Real political work... is the intentional, strategic accumulation of power in service of a defined end. It is action in service of change, not information in service of outrage."
It's not an implied criticism of anyone, just a little kick in the pants for me to get off the computer and back to the real work of organizing, and showing up on the local level.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/opinion/trump-bannon-trumpism-democracy.html
There’s no way that Putin isn’t supporting the twice impeached former president and his minions; destabilizing our elections is the means. Ditto putting pressure on the racial divide and income inequality that exists in the US.
God forbid they succeed.
In the 11th hour of his term in office, outgoing President Trump handed out 144 pardons and sentence commutations in a chaotic flurry of activity. Trump successfully assembled his band of seditious operatives, including Manafort, Flynn, Stone, Bannon, to name a few, in exchange for their loyalty. How is this not being invested as a clear example of corruption and an abuse of executive power?
HCR indicated in the Letter today that two big stories this week, our diplomatic meetings with Russia and passage of voting rights legislation in America are related, and that's because both represent gigantic efforts on behalf of democracy. 'And our democracy remains unstable.' (Letter) Could that line underestimate how dangerously close the country is to the tipping point? Seeing access to the vote and the election systems of many states torn apart are appalling examples of a fragmented America, but even that doesn't provide a full picture.
While Omicron infests the nation, governors fight public health protocols and Americans cruise the streets, shops and restaurants without wearing facemasks and the schools open and close with little advance notice. 'Fueled by gun violence, cities across the US are breaking all-time homicide records this year' (CNN) and polls show that roughly two-thirds of Republicans still believe Trump’s big lie about Biden’s election.
'With the Build Back Better Act stalled in the Senate, the White House has recently shifted its focus to voting rights legislation. President Biden and Vice President Harris are expected to travel to Georgia later this week to promote the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.' (Washington Post) Do the Democrats appear to have made a rather late start with their national voting rights campaign ?
'Manchin delivers blow to Democrats as he signals opposition to changing Senate rules to advance voting bill' '... the pivotal Senate swing vote, made clear on Tuesday that he remains deeply skeptical of overhauling the chamber's rules on a simple majority basis to advance voting legislation, a clear sign that a frantic push by Democrats to win his support to change the filibuster and pass one of the party's core priorities is likely doomed.' (CNN)
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) lambasted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday for saying a vote on changing voting rights laws must be bipartisan.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Clyburn told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that's Manchin's suggestion of requiring bipartisan support for voting tights caused him "pain."
“I am, as you know, a Black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 15th Amendment was not a bipartisan vote. It was a single-party vote that gave Black people the right to vote," Clyburn told Baier.
"Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in," he added.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will push in the next two weeks. “What the Republicans are doing across the country is really a legislative continuation of what they did on January 6, which is to undermine our democracy, to undermine the integrity of our elections, to undermine the voting power, which is the essence of a democracy,” she said. There also appear to be several Democrats blocking the way as dissension trumps agreement.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/politics/manchin-filibuster-change-voting-legislation/index.html
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/588924-clyburn-knocks-manchin-for-arguing-voting-rights-vote-must-be-bipartisan
As HCR writes, "And our democracy remains unstable," the time is now for each of us to do our part as citizens to push the Senate to support the cornerstone of democracy by passing voting rights legislation. It's time to make a big push this week ahead of the Senate vote by January 17 (MLK Day, as promised by Schumer) on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and/or Manchin's Freedom to Vote Act.
For the most effective ways for us to take an action through an organization, click any of these:
https://www.vote.org/action/?emci=f259ff4b-78b9-eb11-a7ad-501ac57ba3ed&emdi=95f35617-2cba-eb11-a7ad-501ac57b8fa7&ceid=13982010
https://represent.us/
https://www.mobilize.us/
https://demcast.com/
https://dfadcoalition.org/
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
As Ezra Klein writes, "Real political work is...action in service of change, not information in service of outrage."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/opinion/trump-bannon-trumpism-democracy.html?referringSource=articleShare
"And our democracy remains unstable."
And that is precisely the will of Putin, the puppeteer, and his wooden trumpster dumpsters!
Very relevant and important; however, Gorbachev did not "step down"... he was ousted. It was a coup, and it was a coup that set the stage for the Russia that emerged. I believe Gorbachev would have been the best situated for joining Russia with the modern democratic world.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the US and our allies could turn Russia into a third-world nation without firing a shot. The question is whether we have the resolve. And we can protect democracy here at home, if we can muster the resolve. That’s not just a matter for Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, et als. We can all play a part. And we must.
diana from sf: the last German king (Kaiser) abdicated the throne in 1918. The Treaty of Versailles gave Germany a raw deal, laying blame only on Germany whereas all of the participants were, to greater or lesser degrees, responsible for the war. Colonial greed was at stake. So Germany was economically brutalized, leaving the nation impoverished. The ensuing misery and anger made fertile ground for Hitler, who gave the people target for their misery: the Jewish people along with other "undesirables" such as homosexuals, the Roma, mentally and physically compromised, socialists, etc. etc.
You are correct in regard to the similarity between Trump and Hitler, in that both were/are mentally unstable with delusions of grandeur. They both know/knew how to manipulate the anger of those who felt disenfranchised.
Having gotten to know a number of very interesting Ukrainians though a hobby I love in which the companies they have created are producing the things that are the "bleeding edge" of the hobby, I have discovered a whole lot of "model geeks" just like myself. There's a lot of very interesting things going on in that country - besides the stuff that involves me - and we really need to prevent that Stalinoid pig Vladimir Putin from going in and wrecking all of that.
Very sorry to repost. I will slow down tomorrow This is about contacting our Yound Democrat organization in every state.
Today I used this web site to contact both the College Democrats of North Carolina and North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats: https://ydnc.org/#contact
I wrote the following:
"I am so grateful for this context and sourced news--a daily blog about the history behind today's politics, Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, an American historian and professor of history at Boston College. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
I am sharing it with legislators (at every level), news outlets, and professors of political science and history in NC.
I would love for your organization to let your peers know about it.
She also has a podcast: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/s/now-and-then and is on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson Instagram https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en and Twitter https://twitter.com/HC_Richardson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Many Americans are being turned off by the repetitive bad news regarding America’s current events. Historical insights given daily by Dr. Richardson can be starters for engaging in a productive and hopeful discourse with those in your organizations…and yes, your friends and families.
Will you get the word out, please?"
And will you, on this blog, please help get the word out to Young Democrats in your state? We've got to mobilize. I'm over 80 and am finding ways that I can "work" from a place in my home; it is these young young people who will have the energy to make person-to person contacts in the 2022 election! Dr. Richardson's blog is a great tool.
May we now talk about all the irreparable damage Ronnie Ray-gun caused in his 8 years of alternating between sleeping 14 hours a day and trying to destroy the global economy? It isn't just the deregulation of the financial sector, which has made the USA one of the biggest loci for money laundering in the world. It's the deregulation of the insurance industry, making it possible for health insurance companies to be beholden to their investors instead of to the people who are dependent on insurance in order to pay for health care. It's the deliberate expansion of Nixon's Southern Strategy to ramp up all the bigotry and forms of oppression possible in order to turn what had been a reasonably legitimate and diverse political party into a bunch of white supremacist, misogynist Death Eaters. It's the destruction of public education (including higher education) by economic starvation that was perpetrated in order to wreck the relationship between the intellectual and scholarly community and the centers of government and to promote not only the celebration of ignorance and conformity that Ronnie and his ilk depended on, but also to demonize those for whom education, understanding, and critical thinking are watchwords. I could go on.
The ills we face today were invented by a "Republican" Party that decided that power was the only thing worth fighting for, after the disasters of the Nixon takedown tarred them with the brush of amorality and criminality. And they have pursued this goal relentlessly ever since. For most of my life I have watched this slow-moving avalanche happening while others looked the other way or twiddled their thumbs or engaged in ineffective handkerchief waving and woe-is-meism. The US has reaped what it sowed.
If Trump wasn’t the head of a criminal conspiracy to stop Congress from declaring Biden president, then who was?
What could be added to the script of bizarre actions is the poisoning of then Ukrainian leader Alexandr Yuschenko almost certainly by Putin. And then the harassment and arrest of Yulia Tymeshenko leader of the opposition by the stooge put in power by Putin whom Manafort was working for. Gives a fairly clear idea of where the GOP under TFG would like to take America.