Is anybody surprised. I am not. The task has always been this 45 % of American is corrupted which to me more horrifying than Trump, Vance and the “bent” leaders of the GOP. We are not storming the beaches of Normandy and being slaughtered, we are fighting for our lives as sailors in the midst of Pearl Harbor, we are not the 101st airborn…
Is anybody surprised. I am not. The task has always been this 45 % of American is corrupted which to me more horrifying than Trump, Vance and the “bent” leaders of the GOP. We are not storming the beaches of Normandy and being slaughtered, we are fighting for our lives as sailors in the midst of Pearl Harbor, we are not the 101st airborne freezing in the winter Battle of the Bulge or my father flying daylight B 17 missions over Germany, all we are asked to do is vote and get others to do the same and with their political trauma we have found ourselves in which takes a special kind of resilience, courage and commitment. We have the clarity and leadership of Heather and others which we thank God for.
I met someone in the USA this weekend who has never voted. She says “she is not a political person”. Are there actually civics classes in schools that explain what Democracy means?
Half a century ago, the Koch family, fascists to the core, took it upon themselves to destroy the American public school system. They succeeded. How? No one, but no one votes in school board elections. It has the lowest rate of participation of any of the public elections. They seeded the election with candidates who were their hand picked know-nothings.
The first thing to hit the dust? Civics. What used to be a center of history in the US schools system was done away with it. And with that, so went one of the best pubic school systems in the world.
50 years later, we a reaping that whirl wind. Just as the Koch family planned.
Civics classes can be intellectually useful, but practicing the skills of self-governance and democracy is essential. As a teacher for over 40 years I know how difficult yet helpful it is to teach democracy in a culture that is dominated by authoritarian institutions: patriarchal families, religions, businesses, schools. As a teacher in more progressive times and in progressive schools, I held class meetings daily to settle disputes, plan schedules, even rearrange the furniture. Some of the most effective and practical problem-solving I've ever experienced was with elementary school children. People who grow up in institutions in which they have no power never learn to develop the power necesary to function in a democracy.
A history teacher in a local charter school drew a chalk ship on the floor of her classroom, to scale, and had the kids stay in it every day for a week to give them an idea of conditions on a slave ship. There wasn't room to lie down, nor for all of them to sit at once.
Really? A new aspect of his lack of character I hadn't heard.
Trying to catch news of the documents trial and seeing dumpty with the stage bandage on the tiny "wound" in his ear. Covered so no one can see there's nothing there. Except maybe the bruise from the exploding blood capsule.
Because it's the big apple. He was a Bridge and Tunnel kid - no matter how much money his daddy had. Those he wanted to be respected by? Never would. He was literally from the wrong side of the river. For Donny? It smarted like hell. No one gave a fig as to who he was besides being a bore.
I dated a guy in my 20s from Queens. We spent all our time in manhattan when I was there. I fell in love, and always wanted to live there. He thought it was a nice place to visit. Didn't want to live on the island. Idk if all y'all refer to it that way, but I didn't want to live in the boroughs. Pining in Colorado.
It’s a “pull up the ladder boys I’m aboard, “but what about the rest of them in the water?” The hell with them I want to go get lunch”. That’s how people that don’t need any kind of tax break see the rest of us. If you say “a rising tide lifts all boats” I would agree with you, the key is being on the boat. It’s a I got mine, screw you attitude.
I have the impression that many who see themselves as better than others, or at least tell themselves that they are, don't give a rat's posterior about what happens to America, or even to humanity, so long as they have more stuff than anybody else. Like the billionaires building survival bunkers to escape the chaos they are busy promoting. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
Them and others like them were considered a part of the silent majority - even with all of the BIG BUCKS they had/have - but look at them now. We’re now - most of us who read, consume and follow HCR’s ideas and publications - are part of the silent majority … hello people, we have got to begin to act like we’re in the majority: so in lieu of common sense [which ain’t so common anymore] let’s add some “smart sense” … are choices are right versus wrong and good versus evil or bad!!!
The hands-of-time are not made to be turned back - maybe held back for an hour depending upon the season and much sunlight we’d like to add to our day - but we have to do the right thing(s) to keep America and Americans moving forward - NOT backwards!!!
It is practically impossible to know anything about school board candidates. There often isn’t any reporting that explains to voters the positions, beliefs, or funding of these individuals. Maybe even all of the candidates are being influenced by the Koch's organization.
Why rely on "reporting"? With school board and other local races, the best source of info is usually your own circle and "the grapevine." The address of any candidate is on file with election officials, local and often state. It's often possible to find out how long a candidate has lived in the district. Is there a League of Women Voters chapter in the area? They can be a great source of info. Etc.
Where I live, school boards *are* part of local government. We elect them like we elect the planning board, the zoning board, the library trustees, and other officials. (Some officials, however, are appointed by our elected officials.) P.S. "America" doesn't put out a ballot. Ballots are different in every jurisdiction. And if you're not paying attention to who and what are on your ballot, rest assured that other people are -- and you may not like the results.
We are not communicating here. No I do not spend my wzking hours paying attention to local candidates for these posts you’ve mentioned & I’ll bet 90% of Americans don’t either. It used to be possible to read in the local paper what these candidates thought or expected to do if elected. Now newspapers reprint National or sensational stories & most people have no clue what’s going on. For those who work, are new to town, don’t have kids in school etc it is almost impossible to stay abreast of National much less local politics. People don’t have the time & we don’t have the resources to find out. And yes I do not like the outcomes. I lived for a while in rural Florida after Miami. I was so happy to leave that bastion of FOX news watchers.
I was taught the basics, but I did not encounter any effort to explain how complicate our society and it's governance is, and the consequences when any part of that network breaks down. Yes, like the "libertarians" I don't want excessively intrusive or heavy-handed goverment, but as much as it takes. How many "back office" services are needed to keep our major cities livable? Just sewage alone?
Having heard what you said about the undermining of effective public education, I feel lucky that I went through school in the 1950’s and 1960’ in my small town that we joked was 15 years behind the rest of the country. I got civics and history taught by bright and competent teachers.
Before I got to middle school, I was taught a remarkable amount of stuff that was either pretty useless (Like memorizing the stats of how many bananas South American countries produced in a year) to stuff, mostly "historical", that just was documentably no ore than myth. One of the few lessons I remember keenly and with gratitude was how the NAZIs controlled people with propaganda, and how a number of classic logical fallacies worked.
The thing is, that evidence-based thinking should have been a key part of that education, along with the "The Three "R"s, by which I mean "key". "Crap Detection" is another phrase I have heard for it, and it is a survival skill in a world in which not everything that is said is true.
Excellent assessment, Carol-Ann. I graduated high school nearly 50 years ago; I had all kinds of history, both American and World, Civics, Social Science, Physics and Chemistry, 4 years of English, and (gods help me), math through three years that included Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. I didn't have a Capstone project, or a Community Service provision in my schooling, it was all books.
I also have to say that where I live now (here in the Willamette Valley) school board elections are critically important.
You went to school in what I call the "golden age of American public education." If autocracies depend on an uneducated underclass, having a learned public simply won't do.
The New England colonies had public education as one of their basic tenets. Talk about ignoring/forgetting our roots. Education so sacred to the slave holders, that teaching an enslaved person how to read was considered a crime.
And now the MAGA party exalts ignorance. As they say in New York, go figure.
Sadly, not always, and if there are, many don't pay attention.
But then, the right-wing fanatics want to hand all the education money over to charter schools so that the wealthy can spend tax money to send their kids to indoctrination academies (or get taxpayers to cover the cost for the "schools" their kids are already attending).
In Ohio, where I live and vote, the General Assembly gives much of our school tax money to vouchers for private schools, and strapped voters don’t realize that is why their local school districts often have ballot funding for local schools, because they don’t get the tax money they are supposed to have. Ohio is seriously gerrymandered and we have had yet another scandal involving First Energy bribing our former General Assembly speaker and the former GOP head. Both men went to Federal prison, they are awaiting state prosecution, and our former Public Utilities board head killed himself after his arraignment on charges involving the First Energy scandal. This isn’t over by a long shot.
Our Republican former chief justice, Maureen O’Connor, wants to get a citizen redistricting initiative on the ballot. She doesn’t like the gerrymandering, and so far, our attorney general, Dave Yost, hasn’t approved the initiative language. Citizens have signed a petition for it.
George’s, Project 2025 recommends “requiring students in public high schools to take a military entrance exam called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
The proposed requirement would extend to schools that “receive federal funding,” the document says. That means the requirement would apply to students attending public schools and any private schools that receive federal funds.”
Wealthy parents well might want to avoid sending their children to any school that requires taking the exam—it’s a short step to conscription. Students in private schools would be exempt.
I had some dental work done this Spring and the tech (a young mother) told.me she wasn't even aware CF45 was running, or that he was standing trial at the time. She said that news bores her.
People will be bored and not involved with politics and voting, wake up one day and wonder why they no longer have the rights they took for granted. And why has everything they've known changed or gone? Why are they living in a dystopia, wondering if they are having a nightmare and hoping to wake up? People are sleepwalking into hell (metaphorically speaking). That pretty much sums up what waits for us if we don't convince enough people to get some information between their ears and learn to give a damn.
That's true, Kathy. Her own daughter, around 12 years old, has to tell the mom about the convicted felon running again and sitting at trial. Let's hope the daughter recognizes the danger of closing one's eyes to current events, and how keeping them open may also keep her choices open when she becomes an adult.
A lot of younger people are worried about the messes being handed to them. My daughter and her husband decided not to have kids. That it would not be fair to them.
J L, I think that's been going on longer than we've been alive.
That said, we have 3 children and 3 grandkids, and no matter what happens this November, their world wiIl scarcely resemble the world we all grew up in here in the States, in so many ways. I understand the hesitancy young people have toward bringing children into this world.
A lot of people are angry because corporations moved manufacturing abroad and the middle class has shrunk. So they vote for the party that enabled that.
The effect was to undermine labour unions, "incidentally" according to a major Canadian bank document i read years ago. A broad union based workforce would stand as some degree of bulwark against wealth concentration at the top, at the same time increase consumer demand/savings/investment throughout society.
I’m retired now but I was a union member for over 30 years, unions are far from perfect but they do represent working people who company owners and boards just want to use. I had a producer tell me one time that crew members were like tools that if worn out could easily be replaced by another, he could have cared less about the stress of working 80 hour weeks other than what it cost him in overtime.
My father encountered a businessman he had met on other occasions and asked how a particular female employee was doing, who the businessman had previously said was the heart of the company. The businessman said "I had to let her go. Another year and she would have qualified for retirement benefits". That's "business ethics" and since Reagan, society has grudgingly accepted Reagan's mentor's dictum that "The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits." That's just nuts. Just nuts to put up with it. We have allowed them to become criminal organizations, along with certain money-corrupted functions of government.
That said, about 86% of American businesses have employee health plan benefits. Are you tarnishing them all with the same brush? PS i've also heard of businesses letting senior employees go to reduce overall payroll, one i think a government related education business. They also made a practice of maintaining casual positions without benefits, then tossing them on the Federal unemployment every six months, and i think they still do. The transactional side of business, or any other organization where money pays the bills to keep it going. It's a challenge, I admit
Unions have declined to 10% of the US Labour force, from abt 1/3 in 1983. In Canada the decline was from 38% to 29% Long hard history there. The decline in the US likely can be correlated with relative decline of middle / working class income. We should also include the gradual death of defined pension plans the past generation.
Unions have proved to be far from perfect, but that's expectable. What us rarely recognized are the many benefits virtually all workers came to enjoy as a result of union bargaining power. And generally speaking, workers fortunes have clearly declined with the decline of union's bargaining power.
When you add "what's beneficial for society" to calculating "what's in it for me" it is patently obvious that "consumers" who make up "the market" are workers and vice versa. Substantial efforts to cheat workers reduces consumers ability to buy. Recessions are self-reinforcing for that reason. Yet in some nations a few families live like kings while the average citizen scratches for survival.
Money can organize because it has money. Society can organize if there this enough collective will to overcome the resistance of concentrated money, which, among among other potential checks and balances, is a wisely utilized vote. There is a lot of effort to distract from attention from what seems to me is "Common Sense".
That's why in general i support a broader union presence, to develop a counter to what you're talking about. Admittedly, ive had my reservations about CUPE (Can Union of Public Employees) with incredibly hostile pronouncements about their gov employees, ongoing for generations now I would hazard. Possibly via Scottish/English pro Labour immigration after ww2. Lots of deep bitterness in that history. A bit burned out in UK et al these days I am guessing. I drift. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/01/labor-unions/
It's funny JL, but i'm presently going through an audio history of Rome, and it seems the republic came unglued over "sharing the wealth" and that ultimately led to absolute power in the hands of the Emperor, royally deified as "a son of god" to boot. Fabulous wealth flowed in from the conquests of the 2 centuries or so bce, huge influxes of slave booty and wealth, who replaced the original farmer/soldiers, who ended up landless in the cities or wherever, independent power centres in the "provinces" with their own mercenary militaries, and defiance then breakdown of traditional political norms in gridlock ... "it's complicated"... reminds me a little bit of modern America, and elsewhere perhaps.
It seems like power tends to corrupt. Voting spreads out power. Separation of powers and "Equal Justice under law" (when used as directed) keeps monopolies of power in check.
That was the premise of Adam Smith's principle of perfect competition, based on the idea that self-interest works great at the micro level, but generates inefficiencies if not outright evils when consolidated. Eg who societies with elites steering imperial conquests, usually baited by booty, and at someone else's expense. Not sure where you want to fit American expansion into the west and reduction of indigenous to dependence and corralling in reservations. Slavery, on the other hand, was outright and propagandized as a noble pursuit by a cultured minority which also enabled ruthless means to maintain it. But even past and present technologies ever more both enable and likely require scaling up in size, but along with it has come excess concentrations of wealth and influence. oversight is more than very interesting in the modern age. Heather's How the South... is a good example of all this, but hardly the only.
Yeah, it just does not make sense. But it makes emotional sense to vote for the people that feed your anger, even if what they are proposing is far, far worse than working to change things.
Thank you! Love what I found when I went to check out his book. There are so many books on the idiocy of thug leaders today. I have not really looked a lot due to my lack inability to focus well. I love that they have audio so I can do something whilst listening. Love Horowitz and will order that book.
And this one caught my attention and made me laugh. Might as well trying laughing on the way, no?
This Won't Help: Modest Proposals for a More Enjoyable Apocalypse by by Eli Grober and Tantor
Thanks, Molly—how did you know I desperately needed some humor today?
Profiles in Ignorance is funny and appallingly scary due to leaders' lack of knowledge and understanding. Extensive footnotes document his findings. I enjoy reading The Borowitz Report due to Andy's quirky sense of humor!
Until he saw the debate? That's all he knew about what was going on over the last 4 years? He was never going to vote for President Biden. That was a convenient excuse.
Biden isn’t senile, he’s older, but his debate performance when he was ill didn’t help, nor did the press tell the full story or call out Trump’s Gish gallop of lies. The donors and pundits got spooked, so they were calling for Biden to step down.
Well, over the next few months these two people need to muster up some “small sense” from somewhere or from someone [HCR’s “Letters” and chats could be one] and give or add some critical analysis to their thought-processes when it comes to politics, government and American life!!!
Sigh. They walk amongst us. The line I use with no vote people is basically, if you're upset with what is happening and refuse to vote for change, you're enabling the other side.
Rarely, Annie. And very, very, few people even know what fascism is. That is part of how we got here. That and allowing totally unqualified people to run for any office.
She and 32% of America (and that's the stat from 2020--it's usually worse). It's astounding. My first response to such folks is to say, "Oh, did they cancel the election? It's not happening? Oh, wait, that's right: IT IS. It's happening whether you vote or not. What you mean to say is that, YOU DON'T CARE, and nothing--not one, single thing that can happen, will get decided, proposed--NONE of that affects YOU in any way. Ever. In fact, you so don't care, that you want your neighbor's vote to count DOUBLE, since 1) there's still an election and 2) you're not voting, but they are--would you like ME to decide your schedule for this week? No? Okay--glad we're clear on that."
My parents educated us in the importance of voting. My mother’s father did that with all of his children and before he died, he took each of them to register to vote at 21. My late uncle ensured my aunts were registered to vote at 21. This was before the amendment lowering voting age to 21. I registered to vote at 18 and have voted in all presidential and most off season elections. I vote in even small elections as they are important also.
I have missed one election, off year, no national candidates and no ballot measures. I had the wrong date in my head, and had been traveling so no local news for the week before hand. That was probably 25 years ago.
I have voted in every election since I was old enough to, except for a special election two years ago when I had Covid. I do not understand not voting. If you don't vote, you lose your right to complain.
Did you have a conversation with them about how voting is the only time your voice gets to be heard?
I told my friend that my son (who lives in gerrymandered Austin) says he votes because it's his duty and even though most times it doesn't matter, one day it could.
Annie, a long ago former partner of mine was proud of not voting 😤, so I told him to never, ever, complain about the state of local/state/national policies. Personally I don’t get it, but it is (so far) a free country to participate or not as you choose.
Not free if we in concert fail to keep freedom alive. The overall trend of the universe is toward decay. We living things sail against the wind, and that takes effort.
"toward decay" i guess you mean increasing entropy. It does make you wonder, however, how the "whole thing" got "wound up" in the first place if "decay" is all there is.
On that front, I don't know if adversarial politics is a wrecker as much as the USA - I don't think so. In general politics is more polarized internationally than it used to be, different flavours for different nations. Immigration is often a top item. It seems in excess of 98% Aussie voting public is enrolled. and about 90% vote. So, it's "civil duty"... Aussies managed to ban automatic weaponry back in the late 90s after a mass shooting. Little to none of that since. They have an Australian Electoral Commission which on the surface tries to inform, encourage partici pation, remain even-handed.
Requiring people to vote merely conceals the reasons that so many people in the US don't vote: because what happens in an election has little to no effect on their lives. Also -- both Australia and Canada are parliamentary systems. Candidates run for parliament in districts or ridings that are of manageable size. In Canada, they are much, much smaller than a U.S. congressional district. IIRC no one runs province-wide, so no candidate has to deal with a "district" the size of California, New York, Illinois, Texas, etc., the way U.S. Senate candidates do. And no one runs nation-wide the way the president does.
I'm not sure size should have a disqualifying argument for making voting a mandatory civics duty. Eg registering your vehicle, following traffic laws, etc etc. Anyway, various ngos either advocate for or against. Eg the very conservative Cato Institute is against it. The liberal Brookings Institute is for it. Here's a link from Brookings... https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-shouldnt-voting-be-mandatory/
If you don't register your vehicle, get it inspected as required, follow traffic laws, etc., there are consequences that most of us most of the time want to avoid. This is not the case with voting or not voting. Most of the time, in most elections, we see little in the way of consequences regardless of who's elected. Political wonks see consequences, of course, but most voters don't.
Voting is an act of faith. Making it mandatory is a little like requiring church attendance: you don't have to believe, you just have to show up. Think of not-voting as a symptom of something wrong in the body politic. Mandatory voting conceals that symptom. And the differences between the U.S. system and parliamentary systems are considerable. Trust me on this, or read up on it yourself.
Most Americans oppose mandatory voting, for sure. Pew polls spell that out in spades. I think "civic duty" is a matter of internalization, becoming a civic values item for the electorate. Curiously the only Aussie punishment is a $20 fine, and the allow "none of the above" as an allowed voting option. Their mandatory has been in place since 1924. A debate in Canada has come up over this when Trudeau came to power, and the decision was that since a significant majority of Canadians vote anyway, why rock the boat? Here's a CBC on the matter. Myself, i sometimes wonder when issues get very heated, what usually submerged part of the American electorate might surface and throw polls, wherever. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/mandatory-voting-canada-s-weediversary-fighting-alongside-the-kurds-atwood-archives-dolly-parton-more-1.5324795/in-australia-voting-is-mandatory-easy-and-often-fun-is-there-a-lesson-for-canada-1.5324822
It’s shameful there is so much ignorance about government and about how someone want a dictator to do the heavy lifting for them. We don’t need a dictator, we need to have our voices heard as citizens.
not nearly enough nor in the way they should be functioning. 50 years of Republican underfunding public education in this country has created a nation full of credulous, gullible people who haven't the faintest idea of U.S. or world history or civic privileges/obligations.
In that case she should have been exposed to Civics. I worked in publishing, and it was common knowledge that Civics was often taught by coaches. Maybe she had a weak teacher. Or maybe she went to a private school where it was considered unimportant.
Thanks for your POV. Khan Academy and TEDx is very good.
Sometimes if you strip down your keyword search, you get the sweetspot with Google. Yes, there is extra vetting to do, and it's a Best Practice to vet what you hear or read.
Here is a few YouTube examples to explain Gerrymandering-
-Gerrymandering | US government and civics | US government and civics | Khan Academy
Thanks for your POV. Sometimes if you strip down your keyword search, you get the sweetspot with Google. Yes, there is extra vetting to do, but with AI advancing in the future, it's a Best Practice to vet your research. I support journalists using Substack, because many are transparent with their reference footnotes.
I'm not surprised either. Are USians more worried about inflation (whose causes they mostly don't understand) than about the end of our aspiring democracy? It's a toss-up, but I'm going to do what I can.
Susanna, The problem, in my view, with centering democracy as a campaign issue is that most people, some might say justifiably, view it as an abstraction. Accordingly, I believe the focus must shift to what it would mean to lose our democracy and how our way of life would change. Trump already has stated he would enact the Insurrection Act on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s already spoken about rounding up his political enemies. In a word, we can’t relent on prevailing upon people to imagine what America would look like were the President to start moving the Military around to put down our voices, our right to protest policy we oppose, perhaps indefinitely detaining us. This is not without precedent. Trump had wanted to criminalize protesters around Black Lives Matter for the murder of George Floyd.
Note I’ve barely touched upon rights and freedoms that would be ripped away, nor have I mentioned women losing control of their bodies, nor what it would mean were we unable to depend on an independent judiciary (we’re already starting to see what that would look like), or depend on the rule of law, or an independent Justice department, or an independent Federal Communications Commission—all things Trump has said he would do, and I’m just getting started.
Ultimately, we have less than 4 months before the General to urge voters to listen to the things Trump and J.D. Vance say and the people they admire. No one should doubt that whatever freedoms we have in this country, whatever one likes about this country, dramatically would change.
The coup is almost over. Step one - paralyse the legislature. Step 2, seize the courts. Both these have been achieved. Step 3 will be to purge the military and key administrative positions immediately after returning to the WH, followed by arresting key political enemies at the same time as taking over or banning unfriendly media, suspending unions (that will be explained as temporary). Then it’s taking over police and schools in blue states.
My question to Americans is - what will you do about it if voting isn’t enough?
Sophie, While I would acknowledge that Trump/ Trumpism has absorbed Congress and the judiciary, the point of my comment was to illustrate a rhetorical strategy aimed at galvanizing enough Democratic voters to win a sufficient number of races up and down the ballot that 1) would preclude the advent of “Step 3” and 2) would mark the start of building back our civic institutions.
Definitely worth fighting for! I hope you prevail at the ballot box, but you probably know already that it won’t stop there even if you do. After all, look at the past 4 years.
Sophie, I’m not aware of anyone who believes even if we win handily the resistance won’t be brutal. Still, I would submit, as long as we clearly prevail, down ballot Democratic candidates will be seated in early January and a Democratic President will be inaugurated on Jan. 20th.
If the Democrats win, I hope they swiftly and unequivocally do something about the MAGA courts that have gone completely off-piste in an openly partisan way; and about the right of all American women to access healthcare. However, I don’t believe violence will stop in January, and the new MAGA generation isn’t going away.
Sophie, I agree with you on all counts and would add my understanding that MAGA represents a resurgence of a polarization whose seeds date back to our founding that ultimately led to a Civil War, wherein the Confederates were locked into a bunker mentality premised on the proposition that they sooner would see the destruction of the Union over not getting the America they wanted.
That’s true, up to the Midterms. Biden did well to get much of his programme through by then, as he knew there’d be gridlock afterwards if the Republicans got even a small majority. Which is what happened. Bipartisanship became a lot harder after 2008 (some say under Newt Gingrich, more than a decade earlier), almost entirely due to the Republicans. Now they have metastased into MAGA, it’s become wholly impossible.
Barbara Jo, I think you, we all, are precisely on track by talking about what we ALREADY see changing as a result of the MAGAts. It is no longer what WILL be happening, ...it is ALREADY happening all around us! Look at the SUPREME COURT! ...and how it has determined that women must relinquish control of their bodies and the right to privacy or control or treatment of their own bodies! Look at our schools and school boards and the ways in which their funding has been distorted! Look at the news media, although much of the distortion and misuse of information in those places is driven by corporate money and "hits" and the prodigious funding by corporations, which our courts have deemed to be "people" deserving to be given "free speech" via their anonymous dollars which end up lopsidedly going to fund the MAGAts who have taken over the Republican Party. This is about what has already happened right in front of us!
JohnM, Precisely! Accordingly, speaking metaphorically, we are at war with a Party prepared to do whatever it takes to hold power. I say every one of us must step up.
Very good points. "Save Our Democracy" and similar slogans are popular locally. Some people have suddenly discovered postcarding and phone/text banking, etc. I'm all "Democracy was in trouble before 2016 -- where were you?" IMO using Project 2025 is the way to go, selecting particular points for different audiences.
Susanna, I agree regarding Project 2025, and would note I’ve been informed that FiieldTeam6 has provided text relative to the same that one can use on any of its postcards. Once I get started, I will add 1 further sentence referring the recipient to a synopsis of P-25, probably the one posted on Democracy Docket.
As a final point, I also would add that the placard I carry in various standouts reads, “Vote like your right depend on it—‘cause they do!”
I agree that we must in all honesty, clarity...with references...repeat what it will mean to our country, our children, our long held relationships with countries all over the world if Donald Trump becomes our President.
As we each and all recognize, there are many forces supporting the destruction of our country, our freedoms, respect and appreciation of humanity, persons of color, freedom to worship or not, new arrivals to our country who are willing to work in the most humble of jobs, disrespect for women, disregard for children, our earth, climate change and its obvious effects on all of life.
We must do all that we are able to do. Violence is not the way.
And the Trump Party is running on that platform! These folks are completely ill informed. Inflation is a world wide problem. It cannot be repaired by a political party. (People hate wage and price controls). I wonder would happen once they notice that prices had not gone down? Many cannot/do not see past the border.
Bringing back anti-trust might help. Monopolies control markets. I was taught that in school. Competition tends to regulate prices. When there are too few players, those left just divide up the spoils like gangsters dividing up territories or banks colluding to set interest rates (as in the LIBOR scandal).
Annie- Yes, inflation is a world-wide problem, but as Catherine Rampell pointed out yesterday in the WAPO, inflation is tied to supply and demand. In economics supply and demand are repeated ad nauseam in every course I ever took.
Biden had some policies which increased the supply of money people had to spend on food, shelter and other necessities. But he didn't personally go to the fossil fuel producers and tell them to raise their prices or to Walmart or McDonalds.
The administration kick started the economy with billions in stimulus money and also with the 60,000 infrastructure projects which have actually helped make America great.
Opinion Hey, corporate greed is gone! Just look at the price of a Big Mac.
Consumer spending data provides an economics lesson, with a side of fries.
By Catherine Rampell and Aden Barton
Great news, America! We finally beat greed. Those blaming inflation on money-grubbing corporations will be delighted to learn that those same money-grubbers have, amazingly, now turned altruistic.
Overall prices fell in June from a month earlier. And burger lovers may soon especially benefit from this largesse, because fast-food chains have begun mobilizing for the “value menu wars.”
In recent weeks, fast-food chains have been slashing prices left and right, first with the Burger King $5 Your Way Meal in mid-June. Then came the McDonald’s $5 Meal Deal, also available for a limited time. Not to be outdone, Taco Bell joined the fray with its $7 Luxe Cravings Box. Seemingly every chain is trying to undercut its competitors.
But Ronald McDonald, established philanthropist though he may be, did not suddenly stop caring about profits. Nor have companies been shamed into cutting prices by presidential jawboning (despite President Biden’s recent claims). These companies are just responding to changes in consumer demand.
Exactly as they did when they raised prices before, inspiring all that feverish, anti-greed jawboning to begin with.
“Greedflation” proponents argue that corporations used inflation as a smokescreen to raise prices independent of higher operating costs. And, look, it is true that companies sometimes raised prices even more than their own input costs increased. But that’s precisely what you’d expect when consumer demand is strong.
During the pandemic, consumers were unusually flush with cash. This was a consequence of forced savings (people were stuck at home, forgoing travel and fine dining) as well as generous fiscal policy (e.g., stimulus checks from both the Trump and Biden administrations). When that high household demand collided with stuck supply chains, businesses raised prices.
That is, businesses of all types, from mom-and-pop shops to multinationals, reacted to long lines of customers combined with higher costs by raising what they charged. If they hadn’t, they’d have been left with endless empty shelves.
The aggregate amount of greed in the economy hadn’t suddenly spiked. Companies didn’t start caring about making money again. The explanation is more banal: Demand exceeded supply.
Inflation at fast-food restaurants has gotten outsize attention, in part because burgers and nuggets have traditionally been such a bargain. A TikTok bemoaning the exorbitant $16.10 price tag on a (specialty) McDonald’s meal went viral, making it all the way to the White House. McDonalds released its own McFlation fact check to convince customers its price increases were not so dramatic. Ironically, the Big Mac has had among the lowest price growth of well-known fast-food items.
Even with these supersized burger prices, customers continued to order fast food at (and eventually above) pre-pandemic levels because they had leftover money to spend. Plus, tight labor markets were putting upward pressure on wages. In turn, prices kept rising as Americans kept ordering. And ordering. And ordering.
But in recent months, consumer demand has cooled. Consumers have now spent much of their pandemic savings, federal data shows. Wage growth has slowed. And interest rates are higher, meaning it’s more expensive to buy things on credit.
This is all especially true for lower-income households. They have always had less discretionary income to work with, but in recent years, they’ve also been hit harder by inflation. They exhausted their pandemic savings earlier than their higher-income neighbors.
All of this made consumers a little more price-sensitive and less eager to spend on nonnecessities. In fact, data from consumer analytics firm Numerator shows that spending at limited-service restaurants grew from late 2022 to around September 2023 — and then flattened out, especially for low-income customers. In fact, after adjusting for inflation, spending would actually be down.
This shift forced companies to work harder to get customers in the door. As Ian Borden, chief financial officer of McDonald’s, put it in an April earnings call: “Everybody is fighting for fewer consumers … that are certainly visiting less frequently.” In response, Borden urged the adoption of a “street-fighting mentality to win.”
The company’s not-so-secret weapon in this street fight? Value menus. And thus the ensuing race to the bottom in fast-food prices that we’re now getting a (delicious) taste of.
It’s not just fast food, either. Big-box stores such as Walmart and Target also slashed prices this summer to lure back shoppers. The president, who apparently thinks greedflation is a winning political message, has tried to take credit for these discounts. The White House has said retailers are “answering the call” from Biden to “give families more breathing room.”
But the truth is that multinationals aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re still just trying to make money.
This recent up-and-down pricing roller coaster confirms an old adage: The best cure for high prices is high prices. If inflation was caused primarily by greed or sneaky corporate behavior, prices should’ve stayed high. Instead, high prices eventually nudged customers to scale back spending, which in turn incentivized companies to offer better deals. An economics lesson, with a side of fries.
It’s the ones who don’t see past their stock holdings who are more disgusting. Greed starts there and donates up the chain to to the most traitorous of our nation. They have no concept of “ We the people,” just “me and mine.” It is so very disheartening.
So do I -- is that news? There's no rule that says emotion can't be informed by information and values. In fact, I believe it usually is. I make major purchases the same way: gather information about several alternatives then go with my gut.
I’m afraid you will have to be like your father. Because you’re not getting rid of the Orange Dictator by just voting. Besides, if Biden should win the election, the Extreme Court will simply declare the outcome void - because if their beloved leader doesn’t win, it clearly must mean that the election was stolen by Biden and therefore illegal, right? I think ordinary Americans will have to take up arms and storm the beaches, or go down in a fascist empire…
So it is. When Biden wins the election, Trump will appeal, and SCOTUS will decide that he is right and declare him winner. They have been testing the waters and found that all is ok. After all, did riots break out after their decision on the case "DJ Trump vs United States"? Nope. The Extreme Court view themselves as uncontested supreme rulers over all, and they are right. Nobody can stop them anymore.
I added a like agreeing with you, but damn, it’s tough to like this idea. The Supreme Court most certainly has been enabled. Weak Dems are too slow to react too. They still play by rules that the other party laughs off and scoffs at.
Exactly that. The Dems try to stay morally superior. It’s like reading the rules of the chess game to your opponent to explain that what he is doing is cheating while at the same time he is punching you in the face.
It’s too late for voting. The (literal) Supreme Court will declare the election results void if Biden wins, and nobody can challenge that decision. Hate to say it, but Putin and the Rethuglicans are better at the long game than the Dems… If youbwant to save democracy, you will literally have to fight for it.
My father-in-law understood the terror of serving his country in WWII but he also knew his duty and he faced it fully.
There remain a few true heroes within this country and throughout the world. We must stand together with such as these or we will lose this country to those with short term ambitions who will give us over to our enemies for a few pieces of silver.
When documents were found at the home of President Biden and at the home of the former Vice President , Mike Pence....they each opened their homes for the documents to be properly returned, offering no excuses....nor did they attempt to conceal them. There has been no further need for searches or investigations.
There is no comparison to the opposing character qualities between Biden and Pence vs. Trump.
Is anybody surprised. I am not. The task has always been this 45 % of American is corrupted which to me more horrifying than Trump, Vance and the “bent” leaders of the GOP. We are not storming the beaches of Normandy and being slaughtered, we are fighting for our lives as sailors in the midst of Pearl Harbor, we are not the 101st airborne freezing in the winter Battle of the Bulge or my father flying daylight B 17 missions over Germany, all we are asked to do is vote and get others to do the same and with their political trauma we have found ourselves in which takes a special kind of resilience, courage and commitment. We have the clarity and leadership of Heather and others which we thank God for.
I met someone in the USA this weekend who has never voted. She says “she is not a political person”. Are there actually civics classes in schools that explain what Democracy means?
Half a century ago, the Koch family, fascists to the core, took it upon themselves to destroy the American public school system. They succeeded. How? No one, but no one votes in school board elections. It has the lowest rate of participation of any of the public elections. They seeded the election with candidates who were their hand picked know-nothings.
The first thing to hit the dust? Civics. What used to be a center of history in the US schools system was done away with it. And with that, so went one of the best pubic school systems in the world.
50 years later, we a reaping that whirl wind. Just as the Koch family planned.
Want informed citizens? Bring back civics.
Good luck with that.
Civics classes can be intellectually useful, but practicing the skills of self-governance and democracy is essential. As a teacher for over 40 years I know how difficult yet helpful it is to teach democracy in a culture that is dominated by authoritarian institutions: patriarchal families, religions, businesses, schools. As a teacher in more progressive times and in progressive schools, I held class meetings daily to settle disputes, plan schedules, even rearrange the furniture. Some of the most effective and practical problem-solving I've ever experienced was with elementary school children. People who grow up in institutions in which they have no power never learn to develop the power necesary to function in a democracy.
Thank you.
A history teacher in a local charter school drew a chalk ship on the floor of her classroom, to scale, and had the kids stay in it every day for a week to give them an idea of conditions on a slave ship. There wasn't room to lie down, nor for all of them to sit at once.
Too bad little Donnie never had such a teacher.
Little Donnie cold cocked his music teacher. How do you think he would have taken to being corralled?
Really? A new aspect of his lack of character I hadn't heard.
Trying to catch news of the documents trial and seeing dumpty with the stage bandage on the tiny "wound" in his ear. Covered so no one can see there's nothing there. Except maybe the bruise from the exploding blood capsule.
You have to be New Yorker to know all the ins and outs of the scum bag. He couldn't carry a bucket of water in the city of New York, let alone a vote.
Wonder why he stayed s long
Because it's the big apple. He was a Bridge and Tunnel kid - no matter how much money his daddy had. Those he wanted to be respected by? Never would. He was literally from the wrong side of the river. For Donny? It smarted like hell. No one gave a fig as to who he was besides being a bore.
I dated a guy in my 20s from Queens. We spent all our time in manhattan when I was there. I fell in love, and always wanted to live there. He thought it was a nice place to visit. Didn't want to live on the island. Idk if all y'all refer to it that way, but I didn't want to live in the boroughs. Pining in Colorado.
This is how Turkey got Erdogan.
They started in the schools 35 years ago.
Civics and critical thinking. How not to play the fool.
And education for whole challenge of life, not just trade school training.
Isn't it odd. BTW, how it is often those with the most money of all think that those with the least resources already have too much going for them?
It’s a “pull up the ladder boys I’m aboard, “but what about the rest of them in the water?” The hell with them I want to go get lunch”. That’s how people that don’t need any kind of tax break see the rest of us. If you say “a rising tide lifts all boats” I would agree with you, the key is being on the boat. It’s a I got mine, screw you attitude.
I have the impression that many who see themselves as better than others, or at least tell themselves that they are, don't give a rat's posterior about what happens to America, or even to humanity, so long as they have more stuff than anybody else. Like the billionaires building survival bunkers to escape the chaos they are busy promoting. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
Them and others like them were considered a part of the silent majority - even with all of the BIG BUCKS they had/have - but look at them now. We’re now - most of us who read, consume and follow HCR’s ideas and publications - are part of the silent majority … hello people, we have got to begin to act like we’re in the majority: so in lieu of common sense [which ain’t so common anymore] let’s add some “smart sense” … are choices are right versus wrong and good versus evil or bad!!!
The hands-of-time are not made to be turned back - maybe held back for an hour depending upon the season and much sunlight we’d like to add to our day - but we have to do the right thing(s) to keep America and Americans moving forward - NOT backwards!!!
It is practically impossible to know anything about school board candidates. There often isn’t any reporting that explains to voters the positions, beliefs, or funding of these individuals. Maybe even all of the candidates are being influenced by the Koch's organization.
Why rely on "reporting"? With school board and other local races, the best source of info is usually your own circle and "the grapevine." The address of any candidate is on file with election officials, local and often state. It's often possible to find out how long a candidate has lived in the district. Is there a League of Women Voters chapter in the area? They can be a great source of info. Etc.
No kids in school & no local grapevine interested in school boards. Tried the League of Women Voters - nothing on our local school board ...
America has too many lines on a ballot. School boars should be part of local government.
Where I live, school boards *are* part of local government. We elect them like we elect the planning board, the zoning board, the library trustees, and other officials. (Some officials, however, are appointed by our elected officials.) P.S. "America" doesn't put out a ballot. Ballots are different in every jurisdiction. And if you're not paying attention to who and what are on your ballot, rest assured that other people are -- and you may not like the results.
We are not communicating here. No I do not spend my wzking hours paying attention to local candidates for these posts you’ve mentioned & I’ll bet 90% of Americans don’t either. It used to be possible to read in the local paper what these candidates thought or expected to do if elected. Now newspapers reprint National or sensational stories & most people have no clue what’s going on. For those who work, are new to town, don’t have kids in school etc it is almost impossible to stay abreast of National much less local politics. People don’t have the time & we don’t have the resources to find out. And yes I do not like the outcomes. I lived for a while in rural Florida after Miami. I was so happy to leave that bastion of FOX news watchers.
That’s exactly why I vote. I took government in summer school and it was required.
I was taught the basics, but I did not encounter any effort to explain how complicate our society and it's governance is, and the consequences when any part of that network breaks down. Yes, like the "libertarians" I don't want excessively intrusive or heavy-handed goverment, but as much as it takes. How many "back office" services are needed to keep our major cities livable? Just sewage alone?
Brava Carol-Ann ! Your recollection of details is identical with mine. At the time though, I was not aware of 'who' to point the finger at.
Having heard what you said about the undermining of effective public education, I feel lucky that I went through school in the 1950’s and 1960’ in my small town that we joked was 15 years behind the rest of the country. I got civics and history taught by bright and competent teachers.
So on point Carol-Ann the failure of the schools to engage students in this way has lead us right to this situation
Before I got to middle school, I was taught a remarkable amount of stuff that was either pretty useless (Like memorizing the stats of how many bananas South American countries produced in a year) to stuff, mostly "historical", that just was documentably no ore than myth. One of the few lessons I remember keenly and with gratitude was how the NAZIs controlled people with propaganda, and how a number of classic logical fallacies worked.
The thing is, that evidence-based thinking should have been a key part of that education, along with the "The Three "R"s, by which I mean "key". "Crap Detection" is another phrase I have heard for it, and it is a survival skill in a world in which not everything that is said is true.
Excellent assessment, Carol-Ann. I graduated high school nearly 50 years ago; I had all kinds of history, both American and World, Civics, Social Science, Physics and Chemistry, 4 years of English, and (gods help me), math through three years that included Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. I didn't have a Capstone project, or a Community Service provision in my schooling, it was all books.
I also have to say that where I live now (here in the Willamette Valley) school board elections are critically important.
You went to school in what I call the "golden age of American public education." If autocracies depend on an uneducated underclass, having a learned public simply won't do.
The New England colonies had public education as one of their basic tenets. Talk about ignoring/forgetting our roots. Education so sacred to the slave holders, that teaching an enslaved person how to read was considered a crime.
And now the MAGA party exalts ignorance. As they say in New York, go figure.
At least in one part of the country, teaching a Native American to read was punishable by death.
I wrote essentially the same thing before I read further comments...Ooops.
The book Dark Money was very illuminating! The Kochs and their cronies are pure evil.
wow, that is "interesting"! I gather there's a news source on that one. PLus, i just read several items after a google search. wow.
Sadly, not always, and if there are, many don't pay attention.
But then, the right-wing fanatics want to hand all the education money over to charter schools so that the wealthy can spend tax money to send their kids to indoctrination academies (or get taxpayers to cover the cost for the "schools" their kids are already attending).
In Ohio, where I live and vote, the General Assembly gives much of our school tax money to vouchers for private schools, and strapped voters don’t realize that is why their local school districts often have ballot funding for local schools, because they don’t get the tax money they are supposed to have. Ohio is seriously gerrymandered and we have had yet another scandal involving First Energy bribing our former General Assembly speaker and the former GOP head. Both men went to Federal prison, they are awaiting state prosecution, and our former Public Utilities board head killed himself after his arraignment on charges involving the First Energy scandal. This isn’t over by a long shot.
Our Republican former chief justice, Maureen O’Connor, wants to get a citizen redistricting initiative on the ballot. She doesn’t like the gerrymandering, and so far, our attorney general, Dave Yost, hasn’t approved the initiative language. Citizens have signed a petition for it.
Very good update Kathy Hughes;keep LFAA posted.
George’s, Project 2025 recommends “requiring students in public high schools to take a military entrance exam called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
The proposed requirement would extend to schools that “receive federal funding,” the document says. That means the requirement would apply to students attending public schools and any private schools that receive federal funds.”
Wealthy parents well might want to avoid sending their children to any school that requires taking the exam—it’s a short step to conscription. Students in private schools would be exempt.
https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/verify/project-2025-verify/yes-project-2025-recommends-requiring-military-entrance-exams-for-public-high-school-students/536-6d799964-87b7-4cfc-9f1c-4925ab4dc22d
Too bad that the tax-exemptions of religious schools aren't seen as receiving federal funding because, in my way of thinking, they certainly are.
How frighteningly sad!!!
I had some dental work done this Spring and the tech (a young mother) told.me she wasn't even aware CF45 was running, or that he was standing trial at the time. She said that news bores her.
People will be bored and not involved with politics and voting, wake up one day and wonder why they no longer have the rights they took for granted. And why has everything they've known changed or gone? Why are they living in a dystopia, wondering if they are having a nightmare and hoping to wake up? People are sleepwalking into hell (metaphorically speaking). That pretty much sums up what waits for us if we don't convince enough people to get some information between their ears and learn to give a damn.
That's true, Kathy. Her own daughter, around 12 years old, has to tell the mom about the convicted felon running again and sitting at trial. Let's hope the daughter recognizes the danger of closing one's eyes to current events, and how keeping them open may also keep her choices open when she becomes an adult.
A lot of younger people are worried about the messes being handed to them. My daughter and her husband decided not to have kids. That it would not be fair to them.
I understand. I have three nieces and am concerned for their futures.
J L, I think that's been going on longer than we've been alive.
That said, we have 3 children and 3 grandkids, and no matter what happens this November, their world wiIl scarcely resemble the world we all grew up in here in the States, in so many ways. I understand the hesitancy young people have toward bringing children into this world.
The "Baby Boom" when soldiers returned from war with a sense of restored stability. Millions of lives lost for fits of toxic ego.
If they really want a couple of kids, there are millions who need a home and organizations (which should be licensed and legion) to help them.
A lot of people are angry because corporations moved manufacturing abroad and the middle class has shrunk. So they vote for the party that enabled that.
The effect was to undermine labour unions, "incidentally" according to a major Canadian bank document i read years ago. A broad union based workforce would stand as some degree of bulwark against wealth concentration at the top, at the same time increase consumer demand/savings/investment throughout society.
I’m retired now but I was a union member for over 30 years, unions are far from perfect but they do represent working people who company owners and boards just want to use. I had a producer tell me one time that crew members were like tools that if worn out could easily be replaced by another, he could have cared less about the stress of working 80 hour weeks other than what it cost him in overtime.
My father encountered a businessman he had met on other occasions and asked how a particular female employee was doing, who the businessman had previously said was the heart of the company. The businessman said "I had to let her go. Another year and she would have qualified for retirement benefits". That's "business ethics" and since Reagan, society has grudgingly accepted Reagan's mentor's dictum that "The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits." That's just nuts. Just nuts to put up with it. We have allowed them to become criminal organizations, along with certain money-corrupted functions of government.
That said, about 86% of American businesses have employee health plan benefits. Are you tarnishing them all with the same brush? PS i've also heard of businesses letting senior employees go to reduce overall payroll, one i think a government related education business. They also made a practice of maintaining casual positions without benefits, then tossing them on the Federal unemployment every six months, and i think they still do. The transactional side of business, or any other organization where money pays the bills to keep it going. It's a challenge, I admit
Unions have declined to 10% of the US Labour force, from abt 1/3 in 1983. In Canada the decline was from 38% to 29% Long hard history there. The decline in the US likely can be correlated with relative decline of middle / working class income. We should also include the gradual death of defined pension plans the past generation.
Unions have proved to be far from perfect, but that's expectable. What us rarely recognized are the many benefits virtually all workers came to enjoy as a result of union bargaining power. And generally speaking, workers fortunes have clearly declined with the decline of union's bargaining power.
When you add "what's beneficial for society" to calculating "what's in it for me" it is patently obvious that "consumers" who make up "the market" are workers and vice versa. Substantial efforts to cheat workers reduces consumers ability to buy. Recessions are self-reinforcing for that reason. Yet in some nations a few families live like kings while the average citizen scratches for survival.
Money can organize because it has money. Society can organize if there this enough collective will to overcome the resistance of concentrated money, which, among among other potential checks and balances, is a wisely utilized vote. There is a lot of effort to distract from attention from what seems to me is "Common Sense".
That's why in general i support a broader union presence, to develop a counter to what you're talking about. Admittedly, ive had my reservations about CUPE (Can Union of Public Employees) with incredibly hostile pronouncements about their gov employees, ongoing for generations now I would hazard. Possibly via Scottish/English pro Labour immigration after ww2. Lots of deep bitterness in that history. A bit burned out in UK et al these days I am guessing. I drift. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/01/labor-unions/
It's funny JL, but i'm presently going through an audio history of Rome, and it seems the republic came unglued over "sharing the wealth" and that ultimately led to absolute power in the hands of the Emperor, royally deified as "a son of god" to boot. Fabulous wealth flowed in from the conquests of the 2 centuries or so bce, huge influxes of slave booty and wealth, who replaced the original farmer/soldiers, who ended up landless in the cities or wherever, independent power centres in the "provinces" with their own mercenary militaries, and defiance then breakdown of traditional political norms in gridlock ... "it's complicated"... reminds me a little bit of modern America, and elsewhere perhaps.
It seems like power tends to corrupt. Voting spreads out power. Separation of powers and "Equal Justice under law" (when used as directed) keeps monopolies of power in check.
That was the premise of Adam Smith's principle of perfect competition, based on the idea that self-interest works great at the micro level, but generates inefficiencies if not outright evils when consolidated. Eg who societies with elites steering imperial conquests, usually baited by booty, and at someone else's expense. Not sure where you want to fit American expansion into the west and reduction of indigenous to dependence and corralling in reservations. Slavery, on the other hand, was outright and propagandized as a noble pursuit by a cultured minority which also enabled ruthless means to maintain it. But even past and present technologies ever more both enable and likely require scaling up in size, but along with it has come excess concentrations of wealth and influence. oversight is more than very interesting in the modern age. Heather's How the South... is a good example of all this, but hardly the only.
Yeah, it just does not make sense. But it makes emotional sense to vote for the people that feed your anger, even if what they are proposing is far, far worse than working to change things.
It seems that our self-centered "Reptile" brain gets off on it.
Not with the dumbing down of America by republicans.
I suggest reading Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz.
Thank you! Love what I found when I went to check out his book. There are so many books on the idiocy of thug leaders today. I have not really looked a lot due to my lack inability to focus well. I love that they have audio so I can do something whilst listening. Love Horowitz and will order that book.
And this one caught my attention and made me laugh. Might as well trying laughing on the way, no?
This Won't Help: Modest Proposals for a More Enjoyable Apocalypse by by Eli Grober and Tantor
Thanks, Molly—how did you know I desperately needed some humor today?
I know Eli Grober, will check out his book.
Profiles in Ignorance is funny and appallingly scary due to leaders' lack of knowledge and understanding. Extensive footnotes document his findings. I enjoy reading The Borowitz Report due to Andy's quirky sense of humor!
I spoke to a young woman who said she wasn’t going to vote. I was appalled. We fought so hard for the RIGHT to vote.
I talked to a man who said he was going to vote for Biden until he saw the debate.
Until he saw the debate? That's all he knew about what was going on over the last 4 years? He was never going to vote for President Biden. That was a convenient excuse.
His newspaper told him the Biden is senile.
Biden isn’t senile, he’s older, but his debate performance when he was ill didn’t help, nor did the press tell the full story or call out Trump’s Gish gallop of lies. The donors and pundits got spooked, so they were calling for Biden to step down.
Which, unfortunately, means they are spineless and ignorant.
Well, over the next few months these two people need to muster up some “small sense” from somewhere or from someone [HCR’s “Letters” and chats could be one] and give or add some critical analysis to their thought-processes when it comes to politics, government and American life!!!
Sigh. They walk amongst us. The line I use with no vote people is basically, if you're upset with what is happening and refuse to vote for change, you're enabling the other side.
League of Women Voters does high school civics education, but this is summer vacation. You can offer:
The Civics Center for high school voter registration
https://www.thecivicscenter.org/
Teen Vogue on “Every GenZ Issue JD Vance is Against “
https://www.threads.net/@drleolam/post/C9eEA7fxvaS/?xmt=AQGz-3tYzANHVetVYFsAvNAssNR_AdbCEGWZMxEFCgWBfQ
Rarely, Annie. And very, very, few people even know what fascism is. That is part of how we got here. That and allowing totally unqualified people to run for any office.
… as well as SOCIALISM …
History. There is even film of it.
She and 32% of America (and that's the stat from 2020--it's usually worse). It's astounding. My first response to such folks is to say, "Oh, did they cancel the election? It's not happening? Oh, wait, that's right: IT IS. It's happening whether you vote or not. What you mean to say is that, YOU DON'T CARE, and nothing--not one, single thing that can happen, will get decided, proposed--NONE of that affects YOU in any way. Ever. In fact, you so don't care, that you want your neighbor's vote to count DOUBLE, since 1) there's still an election and 2) you're not voting, but they are--would you like ME to decide your schedule for this week? No? Okay--glad we're clear on that."
Guilt-trips rarely work, and when they do it's generally in the very short term.
My parents educated us in the importance of voting. My mother’s father did that with all of his children and before he died, he took each of them to register to vote at 21. My late uncle ensured my aunts were registered to vote at 21. This was before the amendment lowering voting age to 21. I registered to vote at 18 and have voted in all presidential and most off season elections. I vote in even small elections as they are important also.
I have missed one election, off year, no national candidates and no ballot measures. I had the wrong date in my head, and had been traveling so no local news for the week before hand. That was probably 25 years ago.
I have voted in every election since I was old enough to, except for a special election two years ago when I had Covid. I do not understand not voting. If you don't vote, you lose your right to complain.
Did you have a conversation with them about how voting is the only time your voice gets to be heard?
I told my friend that my son (who lives in gerrymandered Austin) says he votes because it's his duty and even though most times it doesn't matter, one day it could.
Annie, a long ago former partner of mine was proud of not voting 😤, so I told him to never, ever, complain about the state of local/state/national policies. Personally I don’t get it, but it is (so far) a free country to participate or not as you choose.
But the thing is, it will not continue to be free if folks don’t participate. The very foundation of a democracy is the duty of the citizen to vote.
Annie, exactly what I tried to point out….to no avail…free country until it isn’t.
Not free if we in concert fail to keep freedom alive. The overall trend of the universe is toward decay. We living things sail against the wind, and that takes effort.
This is precisely why my parents brought us up to consider voting important.
"toward decay" i guess you mean increasing entropy. It does make you wonder, however, how the "whole thing" got "wound up" in the first place if "decay" is all there is.
In Australia voting is a civic requirement. Not in Canada, though our turnouts are generally higher than in the US.
Frank, I’ve thought the Australian’s had the right idea on this assuming, of course, the voters actually pay attention/study the issues.
On that front, I don't know if adversarial politics is a wrecker as much as the USA - I don't think so. In general politics is more polarized internationally than it used to be, different flavours for different nations. Immigration is often a top item. It seems in excess of 98% Aussie voting public is enrolled. and about 90% vote. So, it's "civil duty"... Aussies managed to ban automatic weaponry back in the late 90s after a mass shooting. Little to none of that since. They have an Australian Electoral Commission which on the surface tries to inform, encourage partici pation, remain even-handed.
https://www.aec.gov.au/elections/federal_elections/voter-turnout.htm
https://www.aec.gov.au/
Cool! Thanks for the links….we could learn a thing or three!
Requiring people to vote merely conceals the reasons that so many people in the US don't vote: because what happens in an election has little to no effect on their lives. Also -- both Australia and Canada are parliamentary systems. Candidates run for parliament in districts or ridings that are of manageable size. In Canada, they are much, much smaller than a U.S. congressional district. IIRC no one runs province-wide, so no candidate has to deal with a "district" the size of California, New York, Illinois, Texas, etc., the way U.S. Senate candidates do. And no one runs nation-wide the way the president does.
I'm not sure size should have a disqualifying argument for making voting a mandatory civics duty. Eg registering your vehicle, following traffic laws, etc etc. Anyway, various ngos either advocate for or against. Eg the very conservative Cato Institute is against it. The liberal Brookings Institute is for it. Here's a link from Brookings... https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-shouldnt-voting-be-mandatory/
If you don't register your vehicle, get it inspected as required, follow traffic laws, etc., there are consequences that most of us most of the time want to avoid. This is not the case with voting or not voting. Most of the time, in most elections, we see little in the way of consequences regardless of who's elected. Political wonks see consequences, of course, but most voters don't.
Voting is an act of faith. Making it mandatory is a little like requiring church attendance: you don't have to believe, you just have to show up. Think of not-voting as a symptom of something wrong in the body politic. Mandatory voting conceals that symptom. And the differences between the U.S. system and parliamentary systems are considerable. Trust me on this, or read up on it yourself.
Most Americans oppose mandatory voting, for sure. Pew polls spell that out in spades. I think "civic duty" is a matter of internalization, becoming a civic values item for the electorate. Curiously the only Aussie punishment is a $20 fine, and the allow "none of the above" as an allowed voting option. Their mandatory has been in place since 1924. A debate in Canada has come up over this when Trudeau came to power, and the decision was that since a significant majority of Canadians vote anyway, why rock the boat? Here's a CBC on the matter. Myself, i sometimes wonder when issues get very heated, what usually submerged part of the American electorate might surface and throw polls, wherever. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/mandatory-voting-canada-s-weediversary-fighting-alongside-the-kurds-atwood-archives-dolly-parton-more-1.5324795/in-australia-voting-is-mandatory-easy-and-often-fun-is-there-a-lesson-for-canada-1.5324822
Do it Yourself government. And if you don't, who does?
"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." - Pericles
It’s shameful there is so much ignorance about government and about how someone want a dictator to do the heavy lifting for them. We don’t need a dictator, we need to have our voices heard as citizens.
And we need to hear one another, but in good faith. Not a pack of provable lies.
That's probably considered too old-fashioned, like teaching grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
not nearly enough nor in the way they should be functioning. 50 years of Republican underfunding public education in this country has created a nation full of credulous, gullible people who haven't the faintest idea of U.S. or world history or civic privileges/obligations.
Curious to know the age of this non-voter.
She’s around 60 I think. I found it appalling.
In that case she should have been exposed to Civics. I worked in publishing, and it was common knowledge that Civics was often taught by coaches. Maybe she had a weak teacher. Or maybe she went to a private school where it was considered unimportant.
You can get a custom education by using Google. And Google’s AI tool called Gemini is really valuable too.
You can get data and facts, including the ones others make up. Education takes another, more strenuous level of effort.
Thanks for your POV. Khan Academy and TEDx is very good.
Sometimes if you strip down your keyword search, you get the sweetspot with Google. Yes, there is extra vetting to do, and it's a Best Practice to vet what you hear or read.
Here is a few YouTube examples to explain Gerrymandering-
-Gerrymandering | US government and civics | US government and civics | Khan Academy
https://youtu.be/WfxBuwMGTts?si=Nurr8Tn61iDw7CqL
-What is Gerrymandering? | Quick Learner
https://youtu.be/6jlI7lqo5Rs?si=AcyWmuALy0d5eQMT
-Gerrymandering: Controversial Political Redistricting Explained | History
https://youtu.be/Fm9hi1QkLVo?si=NpcaRokmX_LrjTST
Google cannot give you a framework for the facts you search.
Thanks for your POV. Sometimes if you strip down your keyword search, you get the sweetspot with Google. Yes, there is extra vetting to do, but with AI advancing in the future, it's a Best Practice to vet your research. I support journalists using Substack, because many are transparent with their reference footnotes.
that's interesting, i use Google to advance my personal education from public schooling and subsequent personal interest since.
I'm not surprised either. Are USians more worried about inflation (whose causes they mostly don't understand) than about the end of our aspiring democracy? It's a toss-up, but I'm going to do what I can.
Susanna, The problem, in my view, with centering democracy as a campaign issue is that most people, some might say justifiably, view it as an abstraction. Accordingly, I believe the focus must shift to what it would mean to lose our democracy and how our way of life would change. Trump already has stated he would enact the Insurrection Act on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s already spoken about rounding up his political enemies. In a word, we can’t relent on prevailing upon people to imagine what America would look like were the President to start moving the Military around to put down our voices, our right to protest policy we oppose, perhaps indefinitely detaining us. This is not without precedent. Trump had wanted to criminalize protesters around Black Lives Matter for the murder of George Floyd.
Note I’ve barely touched upon rights and freedoms that would be ripped away, nor have I mentioned women losing control of their bodies, nor what it would mean were we unable to depend on an independent judiciary (we’re already starting to see what that would look like), or depend on the rule of law, or an independent Justice department, or an independent Federal Communications Commission—all things Trump has said he would do, and I’m just getting started.
Ultimately, we have less than 4 months before the General to urge voters to listen to the things Trump and J.D. Vance say and the people they admire. No one should doubt that whatever freedoms we have in this country, whatever one likes about this country, dramatically would change.
The coup is almost over. Step one - paralyse the legislature. Step 2, seize the courts. Both these have been achieved. Step 3 will be to purge the military and key administrative positions immediately after returning to the WH, followed by arresting key political enemies at the same time as taking over or banning unfriendly media, suspending unions (that will be explained as temporary). Then it’s taking over police and schools in blue states.
My question to Americans is - what will you do about it if voting isn’t enough?
Sophie, While I would acknowledge that Trump/ Trumpism has absorbed Congress and the judiciary, the point of my comment was to illustrate a rhetorical strategy aimed at galvanizing enough Democratic voters to win a sufficient number of races up and down the ballot that 1) would preclude the advent of “Step 3” and 2) would mark the start of building back our civic institutions.
Definitely worth fighting for! I hope you prevail at the ballot box, but you probably know already that it won’t stop there even if you do. After all, look at the past 4 years.
Sophie, I’m not aware of anyone who believes even if we win handily the resistance won’t be brutal. Still, I would submit, as long as we clearly prevail, down ballot Democratic candidates will be seated in early January and a Democratic President will be inaugurated on Jan. 20th.
If the Democrats win, I hope they swiftly and unequivocally do something about the MAGA courts that have gone completely off-piste in an openly partisan way; and about the right of all American women to access healthcare. However, I don’t believe violence will stop in January, and the new MAGA generation isn’t going away.
Sophie, I agree with you on all counts and would add my understanding that MAGA represents a resurgence of a polarization whose seeds date back to our founding that ultimately led to a Civil War, wherein the Confederates were locked into a bunker mentality premised on the proposition that they sooner would see the destruction of the Union over not getting the America they wanted.
Political gridlock didn't stop Biden's mostly successful, though critically incomplete, legislative record in the last congress.
That’s true, up to the Midterms. Biden did well to get much of his programme through by then, as he knew there’d be gridlock afterwards if the Republicans got even a small majority. Which is what happened. Bipartisanship became a lot harder after 2008 (some say under Newt Gingrich, more than a decade earlier), almost entirely due to the Republicans. Now they have metastased into MAGA, it’s become wholly impossible.
Yes. If democracy is a word so many don’t begin to understand, better to talk about the things it does.
Deidra, In my view, generally speaking, verbs are more impactful than nouns.
Completely agreeing!
Barbara Jo, I think you, we all, are precisely on track by talking about what we ALREADY see changing as a result of the MAGAts. It is no longer what WILL be happening, ...it is ALREADY happening all around us! Look at the SUPREME COURT! ...and how it has determined that women must relinquish control of their bodies and the right to privacy or control or treatment of their own bodies! Look at our schools and school boards and the ways in which their funding has been distorted! Look at the news media, although much of the distortion and misuse of information in those places is driven by corporate money and "hits" and the prodigious funding by corporations, which our courts have deemed to be "people" deserving to be given "free speech" via their anonymous dollars which end up lopsidedly going to fund the MAGAts who have taken over the Republican Party. This is about what has already happened right in front of us!
JohnM, Precisely! Accordingly, speaking metaphorically, we are at war with a Party prepared to do whatever it takes to hold power. I say every one of us must step up.
Very good points. "Save Our Democracy" and similar slogans are popular locally. Some people have suddenly discovered postcarding and phone/text banking, etc. I'm all "Democracy was in trouble before 2016 -- where were you?" IMO using Project 2025 is the way to go, selecting particular points for different audiences.
Susanna, I agree regarding Project 2025, and would note I’ve been informed that FiieldTeam6 has provided text relative to the same that one can use on any of its postcards. Once I get started, I will add 1 further sentence referring the recipient to a synopsis of P-25, probably the one posted on Democracy Docket.
As a final point, I also would add that the placard I carry in various standouts reads, “Vote like your right depend on it—‘cause they do!”
Barbara Jo Krieger,
I agree that we must in all honesty, clarity...with references...repeat what it will mean to our country, our children, our long held relationships with countries all over the world if Donald Trump becomes our President.
As we each and all recognize, there are many forces supporting the destruction of our country, our freedoms, respect and appreciation of humanity, persons of color, freedom to worship or not, new arrivals to our country who are willing to work in the most humble of jobs, disrespect for women, disregard for children, our earth, climate change and its obvious effects on all of life.
We must do all that we are able to do. Violence is not the way.
Emily, Thank you for writing and expanding upon my reply to Susanna.
And the Trump Party is running on that platform! These folks are completely ill informed. Inflation is a world wide problem. It cannot be repaired by a political party. (People hate wage and price controls). I wonder would happen once they notice that prices had not gone down? Many cannot/do not see past the border.
Bringing back anti-trust might help. Monopolies control markets. I was taught that in school. Competition tends to regulate prices. When there are too few players, those left just divide up the spoils like gangsters dividing up territories or banks colluding to set interest rates (as in the LIBOR scandal).
Annie- Yes, inflation is a world-wide problem, but as Catherine Rampell pointed out yesterday in the WAPO, inflation is tied to supply and demand. In economics supply and demand are repeated ad nauseam in every course I ever took.
Biden had some policies which increased the supply of money people had to spend on food, shelter and other necessities. But he didn't personally go to the fossil fuel producers and tell them to raise their prices or to Walmart or McDonalds.
The administration kick started the economy with billions in stimulus money and also with the 60,000 infrastructure projects which have actually helped make America great.
Here is the Catherine Rampell article from WAPO
Opinion Hey, corporate greed is gone! Just look at the price of a Big Mac.
Consumer spending data provides an economics lesson, with a side of fries.
By Catherine Rampell and Aden Barton
Great news, America! We finally beat greed. Those blaming inflation on money-grubbing corporations will be delighted to learn that those same money-grubbers have, amazingly, now turned altruistic.
Overall prices fell in June from a month earlier. And burger lovers may soon especially benefit from this largesse, because fast-food chains have begun mobilizing for the “value menu wars.”
In recent weeks, fast-food chains have been slashing prices left and right, first with the Burger King $5 Your Way Meal in mid-June. Then came the McDonald’s $5 Meal Deal, also available for a limited time. Not to be outdone, Taco Bell joined the fray with its $7 Luxe Cravings Box. Seemingly every chain is trying to undercut its competitors.
But Ronald McDonald, established philanthropist though he may be, did not suddenly stop caring about profits. Nor have companies been shamed into cutting prices by presidential jawboning (despite President Biden’s recent claims). These companies are just responding to changes in consumer demand.
Exactly as they did when they raised prices before, inspiring all that feverish, anti-greed jawboning to begin with.
“Greedflation” proponents argue that corporations used inflation as a smokescreen to raise prices independent of higher operating costs. And, look, it is true that companies sometimes raised prices even more than their own input costs increased. But that’s precisely what you’d expect when consumer demand is strong.
During the pandemic, consumers were unusually flush with cash. This was a consequence of forced savings (people were stuck at home, forgoing travel and fine dining) as well as generous fiscal policy (e.g., stimulus checks from both the Trump and Biden administrations). When that high household demand collided with stuck supply chains, businesses raised prices.
That is, businesses of all types, from mom-and-pop shops to multinationals, reacted to long lines of customers combined with higher costs by raising what they charged. If they hadn’t, they’d have been left with endless empty shelves.
The aggregate amount of greed in the economy hadn’t suddenly spiked. Companies didn’t start caring about making money again. The explanation is more banal: Demand exceeded supply.
Inflation at fast-food restaurants has gotten outsize attention, in part because burgers and nuggets have traditionally been such a bargain. A TikTok bemoaning the exorbitant $16.10 price tag on a (specialty) McDonald’s meal went viral, making it all the way to the White House. McDonalds released its own McFlation fact check to convince customers its price increases were not so dramatic. Ironically, the Big Mac has had among the lowest price growth of well-known fast-food items.
Even with these supersized burger prices, customers continued to order fast food at (and eventually above) pre-pandemic levels because they had leftover money to spend. Plus, tight labor markets were putting upward pressure on wages. In turn, prices kept rising as Americans kept ordering. And ordering. And ordering.
But in recent months, consumer demand has cooled. Consumers have now spent much of their pandemic savings, federal data shows. Wage growth has slowed. And interest rates are higher, meaning it’s more expensive to buy things on credit.
This is all especially true for lower-income households. They have always had less discretionary income to work with, but in recent years, they’ve also been hit harder by inflation. They exhausted their pandemic savings earlier than their higher-income neighbors.
All of this made consumers a little more price-sensitive and less eager to spend on nonnecessities. In fact, data from consumer analytics firm Numerator shows that spending at limited-service restaurants grew from late 2022 to around September 2023 — and then flattened out, especially for low-income customers. In fact, after adjusting for inflation, spending would actually be down.
This shift forced companies to work harder to get customers in the door. As Ian Borden, chief financial officer of McDonald’s, put it in an April earnings call: “Everybody is fighting for fewer consumers … that are certainly visiting less frequently.” In response, Borden urged the adoption of a “street-fighting mentality to win.”
The company’s not-so-secret weapon in this street fight? Value menus. And thus the ensuing race to the bottom in fast-food prices that we’re now getting a (delicious) taste of.
It’s not just fast food, either. Big-box stores such as Walmart and Target also slashed prices this summer to lure back shoppers. The president, who apparently thinks greedflation is a winning political message, has tried to take credit for these discounts. The White House has said retailers are “answering the call” from Biden to “give families more breathing room.”
But the truth is that multinationals aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re still just trying to make money.
This recent up-and-down pricing roller coaster confirms an old adage: The best cure for high prices is high prices. If inflation was caused primarily by greed or sneaky corporate behavior, prices should’ve stayed high. Instead, high prices eventually nudged customers to scale back spending, which in turn incentivized companies to offer better deals. An economics lesson, with a side of fries.
Thank you for sharing the article.
Instead of "inflation," it should be termed "greedflation." Thanks for sharing this article.
It’s the ones who don’t see past their stock holdings who are more disgusting. Greed starts there and donates up the chain to to the most traitorous of our nation. They have no concept of “ We the people,” just “me and mine.” It is so very disheartening.
Me, Too! Me, Too!
Me too!!!
I use the term USians also. As Americans covers 2 continents.
I picked it up a dozen or so years ago from a Canadian editor I know. I think it's spreading. <g>
Americans vote by emotion, not logic.
So do I -- is that news? There's no rule that says emotion can't be informed by information and values. In fact, I believe it usually is. I make major purchases the same way: gather information about several alternatives then go with my gut.
If Trump and Vance get a pop at their protectionist programme, they’ll be able to worry about even more inflation.
And you can't fix what you won't understand.
I’m afraid you will have to be like your father. Because you’re not getting rid of the Orange Dictator by just voting. Besides, if Biden should win the election, the Extreme Court will simply declare the outcome void - because if their beloved leader doesn’t win, it clearly must mean that the election was stolen by Biden and therefore illegal, right? I think ordinary Americans will have to take up arms and storm the beaches, or go down in a fascist empire…
I have been thinking the same for months. They will not allow themselves to lose this election no matter how blue the landslide.
The coup is on and it is DEEP. We must be prepared for what happens after November and quite frankly, before and during. It is on.
SCOTUS, Cannon, and some of our own weak Dems (looking at you Dick Durbin) are enabling a full scale coup d’etat.
So it is. When Biden wins the election, Trump will appeal, and SCOTUS will decide that he is right and declare him winner. They have been testing the waters and found that all is ok. After all, did riots break out after their decision on the case "DJ Trump vs United States"? Nope. The Extreme Court view themselves as uncontested supreme rulers over all, and they are right. Nobody can stop them anymore.
I added a like agreeing with you, but damn, it’s tough to like this idea. The Supreme Court most certainly has been enabled. Weak Dems are too slow to react too. They still play by rules that the other party laughs off and scoffs at.
Exactly that. The Dems try to stay morally superior. It’s like reading the rules of the chess game to your opponent to explain that what he is doing is cheating while at the same time he is punching you in the face.
Game, set, and match to Donald.
It seems we are going to see war in Europe again.
Everyone on this page is saying vote, vote, vote. I think it's too late for that even, I think that is naive.
I feel the same way many times a day. But then another part of me says if we don’t at least try, they will take us over. At least try.
You are right Cleo. But I think educate is as important as voting... if not more
I absolutely agree, but right now the time is short. There are many things that must be fixed in America, if we get another chance.
It’s too late for voting. The (literal) Supreme Court will declare the election results void if Biden wins, and nobody can challenge that decision. Hate to say it, but Putin and the Rethuglicans are better at the long game than the Dems… If youbwant to save democracy, you will literally have to fight for it.
Christopher L. Groesbeck,
My father-in-law understood the terror of serving his country in WWII but he also knew his duty and he faced it fully.
There remain a few true heroes within this country and throughout the world. We must stand together with such as these or we will lose this country to those with short term ambitions who will give us over to our enemies for a few pieces of silver.
When documents were found at the home of President Biden and at the home of the former Vice President , Mike Pence....they each opened their homes for the documents to be properly returned, offering no excuses....nor did they attempt to conceal them. There has been no further need for searches or investigations.
There is no comparison to the opposing character qualities between Biden and Pence vs. Trump.
VOTE!!!!