There has been no greater danger from within to the future of America since the Civil War than today’s Trump-led, Christo-fascist GOP. And for the mainstream media to be reporting on this election from any other context is the worst failure I could ever imagine. Walter Cronkite is spinning in his grave.
My theory (having watched CNN go around the bend) is that corporate media, like many Republicans, are hedging their bets. They want to be in the good graces of the 'New MAGA Order' if that becomes a reality so as to survive, knowing that their craven cowardice and treason can be smoothed over should the nation regain its sanity and reelect Biden-Harris. It seems plain as day to me.
Maybe as Dan Rather quoted a teacher as saying. Just get up and go to the window and see if it’s raining. Report what you see. Spinning, deciding, do, or don’t, burying stories, headlining stories, is the media taking the decision away from us. Chump and David Pecker knew that. So should we all…
Indeed Mona Ross and Roxanna Springer; those are precisely the springs that feed my rage and outrage towards many of those outlets; no truth, nor honor - profit motives only.
Driving through Taos NM in late August 2015 there were " sandwich board' signs lined up in town for 2 blocks each one stating a reason why not to vote for tfg - it was great.
No Burma Shave in Melbourne, but there was one series of yellow signs with black printing that used to puzzle me when we drove out of town to the hills. ACCIDENTS HAPPEN.....WHY NOT PREPARE?.....YOU CAN INSURE FREE.....BY TAKING THE SUN. I thought it must mean what we now do to boost our Vitamin D, but it meant "The Sun", one of our three morning newspapers (masthead a black rooster silhouette and the words "Daily at dawn"). Everybody read it, "The Argus" was rubbish, "The Age" was ponderously serious, with no pictures, and "The Herald" (evening) and "The Sun" were owned by that fine newspaperman Sir Keith Murdoch. Rupert was in short pants then. That's amazing: those four signposts popped back into my memory for the first time since childhood, reading about burma-shave.
Boy, would I love that. I remember them as a kid riding in the back seat with 3 bros. Would suggest that to maddogpac.com. The billboard folks, if I knew how. Attention getters for bored kids could be attention getters for head-in-the sand voters.
Thank you for a simple yet profound insight, Jeri. Your insight reminds me of when I was talking -- as one among several students -- with Charles Kuralt a few months after the bi-centennial. I had a pet-peeve, which I presented to the venerated 'American roadie'. I had been disturbed by the television crews interviewing Arthur Bremer's mother after the attempted assassination of Governor Wallace.
The 'old lady' (likely at an age younger than I am now) was crying, obviously broken-hearted and in the grief of disbelief that her son could do such a thing. The whole incident impressed me as mean-spirited thrill-seeking. Mr Kuralt patiently answered that news is not always pleasant. To which, with not wit, I exclaimed that I was so upset I turned off the television.
"And you had the choice to . . . just to turn off the TV," replied Mr Kuralt. One can not argue with that. Report the news and let the viewer make up his or her own mind. We are not imbeciles. Some may not be as well educated as others, but that does not mean they are stupid or that the media should become missionaries of information (i.e., propagandists).
In a pre-internet, pre-cable tv era, old school, shoe leather journalists of the highest professionalism as he certainly was, were the coin of the realm, displaying Americans and parts of America, to their fellow Americans in other parts of America with a panache as picaresque as it was powerful. I assume he and his producers at CBS titled the series ("On the Road with Charles Kuralt") both for the obvious and in tacit homage to the pioneering Jack Kerouac book.
Years later here in Southern California, our local PBS station presented a long running show of similar quality and focus hosted by a sometime acquaintance of mine, the late, great Huell Howser, entitled "California's Gold".
You actually met Charles Kuralt. I was a fan every Sunday morning. He would be appalled at the stupidity of viewers today, and how the gullible gobble nonsense like it is ambrosia. I agree with Napoleon’s comment that “nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” That should be our mantra for our difficult age.
As a college freshman. He was very unassuming and very kind. There was an eighty-something former vaudevillian in my college town whom we loved. Somebody told Mr Kuralt about him and so Mr Kuralt did an on-the-road segment of that man. So charitable; even brought a blush of grace to my young and cynical cheeks.
I know that nowadays, you can't trust anything in regards to pictures. There is a picture of trump holding a bottle with two hands but he looks like he is blowing on it as if the water was hot or he was going toot with it. Just one photo catching and isolating an action can be so misleading. Is the picture AI generated? photo-shopped? They all look so real.
What are the chances that TFG's supporters can wake up to the fact that they are being used to gain power? The very sources that have convinced them that their situation is not their fault but caused by the 'other', that the money behind those sources are the cause of their discontent.
About the same as the chances that the Christian nationalists will see that they're being used by their preachers (and the politicos and plutocrats) for similar reasons, and that most of what they're being taught doesn't come from the New Testament.
The problem is white supremacy. It’s insidious. Today’s letter outlines how racism has shaped our Constitution, our lives and our nation for centuries.
Why did we even need all of these Constitutional amendments and court decisions to give states rights when we’re supposed to be the “United” states?
Anyone who knows the truth about American history can see how white supremacy has shaped our nation in profound ways for centuries. It’s embedded in our Constitution, laws and customs.
Heather uses the term “neighbors” when she refers to Black people but most White people never had Black neighbors because America’s laws and customs didn’t allow Black people to live in certain places or hold certain jobs or attend certain schools.
So called “Christian nationalists have always been with us. The Bible was used to justify slavery and Jim Crow. Religion has been used to allow white supremacy to dominate all of our lives.
Yet in the mainstream we don’t like acknowledging, talking about or doing anything substantive about white supremacy.
I think Biden has fallen out of favor because the reality is his vice president is a colored woman, he’s included a good number of Black people in his administration/ campaign and Black voters are a good part of his base. This is alarming to most (but not all) Americans.
There’s panic about the idea that Kamala might have to assume the presidency. Heaven forbid! The ruling class and people who benefit are on edge.
The Great Replacement Theory is scaring too many White people. Trump is their savior.
Racism (plus misogyny) got us to where we are today and it’s killing America. Let’s pretend that’s not the issue though. It’s just Joe’s age.
White people overwhelmingly vote for Trump because they want small government and tax cuts. Never mind his character and agenda.
Nope-they vote for him because they don’t want us to make progress. They like white supremacy and know that Trump and the Rs will make America great again.
This is the real issue that people need to wake up to-if we could deal with white supremacy as a feature of our caste system then issues like education, gun control, abortion, climate change etc can be resolved because we’d have more unity-not division.
Black people support Biden because they know through lived experience over generations that tyranny means death and destruction.
Trump and the Rs lean on racism and “Christianity” because they know it works. It’s a proven tool for dividing and conquering the masses. It’s been cultivated for years. Would immigration be such a problem if the people weren’t “brown”?
We need to be wide awake to see the racism though. I’m counting on Americans with goodwill to give our nation a chance for change. Vote for Biden and call out racism when you see it so we can move forward together.
While President Biden's faculties have declined, I am still with him. I would welcome a President Harris, though I would likely disagree with many of her policies. She is a fine person with an unimpeachable character.
I also favour President Biden for many of the specific actions he has taken. One stands out as a reflection of his basic decency. That is the nomination of former Senator Jeff Flake as the (now) U.S. Ambassador to Turkey.
Senator Flake served the State of Arizona as a conservative Republican and wrote a modern up-date of 'Conscience of a Conservative'. He was the first, perhaps only, Republican Senator to stand up openly to condemn Trump for his hate-filled rhetoric.
Republican Senators who knew better let him twist in the wind; M.A.G.A. malice hounded Senator Flake out of the chamber. That President Biden rewarded Senator Flake for his courage says all I need to know about President Biden to vote for him.
Biden hasn't fallen out of favor in my circles either, but IMO Gina is on to something really important: that one reason Biden has fallen out of favor with the mostly white, mostly male pundits and media moguls is that his VP is a woman of color. Notice how so many of the people demanding he resign don't mention VP Harris as a backup, and indeed don't mention a backup scenario at all?
Gina - this is it precisely! I'm glad to see that you have called it out. But the level of discomfort that white Americans feel when this subject is broached is very informative. It seems really difficult for most Americans to ponder the contradictions inherent in our system of government, our laws, and our economy. Most would prefer to not be reminded and try to pretend it away.
Had a chat with my sister-in-law about the phony Christians all around these days. Shocked her to her core. But she is kind, serious about Christianity and no fool. The opportunity arose and I took a chance. Bet her brain has been spinning, but maybe she will decide that some of the family are bat-Schitt crazy with the cult crap.
A "friend" said that Kamala was chosen because she was female and black, totally disregarding her many achievements. Folks need to learn more about her before dismissing her.
‘Kamala …heaven forbid!’ We suspected Ronnie Reagan was ‘losing it’ after he was re-elected! Not until his term was over was it revealed Nancy was running the country , and her fortune teller!
Anne-Louise, they certainly do not teach from the first three Gospels and what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. They ignore what he said about the wealthy and religious hypocrites like themselves. if Jesus appeared today, they would deport him....not a blue-eyed white man. And then there is Paul and their fav book, Revelations.
The only share is fanatical insistence on being right vs wrong or more to the point good versus evil. If you're not sure about that, read the NT, just not as a Sunday School lesson.
Jeri Chilcutt's comment (Jul 9) is exactly what the "free press" is supposed to be doing. Real reportage has historically been "just the facts, ma'am," without slant, bias, or pre-determined conclusions. The facts drive the reporting, rather than the other way around. The USA saw the stirrings of "yellow journalism" back in the early 1890s, when breathless, sensational reportage was in use to propel the nation into a war with Spain. William Hearst and Joe Pulitzer saw real gains in readership by appealing to emotions and pathos in the articles that appeared, and Hearst himself has been credited with the origin of the expression "If it bleeds, it leads." It's been a downhill slide ever since.
Or even a genuinely NEUTRAL position. I don't need the media to tell me what to think or how to think, but I DO need the media to tell me what happened, what is planned, what various people are thinking or what their goals are.
It doesn’t matter. Any coverage allowed will be propaganda a la Putin. Public radio/TV will be defunded—something I mentioned in my letter today saying that I had stopped listening to their news which was (including BBC) constantly fomenting the agitation about Biden, and not covering his successes, stable administration, or Trump’s many disconnects ramblings. I told them I expect better of them,
I listen to Medias touch. They are gathering more and more well educated people. Glenn Kirchener, and the man from Tennessee. and Farron Cousins.
In the main stream news, no one seems to realized that the Biden's staff are very steady people who know what they are doing. Trump had staff who didn't know what they were doing. Biden just needs to go out and campaign just like he is doing.
We need to get beyond the debate and let our President focus on governing. This has become a huge distraction for our President.
If we continue this "distraction", we are giving free support to those in the Republican Party that are destroying our freedoms to govern "for the people".
There is a need for quiet, serious, and respectful conversation within the body of Democratic leaders. Our beloved and great President needs to be taken out of the spotlight so that he can continue the great work he has done for us.
Wise and positive action needs to be taken...no more "wringing our hands". Persons of color are working together to save our Democracy. We need to pay attention to their wisdom and follow their lead.
Thank you, Emily. So true! And just by the way, I was looking at a video clip of Jamie Raskin wielding his duelling sword with perfect balance and efficacity and admired him yet again. ("It's always a pleasure to hear my colleague from Colorado speaking" - just before demolishing her). He's not black, but the protective headscarf he's no longer wearing, thank goodness, could have made him a self-proclaimed victim of otherness.
Perhaps. But Biden might’ve actually prepared for a debate on issues. That wasn’t one, thanks in part to the panel failing to focus the questions and to Trump’s lifelong automatic ‘camera’ mode—the gaslighting conman. He is a media-created narcissist and Biden is not. Biden is a working man, not a media created celebrity. His mistake was expecting to actually talk about substance and facts.
DT did not answer a single question in that “debate”. In his usual bullying fashion he just repeated the lies that he has committed to memory and said over and over again. It wasn’t preparation, it was repetition.
I agree that Biden was over-coached and over-prepared with facts and numbers rather than speaking from his heart.
It’s time to be over the debate. What matters is defeating Project 2025!!
Using Project 25—and every single one of the horribly unpopular measures the MAGA GOP promises—as Democratic Party propaganda for defeating DT and MAGA at every turn.
Make a list of them, from His Majesty Donny I to overturning Roe vs. Wade to bump stocks to official State religion to the persecution of racial and sexual minorities to the expulsion of all the millions who have been keeping the country alive and the economy functioning by doing the jobs no one else is willing to do… List in order of horror.
Winning both houses of Congress is essential, purging every school board, every niche where the infestation of parasites and scavengers has taken up lodgings!
*
HURRY! Get hold of the COMPLETE VERSION NOW, before Drumpf has it taken down as… too embarrassing… with his name written all over it, just as that name will, if he has his way, be branded on all that moves and displayed in letters of gold on all that doesn’t.
GET THE PRESENTATION BY KEVIN ROBERTS, PRESIDENT OF THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION…
Drumpf, of course, says “Not me... Don’t know these folks”.
JUST AS HE DIDN’T “KNOW” STORMY DANIELS, THE LADY HE RAPED IN A CHANGING ROOM OR ANY OF THE OTHERS WHO HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF THOSE SMALL HANDS GRABBING THEM BY THE GENITALS.
Peter, I let it go with "I may have had a bad day or so in my time" and leave it go without debate. You soon find out who has an axe to grind or a narrative to 'spin.' ** Also, to your point; The manipulative nature of OiD's badly flawed character prepped him.
Thanks Eva. I too listen to Medias touch. They have brilliant commentators and as diverse as well educated Glenn Kitchener to Tennessee Brando (a good old ordinary average American). They help maintain the sanity that MSM is so lacking for true journalism.
*** And 'that' my wise friend Eva is the word that says it all; TEAM. The office of the president is All about the Team around him. Joe has constructed a team of professionals who are tremendously talented, extremely committed to 'ideals, philosophies, goals, etc., that Joe has, as their leader espouses and 'acts' upon. In shorter terms, they execute his ideals surrounding our construct of a just, useful, and constitutionally driven government and community. And for those who've paid close attention to our doctor, they are doing it all "lawfully," which has her, and yes myself, on their side; at this moment in time. ** I am ever in awe... absolute awe at the team Joe has assembled around himself. I've often thought, and chastised myself for not letting those individuals know how proud and grateful I am for their service to country... and Joe; each respectable leaders in their own rights. And extremely hard working.... again following Joe's lead and actions. That includes the seemingly invisible Kamala, who works her tail off too, unbeknownst to far too many. I would give anything, including my last days on this rock, to serve Joe, Kamala, Blinken, Buttigieg (sp ?_) - any who would have me. They are truly rock stars !!!
Lol Anne. I fret sometimes... At my core I'm sort of a grammarian and spell - arian like others here. Bet I could save our doctor some money on editing costs - I'd work for her for room and board ! Thanks for confirmation on the spelling. I don't know if it shows or not in my writing, but I write as I think and feel - in the moment. I don't calculate, yet sometimes my fingers get too far behind my thoughts.... Brava sistuh !
I think the man you refer to is "Tennessee Brando"? I have not seen Glenn Kirschner on Meidas, but he has his own Youtube channel and also does frequent clips with Brian Tyler Cohen.
I also recommend "Beau of the Fifth Column" and his companion weekly channel "The Roads with Beau".
They will disappear, completely. Maybe they want to hang on as a shadow of what they were early on. Well, that’s what they are now. Hoping for a Dem blow out and my many dreams come true. Yes, I’m a dreamer, but maybe I’m not the only one…
John, as if RFK Jr weren't the actual agent of division which HCR reminded us about in her previous letter about the political psychologicakl warfare Putin has used so effectively in the UK (see Brexit and Boris Johnson) and in France (in Marine LePen). RFK Jr represents the same kind of divider that tRump was. His major ties for speaking engagements, organizations and money has been the far right as has been his staffing. His own family is embarrassed by him and repudiates the stands he takes.
HCR specifically reported on "what Russian political theorists called “political technology”: the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media. Political theorists developed several techniques in this approach to politics: blackmailing opponents, abusing state power to help favored candidates, sponsoring “double” candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to confuse voters on the other side and thus open the way for their own candidates, creating false parties to split the opposition, and, finally, creating a false narrative around an election or other event in order to control public debate."
100% agree. RFK in a sense is to this cycle that Ralph Nader was to 2000 but worse because he has used his good name and take on destructive directions on issues.
John, when you meet RFK, please ask him to buy my book, “How to Make Money From the Mentally Retarded.” I’ll send you an autographed copy dedicated to him.
I do believe the wonderful, honest and fearless patriots sharing the truth on MSNBC have proven that they are willing to face their fears and use their gifts and talents in order to preserve freedoms you enjoy but are too cowardly to stand up for! They are fighting for all of us...even you.
What are you doing to preserve freedom for the future of the citizens of the United States of America???
What are you doing? I don’t see you on social media attacking the traitor or his acolytes. I don’t see you sharing news worthy attacks on them. All I see here is an uninformed rabble rouser.
I am no longer able to listen to most of what CNN is reporting these days. They have barely mentioned Trumps abysmal, outrageous, one lie after another, performance during the “debate”…They seem set on destroying Biden. Jim Acosta seems to be the only one allowed to report on Trump’s outrageous behaviour. Also, let’s not forget that Biden is surrounded by strong, smart, trustworthy
My theory: it's like tug-of-war. The center is not where the flag is attached to the rope. The center is halfway between the two lines on the ground. The media's judgment is supposed to be on which side makes the best argument while the flag is between the two lines, which is while both sides are making sure both sides are being heard.
By closing its collective mind to the left, the right has declared that the flag is the center, and they knew the media would fall for the con because of its "next quarter" profits.
Dear CNN,
There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.
Yeah, and I had to read yours twice to be sure you really hadn't said "Pascal's Wanger"... Junior high brain stole the cafeine this morning, apparently.
I keep thinking about that--if Trump gets into office, there's no way Project 2025 will spare the NYT, CNN, or WaPo, no matter what they have been publishing recently.
Further Notice: James A, I am initiating mandatory mediation with Substack Inc on tortious Author conduct & unfair business practices by a Platform without James A.
Thank you, Bryan. Trolls have appeared and disappeared here before as we both well know (and that of the good readers here). I highly suspect that "James A" is former LFAA troll who got nowhere (you know who I mean!!) and has received funding to again try to sow discord here.
Steve Edward R. Murrow is spinning with Walter Cronkite. Murrow would be prompted to do a ‘Joe McCarthy’ expose on Trump, Project 2025, and the deadly challenge to the soul of America.
Murrow already would have done an expose on the Supreme Court, whose stench has fouled the Potomac River.
I'll put in my vote for MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell as one of the few remaining trustworthy journalists on television. In my judgment, everyone should make a habit of watching his show.
He, Lawrence O’Donnell is the news reporter that I also like. For his clear and honest reporting. I like Rachel Meda, but she’s just a little too cynical for me.
I think you mean Rachel Maddow. She's good too, but I don't always watch her, not because I think she's cynical, but because she's too detailed. We all need to know it's USA versus MAGA. If USA wins, everyone wins, including the MAGA cult members. And if MAGA wins, everyone loses, including MAGA.
Rachel digs into the nitty gritty detail to prove that point, and I'm thinking I'm already scared enough as it is. But I did watch the Stormy Daniels interview.
I knew Edward R. Murrow, his wife Janet, and Clancy, his only son. During WW II my family would listen to his remarkable THIS IS LONDON on Sundays. Much later Dad and Mr. Murrow created THIS I BELIEVE in memory of my mother.
I last talked with Murrow at an Eisenhower Fellowships meeting with President Eisenhower in the fall of 1960. Subsequently he became chief of the United States Information Agency, where he did a superb job of publicizing America abroad until, with lung cancer from his heavy smoking, he had to step down, and then died.
Lordy Keith. Most incredible thing I have seen on here. He was such a remarkable man. I saw his interview with Bogie and Bacall and he smoked non stop. What a loss. We watched him and my parents loved him. What a loss. You are so blessed.
Urrow. During the 1953 coronation, Murrow flew back with films for a broadcast, while Dad and I took Janet to Ascot (with Queen Elizabeth). Many years later Clancy and spoke spoke to a public television group in Washington about THIS I BELIEVE.
Have you written about it, such incredible memories. The coronation was the first thing I remember seeing on tv. We went to aunt’s house since we didn:’t have one. A fishing weekend. What an experience. How I wish some genius would show some of the old shows so we could relive some of those moments. I know C-span does old political speeches, but so much human interest stuff is lost or replaced by garbage.
Jesus Christ is spinning as well (hypocrisy being his #1 pet peeve). Never before have I witnessed such hypocrisy between what is written in the scriptures and the actions taken by these so-called “evangelicals.” Thank you David for calling out the mainstream media for doubling down on this….
Unfortunately, this supposes that we all (Americans) consume the same news, as we did when I was a kid and we only had the three local stations. Everyone got pretty much the same story. With the advent of cable, it doesn’t really matter how much news is consumed if it’s only consumed in a silo that protects and justifies your own thoughts and ideas. We don’t really have a Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow anymore. And if we did and they reported the truth, the right wouldn’t watch or listen to them anymore.
There is nothing Christian about this organization. It is an insult to the name of Christ.
Christ came to reconcile mankind to God, the Father. He demonstrated unconditional love. He healed those whom no one else would touch. He went into storms and calmed them. He confronted those whom He loved with the truth....some turned to Him, some did not choose to do so....He did not condemn them.
He demonstrated the unconditional love of God by tenderly loving women who survived by living a life of prostitution or had been married many times...trying to find love and acceptance.
His chosen disciples were of a great variety of men each one with different gifts as well as struggles.
I am deeply concerned regarding family and friends who have allowed themselves to believe lies regarding the Christian faith. Too often it is just to be a part of a group.
It is also heart breaking to see people willing to believe lies from an organization that is far from living a surrendered life within the teachings and example of Christ.
How dare a person who has no faith , who worships only himself has gained such control over so called "Christians" who by their chosen ignorance from lack of studying and lack of praying and lack of "backbone" are leading our country to destruction.
Regarding "abortion", it must be a private decision made by a woman or a young girl.
In many instances, she is completely alone. The one who impregnated her carries nothing with him...not even a husband bears the pain or shame or fear or helplessness or guilt that is placed on the woman by many in this country. Her ability to choose is much more important than just a vote. Not to give a woman or young girl this right is cruel and dehumanizing. Her physical as well as mental health is at risk.
God does see the man....not just the woman or girl.
Regarding abortion, Jesus was as crystal clear. An individual's conscience is guided by the individual's personal relationship with God. That doesn't mean everyone gets to do anything they want and say "God told me to do it." Instead, we have to acknowledge that we are all children of God, and our responsibility is not only to resolve our internal conflicts, but we must also be willing to employ the time, energy, and attention necessary for resolving the conflicts between us.
Ergo, criminalizing health care (God told me to tell you what you can and cannot do) is anti-Christian. It is that simple. Anyone who doesn't believe that is ignoring Jesus' "all the Law and the Profits hang on these two commandments" message in Matthew 7:12 & 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 6:31 & 10:25-37, and John 14:12 & 15:12.
Thank you Emily. Yes, God gave us free will. If I want an abortion I can have one. You don’t have to have one but imposing your will to block me from exercising my free will I view as a major sin.
Jesus never said “worship me,” but instead said “follow my way.” Now these hypocrites want to impose their will of the “Christian family model” on the whole country, forgetting why people fled England to establish a free America! They have it back asswards—they love to flaunt their worship of Jesus but do not follow His way….
....And there you have it; Another bedrock foundational principle. Free will is "the thing" and in common among many - if not all religions. This g_o_d_ did not create puppets (if creation and g_o_d_ is your thing; I don't throw rocks). What is among the 'known' to me things is that this g_o_d_ of any doctrine I know of, did not 'create' identical puppets to itself. They were 'created' with "free will." Coincidentally or not, any whole person having a free will, also has the first and most important of "unalienable rights", .........the right of free will.
Emily, we've had this conversation before. If they do what they do in the name of Christ their God, and call themselves Christians, that is what they are. In their belief structure, they take the Bible as their foundational text.d That sounds mighty Christian to me, even as the semantics argue that there is no "Christ" in that version of Christian.
I don't know much about Susan B. Anthony, but I expect she is also rolling in her grave based on her three quotes I've listed below. The antiabortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization is using her name in vane by working in precisely the opposite direction of her stated intent.
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
"No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent."
"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less."
Walter was mightly distressed before he died as he watched Fox spin “the way it is” to whatever lies Rupert and repubs were pushing on any day. A sea change in America that affects every one, every single day.
I can only imagine. The whole "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide".
I spent the better part of 28 years working graveyard patrol. I remember the first time I heard those two slogans: I had signed up for swingshift overtime, and had come on duty at 7:00 p.m. I tuned the radio to my usual station (at that time, in the mid 1990's I listened to Art Bell on AM 1120; don't judge me, it was entertaining.) I was eastbound on Hwy 58 from I-5 driving towards rural eastern Lane County. I heard that slogan and my initial thought was "well, yeah". Then I heard what they were reporting, and said (out loud and not abbreviated) WTAF?!? The only thing correct was the weather. Other than that, it was utter garbage.
Sidebar: In my later graveyard years (early 2000's) I discovered ESPN Sports Radio, and loved listening to "Mike and Mike in the Morning." When I went to dayshift contract patrol, it was classical music, all the way; then I discovered I could plug my iPod into the car radio... that was cool!
I recall my iPod "mini"--I couldn't afford a full size one. I loaded all my tunes into and brought it to work to show my friends. I can still picture the face of one co-worker--her eyes got HUGE and she begged me to let her borrow it for a day to show her husband! :)
I got a refurbished iPod 3 (I think) for a birthday 15+ years ago. I still have it, and can listen to the songs that were on it; can't add any new ones, but I have some great albums on there.
I remember, in 1946, when we received our first Colombia 33 rpm long playing record that had excerpts from classical and popular music. Could music life ever get better? What would I do with my 78 rpm recordings.
I so very much want one of those Ally ! When it was too late, I saw the value of those things. For instance, my daughters both had them, and I asked about them far too late.
My BFF in the 90’s turned out to be married to a conservative nut and when Fox started up, they had it on TV at their house 24/7, literally. They were up all night and I guarantee it was on whenever I was there, which was often. I was beyond appalled from the start, so I’ve always known how horrid Rupert was. And now the whole of our citizenry are bamboozled. It’s been a long strange road.
Trump gives the impression he is softening his position on an abortion ban by saying the states should decide...but that is not softening. If he succeeds, it will be a double blow. It will enable states to take away reproductive rights and the rights of any other group they decide to hate this week.
Likewise, for Congressmen and pundits to call for Biden to step down are themselves putting our very democracy in peril. The majority of American Democrats have spoken, through the process we call the primary election process.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT disenfranchise my vote. DO NOT weaken our election process.
Let's all be posting about Project 2025. Biden/Harris have a good write-up about it on their site: https://joebiden.com/project2025/ There's actually a lot of coverage of it in MSM just over the last couple of days. Let's all AMPLIFY via our social media accounts.
True! Mainstream media is fully back to operating under Wm. Randolph Hearst premise. "If it bleeds, it leads." And the GOP has, along with a great number of Americans have chosen to be willfully ignorant.
Steve, are you taking action. Putting in actual time for Biden? Working a phone bank? Helping craft and send out letters? Setting up neighborhood groups to act on what needs to be done in your community. Who is your local representative? Have you visited their office to see what kind of help they could use? That is how change happens! Ever worked on phone bank for a favorite local? Even 2 hours a week willl be appreciated, helpful
Thanks for asking. Yes, I am taking action here in my retirement … in pretty “red” Oklahoma… including being a member of the Lincoln County Democrats. There’s more I will say at a later time. I’ve been involved in politics in many ways since voting for Jimmy Carter in 1976. Here’s one fun picture from an event in Los Angeles in 2012 …
well said..but more than commenting on Heather's post, taking action, putting boots on the ground is much more important. Online commentary is fun, and can be intriguing... but again... boots on the ground! Community action groups are very valuable.
Women will affirm that abortions are to be granted by Congress by codifying Roe v. Wade when Biden is reelected as President. Individual states can just suck it and so can Project 2025!
If only the anti-abortionists stop wanting to force their ideology on the whole country. I have no problem with anyone who is opposed to abortion, let them not have an abortion. Just stop wanting to force everyone else to comply with your ideology, which for what it is worth has NOTHING to do with protecting zygotes and everything to do with punishing women for having had sex.
Oh, Jen, there is never a time when punishing a <italics> man<italics> for having SEX is appropriate. Men MUST have sex when they want it. There is no responsibility for their SEX DRIVE. It is only the woman who must bear the child who has no say in the matter. <bold and capitalized sarcasm font>
I have had this very argument with a friend (still, sort of) repeatedly. He refuses to see how his "belief" that all pregnancies are a "gift from God" no matter how they occurred is outlandish on its face. I gave him the counter argument if that was so, then why wasn't there a "God made me do it" defense for rape? No answer.
Well, we disagree here, for once; decent men are decent, too. Nevertheless, I believe that, if legislation seeks to abridge a woman's right to privacy and autonomy, there should be a separate referendum of women in which a super-majority -- say two thirds or three quarters -- consents to such abridgement.
⚖️🤔💡🤝🗽
After all, under the Constitution, citizens surrender certain rights and freedoms to vest power in the government to provide for 'domestic tranquillity'. Soooo, the government, including the Supreme Court, should not take that right away without the consent of the governed, specifically women in this case.
Did you miss both the italicized "men" in my first sentence, and the <bold and capitalized sarcasm font> part of the last sentence in my next to last paragraph?
Yes, forever slimy little men who are hiding their own perversions …. Dictating to women on what we can do involving our very personal individual CHOICE. Let’s start each man who starts a zygote a checking account to pay for that life until his death!
I was pro-life for a long time. When Roe v. Wade was first seriously threatened under Casey versus Planned Parenthood in 1992, I became a card-carrying hypocrite. Twenty-five years later, when studying reformed Judaism, I swung around to pro-choice. One has to look at those unarticulated assumptions (s)he holds from years before.
Growing up in moderately observant R.C. atmosphere, I came to believe in an archetypal intuition that life started at conception. In my pro-life politics as a young conservative, I felt that government should not legislate on the topic, though I believed in the Houses of Congress should pass non-binding resolutions stating that life starts at conception.
Then came the direct attack on Roe versus Wade in the 1990s. That ended my thinking that Roe versus Wade was similar to the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court trying to resolve a question only the citizenry would be able to. At that point, I figured that, like it or not, the moral choice would have to rest with the individual.
Over time, that thinking expanded to aiding women -- and, hopefully, the men involved -- in making the choices they preferred by provision of pre-natal care, counselling if the abortion proved traumatic, job-training etc. Then, in 2017, I took a class through a local Temple about Judaism for beginners. That class opened my eyes.
The rabbi, a decent and incredibly erudite gentleman of gentility, stated that the position of Judaism (or, perhaps, his position) on the beginning of life was that life started at baby's first breath, per the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7 (i.e., G-D breathing life into what was still a figurine). Well that blew my mind.
Why?
Because, had I grown up in a moderately observant Jewish family, in all likelihood, I would have had an archetypal intuition that life started at baby's first breath. So, I was able, finally, to feel comfortable with what had been my reluctant politics all along. Dobbs offended me not only in its reasoning, but also in its implication that women are neither entitled to, nor capable of, moral agency.
I was never anti choice. It just never squared in my gut. I saw the unalienable right component and carry it still, and only strengthened my devotion to it as principle to my core once I was blessed with daughters. ** It occurred to me just after I posted this that the "pro life" movement is misnamed. They should evermore be known, posted,, and signed as the "anti free will" movement. jmho ~
Some also say that pro-lifers are pro-birth. Once the baby is born, forget about it. Inhumane to the many poorer women stranded with unwanted, unexpected pregnancies.
Harvey I couldn’t agree more. Right Wing Christians see abortion as a “get out of jail free” card for women who have sex out of wedlock. They view unmarried women who have sex to be immoral and promiscuous. As such their stance is ‘if unmarried women get pregnant they can simply have an abortion and continue their immoral promiscuous ways.’
Their anti-abortion BS has much less to do with the “right to life” than it has about imposing their “sexual morals” on all women. It’s about stopping what they see as an unmarried woman’s lascivious and immoral behavior.
How many of those protesting abortion have themselves had abortions or been actively involved in arranging an abortion for someone and then get right back in line to protest again.
I would like to see the re-opening of the Equal Rights Amendment to ensure its ratification. Though 'belts-&-suspenders' in its presence, the E.R.A. -- not earned run average -- would make Justice Ginsburg's application of the Fourteenth Amendment to a woman's moral agency inviolable as women would be integrated fully as citizens into the polity of the republic.
What galls me most about the Trump versus United States decision is this statement from the majority opinion: "True, there is no 'Presidential immunity clause' in the Constitution. But there is no 'separation of powers clause' either." Originalism exercised at the convenience of the originalists; what hypocrisy. This becomes important in the Dobbs decision.
🫣
In that opinion, the Supreme Court argues that there is no right to abortion in the Constitution. Well, duh. Abortion in itself is not a right but the exercise of a right, the right to privacy (under Roe versus Wade) or right of autonomy of a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment. So the lack of word works in Dobbs but does not matter in Trump versus the United States. 🖕
Abortion and IVF will be what this election is really designed to protect along with a lesson learned in 2020 that Trump and Trumpism is not what “America” stands for!
IMHO, It is incongruous to be pro-life if you are unwilling to be anti-background check, anti-bump stock prohibition, and anti-prohibition of military weapons for civilians. How can you be pro-life and pro family if you are willing to let women die or lose reproductive rights in order to protect a cluster of cells that may or may not grow into a n autonomous individual. You can’t be pro-life if refuse to accept that decisions made to protect one race, creed, religion or national origin over another.
Exactly. If they were truly "pro-life" and not just pro- birth, they'd pass sensible gun control measures, and provide adequate funding for nutrition, health care, child care and education. That so many young women have bought into the Susan B. Anthony BS really hurts. First of all, how dare they besmirch her name by co-opting it for an anti- woman agenda and, of course, how dare they try so hard to undermine all the years of effort that went into getting Roe passed.
The Robert's Court claims to be and I think tells themselves, that they are morally superior to ordinary mortals, which is why they reject a substantive ethics code other than own personal whims, and why they feel justified in bossing anyone else around. It's patent malignant narcissism. but for some reason many of our fellow humans reinforce it. I think we all have a narcissistic component of our nature, but balance and integrate it to varying degrees. Wacko out of balance it can become pure evil.
I agree. We should include civics and civil behavior, including some necessary doses of humility, in our educational system. This is different from religious education. Not all religious folks are either ethical or civil. Elitism is overrated. It breeds contempt for everyone else and an every-rising bar for entry which feeds the "it's never enough." mentality. One place to begin might be with the Ten Commitments outlined by The Humanist Society.
It’s the right’s perversion of history that begins with the heroes and heroines of history that begins the erosion of what is true. It’s revisionism at its basest level. It’s difficult to see because of all the turmoil at the top.
Your question was a good one so I tried to find out. The Trump-loving Marjorie Dannenfelser sites an anonymous article signed "A" in The Revolution, a weekly newspaper owned by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as being proof that SBA was against abortion. Anthony scholars call this hogwash. The Revolution published articles or opinion pieces from a variety of perspectives, many of them anonymous. Anthony used her full initials or her full name on her pieces. In sum, it's a misappropriation of a famous name and image to promote a hard-right view that has, sadly, induced many young people to join.
Thank you for this. Apparently, that's been going on for some time. Mormon Women for Ethical Government featured a speaker who talked about the many Mormon women who were Suffragettes and worked hard to help women get the right to vote. Meanwhile, other Mormon women worked hard to foil their efforts. As the speaker said, "It's complicated." And frustrating beyond belief!
They are shameless about co-opting anything with moral legitimacy to cover the fact they have none. It has reached Orwellian proportions. I think that we as a culture need to understand cult dynamics a lot better than we do. Real cults make people crazy; there is no shortage of evidence of that, though unlike a psychosis, I have seen people shake it. I think the key to cult thinking is a reflexive attack on counter-evidence to what one wishes was true, with a sense of reality that spins off into it own self-reinforcing eddy. It becomes pernicious when it justifies violence against one's self or others, and labels torture and genocide as morally superior behavior. Again, the examples are legion, and the countermeasures not simple. Vigilant rejection of authoritarianism is a start.
Like being conservative goes against-the-grain … the natural order of things; consider that many in that party deny climate change - [one of] the most important things that men and women and children should be doing is to attempt to help lessen our negative impacts on our weather and natural environment … if we’re unkind to nature, nature will very likely be unkind to us!!!
The "laws" of nature take precedence over even the Constitution. Reality is indifferent to our proclamations. When we know her ways we can sometimes hitch a ride. If we are obvious, nature can crush us like bugs, without so much as a glance behind. Ask the dinosaurs. They must have thought they were pretty big stuff.
Accepting climate change will not happen until 'they' are directly affected. They belong to the school of "seeing is believing". If it is ain't happening to me it ain't happening. They believe what they need to regardless of the evidence.
“James M. Inhofe, a five-term Republican senator from Oklahoma and, until President Donald J. Trump’s arrival in 2017, arguably Washington’s most prominent denier of the established science of human-generated climate change …” someone who likely never accepted its realities - that what we do can and does exert an impact on the weather, our environment and ultimately the climate!
When you get to the level of public figure, it can hard to tell how much is self-delusion and how much is cynical manipulation:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper’s writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday.
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” -- https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
Millions of Americans are being sucked into the Fascism of the Party of Trump by believing the misinformation. CFDT made one statement yesterday which was about 20 seconds long and he still couldn't keep from lying. They played it on MSNBC and they didn't even point out how ridiculous the statement was as if everything he says is normal.
That's how Fascism takes hold. Remember Hate, Anger, Resentment, Revenge and Misinformation (HARRM). CFDT can't help himself.
Gary, I no longer think of him as "lying" as much as he simply makes things up as he goes along, makes up whatever reality he wants. Yes they are lies but they aren't particularly formed or even consistent. He simply says what he wants to believe and wants us to believe.
This thing about killing babies after they are born!!! I’ve heard him say this twice now, the last time during the debate. Why isn’t MSM screaming about this horrific lie?
Because this is part and parcel of the anti-abortion, pro-maternal death faction of the RepubliKans. I had this argument with my former sergeant; he believed with all his godly heart that women went through 9 months of pregnancy, delivered a healthy child, and then aborted it. Even telling him that once the child is born, the pregnancy is complete, and that such an event would be prosecuted as a homicide BY DEFINITION did not sway him. His wife is a former DDA, and he knew the laws better than just about anyone...
It part of the mental malware installed by cults. I know talented, educated people who recite MAGA talking points chapter and verse. If Trump (or "Q") said it, than only a despicable person would question it. The authority flows exclusively from dear leader, not the evidence of one's eyes and ears, and certainly nothing so involved and quaint as logic.
I once got an image in my head of children on their way to school or wherever idly watching blacks being beaten in the fields and thinking that all was right with the world. The most cruel injustices thrive to the degree they are normalized. Effective social movements force us to take a harder look are what we have eagerly, cluelessly, or grudgingly come to accept as "the way it is".
Strength is of many sorts. The strength of MLK bothered some so much he was attacked and ultimately murdered for it. Some believe they are strong because they hold a gun. We are accustomed to call an authoritarian bully a "strong man" yet the "strength" of such people is ultimately founded on fear and outrageous lies. That's why any challenge must be crushed.
But yes, I suspect most rapt MAGA acolytes had some sort of overbearing father.
They feel subjugated already by, as they see it, a status quo elitism of which they're not a part. The fascists talk to these people - I can't understand why they listen, but critical thought and debate are nowhere in their calculus. So long as the fascists have it out for *us*, that is somehow good for them.
Some types of people hate the details of humanity -- the messiness, complications, funny nuances, and what the poet Joseph Brodsky liked to call "loose ends." (Standardized testers especially hate 'loose ends"; they believe in categories wherein everything fits or ought to fit in prescribed and testable ways.)
These who hate humanity's oddities of course love abstractions. They usually also crave hierarchy, as in ur-"Christian" homes, where women supposedly learn to defer to the man of the house, patriarchy coasting on those givens.
Those who love abstractions and categories of course, too, hate humanities: novels, memoirs, poems, films, songs. Though Hollywood also well knows how to deliver its forms of sensationalism to the more guaranteed vulgar among us -- sorry, no offense, Arnold, Sylvester & crew.
Sad to say, too, J L, the Clarence court has no patience with or respect for individual choices as women and their families may weigh them. Those abstracters like instead to package life, by their cookie-cutter ideology. They like the sensationalism of the vulgar, thus dispensing immunity for Trump and whatever vulgarity or criminality he may level.
Phil, your comment brought to mind Malvina Reynolds’ song “Little Houses” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cjk0zst3Cs. Oh the songs she and Pete Seeger would be writing today!
That's what humanities have done through all human history.
And that's why the 1971 Powell memo started the far-right to its organized means first for killing humanities, to its Clarence court now ruling for criminality.
speaking out; very revealing - forcing themselves to live a purity driven life. And what happens to the ones who managed to extricate themselves. One of them is an NPR reporter.
Looking back at the sodomy laws passed by many states, the puritanical hypocrites tried to enforce bedroom activities.
I suspect many of these laws are still on the books. Of course, they would never be enforced on a single Catholic priest who commits pedophilia or Southern Baptist minister.
What is the real reason the Catholic Church doesn't allow priests to marry?
Don't know about the official Catholic take on this, but functionally it keeps women well away from their centralized power of frocked men, replaces any real access to dogma interpretation at the highest level in Rome.
A few years ago I read about a high school kid who had sex with a girl some months his junior at some wild party, and it happened to be captured on a cell phone. Because it was oral sex (which consensual, and the girl initiated) he was automatically given a long, non-commutable prison sentence. Everyone involved seemed to find the sentence unjust, but there appeared to be no remedy. Someone explained that the law had been meant as a trap for gays.
J L Graham, right and fear of sexuality. Fear highly resonates with them, which is why the propagandists always seek to activate it to be able to manipulate and control.
Panamakelly, how can you be pro-life when you expect women to be the only ones to sacrifice to save lives. Fathers are not forced by law to sacrifice stem cells or organs to save their children and even corpses are not forced to donate organs to save lives.
That is because the anti-abortion issue has nothing to do with saving lives it is all about punishing women for having had sex. Controlling women - PERIOD!
No American, no person of faith, should be fooled by Trump's MAGA. It has nothing in common with the teachings of Jesus Christ or its so-called 'pro-life' stance. It is a sham, just like its entire reason for being is a lie. The cult of Trump is only about subjugation and control—it's fundamentally fascist. #VoteBlueToSaveAmerica
Quite the opposite J.L. CFDT can't recite a single Bible verse and says he likes the Old Testament and the New Testament the same. He has never regularly attended church unless it is for a photo-op and professes to be a child of God.
The evangelicals eat this shit up. And they are the ones that will vote him over the top. They are the dangerous ones that are all in on Project 2025 thinking that we should have a national religion and forcing people to believe in the same vengeful and jealous God in the Old Testament.
They think they already know it all. From my friends watching Fox, they think that they are the informed ones. Plenty of evidence to the contrary, but who checks that out??
My theory (having watched CNN go around the bend) is that corporate media, like many Republicans, are hedging their bets. They want to be in the good graces of the 'New MAGA Order' if that becomes a reality so as to survive, knowing that their craven cowardice and treason can be smoothed over should the nation regain its sanity and reelect Biden-Harris. It seems plain as day to me.
My grandparents are from Ireland & I always thought if it as slightly backwards since a woman couldn’t get an abortion or a divorce. Divorce became legal and then a married dentist had an incomplete miscarriage at 17 weeks. The doctor’s request for an abortion was denied & 31 year old Savita Halappanavar developed sepsis and died at 31 for a perfectly preventable reason.
This summer I met my Irish cousins and now the shoes in the other foot. Their country was horrified at this woman’s death & passed laws to legalize abortion. They’re concerned about us, the women especially & they’re in disbelief that anyone could follow Trump. One of their sisters lives in the US & can’t see what is so clear to her siblings still in Ireland. I fear for my daughter & granddaughter.
I have 5 Irish grandchildren. The changes in Irish culture and politics has been monumental and women now have voice. The vote to permit abortion was an absolute landslide, well over 3/4 of the country voted for it. It is a major reason Ireland is now one of the most respect countries on earth. My friends in Ireland, UK, and Czech Rep. do not think highly of the US since the end of the Obama years. They do like and respect Biden, especially how he righted the NATO ship post Trump and got most of the world to rally around Ukraine. However, given Maga, our obsession with guns, and the entire Project 2025 mentality, all question America and Americans. These families are no longer considering the USA for their children's undergraduate studies and that mindshift came about in 2017. When they were kids every parent wanted their children in US colleges, today, almost all are college age, and so far none studied here. That mindset, universal among my friends, is a big loss for the US if many others think that way.
I was wondering about the negative reaction to Americans saying they’re Irish. It makes sense now. Fortunately it was not a mistake we made, we stated that our grandparents came from Ireland. One of my Irish cousins has a son in the US & a sister who loves Trump. They were talking about her with sorrow that they couldn’t tell her what they were seeing.
I don’t have faith in Americans. I was brought up on WWII war films & it’s horrifying to see so many ignoring what Germany went through in the 30’s.
Yes I read your post which gave me a reason to respond. I go to Ireland a lot and I have heard an increasing chorus of Irish beginning to talk about the American Irish... they find it unpleasant to insulting that the US Irish call themselves Irish (they aren't they say, their heritage is but they aren't Irish, they are American). I ask them why this distinction as it seems to be a new one. Their response is - well it always has been but we saw it as a no bother until more Irish - Americans talked like Trump, whom they detest. A growing minority of Irish are saying the US has more in common with Russia than Ireland..... that thought bothered me a lot. Things began to settle down with Biden but with the election coming up there is an undertone of apprehension, more alignment with Europe over the US, and trust issues with us. We will see but I have to admit, I am not very trusting of the American population either... even with Project 2025 making the choice clearer than ever, their rabid loyalty to the insurrectionist, sex abuser, felon remains a constant.
Kathleen, I remember this horror as it happened, not then knowing we would be devolving just as other countries were evolving on social issues. Also, with the issue of gun violence, look at what other countries response to mass shootings was—immediate action to curb/deny access to firearms. “Common sense” does not appear very common at all ‘round here!
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, which protected women's right to access to credit.Mar 22, 2024. Think about this. For most of my life time (and only for my lifetime) females in the USA could legally choose to reproduce or not, gain credit in their name, participate in sport fully. We now dominate in the number of enrollments in college education. The myth of the “weaker sex” has been blown to smithereens. It isn’t true and never was. Project 2025 has its sights on eliminating women’s rights in favor of a misogynistic past that I fortunately did not live the bulk of my life in. Yet my granddaughters will, unless
American voters can realize The Better Future means defeating MAGA up and down the ballot. Even if Biden is at the top of the ticket. Enough with the “if it’s Biden, I won’t vote” I’m hearing. Vote Dem all the way.
I was told that I couldn't have gotten my first "real" job (sales for Hewlett Packard) until this law. Because sales people had to have their own credit card and the company reimbursed the expenses.
I. The late 60’d, early 70’s, when I lived outside if Philadelphia after college, only the John Wanamaker department store would give a single woman a credit card! And then 1 apartment complex told my roommates and me that they did not rent to single women… we were a teacher, a nurse, and a social worker, all with college degrees and good jobs!
And looking back on the Republican voting records, single piece of legislation that benefited women only, the Republicans voted against. Here is the summary below. Why would a woman ever vote Republican?
In 1972, they fought against selling birth control to single women until the Supreme Court made it available for sale to anyone.
In 1974 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Equal Credit act that would allow women to apply for their own credit cards and mortgage loans, instead leaving them dependent upon men to co-sign.
In 1978 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Pregnancy act, allowing employers to continue firing women because they were pregnant.
In 1980 Republicans VOTED AGAINST allowing women to report sexual harassment in the workplace.
In 1994 and 2012 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Violence Against Women Act which helps victims of domestic violence and rape and educates law enforcement.
In 2012 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women Act.
Yes, they chose the term for their antiabortion stance but it is hypocrisy. They don't give a damn for social and economic programs that actually help people from infants all the way to the elderly.
Wendyl, especially when they are such proponents of the death penalty. Or when they refuse to support the woman and child who are not able to survive without the help of the sperm donor.
Yes Ally! Exactly my point! Kill prisoners. Take away food stamps, SSI, social security, medicare, head start. Let them all die of lack of.medical care, starve them, take away the benefits they paid for and worked hard for. But! We are prolife!
That's a hard one. Enemy. They are Americans. wtf happened to them?
My thinking is resentment over wealth inequality, worse here than in any western country. And they dutifully will follow the author of their outrage to perpetrate more of it. It really is beyond understanding.
Yes, Jen, resentment over wealth held by others (many who didn’t actually DO anything to achieve it), but so envious of it too….a toxic combo! I recently visited a local bookstore and purchased a book that caught my eye…I’m only a few pages in, but the premise intrigues me: “Limitarianism—The Case Against Extreme Wealth” by Ingrid Robeyns. The current economic disparity seems to be widening and methinks folks will become “mad as Hell and not gonna take it any more”….just one of the many “fires” burning (some quite literally) on this planet that must be addressed.
“The current economic disparity seems to be widening…..” “folks will become “mad as Hell and not gonna take it any more”…”
This is exactly what many of if not all MAGA’s already feel and believe. But they see it as a result due to immigrants taking their jobs, “welfare queens” taking their hard earned money, etc etc. Trump has capitalized on and fed into their beliefs and feelings of being marginalized. What the MAGA’s don’t see is that it is the ultra rich, the top 1% that are responsible for their being marginalized. They’re fighting the wrong war.
I think a more progressive tax system would take care of that. The top rate doesn't have to go back to whatever it was,but the top rates need to be higher. However, limiting income to some cap based on some formula is a bit over the top, in terms of control. Forcing fairness seems quite totalitarian to me..
When America was doing all the great things the MAGAs remember from their childhoods, the top rate was 91%, and the top CEO in America made 45 times as much as the average employee of his company - an employee who was paid a living wage.
My thoughts too, Jerry, but then I’m only a couple of pages in—am curious to see how she presents it. The book, with index, is 301 pages. Has praise from a number of noted “economics” authors & what tipped me from a “looky-Lou” perusing the books into purchasing it.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
J L Graham, thank you! And may I add, "Love and do what you will." St. Augustine. When we come from love we treat others and ourselves, justly and fairly. It's the key.
Several days ago I wrote a commentary on why I rank the Roberts Court the worst in American history. Previously the Taney Court was considered the worst.
Justice Taney, in 1836, succeeded John Marshall, our greatest Chief Justice. Taney was on the Court until 1864, when he died at age of 81.
The Taney Court was relatively undistinguished until Dred Scott v. Sanford in 1857. The 7-2 ruling
Concluded:
1) No African American could be a citizen of the United States; and
2) Congress had no legal right to restrict slavery in American territories and, thus, the 1820 MIssouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
Taney, from Maryland, believed that Southern States had the constitutional right to secede from the Union. During the Civil War he opposed many of President Lincoln’s wartime actions. Lincoln, like President Jackson in dealing with several of the Marshall Court rulings, simply ignored Tandy’s declarations.
The Roberts Court, especially with the addition of three Trumpist justices, has now topped the Taney Court in the ever-expanding scope of its ‘originalist’ and other bizarre rulings that ignore Stare Decisis [relying principally on precedent in considering litigation].
Another Roberts Court distinction is that the Court includes justices who will be there for many years, while the Taney Court virtually dissolved with Taney’s death.
I too have been making comparisons between the Roberts Court and Taney. Both will be written about as the worst of courts. But while Taney's court reinforced existing prejudices, this Roberts Court (perhaps more accurately described as the Alito/Thomas Court since Robersts has become so feckless) is ACTIVELY overturning existing precedents and removing individual rights.
Keith, this is my assessment as well. I recall early on hearing John Roberts muse about how his court would be "remembered". I wonder if even then he was plotting to turn our country into a Christian Nationalist, fascist country. I prefer (at least in this moment) referring to the "Clarence Court"...
I keep hearing that the most important thing is to beat or defeat “Donald Trump” … how about defeating the radical agenda of the republicans - the MAGA-cult - or how about keeping our democracy and giving it a [slight] modification or two or more as we proceed along and learn to correct our mistakes!
From my 7.4.Substack: Possibilities for, and perhaps absolutely necessary for, helping to mend our country - please add your own and feel free to share this.
. Youth with age partnerships
. Democracy-enhancing town halls for learning about things such as how the local government works, then advancing to county or parish, then state then national.
. Q and A zooms with local candidates everywhere
. (?) 12 step for narcissists
. Interfaith meetings and workshops everywhere
. '60s and '70s style teach-ins: American History; American influences and connections with the rest of the world; what actual laws mean to actual human beings; asking very specific questions of people who do not seem to understand how laws work, asking them to explain in detail what they would change and how according to the system we have in place now ie, encouragel people to think through a problem or a proposal …
Just a start here. And let's talk to each other about what we're doing.
I went to a Zoom with Field Team 6 last night and was impressed and surprised at how informative it was and by how articulate the people were. They ask, shall we "agonize or organize?". They're committed to doing "the work that wins". Their logo is, "Register democrats, save the world" and they're on task to register voters, especially in purple states. According to one slide, orgs spend from $1,500/vote to $300 to $500/vote. They claim to spend $8.58 per vote to register voters. They're doing more than fundraising, they're inspirational leaders.
Robin, although I like many of your proposals, I fear the notion of "12 steps for Narcissists" is doomed at the outset. People enter 12 step programs for addiction and alcoholism when they reach a "low-bottom" of life when they recognize the costs they've paid for their addictions, often after an "intervention" by those close to them. Narcissists are psychologically "defended" from such recognition by their projection of blame on "the other" and paranoid perception of others who try to intervene, perceiving even those who love them as "ganging up" against them. With these defenses at work they are rarely sufficiently motivated to enter any kind of therapy, let alone complete it. There ARE some forms of treatment which can work but usually only when the narcissist is still relatively young, say 16-30 yrs old and usually following suicide or other serious self-destructive attempts [see work by Marsha Linehan or Robert Gregory].
Beat me to it, John. My wife is a psychologist, and has said any number of times, that working with a narcissist is nigh on to impossible. They don't want change, they want others to change.
John, thank you for spelling out things a lot of us know by now and have to acknowledge more fully. It was meant as a joke which the question mark did not convey; should have been a smirk...
Notice, however, that as others touch on this nest of issues also, none refers to any Dem who's saying anything.
Lots of good Dems out there.
Point I'm making, however, is that none of the commenters here has referenced any of these Dems. Not Biden. Not Kamala. Not Gretchen. Not Gavin. No one.
I happen very much to admire Bernie, Liz Warren, Jamie Raskin, AOC, Katie Porter, Sheldon Whitehouse. I repeat -- many good Dems.
But I repeat, too, in this crisis, no Dem appears to be leading at all -- nothing sufficient for anyone here to quote, as if Dems have already just lost when it comes to conversation, commentary, replies.
MAGA leads. MAGA dominates. The Clarence court blessing Trump criminality leads, rules.
Why then were American women who were "born or naturalised in the United States" not automatically granted the right to vote in 1868 under the 14th Amendment?
And the Equal Rights Amendment has still not been ratified! It was 46 years ago that I was marching in DC among thousands of others (July 10, 1978) and later that year in Richmond, VA. Shocking that we don't have the ERA yet!
When Pelosi was Speaker, a bill was drafted and got out of the Democratically-run committee to rescind the ratification deadline of the ERA. Republicans were against it because of its impact on abortion--women could make all their own medical decisions just as men do.
Enough states have now ratified the ERA, however some did so after the ratification deadline. Eliminate the deadline, and the ERA immediately becomes part of the Constitution
And, Russell, I’m STILL waiting for the ERA to be ratified….hopefully will live to see that happen, but if the present social climate is any indication, there are those who would like to take any gains women have gained to date.
I don’t want to start a flame war on this because these issues aren’t fully analogous but when the 14th amendment was being proposed and passed suffragettes - as they were then called - including Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton among others tried to get women included but didn’t succeed. The point I think may be contentious is that during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s there were those who tried to include gay rights and they were told it wasn’t the time. I’m unsuccessfully trying to recall who in particular I’m thinking of as it’s been a while since I read about this but while I understand the desire to present a simple issue, excluding others always weakens the base in the long run, in my opinion.
So much of our country's history has been about initiating changes, especially ones involving society, in smaller surges. The phrase you mention "it's not time" made me think about conversations with twenty somethings, the millennials. They are angry about being told to wait another election to see real change. They see a very broken system with two old men running who don't represent their values; the choices to them are the same, although they acknowledge Trump needs to be defeated. I've even been told that the pushback against Project 2025 is just the Democratic Party raising the alarm because their candidate is weak, that this is just another 'you need to wait another election cycle for change, because we just need to counter another threat'.
Slavery was given a pass in the Declaration of Independence because we wouldn't have gotten the slavery states onboard, we wouldn't have a nation without that compromise. Discrimination against Blacks was tangled up with slavery in an impossible knot, and the fight against getting rid of slavery was driven by powerful economic forces. People had to decide they were willing to pay for that change. Thank God they did in the end.
When women pressed for voting rights in that first surge, I'm sure they were told the same thing: "not the time". They had to fight a couple more generations to get their "time". James Baldwin had a similar conversation with Martin Luther King.
And both groups are still forced to fight, to this day. Anti-abortion is the backlash against women getting not just rights but the pill. Somewhat equivalent perhaps to the backsliding after the Civil War, then when Congress rebelled and put the 14th Amendment in place, a third backlash to try and weaken the effects of the Amendment, tactics that ran right up to the Civil Rights era. And now we hear the Republicans want in Project 2025 to remove the rights of naturalized citizens to vote, which will affect Hispanic communities most.
There is always a counter current that comes back at us, like those wave machines that slap the wave back and forth.
In talking to younger possible voters, seems LGBTQ rights and Gaza are still high on their list. They don't like Biden primarily because he is old, and they are appalled at his sending weapons as Israel conducts what can only be called genocide. They don't like Kamala Harris either, because as a former Prosecutor they see her as pro-Police. They are angry because they want younger candidates, more Bernie leftist politicians, and they aren't getting them. When I suggest they run themselves, they tell me they are barely keeping their heads above water what with housing costs and the weight of their student loans, they have no money or time.
And the percentages of young people who identify as LGBTQ is surprisingly high; I've heard 8% of their generation and even more. They see LGBTQ as tied to women's rights, in that the contempt and pushback against women is tangled up with contempt for trans women (men who gave up their power). They are tired of the old order, not just the politicians but societal constructs that draw artificial lines between what a man is, what a woman is. They want more radical change, and they want it as soon as possible.
I don't know where this leaves America at this moment. But it feels like a breaking wave to me. The question is whether we surf it or get pounded down underwater, sucked back by the currents. I'd rather stand up and surf, even shakily, as best we can.
The Gaza and ‘old white men’ is a strong deterrent to potential voters. It’s easy to see them disdaining any kind of political system. The age of understanding working together, and making incrementally serious and good steps just doesn’t resonate. Again, listening and learning when people have made up their minds is not something we are very good at, and young people haven’t had much experience at consensus and entering into that space of recognizing other people’s ideas as worth listening to. Easier to just judge the errors or the perceived errors and dismiss it all. Hoping the “lesser of two evils,” as they see it, will encourage them to vote.
Well said, SC!!! Change is hard when folks are trying to drag a whole society ‘round to change/evolve, and I totally get the impatience factor—it’s a hard lesson to learn. To me, it’s the need for all of us to strain at the wheel to make progress. Love your wave analogy….just the other day I pulled out my Churchill fins to take to the river (body surfing/boogie boarding/shooting-the-river) to find they’d gasped their last breath, the rubber stiff & unwearable (heh, got them in the 70’s & hadn’t worn them for several years). So time for a new pair…a real pair and a metaphorical pair to ride this “breaking wave” you mention.🌊 Kinda hoping the “wave” we ride will be a big BLUE wave!!!!
Yeah, really like my Churchill’s & searched online for them…not too expensive & they still make them in the gold/blue combo (kinda reminds me of the Ukrainian flag!). I have a mesh backpack that drains when wet, so I can carry my fins & face mask up river and then “shoot the river” downstream, usually w/ my dogger (as many have over the years) paddling along side me. Have to carry my water shoes/sandals (used to be low-top converse sneakers in the way-back times) when the river turns to riffles & have to walk a bit to get to deeper water—this of course is not done in raging rivers (tho’ some do, even wearing wetsuits or drysuits & helmets!) and when conditions are safe.
Man, that sounds like what we did in the 70's, only mine were PF Flyers (Converse were for serious basketball!) and we used innertubes. The Applegate River from the Gorge to McKee Bridge, and down to below Cantrell Buckley Park was amazing. We'd drop a car at Cantrell, and the driver would get out there, pick us up, and drive back up to the Gorge. Fun times!! (Rendered impossible by the building of Applegate Dam in the 1980's; now that river is a torrent).
You might want to take a look at Wikipedia for Betty Friedan in the section called Lesbian Politics which addresses a slightly later aspect of rights and inclusion. I actually took a picture of Betty at the '77 conference in Houston making her statement to include lesbians in the Equal Rights Amendment:
she seconded a lesbian rights resolution "which everyone thought I would oppose" in order to "preempt any debate" and move on to other issues she believed were more important and less divisive in the effort to add the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution.
Excellent reminder and thank you. I’m old enough to recall her and I’ve read some of her books. I’m thinking there was a gay black man in particular who wanted gay rights included but was excluded from the actions around the March on Washington; unfortunately I can’t recall the reference I’m thinking of with respect to the issue of exclusion at that time. It brings to mind Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” I think this applies to anyone who isn’t part of the current in-crowd when it comes to politics.
You are thinking of Bayard Rustin who was the organizer of the March on Washington in 1963. There was a biopic of him produced last year by the Obamas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustin_(film)
We need to have an equal rights amendment. (Didn’t it finally get enough votes?) It is important not only to protect the rights of women, but also for the right to bodily autonomy no matter a person’s gender. The right to bodily autonomy should be enshrined into the Constitution, as there is no more precious right than to make decisions about your own body. The government does not belong in your bedroom, nor does it belong in the room with you and your doctor. If the Republicans hope to push women and other minorities back to before they gained the right to vote, and after all our gains since the early 1970’s, it will not happen. Women will not allow it. We will not sit still why they try to turn this country into Iran.
I can see all kinds of legal issues. If can you claim your fetus as a tax deduction? Can you get Medicaid for a fetus? IVF if you have a dozen eggs fertilized can they all be tax reductions? I suspect there will be many more legal ramifications
IVF carpool lane! IVF parking for pregnant women. Will men start to claim those parking spaces as well? Men with pregnant partners can use car pool lanes.
Speaking of Constitutional amendments, one is clearly needed regarding Presidential power, but what are the chances that Rep. Joseph Morelle's (of New York) will get traction? As another remedy, I like AOC's vow to issue impeachment articles against Supreme Court justices. But again what are the chances of pushing those through?
I think the effort is worth it in any case; maybe the political winds will swing favorably in the future.
In an open Zoom with Field Team 6 last night, Erwin Chemerinsky spoke a lot and super-clearly and pragmatically about your questions. He is an American legal scholar known for his studies of constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. I went to the Zoom to see, who are these FT6 people and I was beyond pleasantly surprised. A good place for my attention and I will keep on digging into what they do.
Yes indeed. The first priority is keeping Trump out of the White House. And secondly getting a Democratic majority in Congress (both houses as you say).
There has been no greater danger from within to the future of America since the Civil War than today’s Trump-led, Christo-fascist GOP. And for the mainstream media to be reporting on this election from any other context is the worst failure I could ever imagine. Walter Cronkite is spinning in his grave.
My theory (having watched CNN go around the bend) is that corporate media, like many Republicans, are hedging their bets. They want to be in the good graces of the 'New MAGA Order' if that becomes a reality so as to survive, knowing that their craven cowardice and treason can be smoothed over should the nation regain its sanity and reelect Biden-Harris. It seems plain as day to me.
… trying to play both sides against the middle instead of determining what’s right and what’s wrong and taking and making a stand on that decision!
Maybe as Dan Rather quoted a teacher as saying. Just get up and go to the window and see if it’s raining. Report what you see. Spinning, deciding, do, or don’t, burying stories, headlining stories, is the media taking the decision away from us. Chump and David Pecker knew that. So should we all…
Follow the money. Ratings over truth. What sells?
Distracting us from what's really going on -- a by-product of 'what sells' or the driver???
Indeed Mona Ross and Roxanna Springer; those are precisely the springs that feed my rage and outrage towards many of those outlets; no truth, nor honor - profit motives only.
Can you fit all that on to one of those front lawn signs? The MEDIA taking the decision away from us.
Make a series of "burma-shave" signs...
Driving through Taos NM in late August 2015 there were " sandwich board' signs lined up in town for 2 blocks each one stating a reason why not to vote for tfg - it was great.
*Example (from delighted memories ! ) "Passing Cars..... When you can't see.... Will get you to...... Eternity, _ Burma Shave"
Telling your and my ages Ally... lol. I loved those damn things !
Out of curiosity, ¿what is burma-shave?
No Burma Shave in Melbourne, but there was one series of yellow signs with black printing that used to puzzle me when we drove out of town to the hills. ACCIDENTS HAPPEN.....WHY NOT PREPARE?.....YOU CAN INSURE FREE.....BY TAKING THE SUN. I thought it must mean what we now do to boost our Vitamin D, but it meant "The Sun", one of our three morning newspapers (masthead a black rooster silhouette and the words "Daily at dawn"). Everybody read it, "The Argus" was rubbish, "The Age" was ponderously serious, with no pictures, and "The Herald" (evening) and "The Sun" were owned by that fine newspaperman Sir Keith Murdoch. Rupert was in short pants then. That's amazing: those four signposts popped back into my memory for the first time since childhood, reading about burma-shave.
Boy, would I love that. I remember them as a kid riding in the back seat with 3 bros. Would suggest that to maddogpac.com. The billboard folks, if I knew how. Attention getters for bored kids could be attention getters for head-in-the sand voters.
Somebody else said it better than me. I’ll try to find it. It’s critical
It IS critical. If you can't find it, edit it yourself.
You must be young🤭
Actually - that says it!
"The Media is taking the decision away from us"!
There is an entire community of patriot hearts, brilliant minds to draw ideas from Anne. Great question... we all need ask the right questions.
Socratic teaching.
Wow. That would pack in a punch, ¿would it not?
Thank you for a simple yet profound insight, Jeri. Your insight reminds me of when I was talking -- as one among several students -- with Charles Kuralt a few months after the bi-centennial. I had a pet-peeve, which I presented to the venerated 'American roadie'. I had been disturbed by the television crews interviewing Arthur Bremer's mother after the attempted assassination of Governor Wallace.
The 'old lady' (likely at an age younger than I am now) was crying, obviously broken-hearted and in the grief of disbelief that her son could do such a thing. The whole incident impressed me as mean-spirited thrill-seeking. Mr Kuralt patiently answered that news is not always pleasant. To which, with not wit, I exclaimed that I was so upset I turned off the television.
"And you had the choice to . . . just to turn off the TV," replied Mr Kuralt. One can not argue with that. Report the news and let the viewer make up his or her own mind. We are not imbeciles. Some may not be as well educated as others, but that does not mean they are stupid or that the media should become missionaries of information (i.e., propagandists).
Ahhh, the late, great Charles Kuralt.
In a pre-internet, pre-cable tv era, old school, shoe leather journalists of the highest professionalism as he certainly was, were the coin of the realm, displaying Americans and parts of America, to their fellow Americans in other parts of America with a panache as picaresque as it was powerful. I assume he and his producers at CBS titled the series ("On the Road with Charles Kuralt") both for the obvious and in tacit homage to the pioneering Jack Kerouac book.
Years later here in Southern California, our local PBS station presented a long running show of similar quality and focus hosted by a sometime acquaintance of mine, the late, great Huell Howser, entitled "California's Gold".
"Amazin!"
How quickly it has been forgotten that ‘ol Charles’ was ‘on the road again’ because he had another family out West!
You actually met Charles Kuralt. I was a fan every Sunday morning. He would be appalled at the stupidity of viewers today, and how the gullible gobble nonsense like it is ambrosia. I agree with Napoleon’s comment that “nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” That should be our mantra for our difficult age.
As a college freshman. He was very unassuming and very kind. There was an eighty-something former vaudevillian in my college town whom we loved. Somebody told Mr Kuralt about him and so Mr Kuralt did an on-the-road segment of that man. So charitable; even brought a blush of grace to my young and cynical cheeks.
Lol; I adore Dan Rather too Jeri. Expecting nothing of recompense, he's still swingin' away for us all.
"Steady" arrives in my inbox every evening.
Me too. Loved Dan since Carla. I felt that Rupert and Karl Rove caused the trouble that led to CBS being stupid.
Talking heads making no sense to anyone but themselves!
Empty heads blathering bull schitt
I know that nowadays, you can't trust anything in regards to pictures. There is a picture of trump holding a bottle with two hands but he looks like he is blowing on it as if the water was hot or he was going toot with it. Just one photo catching and isolating an action can be so misleading. Is the picture AI generated? photo-shopped? They all look so real.
I have so many memes from 2016. I'd like to pitch them, but some really tell a story about the cretin that I hope to pass on someday.
What are the chances that TFG's supporters can wake up to the fact that they are being used to gain power? The very sources that have convinced them that their situation is not their fault but caused by the 'other', that the money behind those sources are the cause of their discontent.
About the same as the chances that the Christian nationalists will see that they're being used by their preachers (and the politicos and plutocrats) for similar reasons, and that most of what they're being taught doesn't come from the New Testament.
The problem is white supremacy. It’s insidious. Today’s letter outlines how racism has shaped our Constitution, our lives and our nation for centuries.
Why did we even need all of these Constitutional amendments and court decisions to give states rights when we’re supposed to be the “United” states?
Anyone who knows the truth about American history can see how white supremacy has shaped our nation in profound ways for centuries. It’s embedded in our Constitution, laws and customs.
Heather uses the term “neighbors” when she refers to Black people but most White people never had Black neighbors because America’s laws and customs didn’t allow Black people to live in certain places or hold certain jobs or attend certain schools.
So called “Christian nationalists have always been with us. The Bible was used to justify slavery and Jim Crow. Religion has been used to allow white supremacy to dominate all of our lives.
Yet in the mainstream we don’t like acknowledging, talking about or doing anything substantive about white supremacy.
I think Biden has fallen out of favor because the reality is his vice president is a colored woman, he’s included a good number of Black people in his administration/ campaign and Black voters are a good part of his base. This is alarming to most (but not all) Americans.
There’s panic about the idea that Kamala might have to assume the presidency. Heaven forbid! The ruling class and people who benefit are on edge.
The Great Replacement Theory is scaring too many White people. Trump is their savior.
Racism (plus misogyny) got us to where we are today and it’s killing America. Let’s pretend that’s not the issue though. It’s just Joe’s age.
White people overwhelmingly vote for Trump because they want small government and tax cuts. Never mind his character and agenda.
Nope-they vote for him because they don’t want us to make progress. They like white supremacy and know that Trump and the Rs will make America great again.
This is the real issue that people need to wake up to-if we could deal with white supremacy as a feature of our caste system then issues like education, gun control, abortion, climate change etc can be resolved because we’d have more unity-not division.
Black people support Biden because they know through lived experience over generations that tyranny means death and destruction.
Trump and the Rs lean on racism and “Christianity” because they know it works. It’s a proven tool for dividing and conquering the masses. It’s been cultivated for years. Would immigration be such a problem if the people weren’t “brown”?
We need to be wide awake to see the racism though. I’m counting on Americans with goodwill to give our nation a chance for change. Vote for Biden and call out racism when you see it so we can move forward together.
While President Biden's faculties have declined, I am still with him. I would welcome a President Harris, though I would likely disagree with many of her policies. She is a fine person with an unimpeachable character.
I also favour President Biden for many of the specific actions he has taken. One stands out as a reflection of his basic decency. That is the nomination of former Senator Jeff Flake as the (now) U.S. Ambassador to Turkey.
Senator Flake served the State of Arizona as a conservative Republican and wrote a modern up-date of 'Conscience of a Conservative'. He was the first, perhaps only, Republican Senator to stand up openly to condemn Trump for his hate-filled rhetoric.
Republican Senators who knew better let him twist in the wind; M.A.G.A. malice hounded Senator Flake out of the chamber. That President Biden rewarded Senator Flake for his courage says all I need to know about President Biden to vote for him.
I don't speak for everyone, but in my circle, Biden has NOT fallen out of favor!
Biden hasn't fallen out of favor in my circles either, but IMO Gina is on to something really important: that one reason Biden has fallen out of favor with the mostly white, mostly male pundits and media moguls is that his VP is a woman of color. Notice how so many of the people demanding he resign don't mention VP Harris as a backup, and indeed don't mention a backup scenario at all?
Biden fallen from favor? Not on YouTube.
Gina - this is it precisely! I'm glad to see that you have called it out. But the level of discomfort that white Americans feel when this subject is broached is very informative. It seems really difficult for most Americans to ponder the contradictions inherent in our system of government, our laws, and our economy. Most would prefer to not be reminded and try to pretend it away.
Had a chat with my sister-in-law about the phony Christians all around these days. Shocked her to her core. But she is kind, serious about Christianity and no fool. The opportunity arose and I took a chance. Bet her brain has been spinning, but maybe she will decide that some of the family are bat-Schitt crazy with the cult crap.
A "friend" said that Kamala was chosen because she was female and black, totally disregarding her many achievements. Folks need to learn more about her before dismissing her.
‘Kamala …heaven forbid!’ We suspected Ronnie Reagan was ‘losing it’ after he was re-elected! Not until his term was over was it revealed Nancy was running the country , and her fortune teller!
Is anything? (taught from the NT, if this post gets detached from Susanna's).
Anne-Louise, they certainly do not teach from the first three Gospels and what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. They ignore what he said about the wealthy and religious hypocrites like themselves. if Jesus appeared today, they would deport him....not a blue-eyed white man. And then there is Paul and their fav book, Revelations.
Paul said some pretty stupid stuff about women so I'm hedging my bets. <g>
There is another documentary, 'Bad Faith', that lays bare the corrosive corruption of power represented by Xian nationalism. Worth the watch.
The only share is fanatical insistence on being right vs wrong or more to the point good versus evil. If you're not sure about that, read the NT, just not as a Sunday School lesson.
Poor suckers seem to think that the power will be used to benefit them. Surprise - DT and MAGA power brokers. don’t really care about them.
Cults rarely wake up
Brain dead.
As far as those who haven't already peeled away eg Lincoln Project etc, Trumpism is likely baked in no end.
Fear of the monster they themselves created.
Jeri Chilcutt's comment (Jul 9) is exactly what the "free press" is supposed to be doing. Real reportage has historically been "just the facts, ma'am," without slant, bias, or pre-determined conclusions. The facts drive the reporting, rather than the other way around. The USA saw the stirrings of "yellow journalism" back in the early 1890s, when breathless, sensational reportage was in use to propel the nation into a war with Spain. William Hearst and Joe Pulitzer saw real gains in readership by appealing to emotions and pathos in the articles that appeared, and Hearst himself has been credited with the origin of the expression "If it bleeds, it leads." It's been a downhill slide ever since.
Or even a genuinely NEUTRAL position. I don't need the media to tell me what to think or how to think, but I DO need the media to tell me what happened, what is planned, what various people are thinking or what their goals are.
It doesn’t matter. Any coverage allowed will be propaganda a la Putin. Public radio/TV will be defunded—something I mentioned in my letter today saying that I had stopped listening to their news which was (including BBC) constantly fomenting the agitation about Biden, and not covering his successes, stable administration, or Trump’s many disconnects ramblings. I told them I expect better of them,
I listen to Medias touch. They are gathering more and more well educated people. Glenn Kirchener, and the man from Tennessee. and Farron Cousins.
In the main stream news, no one seems to realized that the Biden's staff are very steady people who know what they are doing. Trump had staff who didn't know what they were doing. Biden just needs to go out and campaign just like he is doing.
Exactly…Biden is surrounded by a smart, capable, trustworthy team. They will be dependable and competent and supportive.
Unfortunately, DT's minders prepared him very well for the "debate". Biden's did not.
Peter Burnett,
We need to get beyond the debate and let our President focus on governing. This has become a huge distraction for our President.
If we continue this "distraction", we are giving free support to those in the Republican Party that are destroying our freedoms to govern "for the people".
There is a need for quiet, serious, and respectful conversation within the body of Democratic leaders. Our beloved and great President needs to be taken out of the spotlight so that he can continue the great work he has done for us.
Wise and positive action needs to be taken...no more "wringing our hands". Persons of color are working together to save our Democracy. We need to pay attention to their wisdom and follow their lead.
Thank you, Emily. So true! And just by the way, I was looking at a video clip of Jamie Raskin wielding his duelling sword with perfect balance and efficacity and admired him yet again. ("It's always a pleasure to hear my colleague from Colorado speaking" - just before demolishing her). He's not black, but the protective headscarf he's no longer wearing, thank goodness, could have made him a self-proclaimed victim of otherness.
Perhaps. But Biden might’ve actually prepared for a debate on issues. That wasn’t one, thanks in part to the panel failing to focus the questions and to Trump’s lifelong automatic ‘camera’ mode—the gaslighting conman. He is a media-created narcissist and Biden is not. Biden is a working man, not a media created celebrity. His mistake was expecting to actually talk about substance and facts.
Yep.
DT did not answer a single question in that “debate”. In his usual bullying fashion he just repeated the lies that he has committed to memory and said over and over again. It wasn’t preparation, it was repetition.
I agree that Biden was over-coached and over-prepared with facts and numbers rather than speaking from his heart.
It’s time to be over the debate. What matters is defeating Project 2025!!
Not “defeating Project 25”.
Using Project 25—and every single one of the horribly unpopular measures the MAGA GOP promises—as Democratic Party propaganda for defeating DT and MAGA at every turn.
Make a list of them, from His Majesty Donny I to overturning Roe vs. Wade to bump stocks to official State religion to the persecution of racial and sexual minorities to the expulsion of all the millions who have been keeping the country alive and the economy functioning by doing the jobs no one else is willing to do… List in order of horror.
Winning both houses of Congress is essential, purging every school board, every niche where the infestation of parasites and scavengers has taken up lodgings!
*
HURRY! Get hold of the COMPLETE VERSION NOW, before Drumpf has it taken down as… too embarrassing… with his name written all over it, just as that name will, if he has his way, be branded on all that moves and displayed in letters of gold on all that doesn’t.
GET THE PRESENTATION BY KEVIN ROBERTS, PRESIDENT OF THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION…
Drumpf, of course, says “Not me... Don’t know these folks”.
JUST AS HE DIDN’T “KNOW” STORMY DANIELS, THE LADY HE RAPED IN A CHANGING ROOM OR ANY OF THE OTHERS WHO HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF THOSE SMALL HANDS GRABBING THEM BY THE GENITALS.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/09/project-2025-trump-connections-similarities
Read Catherine Rampell's Opinion in the WaPo
"Trump says he knows ‘nothing’ about his party’s dystopian plans. Right."
"It’s preposterous for Trump to feign ignorance of Project 2025, conceived by his closest advisers."
Really??? All I saw was more of the same…nothing new…Maybe that’s been working for him all along…
Peter, I let it go with "I may have had a bad day or so in my time" and leave it go without debate. You soon find out who has an axe to grind or a narrative to 'spin.' ** Also, to your point; The manipulative nature of OiD's badly flawed character prepped him.
Prepared him very well?? By what standard? Seriously!
Sitting calmly, never taking the bait...
That's something new.
Thanks Eva. I too listen to Medias touch. They have brilliant commentators and as diverse as well educated Glenn Kitchener to Tennessee Brando (a good old ordinary average American). They help maintain the sanity that MSM is so lacking for true journalism.
*** And 'that' my wise friend Eva is the word that says it all; TEAM. The office of the president is All about the Team around him. Joe has constructed a team of professionals who are tremendously talented, extremely committed to 'ideals, philosophies, goals, etc., that Joe has, as their leader espouses and 'acts' upon. In shorter terms, they execute his ideals surrounding our construct of a just, useful, and constitutionally driven government and community. And for those who've paid close attention to our doctor, they are doing it all "lawfully," which has her, and yes myself, on their side; at this moment in time. ** I am ever in awe... absolute awe at the team Joe has assembled around himself. I've often thought, and chastised myself for not letting those individuals know how proud and grateful I am for their service to country... and Joe; each respectable leaders in their own rights. And extremely hard working.... again following Joe's lead and actions. That includes the seemingly invisible Kamala, who works her tail off too, unbeknownst to far too many. I would give anything, including my last days on this rock, to serve Joe, Kamala, Blinken, Buttigieg (sp ?_) - any who would have me. They are truly rock stars !!!
I agree with every word! (sp correct).
Lol Anne. I fret sometimes... At my core I'm sort of a grammarian and spell - arian like others here. Bet I could save our doctor some money on editing costs - I'd work for her for room and board ! Thanks for confirmation on the spelling. I don't know if it shows or not in my writing, but I write as I think and feel - in the moment. I don't calculate, yet sometimes my fingers get too far behind my thoughts.... Brava sistuh !
I think the man you refer to is "Tennessee Brando"? I have not seen Glenn Kirschner on Meidas, but he has his own Youtube channel and also does frequent clips with Brian Tyler Cohen.
I also recommend "Beau of the Fifth Column" and his companion weekly channel "The Roads with Beau".
Repubs have been cutting funding for NPR, and PBS every chance they have gotten. They are forced to “toe the line.” They will be starved
(At last! someone who knows the line is toed, not towed).
Well said, fellow grammarian.
Lol....
Now if we could get "moot" and "mute" straightened out, I see those used interchangeably quite frequently.
Certainly under a second Trump term they will be cut. So what do they have to lose by truth-telling now??
They will disappear, completely. Maybe they want to hang on as a shadow of what they were early on. Well, that’s what they are now. Hoping for a Dem blow out and my many dreams come true. Yes, I’m a dreamer, but maybe I’m not the only one…
I've done the same, re PBS.
Corporate owned media protect their bottom line over unbiased information to the public who depend on freedom of the press.
How does a journalist report on evil without at least a sense of bias?
Being able to discern good from evil doesn't indicate bias. Not reporting the facts because headquarters has determined a
certain subject cannot be covered, or the reporter does not want to offend anyone is bias.
And RFKJR is the only candidate who can stop the corporations control.
John, as if RFK Jr weren't the actual agent of division which HCR reminded us about in her previous letter about the political psychologicakl warfare Putin has used so effectively in the UK (see Brexit and Boris Johnson) and in France (in Marine LePen). RFK Jr represents the same kind of divider that tRump was. His major ties for speaking engagements, organizations and money has been the far right as has been his staffing. His own family is embarrassed by him and repudiates the stands he takes.
HCR specifically reported on "what Russian political theorists called “political technology”: the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media. Political theorists developed several techniques in this approach to politics: blackmailing opponents, abusing state power to help favored candidates, sponsoring “double” candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to confuse voters on the other side and thus open the way for their own candidates, creating false parties to split the opposition, and, finally, creating a false narrative around an election or other event in order to control public debate."
100% agree. RFK in a sense is to this cycle that Ralph Nader was to 2000 but worse because he has used his good name and take on destructive directions on issues.
John, when you meet RFK, please ask him to buy my book, “How to Make Money From the Mentally Retarded.” I’ll send you an autographed copy dedicated to him.
How would he do that exactly, surely not be sheer will?
I can’t see someone like Rachel Maddow, amongst certain others, ascribing to your assertion…,
And that’s where Rachel and Lawrence along with others at MSNBC are in grave danger if the traitor and his ilk are elected.
Mike Yochim,
I do believe the wonderful, honest and fearless patriots sharing the truth on MSNBC have proven that they are willing to face their fears and use their gifts and talents in order to preserve freedoms you enjoy but are too cowardly to stand up for! They are fighting for all of us...even you.
What are you doing to preserve freedom for the future of the citizens of the United States of America???
What are you doing? I don’t see you on social media attacking the traitor or his acolytes. I don’t see you sharing news worthy attacks on them. All I see here is an uninformed rabble rouser.
The exception rather than the rule. Rachel earned her PHD. Something very few entertainers have that “present” the news on cable tv.
Along with Jim Acosta at CNN… He will be long gone.. I love him and ache at how he has been more and more diminished…
Rachel is strong, but msnbc is owned and controlled by NBC, so corporate pressure is still strong.
Lonely Rachel?
Project 2025 will eliminate the White House Press Corp. They intend to go after the elite media. Remember trump despises the New York times.
The Fourth Estate is fooling themselves. In authoritarian governments a free press is always one f the first things to go.
The media is helping to elect someone who will punish and eliminate them.
I am no longer able to listen to most of what CNN is reporting these days. They have barely mentioned Trumps abysmal, outrageous, one lie after another, performance during the “debate”…They seem set on destroying Biden. Jim Acosta seems to be the only one allowed to report on Trump’s outrageous behaviour. Also, let’s not forget that Biden is surrounded by strong, smart, trustworthy
My theory: it's like tug-of-war. The center is not where the flag is attached to the rope. The center is halfway between the two lines on the ground. The media's judgment is supposed to be on which side makes the best argument while the flag is between the two lines, which is while both sides are making sure both sides are being heard.
By closing its collective mind to the left, the right has declared that the flag is the center, and they knew the media would fall for the con because of its "next quarter" profits.
Dear CNN,
There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.
"Preserving access" is the industry euphemism for 'sucking up to both sides so we can have anonymous sources too'.
Reminds me of ‘Pascal’s Wager’ 🤔
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/
Randall Munroe, who writes the web series xkcd, has the best take on Pascal's wager I've seen to date. Link: https://xkcd.com/2947/ Enjoy :)
Holy cow! That was easy to understand.
Perfect example Steve. It's a highly suspicious 'pyramid scheme' and you beat me to it. Bravo !
A way to explode one’s brain, or just turn it to mush. 50/50 chance
Whoops! glasses time. I read that as "Pascal's Wagner".
Yeah, and I had to read yours twice to be sure you really hadn't said "Pascal's Wanger"... Junior high brain stole the cafeine this morning, apparently.
Lol Anne ~
Bravo !
I don't follow you. That wager is no insurance policy, has nothing to do with hedging bets.
Exactly.
My theory is that it’s all about money, power and entertainment to distract and indoctrinate to secure money and power.
Agreed, David.
What kind of bubble do you live in?
Middle America has lived through 25-30% core inflation for the last 3 1/2 years,
open borders, a trans war on girls, and stupid foreign policy.
This isn't rocket science.
Those who do this always fail to look at history. In the end, if MAGA gets power, it will turn against them anyway.
Wise observation from history Cheryl. Indeed they will.
Michael Corthell, right, in other words they have no principles, just blind lust for profit and power.
Much of it is fear based as I said.
Michael Corthell, true.
I keep thinking about that--if Trump gets into office, there's no way Project 2025 will spare the NYT, CNN, or WaPo, no matter what they have been publishing recently.
Any chance maybe America hates 25-30% core inflation? Open borders?
War on girls by Trans rights? Stupid foreign policy?
Keep living in a leftist bubble.
Further Notice: James A, I am initiating mandatory mediation with Substack Inc on tortious Author conduct & unfair business practices by a Platform without James A.
Thank you, Bryan. Trolls have appeared and disappeared here before as we both well know (and that of the good readers here). I highly suspect that "James A" is former LFAA troll who got nowhere (you know who I mean!!) and has received funding to again try to sow discord here.
Buzz off. Who in the hell do you think you?
You don't get to censor me or tell me what I say. You are a fascist. Get lost.
Bzzzzzz
Yawn
Good theory. Let's say it is that they know the liberals will not seek retribution, but the conservatives will.
Same with NPR & PBS.
Steve Edward R. Murrow is spinning with Walter Cronkite. Murrow would be prompted to do a ‘Joe McCarthy’ expose on Trump, Project 2025, and the deadly challenge to the soul of America.
Murrow already would have done an expose on the Supreme Court, whose stench has fouled the Potomac River.
I'll put in my vote for MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell as one of the few remaining trustworthy journalists on television. In my judgment, everyone should make a habit of watching his show.
Absolutely. He is wise and truthful. And calm in his approach. Unfortunately many of the others tend toward hysteria.
He, Lawrence O’Donnell is the news reporter that I also like. For his clear and honest reporting. I like Rachel Meda, but she’s just a little too cynical for me.
I think you mean Rachel Maddow. She's good too, but I don't always watch her, not because I think she's cynical, but because she's too detailed. We all need to know it's USA versus MAGA. If USA wins, everyone wins, including the MAGA cult members. And if MAGA wins, everyone loses, including MAGA.
Rachel digs into the nitty gritty detail to prove that point, and I'm thinking I'm already scared enough as it is. But I did watch the Stormy Daniels interview.
Daniels appeared scared.
Yes, and for good reason, but the more I know about her, the more impressed I am with her strength and courage.
Loved both men. They have never been replaced and the vapid are in glorious ascendance
I knew Edward R. Murrow, his wife Janet, and Clancy, his only son. During WW II my family would listen to his remarkable THIS IS LONDON on Sundays. Much later Dad and Mr. Murrow created THIS I BELIEVE in memory of my mother.
I last talked with Murrow at an Eisenhower Fellowships meeting with President Eisenhower in the fall of 1960. Subsequently he became chief of the United States Information Agency, where he did a superb job of publicizing America abroad until, with lung cancer from his heavy smoking, he had to step down, and then died.
WOW!
Lordy Keith. Most incredible thing I have seen on here. He was such a remarkable man. I saw his interview with Bogie and Bacall and he smoked non stop. What a loss. We watched him and my parents loved him. What a loss. You are so blessed.
Jeri I had a fishing week end with
Urrow. During the 1953 coronation, Murrow flew back with films for a broadcast, while Dad and I took Janet to Ascot (with Queen Elizabeth). Many years later Clancy and spoke spoke to a public television group in Washington about THIS I BELIEVE.
Have you written about it, such incredible memories. The coronation was the first thing I remember seeing on tv. We went to aunt’s house since we didn:’t have one. A fishing weekend. What an experience. How I wish some genius would show some of the old shows so we could relive some of those moments. I know C-span does old political speeches, but so much human interest stuff is lost or replaced by garbage.
Today we seem to leave the hard-hitting journalism to John Oliver 🤯
Yep, John hits them where it hurts.
“ Walter Cronkite is spinning in his grave.”
Jesus Christ is spinning as well (hypocrisy being his #1 pet peeve). Never before have I witnessed such hypocrisy between what is written in the scriptures and the actions taken by these so-called “evangelicals.” Thank you David for calling out the mainstream media for doubling down on this….
There are many who claim to follow Jesus who wouldn’t recognize Jesus at all.
Kathy, you said that so well. Christi-fascism is just another term for corporate-fascism. They are all about money. It’s perverse.
Karl Rove helped take the Christ out of Christianity.in 2004
Or Lincoln. I can hear it from here.
Unfortunately, this supposes that we all (Americans) consume the same news, as we did when I was a kid and we only had the three local stations. Everyone got pretty much the same story. With the advent of cable, it doesn’t really matter how much news is consumed if it’s only consumed in a silo that protects and justifies your own thoughts and ideas. We don’t really have a Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow anymore. And if we did and they reported the truth, the right wouldn’t watch or listen to them anymore.
Steve Brant,
There is nothing Christian about this organization. It is an insult to the name of Christ.
Christ came to reconcile mankind to God, the Father. He demonstrated unconditional love. He healed those whom no one else would touch. He went into storms and calmed them. He confronted those whom He loved with the truth....some turned to Him, some did not choose to do so....He did not condemn them.
He demonstrated the unconditional love of God by tenderly loving women who survived by living a life of prostitution or had been married many times...trying to find love and acceptance.
His chosen disciples were of a great variety of men each one with different gifts as well as struggles.
I am deeply concerned regarding family and friends who have allowed themselves to believe lies regarding the Christian faith. Too often it is just to be a part of a group.
It is also heart breaking to see people willing to believe lies from an organization that is far from living a surrendered life within the teachings and example of Christ.
How dare a person who has no faith , who worships only himself has gained such control over so called "Christians" who by their chosen ignorance from lack of studying and lack of praying and lack of "backbone" are leading our country to destruction.
Regarding "abortion", it must be a private decision made by a woman or a young girl.
In many instances, she is completely alone. The one who impregnated her carries nothing with him...not even a husband bears the pain or shame or fear or helplessness or guilt that is placed on the woman by many in this country. Her ability to choose is much more important than just a vote. Not to give a woman or young girl this right is cruel and dehumanizing. Her physical as well as mental health is at risk.
God does see the man....not just the woman or girl.
Regarding abortion, Jesus was as crystal clear. An individual's conscience is guided by the individual's personal relationship with God. That doesn't mean everyone gets to do anything they want and say "God told me to do it." Instead, we have to acknowledge that we are all children of God, and our responsibility is not only to resolve our internal conflicts, but we must also be willing to employ the time, energy, and attention necessary for resolving the conflicts between us.
Ergo, criminalizing health care (God told me to tell you what you can and cannot do) is anti-Christian. It is that simple. Anyone who doesn't believe that is ignoring Jesus' "all the Law and the Profits hang on these two commandments" message in Matthew 7:12 & 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 6:31 & 10:25-37, and John 14:12 & 15:12.
Thank you Emily. Yes, God gave us free will. If I want an abortion I can have one. You don’t have to have one but imposing your will to block me from exercising my free will I view as a major sin.
Jesus never said “worship me,” but instead said “follow my way.” Now these hypocrites want to impose their will of the “Christian family model” on the whole country, forgetting why people fled England to establish a free America! They have it back asswards—they love to flaunt their worship of Jesus but do not follow His way….
....And there you have it; Another bedrock foundational principle. Free will is "the thing" and in common among many - if not all religions. This g_o_d_ did not create puppets (if creation and g_o_d_ is your thing; I don't throw rocks). What is among the 'known' to me things is that this g_o_d_ of any doctrine I know of, did not 'create' identical puppets to itself. They were 'created' with "free will." Coincidentally or not, any whole person having a free will, also has the first and most important of "unalienable rights", .........the right of free will.
Oh my…Thank you so much for this. You have so clearly expressed so well how I feel but could not find the words.
Emily, we've had this conversation before. If they do what they do in the name of Christ their God, and call themselves Christians, that is what they are. In their belief structure, they take the Bible as their foundational text.d That sounds mighty Christian to me, even as the semantics argue that there is no "Christ" in that version of Christian.
I don't know much about Susan B. Anthony, but I expect she is also rolling in her grave based on her three quotes I've listed below. The antiabortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization is using her name in vane by working in precisely the opposite direction of her stated intent.
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
"No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent."
"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less."
Well done our James. Those are useful quotations for all to make good use of my friend !
Walter was mightly distressed before he died as he watched Fox spin “the way it is” to whatever lies Rupert and repubs were pushing on any day. A sea change in America that affects every one, every single day.
I can only imagine. The whole "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide".
I spent the better part of 28 years working graveyard patrol. I remember the first time I heard those two slogans: I had signed up for swingshift overtime, and had come on duty at 7:00 p.m. I tuned the radio to my usual station (at that time, in the mid 1990's I listened to Art Bell on AM 1120; don't judge me, it was entertaining.) I was eastbound on Hwy 58 from I-5 driving towards rural eastern Lane County. I heard that slogan and my initial thought was "well, yeah". Then I heard what they were reporting, and said (out loud and not abbreviated) WTAF?!? The only thing correct was the weather. Other than that, it was utter garbage.
Sidebar: In my later graveyard years (early 2000's) I discovered ESPN Sports Radio, and loved listening to "Mike and Mike in the Morning." When I went to dayshift contract patrol, it was classical music, all the way; then I discovered I could plug my iPod into the car radio... that was cool!
I recall my iPod "mini"--I couldn't afford a full size one. I loaded all my tunes into and brought it to work to show my friends. I can still picture the face of one co-worker--her eyes got HUGE and she begged me to let her borrow it for a day to show her husband! :)
I got a refurbished iPod 3 (I think) for a birthday 15+ years ago. I still have it, and can listen to the songs that were on it; can't add any new ones, but I have some great albums on there.
Tuba
I remember, in 1946, when we received our first Colombia 33 rpm long playing record that had excerpts from classical and popular music. Could music life ever get better? What would I do with my 78 rpm recordings.
I use my iPOD nearly every day.
I so very much want one of those Ally ! When it was too late, I saw the value of those things. For instance, my daughters both had them, and I asked about them far too late.
My BFF in the 90’s turned out to be married to a conservative nut and when Fox started up, they had it on TV at their house 24/7, literally. They were up all night and I guarantee it was on whenever I was there, which was often. I was beyond appalled from the start, so I’ve always known how horrid Rupert was. And now the whole of our citizenry are bamboozled. It’s been a long strange road.
Trump gives the impression he is softening his position on an abortion ban by saying the states should decide...but that is not softening. If he succeeds, it will be a double blow. It will enable states to take away reproductive rights and the rights of any other group they decide to hate this week.
Likewise, for Congressmen and pundits to call for Biden to step down are themselves putting our very democracy in peril. The majority of American Democrats have spoken, through the process we call the primary election process.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT disenfranchise my vote. DO NOT weaken our election process.
It's all another 'con' Susan; you 'know' that.
The MSM has become the enemy of the people.
They would be most definitely among those "tossed from the temple". Sorry; the foregoing has me stuck on religiosity and hypocrisy..... lol.
My media time is 85% questioning Biden. Trump’s idiocy is not addressed. The perils of Project 2025 are addressed only by a few in Facebook.
Let's all be posting about Project 2025. Biden/Harris have a good write-up about it on their site: https://joebiden.com/project2025/ There's actually a lot of coverage of it in MSM just over the last couple of days. Let's all AMPLIFY via our social media accounts.
True! Mainstream media is fully back to operating under Wm. Randolph Hearst premise. "If it bleeds, it leads." And the GOP has, along with a great number of Americans have chosen to be willfully ignorant.
Willfully ignorant, exactly
Huntley and Brinkley aren't sleeping too well either.
Steve, are you taking action. Putting in actual time for Biden? Working a phone bank? Helping craft and send out letters? Setting up neighborhood groups to act on what needs to be done in your community. Who is your local representative? Have you visited their office to see what kind of help they could use? That is how change happens! Ever worked on phone bank for a favorite local? Even 2 hours a week willl be appreciated, helpful
Thanks for asking. Yes, I am taking action here in my retirement … in pretty “red” Oklahoma… including being a member of the Lincoln County Democrats. There’s more I will say at a later time. I’ve been involved in politics in many ways since voting for Jimmy Carter in 1976. Here’s one fun picture from an event in Los Angeles in 2012 …
Amen.
well said..but more than commenting on Heather's post, taking action, putting boots on the ground is much more important. Online commentary is fun, and can be intriguing... but again... boots on the ground! Community action groups are very valuable.
Women will affirm that abortions are to be granted by Congress by codifying Roe v. Wade when Biden is reelected as President. Individual states can just suck it and so can Project 2025!
If only the anti-abortionists stop wanting to force their ideology on the whole country. I have no problem with anyone who is opposed to abortion, let them not have an abortion. Just stop wanting to force everyone else to comply with your ideology, which for what it is worth has NOTHING to do with protecting zygotes and everything to do with punishing women for having had sex.
Where is the punishment for the men, without whom a pregnancy would never happen?
Oh, Jen, there is never a time when punishing a <italics> man<italics> for having SEX is appropriate. Men MUST have sex when they want it. There is no responsibility for their SEX DRIVE. It is only the woman who must bear the child who has no say in the matter. <bold and capitalized sarcasm font>
I have had this very argument with a friend (still, sort of) repeatedly. He refuses to see how his "belief" that all pregnancies are a "gift from God" no matter how they occurred is outlandish on its face. I gave him the counter argument if that was so, then why wasn't there a "God made me do it" defense for rape? No answer.
Oh Ally..... I'd relish an argument or arguments with that *^!!
Well, we disagree here, for once; decent men are decent, too. Nevertheless, I believe that, if legislation seeks to abridge a woman's right to privacy and autonomy, there should be a separate referendum of women in which a super-majority -- say two thirds or three quarters -- consents to such abridgement.
⚖️🤔💡🤝🗽
After all, under the Constitution, citizens surrender certain rights and freedoms to vest power in the government to provide for 'domestic tranquillity'. Soooo, the government, including the Supreme Court, should not take that right away without the consent of the governed, specifically women in this case.
Did you miss both the italicized "men" in my first sentence, and the <bold and capitalized sarcasm font> part of the last sentence in my next to last paragraph?
If so, you fell into the sarchasm.
OOOH... I 'like' that word Ally.. "sarchasm." I'm borrowing that one - many thanks !
Don’t ya know, sometimes ya just have to “SPELL IT OUT”?
Yes, forever slimy little men who are hiding their own perversions …. Dictating to women on what we can do involving our very personal individual CHOICE. Let’s start each man who starts a zygote a checking account to pay for that life until his death!
I was just going to say the same thing!!
It is the men who are doing the punishing.
Indeed ! And this agreement from a dude. Human reproduction requires two components to 'maybe' produce a viable human child.
I was pro-life for a long time. When Roe v. Wade was first seriously threatened under Casey versus Planned Parenthood in 1992, I became a card-carrying hypocrite. Twenty-five years later, when studying reformed Judaism, I swung around to pro-choice. One has to look at those unarticulated assumptions (s)he holds from years before.
Growing up in moderately observant R.C. atmosphere, I came to believe in an archetypal intuition that life started at conception. In my pro-life politics as a young conservative, I felt that government should not legislate on the topic, though I believed in the Houses of Congress should pass non-binding resolutions stating that life starts at conception.
Then came the direct attack on Roe versus Wade in the 1990s. That ended my thinking that Roe versus Wade was similar to the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court trying to resolve a question only the citizenry would be able to. At that point, I figured that, like it or not, the moral choice would have to rest with the individual.
Over time, that thinking expanded to aiding women -- and, hopefully, the men involved -- in making the choices they preferred by provision of pre-natal care, counselling if the abortion proved traumatic, job-training etc. Then, in 2017, I took a class through a local Temple about Judaism for beginners. That class opened my eyes.
The rabbi, a decent and incredibly erudite gentleman of gentility, stated that the position of Judaism (or, perhaps, his position) on the beginning of life was that life started at baby's first breath, per the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7 (i.e., G-D breathing life into what was still a figurine). Well that blew my mind.
Why?
Because, had I grown up in a moderately observant Jewish family, in all likelihood, I would have had an archetypal intuition that life started at baby's first breath. So, I was able, finally, to feel comfortable with what had been my reluctant politics all along. Dobbs offended me not only in its reasoning, but also in its implication that women are neither entitled to, nor capable of, moral agency.
I was never anti choice. It just never squared in my gut. I saw the unalienable right component and carry it still, and only strengthened my devotion to it as principle to my core once I was blessed with daughters. ** It occurred to me just after I posted this that the "pro life" movement is misnamed. They should evermore be known, posted,, and signed as the "anti free will" movement. jmho ~
Some also say that pro-lifers are pro-birth. Once the baby is born, forget about it. Inhumane to the many poorer women stranded with unwanted, unexpected pregnancies.
I think among other things like religious extremists, they are also "control freak" types.
It is that 'control' that may lead some men into misogyny.
Harvey I couldn’t agree more. Right Wing Christians see abortion as a “get out of jail free” card for women who have sex out of wedlock. They view unmarried women who have sex to be immoral and promiscuous. As such their stance is ‘if unmarried women get pregnant they can simply have an abortion and continue their immoral promiscuous ways.’
Their anti-abortion BS has much less to do with the “right to life” than it has about imposing their “sexual morals” on all women. It’s about stopping what they see as an unmarried woman’s lascivious and immoral behavior.
How many of those protesting abortion have themselves had abortions or been actively involved in arranging an abortion for someone and then get right back in line to protest again.
Spot on!
From your keyboard to the eyes of the goddess of women's right to self-determination.
👍
I am voting for Joe Biden and Democrats all down the ballot
I would like to see the re-opening of the Equal Rights Amendment to ensure its ratification. Though 'belts-&-suspenders' in its presence, the E.R.A. -- not earned run average -- would make Justice Ginsburg's application of the Fourteenth Amendment to a woman's moral agency inviolable as women would be integrated fully as citizens into the polity of the republic.
🗽
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2022/05/letter-176-to-friends-and-familiares.html (summary: why the Dobbs decision is plain wrong; why abortion is not a right but an exercise of a constitutionally protected right)
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2019/05/letter-157-why-originalism-is.html (summary: written five years ago; why originalism is an ideological cover-story for some very ugly politics)
✍️
What galls me most about the Trump versus United States decision is this statement from the majority opinion: "True, there is no 'Presidential immunity clause' in the Constitution. But there is no 'separation of powers clause' either." Originalism exercised at the convenience of the originalists; what hypocrisy. This becomes important in the Dobbs decision.
🫣
In that opinion, the Supreme Court argues that there is no right to abortion in the Constitution. Well, duh. Abortion in itself is not a right but the exercise of a right, the right to privacy (under Roe versus Wade) or right of autonomy of a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment. So the lack of word works in Dobbs but does not matter in Trump versus the United States. 🖕
Abortion and IVF will be what this election is really designed to protect along with a lesson learned in 2020 that Trump and Trumpism is not what “America” stands for!
Brava, Marlene.
... Along with a spelled out law, defining 'women' as whole persons and therefore citizens.
IMHO, It is incongruous to be pro-life if you are unwilling to be anti-background check, anti-bump stock prohibition, and anti-prohibition of military weapons for civilians. How can you be pro-life and pro family if you are willing to let women die or lose reproductive rights in order to protect a cluster of cells that may or may not grow into a n autonomous individual. You can’t be pro-life if refuse to accept that decisions made to protect one race, creed, religion or national origin over another.
Exactly. If they were truly "pro-life" and not just pro- birth, they'd pass sensible gun control measures, and provide adequate funding for nutrition, health care, child care and education. That so many young women have bought into the Susan B. Anthony BS really hurts. First of all, how dare they besmirch her name by co-opting it for an anti- woman agenda and, of course, how dare they try so hard to undermine all the years of effort that went into getting Roe passed.
Thanks for this - I had to research that organization after the mention today! Horrid!
Why did these women use Susan B. Anthony anyway? This is the first I’ve heard of this one. This just keeps getting weirder.
The Robert's Court claims to be and I think tells themselves, that they are morally superior to ordinary mortals, which is why they reject a substantive ethics code other than own personal whims, and why they feel justified in bossing anyone else around. It's patent malignant narcissism. but for some reason many of our fellow humans reinforce it. I think we all have a narcissistic component of our nature, but balance and integrate it to varying degrees. Wacko out of balance it can become pure evil.
I agree. We should include civics and civil behavior, including some necessary doses of humility, in our educational system. This is different from religious education. Not all religious folks are either ethical or civil. Elitism is overrated. It breeds contempt for everyone else and an every-rising bar for entry which feeds the "it's never enough." mentality. One place to begin might be with the Ten Commitments outlined by The Humanist Society.
It’s the right’s perversion of history that begins with the heroes and heroines of history that begins the erosion of what is true. It’s revisionism at its basest level. It’s difficult to see because of all the turmoil at the top.
Your question was a good one so I tried to find out. The Trump-loving Marjorie Dannenfelser sites an anonymous article signed "A" in The Revolution, a weekly newspaper owned by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as being proof that SBA was against abortion. Anthony scholars call this hogwash. The Revolution published articles or opinion pieces from a variety of perspectives, many of them anonymous. Anthony used her full initials or her full name on her pieces. In sum, it's a misappropriation of a famous name and image to promote a hard-right view that has, sadly, induced many young people to join.
Thank you for this. Apparently, that's been going on for some time. Mormon Women for Ethical Government featured a speaker who talked about the many Mormon women who were Suffragettes and worked hard to help women get the right to vote. Meanwhile, other Mormon women worked hard to foil their efforts. As the speaker said, "It's complicated." And frustrating beyond belief!
They are shameless about co-opting anything with moral legitimacy to cover the fact they have none. It has reached Orwellian proportions. I think that we as a culture need to understand cult dynamics a lot better than we do. Real cults make people crazy; there is no shortage of evidence of that, though unlike a psychosis, I have seen people shake it. I think the key to cult thinking is a reflexive attack on counter-evidence to what one wishes was true, with a sense of reality that spins off into it own self-reinforcing eddy. It becomes pernicious when it justifies violence against one's self or others, and labels torture and genocide as morally superior behavior. Again, the examples are legion, and the countermeasures not simple. Vigilant rejection of authoritarianism is a start.
Obviously, consistency and being logical has no part of their idiotic philosophy.
Like being conservative goes against-the-grain … the natural order of things; consider that many in that party deny climate change - [one of] the most important things that men and women and children should be doing is to attempt to help lessen our negative impacts on our weather and natural environment … if we’re unkind to nature, nature will very likely be unkind to us!!!
The "laws" of nature take precedence over even the Constitution. Reality is indifferent to our proclamations. When we know her ways we can sometimes hitch a ride. If we are obvious, nature can crush us like bugs, without so much as a glance behind. Ask the dinosaurs. They must have thought they were pretty big stuff.
Accepting climate change will not happen until 'they' are directly affected. They belong to the school of "seeing is believing". If it is ain't happening to me it ain't happening. They believe what they need to regardless of the evidence.
“James M. Inhofe, a five-term Republican senator from Oklahoma and, until President Donald J. Trump’s arrival in 2017, arguably Washington’s most prominent denier of the established science of human-generated climate change …” someone who likely never accepted its realities - that what we do can and does exert an impact on the weather, our environment and ultimately the climate!
When you get to the level of public figure, it can hard to tell how much is self-delusion and how much is cynical manipulation:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper’s writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday.
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” -- https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
Sometimes the must-not-be-questioned idea is so fixed they deny even their own dire circumstances. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/16/1996206/-South-Dakota-nurse-talks-about-dying-patients-who-still-believe-COVID-19-is-a-hoax?detail=emaildkre#comment_79362866
Fascism only makes sense to fascists.
Millions of Americans are being sucked into the Fascism of the Party of Trump by believing the misinformation. CFDT made one statement yesterday which was about 20 seconds long and he still couldn't keep from lying. They played it on MSNBC and they didn't even point out how ridiculous the statement was as if everything he says is normal.
That's how Fascism takes hold. Remember Hate, Anger, Resentment, Revenge and Misinformation (HARRM). CFDT can't help himself.
Gary, I no longer think of him as "lying" as much as he simply makes things up as he goes along, makes up whatever reality he wants. Yes they are lies but they aren't particularly formed or even consistent. He simply says what he wants to believe and wants us to believe.
This thing about killing babies after they are born!!! I’ve heard him say this twice now, the last time during the debate. Why isn’t MSM screaming about this horrific lie?
Because this is part and parcel of the anti-abortion, pro-maternal death faction of the RepubliKans. I had this argument with my former sergeant; he believed with all his godly heart that women went through 9 months of pregnancy, delivered a healthy child, and then aborted it. Even telling him that once the child is born, the pregnancy is complete, and that such an event would be prosecuted as a homicide BY DEFINITION did not sway him. His wife is a former DDA, and he knew the laws better than just about anyone...
It part of the mental malware installed by cults. I know talented, educated people who recite MAGA talking points chapter and verse. If Trump (or "Q") said it, than only a despicable person would question it. The authority flows exclusively from dear leader, not the evidence of one's eyes and ears, and certainly nothing so involved and quaint as logic.
It's the old "man bites dog" thing.
"Trump tells another vicious lie" - Not News
"Biden has misstep" - NEWS
I once got an image in my head of children on their way to school or wherever idly watching blacks being beaten in the fields and thinking that all was right with the world. The most cruel injustices thrive to the degree they are normalized. Effective social movements force us to take a harder look are what we have eagerly, cluelessly, or grudgingly come to accept as "the way it is".
I love this - 'The most cruel injustices thrive to the degree they are normalized."
succinct and to the point. Nicely stated.
I can sort of see why those who would be fuhrer get some kind of kick from it, but the rank and file? Does one really enjoy being subjugated?
People will sell their souls for permission to be cruel to others.
https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-true-believer.html
Some long for a strong father figure, whether through their politics or their religion or both.
Strength is of many sorts. The strength of MLK bothered some so much he was attacked and ultimately murdered for it. Some believe they are strong because they hold a gun. We are accustomed to call an authoritarian bully a "strong man" yet the "strength" of such people is ultimately founded on fear and outrageous lies. That's why any challenge must be crushed.
But yes, I suspect most rapt MAGA acolytes had some sort of overbearing father.
And perhaps want to be some sort of overbearing father/husband in their own family.
Their fragile egos are apparently blind to that obvious glaring reality. Wouldn't Freud be having fun with this.
They feel subjugated already by, as they see it, a status quo elitism of which they're not a part. The fascists talk to these people - I can't understand why they listen, but critical thought and debate are nowhere in their calculus. So long as the fascists have it out for *us*, that is somehow good for them.
You know, "own the libs."
Divide and conquer. It works.
Somehow I suspect (and only suspect) that weird religious distaste for sexuality has a hand in this.
Exactly, J L.
Some types of people hate the details of humanity -- the messiness, complications, funny nuances, and what the poet Joseph Brodsky liked to call "loose ends." (Standardized testers especially hate 'loose ends"; they believe in categories wherein everything fits or ought to fit in prescribed and testable ways.)
These who hate humanity's oddities of course love abstractions. They usually also crave hierarchy, as in ur-"Christian" homes, where women supposedly learn to defer to the man of the house, patriarchy coasting on those givens.
Those who love abstractions and categories of course, too, hate humanities: novels, memoirs, poems, films, songs. Though Hollywood also well knows how to deliver its forms of sensationalism to the more guaranteed vulgar among us -- sorry, no offense, Arnold, Sylvester & crew.
Sad to say, too, J L, the Clarence court has no patience with or respect for individual choices as women and their families may weigh them. Those abstracters like instead to package life, by their cookie-cutter ideology. They like the sensationalism of the vulgar, thus dispensing immunity for Trump and whatever vulgarity or criminality he may level.
Sad. Sad. Pathetic crossroads we're at.
Stepford rules, maybe AI will replace even that phony excuse for a human
Phil, your comment brought to mind Malvina Reynolds’ song “Little Houses” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cjk0zst3Cs. Oh the songs she and Pete Seeger would be writing today!
Yes, Barbara. That's what humanities did.
That's what humanities have done through all human history.
And that's why the 1971 Powell memo started the far-right to its organized means first for killing humanities, to its Clarence court now ruling for criminality.
Woodie Guthrie wrote "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar, undoubtedly would've been enough to get him killed by fascists, given the chance.
Always love the euphemism that ‘Americans are prudes in public and perverts in bed’
For more on this you can check out YouTube
for ex-evangelicals
speaking out; very revealing - forcing themselves to live a purity driven life. And what happens to the ones who managed to extricate themselves. One of them is an NPR reporter.
Looking back at the sodomy laws passed by many states, the puritanical hypocrites tried to enforce bedroom activities.
I suspect many of these laws are still on the books. Of course, they would never be enforced on a single Catholic priest who commits pedophilia or Southern Baptist minister.
What is the real reason the Catholic Church doesn't allow priests to marry?
Gary Loft, it would take time away from making money and power for the business.
Don't know about the official Catholic take on this, but functionally it keeps women well away from their centralized power of frocked men, replaces any real access to dogma interpretation at the highest level in Rome.
A few years ago I read about a high school kid who had sex with a girl some months his junior at some wild party, and it happened to be captured on a cell phone. Because it was oral sex (which consensual, and the girl initiated) he was automatically given a long, non-commutable prison sentence. Everyone involved seemed to find the sentence unjust, but there appeared to be no remedy. Someone explained that the law had been meant as a trap for gays.
That was somewhere in the old South, of course.
Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me ... that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.
-- Butch Hancock
Cree Hardegree has a FB blog. Free or paid. Your choice. He has written some interesting articles on evangelical Christian’s as well as politics.
J L Graham, right and fear of sexuality. Fear highly resonates with them, which is why the propagandists always seek to activate it to be able to manipulate and control.
not disagreeing, though I supsect that weird religious distaste for women is more like it...
Republican Christian Belief; Sin is bad. Women seeking abortions are sinners, and some are having sex without even being married!
Frankly, I am surprised that they don’t support abortion for minorities.
Panamakelly, how can you be pro-life when you expect women to be the only ones to sacrifice to save lives. Fathers are not forced by law to sacrifice stem cells or organs to save their children and even corpses are not forced to donate organs to save lives.
That is because the anti-abortion issue has nothing to do with saving lives it is all about punishing women for having had sex. Controlling women - PERIOD!
There is no Republican logical value other that “Will this get us votes so we can have the power to increase the wealth of rich people?”
No American, no person of faith, should be fooled by Trump's MAGA. It has nothing in common with the teachings of Jesus Christ or its so-called 'pro-life' stance. It is a sham, just like its entire reason for being is a lie. The cult of Trump is only about subjugation and control—it's fundamentally fascist. #VoteBlueToSaveAmerica
There is no more indication that Trump is religious than there is that he is patriotic.
Quite the opposite J.L. CFDT can't recite a single Bible verse and says he likes the Old Testament and the New Testament the same. He has never regularly attended church unless it is for a photo-op and professes to be a child of God.
The evangelicals eat this shit up. And they are the ones that will vote him over the top. They are the dangerous ones that are all in on Project 2025 thinking that we should have a national religion and forcing people to believe in the same vengeful and jealous God in the Old Testament.
JL, that he is able to get away with this (obvious!) charade is beyond me & the duped gullible ones Hoover it up like milk & honey.
I wish it was just a bunch of people being duped. Many are very clear that Trump is their imperfect vehicle to impose their religious views on others.
And/or increase their own fortunes.
Yea, that, too.
Should be obvious to the deaf, blind, and even the ignorant. Stupid and greed is something else.
They aren’t listening or reading or imbibing anything that would educate them. Sadly, tragically.
They think they already know it all. From my friends watching Fox, they think that they are the informed ones. Plenty of evidence to the contrary, but who checks that out??
Additionally, in answering a thread above...
My theory (having watched CNN go around the bend) is that corporate media, like many Republicans, are hedging their bets. They want to be in the good graces of the 'New MAGA Order' if that becomes a reality so as to survive, knowing that their craven cowardice and treason can be smoothed over should the nation regain its sanity and reelect Biden-Harris. It seems plain as day to me.
I’m abandoning news sources acting as a weathervane.
use a number of YouTube channels. This from yesterday was quite good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oUMxFvzEdM
I like Beau, a lot!
I like how slowly he speaks, how he allows time to ponder each point he makes.
He's every man, broadcasting from his garage, with the curiosity to question.
Angling for positions in The Ministry of Truth.
Perfectly said MC , the bottom line . Thank you
My grandparents are from Ireland & I always thought if it as slightly backwards since a woman couldn’t get an abortion or a divorce. Divorce became legal and then a married dentist had an incomplete miscarriage at 17 weeks. The doctor’s request for an abortion was denied & 31 year old Savita Halappanavar developed sepsis and died at 31 for a perfectly preventable reason.
This summer I met my Irish cousins and now the shoes in the other foot. Their country was horrified at this woman’s death & passed laws to legalize abortion. They’re concerned about us, the women especially & they’re in disbelief that anyone could follow Trump. One of their sisters lives in the US & can’t see what is so clear to her siblings still in Ireland. I fear for my daughter & granddaughter.
I have 5 Irish grandchildren. The changes in Irish culture and politics has been monumental and women now have voice. The vote to permit abortion was an absolute landslide, well over 3/4 of the country voted for it. It is a major reason Ireland is now one of the most respect countries on earth. My friends in Ireland, UK, and Czech Rep. do not think highly of the US since the end of the Obama years. They do like and respect Biden, especially how he righted the NATO ship post Trump and got most of the world to rally around Ukraine. However, given Maga, our obsession with guns, and the entire Project 2025 mentality, all question America and Americans. These families are no longer considering the USA for their children's undergraduate studies and that mindshift came about in 2017. When they were kids every parent wanted their children in US colleges, today, almost all are college age, and so far none studied here. That mindset, universal among my friends, is a big loss for the US if many others think that way.
That is exactly what I found while talking to my cousins.
I was wondering about the negative reaction to Americans saying they’re Irish. It makes sense now. Fortunately it was not a mistake we made, we stated that our grandparents came from Ireland. One of my Irish cousins has a son in the US & a sister who loves Trump. They were talking about her with sorrow that they couldn’t tell her what they were seeing.
I don’t have faith in Americans. I was brought up on WWII war films & it’s horrifying to see so many ignoring what Germany went through in the 30’s.
Yes I read your post which gave me a reason to respond. I go to Ireland a lot and I have heard an increasing chorus of Irish beginning to talk about the American Irish... they find it unpleasant to insulting that the US Irish call themselves Irish (they aren't they say, their heritage is but they aren't Irish, they are American). I ask them why this distinction as it seems to be a new one. Their response is - well it always has been but we saw it as a no bother until more Irish - Americans talked like Trump, whom they detest. A growing minority of Irish are saying the US has more in common with Russia than Ireland..... that thought bothered me a lot. Things began to settle down with Biden but with the election coming up there is an undertone of apprehension, more alignment with Europe over the US, and trust issues with us. We will see but I have to admit, I am not very trusting of the American population either... even with Project 2025 making the choice clearer than ever, their rabid loyalty to the insurrectionist, sex abuser, felon remains a constant.
Some live and learn, some just grow old.
Kathleen, I remember this horror as it happened, not then knowing we would be devolving just as other countries were evolving on social issues. Also, with the issue of gun violence, look at what other countries response to mass shootings was—immediate action to curb/deny access to firearms. “Common sense” does not appear very common at all ‘round here!
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, which protected women's right to access to credit.Mar 22, 2024. Think about this. For most of my life time (and only for my lifetime) females in the USA could legally choose to reproduce or not, gain credit in their name, participate in sport fully. We now dominate in the number of enrollments in college education. The myth of the “weaker sex” has been blown to smithereens. It isn’t true and never was. Project 2025 has its sights on eliminating women’s rights in favor of a misogynistic past that I fortunately did not live the bulk of my life in. Yet my granddaughters will, unless
American voters can realize The Better Future means defeating MAGA up and down the ballot. Even if Biden is at the top of the ticket. Enough with the “if it’s Biden, I won’t vote” I’m hearing. Vote Dem all the way.
I was told that I couldn't have gotten my first "real" job (sales for Hewlett Packard) until this law. Because sales people had to have their own credit card and the company reimbursed the expenses.
I. The late 60’d, early 70’s, when I lived outside if Philadelphia after college, only the John Wanamaker department store would give a single woman a credit card! And then 1 apartment complex told my roommates and me that they did not rent to single women… we were a teacher, a nurse, and a social worker, all with college degrees and good jobs!
I was asked on job interviews what kind of birth control I used /or if I was pg.
I am going to steal your ideas to remind R females of what they will lose! Total lost of their rights & idenity as human beings.
Not a problem. I wish these facts were floated around. Young women have always had these rights.
And looking back on the Republican voting records, single piece of legislation that benefited women only, the Republicans voted against. Here is the summary below. Why would a woman ever vote Republican?
In 1972, they fought against selling birth control to single women until the Supreme Court made it available for sale to anyone.
In 1974 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Equal Credit act that would allow women to apply for their own credit cards and mortgage loans, instead leaving them dependent upon men to co-sign.
In 1978 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Pregnancy act, allowing employers to continue firing women because they were pregnant.
In 1980 Republicans VOTED AGAINST allowing women to report sexual harassment in the workplace.
In 1994 and 2012 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Violence Against Women Act which helps victims of domestic violence and rape and educates law enforcement.
In 2012 Republicans VOTED AGAINST the Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women Act.
This is one of the best compilations of reasons NOT to vote gop I have ever read!
Yeah, the republican party, "pro-life" until birth. We must refuse to use that term and shout out it's hypocrisy.
What does a zygote think about? And with what?
The GOP chose the "pro-life" term to define their anti-abortion stance assuming that to be otherwise is "pro-death."
BTW, how did that work out for them??
Yes, they chose the term for their antiabortion stance but it is hypocrisy. They don't give a damn for social and economic programs that actually help people from infants all the way to the elderly.
Wendyl, especially when they are such proponents of the death penalty. Or when they refuse to support the woman and child who are not able to survive without the help of the sperm donor.
Yes Ally! Exactly my point! Kill prisoners. Take away food stamps, SSI, social security, medicare, head start. Let them all die of lack of.medical care, starve them, take away the benefits they paid for and worked hard for. But! We are prolife!
Perhaps rephrase their stance - The Republican Party: “pro-life until birth do us part”
Nothing like paraphrasing their conservative Christian ideology a bit. :-)
They. Are. The. Enemy.
And they can be given no quarter. Either they are destroyed or America as we know it is destroyed.
Yes, they are the enemy within … the cancer within our body politic … our democracy!
That's a hard one. Enemy. They are Americans. wtf happened to them?
My thinking is resentment over wealth inequality, worse here than in any western country. And they dutifully will follow the author of their outrage to perpetrate more of it. It really is beyond understanding.
Enemy is as good a word as terminally stupid.
Yes, Jen, resentment over wealth held by others (many who didn’t actually DO anything to achieve it), but so envious of it too….a toxic combo! I recently visited a local bookstore and purchased a book that caught my eye…I’m only a few pages in, but the premise intrigues me: “Limitarianism—The Case Against Extreme Wealth” by Ingrid Robeyns. The current economic disparity seems to be widening and methinks folks will become “mad as Hell and not gonna take it any more”….just one of the many “fires” burning (some quite literally) on this planet that must be addressed.
“The current economic disparity seems to be widening…..” “folks will become “mad as Hell and not gonna take it any more”…”
This is exactly what many of if not all MAGA’s already feel and believe. But they see it as a result due to immigrants taking their jobs, “welfare queens” taking their hard earned money, etc etc. Trump has capitalized on and fed into their beliefs and feelings of being marginalized. What the MAGA’s don’t see is that it is the ultra rich, the top 1% that are responsible for their being marginalized. They’re fighting the wrong war.
I think a more progressive tax system would take care of that. The top rate doesn't have to go back to whatever it was,but the top rates need to be higher. However, limiting income to some cap based on some formula is a bit over the top, in terms of control. Forcing fairness seems quite totalitarian to me..
When America was doing all the great things the MAGAs remember from their childhoods, the top rate was 91%, and the top CEO in America made 45 times as much as the average employee of his company - an employee who was paid a living wage.
With that, today's gazillionaires don't have enough. Certainly $COTUS judges don't. <sarcasm font for the last sentence>
My thoughts too, Jerry, but then I’m only a couple of pages in—am curious to see how she presents it. The book, with index, is 301 pages. Has praise from a number of noted “economics” authors & what tipped me from a “looky-Lou” perusing the books into purchasing it.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
--Lincoln
J L Graham, thank you! And may I add, "Love and do what you will." St. Augustine. When we come from love we treat others and ourselves, justly and fairly. It's the key.
Several days ago I wrote a commentary on why I rank the Roberts Court the worst in American history. Previously the Taney Court was considered the worst.
Justice Taney, in 1836, succeeded John Marshall, our greatest Chief Justice. Taney was on the Court until 1864, when he died at age of 81.
The Taney Court was relatively undistinguished until Dred Scott v. Sanford in 1857. The 7-2 ruling
Concluded:
1) No African American could be a citizen of the United States; and
2) Congress had no legal right to restrict slavery in American territories and, thus, the 1820 MIssouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
Taney, from Maryland, believed that Southern States had the constitutional right to secede from the Union. During the Civil War he opposed many of President Lincoln’s wartime actions. Lincoln, like President Jackson in dealing with several of the Marshall Court rulings, simply ignored Tandy’s declarations.
The Roberts Court, especially with the addition of three Trumpist justices, has now topped the Taney Court in the ever-expanding scope of its ‘originalist’ and other bizarre rulings that ignore Stare Decisis [relying principally on precedent in considering litigation].
Another Roberts Court distinction is that the Court includes justices who will be there for many years, while the Taney Court virtually dissolved with Taney’s death.
I too have been making comparisons between the Roberts Court and Taney. Both will be written about as the worst of courts. But while Taney's court reinforced existing prejudices, this Roberts Court (perhaps more accurately described as the Alito/Thomas Court since Robersts has become so feckless) is ACTIVELY overturning existing precedents and removing individual rights.
Keith, this is my assessment as well. I recall early on hearing John Roberts muse about how his court would be "remembered". I wonder if even then he was plotting to turn our country into a Christian Nationalist, fascist country. I prefer (at least in this moment) referring to the "Clarence Court"...
I keep hearing that the most important thing is to beat or defeat “Donald Trump” … how about defeating the radical agenda of the republicans - the MAGA-cult - or how about keeping our democracy and giving it a [slight] modification or two or more as we proceed along and learn to correct our mistakes!
From my 7.4.Substack: Possibilities for, and perhaps absolutely necessary for, helping to mend our country - please add your own and feel free to share this.
. Youth with age partnerships
. Democracy-enhancing town halls for learning about things such as how the local government works, then advancing to county or parish, then state then national.
. Q and A zooms with local candidates everywhere
. (?) 12 step for narcissists
. Interfaith meetings and workshops everywhere
. '60s and '70s style teach-ins: American History; American influences and connections with the rest of the world; what actual laws mean to actual human beings; asking very specific questions of people who do not seem to understand how laws work, asking them to explain in detail what they would change and how according to the system we have in place now ie, encouragel people to think through a problem or a proposal …
Just a start here. And let's talk to each other about what we're doing.
I went to a Zoom with Field Team 6 last night and was impressed and surprised at how informative it was and by how articulate the people were. They ask, shall we "agonize or organize?". They're committed to doing "the work that wins". Their logo is, "Register democrats, save the world" and they're on task to register voters, especially in purple states. According to one slide, orgs spend from $1,500/vote to $300 to $500/vote. They claim to spend $8.58 per vote to register voters. They're doing more than fundraising, they're inspirational leaders.
Robin, although I like many of your proposals, I fear the notion of "12 steps for Narcissists" is doomed at the outset. People enter 12 step programs for addiction and alcoholism when they reach a "low-bottom" of life when they recognize the costs they've paid for their addictions, often after an "intervention" by those close to them. Narcissists are psychologically "defended" from such recognition by their projection of blame on "the other" and paranoid perception of others who try to intervene, perceiving even those who love them as "ganging up" against them. With these defenses at work they are rarely sufficiently motivated to enter any kind of therapy, let alone complete it. There ARE some forms of treatment which can work but usually only when the narcissist is still relatively young, say 16-30 yrs old and usually following suicide or other serious self-destructive attempts [see work by Marsha Linehan or Robert Gregory].
Beat me to it, John. My wife is a psychologist, and has said any number of times, that working with a narcissist is nigh on to impossible. They don't want change, they want others to change.
John, thank you for spelling out things a lot of us know by now and have to acknowledge more fully. It was meant as a joke which the question mark did not convey; should have been a smirk...
Robin Birdfeather, thank you for blessing my day with your hope and dreaming. It is great medicine!
Cogent, key issues you raise here, JL.
Notice, however, that as others touch on this nest of issues also, none refers to any Dem who's saying anything.
Lots of good Dems out there.
Point I'm making, however, is that none of the commenters here has referenced any of these Dems. Not Biden. Not Kamala. Not Gretchen. Not Gavin. No one.
I happen very much to admire Bernie, Liz Warren, Jamie Raskin, AOC, Katie Porter, Sheldon Whitehouse. I repeat -- many good Dems.
But I repeat, too, in this crisis, no Dem appears to be leading at all -- nothing sufficient for anyone here to quote, as if Dems have already just lost when it comes to conversation, commentary, replies.
MAGA leads. MAGA dominates. The Clarence court blessing Trump criminality leads, rules.
Why then were American women who were "born or naturalised in the United States" not automatically granted the right to vote in 1868 under the 14th Amendment?
It’s called misogyny. It took several decades of constant work by determined women to force men to extend the franchise.
And the Equal Rights Amendment has still not been ratified! It was 46 years ago that I was marching in DC among thousands of others (July 10, 1978) and later that year in Richmond, VA. Shocking that we don't have the ERA yet!
When Pelosi was Speaker, a bill was drafted and got out of the Democratically-run committee to rescind the ratification deadline of the ERA. Republicans were against it because of its impact on abortion--women could make all their own medical decisions just as men do.
Enough states have now ratified the ERA, however some did so after the ratification deadline. Eliminate the deadline, and the ERA immediately becomes part of the Constitution
Yes, I am aware of these facts. Thanks for emphasizing them.
The concept "men". excluded women. It took another Amendment, fifty-two years later, to correct that willful stupidity.
And, Russell, I’m STILL waiting for the ERA to be ratified….hopefully will live to see that happen, but if the present social climate is any indication, there are those who would like to take any gains women have gained to date.
I don’t want to start a flame war on this because these issues aren’t fully analogous but when the 14th amendment was being proposed and passed suffragettes - as they were then called - including Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton among others tried to get women included but didn’t succeed. The point I think may be contentious is that during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s there were those who tried to include gay rights and they were told it wasn’t the time. I’m unsuccessfully trying to recall who in particular I’m thinking of as it’s been a while since I read about this but while I understand the desire to present a simple issue, excluding others always weakens the base in the long run, in my opinion.
Thanks for the extra bit of history.
So much of our country's history has been about initiating changes, especially ones involving society, in smaller surges. The phrase you mention "it's not time" made me think about conversations with twenty somethings, the millennials. They are angry about being told to wait another election to see real change. They see a very broken system with two old men running who don't represent their values; the choices to them are the same, although they acknowledge Trump needs to be defeated. I've even been told that the pushback against Project 2025 is just the Democratic Party raising the alarm because their candidate is weak, that this is just another 'you need to wait another election cycle for change, because we just need to counter another threat'.
Slavery was given a pass in the Declaration of Independence because we wouldn't have gotten the slavery states onboard, we wouldn't have a nation without that compromise. Discrimination against Blacks was tangled up with slavery in an impossible knot, and the fight against getting rid of slavery was driven by powerful economic forces. People had to decide they were willing to pay for that change. Thank God they did in the end.
When women pressed for voting rights in that first surge, I'm sure they were told the same thing: "not the time". They had to fight a couple more generations to get their "time". James Baldwin had a similar conversation with Martin Luther King.
And both groups are still forced to fight, to this day. Anti-abortion is the backlash against women getting not just rights but the pill. Somewhat equivalent perhaps to the backsliding after the Civil War, then when Congress rebelled and put the 14th Amendment in place, a third backlash to try and weaken the effects of the Amendment, tactics that ran right up to the Civil Rights era. And now we hear the Republicans want in Project 2025 to remove the rights of naturalized citizens to vote, which will affect Hispanic communities most.
There is always a counter current that comes back at us, like those wave machines that slap the wave back and forth.
In talking to younger possible voters, seems LGBTQ rights and Gaza are still high on their list. They don't like Biden primarily because he is old, and they are appalled at his sending weapons as Israel conducts what can only be called genocide. They don't like Kamala Harris either, because as a former Prosecutor they see her as pro-Police. They are angry because they want younger candidates, more Bernie leftist politicians, and they aren't getting them. When I suggest they run themselves, they tell me they are barely keeping their heads above water what with housing costs and the weight of their student loans, they have no money or time.
And the percentages of young people who identify as LGBTQ is surprisingly high; I've heard 8% of their generation and even more. They see LGBTQ as tied to women's rights, in that the contempt and pushback against women is tangled up with contempt for trans women (men who gave up their power). They are tired of the old order, not just the politicians but societal constructs that draw artificial lines between what a man is, what a woman is. They want more radical change, and they want it as soon as possible.
I don't know where this leaves America at this moment. But it feels like a breaking wave to me. The question is whether we surf it or get pounded down underwater, sucked back by the currents. I'd rather stand up and surf, even shakily, as best we can.
Yes. So much you wrote of is consequential!
The Gaza and ‘old white men’ is a strong deterrent to potential voters. It’s easy to see them disdaining any kind of political system. The age of understanding working together, and making incrementally serious and good steps just doesn’t resonate. Again, listening and learning when people have made up their minds is not something we are very good at, and young people haven’t had much experience at consensus and entering into that space of recognizing other people’s ideas as worth listening to. Easier to just judge the errors or the perceived errors and dismiss it all. Hoping the “lesser of two evils,” as they see it, will encourage them to vote.
Well said, SC!!! Change is hard when folks are trying to drag a whole society ‘round to change/evolve, and I totally get the impatience factor—it’s a hard lesson to learn. To me, it’s the need for all of us to strain at the wheel to make progress. Love your wave analogy….just the other day I pulled out my Churchill fins to take to the river (body surfing/boogie boarding/shooting-the-river) to find they’d gasped their last breath, the rubber stiff & unwearable (heh, got them in the 70’s & hadn’t worn them for several years). So time for a new pair…a real pair and a metaphorical pair to ride this “breaking wave” you mention.🌊 Kinda hoping the “wave” we ride will be a big BLUE wave!!!!
Fabulous analogy, Barbara! Get a good pair (both actual and metaphorical) and ride that wave 🌊
Yeah, really like my Churchill’s & searched online for them…not too expensive & they still make them in the gold/blue combo (kinda reminds me of the Ukrainian flag!). I have a mesh backpack that drains when wet, so I can carry my fins & face mask up river and then “shoot the river” downstream, usually w/ my dogger (as many have over the years) paddling along side me. Have to carry my water shoes/sandals (used to be low-top converse sneakers in the way-back times) when the river turns to riffles & have to walk a bit to get to deeper water—this of course is not done in raging rivers (tho’ some do, even wearing wetsuits or drysuits & helmets!) and when conditions are safe.
Man, that sounds like what we did in the 70's, only mine were PF Flyers (Converse were for serious basketball!) and we used innertubes. The Applegate River from the Gorge to McKee Bridge, and down to below Cantrell Buckley Park was amazing. We'd drop a car at Cantrell, and the driver would get out there, pick us up, and drive back up to the Gorge. Fun times!! (Rendered impossible by the building of Applegate Dam in the 1980's; now that river is a torrent).
You might want to take a look at Wikipedia for Betty Friedan in the section called Lesbian Politics which addresses a slightly later aspect of rights and inclusion. I actually took a picture of Betty at the '77 conference in Houston making her statement to include lesbians in the Equal Rights Amendment:
she seconded a lesbian rights resolution "which everyone thought I would oppose" in order to "preempt any debate" and move on to other issues she believed were more important and less divisive in the effort to add the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution.
Excellent reminder and thank you. I’m old enough to recall her and I’ve read some of her books. I’m thinking there was a gay black man in particular who wanted gay rights included but was excluded from the actions around the March on Washington; unfortunately I can’t recall the reference I’m thinking of with respect to the issue of exclusion at that time. It brings to mind Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” I think this applies to anyone who isn’t part of the current in-crowd when it comes to politics.
You are thinking of Bayard Rustin who was the organizer of the March on Washington in 1963. There was a biopic of him produced last year by the Obamas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustin_(film)
That is exactly who I was trying to recall. Thank you.
Amazing that this happens here.....he knew who you were referring to.
We need to have an equal rights amendment. (Didn’t it finally get enough votes?) It is important not only to protect the rights of women, but also for the right to bodily autonomy no matter a person’s gender. The right to bodily autonomy should be enshrined into the Constitution, as there is no more precious right than to make decisions about your own body. The government does not belong in your bedroom, nor does it belong in the room with you and your doctor. If the Republicans hope to push women and other minorities back to before they gained the right to vote, and after all our gains since the early 1970’s, it will not happen. Women will not allow it. We will not sit still why they try to turn this country into Iran.
Carol….been waiting on the ERA for decades now….. Rolling Stones “I Am Waiting”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMNEozyzpZI. Why it has not yet been ratified (🤬):
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-equal-rights-amendment-blocked-again-century-after-introduction-2023-04-27/. Would like to live long enough to see it ratified!!!!
someone should ask the “originalists”: How can a fetus be a citizen if it has not yet been “born in the united states”?
I can see all kinds of legal issues. If can you claim your fetus as a tax deduction? Can you get Medicaid for a fetus? IVF if you have a dozen eggs fertilized can they all be tax reductions? I suspect there will be many more legal ramifications
*raises hand*. Oooo, can qualify for carpool lanes now!!!! (sorry, couldn’t resist)
IVF carpool lane! IVF parking for pregnant women. Will men start to claim those parking spaces as well? Men with pregnant partners can use car pool lanes.
That’s where “life at conception” rears it’s head.
Good question. Other good replies here!
Speaking of Constitutional amendments, one is clearly needed regarding Presidential power, but what are the chances that Rep. Joseph Morelle's (of New York) will get traction? As another remedy, I like AOC's vow to issue impeachment articles against Supreme Court justices. But again what are the chances of pushing those through?
I think the effort is worth it in any case; maybe the political winds will swing favorably in the future.
In an open Zoom with Field Team 6 last night, Erwin Chemerinsky spoke a lot and super-clearly and pragmatically about your questions. He is an American legal scholar known for his studies of constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. I went to the Zoom to see, who are these FT6 people and I was beyond pleasantly surprised. A good place for my attention and I will keep on digging into what they do.
Thanks so much, Joan. I will look into a donation to Field Team 6, and look up Erwin Chemerinsky.
Both of these are necessary, but will only get traction when dems have a strong majority in both houses. We must vote blue up and down the ticket
Yes indeed. The first priority is keeping Trump out of the White House. And secondly getting a Democratic majority in Congress (both houses as you say).
From our history to our present. Always enlightening. Thanks .